Film Trailer: Production Days 5, 6+7

Here's the finished vlog of the filming we did to fill the gaps in our trailer. We went around London to get some good scenery shots for our mise en scene.

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Film Trailer: Background Noise

Some of our clips, because we didn't have proper microphones to use, had a lot of background noise and wind to get rid of. For this, we used Adobe Audition.
It was much more simple than I'd expected it to be to remove the background noise in our files. First we selected the noise we wanted reduced, and then captured the sound print so that the program could find similar sound waves to remove. The area then goes silent.

Film Trailer: Set Pictures Days 5, 6+7

We're halfway through editing our trailer and, as we'd expected, have discovered some missing clips. We wanted to refilm the scene we rushed on the balcony on day three, because that was very rushed, and we also needed to film some more running shots from the same day. Although we got lots, they're still not filling up enough of the trailer.
In addition to this, we needed some more footage of our antagonist to show his importance in the trailer.
For these, we got the tube to Waterloo and did a lot of filming around Southbank and St. Paul's. This also assisted in our London setting mise en scene.

   

Film Trailer: Soundtrack Creation

We found, when we put our soundtracks in, that we had quite a big gap in the beginning of our trailer. We couldn't find a suitable 'low strings' soundtrack to build up the tension, so, instead, I decided to use GarageBand to create one of my own. It took a very long time, mostly because the Macs we had wouldn't let us update to the newest version, so I didn't have the right instruments. In the end we only used a few seconds of the clip, but it definitely made a difference to our trailer.

Film Trailer: Soundtrack Decided!

We've started the editing phase properly - meaning we now have an introduction sequence and some of the middle that's been decided. Up until now we couldn't really work out appropriate timings for the trailer because we didn't have any music to work around, but Daniel has found some great tracks. This Mechanolith track is being put over the build-up and plot of our trailer - it has just the right bounce and suspense to make it exactly what we need. This untitled track will be used for the action part of our trailer, as it has enough melody and drive to, when the volume is lifted slightly, carry the fast-paced running shots we'll have at the climax. Finally, we're planning on using Dense Macabre - Low Strings Finale from incompetech.com for the final stages of the trailer, probably timed with some titles and the film's name.
Now that we've got the footage and the soundtracks, we can finally get things put together properly. I'm really pleased with the music we've got and I'm definitely glad we waited.

Film Trailer: Filming Showcase

We put together a few select clips from our filming  and showed them to our class in a sort of 'showcase' afternoon. We thought this would be a good way of getting feedback from an audience our own age, and we got some useful comments. Here's what we showed our class:

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We got some quite nice comments, and a couple of useful ideas to keep in mind when we edit - and, no doubt, when we go back out and film some missing scenes.
Here are some of the comments we received:

"You had a good variety of shots from different angles."

"I like the way you had the same shot from different angles."

"Your cutaways are a nice addition."

"The bed scene was a bit too dark. It was hard to establish what was going on because we couldn't see."

We were also told that we could improve our mise-en-scene and establish our genre better by adding a police badge to the sequence somewhere. This would mean that people could more easily see that our main character is a police officer.
These comments were really useful, because now we know exactly what our missing pieces are. Hopefully, if we continue to take on the feedback we get, we'll end up with a very professional final product.

Film Trailer: Production Company Logo

Well, here's a nice surprise. I'm not as technically savvy as some, and Daniel has gone ahead and made us a short sequence for the beginning of our trailer. It reveals our 'Elite4' production company logo.

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Daniel also shared with us a step-by-step so we knew exactly how he'd made the logo.
1. The first step was composing the logo. He did this outside of Adobe After Effects. Then, in the program, he started on the background. Instead of having it plain white, he decided to give it some more detail and atmosphere and create a cloudy background with some flying metal sparks.

2. The next step was creating a metallic effect for the "Elite4". Because he knew we wanted it to burn out, he gave it an orange tint for the fire to transition into. We can then see the animation keyframes being added.

3. Finally, the fire effect was added. The final render was estimated to take 20 hours.

Film Trailer: Production Days 3+4

And here we have it, a video of the final two days of filming. The only reason it didn't take more days than four was because we managed to squeeze way too many locations into day four, and it was tiring, but I'm so glad we're finished.
This time we run all over East London to various alleys and houses to film the last of our scenes. Video not working? Click here to watch online.

Film Trailer: Set Pictures Day 4

Day 4 was a very busy day for the whole team. We covered four scenes in one afternoon, travelling all over the area to cover scenes in the street, scenes in two different houses, and scenes in an alleyway. This day marked our last day of filming for now - I have no doubt that we'll have to go back and get some more done while we edit.

Here's the picture we took to edit for the alley scene:

We made it back and white and put it in a brown envelope to make it look like an image from a CCTV camera of a notable criminal:

Film Trailer: Set Pictures Day 3

Our third day of filming was possibly our easiest so far. We didn't have to put together any specific sets and we didn't have to take a train anywhere - we just took to the streets and filmed lots and lots of running, and then found a balcony in school and filmed a single line there. There aren't many pictures of these settings because, really, they'd all have looked the same, but here are a few we did get.

Film Trailer: Production Days 1+2

Finally, the first edited vlog of our first two days of production. I think doing the vlog has definitely helped me with my editing skills in Adobe Premiere Pro - it took a while to figure out, but, well, I can only improve from here.
In this video, we hijack an empty room at school and turn it into an office, and take a field trip to New Scotland Yard.

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Film Trailer: Set Pictures Days 1+2

We're really pleased with how the filming turned out! We shot some vlogs while we were out and about, but until that video is ready and edited, I've collected some photos of the sets and trips we took.

And, to top it all off:

Film Magazine Cover: Photography Reshoot

This is the second shoot I did for my magazine cover. I did both shoots in the classroom with the plain white sheet backdrop so that the attention would stay on the star of my cover: Daniel Augustine. I wanted to portray him not as the character he is in his film but the actor in real life, and I wanted to put a feminine twist on my cover, and the photos I took previously were, frankly, sloppy. They can be found here.
This was the second shoot I did, just a week or two ago, and these photos came out much better, in my opinion, but some of them still weren't right and here's a selection.

 I felt like this picture was too close. I was aiming to use this Empire cover as inspiration, and I didn't think I'd have any space for sell lines if I went with this picture, so I decided to try a bit further out.

 But this picture, too, was wrong. I tried to line it up so that I'd be able to have some sell lines down the right side of the cover but he just looked off-centre and it looked wrong. Scrapping the close-up idea, I stepped even further back.

This picture is the closest I got to the final one that I used. There was plenty of space for the style I wanted and the model had the right sort of vibe about him in his pose, but the hand at the bottom was cut off and the photo just needed to be a bit better in the way it was aligned.

Film Magazine Cover: Proposed Cover

Finally, an almost finished version of my film magazine cover! I'll see if my teacher has anything to say about it after Christmas, and if not... well, then. Onwards!

Film Magazine Cover: Construction

Here's a guide as to how I created my magazine cover.


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Film Magazine Cover: Masthead Construction

It took me a long time to design the masthead for my magazine, mostly because I went in there with absolutely no idea of what I wanted other than the Milford Black font and the colour red. I opened my masthead in Photoshop in the hopes that inspiration would come, and some did. I made the masthead a dark red, because I was taking inspiration from the famous Empire masthead but not copying (and I, personally, preferred the darker red anyway). After this I made it a bit bigger - and ended up sharpening the edges a little, too - and then used the 'burn' and 'dodge' tools to create light and dark sides and blur them into shading. This gave my font the subtle implication of being 3D bubble writing.

Playing Judas: Proposed Film Poster

Here is my final film poster for my group's police/crime thriller film, Playing Judas.