Rough cut

Filming establishing shots.

The filming of our establishing shots for our sequence went well today. It took us much longer than anticipated just like our other attempts at filming. This was mainly due to the fact that we hadn't tried these shots before so we took various from different angles in order to have various shots to work with and to include within our footage. We realised as we went along also how certain shots which we had planned on using wouldn't work and instead we needed to do other shots from different angles, our advantage this time was that we had used the equipment previously and were now a lot more confident with using it and were able to try different shots as we now had more experience with the camera and we're starting to learn what does and doesn't work and how to make the shots look better.


I am now beginning to add the footage to what we have already edited in order to see what it looks like with our new shots in between to establish the changes in the rooms. I have added in the shots and now need to cut them down so that they fit properly but I am already very happy with the establishing shots and I am glad that our teacher pointed it out to us because now our opening already looks so much better and now that we have changed it I can see how previously it actually made very little sense unlike now where the footage flows more and is easier for an audience to understand. I am leaving the titles for our group to edit though although I am changing the way in which they are laid out on a black screen and instead putting them over our shots which allows us with more time during the footage so we are able to lay down the new shots. I am leaving the font to the other two members of my group as firstly that is one of  Sareenas job to find different fonts and choose them according to our genre and also because I believer the font is something the whole group should have a say on. Whilst editing I have also listened to our choice in music over and over as it plays whilst I edit the clips and I have decided that it needs to be changed straight away as when listening to it the music has a very oriental sound and I don't believe that it goes with the opening and I know that the others agree that the music isn't a perfect match so we now also have to find some new music to include. Overall I am happy with the progress we have made in such a short space of time however I would change the way we have gone about this if I was able to as I don't believe our time at the start was organised very productively due to several reasons and now that has had a larger impact than we had imaged on the amount we needed to do so quickly despite the teachers reminders.

Teachers feed back on what we have done so far.

Alexandra, Sareena and I sat down with Mr Michie and showed him our footage edited so far. The feedback we received was fairly positive and was not negative towards the way in which film or the shots them self but instead the feedback was more towards the sequence in general and the way in which it flowed. He pointed out to use that the sequence didn't make a lot of sense in some areas with our character walking in and out of rooms. Me and Alexandra were glad that our teacher had pointed this out when he did because during filming the lack of entrances and exits within our film did worry us as we weren't to sure if the entrances and exits in to different rooms were established enough. Our teacher told us that it would be a good idea to go away and film again and this time to film the establishing shots so that the sequenced flowed more and for us to make it easier for the audience to understand. 
He were also told that we should change the font style as our teacher didn't feel it fitted in with the thriller/horror genre. I do agree with him that it didn't fit the genre correctly, although there was reason behind our font choice as we thought it would match the wedding which was being prepared for in our opening. However it does make a lot more sense to change the font as it makes it easier for an audience to establish the genre of the film and also now with the font matches the codes and conventions of our genre more efficiently. Our teacher also made us consider changing the font on black background and putting it over the sequence instead to allow for more footage to be laid . As a group we agreed that doing all of the following things that our teacher suggested will make our film a lot better. I am glad that we have finally sat down with a teacher and discussed the footage because as a group this was a large problem of ours and I do believe that until now that has held the footage back slightly and that is our fault entirely. 

Editing after our second attempt.

The problem which we had faced with the Mac and the conversion of files was not able to be resolved over the half term for several reasons, firstly, the teacher did not get the email which was sent to him during the half term to inform him about the situation with the mac. Secondly the problem on the Mac was unable to be resolved and we instead learnt that we needed a newer Mac in order to convert the files. The editing which wasn't done during the half term because of this issue did in fact set us back massively in terms of being able to re shoot any thing else that needed further changes. At the time however it did not feel like a massive set back however if I look back in terms of what could of been changed during this time there was a lot more that we could have accomplished I believe in terms of different shots. 

Editing the footage took a lot more time than I thought it was going to take as well, as editor for the group I found that it was often very hard to match different shots and it was also very hard to always keep the timing correct. Other problems I encountered were to do with the different transitions between shots and the lack of knowledge in terms of what transitions to use. Now I know I should of gone to the teacher in order to have gotten help with these such problems, however, I do believe that by doing it alone and figuring out how to use Premier Pro alone did help me in terms of learning how to edit footage and I believe that it will help greatly next time I need to edit footage. 

The footage I had edited I believe was good compared to the previous footage we had laid out and once I really started to edit the film begun to take shape and it was really great to watch the footage we had filmed come together into a film. I did get help on the footage from the other two members of school when taking the Mac in, in order to receive my groups opinion on what I had edited so far and if they wished to have anything changed like the speed, transitions, music and titles. 

I believe that my editing was good for a first proper attempt at it, I learnt a lot and am now able to edit even further. I do however think that there is still stuff which needs changing and we will be looking at this with the teacher in order to see what we need to do in order to change the footage as currently it seems as we are missing something.