not yet finished

1. Daily Production Reflections
Kieran McConnell-Kipling

2. 9/3/21
Today, I started on the production of my Final Major
Project and (because I won’t be able to film until next
week,) the first thing I have started on for now is my
logo/title. To start with, I chose the font I would use for
my logo (which ended up being ‘Horroroid’) and then
created a separate layer, where I used a set of patchy
paint brushes to create a sort of bloody stain looking
effect with it splattering out in any direction (I did this
with three different colours; red (light & dark), black and
grey). I then duplicated the text multiple times and
changed the styles to make it have a sort of repetetive,
uneven look to it. With some of the text beingspread out
to add to the feeling of it perhaps being both creepy and
glitchy.

3. 9/3/21 – Cont.
Overall, I'd say that my work today went okay, some of the
positives of the work I've done today are that I was able to
create the design of my film's Logo, which would help later on
as it gives me more time to work on the rest of my work such
as editing without having to think about the logo. However,
I'd say that a negative of today's work was that I didn't get
much done overall. If I could improve my work done today, I
would try go back and work on more other areas of my
production as well such as the design of my poster. In terms
of what I plan to do next, I hope to work on the design of my
poster and potentially start making my website as well.

4. 11/3/21
In terms my work today, I have started my work on my movie poster and
website. With the poster, I used a (free) online template that helped me
with the poster's layout as well as where certain elements should be (such
as the date and billing block), and whilst it is not complete (due to me not
having access to necessary images), it's at a good enough state that I can
work on it later on without affecting anything. I also started work on my
website (on Wix), I made the general pages and included elements such as
the logo and the billing, but like the poster, it isn't fully complete due to a
lack of images/videos, but I can continue it later on when I've got the
needed photos and information. Overall, I’d say my work went okay today.
Whilst I do believe I could’ve tried doing more, I think I did enough work
with what I had available. A positive of my work today, is that by the time I
do have the necessary elements to complete my poster and website, I will
already have the bases of each of them available. Which means that I just
need to edit the needed images on without having to make the entire
poster at once. In terms of what I plan to do next, I am intending to try
start working on other elements such as my trailer’s title animation as well
as maybe do more with my poster before I get a camera.

5. 12/3/21
In terms of what I did today, I used Premiere Pro to make the glitched title
card animation for my trailer. I did this by following a tutorial where I
made duplicate layers of the title (each with specific colour/FRGB levels)
and using keyframes, I would change the position and scale on certain
frames. Afterwards, I nested the sequence and used the wave warp effect
to further add to the glitched and uneven aspect of the animation.
Overall, I feel my work today could’ve been better. As I was struggling to
keep motivated to do my work, which ended up with me just doing the
title card animation rather than trying to get as much done as possible. I’d
say that the animation itself is a positive as I believe that I did quite well,
and it also means that I can focus on more parts of my production. The
negative parts of today, are once again the fact that I severely struggled to
keep motivated to do loads of work today, as I believe that I could’ve done
a lot more work today than the small amount I ended up doing. In terms
of what I plan to do next, I hope to be able to do more work on my poster
and maybe even work on more of my website as well.

6. 16/3/21
In terms of my work today, I didn't get much done unfortunately, as
the computer I was using had a problem with accessing Photoshop
and Premiere Pro so I couldn't do as much as I would've wanted to.
With the only work that I was able to complete, being that I changed
the colouring of my logo so that the text was much noticeable and
easier to read to read as I’d had a few people tell me that they
struggled to read the text. I also used the Cloud layer on photoshop
and made it so that it was partially transparent and red rather than
black and white. Overall, I feel that the work I did do today was alright,
however if the computer was working, I believe I would’ve been able
to complete more of my production rather than just the small amount
I ended up doing. In terms of what I have planned for tomorrow, I will
be receiving my camera, this means that I can finally start filming my
footage as well as doing photography for my poster(s) and website.

7. 18/3/21
Today, I received a Canon Camera, so I started filming my needed scenes for my teaser
trailer whilst I was at college, as well as taking photos for my posters/character posters.
I filmed several shots of my classmates in various locations around the college. Such as
an alley outside the college, a stairway and an upstairs corridor (which coincidentally
had it’s lights out, that helped add to the atmosphere of the scene). Afterwards, I later
went into a photography studio and we took some profile shot photos of me and the
other cast members, which I then edited on photoshop by using features such as the
colour balancer and rising the brightness & exposure so that it had a heated red-like
colouring to it. I then integrated the images onto my poster and made multiple folders
so that I could distinguish each person for their own poster. Overall, I feel that I did a
good amount of work for the day, as I have managed to get a good start on the filming
part of my production and the footage I did obtain from today’s filming, is both good
quality and follows my original plan very well. The only negative aspect I’d say about the
results of my work today would be that when in the studio, I’d put the camera on a
certain setting which made it so I couldn’t take photos, I didn’t know how to turn it off
so I decided to take short videos of the actors which I would then choose the best frame
to incorporate on the poster. And whilst the images did turn out alright, it was still
something that caused more issues. In terms of what I plan to do next, I hope to be able
to continue integrating the cast photos onto my poster, as well as start on the editing of
my trailer with the footage I have.

8. 19/3/21
In terms of what progress I have made on my work today, I haven’t done as
much as I would’ve hoped but I think I’ve done alright with everything I’ve
got. To start with, I have begun cutting down my footage into small parts
which will be used for short montage sequences in my teaser trailer, once I
have filmed the rest of my footage, I will incorporate this footage into it. I
also started working on integrating some of the cast member portraits on to
my poster so that I can make multiple character posters. I made them into
PNGs and then used multiple layers to give them a darker & stronger
colouring. Overall, I feel that the progress today could’ve gone better. As
whilst I could’ve done a lot more with the time I had, I have made a couple
of things easier for my self for when it comes to completing both my trailer
and posters. As when I get to editing my trailer, I won’t need to edit the
clips I have cut down and with the posters, I only really need to add the
image of the masked figure as well as figure out my background. In terms of
what I plan to do next, I hope to try start on my filming and more
photography aspects for my poster(s).

9. 26/3/21
In terms of my work today, I took a photoshoot of my gloved hand on a
polystyrene head, which I then edited on Photoshop to leave just the
gloved had. That I then added to my original poster and will finish
editing/incorporating it on the image at a later date. Overall, I’m not too
happy with the amount of work today, or the results. This is because I
originally planned to start the rest of my filming today however because
neither my father or brother were available to help, I decided to do the
gloved hand photography for my poster. However, I feel like that once I
have finished editing the image (so it matches the poster), it won’t look as
well as I would hope, and if it doesn’t, I may decide to not include the
gloved hand in my final design for that reason alone. In terms of what I
have planned for the next part of my production. I intend to start filming
the rest of my trailer, and afterwards, I will start focusing more on my
trailer work specifically.

10. 9/4/21
Today, I started the filming part for my trailer. But prior to that, I created a
brand new Instagram account called @tenebrous_is_here. I used this account
for when there’s phone shot’s displaying my phone as messages from another
user start appearing. I started filming at around 7 pm, as I was wanting my
trailer to look like it had a nigh time setting. I had my brother behind the
camera, who filmed all the scenes where I was on the camera. My sister also
helped with some scenes such as being the intruder behind the door, as well
as being the person who sent messages to my phone using the
@tenebrous_is_here account. Overall, I’d say that the filming that took place
today didn’t go like I’d hoped. Whilst I did film all the scenes I needed. Due to
the time of day, all the footage I had taken (besides the phone footage) was
extremely grainy and it is very hard to distinguish elements such as my face. So
I am not happy with what I have filmed today. And because of this, tomorrow I
plan to reshoot all the footage I have taken today but keep the phone close up
shots.

11. 11/4/21
Today, I have continued the shooting of my trailer footage, only this time I have
decided to reshoot all my footage from the previous day (minus the phone footage). I
once again had my brother help me from behind the camera as well as my little sister
who acted as the intruder behind the door again (my brother did too for the part
when the door opens). I shot my footage earlier today (5pm instead of 7 pm) and
whilst it may look too light, I can edit it to look darker in Premiere Pro. I also filmed
another shot for my phone screen sequence, where I had my brother take a photo of
me through the window which he then sent to my @tenebrous_is_here account that
was then sent to me by my sister whilst we were filming. Overall, I think my filming
today went much better than yesterday, as now that my footage is easier to see,
distinguishing elements such as my expressions and background details can be easily
identified. I’d say the only negative aspect about my footage is that it’s still a little
grainy (due to the high isotope levels), however, this is an issue that I can overcome as
I can make my trailer look like it is filmed on an old fashioned camera. In terms of
what I plan to do next, I intend to start incorporating my footage onto Premiere Pro so
that I can edit it into my final trailer.

12. 13/4/21
In terms of my work today. I have started the editing process of my
previous footage. I have started cutting down the clips I need and
removing the sound from them so that I can add my own sounds
later on. For one part of my footage (the scene where I slowly back
into the dark corridor), due to the lighting making it too hard to see me, I decided to shoot footage of the
corridor by itself and then footage of me backing up in a much brighter area. So that these two clips
looked like they were together, I used a technique called masking, where I created a mask around the
footage of me walking backwards. I then edited the lighting and colouring of the footage of me so that I
looked like both clips were one single clip. Overall, I feel like I achieved this effect pretty well, as thanks to
the graininess of the footage, any hard lines on the overlaying footage aren’t too noticeable. However, I
feel like I spent too much time focusing on one masking effect when I should’ve perhaps tried focusing on
cutting down other footage first. In terms of what I plan to do next, I hope to continue going over my
footage and making any edits or improvements I see necessary.

13. 15/4/21
Regarding today’s work, I continued with the production of my teaser
trailer. I started by cutting down all the footage I have taken and
organising it in a general placement of where I want each clip to go with
there being enough space between each of them just in case I might
want to swap some of them around. Afterwards I went onto
freesound.com and started searching for free-to-use audio and sound
effects to use in my trailer, I did this because I knew I wouldn’t have
enough time to record my own sound effects without cutting down time
on the rest of my work. I also did another masking effect on some
footage (hiding my name on a message so it just shows ‘Instagram’) by
having the text/video layer I wanted as an over lay and used the shape
tool to carefully mark around the words I want & I made sure that it
looked consistent during the entire clip. Overall, I think I did a good
amount of work for today, the only negative aspect of my work today (in
my eyes), would be that I could’ve perhaps tried putting my trailer
together once I had cut down the clips I wanted. In terms of what I plan
to do next, I hope to continue looking for more sound effects, as well as
start to make necessary edits on my trailer.

14. 16/4/21
Today, I have been continuing with the editing of my
teaser trailer, as well as other aspects of my production.
Firstly, I’ve spent a majority of my time today cutting
down any new footage needed for my trailer and placing
all the edited clips into a general order of how I intend
the trailer to be laid out. So that if I want to make any
changes to the footage or edit them at all, I know where
they will go and can change the order at any given time.
Secondly, I continued downloading more sound effects
from Freesound. Next, I made a ‘Coming Soon’ text PNG
that I can put in both my trailer and on my website.
Lastly, I decided to make/add a small animation to
represent an old vintage TV turning on (and off).

15. 16/4/21 – cont.
To start with, I found some stock footage of some TV static, I then
set two keyframes for both the height and width at 5 frames into
the video and then moved 5 more keyframes to the right, but this
time making the height and width 1.0 and 100 respectively. I went
5 more key frames to the right again and changed the height to
100. I then used the lumetric colour effect to raised the exposure
to 5.4 on the first keyframe and for the last keyframe, I changed it back to 0. Afterwards, I duplicated the
layer and cut it to just before the shape becomes full screen. Finally, I added the fast blur effect and put
the percentage to 200%, which gives it a glowing effect. To make a version to represent the TV turning off,
I just duplicated the animation/transition and reversed it. Overall, I am quite happy with the work I have
done today. Some positives in my opinion include the vintage TV turning on and off animation I made, as I
feel like it adds to the authenticity of my trailer looking like it’s on a Vintage TV. Another positive in my
opinion is the ‘Coming Soon’ card I made, as it is something that I can incorporated on both my trailer, but
also my website. In terms of what I have planned to do next, I intend to finish of my search for sound
effects and music and start incorporating them more into my trailer. I also intend to make my trailer feel
more and more vintage through the use of borders and noise.

16. 20/4/21
In terms of my work today, I started by making an additional title card
‘This Year’ on Photoshop, that I will be including during a montage
sequence in my trailer. I finished finding and downloading all my
needed sound effects and audio from freesound. Next, I downloaded
a zip file containing 4x3 aspect ratio overlays that I placed over my
footage so that it looked like my trailer was filmed on the old vintage
TV style. To further add to the vintage TV aesthetic of my trailer, I
made two adjustment layers. In my first layer, I added a noise effect
to make the footage look more static and less polished/clean (also it
was to match some of my pre-existing grainy footage). On my second
layer, I added a Wave Warp effect and changed the settings to Wave
Type: Square, Height: 10, Width: 703 and Speed: 0.1. This was to
create a moving rectangular warp to match the style of Vintage TVs
where the footage was sometimes wavy and/or uneven. Lastly, I
added a VHS style Bad Tracking overlay and changed it’s opacity to
40%. This was to further add to the glitchy and old style look of the
trailer.

17. 20/4/21 – cont.
Overall, I am very happy with the work I have done today, I
believe that I have gotten quite far with my trailer and today’s
work has further pushed me further along the line of it’s
production. The only negative in my eyes, was that due to
Photoshop constantly freezing and not working, I couldn’t
make more title cards for my trailer, this would be the only
part of my work that I think would need improvement. In
terms of what I have planned to do next, I plan to start adding
my sound effects and music to the trailer, as well as adding
any extra effects I see necessary.

18. 22/4/21
Today, I have continued with the production of my FMP trailer. To start with, I made a
Whip-Pan style transition between two of my shots. To achieve this, I placed a push effect
between the two clips I want to use, I then placed an adjustment layer above the push
effect, afterwards I added a Directional Blur effect to the adjustment layer with the
alignment being set to Centre at Cut. This creates a fast moving transition between my
chosen clips. Next, I began integrating more effects such as including more noise to my
footage, as well as adding my chosen audio/music files such as the background music
tracks and the ambient TV sounds. I also starting including my title card(s) (which I then
edited to make it have a more glitch-like effect than it had previously) in the trailer.
With some of the audio/music effects such as the TV noises, I edited them so
that when the camera leaves the room, the sound gets more distant and quieter.
I did this by using keyframes to increase and decrease the volume at specific
moments. Overall, I believe that the work I did today was alright. As I managed
to get enough done that I didn’t feel like I’d wasted too much time on anything and I’m
particularly proud of the Whip-Pan transition I did, as that was something I’ve been
intending to try include since my planning. In terms of negatives, I’d say that I don’t feel like
I did the distancing TV noise effect too well as it doesn’t sound as genuine as I’d hoped. So
in terms of what I plan to do next, the first thing I do, will be trying to edit the TV sounds
properly, and then I can move on to making more title cards on Photoshop.

19. 23/4/21
Today, I have been continuing with my production. Firstly, I
continued with trying to edit the audio of the TV sounds, I
used a parametric equalizer effect, changed the presets to
‘Generic Low-Pass’, messed with the settings and used
keyframes so that the audio would change at the moment I
need it to. Next, I duplicated the video of a clip I was using, and
on the top layer I created a mask around me and used the
mask path button so the mask would automatically be marked
around me. I then inverted the mask, used the Gaussian Blur
effect to make the background look blurry whilst leaving me
the focus of the image and then used keyframes on the blur
effect so that I could have it go from blurry to focused over a
couple of seconds. And lastly, after finally getting on to
Photoshop, I made the final two title cards ‘They Know’ and
‘Where You Are’ after duplicating the previous photoshop file
but changing the text on all of them.

20. 23/4/21 – cont.
Overall, I’m mostly happy with the work I’ve done today, but I feel like
I could’ve perhaps done more. In terms of positives, I’d say that I did
the blurred mask effect well enough to my liking and I’m glad I finally
managed to finish the remaining title cards. In terms of negatives
however, I believe that due to Photoshop taking a very long time to
open, it led to me not getting much else done whilst I was waiting for
it. If I could improve the work I did today, I would’ve started doing my
Photoshop work (or at least turning Photoshop on) first, so that I
could have had it turning on in the background whilst I work on other
aspects of my production at the same time. In terms of what I plan to
do next during my production, I hope to start incorporating the new
title cards I have made into my trailer/Premiere Pro file, film a few
extra bits of footage to add to the trailer and finish off the poster.

21. 27/4/21
Today, I continued with the production of my trailer. To start with, this
morning before I left for College, I had my brother take photos of me in
my ‘serial killer’ costume which I would later add to my main poster.
We also filmed a couple takes of me inside a dark kitchen, swinging my
gloved hand towards the camera as I’m holding a plastic knife. When I
later got to college, I began to start integrating the title cards I recently
made into my trailer, whilst also adding a couple extra glitched sound
effects to add to the overall glitched atmosphere of my trailer. Next, I
began to add my newly filmed footage to my trailer. At first, I created a
mask around my arm holding the ‘knife’ as it swings down. I then tried
to integrate this masked footage onto my existing footage (of me
stepping into the dark corridor) however, after trying to edit my work
so that it matched the colours and lighting of the underlaying footage. I
decided that it wasn’t going to work, so I deleted the mask and
changed the trailer, so it cut to the footage of me swinging the knife,
rather than continuing the previous footage I had. And lastly, I started
to work on my Poster.

22. 27/4/21 – cont.
I tried editing the gloved hand image previously on the file so that it matched the
aesthetic of the rest of my poster. However, I didn’t think it looked natural enough. So I
decided to remove the gloved hand image entirely from the poster. And I then
imported one of the new photos of myself (masked) I had taken and roughly scaled it
to the around the size I want it as. So overall, I’m mostly okay with the work I have
done today. One positive of my work today, is that with the inclusion of my needed
title cards and final knife shot. I have essentially finished my trailer, which means that
after a little re-organising of some of the sounds and effects, I can start exporting the
trailer & poster it online. However, there are two negative aspects of my work today
that I’d say have affected my work overall. The first one being that I spent a majority of
my day, working on trying to mask around my new footage, this greatly affected my
work today as I ended up deciding to just include the clip into the trailer by itself (with
some editing of course). And the second point, was that after trying to edit the gloved
hand photo on my poster, I decided to delete it because I realised that it didn’t look
natural enough for my poster. If I could’ve changed anything from today, I would’ve
deleted the hand from the poster straight away. And I would’ve also just added the
knife swinging clip directly into the trailer, rather than trying to make a mask from it. In
terms of what I plan to do next, I hope to do a couple finishing touches to my trailer
and then export it to YouTube.

23. 29/4/21
Today, I finished my Teaser Trailer for my FMP. To start with, after letting my teacher and
friends watch over my trailer, they gave a couple suggestions as to how I could’ve
improved it. The main changes I made, were that I moved around a couple of the beats
early in the trailer to raise the tension (whilst also adding a little boom to a few of them
as well). And lastly, I added a couple of keyframes to my title card animation so that it
grew in size during a couple of frames at the end. This was to further elaborate on the
glitched un-even style of my trailer. I then proceeded to render and export my trailer
(with the settings as ‘Format: H 264’ and the ‘Preset’ set as ‘YouTube 720p HD’. And lastly,
I uploaded the trailer publicly onto my YouTube channel under the name ‘TENEBROUS –
Official Teaser Trailer’ which I then attached the link to both my FMP and portfolio
websites.

24. 30/4/21
Today, I have continued with my production and

25. 4/5/21
Today is my final day of production