As a group of 4 (me, Demi, Sophie and Agatha), we devised an under 1 minute short film and edited it. Our film involved a shot, reverse, shot with a context of a murder in China Town, London. We had to consider different camera angles, different camera shots such as tracking shots and background noise such as door being opened and closed. We filmed on a Canon 550D and edited on iMovie on an Apple iMac
Positives
1. We successfully worked together as a team sharing each persons ideas.
2. We shared the responsibility of holding the camera, directing, setting the props and acting.
3. We worked quickly and efficiently, finishing our prologue in the estimated time we had planned.
4. We used a different selection of props including a police scarf/neck tie, chinese umbrella, chinese lantern and folder belonging to the head detective. Using these props created an authentic atmosphere believable to the audience, believing it to be a real police case and set in a real police office.
5. We used a shot reverse shot - it was fluid and easy to recognise.
6. We found a variety of music from the internet, especially sound tracks and openings of television programmes such as The Vampire Dairies and CSI and added them to our short film.
Negatives
1. When editing we realised that a lot of our shots were out of focussed, we were not paying attention to the camera or weren't speaking loud enough. We realised that next time we film we have to take into consideration these factors.
2. We chose a location with a lot of background noise such as people talking, doors being opened and closed as well as people's footsteps on stairs for example, resulting in us having to mute the background noise and add a voice over (at the beginning of the short film - 'Please come in PC Sophie').
3. We maybe should have worn authentic police uniform making us easier to recognise as a MET police officer and head detective.
4. We should have used a microphone as our voice recordings from the camera footage were hard to hear and understand. Using a microphone would also level out the interference of background noise, level out the tone and volume of our voice.
5. We should have used a tripod in all sections of filming as some shots were not balanced or steady causing us to cut them from the original footage or have to merge them with other balanced shots - causing us to use valuable time. What have I learned?
1. Working as a team is better than working as an individual as you can complete the task quicker, have a wide range of ideas (bouncing ideas of everyone) such as different locations to film at, shot types as well as plot ideas.
2. A shot, reverse, shot is a great shot to create tension, suspense or fast paced interaction. For example showing direct eye contact and facial expressions to the co-stars face instead of directly to the camera.
3. Using iMovie is an easy software to edit short films and film openings on as it is quick, simple especially when dragging different shots into position and cutting footage.
Vampire Diaries Theme Tune with used throughout our short film
During the final process of adding opening credits to our film opening, we encountered a reference to film titles in the examiners report to centres (2014).
According to last years Media Studies entries "There was still an over-reliance solely on actors' names and film title to constitute film titles, showing a lack of understanding of the range of titles expected of a film opening and of their construction, appearance and timings".
From looking at this report, we decided that we must make use of adding the correct order of credits. Credits are determined by guild rules such as SAG, the DGA, WGA and other Media unions. We took into consideration that credits are billed generally following their importance to the film.
For example:
1. The Production Company presents - In our case 'RAZZLE DAZZLE PRODUCTIONS presents'
2. A .... production - A PARRY PRODUCTION
3. A ...... film - A BENNETT FILM
4. Title
5. Lead Cast
Thereafter, the list of importance is flipped and work backwards to the most important role of the Director.
6. Supporting Cast
7. Casting Director
8. Music Composer
9. Costume Designer
10. Associate Producer
11. Editor
12. Production Designer
13. Director of Photography
14. Executive Producer
15. Producer
16. Writer
17. Director
We decided as a group that we would name every single 'person' for each role listed above as we want our film opening to look professional, slick and efficient making use of the correct list of credits.
Whilst writing blog posts recently I have been making use of audioBoom. This is a free online website, much like SoundCloud, but you can listen to Podcasts and radio interviews from radio shows such as the BBC radio stations.
audioBoom came to my attention when I was completing the final week of Future Learn: From Script to Screen film making course. I thought this site was incredibly interesting as I can post audioBoom posts or just simply listen to other peoples.
An audioBoom account (as shown below) that I find interesting is the BBC Radio 4: The Media Show. This account/channel covers news regarding the media such as topics covered in the newspaper as well as discussions.
I have recently listened to this discussion on BBC Radio 4: The Media Show covering the role of advertisers and editors on British drama. They also covered the limitations of editing and advertising including 'phone ins' from professionals in the media industry addressing their views.
Today we completed editing footage of our film opening, The Unhinging.
Here are the final stages we completed today:
We re-watched our film opening,
checking for any areas we wanted to re-do such as the fluidity of the soundtrack
We thought it was appropriate to put a filter on India's flashback scenes.
Also we overlapped each shot of India's flashbacks creating a blurry effect; this was suited to it
as it created a 'hallucinating effect'.
We saved our film opening
We exported it to YouTube
We also finalised the font for the titles of actors and production company names that appear on the shots of our film opening. We wanted the font to appear professional but also suited to the action appearing in the film opening. For example, we would place text in empty areas of the shots such as on a darkly lit brick wall next to India's body. By doing this, the text was easy to read and understand whilst not interfering with the action taking place in the film.
We also added our distributors company ident, Warp, at the beginning of our film opening.
We also decided that it was appropriate whilst India was running through the woods reaching for her mobile phone to call the police, the words 'dialling 999...' would appear 3 times. We wanted the full stops '...' to appear three times creating a sense of dialling and progression in the phone call.
I took inspiration from watching this video below.
Today I continued to help edit footage of our film opening, The Unhinging. Due to changes in the weather and circumstances whilst filming, some shots we had planned to film (shown in our shot list) weren't possible. Therefore we found ourselves digressing from the plan of our shot list and in some cases adding more shots in areas of the film opening. For example in the forrest scenes showing India running through clearings in the forrest.
However, whilst editing we tried our best to follow our original shot list; in areas where we filmed different shots or added more shots we slotted them in areas where we thought were appropriate.
Whilst re-filming shots in the basement of the beginning stages of India escaping our antagonists house, we decided that a match-on-action shot would be appropriate. We did this (as shown in the videos below) by having India walking straight towards the camera almost walking into the lens and covering it completely therefore making the shot completely opaque. This created a momentary 'black out'.
Thereafter, we turned the camera anti-clock wise 90 degrees and shot India walking up the stairs of the basement, having just her ankles and lower legs in the shot. This created an interesting shot that conveyed a sense of mystery and suspense.
In class I watched a tutorial about a thriller movie Drive and how they used different shots, following a technique called the quadrant system, to split up the shot into four sections. As my film opening is of the thriller genre I found this very interesting as I saw similarities.
Each section told a story; therefore telling four stories in one shot. This allows the audience to witness each character in the frames story offering depth to each shot and the story they are conveying.
By watching this video (as shown below), gave me inspiration to make use of the match-on-action shot we filmed (as explained above) and experiment with using a diverse range of shots. In the future I will definitely take the quadrant system into consideration as appears to be an effective technique.
Today we continued editing all the completed footage uploaded onto the iMac using iMovie. I helped advise and add transitions in between shots. I wanted to create a smooth transition between each frame therefore making our film opening easy to follow, understand and not jumpy. This is important as I want to audience/viewer to be able to follow the story line easily without getting distracted or confused with unnecessary transitions such as shots fading in and out creating a dodgy, unfocussed transition.
I also helped adjusting and adding our chosen music onto our film opening. We agreed together that we wanted to have fast paced music to accompany the shots as it would suit the thriller genre, theme and storyline of our film opening - focussing on kidnapping and the urgency to escape a brutal, abusive attacker.
I also feel that the fast paced music would suit the fast paced shots such as India running through clearings in the forrest; this would also add even more pace to shot, also adding suspense and tension.
We decided to create a mix of melodies (making mashup music) for our film opening. For example we amplified the constant beat of the keyboard while slightly muting the synthesised track in the background. We also made the wild sound of our thriller opening such as walking of footsteps, wind and breathing, amplified and noticeable over the top of the music. We did this because we wanted to make India's exhaustion and desperation noticeable.
Today I helped edit the final basement scenes I filmed on Thursday and added them to our film opening. Instead of adding transitions after each shot, we decided that it would be appropriate to just place every single scene in the right order before adding music, transitions and filters. We thought this as Agatha was on a Philosophy trip and all agreed that the decisions to do with final editing were to be a made as a full group. Therefore we will continue this when Agatha returns next lesson.
I have made a collage on PicMonkey showing photos of me editing footage on the Mac in the studio and images of our reel of footage we are in the process of editing.
Today we completed filming the final basement scenes for our film opening, The Unhinging. All members of our film opening group congregated at Agatha' house, our chosen location for the basement scenes.
Below are some videos I recorded of the process of filming the final basement scenes. I uploaded these onto my film openings Instagram. These videos were also uploaded on my film openings Twitter page creating continuity between the films social media websites, resulting in an 'inter web' of The Unhinging related information. This creates a buzz with our film openings followers.
This is me filming Demi running across the gravel of 'Jacks' house
This is a video showing the basement set. It also shows the position of the camera at the bottom of the stairs leading the basement. Just after this we filmed a close up shot of Demi, who plays India, walking up the stairs showing the back of ankles and anxious, hesitant foot steps.
This is a video showing Agatha, who filmed India escaping from the basement, filming on her roller skates. Due to forgetting the filming dolly in Media Studies, we decided to create an equally, efficient and smooth tracking shot of Demi escaping from the basement and through the hall towards the front door to escape, we needed equipment with wheels. I remembered that Agatha had some roller skates and we thought it would equally as successful to allow Agatha to film using her roller skates creating a smooth, tracking shot. A useful point we realised using roller skates, meant that we could hand hold the camera on the tripod whilst picking up pace on the roller skates; successfully quickly finishing filming this shot in a less than 5 takes.
This is a video showing 'behind the scenes' footage of the cast and crew of The Unhinging. I uploaded this video onto Instagram with the hashtags '#behindthescenes' and '#theunhingingmovie'. Instagram is a recently new app involving hashtags (also used by Twitter) that distributors can use on the 'notes page' when feeding information on the Instagram feeds. Using hashtags will niche the audiences findings making the search for my film more accurate - only pictures, promotional post and advertisements will be found under the official hashtag or fan made hashtags such as '#theunhinging' '#theunhingingmovie'. Hashtags can also apply to actors, directors or anyone associated with the film such as '#katebradford' or '#demicollins' - this makes it easier for my target audience to reach information relating to the film.
Above, I have also made a SlideShare of the stages of filming of the final basement scenes with annotation describing the choices we made and reasons why we made them.
In my free time I have experimented with making GIFs. A GIF is a bitmap image format - GIF is the acronym for The Graphics Interchange Format. In simpler words, a GIF is a selection of images (or a video) taken of a movement or action, such as smiling or walking, and added together to create a short video image. This 'video' is saved as an image therefore it can be saved as a JPEG file. You simply upload a selection of images, adding text, filters or rotation if you choose. Thereafter you can 'generate' the image creating a GIF file.
Here are the JPEG files I used to make my GIF
To start practising, I simply made a GIF of me typing on my key board, 'how to make a gif'. There is a huge selection of websites available on the internet for you to make a GIF, I chose to use the website, Imgflip. I also added a video of Agatha, from a previous post, playing the operator, taking an emergency call from India in the woods.
I found this new technology extremely useful in making a unique and fun 'mini presentation' of images or a video I have recorded. Even though other new technologies I found, including Photosnack and Prezi, are useful at making long, in depth presentations presented with interesting edits; the making of a GIF is intended to be a short 'snip-it' of action. Therefore I can upload a GIF onto my film opening and my personal social media sites such as Twitter or Instagram; this means that I can present a GIF in a diverse way, on my blog for example or quickly uploaded onto Instagram.
I intend to make use of the GIF image format in future posts on my blog and my social media websites.
We use this picture as a guideline - this collage is taken from a previous blog post of mine
I edited this photo of Agatha on PicMonkey applying make up onto Demi, who plays India our main protagonist. She applied make up on areas such as her face including her eyes, cheek bones, brow line and jaw line to create a bruising effect as well as a slash of fake blood on her cheek bones. To maintain continuity, the make up has to be exactly the same every time we film, so we use the picture above as a guideline when applying make up. I have also collected SnapChats I have recorded on SnapChat of the process we went through before we started filming. I have amalgamated this footage together on iMovie, making it into a short film. I also included a problem that occurred whilst filming - finding that a family of frogs living in Agatha's basement, spending too long setting up the set and applying make up on Demi therefore causing a disruption to filming. As this problem caused a delay to our filming, we decided that we will continue filming in the next double lesson of Media Studies. Popular YouTuber Casey Neistat's SnapChat Stories were the inspiration behind my SnapChat story of filming in Agatha's basement. I've watched many of his SnapChat stories on YouTube as well as many of his videos on his YouTube channel, including Make It Count and The Surprise in South Africa by Casey Neistat and was inspired to make my own SnapChat video. I intend to make more of these videos as I continue filming and editing my film opening.
Me filming Demi in the basement
Me filming Demi in the basement
Uploading footage into iMovie
Adding transitions to the footage
Before exporting, I made sure the film fluid to be viewed easily
Today we finished filming the final scenes of India, our main protagonist, running through the woods, trying to escape her kidnapper, Jack. Due to great dry, sunny weather and not wasting time, for example applying make up, spending too long collecting the equipment and setting up; filming was overall a success. Agatha and I were in charge of filming the final forrest scenes. I completed shots such as:
close up shots of India (played by Demi) exhaustedly gasping for air bending down on her knees catching her breath
tracking shots of India running past the camera creating a sense of depth and mass to forrest as she running frantically through the clearings of trees for an exit
extreme close up shots of Demi's lips, visible showing her teeth, gasping for air emphasising that she was becoming exhausted, tired and mad to be free
close up panning (360 degree) shots of the forrest, trees and sky to emphasise the grand size of the forrest and the mentality of India's panic
This is me filming Demi in the forrest
I made these collages of photos from the shoot using PicMonkey . PicMonkey is useful as I can create fun, interesting and visual attractive collages showing a vast amount of pictures saved as one image. I can also edit and add filters onto a selection of photographs meaning I can upload them onto my social media websites such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter; therefore allowing me to continuity of my blog photos and information about my film opening, The Unhinging.
Today we decided to re-film the news reporter scene outside the school gates. When we previously decided to film it was too windy therefore making the voice unclear and the focus on the camera blurry as the tripod kept on moving. I checked the weather on my Iphone regularly the night before and this morning for any changes in the weather such as wind or rain.
Sophie and I play the two news reporters reporting on the kidnapping of India, the main protagonist of our film opening, describing what she was last wearing before she went missing, a short description of what the police think was the last location she was last seen; ultimatly urging anybody who may know any information regarding Indias location to contact the police. Our filming was successful as the weather was warm and dry allowing us to concerntrate on the filming. Agatha held the cue cards on the right side of camera allowing us to look at them for a propt on our words. We managed to complete the filming of this scene in 3 takes.
I have made a two short videos (the video with photos lasts for 30 seconds) showing the progress so far of my film opening, The Unhinging, in photos. I have made both of these videos on Flipagram, a free photo editing and photo sharing slide show service; it is exactly like Instagram but you can post photo slideshows with music (also being able to share your 'flipagrams' on Instagram and Facebook by clicking 'share'). It is really useful as it can make your photos 'come alive' with the sound of music, documenting your progress in a fun and unique way.
I have documented how I have made my Flipagram below by posting my steps as a Flipagram presentation. I have added audionarration to my film, showing the clear purpose of my presentation.
I have shared my Flipagram on my film openings Instagram feed and shared my video on my Twitter page making my followers aware of what I have made. By sharing this on my film openings Instagram feed, that I update every time we film or complete work on our film opening, I will attract attention/awareness from my film openings followers therefore starting a 'buzz' for the films release starting a trend. I have showed this as a photo slideshow using Photosnack - as shown below.
Today we filmed the operator scene. We chose to film in the ICT department at school as it was suited to the purpose of the scene. For example Agatha played a police phone operator who receives a call from India, the main protagonist, needing urgent help. We thought that the ICT department would be suitable as power cables, sockets and computers would be visible in the shot of Agatha, making it recognisable to the audience that it was a call centre or location associated with electronic telecommunication.
We chose to put Agatha in a plain, suit, office attire as she is a professional, operator at work. We also decided that she should wear headset with microphone attachment as she would be needing to pick up urgent, emergency calls quickly having to have immediate and easy access to multitask, for example type information down of the caller such as their name, location, age and emergency.
I have made a photo collage of our shoot filming the operator scene using PicMonkey, a free online editing and photo collage making service. It is useful as it is quick to use, understand and easy to share using social media websites. I have documented my film opening shoot on my films Instagram page and on my personal Twitter page.
We started filming the news reporter scene after we had successfully filmed the film operator scene. However, due to the location we chose (just outside our schools entrance gates) where it was extremely windy and was a popular, busy entrance point for people visiting and exiting the school we were unable to continue filming. We have now chosen to re-film the scene that we chose to film then, sometime next week (beginning 9th March 2015) when the weather should be better or we could possibly film inside.
Today we worked on our film openings promotional poster. We chose a photo that would be suitable; we all agreed that the photo should have space for the films title, our films slogan, the names of the people in the film, the release date and age limit (15 years). For example we needed blank space around the figure of Demi (playing India). I acknowledged that the eye reads from right to left in a zig-zag motion - as shown in a previous post of mine as well to the left.
We chose to edit the photo using Photoshop, adding darkness to the background and blurring out the edges of tree branches and leaves. This made Demi (playing India) stand out and highlight that she is the main focus of the film opening - the protagonist. We made Demi skin a little lighter so the colour would highlight her red cut along her cheek bone and bruising around her forehead, cheek bones and jawline/chin.
We added the title, The Unhinging, above the image of Demi in bold, crackled font making it appear like wood or bark - linking with the 'unhinging' element of our film (the unhinging of a lock).
We then added the names of the people starring in the film and the release date, using a smudging tool to create a blurred, out of focus effect connecting with the theme of our film opening of being lost and unaware India's surroundings.
We added the slogan on the left hand side of the image of Demi, making it appear she is looking towards the text - 'From her fear she gained strength'. We looked at various slogans of Hollywood Blockbusters such as Red Riding Hood and Harry Potter for inspiration.
