Filming Evaluation No.2

Having looked and edited some of our shots from our first filming day, we decided that some of our shots were not as we would have liked. We decided to re-film the stabbing scene and the end shot as they did not look professional enough.

Everyone met in Loose at the agreed time of 9 a.m and we began filming at about 9:15.

The first shot that we filmed was a reaction shot of Lucy. This took a couple of tries to get the perfect reaction without it looking fake or over dramatic. Eventually, we got the right shot and we also got inspiration from my blog on stabbing reactions.  

The next shot that we re-filmed was a close up of Josh pulling a bloodied knife out of Lucy. To prepare for this shot we covered the knife in fake blood and food colouring, as well as Lucy's jumper to make the shot seem as realistic as possible. At first, Josh pulled the knife out too quickly so we re-filmed it so that it was a lot slower so that you can see the blood and the knife. 

 

Overall, I believe that this shot went very well and compared to our original shot, it looks much more realistic and professional. The camera is also a lot stiller.

The last shot that we filmed was the very end shot of Lucy lying on the ground and Josh walking away from her in the background. To prepare for this we had to find the right location in Loose valley so that the sky wasn't reflecting in the water. Eventually we found the right location to film at. The next step was to make Lucy's 'stab wound' more bloody to make it look like it had been bleeding for a long time so we simply added more fake blood to the 'wound'. We also added more blood to her hand and put dirt in her hair and on her face and bag to make it look more realistic.

 




Overall this shot looked very effective and was an improvement from the original shot.

In conclusion, this second filming attempt was very successful as we get everything done in time and very quickly and efficiently. The new shots looked much better than the original ones and looked more professional and realistic.  

Choosing a Production Company Logo

In this blog I'm going to compare all of the production company logo's that everyone in our group have made, and decide which one would look the most professional and realistic to add into our 'slasher' film opening.

This is Lucy's production company logo that she made. I think the dropping leaves at the beginning of this looks really effective and would go well with our film opening, however if they were put in slow motion it would have looked a lot more effective as it would have portrayed the production company logo as sinister. I also think that the fire spoils the typography as it is white so it is therefore difficult to see the writing. I think that the typography itself though is really cleverly used as it is missing pieces which looks really effective. However, the ending after the text has come off the screen drags out for quite a while where the leaves are burning on its own. If we used this production company logo in our opening scene I would either cut this shorter, or make it fade to black before our film opening starts.

The next production company logo is the one that I created. Again, I have decided to burn a piece of paper to show destruction and loss. The camera in this however is very jolty at the beginning though which makes it look less professional. The typography is also very boring and plain, it would have looked more effective for our film opening if it was in hand writing in a blue ink colour. However, despite this the sped up reverse of time is quite original.

This production company logo was made by Josh. He has made a print out of a polaroid picture and added burn marks onto it which looks really effective. The picture then goes up in flames and burns into ashes. I also think the plain slab of concrete in the background looks quite realistic and effective for our film opening. However, the camera is a bit jolty throughout and the hand at the beginning looks quite un-professional. I think the unique way he has put it in fast motion looks really effective though.

Overall, I have decided that we are going to use Josh's, Silent productions, for our film opening as it looks really effective and the most professional.

Song manipulation - phone

Using iMovie, I added the effect of 'Telephone' over the song My Muse by Dropout to created a muffled effect. This will be perfect to use in our film opening when the victim is listening to music through headphones, as it sounds like it is playing through headphones.

Song manipulation - multi-tune

Using iMovie, I added the effect of 'Multi-Tune' over the song My Muse by Dropout to created an eerie, disconcerting effect. This will be perfect to use in our film opening when the victim's phone is broken and the music is glitching on the phone screen, as it reinforces the idea of the phone and music being broken. 

Recording a voice over to edit into the film opening

Seeing as we recorded some of the footage on a different camera, the sound in it wasn't quite the same and you could't hear the one line of dialogue in the piece, in which I answer my phone and say 'Hello'. I therefore recorded the voice over seperately and will edit it in later.

Filming evaluation

After re filming certain shots for our piece, we now have to evaluate the time we spent filming, what we did and what went well/not so well.

Prep

Again we made a shooting script, including the time we were meeting and where, as well as what equipment each person was to bring. Everyone successfully brought the correct things and turned up on time, meaning we could begin filming according to schedule. 

Meeting time

Our meeting time again was specified on our shooting script, and we all got there on time so we could get to filming straight away.

Availability

We chose a date when everyone was definitely free and available, and the locations were the same as last time so again easy to get to and we were allowed to film there. There were no issues with the public either so no setbacks in our filming. 

Time management

Everyone arrived on time and the weather was great so we could get all the shots we needed in a short amount of time. There was a small period where it got very sunny so we had to wait for the sun to go behind the clouds again, but this wasn't a major issue as it was only as matter of minutes. We actually were so efficient timing wise that we finished just under an hour ahead of schedule. 

Achieved?

We were able to re film the shots we needed of the stab and they turned out really well. We used a better blood substance, as last time we used real animal blood but it looked watery and fake. This time we used red food gel which was thicker and picked up better by the camera. We got a shot of the knife coming out of the wound, and a shot where the victim is covering the wound and gets blood all over her hands. We also got a really good tilt, which was very smooth and professional. Although it wasn't on our storyboard, we got a shot of the victim being dragged away, with her hair and arm covered in blood in frame. We felt this would be a good extra shot for our piece, as it is creepy and sinister and fits the plot and genre. Everyone in the group worked really well together as we had more of an idea of what to expect this time, so overall we achieved exactly what we wanted. 

Timings

Our time management this time was great - we finished ahead of schedule, and the timings for the shots were also very good despite the sun coming out for a short period of time. 

If I did it again would I do it differently?

I think this time everything went really well, so I don't think I would do anything differently. I definitely think it helped that we all knew exactly what we were doing, how we were doing it and where we were going, and because of our group efficience everything thankfully turned out exactly as expected.

Editing

I detached the sound from the clip so that we could edit it slightly to make a natural sound, as it had bird noises along with wind and the stream so we thought this one would be best for it. I turned the volume of the clip right up and removed all background noise.

I then used this clip in other places where we needed natural sounds.

I adjusted the speed of the clip with the blood drop to make it slow motion and so it could be better seen. However I realised we only needed the end of the clip, so I bladed it and applied the speed adjustment just to the latter.

Editing- Practical

This is the third time our group edited together. I took charge of the mouse and made the final decisions of where to cut/ add in clips and refine our film opening to make it look more professional. First of all I cut off the end of the clip where Lucy is brushing her hand across the bush. I cut this so that it was more of a clean transition into the next clip where Lucy gets stabbed by Josh.



I cut the end of the extreme close up of Josh running the knife along the bush so that he stops in the same place as where the next clip begins. This is called continuity editing. We want to make sure we get this as close to perfect as we can.



I also cut the beginning of the clip where Lucy brushes her hand along a bush as she doesn't start moving her hand until a few seconds into the clip.




We also decided to add in repeated clips of the waterfall to build up tension and break up the clips to create suspense. We wanted to add these throughout our film opening with them getting closer together. However we fear that these repeated clips throughout our film opening will make it appear like a trailer.



We added another waterfall between the clip of Lucy walking up the stairs and the pan of the stream.

In the picture below it shows that I cut the end of the clip where Lucy walks off. We decided to do this as we have a lot of shots that are just walking and we didn't want to drag them on for too long as it may get boring and repetitive.

 

In the picture below it shows the extreme close up of Lucy's eyes looking around. We wanted to test out having a narrow angle shot, therefore I cropped out some of the nose and forehead so that you could only see the eyes.

However, when we watched back our film opening with cropped extreme close up, it looked out of place as all of the other shots were landscape and covered the whole screen. Therefore, it looked out of place so we changed it back to fit the screen as normal.

In the picture below it shows that I cut off more of the walking at the end so that there is less of it and so that it fits better with the next shot.

The picture below shows that we cut the water tricking down the stream shot as there was a pause at the beginning before any blood poured down the stream.

In this we decided to cut the ending of Josh walking away from Lucy, however we are going to re film this scene so we may not actually need to use this clip in our film opening.

I decided to cut off the ending of the walking up the stairs shot as you could see Josh walking back behind the wall. It also meant that the continuity editing looked better as it fitted better with next shot of Josh walking up the metal fence with the knife in his hand.

I decided to remove the audio from the clip where Lucy gets stabbed as we wanted to cut the clip but keep the sound going so that it overlapped into the next clip.

Second Filming Evaluation

We all met at Lucy's house again, and walked down to our first filming location at around 9:15. We started by re filming the stabbing scenes. We decided it would be easiest to cut the jumper first so there was already a slit in it and then slide the knife in gently and remove it slowly showing the blood. We also decided to film a reaction shot of Lucy grabbing the stabbing wound and getting blood on her hand. We also decided to include a shot of Lucy being dragged through the leaves back to the stream, with an extreme close up. The picture below shows Lucy cutting through the jumper carefully, so that it is easier for Josh to slide the knife out.

 

We covered the slit in the jumper with red food gel. This is thicker than food colouring so looks more effective as blood and doesn't soak into the jumper as much. This makes the blood look more fresh and gorey, making our stabbing scene look more effective.



The picture below shows me filming the reaction shot of Lucy being stabbed. We decided that it would be best to film the new clips on my phone as the camera wasn't focusing properly and my phone has the best quality camera.



After filming these shots we then when back down to the stream where we re filmed the final ones of Lucy laying by the stream dead and the blood dripping down her hand. In the picture below it shows us preparing to film this next shot.




In the picture below it shows us trying to film an extreme close up of blood dripping down Lucy's hand, but again the camera wouldn't focus so we used my phone.



Overall this was a really successful morning of filming and we did it quickly and efficiently.

AS Media - Editing/Post Production

The brief:

- To edit a section of our final filmed piece

To start off the session, using CMD + I, I imported all of the media into a new project. after this I arranged all of the clips in chronological order as seen below.

Using the zoom slider located at the bottom right of the screen (as above) I zoomed into the clip for more precision to blade (CMD + B) the clip, to make this as precise and as smooth a transition as possible. (examples seen below)

As the beginning of our first clip is fairly long we decided to blade(CMD + B) the clip at the start by roughly 2 seconds shaving the time down, whilst also removing unnecessary footage. (seen below)

After this decision I further bladed the clip so that the unnecessary footage at the end of the clip was removed, whilst making the continuity from the first clip into the second was apparent.

After this to match the continuity form the first clip I bladed the second clip, making sure that the same leading leg went first, when the actress is walking, so that the continuity of the scene looks normal.

After this the actress, in the scene, begins to laugh and smile towards the end of the clip so we had to edit that out whilst getting as much footage out of it as possible so that the clip was not too short. This involved using CMD + 0 to make the zoom into the clip frame by frame making me able to precisely and accurately locate the point at which the actress turns her head.

After a lot of the same procedure being done for most of the clips we came across a part of our opening scene that was a slight challenge due to when we filmed the two clips from different angles the actress in frame bends down in different ways. Therefore we had to blade the majority of the end of the first scene so that the switching of angles from in front to behind more seamless and continuous. Then we needed to blade the next clip so that the moment at which the actress is bent down matches when she stands back up, this involved again zooming into the frame by frame breakdown of the clip and blading the beginning of the clip to match the exact position of the actress. This is seen through the following two screenshots of the progress of cutting each clip to match one another.

After this there is a sequence, in which the actress in frame puts a pair of earphones in, encapsulated in a close up of her ear and a mid shot surrounding this with her entering the frame. This was especially difficult in comparison to the other clips I had been editing, due to the close up needing to be in the middle of the mid shot. This meant firstly I had to blade the start of the clip to match the previous clip. After this I then had to blade the mid shot clip at the point that the actress put the pair of earphones in illustrated in the third screenshot down.

After this I then bladed the close up clip so that the exact footage that was necessary (the earphone going in her ear) was captured in the clip. (As illustrated in the screenshots below)

After this we had a clip of blood dripping on the floor in a substantially too long clip, so I bladed the clip so that the shorter more relevant clip was formed (below left). Whilst watching over the footage my peers and I noticed that there was a small yet noticeable amount of shaking from the camera. So we used the 'Stabilization' function (below right) so that the motion of the camera would be stabilised and smooth instead of tiny jitters being apparent. This was indicated by the orange highlighting on the time part ontop of the clip (below left).