After the second shoot we realised we still had a few shots that we needed to complete the production and achieve continuity. The first set of shots we needed were the shots showing the wall of newspapers full of the couple's victims. We didn't actually need to go back to Harry's house for this as the majority of these shots are close ups. Freya and I went and took these shots during a double media lesson.
The last shots that we need are some establishing shots of the outside of Harry's house and a close up of Kath & Orla's eyes if possible. I will be at Harry's house tonight with Freya's camera taking some still establishing shots on the tripod. One of these will be of the outside of Harry's house and the others will be of what I think looks good when I'm there due to the lack of complete familiarity with Harry's house.
On Monday the 26th of January I led the editing process. On this day I were editing the kitchen scene and adding some shots into the basement scene.
The main point of this hour of editing was to properly establish the correct order of the kitchen shots and achieve continuity. Over the course of the 2 lessons and lunchtime I played about with intercutting shots of the basement into the kitchen scene, completed the kitchen scene so continuity was there ready for the rough cut viewing in the afternoon. I made the kitchen scene more continuous via:
Addressing the length of shots and cutting them earlier to achieve a quick succession (almost montage) of clips, denoting her efficient cooking skills.
Cutting on action was important as it gave a much needed flow to the scene which we didn't have before.
Some of the intercutting techniques I tried were:
Cutting 5 frames of the newspaper wall crabbing shot in sections in between the longer shot showing the newspaper he put on the kitchen shot. This required me to use the cut clip tool and increase the rate of 'flashes' as the shot of the newspaper progresses.
Intercutting the bloody knife in between various shots such as the shot where he feels Orla's face. (This may still be used but we ran out of time and had to scrap it for the viewing)
During this editing session I, along with Freya, were polishing up the basement shots and making them suitable for viewing. We did not however get the ending of the film edited during this session. In the next lesson we were adding additional shots to the basement scene and finishing it off. What we need to do in the last few days coming up to Friday is add in titles, sort out diegetic sound & add in some additional sound.
I started editing on the 19th January with Rory, we started dropping the kitchen clips onto the timeline and refining cuts. Freya and Fred had already started editing so we had half of the timeline to work with, on the week beginning 26th January; Freya, Fred and I are coming in every lunch and free when possible to continue editing.
First week of editing:
We started by dragging and dropping the clips onto the timeline, we did this through a selection process of which shots had the best angles and the least disturbances
I then refined the cutting rate between shots and proceeded to add more shots onto the timeline while following our storyboard
In the second week:
In this final week of editing we started coming in to edit in our free time, in this time we refined the order of certain scenes based off our rough cut.
We decided to have some intercutting scenes between the basement and the kitchen so we spent a bit of time deciding and doing this
Also we re-filmed some shots of the newspaper wall which we needed to add to our timeline, this linked in with the intercutting since it was part of those scenes#
The rest of the week:
We need to finish cutting our clips to how we want them, also we need to refine our diegetic sound as well as adding extra sound effects
Finally we need to add our fonts to our production
The filmed at a friends house, which is in Tunbridge wells
On Saturday, 10th January 2015 from about 12 until 6
What scenes were you focusing on?:
We focused on shooting the basement scenes in this shoot, we wanted to film all of it but we ended up only having enough time to do the second half. We choose to only film the basement because the kitchen scenes are easier to set up and less people are required so it would be more convenient to organise
What was your individual contribution to the shoot?:
Before we got to the location we met at Freddie's house and I wrote the script with Freddie and Freya. Once we wrote the script I typed it up so we had a neater copy for the actors.
Once we arrived on location I helped prepare some of the actors for what they need to do, I also helped set up the set by moving the cage around, clearing space and assisting Freddie create the newspaper wall.
I helped direct the shoot by giving ideas about certain shots and setting up the lighting.
To what extent did your storyboard affect your use of camera and framing?:
We followed the main concept from our storyboard however many of our shots were different to what we originally planned. We had to change some shots since our framing ideas were not possible in some situations
Many shots went as planned however and came out how we wanted them.
What do you think work particularly well?:
We were really pleased with how some of the basement scenes turned out, through the use of props and lighting. I brought a mini LED light which we used to create a spotlight effect on certain scenes came out very well due to this.
The scene in the newspaper room with oral chained up came out really well as the close up creates a dramatic effect
What were the challenges of this particular shoot?:
We found some challenges with an actor in the shoot, we didn't feel she fitted the role properly and therefore we needed to reshoot some scenes
We also came across issues to do with continuity, this was due to basic errors such as leaving out shots of him walking around and some lighting issues. Many shots were darker than others so it looks as if certain shots were filmed at different times of the day
We also found that we ran out of time and only managed to film half of our production, this was due to a slight lack of preparation as we wasted quite a lot of time setting up and thinking about scenes
How will I use this experience to inform the next shoot?:
In future shoots I will try to follow our storyboards better to reduce the chance in missing shots, this will also improve our continuity
Also I will try to make the lighting more consistence as some shots are lit very well where as others are not. As well as this we need to focus more on movement shots compared to static shots as we seem to have many static shots which are unnecessary
Finally I have learnt that it is very easy to get caught up in time, so I will make more of a plan so that no time is wasted
Date:10th
and 17th of JanuaryLocation:
Harry’s house Tunbridge Wells
Meeting
Time:12Group:
2
Crew & Cast Contact details:
Freddie O’Connell
_____________________Phone:07403083989
Freya Luff
_____________________Phone:07977459858
Josh Peet
_____________________Phone:07808274744
Rory Denyer
_____________________Phone:07930527222
_____________________Phone:
_____________________Phone:
Props & Equipmentcrew responsible
ChainsJosh
CagesFreddie
KettleFreya
Frying panRory
Meat
Newspaper
Knife (non-maliciously)
Location
Shot
number (on storyboard)
Cast
Technical
notes
Kitchen
1-18
Rob
and Cath
There
aren’t particularly any technical difficulties in this scene apart from a
tracking shot which we might use across the kitchen workbench.
Basement
19-37
Tiernan,
Rob, Miles, Orla
We
need a lot of props for this scene to access technical excellence on
mise-en-scene. We need to make sure we get anlot of moving shots for
continuity editing.
TWGSB Media
Studies Film Production
Risk Assessment
You
need to consider all the potential risks at each location shoot and outline how
you will work to prevent any accident or injury to you, your cast or the
equipment.
Location
What is the hazard?
Think about road safety, filming at
night, potential damage to equipment
Who/what might be harmed and why?
Think about who needs to be aware of the
risk
How will you reduce the risk?
What steps will you take to ensure that
the risk is lowered?
Signed
Approved
by JF, CF, KJ
Kitchen
The
kitchen knife
Cath
and the people around her need to be careful as it is a sharp object that
could cause harm.
We
will put the knife in the knife rack until we actually need it for the shot.
Kitchen
The
kettle & cooking the meat
Both
the hot oil from the meat and the boiling water from the kettle could
potentially burn Cath.
We
won’t pour the water we boil in the kettle and we’ll limit the oil usage.
Stairs
down to the basement
Tripping
and falling
The
camera man, rob and the camera have the potential to fall and hurt/damage
themselves.
We
can try and clear any clutter or objects from the stairwell.
Basement
Sharp
objects (nails) on the floor
Miles
who is going to be lying on the basement floor could impale himself on a rusty
nail.
Miles
could either get a tetanus shot or we could clear the floor of rusty nails
etc.
I took a leading role in editing last week (Monday 19th January), The basement section of our project had been completed before so I edited the kitchen section of the project. We were trying to create tension by having a fast cutting rate and using different shots together to hint what is about to come. I edited all the shots from the second shoot.
We used a lot of different editing techniques including:
Varied cutting rates
We gave prevalence to the two antagonists
Intercutting, flashing clips from the basement in the kitchen scene
We used cut on action as we followed the male antagonist into the house
We also used cross cutting on the clips with the basement
We decided not to use jump cuts as we thought it would look messy
Post Production Work to do
We need to add soundtrack
We need to add sound effects
We need to add credits
We will be using lesson times, lunch and free periods to complete this.
We filmed our first shoot on the 10th of January 2015 from 13:00 until 18:30.
The location of our shoot was at a friend of mine's in Tunbridge Wells.
What scenes was I focusing on?
We only managed to get the basement scene done in the initial shoot.
We do have a kitchen scene to shoot however we only had time to shoot one and we didn't want to intrude too much into the family's house. This is the majority of the film and so it shouldn't take too long to go back to Harry's house and film the kitchen scene.
What was my individual contribution to the shoot?
I helped write the script before the shoot.
When we got to the shoot I reviewed where we were going to shoot the shots and where the cast (victims) were going to be held in the different rooms.
Then I, along with Rob (antagonist) created the wall of articles from newspapers and articles I chose and printed at home.
During the actual filming process I, along with Freya, directed the cast and shots, & filmed all but 2 or 3 of them.
At the end of the shoot Rob, Freya and myself stayed behind for an hour to finish some shots and to clean up the props and design that we left behind.
To what extent did our storyboard affect the use of camera and framing?
The story board was only effective to the extent that it vaguely represented our plot. We referred occasionally to it to recall which shot was supposed to come next in the film however none of the shots drawn were framed in the way we imagined.
Because of this ambiguity when deciding on shots, we may not have got the required number of shots and the required range of angles and distances to achieve the level of excellence in camera work necessary to gain an A grade.
What do I think worked particularly well?
The make-up and clothing was suitable for the narrative and when looking back at the footage makes the clips look immersive and believable. We shaded under all the victims eyes and made the faces pale and the cheek bones prominent with shading to give an withered, unhealthy look.
Apart from the lighting the location was brilliant with the darkness creating atmosphere in some cases and the walls and floors looking dirty and the separate rooms allowing a variation of shots.
What was particularly effective were the shots of Tiernan in a cage. The cold white light from the torch looked really nice and portrayed tiernan more as animal stock rather than human. His vacant crazed expression reinforced this. The canted angle further adds to the viewers uneasiness of the situation.
What were the challenges of this particular shoot?
The lighting posed a real issue in the shoot. Firstly there was only one light in each room which restricted the angles that we could shoot at as we didn't want to cast a shadow in shot & we refrained from using Josh's LED light as it wasn't the same as the colour as the light from the bulbs and we wouldn't get continuity in the edit. Secondly when filming, the light when looking through the camera was atmospheric&dark but viewable. When we started editing however it was far too dark.
The next challenge we came across was when we attempted to stick newspaper cuttings to the walls. Neither blue tac nor sellotape would stick to the walls due to the fine layer of dust and plaster coating coating everything. We overcame this by wrapping sellotape around a beam and stuck it to the back of the newspaper, forming a loop.
Some of the actors had to leave and so we slightly rushed and missed out some shots when attempting to get the basic narrative across. Partially as a result of this we missed out linking shots going from room to room causing some confusion when looking back at the footage.
How will we use this experience to inform our next shoot?
We need to look carefully at the lighting of shots in the future, making sure they are if anything lighter than we want them as we've discovered it's far easier to darken a shot and keep sufficient resolution than it is to lighten one.
As we didn't seem to have enough shots after shooting, simply we need to take far more shots and footage to make sure we have the option of getting rid of bad shots and keeping only the ones we like.
increasing the range of shots we use is important. In the next shoot we need to take more movement shots, close ups, expressions, low angles and high angles to keep the clip interesting and to achieve excellence in that area.
From the week commencing Monday 12th January, to the end of the week (Friday 17th January) I, along with Fred, edited the half of the film this was the basement scenes, which consisted of all the footage obtained from Shoot 1.
The week that I began editing was the start of the whole editing process, so this involved setting up the project and uploading all the footage.
Once editing began, this involved using a range of skills, such as:
Selecting the footage and analysing which shots and angles were the most appropriate.
Creating a basic sequence by dropping the footage onto the timeline, which outlined the initial order of footage. This helped continuity and also a simple idea for us to work off.
I then began cutting the footage and making sure it was the right length (didn't start too slowly etc).
I carried out inverting clip speed, this involves reversing the order of the clip so that the shot at the start of the clip comes at the end. I did this in a pan shot that ran up one of our actors bodies - the original clip started at his foot and ended on his face, but after the reversal it started on his face and ended at his foot.
I used cut on action /continuity editing to follow the antagonists movements around the basement.
I also helped edit the footage from Shoot 2 (the kitchen scenes):
This involved the same variety of skills - cut on action, dropping footage on timeline etc.
However, I also looked at intercutting, this involved editing small flashes of other footage into a main sequence shot.
Next Lesson:
We need to look at sound - sound effects and consideration towards a soundtrack.
Titles - the placement and overall edit of them onto the actual footage (I drew up a rough idea of title order).
On Saturday 17th January 2015, we are doing our second shoot for our production. This will focus heavily on the Kitchen scenes, which is the first half of our production when put into sequence. This is taking place in the same location before - Harry's House in Tunbridge Wells.
We will need:
Kettle
Frying Pan
Meat
Camera
Tripod
Knife (for a mirrored reflection)
Meat mallet
Suit for male antagonist
Cardigan, shirt and blouse for female antagonist
Basement shots we are looking to film/re-film:
Shots linking first and second room --> walk
Shots from second to third room --> walk
Him in Orla's room --> walking in, turning on light and AT WALL
Close-ups of the newspaper wall
Lots of high angle and low angle shots, close ups, deep focus and shallow focus shots.
Specific kitchen scenes we are looking to shoot:
Opening shot is a close up of the wall/kitchen surface crabbing across kitchen utensils (knives/pans etc).
Close up on gas cooker
Facial expressions while cooking
Red steak close ups
Meat hammer coming down on the steak repeatedly
Boiling water
Tracking shot from behind the wife going left while she cooks.
The shoot was a Harry (a friend of Freddie's) house in Tunbridge Wells
I arrived at 11 30 and left at 6, we didn't start shooting until about 2 though.
2. What scenes were you focusing on?
We were focusing on the basement scenes as these scenes make up most of the opening. We decided at the beginning to just focus on these scenes and we will tackle the kitchen scenes on a different day because the location of the kitchen is easier to work with.
3. What was your individual contribution to the shoot?
Before we started the shoot I helped with the script a bit but mainly did the make up and costume of the actors. I also helped set up some of the set. When we started I was involved in directing some of the actors and helped make some of the creative decisions about lighting and placement of actors and props. I also filmed some of the shots and did the lighting for the dimmer scene.
4. To what extent did your storyboard affect your use of camera and framing?
We kept to the storyboard for wherever possible but we had to make some changes due to the location, some of the basement was not ready to be filmed in. We kept the same general idea but their is a lot of change of the angling and positioning of shots because on set we had to work out what looked best.
5. What do you think worked particularly well?
I think our camera angles and shot variation went well and will be effective. I also think our location was very good and was iconic for the horror film genre. Our props were also very effective as we used a dog cage, a chain and we constructed a wall of newspapers with victim's circled. As seen below.
Wall of Newspaper
6. What were the challenges of this particular shoot?
I think a big problem was we had a large cast and there are 4 members of our group so with all of us it was quite cramped and hard to make sure everyone was quiet when filming. Another issue was the lighting but I think we overcame that using a spotlight. Another issue was the set wasn't exactly as we expected and a lot of work was needed to set it up how we wanted.
Crowded Staircase
7. How will you use this experience to inform your next shoot?
I think now we've started editing we can see what we still have left to do for the next shoot, I also hope to do more of the filming on the next shoot. I also think we could try to use more varied shots and take a lot of options for each shot so we have some choice and have too much film rather than not enough.
'John Cassini Reginald E.Cathey Peter Crombie' - 0.53.5-0.57
'Hawthorne James Michael Massee Leland Orser' - 0.57-1.00.5
'Richard Partnow Richard Schiff Pamala Tyson' - 1.04-1.05.5
'CASTING BY Billy Hopkins, Suzanne Smith Kerry Borden' - 1.11-1.14
'MUSIC BY Howard Shore' - 1.16.5-1.19
'COSTUMES DESIGNED BY Michael Kaplan' - 1.22-1.24
'EDITED BY Richard Francis-Bruce' - 1.24-1.26.5
'PRODUCTION DESIGNED BY Arthur Max' - 1.26.5-1.28.5
'DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Darius Khondji' - 1.35-1.37
'CO PRODUCERS Stephen Brown Nana Greenwald Stanford Panitch' - 1.39-1.42
'CO EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS Lynn Harris Richard Saperstein' - 1.43.5-1.46.5
'EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS Gianni Nunarri Dan Kolsrud Anne Kapelsum' - 1.50-1.53
'WRITTEN BY Andrew Kevin Walker' - 1.53-1.56
'PRODUCED BY Arnold Kapelson Phyllis Carlyle' - 1.58.5-2.01.5
'DIRECTED BY David Fincher' - 2.04-2.07
Typography
The font is made to look messy and hand written as if drawn by a pencil. It uses 2 layers of the same font at times, overlapping each other. Both of these effects connote schizophrenic tendencies as the font suggests the subject in the clip keeps a diary and the overlapping is both erratic and disorientating.
The font is capitalised when referring to titles and non capitalised when showing names of cast and crew. This is because capitalised font takes longer to read and so out of respect for the cast and crew they have written it in the most visible way they can.
Every title is in white and every title is against a dark if not black image. This is done to highlight the credits without drawing too much attention away from the visuals.
The animation of the text moving around is very jerky and sporadic imitating the mind of someone who is mentally unstable internally, but not necessarily visually.
The titles and the images on screen never overlap each other.
The two biggest A list actors (Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman) who feature in the film have their names not only at the start of the sequence but also alone against black backgrounds to focus the viewer's attention completely.
Relationship of text and visuals
I have learnt from this that the text should always reflect the visuals to fully immerse the audience and to fully connote a mood or bring out an emotion. In the case of Se7en the audience are left feeling disturbed and almost dirty (foreshadowing the mood and events to come) but also intrigued as to who the man in the sequence is supposed to be and what relevance he has to the narrative of the film.
I can also see that by placing the most important names with the least exciting visuals at the beginning of the clip with the slower cuts accentuated the viewers captivation.
How this can help us
I think that when editing our production we now know to add titles away from the centre image in an opposing but not too obtrusive colour. Most likely white.
Also we know that a cut to black in between shots would not go amiss and could create dramatic effect through the minimalist style.
For our production we could use a similar font to Se7en connoting animalistic, savage undertones while keeping an air of humanity and civility.
Produced by Alvaro Augustin, Guillermo del toro : 1.32-1.37
Executive producers Belen atienza, Elena Manrique : 1.41-1.46
Pans Labyrinth : 1.54-1.58
Maia d'Aboville, 2011 : 2.02-2.04
Music Pan and the Full Moon BY Javiere Navarette : 2.06-2.08
Typography:
The text is a mixture of black and white, these are quite neutral colours as they don't contrast with anything other than each other.
The names rotate out of the screen as if we are scrolling around a piece of paper, animation is also used to add a horror effect to the titles such as the movement of the trees or the eye following the text.
The writing appears in different places around the screen depending on where the animation is
Throughout the title sequence the corners are dimmed and flickering, this creates an old/spooky look to the title
The font itself is quite simple, I think this is so the effect is not taken away from the animations
Our production:
From analysing this extract I have noticed that if you have animations surrounding the titles you can get distracted from the names very easily. However the animations do add another element rather than just names, for our production we will not be using any heavy animations since firstly we have very few names.
The titles from Pans Labyrinth are on a different background to the actual film but our film will probably have the titles overlaying the content.
The shoot occurred in Tunbridge Wells, at Harry's house.
We filmed on Saturday, 10th January 2015, from 13:00 until 18:30.
What scenes were you focusing on?
Our group focused solely on the basement scenes, which is about 65% of the entire opening.
Our initial plan was to film both the basement and kitchen scenes, but due to limited time and actors, we decided that it was easier if we just got the basement scenes done and finished, and then worked on the kitchen scenes another day (because they can be in anybody's house).
What was your individual contribution to the shoot?
Before we arrived on location, we started at one of the team members house - I helped write the script.
On location, I helped assess the different rooms, and analyse which parts of the basement we wanted to use.
Once the actors began to arrive I then helped prepare them and put their makeup on.
Once the filming began, I helped direct the actors and started filming.
Throughout the day, along with Fred, we filmed the vast majority of the scenes and experimented with the cast and crews input on shots/angles/ideas.
At the end of the shoot, I stayed to finish the scenes and clear up the basement.
To what extent did your storyboard affect your use of camera and framing?
Overall, we didn't use our storyboard as much as we would have liked - this lead to some shots being missed out, or some being shot differently to how we initially thought,
However, this was because some of our initial ideas on the storyboard weren't possible within the conditions, and it either looked better, or worked better by changing it.
We did try and use some of the framing that we initially drew up in the storyboards, because this was possible within the conditions/location, and still worked well.
What do you think worked particularly well?
I think our use of location and props was very effective. The overall look of the shots really emphasised the horror-genre, and also enabled the audience to follow our story.
Also, our dark lighting works well in some scenes because it enhances the horror aspect, however, in some scenes it was too dark.
One of our most effective scenes was at the beginning where a member of our cast is in a cage - the lighting and shadows of the cage bars cast over his face, along with the makeup, all create an overall very generic horror-style appearance (as can be seen in the photo below).
What were the challenges of this particular shoot?
Some of the challenges we found was ensuring that all the shots came together, and allowing continuity when editing. For example, we have found that we are lacking some shots which join scenes, like when our antagonist moves rooms, we are lacking shots that move him from room to room, and therefore doesn't support continuity. To solve this we will aim to re-shoot some shots on our second shoot.
Another problem we found was that our initial ideas for the location were hard to achieve. For example, our 'photo wall' of newspaper cuttings and drawings was hard to accurately portray, and therefore it meant we were reluctant to film it, and therefore this pulled a significant hole in an important frame in our storyboard. However, similar to before, we are aiming to re-shoot this part, and spend more time on the photo wall, and maybe use the second batch of shots in the final edit instead.
A final problem was the lighting, in some scenes it was too dark (despite it looking good in other shots) and therefore it is hard to see what is happening on screen - as shown in the photo below.
How will I use this experience to inform our next shoot?
Overall, I think I will more closely look at the smaller aspects of the filming, for example, the continuity shots, and ensuring we look in detail at our story board.
Another thing I will try to emphasis in our next shoot is the lighting. Throughout reviewing our footage we have noticed that a lot of our shots have come out a lot darker than intended, therefore, if we use more lighting (that may look brighter on camera) when we put them into the editing software, they will eventually look darker anyway.
Finally, we will try and use more moving shots, most of our shots are static and this limits our capabilities. Therefore, we will try and use more moving shots, and follow the characters more, this will break up the shots and give the audience more perspectives.
