The document is a production log for a student's film project. It details the various stages of planning and production, including: developing initial ideas and researching influences; creating mood boards and style sheets; conducting audience research; storyboarding and planning shots; recording footage and sound effects; and editing the film trailer and poster. The student provides reflections on their process and progress, noting things that went well and could be improved upon. They experiment with different visual effects, color grading, and distortions to achieve the intended "found footage" aesthetic for the horror film trailer and poster.

1. Reflections +
Production Log

2. Initial Ideas
Reflections

3. Initial Ideas
I also created a mood board to develop an
aesthetic for my film idea. I split it into 3
segments and analysed each individually to
establish my idea more. I also compared and
summarised the mood board as a whole. I
think this went really well as I was quite
detailed with my responses. I was able to find
similarities between the images in my mood
board and express techniques and ideas that I
could possibly use for my own project. I feel I
could've made some more comparisons to
further my mood board reflection.
When producing an idea for this project, I
looked at pre-existing horror films for
inspiration. Some of these were Paranormal
Activity, The Blair Witch Project, and Cam. The
recording style of Paranormal Activity specific
inspired my idea a lot and has influenced my
project. To express this, I wrote about these
key influences in my initial ideas, explaining
how they've inspired my project idea. I should
research more into my key influences and
analyse them next week in my research. I
believe this will help me gather a better
understanding of what was done well with
these products and what about them
appealed to me. I can gain ideas for possible
techniques that I can apply to my own project.

4. Initial Ideas
This week I worked on my initial ideas
and proposal for my FMP, I decided
that for my project I wanted to do a
horror film trailer and accompanying
film poster around the idea of being
stuck inside but needing to escape
from something hunting you. I started
by writing up my proposal and getting
a base idea down for the narrative. I
believe this went quite well as I
produced an idea that adapts well to
our current situation with the
pandemic, but also allows for an
interesting idea to be explored. Using
this idea, I can easily record from my
home on my own as I've decided to
go with 'found footage' idea, the
audience will feel as if they are
watching back actual camera footage
and video diaries with this technique.
This is so the audience can be directly
immersed into the universe but also
adapt to the current limitations due
to the pandemic.

5. Research
Reflections

6. Research
I worked on research next! I looked
into films of the same genre as well
as multiple film posters to establish
common conventions. I believe I
looked into a good number of
sources as well as going into a lot of
detail. I managed to also make
comparisons between products,
finding the similarities as well as
differences.
I was able to identify horror
conventions, so I know what's
important to include in my product!
I may go back at a later date and
add some more comparisons of the
media I looked into.

7. Research
In my second week of research, I
looked into audience appeal. I
created and distributed a horror
survey then analysed the results to
establish a target audience. I
managed to find out that men aged
16 – 25 mostly enjoy horror movies,
so in result this will be my target
audience. I also asked questions
asking about which common
conventions they enjoyed so I can
include them into my own product. I
believe this will be helpful when I go
into planning to create a good
product that properly appeals to my
target audience.
To further look into my target
audience, I also decided to
do interviews with 2 of my target
audience members. I decided to ask
more sepcific questions to help me
target my audience. I believe doing
interviews as well was a good idea for
developing my product.

8. Planning
Reflections

9. Planning
For 2 weeks I planned my 2
products. I first made a style sheet
that looked at the colour scheme,
font and image style. At first it was
a singular style sheet however since
I am making 2 products I decided to
split them into 2 style sheets, one
for my film poster and one for
my film trailer. I believe this was for
the better as I can be more specific
with my style sheets and go into
more detail.
I also made a layout plan and
storyboard for my products. This is
so I have something to follow and a
rough plan for both my products.
From this I can create a shot list and
sound list also so I can make sure I
have everything I need for my
production work.

10. Planning
I decided to add pictures of my locations
also to accompany my floor plan, I
believe this helps as I can mark where
the still cameras are going to be placed.
This also helps with my planning in
general as having an image of the places
I have to work with will allow me to plan
more efficienctly.
I added other important things such as
music to my sound table and a script
with the lines I need to record for my
project. I also created a risk assessment
and contingency plan so I have a plan B
if something goes wrong so production
can still go smoothly. My risk
assessment allowed me to evaluate the
risks and how to take precautions to
safely avoid and prevent them.
I finally created a schedule that covers
each day of 4 weeks, this is so I can
follow it in production and have a clear
plan/goal of each week. This will also
assist with my time management and
staying on task.

11. Week 1: Production
Production Log

12. Day 1
To start with I decided to work on my
film poster first. I started with colour
correcting my chosen image and
masking the character. I masked the
character so that I can help
differentiate them from the
background easily when I am editing,
working on the background lighting
and character lighting seperately. My
masking went well however I
encountered an issue with the hair, it
was quite difficult to mask around the
hair. So, in order to make the masking
look better I used a soft brush for the
hair so there was no hard edges. For
the colour correction, I used
photoshops curves feature to select
whats white, grey, and black. This
allows photoshop to automatically
correct the colours and it made
my original image look more
professional and better quality.

13. Day 1
I continued to implement the colour
scheme into my edit, making a warm
orange colour come in through the
window. I used a soft brush to do this,
overlaying orange colours from my
palette onto the image. I also selected
the window area to make it brighter
and add a blur in order to make the
outside less visible and give an almost
'blinding light' effect to the image. I
also added the orange lighting onto my
mask, making the part facing the
window brighter using a brightness
mask, and hue to make the front area
an orange tint. Tommorow I plan to
continue with my lighting, adding my
dark blue color scheme to the
surroundings and on the character's
back to create an interesting contrast.

14. Day 2
I continued to work on my colour
scheme today, adding dark blues to
the surroudings and the mask. I used
a smoke brush on an overlay layer to
enhance the lighting, which I believe
was more effective than a soft brush.
I also darkened the window frame to
make the image look darker overall.
Something I noticed about the image
was the lighting on the curtains and
railing, beforehand it looked a little
off. So, I added orange colouring to
the railing and curtain to make the
lighting a bit more realisitc in terms of
where it hits. This made the edit look
a lot better! I also exaggerated the
lighting more on the character,
putting emphasis on the 'blinding
light' effect I am going for.

15. Day 2
After I got the colouring correct, I
wanted to add glitch effects in order to
fit the 'found footage' theme of my
film idea. In order to do this, I added
abberattion to my image which gives
of a glicthy feeling very well. I then
continued to add distortion effects to
my poster. I did this by creating a
duplicate layer and selecting parts of
my edit, nudging them in different
directions. I did this multiple times
until it looked how I wanted it to! To
make the glitch effects look more
distorted I selected over areas I had
already done and nudged it also to
create a more complex distortion
effect. Finally, I added 'TV lines' to my
image to make it look more like
camera footage! To do this I overlayed
thin black and white stripes over the
image, altering the opacity until it
looked right. I believe this gave the
finishing touch to the distorted footage
effect.

16. Day 2
Due to the hand being too blurred and lost in
the brightness of the window, I decided to
refine the hand, so it was more visible. I
believe unblurring the hand made the poster
look much better! It made the image clearer
to see. Despite planning the colour scheme, I
decided to stray away from my plans and
adjust the colour scheme accordingly. I
adjusted it with hue to more of a red and
cyan contrast rather than orange and blue. I
believe this was definitely for the best as it
made my poster look less warm and more
like a horror film! Red often connotes danger
in media, so this works perfectly and abides
to the vibe I am going for quite well. I added
my text accordingly, making it have an outer
glow which made my product feel more like
VHS/footage. I also ended up darkening the
areas under the text to give a vignette effect
and darken the image overall. I added a filter
which added cyan to the image, further
putting emphasis on the VHS theme. I
believe the final product suits my intentions
well, despite changing my plans slightly I
think this was for the best and overall
improved the quality of my poster.

17. Week 2: Production
Production Log

18. Day 3
Today I also recorded some sound
effects, with the help of my friends I
was able to create certain sounds
using foley methods. For example,
footsteps, slamming doors etc. I
managed to get almost every sound
effect I needed so I'd say this went
quite well. However, the sound quality
isn't great as you can hear a lot of
background noise. So, when it comes
to editing I will also edit my sound
effects to help cut out any unwanted
sounds using premiere pros features
for editing sound.
I also got half of my footage for my
film trailer. I used a tripod to get high
angles for most my shots to give
a security camera feeling to them. I
feel like these angles turned out well
and look quite nice! I believe when I
edit them in post they will look like
security camera footage.

19. Day 4
I worked on my film trailer and got all
the clips I have so far put together; I
also edited my song to be shorter so it
would fit mt storyboard well. I did this
by cutting out a part of the song and
then overlaying the 2 remaining parts,
using a fadeout to seamlessly put
them together. I also worked on some
colour correcting, using my learnt skills
from my experiment. I used Lumetri
Scopes to give clips more contrast and
alter the colours so the RGB parade
graphs look more in line with one
another. I also lowered the saturation
as this is a horror film trailer and its
conventional to have unsaturated
colours. I did this with all my clips so
the all look more professional and
better quality.

20. Day 5
For the shots that are supposed to be
a security camera, I used an
adjustment layer with certain effects
on in order to create the same feeling
as an actual security camera. Firstly, I
added a black and white filter as most
security cameras are not normally in
colour. I then added a timecode in the
corner, labelling each camera the same
number as my planning indicated. I
also made sure the times were
different for each clip. I added the
'posterize time' effect in order to lower
the frame rate from 24fps to 10fps.
This furthered the security camera
feeling, making the clip look a lot
choppier. I added 'venetian blinds' in
order to give a TV lines effect to the
clip, then to emphasise this I added
some waves onto the clip to make it
look more distorted. As a final touch I
added some noise.

21. Day 5
Today I also made my title screen
alongside review screens that appear
during the trailer. To do this I recoloured
a free texture Png so it was black and red
rather than black and white. I then used
my chosen font from my style sheet,
giving it a blue outer glow so the red and
cyan colour contrast is also present in my
film trailer as well as my film poster. I
then added a tv lines overlay, noise and a
warp to give a footage effect like the rest
of my film trailer. I decided as a final
touch to give it that found footage
feeling to put a distorted film overlay on
the clips so that there's even more TV
distortion. I believe this looks quite
good! It matches well with my theme but
also my film poster. Using the same text
helps with making them feel like the
same film! I'll make all my text featured
in my film trailer in this style

22. Day 5
Here I added some glitch effects to work
as transitions and also jump scare
effects. I used VR effects in order to
achieve this. On an adjustment layer I
used VR projection in order to give the
stretched out distorted look. I then
added VR sharpen to add to this glitchy
feeling. Sharpening the clip also helps
emphasise the distortion on it. Finally, I
used VR chromatic aberrations to add
aberrations! Aberrations are commonly
used in glitch effects and it's actually
conventional for glitch effects to use
them. So, I added them to my
adjustment layer to achieve a glitch
effect. Despite this effect being rather
simple, its super effective! I
accompanied some of the adjustment
layers with glitch sound effects from my
planning in order to amplify the effect
but also add to the jump scare factor.

23. Week 3: Production
Production Log

24. Day 6
Today I focused on making night vision
camera effects. I used a similar
technique to before with my daylight
camera footage. However, this time
round I added a green tint and upped
the contrast in order to give a night
vision effect! At first I had trouble
getting the tint the right colour so that
it looks 'night vision', this resulted in
me playing with the colours and tint
until I got something that worked!
Through experimenting I was able to
create an effective and believable
night vision camera effect. When
colour correcting these clips in
particular I made sure to make them
darker in order to help emphasise the
fact it's in the dark, despite the clips
being recorded with an LED.

25. Day 7
I added some more clips I had gathered,
including one of the character being
grabbed. This part of the trailer was
supposed to look like 'checking' the
footage and then seemingly being
grabbed from behind. I had the
character normally checking the footage
before the tone changed completely,
hoping to take the audience by surprise.
I used a strobe light effect to match the
pace of the song and amplify the shock
factor. For my camera footage I wanted
to give a doorbell camera effect, in order
to do this, I used my usual camera
effects however I also added some lens
distortion. This helps give a fish-eye
effect which most doorbell cameras
have! I believe this helps convey that it is
a doorbell camera. Although I added lens
distortion I feel like it should have been
more distorted, so the fish-eye effect
was more noticeable. I may go back later
and see if I can give an even more
effective doorbell camera effect.

26. Day 7
I added this shot as a 'glitch'. I believe
having actual imagery in the glitches
will make my film trailer more
disturbing. I firstly make my clip black
and white so when I inverted the
colours they were also black and
white. Then I added the glitch
adjustment layer I already had on top
as a transition. Accompanying the very
short clip with a loud glitch sound
effect gives quite an effective output.
It acts as a jump scare which is
following the common conventions my
target audience enjoy the most. I feel
the unpredictability and not expecting
it helps add to the shock factor.

27. Day 8
Today I started adding more effects to
enhance the horror aspect. For the shot of
the character waking up scared I added a dark
shadow pass the screen to give an eerie
effect. I also believe this will take the
audience by surprise, making my film trailer
scarier! I added some more glitch effects to
act as jump scares, I also added my footage of
a door slamming in front of the character to
yet again act as another jump scare. I had
help from a family member to slam the door
in front of me whilst I was recording, however
it was quite slow and didn't look like anything
paranormal at all. So, to give the illusion that
the paranormal were involved, I changed the
velocity of the clip towards the end. This is so
when the door slams the clip significantly
speeds up so it's more believable. I also think
it makes the clip look way more paranormal
rather than someone slamming the door from
the other side. I accompanied this clip with
one of my door slamming sound effects, I
added an echo to it as it immediately cuts to
the next clip after the door shuts. I think
doing this in particular was effective as a
jump scare and world building. (you never see
the thing doing the haunting)

28. Week 4: Production
Production Log

29. Day 9
I decided that for all my 'handheld' or
moving cameras to add a somewhat
vintage camera effect. To do this I
decreased the contrast, so my clips
have a faded-out look like most older
cameras. I then added a camera
recording overlay on top to further
amplify the cam-corder look I was
going for! As a final touch I added
some noise to the clip also. This helps
amplify the aged look. I also added a
zoom in on one of my clips with a
zoom sound effect, I believe this small
detial just helps to the overall theme I
am trying to portray (found footage). I
added this effect to all of the clips that
were hand recorded, I think this was a
good choice as it matches my
intentions well for found footage.

30. Day 9
I decided to stray away from my
planning slightly and used my spare
clips at the end of my film trailer. It is
common for trailers to have an 'end
scene' after the title and date of
release so I decided to do the same. I
added a recording of the character
running in the dark alongside the usual
cam-corder overlay. I then added a
glitch overlay onto the clip, increasing
in opacity as it continued so it glitched
more toward the end. Finally, I added a
screaming sound effect to almost act
as a final jump scare. I believe this is
quite effective as it's a good end to the
built-up anticipation from the trailer.

31. Day 10
Today I recorded the voice lines for
my film trailer. I used my phone to
record the audio and voiced over the
clips without sound. My audio clips
were not the best quality as I was
using my phone to record them,
however I managed to improve them
slightly in post. Although the quality
had some noise, this was okay as the
style of my product was supposed to
have a home filming style to it.
Therefore, it almost adds to the
immersion of it being 'found footage'. I
was able to line up my recordings with
the lip syncing too. I found that some
of my audio clips were too quiet for
the trailer music, so in order to solve
this I increased the volume of the
highest points in my audio clips. This is
so the voice lines were louder, but it
didn't increase the volume of
everything like background noise or
grain.

32. Day 11
Today was my final day of production
so I added some finishing touches to
my film trailer. I colour corrected some
more clips and added some pre-
existing adjustment layers (making
everything match). I also added some
screaming sound effects that were
royalty free. I decided to add black
cinematic bars over my trailer as it's an
incredibly common convention within
all film trailers and makes the final
product look completer and more
professional. I did this by changing the
size of my project length wise and
cropping it a tad for the black bars to
be big enough, but not too big to cover
anything important. I had some
trouble doing this at first as editing the
original project messed up my effects.
So instead, I exported my final project
and made a new project to add the
cinematic black bars. This way my
original effects weren't affected.