Practical Project Summary

Now that we have completed our pratical project i am able to look back and see what i felt went well and to plan and what did not. I believe that we worked well as a group as every lesson each person was set to do something towards the project, whether it be writing on the blog, planning for filming or editing the sequence.

Areas which i thought went well:

• Filming - I feel that the filming of the sequence went particualy well, even though Scott couldn't make it. This is because we shot the sequence all at once (we only had to go to the location of filming once,) the shots were of a good quality, we filmed the correct lenght of fottage and it did not take us long to complete the filming
• Editing - The editing went well as i believe that we found it quite easy to get the desired effect for each shot in a short space of time
• Blogging - at the end of my last coursework project i was told that one of the areas which i needed to imporve on was the amount and quality of the porjects blog. Because of this i have made a regular occurance of adding blogs after most lessons and as a group we have posted our ideas, resolutions to problems and decisions on the blog to what i believe to be a high standard

Areas which i believe could have been improved:

• Uploading images to the blog - Although this was one of the areas for improvement after the last coursework project as a group i believe that we found it had to know what types of images to insert and where to put them. Because of this we found ourselves atempting to add photos at every possible point

What have i learnt from the producting of our film opening:

After completing the project i feel that i have become a lot more competent in using final cut compared to when i finished the last project. This is because i feel that i have been more involved in some of the decision making and as a result also in what to do if something has gone wrong and how to fix the problem. I also feel that i have a wider knowledge of final cut as we have used alot more effects in this project compared to my last. For example the footage that we shot of ben who was playing the main character we found to be very bright, because of this we chose to use the desaturation effect tool to darken each shot untill we achieved the desired feel. We also used a voiceover narrator who was telling the story so far of the main character, this had to be edited and cut to fit with the film shots. This editing included inserting 'slugs' between the cuts in the audio sequence making it flow smother when it was being played and adding ambient noises t when ben was not talking so that there was never no sound.

16 : 20

Final Opening

This lesson we finished our film opening :)

We made a lot of improvements to our roughcut to produce our final product:

• Adjusting audio levels - Our background noise varied through the sequence due to the wind on the day of filming so we had to turn the volume of each section up and down to achieve a balanced sound throughout. We also had to adjust the audio level of the speech to fit with the background noise.
  
• Video and audio transitions - To make our sequence smoother we had to perfect the cuts of both the video and the audio. We cut out a section of the script as it was running for too long at the end of our sequence. This was hard as the speech was continuous however we managed to cut it in just the right place so that it did not jump. We also added ambient back ground noise where there were breaks in the speech so it did not jump to silence. With the video, we inserted slugs to make the sequence run smoother. We also added gaps between 2 shots at the start of the sequence to introduce the titles.
  
• De-saturation - Although we had already desaturated our footage we felt that we needed to do it more to add a greater effect to the sequence and to conform with the style of the genre.
• Editing effects - At the start of our roughcut, we applied a strobe effect to the opening shot to give it a more surreal feel. When we looked back at this we decided it look as if the video was jumping. We still wanted to make the opening shot different to the rest of the shots as we saw in 'Ratcatcher' so instead we slowed the shot down. This still gave it a surreal look but stopped it looking to jumpy.
  

Overall we are very pleased with our final product, enjoy!

Final Titles

We decided which titles to add to our opening last lesson. However this lesson we decided on our font for the titles. We didn't want them to look too stylized so we chose a fairly plain and simple text. It looks similar to typewriter text which compliments the simplicity of our sequence. This is an example of the font:

Production Meeting

This lesson we recorded the script for our voiceover. It took a few takes to get it at the right pace and to get the words right but overall we are pleased with how it turned out.
We now have to work on matching the sound to the video clip by cutting different sections of the script and putting them with the right shots.
Also this lesson, we aim to finish editing our video footage so that it flows better and tweak our titles. We are on track for completing our final product for the end of Thursdays lesson :)

Lesson Summary

During todays lesson (Monday 2nd March 2009) we focused on completing the rough cut of our film opening. We had already uploaded the footage that we had recorded and placed it roughly in the correct places at at the correct lengths in previous lessons, because of this all that was left to do was insert titles, complete final editing and upload it to our blog. 

During this lesson we also came up with a name for the film. We had had a few in mind for a few lessons but in the end chose '16 : 20' we chose this for two reasons: one of these is that out film is about the main character (played by Ben) is looking back at this his time on the 'streets,' what he did and how that he got himself out of it. This links with the title as '16 : 20' is a time in the 24 hour clock so turning back time is the link. The second reason for us choosing this title was that the character is now 20 years of age, the film looks back at when he was 16 years of age. So the link here is the the idea of his age.  

Rough Cut

Film Title

After lessons of discussing what our film should be called we finally came up with the name 16 : 20. We thought of this after thinking about names to do with clocks and time as our main character is thinking back to when he was younger and involved in teenage violence. He was around 16 when he was involved in it and in the opening sequence is older (20). So we displayed both ages as a time (:

Titles

The titles which we are including in our opening sequence are as followed:

• Directed by Desmond Creek
  
• Written by Bryony Richards
  
• Editing by Ben Tomlinson
• Camera by Steven Priest
  
• Costume Design by Scott Lansdale
  

Our Script

There was nothing different about me, hangin round on street corners downing stale beers and smokin 6 packs of fags. We used to walk round like we owned the fuckin place. All in gangs, hoods up, thought we looked hard, threatning like.
It was a laugh smashin up cars makin our mark on every wall in the street and occaisionally kickin the fuck outta someone. And for what? The thrill of chasin some old granny down the road threatening to kill her cat? I dont think so.
As i got older i realised what a bloody waste of time it was, spending my days skiving of lessons to have a fag behind the language building. I spent countless evenings hanging round the neighbourhood waiting for some innocent little fucker to shout abuse at and throw beer cans filled with stones.
Its all different now, I dont play them stupid kids games. I dont need to cause people shit to make my life exciting. Now i can just laugh at silly little boy gangs hanging about outside the kebab shop with nothing better to do with their sad lives. I admit, its hard to pick yourself up. Get a job, earn a living, make something of yourself. What else can you do? Becaome an alcoholic, livin on the streets mixin with the dealers. Thats not the life for me.

Video Editing...

This is our footage before we applied any changes to it. It looks a bit too bright and does not conform to conventions of social realism.

After editing our footage, it gives a much better effect and looks more like a professional social realist product than before. We desaturated the clip and also added a strobe effect to the first shot to give it a surreal feel. We got this idea from the opening sequence of Ratcatcher where we see a boy spinning round in a curtain, it is slowed down so much that you can see individual frames. We are not sure whether we will add this to our final product until we have finished the roughcut as the finished sequence may look different.

Production Meeting

This lesson we will be working towards our roughcut deadline on Monday 2nd March. We will be experimenting with the saturation of our footage on final cut to give the sequence more of a drained and poor quality effect, which conforms to conventions of social realism.
We will also be changing and finalizing our script, ready to record between now and Monday's lesson.

Animatic...

This is our animatic enjoy...

Filming Location

We chose to film the opening sequence in Newmarket by the train station. We chose here because it provided an isolated housing estate in a large area.

Below is the location where we filmed:

Contributor Release Form

Script

When writing the script we looked at professionally made social realist dramas to see what language is used and in what content. We also looked at what slang is used as well as in what accent (Sottish, Scourer ect..)

Below are a couple of examples that we looked at:

Killer Of Sheep:

Football factory:

Lesson Summary

In todays lesson (Wednesday 4th February) we focused mainly on improving our blogs. To do this, in our coursework groups we look at each the other groups blogs and wrote one good point and one point on an area which could be improved. This also gave our group a chance to see what the other groups had posted on their blog, in what detail and how which is important as each one group may have had a different idea on what sort of information to post on their blog (pictures, text, drawings ect..) and the amount which could be useful inspiration. Following this we looked at the comments and set about changing and adding information to areas of our blog to improve it.

During this lesson our group also choose when to start filming, where and what time scale we would use. Which is important as the rough cut deadline is fast approaching!!

Before filming...

In the week we have before we film, as a group we need to agree a script for our opening sequence. It needs to be read out by the main character and needs to fit the timing of our sequence. The narrative will start after about 30 seconds of footage is shown. It will start on the 4th shot when we see the main characters face, even though we do not actually see him speak, to give the effect that they are his thoughts.

FILMING

We have agreed to film our footage in Newmarket on Thursday the 12th in our media lesson.

Props and equipment:

Blog Feedback

After members of our class looked at our blog, they gave us points for improvement and positive comments about the blog.

Positive Comments:

• Good amount and content of analysis
  
• Good analysis on professional idents
  
• Good connotation of images
  
• Good ident
  
• Clear prop list

Areas for Improvement:

• More pictures needed e.g. images of costume and location
  
• Character description would be useful
• Use ideas from the moodboard throughout
  
• Complete analysis of Football Factory
  

We have taken all the response to our blog into consideration and will use it to improve and update our blog effectively. This lesson we will be completing a character description and will be getting images of our location.