Editing of our short film

We have been editing our short film using Adobe Premier Pro. We are very happy with the opening scene, which includes our time lapse shot of the train station, which cross-cuts constantly to shots of Lucas getting ready to go to his job interview. The train station scene is where Lucas has to make the decision, so we have reinforced the 2 choices by the use of split screen; juxtaposing the 2 choices. The parallel narratives which indicate the two separate lives that Lucas could lead were the part of our film which we were having difficulties with when editing. This is because; first of all we had placed a shot of the successful life, followed by a shot of the family orientated life, hence contrasting the lives. However, when we showed it to some people, they could not understand that it was 2 different lives. We then decided upon changing the successful life to black and white, as in that life Lucas is lonely so this duller tone would relate to that and would also help to make the 2 parallel lives clearer. However, when showing it again for feedback, people still failed to understand. Therefore, we decided to show the flash forward of the successful life, return to reality and then have the flash forward of the family life, yet still incorporating the use of black and white. As we had planned to include a fast rewind at the end of the flash forward, we have now chosen to rewind each life separately before Lucas returns to reality. Additionally, as we have now separated the lives, we decided to cut the opening the card scene from the edit, as it would no longer make sense. We also included slow motion in some areas, for example when Grace bumps into someone at the train station, as we felt it is a pivotal part of our short film, as her bumping into someone is what makes Lucas have to make a decision; whether to ignore her or help her – which changes his life – and is the centre of our film. Towards the end of the film, Lucas looks left and right; contemplating the choices, before it cuts to a shot of his foot taking a step. We decided to slow this part down too, as it attracts the attention of the audience, as they will keep watching to see what decision he makes. We tried out various special effects, as we wanted to make the flash-forward’s look like fantasy and not reality. However, we were not happy with the effects, as they created more ghost like effects rather than the effect we were after. Therefore, we decided that a white flash accompanied by appropriate non-diegetic sound will indicate it’s a flash forward and in between the shots during the flash forwards we employed ‘dip to whites’ as the transition, as this too helps to convey fantasy. We did capture a vast amount of footage; much more than we actually needed, especially for the flash forward scenes. However during the editing process, we only used short clips, as we did not want it to be boring for our demograph and we thought how flash forwards are normally just quick snippets, thus not revealing too much detail. During the flash forwards especially in the family life, at first we did incorporate dialogue; when he said “will you marry me” and during the argument scene. We changed the pitch of the diegetic dialogue, so it had a slight echo affect to it, reiterating how it is fantasy and not real. However, after reviewing it, we felt the argument scene was not needed, so cut that from our edit. We then thought only having dialogue for the proposal scene would be strange, so we decided to remove it, as from the shots it is obvious what is happening and we believe it looks more effective with just non-diegetic music and no dialogue.

Voiceovers

We have decided to include a short voiceover from Lucas’ perspective during the beginning part of our film. This will help to set the context and make it clearer to the audience where our protagonist is going. Also, it will make it understandable to our demograph that our film revolves around the fact Lucas is going to have to make a life changing decision.

Our voiceover for the beginning:
“We make many decisions everyday without a second thought; whether to have tea or coffee, what clothes to wear and what to have for dinner, but I never knew that the small decision I would make later this morning, would have such life changing consequences.”

Additionally, after our demograph recently reviewed an edit of our film, we got the impression that they found the flash forwards slightly boring, as although it was accompanied by relevant non-diegetic music, no dialogue is present in those scenes. Therefore, we have decided to include two voiceovers; one to go with the successful life and one for the family life. We believe this is an improvement to our film, as not only does it add more depth but also helps to make the plot slightly clearer for our audience as differentiates the two parallel lives more. Below is what we have scripted for the 2 voiceovers, but we intend to separate certain lines so they are heard in relation to certain on-screen actions. For example: the line “the perfect women” will accompany the shot of Lucas and Grace kissing and the line “nights at home in front of the telly” will accompany the shot of them watching TV together.

Voiceover for the successful life:
"I had the perfect job, the perfect house, the perfect lifestyle. It’s everyones dream to live a successful life like this, but as perfect as it was, I wasn’t happy, I was lonely. Getting on the train that day and getting this job has turned my life around. But money certainly isn’t everything, as what’s a great life when you have no one to share it with?"

Voiceover for the family life:
"I may not have had the perfect job or the perfect house, but I had the perfect woman. I was living the family life everyone dreams of and I couldn’t be happier. It was the little things that I loved the most; from walks on the beach to nights at home in front of the telly. Who would have thought that this woman at the train station would end up being my wife? "

Music for our short film

Regarding non-diegetic music for our short film, we have used Apple’s GarageBand to create the music. First of all we did hope to have a local band or singer do an acoustic version of a song about making decisions hence would relate to the storyline of our film, yet this was proving difficult to organise.

We created 4 different non-diegetic music tracks for our short film. The first piece of music is played during the opening of our film where we cross-cut between the train station time lapse shot and the shots of Lucas getting ready. We believe the music we have created fits well here, as it has the feeling of a new day. The second piece of music accompanies the flash forward of the successful life; here we created a slow piece of piano music in a minor tone. We felt this suited the context of the successful life, as although Lucas has a good career, he is rather lonely and unhappy. In contrast, for the family orientated life, we created a much happier and livelier piece of music, thus reflecting that lifestyle. For the rewinds of both of the flash forwards, we used the same piece of music to keep consistency and this emphasised that what Lucas had just seen was rewinding in his mind. For this we chose quite a fast piece of music that had good momentum, hence reiterating a rewind. We also accompanied the rewinds with the sound of a tape being rewound, as we thought this would help to emphasise what is occurring on screen. The first piece of music is then heard again when we see the footstep, signalling the end of the film and carries on throughout the credits.

We are also using the website www.freesound.org to add further diegetic sounds to our film, for example the sound of waves during the beach scene and bird noises for the scenes outside.

Additional Dialogue Scene

We are currently in the editing process of our short film. We had expected the train station scene to be longer as we had recorded some dialogue between Lucas and Grace which took place on the platform during this scene. However, as we are now using split screen to juxtapose the 2 parallel lives, we have had to cut this dialogue from our film. Instead, we have planned to include a short scene outside the train station where Lucas will have a quick chat to his old friend. Hopefully this will help to make our film more understandable to our demograph, as when scripting this dialogue we tried to make subtle references to a successful career life and a family life, hence implying the parallel lives incorporated in our short film.

Below is the script for this extra scene:

OUTSIDE THE TRAIN STATION – LUCAS RUNS INTO HIS OLD FRIEND.

FRIEND: You alright mate, ain’t seen you in a while, how’s things since the redundancy?  

LUCAS: Yeah not too bad thanks, I’m actually on the way to a job interview now, how’s things been with you?

F: well I’m still looking, haven’t found the right job yet but you know it’s been nice having some time off with the missus and kids.

L: Yeah I’m sure something will come up and I bet your kids have loved having you around, I guess I’m lucky I’ve only got to look after me.

F: Oh I bet it won’t be long till you have your own family, once you’ve met the right girl that is.

L: Yeah I hope so. 

F: Anyway, take care mate, don’t want you to miss your interview.

L: Yeah thanks, mate, cya soon, hope it all works out.

Successful Life Filming

We filmed some scenes for Lucas’ successful life and after reviewing our footage, we are pleased with what we captured. We used one of our friend’s houses to film and we got interior and exterior shots of Lucas in his mansion. We hope to create the impression that although Lucas is very wealthy due to his successful career, he is always alone and these material objects do not bring him happiness.

We captured shots of Lucas alone inside and outside of his mansion and watching TV on his own. We also managed to film the opening the letter scene for this narrative for our film.

As we have edited all of the family orientated life scenes, we will now edit these successful life shots and will position them within our edit so the narratives alternate. Our film should now start to look more coherent.

Filming plans

We are filming the time lapse shot for our short film on Friday morning from 8:30-9:30. When filming the other scenes situated at the train station, we discovered that it is very difficult to film on the bridge separating the train station platforms, especially when we are filming at rush hour times. Therefore, we are fortunate that from the dual carriageway we are able to view the train station, so we are hoping to capture our time lapse shot on the footpath where the red arrow is.

Changes to our train station scene

As we have filmed our train station scene twice already and we have had a lot of difficulties filming this scene, we have made some changes to the storyline of our short film. When reviewing our train station footage which we have captured already for our short film, we all agreed that it does not look very realistic when Grace falls over on the train platform and drops her papers. Therefore, to overcome this, we have decided to include another character who will walk by, bump into Grace thus provoking her to drop her papers and then he will walk off and leave her there, prompting Lucas to come in and help her. We believe this will be more effective, more believable and hopefully should be easier to film. Furthermore, when we first filmed this section the train station was very quiet, so when we re-shot we decided to film it during peak time, yet that proved to be just as difficult. So, we are currently discussing when re-shooting, that we film at an off peak time again, or further down the platform where it is quieter, so there will be less people getting in the way.

Props for the next stage of filming

We have planned to film the proposal scene and one of the opening the letter scenes on Friday morning. Both of these scenes involve props, which are pictured below.

For the proposal scene we have made the “Will You Marry Me T-Shirt”. Lucas will wear this t-shirt when he proposes to Grace whilst they are having a picnic. We wanted him to propose in an unusual way, making it interesting for our demograph and will also have a slight comedy aspect too.

Our "Will you marry me?" t-shirt for the proposal scene

The opening the letter scenes are where Lucas opens two cards simultaneously in both lives; one congratulates him on the good news of Grace being pregnant, and in the other he is congratulated for receiving a job promotion. On Friday we are filming the one with Grace and Lucas. Once we have filmed the other one, we plan to edit them with a split screen, reinforcing the differences between the 2 different lives: one is all about success, whereas the other life revolves about family.

The inside of card which Lucas and Grace will open in the family orientated life.

The inside of the card which Lucas will open in the successful career life.

Analysis of second time filming the train station scene

We did some filming at the train station as planned on Friday, however we still did not manage to capture all the shots that we wanted. As the train station was very busy between 7:30 and 8:30am due to it being rush hour, they did not want us to film then due to health and safety reasons. Nevertheless, we were allowed to film a bit later on in the morning and as we had planned our shots much more carefully this time, we managed to capture some successful footage. Also, as we filmed at 9am, the train station was much busier this time than last time; hence there were more people about on the train station platform, helping to create verisimilitude. However, although we did manage to capture some footage we still did not capture all of it, and are going to have to re visit the train station another time to film the rest of that scene. The ghost shot in particular (where Lucas walks towards the train door and Grace, reflecting how he has two options to choose from) is one which we need to capture, and we couldn’t film it on Friday due to the fact there were too many people on the train platform. Furthermore, due to not being able to film at 7:30am, we were unable to film our time lapse shot, so we will have to capture that another time too.

The train station scene has been the only one so far where we have encountered difficulties, probably owing to the fact that the setting is a very public place and there are health and safety risks to consider too. We have not reviewed our footage which we captured on Friday yet, but hopefully it will be of good quality and we will have a large selection of shots to choose from when we come to editing.

Re-shoot of Train Station Scene

We are planning to re-shoot our train station scene tomorrow morning. Last time we felt we were not fully prepared, so this time we have planned things much more efficiently and hopefully everything will go to plan. We have also organised to take more than one camera with us, as the trains do not arrive very often and when they do, we have to film in as few takes as possible. For instance; with the scene of Lucas walking onto the train, we need to effectively have that perfect by the first take, due to the factor that other people will be boarding the train at the same time too, which creates verisimilitude. However, if we have to capture that shot in more than one take, then we will not have the other people boarding the train, therefore it will not look as real and effective. Last time we felt the train platform was not very busy, due to the fact we were filming off peak and it was a Sunday, however tomorrow we are planning to film from 8:30am to 11pm, which will hopefully be a better time. Furthermore, the fact we are taking more than one camera means we will be able to film from more than one angle simultaneously, of course making sure that the other cameras are not in shot. Additionally, we are planning to start our film off with a time lapse looking down on the train station, which we have scheduled to film from 7:30am to 8:30am, steadily for an hour. Hopefully the time which we have allowed to record this will provide us with sufficient footage for the time lapse to work effectively.

Analysis of Indoor Scenes footage

We managed to capture footage for our short film yesterday evening. Everything went to plan and we filmed a couple of scenes for the family orientated life of our film, including: the romantic meal scene, the sofa scene and the argument scene. We captured much more footage than needed as recorded 30 minutes even though we have only planned for these to be short scenes. Nevertheless, we are happy that we have a lot to work with, so we will have a will big selection to choose from when we start editing. Furthermore, we recorded our scenes from a variety of angles, so when we edit it together we will have a range of shots, making it interesting for our demograph. Also, before capturing our footage we scripted some dialogue before hand, yet after reviewing our footage back, we are contemplating whether to include the diegetic sound of the dialogue. Instead we think just having a montage of shots, accompanied by relevant non-diegetic music will be more effective, especially as pictures can sometimes have more impact than words. Nonetheless we will make a final decision about this matter when we edit this section of our short film.

Filming of Indoor Scenes

We are planning to film the indoor scenes for the family orientated life of our short film tomorrow night. We hope to capture footage for the romantic meal scene, the sofa scene and the argument scene. We recently decided to incorporate an argument scene within our film because, as we were showing the negative sides of the successful life with Lucas stressed out at work and being alone, we felt it would be fair to connote the negative aspects of being in a relationship too.

All of these scenes are set inside and are being filmed at one of our houses so we have planned to film them all at the same time as it will be most convenient. We should not encounter any problems as we have planned out the shots we intend to capture and as we are filming inside the weather will not be a problem.

Analysis of weekend filming

We filmed part of our short film on Sunday, however we did not do as much as we had intended to. We filmed as planned up into 2pm; capturing footage for the train station scene, beach scene and dog walk scene, yet we did not film any of the other scenes due to members of our production team having other important commitments. Nevertheless, the weather was great so we managed to capture all the outdoor shots successfully. We knew our train station scene would be difficult, mainly for the fact it is our longest scene so includes a variety of shots, and is being filmed in a very public place. A couple of problems occurred at the train station, and therefore have decided that we may need to reshoot certain aspects at a later date. Our first problem was we had members of the public waving at our camera, which was enormously irritating, especially as it happened during the scene of Lucas getting onto the train. That scene was very difficult to film already due to the fact the trains did not come very often and we had to film quickly when they did come as we were worried about our actors getting trapped on the train. Another problem that arose was when planning this scene beforehand, we had developed the idea of a Lucas walking through a busy platform, however when we filmed, there was no one else on the train platform, so it destroyed the idea we had imagined before.  A further problem was when reviewing our footage, we noticed how the noise of the train overpowered our dialogue, therefore we are going to have dub our sound later.

Plans for filming this weekend

We are planning to film a large section of our short film this weekend. The table below indicates our schedule. We have checked the weather and for Sunday it is expected to be sunny, therefore that is why we have planned to get all our outdoor scenes done first. We have allocated the largest amount of time for the train station scene because that is the main part of our film and therefore will take the longest to film, especially as is a location where we may come across the most problems. Moreover, all of the footage we are planning to capture on Sunday are all scenes which portray the family orientated life. We are going to make sure we capture more footage then needed, so that way when we come to edit our film we will have a large selection to choose from.

Time	Scene	Characters Needed
8am – 12pm	Train station scene	Lucas and Grace
12pm- 1pm	Beach Scene	Lucas and Grace
1pm – 2pm	Dog walk scene	Lucas and Grace
2pm – 3pm	Romantic meal scene	Lucas and Grace
3pm – 4pm	Sofa scene	Lucas and Grace
4pm – 5pm	Argument scene	Lucas and Grace
5pm – 6pm	Opening the letter	Lucas and Grace
6pm – 7pm	Pub scene	Lucas and Grace

Re-cast of main protagonist

Due to our previous main actor being unreliable, we have had to re-cast. Nevertheless, we managed to find someone quickly which was good as we were already behind schedule. Our main character Lucas, is now being played by Sam Keep. We decided to use him because he is best friends with our other actor who is playing the role of Grace, therefore, they will have good on screen chemistry, thus helping to create verisimilitude.

Our new actor in the role of Lucas in the successful life

Our new actor in role of Lucas in the family orientated life.

Both of our actors.

Complications in Filming

We were scheduled to have finished capturing all of the footage for our short film over the Christmas holidays; however our main actor was unreliable and was unable to film on the arranged dates. Therefore, we have now decided to find another actor who will be suitable for the part and committed to our filming schedule as well.

We therefore need to reshoot all the previous scenes we had already captured as well as film the rest of our short film. Although this has set us behind schedule, we have everything planned out and hope to have the footage for our film all captured by the beginning of February 2011.

Dog Walk Scene Problems - Vlog

Filming Schedules and Long Term Plan

Below is our filming schedule for our short film and our long term plan for getting our film produced.

SCENE	DATE	TIME	ACTORS NEEDED
Dog Walk	Fri 3rd Dec	9-10 (period 1 and 2)	Jack & Aimee
Work/Office	Wed 8th Dec	Period 1 and 2	Jack
Mansion	Thurs 9th Dec	To be decided	Jack
Proposal	Mon 15th Dec	Period 1 and 2	Jack & Aimee
Normal House	Wed 15th Dec	Period 1 and 2	Jack & Aimee
Train Station	Mon 27th Dec	10am onwards	Jack & Aimee

Stage in production	Date to be completed by
Filming	27th Dec
Editing	24th Jan
Auxiliary tasks	18th Feb
Evaluation activities	18th March

Weather for Dog Walking Scene

We are planning to film a dog walking scene for our short film this Friday 3rd December. At the moment it looks like there will be good weather, which is good.

Analysis of Meal Scene Footage - Vlog