newest version of "presence"

Evaluation for video part 2

Video Part Two, “In a minute” Evaluation by Kelly Bruce.

 

I was excited about doing the 2^nd part of the video module as I wanted to get a better understanding of filming and using the camera, as for the first part of video early on in the year I felt my video could have been a lot stronger.

This time I would get to work in a group as last time I had been limited to working alone, as I had started the course later than the rest of the class.

I chose to work with Hoi Kam and Katharine as I was working with them on the second life brief and we all felt we worked well together and it would be worthwhile to continue as such, we had even given ourselves a group identity of 3K, and were going to have this in the credits of our film, but for some reason I think that part was forgotten! But nevermind!

At first I secretly wanted to work on my own as I had an idea and wanted it all to myself, for the fact that I just didn’t want anyone else to try and change it so maybe I was being a little selfish but as it happens I told Katharine and Hoi Kam and they both really liked it and along the way we did change things but as a team, my initial worries of having my idea completely altered were all for nothing! And I am very pleased with the result of the video and felt that we all again worked very well as a team.

To keep things organised I wrote a script, which we all read, but to be honest we had talked about the story so much that we all had a clear understanding of how it was going to work out in our heads! And because of this communication everything went to plan on the day of filming and we got everything done pretty quickly!

We did change things along the way slightly, for example the first scene was meant to be filmed twice so that we could use special effects and have the ghost on screen with the student at the same time and for her to replace her reflection in the mirror, however due to time and technical limitations we decided to not use special effects, but to just opt out of showing certain aspects of the film in the camera to give the effect we wanted in a different way.

In the 2^nd scene we were going to use special effects to have the ghost’s reflection follow the student through the reflective surfaces of pictures, glass etc. but instead we found a small square indoor window and decided that the student would stop here so that the ghost could make an appearance behind her though the window instead!

I had intended on playing a part in the movie having felt that if I wasn’t in it then it wouldn’t feel like my work, as my past videos have always had me in them, but playing the director was a good decision as I got to direct the actors who were very professional and much easier to work with than my mum! (Last video) and I also got to oversee what was going on and decide how I wanted the camera’s to operate etc.

But I made sure to take on board any ideas that Hoi Kam and Katharine had changing things here and there so that we were all happy.

I think the key to our project being successful was the cooperation and communication between us, which proved to be very effective, and helped us with time management.

We edited the video together, and Katherine did a great job on the title and credits, (she also helped me with the camera as I was unsure how to set up the tri-pod and silly things like that!)

I am a little disappointed that we were not shown any advanced video techniques in order to improve on the first attempt, besides a ten minute introduction or demonstration on how to set up the correct lighting for ‘green-screen’ use we didn’t get any further tutorage, something that I feel would have been useful, however I am sure if I had spoken to my tutors I would have gotten some extra help but as I was in a team did not need to worry so much as we all pulled together and helped each other so It’s not like there was no support, and we were assisted as much as possible with getting the footage off the tape although this was a tad frustrating as the AV suite was always too busy for us to get into, it’s a shame we didn’t have any dedicated time allocated to us as a year, but we managed without it ok once we got a tape player into the studio.

With regards to the sound, we used a soundtrack from an "Anime" however this was a mistake as we cannot enter the video into the one minute film festival because we would need copyright permission so I changed the sound by getting some "royalty free" sound effects from "sound-dogs.com".

The effects we used were “add noise” and “blink” to get the flickering, which I am not 100% happy with, it’s not the look we were after, we wanted a more static-like TV interference effect but were limited with time and unfortunately had no training in after effects which I have heard that we could have done all that and more in such as making the ghost scenes play backwards to give a creepy effect, I only wish we had had a full 2 weeks training induction for that but I’m sure we will next year so that is something to look forward to!

Overall I am very happy with the outcome and look forward to advancing my video skills in the next year working both alone and in a team.

 

PRESENCE

Here is the finished Video! I have spent the last two hours faffing about with the noise filter, but have decided the video with less noise is better as we will most likely loose quality on a bigger screen anyway. In fact I wish I had the version without noise now!

one minute video

So today we began filming! I decided not to be a ghost in the video, as I didn't feel my face looked right for the part and that gave me the perfect opportunity to get behind the camera instead, this way I was able to direct the actors and control the camera at the same time. I felt alot more confident with using the kit this time around, and feel it was used alot more professionally in comparison with last time I used it.

I still wasn't sure what I was doing with the white balance and settings etc but Katherine was a great help to me with this, taking care of the settings for me. I am a little  disappointed  that over the year I have not had tutoring with this, I would have thought that the second time round we would be shown advanced techniques, however all we got was a ten minute "presentation" on how to set up the lighting on green screen, nothing practical and no advanced editing tips.

But anyway, I did Hoi Kam's make-up, (she was now going to take-over my bathroom scene) And we got to work! filming went really well for the day especially considering how busy the college was, people were walking past constantly in the hallway, a guy even walked past right in the middle of filming and we had to cut! but side from that one ignorant person the rest waited for us which was nice, and the teacher for the room at the top of the stairs we were using allowed us to occupy the space for a while. 

It was fun having Hoi Kam as a ghost walk around the college, she got alot of looks and one guy jumped when he saw her on his way out of a classroom! that was funny.

The last scene had Hoi Kam quite far in the distance so I had to shout "action" for her to come into the scene quite loudly! (i felt a bit stupid doing that but oh well!) Here are some pictures from the days shoot! (above)

Make-up designs

I have been thinking of some ideas for my ghost character, and started by covering myself in powder! after ten minutes of powdering my face I gave up, it wasn't going to get as white as I wanted it with just talc!

It just didn't seem enough, so I darkened my eyebrows... then I added more blackness to my eyes, and more. but still look like a twit and not a scarey monster! 

 Maybe if my hair was still long and black it would look better, I can't possibly be a scarey ghost with a new haircut and color! lol

brought out the red lipstick for blood! a little better I guess, maybe the pale ghost looks just doesn't work on me, so I can be the "clown" ghost and Hoi Kam the "pale" ghost! 

well hopefully we will be able to edit the video afterwards to make it scarier.....

(will add pics tomorrow as server keeps crashing)

Stage one, still not scarey enough...

OK, so I add more "blackness" to the eyes, still not scarey...

Maybe some blood to the lips? nah still doesn't look right!

Scared yet? hmmm. maybe you are, but it's still not the right look! am glad I decided to "opt out" of being a ghost and let Hoi Kam do it all because she was Awesome and had the right look!

New Storyboards!

Here are the finalized scripts! here is the script we are going to be following: 

(Hoi Kam is the camera in this scene)

Camera: set up opposite door in Ladies toilets, facing door.

Action: Katherine comes in and walks across the room toward the mirror closest the camera, here she stops and fixes her hair in the mirror.

Camera: camera pans toward katherine, (from behind, but staying at an angle so that camera is not caught in the mirror) now Katherine's reflection can be seen quite clearly.

Action: Katherine looks down to wash her hands, at which point Kelly ghost will appear in the mirror and be seen to be looking at her, (jump scene) Katherine does not look in the mirror again but turns to dry hands, (hand dryer is to the right of the mirror)

Camera: camera will pan slightly to show Katherine drying her hands, but at the same time the reflection of ghost kelly will still be there (out of focus, focus on Katherine) staring at her.

Action: Katherine turns and walks straight toward the door without looking back in any of the mirrors. Kelly ghost will follow her from her initial place to the last mirror, (she cannot go any further as she is only in the mirrors) Kelly ghost will glide behind her on roller skates.

Camera: the camera must only follow the mirrors at this point, the actors cannot be picked up in "real" life as the viewers will then see kelly ghost out of the mirror and she is only allowed to be seen in the mirror for the effect to work.

The camera will need to be inbetween the actors and the mirrors but also at an angle following or in front of the action so as not to be picked up in the mirrors.

Action: as kelly ghost and Katherine get to the last mirror, kelly ghost reaches out and touches katherine's hair, (all seen in mirror) Katherine turns but no-one is behind her, Kelly ghost is stood staring at her from the last mirror but Katherine never looks in it.

Camera: Camera will need to be stopped and adjusted "before" the hair touch part so that it only picks up the hand touching the hair, this is so that when the hand pulls away kelly ghost has a chance to get out of the scene into a cubicle without it being caught on camera, even if the camera is stopped it still won't explain her being there one minute then gone the next when the camera is turned back on, so it's better to use the hand only for this bit then when it pulls away, (just before Katherine turns) there is no issues with continuity. 

Action: Katherine leaves the room.

Camera: cut scene as door shuts.

Scene 2! (Kelly is the Camera in this scene) 

Action: Katherine is now walking down a long corridor, midway down she stops to look at some posters on the wall to her left. (we will need to put these in place) there are 2 small windows just above this area with steps behind them. 

Camera: Camera will be following Katherine down the corridor (hand held style to give the feeling that she is being followed) and will stop and pan follow her when she is detouring to read the posters.

Action: Hoi Kam ghost appears in the first window above Katherine, Katherine does not notice, Hoi Kam ghost stares at her, when Katherine moves slightly, Hoi Kam ghost moves across to the next window and opens mouth? (we could make this look all black and scarey using special effects)

Camera, same position, just follows the action.

Action: Katherine turns away from the posters to continue on her route, however Hoi Kam Ghost is now stood with her back to Katherine at the other side of the corridor, (eye lift scene style) Katherine does notice her but avoids her and keeps walking, Hoi Kam ghost turns slightly with awkward cracky movements.

camera: follows Katherine again but focus is more on Hoi Kam ghost who is directly in the camera as it turns, (jump scene) after filming hoi Kams turn with Katherine walking away out of focus Camera turns back to Katherine, full focus.

Action: Katherine is now a bit further down the corridor when her phone rings, Katherine gets her phone out of her bag.

Camera: fades to black as Katherine is picking up her phone.

Voice 1: "Hello?"

Voice 2: "ggggggggggggaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"

Tone: "beep beep beep beep"

the credits for the film will be playing at the same time as the voices, credits fade in and out, eerie music in the background.

For sound we are going to cut all sounds out and have an ambient musical score playing softly, with bangs etc for jump scenes. the sound will fade at the end for the voices.

New Animatic

Here's a new animatic I have done for the one minute horror video, this time with the girl walking down a corridor, I really enjoyed making the animatic, more for the editing, I love putting things together! the only qualm I have with this one is that I made the girl go too far down the corridor for the final effect so it is very tiny to see as a result! but I can't be assed doing it all again! but I might continue to make these little horror animatics as I really enjoy doing this kind of thing! It get's all my creativity flowing again, something that hasn't happened since the interactive brief. :-(

Of course I have strayed a bit from the plan as there's no way we can pull off the end bit, but it's just to give viewers a feel for what we are hoping to achieve, so the final film will be similar but not "exactly" the same.

One Minute Horror!

This was my initial idea for the 1 minute horror movie, basically, a girl sleeps in her bed with her back to you, her door slowly creaks open and as the lightning flashes, (ala frankenstein) a hand appears at the doorway. The hand scuttles across the floor and quickly dives under the girls bed. 

The camera then pans toward the mirror on the wall, in the darkness nothing can be seen until another flash of light reveals a hideous ghostly face in the mirror, after another flash it is gone.

Suddenly footsteps can be heard, the camera is switched to the other side of the room where a stop motion effect creepy ghoul is walking toward the girl in the bed, (I planned to do this using stop motion but playing it backwards to create an odd effect and having it deliberately jerky, parody to the ring) the idea is for this imagery to flicker on and off the screen, (by cutting frames) and when she is leant over the girl the girl wakes up and the ghoul disappears...

We have now decided as a group to film this in the college as none of us really have large enough bedrooms at home to pull it off, so it is now going to be a girl walking down a corridor for the entire minute, we will have the same ghouls trying to scare her along the way, we still want to have it dark with flickering lights, this will have to be achieved using special effects.

We plan to start filming on a quite day or evening when most students will be at home.

We will need a large mirror, or if not possible we will have to have our main girl going into the toilet which I don't really want, as I wanted it to be a straight walk down the corridor, but we will just have to do whatever is needed to make it work.

We have been watching Horror scenes from alot of Japanese horror movies for inspiration, well we are actually "ripping" them off as a parody and hope to fit as many characters in as possible!

REPULSION!

I have been searching through some "vintage" horror films to watch in preparation for the 1 minute video module and came across a few, "I spit on your grave", "rear window", "repulsion", and "The man who haunted himself" I am going to watch a couple of them and review them later, hopefully this will give me some ideas for my 1 minute horror! I am thinking of filming it in Black and white with a grain effect, and want to incorporate some of the special effects and techniques used in horror films from the 40's and 60's and later... 

I don't know what the plot is going to be yet, but I plan on making more than one of these 1 minute features, I'd love to have one as a live-action film and at least another done using some sort of stop motion technique, and then if I have time I plan on doing something a bit more uplifting and quirky!

Tara Mcpherson

I have been looking at the art of Tara Mcpherson over the holidays, initially drawn to it by a book cover I saw on Amazon, (which I bought based on the cover and the inside previews) I loved the artwork inside, it reminded me of Mark Ryden works, I love how the images are sweet, colorful and have that sort of icing texture that reminds you of cakes and sweets! but at the same time they depict somewhat gory ideals, for example Mark Ryden draws giant cuddly teddy bears that upon first glance seem cute and friendly but upon further inspection have a cold evil kind of look, it's hard to explain. He also paints little girls being eaten by trees, which I think is just F*****g awesome! and Tara's work is similar in that way, for example one of her pictures is off a happy smiling girl in a swimsuit but then you notice the rubber toy float she has is actually going through a whole in her body, she also has a fascination with hearts and most of her female portrayals have heart shaped holes in their chests which is clearly rather symbolic and alot of people will be able to relate to it, (I'm actually getting one of her artworks as a tattoo in a few weeks!) there is something odd about looking at such gory content, but minus the dark colors, slime and guts to go with it, instead you are greeted with sugary colors and almost edible textures that draw you in almost like the window display of the most scrumptious fairytale cake shop you could imagine, only when you get inside you realize your actually in Sweeney Todds barber shop! and yet you still stay because you are getting to view these things that we are all morbidly curious about in one way or the other, yet in an addictive childlike way.

This sort of stuff also makes me think of Tim Burton, I love his work too and I can't wait to go and see his new film: "Coroline" I have both "The nightmare before christmas" and "the corpse bride" and most of his films, I love his dark sense of comic horror and will be drawing inspiration from it and Tara Mcpherson's work for my next video project!

1 minute film

I thought it was quite good as it touches on something we all experience everyday, or at some 

point, and it was nice and simple and to the point!

the sound worked really well also, if it had been covered by music it would have 

glamorized it a bit, the sound of all the plastic been torn adds to 

the frustration you feel from watching it. 

this video won an award in the 1 minute film thingy, we are going to be making one 

minute videos for our 

next brief so i thought i would check some out!