Liverpool Documentary - Editing

Here are some screen grabs whilst in the process of editing.

Liverpool Documentary - Images

Here are some images of the locations we visited and filmed in Liverpool on our shoot that Rob took.

This is an abandoned school we found opposite Strawberry Fields.

This was near the beach with Antony Gormley's art on.

This of one of Antony Gormley's many statues.

Another of the beach with Antony Gormley's art.

This is of Bansky's street art.

A view of Liverpool

Another view of Liverpool.

The original script was about a man strgging to live with his OCD. The audience see his everyday dull life until he meets a girl which changes his aspect in life. It was an emotional journey for the main protoganist.

Drama Project - The start.

The initall script was created and I felt that it was a good enough script to work with. It involved the main character struggling to live with OCD. The narrative followed his everday life and showed the struggles he had in his boring everyday life, until he meets a girl which changes his aspect on life. It was originally meant to be an emotional joureny for the main protgonaist.

Documentary: Recording List

Here are all the usable recordings from our shoot in Leverpool. There are the the length of each sound file to make it easier whilst editing. There are also recordings for our backing track.

Beach atmos - 02:17

Distant shouts - 01:37

Road/birds - 00:37

Road/birds 2 - 00:37

Strawbs atmos - 01:39

Traffic - 01:39

Tunnel - 00:37

Tunnel 1 - 01:19

Bird/siren - 01:15

Bird strawb - 00:37

Drone - 01:49

Duck - 01:56

Heater - 00:28

Water atmos - 02:17

Plane/birds - 00:59

Traffic strawb - 00:57

Vox - 06:55

Vox 1 - 02:29

Water :02:28

-Interview

Part1 - 00:16

Part2 - 00:26

Part3 - 00:39

Part4 - 00:20

Part5 - 00:21

Part6 - 00:13

Part7 - 00:13

Sound Design:

 MusicAmbience 1 - 03:13

Ambience 2 - 05:24

Ambience 3 - 03:10

Liverpool Documentary

Filming in Liverpool went very well and was a great place to visit. My role was Sound recorder, I used a Marantz 660 with a omni-directional and shotgun Microphone to record the atmos sounds in the places we visited. I also used a Boom pole connected to the shotgun mic to capture the Vox-pops with. I feel at the time of recording the sounds that it went very well and had no problems recording them, after hearing them back in editing, the vox-pops weren't as clear as they could have been. This was because of two things, one was the fact that because we were on a beach whilst recording, it was therefore quite windy and we could here that in the background, the other was that I didn't hold the microphone close enough to the interviewee's so we had to edit it in soundtrack pro to make the recordings of the vox pops more clear.

Sound Plan - Documentary

Here is the sound plan used for our Liverpool shoot.

Beach Atmos (03:00)

Waves (01:00)

Seagulls (01:00)

Vox Pop Interviews (02:00)

- TunnelsTunnel Atmos (03:00)

Breathing (01:00)

Footsteps (01:00)

Outside Tunnel Atmos (03:00)

Birds (01:00)

- Strawberry FieldField Atmos (03:00)

Traffic (01:00)

- CityCity Atmos (03:00)

Traffic Noise (03:00)

Street Rush (02:00)

Siren (01:00)

Drama project - filming

On the day of the filming we used my house as the location for the main character's house. As I was the editor I gave my opinions and thoughts on where and what the shots could be placed or even look like. I thought it was quite important for me to know and be there when the shots were being filmed as being the editor I had my own ideas for the drama. I also thought that my location for the some of the shots of the drama worked really well with the drama as there are some nice places to film.

Experimental Film

We have changed the initial idea of our Experimental film a few times along the way of creating our film. We initially intended to have the main character having flashbacks of his break up with his partner, and at the time we thought it was a good idea. But as the shooting of the film progressed we decided to change the narrative. We decided to make the film about the character trying to live life without his partner who has died, and have the character visiting all the places that he shared with his partner. Whilst having his partner in the film with him in some scenes to show his struggle to move on, it could be interpreted as his sub conscious is projecting her in his life. We also have flashbacks of when he is with his partner and we have fast cuts back to the present to show the character still thinking he is with his partner. We wanted to create an emotional film where the audience could relate to in a way of loosing someone they have loved or even a partner they miss. Throughout the film the character does not speak as we use music and a poem which Will found to create emotion. The poem is perfect for our piece as it highlights the main aim we are trying to portray in our film. The poem is read by the characters lost partner and it is placed throughout the film in certain places we think makes it more effective, for instance the ending scene which is one of my favourite shot's in the film, is a shot of the flowers the main character has laid down in memory of his lost partner, and the poem relates and quotes about the flowers. Another shot in our film that I really like and think works well is the long shot of the character walking up the flight of stairs on the amphitheatre. I generally like this shot as I think it is well placed and the framing is very nice, I think it works very well when the character's partner walks along and sit's next to him, it is also well lit and when the main character does walk into frame the shadow fits really well with the shot.
The music in our film is another aspect I think works very well, Will and Leon played around with Garage band to create the strange, slow and sad piece of music and I felt it worked well, but the more I listened to it the more I felt it needed something else to add to it. I fiddled around with it to try and add another layer but it just didn't work out and couldn't create another layer that matched the tone of the background music. If I had planned better and took control of the background music I could have created a more effective piece of music, I still think the music that we have works well but I have experience in creating music as It is a hobby of mine and I am very well known to Garage band and other music software's. Another thing I would change is adding more ideas to the project. I feel that I could have taken more time on this project to really think long and hard about what ideas I could give to our film, although I did add some ideas I felt I could have taken the time to really get involved and at times take control of some aspects of the film, for instance the background music.
Overall I think the film that we have created works very well and our aims and intentions are put across, Technically I think we have all improved in filming and as a group we work very well.

Moan - Love

Although this is a very short Experimental film and it is not a well known piece of work, I feel it is very influential for making our Experimental film. The film start's with a still shot of a park mixed with a piece of music which is basic but affective, it then simply has flash images of two couples walking through the park which fade in and out, the couple are placed throughout the park walking and play fighting, constantly fading on screen then out. I felt it outlined the memories you have when you are in love and it gave me ideas for our film too. As we could use a similar technique to create the same kind of effect.

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.