Editing - music

This was our first track of music that we put on the opening sequence....



I don't think that this music fits the video very well. First of all it it just a mix of sounds put together, it does not necessarily set the scene or tone of the film. The sounds used are quite annoying as well and some of them become off putting and irritating.


 Therefore, we decided to have another go at the music to see if it could sound better. Back on GarageBand we looked for more sounds and music which were more similar to the tone of the film. Once we had found some sounds and started putting them together, a different sound for each location in the opening sequence, we decided that actually that is not what happens in an opening sequence. We looked at some real life examples to remind ourselves and found that they all tend to have an ongoing piece of music throughout. Therefore we made a continuing track to be used throughout the sequence using just a few different tracks. Watching it with the film, we decided that it was quite long and got a bit boring so we added a few slightly different sounds throughout, which I feel adds suspense and questioning to the sequence. I now feel that the music is not off putting when watching the sequence and it creates a good mood or tone for the beginning of the story.

In addition to this, whilst watching the video we noticed that the black screen with the voiceover was actually quite boring. Therefore using Final Cut, we added in opening credits onto the black screen as we feel this is what would be done on a real film. It was only a small change but I think it makes the film look a bit more professional.

Here is the final video with completed music.

Evaluation

Find my evaluation on my Wix page here.

Final film

After weeks of planning, hours of shooting and months of editing here is our final opening sequence for our film Chroniker. Enjoy... 

Editing credits

We wanted to make our titles quite fun. We decided to have them moving and we worked on making sure they moved the same way as the action and didn't take too much focus off the action. We wanted to have them moving as it tied in with the narrative of the character traveling around London. I am happy with the way the credits turned out although we didn't fit everything in that we wanted and we wanted the focus to be more on the action.
Originally we wanted to have the credits on a black screen moving along lines of a map as previously mentioned similar to the film Rubicon, however as it came to doing the credits we felt that it would take up too much time of the sequence and we would instead have them over the footage.
Then as we were editing we found that the footage didnt always flow, for example in one shot there would be a car in the background and in the next shot it would be gone. We therefore at that point decided that we would have footage and then cut away quickly to a black screen with the credits then back to the footage and it would be less noticeable. However, again, as it came closer to the time we realised that it would make the opening too long and we would have to cut out footage to make it the right length which we didn't want to do.
Once we had split screened, I suggested having the titles on at the same time as the split screen and move in between each box that came up. This would link it back to our original idea of having the credits moving on a map, but without the map. We tried this with the time that we had and although it may not be exactly how we envisaged we were happy with it.

Editing 9 scrapping map

We became quite ruthless with the cutting down and editing of our film this week. It was still over 3 minutes and felt as though it was dragging on.

We deleted a few clips in our sequence, ones we felt were a bit boring or long and were making the opening drag a bit. I was hesitant to delete the shots so quickly as it felt we had spent so long on editing each part. However we had got to the stage where it had to be done and looking back on the week and our film without theses clips it has tidied up the sequence and it looks more effective.

The map was taking up the most of our time and we were having trouble making it flow within the sequence especially getting the still flowing into action. We therefore decided to scrap the effects on the map and instead of showing it four times only show it once in the final location of the opening sequence. This was quite annoying as the map had taken up so much of our time and effort that we were just going to delete it, but after seeing it without the map I think we made the right decision.

We spent some time making sure the map wasn't visible in previous shots and worked on the zoom of the image out of the map and into motion. We did this on Final Cut 3.51 by going to effects, video, quick time, transitions, zoom.

We were now able to continue with credits, I found this quite exciting as it finally felt as though the film was coming together and started looking professional.

We also created the AfterShock! name on Live type, this was difficult but i think the choice of background was suited to our film. 

Editing 8

The map was becoming increasingly frustrating and time consuming so we decided to take a break from it and start on the credits for the film. We used type writer for the 'title' eg 'directed by' and then the names in scrolling text. I felt that it was quite important to have the credits moving and it adds to the feel of the character walking around London, traveling.

I thought it would look quite good if the credits could move along with the split screens, ie as each box moved it would be replaced with credits which would then move to where the next box was. Like a snake. With the limited time and knowledge we had, it was decided to have the credits moving but more simple than this.

It was originally planned that to overcome our continuity problem ie a car suddenly disappearing, that it would flash away to black or a map with our credits on. However this would increase the time of our sequence greatly and we still needed to cut some time off it. Looking back on what we did this week I am happy with the credits.

Editing 7

We decided that we would split screen the parts of our opening sequence where the character is just walking. We felt it would make it more interesting and also speed it up. However we got carried away and started split screening everything. I wasn't too sure if this was the right thing to do as the main action was split screened and it became quite busy. However we did cut some of the clips out and have left some short parts of the sequence with no split screen and no effect and it works well.
After split screening our shots we started to notice that the colour was slightly different on each. We therefore adjusted the colour to make the sequence on the screen the same brightness and colour.

The split screen allowed us to progress greatly as it reduced the time of our sequence as well as making our sequence look more exciting and make more sense. This encouraged us to finish the sequence to the standard we had been aiming for but not quite reaching all along.

The map was still proving a problem this week as we were finding it hard to show a still going staright into motion.

Editing 6

We started editing with the split screen idea. To carry out the idea of the split screen it meant that we had to split the sequence we had already put together so that the sequence then became two or more separate pictures. Some of the shots that we had already edited into a sequence flowed well and it seemed a shame to break it up again. Therefore I wasn't sure whether it would still work if we used some bits as they are and some in a split screen of if it would look better all the same.

Fractured Films

Fractured films 

Fractured films are an independent film company, similar to one that we would expect to produce our film. They have produced content for companies such as Channel 4 and EMI, both of which are the types of companies we could expect or aim to share the same audience with. 

Editing 5

Today we saw Mesrine. We really liked the split screen effect and decided pretty much immediately then that we wanted to incorporate split screen into our opening. Mesrine had been filmed from different angles, so you saw the front and back of the person walking at the same time. Unfortunately we saw this opening after we had filmed so we hadn't filmed our actor from different angles. Therefore we decided to use the shots that we already had and so use for example a shot of the guy walking over the bridge and in the other split a view from the bridge.

Editing 4

We exported the map out of photoshop and imported it back into final cut. We originally had the idea of the actor holding the map up in front of him then when he puts it down the real life is the same as the image. When we came to this, it was to difficult and time consuming to do as we had to make a motion path for each of the pictures on the map.

We instead decided to zoom into the picture on the map of the location. This was also too difficult as we could only zoom into the centre of the map. Towards the end of the week we we struggling with the map and it was becoming very stressful and taking up a lot of our editing time. As an alternative to zooming in to the picture which wasn't working we tried the picture zooming out of the map and continuing into motion. This was a lot more effective and we continued to do this with the remaining pictures on the map.

Editing, feedback

The feedback we got from todays lesson from other members of the class was that they didn't understand the narrative. We didn't have the film finished enough for the narrative to be understood yet but we still weren't sure whether our finished opening would be understood. We took this into consideration and all decided that a voice over would be the best idea.
We had originally planned on doing a voice over for our opening as we liked the opening sequences in which the voice over introduces the character.
Having the feedback from todays lesson helped in the way that we had watched our film too many times to see faults that other groups may have picked up on and the comments gave us the motivation to continue the film.

Opening titles

Vaccancy


I like the way the credits have been shown in this opening as it is a bit different to what we may expect. Instead of using titles over footage it is just bold letters making the credits into a feature. I like the way it all fits together with the stalks of the letters expanding etc and how it turns, however I would not use this for the credits of my opening sequence as the credits need to be shown over footage. The idea and colour etc could be taken into account for inspiration.


Seven


I think the opening title of Se7en is wondrous. It is really inspiring, the font, the size and the placement of the credits are all perfectly put together to create quite a spooky, intriguing, mysterious tone. I like the way that some of the credits are over the footage and some of the time it is against a black screen. I also like the way the credits don't stay still, they flicker making it more interesting. This opening is quite different I think, and as we have the idea of putting the credits against some sort of crime map it may be one that we take a lot of inspiration from.


Thank you for smoking


Although this open title is not one that I would consider doing similar to for my own opening sequence I just really like the idea behind it. The film is called 'Thank you for smoking', the song is about smoking and the credits are set out as if they are the name of the cigarette packet. I think it's bit different and clever how they've done it.



Rubicon

Rubicon is, when drawing my storyboard for my first idea, how I imagined the credits to be set out, but better. I think it is so clever and exciting to watch and how each part is linked together. It really sets up the film nicely introducing the genre. As my initial idea and part of the group idea is to use some sort of crime map type thing, this is a perfect example of inspiration for it. If we could take this idea and scale it down to fit our opening sequence, somehow over footage, it would be perfect and exactly the type of thing we would be hoping to produce.

Opening credits

The opening credits of a film are shown in the following order (although can be used in various orders):

1. The name of the studio, eg Universal, that is distributing the film 
2. Name of the production company who has made the film
3. Producer or directors name eg A Renny Harlin film, as in 'Cleaner'
4. Actors names - Principle actors
5. Film title
6. Featuring actors
7. Casting director
8. Music director
9. Production designer
10. Editor
11. Director of photography
12. Co-producer / executive producer etc 
13. Writer
14. Director

We will have to take this into account when adding the credits to the opening sequence of our film as there are more than I had previously realised and we may need to consider when we start them in order to fit everything in the sequence.

An example of the opening credits in this order...

Editing 3

We started working on the map this week, we chose the pictures and worked out where on the map they would fit with the shots that we have. On photoshop we imported a still frame of our film (from Final cut), and the pictures we were going to layer on top of the map. We did this four times, one for each of the locations. With the photo layered on top of the still frame we used the rubber tool to rub out parts of the picture. For example in one still the picture overlapped his thumb so we used the rubber tool to rub out the picture to be able to see him thumb in the layer beneath. This made it look more realistic.
This was very time consuming as we had to chose an image that was the same as the footage to come. Later in the week we decided to use an image, not the photo we had taken at the time, but a still of the footage. This was also time consuming.

We made the images black and white on photoshop before putting them onto the map. This made the map look more real and authentic. However I think that they should have stayed in colour as the footage that followed was in colour. As it runs at the moment it goes from a black and white image into colour footage, I think having a colour image as well would have enforced the sense of continuity and make it look more real.

Editing 2

With our footage we started putting it in order and editing it to create continuity. We still have quite a lot of footage coming to over half an hour, we need to cut little bits of the end and beginning on the shots to tidy them up and also cut down time.

Editing 1

First lesson back from shooting we uploaded our footage and sorted out some it putting clips we didn't need into a separate folder as apposed to deleting it incase we wanted it to use it later. However we uploaded the footage to the worng computer and spent time uploading and sorting our footage again on the new computer. We didnt feel this was too much of a problem to our timing as we had filmed quite early.

We continued throughout the week to get our footage in the right order and move unwanted clips. We had multiple shots of each scene and so sorted through them selecting the ones that looked the best.
With our selected footage all uploaded the film came close to an hour long so we continued throughout the week to cut down the footage to a manageable amount.
We also scanned in some of the paper work from shooting, for example the first storyboard and props lists, and updated our group blog.

Casting

Jack
Played the main character of the homeless man. We chose Jack because we knew he would be reliable and do as we asked of him. We briefed him before shooting and gave him a schedule so he knew what to do before the day.

Patrick
Played the character of a 'shifty man'. Although he doesn't look shifty we just needed someone reliable to act on the day as we we're going to keep him quite hidden anyway, no shots of his face etc.
Again we briefed him before the day and gave him a schedule.

Shooting

Our first location of the day was Waterloo station. We were set up at filming by 11 o'clock. We briefed our actor on what we wanted him to do and then waited for a large group of people to come out of the station at the same time. To make it look as though there were more people a few members of our group walked out of the station as well. I filmed this scene a few times at different angles, but when we came to edit it we realised that because there were different groups of people some people appeared and some disappeared.

We set up the tripod ready for when a group of people walked out of the station. This worked a few times but we could tell that some of the public were looking directly at the camera and some groups were walking past talking directly to the camera.

I did the majority of the filming throughout the day. The camera that we were working with was broken and so we couldn't see what we were filming. This made it hard to film low angle shots as we couldn't see on the screen whether the camera was in the right place. This proved very annoying throughout the day.















Filming at another location of Jack walking up the stairs. We did this a few times from different angles and is one of my favourite  continuity sequences of the opening.




     

By the time we got to our final out side location for shooting it was getting dark . We still filmed but when uploading it we felt that it was too dark compared to the rest of the shots and we didn't want it to look as though the character had been walking through London all day. Also we filmed Westminster last but it would not be the last part of our opening. Therefore we took it out of our film.

Week Two Possible actors

During this week we started thining about the casting for our film. Beneath are possible actors for our opening sequence.

Meg
This is the dog that we are going to use in our opening sequence. She is a trained dog and is capable of carrying our planned scenes.











Possible actors for our film

Possible villain for our film. 

Possible hero for our film.