One week later

After a week of intense editing my group and I have finished our rough copy. So now we need to include sound, effects, titles and need to generally clean up the cutting. Unfortunately today I couldn't do any work on editing because the computer was occupied. So my group and I have come up with a list of sound effects we want to include:

• Door opening and closing X2 ✔
• Foot steps✔
• Music to use for our titles✔
• A track to use throughout the sequence

Some people in the class have been recommending the website Soundcloud to find music and sound effects that we can use. The best thing about this website is that all the music is non copyright.


This sound of the Door closing would work with the sequence, because it is not the typical creaky sound you get in haunted houses.

The sound of the Footsteps works because they sound like the noise is inside.

I like the opening and ending to this Opening music piece because it adds suspense and matches the action of the action of the beginning scene.

I will take a further look into different pieces of music because there isn't much available to use.

Title Sequences

We have come to a stage in editing process where we need to get an idea of the type title we want for the beginning of the sequence.
We are using the website Art of the Title to get some inspiration. We watched a short clip of different title sequences, it was really interesting to see the variety of different openings. You could use graphics, text or a selection of different clips.

My group have decided we want the credits at the beginning of the clip and the title at the end of the clip, after the lights have turned off.
I like these collections of credits because of the black background and white text. They're simple but effective because they add to the suspense.

I am not entirely sure how to add credits to the sequence, so I aim to find out more about how to add them by next week. 

Post Production Editing

Today I spent a majority of my afternoon up in the media suite editing the thriller. First of all I had to choose my favourite shots, which was difficult because we took about 60. So when I decided I liked a particular take and I wanted to use it, I named the shot and put it in the log bin. So far I have had a few difficulties with continuity. Even the small things such different arm positions in shots can cause some big problems. Thankfully I have remembered a majority of what we learnt about final cut pro back in October, which has made the job so much easier. We have been given a dead line of the end of the week to complete the editing process, so hopefully my team and I will feel confident by the then with what we have produced.

Photos of the editing software, including frames of the footage

Thriller - write up of shoot day

When I woke up the day of the shoot I was feeling pretty confident in what we had created the day before. The set was painted and all props and costumes were ready to be collected. However, a member of my team Bella had not been around much the past couple of days and the morning was going to be her first time seeing everything. We had painted the set white, however there was discussion that white was not a suitable colour and black would have been more appropriate. So we used black cloth to cover the walls of the observation room.

Which you can see in the background of this picture of Darina, who is playing the policewoman.

Before the cast arrived all my group had to do was dress the rooms appropriately. Because at the beginning of the day we did feel that we needed more props to dress the room to make it look more believable. We had never really taken that  into consideration, but luckily we were able to get our hands on some desk props, thanks to media teacher Jason who kindly leant us a majority of his belongings. I thought that hanging the UV jacket on the wall was a nice touch to the room, because during the long shot of the observation room you could see its reflection in the window, which helped establish the location of the room. The microphone we were given did not fit right with the room. Luckily we were able to find an easy replacement, we used a butterfly microphone.

Butterfly microphone

This was definitely a better choice of prop, so I am really happy we found it. Set designer Tom was able to find us the metal lamp shade we were looking for. We used this prop for the investigation room, and it gave a really nice curved shadow on the walls, which you can roughly see in the picture of James and Pauli.

We started shooting after lunch, and I wish now that we had started earlier, so we did not have to feel so rushed. However, this would have meant we would have used different people to play the investigator and policewoman, so we could never have had the best of both worlds.

I felt the acting overall was really professional and I'm so pleased that we were able to have James as our investigator. I had written a script weeks before the shoot and I'd emailed it to the cast, however on the day during rehearsals the actors played around with some of the lines. Which is understandable because I do feel my script was a bit naïve.   

I am really happy with the costumes that were provided to us, the police uniform looked very professional and I was able to find a shirt to complete the outfit. My group was not able to provide James with a suit, but luckily he was able to wear one which he thought reflected his character. James also brought along a hat. He wore it on the shoot and it became a nice prop, as Pauli used it to provoke him during his lines. Bella brought an outfit for Pauli to wear and we were all really happy with it. The clothing choices were very 'teen grunge', which gave off a rebellious vibe.

On the day I did a majority of the camera work, which I found very challenging. There were some takes where we  wanted a clean pan that took a couple takes to get used to. I really enjoyed using the cameras and it was a great opportunity to learn new skills. Some of my favourite shots is the longshot through the observation window into the investigation room and the close-up of the microphone and recorder.  Closeups are an interesting way of directing the focus on particular objects, showing their importance. These shot were fairly easy to take and have a good impact on the film.We tried to take as many shots as possible so we could have a wide variety when we go to the editing suite.

Pauli rehearsing



I think editing the end parts of our opening sequence will be interesting because with the footage we have we could change the whole ending. I am not entirely confident with using the editing software, final cut pro, so hopefully I'll be able to get into the swing of things pretty quickly next week.



I would say that the shoot was successful and overall my group are happy with the footage we have. Even though at times there were disputes over certain decisions, this may have been because we were looking at the film from different perspectives.

Confidential File

I did some research as to what is included in a confidential file. I thought it would be a nice shot to have James quickly looking over the pages before he enters the room. So I put together a quick file and here is the first page.

I included some questioning quotes and pictures from the scene of the crime as well as some basic details of the criminal itself.

So overall the folder looks like this.

Shoot Emails

 

I emailed the cast again tonight to make sure that they were happy with everything that is going to place tomorrow and if they had any additional questions.

 

 

 

Set preparations

This afternoon my pixie friends Gabriel and Lizzie helped me out painting the set and finding additional props to dress the room. With help with media teacher Phil, we found appropriate chairs and table that will be used in the investigation room. We found that there was a fine line between school room desk and an old desk table.
Overall I am really happy with the progress and it is nice to see my group's idea coming to life.
I am about to email the cast to make sure they are happy with tomorrow's arrangements.
  

The day before the shoot

Santi and I went down to the studio to see if there was anything we could do in preparation for tomorrows shoot. We took some pictures of what the set looks like at the moment. In one of the pictures you can see the one way mirror which may be used tomorrow, but we have not seen before. The table and chairs will be different but this will roughly be the arrangement of the room. 

we went back 10 minutes later and further work had taken place.

 

 

I will be coming back later on in the day to give a hand to Tom.

Shoot Schedule and Call Sheet

In order for my group to feel more prepared I wrote a call sheet. It includes when everything and everyone is needed and where. I found this task challenging because I am not used to the set up of a usual shoot day, however I hope what I have produced is enough information for everyone to work with.

Costumes

 

 

Originally for our policemen costumes, we wanted something a little like this. 

 

However, Santi talked to Loz today about costumes and we have compromised and have decided that our policemen shall be wearing fleeces, like these...


So all we need to ask the policemen to bring is black trousers!

Friday 10th January

Progress has been made!

I spoke to Al today about props and we have organised a speaker, security camera and lamp in the investigation room. The props look something like the following images

Lamp

Microphone

camera

We can confirm that all the actors we asked to be in our thriller have agreed to do so. So I have emailed them all the script so they feel prepared for the day.

 

 

Set

After talking to Matt we have come to the conclusion that the set we had in mind is not suitable for a British investigation room, in terms of the mirror. So after a confrontation we are going to have the policewoman looking in on the investigation through the live security camera which will be streaming  on the computer in the office.

 

So now its going to look something like this. However we feel that it is not necessary for the rooms to be connected, which might make filming easier if there isn't a 4th wall for each room.

Emails to the cast