Problems uploading our opening sequence and evaluation

There was difficulty uploading our footage because the files were too big. As they were very large it took a long time to upload and the server kept cutting out. We are going to have to compress the files, which takes ages.

Compromise.

Having debated about the music for a lengthy period of time, we as a group have decided that we want to  have one final version of the film, not two separate ones. This means compromising over the soundtrack. Now we have all stopped being stubborn and accepted other peoples view point the soundtrack is much better!

Problems with evaluation

As we tried to film our evaluation, there were disturbances beyond our control because we had to film in a stairwell. People making noise opening doors and going up and down the stairs made it difficult. We had to cut those disturbed parts out and put edits in where the question changed. To edit this we used final cut.

Fitting in S.E.A Productions and ADMILNA INC

After the disaster on Adobe Flash, we incorperated S.E.A Productions in a much simpler fashion. We had the writing in a large blue font on a black background and used a .... cut to make it appear like water. We also added a dripping sound to the background. As far as incorperating ADMILNA INC we used a black background, again, with red writing and simply wrote "in association with admilna inc", it appears after some of the footage of the central character. This idea was taken from the film Mean Machine. After watching simlar films we noted that they're credits were very simple so not to take away from the narrative and we tried to immitate them.

In Association with...

Having watched a lot of similar style films we decided another production line needed to be added in the credits, most of the films we watched had "in association with" on them. So we thought we would do the same and ADMILNA INC was born :)

Small but needed changes..

We were all relatively happy with how things were going but after going through it very closely and analysing it we decided that there were some small cuts which needed to be made. We literally took no more than 2 seconds off of a few shots but the difference it made was unbelieveable. It made the film run so much smoother.

Change in Soundtrack

Due to disagreements within the group, we made two versions of the soundtrack on garage band. On one version there are sounds of traffic in the background and one without. There are different piano sounds in both of the versions at the start of the sequence.

S.E.A Productions

We wanted to create an animation in Adobe Flash to appear to show S.E.A Productions, at the begining of the opening sequence. We wanted to have it under the sea and appear to '"swim" across the screen with oxygen bubbles coming out of it. We tried to do it but everytime we thought we had finished it we weren't happy with it. In the end we had to settle for the fact that we were trying to be to complicated and we had bigger things to sort out, like our rubbish credits!

Producing the soundtrack

To produce a soundtrack to the opening sequence we had to use garage band. The sequence starts off at a very slow pace and the weather is not particularly nice which shows pathetic fallacy. To create a mellow mood, we used a piano sequence at the start. The pace is slow until the main character reaches his apartment. To create suspense when he entered his apartment we used a high pitched sound. The chase sequence starts off with a gun shot and a grime song called Mike Lowry is played.

More credit editing!

We still were not satisfied with the credits. Above is another example of the way we tried to include credits.

Changing from ASE to SEA Productions

Our original production company name was ASE productions as in Adam, Shauna and Emily. We figured it would be better to have a production company that was actually a word. So we have re named ourselves SEA productions.

New and improved sound track!

Thankfully, after hours of searching we found an unsigned artist using the same backing track but with different lyrics. The lyrics he uses actually suit our film better.

Problems with our soundtrack

Unfortunately, today we discovered that we cannot use our sound track due to copy right infringements. We are currently looking for another soundtrack to use instead, we're looking for the same kind of music but by an unsigned artist.

Average Scores

During the showcase the class were told to rate our film out of 10 on editing, sound, camerawork, control of narrative, characters and whether or not they would watch it all. The average scores were as followed:

Editing: 7.1/10
Sound: 6.7/10
Camerawork: 7.4/10
Control of narrative: 7.2/10
Characters: 8/10
Would you watch it all?: 7.4/10

Feedback from Miss...

Miss Thrasher gave us alot of compliments for our film and also gave us things to fix. Below is the sheet she filled in and the comments that she made

The Showcase.

As we were the first to complete our film, or at least be near to completing it we had a "show case" whereby we showed the class our film and they critiqued it. On the whole it went well, but we realised our credits still needed a lot of work and that the sound needed to be edited as some of it was inaudible. The main issue that was raised was the sound not being as good as it could be. The film was good, but not great yet.

Our most helpful Feedback

Although nearly all of the feedback from our class was helpful, we decided to post our best comments that gave the most constructive criticism. Below shows their comments:

Trouble with the credits

We found it quite difficult to put the credits in and still keep it looking like an authentic and well made film and not rushed. We tried numerous ways but we couldn't agree on anything. Above is one way we tried to do our credits.

Editing and the first "finished" film

Below is our first draft of the film completed with sound.

Editing Process Continued

Having watched through our product we noted that several shots needed to be cut to make the sequences flow better. Just by shortening the shots slightly we took nearly a minute off of our opening sequence.