In this edit we added our own distributor Stonehenge. It was given a simple and memorable name so the audience would remember it when watching our film.
We also added text talking about the UK film council because Stonehenge is a minor company that may need additional funding. The soundtrack was also moved to start after the establishing shot so that the audience would focus completely on what is on screen.
We also removed the shot of the bin and phonebox because they were going to have text on screen but this looked less professional than when they are all on black screens. We decided to film a shot of the pills close up so they wouldn't be lost in the film. A few other minor changes came from the passer by scene. We cut the pan and added a jump shot as he walks down the path. These changes sped up the pace of the film and made it more interesting for the audience as the jump shot adds variation. Final;y we added in the two shots that we filmed on the 17th.
This was our last day of filming and we only filmed two shots.
This shot we filmed because we felt that the in our video the pills were lost. This shot gives a close up of what our character is dying from. It also adds to the setting of our video because the audience will see that the floor is wet and dirty.
we added this shot to make the point of view shot more effective. We had already filmed this shot but without a person I it. The blur we added in the edit and camera movement tells the audience that this is what the character is seeing and also what he is experiencing.
On this day of editing we added in the shots from the 10th. We used straight cuts for this section because the pace picks up a bit towards the end. We also did this because we wanted to separate the most important roles of the film from the rest of the film. The producer and director are shown last because this is a typical convention of an opening sequence.
We also added back in the heartbeat sound because it brings the opening sequence to an end. We only used it at the very end so it does not get repetitive or cluttered.
We also added in the voice over in this edit however the quality wasn't very professional so we decided to re record this.
We tried different fonts but in the end we decided to use Avenir Heavy for our cast and crew fonts. We felt that these were the most professional. The actual font makes few connotations about the film but the white text connotes that our character is innocent and pure.
This copperplate font we tried. It is the same font used in our title but does not look as effective as a smaller font for the crew so we decided not to do it.
We changed the length of time on the black screens to 3 seconds because we feel like this gives the audience enough time
After looking at our edited footage we found that most of our shots were still. Also some of the shots of the person that finds the main character are too long. We did some audience research by letting people of our age watch the video. What they said convinced us to re shoot the passer by shots.
On the 10th we went down to film a pan and track to add more camera movement. This builds up the speed of our opening sequence slightly towards the end. The 10th was perfect for re-filming as the conditions were exactly the same as they were on Sunday.
This tracking shot is the first we used in our film. We felt that the shots were all too still so added this.
The pan also adds more camera movement and reveals more of the setting.
This video originally had the sound of a heartbeat in the background. We thought that the sound with the music sounded cluttered. What we may do is add the sound in at the very end to emphasise that the characters dying.
The first challenge was to create a fade for our text to go on. We achieved this by adding a transition from iMovie onto a black screen. Doing this slows down the pace of the video and allows are text to be shown professionally. The transitions we are using in our film are the cross blur and fade to black.
The fade to black makes for a darker and slower paced film. The cross blur creates the effect of blinking or the losing and gaining of consciousness. These both make for a smooth transition between shots. We also used some straight cuts to speed up the pace slightly at the end.
We put the main characters names on their own screens to show their importance to the film. The shot with the bin in we may remove because it does not match the rest of the film and the writing is not as visible as it is on a black screen.
For the other members of the cast we put the names in pairs. This tells the audience that they are not as important as the main characters but still have a role in the film
After uploading our footage onto a computer, we went on iMovie to start creating our video. The first thing we did was put all of our shots into the order of our storyboard.
Uploading the videos onto a computer also allowed us to see the shots on a bigger screen to see if there was any pixilation or bad quality.
This is the raw footage from our Sunday shoot. The shot looking from the side of our character has our actor laughing at the end so we will need to cut it out by making it shorter. It showed us how the shots came out and pointed out any faults in our shots. An example of a shot we filmed poorly was the second establishing shot.
In this shot we saw that the feet of our character were cut out of the screen. A possible resolution for this was to put a slow zoom on our shot so it looks like the character is out of screen on purpose.
Are attempt at a high angle shot was not a success. Because it is hard to see the camera when filming from the floor we didn't see that the phone box is not completely in shot. I will re-film this shot to make the hole box is in shot.
All the shots we filmed on Friday we re-shot on Sunday. We didn't change many shots because they were nice, they just needed to be in better lighting. We filmed in the morning because the light was the best then and everyone in the group could participate in the filming.
The conditions were perfect to convey the mood of the opening sequence. However they made shooting difficult as the camera constantly got wet and our actor was cold. This meant that we had to rush a few shots so overlooked the quality of some of them.
During filming we diverted from the storyboard a little to add a larger variety of shots. This long shot reveals more of the setting to the audience and hints at the narrative. For example our character decided to kill himself in a populated area suggesting that he could have had doubts and wanted someone to find him.
We found that this shot was very long and another still shot. This is why later in filming we decided to re-film some shots in this section of the video to add movement and more variety.
We think that the shots of a passer by finding our character will replace the us scene. The bus scene would have been hard to get permission for and didn't add any variety of shots.
Our first Day of shooting was on the 4th December. We started at 3:30 and discovered that the lighting was too dark for our camera to function well. When we looked back at our shots we found bad quality on the videos so decided to re shoot on Sunday the 6th.
This shot shows the pixilation of the shots we took. Filming in the light will drastically improve the quality.
This shot shows the light we filmed in. The short days meant that it was dark by 4 o clock so very hard to film.
On the whole this shoot was not successful however it gave us a practise at filming and showed us which shots work well and which need changing.
Here are a few different text designs I have chosen to display the crew of my production throughout our opening scene including the Title. These fonts are plain simple which portrays Toms life as he has quite a simple boring life. The people that I spoke to mostly preferred the bolder fonts and ones that had straight edges as it made the text stand out more and easily grabbed their attention. I think for the title I will use the 2nd from top font as it is bold and professional looking. The font colour showing the crew will be white on all the screens that have black backgrounds. It is the most visual and connotes the innocence of the main character.
Here are a few different fonts that I have chosen for the text that will be featured on the wall during our opening scene. 4 of these have the effect of something that is worn out/away which will fit in with the location of the subway. the other two are graffiti font which also fits in, these fonts will also blend in as there will already be graffiti on the walls of the subway.
Next I started to make a concept design of our title. This is the original design and then below it is the alternate font style. I believe that the title with thicker font works best because it fits better with the heart monitor line. They are the same width so look natural together.
Below I tested to see how the title should come to a stop so that it could then fade into a black screen. The first option didn't fade very well and the second one ended too short and made the title look rushed, because of this decided to try a different technique.
Here I chose between the three different designs on the tip of the heart beat monitor, a flat one, curved or pointed. I chose the pointed tip as it looked the most professional as thats the one used on a real heart beat monitor.
Finally I used the gradient tool on photoshop to make the line that goes under the title to slowly fade this will lead into a plain black background. The line also represents the heart monitor flatlining hinting the main character could be dead.
This last picture is my final design and i would like to be able to animate it so it disappears off screen looking professional.
First look at script for character in opening sequence (Draft 1)
Thomas:Hi, thats me. You know life wasn't always that bad. I used to have fun, have a girlfriend, a family even a… goal. Thats until Grandad died. He always had a way of making everything seem better than it really was. I'm sure the day he died was the day i truly died to. Mums depressed, Dads always working the only one with a good with a hope in life is Jenny, but is my story, my life and my death.
Draft 2
Tomas: “14th of December 2015. This is the day I died. At this point in the day I didn’t know how I was going to kill myself, or if I was going to go through with it at all. This is my story. The story of Thomas J Turner.”
combined Drafts
Tomas: “14th of December 2015. This is the day I died. Although, at this point of the story I didn’t know that I was going to die. you see, things haven't really turned out the way I wanted them to. I mean I used to have fun, a girlfriend, a family. But that's gone now... Mum's depressed, Dad's always working, the only one with a hope in life, well is Jenny. But This is my story, my life... my... death. The story of Thomas J Turner."
Comment
Our main character will say this as a voice over when he is on the bus being filmed with earphones in so we will include diegetic sound.The script must be short to fit in with this small section of the opening sequence. Having dialogue will make our video have more meaning and can reveal more about the character whilst griping the audience at the same time.
We planned to film on Saturday the 28th of November. However because of the weather we will need to delay filming as we need high key lighting and nice conditions to film effectively. The next suitable date that we will attempt to film will be Saturday the 5th. There is no rain forecast and it should be good natural light for us to film in. When we visited the set a risk assessment was carried out to ensure the safety of the crew.
This Storyboard is our first draft with some shots not included and little colour so it is unclear for the director. I believe that 25-30 shots will be enough for a 90 second video. This is because some of the shots will be quite long to show the crew properly.
Feedback from a focus group of 17 year olds made us decide to add some more shots to our storyboard. The main comments were that the storyboard is too short and may not take up 90 seconds of video.
Final Storyboard
This story board will help the director more as it shows which shots to film and what will be added in post production (shots with black background).
Shot list
This list and the storyboard together creates a clear image for the director.
For this task I looked on Ben Sound to find background music for our opening sequence.
The song will be played behind the sound of a heart beat so needs to be quite bland. However it still needs to add to the sequence as a whole. I have found 3 songs that may be able to go in the opening sequence. Music will interest the audience and can build tension and drama. It also helps outlines what is happening in the scene. This music needs to be sad to outline that the main character is dying in the title sequence.
I liked this song because whilst it is sad and adds emotion to the scene, it is also calm and slow so won't make the scene overly depressing. It could also help the scene hint at the narrative of the story or bring up questions to be answered. For example it could tell the audience that the main character was ready to die and moved on peacefully. However the audience won't know this until they see the
rest of the story.
Tomorrow is a song that seems more sad than Relaxing but could still be effective in our opening scene. It is not a loud or fast paced song so will work well behind the sound of a heartbeat. The song is long so I can edit the parts out that i want.
This song is too bland and dull for my opening sequence so I don't think it will add anything to it.
For the soundtrack for our opening sequence Bensound was the best site to use because it provides music that is copyright free high quality that i can use in my project.
Throughout most of the opening sequence I will use a heartbeat sound that is slowing down gradually as the main character dies. This will be louder than the music to emphasise the seriousness of the situation. There are some on youtube that go at a steady pace. For example:
If i cannot find the sound of a heart beat slowing down I may try to alter this sound to slow it down at the end to show the main character dying.
We might use the sound of a heartbeat monitor instead of a normal heartbeat. This may stand out more as a sound and as this is the most important sound we need to hear it more. The sound of a heart rate monitor will draw the audiences attention more than the other so could be more effective.
We made a draft of the mind map at first to discuss what ideas we liked and the ones that needed to be taken out. One idea that was taken out was the one of the main character wearing qwerty clothes as other reason for getting
For our opening scene we have decided to base it around a main character called Tom. He aspires to be a champion kick boxer like his dad but struggles to do so, resulting in his dad not being proud of him. On top of this he is bullied by another kick boxer at school. This puts Tom in a deep depression and he that sees the only way he can stop it is by taking his own life despite the number of pills he is already on. The main character killing himself will be the main focus point of our opening scene, followed by the beginning of Toms depression.
From this task i have created a more clear idea of what my target audience will be. This means that i can create my opening sequence with this in mind so it attracts the right audience. I can also adapt my main character so my target audience can relate to it. The idea of the film was altered to make a larger target audience. We are now including scenes of our main character fighting to draw in more of an audience. Because the film is going to be made slightly more masculin we will include sounds of heartbeats and possibly make our opening sequence gory.
General physical description: A height of around 6ft he is well build muscularly and has dark brown/black hair with a beard which stretches from one side of his face to with other connected to his hair-line with side burns. he has short cut hair with a longer fringe which has been comes to the left side of his head, the rest of his hair shaved with a number 3 on the back and sides and blended on top leading to the fringe. He has a very strong jawline which adds to the look strength and masculinity of Thomas. Hometown: Thornbury.
Type of home/ neighbourhood: He lives in a small semi-detached 3 bedroom house and his neighbourhood consists of terraced houses all along the street. Relationship status: Single as he has recently broken up with his girlfriend Rosie who he had been with for over a year. Current family: Nuclear family consisting of his Dad- Steve, Mum- Rebecca, and Sister- Jessica.
Family background (parents, previous marriages, etc.): Lives at home with his Mum Dad and Sister he also has one Granddad and three cousins which he hardly ever sees as his Aunty and Uncle got divorced and they moved to Scotland with the Aunty. Friends: He has a close friend called Jamie which he met through kick-boxing so they do not go to his school meaning he has no close friends at school.
Other close relationships: He is very close with his uncle Sam and confides in him whenever he has a problem. Relationship with men: Mostly good however he does not have a grate relationship with his dad and thinks he has to prove himself to him. Relationship with women: Apart from his Mum and Sister he does not have any other female relationships.
Job: Part time job at the local Tesco Dress style: Casual T-shirt and skinny jeans Religion: Christian
Attitude to religion: A very strong belief in God however he keeps his beliefs to himself and prays to God alone when he believes no one can hear him.
Favourite pastimes: To spend time with his two friends Callum and Jamie.
Hobbies: Kick-boxing, running, reading, playing Xbox and drawing.
Favourite sports: Kick-boxing and running
Favourite foods: Nandos medium piri piri double chicken wrap with two sides of chips with piri piri salt.
Strongest positive personality trait: He is focused and is very strong minded. Strongest negative personality trait: He is overly self critical.
Sense of humour: Has a very dry science of humour and does not laugh a lot.
Temper: He has a very bad temper and when and can lose it very quickly when anyone mentions the death of his grandfather which he blames himself for.
Consideration for others: He does not have much care for people who do not support him in his life however he will not stand to let any type of bullying or discrimination take place and this can get him into a lot of trouble. How other people see him/her: People in the story mostly see him as a weird sad individual that is known for his short temper and they think it funny to wind him up and make him snap.
Opinion of himself: He sees himself as a nobody that is unlike and looked down upon by most people. He hates the way he looks and thinks that the best thing to do would be to disappear. Other traits, especially those to be brought out in story: He trusts people very quickly and always thinks the best of people which mostly ends up with him getting stabbed in the back by people who he thinks he can trust.
Ambitions: He aspires to be like his dad in the way of getting on to the England team meaning he must pass the trials. When he finishes kick-boxing he wants to be a pilot in the Airforce however he knows his vision is not good enough and this makes him question why he is still in education.
Philosophy of life: He has the outlook on life that you always need to keep going. He lives by the quote “It ain’t about how hard you can hit, its about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward”.
Most important thing to know about this character: The most important thing about this character is that he is always trying to impress his dad through Kick-boxing. Are
Will readers like or dislike this character, and why? The audience will like this character because his intentions are always good and also a lot of sympathy will be felt for this character which automatically makes the audience like a character. This task has given me a clear idea on what the main character in my film will be like. Doing this task has allowed me to reveal more about the character in our opening sequence. For example we will show pictures from the characters past in the opening sequence. Other tasks have shown me that revealing some of the narrative is very important as it captures the audiences attention and brings more meaning to the title sequence. As well as helping us reveal more narrative in the title sequence it has given us more of a clear idea on how the whole story would pan out and come to a close.
This task gave me a first try at editing a video. It pointed out some key that things we need to change for our real video. such as:
The lighting throughout the scene
The background noise
The amount the camera is shaking
The variation of camera shots
From this task I learnt about all of these things that need changing for my real opening sequence. I also learnt that once a video is edited the length of it is a lot less than before. I will possibly need to add more shots to my storyboard to make it a suitable length for my opening sequence. This task showed me that the quality of my actors is very important to a well shot scene. I will use actors who have experience in acting and expressing the emotions I want them to. This task taught me about editing also. I think that my editing was good but some of my shots could be a bit longer to make my videos more smooth. As well as this I will consider to use more editing techniques like fades to make my opening sequence more intriguing.
