Beta Editing #2

In a usual system to the past, 3 days on from filming our production for the second time we decided to take ourselves onto the editing process once again. The Breaking the 4th Wall production team took ourselves to the media suite in search of an iMac to edit our footage upon. Having reviewed our previous edit last week and identified a number of different errors within the shots, edit and soundtrack that we had included we had a more clear understanding of what it was that would become something we would have to correct, knowing this we took extra care within editing our footage and made sure we did it too the best of our ability.

We stuck by the same guidelines that we set ourselves last week in terms of editing, these were - 

 We also had to try and make the soundtrack/score suit the actual footage itself, in order to have the score working to its optimum effect we needed to try and make the beats create tension by simulating it to the camera shots and speeding up the cuts as the beats increase to try and create more tension and race the heartbeat of the audience.

Earlier on during the course Jordan, who is the creative hub of the group took it upon himself to create some opening titles for the production, these can been seen in the video below. These titles took him a very long period of time to create and I believe that it is shown in the professionalism they give off to the audience. They have a very authentic and almost blockbuster feel to them and really get the audience's opinion off the overall authenticity of the production a lot higher and lets the audience feel more enticed into what they are about to be shown. These during the opening seconds of the production so the placement has been thought out to entice the audience correctly so that they have a higher opinion of it whilst watching the actual footage.

Here at Breaking the 4th Wall productions, we all feel that this edit reflects hugely the progress that has been made over the past weeks in terms of the improvement with the quality that we are producing. This is shown in the video above, this atmosphere that is being created in this edit is so much more advanced than in the previous edit, this we feel is simply down to the hard work we have put into this production, rather than leaving it after the first edit we have persisted with it until we are starting to see improvements. We will continue to edit until we feel the production has reached a stage at which it cannot move any more and is the best it can possibly be. When we reach this stage we feel we will be able to submit it confident that we will reach the highest possible mark bands for our efforts.

Beta Editing - Production Team Review

Today, 3 days on from completing our very first full edit of Breaking The 4th Wall we are ready to begin to fully review what we produced. After having time to digest the edit and form our own thoughts and opinions upon the piece of media we have come armed with notes on what we feel is good and what we feel needs to be improved next time we come to edit a full version of Breaking The 4th Wall in a few days time. We took ourselves down to the usual Breaking The 4th Wall board-room in search of a safe haven to discuss ideas without disruption. We sat ourselves down and let the ideas flow. Below is some of the key points that we discussed during the meeting -

First of all, we felt that this edit didn't really help to capture the actual concept of the storyline and we feel it would be a bit vague to an outsider as to what the production and this opening scene is actually about. Earlier on during the course we planned to input a speech from a political leader, Obama was the leader we planned to use. However having gone over the idea of our production and the storyline of exposing the secret services, illuminati/freemasonry type groups, we feel that having the JFK assassination clip within our productions opening scene would help to give identity to the actual production and help towards greater effect.

Secondly we have also decide to actually cut some clips down as we feel that a few of them are ruined by some of the movement in the clips, by this I am talking about the clips shown in the video below around 1:35-1:43. These shots we feel could be cut off before the movement is shown in order to have snappier and sharper cuts of higher quality footage to build tension to the actual murder shots shown just seconds later. We feel by doing this it will help lead to a better effect and create a more tense atmosphere around our production which is exactly the effect the production team are aiming towards achieving.

To conclude I believe that as a group we have come up with a number of great ideas which can take the group forward in the production of Breaking The 4th Wall. We all now have an even more in-depth and clear understanding of where we want to go next during editing and can all begin to form such an in-depth idea of what the final product will turn out like. This allows us to be confident going forward that we are doing all the correct things to bring success to the group and all achieve the high grades we desire and quite simply deserve after the hard work and effort we have put into every single stage of this production. We all feel the this meeting has benefited us and given us a rock solid plan of what to do in order to improve future edits. We will now move onto the next edit as I said in a few days time and we look forward to seeing how that goes. 

Beta Editing

Today the group has taken great strides in the correct direction, we have done this by completing our very first full edit of Breaking The 4th Wall. We took many hours out of our day to plan and fully edit this piece of media, we had to take into consideration a huge number of different things in order to try and target the highest mark bands within this production. It was most certainly not a matter of just logging onto the computer, pulling our footage in, and just cutting it to look suitable. We had to take into mind things such as continuity, this is because a lot of our footage was filmed on separate occasions so there is a big chance that somewhere amongst our production we may have included some continuity errors but it was our job to try and eliminate any sign of this. We also had to try and make the soundtrack/score suit the actual footage itself, in order to have the score working to its optimum effect we needed to try and make the beats create tension by simulating it to the camera shots and speeding up the cuts as the beats increase to try and create more tension and race the heartbeat of the audience.

Above is a picture of just some of the footage we have to choose from!

Taking all of that into account we began to edit, Jordan taking a lead role immediately put his creativity into practice and began inputting the shots he felt would benefit the groups marks when the piece was assessed. One shot that I picked out as a piece of creative genius from Jordan himself was one shown in the Video of this piece of media that we put together below - the shot I'm talking about is that at 0:03 seconds, that shot was originally taken from below of the lights at the theatre corridor by Jordan himself. With the image of what he wanted from this shot in mind Jordan instantly rotated the shot 180 degrees in order to get a very strange but effective shot that he has created. Another shot that Jordan himself filmed and picked out that no one else within the group selected was that of 0:24 seconds, the shot is very much out of focus but yet it works. Jordan selected it knowing that it works when all of us doubted, but we can all see for ourselves the distorted, blurred, unknowing effect it can have on the audience. However there are a number of shots that we all feel need to be improved, we feel during the second of the two minutes in the video below the shots become very poorly edited and put together and this is something we wish to take out during the second edit that we plan to hold during next week.



However, we still feel that this editing session has really set our creative minds alight and we all feel that from this we can take great knowledge, experience and ideas in order to ensure that the next edit we partake upon can become even better and then the next one, even better, until we reach a point in which we feel we are hitting the top marks for our production. We have all benefited greatly from the and all feel ready to try and improve on what we have created and take things forward in The Breaking The 4th Wall Production.

Post-Production Meeting

Today; The Breaking The 4th Wall Production Team met together once more in order to discuss future plans and ideas for the next step in the production. This is nothing unusual, our Production Team has taken great care and taken ever pro-caution required in order to ensure that everyone within the group has a clear understanding and idea about where the group and the production as a whole is heading in future. The plans of the production is something that is crucial to have everyone understand as this is very much a group effort. So it was for this reason that we decided it would be beneficial to everyone if we were to meet as a group.



So we took ourselves back down to the usual Breaking The 4th Wall Board-Room as it where and sat ourselves around a table with a number of different notes that each of us had put together. We began to share ideas and notes that we had brought along to the meeting with us and began to form an idea of what the production team wanted for the Production to include during the Editing phase. We formed a number of conclusions and make some huge decisions on the editing sector which will enable us to all have a clear idea of the future of Breaking The 4th Wall. With this decisions being made it will now let everyone within the group focus on getting the editing done and moving forward towards the finished product of Breaking The 4th Wall.



To conclude, each and everyone of the Production Team Members believe that this Post-Filming Meeting was extremely beneficial. We believe this for a number of reasons, some of which I have gone over above. Firstly, it now gives us (The Production Team) a clear image of where we want to be, and how to get there through this editing phase. From looking at the mark bands for editing we now know as a group exactly what is required of us if we are to reach the very best mark bands through this production. We have also been able to make an executive decision in allowing Jordan to take a lead role during the editing stage with Myself, Jose and Pav taking more of a back-role during editing but still offering considerable amounts of assistance towards Jordan.

Editing Footage #3

Now that the Breaking The 4th Wall Production Team had collected it's third 'batch' as it were off footage it is now time to put together a 3rd rough edit in order to see what footage we have at hand for the future edits. As per usual, I took all off the footage of the camera's SD card and transferred it firstly to my PC and then onto my Memory Stick in order to let me transport it freely around different computers throughout the school. We spent a good 45-60 minutes going over the footage before we then started to make a product out of it, we had to take into account a number of different things. For example we wanted to pick the shots that would give the production the most authentic and professional look and feel, we need to footage to flow and for the storyline of the production to be very much apparent in order to target the higher mark bands for our piece.

We spent a good hour of so putting the selected pieces of footage into Windows Movie Maker in order to create a basic feel of what we have produced for ourselves to try and progress from. We chose to use Windows Movie Maker as we feel it is the most time efficient and simple method of editing for this type of edit. We weren't looking to try and give the edit flashing lights, glimmering effects and Hollywood feel so that is why we decided against going for an editing software such as Final Cut Express this early on in the production stage. Once we had put together the footage we then reviewed what we had with a basic soundtrack being overplayed in accordance to the footage. This gave us an even greater feel for where we had to improve within the production and editing that could potentially be done to improve the feel for shots.

After partaking within this editing we feel as a production team we now have a more advanced depth of knowledge of our own production and can now really start to witness the production forming as a whole. We can see from reviewing this footage that we our where we need to be and that we have sufficient footage to move into the full editing stage of this production. Knowing this we will now discuss as a group where to go into the editing stage and assign certain job roles for the editing process. As a group, earlier on in this year we all agreed that it would be most beneficial if we were to give Jordan a leading role when it comes to editing. We think the group can benefit from taking great reliability upon Jordan's natural talent and expertise within the film industry and the editing stage of any production. The group as a whole feels more confident in going forward after this reviewing session today and we feel as a result of this the production will be of a greater standard due to the high level of understanding throughout the production team.

Filming Footage #3

Almost yet another week gone in our journey to completing our opening for a teen horror movie and we find ourselves ready to go and film more footage for the third time in as many weeks. The Lighthouse Theatre once more the destination for the production team. In similar fashion to that of the previous two trips, we set off for The Theatre early on during the day in order to make the long walk up towards our destination. After discovering such a level of success as we had the week before we decided we would bring with us the same equipments and props as to that we did previously. We decided this because we saw today as more of a second attempt at filming some of the shots we feel we didn't manage to really nail last week.

In order to try and prepare ourselves correctly for what we hoped to become the final filming session we would have to undertake as a production team we decided that we would put together a shot list of the shots we NEEDED to get. In order to do this we decided that whilst reviewing our footage from the previous training session that we would decide which shots we feel we could improve upon. We produced a shot list and took this resource with us in order to try and make the whole filming process run a lot more smoothly and work more time efficiently. During our time at the theatre this evening we also decided that we would improvise because we managed to get all the shots we had included upon the shot list with time to spare. I let Jordan and his creative instincts lose with the camera and he is very confident that he has offered the team as a whole a different range of shots that will help to improve the overall effect of the final production.

Leaving the theatre the basic feel amongst the group was very positive. We left with the feeling that we have been very successful in the footage that we have acquired in respect to the footage we went in search off.  But this feeling may not be felt once we have reviewed the footage, as we have in the past, we may notice one or two errors that have been made during filming or one or two things that we feel could simply be improved upon. The next step for the production team of Breaking The 4th Wall is to go and review our footage, we will then make our decision on whether we want to re-film any footage or we wish to continue through the production stages, and finally move into the editing stage. 

Editing Footage #2

After a long night of filming our new look footage, I felt it would be a good idea to again use Windows Movie Maker and order and trim the footage into a respectable condition. I spent a good few hours sifting through the hours of footage and picking out the correct footage for our production. I also thought now we have a clearer understanding and a close copy to our aim in the final production that it would be a good idea to input a soundtrack, this would only be to help set the atmosphere. Going back to Jordan and myself's Soundtrack research I found a track from a newly famous score producer called  'Vitaliy Zavadskyy' who is 'a aspiring Composer, with over 100k of views on the majority of his videos he is quite definitely a great talent in the uprising, he works across a wide range of genre with work as good as hollywood standards.' 

I stuck the raw clips along with the edited version I produced onto my memory stick and presented it to the group the following day. We again noticed a few errors with people in mirrors in the back of shots and a continuity error or two. We feel now it is just a matter of perfecting these shots rather than anything else. We now have the clearest idea yet as to what we need and how it needs to be pulled off. This edited version I put together will give Jordan, who is the Head of Editing and Special FX for the group, a clearer idea of which direction to head in which the editing.

A new additional shot we which to add

The Plan: We must now once again get back in contact with Lucy Hatfield in order to secure one final time slot in which we can go in a film our final bits of footage, from then on I will again create a basic edit to give Jordan and idea of what he has to work from. We will then work as a team to make decisions on what we wish Jordan to create in terms of After Effects and Special FX's. We look forward to doing our final bits of filming and are very confident moving forward. We feel we learnt a lot more in terms of what we are looking at our final product coming out like and feel content and pleased with our work so far.

For now, I leave you with this image.

Filming Footage #2

It's that time of week again, we have successfully gained access all area's at The Lighthouse Theatre once again and eager as ever we set off early to make the long walk through the snow and rainy conditions. We once more met Bruno on our walk to the theatre, once we arrived we were quick get set up and get going. Armed with our freshly printed, new and improved shot list we got to work.

Pav and Jose looking rather dashing. IN HD!

We began in logical fashion by going down the shot list, getting each shot one by one, when we filled up the SD Cards, we would make quick switch to our second card, and continue filming whilst I transferred the footage onto my laptop to not only free the memory space up for re-use, but to backup the footage onto my laptop and memory sticks. Whilst I was away transferring and backing up footage Jordan felt it would be beneficial to collect a number of different shots that we hadn't listed on the shot list. He filmed several different shots, some of which we're all really impressed with and feel have real potential to be added into the shot list for editing.

One of the new shots we have added to the production.

We feel we have really done our production justice today and feel we have collected footage that puts last weeks footage to shame. However we have noticed again a few errors we have made and have also come up with a few fresh ideas to add to the other ones that we failed to collect due to time constraints. Taking this into account we will get in contact with Lucy Hatfield (Theatre Manager) about one final time slot in which we can perfect our production, until then, I leave you with this image.

Editing Footage #1

Today I put the footage onto my memory stick and came armed into school with it. I shared the footage to my peers and we discussed a number of errors we had made during our time filming. We also discussed a number of things we could change or even add to give our production a more professional and realistic effect. We can take on board all of our different ideas and thoughts and produce a brand new shot list so that we can ensure we get everything we wish to get during our next time slot which is yet to be confirmed.

 In order to give them a real feel of the production as things stands I had edited the footage into order and cut them so they fitted the plot slightly better. I used Windows Movie Maker on my home computer because it allowed me to use the basic functions very quickly and efficiently and offered me a Upload to Youtube feature which I found very time and effort efficient for myself. Below is what we came away with after our first attempt of filming at The Lighthouse Theatre.

We feel we have learnt a lot from filming last night and have also found that errors can very easily be made during filming. An important lesson we have learnt is that things don't always look the same on screen as they do in person and that the slightest error such as leaving a door open in the shot below can ruin the atmosphere and effect you spend hours trying to perfect. Now we have done this we feel that we are extremely prepared to go and film again and get what we need, we feel 1 or 2 more sessions at the theatre will be a sufficient amount of time to perfect our production as best as we possibly can.

Filming Footage #1

Today we began collecting footage for our final product, the opening to a teen horror film. Myself, Jose, Jordan and Pav gathered our props and equipment yesterday in preparation for the big day. On the eve of filming I put all our equipment into one big bag that we carried up to the theatre. Amongst the equipment was our camera (Lumix G10K), the laptop to transfer and back up footage immediately and a tri-pod etc.

On our way up we had to arrange to meet Bruno who would be acting the main character in our production, we met Bruno and continued to make our way up to the theatre in a strangely dressed fashion as shown below -

Looking suspiciously like we had been let out on day release we arrived at the theatre raring to go and get our footage, as soon as we got backstage we staged our set and got to work filming. We found a number of difficulties that we would have to overcome such as the alarming number of mirrors that we'd failed to take into perspective during our location planning. However we found different spots throughout the room in which we could film in. We took with us a shot-list to use and guide us through our time at the theatre. 

Leaving the theatre we feel that our trip there was a success up until a point, we know now that there are certain thing's we could have done differently however we feel we have a good start to the creation of our production. We will now look to conduct a basic edit of the footage we collected to get a feel of what we need to improve. Once we have found where the improvements need to be made we will the enquire to the theatre about another time slot in which we can repeat tonight's performance to a higher standard.