After taking into account my locations, I came up with a few rough sketches of what my movie should look like via a storyboard. I will annotate roughly what is happening under each picture.


Here it shows the opening scene of my movie, only the sound of the wind can be heard, and there is menacing figure on top of a hill. He is looking down upon the streets, and this moves to an establishing shot of the area, slowly focusing in on the street which the next scene takes place in. I believe that there may only be a P.O.V shot due to the necessity of being able to see the person for the scene to work, which will be difficult to achieve with the video camera I am using in the dark.


This scene has a somewhat long shot and shows a man running out of an alleyway, only the wind should be heard in this scene, coupled with the sound of his running and heavy breathing.


This scene is a medium close up of the victim, as he is doubled up breathing/gasping for air. There is very little sound except that of him breathing, and the darkness cloaks most of his surroundings from view.


This quick scene shows a point of view shot from the perspective of the attacker, there is little to no sound, except the heavy breathing and footsteps of the oncoming attacker. The camera is shaky, to emphasize a slight amount of mental instability on the part of the attacker.


A quick medium long shot of the victim realising that the attacker has caught up with him, the victim says to himself "oh no", and freezes in fear.


The next shot is a Point of view shot which shows from the point of view of the attacker. He slowly walks towards the victim and the camera is closely transfixed on the victim.


The next shot the camera takes is with both characters plainly in sight. The attacker advances towards the victim, as the victim asks the attacker what he wants. There is no reply.


Instead of replying, the attacker jumps towards the victim aggressively, and proceeds to fight with him, which the victim can do little about while still frozen in fear.


This quick drawing illustrates a fast change between the face of the person being attacked, and then a scene of darkness in which the characters scream can be heard. This infers that the character has been killed.


In the next scene, the character is shown to be asleep, but then quickly rouses from his slumber in shock. For a few seconds the camera does not move, to show that the person in the view is in fact the person from the previous scene who has been attacked. This therefore infers that it was all a dream.


This shot shows an overhead view of the main character whilst he does a monologue. This informs us of some of the story, and also explains some of his mental stability issues for talking to himself. A factor which must be taken into account in this otherwise normal scene is that the speech of the character is done without the camera seeing his mouth, so it could be a narrative.


This shot shows the character moving towards the door, opening it and moving through it. It shows a messy room which is typical for a college student. This further enforces the view that he is very unorganised and unstable.


The character steps out of the room, and appears startled, he talks of why the attacker is here, though in a friendly tone, as though he knows the attacker and is good friends with him. The character visibly relaxes, and the hallway is eerily quiet.


This simple diagram shows that there is a conversation shot over the shoulders of the characters about what was happening in the dream, leading up to the attacker saying "that wasnt just a dream"


The attacker moves up to the character whom looks puzzled as to what the attacker says, the attacker then grasps the victims throat and lifts him off of the ground. The victim splutters and gasps for air, then struggles.


I hope thats how my movie turns out, or that it roughly looks like the storyboard. I believe that adding these to an animatic would not give a proper representation of the final movie, therefore I plan to question 20 people on whether or not they liked my storyboard, and if not, why.

Well, I found that the location I wanted - Chatterly Whitfield, is mostly being used and some construction is being done there, so I could only use one location and that was the top of the hill there. In the end, I collected various pictures of outlying streets which are close to the site I plan to be filming towards from the top of the hill. These street pictures are of a location less than a mile from my house, which I feel are perfect for the isolated feel that the movie needs. I took them last night, so that there was a good amount of darkness, and an eerie feel.

"Location Scouting is a vital process in the pre-production stage of filmmaking and commercial photography. Once scriptwriters, producers or directors have decided what general kind of scenery they require for the various parts of their work that is shot outside of the studio, a search is begun for a suitable place or "location" outside the studio. Location scouts will also look for appropriately spectacular or interesting locations beforehand, to have a database of locations in case of requests."

This is the definition of Location Scouting from Wikipedia. Tonight I'm going to do some location scouting to aid me in the creation of my storyboard. Hopefully after this I shall get a good idea of what my storyboard's setting will look like, as I have already sorted the story. I shall be location scouting around the streets of Chell Heath and Chell. I shall also be taking pictures of Chatterly Whitfield and the open land around it. Hopefully, this will aid the creation of my final project greatly, and conclude with the setting of my movie.

After much deliberation I decided on a thriller/horror/suspense movie. I choose to include zombies in this for added effect. I think a good title for such a movie like this would be "The Darkest Hour". I believe this is an intriguing name that does not let on too much about the movie, yet still hints at a paranormal theme.

A quick and interesting teaser, which I used as guidelines for the story which I am currently writing would be:

The life of a teenager can always be a stressful and confusing one. Bruno is a gifted 17 year old college student who doesnt care much for the supernatural, the outside world, or even his college studies. However, when twisted creatures from the void of his dreams begin to appear in reality, he begins to question reality: Is any of what he sees real? Are his friends who they appear to be? And why are these monsters in our plain of existence?

The line between genius and insanity is a fine one, and how will he find his place on it in this... his Darkest Hour?

The following information on how to make fake blood was taken from http://www.exposure.co.uk/eejit/blood/blood.html.

Corn Syrup Blood

This is the recipe that pretty much everyone uses, and there's a lot of variations so feel free to experiment.

16 oz. White corn syrup (Karo syrup - this is a US product, but adding golden syrup does the job just as well, alternatively just mix sugar and water and reduce on the stove until it becomes syrupy)
1 oz. red food coloring
1 oz. washing detergent
1 oz. water
Add a drop of blue food colouring to create a more realistic colour. Remove the washing up liquid if you want to make edible blood. Adding condensed milk makes it less transparent and more like real blood.

The blood is extremely sticky and can stain skin and clothes so makes sure its washed off quickly. Use a stain remover on clothes.

Cardiff Red

Because of the food colouring used in a lot of blood recipies they tend to stain easily and can sometime look more purple than red. Here's a more natural alternative that's closer to a Spaghetti Western style arterial red. It also washes out of clothes easily and can be eaten reasonably safely (although why you'd want to eat it is beyond me).

Take a teaspoon or two of Arrowroot (a white powder used in baking that you can easily find in health food shops) and add to water heated on the stove. Stir continuously until the mixture becomes gloopy. Add a small amount of red children's non-toxic powder paint and stir in. The mixture should now be bright red. Add a tiny amount of brown powder paint or coffee concentrate (make this by adding a small amount of water to coffee granules) to darken the blood as required. Store in a bottle or jam jar and thin by adding water to make the blood the required consistency as and when you need it. For bullet hits you need to thin the blood quite a bit to allow it to spray out.

Lo-Cost Blood

Add a few drops of red food colouring to the cheapest washing up liquid you can find. Add a drop of blue colouring or some coffee concentrate to create a more realistic colour. Produces a runny blood that has a slight tendency to foam. Great for those bucket of blood effects on the cheap. Washes off reasonably well but tastes foul if you accidently get it in your mouth.

I will probably be using the corn syrup blood as the blood will need to be edible, adding paint would probably make it very bad to eat/drink. I will proceed to post a picture of the results, and perhaps include the use of it in my movie. I may even add the making of it later on. Corn Syrup blood is commonly used in movies due to its easily modified consistency and colour, as well as the fact that it's edible. Many films use pigs blood, but this is often frowned upon for humanitarian reasons.

This is my preliminary project, it is an excercise in continuity. The objective of this was to simply get someone to do a fluid set of movements, which would be clearly illustrated by the camera. The camera would have to change angles and position, whilst still keeping his movements seemingly in the same time period. I chose to use a person (myself) walking down a corridor, through a door, round a corner, then proceding to have a conversation with someone. I think this came out rather well in the end and am glad i chose it. I believe i could have spent more time on it though and edited it better, clearing up the scenes and adding more angles, but it was my choice to keep it simple.

Post comments saying how it could be improved or anything that could be changed to make it better just for you, i'll respond as soon as i can =]

I haven’t posted in a while, due to the fact ive been doing filming and editing of that filming, but I thought it necessary to analyse this still from the movie "Pulp Fiction" before half term.



This still shows a somewhat climactic scene of the movie 'Pulp Fiction' in which, after taking his bosses wife out for dinner and dance, Vincent Vega (John Travolta) finds Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) Overdosing on his Heroin, which she thought was cocaine. The extreme situation is amplified by the fact that Vincent is taking care of his boss’s wife as a job, and her overdosing (possible dieing) would almost definitely mean that he is killed. The camera shot is a close up of Mia in a dishevelled state, foaming from the mouth and bleeding from her nose. She is seemingly either unconscious or dead, however, later on in the movie she is resuscitated via an adrenaline shot to the heart.

I like this scene because there is a lot of tension in the air and it is a sudden shock to the otherwise bland (keeping his boss's wife safe) storyline. I would rate this as one of the best movies i have ever seen.

This is a still from The Dark Knight. It's from the intro sequence and it introduces 'The Joker'. The shot focuses on one of the robbers, and is blank aside from the colour of the thieves' clothing and masks. The character and in the background, as well as the actual background is blurred, as the scene (at that point) is focusing on this particular character. The gun being pointed at the central character. The character behind him is wearing a purple suit, in the head of the moment, you may not realise that the masked person in the background is 'The Joker', and actually involved with the bank robbery (contrary to the other robbers' beliefs)

I really should have posted more often, but as my internet has been down at home and ive had things to do otherwise, i didnt have time, nor the ability to do so.

But anyways, this is a picture from the Movie "The Hills Have Eyes". Its technically the second one because of the prior version of the Hills have Eyes 1 from 1977.

This still shows Brenda Carter/Emilie de Ravin running away from the explosion/charging towards someone with an axe. This is a typical framing shot, whilst still keeping the wreckage in view. It looks like a high action and adrenaline fueled scene, which should feature fast cuts. Alot of desert is shown to present the audience with a feeling of isolation, and the lack of greenery makes the scenery even more unfriendly.

The movie is about a team of various people from a weapons manufacturer called "Palisade" go on a team building trip to a "luxury lodge" that goes slightly wrong when they goto an old asylum for war criminals instead of the luxury lodge. Thinking the former is the latter they go into the building and (somewhat) happily go about their activities, until - you guessed it - they get attacked by the war criminals, who just so happen to have a vendetta against Palisade. Quick cuts, violent comedy (a man gets his leg chopped off by a bear trap, then he takes ecstasy to get rid of the pain), and some quality acting make it a movie to be reckoned with in this genre.

Its a black comedy, it has gore, violence, cruelty, but also alot of comedy, all under the certification of 15. Truly its a wonderful (and british!) movie.

Hey, I'm Andrew Ward-Salt, but for the time being i'll be calling myself Drewbo.

This blog is for my AS Level Media Studies project. To be honest i have no idea what im going to do, so I guess I'll make it up as i go along. Improvisation is key to my success =]

As I am making a movie, I'm pretty sure that I'm gonna rock the world of film to its very core. Havent quite decided what Genre of movie it will be yet though, or anything really, its early days yet... so I'm open to suggestions - only good suggestions though =]