Tuesday, 10 April 2012
Wednesday, 4 April 2012
DECIPHER Evaluation
- How does your media product:
- Use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
DECIPHER typically follows the conventions of crime/thriller, though there are few, deliberate examples where it subverts the conventions that are followed in that genre. Challenging the normal chronological flow of typical film, DECIPHER enters a phase of leading flashbacks that wind around the present time of the interrogation that deliberately allow the audience to enter this dream-like state that eludes them into the film; however, these flashbacks are typical to that of the crime/thriller (mostly Film Noir, where flashbacks, stark lighting and black and white are most commonly seen). Sound, subject and technique typically follow crime/thriller conventions, whereas our representational connotation remains mostly male ordinated, here there are subversion’s of class roles.
Interrogation
The first thing the audience will immediately note is the large difference between the interrogation scene and the flashbacks; the lighting here is cinematic, dark though bright in an orange like, artificial glow that adds a stylistic brush to the image. In crime/thriller, there is a typically strong appeal of dark room shots, enlightened by more un-seen, side shot lights that exists much to the conventions as it does to aid our representation in creating atmosphere and different representations between characters. Sherlock, Ocean 11, The Departed and The God Father all are examples of the opening scene which shows a power struggle between light and dark. These light and dark balances or complete control connote the power struggle that flows through this genre naturally, and more so aids to the representation of a particular individual (for example, Ryan (Barry) is always in the light: once the audience learns that Ryan (Barry) is not the killer, this comes to no great surprise as his previous lighted shots represent and subconsciously feed this to the audience in normal conventions that they would have witnessed). However, most importantly, Nick (Reece) is never seen until the end of the opening scene; whilst it is clear to the audience that he is interrogating Ryan (Barry) – his faint outline clearly indicating that there is indeed an individual there – it follows the strong convention of representing the bad character in dark lighting (The Departed, for instance is an example).
Flashbacks
The flashbacks in DECIPHER are the strongest attribution towards following the conventions that is crime/thriller. With such films that have been our largest influence as Casino Royal that have been labelled an idol in crime/thriller, it is obvious the clear conventions of the more traditional side of this genre, postmodern: film Noir. Film Noir is stylistic, sleek and atmospheric to aid the genre which it upholds; film Noir is typically black and white which all of the flashbacks had entered to connote this convention. Stark lighting is also another feature of film Noir, which was used in these scenes by simply adding no cinematic effects (as done in the interrogation scene) and using real-life like footage. Yet with modern intervention into film Noir, this style has typically seen few adaptations such as binding this style with other, more conventional ones and more so adding effects such as time stretch to lengthen scenes and create either disorientation or attribute to atmosphere; which had been added to these flashbacks particularly as they were meant to be ‘dream-like’ to connote their purpose whilst working with the conventions of the style.
Other features overall such as sound and camerawork followed the conventions of crime/thriller as well. Sound in DECIPHER is diegetic through dialogue and is strict to do so as such things as voice overs or additional sound effects or themes are rarely used – except for the atmospheric soundtrack that runs the whole opening to create drama within the piece. Dutch shots are the most effective contribution to following conventions in DECIPHER as seen greatly and most effectively in Casino Royal, they are typically found within film Noir, but have been adopted by the thriller/crime drama due to its stylistic approaches – in DECIPHER, this is seen at particular intervals such as the tunnel and integration scenes.
Representation & Conventions
In DECIPHER, representation does follow typical conventions of crime/thriller; however we also do offer a point of subverted representation of social classes. Firstly, following the conventions gender in crime/thriller is out thrown; its male dominated and rarely female influenced or balanced as typically, the audience for this genre is dominantly male. Quoting from Swordfish, ‘bam, the pretty blonde gets it’, the female population in this genre are the ones that normally die first or are the only ones to die – more so in heavy crime examples of this genre such as Sherlock is an example where most of the victims are female and are often the girlfriend which are often murdered. We replicated this by simply including two male actors and one female actor – immediately, the synopsis gender representation in the film is out weight two to one. This follows the typical conventions of crime/thriller, as the audience is typically male and therefore these conventions of audience translate into representation and gender presentation balance. The fact that the female character dies and the male power struggle is predominant in the film further contributes to these conventions.
Social classes particularly are the representation that we had subverted from the crime/thriller; in the film, we have two opposing social classes, lower class and middle class. Ryan (Barry) is the example of the lower class, the mise en scene of his ‘cheap sport’ clothes connotes the ideology of lower class England whereas Nick (Reece) is constantly seen in a suit and having more power as he is in the middle class. Whilst the mise en scene and the power control of these representations follow the typical conventions of crime/thriller representation, we do however subvert the actual characters intentions. Ryan, seeming in trouble as being the lower class citizen and therefore the assumed culprit, is actually the one who is innocent – this is shown through lighting as he is always bright, connoting that he is the innocent one and therefore subverts these conventions and also the stereotypical ideology. Nick on the other hand is actually the culprit, which is shown by the darkness he is always hidden in until the end of the integration scene, showing that he is the dark character that steps away from the conventions of this genre. This representation also insinuates that Nick being the middle class citizen is breaking typical ideology in comparison to Ryan as the lower class is seen as the criminals in most representations and more so these conventions; because we swap these roles, we subvert the representation conventions.
00:41
The image above taken from 00:41 (the first shot of the opening sequence) shows the immediate reflection of power in the piece. Whilst it becomes shortly established that this is Nick, the interrogator, the darkness in this shot represents his control of power which influences the opening scene and the power that the higher class obtain – more so, darkness here, indicating power or strength, combined with the mise en scene of the black suit, represents the power of the male character.
02:05
02:34
In this example, representation is dominantly focused on the gender balance; there are two males, both quite threatening in both mise en scene and composition, taking centre frame of the shot, they maintain the power as the un-named female character retreats. Mise en scene of the tunnel plays into the representation of Ryan being lower class and being in a supposed run down, urban area. Nick on the other hand, only seen as a figure of black, is dominant over all power of this shot, thus reflecting his social representation as well as gender representation of the opening sequence.
Representation and conventions examples:
- What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Firstly, we chose Warner Bros because of its wide variety of films such as The Dark Knight and Ocean’s 11 in the genre that we were studying, but also because of its successes with audiences. Warner Bros is one of the 8 major leading film companies which dominates the film market in both theoretical exhibition and physical sales and is familiar to most ideologies and countries overseas. This substantial backing into DECIPHER ensures a budget push as well as grouped audience from Warner Bros followers; for example this situation may work in the way that The Dark Knight has found success, the institution develops a positive mark in the industry. Primarily, we chose Warner Bros for our distributer due to its capabilities to market with audiences through new technologies; blogging, creating websites, YouTube advertising and social networking sites branch out to audiences, which in retrospect to a small independent company; Warner Bros can reach out to audiences further. Warner Bros major placement in the film industry also ensures support for new technologies as HD for DECIPHER.
- What would the audience be for your media product?
Once we decided on the genre film type that we were going to create, we immediately sought into research of marketing, audiences and distributes – what audiences in gender, age groups, countries and fan-built-credit basis would be susceptible to (e.g. Warner Bros. Pictures is respected for its thriller/crime films as The Dark Knight) and more so who our audience was. Barry and Reece both studying business, used a tactic to find consumer markets. Firstly, we looked at the film market over 2011 and 2010 and focused on the success of crime/thriller genre’s in all industries. In 2011, only one crime/thriller had made the top 25 box office, whereas in 2010, there was a larger amount of crime/thriller films that had made the top 25 box office. Comparing results to 2010 and 2010, we decided that 2011 was more likely an anomaly, and that there was still a market established for our crime/thriller film – ensuring that there was an audience. Our film is aimed to the age range of 18-64 year olds as the genre itself is timeless and spans over different interest of age groups as its variety in context various, however the crime/thriller genre having a mature tone meant that it could not be targeted at anyone under 18 (containing violence, swearing etc.). From these age groups we could also determine that the crime/thriller genre is aimed at male consumers (hence the male dominant presence in the films – our opening sequence connotes these conventions – as The Dark Knight had only shown one woman and Swordfish was entirely male populated). We found that whilst representation and ideology is mostly male targeted, we also found that the actual context itself of introducing sciences, maths, action scenes etc. influences the male audience side more and has a larger success rate. Whilst we could base this information from more modern crime/thriller films that we studied, this ideal also applied in the 1960’s, as males were the ones typically featured in the crime/thriller films also, e.g. Scarface reflects crime in a realistic view, as it is male dominated, its realistic approach is more appealing to the male audience. DECIPHER does this by following the representational conventions of the genre; having the opening sequence heavily male influenced as opposed to female, appeals further to the male audience that it attempts to capture. It’s stylistic and plot mixing also appeals to the male audience as it is something to work out and applauds constant suspense and action-based drama. Lastly, DECIPHER also targets lower / middle class audiences; the class out way which the opening sequence demonstrates realistic, and in sub convention, reflects the changing roles in today’s ideology of Britain. However it reflects the ‘gritty’ reality (e.g. being accused for something that they did not do, small urban spaces) represents the audience in which it tries to target; already familiar with the ideology that is presented to them, these class aims will similar personas, similar situations and similar jobs which they can relate to – often leading to success with the audience in the situation where they can see the characters or situations as themselves.
- How did you attract/address your audience?
The main priority of audiences was the representation and ideology within the DECIPHER so that it would reflect the audience in which we were targeting; male domination, male power, similar personas and jobs etc. so that the viewer can thereby see themselves within the situation or character and enjoy it further in understanding and enjoyment of what they are seeing. That said, our decision to mix the time frames and twist the plot continuously (e.g. revealing that Nick was really the killer) introduces a sophisticated approach which is both dangerous yet cleverly placed so that it attracts the audience. Instead of feeding the audience a chronological film which shows events by events of what has happened (less artistic and unique as we’d try to attempt), we decided to introduce multiple plot twists by revealing the true killer at the beginning; whilst the audience is aware of the real murder, Nick’s intentions of doing so are not clear, what is to happen to Ryan is also a mystery – immediately suspense and drama is created by the fact that the audience has to work out what is to come next, or the various possibilities that DECIPHER is open to (aptly, our opening sequence is named DECIPHER to replicate the puzzle in which we create). With this, we are also following a modern phase in crime/thriller films as these puzzle like plots are introduced, forcing the audience to input thought. Because the audience does so, they are more focused on the film, pay more attention and appreciate it more. That said, DECIPHER does also attract its audience in the climatic build up at the end of the opening sequence; the constant fade in, fade out between the sequences shown does not imply what has really happened, or is to happen, in reality, the first scene is open to endless possibilities. Doing this intrigues the audience and creates a sense of natural curiosity to watch further. The artistic film Noir in which we follow conventions of in DECPHIER also attracts fans of the older instalments of the crime/thriller genre, and offers a less-mainstream approach to film over all; offering something that is not entirely new, but different enough to attract audiences.
- What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Personally, what I learnt and found most interesting to be was the dolly or steadicam equipment’s used to make shots more smooth when in hand held, tracking or panning – I personally planned to make a steadicam, from finding the model manual of the camera’s we used online, I found the weight and with my dad figured out the counter eight plus 1lbs for stabilisation. My dad made it with wood and plastic and with a gimbal, it was held at the top and the led weights at the bottom, it countered the weight of the camera – however when we came to use it during DECIPHER, a gimbal screw had fallen off, destabilising it considerably (yet it was still used for the final shot where it pans up the side of Barry’s head when Reece comes to ‘reassure him’). Homemade or bought technologies such as these meant that we could add a depth to the film that wouldn’t be accomplished otherwise – the pan up we made was relatively smoothed as opposed to a hand held shot and we focused on the quality of the shots itself at first hand pre-editing so that we would not have to focus on editing techniques primarily. In DECIPHER, we used two different types of editing software, alongside with other technologies that we already knew how to control, such as a video converter and Adobe sound booth to lengthen the sound track from Secession Studios. We used Adobe Elements 4.0 and Adobe After Effects 4 on my laptop; these two different software’s in tangent meant that we could adjust things or even create things that we couldn’t in the other software, for example Adobe Elements 4 allowed us to produce a cleaner edit and adjust sound volumes where as we used Adobe After Effects 4 to create our studio logo and titles within the film. From scratch we learnt how to use Adobe After Effects 4 completely from reading the online Adobe guide, tutorials and forums on tips and hints, which allowed us to learn the basics and then take it off in our own tangent – our DynamiteKittySTUDIOS logo is our best example of which. I learnt of the dynamic layering which is needed in this software, and how complicated a title sequence can become with a composure of 3D effects in particular (originally, we had a 3D spinning title sequence) and how the camera reacts with null objects and the text on which you compose all work together to produce something of a higher quality than even Adobe Elements or Adobe Premier Pro. In all, After Effects lead to the exploring of the new technology, and produced several betas of the logos and title sequences that were produced before final cut of the opening sequence – the original logo was spinning as compared to the draw one now and the titles were at first hand spinning, growing or glowing past the screen. That said, by using Adobe Elements 4.0 we were already familiar with the software, for me personally I’d had it for several years and had taught Barry and Reece how to use it in our free periods and after school when we produced our first project Prisoner (which is why we decided Adobe Elements 4.0 was our best resort due to its more simplistic nature). However, there is one thing I learnt in particular when creating DECIPHER, the timeline effect which increases or reduces the speed of a clip – which was used in the Flash back sequences. More so, we learnt not to entirely rely on the cameras and focus more on our pre-set lighting and sound before the shoot as editing can only do so much. Even this went through stages as we planned to re-record all dialogue on the opening sequence via Sound booth and further before the shoot we had thought of buying a small boom mic due to the un-reliable capture of the cameras that we used during this project (yet even thinking consciously of the technology we were using to capture footage beforehand allowed us to jump around obstacles that were in our way such as lighting).
- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
In a short answer, a great deal. There are so many things we’d learnt to do and what not to do from our continuity project as compared to this one. From the footage itself, we’d learnt to gather more as we found in the previous we ran out of shots and variation, and with over 90 minutes of film for our opening sequence we had more plenty to choose from in both range of shots and different selections of each (for example compared to the first rough cut and the final cut, the very opening had a pan, which we replaced with two different shots that jump to each other, stating the exact same thing). Even when disaster hit and the camera died towards the end of the flashback shoot, we’d came up with a plan for alternative endings by taking photos of the weapons in case we didn’t have enough footage (which was one of the cases with our previous task). Similarly, we found from our previous project when we came to arrange all of our shots, the camera was always miss placed or did not align properly with pervious shots – meaning our continuity was off as well as quality of the film. In DECIPHER we applied what we learned thoroughly by running through all the lines in the script that we intended to have in a certain shot type several times over. Our master shot was over 30 minutes long and covered all of the script and was set up as a default shot if any of the others were unusable for some reason. Our flaws in particular in relation to the previous task was the reverse shots, in DECIPHER we placed the camera in one point and ran through all of the characters lines that would be within the reverse shots, meaning that we only had one referral clip but also that continuity would maintain throughout the opening sequence. Whilst these were some of our major flaws, we also learned from our previous task to always back up the project file as we lost the original within the first week of our continuity project – on my laptop we had the original file and another copied file called DEC_AL1, meaning that we always had a safe-fail copy if anything were to happen to the original. In our previous project we also found that mise en scene and planning of arranging footage in a timeline was an issue; it was obvious it was within school, which harmed the quality of our piece and the incapability to plan accurately what was to go where and when to cut meant that it was rather sloppily edited together and often broke continuity. In DECIPHER we did film within school once to use the drama room – with which we completely blacked out, covered everything and used curtains to hide anything that could have harmed the project; in addition with the art photography lamp that we borrowed, we created a low light effect which we wanted to create. And eventually when we came to re-view our footage, we continuously referred to the script and physically wrote what clip we were to use and the times in which we could piece together an analyse which was best in line of the film and overall quality.
DECIPHER Making of
http://vimeo.com/39797589
A collection of post or during filming clips when explaining our methods or intentions. The end cuts off as the result of the camera memory being full and running out of explanation footage.
A collection of post or during filming clips when explaining our methods or intentions. The end cuts off as the result of the camera memory being full and running out of explanation footage.
Friday, 9 March 2012
Sunday, 4 March 2012
Nearlying finished / slightly annoyed
Granted I've been off this week and we've lost some time, we knew exactly what we had to do. Whilst Barry and Reece where in and had noticed that we needed to add the titles 'in associastion with -' etc, they told me that this had to be done; however I was annoyed due to the fact that to do these titles does not require our film at all because I had been doing the titles (and had shown them as well as themselves being taught in the beginning of the year how to do this) and they had access to this software for the three lessons at school which I had missed, thus they had relied on me later on, so I'm annoyed about that.
Other than that, I really don't think we have much left but to twist some of the titles again and possibly have a play around with the audio if the boys think its out of balance again.
Other than that, I really don't think we have much left but to twist some of the titles again and possibly have a play around with the audio if the boys think its out of balance again.
Monday, 27 February 2012
Title tweaking
Considering that I was off today, the lads told me what was up and what needed to be fixed (as well as Mr Earl pointing out a few things). Not really big tasks and didn't take very long at all. Though I'm not sure of the 'filming by' part because I didn't actually didn't know what to do with it - so I'll have to talk to the boys about that part (which is primarly why I'm uploading this immediately so I can get some feedback).
At the moment I'm ill, and possibly won't be in tomorrow. This however is not a major problem as we are almost finished and we have yet to think of our commentary, filming of and analysis for presentation.
At the moment I'm ill, and possibly won't be in tomorrow. This however is not a major problem as we are almost finished and we have yet to think of our commentary, filming of and analysis for presentation.
Sunday, 26 February 2012
Tweaking and Extras Film
Because we had so much footage, and progressional stages within the opening that radically changed how it looked and set tone, I had to make a comparsion, a set list of priority changes and some snippets of when we were direacting shots and motive. Most of this other sample stuff came from our huge master shot which is over 30 minutes long, all together in this film I think we had at least over an hour of footage and possibly two hours as other samples where taken from a 20 min section.
Firstly, the comparsion is just to show what we've doen mostly with cinematic changes, making the area darker and replacing a few shots (this is shown in the first 'key changes' section)
Not only this but we also address that we now have titles and that by leghten of comparsion have slowed down the flash backs to replicate a 'day dream' phase as is what we felt needed for the referal back to the plot of the film.
This is nothing serious for looking at the footage we did, and espically when we're talking about stuff this is just an example, but now that I think we're finished, we need to go back and find places that we talked about shots, representation and possibly but these over the actual film itself as well as individual interviews and commentary - so we have a selection of things to work from.
And this is the current film - now, really, I don't think there's anything we could pick at. I've attempted to level out the audio, though I've also had in mind that with different legthens comes different volumes, so I used a basis of volume control to attempt to level it out (through i think this is as close as I can get it now).
Orginally, the starring titles didn't bother me until watching several films and thinking, this isn't correct, lets do it properly. So I did. The thign was, I didn't want to mess up the timeline of the film, the exact frames its at fits the soundtrack perfectly, so then I decided to copy the orginal, use crop, speed it up to around 180% / 160% and shave a few micro seconds off a few clips and managed to get it to fit! Orginally, the panic hit me as there really isn't anywhere else we could have put these.
Then the title at the end = it's so much more effective and ties up contigunity of our opening. I think this is as good as we're going to get it, unless Barry or Reece notice anymistakes.
Firstly, the comparsion is just to show what we've doen mostly with cinematic changes, making the area darker and replacing a few shots (this is shown in the first 'key changes' section)
Not only this but we also address that we now have titles and that by leghten of comparsion have slowed down the flash backs to replicate a 'day dream' phase as is what we felt needed for the referal back to the plot of the film.
This is nothing serious for looking at the footage we did, and espically when we're talking about stuff this is just an example, but now that I think we're finished, we need to go back and find places that we talked about shots, representation and possibly but these over the actual film itself as well as individual interviews and commentary - so we have a selection of things to work from.
And this is the current film - now, really, I don't think there's anything we could pick at. I've attempted to level out the audio, though I've also had in mind that with different legthens comes different volumes, so I used a basis of volume control to attempt to level it out (through i think this is as close as I can get it now).
Orginally, the starring titles didn't bother me until watching several films and thinking, this isn't correct, lets do it properly. So I did. The thign was, I didn't want to mess up the timeline of the film, the exact frames its at fits the soundtrack perfectly, so then I decided to copy the orginal, use crop, speed it up to around 180% / 160% and shave a few micro seconds off a few clips and managed to get it to fit! Orginally, the panic hit me as there really isn't anywhere else we could have put these.
Then the title at the end = it's so much more effective and ties up contigunity of our opening. I think this is as good as we're going to get it, unless Barry or Reece notice anymistakes.
Friday, 24 February 2012
Final tuning
I think we're almost there. Today we had a go at rearranging the titles, editing some of the trancisions and attempted to buffer out the sound a little bit more than we already had; though due to our working enviroment at school (which is extreamly loud) sometimes we can barely tell a difference. Litterly, we're just nit picking here to make sure everything as is near perfect as we can get it. Over some course of the weekend, I will attempt to sync all of the diologue up so that they all match with my Monster Beats (which couples sound in high defintion which will be far more distingusable to that of normal headphones) which in itself can be problemmatic. As I expressed in an earlier blog, we had a few issues with the soundtrack where we had to legthen it by nearly an extra minute and a bit - whilst we've tweaked with that we've also lowered the sound volume. The great, great thing about Adobe Elements 4 is that you can tweak things to (personally I believe) a finer detail than that of Premier Pro, on the timeline the yellow bar allows us to control brightness and on volume sound, moving the decabells up and down it either gives a positive count (which is extreamly loud and low quality) or a negative one (which is quiter and works better for our project). Because that is a vuage estmiate throughout sometimes, in the effects widget I can go to effects on the clip and select sound, typing in the frequency I want it to play our the decibles I want it at - I believe at the moment I have lowered it to -27D due to the loud climatic build in the soundtrack. The clips themselves are all on a -16D sound to buffer out a little bit of the fuzzy noise pick up; however due to range and legthen of shots this is proving a hard and pretty tedious task. In reality, it just needs some fine tweaking.
Title: basically we're going to change it. I never noticed until it was pointed out to us that we had a completely different font from the credits to the title, and never really linked to thought the different styles used. We're going to do to the title what we did to the credits, a simple negative left to right liner wipe, that is basically a little more unique fade (baring in mind we couldn't have anything flashy due to our genre). This will be done in Adobe after effects CS3 and unlike the orginal zoom and grow one, will litteraly take 3 minutes (not including render time).
Insitutions and logo. I was nearly in panic this morning as I forgot to get the sound for the Warner Bro's opening and the sound effect for our DynamiteKitty logo, so I got up early and went and downloaded them and fixed them on in tutor this morning with Reece and Barry;this just meant that we were further prepared four our lesson today also, and had ticked something important off the list. For our dynamiteKitty logo, we had a panther roar which I tweaked a little so it wasn't so abrupt as the orginal file was and fitted it just after the full image appeared from the trace and sketch annimation I created.
Overall, it's just fine tunning from here for the video itself, but in reality we have yet to consider making of and commentary, but its a good thing we've pretty much got representation sorted out - espically as we've considered it all along.
I will probably upload our current video some point over the weekend to show the tweaks we have made. I will also probably make a video that will run both our current and first draft to show changes that we have made, to compare and contrast why and what we have done also.
Title: basically we're going to change it. I never noticed until it was pointed out to us that we had a completely different font from the credits to the title, and never really linked to thought the different styles used. We're going to do to the title what we did to the credits, a simple negative left to right liner wipe, that is basically a little more unique fade (baring in mind we couldn't have anything flashy due to our genre). This will be done in Adobe after effects CS3 and unlike the orginal zoom and grow one, will litteraly take 3 minutes (not including render time).
Insitutions and logo. I was nearly in panic this morning as I forgot to get the sound for the Warner Bro's opening and the sound effect for our DynamiteKitty logo, so I got up early and went and downloaded them and fixed them on in tutor this morning with Reece and Barry;this just meant that we were further prepared four our lesson today also, and had ticked something important off the list. For our dynamiteKitty logo, we had a panther roar which I tweaked a little so it wasn't so abrupt as the orginal file was and fitted it just after the full image appeared from the trace and sketch annimation I created.
Overall, it's just fine tunning from here for the video itself, but in reality we have yet to consider making of and commentary, but its a good thing we've pretty much got representation sorted out - espically as we've considered it all along.
I will probably upload our current video some point over the weekend to show the tweaks we have made. I will also probably make a video that will run both our current and first draft to show changes that we have made, to compare and contrast why and what we have done also.
Thursday, 23 February 2012
Film Update
We're nearly finished, all thats left is to relinge some of the audio in the piece so that it balances out, fix a few shots and also fix a few transistions - and possibly lower the volume of the soundtrack.
Last tuesday we hit a little snag and we had to lengthen the soundtrack by editing it in adobe sound booth to then fix it again in adobe elements 4 because we had a skip.
Since our critiquismof our draft, we have changed a few things, most importantly being the decrease in speed in the flashbacks (apart from where Reece attacks Barry) and changed the titles so that they are now intertitles - normally appearing between the flash back and intergation scenes -.
What we need to fix now is sound on the distrubter and logo and then I think we're done.
After we finish - which could be very soon - we'll have to work on the commentry for our film
This weekend I think I'll post some of the clips of our 'making of' where we explain what we're doing whilst we were making the film, before making it into an overall film. Not only this but we'll begin working on our analysis for our film presentation; a good thing we've been thinking of repersentation all along.
I think this is sorta of intresting to look at from an Inception making of:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSBqXtOco5g&feature=related
Last tuesday we hit a little snag and we had to lengthen the soundtrack by editing it in adobe sound booth to then fix it again in adobe elements 4 because we had a skip.
Since our critiquismof our draft, we have changed a few things, most importantly being the decrease in speed in the flashbacks (apart from where Reece attacks Barry) and changed the titles so that they are now intertitles - normally appearing between the flash back and intergation scenes -.
What we need to fix now is sound on the distrubter and logo and then I think we're done.
After we finish - which could be very soon - we'll have to work on the commentry for our film
This weekend I think I'll post some of the clips of our 'making of' where we explain what we're doing whilst we were making the film, before making it into an overall film. Not only this but we'll begin working on our analysis for our film presentation; a good thing we've been thinking of repersentation all along.
I think this is sorta of intresting to look at from an Inception making of:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSBqXtOco5g&feature=related
Monday, 13 February 2012
Titles / Additons to squence
Considering that our rough cut had no titles, idents or logos of the sorts, we knew exactly what we were going to do, yet hadn't go around to creating them. We already made the logo (DynamiteKittystudios panther) and decided that we would choose Warner Brothers (in reference to other thrillers such as the dark knight) and were positive that we would have black and white, simple titles - Sword Fish (name), Casino Royal etc. ''Though, really, why have titles?'' we thought at the same time, considering that The Dark Knight particularly lacked anything but the connotation of the symbol of the films content.
Though, we though that titles would work best, but we didn't want to just 'fade in' and 'fade out' the normal way - we basicaly did that just with a side wipe from Adobe After Effects. These are just trails and yet have to be decided if we are going o use them, what we may still need and if we need to make them shoter/longer; thus we are due for a group discussion.
Fisrstly, we didn't like the spinning annimation that I made for our logo so I did something a little more individual and unique:
Orginally, I was trying to do something else, but due to several mistakes and a whole lot of confusion I instead created this - which I like a considerable ammount more than what I was trying to do and the spinning logo. It's 'artys' and unique - black and white also. Though, I think in the alternitive 'master rough' (the most recent edition of the film) that I had made it several seconds longer, also: but this establishes the idea. This was created through several points of layering (black layer, object layer and two copy layers with different effects for the transdendent fade between the draw, fill and glow).
Secondly, since we were mostly done with the titles, I thought I'd have a crack on peicing it altogther to get a jist of what it would look like - idents, logo and credits in all (I even placed music as it is yet decided whether we want music or silence; however I don't think it works):
We created these ones in school together by using composed linar wipes that we had to tweak so it would wipe left to right and out again, basically like the revealing method; simple yet effective as its hardly ever seen. Personally, I feel these titles are too long and need shorthning, however we need to decide what we are doing on a group decision so in the mean time this is the rough.
Finally, I decided to piece it all together as though it was the rough cut orginally (well, if it had included idents, logo, credits and titles) - of course none of the corrections have been made in this version (this is the orginal rough cut, however work is under way):
We all had a discussion abotu the title at the end particularly, we decided we wanted it at the end to conclude or ''sum up'' what happens in our opening squence due to the transistions, the point of this may become confusing to the viewer as the ammount of jumps and cuts that are happening in this squence are in delicate order - we have to be careful with what order we establish, also as I feel sometimes we've wondered into a stylized edit of a trailer (however for now I believe we're safe). I think it's rather effective also how the music ends on the title, rather fitting to be exact, and I decided to but a cross transistion on, though I might just have a fade into the growing title. Whilst we were commented to possibly consider making it shorter so that it can be read, we all feel personally this speed is 'okay' yet is still to be decided. The fade at the end of the squence basically ties up all the lose ends, summerising the opening squence in its enterity - also leaving transistion as though the film was to continue.
Here you can see that I have left the titles as they were, also. This is because the piecing of the rough cuts, idents, logo, titles were all squenced on my main home PC (I didn't use my laptop, which we have been working from as it ran out of charge and I just wanted an enital look for what we were doing). These titles are not defiant - the whole space it takes up isn't nessicary, yet personally I think it works well in this style (Inception for example, had over a 1 min opening titles?) and I believe that if we were to do a hollow overlay with the text on the orginal film, it would divert away from the film itself and the opening - what we have learnt is black and white and individaul, keeping it seperate.
Personally, I think we're nearly there - we need to make a few tweaks (which we've already started e.g. the clipped end of the shot where Reece hits Barry and the crop posistion of it) but we still have to do it. If we all agree on the titles, then that's sorted - we need to consider music, for these also, if we are even going to use any; I think it would be worth another trip to secession studios to see if we can find any fitting music - yet I ponder upon the question of transisction between that soundtrack and that of the films? Either way, we'll have to have a talk as a group.
Though, we though that titles would work best, but we didn't want to just 'fade in' and 'fade out' the normal way - we basicaly did that just with a side wipe from Adobe After Effects. These are just trails and yet have to be decided if we are going o use them, what we may still need and if we need to make them shoter/longer; thus we are due for a group discussion.
Fisrstly, we didn't like the spinning annimation that I made for our logo so I did something a little more individual and unique:
Orginally, I was trying to do something else, but due to several mistakes and a whole lot of confusion I instead created this - which I like a considerable ammount more than what I was trying to do and the spinning logo. It's 'artys' and unique - black and white also. Though, I think in the alternitive 'master rough' (the most recent edition of the film) that I had made it several seconds longer, also: but this establishes the idea. This was created through several points of layering (black layer, object layer and two copy layers with different effects for the transdendent fade between the draw, fill and glow).
Secondly, since we were mostly done with the titles, I thought I'd have a crack on peicing it altogther to get a jist of what it would look like - idents, logo and credits in all (I even placed music as it is yet decided whether we want music or silence; however I don't think it works):
We created these ones in school together by using composed linar wipes that we had to tweak so it would wipe left to right and out again, basically like the revealing method; simple yet effective as its hardly ever seen. Personally, I feel these titles are too long and need shorthning, however we need to decide what we are doing on a group decision so in the mean time this is the rough.
Finally, I decided to piece it all together as though it was the rough cut orginally (well, if it had included idents, logo, credits and titles) - of course none of the corrections have been made in this version (this is the orginal rough cut, however work is under way):
We all had a discussion abotu the title at the end particularly, we decided we wanted it at the end to conclude or ''sum up'' what happens in our opening squence due to the transistions, the point of this may become confusing to the viewer as the ammount of jumps and cuts that are happening in this squence are in delicate order - we have to be careful with what order we establish, also as I feel sometimes we've wondered into a stylized edit of a trailer (however for now I believe we're safe). I think it's rather effective also how the music ends on the title, rather fitting to be exact, and I decided to but a cross transistion on, though I might just have a fade into the growing title. Whilst we were commented to possibly consider making it shorter so that it can be read, we all feel personally this speed is 'okay' yet is still to be decided. The fade at the end of the squence basically ties up all the lose ends, summerising the opening squence in its enterity - also leaving transistion as though the film was to continue.
Here you can see that I have left the titles as they were, also. This is because the piecing of the rough cuts, idents, logo, titles were all squenced on my main home PC (I didn't use my laptop, which we have been working from as it ran out of charge and I just wanted an enital look for what we were doing). These titles are not defiant - the whole space it takes up isn't nessicary, yet personally I think it works well in this style (Inception for example, had over a 1 min opening titles?) and I believe that if we were to do a hollow overlay with the text on the orginal film, it would divert away from the film itself and the opening - what we have learnt is black and white and individaul, keeping it seperate.
Personally, I think we're nearly there - we need to make a few tweaks (which we've already started e.g. the clipped end of the shot where Reece hits Barry and the crop posistion of it) but we still have to do it. If we all agree on the titles, then that's sorted - we need to consider music, for these also, if we are even going to use any; I think it would be worth another trip to secession studios to see if we can find any fitting music - yet I ponder upon the question of transisction between that soundtrack and that of the films? Either way, we'll have to have a talk as a group.
Friday, 10 February 2012
Rough Cut
This is our first rough cut of 'DECIPHER'. At the moment particularly, the most important problem of this rough cut is that we don't yet have any titles (yet we've already been working with that to get it sorted).
To pick out a few problems first, the pan at the beginning is sloppy, sort of lazy really and doesn't quiet angle right, we'll fix this by using a different shot with that scene rather than cutting to it as Reece is already speaking as it is panning (its great that we have so much footage that we have several angles of shots to choose from).
Secondly, the shot were Reece goes to knock out Barry is obviously too fake, so we're going to cut it out further.
Also, one of the shots we had to crop because you could see our bags, hasn't been posisoned back into frame, leaving a black line across the shot - this is simple to fix.
I think all that is left to do is review the shots we're using, and look at our tranistion methods again, as sometimes they seem a little... weird. Other than that, we need to review opening credits, title and the film itself fully to decide what we want to do.
Also, we know for sure that we need at least one voice over as I've added that note in on a title so that it was absolutely impossible that we would forget.
To pick out a few problems first, the pan at the beginning is sloppy, sort of lazy really and doesn't quiet angle right, we'll fix this by using a different shot with that scene rather than cutting to it as Reece is already speaking as it is panning (its great that we have so much footage that we have several angles of shots to choose from).
Secondly, the shot were Reece goes to knock out Barry is obviously too fake, so we're going to cut it out further.
Also, one of the shots we had to crop because you could see our bags, hasn't been posisoned back into frame, leaving a black line across the shot - this is simple to fix.
I think all that is left to do is review the shots we're using, and look at our tranistion methods again, as sometimes they seem a little... weird. Other than that, we need to review opening credits, title and the film itself fully to decide what we want to do.
Also, we know for sure that we need at least one voice over as I've added that note in on a title so that it was absolutely impossible that we would forget.
Thursday, 9 February 2012
Samples of other music we might use
Because we haven't ulitmately decided what music we're going to fully use yet, we decided that it was also best to look at the other types of music that I did not include in the samples as we may come to work it in later.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ-JDeaKaBU&feature=plcp&context=C33f650aUDOEgsToPDskKMKsMkn9_HqPqFAvRqye46
This one particularly, the beginning and where the chords grow in tempo, I feel as though this would fit in sort of well during the flashbacks, then again due to its 'up beat' tone I feel as though it simply wouldn't work either, creating the wrong tone and atompshere for the piece - though it is still considerable and most defiantly worth playing around with the soundtrack.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3OrYjkhBDs&feature=plcp&context=C3b98b0bUDOEgsToPDskKizISaSK-LZltQHSRu6p6y
Again talking about flashbacks, I feel the first few seconds of the beginning would have worked perfectly, but then the music burts into lyrics, a faster tempo and grows in dynamic sound also, which is unsuitable for any of this film - yet those first few seconds are so simple for the piece that it would have worked. Otherwise, it creates the wrong atmopshere, it doesn't fit our genre and therefore there is really no point in trying to use it; but it was one of our variables on the table, however. However around 1:44 the dynamic sound lacks for a little while, yet at the present one of our flash-back squences is 30 seconds long - the film time simply out runs that of the sound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5hdJ3Z4pDY&feature=plcp&context=C337d554UDOEgsToPDskJXvLJUQ9oLSQ9XAJblPpfn
Orignally Reece suggested this piece for the flashbacks, which I would agree with as it has that dramatic, puzzling tone of it - yet I still feel it doesn't fit within our thriller correctly for us to use it, its just simply too somber and only too shortly picks up in dynamics. For the opening, the tense 'who killed her!' twist we have going on, just wouldn't fit the seriousness of the situation.
Considering all of this, I think from the samples I did yesterday, the third that I produced (saved as ''copy 3'') is the best simply because it is shaped well with the film and produces the correct tone and atmosphere that is needed within the thriller genre, but also the dramatic situation in the piece. The thing is, also with this type of music is that they are mostly, in ways, tralier music - yet we can work around that if we lay the clip out correctly.
Either way, we're still deciding, and at the current time it looks as if our flash-backs are just only going to be silent and not have voice overs, with reducing the decoble output whilst editing, we remove the fuzz, what could be done later is when I render it in HD, that I could go back to the orginal file and take the sound only from the HD save, insert it back in and increase the decebel output - which I have tried. We thought that it would harm the quality of the sound, but suprisengly it made it better. If that doesn't work however or we feel as though we want to go down another path with that, we have two options:
1. Record all of the voices and include voice overs
2. Use sound system software to remove the fuzz and make it clearier.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ-JDeaKaBU&feature=plcp&context=C33f650aUDOEgsToPDskKMKsMkn9_HqPqFAvRqye46
This one particularly, the beginning and where the chords grow in tempo, I feel as though this would fit in sort of well during the flashbacks, then again due to its 'up beat' tone I feel as though it simply wouldn't work either, creating the wrong tone and atompshere for the piece - though it is still considerable and most defiantly worth playing around with the soundtrack.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3OrYjkhBDs&feature=plcp&context=C3b98b0bUDOEgsToPDskKizISaSK-LZltQHSRu6p6y
Again talking about flashbacks, I feel the first few seconds of the beginning would have worked perfectly, but then the music burts into lyrics, a faster tempo and grows in dynamic sound also, which is unsuitable for any of this film - yet those first few seconds are so simple for the piece that it would have worked. Otherwise, it creates the wrong atmopshere, it doesn't fit our genre and therefore there is really no point in trying to use it; but it was one of our variables on the table, however. However around 1:44 the dynamic sound lacks for a little while, yet at the present one of our flash-back squences is 30 seconds long - the film time simply out runs that of the sound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5hdJ3Z4pDY&feature=plcp&context=C337d554UDOEgsToPDskJXvLJUQ9oLSQ9XAJblPpfn
Orignally Reece suggested this piece for the flashbacks, which I would agree with as it has that dramatic, puzzling tone of it - yet I still feel it doesn't fit within our thriller correctly for us to use it, its just simply too somber and only too shortly picks up in dynamics. For the opening, the tense 'who killed her!' twist we have going on, just wouldn't fit the seriousness of the situation.
Considering all of this, I think from the samples I did yesterday, the third that I produced (saved as ''copy 3'') is the best simply because it is shaped well with the film and produces the correct tone and atmosphere that is needed within the thriller genre, but also the dramatic situation in the piece. The thing is, also with this type of music is that they are mostly, in ways, tralier music - yet we can work around that if we lay the clip out correctly.
Either way, we're still deciding, and at the current time it looks as if our flash-backs are just only going to be silent and not have voice overs, with reducing the decoble output whilst editing, we remove the fuzz, what could be done later is when I render it in HD, that I could go back to the orginal file and take the sound only from the HD save, insert it back in and increase the decebel output - which I have tried. We thought that it would harm the quality of the sound, but suprisengly it made it better. If that doesn't work however or we feel as though we want to go down another path with that, we have two options:
1. Record all of the voices and include voice overs
2. Use sound system software to remove the fuzz and make it clearier.
Wednesday, 8 February 2012
Sound Expermintation
We've now hit the half way mark through team viewer, reaching one minute, so we've been messing around with the soundtrack. Here's some samples:
There's a few things that I'm unsure of in this one. Firstly the transistion between the present and flashback, we have used a soft glow yet I'm not too keen on it and thinking about other ways in which we can do that. On the flashback also, we have a sound effect, yet I think it is extremely unneeded as we have a soundtrack (the other examples don't have a soundtrack). I think there's a few things to go over with still as some of the shots are a bit funny such as the man - you can see the drapes and the quick cut away shot I feel its just too quick, but we'll review it later.
Sample 2:
I don't actually thing the soundtrack has worked on this one - will have to ressample tomorrow, but you can basically get a guage of the sound as we've removed a lot of the fuzzyness.
Sample 3:
(This one has worked) Personally I prefer this one far much more than the others, I feel its the right tone and dramatic sense within it, in this one we removed the flashback transistion as it was just to me, far too obvious and extremely clesay, I love the build up in this one particularly during the flashbacks - though I think we have to be careful as this has that type of trailer soundtrack that people normally anticipate - our film will have to be extremely delicate.
Sample 4:
Whilst I like the opening to the soundtrack for the present, I aboslutely loathe the rest of the soundtrack on the flashback personally, it just feels too amuteristic, over dramatic - however we could cut away to another soundtrack.
We'll have a dicussion about it tomorrow and decide what soundtrack we're doing and how we are goign to transcend between flashbacks.
There's a few things that I'm unsure of in this one. Firstly the transistion between the present and flashback, we have used a soft glow yet I'm not too keen on it and thinking about other ways in which we can do that. On the flashback also, we have a sound effect, yet I think it is extremely unneeded as we have a soundtrack (the other examples don't have a soundtrack). I think there's a few things to go over with still as some of the shots are a bit funny such as the man - you can see the drapes and the quick cut away shot I feel its just too quick, but we'll review it later.
Sample 2:
I don't actually thing the soundtrack has worked on this one - will have to ressample tomorrow, but you can basically get a guage of the sound as we've removed a lot of the fuzzyness.
Sample 3:
(This one has worked) Personally I prefer this one far much more than the others, I feel its the right tone and dramatic sense within it, in this one we removed the flashback transistion as it was just to me, far too obvious and extremely clesay, I love the build up in this one particularly during the flashbacks - though I think we have to be careful as this has that type of trailer soundtrack that people normally anticipate - our film will have to be extremely delicate.
Sample 4:
Whilst I like the opening to the soundtrack for the present, I aboslutely loathe the rest of the soundtrack on the flashback personally, it just feels too amuteristic, over dramatic - however we could cut away to another soundtrack.
We'll have a dicussion about it tomorrow and decide what soundtrack we're doing and how we are goign to transcend between flashbacks.
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Problem
Okay, so it's mostly my fault that I wasn't in yesterday or today, but I'm going to skype Barry at least in half an hour and use team viewer to do some editing (a software that allows you to control someone elses computer) so that we can get some editing done, as well as tomorrow as I'll bring the stuff in.
At the moment, I feel there's a bit of tension within the group and with Reece being off yesterday we had a problem of not having the log list of the shots and where they are in the clips, which is considerably huge as we need to find the clips fast so we can get some work done - we have so much footage we could spend over an hour easily assessing what we are doing (however I did ask him to copy it / scan it a week ago for us or at least put it on the script for reference).
We have another poblem of getting organized as we need to start sellecting our music from secessionstudios, yet the lads keep forgetting to facebook me what we're using and I don't want to go and decide straight away as I feel it isn't fair and as we are a group we should be working as a group.
At the moment, I feel there's a bit of tension within the group and with Reece being off yesterday we had a problem of not having the log list of the shots and where they are in the clips, which is considerably huge as we need to find the clips fast so we can get some work done - we have so much footage we could spend over an hour easily assessing what we are doing (however I did ask him to copy it / scan it a week ago for us or at least put it on the script for reference).
We have another poblem of getting organized as we need to start sellecting our music from secessionstudios, yet the lads keep forgetting to facebook me what we're using and I don't want to go and decide straight away as I feel it isn't fair and as we are a group we should be working as a group.
Sunday, 5 February 2012
Editing Shots
We didn't think the quality of our shots were brilliant, mostly because of us shooting in low lighing, so I used contrast and brightness effects in adobe elements 4 to mess around with the image to see what kind of style we could get out of it - ulimately we made it darker and the colour that was there mroe definitive, as for example:
BEFORE
AFTER
(as you can see from changing this shot, very little is now shown of Reece and darkness is greatly deep and compares against the lighting from the side, glowing unlike the other - doing this also removed some of the grain)
BEFORE
AFTER
This is only a test and I'm not yet adding it to the video as I need a point of control on the darkness and brightness used, if I were to do it individually at the first stage, I can't work out the volumes that are used; when it's finished I'll link it all as one video and mess around with the contrast settings to get the quality and style that we want.
I think in a way, we're taking a gamble as some of the films we looked at were stark - but in another sense we're adding a stylized and more quality into the shot, I think it could work, ulitmately we're making it dark and most of the films we anlysed were dark for the thrillers.
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
Update
We haven't quiet started editing yet, but we've been recorrding the voice overs. We're still reviewing clips (we have a lot of footage, some of it lasting half an hour...) to see what parts we need to use and in what order to aid us in editing. By Friday, however, we should have at least started the first interogation scene and have a vuage 'rough cut' by next friday.
The good thing about us working on our laptop, also, it means that me, Barry and Reece can get together during the half term week coming up soon, and continue editing.
The good thing about us working on our laptop, also, it means that me, Barry and Reece can get together during the half term week coming up soon, and continue editing.
Friday, 27 January 2012
Voice over and Diologue Sound
Today I brought my laptop into school so that we could work on recording some of the voice overs and diologue incaset he camera hasn't picked up the sound as well as we want - which we aware is an issue as the sound quality in the cameras aren't perfect.
We didn't record all of them, so by monday we will probably finish this and start doing a rough edit.
In the mean time, we will also have a look at the Studios we have premission to use. We'll have to get a basis which can create a various issue of atmopshere, whilst relating to topic at hand and genre - this could also be included to the rough cut eventually.
We didn't record all of them, so by monday we will probably finish this and start doing a rough edit.
In the mean time, we will also have a look at the Studios we have premission to use. We'll have to get a basis which can create a various issue of atmopshere, whilst relating to topic at hand and genre - this could also be included to the rough cut eventually.
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Final Film
Currently, we've finished filming, however we ran into a problem.
Yesterday we checked if the camera was fully charged - which it was - yet within half an hour it had lots 2 bars of power until finally, near the end of the shoot it cut out and wouldn't turn back on. At this point, we were done with flossi (our actor) so if we could find somewhere to charge, we could have worken around it. However, I had came up with a solution, because this is situated in a police themed film for athriller, I came up with the idea that we take photos of the weapons and then insert them into the film as evidence. If this doesn't look right, we could also return later in date or work our way around the story line. That said, all we need to do is convert the footage and start editing; otherwise our filming has went okay, however I'd avoid this camerafrom now on as this is the second time we've had issues with it.
Yesterday we checked if the camera was fully charged - which it was - yet within half an hour it had lots 2 bars of power until finally, near the end of the shoot it cut out and wouldn't turn back on. At this point, we were done with flossi (our actor) so if we could find somewhere to charge, we could have worken around it. However, I had came up with a solution, because this is situated in a police themed film for athriller, I came up with the idea that we take photos of the weapons and then insert them into the film as evidence. If this doesn't look right, we could also return later in date or work our way around the story line. That said, all we need to do is convert the footage and start editing; otherwise our filming has went okay, however I'd avoid this camerafrom now on as this is the second time we've had issues with it.
Sunday, 22 January 2012
Testing Second Location
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnBoySNupjs&feature=g-upl&context=G21b78cbAUAAAAAAAAAA&fb_source=message
This is the video Reece did whilst scouting for the flashback scene, initally we had a large issue with lighting as none of the lights in the tunnel were working, but it appears as Reece explains that they've been replaced - so hopefully the camera will be able to pick up light better, though the ambience of black and white later on may not add much to that effect anyway, it depends.
We'll be shooting there tomorrow after school and this is possibly the best location. It's within a distance to all of us, has near by facitlies such as toliets and shops and whilst its in a public area, I don't think we'll have to worry about that much.
The camera is fully charged, empty memory and we're gathering props now.
This is the video Reece did whilst scouting for the flashback scene, initally we had a large issue with lighting as none of the lights in the tunnel were working, but it appears as Reece explains that they've been replaced - so hopefully the camera will be able to pick up light better, though the ambience of black and white later on may not add much to that effect anyway, it depends.
We'll be shooting there tomorrow after school and this is possibly the best location. It's within a distance to all of us, has near by facitlies such as toliets and shops and whilst its in a public area, I don't think we'll have to worry about that much.
The camera is fully charged, empty memory and we're gathering props now.
Thursday, 19 January 2012
Name Opening Title
We finally decided on the name DECPIHER (which we will talk more about later) and decided since we had time between filming spots and planning, that we would create the opening title for the opening scene - we again decided to go with something not over the top but not dramatically simple either. With the title zooming towards the audience, we believe it gives a feeling of suspense and tension as well as dramatic pull and time to read the title - we will try different varies of music over the top also in a later date when we come to editing as music will of course change its apperance.
Logo in film
We decided to annimate our logo for effect of our sutdios - we wanted something simple as an explosion was suggested, but we felt it did not suit the tone of the film and instead went with something far more simple by making the logo spin from nothing, across the screen and gone.
Though, we are thinking if it is too slow, or needs to spin more, so for the moment this is not a final logo clip but rather the prototype - we still need sound to go with the logo with decide too or play the seccession music to introduce the opening scene.
Though, we are thinking if it is too slow, or needs to spin more, so for the moment this is not a final logo clip but rather the prototype - we still need sound to go with the logo with decide too or play the seccession music to introduce the opening scene.
Studio Logo Design
Example shoot (raw)
This is raw piece of film straight from the camera, with a left to right pan - we think this is the smoothest pans out of all them also as we did it several times. I am showing this on example of our lighting situation and shot type.
Filming
So we started filming the previous night, the 17th december from 3:20pm until 6:15pm and got all of the interrogation scene done. We ran into a few problems, particularly with the camera running out of memory twice, so we had to transfer clips to my memory stick then delete them from the camera - though at first we didn't realise how to do this and took a huge chunk out of our filming time.
The area we used grew dark quickly, so we had to use light as an aid which we had written into the script and storyboard (we choose not to say what we used direactly) however it worked brilliantly! On the film while shooting we could see that the camera was picking up Barry in a lovely shot glow and when we got it right, Reece was casted in black.
Here are some of our shooting shots:
We like this one, purely because of the invision of light, and prophase in hind sight should have done a point of view shot from Barry's presepctive to capture Reece in such a light.
As you can see, whilst we can see Reece well in the light, the camera is picking him up obsecured and the light in a blur, which is again perfect to work with as it corrosponds with our idea.
This is an example of our scene, we had to adjust the ilght to get it at the right cast angle and glow for our shoot. We were sort of worried about the curtains, but when looking back on the video they were very rarely picked up, and only a few of the shots got a grain feature to it - though we can probably fix this when we later come to editing.
This spot was ideal as we were close to plugs also, though I am sure we caught them in the camera now and then.
This is scene rehersuel.
This is me whilst operating the camera to see if the light the camera was picking up was too strong, too light or too dull and the frame of the shot - we at this stage also figured out the 180 degree line, so the camera was always on that side of the table also.
This is again one of the established shot of how the camera would be picking up light and tracking shadows so that we did not cast on Barry.
We were in an ideal location, we had everything but food, though that did not come as a problem at any stage of the shoot.
Here is an example of the light the camera picked up - there is as huge difference between Barry's iphone (having more megapixeals) and the camera.
We decided to shoot all in one night as we worried about continuity if we had to come back later, such as posistion in the room (as we could not keep it in that order) and thought if we had the oppotunity that night, then why not? The interrogation scene is the largest amount of footage through the film, though it was suprising how long it took and the multiple shots we took.
The master shot we did of all the interrogation lasted 30 minutes all together, but does mean however we have plenty of footage to later select from - we've learnt from our last project as we were anxious, worried yet confident of what we were doing from angles to coninuity and types of shot - whilst developing I was also continously thinking of editing stages.
We will shoot the flashbacks later next week.
The area we used grew dark quickly, so we had to use light as an aid which we had written into the script and storyboard (we choose not to say what we used direactly) however it worked brilliantly! On the film while shooting we could see that the camera was picking up Barry in a lovely shot glow and when we got it right, Reece was casted in black.
Here are some of our shooting shots:
We like this one, purely because of the invision of light, and prophase in hind sight should have done a point of view shot from Barry's presepctive to capture Reece in such a light.
As you can see, whilst we can see Reece well in the light, the camera is picking him up obsecured and the light in a blur, which is again perfect to work with as it corrosponds with our idea.
This is an example of our scene, we had to adjust the ilght to get it at the right cast angle and glow for our shoot. We were sort of worried about the curtains, but when looking back on the video they were very rarely picked up, and only a few of the shots got a grain feature to it - though we can probably fix this when we later come to editing.
This spot was ideal as we were close to plugs also, though I am sure we caught them in the camera now and then.
This is scene rehersuel.
This is me whilst operating the camera to see if the light the camera was picking up was too strong, too light or too dull and the frame of the shot - we at this stage also figured out the 180 degree line, so the camera was always on that side of the table also.
This is again one of the established shot of how the camera would be picking up light and tracking shadows so that we did not cast on Barry.
We were in an ideal location, we had everything but food, though that did not come as a problem at any stage of the shoot.
We decided to shoot all in one night as we worried about continuity if we had to come back later, such as posistion in the room (as we could not keep it in that order) and thought if we had the oppotunity that night, then why not? The interrogation scene is the largest amount of footage through the film, though it was suprising how long it took and the multiple shots we took.
The master shot we did of all the interrogation lasted 30 minutes all together, but does mean however we have plenty of footage to later select from - we've learnt from our last project as we were anxious, worried yet confident of what we were doing from angles to coninuity and types of shot - whilst developing I was also continously thinking of editing stages.
We will shoot the flashbacks later next week.
Wednesday, 11 January 2012
Gathered More Props
Seen as we already have Nick's suit for the interrogation scene, we need another set of clothing which will represent not only the time change adn area, but also the character as a 'second persona' in a way, thus reflecting the region and class as compared to the suit - jeans and jacket clothing like this would represent a normal class whilst the suit would represent upper class - the ideal of keeping black always keeps Nick in the power of authority withint he opening scene which is important to establish.
So far we've had not set of clothes for Ryan and this is Barry's on his prop list. It's important to ntoe that Ryan will now only have 1 pair of clothing to show that there is a continous time frame between the interrogation and the flashbacks - we will do this by having fake blood upon Ryan from when he is attacked to show this. The representation of these clothes in comparsion to Nick needs to be addressed - whilst Ryan is wearing dark clothes (that would corrospond and represent traditional male roles), the clothing is not as dark as Ryan's, thus showing that Ryan maintains the power throughout our clip. Also, Ryan's clothing will represent a domesic, urban and lower class representation of the character which in turn contrasts Nick once again.
Sunday, 8 January 2012
Storyboard Animation
It's an extreamly rough one for now - when we come to do commentry later on I'll add mroe detail to it such as sound, zoom and subtitles. I think it's important to note however, if your storyboard can be made just over 2 minutes long, it certaintly means we should be able to get enough footage for 2 minutes at least for our piece.
As a side note, the blue is colour / present day and the rest in black and white is the flash backs. The pixel effect / which we are not using / is to represent the transistion between present time and flash back for the moment.
As a side note, the blue is colour / present day and the rest in black and white is the flash backs. The pixel effect / which we are not using / is to represent the transistion between present time and flash back for the moment.
Time Schedule
Week 1 - Ensure that all pre-planning is complete e.g. gathering props and finalising storyboard and script. Gather props and find a female actor.
Week 2 - Decide upon colour / tonal use of flash backs and present time - prophase run a test. Create a study logo and running clip for pre editing. Book camera and schedule meeting days and begin to bring all equitment needed for interrogation shoot e.g. torches and lamp.
Ensure camera is charged and memory card is inserted.
Week 3 - Begin shooting interrogation scene, idealy having at least half of the squence shots done before the end of the week.
Week 4 - Finish shooting interrogation scene, begin house scene and finish up to tunnel set.
Week 5 - Start shooting tunnel scene of Ryan and Sophie, finish. Start shooting attack scene in tunnel and finish.
Week 6 - Hand back camera for media file conversion. Begin to record voice overs Bring laptop for voice recording.
Week 7 - Create title opening sequence as follows - Insitute (WarnerBros.), studio (DynamiteKittystudios) and finally opening credits / opening squence of film / title. Have opening titles finished and title.
Bring laptop for Adobe After Effects use.
Week 8 - Begin to edit video footage only. (possible rough cut for blog)
Bring laptop
Week 9 - Aim to rough finish video footage without effects or sound. (possible rough cut for blog)
Bring laptop
Week 10 - Begin to add sound e.g. music, incidental themes and voice overs and produce a rough cut.
Bring laptop
Week 11 - Fix any errors in current rough cut. (possible rough cut for blog)
Bring laptop
Week 12 - Begin to add lighting effects such as brightened, serial colour and sepia tone - finish film opening squence.
Bring laptop
Week 13 - Finish editing by joining credits, film and title effectively.
Bring laptop
Week 2 - Decide upon colour / tonal use of flash backs and present time - prophase run a test. Create a study logo and running clip for pre editing. Book camera and schedule meeting days and begin to bring all equitment needed for interrogation shoot e.g. torches and lamp.
Ensure camera is charged and memory card is inserted.
Week 3 - Begin shooting interrogation scene, idealy having at least half of the squence shots done before the end of the week.
Week 4 - Finish shooting interrogation scene, begin house scene and finish up to tunnel set.
Week 5 - Start shooting tunnel scene of Ryan and Sophie, finish. Start shooting attack scene in tunnel and finish.
Week 6 - Hand back camera for media file conversion. Begin to record voice overs Bring laptop for voice recording.
Week 7 - Create title opening sequence as follows - Insitute (WarnerBros.), studio (DynamiteKittystudios) and finally opening credits / opening squence of film / title. Have opening titles finished and title.
Bring laptop for Adobe After Effects use.
Week 8 - Begin to edit video footage only. (possible rough cut for blog)
Bring laptop
Week 9 - Aim to rough finish video footage without effects or sound. (possible rough cut for blog)
Bring laptop
Week 10 - Begin to add sound e.g. music, incidental themes and voice overs and produce a rough cut.
Bring laptop
Week 11 - Fix any errors in current rough cut. (possible rough cut for blog)
Bring laptop
Week 12 - Begin to add lighting effects such as brightened, serial colour and sepia tone - finish film opening squence.
Bring laptop
Week 13 - Finish editing by joining credits, film and title effectively.
Bring laptop
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