Editing continues

In order to finish the film in the time that we had i began to coe to workshops and complete the editing process it was in the workshop that i identified the problem within our scene. i fact there was a couple of things that needed to be added to make it perfect.
I realised that there was no clear contrast between the flashback and the prsent scene of the women hanging and secondly the scenes cut form one another very agressively showing no flow whithin the scene. i handled this by addign a colour contrast of black ad white onto the flash back allowing the viewer to really see the past anfd present and to make the film flow more i added fades between the shots to allow a much more calm and steady change between scenes and shots.
Thgis change in the footage worked wonders and the change was visiblew intantly. i was very happy that my work ahd paid off and that the group would beneift for the workshop and my contributions.
In class we then added the titles in which didnt take to long as everybody knew the role that they had in the group atherefore it was not difficult when deciding the name to match the role. We wanted this to be completed in a few minutes and begin the soujnd but the group and i were not happy with the quality of the font; it looked really average and we wanted it to be bold and quite scary looking, luckily a teacher was free to give us a hand and help us make it perfect. she showed us exactly what to do and we followed and thankfully got he job done but unfortunately with nbo time to spare ffor the music
This was now complete finally and i was extremely happy but i knew that the sound needed to be done on the last day and i was aware that this would take a large amount of time that we may not even have

Editing

The filming was all done and complete now it was time for the editing to take place, i knew this would take a long tie as it needed to be perfected and unfortunately this is the least enjoyable stage of making a film. We began byu watching back the footage that we had filmed and we were overall happy with how it came out; the only thingthat we did worry about was how scary it was. we did not let this hold us back as we began capturing shots that we thought would work in the scene. this took a very, very long time and we all had different ideas on what looked good and what should be used, to keep everybody at peace we captured a wide range of shots at everybodys shots but we still had to choose. this was sdiffuicult as peoples opinions did slightly get in the way of the work and because we only had 2 minutes of film to produce it was quite hard to have everyones choice of shots in the film. As time past memebrs of the grooup came to understand that and it showed in the work as we all particiapted well and it was now time to peicew the clips together and make the thriller.
This shockingly was done impressively as there were no uneccessary arguments or discussions instead we just cracked on with the editing and it came to my attention that we had finnally all had the same vision. Int his time three lessons thad passed and we had placed all of the shots together in a way that we thought was succesfull and was very happy with but there was still an element to the film that we thought needed improvement but could not identify what it was exactly. We thought that it could have been the music as that was not done yet as it is the last stage that we sould carry out so we felt happy thatwe had got as far as we did but time was runningout and a lot of things still needed to be done

Filming, Filming and more Filming

Now it was time to really begin and start the filming process. The first thing that we did when we where in class was making sure that we had all the equipment needed and this was done perfectly as everyone brought in exactly what was needed thankfully meaning that we could move on and begin filming.
After hearing about what sounded like a perfect location for the film we were all so keen on wanting to start so as soon as we all knew we had the props we let the teacher know exactly where we would be and we went straight there with the equipment and storyboard to tell us the exact scenes that we would shoot.
as we walked anxiously to the park it was coming into sight and it was perfect and was quiet just like imagined which ment that we didnt have to waste anytime trying to find other alternatives instead we began setting up the equipment and getting ready to shoot the first scene(the flash back of Shannon getting snatched by a masked man).
The flash back scene scene was shot in about Two hours; i didnt think that it would take us this long but we needed to make sure that we had all of the shots needed to make the Thriller successful. Whilst filming we did have some difficulties communicating with one another and gettingacross exactly what was needed to be done even with the storyboard being there; this could have been the downfallx of the long time spent but we didnt let that hold us back instead we learnt that in the next scene that we would shoot everyone should understand exactly what we are doing before hand in order to minimize the amount of time we dpend talking during filming. Me and Shannen naturally becam the women behind the camera and this was based on the fact that the other two menbers of the group were acting in front of the camera this made it quite easy as we all knew the roles that we played in the group and iwas more than happy as filming is one of the most enjoyable aspects of media for me; it was important that all mebers of the goroup had an idea of how it was going and how the footage was looking so we frequently all looked back at the footage to gain feedback form anyone that had any comments on how to make it better.
We moved swiftly on to try and film the second scene ( Woman hanging byt the arms and being killed by the abductor)we wanted this scene to be done in the night time as we thought it would be much more spooky and scary if it was in the dark and add meaning to te narrative; in order for this to happen we had to sit around for quite a while waiting for the sun to go down. This took a while and the amount of time that we had left to film was shortening. We decided to seek help from a teacher as the sun was still not down and time was running out. she gave us a great idea of filming on the set indoors which is just as dark; we decided this would be great as it meant that we could dil this anytime of day. unfortunately we were unable to film this scene that day on the set as time had run out and there was allready a group using the resources in the room. This was not that big of a roblem because we had identified that we needed more props that could make this last scene much more effectinve which was candles. i had the responsibility of bringing this in to our next lesson and i could not wait.
The lesson had arrived and it was finally time to start filming our final scene. we had the room to ourselves do we could begin immediately and film with no distractions. Before we could fim we had to set the scene with the props. we lit the candles and placed it around the table which Lauren would be 'hanging' above, our media teacher would come in frewuently to check up on us as he was worried about the safety as the candles were lit and a memeber of our group had been tied to a bar on the cielling. this jind of made us uneasy as we where afraid that he may tell us to change the layout of the scene but in order for it to be howw we imagined and successful this was the only way optional. Unfortunately a group member had forgotton the mask that was needed in this scene but we did not let this cause to much trouble as she4 didnt eave to far fro college soshe just went home and got it and in that time we were filming the hanging women.
Despite this we filmed successfully and there was not a large amount of problems that we ran into.
We felt relieved that the filming was done but i new that the film really relies o the editing and how well it is done.

Lets Begin

Now that our idea has been given the okay me and the group decided to crack on right away and not waste anytime at all on unecessary discussions.A memeber of our group (Shannen) new of a perfect near by location that would be absoloutely perfect for the scene; she explained it as a quiet park with a a river side walk minutes away. this was perfect for the Thriller and the river would add an extra uneasy astmosphere. Having an idea of where we would film it was now time to draw a story board so that we knew the range of shots we would have which would help us stay on task and get an understanding of exactly what we are doing. We included a variety of shots includin:
-Long shots
-Close ups
-Establishing shots
-Match cuts and
-Pan
The gorrup and i really wanted to fous on using match cuts as it was something that we had learnt to do very recently and found that it made a scene much more successful and we also had fun filming match cuts as it was a slight challenge to be done perfecftly buit really showed our skills in filming.
After finishing our Story board we then noticced that we needed to get hold of some props; the department didnt have a wide range of props that we could useso we decided that it was only best if we bought in our own; this wwasy we would know thatit is exactly what we ant and do not have to settle for less. unfortunately this ment that we could not begin filmoing in this lesson instead we had to wait until the next lesson but this did not worry us as we knew exactly what need to be done and we felt secured knowing that the majkority of people are in the same position as us.
Most members of the group had the responsibilty to bring a prop in to the next lesson and in ordee for us all to remeber this we transfered numbers so that we could remid one alonther and also contact one another if there was a problem i.e an emergency at home meaning a member of the group can not come in to film; but we hoped this would not be the case.
But we will just have to wait till the next lesson to see wwhether we do run into any problems.

Sound is everything

It has come to my attention that whilst we were planning our pitch we did not focus a lot on Sound in facet we only mention a couple of points on this subject unlike other elements of the Thriller.
Looking back on a media lesson that took place whilst preparing our practice films i remember thinking how important music is for a film and the difference it makes in a scene. In this lesson we where able to work on a programme which enabled us to hear about and watch the elements of sound and the impact that it has on watching a scene. After hearing thoughts and views of sound from professional executive editors we where then able to put our talents into action.
We did this by looking at a wide range of sounds that depending on how you see the scene could be placed and used for the sound. This really showed me the importance of very little noises that i once thought were not necessary.
For example I was told to do the sound for a particu;ar scene in Casino royal and this scene had the narrative of a woman and a man getting in and out of a car. the sounds that i had available to choose from ranged from wind, breath, moving trees and birds. I found this interesting as not only did it enable me to gain understanding of what sounds are valid in this scene but it also helped me identify some sounds that really aren't necessary and could make the scene stronger with them erased.
Whilst looking through the lists of sounds that were available I noticed a particular sound that really worked but unfortunately i was not able to identify what it was exactly. Very keen on knowing exactly what this sound was i asked a teacher to tell me more about this sound, i was told that this is the sound crwated by recording the sound of the area that the scene is being filmed in which is then added to the scene to add the right atmosphere and to allow the viewer to gain more about the surroundings of the scene. All groups had to prerecord this sound if they so wished to and later add it onto the scene during the editing stages .

Looking back on this lesson now i most definately found the programme useful and it will definately take that particular sound onboard when editing and let my group know that i feel this would make our Thriller opening much more succesful especially with the setting being in an open public area.

Story Line

The story line that me and my group planned on creating is as follows:
An unconciuos woman appears on the screen (Lauren) looking distraught and looks to be hanging on a rope. her breathing is rapid and is heard loudly as her body swings side to side. This image then becomes transparent an fades in a flash back of of two young woman (Me and Lauren) saying goodbye to one another on wooden stairs nearby an abandoned lake. The girls walk away from one another leaving the main character( Lauren) walking down the stairs onto the side of the lake alone listening to music. As she stops to change the track a tall masked figure is seen suddenly in the background walking and slowly approaching her. as she continues to walk the masked man (Ufuk) grabs hold of her roughly placing a drugged cloth around her face. the girl falls unconcious into the mans arms.
This flashback will have a colour effect added toitto signify the cahnge in time and setting in comparison to the first scene and to enhance the subject of it being a flashback. while this scene is being played it will occasionally fade into the origianl scene of the distraught hanging woman to show that they are the same person and to almost make it seem as if she is dreaming of the past in her unconcious state.
The original scene will then appear and the woman now begins to awaken and looks bewildered as to where she is and why. She becomes histerical looking around her. As her breathing becomes much more heavy she looks directly at the camera and acts more frightened than ever as if to show that there is a frightening figure in front of her. The Masked man then appears holding a weapon and suddenly hits the woman with it.
As this happens a scream will be heard and the scene will cut to a black screen with the title of our thriller.....TIDE

Pitch

It was now time for the group and i to think about OUR thriller opening and start the real filming process but before we could even recieve equipment to carry this out it was highly important that we recieve approval from the Media teachers and executives. We did this by performing a presentation with our ideas and plans on how wer'e going to carry out the filming of the thriller, what the narrative is and the exact plans on where and when the scenes would be filmed.
The group and i all had very different individual ideas on what the thriller should be based on so it was quite dififficult to come to a decision on the final idea but due to our skills in communicating with one another this did not lead to unnecassary arguments and prolonged discussions and we listed all our ideas and intwined them with one another to result in a final conclusion on what the thriller would be.
After long deliberation it was now time to share our ideas with the teachers and hope to recieve approval. Thankfully after answering some tough but helpful questions from the teachers and students we were then able to begin as we had been successful and the executives were happy with the planning of our Thriller giving us the ability to move a step forward and focus on making the thriller the best that it can be.

Filming the Thriller part 6(Tuesday 24th February)

In today's lesson we had to carry on with the editing. We had done a lot of editing in the workshop which was held on the first day of the half-term. We used loads of techniques such as fade in/out, slow motion and flashbacks in order to make the thriller more interesting. I, personally think that our editing is finished but still need to find a suitable music to go with the thriller. We had improved on the tittle sequence in todays lesson and finded some interesting fonts and shapes. The deadline is getting more closer and I is getting more anxious as the deadline is just in 3 days time. I need to go to workshop tomorrow in order to save more time for Fridays lesson. We as a group are planning to do the music in Friday's lesson and need to take one more shoot for to improve one of the scene.

Inspiration

During our previous lesson we had watched numerous openings of filmes hich included Arlington road, Collateral and the shining and we were told to upload one of the several openings onto oour blogs. I chose Arlington Road and now watching it back it has come to my attenetion that there are various techniques within this opening that thrill the viewer and make it extremely successful.
I chose this video as i thought that out of all of the rest this was the most interesting and i remeber thinking at the time there are numerous techniques that the group and i have the ability to use and place into our thriller opening as i feel they would really make the scene so much more interesetig and amazing to watch .
The technique that really showed great effectiveness was the blurry faded affect where the shots where faded and somewhat luminous and faded into the next shot this emphisised the dizziness and confision of both the viewer and character within the scene and created quit e an uneasy atmosphere when watching it and i this in our thriller opening will allow us to really add effect on the viewer and increase the marks that we get.

Editing

We began editing immediately after completitng our film and we new that we had to put our full focus into this as this is where the scene is really created.
The group and i did the editing together and worked excellently as a group as we where able to pick out things that we did not want and what we thought worked well and it was important that everyone shared there opinion and made decisions within the group which would later add a big impact on the work.
The footage came out well and the match cuts definately worked well in the scen but in order for them to be perfected they needed to be edited expertly in order for the several shots used to match. We made sure that this looked good not only to us but others by frequently asking class mates and the teacher to watch the work that we had produced and ask for opinions on any good points and critisism. this enabled us to gain understanding on how to improve the work that we had produced and what elements made it a good scene.
In the little ciritisism that we did recieve there was one in particular that we really wanted to improve and alter and this was where the two characters are talking to one another the footage cuts to show both of there faces but on one of these transactions the lighting changes due to the time of day and although this is not highly noticable the group and i did not want this to be seen in the footage.
Due to i and the groups want of perfection in the footage and spending a long time on othere areas within the scene we had run out of time to change this problem and we where not able to alternate this which showed us that we needed to make time to focus on different areas of the scene and always make sure that we have a planned time to film again if necessary.
Other thn this i do feel that the footage came out okay and it did show the skills that the group and i do have, but due to this minor mistake the group and i felt that this was good but could be better.

Editing stages

Todays lesson, Tuesday 24th February, we continued our thriller film editing because although in workshop on the half term we made alot of progress, there was still a fair amount to do. We finished adding our credits and making a few minor adjustments to our shots that needed little things done to them. Todays lesson taught me how to make text look much more interesting, by using another program on the computer then importing it into our editing program to make the title of our film stand out from the rest of the text that is shown before. This will hopefully make people remember the name of our film and end it dramatically. We learnt how to make our thrillers look a little bit more professional by doing this which I think is a good point for our film.

Our group are meeting up Friday lunch time to get on with the last bits of our editing before our lesson. We still need to add our music and we dont think that Friday afternoon in our lesson, that will allow us to do this in the short time we have. We cant risk not finishing our editing on Fridays lesson because the deadline is at 3pm on Friday. I think that when it is finished our film 'Tied' will look very impressive and I'm looking forward to seeing the final product.

Preliminary match cut task - Filming part 2, (Tue 20 Jan)

Today’s Lesson (Tuesday 20th January), We continued Editing our ‘Preliminary Match Cut Task’, this went well, we shortened the clips that needed shorting by cutting off un-necessary footage and made our match-cuts become apparent.
All in all I think we did a good job in completing our Task. We used a wide variety of features including, close-ups, medium shots, extreme close-ups, long shots, we shot from a variety of angles including high angel, low angel and eye level. We also used pans. We used a variety of shots to express the characters emotions, with close-ups and extreme close ups pushing it that further. We used a variety of camera angles effectively as we showed Ufuk, who in the film, has a higher status than me; to show this we had the camera at a high angle shot, looking down on me – making me look weak, whereas we had the camera on Ufuk at a low angle shot – presenting power.
We used pans and match-cut shots to show movement, using these along with the 180 degree rule, made the film all that more clearer to the audience and helped the film easily glide from one scene to another.

From this short filming experience, I have learnt how to use the editing software all that more effectively and am now looking forward to filming and editing our actual Thriller.

Preliminary match cut task - Filming. (Fri 16th Jan)

In today’s lesson (Friday 16th January) our task was to plan and shoot our ‘Preliminary Match Cut Task’. In doing this we were told to include three specific features which were: Match cuts, a shot/Reverse shot and to keep the 180 degree rule. In order to do this, we were given a storyboard and were to use this to plan out our task. It was on this storyboard where we drew rough sketches of each scene, wrote in the amount of seconds that each scene would take and wrote in any specific dialogue or special effects that were to be used. As a group we decided on a storyline and came to a decision on who was to play what, myself and Ufuk were the two on screen characters where as Karess was managing the camera.

We got given the location of ‘The Store room’ although we were quite unsure at first, we put together our ideas and in all it became the perfect location for us, as it was quiet, small, and had an office theme throughout – perfect. It took us about 30 minutes to complete all the filming; we repeated the same scene quite a few times in order for us to move the camera around from in front of the characters to behind , we done this, so when we were to start editing it would become a match cut. We used a tripod to shoot everything, as we were afraid handheld would have made it too un-easy and perhaps confusing to the audience. We also shot from several different angles and used the function ‘Zoom’ to include close-ups and medium shots of the characters; we used these to help express the characters emotions more fluently to the audience.

After filming we moved to the editing suite where we were to start editing our film clip. At first we split up each of the scenes one by one, we then placed them in order and named them, due to lack of time we saved our progress and decided to continue next lesson.

Analysing previous Thriller clips (Friday 9th January)

In Today’s lesson, (Friday 9th January) we watched several clips from the Thriller movies made last year by the previous AS Media students. The aim of this lesson was to receive ideas on how to construct our own Thriller movies, we were to recognise their mistakes and prevent them from appearing in out own. We were also given a sheet of paper and were told to jot down anything used in the clip that came under the title ‘Mise en scene’. This included the likes of, Costumes, location, props, lighting, special effects, characters and many more important features.

From watching the clips I learnt several things. I learnt that a key element into having a successful Thriller is to seduce the audience into long term commitment, to not give to much information away enabling the audience to want to keep watching in order to find out, what happens next? To keep them questioning and gripped to the screen.
Another thing I learnt was to use your camera shots effectively, an example of this would be an establishing shot, in order to make this shot effective, I would use it at the very beginning of the clip and would perhaps have it from a birds eye view, to show and tell the audience the location, where the following scene, if not the whole film, will be set.

In conclusion watching the past A level students clips was time well spent as I learnt a lot and can take these new skills and place them in to my own Thriller movie clip

Sound Editing. (Tuesday 6th January)

In today’s Lesson (Tuesday 6th January) we learnt about Sound Layers and how they were put together to make a scene more realistic, exciting and more importantly to attract the audience’s attention and keep them on the edge of their seat. To do this we were given four clips from the film “The Casino Royale 007”. Neither of the four contained sound as we had to do that our selves. At first we were given just a picture and had to imagine what might have been going on; sound wise. We had to place on the different sound layers, for example: I placed Dialogue in front of the two men stood there and I placed the sound of a truck reversing on the truck.

After doing so, we were given an actual scene from the movie, this however contained no sound. We had to add the sound landscape our selves, in order to make the clip more exciting and once again – realistic. As the scene contained lots of action and fast moving vehicles, I added loud fast paced music, as well as the sound effects of ‘skids’ from the tyres of the vehicles and grunting as the characters were in a fight. All in all I didn’t have any difficulties in managing the sound track and thoroughly enjoyed doing so.

Filming the Thriller part 5(Tuesday 10th February)

As we were planning, we had started a bit of editing in todays lesson after finishing the log and capture in the previous lesson. I am satisfied that we have finished doing the filming early because due to the weather reasons some of the groups are having difficulties to do the filming.
We had a lot of shots, and we had to do what we were planning to do and it looked like it is going to take our time and it did because we are still not finished.
Firstly we had started to put the shots which has happened in the daylights, where all the story is happened, but then we've decided that we should put what happens at the end at the beginning. The reason we've decided this is because to get audiences attention and then show what has happened before and why is she 'tied' like that. Basically we will be using the technique from 'Slumdog Millionare' movie which has being released lately.
We went to the workshop on Wednesday in order to save a bit of time for our project because deadline is due on the week we are back from half-term. In the workshop I have learnt how to use some of the effects which we will be planning to use in our thriller i.e. the slow motion, the mountain fading etc. We have used the slow motion effect on the opening shots.
I will be planning to come to the workshop in the half-term in order to don't fell behind in my work.

Filming the thriller part 4(Friday 7th February)

Due to the snow, we have missed our lesson on Tuesday, so we did not started the editing yet. In today's lesson somehow we had to start doing the editing because less amount of time has being left for the deadline.

We were planning to start our editing today but our driver wasn't working properly so we had to keep changing computers. After about a hour later it had started to work so we had to get going on now. We have watched all the shots and I can say there were a lot of shots which were unusual, I think personally. It took us a lot of time to log and capture the shots which we were planning to use for the thriller. We only had time to log and capture the shots so we are planning to sacrifice our time in the lunchtimes and do editing then. We got Tuesdays lesson to do the editing, so it looks like we do not have much time for the deadline which is due in 27th February. I personally thinkg the deadline should extent to 6th March which is one week later because we had missed our lesson on Tuesday and it looks like we are going to miss our lesson on Friday lesson next week so this equals to a lack of media lesson for a week.

Filming the Thriller part 3(Tuesday 3 February)

In todays lesson we were planning to start the editing for the shots we have took from last week but due to the lack of transport link and weatheral reasons college was cancelled today. I am looking forward to Friday for me and the group to do the editing because deadline is coming soon.

Filming the Thriller part 2(Friday 30th January)

We have carried on doing the shooting for the thriller in todays lesson. Previously on Tuesday we have filmed the part which we were planning to be on daylight. In todays lesson we filmed inside the classroom and add affects from the dark curtains in order to make it more darker and gloomy. Firstly it wasn't working well because we were getting distracted by the lamp at the ceiling and that was adding a light into the scence. For to resolve this problem we called the technician guy and it was sorted. We've used props such as candles in order to have an effect of light in the dark lighting and mask for the hid the face of the murderer. Basically we have filmed Lauren getting tied with her hands and repetitively having flashbacks. As she wakes up she sees then course she gets scared and I start killing her through using the shadow skill in order to make it better for the audience. We have used match-cut and the 180 technique in this shooting. I think we are all over and only got editing to do for Tuesday, then to add a thriller music.