Final Trailer

EB GH

Colour Grade - Rest of the Film

Hover over each image to see it before colour correction!

I'll let the photos mainly talk for themselves - I think the difference is surprising. I'll talk generally about what I did though:

I made the shots darker as the trailer went on.
Fixed blown-out highlights and crushed blacks - mostly a problem in scene two because the camera wasn't exposed properly.
Generally gave the film a similar, stylised look as the trailer went on.
Set the colour scheme - lots of browns, blacks, and off-whites.
Converted several scenes to night time - notably the scene of the main actor and his friend talking on a bench, and the very final scenes. These were originally bright and this was something of a challenge, although I think it worked in the end.

Props - Plates

I made a number of breakaway plates for when we had to smash them - I poured plaster of paris into the bottom of a large bucket and left it to dry for a couple of hours. One of the plates broke in half whilst I tried to extract it from the bucket, but otherwise the plates turned out nicely, good and smooth and perfect for smashing!

Ident 2 - Construction

For our second ident, Fireline, I decided that we wanted some fire (inspired by the title) to spread out into bubbles across the screen. I executed this by using various effects, mostly CC Particle Systems, using the 'Fire' physics mode, and a particle type of Bubble.

I also increased the birth size and decreased the death size to make the particles grow smaller as they rise, giving a stronger idea that they come from one point. I changed the longevity and birth rate to have the particles last less long (to give a fading away look at the top of the fire) and spawn more frequently (to give an idea that this is a roaring fire) respectively. I made sure to change the colours so that the particles were a gradient of orange the whole way through the animation. I adjusted the velocity and other parameters - from here on it was just a case of fiddling with things until I got the look I wanted. I also used a motion blur, Vector Blur, Fast Blur, Directional Blur, and Echo (although faded these out when the fire turns to bubbles) to blend the particles together and give more of a firey look. I also added a curves adjustment to make the fire more orange and a turbulent displace and a Glow to tie everything together. I then played around with the Direction, Resistance, Gravity, Extra, and Velocity settings to get a bubble result I was happy with.

GH

Foley Sound

We used a variety of original foley sounds in our trailer.

Foley Sound in Act 1

In act 1 we deliberately removed almost all of the diegetic sound, to create a smoother montage as the sound wasn't of consistent tone or quality. As such, there was no need for any foley sound, as the feeling of verisimilitude usually created using foley sound and continuity editing isn't needed during a trailer montage.

Foley Sound in Act 2

Act 2 starts with the breakfast scene, which required lots of post-recorded diegetic sound. The tapping on the bowl, the ticking of the clock (which is barely audible, but helps to build intensity and tension in the scene) and the spoon falling onto the table were all recorded separately to the camera shots - hence why some of it doesn't synchronise up that well.

The next scene in Act 2 is Eve using her phone and scribbling in her diary - I recorded sounds of me typing on a phone and scribbling on some paper to add in later. I did this in an environment with soft surfaces to allow me the greatest freedom to use reverb to give an idea of the size of the space in post production. You can here this in the trailer.

Unfortunately we had a sound recording error in the next scene - you can hear that the sound of the footsteps is far too loud in comparison to the voices. Unfortunately, this was very difficult to remove as the footstep sound is a similar frequency to the voice, and we didn't have time to reshoot this scene, so I did my best and moved on. Next time, I would have re-recorded the dialogue in post production (as we did last year) but as mentioned, we didn't have time this year.

The plate smash sound effect is the next example of foley sound - since the plates were made of plaster, they didn't sound like plates smashing using the recorded sound, so I had to source a plate smashing sound effect from a royalty-free website. Next time I would record the plate smashing sound myself, but unfortunately our budget didn't allow for that this year.

Foley Sound in Act 3

Again, in Act 3 the sound of her removing the knife from the rack didn't build tension in the way I'd hoped so the sound was cut from the piece. The sound of her tying her shoelaces remains, although it is quiet and backgrounded by the singing and music, which means it often goes unnoticed by audiences. I found this out by asking them after showing them rough cuts of the film. 

Next Time

Next time I will think more about other foley sound we might need - splitting into the 3 categories of foley sound:

Feet

In my opinion, we didn't have enough 'stepper' sounds in our film - for example, when Eve walks up the stairs, we hear nothing, when in fact we should hear her on each step and perhaps a creak or two in the final scene. Hearing the father's boots as he comes in would also make a huge difference to the impact his entrance creates.

Movement

Again, our film doesn't have enough movement sound - swishing of clothes, or the sound of hand holding in the first act would have helped heighten the tension in an otherwise 'nice' scene.

Specifics

This is where I feel our film excels (when considering foley sound). We used lots of specific sounds, discussed above, to create a feel of verisimilitude and to heighten the effect of certain scenes. In particular, we wanted the breakfast scene to feel uncomfortable with all the heightened sound. I think this could have been executed much better than we did, with more sound (e.g. tea/milk being poured) and more of a build-up to the climax of the scene. We were unable to do this because of time limits on the length of the trailer, but next time I would definitely make more of an effort on this front. The final scene also would benefit from some more foley sound, such as the knife and steps discussed earlier.

GH

Scene 1 - Colour Correction

I have had improved my colour correction for scene 1.

Below I have put some screenshots of my efforts. In general I increased the contrast by lowering the shadows (and sometimes blacks) a bit and increasing the shadows. The cloudy day meant that I have increased both the temperature and saturation to make the film look more autumnal/end-of-summery than overcast. On the brick wall shot I added some sharpness.


Before                              After


Before                              After

Before                              After

Before                              After

  After                               Before

  After                               Before

  After                               Before

  After                               Before

After                               Before

GH

Scene 1 - Rough Cut 1

Here is the first rough cut of our film. I have matched together the sound from the DAC and the video. This was especially tricky in the scene below because of the placement of the boom mic - it is behind the pillar nearest to the actors at the start. Because of the mic in this position, the sound of running was less than optimal. I used the sound from the camera microphone to fix this a little. The in-camera sound was fine because it's a prosumer camcorder (so designed to have good sound quality) and not a DSLR.

I also had a quick look at a first view of some colour correction/grading. I did this because it was set on a sunny day but the shooting day itself was rather overcast. It is very much a first draft but it's good to get an idea.

GH

Script - Third Draft

Here is the third draft of our script, we changed the first scene to add in dialogue between EVE and NOAH hinting at the sinister to come with her seemingly innocently asking hi if he'll always love her.
We have also added an extra line of dialogue into scene two as we realised we have too many shots in our shot list to fit in with only the two previous lines. To make time for this we shortened some of the later dialogue in the film in scene 11, we hope now apart from very minor changes that are script is complete.



EB and GH

Shot List - Second Draft

Below can be seen the second draft of our shot list, since our last draft we have updated it to match the third draft of our script, adding in several shots into the park montage to give more sinister undertones. Throughout the rest of the film several shots have been slightly edited, removed and added to perfect the shot list.



EB and GH

Music Test - First Act

Here you can see the musical test composition for our first act - This is made of three tracks, the bass piano, piano melody, and flute. Originally this was just the two piano lines but the piece sounded empty inside. I added the flute to give it some character without detracting from what I'd already made.

GH

Music Test - Third Act

GH

Sound and Music

For the first act in our trailer we have decided that we want light and piano-heavy (perhaps some strings also) music to create a relaxed atmosphere. It should have a summer feel, as well as being as minimalistic as possible.

In the second act we want the music to be more dramatic, have more instruments, and be much less relaxed.

The third act has three parts:

• The first part of the third act will be similar to the second act, but yet more dramatic and very rapid. The music should build to a climax.
• The second part of the third act will be much slower, but still share motifs with the first two to link it all together. We will add some violin (or similar) at this point to increase the creepiness.
• The third part of the third act will consist purely of the girl singing, with perhaps one instrument (A xylophone or glockenspiel if I can find one) to build the tension further

Throughout the piece we want to have a few motifs that knit the whole trailer together.

In terms of sound, we want a range of diegetic sound to build verisimilitude throughout the piece, as well as some dialogue-as-voiceover to act as a sound bridge between scenes. We will do this because it is a convention of the trailer form.

GH

Shot List - First Draft

Here is the first draft of our shot list - we used Celtx's script tagging feature to start and then filled in more shots as and when we needed them. This is of course a working document and the copy below is not final.



EB and GH

Script - Second Draft

Here is the second draft of our script - we have increased the size of the script, adding in both where our indents will go and replacing the 'Placeholder Scene' seen in the last version with an actual scene. We have also made other minor changes. We have also changed the placeholder name of the film to 'We all fall down', after the song 'ring around a rosie' which may or may not feature in the finished product. 



EB and GH

Titles Test 2

For our titles I ventured onto dafont.com whereupon I encountered this font, Mocking Bird.

We like this font because of the handwritten feel and we thought it would be simple to create this in after effects for our inter titles.

I used after effects' Stroke effect to draw a mask in the shape of the text and reveal it, following the shape of the original text. I have taught my partner how to do this too (she did the 'Emma' one) and we both really like the effect it creates.

Script - First Draft

Here is the first draft of our script. We use Celtx, an online script writing and production management software, to make our script look like the real thing. We will also be using this to create our shot list.



EB and GH

Ident Testing

This is my initial attempt at an ident. It consists of a grid made of an Advanced Lightning effect, with the Lightning Type set to Bouncey, Forking to 100%, Minimum Fork Distance to 10 pixels, Complexity to 2, and Glow to 0. I then added some red glow over the top and a gold title to give it a cool effect.

After talking to my partner, we decided to make the ident redder as we thought it would fit more firmly into the thriller genre. I did this by decreasing the green and blue Curves adjustment

I was dissatisfied with the result, as I had initially liked the more golden flash. I added this back in and my partner and I agree that this looks much nicer. I also made the background more red so as to distinguish it from a title.

Here is my first attempt at what our titles might look like - the 'dust' is made of 50,000 particles per frame and this took a very long time to render. It will be a consideration going forward.

We like the font for the ident as we think it fits with both film and genre but the text for the titles is too generic and doesn't really match the thriller genre.

GH

Certification

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) presents the following guidance for film classification:

Discrimination

"The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour, although there may be racist, homophobic or other discriminatory themes and language." 

Our film definitely conforms to the guidelines here - women are not explicitly discriminated against, Eve's mental health problem is not explicitly stated and no other minorities are obviously present.

Drugs

"Drug taking may be shown but the work as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse (for example, through instructional detail). The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable."

Drugs are not used in our film.

Imitable behaviour

"Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Whether the depiction of easily accessible weapons is acceptable will depend on factors such as realism, context and setting."

The closest thing to imitable behaviour in our film would be when Eve decides to commit suicide at the end of the film - however, since we only see her decide to kill herself, it is not shown in any detail so does not really fall under imitable behaviour. Easily accessible weapons are portrayed (for example the knife scene, just before killing her mother) but are looked upon generally disapprovingly. The knife is not glamorised so falls within this bracket.

Language

"There may be strong language. Very strong language may be permitted, depending on the manner in which it is used, who is using the language, its frequency within the work as a whole and any special contextual justification."

Some strong language may be used, but very strong language will not be applied. Strong sexual expletives will not be used at any stage.

Nudity

"There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context. There may be nudity in a sexual context but usually without strong detail."

There will be little to no nudity in our film - it is unnecessary in our case. Any nudity will not be in a sexual context.

Sex

"Sexual activity may be portrayed, but usually without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable."

No sexual activity is portrayed. No verbal references to sexual activity are made. Our primary purpose is not to arouse or stimulate.

Threat

"There may be strong threat and horror. A sustained focus on sadistic or sexual threat is unlikely to be acceptable."

There will be strong threat in our film but it is not sexual or sadistic - the threat is Eve, but we don't know why she is threatening people in this way.

Violence

"Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but the depiction of sexual violence must be discreet and justified by context."

Our film will contain strong violence, for example when she kills her mother, but we will be careful to portray it in such a way that little gore is present.  Sexual violence is not present.

In light of all these, we have chosen to give our film a 15 – Suitable only for 15 years and over rating.

GH

Locations - After Scouting

We went on a recce and made a short film of our location shots to give some more depth to the location on screen and see if they worked out. This helped us to find locations for most of act one of our trailer as well as a bus stop and an alleyway.

GH