The film has now been cropped and placed correctly in the timeline of the film, we have now also changed the brightness of the video, and we have also added titles and music to the video, we now lack 20 seconds in the video to make the video 2 minutes long.
We were unable to film extra clips, as a result of this, we have decided to change the speed of the clips, by decreasing the speed of the clips, we were able to make some of the shots longer, where as before the shots were merely a flash on the screen, the clips now last a decent amount of time. the clip speed were changed by a subtle amount so that it would not be noticed too much, but the clips gained us a lot of time on our video.
Monday, 21 March 2011
Editing Evaluation: Second Edit
In our second edit, the video required some more advanced editing to be done, our clips were sorted into a timeline, and the clips have already been cropped, this meant that now we needed to add titles and change the effects on the screen.
Looking through our film, it is clearly that although we tried to make the video lighter, the clips were still not bright enough for the screen to see, final cut pro automatically adjusts the brightness of the clips to have a good grain size, this was problematic as the clips needed to be brighter, to fix this, we manually use the colour corrector tool in final cut pro. We changed the brightness around until we got a decent brightness level while also maintaining reasonable grain size.
The titles we chose was of a typewriter style font, we decided to put the credits in while the clip is playing, this makes the film more stereotypical, as most thriller films and films in general usually have credits running through the opening sequence, most audiences will mostly likely prefer credits during clips instead of after the clips, as that will be boring and dull to watch.
The Film at this point was near completed, we needed a few more clips to fill up a 20 second gap, as the video needs to be 2 minutes.
Looking through our film, it is clearly that although we tried to make the video lighter, the clips were still not bright enough for the screen to see, final cut pro automatically adjusts the brightness of the clips to have a good grain size, this was problematic as the clips needed to be brighter, to fix this, we manually use the colour corrector tool in final cut pro. We changed the brightness around until we got a decent brightness level while also maintaining reasonable grain size.
The titles we chose was of a typewriter style font, we decided to put the credits in while the clip is playing, this makes the film more stereotypical, as most thriller films and films in general usually have credits running through the opening sequence, most audiences will mostly likely prefer credits during clips instead of after the clips, as that will be boring and dull to watch.
The Film at this point was near completed, we needed a few more clips to fill up a 20 second gap, as the video needs to be 2 minutes.
Editing Evaluation: First Edit
For our first edit, we used final cut pro to piece together all the clip we filmed, this took a long time, as the clip were not organised properly and they were not named, but we did know the order the clips came in, as the camera automatically labelled the clips with a number on the end.
The time line was easy to use, and by pressing "b" we got the razor tool which allowed us to clip and trim clips with exceptional accuracy, by zooming in on the timeline, we were able to clip clips down to a resolution of 1 second, this help a lot as many of the clips required cropping, and some of the clips were very short and took alot of patience to get the right time.
After the clips were cropped and put into place, we imported the music we found on youtube on to the timeline, the music needed to be edited also, as we wanted a variation of sounds on our video, we did this by using the pen tool, which allowed us to pin point different parts of the music and change its volume by however much we wanted.
The first edit was very slow, but we were still learning the basics of final cut pro, but after the first edit, the main frame of the film was done, and we can continue by adding on titles to the video, adding effects, and changing the colours on the screen.
The time line was easy to use, and by pressing "b" we got the razor tool which allowed us to clip and trim clips with exceptional accuracy, by zooming in on the timeline, we were able to clip clips down to a resolution of 1 second, this help a lot as many of the clips required cropping, and some of the clips were very short and took alot of patience to get the right time.
After the clips were cropped and put into place, we imported the music we found on youtube on to the timeline, the music needed to be edited also, as we wanted a variation of sounds on our video, we did this by using the pen tool, which allowed us to pin point different parts of the music and change its volume by however much we wanted.
The first edit was very slow, but we were still learning the basics of final cut pro, but after the first edit, the main frame of the film was done, and we can continue by adding on titles to the video, adding effects, and changing the colours on the screen.
Sunday, 13 March 2011
Evaluation
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My media product uses follows the codes and conventions of the thriller genre, this is done by using a stereotypical background scene, as the scene is set in a dark house on a dark night. The storyline is also of a stereotypical thriller genre, as there are many typical sequences that is in my media product which would also be in a thriller film.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My target audience for my media product is for teenagers at the age of 15-20, the teenagers will be able to relate to the characters in the film, this is because of the age group targeted most likely will have similar interests to the characters in the films.
My media project represents teenagers as stereotypically socially active as they are going to their friends house, the characters shown in the starting film however are not the main characters
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Media institutions that might distribute my media product includes
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Audiences for our media product are teenagers at the age of 15-20, this is because this is the range of audience that we have selected for our target audience, we have done this by making the characters easy to relate to from the teenager’s perspective, the main characters are also stereotypical teenagers of similar of the audience’s age, this would also appeal to the teenagers as the teenagers will be know what to expect of the film.
How did you attract/address your audience?
The media product attracts the target audience by setting up a stereotypical thriller film, this attracts my target audience as most people of my target audience’s age (15-20) are interested in thriller films. The film is also based around the target audience age group as the characters of the film are the same age as the age group this product is targeting.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Using final cut pro, I have discovered a lot of technologies related with editing, and some things really amazed me, the cutting and cropped of clips was fundamental and I learnt that quickly, however, the ability to actually manipulate the image on the screen was truly fascinating to me, the colour corrector allowed me to change the brightness of the clips, which meant that despite filming in the very dark nights, we did not have to worry about the picture being so dark that it could not be seen, as the brightness could simply be increased. The pen tool combined with the ability to turn up the volume in sections of soundtracks was also brilliant, as this allowed me to put in many transitions of sound into the film, this was very useful as for a film with the thriller genre, many sound transitions are needed. The ability to be able to speed up or slow down the clip also was a great help to our film, calculating the exact times we needed, we modified the speed of the clips which also increased or decreased the length of the clips, which help us to reach a much better time for the film. The advantages of Final cut pro are endless, but I also learnt about some disadvantages of Final cut pro, such as the lack of text control for displaying titles, from such a well known and expensive editing software, I expected to be able to animate my titles and make text on the screen scroll in any shape I wish it to, however, the limit on the text animation was indeed very frustrating.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
My preliminary task was film very unprofessionally, as the camera was not on a tri-pod, and the panning shots were very jumpy, the preliminary task also felt very basic and there was no meaning in the clips, and the clips were put together poorly. Although I am not very happy with the preliminary task, the preliminary task did teach me the basics of film and setting up a shot, also helping me learn basic editing skills such as cropping and cutting. The final film would not be same with out the experiences I learnt from the preliminary task.
My media product uses follows the codes and conventions of the thriller genre, this is done by using a stereotypical background scene, as the scene is set in a dark house on a dark night. The storyline is also of a stereotypical thriller genre, as there are many typical sequences that is in my media product which would also be in a thriller film.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My target audience for my media product is for teenagers at the age of 15-20, the teenagers will be able to relate to the characters in the film, this is because of the age group targeted most likely will have similar interests to the characters in the films.
My media project represents teenagers as stereotypically socially active as they are going to their friends house, the characters shown in the starting film however are not the main characters
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Media institutions that might distribute my media product includes
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Audiences for our media product are teenagers at the age of 15-20, this is because this is the range of audience that we have selected for our target audience, we have done this by making the characters easy to relate to from the teenager’s perspective, the main characters are also stereotypical teenagers of similar of the audience’s age, this would also appeal to the teenagers as the teenagers will be know what to expect of the film.
How did you attract/address your audience?
The media product attracts the target audience by setting up a stereotypical thriller film, this attracts my target audience as most people of my target audience’s age (15-20) are interested in thriller films. The film is also based around the target audience age group as the characters of the film are the same age as the age group this product is targeting.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Using final cut pro, I have discovered a lot of technologies related with editing, and some things really amazed me, the cutting and cropped of clips was fundamental and I learnt that quickly, however, the ability to actually manipulate the image on the screen was truly fascinating to me, the colour corrector allowed me to change the brightness of the clips, which meant that despite filming in the very dark nights, we did not have to worry about the picture being so dark that it could not be seen, as the brightness could simply be increased. The pen tool combined with the ability to turn up the volume in sections of soundtracks was also brilliant, as this allowed me to put in many transitions of sound into the film, this was very useful as for a film with the thriller genre, many sound transitions are needed. The ability to be able to speed up or slow down the clip also was a great help to our film, calculating the exact times we needed, we modified the speed of the clips which also increased or decreased the length of the clips, which help us to reach a much better time for the film. The advantages of Final cut pro are endless, but I also learnt about some disadvantages of Final cut pro, such as the lack of text control for displaying titles, from such a well known and expensive editing software, I expected to be able to animate my titles and make text on the screen scroll in any shape I wish it to, however, the limit on the text animation was indeed very frustrating.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
My preliminary task was film very unprofessionally, as the camera was not on a tri-pod, and the panning shots were very jumpy, the preliminary task also felt very basic and there was no meaning in the clips, and the clips were put together poorly. Although I am not very happy with the preliminary task, the preliminary task did teach me the basics of film and setting up a shot, also helping me learn basic editing skills such as cropping and cutting. The final film would not be same with out the experiences I learnt from the preliminary task.
Tuesday, 18 January 2011
Editing
Having already made mistakes with our first filming session, we feel that the second time will be improved. From editing our first clips, we have cut off a large amount of the clips, leaving us with only 1 minute 15 seconds. The reason for cutting the clips is that the film has bad visibility and some of the shots did not work as intended. Therefore we have a target of filling up 45 seconds of time in order to fufil our criteria. we plan to use 20-30 seconds of time on scenes where Greg and Xiangyu are walking to the house, while another 5-10 seconds of them opening the door, while another 5-10 seconds of Eric's body being discovered.
First filming session
We filmed the basic shots of our film today, however, when uploaded on to the computers, the scenes looked very dark as we planned to do the filming very late. In addition, we struggled to manage the amount of light in the scenes, as a result, the lighting in the scenes were inconsistent. On the other hand, the upstair scenes worked very well, as they lighting was very consistent, we also used a wide variety of shots and made good use of the tri-pod.
As a result of this, we have decided we will film a second time, but this time we will film earlier so that the shots are more clear and the lighting will be more consistent. This will make it easier to edit, as turning the brightness up on will make the image grainy and unprofessional.
As a result of this, we have decided we will film a second time, but this time we will film earlier so that the shots are more clear and the lighting will be more consistent. This will make it easier to edit, as turning the brightness up on will make the image grainy and unprofessional.
Music
After browsing through various songs on the internet, we came across one which felt fit the intended theme and genre of our film. Even though our film opening could be considered a thriller due to it fitting with the conventions of lighting in a thriller (dark, gloomy), it also could considered to fit with the horror genre. In our film, there are themes such as murder and mystery and so therefore we thought that we could have music which fit these themes. Below is some music that we picked out and thought would work well with our film.
The music is creepy and keeps the audience on edge and uncomfortable as they do not know what has happened to Eric.
The music is creepy and keeps the audience on edge and uncomfortable as they do not know what has happened to Eric.
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Title fonts
Actors
Me and Eric have decided to use sensible, serious actors, therefore we are using Thomas West and Alistair Macrichie, we chose them as they live near us and we can film more scenes easily if we need during the editing stage. Our plan is to swap cameraman, in the first scene we will use Eric as the cameraman filming me, Alistair and Thomas is walking to the house. Next when Thomas is walking up the stairs, I will be the cameraman and film Thomas as he discovers the body in the bathroom.
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