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.

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.