Today we spent time editing some more of our footage that we had filmed on the 9th of December. We still had clips remaining that we wanted to be seen as home videos, so in order to create this effect we cropped them down and split them into three, then deleted the middle section. As well as editing our footage, we also made some voice recordings in which we were going to later include as a voice over (non diegetic sound); over the top of a scene. These recordings consisted of different people trying to get Liam’s attention, and it will be played over the top of the shot where Liam is oblivious to his surroundings. We will experiment with these various recordings and consdier overlaying the clips or maybe adding an echo effect to some.
Today
we began to edit to the first section of our opening sequence which we filmed on
the 9th December. Firstly we began to edit the shot which show Alfie
receiving and opening a present from Liam. We noticed that this shot was quite
long and appeared as boring. We made the decision to split the clip into three
parts, we deleted the middle section, we believed by doing so it made it appear
as a home video as it shows pauses and ‘rough’ filming. In addition we zoomed
in on various points of the clip which also further made the shot appear more
like a home video. We also added the music (non-diegetic sound) over the top of the videos which we
chose earlier on in the project. There is no ambient or diegetic sound in the scene which makes the videos appear as sinister as you aren't aware of what the characters are saying etc. The addition of the music makes the videos
appear as creepy and mysterious which is the atmosphere in which we are hoping
to create. We placed an old style video countdown at the beginning of our
sequence so it indicates to the audience that the video clips being shown are
old; it also raises questions to the audience as to why they are being shown
and what relevance it has to the film. We still remaining slightly ahead of
schedule which is a positive as it allows us more time to edit.
Today we filmed the opening section to our production. We focused mainly on filming the home video feature first. The purpose of these videos are to show the strong relationship between the two brothers. The videos included Alfie and Liam playing with toys such as a train set and lego opening a Christmas present which shows how Alfie imitates his brother as he is copying his actions and then finally drawing a picture on the chalkboard which reveals a subtle yet vital message to the film which is discovered later in the extract. We filmed another section to our sequence which shows Liam affected after the arrest. This shot shows a zoom shot from the torso (medium long shot) into the eyes (extreme close up). Once we finished filming these shots we uploaded them and converted the shots using Format Factory into MP4 files, by doing this it meant we are ahead of schedule, this puts us at an advantage as it means we are able to spend more time editing the footage.
Today we explored and filmed a variety of
practise shots which we believe would appear in our opening sequence. The main
three we looked at were the handheld shot (HS), over the shoulder shot (OTSS)
and close up (CS) as we were certain that these three would feature. We thought
that the handheld shot would work successfully when filming the home videos.
These videos will feature both Liam and Alfie in their natural surrounding
(home) which makes them appear as realistic. I further feel as if this shot
will work well due to the fact it will further make them appear as home videos
as most videos which are filmed at home don't tend to use a tripod. One
other shot we are hoping to feature is the over the shoulder shot. I feel as if
this shot could be used during the disappearance of Alfie during a game of hide
and seek. As it focuses the viewer’s attention on Alfie running away and Liam
counting. We had hoped to film this shot from different angles and edit them
together creating continuity. A final shot which we explored was the close up.
Our initial plan was to film shots of objects which present Alfie for example
photos/ toys and place our titles over the top of these shots; including ‘directed
by’ and ‘starring.’ I feel as if this activity was beneficial to us as we are
now aware of the shots we are going to use for our opening sequence and the
props and equipment we need to do so.
I studied the film Woman In Black from 2012 directed by James Watkins and starring Daniel Radcliff. The genre of this film is horror and appears as edgy and enigmatic throughout, this is due to the camerwork and shots used. This screen shot (middle)
shows a medium long shot of three girls with The Woman In Black faint in the
background. The facial expressions of the girls still appear as visible as we
can see they are impassive. By The Woman In Blacks face being undetectable this
reflects her character of being mysterious/unknown, therefore this relates well
to the genre that the director is trying to create of horror. I find this shot
effective as it shows a previous clip from a different angle, this reveals to
the audience the questions they have been asking themselves throughout the film
for example ‘Who are they looking at? Why are they doing that?’ By this clip
being shown near the end of the film captures the audience’s attention
throughout as they are questioning the actions of the characters. At this point
in the film they learn The Woman In Black is the driving force behind the
children’s death as she encourages them through the use of super natural
powers. By The Woman In Black being visible but still not entirely clear
focuses the audience’s attention on the three girls who are the ones which are
under her possession. I think we will be able to use a similar clip in our
production as the children in our film sequence are being possessed by the
capturer through the use of whispering. However it is vague to the audience
what it is that is being said. When
we film our opening sequence I feel that if we were to replicate a shot like
this is, it would be very effective as we would like to create a response
similar to this in our audience. We are hoping that the with the lack of
information shared with the viewer it will intrigue and encourage the viewer to
continue watching to find out what’s happening and the story behind what is
shown.
Another
screen shot I looked at (left) was this over the shoulder shot of The
Woman In Black shown in the opening sequence of the film. At first sight it’s
not entirely clear. Viewers don’t tend to notice it when watching it first time
round as it is a quick paced shot. I think this shot is effective as the Woman
face isn’t visible to the camera, this creates suspense and uncertainty as the
audience aren’t able to identify the woman and captures their attention as they
become eager to find information about who this woman is and what she is hoping
to achieve. I feel we could use a shot similar to this one in our opening
sequence as we don’t want to reveal the identity of our capturer in the scene. I think it would be suitable and
successful if we were to use a shot similar to this but for a different effect
when we our opening sequence, as during our sequence Liam looks blankly at the
camera. This will hopefully make the viewer question as to why he is looking so
emotionless and It also adds to the effect of showing that Liam is distraught
through the abduction of his brother and further shows his innocence. The
final shot I focused on (right) was this close up shot of a toy. This shot is effective
as it enhances the children’s death and the toys are left alone, the condition
of the toys emphasises how they haven’t been played with for a long time. There
are no other characters visible in the shot which emphasises the toys being
abandoned as children are always commonly playing with toys. I think we’d able
to replicate a similar shot into our production as Alfie has gone missing we
could show different shots toys around his bedroom, we could also possibly use
this opportunity to play titles over these shots as they are similar shots and
the viewer won’t be distracted by the footage to read them.
When making the decision as to whether our film should be
commercial or independent we considered a number of reasons. Big commercial production
companies such as DreamWorks, Universal and Pixar are able to use high end equipment and
editing software, they are able to create CGI (computer generated imagery) with
editing software and create realistic dangerous stunts through the use of
special props and setting. These films are often shown in the cinema and gain great popularity and positive reviews. Due to the fact we are limited to editing software and filming equipment we made the decision to produce our opening sequence under an independent production company. The company we chose to use
was Film 4, a British film production company owned by Channel 4. This means
that our film would not be shown in the cinema but would appear on the television.
As we are limited to available equipment we are using a ‘Canon Legria Camcorder
Plus’ camera and editing our footage in 'Adobe Premiere' we will use this equipment to the best of our knowledge in order to attain
the best results possible.
In order to further make our film appear as independent we
created a new production company logo. We decided to call our production
company ‘Take Two Productions’. We created our logo using Photoshop and when
adding it to Adobe Premiere at a later date we will animate it with the use of sound effects
and transitions. The name Take Two Productions is associated with television/film;
hopefully this will become memorable for viewers. This could potentially
enhance the viewer count also due to the fact people could inform their
families/friends about the name.
When choosing the titles for our opening sequence we
explored a variety of fonts in which fitted in with our genre of
horror/thriller. We looked at both serif and san serif fonts in a variety of
ways such as bold or italic. We mainly focused on the colours of red grey and
black as they are considered to be dull gloomy colours. We eventually decided
to present our film title ‘Progeny’ in the colour red. A common colour connotation
the colour red has is danger therefore this why we chose this. We presented it
against a plain black background so it appears as bold and stands out clearly. Nearer
the time we will animate the title adding transitions and sound effects in Premiere. The
font we used was called ‘You Murderer’ and we downloaded it from the internet. We feel this title
follows the film conventions of a horror genre.
For our other titles we decided
upon the font ‘Pencil Pete’ which we also downloaded from the internet. We felt
this font appears as written writing which interlinks with the camerawork of
our opening sequence as drawings are featured numerous times. We made the
decision for the font to be in white therefore it would clearly stand out when
placed above the camerawork. These titles will include the people who
contributed an input to the production for example ‘featuring, produced,
directed etc.’ The titles in which were used in the opening sequence of psychological
thriller ‘Se7en’ inspired us to select the titles we did as they appear as simple, however stand out bold and are easy to read.
