AICE Media Studies

 Spring break has just finished for our class and school is starting again after a week break.  Even though there was no school, my partner and I still put work in to our project.  However, we could not start the filming.  Both my partner and I wanted to start filming.  Unfortunately, we couldn't film.  During spring break, my partner, Nicholas, went on a trip with his family and was out of town.  Similarly, our friends who are helping us act were also out of town for a few days.  On the bright side, this gave us more time to iron out all the details.  The extra planning we have done will definitely improve our final product.  Since Nicholas was out of town, we called each other to discuss the filming process.  Specifically, we discussed how we would the more difficult scenes.  The first scene in our intro will be rather complicated.  In it, we will film a close up of a ringing phone and slowly zoom out while tracking some...

I explained before how we plan to make the setting of our film opening a campsite.  I also explained the importance of having a tent and other thing to make it look more realistic.  Without the tent, my partner and I would be unsatisfied with the quality of the project.  Ideally, we would like to be able to set up a tent in the park we plan to film in.  However, the park is a relatively small park with no campgrounds.  So, there is no place to set up a tent.  The only ways around this would be to film the scenes with the tent at another park or to ask the park for special permission to set up a tent for a student filming project.  It would be troublesome to film at another park because of our location.  So, we decided to ask the park for special permission.  I decided to email the park and ask if it was ok to stay past the closing time of the park and whether it would be okay to set up a tent.  I am unsure how the park will respond as th...

 As you probably already know, our project is going to be about a horrific camping trip.  So, it is necessary to create the setting as well as we can.  We already plan to use a tent to make it look realistic.  But, that is not the only thing that a campsite needs.  A usually overlooked aspect of campsites is that there are mostly more than one person at each of them.  For our film, we need at least two.  I say "at least" very sparingly, however.  This is because I only mean it in the sense that we need one person to die and one person to live to have the movie continue passed the opening.  But, that wouldn't be very entertaining or realistic in a movie.  So, we need more actors.  Not only do we need more actors to make the opening appear more realistic, but also in order to make the campsite look more populated.  In our script, we included 4 characters.  I will be playing one of the characters.  Specifically, I will p...

 As mentioned in previous blogs, the place we will end up filming at is a public park.  We decided to film there because they have an area with enough trees to pass as a forest with some clever camera work.  The park is not that large, but it is quite popular.  This is a problem for us because we can not film anyone in the background of our shots.  Luckily, we plan to film the project towards sunset.  Hopefully, this will mean that there will be less people there to worry about.  Another big problem with the park is the fact that it isn't that big.  This means that there are no designated camping grounds anywhere in it.  This is a dilemma for us because we intend to set up a tent for the campsite setting.  Since the place we want to shoot is a public area and not a campground, we can't put a tent up.  This is a big problem, but there are ways around it.  One way would be to call the park and ask them for permission to set up a ...

One of the biggest dilemmas we have faced in this project has been finding a suitable location.  I already explained how the search was too hard, so we had to change the setting of the movie.  By far, getting over the hurdle of finding a location has been the hardest part.  It has also taken up the most of our time.  Comparatively, writing the script and drawing the storyboard were much easier.  We will probably be making more changes to our script as we go on.  Whether the changes are in response to a part of the setting we did not account for or something else, it is likely the script will be changed.  Likewise, we may have to alter the story from the storyboard to adapt to changes in the original plan.  Other than that, we are ready to move on from finding the location and making the script and storyboard. The next logical step for us would be to prepare every resource we need for filming.  One thing EVERY film producer needs is a camera....

 So far, no filming has taken place.  Neither has any editing.  However, we have been preparing for filming.  One of the hardest things we have had to do for this project was find a good location.  Originally, we wanted an abandoned building.  But, no buildings that look remotely abandoned can be found around where we live because of the population density.  So, we had to switch the setting of the story.  We chose to make the new setting a forest, because that is much more general and easier to find.  Or so we thought.  It turned out that finding a forest in a densely populated area was almost just as hard.  We visited multiple parks and found locations that could work for filming.  However, the best places were too far away for all of us to meet at.  Luckily, we found a park between our houses that had enough trees to look remotely like a forest.   The park has a lot of locations that we can use to film.  O...

  There are 7 scenes total in the storyboard. The dialogue between the script and storyboard vary because it is not finalized. There are different directions that we could approach with dialogue. We could make it more general and simplistic, but it might feel too on the nose. Camera angles could also be changed in the future.

Scene 1:  Sound: phone ringing and buzzing Character A: picks up phone and says "hey character B whats up" Character B: "hey I wanted to ask you about a trip for out blogs" Character A: "ya sure what are you thinking" Character B: "I think we should go on a camping trip in the bleek woods" Character A: "Do you mean those woods that are haunted" Character B: "yep, staying there would make great thumbnails for our blogs and we can write alot of fun stuff" Character A: "im in, ill let everyone else know" Scene 2:  Character A: turns to character B, C, and D "alright guys the van should be coming any second to drop us off in the bleek woods" Character B: "remember guys, dont forget to write down your experiences for your blog" Scene 4:  Character A: "I'll make a fireplace" Character B: : "ill take the supplies out" Character C: "i can put up the tent"" Character ...

 One of the toughest parts of planning the filming process was finding a location.  We originally envisioned our movie taking place in a secluded forest setting and a spooky abandoned building.  However, because we live in a highly populated area.  Therefore we could not find an abandoned building.  Much less, an abandoned building that looked spooky enough to use in a horror film.  After asking advice from our teacher, we came to the conclusion that it would be best to change the story of the film.  Specifically, why the group is gathered and what they are doing.  Before it was to explore an abandoned building to make content for their blogs.  Now, the story will be about a group of bloggers going on a camping trip in the woods.  We changed it to this to keep the setting a spooky place, like a forest at night.  So, the search turned from a search for an abandoned building to a search for a wooded area.  Originally we thought t...

 My partner and I, Nicholas Arnold, spent a lot of time deliberating what kind of title we wanted to use and what the title would actually be.  We also put much thought into how we could incorporate it into the movie opening.  Our movie's genre is primarily horror.  But, it also has mystery elements in it.  The mystery comes from the plot point in which the murderer is unknown and could be among the group.   Title we cam up with was "Among Them".  We came to this idea because of the hidden imposter among the group of friends.  We discussed different titles such as "among us".  However, we decided against that title idea because we considered it too cliché.   The hardest part of making a title was thinking up the font, font size, and color.  The best font we found was a font called "Friday 13".  It is a font similar to that of the popular horror movie series "Friday the 13th".  It's a good match to our project bec...