Last Session Before Easter

During this session we decided to clear up the transition between shots and try to make the opening flow a little better. Firstly we re-arranged the montage clips, changed the length of some of them and added music over this section. I also experimented with effects on the montage clips, changing the contrast, exposure and colours. We didn't want the shots to look too horror movie or sci-fi so we kept the colours true to life, only exaggerated slightly more. We are pleased with the montage now and it definately flows much better now.

We also decided the the opening shots at the door location should be in black and white, rather than an evening effect, as in our research we decided that the whole group would like to experiment with mixing black and white with colour. We also think that as this scene is different from the rest of the opening, and could be seen as a flashback, the black and white is definately appropriate.

After Easter, we would like some teacher feedback. We also need to record audio footage to put over the door scene.

Final Cut

In todays session the group experimented with the programme Final Cut! We wanted to create different title fonts to the apple iMovie selected fonts. This was very successful. After looking at several informative websites and getting a feel for the programme we worked out how to make a black screen, choose one of the Final Cut fonts, and export the clip back to iMovie. We were pleased with the title fonts. We also needed a font for the film title, as we could not film a typewriter typing it due to a broken typewriter! We decided that the font needed to still look like a typewriter, due to this element in the montage, and we found a font that was suitable. The fonts still weren't as good as the fonts we found in research but as we cannot put these fonts onto our opening, we will have to settle with this. We also found a transition for the fonts to come onto the screen one by one. We instantly thought that this could look like a typewriter if we matched a clicking sound with the letters appearing. After searching on freesound.com we found an appropriate sound and dragged the sound under the clip in the correct place. We were very pleased with this when we watched it back!

Title Fonts

After a quick chat with the media teachers, we have found out that the mac that we have been using actually has the programme Final Cut installed. We are very interested in using this programme to enhance our editting and there is also a possibility that we can find better fonts on this programme to import onto our opening. We are very pleased.

Editting Session Three

Today we had a double lesson to cut the latest footage. We selected each clip and decided on the appropriate time for each shot. We want the montage to be fast paced and lots of images flashing up so the shots are very short. We put the montage shots into the order of the storyboard adding the extra shots we filmed on location. We watched the montage and all decided bits of it didn't flow at all, but it was the end of the lesson and we decided to start with this next session.

We also attempted to add titles to our opening today. We want to add four short black screens towards the beginning, before the montage. One for "produced and directed by" and then one for each of our names. We would also like the put the title of the film on a black screen before Shot No.23. We worked out how to do this, but when selecting fonts from the apple mac, we realised that out of the limited selection of fonts available, there was nothing that suited our film. We are really disappointed that we cannot use the fonts we have found during research and that we may have to use a simple font that non of us like. This is a problem that we need to address.

During storyboarding we decided that we would like to have a non diegetic breathing sound during Shot No.23 to add atmosphere. During this session we looked on freesound and found two breathing sounds. We put them both in turn over this shot on made a group decision on one. We still don't think this one is perfect because it doesn't sound particularly masculine but as we cannot find anything else we may have to address this at a later date, to avoid time being wasted.

Filming Session Three

Today we managed to film the last few shots of our opening, slightly behind schedule due to illness and not being able to book a camera out, the short delay hasn't effected anything.

Shots we filmed today:
Shot No.7 - the back of the villains head
Shot No.11 - the frantic rummaging of photographs
Shot No.12 - the villains hands tapping on a table
Shot No.13 - blade cutting a picture
Shot No.19 - slamming a police badge down on the table

For these shots we realised we didnt need the exact location of the basement, and that we could do it in a darkened room at school. We thought we would experiment filming there and if it was unconvincing we could rerecord at the correct location at a later date. Shooting went well. We darkened the classroom and used a cool lamp shining on the table from the side, acting as a table lamp.
Shot No.7 was difficult as we didnt want to include the rest of the room in the shot. We achieved this by shining the light on the desk in front of the villain, creating a black silhouette of the figure, with darkness around. We shot this a few times and will select one during editting.
Shot No. 11 we did this shot a few times from different angles and used different actions. One shot which was a particular favourite in the group was a shot where Lewis, our actor, rummaged through the photos picking out just one and looking at it closely. When we were filming this shot we also filming a few more shots that we thought we could put into the montage, such as the ripping of pictures and the ripped up peices of photograph being dropped and landing on the table. This extra material will make the montage longer and more varied.
Shot No.12 we shot this a few times also, one of the shots was an extreme close up, so close that it is difficult to tell what is tapping on the table. We were inspired by the extreme close-ups in the montage of the film Se7en and we wanted to create the uneasy feeling before working out what the object actually is.
Shot No. 13 was at first difficult because we couldn't remove the blade from a pencil sharpener as it was too tight! We asked several people. Instead I went to design and borrowed a pen knife, which we decided would work just as well. We took this shot from several angles also, including close-ups and zooming in and out.
Shot No. 19 we decided that this shot needed the sound of the metal badge hitting the table, in our other shots the ambient noise would be muted in editting. Therefore we had to ask for silence in the room. We took this shot once and after watching it we were very pleased with it, so didn't shoot again.

We are now confident that all filming is finished and we can begin to add sound and titles to our opening, after editting todays footage.

Our Production Logo

As a group we decided on Impact Productions as we decided the name didn't really matter but it had to be something memorable. We decided upon a black and white image as we didnt want the image to suggest a horror approach as our film doesn't really reflect this. We wanted the image to not suggest anything, other than a classy approach. Lewis designed this using Corel PhotoPaint and we are very pleased with it.

Ideas for production company names

A few ideas for names we have had for our production company:

- Chiller Productions
-Through the magnifying glass Productions
-Anon. Cast Production Company
-Descicate Film Production
-Le Thriller Noir Theatre Company
-Penultimate Choice Productions
-Triversity Films
-The media 3 Entertainment
-Ridonely Productions
-Impact Productions

We will use the Corel Photopaint and Draw programmes to create a professional looking title with an appropriate font. We are interested in using the faded typwriter font I have found previously on urbanfonts.com. Ideas for images among the group are roses, old cinema lights or old cameras.