The Introduction To Our Film Opening Project

During today's media lesson, we were introduced to the basis of what would be our actual project. Our task was to create a two minute long film opening. What and how we did this was up to us.

As a class we watched several film openings to inspire us into thinking creatively. It made us aware of two things: we had to follow the criteria as effectively as we could and we also had to know what to include. This was a successful back story and establishing the film openings within our two minute time frame. As a group we have discussed what we could potentially do for our project but more work is needed for us to come out with a solid idea.

- Sharmarke.

Music for the Continuity Piece

Free Music Archive: DMN Productions - A Potência

The link above is to the music we have chosen to add to our continuity piece. We felt that it went well with our piece. It was also copyright free.

- Aram.

Nearing The Finish Of Our Continuity Piece

Sharmarke and I decided to use our study periods today to work on the video a bit more. It was a new day so we thought that a refreshed mind could assist us in noticing minute details that we had not previously noticed. As the camera's microphone picked up background noises that we did not want, we felt it was best that we muted the majority of the video.

The search for a suitable soundtrack continued as we have been struggling to find one that would fit the mood of the clip. This was admittedly the hardest part of the continuity piece as we had to avoid using copyright protected soundtracks. This left us with two options: search for a copyright free soundtrack or create our own. Aram took on the responsibility of finding a track.

- Kausar. 

The Editing

Today was the start of our definite editing period with the new footage we shot. Seeing as how we kept with the same camera shots and sequence, it was only a matter of cutting it together to make it run smoothly. We uploaded the new footage and myself and Sharmarke took rough cuts of the sequence and pieced them together. This was a simple process as we could see what the rough copy of the piece would look like. After this, Sharmarke, Kausar and I returned to the rough copy and cut it as precisely as possible to make it as smooth as possible. This process took endless repeats of the piece, and watching it frame by frame and points where the cuts took place. Eventually we got it to a standard we were proud of. Now, our only task was finding a suitable soundtrack to go with it.

- Aram.

Our First Problem

Following on from last week's difficulties, we spent some time trying to figure out how we could tackle the problem in hand. After talking it through thoroughly amongst ourselves, we decided to do two things: we would salvage what we could in an attempt to avoid redoing everything and we also redid some of the shooting. A slight alteration was made in the continuity piece story. To add a little mystery to it, we decided to have myself talking on the phone and picking up a bag in the hall. Also, a simple line, "I've got it. What next.". This, we felt, would make it more intriguing and interesting.

- Kausar.

First Shoot for the Continuity Piece

Sharmarke decided to capture a variety of shots such as an extreme long shot to kind of establish the buildings to which the actions would take place. He then decided to capture a few long shots, mid shots, variations of close ups and over the shoulder shots with high angle and low angle placements. The weather left us with a few inconsistencies so we tried to eliminate these as best as we could.

After collecting all the shooting we headed back to the media suite to upload the clips onto iMovie, which is the editing software we are using for the continuity project. Whilst uploading we analysed the data and stabilised the footage to see how it could possibly improve the video quality, however this uncovered a few techincal errors as it had corrupted the video footage.

- Kausar.

The Continuity Piece Story

During today's lesson our whole group was present. As a class we discussed what was going to be our Continuity Piece. The aim of this project was to take a variety of shots we captured ourselves and piece them together in a manner which demonstrates our ability to create a continuous piece. During the previous day we had decided not to use a monopod and stick with the more stable and more familiar tripod.

The rough idea was to follow a 'delinquent' as I made my way to the assembly hall where I would get shouted at by my teacher, which was gracefully played by Aram. Sharmarke handled the technical aspects and used his thoughts to capture shots which would hopefully look right when pieced together at the end of the filming sessions.

- Kausar.

The First Day

Today was the first day our group got to 'have fun' with the equipment. After a briefing from Mr. McManus, we left the classroom with the hopes of returning with the knowledge on how to use the equipment through hands-on experience. Our aim was to collect a few shots of our choice.

Between the three of us, we tested out the camera and potential equipment at our disposal, such as the monopod in our case, and we went out to gain some experience on how to use the equipment as correctly and effectively as possible. With Aram as our actor, a tracking shot was the first shot type that Kausar and I tried to capture. Also, we aimed to collect a few decent close ups and we felt that getting the hang of effective close ups would become useful to us. Seeing as how we did not have a crane to take advantage of, the two of us used the monopod in an attempt to capture the tracking shot as smoothly and as stable as possible. It did not work out how we had hoped, and we made a group decision to stick with a tripod for most of the project as it has the stability we need.

- Sharmarke.