Completion

Today we completed the sequence!! :D

In the lesson we managed to put an effect on the sound to make beginning noises more muffled and therefore sound more diegetic (as if you were standing outside the party). We then created and added in the credits which will play during actual footage. And then we were finished.

I am happy with the outcome of our film, I think we have successfully created an effective opening sequence to a romantic/ coming of age film with the use of parallel sound, both diegetic and non diegetic; intercutting; interesting camera and editing techniques and an eye catching title sequence that fits the genre. There are a few minor details that could have been attended to, for example, I think maybe some of the credits during the footage are shown too quickly therefore reducing the effectiveness; and the transition between the hairspray and the party scene could have been slightly smoother. But the credits were placed to match action of screen therefore they have to be the same length of the footage and the transition is quite good considering the time time constraints we had. Also these are only very minor issues, therefore I am pleased with the way our film turned out and I am glad we are finished. :)

Progress

We decided to change our credits and make them more colourful as when we put them on the film we thought the white on black background looked a little too much like a horror film. The way in which we did the colours was based on the style of Mean Girls.  We also distorted some of the lettering and words to make it a little quirky and give a lighthearted feel to it.

Progress

As the group had different ideas for what the credits should look like, we made two different sequences to see which style looked better.

In the end we decided the second sequence would work much better as it was much clearer to read and not too cheesy, but still was slightly girly so therefore still links to the genre.

Progress

Today we finally agreed on the name for our film which will be 'Snakes and Ladders'. We chose it as it helps to describe the ups and downs of relationships and also hints to the idea that  at a young age love is just a game. I like the name as i think anything with love in the title like our previous ideas such as 'Not Another Love Story' and 'Love at First Sight' were way to cheesy for our genre.

Progress

Progress

In today's lesson we continued editing the sequence which went really well and we got about three quarters of the way through and then Nicola stayed during her free period and managed to finish the rough editing of the end of the sequence. I was very pleased that we managed to finish editing the entire sequence in a very short period of time because it means we are now somewhat caught up to where we were before the burglary  and so we can now focus on refining the film and getting all the finishing touches like sound and credits perfect.

Nicola and I then stayed after school. I focused on refining the sequence by making the match on action perfect, re-sizeing shots and cutting out unwanted sounds etc. which went well and now the sequence flows a lot more smoothly and fits into the time frame. Nicola had a go at creating some music since she hadn't attempted that yet, it sounded quite good however it was difficult to get the right upbeat kick to the music without making it sound too cheesy, also, on the other hand, it was hard to find a guitar that didn't sound to dark. But overall it was good because it moved away from the club sounding music which we did not want.

Progress

In today's lesson we continued editing, which is going well as we have completed over a quarter of the sequence already. However, we do still need to go over it and refine the clips as there are some sound and lighting problems but we will deal with these issues once we have got the whole sequence roughly edited.

After school the whole group stayed to continue with the editing, however, there was an issue in that another group was using the computer we work on and therefore we were unable to edit. Because of this we decided to delegate other tasks that we could do on other computers, so Nicola was working on the behind the scenes footage, and Iveta, Natalie and I were working on getting some sorts of music clips together for the party scenes and for the boy and girl getting ready, which went well as Iveta and Natalie found some good loops that would work well with the getting ready scenes as they would work for both genders. We still need to check whether it matches the footage properly but I think it should work quite well. I was focused more on the party music which was very difficult as it is really hard to find loops which sound party-like as most of the beats are more club sounds.

Progress

Today we continued editing the sequence, which is going quite well as we all remember how it was before, therefore we are able to push through quickly as we have a clear idea of what it needs to look like. Our main focus for the upcoming week is to just get the whole sequence edited roughly, which I don't think will take us that long, and then we will work on refining it and making the sound and titles etc.

Progress

Today the software was installed and so we were able to make a start at re-editing our sequence. As we our now using adobe pro instead of final cut, today's lesson was mainly spent getting used to the new editing software and so we only edited a small amount of the sequence.

Progress

In today's lesson we did the final re-shoots which we decided upon due to the feedback we got from our class. We then split the group in order to use our time more effectively, Natalie and Iveta worked on getting the final bits of footage edited into place (they also began to remove the unwanted sound from the sequence e.g copyrighted music we played during the actual filming and they tried to electronically fix the lighting in the beginning scene), Nicola started work on the credits/titles (creating a rough version of what the credits should be styled like) and I worked on the sound (I tried to mix a few tracks together for the party music and I also began to piece together some stuff for the boy and girl getting ready, using two similar tracks where one had a lower pitch than the other, so I thought we could use this during inter cutting to help distinguish between the boy and girl scenes and make it more parallel). This went well as we completed the majority of our tasks, finishing the editing of the sequence, getting an idea for what we want the credits to look like and beginning to develop the sound for the inter cutting between the boy and girl.

Overall this weeks progress has been good and we seem to be doing quite well, all of our focus now I think should be on the music and this is a crucial part to our film and if it isn't correct the film will not work. We still need to complete the credits, however, I feel that this will be much easier and quicker to do than the sound.

Progress

After school today Nicola and I created the distribution logo, we tried to make it fit to the style of the sort of distribution companies we think would distribute our style of film e.g Paramount, Universal. We did this by making it more mobile and interactive (for Example Universal's logo moves around to reveal the Earth) rather than just static words. We also thought it would be quite a distinctive and recognisable logo in that as soon as you saw the plants and the colours especially (since not many other companies use these colours) you would instantly know it was NNIK Productions. I think it is good as it seems somewhat professional and is just the right length for a distribution company logo.

Showcase Feedback

In today's lesson we showed our class the rough cut of our film, here is their feedback.





The feedback was generally positive ,however, the criticisms we received were mainly about the framing of some of Ruby's shots, the lighting in the beginning scenes and the slow motion effect. These comments are very useful as we can easily rectify them now that they have been brought to our attention which should improve of film.

Progress

After school today Nicola, Natalie and I continued editing and replaced all the old clips with the re-filmed ones, we also managed to refine the sequence by cutting it down a lot so that it is now the correct length of time.
We were, however, still unable to find the correct sound for the sequence, therefore we should for now just delete the sound from the clips which we are going to put music over as not to cause confusion. We also have not tackled the credits yet.
But generally I think this went well as we got the main content of the sequence ready for the rough cut showing tomorrow.

Progress

Today we uploaded the footage, whilst we were doing this we also continued working on sound. Then after this we continued editing our sequence to refine and improve on it.

Overall this went well and it created a sleeker looking sequence, however I feel we could have maybe done more during the lesson or after school.

Progress/ re-filming

- Put all of the edited clips together to get an actual completed rough sequence
- I think even though it's unfinished it still looks quite good
- Still struggling to get the right feel to the music
- We need to cut down the sequence as it is currently 3 minutes and it has to be 2 minutes, hopefully this will make it more effective as it will be more fast paced which will keep audience interest, rather than having long unnecessary shots
- Re-filing we well, we got all the shots we needed.

Progress

• half way through editing - going well
• music - difficult
• re shoots on Monday and Wednesday 

Progress

Today we split the group up again in order to get more stuff done and we also switched the jobs today, so Nicola and I were working on the sound and Natalie and Iveta were working on editing the sequence, this was to ensure we each had a go at all of the tasks.

I personally found creating sound very difficult as it is hard to put together different sounds to make a track that sounds as though it is an actual song. And also the fact that we are thinking of using so many different tracks which we hope will create the feel of a diegetic party playlist along with the other music to go with the main characters getting ready makes it a lot harder as we need to get so many different sounds. However, I think Nicola and I worked well together and found some acceptable sounds to improve on what Natalie and Iveta did in the previous lesson. We also decided as a group that in order to make the music sound right it was essential to get some vocals to the track, however at the moment we are unsure on how to achieve this.

Natalie and Iveta were working on editing the sequence which I think went well because even though there was the problem of not having enough footage of the male in order to inter-cut between the male and female getting ready, they overcame this by just editing other bits which they were able to edit like the female walking down the street and some of the general party shots. A part to the sequence I particularly like and think works effectively is the graphic match from the girls red dress to the boys red gel, this was achieved by zooming on on the girls dress, cross-dissolving onto the gel and then zooming out in order to give context. I really like this as it makes the sequence more visually entertaining and gives the sequence more interest rather than just simple straight cuts. We are also planning on doing something similar to this with the girls hairspray which will visually match with the boys lynx, however I am unsure on whether we should use the technique again as the repetitiveness may take away some of the interest and creativity of the shot, but I do really like the hairspray version of the shot too.

Also in today's lesson we made a list of the shots we must redo and why we feel we need to redo them.

• Zoom in on dress - this shot is good and it works well in the sequence, however we need to get it to be more smooth as the shot we have of it is a little awkward and unrealistic. 
• Establishing shot - after watching back the original shot that we have to establish the whole film we do not think it is good enough as it seems a bit nothingy. 
• Close up on Ruby's phone call - our whole idea is that we only show close ups of the main female character until the big reveal at the party so that the audience feels as though they are seeing her for the first time with Michael (the main male) and one of the shots of her on the phone reveals too much of her face and so does not fit into our idea. 
• Opening the door (arrival of Ruby) - the shots we have of Ruby walking to the party are when it is much lighter outside and so it poses a continuity problem as when Iveta answers the door to let her in, it is suddenly extremely dark outside and so does not work. 
• The reveal/arrival of Ruby - this is a very important shot as it is the first time the audience properly gets to see Ruby and so it must be perfect. The shots that we currently have for this are not good enough as in one shot she is looking at the camera and in the other the camera suddenly jolts just as we are about to see her face. 
• Putting on shoes - this shot is not good enough as the lighting seems some what orange and also the shoes are not framed correctly in that they aren't in the center and are cut off toward the top of the frame. 
• Blusher - we all really liked this shot, however we are using this shot before the girl has applied her eye make up, and in the shot she already has eyeliner on. 
• Michael shots - generally we just need more of these.

After school Nicola, Iveta and I stayed and continued editing and also began to piece together small clips which we had edited to make the fit into the sequence.

Progress

Today we decided to split the group so that two people were working on the editing and two people were working on the music. I think this was a good idea as it split the work load and helped us work more efficiently, also we were sat close to each other which therefore allowed us all able to have input into each of the tasks.

Nicola and I were working on the editing in which a few problems arouse about lighting, the quality of shots and continuity. We showed these problems to the rest of the group and we all decided the best thing to do is to quickly get them re-filmed another day this week (which is yet to be decided) in order to get the best overall outcome for our film.

Natalie and Iveta were working on trying to create a basis for what our music for the party will be like. This went well as they successfully created a base track, however I personally feel that it doesn't exactly fit the style of music we need for the setting and genre as it sounds a bit too much like a club anthem than something you would play at a house party. To get the music to fit better i think we need to get the music to sound more like a generic pop song, and perhaps make a few different sounding songs so that it sounds more like a diegetic playlist of songs at a party, rather than just one track throughout.

After school Nicola, Natalie and I continued editing the film and we showed one of our teachers the rough beginnings to the sequence. He confirmed some of our worries but generally his feedback was positive in that he seemed to like the idea and the way in which we were portraying the story through specific shots. He also said that so far our editing was very good with smooth match on action and accurate continuity.  

Progress

• Today we uploaded all of the footage 
• Also in this lesson we watched back all of the footage
• Then after school Nicola and I renamed all of the clips 
• The plan of action for the next two weeks is to all edit whenever we can