Making the titles.

The group and I felt we could make titles more advanced than just placing them on in the video we wanted to make them fit into the scene. In the chase we had several places we could put them, but to make it even more complicated for our selves we wanted them to look like they were like actually on the wall, and that the actors would run past it, in front of them, whereas the titles would normally be in front of the action.

Below is how I set about making the titles.

Title editing.

We decided we needed titles what werent just placed on there we decided we were creative enough to come up with something better than that.

First we had to find a suitable font which would suit the genre,
we went for font what is like graffiti, which we believe symbolises, crime, trouble, youth..etc.

I then was given the task of making these titles on after effects. Where I have placed them where on the screen as if they look like they're part of the scene, where the chase runs past it etc. This technique involves me using stablising motion of the footage, using masks, working frame by frame, working with 3d layers and with a camera layer.

The out come looks quite good here are some screen shots...

Editing and music

Over the last week we have started and progressed well through editing, we have our shots in a sequence what works well, we have trimmed the clips down. Yesterday we showed the film to our teacher but she had helpful critism for us. For example at the end of the film we had the main character coming out of a phone box being cornered from both sides by the bullies, we used a POV shot, looking both ways at the bullies when doing this a traffic wardern walked past, Ms Parish felt that he could be percieved as a police officer so it was disorientating, as the film ends with the main character getting smacked in the face with a Dlock, this would bring up the question 'why didnt the police officer do anything'.. But fortuantly we had always planned that all the clips would have a back up incase of such problems so we easily worked around this, by just getting rid of this shot and replacing it.

Later on in the day another teacher, Mr Wroe. Said that we need to think about the titles very carefully and how we use them, that they need to have a pulse,a beat. He also said how students often make the mistake of making it look like a tv program rather than the opening 2 minutes of a film and suggested that the ending isnt the black out with the titles as it will look like a short film rather than the opening 2 minutes to a film. This was a very valid point but we think its the best idea and it would easily go to the next scene, like someone waking up, or anything coming out of the darkness, but we cant just end the 2 mins randomly, and we dont have enough time on the film to add anything to the end.

Yesterday we also searched for free copyright free music. On the school media shared area, there was a useful link, which had a great variety of music. We wanted something with a tense, tension building up beat.
We think we have currently found the perfect music which we will play over a constant pulse (heart beat) and slight white noise, which symbolises nothing else matters.

Filming Update.

We filmed our final task earlier in the half term, with me being the main actor, Rory and being chased by Sam Webb and Jonathan Nesbitt. We incorporated most of the shots intended, with some of the flashback triggers. We filmed at 7am in the morning, to fit with our mise en scene, dull sky etc. We also filmed early to avoid lots of people what could potentially avoid continuity errors, such as people in one shot but then not in the next shot, The whole day was succesful with some good inspirational ideas from us. At the end of the day we arranged for another day to film and fill in the missing bits.I tried editing the film quickly at home, but some shots really didnt work.

NB. When filming on the camera display screem we thought we had captured good footage when we played the clips on the computer we found that there was more in the shot than what we could see on the camera screen. For example theres a scene where I hide around a corner waiting for the bullies to run past,on the camera screen it showed me out of shot, but when we went to look at it on the computer I was in shot.

Unfortunatly this plan was destroyed I was admitted in to hospital days before so I wouldnt be able to act or even be there, As our shots already filmed could not work together without the use of more shots. The group had to film again with different actors. Also on the day our other actor didnt turn up so Patrick unforuantly had to step in to film.

The group refilmed all the shots we did and incorporated the fact that the camera display doesnt show all whats in the shot.They managed to film all the shots in one day (seeing as they had already done them before) Unfortunatly the group didnt manage any of the scenes apart from the chase scene, the waking up, the flashback and the triggers, being spotted etc. So now we only have a chase sequence for our film, which completly does not follow the storyboard, but the group had to make the best out of the cirumstances and we did.

NB Although I wasnt able to be present for the filming of the shots what will be in our final piece. I was involved all through out, giving my opionion on what should and needs to be done and how they could improve our initial clips.

Editing posts

Ive just noticed that if I edit a previously published post, then it removes itself from where it was on the blog and becomes the most recent blog posting. Which is annoying and then could muck up the whole 'putting them up in order' even if its just changing the title, or going into a post to copy it. So now Im not daring to edit..

Dvd menu practice

Ok so I had little motivation for revision yesterday, but I knew I had to be productive so, I decided I would try and make a dvd menu for our media practicals...
I used Adobe after effects and Adobe encore to make it.. Here it is..



This is obviously just a video so the menu wont actually work. But with Adobe encore, you can set a point to where it will loop to, so that it will never finish unless you click on one of the buttons, these buttons link to a different place or where you can add another menu. But this was a practice video, so that I could see how to do it, so the video clip I used was just one I had because we havent filmed yet but if I decide to make one for the actual dvd, then I can use a clip from our video and when it freezes I can animate it more, like twitching, flashing etc.

Filming Schedule

Saturday 10th April
Film bits where Just Matty needed.
Waking up.
Walking to shop
Texting girl friend?

Sunday 11th April
Start filming parts of the chase scene...
Being spotted
Running through the different locations we found.
(use multiple shots for each scene)
We May also need to incorporate the flashback triggers, but this chase could take along time so we may need another day.. (Wednesday)

Monday 12th April
AM- Flash backs
-Head being pushed under water
- Being shut in a car boot
PM- go through all shots done to see if we've missed anything and take note of what we're missing.

Wednesday 14th April
do any bits what are missing and/or need to redo (flashback triggers if not done already)

Saturday 17th April
Esther (Girl) shots
-Tied up
- Screaming (first scene)
- Maybe have her reading the text/picking up the phone?

Film opening scene research..

In our film we are hoping to have a scream of a girl in darkness then the main character waking up. This is the opening scene to lost. We see darkness and titles, in to a close up of the character face and the eyes opening. Lost cleverly uses non diagetic sound to emphasize the eye opening, as if waking up from the nightmare, the pupil also reduces in size to shows hes been asleep/knocked out and the light is bright once waking up. These are all techniques we can use in ours. We could also use the setting... The video also has a chase, which we can get an idea of the shots.