Creating my digital poster

I have looked at sizes on http://www.standardpostersizes.com/ and chose the medium format.

And these are my final idea using digital/drawing abilities. I just do not feel like i am showing of my photography skills enough. So i tried hard to use photoshop effectively. 

I think the first shown is my favourite so far and i am majorly thinking about using it as my final piece, i just need to add key features on to it like cast and possibly date etc.

Message sent to applicants.

Locations for shooting

I still need inside areas to shoot where people will be murdered but i have all outside locations ready for shooting and im going to ask 2 libraries whether i can film inside and have cast behind the counter. I will call the library in Sprowston first and then the the library inside The Forum at Norwich too.

 The three pictures above are possible locations for when a member of the public stumble upon the book covered in blood.

like these current frames featured in my storyboard. 

My Applications from StarNow

     These are all of my applications so far. I am considering Alexi Lambrou but unfortunately not Black Vendetta as her location is so distant and i just don't believe that this short film is going worth travelling such a distance as this is a short film. I would easily expect someone to travel that sort of distance if i was creating a full feature film but this is one of the differences between short films and a full feature. Also Steve Taylor is not the right age i am looking for in this short film. 

      I will contact Alexi within the next few day as he fits the criteria well i just do not believe he is confident to use explicit language without losing concentration. So i will ask for him to provide a very short video of him filming himself going through a mini script. If he can pull this off confidently he will be a part of the cast.

Interim Reflection

My deadline is roughly 3 weeks away and so far ive only filmed roughly 1 minute of work and i am getting stressed over my work because of the problems with finding location and cast but i have solved the problem of finding cast by posting an advert on StarNow. I have got 3 applications so far and today i should be helping another group from AS film and they can hopefully set me up with more cast possibly.

Today i am going to think of locations and places and create the blood by buying all the ingredients.

My STRENGTH i believe i am creative and imaginative but my WEAKNESS is for filling my desires of my ideas as they're difficult to achieve. My main THREAT at the moment is not having the film finished in time so i believe i am just going to spend a lot of time today and possibly tomorrow thinking of areas to film scenes.

Finding Cast

I have a feeling that i would like to start a completely new narrative as i'm feeling very uninspired to carry on with my current narrative. I feel like worried about location and cast as i do not know people who are older than my current age of 18 and would like a maturer cast. I have talked to my teacher and class students about it and feel less worried and more secure about carrying on.

 I have put a post on StarNow.co.uk to ease my worry about cast:

 This is my ad and i am hoping for replies asap to start more filming. Now my next step will be to find locations and rooms for filming and creating fake blood.

Movie Posters

I have searched "movie posters horror" into google images and this is the first page of results. out of the 25 posters shown, 10 (underlined in red) show a head/face as the main focus - that is 40%.
            I'm not going to use a head or a face as my poster as i do not feature a main human/humanoid protagonist or antagonist. I think the best idea would be to use blood on top of the book with a flickering light. I think it would be great to have a 3-D poster that changes image from different angles of view.

LoveFilm

http://www.lovefilm.com/reviews/ looks like a potential area i could use and get some inspiration for my own movie review.

I clicked on the specific review for "The Wolverine". I have got a screenshot and drew around key aspects of the screen shot.

Logo/Icon of provider hosting the reviewing content.

Popular articles of the day to pull in the audience to read more.

Title of film you're reviewing.

Date of review

Rating out of a certain number (this case five stars which tends to be classic but there are others).

Small paragraph to pull the audience into the general review.

Ways to be social about the review (Twitter and Facebook being most common ways to be heard).

Pictures and or screenshots of the feature.

Key parts of the film e.g. Cast, run time, ect.

Creating Horror films and history of their cycles

The History of Horror from FilmmakerIQ.com on Vimeo.

This is a video which very effectively shows the past cycles of horrors in time. It does not help me directly with creating the film but it gives me lots of ideas i'd like to incorporate but i almost feel like it is too late. I feel like my idea for my short horror so far is a bit bland and needs some new ideas to scare the audience who i am sure have seen many horrors before.

This also brings up one of my biggest fears about creating this short film, that is the sounds used. Foleying is something i am not too worried about, but great horrors such as 'Psycho' have great sound during murders. I would be more than happy to have similar sorts of sounds from an orchestra but i am not very music literate myself and will have to find help to create my own sounds. Here is one of the most popular scenes ever created in the horror genre.


The sounds come from 0:57 - 1:52

I need help writing a movie review.

Being inexperienced with writing a review is going to make the writing area difficult, but i found sources that can help. I do enjoy watching video-game reviews on youtube with games i am interested in but i have never seen or read a movie review.

http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Movie-Review tells you how to know what you're writing about while saying how to actually write it.

Tips on creating a movie poster.

I enjoy photography and generally editing and manipulating photographs to suit my own desires so i feel like i will find creating a movie poster easy and enjoyable but i have searched different techniques on creating a movie poster. Here's my favourite site telling me how to create the best movie poster possible.

Attention

Have something feature to capture the attention of passers by, something provocative always works but that does not appeal to me or the audience i am searching for. I do not want this short move to appeal to teenage boys who're just interested in nudity. 

Including something which stands out and has a blank background behind. I do not want objects in the background to be brought to attention, rather just what's in the foreground. So I'm not including anything in the background.

Iconography

Bring out themes without being too explicit, using the reception theory. Making the viewer have to understand what is being shown rather than them knowing at first glance.

Interest

Provide an incentive to view my shirt film. Possibly add text with an unanswered question, as if it's hooking the audience in. Make it not fully understandable about what is being said.

Appeal 

Create it similar to other posters or  similar themes to successful movies posters. For example if you had a poster similar to the Dark Knights movie poster the fans of the Batman franchise may be driven to see said film. 

Style

Have a certain style and keep font similar through out along with colour schemes.

Lasting Appeal

Include something that could possible become the front cover of a DVD case. I will not feature a said DVD case but researching and looking at covers i already own i can grab a few ideas. Although i will have to remember to feature cast and a coming up date or the classic "COMING SOON".

Creating blood

As blood features in my short film i need to create it. I have looked up many ways just by looking in WikiHow. I believe my favourite of all 14 ways featured in the link is number 3 "Chocolate Blood".

As i have not yet attempted to create this blood i am slightly worried it could be the wrong colour or consistency. Although this method look fairly simple and easy.

1. 
   1
   You will need:
   • Corn syrup (or golden syrup)
   • Red food coloring or cherry Kool Aid powder
   • Powdered chocolate
   • Flour or corn starch (optional).
2. 
   2
   Make the basic mix. Combine light corn syrup with red food dye until you get a shade that closely resembles real blood. You can also use cherry Kool Aid powder instead of red food dye for a yummy chocolate cherry flavor.
3. 
   3
   Add chocolate. Add a small amount of cocoa powder to the syrup mixture to darken the shade and turn the fake blood opaque, just like real blood.
4. 
   4
   Perfect the consistency. Either thin the blood by slowly adding water, or thicken it with a couple pinches of flour or cornstarch whisked in gently.
5. Here's even a video on how to create it sourced by HowCast. It is a slightly altered version of the one above and not very serious but it helps get the general feel of how to make the fake blood as i am more of a visual learner rather than a learner through reading. 
6. 
   View How to Make Fake Blood on Howcast

Welcome to my storyboard

Seeing what isnt there

As i am creating a horror and most horrors tend to have a girl who is vulnerable being murdered, i thought it was only appropriate to include such a thing in my short film. I thought the best thing to do was have a girl murdered in the bath, so i had to include shots of her undressing but without including any nudity.

 My short film features underwear hitting the floor to give the impression that she was naked, where in actual fact she was clothed, techniques like this help with creating the narrative while making the cast feel comfortable in front of the camera as most of my cast are not usually that side of a camera while it's filming.

See what isnt really there from Matthew Evans on Vimeo.

Raw video footage of my first interview

matty pitch 1 from Matthew Evans on Vimeo.

Discussing my narrative and ideas towards the camera. Along with some questions to clarify anything i may of missed. I used the aid of Prezi to help with my pitch; i created it within 10 minutes and a general background towards what i would like to discuss.

Here is the prezi i created to help me.

Next shoot for filming

As an A-level student i have became worried about finishing this practical side of media as it is currently mock exam period. But with that apparent i have became determined to have this finished before deadline even if i do not feel confident having it all filmed at edited in time as i have no had too much experience editing. Last year for AS all editing was rather basic apart from from audio but that was easy to attend to, for advice and help as i was working with two musicians.
       But i will be able to shoot my next few scenes soon with the aid of Sam Shepherd. I am still not currently aware of what role he will take but i am willing to think about it for a few days.
I do not think he is quite the material for initial character but potential for the first character to stumble upon the book in the street.

I have not yet uploaded my storyboard to my blog but i has been completed exception with of colour. I have uploaded this to my blog as a reminder to myself to complete said task - although i have only recently been able to do the task.