Pre-Production

Shoot Days

Post Production

VIRULENCE Reflection

VIRULENCE REFLECTION

Virulence is an environmental extrapolation that speculates the future of our world if we continue to ignore the warning signs of global warming and climate change. The mushrooms represent our ideas of the Earth turning against humanity to wipe out the virus infecting its ecosystems. By using these ideas and interjecting a “family drama” it will evoke the sympathies of audiences in both senses so that we can get our message across while captivating the audience.

We planned for a dark almost film noir aesthetic with a limited colour pallet of reds and mainly yellows for the toxicity. I had so much fun doing this project, but it wasn’t without its issues. i think what we set out to make and the final product were pretty in line with each other, but we did hit a few issues along the way which made it hard to keep to a structure of the script.

The role of producer is something that I am aiming for, so for this project I decided to try my best to make the production documents as in depth as possible as if we were doing a feature rather than just a scene. We did run over time for some of the scheduling, but not by much so I was pretty happy with my documents. I found it quite difficult to translate some of the shots into a schedule not really knowing how long it would take to shoot them and really in the end I should have allowed way more time to shoot all the scenes as I felt like some of the shots we ended up with were not good enough. I think because it was a night shoot we had to try and get everything done so that we weren’t keeping people past midnight, and also so that we weren’t infringing on the people who lived in the house that we used as a set.

I am so happy with the performances. This is the first time that I have successfully used StarNow for a full cast and I was really happy with the actors. I think mainly because it was a physical performance rather than dialogue there wasn’t much to mess up in that regard, but all of them moved just how we wanted them to.

I think one of the main issues was the communication with lighting. We did not have a consistent person on lighting and you can see it in our raw footage. Luckily Tash is a great colourist and was able to conform each of the clips to match each other. I believe Isaac did amazingly with the sound design and overall I’m really happy with the final project, which is a complete turn around from our rough cuts. I think by adding the after effect and sound elevates the short to a new level and completes the film. This is a bit of an obvious statement, but as someone who is not that adept at AE and even less so with sound design I’m really impressed with the difference that it makes.

Honestly, this has been my favourite studio of my degree and luckily so since it is my last. I’ve loved the freedom of creating something within the genre that I want to work in and I am actually really interested to develop this idea further. there is so much more to the story that we just did not have the capacity to film and if we did so i think it could be a great short film.

THANKS ALAN! I’ve shared the google drive with all of our content, but here are the key docs as well.

Shot Order Virulence_
Shot List

Location Release
Personal release HARLEY
Personal release ISABELLA
Personal release RICK
VIRULENCE call sheet copy
VIRULENCE call sheet
VIRULENCE Filming Schedule copy
VIRULENCE Filming Schedule day 1
VIRULENCE Filming Schedule
VIRULENCE Risk Management Safety Report

This has been a nightmare. Massive shout out to Tash for getting this together. The lighting- as predicted- was awful. Everything was so inconsistent we have had to edit each shot multiple times to ensure that they are matching up.  Some of the shots that only took one take are out of focus or way too dark, I should have been checking each take as the producer, which is something I won’t forget.  I think in general the Director/Producer and editor should be checking each take to ensure its useable rather than just relying on the cinematographer and director to make the call.

The pacing of the film feels a little slow, but thats how we planned the beginning of the film. At this point we have long takes of the first part and I’m really wanting to cut them down. The fast-paced nature of the second half allows us to have a little more time to breathe in the first half but I feel like the shots are dragging rather than allowing breathing room.

At the start of the session I sat in on (Tash had already been editing for a few days) we were sitting on around 8min 45secs and we managed to cut it down to just over 7 mins so I’m really happy about that.

so far I think we almost done, we just have to do some sound design and foley. We are waiting to get some feedback on the rough cut to cut it down further but I think it might end up going to 7 mins as cut.

Day 1

We started the day quite early in the afternoon (sorry for ditching class Alan!). it was around 3-4pm when we were dressing the set with the fake blood and trashing Isaac’s house.  The best part was probably dragging Isaac around the floor in the fake blood to make it look realistic.

Actors arrived on time and everything was going smoothly, but because it was the first day i expected to be behind schedule – which ended up happening.

The night shoot is proving to be difficult as the lighting is becoming an issue and theres a few people throwing the ‘fix it in post’ line around which doesn’t really sit well with me. Isaac has been reviewing the footage and I trust his judgement so it should be fine. Wrangling the actors and keeping them energetic has been a bit of  a task as well. Luckily Rick (Big) is full of energy and is kind of a clown so he has been a great help.

By the end of day one we ran TO SCHEDULE! We managed to wrap the two intruders and wouldn’t need them for day 2 so we will only be working with Isabella tomorrow. I think this will be a massive help as just dealing with one actor and getting through some of the slower shots it should relieve alot of pressure on the crew. Sophia is not available for the second day so Darcy will be taking over the cinematography.

Day 2

Tonight we just had Naya on set so it was so much easier to deal with. We started off ahead of schedule which actually really scared me. So i have discovered that I’m scared of being early, on time and late in production.  Darcy was on camera tonight and Tash took over producing/AD duties for me. I was in charge of the car which I had to get and return within a time frame so I was away from the set for a little bit. When I returned they had completed quite a few of the shots and we were ahead of schedule. Some shots were done together and some only needed one take which I wasn’t too happy about. I would rather have more than one take just in case. we ended up finishing on time because I slowed them down a little bit. We wrapped Naya and continued doing some shots that did not require her, and we still have a few shots to do on another day that are just establishing shots.

I’m pretty happy with how we went, depending on watching the footage back. The lighting may be a bit of an issue because I feel like it was kind of all over the place with the warmth, but at this point we wont have time to call the cast back in so I guess we will have to colour correct it in post which is not what I wanted.

Producing this is going to be a big task, we have multiple practical effects/props and we are really keen on using actors rather than doing this all ourselves. i have been working hard to schedule all the shots according the shot list that Isaac has provided. Scheduling all the shots has been a bit of task as I haven’t scheduled something with this amount of shots.

I have put all the roles up on StarNow and we have a short list, but it will really depend on the availability of these people to do an unpaid film AT NIGHT. So far we have the “threatening” bandit cast and he is super keen on doing the shoot thankfully. We have someone in the works for Naya, but we haven’t confirmed anything yet.

The set will be Isaac’s house which is really good and easy (working on getting his roommates out of the house) and we will be making the mushrooms ourselves by painting and construcitng wires and real mushroom heads.

This is going to be a big project and we will have to be super organised on the two day shoot to make sure we are getting all the footage we need. At the moment, I have only scheduled one day with all three actors (but when we confirm the actors I will make sure they are available for both days just in case) I think we will be able to get all the main cast’s scenes done in a night leaving the second day to just shoot the scenes with one actor which should make our lives a little easier.

VIRULENCE Filming Schedule

VIRULENCE call sheet

VIRULENCE

Overall, I’m happy with the final product and our pitch overall, but there is always room for improvement. After looking at our final proof of concept, i like what we were going for but there are aspects that we really need to keep an eye on when filming our final project. For one, the exposure and colours are all off within our proof. The colour grading was done really well thanks to Tash, but unfortunately there was no white balance done in the first few shots that we did. We only realised that a little too late and made sure that it was noted down in our list of things to work out for the final project.

Another part that I wasn’t completely happy with where the mushrooms. I thought they looked really good initially, but with the colour grading and the after effects that were put on them they just looked faker than i realised. We used the glowing after effect only because we couldn’t find a good enough “spore” filter to put over the top of the footage but we wanted the mushrooms to stand out so we had to do something with them. Isaac and I will be spending some time refining the props and searching for a spore filter that can be used for the final version.

Overall I think the shots are really nice, but could use refinement. Since we are going to be shooting the actual project at night,a lot of these shots will probably be changed to allow for more consistent lighting throughout. The sound design will mostly be done by Isaac, but the current sounds we have going on are a great reference point for where we are going with the atmosphere.

I think the pitch went quite well and we got some great feedback on where to go from here. I have a really good feeling about this project as our team is pretty cohesive. Our proof of concept shoot went really well, so i’m hoping that we continue to work together well for the real shoot. As the producer I have to make sure that we stay efficient during the night shoot and one thing I’ll make sure to keep an eye out for is that white balance and exposure of the shots because I don’t want to get to post production again and have to worry about using three different colour grades for the film, I don’t want a “fix it in post” attitude to this project.

“In the aftermath of environmental collapse, a reclusive botanist searches for her family and the truth behind a mysterious fungus that has overtaken the Earth.”

Isaac’s idea of a toxic mushroom appealed to me due to the environmental factors. I like the idea of using a fungus or another “natural/unnatural” part of the world coming through and poisoning the world and humanity due to our lack of action on climate change.  When I read the script I was already imaging the mis-en-scene and colour pallet of the set design and I’m excited to create a dystopian atmosphere with the spores.

This project will contain a lot of editing and after effects due to the colour grading and the spores to create the atmosphere. I think it’ll need a lot of scheduling to ensure that we aren’t filming too long. I believe that we want to shoot this at night so we will have to keep on top of the time depending on the set that we decide on.

I’m excited to create some practical effects and editing effects within the film and try and create the dystopian world on a low budget.

We chose to recreate this scene because out of the three of us it was the most achievable within the time we had. The first obvious discrepancy is that this is an indoor shot and we, for some reason, shot it outdoors. Not that the setting matters so much, but it does convey a different feel to the original – mainly less claustrophobic.

The angle is looking down on Serena as she looks to the left so we attempted to recreate this, however after trying to make the same angle we found that its slightly dutch. Along with the Dutch angle, the foreground is sharp in contrast the background which is blurred and this was not recreated by us due to the flat background.

Recreating angles is  a lot easier said than done, especially if you’re looking to recreate a scene that has so much going on like this one. Even though its a simple shot, once you start deconstructing the foreground, background and setting I started to find more and more detail that we missed.

Honestly, I hated this project. Using the camera as a POV was an interesting exercise and we came up with a few good ideas however this did not turn out how I wanted it to and there were a lot of issues that I did not foresee.

We had an idea of a malfunction Skype call in which two people are having different conversations – to end with Isaac hearing his own inner demons coming out of Sophia’s mouth.

First, the quality of screen recorded Skype calls is apparently not that reliable.  I played around with the “fuzziness” of the video in the final cut. The hardest part was probably the audio as the recordings did not match up to the video PLUS the low quality made it impossible to sync them properly. Once again, I distorted the video and the audio to make it seem like a malfunctioning computer – which fits in with the plot of our sketch.

I don’t think the story really came through either, so for me this sketch was a bit of a bomb. Honestly, I did not put much effort into the final cut as I grew more and more frustrated just trying to sync the audio up and cut between the two different size screens. If we were to do this again I would probably try to make a mock Skype screen and MAKE SURE that the audio is cut properly.

Sorry it’s not great, but at least i learned what makes me angry in the editing process.

Well, yet another sketch that I enjoyed editing, but didn’t think I would.

We had a few problems with this one, mainly the fact that we were attempting to build this character from a first date, so the cast was a little too big for us to handle. The lighting is way off, though we couldn’t really ask for much when we just stayed around the media portal and somehow it did kind of work with the “dodgy Italian restaurant” setting.

The main issue I had here was the audio and the effects. I’ve never been great at audio editing or figuring out which effects work so that was fun to play around with. The main issue was the original files as there was a lot of background noise and unfortunately the dialogue came across a little quiet. I decided to put in some ambient music and turn up the volume of the inner thoughts rather than the actual dialogue just so that we could get the understanding over layered speech.

Overall, I like our idea of Dr. B. Rainn and I hope that maybe we can continue his story, with better production value.