Costumes Plan/Initial Creation

We only need three different consumes, two scientist's white lab coasts, and a military general's uniform. These costumes can be bought at many different stores like, Target, Walmart, and Party City. 

I went on two different occasions to all three different stores but they didn't have them in stock or in our sizes. When I mentioned the annoying circumstances to my parents my mom gained a sudden inspiration. She remembered the days she used to sew face masks for our entire family during the covid days. She was addiment that she was capable of completing the task saying "It can't be that hard." She managed to create the two white lab coat outfits, but they were too small. Thankfully, she had enough fabric to create two more in the correct size. We knew the military general's uniform would be harder to sew but it proved to be even more tricky than we had anticipated. She tried multiple times but ultimately couldn't get it to work. When I gave it a try I also failed.

Since the sewing for the military general's uniform was a bust and the costume stores I went to said they weren't getting any new shipments for a while since costumes were not in season, we were left with one more option. Amazon.com! 

We managed to find a costume for about $28. Although it is a little more expensive than we would've liked, we don't have many other choices. And with that, we have acquired all the costumes we need for our production!

Props

 Props:

• Laptop
• Projector
• Screen
• Lights
• Cups
• Paper
• Pens
• Monster Figure
• Double-walled tank

Acquired:

• Laptop
• Screen
• Cups
• Paper
• Pens

Needed:

• Projector
• Lights
• Monster Figure
• Double-walled tank

Plan

In my earlier blog postings I discussed how I was planning to acquire the missing props. Although the projector is not a necessity and can be replaced by the screen, I have asked my aunt whether we could borrow her projector for our project. The lights can be bought at a hardware store and don't need to be expensive. The monster figure will be made out of aluminum and clay which can be bought at a local arts and crafts shop. The double-walled tank will be made from wood, plastic, and paint. The wood would act as the floor and roof of the tank while the plastic would act as the walls. The paint is used to make the tank look metallic.

Errors 

The materials for the tank had arrived early and I tried to build it alone. Unfortunately, the plastic snapped when I tried bending it into the smaller circle for the interior wall. The outer one didn't break but became cloudy when bent due to the stretching of the plastic. The way I plan to fix this is making the tank bigger so the plastic doesn't need to be bent as sharply. Thankfully, the wooden disks remained unaffected so we don't have to buy more of those.

Planning the Production

Up to this point, we have only planned when we are going to start producing our project's film opening. In this blog post, I will plan how the production process will be carried out. This includes deciding where the filming will occur, building any props, creating or buying any costumes, and acquiring any cameras and microphones we may need.

Location

4 main locations appear in our film opening, the experimentation room, the emergency response room, the hallway, and the forest. For the experimentation room and the emergency response room, the room doesn't need to fit perfectly with our needs as we will make sure these rooms are kept dark only highlighting the important things in the frame. For the hallway, me and my partner have decided on filming in my school's hallway. However, one downside to this is that we can't reserve a hallway in the school so we have to be quick with our shots to ensure we don't get anyone else in frame. For the forest scenes, we will film at a nearby national park. I called ahead to make sure it was ok to film there at night and they said it was fine as long as we don't disturb any of the other guests.

Props Found/Bought

The props we need to find or buy are a laptop, a projector/screen, lights, cups, papers, pens, and clay to form the shape of the monster (we will only be using the silhouette of the monster so it doesn't need to look the best. Thankfully, we have most of the props we need except the projector. I asked one of my aunts who is a professor at a local community college and she said she might be able to lend it to us if she doesn't need it at the time we are going to use it. If we aren't able to obtain a projector, we can just use a screen instead.

Props Built

The props we need to build are the double-walled tank and the monster figure that will go inside. In my previous blog post, I described the plans for a double-walled tank. The materials needed for this are two wooden disks, two layers of pliable plastic walls, and metallic grey paint. I have ordered all the materials that are needed and they are scheduled to arrive in two days. The monster figure that will go inside the tank will be made out of clay and aluminum foil. Thankfully, because the tank will be filled with a murky liquid the figure inside doesn't need to be too defined, just a general shape of the monster will do fine.

Costumes

The costumes we need are two white scientist's coats and a military general's uniform. The costumes can be bought at various stores such as Walmart, Target, and Party City. To add more life to the characters I would like to acquire a pair of fake glasses of the Dr. Nathaniel character.

Recording Equipment

    For the recording process, we need a camera and a microphone. We can either find a high-quality camera for clearer shots or we could just use the cameras on the back of our phones. For the microphones, I bought some wireless clip-on microphones that we can clip on our clothes. Ideally, we clip it underneath our clothes so the audience doesn't see it. 

Audio in the Film Opening

     Just like the lighting, audio will play a crucial role that helps to develop the monster. We can't show the monster because we don't have the budget to create a realistic looking monster, so we will only imply the monsters presence. For this, audio and lighting techniques will be used.

Experimentation Room

    The only audio that can be heard would be dialogue between characters and the beeping of machines. The use of dialogue will be used to create a serious tone in the scene along with develop the characters that are speaking. In later scenes though, the monster will be heard banging on the tanks walls along with the monsters roaring. These sounds would be made extremely loud to show the immense power of the monster.

Hallways

    The only sounds in the hallways would be the sound of low speaking from distant scientists and their footsteps. Then when the monster roars in the experimentation room, we will cut to the hallways and dampen the sound a little to show that the monster can be heard throughout the facility. We will also add the screams of the scientists once the monster is heard.

Emergency Situation Room

    The only sound in the situation room would be the sound of the people talking. We wouldn't play the sound of the monster to represent how fortified the room they are all in is.

Forest

    The sounds in the forest would come from the nature. The wind blowing through the trees along with some bird noises. Cricket and other animal sounds would be added to create a more realistic feeling to the scene. We would then add a distant roar to represent how far the monster has already gotten which then reveals the speed at which the monster moves at.

Set and Props

    A very important part of our project will the be the set and the props in the scenes. Because we are still in high school, we have to keep cost in mind.

Experimentation room

    Set: Any room can work because of the dark lighting. Ideally the room would be rectangularly shaped though. The room would be mostly empty with some wires laying on the ground running to the tank in the middle of the room. The tank needs to be decently sized and filled with a bright green liquid. I was thinking we could use Mountain Dew the soda as the green liquid. We would leave it out to get flat so the bubbles aren't seen in the tank. Soda is not cheap so we would build the tank in a specific way. Because we don't want to use too much soda, we would make a double walled tank out of flexible plastic. We would fill the space in between the walls so the soda only runs up the side of the walls instead of having to fill the whole tank. This would be great as it would also allow us to put a light inside the center of the tank to make it look like it is glowing.

    Props: The main props would be paper, pens, a laptop, and a cup. The paper and pen would be used for the scientist to write stuff down. We probably won't show any of the stuff that is written down so we don't need any actual data or information. The laptop would be used as the control unit for the tank. The laptop doesn't need to have anything important on it either as long as it has things on it that looks like data collection and controls. The cup would be filled with coffee to show that Dr. Nathaniel is sleep deprived and not in the right mindset. We could also take a short video of the cup falling paired with the sound of electricity arcing to imply the the cup spilled on the wires controlling the tank.

(Where I got inspiration for the double walled tank idea)

Hallways

    Thankfully, this area would not need any props and the set would be almost completely empty. We may ask some friends to act a other scientists in the facility so they might need to be holding some papers or clipboards.

Emergency Situation Room

    Set: There would be a long table centered in the room with a projector placed on top of it aiming at the front of the room. We were considering adding some potted plants on both sides of where the projector is pointing to add some color.

    

    Props: The props would be paper, pens, laptops, and cups just like in the experimentation room. The papers, pens, and cups would not be used in the scenes but are there to add realism to the table. The laptop could be used to display any important information for the scene.

Forest

    Set: Thankfully mother nature has us covered on this one so we won't need to bring anything else to create the set. We will just find a local forest that would be good to film in.

    Props: The only props used in the forest scenes would be the flashlights that the soldiers are using to try to find the escaped monster

Lighting

     Lighting will play a crucial role in our project. Since we won't be showing the monster explicitly, lighting will be used to imply it. We can do this by using pieces of a shadow, or flickering the lights when we play the sound of the monster roaring. 

Experimentation Room

    The lighting in the experimentation room would be minimal to create a dark and mysterious mood. The main source of lighting would com from very dim lights on the walls, the brightly glowing tank, and the various monitoring screens.

Hallways

    The lighting in the hallways would be very bright. They would be illuminated by led lights in the ceiling. These lights will have a huge impact on creating meaning. When the monster roars, we can make the lights flicker a little just to show the sheer power of the monster. When the monster finally escapes and starts going on a rampage, we can also cut the lights for longer periods of time showing the damage that the monster is causing.

Emergency Response Room

    The emergency response room would be dimly lit with a projector aimed at a screen at the front of the room. The room would have more light than the experimentation room but not enough light to see anything clearly (This would help as we don't need to make the room look too realistic).

In the Forest

    In the forest there would be almost no light at all. The only light in the shots would be from the moon. (This means that the shots would be taken on a night with a full moon to get the best lighting possible.). Unfortunately, filming with dark lighting is quite difficult so for backup purposes we might bring a backup light. We also may change the scene a little so that there a people with flashlights in the forest so we can have more lighting.

Character Development

Throughout our project, the characters will go through some intense situations that will change the person they are.

Dr. Nathaniel

    At the beginning of the film, Dr. Nathaniel had absolute confidence in the human race. He believed that they had complete control over everything, including nature. With this confidence, he became too ambitious, conducting experiments he knew were dangerous. He thought that the technology was flawless and could shut down any outbreak that occurred. But when the experiment failed everything changed. He finally saw the naiveness of his beliefs and finally came to the realization that humans are at the mercy of nature, no matter how hard they try to control it. Unfortunately, he came to this realization too late and ends up dying in the film's opening.

Dr. Paul

    In the beginning, Dr. Paul was a very nervous person, always sticking to the side of caution. He would always bring up the risks of any experiment to his colleague, Dr. Nathaniel. He was clearly unsure of the experiments Dr. Nathaniel was conducting but usually trusted him after some convincing. On the day of the accident, all of Dr. Paul's fears came true. He started panicking and froze unable to move a muscle. After Dr. Nathaniel died he knew he had to do something. He gained a new confidence in his own abilities and did all he could to try to stop the monster from causing any more damage.

General Adil

 At the beginning of the opening, General Adil's beliefs were similar to that of Dr. Nathaniel's. He believed that with the military force that he commanded, he could defeat any threat they faced. These beliefs were fueled by the many victories claimed by the General. On the day of the outbreak, he believed that he and his forces would be enough to defeat the escaped monster so he decided to refrain from requesting backup. He was unfortunately overconfident in his and his men's abilities. He then, like Dr. Nathaniel, finds out the truth about the weakness of humans. He also ends up dying in the film.

Side Characters

 Being a well-renowned scientist, many of the lower scientists looked up to Dr. Nathaniel. They had absolute confidence in him and did whatever he instructed them to do, even if the instructions they were given could end in disaster. By the end of the opening, they all learned to not trust someone even if they are well known.