Third Studio workshop

Today the class got sorted in three new groups to work in the studio. My group filmed three short sequences which we will edit on Friday, to learn how to edit Audio. We decided to film three sequences. The focus was on audio we therefore filmed three short conversations. The microphone was directly plucked into the camera. The microphone mainly records the audio of where it is aimed at, as it is a rival mic. We were advised to put the mic into a microphone mount. This way we don’t touch the microphone directly which could have ruined the audio recording as every slight movement would have created very loud sounds in the recording. Tow people were Infront of the camera and the other person operated the camera and microphone, each of us got a turn with operating the camera. 

Meeting 8th of Februar- Finding the cast

 Today Pablo and Bert were both on a photography trip. I wrote emails to potential cast members. In the email I talked about the general idea of the sequence the specific character I would like them to paly and I also warned them if their character for example comes in contact with fake blood to ensure that they are comfortable portraying the role. 

First editing workshop

Today we got our first workshop on editing in Premier pro. Premier Pro, by adobe who
also created photoshop and after effects,  is one of the most commonly used editing software’s. Even Blockbuster tent pole movies like Deadpool have been edited with Premier pro. 

 

On of the most important editing principals is to ‘cut on action’. For example, while a character reaches for an object you could cut form a medium shot portraying the character and the object to a close up focusing on the object. Cutting on action makes the sequence seem more natural and smoother. 

 

There are some key terms when it comes to editing. Folders are called bins. Rushes are a bins with all the footage shot on the day. This term originates like many other terms from the time where the industry standard was to shoot on actual film. At the end of the day someone would rush to develop the film overnight. That way the director and producer could look at the footage the next day and decided to do reshoots if needed. In America rushes are called ‘Daily’s’. It is important to keep the rushes in their pure form therefore and to sort the files Editors will often create a log bin. The log bin contains the footage used in the actual edit. It is important to name files in a useful manor like ‘close up of bottle’ this makes the edit more clear, especially on a long term. It is also advisable to watch back the footage you have filmed, as what you might think you filmed isn’t always what you actually filmed. When not watching the footage first and instantly deciding on a take you might miss out on a take that didn’t feel right on the day but is better. 

 

There are 4 basic blocks in Premier the box in the bottom let hand corner shows all the bins. The box in the top left-hand corner allows you to watch back footage the footage in the bins. The box in the bottom right-hand corner is called timeline, which is where the actual cutting is controlled. The box in the top right-hand corner plays back the footage on the timeline.

 

Premiere is a professional software and therefore features a bunch of functions and has intricated mechanisms therefore it is extremely important to actually hit the button and to not miss it even by a little distance. When you start editing footage you can select a initial starting point from where you want to let the shot start by pressing I when selecting a footage saved in a bin, this can later on be adjusted. You then drag the footage onto the time line. Another important mechanism is drag and drop you can for example drag footage from one point to another point on the timeline and then drop it. This why you while have shifted the position of the clip. You start to drag a clip clicking on it, you can then move it by moving your mouse and finally when you want to drop it you just stop clicking the mouse. 

 

You are likely to have multiple clips at the same point on the timeline premier will play the clip that is at the highest position. The position can also easily be changed by dragging and dropping. You can trim the duration of a shot by dragging it to your preferred length. The razor tool which splits a clip is triggered by pressing the letter ‘C´ if you then want to return to the basic setting (the arrow) you simply press ‘V’.

 

Here is the short sequence we edited: 

Weekend update 6th of February- Key learnings from this week

Meeting 4rd of Februar- Props, costumes and storyboard

 Today we created a Props& Costume list: 

Murderer: 

-Knife 

-Fake blood 

-Apron 

-suitcase 

-Wired headphones 

-Dungarees 

 

Priest

-Priest robe 

 

Villager with dog:

-leash 

(Normal outfit)

 

Villager in church:

Pajamas/normal outfit

 

Murder Victim:

-Skinny jeans 

-Blue shirt 

-round glasses 

 

 

I started a storyboard of important moments and Bert helped me with a drawing: 

     

                            

Meeting 3rd of February- Casting and Dialogue

 At todays meeting we talked abut casting and we came up with a list of student we think would fit the role:

 

The Killer:

James Hartman

Tom Wichelow

Stuart Butcher 

 

 

Murder victim:

Zoe Case 

Iside Montaldo 

 

Villager:

Adam Grant 

 

 

Villager 2:

Clare Crossley  

 

Priest

Lee Johnson

Simon Powwer

 

 

I also thought about what bits need dialogue and what kind of dialogue they need: 

 

 

The ‘Moring’ bit. 

 

Villager: ‘Mornin’

 

Murder: ‘Morning’

 

 

The ‘Quick chat in the church’ bit:

 

Oh James lovely to see ya

 

The ‘Epic confession’ bit:

 

Murder: Forgive Father, me for I have sinned!

 

Priest: "May the almighty and merciful Lord grant you indulgence, absolution, and remission of your sins. Amen. Thank you for your service James."

 

 

For the dialogue I did some research on what the common phrases for confessions are. 

 

Meeting 2nd of February- Planning Locations, casting and working on the characters

 At todays meeting I started redoing the character list: 

 

-Killer 

 -Murder victim

 

-Villager with dog 

 

-Villager in church 

 

-Priest 

We also discussed the locations we need: a church, a house/ a door that leads to a living space, and some form of street. Our teacher is still in contact with churches of previous opening sequences. There is a on campus boarding-house called the lodge which has looks like a small cottage which would be perfect for the house scene. It doesn’t really matter where we film the road scene so we decided to just film at a road near the church location. 

In terms of casting started sharing our ideas on who in the school fits the best each role. We decided to only work with people from school as this is the most doable option