Here is the final microdrama "Lads on Tour" which is a horror/slasher film. After finalaly editing all of the 300+ clips in Final Cut Express, and adding sound effects and music we got this.
Monday, 19 November 2012
Microdrama: Editing
Final Cut Pro
We edited the film so that the slasher/killer character was portrayed via narrative enigma where by we didn't show himself to the camera until the end of the film.
When editing the Microdrama we used Final Cut Pro which helped us greatly in touching up and linking the shots together to create one whole film rather than short snippets of film which would have made no sense at all to the viewing audience.
We added extra sound effects to add more tention and exageration to the killing scenes or "fake scare". This made the microdrama look better and was more scary. We also added extra background music to give it a more film feel and made it scarier.
For the editing we split our filming group in two and both had turns at editing the film this was so that we could so which was a better edit and so that we could cover all angles of which the film could be interpreted, we added transitions and effects which enhanced the scariness and tension in the film.
Things i would change if we were to do it again would be more blood and gore when the actual killing takes place and more screaming for help when the 'lads' are trapped by the killer. Also i would probably add more lighting effect to the night time scenes.
We edited the film so that the slasher/killer character was portrayed via narrative enigma where by we didn't show himself to the camera until the end of the film.
When editing the Microdrama we used Final Cut Pro which helped us greatly in touching up and linking the shots together to create one whole film rather than short snippets of film which would have made no sense at all to the viewing audience. We added extra sound effects to add more tention and exageration to the killing scenes or "fake scare". This made the microdrama look better and was more scary. We also added extra background music to give it a more film feel and made it scarier.
Things i would change if we were to do it again would be more blood and gore when the actual killing takes place and more screaming for help when the 'lads' are trapped by the killer. Also i would probably add more lighting effect to the night time scenes.
Microdrama: The Shoot
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| This is the only shot we took outside due to the weather. |
We shot the Microdrama at Ben Brearleys house because we thought that it had the best effects with the natural lighting and the specific rooms. We all gathered to shoot the microdrama on what was a wet and rainy day so we coudln't film hardly any shots outside due to ruining the camera.
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| Here the lighting was very poor and not what we hoped it to be. |
Some of the lighting in the house wasnt as light as we had hoped it had been so we had to improvise and use a phone torch to make it lighter and to capture those vital expressions. But the worst problem we had was the interuptions by various members of the group making noises and putting of the acting crew so we had to shoot longer than we should have in the end.
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| This was long shot we took of which could have been shot wi |
Things i would have done differantly to improve the prefered reading of the text would be to add in more rapid shots to create a scence of tension and bulid up to a big scare. Also i would have used not as many long takes, because they get boring to watch and are less scary. I should have filmed mroe close ups using match-on action shots to create more tention.
Shooting this microdrama helped us use vital and key shots and angles by doing this we gained more expeience of what we need to do for the coarse and what actual filming and shootign of shots looks and feels like.
We came across many problems during the shooting of the microdrama such as the rain and the wind, however with the help of my shotgun microphone and dead cat we could get enough of the dialogue as we possibly could. The Traffic in the opening scene also became a problem due to the inconsistant amount of filming time we had between red and green lights at the traffic lights.
Film Festival Masterclass
On Friday 9th we went on a media trip to the ASFF short film festival in York. We went to two master classes, a talk from Danny Cohen the successful cinematographer, and a talk from the head of production at Warp films Barry Ryan.
Warp Films
Barry Ryan talked about the latest in film productions and a lot about Warp films and its achievements as this year it is celebrating its 10th year. He talked a lot about how to get ahead in the business and all about budgets and how much you truly make off box office intakes once all your financers and people who put money into the project have been paid.He went into a lot of detail about how warp films have advertised and presented cover art for their films and how you need to get the attention of your target audience by showing them what they want.
Danny Cohen
This master class was set up like a relaxed conversation between Danny Cohen and Mariayah Kaderbhai where she'd ask him interview styled questions. He started by talking about how he got into the industry and how initially he did a social science degree and then became a photographic technician which gradually led into him being the cinematographer he is today. Throughout the master class Danny was asked on how he made numerous scenes and these scene would be shown to us and then he'd explain how he put them together, for example one of these was a scene from This is England (Shane Meadows, 2006) and he explained how it was difficult to find an area where everything was like how it should be set out in 1983 so he had to make make changes to the area, like changing the satellites on the houses, and the cars all had to be from the 1980's time period and he told us how some cars were used more than once in the scene as they were on a low budget and couldn't afford any more, he also gave useful tips to the camera angles he used during this film and why he used them.
He went into a lot of detail about how warp films have advertised and presented cover art for their films and how you need to get the attention of your target audience by showing them what they want.
Warp Films
Barry Ryan talked about the latest in film productions and a lot about Warp films and its achievements as this year it is celebrating its 10th year. He talked a lot about how to get ahead in the business and all about budgets and how much you truly make off box office intakes once all your financers and people who put money into the project have been paid.He went into a lot of detail about how warp films have advertised and presented cover art for their films and how you need to get the attention of your target audience by showing them what they want.Danny Cohen
This master class was set up like a relaxed conversation between Danny Cohen and Mariayah Kaderbhai where she'd ask him interview styled questions. He started by talking about how he got into the industry and how initially he did a social science degree and then became a photographic technician which gradually led into him being the cinematographer he is today. Throughout the master class Danny was asked on how he made numerous scenes and these scene would be shown to us and then he'd explain how he put them together, for example one of these was a scene from This is England (Shane Meadows, 2006) and he explained how it was difficult to find an area where everything was like how it should be set out in 1983 so he had to make make changes to the area, like changing the satellites on the houses, and the cars all had to be from the 1980's time period and he told us how some cars were used more than once in the scene as they were on a low budget and couldn't afford any more, he also gave useful tips to the camera angles he used during this film and why he used them.He went into a lot of detail about how warp films have advertised and presented cover art for their films and how you need to get the attention of your target audience by showing them what they want.
Sunday, 18 November 2012
Microdrama: Planning
Our Plan
The theme of our micro-drama will be horror, involving 6 characters - 5 innocent people going on tour and a murderer. Because there are 5 people in our group, we will assign the camera job to the killer until the first person dies. From then on he will record the whole film.
The theme of our micro-drama will be horror, involving 6 characters - 5 innocent people going on tour and a murderer. Because there are 5 people in our group, we will assign the camera job to the killer until the first person dies. From then on he will record the whole film.
The film will be set in a house, we are choosing Ben Brearleys . The opening scene will be all of us walking to the house with suitcases, so the viewing interprets we are on "tour".
We will then all disperse into the house exploring it. We will have a false scare at the beginning to get the audience ready and aware, this is a good effect to keep the audience occupied. Then we all start drinking and throughout the night certain mishaps and events keep occurring Each person dies one by one. However there is one survivor who gets away. The killer isn't reveled until the end. We plan to finish the film with the survivor running away from the killer.
It will be ideal for us to film in the afternoon when its light till the evening when it is dark so it looks like we have spent a day there. This will create more of a sense of terror and mystery, and also because major horror films tend to be set at night.
We have made a story board including the different shot types and angles, which will benefit us when shooting the footage as we will have pre-made decisions, which will speed up the filming process.
We have made a story board including the different shot types and angles, which will benefit us when shooting the footage as we will have pre-made decisions, which will speed up the filming process.
FINAL CUT PRO X: 1ST IMPRESSIONS
Final Cut Pro X
The First Impressions of final cut pro x was it was very easy to get used to.
It has a similar layout to video editing software i have used before.
After around 5 minutes everything was very straight forward and simple.
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| The bottom is the video/audio timeline. |
The First Impressions of final cut pro x was it was very easy to get used to.
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| On the left is where you choose your media footage |
It has a similar layout to video editing software i have used before.
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| On the right side is the preview window |
After around 5 minutes everything was very straight forward and simple.
Vodcast Conventions
The task was to create a short film which consisted of 3 camera shots which were, match on action, the 180 degree rule and the shot reverse shot. The video itself was shot in school. In this vodcast we highlight the conventions of Idents, Mis-en-Scene, Audio and Editing throughout the 8 films.
Here is our video.
The 8 films we talked about were:
28 Days Later
Reqium For A Dream
Kes
Harry Brown
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