The last week before the final deadline wasn't easy-going. Although we had already completed our main project, we had to create our own commentry, which we were unsure on which method we were going to use. Plus, we had to create our own DVD with all 3 clips of Preliminary Task, Thriller Opening (The File) and Commentry.
We finally decided that due to the length of our film, it was best to film our commentry separate to the film, but when editing it we would include some extracts from our film to provide evidence of the points we were making in our answers. It wasn't easy once editing it, the timing of the audio extracts were crucial which made it easy for the sound and video to go out-of-sync. However, we are very pleased with the end product considering the amount of time spent on it.
Another crucial part that had to be completed was the DVD with all 3 pieces of footage. We were very pleased to find out that the program was fairly easy to use and it didn't take long to produce the DVD.
Hopefully our commentry will be up here soon!
Friday 9 April 2010
Thursday 18 March 2010
Tuesday 9 March 2010
Editing (music):
After having a few sessions teaching ourselves on Garageband we were ready to create our soundtrack.
We based our music from some of the influence of our audience research. People were looking for suspence, uneasy tension and to have a dramatic effect. So we listened to a lot of different drums, synths, bass etc to come up with a great and energetic mix.
Our piece of music starts quiet, with a synth (that is included throughout the whole piece of music) and a thunderstorm sound so that it makes our logo sound more threatening. Then the first shot of the female character running has also got the orchestra strings playing, this is so the tension is already building. Then at the end of the first shot, the orchestra stings fade out and an electric drum kit and loud bass sound are added, to increase the tension a step further. Then a couple of shot later, only the bass is playing to add an extra bit of depth to our music. The next shot until the end of the running sequence includes a guitar, electric drum kit, african percussion, loud bass and an electric piano. This sudden burst of energy increases the tension and matches the action of the footage perfectly. This first section was very difficult to create. The timing was very tricky to get perfect, especially the timing of the music and the beginning of the shot are totally spot-on. Although it was totally worth as we are both very pleased with the outcome.
The next section is when the car turns up, so our music had to quickly fade and change to make it clearer to the audience that this part of the opening was a different time to the running sequence. So the previous music elements were faded out, leaving the synth and a new and slightly different synth with a quieter bass sound. This was because the dialogue was coming up, so the music would have to be almost silent. This would avoid out opening looking like a music video and also so that the dialogue could be heard well.
The last shot is when the music/sound is at the end of the tension as it reveals a bit of information. A gun shot sound is heard before the title "THE FILE" comes up on the screen which was from cutting a sound of a drum beat to a very short sound.
Overall, after all the alterations, we are very pleased with our outcome. It was worth spending a lot of time over the music because it can be believed that the music is what makes the piece come alive!
We based our music from some of the influence of our audience research. People were looking for suspence, uneasy tension and to have a dramatic effect. So we listened to a lot of different drums, synths, bass etc to come up with a great and energetic mix.
Our piece of music starts quiet, with a synth (that is included throughout the whole piece of music) and a thunderstorm sound so that it makes our logo sound more threatening. Then the first shot of the female character running has also got the orchestra strings playing, this is so the tension is already building. Then at the end of the first shot, the orchestra stings fade out and an electric drum kit and loud bass sound are added, to increase the tension a step further. Then a couple of shot later, only the bass is playing to add an extra bit of depth to our music. The next shot until the end of the running sequence includes a guitar, electric drum kit, african percussion, loud bass and an electric piano. This sudden burst of energy increases the tension and matches the action of the footage perfectly. This first section was very difficult to create. The timing was very tricky to get perfect, especially the timing of the music and the beginning of the shot are totally spot-on. Although it was totally worth as we are both very pleased with the outcome.
The next section is when the car turns up, so our music had to quickly fade and change to make it clearer to the audience that this part of the opening was a different time to the running sequence. So the previous music elements were faded out, leaving the synth and a new and slightly different synth with a quieter bass sound. This was because the dialogue was coming up, so the music would have to be almost silent. This would avoid out opening looking like a music video and also so that the dialogue could be heard well.
The last shot is when the music/sound is at the end of the tension as it reveals a bit of information. A gun shot sound is heard before the title "THE FILE" comes up on the screen which was from cutting a sound of a drum beat to a very short sound.
Overall, after all the alterations, we are very pleased with our outcome. It was worth spending a lot of time over the music because it can be believed that the music is what makes the piece come alive!
Audience Research (music choices)
We asked 15 people to listen to three thriller tracks, that we downloaded from itunes, and to choose which one was the best in their opinion. Then, after a little mix-up, we were going to decide from our results what elements we should include in our own soudtrack. Some answers were very simple and other comments gave us the answers that we were looking for.
The three tracks were:
1. Jack's Theme - Torchwood
2. Jagged Edge - I Am Ledgend
3. Agressive Expansion - The Dark Night
We played 30 seconds of the three tracks in that order, but didn't tell anyone where the tracks came from to make sure that the results would not have been altered from peoples judgements.
Our results were:
Track no.1 - 4 people liked this track. Some reasons included "because it's exciting and energetic", "I can imagine someone running away in a suspending way" (which was an answer we wanted to hear) and "it creates a tense feeling". We were fairly surprised that only 4 people preferred this track, but then I agree with the people that didn't choose this track that the music sounds more like it comes from an action film, rather than a thriller.
Track no.2 - 8 people liked this track. This track is seen as more of a thriller and people generally found the track more creepy and disturbing. Some wrote "it creates tension and makes me want to know what's coming next", "it creates suspicion and gets the audience ready for the big event" and "it builds suspence and uneasy tension". These results assured us that people were beginning to create a picture of our opening in their minds.
Track no.3 - Only 3 people liked this track. This was because it took ages to build up to a faster pace, meaning that people tended to get bored quite easily. The reasons why people preferred this track was because "it builds tension" and "its more 'actiony'", which to us comfirmed that these results were the least impressive and generally gave the impression that the people that preferred this track couldn't explain their reason easily.
To sum all this up, our opening (according to the survey) should include elements that were creepy but fast paced, with a quieter bits as well to build tension and suspense.
The three tracks were:
1. Jack's Theme - Torchwood
2. Jagged Edge - I Am Ledgend
3. Agressive Expansion - The Dark Night
We played 30 seconds of the three tracks in that order, but didn't tell anyone where the tracks came from to make sure that the results would not have been altered from peoples judgements.
Our results were:
Track no.1 - 4 people liked this track. Some reasons included "because it's exciting and energetic", "I can imagine someone running away in a suspending way" (which was an answer we wanted to hear) and "it creates a tense feeling". We were fairly surprised that only 4 people preferred this track, but then I agree with the people that didn't choose this track that the music sounds more like it comes from an action film, rather than a thriller.
Track no.2 - 8 people liked this track. This track is seen as more of a thriller and people generally found the track more creepy and disturbing. Some wrote "it creates tension and makes me want to know what's coming next", "it creates suspicion and gets the audience ready for the big event" and "it builds suspence and uneasy tension". These results assured us that people were beginning to create a picture of our opening in their minds.
Track no.3 - Only 3 people liked this track. This was because it took ages to build up to a faster pace, meaning that people tended to get bored quite easily. The reasons why people preferred this track was because "it builds tension" and "its more 'actiony'", which to us comfirmed that these results were the least impressive and generally gave the impression that the people that preferred this track couldn't explain their reason easily.
To sum all this up, our opening (according to the survey) should include elements that were creepy but fast paced, with a quieter bits as well to build tension and suspense.
Saturday 6 March 2010
Filming (reflection):
As expected, filming didn't go quite to plan on our first attempt. We managed to film every shot that were meant to be included in our piece within 2 hours, starting 6am on a sunday morning till 8am. However one extreme close-up shot of the male characters eyes was missed out. The schedule started with the car shots (working backwards due to sunrise), then the dialogue was filmed second, then once the sun was getting brighter the running sequence was filmed. Roisin and I shared roles of camerawork and directing fairly equally. However, as predicted, after the footage was uploaded onto the school macs, some of the shots were too dark. On reflection, too much time was spent directing our actors instead of getting our footage shot, because the sun was rising quickly meaning that some shots would be too light. We also started too early, because the first shot of the car pulling up etc was far too dark and in contrast the dialogue shots were much lighter. This made our piece have bad continuity. On the other hand, the shots of the dialogue and the running sequence was really good and didn't need to be re-shot at all.
So just under a week later, I managed to film some more footage of the shots including the car driving into the car park. The shot of the extreme close-up of the male characters eye was successful but the light was fading quick, so to avoid filming for the third time I decided to film the 3 shots of the car as soon as possible. This included the car pulling up and driving past the camera, the car stopping infront of the camera and the male character getting out of the car (in that order) being filmed almost continuously so that different sunset stages were captured. However, there were other continuity issues after playing back the footage the next day at school. Unfortunetly there were other cars in the background and the male character wasn't wearing the same coat, so another filming session was organised.
A couple of days later, Roisin and I set out to record all three shots again. We both made sure that there would be no continuity issues by asking politely for other people to move their vechicles away from where the camera was placed and capturing our footage. We also made sure that the male character was wearing exactly the same outfit. The footage was much better and, again, the shots were recorded almost continously to insure the right amount of light was captured. After reviewing the first and third day of filming, Roisin and I are very pleased with what we have accomplished.
So just under a week later, I managed to film some more footage of the shots including the car driving into the car park. The shot of the extreme close-up of the male characters eye was successful but the light was fading quick, so to avoid filming for the third time I decided to film the 3 shots of the car as soon as possible. This included the car pulling up and driving past the camera, the car stopping infront of the camera and the male character getting out of the car (in that order) being filmed almost continuously so that different sunset stages were captured. However, there were other continuity issues after playing back the footage the next day at school. Unfortunetly there were other cars in the background and the male character wasn't wearing the same coat, so another filming session was organised.
A couple of days later, Roisin and I set out to record all three shots again. We both made sure that there would be no continuity issues by asking politely for other people to move their vechicles away from where the camera was placed and capturing our footage. We also made sure that the male character was wearing exactly the same outfit. The footage was much better and, again, the shots were recorded almost continously to insure the right amount of light was captured. After reviewing the first and third day of filming, Roisin and I are very pleased with what we have accomplished.
Monday 1 March 2010
B.E.A.R Productions Logo
When designing the logo for our production team we had to relate it to ourseles, by combining our initials we found we could spell the word "bear". Keeping in reference to the animal we created the bear paw print and placed our name inside it. oOur colour composition was considered and we decided to keep the simplicity of black and white because we felt that gave it a sophisticated look.
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