Editing Problems

In todays lesson we all worked really well together as a group, but we came across a few difficulties such as the first section of our opening scene we realised that all our other filming was in widescreen but this particular bit wasn't. So today we were trying to arrange a different day to film this particular photo pan. We also had the same problem with filming some bits of Andrew on the park, the white balance wasn't correct and we again forgot to put the camera in widescreen so we have had to arrange yet again another day to film on. We still think that putting our opening sequence in greyscale looks a lot more professional than keeping it in colour, it looks very amatuer and we also wanted to create the effect of the opening looking like something that has happened in the past.

Research

For the second half of our lesson we then needed to think about what different people could do to make sure that we get our thriller in on time and to also take everyones comments into account to make it look and sound a lot better. So we began by giving different members of the group different things to research and do so it all runs smoothly. Andrew researched different pieces of music so that our opening sequence didnt come across as a TV Drama and we needed certain bits in our opening to be filled with tense music to make it better instead of leaving it silent. Josh continued to edit certain bits in our opening and to play around with some effects to see if anything suited the filming a bit better than the previous one. We all listened to the music to see if we all agree but we will have to see which one fits the situation more. And Tom and myself continued to plan when we could next film and when we next edit so we could plan our time wisely and quickly.

Feedback

For the first half of our two hour lesson we watched our peers opening sequence and we had to offer advice on how to improve their opening scenes and give feedback on what we thought about it and what we thought the possilbe plot lines could be.

Positive Feedback for our Opening was:
Good Use of camera
Good angles and shots
Music is good but at certain gives off the feel of a TV Drama
The ending is really efective with then name fitting into the effect

Negative Feedback for our Opening was:
Length of certain shots need to be cut down
Romantic section is to focused around "Tom" and "Sophie"
And we need more cuts to show the stalker to create a lot more tension

So all of these positive and negative points were taken into accout and we began editing straight away to make these comments count. We are going to start by re-filming the fist minute of the photo pan and make sure we put the camera on widescreen

First Draft and Editing

This is our first draft for our thriller. There is still alot more things that need adding, it also needs making a bit longer to match the maximum of 2 minutes and its currently at 1 minute 27 seconds. There is loads more we can incorperate in our thriller and still quite a few bits of footage that we could include to make it look a bit better.
Today we got the majority of editing done to get the final draft in on time, there is still a lot that needs doing but we will get round to that after we have had feedback given to us and aspects in which we could improve. So far i am really happy the way we have worked as a team and managed to get some really good shots due to not wasting time or argueing. I think that a lot of time and effort has gone into this project so we are all hoping with the finishing touches it will get us all the grades we want. Today we have also uploaded our thriller opening to youtube so can show our first draft in our blogs.
For our thriller the effect we wanted to create was a detective based idea at first, which then developed as we began our filming process. We then had a idea of a stalker but we all agreed that it was a bit to predictable so we changed our idea slightly, we decided to go for the detective based idea but with a bit of a twist of all of the characters being followed as you see at the beginning when the camera is panning across all the pictures. Also with this panning bit we have come across a really big problem and will sort it out once we have had feedback, we noticed that all of our filming is in widescreen apart from the panning at the beginning but we are hoping that it will fit in with our detective theme, but if not then we will just have to film it again. We then decided that with all our footage in colour it looked a bit amatuer so i thought it would look a lot better in black and white or greyscale to again fit in with our detective theme.

Final Filming

Today in period 3 all of the group went to the nearest park to begin filming bits of Andrew exactly like we did with Me and Tom on Monday. We thought it would be better idea if andrew was in some bits with the stalker following him because it makes more sense due t0 Andrew being in the photo pan at the start. When we eventually got to the park after gathering together our equipment the weather was really cold so we tried to get our shots done as quickly as possible but made a mistake through doing that which cost us all of our filming, we forgot to put the camera in widescreen. Wre filmed each shot at least two times just in case something went wrong with the previous shots. We then wanted some shots of of Andrew and Josh (the stalker) walking into an alley way leaving the park we thought it would look really if we made the camera invisable and get Josh to look as if hes just puhed some one out the way to get to Andrew. These shots have really worked well today and we are hoping to capture as soon as we get chance to Edit.

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Main block of Filming

As a group we decided today that we will get the main bulk of our filming done, so for our location we picked a park with lots of different areas with quite a few trees to make our opening look as realistic as possible. We began by taking loads of location shot for our blogswhich i will be posting in my next blog. After taking photographs of us working and locations we then began filming, we started where me and tom began to walk down a footpath with the camera at quite a distance away getting closer as we walked. We then decided to get some close ups of mine and toms faces and did these shots a number of times just incase one of them went wrong we also had a great time filming all of these shots. We also tryed putting the camera into a number of different positions to see which positions looked the best and we came out with a lot more better shots and angles. We also picked an area with the most trees so we could get some really good stalkerish angles trying to include tree branches so it looks like the stalker is looking from behind something. We also came acroos some really good areas that we thought would look really good for filming but we havent used that footage yet. Overall it has been a very successful day today for filming the weather has been really good so we have been able to stay out for longer to film and again we picked the best spots to film in. As a team we did get along really well today as well as getting our filming done we also had a great laugh together which made the filming all the more enjoyable.

Filming the victims

While i was away the rest of the group continued to filming for our opening sequence. Firstly they captured the panning video we all did on monday so that bit was finished and out the way. They all then carried the camera and tripod onto toton lane and tried out some different shots professional and amature. They filmed walking down the road and from opposite sides of the road (giving the representation of the camera being invisable) and one amature shot was taken to show the perspective of the stalker. We used different camera shot types to portray a wide range of camera angles in the opening sequence and portray different perceptions of view and make it interesting to watch.


Some of these pictures we thought would create a really good effect and tie into our opeing sequence. After they had finished filming on totoan lane across the roads they then went to film on the park and we have chosen the park because it looks more childlike and is one place you would associate with a child and we wanted the vulnerability to come across to the audince when its complete. The filming at the park consisted of tom sitting on the swings and josh and andrew getting different angles filming with tom in the same position and we also took loads of pictures in the spare time we had to upload to our blog.

Limited Time

At the beginning of todays lesson all of our group were beginning to feel the pressure and feel pressed for time it didnt help today at the fact i had to leave pretty early due to a table tennis tournament but i know that my group went to do some filming on swings at the park. I also know that they have some really good footage of andrew which will be used at the beginning of our sequence just after we have started the pan.

Photograph Panning

For the two hours we had to work on our thriller opening sequence i think we made vert good timing. For the first half of the lesson we managed to go to my house which was closer to film in and managed to get our opening minutes finished. We took about three takes on the same shot to see which film came out better and also just in case something went wrong with one of the filming. I think me and the rest of me group are very happy with the progress we are making even though we could of filmed a little bit quicker but we have managed to get the important bits filmed and we are now ready to capture. Using the camera to film our photograph scene seemed like a very good due to the fact that we took and put together all the pictures that we pan across with the camera, We had a slight problem with the tripod, when the camera was on the tripod we found it very hard to get the camera the way we had planned it on our storyboard. We decided we wanted the camera to be directly over the pictures we had taken so it had a better effect when we add the music to the scene. But on the whole for this double lesson we have done what we had planned to do and are now ready to capture.

Actors

As a group we decided that all of us should be involved in our thriller, we decided this because all of us are taking AS Drama so we all have good ideas of how we want to act out our particular parts. (from left to right) Sophie Neil, Thomas Adcock, Andrew Tinley and Josh Curran. By making the right choice and making sure we are all involved we wont have to worry about wasting time due to the acting side of things. For the costumes we decided just to film in what we were wearing at the time, this is because we thought it would look alot more realistic and also filming on different days wont be a problem as that is what we want to achieve by wearing things on different days so it looks like different times of the day.

Props?
As a group we decided not to use props as we didnt want our thriller to look amatuer and that we had just used the props for the sake of it, we wanted the best outcome to get the grades we want so we decided to go for the most realistic look and use a area where we thought a stalker may take pictures of people from, so this ment picking a area with lots of trees so we could get some really good angles from behind trees and trying to get shots with tree branches in it to also give it that realistic look.