The Camera

This is the camera we used.

A Sony HDV Handycam. Digital HD Video Camera Recorder HDR-HC1. Super Steady Shot.

The battery life is good, especially when the camera is turned off, which we forgot to do once in between shots!

It is also useful to have a bag of this available when filming in cold weather.

Desiccant Silica Gel.
When we returned from shooting one freezing day back into the house into a warm environment, we found that the camera would not work due to internal condensation. After 24 hours in the airing cupboard in a plastic bag with the desiccant the camera was restored to normal working order. Many thanks to the Gordano School media technicians for this advice.

Technology used

- I was lucky enough to borrow my dads hdv handy cam although we did come across a few technical difficulties from brining the camera from a cold environment to a cold environment as this built up condensation in the camera. i got some gd advice from the local technicians as they suggested to but the camera in a bag with a silicon packet to dry the insides of the camera. fortunately this worked and were able to carry on shooting.

-We used Imovie to edit our movie together and used and mp3 download site to convert a song onto imovie. we were also able to tamper with the sound effects of the music.

past film schedule

Olly and I did 4 seperate film shootings

- Our first day of shooting was on a snow day on the 20th on February. We managed to shoot most of the opening scenes out in the snow however it stopped snowing which made some of the scenes look drastically different however we tried out best to edit the scenes together as quick as we could to make it less noticeable.





- During our second day of shooting (27th of Febuary) the weather had changed quite alot affecting the lighting as it became alot lighter and the settled snow was no where too be found, however during the majority of the shooting was inside at this point.

- during our third day of shooting (3rd of march) we shot most of our chase scene up until the wood as we had to stop due to the lighting becoming dimmer, we didn't want to change the lighting too much.

- Our final day of shooting (10th of march) we got the majority of our shooting done although we didn't intend on filming in as our first desired place we were going to shoot was under construction.

Conventions on the Vacant movie

Conventions used?

I chose to do a horror/thriller movie as it is a very captivating, popular genre. It also opens up a variety of different camera shot techniques that I wanted to practise myself from watching many different horror/thriller movies. I found the Blair witch project fairly influencel when it came to point of view shot when I glanced across Rory then back tracked and it seemed as if he disappeared. I was obviously inspired by the Blair Witch cellar scene in this case. I also based some chase scene ideas off of the film 28 weeks later using a dirty over shot in some cases when Rory was in the background, also the chase scene when the camera had a side on close up shot of the guy being chased face showed a very realistic perspective of his expression of fear, I tried copying this. I was interested in the use of cut shots in the nightmare on Elm Street which I also tried to incorporate in the chase scenes. 

Conventions developed?

Our music choice was an interesting pick as we wanted to avoid classic horror music themes and wanted to mix it up a bit by choosing an eary down beat dubstep song which I thought worked well when I took my headphones out in the scene turning it into a tinny diegetic sound which gave the scene a chilling feel. Opposed to a conventional horror movie sound track i.e. high pitched strings giving it a anxious tense feel.

Conventions challenged?

Again our use of dubstep music in our sound track has a very different approach to horror movie music as we didn’t want to use mainstream horror music. Another example of a movie that uses Dubstep in its soundtrack is sucker punch, although this movie is a lot more action based it fits fairly well in it.

We were told to avoid woodland scenes as the lighting can usually be pretty poor. We didn’t plan on shooting any scenes in the woods but the place where we planned to finish our shoot was under construction and we stumbled onto the wood by chance. To our surprise the area of wood where we chose to shoot was pretty well lit up due to it being a small wood. This played to our advantage very well as we filmed our final chase scene here.

Normally in horror movies a lot of special effects are used i.e. fake blood or editing to make people disappear, however we used none of the sort but there is one scene in particular where Rory disappears in a split second without a trace or sound wich we were quite proud of. We didn’t use any gore in our film opening either as we thought it would have clashed with the thrill and mystery of the movie.

Another concept that we challenged was shooting our movie during the day opposed to most horror movies being shot at night which adds more suspense and mystery however we added these themes to our movie by using enclosed areas i.e. small vacant shack and woods.

Our main character played by myself is portrayed as a rugged energetic man walking his dog opposed to a defenceless woman. This in itself challenges the conventions of most horror movies.

Costumes for our prelim

Our first character played by myself is going to be wearing casual warm clothes consisting of jeans, trainers, shirt, jacket and possibly a hoodie as the weather conditions may be very snowy

Our other character played by Rory Crymble Will be wearing large dark clothing as he will be playing our villain.His face will be obscured the whole time by his hood to hide his identity.

I wanted to keep the costumes as plain and simple as possible (nothing too flashy). Due to the weather being fairly cold I went for standard dark jackets and hoodies. 

I chose hoodies as they portray Rory to be a mysterious character

Production Schedule

Production schedule for (The Vacant) January 2013

Date and time	Scene / page Name and number	Shots Name and number	Actors / models inc. contact details	Crew? inc. contact details	Location inc. postcode for Satnav?	Props & costume Who’ll be bringing what to the shoot
22/1/13	1,2,3,4,5,6,	Birdseye x2 Close up x1 Medium shot x1 Long shot x2 Extreme Long shot x3	Myself My dog Bingo Rory Crymble	Ollie Wilkins (camera man)	Clapton in Gordano (BS207RQ)	Casual clothes Head phones
24/1/13	5,6,7,8	Extreme Long shot x1 Tracking shot x1 Extreme close up x1 Close up x2	Myself Rory Crymble	Ollie wilkins	---------------------------	Torch
30/1/13	All scenes being edited	Overview of scenes Editing transitions	-------------	Ollie Wilkins Myself	Gordano School
2/2/13	Editing	12345 Editing transitions	-------------	Ollie Wilkins Myself	Gordano School
5/2/13	Editing	6789 Sound	-------------	Ollie Wilkins Myself	Gordano School

one extra recording session had to be shot on the 27/2/12 as our camera unfortunatly ran out of battery during our previous shooting

Locations for our movie titles

We will be shooting the majority of our scenes next to my house where there are vacant stables and outbuildings and a lane with a large bridge over it which we will be using to get some interesting camera shots i.e. birdseye view.

The stables were semi derelict and were once inhabited by a small holder and his animals. Some of his belongings still remained and the atmosphere of the buildings has always seemed slightly spooky to me which we thought was appropriate for the atmosphere we wished to create. At one point  on the second day of shooting we noticed some objects, a shoe and some dominoes, that were not there on the first day of shooting. This made us feel even more edgy.




The lane alongside the the buildings was long and straight enough to get some good long shots. It also led to dead end and so there was hardly any passing traffic to interrupt the shoot.

A motorway bridge crosses the lane which creates a dark tunnel effect which we used on the shoot.

We also used a nearby footpath which had high banking with fairly thick undergrowth which was good stalking territory.

Our last scenes we shot in a near by woods which we didn't intend on filming in as our first desired place we were going to shoot was under construction. however we thought this played to our advantage as this opened up a variety of different camera shots that we used. we were advised not to shoot in woodland areas as the lighting can be quite poor however it was a small open enough wood.