Audience Feedback

We plan on getting audience feedback With this final clip we have compiled:

Fatal Motive, Final from Sam SheepDawg-OEight on Vimeo.

As mentioned in the Editing post, We had to go back and re-edit the titles as we didn't quality check the spelling, This has been a quick fix and we are now ready to present.

EDIT: We showed the film to our media class and we filmed it:

SMAX Feedback Group from Sam SheepDawg-OEight on Vimeo.

We decided to put Max in charge of audience feedback and he gathered questions. We received feedback on our film being a neo noir based on reverse tracking and the music, which we understood. We also recieved feedback on audio levels being loud in places, but that was due to the volume of the piece when shown and in the context of the situation. The pen dropping is actually in the same soundclip and at the same volume as the voice so we decided to keep it.

We also had to answer questions based on thoughts that people believed were unintentional (such as the crackling voice clip), but when they were told why we made that decision, they agreed that it made sense.

We received positive feedback about the direction Max had given Jon (the antihero) regarding his movement, which was conventional, which we didn't really think of at the time but we are glad it came out the way it did.

A comment was made that it felt like a TV film, which is what we went for and we are glad it stood out as that sort of film. We also received feedback that the voice over helped to understand the story and characters, and since this was a late addition, we were pleased that it was a necessary addition.

We asked about tension and we found that they liked the build up of music and the slow motion, as they added to the suspense of the piece. They also said that we didn't give too much away, which was our intention from the beginning and we are happy that they want to know more than they do from watching the film.

When we asked about the titles, we were told that the font wasn't conventional and some of the titles could be shortened down. We agreed with this to an extent but typical noir films had more of the roles and credits at the start, and they understood the placement. We also received feedback that the main film title was unclear and it was really quick. We will remedy this immediately

We received an interesting comment about the fact that it felt like a trailer at the start, but then you understood that it was an opening title sequence once the other scene started playing.

We hope to play this to other groups and hand out questionnaires, to gain extra feedback and to see if the target audiences needs were met.

Music Problems

The music for the end sequence does not work in it's current state, this is due to the change of pace since our storyboarding changes. Before the change, we had a montage of pictures as the last scene, now we have an extended scene of the police role as we thought the montage was unnecessary and this is a better way of introducing the character.

This means that the fast paced, heavy music no longer works and I will have to revert to the earlier stage of the music to make it work but this means the conventions are kept truer to original film noir.

I am going back to the original idea as it is less intense feel and I believe it will fit a lot better. Here is the metal track:



And this is the original which I will be looking to re record:



EDIT: I have re-recorded a better version of the Jazz music as well as an extended version of the first piece which was changed to fit the length of the film better. This has been edited into the film.

Video editing

Over the past week or so, I have been up in the mac suite with Max and we have been editing the clips that we filmed last week together.I started by inputting all the clips we needed into the timeline, adding occasional effects such as transitions to test if they work. We then focused on making sure each clip lasted the correct amount of time and that the pace kept up with what we wanted. Here, Max overlooked my editing and ensured each clip lasted the right amount of time.

We then went about getting the right look from the clips. I went and changed the exposure and brightness of the clips, once again with Max looking over and making sure that the clip looked right. Once we had done this for one clip, we applied it to entire scenes. We monitored this for each individual scenes.

I then edited all the transitions together, which took a while to make sure that they lasted the correct amount of time. We played around with certain transitions to different sequences but the white flash fitted the best. Once we did this, it was up to Max to edit the titles together and then I exported it and edited it soundwise at home.

Audio Editing

 The audio editing was done partially on the Mac mini software iMovie 2013, but this was due to the footage containing dialogue and foleying that I wanted to sort out. The telephone ringing was a built in effect to the iMovie file defaults and this is why I edited it on there.

 I also tried the music editing there but this was a far too complicated mechanism for me to use. I am used to a separate channel under the timeline but this system was messing around with orders of footage and I had to reverse to a previous save before I started the audio editing. This meant I had to export the footage with some sound effects and dialogue and add everything else at home.

I was rather surprised with how quickly I finished the video once I took it home. I recorded reactions from the telephone and added distortion and echo, which made it sound like it was coming out the other end of the receiver. I added the gunshots that I had made using techniques from the video on foleying, edited the voice over and sorted out the music levels and added fades according to how I wanted to them to come in. 

An example of the interface I am used to.

Voiceover

Since our first rough edit, we have really thought hard about changes we could make to the scenes. We have considered a voiceover for a while now and after seeing the first scene, we feel that this is completely necessary for the piece to flow properly. We have decided to have a voiceover from the detective's perspective as this is a typical convention of noir films and can give some context to the scene.

Max has started the script and we hope to get this done as soon as we have finished the script.

EDIT: Max has got his dad to record the voiceover five times, each of which are slightly different, I will listen to all of them we will decide which is most suitable. We then have to place this properly, which Max will decide once he has seen the film.

EDIT: I have chosen Max's favourite, the third voiceover as it the most well spoken and the pauses are long enough for me to play around with.

Rough Cut

After playing around with the exposure and brightness of the clips, we have compiled a rough cut of the film:

Final production rough cut from Sam SheepDawg-OEight on Vimeo.

The cut has no sound consideration and I think that this means it drags on a bit and once the music and sound effects are put in, the piece will flow better.

There are several things that people have pointed out to us that we haven't considered throughout the process. The first being the detective's accent, which does not fit with the rest of the voices or the mise-en-scene of the video at all. He's putting on a strong american accent whereas the others are using British accents. This means we will have to dub over this track if we want to resolve it. The issue is a setback but isn't too much of a hassle to fix or to keep (as people move countries).

The second thing we missed was the Femme Fatale's costume. Her dress is too short for the time period and she is wearing a bit too much makeup. We aren't interested in the fashion industry in any way so we weren't able to notice this at the time. Her costume is more of a modern take on the Femme Fatale and her costume would be good for a Neo-Noir setting instead of the classic 19050's setting.

First day of filming

Yesterday, we filmed the office scene at Max's house with his dad. We thought the shots went well and the looked perfect but we didn't consider the actors facial expressions and body language s there are slight continuity errors. We think that unless we can find a way of editing it cleverly, we will have to refilm, which isn't a problem as we won't have any hassle rebooking actors or location. This has taught us just how much we need to consider this hen filming the rest of it today. The scene we edited is shown here:

office scene 1 from Sam SheepDawg-OEight on Vimeo.

This has been a valuable lesson and I'm glad we made the mistake with this scene rather than the majority of the film. It does however show that we are good at getting the mise-en-scene and overall noir look right and that is very reassuring. The lighting looks perfect when edited in post and I think this scene will look amazing when refilmed.

Lighting Overview

As I have all the equipment necessary, I have been allocated the role of lighting operator. I have had previous experience with this as I have operated lights for short films before as well as setting lights up for school plays. I think this gives me a relative understanding of how things should be lit and I hope I can use my previous experience to my advantage here.

I have access to studio quality lights and I know that one of them is all we need. The scenes will be filmed in a relatively bright setting (for more control), which will then be darkened down and maybe I will mess around with other settings in case a change in brightness isn't enough.

EDIT: this is a shot from the blinds that the studio light shined through to the detective scene. This gave me a level of control of the light's reach as well as intensity. 

EDIT: The effect generated from this was commented on and they thought it was a really nice effect that made the piece look more professional.

Continuity Task

We were given the task to produce the video below. The specification is detailed here:
http://asmediastudiessamshepherd2013.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/the-brief-continuity-task.html
The planning post can be found here:

This is the final production that we are presenting. I am quite pleased with it so far despite the lack of sound effects. I think they may not need to be added and the piece definitely works without it.
Continuity Task from Sam SheepDawg-OEight on Vimeo.

Sweded Film

This is the sweded version of the film TED we created for our media.
Ted swede from Sam SheepDawg-OEight on Vimeo.

This had a lot of issues when it comes to editing. The filming was the easy part, we decided key scenes (though we missed one) and we had achieved everything we wanted to in the filming. The editing was another issue completely. We all got together to work on my laptop and we compiled most of the footage there leaving me with little homework. When we needed to add text and export however, I had huge problems getting the film to work. The end result is a creditless, rather poor quality video.

I think this film shows a lot of strength in filming and in such a short space of time, I think this is a relatively good attempt at this task

The planning is another issue we didn't tackle very well. We had an idea of the key scenes we wanted to film and wanted to do it all in an hour or less so it was a bit rushed. We had no clue how we were going to film any of it in terms of camera angles and shot length which leaves a few of the scenes a bit long and uninteresting. We also missed the end scene which means that the film doesn't make sense entirely.