Editing Session 4

Today in our media lesson we moved onto the next editing session where we finished organising shots into place and we started to cut some camera shots down to remove the excess footage.

I noticed when ordering the shots that colour and lighting seemed to be an issue which lead us to tackle this problem in the session, we begun to colour match specific shots especially shots which had continuity as colour differences may look very unprofessional. Another part of the trailer we concentrated on was when Maddie is stepping into the bath, as the lighting was very different therefore I changed the colour by colour matching the shot of Maddie getting into the bath with the shot of Maddie sitting in the bath. This helped create a more realistic feel and will make it more believable for the audience. Below is the two shots of the bath scene:

Other shots I altered was the shot of Laurens face appearing from behind the banister. I used the transform tool in Final Cut Pro as this shot had been filmed with an iPhone in portrait view which meant their were black areas on either side of the camera shot, so I filled the entire display so that the shot was the same size as the others so it is consistent throughout. Also I changed the exposure and saturation levels to make the shot look clearer but still scary.

Editing Session 3

Today in our media lesson we carried on with the editing process for our trailer which was continuing with the work we were completing in the past editing sessions which was dropping the correct shots into place onto the time line. However in today's lesson we noticed that some more shots were missing again therefore we looked on Kayleighs iPad and iPhone for the specific shots which were missing and then directly imported them onto the iMacs which we then used.

In todays editing session we decided to begin cutting some shots down as in previous sessions we had just been placing and arranging the shots so excess footage was left alone. I used the blade tool to cut some of the shots down which meant us watching the shot and then I determined which section on the footage should be cut. Also some shots had background noise which was a problem however I detached the audio from the actual shot and then deleted the audio so when we watched the shots back the audio was no longer a problem.

One part of the film trailer where we changed was the bath scene because Amber suggested including the shot of the windows where the artificial lighting flickered and placing it between the shot Amy in the bath, so therefore we bladed the camera shot so we would then have two seperate camera shots and then placed the flickering light footage between the two however it was difficult to refine the bath footage to when Maddie's eye looked up as we wanted the character to look up at the window to make it look more effective and realistic.

Another problem we encountered was when we replayed the entire sequence we noticed that some shots didn't seem like they were in the correct place, for example one shot of Maddie and Elliot shouting was immediately followed by a shot of Elliot whispering which looked out of place therefore we discussed a solution to the problem between the group and decided to move the whisphering shot further along in the trailer which actually worked more efficiently as it helps build up tension and suspense.

Editing Session 2

In today's lesson we continued with arranging the camera shots in Final Cut but also near the end of the session we decided to cut some shots down however the camera shots we cut had too much excess footage but we didnt refine too much as we planned on doing this in the next session.

Kayleigh also showed us the American Horror Story opening which featured eerie and sinister non-diegetic sound and the shots had effects which have been applied to make the different camera shots look like the old traditional camera film rolls. After cutting the shots down we discussed different options that we could do which involved us all saying our suggestions. One suggestion we talked about was the different transitions that we could use for the film trailer was fading into different shots which we think should be before the action begins because a convention of a film trailer is that where there is action which is where the disruption and realisation of the equilbrium the transitions are normally just cuts where is shot cuts into the next so it is more fast paced and this will help the suspense build up.

Editing Session 1

Today we begun the editing process for our trailer which was in lesson time. First of all we uploaded the content we filmed onto the iMacs from Kayleigh's iPhone and iPad which we used for filming. I imported the files onto the desktop into a new folder then opened Final Cut Pro which is the editing software we are using. When the footage was successfully imported onto Final Cut Pro we then begun to edit. I positioned the different camera shots in order on the time line and used the blade tool to cut some of the shots. Amber and Kayleigh also used the blade tool and cut down some of the other shots to remove the excess footage that is not needed. However in future editing sessions we will go back and refine the cutting of shots so the continuity is perfectly in sync.

A problem myself, Amber and Kayleigh were worried about was the quality of the footage because on the iPad and iPhone the quality of the footage looked very clear however when we uploaded some footage onto YouTube the quality of the video was dramatically worse so therefore we were worried that the footage would loose its clarity on the iMacs, but this wasn't the case, because last year we had to re-film some parts because the camera we filmed with didn't produce a high enough quality of film. 

In the next editing session we intend to continue with the work we did in this editing session which is placing the footage in the right order onto the time line in Final Cut Pro.

Our Chosen Distributor

From researching different distribution companies, I came across several companies which I could use for the film. After discussing with Amber and Kayleigh we believe that Lionsgate Entertainment is the best option to choose from. We chose this distribution company based on that it is a popular film distrubtor because the company has been involved in many worldwide famous films including The Hunger Games trilogy and also that the company has been a part of many horror films these include The Hostel, Saw, You're Next, American Psycho and The Vatican Tapes. Lastly this company has been a part of films which is mainly based at our target audience therefore we thought it would be best to chose this company.

Distribution Companies

I decided to do some research into various institutions for the film trailer as a convention of film trailers is that it often shows the distributor of the film so therefore we want to follow this convention and pick a distributor to use for our film and this research will help us come to a decision as this company will feature in not only the film trailer but also the film poster and the film magazine.

Lionsgate Entertainment
Lionsgate Entertainment is a public corporation and was founded by Frank Giustra. This institution is based in Santa Monica and this is where their headquarters is situated however the company first formed in Vancouver, Canada on July 3rd 1997 and has grown into a worldwide known corporation. The company has been involved in popular films like The Hunger Games Trilogy, Kick-Ass and the Saw series. The company is both a film and television distribution company and has a significant involvement in many horror genre films which make it appropriate to our film.

Lionsgate Entertainment has been involved in several horror films including:

- Saw
- Hostel
- The Vatican Tapes
- American Psycho

Universal Studios
Universal Studios is part of the big six film studios and its parent company is NBC Universal. The company is based in Universal City, California and was formed in 1912 which makes the company over 100 years old. The company owns many subsidiaries including Focus Features, Illumination Entertainment, Working Title Films and Universal Animation Studios. The company has been very successful in the film industry and has 7 films which have achieved box office records these include Jaws (1975), E.T (1982), Jurassic Park (1993), Despicable Me 2 (2013), Furious 7 (2015), Jurassic World (2015) and Minions (2015).

Universal Studios has been involved in several horror films including:

- The Mummy
- Purge: Anarchy
- Mama
- Ouija

Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures was founded by W.W Hodkinson, Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky. The company is based in Hollywood, California and this is where their headquarters is situated. The company was formed in 1912 and is a subsidiary of the Viacom Corporation and also it is one of the big six film studios. The institution works as a film studio, television production company and motion picture distributor which makes it a well-known company within the film industry. The company has also worked in synergy with Disney to produce and distrubute major films like The Avengers and Iron Man but the company can also work within its own organisation to produce and distribute successful films. Paramount has grown its popularity and reputation as it has been involved in many successful films like the Mission Impossible series, Transformers, Star Trek, Titanic and Iron Man.

Paramount Pictures has been involved in several horror films including:

- Friday the 13th
- The Devil Inside
- Psycho
- My Bloody Valentine

20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox was founded by Joseph M. Schenck and Darryl F. Zanuck. The institution was formed on May 31st 1935 which makes the company over 80 years old. Also the parent company is Fox Entertainment Group which makes this institution part of the News Corporation which is one of the big media companies within the USA and owned by Rupert Murdoch. The company is based in Los Angeles, California and owns many subsidaires including Blue Sky Studios, TSG Entertainment and Fox Television Studios. This film company has grown signifantly over the ast few decades as its films have become more and more successful worldwide for example Avatar which is one of the highest grossing films of all time.

20th Century Fox has been involved in several horror films including:

- Alien
- Prometheus
- What Lies Beneath
- The Omen

Photoshoot Review

From looking back at the photo's I uploaded onto the computer from my iPhone, I realized that the quality of the photo's weren't as clear as I wanted. I discussed this with the other group members of Facebook and they agreed that we may have to re-take these photo's because of the quality of the photo's we took after filming. Also because the time we had after filming was very limited we didn't get chance to take a large variety of photo's for the ancillary tasks.

After this decision of re-taking the photographs I then decided I wasn't going to use the iPhone 5 camera and instead use a more powerful camera, preferably a DSLR or bridge camera as this takes clearer pictures which look more professional. From this I will make notes on extra photo shoot ideas which I could take pictures of  as well as re-taking the original pictures. I will mostly need the cult members and the main character, Maddie for this photo shoot and not use the main antagonist as I want to keep the main villains identity hidden to create interest for the audience.

Photoshoot

Today after we finished our filming I took some photographs for my ancillary tasks. I wanted to have pictures which didn't tell the audience too much about the film, because I want to grab the audiences attention and make them think about the image which shows mystery and relates to the psychological horror genre.

This shot of Maddie at the top of the stairs suggests many things to the audience, for example the low angle shot makes this character look powerful which means that final girl theory has been applied meaning she is smart enough to survive the horror she has been through and that she can overcome the antagonist. Also the body language she is showing suggests that a stereotypical female character is used where the female character crys and shows herself as weak.

The shots of the mask gives our film trailer an iconic symbol to make our film more unique and stand out from the rest of psychological films. I decided to take a picture of the mask using a close up shot as it will suggest mystery to the audience therefore make them more interested in the the film. Some examples of films that have iconic symbols is Scream and Annabelle.

I did the same shot of the mask however I used a red light instead of a normal light to show a more shocking image because the colour red symbolizes danger and blood which relates to a horror genre film.

Filming Schedule

Our group have continued to speak to each other through text messaging and we have decided on our next filming days. We made the initial decision in lesson time and we asked the rest of the actors who we want to be part of the cult to double check if that the time we had arranged was suitable.

Dates/Times
Wednesday 4th November: 3:30 p.m - 6:00 p.m