Locations

Over the past few lessons we as a group have gone location scouting in the Howard school to find suitable areas where we can film John Walters. Initially we looked at the boys hall wanting to test out the stage lights and see what kind of resolution we get on my HD camera. None of us new how to turn the lights on so we tried a few switches on the main board but nothing happened. Then about ten people from reception and the finance department came into the hall and informed us that we had switched off all their computers and phones. We quickly put all the switches back and all the power was restored. We then left and went to talk to some drama technicians who work the lights for school plays so that in the future we know how to work them.

Liam Fitzpatrick

Locations: 22nd June 2011

In today's lesson, we had a problem with location searching. one of our locations for our trailer was the mnain school hall, we wanted to specifically check out the lighting situation, as we wanted our lead actor Jimmy Gore to be on stage with us recordin him, we could not conjour up the reason why the lighting for the stage lights were not working. we then scraped our issues with filming, to go back to the clssroom and work on some titles, and look at various influential trailers.

Whilst Dave, Liam and myself worked on the titles, jimmy was looking at trailers, which we could take inspiration from, and upload onto our blog. we finally agreed on the titles, of our four horsemen product, as well as our other production company, harlequin. we also looked at the trailer for walk the line, as this was an influential film for our own idea.

Editing with Final cut express

The problem we have as a group is that we have spent years editing on Adobe Premiere Pro program which is a simple yet effective footage editing program. We have now moved to final cut express with the mac which is very similar to premiere pro but it allows you to edit HD footage and create SFX and computer generated effects but it can only be used on a Apple MAC.

Since me and Dave have been editing on this program we have found many problems such as:

How to import text into the film.

How to add/take away sound from your footage.

As you can imagen for creating a film trailer especially a teaser, text and sound are absolutley fundemental for our progress in work. We are just starting to adapt to the program now and I personally have found that the youtube tutorials helped us with editing greatly infact I now know how to create good looking text that suits our film.

Filming

Here are several photos from The Barge pub in Gillingham where several scenes for our trailer were shot. The photos taken maybe used for some sort of advertisment in the future.

It was good that we actually went to a location to film because the mise-en-scene was fantastic which gives the trailer a sense of realism as opposed to craeting a fake bar in an empty classroom. This also shows our commitment to the film because as memory serves we were filming into the early hours of the morning so that we were able to get decent looking shots.

Liam Fitzpatrick

Influential films: Walk the Line Conventions

Conventions of Walk the Line the story of Johnny Cash's hardships in life.
Key conventions we must take from this film:

1. 1. Show the character healthy and free of addiction.
2. 2. Show the oppisite with the character suffering from addiction.
3. 3. Convey the fact that he onced had an incredible career but let it all out of his grasp for drugs and alcohol.
4. 4. Use realistic locations that look like Western America (possibly hard to pull of but can be done).
5. 5. Show love life interest slowly being ripped apart by addiction.
6. 6. Convey sympathy that will provoke the viewer to feel for this mans struggle in life.
7. 7. Put across that there is always hope in life no matter how bad the road ahead may seem.
8. 8. Great music comes from a depressed mind, music must be a key elemant, music is his saviour and realise from the harshness of the world.

13/06/2011 Issue With Editing

Today the objective was to learn how and try to rip the vocals out of a song so that only the backing music would be left and I could sing in place of the original artists voice. It is presenting problems though and we need to find another way around it because our song "Beast in me" by Johnny Cash is an essential part of our trailer which will coney much meaning. I feel the music in teaser trailers has to be gripping & most importantly has to have subliminal meaning with the footage that is shown. I still have not managed to master the ripping of vocals but i'm going to keep on trying.

Production: Filming on the 10th of June

Friday the 10th filming session: It was a one shot take, me and Liam had to make sure that we knew exactly what we was doing in terms of capturing the great footage we wanted. For example Liam the director came up with the idea of creating a routine which he would be able to follow with the camera easily and not miss anything essential. So we ran it through a few times and the end product was to:

• firstly throw a cigarette on the floor and stamp it out
• grab the TV and smash it on the floor
• rip a white board off the wall
• smash a guitar against the wall
• then the character falls to his knees and cries with a bottle of whiskey

Overall this scene went very well to film i just had to listen to my director at all times and pay close attention to his instructions.

Locations: For the John Walters breakdown scene

Locations: Preparation

Friday 10th june

Today as a group we edited our opening footage from our teaser trailer, John Walters. We have used Jimmy's mac laptop to render our shots into HD. last night Jimmy and Liam shot a few little scenes, which would give us our opening to our teaser trailer. whilst Dave, Liam and I edited the opening. Jimmy was looking closely into Johnny cash's songs, as he was trying to convert the album into MP3. after school we will also be filming the downfall of Walters, where he has finally crashedto rock bottom.

as media studies main task

Research Into Backing Track

Ain't No Grave (can hold my body down) by Johnny cash


This is one of many songs that we have thought about using for our trailer for John Walters. I particularly like this song because I believe it represents our main character John Walters very well because he is a man that abuses his own life by indulging in alcohol and drug abuse for long periods of time and yet he has not killed himself. So thats why i think the song would be suitable for the trailer because essential John Walters is mocking the fact that even though he is living a sinful lifestyle he is going unpunished while other innocent people are suffering.

Due to copy right purposes we wouldn't use the original version of this song but instead create our own rendition with the main actor Jimmy Gore singing the lyrics giving the whole song a much deeper meaning which hopefully provokes an emotional response from the viewers.

Liam Fitzpatrick

Production: Wednesday 8th June 2011

Today as a group we went to one of the locations for our teaser trailer for John walters. The location was an abandoned classroom situated in the music block. The room was an utter mess with dirt and crisp packets covering the floor and graffiti all over the walls, luckily we were able accquire a large tub of white paint so that we could cover all the unnecessary blemishes that littered the walls. We also found a dustbag and two brooms so by working as a group we quickly tieded up the room until finally it was clean and in a presentable state so that we could start putting in all the furbtiture needed to complete the mise-en-scene for our trailer.

We then brought in several objects so that Jimmy, who is playing John walters, had something to interact with during the scene. To make the set seem like a dressing room we added in a table and chair to show that it is supposed to be a place for John walters to relax before and after a show. We also found an old television set that would later be smashed in a fit of rage, along with an old writing board that was left in the room. We also discussed what other props we needed to complete the mis-en-scene and they were a cigarete, an ash tray, a mirror, a whiskey bottle and a photograph which infuriates John and sets him on his destructiove war path.

After much discussion we locked the room so that no one else could enter and possible wreck what we had all worked very hard on. We then agreed to come back at a later date and film the scene that we needed for the trailer.

Feedback: Pitch

Feedback from presentation
· You will need loads of locations to cover John Walters journey as he goes through his addiction
· Need extras to make it seem like he is performing to an audience
· Will you use the school stage when performing to show that John Walters is at a venue?
· Sound may be an issue when filming outside so you may need to over dub layering recorded sound over the film.
· Filming in HD may require actors to wear make up
· What sort of music are you going to use? Existing music or are you going to sing your own songs.
· Could use a heartbeat sound effect showing his decent as images of his life flash up indicating his fall from grace.
· May need to use graphic titles for the film name but not for critical reviews or award nominations.
· Have a look on traileraddict.com to get an idea of how trailers are done.

Post Production: Pitch script

The Resurrection of John Walters- teaser trailer

Texas- 1992- The legendary country western singer John Walters has peaked in his career many years before hand and is now in a vicious drug and alcohol abuse cycle. Believing that he is a no good waste of space he sets out down the path of self destruction ignoring the people that care for his well being like his manager Stanley Forrest and his on/off lover Shelia Du Bois. John lives his life as a loner struggling with personal demons as each and every day for him is a constant battle as he needs to feed his consuming addictions.
John cruises through his life giving mediocre performances, fighting in bars and destroying his guitar until he finally lands himself in hospital where he is told that if he continues with his sinful lifestyle he will die. John then sets out to change his lifestyle but with all the temptations that are thrown at him changing his chaotic lifestyle is proving more difficult than first thought.

Genre: western/musical drama

Form: Teaser trailer

Influences: Elvis (1979), Walk the line (2004), Crazy Heart (2009)

Audience: The target audience for our film is people aged 15 years and over even though the film will contain drugs and some violence it isn’t specifically aimed at male audience so we have balanced the film out exploring John Walters relationship with Shelia Du Bois which may appeal to the female side of the audience. Also anyone that is interested in country western music will mostly likely want to see this film because it appeals to their music taste.

Tuesday 7th June 2011

Tuesday we had to place our pitch that we presented, onto the blog. I edited the pitch and cut off a part at the end of the clip that we didn't need. Also I added titles and transitions to title the pitch. Furthermore I changed the background of the blog, placing an image of our character 'John Walters' as the background.

Planning: Character Types

I feel this is the look we need to capture in our trailer a man on the brink, a man that does just not care anymore. Music was once his life but now addiction has taken over. What better musical icon to base our main character on than the 'Man in Black' himself Johnny Cash.

Feedback: Pitch for John Walters Teaser