Post production part 2

When it came to editing later on in the week there were a few changes that we decided as a group in the narrative and the order. The main one was at the very start of the sequence we showed the tied up hands first and then showed close ups of the container a bit later on, we decided to change this around as we thought revealing that there is someone tied up straight away is quite a shock and kind of gives away the plot instantly. We also changed the order when the radio player starts to skip to show the villains reaction first rather than a close up of the radio.

when creating the tension in our opening we used a diegetic sound effect of Jazz music playing on the radio player, adding a contrapuntal theme to the scene which in a way made it more scary to watch. Also showing the close ups of the weapons at the beginning with the blood on them allowed a sense of worry as why do these weapons all have blood on them. Lastly when the villain comes to choosing a weapon, we show the shot of the weapon in the foreground and the victim in the background foreshadowing that this is meant for him and showing them to the victim is a way to try and see which one the victim would prefer like he's giving him an option of what he wants to be beat with, which creates a creepy tone to the sequence.

I feel like that our target audience would want to keep watching for multiple reasons, one i think the action in this scene with the victim being beaten up, i feel like the audience will want to know the story of this man and what he has done to be here. Another reason i think is showing the victim at the end taking the money with him, as again the audience would want to know his reason behind taking the money with him. Lastly i think the choice of the colour mixed in with a thriller is an interesting take, which has an appeal to the audience watching.

When it came to choosing names for the opening we wanted to include the actors real names so we could show there hard work and let them be known to the audience the same went for when we did the crew names, as there was only four of us in the group we had to come up with a few extra names, for example one actor we called Jonathan Shute which i came up with as this is a person i personally know who was the first person to ever get me into filmmaking, so it felt right to credit him and show how far i've come. Another name I used was Finn Rauh for the music production as my cousin makes music and thought again it would be nice to credit someone close to me. For the others we used mixes of our middle names and random last name like Theo Louvard etc. For the name of our group we came up with the name Crystal house at random and really liked it.

Sound i think out of the whole editing process took the most time to try and prefect, The main issue we faced was after adam was hit on the foot with the hammer the scream was distorted which sadly there wasn't a way that we could fix it but to help the issue we lowered the volume a bit. The only other issue i could think that we had was when it came to making the radio player sart to mess up, aas it took a lot of time to repeat the sound, and make it sound realistic. 

We did include a diegetic soundtrack which the actors are hearing as it makes the scene feel more immersive and adding the reverb onto the music made it more ambient and in the room creating a realistic tone to the audience. We did not need any special effects in our sequence other than one at the end of the sequence when Adam is walking out and the camera exposes to a white screen to make it seem like he hasn't seen daylight in a long time.

Overall i think the finished outcome of our opening sequence looks incredible and i don't think there is much I would have done differently but that's not to say there's room for improvement i do think we could have had a few more nice looking shots like maybe from over adams shoulder looking at Ali. Another thing i think we could have done better was the pictures on the wall as i feel like you can tell they are really young i think if we had pictures of older people it may have looked a bit better. But I think the aesthetic of the scene looks cool and gives a light aspect to the dark realism of the scene taking place.

 

post production part 1

 When it came to the editing part of our media sequence, as a group we went through all the rushes from the shoot day and put the shots we liked the most into a rough timeline to start structuring our work, when reviewing the footage it was fun to watch and see our idea on the screen but there were parts which we felt like could have been done a bit better and added a few more shots. 

Throughout reviewing the footage I did realise a few mistakes that our group did make when shooting the film. The main one i realised was some shots seemed to be quite shaky on the review, but that problem was mainly caused from not being on a completely level surface in the container. Another issue i realised when looking at the footage was a continuity error with the antennae on top of the radio which in some shots was up but then in some other ones was fallen over on its side.

When it came to starting to put the final cut together we made a separate timeline called cut 1 we separated this from the log so we could go back to the rough structure to see how we originally planned out the opening. we started with the footage with Ali turning on the radio player at the start of the scene then also started where to show Adam.

Early choices we made when starting to edit was that we wanted to show adam subtly without giving it up instantly, which is why we have the first shot of the sequence of Adams hands tied up in barbed wire. Another early choice we had was to have lots of close ups in the sequence as it is able to give a more dramatic sense especially when showing the weapons in our scene. We didn't change any of our concept idea at the start of the edit s everything seemed to flow quite nicely.

One choice that we made for the editing process was to show parts of the container all in close, as it helps show the titles and lets us focus on gory parts of the set which might tie in later in the film. The second choice we made was to use Jazz music as a diegetic sound effect in the sequence as it is contrapuntal to the scene.

Mise En Scene presentation video

 To go over the Mise En Scene from my opening sequence, here is a video i have put together to explain our choices for mise en scene. Along with what they were all trying to convey.

BTS Video

When shooting our opening sequences we filmed and shot some behind the scenes footage which i have edited into a little film from our day of shooting which i have attached below.

Shoot Day reflection

The night before we started shooting for the opening us as a group had a team discussion to make sure we had everything in place for the day and how it was all going to go down from start to finish. We made sure we had all the props we needed to show in the sequence, I also sent Mike a quick email just to remind him to bring in the radio player to use for the scene. After this we all felt ready to go the next morning so I put all my props in my bag and went to bed. 

The day started at 8 for me when i arrived at school, I went to the classroom where I had stored some of my props, and gathered them all together, I asked sophie if she could arrive a bit earlier before the others so that we could sort out the costumes for the actors in the shoot. With the white shirt that we had for adam we put some fake blood over the shirt and smudged it all in with tissue, to then make the shirt look dirty and ragged i put some dirt into the shit then ripped some holes into it. 

Once we had sorted out the costumes and the group had all arrived, we went up to the studio just to have another brief rundown at how the day is planned out and how it was all going to go. Where then our cast came up to the studio, where we gave them their costumes to get ready and alice could start doing their makeup. to make their characters look more convincing in the film. For example Adam was made to look very beaten and bruised up for the shoot. 

So that the rest off the group were not wasting time and sitting around we headed down to the containers, to start emptying them out and set the set up ready to go once Alice had finished with the make up. Luckily for us, cleaning out the container didn't take as long as we would have thought, and took around 20 to 30 minutes, Which allowed us a bit more time to think through out to set up the scene, Whilst clearing out the container there were a few props we found within that we thought would work well with the ascetic we were going for.

Once we finished the we covered some of the the weapons like the baseball bat and the pickaxe in blood with the pliers and a saw, to make it look more scary to the audience and that the villain has clearly done this in the past and the victim should be scared. Once this was all dealt with and we had a good understanding of how it should be looking we moved onto the lighting. 

As a group we understood from the start that lighting the container was always going to come across as a pain, but we always knew that if we got it right it would look incredible, We used 6 fluorescent green light bars that we placed symmetrically at the end of the container, then a few behind the frame where the camera wouldn't see it just so it would give the right amount of lighting without showing all of them, which this idea worked incredibly well, came across very nicely on camera. Once the lighting was finished we set up the camera and waited for our actors to join us.

When the actors arrived to the set I gave them a rundown of what is in the sequence and how we want each character to act within the shoot, to let them get into the right mindframe for it we walked through it once with the camera rolling so i could direct them through it to help them out, so when it came to shooting the first real take they could do it with as little direction as possible. After this we felt ready to get started with the official shoot for the day. 

I feel like mostly everything for our shoot went very well especially as we were all very organised throughout the whole shoot of the day, and there was no point throughout when one of the cast weren't doing anything. With the result of our organisation we were able to film the whole shoot and pack down by 1 in the afternoon. This was ultimately because we did not over complicate our sequence, as we kept it all in one location, and had just 2 actors. The set design also worked very well in our favour as it wasn't a massive issue to set up, and it was very simple but clearly had a dark meaning behind it. On camera I think the lights came out better than expected and really went well for the scene as it made the scene seem fun and takes away from the dark theme behind it.

A few issues that did arise within the making of our opening sequence that including with the pictures on the wall of the container with the pins and string, After sticking up the pictures of people we realised that we may have stuck them to close together in order for the string and pins to work, also we realised that the pins we had would not of been able to into the wall of the container. To fix this issue that we had, we used a red marker and drew arrows from the top down to the mirror and crossed out some peoples eyes to give the idea that they have been killed. Another issue that did arise was the Bucket we wanted to use, we realised that it had a link, so that it didn't interfere with the scene we made the decision to cut it and work around the scene without using it which we managed to do quite easily. 

There were a few things I think as a group we could have done differently on the day, Including the design of the set. yes the set i think did work incredibly well for the scene and wasn't too distracting for the camera. Other than this our set looked nice and we didn't have many other things we should have done differently as the day all went smoothly. We didn't have to change much of our opening idea, as everything that we had imagined in the past complimented each other and flowed.

I think with having our real shoot we did learn a few new skills which included ways we wanted to smash the feet of our actor, to do this and make it look realistic without actually hitting adam, we took his shoe off, and put a crowbar inside of the shoe to react when we had the mallet hit the shoe as hard as possible. When it comes to editing we will edit a scream over it, after the shoe was hit we would raise the crowbar making look like the shoe was reacting to the hit of the mallet. We did learn a few techniques along the way like how to film through a mirror without getting the camera in shot, which involved us moving the camera to certain positions where is would perfectly capture the actors and the action going on.

A Lot of our knowledge from our previous camera workshops helped us prepare and perform well on the day. It allowed us to set the camera up quickly before filming the first shot, so we could get the right white balance, exposure, focus, so our shots could look crisp and clean. the previous workshops also helped when setting the shot to the right level with moving the tripod up and down and making sure the bubble was in the centre of the circle so that it was level. Throughout our shoot we had to change the type of lens a few times to meet the shot we were trying to take. So when taking off the lens from the camera, we were extra careful and making sure when putting a new lens on that we made the red dot on the lens meet the red dot in the camera, then to twist it clockwise to lock it in.

The Camera which we used in our opening sequence was the Black Magic 4K mini URSA camera, with a Vinten vision 8AS tripod system, and a variety of different lengths of lens to help with some shots to level the camera if we put it on the floor we used a pair of scissors to level it. also we had to use the crowbar to keep the shoes in place when we were hitting them. For lighting in our sequence we used long standing LED green lights and spread them over the set. 

It's hard to pinpoint my favourite part of the shoot as I enjoyed every second of it, But the best part would have probably been after we finished setting up the set and having our actors in there, because i finally got to see our creation come to life and it looked better than expected on just in real life but on camera it looked amazing. The green lighting really did add a whole new aspect to the openiening which i have never seen before in a film. another favourite part of the day was getting to have my dream role of being director and making quick decisions on set to help the scene look better than it already was.

I am very happy with the footage that we filmed on the day, even though we are not allowed to view the footage yet, from a director's point of view i feel like we have everything that we needed to film maybe even more. My favourite shot of the shoot which i think will look amazing in the final cut, was the shot i came up with on set when we aimed the camera at the mirror where you could see our actor tied up in the chair but also could still see the villain in the foreground. I thought this was a very creative shot, and done in the right way will look awesome.

I think personally I have learnt a few more techniques that I can take forward with me when it comes to filming my next project. This includes how to film in a confined space with not alot of room to move around. at the start of the shoot it was quite hard to get used to but after an hour or 2 it was quite easy to maneuver around. I now feel though that if i film in a space like this again I will find it alot easier. I also Learned how to Light a set more from behind the camera giving the screen more lighting without placing the lights on camera. I also learnt to use props around us on set that could help us to quickly film a shot if it was necessary. 

If we had to do anything differently if we had to do it again there wouldn't be a lot I would think to change but that's not to say there was room for improvement. I think if we had too I would like to maybe add a few more props into the set to make it look more scary to the camera, also I would really want to use a track as I always imagined having a few tracking shots in the sequence but it would take to long to set up, But i think it would look really nice and add to the aesthetic of the scene.

When it comes to the editing part of our sequence I most look forward just to see the footage for the first time so that all the ideas come rushing into my head on how we can edit the sequence. It will be really nice to finally see our sequence take form and start to look like a real film. And with all the editing techniques we have learnt I look forward to embed them into the footage.

I think personally for me I won't face many challenges when it comes to editing as I have done this for a while and have a real passion for it, But I think the hardest part will be getting out the starting block and figuring out how and where to start, but once I have a good first few shots that work nicely it will all start flowing and will face minimal issues, off course there may be an issue like the continuity clearly doesn't
 work here, so i will have to look through other footage to find a way around that issue. 

Research of Saul and Elaine Bass

 Saul Bass, was an american graphic designer and filmmaker, who brought in a new kind of style with his idea of film sequences that conveyed the theme of the film and prepared audiences for the type of film your about to watch. Eliane Bass was Married to Saul Bass but had a successful career before meeting Saul. She was an American title designer, and filmmaker like Saul. She worked 40 years alongside Saul Bass, together they worked on projects for directors like Martin Scorsese and Danny DeVito.

Elaine and Saul Bass created title sequences for films such as Goodfellas, Cape Fear, The Age of Innocence, and Casino, which was their last title sequence they created. All Modern opening title sequences that introduce the mood or theme of the film are a clear use of Basses work.

Saul and Elaine Bass during their 40 year career managed to work with big directors that we all know today, the likes off Alfred Hitchcock who has directed Psycho, Stanley Kubrick who has directed the Shinning, Otto Preminger who has directed the Human factor, Billy Wilder who has directed The lost weekend, and Martin Scorsese who has directed Shutter island. I have attached a video below of the couples work throughout their careers.

One of the best pieces of work that the Basses have done in their line of work was the opening to the 1959 film Anatomy of a Murder directed by Otto Preminger. The film is about a semi retired Michigan lawyer Paul Biegler takes the case of Army Lt. Manion, who has murdered a local innkeeper after his wife claimed that he raped her. Over the course of an extensive trial.

The very start of the Opening of the sequence has parts of the body appearing that are all disattached from each other which gives the instant image of a death as it looks like all the limbs are dismembered from the body, This gives an idea that the films Genre is going to relate around the idea of crime and thriller. Colour in film was introduced around the 1940s so when this film was being made they could of had colour within. I think having it black and white was done on purpose to relate to the dark mood and theme of the film giving it a creepy aspect. These also give clues to the narraitve of the film being about a murder

Throughout the sequence the screen tends to focus on certain parts of the dismembered body but then they are cut in half, this could be playing into the fact that this murder have lots of loopholes about it, or that it is a very messy case, and to show the messiness of this is by splitting up the body even furthur. This again gives further clues to the rest of the film being about a case of a murder.

I think this style of opening works well, because it's not only very simple but i like the use of what seems to be the use of paper cut outs, almost like a caricature aspect which is Basses way of trying to take away, from the dark side of the film. The font they used for this was quite formal to show that this is quite a serious film. The camera hardly ever cuts but has the transitions of the body parts moving onto screen which gives the image that this film is going to be very good at flowing through an giving it a sense of rhythm
without breaking the tension.

A film that i think of immediately that has taken huge inspiration from this style of opening is the film 'CandyMan' from 2021 which did pretty much use the same exact style, but with the use of puppeteers. Again this was able to take away from the dark sense around the film and as 'candy' stereotypically are for kids having this style relates to kids and puppets that they may see. Films these days have a huge inspiration from the filmmaking of Saul and elaine Bass which has impacted films up to the way films are made today.
 

The BBFC and Film Certificates

 
The BBFC stands for British Board of Film Classification, This is a board of regulations (laws) that films have to follow in the UK, They are able to control particular type of products in the industry. 

To go into more detail about the BBFC they are the ones who decide what can and can't be shown in films from what the deem appropriate. They are also the one who will assign an age certificate to a films in the UK. Audiences can also complain to BBFc if they feel they may have got something wrong with content within a film. A Film in the UK is not allowed to be released in the cinema or digitally unless it has received an age classification from the BBFC itself.

When it comes to deciding what the BBFC have to rate the film they have to take things into consideration for example:

. Scenes including Violence of all kinds. 

. Scenes including sex & nudity. Nudity with no sexual context is in principle acceptable at all classification levels, but will not generally occur more than occasionally at U. on the other hand Nudity with sexual context will receive a higher classification like 18 or R18.

. Scenes including obscene language. Language which people may find offensive includes the use of expletives with a sexual. religious or racial association, derogatory language and rude gestures.

. Scenes with discriminatory language. Potentially offensive content relating to matters such as race, gender, religion, disability or sexuallt may arise a wide range of works.

. Scenes of self harm. 

. Scenes of criminal activity.

. Scenes with dangerous behaviour eg Jumping of a cliff. 

. Scenes of drugs, alcohol and cigarettes. No work taken as a whole may promote the misuse of alcohol and drugs, any detailed portrayal of drug use or alcohol misuse is likely to promote the activity may be cut.

. Scenes involving child actors/ Characters.

. Strobe lighting. 

They also consider the context which the film is in, Such as if the films are realistic or fantasy based, like animated films. Animated and fantasy films have more lenient with the BBFC with including violence and are able to receive a lower age certificate as the BBFC believe that the audiences will be able to tell this is all fake, and so the violence in these films never result in serious injury.

If a films portrays drug use but has showed it in a sensitive way to the audience, and obviously identifies the problems/ side effects as being bad, then the film may be given a lower film certificate. A film that shows drug use being used for enjoyment and earn consequences will earn a higher film certificate.

Another good example other than drugs would be violence within films:

. Is the violence made to seem 'normal'?

. Why are they being violent? is it self defence?

. What injuries or harm are caused?

. Who is it that is violent eg the hero or villain?

. How does the perpetrator treat the victim?

. Is the violence enjoyed?

. Is the violence made to seem exciting or glamorous? 

. How much violence is there?

. How realistic is the violence?

. Does the violence get punished?

The process which the production company has to go through to get their rating for the film is they have to send a copy of the film to the BBFC for them to watch and breakdown to come to an agreement on what the certificate will be. Then they have the rights to release the film at the cinema or a digital release. If the BBFC assign a certificate that the production company isn't happy with, they have the option to re-edit the film and send it it back to the BBFC to review it to see how much it has changed and whether its deemed worthy to change. 

Sometimes the audience can go to the BBFC and complain about a certain rating of a film which has happened in the past with films like:

2019 - Joker - Audiences complained it should have had an 18 certificate for it due to the amount of harsh brutality violence in the film.

2018 - Peter Rabbit - Audiences complained that young children might copy the scenes of the rabbits throwing fruit at people. 

2017 - Logan - Audiences complained the violence was too strong and bloody for a 15 certificate.

I think the film certificate that our film would be given it it were to have a proper release would be a 15, as there is some violence that drives the scene with a few disturbing images that include the victim being tied up in barbed wire. The BBFC also might be concerned with all the weapons in the scene which have blood on them and the characters themselves who have blood on them, and the Victim whilst tied up is being hit with a wooden mallet of so it seems. If the BBFC could see our whole film I think they would agree all the way through there is a good amount of violence on show. 

 

 

Editing workshop 2 (Shooting a dialogue sequence)

A few weeks ago in groups of 4 we filmed another short clip to edit together with dialogue in it bringing in more camera composition and the skills of how to record sound when filming, and to understand how to film a dialogue obeying the 180 degree rule etc, then to edit all together and make it flow nicely with all the shots that we had filmed.

when coming to filming this little scene after having a camera workshop in the past i think as a group we felt a lot more confident, than last time, as we had noticed our mistakes from the last time and knew what we had to watch out for. For example making sure that the camera is level with the people you are filming, and not on a tilt so then it would look off centre. We also had to watch out for the 180 degree rule with this shoot, making sure that the camera does not cross an imaginary line where everything will look the opposite way round. With the previous workshop we realised that we need to keep an eye on continuity also so we looked out for that when reshooting.

The main problem we faced was making sure that we bubbled the tripod as we kept realising that it looked to be slightly off centre, but without reviewing the footage we didn't know if we did all the shots like that so me and Max decided to reshoot the ones we did prior just to play it safe, also the actors on the camera sometimes didn't say the same thing for every shoot, so me and Max when it came to editing had to make it look like everything was said in one continuous take. 

I feel like what we could have done to improve our shoot would have been to take our time and be more relaxed with each shot, as we originally felt quite rushed until we finished and realised we had time to go on for at least another 10 minutes. this would have also allowed us to get a few more filler shots incase something doesn't add up when editing, so then we would have a clip to sub in. The one thing i think i need to take forward when it comes to my official shoot for my opening sequence would be to not panic and take my time with everything, and check everything adds up on camera.

When it came to editing in premiere pro we quickly looked through all our shots that we did to check which ones were the best and that we wanted to use for our final edit to publish, After we would take one by one and review it and add it into the final edit, and make sure all the clips work together. when choosing the clips we would cut the beginning parts of the clip as it would have the crew saying action. The reason we start recording before the acting happens is to make sure that we don't miss any of the dialogue.

What we learnt this time round when it came to editing was the skill to unlink the video clip and the 2 audio clips so we could delete the one with no audio on it. when placing all the clips in the right places we had to make sure the video clip we wanted to play was on top and the audio was in the on the same line as the rest of the audio clips so that we could put a fade out and in so that when cutting between clips it doesn't sound like a cut with the audio. This allowed to make the final edit look like it's all been in the same take, and flow nicely.

One main problem we faced we had was with our mid shot when Elias as when he sat down we had so much head room at the top, I felt like we could have zoomed in a bit more just to cut out the amount of headroom that we had in the shot. another problem we had with a later shot was with the close ups with elias and Alice's faces as we zoomed out to far after we focused that makes it look slightly that her face has been stretched and not as close as it should be for a close up, it was also on a bit of a tilt upward and not straight on, other than these few issues everything seemed to be ok. For example we never broke the 180 degree rule but got extremely close to the line. For next time I'll make sure to check the close ups and the camera composition before editing.

when it comes to our real sequence to make sure that before editing everything is how it should be we will need to take our time and shoot each shot a few times to make sure we have lots of backups to choose from, also with our final edit to fine tune when the fade out and fade in comes in and out as you can still slightly hear the shots from cutting in and out between them. Overall I think this was a very good attempt and will help me improve a lot before shooting our real opening sequence. I Have attached our final edit of our dialogue scene below.