When editing, I thought that I should have a second ident at the beginning of my film due to the fact that a lot of films are not just produced or distributed by one company. Therefore, I created an indent for a distribution company: One Touch Entertainment. I sketched out a few ideas about what I thought the ident could look like and eventually i decided on the idea of having a simple handprint underneath the title of the film company. Below is a picture of the ident and the ident video.
Overall, editing is going well and I will have something to showcase to my class tomorrow so I can get feedback on what I have done so far. At the moment, I'm a little concerned about the music as I am not sure that it works very well with the film but hopefully my classmates will tell me their opinions about it tomorrow. Also, I think that I need to make the transition from one piece of music to the other smoother and less obvious.
After the disaster of the though of having to convert every clip of footage, I got it all converted and have re-edited it all together. There are some shots that I think are too long but I need to meet the two minute mark for my film. I think that I will have to film some extra shots to act as fillers so that the audience are not watching one shot for too long.
Disaster has struck and I am having to re-edit my entire film opening. Thanks to someone who used the school camera previous to myself, the settings were not on their default settings and so the footage was in full HD. This doesn't sound like a problem but because my titles are in normal HD (720p) and full HD is too big for a computer screen, I am having to convert all of my footage into 720p individually and re-edit them together. I have a lot of work to do and only a week to do it. It's an understatement to say that I'm a little stressed out right now...
Also, my teacher told me today that we are not allowed to have copyrighted music so my plans to have Cirque du Soleil's 'Battlefield' as the song for my titles may not happen. I will have to look around to try and find alternatives that are hopefully as good as I originally wanted.
Continuity editing – events unfold in chronological order (e.g. V for Vendetta) Cross cutting – where two different scenes are shown one after the other so the audience believe that the scenes are occurring at the same time (e.g. V for Vendetta) Eye line match – when a frame shows what the subject is looking at (e.g. V for Vendetta) CONTINUITY EDITING IN 'V FOR VENDETTA' Flashback – an event that has already occurred in relation to the film (e.g. The Hangover)
Flash-forward – an event that will happen in the future in relation to the film (e.g. Amores Perros) 'AMORES PERROS' OPENING SCENE - FLASHFORWARD Montage – shots combined to show the passing of time (e.g. Rocky)
Fast paced – lots of small shots cut together to create action, suspense and tension (e.g. Die Hard)
Slow paced – long shots, usually used for dialogues (e.g. Snatch)
Editing is well underway at the moment and with only a week left until my deadline, I'm going to have to use a few of my frees to add in my final touches. I still need to add the voice over for Lia and the soft music for Lia's footage and generally tighten up the footage.
This is a screenshot of Premiere while i've been editing. You can see that I've cut down a lot of my footage and I have my titles in place too. I was very relived when I got them finished as it took me a while to get them done.
Below you can see a screenshot from my titles. I thought that adding newspaper articles behind the titles would make the credits a bit more interesting and give information about what the film is about. With each credit comes another newspaper article and this, coupled with the dramatic music should hopefully account for some interesting titles.
- Record Lia's voice over - Record soft guitar piece for Lia's scenes - Experiment with lighting effects and other filters on Premiere and After Effects to create the best image for my film - Additional ident - Blog progress of editing - Blog about editing conventions
Music is going to be a key component of my film opening and I have planned to have my brother compose some music to run throughout my film opening. I've asked him to come up with a slow and melodic (yet sad) tune for the parts of the opening with footage and something 'in your face' and dramatic for the titles. He has come up with a melodic melody for my footage but is really struggling to compose something for the titles. I am motivating him to try and come up with something but incase he cannot manage to come up with something then I have planned an alternative.
An act fromKà
I've seen many Cirque du Soleil shows and their 2005 show, Kà, was one of my favourites. In it, there is a song called 'Battlefield' composed by René Dupéré that would be perfect for my film opening. It is very 'in your face' and dramatic and conveys the premonition of a war. I have sent an email to the makers of Cirque du Soleil enquiring as to whether I could use the song 'Battlefield' (if I need it). A copy of my email can be seen below:
Dear members of the Cirque du Soleil team,
First of all, I am a huge fan of the Cirque du Soleil productions. I only wish I could be as talented as the acts I’ve seen both live and on the television. I am currently creating a movie opening for my AS level in Media Studies and I would love to use the song ‘Battlefield’ from the show Kà for my opening credits. It is perfect to give away the mood and the premonition of a coming war that I need for my film. Because René Dupéré has composed the song, I am aware that it is not free for use and so I am asking for your and/or his permission to use this song in my film opening. It is for educational purposes only and will not be published in any way.
It would be appreciated if you could respond as quickly as possible as my deadline is in just under three weeks.
If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me.
Thank you for your time, Evie Calaby, Norfolk, England
Here is the song 'Battlefield' which I may use for my titles:
George Lucas is my one of my favourite directors and because he is so successful (particularly with the best films ever made - Star Wars) I thought that it would be appropriate to research him...
George Walton Lucas, Jr. (born 14th May 1944 in Modesto, California) is an American film producer, screenwriter, director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones. Lucas is one of the American film industry's most financially successful directors/producers, with an estimated net worth of $3.2 billion as of 2011.
Long before Lucas became obsessed with film making, he wanted to be a race-car driver, and he spent most of his high school years racing on the underground circuit at fairgrounds and hanging out at garages. However, a near-fatal accident in his souped-up Autobianchi Bianchina on June 12, 1962, just days before his high school graduation, quickly changed his mind. Instead of racing, he attended Modesto Junior College and later got accepted into a junior college to study anthropology. While taking liberal arts courses, he developed a passion for cinematography and camera tricks. Lucas then transferred to the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. USC was one of the earliest universities to have a school devoted to motion picture film. During the years at USC, George Lucas shared a dorm room with Randal Kleiser. Along with classmates such as Walter Murch, Hal Barwood and John Milius, they became a clique of film students known as The Dirty Dozen. He also became very good friends with fellow acclaimed student filmmaker and future Indiana Jones collaborator, Steven Spielberg. Lucas was deeply influenced by the Filmic Expression course taught at the school by filmmaker Lester Novros which concentrated on the non-narrative elements of Film Form like color, light, movement, space, and time. Another huge inspiration was the Serbian montagist (and dean of the USC Film Department) Slavko Vorkapich, a film theoretician comparable in historical importance to Sergei Eisenstein, who moved to Hollywood to make stunning montage sequences for studio features at MGM, RKO, and Paramount. Vorkapich taught the autonomous nature of the cinematic art form, emphasizing the unique dynamic quality of movement and kinetic energy inherent in motion pictures. Lucas fell madly in love with pure cinema and quickly became prolific at making 16 mm nonstory noncharacter visual tone poems and cinéma vérité with such titles as Look at Life, Herbie, The Emperor, Anyone Lived in a Pretty (how) Town and Filmmaker. He was passionate and interested in camerawork and editing, defining himself as a filmmaker as opposed to being a director, and he loved making abstract visual films that create emotions purely through cinema. After graduating with a bachelor of fine arts in film in 1967, he tried joining the United States Air Force as an officer, but he was immediately turned down because of his numerous speeding tickets. He was later drafted by the Army for military service in Vietnam, but he was exempt from the draft after medical tests showed he had diabetes, the disease that killed his paternal grandfather. In 1967, Lucas re-enrolled as a USC graduate student in film production. Working as a teaching instructor for a class of U.S. Navy students who were being taught documentary cinematography, Lucas directed the short film Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB, which won first prize at the 1967–68 National Student Film Festival, and was later adapted into his first full-length feature film, THX 1138. Lucas was awarded a student scholarship by Warner Brothers to observe and work on the making of a film of his choosing. The film he chose was Finian's Rainbow (1968) which was being directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who at the time was revered among film school students of the time as a cinema graduate who had "made it" in Hollywood. In 1969, George Lucas was one of the camera operators on the classic Rolling Stones concert film ‘Gimme Shelter’. Lucas then created his own company, Lucasfilm, Ltd. and directed ‘American Graffiti’ (1973). His new-found wealth and reputation enabled him to develop a story set in space. Even so, he encountered difficulties getting Star Wars made. It was only because Alan Ladd, Jr. at Fox Studios liked American Graffiti that he forced through a production and distribution deal for the film, which ended up restoring Fox to financial stability after a number of flops. However, Star Wars quickly became the highest-grossing film of all-time, displaced five years later by Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. During the filming of Star Wars, Lucas waived his up-front fee as director and negotiated to own the licensing rights (for novelizations, T-shirts, toys, etc.)—rights which the studio thought were nearly worthless. This decision earned him hundreds of millions of dollars as he was able to directly profit from all the licensed games, toys, and collectibles created for the franchise. This accumulated capital enabled him to finance the sequel himself.
FILMOGRAPHY:
1971 THX 1138
1973 American Graffiti
1977 Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
1979 More American Graffiti
1980 Kagemusha
1980 Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
1981 Body Heat
1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark
1983 Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
1983 Twice Upon a Time
1984 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
1985 Latino
1985 Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
1986 Howard the Duck
1986 Labyrinth
1986 Powaqqatsi
1988 Willow
1988 Tucker: The Man and His Dream
1988 The Land Before Time
1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
1991 Hook
1994 Beverly Hills Cop III
1994 Radioland Murders
1999 Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
2002 Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
2005 Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
2008 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
2008 Star Wars: The Clone Wars
2012 Red Tails
AWARDS:
Lucas has won 24 awards overall. All of his wins and nominations can be viewed here:
Because I am choosing to make a science-fiction film, I thought that it would be a good idea to do some research into the history of science-fiction...
Science-fiction or ‘sci-fi’ has been around in science literature since the early 10th century, and always had a large role in the media industry. Sci-fi deals with the implausible, and attempts to make it sound plausible via science
Fantasy and Sci-fi are often confused, as they both look at the impossible; the difference is that sci-fi being Science-fiction often has a believable or scientific explanation as to what is happening and why, such as aliens from other planets, whereas fantasy often contains unbelievable and very imaginative (yet fun) concepts of magic & portals to other worlds full of fluffy animals.
The norm of sci-fi contains ideas of either the future of computer technology (flying cars, artificial intelligence, spaceships etc) or aliens. One of the first sci-fi movies as we see them today, with evil aliens etc., is ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ (released 28th September 1951).
‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ was directed by Robert Wise and starred Michael Rennie as Klaatu, Patricia Neal as Helen Benson and Hugh Marlowe as Tom Stevens. The whole movie was filmed from 9th April 1951 until 23rd May 1951 and had a budget of just over US$1 million. The film was moderately successful when released, accruing US$1,850,000 in distributors' domestic (U.S. and Canada) rentals. The IMDB plot summary of ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ reads:‘An alien (Klaatu) with his mighty robot (Gort) land their spacecraft on Cold War-era Earth just after the end of World War II. They bring an important message to the planet that Klaatu wishes to tell to representatives of all nations. However, communication turns out to be difficult, so, after learning something about the natives, Klaatu decides on an alternative approach.’ Below is the trailer for 'The Day the Earth Stood Still'.
Most often a Sci-fi movie will be tied in with other genres, Sci-fi is a lot broader than some other genres as any movie can be made a sci-fi, a comedy, or a horror, or a mystery, could just as easily be set in the future or even the modern day and be called a sci-fi, as they can be called a comedy, horror, or mystery.
I decided that I needed an establishing shot for my film to give the audience a sense of location and to tell the audience a little bit about Lia's lifestyle and give them an indication of why she doesn't fit in. I thought that a vertical pan down from the starry night sky to 'her bedroom window' would be an appropriate establishing shot as the stars would give a subtle indication of what was to come and the view of Lia's house would show what kind of environment she has been forced to live in. I used a window on the side of my house instead of the window that my brother shone the lights through because I didn't want to reveal the balcony as I think that the audience would immediately click as to how I incorporated the flashing lights into the scene. I shot from a field adjacent to my house to try and get the vertical pan that I was aiming for. It was a beautiful starry night and there were no clouds what so ever. It was perfect and it was freezing. I wrapped up warm and braved the cold only to fail in my endevours. The camera couldn't pick up the stars so what was meant to be the starry night sky was a dark blue grainy mess. I was not happy....
This failure means that I am going to come up with another idea for my establishing shot but itf all else fails, I will just have to start the film with my original idea.
I think that it would be a good idea to do some interviews with people of my target audience about my film idea and see whether the film sounds interesting to them and whether they think that would be a success or a complete flop. I will pitch the whole film to them individually and then run through the opening of the film in detail and record their responses.
My first interview is with my brother. He is the younger element of my target audience but I suppose that if my film were to be released in the cinema, a lot of teenage boys would see it with their mates as a social thing. My brother generally has a good taste in film (i.e. not rom-com drivel) so I thought that he would be a good person to ask about 'Soul Beneath'. Here's what he had to say (by the way, I'm not sure why the camera seems wobbly as it was sat still on a tripod for the whole interview and try and ignore the annoying slapping - he's a drummer):
Hopefully I will be doing some more interviews soon and I will post them up as soon as possible.
