Research and planning for black eyes

I watched multiple YouTube videos about how to make an actors eyes black in after affects. However, it was too complex so I decided that we would use a shot which the natural lighting made his eyes look black. Another reason is also because I did not want to make a bad job of the eyes and therefore ruin the effect it would create. Although I made this decision I will still show all the planning I did when I was trying to do it.

The YouTube videos I watched were:









Here are the notes I made:

Planning sheet page 1

Planning sheet page 2

Planning sheet page 3 part 1

Planning sheet page 3 part 2

Planning sheet page 4

A Soul's Redemption filming process with clips

A Soul's Redemption filming process - Video Dailymotion

Hover your cursor over the writing above and click on it. This will redirect you to a video of the filming process and extra information about each clip. Including what I learnt from the experience.

Film contributor release forms

Poster for A Soul's Redemption

A Soul's Redemption Poster

I have made a poster for A Soul's Redemption and have put information that I think is relevant on it. I have put the Tagline that I thought of when we were making the one page pitch which was "Even the kindest of hearts can be tainted". This gives the audience the idea of good vs evil which is using Barthes code of oppositions. The reason I think this is because it shows how powerful someone's dark side can take over them and cause their pure heart never to be the same again. Another thing I put on the poster which I thought of was "A battle you can't escape". This is because it is mental and there is no way of escaping your own mind. However, a person who has yet to watch the movie may become curious to what this means which will drive them to watch it. 

In addition, I used the colours black and pale brown to get the general mood of the film across. The colour black people is known to symbolise mystery and the unknowing. But the colour black also known to represent that things are hidden and not in the limelight meaning the struggle to show ones true feelings. This links to black giving off negative energy. This relates to our film because our main character is hiding away not wanting to be seen and throughout the film shows distress along side having to grieve the loss of his family. Also, as shown in the film having to accept the help of a family friend and not push them away. This means he has to tell them what he has been keeping a secret. While the colour brown symbolises nature which links to our film being set in a wood. 

Moreover, I chose to put two pictures of the main character on the poster because he is the centre of the whole film. When choosing the pictures to use I decided to do one with his normal human eyes and another with devil eyes. I chose to do this to show contrast between Bertie's good side and evil side. Otherwise, it may of not been clear to the audience. As well as it made the poster more scary and put the genre of the film across clearly. To edit the eyes I used a photo edit website called ribbet. I used a brush to go over the eyes in black and changed it's thickness after fully colouring it in to get the outline of the eyes smoother. Then I changed the thickness of the brush to 5 and the colour to white to add a white dot. This makes it looks like he has actual back eyes rather than no eyes at all. 

Another thing which I have made sure to put across on the poster is the narrative and the mise-en-scene. The is shown in the pictures I have used which indicates that it is set in a wood. This is common in thriller films and used a lot. The reason for this is because it is a mysterious place and somewhere which is easy to get lost meaning many hidden dangers. While the narrative is shown slightly through the pictures because one shows a young boy looking alone with no emotion. While the other shows a pair of worried eyes but shown as the devil. This shows how the devil is in control but the boy is still within the body wanting help. This proven by his facial expression which shows a scared and worried look.  

Furthermore, another thing that I put on the poster was the release date. The reason for this is because the whole point of a poster is to advertise our film. This means that the date is a crucial part of it because otherwise the people looking at it won't have any idea to whether it is released yet or if it came out a while ago meaning they may need to wait until it comes out on DVD. 

Finally, the reason I have created this poster is because it promotes our film and is easy to put in places both inside and outside. For example, on high streets, high traffic areas, bus stops, inside shopping centres and shops It could also be shown in newspapers and magaznes. Therefore, more people will see it.This shows good use of marketing because posters build the anticipation of the film, reach a wide audience and inform the audience on the narrative.  

    

Trailer for A Soul's Redemption

Trailer for A Soul's Redemption from Elsie Williamson on Vimeo.

I have made a short trailer for our film with Widows Movie Maker. The reason I have done this is because it lets the audience get a glimpse to what the film is really about. I think it will help market our film because cinema companies may watch it and be interested.  This may lead to them wanting to show it at their cinemas. While it will help distribute the film because by watching a trailer more people will be interested in it. We can also upload the trailer to a wide range of social media such as Youtube, Vimeo and even Facebook to bring in the attention of more people. Our trailer could also be shown on the big screen to a captive audience and also be put at the front of DVD's of the same genre to boost the amount of people seeing the trailer. Therefore, our film will be spoken about through social media which could mean people from all around the world seeing our thriller film trailer, sharing their opinions.

Most of the footage I used was from the day I went out alone with the actor and then decided that for  the actual opening there was better footage. Although this is not clear because I neatly edited them and cut the bits which were not very good. I am now glad that I fimed extra shots because it enabled me to create this trailer. This is the background music I used: https://soundcloud.com/unseenmusic/dramatic-epic-piano-orchestral and the beginning violin sound clip is my own work because it is my brother playing the violin (the actor). I also had his full consent to use the clip of when he was younger. I put this in black and white to show that it was a flashback but also to make the film seem more realistic because it is the actual actor as a happy young child. Therefore, it makes the following shot more effective because it shows him upset and distressed. This shows how much he has changed since becoming possessed by the devil.  

When I showed this to the rest of my group we decided to not put our names in.The reason for this is because in trailers they usually only advertise the actors. However, are roles have changed to what we originally put them out to be. Connor is the cameraman, Annabel is the editor and I am the writer and director.  

A Soul's Redemption newspaper article

Today I wrote the newspaper article that will appear at the beginning of our opening. This will inform the audience to what has already happened. However, it will only be a quick glimpse the main focus being the picture of Bertie and the title. The reason for this is because they will find out more as the film goes on and this is only the opening 2 minutes. If you would like to read the article play the video below and pause at each image to read. However, the first picture just shows the page in all in one so is not very clear.

A Soul's Redemption newspaper - Kizoa Online Movie Maker

Audience feedback on second draft of A Soul's Redemption

Here are some people's opinions on our second draft and how we could improve it for our final film. If you click on the photo it will send you to the video.

A Soul's Redemption title slide

This is what Annabel has created for the title slide on serif draw plus Photoshop. This is the same programme she used to create the logo. She used the shape tool and "Broadway" font which we all think looks effective. The reason I think that this is effective is because it draws the viewer into the film because it is bold. But also the colours used reflect the theme of our thriller because grey is known to be a colour which symbolises mystery and loneliness. 

Second Draft for A Soul's Redemption

Here I have edited all the clips that we will be using together with the music in the background on Movie Maker. But I only did this so when we edit it together, it will not only be quicker but make it so we can refer back to it if something happens. Also the logo will fit the screen more and the title "A Soul's Redemption" will appear at the end. Another thing  that we will do when we edit it together as a group is we will add the name of the actor and everyone involved onto the screen while the shots are happening at different times so they all get credited. For example, on one of Bertie's close up show his name in the bottom left-hand side corner.Furthermore, the transition from one shot to another will be better.

Filming schedule

Character profile

Roland Barthes - Narrative codes

Target Audience

From Visually.



Clicking on the mind map will make it bigger.

Final Logo for Production name

Option 1

Option 2

Final Decision

Annabel created the logos in photoshop and then showed us them in lesson. We had a discussion as a group and decided to use option 2 but add the "Conabel Productions" from option 1 to the bottom of the final chosen logo. This was so it made a clear indication to who made the thriller and what we were called. .

Storyboard for A Soul's Redemption

Annabel illustrated the first 6 shots but then I completed the rest writing about the shot, the sound within it, drawing it and colouring. If you want to see the storyboard in a larger scale so you can read it click on the link at the end.

Screenplay for A Soul's Redemption

Screenplay for A Soul's Redemption from Elsiew

A Soul's Redemption Background Music

Music for A Soul's Redemption from Elsie Williamson on Vimeo.
Planning Process of writing the song:
Elsie Williamson's Slidely by Slidely Slideshow
I used audacity to record the background music for the opening of our thriller. I taught myself how to use it, for instance I found out how to mute the audio in parts in which there is no singing or guitar playing. I also learnt how to add effects but decided not to use any. The reason for this is because I think that it would sound more creepy and uneasy if the sound was crisp. Another, thing I learnt how to do was alter the volume levels on each separate recordings. Therefore, I altered the guitar recording so it was quieter which would make the vocals more clear. I also wrote most of the lyrics but I kept the first verse the same from the song I chose which is from the Hunger Games called "The Hanging Tree". But then I wrote the rest myself based on our thriller, which will inform the audience about what it is generally about. However, I made sure to not reveal everything and ask one simple question which is, Will the protagonist survive his ordeal and beat the devil? Or will he be defeated by the devil?

A Soul's Redemption practice piece (First draft)

                       
Today I decided to do some filming with the actor. The reason I did this is because I thought that doing some filming before the proper production process with everyone in my group, would be useful and helpful to see what can be done and what cannot be done. For example, knowing the actors limits when it comes to trying to show the internal struggle the character is having within himself with the devil. I think this because everyone involved with the making of the film needs to be comfortable especially those acting. This is because rushing into something may cause them to become stressed. Also at the beginning the actor slipped out of character and smiled slightly. However, doing this during the practice is better than doing it in the final product.The costume the actor is wearing will also be different because we have set the film in the past.


Having good and high quality equipment is also important. The reason that good equipment is important is because it takes away from the realism. This can be shown in the practice we did today because the close ups are so blurred it is impossible to see the character's emotion. However, it helped me understand the placement of the camera more even if the quality was not the best. All of the clips were shot on my phone so obliviously it is not going to have as good quality as a high quality camera would e.g a DLSR.

I edited all of the clips together and added transitions on Movie Maker which is a free editing program. Although it is not the same program as we will be  using for the final piece it helped me visualise more the best ways of transitioning from one cut to another. I also created a sample of my own of an uncomfortable piece of music played on the violin. Although the scream at the end may sound like a sample it is actually the actor screaming. It was just too dark for him to be seen so I decided to use it for a title screen instead.

Therefore, this shows the importance of lighting because we actually filmed a few more clips than shown in the final practice piece it was just too dark for them to be seen. But this was filmed a lot later than we have planned to film. This was filmed from 4:50pm-5:20pm while we are filming from 2pm - 3pm.

Also this practice piece did not completely follow our screen play but will help us when filming the parts which the actor is acting unusual. This will also helped me with timing because the amount of things happening in the opening needs to be at least 2 minutes long. And this is 43 seconds long but is only showing the protagonist acting unusual. There were parts missing such as the beginning showing the scenery and the girl coming the protagonist hiding and then capturing her.

IMDb page for A Soul's Redemption

IMBD Page for a Soul's Redemption

The Distribution process