LO2 INCORPORATING VISUAL EFFECTS INTO THE PRODUCTION PLAN + RISKS

 

INCORPORATING VISUAL EFFECTS INTO THE PRODUCTION PLAN

Visual effects are a prominent part in my product, primarily being the use of small puppets as the protagonist characters and antagonist, alongside the addition of small animations over the top of my footage to add more life into my characters. giving them expressions to connote their feelings, alongside connoting the mood I'm trying to create within my product (short horror/thriller film). The initial idea was to primarily use stop motion throughout the short film, however this would mean a lengthy filming process which will lessen the time I have for the editing stage, this means the small animations are the contingency plan, still taking a short while to make but are still quicker than recording and photographing my models repeatedly.

I will also use post production to add effects such as dialogue, with my plan involving the use of subtitles and textboxes all throughout. I do believe this is a rather unpopular choice for horror movies especially, as it tend to take the attention away from what is actually happening on screen. Yet, I do find that this would work to my advantage as I will most likely use a lot of still shots to animate over, therefore having a distraction may make the clips less plain. The text will appear on screen as if they're actually being spoken by the characters, being timed with voices to give a lot more of a realistic feel with their speech patterns. Yet this realism is contradicted by their voices just being sounds, sampling a meow from my cat as the base and then editing over this with voice effects to make them unique to each character (there's only 2-3 characters so this isn't that hard to do). All of these elements come together to make the footage a lot more visually appealing.

RISKS OF PROPOSED EFFECTS

My plans propose the risk of running out of time, considering the lengthy process of adding animations, timing the dialogue boxes, basically adding every possible effect over my footage. I will also need a good enough animating software for the small animations, planning to initially use Flipaclip, however the consistent flow of advertisements on the software make quick animating a hard task. Using smaller props/models also involves an increased risk of damage, due to the constant moving and posing per scene (at this moment in time, one of the models is already fragile and has broken slightly). This means I will need a safe area to store my props, and if any noticeable damage is made then it essentially ruins the general look of the movie.

I do run the risk of clips being lost, as my clips are constantly being passed between multiple devices for the animations, I may not be able to access the necessary files on certain devices. Storage is definitely a big issue to to most files being very large, and I've already had the issue of having low space in the necessary folders, therefore I may need to split my clips between multiple devices and import stuff in layer on to combine them into a single file. 

I do have a text downloaded from dafont.com, and there's the risk of this getting lost or deleted when moving between devices, so I need to make sure I make note of the font/file name so it can be downloaded on other platforms.

These effects are straight forward, however incredibly time consuming, therefore they're definitely feasible yet will be hard to do because of their use consistently throughout the short film. There's the main constraint of not being able to access the software necessary, such as premier pro to actually put the movie together as this is only accessible at college, so I will need to begin making my product in good time.

In product 2 (Fallen) I will only need affordable materials such as glue and thin paper for paper mache (which the model is made of entirely plus a few extras) - However, the model involves a few mechanical elements such as the light up eyes, which were cheap to purchase which may in turn make them less reliable to work during recording, so I will need batteries on hand to power them incase they decide to stop working. - While it wouldn't be the end of the world if the small features don't work, I'd have to use contingencies, such as some different camera shots, maybe some mega close ups to highlight the creatures features instead of the glowing eyes. - Or I would use sound effects such as low breathing to connote life instead of the eyes coming on.