You can see in this picture that the lighting was working perfectly fine and is creating the illusion that the plane is up in the sky:
However, unfortunately one of our lights ran out of power and therefore we lost the illusion that the plane was in the sky and it is showing that the plane is just on the ground. Here is where this became apparent:
To overcome this error we will be creating a mask around the window showing the outside, to illuminate the window to create the illusion and overcome the continuity and realism errors.
This will be done in Adobe After Effects by first of all creating an adjustment layer and applying it with a white-ish glow. A mask will then be created over the window and this adjustment layer will be applied. The mask will then have to be motion tracked to the window due to the movement of the character. However, there is only subtle movement so this should not be too difficult.
In todays lesson, Max and Harrison have been working on the silent animatic for the plane scene. This is being done on one computer, whilst Jack edits the actual film.
Costumes like these would have been our ideal choices, but as our story board for the plane scene was not fully finished, and characters not scripted, we had to improvise. Therefore Jack, playing the role of an air steward, wore a blue shirt with smart black trousers and smart shoes. This made this role look authentic as possible.
Extra's in the plain :
Our extra's in the plain will be wearing casual clothes, we would ahve hoped for a mix range of ages, genders and appearences (smart, casual...) but on the day we were unable to get any extra's who were willing to take time out to help fill in empty seats. Therefore we all took it in turn to alternate clothes and sit in different places for shots of the whole cabin, although this may effect the continuity of our opening, it was are only alternative.
Max's escort :
Our escort will be dressed up similarly to the man on the left of this picture, although it is stereo typicaly would you expect an escort to look like, we are dressing him in this way to position the audiance, and especially seeing as we only have two minutes for our entire sequence, character roles need to be established more obviously then if we were filming a feature lengh movie.
Props: Briefcase - He has a briefcase because it's what the hacking hardware is in. As it has not yet been established what is in the briefcase it creates enigma codes as to what's in it. And why's is there?
Handcuffs - These have been used to position the audience to thinking that the main protagonist is actually a criminal and this is therefore justified at the very start of the opening.
This is a rough edit of our scene that we filmed in the hospital which will be used for the second scene in our opening.
We decided that we wanted to create a very dark atmosphere to add to the anxiousness of the scene. Therefore in the hospital we turned all of the lights off and just used one main spotlight to illuminate the subject. The spotlight was above the subject however pointed down towards the subject's left-hand side of the face. This as a result created shadows which gave it a darker atmosphere and therefore made the audience focus and notice the fear on the protagonist's face, allowing proximity to emotions and additional tension to be built.
In our first scene (plane crash scene) there is only natural lighting used, however we used three LED lights which were placed outside of the plane and shone into the window where the two main character's are sitting. By doing this it creating a strong white glow at the window of the plane and creating the illusion that the plane is actually flying in the sky.
Today we shot our first scene for our thriller opening. The scene was in the hospital and we were able to gain access to most of the hospital equipment. Here are some pictures of the shoot:
We had to send an email to the people we are gaining permission from, just describing what exactly we will be filming so they have an idea. Here it is:
This scene has helped me gain a thorough understanding of how we will undertake the filming of our plane crash.
The scene has created tension by controlling the timed sequence with the frequency of cuts. As the scene starts off with the plane taking off, it has a medium/fast pace to the sequence, and as we can see, the protagonist seems to be a very nervous flyer, which adds to the tension. As the plane continues, the cuts gradually get faster and faster, suggesting that something is going to happen. This is also additionally emphasised as the protagonist's nerves seem to be building. When the plane hits turbulence, the frequency of cuts increase which builds up the tension even more. However, as the turbulence stops all of a sudden, the pace of the clip slows down consequently. This creates a confused mood and the audience will assume that maybe nothing is going to happen, drawing up various enigma codes; 'Are they going to survive?' 'Will the turbulence occur again?'. The plane then all of a sudden suffers severe turbulence which creates a much faster pace to the sequence, and therefore a very quick editing pace. This has been used to shock the audience, as they thought that the passengers were fine after the turbulence had stopped. As the plane is crashing, the frequency of cuts is exceedingly fast, for example, from 48 seconds to 1minute 14 seconds there is a total of 30 cuts. Which means that there are 30 cuts over the period of 26 seconds, and is therefore showing that there is a cut more than one every second.
Here are some examples:
This is at the start of the scene, as the plane is taking off. These 4 cuts are over a period of 11 seconds.
This is as the plane is crashing. The 4 cuts are over a period of 4 seconds. This is therefore showing that the high frequency of cuts is being used to speed up the pace of the scene.
Close-ups have also been used so that the audience can focus on specific things that may be relevant to the crash. As the plane is hitting turbulence, there is a close-up of the protagonist's hand grabbing onto the armrest which is being used to show his fear and that his nerves are arising.
A close-up of the shelf is then used, showing the shelf door shaking. This is used to make the audience focus on the shelf and gain tension as it could possibly fling open. It is also additionally emphasising the severeness of the turbulence.
A very quick close-up of the toilet sign is then used, showing it flickering on and off. This is used to show that the plane now isn't just hitting turbulence, it is malfunctioning and this will now therefore raise enigma codes in the audience.
Long shots are used to show every passenger's body language and responses in relation to what has just happened. For example, as the turbulence stops happening it cuts to a long shot of every passenger on the plane which shows them seeming very calm. In contrast, there is also a long shot when the plane starts to hit the turbulence and through the passengers' body language and responses, the audience can see that the passengers are starting to worry.
As the plane is flying normally
As the plane is crashing
Parallel sound is being used in this sequence - at the start of the scene the sound has a medium face, although it raises from low to high pitch and then suddenly stops and starts again every 3 seconds or so. The same sound is repeated however the high pitch gets higher each time. This is suggesting that something could happen at any time at that moment, raising the tension and enigma codes throughout the audience. The sound is in sequence with what is happening in the sequence, for example, as the plane suffers from turbulence, the pace of the music builds up, again creating even more tension. When the turbulence stops and the plane is calm, there is in fact no music. Then when the turbulence occurs again, the music gradually builds up in parallel to how severe the crashing and malfunctioning of the plane is.
It has also given me an idea on how I am going to create the anxiety and how I am going to simulate the plane crash. I will be filming with quick camera movement however I will be putting the shake in in the editing process in Adobe After Effects. Here is an example of where I have used this technique:
This is a video I made on Adobe After Effects which was filmed on a tripod however I put camera shake on to make it looks more realistic. You can see as I take off the camera shake increases and as I land the camera shake also increases quite a bit more. I will be replicating this as the plane is crashing; when there is more turbulence and more problems occur with the malfunctions, I will create more camera shake just as I did in this video.
We did this by placing both lights either side of our actor and making the one on the right-hand side dimmer than the one on the left-hand side. This therefore illuminated each side of the face while creating a shadow in the middle of the face.
We replicated picture B -
We did this by placing one of our lights on the left-hand side and only dimming the light a slight bit which gave off quite a strong light, and therefore creating shadows. However, it was not bright enough to light the rest of the room, which is what he wanted as we had to keep one side of the face almost pitch black.
2.)
We were not able to do the silhouette shot as we tried it out with the lighting we had and we could not gain enough light for a silhouette. We will therefore rent out the stronger LED lights and we will successfully create this shot.
3.)
Unfortunately we accidentally deleted our frontal key light shot, therefore this will also be re-done.
Key light and fill - we did this by using placing both of our lights either side of the actor. We made the one on the right-hand side brighter than the one on the left-hand side. We made one of the lights dimmer by tightening the umbrella with an elastic band, therefore giving off less light.
Bottom up light only - we did this by placing the light underneath the actor and pointing the umbrella in an upwards direction which meant that the light was reflected onto the bottom of the actors face.
Side light only - we did this by only using one of our lights and we held down the umbrella with an elastic band which made the light less bright. If we did not do this, the light was too bright and illuminated the whole room instead of just one side of the actor.
Top light only - We achieved this effect by holding the light above the head and tilting the attached umbrella down so the light reflected directly down onto his head
- this was hard to achieve has the cables attached to the lighting were not long enough to reach to the top of his head.
Back light only - We did this by placing just one light behind the actor, and placing him in front of the light, so it was blocked from shining at the camera. We only used one light as if we used two there would have been light shining at the camera and therefore you would not be able to see anything but light.
We may co-operate some of these lighting techniques in our film, however most of them will not be very relevent to our scene, as most of the interior of our scene will be naturally lit anyway. Although we could possibly use low key lighting in the hospital scene to add to the feeling of suspense and misery.
