Meeting #8 - Editing The Sound

During this meeting, I and my group decided to create some sound for the opening sequence as we were not allowed to use copy-righted music as my group would get penalised if we were to. During this meeting, I used a software programme called Garage band. Garage band is a music creating software on the Macs where I and my group made some music for the opening sequence.

In my opinion, I found this one of the most challenging tasks that I had faced during the production of the opening sequence that my group and I had been working on yet I found it one of the most enjoying. I used a wide range of sounds for the music of the opening sequence. I used sounds such as ambience and drums which created tension while watching the opening sequence. I also tried to create an eerie effect with the music that my group and I had created.

When creating the music, I decided to make the music louder when the killer was revealed and then to make the music more quiet when it cut to the detective scene. Because my group was behind when producing the opening sequence, we were only given one day to create our sound so I think that the sound was not as good as it could have been. If I and my group was given more time to create the sound, I think it would have been less repetitive and more interesting.

As a whole I found this meeting really enjoying and I learnt a lot from using the software on the Mac such as Garage Band and managed to increase my knowledge and flexibility of using the software.

Meeting #7 - Editing Our Sequence

My group and I have started to edit our opening sequence using Final Cut. During the editing I am going to help my group create transitions, titles, credits, colours, fades and other effects that my group and I have considered adding towards the project and editing of our opening sequence.

This is the second time we had to start editing our opening sequence as my group encountered a very large problem. Before we had to start editing our opening sequence again, we had all the clips imported onto the computers hard drive. Unfortunately, the computers hard drive was not backed up onto the system and our clips were deleted making our Final Cut project corrupt and unusable as there was no footage to edit with. So, my group and I had to re-import the video clips which was very time consuming as we had a lot of clips to import.

Luckily our group knew how to quickly put the clips back into order and cut the clips where it was needed and this time editing we knew exactly how we wanted the scenes and shots to flow and what shots we didn't want that we had filmed so they could be deleted straight away, instead of deciding what shots to keep. We kept the ones that myself and the rest of the group thought were the best and we deleted the others we thought were not satisfactory. (The shots that had  mistakes in/bloopers and shots where the camera
was shaking too much)

I think that the editing lessons and meetings are great and I am very much enjoying them a lot. Not only am I enjoying editing our opening sequence, but I think it's a very good way to get more familiar with the editing software that we're using and it was very good preparation towards up-coming tasks and work for my Media education.

Meeting #6 - Filming In The Forest

Once again my group decided to meet up and we were ready to start filming our opening sequence shots! As you can see me on the left holding the tripod on camera, we were in the forest ready to film some of the shots for our opening sequence. I was acting as one of the detectives as so was Alex. Lauren did the majority of the filming when me and Alex were in the shot, but when it came to filming just one individual such as Alex, the camera was given to me so I could also have a go with the camera which was good practice for myself.

There was many mistakes when our group was filming such as, the camera sometimes jolted so the shot had to be recorded again, or it could have just been an acting error where Alex or I failed to pronounce the dialogue correctly, or our body movement was not just right. The day was great and we managed to get quiet a few shots that we could take back to the classroom and import onto the computer.

While we were filming in the forest for the detective scene on our storyboard for the opening sequence my group was working on, we went deeper into the forest and found even more locations and decided to draw some of them and add parts into our storyboard and schedule another meeting to film so we could use those locations to film some nice shots. Even some of the locations in the forest that we found were slightly better than the original locations but overall, the day was great as I had fun with my group filming and acting as the detective!

Meeting #2 - Practice Filming

For our second meeting, my group decided to meet up and look around for shot locations and practice with the camera which was needed as our opening sequence was mostly filmed in the dark. We practised with the camera so we could get an idea of what sort of lighting we would need in a dark scene, or if we'd use just then natural lighting from the street if there was no power mains nearby to plug in our own lighting. As you can see in the image of the left, there is some of our filming equipment.

The area that we went to practice our filming was Malden Manor. We took pictures of some shot locations and other points of interest which were similar to our initial storyboard. During this meeting, my group and I decided to take some practice shots just to see if the lighting was correct and if the shot that we took was good enough, we could've even used it as a part of our opening sequence. During the practice shooting, I had a lot of fun acting in the suits that were going to be used in our opening sequence and using the camera.


Here, the image of the left you can see myself (right) and Alex (left) in our suits and costumes which was a part of our mis en scene for our opening sequence. During this meeting of our practice filming, I used the camera to get a feel of it and I also used the tripod. As an overall, I thought the night was great as I and the others had a lot of fun and had some good practice with the camera and found some cool shooting location at Malden Manor.

Meeting #5 - Using Final Cut For The First Time

Here is an image of my group having our first go on Final Cut which is an video editing software on the Mac computers. During my first time using Final Cut, my group did not import any footage or video so we decided to practice the the credits and titles. I had never used the editing software before so I found it difficult to adapt to the terminology and the tools that are used on the Final Cut software. As you can see on the image below, we started with creating some text for credits and titles.

When using the Final Cut video editing software, I found it difficult at the start because I didn't really
understand how to use the software, but after a few tries and some practice with using some of the tools, as well as asking my teacher for some advice on how to use the software, I started to gradually get the hang of it, even though I was only using some of the basic features on Final Cut. Here shown on the image above, you can see that our group created the title credit for our opening sequence. The title that we created was "The Slayer". As a conclusion, I found this session of using Final Cut fun and quiet challenging considering I had never used video editing software before.

Meeting #3 - Final Storyboarding

This is the third meeting that my group met up. During this meeting, we decided to create the final storyboard. I participated by drawing some of the shots that were going to be used in our opening sequence as well as discussing more ideas that could be fed into the opening sequence I was working on. Not only did we sort out the order of the storyboard, but we also organised added where our title and credits were going to be in the opening sequence.





We decided to draw the storyboard onto post it notes, instead of using an actual storyboard sheet as we found it easier just to draw and then number the post it notes as it was easier to draw onto and there was a lot more space. I think this meeting was a good asset towards our opening sequence as it made us more organised and prepared for the real filming as we would know the exact shots and the locations of where the shots were going to be taken. Even though this meeting was not as fun as filming or going out of school for shot locations and other practical work, I think it was a good input towards our opening sequence.

Meeting #4 - Our Storyboard (Completed)

In the forth meeting, my group decided to import our storyboard images into a word document and then upload the word document onto a Scribd profile. In the image below, you can see our first final storyboard which my group are trying to keep to when it comes to our filming. I was thinking of adding some text to the left hand side of the images in the word document explaining what was happening, but I did not have the time as my group started to fall  a little behind as Alex and I was unable to attend some of the meetings that we had scheduled, but overall, it is clear to see how the shots will look when the shots are made into a real film using the camcorder.


Detailed Storyboard for Scribd[1]

Meeting #1 - Creating Our Storyboard

This is the first ever meeting our group had for the preparation for our opening sequence. The first thing we had to produce as a group was a storyboard. In this meeting, I participated in the planning of the opening sequence, ideas to storyboarding, camera shots, mis en scene and other features that were to be included in our opening sequence.






Also in this meeting, I discussed my thoughts and ideas to Alex and Lauren which contributed towards the opening sequence. Also during this meeting, we used the computer to look at examples of opening sequence around the genre that we were themed around (Thriller/Horror) to get an idea of the techniques, lighting and camera shots that were used.

Even though I arrived late to the lesson by about ten minutes for the briefing that my group was given by my teacher, I managed to help out my group and the preparation towards our opening sequence headed off with a good start and we were ready to go onto our next task which was to go and buy the props, look for shot locations and practice with the camera we were going to use to film our opening sequence.