Since filming our project on the 17th, every second spent in class has been put towards editing to create our final cut and manipulating our skills against the clips to produce a final cut that is professional looking and something we're all really impressed with. Right at the start, Alex taught both me and Beth some tips on how to use the Premiere Pro software as he has vast knowledge and experience on the software before, this meant that even though Beth was the main editor, if she was sick or absent, either one of us could take over her role so we didn't lose time. The first week was mostly joint editing, cropping the clips and choosing which take to use, something which was a great relief in comparison to our last project where we had very limited choice on the takes we used.
After selecting our takes, and placing them in the correct order, the next job was to start to cut and crop them so they fitted continuity and made sense. This was very difficult at first because of some clips being very difficult to work with, resulting in us having to crop one particular take in 3 and edit each singularly so it looked like one complete edit and not a shambles like it originally did. In the last week, we finally left the project in Beth trusted hands to edit it fully and finally for us, so me and Alex could get on with making sure we had all our pre and post production work up on Google Docs and write another blog for our evaluation. I hope by the end of the term we will have an edit we're all happy to submit, leaving us with only the evaluation to write, and a lot of stress off our shoulders.
* Organisation of all our pre- and post-production work on Google Docs.
This is another view of the grassy areafrom before, where you can see the water and this is how we plan on linking the 2 separate locations.
This is another team member, Beth, and our idea of a nice location to do some more recordings because the area is heavily urbanised, allowing us to create meaning and setting, but it also leads into a green and grassy land with the sea in the background, so it can link onto the ending sequence with the benches where the sea can also be seen.
This is the bench the other 2 characters will be sat on. The narrative between them is separate to the one surrounding the main protagonist, but you can see him in the background staring at them in the shadows, linking the characters and how they are involved in the narrative.
This is another shot of the protagonists bench, as we wanted another point of view of him on the bench, staring past the frame towards the bench, causing intra-diegetic gaze.
This shot was how we planned on choosing the bences for the ending sequence of the project, we needed somewhere in which all of the characters could be seen in the shot, but the protagonist was still hidden and secretive. The other bench in the background would be used by the other 2 characters.
This shot will begin to create the meaning of the main protagonist being the 'stalker' type, because of the hiding performance and the appearence of the 2nd character walking away from shot, with his back facing the camera.
This next shot will be an over the shoulder, and will subjectively show the introduction to the next character. This then begins the narrative.
This frame is our next planned shot, the subject is Alex in our team on he represents the positioning of the actor we will use in production. It's just a simple idea of how the shots will progress in the very start of the title sequence.
Last Wednesday (22nd March), our group were able to locate our 3 actors, a camera and a tripod and went out in hopes of recording our media coursework. In comparison to the Preliminary Exercise, we were a hundred times more organised which hopefully will aid our post production later in the week. We made sure we double filmed every frame and every shot and ticked frames of the storyboard as we individually took them.
* Organisation on our group hard-drive, so work was easier to find and we knew where we could find work we needed a lot quicker. This was vital.
Another problem we sorted out was the space we left either side of the 'performance' for editing, so during our recording we started the recording and THEN began the performance, so we didn't limit the shots we had. The whole day was very successful, and everyone got on really well so the process wasn't forced and stressful, but more relaxed and friendly. On return to class, we looked back at the recordings we had made and we all seemed very happy with our results. But then we were told we weren't allowed to use copyright free music anymore, which was a huge blow to our production team, as we intended on using only music in our title sequence and silence all our recordings. This also means that we MAY have to re-record everything, because we have spoke over the top of all our recordings, to direct the actors, knowing that we'd silence them, so putting these in the final edit, would sound and look completely ridiculous. Our only options are to buy royalty free music, wait for our teacher to get in contact with our intended music company and re-ask permission or to write our own music. This has really hindered our expectations and hopes on the project, but we are carrying on regardless and beginning our editing and post-production, so if by chance the problem is resolved, we haven't wasted anytime doing nothing.
Our group this week is planning on finishing and tighening all of our pre-production work including our storyboards and our final script so when we get onto filming during the week we are fully prepared and we go out on the field knowing exactly what we aim to come back with. Today has been spent putting work up onto Google Docs to link into evaluative blogs later in the course and finalising any work that has gaps. Tomorrow a meeting will be held with the group to talk over everything we have planned, making sure that everyone is clear on their duties and what we have to achieve in filming, and creating a strict and timetabled production schedule separate from our beginning one, to detail our day of filming and to plan out our alloted time spareingly. I plan on doing the filming on Wednesday after college between 12.30pm and 6pm, as this gives us at least 5 hours time to film before it gets dark. One problem we're facing though is booking actors and actresses to be in our production. We have 2 definiate people who have agreed, but we need one more, who is proving very difficult to find. Especially because this character has to be slightly more 'intimate' with another character than they would like, also we're being very specific about the appearance of her, because we want to give the right impression and meaning to the audience about her connection to another of the characters. Hopefully by Wednesday we will have found someone suitable. This then means that we have starting as of Thursday this week, and all of the rest of the term, to create a final edit for our title sequence, and write the evaluation. I want to make sure our group has enough time on the evaluation as a poor attempt could lose us marks I know we all deserve. I'm trying to get other team members to blog a lot this week, because we're at a critical stage in our production that will need to be analysed in our evaluation quite thoroughly.
For starters, on first appearance, the main exercise is much more intense, serious and professional than what was expected from the preliminary exercise. During the preliminary exercise, our group was allowed room for mistakes for improving our knowledge and understanding, whereas in the main exercise, mistakes are final and will cost us greatly, so there is a lot more responsibility. As well as this, more editing and technical issues nee to be employed as this is our chance to show off our best abilities. Instead of making a sub-par recording, and editing them together basically and with structure, now we need to record something that looks polished and professional before we even being to edit it. Also, judging from mistakes in our last exercise, our group needs to be slightly stricter on ourselves. We may need to meet up far more outside of class to plan things just so we don’t cram and rush things in class time. Also we need to be far more organised when it comes to our recording, which is the most important aspect anyway, without a good recording, then our whole project will not be successful, so concentration in particular is needed here. Mostly our group’s organisational skills will be put to the test as they were not up to standard on the last exercise and if they are similar on this project, we will lose marks. Though it wasn’t a fault in the last project, the stress of this main exercise may cause strain in relationships in the group. As I am the producer of this title sequence, I need to be over-looking and powerful to gain the work I know we’re capable, but I don’t want to come across as a slave driver or pushy. Falling out with team members could result in a really poor final outcome, as communication is key. We will base a lot of our plans on work from the research that we do. So the most important thing to consider is picking very specific social realism films to study and anaylse. So we have decide to begin our project looking at the 2 films 'A Way Of Life' and 'Love + Hate' and how they're opening sequences aim to conform the main codes and conductions of the genre it's within. Begin are the opening sequences as posted from Youtube. 'A Way Of Life' - Amma Asante (2004)
'Love + Hate' - Dominic Savage (2005)
To improve my own performance, and hopefully influence that of my team members I aim to: • Check and double check all planning and pre-production work to make sure that all team embers are clear on the chosen ideas before we move on, confusion later on will take up time and effort in trying to explain • Listen and understand other members opinions and ideas, I can be very dominating and tend to argue more my choices, but if the project is going to be successful, a mix of all ideas and input will be vital • In recording and production, be clear on all shots and camera angles we need BEFORE going out to start the filming. Going on unprepared will be the worse case scenario as we will have no idea where we want to go, and what we aim to achieve there. This can be solved with recee’s and picture taking to capture ideas we have on first visit of the area. • Choosing actors and extras wisely. Asking friends and company to be in it may not give the right ‘look’ that we’re trying to achieve. This is also the same for props and dress codes. We’re trying to get a cross a lower working class look, as a well dressed person would look out of place and confuse the narrative. • One very specific thing we need to do is record empty frames before and after performance takes place in each frame. It gives us more room to edit, and cut out the excess, and stops us from cutting off words and actions we might want in the final cut. This is what happened in our preliminary exercise. It made our work snappy and strange.
