Roles and Responsibilities

Group Member	Roles and Responsibility
Thomas Bowman	Assistant director Video editor Camera operator Magazine editor Poster editor Chief researcher
Jacob Wolf	Assistant director Video editor Camera operator Chief magazine editor Poster editor Researcher
Joshua Reeves	Director Chief video editor Camera operator Chief poster editor Researcher

In this table we have given the roles and responsibilities appropriate for each members of the group, according to what parts of the project they were most attentive towards. This proved effective for the production of our trailer and two ancillary tasks, as by dividing the workload between us we could get more tasks done simultaneously. We haven't listed all of the minor roles in this table, such a work on smaller task towards the final production of our promotion pack. For instance, Josh wrote the screenplay for the scene and made the schedule, whilst I drew and composed the animatic and wrote the synopsis, whilst Tom designed all of the questionnaires and made the prop list. Instead we have listed most of the main roles, and as you can see we have all edited parts of every product in the promotion pack, whilst some of us are listed as 'Chief' in that field as its more practical to have a main editor for one job. Here you can see that Josh did most of the editing in the teaser trailer and a large proportion of the poster as well while I did the majority of work on the magazine. Tom did the majority of research work and other tasks that helped improve the pace and quality of production.

Shooting Schedule

For filming, Josh has prepared a shooting schedule to make sure that the filming goes as smoothly as possible. By using my storyboard to help direct the shots and using Josh's schedule to know which shot is best to be taken when and where we should be able to get the filming we need to get done in the time supplied. Josh has also printed out a copy of the schedule for each of us to make sure that the filming day goes as smoothly and as efficiently as possible, ensuring that we won't forget any shots.

The following is a key that Josh wrote for his Schedule:

Key:
NO. I have given each shot that we are going to capture a number so we can write it on our clapper board. (This will make organizing clips in the editing process easier)
S.L. NO. This stands for Shot List Number. This means we can reference the shot with the shot list we wrote earlier. (This can help us when setting shots up because the shot list details the shots with greater depth)
SB. NO. This stands for StoryBoard Number. This means we can reference the shot with the storyboard that Jacob drew earlier. (This can help us when setting shots up because the storyboard will remind us how Jacob visualized the shot)

VACANCY ON VIOLET HILL: Shooting Schedule

Props and Equipment

This is a list of the equipment, props and costumes we are going to use for filming. We came up with this list together and Tom wrote it.

Visual props

Record player

Plates x 2

Fork x2

Knives x2

Glass x2

Chairs x2

Table

Food (cold pasta)

Lights

Torch

Boxes

Picture of mother

Axe

Mirror

Lamp

Dust sheets

Car

Table

Filming equipment

Video camera

Tri pod

Boom mike + Boom pool

Torch / lamp

Reflective sheet

Spare battery

Mini DV tapes x2

Clapper board

Marker

Costume

Gary – Father

Jeans

T-shirt / polo shirt

Brown leather shoes (casual)

Coat (casual indoor)

Cameron – James – Son

Jeans (casual)

T-shirt / polo shirt (plain)

Combat trousers

Plain hoody

The following is a list of props and equipment we need for our photo shoot for our ancillary tasks.

Visual Props:

Axe

Light reflective sheet

Camera equipment:

SLR camera

Tri-pod

Spare battery

Memory card

Text Draft

First draft of what the text during the trailer will say near the end of the trailer as it reaches a crescendo, interspersed with shots that increase in thrill and suspense.

A house of unseen evil

Will seize two lives

And bury them.

Shotlist

1. Fade from black to production titles. The titles are de-saturated and grainy and occur as the sound track features the crackling of the vinyl record.
2. Reflective Media
3. Red moon Pictures
4. Long distance shot of Gramophone sitting on a small table at the end of a small hallway. The camera tracks forward slightly.
5. Extreme close-up of the Gramophone needle on the vinyl as the record turns. Sound bridge of cutlery sounds.
6. Shot above dinner table, Father is out of focus and close to the camera at close up distance, and the son is at medium shot distance at the other side of the table. The focus pulls from the son to the father as the father asks ‘What’s that?’ referring to the music. A quick flicker of the lights occurs in the background.
7. Reaction shot of the father mid-way through turning his head from the last shot and looking just above the viewpoint of the camera at close-up distance.
8. Aerial shot of the two characters at the table, with the light bulb in view, flickering out.
9. Quick shot of the son doing a similar thing to the dad before the room plunges into darkness as the lights finally go out.
10. Pitch Black. He tells his son to stay where he is. Sounds of the father moving through the kitchen e.g. footsteps and opening a draw as the father takes out the torch.
11. Low angle shot of the father as the torch turns on and illuminates the area slightly. He starts to lift the torch.
12. Medium shot of the father as he turns around to face the dining table and starts to point the torch towards the general of the camera.
13. Point of view shot where the torch is pointed directly at the son’s chair, which is now empty.
14. Close up of the father’s face, demonstrating his reaction. He starts to move out of shot as the shot fades to black and bridges sounds of footsteps on floorboards.
15. The father calls his son’s name, and this audio bridges over the next couple of shots. Fades from black to close up of his feet stepping across the floorboards. Fades back to black.
16. Fades from black to a shot of a door from within a dark room as the torch peers around the corner and gets pointed directly at the camera and causes a lens flare. Fades back to black.
17. Sound bridge of the words ‘Daddy, I’m scared’ transition into the shot. Fades from black to a medium shot of the dad’s back as he walks slowly down the hallway from low angle (almost point of view from the son). He steps into shot, his feet obscuring the view.
18. Medium close-up shot from behind the father as he turns around and starts to point the torch towards the direction of the camera / Medium close-up shot of the dad facing the camera. The Dad starts to turn and point the torch at the son, bringing some of the son’s silhouette into light.
19. Point of View shot of the father lifting the torch to his son’s face to reveal…wait for it…DEMON FACE! Orchestral swell and sharp dramatic audio.
20. Light falls and the screen goes pitch black and goes silent.

Initial Plot Synopsis

This is the plot synopsis I wrote whilst Josh and Tom focussed on analysis work. This plot synopsis will be used so that Josh can write the screenplay for the teaser trailer.

The story revolves around two characters, a father and a son. The father is the main character of the film and has recently lost his wife in a car accident. He decides to move away with his son to escape a setting that reminds them of a troubled past. They find a house in the country, remote from their usual urban surroundings. The father and son move in and try to adjust to a more solitary life when bizarre events start to occur.

The electricity power to the house frequently cuts out, but upon investigation of the fuse board, there never seems to be a problem. The gramophone of the house repeatedly switches itself on and starts to play old 40s records. At night, the father hears footsteps and doors opening and closing, and suspects that someone is tampering with the house. The father starts to question his son, asking him why he’s trying to cause trouble, as he is the only plausible suspect. The son denies all accusations concerning tampering with the house.

One day the father wakes up to find his son missing from the house. He starts to search the woods surrounding the house, shouting out his son’s name in an attempt to find him. Panic ensues, as there’s few signs or traces of his son in the woods, and he starts to get lost as he moves deeper into the forest. The father starts to see shadows moving across the scenery and hears menacing sounds. The father sees one silhouette standing still in the distance and as he starts to move towards it, the silhouette starts to run away. In a mad rush to catch the enigmatic figure the father stumbles across his son crouching in a forest alcove. The son won’t answer his father as his father asks him why he ran away. From here onwards the son seems to be afraid of his own father.

One night the power cuts out again whilst the two are eating dinner. The father tells his son not to move whilst he finds a torch. Upon returning to the dinner table his shines the torch light at his sons seat but his son is missing. The house starts to make menacing sounds again, and the father cautiously searches the premises. Entering the kitchen he finds all the draws open and several kitchen knives lying around the countertops. Moving over to the gramophone playing he stares at it to hear his son from behind him say ‘I’m scared’. The father quickly turns and shines the torch at his son to reveal the boy standing there with phantom/demon like features. Panicking, the dad drops the torch, scrambling to pick it back up and shines the torch back at his son standing right next to him now but now in a normal state. The lights flicker back on, but from here onwards the father starts to suspect that his son his possessed or evil.

The father visits the local church to consult a priest about his troubled thoughts. The priest, unaware that someone has moved into the community, asks where the two have moved in residence. After telling the priest what address they moved into, the priest starts to panic and orders him to leave his parish and never return to the village area again, and even to leave his son behind. From these words the father determines that his son is the problem, and not the house.

One night the son and father are in bed and the son, trying to get to sleep starts to get tormented by the house. Menacing voices tell him to ‘hide or kill’. Shadows start to creep up the wall of his bedroom and the window starts to open by itself as the voices get louder. Staring at the window petrified, the boy then glances back at his wall as he hears the sound of carving to see the word ‘Hide or Kill’ carved in large capitals on his bedroom wall. The boy jumps out of his bed and runs to his father’s room. He steadily opens the door, walks in and stands at the foot of his dad’s bed. He gets his dad to wake up by pushing at his ankles. The dad wakes up in a daze and turns on the lamp to see the walls of his room carved repeatedly with the words ‘I’ll bury you’. The father panics and yells at his son, screaming and cursing, telling him to get out. The son, frightened, runs out of the room and hides in the living room. The father grabs an axe from underneath his bed and creeps out of his room. He turns round the corner to see his son crouching in the corner. The father moves towards his son and sees him scared and nervous. The dad apologises and stretches out one hand to lift his son, but as the son looks up at the dad his face turns demon like once again. Panicking, the father swings his axe at his son, missing narrowly.

The father continues to hunt his son in the house with his axe whilst his son tries to find a means to escape. The sun currently sees his father as a terrible haunting figure as he chases him relentlessly until the boy is crawling on all fours outside the entrance of the house. Just as the father is about to take a swing and kills his son, the priest arrives just in time and shoots the father with a hunting rifle. The priest then takes the boy and puts him in his car to drive away from the house. The son looks out the back windscreen to watch the house disappear over the horizon. The priest tells the boy it will all be alright now, as the son sits forward and looks up at the priest with the same demon features.

AKM Music for Copyright Free Music

AKM Music

For my animatic the music I used consisted of the music by the Ink Spots and some music that I made on Garageband, a program that comes with every Apple Macintosh system to create music by mixing copyright free tracks with the ability to make your own music electronically. This worked efficiently enough for just the animatic, however, I wasn’t completely pleased with the outcome, as Garageband didn’t supply all the things I needed to create a convincing horror track full of sinister tones and sharp audio. For instance, it wasn’t really possible to create the eerie backwards drums effective I wanted, nor was it possible to create the manic arrangement of shrill violins rising to a crescendo. As a result I went scouting for copyright free music tracks, and they would be able to supply the sound I wanted which I could use in my project without the risk of crossing copyright laws.

I came across a site named AKM music. This is the first thing you’ll read on its homepage:

‘Welcome to AKM MUSIC: the UK’s number one producer of high quality Copyright Free Music / Royalty Free Music.

Our music is sold and used worldwide as producers in the media industry see the benefits of using pre-cleared Copyright Free Music / Royalty Free Music in their productions.

Our simple no restriction licence allows you to use the music on all commercial projects and the music can be purchased as CDs, CD Roms or MP3 instant downloads.’

Furthermore it continues to say:
‘We believe that our Royalty Free Music library has grown into one of the finest in the UK on the strength of the music we produce. Over the last 15 years we have maintained such a high standard because of the quality of composers we invite to be part of our library. We only accept composers with a proven track record in producing music for media and who can deliver top quality productions.’

The site delivers what it promises as it has a wide range of track collections, from theatrical scores, to romance and comedies, to thrillers and horrors, to sound effects to urban fusion, orchestral symphonies and rock and roll ballads. Also compared to any other site I found, the site offers the most reasonable prices for the tracks, as with any other site if I wanted to get music that was completely copyright free and not just copyright owned for a year or so, it would occasionally cost in the region of £500.

I found the horror soundtrack on the website, sampled it and felt that it wouldn’t be appropriate for our trailer, and so I suggested it to both Tom and Josh for use in our trailer. http://www.akmmusic.co.uk/musicdetails.php?transactioncurrency=GBP&s=0&id=501

The Horror soundtrack cost us £40 in total to purchase, as it was £34 for the CD and around £8 for the delivery. Below is a copy of the e-mail received by AKM music after placing my order:

Thank you for your order just placed via our web site www.akmmusic.co.uk

Name : Jacob Merrick-Wolf

Transaction Reference Number : ********

Transaction Date : 2010-02-24

Transaction Time : 18:45:59

Transaction Amount : 40.96

Please keep this email for your reference

CD ORDERS

If you have purchased a CD or CDs an email will be sent to your email address detailing delivery times.

TRACK DOWNLOADS : After submitting your order you would have been taken to a page informing you that your transaction was successful. On this page your track selection would be available for you to instantly download by right clicking and saving the file onto your computer. The track selection is always in a blue font. If you have failed to do this, don't worry , simply send us an email with your transaction number and we can send your track by email .If you experience any other problems please email akm@akmmusic.co.uk or call 01926 864068 You are registered to use the music on your productions from the time of purchase. A receipt will be sent to your email address or despatched with your goods.

Thank you for your order

Best Regards

AKM Music

After the track arrived we place dthe music tracks on our music library as mp3s for use in our trailer. Eventually Josh used the muic from track 2 ‘The End’ where there are many sharp crescendo’s as well as dark sinister tones that aren’t too stereotypical and have the feel of a haunted house film that has a psychological element to the paranormal activity. Rather than something like Ghostbusters.

Choosing the Song : Ink Spots - Maybe

We wanted to include a song in our trailer that would add to the overall quality of the soundtrack and give the trailer more authenticity as a professional looking and sounding production. In our mise-en-scene we knew that we could include a gramophone that belonged to an old house, and so we had to think of a song that would sound old and creepy which could be used for the teaser trailer production that plays as both diegetic and non diegetic sound. It's tempo and rhythm also needed to match the pace of the scene as it builds tension.

I suggested that we used a song by the old 40s group The Ink Spots called 'Maybe', which would play as a song from the microphone and echo throughout the house and be used as iconography for the production. There's a couple of advantages towards using old music like this, being that firstly it works well with the conventions of a horror movie where a sense of history and ageing in a house gives it a scarier dynamic. In a more practical sense, we were allowed to use the song because its over 50 years old meaning that its copyright now belongs to the public and so it was viable for use in our non-profitable project. The song itself also has the potential to be very creepy, containing minor tones and when applied to a sinister situation it brings out the foreboding element in it to a unsettling degree. The song's pace is also very slow, meaning that it was perfect for a teaser trailer where we wanted to use a single abridged scene, rather than a bunch of fast paced cuts.

Josh even went on to examine the lyrics more closely, and found that the song applies to our story synopsis very well, making it perfect for use in our teaser trailer.

Name Ideas for the Magazine

An important part of producing the magazine is the brand name, as some words can be alot more eye-catching than others, and some words carry a lot more connotation with them, so its important to make sure that we come up with an idea that has ll the right connotations, being cinematography, theatre, films, horrors and exclusivity.

We wanted to think of an name that had the same impact as other popular film magazine brands like Empire magazine and Total Film.

The name ideas that we came up with for the magazine are:
Icon

Ambient

Shutter

Aperture

Motion

Focus

Rushes

Action

Out of those listed above the favourite given from informal audience feedback were Icon, Motion and Focus. Amongst the team we decided that Motion was the best out of the three, as Motion defined the point of cinema and film, where as Icon could be quite ambiguous and for the font we wanted to use (Telegraphico) Focus as a title looks too similar to the production titles of Focus Media. Motion was also around the right number of characters to make a fair spread and size in dimensions across the top of the page of the front cover.

Initial Ideas for Horror Teaser Trailer

Today we discussed what kind of horror film we would like to makes a teaser trailer for. We discussed how most horror films will follow a set of conventions, regardless of what kind of artistic flair may be imposed; horror films still manage to fall into a certain category that defines its angle and approach of suspense, fear and dilemma.

The three subgenres that horror movies will tend to fall into are:

1. Horror-of-the-personality: Threats in this story are normally stemming from human beings

2. Horror-of-Armageddon: A menace which usually comes from nature going mad threatens human’s existence

3. Horror-of-the-Demonic: Horror stems from the idea that evil otherworldly entities exist

Upon these conventions we then started to generate some ideas on a mind map that we could stem something from.

After mind mapping we choose a couple ideas which we could flesh-out as a group. We came up with 3 premises:

1. A man has recently been released from a hospital with head injuries. When returning to his given address he walks through the front door and his house starts to reveal itself as a labyrinth of bizarre and dark events. When he walks through a door the setting completely changes. He always watches people being hunted by a crazed masked killer from a removed perspective like a fly on the wall. Eventually he realises that the killer was himself before he suffered from amnesia.

2. A boy and a father move into a new house in the country and begin to hallucinate occasionally seeing each other as demonic figures. Strange occurrences take place in the house; bizarre reflections in mirrors, sinister shadows creeping across the walls etc. Both the father and son find themselves being haunted by each other. The father tries to discover if his house is haunted and why, but he eventually starts to suspect his son of being possessed by an evil entity.

3. A farmer begins to suspect that the scarecrows on his farm are moving independently of their own whilst he is asleep. All his possessions start to go missing and turn up in strange places. His anxiety is heightened when the animals on his farm get slaughtered over night. Locals then tell him that they’ve seen men walking around outside his house at night suspiciously. His objective is to uncover the mystery.

We then considered from here what would be the best plot idea to develop by realising the possible flaws in all of them. We eventually determined that:

• Our first idea was probably our favourite but we realised that it may not be realistically simply to create, pitch or convey a real sense of threat and suspense with by just using a teaser trailer. We were eager to see if you could match the special effects with the software available, but considered that it may be more trouble and time than it would be worth.
• Our third idea would be too difficult to produce in terms of location and props as well as getting actors to play the necessary characters and use of farm animals. It may also be difficult to convey the plot and angle of the film with just a teaser trailer. Essentially, the idea wasn’t practical in far too many areas.

Initial Idea for Teaser Trailer

Our first ideas for our film trailer revolved around the concept of a thriller of some sort. We generated some ideas involving a:

Murder

Chase

Hostage Situation

Terrorist Attack

Robbery

Our ideas expanded on the concept of a chase involving two characters caught up in a situation that propels them forward in the plot through their need to keep running whether it be towards or away from the other character. We initially thought this was in our best interests as it was a topic that we could enjoy and collaborate well on. We're all very familiar with popular crime thrillers and dramas such as Collateral, The Departed, Pulp Fiction and even Catch Me If You Can.

Eventually we came up with the concept of a young teenage character who was hired by a gangster to hack a private witness protection program site for witness details. The teenager would have kept these details on a disk and the disk would have become the centre-point and catalyst of the narrative. After some discussions we came up with this plot basis:

We then mind-mapped some ideas for character names such as the name for the protagonist in which we came up with:

• Myles
• Jason
• John
• Chris

And names for the Antagonist:

• Vincent
• Alfie
• Frankie
• Jason
• Eddie
• Marcus
• Desmond
• Jack

The titles of the film that we then mind-mapped were:

• The Slip
• Blind Alley
• Runners High
• Mile a Minute
• Loose Fortune
• Dead Venture
• Live Wire

Plot Basis:

Young hacker Myles Harvard finds an Internet forum request to hack a database online for a phenomenal fee. Myles hacks the data from the database after being told to not look at the data he stole. Myles looks at the data anyway. After retrieving the data he is told to meet the Antagonist in town so that he can make the exchange for money. Myles waits for him on a street corner when a car shows up and the Antagonist invites him in. In the car the Antagonist is ready to give him the money when Myles is tricked into revealing that he read the data. The Antagonist is about to shoot Myles when the car crashes by chance. Myles jumps out of the car taking both the disk of information and the money while the Antagonist is disoriented. Myles returns to his house to find that the police are inside investigating his room after his IP address is tracked from the hacking job. Myles now has no one to turn to knowing he’s a convict and chooses to run with the money he took from the Antagonist.

After some constructive criticism from peers and self evaluation we decided on the name Myles Harvard for the protagonist, Alfie for the antagonist and that the title of the movie would be Mile a Minute.

We hope to pitch our idea in the near future to our tutor and gain feedback to whether this idea is plausible and achievable.

The Briefening

My group consisting of Joshua Reeves, Tom Bowman and Myself have decided to take on the task of creating a film teaser trailer. The task brief is shown below:

2. A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with two of the following three options:

• a website homepage for the film;
• a film magazine front cover, featuring the film;
• a poster for the film.

The two ancillary tasks we have chosen to do alongside the main task of creating the trailer are the film magazine cover, featuring the film and the poster for the film as apposed to the website. We decided to use these two media formats as they play to our strengths more than that of a website. All the members of our group also have extensive knowledge involving programs like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign which we would most likely use to produce these ancillary tasks.