Generic Music Video Conventions

Editing Process/Programs

To edit our film we used Serif. We used this as it was the first editing program we were introduced to. We used various tools on the program such as the panning and volume, the cutting tool to split and rearrange the footage, the rippling tool that shifts the the linked footage and audio along when you cut a section.

To create our titles we used Adobe After effects. As on this program we were working from scratch rather than with prerecorded footage, we were able to give it a much more professional effect.

Our work on Adobe After effects turned out to be very successful. However, we came across many technical problems using Serif, as it would constantly freeze and we would not be able to view what we were editing. The program would not let us export the footage either, so unfortunately we had to pursue in trying to edit our film with inadequate software. We feel our film could have been a lot better had we edited it with a working program.

Final Powerpoint Evaluation

final thriller evaluation

Rough Powerpoint

Rough Powerpoint Evaluation

Changes to rough cut

The first thing we changed in our rough cut was a tiny blip of sound at the very start of our peice that wasn’t meant to be there, but due to our crappy editing software we had never heard it before.

We then added titles inbetween and over video footage to give the feel of an introduction to the story. We did this using After effects, bringing in the text with a sweeping effect and making the background transparent, then adding it to our film.

We removed our first shot of an odd gardening tool with blood dripping from it, as it was unclear exactly what it was. We also reintroduced the fast editing effect of the photos before. We however did not remove the slower editing, as suggested in our feedback, as we wanted the viewer to focus in on Annabelle’s face.

We added another sweeping sound effect when Annabelle opens her eyes. We got all our sounds off freesound.org by searching the kinds of sounds we wanted and trying our different ones along side our video footage. We made all the non diegatic sound, such as the tremolo of violins and an echoing sound, more continuous and less jumpy and distracting. When Annabelle is looking at the pictures we added the camera shutter noise to give it more of an edge. I repeated this one sound and added reverb to make it more echoing, representing the memories of the photos. We sorted out the sound recorded with the video as it includes lots of different chunks which needed to sound continuous. I also added another side view shot of Aaron taking the photo that can hardly be seen, but creates a flickering effect to match the camera shutter sound.

‘Captured’ Final Cut

Thriller Opening Rough Cut and Thriller Shooting Experience

This is our rough cut for our thriller opening

Thriller Shooting experience

We arranged the date and location for our thriller that our group and our actors could attend, making sure we were organised so we could get straight into filming as soon as we were there.

During our filming, we used two cameras. One we used mainly for handheld capturing, and the other we put on a tripod for more steady framing of shots. This worked well as we needed to take less shots of one piece of action, and the continuity was spot on as it was filmed together.

Annabelle who was playing the protagonist started to get cold halfway through us filming her section where she is taped up on the floor, so we didn’t get as much footage as we would have hoped to. We overcame this problem, however, later on in the editing process by using closeups within the same shot to extend the action.

We came across the problem of clutter within the garage, but having a look at it we felt that it added to the mise en scene of a disused garage where the antagonist hides away.

During our filming, we thought of a wider range of camera angles to use than originally in our story board, such as the point of view shot of the protagonist looking down on the desk, which I achieved by standing on a chair and keeping the camera at a level angle directly above the able, also creating the effect of a close, ariel view.

Overall, our filming experince was successful, with no major problems to overcome, due to planning in advance and organisation.