After having the class watch our opening, we asked for their opinions.
Some included:
-Good use of sound
-Good contrast between the normal shots and the 'weird' ones
-Good establishment of tension by using the repetition of previous shots (sped up)
-Creates a good sense of mystery - Who/what's writing on the mirror? Is it a dream, reality or a premonition? Keeps the viewer hooked.
-Good variety of different shots, angles and effects.
-Could have done with an opening sequence (credits etc)
-Could have seen more 'normal' shots
-Would have liked to see some dialogue
I agree with all of these opinions, especially the ones about the good use of sound to build the contrast, and the fact that we should have done an opening sequence.
Thursday, 29 April 2010
Evaluation-Transmission
After all the issues we've had with regards to editing, we've finally completed our piece, and named it 'Transmission'. I'm quite pleased with how it's turned out, but there are a couple of things that as a group we would of liked to have done differently. Most of the things we aren't very happy with is down to the limited amount of time we had to edit - 2 days, when we planned to have 3 weeks. Although this was obviously a problem, and worrying as we thought we might not get it done in time, we still managed to do it to a reasonable standard.
Credits at the beginning, and an opening sequence are something that we know is a feature of most films, however we didn't have the time to add desirable extras like this to our piece. Also, Phoebe was the only person acting in our opening so there would only be one name to write in credits. Something we could have done to improve the flow of the transitions between the getting ready shots and the 'scary' shots, is to add the flashes of the rose with blood on in between them, instead of just randomly scattered about. I think the sounds work especially well with the scary parts, in particular, the bit where it is sped up, and also the good mood music provides a really strong contrast which is exactly what we wanted. After watching our completed film we can see how the tension is sustained by the build up of the shots, and then the repetition of the first part of the film. Paired with the sounds, this works very well. In my opinion it's good that it doesn't necessarily make much sense to the audience, but our original plan of having Phoebe waking up at the end would have made it a lot better as it would have let the viewer know that it was a dream. Something I'm extremely pleased about is that our opening is very different to the others, which shows how much imagination we put into it.
Our product definitely shows influences from existing media films. Our film is somewhat reminiscent of the 1973 production, 'Don't Look Now', as it also has a scene at the end in which previous shots are shown again, at a faster pace. We also were influence a lot by our preliminary task, as we really liked the effect of just seeing Bex's hands, so we took this to another level, by doing most of the getting ready shots and some of the scary ones as close ups - which turned out to be very effective. We also were influenced by the opening to 'Shrooms' - the cutting of scary shots in between more normal ones, and the strong contrast between the two scenarios, established by the use of music.
Although we changed our idea quite a few times, once we actually came up with a final one, we stuck to it quite well. I'm quite an organised person so I like to get things straight in my head, by writing bullet pointed lists of what we need to do, and we also assigned time limits, which were met more often than not. We did a lot of planning for the sounds that we would include, and also, the idea of it being a dream, and different shots/editing effects we could include.
New media technologies played a big part in our project. We used the internet and YouTube to research real media products, the internet to write our blogs, the camera to film, and the Adobe Premiere Pro to edit. Most of it went smoothly, but we had quite a few problems with the technological side of it, as I've mentioned previously, we had A LOT of issues getting the recorded material onto the computer. It was stressful and annoying, but at least we got it to work in the end.
Credits at the beginning, and an opening sequence are something that we know is a feature of most films, however we didn't have the time to add desirable extras like this to our piece. Also, Phoebe was the only person acting in our opening so there would only be one name to write in credits. Something we could have done to improve the flow of the transitions between the getting ready shots and the 'scary' shots, is to add the flashes of the rose with blood on in between them, instead of just randomly scattered about. I think the sounds work especially well with the scary parts, in particular, the bit where it is sped up, and also the good mood music provides a really strong contrast which is exactly what we wanted. After watching our completed film we can see how the tension is sustained by the build up of the shots, and then the repetition of the first part of the film. Paired with the sounds, this works very well. In my opinion it's good that it doesn't necessarily make much sense to the audience, but our original plan of having Phoebe waking up at the end would have made it a lot better as it would have let the viewer know that it was a dream. Something I'm extremely pleased about is that our opening is very different to the others, which shows how much imagination we put into it.
Our product definitely shows influences from existing media films. Our film is somewhat reminiscent of the 1973 production, 'Don't Look Now', as it also has a scene at the end in which previous shots are shown again, at a faster pace. We also were influence a lot by our preliminary task, as we really liked the effect of just seeing Bex's hands, so we took this to another level, by doing most of the getting ready shots and some of the scary ones as close ups - which turned out to be very effective. We also were influenced by the opening to 'Shrooms' - the cutting of scary shots in between more normal ones, and the strong contrast between the two scenarios, established by the use of music.
Although we changed our idea quite a few times, once we actually came up with a final one, we stuck to it quite well. I'm quite an organised person so I like to get things straight in my head, by writing bullet pointed lists of what we need to do, and we also assigned time limits, which were met more often than not. We did a lot of planning for the sounds that we would include, and also, the idea of it being a dream, and different shots/editing effects we could include.
New media technologies played a big part in our project. We used the internet and YouTube to research real media products, the internet to write our blogs, the camera to film, and the Adobe Premiere Pro to edit. Most of it went smoothly, but we had quite a few problems with the technological side of it, as I've mentioned previously, we had A LOT of issues getting the recorded material onto the computer. It was stressful and annoying, but at least we got it to work in the end.
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
Monday, 26 April 2010
Editing...
Unfortunately, the shot of Phoebe waking up suddenly had disappeared when we went back to finish the editing today. we think it might have been deleted by mistake, but whatever happened, the absence of it compromises the storyline of our piece. The whole idea even from the beginning was that it was going to be a dream, and without this shot it isnt obvious that the first part is a dream - we experimented with putting a scream at the end, but found that darkness was more effective so we stuck with it.
To do the editing of the writing of the mirror, we had to film each letter as a seperate shot, and then speed them up. We loved the effect this created as it reminded us of an old silent movie typed thing. Other shots that relied on editing were the Russian dolls and the shots being poured.
During the second part of the opening where everything is repeated faster, we increased the speed by 1500%, and put the shots into reverse speed, which was also a good effect as it helped to build the tension, and do a quick recap of previous shots.
To do the editing of the writing of the mirror, we had to film each letter as a seperate shot, and then speed them up. We loved the effect this created as it reminded us of an old silent movie typed thing. Other shots that relied on editing were the Russian dolls and the shots being poured.
During the second part of the opening where everything is repeated faster, we increased the speed by 1500%, and put the shots into reverse speed, which was also a good effect as it helped to build the tension, and do a quick recap of previous shots.
Saturday, 24 April 2010
Editing...
Final Plan :
-Starts off with ipod being turned on, then alternating shots of Phoebe getting ready and the 'scary' images. The getting ready shots get less and less frequent towards the end, and the scary images build up. Then is the shot of 'time is up', and after this, it rewinds fast through the whole thing and ends on 'time is up', then Phoebe wakes up suddenly.
-For the getting ready shots there the song 'Boogie Wonderland', but the scary shots are paired with scary sounds, some of which we recorded, and some we downloaded. This creates a strong contrast between good and bad which is what we wanted.
-Starts off with ipod being turned on, then alternating shots of Phoebe getting ready and the 'scary' images. The getting ready shots get less and less frequent towards the end, and the scary images build up. Then is the shot of 'time is up', and after this, it rewinds fast through the whole thing and ends on 'time is up', then Phoebe wakes up suddenly.
-For the getting ready shots there the song 'Boogie Wonderland', but the scary shots are paired with scary sounds, some of which we recorded, and some we downloaded. This creates a strong contrast between good and bad which is what we wanted.
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Editing...
Today we put all of the shots in the order that we wanted them. We also started to change the speed of some of them - for example, speeding up the shot of the shots being poured.
Me and Phoebe aren't pleased at all with the way the project has gone. If Bex had been here all the time we most likely would have finished it before the deadline. We could have done with some help with setting up our camera, and maybe a lesson on how to use the editing software. But despite it all, we will still end up with a project that we can be somewhat proud of.
Me and Phoebe aren't pleased at all with the way the project has gone. If Bex had been here all the time we most likely would have finished it before the deadline. We could have done with some help with setting up our camera, and maybe a lesson on how to use the editing software. But despite it all, we will still end up with a project that we can be somewhat proud of.
Monday, 19 April 2010
Editing...
We started editing today and managed to sort out all the shots we wanted, and we started to cut some of them down. We could only stay for an hour and a half though because the Mr Voake (the teacher who's office we were in) had to do some work so needed us to leave. We aim to edit again during our media lesson tomorrow afternoon.
Friday, 9 April 2010
Editing...
We've been trying all day to work out what's wrong with our camera, and even the school's technician couldn't figure it out. Despite this, we finally managed to set it up, the day before the holidays (naturally) in the drama teacher's office as thats the only place it would work. We won't be able to make a start on it now until after the holidays, but this gives us an opportunity to re-plan our editing ideas, making them more suited to the time limitations.
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