Editing so far... (25th March 2010)

Last lesson we went for our final film shoot and shot a variety of scenes, one which involved the main character (Jack) sitting in a cafe (we went to a cafe in Hulme indoor market), opening and reading a letter sent by his ex girlfriend in which she retured a bracelet which he had once given her and the other scene where the main character attempts to ring his ex girlfriend but is unsucessful in contacting her. Also we filimed another flash back scene which involved the main character burning the letter, this was shot at night which we thought made the clip more effective as it made him seen more vunerable and sinister.

In todays lesson we had a few difficulties locating our saved project file as is was not saved in the place we thought we had originally saved it, thankfully after about 10 moniutes of serching for the file we found it, we have now realised that when editing we need to take extra care when saving our project and so to make sure this doesnt happen again we renamed our project so it is easier to locate we have called it 'March 25th filming' so the next time we edit our film we will be able to find the saved project with no hassle.

Then we logged and captured the footage we had filimed the lesson before and carried on editing the clips together and adding effects and transitions. We also learnt a new technique when usings the mac's to log and capture new footage. What we learnt was that we do not need to use the digital camecorder to rewind the footage when capturing as we can use the keyboard to rewind, fast forward, pause and play.

We desided that the flashback of the graveyard did not fit right in the place we had it originally and thought it would make the project flow better if we put it at the beginning of the film.

Voice over.

We are going to include a voice over in our film. It will be a letter being read out by the main character-a reply to one we see early on in the film. This reply is more than a letter, it is a suicide note. The character is saying his last thoughts to his ex-girlfriend. This is a draft of the letter:

"To ..........
So you're leaving me. Without an explanation. Without giving me a chance to fight for you. Did you expect me just to accept it? Move on with my life, never to see you again? You don't know me at all.

You're the only one I have. I wish I could talk to (martha). (S)he'd know what to do, and tell me how to cope. But I can't. When (martha) left me, left this world, you were the only one who helped was there. Who wiped each tear and whispered to me that everything was going to be ok. And I believed your lies.

You helped me through that. But who's going to help me through this?! Memories are what you have when you've lost everything. You've not even left me those...so what do I have left? I don't know how to not love you. And I don't know how to let you go.

It will always sadden me that I will not get to share my life with you. Without you, there's no meaning to life.

I hope you mourn for me the way I have for you.

Till death do us part..."

Editing and developments

Whilst editing the film clips we have today, we worked out what we have to film next lesson to complete our filming. These things include two more flashbacks:

Flashback 1: The main character opens an envelope that contains a letter from his ex-girlfriend; she is breaking up with him. When he opens the letter, a silver bracelet falls out-a present that she has returned to him. This bracelet will link up with the main story as the main character drops it in a puddle just before he decides to jump. This gives the idea that his girlfriend ending their relationship was a contributing factor to him jumping.

Flashback 2: The main character burns the letter from his ex-girlfriend in a fireplace. We will film the letter burning, and also a shot of the light of the fire on his face and reflected in his eyes. This flashback shows that he is not completely 'with it' as burning the letter is not a rational response; also, the fire being reflected in his eyes symbolises the 'burning' he is feeling inside and also emphasises him loosing his mind.

We also need to film some close ups of the characters face to add a variety of shots to our shotlist. This also gives a greater insight into the characters emotions: "the eyes are the window to the soul".
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Whilst editing today we have got most of the film onto the timeline and matched up so that the editing is continuous and flows neatly into each shot. We have also added some effects to make increase the atmosphere created by the film; fade in and out in some shots, and also sped up some of the shots and slowed down others, to create a jittery effect which reflects how the character is feeling.
We have also started to look at music that is going to go with our film. Nothing has been definately decided yet, however some of the tracks we may use are:
Beautiful tension long.
Not so friendly short.
We are experimenting with different sounds on garageband but have all agreed that a minor, mysterious track would go best with our film as it increases the sense of tension and suspense.

Summary so far.

summary for filming...
In the last few lessons we have been out on location filming on the top of Manchester Arndale car park. Both times we went filming the weather was relatively similar, so we were quite lucky and hopefully the scenes won't differ too much. We filmed a variety of shots including point of view shots and close ups, we also did a few panning and tilting shots. We used a puddle in the ground to create a reflective effect when tilting the camera from the main characters feet to head which we though looks very effective. We also filmed two establishing shots from a birds eye view to show the audince the locations in which we were shooting, we filmed a typical landmark of Mancherter (the wheel) to emphazise this.

summary for editing...
Filming went well and we have managed to get most of the scenes we need. We have captured the clips that were on the 'canon' digital video camera and put the on final cut pro. We then edited the clips toghether and worked out we should only need one more period of filming to get all the scenes we need to complete the filming. Once we captured all the clips we renamed them according to what they were off, we then put them in order of how they would be in the final piece using final cut pro using the imac computers. We used the 'mark in' and 'mark out' tool on the keyboard to cut the extra bits of the clips we did'nt need or would'nt match.

We have all contributed to the direction of these scenes, and find that we are still working very well as a group. We have been taking it in turns as the role of the camera person, director, and runner, and we are all now very confident with using the camera and tripod.

Behind the scenes extras

Here are a few behind the scenes shots we took when we went filming on the 2nd March 2010.

These are the footprints that are made by the character when he walks through a puddle on the rooftop. The fact he walks through the puddle and not around it demonstrates the idea that he doesn't care if his feet get wet or not, and also that he is determined to get the the place he wants to be (the edge of the car park) as quickly as possible-he does not want to take the long way around.

This is the camera and tripod that we used to film out project, we used a canon digital minidv camcorder, and a standard black tripod.



This is a 'behind the scenes' photograph to show the location in which we filmed part of our project. This was the roof of the Arnedale car park and we deliberalty choose to have the Manchester wheel in the background in the establishing shot to show the audiene the location of the opening of the film.

This is a reflection snapshot of a scene in the project, the character is looking down into the puddle and reminising on his life so far. He is in a deep depression and is on his way to commit suicide.



This is the footprints of the main character, he walked through a puddle therefore his feet are wet, and them he walks onto a dry ground leaving footprints in this path, these footprints symbolise the ending of his life as they are the only things left of him when he finally jumps.

This is another 'behind the scenes' photograph , showing the production team hard at work, in theis photo it is showing the scene where the main character is looking down on the busy people in the roads below going about their daily buisness. Here a mid-long shot was filmed.

again this is another 'behind the scenes' shot, just like before it is the scene in which the main character is looking down on the moving traffic and busy people. However this is a long-shot of the character.

this behind the scenes photograph is of the cameraperson and runner changing the size of the tripod so it is higher so it can create a better view of the establishing shot of the location of the film.

Here is a behind the scenes shot with the tripod in the foreground and the main character and cameraperson, here the cameraperson is showing the main character how to hold the camera (close to your chest) to create less shakyness, as he is about to film a point of view shot down on the main road.

here again the cameraperson is showing the character how to hold the camera the create less shake-ness.

this is a snapshot from a scene in the opening of the film. The footprints were created by the main character walking through a puddle and then walking out into the dry ground. This is very effective as his footprints stop at the end of the fence, his footprints them disapear, there is only one explanation for the missin gfootprints and that is that he had jumped off.

Location shots

Here are a few Location Shots we took when we went filming on 2nd March 2010.

This is a shot of the view from the top of the car park. We have taken a photo of this because it demonstrates the height of the rooftop, and emphasises the location-a busy industrial area. The fact that the Urbis building is in the distance shows it is in central Manchester.

This is a shot of the door at the entrance of the stairs. The car park in the background with the skyline shows the height of the building, and also the solidarity of the location, as there are no cars. This is ideal for our location as it reflects the character-he is all alone mentally, and physically, on the rooftop.

This shot shows the height of the building, and also the fact it is in a busy area. The fact there are tram lines, cars and pedestrians show it is a commonly used public area, and this is ideal for our location as an area like this would create a lot of panic and drama when the character jumped from the railings. This shows the character is not thinking straight, and wants to be noticed as he is willing to cause disruption and chaos with his death.

This is another angled shot that emphasises the surrounding area and location of the car park we are using for our film.

The tram, traffic and pedestrians in this shot emphasises the busy area again, as it is constantly in use by all different types of transport.

This shot of the car park in the foreground and big wheel in the background shows the location of the car park, and the big wheel will be good to use in an establishing shot. If it is sped up for a few moments in a jumpy fashion it will reflect the way the character is thinking and feeling-jumpy and irregular.