Final Editting Session For Thriller Opening (Finally Finished!!)

Today (27/02/09) was the deadline for the final edit of our thriller opening, we had until 3 pm to hand it in. Since we already put the footage into a sequence, we just needed to add title screens and add in the music and the sound effects.
To save time, we split up; Bianca and Billy added the music to the opening, while me and Kimone did the title screens. At first I was clueless about making the title screens because I didn't know how to use the programme but with help from the teacher and a fellow classmate it became easier. Since we broke up opening we left gaps in the sequence where the title screens should go, and there were 11 gaps - so at first we needed 11 title screens. But we realised that was too much so we had to change the thriller slightly so there were only 6 title screens used during editing and finishing our final edit of our opening.

Once we finished the title screens we had to put them onto the hard drive and then take the hard drive back to the editing room, where Billy and Bianca were so we could add them to the thriller. When we put all the title screens in, we helped finish putting the music together and making final touches to the editting so it looked good and ran smoothly and in time with the music.

When we finished editting the whole opening we were relieved that we had finished in time and were able to hand it in at lunch time and not stay behind until 3 pm. The last thing we had to do before we could go home, was just post it onto our blogging group.

When watching the final edit of the thriller opening, I realised we could of improved a few things. The first thing would have been that the girl (Olivia) who starred in the opening should have worn the same clothes on both filming days, so it looked more realistic because shes wearing different shoes and jacket - but I don't think its that noticeable anyway!
Another thing we could've changed was made the music for the opening fade out before the scream to have more of an impact on the scream, because it sounds a bit jumpy and I think that if it faded out it would of sounded smoother.
One more thing that maybe we could've done was use lighting down the alley way in Liverpool Street but I think the darkness adds an eerie feeling to our opening - so maybe it was a good thing we didn't use lighting on that day.

Overall this project has been difficult at times, but also easy. Parts of it were enjoyable and others were a bit boring. But I think as a group we worked well together and made good plans of camera shots, locations and filming that we stuck to and made it a lot easier for us to film and put everything together while editting. I think that this has been a very interesting and valuable experience, and atleast now I know how to use a camera, a mac computer, and the editing suite!!

Final edit of Taken by Kimone, Billy, Alex and Bianca..

First Time Editing...

Today (25/02/2009) we edited our thriller for the first time. Since Bianca logged and captured the footage on the inset day before half term (Friday the 13th of Feburary), we had to put it together into the order we wanted it to be in. I think this part of the project was quite fun because I've never edited something before and at first I didn't really know what to click on but as I got into it more it became much easier than I thought it was going to be. Also we had help from a member of another group which was good because she gave us tips and told us things about editing that we didn't know.

It was easy to put the thriller opening all together because we had seperate clips we could use so we jus had to click on each clip and cut it so we only used the good footage, camera shots and camera angles in our opening. At the beginning of the lesson I thought it would of taken a lot longer than it did to put it all together but it only took about an hour and 15 minutes to do.

Although we still have more to do I think that it was good that we completed this part of the editing so we can move on to putting the blank screens in (where the titles and names are going to be written) and add in effects to our opening (if we are able to!). The other good thing is that we already know what music we are using which will save us plenty of time searching for it.

The last Day Of Filming!!!!!

On the 12th of Feburary, we rented out the camera and equipment over night so we could film in Liverpool Street after college because we needed it to be dark outside for our thriller opening. We filmed the scene where the girl walks down the alley way and is kidnapped, it took us about 2 hours to film everything we needed from this part of the thriller and to get all the shots we needed so we could choose from different ones when it came to editing. Unfortunately it was very cold outside, and there were many members of the public walking down the alley way which slowed down our filming session quite a bit but we didn't give up we waited until the alley way was clear before filming another shot.
One thing I think we could've done was use lighting but when we were standing in the alley way it didn't look like we needed light, and when we looked at the shots the darkness added to the scariness of the scene.. So in the end it worked out as a plus.

The Second Day Of Filming...

On the 30th of January, we filmed for the second time. The second part of the filming was in the basement of the college. The first part of the lesson from 9 am to 10:30 am we planned for the next time we filmed which would be at 10:45 am. We planned out what shots and angles we were going to use when we went down to the basement, so we knew exactly what we were going to do and it wouldn't be difficult trying to decide what shots we were going to use on the spot because otherwise it would be time consuming and we would only have the cameras un till after lunch (1:15 pm) then we would have to return them, so the next class would be able to use them.

So after we wrote out an account of shots we wanted to use, we went for a 15 minute break and then came back and planned out our next scene, because next time we would be filming in Liverpool Street again but down a near by alley way to shoot the 'kid napping' scene.

On Thursday the 29th I got a visitor pass for my friend so she was able to come in and star in our thriller opening, she arrived at 10:50 am so as soon as she came, we rented out the camera and the tripod and went down to the college basement so we could start to film. On the way to the basement we realised we would of needed rubber surgical gloves for one of the shots, so we went up to textiles and got a pair.

When we were in the basement we filmed the scene where the girl has been kidnapped and is taken hostage and we want to give the audience to idea she is going to be tortured, because of the mise of scene we used and the location. She was tied up in a dingey dark place, and all the audience would see is the mans feet and hands for when he puts on the surgical gloves.

I think during this session we got alot of filming done and we got some good angles and camera shots to create suspense and a thrilling experience for the audience when we finish our opening.

First Day Of Filming..

On the 28th of January 2009, we filmed in Liverpool station. We had to sign in at the reception so we were able to film, and they gave us passes that we had to give back after we finished filming. First of all we did an establishing shot of inside the station and then a close-up shot of the 'Liverpool Street Station' sign. We filmed around 2 pm so the station wasn't that busy. After we filmed inside, we went outside so we could film the outside of the station, we did another close up of the station sign (the outside entrance) and an extreme close-up shot of the screen sign that said 'Liverpool Street EC2'. We didn't do alot of filming from this session but at least we got some footage we can use when editing to create our finished thriller opening.