Filming - Day 2

Today's filming was somewhat disasterous. The footage I got was good, but, actually filming it was challenging due to the extreme winds that were blowing the armour off of my actor. On top of that, during the middle of one of the takes, an entire panel of the garden fence was blown off, followed by three more shortly after we'd finished. Despite our fearing for our lives as the wind tried to kill us with flying fence panels, it actually worked out pretty well for the footage as the half-blown-off panel, just before it was blown completely off, can be seen in one of the takes. This will actually help build the post-apocalyptic look.

After every take, we were having to put parts of the armour back on to my actor's body whilst making sure that the camera, mounted on a skateboard, wasn't taken away by the wind. In the end, though, I am happy with the footage I captured, and the wind actually makes a somewhat nice effect with the blowing of the weeds.

Test Renders (First Half)

After a successful day filming, I began editing the footage I captured. To begin with, I chose the clips I wanted to use, then trimmed them. I then "colour corrected" them and took advantage of the 60fps I shot them in and slowed them down using Adobe After Effects' 'time stretch' tool.

Here are some of the test renders I have done thus far:

Filming - Day 1

Today's filming went very well. I captured enough footage, and got all of the shots I planned to get. Thankfully, the weather stayed bright and sunny with relatively clear skies. No problems were encountered except the puppy temporarily "lost" (hid) his ball, which meant that I had to film the shots that would have had the ball in them in a way that didn't show the ball. The actors and actresses were cooperative and nobody else was already occupying the park.

All in all, it went swimmingly.

Font Test - 'Google Spies'

This is my test with the 'Google Spies' font. Although this font may at first have seemed more appropriate for how I will use it than the 'Seedy Motel' font would, that being in the lenses of a helmet, I prefer 'Seedy Motel'. On top of that, 'Seedy Motel', of course, looks more like a diner/motel sign, which relates to 'Fallout' quite a lot as signs like that can be found rather often across the Wasteland. This is because the diner/motel look relates to mid-1900s America -- this causes speculatation about when the apocalypse actually took place.

 

 

 Un-cropped:

 

 

Cropped:



Road Footage

I have been considering capturing some footage of a road for the first, and possibly the second, part(s) of my opening scene. Having now decided to do this, during the pre-apocalyptic part of the opening I want to show a busy road to furthermore emphasize the presence of Human life on the planet. In contrast, I might also show an empty and ruined road during the post-apocalyptic part of the opening to emphasise the absence of Human life.

 

However, another way of putting emphasis on life is through something like this:

 

This is a clip I found on YouTube when searching for examples of static road footage (of cars). I was slightly inspired by this to try shooting my own version, but, due to destroyed cars being a convention of the 'Post-Apocalyptic' genre, I am going to go with the car footage.



 

I used Google Maps to look for a nearby location that would be suitable to film these clips at. Ideally, a bridge over-looking a road would be perfect, and I managed to find just that.

 

Here is the location I found, and will try to capture these clips at:

 

 

 

Production Company Intros

Whilst researching production company intros, I noticed that a lot of them are comprised of several layers of 2D images that are all animated and come together. This is quite simple to make, however, there are other which have 3D animated elements as well.

A couple of years ago, I created a production company intro in-case I make any short films and/or animations. My main inspiration for this intro was the LucasFilm intro.



I am going to remake this intro and try to improve it based on the research I have done on the forms and conventions of industry production comapny intros.

Font Test - 'Seedy Motel'

I have began experimenting with the design of the main title for my movie. Whilst this particular design isn't neccessarily the final thing, it is the kind of thing I am going for which makes it suitable to test each of the fonts.

 

 

These designs are "unpolished" tests, and if chosen for the final design, they will be "polished".

 

Un-cropped:



 

 

Cropped:

Choosing a Title

Of course, I must think of a name for my movie. Based on my research of titles from the 'Post-Apocalyptic' genre, I have managed to think of some names that might suit my film.

Here's a list of my ideas:

"Desolation",
"The Smog",
"End",
"Dusk",
"After Light",
"Into Darkness",
"Into Blinding Darkness",
"The Dystopian".

After much consideration, I have decided to go with the title, "Desolation", as it is memorable and captures the essence of a post-apocalyptic world.

Choosing Fonts

An important part of making a film opening is choosing appropriate fonts. I have been looking at a wide range of fonts on the website, DaFont. I have seen a few that I like, and have narrowed it down to a choice between these fonts for the main title of the movie:

 

 

 

 



As for the credits, I also have a choice between two fonts:

 

 

[To be added]

 

 



On the one hand, the 'Birth of a Hero' font will match the genre better due to it being "eroded". But, on the other hand, I think that a "regular" font like [to be added] will look more professional and help viewers differenciate between which font is that of the main title and the credits' font.

Universal Studios

Universal Studios is another American film production and distribution studio that is owned by Comcast through its wholly owned subsidiary, NBCUniversal. Universal is another one of the 'Big Six', and owns 13.6% of the U.S./Canada market share.

Here are the results of my research of their filmography:

I found that Universal had been involved with the recent release, 'Oblivion'. This movie is a 'Post-Apocalyptic' movie which supposedly takes place after a war between Mankind and an alien race.









 After learning of their involvement with 'Oblivion', I researched their ealier filmography, however still post-2000. I noticed two movies on the list which are related to the end/potential end of the world/Mankind. 'Children of Men' is set in a dystopian world where babies are not being born, and 'Doomsday' takes place after the outbreak of a zombifying virus.

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox is an American film production and distribution studio that is a subsidiary of the 21st Century Fox. 20th Century Fox is one of the 'Big Six', and owns %10.6 of the U.S./Canada market share.

I proceeded to research 20th Century Fox's filmography since the year 2000 in order to learn more about their most common genres.

I was unable to find any 'Post-Apocalyptic', or any movie related to the end of the world/Mankind in 20th Century Fox's filmography.

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures is an American film production and distribution studio that is a subsidiary of the U.S. conglomerate, Viacom. Paramount is one of the 'Big Six', and owns %8.5 of the U.S./Canada market share.

I researched Paramount's filmography since the year 2000 so that I could learn more about their most common genres.

Whilst researching, I could only find one movie they had been involved that was about the end of the world, that movie being 'World War Z', an 'Apocalyptic' movie about a zombie apocalypse.

Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution studio that is owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. Colombia is one of the 'Big Six', and owns %17 of the U.S./Canada market share.

I researched Columbia's filmography since the year 2000 to get an idea of which genres they tend to get involved with the most.

I noticed that the studio has not been involved with any 'Post-Apocalyptic' movies for the past four years, however, there have not really been any well-known movies of this genre made for the same amount of time. So, I looked at their filmography for the few years prior to 2010.
















I immediately noticed that Columbia was involved with 'Terminator: Salvation', and, although not actually a 'POST-Apocalyptic' movie, 'Zombieland' is also an 'Apocalyptic' story about the "end of the world". Columbia was also involved with '2012', a 'Disaster' movie about the world cracking apart. All of these were in 2009, which was not long ago.

Titles Research - General Order

I found, on Wikipedia, a list of the general order by which films usually show their opening credits. Of course, this does not apply to all films, as some may choose to challenge the conventional ways.

This order does match, somewhat, the orders in the opening title sequences I have looked at, which are of the same genre as my film opening. Therefore, I think I am going to use this order for my opening.

Weather Report for 13/11/2013

I researched the weather reports for the coming week, and saw that next Wednesday will be quite sunny. For the first part of my scene, I need a good amount of natural light and for it to be a nice and sunny day as that will out more emphasis on how nice the world we live in now is. The other days next week do have some sunshine, but they are somewhat cloudy. So, I now plan to film the first part of my film opening on Wednesday 13th November.

This weather report was taken from http://uk.weather.com/.

Choosing Locations - Back Garden

For the second part of my film opening, I need to create a long line of rubble and debris that I can motion track credits on to. My Grandmother's back garden has a lot of bricks and concrete slabs that are piled up ready to be disposed of. There is also a lot of gravel. I have asked if I may use these things to create the look of a line of parts blown off of buildings, et cetera. To make things more convenient, there is a driveway at the back of the garden and a gate which leads out on to a road behind the house. This concrete driveway is relatively smooth, which might allow me to use something like a skateboard as a dolly for the camera as I pan along the line of rubble.

'The Last Of Us' Opening Analysis

Above is a timeline specifying the timings of each title that is shown during the opening sequence for the 'Post-Apocalyptic' video game, 'The Last Of Us'. Whilst this is a video game as opposed to a movie, there are similarities which have remained consistent, such as 'visual effects' credits being roughly in the middle, and 'director' credits being near the start.

Here is the game's opening sequence:


The Last of Us - Title Sequence from henry hobson directing & design on Vimeo.

Armour Production Planning

Checklist of tools/equipment:

• hot glue gun (obtained 04/11/2013)
• heat gun (obtained 04/11/2013)
• rotary tool (obtained 04/11/2013)
• spray paints (obtained 06/11/2013)
• foam mats (already owned)
• utility belts (already owned)
• screws (obtained 06/11/2013)
• stanley knife (already owned)

I have searched videos on YouTube of other people's armour that they made using the tutorial I will be using as a guide. Here is an example of one person's outcome:

Lighting in 'The Road'

Killzone Intercept - Analysis

'Killzone Intercept' is a short fan film based in the 'Killzone' universe. I was particularly impressed with the costume design for all of the armour and gear the soldiers have in this short. For the end of my opening scene, I will be needing some heavy-looking armour. Watching this short film has given me the inspiration to fully decide on making my own armour for my scene.

What's more is the use of atmospherics in this short. The smoke/dust effects work really well for both making everything look really rough and gritty, and for making the battlegound atmosphere more mysterious. The 'rough and gritty' look is something that I want to achieve in the second part of my film opening which is the post-apocalyptic part. I might experiment with effects such as these during the post-production stage of making my scene.



After watching the 'Behind The Scenes' video for this short film, I learned that for the smoke/dust effects, they used actual homemade air cannons. Although I would like to try making these and using them, I doubt I will have the time to learn how to make them, make them, then test them and fix any problems with them if there are any. With that in-mind, I will stick to adding them in digitally during the post-production process.

Musical Score

My friend, who also plays the woman in the scene, is a pianist and violinist. What's more is that she wants to pursue a career in making music for films, and has already recorded some tracks in a studio. I have asked her if she would kindly compose the score for my opening scene, and she said 'yes'.

Here is an example of her recent work:

Actors and Actresses

For the children, I have asked two of my Cousins who both have toddlers if they would let me film them playing at the park. They both kindly obliged.

For the woman who will be at the park, I have asked my friend who looks very much like my visualisation of this character.

And for the dog, I asked my friend who will play the woman if she could bring her German Shepard puppy with her and play fetch with him on-camera.

Finally, a male friend will play the armoured person at the very end of the film opening. I will also model the armour around him when making it.

Here are my actors:

Costume Design - Armour

For the ending of my opening scene, I will need some futuristic, yet post-apocalyptic, armour. I have found a tutorial which might help me.



I am considering following this tutorial to make some similar amour, but making it look more post-apocalyptic-like with the paint work. My Cousin is a prop and designer for stage productions, so I will ask him if he would help me with the making of this armour costume.