We had the idea for a horror film and we decided to take inspiration from recent films we had seen, Morbius as well as Scream, the first of which was used for design and atmosphere and the latter being used for inducing horror in our film, using techniques from Scream to influence our camera techniques and lighting in particular. When discussing these ideas it was just a general straight forward discussion about ideas that ended in a full brainstorm. we also had the idea for a superhero movie similar to “invincible” about a person hailed as a superhero who is more along the lines of a villain, with the actual hero being the child who grew up idolising their parent only to have to fight them in the end of the film. To be honest we liked that idea more but we decided with the time frame the CGI of the superhero movie would be too hard and take too much time to edit and we would rather do something simple and good rather than something mediocre with lots of special effects. We asked Ms wellington about these ideas and she said to write up a script to see how it sounded.

The following is a short summary of the plot: a horror film with the main character of Willis who grew up with big Jim at the orphanage they grew apart and then regrouped with big Jim under the name pigeon stink they then reunite in the orphanage after they get drawn in to investigate a murder of their friend, all of the group gets picked off by the killer and the killer is revealed to be the long lost brother.

Reflection: It was quite effective and efficient but maybe getting people’s head screwed on their shoulders beforehand, just making sure we have a knowledge of what we are doing before we get started to maximise output and waste the least time possible. We made a loose script and storyboard on butcher paper and then typed up our official script which allowed us to have a much more structured plan for our film than the previous short films this semester. Unlike our previous films, that ended up being about 90% improv, we actually only made changes to our script or story to work around unforeseen events in the cast, such as sickness or unavailability. The simple act of adhering to our script gave it a more professional tone which is very valuable in a student film. The idea of a fleshed out storyboard was suggested but it was decided that given the perceived length of our film it would take far too long and we could sort out shots, camera placement and angles on a shot to shot basis.

We used camera and several lights with diffusers this simple use of technology added impactful lighting in some scenes and gave meaning to scenes even if there are no words and zooming in and out with different apertures etc. Added effects Evaluate your use of technology. It was rather effective but Jordan was hand holding the camera so we couldn’t take full advantage of a lot of camera settings so we had to reshoot a number of scenes. Using tripod and camera settings over hand held and only using that for specific scenarios. We also needed to adapt as we went rather than trying to stick to a full plan from the start

We split the editing into rough thirds, Callum and Charley doing the opening and first scene, Jordan and Sam doing the middle 3 scenes, and me doing the final 3 totalling around 10 minutes. Simple cutting and audio gain to add effect, as well as titles for context/info. we really just used premiere. We were really good in time management so when we inevitably made mistakes we could fix it. We needed to work on skill and efficiency so less goofing around. We simply needed Have a clear idea of what we are doing before we do anything stupid. One of the best aspects of our film was the “satirical element” which means the audience has a good time watching even if the writing isn’t amazing, However, Some of the more dialogue based scenes need a lot of reshoots because it is so bizarre that it makes us laugh meaning we should work on some more serious bits.

One of the most important things we learned was that we have potential that desperately needs to be refined. The good news is a majority of our group will do the HCo fab production next semester and we have already begun working on ideas to save even more time so we can work on getting good quality instead of purely relying on idiocy and silliness for laughs. Since then we have uploaded these videos to our YouTube channel, Crystal Wolf Pictures: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChpzAEx8TL8cJIYp3gI4-_w