Here is our final piece ‘The Zone’:
In this version we had originated to our original film distributor Film4, and we have added a new logo for the opening for the film.
Contact Method – Christian, Kevin, James, Kabir
We decided to keep in touch in two ways:
The first Facebook!
We started a discussion group so that we could keep in contact with our actors and each other over weekends and holidays.
The second was Skype!
Titles, Production Company, and Distributor – Christian, James, Kabir and Kevin
The title graphic for our film ‘The Zone’ was made by Kabir. The logo was designed to have an eerie feel to it to immediantly convey the genre of the film as a horror. Its mysterious, you can’t see what is in the “o” and you also cannot identify from it that it is a zombie film. It sets up this engima code with the audience asking questions such as “what is the zone?” which generates interest and curiosity just from the title graphics. The whole thing is dark with messy graffeti style spraypaint style writing which reflects the setting as being urban and the tone for the film which is dark.
We decided as we would be shooting and creating our film and any money spent on it (for example fake blood) would come from us, then we should form our own production company. So ‘Sublime Productions’ was formed which was created by Kevin on Photoshop. Our independant production company was just going to produce dark or horror films. We chose the word ‘Sublime’ in a jagged font over a background of blood staines to be are logo because these colours (blood red and black) and shapes (sharp jagged like a knife) are icongraphic of the genre of films we want to produce as a production company. The word ‘Sublime’ means awe-inspiring and that is what we as a production company want our films to be.
We have chosen ‘Icon’ to distribute our film. They distributed independent and bigger budget films in the UK and the USA. The films they distribute are of all different genres, but recently distributed films that are independant or studio horror/thrillers such as “Paranormal activity” and “30 Days of Night” and has a hostory of distributing horror films. They haven’t yet however distributed a film on zombies except the film “Black Sheep” which is about zombie/killer sheep. This could mean they don’t want zombie films, but it might also present us with an opportunity to distribute a film that isn’t like anything they have distributed before.
We have also chosen ‘Film 4‘ to distribute our film. Whilst they used to be a production company, now they give grants to independant film makers to produce films and in return for the rights to show the film on TV. This would give us other money and contacts if we need them other than ‘Icon’ and would mean our film would definately be shown on TV in the UK. This means even if the film doesn’t have a wide taking in the cinema’s for instance if another large budgeted opens on the same weekend, our film will still reach a wide audience and money can be made on DVD sales.
Oder theses properly.
Sound- Kabir, James, Christian and Kevin
Garage band was the main software we used for creating the background music however we found an hour long piece on the internet. On a website called Beemp3 . We didn’t use this piece because it seemed to be to long and difficult to cut/edit. To remove this error we decided to create part of our own piece using garage band. We felt that 20 seconds of background music would introduce the final media production, this would also draw the audience in. However we felt that after the first 20 seconds of music, no non – diegetic music was needed as it would decrease the intensity of the piece. Throughout the media production we chose to use only diegetic sounds this would appropriate for genre of the piece. As a group we decided to make each scene with zombies have a diegetic breathing sound effect, this was created via James fuller’s heavy breathing sounds recorded through a external microphone however this did not get the desired effect. So we filmed James fuller using the XM1 camera. From this point we upload the video on I-Movie HD and then split the video and sound as well as increasing the overall sound level intensity.
Our First Cut – ‘The Zone’
Here is our first cut of the opening of our film ‘The Zone’
Production Schedule – Kevin Mcloughlin
Production Schedule.
01.03.10 – 05.03.10 – Storyboard and Script completed ready for shooting, All members of the group to attend each after school.
06.03.10 – Shooting Day One
– 11:00 Start – Sort out make up on zombie actors and tears and blood on costume
– 12:00 First location – Shot throwing focus in the alley way – Filmed by Christian and Kabir
– 12:30 – Get train to Chertsey
– 12:45 Arrive at next location – Allow a further 30 minutes to get the track and set it up,
– 13:15 – Begin shooting shots with and without track at second location Filmed by James and Kabir
– 14:00 Break for lunch – Go and get food and then travel to last location of the opening scene,
– 14:45 – Arrive set up equipment
– 15:00 – Film Outside P.O.V of main character and zombies running – Filmed by Kevin and Kabir when necessary on
Actors
– 15:30 – Shoot shots the other side of the fence P.O.V and on the tripod – Filmed by Christian and Kabir
– 16:15 – Pack up and thank everyone involved
07.03.10 – Shooting Day Two
– 11.00 Start – Get everyone together, screen yesterdays materials to show new actors,
– 11:15 – Start dressing the room whilst all actors have fake blood and make up applied – All Group memebers,
– 11:45 – Brief actors on all scenes and script,
– 12:00 – Begin shooting first set of scenes – Without Kevin in shot by Kevin and Christian, shots with Kevin in Shot by
Kabir and James,
– 13:00 – Break for lunch in another room so set is preserved. After touch up make up and fake blood,
– 13:30 – Finish filming all scenes,
– 15:30 Max – Finished – pack up equipment and tidy room. Once again thank all people involved.
Having a timed production schedule for our filming really helped. It allowed us to really keep time of our progress, and ment we could give times to actors so they knew when to turn up, what we were doing and when they had to be where. It ment we could monitor how much we had to do against what time it was to try to stay on top of our filming schedule. We did this better on the second day than the first. The first day we fell forty five minutes behind schedule down to trains and getting the equipment for the track shots from Christian’s house but alot of this we made up as we were able to get a lift from where we got food to our last filming location. On the second day we fell about twenty minutes behind schedule but we caught it up to finish on time.
Script – James, Christian, Kevin and Kabir
Year: 2012 – link to : – Olympics
: – Mayan calendar predicting the end of the world
Locations: D-block cleaning Office: – desk, calendar for 2012, TV
Behind hall
Door of garage
St John’s (Graveyard) walk
Addlestone train station ally
Floral house, Chertsey
Zombies: Michael
Aimee X – no show.
Praveen X – no show.
Eleanor
James
Survivors: Kevin
Megz
Krish
Conner
Johanna
Marie
Cameramen: Kabir
Christian
Kevin
James
Jack, wearing a torn long sleeve T-shirt and denim jeans, which have worn knees consistent with motion wear and having blood over his chest connoting blood splatter, is running down alley towards camera out of focus. Followed at distance by a female zombie, dressed in a blue ‘Dance School1982’ t-shirt and a blue denim skirt with blood covering her arms and chest.
Cut to residential area. Track following Jack as he runs forward stumbles and keeps going followed by female zombie and new young male zombie, wearing a torn T-shirt and jumper with waterproof trousers and blood covering his mouth, arms and chest.
Zombie: (rasping breath)
Cut to long alley. Jack in mid-foreground, Zombies in far background. Running towards camera.
P.O.V shot from Jack pole in shot. Panicked/frantic.
Cut back to previous shot Jack turns towards gate.
Cut to P.O.V of zombies. Canted camera with red tint to identify it as zombie.
Zombie: (rasping breath)
Cut to low angle shot as Jack jumps over fence.
Cut to mid shot as Jack lands. Reaches into bag and retrieves dark green shirt.
Cut to zombies running horizontally past stationary camera. Black metal bars in foreground.
Zombie: (rasping breath)
Briefly cut to Jack now wearing shirt then cut to Jacks P.O.V looking at his hand which is wrapped up and bleeding. Pan and tilt to hole in fence. Zombie hand bursts through Jack grabs bag and runs to end of alley turns corner and enters room.
Cut to in room, Jack stumbles in.
Alice: (to Ed) Ed you’re next.
Ed then stands and walks to the door.
Jack: (out of breath and before Ed leaves) don’t go out the south gate there all over there.
Ed turns and acknowledges the statement then walks out with a baseball bat in tow.
Once Ed has left Alice turns pushes Jack against the wall a gun in Alice’s hand and a laser sight from an un seen gun are pointed at his head.
Alice: were you hit?
Jack: (still out of breath) no, no I nailed one of ‘them’ and they followed me back. But they can’t get in.
Cut to another part of the room.
Alice: they better not have.
Alice then steps back and lets Jack walk past. Cut to P.O.V of Egbert watching Jack walk past.
Egbert: (while watching Jack) how many were there?
Jack turns round.
Jack: (to Egbert) too many!
Cut to P.O.V of Alice as she walks forward. Cut back to Egbert P.O.V as Alice stops noticing something on the floor, bends down. Cut to blood on floor.
Alice: (shouting) JACK!
Runs to internal door.
Alice: Jack you idiot. What’s this?
Cut to out of room everyone runs to the door.
Alice: do you know what trouble you’ve got us in now?
Jack: (mumbling) I … I couldn’t stay out there.
Alice turns round.
Alice: Egbert!
Egbert bustles into the room. Cut to low angle shot of Alice and Egbert forcing Jack into a toilet room.
Alice: you’re too much of a threat. (To Egbert) keep him there.
Cut to in the toilet.
Jack: (rasping breath like zombies fluxing every few seconds)
Jack stumbles round the toilet holding on to the sink and toilet for support. Then collapses onto his hands and knees. Cut to Jack’s P.O.V looks from one hand to the other, shaking unnaturally, before collapsing. Fade to black.
Storyboards
Here is a Power-point presentation of our storyboards.
Location Research: Chertsey Stn./Floral House (Incl. Practise Track Shot) – Christian, Kabir, James, Kevin
Chertsey Station:
A week prior to our planned filming day Christian and Kabir went to the filming location where we plan to use the track. This video is a rough representation of a dolly run outside Chertsey station. We wanted to replicate the motion of the camera and make a test film to see what the background surrounding and the movement of the camera would look like on camera. To replicate the motion of the camera we put it on a tripod and held the tripod upright while cycling on a bicycle with the camera facing backwards for about 30 metres. One of the main problems that occurred was the camera shaking due to the uneven road. The ability to balance with a tripod in the left hand while cycling was difficult but we acknowledge that the motion of the track is very smooth and will create professional looking shots as well as creating a sense of realism so we don’t need to focus on smoothness on this practise run. The footage which we have taken shows the station at night with me running towards the camera. The fact that the character is running towards the camera and the camera is going back shows a sign of never-ending because there doesn’t seem to be an end to the path where he’s running. Also, the fact that the camera is facing towards the character enables the audience to see the facial expressions of the character and see the zombies running behind him when we do the real thing. An advantage of using this style of filming is that the shot looks quite surreal and gives quite a terrifying style. The problem with this setup and location is that it is hard to set up the track on the road because we will be obstructing the way for vehicles. If it was on a road out of town which isn’t very congested or if there was a really wide road where there’s enough space for vehicles to pass, we could have used it but because there isn’t enough space to place the track; we might have to reconsider the placement of the track.
Floral House:
The place which we have finalised shoot is only a couple of metres from this location and is an elderly peoples home called Floral House, this place has a small road coming off this road where only occasionally vehicles pass. This is ideal because we are able to use the track and to create a really steady shot.
Here are some pictures of the floral house:
And here is a video that we have made showing the location:
Salesian A.S 2010 A3 
