Editing Sense of Space

The editing process went very smoothly. We used the sounds recorded for the atmosphere such as the wind and walking on gravel and leaves. The sounds used to create the strange sounds the character hears were the ones recorded in my partners halls of residence. We used the "Reverb" effect with every sound to distort it but we didn't use it too much. We also used the "Compressor" effect to manage the volume levels so that the audio was of good quality. The only problem we had was with some of the recordings were only coming out of one speaker, this was because they were recorded in "Mono" and not "Stereo" we found a way of editing the recordings into "Stereo" in Sound Track Pro. I feel the final edited piece is very successful in delivering a "Sense of Space" for the audience to hear.

Sense of Space - Recording the sounds

Myself and my partner recorded all of the sounds we needed to capture for our project. We recorded all of the sounds that are going to be edited and distorted in student halls, and then I recorded the outside sounds such as running past bushes, crackling of leaves and twigs etc at a cemetry just of Ecclesall Road, this was a perfect place to record the sounds as it is a secluded place, this made it easier to capture clearer sounds and not have any interuptions and background noise. It was also a perfect place to capture the atmosphere of a forest because it was so quiet i could get the perfect sound.

Sense of Space - Sounds to edit and distort

- Radiator
- Microwave
- Oven
- Oven Timer
- Sink (Plug hole)
- Door Creaking
- Cutlery on Plates
- Squeaky Stool
- Crunching paper
- Phone Vibrate

Sense of Space - List of Sounds

- Ambient base track of woods/cemetary near Eccleshall Road
- Twigs snapping, footsteps
- Rustling leafs
- The Wind
- Brushing past trees and bushes
- Wild life
- Insects (crickets)
- Actors voice

Sense of Space - Story outline

 The Protagonist in this piece is passing through a forest or wood of some sort. As the character gets deeper in the forest sounds become more vivid and he starts to speed up, talking to himself to calm himself in this strange atmosphere. The pace builds and strange distorted sounds keep cutting up the flow of the space causing more fear in the protagonist. The sounds build and build until they come to a loud and sharp end. There will be a prolongued ambient silence until the protagonist gasps for air.

New Project - Sense of Space

Myself and my partner have decided to make a horror piece for our project in which a man is lost in the wilderness and strange sounds that would not belong in that given area will shock and jolt the protagonist as well as the audience. It was my partners idea and when describing it to me i felt it would be a great success and had no problems with it. We have decided to exaggerate sounds such as footsteps, breathing and movement, these are key aspects in making successfull horror sounds.  The distorted sounds that break up the feel of the space will be very loud and sharp, almost uncomfortable or even painful to listen too as we want them to evoke a reaction from the audience. My partner compiled a list of sounds we wish to collect and planned a time to go and collect them, also we have a script we will be working too but any dialogue will be minimal and not conversational. We dont want the conclusion to be predictable and dont want to fall in the cliche mode of "Horror" so we will have to be very precise in what we use as we want the audience to be kept at suspence.

Portrait of Place - Editing 07/11/11

Screen Shot 2 - Cutting the chosen shots

Screen shot 3 - Choosing effects and transitions for each shot

Screen Shot 4 - Desaturating each shot and using Opacity for a transition

Screen Shot 5 - Remembering to render!

Screen shot 6 - Adding in titles and looking over the film
making sure we haven't made mistakes

Screen grab 7 - Nesting the last shot for our final cut and reviewing the film.

Screen Shot 1 - Choosing which shots to use

The editing process went very smoothly today as myself and my group new exactly what we needed to do and how to do it. We looked through each shot and chose the shots that were at best quality and which fitted our storyboard, we also chose the shots which felt the most creepy. We then started to edit the chosen shots and cut them to make it flow easy on the eye. We decided to desaturate every shot to keep to the creepy vibe. We didn't feel we had to use a wide variety of transitions as we want to keep them reasonably simple as this will help get the audience in a creepy frame of mind.

We are all pleased with our final film and feel that we have achieved what we set out to do.

Filming Equipment List/ Editing Equipment List

1)      Sony PD170

2)      Microphone

3)      Tape

4)      Battery

5)      Tripod

6)      Camera weather protection

7)      Wet weather gear

8)      Food

9)      Final cut Pro Studio 2

10)   Fire wire cable

11)   Apple Mac computers

Portrait of Place - Shot List

1. Establishing landscape shot/ Extreme Long shot
2. High angle long shot from tree
3.  Low angle long shot
4. Mid shot through the trees
5. Mid shot to the side of frame
6. Panning shot of several trees
7. Low angle close-up of branches
8. Close-up to Long shot
9. Mid shot/ still shot 
10. Tilt up/ Close up
11. Low angle long shot - from ground

Portrait of Place - Initial Ideas 20/10/11

Place:-

Sense of space – Open/ Claustrophobia/ Fear/ Eerie/ Free/ Atmospheric/ Creepy/ 

Physical – Weather/ Rocks/ Trees (Branches, shape of tree can portray a certain mood or emotion)/ Fields/ People/ River/ Streams/ Buildings/

Animals – Birds (Coincide with sense of space?) / Sheep/ Cows/ Insects/

 Emotion – Anger/ Fear/ Depression/ Desire/ Excitement/ Fearlessness/ Frustration/ Guilt/ Happiness/ Hatred/ Love/ Loneliness/ Passion/ Terror/ Seven Deadly sins – Lust/ Gluttony/ Greed/ Sloth/ Acedia/ Wrath/ Envy/ Pride/ Vainglory.  

Possible Ideas:-

1)      Physical representation of the contrast between open and enclosed spaces.

2)      Trees representing emotion – Seven deadly sins/ The  way the tree is formed can represent a certain emotion e.g. Curved or intertwined can represent Love/ Lust

3)      Emotional journey representing in a physical way.

4)      Decay of nature – Urbanisation/ Abandonment/ Decay through time and nature. 

Portrait of Place Project Edale Trip 27/10/11

Before we even went to Edale our group met up and discussed what possible ideas we could use. We used spider diagrams to help narrow down various ideas for the terminology ‘Place’.

After making a decision of our idea we started storyboarding the process of our film. This was quite difficult as we had never been to Edale before and as we wanted to have a wide variety of Tree shots in our film we couldn’t get the perfect storyboard. So we storyboarded what our intention was and also made a shot list. The location was perfect for our film as it had plenty different types of trees and it felt very secluded which fitted with out creepy feel for our film . We used a variety of different shots from Close ups to Panning shots to Hand held shots. All these different shots make the film more interesting to watch as it gives the audience more perspective on our aim.  

Skin Deep (Usaf Ali Kahn 2001)

 

I think the director's main primary aim is to give the audience an insight into what his life was like growing up during the 1980's. I feel it is a powerful film which expresses racism very clearly to the audience. The character "Romo" is half Pakistani and half English and is trying to fit in with the national front skinheads in the run down estate. I feel a mix of sympathy and dislike for "Romo" as in that era it was very hard for ethnic minorities as there were societal racism, discrimination and poverty, alongside further perceptions of powerlessness and oppressive policing which sparked a series of riots in areas across London. But at the same time I feel he is being a coward as to confront his ethnicity.

I did really enjoy the film as it was a powerful and emotional piece on racism, and teenage life in the 80's. It enticed me in with what life really was like in that era. The camera shots used throughout the film were also another reason why I enjoyed the film. There were flashbacks which gave the audience a perception of the character and what his upbringing was like.
The end scene with "Romo" screaming at the mirror was a very expressive and emotional scene, and also very cleverly edited and shot, it mirrored the opening scene of "Romo" splashing water on his face and had quick, snappy flashbacks of him getting bullied and beaten by skinheads, and cut to him cutting his hair off. Also by having the characters who were bullying him actually next to him whilst he was shaving his head showed how much that part in his life scarred him mentally, the fact that he would always remember that part of his life.
The element that particularly stood out to me was when "Romo" threatened and bullied a young Asian boy. This is because you can see it in "Romo's" facial expression that he knows it was wrong, but to "fit" in he had to do it. The close up of when "Romo" gets in the young boys face, echoes the part in his life when he was getting targeted by the skinheads. I think that the young Asian boy either recognises "Romo" personally or as his own ethnicity as he looks over at him as if to say that. This is when "Romo" has to make a split second decision whether to confront his identity or not.

The use of flashbacks worked very well for me as they were all very short and straight to the point, the film uses these flashbacks to show what background "Romo" had, and they weren't over used either. Each one was appropriately placed as it portrayed how and why "Romo" was behaving the way he was. Another technique I found interesting was the use of close ups. In the pub scene where one of the skinheads says "Hey Romo, you look like you’ve got a bit of Paki in you" it cuts to several close ups of "Romo's" face, men and women's faces who are in the pub laughing, also the skinheads who he is having the flashbacks of. This reiterates the emotional and physcilogical effect it has had on him, by using close ups it gives the audience a sense of confinement, and the fact that he feels everyone is looking and laughing at him as the skinhead says that line. I felt the film was building to a climax and felt that the director dealt with its subject matter brilliantly, from the close ups, flashbacks, plot and text.

Brendan Harper.