7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? // Evaluation

In the preliminary task we had one day to produce it and I worked in a group with 3 other people.
In the film opening task we had over 2 months to go through the whole process and I worked in a group with 2 other people.

Research

For the preliminary task no research was done whatsoever. We were just given some sheets showing different shot movements and angles and a brief telling us what we needed to do. In contrast to this a lot of research was done for the film opening task which included 5 analyses of film openings, 3 analyses of supernatural horror openings and research into the supernatural horror genre.

Pre-Production

For the preliminary task very little planning was done. We probably spent about 10 minutes deciding where to film, who to film and a general idea of what shots and in what order. Whereas for the opening film task an incredibly larger amount of time was spent in doing things like location scouting, test shots, storyboards, health and safety, call sheets, props, costumes and more. From this I have learnt that putting more time into pre-production is more important as it gives you a more concrete idea of what you are actually doing and it also means you are following all rules and regulations in terms of having permission where you are filming and health and safety. This, overall, makes the whole process more professional as you're not just picking up a camera and filming what you feel like.

Production

match on action

The filming for our preliminary task only took about 20-30 minutes I would say, which is a very short amount of time. We did shoot shots we were happy with and we checked the quality of them all however I think this reflects how it was a much smaller task that didn't need to be as long. To film we used a standard tripod and a flip camera (so the quality wasn't great). However, in terms of filming I guess it was a good place to start as if we could achieve good shots with a flip camera then we should be able to get even better ones with a HD camera. We didn't think much about the lighting at all but natural lighting worked in our favour. During this task we also achieved shot-reverse-shot, match on action and we used the 180 degree rule.  This gave us a good introduction to filming sequences well and from what we learnt during this we could use similar things in our film opening (e.g shot-reverse-shot).


Shot reverse shot

When it came to filming our film opening we could use a HD camera and had already thought about match on action, shot reverse shot etc. Therefore we used what we had learnt in the preliminary task and applied it to our final product. Looking back at our film I realised we didn't exactly follow the 180 degree rule as Suzanne goes from the first room to the end room. However, as I have only just noticed this I don't think it is a problem as it has no disorientated me ever or any of our target audience so the film is still easy to follow. Regardless of this we have still learnt that in most cases the 180 degree rule is a very good thing to follow.


Post-Production

During the preliminary task we all got to grips with the two main editing softwares; Final Cut Express and LiveType. This was very useful as it meant for our opening we would be able to begin editing much faster and with more knowledge of the programme. Although, when we started editing our film opening we did find ourselves learning new skills such as adding filters and changing the speed of clips. We had to balance the roles between each other which was a little more challenging but we all worked well as a group so if someone was controlling the editing then the other two would still have full input. I personally really like editing so for me it was a bit of a downside that the role of editing had to be shared between us but I already had evaluated working alone or in a team and overall a team, if it was in a team with people I got on with (which is was), was a much better decision.

In post-production for the preliminary task I did no audience feedback. As it was such a small, short task it was not necessary. However, from doing the film opening and getting feedback at least 3 times from the target audience we chose I found it to be a very useful exercise as looking at our first rough cut of Malediction compared to our final cut I can see a great deal of improvement and a lot of this was due to audience suggestions.

Conclusion

In conclusion I can see a wide range of skills have been obtained or improved upon through the making of the film opening. These included knowledge of filming rules (match on action, etc) and how to use various editing software. I have also really learnt the value of audience feedback through the progression from the preliminary task to the full product. Overall I am happy with my progress and with the finished project as I have really enjoyed doing it all and learnt a lot.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? // Evaluation

One downside I found from Prezi was I couldn't find how to add an additional slide without just duplicating another one so I will just write some stuff I couldn't fit in here.

The benefits of using technology in all stages of production include:

 - the ease of accessing an instant global audience (through YouTube etc.)
 - capturing film is made easy and quick with digital cameras
 - the film can be edited much quicker as it is all done on a software instead of physically
- it is much cheaper to produce your own film therefore showing a levelling out between professionals and people making films with less money as the people with less money still have access to a global audience

As well as this if we were to distribute the film it would be much easier as cinemas would be able to download it instead of transporting the physical copies which costs more and can be more stressful.

The difference between analogue and digital is that with digital comes technological convergence. This is having two or more media in one product. This is beneficial as viewers have on demand access (as they can choose to view, download; e.g iTunes, or stream; e.g. Lovefilm films and portability because of miniaturisation.

p.s looking at this now it's published I realise the writing on Prezi comes out quite small so you may have to put it on full screen to view it, sorry about that!

5. How did you attract/address your audience? // Evaluation

Some of the annotations I have made appear and then disappear of the screen so apologies for that as you may have to pause the video a lot! Since I have put quite a few annotations on this video already I thought I'd tell you about the unique selling point (USP) of the film here.

I believe the USP, for this opening, is the fact that we show the antagonist completely. Conventionally in horrors a small, insignificant part of the antagonist is shown or the antagonist does something to cause harm or worry but is not shown. We decided to show the antagonist straight away. But we believe this isn't a bad thing as if the whole film was made it might turn out that other antagonists are involved or the appearance of the antagonist gets worse over time, therefore proving that showing the antagonist in the opening does not ruin the suspense or atmosphere as later in the film there would be unexpected things.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product? // Evaluation

In the picture above I made up a person who would definitely be part of our target audience as she is a regular teenager and enjoys a variety of things but especially likes horror. Because of all these reasons Frankie would definitely want to see the film and she would probably bring along some friends too (cause she would find it weird to go to the cinema alone..).

Considering Frankie is a regular person I think it justifies how are film would suit many young adults/teenagers as most of them are regular people and if they enjoy horrors then Malediction would be a film they would not want to miss!

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? // Evaluation

                                   

In the video above you can see a director's commentary I created over the opening which answers the 3rd evaluation question.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? // Evaluation

How does your media product represent particular social groups? from katyfilmmaker

I was going to do this question as annotated photos on flickr but recently they have changed their site a little and I couldn't find out how to add notes anymore so instead I made a powerpoint and uploaded it to slideshare.

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? // Evaluation

The Title of the Film

the definition of malediction

The title of our film, Malediction, can be seen in frame 9 shown on the picture above. This is the final frame in our opening and is white font we produced in LiveType with a simple black background. We thought of the title by looking up the synonyms to words on Google. We came across 'malediction' and none of us knew what it meant. After looking we realised the definition links to our film quite well as it is to do with a 'curse'. It also dawned on us that none of us know what Insidious means so the fact that we have a title that people won't know the meaning of follows the conventions and if anything develops them a bit as it adds another film to the genre that people won't know the definition of.


Setting/Location

The first shot of The Woman In Black (not an establishing shot)

Our location is a fairly large house in a rural area. This follows the conventions of supernatural horrors as from my research I found that The Strangers was also set in a house in a rural area. This gives the chance for the protagonist or a stock character to be in an isolated place alone where no one else is near by and typically, as it does in The Strangers, the antagonist(s) appears and harasses them. We have put a stock character, Suzanne in this situation and introduced the antagonist. Having the contrast between the inside shots and outside shots is also something we have done that I believe uses the conventions as typically establishing shots are used at the start of any opening to set the scene. Although, from my previous research I realised that The Woman In Black has no establishing shots in the opening and just goes into close ups and medium close ups in the interior of the house. This makes me think that in some way we could be challenging this element of supernatural horror openings whereas I think for our opening it works better to have establishing shots.

Costumes and Props

We only needed to plan two costumes for our opening, the antagonist's and Suzanne Moor's. In both cases we tried to follow the conventions as best as we can while also making our film individual. Suzanne is an estate agent (she can be seen in frame 4, 6, 7 and 8 in the picture above) so we believed she should be wearing formal clothes (a black dress, black high heels, etc). In retrospect I can see that if anything her costume alone challenges a lot of real media products as generally the stock character will be a regular person in casual clothes as it allows the audience to relate to them. For example in Paranormal Activity the characters wear casual clothes throughout. In this case, for our opening, we have put the regular person in professional clothes which we see may relate to less people but will for people who have jobs.



The Woman In Black wearing a traditional dress

We do, however, think the costume of our antagonist (a white dress, shown in frame 7 and 8) follows the conventions of a supernatural horror as many real media products tend to go for a Victorian twist to make the antagonist seem like a force from the past. This adds a creepy element as the idea of people who are dead now coming back to haunt you can easily freak a lot of people out. An example of a film that uses similar kinds of costume is The Woman In Black as the antagonist wears a black, Victorian style dress throughout.

A bloody knife in The Strangers

The props we used were a doll, a newspaper cut out and a clipboard with estate agent documents on. The doll can be seen in frame 4, 5 and 6 in the picture above. I definitely think the doll follows the codes and conventions as other media products such as The Woman In Black which uses dolls as a very dominant prop throughout. We used the other props to make our product seem more realistic and believable. This is done throughout other openings for example in The Strangers a knife is shown with blood on it and there is blood on the wall which enforces the idea that the media product is real.

Camerawork & Editing

Throughout our opening we have used many shots that are used in real media products. The usual ones like medium shots, close ups and long shots are used. But as well as this the shots we used that I think define supernatural horrors are over-the-shoulder shots (as seen in frame 7 and 8 in the picture above), and shots with slight handheld movement to give the impression that something unknown is in/near the shot. These shots are both used in many film openings such as The Strangers.


Title Font and Style (Typography)

The titles of our film can be seen in frame 1, 2 and 9 shown on the picture above. The text we used is all white font we produced in LiveType. By using a simple font we have used the conventions of real media products as in various openings like The Omen and The Strangers. The Omen uses white simple text on a black background like ours. The Strangers also has simple typography used for its title and it is revealed at the end of the opening by fading in which is very similar to what ours do. I can see why this is a convention in supernatural film openings as it is very effective using the idea of 'less is more' and the fact that a crazy, busy font would distract from the atmosphere of the opening that is created with incidental music.

A conventional film opening uses titles. These usually include the production company, actors names, and who produced and directed the film. These conventions have been followed in our opening however we have slightly subverted it as we have not put in the person who produced it. Although, we do include a production company so I believe this is enough.

Story & How The Opening Sets It Up

Our story is set up in a very conventional way of a lot of supernatural horror movies. We start with writing that fades in and out on a black screen (as shown in frame 1 above) explaining an event in the past and how the causes of death are 'unknown'. This is then followed by shots of the house (exterior and then interior). One shot that particularly sets up our story is the newspaper cutting that's shown that relates to the deaths mentioned at the start. In the same shot estate agent documents are shown which allows the audience to see the house is being sold and possibly infer that someone is investing time looking into the past of the house and trying to sell it regardless of it's past. A stock character is then shown and drawn to a room on the other side of the house as the prop of a doll appeared in the distance. A diegetic laugh leads this character into a room at the end of the house and there she finds the antagonist on the other side of the room who quickly turns towards her and then after a black screen, is very close to her and screams in her face. This gives the chance for the audience to see the antagonist which challenges forms and conventions of supernatural horrors in many ways as usually only a small amount of the antagonist would be shown. For example in The Woman In Black at the end the shoulder of the antagonist is shown which works very well as the audience is more bothered by the unknown. Regardless of that I think it still works well to for our opening to show the antagonist as there is still information the audience may wish to find out about the being including where she is meant to be and why she's there, etc.

Antagonist subtly shown in the right foreground

Genre & How The Opening Suggests It

The genre our group chose was a supernatural horror. The opening suggests this greatly with the combination of slow moving shots, incidental music and a stock character which is led into a dangerous situation. An element of this happens in a lot of supernatural horrors that I have seen.

How Characters Are Introduced

Stock characters in the Woman In Black

A stock character, Suzanne Moors, is first shown in a medium long shot at 0:46 in the opening. She is shown looking at some props which were just shown. This should allow the audience to realise that she is an estate agent as she is looking over some of her documents. Various medium shots and some close ups are shown of Suzanne throughout the opening which doesn't reveal much about her as a person but lets the audience get acquainted with her and how she looks. This uses the conventions of some supernatural horror openings as in The Woman In Black 3 children who are stock characters are shown but no proper information is given about them which leaves the audience wanting more. The antagonist is introduced with an over-the-shoulder shot (over Suzanne's shoulder) when she walks into the end room. At first we see the antagonist in the background facing away from the character. As she turns towards the camera the shot blacks out leaving the audience wanting more, which they soon get as the antagonist suddenly appears in front of Suzanne's face screaming. This, as I said before challenges conventions of most supernatural horrors as usually the antagonist isn't shown as much as we have shown our antagonist.

Conventionally in any opening the main protagonist or a stock character (or many stock characters) is (are) shown so that the audience is introduced to someone or a situation that is important in the film. For example, from my research I found that the opening of the film Hot Fuzz is entirely dedicated to introducing the protagonist. We have subverted this partially by not introducing the audience to the protagonist. Although, as far as the audience is aware the stock character introduced could easily be mistaken for the protagonist. As well as this as I mentioned before we introduce the antagonist as well who is an important character so we are following the conventions of real media products to have important people in the opening.

Special Effects

No special effects are used in our opening. We do, however use filters (colour correctors) throughout. For the outside shots we put a darker filter with very little saturation while for the shots inside we made brighter/lighter and added a slightly blue filter. From my research I found how slight blue filters were used a lot in openings like in The Woman In Black so I personally believe it was the best choice.

In film openings they will conventionally use some kind of filter to portray a mood. Special effects are used depending on the genre of the film. For example an adventure film will probably use special effects.

Malediction - Final Cut

Here is the final cut of our film opening Malediction. Despite one continuity error (that no one seemed to notice) where are bags/equipment are in the background then they aren't I'm very happy with it and I hope you enjoy watching it!

Continuing Editing (Improvements)

The next day (Thursday the 27th of March) I was in school so I got to work with Wilhelmina and Indya on the rest of the improvements.

We acted on the feedback about filters by making the shots outside the house darker and the ones inside lighter.

As well as this we improved some of our titles.

Editing some of the titles

'HIDDEN PICTURES PRESENTS' was one of the ones we thought needed most improvement as the white 'H' cannot be seen very easily because of the sky which is also white. To improve this we added more of a black shadow effect and outline which improves this greatly compared to how it was.

We have also repositioned 'A Paranormal Production' more to the right so the text does not go across the side of the door and we have moved 'Directed by Katy Jackson' to the right a bit so it does not touch the character Suzanne.

Near the end of the lesson we exported the final version of our film opening!

I was ill!

Unfortunately on Wednesday the 26th of March I didn't come into school as I felt very ill with a bad cough and cold. This was incredibly frustrating for me especially since I have also been to Manchester recently so I feel as though my contribution to the group is lacking.

When I was gone Wilhelmina and Indya made some of the improvements that were given to us previously. The improvements they made included building up the sound more at the end by adding another soundtrack that subtly makes the sound feel thicker and as though you're building up to more of a climax in the opening.

As well as this they asked our teacher and another member of staff for some feedback.
The feedback they got was as follows:

- Cut down the shot of the antagonist screaming
- Make some shots shorter because at times the camera jolts
- Slow down the establishing shots at the start

Indya and Wilhelmina did all these things. They mentioned to me when I got back the next day how at 0:57 the sound suddenly reduces in volume quite a bit. None of us our sure why it does that or how to fix it so we will just have to leave it as how it is.

Malediction 3rd Rough Cut - (Further Audience Feedback)

As I mentioned in my last post one of the people we last interviewed (James) has a sister who is at Nottingham Trent University studying Design for Film and Television. When James told us about her we thought it would be an excellent opportunity to get feedback from someone who was studying at University and still within our target audience. When she came back from University for the weekend James showed her our 3rd rough cut.

The improvements were as follows:

• The shots outside the house should have a darker filter.
• The shots inside the house should have a lighter filter.
• The diegetic sound of the door opening should be made slightly louder.
• When Suzanne is approaching the room where the antagonist is the music should build up more to enhance tension.

She did however say our film opening was very good for an AS Level piece of work so we were pretty happy with that and her constructive comments. 

Malediction 3rd Rough Cut - (Audience Feedback)

The other day we collected audience feedback for the 3rd rough cut from different people (who are still our target audience).

From this video you can see no improvements were given to be made. Luckily for us James (one of the people in this video) has a sister who does work involving film and she will give us feedback soon which should definitely include some improvements.

Wilhelmina edited this video.

Malediction - 3rd Rough Cut

This is the 3rd rough cut that Wilhelmina and Indya produced on the Thursday lesson when I was away. They used the improvements given in the audience feedback.

These included:

- incidental music building up in volume at the end
- the diegetic sounds (door and laughter) not being too loud
   and more.

As well as this Wilhelmina told me they asked someone in our class and they suggested to have 'Wilhelmina Denness   Indya Clayton' instead of 'Wilhelmina Denness & Indya Clayton' as movie openings don't tend to include an '&'.

In addition to this Indya and Wilhelmina added a more noticeable dark filter which I agree with as it makes the opening seem more eerie.

Been In Manchester!

From the 18th of March to the 20th I was away on a Geography field trip in Manchester. This meant Wilhelmina and Indya had some time to carry on with our opening without me. We had already prepared for this as we discussed what they would get done when I was away and now that I'm back I'll take a bit more of a lead to make up for being away.

When I was gone they did more editing and have exported Malediction - the 3rd Rough Cut. This will be revealed in my next post!

Malediction - 2nd Rough Cut (Audience Feedback)

In our last Thursday lesson we randomly selected 4 boys and 4 girls of people who were within our target audience. They watched the 2nd rough cut of our opening for the first time, we asked them questions and they answered.

Wilhelmina edited together the video shown above which shows all the questions and answers.

Malediction - 2nd Rough Cut

We decided to show our rough cut to our teacher as she had not yet seen any of it. She liked what we had done but also gave some initial improvements to the editing to make it seem more professional. These improvements were as follows;

• fade in and out more on the diegetic laughter sound
• make the clip a bit longer near the end when the antagonist is shown and turns around
• make the section where there is just a black screen at the end a bit shorter

We did all these improvements as we agreed with them and exported our 2nd rough cut which is shown above.

Malediction - 1st Rough Cut

After all of our editing sessions this is the first rough cut we produced! We edited to a standard we were happy with but didn't look too much into tiny details that we weren't so sure about as we figured this was good enough for a rough cut and the fact that there is a lot of room for improvement is a good thing.

Exporting Difficulties

We have had very little problems when editing our video however when we came to export it, it automatically exported it as an .mov file which we didn't see as a problem until we realised we couldn't play this file format in our own homes and we couldn't upload it to YouTube.

Because of this we had to find a way to export it into a file that was compatible with our computers/laptops at home so that we could upload it to YouTube.

These pictures show how we managed to get it to export. We continued to do this for the rest of our videos.

'Malediction' Title Feedback

In our lesson on Thursday we went around the students in our class (as they are all within our target audience) and asked them which font they preferred for the typography for our opening supernatural horror film opening. These were the results we got. I have decided to display them in a stacked column chart to make them easier to see.

From these results I can see that number 1 and 4 are the least popular and therefore will definitely not be used. Number 2 is the most popular followed by number 3.

 

For our rough cut we have used number 3 which we all easily prefer and is the 2nd most popular from our results. We take into account the fact that number 2 is the most popular but we all think there's a bit too much going on and it's better for it to be simple. The opening is set in an old house with themes of old, possibly Victorian things (e.g the doll, the antagonist in the simple white dress) so we think the typography should reflect this.

 

Conventional Titles/Credits - do our titles/credits follow the conventions?

For our titles/credits to be successful we want them to at least broadly follow the conventions of horror film openings as it will make our opening seem more professional and realistic.

I stumbled across the film Dolls when looking at various title sequences for movies. Dolls is a 1987 horror film set in the English countryside where some people stop by a mansion during a storm and find haunted dolls in the house. This has some aspects similar to our storyline (the English countryside, the doll in the house) so I realised the typography and what it says is likely to be similar or follow a similar structure.

It starts with 'Empire Pictures Presents' which fades in and out of the screen. This is pretty similar to ours and from looking at other horror openings I can see quite a few films go for this as a starting point.

It then goes on to show the production company (or in this case who produced it) which ours also does.

After this the main title is shown. By looking at other horror movie openings I have found that some do this where the opening is simply a lot of credits, while others that have action/characters in their opening tend to put the title of the film at the end like we do.

This opening then goes into more detail (e.g who stars in the film, who does the doll effects, etc.) Ours shows two people who star in it by just writing their names but does not go into anymore detail. I think this suits our opening and follows the conventions for openings with action in because as I said before the emphasis is on the action and not the titles so much.

So, What Do Our Titles/Credits Actually Say?

Before the first version of our rough cut is revealed I thought I'd give you a taster of what it will contain. The titles/text shown during it (in this order) are as follows...

On the 11th February 1972 a family of four were found dead in their home.

The causes of death were unknown.

HIDDEN PICTURES PRESENTS

A Paranormal Production

Wilhelmina Denness & Indya Clayton

Directed by Katy Jackson

Editing The Rough Cut 7th Session // Post-Production

The Paranormal Production team has been reunited!

Today we had another media lesson and Wilhelmina was back from her art trip! She took a look at what we had done and liked it. She suggested some small improvements to make so we did them. We spent the lesson looking through our first version of our rough cut and thinking about what questions we will ask to some of our target audience when the rough cut it shown. We came up with a good amount of questions and will probably ask some people tomorrow in lesson time and record their feedback (so some audience feedback will be coming soon!).


Sound // Post-Production

 Through our research we soon realised how sound (mainly incidental music) would be vital to creating the right atmosphere in our film opening.

A couple of weeks ago someone suggested to us a website where you can download royalty free music this person has created themselves for free! The website is http://incompetech.com/ We then had a listen and heard how the songs were actually pretty good! Wilhelmina then found the following songs and suggested them to Indya and I.

The House Of Leaves


This incidental music is really quite good to have as a soundtrack for the opening of a movie as the music starts quietly and then gradually builds up to create tension and worry to the audience. The slightly high pitched melody throughout sounds a bit like a children's wind up toy box sound which links well to the doll in our opening. All things considered at first we thought this would be quite a good piece to use until we heard other pieces (some of the ones below) which we thought were more suitable in creating the correcting atmosphere.

The Dread


I really like this piece as incidental music for two main reasons. There is a low, bass sound throughout that is often used in supernatural horror movies as it is if any normal background sound has been intensified and put into a much lower pitch to make the audience feel on edge and as if something bad may happen. The other thing I like is the high pitched sound that is put over the top of the bass. This sound tends to change a bit more making the piece feel uneasy which helps create an ominous atmosphere for a film opening. We decided to use this piece for the start and end of our film as we believed it suited our movie opening best as it wasn't really dramatic and relied more on the idea of 'less is more' as with not many sounds going on the audience may feel less safe and scared of seeing the antagonist.

Anxiety


We thought this piece was a little similar to 'The Dread' because of the high pitched noise that tends to fluctuate about a bit. Therefore it was a condendor to be played at the start of the piece. However, hearing it and comparing it to 'The Dread' we felt it didn't have enough of a texture and lacked the ability to really make the audience feel nervous and on edge so we did not use it.

Fire Prelude


When Wilhelmina found this she instantly liked it as she associated the initially banging/knocking noise with someone actually banging or knocking. On first hearing Indya and I agreed as it put us on edge and made us feel as though someone or something was making a continuous sound to attract attention and lure an innocent stock character into a place of danger. This fitted perfectly with our opening as Indya (Suzanne Moors) is drawn to the room where the antagonist is because of a doll on the floor. Therefore we decided to introduce the music when the doll appears.

Overall in the end we decided to use 'The Dread' for the start of our opening and then later when the doll is introduced we will use 'Fire Prelude'. We have also used 'The Dread' for the end when the title ('Malediction') appears.

Editing The Rough Cut 6th Session // Post-Production

 

On Friday Indya and I continued editing in our lesson. We looked over the clip and made improvements (especially on the ending as we are finding that part the hardest to look convincing and seem scary). We messed around with when the audio stops and how long the antagonist is shown screaming and have improved it greatly to how it was before.

As well as this we started adding a colour corrector to each clip individually to make the opening seem more atmospheric. If you look at the picture on the left you can see the adjustments we made to each clip. We have applied this 'colour corrector' to every clip outside the house. When Wilhelmina gets back we will check with her if she agrees on the filter and then apply it to the rest of the clips so the opening creates the same atmosphere all the way through.

 

Editing The Rough Cut 5th Session // Post-Production

In today's lesson I was completely on my own! Wilhelmina & Indya were both away on various trips. Before hand Wilhelmina gave me the password for her account so I could access what we had been editing.

I just continued off from where we got to and managed to get to the end of the clips and edited them together roughly. I also added one sound effect we had recorded during our day of filming. This sound effect was of Wilhelmina laughing and I put it in after Indya is holding and looking at the doll. As well as this I had to try and time the final clips well as before and after the antagonist screams there needs to be the right amount of time so that atmosphere builds but the audience doesn't get bored. In addition to this I added in another sound effect of an intake of breath that we recorded during filming.


 As well as this I went on LiveType and came up with a couple of ideas for typography and saved them all in the Malediction folder so that when Indya and Wilhelmina are back we can get target audience feedback and then decide as a group which font we will go for.

Since I have spent two hours editing alone once Wilhelmina and Indya are back we will go over what I've done and then make sure everyone in the group agrees on how the rough cut looks and we will make any changes if necessary.

Right at the end of the lesson I remembered how I'd forgotten to put any colour filters on yet so I will need to do that next lesson (tomorrow).

 

Editing The Rough Cut 4th Session // Post-Production

Today afterschool Wilhelmina, Indya and I headed to the media room to continue editing. We spent about an hour and 40 minutes editing and made so much progress!

At first we encountered a problem as when we opened our Final Cut Pro file the timeline and the viewer weren't appearing. We spent a couple minutes trying different things to allow them to appear but didn't have any success as where you would normally open them up the text was 'greyed out'. Wilhelmina took her initiative and looked in our Malediction folder and found a back-up file that automatically saved during our last session. We were all so relieved! As it had automatically saved during our last session it meant we had lost a little bit of our work we did near the end of the lesson but that didn't matter too much as we could quickly re-do it.

During this session we edited right up until Suzanne (Indya) is about to start walking towards the final door where she finds the antagonist. We also noticed how much the incidental music creates atmosphere and without it the video seems a little silly and unbelievable. Because of this we have kept our incidental music in a little longer than planned and we only have a second or so without music before the next piece of music begins. We have also muted the videos so you can not hear any background noise as the background noise is usually quite a harsh loud sound that makes the video seem less professional.

This editing session was really important as on Wednesday we have a Digging Deeper Day so will be missing our double lesson and on Thursday Wilhelmina goes to Barcelona on an art trip for a few days so Indya and I won't be able to consult her when editing. In addition to this Indya is away on a day trip on Thursday so I will have to edit on my own! This shouldn't be a problem as I can follow the storyboard and just do what I think is best. In addition to this it is only a rough cut so improvements can easily be made in the future.

Editing The Rough Cut 2nd & 3rd Session // Post-Production

 

We continued editing in our Thursday and Friday lessons. On Thursday the 27th of February we got quite a few more of the clips edited together. We came across a problem of adding the dissolve cross transition as we didn't know how to and once we'd figured out at first it didn't work but then after a few tries it did! At the end of the session we also added some sound that we downloaded from a copy-right free source, I will do a post about sound later. During both of our Thursday and Friday lessons we found the editing process quite frustrating as we all had to work together and take turns and it was all generally taking a lot longer than expected. Because of this we have decided to meet up on the 3rd of March after school to do some more editing.

Titles // Post-Production

This week we have also been creating some of the typography on Live Type for our opening. We have been doing this in chronological order as we have come across the typography we needed. We are trying to follow the storyboard as best as we can but are finding some shots don't work how we thought they would and we've needed to sometimes use different extra shots we did with the typography on them as we think they're more effective. 

Trying out different fonts

In this picture you can see some of the different fonts we looked at in particular. The fonts are as follows; Goudy Old Style, Calibri Light and Viner Hand ITC. In the end we decided to go for Goudy Old Style as we believed it represented our genre, supernatural horror, the most as it was simple but had a slightly old, more formal effect to it which will make the opening seem as if it has elements of the past in it (which it does as the antagonist is from the past). This choice was backed up from my research as a lot of the titles I had seen were ultimately very simple with the main intention of the audience being able to read it. The idea that the events in the opening or even the music alone is enough to make the opening effective and give off the right atmosphere instead of having creepy typography.

We felt Calibri Light was too boring and regular looking and Viner Hand ITC was a bit over the top and less subtle which is an element we wanted in our typography.

In conclusion we have gone with Goudy Old Style which in our opening will be white and will be written as it is below and sometimes all in capitals (e.g HIDDEN PICTURES PRESENTS). We think this typography will give the audience the best reading for the reasons I mentioned before. At the moment we have decided to have the typography fade in and out on the screen and will do it like that for our rough cut.



Editing The Rough Cut 1st Session // Post-Production

We started editing on Wednesday the 26th of February. As I mentioned in the last post our lesson started with one of the school's IT technician helping us out to be able to view and copy across our files.

Once that was done we looked through and watched all our clips while looking across the storyboard to see how our shots look on the computer screen and check the quality of them for the last time. We came across one error where you can see some of our equipment in the background. For our rough cut we will probably include it anyway but we may cut out this shot for the final edit.

We then started editing.

We decided to edit chronologically as it makes things easier and simpler to follow. Therefore we started with the writing that first appears and we made it on Live Type using the font Goudy Old Style and slightly editing the position of it in a way so we were happy with it. At first we thought we might make it appear on the screen like a type writer (as shown below) but then we decided we would stick with it fading in and out for now and see later on if we preferred to have it appearing differently.

 

During those two hours we also edited together some more of the clips and made slow, but steady progress.

Technician Needed! // Post-Production

When returning back to school on Monday the 24th of February Wilhelmina and Indya went to the media room to copy across the files for our opening so we could begin editing straight away in our first lesson on Wednesday. They had problems doing this as the files weren't being recognised so on Wednesday we all went to the IT technician and he sorted it out for us.

Evaluation of Filming

At the end of our day of filming yesterday we decided to film a short video of how the day went and we quickly evaluated some choices we'd made.

p.s again the music used was from a royalty free source (no copyright).

The Making of Malediction (Behind The Scenes)

The other we did our first (and only) day of filming. We planned to do two days of filming but got it all done in one day! Here's 'The Making of Malediction (Behind The Scenes), enjoy!

 

p.s the music used in this video is from a royalty free source (it isn't copyrighted).

Shot Log

 

With this shot log we could keep track of what shots we'd taken and write down any extra shots we decided to do. As well as this the shot log made sure we looked back on the clip to check the quality was to a high standard.

 

As you can see we did our best to split the role of the camera operator equally. This was good as it gave all of us a chance to film. We also all took turns in directing and ensuring everything was right for the shot we were doing.

That's A Wrap!

Filming has finished all in just one day!

Wilhelmina and Indya arrived at mine just after 9am and we starting filming around 10am. We got all the outside shots done pretty quickly and then entered the house and did the majority of those shots. We had our lunch break at mine and then went back to the house around 2pm to film the final two shots.

We were originally using the tri-pod we borrowed from the school but we actually found my own one better as it was taller and had more options for the direction the camera could be moved on it. When we filmed the shots inside we used my tri-pod instead.

The use of the camera went pretty smoothly. The only problem we came across was when we were filming our shot when we wished to do a focus pull we couldn't get it to exactly work (even though Wilhelmina knows how to do it and has done it before). We tried to do it the best we could and hopefully it's come out alright.

As we managed to get everything done a lot faster than we thought we had time to do extra shots throughout the day of what we thought would look good to have in the opening. This should be good for our film opening as in the planned storyboard I don't think it is very long overall (so these extra shots should ensure it is at least 1 minute and 30 seconds).

After we finished filming we had a little time before Wilhelmina and Indya had to leave so we decided to record some creepy sounds of Wilhelmina laughing, crying, etc on my microphone which I can then edit and we may use in our opening.

Filming Starts Tomorrow!

I can't believe it's all come round so fast! My camera's charged, the props and costumes are sorted and all the equipment is ready at Wilhelmina's house.

After researching and going through the pre-production stage I feel completely ready to begin filming tomorrow, a bit nervous for how the day will go but I'm sure it'll turn out great.

After checking BBC Weather unfortunately right now it says it's going to rain tomorrow. This could be quite annoying when doing some of our outside shots or it could enhance them (I guess we'll see when we are filming tomorrow). That's just made me thought, if it's raining, is the camera waterproof? Maybe we'll need to be a waterproof jacket to put over it.. Ok, enough of my rambling, I should probably get an early nights sleep for day 1 of filming tomorrow, night!

Equipment

The equipment we will use to film are as follows;

A Panasonic HD camera. This is the highest quality camera the media department provided and will help us produce the best quality film we can.

 

 We will also use a tripod (I am unaware of the exact make at the moment as Wilhelmina has it at hers). This tripod will significantly steady the camera and allow us to pan and do still shots easily.

 

The memory card we will be using is a 16GB SanDisk Extreme. This is Wilhelmina's own memory card and will be very useful as it will have enough space for film and as it is HD it will store the footage we record on the camera at high quality.

Some Changes We've Made

When we came to storyboard our ideas we are agreed that we wouldn't include Wilhelmina (the antagonist) singing an old nursery rhyme because we believe it would be quite hard to actually make it creepy and people may just find it funny. Instead we will stick with incidental music which creates enough atmosphere itself.

As well as this on our storyboard in shots 6, 10, 12, 15, 25, 26, 27 and 28 a door is shown. This door is very important for our opening as it is the entrance to where the antagonist is. When I went to do test shots I realised how the door knob on it was in fact on the left side of the door and not the right. This will change the compositions of some of our shots (especially when the door is being opened) but it will not dramatically effect our film opening.

What Could Go Wrong During Filming

We have permission to shoot in our location and Wilhelmina picked up the equipment we needed on the last Friday before half term.

As the days of filming are approaching I was thinking about how much I'm looking forward to it but also how there's the chance for lots of things to go wrong. I don't want to be negative and assume something bad will happen but I think that by thinking about these things I will be able to do all I can do prevent them from happening.

What Could Go Wrong? What Will I Do?

Organisation

Equipment left behind on set. -The set is next door to me so if we realise we've forgotten something I can just go over and collect it.
Equipment returned late. -On the first day back we will all return the equipment as soon as we get to school.
Not doing much footage and returning to school practically empty handed. -We will ensure we get a good amount of work done on both days and request another day of filming from the house owner if we need longer.
People forgetting/not turning up to filming days. -I will text and Facebook message Wilhelmina and Indya the day before to ensure they will come on time.
Wasting time on shoot. -I will write up a rough timeline of what we aim to get done in the day and we will try and follow it.
Things taking too long in general. -We will be focused on the day and not get distracted.

Communication

Not explaining ideas properly. -We know we communicate well as a team and have not had any problems explaining our ideas so far so this should not be a problem.
Keeping quiet and not expressing how you feel. -We are all comfortable around each other and happily say how we feel so this shouldn't happen.
Losing your patience/arguments. -We will all agree and when we don't come to a compromise. If we have different ideas about filming something then if we have time we will film both ideas and decide at the post-production stage.
Last minute changes without team agreement. -We already have a group Facebook chat. Whenever we think of changes we discuss them on the chat and decide together.
Not recording everything we do on the blog. -We will treat our blogs like our diaries for this film opening. Whenever something changes we will write it up on our blog as soon as we can.

Technical

Batteries dying during filming. -We will make sure the batteries are fully charged by charging them well in advance and not using them until the days we film. We will also bring the leads so they can be charged on the day if needed.
Unable to use equipment. -Last Friday someone showed us the basics of the camera and how to use it. We are all comfortable using tripods. If we are unable to do more technical things (on the camera)we will either look up how to do it or figure it out ourselves.
Poor lighting. -Lighting could become an issue for us. When I went to do test shots it was surprisingly better than I thought. If, however it isn't light enough we will have to decide on the day what to do to improve it.
Shaky camera movements. -We will be using a tripod so this shouldn't happen (unless it's supposed to).
Not a large variety of shot angles, movements and distances. -We have already storyboarded a large variety of shots and if we think of more things we could do on the day then we will do it.

Group Dynamics

One person controlling the group/people not doing equal amounts of all jobs. -We all respect how we are part of a team and we will not allow anyone to control the group so we all get to do jobs equally.
Not compromising. -We will compromise unless we feel very passionate about having a certain thing our own way. If this happens we may try and film both ways but if not we will just compromise.
Getting annoyed and turning problems into 'personal' issues. -This will not happen as we are all mature and know this is an important stage for our film opening.

Call Sheet // Pre-Production

 

This is the call sheet we produced. A copy of this will be given to each member of the group before filming to ensure that all cast are on time and all props/costumes are brought.

Props // Pre-Production

The props we are going to use for our opening are as follows;

Boy doll - We chose to include a doll in our opening as it has connotations of someone's childhood and this can give off quite a creepy, nostalgic feel when the doll is in shot. As well as this the fact that a doll has human features makes it feel like someone or something is watching you as the doll can easily be placed in a part of the scene where it wasn't there before. This doll is owned by Wilhelmina's Mum who has a collection of dolls. Out of her collection we chose to use a boy doll in a sailor outfit because we believed he looked the most innocent but also the most sinister. We thought it would be more effective to choose a boy since both of the characters in our opening are female.

Clipboard & Pen - Every estate agent is likely to have a clipboard and pen. The choice of these props are to make the character, Suzanne, more convincing and the overall opening scene seem more professional. By showing that Suzanne owns a clipboard and pen it will give to the audience the preferred reading that she is prepared for her job and organised.


Estate Agent Documents - This is another prop we are intended to use to make our stock character seem more realistic. If you look at the storyboard you will see that in shot 7 there is a close up that shows the estate agent documents, because of this close up we decided to make up a sheet to show on the front of her clipboard with some paper behind to make it look like Suzanne has a lot of important documents.


Bag/handbag - Suzanne will also have the prop of a bag. This bag is black and white and looks very formal giving connotations of professionalism. This, again enforces the idea to the audience that Suzanne is a proper estate agent and she is actually in doing work in the house (instead of acting and just being there to take part in some media students film opening).

Newspaper Cut Out  - We also decided to produce a pretend newspaper cut out from 1972 as at the start of our opening we will give some context to the audience about how people died in the house back then and the house has been empty since. This will enforce the idea of the situation in the audience and they will see how it is still thought about in the present time as Suzanne has a newspaper cutting of it. It will also make the opening more effective as an image of the house is shown back in 1972 (even though it was just a photo I took the other day and added a filter on). Indya and Wilhelmina both wrote the story for this prop and I put the layout together and chose pictures.