Editing

Above shown is our Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 custom workspace that gave I made so that I have everything in a comfortable place for me to edit quickly and efficiently.

On the top left is the project window where all the files of this project are stored. Premiere Pro lets us organize the files in folders which are referred to as bins within the software. In this screenshot I've already imported all our footage and corresponding audio files and arranged them into separate bins. Along with that also all the possible music that we would use in the bin labelled "BGM", the music for the production logo at the beginning and the production log itself which was an imported After Effects composition, the sound effects that we've recorded, the titles that we've made and another bin for the discarded footage.

The best part about using the Adobe editing suite is that everything is streamlined, as I mentioned earlier I can import my work from any other Adobe software like After Effects in the case of the intro. I've made maximum use of this feature especially for audio editing where I could easily just edit all the audio files in Adobe Audition. This is extremely convenient as these files will be linked dynamically so every change I make in the other software will automatically be applied to the files within the Premiere Pro project.

Moving on, the two large gray screens are the Source and Sequence monitors which let me compare my footage which is especially useful when graphic matching and colour grading the footage.

At the bottom left is the Effects window which stores all the video and audio editing plugins and transitions.

And finally, the currently black large space at the bottom is usually occupied by the sequence timeline but it is blank at the moment as nothing is opened.

To help with tasks, most importantly color grading, graphic matching and synchronizing the audio, all the footage was but into separate sequences, the Premiere pro equivalent of a composition which can contain multiple video and audio files.

Shown above is shot fourteen of our movie which I have already matched and colour corrected. Now that the sequence is open the timeline is visible and it is clear to see that this sequence contains no audio as I have yet to add and synchronize it with the video since our audio was recorded on an external device. Also notice that the project window has now changed to the Effects control video where I can manipulate all the effects added to this particular clip. You can see that I've added an effect called "Looks" which is explained below.

"Magic Bullet Looks" is a third party plugin for the Adobe video editing suite which makes everything easier for me as it combines all of the tools that would be used for colour correcting, colour grading and graphic matching all in one handy plugin and it also has an interface as seen above.

It is seen that I've already changed everything I needed here, I've toned down the exposure and saturation for a darker look, I've changed the colour curve with an increase in highlights and slightly lowered contrast, and added a Ranged HSL to tone down some of the more prominent colours to give a more uniform look.

This had to be done individually for every piece of footage to get the desired look as each shot has slight variations in colour. In other words, applying these exact changes to every shot would have left me with a failed graphic match which would in turn ruin the movie and break immersion.

This is the Adobe Audition workspace that I used to edit the audio to my needs. In this screenshot I'm in the middle of customizing an Adaptive Noise Reduction plugin as this specific clip had too much background noise to be used in the final movie. As I mentioned earlier all the changes I make here are automatically applied to the same audio in Premiere Pro.

This had to be done for most of our audio clips as it was extremely windy on the shooting days and I didn't want the ambient sound to drown out the background score.

This window is the workspace of Adobe After Effects which as I mentioned earlier, I used to make the production logo. The reason I decided to use After Effects for this task rather than Premiere Pro is because After Effects is much more suitable for Motion Graphics in comparison to Premiere Pro and I wouldn't have gotten the desired outcome on Premiere Pro.

This screen shows the final composition of the production logo where I've keyframed all the movements and finalized all the text, images and other animations.

Moving back to Premiere Pro, shown above is the Title creation screen where I was adjusting the positions of the titles symmetrically which is why the grid and safe boundaries are visible on the two monitors. The title editor window allows me to edit every aspect of the text including the font, size, shadows, outlines and so much more. However, for the theme of our movie I've kept everything minimal.

Notice on the top left the Effects Controls tab, here it shows how I've keyframed the motion and opacity of the title. So this title is for the text "SoundBible" which in the movie animates from the right to left while fading in, then fading out. So I've keyframed the opacity from 0% to 100%, then from 100% to 0% after three seconds. I have also keyframed the x-coordinate of the position to create the motion from right to left during the time that it is visible on screen.

This was done individually to each title to get the desired effect as each piece of text would need to move a different amount or not move at all in some cases.

The final screenshot shows a full view of the timeline of the final sequence of the movie after all the editing was complete.

Everything in light green are audio which as seen is separated into layers depending on their classification as our movie required overlapping audio and this wouldn't be possible on a single layer. And there are two layers for the breathing sound effect as I was experimenting with the two sets of breaths we recorded to get the right sound and the discarded one has been muted as you can see the speaker symbol on "Breathing 1" is not visible.

All the footage however is contained in one single layer as our movie did not require us to superimpose any of the shots. Notice the piece of footage with the pink banner is the production logo for which I didn't use a separate layer because there is no other recorded footage for that section of time anyway. It is not clearly visible however even all the fade-ins and fade-outs are visible on each of the individual shots.

Finally, in purple are all the titles, I had to give four layers to the titles as I had to animate different portions of the titles in different ways and Premiere pro allows only one set of animations on each title. However only the "Music by" title required all four layers as it was the only title that contained four separately animated components.


Overall I'm extremely satisfied with my choice in the Adobe Software suite for editing our movie especially because of it's streamlined interface between all the programs and industrial level features in video/audio production and motion graphics. Using the Adobe suite ensured that our opening sequence was the best it could be.

Creative critical reflection

Evaluation question 1

Here is my answer to the first evaluation question, it's a screencast I made using the software Jing!

Evaluation question 2

                                                   

This is the answer to my second evaluation question in the form of a podcast.

Evaluation question 3

                                     

                            

           The answer to my third evaluation question in the form of a slideshow with voice-over.

                

Here is a prezi on my last evaluation answer.

Main opening sequence task

After a lot of effort and hard-work, here is Norway House! We hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it.

Film title and soundtrack

After experimenting with the rough cut, we have come to the conclusion that Unseen Horrors is the best soundtrack choice for us due to it's shriek-filled shrill-like tone and just the way it flows with our shots. We have also decided on naming our opening sequence "Norway House", since it just emphasizes on that cabin and makes people wonder what is wrong with it, etc. Well, in fact, nothing is. It's what's wrong with the area it is in.

Rough cut

Here is a VERY rough cut of our film opening. It currently lacks editing, titling and sound, but we will endeavor to develop based on initial feedback; now that we have the footage combined and put in order, we can experiment using the possible soundtracks, as well as identify editing processes that we need to undergo to make it look better as well as add titling that goes well with all of that. We took a look at the big picture, now we need to focus on the small details.

Filming day (mise-en-scene)

We shot all the scenes required for our film opening today, we thought we would need another day to shoot but since the shots have come out so great, I guess not! We followed the "Extra footage costs nothing" golden rule and it really worked well for us. The only equipment we required today was the camera, my iPhone 5 (for audio), the Prime lens, an extra battery as well as 3 memory cards and the tripod. We used my iPhone for audio-recording instead as it recorded better audio than the camera did and we couldn't afford to pay for a mike.

We first gathered at my place and got Azeem's make-up done, I directed Neha as she painted his face with face-paints that we had bought specially for this occasion. Then we left for Mushrif Park where our shooting was to take place. We made sure everybody wore the correct clothes beforehand as we had decided they would wear dark yet fashionable clothes to represent their characters and had minimal makeup on as to not attract more attention than necessary; taking great care of the mise-en-scene and made sure our shots were as perfect as we could have them be. We made sure we had just the right amount of lighting by taking test shots, which also helped the actors rehearse further. After researching on how to treat the actors in order to have a successful film opening, I made sure I treated them no differently than what I should treat them as. We also made sure that everything on set was in place, that nothing unusual or unnecessary was in the frame and even cleaned up a little, since parks are almost always dirty anyway, and this really helped us shoot everything we needed today itself.

Shooting schedule

This is the shooting schedule I made for tomorrow and sent to everybody today.

Directing our actors

                             

                                               Directing our actors from Mahroukh Nawaz

Research on how to make our actors act better!

Location recce

We were at first confused about the place we want to shoot in, we couldn't decide between Mamzar Beach Park and Mushrif Park but after visiting both we came to the conclusion that Mushrif was, in fact, a better setting. Although, I noted that families coming to the park that day might be a problem and that it could also be hard for us to hide the fact that it is a park in the middle of a very urban area even though we, in the film opening, are pretending otherwise. Children could be another problem as families often come here for picnics. All in all, we hope for the best.

Plan B

It's been hard to shoot recently due to adverse weather conditions out of our control. We obviously would like to stick with our original plans, however, if we feel as though we don't have any time to film and re-shoot then we have come up with an alternative. We will film the sequence whatever the weather and color-correct when editing to get rid of the over-exposed look that we expect to have due to the extremely sunny weather.

Written storyboard

Prezi on shot types for thrillers

           

                

Our main task's first draft animatic

After review and feedback from classmates and the teacher, we have decided to make changes

 to a few shots but anyway, here's our animatic!

Possible music for our main task

Due to a limitation of time (and talent!) we couldn't create our own music for the video. Therefore we decided to search for some free, unlicensed tracks online. We got quite a number of interesting tracks, but we narrowed them down to the three listed above. 

Pre-production make-up practice

For our film opening, we do not have to do any specific make-up for anybody except the monster, so here we are practicing before we do the real thing. 

This is the antagonist without make-up. 

 The ongoing process.

 The finishing touch; a dark hooded-sweatshirt that covers his hair which otherwise would not be appropriate for the role.

And here, you can clearly see the difference:

Audience research

Here is an extract from the audience research I carried out in order to get a range of ideas for genres and find out what people would/wouldn't like to see in an opening sequence. Through asking a variety of people; varied due to age and gender, I received a mix of replies to a few questions which will help Neha and I with ideas and inspiration for our final piece.

Synopsis on the main task idea

                         

                                                      Synopsis from Mahroukh Nawaz

Here is a synopsis I wrote based on our main task idea.

Uses of sound presentation

                              

                                             The Use of Sound from Mahroukh Nawaz

A presentation where I analyze how big of an impact sound has on our film opening tasks so we can make sure we do the right thing in our main task.

Further research on Thrillers

To give you clear idea of what this genre represents, I chose to investigate one of acclaimed director, Alfred Hitchcock’s early thriller’s as an example, referred to as an early masterpiece by some, the 1938 classic ‘The Lady Vanishes’ really embodies the genre being a pioneer this movie set the tone for many more of its kind to come after. It created the aesthetics for thrillers for as long as there will be thrillers to watch. One of the most stand-out aspects of the ‘The Lady vanishes’, is the effective use of sound. The movie opens with striking non-diegetic atmosphere music, giving the viewer just the right dose of excitement and anticipation for the events to follow. Music has been used to create contrast between different parts of the film and the change of scenery and atmosphere from time to time. Even though the clips starts with dread creating thriller-like music but it quickly shifts into happier almost birdsong type of sounds as the camera moves into a city setting of building and houses, suggesting a shift in atmosphere as I previously pointed out. The skillful use of camera work also greatly complimented the piece; the use of pans in particular showed the viewer the atmosphere they were entering into. From the beginning of my research I have mainly looked into doing something along the lines of this, in order to successfully document the transition from happy to sinister. Another typical thing I noticed in majority of older films is that the credits were always shown at the beginning juxtaposed to all modern films in which the full credits only roll out at the end in accordance with progression in the industry. In conclusion I can say ‘The Lady Vanishes’ is a classic example of a thriller that checks out all the requirements that a thriller should consist off and when creating your own thriller should be used as inspiration.

Main task pre-production brainstorm

                              

Before Neha and I began working on our main task, it was essential that we had a little brainstorming session to find out what films we like to give us an indication of genre, what restrictions we have, as well as what facilities we have available to us as to consider what might look good to us. From here on, we will formally move on to thinking of ideas. We hope to keep you well-updated.