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Tuesday
The editing for our opening to a thriller
As our editing was starting to cause problems we decided that we should have a group meeting to resolve them. The editing was starting to annoy everyone, as the more we edited the more we weren’t getting the effect that we had initially been aiming to achieve. In our group discussion we decided that we should all meet up at Usman’s house and spend a whole day on editing to ensure that the final effect that we wanted to have on our audience was achieved. First we had to find all of the clips and import shots from other group members USB’s to the computer so that we have everything ready to start editing. We then put all of the shots onto a timeline. I found some continuity problems in the video that we had edited but the other group members said that they didn’t see the point in changing it as I was the only one that noticed. I disagreed with them as continuity is a major part of this coursework, as it won’t make sense to the audience otherwise.
Then we decided to compromise and put the shots of me in a dress, so that the scene makes sense to the audience. We then carried on with the rest of the editing and the soundtrack research, and finding the right soundtrack to make sense and create a buildup of tension for the audience.
Finally we had to create the title sequences, and also come up with a name that would relate to our opening. We eventually came up with the name “9seconds”.
We originally wanted to use subtitles where the female character is speaking in a foreign language, but when we were editing we found that it worked well without the subtitles. We decided as a group that it would be best not to use the subtitles as it creates a more effective vision of her vulnerability.
Then we decided to compromise and put the shots of me in a dress, so that the scene makes sense to the audience. We then carried on with the rest of the editing and the soundtrack research, and finding the right soundtrack to make sense and create a buildup of tension for the audience.
Finally we had to create the title sequences, and also come up with a name that would relate to our opening. We eventually came up with the name “9seconds”.
We originally wanted to use subtitles where the female character is speaking in a foreign language, but when we were editing we found that it worked well without the subtitles. We decided as a group that it would be best not to use the subtitles as it creates a more effective vision of her vulnerability.
Shootind Diary- day (3)
Today was possibly the scariest filming experience I had ever been through. It was worse than a scary ride at a theme park! We had to record the scene with the van going over the camera. I was sat in the van at this point of time, while the driver next to me drove over the camera. It was the most terrifying experience of my life, although I knew we weren’t going over the camera itself, it certainly felt like we were. We had to go over the camera more than twice as the effect we were hoping for wasn’t being achieved and therefore had to keep doing it till we achieved what we wanted to achieve.
We also wanted to shoot a new scene for our opening as we wanted to include a shot of a suitcase with lots of knives inside it. We placed the camera inside of the suitcase and tried many different camera angles so that we could get this right but we were unsuccessful as it didn’t work due to the lack of lighting. Theses shots did not create the mood that we were trying to create and did not help our group in producing the effect that we were hoping for. We will not be using these shots in our final edited version of our opening as it will not be enhancing on the effect that we are trying to produce.
We also wanted to shoot a new scene for our opening as we wanted to include a shot of a suitcase with lots of knives inside it. We placed the camera inside of the suitcase and tried many different camera angles so that we could get this right but we were unsuccessful as it didn’t work due to the lack of lighting. Theses shots did not create the mood that we were trying to create and did not help our group in producing the effect that we were hoping for. We will not be using these shots in our final edited version of our opening as it will not be enhancing on the effect that we are trying to produce.
Shooting diary- day (2)
Today it was raining quite heavily and the weather was very gloomy and dismal. However, we had planned to film that day and so we met up and filmed the torture scenes which took place inside the van. In fact, to our surprise the dismal weather outside helped to build up the sense of eerie atmosphere that we were hoping would be built up mainly through the acting and the performance. We tried to improvise and add shots of one of the mental men licking my face and trying to calm me down. I think that this shot worked but didn’t quite get the sense of “mental patient scaring the audience”, it was more comical than anything else. This shot didn’t work that well, and although it took up about 40minutes of battery life to shoot it, we decided not to use it in the end. When we watched this shot to edit it on the computer, we saw that it looked pornographic and didn’t really fit in with the story that we were trying to convey to the audience. Finally we ended this day of filming with pan shots of the van speeding past the camera. These shots will be useful for the van arriving to grab the girl and can also be used for the van departing from the girl.
Halloween opening
The opening to Halloween opens with a point of view shot. This shot type is used throughout the opening of Halloween to allow the audience into the mind of the character. When I first watched the opening to Halloween I had a feeling that the audience and the characters are connected in some way as it makes the audience feel involved with the action. The unexpected enigma’s make the audience feels uncomfortable, and feel like you are a character in the film. This is a technique that we want to use in our opening as we want to make the audience feel involved with the action, we want them to feel sorry for the protagonist, and we will try to capture this effect through the use of camera angles and editing.
Point of view shots help to create an eerie atmosphere and help to build up tension for the audience. We may also use point of view shots in our opening as this will be effective and will enable us to communicate our story to the audience.They also used hand held cameras in the opening of Halloween, to create a sense of stressful anxiety and tension for the audience. This is effective as it adds realism to the story and leaves viewers wanting more. We will also be using a hand held camera shot in our opening as we want to empathize on the realism of the story. I feel that through viewing the opening of Halloween that there are new techniques that I can suggest to my group the next time we go filming to improve our opening.
Shooting Diary-Day (1)
We decided that we would start filimg early so that we can finish our editing and filming by Easter holidays so that we can spend more time on our blogs. We decided to meet up at the chosen location, outside Ali's dads house in Ponder's end. The date was the 13th of March and we all got to the location around 6. We were all so excited as the planning we had done had built up alot of adrenaline for us and we wanted to know what all the scenes that we had pictured in our heads would look like on camera. We had all decided that we would read through the planning and script beforehand, so that when we each arrived there we knew what we were doing. We were able to get a range of different shots, and also to understand the camera better and why some shots worked and why some didnt. As we didnt have a tripod, we had to improvise and we used a technique that Mr.Sim (one of my As media teachers) had shown us the day before which was to support the camera by making a weird "L" shape with our arms. However uncomfortable it was being a human tripod, it did work and we were able to capture some good shots.
A problem that we faced that day was lighting, it got dark quite quickly, faster than we had expected and we had to use alternative lighting were possible, such as camera flashes and street lights and van headlights.
The first shot that we filmed was the shot of the two mental men checking inside a black bag to make sure that all the tools they need are all there. The first three shots were repeated several times, at several different angles so that we could communicate to the audience the shot that we had planned, and to make them feel the way they were intended to feel after watchng these shots. Ali and Usman filmed these shots, and I think that they were done well and did portray the effect we wanted. Later we started filming the shots of me walking out of the apartments talking in a foreign language. We tried a variety of shots such as a tracking shot following her feet, and a pan shot of her walking and looking scared.We are thinking about putting subtitles on this part of the scene, but we will have to wait till we edit to see whether subtitles will be neccessary.
A problem that we faced that day was lighting, it got dark quite quickly, faster than we had expected and we had to use alternative lighting were possible, such as camera flashes and street lights and van headlights.
The first shot that we filmed was the shot of the two mental men checking inside a black bag to make sure that all the tools they need are all there. The first three shots were repeated several times, at several different angles so that we could communicate to the audience the shot that we had planned, and to make them feel the way they were intended to feel after watchng these shots. Ali and Usman filmed these shots, and I think that they were done well and did portray the effect we wanted. Later we started filming the shots of me walking out of the apartments talking in a foreign language. We tried a variety of shots such as a tracking shot following her feet, and a pan shot of her walking and looking scared.We are thinking about putting subtitles on this part of the scene, but we will have to wait till we edit to see whether subtitles will be neccessary.
Daniel also filmed ali putting on a balaclava which I think was really good as it was setting the scene for the audience and also making them aware of what is about to happen. I took a picture of Ali putting on the balaclava to indicate the effecte that the shot had on the audience.
The scene of the men grabbing me and throwing me in the van was quite interesting as I had underestimated how hard it was not to laugh when trying to act out a very serious role. In some of the shots of the men grabbing me, I tried to scream but gradually it faded into laughter. This wasn't all that significant as we were going to edit these parts out anyway. This scene was done using a hand held camera to add to the realism of the shot and make the audience more involved by feeling terrified for the character.
Unfortunately though, straight after the filming of this shot the camera died and so we had a group discussion as to when we should next film and what we should film.
Group meeting- 10th March
We had our first group meeting on the 10th March were we assigned different roles to different people. We decided that Ali will do the production schedule, Daniel will do the treatment, Usman will do the storyboard and I will do the script. This group meeting went well, however we later came to discover that we left Ali with too much work to do, and as he had a English mock exam that week aswell, we as a group done the production schedule together, with Ali doing most of the work.
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