Going back through the evaluation and hearing feedback for the final piece, Alex and I decided that we should attempt to add to our final piece in order for it to look more professional. Because the voice over from our actor Gavin, didn't fit in with the mysterious, tense atmosphere we were hoping to create, we though we would replace it with a new voice. We also took this as an opportunity to use new equipment as our first voice over was recording with a microphone in the Apple Mac which gave an echo and was bad quality.
For our new voice, we wanted something more serious, deep and fitting to the tense tone, so we looked at other male voices we know of to provide their voice. These people were in our school year, Scott, Jake, Luke and Ashley. After Alex and I discussed who would be fitting for the role, we decided to ask Jake and luckily he was able to help us out. Even better, Jake studies music technology and so is able to help us in areas Alex and myself are not as knowledgeable at.
For the new recording, we were able to use the Blue Light recording studio that is in our music block at our school. After sorting out times and meetings, we were able to record the voice over using the professional equipment and the sound proofed walls. This was so our voice over sounded professional.
On Friday 20th April at 10am we plan to record the voice over in order to attach it to the final video by Monday morning latest.
Showing posts with label planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label planning. Show all posts
Thursday, 19 April 2012
Saturday, 14 January 2012
Pitch
Even though our task was only to create a two minute opening sequence of a film, Alex and I planned the main outline for our film and after finishing with the film, decided to turn this into a more developed plot line on our own. Obviously, as we did not need to create a whole, feature length film our self, we are able to create the film in the mind of a budget and not an A Level project.
By looking at films of similar genre (eg. Thriller - Fight Club. Film Noir- Inception. Crime - In Bruges. Action - Taken.)
Here is a rough outline of the plot of Inspector:
23 year old Logan goes for a job interview for a law firm and is successful in getting the job. After, he sees a suspicious man in a hat, suit and briefcase looking at him from a distance but Logan forgets it. When celebrating his new job with friends at the pub, Logan meets a girl at the bar and they swap numbers. The next day, Logan sets up his office and begins to really settle into his work. As he's walking into his house after a good day at work, Logan sees a man staring at him from across the corner which frightens him.
Logan finds out that his new job is not what he thought. After having a client ask for somebody to kill someone off, he is horrified and finds out that he works in illegal assassinations. When he leaves his work, his boss thinks he knows too much and will tell the police about the firm so he rings Logan and tells him they have his girlfriend. Logan rushes to where they are and finds they do not have the girl, instead a coworker attempts to kill him by beating him round the head with a lead pipe. Logan wakes and is rushed to hospital by the people who were the targets for Logan's first client. He tells the police what happened and they find the firm and take away the workers.
A few days pass and Logan is in the park with his girlfriend walking their dogs. Logan's voice over explains how his life has gone back to normal and it's crazy how much can change in a week. But just when everything seems perfect, the camera zooms back and a figure is seen in the distance watching over him.
Under the read more tab is a more in depth, more of a scene by scene look at the film if I was to create it
By looking at films of similar genre (eg. Thriller - Fight Club. Film Noir- Inception. Crime - In Bruges. Action - Taken.)
Here is a rough outline of the plot of Inspector:
23 year old Logan goes for a job interview for a law firm and is successful in getting the job. After, he sees a suspicious man in a hat, suit and briefcase looking at him from a distance but Logan forgets it. When celebrating his new job with friends at the pub, Logan meets a girl at the bar and they swap numbers. The next day, Logan sets up his office and begins to really settle into his work. As he's walking into his house after a good day at work, Logan sees a man staring at him from across the corner which frightens him.
Logan finds out that his new job is not what he thought. After having a client ask for somebody to kill someone off, he is horrified and finds out that he works in illegal assassinations. When he leaves his work, his boss thinks he knows too much and will tell the police about the firm so he rings Logan and tells him they have his girlfriend. Logan rushes to where they are and finds they do not have the girl, instead a coworker attempts to kill him by beating him round the head with a lead pipe. Logan wakes and is rushed to hospital by the people who were the targets for Logan's first client. He tells the police what happened and they find the firm and take away the workers.
A few days pass and Logan is in the park with his girlfriend walking their dogs. Logan's voice over explains how his life has gone back to normal and it's crazy how much can change in a week. But just when everything seems perfect, the camera zooms back and a figure is seen in the distance watching over him.
Under the read more tab is a more in depth, more of a scene by scene look at the film if I was to create it
Monday, 9 January 2012
Soundtrack
For the music side of our opening sequence to a film, Alex and I looked at many sites for copyright free music but settled with a few tracks from AKM. AKM are a copyright free/royalty free music company who have many different CDs with the copyright free music on which, after you have purchased, are able to use without infringing any copyright issues.
As Alex had many different AKM music CDs which are all based on different themes, (eg.Weird and Wonderful, Opening/End credits, Distant Moods, etc...) we looked at a variety of different tracks for our opening sequence. As we needed music for two different scenes (the first scene in which a body is seen on the floor and the second where the person is getting ready for a job interview) we needed two very different types of music pieces.
For our cold open (the first scene) we needed music that held tension and seemed mysterious to an audience. Because the body is slowly revealed, the mystery has to be implied before the body is fully revealed so using a soundtrack ensures the audience to feel tension. We had already used the AKM CD titled 'Suspense and Drama' for our preliminary, so we already knew what type of tracks would be on the CD.
The second scene in our opening sequence is a contrast to the first scene because the character who is seen on the floor, is alive and getting ready for a job interview. We wanted the music to contrast the suspense, mysterious and tension that the cold opening scene featured so we wanted something with a little more beat and more of a happier mood to it. But we didn't want anything too happy as this would not match the character's feelings as they are preparing for an interview. Something simple, calm but upbeat that a regular person would listen to as they get ready. For this, we looked at songs from the AKM CD 'Alternative Rock'
Cold Opening
Apparition by mediauniqueandfreak
This track felt too much like a Sci-Fi and not so much a crime/thriller even though it seems mysterious. After a while it sounds like it could fit a horror film (0.25 secs) which does not fit the mood we wanted to capture in our cold opening.
Ghost Story by mediauniqueandfreak
Like the title suggests, this track resembles that of a ghost. It sounds like an old piece of music which could be connected to an old house where a ghost lives. The music sounds very sad and even though is quite cold, it would not fit our piece of music as we don't want the audience to feel sad necessarily - we want them to feel confused and bewildered by the body on the floor.
20 The Counts Castle by mediauniqueandfreak
This piece of music sounds similar to the 'Ghost Story' because it sounds very sad but quite draining. We need more mystery instead of sad and this track doesn't confuse the audience.
The Haunting by mediauniqueandfreak
This track begins to sound mysterious and cold but it also sounds like it's targeted at a younger audience. That sounds hard to describe but it sounds gentle and not a hard, cold piece of music. It begins to sound like it could fit the sci-fi genre which is the opposite of what we are looking for.
The Plot Thickens by mediauniqueandfreak
This track begins quieter than the main piece of music - a sort of crescendo into a song. It also captures all the moods Alex and I are looking for in our Cold Opening, sad, mysterious and chilling. The whole track is quite smooth and quite so it will not take over a scene as the main point of our cold opening is the narrators voice over the visuals.
In the end, we both decided 'The Plot Thickens' would best suit our cold opening as it does not take over the scene but it adds mystery for the audience because of the story. It's quite subtle, but towards where our 'title' will appear, it shots up a bit to create a sudden jolt in emotions for audiences.
Titles
Look Inside by mediauniqueandfreak
This track begins calm, beat and matches the mood we want for our title sequence perfectly! After about 0.45 seconds the song becomes a bit dreary as the music sounds the same for the rest of the track but the beginning matches the atmosphere we wanted to create.
Purple Tap by mediauniqueandfreak
This track is very happy, very upbeat and fits the rock and roll type of song we wanted. You can imagine somebody getting ready to a track like this especially as it fits the characteristics we wanted with our character. But it is too much of a difference from the first scene and doesn't fit the thriller/crime genre we are looking for.
Rush Hour by mediauniqueandfreak
Even though this song uses lots of drums and beats and is heavy on rock, it kind of resembles a sad mood. It changes between two pieces of music, the drum part and a quieter more natural sound. Because of this, it certainly doesn't fit our piece of film.
Disco Harmonix by mediauniqueandfreak
This piece of music is definitely not what we want for our film as, like the title explains, it's disco. It doesn't fit in with the setting, story or the character at all even though it's upbeat and fun.
Look Down by mediauniqueandfreak
This song is one that personally, I liked listening to but it definitely doesn't fit with what we want for our title scene. It's very loud, overpowering and very beaty
After looking at each of these tracks from the AKM CD 'Alternative Rock', Alex and I both decided that we liked how 'Look Inside' fitted in in time with our cuts in our second scene. The track seems calm and relaxed but at one point begins to bring in more instruments which creates a more fun but still chilled mood-which is what we wanted. It also reflects the characteristics of the male as he is quite calm, relaxed and he goes with the flow of things. This characteristic is part of the plot as the character doesn't know how he later gets into the situation which causes him to be either dead or seriously injured. We felt it also reflects the audience who would be interested in this type of film because they are laid back but upbeat and fun to get on with.
As Alex had many different AKM music CDs which are all based on different themes, (eg.Weird and Wonderful, Opening/End credits, Distant Moods, etc...) we looked at a variety of different tracks for our opening sequence. As we needed music for two different scenes (the first scene in which a body is seen on the floor and the second where the person is getting ready for a job interview) we needed two very different types of music pieces.
For our cold open (the first scene) we needed music that held tension and seemed mysterious to an audience. Because the body is slowly revealed, the mystery has to be implied before the body is fully revealed so using a soundtrack ensures the audience to feel tension. We had already used the AKM CD titled 'Suspense and Drama' for our preliminary, so we already knew what type of tracks would be on the CD.
The second scene in our opening sequence is a contrast to the first scene because the character who is seen on the floor, is alive and getting ready for a job interview. We wanted the music to contrast the suspense, mysterious and tension that the cold opening scene featured so we wanted something with a little more beat and more of a happier mood to it. But we didn't want anything too happy as this would not match the character's feelings as they are preparing for an interview. Something simple, calm but upbeat that a regular person would listen to as they get ready. For this, we looked at songs from the AKM CD 'Alternative Rock'
Cold Opening
Apparition by mediauniqueandfreak
This track felt too much like a Sci-Fi and not so much a crime/thriller even though it seems mysterious. After a while it sounds like it could fit a horror film (0.25 secs) which does not fit the mood we wanted to capture in our cold opening.
Ghost Story by mediauniqueandfreak
Like the title suggests, this track resembles that of a ghost. It sounds like an old piece of music which could be connected to an old house where a ghost lives. The music sounds very sad and even though is quite cold, it would not fit our piece of music as we don't want the audience to feel sad necessarily - we want them to feel confused and bewildered by the body on the floor.
20 The Counts Castle by mediauniqueandfreak
This piece of music sounds similar to the 'Ghost Story' because it sounds very sad but quite draining. We need more mystery instead of sad and this track doesn't confuse the audience.
The Haunting by mediauniqueandfreak
This track begins to sound mysterious and cold but it also sounds like it's targeted at a younger audience. That sounds hard to describe but it sounds gentle and not a hard, cold piece of music. It begins to sound like it could fit the sci-fi genre which is the opposite of what we are looking for.
The Plot Thickens by mediauniqueandfreak
This track begins quieter than the main piece of music - a sort of crescendo into a song. It also captures all the moods Alex and I are looking for in our Cold Opening, sad, mysterious and chilling. The whole track is quite smooth and quite so it will not take over a scene as the main point of our cold opening is the narrators voice over the visuals.
In the end, we both decided 'The Plot Thickens' would best suit our cold opening as it does not take over the scene but it adds mystery for the audience because of the story. It's quite subtle, but towards where our 'title' will appear, it shots up a bit to create a sudden jolt in emotions for audiences.
Titles
Look Inside by mediauniqueandfreak
This track begins calm, beat and matches the mood we want for our title sequence perfectly! After about 0.45 seconds the song becomes a bit dreary as the music sounds the same for the rest of the track but the beginning matches the atmosphere we wanted to create.
Purple Tap by mediauniqueandfreak
This track is very happy, very upbeat and fits the rock and roll type of song we wanted. You can imagine somebody getting ready to a track like this especially as it fits the characteristics we wanted with our character. But it is too much of a difference from the first scene and doesn't fit the thriller/crime genre we are looking for.
Rush Hour by mediauniqueandfreak
Even though this song uses lots of drums and beats and is heavy on rock, it kind of resembles a sad mood. It changes between two pieces of music, the drum part and a quieter more natural sound. Because of this, it certainly doesn't fit our piece of film.
Disco Harmonix by mediauniqueandfreak
This piece of music is definitely not what we want for our film as, like the title explains, it's disco. It doesn't fit in with the setting, story or the character at all even though it's upbeat and fun.
Look Down by mediauniqueandfreak
This song is one that personally, I liked listening to but it definitely doesn't fit with what we want for our title scene. It's very loud, overpowering and very beaty
After looking at each of these tracks from the AKM CD 'Alternative Rock', Alex and I both decided that we liked how 'Look Inside' fitted in in time with our cuts in our second scene. The track seems calm and relaxed but at one point begins to bring in more instruments which creates a more fun but still chilled mood-which is what we wanted. It also reflects the characteristics of the male as he is quite calm, relaxed and he goes with the flow of things. This characteristic is part of the plot as the character doesn't know how he later gets into the situation which causes him to be either dead or seriously injured. We felt it also reflects the audience who would be interested in this type of film because they are laid back but upbeat and fun to get on with.
Tuesday, 3 January 2012
Our construction main titles 2- Fonts
After looking at the fonts featured in films, Alex and I looked very hard into the Macs for a font that suited our film.
For our main title 'Inspector' Alex and I wanted the title to appear over the visuals and then for it to remain over black until it fades out. After messing around with the transitions, Alex and I also decided that it would look especially mysterious and delicate if the 
title faded in onto the screen before as well as fading out. The font we used (Courier New) is similar to a Serif font because it has flicks at the end of the letters and in the corners for example:
Most film's have a special way of presenting their fonts for a film. In big blockbuster films which are part of a big scale production with lots of money, some films have their own font created for them. Because this would take much longer as part of our task, the quickest and most successful way for our
film would be to use an already created font and put our own spin on it. After looking through the many fonts that were available for us on the Macs and the iMovie, we found that the basic font of 'Gill Sans'
in the size 24pt bold fitted quite well. The font also has an outline to it
compared to what it would be as a defult. We wanted the titles to be clear of the visuals and wanted them to stand out which is why we chose the fill colour of white as it stands out over the many different colours that feature in the visuals. Most films have different ways of presenting their titles for example a 'o' being turned into a 0 so it stands out or an 'a' being a '4' and most
commonly is the sure name is capitals or a different colour. We
liked this idea and so spelt all of the sure names featured in the titles in capitals so they stood out. We also used a style which meant that each letter in the
word are close together as you can see from the title
'Freddie' on the right. The letters are not too close that
they are overlapping or legible, but enough that they look simple but have a small twist on it which makes the film an individual.
For the the first title used which shows who the film is by, we used the same font and size for the rest of the title to show the two names but for the word 'and' we used a different font to make it look professional. It also causes more focus on the titles as they do not, after a while, blend into the visuals for the audience so they are still aware of it. For this font we used 'Signpainter' which is a lot different from the two names in the font 'Gill Sans'. It looks more like a Serif styled font and looks professional.
For the name of the studio which is distributing our film 'Purple Mammoth' we chose to have their logo and jingle before our whole film. Even though with this transition and text on the iMovie it did not allow for us to change the font, we still felt it looked appropriate and professional from our research into other films. It was hard to find out what exactly the font was as we could not change it, but from looking at fonts I believe it is the default font Times New Roman which we would like to have avoided but it still fits in with the film. As Purple Mammoth is technically separate from our film as in reality it would distribute a lot of other films, we liked how it was different to our film as it didn't need a genre.
title faded in onto the screen before as well as fading out. The font we used (Courier New) is similar to a Serif font because it has flicks at the end of the letters and in the corners for example:
S rather than S and N rather than N
This font is considered more formal than a font which is not a serif. This makes the film look as if it is part of a professional business which is similar to and reflects the genre of Film Noir. The font looks a bit similar to that of a typewriter which with the title 'Inspector' connotes to business and Film Noir. But the font isn't fully a formal one as it has a white outline with a black filling which makes the font look modern and slightly more fun. This too reflects our genre. The size for the font we used as 116pt. This was the limit the font could take to fill up the entire screen with the whole word being on one line. As our film is only a one worded title we wanted it to be as big and obvious as possible.
in the size 24pt bold fitted quite well. The font also has an outline to it
commonly is the sure name is capitals or a different colour. We
word are close together as you can see from the title
'Freddie' on the right. The letters are not too close that
they are overlapping or legible, but enough that they look simple but have a small twist on it which makes the film an individual.For the the first title used which shows who the film is by, we used the same font and size for the rest of the title to show the two names but for the word 'and' we used a different font to make it look professional. It also causes more focus on the titles as they do not, after a while, blend into the visuals for the audience so they are still aware of it. For this font we used 'Signpainter' which is a lot different from the two names in the font 'Gill Sans'. It looks more like a Serif styled font and looks professional.
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
Our construction main titles
After looking at many different film opening titles for my research, Alex and I planned out the titles we are going to use before we go straight ahead and add them to our film.
Because our project is only 2 minutes long as that is the maximum, we knew we had to limit the titles we used because other big production films have longer titles altogether and are able to have a long list of names to add.
Even though wikipedia is an unreliable website to base research on, I found a page on it where it explained what normally features in the opening credits of a film. That page can be found here
The first opening credits is a shortened list of of the major actors, producers, directors, etc who have worked on the film whereas the closing credits feature a much more detailed and extensive list which can last roughly 4-5 minutes.
Although nearly all films before the 50s and definitely the 70s, did not feature ending credits and only used opening credits, our film is made in present day so it follows the 'norm' of today's basic opening credits. This norm is:
Most films, we decided, show their studio or distributor over black (depending on their chosen logo but they usually are over black) Here are some examples from my research I have used throughout this assignment.
From this research we created our own 'Studio' who funded our film and created a little logo and title for them over black.
Also from our research..
we chose to include our 'Production Company' and 'a film by' over the first visuals. This is the first appearance of our names and as most film's show 'a film by' we followed this technique. Usually it features the directors name(s). Our whole production is an equal group effort and input so we put our names together on the front to show it is a film we both created entirely.
Now we chose to show our main 'actors' in the top right/left and bottom right/left corner of our visuals. The right and left would change each time.
We decided to use the important standard titles for our project as by this time we only have roughly 40-30 seconds left of our project and want it to look professional still. We include a casting director, music by, production design, written by and finally, director.
Our main film title features before any titles first appear. The title will appear at the end of our cold open 'prolouge' (first part of our film). Then the rest of our credits will follow.
From research I found that most film's end their opening credits with the director. We chose to follow this in our production by making our last credit the director.
Examples of film's last credit to be director
For the most part, we made up names to use in our opening credits, but where we could be honest, we used the names of people w ho actually were a part of our production.
Studio - Purple Mammoth - a company Alex and I created in a media lesson prior to our practical.
A film by - Nadine and Alex - our full names as we are a team
Starring- Gavin Bedford, Fiona Kettle, Sebastian King, Freddie Hitchcock, Phoebe Kudrow, - Gavin and Fiona are actors we know. Gavin featured in our film but we did not require Fiona. The other three are made up names
Casting director - Tony Stone - a made up name
Original Score - Tom Spall - a made up name
Production design - Leanne McArtha - a made up name
Written by - Nadine - me
Produced by - Laura Skelton - a friend who's name we used as a thanks as she offered to act in our film
Directed by - Alex Matthews - my partner
Because our project is only 2 minutes long as that is the maximum, we knew we had to limit the titles we used because other big production films have longer titles altogether and are able to have a long list of names to add.
Even though wikipedia is an unreliable website to base research on, I found a page on it where it explained what normally features in the opening credits of a film. That page can be found here
The first opening credits is a shortened list of of the major actors, producers, directors, etc who have worked on the film whereas the closing credits feature a much more detailed and extensive list which can last roughly 4-5 minutes.
Although nearly all films before the 50s and definitely the 70s, did not feature ending credits and only used opening credits, our film is made in present day so it follows the 'norm' of today's basic opening credits. This norm is:
- Name of studio
- Name of production company
- (Producer name) production and/or a film by (director name)
- Starring (usually the main actors)
- Film's title
- Featuring actors
- Casting by
- Music (usually composed by or original score by)
- Production design
- Editor
- Director of photography
- Producer
- Based on the book/novel by OR based on the characters by
- Story by and/or Written by
- Director / Directed by
- Set Design
- Costume
- Hairdresser
- Makeup artist
- Sound recording
- Visual editor
Most films, we decided, show their studio or distributor over black (depending on their chosen logo but they usually are over black) Here are some examples from my research I have used throughout this assignment.
 |
| Beetlejuice 1988 |
 |
| Inception 2010 |
 |
| Fight Club 1999 |
 |
| Pulp Fiction 1994 |
 |
| The Other Boleyn Girl 2008 |
 |
| Limitless 2010 |
Also from our research..
 |
| Limitless (201) |
 |
| Raising Arizona 1987 |
 |
| True Grit 2010 |
 |
| The Other Boleyn Girl 2008 |
 |
| Fight Club 1999 |
 |
| Beetlejuice 1988 |
 |
| Kick-Ass 2010 |
We decided to use the important standard titles for our project as by this time we only have roughly 40-30 seconds left of our project and want it to look professional still. We include a casting director, music by, production design, written by and finally, director.
 |
| An actor in Limitless 2010 |
 |
| An Actor in Beetlejuice 1988 |
 |
| Castin in The Other Boleyn Girl 2008 |
 |
| Costume in Terminator 2 1992 |
 |
| Written and Directed by in Ferris Bueller's Day Off 1986 |
 |
| Music in Kick-Ass 2010 |
From research I found that most film's end their opening credits with the director. We chose to follow this in our production by making our last credit the director.
Examples of film's last credit to be director
 |
| Ferris Bueller's Day Off 1986 |
 |
| Beetlejuice 1988 |
 |
| Fight Club 1999 |
 |
| Kick-Ass 2010 |
 |
| The Other Boleyn Girl |
 |
| Terminator 2 1992 |
Studio - Purple Mammoth - a company Alex and I created in a media lesson prior to our practical.
A film by - Nadine and Alex - our full names as we are a team
Starring- Gavin Bedford, Fiona Kettle, Sebastian King, Freddie Hitchcock, Phoebe Kudrow, - Gavin and Fiona are actors we know. Gavin featured in our film but we did not require Fiona. The other three are made up names
Casting director - Tony Stone - a made up name
Original Score - Tom Spall - a made up name
Production design - Leanne McArtha - a made up name
Written by - Nadine - me
Produced by - Laura Skelton - a friend who's name we used as a thanks as she offered to act in our film
Directed by - Alex Matthews - my partner
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
Actor profile / make up /costume
As we only used one actor in the whole of our production, I decided to write a profile on his characteristics for the character, so each costume the actor wore for the film and the make up.
Our actor is Gavin who goes to our school. This way it was easy for us to get in contact with him for filming purposes. The character in a film had to be male so Gavin fits this purpose. Our age was a rough estimate between 15-30 and because Gavin is 17 he fitted this role. He plays an older character which was shown through the use of costume.
In the first part of our filming, the character wore casual clothes as I have stated before in my research. Here are some images.
He also had to feature some make up as he had to have bruises and cuts over his face to show that he has been in a fight and incident
On the second day of filming for our part the character was dressed in a suit:
He required no make up as the character himself did not wear make up and there were very few close ups compared to the last time of filming.
Our actor is Gavin who goes to our school. This way it was easy for us to get in contact with him for filming purposes. The character in a film had to be male so Gavin fits this purpose. Our age was a rough estimate between 15-30 and because Gavin is 17 he fitted this role. He plays an older character which was shown through the use of costume.
Narration
After researching different films which similarly featured the narration in the prologue or first scene (here), Alex and I worked on the narration for our film. As part of our planning, we came up with two scripts and spent time saying our script over the visuals itself to see which worked better and then to work on a plan of our entire film as if we were creating the whole thing, to see which would work better as a narrative.
Script 1-
They always say 'what you don't know won't hurt you', but in this instance, 'they' are wrong because it did hurt me...a lot.
[pause]
It's kind of complicated to explain so I'm going to have to show you.
It all started on the day of my job interview.
Script 2-
You that body on the floor? That's me. And yes I am speaking to you right now as you watch me on the floor. It's not my fault I'm there by the way and I guess you want to know how I got there. It started on the day of my job interview.
Both scripts we created end with a reference to a job interview. This explains why the character gets prepared in a smart suit with a briefcase.
Script 1 is less chatty compared to no.2 and the first also includes a quote of importance which refers to the films plot 'what you don't know won't hurt you'. Many films use a quote in their first narration.
Because the first script explains that they have been hurt in a way, this is a form of the Enigma Code as the audience want to know what has happened to them for them to be in that situation. The first script covers enough information for the audience to understand and relate to the character narrating but not enough for them to leave the film as they will have to continue watching to find out.
Even though both scripts are short, if we include too much information to last the whole prologue which is roughly 52 seconds, this could be dragged out and cause the audience to get bored especially if it ends up repeating it's self. It would have been better if this was longer, but as everything in condensed into 2 minutes compared to big production films, our narration stays this length and in this form.
After a few practises to see which one fitted better, Alex and I decided on the first script for our production.
We used the same actor who features in our film to narrate. This is the only piece of dialogue we used throughout our film as it does not require any dialogue in the 'preperation' scene or in the scene where the character is dead on the floor.
As our school does not have professional recording equipment and Alex and I could not get hold of any, we used the Macs which were available for us. Because of the small room t he macs are in, there is a slight echo in the narration we filmed but there was no way of overcoming this. It sounds a bit too prepared and unnatural because of the quality and actors voice, but there was no way of overcoming this.
Script 1-
They always say 'what you don't know won't hurt you', but in this instance, 'they' are wrong because it did hurt me...a lot.
[pause]
It's kind of complicated to explain so I'm going to have to show you.
It all started on the day of my job interview.
Script 2-
You that body on the floor? That's me. And yes I am speaking to you right now as you watch me on the floor. It's not my fault I'm there by the way and I guess you want to know how I got there. It started on the day of my job interview.
Both scripts we created end with a reference to a job interview. This explains why the character gets prepared in a smart suit with a briefcase.
Script 1 is less chatty compared to no.2 and the first also includes a quote of importance which refers to the films plot 'what you don't know won't hurt you'. Many films use a quote in their first narration.
Because the first script explains that they have been hurt in a way, this is a form of the Enigma Code as the audience want to know what has happened to them for them to be in that situation. The first script covers enough information for the audience to understand and relate to the character narrating but not enough for them to leave the film as they will have to continue watching to find out.
Even though both scripts are short, if we include too much information to last the whole prologue which is roughly 52 seconds, this could be dragged out and cause the audience to get bored especially if it ends up repeating it's self. It would have been better if this was longer, but as everything in condensed into 2 minutes compared to big production films, our narration stays this length and in this form.
After a few practises to see which one fitted better, Alex and I decided on the first script for our production.
We used the same actor who features in our film to narrate. This is the only piece of dialogue we used throughout our film as it does not require any dialogue in the 'preperation' scene or in the scene where the character is dead on the floor.
As our school does not have professional recording equipment and Alex and I could not get hold of any, we used the Macs which were available for us. Because of the small room t he macs are in, there is a slight echo in the narration we filmed but there was no way of overcoming this. It sounds a bit too prepared and unnatural because of the quality and actors voice, but there was no way of overcoming this.
Edititng/Soundtrack in construction
Our last day of filming was Sunday 27th November and luckily for Alex and I, our next media lesson was the day after, Monday 28th November. We had a double lesson so we were able to upload and all of our footage and were able to start placing the right clips in the right order following our storyboard.
The week before we had a school trip to visit an Apple store where we had a workshop in how to use the new iMovie. The updated iMovie is different to the one Alex and I used at GCSE and we found this workshop helpful. Because of what we learnt at the workshop, placing all our clips of film into the right order took us no longer than 30 minutes because we had just recently used the software and we had all of our clips we needed.
Here is a screen shot of our editing process on iMovie on the school's A Level Apple Macs. (Note: This screen shot was taken near the end of our editing process which will be explained further in this post)
By trimming down clips we were able to sync together different clips to make them look continuous.
After the clips were in their right order it was now time to create transitions for them. For our film, we decided we would only need a few transitions which would be for the fade to black and the titles. Before we could finalise our film's titles we made sure we had all the music and soundtrack complete on our video.
Alex owns lots of CDs from the company 'AKM Music' which sell CDs with copy right free music on them if you have purchased the CD. Alex and I looked at the different CDs of these that Alex owned and picked the ones that matched the 'Thriller' genre and matched, correlation and worked with our visuals.
The first piece of copy right free music we used is titled 'Look Inside Altrock' for the second part of our film. This track is upbeat but not too excited or loud. It fits the mood of the character who so far the audience do not know anything about apart from that he gets into trouble later on. It fits his character of a laid back, casual, indie young man.
Then after about 30 seconds, the track becomes a little mysterious by adding a few different pitches
(Post on narration here) The other piece of audio we used was the voice over by the actor in our film. This was done on the Macs we used to edit. We had 4 takes of recording the same script in case there was any loss or muck up with any of them and that we could use different parts of each recording instead of one continuous recording.
The only problem we faced when editing was that we could not split the voice over recording but we overcame this because we had recorded 5 voice overs to edit and use.
White balance
After the films were in the right order and the music was fitted in the places we wanted, we slightly edited the colouring of the first part of the film. This was to make the film look colder and cause the audience to feel a little uncomfortable by looking at a dead body. The new software for iMovie allowed us to do this because it features a palette which can select and brighten or darken the colours on the screen. We used a bleak white and blue colour on all pieces of film that featured before the main title.
The week before we had a school trip to visit an Apple store where we had a workshop in how to use the new iMovie. The updated iMovie is different to the one Alex and I used at GCSE and we found this workshop helpful. Because of what we learnt at the workshop, placing all our clips of film into the right order took us no longer than 30 minutes because we had just recently used the software and we had all of our clips we needed.
Here is a screen shot of our editing process on iMovie on the school's A Level Apple Macs. (Note: This screen shot was taken near the end of our editing process which will be explained further in this post)
After the clips were in their right order it was now time to create transitions for them. For our film, we decided we would only need a few transitions which would be for the fade to black and the titles. Before we could finalise our film's titles we made sure we had all the music and soundtrack complete on our video.
Alex owns lots of CDs from the company 'AKM Music' which sell CDs with copy right free music on them if you have purchased the CD. Alex and I looked at the different CDs of these that Alex owned and picked the ones that matched the 'Thriller' genre and matched, correlation and worked with our visuals.
Then after about 30 seconds, the track becomes a little mysterious by adding a few different pitches
White balance
After the films were in the right order and the music was fitted in the places we wanted, we slightly edited the colouring of the first part of the film. This was to make the film look colder and cause the audience to feel a little uncomfortable by looking at a dead body. The new software for iMovie allowed us to do this because it features a palette which can select and brighten or darken the colours on the screen. We used a bleak white and blue colour on all pieces of film that featured before the main title.
Time Management
Before we began our production (including research, planning, filming, editing and so on...) Alex and I wrote down a time management sheet which we followed in order to keep on top of all our work to to make sure we included everything we needed to for our planning.
Deadlines
Prelim - Friday 21st October
Main task - Monday 12th December
Main task evaluation - After Christmas hols
Here is the time management sheet we created at the beginning of our coursework.
Like most time sheets, we found it hard to keep to the management sheet because in some instances we finished the research before the time we gave us so we moved on to other tasks quicker and it other instances, the task has taken longer or become a gradual thing.
Deadlines
Prelim - Friday 21st October
Main task - Monday 12th December
Main task evaluation - After Christmas hols
Here is the time management sheet we created at the beginning of our coursework.
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