We are very pleased with our final cut of the opening two minutes of our film 'Withheld'. We have added transitions at the beginning, which I think makes it flow alot better and adds to the atmospere of diorientation. We have also improved the scream by making it one scream which lasts for the whole of the graphic match which makes it alot better. Overall, I am pleased with our final version and I hope that people will enjoy watching it more now that it has been improved.
Monday 21 March 2011
Final Cut
Our final cut is now complete!
We are very pleased with our final cut of the opening two minutes of our film 'Withheld'. We have added transitions at the beginning, which I think makes it flow alot better and adds to the atmospere of diorientation. We have also improved the scream by making it one scream which lasts for the whole of the graphic match which makes it alot better. Overall, I am pleased with our final version and I hope that people will enjoy watching it more now that it has been improved.
We are very pleased with our final cut of the opening two minutes of our film 'Withheld'. We have added transitions at the beginning, which I think makes it flow alot better and adds to the atmospere of diorientation. We have also improved the scream by making it one scream which lasts for the whole of the graphic match which makes it alot better. Overall, I am pleased with our final version and I hope that people will enjoy watching it more now that it has been improved.
Target Audience Feedback
We have presented our film to the class and gathered feedback from them and our teacher. They have made suggestions as to what we can improve and also what they liked about our film. Below I have embedded a recording of our feedback.
Yes - 14
At 1 minute 50 seconds, Sam makes the point that the scream in the graphic match needs to be worked on, we know this and will work on it, but Sam noticing it confirmed that we need to sort it out.
At around 3 minutes 30 seconds, Mr Hood suggests that we re-record the phone vibration, or drop the levels on it, this is something we need to consider because it is a tad loud.
At around 4 minutes, Mr Hood and Sam point out the swearing in the film, this is something which I didn't want to add in, but the other group members thought it added to the atmosphere for the script, however, we are not allowed to add swearing into our film so we need to over-dub this in order to remove it.
At 5 minutes 15 seconds, the group pointed out that the light on the shot was bad, this is because we were using natural light and filming into the sun, despite this we are going to keep this shot because we think it gives it a more realistic feel.
At about 7 minutes, the group stop us to say that there is something wrong with the dropping of the phone, we will ignore this because Mr Hood said he found no problem with it apart from the sound, which seems to be a recurring problem throughout our film!
Overall, the feedback our class supplied was very valuable and we will take it on board.
Aswell as this feedback, I also asked 30 people from our target audience 2 questions after watching our film, the questions I asked were 'Do you understand what is happening so far?' and 'Would you watch the end of this film?' I have presented my results in pie charts and included them below.
Yes - 19
No -7
Unsure - 4
Yes - 14
No - 8
Undecided - 8
My next post will be explaining the improvements we have made and explaining our re-editing process.
Rough Cut
Our rough cut is now complete and I have embedded it below so that you can see what we have produced. Obviously, we are aware that this is not a perfect film and we will be working on it further to get it to the highest standard possible.
We are happy with how all of the match-on-action shots have worked out and how the graphic match works, the only thing we are less pleased with is the scream in the graphic match, so we will be working on that. We are also not too happy with the lighting in the bedroom of the house. As we used the natural light, we think it looks like we shot it at a different time even though this is not the case. We are pleased with continuity because we are happy we have not made the same mistake as we did when filming our preliminary task. One thing that I, personally am not too happy with is the beginning of our opening sequence, I feel that it is lacking something, perhaps some transitions to give it an eery edge.
Overall, we are pleased with our efforts and are looking forward to presenting it to Mr Hood and the rest of our media class!
We are happy with how all of the match-on-action shots have worked out and how the graphic match works, the only thing we are less pleased with is the scream in the graphic match, so we will be working on that. We are also not too happy with the lighting in the bedroom of the house. As we used the natural light, we think it looks like we shot it at a different time even though this is not the case. We are pleased with continuity because we are happy we have not made the same mistake as we did when filming our preliminary task. One thing that I, personally am not too happy with is the beginning of our opening sequence, I feel that it is lacking something, perhaps some transitions to give it an eery edge.
Overall, we are pleased with our efforts and are looking forward to presenting it to Mr Hood and the rest of our media class!
Editing The Footage
To edit our film we used Final Cut Pro. This software allowed us to import our footage, insert titles, include voice overs for any bits of sound which we weren't happy with and export our film as a Quicktime movie in order for us to upload it to Youtube.
Firstly we needed to import our footage into Final Cut, we had a problem because this couldn't be done at school as Josh's camera didn't want to work with the Macs at school, this meant that all of the editing had to be done on Matty's Mac at home using Final Cut Pro as opposed to Final Cut Express which is what the school uses. This made arranging times to meet very difficult, however, we did manage to do this.
Basically, we inserted our shots to match our animatic. We followed this because it showed us exactly where we needed to go next in terms of shots, however, our animatic did not match exactly because when filming we had to change some shots because they worked better. Apart from this our film follows the ainimatic which we made. We are now looking forward to presenting our film to our target audience, teacher and media group.
My next post will include my rough cut and a small evaluation and list of improvements.
Firstly we needed to import our footage into Final Cut, we had a problem because this couldn't be done at school as Josh's camera didn't want to work with the Macs at school, this meant that all of the editing had to be done on Matty's Mac at home using Final Cut Pro as opposed to Final Cut Express which is what the school uses. This made arranging times to meet very difficult, however, we did manage to do this.
Basically, we inserted our shots to match our animatic. We followed this because it showed us exactly where we needed to go next in terms of shots, however, our animatic did not match exactly because when filming we had to change some shots because they worked better. Apart from this our film follows the ainimatic which we made. We are now looking forward to presenting our film to our target audience, teacher and media group.
My next post will include my rough cut and a small evaluation and list of improvements.
Shooting On Location
Sunday 6th March: -Present at shoot: Me, Josh, Sam & Matty
On this day, my group and I shot a large section of our film. We shot all of the bedroom and bathroom scenes at Matty's house. We started filming at approximately 12 noon and finished at 4.30pm, although this was a fairly long amount of time, it was well worth the time and effort we put in.
We stuck to the story board and didn't need to change any shots or angles as everything ran smoothly. Sophie acted well for us and we only had to do a few takes on each scene apart from the ones more technically tricky. I had a problem with panning when tracking Sophie walking from the bathroom door to the mirror, this was mainly because there was a jump at the beginning of the pan which may have been caused by the confined space I was in, as I had to set the tripod up in the bath. The other problem we had with this shot was that the door needed to be part way open in order in the exact place in order for us to not make a continuity error; this meant that when Matty clapped the clapperboard he had to also stay in the bathroom which meant there was even less space and he had to avoid kicking the tripod whilst I was panning.
Overall, filming on this sunday went well and I was pleased with what we had shot.
Wednesday 9th March: -Present at shoot: Me, Josh, Sam & Matty
On this day, my group and I used our 2 hours of lesson time to film the scenes against the black curtain at the beginning of our film. Sophie came into school for us and we got all of the shots done that we wanted to. We made one change to one shot because we felt at the time that it was a good idea and added to the effect of the madness of the girl in our film. We had a few problems we had to overcome but I feel that we overcame them well.
The first problem we came up against was that we set up our equipment in the drama studio where we could use the spot lights and the black curtains, we got everything set up and our drama teacher came in to teach his lesson as he had forgotten that we had booked the room. This meant we had to move to the lecture theatre and change our plan slightly, we used the back of the red curtain at the front of the stage as it is black on the opposite side. This meant that we then needed to set up a 3 point lighting system which took extra time up. After we had done this we needed to set up the rails for the dolly to run along. The shot which we changed was the first part of the match on action where the girl screams into the camera, and this was due to the fact that after changing location we suddenly had a bright idea.
We felt that instead of the girl only screaming into the camera lense, she could turn around afterwards if we opened the curtains and scream at the empty audience in the theatre and we could just graphic match this to her back instead of to her face like in our storyboard. This to us felt like a better idea because by screaming to an empty audience she is showing that her madness is growing.
The final problem which we had was caused by the lighting against the white clothing Sophie was wearing. The light was reflecting too much, meaning that the camera wasn't picking up Sophie's face because of the glare, we needed to play around with the positioning of the lights because if they were too far away there was shadow on one side of the face, however if they were too close her face couldn't be seen.
Overall shooting was successful and although we had problems in the beginning we managed to get what we wanted done.
Monday 21st March: -Present at shoot: Me, Josh & Matty (Sam couldn't be with us due to unforseen circumstances)
This was our last shooting session as we only needed to do the shots with the car and Sophie running down the road. This was our trickiest shooting session because the traffic on the road was out of our control, this meant that we had to take multiple shots of each scene. The other main problem we came up against was the concern from the public, which I admit does sound strange. With having a young girl chasing after a car it was no surpise to us when several cars pulled over to ask if our actress was alright and wanted to make sure she was okay. Apart from these two issues, there were no problems when filming our final scenes for our film.
My next post will describe the editing process my group and I went through.
On this day, my group and I shot a large section of our film. We shot all of the bedroom and bathroom scenes at Matty's house. We started filming at approximately 12 noon and finished at 4.30pm, although this was a fairly long amount of time, it was well worth the time and effort we put in.
We stuck to the story board and didn't need to change any shots or angles as everything ran smoothly. Sophie acted well for us and we only had to do a few takes on each scene apart from the ones more technically tricky. I had a problem with panning when tracking Sophie walking from the bathroom door to the mirror, this was mainly because there was a jump at the beginning of the pan which may have been caused by the confined space I was in, as I had to set the tripod up in the bath. The other problem we had with this shot was that the door needed to be part way open in order in the exact place in order for us to not make a continuity error; this meant that when Matty clapped the clapperboard he had to also stay in the bathroom which meant there was even less space and he had to avoid kicking the tripod whilst I was panning.
Overall, filming on this sunday went well and I was pleased with what we had shot.
Wednesday 9th March: -Present at shoot: Me, Josh, Sam & Matty
On this day, my group and I used our 2 hours of lesson time to film the scenes against the black curtain at the beginning of our film. Sophie came into school for us and we got all of the shots done that we wanted to. We made one change to one shot because we felt at the time that it was a good idea and added to the effect of the madness of the girl in our film. We had a few problems we had to overcome but I feel that we overcame them well.
The first problem we came up against was that we set up our equipment in the drama studio where we could use the spot lights and the black curtains, we got everything set up and our drama teacher came in to teach his lesson as he had forgotten that we had booked the room. This meant we had to move to the lecture theatre and change our plan slightly, we used the back of the red curtain at the front of the stage as it is black on the opposite side. This meant that we then needed to set up a 3 point lighting system which took extra time up. After we had done this we needed to set up the rails for the dolly to run along. The shot which we changed was the first part of the match on action where the girl screams into the camera, and this was due to the fact that after changing location we suddenly had a bright idea.
We felt that instead of the girl only screaming into the camera lense, she could turn around afterwards if we opened the curtains and scream at the empty audience in the theatre and we could just graphic match this to her back instead of to her face like in our storyboard. This to us felt like a better idea because by screaming to an empty audience she is showing that her madness is growing.
The final problem which we had was caused by the lighting against the white clothing Sophie was wearing. The light was reflecting too much, meaning that the camera wasn't picking up Sophie's face because of the glare, we needed to play around with the positioning of the lights because if they were too far away there was shadow on one side of the face, however if they were too close her face couldn't be seen.
Overall shooting was successful and although we had problems in the beginning we managed to get what we wanted done.
Monday 21st March: -Present at shoot: Me, Josh & Matty (Sam couldn't be with us due to unforseen circumstances)
This was our last shooting session as we only needed to do the shots with the car and Sophie running down the road. This was our trickiest shooting session because the traffic on the road was out of our control, this meant that we had to take multiple shots of each scene. The other main problem we came up against was the concern from the public, which I admit does sound strange. With having a young girl chasing after a car it was no surpise to us when several cars pulled over to ask if our actress was alright and wanted to make sure she was okay. Apart from these two issues, there were no problems when filming our final scenes for our film.
My next post will describe the editing process my group and I went through.
Preparing For The Shoot
Although we have everything we need on paper, before my group and I can begin shooting we need to make a few decisions. Firstly what equipment is neccessary for filming and seconly who will be taking on what role. I have compiled a list of what we will need and I will also add the decisions we have made on who is doing what.
Firstly, and most obviously we will be needing a camera to record our footage on. We are using Josh's camera as it is HD and will record the night scenes better than an ordinary camera. The memory is built in, meaning that we will not need to pick up a tape which is also one less thing for us to worry about.
Secondly, we will need a tripod in order to hold the camera steady. We have chosen to book the tripod which is easiest to pan on as this will make our panning smoother by us not having to worry about it jumping at the beginning of the pan. Our tripods also have a built in spirit level which will mean that our camera will always be level.
Thirdly, we will need a tripod adapter to fix the camera safely on the tripod.
Finally, we will need tracking equipment. We will use the dolly and the tracks to allow us to create a zoom affect in the scene with the black curtain in the background.
We have decided who in our group will be responsible for what and I have included information below, about who is taking on what role.
Me: I will be responsible for camera work, helping with sound and also monitoring costume
Josh: Josh will be responsible for helping with sound, actors and distributing scripts, and he is also chief editor
Sam: Sam will be responsible for helping with sound, managing props and monitoring continuity
Matty: Matty will be responsible for helping with sound and he is also taking on the role as director
My next post will be a comment on how shooting went for my group and I.
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