Short Film Inspiration #1: Spider

Spider is a brilliant Australian produced short film directed by Nash Edgerton. The atmosphere and story are creepy and thought provoking and the ending is one of the most shocking revelations I've ever seen in a short film. The dark humour that resonates throughout the short film is perfectly balanced between the sombre moments which all work together to creating a truly exceptional piece of work.

From Spider I tried to replicate the humour, without making it seem as a complete comedy.

Inspiration for Magazine Review Page

To create my magazine I used a review for inspiration from the popular film magazine, Empire. I will insert said review here. You can spot many similaraties between the reviews, I tried to make it as authentic as possible without it appearing as a complete copy.
I chose this particular review to mimick because of the genre similarities. Also, I believe the simplistic design and overall modern feel lends a certain authenticity to any review design. My plan is to use certain elements of this review design/style whilst trying to make it my own by using a slightly different colour scheme with different fonts.

Troubles with Audio on Preparations

Whilst editing my short film I encounted numerous issues. One of the main concerns I had was that I recorded two seperate audio tracks, one from a microphone and one from the Blackmagic camera. When it came to editing I discovered that portions of the audio recorded through the seperate microphone had corrupted and were unusable. This meant that I was forced to use portions of the inferior audio. This created another problem for me, how do I make all audio tracks appear seamless?
I achieved the best sound I possibly could by individually tweaking each audio track and inserting a ambient sound track.

Three Finished Ancillary Texts

Preparations - a short film

Preparations - Billboard Movie Poster. Made using Adobe Photoshop.

Preparations - Double-Spread Magazine Review Page - Based Upon Empire Magazine.

Photoshop - Creating a Magazine Review Page

Whilst creating my magazine page, I came across a few issues that needed addressing. First of which was choosing an appropriate fonts. My first port of call was DaFont, where I found an amazing font for 'InCinemas' which I believe works well. Secondly, choosing a stock image for my review that I hadn't already used in my poster became a difficult task. Ultimately, I decided on the shot that I used because it features both protagonists.

Task M - Camera Movement Practice Shots

I didn't have access to a tripod whilst practising my shots. Also, this was only a rough practice in order to gather a few ideas of the angles and types of shots I could use.

Task J - Location Shots

My chosen location is in my back garden. I chose this location because of its confined spaces and ease of access.

Task O - Original Images Before Manipulation

Portrait Poster Before Manipulation

For this picture I had to crop the sides and manipulate the image so it would fill a whole portrait poster.

Landscape Poster Before Manipulation

This picture needed no cropping due to it being used for a landscape poster.

Using Photoshop to Create a Poster

During this course my skills with Photoshop has improved considerably. I've watched numerous YouTube tutorials teaching me the basic and intermediate levels of using Photoshop. This has helped immensely in creating my poster for 'Preparations', which I am pleased with. One problem I had whilst creating the poster was the resolution of the image, which was poor. However, I overcame this problem by reducing the canvas size to an A4 sheet of paper. This drastically improved the resolution of the image, therefore creating a more professional looking poster.

Premiere Pro

When I began editing Preparations I used Sony Vegas Pro. However, through peoples suggestions and my own personal experiences I realised that Vegas was not the correct choice. This is because Vegas makes it extremely hard to use third party plug-ins that help colour-grade etc. Therefore, I began editing again using Adobe Premiere Pro, which has proved to be much more helpful and has ended up becoming a much better film, editing wise.

Creating a Credit Block

To create a professional credit block for my poster I used Photoshop and downloaded a credit block font. Using a picture of a real credit block I replicated the image and produced my own, which I am happy with. Also, I added logo's, such as Dolby Digital Sound and Blackmagic Design, which elevates the authenticity.

Audience Feedback from Draft Edit

Today I screened my draft edit to two people from my media class, and this was the feedback I received:

Tom: Audio needs a little work, perhaps create sound bridges to make the gaps between audio clips seamless.

Ellie: The script is good, however some portions are out of sync and need correcting. She also noted how she likes that both of the actors look into the camera.

With this audience feedback I can understand some of the problems that need addressing to attain the highest mark I can.

I will soon be gathering more audience feedback to add to my current feedback.

Draft Edit

I edited my draft around a week to two weeks ago. It is now available to watch on YouTube.

Audacity - Creating a Hammer Hit

To create the most realistic hammer hit I could I took two royalty sound bites (downloaded from www.freesound.org), a hammer hit, a bat hit and a meat hit. Then, I used a sound bite I recorded on set of my actor yelping. Finally, I adjusted the pitch and tempo of all three sound bites, added some bass and other effects then exported the finalised hammer hit.

GoPro Studio

College lent me a GoPro Hero 4 on my film shoot. However, the GoPro shots didn't merge seamlessly with my other footage, creating a jarring difference in quality and colours. However, to reduce this problem I have used GoPro's own video editing suite to colour grade the footage and make it appear more professional.

Audacity

I used Audacity to change the opening dialogue to make it appear more fluent and natural. The part highlighted is the part I removed and it has made all the difference to the flow of the dialogue.

Sony Vegas 13

I have been editing Preparations using Sony Vegas 13. One of the reasons why I use Vegas is because of the simplicity and ease of access that the program allows you to have. Although, I have encountered some problems, one of which is that I cannot colour grade effectively within Vegas. Therefore, I will most likely have to complete the editing and sound stage and colour grade last, in a different program.

Task H - Script

Link to script on Google Drive:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwp23wh6KwhISUFkU1I5VDhiT2s/view?usp=sharing

Task P - Drafts with Feedback

 Feedback of DRAFT poster and magazine review

POSTER DRAFT - Made using Adobe Photoshop

 Feedback:
1.) Preparations title too small
2.) Perhaps switch actors names around
3.) Credit block has invisible line blocking the top of the text
4.) No colour correction of image

Task F Part 2 of 2 - Poster

I created this draft using Photoshop. I thought it would be easier for me to create a draft using this format, instead of drawing one. Due to the fact that my computer skills are better than my drawing skills. Also, I believe this will allow me to more closely understand what poster I want to produce.

Task F Part 1 - Draft of Magazine Review

The magazine review page I used as inspiration comes from Empire magazine.

Original:

My draft:

I wanted to draw inspiration without seeming like I simply copied Empires style. I believe I have altered enough details to be an homage yet can stand on its own. Having this draft allows me to completely understand the desired layout of my magazine review once I get onto Photoshop.

I believe a simplisitic design and a light-hearted tone allows for complete enjoyment of a review.

Task B - Planning of Music

Task B – Planning of Music

I will strive to create all the music which I possibly can. However, there will be moments where I'll have to incorporate some royalty free music.

Soundtrack:

Introduction music: dark, ominous piano melody with subtle drum beats underneath the piano track.

https://freesound.org/people/zagi2/sounds/240157/

Beginning to middle: I want the music to slow down in the dialogue heavy sections, eventually becoming silent. 

Middle to end: Music begins to quicken up until the finale when the music climaxes off.

https://freesound.org/people/are16ocean/sounds/144981/

Sound will be layered appropriately to create a multi-layered soundtrack with depth.

Diegetic Sounds:

Sound effects I will need:

1      1.)    Gun cocking – I will source this sound effect from either the prop gun or the internet.

https://freesound.org/people/SmartWentCody/sounds/179011/

2      2.)    Gun click – I will source this sound effect from either the prop gun or the internet.

https://freesound.org/people/knova/sounds/170272/

3      3.)    Light switch on/off – I will film this sound effect myself.

https://freesound.org/people/StevenBrown/sounds/128439/

Non-Diegetic Sounds:

1      4.)    Suspenseful sound will be added beneath the soundtrack to create an atmosphere fitting to the plot.

https://freesound.org/people/Toivo161/sounds/266009/

NOTE: ALL SOUNDS ARE ROYALTY FREE

Task K - Schedule

Filming Schedule

Actors are scheduled to appear at the designated filming location on 26/09/2015 at approx. 1:30am.

Filming will commence on Saturday the 26^th of September at approx. 2:00am.

A break has been scheduled for 4:00am, at which point we should have filmed the necessary shots for at least half of the whole short.

Filming will commence again at roughly 4:30am and will continue until 6:00am, and if at that point we haven’t wrapped up filming we will have another short break.

6:00am break will last approx. 15 minutes.

Filming will continue at 6:15 and last until all shots have been filmed.

Editing Schedule

Editing will begin on the day after the shoot.

I am aiming to have a significant portion of the short completed within the first day of editing.

After the first day I will have roughly a week to turn all the raw footage into the completed short.