FINAL CUT

April 15, 2015April 15, 2015 / jupiterproductions14 / Leave a comment

This is the final cut for our AS Media coursework. Since the last final cut we produced, certain small changes have been made to our film opening, as can be seen here. This is the final version of our work.

Filming Our Final Cut

April 6, 2015April 12, 2015 / jupiterproductions14 / Leave a comment

After receiving the feedback from our rough cut, we thought it would be a good idea to begin planning for our final cut straight away. This is something which would be filmed in our Easter Break, meaning that much of what we had to organise would be done via text. Below can be seen a few screenshots of the text messages sent between us.

The conclusions of our communications meant that on Monday I went I to school to pick up a SLR Camera for myself and Esther to film with, alongside a tripod and camera charger in case the camera died during our shooting. I then went home and began to prepare the setting for our filming and organise the props, before meeting Esther, Willow and Harry (who was accompanying Willow) later on in the evening. The images below, show the varying steps I took to set up for our final cut alongside some images of the props we used.

Whilst preparing for filming, I had a checklist with me which I used to ensure that I had the right props with me and that we would be ready to film as soon as Willow, Harry and Esther came to my house. To ensure Willow would be ready for her role as the protagonist in our opening, we texted Harry to check that she had a change of clothes suitable for the role with her.

When everyone arrived, filming took approximately 4 hours, as we decided to re-shoot the entirety of our piece, adding in a few extra shots to our shooting script. The reason filming took so long was because the camera we had ran out of battery half way through filming, and thus we had to wait for it to recharge before we could continue filming once more. While filming, we got Harry to take a few photos on my phone of the process.

After filming, we began to plan when to come in and edit our video, choosing Thursday as the best time. On this day we decided we would come in to school to start the editing process and also to rerecord the voice of the bear.

Teacher Feedback on Our Rough Cut

March 30, 2015March 30, 2015 / jupiterproductions14 / Leave a comment

“Rough Cut Feedback
Level 1 0–23 marks—The work for the main task is possibly incomplete. There is minimal evidence in the work of the creative use of any relevant technical skills.
Level 2 24–35 marks—There is evidence of a basic level of ability in the creative use of some of the following technical skills
Level 3 36–47 marks—There is evidence of proficiency in the creative use of many of the following technical skills:
Level 4 48–60 marks—There is evidence of excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:
• using titles appropriately. (proficient)—titles have been used; the seem a little squashed; make sure they are used correctly (just name and job title); have the correct number of them; the opening Jupiter Production logo should come-up after a couple of seconds of the sound, stay on the screen for two seconds and then fade away; they have the atmospheric sound for a bit; then fade into the opening image of the bear; do we get the title of the movie??
• shooting material appropriate to the task set; (proficient)—the sound, mise en scene (character actions) and the use of camerawork that directly leaves the girl out of the opening shots establishes this a thriller; more could be done to establish the sinister nature of the bear.
• holding a shot steady, where appropriate; (excellent)—mostly good; some wobbles on the shot with the tea cup; consider adding a stabiliser; look on YouTube to see if this option is available on YouTube.
• framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;–(excellent) no real issues here; some shots have been brilliantly framed; however, the squeezing if titles into small areas doesn’t seem to make sense; aim for simplicity.
• using a variety of shot distances as appropriate; (proficient/excellent)—the intimacy of the shots works; however, there are too many of them (meaning, shots); this prevents the pace from really moving forward the narrative; consider axing 45 and 105; is the tea cup needed; despite saying the above, this is a real strength of this piece; the shot where the camera pans down seems to have no purpose; the shot of the girl’s lips speaking is slightly unsettling; however, this isn’t a great problem.
• selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;–(proficient)—the colour is slightly dark; the selection of props is fine; why does she leave one slice of bread in the bin under the table?
• using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set; (proficient)—diegetic and non-diegetic sound is mostly good; there has been a lot of effort to adjust sound levels; these have been mostly blended well; however, when you listen to it with headphones, the quality of diegetic sound needs to be treated to get rid of the static; this may not be possible however; I think more can be done with sound; for example, when the tension rises with the bear talking; I think this needs to be developed and treated with upmost respect and skill. A foley was used once to signify anger/tension…make this a motif.
• editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer; (proficient)—the pace needs to pick up and shots, on the whole need to be trimmed; the actual tea part set-up could use a good edit (cut 2-3 seconds); shots, as noted above, must be deleted; the last shot cuts out too soon…we need to see her facial expressions; cur the ‘multiple close-ups of the knife’.
• using varied shot transitions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set; (proficient)—see above; the closing shot might fade to the title.
Overall, this is a mid proficient rough cut. There is real potential there. The main area is the editing (pace); however, the development of the sinister bear through parallel editing and reaction shots is also a way to make this sequence better reflect a thriller. Be careful, however, not to make this into a short film. Thus, think about what would happen next and where the sequence would go. As I write this, I can’t help but think of the closing image being the girl, mid decapitating the bear’s head, looking up…she has been caught in the act.
Doing some parallel editing with the mother would help develop tension. 42/60
JDU”

Feedback On our Rough Cut

March 27, 2015March 27, 2015 / jupiterproductions14 / 1 Comment

In our last media lesson as a class, we reviewed each others Rough Cut videos. This involved us showing the fully exported clips twice through and then hearing what people had to say about them. In general the feedback was positive with classmates particularly liking:

The choice of actors- Willow was deemed to be well suited to the role of ‘Sasha’ and Declan (the drama student who voiced the bear) was rated as being ‘haunting’ and ‘perfectly indicative of the genre’
In general the steadiness of the camera was rated as being good
Mise en scene worked very well, and particularly the choice of props was good (specifically the bear)
The narrative, as it made sense and did not reveal too much, until its conclusion, being thus a good example of a film opening
The camera work was varied and extremely creative in places

and seeing slight fault in:

Use of titles- although the font of the titles was fine, they were often too large and this detracted from the general atmosphere of the film. Large titles were a distraction from the narrative at points, and they ruined the cinematography of our piece somewhat
The ending was not quite perfect, with the jump cuts of the knife perhaps being too intense, putting too much focus on the knife too soon as this is only an opening sequence and not an entire film
The Bear himself, could be given a bit more of a voice within the clip. Many people noticed that we don not see things from his perspective very often and so his character is not developed to the full extent it could be.
There were perhaps too many camera shots, coming from a great variation of angles, the narrative could be sped up somewhat

What will we do next?

Our Media teacher will now mark our Rough Cut and we will receive further feedback on this via email. After this we will begin to consider what we will do for our Final Cut which is due after our Easter holiday. This is something which we will have 2 weeks to prepare for, film and edit, meaning that we will have to do the majority of this work in our break.

Filming our Second Rush

March 16, 2015March 20, 2015 / jupiterproductions14 / Leave a comment

Here are some photographs that I have taken during the filming of our second rush, depicting both the props and setting which were used. Though what was filmed will not be exactly the same as our final piece, many of the props we have used here (such as the tea set) will be used again in our film opening. Filming this rush has also allowed us to recognise that other props, such as the bear will need to be changed in time for the filming of our rough cut.

Filming for this second rush took approximately 2 hours, with a little extra time to set up the tea table and select the appropriate props, the rush was filmed again on my Panasonic camera, with the aid of the mini tripod. In this rush, my sister acted several times, moving the tea party equipment around accordingly (her face was not visible, and so she was able to act in place of our child actor). Overall, the filming process ran smoothly and many extra shots (other than the ones on our storyboard) were taken, in the hope that we will be able to assess this part of our narrative and see which shots work best when filming the child setting up her tea party.

Sound Considerations

March 13, 2015March 13, 2015 / jupiterproductions14 / Leave a comment

Ever since we finalised the details of our project, we have began to collect together a series of sound effects and music from Freesound that we could potentially use in our final opening. Using Freesound, we can ensure that the effects we have chosen are both royalty and copyright free, and thus we can use them at our leisure. Below, the sounds we have collected thus far, can be seen.

Music

Creepy Music-

http://http://www.freesound.org/people/FoolBoyMedia/sounds/220753/

http://http://www.freesound.org/search/?q=creepy&f=grouping_pack%3A%229250_horror+ambience%22&s=score+desc&advanced=0&g=1

Music Box sounds-

http://http://www.freesound.org/people/klankbeeld/sounds/130889/

http://http://http://www.freesound.org/people/Thejack288/sounds/236814/

http://http://www.freesound.org/people/Timbre/sounds/98975/

Drone Sounds-

http://http://www.freesound.org/people/thatjeffcarter/sounds/104555/ -high pitched drone

http://http://www.freesound.org/people/JarredGibb/sounds/219056/ -low pitched drone

Foley’s