Thunderland final film

This is the complete, final version of our film.

 

 

I worked with Leisha for this project. 

When making the film and doing our pre-production we mostly worked together. I wrote the dialogue of the script and Leisha wrote the action and settings. I wrote the initial idea and gave this to Leisha who wrote it into our proposal. I wrote the treatment and shot list because they are similar and Leisha had input for shot ideas. We both decided what sort of music we wanted and how we wanted the characters to sound. Leisha did not know about the equipment we were going to use for sound recording so I went over it with her so that she knew. I designed the pop up characters and my mum drew the large scale versions on foam boards. I made the signs for the trees and painted and cut out the key hole. Leisha was unable to get to the filming location due to train fares etc. so I filmed. I had help while filming from a friend who handled the props as puppets. We both did the editing, I did the Motion work and effects. 

Remakes and Reboots Video Podcast.

How do mircophones work?

The basics:

Microphones convert sound waves into electrical energy or audio signal. The diaphram in all microphones are basically the same. There is a thin piece of material that vibrates when hit by sound waves. The vibrations sent through the mic are converted into an electrical current. When the electrical energy reaches a speaker it is converted back into acoustic energy.
2 types of microphones are Condenser and Dynamic.

Dynamic microphones are good for general use. They are very simple. They are usually sturdy and tough. They are best suited handling high volume levels like from some musical instruments or amplifiers.

Condenser mircophones converts acoustic energy into electrical energy using a capacitor. These microphones need power from either a battery or an external source. There is a stronger audio signal than that of a dynamic. They are also more sensitive and responsive which makes them useful for capturing subtle noises and layers in sound. They are not good for high-volume noise because their sensitivity makes them prone to distortion.
Directional properties.
This explains sensitivity to sound from various directions. Some microphones pick up equal sound from all directions, some from only one direction or a combination of directions.

The three main categories are:
Omnidirectional
Unidirectional
Bidirectional



Omnidirectional microphones pick up sounds equally from all directions. This is helpful is many situations. Mainly for capturing ambient sound, sound coming from many directions and being a fixed positioned mic when the sound source is moving. It is not a good mic to use if you want to pick up sound from a particular subject because it is very general. There are 2 kinds of Unidirectional mics.







Cardioid means heart-shaped. These microphones pic up using a heart-shaped pattern. It mainly picks up sound from the front but some is picked up from the sides but only a small amount. This mic is good for general use. Handheld mics are usually cardioid.





Hypercardioid is variation of the cardioid pattern. It is similar but is an exaggerated version. It focuses on being directional at the front and gets rid of most sound from the back and sides. Because of the design of these mics they are usually known as shotgun microphones. This mic removes ambient noise, which can be a bit unnatural. The sound needs to be kept constant so it needs to stay pointed at the subject otherwise you will lose the audio.





Bidirectional microphones use a figure of eight pattern and it picks up equal sound from opposite directions. This isn't a very useful in most situations. One situation could be an interview with 2 people facing each other with the mic between them.

Soundtrack production

When recording the character's voices we used this Tascam 4-track. This shows what we could change during recordings. There are the green effects dials that, for these voices, were generated by a monotron and a delay pedal. The white dials are for changing the speaker pan. We could adjust the pans so that certain tracks can be heard from either left or right, or both. Over on the top right hand side are the sound levels. These are shown in the red area. This means the voice is too loud, the lights should be in the yellow/green section for them to be the right volume. 

This is the sound set up with our microphone, 4-track, guitar pedals and monotron. We even lit candles to put the voice actors in the right 'creepy, dark' feeling.

Here is the music recording set up. We recorded onto the 4-track once again. This picture shows all 9 pieces of equipment that we used. There is a 6 channel recorder than could also have adjusted effects, volumes etc. Most of the equipment are synthesisers. 

This is the 6 channel recorder. Here we could adjust the gain, effects, the pan (like the 4-track) and the volume of each track. On each track is a different instrumental section of music, chosen by the Sound generator and the Multi Timbral sound module and then composed using the keyboard.

This is the program 'Clean' that me and my Dad used to transfer the music and dialogue from cassette tape to MP3 files. I understand that there are other file types that are better quality but this software would only save in a couple of file types and the best on the small list was MP3. These photos show the recorded files on the left. These can then be opened in the timeline and fades can be added there. On the right side there are some audio editing options. The only ones we used were speed and reverb. Speed was used to speed up the title theme slightly and to slow down the White Rabbit's dialogue to sound less like a child.

After effects lessons

Lesson 1 - Getting to know the Workflow.

We started with this task to teach us the basics of After effects. We learnt how to create compositions, arrange layers, add effects, importing and organising footage, rendering/outputting and some animation. When importing footage I could either Choose File > Import > File. Or I could drop the files into the project window from the finder windows. For this task I had 3 pieces of footage and 1 Photoshop file - this had to be imported as a composition instead of footage - I was given the option of footage or composition when importing. There was also an option to keep the layers editable or merge the layers into footage - for this I wanted the layers editable. I then created a composition. There are a few ways to create a composition, I dragged all our footage items and compositions into the Timeline panel and the New Composition From Selection box appeared. After effects then based the new composition dimensions on the footages we had selected. All of our footage is the same size, so we could accept the settings it had chosen. Now all of our footage was in the Timeline panel. Compositions can have lots of layers, these layers can include other compositions. I had to change the length of the composition to match the length of the dancers footage. I went into composition settings and changed the duration to 1:15. I then added a text layer to the bottom by placing it at the bottom of the timeline. I then selected the kaleidoscope layer and duplicated that and named them left and right. I then added the radial blur to the dancers layer. In the effects controls I changed the type to Zoom. I also had to make sure that the cross hair was in the centre of the composition. I then started using the transform tools. I used key framing to move both kaleidoscope layers. One moved to the left and back to the middle and the other went right and then back to the middle. I then went back to my text layer and changed the text.

Lesson 2

 I created a new composition using the button at the bottom of the project panel. I set the composition to 3 seconds. I added the Parthenon file to the timeline but it was too large. So I then went into the layer, then transform menu and selected fit to comp and it was scaled down to the size of the composition. I then added the destinations logo composition into the timeline. This composition is made up of illustrator files as layers. When the composition is opened, I can edit the individual layers. I added text that said TRAVEL EUROPE. I changed the text to the same colour as the text around the globe. I added a drop shadow to the destinations logo composition so that it doesn't affect the background. I also added other effects like Colour emboss to make the globe brighter. I then put an animation preset onto the Travel Europe text by opening the destinations logo comp. I added Bullet train. The text them appears letter by letter. I then added a Dissolve transition to the globe logo. I then made the destination logo comp. slightly transparent. This is done because it is what is done with logos in the corner of TVs. If it is too bright or clear it will stay on a TV screen after it is turned off or the visuals are changed.

 

Lesson 3

Our next lesson was on animating text. We imported an MOV. and an SWF. I selected NTSC DV from the preset menu in the Comp settings and changed the duration to 10 seconds. I dragged both footage items into the timeline panel. The compass layer had to be above the background mov. I added text that said 'Road trip'. I changed the font size to 90 and the font to something that looked bold. I then set the text to fit to comp width. I added an animation from the presets - evaporate. This preset made my text disappear but we wanted it to appear instead. To change this, we used the key frame assistant and time-reverse key frames. It switched the order of our 2 key frames. 3 seconds into the comp. I key framed the text's scale and at 5 seconds reduced the scale. We then used parenting. Using the parenting pop up menu for the compass layer, I chose Road trip layer. It now scales at the same rate as the text layer. We then imported a Photoshop file that was text. I changed the text by double clicking the file in when it is in the timeline to make the layers editable. I had the text appear in the comp at 5 seconds. I used the Fade Up Characters animation preset to that the text fades in. We next used and customized a preset path. We used the pips path at 6.05 and wrote the text - Directed by. We could then adjust the pipes path so that the text moved around the Road Trip text. We then did the same and added another bit of text that said our names. We then added a new composition to our timeline that was a car. We then used the path tools to make the car drive across the screen in a similar path to the text.

Lesson 4

This lesson was on Motion Graphics. In this we had to animate a man slipping on a banana skin. We started off making the composition and adding a background. We then used the puppet tool to make the man moveable. We used the puppet pin to put points on his arms, legs, torso and head. We then us. We then selected the Puppet Overlap tool. This was to make sure certain parts of the body overlapped correctly. We then used the triangle mesh to highlight the left side of his body and the left leg. We then selected the Puppet Starch tool to stiffen certain parts of the character. Here we selected the lower part of the torso so that it didn't move much. We could then animated his arms and legs to make him walk using key frames. From this we could repeat his actions using a simple copy and paste so that he continues to walk until he reaches the banana. We then animated the slip in the same way, using key frames and animated by eye. We also animated the banana so that it moved with his foot and flew off afterwards.


Lesson 5

We started by making a comp that was 10 seconds long. We drew a rectangle and made it big enough to cover the whole composition. We changed the fill options and used a gradient. We chose radial gradient and made it light blue and dark blue. We expanded the gradient so that it filled more of the comp. We then locked the background so that we couldn't select it by accident. We then drew a polygon and changed the outer radius and points so that is became a flower-type shape. We then twisted the shape in the Add menu from Contents. We then repeated the shape by using the repeater. We made about 12 of these shapes and lined them up on the comp. We then rotated the shapes using the transform tools. We changed the rotation using key framing. From the Mode pop up menu select Overlay and change the opacity to 25%. We then repeated the process with stars. We then added a DJ .mov and an mp3. The mp3 should be placed as the bottom layer, we then lock the audio layer. we had to double the length of the DJ .mov. We then added a cartoon effect from the stylise effects. We altered the threshold, edge enhancement and black levels to adjust the cartoon look. We then made our own shape for the bottom of the comp. It started as a rectangle and then we chose Wiggle Paths from the Add pop up menu, we selected the speed to 5 wiggles/second. We then added text that said DJ Quad Master and selected the 3D rotate from the 3D text folder.

Lesson 6

This lesson was making an animated multimedia presentation. We used parenting like we did before. We parented leaves, FG and Full skyline to parent with BG (the background). Then I key framed the background so that is was showing the left side of the image at the start of the comp. Then at the end set the key frame to show the right side of the image. This meant that during the comp the image pans along. Then using positioning key frames, I added a Bee to the beginning of the comp. I then applied motion blur to the bee so that it looked like it was flying instead of floating across the screen. I changed the anchor point for the car layer and put the point on the back wheel. I then changed the positioning and rotation values so that the car was going along to road and then at the end of the comp, stopped and then when up on it's back wheels and drove off. I then added a face to the car. This was done using masking. We opened a new composition to do this. We then added a shape layer and drew around the man's face, making a P. We then changed the Track Matte

to Alpha Matte Shape Layer 1. I then put the head into the composition and placed him in the car and parented him with the car. The last thing we did was make the traffic behind the car move. This was done using position key framing as well.



Incorporating 3D titles

For this we started by importing the files we needed - only one. We then dragged the file to the new comp button at the bottom of the project panel. Then we changed the Workspace to Motion tracking. We then selected 'Track Camera'. After effects will start analysing the clip for the 3D motion tracking. It will then solve the camera. When it is done the clip is then covered in 3D X markers which represent all available tracking points. In the effects controls we selected Create Camera. This will make a 3D tracked camera in the comp timeline. To finish off we need a 3D layer. I then added some text near the floor of the footage. Then the layer needs to be 3D, this can be done by checking the 3D box on the left of the timeline. Then we RAM preview by pressing 0 to see the effect.

Photoshop - retouching lesson

 We were given a photo of a girl with a graffiti wall behind her. It was tilted and a pinky colour. We opened it in Camera Raw to adjust the colour. We adjusted the white balance so that the colour tone changes. We then moved the basic colour levels to make the colours more natural. We then put the photo into Photoshop. We then cropped the image so that there was less of a white frame. We then used the straighten tool, with this we make a straight line across the top edge of the photo. Photoshop then straightens the image. We can then crop all of the white frame out. We then used the Colour Replacement tool to change the colour of the girl's hat from pink to blue. We then used the Clone Stamp tool to clone parts of the brick and cover up any messy parts of the wall. To get rid of the dark corner we used the Spot Healing Brush. We then got rid of the crack in the wall using the Content-Aware from the patch menu. We dragged the tool around the crack in the wall to select. Then drag the selected area to the right and it closes the wall.

Point tracking

For this last lesson we had a few small tasks to do. First was to use motion tracking to put a black box over someone's eyes. For this we used the motion tracking tab and selected track motion. We selected the eyes and played the tracking using the play button in the tracking tab. We then went through every frame and moved any tracking points that were wrong. We could then add a black rectangle and  selected it as the motion source and it then would stay in front of her eyes. We were given footage of a TV on a wall and a photo of trees. Then, we had to place the photo on the TV so that it was tracked with it. We used 4 point tracking and put 1 point in each of the corners of the TV. We then used the motion source menu to select the photo, played it in the tab and then it was done. We were then given a piece of footage of someone using a computer and we were asked to put something on the screen. I chose a street photo of Tokyo and used the 4 point tracking to place the photo, played it again and it worked well. Here is the finished clip -

Ident research

I researched some existing idents to see what professional idents look like and how they differ depending on their audience and company type.


The first ident I looked at was the Channel 4 one set in what looked like a busy street in Japan. I chose to look into this one because it's city theme is the type of ident I may make. The ident shows a 4 logo being made out of the neon street signs. The design of this ident is very urban and both dark and bright, the contrast works very well. I'd say the intentions of this ident is to draw attention to itself. I imagine that it's something that you see on TV and you watch the entire ident simply because it's interesting watching the 4 logo coming to shape. Obviously another purpose of the ident is to represent Channel 4. I think that they make most of these idents with the locations being their primary part of the design. All their idents have interesting locations and I think that's an important theme that makes them memorable. This ident was likely created using motion tracking and the floating signs are 3d elements which use the x, y and z axis's'. The position and rotation of these signs would be created using key frames.

 I next looked at this E4 'esting' ident. This is a short animation with a short song with no music. The design is very simple. A simple background, simply coloured and simply animated. I think this ident's intent is to sum up their channel in idents. Most of their idents are completely nonsense and random. The channel pretty much only shows comedies so they want some of their idents to be funny. This one has a humorous song that is clear and easy to remember. The purpose of this song is to make it memorable and make it the sort of song that is stuck in your head for hours, and personally I think it works. This could have been made in an specific animation programme or it could be after effects. If it had been made on After effects the characters would be layered separately and the positions of the characters may have been done using key framing. They would have added a camera layer to this ident so that it could sharply zoom into the E4 logo.

I thought I would have a look at some idents for production companies because that is what my ident is for - my 'productions'. This Paramount is a very memorable ident because it has been seen so many times by each person. So many films are made through Paramount. This ident has lasted a long time but has been tweaked over time to make it a better quality. I think the original intent behind this design was to make something smart but sort of epic. The use of the mountain conveys the epic feeling and the stars are simple but smart. The Paramount text font is quite ornate and old fashioned but still easy to read. The purpose of creating this ident is to make it obvious that the production following is a Paramount film, they want to be know for what they've produced. In the recent remakes of this ident they are likely to have used something like or after effects. The layers would have been moved using key framing on position and rotation. The text and star elements were likely 3D; using x, y and z axis's.

MGM's ident is one of the most memorable idents when it comes to film companies. Everyone remembers the lion roaring in the middle of the logo.  The design for this ident is very simple because it is a very old ident from 1928. There have been 5 versions of this ident each with a different lion. The only changes are to colouring. They've kept it simple all of this time because it is now their identity and if they changed it, people may not remember them as much as they used to. I think the use of the lion is another use of something 'large scale' that is intended to be epic. Films aren't always, but they can be seen as epic and a lion really gives that feeling. The purpose of this ident is to give MGM an identity and over the years it has certainly worked. This was made a very long time ago so most versions would not have been made using software like after effects. In the most recent version it may have been made on something like after effects. They would have used key framing to make the logo fade in using the opacity level. 

Test shots/sound tests

We did a couple of test shots for multiple reasons.

1) we wanted to see what effects we could do with our footage
2) we wanted to see how the actress looking in the outdoor environment in her costume
3) we wanted to find out what the sound recording on the camera was like outside

From these test shoots we were able to find that we could make the sky purple if it was already blue. Unfortunately we are now unable to use this effect because half of our shoot was filmed on a grey day and the effect would make out pop ups and door purple too. We are going to use out final footage to test other effects we may be able to use instead.

The test footage also proved that the actress' costume stood out well in the country park. She also looked very convincing with her confused/curious act.
Last of all the sound was suprisingly good considering we were outside, near a river on a windy day. We decided to use the sound recording from the camra for our live audio in our dialogue scene that is inside. When we made our last film, we used this camera for sound and it was very clear so we intend to use it again.

Budget

The budget of our single camera production was very low. But now we realise that we didn't really spend any money on this production. Originally Leisha was going to travel down to Burnham for the first filming session but was unable to get here. This would have cost at least £10. When it comes to props and costumes we already had it all. We had some off-cuts from a sign company in Latchingdon that we used to make our pop-ups and signs. A friend was trying to get rid of her bedroom door, so we gladly took it off her hands. And things like eating during filming was done by simply cooking any leftover food found in my freezer. The costume that the actress wore was her own clothes. And they key hole was made from cardboard from a box that a wadrobe had been delivered in.

Editing planning

When it comes to editing planning we don't have much. We are using our shot list to cut together the rought cut. But for effects etc. We are going by how it looks and deciding on the effects by testing them out on our footage. We knew that we wanted the real world to look dull and the other world to look unrealisticly bright. We had orinigally planned to make the sky purple using after effects. But with our test shot, the sky was blue which made it easier to change. On our most recent shots the sky is grey/white so if we change the sky to purple it is likely that the pop ups and door will turn purple too. We intend to continue experimenting with the effects on Final cut to find something that looks unnatural but still professional looking.

Behind the scenes

Here are some behind the scenes photos:

Our 'pop up technician' revealing how the door stands and operating the Cheshire Cat

Setting up the Key Hole

The finished pop ups: 

Recording Wonderland character's voices.

Tasha - Cheshire Cat (Above) Billy - White Rabbit (Below)

This is a photo showing the recording of the Jabberwocky reading. Microphone, 4-track, guitar pedals and the book with the poem in. 

 

Production diary

Production diary

06/11/13 -
Today we started pre-production, mainly focusing on the script and shot list because they are the most important bits that we will need during filming. We are happy with our idea and hoping it all goes well.

15/11/13 -
I was given a bedroom door by a friend of mine who was trying to get rid of it. We will have to carry it into the middle of a field, but it'll be worth it. I am very happy that we got a real door because it saves so much time that would have been spent building a door.

19/11/13 -
Finished making the pop ups this evening, they are quite big, but are a lot sturdier than expected. These do not yet have their puppet strings attached because our first filming session does not need them.

21/11/13 -
Just finished the shot list and script. We are now ready to film

23/11/13 -
Today was the first day of filming. We got a fair amount done, although if we'd have been a little bit more focused we may have done more. We filmed mostly inside and did our live audio shots. We took advantage of the fact that there was no one else in the house, because my house is a little creaky, people walking around in other rooms would have ruined our sound.
02/12/13 -
This evening we cut out and painted the key hole which is now ready to use. We also strung the pop ups and made hook so that they stay on the ground. They are now ready to be used like puppets.

03/12/13 -
Before filming started I gave the door a quick layer of white paint because there were a few scuffed marks and a blue slat of paint. It wasn't perfectly white, but it did look better. We then started day 2 and hopefully the last day of filming. We spent all day filming in the cold and all got ill. We had to carry the door down to a park and put it in the middle of a field. After finishing the door scene we took that home and then went back out to continue filming. We think we finished it all and that it is all done. Unfortunately the sky was grey/white but on our first filming day it was bright blue. We aren't sure if this is going to cause problems yet.

05/12/13 -
Started editing together a rough cut today. Half of the film has now been cut together in the right order. Still without all the sound that needs to be added.

08/12/13 -
I gathered the voice actors to record the characters voices today. We did one character at a time so that we could keep the effects the same for each of their lines. We recorded the White Rabbit first, then the Cheshire Cat and then the Mad Hatter. It didn't take very long to get it all done. We exported the lines as separate files so that it was easier in the editing process.

09/12/13 -
Today I had my Dad record himself reading the Jabberwocky poem. I got to hear his recording later on in the day and it sounded just how I wanted and I'm looking forward to hearing it along side the chase scene and final scene of the film.

10/12/13 -
Me and my Dad composed 3 pieces of music for the film; tense, curious and title theme. We recorded multiple tracks of different tunes that we made up going by how it sounded and mixed them together for different sections of the songs. The first 2 were quite easy to come up with but the last did take some time because we kept scrapping it and restarting.

12/12/13 -
Continued to edit today, but could only do 3 hours worth instead of 6 because of a Mac shortage. I finished the visual rough cut - still with no sound and then went back through my clips to find those that needed editing. Some clips had bright blue sky whereas others had white/grey sky. I sent those clips from Final Cut Pro to Motion and changed the sky to white. I duplicated the layer and used colour key on the top layer to remove the sky. I then changed the bottom layer to greyscale so that the sky was a clear off-white. This fixed the continuity problems. 1 clip was rather difficult to change and it did look a little odd, but it doesn't matter too much because it is a very quick clip and it is in the alternate world so it can look strange.

This is a before and after of that particular clip:

13/12/13 -
I continued editing and put the poem reading on the chase scene and started syncing it up with the lines. 14/12/13 - Did some quick re-shoots with the actress. We put up the signs on the trees and re-shot 2 shots; both using the signs. It took us 40 minutes to put the signs up and only about 2-3 minutes to film the shots. They went well and will be edited into the film as soon as possible.

19/12/13 -
Finished the editing today and exported the film as an MOV. File and we both took a copy home. We tested the file on the mac and it played fine. When we got them home they only played sound on our PCs even though we were playing them on Quicktime. We wanted to upload a version of it tonight so that we had a back up in case it didn't work properly tomorrow - deadline day. Using a not-very-good video convertor I was able to convert the video to an MPEG. Which wasn't great, but it was the only option that got the visuals back. I uploaded it to Youtube so that we at least had a version on our film to hand in. Unfortunately this version is of a terrible quality and even flashes black between most shots. Tomorrow morning we are going to try and get a high quality version to upload and we're hoping it won't take Youtube too long to do so.

20/12/13 -
Re-exported the film this morning and uploaded it to Youtube and it didn't take as long as expected. It meant that we were done on time and everything was fine. We kept the back up version unlisted on Youtube just in case we have any problems.

My Final Ident and evaluation

This is my final ident. I don't think my final ident is as good as it could be. It's got too much on it and should be more simple. When making it I wanted to use lots of different elements I had learnt on After Effects and Photoshop. Making the frames took some time; the shapes were present and I added some photos I've taken on top and then used the overlay so that the frame was showing through a little bit. I put these into After effects and found a burnt film effect. I key framed this so that they appeared in a reversed burning way. I then added my production title text and went through a large amount of fonts until I found one that I was happy with. With these elements all on the composition I realised that the plain black background just didn't look right. I looked through loads of photos on the internet and ones I had taken, but nothing looked right. I finally found a photo on the internet of steps. I thought it looked interesting and would be a good background because it was black and white. Now I look at the final ident, I'm not completely happy with it. I think I tried to put too many ideas and elements together at once. I now think that if I was to do it again I would do the tracking idea I had with a photo of city street. It would have looked simpler and more professional. If I have time I may remake my ident from scratch and hopefully the new one will be up to a much better standard.

Script

INT. ALICE'S HOUSE. DAY.

Alice wakes up throwing the covers back. She gets up and get' dressed. She goes downstairs to have her breakfast. She goes back upstairs to brush her teeth and wash her face. She then does her make-up and goes back downstairs. With a newspaper open on the job section she places it down on the table.

EXT. COUNTRY PARK. DAY.

Alice leaves her house and begins to walk to the park. She walks underneath and past some trees and walks along a river. There's a giant keyhole on a hill, Alice's boot's walk into the foreground. She look's at the keyhole curious. She look's down the hole and then stumbles forward falling through the hole.

Title 'Thunderland' appears on the screen.

Alice falls through and onto the floor. She stands up looking around her, and then wanders off in all different directions. Alice approaches her house and puts her key in the door.

INT. ALICE'S HOUSE. DAY.

She walks into the room looking curious. Shadows begin to cover her face and she turns around looking stunned. The Cheshire cat is sitting on the table, it then pans left to the Mad Hatter.

CHESHIRE CAT

Feeling curious?

MAD HATTER

Off the table you silly cat. Care to join us? (talking to Alice)

Sitting around the table with tea.

ALICE

So if I may ask, why are you here?

MAD HATTER

I think the question is why are you here?

ALICE

Because this is where I live.

MAD HATTER

Are you sure?

ALICE

It looks a little different around here I'll admit.

RABBIT

Well at least it saved me the trip.

ALICE

What do you mean by that?

RABBIT

You found the entrance without my help, very handy indeed.

MAD HATTER

Have some tea m'dear, tell us about you.

ALICE

My life is boring and to be truthful I don't want to grow up, get a job. There are too many responsibilities.

CHESHIRE CAT

Not in this world.

Alice looks up interested.

CHERSIRE CAT

There is no sense of time here.

RABBIT

The time!

Alice looks at the rabbit concerned.

CHESHIRE CAT

Know one grows up.

MAD HATTER

Ooh, yes, yes!! Then you can stay here and have tea with us all the time.

The mad hatter moves forward closer to Alice's face.

MAD HATTER

And you could protect us too.

ALICE

Protect you from what?!

MAD HATTER

we're not the only creatures here you know.

CHESHIRE CAT

We may be made, but there are madder.

ALICE

If there are creatures madder than this, then I'd rather be home.

Alice stand up ready to leave

RABBIT

Where are you going?

ALICE

Home.

MAD HATTER

Come now. Won't you stay.

Mad Hatter gets closer.

ALICE

Id rather not.

Alice turns and runs. She closes the door behind her.

EXT. ALICE'S HOUSE. DAY.

Alice comes out of the house and shuts the door firmly behind her and then begins to run. As she's running the Mad Hatter rises.

EXT. COUNTRY PARK. DAY.

She continues to run round a park corner and past some trees. The Mad Hatter then rises in front of the camera. As she's still running the Rabbit and Cheshire cat pop up. The Mad Hatter then pop's up in the background as she's running forward. She runs along the river and the Rabbit rises. As she's running along the path the Cheshire Cat rises in her path. She runs past some trees which have signs on them, she then runs across the hill. The Rabbit and Cheshire Cat rise, followed by the Mad Hatter. She turns to look and then carry's on running down the hill. She runs through the trees and can see the door in the distance. She turns again to look, as she's running forward the Cheshire Cat rises in the background. She continues to run forward, the Rabbit, Cheshire Cat and Mad Hatter all rise together. She runs towards the door and grabs the handle turning it. She opens it and stumbles through the door closing it behind her. She looks at the door for a moment. It then falls down, showing the whole field empty. She turns and see's that the door has gone.

Soundtrack planning

Audio techniques:

List of sound recordings

• 3 Pieces of music. (Written and composed)

This will be written by me and my Dad. We will then compose the music using the equipment we have at home. We will write a track that has an 'everyday life' theme, one that is slow and 'curious' and the last will be tense, but fairly slow using piano and other light sounding instruments. Once recorded we will put them into the software 'Clean' and make sure they sound the best they can. 

• Character's voices.

We are going to dub the pop up character's voices. When recording them we will use pedal effects to make our voices sound distorted and creepy. We will each take on a character's voice; Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat and White Rabbit. These recordings will also be transferred into 'Clean' and adapted to sound as good as it can. 

• Poem narration 

Our film will include a narration of the famous Jabberwocky poem. This is for during the chase scene and will have the tense music playing at the same time. The poem will be read in a deep voice using the same 'Clean' process.



Equipment that is needed

The equipment we will be using is all owned by us. We are not renting any equipment out because most of the production sessions are not planned very far ahead so we wouldn't know when to book things for. We are using the sound from the camera we are using because when we filmed our 48h challenge the sound was very clear. We are only using live sound for one scene; the only dialogue scene. When we record the music, pop up voices and poem we will be using a music studio set up that may be seen as dated. We have a wide range of instruments including synthesisers, keyboards, guitars and a lot of other strange ones that we may not even use. We will be recording on Tascam 4-track directly onto cassettes. We will create some Fx with guitar effect pedals and an analogue synthesiser. The recordings on tape will be transferred to Clean software and exported as a good sound file.


Sound editing

We will be editing the sound on 'Clean' because we do not have Soundtrack Pro at home, it is also easier to transfer the cassette recording to this particular program. We will change sound levels, effects etc. all on this software. When we put the sound clips into Final cut we may have to change the volume levels of the different sounds if some are too loud and overbear the other sounds.


Music
We will have a large amount of music in this film because I think that it is what will convey the right feelings. There are going to be 3 primary pieces of music.

Dialogue
There is only 1 scene with dialogue half is dubbed voices and half is live audio. The rest of the film is music-based.

Foley 
We started creating the sound of a door falling on the floor for the final scene of the film. But unfortunately it didn't sound quite right and didn't look right with the shot. It looked more dramatic silent.

SFX
There are some SFX that are just there from live audio like mugs being put down on a table and other ordinary sounds that occur. We are not adding any SFX in because they are not needed.

Jabberwocky poem narration

I am going to record my Dad reading the Jabberwocky poem from 'Alice through the looking glass'. This poem and all of the Alice in Wonderland content is in public domain. We are going to record it with my Dad's music equipment so the recording will be very clear and can be altered on 'Clean' if is doesn't quite sound right.
The Jabberwocky:
Twas brilling, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the burogroves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand
Long time the maxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the tum tum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and witg its head
He went galumphing back.
And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabious day! Callooh! Callay!
He chortled in his joy.
Twas brilling, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were thr burogroves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Storyboard/shot planning

Instead of doing a full storyboard I drew some particular shots that I wanted to get perfectly. I chose the primary 6 shots that needed to be how I planned. Although 3 were scrapped. The rest of the shots were just described in the shot list and done as closely as possible while filming. All the shots I had in my head and putting them onto paper was sometimes difficult.
These are the shot plans/separate shots drawn with pencil and annotated:

Ident pre-production

I had a few different designs for my ident. I wanted to use an interesting, abstract or vintage style to match the sort of films I want to make.
I did spend some time designing and finding fonts but I decided to use a pre-set font I found on After effects. It was better than any of my designs.

I then did a mind map of some general ideas and then drew up the 3 best ideas as designs.  

When designing my ident I had 3 ideas that I liked and it was difficult to chose which one would be best. These were the general designs:

Firstly I wanted to create an ident that had a stained glass pattern being put together and then the name either on or underneath the pattern like this:

My second design was inspired by seeing the Channel 4 Japanese street ident. I have a passion for both Japan and cities so I thought this design would reflect on me. I though of having a panning photo of a Tokyo street and using the tracking process.

For my last design I thought about having some of my personal work in the ident. So I designed something with 4 frames each with a piece of my photography in them. I then thought about having a fairly simple font for my text.

Rationale - I chose the last design when it came to making the ident. I like this idea the most because I can use more motion graphics than my other ideas. I also think that it is the most personal idea because it shows my own photography in the frames displayed. This idea will use a lot of key framing, which is something I am confident with, so it should be a simple process. For this design I will not be using the z axis because it is not a 3D composition. I will use the x and y axis to align and scale 4 images and text. To create a burn effect I will key frame the 4 images at the beginning of the sequence. The effect will make the image appear to burn. At the first key frame the effect will be on full so that the image can't be seen. Then later in the sequence I will place another key frame and lower the effect so the effect will show the full image. The process from one extreme to the other is created by after effects because of the key frames made. It will appear that the image does a reverse burn and will appear with a burning effect. I will also be using key framing in the same way to make my text fade in. I will not be using any mattes or composite modes for this ident because they are not needed.
 I started with a storyboard so that the elements all built up to make the final design. 

Treatment

• The film starts with someone's everyday morning routines.
• It is all close ups - we don't know who it is. She gets up, dressed, makes tea, brushes teeth, does make-up etc.
• She then leaves the house to go for a walk, and we finally see her face.
• Alice walks through the park, past lots of trees, past the river. Alice then finds a key hole in the ground, she looks down the hole, curious, leans too far and falls down.
• TITLE - Thunderland
• Alice falls on the floor.
• She looks around at the sky which is now purple.
• She wanders home the same way she walked earlier
• She enters her house and walks through her house looking around
• A shadow covers Alice's face and she turns to see the Cheshire cat on the table looking down at her
• The Hatter appears and invites Alice to join them for tea.
• They're all sitting around the table with tea.
• Alice asks why they are there, but doesn't get a straight answer.
• Rabbit then points out that he now no longer needs to lead her to this world.
• The hatter asks Alice to tell them about herself and her life
• Cheshire cat tells her that all of her worries are non-existent in this world
• This interests Alice, she's tempted to stay
• The Hatter gets excited and says that she can protect them from the other creatures in this world.
• Alice realises that she doesn't want to stay here and goes to leave.
• The Hatter tries to persuade her to stay, so Alice runs.
• She leaves the house only to be followed by the Hatter
• She runs through the park, through the same places she had walked before
• As she runs the Hatter pops up behind her
• Both the Rabbit and Cheshire cat pop up and join the chase
• The hatter pops up behind Alice again
• The rabbit then rises side on as Alice runs past
• Alice runs and the Cheshire cat rises in her path
• Alice passes the trees she had earlier with signs
• Alice runs across a hill
• The rabbit pops up, the Cheshire cat pops up, the hatter pops up, Alice turns
• Alice runs down the hill
• Alice is running through trees
• She sees a door in the distance through the trees
• She starts running towards the door and the Cheshire cat pops up behind her
• She carries on running towards the door
• She reaches the door and stumbles through
• The door closes
• Alice looks to the right and the door falls
• We now see the whole field and the door is gone. Alice slowly backs away and FADE OUT end.

Pop up designs

The White Rabbit 

Cheshire Cat 

The Mad Hatter 

48H challenge - Over coming problems

Our 48h challenge film went really well when first started. All our filming went smoothly, the sound was fine and it looked like other footage from the period it was set. Our genre for this film was 'found footage' and we decided to make a film set in WW2 and recreate family footage. We had problems with our sound after editing. When we exported our finished film, it would take a very long time. When it finally finished, the sound was out of sync by 5 seconds. We took out 1 scene and exported that and the sound was completely fine. We then tried exporting the sound and video seperately and putting them back together, but the exported audio only was silent. We then took our out of sync version and lined the sound back up, although we were then missing the last 5 seconds of sound. After waiting an hour for this version to export, it was again silent. We finally had one last go at exporting it before almost giving up on the project. This time we exported the film into 4 parts and then put them together again in a new final cut project. This process finally worked and we were able to solve the problem.
We are hoping that we won't have this problem with future projects, but if we do, we now know to export the film into parts and then put them back together. Our next project (single camera) is being graded on our sound so we are hoping that our solution works again.

Remakes for 2013.

In our lesson we looked into how we would remake certain films. We were first told the Gremlins is being remade and we were asked to work in groups or pairs and determine how we would remake the film for modern audiences.

We decided that we would make the character the same age and the same gender. He would be stuck in a dead end job but have a dream of becoming a professional comic artist. He partakes in a part-time course on weekends to lead him towards getting out of his current job. He wants to get away from everything; job, clinging & involving parents. But what if it doesn't go well? He could be played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. There will also be a her girl he's interested in and still shy about doing anything about it.
We did think that the film should be set in a large city instead of a small town. Because then the large scale gremlin attack will resemble a terrorist attack which will relate to the concerns of the modern day.

We were then given a list of films and franchises that are being planned to be remade. From this list we chose Tomb Raider and had to again determine how we would remake it.
We started by saying it would have a high production value. We also thought the film should have a more realistic look like the newest game. She needs to look messy and to look like she's been through stuff. We also thought she should have realistic injuries because in the older version she would land in a way that would have seriously injured her but she'd get up and run off like she was fine. We think it should be like a survival film.

She's a hands-on researcher looking for an artefact of some kind. She has to solve a code to get to it (it's in a cave-like temple).
She used to help her Dad with these adventures and then he died during one. She has carried on for him. The main enemy is wild animals because it is all about survival. There are some humans when she comes across small towns. Some humans welcome her company and some see her as a threat. She is not always equipped with weapons, food or first aid again… it is about survival.

Possible actresses for Lara Croft - Milla Jovovich, Scarlett Johansson, Emma Stone. We wanted to choose someone that was considered very actractive by most of the auidence so we looked into top ranking atractive actresses.

Remakes and reboots notes.

The Nutty Professor.


A quick overview of each version:

The Nutty Professor is about a nerdy chemistry teacher who uses the classroom lab to create a potion to make him into a person he desires to be. He becomes a handsome, smooth, cool, obnoxious girl-chasing hipster and calls himself Buddy Love. Buddy Love pursues a student - Stella Purdy - who hates him, but finds herself attracted to him. The problem with the serum is that the duration can not be controlled. Professor Kelp knows his alternate persona is arrogant but can't resist taking the serum and becoming Buddy Love over and over because he loves the amount of attention he gets as him. His secret is revealed when he sings at a student dance as Buddy Love and transforms back into Kelp.
The film ends with Kelp and Purdy running away together and Kelp's father selling the serum to students.

In the remake the professor is a largely overweight chemistry teacher. (Changed for modern audiences) who uses classroom lab to create a formula that reconstructs the DNA of an obese person to help them lose weight easily. He asks a student to a date and is heckled by a comedian. He then uses the serum and becomes a thin, confident, obnoxious girl-chaser. He also calls himself Buddy Love.

The before and after of the original Kelp shows how he was a nerdy professor who became a 'crude chick-magnet'. 

The before and after of Klump shows that he was just thinner, no longer wearing glasses and now obnoxious.

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• The film is set in 1962 (present day) in Arizona state university

• The film is set in Present day at Wellmen college

• The main difference between the settings of the films is the time period. They are both set in present day of when they were filmed. There are many differences that are going to occur between these times. The main difference is what is seen as an outcast individual. In the original the main character is geeky and weak, in the remake the main reason he dislikes himself is his weight. In modern day more people with a weight problem are picked on than those who are just a bit geeky. 

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• The budget is unknown on the internet, but most Jerry Lewis films started low budget and then increased the richer he became. This is one of his slightly later films, so I would assume it had a reasonable budget.

• The estimated budget for the remake was $54 million. 

• The main difference here is the fact that the remake had a bigger production value because more money was needed to create the special effects and make-up for Eddie Murphy's fat look. 

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• The audience for the original film is likely families and adults because it is rated a PG. Although the trailer does appear to be aimed more towards adults and maybe young adults since it is set in a University. 

• This remake was also rated a PG. I think this version is aimed more towards children and families because there is a large amount of toilet humour and Eddie Murphy plays an entire family. This sort of relates to Pantomime dames, which children usually enjoy. 

• I think that the original is aimed more towards adults and young adults (university aged). Whereas the remake is more of a family/kids movie since it is full of fat jokes and bathroom humour. 

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• There are most likely a few reasons for the remake. I believe that it was an artistic reason for Eddie Murphy, although he had a lot to live up to. I do believe that there are finical reasons too. I think that because the film was so long ago they thought it would do well with a modern revamp.  I also think that Eddie Murphy was due a good comedy, so they just took an existing comedy and did a new version that was less funny. 

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• Any films that made an impact on the production of the remake

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• Kelp's father makes a remark about the ransom paid to Cuba for the Bay of Pigs Invasion survivors. And Kelp's initials are JFK, which are seen of his briefcase. 

• Social and political issues at time of remake
• Differences

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• It was released in June 1963, a summer film. The trailer is the main bit of marketing done for the film. It's main statement is 'Please do not reveal the middle of this picture'. They state that it's okay to talk about the beginning and end but everyone should watch the whole thing not knowing the middle of the story before hand. The trailer is meant to be comical, it warns people, that if they do reveal the middle they won't be allowed popcorn in the cinema. It only gives away the geeky character and the fact that some kind of potion appears to go wrong. The music used in this part makes it look a little scary, so maybe this is being aimed towards adults. Also, there is a part where the narrator is trying to get Kelp's attention but he is staring at his love interest. This is to add more comical elements to the trailer and still not give away too much about the film. 

• The remake trailer has a narrator to make it like the original trailer. But this one reveals basically the whole story and some parts that are obviously dream sequences were shown as important parts of the movie. This particular trailer seems to appeal to adults more because it doesn't give away much of the humour and doesn't show much of the family. Although I believe that the fat jokes shown in the trailer are there for a young audience.

• The differences between the marketing include the different reasons for the trailer. The original is advertising cinema release and the other is advertising cinema but is also advertising VHS release because that is expected of a film at that time. 

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• This film couldn't be released on DVD or video like films are now. It was released in cinemas and released on DVD in 2000. 

• At the time of this film's release DVDs were on their way. In the same year of cinema release, the Nutty Professor was released on VHS. The DVD was released in January 1998 - Almost 2 years after initial cinema showings. 

• There is a big difference between the 2 different processes of release. The remake was able to release a VHS like most films would these days 

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• I personally think that there must have been some worry from those who liked the original when this remake was announced. Also, Eddie Murphy was said to have been in a rough patch, and not being as funny or creative as he once was, although this film was said to have brought him back. Jerry Lewis was credited as a producer of the Eddie Murphy remake. Jerry Lewis called Murphy "one of the five funniest men in the world", but wasn't a fan of the remake."When he had to do fart jokes he lost me, as a matter of fact, I told his editor, If he wants any more from me on a creative level, tell him to pull the whole sequence. What I did was perfect. And all you're going to do is diminish that perfection by letting someone else do it. I won't go through it again."

• When the film was released it received good reviews from critics and got a fairly good response. It got 65% 'fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 62/100 on Metacritic. 

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The transformation of the professor to Buddy Love was different in each version. In the original Kelp goes through a change that implies that he is transforming into a hideous monster. Using close ups and shadows it shows him turning blue, hairy and growing claws. It is quite a distressing scene and could be disturbing to some audiences. During the transformation Kelp's bird is saying "I told you, Julius" That transformation is then never seen again. When he changes back into Kelp he just slowly changes back, starting with the voice, and then the teeth.

The Eddie Murphy version of the transformation was very much about the difference in weight. When Buddy Love changed back into Klump he would grow in size and different parts of him would expand before others. A memorable scene is when he is changing back and his bottom lip is the first part to grow and it is supposedly meant to look funny.