I've finally completed my film opening! Since my rough cut I have added cutaway shots and edited the opening so that the transition between shots is smoother and the story is easier to follow. So, here it is. Soul Beneath:
A blog recording the progress of my AS in Media Studies
Friday 16 March 2012
Wednesday 14 March 2012
Soul Beneath Attempt 3
After filming all my cutaway shots and my missing shots, I assembled them together, edited them down and colour corrected the footage to make it look like it was in Lia's bedroom. I also put flares in the titles to try and break them up a bit so they are less monotonous and also reflect the flashing lights in the footage.
Here is Soul Beneath, take 3:
In the film opening, I think that the cutaway shots (news article headlines from 1969) give an indication of the journey that Lia will take but I'm not sure that they really match the rest of my footage.
Here is Soul Beneath, take 3:
In the film opening, I think that the cutaway shots (news article headlines from 1969) give an indication of the journey that Lia will take but I'm not sure that they really match the rest of my footage.
Monday 12 March 2012
Time for Improvement/Filming Day 2
After receiving feedback from my classmates, I set about adding a few shots into my film opening so that I could fill in the gaps and also, in adding extra shots, I am able to shorten the lengthy shots of Lia writing and add in cutaway shots which should make the viewer's experience of my film opening less monotonous.
I also needed to film a short shot with Lia as in my rough cut, the footage where Lia gets to the window was not usable so I left it out of my rough cut hoping that it would look ok. In a nutshell, it didn't so i had to reshoot. Unfortunately, my actress was not available to film when I wanted to so I improvised and dressed up as Lia myself. I thought that because I had the costume available to me and the same dark hair as my actress, I could probably pull off a shot from behind of Lia walking to the window. Before I could do that however, I had to make a few changes. My hair is naturally curly and, quite frankly, wild whilst my actress' hair was straight so I had to pull out the straighteners and subject my hair to hot iron plates. Then my mum put my hair in bunches and used the original ribbon used in my first shoot to put bows in my hair. Once I put the costume on, I could just about pass as my actress from behind so I set to work shooting.
Overall, it went pretty well and although I couldn't get the lighting quite dark enough, I should be able to alter this in After Effects.
As for cutaway shots, I spend a good half an hour searching the house for something interesting to shoot that was relevant to my film. I then stumbled across my mum's vintage book collection and found a chronicle of the 20th century. In it were all the headlining article in newspapers throughout the 20th century. Immediately I flicked through to 1969 and found the article about Neil Armstrong landing on the moon. I took a few shots and moved on. I then found old, leather bound dictionaries and experimented with a few shots around the definition of 'alien' but I'm not sure whether these will make the final cut. Also when I was searching around, I was very happy to find an original 1976 Star Trek annual... but that's not really relevant so I'll just save that for myself.
I also needed to film a short shot with Lia as in my rough cut, the footage where Lia gets to the window was not usable so I left it out of my rough cut hoping that it would look ok. In a nutshell, it didn't so i had to reshoot. Unfortunately, my actress was not available to film when I wanted to so I improvised and dressed up as Lia myself. I thought that because I had the costume available to me and the same dark hair as my actress, I could probably pull off a shot from behind of Lia walking to the window. Before I could do that however, I had to make a few changes. My hair is naturally curly and, quite frankly, wild whilst my actress' hair was straight so I had to pull out the straighteners and subject my hair to hot iron plates. Then my mum put my hair in bunches and used the original ribbon used in my first shoot to put bows in my hair. Once I put the costume on, I could just about pass as my actress from behind so I set to work shooting.
Overall, it went pretty well and although I couldn't get the lighting quite dark enough, I should be able to alter this in After Effects.
As for cutaway shots, I spend a good half an hour searching the house for something interesting to shoot that was relevant to my film. I then stumbled across my mum's vintage book collection and found a chronicle of the 20th century. In it were all the headlining article in newspapers throughout the 20th century. Immediately I flicked through to 1969 and found the article about Neil Armstrong landing on the moon. I took a few shots and moved on. I then found old, leather bound dictionaries and experimented with a few shots around the definition of 'alien' but I'm not sure whether these will make the final cut. Also when I was searching around, I was very happy to find an original 1976 Star Trek annual... but that's not really relevant so I'll just save that for myself.
Rough Cut: Audience Feedback
On Friday, we were given the opportunity to showcase our rough cut of our film openings to the rest of the class. Everyone was given a feedback sheet to comment on each person's film opening. I was fairly happy with my rough cut when it was screened but I still knew that I had a lot still to do to get it up to the high level four that I am aiming for for this project.
Out of the ten feedback sheets I received, three marked me as a level three, two people thought I was on the boundary of level three and four and the remaining five marked me as a level four. Overall, the average mark given to me was forty-seven out of sixty which just places me in level four. However, I still need to gain more marks as I want to acheive the best marks I possibly can.
On my feedback sheets there were mainly positive comments. The main element which most people wrote about was the dramatic music for the titles (which many people also gave positive feedback about) and said how it worked really well to build suspense and give you an idea of the kind of film 'Soul Beneath' would turn out to be. Also, many people commented on the character of Lia and how they thought I had presented her well through her costume and make-up.
However, one person did comment on how they thought that my actress was too old for the role even though she is sixteen playing an eighteen year old! Also, a few people pointed out that my titles were a little too fast for them to read so I will take this into consideration and slow them down slightly in my final piece.
Whilst taking on board the comments from my classmates I think that I will venture further than my media class to give feedback on my film. I want people to be as critical as they can so that I can take everything on board and change my film opening for the better!
Out of the ten feedback sheets I received, three marked me as a level three, two people thought I was on the boundary of level three and four and the remaining five marked me as a level four. Overall, the average mark given to me was forty-seven out of sixty which just places me in level four. However, I still need to gain more marks as I want to acheive the best marks I possibly can.
On my feedback sheets there were mainly positive comments. The main element which most people wrote about was the dramatic music for the titles (which many people also gave positive feedback about) and said how it worked really well to build suspense and give you an idea of the kind of film 'Soul Beneath' would turn out to be. Also, many people commented on the character of Lia and how they thought I had presented her well through her costume and make-up.
However, one person did comment on how they thought that my actress was too old for the role even though she is sixteen playing an eighteen year old! Also, a few people pointed out that my titles were a little too fast for them to read so I will take this into consideration and slow them down slightly in my final piece.
Whilst taking on board the comments from my classmates I think that I will venture further than my media class to give feedback on my film. I want people to be as critical as they can so that I can take everything on board and change my film opening for the better!
Monday 5 March 2012
Playing with the order of shots
Since the last blog post, I have been playing around with the order of my shots to see if I can create a more dynamic film opening. I tried moving the shot where 'Lia' is at the window looking out, to the start of the film opening so that the audience can gather a clearer picture of her character earlier on in the film but this meant that it didn't fade into the titles like it did before. I exported the video with the changed order of shots and showed both the original cut and the changed cut to a few people and it was unanimous that the original cut was better than the cut with the changed order of shots and so, I am going to add a few more shots into the original cut (such as cutaways and a shot of her actually getting to the window) in an effort to try and improve my film opening.
Below is the cut with the changed shot order.
Below is the cut with the changed shot order.
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