THIS BLOG IS NOW CLOSED_

THIS BLOG IS NOW CLOSED
THIS BLOG IS NOW CLOSED
THIS BLOG IS NOW CLOSED_

Technology:

Here are some pictures of our edit suite:

• We used Adobe Premiere Pro to edit our film sequence...

We then exported our finished film to youtube...

 There are also two other films which we created to go with this project:

• A 'Behind the Scenes' video
• An 'Errors' video

        Both of these bonus videos are also on youtube.

Here is Hugh (on St. Patricks Day) on the Latymermedia youtube channel...

Poster for BLACKOUT:

I, Tom A, decided that after collecting many screenshots for my evaluation, that I could attempt to create a poster for our film using them. So I did. Realising however that not all the information that goes on a film poster was in our opening sequence...

Still, here is my attempt...

I chose a screenshot which really showed off the fast paced action side of our film, and used black and white and an increased contrast to place the titles in the top left of the poster. 

Real Opening credits:

Below are examples of films which have their opening credits like ours, creating an atmosphere of suspense and anticipation for the film, helped by the main soundtrack...

BLADE RUNNER:
YOUTUBE LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbWNZkoQHuE
(unfortunately the embed option for the video has been disabled, so I will post some screenshots instead.)

Teacher Feedback: The Final Cut

We were very pleased with the feedback we received from our teachers. They all were really impressed by what we had managed to acheive.

• The new fight scene worked well, with the 'bad guy' looking more professional and less like a thug!
• Continuity works perfectly with no very noticable flaws.
• The camerawork is imersive and lively, with handheld techniques giving it a raw quality.
• The editing is fast paced and action packed, but also thrilling and suspense-filled.
• The acting is really professional and makes the narative really dramatic and scary!
• The music works brilliantly with the picture and helps build suspense.
• The titles at the beginning and end make the final product look very professional.
• The fade to white at the end cleary indicates to the audience that the film is about to begin.

Shot Lists/Logs:

Before each shoot we devised a shot list of all the shots that we planned to film. We then used these lists as logs on the shoot, recording the timecodes for each shot and adding extra shos which we hadn't planned. This is just one of our 4 sheets.

Errors in our sequence: EDITED BY HUGH

Here are all the continuity errors that we have noticed in our sequenced, most of which were noticed well after the shoot. We are all very disappointed to have not noticed them earlier as we were unable to mask them effectively in editing.

After editing the final sequence, Hugh re-edited the sequence on a new timeline on the edit suite, slowing down each error. It was uploaded to youtube and annotated, pointing out these errors (and topped off with an appropriate soundtrack).

Behind the Scenes: EDITED BY TOM A

Group Reflections

We are all very happy with our finished sequence, and are very pleased to have finished the production side of this project. We set out to create a sequence that was completely different to all the horror openings that had been made before, and are satisfied that we have done this successfully.

• We love the pace and excitement of the opening part of the sequence
• We also like the the tension created in the latter part of the sequence, especially when Hugh enters the house
• The music gave us a lot of stress during editing, but we think the the final soundtrack works very effectively with the images and titles

• We also like the narrative of our sequence
• We like the way we have framed the shots, and the way that we have edited it to make a continuous sequence
• We like the acting, and are especially surprised with Hugh's ability to drop seemlessly into character, delivering an convincing and believable performance throughout
• We are pleased that the titles work effectively, and dont take anything away from our sequence, dispite us not being able to track the titles properly.

However...

• There are many, many continuity errors in our sequence, such as doors being open/closed when they shouldnt be, things disappearing from rooms, mist disappearing from windows, etc.
• We were disappointted that we were unable to track titles onto surfaces, but this was not possible in the time given
• We dont like Hughs costume, but we made the decision to leave it unchanged from the test shoot so that we did not have to reshoot all of our sequence in difficult weather conditions

The Screening:

To get some feedback from other students in the school, we held a screening in the media department at lunchtime on wednesday 17th march 2010. 

After receiving an applause when the first viewing of the film ended, we handed out questionaire which we had prepared beforehand, and asked the audience to fill them in whilst we screened the film again.

The screening was a great success with around 20 questionaires fully filled in. People seemed to really enjoy the screening of our opening sequence.

Storyboard of our opening sequence:

Here are pictures of the storyboards we created for our opening sequence before our first shoot. (This is a very late post as I lost my USB wire which linked my phone to my computer, so was unable to upload pictures.)

Final Cut

MUSIC RESEARCH:

Below I have embeded two different videos:


-The first is by composer Sean Callery, whom I admire for his work on the US drama 24. This track, from the 24 soundtrack, is a briliant and inspiring example of a suspense filled idea.


-The second is a track from the hit video game COD Modern Warfare 2. Hans Zimmer, the composer of this particular work, is one of my favourite composers/sound designers, having produced the music for films ranging from Madagascar to The Dark Night. This extract (skip to 2:20-2:45) is a great example of fast paced action music. I really like its focus on percussive timbres and the electronic/techno-style soundscape created.   



(Skip to 2:20-2:45)

Teacher Feedback: BLK

The overall feedback given to our rough cut was that most of it could and should be used for our actual film. This was agreed as bad weather conditions expected over the weekend would make any footaged gained impossible to match (e.g. if it was raining, then suddenly it was snowing!). It was agreed that filming the whole sequence again in the rain would not be worth the effort just to fix the minor problem of slightly imperfect footwear on our 'bad guy', as the sequence we have created out of our test footage works really well one the whole.

So, as a result it was decided that if we get good weather, we will try to film the shots of our 'bad guy' outside with the car in better costume.

We will also film, if weather allows, the shot of 'Matt' coming through the door, but this time, closing it.

We will also film, if weather allows, the shot of the 'Bad Guy' breaking into the house, trying there to improve the action - maybe he kicks the door?

We will film, regardless of weather (as it's inside) the final scene of our sequence (the fight) to acheive better matches on action and maybe make it a bit longer.

Rough Cut

Rough Cut - Group Feedback

Here is what we as a group believe we need to change for saturday:

• Different costume - Tom P will order a balaclava tonight, and Hugh will be wearing black cargo pants and black boots
• We will experiment with focus pulls over the banister shots in order to have variety in what shots to use
• In one of the final shots (the slow pan over to Matt's eyes), we will use a range of different focuses in order to achieve a more thrilling effect with the mirror
• We will try to achieve better match on action in the fight scene at the end by making the fight more similar each time it is shot
• In order to make the bad guy look more convincing we will have him looking around less when he is on the street
• We will make sure Matt closes the door as he enters the house to try and give the effect of trying to keep people out of the house

Teacher Feedback: DYM

I must point out that the lack of posts for the past week and a bit is almost completely down to Hugh being on holiday. But we have completed our rough cut, and here is the feedback:

• The beginning of the sequence needs to be slowed down
• The kidnapper looks around too much - needs to be more subtle
• All the stairwell shots work well
• Matt shouldnt leave the door open when he enters the house
• Pull focus on the bannisters?
• Try different focuses for the wolfman shot

Prop Prep:

The gun we are using is a toy gun owned by our lead actor Matteo Bragoli. The gun orginally was red at the top, so Tom P, Matteo and I took a trip to the art department to have a go at painting the gun a nice black.

 

We used black acrylic paint.

We used a hair-dryer to speed up the paint drying, and the whole process took us 40 minutes. The end result looks rather good!

I would like to thank the art department on behalf of our group for their co-operation.

Production Meeting 4

This meeting has been mostly spent on storyboarding our sequence. The timeline was also finished and a list of props, actors and costume was made. The storyboard is about a quarter complete and very time consuming due to the number of shots we plan to have.

The main task that has been set is to finish our storyboard as soon as possible so changes can made if needed and all is ready for our test shoot on Sunday.

Opening Sequence Timeline

• Matt runs through gate
• Matt continues to run through carpark
• He reaches gate and opens it
• He runs through garden
• He fumbles through keys and then opens back door
• He runs up a short flight of stairs and through a room
• He runs into the front hall up a long flight of stairs
• On the first floor he runs up another flight of stairs and enters a room
• Here he crouches by a wall next to a window
• The sequence then cuts to a shot of a car pulling up in front of this house
• A shot is shown of the rear view mirror with armed man's eyes
• The man picks up a balaclava and puts it on
• The man steps out of the car and is shown holding a gun
• The sequence cuts back to Matt who is shown looking at this man
• It then cuts back to the armed man who is looking around
• From Matt's point of view again the man is shown to make eye contact with him
• Matt then crouches back behind the window and mutters 'Ah shit!'
• Camera lingers on Matt and a loud noise is heard which indicates that the man has broken into the house
• Armed man is shown in the front hall and begins to move up the stairs
• Matt realises he is in danger, he starts to run even further upstairs
• Crosscuts are shown between Matt running upstairs and hiding and the armed man moving up the stairs
• Slower cross cuts between Matt hiding and the armed man searching upstairs
• Armed man finally is shown a the door of the room Matt is in
• Armed man walks in, whilst looking around Matt tries to disarm him
• After a brief tangle Matt is pinned up against a wall with a gun to his head
• Matt gets knocked out with the gun