Editing: Day 3

Editing was a crucial part to making our shots all go together and flow perfectly to create a good outcome. Once again we all took it in turns to do some editing on a particular scene or shot. To have an effective outcome we needed to make sure we looked at diffferent aspects of editing, including:

• Transitions from one shot/scene to another
• Continuity editing
• Sound

The scene that I edited was the 'Night scene'. As a group we started of by looking at the shots individually and making sure it was framed well. We then placed the shots together to create one scene. The key point in this was the continuity of the scene. If something wasn't working well then I would shorten a shot as well as adding a cut or fade to the shot.

One problem we had with the night scene was that the lighting - it was too dark and it was hard to see what was going on. With the editing software we managed to adjust the lighting and add a tone to the scene to make it more visible for the audience.

There was also a problem with sound as there was a part in the scene that had a sound that was very irritating and we would assume would have disrupted our audience. We adjusted the sound level in that particular shot and eventually we added our instrumental music to the scene. The instrumental music added more tension and created a more realistic opening scene.

The night scene came just after the production sign and so we added a 'fade in' transition so it didn't look like we jumped from one scene to the next and so it showed good continuity.

Over view of Filming: Day 2

The next day we all sat down and had a look at all the shots/scenes we captured on camera. My personal response:

What went well?

I think that team work was our high point during the filming of our media product. We all took it in turns to film a scene or shot and we managed to keep up with timing well. I also think that we were able to communicate well with each other when there were issues with filming or any other technical problems.

What could have been better? Were there any problems?

I don't think that there were many problems but I think we could have prepared things a lot better, especially with the props we were using, but apart from that I think everything ran really well and now that we are moving on to editing, I think that with the variety of shots we have taken, all will fall into place well.

Filming: Day 1

Today was our first day of filming. As a group we wanted to film as much as we could, especially because it was quite hard getting our main actress (Tegan) to come into school an act for us during our specific time schedules. I can definitely say that it was a very productive and successful day. Our day started of shooting the classroom scene*.

*Classroom scene: Hannah (Tegan Little) surrounded by her fellow class mates and a teacher (Mr.Unterhaulter) attempting to teach the misbehaving students.

Mergime and Louise decided to take it in turns to film this scene and we made sure we captured as many shots as possible so that when it came to editing we could then see which shot was best. We were able to capture a variety of shots including: Shot reverse shot, Match on action and an establishing shot. Once this scene was complete, we decided to film the 'friends confrontation' scene*.

*Friends confrontation scene: Two of Hannah' friends confront and question her about why she acts so strange.

This particular scene was quite simple to film but it involved steady camera work as we used a pan shot to film Hannah run out of the room. I think that this scene was overall very successful and I hope that when it comes to editing, we will be able to make it an effective scene in our media product.

Our final scene that we filmed was the 'night scene'*

*Night Scene: Hannah running away from police and her problems.

Me and Louise filmed the night scene together and found it very interesting. We used our storyboards to help us with the shots we used (Long shot, Birds eye shot etc). The only issue we had was the lighting - it was too dark and not all was visible in the shot. We decided that we would try and fix this issue when we started to edit and if it didn't work we would re-shot the scene.

Equipment (Planning)

The main equipment needed for this project is:

• Camera
• Mini DV tape
• Tripod - this will allow us to have steady and accurate shots.
• Laptop (This will be needed when we upload all the footage we filmed and when we start editing all the shots).

Since there isn't a lot of dialogue in our script/Media product we will not be needing to use a microphone. If lighting becomes a problem we will use artificial lighting to make a shot more visible!

Organising the shoot (Planning)

Organising the shoot involved making a lot of serious decisions that would end up helping us make our final opening sequence.

As a group we all organised the following:

Actors: Tegan Little as Hannah

Locations: Sydenham school (a classroom)

Kirkdale road (For the night scene)

Props: A fake knife, chairs and tables (classroom scene) etc.

Costume: casual teenage clothing to set up the story line.

Lighting: We will be using low key lighting mostly - reasons for this are because it suits the genre and the mood of the opening sequence. During the night scene we will use natural lighting to set the scene and if extra lighting is required, we will use some sort of artificial lighting to make the scene more visible.

Although these are rather brief details of us organising the shoot, I think it provides myself and my group with the key elements needed to make out final media product have a good outcome.

Shooting script (Planning)

Here is our shooting script. Using a shooting script will allow us to be organised as well as keeping up with timing and locations. I think that it will really help us understand what we are doing and keep us on track with filming.

Soundtrack (Planning)

Before producing our media product we made sure we planned out what sounds we were going to use and in what shots/scenes we would use them in.

We will be using both Diegetic and Non diegetic sound. We will be using most of the non diegetic sound in opening scene and this non diegetic sound will consist of instrumental music in the background - it will help build up tension and excitement for the audience. The instrumental music will then continue into the next scene creating a sound bridge (this will be done when we start editing). We will also make sure that the instrumental music suits our chosen genre - Psychological thriller.

Another sound that is required is the sound of a heartbeat. This will be added during the flashback scenes, and once again it will help build up tension and add a sense of a thriller movie. Hopefully this will help attract the audience and keep them focused on the situation as well as creating enigmas throughout the scene.

Although there isn't a lot of dialogue in our media product, we do have a particular scene where Hannah (main character) is being beaten up by her class mates and they are shouting at her and swearing too. As a group we decided it would be best to let the actors improvise this scene to add a more realistic touch to the scene.

Decisions on Location (Planning)

As a group we all started discussing possible locations where we could film the opening scene of our short Film 'Behind Closed Doors'.

To make our decisions we had to base them on our storyboards and where we could visualize an effective outcome, that will captivate our target audience. As our storyline is based around the life of a teenage girl, who begins to suffer from paranoia we wanted to create a scary/thriller type scene.

When we looked back at our story boards we noticed that there are 3 main parts to the opening scene that need to be captured on camera. These 3 main parts were:

- Hannah Running on the street

- Hannah in School

- Hannah At home (Flashback)

As we have now seen the obvious locations that are needed, we are discussing where about we want to film. We certainly know that we want to film at school (Sydenham), but there is still a discussing as to where we will film the other 2 parts.

My Blog will be updated after proper analysis and decisions are made.

Storyboard/Anamatics (Planning)

StoryBoards and Animatics (Planning)

As we started to progress and develop ideas, we came to the point in which we started creating storyboards/animatics. We were given some post-stick notes to draw each shot that we would be using for the opening scene of our film. Louise, Megime and myself worked together and took it in turns to draw out a shot an write about things such as:

-Mise-en-scene

-Sound

-Camera Shot

-Any Dialogue

Creating a storyboard was very helpful, as we were able to put ideas on to paper and keep organised with each shot. It also provided a clearer view of what we would like to add into the scene or what we would like to take out.

As we finished of adding the final shot, we were asked to film and take pictures of each shot to create our animatics. To create our Animatics we will be using 'Movie Maker' as it provides us with different choice of effects, such as transitions from each shot (fade in, fade out etc). It also helps provide background music to add a better sense of creativity and technique. We have not yet completed the animatic but we are working on it during the next lesson and should be finished by then.

The Scenario (Planning)

The scenario we created for our project, was quite basic but it also had all the elements needed for a film:

Opening scene and Scenario

The opening scene which as a group we would film, was based around a young teenage girl who is running away from a problem she has got into. The opening scene would help build up enigmas for the audience as well as create suspense and a realisation of the situation. The situation in the Film is that the girl (Hannah) is running away from her foster parents who have mistreated her as well as the students in her school, over time Hannah starts to become mentally insane and suffers from anxiety and ends up killing her parents.

The Problem/The Situation

The problem revolves around a girl (Hannah) who is 15 and starts to become paranoid because of her class mates and foster parents behavior towards her. Hannah starts to get bullied and mistreated so she becomes mentally unstable and from that point on onwards the audience see Hannah get her revenge.

Questionnaires (Research)

As part of research and getting as much Audience feedback as possible, we all worked together to create a short questionnaire to get an insight on what people like in movies. The questionnaire consisted in the following questions:

1) What is your favorite genre?

2) Why does it appeal to you?

3) What do you expect in the opening sequence of a film?

4) What attracts you to movies:
a) Trailers b) Actors/Actresses c) Story line

5) What was the last movie you watched? What was the genre? Did you enjoy it?
If not - state why.

6) What genre is your least favorite?

According to the questionnaire, it seemed that the most popular genre of movie was Comedy and Thriller. We also understood that its the trailers and story line that catch peoples attention when watching a movie.

This questionnaire provides a better view of what people think, when it comes to their favorite type of movies and it will help us think carefully about creating a eye catching and interesting opening sequence.

Genre (Research)

After researching our influences, we all focused on the genre we had discussed before: Physiological thriller.

Looking at different movies as influences allowed me and my group to understand a genre in more detail. Our narrative would most certainly be thriller related and would surround a story line based around a teenager/teenagers - This then reinforces the idea that we would like to have a teenage cast with age range around: 15-17 years old, and the reasons for this is because we want to add more tension and build up more excitement in our opening sequence.

We really focused on thinking about our chosen genre and moved on to the convention of mise-en-scene. To build up an idea that our story line is teen related we want to base our opening sequence in a school and outdoors. Both diegetic and non diegetic sound will be used - Instrumental music will be used to build up a thriller theme and to add tension to the scenes we shoot. (This still needs to be looked at in more depth).

Camera work and editing will also need to be discussed in more detail especially when planning our shots and scenes properly after.

Analysing 'The Dark Knight' (Influences continued)

To help my coursework group with more Ideas we all individually looked at different films that involved the genre we were basing our work on (Thriller). I decided to look at the opening of 'The Dark Knight' and with that I made sure I got as much information as I could get out of it.

Institutional Context:

What Written Text (captions) is used in the sequence?

On the DVD menu ('play Movie', 'Scene Selection' and 'Languages')


Legendary Pictures


DC Comics


Warner.Bros Productions

What Information does it give the audience?

It tells and shows the audience that the movie is a big budget movie.

Why is it Important?

Once again it shows its a big budget movie, which is also an influence for an audience to watch a movie.

Which Film Company is used?

• Warner.Bros Productions
• A time Warner Company

Identifying Genre

What is the genre of the movie? (genres)

• Horror
• Action
• Thriller

Is it a major genre, Sub Genre or Hybrid Genre?

• Action/Thriller (Major Genre)
• Horror (Sub-genre)

How is the genre constructed?

Mise-en-scene:

• Setting: The city
  
• Costume: Men in clown masks and suits (villains)
  
• Props: Guns, Cars, Bags, Bombs etc.
• Camera Work: Extreme Long shot, zoom in, tracking shot, crane shot
• Sound: Non-diegetic (music), Diegetic (people screaming, dialogue)
• Props: Guns, Cars, Bags, Bombs
  
• Lighting: Natural Lighting and artificial lighting (high/low key)
  

Analysing continuity techniques:

Identify any examples of match on action, shot/reverse shot, synchronous sound?

Match on action was seen when characters opened doors and opening the vault.

Shot reverse shot was seen when 2 characters (villains) were having a conversation.

Synchronous sound: seen throughout opening scene!

Analysing Representation:

Which social groups are being represented in the sequence?

Middle class (villains, workers)

How are they represented?

Throughout the opening scene we see the city and then we see a bank with workers and villains robbing a bank (audience assume there is a purpose).

Identify any stereotypes and explain why they have been used?

working class people: sets the scene of a normal day that is soon taken over by a robbery.

Analysing the audience:

Who is the target audience for this film?

The certificate shows 12+ but it seems more like a 15-18 as there is a lot of violence and scenes that can cause disturbance towards the audience.

How have the producers of the film targeted this audience?

They have seen the amount of violence or threat shown in a movie and this helps understand a final idea of what the target audience is.

Influences

During the lesson we were asked to look at different movies that are simarlar or have similar aspects to the movie we are going to produce. We found that the movie 'Flight Plan' starring Jodie Foster was very interesting because of its psychological theme and storyline. IMBD provided us with enough information to know exactly what was expected for a movie of this genre.

The movie is based around a mother who is on a plane and finds that her daughter is missing, but to her surprise no one is aware of her child. The film builds up tension and causes the audience to think about what may have happened to her child and if she is mentally unstable.

This film is relevant to our research as it shows similar aspects to our idea based on genre.


Actors/Actresses: Jodie Foster (Kyle Pratt)
Peter Sarsgaard (Carson)

Director: Robert Schwentke
Genres: Action. Mystery, Thriller.

Here is a clip of the movie:

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3118334233/

The other influences we found out and researched were:

• Flight plan
• The Dark Knight
• The Shining
• Fight Club
• The Godfather
• Gas light

Initial Idea for Film

As we carried on disscussing ideas about our story, we gradually had a clearer idea based on:

A Teenage Girl called Hannah who becomes paranoid because of her surrounding and her foster parents.
Hannah' foster parents don't like her and want to find a way to get rid of her and they do this by driving her crazy
and playing with her mind and causing anxiety and paranoia. The foster Parents (Not yet named) start to put thoughts into Hannah' head and start to take control of her emotions, life and soon keep her feeling trapped and unwanted.

When Hannah decides to report her Foster parents to the police, they don't believe her because she has been reported
to police by her foster parents already! This then leads Hannah into becoming insane and causing herself to do bad things such as changing as a person and leading herself to kill her foster parents.

description: opening scene (draft)

-close up of leaves rustling through the wind
-gradually hearing footsteps
-Long shot of Hannah running
-A close up of Hannah turning around
-Police Sirens begin
-Hannah turns a corner and stops to take a breath
-Hannah pulls out a bloody knife from her pocket
-Hannah shakes in panic and drops the knife (Falls down)

(FADES OUT)
2 Weeks Earlier

-Extreme close up of Hannah' eyes
-School bells rings
-Hannah Meets up with her friends
-Hannah' friends ask if they can go to Hannah' House
-Hannah has a FLASHBACK (Hannah crying on her bedroom floor, as her foster parents start shouting and calling names at Hannah) FLASHBACK ENDS!
- Hannah reacts badly to the suggestion and starts to feel tense and yells at her friends
-Everything becomes too much and she runs out of school in tears (Hannah is unaware that she is mentally ill)

So far this is our brief idea of what we hope our film/story line will be about. Obviously there will be more detail as I update my blog after talking with my group and clarifying and making sure we are all happy with this story line.

Coursework Planning/ Target Audience (Research)

As we have now had experience with both camera work and team work in our preliminary task, we have now got into our final coursework groups. In my Group I will be working with Louise Mann and Mergime Shala. Throughout the lesson we discussed and planned Ideas for our final video.

Coming up with a genre wasn't extremely hard, we had our minds set on either a drama based movie or horror. Our minds were set on both these genres because we all thought we could be more experimental and creative when it came to planning a story line. After a long discussion of possible story lines, we decided to come up with a physiological thriller (sub-genre) story line.

We want to have the story line based on a teenagers perspective, and have a certificate of at least 12+ or 15+ (this is still in discussion). We have an idea based on a foster girl who is drawn to paranoia because of her surroundings and possibly her foster parents. We want to be able to brainstorm more of our ideas but this is what we have briefly spoken about in the first lesson.

Target Audience:
As mentioned above, we are hoping that our movie will be a certificate of 12+ or 15+. We have been looking at these 2 particular choices of certificates/target audience because we think that Thriller genres usually fit into these particular audiences and because we think our story line is very tense and physiologically scary, it makes us feel as though our film belongs into those certificates. We will look at this into more depth once we create questionnaires for our target audience!

To help us look at our target audience in more depth, we decided to look at the audience in two different perspectives: Demographic Description and Psychographic

Demographics description:

Looking at the demographic description of our target audience allowed us to get more detail out of what kind of audience we wanted to attract as well what suited the audience genre wise.

Age: 12+ or 15+ (As mentioned above)

Gender: Both Male and Female appropriate films

Social Class: Social class is mostly based for middle class/working class people and this is because our film idea is based around that type of social class too.

Ethnicity: All Ethnicity's

Profession: Any profession

Psychographic description:

Looking at the psychographic description was a little more complex as we had to look at our ideas from another persons perspective (our target audience).

Interests: since our movie is a psychological thriller, I would say that our audience' main interest would be issues involving mental problems or teenagers and the issues they go through.

Values/Morals: The main values that an audience will have will most likely be based around the social group represented in the movie and this also goes for their morals and beliefs in the situations presented in our media product.

this is helpful and helps us observe the importance of making a movie in the correct and proper manner that suggests that we have taken all types of aspects into consideration.

Research into typical conventions of filming

As part of researching conventions in a film, I worked in a group of 4 which included, Louise, Mergime, Ellis and myself. We were all working together analysing the movie: Austin Powers: International man of mystery. We looked and analysed the film and made notes on the different things we noticed.


Institutional Context:
As a group, we found that the main use of written text was mostly based in the beginning. We found out that the film company logo was 'Pathe' and It is important that the audience know about the makers of the movies behind the scenes as we come to learn about how big or small the budget is for the movie and helps us know that the quality of the movie could be at high/low standards.


Identifying Genre:
The main genre of the 'Austin Powers' movie is Comedy and we see that this is a major genre as we are quickly introduced to a funny opening sequence to the movie.


Mise-en-scene:
Setting: Based in the 60s and in the UK
Costume: Mostly casual 60s clothing
Props: Office furniture, telephone box, cars etc.
Camera Work: There is a lot camera work including- Tilt shot, Pan shot etc.
Sound: There was non-diegetic sound that was the theme song to the 'Austin Powers Movie'
Lighting: There was both high key and low key lighting, and there was also a use of natural lighting.
Editing/Special Effects: cuts and Movie title


Characters and Narrative:
Characters: Dr.Evil and Austin Powers
Dr.Evil is seen an evil man in a comical way and he is introduced in a scene with an enviroment that suggests he isn't a good person whereas we see that Austin Powers is an upbeat and Happy kind of person.


Enigmas: 

Why do people Love Austin Powers?
What happened to the people with Dr.Evil? etc.

Audience: The Target audience is for 15+.

Katherinessss Grouppp.. Olly Gimi

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Evaluation of Preliminary Task

As my group (Amelida, Dzung and Myself)  have now completed our preliminary task and have finished editing our video, and we can defiantly say that we are happy with our outcome. We used framing throughout the production of our short video to made sure we captured elements that were appropriate for the video. For example: we used framing when Amelida and Dzung were having a conversation so that we could capture and take in all dialogue and facial expressions used in the scene.

Match on action was mostly used when focusing on a particular part of the scene, such as when we saw a close up of Amelida's hand on the door and we then cut to the part in which Amelida entered the room, this created and showed a continuity effect, which was an advantage to the final outcome of the video. 

Another technique that was used in our video was the shot/reverse shot. This was a popular technique when filming the conversation between Amelida and Dzung. Shot/Reverse shot helped create a clear and well focused scene based on the characters conversation and once again the continuity of the video. We also had close ups and we zoomed in/out to capture the characters facial expressions which helped show the audience what was going on between them both. The 'Pan' Technique was also used to show characters movements such as when Amelida walked across the room to open a door.

The Mise-en-scene was very limited but also specific as our scene was mostly based in a classroom and the only props needed were school books. We identified a problem with the lighting as both High and Low key lighting was used and whilst editing we noticed that when we cut from one scene to another the lighting was extremely different and cut off a sense of continuity. 

I'm glad that I have had a chance of working with the camera and with editing as I now feel a lot more prepared for the actual coursework. Overall I think my group worked extremely well and the outcome of our video was great. The continuity was just right and the effort put into the work was always a high priority. I now feel ready and prepared to start the filming process again for the final part of the coursework.

Preliminary Work Media AS (week 1)

As part of my Media AS course, I was asked to get into a group of at least 4 people for my first piece of preliminary work. Before we begun our work as a group, we were individually asked to write a story and interpret the title 'Bad news' and also draw out a story board. When it came to working in our group we were asked to create a short film of around 2 minutes long using a camera and a tripod. The people working with me are Dzung and Amelida. We all came up with a draft version of our story board and we also worked on our scripts together. 

We had a couple of issues with the camera. In technical terms, it was hard to control the camera and learn different camera shots(match on action and shot reverse shot), and we also broke the 180 degree rule but we will be fixing our video in editing. We also had a situation in which we thought we lost all our work which caused us all to worry and feel upset, but luckily everything was there and its something we learned to be prepared and organised for when it came to the actual coursework. We have now reached the point where we will be editing our video and making it have a good outcome.

Treatment for Small Film ('Bad News') - Short Description

At the beginning of the Media AS course, we were all asked to come up with a small description for a movie called 'Bad News'.
We had to interpret the title 'Bad News' and think of a genre and story line to go with it! I tried to Interpret 'Bad News' into different genres such as comedy,action, thriller and drama.

As I carefully thought out different/possible story lines for each genre, I found that 'Drama' stood out the most to me and was more appealing than the other choices of Genre.

My Final idea/Description:

Chosen Genre: Drama
Themes: Death, Loss, War, Companionship
Based: 1930s (During WW11 1939-1946)

Plot: Set in the 30s a family of 5 are forced to evacuate their home and go their separate ways as WW2 commences.
Seen in the perspective of the children, we learn to understand their feeling, their responsibilities and the 'bad news' they receive along the way (children write letters to one another-explaining what is going on).

Characters:
Mother: Suzie
Father: Jake
Children: Lily (youngest child-age 12) - narrator
Sammy (Age 15)
Harry (Age 18)

*Children: Boys are forced to join the war with their father whilst Lily is left with her Mother.

Main Parts of Movie:
(Story follows perspective of the Children writing letters to one another and expressing their feelings of concern, anticipation and hope):

- 'Bad News is revealed as children start to experience loss and the sadness and deception of being without one another.

-War continues and letters pile up and tragic news arrives as their father is lost in battle (loss of memory)

(The story line is the opposite to the fact that the children are taking care of their parents where as in real life you find parents looking out for their children)

-Lily has a major breakdown
-Harry and Sammy fight as tension rises because of their fathers death.

(4 Years later)

-WW2 ends
-No letters received in a month-Lily and her Mother expect the worst (they start to suffer from depression and anxiety)
-Death List- Brothers are seen as 'Unfound'
-Lily breaks down but to her surprise she finds her brothers by her side.