Editing #5

When producing the final version of our group's thriller opening, these are the changes that were made:

- A greater amount of consideration was given to the soundscape. As the main editor, I concentrated on what was missing in the sound. (i.e. what natural sound had been omitted in the construction of the video, thus would need replacing with diegetic and non-diegetic sounds.) As shown above, the soundscape grew vastly. I later specifically added to other sounds, for example a 'door slam' was manipulated by cutting up various sounds of doors. Furthermore, the use of a heartbeat sound was something I chose to put across the whole of the video, however I used multiple different heartbeats to amplify certain degrees of tension. It was important considering the significance of each of the sounds within the scape at a particular scene, thus these were indicated through increasing the level of some, whilst decreasing others. In addition to this features such as the Car Radio during 00:24 - 00:30 seconds were also considered, as a Heavy Metal/Hardcore was supplemented for what had been a pop song during the footage. 

I believe we managed to really succeed with the sounds, with the help of my group finding certain sounds to suit the video. 

 

- Use of more intercutting shots during the establishing shots of the flashback. This heightened tension during the narration of the Witness and the antagonist's persistence, but also put the video in more context for the audience because it allowed them to distinguish flashback between the present-day cafe scene. Shots of the antagonists eyes twitching adds particular enigma, whilst shots of the lips also conceals their identity. As an audience, this would infer that having a character concealed in this way whilst the Witness spoke to them, suggests they have a bad nature or something 'enigmatic' about them and draws away from the fact that he is not simply the Witness' kind-loving friend. 

- Further colour correction was also made in the video, as this drew particular distinction between the flashback sequence and the intercutting cafe scene. Furthermore, lighting on the anatagonist's face was also added slightly, creating 'chiaroscuro shadowing''; a particular convention our group wanted to adopt. Some of the scenes were also given a slight tint, as seen in the shot above. Ultimately this gives the video dark connotations, appeasing to a rather sinister look often expected within Thriller films.

- I felt it was also important to include a production title, so I made a brief animated one within Final Cut. I initially experimented with 'Motion 5' but instead felt confident with using Final Cut Pro X. During the first part of the title I used effects such as 'Bad TV' and 'Prism' to give the production company a distorted look. I chose to do this because it instills a level of hysteria into the audience, which adds to the Video being 'Enigmatic'. The font added a professional simplified look but the typeface itself also symbolises darker, jagged imagery often associated with thriller titles.  

- After watching Draft #3 back the group decided that the lip-syncing was slightly out, so this was something I also corrected. 

Draft #3

Here is the latest draft of our thriller opening, The Witness.

The Witness (Draft3) from Lew Parker on Vimeo.

At present we have solved some of the issues that had been raised in the previous drafts. Furthermore, my choice to use Final Cut Pro X provided other elements that can be incorporated into the editing I had done so far; I found Pro X a great program to use. 

Here are some of my considerations for the Final Version:

- Further consideration needs to be given to to the soundscape; building of texture and dynamics (more so in the second half).

- Flashback scenes may need further lines of dialogue over them.

- A couple of intercutting shots of the Head Mob Member (actor: Tommy) in between flashbacks, in order to create more tension.

- Positioning of key music to create further tension. (For example: samples such as 'foot scrapping' or more 'footstep' sounds).

I will be in contact with both Chris and Declan, show them the current draft of the video and then, get their opinion's on producing the final version. 

Editing #4

Once importing the footage and re-arranging it within 'Final Cut Pro X', I focused on creating a distinction between the colour of the flashback scenes in contrast with the cafe. I couldn't simply import the video from Express to Pro X, which meant having to re-make the whole video. However I didn't mind doing this because it allowed me to make corrections such as more concise cutting, stabilisation and re-arranging parts.

I used a combination of a Projector and Threshold filter, whilst making corrections to Contrast/Brightness/Sharpening, etc. In the FINAL version, I will again go over what I have done and create a 'happy medium' between all of the shots.

It was time to begin with imputing the audio of the project. To record the dialogue of Actor Tommy (Cafe Mob Man sat chatting to Witness) I used my Iphone 4S Voice Recorder. I opted for this over, perhaps what would be deemed more 'suitably professional' technology such as Cubase and a Condenser Microphone, because of how accessible it was. In addition to this, it provided a good quality of audio that could later be edited. With the dialogue in place, this helped me (and Chris who helped with finding sound), to position other audio elements within the soundscape. We could acknowledge which parts of the video were more dense with audio and other parts that needed working upon. 

 I used effects including 'Ken Burns' when cropping the video, particularly during the shot where we see the Mob member turn around and realise the Witness is present. This created tension and was a good tool to experiment with.

I chose to also import blank black jpegs to create a 'letterbox effect'. The use of artificial aspect ratios in this way provided the cinematic look that I wanted the video to embody. Furthermore, instead of just using the pre-set letterbox effect, this allowed me to be able to move the footage around under the black lines. This omitted any problems that could be faced with cutting out people's faces and positioning characters within the frame correctly. 

Animated Title Construction

In the last unsupervised lesson I re-considered our title. The first title as seen in a previous draft was something Declan created within Livetype. Although this was a good starting point we both decided that we needed to amend this.

As a result, this is what I created within Final Cut. Currently it is only a prototype of the kind of style we would like to incorporate into our video, which will similarly appear on 'ending credits' if we choose to later have them. The animated title currently features a moving background, which is part of a clip of static. I then edited the colour of this. The text itself when moving enlarges slightly. 

Editing #3

In the latest part of editing, having put the footage in place, I decided to put our project into Final Cut Pro X. However, because of a formatting problem this has meant that I have had to put together the whole project again.

(I have used a blank black jpeg (as seen below) to create the movie-like letterbox effect.)

Though because of this, it has given me more control over the look of the video. For example, I can now instill fake aspect ratios and move the video underneath into space, thus guaranteeing that the video will fit perfectly within the frame now (i.e. no actor's heads cut off). 

Furthermore, by researching into the software more I have discovered the ability to colour-correct in a more 'hi spec' fashion and I have learnt certain techniques about blending different filters together to create great tones. The bank of set pre-set (and alterations that can be made to) effects is also vast in comparison to Final Cut Pro, so I have opted for this version as a method of essentially, post-production.

Motion control has also been another factor that I have greater control over now. I have experimented with tools such as a 'speed ramp' to break up different segments of one clip. This is particularly useful when wanting to add stabilisation to a clip but wanting to break it up in different speeds; i.e. If I was to use the blade tool and trim different parts of the clip to different speeds, each of these different pieces of footage would stabilise different and would therefore give uneven and jolting footage. Precision is something I have now began to home in on more.

The next version of the Thriller video will be posted soon! I will also carry out some audience feedback for our group's project because this would be a great way of evaluating what we have so far!

Recording non-diegetic sound

When recording the non-diegetic sounds of dialogue to later externally put into the video, I decided to use my Iphone. (Chris then recorded his voiceover parts as 'the witness' on his iphone).

Initially I considered the technicalities of recording audio. As I have previously recorded and done some producing on Cubase and Logic this was a platform I considered. However, because the quality of the microphone on my Iphone I felt this was a justifiable option and instead opted to use this. 

By doing this we now have the audio of Tommy (The main antagonist) to put into the sequence. The dialogue of both the characters will feature in between the cafe shots, as well as over the sequences of flashbacks. This will be a great way of integrating the two different spaces of time. 

Animated Title Experimenting

I spent some of my time experimenting with Titles in our unsupervised lesson. 

After designing the logo in photoshop for our thriller, I will then move onto Apple Motion on my laptop where I can then create a full-working animation sequence of approximately 5 seconds.

Here are a few of my plans in photoshop so far: 

Here is my first attempt. The 'Bebas' font was something I found online and will definitely be using in the animation. By making this short animation, it will give my video more of a commercial-look, thus more realistic and professional as a music video.

With my second attempt, I focused on drawing more attention to the director name. Across the 3 lines I included an 'outer glow' effect and on the bottom line, included an inner shadow angled to give an effective shadow. 

Here's my third attempt, similar to the first but I took into consideration the screen placement. This will give me an idea of how I am going to go about making the frames of the sequence. (i.e. splitting it up into different colour effects and font manipulation). 

Although our project will read as 'The Witness', I was merely experimenting with my name, effectively as a director's title. This will be very helpful when it comes to constructing our final title. 

Editing #2

Today I wanted to focus on the estate scene and figuring out exactly how the interaction between the witness and the mob would occur. 

Our initial shot list wasn't as specific as I  needed to be to capture the shots, thus I re-thought the shots and planned what else we would need to film. I will be shooting the rest of the footage with a steadicam. (I shot much of the estate shots like this, whilst the cafe was predominately shot with a tripod.)

I'm pleased with how the ending of the video is beginning to look. This is exactly what I had intended and the CU of the head mob member at the end perfectly illustrates the cliff-hanger. 

When I was editing this ending, I broke it up into four main shots that are shown above. We see the mob walk through the doors in the first two shots and I had to take into account certain aspects such as the door closing in sync and making sure the actors were walking through the door at the same point, during the switch over between the two shots.

Editing #1

For the first part of our editing we began sequencing the footage from filming parts I & II.

The screenshots above illustrate all of the footage we have in place and what else we will need to shoot during the third part of filming. 

The thriller first opens with a shot of the Witness running from the estate. This is a shot that is repeated at the end of the video, thus it gives the audience an insight of what is to come. We thought this was a particularly effective introduction, before we are shown the cafe scene below. We can then distinguish between these two different time settings and relate to the estate scenes as being part of a flashback. 

We began to piece together this initial cafe scene, before we broke the scene up with shots of the cafe as the story becomes narrated. 

I decided to change the motion speed of the estate shots, to fully emphasize these establishing shots. 

A series of shots are used before the action takes place (victim is pulled from his car). We are also filming the victim's entrance into the estate via car, to build up more of a setting, before throwing our audience into action.