Our Epic Fail.

When we arrived in Taunton to collect our actor and escort him to the Taunton branch of ASDA, we were turned down for filming by staff as the manager was absent and they thought it inconvenient for filming to take place during the Christmas Season. Our actor, Toby, also revealed that he was not really from Exeter, but from Westonzoyland. So we could have been trying to organise this with the Bridgwater Branch rather than waste our time in Taunton.

Because of these unforeseen circumstances we are now going to film in the new year at Bridgwater, and am currently trying to get in touch with the store manager, as we already have permission from the head office. This has been a major setback but if we can have this filmed before the end of the week we can edit the footage and complete the short film.

MS

Filming schedule!

We have now successfully got an actor of off casting pro. He will be travailing down from exeter to meet us. Our tiger is one of Mikes friends and he is more than happy to do it for us.

We are filming this Wednesday 9th at about 6.00 inside the Taunton ASDA store. We are giving ourselfs two hours to shoot all the footage inside ASDA and then we will move onto editing.

Ben Vinall

This is a draft of how i want my layout of my review to look like. I will be using features of this to carry over onto my final film review for example the claws. Ben Vinall

This is a draft of how i want my layout of my review to look like. I will be using features of this to carry over onto my final film review for example the claws.

Ben Vinall

TIGER HEAD COSTUME!!

We finally have the tiger head for our character.

This was a slight issue because we didn’t want our tiger to look really pathetic, without having to look too realistic or too shoddy. If our tiger head was disastrous, so would our audience’s reaction to the tiger have been.

 I wanted it to look slightly fake, but also slightly realistic. I think this head works perfectly to build up a certain amount of belief in the character! The nose would be brilliant for comic effect as well, it makes tiger noises!!

M.Sergison

Short Film Title and Friday Filming We have been discussing the use of layout and graphics to create suitable titles for our short films according to genre, this is one that I have created for our short film. I have written it in the same font and colour scheme as the sign for ASDA, but the TI in TIME is orang and black, to represent TIger. The 24hr sign is also dripping with blood to help connote what the film will be like. I think it looks rather good and is appropiate to our genre and story! As Ben has mentioned we have found suitable actors on www.castingcallpro.com and I am going to arrange for my youngest cousin Emma to be filmed at ASDA in Taunton this Friday.. I am doing this because it isn’t necessary for her to be in the same scene as the other two characters at any time so I thought I would film her sepereately and finish one part of the task so we have more time to concentrate on filming the rest of the production. I am also going to be walking around the supermarket filming footage of aisles, shelves, customers, tills and things in the building to use for short cuts and also to gain familiarity with filming inside on the real day of the shoot. I also want to film outside the building to add to a selection of clips which could be used to add to continuity. M.Sergison

Short Film Title and Friday Filming

We have been discussing the use of layout and graphics to create suitable titles for our short films according to genre, this is one that I have created for our short film. I have written it in the same font and colour scheme as the sign for ASDA, but the TI in TIME is orang and black, to represent TIger. The 24hr sign is also dripping with blood to help connote what the film will be like. I think it looks rather good and is appropiate to our genre and story!

As Ben has mentioned we have found suitable actors on www.castingcallpro.com and I am going to arrange for my youngest cousin Emma to be filmed at ASDA in Taunton this Friday.. I am doing this because it isn’t necessary for her to be in the same scene as the other two characters at any time so I thought I would film her sepereately and finish one part of the task so we have more time to concentrate on filming the rest of the production. I am also going to be walking around the supermarket filming footage of aisles, shelves, customers, tills and things in the building to use for short cuts and also to gain familiarity with filming inside on the real day of the shoot. I also want to film outside the building to add to a selection of clips which could be used to add to continuity.

M.Sergison

Diary Update #1

We have now found actors for both characters and Mikes cousin will be playing the role of the little girl. Our actors for the ‘Tiger’ and ‘The Man’ are from the website castingcallpro.com. Both actors are willing to travel to Taunton. Although we are now waiting back for definite answers to our filming schedule. We have now also just found a mask suitable for our tiger to wear during filming, which we have now bought of off Ebay, Mike has now booked out a camera for Friday so we can film the scene with the ‘Little Girl’ so we have no problems with being out to late Ect. We have planned to start filming with in the next 3 weeks, if this is suitable for our actors.

Quick test run inside a library, discovering which shots work best on an aisle-based layout. From this we have decided that most low angle shots will be useless, and we will have to be careful with dolly shots, to help differentiate them from the deliberate handheld style we plan on using. Over shoulder and continuous shots seem to work best for our short film at present.

Shot List

In our Short Film there are particular shots which we plan on using regulalry to match the style we want to use in our film. We are likely to use all kinds of shot in our short films however the ones listed are the ones we will most regularly use, with a brief explanation of why.

Handheld Midshots We want to use mainly handheld style shots to give the film a more horroresque feel to it.

Extreme Close Ups We also want to capture reactions via ECU shots, and also want the audience to pick up on details such as the Tiger’s purchases and dismembered victims.

Continuous Shots Continuous shots will usually be used to capture suspense and discovery, so in incidents of the protagonist being chased by the tiger, or being hidden, we will use continuous shots to give an impression of real time and to offer a “point of perspective” feel, which can be used effectively to either give the audience a sense of terror, or humour!

Long Shots These will just be used to give the audience a sense of where the character is, in regards to the fact he is about to enter a supermarket, and where he is in regards to his pursuer, ie llooking directly down an aisle.

Shots we not keen on using:

Match on Action We don’t feel any match on action shots will be entirely necessary to help visually narrate our short film. Although they may show our skills at recording and editting, they don’t necessarily add to the narrative of our story. However we may require some match on action shots nearing the chase scene of our short film near the end.

High Angle Shots We seriously doubt that we will realistically be able to achieve any high angle shots from within a supermarket, however we are going to see if we can gain CCTV images from the supermarket to use in our short film, which will add to realism and comic effect.

Ben Vinall

Pitch to a Panel of People

We used this powerpoint presentation to help aid our pitch to a panel of people; we supplied a synopsis of our short story, how we planned on creating the short film and our ideas for trouble-shooting. The panel were very impressed with out pitch, however were concerned over two things.

  • The ability to complete the project on a two man team
  • Permission to shoot within a supermarket

Luckily I have already tackled location trouble-shooting, as I am friends with the manager of One Stop in Highbridge, so failing being able to film in a supermarket we can film in the off-licence over night. As for their concern that we won’t be able to split the workload between two people effectively, I assured them that our production team plan on working extremely hard and that this task should not be too big of a feat.

MS

Production Schedule for Short Film

This is a list of dates of deadlines for our production schedule. We aim to complete all pre-production planning ASAP, however our production schedule is more of a list of deadlines we will meet. Some dates will be vague until we can find out when is best for our actors and ourselves to shoot.

PRE PRODUCTION PLANNING

ASAP Confirmed Location

12 October Test Run Shooting (Practice shoot of inside a supermarket to work out logisitics of filming inside a store)

26/28 October Storyboarding of Short Film

2 November Finding appropiate actors, which will include costumes and props fitted best for actors.

PRODUCTION

9/30 November Filming (dependant on when actors are soonest available)

7 December Primary Editting

14 December Surplus Filming (if additional footage is needed to complete editting)

21 December Final Editting (including utilisation of sound)

BV&MS

What we knew about short films before research.

BV&MS

History of short films

1982 - Where our tale begins

Right guys in 1982 THE LUMIERE BROTHERS (from France) invented the FIRST EVER MOVING PICTURES!!

They then patented this in 1985 Feb 13, and first publicly screened this fascinating discovery on Dec 22.

…and in 1903 they created the joys of COLOUR FILM TECHNIQUES!!

1910 - A Mystery

Somehow this french phenomenon appeared in America, and Short Films were penned in American culture by 1910!! How this leapt from France to America is a mystery, however Lumiere’s patent would have been ended, so probably their creation was stolen by an American =[

1920 - SILENT!! Film

Silent films became popular due to pioneers such as Charlie Chaplin!! This entertaining chappie helped raise viewings on national television channels, so many channels used him on short films in ad breaks and encouraged other channels to invest in short films!!

1960s - ART SCENE ALERT!!

In the 1960s for some LSD-based reason the art scene just ROSE, and many artists us ed short films to express their artistic ideals. “La Nouvelle Vague” ie FRENCH NEW WAVE were the main pioneers of using Short Film, French directors such as Jean Luc Godard was extremely famous for his use of short film, and for collaborating with the popular 60s band The Rolling Stones.

Andy Warhol was also famous for his slightly obscure use of short film. A format that used to be for family entertainment had now been transformed into an art form.

MUSIC VIDEOS

Because of the Godard and Rolling Stones collaboration, music videos were also on the rise, which are also a reason why short films are so popular today.

These short films could help boost record sales and appeal, and vice versa, the fans of a band’s music would become interested in the directors of these short films.

THRILLER

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtyJbIOZjS8

Small link, BIG VIDEO. It is videos like this that became REALLY big in the 80s, and so did the whole music video/short film industry!!

90s!!

In the 1990s music videos suddenly became a HUGE opportunity for directors to become recognised! 90s artists like Bjork made music videos directed my Michel Gondry, who became recognised for his work and got sufficient fundings to make HUGE movies such as “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and the more commonly known “Be Kind, Rewind”

Short Films… NOW!!

Because of the short film rising in the 90s, most directors get to where they are now because of their short films, which act almost as a talent showcase.

Aspiring directors can submit their shorts to film festivals to find producers or win competitions.

In 2007 channel 4 created their “Three Minute Wonder” (AKA 3MW) slot, which air short films from independent directors.


Ben Vinall & MS

Omar K

Tea Break

Short films that influenced us.

Pool Shark













We decided that pool shark had the same theme that we wanted in our short film, both a horror and comedy themes, the horror being the shark swimming around killing everyone and the comedy of the situation.

We also like the fact of the animal in an urban environment similar to what we are doing. Director ‘Sam Walker’ has two other short films named “Tea Break” and “Duck Children” as you have all seen Pool Shark we will show you “Tea Break.”

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=9169420

This director also teaches at a horror film school in London. This is all presant on his ‘Myspace’ to which he has his influences such as The Shining, Dawn Of The Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre andnd countless other horror films. All of Sam Walkers short films seem to be in the horror genre. Sam Walker has made entries in horror film festivals such as the Dawn by Dead Edinburgh Festival and the Compass of Horror festival in Bristol. He has also won awards for his other shorts including Tea Break (Silver Melies San Sebastian (2005)) and Duck Children (Canal+ Prize, Clermont Ferrand) His films have been screened at San Sebastian, Brief Encounters, Rio de Janeiro, Sites, Clermont Ferrand, San Francisco, Tokyo, Boston and Cleveland. Most of his films have been funded by the Film Council and Film Four

Another short film which we took influence from is the music video for Omar K by Rainbow Arabia, which features a werewolf going through a transformation within a supermarket. The video was directed by Keith Musil, who directs music videos and adverts and is keen on using natural light techniques and also has a tendenacy to implement the supernatural into his work. Both films we have looked at involve something unnatural within a very commonplace atmosphere. Although there are deaths in both videos, they both fit into a horror and comedy element.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIYHILNRoLo

Keith Musil has his own website that lists his portfolio on www.keithmusil.com which consists of mainly music videos and short adverts rather than short film, however we have taken an influence from his style of story-making.