From the beginning of editing I encountered problems. First of all, the problem of filming on two separate cameras and memory cards made even the uploading a difficulty, as I got confused with what filming was on each camera.
Once I had overcame those problems, I soon settled into editing, making sure to do it quite speedily as I was already pretty behind.

I started the editing process by first uploading all my footage from both memory cards and putting them on Final Cut Express.
Already having organised the order of our shots and knowing which ones were successful and not… deciding which ones to use took very little time which was good. Nevertheless though, the ‘successful’ shots weren’t really poor, but… not the best they could have been to make the film not look like it had been made by A level students… as we hoped to make it look as professional as possible! That was just something that was never going to happen though.

From Final Cut then, we were able to shorten a lot of our clips and generally put them in an order we thought was most effective to make the whole time switch thing easier to understand… (scenes from the party being remembered by the friends the morning after (in their dreams) as they all wake up in an unknown location (the ‘shed’)).

(will update this later) 

Over the weekend, Me and Emily, as planned, went down to Rachel’s and completed the majority of our filming for the ‘party’ scene in our opening sequence. Being pressed for time and because of the disgusting weather, we then had to resort to plan B for our barn scene and shoot it at school instead so we could use one of our inside locations. We did this filming yesterday in our free with the same actors we used at Rachel’s.

We first arrived at Rachel’s when it was dry so made the most of filming before the rain came but unfortunately…it did straight away. Out in the freezing cold, we were limited to how much we could focus on each bit as we were all so tired and frozen but managed to get quite a few takes of each shot so in editing we had more to work with.
Excluding the fact that practically no one turned up to make our party scene a success, and some struggled to keep serious when acting, I’d say our filming went okay.

Sticking to the information we gathered from our questionnaires, we decided to make the majority of the shots quite short and snappy to stick to the conventions of our chosen genre.
Whilst editing, I made some shots even shorter to emphasise the pace of the film and to show how I’d like it to continue. As our opening sequence switches from one time to another, I have presented this by making each character remember vague things from the night before and one character (Peter – played by Nathan), to remember something the other’s don’t – the killer in the dark chasing after him, which I have made extremely short to convey a sort of panic and lack of detail as he couldn’t recall a lot.
Although I haven’t yet had time to sort out any music that I can put on it, I did have a few ideas with what I could use which were to cut out sound completely until the last bit where I would have some sort of crash when Peter (Nathan) looks a bit troubled with what he is dreaming and wakes up..waking the others up one by one.
The editing process itself wasn’t too difficult but we made it quite hard for ourselves as we hadn’t actually managed to get the amount of footage we had hoped for that we could work with. I overcame this by adding in the credits all the way through and switching back and forth with different shots to make them all look quite different and separate.
All the sounds I have used so far have been diegetic to, I think, make it more realistic as was my intention for the opening sequence, unlike a fantasy/horror film where a lot of things happen that can never happen in real life.

Overall then, filming for it went okay and editing is still sort of in progress so once I am finished and happy with my product I will put it on here as soon as possible..so some time tomorrow hopefully!

We’ve chosen to use the locations we found at school to do the scene that was previously supposed to be in Rachel’s shed, so after asking around all our actors to see if they could do Thursday lesson 2 (where most people are free), we were happy.
For the party scene, we thought it would still be best to do it at Rachel’s house so decided to go there over the weekend for a big gathering!

So as not to waste anymore time before filming, I am already in the process of typing up the script and sorting out exactly what will happen on the day of filming to ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible.
The short of it is then is that all our filming should be done by the start of next week so we can live in the the media block for days after to complete our editing.

Hopefully everything will run to plan on Thursday and the weekend and we won’t be too stressed next week rushing to get it all finished and burnt up on disk!

We didn’t really expect to actually use these places but thinking about it, they could actually be better than what we originally planned as it would be easier to get everyone there as it’s in school and we won’t have a problem with lighting or anything as we would have done in the barn.
It’s not really what we had in mind but I think it would still work quite well.

The photos we’ve taken have been uploaded on to the computer so I will put them on my blog once I can get hold of them! 

The location and everything was sorted for a lot of planned dates and we contacted the people who were acting for us, every time, at least 1 being unavailable that day when everyone else was free.
We also had the problem of not having a decent camera over the holidays and so planned with Chloe, who had a camera, to get together and do it all on the same day as the locations we wanted were pretty similar. We would sit there and say for definite it was going to happen the next day but something would always come up to ensure we had plenty of nice problems. 
I would like to say the pressure has eased off because we’ve decided yet another date where everyone should be able to turn up and we’ve also changed our plans and are filming a bit at school on some good locations we found to make it a bit easier, but there is still all the editing that needs to be done and we are aware that time is running out quickly.
Although Emily does have exams to study for in January, we have kept our agreement that we will share the roles equally to ensure we don’t push the date any longer and get it all done soon so we can focus on the thing we really enjoy – editing.

If worst comes to worst again, we will have to be prepared to do some filming on our own and share the work one way or another and then edit both independently and together so we both have the experience to do things successfully in the future.

Through lack of time and already failing to commit to our deadline, I am disappointed nothing had been done over the weekend. Seeing the best in every situation though, I am glad we have been given another chance to get it all finished over the Christmas Holidays…and we will.
Working around the situation of possibly no longer having the availability to shoot at Rachel’s house, me and Emily have had to brainstorm a few ideas in desperation as to how we will plan everything out during Christmas and who we will use, which location etc.
Because of this, we may have to change or atleast manipulate a few things from our animatic in to the film e.g. house party into a small party due to the lack of actors we can find.

One of our ideas is to shoot the ‘barn’ scene in a big garage of some sort instead. It should be just as dirty and scary looking just not with all the pitch forks and small tractors we were excitedly expecting to find in Rachel’s barn.
Emily also had the idea to bring her own camera to a new year’s party she is attending to get some shots for the party scene.
But, as I said before, if any problems occur with ideas like this…we would have to change things about a bit.

In regards to characters, so far we only have two definite YES’s. These are…
- Nathan Poole to play Peter: he is funny and lively so therefore presumably good at drama. He is also more than willing to play a geek for us for whatever reason of which we are not certain. As he doesn’t really dress or act like we want Peter to…we will give Nathan wardrobe ideas, glasses, a different hair style etc, just so he fits the part a bit better.
- Rachel Cooke as Sarah: from personal experience, we are clear on the fact that Rachel is pretty confident and quite a good actress as she stays serious when she needs to (most of the time), and is willing to help us out. She is also very pretty and has a friendly personality so would fit in with Sarah’s character quite well, I think.

When we know more of the date of filming, the actors, and some of the new locations if we can’t use the ones previously in mind, I will note down my ideas on here as soon as possible!

Well here it is…

Storyboarding!

Overall, me and Emily made about 57 shots as we wanted all of our shots to be quite quick to sort of mirror the pace of the film and the wacky atmosphere, and therefore we made quite a few.
In order to emphasise the tension and fear amongst our characters…we have used a lot of close-ups to accentuate their expressions.
We’ve also decided, whilst working on our animatic…all the things we are planning to change when doing the actual filming.
One thing would be adding in more tilted shots to illustrate the feel of confusion and anxiety, whereas if we were to keep the camera upright and straight the whole time it would be too normal and, well…with a film like ours…quite boring really.
Needless to say, we will attempt to make our shots as clear as possible, so movement and positioning of the camera may have to be kept simple

To establish the location and opening scene, the first shot is of a large number of people walking up towards a house with others all mingling, making it clear there is a party going on.
The next few shots we did then show different groups around the party having fun and laughing.
We then subtly introduce each character by drawing them standing about amongst other groups but making the shot slightly longer and with more action (individualisation of characters) to show they are going to be the main focus of the film.
Shot 5 is the first shot where we introduce the first character, Sarah, whose party it is. We single her out from the others to show she is more significant by standing her on her own and not mingling with anyone at that time (as she is staring at a boy and his girlfriend which is upsetting her - which is shown when it cuts to Shot 6). This then makes it evident that Sarah likes this boy, (who we later find out is Jake), which is the first signifier as to what could be involved in the film to come.
The next few shots in the film are of people mingling in the party and generally having fun. We made sure to include quite a few of these shots so that we don’t end up filming just what we need, but more, so we have plenty to choose from and work with during editing.
We are also planning to keep our shots quite short to emphasise the energy and excitement of the party opposed to the next scene which sees the main characters waking up in an unknown location (the barn/garage we are using), where our shots would then be a tiny bit longer as the characters will be all confused and tired. The shots would then shorten again as the tension builds up slightly until the end where the door slams shut.

The reasoning for our decisions can be found on the powerpoint Emily and I are in the process of making, as we didn’t have room on our animatic photos to write anything that could be read clearly. (I will post this on my blog shortly.)

I will be sure to update my blog as regularly as possible throughout our filming stage, (the second attempt), which has been rescheduled as the first time didn’t go to plan over the weekend.

So ’til then…goodbye.

As our story bases itself around a house party that happens at the beginning of the film, we needed a house with quite a long drive to shoot the first bit where people are walking up towards the house to join the party that is already going on. As we don’t yet have photos of the house we are using as it is in Lavenham, I found this one which illustrates near enough what we mean…

  - Stretched drive
  - Single. No neighbours close by. 
  - Large front face to establish it’s size.
  - Bushes dotted about, attractive garden for the      ’homey’ feel. 
  - No cars in the drive to show parents are out (as the party shouldn’t be happening).

Well as I can’t yet find anything that resembles the barn we are planning to use (which is on the same location), I will have to gather some relevant photos as we film next week and take a few shots of our preparation with the make-up and actors etc, but to give an idea of what the barn we are using is like… we focused on making it look almost deserted. As her barn is already quite old and dusty, this helps us a lot.
To emphasise the horror theme, if there aren’t any already, we will add a few props to the scene… meaning farm tools… which can represent ‘potential weapons’. Whenever there are sharp, dangerous tools visible it automatically raises suspicions as to whether anything will happen with them.

Well as I said… once we have collected a good amount of photos to couple with our ideas to give a better picture as to what we want it to be like, I will put them on here!

A group of teenage friends separated after a night at a house party, with no recollection of what happened and why they are now in an unknown location unable to find a way out to find the rest of their friends.
The film begins at the house party, with the camera spinning round emphasising the drunken and lively atmosphere. Everyone is together having fun, naïve of how their night is going to turn out.
The group of five, including the male half of a relationship, start the next scene of the film trapped and confused in a barn full of farmers’ tools and a suspicious corpse in one corner who they later realise is someone else who attended the party from the previous night.
Aware that the group of friends have been split from each other, the group in the barn begin to question how they got in this position and where the other 2 of their best friends are and if they are okay.
Looking around the room hoping to discover their location, the group come across the corpse, which raises fear and panic.
Alison, who is by herself, is controlled by an old man who she is really in love with, faking her relationships with her friends and boyfriend. Throughout the film, though the audience is unaware of it, the man in control of this girl forces her to gather up her closest friends and torture them in relation to an obsession of his – watching loved ones die in front of each other for them to endure the same thing he experienced as a child when he had to watch his family get horrifically murdered.
As Alison, wearing a mask, begins to pick them off one by one in the view of their friends, suspicions grow amongst the group as to who it is and only get an idea when Sarah escapes after being tortured and finally finds her friends to tell them who it is, as she is the only person Alison takes her mask off in front of thinking it is impossible for her to escape. She does though, and manages to find where her friends are to set them free and let them know what is going on. The boyfriend, Jake, who doesn’t believe her, argues and convinces the rest of them that she is tricking them and pinning it on his girlfriend just because she wants him for herself.
Sarah is then left alone again and is found by the girlfriend. Meanwhile, as the rest of the group attempt to escape, the old man captures them, kills them on the spot and the boyfriend manages to escape to find his girlfriend, still unaware she is the killer. He then runs back into Sarah and Alison and sees that it is in fact his girlfriend that is the murderer. Jake, after a lot of hesitation, kills his girlfriend and finally escapes with Sarah to safety, the film ending with the audience unaware of where the old man is (sequel).

There!

- Alison: Girlfriend of another character, Jake. Evil, but is portrayed in the characters’ eyes as innocent, in danger, and a good, strong friend to them all.
- Jake: Boyfriend to Alison. Good looking, selfless and brave.
- Sarah: Girl who loves Jake and therefore hated by Alison. Kind, trustworthy, and quick thinking.
- Nick: Confident, ‘buff’, quite cocky.
- Peter: ‘Nerdy’, quiet and weak. Scared and pessimistic but kind all the same.
- Gemma: Confident and determined to escape. Hates Keira.
- Keira: Just as confident as Gemma, though clashes with her.
- Derek Leslie: The villain. Evil and manipulative. Stays out of the picture for a while but isn’t incompetent (as he manages to kill a few himself). 

We thought hard about these names and chose them because they are average, every day teenage names and they suit their character well.