Friday, 6 January 2012

Feedback:

Once we finished editing our film, I uploaded the video onto www.YouTube.com; I then downloaded it onto Twitter and Tumblr asking for feedback. This was very important for us as we wanted to see how well we had done and what improvements can be done.

Here are a few print screens of me promotion people to watch 'The Black Apple':

Youtube.com



Twitter.com

Tumblr.com



And here is the feedback i received:


Received from Youtube.com

Received from Twitter.com

Received from Twitter.com

I am very please with the feedback I received online and glad that people enjoy what I’ve spent sometime to produce. All the feedback I receive was positive from the audience and especially loved the running scenes as they were very effective. However, I do like how someone has given us improvements and its enabled my group members and I to have aspects honestly from the public that we can improve for next time. 

Moreover, in the future I would have posted my video earlier, so more peoples are able to give me feedback and I am able to get more feedback, however, I think as a group we did very well over all and very happy with the outcomes and the audience seems satisfied with the outcome. 

Thursday, 5 January 2012

Editing Process, Finished:

We have finally finished editing 'The Back Apple' after many hours of editing during school and spare time. All we have left to do is upload it to YouTube and social networking sites - Face Book, Twitter and Tumblr for feedback which we will be able to get honest feedback from the public. It is my job to upload the opening sequence onto social networking sites for all three of us.

As a group we are exceedingly pleased and very proud of our final project and what we have achieved from scratch. I am very pleased of the story line we created as a group and how it differentiates us of other projects as i admire how we added the thrilling twist to a original story line. Even though i have watched our opening a lot of times during editing etc, i am happy with the outcome and hope many people enjoy it.

Here is 'The Black Apple' - Enjoy!

Wednesday, 4 January 2012

Editing Process, Day 6:

Completed by: Me. Uploaded via mobile phone

Today was our last media lessons before handing in our coursework, meaning this was our time to get everything with the teacher there. However, we have finished editing!

Print screen of me posting a blog via my phone
Software's used:
  • Final Cut Express
  • Quicktime

What have we done today?
  • Today during period 1 and 2, we did not have a media lesson, however myself, Nicola and Chloe went into the imacs to refresh our minds and begin to record and put the voice over onto the opening.
  • When recorded (which took us about 25, yes 25 attempts) we converted the opening onto Quicktime
  • When i got home from school I then individually uploaded the movie onto Youtube which will be uploaded shortly on to my blog.

Conclusion:
  • We did have many difficulties with recording the voice over as we were interrupted by other individuals in the school and the background noise was quite heavy which then we found problems trying to record when the room was quite.
  • During recording, some records we did produce would not save, meaning we have to keep re-recording.
  • However, we didn't have any disagreements and got straight on with the task. When managed to upload the voice over we all agreed that it pulled the whole opening together and gave it a better understanding which i am very pleased of.
  • As we have now finished filming, i am extremely happy with the final piece and how it sets in the enigma code very well and will be looking forward to receive feedback from the audience.

Print screen on me uploading the opening onto YouTube.com

Friday, 23 December 2011

Editing Process, Day 5:


Even though we did not have any media lessons today, i went into the imac room period 2 and 5 to re-upload the credits as the ones Nicola created were too slow and faded out too fast.

Software used:

  • Live Text
  • Final Cut


What have we done today?
  • Watched what we had done so far, this enabled us to take a break at watching the opening which allowed us to notice mistakes and also re-freshened our memories before we began editing  
  • Added the moving institution logo 'Summit Entertainment' onto the opening which Chloe downloaded the evening before. 
  • Chloe began to put to put a few credits onto the opening, which then i individually finished adding them onto the opening during period 5, i rotated the credit, changing the effects, video filters and colour. Then i began cutting certain clips which i felt fitted into the music. Although, i did have to re-create the credits. 


Why did we choose Summit Entertainment as our institutional logo?

  • This logo is most famous for the film 'Twilight' which is a mixed between fantasy and thriller that is similar to ours.
  • We admired how during the process of the logo, the colours are dull and represent a mysterious vibe. 
  • Looking at a photo of Summit Entertainment, it looks extremely successful, powerful and gripping. As you can tell they don't need bright colours to suggest that their films are successful. This could implies that they produce horror, thriller, supernatural films rather then romance etc. 
  • There are many reasons why we have chosen this logo but the most important aspect is that we can associate this with our film by the dark lighting. 
Summit Entertainment

What will we do next lesson? 
  • We don't have any more lessons till next year, so tomorrow during period 3 we will record the voice over.

Conclusion:
  • Even though we didn't have a lesson today, i feel we got an appropriate amount of work done, however, i was hoping we were able to also record the voice over.
  • Importing the institution logo was very easy and quick whereas, i thought we would have problems importing the file. In addition, we all admired how Chloe downloaded a institutional title which represented our own film opening.
  • During period 5, i was alone and got straight on with creating/importing the credits onto Final Cut, i did it quite quick and found it easy to import each title, however, the software kept unexpectedly closing which wasted a lot of time and also deleted the work i had created. Also, Final Cut had problems rendering certain files which then i had to quit Final Cut, then re-upload the files again. Although, I've finished it under 1 hour. 
  • I am happy that i was able to get on and finish the credits which means tomorrow we only have to focus on the voice over. As a group, surprisingly we had no disagreements which made the work process even quicker.    

    Editing Process, Day 4:

    Even though i spent an hour in the imac room individuals to flip and arrange the clips before the double lesson today, we were unable to add the 'flipped' clip onto Final Cut as the video could not play the correct way, it kept playing back the original version, as we had limited timing, we decided to finish the opening before experimenting with the flipped video.

    Software used:

    • Live Text
    • Final Cut


    What have we done today?
    • Watched what we had done so far, this enabled us to take a break at watching the opening which allowed us to notice mistakes and also re-freshened our memories before we began editing  
    • Chloe and I began to re-connect the animated title and institution logo, then adding the music i found which is entitled 'Dead Silence' onto the opening. Importing this onto Final Cut was quick and easy and in my opinion, defiantly fitted the concept to what we were trying to portray. However, we did have some problems when cutting the music as it did not fit with certain parts of the clips. For example, we wanted the up-tempo, distorted music to come in when the black screen appears and Snow White begins running through the woods as this will also make the audience scared along with the main character, although, as we did cut this, the music did not flow. Fortunately, I was able to slow down the duration of the first half of the music where it will be played during the EST shots to 6 seconds instead of 3 seconds which made a successful impact. In addition, i connected these two pieces of music together by fading them into one another.
    • Nicola finished off creating the credits using 'Live Text', however, when we added them to the opening they were too fast and quick for the audience so Nicola made the duration much more slower. Although, while Nicola did this Chloe and I practiced adding a 'Test' title. Firstly, we rotated the title to be in position, change the boldness etc, allowing the title to fade in with the background.We did manage to find out ow to do this easily and quickly, although, we had to keep changing the duration of the text using Live Text which limited our timing. 

    ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: During the double media lesson, we ask a student in our media class to watch and honestly comment on our opening and how we can improve. We did this because Nicola, Chloe and I have been watching the opening several times a day and feel we cant notice the good aspects about the opening. Therefore, he suggested that:
    • We should cut the scene a couple of seconds where we zoom into the shed as it lasts for too long and does not fit into the music - In order to do this, we agreed that this did not fit in time with the music so we cut the scene quick and easily. In result, this looked much better visually, dynamic and more powerful. 
    • We should place the title at the end of the opening as its more dramatic and is something which is usually done in many famous films however, we felt we wanted to be unique and different from the 'famous' openings. 
    • Although, we did have some advantages. For example, John said we extremely loved our music and how it fits with every scene and how it even made him want to know the rest of the story.

    What will we do next lesson? 
    • we will come in the imac's during school hours and finish the opening by adding the voice over, credits and movie institutional logo.
    • We will re-watch the opening, ask someone fro advice on how we can improve and apply this. 

    Conclusion:
    • Today's lesson went very well and feel we have got a huge amount of work done which has made an extravagant impact on the whole opening, making it more intense, thrilling and gripping.  
    • We did have some disagreement during the process, however, we did manage to over come this by having discussions and believe it or not, we voted for certain aspects we disagreed to to come to a final decision. Although, i am defiantly happy with the final outcome, even though we still have a few aspects to add. In addition, i did find it was much less stressful than previous editing sessions.
    • I am very trilled that we were able to add in the music so quick and easy as it changed the whole emotion and tension of the whole opening which we were hoping to happen which i admire and has defiantly came up with the right song a sits fits the concept perfectly.   
    Here we are rendering the video and audio after adding the soundtrack on

    Editing Process, Day 3:

    Completed by: Me

    Today on 11/12/11, we are in the third day of the editing process which is following on from our day 2, editing process.

    Software used:

    • Live Text
    • Final Cut


    What did we do today?
    • We put the clips into the correct order which i then slowed down the duration of the opening scene (Establising shot)  to 15 seconds, instead on 6, as we thought it was too fast.
    • Nicola began looking at the various types of texts using 'Live Text' and eventually found an appropriate style for the title which dissolved into the composition frame, which represent a haunting twist to the original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
    • While Nicola was doing this, Chloe and I began tinting each scene into the colour 'Tungsten' to create the atmosphere look more dull, distorted and unwelcoming. This did take some time for me to create, however, it was defiantly worth it because it creates a whole different emotion on the opening which i felt was missing. 
    • During the day we have problems rendering relevant clips, however, we did manage to over come this by just rending each clip at a time.

    What will we do next lesson:
    • Add the music onto the opening
    • Add the titles created from Live Text, although, this may need altering during the day. 

    Conclusion:
    Today, i did think we got a huge amount of work done and feel that we are up-to-date with editing. I am very happy that we were able to identify the rendering problems and get straight on with adding the tint, titles etc. I feel that today, we had got used to using Final Cut, which then this enabled  us to challenge our skills and experiment with the different tools. Today with what we have accomplished in the 2 hours set in lesson and the 1h 30 minutes we stayed behind after school really made a difference. During period 3 tomorrow, I have individually planned to go into the iMac's. My plan is to watch through all the scenes position them in the right areas and using 'iMovie' i will flip a scene which we found continuity editing. On Wednesday, we will begin to add the credits, music, sound effects and voice over onto the movie using Final Cut. So far we are up-to-date with all work and on track.

    Me and Chloe had to re-upload the EST shot as it kept constantly jumping and
    skipping certain parts. 


    Editing Process, Day 2:

    Completed by: Me

    Today on 6/12/11, we are in the second day of the editing process which is following on from our day one, editing process.

    Software used:

    • Live Text
    • Final Cut
    • Downloading site


    What did we do today?
    • At first, we decided we were going to convert any extra scenes we shot and begin cutting and placing the clips in order, improving the transitions from last lesson, picking the best and more suitable shots taken.
    • We then put the extra scenes uploaded into order referring back to the script and storyboard. In this lesson we spent most of our time cutting the individual clips and placing them in order, our aim was to make sure we got this perfect before doing anything else.
    • While editing, we did also begin to look on 'Text Live' which we will be using to create our credits, enabling us to use effects and transitions onto the credits, in order to make it unique. 
    • ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: A couple of weeks ago i found a sound track which i feel is perfect for this genre of the opening. I did do some research on four other fantasy and thriller movies, analysing the 2 minute opening music. However, i found that this piece was the more daunting, vibrant and really made myself feel trapped and in danger as it has a erring tone to it. The sound track is called 'Dead Silence.' Nicola and I did come to a decision of Nicola downloading it via MP3 which she did in this lesson. 
    Screen shot of Nicola downloading the music and converting
    it onto SNIPMP3

      What will we do next lesson?
      • Come to a decision and find an appriopraite stype for the title.
      • Tint each scene to make them look more dark and dull, creating an unwelcoming atmosphere.

      Conclusion: 

      Alternatively, we did have several difficulties with using Final Cut, such as, continuity, cutting and rending the video which became a huge problem during the lesson. For example, our aim was to have the scenes dissolving into one another during the first 20 seconds, which is where the credits will be shown, however, we manage to attach the dissolve effect onto an extra clip we were not using, meaning we had to delete that scene and re-upload it. Nicola, Chloe and I are debating whether to finish the editing using 'iMovie' as this is well known to all 3 of us and has a 'Flip' effect which is what we want to contribute in our opening as there are some continuity mistakes. 

      Meanwhile, Nicola didn't have enough space on her log in, meaning this limited the amount we could produce in the lesson. Although, we did manage to cut the clips we had produced and put them in order, meaning we easily moved onto finding suitable text using the software 'LiveText' which allows us to type in the text we want as the credit, and find a effective, efficient and suitable effect for the text which fits into our genre. We began using this for our credits and researching various types of transitions which we are still in process of. In addition, I am happy with the final result we produced in the lesson as we manage to co-operate and got a lot of work done. Although, we will continue with it next lesson.