progress post

I've been having trouble posting the evaluation and realised that it was because I had copied an pasted my images from word, and they was a lot of code in the 'edit html'. My teacher was able to get rid of all the extra code and I was able to publish my post, however in the process some of my evaluation was also deleted. I have managed to rewrite the missing parts of my evaluation but I am still unable to post any images into my post.

Hopefully in the next couple of days, this will be fixed and I will be able to insert all my images which would then complete my evaluation.

Progress post

In today's lesson we performed the task of taking pictures of us using equipment and screen grabs of the different programmes we used. These will be used for our evaluation question 6 to show the new technologies we have learned to use in the process of making our media product.

Progress post

In our lesson today we added multiple tags to our final video. This is shown in our evaluation posts as question 5. The tags explain how we attracted and addressed our audience in our thriller opening.

Progress post

On our lesson today we added our final music into our piece which Danielle made using logic. The music is more subtle and starts with ambient sound, this works better for our piece as it is less distracting. We think this has improved our piece and made it more thrilling as it builds the tension as the music is minor key.

Progress post

Today on the 23rd we re-arranged our credits which were in the wrong order. Now all we need to do is put our new music in then the piece is finished.

Progress post

Over the half term break we were asked to start on the evaluation questions that we could do by ourselves. these were question 2 and 4. Before putting them on the blog, I decided to partly plan what I wanted to write. I will continue to add to these two questions if I find things that would be good to include and after speaking to the rest of my group.

Progress post

Today, we had a whole day dedicated to filming in order to complete our opening sequence. During this day we managed to do this. We had a little trouble to begin with as final cut express would not let us drop and drag footage into our timeline. Our teacher managed to fix this by wiping any preferences associated with final cut express. This then allowed us to add in our extra clips to break up the walking footage which took up a lot of our time without much actually happening. We added credits using final cut express and managed to overlay them onto our clips and then faded them in and out. After doing this we added our music, which needed slowing down slightly to be the right length. We also cut the music slightly so that it ended at the end of the phrase and ended on the right note. The movie was exported using quicktime conversion and we were able to upload our final piece onto youtube and embed it onto the blog.

Progress post

In our lesson on the 8th of Feb we filmed the last of our added shots. We decided to do medical scenes to add a twist to our piece. Our filming went well, we used the medical room in our school to represent a room in a mental institution. The footage adds a hidden twist into our storyline.

Added Shots

After having our rough cut of our opening looked at and having spoken to our media teacher, we have decided that we need more variety and action in our shots. We have therefore decided to film some more close ups of a medical room and files containing the protagonist. These shots will introduce our antagonist and also leave the viewers asking more questions about the plot and the characters.

Our possible shots will be:-
-a reflection of the back of the head of a unknown character in the mirror
-hands flicking through medical records
-various close up shots of files
-open window shot

We intend not show the face of the antagonist. They will only be shot from the back, to create a sense of mystery.

These are additional props we need:-
-lab coat
-rubber gloves
-medical records
-photo of protagonist

We plan to film during tomorrows lesson and then edit the rest of the opening sequence in our editing day on thursday.

Progress post

In today's lesson on the 3rd of Feb we managed to darken the lighting and put a tint of black and white into the footage. It took us a while as we had to to do each shot at a time, meaning it was a bit tedious although it looks really effective therefore we are happy with it. 
We also took away the sound from the clips that we didn't need. This left us with the only speech in it when Elise says 'I love you' too her son and the grave stone. This is effective as the silence is eery.
This lesson was productive although we were planning on doing our credits but were un able. That is our task for the editing day.

Progress post

Today in our lesson on the 31st of January we were able to make a start on editing our footage. It was a successful day as we managed to edit the first minuet. Although we are still unable to add cross dissolves yet, we will do that at the end when our footage is edited. In this lesson we matched up our different sections of footage and were happy with how they worked together.

Filming

We completed all of our filming on Saturday the 28th of Jan. We managed to complete all of our footage in one day, it was a productive day but worked out well as we had a storyboard to follow. Due to this we were able to work at a pace which meant we could get all our footage done. We were grateful that the weather held out and we were able to take advantage of the use of natural light as we filmed in the day time.
Although there were some issues that occurred such as the pill pot we chose to use being broken, we quickly found a replacement and were able to carry on with our work. Another issue was that part of the tripod was missing meaning we could not attach the camera to it, this was a big issue as we could  not keep a steady shot without it. Luckily we managed to improvise and use elastic bands to hold the camera secure to the tripod.
We now plan to edit our footage where it will be revealed how successful the filming was, but we felt it went well.

Progress post

Today we filmed the new footage. I felt that overall it was a success as we managed to film at both the graveyard and the school in the same day within a few hours. We had a slight technical issue of keeping the camera attached to the tripod, so to improvise we used a handful of elastic bands which kept the camera and tripod together without the camera being wobbly. We made sure that we had the main prop which was a handbag, so that we didn't make the same mistake as last time. we now feel that we have got the majority of footage to finally be able to put it together.

Filming

On Saturday we completed all of our filming all in one day.it was very productive and we worked quickly and efficiently. We had a few problems because I had broken the previous pot that we used in our practise filming but luckily we were able to get a replacement. We were lucky with weather and lighting: although it was cold, we had good natural light and it was not raining. I think our actors were more comfortable this time round as they knew what they were doing and it went more smoothly this time. We had a little trouble with equipment as our tripod was missing the attachment which attached the camera to the tripod,so unfortunately we had to improvise and use elastic bands to keep the camera steady and stable on the tripod.

Overall I think we shot some very good footage over a good space of time.

Progress post

Today in our lesson on the 27th of Jan, we finally managed to upload our first attempt at filming onto youtube. After having issues in the past it has now worked. We also experimented on livetype and created our title and credits.

Progress post

Today we edited our first days filming. Through putting the footage together we have found some issues. The main issue that means we cannot use the footage is continuity. We forgot to use a handbag, but it is a crucial prop. There are other issues which we will learn from when we come to film again. Some of these are that there was a lot of background noise such as wind and laughter. We also did not take the filming as seriously as we should have done. On the other hand some of the footage worked out really well, the panning of Elise as she walked through the grave yard and the match cut of her going through the gate. These are parts we will try to recreate with the handbag, so we do not have a problem with continuity.
Our first day of filming helped us gain a lot of knowledge of what we do and don't want to do. We have planned to film on other occasions but have been stopped by the rain. We have now made plans to film all of our piece on Saturday the 28th of Jan. We are hoping for good weather so we can complete this.

This week

This week we will be hoping to get all of our footage filmed so that we are able to start editing next week. It is crucial that we begin filming this week otherwise we will not have sufficient time to edit our opening properly.

Also this week I will hope to get our music made to go with our trailer, although I do not have to have a final copy of this until a rough cut of our opening has been made so that I can see how long the music has to run for.

I will also research transitions so that we can make appropriate choices for our opening. This will also help speed up the editing process as we will not have to spend ages picking out transitions.

First day of filming

Overall i think that we had a successful first day of filming. We quickly became comfortable with the camera and being able to film was easy. We had a few minor problems with the tripod as it was fairly new but after a while we got the hang of using it. We got a fairly decent amount of filming done in one hour and a half and had no problems with the actor, we were even able to come up with new ideas as we went along which could improve our piece, for example the use of exaggeration was used well because we added the woman pulling her hairband out which would make the piece more realistic as the woman is supposed to be a crazy woman in it. We had no problems with the public space that we filmed in as it was a fairly quiet place that we decided to film at which was exactly what we wanted. When we were filming we seemed to pick up some of the wind whistling but with the use of editing it will be easily edited out.
        Our only main problem was that we missed out a vital prop which was the bag. As a result it would cut down the amount of time we film so as a finished piece may not add up to 2 minutes so we may have to film the graveyard scene again however the footage we filmed was very high quality and professional.

Changes to our filming schedule

Due to the problems with weather we have decided that today on the 19/01/12 we are not able to film. This is because it has been raining so we would not want any of the equipment to get wet/broken. Also we were not able to film at our school location because of various coaches and cars that were parked at the front of the school. This would be a problem if we did film because we would pickup too much background noise and would be too busy to be able to film what we want to film, which needs to be in a fairly quiet environment because of the dialogue in it.

We will carry on filming on the following Tuesday morning (24/01/12)

First day of filming and changes

Our first day of filming was Wednesday the 18th of January. Overall the filming was a success, although there were a few issues as we were still learning how to use the camera. The actress was very suitable and played the part well, but unfortunately we forgot about a main prop which was her handbag. This was a problem because it was a key part, and without it we miss part of our opening. Due to this issue and that there was some background noise of wind, we have decided to film this section again. Luckily we have enough time to film parts a few times and choose which one is best. We planned to film again on Thursday the 19th but as it was raining heavily we could not go through with it, therefore the filming has been moved to a later date. From our first day filming we learnt a lot about how to set up the camera and make sure its straight, also we got used to what we needed to do and the actress. Due to this we hope we will easily be able to film next time we try.