Completed - Production Ident

Today me and Maisie completed keying out the green screen from our 'floating hand' for our Production identification. My initial idea was for it to appear as a gypsy/ physic/ medium type thing, mystical and magical. To do this I filmed Maisie's (starting in the shape of a shell) gradually opening whilst turning round infront of a green screen (very hard to find brightest light for best quality!). My aim was to once finished chroma keying, was to design and create a background (night sky with stars) on photoshop and import this into the moving image on final cut express along with another still of the crystal ball which would appear gradually as the hand revealed it. This turned out to be a months long project and was therefore unsuitable so instead we decided to have the globe appear after the hand had finished its 180degree turn. This was highly more convenient and do-able. I decorated Maisie's fingers in rings because that is how I imagined a readers hand would be like from stereotypes I had previously seen on TV, (probably from watching to many Disney films). Creating this probably took more time than the opening sequence itself! We had to search for the stars on the internet, download them, convert them, then import them. We used the colour gradient tool on photoshop to make the blue background seem more realistic (lighter towards the bottom because of street lights and so on from residential areas below.) As for the globe, we spent hours trying to make it look 3D not just a solid colour, so we fiddled with the inner and outer glow buttons untill we were satsified! To finish it off I wanted a twinkle, magic, 'fairy' sound to play as the hand moves, we found this on youtube and changed it into a MP3 file them dragged it into Final cut express. Final product looked reasonably good, but not how I originally hoped. Below is a print screen of the Production Ident.

Experimenting - Sound

Maisie(left) and I(right) working cooperatively playing around with Garage Band and looking for a suitable beat to play when Abbie fiddles with the radio. (Weird, funky song to be changed to a 'popular' song which to some extent is hard to find as we cannot use real songs that everyone generally knows for copyright reasons.)

Brainstorm - Sound

I decided to do some researching into typically associated sound effects with Horror. I created a list with my interpretation of what we might be able to use in our Opening Sequence, where and why... (these would then be searched for as a pre-recorded clip in garage band) My aim of using these sounds would be to give the audience obvious signifiers of when something scary is going to occur but also to modernise it.

• Police sirens - end of sequence after scream, cannot see police cars can just hear then so would be a off-screen sound
• Instrumental clips, sci fi sounding, creepy, eerie - when shadow walks past bathroom door
• Panicking clip - when 'Abbie' runs down the drive in a hurry looking for keys (creates an uncomfortable effect)
• Increasing heart rate/beat - feel connected to the character, when speaks to 'George' for second time and realises he is not in the house
• Deep heavy reathing - creates a sense of feeling as though your being watched
• (as silly as it sounds) the silence of the night - wind being the only thing you can hear is a scary thought, completely isolated and alone
• Footsteps - when being followed, could be Abbie or the stranger

Guides - Conventions of Sequences

This diagram, that our class teacher gave us, I have found very useful when putting together our Opening Sequence as it contains information you need to create a standard opening sequence and displays this in an attractive, fun and easy to read way. I use it as a referral to check every now and then that our Opening Sequence fits the criteria of a published, successful and earning one.

Editing

Currently in the very early stages of editing via 'Final Cut Express' - so far so good. Extremely pleased with the quality of the filming, (due to the use of a HD Camera.) Plus no group disputes have yet occurred! Slowly progressing towards our first working copy before our next group meeting on what to do next. Me and Maisie are both working really hard and putting all our free time into this project. Still a long way to go before our finished product, decisions on what clips to use (as we shot the same scene quite a lot of times for safety in allowing us to have a wider variety of different angles, levels, proximity to choose from.) have been keeping us busy! Finding Final Cut Express relatively easy to use with the help of our class teachers although occasionally we don't have a clue what we're doing and just click random buttons till we find what we want! :)

Filming

The filming of our Opening Sequence generally went really well and I'm pleased with our progress so far. I would have liked to have more time, (perhaps started slightly earlier) and it probably would have been a good idea to film at the weekend rather than mid-week, as towards the end, both director (me), camera operator (Maisie) and actors (Shauna, Freya, me) were exhausted and gradually become quite agitated. But apart from that, I enjoyed it and view it as great experience. We haven't yet discovered any faults in our clips during editing resulting in the re-shooting of that particular scene so touch wood! I expected there to be minor complications such as family being in the places we needed to film in the house, people forgetting props or equipment - however, I was proven wrong! Overall, great success.

Group Meeting - Cuts

There is to be a group discussion on Monday the 14th Feb to elaborate on any editing done so far that we think needs altering and to share any new worries or thoughts.

Now that all the clips have been put into order I think we need  to be generous cutters and cut out anything that isn't essential to the understanding of the narrative because otherwise it will end up dragging on and on and will be extremely boring - no one wants to watch a film like that.