In my group's case, we decided to recreate the classic horror film, The Ring. It took quite a while to come to this decision as our group members had conflicting ideas at first but ultimately decided that this would be the best and most interesting option.
CREATIVE PROCESS
Members of the group : Allan, Lewis, Chay, and Me
Before we started filming anything, we had several long discussion and brainstorm sessions in order to wrap our heads around the whole concept of The Ring as well as the basic plotline. We also had a lot of research to do because not everyone was familiar with the film. We watched several trailers including both the original Japanese version and the Hollywood remake of it in order to get as much information as possible for the scenes and sequences of the movie.
the ring trailer:
After doing research, we then decided on the level of similarity to the original film we wanted ours to be, as well as the crucial parts that we needed to include. This is where we had the most issues as there were clashes between opinions. for example, I thought that it was important that we included a scene where the actual Ghost was visible however, another teammate believed that it was unnecessary and objected to do so at first. After further discussion and debate we came to a conclusion to include the Ghost in our remake would be a better option as it would have a bigger impact on the audience.
Overall, it was relatively easy to get my ideas through the group and communication was very effective. We were able to express our opinions well and everyone was listened to even though it was the first time working with each other. Me and Allan were the two main idea feeders to the project but Lewis and Chay would always contribute whenever we needed reassurance that our ideas would work.
During filming, I took on the role of leading most of the setting out of the scenes as I had more experience in watching horror films and had a good idea about the micro-elements that should be used. However, Lewis was the most skilled in using the camera so he was the one behind the camera a lot of the times. Alan was our main protagonist in the film and had experience with Drama before so we were able to trust him completely in the acting. Last but not least, Chay was able to input a lot of good ideas during filming that allowed us to produce a good outcome even though we were improvising most of the times and he was very experienced in video editing so he did most of the editing for our film. We had good communication and collaboration as a team with work equally divided and the different range of skills allowed us to specialise well. Each member had a significant role and without their contribution we wouldn't have been able to produce our final product.
CAMERA
- Everyone in the group were all relatively familiar with the settings on a camera and there were not many problems during filming. Whenever there is a gap in knowledge of using the camera, another member would be able to fill in and help. For example, I have never used a tripod before and did not know how to attach it to the camera but Lewis knew how, therefore there was no problem.
EDITING SOFTWARE
- The editing software we used was called ____. Regrettably, not everyone took part in editing as our time schedules clashed and we were not given a lot of time in class to work on it together. We relied on Chay, who had the most experience in editing and was keen to be the one who finished up the editing. Before uploading our final video every member in the team checked it several times to ensure that it was as good as possible and any issues were fixed. There were many changes to the audio before we reached the final product.
AUDIO EQUIPMENT
- This is something we did not use use nor had in access. Our film had very minimal dialogue and whenever there was any, we relied solely on the camera during filming to capture the sound and ensured the surrounding was very still and quiet to eliminate any background noise. Most of the sound in our film was added in afterwards during editing.
FINAL PRODUCT
WHAT WENT WELL : I am particularly happy with our teamwork and the contribution of every member to the project. Everyone's strengths and weaknesses worked well in harmony to create our first film project. The audience reaction was well received and we are all very happy about how it turned out.
EVEN BETTER IF : It was disappointment that not everyone was able to take part in the editing of the film and I hope that in the next film project there would be a more equal contribution in this element so everyone has a chance to improve their editing skills. I also think that we could have spent more time planning before the actual filming.
