Editing progress

EDITING

We chose to use Final Cut Pro because i feel more confident with this programme and feel more comfotable using it.

I ingested all the film from day one and two filming including the interview scene too, within correct time codes and waited for the clips to render. i used keyboard shortcuts to cut in (I) and cut out (O) of the film in order to save the clips i renamed them in order to make editing easier. For example, during the interview scenes i renamed them as Question one Take two, Question two Take three, Question 3 Take one, etc...

I arranged the scenes in order of the way they come up, for example, the note DID comes before the note WE is found.

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Yesterday (Monday 1st February) I ingested the film from Day 3 filming and watched it through to make sure the sound was alright, because during filming we noticed that the sound was jumping, so we changed the tape just incase it was faulty.

I went through the clips and marked them in and out, renaming them to make it easier to establish between the different scenes. I began editing together the clips adding fades and black outs, i decided a dissolve effect was better than a fade in fade out effect because it looks more dreamy, asif the character was having a flashback.

Our planning was beneficial because i new exactly how the group wanted it and was able to follow through faster. The group came round to see my progress and gave valid points on things which they felt needed to be added and changed.

With the music, i found one which best suited the video, its low percussion, piano with a slight beat 30 seconds in, i like the way it fitted perfectly with the scenes i have editied so far and i wont need to edit the music as it ends dramitally already.

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Today (Wednesday 3rd February) I did a bit more editing, i experimented with a few random shots we'd filmed, arranging clips in order to confuse the audience more, i added a few more fades/dissolves and edited a bit more of the interviews scene, the interview scene is by far the most difficult, we didn't plan it very well and so the shots are all over the place with no real structure to show where everything goes.

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Today (Saturday 6th February), i set myself a target to finish all the editing for the trailer today and i did. I began with picking out all the clips that looked best again trying to avoid the ones that had the mic boon at the top, after i had found all the good clips, i began arranging them from where i wanted them to cut in. i experimented with the saturation, mids, blacks and highlights, adjusting the warmth of the pictures by adding oranges and more blues to make it colder.
Under Video filters- colour corrector then i had a choice of yellows, greens, blues etc.
I took down the saturation by about 15% , shifted it slightly to the blues.
This was all a part of colour grading perfecting the lighting in order to create the moods we wanted. giving it a uniform feel, making some scenes warmer, for example, the scene with the dust and the sun coming through the letter box. i changed the colour magnitude making the door richer in colour. bumping up the highlights made the sunlighting coming through the letter box sparkle more.


With the IV Natalie N came up with the idea of having IV written along a line, so i downloaded a Font called Neon, under Video Generator effects, i clicked Boris then text scrambler, i increased the reveal time , decreasing the opacity creating the effect on IV....................
I experimented it with 3D by adding a spin in the axis, i then decided to add INDEPENDENT VARIABLE to the IV effect i did the same making it 3D nd put it underneath the IV line...............

To create the words, i clicked Apple V (paste) to keep pasting new clips and on each one i typed different words that best represented our soap, For example, like Love, Revenge, Hate, Success.etc it was rendering slowly so i created new sequence and pasted the words in because the text requires rendering and laying them all on top gives it a lot to do at once so it takes longer.
However one problem i had with the words was when the computer froze, after a quick panic, i was thankful to have saved it just before it closed but i still couldn't add anymore to it but i think i had added enough words anyway so i am grateful that worked out too.

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Some of the techniques i used:

• Additive dissolve- added the pictures together, and as a result the contrast inbetween becomes lighter


• in order to render i typed Alt- R


• During the bag swinging in the trailer i changed shot making it look more effective


• Snap time line, blade it and click A to select it


• One problem was with the mic boon in the top, so we zoomed in inorder to cut out the mic and keep the shot we had selected


• experimented with blurs, motion blur, wind blur, slit scan, bad tv, we finally chose effect light rays because it worked better than just a blur, it gave a dreamy/confusing effect.
• In order to make editing easier for me, i printed off a shortcut guide for editing.

Group Filming Day Three

Sunday 31st January 2010

Today was the day we planned to finish off the filming for the trailer.

We all met up at my house and began discussing the props, we spoke about the lighting outside because we was going to film the dead body scene aswell and we wanted the most beneficiallighting we could get.

We decided to film a few of the note finding scenes before going outside to use the powerful glare of the sun throught the window.

The first note was found through the letter box. We set up the camera up on the tripod and prepared for the wide shot, we positioned it at an angle to the front door which best benefited the effect we aimed for. The camera was positioned by the side of a plant, we decided to have a part of the plant in shot as well to add to the dark atmosphere, we focused on the plant and then focused on the post (pull focus). we also decided to use the dust in the air as another benefiting factor. the overall outcome was extremely creative.

Natalie N was posting the letters through the door, we filmed numerous different shot, wide shot of the hallway, close up of the letter box, close up of the floor underneath, wide shot of thegla walking into shot and picking up post.

In a number of these the note blew out of the pile, we used this to our advantage and took a number of close up shots, narrow depth of field etc in order to show the audience the notes. However the light became too strong so we decided to cover up the window with dark paper in order to eliminate some of the glare.

The next note was Thegla (Andrea) walking into the house, as she goes in her pocket to find the keys she finds a note, we again took a number of different camera shots, wide shot, over the shoulder, tracking shots close ups and reaction shots. With the tracking shot, in order to create a steady cam effect we dismantled the tripod pole and attached a clamp to it in order to gain weight at the bottom in order to equally weight out the camera. attached

The third note was found with Thegla sitting at the table about to do some work, she has her folder and laptop etc in front of her, with our added props like the pens and highlighters it looked very realistic. As she flicks through her folder she sees a post-it note stuck on one of the pages reading another word. For this shot in particular we decided to film from the side establishing where she is and what she was doing and then panning around to over the shoulder, in order for the audience to see the note at the same time as she does. For this shot we had a slight problem with the lighting it seemed very dark as we was shooting against a window again however we turned up the brightness of the camera and it fixed the problem substantially.

For the fourth note, we filmed Thegla walking in with shopping bags, tipping them out and a note being tucked in between one of the items of clothing. This was filmed as a wide shot, and then a zoom/pan of the note.

The last note we filmed in the house was the one she received via text, we chose a realistic acting with Thegla watching television when she receives a text, she simply picks it up to read it and it cuts, a fairly quick and easy scene to shoot. then when she receives the text a close up shot was filmed.

The day ran smoothly and the weather stayed dry, for the final part of our trailer we decided to film a dead body. Natalie M played the role of the dead body. We found a alley way with all sorts of rubbish and graffiti around it, it looked dark and dreary and with the advantage of the beutral density filter it looked even better. We filmed extreme close-ups, panning shots, wide shots and low shots, shots behind trees and branches and experimented with focusing.

My Individual developments

Today (Saturday 30th January) i decided to look through all the footage we have shot and i wrote down all the time codes of the takes i felt where best in order to make it easier later on during the editing stage.

Some of the problems id noticed was the microphone sometimes being in the top of some of the shots, i also heard a lot of crackling in some of the scenes which can be eliminated next time by fiddling with the sensitivity of the microphones and maybe not having two microphones and sticking to the one in order to control the sound closely.

Development of the Website

As a group on Tuesday 24th November we visited the CLC centre in order to learn how to use a programme called iWeb. We was taught how to create our own webpages and also creating games that can be played on them.

People present:

Me, Thegla and Natalie N.

We all experimented on our own computer practicing and experimenting on what was available. We got our work saved onto Cd's and went back to school. however once we had got back and attempted to retrive our work it only came up as a picture so we was unable to edit it further.

So we came to the decision on making a new website together at school, so combining all of our developed skills and techniques we began on deciding which templates and colours to use, I drew out a plan for what styles and fonts we wanted and we began designing.

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The downside of iweb is that we can only use the computer that we started on, there isnt a way of saving our work and moving it somewhere else, so the time we have to work on our website is limited to school hours only.

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Tuesday 26th January

Today i had a look at what the girls had been up to with the website, i gave my input with some of the designs and colours and booked in a day i was going to do some too. We have character pictures which are hyper linked to their pages, which say their favoroute colours, foods, films and music, it also outlines their character type in the soap and has a small gallery of on and off set pictures.

We also added competitions where people can win a day on set and meet the soap characters. This helped it look realistic and can help draw in people from different age ranges.

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Thursday 28th January

Today Me and Natalie M stayed behind after school for a few hours to add a few more things to the website, we discussed colour and font, i suggested to change the font to "Bradley Hand ITC" i felt that this looked nicer than just Arial and it looked more appropriate for a young audience. We also decided to change the colour of the titles to red, this stood out more drawing in attention to the important points on our page.

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Tuesday 2nd February

Today as a group we went through the website again, everybody gave their input, i asked other people in the class what they thought and if they think i should change anything on it. i took in all useful comments and applied it as much as i could.

When looking at the pages i felt as though they seemed empty, i decided to put speech bubbles on the characters pages, i wrote comments from the real characters and quotes that best represented the characters, this helped fill up the pages, making them look more interesting and allowing the viewers/fans to get a real understanding of the characters aswell as the people who they are played by.

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Tuesday 4th February

Today we altered the website again slightly, i asked the group what they thought of the colour on the homepage, we decided to change it to something more plain.

when looking over 'Andrea's Diary' i felt as though it was very plain and basic, Natalie M agreed and so we tried to think of something different to add, i came up with the idea of putting stars on two of the sides of the page, i experimented with the amount of points on the stars i wanted, i added shadows to highlight th

em more, we couldn't find a way of adding colour but the shadows gave a good effect.

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Our drawn website plans and the macs with the website character page open.

Final Draft of Magazine Front Cover

I designed my magazine front cover based on the 'Radio Times' i believe that it looked lot more proffesional and still targeted a variety of age groups. I felt that this best emphasized our soap, leaving it to look more professional and most importantly watchable.

For the design of my front cover, i used photoshop.

I used different colour schemes and fonts, i finally found the font i felt best suited my design and the most beneficial colour.

I experimented many times creating many rough drafts, id finally found what id wanted and i used a tool which made the background look asif it had been drawn, this helped target at the younger audience.

I also advertised the fact that it was a new soap and went against the idea of promoting the first big story line of 'MURDER' and instead stuck with a critics comment.

Pictures from Filming Day Two

Group Filming Day Two

Saturday 23rd January 2010

Today we began filming for the trailer of our soap. Thegla, Natalie M and I met together early and organised set, we set up the camera and the microphone, altered the lighting and organised the props.

From the last filming day being less organised that we had hoped, this time around we typed up all the shots we needed etc (on the blog above)

After everything was sorted on set we got together and went through the plan, we decided to do all the over the shoulder shots first, then allow time for Thegla to prepare to get in character and cry for the reaction shots and close ups. We again managed to get numerous shots from many different angles so that when we are at the editing stage we would not be limited in our choices.

So we got filming, the over the shoulder shots where the hardest, we had to make sure we never moved anything/ or placed things back in the right place before filming again. We had the slight problem with Thegla sometimes moving in front of the camera but we filmed this take so many times there are still many to pick from. Some of the shots we experimented with where: Zoom, close-up shots, over the shoulder shots , panning shots , wide shots, reaction shots.

Me and Natalie M took it in turns to film and to hold up the microphone to which we attached to a pole in order to get closer to out actor and it not pick up our own movement.

With the lighting we used the daylight to our advantage, in the close up scenes the daylight lighted up half of Thegla's face really adding to quality of the picture as well as the emotional effect we was aiming for.

Some problems we experienced was with the text on the phone, it came up very small and the camera found it hard to focus, so we came up with the idea of taking a picture of it from the newspaper and leaving it widescreen.

We also changed the plan slightly, mixing up the order Thegla finds the notes leaving the audience more questionable and confused.

Overall today was extremely successful, we covered everything we needed to and there where no problems throught filming.