Feedback From The Viewing Of Our First Cut

We showed our first cut to the class and collected their constructive criticism so that we could improve our production during the last week. This is how it went.

We were told that there were some narrative issues that need sorting out, for example, the shot of the photograph and the shot of the files being dropped. This is a case of rethinking the shots and re filming them. However, due to impracticalities we can not re film the one with the files. There was also some confusion over the identity of Heather (Phoebe); this can not be resolved because we are only allowed to film the initial two minuets of the film and some of these narrative issues are developments in the overall plot.

There were some technical issues with the shot of the screen because it flickers. This is resolvable and we will sort it out in time for our final showing. The volume issues with the voice over are also resolvable, even thought we do not agree with the rest of the class when they say that it did not work. We will need to rerecord this. And finally, the radio sound bridge was short and quite unclear as to how it fitted in with the plot.

Visually, our production was considered good but the title slide was quite amateurish and is in desperate need of being reproduced in a more professional manner.

Feedback From Our First Cut

We showed the class our first, unfinnished version on our opening so that we could get some ideas of how to improve and how well it works as a production. This is how it went.

Music News!

I have finally composed the music for our production!

Track 1 is meant for the very opening shots and our titles. And Track 2 is meant for the voice overs later in the opening.

I composed it using a composition program on the computer calles Sibelius. I exported the music that I composed as a .WAV file and it worked first time. I did however, have to iron out a few dodgy noted before we could use it. The music had to build suspence; it does.

The image above is the score for the in ital piece of music at the beginning. I used a lot of bass because I know that by playing long, suspended notes it can produce a feeling of anxiety and suspense. I also knew that strings were going to sound best for what I wanted to produce. The violins play short phrases in the long gaps between the cello and double bass parts, this just makes the piece sound more interesting, whilst sticking to the theme. The piece is in Em to produce what I believe to be the best sounding minor tone.

The second piece of music is on the score below and is essentially the one above, with the violins taken out and some bass staccato.
Its only very simple music but it is effective in context and I am pleased with how it turned out.

What We Have Filmed So Far (and how it went(Part II))

On our second filming session, we used Xanthe's kitchen, as we needed a kitchen and it was dark out side. We filmed the second scene, which is all of the kitchen based conversation and the computer shots.

The breaking of the cup was hard to film because we had to line the camera up and drop the cup in the same place each time. Xanthe was clever and suggested that we put clingfilm over the camera lens so as not to get coffee on the camera. The mug broke on the second attempt. perfect.

with the hitting of the radio, we originally wondered how we were going to make the radio turn off, so i suggested that when Katie hit it, i turn it off at the wall, off camera. But then i got hit by a different and better idea, that we could film it turned off, and edit the radio sounds in afterwards. This works well and i believe that it has gone better than turning the camera off at the wall would have due to our poor timing.

Most of the rest of the footage that we filmed went to plan, with one exception. The screen was flickery. however, we did not overcome the issue and will have to make do with what we have filmed. It still has the same effect. But in all, it went well.

What We Have Filmed So Far (and how it went)

So far, we have filmed everything up to our title shot. This means that we can start to capture and edit what we have got so far.

The bit that we have filmed is of Courtney (the main character) running though a field; beside a hedge. We tried to use a a makeshift dolly out of a tricycle in order to film her running from a side view. however, this did not realy work because the tricycle got stuck in the mud. So therefore, we may not be able to use these shots in our final production. If this is the case, we will have to re-film this using a different location or, in a worst case scenario, we will have to miss these shots out all together. The rest of the filming went well, after a few takes of each shot and our actor performed well; even though the mud was quite slippery during the filming of the tree shots.

We were going to film on the friday after but I was not avaliable to shoot, so we have had to postpone the filming until another suitable day.

Our Animatic

We presented our animatic (video below) to the class along side our ideas for the opening. This meant that we could get some feedback.

However, our feedback was mostly positive, except for when it came down to the Chinese scientist. The class did not see why the scientist needed to be Chinese and brought this to our attention. They said that it made our introduction confusing.

Upon closer inspection, it appears that this is an incomplete version of our animatic. This is due to some saving issues and the software that we have. This will get sorted as soon as possible.

Our Film Planning

Me and my group have started to plan our film opening. This is what we have so far:

• Genre - Thriller.
• Team members - Xanthe, Myself and our actors.
• Brief film plot outline - A teenage girl, Courtney, is the daughter of a scientist called Daniel Yang. When he does not come home from the lab one day, she is forced to stay with her friend. The police assume that he is dead. As she starts to work out why he has disappeared, she decides to go looking for him. She gets her self into lots of trouble with violent people on the way.
• Ideas for the opening of the film - It starts with footage of rolling fields, with credits. Eventually, Courtney runs on, clearly out of breath and clutching a bag of documents. She runs and hides behind a tree. She sinks to the ground, spills the documents and shuts her eyes before the title comes up. After this, we have a short scene which sets the location at her friend's house and she starts her discovery.
  

Preliminary Exercise

This preliminary exercise is to show some basic skills in using the camera and showing our editing skills. We got two friends to act in this short video.

Our preliminary exercise is a scene of about thirty seconds. It is simple in that all it consists of is a person entering a room and engaging in conversation with another person. Our shots were all framed quite well, with the main issue being the second actor leaning forward as she talks. We used the rule of thirds and eye line match to make sure that not only our shots were framed correctly but also to ensure that it appeared that the actors were looking at each other when talking. We were careful when selecting a location for the filming because we had to choose a place where there was not much background noise, back lighting or obvious obstructions in the background that may make our shots cluttered of confusing. We did not break the 180 degree rule by not crossing an invisible line that runs between the two people in the shot. If we had broken this, it would have made our scene confusing.

After editing, we had a fairly well put together match on action. We had no real issues except for the computer program crashing. However, it was only after exportation that we realized that we did not have an establishing shot; but I believe that we could get away with this due to the way we filmed the girl walking through the room. We managed to pull off the invisible transactions.

So, if we were to do this exercise again, we would defiantly insert an establishing extreme long shot or even an over the shoulder shot just to show the location of the person in the room. Also, we would re-film the dialogue from person 2 because they moved into the shot a bit too much. Our group of two worked well with this and our actors were of great help.