Rough Cut Edit Analysis

Rough Cut 1 from Megan Hayhurst on Vimeo.

After receiving feedback about our rough cut edit, we made some changes to our production. We were also told what the best aspects of it were.

The main criticism was the fact that the story wasn’t clear. In order to make it clear, we will either add a voice over or dialogue. However, this may be difficult, as we have both a recording of wedding vows and music with lyrics in our production. There was also criticism in regards to the sound used. We will change the levels of the vows and the music, making the former louder, as it is of more use to the viewer in terms of creating meaning. We will also attempt to edit ‘Angels’ down so that only parts of the tracks without vocals are used. Failing this, we will opt for our initial idea of Adam recording the guitar and bass parts in Cubase. However, we were told that lyrics did work with the institutional information, whereas for the rest of the production it is just confusing when combined with the wedding recording.

Our shots appear to be well composed and there is a variety of them, flowing smoothly due to good editing. We were told that this, along with the use of the Green Pearl filter in and saturation adjustments in Magic Bullet, made it look more professional. As well as our use of post-production special effects, we were also complimented on those created in-camera, namely the car bailout scene. However, the editing pace needs to slowly increase in order to create tension, diegetic noise needs to be added to the aforementioned scene, the earlier car scenes need lighting adjustments and more transitions need to be used.

Third Shoot 27th November

We needed to film some of the shots of 17 and 18 to which we found a creepy boiler room in the school that had the right mise-en-scene for the effect we were looking for. We then borrowed some duct tape in order for the kidnapping to appear more realistic and we framed different shots so we it came to editing we can decide which of the frames looked better on the screen. We then decided that due to the dark chiaroscuro lighting that it would be good to shoot the shot 25 and so we borrowed some matches and set up the camera inside the small space and did a couple of takes of Louis striking a match drawing it to his face and then switching on the light. It is possible that we may change this shot and its order within the shot list so that it appears before 17 and 18 to make the idea of her being captive more plausible and obvious to the audience.

Soundtrack Recording

Adam recorded the soundtrack as previously planned. However, it wasn't possible for him to use the effects pedal as he intended to use, as the interface only accepts a mono signal. For this reason, he instead recorded a clean signal for the bass parts and used a plugin just for the guitar parts, with the addition of a 'hall' effect on the actual amplifier.

Second Shoot Thursday 22nd November

Since no-one in our group was legally allowed to drive we had to arrange a date where we could film with a friend of Louis' who could drive. We set up our camera on Duke Street in Waterfoot and we hoping to film lots of shots including 26-31 the rather difficult and tricky shots to film of the illusion that would later be altered in the editing, of Adam rolling out of the car. Although this did prove somewhat difficult particularly in marking exactly where the car had drove in the previous shot to match up with the same shot but with Adam now already out of the car. 

After a couple of takes we were able to film it correctly and then we moved on to filming some of the more easier shots such as Adam opening the door handle and the exterior shot of the door opening. We did also have trouble shooting the shot of Louis 'driving' because the car wasn't particularly stable and so the shots appeared to be quite jumpy. We are now waiting on putting the shots on the computer to see if we can edit them and also see if they need to be re-shot.

Production Company Subsidiary Logo Design

For our production logo we wanted to incorporate the  idea of guns and violence into our logo but also have it moving since most production logo's have an entrance or behaviour elements attached to them such as the Miramax logo which has a flying effect as the camera tracks through a city and then dissolves into the static logo.

                
                            Miramax 2009 Logo from Quentin Vien on Vimeo.
  As we intend to use an animated title, we decided to use a video clip, as opposed to animating stills. Rather than filming the shots ourselves, we decided to use a pre-existing video clip on YouTube. However, it took some time to find one suitable for our production. 

Once we had found a video similar to what we had in mind, I downloaded it with Realplayer.

Once downloaded, I then edited it down to the required 6 seconds in Windows Movie Maker at home, as the clip was 18 minutes long in total. 

It was then exported in high definition in order to match the shots we had already filmed and uploaded to Dropbox to then be edited in Pinnacle.

Once uploaded, it was spliced every 12 frames and some were deleted at random in order to produce jump cuts. A filter was then added in Magic Bullet and adjustments were made in Chroma Keyer. Finally, the Movie Trailer Complete motion title was added.  

 

 

Sound effects were added from Soundbible.com, as the sound from the actual clip wasn't what we required. 

Music Choices

Due to the restrictions of copyright law, we were planning of recording a cover of a song. However, due to the complexity of it, we instead decided to look for something free to use. The song we intended to cover just happened to also be free to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt under creative commons, so seemed ideal.

Both the guitar and bass lines of ‘Angels’ by the XX would have been recorded through a Yamaha THR10 amplifier/interface into Cubase 6LE. The dreamy feel would have been created either through use of an in-program plugin or a Boss Me-20B effects pedal and the drums would have been recorded in the step editor, also with appropriate effects added.

 

As we are going to be using it for non commercial uses, we are free to use it under the conditions that we reference the artist, as well as providing a link to the creative commons page with the finished upload on Vimeo

Audio from a wedding  video on Youtube was also added, as it relates the the content of our production and helps create meaning.                                    

Add information about extracting audio through Realplayer:

Adam then recorded the soundtrack as previously planned. However,it wasn't possible to use the effects pedal he intended to use, as the interface only accepts a mono signal. For this reason, he instead recorded a clean signal for the bass parts and used a plugin just for the guitar parts, with the addition of a 'hall' effect on the actual amplifier.

First Shoot - Saturday 3rd November

In order to film shoot some of the earlier shots of Tom waking up we thought it would be more realistic if we filmed Adam in his own house and room as it would be more believable. Therefore on our first shoot we all met at Adam's house in Burnley and shot 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 13, 15, 16 including some of the difficult shots of Adam in the shower which proved difficult to frame and film working in such a tight space as a shower. The shoot proved very successful and we are optimistic to see how the shots are going to appear on the computer and we are keen to start editing them soon.