Film Opening - Blog Post #7

Getting Down to the Details

        Good evening everyone! I was able to meet with my group once again during class today, which gave us even more motivation to create something great. We discussed technicalities when it came to mise-en-scene and editing, as well as talked about we should execute certain parts of the film opening. Let's dive into it.

Fake it 'Till You Make It

        Since we knew our filming location and our general outline of the film opening, we decided to discuss ways on how to properly execute each part of the film opening and how to portray the genre and "feel" that we have chosen for this project. One of the main things we discussed during this meeting was the opening's mile-en-scene, particularly how we were going to make the office space or factory seem abandoned and worn down. We mainly focused on one aspect of this: making the office space and factory look run-down by showing dust-like particles in the light. This can be seen in the opening to the film "A Quiet Place," when the main characters are at an deserted store looking for medicine and supplies (as seen from my previous blog posts, we are drawing a lot of inspiration from this film). Adding this inhabited, "weathered" look through the use of atmospheric particles would allow us to convey the location's abandoned condition as well as appeal to realism, since the storyline would become more believable.

        We came up with two separate ways to potentially pull this off: investing in a fog machine or incorporating volumetric light effects in post production (using Adobe After Effects). Both of these methods would allow us to successfully and effectively fake the location's abandoned nature, as well as give us more control in how much dust there is in this fictional setting. Unfortunately, choosing between these two options has proven to be quite difficult for us, especially since both methods have pros and cons. This is the list we came up with:

Fog machine:

Advantages: 

- Would allow us to control the amount of "dust" while filming and adjust camera settings accordingly

- Less risky in terms of making in look realistic in the final result (since we can control it when we film)

- Moving/dynamic shots would not be a problem

Disadvantages:

- We have access to one, but it is currently packed up while Kim (one of my group members) is temporarily out of town

- There is a possibility that it might set off the fire alarms in the factory or office space, which would definitely be an issue when filming

Volumetric light effects

Advantages: 

- The size and movement of the particles are completely customizable in post

- Accessible to each and every one of our group members, since we all have an Adobe subscription

- Many tutorials are available on sites like YouTube for additional help

Disadvantages:

- May be an issue in moving shots

- More risky, especially if the editing does not go the way that we expect

- We would definitely have to try it out before actually going out to film (due to its risk)

        As shown, both the fog machine and light effects ideas have equally frustrating disadvantages yet also very fortunate advantages. Though our group has not decided on either method, we plan on researching both as the project develops in order to be able to make the most intelligent decision.

Both of these images are from the opening to "A Quiet Place." A vital element to creating this abandoned
look within the store was the addition to fog-like atmospheric particles in the light to make the place seem
dusty and worn-down. This is the kind of look that my group wants to achieve in our project.

And... There's Something Else

        In addition to this abandoned, run-down feel that we want to achieve with the atmospheric particles, we realized that we have another issue that is quite significant for our film opening. Unlike the mise-en-scene elements that I mentioned earlier in this post, the last shot of our opening (the one where main character encounters a train) is vital to our storyline and therefore must be executed as well as possible. Unfortunately, we have yet to find out when the train passes the location and therefore have begun to come up with alternatives in case we are not able to capture the train in person. One way we thought of doing this was to frame the shot in a particular way (with the camera parallel and facing the front of the protagonist's body) and then edit a train in post. This can be done in two different ways. We could either go out of our way to create a 3D model of a train on applications like Blender and insert it into the footage, or we could find a video of a train online (with a green screen background) and insert that into our final project. Once again, there are both pros and cons to each method. I have listed them here:

3D model:

Advantages:

- As long as we put effort and thought into it, we could create a train that could easily blend into the footage (looks more realistic)

- More creative freedom as to how the train looks like, how it would move, etc.

Disadvantages:

- Matching the lighting and all the other elements in order to make the train blend into the scene will be quite difficult, especially since we are not that familiar with software like Blender (yet)

- It would certainly be much more time-consuming

- More risky to choose this option since it is not something that we have done before

Online video:

Advantages:

- Much less time-consuming 

- Easy to do (I have done projects with green screen footage before and therefore it is also much more achievable and less risky)

Disadvantages:

- Might not fully match the footage, which might take away from the final product

- Might not even be allowed for our project since the rules say we must create every piece of visual media included in the video 

This is an example of what we were thinking for this green screen video of a train passing.

        Much like the other situation, we still have not fully decided on what we are going to do for the opening, however I am glad that we are discussing each possibility and being clear about the pros and cons to each method. I will definitely update you guys on the decisions that we make along the way, so stay tuned! I have a feeling that this project will come out great.