Editing 3

The shots that we took were slightly dark so we went to the following to change the level of lighting.

Editing

We started adding effects in today's lesson, by going to effects-video filters-image control- choosing a suitable effect. For example, threshold which is shown below.

This effect is black and white but gives off a dramatic sense.

Another effect which we added to the above black and white was by going to effects again but instead of  image control we went to distort and then clicked earthquake. This made it a bit shakey.

We then tried to experiment other effects such as colour correction.

To do this we had to  click on the colour circle below and choose what colour we wanted to use, we could see what it looked like next to the clip.

After adding the colour effects, we added a transition between the edited clip and normal clip to make the change between them natural and not different. This was done by going to video transitions- dissolve- cross dissolve.

This shows where we put the effect in the middle. This was done by cutting them in the middle to put a blinking effect.

Then we edited the effect to another clip from our filming. We did the same thing again going to effects- video filters but then trying something else by going to stylize then solarize.

This was how it ended up looking like, shown below.

Video filtered the swings by going on glow then clicking on over drive. This made the background a little bit blurred.

This effect is one that most of us liked. Again we went to video filters but this time clicking on 'key' then 'spill supperssor-blue'

This was how it came out, at first we were just trying different effects but ended up using this.

Researching sound

We haven't finished our editing yet, there is still a lot to be done, but I'd like to start researching some sound that we could use in our opening.

Nox Arcana

Nox Arcana is renowned for creating haunting, gothic-themed soundscapes with classic horror references, strong literary influences. Their music sounds appropriate to be used in a thriller as it is mysterious, thrilling and suspenseful. Some of the songs actually sound like lullabies, and we were looking forward to use a lullaby.

Voices

Spooky music

Spooky children's song

Title Sequence inspiring us

Our title sequence will be mainly inspired by Se7en. Two things that I would like to differ from 'Se7en' is perhaps the font, and that in 'Se7en', sometimes there are titles over a black screen and we are planning to have titles always over images (like in 'Arlington Road'). But inspired by 'Se7en' I want to use the same kind of pace for the titles, which is not so quick. I also would like to have the same kind of stylised editing for the titles, as for example it has movement, it flicks, it glows, the editing is very significant for a psychological thriller. The order of our title sequence will be the same, apart from the fact that we might exclude two titles from the beginning - the producer and the director - to make it more conventional of film openings.
Order:
1. Production Company Logo
2. Stars
3. Film Title
4. Actors
5. Casting
6. Music
7. Costume designer
8. Editor
9. Production designer
10. Photography Director
11. Co-producers
12. Co-executive producers
13. Executive producers
14. Writer
15. Producer
16. Director

Editing

Today's lesson we were checking if the footage is up to standards and we found out we will need to reshoot the TV, which will be done tomorrow. Here is a screen shot of our editing so far in Final Cut Pro, we were simply putting the shots together and in order. Further more we will start doing the stylised editing and add the title sequence.

Filming

We started our filming in the 9th February before half-term. Unfortunately we forgot to bring a camera to take pictures of the process. That day we filmed in Finsbury Park some toys. There was snow in the park, which would not affect our opening in terms of context because it is discrete and a bit detached. However the snow made it a bit difficult to work our the best lighting as it was a very foggy day and everything was very bright. 

During half-term, on Thursday 16th February we finished (nearly everything) our filming. First we finished all the filming inside of the house, then we went to Finsbury Park to do the necessary filming with the girl. Some things did not go very well, the girl we had to use was not the same we were planning to and it was essential to finish all the filming with her that day. Also, the cat got operated and we couldn't film it as well. There was one scene that we had to reshoot at the same day.

Main character outfit - white top with flowers, skirt, flowery tights, twintail. Childlike to represent innocence and establish the 'fake' normality. 

Making the drawings needed.

The scrapbook reflecting the girl's tormented mind.

Making the cuts in her arms.

Today's lesson we finished filming the adoptions paper which was the only footage missing.

Re-editing a film opening

I was not in during this lesson, where my group re-edited the opening of thriller; Arlington Road.
However i have looked up on their work and have seen they used final cut pro software to include a title sequence with reference to our title sequence timeline we did before.
They also recorded some sounds which we all put together using soundtrack pro.

Little girl Suffering from Mental Disorder

This is what Schizophrenia is like in real life, for a little girl. This is the same mental disorder the child in our film is suffering from. Here is some footage of a girl that has been diagnosed with it.

Analysis of a Previous Student Film opening

12. Erika, Nathan, Poppy, Charlene from 283goswell on Vimeo.

This film opening is called Violet. This is the type of film opening my group intends to do- a well edited opening.


The film opening begins with a Black screen with the student details on it. This is effective as the examiner is able to read and understand what is going on.

Their title sequence is a scary font, shaking over a black screen; with non-diegetic sound of a music box playing in the background. This is very good way of showing the title names as the black screen connotes death, evil and mystery as the film genre is a Horror Thriller so this is very effective.

As the film progresses; many jump cuts are seen as it takes the audience by surprise to give them a dim idea of what the storyline of the film is and to introduce the main character or who or what the film is about.

In terms of Mise en Scene; the locations of the film was very well thought through. They had two locations; the Forest and a house. This gave off some indication to the audience what to expect as the location of a forest usually connotes spirits, murder higher powers. As for a house; it connotes family, life and humanity therefore the two together suggests that there is a correlation between the two.

The props that were used were fairly simple and straight forward not too much were used as this would take away the horror effect of the film. The colour violet was shown in various shots in the film as this emphasised the title of the film.

Lighting in the film was very dim and slightly de-saturated as these effects made the film scarier as darkness is associated with evil and death.

The film opening was full of transitions. The fading to the black screen throughout the films portrays that this is an untold story which grabs the audience’s attention to find out what is going to happen next. Where there was over lapping with two scenes; this created a freighting atmosphere as the two shots combined tells the audience something about the character.

The whole film opening was a flashback hence the reason for the black and white effect and the flashes throughout.

At the end of the film opening the music slowed down and when it was bringing it back to real life the shots went back in fast motion suggesting the confusion and the spiritual voices or sounds being heard in the man who did the murder’s head.

Schizophrenia

To ensure that our plot/opening/character is realistic, I have researched a little about schizophrenia. I think that researching abou it can help us to know how to present it in our film opening.

"Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a breakdown of thought processes and by poor emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social or occupational dysfunction."
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophrenia

Positive symptoms

People with schizophrenia usually do not experience positive symptoms until their late teens or early twenties, and doctors usually cannot diagnose schizophrenia before positive symptoms occur. The positive symptoms of schizophrenia may include delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized speech, thoughts, beliefs, movements, and behaviors.

*Delusions: Delusions are false beliefs that a person holds onto even when they are bizarre or could not possibly be true. People with schizophrenia might believe, for example, that their inner thoughts are being broadcast out loud or that outside people, spirits, or aliens are inserting thoughts into their heads or are touching their bodies.

*Hallucinations: Hallucinations involve seeing, hearing, or feeling things that are not real. People with schizophrenia often "hear voices" in their heads (auditory hallucinations) that other people cannot hear and that are not just their inner thoughts. The voices may tell them what to do, may carry on conversations about them, or may have arguments with each other.

*Disorganized speech, thoughts, and beliefs: Ideas and images may become jumbled or linked together for illogical reasons, or words and meanings that should be linked instead may become disconnected.

*Disorganized movements and behaviors: People with schizophrenia may use exaggerated or repeated gestures, or they may seem to be fidgeting or hyperactive or preoccupied with meaningless physical movements.

Source: http://www.humanillnesses.com/Behavioral-Health-Ob-Sea/Schizophrenia.html

Shannelle certainly hears voices and sometimes has disorganised thinking. Later on the film her symptoms get worse and more visible which may result in a poor emotional responsiveness. Schizophrenics might act differently according to situations what can explain why no one has noticed Shanelle's state of mind. Mainly because in the oprhanage she probably didn't get much attention and she was a bit anti-social. The parents simply think she is shy/reserved but it is actually one of her symptoms for schizophrenia. She may show up most positive symptoms. Although it is not very common for a child to present symptoms of schizophrenia, this could possibly be the mystery of our thriller.

Symbolic shots in our film opening

Although discrete title sequences are not part of the narrative of the film, it is not simply the presentation of random thrilling shots. Discrete openings usually carry symbological meanings in the shots chosen. It is a form of antecipating what happens in the film but in a very subtle way. For our opening we have specific mise en scene that is representative of what happens in the film. For example:

Playground - shots of different toys in the playground such as swing, marry go round, children playing, etc represent the equilibrium of the film. It shows the 'normality' of children. It may connote an 'innocent way of having fun'. The distortion of these by spooky editing, by showing swing chains only, or by showing mary go round spinning without kids, create the breaking of the equilibrium. In the film, Shannelle appears to be normal and innocent like any child, but this image breaks down throughout the film.

The teddy bear - the teddy bear is a significant item for Shannelle as it was a present from her biological mother. The teddy bear is not only representative of children, but it connotes a kind of emotional comfort for children. Once the teddy bear is shown ripped up, it conveys that Shannelle is emotionally breaking down and it represents the state of her mind. She hears voices telling to harm whoever tries to get closer to her and ripping up the teddy bear is symbolic of that.

The cat - cats have a superstitious connotation of bad luck (specifically black cats). They also carry a treacherous reputation. Besides that, it is stereotypical for mentally disabled people to have a pet (most often cats). Including the shot of the cat can give a sense of  'omen' as well as represent Shannele's mental instability.

Blood and bruises - blood and bruises certainly connote death or some kind of violence going on. Arms cut more specifically represent the disturbed mind of Shannelle and how she suffers with her mental disorder. In psychological thrillers the character usually have psychological confrontations. It is conventional to have symbols of Shannelle's state of mind. The blood running down the drain can also create intertextuality with psycho.

Different film openings

There are many different film openings in a film. Some examples of these are: Stylised opening, Discrete Opening, Credits over a dark or black screen and Narrative opening.

Stylised openings requires a lot of footage and editing; therefore this type of opening is hard to do and also takes a lot of time because with this opening you are trying to tell a story as well as giving the audience the names of who was involved in the film. Therefore to keep the audience interested and to make them understand what is going on. Using this opening it has to be very clear to the audience what is happening because it could become very confusing for the audience; which may result them into loosing interest.

An example of this type of opening is the opening of Pelham 123. Here in this opening a lot of things is going on therefore suggesting that this is a action movie because the opening of the films usually suggests what genre of film it will be. In Pelham 123, we know it is about trains because although we can see a man in a train station; the title sequence also suggests that trains are significant thing in this movie because the title sequence moves like trains across the screen.

Discrete Openings are editing dominated (requiring a lot of editing). This usually takes a lot of time and effort to do, but is one of the best type of openings to do because it grabs the audiences attention and keeps them constantly thinking of what is going to be in this film; another good aspect of this type of opening is the fact that it gives the audience an idea of what genre the film is, which is usually a Psychological, Horror and Action because these type of films deeply requires the readers attention.

An example of this is Arlington Road.

Arlington Road is a brilliant discrete opening because there is  many flashing images and desaturated colour which gives the film a thriller effect because the flashing lights and images is like a flashing alarm which conveys danger which is exactly the type of effect the producer or editer intended.

Credits over a dark/black screen is usually seen in Horror or films with a serious/ slow tone. This is because the director has chosen not to have too much going on whilst the credits are showing because the fact that there is a black or dark screen reflects the fact that this film will have a lot of suspence and keeps the audience guessing.

Donnie Darko is a good example of Credits over a dark/black screen because it creates the atomsphere for the audience and makes more interested in what will happen next.

A Narrative opening is usually is normally a good way to open a film as it keeps people interested in what is going on in the film and gives them a good insight of what is happening.

This is helpful as it gives the audience insight of where the film is taking place.

Pitch

P.s: Mary said that the presentation style feels like horror. Angel has stylised the powerpoint just to make it look more interesting. In our actual film we are not using elements of horror that much.

Makeup tutorial - scars

Because we are considering a shot of the girl's arm with scars, I have watched some tutorials that teach how to create a scar effect with make up. The easiest way of doing it and that still very realistic is shown in the following video:

Angel's ideas for group film

My idea for the group opening was based along the subgenres of a Horror or Psychological thriller. This is merely because these are the two genres that seemed most interesting to me.

A good example of a Horror Thriller would be Final Destination 5:

What I most enjoy about this film is the fact that the camera shots and the music create the tension whereas the acting tells you what is happening and the storyline. The music is a good thing to add in a film opening because in the beginning you do not exactly want to give away the storyline because if you do, the audience will not keep interested in the film; but in this film the music always makes you think you know what is going to happen but it always changes- makes it unpredictable.

A good example of a Psychological Thriller would be The StepFather:

This film also does the same thing just as Final Destination 5, however the difference between the two is the fact that there was more of a stronger storyline and there was definately more dialogue in the tense scenes. However the music still was a major aspect of the film.

I am happy that my group manage to choose a Psychological thriller because they are very interesting films and a lot could be done in the film to make it interesting for the audience.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is when a text or film refers back to other texts or films to make the audience familiar with it or to make them more alert with what is going on.

Example of this is found in many films. For example the famous shower scene in the film Psycho has been repeated in several films for example: step father, Fatal Attraction and many more.

The same type of scene with the same bathroom tiles, shower curtains and bath is also found in The StepFather(2009)

The same type of scene with the same bathroom scene is also found in Fatal Attraction

Therefore; in our opening scene of our film, we would like to make reference to the film Orphan and Psycho as they are very familiar films with the audience and would our film more understandable.