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Today I saw the first rough edit for our film, the day before it will be screened to collect audience feedback. We all felt like the dialogue was difficult to hear, especially over the top of the background noise from the road and trees. I feel that this issue could have been resolved slightly if the actors had worn concealed microphones to have picked up the sound of their voices from closer. Another major issue with our film is that the lighting is inconsistent from the beginning to the end, as the end is shot in the evening in the dark while the rest of it is shot during daylight. The editor did try to fix the brighter, sunnier parts to make them darker, but this did not look effective as it still looked sunny. Unfortunately, the bright, sunny scenes do not give the right sort of atmosphere, as it doesn't really look particularly scary, and the mother character looked a bit out of place, like 'someone in a halloween costume', as someone in the group said. We have some group members going to get some new footage on Saturday, to rerecord some of the scenes including the one that was originally filmed in the dark, as we need that one to fit with the lighting in the rest of the film.

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Today I edited more of my stills photographs that I had taken during Friday's filming, as I received feedback from a group member that the photograph that I had been working on last week was not of very good quality, and therefore didn't look nice to be able to promote the film. I was told by team members that the new pictures that I had taken were much nicer looking, as they were crisper and didn't look as fuzzy. I didn't do too much editing to the pictures; just brought up the contrast and made the colours more saturated, as I felt that this made them stand out more and look more appealing.

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Not much work has been done over the last week as there hasn't seemed like much to do, and I haven't been able to do much. Today I worked on editing the picture that I had taken at the photo shoot using Photoshop. I had a struggle last week with trying to edit out some hair bands on the character's wrist, but when I tried again this week it worked much easier, possibly because I remembered to create another layer in the project, to allow me to paint over it. I feel like the audience shouldn't notice too much that it's not blended all that well, as it is small and the picture isn't very high quality anyway

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Today I started trying to edit a photo that I had taken for my promotional material. I used photoshop, and changed the colour balances slightly to make the picture look less warm, as I felt that the warmness in the photograph gave off the wrong sort of vibes, as it made it look more 'comfortable' and 'homely'. I felt that it looked more hostile and better suited to the theme of our film with the colours slightly more shifted towards the colder end of the spectrum. One thing that I wanted to adjust about the picture was that there were hairbands on her wrists, which didn't fit the character costume very well and probably should have been removed beforehand.

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Today we were going to be doing some filming of the 'mother' scenes of our film, however unfortunately, the member of our group who was going to be acting in these scenes was unwell so we were unable to film. We also were going to be doing some filming tomorrow, but our other actor is now not going to be free on that day, so we are going to have to sort out when we can't rearrange the filming for these scenes. We are hoping that we will be able to just switch the filming of the 'mother' scenes to tomorrow, as hopefully our actress will be better tomorrow. for the rest of our filming, we will have to do that next week, hopefully Tuesday as we are quickly running out of time for the filming and editing to be completed by the deadline.

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Today we discussed the issues that we had had with the filming that we had been doing last week, and sorted out how we were going to go about it next time so that we wouldn't come across the same problems again. We have decided that as well as this afternoon, we are going to do some filming on this Wednesday and Thursday. We've checked the weather forecast for the next two days to make sure that it is not going to rain while we are in the woods. One of the biggest issues that we had last time for filming was that we had a lack of communication and therefore not everyone had the same idea of what time we were planing to leave for filming. This was probably a lot to do with how we had said one time on the group chat, and then changed the plan in a discussion we had on the morning before the filming. In order to make sure that this doesn't happen again, I am going to make a note in our production schedule on the exact date and time for the filming, and also make the note on the group chat so that it is easily accessible. We are going to do our filming on multiple days so that we have more available time in the right sort of light to be able to film all of the scenes.

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Today we started by going out to town to collect some props for our film that we should be filming later on today. We got a pair of slippers as part of the costume for the mother character, as otherwise she would have to walk barefoot in the forest, which would be a safety hazard as she could injure herself on the brambles or stinging nettles.

We did the filming in the late afternoon, it was not a particularly great filming session, we did not get much done as it got dark very quickly and then it was too dark to be able to see what we were filming. We did attempt to solve this issue by using lights, but this didn't look natural enough to match the rest of the footage that we had got when it was lighter. We eventually took the decision that we should reschedule our filming to Tuesday next week, to film the rest. Luckily our actor has said that they will be able to do filming with us on that day. I feel that we will need to start our filming earlier on in the day to avoid issues with the lighting getting to low, and to make sure that every member of the team has the same idea as to what time we plan on filming.

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Today we did a photo shoot of the mother character in the dress, with the intention of using the photographs being able to be used for a poster to promote the film. We did come across issues with the piece of rope and how we were going to use it.

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Today we decided to do some more test shots for our film, taken in the location that we are going to be filming (the woods). We had originally been scheduled to do filming today, but our actor was unable to make today due to an unforeseeable issue. We should still be able to do filming on this Thursday, but will have to reschedule the rest to next week. In professional practice, there would be a contingency plan in place for occasions where the actors become unavailable one day, and this is what we have done by planning in advance that we were going to reschedule our filming to different days if we had an issue with the actors. While we were out doing test shots on location, we tested out the reflector to see if it would help with lighting up the faces of the actors. I found that it was fairly difficult to do the relecting right in the woods, as there was not much light to reflect due to the shade from the trees. After we changed the angle at which we were filming, it made it easier because I could get the light from the sun easier.

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Today we reviewed the paperwork we had and what we would all be able to talk about for our pitch tomorrow. I am going to talk about the health and safety and organisational things such as travelling to the location for filming. As a producer, these are the sorts of things that I have had to be involved in over the course of the pre production. We discussed ways of collecting audience feedback for our project, and some people have asked for feedback in interviews about the teaser trailer that we have for our film. I am not sure how I want to get audience feedback, as I am not as directly involved in the creative process of creating the film, and more involved with the organisational things, which the audience can't really give feedback on. I think that I could possibly collect my feedback for my piece of promotional material that I am going to work on during the production, as it is important that the target audience is interested in the promotional material, otherwise it won't be able to be successful in promoting the film to the right people.

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In today's team meeting, we discussed which pieces of paperwork we still have left that need completing. I feel that the group is doing well in keeping up with the paperwork, as we do not have too much left to do, and we are on set to have it all completed by Friday, ready for the pitch. I feel that I am not doing the best job with speaking in the meetings, as I find it difficult to be organised when I am under pressure. I will try out writing physical notes of what to talk about, as this may be more effective than in my head. I have been contributing to the ideas in the group by suggesting shots where the characters see the reflection of the antagonist in the lake before they look up to see her standing there.
The costume has now been ordered from amazon, as people were more comfortable with that over eBay, and it should arrive by the 27th October, which should be in time for our filming.
I decided to start with looking at music inspiration for the film, as I hope to be able to produce a piece that could be used. I have decided that I would like to use an electronic piano to create the music, instead of using a synthetic musical instrument program (e.g. garage band) , since I want to be able to experiment with the sounds the piano can make using multiple octaves whereas I feel that with garage band I am more restricted.
I have tried to start looking at how we could create the memorial for the dead mother and child, and I feel that it would be beneficial to ask people from the target audience what sort of memorials they feel would look best, as this helps us to better connect to the audience and what they would like.
Another thing that I have decided that I will work on is a budget sheet, to keep track of the money that we are spending as part of the production.

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Today we had to have our team meeting one person short, as they did not turn up on time, and did not contact any one to let us know that they were going to be late. We reviewed the teaser trailer that we had, made by the editor in our group, and decided that it was suitable. An issue that we came across today was that our costume person had found a costume on eBay that we felt looked right for the role, but no one had an eBay account and didn't feel safe with the idea of using eBay. we have yet to find a solution to this issue. Also today, we went outside to get some test shots and check with how we wanted to film certain parts of the script using the equipment. we experienced some difficulty with the setup of the equipment, as it took longer than expected, meaning that we will probably have to build in extra time into our production schedule when we want to use it.

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Today we discussed what we would each do for our piece of promotional material. I have decided that I will do some stills photography for behind the scenes of the production (similar to what I did yesterday), and of the scenes and characters. We came across a problem that the production schedule paperwork checklist that we were using did not have any timescales or deadlines for the specific pieces of work. We sorted this by adding an extra column to the list table for the date that we would like to get each piece of work completed, so that we can better manage our time and therefore be more likely to get our paperwork all completed in time for the production stage. Tomorrow I would like to try editing a couple of the pictures that I took yesterday, to try and make a start with working out how I want to do my promotional material.

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Today we had a team meeting and discussed what we were going to be doing, and we decided that we would start on the promotional things for the film. I helped our PR with creating a banner for the Facebook page. We used a photo from the location that was visited yesterday, and    found a font online to use for writing the title. A problem we came across with this was that the fonts that we liked were not available without purchasing a licence. We overcame this by looking on a website and  finding a font that we could use for free.
We then did a location visit to the woods to see about what sort of health and safety hazards there were, and get some more photographs of the location. I took some behind the scenes photos of the PR taking the photographs that could be used for promotional material.
The target audience seem to be responding well on the social media, as we have been getting more likes on our instagram.

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Today we had a meeting in our team to discuss what we were going to spend the rest of the day doing.
Today I was punctual and on time to work, meaning that I didn't miss anything in my team.

We discussed the location that we are planning on filming and how it was going to fit the plot properly, as the memorial for the drowned child was not going to be anywhere near any water, so we planned to find somewhere with water that looked fairly creepy.

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Today we were put into our job roles and groups for the project. I have been given the role of producer, which I have done before in the past but I feel that I could improve on, since I'm not completely sure on everything that the job includes. I had wanted to practice either camera or costume for this project, but I will hopefully get a chance for that in the next one. We started to discuss the plot idea, and made a change from the mother drowning herself to her hanging herself so that she would have more of a visual effect of that in her costume.

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Today I started preparations for creating my presentation for Thursday. I have shown that I have considered my target audience through talking about how I will include the elements from the ballet as part of my plot.
I feel that I could do more research on my audience and what they would like the ideas of, and what they like in terms of horror elements. I have received some feedback from someone who said that they like the 'dancing to death' idea, and that I should include that as the way to end my plot, since it helps to tie in the ballet elements quite well.
In my presentation, I have talked about the influences I have got from the ballets; Coppelia and Giselle.
At home, I would like to do some more research into what makes dolls look creepy, so that I can show this in the presentation.

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Today we learned about script writing, and how to make the dialogue interesting. An example clip we watched was from reservoir dogs, where people were sitting round a table, having a chat in a restaurant. The conversation was interesting for the audience to watch, not because it moved the plot forward in any way, but because it revealed a lot about the characters' personalities, and was a topic that the audience themselves could have an opinion on. Writers sometimes create these conversations by listening to people's conversations in public, as this is a good way of forming a realistic conversation. I found that with writing a script, I found that it was difficult because I didn't know exactly where I wanted my story to go plot wise, but I learned that a good idea to help that would be to map out the plot separately before writing it into the script.

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Today we had to edit the foley sounds that we recorded last week, and add them onto the video clip that we recorded them for. My group did the opening scene from The Woman in Black, and I had 3 squeaking sounds, and some clinky type sounds. I found that this test went a lot better than I had expected, although they definitely weren't to a professional type standard. The squeaky door that we recorded worked the best in my opinion, and matched up to the visual of the window being opened well. I feel that if we were going to improve it though, we should have recorded some extra white noise at the end of it squeaking, as it did sound a bit 'blunt' at the end. Some extra white noise would have helped it to blend into the rest of the clip better. I feel that the foley sounds help to create more atmosphere for the audience, as you can create better sounds that sound how you want them to over the video, without having to re-record the scene. For example, a door that looks right and is in the right location for the setting, may not have the best possible sound to suit the mood of the scene. Another way they can create the atmosphere is by creating sounds that wouldn't naturally be in the recording for the scene, like a monster for example, or the rocking chair in The Woman in Black.

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Today we went through personal statements, which is something that I feel I have had a problem with

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Today in Dave's lesson we learned about sound and sound recording, and how people use foley sound to manipulate the audience and what they are feeling. We watched some clips of where sound has been used in short horror films, such as the short film Dave made- Text. In this, there was not much music used, and there was lots of silent spaces. this lack of sound helps to create suspense in the audience, as whatever they hear next will stand out.
For an activity we had to do, we had to chose a short scene from a film, and record our own sounds to go along with it. My group chose to do the opening scene from The Woman In Black, and record the sounds that would go with things like the brushing of the doll's hair, the teacup clinking, and the opening of the window. While in the film, the scene didn't have much sound for these things, we felt that the addition of more sound could make this scene more effective, because for example the creaking window sound could make the audience feel more uncomfortable. This creeping window sound turned out to be the best one we recorded, and the most simple, as we just recorded the sound of a squeaky door that we had already found in college. We found that it was difficult to get a sound for a crunch of someone treading on a teacup, as the only way to get an actual authentic sound would involve sacrificing ceramic. In the end we tried to create the sound by crushing a plastic cup, however I do not feel that this gave a realistic sort of sound that the ceramic would have made.

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Today we learned about music in horror films, and how it is used in them to affect the audience. We watched some clips of films and discussed what the music was like: for some, like the scene from kill bill, the music had an oriental feel to it, which reflected the costumes and characters on the screen.
We had to use garage band to create a piece of music for a horror film soundtrack. I found that the string instruments were better for creating the music for a chase scene, because we could have a mixture of high and low notes played quickly at the same time without it sounding clash-y, which gave it an intense, panicky sort of feel. I don't find that garage band is a particularly great way to compose music for me, as I am more practiced at experimenting with notes on a piano or keyboard. The keys on the garage band piano are not very easy to play, as they are on a screen so therefore flat, meaning that you can't feel where they are to be able to stay on the same note, which is a pain, and also because the keys are a lot smaller than those on a real piano, and you cannot view all of them on the screen which limits what you are able to play. Because of all of this, I feel that I would prefer to just compose and record music using a keyboard or piano, as this is what I am used to and works well for me.

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Today we edited the footage from our lessons last week: the lighting techniques and the 30 second horror film. I found that with the different angles that we had recorded for the walking up the stairs, the actor was not walking at the exact same speed, so it didn't really match up very well. I had difficulty with trying to download a font that I could use in the videos, but I got some help from a friend who showed me how to create the title on the website, and then download it to be able to use it in the video, instead of downloading the font and then creating the title in Premiere Pro itself. I looked at some different fonts and found that one important thing that I would need to remember would be to do would be to make sure that the font is not to intricate looking, as this can make it very difficult to read when it is over the top of a moving picture video.

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Today we did a practical lesson on liquid latex makeup, and creating fake wounds. We were put into pairs, and one person had to create a burn, and the other had to create a gash. I created a fake burn on the hand and wrist. We were given a tutorial to follow, however I found that I kept forgetting that it was there, and just doing what I felt would work best. I started with Vaseline, then the latex, tissue, foundation, then paint. I found that the painting stage took the longest, as I chose to create a larger burn, and it was difficult to cover all of the white bits of tissue and latex. I found that I could speed this stage up by using a flat side of a sponge, and doing a base layer of the red colour before going back in with the details. I feel that mine would have looked better if I had used more paint round the edges so that there was less of a blunt edge.

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ThisToday we were assigned to create a 15-30 second horror film. We started out by watching a playlist of similar projects so that we got the general idea, and I found it interesting that a lot of them had comedic sides to them that were unexpected. For example the one where the man wakes up to see a zombie looking being next to him and screams, however what he is screaming at was actually that he was late for work. My group were able to come up with an idea fairly quickly; for our idea, we had a person walking through a corridor, and then getting abducted and taken to a dark room with a spotlight and then killed. We chose to have the killing scene just shown through the shadow behind the chair, as this created more of a sense of mystery as to what the murderer looks like, which can create more fear and provoke the audience's imagination to play a bigger part in watching it. The problem we came across was with how we were originally going to film the killing, which would show the person on the chair in front of the shadow. This caused an issue with the shadow of the weapon being cast onto the actor, which ruined the effect because it was obvious that

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Today we learned about different sub genres of horror films,

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Today we learned about the different types of lighting techniques that are used in horror films. I wasn't too confident with all of them at the start, I knew about which ones were used but didn't know that much about why they would be specifically used in the horror films, for example how spot lighting gives a feel of not knowing the surroundings of the area that is lit up. I feel that this could be useful in coming up with ideas for the project, and I'm pleased that this was a lesson that we've had fairly early on in the year, as lighting is something that I often overlook in the planning of film projects, and I often end up leaving it to whatever the natural lighting would be in the place of filming, meaning the opportunity to make use of different lighting is often missed. During the experiments, I found that the biggest problem we had was with the exposure on the camera, since we were recording in a mostly dark environment, we needed to have a lower aperture. as a target, I want to be able to practice the silhouette lighting technique more often, as I feel that this would be a good one to use in the project, because it creates fear through the audience seeing shapes but not the whole form of something.

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Today we watched a 1 hour documentary about horror films and started research on horror film festivals. I found that the documentary gave some useful information about the different horror films and how they have progressed through the years. I found the part about the Luton bus to be the most interesting part, as I was aware of things like that being used often in horror films, but I didn't know that they had a name. I feel like this is a technique that I would want to use in my idea, as although it is used a lot -too often in some people's opinions- I think it can still give a nice bit of 'texture' to a film.
I found that with the festival research, it was fairly easy to find ones to research, however at first I couldn't find much information about the history of them. Eventually I was able to find other websites which had information on them which I found through google.