The vast majority of the shooting for my trailer will take place locally in the surrounding locals woods within the Medway Area in Kent- the region in which i love. I chose this location because i ran into some troubles with my car recently and i was planning on going to New Forest National Park to condone my filming, this being quite a far distance away it was both inconvenient to get all the people to come along with me despite that being the original plan, and it near enough became impossible to still stick to because of the lack of time, but it meant that i had to adapt and change my original plan to somewhere closer to home.
My film is based upon a group of friends who plan to go on a camping trip in a local forest/woods where by they expect the trip to be ordinary and like no other, however this trip doesn't quite go down how they planned. One reason why i decided to use locals woods instead of a well known forest, was down to the reason that it will reduce my travel expenses and save me time having to travel further distances. Also, choosing this location closer to home meant that if i have any errors upon viewing and playing back the film, i can easily re-gather my friends to help me film and re-shoot any shots i need to make up for what i don't have or that have gone wrong and need shooting again.
The location of Darland Woods in Medway, Kent. This is the location in which i will be filming most of my trailer. This is down to ease of access and convenience for all members of cast. This woods is big enough to condone all my filming and provides a variety of different effective filming locations.
Within my local area there are a variety of different woods (not forests) that are publicly open and can be explored as people may wish. One of the woods that i will be using is called Darland Woods which is pictured above in the red circle. This woods is situated close by to the motorway M2. The reason i chose this location is because my friends are all split up between a few towns - Gillingham, Twydall & Rainham and i needed to have a central location in which we could all travel to with ease, one of my characters featuring in the film lives close by to the woods so it was easy for him to access and walk to from his house, making this more convenient for me when it comes to filming. Another location i plan on using is a place down Lower Rainham Road called Motney Hill, this road is a public road however it comes to an end nearer the top and turns into a private road of which cars cannot access. This location i plan on using for the 'roadtrip' element of my film where the group is shown travelling to the location and all my various different car shots will either be done along this road pictured or in the surrounding roads close by.
Location in which Motney Hill can be found. Just off Lower Rainham Road in Medway, Kent.
In the picture above, i have shown where about Motney hill can be found. In the other picture this shows where Darland woods is. Another erason why i picked these locations is because they are often very rarely occupied and roamed by people, although you do come across a few people here and there. Both the locations have vast majorities of open areas in which i can film within and this will help me utilize the overall effict that i am after to provide the best viewing experience. Having these open areas available to me means that all my planned shots can be hopefully performed and done to a good standard and turn out how i like them to be as if i had a smaller area i may be restricted as to what i can achieve.
Motney Hill- a view of the road on which i will shoot some of my travelling shots. This road is fairly quiet so there is no issue in filming in the road. It is a dead-end road.
This is another shot of Motney Hill- the location in which i will perform my travelling shots. This shot is taken close to where the road ends and becomes a private road.
In my trailer, there isn't much of a plan as to costumes and props that i will be using. Predominately, the film is based around a camping trip so characters will be in their own choice of clothes- something of which i will not take control over or worry about too much. However, i would like the main killer to be dressed up in all black, whether this will be in an all black tracksuit or casual black jeans/top/jumper etc. The idea behind my film is to have the killer appear as a black figure in the background of some shots- hence why I have chosen to film towards sunset. However, this will obviously have its limitations due to the coming together of people and making sure everyone is free and also depending upon the weather conditions.
One thing I will have to watch out for with costumes is that if i film at different stages, or different days the characters will be wearing different clothes to the time before so i have to make sure that they are in the same clothes to avoid the confusion upon viewing and making the story non consistent.
A prop that i will be using in my film is a knife which will be cutting into the tree- this is due to the fact that an axe is rather hard to find and gather and it is a lot more convenient to bring along to the shoot. The knife is very blunt so it will not be a hazard to anyone although complete caution will be taken with the knife.
To edit my video/trailer that i am producing I will be using an editing program for PC called Sony Vegas. I have decided to use this editing software upon production of my trailer as I am fairly familiar with the dynamics and features that the program has to offer, and have an already outstanding knowledge of skills needed to achieve an effective trailer. In this post I will look briefly into editing software and cover both the basics and more advanced videos of how to use programs such as the likes of Sony Vegas.
In this video above, this 'YouTuber' shows the basics of how to use Sony Vegas and covers how to import media, cut it, adjust and add features to your video. Although i already knew how to do all of this due to me using this program repeatedly over the last few years for both my hobbies and AS coursework, this helps to remind me of how to achieve the basic elements the program has on offer. Although this video covers Sony Vegas aspect, many of the skills are transferable and can be used within the editing stage of my main task.
In the next video i found on YouTube, this guy described how to make an effective horror movie upon the editing process stage. In this video, he uses Sony Vegas Pro 12 of which i have used on a regular basis and have available across a range of various different devices- it is a program that i am very familiar with. One of the key points i picked up from this video was that to make the trailer look unique and 'cinematic' you had to add widescreen bars, which essentially adds to black bars to the bottom and top of the frame to cut of some of the video to give it more of a film look rather than uploaded straight from the camera and unaltered. This however can also be achieved in Sony Vegas itself by clicking on properties and adjusting the frame whilst holding 'CTRL' - this may be the better option in this instance to avoid any confusion. However the widescreen bars can be loaded on top of the trailer with another video track to be consistent. I also learned that you had to play around with some of the settings when you edit your video to adjust the brightness of the video to give it a more darker look and feel- making it more effective. The darker the trailer usually is, it gives a scary or tense feeling. I also learnt how to reduce blurring of the video upon playback both in the editing program and when the film is finished, this is done by going into the properties, and reducing interflace flicker and disabling the resample
