Editing Session 6

In this editing session, Phoebe, Leah and I did some final editing to make sure everything is polished and ready to be marked. We added the remaining titles, including one over the black screen at the beginning which ended up really completing our film. We also did some further work on sound, exchanging the 'flag' sound effect for a better one called 'clothes', which is more effective because it sounds closer top the actual sound that sheets would make.

Editing Session 5

Ella and I stayed back after school to work on our projects and decided to focus on adding titles into our opening sequence. Because we wanted the titles to sweep across the screen, it became very time-consuming.  We had to blade the text over each individual frame and then add new letters very gradually to get the effect that we wanted. In the end, we only managed to complete two in the hour, I feel that it will be easier now that we know how to do it properly.

Editing Session 3 and 4

Editing Session 3 and 4:

In these editing sessions, Phoebe and I worked on adding sound effects to our opening sequence as we had to mute the audio on many of the clips due to speech and background noise. After doing some research on Foley sounds, I began to add sounds such as a 'flag' sound effect to act as the sound of sheets moving when she is in bed, as well as playing with the volume and effects to suggest distance/closeness and make the sounds sound as natural as possible. To add atmosphere, I even added a very quiet sound effect of one of the horses snorting when the camera pans to look out of the window and focuses on Parsley to make it seem as though we didn't have to mute the audio. We even added a 'quiet room' noise over the whole clip to eliminate the very heavy silence left on the clips after we muted them. Even though many sounds weren't noticeable, I paid very close attention when rebuilding the entire soundscape to make it seem as real as possible with the sound effects available on Final Cut Pro.

Editing Session 2

In this session I worked with the rest of my group to put some fine editing into the opening sequence, such as the match-on-action with the toast in the first half and the change in perspectives as he climbs the stairs in the second. We also began to add diegetic and non-diegetic sound. As there was some unwanted background noise and speech in a few of the clips, I had to mute them, however, I found that when muted the silence was too heavy and jarring-- to solve this problem, I suggested we find some quite background noise from the internet to add into our clips. It was audio from an empty, quiet room (close to white noise) but it made the clips sound more natural. After this, we began to layer sound effects on top, for example the playground sounds to indicate the first character's dream-like state. I suggested adding an echo effect to these sounds to ensure that it doesn't seem as if the opening sequence is simply set near a playground but is instead not actually reality, but after discussing with my group we eventually decided to fade the sound effects out for the sections that her narrative cuts into his so that they are only prominent in her section until she wakes up. I also had some trouble with the music, as it was difficult to time it right for the most effective moment possible, however it was eventually placed so that the main character's eyes open just as Marilyn sings 'daddy'. After this point, I gradually faded the music out as the second main character left the room.

Editing Session 1

Editing: Session 1
In this editing session, I trimmed down all of the raw footage in my section (Joe in the kitchen) and put everything together into a chronological sequence. We planned to each edit our own sections individually to begin, and then re-edit them into the final sequence as a group.

I encountered a problem with the timing of my section-- it was almost over a minute and it should have been 30 seconds-- so I started to trim every separate shot and used the blade tool to split clips that were unnecessary. I found it quite difficult because I still had to ensure that the narrative was clear without going over the time limit, but I was successful in the end. I also had to remove the audio from each clip because of the talking in the background which left an uncomfortable silence, meaning that I will have to add some ambient background noise back into it later.

Filming

Filming Day 1 (04/02/17):
During the first day of filming, I was acting in the opening sequence. I handled my own costume however, and created the bruised wrist effect with various eyeshadows. I made sure to follow the directions of Phoebe and Leah.

Filming Day 2 (05/02/17:
On this day, I filmed the first half of Joseph's sequence, up until the point that he exits the kitchen with Ella doing the second half. When we arrived on set, I created the mise en scene to look messy and disorganised, putting plates in the sink and most importantly creating a jar of various sharp knives for Joe to select from. Because there wasn't a drawer like we had planned that was suitable for that particular overhead shot, I improvised, instead choosing to have him pick a knife from this jar. I ended up preferring this shot anyway, as I think it is more effective than the original idea as the image of all of the knives sticking out of the jar is much more striking than seeing them in a drawer, although perhaps less subtle. In terms of direction for the actors, I suggested that Joe look as angry as possible, and act quite tense and stiff in his movements to convey our character's emotions without dialogue. With the scene where he looks out of the window, I filmed this from a close up, mid shot and long shot to give myself more freedom when editing this, although I ended up using the close up because it was the most effective. To prevent continuity issues, I placed markers on the floor to ensure that when we refilmed scenes (such as Joe crossing the kitchen) there were no continuity errors. In terms of costume, I directed Joe to wear red on the day, deviating from our original plans because of the connotations of the colour red.  I was very good with my time management as everything ran fairly smoothly and we ended up finishing ahead of schedule. I used mainly natural lighting for filming my sequence as the kitchen featured a large window with no blinds, so it was impossible to try any other kind of lighting. However, because the lighting came from the left side, it allowed for the shadows that I originally intended to include.