Ryan's Blog

'River': Indoor Test Footage (Interview Scene) After trying out different exterior shots, we moved inside to play around with lighting, audio, close-up shots and eerie editing. This test footage shows the structure of a job interview scene that we are planning to include in the final film as a flashback. We used an external audio microphone, in order to capture the sound, and we synchronised it with the video. This works very well as the microphone isolates sound, creating a more realistic and clear sound. This footage also uses colour correction in order to correct the yellow lighting that appeared in the room. This scene shows shot reverse shot and diegetic sound with the clock ticking in the background.

'River': Additional Test Footage This is more test footage that we created in order to do another take on the focus pull.  For this footage, we used a DSLR that had a macro lens attached and this allowed us to achieve the manual focus pull. The focus changing  made a mechanical noise but this can be avoided with external audio. Being able to test certain shot types, throughout each of our test runs, has been incredibly helpful toward me, as the director, as this will speed things up during the actual production; now knowing how exactly I am going to block each specific scene, and film each shot.

'River': Outdoor Test Footage As the director, I thought it would be a good idea to test how we would shoot and edit certain scenes. This would insure that we would have less problems setting the scenes up, when it comes to the actual production. These tests also let us get used to certain production equipment. We did not use the final actors for the film due to time constraints, instead casting ourselves in the roles to save time. This footage is only to show how certain scenes play out, as we experimented with different camera angles and editing techniques. We used a Google Pixel 2 for most of the filming, but we did not use external audio as we did not need to test it at the time. Some of the footage was shot with a camcorder, which proved more difficult to use but had the advantage of attaching to a tripod. We do have a tripod holder for a smartphone, however we did not have it with us at this time.  Overall, the Google Pix...

'River': Shot List This shot list is a plan for when we begin filming. However, shots may be changed during the filming process. - Canted angle of intoxicated man, walking towards the camera. Camera close to the ground - Falls out of frame, hitting his head - Match on action for next shot, frontal close-up of Ron's face as he wakes up - Cut to close-up shot of printer - Medium establishing shot of room as he stands up to get paper from printer, held as he looks at paper and walks out of the room - Ellipsis of him getting ready, several close-ups of action e.g. coffee, coat, slippers - Medium shot of front door, Ron walks out, then out of shot - Medium-long shot of Ron walking into frame, looking at Kevin - Close-up zoom in on Kevin, camera twisting, stops when Ron slaps Kevin - Mid side on shot of both characters, Ron begins to read as Kevin stands up into frame - Ron begins to read script, switches to shot of Kevin looking dow...

Initial Audience Research When producing a film, it is important to understand who the audience for the film will be. The audience is a vital part of any film, as knowing your target audience helps you greatly when trying to market or advertise the film. To better understand the demographics that our film may appeal to, we constructed a survey; asking questions about short films, in general, and questions that relate to the themes being conveyed within our short film, 'River'. We sent this survey out over social media, to friends and family, in order for it to reach a larger variety of different social groups. From the statistics we can see that people from the ages of 15-21 appear to be more interested in viewing low budget films, as well as films that may represent death in a unique way. Also, these people usually find out about films through the advertisements, when watching Youtube and TV. Furthermore, most people appear to favour symbolism an...

The Story Behind Elysian Productions For the name of our production company, we decided on the name 'Elysian Productions'. The word 'Elysian' means: Relating to, or a characteristic of, heaven or paradise. We chose this word as heaven, or paradise, is something that we all strive towards; as we believe that it is a place so perfect, that it is worth going through hard times just to get there. The paradise that we, as a group, strive towards is a perfect film and, to get to that perfect film, we may also have to go through tough times in the filmmaking process, but that passion will still be shown, and that is why we are called Elysian Productions. We wanted to create a logo for our production company that was simple yet recognisable. We decided that we wanted to create a text-based logo, as most production companies go for this. This was the first attempt at the logo. We wanted the logo to be a window into the film, but the colours shown, and the gradie...

Possible Questions for Initial Questionnaire/Audience Feedback What is your gender? What is your age group? How interested are you in short films? Do you prefer low budget or high budget films? How interested are you in films that represent the process of death in creative ways? Would you be interested in a film that presents the process of death in a unique way? How do you typically find out about films? What do you prefer in a short film? The plan is for the questions to be sent out to trusted family and friends, across social media, in a multiple choice style format, in order for us to be able to properly collect, interpret and use the results.