Somebody is watching - Shannen

In our opening, we created the feeling that somebody was watching the house that the woman was in.
We did this by filming a shot of the bedroom window (the room she was in) so you could see the outline of her.

This is a screengrab of this shot:

However, we could have shot this shot better, as her figure is not as clear as it could be.

We will talk about this further in our evalutation.

Title Update

We've just changed our film title as there was a misunderstanding and we named it 'Faited.' However the correct spelling is 'Fated.' We've just changed the name on our final film and now we've finished!!!!! :D

Opening Credits Analysis-By Colette

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

• The white text contrasts with the black background. The font used is quite spikey which contrasts with the texture of the black 'goo' in the background
• There is black goo which drips into everything and eventually covers everything on the screen. This could represent evil and signify how evil always tries to take over people and objects
• The objects that the goo is covering are very significant to the film for example a keyboard is being covered with the liquid and USB cables attack one of the people (the main character is a computer hacker.)
• The cuts happen on the beat of the music. As the sequence goes on trhe cuts get quicker with the music. this builds tension and creates enigma
• Hardly any bright colour has been used. The main colours are black and grey accept for the orange fire. The bright colour of the fire is shocking and hooks you more
• The obejcts and people that are being covered by the black substance are all everyday things which look quite innocent. Then more unatural things start to appear as the sequence goes on such as bees from a persons mouth and hands smothering somebody.

PSYCHO

•  The credits consist of white bars which move across the screen at different times and speeds. They never touch or collide with each other.
• The lines could symbolise a knife as they're sharp and feel threatening
• The text is always in capitals and in a simple white font which contrasts with the black and grey background.
• The music is similar to the sound effects when the main character is killed in the shower scene. It's very dramatic and gets higher and more up tempo as it goes on.
• The music and the imagery are both quite 'sharp' and work together to create a threatening image.

ALIEN 3

• There is a quiet sound effect in the background at the begginning which deepens and becomes louder when the title is shown
• Cross cutting is used between scenes of what's happening and the credits on a starry background
• The text is in a futuristic font which fits with the theme of aliens. The text fades into a blue colour before it dissapears
• When the credits are on screen there's only quiet atmospheric music, but when the people/aliens are shown loud high pitched and threatening sound effects have been used to shock and contrast with the peacful shot beforehand

Faited Thriller Opening - Blog version

Here is our thriller opening - the blog version

Final Touches!! - Shannen

Manny is currently going over the final film, checking it for any problems and adding final touches.
We hope it will be finished today, so we can export it and upload a version to youtube to upload to here!

Titling Exercise - Shannen

Quantum of Solace 

• The titles are very long. It is almost like a seperate film - 3.23 minutes long. 
• It it hugely based around Daniel Craig (James Bond in the film) doing different things which you would associate with a spy/the James Bond films 
• Heavily created by computer graphics - using odd colour schemes such as orange and blue, to crease a unrealistic feel. 
• The people that feature in the titles are also made of computer graphics, so further establish the unrealistic feel. 
• The font used for the credits themselves is sans-serif, and quite block-like. It helps establish a "macho" feel. This fits with the James Bond films within themselves. 
• Each of the main actors' names are on the screen for 5 seconds each. 
• The less important names and credits are on the screen for 3 seconds each - this establishes the difference in importance between the different actors/people credited. 
• There is quite a dramatic song over the top of the titles, to add to the action/spy feel to the credits. 

Here is a short clip of an interview with the title directors of the shoot:

Alien

• The titles themselves are 1:50 minutes long - so not that long.
• Gradually, the title "Alien" appears along the top in a "sci-fi" sort of font
• There is a very creepy sound track over the top, which creates the sort of "un-known" effect on the audience - you really don't know what is going to happen
• The fonts of the rest of the titles - i.e. the names - are actually in a very basic font. This gives no clues to the audience. 
• The background is black, with something dark moving in the background - it's quite scary as you don't know what it is 
• The names of the main actors are on the screen for 4 seconds, and the rest 3 seconds. 

Buried

• The main colour scheme of the titles is yellow, blue and very dark brown/black
• The background seems to be going deeper and deeper underground - this links with the film being based underground. 
• The graphics of the titles is very linear based - lots of linking lines from one thing to another, and large blocks of lines. This all seems to make you more of the downwards moving effect. 
• After each title/name has appeared, it drifts upwards - also establishing the fact that everything is moving upwards as we seem to go downwards. 
• The main production company's name was on the screen for 8 seconds. The main actors'/creditors names were on screen for 5 seconds, and everything else tended to be on screen for 4 seconds. 

Title Credits- Colette

We are now adding the final touches to the film. Shannen is currently adding the credits. We have decided that we will add the credits on top of the film during the cross-cutting sequence. We will show one name at a time. Everytime that the camera cuts to the inside of the house a name will be shown.

The effect we've chosen makes the words fade in one at a time. The font we've chosen is plain white and in capitals. we've chosen it because it's emotionless  and represents a heartless killer (quote: Shannen)

:)

Title Update - Colette/Shannen

After creating a poll on our blog about the name of our film we have decided to chose the name before the poll finishes. However, we've chosen the title with the most votes.

The Title we've chosen is FATED.

We've chosen this because it fits the film really well and the name is intriguing and makes the watcher want to know more.


Here is a screen grab of the poll: 

Royalty Problem Update- Colette

After searching on jamendo.com for a new song as we couldn't use Shine by Take That, we have decided that the song we chose below didn't fit the scene and that it isn't something a middle aged woman would listen to. instead we've chosen the song 'East End Long' which is one of the sample sounds on Garage Band. We feel that this fits the character more and it sounds more like a song on the radio :)

Royalty Problem - Shannen

We were close to finishing our final product today when we realised we had a problem - we had used royalty music.
We had used Take That's "Shine" as part of our opening sound effects and this is not allowed.
So, we have gone onto the website www.jamendo.com to find some royalty free music.

The song we downloaded is called "Revolution Void" by "Ventus Slarus". We have a feeling this is a foreign song, however it fits the purpose we need for it.

FILM TITLES!!

Fated

Faithful

Relentless

Related

Hurried

Hurdle

Hunt

Garage Band/Name Update - Shannen

Just finished doing our final soundtrack for the opening on Garage Band. It includes all of our sound effects - including bird song, phone effects and car noises. We are currently exporting the soundtrack so we can add it to our final cut. 


We have also decided to go with a different name! 


We are going to use "Blackmail". This is because this name goes well with the idea of the film - that the woman is blackmailed to do things in order to get her baby back. 


We will upload the final video, final sound and overall product later on. 

Second Filming- Colette

Last Friday in the double lesson we filmed some of our shots again that we felt weren't good enough. The main reason for re-filming was because the lighting was very bad. the shots that we re-filmed were:

• When the mum comes through the door into the house- we redid this because the lighting was originally very dark. Also, the character's actions were boring and the dialogue was too repetitive. 

• Tracking of her running up the stairs( from bottom)- The lighting on this shot needed to match the shot which we had refilmed already. The running needed to be more frantic

• Shot from the side of her coming up the stairs- Lighting was dark, needed to match previous shots, running speed was too slow

• Shot of her running up the top of the stairs (from top)- The lighting for the original shot was really bad. In the original shot she stopped running before she got to the top of the stairs she slowed down which looked bad. 

• Opening child's bedroom door, medium shot- again, this shot needed to match the lighting of the previous shots we'd filmed.

• Opening bedroom door, close up- Lighting was too dark

• Opening door from inside- we hadn't done this shot before but we thought it would make the shot more interesting

• Looking around child's bedroom, ots,handheld- we decided to change the lighting in the child's bedroom. In the first shot the lighting in the room was very dark and eerie. However, we thought that it looked too 'horror' so we decided to use natural light from outside instead,

• Getting the phone call, close up, ots- the actor forgot the correct ring for the re filming so we had to film the shot again
• 
  
• Phonecall, Medium shot- This shot's lighting was too dark and the shot was boring
• 
  
• Phonecall, close up- this was not originally a shot but we thought it would make it more interesting and create enigma

Here are some before and after shots of the scenes we reshot.

As you can see the first shot had no added lighting at all. This made the scene boring and it was almost impossible to see the character. At first we thought the low lighting would help to create a scary atmosphere, however it just looked dark and boring. In the reshot scene we made the character turn on the light as she entered the house. This made sure that the shot was well lit and also made sure that it didn't look like artificial lighting had been used so it looks more true to life.

ANIMATIC UPDATE!!

For our "animatic" we have decided to use a stills camera to get the shots of the storyboard. To get the maximum affect we want, we will have to edit the images so that they are stretched, this way we can do a voice over and still have the right timing.

Reshooting Detailed Description - Shannen

Coming through the door scene:

• Better lighting - but need shadow
• Open door, put down bags and keys in broken bowl.
• Script : *close door* "Laura, Emily, I'm back" - Cheerfully. *put down bags and keys and notice broken things* *confusion in voice, calling up the stairs* "Hello? Oh, are you upstairs?"
• Start to walk towards/up the stairs

Top of the stairs, walk towards bedroom scene:

• More frantic
• Quite dark and mysterious, yet still needs lighting
• Rush towards door and pull open
• Need shot from the front statically and an over the shoulder tracking shot from behind her
• "Hello..?" as she opens the door

Child's bedroom scene:

• Dark and mysterious but needs lighting
• Tracking shot over the shoulder
• Frantic searching
• Script: *whilst searching, muttering/whispering nervously to herself* "Where is she? Oh my god" *Shout* "LAURA?!?!?! WHERE IS EMILY???"
• Run out.

Hallway connection shot to mothers' room:

• Run frantically
• Dark hallway, but light bedroom (door is open to reveal the light)

Stairway shots:

• Frantic/worried throughout
• Shots from both the top and bottom of the steps, as well as from the side
• Shots of her going both up and down stairs (from both views)

Phone shot:

• Shot of her dialling back the number at the bottom of the stairs.
• Over the shoulder close up of her finding the number and ringing it
• Close up of her face doing the same action, but looking frightened/scared

Lounge shots:

• Both front and back static long shots of her holding the phone to her ear whilst frantically fast walking into the lounge
• Another close up of her scared face

Answering the phone:

• Close up from both sides as she frantically notices that the phone on the table - Laura's phone - is ringing.
• Spinning shot of her turning around and looking scared/worried/frantic - can be done by her holding the camera and running round in circles

Sound Experimentation-Colette

This is the rough edit of the film from below but with added sound effects. Adding sound to this film has helped us realise where in the film that we will need sound and which effects to use. It has helped us realise which sounds effects work well and which don't fit with the film. Effects added include music, door sounds effects, dogs barking and atmospheric sounds.

Hallway Evaluation

Voice Over - Shannen and Manny

For one of the scenes, the character answers her phone nervously. 
When we filmed this shot, our actress didn't say hello quite how we wanted it. 
So, we decided to record various voice overs and choose one to use in the final product. 
This is a video of this...

Re-filming

We have decided with help from Andrew to re-film a couple of shots of our opening. 

We will be filming during next week's double lesson.

We will need: 

• a HD camera
• an umbrella light
• hand held lights x2

The shots/scenes we need to re-film are:

• Hallway scene - needs more subtle lighting, so that it's not too dark, but also looks creepy. 
• Stairs - more different angles and views, and a connecting shot from the hallway scene to the stair scene. 
• The childs room - more shots and angles of her looking around the room (needs more tension)
• More panicky close up shots. 

Reminder for Colette

Whoosh Dark 01

Sound Update- Colette

As we've now made a rough edit of the opening we've been experimenting with sound on Garage Band. Adding sound to the rough edit will make it easier to edit the final video once it's finish as we'd have a general idea of where sound will need to be added. Also, it helps us get a better understanding of which effects/music sound better and how to get the best results from using them.


A part in the sequence that will need a lot of added sound is the beginning scene where we've used cross cutting between the mother in her car and shots of inside the house.


When the mother is in the car we have chosen to use the song, 'Shine' by Take That. We have modified the song on Final Cut to make it sound more 'tinny' as if it's on the radio,(as Shannen said in the post below). When the camera cuts to inside of the house a sound effect from Garage Band will be used. We tried the using no sound at all when the inside of the house was being shown but the effect was not dramatic enough and made the shot boring. We needed to delete the sound from the shot anyway as it had unwanted noise from the washing machine. The sound effect gave the best result.The sound effect sounds like something is swooping over the place in the shot and adds an eerie effect although it still makes sure that it contrasts with the upbeat music from the previous shot. 


Below are photos showing the sound that will be used during each shot.

 Take That Music

Sound Effect

Take That Music.(music will cut halfway through shot as the character is getting out of the car.)

Sound Effect

No added sound effects

Sound Effect

Other sound effects that we are yet to experiment and use include, mobile phone sounds and footsteps. We will also need to alter the volume of some of the original audio from the filming as it is too loud or too quiet :)

Rough Edit

This is our rough edit of our thriller opening. It has no added sound or final edits yet.

Bedroom scene experimentation - Shannen

One of the scenes in our opening is where the character runs around a childs bedroom frantically, looking for her baby.
We had two ideas of ways to film this shot - either statically behind her, or following her, making the camera shaking and frantic, too.
We couldn't decide on which one would be best, so we filmed both, and then made this video showing both shots and our final decision.

Focus pull - Shannen

One of our shots in the opening is a boot shot. This is where the camera is placed inside the boot and it can act as a view of someone opening or looking inside a boot.
For this shot, we put Manny in the back seat of the car to delicately hold the camera whilst we held the camera. We also wanted to take the natural sun light into account and use this to almost disorientate the auidience. For this we used focus pull.
When the boot opens, the focus blurs and changes so you can see the character, and it shows a nice view of the natural sun light too.

Here is this shot:

Update - Shannen

Most of our lessons are now spent editing and creating experimental/demonstrational videos for this blog. It feels good that we don't have to rush things as we got all of our rushes during half term!
We are also playing around with different foley effects that we can create ourselves and use, such as the post below about the car music.

Car Music - Shannen and Colette :)

In the begining of our opening, a driving scene features heavily - cross cutting with other parts of the opening.
For these driving parts, we were interested in trying to create the sound effect of a tinny radio playing music or talk shows in the car. This could make the audience relate to the character, as they could recognise the music/show that is on there.

As the character is a mum and middle aged, we had to think of a suitable song choice for her, as she probably wouldn't be listening to something aimed at young people, e.g. dubstep.
We chose the song Shine by Take That.
This is because we feel this is a suitably mumsy song!

In order to make the song sound tinny as if it was coming from a small radio player, we put it into a sound editor and played around with the different ways it could sound.

This is a clip from the car scene to demonstrate the tinny radio sound effect: