What I have got so far

I am currently in the process of editing my movie trailer and have a two and a half minute clip. I am hoping to extend that to up to four minutes. So far I have around nine different scenes included, what I need to do now is to put them in a order, that will fit my storyline and will make my trailer interesting and will make people want to watch the actual movie.

My first scene shows the final girl holding the camera. The effect that this has is that it almost makes it seem like she is talking to the audience. To really connect with the audience you need to get them involved, which is what I have done. In this scene the girl is shaking and looks terrified, showing the audience how scary the atmosphere is, trying to get them to understand how she is feeling and giving them a feel of what the movie is about.

The second scene that I have yet to record, is a news report, warning everyone about a explosion that has happened and the one thing that they saw was a human-like creature leaving the building, heading for the school and warning everyone around or in the school, to leave as soon as they can.

After that has been recorded, the next scene will be someone, on the floor, backing away from something in front of her, trying to murder her but has backed herself into a corner, so there is no escape. This scene cuts when she is just about to get murdered.

Problems I'm having whilst editing

Whilst editing, I have come across a few problems. One of these problems included, background noises, that are difficult to get rid of because I needed the audio for that clip. Another problem I have is that the camerawork on one of my scene is a bit shaky, making the trailer look non professional and not in great quality. Another problem I had was that, to stick to conventions of a movie trailer, I had to go in at around 40 seconds without showing the zombie, as this is what all the other horror movie trailers had done. The problem I had with that is that nearly every scene I had recorded included the zombie in it, so I had to record more footage, without the zombie in it that fitted in with the trailer.

EDITING!

Due to the fact that I have been editing for most of my lessons, I haven't been blogging much, so I though I would write a post on my progress so far. At the moment I have got the intro sorted, with added cuts to spark effect and a lot of fades to black, which looks really effective with the rest of the footage in my intro.

I got both positive and negative feedback on my intro, that I have learnt alot form. One of the negative comments, which I fully agree with was that the music I chose didn't really fit in with the genre of film I was making. The song I chose wasn't really frightening, it was more upbeat, which cut the tension out from the footage I had so far. I listened to the person who gave me that piece of feedback and now have decided to leave the sound and music until I have completed the trailer.

The positive feedback I got from the intro, was about the fast pace cuts I used, they said that it really creates a intense atmosphere and that it allows the audience to really feel for the girl talking into the camera.

I am happy with what I have so far, and I will definitely be tackling the harder task of choosing the sound and music a bit later on when I get most of my editing done. I am now going to be continuing to edit my trailer, trying to stick to as many conventions as I can, making my trailer look successful and professional.

Filming complete!

I have finally finished all my filming and managed to just about take the zombie make up off.. I am really happy with the footage I have filmed. I got about 3 hours worth that I am now looking forward to editing and getting my trailer together. As I will be uploading and editing for a lot of my lessons, I won't be blogging as much, as I will be too busy editing and getting my trailer into shape.

How well I am doing

I feel I am progressing every lesson and feel that I am working hard on this project, putting in extra hours in, getting everything I need, done. I think at the start I wasn't vey focused and not blogging very much but I have definitley come on since then and have got up to date with my blogging and have made sure that every lesson has been a productive one, either by filming, editing or by blogging.

Next steps

What I need to do in the next couple of lessons is to edit further, change around the colour, make my clips look more clear, as well as completing my other tasks of a Dvd case and poster. I also need to get one more bit of filming done, which is a news report that will tell the story of the movie.

Locations

All my filming have been taken place at school. I have filmed in many different locations around the school, including: The field, behind the stage, in a couple of class rooms, in a drama room and in a few of the corridors.

Goal by the end of the day

By the end of today, I want to get the whole of my introduction edited and completed, as I have put it all together, I now need to make it look more effective and fasten the pace a little, be adding different editing techniques and also need to decide what music to put over the clip, that fits in nicely. However, because this is a hard task that involves a bit of thought, I will most probably give myself to the end of the week to decide.

Up to date

I have now got all of my filming done and am currently putting my trailer together, using final cut pro. So far I have got all my scenes together am am editing, adding transitions, bits of text, which I have to think about very carefully. I think to do this, I am going to have to refresh my mind and watch more existing trailers, to see where they have included certain transitions and other different types of editing techniques, without it looking odd or misplaced.

I will soon be adding music and different sound effects, which can either make or break a trailer, as music is key to making a trailer, especially a horror one frightening. This is something I will need to do a lot of research around to get m final choice of music to include in the trailer.

Creating the zombie

I took a few screenshots of be getting m zombie make up on, which took us around 2-3 hours, which was all worth it for me at the end, as the effect looked great and scary. What I did was, I got the tutorial up on youtube and on another mac, I recorded the process of the make up being done, so I could post some really good photos, like the ones below.

The end result, was exactly what I wanted, I looked like a zombie just about to attack everyone I came across. I was really happy with how well this worked out for me.

Filming in process

In the past couple of weeks I have been filming scenes of my trailer all around the school, as my movie is based at a school. I have filmed scenes in the school field, in dark places, in a cupboard, etc.

I have now filmed most of the scenes I want in my trailer and am currently doing my editing, bringing my trailer together.

What I have left to film, is the final girl come face to face with the zombie, ending on a cliffhanger, and a news reporter, warning all those who are in or arond the school to evacuate the building and get as far away from the school as they can, explaining that something 'creature-like' ran into the school, from a nucleur building, that just exploded.