Posts

CCR 3

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 Hell'o, Akhil here!!! This is CCR question 3 video:

CCR 2

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 Hell'o, Akhil here!!! This is CCR question 2 video:

CCR 1

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 Hell'o, Akhil here!!! This is the CCR question 1 video:

Final Shoot

    Hell'o, Akhil here!!! The difficulties faced by us when the shoot was going on was the fact that no one was acting naturally it all seemed like acted which was not what we were aiming for but still got something in the end to make it seem less like acted and more like a normal truth or dare game gone wrong. But the pre production and the post production was the most difficult in this whole process as the production was only one to two days but the pre production and the post production was the longest as it took two to three months.

Vladimir Propp's Character Theory

 Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Vladimir Propp's character theory, outlined in his 1928 book Morphology of the Folktale , proposes that all characters in Russian fairy tales can be classified into a limited number of archetypal roles based on their functions in the narrative. Rather than focusing on their psychological traits, Propp was concerned with what the characters do to advance the plot. He identified seven (and sometimes eight) main character types, or "spheres of action." Propp's seven primary character archetypes are as follows: The Hero : The protagonist, who goes on a quest to solve a problem or right a wrong. They are often a seeker or a victim. The Villain: The antagonist who creates the conflict or causes the initial "villainy" that sets the story in motion. This character may steal, kidnap, or otherwise inflict harm. The Donor : A character who tests the hero and, upon a successful outcome, gives them a magical agent or a helpful object. The ...

Todorov’s Narrative Theory

 Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Todorov's Theory of Narrative posits that most narratives are constructed in a regular five-stage form. Even though the video is an opening shot, and not a full narrative, we can use Todorov's theory to look at the story arc that is being established. 1. Equilibrium This is a state of peace and normalcy that exists at the beginning of a tale. In the video, the equilibrium is the ordinary life of the students. They are shown in what seems like a regular school environment, hanging out with friends and playing a game. This is a state of peace before the introduction of the main conflict. 2. Disruption A character or an event disrupts the equilibrium. The intrusion of the "truth or dare" game, and more specifically, the dare, is the disruption of the equilibrium.  The disruptive event that turns the characters' routine into a perilous one is the dare to go into a "haunted room". From here on, the plot shifts from being a teen dram...

Stuart Hall’s Reception Theory

 Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Stuart Hall's Reception Theory explains the way an audience reads and makes sense of a media text. According to the theory, there are three dominant reading positions: dominant-hegemonic, negotiated, and oppositional. These are described as follows: Dominant-Hegemonic Reading: In this film opening scene, the audience totally accepts and makes sense of the message intended by the text. They decode the message the way the creator encoded it without any doubt. For this video, the dominant reading would be to recognize the film as a horror film opening. The viewers would accept the conventions of the genre and what is being set up in the story: The title "Whispering Nightmare" establishes a horror expectation. The spooky narrator and the history of Ethan Graves are accepted as the truth, setting up a need for the terror that is to come. The abandoned playground, creepy sound effects, and unsteady camera shots are all properly realized as codes inten...

Claude Lévi-Strauss's Theory

Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Lévi-Strauss held that cultures and stories are organized through binary oppositions, i.e., pairs of coordinating terms or ideas that are opposites of each other. The conflict between the opposites propels the story and makes meaning. In the opening scene, there are various primary binary oppositions: Life vs. Death: This is the basic conflict propelling the horror storyline. The living students must battle against the ghostly spirit of Ethan Graves, dead. The story is a clash between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Innocence vs. Evil: The teenagers are first seen as innocent teens in a harmless game of truth or dare. This is juxtaposed with the evil, malevolent ghost of Ethan Graves. From the innocent game to the ending scare, it represents the contamination of innocence by an invisible evil. Safety vs. Danger: Safety is created at the start of the film. The students are in a safe environment, a school and a playground, and are playing a ro...

Roland Barthes' Theory

 Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Using Roland Barthes' Semiotic Theory to explain The Whispering Nightmare and how we applied the theory. Barthes' theory revolves around two meanings: denotation and connotation, which ultimately result in the development of a myth. Denotation: Denotation is the literal or literal meaning of a sign. It's what the sign is. In the opening scene, the following have a literal meaning: The Playground: Literally, it is a tract of land with play equipment for kids like swings, slides, and monkey bars. The Students: They are a group of adolescents on the ground floor of a building. They are in casual attire, some of them wearing school uniform, and playing a game with an empty bottle. The Hallway: A thin corridor in a school that has a row of lockers and some doors. Someone is proceeding down this hallway, between the lockers and up the stairs. The "Haunted" Room: A tiny room with a door and a window above. The inside of the room is dark. Connot...

Steve Neale’s Genre Theory

 Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Steve Neale's Theory of Genre is a model used to judge the conventions, traditions, and variations found in a genre of film. Neale states that genres are not fixed, but are subject to change over time. His theory can be broken down into three broad areas: Repetition, Difference, and Genre as a site of ideological struggle. Repetition: Neale argues that genres are defined by repetition of certain conventions and tropes. This creates a sense of familiarity for the viewer. In the film, there are some repetitions from the teen drama and horror genres Characters: The troupe of innocent-looking or naive young friends is a common trope for teen dramas as well as horror films. They are engaged in common teenage activities, like playing "truth or dare." Setting: The use of what appears to be an innocuous, neglected playground is a horror convention. The juxtaposition of the familiar, playful setting and the foreboding atmosphere creates a sense of unease...

Location Scouting

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Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Today Me, Neha and Sabari went to scout for our shoot location we have selected a lot of locations which are:

Exploring DaVinci

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 Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Let's get real here, getting into video editing can be intimidating. I was looking at all the heavy-hitting software available and I already felt my wallet crying. All I wanted to do was create awesome videos, but the pro software seemed so far away. That's when I came across something that totally revolutionized things for me: DaVinci Resolve. I was hesitant at first. How could a professional-level software used by Hollywood colorists be free? But I installed it anyway, and it's been the best decision I ever made as a creative professional. It's not only an editing application; it's a full post-production beast. I'm referring to editing, color grading, visual effects, and even audio mixing—all in one application. Why I Fell in Love with Resolve The largest reason I'm staying with Resolve is its workflow. Rather than being a mess of windows, it's broken up into these various "pages," and each one of them serves a purp...

Test Shoot

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    Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Today we did the test shoot for the film opening extract, it was a chaios as the characters were messing up their lines and their actions, but we pulled through and finished it, after which we decided to make a few changes to the script to more sure the actors, like the part were the friend who gives the dare to the MC says tear instead of dare.

BTS The Whispering Nightmare

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    Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Today we will be seeing the bts of the whispering nightmare. I'm really disappointed as I was not able to capture any bloopers, especially the one where the script writer fell down, but here we go this is the BTS of The Whispering Nightmare.

Camera Shots Practice

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  Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Today I was practising camera shots, the following is a short video on it

Script Reading Session

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  Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Today we will be seeing about script reading session with the actors. The session was a practice for the real shoot, and we had made some changes in the dialogues on the spot according to the actors. It was a mess, as some of them were forgetting their lines.

First Cut

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  Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Today we will be looking at what is first cut. First cut is the raw and unpolished form of video, which is just put together ruffly to make out the final outcome, that is when the editor gets to know whether the shots and the dubbed audio are correct or need to be retaken. We had faced a similar problem with our protagonist's voice; it was not syncing with the video, so we had to retake the audio again.

Dubbing

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  Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Today, we will be talking about my dubbing experience for our film's opening scene. It was a new experience for me, as it was my first time dubbing. I didn't record my voice, as I was not in the film; instead, I was recording it. It was really difficult to record the audio because of the background noises, but we pulled through it with the help of our teacher.

Camera Movements Practices

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  Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Today I was practicing camera movements and here is the practice movements stitched together 

Film Screening and Feedback

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  Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Today we screened our short film opening scene to our Correspondent and our teachers. They gave us a positive feedback  saying that we did a good work and it was genuinely nice. The same day we also screened it to our classmates the all liked it but found the film funny not scary, it might be because they all know the actors and there real character 

Film Opening

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Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Months of hard work later this it, this is the Final Opening scene this is what we had been doing for the past 3 months.

The practice short film: Shadows in the Attic

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  Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Today we will be seeing my practice short film Shadows in the Attic, it is about two friends exploring a attic to find a treasure which belonged to the great grandfather of Rohan the MC. The meaning is "Success doesn't come alone, it's what you achieve together and the things you learn together"

Unlocking Better Audio: The Power of Sound Design Research

  Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Today we will be seeing aout sound design and it's research. It was really hard to find musics which will suit our film, but after a while of digging on  Pixabay  we found the perfect music we need and then got the permission from the composers through Insta.

Script Improvisation

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Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Today we will be seeing about script improvisation, the final script we were way off the original script that we created in the start, we were trying to make everything look like it is real and stuffs like this can happen in day to day life, but it was really hard to include some of my ideas which I think are the best endings but my teammates were against it as it was making a bed look like a dead body hanging from the ceiling, or making the MC's body lay lifeless with blood covering all over him. but in the end we settled for a not so scary ending. There was also a problem that we found after the final shoot which had my teammate as the ghost and the character who dares the MC to go to the forbidden place, so we made some changes to script to make it look like he is the ghost of Ethan and he was trying to make students his age going through the same experience he did once.

Recce Report

Hell'o, Akhil here!!!  Today I made the  Recce Report  for our course work. A Recce Report is a report that summarizes the results of an initial survey or reconnaissance of a given site or area. The main reason for a recce is to obtain vital information firsthand prior to a project, event, or operation being conducted at the site. Treat it as an initial investigation report. Recceing and report preparation assist in planning, the identification of potential issues, feasibility determination, and making informed decisions.  

Permission Letter

Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Today we got the permission from our school to use the school premises for shooting the movie opening scene for our AS level course work. The following is the link to the approve letter  Permission Letter

Software

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  Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Today I will be telling you the Software used by us for the making to our film opening scene. The Following are the Software's used:              Fade In for script writing                        Filmic Pro for shooting                 DJI Mimo also for shooting   Davinci Resolve for editing    

Story Discussion

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Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Today we discussed our final story we had made some small changes when we where discussing like the location and the camera angles such as when to use high angles and when to use eye-line, we also discussed about the props required in the final shoot for instance we need a leaf blower for the leaf rolling insert shot and the no entry sign stand for when the MC ignores the sing and still heads in to the hunted room.

Equipments

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Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Today I will be introducing you to all the equipment we used for shooting the opening scene We used our mentor's iPhone 14 Pro as our primary camera which has a  Triple camera setup : 48 MP, f/1.8, 24mm (wide), 1/1.28", 1.22µm, dual pixel PDAF, sensor-shift OIS 12 MP, f/2.8, 77mm (telephoto), 1/3.5", 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom 12 MP, f/2.2, 13mm, 120˚ (ultrawide), 1/2.55", 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF And can record at 4 K@24/25/30/60fps, 1080p@25/30/60/120/240fps, 10-bit HDR, Dolby Vision HDR (up to 60fps), ProRes, stereo sound rec. We used the 48 MP main sensor to shoot most of the time in 4K@24fps. But at scene 2 during the bottle POV we used the 12MP Ultrawide sensor  We also used our school phone which is a Samsung Galaxy S24 for tests shoots, which also has a Triple camera setup: 50 MP, f/1.8, 24mm (wide), 1/1.56", 1.0µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS 10 MP, f/2.4, 67mm (telephoto), 1/3.94", 1.0µm,  PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom 12 MP, ...

Ideation

  Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Today I will be discussing about Ideation Myself and my team came up with the idea of making a horror film opening scene for our AS level coursework, I was okay with anything as I like all genre, but my teammate Sabari Raj was keen on making the opening scene of a horror film even though he was clearly scared of seeing one, as it was easy for him to come up with stories in that generic. Neha was also okay with it as she was also planning to say that generic.I came up with a story which was something like a student had came to school during summer holidays to retrieve his/her book which he/she had forgotten in school and during going back out he/she heard a strange noise from the biology lab when he/she had opened the door he/she saw a dead body dripping blood hanging from the fan, on the body it was written "  YOU ARE NEXT " seeing this the MC had a panic attack and was laying  there unconscious, after a while he was found by the security who was ...

Revised Roles

  Hell'o, Akhil here!!! We had revised all our roles as it was not equally divide, the following are the new roles:    Reviced Roles Teammate Primary Role Additional Responsibilities Akhilesh Cinematographer, Editor, Producer Location Deciding, Production Designer, Lighting Technician Neha Director, Editor, Actor Permission from Authorities, Budgeting planning, Schudel planning, Marketing and Distribution Sabari Script writer, Assistant Director, Actor Storyboarding, Casting, Continuity, Post-Production Superviso r My Roles are Cinematographer, Editor and Produce. As you all know by now from my previous blogs I love to film videos, take photos and edit them, so I have been appointed  as the Cinematographer and co-editor of our course work.

A depth dive into filmmaking with Clusters Media College

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 Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Today I will be talking about my experience at  Clusters Media College .  The first day we were discussing Filmmaking which was taken by Mr. P. Thirumalaisamy  This happened on a saturday, because of which I has to sacrifice one of my off days which was actually worth the loss as we got to learn a lot about filmmaking and about how to write a script it was not a lot for me as I'm not the script writer but I was helpful for me too as it helped me give ideas for our story to our script writer.    On the next saturday we had a class with Mr. Ramesh Murugan who helped us even more in script writhing as he has experience in this field.  After which we had a session with Mr.Darshan Ashok who helped us with cinematography and editing he taught us how to properly use a mirrorless camera in manual mode which we had no idea about at first and also got us a chance to see how the collage students were shooting a short film, added to it ...

Filmmaking as a business: a breakdown of the process

Hell'o, Akhil here!!! Today I will be discussing about "Film as a business" Film as business is a complex, intriguing platform. It is a high-risk, high-reward industry in which fortunes can be made or broken in a flash on one film. The Film Production Process The filmmaking process can be shortened into five main steps: Production is the stage during which the script of the film is written. The producer acquires the rights of the film's story, while the scriptwriter comes up with the film idea. Also, the producer gathers the filmmaking crew such as the editor, director, and cinematographer. Pre-production: This is the phase where detailed planning is done. The script is finalized, the budget is set, and the shooting schedule is planned. The cast and crew are hired, and locations for shooting are scouted. Production: During this phase, the director and cinematographer collaborate with the cast and crew to create the screenplay. Post-production: Here, the movie is ed...