Last week, (20/01/2012) we were set a preliminary task of planning, filming and editing a 30 second short film, in a group of our choice. We had a group of four, and in our group including me was Charlotte Hunter, Charlotte Tomlinson and Lauren Gavagan.
Our task was to demonstrate our filming and editing skills, as well as seeing how working in a group would be like. one main thing that we had to include in the preliminary task was the story line of a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue.
In our group we first discussed some ideas on where we would record our film, and what angles would look the best including the three important ones that we had to include in the preliminary task, a match on action shot, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule. As well as these we included other shots such as close ups, Panning, over the shoulder and low angle shots especially whilst the two characters were talking with one another.We decided that we wanted our preliminary task to be a horror/creepy theme similar to the main task as we though that the shots that we wanted to use related to a horror type story.
We then talked about who would take on the roles of working in front and behind the camera, and decided that i would be the main person behind the camera and the other three in my group would be in front of the camera acting out our film, but we decided as a group that everyone would have a go at editing our film and using the reflectors to Create more light in our film. After that we planned out a storyboard of the certain shots that we would incorporate into our film. One of the main shots that we wanted to use was a close up shot to show facial expressions and the certain characters emotions in our short clip. We also used other shots such as Panning, over the shoulder, low angles and closeup shots, as we all though that these shots would look the best in our film.
Storyboard
Filming
We then talked about who would take on the roles of working in front and behind the camera, and decided that i would be the main person behind the camera and the other three in my group would be in front of the camera acting out our film, but we decided as a group that everyone would have a go at editing our film and using the reflectors to Create more light in our film. After that we planned out a storyboard of the certain shots that we would incorporate into our film. One of the main shots that we wanted to use was a close up shot to show facial expressions and the certain characters emotions in our short clip. We also used other shots such as Panning, over the shoulder, low angles and closeup shots, as we all though that these shots would look the best in our film.
Storyboard
This is our storyboard showing our plan for our 30 second film, and how the shots would be set out.
(23/01/2012) On Monday, we began to finalise all our ideas whilst we were shown how to use the camera and how lighting could help create effect in our film, we chose a laboratory room as it suited the creepy storyline, we started off by testing a few shots of the lighting to see if this room would be useful in our film, we found out that we had to turn off the lights in the room to create a creepier atmosphere because the lights were too bright for our film and there wasn't another room available that suited the theme of our film. Although there was a slight problem to start off with because when we started to film we couldn't really see any of the face's of our characters so we used several techniques to try and create a dim light using the reflectors but it wasn't working so we decide to open some of the blinds slightly, and use the reflectors letting in some natural light which became more effective and enabled us to see the characters face and emotions.
Whilst filming we found out that some of the shots that we had completed were a bit dark so we had to stop and change the white balance for each angle and each lighting so that the colours for our film would be the right balance, luckily we had only just started filming so we only had to re film a few of the first sequences.
In certain shots especially when the characters were low on the ground we had to use the reflectors to try and shine some more light on the characters face, because Lauren wasn't in the shot this time she took on the role of using the reflectors whilst i was filming and both the Charlotte's were acting out our film. Because we worked fast and quick as a group, we were able to get our filming done in one day so that the film shots were ready for editing on Monday.
Editing
(23/01/2012) On Monday we began editing after finishing filming using Adobe Premiere Pro , first we looked through all of our videos and deleted the videos that we weren't going to use, we then got all the piece of footage that we were going to use together and structured them so that we could see all of the different shots all in one piece, we saw that some of the shots were a little bit jumpy in between cuts, so we started off by fading in and out a few shots so that our film would flow alot more. we all took turns in editing as we thought that it would be fair if we all contributed to the editing.
Firstly i merged the film together and added on a few fades to make it more smooth, whilst i was doing this the others were looking up some sound that we could use as our background music, and maybe some sound effects for our film. Once we all decided on a certain piece of music we then put it into our film, we watched it alongside our film and saw that it fit perfectly, but as we didn't have enough time to finish on the Monday we finished our editing on Friday (27/01/2012)
On Friday once the piece of music was played along side our film we saw that at some points we would need to dim the music even more so that the dialogue could be heard, we had to tweak this alot because at times we could hear noises from the camera and sounds from filming, once we had successfully sorted out most of the sound editing other people in my group had the chance to go back to the editing of the film which including adding in our title of 'The Blackout' , adding in some effects such as cross dissolve and dip to black which we mainly used at the end so that the end of our film fades to black but still flows. One thing that we found out whilst editing was that at one point where our characters hands have the word 'you're next' written all over it we see that because of the lighting in the room you can't really tell that there is writing on their hands but we tried to enhance the contrast alot and it helped because you can see that there is writing on the characters hands even if it is blurry.
One thing that we improved in our editing was that we created a creepier atmosphere by adding in some sounds that went along with the theme. After finalising the sound we looked at the end of our film and saw that fading to black wasn't as effective, so we decided to add in a old interference noise and then add in the picture at the end so it would fadeout eventually and then suddenly bring up this loud interference noise. With our group we all took ten minutes to edit certain parts of our film whilst including everyone else in it, we thought that this was a good way of using our timekeeping skills and our group work skills.
Final Video
This is our final video after editing.
Whilst filming we found out that some of the shots that we had completed were a bit dark so we had to stop and change the white balance for each angle and each lighting so that the colours for our film would be the right balance, luckily we had only just started filming so we only had to re film a few of the first sequences.
In certain shots especially when the characters were low on the ground we had to use the reflectors to try and shine some more light on the characters face, because Lauren wasn't in the shot this time she took on the role of using the reflectors whilst i was filming and both the Charlotte's were acting out our film. Because we worked fast and quick as a group, we were able to get our filming done in one day so that the film shots were ready for editing on Monday.
Editing
(23/01/2012) On Monday we began editing after finishing filming using Adobe Premiere Pro , first we looked through all of our videos and deleted the videos that we weren't going to use, we then got all the piece of footage that we were going to use together and structured them so that we could see all of the different shots all in one piece, we saw that some of the shots were a little bit jumpy in between cuts, so we started off by fading in and out a few shots so that our film would flow alot more. we all took turns in editing as we thought that it would be fair if we all contributed to the editing.
Firstly i merged the film together and added on a few fades to make it more smooth, whilst i was doing this the others were looking up some sound that we could use as our background music, and maybe some sound effects for our film. Once we all decided on a certain piece of music we then put it into our film, we watched it alongside our film and saw that it fit perfectly, but as we didn't have enough time to finish on the Monday we finished our editing on Friday (27/01/2012)
On Friday once the piece of music was played along side our film we saw that at some points we would need to dim the music even more so that the dialogue could be heard, we had to tweak this alot because at times we could hear noises from the camera and sounds from filming, once we had successfully sorted out most of the sound editing other people in my group had the chance to go back to the editing of the film which including adding in our title of 'The Blackout' , adding in some effects such as cross dissolve and dip to black which we mainly used at the end so that the end of our film fades to black but still flows. One thing that we found out whilst editing was that at one point where our characters hands have the word 'you're next' written all over it we see that because of the lighting in the room you can't really tell that there is writing on their hands but we tried to enhance the contrast alot and it helped because you can see that there is writing on the characters hands even if it is blurry.
One thing that we improved in our editing was that we created a creepier atmosphere by adding in some sounds that went along with the theme. After finalising the sound we looked at the end of our film and saw that fading to black wasn't as effective, so we decided to add in a old interference noise and then add in the picture at the end so it would fadeout eventually and then suddenly bring up this loud interference noise. With our group we all took ten minutes to edit certain parts of our film whilst including everyone else in it, we thought that this was a good way of using our timekeeping skills and our group work skills.
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| This is an example of our film editing in Adobe Premiere Pro. |
Final Video
This is our final video after editing.
