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This year I have made a psychological-thriller based in Gothic-Victorian England. It is a new idea that has not been thoroughly investigated before. I intended, from the very beginning, to make this a new thing that has not been done before.

The Film

The final film of 'The Raven'

This is the final cut of the opening scene to 'The Raven'. It is a Gothic-phsychological-thriller and I hope it is tantalisingly scary. 

What I Realised

At this stage we’ve realized how many different aspects of filmmaking there are.  I think Paris and I have worked well together as a team but we’ve also had to pull in quite a few other people to help us.  The majority of these people I’ve worked with before on other projects but a few more hands on specific expertise would have helped to take some aspects to a higher level e.g. website design, twitter expertise and the like.

My Work

I am pleased with what I produced overall. However there are things that I would have like to have improved, such as, the control of the lighting. I found it very hard to have a good balance between light and dark. The main problem was when I wanted a scene to look like it was lit by candle light. This caused difficulties because when I used artificial light it made it look fake and too brightly lit because the lighting was in the wrong place. The main thing I learnt through doing this project is that setting lighting up often takes up to an hour, sometimes two. Next time I make a film I will take this into account and allow for extra light setup time so that I can get a better effect.

Future Film Ideas

The Raven
A complete remake, set in the modern day, of the film I just finished.

The Distance (The Thief) (The Good Thief)
A boy's brother passes away and he works to help his mother by becoming a thief.

The Wolff Inside (Lykanthropie)
A story following Fredrich Koffer, and his trust in his friend Heinrich Wolff, an SS agent who betrays him.

Number 10 (Hunted)
A remake of Hunted, reimagined as a political thriller and a man who exposes the government.

The Gunslinger (The Pistoleer)
A story following a man seemingly out of time. A western style hero in a modern town.

Swords in Sunlight (Yin and Yang)
A story of dark vs light. A film centred around sword fighting and battles.

Tarot
A film based on Tarot cards, full of magic and unexplained mysteries in a world similar to ours.

Production: Website

https://julian-deane.squarespace.com

This is the final web design for our film. 

Production: Lightning

This is the light setup that we used to create the lightning in the second shot. It was to send light through the skylight to create a lightning effect in the opening scene. Although this shot looks as if it was difficult to access it was easy to get to if you know how our school is laid out. I think the shot was successful because there is enough light to see what is going on but dark enough to keep the mysterious theme.

Production: Blender Render

I decided to do a test render of the Mansion to make sure there were no faults with the animation. Unfortunately I did find a few flaws with the lightning and reflective surfaces in the actual animation.

(Above we see the Blender image and below it the mansion I was trying to recreate)

Editing: Title 3

This was the first moment we see 'The Raven' written anywhere. In this particular shot I decided to frame it inside the mural frame. I also made it only visible when there was a flash of lightning, to add an uncertainty about it.

Production: Blender

In this shot we can see my first attempt at setting the light levels for the Mansion using Blender, a 3D modelling generator. I decided it was probably a good idea to adjust the lighting levels using mono-phasic angling (making the light point one direction) and by changing the colour of the light source from white, to an off white beige.

Although taking a long time to create, I believe that the spectacle shot that this created was such that it would make all who saw the film be drawn into it.

Production: Twitter

To publicise ourselves to a wider audience we have created a twitter account where we will put info about the film and behind the scenes news.

Editing: Title 2

In this shot I had Harry Normanton's name appear behind him. However, I wanted to make it seem more natural so I decided to rotoscope around Harry creating a multi-dimensional effect for the final denouement. 

I had worried that the name would not be in shot for long enough, but after testing on 5 different people whether they could read the name or not, I felt satisfied it was ok.

Editing: Titles 1

This title is the name of 'Bob Robertson'. What we did here was we wanted to create a depth of field effect to follow the depth of field change with the camera so we simply changed the blurriness of the name frame by frame. This meant that we had to look at the focal point of the lens of the real 'live' film and follow it with the text.

Planning: Sound Effects

We have been looking at music to go with our opening but as the opening is set during a storm we think the sound effects of lighting fit better with the theme. I used rain and thunder to set the entire mood of the film and fire to create a warmer room during the conversation. 

Planning: Website

This is a photo taken of us planning our website out on paper. We have looked at the websites of films from a similar genre to aid us. This was taken in the early stage of planning.

Planning: Website

In the lesson today we started creating our outline for a website on adobe photo-shop. 

Planning: Victorian Clothes

After researching Victorian costumes we decided that The Narrator should be in evening wear with a cloak. We would have liked John Abamire to wear  pyjamas and dressing gown as if he is just about to retire for the night but found it hard to find a Victorian style of dressing gown.  We therefore dressed him more casually with open neck shirt and cravatte as a gentleman of the time may have worn relaxing at home.

Planning: The Poem

The original poem was phrased as a single narration and is quite lengthy running at approximately 10minutes.  We’ve transformed this into a two person dialogue to enable us to explain the story more comprehensively to an audience in a short opening clip.  We’re adding the device of “a mysterious wooden box”  to engage the audience in questioning what is really going on adding to the “unseen” quality we want.  As we now have a cast of two I can play The Narrator and we’re fortunate that a classmate is a good actor and he has volunteered to be play John Abamire.

Production: Film Release Dates

We decided that the 25th would be a good day to open as it is the week before Halloween. Halloween is a time or year when many people enjoy a spooky atmosphere, particularly in America, and increasingly in England. To take advantage of this, horror/thriller type films are released and above you can see the research we have done on releases in October 2013. As our film, fits into the Horror/psychological thriller category, we feel that this is the best time of year for it to open.

Planning: Storyboard

Research: Thriller films and Victorians

Today we learnt how to use a new website called scoop.it which is an electronic noticeboard that allows us to collect all research and certain topics and show it together. Also today in our lesson we researched films that have similar themes to our intended film opening and put our research on the website scoop.it If you wish to see my associate's research into thriller films CLICK HERE  My associate also did research into how Victorians dressed as that is when our piece is set, to see this research CLICK HERE.

Production: Narrator

It took a lot of practice to get the timing of the The Narrator right.  We were worried that because The Narrator had to speak quickly to fit it in with the time available that he would be difficult to understand but the audience we checked it with thought it was OK.

Production: Evenings

We have done a lot of the filming this week as if we leave it much longer we will have lost the advantage of having dark afternoons/evenings.

Planning: Location

All of the filming can be done around the Mansion of the school.  We’ve identified several locations that will be good: the main staircase, the old principals office and the great room and have  been given permission to film after school.

Production: Scene 5&6 With Talking

This is an explanation to show about the effect we wanted to get from these 2 scenes.

Production: Scene 2&3 With Talking

This is an explanation to show about the effect we wanted to get from these 2 scenes. 

Production: Pre-Production Poster

This is the pre-production poster of the film to stimulate enthusiasm early on before most of the film is shot. I'm happy with the way this turned out: the colour scheme fits in with the tones used in the final film and the theme is consistent with whats unseen.

Planning: Call Sheet

AS Media Studies Call Sheet for ‘The Raven’ 

Scene 1

Length of shot: 30 seconds

Length of Shooting time: 2 Hours on .....

Location: Claremont Main Hall

Crew: Julian Deane   Contact Email:***********

Director/Actor

Crew: Paris McAuliffe Contact Email:***********

Camera Man

Crew: Marcus Allan Contact Email:***********

Assistant to the Director

Crew: Riley Clements Contact Email:***********

Director of Photography

Crew: Greg Flynn Contact Email:***********

Lighting Director

Crew from Facilities Department to assist with roof lighting

Camera Equipment: Camera (EOS 550D)

                                    3 Wheel Dolly

                                   Tripod

Lighting Equipment: Strobe Light

                                  Back Lighting

                                  Angle Lighting

Props: Candle, Box

Wardrobe: Julian Deane: Cloak, Trousers, Suit Jacket, Cravatte Bow, Shirt, Leather Shoes

AS Media Studies Call Sheet for ‘The Raven’ 

Scene 2+3+4+5

Length of shot: 6+3+5+5 seconds

Length of Shooting time: 1.5 Hours on ......

Location: Claremont Side corridor

Crew: Julian Deane   Contact Email:***********

Director/Actor

Crew: Paris McAuliffe Contact Email:***********
Camera Man

Crew: Marcus Allan Contact Email:***********
Assistant to the Director

Crew: Riley Clements Contact Email:***********
Director of Photography

Camera Equipment: Camera (EOS 550D)
                           Tripod
                              Jib

Lighting Equipment: Back Lighting
 Angle Lighting

Props: Candle, Box

Wardrobe: Julian Deane: Cloak, Trousers, Suit Jacket, Cravatte Bow, Shirt, Leather Shoes

AS Media Studies Call Sheet for ‘The Raven’

Scene 6

Length of shot: 60 seconds

Length of Shooting time: 2 Hours

Location: Claremont Principles Office

Crew: Julian Deane   Contact Email:***********
Director/Actor

Crew: Harry Normanton  Contact Email:***********
Actor

Crew: Paris McAuliffe Contact Email:***********
Camera Man

Crew: Marcus Allan Contact Email:***********
Assistant to the Director

Crew: Riley Clements Contact Email:***********
Director of Photography

Crew: Greg Flynn Contact Email:***********
Lighting Director

Camera Equipment: Camera (EOS 550D)
                           Tripod

Lighting Equipment: Back Lighting
                           Angle Lighting
                           Fire Lighting

Props: Candle, Chairs, Side Table, Fire, Box

Wardrobe: Julian Deane: Cloak, Trousers, Suit Jacket, Cravatte Bow, Shirt, Leather Shoes

Wardrobe: Harry Normanton: Shirt, Cravatte, Trousers, Leather Shoes, Dressing gown

AS Media Studies Call Sheet for ‘The Raven’

Scene 7

Length of shot: 20 seconds

Length of shooting time: 1 hour

Location: Claremont Mansion great room

Crew: Julian Deane   Contact Email:***********
           Director

Crew: Harry Normanton  Contact Email:***********
Actor

Crew: Paris McAuliffe Contact Email:***********
Camera Man

Crew: Marcus Allan Contact Email:***********
Assistant to the Director

Crew: Riley Clements Contact Email:***********
Director of Photography

Crew: Greg Flynn Contact Email:***********
Lighting Director

Camera Equipment: Camera (EOS 550D)

Lighting Equipment: Back Lighting
                           Angle Lighting
                           Fire Lighting
Props: Candle

Wardrobe: Harry Normanton: Shirt, Cravatte, Trousers, Leather Shoes, Dressing gown

Planning: The Set Planning Tool

I used this tool (Google Sketchup) to help set out what I wanted in each scene so it would be quicker to set up.

Planning: Script

SCENE 1

JULIAN DEANE

(Voice-over)

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December, And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. Eagerly he wished the morrow; - vainly he had sought to borrow From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore - For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore - Nameless here for evermore.

Twas once upon a midnight dreary, while he pondered weak and weary, over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, while he nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, as of some one gently rapping, rapping at his chamber door. `'tis some visitor,' he muttered, `tapping at my chamber door - only this, and nothing more.'

Julian is heading up the inner hallway stairs. He is carrying a box and a candle to light the way. Once up the stairs he turns left and heads through the hallway door. 

THE CAMERA MOVES OUT OF THE VIC AND TRACKS DOWN TO THE RAILING TO SHOW 'LENSPIC FILMS'. AFTER THIS THE CAMERA PANS LEFT TO SHOW JULIAN GOING UP THE STAIRS AND ROUND TO THE DOOR. 

FLASHES OF LIGHTNING ARE SHOWN THROUGHOUT.

Once through the door (and first verse) he turns quickly as he hears the door slam behind him. After this he continues onward. 

CAMERA IS CLOSE UP AS HE REACTS

Julian walks down the corridoor 

THE CAMERA IS LOW AND PANS DOWNWARD FROM HIS FEET TO THE FLOOR

Julian carries on down the hall. You see his shadow on the wall. 

CAMERA AT THIS POINT IS FOCUSING ON THE WALL AND JULIAN IS NOT EVEN SEEN. THE CAMERA FOCUSES ON HIS SHADOW

As the second verse comes to a close, he knocks on the door of a study

SCENE 2

Julian walks across the room, dropping the box on the table and then sitting in the chair opposite John. 

JULIAN DEANE

(Frightened)

John, there are strange goings on in this house that are not of mans doing 

JOHN ABAMIRE

(Laughingly)

Do not be silly my friend, there are no happenings that go unnoticed by me 

JULIAN DEANE

(Concerned)

That may be so but that is no reason for you to not leave this dreaded place 

JOHN ABAMIRE

(Annoyed)

My staying is of my own choosing. Now leave me. 

Julian leaves the room. Leaving the box with John. The man stands. He looks into the box and then walks away. 

He walks down the corridor and the lights go out behind him as he walks. 

JULIAN DEANE

(Voice-over)

Deep into that darkness peering, long he stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before; But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token, And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore!' Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!' Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

Planning: Preliminary Film

Planning: Treatment

A large mansion is seen, lightning flashes in the background. The veiw changes via tracking shot into the main hallway of the mansion. Man1 runs up the stairs holding an old victorian oil lamp. He is wearing a jacket and cloak. The camera tracks sideways now to show the words ‘LensPic Films’ written in glass. A flash of lightning creates a lensflare through the glass. The shot changes to show Man1 walk through a door, a close up shows his face in defined light as he turns to see what has happened when the sound of a door slamming echoes in the hallway. You see Man1s shadow on the wall with the name of the actor playing him. The shot changes to show Man2 sitting in an armchair with a glass of brandy, his face not shown. Man1 walks through the door behind him. Man1 crosses over the room dropping a box onto the small table beside Man2. Man1 and 2 disscuss an issue of the past before Man1 decides he’s had enough and leaves. Man2 stands, opens the box and looks inside. The fire flickers and the name of the actor playing Man2 is shown in the flame. He shuts the box and proceeds to leave the room. He is seen walking down a corridor, the candles on the wall going out behind him. A flash of lightning shows the shadow of a raven, another flash shows words reading ‘The Raven’. 

Research: Viewer Profile

This is the audience profile for 'The Raven'. The people that view this film, I believe to be, not horror enthusiasts, however I do believe that they would be the kind of people that would sit down to watch such type of film. On the other hand, I have looked at getting thriller and mystery enthusiasts interested by including aspects of Hitchcock and Agatha Christie.

Research: Taking Old Ideas

Psycho, Sixth Sense and The Woman in Black are three psychological thrillers that have been very successful. The gross income for these films ranged from $50 million to over $600 million. Other films of the same genre have almost always made a profit of over $30 million. This bodes well for our film because it would almost ensure a good profit for the film, meaning that a film studio would be more likely to invest in such a film. 

The basis for all these films is intrigue, mystery and the heartstopping moments of fright. This is what I want to replicate in this film. However I am changing the simple basic idea from being scared due to what is being seen and changing it to what is not seen.

I want to go back to the old days of horror films, such as ‘The Birds’ and the rest of the old Hitchcock Films. The idea that there is something that you are keeping from the audience. I put this ‘something’ in a box, and made this box mysterious and unknown, and that the audience will only see what is in the box at the end of the film.