In the past I have used filming gear and editing software in a casual "hey, lets make a movie" sort of way, and this past experience, however naive and unsubstantial, really helped me. I have spent countless hours just filming my surroundings, often in Media Studies to Ms Kazimi's dismay, and so I know the functions and operations of my Sony Bloggie quite well.The actual structuring of shots and positioning of the camera were a new steppingstone for me, as adding meaning to the shots was an idea disregarded in the past. I really focused hard on the positioning of the camera in this piece, although as a completely point of view film I faced some difficulty in maintaining the continuity of the effect; though I believe it is this simplicity that will in fact be beneficial to the film.
The microphone built-in to my camera is not exactly the highest of quality, and so I used an external microphone in order to record the dialogue included within the film. With regards music, I wanted something to emphasise the video-game-esque nature of my film, and so I resorted to using a piece of music from the game "Borderlands". It included quite heavy drumming to stress action, which juxtaposed the actionless events on screen.
Editing was the highlight. I used Adobe Premier Pro CS5 and After Effects CS5 mainly, although I often used Mocha, an attachment to AE for Motion Tracking, etc. I used quite complex greenscreening techniques to obtain the "walking hands" that so frequently appeared in my film. Masking out the "green" (well, in my case, red) in the shot allowed me to overlay the hands on top of my raw footage and to give it that "Doom" (1993) or "Wolfenstein 3D" (1992) feel, ancestors of the video game industry.
The HUD that was positioned perminantly on screen was taken directly from a screenshot within the game "Borderlands", edited with Photoshop, and overlayed using After Effects.

Overall I loved this process. It has been a life long dream (and still is) to enter the film and television industry, and this gave me another boost of enthusiasm toward it.
The most positive element of the process was the editing part, as I learnt so much more than I had ever imagined to, simply from creating this film.
The planning stages of this production did not go very smoothly, as I struggle to get my ideas down into words, seen especially in my storyboards and treatment, although this did not stop me attempting.
I did several versions of my storyboard, each improving on my last, until I had a vivid image in my head of the film that I would come to produce. I think that over time I have developed on my organisation and time management, and overall my skills have improved tenfold.
I think that the repetitive development of my storyboard helped me later in the development process, as when it came to filming and editing, I knew exactly what I wanted visually and the whole film formed a very satisfying result.

Props needed:

• Sultana Bran
• Weetbix          -All accessible from home.
• PB&J

Costume needed:

• School Uniform
• Black suit jacket    -All accessible from home.
• Hawaiian shirt

Crew: I shall be in charge of filming, lighing and sound, and so I am the one and only crew member.
Talent: My mother has kindly agreed to being in my film, along with school friend Zac Neill.


Master List:

• Myself - Tom O'Brien
• Unseen character of "Tom", Filming, lighting & sound
• Wendy O'Brien
• Mother of "Tom"
• One line of dialogue
• Zac Neill
• Friend of "Tom"
• One line of dialogue

 My idea is of a boy who is so addicted to video games that he has begun to see his life as though it is one. Seemingly mundane, everyday tasks are now seen as though they are elements of his favourite video games. It has a lot of social commentary on the severity of the obsession the youth of today has with video games. All shots will be First-Person, point-of-view shots to simulate the well-known First Person Shooter style