Wednesday 21 March 2012

Thursday 15 March 2012

Final Phase of Editing

After the stresses of creating the song, we managed to sort rationally through our problems and we were able to finalise a song that we felt acceptable. We also finished editing the whole video and I feel that editing actually went rather well as we worked well together and gradually went through each second of film and decided whether we needed to cut it or move it or add a transition. Although this is a lengthy process, it is worth it to ensure our film is edited to the best of our ability.

The main problem was definitely the soundtrack debacle, however, luckily we managed to meet the deadline. I feel that even though our film is certainly not perfect, we did try very hard and put a great deal of effort into it and have produced something fairly worthy of some praise.

Thursday 8 March 2012

Music Problems

Lucy, Catherine and I had our hearts set on using a Phil Collins song, 'Sussudio' as we felt this was the absolute perfect song to go with our 80's-set film. We were disheartened when we learned that we could not use copyrighted music, and knew we had to find a quick substitute.

Lucy and I spent 3 hours trying to use garage band, a software that we both had little experience using, to try and make an 80's cheesy piece of music, and it's harder than we first thought! We wanted the cheesy music to turn to a sudden dramatic sound at certain moments of the film opening so we noted down the timings in the film of when we wanted the music to change, so that we would know when to put that certain sound in when making the song. Once we got into a creative flow we managed to develop a sound that we felt was acceptable for the film. Although it was not what we had previously hoped to use, we thought the song would be a fine replacement.

However, once we completed the song we exported it to iTunes and realised the song was 2.30 minutes long and we only wanted it to be 1.30. We realised that what we thought was the seconds on garageband, was another measure and we had completely mistaken what it meant! This was disastrous as we knew that we could fix the problem by shortening the song, but this meant that we would need to completely change where we put certain sounds. We would have to completely change the timings!

Although we can certainly fix this problem with a bit of time and effort, it has certainly been the most stressful/problematic part of the production process and we have certainly learned from our mistake. In order to fix this problem Lucy and I are dedicating 2 hours tomorrow (9/03/12) to just sit down and work through it systematically and cut it down fix the timings.

Peer Feedback

On Friday 24th of February our media lesson was dedicated to watching and assessing the other groups film openings. We all had to take notes on what we thought went well and what they could improve on. In my opinion, all the other groups work was done to an excellent standard and I was very impressed by their efforts. The other positive thing about peer assessing was finding out what the others had to say about my groups work. At first I was anxious to receive their feedback as I felt their work was very good that ours perhaps did not look as good compared to theirs. However, it seemed that I over panicked and my group and I received some complimentary comments and constructive criticism. 

What went well:
- Good lighting, makes shots clear.
- Interesting storyline.
- Good use of props, makes things more interesting.
- Nice variety of shots.
- Excellent mise-en-scene.
- Good extreme close ups.
- Good location.
- On the whole smooth editing.
- They liked the 'cheesy 80s' theme.

Criticisms:
- A couple of shots were slightly out focused, but not to the degree that they are unusable.
- Could make the editing more snappy to add more suspense. 
- Some scenes could be shortened.
- Needs music or audio.

Overall, I was pleased with the feedback and very thankful for their kind comments. There were no criticisms made that I thought unfair or that my group hadn't already noticed, therefore there were no shocking surprises. The feedback has helped us continue editing as it helped us decide what to keep, what to cut and what to adapt slightly. Getting an outsider's opinion with fresh eyes helps us consider a couple of things that we may not had noticed before.