Titles Again

As we discovered in lesson today it turns out that our project will require 3 more titles. These titles include "Warner Bros Presents", "A DynamiteKitty Production" and "A film by Katie Boal, Reece Wilkins and Barry Stubbs". Therefore there is good news and bad news, the bad news is that this may be time consuming once again as we will need to create the titles once again, however the good new is that it should not take too long to create and also these titles are shown before the first scene of our project, therefore there should not be a major issue in inserting this into our sequence. These titles will obviously need to follow the same style as the other title sequences, which will require using black and white text along with the same transition used previously. Overall this should help amass us to the highest grade possible,  if we did not include these titles we will risk losing 1 or 2 marks which is not a very substantial figure however it could help be the difference between an A grade project and an A* grade project. I think with Katie's absence today as well as a likelyhood that she may not be in tomorrow as well means that it may take a considerable amount of time for us to complete these titles, although in retrospect 1 or 2 marks is not an incredibley big deal so we will not panic for now.

Absents

Unfortunately Katie is ill today and thus will not be in the lesson, this means me and Barry are limited to how much work we can do as Katie has the contents of our project on her laptop in her house. Therefore me and Barry have decided to dicuss our porject in detail and discuss representation within our project. Hopefully Katie will be in the lesson tomorrow.

New Film with Comparison

http://katiesawesomeasmediablog.blogspot.com/2012/02/tweaking-and-extras-film.html -

Above is a link to Katie's blog in which she has posted two videos, the first is effectively a comparison to our old footage to our new film. As you can see there are many differences between the two I.E the newest edition has titles and the audio level is more consistent. You will also note how some shots have changed in order to add more effect towards the audience. I've already explained in an early blog about this but in a nutshell we were able to change shots thanks to us spending 3 hours filming during the interrogation scene, in which we shot at a various number of angles some of which are included in the newer project and some others which aren't. Therefore when Sir asked us whether we could change some of the shots such as the pan shot (at 0:38 in the "before" half) it was not a major issue for us to change it.

The second video is our new project in all its glory on its own. I am quite happy with it overall, as you can see the issues i have addressed in previous blogs have almost completely disappeared now so that if there are any issues its mostly extreme nitpicking. There's also the title of the film which appears at the end, I showed in a previous blog that the title of the film should have the same font and should appear in the same transition as the titles of the people working on the project, therefore we have now completed this so that "Decipher" is now shown at the end in the same font and the same style as the previous titles, it keeps the black and white imagery just like them but is notably much larger than them signifying that it is the most important information.

Nitpicking

Today me Katie and Barry continued to edit our project, we concluded that although the shots and narrative etc was all brilliant there were still issues with the titles, this was because we placed the titles in the wrong order as we were not fully certain that the order was "starring...", "music", "editor", "producer", "writer" "director". This caused us to spend the majority of the end of the lesson working on rearranging the titles in order to suit the requirements so hopefully we gain full marks. When Sir watched it again he pointed that our project was "phenomenal" which was a very positive influence on us, however he did express that the music and sound was slightly off at some points this means sometimes the dialogue between me and Barry in the interrogation scene changes tempo frequently which is frustrating as it meant we had to change the sound for each shot so that it stayed the same, however because of the fact that some shots were filmed in different places it means that it will be very hard for us to continue consistency, however we will continue to work on this within the oncoming days. Also Sir pointed out that the title of our film "Decipher" should be changed to match the previous title shots I.E using a swipe, he also said that the title of the film should have exactly the same font as the titles, this means we will need to change the title of our film to match these requests. Overall however these are not major issues which is why the title of this blog is called "nitpicking" as we're simply trying to make the project slightly better than it already is in order to achieve a slightly higher mark in the end, these issues are not major and although getting the sound right may be tricky we should hopefully be able to achieve the other issues as soon as possible without issue.

Sounds On Institutions

Recently we have noticed that our Warner Bros and DynamiteKitty logos did not have any sound, therefore we discussed what sound effects would be best suited to our institutions and logos. We subsequently have now included the typical Warner Bros logo music which is always seen in Warner Bros films, this makes our film much more authentic as opposed to having no sound whatsoever. We were originally confused about what sound would best suited to DynamiteKitty logo however we eventually opted to use the sound of a black panther roaring a bit similar to Lionsgate however it is not the same sound effect which means we wont have any issue with copyright, I think using the sound of a panther is very suited to us as it fits the logo almost perfectly and allows us to continue using sound as opposed to having moments where there is no sound which may have damaged our chances of gaining very high marks in the end.

Almost Finished

Today we continued to edit our project, overall I am very happy with the way we are working and progressing as a group. So far we have had no eceedingly harsh issues with the project however there has been some minor faults, Sir realised some of these and posted a review of our rough cut on Katie's Blog, I read through the review and took notes as to how we could change each part to make the video better, he expressed that we needed to add titles, after today I can say that the titles are now included into the project along with the DynamiteKitty logo and Warner Bros logo, we also included the title of our film at the end, we chose to place it at the end in order to help link with other crime films such as The Dark Knight which has its title shown at the end of the opening sequence, we have decided to use inter titles within our sequence, this means there is a short bit of narrative followed by a brief title then another bit of narrative. The use of inter titles allows us to link alot with crime films such as Lucky Number Slevin and The Departed. We have also now changed the contrast within the interrogation sequences in order to make the scene more gritty which helps link with film noir. Also we have decided to slow down the flashback sequences as well as the music throughout the whole sequence, this helps create a more dreamlike quality to it  which emphasizes the mystery element of my character as well as the narrative of the story. The music was slowed down primarily in order to suit the sequence a lot better, since we made a few changes and have to add intertitles we discovered that the sequence became much longer and thus meant that the music was increasing its tempo before the appropriate moments, this caused us to panic for a short period of time until we found help from a friend whom stretched the music so that it became longer, this helped dramatically and also allowed us to continue working on the sequence without issue with music.

Possible Titles and Logos

http://katiesawesomeasmediablog.blogspot.com/2012/02/titles-additons-to-squence.html

Here is a link to Katie's blog in which she has posted some samples of titles and logos which we may use within our sequence. The first video posted is another option for us to use for our logo of Dynamite Kitty, before this it was simply a spin logo, we felt this was ok for us however we felt we could possibly do better so Katie ended up creating this, I feel as though this logo is by far superior to the previous spin logo, therefore I would be much more tempted to use this logo as opposed to the spin logo, I feel this way due to the logo being far more unique and in turn looks much more effective. The logo still stays the exact same and remains black and white which links into film noir as well as the flashback sequence.

The second video posted shows the Warner Bros logo (our institution, due to  Warner Bros being known for creating many crime thrillers and dramas) as well as our Dynamite Kitty logo (our studio) and the titles we are thinking of using. Overall I am very satisfied with the titles here, I think they fit in well with the logos and should fit in with the sequence. Originally me, Barry and Katie actually considered whether we should use titles at all, this was due to films like The Dark Knight which shows no credits at all (apart from the film title) until the end. However we ultimately decided that titles should be included within the sequence as this would hopefully be more effective and should also help us link with film noir even more (as the titles are black and white still). We discussed that the titles should be only two things, sophisticated (I.E. simple) and remain black and white. This  would again help us link with classic film noir and would also allow the audience to be more intrigued to the story as opposed to being distracted by the titles. These were made using linear wipes on Katie's laptop and allows us to stay both sophisticated and intriguing towards the audience at the same time.

The third video shows the logo, titles and interlinks them within our sequence (rough cut version) using the titles and logos first and then showing the sequence naturally with the film title at the end. After watching this I feel as though it may possibly be best for us to use intertitles which will mean showing a little bit of footage and then showing some titles followed by more footage and so on. This would probably allow the sequence to flow more and keep the audience interested to the story arch. I think using the film title at the end fits in much better and is far more effective towards the audience, this should also help us link to films such as The Dark Knight, Inception among others who all show an opening sequence and then the title of the film afterwards. So far, we're very happy with the sequence however we are starting to wonder about the music which should be used throughout the titles, this may require us to look at secession studios again to try and find some music which matches the titles, this will need to be discussed in due course with the rest of the group.

Rough Cut

http://katiesawesomeasmediablog.blogspot.com/2012/02/rough-cut.html

Here is a link to Katie's blog in which she has posted our rough cut, overall I am happy with it, although there are some issues (see previous blog) but still I think it looks ok, hopefully the narrative is clear and any issues which Mr. Earl arises can be sorted quickly, efficiently and easily. We understand that the titles are not integrated with this rough cut, this is due to us developing the titles within the lesson today, since we did not have time to complete the titles then we hope to upload a video with just the titles soon.

Deadline Day - Rough Cut Due Shortly

Today was the final day in which we could complete the rough cut for our project, originally we came into lesson today with the vast majority of the rough cut already created, the only parts missing included the titles as well as some components which may possibly could have changed. Most of the components we ended up changing were thanks to Mr. Earl who told us that there were some aspects that he would like to see in different ways than what we showed in the original rough cut, some of the examples include the pan shot (which i have already included a link to in a previous blog) as well as other parts which included me about to hit Barry's character on the head with an object similar to a baseball bat (see equipment post), he stated this was because it looked notably quite fake, this has caused us to possibly think about cutting slighly earlier than we oringally thought.

In the lesson we ended up producing some titles, these are slightly different to what we oringally intended however they still keep a lot of qualities about them I.E the titles are clearly black and white which helps link us to film noir as well as fits in with our flashback sequence. These should be uploaded by the end of the night along with a Warner Bros logo (which is our institution) and our dynamite kitty logo which is our studio name.

Overall I am very proud of what we have acheived (thus far). I understand there are multiple issues with the project I.E some of the shots could possibly be done better, however to combat this we did filmed our sequence in a variety of different angles on the day, this caused us to essentially fix the pan shot which Sir did not like very quickly as we simply replaced it with a canted close up shot of me saying my lines. The rough cut should eventually be uploaded tonight probably on Katie's blog as she has the contents on her laptop.

Experimenting Sound

Recently me, Katie and Barry have been discussing sound and how this can be used within our project, since we already have permission to use secessionstudios music me and Katie spent a very long time on Tuesday discussing music from secession via Facebook that would be best for us to use. Ultimately we had a various amount of options at the end, however the music we thought was best is called "Epic and Dramatic Trailer Music" (link below), I think we chose this in the end due to the music being very soft but also quite upbeat at the same time thus meaning it could help us create a sophisticated nature within the interrogation scene but also a very upbeat, dark atmosphere within the flashback sequence.

Below this post there is a link to Katie's blog in which she posted 4 samples of us experimenting with sound. The first example I feel is very good, the music helps match the surroundings and creates the same moods which we wished to create within the sequence. However I feel the sound effect is slightly misleading, although originally I suggested this when me and Katie talked over Facebook I feel as though it does not match the sequence as it sounds roughly similar to what would be typical in more science fiction films rather than crime dramas or thrillers. You can hear this sound effect at 0:31 within the sequence. It is supposed to signify a different mood and a different time setting (as the sequence goes into a flashback at this point) however it just does not seem to match the surroundings.

Sample 2 does not have any music in, however it does have the dialogue within the sequence with less unnecessary sound in the background which makes it sound much more effective and grittier than it does naturally. However the sound effect within the transition towards the flashback sequence remains within the sequence which I have already stated I feel is unnecessary in the sequence. 

Sample 3 I feel is without question the best, I feel this is due to misuse of the sound effect within the sequence as well as the music creating a better, more gritty atmosphere and is also very sophisticated and dramatic. I really like how it builds up once the flashback sequence starts as though something is about to happen.

Sample 4 I think is way too dramatic, although the editing of the imagery remains the same throughout all the sequences, with the music used here I feel the music makes the scene seem way more dramatic than it is, there is without question no need for music this dramatic (at least not this early in the sequence). 

As for the editing of the sequence as a whole I feel it is coming along very nicely, I like how the black and white imagery signifies the flashback and I also like the transition into the flashback sequence, although Katie and I have agreed that the sequence would probably be more effective if the transition was slightly longer as it could possibly feel as though the transition happens for no apparent reason which could be very off-putting towards the audience. Hopefully we shall be able to finish the editing process for the rough cut by Friday so that Sir can review it and suggest any other issues he feels should be fixed and how we can go about fixing these issues.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeEDQMLtyGY&feature=related - Secession Studios YouTube link

http://katiesawesomeasmediablog.blogspot.com/2012/02/sound-expermintation.html - Link to Katie's blog in which you can see the samples of the music implemented into the project.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5hdJ3Z4pDY&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL&fb_source=message - Here is a link to another piece of music we were considering,  this ended up becoming the sound effect which you can hear in most of the samples to highlight a transition between the interrogation and flashback sequence. Ultimately I feel as though we will not go with this piece of music as me and Katie feel it does not match the surroundings in which it would be shown within our sequence. Although I originally intended to use the sound effect I subsequently realised how it does not suit the sequence at all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81NwhVs7hD8&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL&fb_source=message - Here is a link to another piece of music which was considered. This was probably our second choice (with epic and dramatic music coming first) to choose for our sequence, the reason for this is because it is very soft and also very upbeat, we both agreed that it may be possible to have this particular music throughout the whole sequence, however we then agreed that epic and dramatic trailer music suited the scene much more, plus when hearing this music in the sequence (look at sample 4) it appears that it does not fit in the sequence and makes it seem far more dramatic than it needs to be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ-JDeaKaBU&feature=plcp&context=C33f650aUDOEgsToPDskKMKsMkn9_HqPqFAvRqye46 - Yet another piece of music that we were considering was this one, I feel as though this is slightly too upbeat, although it may fit in with certain parts as some pats of the song are very effective to create an eerie but sophisticated atmosphere. The fact that it is slightly too upbeat means that I feel as though we shouldn't use this in the sequence, possibly certain parts would work in the flashback, however I would not want to risk using a variety of different pieces of music as this may corrupt the sequence and distract the audience from what is actually happening on screen.

Reviewing Some More Footage

Here is some more footage that me and Barry have subjected ourselves to review. This clip is supposed to be shown either directly or shortly after the previous shot I just reviewed. Overall me and Barry feel as though this clip is very good, the camera stays steady throughout and there are nion no issues with this shot, apart from one, at roughly 7 seconds in the shot the clip becomes seemingly out of focus. This reduces the quality of the shot sufficiently and means it is possible that we will not be using this particular take within the sequence. However, I feel as though the take is actually very good and effective, we used a canted shot here in order to create a more effective, disorienting feel which also links into some of our research into some of our research such as Casino Royale which in turn links to a lot of film noir. We decided a while ago that the flashback sequence would be edited into black and white whilst the interrogation sequence would remain in colour. This would help us show that this part of the sequence is set in the past whilst the interrogation scene is set in the present, this also helps us link to film noir. Since this particular shot is set during the flashback it means this will hopefully be edited to black and white later.

Reviewing Some Footage

Here is a take taken from one part of the flashback sequence within our project. Since Katie was absent today it involved me and Barry reviewing some of this footage. Overall I feel as though this footage is ok, I feel the lighting and framing of the shot is very good, and is almost preciously what we were aiming to create. We used a vast amount of mise-en-scene in this shot, if it were to be analysed it could be said how the ligt shadow is shining brightly behind Flossi's character thus indicating a very bright, enthusiastic person. However there are some issues with this shot; the shot would not be used in the project until roughly 5 seconds in as before this we are telling Flossi what she is supposed to be doing, at the seconds 9, 13 and 17 it appears that the camera starts bouncing and the shot becomes out of focus on occassion. This makes the actual quality of the shot decrease and therefore would not make it look as authentic as we originally intended, however the look of the shot we feel is very good and is notably very effective. Therefore we feel as though this shot would be good to use in our project, however we feel as though we will have other takes of this shot which are of a better standard.

Absent Today

Today I was absent from my media class, this meant I was unable to help both Barry and Katie continue editing the project, and I have since heard that Katie was ill and was absent today (and will also be absent tomorrow!) this is unfortunate and I wish her a speedy recovery. Unfortunately our project is located on Katie's laptop so me and Barry will not be able to do editing tomorrow...However thankfully Katie said she will be able to continue editing as much as she can tomorrow whilst me and Barry can review some footage so that we know which specific takes to use etc. Then we can email Katie via Facebook and she can apply it to the project. Then on the day she comes back to school fully recovered me and Barry will be able to see the project and hopefully be satisfied with it.

Editing

Today we began editing the beginning of our project, so far there have been no serious issues, however we have come into a few problems, mostly involving sound, this is due to the camera filming both mine and Barry's voice from different angles which therefore picks up different depths from the camera.

This meant that when editing the sound needed to be changed in order to suit the dialogue, therefore our voices will not change in depth and volume within different angles. When editing we have sort of taken over different jobs, Katie is the main editor ensuring that tasks are done based on both what me and Barry say we feel is suitable, I have taken the job as a kind of organiser, this is because we did not film in many different files and instead filmed for very long times within each angle, ensuring all the lines we said in each angle, this was more time consuming on the day however this should allow us a larger variety when editing if we choose to change a few aspects.

Since the files were so long this meant we needed someone who had the ability to write notes effectively, stating each individual video file, what shot it used in the file and also at what point in the time range each line is said. I effectively appointed myself as this job since I felt this would save a vast amount of time later on when we're wondering where each line is said within each file. So far editing it going well, however we have only edited roughly 20-30 seconds of footage so far, although Katie has decided that since she is doing the project on her laptop then we have capability to work throughout the weekend and after school on the project.

Recapping

I haven't made a blog in some time now so I thought now would be an appropriate time to catch up. We appear to have finished our filming now, both the flashback and interrogation scene.

I have already spoken about the interrogation scene and some of the complexities of filming there so instead I have opted to discuss the flashback sequence at this moment in time. Throughout the week prior to filming the flashback sequence me, Katie and Barry were discussing what would be required within each particular shot in each section and how we will incooperate this into the sequence. It was very important that a relationship between the womans character and Barry's character (I.E. Ryan Taylor) was established effectively, we decided to try this by allowing the woman character (thankfully Flossi, a mutual friend who agreed to be in our film) who would have to wear a vast amount of red or exotic clothing. This would establish a typical representation of women being sexual figures whilst Barry's character it was important for him to incooperate the same tracksuit he used in the interrogation scene (this is because the interrogation would be set a day after the flasback sequence), the tracksuit will help establish Barry's character as a lesser social class towards my character in the flashback sequence.

When we filmed our sequence we used a total of 2 locations, the first of which was my house which was used to establish that the two figures were getting ready to go on a night out, the second location is the tunnel which i posted pictures of in one of my previous blogs, one problem which Sir arised from the tunnel was that the lighting was very dark, however thankfully the tunnel lights were replaced by the council a few weeks before we filmed, this caused a great weight to be lifted from my shoulders as befroe I discovered this I was awake at 2:00am with my mother and father trying to see if we could use these very strong torches which my dad could hire from his workplace, however when we arrived at the tunnel in the early hours of the morning we discovered the lights had been changed which prompted me to film a short video on my phone chronicling mine and parents reactions (link below).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnBoySNupjs&feature=g-upl&context=G21b78cbAUAAAAAAAAAA&fb_source=message

Anyway, back to filming, the filming for the majority went well, everyone was working perfectly happy together and there were no issues, however we soon discovered that because we were filming so much and doing so many takes of each shot we realised that the battery within the camera was running out sharpish. This caused masses amount of frustration around the group as we were now very timed constrained (we could not film any other day of the week due to Katie and Barry being preoccuipied with work) which meant we had to film all the required shots very quickly to make sure each shot was made properly, however there were not as many takes. Eventually some shots which were originally ideal for us were not shot as the camera was completely out of battery, this prompted us to come up with an idea of using pictures to incooperate in our film, i took the picures on my mobile phone (as Katie decided Barry's phone may not be as trustworthy as mine). We are considering using these photos in order to highlight the story that Barry's character is being blamed for the murder whilst Flossi's character has actually been murdered. The photos within the film world would have been taken by the police so that they can investigate the scenario and the crime scene. Hopefully we can figure out someway of using these pictures eventually (i will post the pictures we are going to use soon)

Whislt reviewing the footage a few days after so far it seems to look good, some shots were not as ideal however some worked perfectly, on the link below is a link to Katie's blog in which she posted from her memory stick a piece of raw footage from the interrogation scene, I think this looks very well for us, there is a problem with the sound in that both mine and Barry's voice is not heard very well, also in the pan at the end it appears Katie may have strayed a bit too far away from my face (although my face is not meant to be seen anyway). However overall I think this piece of raw footage looks good, we have many takes of these (from what I recall at least 4) and the main part is that the pan is very smooth and works at preciously the right time thus meaning that the effect is much stronger.
http://katiesawesomeasmediablog.blogspot.com/2012/01/example-shoot-raw.html

Overall we have decided to name our film "Decipher", this name was my idea and I chose it through the fact that decipher means solving a puzzle, which coresponds well with our film as the opening sequence will establish that my character is blaming Barry's character for a murder, and the rest of the film would be Barry's character dephiering what is actually happening around him and why I am doing this to him.

The image above is taken from the logo in which Katie (quite brilliantly i might add) created for us, the original image was copyrighted which meant Katie had to create this image based on the original image using Paint. We decided to use the two colours of just black and white, this would mean it would be more accessible for us to discuss the typical colours used in film noir (as many of these older films are created in black and white and also pose a lot of stylistic aspects which are based on this).
http://katiesawesomeasmediablog.blogspot.com/2012/01/logo-in-film.html
The link above again links to Katie's blog in which she posted the original idea for how our logo will be animated and be shown before our film. We decided to animate it in order to make it seem much more auhentic and more similar to an actual film logo.

Currently, we are now starting to record voice-overs on Katie's lapop, thankfully her lapop has an effective microphone which will help us a lot more in the long run. However, whilst we were recording the voiceovers in a small room there were a lot of voices coming from the background which prompted us to get frustrated as classes around us were very noisy, however we decided to carry on and see how the voices would sound with this anyway, the end result is not perfect to say the least however it is still understandable, but we will be recording the voiceovers again in due course in order to combat this.