Post Production: Part 2

Post Production: Part 2

Over the second half of the post production editing process we aimed to add a soundtrack, sound effects, titles and fine tune the colouring of the sequence as well as fine tuning any errors in the sequence and it's presentation. These later few days of editing were definitely a big step up from the first few days as well as adding all these different features was significantly more challenging as they hard to fit perfectly.

Firstly, we decided for the soundtrack to use piece of music one of Bach's string compositions. We decided on this because it is something classical and relatively peaceful which the man enjoys listening to whilst committing the unthinkable poisoning to his sister, it shows the juxtaposition between the two and also how nonchalant he is about killing her. Underneath the music i layered a vinyl crackle to add texture and realism to the soundtrack which also implies
the soundtrack is diegetic. 

I then synced the timing of the crackle and Bach's track to when the man starts to play the vinyl. Towards the end however this really awesome soundtrack did not have as much effect towards the end of the sequence as there was not enough dynamism throughout. In order to increase the impact at the end of the sequence I added an evil soundscape when the man opens to door to reveal the woman and added some sub bass booms periodically; this really helped but I knew it could be even better so we all actually decided to completely cut Bach's track out after the fizzing shot and  place each boom on the each new cut which sounded incredibly creepy and nerve wracking when we watched it back. 

Next we added titles to the sequence, this began by making a list of all the titles we needed to include and then adding our names to our respective titles (lila - Director, Meadow - DOP, Matthew - Editor) as well as making numerous fake names for the rest of the tiles apart from Ezra and Suzanne our actors. We then chose a font and went back and forth on it for a while but eventually settled on one which looked beautiful yet refined and structured. One thing that we struggled with was deciding where and when the titles should be placed as we were not sure if some shots should be cleared of titles or if we should put them in
the corner or feature them front and centre in the shot. However since our opening
sequence does have a focus on titles over narrative we decided to place them according to the composition of the shot, for example if the shot was asymmetrical and contained lots of imagery on one side than the tittle would be placed on the other side or if the shot was symmetrical then maybe a middle position would be more fitting etc. In addition we learned a very useful skill to determine how long each title should stay on the screen for, the rule was that you should be able to say the given tittle three times in succession before it would disappear.

When editing the sound of the opening sequence that was recorded by the microphone as well as a separate internal mic built into the camera we had to unlink the audio channels from the video recording they were attached to and then cut the audio channel that had the muffled low quality camera mic recording and then duplicate the good audio so it could be heard from stereo channels left and right.

Lastly we added cinematic bars to the sequence as it was shot in widescreen, in really gave it a cinematic feel in its presentation and made it look so professional.

Overall I am so happy with how the opening tittle sequence has turned out, i must say i am especially happy with how great the shots themselves look which is down to the way we filmed them and the time we took when filming them, like i said previously we choose quality over quantity. My favourite shot is the one of the man holding up the fizzing poison liquid to his eyeline and then putting it down, turning round and opening the door to reveal the woman with a funnel strapped in her mouth; it's just great how the light radiates in the room contrasted to the the dark dingy room the woman is inside of. If I were to have done anything differently I would have maybe hidden the man's identity more the shots by putting his face out of focus or having just extreme closeups of him but still i am pleased with the shots we have of him.

Post Production: Part 1

Post Production: Part 1

Throughout the past few days our production group has begun to edit our opening title sequence. I was the main editor and thus had a big responsibility to make sure we were making good progress and that i was happy with how the edit was shaping up to be like.

Firstly we sat down together in the editing suite and watched all our footage back, once we saw our first opening shot we were in awe of how good the video quality was, to me it actually looked better then in real life especially with the way the rays of light would transcend across the room. We then went on to review the rest of the footage and noticed some takes were shaky but quite often that our final takes were ideal for what we actually wanted to use, however there was one shot that we wanted to use (the man mixing some liquids together - wide shot) but looked different to the other shots since we should it as a last minute attempt at the end of the day and thus the lighting was very different. 

Another issue we came across was not having lots of shots to pick from, we noticed that it definitely would have been nice to have a few more different shots; but thankfully the shots we did have we very good and looked beautiful so in this case we had quality of shots over quantity.

After we finished reviewing all of the footage we then began to place down shots chronologically on the timeline and then cut those shots into what we all thought was of a suitable length; and then put them together to form a very early stage cut of the sequence. It was quite messy, not refined and was over 3 minutes long which was significantly over the specification of the brief.

We ended up having to shorten some shots are cut some shots out all together, one significant choice we made was completely getting rid of the shot of multiple berries that have been cut; this shot showed the scale in the quantity of poisonous berries in the poisonous drink but also how far the man was willing to go by cutting every single tiny berry perfectly down the middle. The reason we got rid of this albeit decent shot was that it was slightly out of focus and the shot of a single berry being cut open look astronomically better through its detail and precision, plus in other earlier
shots the amount of berries was also signified by the large amount in the jar and on the stalk.

Finally, one more significant choice we made was having our finishing shot be of the man's face looking satisfyingly at the woman, this shot marked as the perfect conclusion for our sequence and an insight of what may be to come. His face also implies that he wants more of the satisfaction of devising a plan to kill someone; this is alo why the meaning of his character makes the last shot that little bit more unnerving and creepy to the audience.

My Mise-en-scene Music Video and Song

My Mise-en-scene Music Video and Song

Over the past week I have been making a Mise-en-scene song/video to explain why we made the certain Mise-en-scene choices for our opening sequence. My video is slightly different then expected in the sense that i explain this through song, images and a little bit of dance! 

Shoot Day Reflection

Shoot Day Reflection 

The shoot day truly began on Tuesday (night before shoot) where I was packing the costume for the 'man' and various props needed to set the tone of the environment. I think I honestly checked the bag about five times before I was fully confident that I had packed everything needed but something very important to think about is its definitely better to be safe than sorry. 

Then the day of the shoot arrived, finally the time came to shoot our opening sequence. Our production group had to meet inside our media classroom at bright and early at 8.30am so we could check we had every single prop and costume item that we needed. Then our head of production (Luke) came to us to then discuss a few of our ideas and also double check what time the actors would be joining us for the shoot; after this was discussed we
then went to the studio where we collected various pieces of camera equipment including a tripod, Black Magic 4K camera, power extensions, props, costumes etc. Once we loaded up the mini bus we then travelled to our location, Beatrice Webb’s ‘Garden house’ which was relatively quick and only took about fifteen minutes.

After our swift travels we then carried all the equipment into Beatrice Webb and inside a room directly next to the Garden House which turned into a designated props and costume/Cast relax room. Then to our surprise found a huge quantity of suitcases in the garden house’s storage room which we need to use for the poisoning of the woman shots so we cleared out all of the suitcases that could have possibly been seen in a shot, this was definitely a challenge but with plenty of teamwork this issue was easily solved when we moved the suitcases to a main hallway.

 We then set up the props on the desk of the murderous ‘man’, and made it look incredibly creepy and off-putting which perfectly matched the vibe of the man. Using props such as a doll comparable to the doll from the film ‘Annabel’ and a half-working record player! We all took turns in sharing our ideas of how the desk should look but eventually came to a perfect agreement of how we wanted it to look. Shortly after we then set ‘the man’s’ poison experiment table which contained various beakers, conical flasks, a pestle and mortar, the poisonous berries (actually red currents), water and a mystery white powder (actually baking soda).

Next, we set up the camera and our opening shot, of a record player with then an upwards tilt to the man’s workstation of poison preparation with the focus being pulled in and out and various points ending with the berries in focus. It also was a closeup shot on the record player but then the camera angle was transformed to a mid-shot when the berries were put into focus. This was the most important shot to set the feel of the opening sequence. As this was an incredibly important shot to perform (also a complicated one) we all had to be focused and perform our tasks on exactly the right point for the shot to work; I was on focus pull, Meadow
as Camera Operator and Lila as the Director. We all had to make various signals in order to let each other know when each person should perform their designated job. Funnily enough before this very shot, I didn’t know what focus pulling was or even if it existed but Luke (head of production) told me how to perform it effectively and then let me perform the focus pulling throughout the entire shoot. The advantage of focus pulling is that it can add some much-needed dynamism to a shot this is done by turning the focus wheel at certain points to make the image in or out of focus and different times.

 

As soon as we finished the complex opening shot, we all brought the camera, tripod and sound equipment to near the berry workstation where we did our next group of shots. We started with an extreme closeup of the poisonous berries in the beaker still stuck to their stem. This shot was actually really surprising because in the camera viewfinder this shot made the berries look nothing like redcurrants and more like the original Daphne Mezzereon poisonous berries that are in the world of the film. Another key shot in this section of filming was when Ezra (our actor playing the part of ‘the man’) grinded up the berries to a slushy juice mixture using a pestle and mortar, the shot of him doing this worked great because of how convincing his perforce was, he really put effort and power into grinding up the berries which looks exactly like something ‘the man’ would do.

 After a productive and successful morning of shooting we then drove back to school for lunch.  We had a lovely time eating with each other and discussing what went well as well as what are we can work on to improve for the rest of the day. We were all very pleased with the shots we had taken so far, particularly the opening shot which we thought was going to look absolutely stunning. We also noted that our speed at setting up each shot could improve as well as making it clearer to our cast of what exactly we would like them to do so there would be no confusion.

 

Once we got back onto our filming set, we then completed a few more shots we then moved on to a really difficult key shot of the man purring the white powder (baking soda) in to the mixture of water and berry juice and then him turning around and opening in the door, walking into the side room which also reveals the woman with the funnel in her mouth. This also included a focus pull of focusing on the beaker which the man held to the camera to then focusing on the woman with the funnel in her mouth looking terrified. We had to film the shot about four or five times to get it exactly how we wanted it to look. Even the last shot could have been ever so slightly better because we tilted it slightly to far down so the top of the screen was cut off a little bit but then we contacted our head of production who told us that it was possible to fix this slight error in post-production. This was also challenging due to the amount of things that needed to  go right in order for the shot to work including the syringe picking up the berry juice and depositing it int the beaker, putting water in the beaker, adding the right amount of baking soda to ensure there is an impressive reaction but that also will not spill over the beaker, Lila performing the tilt correctly, myself focus pulling at the right time and Ezra opening the door and standing at a spot where we can also see the woman with the funnel in her mouth.

 We swiftly then moved on to shoot the scenes of the woman being killed and struggling in the small side room where we cleared the suitcases out from. The first of these shots we filmed was when the man poured the poisonous potion into the woman’s mouth via the funnel, we achieved this by Ezra pouring the mixture into a separate beaker whilst only filming him pouring and his face so you wouldn’t see that trick that he wasn’t actually pouring it into her mouth.

During this shot I held the empty beaker that the mixture was being poured into as well as signalling with Ezra what to do and when whilst meadow was operating the camera. We also filmed various closeups of the tied-up woman struggling, dying and choking which Suzanne handled incredibly well and was so professional throughout the whole process which leads me on to say and that one big thing I actually learnt throughout the filming process was professionalism which was taught really well by Suzanne  in her whole attitude throughout the filming, she would never complain and did everything that was asked of her and more, even if she was in an uncomfortable she remained professional and hardworking; it’s not easy having a funnel stuck to your mouth for hours. In addition. To this I learned some more details about lighting, when in the small side room I often held a sector of white cardboard in order to direct the light onto the woman’s face to make it easier for the camera to focus on her; the importance of lighting is huge when filming, it can make or break a scene.

 After this last group of shots, we pretty much filmed all the footage we required, we were about to film one last shot that we didn’t need but would have been nice to have; it was the reaction of the poison in the woman’s funnel, but the camera batteries died to this unfortunately was disappointing but maybe bringing spare batteries in the future would solve this issue from ever happening again. We all then packed up the props, tidied up the room and headed off back to school in time for dinner where we all enjoyed a relaxing supper after fun and intense day of shooting our opening sequence.

 I am very excited to edit the footage and turn it into something really special, also as designated editor I will certainly be on the ball when our time comes to edit so we can create the best sequence possible. One challenge I feel in editing will be exactly at what points to know when to cut shots and add new ones as this can be quite subjective depending on the person.

 Overall, I thought the shoot day went really well as we got all the shots that we needed and although it definitely would have been nice to have more, the ones we did get were incredible and are very happy with.  When setting up the shots we could have been faster which meant we could have done more shots but that may have sacrificed some of the quality in favour of quantity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Behind The Scenes

Behind The Scenes

Below is a behind the scenes video showing what we got up too throughout the day:

Research of Saul and Elaine Bass

Research of Saul and Elaine Bass

Saul Bass was a filmmaker and graphic designer who was especially well known for his title sequences and film posters. His wife Elaine Bass was also a filmmaker and designed titles and also worked alongside Saul where they married on the 25th April 1961. 

Saul Bass' career last for 40 years and during that time he worked with some Hollywood's most iconic filmmakers including Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick. Bass' sequence were often memorable and unique, some of his best work can be seen on the the films North by Northwest, Vertigo and the incredibly influential Psycho.

Saul's posters were also incredibly influential with his minimalistic style. They worked well not only as a standalone film poster but also as artwork which had a timeless quality, this effect is produced by the lack of cheesy marketing ploys and huge amounts of text.

Elaine joined Saul in his work swiftly after he finished the opening title sequence to the film Spartacus which Elaine was actually the producer and co-director for. Since then they worked closely together and there first collaboration together was some short promotional films including 'From Here To There' and The Searching Eye' 

Surprisingly Saul also ended up designing some well known corporate logos such as AT&T (1969) and their logo in 1983!  

Here is some examples of the work they have done:

Next, I will analyse one of their opening title sequences, Psycho:

The sequence begins with a group of string instruments playing a fast ominous non-diegetic soundtrack which is in a minor which provokes fear into the hearts of the audience. Whilst this
frantic tune is playing horizontal black lines swiftly travel across the screen and then reveal the name of director 'Alfred Hitchcock' and then that name is quickly disposed of by the lines, this could possibly imply that there is cold blooded thinking actions based on how quickly the directors name is disposed of by the lines which are orchestrating everything that is happening within the sequence. then the word 'Psycho' is revealed in a larger font size. This larger font further suggests the importance of the word and how it may be essential throughout the film and that it is the only clue needed to build a picture of what the film is about, possibly someone absolutely unhinged and a danger
to everyone around them; the font of the word begins to distort and shift around which could be compared to stabbing and slicing the word up which in turn reinforces the idea of killing taking a key role in this film. The word is split in two and then is disposed of vertically (half the word coming up half going down) where the title of the starring role Anthony Perkins is revealed but then being split into two just like the last title and then revealing more titles. the way the titles are disposed of and chucked out of the screen provides a sense of disposing and almost destruction of the words which implies some kind of mass murder.

After some more titles and words being cut up by the black lines that could be compared to one mass murder in their own right. The soundtrack then takes a step back and softens a little to become less aggressive but more eerie and creepy than before, the visuals also change to reveal a cityscape in which the camera is panning from left to right; this could represent a psycho man and the way he looks down on the world and sees everyone as just another opportunity to cause harm. Then the date is shown through a title as Friday the 11th December before zooming in two a specific building with a specific window and revealing the exact time 2.43pm. This is all information a killer would need to know hen attacking his victims because they would need to know what time they are going to be in the house and probably have a plan. The zoom in also represents how random killing people may be and sometimes can appear random to who it
happens to  since the zoom in happend to one specific window out of hundreds.

This opening title sequence has clearly set the foundation for most horror films today with the way they use their openings by leaving subtle clues of what is tom come such as the way the opening scene for the horror film 'Hostel' gives disturbing imagery with creepy noises to keep the viewer guessing of what is to come.

Target Audience

Target Audience

How can it be useful?

• Make more money
• Know what conventions that need to be followed (audience expectations)
• Making choices (narrative, mise-en-scene, character,casting)
• Marketing

Who is our target audience?

According to various film and TV media products we have looked at, the ratings of which are shown below. We can conclude that our target audience is woman aged 40-59 because they are the demographic that prefer the four media products (on average) the most. However I am also aware many men will watch so the target audience is to be taken with a pinch of salt since our sequence can and should be enjoyed thoroughly by all genders.

The BBFC and Film Certificates

The BBFC and Film Certificates

The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) are an institute that monitor and set various rules for the British Film Industry. They are in charge of providing a specific age rating for each film for a cinema (if needed) and DVD release.

When providing a certificate for a film they must consider the following points:

• violence of all forms
• nudity and sexual activities
• offensive language (swearing and slurs)
• self harm
• criminal activity/behaviour
• risky dangerous actions eg.jumping off a building
• drugs and alcohol
• children and what happens to them
• strobe lighting

However these points must be taken into consideration along with the context of the film and how they are portrayed.

What Must a Film Have To Receive A Certain Rating?

A U rated film must be suitable for all audiences. Dangerous behavior must be clearly and completely disapproved of and shown to be wrong or must be completely unrealistic. Discriminatory language is not acceptable unless it is completely portrayed to be absolutely wrong and immoral. Use of drugs of any kind should be infrequent or non existent, however may be allowed if shown in an educational context. Mild bad language must be non existant or infrequent. Very Occasional Nudity with no sexual context. Scary and unsettling to be kept minimal. Violence should be mild or completely unrealistic.

A PG rated film must not unsettle children from eight or older. Dangerous behavior must be made sure to not make young children copy it and must not be glamorized. Discriminatory language is not acceptable unless it is completely portrayed to be absolutely wrong and immoral or in a historical context. Use of drugs of any kind should be infrequent or non
existent, however may be allowed if carrying a clear anti drug message. Mild bad language soley. Very Occasional Nudity with no sexual context. Scary and unsettling should not go on for too long. Violence should be mild but can be moderate but must have a lack of detail.

A 12/12A must be suitable for children aged 12 and older. Dangerous behavior must be made unlikely to copy. Discriminatory language is allowed but must not be completely supported by the film. Use of drugs should not be frequent . Moderate bad language is allowed. Nudity
allowed but with little sexual context. Sa moderate amount of scare/threat is allowed. Violence can be moderate but must not be too detailed.

A 15 rated film must be suitable for children aged 15 and over. Dangerous behavior must not contain too much detail. Discriminatory language should not be focused on and should be clearly disapproved . Use of drugs can be shown but not endorsed. Very strong bad language is allowed. Nudity allowed to any point without a sexual context, if with sexual context then there must be less detail. Strong fear and horror is permitted.Violence can be strong but not overly gory.

An 18 rated film can be watched adults aged 18 and over. There are only a few exceptions in what is not allowed: the content appears to harm audiences, extreme sexual activity, content where the main purpose is sexual stimulation and arousal should be placed in the R18 rating.

A R18 film can only be watched in specifically licensed cinemas and seen by those aged 18 or over, the following points are not acceptable: material breaching criminal law, material that
encourages abusive sexual activity, infliction of pain that is likely to cause serious physical harm, the penetration of an object that can cause serious harm and sexual humiliation and threat.

I personally think that if the BBFC were to rate our opening sequence they would give it a 15; this is because the level of danger and threat is pretty serious, it is very scary and could definitely disturb younger audiences, it is not too graphic and there is minimal blood but is fairly violent. In addition to this the rest of the film gets more disturbing with more of the man's various kills; had i judge solely the opening sequence alone a 12A cinema release may have been possible with clever editing but hard to pull off but the rest of the film does escalate further which is why i think it would be given a 15 age rating.

Research Into Conventions and Similar Products

 Research Into Conventions and Similar Products

The genre of our opening sequence is a thriller with the sub-genre being crime. To further improve our understanding of how the thriller/crime genre uses conventions in various film and TV. In the post I will explore 4 different Film/TV media products and which conventions they use and how they relate our sequence.

Would You Rather

This film is about a group of strangers who enter a 'harmless game' with the chance to win a large sum of money which they all desperately need for various reasons however it is run by a sadistic rich psychopath  who forces the strangers to play a deadly game of would you rather to win the prize money.

Firstly the rich man (in charge of the game) 'Shepard lambrick' is very similar to the character of the man in the opening sequence I am working on as they both enjoy watching other people suffering immense pain and suffering and it gives them a euphoric sense of glee. The core of the narrative is also similar as they both centre around an 'insane' man carrying out torture and then killing their victims although in would you rather this is on a much larger scale.

Secondly, the editing techniques used in this film are quite similar in what i hope we will be looking to substantially include in the final product. Specifically in the scene where the party guests are forced to make a choice to electrocute themselves or the person sitting to their right, the scene as quick cuts from the clock and between all the different people panicking; i feel this style of editing would work perfectly in our sequence by cutting between the man's leisurely activity of getting the poison read intercutting with the woman with the funnel acting distressed. This would look especially dynamic as the man would have longer shots where you would get short sharp shots of the woman to build tension effectively.

Line of Duty

These seasons of TV are focuses on corruption within the police force and the issues they encounter. Instantly the character of Tommy Hunter stands out to me as
being similar to the man in our opening sequence as once again they are both psychopaths since tommy has rapped people which is absolutly disgusting and the man in our sequence is killing his sister. The genre of thriller and subgenre of crime is exactly the same as our opening sequence so in terms of themes and general concepts such as involving the police.

And Then There Were None 

This three parter TV mini series (based on a book by Agatha Christie) is about a group of 10 strangers who are invited to an island however there are no hosts to welcome; in the course of their stay they discover that there is a murderer amongst them who is picking them off one by one in very specific ways
according to a poem marked all over the mansion they are staying in. The subtlety of the killer and how he gets away with every kill until admitting at to his guiltiness at the end with one person remaining, this is something the man in our sequence is also capable of since he murders with poisonous berries so he frame it as a suicide whilst making sure the woman looks unharmed from the outside but can also joy his process of killing her.

Secondly I feel the overall aesthetic of this minis series really is what I would like to achieve in the opening sequence as it really captures a story in which every shot is intriguing and dynamic at also has a beautiful set to perfectly pair with it. The focus of the series is the subtlety of the killer and the how hidden the danger is which amps up the tension by leaving the audience in mystery, this what we want to do with our sequence; make sure the audience are constantly trying to figure out what exactly is going on and the intentions of the murderous man.

Silence of The Lambs

This film features a crazed killer called 'Hannibal Lecter' who eats his victims and skins them, this can once again fundamentally relate to the psychopathic man in our sequence however there are also some big differences such as the fact that the
'man' is not a cannibal and doesn't eat his victims but does dissect their bodies and use bodies as 'decorations' and he is also significantly more unsuspecting which therefore means he can fade into the role of a perceived normal person.

Finally, this film's fear factor is also something that is comparable to our opening sequence as the pure horrific idea alone is enough to strike terror but seeing a man force feed a woman poison through a funnel whilst he is gaining satifaction from it is extremely disturbing, just like the narrative essence of silence of the lambs. I know the genre of the our sequence is a crime thriller but this horrific aspect with the funnel is what really pulls in the audience and makes the sequence thrilling to watch.