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.