Saturday 31 March 2012

31st March

Today I started to re do the first evaluation task, I used the uploaded main task to take screen shots of the shots I was talking about and then croped them on microsoft work so they just showed our frames and not the surronding screen. Over the easter holdiays I aim to finish an evaluation task every other day in order to meet the approaching deadline. As the task of the title requires me to compare to other films of the same genre, I have chose to focus on 'Letters to Juliet', 'Remember Me' and 'New Moon' in doing this. 

Thursday 29 March 2012

29th March

Both Amy and I are exceptionally pleased with our final product and what we have achieved over our course work process. Today we exported our final main task title sequence, meaning we had finished our work. I now have next two weeks to finish my evaluation, and alter the first part that I had nearly completed as we changed some areas that I spoke about. Our final deadline is the 16th April, to have all our work complete. 

Wednesday 28 March 2012

28th March

Lesson 43
Today we were shown a grid on final cut express in which all our titles had to be within, this meant making some final adjustments to the positioning of our titles and then adding who did the editing and the casting. For the main actors we split the title in half so that a name appeared with side of the screen, and we made these larger than the other titles so it was obvious they were the main characters. We had to make sure they were the same size and in the exact same place on opposite sides of the screen. We had some trouble getting the titles to appear at the same place, we figured out we just had to drag the file towards the top of the bottom screen to add another layer to the editing. 




This is all the changes we will be making to our sequence and tomorrow we will export our title sequence and save it for the last time so we can finally upload the finished product. Over the Easter holidays we need to finish the seven part evaluation for the first lesson back, and also add any final touches to our blogs and existing documents. 

Tuesday 27 March 2012

27th March

Lesson 42
We added the ambient sound we recorded yesterday to the end of our sequence so it went to the end of the titles. It overlapped with our music so we faded the sound so it got louder as the music ended, and we also faded the volume of the music so it gradually got quieter so the ambient sound took over. When we listened to it we noticed as well as the birds and the wind you could also hear a siren for the latter part of the clip. Although this was originally not what we wanted, it enhanced that the girl had died and suggested that it was possible due to a tragic accident, which might be revealed if the film carried on. 


After we had finally finished the sound, we applied the titles to our film. As we had slightly altered our sequence some of the titles could no longer go where we planned so we had to re-position them. We used live type to position out titles to the correct part of the screen, and made them the right size. 



After we had made all the titles, we transferred the titles to our sequence and added a simple cross dissolve to the start and end of them, to make the transition between them soft and slow. We ensured all the tiles were 00:03:19 in length, so they remained for the same amount of time and didn't linger for more than necessary. 



We finally thought we had finished the whole task. Was asked out teacher to watch the whole thing, and give us any improvements. It came to his attention that we has missed some vital titles such as the editor (Amy and myself) and that as we had used the same font throughout, the impact was taken away from the title itself. Considering this, we went back and changed the fonts of all the other titles to something more simple, we tried a few fonts, and then decided on 'apple gothic' as it was not written in calligraphy but was still soft and curvy. 

I think we achieved a lot in today's lesson, and although we were hoping to finish it entirely, we made good progress. We will re watch it tomorrow and make sure there are no final changes to make, after this we can save it as a proper video file. 

Monday 26 March 2012

26th March

Lesson 40 and 41
We primarily focused on sound in today's lessons. We need to edit out song so that the changes in it fit with the transitions of our sequence, as now we have cut clips shorter it no longer fits as easily. We also need to record some ambient sound as our song will not be long enough for the whole film, and we will use this at the end, one the music has faded out. 
At the start of the lesson I asked for a camera to go and record some natural sound, I had to charge this for a while so I gave input to Amy's task of editing the song. She removed sectiond for the song and re-lined the up the clips so that the specific changes within the music change as our sequence transitions took place and it fitted along  side the filming. She ensured all the clips were lined up correctly and that the sound flowed into on another, instead of suddenly jumping mid note. I gave my opinion of if this sounded right. One of the clips jumped, so we added a cross-dissolve so that they faded together so that this change in note was not noticable and it blended together and sounded more smooth. We used the pen tool in final cut express, to change the volume of the clip so we could fade it in at the beginning and out at the end and into the ambient sound. 

We then had to find a quite place to record out ambient sound. We walked around the school to various points, but because of the hot weather most classrooms had windows open so we picked up conversations. The point we final chose was near the school entrance, but was far enough away from class rooms, there stood under a tree so we hoped we would hear some birds. There was also a road near by, so we had to wait for any noisy cars to pass before we could start to record. We wanted the surroundings to be as close to the park as possible. We only managed to record the sound for 60 seconds as people started to approach where we were and there was sirens in the back ground. We will have to loop this so it can be heard behind out music.
I think we achieved a lot today, and we only have the titles left to apply and then we are finished with our sequence. Our video has improved a lot from when we first started and I think I have improved at using final cut express and the mac computers in general. 

Sunday 25 March 2012

25th March

Today I made notes for the first part of the evaluation, I used an A grade answer for my template. The main question was 'In what ways does your media product, use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?' within this I spoke about 9 subsections:
1. the title of the film
2. the setting/location
3. costume and props
4. framework and editing
5. title fonts and style
6. story and how the opening sets it up
7. genre and how the opening suggests it
8. how the characters are introduced
9. special fx
I found this task relativity easy to do, but there were some detail I was unsure of, so I noted this down in red pen so that I could easy spot where I needed to add detail, and research things. As we haven't finished the editing for our sequence there were some parts I didn't answer, and other parts I didn't understand. I need to do more research into other films of the same genre, once I have discussed with Amy what this is, so that I can compare and contrast our film to it. 





Friday 23 March 2012

23th March

Lesson 39
All of our lessons this week have been rather unproductive so we needed to find a solution for our deleted clip today. After a discussion with Amy and our teacher we decided to use a shot where the camera zooms onto Amy's face but doesn't pan round to the tree, as this was a practice shot to check the camera was in the correct position. We over lapped this shot with the next shot and played with the transparency of the clips so they zoomed together, and the actors fade into the tree, before it pans out to find Callum sitting by himself.


We continued with the editing of the rest of the clips, and went back to line up a shot, so that the tree doesn't move from where we recorded it in two parts. We had to layer the clips and change the transparency so that we could guarantee the shots lined up. We focused on the tree lining up, and the rest of the scenery should line up automatically if this is correct. We had to change the center point of the picture, and this reduced the shots jumping when we transitioned between them. 



We added our last clip to the sequence, but we were 30 seconds above the maximum time so had to go through and shorten most of our clips. We also deleted a few clips as the sequence flowed better without them and helped to reduce our time. We managed to get the film to exactly 2 minutes and a 20th of a second. We now need to readjust the music as it will no longer change as our clips fade into each other. We are already behind on editing out clip, but we now have a week before we break up for Easter, so Amy and I are planning on doing the lessons work at home, and then finishing our video during lessons and any spare time we get.  

Thursday 22 March 2012

22nd March

As we walked into the classroom we saw the camera we have been waiting for all week on the desk so were pleased we would finally be able to finish out editing. When we tried to transfer the files onto the computer we discovered the entire contents of the camera had been deleted, so we have lost all the footage we needed. We don't think we have time to re film as out location is 1hour and 30 minutes away from the school by bus and our actor will be in lessons when we are available. We thought of a few solutions: using our original clip where we walked around the tree, but this was very shaky and we recorded it in two parts that did not match, and the lightening would be completely different. We also have a practice shot where I zoomed in, but did not pan the camera round to the tree, but left it on Amys face, this does not match with the next clip that starts on the tree.
(picture of this clip)
If we have to use this, then we need to rearrange out titles as we had planned on having the directors name on the shot. 
Despite everything going wrong we started to make our titles, the effect we wanted to use "bump and grind" was not working, as the text started still and then moved off the side of the screen, but we wanted it to move onto the screen and then stand still, so we changed and are not keeping the text still and having it fade onto the clip as the memories change. We also had issues with the colour as we wanted something that would stand out, but could not find a colour that did this, so we are going to use white, as we think it will be most obvious with the grass background. 

20th March

Having booked the camera for the entire day, Amy and I found it had been taken out by another pupil so we were again not able to upload our missing clips. This is causing us to be very behind as we need this clip to finalise the music fits and making sure the sequence is under two minutes. Whilst we had assess to the computes we continued to use Live Type to make the titles for out sequence. We used a poster for the film "One Day" to finalise what information needed to be shown and wrote out our list of titles again.
We also looked back over out sequence to see where we would place these titles in our clip and made note of the exact time and what they would say. We discussed where on the shot these would go and after I left, Amy drew on the location of them on the screen. 





Monday 19 March 2012

19th March

Lesson 37 and 38
Unfortunately today we didn't get as much work down as we had hoped. The camera that we recorded out sequence on was in use by some other students so we were unable to get out missing clips off it. To ensure this does not happen again we have booked the camera for tomorrow, as although we are off timetable we can still asses the computers at some point during the day. We want to wait until we have this clip before we add the titles to out sequence as were are conscious that we will go over 2 minutes and have to shorted some clips down, and this will cause our titles to change, and be in the wrong places. For the remainder of the lesson we looked back over past blog posts and exchanged pictures so that Amy and I had everything uploaded.


I noticed on an earlier post we wanted to record the noise of traffic and people, but we decided soon after this that we wouldn't use natural sound as it would draw attention from the sadness of the shot, and would instead use a guitar solo. 

Friday 16 March 2012

16th March

Lesson 36
Amy heard the sound footage for our film in the morning and was quite excited about how will it fits with our sequence, in the lesson I heard it and agreed with her. When we applied it to our footage it fits with the slide transitions perfectly, as the tempo or song changes direction as we use a cross dissolve. Originally we were going to use natural sound at the beginning of the film, and fade into the music when we zoomed into the photograph, but instead we changed the volume of the song, so that it is softly playing during the start and the volume gradually increases as our graphic match comes to life.  






We started to add titles to out sequence using live type, after looking at all the possible fonts we narrowed it down to two we considered using, and decided on a font called "Zapfino" we also looked at transitions and animations that the writing could do when it was on the screen and we decided we liked "Bump and Grind" where the letters all crash into each other before spreading out. This fits into out sequence as when the letters crash it's like his life is going wrong, and them spreading out is his attempt to make it better and be grateful for the time he spend with Emily. 





Thursday 15 March 2012

15th March

By the end of today, we managed to edit most of out video, although we are still missing the end as some clips had not transferred from the camera to the computer and the camera was in use by somebody else. This has delayed us, but we have scheduled some extra time tomorrow so we can upload these clips. We imported the rotation edit we did the lesson yesterday and slotted it in where it needed to go. We also found out how to disconnect the sound from the footage so we could delete the sound, as we are only going to use music over the top and cut out any natural sound. 


We had to reevaluate the length of some of our clips to ensue it would be under two minutes in total, this involved watching out title sequence over and over again so we could see if it lingered on a shot for to long. We discussed fonts that we could use for out titles and decided we wanted something curly with no sharp corners, so we created a document of possible fonts. 

Wednesday 14 March 2012

14th March

Lesson 35
With the help of our teacher we looked at the graphic match we wanted to do with the photograph on the program. Originally we wanted to zoom in so that the photo becomes the screen and then it starts to move, but we couldn't get the angel of the camera to match the picture as the tree prevented us. After playing with some of the effects, we progressed from a simple cross fade to the photograph zooming in, and then rotating until it fills the entire screen, where in then fades before coming to life. This is a huge improvement of our previous visual effect as it doesn't have to cut. 

Tuesday 13 March 2012

13th March

Lesson 34
We uploaded all out new footage onto Final cut express, and just by looking at all the clips together we could see that the lighten was a lot better brighter as it created a positive mood for when Emily was alive. When looking at out clips we could see that they framing and general filming was of a higher quality, as we were a lot more planned the second time and didn't have two six year olds running round to look after. We replaced all out old shots with the new ones, trying to keep to similar timings and adding the cross dissolve effect to transition them. 


When filming we decided to wait until last to film Callum by himself, and by this point the sun was setting so it fitted the atmosphere we wanted to create well, and gave the effect that tomorrow is a new day where he can be happy about Emily's life rather than sad about her death.


At the moment we have no music, but Callum and Jake are going to record us a song they have written on their guitars for friday, by this point we are hoping to have all our editing done, so we just need to add the song and make it fit with the shots. 
Although we hadn't come up with a name until this point we did this rather quickly when we started to think about it. We have used the Oasis song title 'Don't Look Back In Anger' and changed it to 'Don't look back in Sadness' so that it fits out pitch. I feel this is a reflective title as out title sequence is about a girl dying and her boyfriend learning how to move on and look at their time together as positive. This is the first lesson I feel everything has gone right, we are more experienced at using Final Cut Express so we don't have to keep asking for help. 

Monday 12 March 2012

12th March

Lesson 32 and 33
In the first part of the lesson we re printed our funeral program and added the photo of the children to it, from our previous time of filming, so that when we are editing the footage it makes the transition easier. 
For the remaining part of the lesson we travelled to our filming location so we could re film the parts of the sequence with the teenagers is so we could make a number of improvements. As the weather was nicer today we made Callum (playing Sam) take of his jacket and un-tuck his shirt when we were filming the memories and put his jacket and tie on for the present footage so that it was a noticeable difference between them.  It would have been better if he could have completely changed outfits, but due to our location there was no where close by that he could change. Secondly we matched up how the different age groups help hands, as in our previous time of filming we noticed when editing that they were different. In the photo below their fingers are intertwined, but the children held hands like the bottom of the two photos. 
For one of our scenes, we had them dancing and eventually Sam picked Emily up and them felling under the tree, but this looked to posed, so we changed it so that it looked more realistic and natural, so now Sam walks into the shot already carrying Emily. 
Our final improvement was our last shot, when the camera moves around the tree to find Emily gone and Sam sitting there by himself like he was in the first shot. Our original try of this was very shaky as we had to walk around the tree. We first tried to tie string around the tree, but realised we would be able to see it in the shot, we in the end we decided to zoom into the tree and panning right, so the actors are not in shot, and then zooming out to find him by himself. 
The weather was a lot sunnier, and bright today so this will make out memory shots look better as they will create a happy atmosphere, and we can change the colours of the first and last part so that the weather matches is mood for pathetic fallacy and mise-en-scene. Due to the nice weather the park was a lot busier, so more people and dogs are our shoots. I felt a lot more confident using the equipment this time and have a positive feeling about how the footage is going to come out. Amy and I also understood each other easier as we had seen what it looked like on screen once and both had similar thoughts on what could be improved and what worked well so was just re-filmed. I managed to use the zoom on the camera better than last time as I had more control over it, so was able to go at a slower speed. 

Friday 9 March 2012

9th March

Lesson 31
Our aim for today was to take all the notes for our call sheet so it could be typed up at home over the weekend. We didn't know what a call sheet was at the beginning of the lesson but we found out they are a schedule for the actors so everyone knows where they have to be and the plans for the day. To fill this out we had to research the nearest hospital to our filming location and the locations address. 





We discuessed when we would next be able to film, and planned to film on monday 12th. We decided to re-film all the parts with the teenagers in so we could improve our camera work and framing. We also made changes to the costume so it would be more distinguishable that the memories would change, but this is going to make it harder when filming as they will have to change quickly so we don't have to pause the shot.



Wednesday 7 March 2012

7th March

Lesson 30
In the lesson today we tried to edit part of our title sequence where the camera zooms into a photograph, but we were told to do it properly it would take a few hours and we were probably best to re-film with the photograph already on the program. 



We noticed out zooming is really uneven so we discussed ways we could slow down the pace of it and also how we could ensure that when we re-filmed the camera would go back to the same angle. We got the solution of tying string to the tripod and then around the tree so it would be the same angle and distance as we walked round the tree. Looking at our clips we found that some did not flow together smoothly enough, and we realised we wanted to do them in fewer takes, this would involve our actors running from one part of the scene to the next as the camera panned round, and quickly changing as they did this.