Students VS Zombies - Analysis

This is my analysis of our Students VS Zombies story so far - what went well/is going well, and what didn't go as well/not going as well.


Script location-
Teleportation location: Back of school at the containers and the bathroom.

Shoot location-
Teleportation locations: Back of school at the containers and the C Block Corridor

What went wrong when shooting?
We found that when we were shooting we didn't have much time so we rushed it, meaning that it didn't turn out as accurate as we hoped. Because it was our first time shooting, we were taking a risk on whether the shots would turn out when they were put together - for example the positioning of Reece in the bathroom had to be changed from a close-up to a mid-shot so it looked better when he teleported and the smoke and where he landed was in the same place as where he disappeared from the previous shot by the containers.

What did you struggle with during using After Effects?
My main struggle was creating the special effects, in this case the smoke. It was very complicated but luckily there are loads of After Effects tutorials on YouTube that I watched and used to help me create the effect.



What do you need to learn?
(Skills, techniques)

What "assets" do you need?
(Props, CGI, Makeup, Costume)

Visual Effects Research - Students VS Zombies

There are a variety of shots in our script that use visual effects.

VFX List:

• Scene 2 | Shot 8 - Reece teleports from the containers to the toilets. In the visual effect, we will use smoke to make it look like Reece teleports and makes smoke like a magician.

EXAMPLE OF SIMILAR EFFECT:

• Scene 4 | Shot 4 - Reece creates balls of fire from his hands when he is accepted into Merriweather Academy. We will use a fire effect on After Effects to make it look like fire is coming from Reece's hands.

EXAMPLE OF SIMILAR EFFECT:

• Scene 5 | Shot 7 - Kieran turns invisible. For this effect we will use the same technique as we did we the teleportation but we won't use smoke, instead we will keep a picture of the shot in the background without Kieran in to make it look like he has disappeared.

• Scene 5 | Shot 9 - Lauren lifts surrounding objects, and this effect will be created by using a green screen to film the floating objects and to layer them with the original shot with Lauren.

EXAMPLE OF SIMILAR EFFECT:

• Scene 5 | Shot 11 - Rizzo will stretch to show her stretching and flexibility powers that will be made by green-screening and time-remapping on After Effects.

EXAMPLE OF SIMILAR EFFECT:

• Scene 5 | Shot 13 - Reece will teleport again, like before, to show his new friends that he has special super-powers like them.

• Scene 6 | Shot 2 - The ground will tremble and crack. We will make the floor crack and break open by using After Effects.

EXAMPLE OF SIMILAR EFFECT:

• Scene 6 | Shot 6 - Zombies will smash through the glass windows. I will use a youtube tutorial to help me make it on After Effects.
• Scene 7 | Shot 2 - Rizzo uses her flexibility to wrap around the zombies and strangle them.
• Scene 7 | Shot 3 - Kieran uses his invisibility to attack the zombies without being scene.
• Scene 7 | Shot 4 - Reece uses electricity to electrocute the zombies.
• Scene 7 | Shot 5 - Lauren uses her powers to levitate the zombies and throw them against the walls.

EXAMPLE OF SIMILAR EFFECT:

Similar visual effects:

Teleportation VFX: Star Trek


Fire Balls VFX: Sky High

Stretching & flexibility VFX: The Incredibles

Face Morph - After Effects

Here I have created a 'face morph' on After Effects using layers and a mask, with key-frames to mark out where and when I want my face to morph.

Post Production Meeting 2 - Shots

Meeting began at 12:04pm, the people present at the meeting are myself Maia, Katie, Georgina and Callum. For this meeting we are now discussing the various shots for the final cut of our teenage superhero script, and whose shot types we are going to use in our film. We came to the conclusion that we are going to use mine because they thought it was the most creative with a variety of different shot angles but there aren't too many so it's easier to work with and less pressure with the limited time we have. We also decided that it was better to have a wider variety of shot types because it shows we understand the different types of shots we can use.

In total, I used 49 shots in our 3 page script, with a wide variety of shot types such as: mid shots, close ups, wide shots, point of views (POV), birds-eye views and over-the-shoulder angles. Although everyone had a strong list of shots we felt that mine had the most variety out of the group

New Script

This new script combines all of our ideas from each person in our groups' original scripts

Shot Block Diagram

The 180° degree rule is when the camera cannot cross the imaginary line as it will confuse the positions of the characters for the audience. The camera is kept on one side of the action so it doesn't distort the viewing - e.g. you can see the black line below; all cameras and shooting/editing has to be kept to one side of the line, and you can see that the angle at the top of page is crossing the 180 degree line when compared to the positions of the other cameras, therefore it is in the wrong place.

Team Production Meeting

Date: 18th November 2013
Who is present: Callum Molyneux, Georgie Horne, Katie Turner and Maia Creed
Agenda: Script assessment, script choice and ideas for redrafting

Callum's script:

• Narrative: Zombie apocalypse
• Reece main character
• Chester the talking dog
• Postman who delivers letters
• Descriptive dialogue
• Detailed/simple storyline to avoid confusion
• Flowing dialogue
• Casting: Georgina - Postman, Callum - Reece, Maia - Chester
• Time set - all throughout day - Present time
• Two - three weeks to film
• Location: Cambridge, Long Road
• VFX: zombie apocalypse, morphing, blood
• Impressiveness
• Achievability - wide variety of skills, regular people morphing into zombies
• Computer effects
• Maia - textiles costume design and make-up

Maia's script:

• Narrative: Zombie apocalypse 
• Group of 3 girls and 1 boy with powers of the Elements: Earth, Air, Fire and Water
• Have to defeat the zombie apocalypse
• Descriptive similar to Callum - attention to detail
• A lot going on - series of events
• "I'm so excited to start college" -Lauren descriptive describing actions
• "Why do I look like a normal person, but inside I am really some insane person"
• Casting: each four members of the group is a character
• Sam = Callum
• Lauren = Georgie
• Milly = Maia
• Kate = Katie
• Location: Long Road, Cambridge because it's easy to get to, cheap and avoids travelling
• VFX: morphing, earthquakes, blood, fire, water, death, zombies
• Impressive because there are a lot of VFX to engage the audience
• Achievability = hard because of the amount of VFX

Katie's script:

• Narrative: zombie apocalypse 
• Boy gets bullied and moves to specialist school and has to fight a zombie apocolypse
• Characters: Kieran (main), Sam, Joe and Daniel (bullies), 
• Kieran's new friends- Danny, Richard and Matt
• Descriptive, powerful dialogue to involve the readers and make them have sympathy for Kieran
• Casting = people of group chose their characters
• Time: Present daytime
• VFX: teleportation, super-punches, fire
• Location: Cambridge, Long Road
• Wild range of VFX: impressiveness
• Achievable is VFX works well

Character Bios

 Milly Lauren KateSam

Revised Draft

Face Morph

The Elements of being a Superhero - Script

Research into Recording Foley Sound and Sound Effects

FOLEY ARTIST FILM NOTES:

• foley artist is - invented by jack foley
• shoot film = production and dialogue
• recreate sounds for drama intensity
• empire strikes back - first film
• footsteps main character
• background footsteps
• prop pass = moving objects need sound
• timing / creative mind
• use props to create sound
• shoes chains swords
• (and sound effects are added)
• foley is a performance = need energy

A foley artist is someone who recreates sounds for films and television by using props to create drama intensity as the sounds are often lost through dialogue and production.

The order in which Foley artists create the sound are: the footsteps of the main character, then the background footsteps, and then you go through the prop pass; which means anything that moves on the screen, sound is provided for.

Key skills a Foley artist should have is a creative mind and lots of energy, as you have to be able to make sound for anything and everything using random objects such as shoes, chains, swords and pieces of metal.

The advantage of using real objects to create sound FX rather than digital production and sound libraries is that the sounds created by a Foley artist have much more depth and can be manipulated and layered and the tone can be changed depending on the angle the object is being hit or beaten or scraped, whereas digital sounds are harder to manipulate and fit better with the scene.

A specific example of how key sounds are created is in Star Wars. For example, they made the sound of lasers by hitting the wires of a radio tower with a spanner and creating a 'twanging' sound.

http://filmsound.org/starwars/

Research into Recording Ambient Sounds and Dialogue

An ambient sound recording is a recording of an environment or location that is added to a scene or location. Sometimes you get natural ambient sound, which is known as 'background noise', for example when you are filming outside and you hear the wind.

An example of ambient noise in a film is in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. They recorded the ambient noise in Maui, Hawaii, for the jungle and ocean scenes. They used stereo pairs when recording the sounds with them pointing away from each other to create a quad-like layout and to make the ambient noise more dynamic.

Hard cuts are ill advised when being used in ambient sound mixing because they're cuts between noises (or shots) with no transition, so the ambient noise would be less realistic and effective - unless it is used specifically for effect or reason - in Catching Fire they use sweeping background noise for affect and anticipation.

The advantage of recording on location and not on sound library is you can get more depth and enhanced sounds, because they are live and you can use multiple microphones to record different layers of sound.

You can have some issues when recording dialogue, because there is a lot to think about - for example you have to work out whether you're going to record straight with the camera microphone, or whether to use dubbing or looping.

Looping is when the actors watch back the recorded clips in a studio, and they re-do the lines as the clip is looped on the screen in front of them, letting them correct and replace the dialogue if it wasn't good enough when recorded on set. Shooting the dialogue on set can be difficult because the ambient noise and other background noise could lessen the quality of the dialogue.

In The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, they used looping because the noise of the waves on the beach scene were so loud they couldn't hear each other talk, therefore looping was the most appropriate solution.

X-Men Sound Effects - Timeline

Music // Dialogue // Effects // Narration

The music, dialogue, effects and narration work well together to create an engaging clip. This visual representation of how sound is used in this clip helps to understand how different sound effects work together to create a successful sequence. You can see that the Dialogue and Narration never occur at the same time because it would cause confusion if there was more than one person talking at once.

Use of Music in Film

• Creates an atmosphere
• Creates a mood
• Triggers emotions
• Creates emotional queues
• Emphasises actions
• Helps the narrative flow
• Hints to the emotional state of the character
• Establishes the location (motif)/culture/time
• Establishes the character (motif/themes)

Terminology

• Diegetic
• Non-diegetic
• Sound effects
• Amplified sound
• Ambient sound
• Characters themes
• Aural motifs
• Sound narrative
• Soundscape
• Discordance and Cacophony
• Sound Bridges
• Contrapuntal sound
• Major and Minor keys/chords
• Sonic wallpaper

Music Analysis

• Purpose - What is the purpose?
• Elements - Tempo / Volume / Genre / Tone / Instrumentation
• Meaning - What is the meaning?

Submarine music analysis -

Purpose

• Creates sonic wallpaper / background for montage and flashbacks
• Helps the narrative flow
• Gives clues about the character - Oliver Tate

Elements

• Instrumental / flute at the beginning
• Strings (orchestral)
• Tone - neutral - not major or minor
• Ambiguous / floats between the two
• "Thinking" music - romantic, busy, whimsical
• Genre = classic
• Tempo = Andante 'Walking Pace'

Meaning

• Sequence is a thought process it is like he chose his own music
• It is subjective - how he sees the world

The music has a 'busy' quality to it - never resting into a set melody. It is Oliver's internal soundtrack and reflects his character - dreamy, whimsical, romantic. The music has a classic, timeless quality giving little indication of location or time which evidences the timelessness in terms of the film's themes (coming of age, love).

Submarine clip - http://lrmt.posthaven.com/p1-music-analysis-submarine-clip-01

Teen Superhero Film Idea - The Elements of being a Superhero

It was Milly’s first day at school at Merriweather Academy. The Academy was a fairly average school; with average grades, average teachers, average students. It was apparent from the start the Milly would be an outcast. When she was just five she discovered she had these supernatural powers – she could control the element of Fire. It was like she was the chosen one, and she had to use her powers for the greater good. Milly could heat things up, set them on fire, burn things to the floor, dry out anything physically possible...she could even juggle with fire (not that that helped society, it was just a trick she learnt). Despite loving her powers, she still had a part in her mind that hated them so much; she found it hard to make friends because she dreaded getting close to anyone.

It was Lauren’s first day of school at Merriweather Academy – and she was very excited. She strode down the path and towards the entrance, floating along with the soft gusts of wind that were pulling her in the direction of the school. She wasn’t going to let her superpower to Air get the better of her; she wanted to make the most of having a chance at living a normal life, with normal surroundings. For too long she’d been cooped up in a mental institute, after she had discovered her element, Air, and had tried to convince everyone that it was true. Lauren laughed as she discreetly levitated and zoomed along to the entrance. She’s lucky she managed to persuade everyone that she was normal and it was just a phase she had went through, so she didn’t want to get caught and be sent to the operation table as part of an experiment.

It was Kate’s first day of school at Merriweather Acadamy. The shy, withdrawn girl hurried up the stairs, clutching her books in her left arm and her lunch and bag in her right arm. She went around the corner and into the girl’s bathroom, and dropped her bags next to the sink. Looking up and into the mirror, she stared intently into her reflection. She pulled around with her cheeks, her jaw, her eyes and mouth. Why did she look so normal but inside could be so far from it? Kate’s head dropped to the sink, blinked, and the tap began to run. She blinked again and the water froze in time, but you could still hear it running like a jammed television program where the picture stops but the noise still continues. Being in control of the element of Water was her escape, she could play around with it on her own and it would keep her occupied – she could forget about her glossophobia (fear of speaking in public or to anyone in general).

It was Sam’s first day at school at Merriweather Academy. As he wandered down the long, dull corridor, he contemplated running straight back through those gates again. Sam felt isolated, trapped amongst normality. What kind of superhuman would want to involve themselves in normal people? Sam’s stared outside of the window and over towards the huge pile of boulders that were supposed to be some kind of ‘sculpture’. His eyes turned green and each one split and crumbled in front of his eyes. He began to feel the ground rumbling underneath him, and the lockers shook violently either side of him. Sam turned his head towards the sound of frightened and confused screams coming from behind the canteen door. Having the power of Earth, one of the key elements, was dominating Sam’s life. He can never feel a strong emotion without causing some sort of natural disaster.

·         Hero/es

·         Situation

·         New opportunity

·         Goal

·         Conflict

Four new kids starting a new school think they’ll be outcasts and isolated because of their most deadly secret – their superhuman powers where they control the earth’s most important elements, Fire, Earth, Water and Air. But what they don’t know is that they’ll find each other for a reason, and it’s not just a coincidence, it’s to save the world. #tweetpitch

Sound Effects - Drive

(A getaway driver (Ryan Gosling) waits for two criminals to commit a burglary. The Driver has a strict rule - he gives anyone who hires him a 5 minute window to commit their crime and get to the car otherwise he'll leave them).

The purpose of the sound diegetic (any sound, voice or piece of music that comes from within the world of the narrative) in the clip is to set the scene. You can hear the ticking of the clock and the police on the radios which builds the tension of the scene because you can pick up on the fact that there is a time limit of something and that there is police movement but they don't know where the car it. This suggests a crime thriller theme because of the police involvement and the suspense Ryan Gosling presents when he keeps anxiously looking out through the overhead mirror.

Because we know some information about the situation but not all of it, it makes us tense because we don't know the full story, therefore you anticipate something interesting will happen to create a climax. When the scene switches to the watch it shows that time is moving on and it's acting as an alarm - someone [the police] is aware of the robbery. The music gets louder and therefore the tension builds more because you can tell the time is running out.

You can establish the genre because of the tension and the police - that it's a crime thriller. This sets the tone to be tense and serious, but entertaining.


The ticking watch
(Analysing the effect that the various sound effect has on the clip)

The pitch, tone and and volume. The pitch of the ticking clock is quite low and repetitive through the whole buildup of suspense before the criminals get into the car. This low rhythmic noise sounds like a heartbeat ticking like a time bomb, so the suspense builds when you relate it to that because we relate a heartbeat beating fast with being tense and nervous. The volume of the watch gets louder when the camera is on it, showing that it is an important part of the scene. The watch's tone is a sharp and repetitive drone that continues through most of the scene, showing that it is a main factor of the scene and helps you to understand the storyline.

The police radio scanner

The police radio scanner plays at the same volume throughout the clip (the words are quite hard to hear) and you can pick up on certain parts of what is being said through the scanner to set the context for the film - we learn that the car is being searched for so it is obviously stolen, which tells me about the crime-thriller genre of the film. The pitch is quite high so it builds tension because it's distracting and you have to listen to what is being said because it's the only spoken dialogue at the start - it helps you to understand what the situation is. The tone is anticipation because you want to see if the driver gets caught.

The radio

The radio changes volume because of the driver turning it up and down to listen (1:06). This sound diegetic adds a sense of realism to the scene because everyone normally tunes into the radio when they're in the car on there own - so you feel drawn in because you can relate to the driver more. This builds tension because you know that something is going to happen to climax the scene and you think that something's going to happen because listening to the radio seems too normal. The pitch of the radio is fairly monotone so it isn't the most interesting noise, but the words you pick up on are [interesting] because it helps set the scene of the crime that is actually taking place and you establish the scenario. I think the tone is interesting because it is quite crackly and hard to understand what it says word for word.

Environmental sound

Using the environmental sounds (alarm, traffic, car engine, police siren) helps to distinguish a normality in the scene - making it realistic and therefore drawing you in because it's sounds that you recognize. The volume of these sounds are quite low because they are in the background and because the scene is set in the car the noises are muffled to make it more believable. The alarm and police sirens suggests the area that the scene is set in has got danger and criminals - and could be foreshadowing the car chase later on. In addition the alarms and sirens intimidate the audience because they are associated with danger, and you are uneasy when you see how the driver is unaffected by the noises; again suggesting he is a criminal because he is keeping his cool (you can still see a glisten of concern in his eyes at 1:27 however). The pitch of the sirens are high and ear-piercing slightly, building the suspense that the police could appear any second. The tone is suspenseful because you are on edge, waiting for the climax.

Overall, the sounds blend together to create a suspenseful, engaging scene. The way the continuous drum of the non-diegetic beat builds up in the background represents your heartbeat as all the other sounds come together to form a realistic crime thriller scene. The blend of tones, pitches and volumes draw you in because you listen for each thing that gets louder, for instance you're listening to the ticking watch, then the police radio and then the car alarms; you end up piecing together the different sound elements to work out the structure and idea of the scene. If there was no sound elements in the scene, it wouldn't be engaging or climatic because there would be no sounds to draw you in and engage/learn about the characters and their situations.

Top Trump - Photoshop Edit

Misfits Dialogue Opening

The purpose of the dialogue used in the Misfits opening is to establish the characters and their different personalities, to set the tone of the program (apparently comedic because of Nathan's comments), to establish the genre and to entertain and draw in the audience.


Nathan

Nathan's tone is sarcastic, mocking, playful, outspoken, laid-back and condescending. Because he is the character that speaks the most, and because of the tone of his voice, I think that this links to his social background of being kicked out by his parents and being alone. Here it appears that he is annoying and sarcastic, for example "Yeah but what if they're right [Being called scum]?", so it gives you the impression that he is alone. His accent is Irish - southern republic - meaning he is classless because of being from out of the UK. His vocabulary is vulgar - he pushes the boundaries but in a intelligent and witty way because he doesn't swear and he uses faux politeness to create counter arguments, for example when he says to Simon, "You alright there weird kid?", his tone is not rude, just plain like the word 'weird' means nothing insulting. His volume is loud and clear, suggesting he wants to be heard - he had been neglected by his parents so it could be a psychological way of dominating the situation.


Alisha

Alisha's tone is laid back, careless, flirty and irresponsible. She shows she is irresponsible by talking on the phone and ignoring her probation officer when she is meant to be learning a lesson by being on community service. She appears very confident, and she isn't afraid of conflict with the others or the officer, suggesting she could have come from a rough social background and has learnt to hold her guard. Her accent has a slight cockney edge and she sounds very matter-of-fact about what she says. Her vocabulary suits the context of her social background, cockney London, so she almost has a slightly chavvy edge to her diction of words. The way she chats back to the probation officer suggests she is argumentative and stands her ground. Her volume, when she's speaking on the phone in the background, is quieter than Nathan, however you can see that she raises her volume slightly to try and overpower him - this could be because she wants to show how 'tough' she is and won't be in the shadows.

Simon

Simon has a very quiet and secluded tone, and he is very withdrawn and isolated. This makes him look vulnerable and is labelled a 'weird kid' by Nathan, and by the response of just shrugging off his comments, it suggests he is used to it and has been a victim of bullying. He is the complete opposite of Nathan, with his polite vocabulary and his limited dialogue. He appears to be 'mental' because of the way he acts, and is shows he is a social outcast. His volume of voice is very quiet and reserved, however the way he moves around and his eyes suggest he is having a lot of thoughts in his heads, loud ones. His accent sounds Welsh and un-rythmical which implies he is insecure.

Kelly

Kelly's tone firstly appears to be laid-back and absorbing when we see her leaning again the fence and listening to the probation officer. She doesn't speak much, but you can see her looking and listening to what the others are saying, suggesting that she is insecure and doesn't put herself out there often and put in her opinion - this could relate to her self-consciousness. Her strong 'chavvy' accent causes her to be stereotyped by the others, consequently not getting on with them very well at the start. This stereotyping could show why Kelly is so insecure and defensive.

Curtis

The tone Curtis presents is very chilled, sarcastic and honest - for example when he says "Shouldn't be here man". His accent is similar to Alisha's - slight Londoner twang but pretty much normal well pronounced words. This could suggest he has had a pretty normal upbringing and wasn't from a rough area. He doesn't use language that is too foul, just the odd word, and he appears to just comment on the situation now and then; this could suggest that he is very laid-back. His voice is not very loud, it just looks like he is making comments to himself to lighten the mood. He feels like he is superior because of the way he looks down at the others (both literally and socially) and doesn't want to be involved.

Gary

Gary's tone is very short-tempered, easily aggravated and aggressive, which is highlighted when he kicks over a bucket of paint after accidentally getting some on his hat. This gives me the impression that his personality is not very nice and that he carefree about being on probation (or that it's just a waste of time). His accent is very rough and cockney, and hasn't got very good diction unlike the others (apart from Kelly). His attitude and accent make him susceptible to fall into the 'chav' stereotype, and his character gives me the impression that he has had a rough upbringing in a socially lower class environment, maybe an estate(?). His vocabulary is vulgar - the way he threatened Nathan by "ripping out his throat", after Nathan counter argued the point the probation officer made about people thinking that they were 'scum', was disturbing and suggests his offence would have been the most disturbing out of all of them. His volume is loud and clear as he snarls at Nathan and shows an attempt at dominating the situation when he lashes out, suggesting insecurity and a need to defend himself with violent actions.

Misfits

Misfits use a wide range of visual effects to create the sci-fi theme:

• VFX composition (the storm)
• Wire remove (being thrown from the storm)
• Comp/2D effects (Simon's invisibility)

Examples of visual effects being used:

• Blurring around Simon - 00:13
• Title sequence - 02:19
• Ice falling from the sky - 5:00
• When they are being thrown from the storm - 06:12
• Simon's invisibility - 17:42
• Blurred edges of the film - 19:35
• Everyone apart from Curtis freezes - 30:10
• Motion blur around characters - 37:00

Post-Production House: MPC

http://www.moving-picture.com

MPC are a creative studio, providing interesting visual experiences in any space and on any screen. They have been one of the global leaders in VFX (visual effects) for over 25 years with industry-leading facilities in London, Vancouver, Montreal, Los Angeles, New York, Amsterdam and Bangalore.

They are best known for adding visual effects to the advertising, film and entertainment industries - some of their most famous projects include blockbuster movies such as the Harry Potter series, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tide, Prometheus and Life of Pi, as well as famous advertising campaigns for brands such as Cadbury, Coca Cola, John Lewis, Samsung and Sony.

The variety of creative solutions they provide is vast, including concept design, pre-viz, shoot supervision, 2D composting, 3D/CG effects, animation, motion design, software development, colour grading for advertising and any combination of these services.

Overall, MPC allows different creative partners and a range of creative solutions to work together through talented and enthusiastic people to create some of the best work in the industry. Their range of skills provide a multitude of creative options and responses, tailored to meet the requirements of each individual project. Filmmakers, brands, agencies, directors, and creatives all help to inspire the perfect creative solution.