Filming day

Problems encountered

Over our two film shoots a major difficulty we faced was maintaining continuity. Since our filming took place over 2 days we had to make sure background details and mise en scene remained the same so audiences did not become confused. This meant our actors had to wear the same clothes and wear their hair in the same fashion as before.
For some scenes we needed to encorporate shots from both days of filming. A major challenge was ensuring the lighting remained constant and furniture was arranged in the same fashion as the first day we filmed on.
An example of how this organisation came into play was was when we filmed a scene where our main actor walked towards the door and did multiple takes before we realised that the curtains where in a slight different position in a shot we took previous. After we realised this mistake we kept a the scenes from our first shoot up on a laptop beside the camera so we could ensure continuity was preserved.
We also had to arrange smaller props like the alcohol bottles, the knife and laptop in the same places so that our audiences immersion would not be broken by noticing things out of place from shot to shot.

Another problem we faced when planning when to film was the weather. For both days we wanted to film when the sun was directly overhead and there was little clouds or rain. This is because we wanted good lighting on top of the articial lights we had already for the phone and walking to door scenes. We looked at weather reports for days where the sun was out without many clouds and checked with our actors schedule to make sure they were available on the days we wanted.

When filming we had to wait a while for some clouds to clear to get the glare we wanted from the sun when the main actor transitioned from the dark living room to the light room. On the second day of the shoot we filmed a scene outside with better lighting that was intially filmed inside. This is because there was less wind one the second day so recording audio was easier as it was not distorted by wind.

POSTER PLANNING/IDEAS

Below are some rough sketches for the poster to our film.  

In addition to these drawn pictures we used photoshop to design a poster using stock images from the internet.

Storyboard for new short film

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The Script for Our Film

Fade in to the interior of a house, the blinds are drawn, in the middle there is a man on the floor hunched over with a photo of his wife in his hands

David: 'I'll find you'' He repeats unnervingly

He reaches around for a beer and knocks several old cans over and sighs 

He gets up to get another and as he enters the kitchen the kitchen his phone rings. He rushes to the phone but doesn't get there in time.

David: 'That could've been her' and he throws the picture away and it shatters.

We then see him go upstairs to his computer to check his emails but a glimpse of an alien conspiracy website is shown before the camera pans up to reveal a large chalk board with various alien sightings and symbols displayed.

The phone rings again and he rushes to get it. When he picks up there is silence for a couple of seconds.

David: 'Hello'

Voice on the phone: [what follows is incomprehensible alien language]

The man hangs up the phone and is visibly shocked and then precedes to call his friend 

Man: 'Its them I've got proof'

His friends Shaun calls round and is repelled/visibly disgusted at the state of the house 

Shaun: 'Well where is it'

David: 'Here I record all calls in and out'

Shaun: 'Wait your telling me an alien phoned you

David: 'Yes that's right'

Shaun: 'on this phone,this disconnected phone'

David: 'Yea...'

Shaun: 'Look, okay we let you believe this for a while maybe it was a grieving mechanism... but now its went too far. David she left you, okay you have to come to terms with it. She's gone they found her car two cities over, you have to stop this its destroying you. You've lost your job and your alienating everyone around you. so come on stop this madness and come outside. Look, tomorrow morning I'll give you a lift round to the clinic and they will be able to help you overcome this.'

David: 'O-okay'

Shaun gives him a hug and leaves

Later that night David hears the phone ringed and hears his wife voice. 'come outside honey, don't be afraid.'

David: 'No,no you're gone Shaun told me'

David throws the phone across the room but she can still be heard as she becomes more distorted. Eventually he gives in and opens the door only to be engulfed in a white light with similar alien noises being heard before fading to black.

Researching Aliens

We looked at different alien films and found different websites we could use for our alien story. While we were writing the script for our new short film we did some research on UFO/alien obsession culture. Since our main character thinks alien have taken his wife we wanted an accurate depiction of how someone who believed in alien conspiracy would believe. We wanted to accurately represent someone who was obsessed with aliens so we went on some conspiracy sites like            www.dailyufosightings.com

We found some interesting pictures and articles we could print out for a scene in the film were the main character goes into his room and there are clippings of UFO conspiracy info everywhere. The owners of the website had a disclaimer on the site that gives the public permission to use their content so we dont have to worry about infringing copyright.

Making the soundtrack

We used audacity and garageband to make our soundtrack and the sound effects in our film. In garageband there is a wide array of software instruments we were able to use such as bass and synth keyboards. We used the sub bass keyboard to create an ominous and foreboding atmosphere in the film.

 

We layered the synths, bass and piano chords over one and other using the timeline feature. We also used reverb and echo effects to alter when each instrument blends and fades into one and other.
We exported our foley work into audacity to edit it. The foley was done with cling film, hairdryer and an iphone microphone. We did this to try and recreate how an alien language sounded like. We added white noise and reverb to the sound effects to give it a more disturbing and unnerving feel. We plan to use final cut to dub over the phone call so we dont have to struggle with recording an actual phone call, saving time.
Below are some instruments we decided would fit the 'sci fi' theme.

Inspiration for soundtrack

For our soundtrack we looked at many different films that featured aliens and unhinged protagonists. Films like a beautiful mind and silence of the lambs had very orchestral soundtracks featuring intense  string/brass sections to convey that the main character has lost his mind.
However we felt this wasn't the right type of soundtrack for our film. Instead we looked at more synth based soundtracks which fit well with our sci fi theme. We looked at the knick which features synthesiser and electrical instruments heavily and also looked at scores from John Carpenter films as he was an early pioneer of the synth sound in the 80s.





Overall we decided to pursue a synth based soundtrack to both capture the sci fi theme aswell as show someone who is mentally unstable. We have access to garageband so the amount of electrical instrument software available within the program will be helpful when constructing the soundtrack.