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zaynswork-blog · 6 years ago

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Buford Valley - Production Design CW3 Vlog

I worked as a production designer Buford Valley. My aim was to visually design a believable world which could support the fantasy situation of a time loop, by using elements from the props, costume and SFX to bring this to life.

I first studied the tropes of a time loop. Films such as Groundhog Day and Happy Death Day as well as TV shows with a time loop episode such as The X-Files and Startrek all seem to use similar conventions to achieve the time loop theme. All the props, costumes, sets and SFX where deigned with these conventions in mind.

Influenced by these films and TV shows, Buford Valley uses props like the phones, spliff and sun glasses to signify when a loop starts. By using the props in the exact same way each time, helped me show that the characters where indeed trapped in a time loop.

In terms of the set I decided to find a location that was already set up as this would allow for a more believable. This led me to finding an air BnB which looked quite creepy but due to the fact that anyone could go there, meant it was a realistic world. The fact that it looked creepy added to the horror element of the film which helped tie the two ideas together.

As for elements of horror, I looked at SFX and found that there are many different techniques to make a character look like they had been stabbed or cut open. I found a technique using 3rd Degree make up to be most realistic as well as industry standard. I personally found it very difficult to use the make up so I hired a make up artist to create the effect on my behalf. I wanted to make the characters look like they died a gruesome death each time to add the horror element to the film.

Not everything went as planned. I wanted to have arrows sticking out my character with blood dripping down but when I tried this out with the 3rd degree technique, as real as it looked, the arrows where to heavy and ruined the effect.

Also it was quite hard to control the natural lighting due to time restraints so some shots don't look like the same day with break the theme of a time loop. If we had booked the location for a longer period of time this would have not been an issue as we could have filmed at the same time each day and had longer to do so with out losing time.

Overall, I found that things went quite well in terms of achieving a believable world with in the elements of a time loop horror. The aesthetics of all the props, costume, set and SFX really helped support the idea and bring it to life. Even though not everything i wanted to do was feasible, I was still able to create enough to make the idea work.

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Bibliography

Darell, R. (2010). Evolution Of The Warner Bros. Logo In Harry Potter | Bit Rebels. [online] Bit

Rebels. Available at: http://www.bitrebels.com/geek/evolution-of-the-warner-bros-logo-in-harrypotter/ [Accessed 02 May .2019].

Stargate SG-1 S04E06 'Window of Opportunity'. (2000). [film] Directed by P. DeLuise. Gekko Film Corp, MGM Worldwide Television Productions.

Gibson, T. (2002). Stargate SG-1 The Illustrated Companion Season 3 And 4. 1st ed. London: Titan Books, p.69.

Groundhog Day. (1993). [film] Directed by H. Ramis. Hollywood: Columbia Pictures.

The X-Files, S06E14 ‘Monday’. (1993). [film] Directed by K. Manners. Los Angeles: Ten Thirteen Productions, 20th Century Fox Television.

Harry Potter. (2001). [film] Directed by J. Rowling. Warner Bros London: Warner Bros.

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