2nd Draft Editing

Today I spent my 2hours editing our second draft that is due in today. This is crucial for the group as it will then give us a guideline as to where we are interms of marks and levels and also how our opening sequence can be improved.

I feel relieved that we have our 2nd draft done and that it is much better than our first. Once we get feedback from our class we will then change this into a quick time and upload it onto you tube as we did with our preliminaries and first drafts.

One day left before 2nd draft is due

Today's lesson was quite a tight squeeze as we only have one day left until our second draft is due and we have A LOT of filming to do. So today we cracked on and didnt waste any time what so ever. SO we edited the filming that we did over the weekend which was the investigator's part in the phonebooth.

Although after the feedback from our teacher we were told that the investigators part has taken up atleast a minute of or opening sequence. So Adriana and Myself spent at least 5 minutes cutting down certains parts so that the investigator's part is quick, snappy, and too the point.

From this I then remembered Props and other things so what I did was I brpught into school a small bottle that we were going to use as a poision bottle while Victoria and Adriana sorted out how we were going to make the rest of what we have to film shorter. As i found a logo on the computer Adriana and Victoria then shared their new ideas and changes that they decided and these were:
- Making the femme fetale open the door straight away rather then walking towards her room door, as this would take up alot of time.

- We should have a close up of footsteps to desk instead.

- Instead of suign a collage we should stick to the images in the diary as to how the men died. This was Adriana's idea.

So this evening we are planning on gettin a lot done, and what we have left to film is

-The femme fetale in her room making the phone call to the investigator and also the diary with all the death's inside.

And then after school tommorrow we are going to edit what we've done.

Looking at Music

Today after school I started on the music that I would like to put into my opening sequence, this was crucial as it took a lot of time and effor to find the right instrument sounds that woul fit in well with the genre of film noir. During this time I also expereimented with different sounds and themes. After an hour of putting my music together I then realised that the music I had just composed sound a little to livley and happy; so I asked my teacher for advice and I was given the exac same feedback as my prediction.

So what I am going to do is with my group tommorrow I am going to go through the sounds with my grup show them what they think of the music and then go through anythng that they think needs changing. Even though it is my duty to focus on music I still feel that seeking comfort in my peers as feedback will improve things.

Filming the investigator's part

Today we met up to film the investigator's conversation with the femme fetale. I brought along with me the props of the trench coat and the investigators hat. It didn't take that long to film this probably 45 mins the max; so to help us we used a fellow student that is in our class to help us play the investigator.

Our first Draft of our Opening sequenc

We had to do the same process of uploading our opening sequences to You tube, as we did with our preliminary.

Target's to focus on while filming 2nd Draft

Refilming Targets:

Target: Everyone is contributing to the filming and editing elements
Evidence: Have photos/ footage of you completing editing or filming
Why we choose this as a target: we choose this as a target as at the beginning we had problems working as a group and time schedules. So this is our target as we now know what is required for us inorder for us to go from strength to strength.

Target: Voicveovers have to be done first so that we know the length of time, and so that it synchronises well with what is happening
Evidence: to show this we can record the voice overs on the imacs
Why we choose this as a target: we choose this target as this would allow us to know exactly what and where things will go.

Target: Know the length of time of what you are filming
Evidence: Bring short term plans/ storyboards with you
Why we choose this as a target: we choose this as a target as our first draft was 3 minutes so we have to take care of time

Target: Know the mark scheme and what we are being graded on, make sure or filming and edititing are editing meet the criteria's requirements covered on the construction mark scheme.
Evidence: bring mark scheme with me
Why we choose this as a target: this is so that we know that we are on the right track and that what we're filmign makes sence.

Target: Holding a steady, don't let the camera be too shaky
Evidence: Use a tripod
Why we choose this: as in our first draft of filming our camera was shaky.

Our one-to-one session

During this lesson our media teacher decided to give us feedback on what needs to improve and what needs to change in our first draft of our opening sequence.

• Ms suggested that we keep the pace slow as it emphasises the femme fetale's power; Mica indicated to her that one of her idea that we could use to change the opening sequence is by speeding it up. But Ms thought it would be better not to do this.
• Ms also indicated to us that we should make the collage like a list- so she suggested that we start again. And that we should use more close up shots to show what it is.

• We need more props

• One of the most important things ms gave us feedback on was the conventions; as one of the main conventions is lighting so ms suggested that we buy a flah light to stick to the conventions of the subject. So in order to get a range of lighting contrast Ms decided that we should use a flood light to film in the dark, as a lot of shadows are used in film noir.
• If we are going to use the flood light we should consider filming this twice once with the flood light and another without the flood light.
• Ms liked the idea of the heels and she said that it just needs too be filmed better, one way in which we can achieve this is by putting the camera on the floor when filming Mica's feet (keeping the slow pace walking)
• One thing we missed out was putting up the distribution company.
• Ms suggested that we could use flashbacks- of how the femme fetale's cictims died.
• We should include illustrations as to she is going to kill the investigator
• The femme fetale should call the investigator to tease him about his gullable frame of mind.
• We could include of voice over of four different killings

Feedback from class on our first draft

During the week of the 8-12th of March we just used our time to edit what we had done. Even though we still had a lot of things to add such as titles and music we still managed to get it done. During this week Adriana worked on titles, while Mica and I edited. However I started working on the music when I realsied that I was putting myself under a lot of strain as one member of our group was missing. So I decided to leave out our music and only put in what I had worked on so far and not the completed thing as I felt it was unfair that only three of us were working on our opening sequence when it is supose to be 4 of us.

Bearing this in mind- During our lesson on the 10th our teacher gathered the class up and we all watched each groups opening sequenec followed by feeedback and a level using our mark schemes. When gettin feedback on ours we were told that

• Our opening sequence is too long
  
• It is very prolonged
  
• some of the scenes take to long to go into the next
  
• it does not look like a film noir the only convention that we have stuck to is the idea of the femme fetale
  
• I need to be more precise in what I want my audience to think and know
  

Gettin this feedback from our first draft it was said to be at a level 1
So what Mica decided was to chnage things up a bit by speeding it up making things look like the femme fetale is in a rush. Adriana then decided that we should use a phone beox for the investogator to show this more as it is a convetion.

Last Day of Filming for our 1st Draft

The weekend of the 8-9th of March Mica and I went out filming; as our 1st draft was due the wednesday, however what we also ended up doing on this day was starting from scratch; as when editing we realised that we were going to have to re film quite a few parts;l so we started frm scratch over that weekend. Betweeen Mica and I we managed to get a lot done so we got up to the scene where the femme fetale gets a phone call. And weended it there due to the time frame we were given to film.

On Tuesday the 9th Adriana Mica and I went out to film our last scene of our opening seqeunce as we had our deadline of our final draft the following day.
So during this time of filming we did the collage scene where the femme fetale walks up to the collage and sticks the photo of the investigator on it, and also the scene where the femme fetale finds the photo of the investigator, then sticks it on the collage.

We did a couple takes on this as we wanted it to look continous to what we previously did.

Photos of Props used

Today is our final deadline and everything has to be pixel perfect. So here are phtos of the main props that we used.

A Vintage Western telephone

( the femme fetale's hat)

( The out fit= White blouse with a high waisted black skirt)

(The femme fetale's ironic shoes)

Coat

Music Idea

My idea for music I was thinking of using string instrumnets as well as brass or base sounds. I decided to use these sounds as it will fit in with the mood and the atmosphere that we are trying to set. I wanted to use these sounds as I think that it will allow the audience to get an idea of the theme and the genre.

However as a group we have started expereimenting with sounds and other things. And we have started planning as to where we think sounds should go; and where they fit in.

Hopefuly by the end of today we know what and where the sounds belong in our opening sequnece.

Our short term plan for the weekend of 6/3/10

This is what we plan to do over the weekend; as we did not film over the previous weekend. Our deadline is the 1oth of March and we intend to get as much done as possible over this period of time.

At this moment we are still working on props and getting everything sorted; however we also might end up starting all over again as we realised that a lot of things are not up to a decent standard as we would like it to be.

Posting Our Preliminaries on You Tube

Today in our media lesson we posted up our preliminariy exercise on youtube.
To do this we had to export into quicktime (export for websharing) Then waited for it to upload.





This is all a learning process for me as I have learnt how to use a variety of technology devices such as exporting files and uploadind data using quicktime. By changing the format means that we have compressed what our file so that it is of a lower quality.