Editing process 2

We used Garageband software on my MacBook Pro to create a basic layer of diegetic sound for the opening scene of the title sequence.

 

I learnt from a video on Youtube some extra editing tricks, this one is called the ken burns effect, it artificially pans and zooms within the frame.

This editing feature is the 'Clip Trimmer', It trims or lengthens the base soundlayer for the whole film and makes it easier to line it up to the video clip.

This is the Crop editing feature which is used to remove useless space around the borders of shots, it helps focus the audience on the character within the scene.

This is another use of the Ken Burns affects to pan very slightly within the frame.

We learned how to use the inspector tool to finely edit alot of the shots and sequences, in this case we felt the running scene was slightly to slow so we used the clip speed editor to adjust the frames per minute.

This is more editing using the clip speed adjuster to find the right adjustment.

We found the scene within the abandoned factory was slightly to dark and the girl was not visible enough, so we decided to fiddle and edit with the 'exposure', 'contrast' and 'Saturation' of the clip simply so her outline show up more.

The Clip we sped up was a bit shakey once we did, so we used a clip stabiliser from the inspector button. 

We used the Ken Burns Effect to Zoom and Pan to the 'Welcome To Hell..'

This was done to draw audience focus and attention to the writing. 

After Using YouTube to Select the right soundtrack, We Used www.flvto.com which is a music downloader from youtube.

I Used a the youtube to mp3 downloader to download a track of lots of guns shooting and cocking the hammer, we selected the one we thought was most fitting with the gun we used in our title sequence, cut down the track to the one we wanted in Garageband, finalised to and had to export it to iTunes before it could be used on iMovie.

First Title Sequence Draft Feedback

We presented our first draft of our title sequence in class infront of our teacher and fellow students and we ask for feedback and we were presented with constructive criticism.

- Font? Consider changing to a different iMovie font, or making your own in Photoshop 
- Positioning of titles- consider alternating between top and bottom corners? Try it and see, as opening might benefit from titles being a little more dynamic. Which corner could be decided on image framing, and where the best 'spaces' for titles are. - Are titles in right order? Convention? Check other openings on Art of the Title to be sure. - Running works in time with the music.- Music atmospheric, complementing moving image - adding to mood of desperation, despair, and slightly dreamlike/out of time/ inner turmoil feel to film (that reflects your central character's state of mind)- Comedy where not intended? - chase doesn't work so we laugh.... Needs variety of shots (facial close ups, side angle of running etc) to be effective and conventional. Close ups of the men's faces looking menacing? Also need more meaning here, to give us a clue to who these men are (they look a little like young undercover policemen or A level students dressed up?! They do not look as menacing as you intend unfortunately- consider reshooting with older actors, and with close ups, side angle shots, over the shoulder shots from the girl's perspective. If we canbe made to believe in them as a serious threat, we will buy in to her need to escape, but if they don't feel threatening enough, we won't care enough or believe in the scenario. I think it is crucial ou have another look at this part and plan a new shoot.- Welcome to hell- Cut more to the beat of the music throughout the opening- Sequence in warehouse needs more to grip us in terms of the story- flashbacks, voice overs that let us into her state of mind, and offer us clues (enigma codes) as to why she is frightened, running scared, losing her grip on reality. - Are you sure you don't want two sound layers during the VoiceOver part? (For example, foley sound effects of heavy door closing, perhaps giving the impression that someone has entered the warehouse, or her mind as she drifts into restless sleep- you could leave this ambiguous for the audience, with both meanings remaining possibilities. The warehouse section basically needs to draw us into her world further, but at the moment we learn very little about her there, and this is a problem in terms of audience attention. - Camera work suits genre gritty realism- Blurs when she's in the warehouse- gives a sense of her perspective- blury, confusing, unsettled, etc- Cutting to the sound-
- Shot of her running when you are shooting her - variety of shots needed for that to have proper impact, audience to feel - her fear, their menace.- Darkness, no bright light, reflects her dark state of mind- Font to reflect something about her- handwritten, text style font? Or design your own? - Welcome to hell, works well to have long shot and then close up alongside titles- Ellipsis could be used in warehouse sequence- to reflect her perspective, like she hasn't realised it's real yet, bad dream,etc.- Montage of head shots of that person giving that message


We Referenced this Feedback list but unfortunately we were not able to tackle everything on the list, as we felt some couldn't be done until the final editing stages of the title sequence project, for example the positioning/timing of the font. We were also unable to re-shoot which we believe is a crucial change we must make so we can add a variety of shots to mainly the chase scene. We are currently working on our 3rd draft. 

Draft title sequence - no.2

Sound for the draft - Sourze Music

We were experimenting with different soundtracks layered into our title sequence to help represent the  genre and the narrative. We found this soundtrack from 'Sourze Muzik' on youtube, he stated it was to be used for 'non profit and promotional use' so we thought this was a good producer to look into. The soundtrack is hiphop based appealing to our target audience, with a dark undertone accentuated by the piano layer within the soundtrack. We found this soundtrack set of our title sequence well and worked well as a soundbridge between the scenes.

We downloaded the music using a youtube to mp3 converters which are free to use online and can be used with any youtube song. Used with copyright music these youtube to mp3 convertors are one of the highest sources of music piracy, which is why many site like this have been closed down.

Suits - Mise en scene

For our chase scene in our media blog we drew inspiration of the suits used in the Men in Black trilogy. The suits portray  power, status and a sense of commonality and inconspicuosness. This is due to the fact suits are pretty indistinct and too an extent identical. So cause people wearing them to lose their sense of individuality. This is what we wanted to portray the men chasing her have no importance as there are in a way thousands of people that can fill the same duty, they are simply hired muscle. The fact we did not use ties gives it a sense of informality and it detracts from the suits 'official status'.

This is a screenshot from our title sequence draft.

Our Title Sequences First Draft

This is our first draft there is still alot to be edited and possibly reshot.

Day 2 of shooting - 28/02/13

For the second part of our shooting, we decided that the long alleyway just round the corner from our school would be a suitable (as the scene is a shot that includes a 15 meter run)setting for the flashback that occurs from Veronica awakening, which fits perfectly from where we left off. In this scene what we wanted to achieve that a chase that takes place in Veronica's life, the Crimelords thugs trying to capture Veronica from her escape. Instead of holding the steadycam, we decided to use a tripod, with George sitting in a trolley which would be pulled backwards whilst filming Veronica and the two men in suits chasing her. By doing this enabled the camera to be more still and central, rather than someone having to run backwards whilst doing this.  

We had one person pulling it straight whilst running, and two people on either side pulling and running in order to keep the trolley straight therefore the shooting of the run still and professional too. For our shot, we had Veronica in the middle with the two men either side her about 2 meters back. The trolley was pulled backwards whilst the shot was being taking, enabling for the run to look realistic as possible, eventually with one of the men pulling a capgun out and shooting. This was a prop we used, which added to the tenseness of the scene in contrast to the previous scene which was instead quite eerie, lonely and negative.

We were able to shoot this about 3 times, which was enough for us to use and edit into our opening. We didn't come across many difficulties, apart from having to pull the trolley backwards in a straight line! However we managed to achieve what we needed. 

Day 1 of shooting - 09/01/13

 My group and I decided that the best location to shoot part 1 of our opening would the old factory just off the main road to Kidlington. It has quite an eerie feel to it, which is exactly the effect we wanted to portray of our opening. The weather suited the setting, beginning to become dusk and very light snow. This set the tone and mood of our opening, signified quite a chill and somewhat negative atmosphere of Veronica's escape. We began filming with our handheld  camera by the main road right next to this factory, of Veronica walking sullenly and exhausted looking for a place to stay. We had no problems with filming this, as it was quite straight forward, expect for the traffic as one of our shots would mean stepping out on the main road at rush hour. We edited and cut time out of while using a slow motion effect. Adding to this we used a steadyhand camera for a purpose, we thought by using it, would give the opening (and our film) more of a realistic and biographical view, as if the audience was following Veronica through her journey and escape.

Once in the factory, we began by filming Veronica walking towards the factory. Whilst doing this, we came across a slab which had written 'welcome to hell...' we had the idea of erasing this, and instead adding our film title as it was a perfect space to write our film name on. However we decided to keep the 'welcome to hell...' as it added to the eeriness, especially negativity of the setting that Veronica would be part of. 

We followed Veronica through into the factory, this was done to show the audience exactly what Veronica would be putting up with for the night, especially to create empathy towards her. One thing that became difficult was that inside was quite dark, so became a little hard to film, however we overcame this by using a torchlight Alexandra had on her phone, which we used with the steadycam. Our last shot of Veronica for the day was off her taking her coat of and lying on the ground, when she was lying down we put the camera on the floor facing her, and a shot that we would include in our opening was of Veronica closing her eyes and using the fade out to signifie her transition into sleep, which lead into her nightmare about the man she stole from. We purposely didn't include any speech in our opening, as it helped portray Veronica's loneliness and and also helps set the atmosphere, as we are aware of how alone she is and that there is no one to talk to or trust.

Improvised camera equipment

  For our flashback/chase scene we wanted a smooth dolly shot style as opposed to contrast with the handheld/steadicam work used in the rest of the opening. We put or cameraman, George Nolan In the trolley with a tripod jammed between his legs and the trolley to keep it steady, and 1 person on each side of the trolley mainly to stabilise it and keep it on track and straight as the ground we were on was curved and one person at the back pulling the trolley smoothly delivering the buildup of speed to the trolley till we were at a good average speed. It was quite tricky to master getting a smooth and straight shot so it took us a few takes to get a shot we were happy with. We had to set a general marker to get all the characters within the shot and to improve the symmetry as we discovered when we were reviewing our shots that in alot of them you could not see the other suited actor.

Project Inspiration - City Of God

City of god

The City of god is a crime drama movie set in one of the slums ('favelas') in Rio de Janeiro.

The editing transitions, camerawork and mise en scene used was a huge inspiration in the storyboarding and planning of our title sequence mainly in the middle flashback scene. The most notable of which was the jump cuts to black which used a short sound bite as a sound bridge between the two scenes. The close ups on peoples hands an feet was also a notable inspiration. The Transition between the pace of the scenes was also a feature that we ran through our title sequence as we felt is gave the film a good contrast showing two sides of life of the protagonist. The Panoramic shot used around the city of gods protagonist is also an element we recreated and modified to suit our needs.