Black Sands || Finished

Black Sands || Voice Bloopers

My Film Ident

Recently I purchased the editing software 'Motion' after having bought 'Final Cut Pro' in late December 2015. I decided that I really wanted to explore my creative skills and looked through the effects that I could work with in motion. It was tremendous fun to have all these new effects at my fingertips but I decided to go with something basic yet effective.

I have yet to find music for my ident and I am in the process of deciding whether it will have an iconic tune over it such as 20th Century Fox or if it will just merge in with the soundtrack for the actual film production.

I had originally decided to go for a production name that I had used when I first started making videos on iMovie. However I found the name 'Gold Leaf Productions' too long to read or pronounce for a quick film ident. I wanted something that would fit in with my first ever proper film opening. After a serious amount of thought and debating with my target audience over a good and catchy name I came up with 'Exile Productions'.

So for now, it's back to my laptop for some more editing...

'Black Sands' Bloopers

I can't believe that I have almost finished filming for my two minute film opening! I'll be editing it shortly which will be...interesting.

Today I finished filming with my actresses and we had a great time. I was amazed at how difficult it was to keep control of them all - and that was only three teenage girls so I dread what it's like for directors with larger casts. The filming went according to plan however the storyboard was tweaked slightly - which I will talk about later. 

For now, I wish to leave you with this silly video of just how filming 'Black Sands' was!

Thank you to all three of my wonderful actresses (Emily Thomas, Harriet Firth, Rosie Firth) and my parents for braving to lug us all down to the set's location.

'Black Sands' || Shot List & Types of Shot

point of view shot | long shot | mid shot | close up | high angle shot

low angle shot | arial shot | tracking shot | tilt | pan | over the shoulder

SHOT 01 - Landscape of grass - close up

SHOT 02 - Landscape of ruins - close up

SHOT 03 - Character walking through the grass - pan

SHOT 04 - Character walking towards the camera - close up

SHOT 05 - Tree - arial shot

SHOT 06 - Old house/ruins - mid shot

SHOT 07 - Tree branches in the wind - close up

SHOT 08 - Shot of water/river - long shot

SHOT 09 - Children playing - close up

SHOT 10 - Character walking - tracking shot

SHOT 11 - Sunlight coming through branches - low angle shot

SHOT 12 - Child playing, twisting in the sun - high angle shot

SHOT 13 - Character runs hand through grass - close up

SHOT 14 - Plastic bag caught in the branches of a tree - mid shot

SHOT 15 - Hand opens door handle - close up

SHOT 16 - Character goes through door - mid shot

SHOT 17 - Door closes - mid shot

SHOT 18 - Title 'Black Sands'

SHOT 19 - Rowena and Alys asleep - mid shot

SHOT 20 - Skadi tied up - close up

SHOT 21 - Rowena wakes up - mid shot

SHOT 22 - Rowena's eyes open, looks to her left - close up

SHOT 23 - Rowena gets up - long shot

SHOT 24 - Alys grumbles and curls up - long shot

SHOT 25 - Alys pulls blanket close to her - long shot

SHOT 26 - Rowena walking - over the shoulder

SHOT 27 - Rowena's perspective - point of view shot (Rowena)

SHOT 28 - Rowena walking - mid shot

SHOT 29 - Rowena bends down - mid shot

SHOT 30 - Rowena rummaging in rucksack - over the shoulder

SHOT 31 - Skadi in the shadows - tilt

SHOT 32 - Skadi fiddles with rope tied around her wrist - point of view

SHOT 33 - Skadi lifts her wrist to her mouth - close up

SHOT 34 - Skadi bites the rope trying to break free - close up

SHOT 35 - Rowena pulls out a water bottle from her rucksack - point of view (Rowena)

SHOT 36 - Rowena attempts to drink from bottle - mid shot

SHOT 37 - Rowena looks at bottle (frozen) - point of view (Rowena)

SHOT 38 - Angry, Rowena throws frozen water bottle - mid shot

SHOT 39 - Skadi looks up as water bottle hits the ground - mid shot

SHOT 40 - Skadi reach out for bottle (can't quite reach) - close up

SHOT 41 - Rowena looks at Skadi - close up

SHOT 42 - Rowena walks towards Skadi - point of view (Skadi)

SHOT 43 - Skadi tries harder to get the bottle - point of view

SHOT 44 - Rowena kicks away the bottle - point of view (Rowena)

SHOT 45 - Skadi stares at Rowena - close up

SHOT 46 - Skadi stands - mid shot

SHOT 47 - Skadi begins to twitch uncontrollably - mid shot

SHOT 48 - Skadi lunges at Rowena - close up

SHOT 49 - Skadi bites at air, towards Rowena - close up

SHOT 50 - Alys starts to wake up - mid shot

SHOT 51 - Skadi bites at the air - close up

SHOT 52 - Alys wakes up, eyes open - mid shot

SHOT 53 - Skadi claws out at Rowena in front of her - point of view (Skadi)

SHOT 54 - Alys approaches Rowena - point of view (Skadi)

SHOT 55 - Rowena looks at Skadi - mid shot

SHOT 56 - Skadi lashes out again - mid shot

SHOT 57 - Alys starts to pace - close up (Alys's feet)

SHOT 58 - Rowena turns to look at Alys - point of view (Rowena)

SHOT 59 - Alys looks at Rowena - over the shoulder

SHOT 60 - Rowena looks away - close up

Shot types in 'Black Sands'

Currently I have been looking at different types of shots to include in my film opening 'Black Sands'. I am aiming to include at least one:

point of view shot | long shot | mid shot | close up | high angle shot

low angle shot | arial shot | tracking shot | tilt | pan | over the shoulder

Music for 'Black Sands'

So, now I have finished my script and storyboard I've started working on the music I am going to use for 'Black Sands'.

I've been looking for creepy, dark, calm yet mysterious music (such as the music below) but I know that a lot of music is copyrighted (such as the one below by Adrian Von Ziegler). So it has been a bit of a struggle to find music.

So after what seemed like an age of searching for copyright free music on different websites, I finally found some contenders!

Legend of Styk
(to listen to this watch the video below from 10:34 - 12:59)

Apocalypse by 'heroboard - No Copyright Music'
(to listen to this watch the video below from 25:35 - 28:50)

'Black Sands' Risk Assessment

Today I decided that I would consider the risks to my production of the opening two minutes for my short-film 'Black Sands'.

Description of risk	Possible consequences	Probability of the risk	Severity of risk	Overall risk	Contingency plan
Actor forgetting lines	Start filming the scene again	5/10	2/10	6/10	Show cast the script before filming
Falling in the river	Getting wet/drowning	4/10	9/10	6/10	Stay away from the river and watch where you step
Someone slipping over	Getting hurt/breaking something	5/10	7/10	7/10	Try and keep off wet ground and watch where you step
Disturbing members of the public	Public being slightly confused or annoyed	2/10	1/10	1/10	Try and be quiet and unobtrusive
Camera running out of battery	Not being able to film	5/10	7/10	6/10	Take a spare battery or a portable charger
Actor being ill on the day	Not having a character for filming	5/10	4/10	5/10	Make sure actors are well (if they aren’t schedule shoot for another day)
Weather being bad (rain)	Getting wet, not getting the lighting	5/10	2/10	3/10	Take rain coats, umbrellas and protective sheets for the camera equipment
Camera/equipment being damaged	Not being able to film, paying for the damage	2/10	9/10	3/10	Keep an eye on the equipment
Falling down old/crumbly steps	Getting hurt/breaking something	3/10	6/10	4/10	Watch where we step
Being attacked by geese/swans	Being bitten or attacked	4/10	6/10	4/10	Keep away from the geese/swans

Black Sands Storyboard

It's here!

My storyboard idea for my film opening 'Black Sands'!

Black Sands Treatment

This is my film treatment for 'Black Sands'. In it I have given a detailed explanation of what the world in which 'Black Sands' is set would be like and who the characters are.