Finished blog

My blog is now complete and is ready for assessment.

Evaluation

Main Task Evaluation on Prezi

Production: Opening sequence

Here is our finished opening sequence, enjoy

Production: Editing

All-together it took us about 2 weeks to complete the editing process. This was due to us changing various elements of the opening's layout etc.
We decided to cut out the parts that we added in (shown in a previous post) and simplify the way in which the film runs, as we thought that too much happens in the opening. We finally edited the film opening so that it tells less of a narrative structure however, in our opinion, worked better and was more effective.

We only needed to film a few more shots which we would then add on to some of the other shots we had previously used. The use of several titles were also an effective way of improving the intensity of the opening sequence.

When we had finished filming the new shots, we used Adobe On Location again to firstly capture them off the tape. Once this had been achieved, we could import them into Adobe Premiere so that they could be edited and ordered properly.



This programme allowed us to do lots of things to our shots to make the opening more entertaining and effective.

Firstly, it let us split up the sound from each of the separate clips. This came in handy because we wanted a sound to be 'repeated' throughout the duration of the opening sequence - but without the camera noise in the way; therefore we deleted the sound off each clip and replaced it with a sample of some heavy breathing that we had filmed previously.

Also, Premiere allowed us to add video and audio effects/transitions to our shots. We used a lot of cross fade on the audio so that the sound ran more smoothly throughout the video (so it wouldnt quickly cut out). In addition to this we used some video transitions on the final title of the sequence. We added a 'fade' effect which the title more of an eerie feel to it, making it more believeable.

Titles also play a big part in our opening sequence. We used them to display actors names, production companies (which we made up) and the title of the film. Not only this, but we were able to find a relevant font type specific to our genre which we thought worked simply, but well. It also gave us many other options such as height,width and positioning of the text.



Above is our final title which shows the name of the film. We went for a simple layout as was mentioned before because we felt that it added to the intensity of the opening sequence.

Overall, I think that Premiere was very good at aiding us in completing the task as it allowed us to play around with effects and gave us some ideas as to what could be done to the audio/visuals on some shots.

Updates:location

With the new shots that we added we needed a second location to film them to show that they are at different periods of time in the story. We decided to film these shots at Worcester Woods Countryside Centre because we felt this was relevant to what was happening in the sequence.

Updates:filming

Thursday 13th January 2011:

We decided that our film opening did not give enough of an idea of what the main character is like or why he is bein followed, therefore we decided to add some more shots in which will be placed at the beginning of the film to create more of a narrative structure.

We also took on board some of the feedback that we were given and have also included a POV shot of the mysterious figure in the bushes. We felt that this would help to create more tension in the opening and ultimately make it more scary.

For the new opening shots, we also included a new actor:

Role	Who?	Photo
Innocent Little Boy	Jake Walden

Production:filming

5th January 2011:

We first attempted filming on the 5th January 2011. We went to our location with our actors, however it was too dark for the camera to capture anything. This meant we had to postpone filming to the 7th January; a time when both of the actors were next available.

_________________________________________________________________

7th January 2011:

All of the filming was done on this day and it took us about an hour to finish it. Filming went relatively smoothly with only a couple of shots taking more than one take. We decided to capture Shot 13 in various ways so that we could choose which method of filming we thought was best/most effective.

We did not shoot each shot entirely in order however. The order we did them in is below (Refer to Shot List blog post for description of each shot):

1. Shot 1 
2. Shot 6
3. Shot 7
4. Shot 8
5. Shot 9
6. Shot 10
7. Shot 11
8. Shot 12
9. Shot 13
10. Shot 14
11. Shot 15
12. Shot 16
13. Shot 17
14. Shot 3
15. Shot 5
16. Shot 18

*Shots 2 and 4 will be put in when we come to editing.

Organisation: Props/costume

We will not be using any props in our film opening. This is because we did not think that they were necessary for the project.

The costumes in our film will consist of everyday clothing that is typically associated with teenage boys. One of the characters you do not get to see much of anyway therefore his costume will also be like this. We did not feel that we needed any other costumes for the cast.

Audience research: Updates

I uploaded our animatic to our focus group on Facebook and got some feedback from not only people of a similar age to us, but also in the 30-40 age range.

Here is what 2 of our friends (Alex White and Rory Bailey) said about our animatic:


Sarah Moody represented the opposite end of our target audience age range. Here is what she had to say about the animatic:


We have taken this feedback on board and plan to make some changes to our project when we come to filming. We may choose to add some shots in to answer questions about the characters etc. or get some POV shots to help build tension in the opening.

Organisation: casting

The two characters who are in our film opening, the innocent person who gets followed and the stalker who does the following, are being played by Rory Bailey and Chris Hasell respectively. We have chosen these people for our opening because we believe they are reliable and suit the roles well.

                                               Rory Bailey                                        Chris Hasell

Cast meeting held on: 17/12/10;

Attended by: Miles Hardman, Connor Harris, Chris Hasell and Rory Bailey;

Key decisions and action points: Decided who would be playing which character and where would be a suitable location for filming.

Organisation: Location

For our media project we have chosen to film in Nunnery Woods. We felt that this will create the desired atmosphere. As this is a public wood, permission was not required. It was also a big advantage that it is very close to our college meaning hat we would need to travel far.

Risk assessment

Potential Danger	Potential outcomes	Actions to avoid potential outcomes	Further comments
Tripping over roots	Serious injury,	Watch out for roots on the floor.
Tripping over Tripod/Camera box	Injury to person, breaking of the camera	Don't leave to camera box/tripod lying around.	Me miles will be in charge of making sure all equipment is out of the way so that is is not a hazard to anyone.
Walking/running into tree	Injury	Be aware of where trees are and plan actions accordingly
Slipping over wet /muddy surfaces	Hitting your head on the floor.Getting muddy	Avoid filming in muddy areas.

 
Above is our risk assessment for our media project. It shows the dangers that are specific to filming in our location.