Adobe AfterEffects

The majority of short films don't need to have much added to them in terms of special effects as the plot line doesn't usually become in depth enough in that short amount of time. Even though my short film is just scraping an idea that could go much more into detail if more time was allowed I still wanted to have a go at using Adobe AfterEffects and all the doors it may open for my short film. There was just one scene that I wanted to apply effects to and this was, what I liked to call it, the "Jetpack Shoot 'em Up" scene, where The Spaceman flies into the air with his jetpack, aiming his gun at the on coming Shadow Self and then firing 3-5 shots and therefore killing them and destroying an insecurity. The gun he is using is a spray painted Nerf gun and so no special effects would have to be added with that, and the simple green screen and chroma keying in Finalcut Pro could be done at school... so the only main thing that needed to be added was the lasers coming from the gun (or some form of ammunition). I've never really used Adobe AE before, only to create the 'writing title' at the beginning of my film which took a while. Online tutorials would be my best way to get started with this and so I found the simplest 'Laser effect tutorial' I could find. Although there are effects already in Adobe AE I wanted to create something different. I first went into Adobe Photoshop and constructed my own laser looking beam. This was created in a PNG file so no background would be visible. To make this I took 1 rectangle, filled it in white before giving it a blue haze around the sides. To curve off the ends I then placed one circle on each end to give it the typical laser shape.

I transported this in Adobe AE then and created my first composition with my already edited green screen footage. The gun jolts 4 times and I need to track this motion to allow the beam to follow from these shots. The tracking can be done by adding a layer and applying a 'Track Motion'. Two boxes and an x in the middle of them will appear and you need to rearrange it to be able to fit the entire gun inside the 1st box, the barrel of the gun in the 2nd box and the middle of the barrel must have the x in it. The x in the middle I noticed will jump about places if shape or sudden movements are used and so when pressing play to watch each frame you always need to make sure the x is in the middle of the barrel.

The next part I felt was the most difficult out of the whole thing. I needed to layer the PNG image of my laser and tick the box saying I wanted it to be able to move as a 3D object. I also needed to unclick the padlock by the layer of the laser so I could move it around freely at different angles. Next I went through each frame to establish where the laser starts and disappears, then splitting this first layer into 3 more layers for each gun shot. Now that the laser was matched up to the tracking and split into 4 layers in total (1 for each gun shot) I could now go about moving the laser from one place to another. In simple words there are two dots (one on the barrel and one off the actual footage) and the laser starts from one  and moves to the other by the change in length of the laser. BUT! You have to go through each frame again and adjust where you want it to ago, adjust the XYZ axles to move the laser and change the angles, but then add effects to this like 'feathering' which can change how much the edge of you laser beam fades into the background. Quite a few times I missed out steps and indeed I did get very frustrated with AE but the end result I received was better than I could have hoped for, especially for a beginner.

Bloopers of SKETCH

RAW footage of 'SKETCH'

Equipment Needed

This list will remind me what to bring when filming my short film. I've learnt from past experience that it is crucial to bring all the equipment needed and items that could help in case of an emergency.

Items I need to bring:

• 2 Sony 5n cameras
• 2 tripods
• Smoke emitters
• Matches
• Camera lenses
• Camera lens adapter
• Penny board (for tracking shots)
• Props (2 swords, 1 jetpack, laser gun, bow and arrows, stunt flute, book and pencil)
• Face paint
• Water
• Paint brushes and sponges
• Food
• Backpack
• Reflector (silver disk that reflects light)
• Boom mic and wind breaker
• Storyboard (for shot and story reference)

Ancillary Task 1 - Poster

After having this poster shown to a diverse range of people on a school open evening, I was able to gain immense feedback from these people even though they weren't my target market. The majority stated that it looked professional and could be used for a film due to the billing block and layout of the poster.

Applying Billing Block and Logo to Poster

I wanted my posters to be a little different from the others out there and stand out, catch the attention of my audience. The majority of film posters follow conventional tropes, for instance they always have the main characters on the front, the name of the film, the billing block, logos and a tagline. Although I want my film poster to look as professional as possible I don't want to be lost in the crowd of other typical film posters. I believe that the best way to do that is to know have unfamiliar actors on the front cover but to have the main prop, the prop which creates the whole story and the film couldn't work without. The sketchbook and pencil are what brings the characters to life, what tells the girl how to defeat her inner demons and be free. The white background and the bold black title I feel makes the whole thing more memorable and makes the book and the pencil stand out more due to the fact that they are the only piece of colour on the poster. 

Bellow these posters will be a survey I have taken to investigate which poster my target audience prefers, therefore giving my film the best possible start by giving the correct information to my audience.



Myself - I prefer the last version as I get both logos on the poster, a decent billing block and a tag line. I prefer the tagline being underneath the title as it seems to flow better.

Kayleigh - I prefer the third one because I like the fact you get the tag line before the title.

Katherine - I don't like the second one because the writing doesn't seem to be in the right place and doesn't look correct, I don't like the 3rd because there is too much space between the title and the tag line. I do however like the 1st one because the writing sticks to a constant style and the 4th one because  everything seems to be spaced out correctly and I like the logos.

Simran - I like the 4th design because it's evenly spaced out

Ben - I like the 3rd because the tagline is before the title therefore allowing me to understand the theme of the movie before I see the title and the focal point seems to be the title.

Meghan - I like the 4th design because I prefer the title above everything as it draws your eyes to it first. 

Chloe - I prefer the second as it's simple and to the point.

Overall, after research into the target market and how they view the media of films I have decided that poster 4 is the best way to advertise my short film as it portrays the plot of my short film and gives all the information a short film poster needs to inform my target audience.

Rough Posters

By taking some screen shots from my film I am able to create a rough idea of what I want my posters to look like. Of course the shape of these posters wont be the desired shape due to the quality and the fact I'm using screen shots but it gives me a basic idea on editing and what the poster may look like when real photos are taken. I will still need to add things to these posters such as billing blocks, logo/company name and so on but this will start to give me an idea of what I want my posters will look like and gives me a chance to play around with different colours and layers before settling on a final design with the real images.

My first idea was to take a picture not of the main character but the main prop in the story, the item that causes all of this to happen. The book and pencil is what The Girl uses to create her army to defeat the Shadow Selves and therefor plays the biggest part in the film. I wanted to keep the background simple to leave the audience wondering and imagining what the film could be about and therefore leaving them intrigued. I spent a long time deciding over which font I wanted to use for my title. I needed it to fit with the style and plot of the short film without it becoming too messy. Some fonts where too elaborate and some where too difficult to read, but this one seemed to fit the bill as people can read it clearly and matches the idea of sketching. I also needed to think about a slogan or tagline to make people remember my short film but also to give a little more information on my short film. I had thought about other taglines such as 'Sketch yourself free' or 'Drawing is the salvation', but I felt it needed to be more about The Girl's imagination instead of drawing as that is already given away in the title. I then applied this all to some screen shots to get a rough idea of what it might look like.