IIIIIT'S CHRIIIIISTMAAAAAAS!

This blog is going to be closed for two weeks as it's now the Christmas holidays.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

- posted by Mia on behalf of the group

Today's Editing

What we have is looking a lot better now - Bisma and I added in a music track that Mary [I think] downloaded onto our edit suite, and we made the cut from the knife pan to picking up the knife a lot less weird-looking, as there's a sudden bit in the music that makes it work really well.
We also played around with colour, brightness, and contrast to try to make the shots look the same, which we achieved with the lipstick/blusher shots :) Yay!

Problems

Aggh, Bisma and I were editing yesterday and cut together all our footage - the shot/reverse-shot worked really nicely, but we realised the lighting is completely different in shots in the same room, as we had to use a desklamp to make the knife get that nice glint. We could probably sort this out with brightness & contrast on Premiere, but the shots just don't link together properly, from opening the drawer to taking out the knife. Oh dear.
We still don't have music, although we found a lot of good possibilities yesterday - there's so much to choose from, but it's hard to find something that will specifically go with our sequence, as it changes quite a lot - the main issue is the dialogue.
We asked Miss Thrasher for feedback, and she gave us some pointers - she said that:
1) the flashes in the beginning 'suddens' are too long - they should either be really short or not there at all
2) the echoing in the nail-painting shot is a bit weird - what's the reason for it?
3) the LA shot of Bisma going upstairs is too long - put in one of the different angle ones
4) the dialogue shots are cut together really well and the match-on-actions are good, but it looks weird that the killer is in the left of the frame rather than the centre - we will probably have to reshoot
5) sort out the cutting with the knife shots
So there's really quite a lot to do. However, she was very positive and also said that it didn't matter if it wasn't quite 2 minutes if it was good quality.
We have two more editing slots today, so I'm hoping we can sort some of that out, including getting some music and adding it to our timeline - once we add that in it will all look a lot better and we will know what we're doing more.
We also need to choose a title fonts and decide what the titles are actually going to be - and think of a title for the film! But these are obviously not our priorities right now. We're a hardworking group so I'm sure we can work everything out : )
- posted by Mia

Editing!!

Bhavika is very ill again today =[

We really need to get some music to go with our foley - preferably with synth and a low bass drone that matches our aeroplane foley. This is now PRIORITY when any of the group have free time, because we need to get it done by the end of this week at the absolute latest.

Today we were editing the stairs scene. Our main issue was that the sound on the majority of the footage had mysteriously disappeared since capturing. We also had one or two continuity editing issues, because of blurring within the shots we needed. We experimented a bit more with foley, and a lot with brightness and contrast, because our lighting had shifted between shots (the paglight battery faded towards the end of the shoot).

We also need to replace the old shoes shot with the new one, and change the titles. But overall, good work, guys! =D
~Mary

THE FINAL SHOOT - 14th DEC

Hello all!
Today we set out to get all our footage on tape, ready for exciting editing sessions (which i have become a Pro at!!! If i do say so myself!)
And amaziiiiiinglyyy...we managed to meet our target. There was a slight catastrophe in the form of Bhavika being unwell and therefore unable to join us :(

We wish her a speedy recovery and are certain that even though she's wrapped up in bed, media ideas are oozing out of her mind! Can't wait to hear them, Bhav!
With regards to the actual shooting, it was mainly the parts of me acting. Oh my goodness! Having to walk up and down the stairs AT LEAST 25 times killed me! But, we got some brilliant angles and a variation of shots, which was very pleasing :)
As for the remainder of the shoot, and final finishing touches to our necessary footage, me and mary worked together with sound, lighting, camera and admin! Tough, but we managed it spectacularly!
I'm very pleased with the whole process of doing stage 1 and 2 of production, and i think our FANTASTIC group truly deserve a pat on the back for effort AND achievement :D
I shall be updating with stage 3 and 4 coming along beautifully!

Bisma

Still not well

Hey guys

I'm really sorry but I'm still not feeling well. It's really annoying because I'm going to miss the shoot today. I will ring you again during todays shoot.

I most probably won't be in tomorrow because I doubt I'll be better by then. Good luck with all the capturing and editing if I'm not.

Make sure you don't forget any shots! I will speak to you all soon.

- Bhavika xx

4.30 at mine tomorrow?
-Mia xx

Yesterday's Shoot (Friday 13/12)

[Twelve Days Till Christmas!]

Unfortunately, Bhavika was unable to make it to the shoot yesterday and we wish her a speedy recovery - hopefully she'll be well enough for our shoot tomorrow.

Despite the absence of Bhavika, filming was really successful - hopefully there won't be any problems when we look back at our footage on Monday. We got all the shots we'd planned completed - the dialogue between the killer and the housemate and the shot of the housemate knocking on the door and going into the room - we also shot the killer saying "Come in", which we hadn't planned to do but realised it would be a lot better to... We reshots the shoes shot with different shoes too, and hopefully it'll all fit together nicely :)

All that remains now are the pre-entering the bedroom shots for Bisma - going up the stairs and across the hallway, with the crane/HA shot, and the killer picking up the knife from the drawer and something along the lines of caressing it fondly and creepily. And then that's it, unless we need to reshoot but here's hoping we won't!

- posted by Mia

Not well

Hey guys

Really not feeling well today so I’m not in school. That also means I won’t be able to make it to our shoot tonight. :( Really sorry.

Good luck with the editing in school and the shoot afterwards. Will ring you and keep in touch to see how it is going.

- Bhavika xx

Friday - Lesson, pre-shoot

Our main setback today is that Bhavika phoned in ill, meaning that she's unavailable both during the lesson and for our shoot after school. She texted ahead of time to let us know, though we did phone just in case to check up on her. She said that she'll try her best to make it to the shoot, but not to hold out hope, as she's not feeling much better than when she texted.

In the lesson today, we've been experimenting further with effects and writing the dialogue script between the two characters. One recurring problem was trying to balance out the number of effects between various CUs - we had too many on the eyes and not enough on the nails. We also had difficulty in creating a visual style that lasted throughout the title sequence but wasn't overly repetitive.

In the shoot tonight, we're planning to re-shoot the shoes shot and also to film the dialogue scenes between the two roommates. We'll also be filming the pre-dialogue shots of Bisma on Sunday. We hope to get everything sorted so that we can edit on Tuesday and have cross-cutting between the dialogue. We'll also be attempting a tricky overhead shot, so wish us luck!

~Mary

Script

Hey guys This is the script we came up with for our opening sequence. It is a conversation between the killer (Emma) and the housemate (Yasmin). It will come after the titles in the second half of the sequence. Emma: (Knock on door) Come in Yasmin: (Opens door) Hey. You look dressed up. Your not going out at this time, are you? Emma: Um yeah…I’m just out to see a friend. (Pause) She’s dying to see me. Yasmin: Okay…well be careful, I’ve just heard some terrible things on the news. Emma: Oh, yeah, about all those poor women? I heard. It really scares me. Yasmin: Yeah, me too. Well I’m gonna go to bed anyway. Goodnight. Emma: Okay. Night. Yasmin: (Smiling) Have fun. (Closes door) - Bhavika xx

Possible Problem

Um, you see how we're using my sister's room... she's coming back from Bristol for Christmas next Saturday (13th I do believe) sooo is there any chance we can get all/most of the shots in there done before that?
It's also worth mentioning that the Latymer Christmas Concert is next Thursday the 11th.
- Mia xx

Group Piccies!!!

We took some pictures before and during our filming process (06.12.2008) So here they are!
Bisma xFilming: a pan of the contents of this draw. Lighting was perfect!


Mia: Doing all the smiling she can before she gets into character!

Filming!!! The best part of this project by far! Mary does Admin, as Bhavika covers sound.

Aww!! We do love being part of this group sooo much :D

Gettin' Jiggy With It

So, with our inspiration from Se7en, we've done some experimentation with the fonts and making them 'jiggy'/jittery/jumpy - whatever you want to call it. We tried out making two seperate titles, one with white text (saying 'directed by Bhavika Popat') on a black background, the other with the same text and background, but in red; we made the one with red really short and put it in the middle of title screens with the white text, which when played created a flashing effect. It's quite a good effect for now, but we're sure there are better ways to do it, and we're definitely going to explore this further!
- posted by Mia

'Se7en'

We watched the beginning of Se7en (David Fincher, 1995) in class and we were really inspired by it. I've embedded the opening of the film from where the titles start, after the little bit at the beginning where Brad Pitt's and Morgan Freeman's characters are introduced and the setup is established. We really liked the whole style of it - the title sequence was designed by Kyle Cooper, and is really original and is very memorable, from the music to the font.

The soundtrack:

• diegetic sounds - traffic, creaking, clattering of keys on a typewriter?
• steady drum rhythm that sounds like heartbeat
• electronic-sounding
• screechy bits
• features song 'Closer' by Nine Inch Nails - lyrics heard are 'You get me closer to God' -> the film is based around two detectives on the case of a series of murders inspired by the seven deadly sins, and the word 'God' is one of the words we see being cut out of a newspaper in quick flashes
• crime thriller sort of music

Credits/Text:

• jumpy/jittery
• white on black
• scribbled handwritten style font
• image comes after they're shown, and they stay on screen for a bit before fading out
• big names first - David Fincher, Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwenyth Paltrow - audience knows this director and these actors -> acts as guarantee, quality seal

Transitions:

• dissolves over shots
• fades (into opening)
• numerous, fast-paced clean cutting

Camera Work:

• BCUs and ECUs showing detail of killer's work
  

We loved all these effects combined to create such an impressive opening - they really help to build a sense of unease and jumpiness, and to give an impression of the killer. We want to do something similar with the credits and music, so we'll see what we end up with!

- posted by Mia

Mrs Thrasher Feedback

Mrs Thrasher kindly gave us some feedback in our lesson today, and said basically what we need to do is:

1. decide on final shooting dates that everyone can make
2. remember we can shoot at times other than the weekend
3. carefully & finally plan what we're going to do and shoot
4. carefully plan what each person needs to bring & do it, so no more valuable time is wasted

V for Vendetta (James McTeigue, 2005)

Ok, so this is the opening for V for Vendetta as talked about in my previous post. The getting ready bit is from 1:44 to 3:36 minutes - I think that makes 1 minute 52 seconds but my maths is truly terrible so you might want to check that... This cross-cuts between Evey and V getting ready, has lots of cutaways to the TV news thing - again, fairly similar to our idea - but obviously we're focussing on a killer getting ready so it'll be much more sinister, and from what we discussed today we know we're going to have a lot of ECUs and BCUs in the actual getting ready bit. Also, we're going to have title screens in between, and the housemate conversation. Anyway you might wanna watch a bit before and a bit after the getting ready bit - afterwards there's a low-level pan of her feet as she's walking - quite similar to our idea of a shot of the housemate's feet as she goes upstairs? I'm sure this will be helpful to us so do watch it :)

-Mia xx

Inspirizzled!!

So I was very kindly leant Se7en by Selina & I had another look at that just now for the opening, and Eamonn leant me V For Vendetta at some point so I thought, well, what's the harm in having a look at the opening for that too?
AND to my pleasant surprise what did I find but a girl getting ready!! AND THEY DO THE LIPS AND THE HEELS AND STUFF TOO!! I know right, wow-wow-wow-wow.
So I'm gonna find it on the wonderful youtube and post it up on here with some notes at some point 'cause I think it may be rather helpful to see how they do it. I know we've changed it a lot but I think this will still help, it's all quite close range I think.
So yeah, keep yo' eyes peeled liked a banana for it appearing soon!!
-Mia xx

[also, why is there not a bright pink font colour to reflect my extreme excitement & enthusiasm??]

Group Meeting Notes

Bhavika's idea changes:
-change the first pan from the widn chimes to CUs & ECUs of the killer getting ready
-in between pans (slower) of everything on teh dressing table, pictures of models etc. - this would make it clearer to the audience that they're supposed to take note of it
This prompted Mary to suggest that we alternate short & long shots (timewise, not distance), to keep the audience on their toes and build more suspense. Wooh! We're referring to short shots as 'suddens'. :D It is now an official media technical term.
When we have the housemate coming in it's gonna be normal distances and slower - everything's normal that side of the door, but on the inside it reflects her state of mind.
The Se7en opening titles inspired us to have sort of 'flashy', jittery titles - white text on a black background, not sure on the font yet, Mary suggested one but it's a bit too flurly - and sort of.. flashing.. shots. There was a suggestion of the suddens quickly turning negative before the title screens appear, but we're going to try it all out and see.
We're shooting this Friday and Saturday at Mia's house again ( - can everyone remember to bring their respective equipment/props and food as well as these things for Saturday! Cheers x)

-posted by the group

Inspiration from the Opening Sequence of Legally Blonde (Luketic, 2001)

Hey guys!

As our opening sequence involves a female killer (who is obsessed with the way she looks) getting ready I thought I might try to get inspiration from a film involving a girl getting ready. Legally Blonde is probably one of the most obvious choices and is very much about image and the way Elle looks and dresses. So, I have broken down the sequence and analysed shots and aspects that we might gain some inspiration from for our opening sequence.

The first shot is zooming out of Elle’s hair as she brushes it. It is effective because it starts as an Extreme Close-up and the audience is therefore not sure what exactly they can see. All of Elle’s actions appear slow and deliberate so that the audience can clearly see what she is doing and has time to take it in. We want the actions to be clear but also not really slow because we need pace. We could try using Extreme Close-ups at the very beginning in order to withhold information from the audience and make it slightly more creepy/sinister.

In general, lots of Extreme Close-ups and Close-ups are used as they effectively show Elle getting ready in detail. For instance, when she puts on a necklace and is painting her nails. The audience does not see her face until the end of the opening sequence, which is an aspect I particularly like. The whole sequence is a build up to this point. Perhaps we could have a slight build up before we see her face properly? Obviously, the actual build up is towards the draw being opened when we see the knife so it would have to be a smaller build-up before seeing her face.

Slow pans are used in between in order to tell the audience about Elle’s character and this provides the mise-en-scene. We have already thought about our mise-en-scene and are using pictures of models and beauty products to reflect the character’s frame of mind. We could pan these pictures that are on the mirror and the beauty products on the dressing table in between shots of her getting ready. We decided that we wanted it to be subtle but I’m not sure if the audience would necessarily understand or even take much notice of it unless we make a point of showing the beauty products and pictures. This would make it clearer that the main character is obsessed with her image and kills other attractive women.

- Bhavika xx

Response to Problem

Hey Mary

Ok don't worry. The only reason we weren't doing sunday is because everyone preferred to do the shoot on saturday. We were going to keep sunday as a sort of back up. If we have to do the shoot on sunday then we will. We need to have a meeting tomorrow so that we can sort it out together with Bisma and Mia too.

- Bhavika

We have a problem.

Guys, I know that this is really going to muck everything up, but I honestly can't get the time off work this Saturday. I know Ms B is going to kill me for this, but there's really nothing I can do. I can come straight after work ends, or we can rearrange to the Sunday. I don't actually remember why we couldn't do the Sunday anyway.

Friday is absolutely fine, though. Cancelled youth club again. =3

Please respond ASAP.

~Mary

Comments and Reflections

Yeah I've just read over the many comments/reflections that have been put up on the blog. We definitely need to do something about the emptiness of the draw and I'm up for trying out the paper idea. Aghhh reflections in the window! Did you guys find out if we can do anything about them yesterday when editing? And yeah Mia's idea about having the flatmate watching the film - we might be overcomplicating things again! I'm not sure if it is needed unless you guys all really want to do it. Plus we don't have to have the credits coming up onscreen over the shots we have filmed now. We can have then on a black background that comes up in between the shots or something if you get what I'm saying...

- Bhavika xx

Possible Idea

I know it's not necessarily going to be a problem at all, but I just had a little idea just in case and knowing me I will forget it! Basically if this isn't taking up enough time, we could possibly have a bit of cross-cutting to the housemate, maybe sitting downstairs in the dark watching a horror film - we wouldn't see the TV but would see her on the sofa in her PJs with a mug of tea or something, looking a bit scared, with the light of the TV flickering over her face. She can mention it later - 'I was just watching Pyscho' or something... but got too scared so went up to see her lovely [killer] housemate instead....
Just an idea... :D Don't wanna make it too complicated or anything
- Mia xx