Finished Film take 2

Finished Film take 2

After making some last minute changes and voice overs here is the finished product before feed back.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj76aB9Vmu0

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenege forms and conventions of real media products?

 

Evaluation

After going though our final piece we have selected nine distinct yet differential  frames which  will  be compared to our objectives from the start of the filming process. Our aim was to create a realistic opening to a horror film initially but this subverted as we transformed into a more hybrid genre , entailing elements of a physiological thriller/ horror as well as fantasy elements through the use of surrealistic framed shots especially visible in terms of Zoe's characterisation.
Frame 1.

This blank shot has  entailed the usage of an inversion of  black and white ( white writing on a black background)  which provides the method of catching the readers eye as it subverts traditional discourse of this type of graphology.

A film which conforms to font discourse convention

This was especially effective when coupled with  fading the text on and off the screen. The font and stylistic conventions were specifically chosen using standardisation  by making it very easy to read, but possibly could be changed to fit in a bit more with the Mise-on-scene as well as appearing more professional  and aesthetic.This could be enabled by spending a measurable amount of time duration testing out differential styles of writing.This opening clearly to us coveys the speech associated with Horror elements and provides an intriguing start to the film as well as already introducing the emotive tension.It also allows the audience to immediately engage with the film and to allow individual perception as to what is happening.

Frame2.

The consequential effect of titles in the film where achieved by alternating which side they were placed on , ensuring that it switched from each slide that it was on, whilst making sure that it wouldn't distract the reader from the footage which was on screen so we had to choose in appropriation in regards to the size. 

As well as size appropriation the location of this shot was chosen carefully to convey the ambiguity and surrealism of Hannah's character clearly showing the audience this conceptualisation.Filmed in Charley's dining room, we created the scene by ensuring that we shut the curtains as well as dimming the lights to display the theme of mystery within this frame. The props used enabled the inclusion of an easel and a pencil as Hannah "The Creator" is sketching a premonition  of what is about to happen in the future. Camera work had the usage of a  Zoom in  that had transcended from an Over-the-shoulder shot before concluding with a close up. This was both on the page and the lexis "Its coming.." We found that despite the implied simplicity of the shot the actuality of holding the camera steady proved very difficult ( though this could be due to being one of the first shots we had ever compiled). The darkness of the lighting is also extremely effective as it clearly suggests to the audience that  not all is quite right in this seemlessly innocent setting. Hannah's character is introduced in a traditional introduction which is reserved for the villains- a frame which entails obscurity as she is wearing all black clothing as well as being hidden by her hair, which clearly blended in, by camouflaging her within the background. For the writing upon the easel i think we should entail a voice recording of someone scratching hard on a piece of paper, so that it appears to the audience that Hannah ( The creator) is stemming her frustration onto paper, allowing the pencil to communicate to the audience what is about to happen.

Frame 3.

This particular shot entails the usage of the Rule of thirds ( as did the previous shot) which really helps to allow the audience to focus on the most significant areas of the frame. Again this was shot in the location of Charley's house but this time in her bedroom, to represent that I am asleep without any pragmatical assumptions having to take place.We also show clearly that I'm dreaming through the use of facial expressions which represent my feelings of animosity as to what is happening , as well as my movements which are jerky as though I am experiencing a nightmare. One of the key mise-en scene elements was the lighting as we had to have an accurate reproduction of someone being asleep, though one of the problems was maintaining how dark the lighting should be .To resolve this we entailed the usage of dimming the lights to appropriate  the atmosphere and to set the tone of the scene. Towards the end of this clip we incoperated a fade in of our music soundtrack titled ' The haunted Music box'  to show that the dream sequence is about to happen and because the music is quite eerie, it makes the audience wonder as to what is about to occur.

As an additional note the font/ written lexis/size/position of the text has been changed since we screenshot these particular sides so we shall upload these at a later date.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OwwiRSy6os&feature=player_detailpage


Frame 4.

The setting for this frame has been specifically tailored to express the seclusion and barbarity of the dream sequence through the use of the uncut wild grass which suggests that the dream is disorderly as well as giving the feeling of being untamed. Predominantly the focal point of the frame is essentially my character, shown through the use of the centered high angle shot but we feel that the environmental features add extra emphasis.This shot has been edited to black and white to clearly express both horror stylistic conventions as well as contrasting against the latter shots, which we feel is really effective. Another important aspect is the use of costume which are fully grey pyjamas, bare feet (to tie in with the setting) and curly dishevelled hair to express that I have been asleep. I also think that the positioning of the character is clearly identifiable with a victim who is helpless and inferior through the hunched postion, legs clenched as well as the obscurity of my face. For me i believe this is a traditional representation of victims and we are therfore following traditional conventions of a horror with our own little twist. 

A frame from the Blair Witch project
similuar to my frame

Frame 5.

The location for this frame is the same as the latter before it to diplay continuity editing as well as elements of Mise-on-scene. Within this shot i feel that the Props in this Frame are the most influential as they provide a sense of ambiguity as well as the positioning of the camera behind her.Zoe is wearing  a homemade cape of raw yellow/ green fabric interspersed with holes and ragged edges to signify her animalistic characterisation. However this creation of costume was done before we decided to entail the usage of black and white so that it would blend in with the background and becoming more in-conspicuous.

The Rule of thirds is not used once again to draw your attention to the scenery as effecively we are providing specific emphasis on the rural nature of the environement. Our representation of Zoe is a subvertation against traditionally tailored horror roles as we felt that we wanted to enforce the hybrid genre, due to it being something which is rarely attempted. The postioning of  Zoe is done to provide ambigity and surrealism as her back is facing the audience, as well as being hunched over, as though she is ready to pounce and again is enforcing her animal-like personilisation.

Frame 6.

I really like this shot as the framing is excellent and for the first time displays her true identity , capturing the intensity of her gaze tinted with arrogance which may suggest that she has found my hiding place.As you can determine form this shot the postioning is again hunched over grappling in the grass, perhaps signifying to the audience that she is searching for something.Once again this frame is set in the long grass, which has  proved a very useful tool as well as enabling the provision of giving us a large frequency of usable shots. In terms of costume the cape was used once again with the hood up for Mise-on-scene, bu the fact that her face is n longer hidden expresses that she is revealing her true form to me to evoke fear. Because Zoe was so low on the ground our orginal midshot can probably be considered as a form of her closeup due to the specific angling of the camera. The frame uses Rule of thirds to focus onto character reactions as is evidential by this shot and can perhaps be classed as fantasy genre at this particular point as she does not look like a tradtional villan and the cape perhaps gives a sense of the supernatural.

Frame 7.

Setting for this frame is made to look as if i have traveled for some distance as it is a different location to the latter frames- clearly shown by the sparsity of the grass as well as the twigs. The costume uses rugged old hiking boots, with a possible inclination that there is animals fur on the top of them, which could suggest that it is not set inh modern society. Before this shot the camera takes the foot steps from a low angle  to clearly represent the dominance of the power that she holds over me. This was especially hard even when using a tripod, to make the shot seem smooth as when turned the tripod often squeaked.The frame was enabled to  stop just as Zoe's foot smashes down onto the branches to show that nothing can stand in the way of this monster. 

Frame 8.

This shot has been captured from a low angle, to demonstrate the dominance of Zoe's character and how the power increases as the film goes on. The frame has been stopped abruptly just as Zoe grabs for the camera,to display her animalistic nature as she pounces on her prey . The natural lighting of the scene proved  extremely effective when transferred to black and white, as it makes the background seem as though  it is glowing, contrasting against the sinster framing/mise-en-scene of Zoe. The camera also entails the  useage of a  mid-shot to show both  the actions surrounding the character as well as the emotional facial expressions . This also sets the last scene up as well as I turn and see before running away in sheer family terror. For me the focal point of the frame is positioning of the hand which seems almost clawed and very barbaric. It also reinforces her desire for catching her prey- me.

Another similua frame with this horror character
seemingly norml asides from being in the tree

Frame 9.

This frame is taken from one of the final scenes of the film, as my character desperately  and futilly tries to escape from Zoe as she runs in heavy pursuit.Costume in terms of  Mise-on-scene  elements is the same as previous : the same PJ's, flowing curly  hair and little makeup merely used to accentuate the intensity of my gaze, extremely apparent within this shot as well as evidenced through the use of positioning. This frame shows off the location well, showing is rugged appearance. I am off center to make the shot  appear more intriguing as well as essentially highlighting the isolation and seclusion which i am in. This is further reinforced by the gathering of trees.This transcends well from the previous frames as it looks like she is looking back towards Zoe which also correlates with the next frame of Zoe's feet, making it seem as though she is coming towards me. The mid-shot suits the horror conventions very well as it conveys action and facial expressions in a manner whcih expresses the sigificacance. Fade effects have been used as transitions between the dream sequence to differentiate from the other secenes as well as maintaining fluidity , making it seem more dreamlike. The music slowly begins to fade out here, as well as the contrast darkening to show that it is near the end of the film.

Tuesday 29th March 2011:After school voiceovers/ editing/ cuttin footage:

Within this time scale of 1 hour and 45 minutes we carried out a range of assorted activities, which we felt needed to be done. Whilst Charley and Hannah were editing, Me and Zoe decided to film several voice overs of both dialogue and diegetic sound. We began by whispering in unison it's coming in a sinister, spine tingling way, the aim being to set your teeth on edge and increase the tension. Next we tried out the usage of saying quietly ' Puppet Strings' again in unison( ensuring that seemed like one voice not two as both me and Zoe did it together in synchronization) in a way which seemed quite childish, as if one was merely observing an occurrence, with indifference in our tone. We also tried out raggedy breathing that wasn't overly exaggerated as despite the use of surrealism within the context we still wanted a source of realism to contrast against it as well as showing that we can incorporate both elements.We then recorded another voice over of me pleading stop incessantly which can be used when I am hunched over, as though i can't bear the pain and frustration. We could experiment in audio levels within this voice over by altering both the tempo and the pace. Finally we recorded the words ' I'm watching you' breathily again using a sinister mannerism, to convey a sense of a cliffhanger as the audience are not sure as to what is going to happen next, which makes the film seem more engaging , allowing them to perceive their own type of ending . We then gave the recorded footage to the other 2 and amde the following changes/ cuts:

1. We cut the pan around me finally due to the jerkiness of the filming, as well as the inproportion of the framing placement
2. Entailed the usage of the editing effects- fade in and fade out( placed between the shot of me sleeping and the scene when I am on the log)
3. Cut the abrupt shot when my head is covered with flowers and I quickly raise my head up
4. Lowered the pitch of the soundtrack slightly as the pitch was exceedingly high  and squeaky, making it seem as though it was bad audio
5. Cut several of the shots which had entailed me clutching the tree ( when i was in front of the tree) as you could see the school building in the shot
6. Uploaded the sounds and worked out which one we wanted to keep which was the dialogue ' Im watching you', placed at the end of the footage with the title sequence appears again to diplay a sense of a cliffhanger
7. Cut down the footage so that it would approximate to the exact amount enabled : 2 minutes

Monday 28th March 2011 : Miss Martin 3rd lesson

During this period we compiled a list of delegation, by splitting up into pairs: Me and Charley/ Zoe and Hannah, in which different activities where enforced. Me and Charley decided that we would do last minute filming ( as there were still several shots of me which needed to done) whilst Hannah  and Zoe did editing as well as taking several screen shots in preparation for the evaluative tasks. Me and Charley began by using the same location as we had done for Zoe although incorporating shots which were essentially the opposite context of Zoe, due to the differential purpose of invoking varying characteristics for both of our characters: for me- innocence and purity/ Zoe- barbarity and malevolence.Predominantly we endeavored to show a use of creative and relevant shots which would make the watchers feel compassion at my state. First off we filmed me crawling frantically in the grass as though I was trying to get away from Zoe, where I ended up stumbling to show the fear which is making me clumsy . This was done using Zoom/Reverse Zoom to get the full impact of the emotions ( disparity, despair,longing) running through my mind.
Our next shot was filmed several times from different angles : me running through a shallow stream , full of dirty leaves to show the transformation from innocence to barbarity. Firstly we tried a long shot where you could only see my legs to give a sense of ambiguity as well as increasing the pace of the film, as the whole impetus of this film is running from the unknown as well as attempting to keep childhood purity, by not getting tainted by evil. We also tried this using a centered shot to display that I am the focal point of the frame as well as a high angle shot essentially displaying the vulnerability of my character. Next to the stream there is a barbed wire fence so we decided to incorporate a shot of me leaping onto the cracked mud surface, before grasping the barbed wire fence, desperately trying to escape but failing to do so as i slowly succumb to giving up, gradually sliding down. This was filmed using an over the shoulder shot and was filmed twice. We then tried a shot which we had done with Zoe: a closeup of me behind a leafless hedge with my head poking through the gap again to emphasize the recurring theme that I am either hiding or escaping. We also tried this where i was ripping apart the twigs to again show my struggle as i attempt to squeeze through the gap using an over the shoulder shot. I then thought that we should have a shot which incorporates some of the school woodland, so we went to the log ( next to the tennis court) and filmed a mid shot of me hunched over the log with my hands resting against it, slowly exhaling as I get my breath back, flowers in my hair ( to keep the ongoing theme of being at one with nature and the purity that goes with it) my hair draped over my face to convey surrealism , allowing the watcher to try and work out who it is. We then used a different location which was a small piece of shrubbery which would be excellent for hiding in. Firstly we filmed me hiding under a canopy of leaves using a canted angle shot, almost seeming as though it was a mask covering my face as i cant show my true identity because otherwise i will be caught. Next we tried several experimental shots of me clutching the tree frantically, almost in puzzlement, my profile turned to the side, so you can only see half my face, still obscuring my identity , almost as though i was a puzzle to be solved. We then tried a behind shot of me clutching the tree which quickly transcended into a shot of me looking into space as i am worried as to what is about to happen, ensuring i have an appearance of both intensity and apprehension. Within this shot is a Field and me surrounded by shrubbery- almost as though i am closed in and there is nowhere to hide. I then quickly look down , look at the tree and slowly ( exaggerating my movements slightly) bring my head to the front, trying to find out where Zoe is. Next we filmed another shot of obscurity where I am cross legged in the long ,winding grass, my head hunched over with flowers, before i finally rip the grass up and place it into a bundle in the middle of my palm, feeling it roughly, This was done using a standardised high angle shot to signify how insignificant i am as well as representing the loss of my security.   

An unfortunate incident

Unfortunately due to unpredictable circumstances we had received a major setback in terms of finishing our film , as I was taken very ill for a week, resulting in certain elements not being completed until very late. In reality if this had not happened we could have had more time to add additional footage, as well as the input of more complex editing effects and transitions etc. This of course will be explained of course in more detail within the evaluation task , but this is just a brief outline to say that we have not had as much time as we would have liked, but this is something which we will have to put up with and hopefully bring some of this wisdom into year 13 media next year. During the time I was taken ill the group did not take notes ( as usually I am the one who is delegated with this role) but they briefly explained as to what they had fulfilled during the time I was away. These included the following:

• The most recent footage we had done ( Zoe's scenes) were put into black and white
• Contrast levels were darkened
• The soundtrack was added in
• Footage was cut down to length in appropriation
• The Working Titles sequence was added in

As  you can see there was still alot of work to still be done, so I was extremely panicked that we were not going to be able to enable full completion of our film to the best of our ability, but I was not allowed in til the following Friday at least( hospital orders). However today we have managed to complete our film on a basic level which I'm not sure whether I feel is enough to secure a high grade but there is not much we are able to do at this point, though Zoe has 3rd free and we've agreed that we will go over it break and lunch time. Also if our sociology teacher allows us to have an unscheduled hour for media( Me, Charley and Hannah have quadruple sociology then Media) then this would be extremely beneficial and would give us a sense of reassurance and confidence.

Filming: 17th March 2011- Me, Hannah and Zoe

Some editing screengrabs

 In contrast to our other filming session on Tuesday, today exceeded all of our expectations as we really experimented in a creative way, allowing our imaginations to think up ideas which are completely surrealistic in the sense that we really went beyond our comfort zones. However there was one small setback as i seem to have misplaced part of my costume , so if I'm not able to locate it by tomorrow then we should think about re filming everything, despite the brief period which we have to complete our work in. In terms of location today we used the school field which was used previously, but a differential segment then before, in fact it was almost as if we saw it through new eyes which will be evidenced later on in the blog. Firstly we moved to the edge of the field which luckily has a rundown ditch ( i must remember to screen shot this and then talk about in detail) with little trickles of muddy water interspersed with fallen leaves, rough slabs and thorny brambles which is excellent for the disposition of Zoe's character. We began by experimenting different techniques (before allowing the cameras to roll), with our desired primary shot being Zoe leaping over the ditch on to the hilly ground ( almost as though she was a cat) , once landed raising her head , before pulling her hood over her head and then lowering her head again, almost as though she is shying away from the dominance of her role ( though this of course is just an act to fool the audience). In terms of Mise-en-scene aspects we dictated facial expressions which Zoe should intimidate, fundamentally moody with an evil twist, by increasing the intensity of her gaze to make the watchers uncomfortable. Taking these factors into account we tried it out ( not with the camera) and i put myself in an eyeline match by crouching down to her level , to allow the best viewing. It was definitely a good idea and Zoe played her part well but we had to ensure that there was a fine line between exaggeration and naturalisation as we didn't want to overplay her role.We then tried a canted angle ( still in terms of experimentation) which looked superb and was definitely an angle which really captured the evil intensity of her gaze as though she is warning me that she is coming after me, as she looks directly at the camera. Once she lands in the grass i thought it would be a good idea if she rips the grass and throws it in the air to show the animalistic personality that she has. I then looked at the ditch and noticed that there where dirty white stone slabs next to throns which was asthetically terrifying in a sense as i had the perfect idea to accompany it. Zoe is hunched down on the slabs looking down at the ditch to display ambiguity ( eyeline match) and as i clap ( after 3 seconds) she abruptly looks up with me in the background is if she has sensed that im her. Perhaps if we use fast paced editing e.g. This shot quickly transcends into a captured shot which evokes innocence and me oblivious to what is going on.. We filmed this several times so that at least we have several shots to choose from ( all completely variating to the others). The first was a close-up, centered shot which looked fairly pleaseable althoug i prefered Hannah's second shot which was a canted angle capturing the blank look of zoes expression , but again really making Zoes eyes stand out against the pale pallor of her face( she had false eyelashes on and eyeliner so it really gave extreme definition as well as pale pink lips). We then returned back to the ditch shot ( Zoe jumping over) using a wide shot to incoperate backgound as well as Zoe ,to give the audience an idea of the surroundings. She leapt over the ditch slinkily, paused for a moment , put her hood up, before facing the camera  and crawling through the grass, gripping hard to show the level of her anger, inferring to the audience that something isnt quite right here. The best thing to do in this shot is to really enhance the sound of her gripping the grass as well , though the camera we used( and tripod) was excellent as it captured background sound which made a faint buzzing which actually works quite well. I then looked over where there was a depression in the field and asked Zoe to stand in it where she noticed a bushy clump of leaves and suggested that we could have a shot of her opening it out as if facinated in what she sees. Hannah played around with the camera and decided to have a closeup which just capture her face and not her body.I think Hannah did a brillant job of this and i felt that this was one of the best shots in the film in terms of really capturing something that is so naturalsitic yet abstract at the same time. Next to this was a long brambly hedge, which if you looked closely was a tiny clearing behind it. So i asked Zoe if she could go behind the hedge and then peer out of the hedge clearing. I wasnt sure how it would turn out but it actually looked very effective as Hannah focused the camera into the hedge by using a closeup. Perhaps here the music could subside slightly to a lower audio level to suggest that everything will be just fine. Zoe then tried a shot whuich entailed an extreme closeup of her mouth  bared in a snarl/grimace both in sunny region and a shadowy area. It turned out that the sunny one looked better and you could physically hear the cruch of her teeth as she clamps them together. Even so artificially enhanced sound may be useful on here. Walking around the hedge we noticed a clump of branches bare of leaves so i suggested that we should have a mid thigh shot of Zoe stamping on the branch. So Hannah said that we should have an empty scene first ( as in Zoe walks in and then clamps her foot on the branch). This was tried several times as it was actually a quite hard shot to get right despite the simplicity of the frame. The first few times looked a bit stiff and just a bit random so i thought that Zoe could walk up to the branch, lift her foot up and pause before stamping on the branch furiously so it snaps slightly ( with Hannah zooming in). I then looked around and saw freshly cut grass in a budle and that perhaps Zoe could be scrabbling in the grass frantically before throwing it in the air. We tried this using a high angle shot and it looked very effective as it's almost as though she is looking for something but we dont know what. We could perhaps try tweaking the soundtrack at this point by mixing it faster and more high pitched. Zoe then suggested we go to the front of the school as there was a segment closed off by a fence which had a ring of daffidols around a tree. Firstly we had tilted shot with alignment upwards towards Zoe hanging in the tree poking her head and looking out to the floor, hunched up uncomfortably. We tried this several ways which included:

1. Zoe peeking out with her head slightly at an angle ( tilted to the left)
2. hung upside down (  though this got the building in the shot)
3. Camera looking up at Zoe ( with her legs swinging freely) as she fluidly grabs at the camera and then slowly clenches her fist( preferred shot)

Our final shot i thought of was zoe with the daffidiol clamped in her mouth with ends hanging out the sides , biting down on it before using her fingers to rip it into two seperate parts. This was done using an extreme close-up.

After school filming: field location Tuesday 15th March

This was quite an interesting experience today although unfortunately we didn't have the sufficient time that we needed due to the battery of the camera running out. However we were really pleased as we mastered the usage of the tripod and although we haven't been able to look at our current filmed footage ( due to this inconvenience that we faced) we tried out as many angles as we could with the short period that we did have.As I entered the field the first thing i noticed was that in the center was a ring of trees bare of leaves and gnarled which really gave me the sense of mythology- it seemed so mysterious. However when researched it simply said that it these are purely coincidental and are known as a grove. What i also liked about this particular area of our location was that as if by contrast was a spattering of Daffodils in full bloom which would perhaps provide a sense of false security as well as a secluded area of brambles which were extremely sharp and deadly. Perhaps we could have a juxtaposition shot of Zoe hiding behind the brambles with a shot of me sniffing daffodils looking peacefully serene and at one with nature- to show the contrast between the two characters dispositions. 
Our first shot entailed the usage of  a high angle of me surrounded by the ring of trees, looking around in wonderment with childlike tendencies to show the immaturity of my personality.Maybe we can have a chorus of birds in the background ( non-diegetic sound but not appearence) to demonstrate my isolation as im completely lost in the wilderness. Is there perhaps another way we can symbolise the desolation that im facing ? I may research ways of doing this later if i have enough time.
We also captured an extreme closeup of the petal/ closeup of the flower itself to show a reflection of purity ,serenity and a glimmer of hope as if im wishing for rescue.
Due to the battery loss we had to stop our filming which was really unfortunate as we didnt capture many shots but we did generate a great deal of ideas which we may wish to incorperate in our later stages of filming. These are the inclusion of the following:

• Low point of veiw angle shot of Zoe swinging her legs in the tree to give the audience a false sense of security by implying that she isnt a sinsister, evil character ( though she is) but also to display her dominance over me if coupled with a high angle shot of me to demonstrate my inferiority and vunerability. The lighting here could be given a higher contrast( as in lighter than many of the other frames) with  the soundtrack increasing in tempo the more she swings her legs to show that something bad is about to happen. Perhaps we could also make the music seem more jagged and erractic, by tweaking the audio levels or i could research a program which entails the usage of tweaking these functions.
• Me in the background sniffing daffidols with two daffidols in the foreground.At this point we could enhance the sound of background noises to give a naturalistic effect, subverting against the surrealistic narrative which we have entailed. If we go on YouTube and search these noise effects , convert them and then apply them to certain areas of our film- this will again seem more realistic.
• Me behind a withered tree as if im playing peek- a boo ( again to display the childishness of my disposition and how im exposed to vunerability as im not sure as to what is occuring. If we use this then we will need quick, snappy shots as a symbolisation  of the severity of the events  taking place.
• An over the shoulder shot of me as i'v realised that Zoe is lurking in the shadows, to show me frozen in shock as i think that i am secure in this desolate wilderness.

Editing again: Miss Martin

In Monday's  lesson I was only here for half an hour due to an an appointment so we only fulfilled a few tasks. First of all me and Hannah compared the original footage to the footage that we edited the other day,ensuring that we pointed out what shots we had deducted and what we needed to re film to which the group had agreed in unison , which made our job of conviction very simplistic. The group suggested that Tuesday and Wednesday ( after school) would be ideal for filming as realistically we need to finish all our filming in order to edit the new footage which we have. However we decided that we would take a break Wednesday due to me being on an educational trip for another subject and a large majority of the shots are dominated by my character. Although Thursday I could do editing for 3 periods seeing as the first 3 lessons are free, this way we can speed up the process especially due to the announcement that we have less time then we initially thought- our deadline is now the 28th May.Now I'm really worried as to the state of our film especially as we have to re film so much of our piece and although we have still got 12 days left that is not alot seeing as it took so long in the first place. Also we want our film to look as professional as possible to avoid initially a bad grade and embarrassment as well . Next we checked the weather updates for the week to see the types of weather which were to take place and founded that on Tuesday unfortunately it is sunny with clouds subverting our previous frames which entailed the use of wind. So if there is no wind available on these days then this will be a violation of match on action. However on Thursday we found the following:    

Morning
Overcast
min 1°C windchill -3°C
max 5°C windchill 1°C
Moderate winds from north

Afternoon

Sunny
min 5°C windchill 1°C
max 13°C windchill 12°C
Light airs from north

Evening

Cloud veils
min 9°C windchill 6°C
max 13°C windchill 12°C
Light airs from northwest

Night

Sunny
min 5°C windchill 1°C
max 10°C windchill 9°C
Moderate winds from west

So Thursday might be a quite good day to film but we all really liked the idea of having a day which initiated rain and clouds as it would give it a fresh new take on our film . Despite this idea the weather forecast says that their wont be any showers untill Friday 25th March and Saturday 26 March which realistically does not leave us enough time as on the Monday following our film has to be completed.

Friday 25th March

Showers or intermittent rain
min 5°C windchill 0°C
max 12°C windchill 9°C
Moderate winds from east

 

Saturday 26th March

Showers or intermittent rain
min 5°C windchill 1°C
max 11°C windchill 7°C
Moderate winds from south

 

In regards to this upcoming Friday me and Zoe have a free lesson last and I also have a free lesson 1st so this may be a good time to seize the oppurtunity of editing , whilst we still have the resources available and perhaps after school as well although im not sure as to whether this will take place.

 

Charley also had an excellent ideal which is extremly creative and abstract:

Zoe behind an old withered tree, scored with age (closeup of bark first to provide implicature) with Zoes nails ( painted with Black nail polish to give a sense of morbidity and her sinister, untrustworthy character) scratching down the tree ( caked with mud though not an excessive amount). Perhaps we can enhance the sound of her scraping the bark by either getting a clip of youtube and then converting it or make the sound ourselves and then play with the audio levels e.g. putting different levels on.

 

She also suggested that rather than use Waterfields or the 'meadows'  we could use the park by her house which has a small unruly field behind it conveying a sense of barbarity and disrepair.

 

 

 

 

Media editing: After school

After school yesterday me and Hannah did some editing, coming up with some shocking discoveries which has really left us feeling panicked considering we have only now got 19 days left ( all of which will be discussed later within this blog).We began by carefully analysing our current clip realising that ( as i stressed from the start), alot of our footage desperately needs to be re filmed as well as generally correcting all the mistakes we can do without having to replace shots.We started by the usage of the fade in within the primary fame which already ensured that the film was atheistically accessible. Then i noted ( whilst we were carefully critiquing the clip) , that the scarlet red contrast used on the last frame of the bear, was too dark a shade in hue- though the camerawork within this shot to be fair was quite good.Perhaps if we revert it back to it's original contrast it would A. look more realistic and B. less blurry with better quality of footage.We also noticed that for some unforeseeable reason ( where shots had been cut out) random flashes of lights kept appearing in the following frames:

1. Both the last and 2nd to last frame
2. Between the two easels where Hannah is drawing
3. A red flash in the dream sequence both in the middle and the end
4. A flash where i sit down ( very quick and thus an excessive use of a shot )

As you can see by the evidence displayed here, there was and still is alot of faults within our film retrospect, which should be high in our priority list to organize. What i deeply regret is that we filmed so early that we should have had plenty of time to re film certain frames and yet didn't use our time wisely. Or rather i was told when saying this very thing , that we had plenty of footage but like me and Hannah agreed it's quality not quantity that is important, the harsh reality being that our film is proving quite problematic with the inclusion of several factors:

1. Shaky camera movements when filming the sleeping scene and certain elements of the dream sequence, such as the panning movement around me ( we should change this to tracking instead as well re filming it) where I'm sitting in the grass and the camera A. cuts half of my head off and B. doesen't put me in the center of the frame despite me being the supposed focal point within the frame and a cape shot where Zoe's head gets cut off screen ( as you can see inadequate framing)
2. Violation of match- on action in the following shots:A particular easel frame where Hannah is drawing and the next frame has her hand off the page which is extremely inappropriate and doe's not look good for the examiner, a shot where the camera walks round Zoe and then randomly cuts to a shot using both a different angle and placement as she is at the side, at 1minute 11seconds 14ms my position changes from a wide shot to a side angle depsite the importance of me being in the same position
3. Bad use of Jump cuts- where my hair is blowing wildly in the wind ( this has been cut)and it jumps backwards then forwards/ where the camera rotates around the bear ( also cut)
4. Bad use of zoom- 5 Seconds into the zoom it stops halfway for a second and then continues ( been cut)
5. inappropriation of Mise-en-scene: one particular frame with me and Zoe in it needs to be filmed again as you can visibly see the school tennis court and pylon( which is clearly illustrating to the examiner that it has been filmed at school subverting our hopes of evoking seclusion and the wilderness) and shots which has visibilty of me wearing a black polo shirt which is not apparent in other shots
6. we also need to do the following:
1.  refilm the running sequence as it jumps back by mistake
2. check our primary footage
3. film me collasping in the grass
4. Change some of the narrative
5. Add some dialogue to our film though minimal in its quantity
6. Perhaps use Waterfields instead of the school field( as suggested by Hannah) as it shows barbarity and the sense of isolation

We now have 1minute 19 seconds of footage so evidentially there is still plenty of space to refilm frames/ add new footage. As well as this we looked at effects for texts by double clicking which came up with fades ( fade in/ fade out/ roll/ crawl options/ Timing/ frames  and pre roll).

animatic

This is our animatic which does not reflect our actual piece as we have changed a great deal of our overall narrative as well as other elements but it is useful for showing the transformation between this an our final finished product. However certain frames within this animatic has been used within our film Puppet Strings but have been tweaked due to new ideals ect.

Media editing: Mr Oswick coursework help

As Mr Oswick has been delegating the last few lessons to coursework( due to the upcoming finality of the deadline), he decided to start off his lesson ( yesterday) by giving us handouts of the film production mark scheme, to adjudicate what band ( 1,2,3 or 4) we thought our film would fall into taking into account the following:
Band 1(0-23marks)
Work for main task is possibly incomplete with little evidence in the work of the creative use of any of the relevant technical skills such as:

1. Holding a shot steady when appropriate
2. Using a variety of shot distances as appropriate
3. Framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate
4. Shooting material appropriate to the task set
5. Selecting Mise-en-scene including lighting, colour, figure, objects and setting
6. Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer
7. Using varied shot transitions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set
8. using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set
9. Using titles appropriately

Band 2 ( 24-35 marks)
Evidence of a basic level ability in the creative use in some of the technical skills mentioned
Band 3 (36-47 marks)
Evidence of proficiency in the creative use of  many of the skills
Band 4 ( 48-60 marks)
Evidence of excellence in the creative use of most of the technical skills

Initially we thought that our film would fall into the top end of band 2/ low end of band three  as we felt we had covered most of the technical skills mentioned. However when Sir showed us last years year 12's I instantly got given a whole new perspective. Our task was to analyse these 3 videos against the mark scheme ( as well as our own knowledge), appropriating  the mark we felt that they had got. The first film was named Knock Knock a Horror/ Thriller genre film about this person being followed by a creepy guy in a mask without realising it. What i liked about this video was the relation of the title to the action taking place , especially the smeary effect of the hand pressed up against the frosty glass door. I also felt that they had good use of non-diegetic sound ( in terms of the soundtrack) as it conveyed a sense of despair and paranoia and i felt they really chose it well. However i did find that unfortunately there were more critisms to make then evoking positivity , which included the following:

1. Non- usage of titles ( in terms of character names )
2. Little variation in the camera angles used
3. Awkward framing of shots that sometimes had no relevance
4. Although the sountrack was good they didnt sequence it together in accordance to the film as halfway through the music stopped in a manner which suggests it wasnt cut together very well
5. The narrative was often stiff in its mannerisms and presentation giving the audience a sense of perplexion in a negative respect as although horror films are meant to challenge the audience ; it should be done in appropriation

For this video i gave it a 34 out of 60 but it actually turned out to be a 32, with the boys recieving poor grades for the theoretical side of it e.g. 5 and a 7 out of 10 for research and planning .The next video Reconnaissance was absolutely phenomenal in contrast despite the sheer simplicity of the film, incooperating the following technical skills:

1. The usage of relevance in terms of the titles appearing alongside the characters through the transitory of a jump cut of them in action
2. Smooth transitions alongside the excellence of the camera work-angles /composition/movement
3. Variation of diverse locations- the woods and the train
4. Excellent quality of picture with clear resolution and high defintion
5. Good use of editing such as fades , jump cuts and ellision
6. Clear appropriation in all aspects of Mise-en-scene

In fact i would only make a few critisisms which would be to say that the train crash at the end ( founded footage) although relevant didn't quite sequence together properly  and also i would suggest going out of their comfort zone by trying out unusual shots to show they can push boundaries and increase complexity.I gave this a mark of 48 but we found out that it got 47 instead( top end of band 3) with 18 in research and planning. I think in total they got 83 out of 100 which is an A overall.
The final video Queen B was quite intriguing( as well as being one of our friends) as unlike the latter video it really pushed the boundaries especially within the editing side of it , being quite clever in it's approach. This included:

1. Montage of snap shots similur to a collage of pictures or a photoshoot
2. Good use of mise-en-scene which showed relevance to location and narration
3. Variation of location- school and a party
4. Sophisticated use of angles. One clever shot was where two cameras where used: one inside a locker and the other behind the girl who was opening her locker

However it did seem as though there were too many things going on at once but i think it was just just because they were trying to include many elements of sophistication. For this i gave it a grade of 45 but it actually got 46.

Editing Miss Martin: Animatic storyboard/effects/delegation

Yesterday in Miss Martin's lesson we decided to create a guideline of what we needed to do most significantly within the lesson, primarily me saying that we desperately need to complete the animatic as well as the incorporation of transitions , to allow easy accessibility. Firstly we watched our animatic where we realised that we only had 30 seconds of drawings but the material we did have i felt was too lengthy in it's composition. I suggested that we should cut them down to appropriate length as well as the inclusion of more drawings, so that it is a realistic representation of our own film. However the group disagreed, stating that it does not have to be an exact scale replica of our final piece. We then ordered it into the correct positions as well as setting properties in the PC files and folders. After this we enabled the use of different transitions to see which we felt was simplistic yet effective in it's usage which included the following:

• Shear- Similar to Smear, a blurry effect which transcends subtly into the next frame
• Smear- Blurs the picture out and looks effective on certain slides but not good for excessive use 
• Roll-Looks cool but probably inappropriate  
• Shake- Could be used in certain frames to depict disruption but overuse would result in the audience concentrating more on effects than actions
• Wave- I personally disliked this effect as it seemed extremely tacky to me and it doesn't follow the conventional professionalism within effects
• Zoom- simple and direct, with the right incorporation it could work really well

Charley liked both Zoom and Wave the best but i believe that Wave would not not be the best effect to use as like i said earlier we want our film to look professionalised following the traditional discourse of a movie. However i am open to new ideas and experimentation's but at this stage of the film's augmentation we need to think realistically and be very critical as to what makes the cut and what doesn't. In the sleeping scene we used Zoom which appeared to evoke some relevance to our theme but did not work in the dream sequence, so Charley used the inclusion of Wave with Shake to show disruption of character . However as Hannah quite rightly said we don't want to many effects at once as it's better in some cases to use the theme of simplicity, with the film evoking the right message than too many effects, making the film look messy and chaotic in a negative manner.I then had a thought and decided that we should start doing after school editing sessions after school as we only have 20 DAYS to complete our work , so I compiled a timetable with the inclusion of dates,  people present and delegation of roles which included the following:

-Thursday 10th March ( Yesterday) Me and Hannah ( Zoe had to do the school fashion parade whilst Charley had to complete coursework for another subject) Roles: Me- note taking and ideas/suggestions Hannah- Editing and ideas
- Monday 14th March( All of us) Zoe - editing/ ideas, Charley- ideas, Hannah- analyser( in terms of critical feedback) and Me- note taker and ideas
Tuesday - Hannah/ Zoe/Me : Me- editing and ideas, Zoe- note taking and ideas and Hannah-Researcher
Wednesday-( All of us) Charley- editing, Zoe- feedback, Hannah- entailing comparison to other other films, Me- note taking and researcher
As well as these dates , we may do the whole of next week after school( though these dates may be subject to change ) as well as any free periods that we have as it is vital that we complete this assignment to the best of our ability. Moving on, we then showed Hannah the text which had been chosen, with me and Hannah both agreeing that a standardised font such as Times New Roman or Ariel Black font would be more suitable to show the conventions of a true movie. Charley tried out a plain text with shaded effect, compression as well as being stretched out and a reduction of size from 60 down to 51 Ariel Narrow. However this was still wrong for our movie so this time we had a reduction down to size 37 Century Gothic Regular  which already made the film seem more professional despite the minority of the change. Charley also had the idea of when the camera pans around me we should introduce the sentence- filmed by Charley Johnson.

Media editing: Transformational contrasts/ fonts/transitions

In this double lesson Mr Oswick said that we were allowed to continue working on our editing as we have found out that our first deadline is on the 30th March, with our final deadline being the 13th of May which understatedly is a brief period of time in which to complete our project. We started off the lesson by the deduction of all background sound, through the application of  volume clip volume  at - 00dB on our film frames, so we can finally begin to imput the usage of either recorded sound or founded sound next lesson if we either wish to do so or even have enough time to carry out this task. As well as this we could also introduce sounds in terms of background noises( environmental effects e.g. Wind) and characters( e.g. sound of the characters footsteps enhanced by asynchronous/ synchronization ). We also looked at Image control( containing Brightness, Contrast, Hue and Saturation), Motion( Position, Scale and Rotation), Opacity ( Fade in and Fade out) as well as Balance ( Bypass and Balance ). What was intriguing was that there were so many possibilities that we could experiment with , so we adjucated that our first exploration would entail the use of Image Control to improve both the quality and contrast of our frames , to ensure it's not classified as bad filming . The easel scenes resulted in brightness levels of -2.4 with a contrast of 1425, hue of 0.0 and saturation of 1000 . Overall it emphasized the easel in a difinitive manner by giving an asthethic appearence as well as providing the enablement of easy veiwing . Initially in our sleeping frames we used -1.8 brightness, -107.7 contrast with default use of saturation and hue but it seemed quite importinate so we thought that -6.6 brightness alongside the same levels of contrast, making our film seem as though it is using higher quality definition . Next we experimented  on a slide which incooperated a quick flash of light, using brighness of -24.5 and a contrast of 200.0 which allowed the picture to become almost translucent  with saturation of 100.0 .This gave the effect of making the light seem blinding  and piercing, demonstrating perhaps a premonition of my loss of innocence. In the end we decided that a darker picture may look more frightening so we tried brightness of -22.4, contrast of -112.9 , neutral hue and saturation levels of 100.0 which almost gave the feel of a painting as though it was a depiction of altered reality . We really like this method , especially the way it enhanced certain features such as the darkness of my hair, really standing out against the black and white background. For the last 2 frames we used brightness of 36.7 as the previous image control usage proved to ( due to the natural lighting) be futile as it became a differnet hue to the others. However by imputting the number above it now fits the pattern and flows in synchronized rhythm. Moving on from contrasts, we looked at video effects to experiment with the use of text addition which we tried on a new slide. We were quite suprised as to the amount of options  available such as fonts, styles, shadow effects , colour properties ect  but we only had a quick look as we would go back later and check it out. For now however we needed to carry on making changes to the footage, so after further rendering we watched it again, as it is important to veiw your work incessantly due to problems which may occur such as frames being out of sync or violation of Match On Action. One particular frame which stood out was where I'm hunched over in the grass, my back facing the audience with Zoe crouched over in the distance . Interestingly enough the grass in this scene was darker in brightness in Zoe's section than mine to possibly portray the imbalnace as well as arising conflict between our two characters- Good and  Evil. At this point our total time came to 1 minute 50 seconds , so we carried on with task of deducting footage, that dosen't neccessarily flow within our piece. An example of this is where Zoe is marching which abruptly transcends into long regal strides which subverts against Match on action ,so we cut out the 1st section of the frame to see whether it would flow after this transformation. We realised that after watching it again, that it jumped back so in the end we decided to cut the frame out completely, ensuring that we only keep the best footage material.  Whilst we were relaying this I remembered that we needed to take pictures of the props, so Charley suggested that we could take screenshots, primarily starting with Zoe's cape, but i said we needed to have a colour version to give the examiner an idea of material and colour. However the group disagreedbut im sure annotations can work just as well- in the acual blog that is. We then found out that out of 100 marks, 60 were for the filming , which is quite worrying as everything has to be just right. Mr Oswick suggested to the class that if shots aren't right then we should reshoot them as we want to get the best grade possible, though im not sure if that can apply to us as we have put in so much work that it will be hard to relay everything we have done. Charley suggested that if we were to re - film that perhaps we could do the frame where Zoe is lurking in the grass behind me. So her basic idea was to subvert our traditional character placement , having me face the audience with Zoe behind me in the background . Mr Oswick then watched the film and when asked for critisms stated that he wasn't sure as to what was purposely filmed badly and what was just bad filming.. Needless to say this was disparaging feedback but essentially we haven't even applied transitions as such so once we have done this it should look better. Sir commented that we can use timelines to do this referring to the range of fade options using right click.In fact there was even an oppurtunity to use an ellision/ expansion of  time which could be used in conjunction with the synchronization of the control exercised between me and Zoe( being controlled as puppets). Referring back to the fades however we used a fade out in this particular frame, transcending into a fade in on the very last frame. In fact this proved the rigt descion to do as the transitions are much smoother now. We then magnified the timeline to see the pictures so we could continue the application and noticed that the sleeping scenes were still a real problem as the shots are so jumpy which may be a result of the usage of a handheld camera. Zoe said that perhaps we could elongate the scene to smooth over the jumpcuts though im not sure we can be able to do this but we can certainly give it try. She also thought of the ideal of using a shear or smear effect between each bedroom scene to show the laspe of time and predominatly just to show that i am sleeping. I also noted that we need to have the same font throughout where we chose a black and white italic block font, with 3d shadow although now thinking back on it i think films just use a stanford font and we dont want this just to look like an amatuer student film. Whilst we were here we changed the diresction of the shadow , looked at the ghost effect which again looked cool but not nesseraily standard procedure. Zoe also thought that we should alternate the alignment of font right than left and so on .

Editing/ research

We really felt that in this lesson  we used our time efficiently and it was extremely beneficial in completing our tasks which were set for today, as well as additional research and findings.Primitively we began analysing the rendering of our video , checking to see where we needed to make adjustments and experimentations in our sequences ( Luckily the video had successfully rendered which enabled easy veiwing of the video which made it seem as though the sequences were flowing into each other). Primarily we noticed after watching the full clip, that we needed to cut the end frame which entails a bear which is inordinately dark in contrast , as it didn't flow in comparison to the rest of the movie. After we had made this minor adjustment we watched it again from the start , where whilst watching it Zoe had the ideal of having little sections of words or phrases[ appropriate prior to the film] before the main title of ' It's Coming' which we all immensely liked the sound of immeadiately . This is because it could give the audience a sense of solving a puzzle , for example if we had the words ' she's watching you' ( perhaps we can announce it in narrative in a sinister manner or maybe inaudible and abrupt) when i have my back turned in the grass and when she is behind me, the phrase' look behind you' of course these are just quick ideas, so these exact words may not be used and we are not sure whether as to cooperate this ideal or not.  She also thought that if we had ' its coming over the footage as well. Perhaps we can expand on this idea and have it repeated as a whisper throughout the film ( a voiceover?) , increasing in tempo the closer it gets to the end of the film . However im not sure as to if it would seem incoherent, especially since we are using background music anyway but we can try it and see whether it fits. Also Charley thought of having our title sequence at the end which does subvert traditional movie discourse but it could enagage the audiences attention more easily. Maybe when it gets to this section in the film, we could put in a recorded sound of me screaming as the title is apparant, to shows the ultimate possesion of my character. It could also provide a more ambigious ending which is what our film is all about as throughout the film the watchers are constantly having to piece together the narrative, as the implicature is not clear.  She also thought of the  having our names alongside a characters whilst the action is playing, to just go straight into the movie, quickening the pace of our footage as well as clearly identifying who is who. This is because we are all playing characters different to our actual selves so the audience is able to distinguish the differences between all of our roles. As well as this it generally makes our film look more asthetic an dprofessional in it's mannerisisms. We thought that a good place to put them was after the frame where me and Zoe are slung to the side as this provides a sense of dubiety as well as introducing the start of the film.   We also decided on no credits as these are usually used at the end of the film.  We then reffered back to the idea of the old fashioned countdown  but werent sure as to whether it was a form of copyright, so we checked with Mr Oswick and he adjucated that it wasn't.  An imput of a ticking noise of while this countdown is occuring, i think would be excellent as it would synchronize perfectly. Instantly we found one which although different from our previous findings( this one was brown in it's hue instead of black and white) actually had more of an impact as had poor quality due to the static nature of the sequence. However it was very impressive and we really feel that if we can somehow embed it on to Premeire then it would really show that we have pushed boundaries( as at the moment we are not even sure that it is possible to do) Charley stated that instead of using it at the start of the film we could use it to start the dream sequence, to trick the audience into thinking its the end of the film but in fact it's only just began...  I really feel that our groups imput of ideas are very immersive and although we dont use all of the ideas imputted, we do expand on the ideas which is what we need to keep doing, in order to focus completely on our piece.  We then borrowed headphones from Mr Oswick so we could listen to our footage and found that we needed to blank space our background sound ( due to captured shots which actually had immense audiobility of laughing in the background), so we thought that it would be a good idea if we asked  Laura from Year 13 ( a current media student) to show us  how to do it. Whilst we were waiting though we thought we would search in Google: How to edit something from YouTube on to Adobe but unfortunately it came up with invalid results so we decided to move on for now and look at our Youtube favourites which we did in a lesson last year( in terms of music soundracks). Firstly we looked at ' Broken Music Box' which was 1 minute 30 seconds, which we listened to twice and realised that it wasn't extremely relevant prior to our film narrative as it was very harmonic and melodic instead of the sinister dark edged feel we were hoping to invoke.  Next we looked at  ' Haunted Music Box' ( 1 minute 31 seconds)  which on the contrary was  abominal despie being high pitched in it's tone but this made it seem more sinister. The use of the pace within it was profoundly clever as it was slow which like it's namesake seemed haunting and generally gives the audience an indication of the genre. We then listened to the audio of ' Scary Music Box'  that had  a steadier and faster paced rhythm with a mixture of what seemed windchimes and xylophones. Miss gave us valuable advice and said that personally he preferred the latter as she believes that a slower rhythm increases tension more than a faster one as it seems more negatively composed in repsonse. We agreed as we like the overall effect that it gave us, as it really emotionally challenges you, making you think.  Finally we looked at another audio file which was ' The Teddy Bear's picnic' Played on the accordian but after a few seconds of listening we thought we would just use the 'Haunted Music Box' as out of the three we thought this was the most relevant and frightening.  After we asked Miss Martin if it was possible to use as again we werent sure as to whether it was copyright and again we got given the same response that we were able to use it in our footage. Our next step was to download the file ( as well as trying to upload the 'Working Title Cooperate logo' ) by trying the following sites:

• Downloadconvertvideo.com which successfully converted the file but when we tried - file , open with , Media Player it told us that we were not able to perform these actions
• Videotomp4.com
• FLVTO.com
• Onlinevideoconverter.com where we video converted and found out that the website was blocked so we tried the conversion to Mp4 which again didnt work. So for the Working Title Logo we adjucated that we would do that at home. However this did result in the successful conversion of the ' Haunted Music Box but exeeded the power limits. This was not a problem though as we simply switched over headphones( using Charley's instead of Zoe's ) and found that it had transferred over to Adobe.

 A quick thought, we will have to somehow get the music soundtrack to play twice and then cut at the end as we have only gow 1 minute rougly 1 minute and 50 seconds of film footage so we will work this out at a later date .

As a final note here are some things we can try next lesson

• Search white noise as we watched our friends peliminary task which incooperated this method which is similuar to( as  I was disscusing in my last blog) ' The Ring'
• Blank background sound ( which later in the day we asked Laura about this and she showed us a step by step guide to doing it, so hopefully she will email Mr Oswick as we feel that other Media students should be able to access this vital piece of information).
• Perhaps as stated by Hannah, darken the contrast of the dream sequence
• Tweak audio levels in appropriation to the frames
• Finish the animatic( we should try doing this first as it is the most sinificacant)
• Try and add title sequences
• Timeline instead of sceneline and see as to if this has a dramatic effect on our piece

Media editing

Today we carried on editing, which is an extremely lengthy and laborious task, as we didn't realise how much of our work is based on editing( as i thought we would spend more time on filming). Primarily we viewed the film as it is essential to keep previewing it at each developmental stage, even when it is just minor changes that we make. We noticed that as we watched it that there was a particular in between frame separating the sleeping scene and the dream sequence, where it fast forwarded which looked extremely effective as it almost transcends into the next scene. We weren't sure as to whether to delete it( as we thought that it may stand out in a negative manner). However we have decided to keep it as we really do feel that it adds to the surrealistic nature of the film. I'm not sure how we managed to obtain though, so if we wished to use in another part of the film e.g. the end then we would have to tweak a great deal of footage. Perhaps also we can lighten the contrast in this moment or perhaps try and make that little bit black and white to show the transformation, between the two scenes .Another perception that we made was that the sleeping scene was much too lengthy in frequency, meaning that we made huge transformations by cutting large sections of the scene. This mainly was the enrolment of cutting out the bear which we decided to cut out completely as it was too dark in contrast and just looked messy. However we did keep the bear bathed in the red glow as we decided to move it to the end of the footage , thinking that it might look more effective( though I'm not sure if it will be something of an oddity against the dream sequence, but this is something we can explore at a later stage). By putting this frame here it could perhaps show that i am still groggy and unfocused from the nightmare i just had. I also really would like to film one more frame where i wake up and see Zoe standing over me and then the film ends in me screaming- a voice over that we can add later perhaps. After this i think the screen should go fuzzy( if we can do it in a way similar to the screen after the T.V box has gone off). This is also a technique used in The ring but used i the middle of the film. If we make it quite abrupt in comparison then it will invoke more negative emotions and leave it ending on a cliff hanger allowing the audience to make their own assumptions as to what has happened to me. After a secondary viewing of our film Charley noticed a part[ in between me dreaming and Hannah drawing on her easel]  where there was a burst of white light, which although subtle does become apparent if you watch the footage closely as it is rapid in pace. The white light and its position in the sequence could perhaps suggest that it is the loss of my childhood innocence and purity as it is soon to become tainted in the dream sequence. We also moved the second easel frame between me running and me sitting with Zoe in the distance, which almost invokes a premonition as the next frame is exactly the same as it is in the picture .  Finally we tried to render again which we did 3 times as it wasn't working, but hopefully it is now.

Editing/ Animatic storyboard

Fortunately we were given  Mr Oswick's lesson ( due to extenuating circumstances) on Thursday to carry on with our coursework, giving us the opportunity to continue editing as well as attempting to continue the animatic. Firstly we saved our file as an Mpg, which Sir said would render for several minutes, in order to allow us to preview our footage with smooth transitions[ instead of the jolty footage which Adobe acquires]. Whilst this was happening we decided we would try to complete our animatic as we desperately need to get that finished( seeing as we are mostly ahead in other sections of our Media). Our primary thought was that watching the playback showed us that the frame durations were out of sync, due to the excessively long shots, making the ttransitions appear quite erratic- despite us wanting flowing transitions for easy viewing. So we decided that we should cut the shots accordingly prior to the events which are taking place for example: the panning shot around me in the grass was on estimation 16 seconds long(  which if used in the actual piece would bore the audience plus our animatic needs to be a similar reflection to our current footage ). As well as this that shot would need to be shorter to create a snappy approach, quickening the pace of the film.  We also need to add a soundtrack which we feel will convey the theme of our piece the most e.g. it does not have to be an excerpt of our actual film soundtrack but something similar perhaps. Maybe an instrumental solo  which is haunting and melodic or a more sinister, jagged and surreal piece could work just as well. Secondarily we experimented with several factors to see if they would be effective for our piece.This included image control ,where we used rotation transformations to align our frames. However it turned out that it didn't have much of an effect, instead being extremely subtle opposed to our wishes of a dramatic effect - perhaps a sense of irony? Next we tried the opacity fade out alongside the experimentation of the audio mixer balance alignment audio 1-0.0 on Adobe , realising that the mixers were unbalanced thus setting all the audio levels to 0 to maintain equality and to ensure the smoothness of our animatic. Our next job was to look at entertainment edit to start our animatic where we previewed the following: Showtime( use of the primary colour red which would engage the audience), Adventure( a vast green woodland which looked realistic)  and night vision( quite simply a navy blue looking background with enhanced definition). For me i think the latter would suit our film the most as essentially it is about the night, dreams , nightmares, experiencing the unknown. Finally in this lesson we transferred over to YouTube where we looked at old fashioned countdowns to start our movie, making it seem more authentic and old fashioned and discovered an extremely good black and white reel which was actually used in black and white movies, courtesy of WWW. Megaupload.com. We also had a quick look at Working title cooperate and saved it in the process , as its not a famous branded logo, proving quite difficult to find. Next lesson we will continue editing and perhaps start adding non-diegetic sound e.g. the music soundtrack.

editing continued

On our Monday lesson we continued the process of filming which entailed deducting the rest of our footage. Due to Charley not being here ,we decided that all of us would contribute to the session, as we felt that our blog posts were essentially up to date, the fundamental focus being to finish our editing. Primarily we played back our footage, as well as rewinding it afterwards to ensure that transitions were smooth and flowing to display continuity editing. Once we had looked over footage we had realised that our main issues where rooted in the primary scene due to poor lighting, as well as  the absence of smooth footage . This is because we frequently and brutally deducted footage, without taking into account the film as a whole rather than an individual frame. What we must do is experiment with slide transitions( although I'm not sure yet  how to perform this) alongside the completion of the footage, which when done can be perfected through touch ups.  Next we looked at the primary scene in terms of footage deduction, where we started off with the teddy bear and realised that we had too many frames , taken up by this prop- essentially 30  seconds as an estimation. To ensure we captured the essence of the film ( in terms of the teddy bear frames), we looked at two which were filmed under different lighting- one was bathed in a blurry red glow whereas the other had the same blurry quality but was more darker in contrast. We decided that we would keep the first frame as we felt it would invoke more fear as well as providing a contrast towards the rest of the footage in this scene - due to the burst of colour in comparison to the darker frames. Next we went back to the dream sequence where we cut several frames , predominately those which didn't look right in our piece. This included several facial expressions which had been filmed unconvincingly( which may have been a result of the numerous distractions we faced) part of the extreme closeup on my face looking frightened as it was taking up to much footage and finally our end footage, where me and Zoe are in synchronized harmonization( we cut off the very last bit as instead of ending with our heads raised high, our heads are jolted to the side to demonstrate that we are just puppets). We then transferred over to the singular frame where the canvas displays the ominous words' its coming' and decided to place it at the beginning , to immediately show the audience the genre ( fantasy/horror).  Our footage is now at 1 minute and roughly 94 seconds which means that we still need to cut out footage , as we need to put in credits as well as our title( courtesy of working title films). As we had basically finished all of our footage we decided to look at editing effects, transitions and titles quickly to give us a rough idea of what we wanted to put in. For effects we looked at several including: doors, card flip, page curl, shear and smear where we decided that the most proficient and professional was shear , which we accessed from new blue motion blend( adobe premiere software). The reason we thought shear was the others we felt although cool aesthetically, wouldn't actually appear so in our piece. We then looked at transitions and effects( colour) to which we thought were extremely tacky, although i did like the colour use of the line drawing but the others did not think the same. I thought it would look quite good at the beginning to introduce the film , for example when the titles appear, or perhaps at the end where the credits are rolling. Finally we looked at titles and picked out the best ones( though I'm hoping its possible that we can cut our experimentation credits in) and found that we liked music video text, night vision and blue notes credits. I have had a quick idea and thought that perhaps in the beginning we can have an old fashioned 1900's film opening where there is a black and white circle with a countdown inside it ( I'm not sure what its called) transcending into our title, or perhaps the title and then the countdown. This could be accompanied by a ticking clock to represent the passing of time, a key film within our film.