So that thing we did, well it's finished...

We have finished the Hangover Opening Sequence and I only have one thought.

Yes. It was very fun and really interesting to find what it's like on a 'movie set', but it also feels like a real achievement. To be able to recreate a hollywood movie introduction, with pretty close relation, only without the huge budget. I think we did an amazing job, it matches the original pretty well, even if the small details couldn't be met with a budget consisting of our own will it is still possible to tell that the finished product is definitely a remake of the Hangover.

Here's the finished product:

Omg.

WOOH!

Today we finished the production of our Hangover Introduction remake. Everything is now done besides the editing. It went pretty well, a few slip ups here and there. But, we managed to get through it.

Our main objective for today was to finish the rest of the shooting and record the audio for the overdubbing that was needed,  and some of the background ambiance that we are going to put in during post-production.

So the shooting that we needed to do was all of the people shots, as the footage on the dad shot that we had already shot had some funny lines on it, that even a technician who came into help with editing didn't know anything about. So we did all the shots of the people. The set-up we used was just the basic, with a camera and a neon head tripod for the smooth movements we were looking for. This shot was of the bride, Nicole, who did a very good job at the cheesy american accent.

We had the laptop handy throughout the entire shoot to check up on the shots of the original. Along with a paper copy of the shots and a script. The usual.

We got my parents to come along again and play the dad and a bridesmaid, we asked them to keep their costume the same, even though it didn't matter as we re-shot the old shots of them. We didn't want any continuity errors! Unfortunately we couldn't find the magazine that the dad was reading, but Jake didn't have many bikini magazines lying around.

We also did all the outside shots that were of the wedding. This was only a shot of people taking flowers out of a van, and people laying out chairs, but still needs to be in there. We borrowed a van from Bill's Dad, who seems to be a dealer of vehicles for AS Media work now or something. And we just got loads of different chairs from around Jake's house and arranged them to look wedding-y.

We also did the sound recording that we needed, which somehow ended up as Jake making random noises down the microphone to sound like background animals, and also almost ended up making my bladder empty. We overdubbed Phil's side of the conversation, because the sound was muffled by wind buzz, and also every 10 seconds there was the sound of a lorry passing by. It turned out to be a lot easier than I expected and was over in under half an hour. All we had left to do was to edit everything together.

WHAT YOU SAYIN' BILL!

Cake & Hangover

On Sunday, 9th October we were planning to shoot all of the other shots that we needed to get for the rest of the Hangover Project. In didn't really go to plan, people had broken noses, were grounded or were just stuck at work. Very frustrating for when we had everything planned out and we couldn't do anything because of these reasons. Still we did what we could, and got shots of my parents (The bride's father and one of the brides). Shots of the cake, and the shot of the bride's dress. Here are some of the shots.

 This is our recreation of the living room for the shot. We used Jake's house because it was the biggest and stuff could be moved around easily to recreate the shot, however we had to change some of the object placements to fit the shots that were needed into the room. I found the setting up bit pretty easy, with a little brainstorming between us we managed to get everything together pretty easily. It didn't match perfectly but we got there.

 To get the smooth shots of the cake, dress and flowers, we had a fortunate and awesome technique that we used, much like the professional dolly cart, Jake made a skateboard and a load of wooden planks into a steady car which could be used to slowly move the camera in a direction that was needed. This was really cool. It gave a very sleek shot that mimicked the pros, Jake made the dolly when he was 12 and said that he had never used it properly.

Until now.

 The dolly made the shots we got from Jake's Step-dad's Canon 5D perfect, it really recreated the effects that the original shot has.

 This is us in awe of how awesome the dolly really was. Also, we tested the shots on our tea.

 These people are my parents. My dad was playing the brides dad, although we haven't really had a chance to direct our actors properly, unless cake counts as an actor. When we next shoot I think that we'll be able to get an idea of what it's like to direct actors to get the shots we need.

 Yet another beautiful shot of the amazing dolly-rack-cart thing.

This was the cake that we had specially brought in by our caterer. Unfortunately because of Evie's work commitments, it was dark by the time we got the cake and had set up. We were very impressed with the cake. Although it wasn't an exact replica of the original, I think it still captures the fact that it is for a wedding pretty well. I was most disappointed on finding that the flower wasn't edible.

It was an awesome cake. We enjoyed eating it very much, we will also be making a short behind the scenes video, in which we will eat the cake. It was delicious.

Phil

So we started shooting for our Hangover remake. We started with Phil's side of the phone conversation, not gonna lie, but for our first ever shoot, it was awesome. Got some exclusive behind the scenes snapshots, I'll just explain them as I go along.

This was one of our preparations; make-up. I was playing Phil, we were going to use fake blood. Yeh. We forgot it, so we improvised with byro. Went pretty successfully.

Looks like I had been punched in the face. Bill's Dad did suggest we just use method acting ways, I wasn't completely enthusiastic on that. We were trying to get the closest relation to the original shots, we got the costume and make-up pretty close to the original with these shots, we didn't really get the costume as dirty and as worn as the it could have been, but it was the same clothing style that we went for.

We had the script of the intro on the set, I was actually holding while doing the shots, I think  it would have been better if I didn't have it; I would've been able to use my other hand, but we had a casting change at the last moment because of the fact that it was quite windy when we did the shoot. And Bill's hair would have got in a right mess.

Nicole and Evie were behind the scenes checking with Jake, who was the cinematographer, on how the shots were matching up to the originals. They were also giving tips on how to make it look better, and there just to make us look pro.

We were fortunate enough to have Bill's Dad's car along with us, which was a real bonus as it was the same shape and colour as the car they have in the original shot. We were very grateful to Bill's Dad. And we turning a few heads on the edge of Tuttle's Lane.

We have had another day of shooting, unfortunately it wasn't very productive as people didn't show up, and Evie was being held back at work by a very ignorant boss. We are going to have another day of shooting as the daylight ran out on Sunday and so did the camera battery. We have only got the rest of the people shots to get, which shouldn't take too long and we can get on with the editing.

The Hangover

We've been set a task in preparation of one of our pieces of work, which will be to create the first two minutes of a film. Our preparation task is to recreate the first two minutes of 'The Hangover'. There was a group of six of us, we got straight to business and focused on what was in the opening shots, what the main things would be to overcome; the opening shots show a wedding which required a lot of chairs, wedding dresses and a tasty looking cake.

Another shot showed a sports car, but luckily on of the members' dad had a sports car which we were allowed to use. What a kind gentleman. We agreed that all of us would try out at different things in the production, but each of us would have smaller roles assigned to us.

Today we shot Phil's side of the phone call, which we did afterschool, 5 of us met up, with some extras alongside, and walked to our location. We had to settle with a baron looking field instead of a Nevada desert. We have got some behind the scenes shots, which I'll put on a reflection blog after we have finished the project. The shoot today went well, we got the shots we needed, unfortunately we had to change the location slightly, as we were close to tuttles lane, althought we can always overdub the shots if the background noise is bad, but on first review it seemed okay. We're going to shoot most of the other shots on Sunday, with Jake doing some other small shots with his family members.