Toby Baring: 2013

Monday, 15 April 2013

Evaluation Task 7 - How effective is the camerawork in my prelim and it is more effective in my thriller and how?

'Looking back at Your Preliminary Task, What do You Feel You Have Learnt in The Progression From it to the Product?'

Camera Work
The complicity of the camerawork in our final media product has developed enormously from the preliminary task. This is mainly due to the hard work we put into planning our final product and due to a developed understanding of how the camera works and how to place the camera to create meaning. The camerawork in our prelim was not particularly effective, during filming we took only a few different types of shot, these being a mid-shot, wide-shot, close-up, extreme close-up and an over the shoulder shot. These shots were quite static and had nothing very different about them and this made our prelim look quite unprofessional.

During filming our prelim we only moved the camera about four times to find more affective frame angles, however in contrast, during our title sequence we continually rearranged the placement of the camera so that we could capture as many different types of shot as possible to create variety and originality. Also by having a a number of shots for one scene it made the editing process much easier as there was more footage to choose from, however when editing our prelim, because we had taken fewer shots, we had a lot less to choose from when putting it together and this made our prelim less effective.

An example of a shot we used during our final product that creates originality and consequent effectiveness is the Go Pro shot of Adams 4x4 speeding along the small country lanes. To create this shot we attached the Go Pro camera to the wind mirror of the car. The shot took lengthy planning as we had to get hold of the specific camera and find someone to drive a car. On the day of the shoot, having arrived at the filming locations, and seeing the layout, we did end up changing some of our shots purely to use the full potential of the location and find better shots, during the editing process the shots that may not have been part of our storyboard to make the camerawork more affective.

Mise En Scene
During our prelim we used little mis en scene. For costume we used hooded jumpers and tracksuit bottoms, along with a flatcap for Mariella. These costume choices were aiming to signify street life and thug behaviour which was closely related to the storyline of our prelim which was vandalising a wall with spray paint. The costumes were reasonably effective as they gave one an idea of the possible troubled background of the vandals. Initially we wanted our location to be a dark alley yet there was little time to find one and shoot there if it was off campus so we had to settle with the studio which had a pre built house for another shoot which we used. The house location was not very effective as it effectively contradicted the 'thug' stereotype we were trying to create and this consequently makes our prelim look very unprofessional. As props for the prelim we chose a spray can which was effective as it signified vandalism.

In contrast to our prelim, during the filming of our thriller title sequence we put a lot of planning into the mis en scene in the build up to the shoot day. We had costumes prepared for each of the characters, for example we bought a chef overall off ebay for Habeeb (actor) so that the audience would have a complete understanding of what his role was, thus making the kitchen scene more effective. In terms of locations for the final product we used a working restaurant and kitchen with real working staff going about their jobs which was the main location for the majority of the filming. By filming at a restaurant it is immediately understood where the sequence is taking place unlike in our prelim when there could possibly be some misunderstanding, this again made our final product more effective. By using real working staff in the kitchen scene it makes our product more realistic also. Our prop choice was also very effective for example the pill pot. Overall i believe that our use of mis en scene in our final product was much more effective than in our prelim as it will make the storyline much clearer and will prevent our audience from loosing track of the plot.

Editing
When we were constructing our prelim, our knowledge of editing was very limited and this as a consequence made it much harder to edit effectively. When editing our prelim we had little time in comparison to when we were editing our final and product and we were less comfortable editing in general which made things harder. In our prelim our continuity editing was not particularly effective as it didn't flow as much as we would have liked it to have done. It was very basic editing and it didn't look very professional at all. There were no titles in it at all and the story revolved around one scene.

In contrast in our thriller we took the process of editing a lot more into account and we understood how crucial this stage of production was. We had learnt a considerable amount more about how to use Final Cut Pro then we had done for the prelim and as a group our editing skills had progressed. For my groups thriller we have put it into box sections. This means that the audience can't actually see exactly what is going on as the boxes only show half of what is actually going on. This makes it look more interesting though and makes you actually want to watch the film to find out what's going on. It was very hard to get to this point though as we had to figure out how to change it from being so slow to having quick passovers. We asked our teacher for help and we discussed our title sequence and how to improve it further. We all decided that using the boxes method would be very effective and different. We wouldn't have been able to do this for our prelim as we didn't understand the editing programme well enough to even begin this challenging editing process. Compared to our thriller our prelim, due to editing that has little affect seemed boring and unprofessional. The editing we have done on our final product really has made a difference.

Sound

During our preliminary task we got given a storyboard with a script and no non-diegetic or diegetic music was used. So sound was essentially done for us so we had little to do. We used the sound recorder from the camera rather than using the tool that can make sound much clearer. By not using this piece of equipment the dialogue in the prelim was not as effective as it could have been. As there was no music little meaning was created through sound in the prelim. In contrast to our final product which we used the piece of apparatus that made sound clearer. Non-diegetic music was also used to create a sense of urgency and action. I feel that this music really makes our final product as it makes the sequence feel very fast paced which is what we were trying to create. As a result i think that our use of sound has progressed from the preliminary task, where we knew very little about it, until our finished product, of which sound plays a big role

Conclusion

During the period from beginning the prelim to finishing our final product i have learnt a huge amount about the importance of organisation. If you can work together as a group and effectively plan out in advance what you are going to do on the day in all these areas (Camera, Mis en Scene, Editing and Sound), it is much more likely that you will come out with an excellent end product. In Advance to our prelim we discussed it for no more than ten minutes the day before and basically used what was available to us the next day. As a result the end product was quite unproffesional and plain. However in contrast we spent months planning our title sequence and exactly what was going to happen on the shoot day and how things were going to take place. We prepared costumes, a shooting schedule, characters, equipment, props etc. and as result we got a huge amount done in the day due to great organisation and preparation. I feel that as a team we have worked well together over the course of pre-production and post-production. I think that, as we didn't know each other very well initially it was hard to be confident and put forward ideas that you had and share them with the group however over time we have begun to get on really well and become comfortable around one another, which meant that we could work better as a team.

Evaluation Task 6: What Have You Learnt About Technologies In The Process Of Constructing This Product?

Evaluation Task 5: How Did You Attract/ Address Your Audience?

Evaluation task 5 from hurtwoodhousemedia5

Evaluation Task 4: Who Would be the Target Audience for Your Media Product

Primary Audience:
These are the targeted group of people that i believe would be most likely to buy into our film. I believe that those interested would be between the ages of 16-24 as the film will require a certain level of focus in order to follow the story of a fast spy thriller. Those aged 16-24 will either be, to the older end of secondary school or at university, assuming a certain level of education. The main gender attracted to our thriller would be boys and young men as they are usually into action packed spy films similar to Bourne.

The graphics, editing and music within the thriller will also appeal to many children of this age. The music used in the thriller could be classed as indie music that is recognisable to these ages as it is commonplace on television shows, radio and the internet (particularly social networking sites) which means that many have grown to like this type of music as it is the music of this particular generation. This film is similar to films such as The Tourist, the Bourne films and possibly Taken 1, 2. These films range from 12A to 15 in age rating, which is lower than the higher ages of our predicted primary audience. However because all of these films are fast paced action thrillers they tend to attract young adults as well younger teenagers bringing the expected primary audience age up significantly.

I used a website to create a visual image of the two target audiences. These are below with the left as our primary target audience and the right as our secondary. One should note that these representations are simply estimates and may not be the exact portrayal of the target audience when the film is released, and of course there will be some anomalies in the ages and social groups of the viewers. I also used a website to create a 'tribe' which is another visual way of showing the the main social group within our primary audience and other social groups that may be interested in the film which is shown above.

I think that the tribe would mainly listen to chart music however may branch out to some indie/alternative music which would make them attracted to our product due to the slightly alternative, cultural music. The tribe may watch fast slowing action TV shows where twists in the storyline are commonplace such as Prison Break and Seven which can be seen as similar to our product due to the fast action. I would have thought that within the target age group of 16-24 there would be intelligent children and young adults who would be attracted as they like the challenge of understanding and interpreting a complicated plot such as the one in our product. However there would also be some children and young adults who don't particularly care about school life or have not gone to university as a result of this dislike and lack of motivation, yet they enjoy indulging themselves in going to the cinema and seeing stories that are far from ordinary.

Secondary Audience:

These are the group of people who i believe are second most likely to buy into our film. Middle aged to elderly people, from the ages of 45-60 who are potentially retired from work at the older end and watch a significant number of films on the television on Sky, Free View, DvD or Blu-ray etc. They do not watch the film through the cinema unlike our primary audience. They would mainly be middle class as they used to be able to afford going to the cinema when they were younger and being 60 years old they want to be able to do what they used to do in their youth. The audience may include people with professions such as medicine or teaching where they don't have a lot of time available to them to go out to the cinema with friends or family so as an alternative they watch films at home on weekends to avoid wasting as much time, so doing things they enjoy, such as watching action packed thriller films don't coincide with their busy profession.

Despite having an elderly secondary target audience i would think that our film would be rated as a 15 to allow for the younger ages of the target audience to watch the film legally at the cinema with family and friends. This will enable our product to become more successful as a result.

This is a pie chart to show an estimate of the proportion of boys and girls that would or wouldnt watch our media product. It shows that the main group of people who would watch our film would most probably be boys at almost half of the total number of both boys and girls. Realistically there is a sector of boys that would not watch our film also. We asked twenty boys and twenty girls between the ages of 12 and 20, we asked them whether they would be interested in our film and explained to them the general plot

Evavuation Task 3: What Kind of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product and Why?

The opening title sequence we have made shows essentially the poisoning of a man and the build up to this scene by a series of passovers. One would associate our groups title sequence with spy, crime films. The style in which our title sequence is filmed is quite unlike a high concept hollywood production and more like that of a smaller independent british production company producing low concept films. However initially we began by associating our title sequence with films such as Bourne and James Bond as our sequence could be seen as a high concept film despite being a similar style to a smaller independent film company, due to the complex storyline, however due to the resources and budget we had to construct our title sequence it could be seen as a British Independent, low concept film. In my opinion i think that the film could go either way in terms of being high or low concept to me as the concept is capable of becoming a high concept film however the low budget we had meant that it was difficult to create a high concept film.

Studio Canal is a French production company that was bought by Vivendi and Universal Studios. Founded in 1988, the original function was to focus on French and European films however the production company has recently done some hugely successful American Productions, some of which are very similar to our product. One of their films was The Tourist which is a high concept film that has a very similar action based plot to our developing spy film featured a-list actors such as Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. The film revolves around Frank (Depp) who travels to Italy to mend a broken heart, he meets Elise (Jolie) who deliberately crosses his path. The budget was estimated at around $100 000 000. On the opening weekend $16 500 000 was made showing over 2,700 screens. Studio Canal has also produced other films similar to ours such as Broken City. Both these films produced by Studio Canal have similar action orientated storylines to our developing spy film, as a result we could assume that Studio Canal would be interested in producing our film.

The Tourist was then distributed by Columbia Pictures Industries Inc a subsidiary of Sony Entertainment. This company has distributed films such as Skyfall, Django Unchained, Vantage point and Quantum of Solace which are similar in terms of their plots. The $100 000 000 budget from The Tourist went on to gross $278 000 000 at the worldwide box office after its release in December 10, 2010. and so i would think that Columbia Pictures would be a good company to distribute our film if our film was to go down the high concept route. We would intend to distribute our media product to the cinemas first and then distribute it through dvd and Blueray.

However If we were to use a smaller production and distribution company, we could use Shadow Distribution, a company based in Waterville in Maine. The company has released a film called 'The Situation' which is about an American Journalist, a CIA operative, and an iraqi photographer against the backdrop of a bloody war in iraq, which is filmed in a similar style to our media product and is filmed with a relatively low budget, which is once again similar to our product. The situation is a low concept film with a similar style and feel to our media product however they are very different storylines, with our product being more of a high concept one. Because our product could either be classed as a high or low concept, i think that it is important to look into and research on both sides. After having researched both high and low concept production and distribution companies i have come to the conclusion that, due to our action packed storyline i think that our media product would be more suited to be a high concept film and produced by Studio Canal and Ditributed by Columbia pictures. This choice obviously makes the film high budget so one would have to ensure that our product has lucrative investments in order to carry this out.

Evaluation Task 2: How does Your Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

In our media product 'The Bearing' we have nine different actors that, between them represent a number of social groups. In this task i will focus on the seven more relavent actors rather than the two extras and how they create a positive or negative representation of social groups.

The first actor is Maxim Baldry who, mainly through costume choice and through his facial expression in the first scene creates a negative representation of a lower class. Maxim is wearing a dark coloured hoodie, this element of darkness signifies evil ways and the hoodie immediately associates him to the lower class as it is a common stereotype surrounding poorer english city beings. Maxim looks shifty as his eyes dart around the area after he's hidden the parcel cautious not to be seen which implies that he knows what he is doing and that he may have carried out previous roles similar to this before. This creates a negative representation of the lower class city boy as it insinuates that young boys are getting involved in dangerous deals for money.

The second actor Adam Grant is once again portrayed with a negative representation in our media product. The expensive 4x4 he drives portrays him as an affluent individual and costume choice including the tartan flat cap associating him with a middle class man as tartan is linked to shooting and shooting is a high class sport stereotypically only done by those who are wealthy enough to fund a shoot. He is portrayed in a negative light as the sequence is showing an affluent man making money through the passing of drugs which is illegal. The shot on the right shows the actor at the location of the second passover looking around suspiciously ensuring secrecy. He has his 'country' hat tilted down over his eyes attempting to hide his eye line, he is attempting to hide who he really is by carrying out the passover which contributes to the negative representation he is receiving.

The third actor in 'The Bearing' is Theo Bhat who is introduced when Adam (2) leaves the cafe. Theo is shown to wear a black beanie and dark workman clothing. This immediately portrays a negative representation of him as the dark costume choice signifies secrecy and one can tell that he is up to no good. Despite the dark clothing and beanie Theo is still not shown as a street thug though, i think that he looks more sophisticated and doesn't want to be seen taking part in the transaction so he disguises himself with dark clothing.

Our fourth actor Kitty Birks is portrayed in a positive light. Due to her appearance, character and the fact that she is dining in a upmarket restaurant it suggests that she is part of the middle class. She is shown in our title sequence only for a split second as a kind looking girl holding a baby with a smile on her face creating a warm motherly feel to her character. She is not dressed in dark clothes and due to her relaxed manner it is safe to say that she is not taking part in the poisoning. She looks comfortable with her baby, completely oblivious to the transaction taking place. This clip creates a positive representation of a middle class young mother as it shows that a young mother is happy with her child and enjoying life.

The Fifth actor is Paul Chesterfield who is represented negatively in 'The Bearing'. Once again costume choice plays a substantial role in his negative portrayal. Paul is dressed in a dark blue jacket with a black hoodie, these dark colours insinuate that he is doing wrong. An extreme close up shows the passover between him and the chef Habeeb, showing the two shaking hands prior to the passover which signifies that they know one another which one can go further and say that this implies that they may even be at the heart of the transaction, portraying Paul in a further evil light and creating a negative representation of both him and the chef Habeeb. It is difficult to assign a class or social group to Paul as there are few signifiers that represent these factors in the short time he is on screen. However his dark hoodie portrays him as reclusive, as if he keeps himself to himself and it also suggests that he is lower class as hoodies are associated with a typical working class clothing.

The next actor to appear in the title sequence is Habeeb Fasai who is from a nigerian origin which immediately associates him with poverty and a working class background as the quality of life for the vast majority of people in Nigeria is poor due to few available well paid jobs. Habeeb looks calmer than the rest of the people participating in the poisoning which suggests that he is more experienced and has possibly carried out transactions similar to this more often than he others which outlines him and his social group in the worst representation of all the people taking part. At one point Habeeb looks as if he is almost smirking as he receives the poison which continually backs up the extremity of the mans evilness as he finds it almost funny that he is about to kill someone.

The seventh actor is Hendrick Speelmans who represents a tall, well presented middle to upper class boy who is trying to get a job to make some of his own money. As we are not shown his face it implies that he is not an important part in the poisoning and almost certainly has no idea that the food he is carrying out contains poison that is going to potentially kill the someone. This creates a positive representation of Hendrick as it implies that he is a young innocent boy who is taking no part in the transaction but is just doing his job as best he can.

In conclusion, the general representation that is being created of the people that are featuring in the title sequence and their particular social groups is a negative one, as each person that is taking part is essentially committing a bad deed by contributing to the poisoning and possible death of a man. This creates a negative or evil portrayal of them.

Evaluation Task 1: In What Way Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

What AreThe Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products Like Ours?

We began the development of our media product by looking at a scene from 'Miami Vice', where a usb stick is the subject of the passovers rather than a parcel. Similarly to our media product the aim of the passovers were to build up tension as the audience feel as if they have to know whats on the usb stick and this is a similar affect that we were trying to create.

After having established that we were to use a similar passover method as that in miami vice we looked at other films that were not necesserily similar yet had interesing passover methods such as sherlock holmes and james bond. Throught this research it allowed us to develop our ideas further by looking at the most affective passover techniques. However despite having used similar passover techniques to some other spy films our editing technique was very abstract which gave our product some individuality. The editing method, we used captivating footage in moving boxes, could be said to challenge forms and conventions of real media products as the technique is usually used for slow movement to speed it up. Our piece is revealing footage at quite a fast pace which adheres to the general use of this editing process.

Deliberate Emphasis of Certain Objects:

In many 'spy' films, there can be a series of passovers as it is a common technique to built up tension which is often a key feature in a fast paced spy film. Films often create this emphasis by the object being the only object in the frame or the depth of field, camera focus, camera time. We aimed to challenge the forms and conventions by including only part of the parcel in a frame and not the whole thing as we decided not to reveal too much too early as the tension build up we were trying to create may have been affected and the affectiveness of our overall product would have been less.

The above screenshots show the bearing (left) challenging forms and conventions by showing only part of the emphasised object in the frame. The picture to the right is taken from the tourist a similar spy related film to our product, showing the entire object in one frame.

Font Type:

As we felt the editing technique used was our unique selling point we decided that we shouldnt have a particularly complex font or backdrop as we wanted the main focus to be on the footage and the editing technique rather than the credits. In our product it has conformed to forms and conventions as we a plain font similar to other films and tv shows so as to fit with the modern image. The editing in our piece revealed more about our product than a font would have so we chose to make the editing the dominant feature in our media product. The font is not only simple it is relatively small also. We felt that we didnt want to emphasize any actors names also which may distract the audiences attention from the storyline and reduce the overall affectiveness of the product.

Location Choice:

We took inspiraion from other similar media products in the way that business is done subtly in public places such as a train or a cafe. This technique is particualrly effective as it keeps the audience on the edge of their seats as they become nervous as people could esaily be watching them and then the whole surprise would be over. It could be said that we followed the forms and conventions using our cafe passover yet we challenged them by using a number of private locations that made the storyline more realistic such as a derelict house for the initial passover. It is important to keep the process seemingly
realistic as it improves the affectiveness of the media product.

Coursework Task Defined

Video

Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Main task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source. Both preliminary and main tasks may be done individually or as a group. Maximum four members to a group.

A Change In Editing Format

After a group discussion and with some of the technicians thoughts we came to the conclusion that we should change the editing format by creating boxes containing our edited film footage that moved across the screen at different angles and speeds. The reason for this late change was because our title sequence when initially 'finished' and without this final box affect was extremely slow and did not reflect the fast paced action sequence that we were trying to portray within the short amount of time and so consequently was not a true representation of what our film was going to be about. By using these boxes passing across the screen it speeds up the story by having multiple pieces of footage on the screen at one time so it requires the viewers attention to understand what is happening. As a group we discussed the fact that people may become bored of the passovers dragging on slightly so this editing technique really helped us to create a quick, compact and effective piece.

The editing process for this technique was complicated yet interesting as it allowed us as a group to gain a further insight into the final cut pro programme. Initially we begun by cropping a specific piece of footage and then clicking the following: Effects, Video Filters, Matte, Mask Shape. Once we had created the general box shape by cropping a clip we then created the different box shapes for each piece of footage by reducing or increasing the horizontal or vertical length of the boxes. After this was completed we then created the path the boxes would take across the screen and the speeds at which they would flow e.g left to right or bottom to top. This created the random affect which aimed to keep the audience alert as it was unclear how fast the boxes were and their path.

In order to create the speed of the box and the length that the footage was onscreen we had to adjust the gradient of the green line shown in the picture in the centre of the row of three below. Yet to create the path of the boxes we had to press a diamond shaped button, you then play the clip until you want the movement to finish and mark when it begins then click the diamond button again and then render the clip by pressing 'Apple' 'R'. We repeated these processes for both the speed and direction of each of the boxes that appeared on the screen in our title sequence which was a considerably lengthy process yet i believe that the overall product hugely benefited from the change.

Sunday, 14 April 2013

Inspiration For The Change In Editing Format

In the summer of 2008 Top Gear TV series a similar box technique was used in the title sequence. These boxes were used to create a sense of speed as top gear is a show based around fast cars. Similarly we wanted to speed up our title sequence by creating a sense of speed due to the slow passovers that could have become potentially a bit tedious for the audience and not a fair reflection of the fast paced action thriller film that we were trying to captivate in the three minutes. We thought that the Top Gear title sequence was quite captivating and almost slightly hypnotic with all the moving boxes and we also believed that this would benefit our end product as ultimately we were trying to draw the audience in so that as many people as possible would end up going to see our film. After a group discussion we thought that we would use a similar box format, keeping the order of our current edited footage the same but change the format.

As well as speeding up the title sequence it also makes it more exciting to watch as there is more going on on the one screen and when applied to a thriller it almost created a sense of the unknown by footage passing off the screen whilst still running. This sense of unknown is important to the target audience as it ultimately makes them want to watch the rest of the film. Whilst discussing the new format the group brought up the titles into the discussion and where they would fit in because after all it is a title sequence. We decided that we would put intertwining actor names here and there between the empty spaces between the boxes that were passing across the screen, similarly these names would move in and out of the frame. So another benefit of this new format was that it allocated convenient spaces in which to put the titles.

Soundtrack For The Title Sequence

For our soundtrack we were set the task of finding a piece of music that created a sense of tension and suspense. We needed this as the contents of the parcel is unknown until the latter stages of the title sequence when the chef opens it to reveal the poison. By having a soundtrack like this it build up the tension and encourages the audience to really want to know whats in the small envelope. However it was not as simple as this as the music we had to find couldn't be under copyright, as soundtracks under this law would be the property of an individual, which meant that under law we were not allowed to copy it and use it in our product. As a result it took a while searching through the internet to find a suitable soundtrack that wasn't copyright yet eventually we found a number of fitting songs.

These songs were preposed to all the group members during a discussion and after listening to all of them and playing them along side the title sequence we came to a conclusion that we would use a up-beat chart song suggested by Mariella that would supposedly create excitement and appeal to our primary audience as a popular song. However after applying this soundtrack to the title sequence and playing it back a number of times we realised that it didn't fit as well as we first thought and it made our product look less professional and created a poor build-up of tension. Consequently we decided to change it again as we weren't happy submitting the original soundtrack.

We went back to one of the original tracks we had sampled from the internet. It was more alternative/foreign music composed using some native instruments that we thought were successful in creating suspense and speed. The song also had changes in beat at specific times coinciding with our passovers, this also added to the mysterious side and suggested that something evil was occurring. I think that the soundtrack has been successful considering we had little time at the end of the construction process to find a soundtrack and i believe that it benefitted from the last minute change we made. My only criticism of it is that it may not appeal to some of the younger ages of our target audience, yet i think that it will appeal to the young adults and the secondary audience who are older and more into cultural music.

Editing Continued

Today we went back to editing our title sequence and did some more work on it. It is beginning to take shape and look slick. We changed a few things to make it look better and more professional during the editing session. We have managed to get to the last scene of our sequence where the spy is posioned within the restaurant filmed at the William Bray. The main problem that we had was editing the middle section of the sequence. The middle of our prelim needed some attention due to small yet significant things for example; people coming and going into the frame and it not flowing properly due to different body movement and position whilst trying to create continuity. Instead of just concentrating on these small errors and dwelling on the fact that our piece was slightly wrong, we decided to move on and come back to it at a later date once the main structure was securely in place and then we would begin to pay attention to detail. Also during the session we completed editing the scene where we have the chefs working in the kitchen and the spys sat at the table next door in the restaurant. We have completed the cross cutting between the poison arriving at the restaurant and the chefs preparing food in the kitchen, this proved to be one of the most complicated feets of our editing so far so i am glad that we completed this and i was pleased with our progress. We have also got lots of shots of the actual working chefs at the William Bray cooking different foods and preparing oblivious, like nothings going to happen. This makes it all look very natural.

These photos were taken whilst in the editing sweet today. Chessie (Top Right) has stepped forward naturally as the most confident editor in our group. I personally am not paticularly good with the technology so initially Final Cut Pro was difficult for me, yet working with Chessie means that i have learnt how to edit effectively and i can now take part in the editing process.

Editing The Title Sequence

We Began today with the initial stages of editing our title sequence. We began by roughly putting all our 'good' clips in the order of our title sequence. We opened Final Cut Pro onto our screen. We then searched the shared area and found our film footage that had been uploaded onto the computer already.

We then opened a new page and immediately created two 'bins'. The first one was called the 'Rush bin' where we kept all of our video footage that was saved on the program. After we'd placed all of the footage in the 'Rush bin' we then created the second bin called the 'Log bin', in which we placed all of the footage that we wanted to use for our editing.

Once we had sorted out the footage that we were to edit, we began the editing process:

We watched the first clip over once on a small screen and picked the point where we wanted to cut it. We then clicked on the point and pressed 'I' and a small yellow triangle appeared on the timeline below the small video screen. To end the cut we pressed 'O'and a second small triangle appeared confirming the cut.

Then we dragged the chosen footage down onto the timeline where the footage appeared with the yellow triangle that signified that the cut footage began at that exact point of motion.

We then did the same for all of the seperate clips that were in the 'Log Bin' until we had all the clips of footage cut and next to one another, in order on the timeline.

The clips did not flow onto one another perfectly yet so we began to cut all of the footage on the timeline in motion to create continuity and this meant that we could avoid any mistakes and if any were made which some were initially, it enabled us to correct what we'd done wrong initially. In order to shorten or lengthen the clips to create this continuity all you had to do was hover the mouse over the timeline and a razor would appear, then you either dragged it backwards or forwards to lengthen or shorten the piece of footage.

Once we had put them in a rough order following these editing stages, to actually edit it so that each clip flowed into one another. We did this by cutting on movement. By cutting on movement, this allows it to run smoothly, instead of jumping frigidly from clip to clip.We also discovered that some clips where hard to cut on the movement, or did not flow into the other as we hoped, so we had to use a small part of another clip, and insert it in the middle to break up the 'jolt' of the unsettled clip flow. On one occasion we also had to give the effect of passing time, as we did not think about this issue in our planning,as it changed bit on the day. We did this by testing different effect, the best one we found was a shot dissolve from the passover man 1 leaving, and the car pulling up to receive the package. The two fade effect clips, fade into each other, creating an effect that looks like time has passed between the two clips. So far we have only properly edited to the point of the car driving to the cafe, for the second passover.

Shoot Day Write Up

The day before the shoot we ensured that we had all our props ready for the next day and that in some cases we had backups, simply to replace those that could potentially have been damaged during our shooting such as the pill pot for the poison. Mariella went to the the local shop and bought soup, a pack of playing cards and a pack of three envelopes, whilst i went to collect the chefs whites from the reception that we had ordered of the internet earlier in the week. We felt that it was extremely important that we had all of our props and backups sorted out for the shooting day as it would only disrupt our schedule and we would loose valuable time if we had to find a prop on the day.

The morning of the shoot on Thursday 17th January i felt excited about the prospect of filming as it was a good feeling knowing that we were to finally shoot our idea that we had spent a long time creating and preparing for this. I felt confident that as a group we were as prepared as we could have been and ready to take on the day. I got to school, had breakfast and imediately after went to the studio to pick up the camera, stand, the two lights (with the blondes, the red heads and clips). I loaded up the van with Chessie whilst the other two in our group went to gather the actors that were taking part in the thriller. The actors, teachers, and our group all met in the editing swete and i began to explain the plot of our title sequence and what roles the actors were to play in the thriller. When everyone was clear what they had to do we headed to the van and off to out first location.

We arrived at our first location at the william bray restaurant in Shere at quarter past ten. I unloaded the van with some of the actors. Mariellas dad, the owner of the restaurant greeted us and we discussed where we were going to shoot first. We decided that it would be best to shoot in the kitchen earlier rather than later as we would not want to be shooting when customers began to come in as we did not want to be agregating the staff. Before we could start shooting we took the camera into the kitchen and established where in the kitchen would be best to film. I then ensured that all of the actors that we were using in the kitchen scene were dressed and ready to go and that the other actors we were not using yet were out of the way of the staff. We then did some run throughs in the kitchen and began to shoot.

We divided the roles systematically on the day. We split the day into four parts: The William Bray kitchen, the restaurant, the cafe and peaslake house. We ensured that in each of these four parts each member of the group was doing something and after that part we would swap round to different roles, ensuring that we all were getting a chance to do everything. It was decided that i was to be the director of our groups title sequence. I began by being camera man in the kitchen scene in the William Bray, Mariella was using the boom mic to pick up clear sound, Liv was in charge of lighting and Chessie was preparing the next scene in the restaurant to ensure that we could be as quick as possible filming in the restaurant so as not to disrupt the business.

At the beginning i was a bit unsure about using the camera and i felt under pressure to capture everything perfect. However as the day progressed i gained confidence using the camera and learnt alot about the camera itself and i thought that i began to use it pretty well towards the end of the day.
I also thought that i was good at the directing role, i felt that i organised things well and i ensured that we were filming as quickly and efficiently as possible so that we could fit all our plans into one day which we succeded doing.

Time was a significant issue at the beginning of the day as our storyboard had a number of locations and a large number of shots that we had to get done before it got dark. As a result we ended up condensing the storyline a little to ensure that we would finish in the day and begin editing our footage as soon as possible. We also had an issue with getting a motorbike for one of the passover scenes, we had originally organised for one of the teachers at the school to use his motorbike for this scene however complications meant that we couldnt use him. As a result we cut out this motorbike scene and made it more simple, this ended up working to our advantage as if we hadve filmed the motorbike footage we would not have finished in the days filming time we were given.

During the day filming i thought we had captured most of what we wanted to do successfully. Personally i think that the kitchen scene was the most successful. Having real working chefs and cleaners on set working at their daily routines when we were filming made it all much more realistic which is beginning to show as we begin to put the footage together whilst editing. We were also very efficient when filming as we had to be out of the kitchen as soon as possible as the staff had to begin preparing for people coming in for lunch. We shot what we had too, quickly and we had no problems whilst doing so. I also think that filming at peaslake had gone well as it was the last location we filmed on the day and we had got the hang of using the cameras and the lights etc. as a group and everyone knew what role they had to play in whilst filming in terms of recording sound and the camera work.

I think that the restaurant scene could have gone better. We could have got a few more extras to feature in the poisoning scene as the restaurant looked relatively empty in the background which didnt seem particularly realistic. However aside from that i think that we shot everything well. I most enjoyed shooting at peaslake house, despite it being the last shoot of the day, the actors and my group and i were in good spirits. Overall i think that our group worked well together as a production rules and everyone worked really hard to get the best out of the day. I am looking forward to seeing all of our footage put together by half term.

Updated Shooting Schedule

This is our updated shooting schedule that we changed after having to issues with fitting all our original plans into our days shooting. We also updated it due to the fact that we could not get a motorbike and so one of our passovers was obstructed and we had to adapt the story slightly around this issue.

Filming Times For Location 1, 9:30 - 1pm.
1st location is The William Bray restaurant, Shere:
- Cafe scene filmed outside restaurant. 7,8,9,10
- Kitchen scene in the William Bray. 21,22,23,24,25
- Restaurant scene and poisoning. 16,17,18,26,27,28,29,30,31

Filming Times For GoPro Footage (location 2), 1:30 - 2pm
- Road shots on the way to the William Bray. 6,12,14

Filming Times For Location 3, 2:30 - 3:30pm.
3rd location is Peaslake Manor House:
- Letter Box. 1,2,4,5
- Window. 3

Filming Times For Location 4, 4:00 - 4:30pm.
4th Location is the back entrance to the school kitchen:
- Back Entrance. 19,20

Filming Times For Location 5, 4:40 - 5pm.
5th location is school car park
- Passover between two men. 11,13,14

Shooting Schedule

Filming Times For Location 1, 9:00 - 9:30am.
1st location is Peaslake Manor House:
- Letter Box. 1,2,4,5
- Window. 3

Filming Times For Location 2, 9:50 - 1pm.
2nd location is The William Bray restaurant, Shere:
- Cafe scene filmed outside restaurant. 7,8,9,10
- Kitchen scene in the William Bray. 21,22,23,24,25
- Restaurant scene and poisoning. 16,17,18,26,27,28,29,30,31
- Kitchen. Back entrance at William Bray. 19,20

Filming Times For Location 3, 1:15 - 1:40pm.
3rd location is road shots on way to William Bray:
- 6,12,14

Filming Times For Location 4, 2:10 - 2:40pm.
4th location is street shots in Guildford:
- Street passover scene with biker and youth. 11,13,14

Organising The Cast

After the christmas holidays we set the challenge for ourselves to have organised our actors for the title sequence before shoot day. The worst thing would be to get to the day and still be unsure who exactly is carrying out what role. So we decided after having created a character list and decided who we wanted to play each role we sent an email out to all cast members so they could notify their teachers that they would be missing lessons due to the filming on the day and so they could receive a blue card and have it signed by any teachers early. This prevented any mix ups and meant that when it cam to shoot day we were prepared and the actors and extras all had the go ahead to miss lessons.