Prelim-Post Production Blog

Logging my shots
We learnt how to use final cut server in our last lesson with Matt. We learnt how to access our footage and load it into the programme called Final Cut Pro. First we logged the shots so took out the takes we did not need. We created a log bin in which we could store our logged shots; we took the best of our takes to put in our sequence we were going to create. We logged the shots by going through the footage and pressed I to mark in at the start of the shot and O to mark out at the end of the shot we wanted and then went to modify shot and named it (e.g mid-shot or close up shot) and moved it into the log bin. We did this for all our footage.
Organising my shots
After we got the shots we wanted to use, we had to remember the order in which the shots came in the storyboard we had. We did this by referring back to our storyboard and then matching our shots to the ones on the storyboard. This made it easier with trying to recall the order.
Shot Order
Ours started with a wide shot of both the characters which tells the audience what the main characters are going to be. It then goes to the medium shot of them which shows the characters in more detail so the shots are gradually getting closer to the characters so the audience can see more and more detail. Some of the shots we did had good continuity for example we went to a close up of our actresses hand on the door handle and then made the next shot her closing the door so it matches the two shots to make the sequence make sense to the audience.
Editing in Final Cut
We only did a few shots in editing so far. We cut on the close up on her hand on the door to add dramatic effect of her closing the door and then went to her face looking serious. The trouble we had with the editing is that we had multiple different voices talking at the same time as we cut in the shots so we still had them talking in the shot. Examples of editing we need to do is little details, such as the actress flicking her hair at a time which means she would have to do it the same each time we take another shot otherwise it would not make sense if she suddenly stopped playing with her hair. The same as where the actors stand as they can not suddenly move to a completely different place as again it would be confusing and not realistic.

Continuity Editing
The purpose of this is that it helps smooth the discontinuity of the editing process. It helps the shots to make sense as it matches them to what is happening in the sequence. This makes it easier for the audience to follow the sequence as it puts together the selected shots for it to flow.
Continuity editing can be split into two categories, such as temporal (time) and spatial (space). The important ways to get good continuity are avoiding the ellipsis, using diegetic sound and also using the match-on-action technique to make the shots match. It is important to follow a specific film language to ensure that only the relevant story points are shown and to manipulate time and space (temporal and spatial continuity). Other ways this is important is to force the audience to identify with the right characters which makes sure the story makes sense to the audience.

Preliminary task evaluation

Our group was in the studio when we did our preliminary task. I think this was the best place to film as we had the best lighting and we had a set ready which was a door and a brick wall. It felt more professional than when we first was shooting in the common room. Our group shared the roles when we were filming so that everyone got to experience and experiment with filming in the studio. I filmed a couple of shots in our sequence and said the appropriate terminology when i was doing my part. I enjoyed shooting as i felt in control. We all shared the roll on making sure the camera was in the 180 degrees rule which worked well because we never got it wrong as there were four of us making sure that it was in the 180 degree.

We first had to set up the camera on the tripod and we bubbled the tripod to make the tripod level. We also had to put the colour bars on and record for around 30 seconds and then take turn the colour bar off. Also we made sure we had the right white balance to film. We made the calls for our actors so they know what they are doing and when the camera was rolling. We had to say "stand by" to make sure everyone was ready, then "we're rolling" and then your press the red button to start recording and then once that is on and is filming you say "action" and so that is the actors que to start and lastly once we finish filming we say "cut" to tell everyone that we have stopped rolling. When we were filming if we were filming and it went wrong for example the actors forgot their lines or were standing in a different place that they were in the last shot then we would take it again. A few of our shots we did we had to re-take a few times to make it right which got stressful after a while and was pressurising on the amount of time we had. We made sure we had continuity to make sure that the shots matched, for example when our actress moved her hair in the first cut we had to make sure she did it for all the others and also where they were both standing we put tape where they should stand so that they could not get it wrong which made it easier for them and us.

We had a task to do a sequence with two actors. We got a storyboard which we had to follow for the main shots. We had to do shots such as a wide shot of the two people, over-the-sholdour shot, close up and medium shot of our actors. We did the wide shot first and runned through the script in wide shot so we can pick out the ones we want to keep. Next we did our medium shot which involved the two of them again but with more detail. We did two different over-the-sholdour shots, one which was an over-the-sholdour of our actor's point of view so looking at our actress and after we ran through our sequence in that shot we then went over to our actress and shot the sequence from her point of view. Also we did close ups of both the actors to get the expression in their faces, for example when our actor has to look worried and has his hand over his face at the end of the sequence.

We also added some of our own shots such as a close up of our actress closing the door which we made just to see her hand to add to the dramatic atmosphere we were trying to create. We also did hero shots of our actress to show that she is in control and that she has power in the sequence and then we did a shot looking down at our actor to show that he is in a weak position.
The lighting we used was hard on our actress because she was more of a dark character and more of a powerful character. We made the harsh light with a hanging lamp in the set. This was important in the scene because it helped establish her character to the audience. Towards the middle of the sequence the argument gets more heated and more intense so we thought we would change the lighting slighty to add to the atmosphere and make it more dark and to show the audince that they have had a fight and that he is scared and worried. We did this by taking away one of the lights in the set which made it darker.