Voiceover and Final Sound Edit

As the sound for the scenes of dialogue were disrupted with traffic noises, I considered recording a voice over and adding it to the footage. I recorded two voice overs with 2 different actors and attempted to dub them over the footage in the film. I decided not to use the voiceover I recorded with the 2 girls from my class because it was not clear enough and did not synchronise with the footage on screen. They were either too slow or out of time.

Final Editing Process

Today I spent a very long time going through my film to polish it. After burning a disk and showing my family and friends, the feedback I received was positive, however 1 or 2 people commented on the blunt ending. To prevent this blunt ending I have placed the titles that were previously at the end and put them in various shots to spread them out. I have also extended one of the first clips as the girls sentence was only half said, so we extended how long the clip was and left the music the same. We also went through and made sure all the text and titles were in the same font, same size and had a similar colour pattern.

Comparing boys

I this image we see the boys from Attack the Block looking intimidating as they are in a group, staring towards the camera, wearing dark clothes and obviously not from a wealthy background. We have tried to create a similar effect in our film.

This is a screen shot of the boys we used in our film. We have stereotyped the average teenage 'hoodie' and created them in a normal, realistic, day to day scene, hanging out in an alley. We have tried to use a similar image to the boys in 'Attack the Block' as the boys are wearing dark closed in a dark environment.

Comparing Titles

This is the title for Attack the Block. As you can see we have used a similar technique in terms of the colours used in the title. The only difference is that we have used red to hint danger instead of orange they have used. We have also put this title over our film whilst paying so it would be located over a pavement. This one is just simply on a plain background.

This is another example of the titles we show at the beginning of our film. It is similar to the Attack the Block title as it uses colour to emphasise maybe part of the sentence, we have used it to create enigma. The red hint danger pushing the viewer in the direction of summing a negative outcome will happen at the end of our 2 minute film. 

This is an example of the titles we have at the beginning of our film. As you can see it is similar to the 'Attack the block' titles as it is black on white and uses a similar font. It is also not very large. The reason we used this is because it does not make our movie look cheap and because we wanted the audience to approach the film seriously at the beginning as they don't know what is going to happen, happy and coloured titles would just ruin the tension and enigma we had created. 

This is an example of the titles shown at the beginning of  'Attack the Block'. Very plain, black on white giving a serious impression to the audience.

Compare Main Character

This is the medium shot of the woman from 'Attack the Block' showing her appearance and clothing, therefore giving us an immediate impression of her wealth and how she choses to present herself. As this is the beginning of the film this is our biggest insight into the character other than the conversation she is having on the phone. 

This is an image of our main character on the phone. Much like the phone form Attack The Block she is not wearing identical clothing but it gives the same message of a rich middle-class girl. We have used a similar camera shot aswell, form an angle and a medium close up so that we can see her facial expressions whilst on the phone.

This is an image of the main woman from Attack the Block. We have tried to create a similar profile for our main character by making her middle class, well dressed ect. 

This is another screen shot from out film. Maybe giving away more of the character as we see more of her clothing as opposed to the medium close up, this is just a medium shot.

So far..

So far this image shows the progress we have made in editing our film and adding a sound track to fit with it.

We changed the track by changing the volume of the track which accented the dialogue and emphasised particular parts of the track for example heavy bass parts. 

Our Folder

This is the file in which we kept everything to do with our film including titles, shots, clips, photos...everything. We then kept this file on a hard drive to make it easy accessible to use on different computers incase we couldn't use the same one twice.

Blue Stamp 2

We tried using different colours with relevance to the words for greater emphasis.
We made the letters on screen move by using key framing to give more motion to out title. 

Blue Stamp (logo)

We experimented with many different fonts to find which was the best to use for our logo. We tried to find a font that would give off a serious impression and relate somewhat to an image we will ahem to create for our logo.

Livetype

This is a screenshot of 'Livetype'. On this programme we created and edited our titles.

For our 'Dead Beats' logo we added a flashing effect so that it could further relate to the genre of our film. We chosen to have a simple white text on black background with nothing around, it to emphasise the title of our film.

(Screen shot of Dead Beats logo)

On Final Cut

This is Final Cut Pro. This shows the film (which are the blue  bars) and the soundtrack (which are the green bars). This is where we edited the order things came in and applied fade ins, ect. The selected clip would appear and play in the centre screen and the whole film would be shown in the screen furthest to the right. 

Final Cut screen shot

When we began to edit our film we put all of our clips onto Final Cut Pro so that it would be clearer which ones we wanted to use and which ones didn't come out as we wanted them too. The clips we didn't use we placed in a folder called, 'throw aways', but did not delete them incase we later relied on them. From here we dragged each clip one at a time into a rough order of where they would be and then began to cut them together.

Tracking shot

This Worms Eye tracking shot has been used briefly to escalate the fact she is in a rush and going somewhere. It also gives us some direction and makes it more obvious she is walking down the hill. Finally the heels give us a small inside into our character and show she is confidence and takes pride in the way she dresses even if it is for a casual occasion.

Second Worms eye shot of Olivia

Here is another worms eye view of Olivia walking down the road. This time we see both the actress name and the actress. The use of the colour red to write her name suggests danger and creates anxiousness.

Over the Shoulder Shot

This Over the Shoulder Shot has been used here as it creates a vulnerability to our character.  Here the camera is moving at the same time as the actress is walking so that we see things from here point of view, yet we also have the feeling someone is following her creating a tension. The camera does not follow her smoothly and this places us in the film as it is naturally what would be seen from someone walking behind her, placing the viewer in the film.

Worms eye shot & title

This is a Worms Eye View shot that our actress walks into. On the pavement floor and still we show London as it naturally is, aspects of this are emphasised by the leaves on the ground. As she is walking down a hill we are able to see what lies ahead. We decided to put the directors into this still shot. A fade in/out has been used to subtly bring in the titles here.

Shot of London

Here is another still shot of London we have used in our opening. This time there is emphasis on the metal cage around us. This amplifies the 'trapped' or 'encaged' feel we are trying to give London and the viewer. It also makes London feel grotty and suggests crime. The contrast with the wire and our of focus view of London behind almost creates enigma and we don't know what is happening in the distance as the wire cage is in focus. However the sun on the left hints hopefulness. We have used black as the colour of the title to broaden a variety of colours used in our titles, it also looks better against the sky then white would.

Opening shots

This shot of London was taken from Monument in central London and ended up being perfect for our opening scene. This fitted perfectly with creating a quiet yet grotty shot of London. The sunset also gives it a calm feel and emphasises the smoke and landmarks such as the London Eye. I chose to put a white title over this as it stands out and is more interesting to look at, opposed to a black background. In this shot we show the production companies used.

THE TITLE

I had always thought choosing the title was going to be the easiest part of the movie, but I was wrong. After a variety of different names this was the one I chose to represent the film. The language works well with the theme of our film and the font has been used as it looks as if it has been written in blood, again following the theme of the film.

Voiceover

I considered a voiceover in our film, however I decided it may ruin what we have already created. The enigma would suffer and our track would have to be re-edited to fit around the voice over. At the moment the use of non diegetic music works in our favour to create suspense and to let the viewer know something is about to happen. A voice over would take that away and they could become too concentrated on the conversation happening other then where the girl is walking.

I originally wanted a voiceover to help introduce the girl and show her character but that almost takes away the 'crime' effect within the film and would make it more about the girl.

This is conventional as it is a typical technique used in films such as 'Sket', 'Adulthood', 'Kidulthood' and 'Attack the block'. Music creates a much more powerful effect then I had originally imagined it could have. As it speeds up we know what we have been waiting to see what is about to happen and this is one of the reasons I do not now want to use a voiceover.

Re-shoot

When we reshoot we will change how we planned our first shoot of the boys due to over complications.

We are going to film on a small road in Highate rather than the alley way in Golders Green however the audience will not be aware of the change in location as we will edit it creating continuity 'cheating' so it appears to be the alley way.

The main reason we have decided to change location is due to lighting within the alley way. It is not bright enough and we don't get enough light purely from the street lights and from the reflection off the cars so hopefully in the alleyway there will be brighter lights and clearer skies above so there should be more natural light aswell as light from the street lamps.

At the moment I am not sure if our cast will remain the same as some of the original cast may not be able to come to the filming because of rugby and school activities. This means I may have to compromise and use a different three boys. The benefit with our previous shots are that they are so dark you cannot see the boys properly so I will be able to cut clips together. Props and costumes will remain the same however there may not be a bike as it was one of the issues previously and filming it was too hard because it moved to fast for the camera to keep up with steadily and doesn't look very good when moving slowly. We hope to achieve the same stereotypical view of the hoodies as we originally wanted to, hopefully this time the lighting will allow us to see them.

Lastly there is a noise issue. Although we don't use much dialogue at all in the film and only one line of dialogue would be used with the hoodies there is too much street noise to give the audience a feel of where they are. It is also in a quieter location so we will have less trouble with people walking in the way of our shots or getting angry as we had previously been preventing them from parking.

Soundtrack

The red lines show the volume of the track and how I have changed it to better suit the film.

Due to technical problems and time constraints, I was unable to create the soundtrack myself in a studio as I had originally planned. To compromise I used Free Music Archive and found a track that would work well in our film with aspects (such as bass) that would draw in our audience at the same time as building enigma. I created a new soundtrack and looked through 15 of different basic beats and carefully selected the chosen one. I was then able to edit this on Final Cut Pro to help it fit better with our film. The parts we made predominantly loud are where there is no dialogue and we are creating a dramatic entrance (such as the first appearance of the hoodies or as the titles are on screen).


Obviously we would have been able to apply the notes to any form of music (classical, rock, pop) and give the same effect. The reason we decided to use this particular one is because we wanted our audience at the time of release to be able to connect with the music and recognise it as something they would enjoy listening to. This along with the fact the music emphasises certain parts of the film would hopefully get our audience fully focused on what is happening and show an interest. The upbeat basis of our chosen song also creates enigma and as it is always changing the audience can't sit still for long before the beat it forcing them to think something is about to happen.

Post-Production

Editing is almost complete for our film and I feel it has gone well. Some scenes are still too dark so I have organised a re-shoot on Friday.

Now that there is continuity and everything is flowing smoothly I have began to add in certain extra things such as titles and transitions between titles. We have also had a chance to fit in a sound track that not only creates suspension as our character is walking down the road but also will attract the audience we are aiming to please (16-24 year olds)as the beat revolves around the bass line.

We have used software such as 'Final Cut Pro' for the editing of the film along with 'Soundtrack Pro' to help control the diegetic sounds within the film. we have used this software as it is simple and can support all the effects we wanted to use for the titles, the transitions between cuts and the lighting. We used, 'Livetype' for the main title and for many of the credits as it has a larger range of fonts and effects.

We have edited some of the contrast involving the light in our film to create better light continuity. We have also used 'fade in/out' at the end of some of our shots to maintain the flow from shot to shot. With fade in we have also customised the speed in which the shot fades in and out to either create a smooth flow within the film or to create suspense as the girl moves closer towards the alley.

The music in the film is also used to enhance the effects and emphasise there use. The same effect is used as cars pass the camera in the scene and so on.