Pre-Production: CASTING, COSTUME & PROPS

   

CASTING

once we'd established our films overall storyline and had drawn up the storyborad. we began to think about the look that we wanted our chracter to have. We decided that we needed to have her as a very mysterious character with long hair and long nails just to add that sense of how long she had been there, to get further ideas about our character we watched some horror openings and decided to base 'the visitor' on the chracters from the ring and from the grudge.

    

    

This really heped us to develop the character well as we had a baisc idea of how she would look. inthe end we cast our firend Saffron Uppal in the part of the visitor as she fit the brief best, and t can safely be said that she played the part excellently and was a great fit to our breif.

COSTUME

as we were basing our character on the two themes above we wanted our character to be wearing a long white dress. As you might expect it's a lot harder to find a long white nightgown stile dress anywhere these days and I spent a few days goign around the shops in town trying to find the right dress. ni the end we had to give up looking for this and we compromised to instead use a short white dress, which eventually worked out well.

- This is the dress we used 

PROPS

As we were filming outdoors with only one character, very few props were needed. We had a piece of cardboard for her to stand on so that her feet didn't get all dirty/wet and that she wasn't standing in anything awful as she had to be bare foot in the woods 

. we had  chair for her to sit on between cuts and we had a rug on which we laid out all of the equipment we needed so that we could see it all but is was also all protected from the mud and water on the ground.

Pre-Production: LOGISTICS

Logistics is the organisation and management of goods from the point of origin to the point of consumption.  This includes things such as, Wardrobe , Make-up, Camera Equipment, and anything else we may need in order to produce the best look for our film and in order to have to best outcome for our filming day. we divided the list between the 3 of us to make sure that the necessary items were on set when we required them to be.

Below is a picture of the logistics divided into each of the different sections:

Director Analysis : Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino was born on March 27, 1963, in Knoxville, Tennessee. He always loathed school, choosing to spend his time watching movies or reading comics instead of studying. After dropping out of high school, Tarantino worked as an usher at a adult film theater. After this Tarantino eventually landed a job at Video Archives in Manhattan Beach, California. There he worked with Roger Avary who shared his passion for film. The two even worked on some script ideas together.

During his time at Video Archives, Tarantino worked on several screenplays, including True Romance and Natural Born Killers. He also landed a guest spot on the popular sitcom The Golden Girls, playing an Elvis impersonator. In 1990, Tarantino left Video Archives to work for Cinetel, a production company. Through one of the producers there, he was able to get his script for True Romance in the hands of director Tony Scott. Scott liked Tarantino's script, and bought the rights to it.

FILM PORTFOLIO

His first real directing credit was Resivoir dogs in 1992, a film that Tarantino wrote the screenplay and that starred some big names such as, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, and Tarantino himself. In the same year Tarantino entered the film into the sundance film festival, audiences at Sundance were entranced by Reservoir Dogs, the ultra-violent crime caper gone wrong. He drew inspiration for the project from such classic heist films as Rififi and City on Fire. The independent film helped to make Tarantino one of the most talked-about figures in Hollywood. Interestingly,whilst the film was not a big hit in the United States, it became a popular title on video and did well overseas.

His next project was Pulp Fiction in 1994. It was both a commercial and critical success. In the United States, it earned over $108 million at the box office, becoming the first independent film to do so. Pulp Fiction won the prestigious Palme d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1994 and received seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. For his work on the film, Tarantino took home the award for Best Original Screenplay.

overall, Tarantino's films have garnered both critical and commercial success. He has received many industry awards, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTA Awards, the Palme d'Or, he has been nominated for an Emmy and a Grammy, and was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time Magazine in 2005. Filmmaker and historian Peter Bogdanovich has called Tarantino "the single most influential director of his generation".

What I Learnt Completing The Main Task

Pre Production :

The main task taught me to value the pre-production phase, we learnt just how important that stage was when we did our pre-lim task  but personally I only really understand just how important it is to the film-making process during the main task.  if we spent our time making sure that the pre production pack included everything that we would need during the filming and editing process it would  simplify both of these processes and make it easier for the whole group to carry out.

Production :

During production, we used all of the work we had done during pre production (the  treatment- including a shot list, storyboard and lighting notes), to use so that we were able to complete the production stage of the task efficiently,  as we all knew exactly what we had to film and our individual roles within the filming process.

Post-Production :

The main task allowed me to further develop the skills that I had learnt during the preliminary task. Many of the skills that I had learnt during the preliminary task about editing I was able to use which made my final piece better than my preliminary task as I was more confident with the equipment that I was using and so I was more willing to try extra cuts to see how it looked and if I didn't like it I was able to change it back easier than I was during the prelim task as I was still unsure with what I was doing.

During the main task we were able to use software that we hadn't used before, these were; 'Final Cut Pro' for editing, 'Mpeg stream clip' for the conversion of files and then 'colour' to do all of the colour grading on our final piece. When it came to colour grading we had to make sure that any alterations we made to  our final piece still fit with our we wanted to use fit with our genre, ( horror). 

Colour Grading is a fairly simple piece of software to use and it adds great effect to a film. Once the film was completed and it was sent to colour we were able to begin experimenting  so that we were able to see what colours worked well where.We wanted to give our film  a cold feel, which meant that we would have to include more blues and whites; as well as bringing out some of the original colours already in the film, in order to emphasis a certain part of the shot. 

  Once the colours had been decided we were able to copy the same colours for the same shot types later on so that there was continuity in the film. This was an important skill that we learnt during the main task as it added effects onto the film that made it feel more realistic and professional.

Questions:

How to colour grade a film?

How to create a voice over?

How do you get special effects on final cut pro?

After the prelim task we created a list of questions we planned to answer before and during the process of our main task. The majority of questions we have been able to answer during the main task, especially if we needed them for our final piece. For example, I am now able to answer 'How do you add voice over' as we had decided to use a voice over in order to enhance the protagonists story. Overall we answered all of the questions we had about editing before our main task, I now understand it well enough that I'd be happy to explain it to anyone who didn't understand.

Horror Directors: Tobe Hooper

Tobe Hooper was born, on the 25th January 1943, in Austin Texas. Over the years he has been honored with many awards for his films and achievement in the horror genre. 

Before becoming a filmmaker, Hooper spent the 1960's as a college teacher and documentary cameraman. He organized a small cast of teachers and students and made The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in 1974. The film changed the horror industry and became an instant classic. Even today it remains on virtually every list of top horror films of all time. Hooper based it upon the real-life case of Ed Gein, a cannibalistic killer responsible for the grisly murders of several people in the 1950's. Hooper's success with "Chainsaw" landed him in Hollywood. Rex Reed call it, "the scariest film I have ever seen.". It is in the Permanent Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, and was officially selected at the Cannes Film Festival of 1975 for Directors Fortnight.

In the 1990's Hooper continued working in both both film and television:

> I'm Dangerous Tonight (1990), 

>Nowhere Man (1995)

>Dark Skies (1996),

> Perversions of Science (1997),

>The Apartment Complex (1999, 

>Night Terrors (1993) and, 

>The Mangler (1995) for New Line.

 And in the  20th century Hooper's career continued to grow stronger with works such as; Night Visions, Shadow Realm  and the pilot episode for Steven Spielberg's award-winning miniseries Taken (2002). In 2004 Hooper co-produced the successful remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) for New Line. 

Horror Directors: Eli Roth

Eli Roth was born April 18, 1972. He is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor, best known for directing the horror film Hostel and its sequel, Hostel: Part II. His acting credits include his role as Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz in Quentin Tarantino's 'Inglourious Basterds' for which he won both a SAG Award (Best Ensemble) and a BFCA Critic's Choice Award (Best Acting Ensemble). Many journalists have included him in a group of filmmakers dubbed 'the Splat Pack' because of their explicitly violent and bloody horror films.

Roth began shooting Super 8 films at the age of eight, with his brothers and friends, ketchup for blood, and his father's power tools, he made over fifty short films before attending film school at N.Y.U.

Roth prefers to use a classical Film-making style. He photographs, edits, and scores films like a 1970s drama. He does not use the modern "MTV" style of fast cutting, and prefers the film making techniques he uses not to be noticed.
Roth often scores his films with classical instruments. His one use of electronic music was a conscious choice for his "Grindhouse" trailer "Thanksgiving" to parody the era. His favorite scores are "Psycho," "Jaws," and "The Shining," as well as Angelo Badalamenti's music, and their influence can be felt in all his films.
Roth prefers the widescreen frames, and loves photographing through mirrors (some would count this as a classic motif of his). In "Cabin Fever" Marcy examines herself, in "Hostel" the girls at the Hostel are first shown in reflection and Kana kills herself after seeing her reflection, and in "Hostel Part 2" there are several sequences of girls posing in triptych mirrors.

Examples of Eli Roth's work

> The Green Inferno 

2007> Hostel: Part II 

 2007> Grindhouse (fake trailer segment "Thanksgiving") 

 2005> Hostel 

 2002> Cabin Fever 

THE VISITOR : FIRST AND FINAL CUTS

Before our First Cut Video, we had record,convert, and put all the footage we had on Final Cut Pro. We began to edit the footage we had and soon realised that it lacked a lot of detailed shots that needed to be acquired such as close up shots of  the hands, nails, and dress. After sitting down with our teacher we eventually developed a detailed shot list and storyboard on what we needed to go and re-shoot. This process was both irritating  and understandable as well all knew that we needed the re-shoot in order to accomplish our desired film.

FIRST CUT

              

The first cut was not very good the cuts we too quick, there wasn't enough close up shots, and it lacked a narrative which made it seem more like a trailer than a film opening. In my opinion, the 'saving grace' of our opening was the titles they worked well with the style and genre that we were going for with the film. Once we had finished our first edit, we realised that we needed to go out and film more shots because of the constant repetition of certain close-ups and the blank spaces between each title. 

When we had done the second unit shoot, we tried to film every appropriate body part that didn't show too much of 'The Visitor'. We had a problem on our second unit shoot as our second location (the little barn) we filmed at had been fenced up and therefore no-one could enter the premise. This meant that we could not get any pick-up shots at that location. Our teacher also pointed out to us that there was no sense of flow from the first to second location after repeated discussion on how to improve this, we came up with a few solutions;

1- We wrote another shot list and storyboard

2- We negotiated a time to book the camera kit in order to film      the travel shots 

3- We re-shot a few more items of not only 'The Visitor' but also    the surrounding to add setting ( another aspcet our evaluation    of the first cut showed)to the 2 minute clip.

4- We recorded our voice over which would help the audience          understand what had happened to our protagonist.

We then edited this all together and ran it through the colour software.Which led us to the completion of our final piece

FINAL CUT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-z9Kudd9wA