Preliminary Post - Production

Using the edit proxy
After shooting the scenes on the camera, my group and I uploaded the rushes tape and then accessed the digital raw copy of the footage which we took from the server. We opened the edit proxy with a program called 'Final cut server'. After opening the footage my group and I started logging. I made a file called 'log bin' and then took the best shots and saved them in the log bin. I did this by going through the footage and at the beginning of a shot that I wanted I pressed the 'I' key which marked it in and then pressed the 'O' key when I wanted the mark it out. Once the clip is highlighted in and out, I then clicked modify and then modify clip. All I had to do then was labeled the shot as 'wide shot' or 'Mid shot' etc and placed it in the log bin. I continued with this until I had logged all the best shots.

Continuity Editing
Continuity editing was important for us to focus on because it is used to do a number of things: Forces the audience to hold particular characters in high importance, ensures that only the relevant parts of the story are shown, to manipulate time and space in the narrative and to make the story make sense to the audience.
If there is a problem with the continuity the story won’t make sense to the audience and will have been a waste of time.
We had a problem with continuity which we had to cut out. We had our female character facing out but in the next shot, that we decided to cut to, she was facing towards the door. This doesn’t make sense because the audience didn’t see the movement. I looked at things like eye-line matches and visual matches and match on action shots, to make sense of the shots, for example we used a wide shot, including the door opening in the shot. When we cut to the over-the-shoulder shot from our female actor’s side the door had to be included opening. It couldn’t be ‘just’ opening in the next shot it had to be open at least half way to make the movement fluid and for it to make sense to the audience.

Organising the best shots
By using the storyboard we were able to organize our shots quite easily although, when we thought necessary we used closes ups of particular objects or actors that have significance to the story, for example we added a close up in of the case being put down because we wanted the case to be of interest to the audience.
I did this by placing the clip on the time line and then place then next shot that I wanted to cut to there too. For example with the door opening shot, in the wide shot we cut everything after the door was half opened and then moved the other shot after that wide shot and cut it until the door was half open. This is called a match on action, which is used to move from one shot to another but without it being apparent. So that the sound all matches to I used the razor blade too, so that we didn’t have overlapping sound because if we didn’t it would be a continuity editing error and wouldn’t make sense to the audience.

Using the edit proxy
After shooting the scenes on the camera, my group and I uploaded the rushes tape and then accessed the digital raw copy of the footage which we took from the server. We opened the edit proxy with a program called 'Final cut server'.
After opening the footage my group and I started logging. I made a file called 'log bin' and then took the best shots and saved them in the log bin. I did this by going through the footage and at the beginning of a shot that I wanted I pressed the 'I' key which marked it in and then pressed the 'O' key when I wanted the mark it out. Once the clip is highlighted in and out, I then clicked modify and then modify clip. All I had to do then was labeled the shot as 'wide shot' or 'Mid shot' etc and placed it in the log bin. I continued with this until I had logged all the best shots.

Shot Order
I had to make sure that the shot order was right in order for it to make sense to the audience. This is continity coming into the equation again. For example, when i had the shot of the door opening i had to cut to a shot that showed the actor entering otherwise he would just appear out of no where. and the audience would get confused as to where he has come from.
Our shot order:
To start with we had a long establishing shot to set the scene for the audience. At this point the actress is in hot spot two of the frame. Then, still in wide, the actor enters from the left. As he opens the door half way we did a match on action to the next shot, which is an Over the shoulder of the actress looking at the actor entering, by doing this it links the scenes so it is clear to the audience that they are connected. In the same shot he begins to put the case down and we did another match on action to an extreme close up of the case being put down. This shows the audience that the case is of great importance to the story.
It then goes to an over the shoulder on the actor looking at the actress to show the audience her reactions because this was vital to the story. We then cut to a wide shot to show the relation between the too actors from their body language.
All through filming we were very conscious of not crossing the 180 degree line. This became tricky when we did a point of view shot of the actor because we were on the line in order to make it seem like the camera was the ‘eyes’ of the actor.
It then went to a wide shot of the actor leaving again. We did another match on action of him opening the door. It went from wide to an extreme close up of the door handle, making it obvious to the audience that he is leaving.
There is then a short close up of the actress to show her reaction and then a point of view of her looking down at the case. This meant that the camera was tilted down. We then finished with a close up of the door to show the audience that she hasn’t left.
The actress has the most screen time because it is important to the story line.

I think our piece turned out really well and even though there maybe slight continuity errors they are not too noticable.

180 Degree Line

How to establish "the line"

Think of a stage. The audience only see the action from the audience side. This is the same in film. This is so the audience does not get confused and wonder why the actor they first saw on the right hand side of the scene is now on the left hand side or vice versa. This is known as "crossing the line".

Using Transition Shots to cross the line

Using a transition shot then changes where the line is. It pivots the line to another line by turning the sightline of a character to a new area or person within the shot.

Another transition shot is for the character to cross their own line during the shot. Or the camera itself may cross the line with a pan also during the shot which creates the new line.

Another way also of changing where the line is, is by using a cutaway. For example a close up of a character turning their head and as their eyes follow off screen when you cut to the next shot using the previous setup you can re-establish a new line because the viewer is expecting the characters to be in different places.

You can cross the line during the shot but NOT BETWEEN THEM!!!

Preliminary Task Evaluation of the Production: Part 1

My first preliminary task was to film a scene where a man comes in, has a conversation with a woman then leaves. This was on a storyboard and my group and I had to include all the shots on the storyboard and then if we had time a few extra shots to gives a wider choice of shots to put together when we edit it.
My group and I decided that the women would be being threatened by the man coming in with a suitcase which we thought could have a bomb in it.
To start with I wrote out some scripts for the actors who learnt the lines while we set up the camera. We had to bubble the tripod to my sure it was level otherwise we would have a wonky shot and then i checked that the camera was set up proberly eg. the shutter speed, the dB, the white balance, the focus etc. I then ran 30 seconds of colour bars so that the camera could get up to speed and so that we didn't miss any of the footage in the first 30 seconds.
We filmed in the old editing classroom. The location added to our plot idea because the walks had scratches in them and if the was any paper around it was all ripped and crumpled. There was also wires showing it gave it a sort of sinister feel.
I was the camera'man' for the preliminary task. Like I said further up I set up the camera and did all the filming throughout. I made sure along with the director that the shots were right and that the camera was set up right. I bubbled the tripod everytime I moved the camera so that it wasn't not level. I did this by looing at the spirit level on the tripod and ajusted it so that the bubble was in the middle which means it's level. Josh did the directing, I did the filming, James was co-director and also ticked off what shots we had done and helped with the set up of the close up shots like the close up of the door handle and suitcase and Luke was looking at the continuity of the actors and shadows and placement of the actors.

The lighting we decided to use was a key and fill light creating soft light but we placed the lights at a 45 degree angle to the 180 line so it created some heavy shadows behind them we also put a fan in front of the key light and a light blue jel so that the light wasn't that heavy and the fan created bar like shadows on the ground so that it made it more threatening. This was important to the storyline because it made it scary and dangerous. I don't think we thought that much about the lighting we focused more on the shots but we did work the lights out roughtly.

The first shot we did was a wide shot. This was the establishing shot to set the scene. We did several takes to make sure we had lots of shots to choose from when editing and just in case there was a continuity errors. Before and after every shot we made sure we left at least 5 seconds of just rolling film so that we didn't miss any of the action. We shot the whole scene in wide then moved on to a mid shot. The reason we did a wide shot to start with is so that we knew where the actors would be placed so when we did a mid shot we could set the camera up in the right place. After we had done all the shots in the storyboard, this included Over-the-shoulder shots, wide shots, mid shots and point of view shots, we did a few extra shots of significant objects that are a main part of the plot eg. the suitcase which represented a bomb.
I remembered the 180 degree rule. My group and I made sure we didn't croos it because if we did the actors on scene would switch to opposite sides of the screen and confuse the audience.We got very close to the line but made very sure we didn't go over it. It was difficult for the point of view shots because they were so close to the line that we ended up placing ourselves on it.

To help us all understand each other for example when we were about to film we used the correct terminology. To get everyone ready the director shouts 'Stand by'. everyone else replies 'Standing by'. He or she continues to say 'Rolling' and the cameramen or women reply with 'rolling'. The director then waits for five seconds(Look above for why)and then shouts 'Action' which is when all the action starts. Once the scene is finished the director waits for five seconds again then shouts 'Cut'. The people operating the cameras then stop recording. In this case i was the camera'man'.

Everything I have learnt so far in my practical lessons helped me to complete the preliminary project successfully, for example learning about hot spots and head space, learning how to use the camera and how to record and of course the different camera techniques and shots.
Overall i think my group and i did pretty good for our first project.

Spatial Continuity

The standard pattern for editing a scene in a narrative film includes the following:

Establishing shot
Shot/reverse-shot
Eyeline match (POV Shot) (POV means point of view)
Re-establishing shot

More Spatial Concepts

Multiple camera techniques
Axis of action (180-degree line)
Match on action
Cheat cut
The Kuleshov Effect

Relations in Editing

These are some points about Relations in Editing.

Graphic match is achieved by joining two shots with matching things in the background.

Rhythmic Transitional devises:
Straight cut
Fade-out
Fade-in
Dissolve
Wipe
Flip frame
Jump cut

Temporal Relations: Chronology
Most narrative films are presented in roughly chronological order with notable exceptions.
The two most common disruptions to chronological order are flashbacks and flaskforwards.

Editing, Juxtaposition and the Kudoshov Effect

1. In filmmaking, the task of selecting and joining camera takes.
2. In the finished film, the set of techniques that governs the relation among shots. (Bordwell & Thompson)

Juxtaposition means next to.
Kuleshov Effect: intercut an actors face with unrelated footage taken later - juxtaposition.
Audiences intercept emotional responses on the actors face based on the juxtapositions of images.

Points to consider:
Narrative
Characters
Relationships
Gendre
Shot Choices

Some possibly helpful points???

Here are some points that might be helpful...

Hollywood: Priority or the narrative over form.

Editing to ensure the story is clear and coherent - ellipsis - Film/Story Time

Editing dictates pace of film: Fast paced cuts for 'action' (montage/style) slow 'dissolves' or fades for romance.

Editing speeds up/slows down time

Editing allows audiences to focus on what is important by cutting out what is not.

If a movement is connected eg. Character walks through a door [CUT] to inside of building.
It is called continuity editing.

My own 'Skins' character.

This is my character that i created:

Create your own skins character

Christen

Name: Christen Bower

Nickname: Crisi

Age: 16 and 3 quarters

Gender: Female obviously not meaning to be rude

Ethnicity: All Brit. Hahaha that means Britsh!!!

Class/Status: Middle class (I wouldn’t say I was a posh snob, now would I??? Not that there is anything wrong with posh people. Oh please forgive me for my rude and horrid self)

Motto: The Holy Spirit is always with you

About Me: Hello I’m Crisi or you can call me Christen I don’t mind! I’m a regular church goer as you can probably tell from the motto I have!!! God has always been there for me, even now as I am writing to you. He is with me all the time (in spirit anyway). Not many people are into the whole religion thing but I’m true Christian. Hahaha that’s so funny I just noticed my name has ‘Christ’ in it, ‘Christen’... ‘Christ’... get it??? Well I don’t mind if you don’t it’s not a sin. Anyway back to me, I have one brother who I don’t want to talk about. Let me just say he’s the devil in human form!!!!
If I was to compare myself to someone in Skins the television programme I don’t think I would be the same as anyone because even though God created us all in his own image some people can turn to the devil which is what most of the skins characters do. That brings me on to drink and drugs and smoking and of course SEX. You don’t know how much it hurts me to say that word! I don’t do any of those things of course because you only do that if you are a hethan and not a true follower of God. Also there attitude to work is dreadful! How are they supposed to help God in creating a better world if they don’t work???
Anyway off the subject of God because I know for a fact that I go on about God way to must but I mean who wouldn’t?? Gods an amazing guy... and here I go again ranting on about him! Sorry!
I guess he’s what is best in me and some day I’m going to meet him. It won’t be a happy day but an enlightening day.
That was a bit of a low note to finish on how about, ‘go on get out there and do Gods’ will.’ I know I will!!!
My blessings
Crisi

What I Look like: I have long straight chestnut hair and chestnut eyes. Hehehe I’m all chestnut! I must have done something bad as a baby because I have to also wear glasses because my sight is not particularly very good. It must be Gods will. I’m quite thin and an average height and I like to wear lots of brown or green or grey or even bright pink (if I’m feeling adventurous) knitted jumpers. (I make them myself you know!). I wear a silver cross around my neck and cross stud earrings and a bracelet with cross charms hanging from it and a silver band ring around my index finger on my right hand. Never the middle finger because the devil can make you curse with that finger and I don’t want my pure silver band infected by the devil! I always wear my favourite white trainers with my jumpers and with jeans. My only friend Mary, as in the Virgin Mary, says that I have the best fashion sense of anyone in the entire world except for God. That’s makes me feel so accepted and loved.
Parents: My parents are perfect in every way. They meet at a regular church service in my local church. My Father is tall with brown hair and blue eyes like an angel. He had just moved for London, of which he said was a hell hole for sinners. He had been trying to get people on the street to turn to God and confess any sins that they might have but once in a while some one would take it the wrong way and just bet him up. He thinks that was a sign from God to move. So he did and he found my Mother. My mother is quite tall with sort brown hair with small silver hairs starting to appear. She has brown eyes like me. Both my parents have bought my up how ever parent should, in a loving, caring and God filled environment.

Hobbies: I go to church if that’s not obvious already.

Favourite Animal: Sheep because they seem to appear in all the biblical stories

Favourite Band: Haven’t got a favourite band but I do like anything with a church organ and choir in it!

T.V Shows: I like to watch ‘Songs of Praise’ because it has my favourite music on it. Oh and any thing where religion concurs evil. But I don think most other shows are horribly offensive to Christians like my self, which means anything with excessive drink, drugs, smoking or sex in it. Oh I said it again!

Film Star: I don’t really have any because I don’t like films because they are the same as television shows just longer and sometimes more offensive, but I do like Bruce Almighty and Evan Almighty! I especially enjoy ‘Evan Almighty’ because Noahs Arc is my favourite biblical story, ever since I was a baby.

Dream Date: Not allowed to have any nasty thoughts of men in my head.Interesting Fact: Did you know you know we are all born evil and that your parents have to get rid of the badness that is with in you as a baby??? Scary!!!

Representation and Stereotyping.

A stereotype is considered to be that all members of a particular class or set are easily recognised by surtain, definable characteristics. The term is sometimes known as a negative connotation.
Every day we, as a television audience, are forced to associate surtain objects and actions with stereotypes especially through television advertising and TV Dramas.
An example of this would be...

What gender would you assosiate a teddy bear with? Male or female???
Obviously female although guys we all know you have teddy bears your all to tough to say so. Hehehe
And what gender would you associate a power drill with??? Male or female???
Females are better at DIY though so i could go either way, but the obvious answer is male.

To look at representation and stereotype we looked at the Channel Four programme 'Skins'.
'Skins' is designed to reach to the widest demographic in order for it to be interesting to a mass audience. Channel Four is different in the fact that instead of conforming to a stereotype they ignore it and turn it on its head.
For example there is a guy called Anwar who to start with is represented as a typical faithful muslim. He is first seen praying but then to change to stereotype his phone goes off and he answers it to his friend Tony who happens to be talking about sex. For a faithful muslim to be faithful they aren't supposed to have sex before marriage but Anwar has which also reverses the stereotype.
Another character form 'Skins' that doesn't conform to their stereotypical representation is Jal. She is black. The typical stereotype for a person of her type is that she is poor and lives on the street and gets into all sorts of trouble when actually she is quite wealthy and is a very talented clarinet player. Usually she would be associated with rap or R&B music but she defys it.
Not only does she challenge her race stereotype but also her gender stereotype. The way she dresses in baggy clothes makes her lose her female form and is seen as 'one of the guys' by the rest of her friends. Jal's friend Michelle is used as a contrast because she is very girly and seen as a sexual object not a guy.

The different types of stereotypes are:

Positive Reinforcements: Stereotypes which reinforce ideas in a positiveor valid way- eg. 'old people are kind'.

Negative Reinforcement: Oppositionally (and more common) those which reinforce or validate negative ideas: 'All muslims are terrorists'

Inverted stereotypes: Ideas which (once reinfored as positive or negative stereotypes) can be challenged or reversed eg. 'A man ironing'

All my practical experiences up until now!

My first practical lesson was on Photoshop.

We learnt how to get around Photoshop and the basics such as saving a picture and opening it on Photoshop to edit.

Matt my Media practical teacher showed us some of the tools one at a time in the projecter screen then let us have a go. I learnt a lot better like that becaue it is in steps and i find it easier to understand.

My next practical lesson was on taking still photos. My class split into two groups and we went off taking pictures bearing in mind about hotspots and head space etc. Below are some of our good images.

The image to the Left is the image i use to create my horror poster. You can really see the difference in the before and after.

The next practical lesson that followed was experimenting with the pictures we had taken.

Matt showed us a few more tools such as the stamp tool etc. and then he let us pick an image a edit it. After we made our horror poster using everything we had learnt in our Photoshop classes.

I was then taught how to use the video cameras. Matt would demonstrate one step at a time then let us have a go. I learnt how to put the camera on the tripod and how to secure it. I learnt how to Bubble the tripod so that the camera is level. You have to bubble the tripod every time you move the camera to a different place otherwise it could not be balanced. Also how to change the friction for when you want to pan the camera or tilt it and how to put the battery in and out.I then learnt what all the different symbols and abreviations meant on the camera screen. For example how many frames a second (24) and the time in seconds, minutes and hours. This is all in the top right of the screen. I also learnt about the brightness, what symbol to use eg. the light bulb or the sun and about how may dBs to have and not have.

I was then taught how to zoom using the three different zoom buttons and how to focus.

Learning step by step was good because i always understood what he was asking us to do because it was taugh nice and slow and not rushed.

Our listening skills were then challenged at the end of the lesson as we had a race to see who could put the camera back right after Matt had tinkered with them all.

My lesson after that was using the cameras. I learnt to always have 30 seconds of colour bars at the beginning so that the camera can get up to speed and to always shot everything in a WS then a MS and then in CU.

My group was not to successful but we did get credit for setting up the camera correctly, even if we didn't shoot it properly.

I did learn a lot from it and when i do my next practical i'm sure it will go better.

Camera Angle, Shot, Movement and Position.

Establishing Shot:
Sets the scene and shows the proxemics of the main characters or objects


Master Shot:
Same as the Establishing shot except the shot is returned to when ever spatial awareness needs to be re-established.


Close-up (& variations):
Where the frame contains a large object eg. a persons head


Long Shot:
Where the subject is the same height as the screen.


Wide Shot:
A shot covering a wide angle


High Angle:
Position of the frame is above the subject looking down


Low Angle:
Position of the frame is low and looking up at the subject


Aerial Shot:
Birds-eye-view


Point of view:
The camera is placed where the character eyes appear to be looking. Showing what the character would see.


Two-Shot:
Two figures within a frame


Pan:
The camera moving left or right in a horizontal fashion.


Crane:
Camera is above the ground and able to move around the air.


Tilt:
Same as the Pan it's just it goes up and down in a vertical fashion.

Tracking Shot:
Camera on tracks. Able to move forward through the space, backward or laterally


Dolly:
The support wheels so that you can achieve a tracking shot.


Zoom/reverse zoom:
A close up from a long shot or the other way around.


Framing:
The edges of the film frame to select and compose what will be on screen.

Composition:
The arrangement within the frame

Hand-held:
Camera supported by the camera man themselves.


Steadicam:
A gyroscopically balanced body rig patented by Steadicam which a camera can be attached to, to generate smooth hand-held shots.


Things that are vital to know.

Basic Camera Shots

I want to go through each of the camera shots.
Basic Camera Shots:

EWS (Extreme Wide Shot)
The veiw is so far from the subject that the person isn't visable.
This is often used as an establishing shot.


VWS (Very Wide Shot)
The subject is visible (barely), but the emphasise is still on placing the person in their enviroment.


WS (Wide Shot)
The subject takes up the full frame, or at least as much as possible
the same as a long shot.


MS (Mid Shot)
Shows some part of the subject in more detail whilst still giving an
impression of the whole subject.


MCU (Medium Close Up)
Half way between a MS and a CU.


CU (Close Up)
A certain feature or part of the subject takes up the whole frame.


ECU (Extreme Close Up)
The ECU gets right in and shows extreme detail.


CA (Cutaway)
A shot of something other than the current action.

Cut-In
Show some part of the subject in detail.

Two-Shot
A comfortable shot of two people, framed similarly to a mid shot.


(OSS) Over-the-Shoulder Shot
Looking from behind a person at the subject.


Noddy Shot
Unusally refers to a shot of the interviewer listening and reacting to the
subject, although noddies can be used in drama and other situations.


Point-of-view Shot (POV)
Shows a veiw from the subject's perspective.


Weather Shot
The subject is the weather, usually the sky. Can be used for other
purposes.


Just the basic camera shots and what they mean.

Horror Poster

This is my Horror poster.
I created it using Photoshop. To start with my group and i took loads of photos making sure there was no excess head space, taking photos from different angles and using hotspots to change the meaning of the image.
I chose this photo of of my group member Olivia. The camera is looking up at her making her more dominant than the person looking at the image. In some instances it means that the person is the hero but because i made her into a zombie using the sponge tool and changing the setting to desaturate it doesn't. She just looks like a scary, bad zombie.
I also used the burn tool to blacken her eyes to make her look more 'dead' and threatening because you can't see her eyes.
I took the red sky background from the internet by typing in 'Blood Red Sky' i then opened it onto Photoshop.
I used the lasso tool to cut Olivia from the original photo and paste her onto the red sky.
I then used to stamp tool to blend her into the backgrond as if she really was there.
I have called my 'horror film' 'Hide' because my storyline behind my poster is that Zombies from another world take over earth and the only humans left have to 'Hide'. But in the end they end up fighting back using a special network connecting all the humans left on Earth together all over the world so that they could hatch a plan. They end up defeating them but there is a little twist at the end but i'm not saying because it will spoil my 'never to be made' film.
I enjoyed using photoshop because i like experimenting with the different tool that make a picture better or creepy. I found it quite easy to use because it is a very logical programme and anything you are trying to find should be there if you follow your own instincts!
Hope everyone likes my poster.

Introduction

Hi i'm Francesca
Most people call me Cesca for short.
I've chosen to do media studies because it is something i have never done before and i thought i might give it a go.
I saw some of the things previous students had done and i really liked the look of it and wanted to make a thriller and pop video by myself!

A bit about me, well... i am currently 16 years old. I have brown hair and blue eyes. I have a brother called Alex who is 14 years old and is very into computer games. If he could spend all day on the computer he would. I have a dog named Poppy too and seven peacocks!
I am a very creative person and definately not a academic althought i didn't do to bad in my GCSE's. As well as media studies i do art and theatre studies. I only do three subjects at Hurtwood because i do all practical and it would be impossible, really, to do a fourth.

Not only do i do three practical lessons at Hurtwood but i also do Private acting lessons, Jazz dance lessons and singing lessons. I'm a very busy person.
On a Wednesday i go horse riding and i have just started rehearsals for the Hurtwood musical called 'All Shock Up'!!! I am a Barfly. This means i sing all the harmony parts to every song!!! I'm sooooooo excited!!!

As you can probably tell i like to always have something to do.
I can't wait to start creating my own pieces in media. I hope it all goes well and good luck to everyone taking media too.
Love ya loads
Francesca (Cesca)
xxxxxxxx