Production

1. Production Reflection
Georgina Whiteley

2. Process – Poster 1
• On day 1 of production I made the first poster for
my trailer/short film. I made the poster featuring
me and Luke, the two main characters.
• Due to coronavirus, I couldn’t meet up with Luke to
take the pictures in person, so I asked him to take
some himself and send them to be digitally. I then
took my own pictures that would work best with
what he had given me. Due to the new idea, I could
create a poster which shows our seperation.
• I first of all combined the two images, before then
adding a filter to add some damage and noise to
the overall image, giving it a darkened vibe.
• Then, I used a multiply layer to add further film
damage and film strips to border the image, before
adding one more filter to enhance the overall look.
• After the background image was completed, I began
to add text. I drew the text myself instead of using a
text too because I felt I could have more creative
juristiction, and the rustic painted look suited better
with the image. I wrote the title, now ‘Echo, Hear
Me Breathe’ in white and changed the layer to
overlay to make it beldn better. I then wrote out the
tagline ‘You can’t awaken when reality lies.’ in red,
contrasting the white it’s situated upon.
• Finally I added the credit text and the release date,
again drawn in a painted style to fit the overall
aesthetic of the poster.

3. Process – Poster 2
• On day 2 I made another poster, as I wanted to
make these before filming. I used a still from my
experiment shots of the stairs because I thought it
had a very creepy vibe.
• A started by colour correcting, changing the dull
green and yellow hues into a dark blue/grey and
black. This also blacked out the bottom of the stairs,
which helped with the horror aspect.
• I added film damage to the image like the previous
poster and reduced the contrast and saturation
until I liked the look of the overall image.
• I then added the film strip overlay to the psoter,
making it cohesive to the other poster as they are
mean to go together as a set. I think this wraps up
both posters together nicely, as they are very
different, but have just enough similarities.
• I then used a transparent png of the text taken from
the other poster to use on this one. I adjusted the
tagline colour to white as the red didn’t show up
against the black. I reduced the opacity as well so it
blended better with the desaturated tone.
• I then added the credits, again taken directly from
the other poster. This again helped make the
posters cohesive, forming a signature poster design.
• Finally, I drew a ‘recording’ box around the main
frame, just to add to the idea of it being a found
footage film.

4. Process – Existing Footage
• I decided to look through old videos I had to see if I
could use any for footage, as due to the coronavirus
it’s difficult to film new things outside, especially
with other people.
• I had the idea of using old videos of me and Luke,
the other main character, to work as a flashback
sequence in the trailer. These videos were from
when we went to a forest area, which links to my
original idea, so I liked how it all came together.
• The videos depict a normal hang out, which means
it has a happy vibe. This would work well to provide
a contrast between the dark and lonely house and
the bright forest with company.
• I also had more footage of the same forest that I
took last year, which meant I could add more to the
flashback sequence in terms of showing the setting
as well as the characters.
• I also found a video of a dark area with simply my
voice saying ‘ Please, come save me.’ I can’t
remember why I had it, and it really creeped me
out, so hence I decided to use it.
• I also began planning what I could film myself. I had
to start straying away from my storyboard due to
restrictions with my actors and complications with
filming myself. I don’t have a tripod or camera. I
also need to film at night when my family are
asleep, so I couldn’t get help. This means a lot of
the shots I originally wanted would be difficult.

5. Process – Filming
• I had to wait until the early hours of the morning to
film so I would have a quiet house and a dark
environment. This was okay as I had gotten used to
sleeping quite late anyway, as that’s what I prefer.
• First, I used my wardrobe handles to balance my
phone in order to record the scene of me waking
up. Upon filming, I realised the flash effected my
eyes, but both me and my peers agreed that it
worked better, as it made it even creepier.
• I then transferred the video to my PC immedietly in
order to save storage on my phone. I did this after
every video I filmed, apart from the ones
downstairs which I waited until I had filmed all of
them to avoid making the trip upstairs.
• I used various objects around the house to balance
the phone while filming as I didn’t have a tripod, as
well as doing quite a few vlog style shots where I
held the phone.
• I made sure to get a variety of shots. I got both
creepy and ‘normal’ ones of me, as well as some
that could provide a cool transition/almost
jumpscare. I also tried to get some of just rooms
around the house to provide atmospherical shots in
the trailer and switch it up a little bit.
• I also got some shots of my cats as they could
potentially be used, but in the end decided agains
tusing them in my trailer.

6. Process – Exisiting Audio + Overlay
• First of all, I wanted to find some background music
for my trailer. I ended up using
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9WsZoceais
as well as a horror ambience sound effect from
freesound.org
• These were the base for my audio. Then, I used
freesound.org again to find a collection of sound
effects, such as footsteps and doors
opening/closing. Though I did have some sound
effects recorded when filming myself, I felt by
downloading more it would help improve the
overall atmosphere of my trailer.
• I also looked through youtube for some sound
effects, but decided to only use the ones I found on
freesound.org as I felt they were higher quality and
were generally closer to what I wanted.
• Whilst editing, I realised I needed a camera overlay
filter for my video, so I downloaded one from
youtube. This is the one I used:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq54EmaNczI&
t=9s
• This turned out to be very useful, as it included
multiple different overlays which could be used to
showcase different parts of the trailer, e.g. using a
specific one with a date to show the flashbacks and
a crepier one for the more scary scenes.

7. Process – Editing
• I began by first organising all my files into folders so
I knew where to find them. I created an overall
‘FMP’ folder and put the videos in there, and then
made another folder within that named ‘Audio’
which is where I placed all the mp3 files.
• Upon loading up Sony Vegas, I first made sure all my
property settings were correct, meaning there
would be no issues with sound or video quality
when rendering.
• I did notice that a lot of the footage had noise,
which was to be expected due the low lighting and
camera quality, which is why I added the camera
overlays as it made it look intended.
• I first added my music before putting together my
intro sequence. I used the creepiest clip in my
opinion to start off, adding glitch effects and noises
to add an even creepier vibe.
• I then had the idea of adding text to almost tell a
story within the trailer. I used the background music
to emphasise this, changing the volume at different
parts in order to almost ‘jumpscare’ the audience.
• Once my intro sequence was complete, I watched it
over multiple times to make sure I liked it before
moving on to the first flashback sequence. I used
the existing footage from me and luke, the actor for
the other main character, from the forest in order to
do this. I added a camera footage overlay with a
date from 2018 to make it clear it’s in the past.

8. Process – Editing
• Then, I added more sequences of my charatcer
moving throughout the house, using glitches and
text as transitions. However, after about an hour of
doing this, I realised I wasn’t happy with it.
• When I watched it back, I didn’t think it ran very
smoothly and didn’t seem very cohesive, so I made
the decision to remove everything after the first
flashback and reorganise the footage so it worked
better together. I deleted some clips I thought were
too repetetive, and changed the text.
• I also added a completely new sequence, using
footage I had taken of myself writing. I was going
for a glitchy, fast paced sequence that would help
build up tension and suspense. I did this by cutting
the long clip up and intertwining quick flashes of
text in the middle. I liked it, but felt it needed more.
• I then decided to overlap the ‘alone’ text as well as
the glitches, which helped increase tension further. I
was really happy with this sequence, and was glad I
made the decision to go back and change it despite
that taking more time.
• I then included some shots in a found footage style
as that was my original plan, but not too many so it
didn’t become boring and repetive. Furthermore, I
experimented with colour correction and making
the shots have a blue or green tint.

9. Process – Editing
• I also experimented with using keyframes in text,
meaning I could animate the text as if it was typing
on it’s own. I liked the effect this gave, and how it
emphasised the character saying she’s alone.
• In partnership with this, I then added another
flashback sequence of the two main characters. The
brightness contrasted the previously dark tones, as
well as the content being a contrast itself. The girl
said she can’t be alone, then it showed a time when
she wasn’t, which ties into the theme of seperation.
• Finally, I did the ending sequence. I added the title
‘Echo, hear me breathe’ one word at a time with
atmospheric clips of my dark house inbetween,
animating the word ‘breathe’. I also lined up the
music so it had a haunting voice singing when
‘breathe’ showed up, which I thought worked really
weel and definitely made it more creepy, but also
with sad undertones like intented.
• To end the final sequence, I added the credits and
release date. I used a clip behind each name to
symbolise them. For my name, it was a clip of my
character sat on the bed. For Luke, it was the forest
area from the flashback. And for James, it was a
very dark house. Due to schedule conflicts, I didn’t
have any footage of James.
• Once this was done, I also adjusted the volume of
certain clips, to make them equal to each other.
• I also went back and added some
more sound effects during
certainc lips, like the footsteps at
the start, to add more creepy
ambience to the trailer.
• Finally, I rendered my project
using the Internet 1080 preset
from Sony Vegas 14, to ensure
high quality for the trailer.