'Before I Die'
Sunday
Copyright issues with music
It was hard to find the right music for our film opening as we were not allowed to use copyright music. After some research we realised what type of music we wanted to be played. We found a song by Jason Mraz called You and I both. This fitted perfectly but unfortunately we were unable to use it. In the end we found a website http://www.audio.lgfl.org.uk which enabled us to search through non copyright music. As we already had an idea for music in mind, it did not take us long to find some relevant pieces.
After finding four different music pieces we tried each one out with our video before settling on the one that is including in our video now. As a group, we found the music was very important to our film opening as it created a dramatic effect. The music helps set the genre of the film without overpowering the actors voice over.
After finding four different music pieces we tried each one out with our video before settling on the one that is including in our video now. As a group, we found the music was very important to our film opening as it created a dramatic effect. The music helps set the genre of the film without overpowering the actors voice over.
Improvements
We improved our opening as much as we could until we had no time left, this way we believed we would get the most out of our editing.
Time was up and we presented our final cut to the class, we got positive feedback and realised our hard work had proved a success.
Time was up and we presented our final cut to the class, we got positive feedback and realised our hard work had proved a success.
We presented our opening to the class for the first time
There were four groups in my class, when the first viewing came around we realised that we were one of the groups that were slightly behind, this was expected as our first idea had failed. As we watched the other groups we realised that we still had a lot of editing missing we took down notes so we could take these into account.
Some of the things we were missing or had to be considered again were;
Some of the things we were missing or had to be considered again were;
- Credits
- Production company
- Examination numbers
- Character names
- Director names
- Confusion over why Rose was dying
- Why some of the shots were brighter than others
- The length of some of the shots
- Title timings
- Volume of the music
I took all of this feedback into account, although I had realised some of these had to be changed anyway, by viewing the other groups I knew we had to get our production up to a higher standard. I corrected the confusion over why Rose was dying by recording some more of the voice over, i did this by slightly changing the poem in the first section. I then changed the fading of the music a little, after figuring out these and other problems I was sure that I had really taken into account the feedback I had received.
A successful fim opening
A film opening is crucial to a film, this is what draws the audience in. From an opening the audience can decide whether they would like to watch the film or not.
The following key elements in my opinion would make a good successful film opening;
- Finding an interesting way to give the audience a clue what the film is about.
- All essential information should be within the titles, e.g. director, editor, actors.
- Something that will mind grip the audience, drawing their attention so they want to proceed watching.
Usually the most successful film openings bring a well developed sense of intrigue that will leave the audience settled in their seat desperate to find more out about the story and the characters involved. By being inventive film openings can foreshadow which will hint the audience of the problems that will occur during the story.
The following key elements in my opinion would make a good successful film opening;
- Finding an interesting way to give the audience a clue what the film is about.
- All essential information should be within the titles, e.g. director, editor, actors.
- Something that will mind grip the audience, drawing their attention so they want to proceed watching.
Usually the most successful film openings bring a well developed sense of intrigue that will leave the audience settled in their seat desperate to find more out about the story and the characters involved. By being inventive film openings can foreshadow which will hint the audience of the problems that will occur during the story.
Sound
We decided to include music in our film opening, we got our non copyright music from http://audio.lgfl.org.uk/. After going through a variety of music pieces as a group, we finalised it down to four. We tried each piece of music against our film before finally deciding on the one that fitted best. To match our film opening we needed a fast but sad piece of music, the music chosen emphasised obvious emotions as the music notes used were low and singular giving a dramatic impression. We only used one piece of music throughout our opening, this was so the genre of the film was kept the same throughout. Choosing the music was very important to our film opening as we wanted to allow the audience to notice the genre, without giving too much away. We were extremely pleased with our music selection as we really believed it gave the correct feel to our film opening.
We had a few complications when inserting the music against our video as we had chosen a louder piece, this made it very hard for the voice over to be heard. By toning down the sound of the music we had to fade away the music slowly, this was done over a long length of our opening. We faded away the music by using a sound transition which was very complicated to use, it took us a long time to get the transition in correct places as the music needed to be louder in some places more than others. Although we managed to fade away our music eventually, by being able to control the sound of the piece we could have created a much more emotional feel.
The hardest part about the music, was getting it to rise and fall in correct places, by editing techniques on shots, the voice over and music we were able to correctly time our film opening so it would fade into each shot smoothly.
We had a few complications when inserting the music against our video as we had chosen a louder piece, this made it very hard for the voice over to be heard. By toning down the sound of the music we had to fade away the music slowly, this was done over a long length of our opening. We faded away the music by using a sound transition which was very complicated to use, it took us a long time to get the transition in correct places as the music needed to be louder in some places more than others. Although we managed to fade away our music eventually, by being able to control the sound of the piece we could have created a much more emotional feel.
The hardest part about the music, was getting it to rise and fall in correct places, by editing techniques on shots, the voice over and music we were able to correctly time our film opening so it would fade into each shot smoothly.
Editing
Editing took a long time, due to uploading on the Pc and the programme continiuously crashing and shutting down. Once we familiarised ourselves with the programmes on the computers we realised that the only way our work was going to get finished was if we saved every edit we did.
Thankfully we managed to have enough shots to edit to two minutes. A major problem with editing was that neither myself or my group attend the school which we are taking our media studies course at, this caused delay and complications as we did not have enough lesson time to complete our editing, i decided to stay a couple of extra hours to get some focused editing done, this proved to help my group a lot and I was thankful that I had the opportunity to do this.
Not just the shots had to be edited we had to get the music in the correct timing and place aswell, making sure the music faded at just the right time and the voice overs were in relevant places this proved to be quite a challenge.
We used editing techniques on the shots, voice overs and music so each one after the other would fade correctly into each other.
Fade to white/black was used many times in our opening because it separated each shot to the other, this helped us avoid jump shots. Other edits that were used were, cut, fading in, slowing down the timings, music fading and music demanding.
The editing was more complicated than I expected it to be but eventually we as a group got the hang of it.
Thankfully we managed to have enough shots to edit to two minutes. A major problem with editing was that neither myself or my group attend the school which we are taking our media studies course at, this caused delay and complications as we did not have enough lesson time to complete our editing, i decided to stay a couple of extra hours to get some focused editing done, this proved to help my group a lot and I was thankful that I had the opportunity to do this.
Not just the shots had to be edited we had to get the music in the correct timing and place aswell, making sure the music faded at just the right time and the voice overs were in relevant places this proved to be quite a challenge.
We used editing techniques on the shots, voice overs and music so each one after the other would fade correctly into each other.
Fade to white/black was used many times in our opening because it separated each shot to the other, this helped us avoid jump shots. Other edits that were used were, cut, fading in, slowing down the timings, music fading and music demanding.
The editing was more complicated than I expected it to be but eventually we as a group got the hang of it.
Voice Over
We decided to use a voice over in our production as we believed it created drama and emotion. This gave an immediate hint that the story would be told from the young girl displayed point of view. We did some research for poems and quotes before finally deciding on what the character was going to say. The most effective part of this, was when the main character (Rose) was displayed with her bucket list, here the tasks on the list were the same as some being used in the voice over. Jodie and I, worked on the voice over together, but our first few drafts were too noisy to use. In the end, we decided i would take home the camera and microphone and record several versions, this was so we had a few options to choose from.
Second Day of Filming the Production
The second day of filming was to be filmed inside, it was nighttime so the room was lit with an electric light. The filming took several attempts until we finally realised what we wanted to be displayed in the bedroom shots, we tried different techniques and camera angles. We decided we wanted to film from above, while I sat directly under the camera, the camera was raised and sturdied with a chair and a tripod meanwhile while Jodie steadied it. The shot took so many attempts as we were unable to see if the camera had caught myself clearly. We also wanted to make sure that the shot was steady and focus which was very hard to do. After many hours of filming we had a complete selection of shots, having more shots made it easier when editing the film opening because we could select the best shots. We tried shots that created tension and emotion this we hoped so that the audience would sympathise and attach themselves to the character.
This shot was taken from inside the bedroom. It represents the location for our second day of filming.
Voice Over
We planned our voice over very carefully, a structured plan was written up showing a poem which would be read, a reason why 'Rose' was doing these tasks on her bucket list and some selected tasks from the bucket list itself. I recorded the voice overs many times and we were going to see which one turned out the best, we would edit the voice overs into the video in a reasonable place.
Sound/Music
All sound and music was done at a separate time to filming, all filming captured was muted and we recorded the voice over at a different time.
The music was found on a website prompted by our teacher Mrs Allison. At first we found our own sound which fitted rather well but then realised we were not able to use it, we spent a lesson looking through websites and finding un-copyright music appropriate to our film opening.
The music was found on a website prompted by our teacher Mrs Allison. At first we found our own sound which fitted rather well but then realised we were not able to use it, we spent a lesson looking through websites and finding un-copyright music appropriate to our film opening.
Complications
As a group we found it hard to meet up, we had to consider when each other were free. In our next bit of filming Faye was not present so Jodie and myself filmed the bedroom shots on our own. We also realised our voice over shots could only be done in a quiet place, which I had the responsibility of going home and recording myself.
First day of Production
Our first day of production seemed to start off rather well, we found a practical location for filming all outside shots. During filming we had to consider many different angles and heights, although not many of our final piece showed many outside shots we spent the whole time trying to get something practical and relevant. During this shooting, we decided to do single shots, long shots which would show the location, shot reverse shit which we later did not include in our final editing of 'Before I die' and running shots which proved to be unsuccessful because of uneven ground. We tried to use a skateboard to pull along the camera and tripod hoping this would prove a success when filming the running sections, we were going to include the running sections because the character
'Rose' was flying a kite which happened to
be
one of the things to do on her bucket list.
After a while of filming, it started to get dark. Although it was not actually too dark outside the camera seemed to absorb more darkness than light and when we later reviewed over these shots we realised they were just to dark to use.
We decided to edit the filming we had then if needed we would go back and do some more filming, which we later did not need to do due to bedroom shots taking over.
During filming we considered many techniques such as pan and zooming in, hoping that this would create a more dramatic effect to the audience.
'Rose' was flying a kite which happened to
be
one of the things to do on her bucket list.After a while of filming, it started to get dark. Although it was not actually too dark outside the camera seemed to absorb more darkness than light and when we later reviewed over these shots we realised they were just to dark to use.
We decided to edit the filming we had then if needed we would go back and do some more filming, which we later did not need to do due to bedroom shots taking over.
During filming we considered many techniques such as pan and zooming in, hoping that this would create a more dramatic effect to the audience.
Film Production Planning
First day of filming:
Date and time: 20th November: 2:00pm
Filming: All outside shots
Location: Fields in Stansted Abbots
Who would be present: Faye Gibbs (Camera operator), Jodie Butcher (actress and director) and Charlotte Andreas (myself) for acting.
Equipment: Video Camera, Tripod, Kite, books
Second day of filming:
Date and time: 27th November: 7:00pm
Filming: All inside shots
Location: Bedroom
Who would be present: Jodie Butcher (camera operator) and myself Charlotte Andreas (acting and directing)
Equipment: Video camera, tripod, notebooks and a pen
Date and time: 20th November: 2:00pm
Filming: All outside shots
Location: Fields in Stansted Abbots
Who would be present: Faye Gibbs (Camera operator), Jodie Butcher (actress and director) and Charlotte Andreas (myself) for acting.
Equipment: Video Camera, Tripod, Kite, books
Second day of filming:
Date and time: 27th November: 7:00pm
Filming: All inside shots
Location: Bedroom
Who would be present: Jodie Butcher (camera operator) and myself Charlotte Andreas (acting and directing)
Equipment: Video camera, tripod, notebooks and a pen
Due to disappointment with our first film opening 'Revisited' there wasn't enough time to remake another good film animatic. As a group we quickly put together a basic animatic of 'Before I Die,' although timings are not correct and the animatic pictures clearly do not relate to the appropriate camera shots we were lucky to make a basic outline before getting on with filming. When we sported out the animatic properly which we sadly did not have time to refilm, the opening looked like it was on the way to success with a timing of exactly two minutes.
First i had to think about what was needed to make a good film opening..
When a film grabs your attention from the beggining, giving the audience an idea of the storyline and genre, yet not giving to much away.
The opening should include many techniques including, genre matching music and fast paced editing techniques.
What needs to be included?
When a film grabs your attention from the beggining, giving the audience an idea of the storyline and genre, yet not giving to much away.
The opening should include many techniques including, genre matching music and fast paced editing techniques.
What needs to be included?
- Title
- Credits
- Opening Music
- Dialouge
- Different camera angles
- Camera work editing
- Voice over/Narration
- genre
- introduction to the main charaters
Plot, Genre and audience
Final Plot outline;
After discovering Rose has cancer, she discovers a way to make the most of her life. She knows she cannot rest until she has 'lived.' She confides in her best friend Josephine to help her along the way, Josephine show care and love that Rose is not getting from home life and together they complete Rose's dreams and wishes until her death.
What we intend to display in the film opening according to narrative;
After discovering Rose has cancer, she discovers a way to make the most of her life. She knows she cannot rest until she has 'lived.' She confides in her best friend Josephine to help her along the way, Josephine show care and love that Rose is not getting from home life and together they complete Rose's dreams and wishes until her death.
What we intend to display in the film opening according to narrative;
- Introduction of the main character Rose and a small sight of Josephine
- Voice overs
- genre
- music (relevant to mood)
What we intend to display for the selected target audience;
- Rose's purposes
- Emotion
- Age of the main characters
Target Audience: The film, 'Before I Die' is aimed at a teenage audience and most directed at girls, the film is moving and emotional meaning this would not be relevant as a family film and men wouldn't particularly be interested. As the main characters are girls it would apply to girls similar to the characters.
The music and voice over will play a great part in the audience adapting to the genre of the film, the title also gives away a huge clue towards drama.
Finding and planning a new idea
My group and I, took the time to sit down and decide on another idea, we thought back to previous ideas and how we could make them work for filming. We believed a romantic/comedy or drama based idea would be more effective. To make the film opening work we had to come up with a whole film concept, aiming on how the film would appear to the audience, what was going to happen and what we would give away in the first two minutes of the opening.
Faye, Jodie and myself took the time to go away and research new ideas.
After we had rejoined, we shared the ideas from each others film ideas. All were different but based on the same sort of genre. As a group we decided we wanted to do drama and with numerous ideas we settled on a final concept.
'Before I Die' - A film about a young girl dying of cancer, the girl also named as 'Rose Halling' builds up the courage to write a bucket list. As the film develops Rose gradually achieves many of the things she always longed to do, she finds help and guidance through her best friend 'Josephine,' the story drastically shows how Rose struggles with her latest romance and friendships until she is gradually rested from weakness but triumphant.
Even though Before I die, needed much more planning for a two minute opening, we believed if we achieved success the opening would be extravagant and emotionally moving for the audience.
Faye, Jodie and myself took the time to go away and research new ideas.
After we had rejoined, we shared the ideas from each others film ideas. All were different but based on the same sort of genre. As a group we decided we wanted to do drama and with numerous ideas we settled on a final concept.
'Before I Die' - A film about a young girl dying of cancer, the girl also named as 'Rose Halling' builds up the courage to write a bucket list. As the film develops Rose gradually achieves many of the things she always longed to do, she finds help and guidance through her best friend 'Josephine,' the story drastically shows how Rose struggles with her latest romance and friendships until she is gradually rested from weakness but triumphant.
Even though Before I die, needed much more planning for a two minute opening, we believed if we achieved success the opening would be extravagant and emotionally moving for the audience.
Unfortunately our horror film did not work out as we had planned, although our shots and mise en scenes were very much advanced, while filming in the dark the camera began to blur up. After a few days of filming we realised this film was not going to work, after the planning and effort it was a disaster, i have decided not to publish our planning for 'Revisited' as the filming is uncompleted.
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