The project for my FMP was a short film within the horror genre. i based it around the blair witch project which is where i got the idea of the first person filming however i also took inspiration from a small part of the saw genre with the use of the cctv footage to make the protagonist seem even more volatile than what he already looks.
I developed my idea from watching horror films such as The Blair Witch Project and the Saw series as i liked the way that they left you on your seat and made sure that you was never prepared for what was to come next especially with some of the jump scares. i then thought about how i could take parts from both of them and go from there so for instance at the beginning of the short film i got inspiration for that from saw as in saw it always begins with one of the characters in an extremely precarious situation.
The software that i used was Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2018. i used this because it was the only editing software that i could use as i didnt have any others.
The tools that i used on premiere was things like the colour key so i could green screen and use overlays over the filming to make it look like it was filmed on an old school camcorder and the cctv overlay made it feel like the main character was always being watched. the other tools i used was the saturation and colour of the shots because when i filmed it was very bright and every single wall was white and it didn’t help that the lights where on and the sun was shining through the window so i had to lower the saturation of the shots so they were darker and i also made sure that the white walls where as dark as possible by raising the tone of the black on the shot and lowering the tone of the white in the shot. obviously i also used the cutting tool so i could grab the parts of the shots, overlays and sounds that i wanted. the physical tools i used where 2 cameras a tripod and a baseball bat.
I exported the video and the format i used was youtube 1080p because that way i can make the video look the best it possibly can on youtube which makes it both a good viewing on youtube and i know that if someone doesn’t like it it isn’t because of the way it looks but because the film just isn’t something they are into.
Three things that i found hard where:
Colour keying: i found colour keying hard as i struggled to get the right colour tolerance because every time i tried to find the right level it was either to high or to low it was never perfect so i ended up leaving a few lines in there however it turned out to look better like that in my opinion.
Recording by myself: i found recording by myself because i had to make sure both cameras where recording when i was filming but making sure that whilst i was recording that the cctv camera wasn’t being seen in any of the shots using the first person camera and that had happened a few times so i had to take a couple of attempts at recording till i got it t how i wanted it.
Importing the videos: the reason i found this hard is because there was weird bug going on with the version of premiere pro i was using where it either would import the sound from a video or the video just wouldn’t import at all.
Three things i found where easy:
Editing the sound and shots: i found once i had finally imported the sound and shots they where very easy to edit as they kind of all just fell into place as i already had an idea of how i wanted the film to look and i knew what sounds i wanted to download off of the internet and the i knew what overlays i wanted to find to use.
Finding the overlays and sounds: finding the overlays and sound where very easy as they where all on youtube and i made sure that none them where copyrighted which means that when i uploaded the video i didn’t get any copyright strikes.
The idea: i found that coming up with the idea was quite easy as it had been something i wanted to do for some time but i had always been restricted for certain reasons but i had always had this developing idea in my head of a horror movie in which the main protagonist is chased by an evil psychopathic killer.
I feel that with all the things that have held me back it is a very successful piece of work and thus i am very happy with the way its turned out baring in mind that i wasn’t able to film it the location i wanted to. i feel it will go down well with viewers of the film because of the way i have edited it to look like a dark and lonely maze of corridors and stairs.
I am happy with the work i have produced because i have made something that shouldn’t really have worked work quite well and look like it was filmed in a location that has been empty and abandoned for quite sometime and made it feel like it is a horror movie even though it was filmed in a busy college.
Three things that went well:
One thing that went well was the amount of time it took me to record the film because it only took me around an hour to film the shots i wanted which gave me a lot more time to focus on editing the work and getting the film to look as good as i possibly could.
The actual editing of the film went very well in my eyes as i was able to do everything i wanted to do in the film like add the overlays and add the scary chase music into the background so it gives the film that more eery feel and make the viewer feel like the main character is in a lot of danger even though he may not seem it at first.
Another thing that went well for me was the amount of time i spent looking for the sound effects and overlays for the edit because i could have wasted loads of time looking for them and lost time to edit and get in depth with the edit itself but luckily i was able to find the overlays very quickly and make sure they weren’t copyrighted so i could use them in my film and not get a copyright strike for it.
Three things i would do differently if i was to do it again:
I would definitely record in a different location so i could make the film as good as it possibly could be because filming in the corridors of college even though i done the best i could to make it look scary if i was to have done it in the bunker though it could have that much better
I would have made sure i had better equipment to film with like i would definitely have used a something like a go pro to do some of the first person shots with as it would have given an even better perspective that wouldn’t have been as shaky and blurred.
I would have also recorded with more than just myself that way i would have been able to direct the movie better and that way i could have made it a bit longer because i would have had more of a chance to use different shots and angles.
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