Screen shot of ident

This is a screenshot of our ident that is at the start of our film.Rupert came up with the design.

Pictures for evaluation

This is our final final final final version

We hope!!!

Final uploading!!

We have just found out that our music and soundtrack will distort when we do the final upload as it is so loud. We are now just going through lowering all the volume settings, this is a long task as we have a lot of fading within the white noise sections.

FINISHED EDITING!!!!

We have sped up the zooming section by cutting out every alternate stage of the zoom in sequence. This has greatly improved the speed of this section, thus we have listened and acted to the feedback we received. We have also increased the volume of the car noises, we felt that if we added the noise of a different car then it would have sounded odd and it would not have fitted in our opening.

Editing for the Final cut deadline!!

In this lesson we are acting on the feedback we received in our last lesson, we are trying to speed up the zooming in sequence and we have changed the names of the agents to keep the seriousness of our plot.

White Noise Opening - Rough Cut High Definition

PLEASE NOTE: THE CLIP WILL TAKE LONGER TO LOAD IF VIEWED IN HIGHER RESOLUTION.
(DOUBLE CLICK ON THE CLIP TO VIEW ON YOUTUBE WEBSITE & ACCESS TO HD FORMAT)

This is a HD version of our rough cut work. Although it was exported from Final Cut as a Full HD 1080p 16:9 Format, it has only uploaded to YouTube in HD 720p format.

The reason for the high quality version is so that you can see all the static in the background during the credit sequence.

Extra Feedback

After a class discussion we have gained more feedback of how to improve our opening even more, for example the car sequence could be made more exciting by adding some different music to the sequence. To keep the opening serious we are going to change the name of the agents and to show the location of the agents at the beginning rather than the name. With the zooming in sequence there was a comment that it was too slow, we have already shortened this sequence but we can try and speed it up.

Problem noticed

We noticed an error in the spelling of 'Original' in the credits. We will change this as soon as possible.

Our response to the feedback

Several people said they liked the car sequence, which was good. They also said the ident and the editing was good.
However several people thought the credits weren't on screen for long enough. We will try to rectify this situation. Some other people mentioned that the white noise needed to be cropped. However we are going to leave this because it was intentional.
The agents were undercover and therefore the costume was casual, and so the comment about costume was invalid.

Feedback - Things to improve

'Some of the credits were too quick to read'
'Could be improved with sound to add thrill and tension, and also costume could be improved'
'you're white noise needs to be cropped so it's all the same size. We got confused :('
'Thought it was called white noise :|'

Feedback - Good points

'The car bit was good + the way the credits were shown'
'The editing was very good through the film'
'really like the clock time and ident'
'Ident is G'
'music - well creepy'
'white noise - sense of loss of power (Y)'
'camera shots!'
'I like this'
'like the merge at the end'
'ENDING MESSAGE PROPER WORKED'

Next step

Our next stage is to evaluate our work this will need to be done by 20th to make sure its in for the final deadline as Rupert & Hayley are going away.

Rough Cut Opening Sequence!!!

The rough draft screenshot

Voiceover!! Timer!!

The phone recording did not work as we had hoped so we have recorded Calum's voice on the camera and we will capture it and use the audio from the filming to get the voice over. We have finished the timer and we have positioned it at the bottom right hand corner of the screen.

Rough cut finishing off!

This lesson we are finishing off our first draft of our opening by checking that our editing is efficient and by adding the timer onto the footage. We also need to dub a voice over of Calum when he is talking down the phone, we are going to record it on Kathryn's phone then Bluetooth it on to the computer with the opening on it and dub it into the footage.

Credit influence! 'Hang 'em High'

There is some concern over our credits in the way that they appear on the screen, not many films have credits that do this so it does not follow the normal conventions of a credit sequence. 'Hang 'em High' , a western starring Clint Eastwood, uses credits like ours in their opening sequence. They have the first few credits appearing via zoom in but the rest come on screen straight away filling the screen. Sorry but the is no clips of this on the internet that show the credit sequence.

Editing lesson 2!!

We are still editing our footage but we got a lot done last lesson, over half the opening!! We are adding sound to our clips to enhance the action and finishing the rest of our opening! So far we have changed a few aspects of our storyboard to fit with the footage we shot, moving some shots around and adding some extra shots that we recorded on 'set'.

Editing!!

This lesson we are starting on editing our footage that we filmed at the weekend. As our credits are already made we may need to adjust them slightly to incorporate the action footage, and we may need to rearrange the credits to see if the new shots we took look right and fit with the sequence.

Filming!!!

At the weekend, we all went to Rupert's house in Royston. We used our shot list and storyboard to help us with the filming and managed to get it all done in about an hour and a half which is less time than we thought. We also added in different angles and shots while filming so that we could have more variety and options while editing.

Timer Sequence

Timer sequence for the elapsed time during the opening enjoy!

Photoshop timer!!

We have found a way to create the time using photoshop but we have also found a way to do it in Final Cut, we are most likely to be using the Final Cut version for our opening because it's already on Final Cut and we wouldn't have to move it across from Photoshop.

Text research

We researched into the style we wanted to use to show the time in our sequence.
The beginnings of both of these clips show two fonts we liked and would like to use.

Example of split screen in use!!

After researching the split screens used in '24' we discovered this clip. At the beginning of this clip, we noticed that the time was displayed at the bottom of the screen. We might use this idea to help convey the timing differences between the action sequences.

Shot Listings

WHITE NOISE Poster

This is a concept of our poster for the thriller opening.

We will try to produce a higher quality version.

Split screen 2

We found the crop button :) and it worked.
This is the split screen we are more likely to use in our final sequence.
We will try to improve it by making sure the characters are on the same level while shooting.

Split screen practice

We wanted to use a split screen during our sequence but couldn't figure out how to crop the footage, so this is the solution we have come up with. We made each clip smaller and put them in the corners. We will now continue to try and figure out how to crop the clips.

Filming Dates

We are filming our thriller opening this weekend (27/28th February), we are aiming to finish the filming on the Saturday at Rupert's house but we can use Sunday if we need to. The weather looks as if it will be reasonably pleasant.

Practice filming

We did some very rough practice shots to rehearse before final filming. It is VERY rough and the continuity wasn't that great but we got an idea of how to film it at the weekend.

Backup location

This is our backup location for if we cannot film at Rupert's house. It is Kathryn's house.

Altered map zoom in

We're not sure whether to use this slightly altered version of our zoom in for our sequence. We changed it by turning each picture slightly to create a different effect.

3RD DIMENSION

3RD Dimension is a company owned and run by Rupert Sage. Launched in early 2009 there are already many different sections; Productions, Studios and Theatre. Specializing in Film, Music and Theatrical shows. 3RD provides the expertise in the use technical equipment.

This is the main logo, the section used can be seen in the base right of the title.

Film Location

This the location for filming, it's Rupert's house.

The reason for filming here is that there are multiple rooms suitable for the different requirements of the Director's proffered camera shots.

Next Lesson- Plan

Next Lesson we are planning to play around with the 'zoom in' sequence to see if we can make it more interesting, for example we are going to try and angle each picture differently to give the sequence a different look. We have found a clip of what we are attempting to do with the 'zoom in sequence' on you tube.

Here it is the clip is from the film 'James Bond's Goldeneye', the effect we're after can be seen at 5:36.

Close up of title credits.

Yes.

Title Credits... So far.

This is a screen shot of Final Cut, showing credits and technical aspects so far like the zoom in sequence.

Zoom in sequence WITH sound!!

We have incorporated a camera shutter sound from GarageBand with the zoom in sequence to create the final mini sequence for our opening.

Zoom in sequence!!

We have used images from Google Maps and put them into Final Cut Express. We faded each picture into each other quickly and we are now looking for a sound effect to go with it, e.g camera shutter sound.

Next Lesson- Plan

Next lesson we are going to be experimenting on how we can create the zoom in onto the house. We already have some ideas of how to do this but we are going to try new ideas as well to try and get a good end result. We have two main ideas of how to do this:

1. Find a way to zoom in to a picture of a house, or
2. Cut zoom, where we take pictures of closer images and put them together on Final Cut Express.

Both of these would mean probably using images off a site like Google Maps to create the cut, or zoom effect.

Kathryn in sunglasses experiment!!

This was to test how reflective the sunglasses were with the computer and with the lights off.

Camera lighting tryout

We turned the lights off in the room to see if it would be light enough to see the hacker at their computer.

Conventional thriller trailer

This trailer shows how a conventional political thriller would go with the accused actually being innocent, whereas we are going from a different side where the accused is actually in the wrong.

Filming tips

1) Light properly (we have to make sure the lighting is sufficient especially in the hacker scene because it is set in a dark room)
2) Don't 'corpse'
3) Keep script simple - don't overwrite
4) Plan well - leave time for editing
5) "Perform" - put some heart into it
6) Keep camera fairly close for speaking parts
7) Don't waste film - prepare each shot - rehearse
8) Take more footage than you need.
9) State which shot you are filming
10) Take different shots of same action

Credits with storyboard.

You get the idea.

WHITE NOISE CREDITS

Times and dates for filming

We would like to film at a weekend (preferably as soon as possible) at Rupert's house. We would want to film during the day as it is more difficult to film at night because you would not be able to see what is going on unless we used night vision but this is not the effect we are looking for.

Camera Shot influences

We liked the way the camera moves behind the actors and lingers for a while in this opening scene. This creates a realistic and believable atmosphere and is very fluid.

Sound Ideas!!

At the beginning of the thriller sequence we would like to have as little noise as possible except from the hacker on their computer. The sound that can be heard would be the hacker typing, hacking into the government.

Sound

Musical influences:

Credit List!!

Credit sequence:

1. A 3rd Dimension production
2. Cast- Kathryn King
3. Cast- Rupert Sage
4. Cast- Calum Pugsley
5. Costume design and Art directions- 3rd dimension production
6. Production Design- Rupert Sage
7. Casting- Kathryn King
8. Film editing- 3rd dimension
9. Cinematography- Hayley Sayer
10. Original music- 3rd dimension
11. Produced by- Calum Pugsley
12. Directed by- Kathryn King
13. Main title- White Noise
    

Script

Our script is quite short because the majority of the opening is visual and doesn't necessarily need dialogue. The only dialogue we will use is a phone conversation between a government agent and his boss on the phone.

Government agent 1 picks up the phone and speaks to boss.
Government agent 1:
Boss, I've found the location of the hacker.
Boss:
Excellent.

Back up plan

If we cannot film at Rupert's house we will film at Hayley's house and if we can't film at Hayley's house we will film at Kathryn's house and if we can't film at Kathryn's house we will film at Calum's house. As you can see, we are very prepared :)

Locations

We are going to film in Royston at Rupert's house because he owns a car and has a large house which would be suitable as we need at least 3 different rooms.
We will also be using the roads around his house for the arrival of the government agents.

Shot listings

The main shot types to be used are Close-ups, the reason for this is that close-up shots do not reveille the full picture and therefore create a mystery effect to the sequence.

the shot types to be used are;

Medium close-up,

Close-up,

Extreme close-up,

Long shot,

Mid shot,

Establishing shot,

Panning.

These shot can be combined to produce some other shots we're going to use for example 'panning' & 'long shot' to create 'panning long shot'.

The shots listed above can be seen in the storyboard on a previous post.

Production roles

Kathryn - Director
Hayley - Camera person
Rupert - Production Co-ordinator
Callum - Producer

Definitions of:

Director -

1. One that supervises, controls, or manages.

2. A member of a group of persons chosen to control or govern the affairs of an institution or corporation.

3. A person who supervises the creative aspects of a dramatic production or film and instructs the actors and crew.
4. The person responsible for the artistic and technical aspects of making a film or television programme.

Camera Person - a person who operates a film or television camera

Producer -

1. One that produces, especially a person or organization that produces goods or services for sale.

2. One who supervises and controls the finances, creation, and public presentation of a play, film, program, or similar work.
3. A person who organizes the stage production of a film or play, including the finance, management, etc

Production coordinator -
Controls and manages the flow of information between the various components of a film project to provide all the required components within the time frame needed. This means that the production coordinator makes sure all necessary equipment and materials are on site at the right times, that staff and crews are in place and have everything they need to work, actors and actresses have their contracts signed and are on site, and all accommodations for the crew and cast are provided.

Kathryn is suitable for the role of director because she has experience in this field as she is currently directing both a film studies project and a dramatic arts project. She also wishes to pursue a career in the film industry as a director.

Hayley is suitable for the role of camera person because she feels that would gain important knowledge and skills from this role. She also has a good eye for camera angles and their effects which would be useful when considering which camera angles to use.

Calum is suitable for the role of producer because he knows a lot about thrillers and the making of them which is crucial to the piece as we are trying to create a conventional thriller.

Rupert is suitable for the role of production coordinator as he has good organizational skills which will help keep the thriller opening in the right time frame. He is also good at working with others which is crucial when working with directors and actors to create a film.

Lighting!!

Hacker lighting:

• blacked out room
• curtains closed
• only the light from the computer lighting the room and the hacker.

Government lighting:

• well lit
• lamps on [possible behind as well]
• light/airy

Vehicle lighting:

• as no filming will take place in the vehicle itself, there is no need to try and light it.

Supposed hacker's hideout:

• lighting will change throughout the hideout sequence

Costumes/Hair

For costumes we were thinking of something similar to men in black, where we would use dark suits and sunglasses. The hacker would wear a beanie and sunglasses to cover his face so we don't know who he is. This would also help because we may need the actor to play another character as well and we don't want the audience to guess that the same actor is playing both roles so we will dress them very differently and cover their face. They will also be filmed mostly from behind so avoid many close ups of the hackers face.
For Hair, we might slick the government agents hair back if it is long enough but this may not be possible so it is likely that we will leave it.

Actors

We need 2, 3 or 4 actors depending on their availability. 1 to play the hacker (who could multi-role as one of the government members if necessary) and 2 government men.
All characters will be male because conventionally, characters in political/action thrillers tend to be men.

There is a possibility we could use some drama students to be actors but this could be difficult because they may not have free periods when we have a lesson. Therefore, we will probably use the people in our group and a few family members if necessary.

List of equipment and props!!

Hackers props and equipment:

• laptop
• chair
• desk
• black/dark sunglasses
• paper surrounding hacker

Entire Government props and equipment:

• desktop computer
• desk
• moving chair [on wheels]
• stationary [i.e pens, paper etc.]
• vehicle [tinted windows preferably]

A vital pieces of equipment is the house the hacker is hiding in. To avoid having to find two houses for our opening sequence we are going to use one house but film in two different rooms. for the

Storyboard

Plan for this lesson!!

• Start a stroyboard for thriller opening
• possibly put it into final cut
  
• find/create white noise for credits
• ideas for the credits
  

Influences

Die Hard 4 features a similar plot including computer hacking.

Problem solving!!

HACKER IN HIDING; Hacker will be in a dark room in a a different place, away from the Government house/room. This way the hacker can stay unidentified as the Government agents would go to the wrong house to try and catch him, while he is safe in another house.

MAN POWER; The Government agents would be a pair and they will get sent to the house by the Head Governor after the riddle is solved, this means that there is no need to find/hirer lots of actors to create a large team of Government agents.

VEHICLE; we will need a large black/dark vehicle for the agents to arrive at the house in. We would like a Land Rover but as none of us own one and neither do our parents we will have to look at other solutions to the vehicle problem.

Mood Board

Final Plot Idea!!

After the class pitching session, our above idea has been green lighted. Some problems with the idea were found but we are working on fixing them in time to film. Problems such as the man power needed and where the hacker is actually hiding. We will put up an update shortly about how we are planning to solve these problems.

Plot Ideas!!!

12A

May be unsuitable for under 12s. Those aged under 12 are only admitted if accompanied by an adult at all times during the performance (cinema only).
We didn't really think 12A would be a thriller certificate but after researching 'The Lovely Bones' we now consider it a possibility.

Example of thriller

Drama/fantasy thriller
Centers on a young girl who has been murdered and watches over her family - and her killer - from heaven. She must weigh her desire for vengeance against her desire for her family to heal.
PG-13 in USA and 12A in UK

Example of thriller

This is an example of an action thriller, as yet it has no age certification but we think it would be a 15 because of violence and possible sex scenes.

BBFC Classification!!

Suitable only for those aged 12 and over.

No-one younger than 12 can rent or buy a 12 rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game.



Suitable only for those aged 15 and over.

Nobody younger than 15 can see a 15 film in a cinema. No-one younger than 15 can rent or buy a 15 rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game.



Suitable only for adults.

Nobody younger than 18 may see an 18 film in a cinema.
No-one younger than 18 can rent or buy an 18 rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game.

Ubisoft Ident!!

We would like to use music fairly similar to this for our ident.

Planning ident!!

We chose the production title '3rd Dimension Productions' as we already had a template but will create a new style of opening with it.