Evaluation

Media Studies - Final Task Evaluation

View more presentations from hannahgeorgekba.

Inbox(1)

Below is a youtube link which my group and i have created to show our completed horror film opening which is now ready to be burnt onto a DVD:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N_uVTVMCCg

editing 7th april

Today, our group completed our teen horror opening. We made the changes which we were suggested to from the feedback given to us about our opening. We also created a piano music loop in the programme 'garageband' to go with our horror opening and play throughout. We then created a sound bridge using ambiences from the freesound website we found online. We also rearranged our footage and titles to make it more understandable and tell a better story, and we also took out some shots, and entered some new footage previously recorded. As a group, we are much more pleased with the newer version of our horror opening as we think that it flows much better than before and makes more sense as an opening . We entered the names for our production company -(Prestige Elite) and our distribution company - (MRH Distributions) at the beginning of the opening. We created logos for these using photoshop and online images found, and we recorded vocal sound for the distribution company through garageband. After completing our horror opening, we inserted our names at the beginning o the film as a final feature.

editing 5th april

Our group decided to show our horror opening footage to somebody with no clue as to what it was about or what the storyline was. However, after having received the feedback for our opening it was clear to us that some changes needed to be made. It seemed our opening was not very understandable (as the feedback told us) and it was often unclear what was going on and who was who etc. As a result of this feedback, we decded to re-edit parts of our footage and change our sound which goes with the footage. We decided to change the sounds because there was no sound bridge involved and the sounds we used had little continuity as they were only short peices of different sounds 'merged' together which didn't work very well. It was more clear to us that changes needed to be made after recieving this feedback, because it was not as noticable to us as a group, because we know the storyline and plot ourselves. Now we have this feedback, we can alter our opening to make it clearer for an audience.

editing 4th april

Today, we managed to achieve quite a lot of editting. Firstly, we managed to put sound into the whole of our horror opening, and we also managed to finish the opening titles and titles which would appear throughout the opening. We used freesound.org to download copyright free soundtracks, which we used in our 2 minute opening. We tried to make sure that the titles were in appropriate places and in time with the sound affects and music. Although we managed to finish all of the editting and sound, we were not sure as a group if the piece was finished as it still did not have a finished feel to it yet. Our next step will be to show somebody our opening to recieve their opinions and feedback.

sound

My group used the website; www.freesound.org to find different background noises and scary sound affects for our horror opening. We downloaded six different sound tracks which we will consider to use in our opening. We found loud bangs, quiet creepy background music, and various other sound affects when we browsed the site. We saved these downloads onto the desktop and we will be testing them by entering them into our horror opening in final cut.

Looking at independent film distribution companies

My group decided to do a small amount of research regarding independent film distribution companies. We did this because we were having trouble thinking of a name for our own company. We researched and found names such as; 'Dogwoof' and 'Red Barn'. These names were random which made us realise the name did not have to be something which related to film in any way. We also found a production company name of 'Twisted Pictures', which specialises in the horror genre, having created films such as the 'Saw' series. The final company we came across was a company called 'Brain Damage' who also specialises in the horror film genre. In researching these companies, it made it easier for us to think of company names for production, distribution and sound.

28th footage editing and inserting titles

In this editting session, we decided to work on titles and transitions between the shots. We added the main titles which would appear at the start of the film including things such as production company, distribution company, and the music creators. We chose to have the transition for the titles as a fade in/fade out dissolve, as this made it look quite spooky when they appeared on screen. For some of the titles, they were shown over the top of the footage, however we included the first ones at the start of the film in their own shot by themselves. We made the lengths of the titles 3 seconds each, however some had to be shortened slightly due to shot changes. We decided to use the production company name of; 'Prestige Elite', because it was the name of our font, which we quite liked. We also decided to name our Distribution company 'MRH Distributions', due to the letters being the first letters of our names in the group. We chose 'Sinister Sounds' for the music company as we thought it sounded like it fit the horror genre well. In our next editting session we will finish the titles and start to add the sound

21st March - soundtrack & effects

Today, our group have added to our editing and have been looking at digetic and non digetic sound.
We used the freesound website to download around 6 pieces (one or two being tracks, others being actuall effects such as loud bangs).

finalcut

Our group are familiar with finalcut express however, we are not sure as to what all of the tools can be used for. This is why i spent some time researching on various sites for tips and advice whilst using this programme, hopefully this can add to our editing to help create a better finish.

Sites i looked at:

http://www.ehow.com/videos-on_3483_use-pro-video-editing-software.html

http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/

freesound.org

http://www.freesound.org/

I have now been introduced to a website in which i can take non-copywrited sounds and use them within finalcut to add to our horror film opening.
Our group have discussed this website and decided to use some of the sound effects
on there for features such as;
creaking decking,
screams,
doors opening and closing,
footsteps,
bangs etc
There are also horror tracks avaliable on the site, however, as a group i think that we are going to be using garageband and creating our own sound loop (our minds could change on this however).

14th march editing

This is our second editing session and so far, as a group, we are on track to reaching all deadlines on the editing process. As we thought about our storyboards carefully and whilst filming we discussed all of the angles we would need, we had the footage that we knew how to edit together. This is making the editing process faster and easier.
So far, we have created a base footage which shows us the order of shots to use and this is around 1 minute 30 seconds. We haven't yet added transitions or played with many effects but we are set up for reaching out 2 minute limitation.

7th march editing

Our group has now began the editing in the production process. We have created roughly 20 seconds of usable footgae however, we may go back to this at a later date to re-edit parts if out ideas or order changes. So far, we are happy with how we have worked and as a group, we don't think that we will need to go back and do anymore filming.

FOR MY USE... :)

PUT ON NEW STORYBOARDS AND AN EXPLANATION WHY

>DELETE THIS POST AFTER :)
hannahgeorgekba.blogspot

Our updated storyboards

The new versions of our storyboards are now displayed in the post containing the original ones. We changed our idea after the first filming session as we agreed that the plan we had orginally come up with was not suitable enough for the horror genre, and would also go over the two minute time limit. We have also taken out two of the characters in our new storyboard, Karen and David Osborne. The reason for this is that because those two characters were only going to be needed in a small section of the original storyboard. Now that the storyboard has changed, that section has been removed therefore we did not need those characters. We are confident that our updated storyboard will be more effective and link more to the idea of the teenage horror genre.

uploading footage

Yesterday, my group and i uploaded all of our footage that we had previously filmed. We first uploaded out footage to imovie and then saved it into a quicktime that we can later edit. We have saved it under a suitable name and onto our hitchcock group's mac computer.

We feel asthough we have lots of footage and angles to edit together as we have collated about 40minutes worth of recodings.

We have reached our deadline of February 28th with time to spare and our group is happy about this as we have shown that we can work within time limitations.

filming

We filmed on the thursday just gone (20-02-11)
this was a successful filming session as we recorded a lot of the footage needed, we used the fake blood, knife and the tea towel also. We then looked back at all of our footage and made sure we had a sufficiant amount. We also wrote a few notes (an overall of the storyboard) on what filming needed to be completed, we have crossed these off as they have been done. We also took into account the digetic sound of our piece and filmed sound elements such as footsteps and screams.
We have also decided to go back to filming the beginning as we haven't filmed chronologically.

props so far:
laptop
fake blood
tea towel
knife

Our next filming session has been planned to be this thursday (27-02-11).

mise-en-scene

This is the costume which Hannah George wears whilst filming for 'Claire Clayton's' character. It consists of; a vest top, hoodie and leggings (a typical teenage girl's outfit). We have kept this costume the same during all of our filming sessions for continuity reasons.

props

This is one of our props; we have thought about using it during frames when the character of 'Claire' is crying and in a short clip of a knife covered in blood to add tension and mystery.

filming continued

We filmed again earlier this evening and have lots of footage to worked with. We focused on the outdoor aspects at this shooting as well as the closeup of a character crying which we carried out using an onion for realistic tears.
As well as this; we have decided that our next filming session will be this following thursday.

filming continued

we are planning to film again tonight, 3:30 til 5:30 pm, we will be focusing more on the 'unknown figure' and completely all of that filming in one session as then we won't have to come back to it, this will stop confusion.
As well as this we have been talkign about changing our film opening idea, sticking to the origional theme but changing aspects.

The filming begins

Today we had our first filming session, i feel asthough it went well however, we have diverted from our origional storyboards slightly. We came across few problems whilst filming as Hannah George and I aren't actors, it was difficult to stay in character. We have planned to film next on this following Monday.

filming

For a few days now, our Hitchcock group, have been discussing the production of our task.
We have decided to meet tomorrow (Thursday 6th) from the times of 3:30 til 5:30 at our chosen location to begin filming. a while ago we had some problems in booking out the cameras, however, today, we made sure that a camera would be avaliable for our use tomorrow for a promt start.