WELCOME, MODERATOR

Welcome moderator! 
I am Agatha Parry 1150 

I worked with, Demi Collins 1290, Kate Bradford 1208, Sophie Bennett 1289

I hope you enjoy looking at my blog, which contains my work on the G321 and the titles and openings of a fictional thriller film which I named "The Unhinging". My preliminary exercise follows immediately underneath. My evaluation questions are above. 

FILM OPENING: THE UNHINGING

PRELIMINARY

We planned, filmed and edited a short scene involving a shot, reverse, shot. Demi, Kate, Sophie and  I decided as a group to set the scene in a police office where an officer and her boss discuss a murder case:

• When filming our preliminary we made use of a tripod where possible to ensure that our footage would be better quality
• we made sure to demonstrate various shots including a "shot, reverse, shot"
• after filming our preliminary we began choosing clips for our video 
• we edited the video cutting clips where necessary
• music was also used to make the video more interesting and effective 
• we altered audio and music to make sure the people featured in the video could be heard 

Below is a screenshot taken whilst editing:

What I learned from this experience:

I learnt about the best way to use a tripod and was able to experiment with various camera angles. I've found out more about the way to best use the camera including the ability to alter the focus on a shot. When using props we've encountered issues and I feel it will help me when creating videos in the future as I know that I need to carefully consider how they should be used in each shot.

Editing our video has shown me new ways to make my videos more effective through use of fading techniques and it has highlighted the importance of balance between audio of actors within the film and the audio of music or sound effects. When using music in our video to create the atmosphere we found that we had to alter the sound of the audio so that we could still hear speech within the video.

I've found that it was best to use a tripod where possible when filming as we found that the shot was clearer and more level. For instance, when shooting for the video we wanted a shot where the camera would pan up as our female actor walked towards the camera. This was most effective when using a tripod to keep the shot steady. 

editing our preliminary video

CONSTRUCTION: EDITING MUSIC

Today I edited the music for our film opening using iMovie.

I took sections of music and created a mash up or mix or our track and split the end product finding sections of the music that worked best for each shot of our opening. Our opening is fast paced and particularly in specific sections of the film where shots are short and involve a lot of cuts. 

I used the clip trimmer on iMovie to be precise when choosing sections of the music to include. I was able to view the sound waves on iMovie which allowed me to look for sections of the music that were loud or quiet. This made it a lot easier to select appropriate parts of the music for the clips in our opening. 

Where I had cut sections of the music I had make sure they flowed well and that the transition was smooth and unnoticeable. Using the precision editior was important here. I also changed the settings of the section of audio in places to fade out.

I also had to line up the music so that certain actions would happen exactly on a louder beat such as when Jack (the kidnapper) punches the mirror and the there is a short burst of louder sound. 

A section of our opening involves a 180 degree shot in which India is seen looking around her in the Forrest. I selected a section of the music that gradually built in sound. Lining the sound up with the moment India begins to run again built the tension and was effective at showing the panic of the character. 

CONSTRUCTION: EDITING

I helped to edit sections of the film today. I edited with Demi working to add the opening credits choosing appropriate font and placing font in the right places where there was plenty of space. We wanted to follow the coneventions of a film opening and we therefore had to make sure to add credits in and use the correct names and roles within the opening. Placing the font in correct positins was also important. In order to expand our choice of fonts we looked on After Effects and not just iMovie.

We also needed to decide on how to edit in the phone call that takes place between India and the emergency phone operator. We decided to place the audio in the clip before she is seen speaking on the phone. To ensure the audience could understand that India had made the call I suggested we place the font "dialling 999..." at the bottom corner of the screen. I suggested that the tone of the phone dialling could be heard while "dialling 999" was seen to flash on and off the screen. We did this section on iMovie placing in layers of the words that would come in consecutavely to give off this sense of flashing on and off the screen.

CONSTRUCTION: COMPANY IDENT

Above shows the company ident I have created with my group. We chose to  include the music from the musical Chicago entitled "razzle dazzle". We included a pun playing on this title calling our company "razzle rainbows". We used iStopmotion to create the ident using the technique of onion cutting to move the rainbow and letters in order to show the rainbow and letters appearing.

Below shows our distributors company ident for Warp. This was placed at the beginning of our film.

CONSTRUCTION: OPERATOR SCENE

Today we filmed a scene featuring a female operator. This operator would be on the end of the emergency call made by our female character India when she is in the forrest. We used this footage to end our film as it made it visually interesting to see a new character and shows the way in which our film could continue. At the end of the scene the female operators gaze shifts as if to look at someone. We did this to suggest that this would lead to a motivated shot. I wanted to include this as I want to show that our opening has a story line that could continue; it is important to us that it doesn't look like a trailer. We felt doing this would avoid it looking like a trailer. 

I assisted with directing in this scene as I was the actress. I was able to give feedback to Demi who was filming, with the position of my face in the shot and how close up it should appear. I also made decisions about my script and what I felt should be said. I also suggested that I use a headset as this made it appear more realistic. We considered that the environment needed to be believable and so we filmed in the ICT room where there's plenty of space and desks. Although it is subtle we felt it was key to have Sophie in the background also wearing a head set. It allows the mis-en-scene to make the scene look believable as there would of course be more than one operator working in the office. 

This image shows Kate and I directing and watching footage back. From here we both talked through what changes we might make and discussed what worked well in the clip. 

Here I can be seen playing the female operator.