Past Students Work

Now that we have got all of the footage we need, I feel as if I should look at some past students work to help me with the next stage of the process. As I am the main editor, I feel that it would be appropriate if I looked at the editing style and transitions that previous students have used within their work to see what works well and what doesn't and how we can make ours even better.

•  Titles are black and are clear and easy to read
• At 0.42 seconds a fade has been used- This is effective as the character transfers from one room to another.
• The music throughout has helped to build up tension and suspense. As the music is upbeat it sets the atmoshphere.

• Many cuts are used throughout- speeds up the pace of the footage. 

•  The main character has a shadow effect behind him each time we see him walk past.
• White titles stand out
• Music- fits in with atmopshere- very tensed
• A voice over has been added in over the top of the footage.
• 1.45- a fade has been used which turns into a blackout for a couple of seconds.
• At the end the title is all muddled up, an effect has been used to put these words in the right order.  This effect really fits in with the atmosphere as its seems like its being done in a sense of pace/ urgency and if someone is watching someone.

From looking at past students work it has become recognisable how much work needs to go into the editing of our footage to make it a good quality piece of work. From watching the work back again, I noticed how important it was that we changed our music when we did and how important it is to get this right as this plays a massive impact on the scene that is trying to be set.

Preparation for Editing

As I am the main editor, with Josh and Amy over seeing what I am doing and helping to make the decisions on the footage we decide to use, I decided that it would be a good idea if I went back over the steps of using the editing software we are using- Premiere Pro.

Even though we have already started edit the first few bits of our footage, I feel as if this will help me as I will be able to edit the footage a lot quicker if I am more confident with what I am doing. Some of the information I have gone over is the main seven areas of Premiere Pro. This will hopefully help me when it comes to editing the rest of the footage before the first rough cut as it should enable the overall product to be of a much higher standard.

Filming- 25th February 2012

Today, Myself, Amy and Josh went to shoot our next scene at Hughenden Park with our male actor Daniel Pirie. I had never been to this location before so this was the first time that I was able to see the location before we filmed there. When looking around the location I feel as if it was a good place to chose as there were many different areas were we could get a variety of shots. Within this scene we were hoping for someone else to be the second male actor. However, unfortunately neither of the people we asked were able to make the dates that we needed to film on. This is when Josh said that he wouldn't mind being in our title sequence. Even though Josh is within our group, it made it much easier as he knew what he had to do and also was available on the days in which we needed to film.

Throughout the day, I feel as if we got many successful shots that we are going to be able to use. The first shot in which we got, took longer than what we expected. One reason for this was because we had people walking through the archway. This meant that we had to wait for them to walk past before we could continue filming. However this wasn't a massive issue as we weren't restricted to a time scale this time as we were with our previous location.
 The day itself was sunny, we meant that we were able to keep the consistancy all the way through. Although even if it wasn't this wouldn't impact on this part of the title sequence as this is 5 years in the past.
Within our location we shot in many different areas.This allowed for a variety of shots and would allow for us to choose which shots worked best. This would also allow for us to show how our criminal has moved around the location.
One of the most successful shots I feel that we got today was when we had our criminal running down the hill which we than panned him coming down. One reason why I feel that this was one of the best shoots was because it was one of the hardest ones of Amy's our main filmer to film.

With this location we didn't really have any major problems/ issue which we feel will effect the overall quality of our title sequence.  Throughout the day, we tried out many different shots to make sure that we got as many as possible so that we have enough footage to chose from and use when editing it all together.
 From today's filming, I have realised how important it is to get the lighting correct as when filming outside this can be an issue with the sunlight.
Overall I feel as if we had an extremly successful and productive day as we were able to get everything shot that we needed to and these shots were also useable meaning that this does not need to be reshot.

Below are the images of the various areas of the location we used:

Filming- 23rd February 2012

In Thursday Lesson we continued to progress with our filming. The scene in which we were filming was our MI5 scene. We had previously already filmed this scene, however we needed to include a tracking shot which we weren't previously able to do because the right equipment was not available to use. This is what we had planned to do.
Although, Our female actor Chelsea Davison changed her hairstyle. This wasn't a massive difference but was enough to impact on our work. This meant that within this time we also had to re film these scenes which we had already got. One reason why we re-filmed was so that it is consistent all of the way throughout.
During this time we also had to make sure that we completed the tracking shots as well. As we hadn't done this before the cinematographer (Amy) had to make sure that we had enough time to get enough takes so that we had some footage that we could use. When looking back at the footage of the tracking shots they were very good considering that this was her first time of filming a tracking shot.
When filming this time we also made sure that we got some extras for our actor to talk to so it looks like she is in a meeting talking to people which made it seem more like a real life situation. This is different from our previous shots where we don't have anyone in the scene. The extras will also be shown throughout the tracking shot. From looking back at our first pieces of footage of this scene, I can say that our second shoot was much more successful.

When filming, it was a tight schedule however we were able to complete it. I feel that this filming session was extremely successful. However this did mean that in some of the shots we weren't as successful as others which might mean we will have to re-shoot later on in the process. Having said this we were able to get all of the shoots that we needed. Furthermore I feel as if we knew exactly what we needed to get as from our previous shot we were able to see what we could do again now that we had this opportunity. This allowed for us to improve our work as we had a second opportunity to shoot the scene.Overall I feel as if we had a successful filming session and that we are pleased with the shots we were able to achieve.

Below are a few of the shots that we were able to get on this day:

Deadlines and Plans

These are the deadlines for our coursework:

• February 29th - Filming needs to be completed. At this stage Post-production should have already started.
• March 16th- Rough Cut to be presented
• March 30th- Projects to be completed - Final cuts
• April 16th- Blog needs to be completed with final evaluations

From looking at these deadlines it has impacted on how we have scheduled to plan our filming and also the editing process. As we already have some footage, it has enabled me to be able to start editing already which will save us time when it comes to editing the rest of the footage as we will now have more time to do so.

From looking at our planned shooting schedule, it will hopefully allow us with enough time to reshoot if we need to.  Our last filming session is on the 23rd February which will leave us with a week to make sure that we have all of the footage that we need.
After we have completed all of our filming, this will leave us with nearly two weeks before our first cut needs to be completed. Hopefully if we get the footage we need and it is a up to a good standard this will allow us with more time to edit as we wont have to reshoot costing us more time that we don't have to spare.

 If we keep to our deadlines of what we have made for ourselves for filming we should hopefully have enough time to complete everything else. This will enable us to complete our coursework to a high standard as there will be enough time for me to complete the editing.

Planning and Editing

In Tuesdays lesson, we started to edit some of our footage that we had also shot. As I am the main editor, I started to select the footage in which we were using and Amy and Josh inputted into this.  This then enabled the footage to be cut in the right place.
Whilst I was editing the footage, we thought it would be a good idea for Amy and Josh to review what we had already done and made sure that we were up to date so far. A plan was created to make sure that we could prioritise what should be done next to be able to continue with the project. When making this plan, they took into account the amount of time that we actually have left to complete all of the filming. Our deadline for the filming is on Wednesday 29th February 2012.

Dates:

• Thursday 16th February - Re-shoot in London 
• Thursday 23rd February - MI5 scene ( based in the classroom)
• Sunday 23rd February - Criminal scene with both of our male actors.

From these dates it will now help us as a group to prioritise what needs to be done. This will help us to organise ourselves as we are now aware of the time we have left to complete the filming and how important it is for us to keep to these deadlines.

We also started to review our footage from a last filming session with our female actress. From looking at our footage, we have some ideal sections but we will need to intercut some of this so that we can add different shots of the footage together to make sure that we have got the best shots in the title sequence.

Magazine Survey

Filming- 2nd February 2012

Last Thursday, we started to film our MI5 scene with a female actor- Chelsea Davison. I felt as if this was a good filming session. As Amy is our main camera person, myself and Josh watched what was happening and we were also directing our actor. When Amy was filming she made sure she got as many shots has possible. One reason why she made sure of this was so that in all of the shots there must be sections of one of two of them that we are able to use. By doing this it allows for us not to have to re shoot were necessary saving a lot more time for editing the opening.

Overall I think that this filming session was very successful and we as a group can now move onto the next part of the filming/ editing process.

Animatic

When putting together our animatic, we realised that we didn't have enough footage to cover the whole two minutes. When we thought we had put it together we were 30 seconds short. This the  meant that we missed our deadline for our animatic. By realising that we didn't have enough, we had to think about adding in some more ideas to the end of our sequence. If we found it easier to think of these ideas we might still have been able make the deadline. We had many problems when it came to thinking about ideas to add in. We realised that we wouldn't be able to add anything in into the middle of the sequence. One reason why we couldn't do this was because it would interfere with he material we already had and by doing this we might also have had to change some of our other ideas.

Once considering all of our ideas that we had, we decided that the only way our title sequence would still make sense and wouldn't ruin the ideas we already had was to add more scenes in at the end.  This is when we came up with the idea of adding in a scene were we went back five years to a incident that had already happened.

When reviewing our problems and mistakes it become recognisable that we wouldn't have had these problems if we had properly thought about the timings of each transition and shot length. For example we could have actually estimated how much we actually had and how long a transition was. By doing this it would have allowed us to be aware of the length of the sequence and i we needed to add anything else, this could have been completed by the deadline.

Now that our animatic is now completely finished, we need to make sure that we make the rest of our deadlines so that we are back on track. The next stage that we need to do is to finish and to continue filming. Once we have got some of our footage, this will then enable is to start editing this, which will hopefully give us more time to finish of the editing and make sure our final title sequence it to a high standard if we start it earlier whilst we are still filming.

Below is our animatic: