Final Editing Completed.

During our media lesson today we have finally finished the editing of our thriller project. This took time as our transitions and clips needed to be reviewed for improvement. We did, however, encounter some problems as some of the clips were too short to be able to add a transition effect to it. We did find a way to overcome this though - we re-uploaded some of the shots we filmed from the camcorder to replace the clips that weren't able to add transitions. This worked because these clips were longer and were able to adjust to the transition.

We also added the title screens and the credits to the beginning and end of the sequence. This included all of our names and our candidate numbers beside it. At the end we had 'R3V3NG3' spread across the screen.

The penultimate task that is left to do now is to add the soundtrack. Although there are still problems with this as mobygratis has not returned our pending request for a track from their website. However, alternatives have been discussed if we still cannot get the track. This is that we will use GarageBand to create our own original one from scratch. This will take up more of our extra time but hopefully it will be worth it.

The final task is to complete the blog and the evaluation of our project. This can only be done once the thriller has been completed.

Mobygratis

There still has been no reply from the mobygratis website in response to our request for one of the songs to use for our media project. Unfortunately this means that if we still have no reply within the next couple of days, then we will have to find alternative soundtracks to our thriller.

One alternative that we most probably will follow through with will be to create our own soundtrack from scratch on GarageBand on the computer. This will not be too bad as we have already had experience with the equipment. We also used it for our preliminary exercise.

Editing - First Cut.

Now we have finished filming our media project, the next step was to edit it.
The first thing we done was to upload and save the individual scenes onto the iMac
computer onto the old version of iMovie ready to prepare for editing.
The second thing which we had to do was to complete a title screen. This included the school's name, the course and our names along with our candidate numbers. We had to put this in first because otherwise, if it was put it last, then it would completely throw the non-diagetic soundtrack out of sync alongside the clips.

The next step was to figure out which order each scene was going to be placed in. After this was decided, we then started individually placing the shots on the 'timeline'. As we ordered each one, we cut down the scenes to the duration of time which we wanted them to last for. We had to keep an eye on the total duration, as the completed task should be no longer than 2 minutes overall. We had to make sure that the following sequence did not look completely out of place with the previous one. The scenes have to flow smoothly.
This is also where the transitions come into consideration. The transitions have to be subtle, so that it is not completely obvious - the eye must just be able to easily watch it without unrealistic disruptions.

Also, the past scenes have been edited to be in black and white to show that they are events that have already happened, and the girl in the clip is looking back on it as a memory.

After a while, our first cut has been completed. No sound has yet been added, but it has been requested from www.mobygratis.com , we are just waiting for approval. This first completion has just been a first attempt - now that we know exactly what we are doing, it should not take too long to make improvements developing on the plan of the first cut.

So far, no complications have been found.

Next step is to improve and complete the final thriller coursework piece.

Filming.

Throughout the two weeks of our Easter holidays, we have used our time productively by filming our thriller project.

Using the location shown in the previous blog, Tara, Grace and myself managed to complete the filming part of our coursework. We also used a park, again, near my house; which is where our 'past, happy scenes' were set.
However, we did come across some minor problems with our set, as the church location did not fully accomodate what we needed to be able to fulfill our plans. The idea was to have the murderer sitting on the bench in front of the church, whilst later having the dead girl/victim appear standing behind the bench and murderer. This was a problem because the bench was secured just millimetres in front of a big bush, so there was no way that we could film the situation as we had planned, so we just had to adjust the positioning slightly. We feel it still has the same effect though.

After much more thought into the final product, we realised that, for the sequences to make as much sense to the audience as it did for us; we needed to add in extra shots which hint at the murderer killing the innocent girl - but not actually showing it fully of course.

With this filming now complete, all that is now left to do is to edit the final scenes and then add sounds (diegetic and non-diegetic) on top. This will take place once we return back to school on monday.


Actors :-

(We had to change our previously cast dead girl Stacey Reading as she wasn't able to film when we had planned to).

Murderer = Grace Heather

Dead Girl/Victim = Paris Jones

Friend 1 = Tara Hussein

Friend 2 = Grace Cridland



Directed and Edited by Jessica Tilley

Location Shots

Today we have done a couple of location shots of where the setting of the scenes are going to take place. Following the examples of Alfred Hitchcock, we have decided to do a shot zooming in on the upstairs window; from outside in the garden. This is important because this is the room where the dead girl is going to be laying on the floor. From here, there is a shot looking out of this room/window, slowly zooming in on the church tower - where the killer is going to be mourning the murder they have commited.
We have taken more takes than necessary just incase we decide to use them/change them during our editing stages.

Locations

Here are some of the pictures which I have taken of our chosen location.
This is a church near where I live in Collier Row. With a church in the back of the shot/setting, we thought it would be a good idea as the shots focus around a killer mourning/grieving/regretful of the death of their victim.

This is a side view of the church we are going to use.

Here is the front of the church, which we mainly plan to use. The scenes are mainly going to focus around the killer grieving on this bench below (with the church in sight).

Here is part of the sign found by the church. I took a picture of this because I thought that it would be good to include as part of the background of one of our shots. It is quite relevant to our thriller as it has the lines 'Is there more to life than this?' which is quite ironic to our storyline.

Here is a distanced image of the setting, to get a full view of the church and area.

Here is another image focusing on the main part (bench), which our thriller is set around. It is quite effective that the bench is overgrown with moss as this could be interpretted that time has passed since the murder.

This church is not the only setting that we plan to use for our thriller. We also intend to use a park for a scene that will be part of a past memory.

Practice.

One of the main problems we are facing for our filming is that it would have to take place outside of lesson times, because our main location is slightly too far from school to be able to get back and forth in time. So during lesson, as all other planning tasks have been completed, we have decided to make good use of our time by practicing filming certain shots; which we know will be rather challenging for us.