Final Cut - 'UNHINGED'

Construction Post: Editing- Logo (Jenitha)

What is editing? 

Editing is arranging, revising, and preparing a written, audio, or video material for final production. 

What is a production logo? 

A production logo is a logo used by movie studios and televison production companies to brand what they produce. Production logos are usually seen at the beginning of a theatrical movie or video game or at the end of a television program or TV movie. Many production logos have become famous over the years, such as the 20th Century Fox's, Paramounts Pictures mountain,  Universal Studios spinning globe and Columbia Picture's.  

What is a company logo? 

Your logo is a visual representation of everything your company stands for. 

It was essential to edit the logo as it the background was white and our opening had a dark background throughout and so therefore we spent time on editing the logo. We changed the background colour of the logo from being white to black and had the outlining of the logo in white to blend in with the background and to stand out. Since the colour of the outline and the background changed, the font that was used to write 'Eagle Studios' didn't match at all with the new background and outline colour of the logo. Therefore we changed the font of the title and the colour to white to match the background and make it stand out and make it more memorisable for the audience. 

Construction Post: Editing - Music (Ciara)

Why Music is Needed in Films:

While we certainly experience film through our eyes, we just as surely experience it through our ears. Music plays up our emotions, and allows us to feel a certain way. The onscreen action, provides clues and cues as to how the accompanying music does or is supposed to make us feel. In films like Hitchcock's 1960 classic Psycho, straining strings and overblowing brass are mimicking the noise of panic in nature, which inspired us for some ideas. 

Choosing Our Music:

Before deciding upon any music, we had to ensure we were searching for music that was uncopyrighted, and that we had the rights to use. In order to do so, we started by exploring YouTube for possible options. Fortunately, we came across 4 sets of music that we liked the sound of. In the screenshot (right), shows how we found some effective uncopyrighted music.

From the 4 pieces of music we found, we decided that only 2 would fit with our opening. The 2 that we didn't use, were too gruesome sounding for a thriller, and sounded more like horror music. The final 2 we settled on created enigma and suspense, and composed well with our opening. 

Editing the Music:

We were very happy with our choices of music, and were looking forward to adding them to our editing process. However, we came across a problem when we joined the music with our action. We found that the music didn't quite fit or sound/look  like a convincing thriller. Originally, the music at the beginning of our opening was more thrilling and dramatic than the music at the end, which didn't work as we wanted the music to build up to a climax at the end of the opening. In order to fix this problem, we switched around the order of the music so that the more intense music would be at the end, and we found that this solved the problem. 

Construction Post: Editing - Titles, Credits and Fonts (Maria)

Why are fonts, titles and credits important in  a thriller?

In the opening to a thriller, fonts can be very effective at setting the tone of the thriller and hint to the audience what they may suspect in the film. The Title of the thriller is also another main indicators of this and the spacing, effect, colour and style of font can make every difference. Credits are also very important to an opening as this tells us who we can expect to star in the film, who produced it and give credit to those involved in the production process as well as introduce the film. 

Adding the fonts, titles and credits:

In our opening, in the editing process, we took a lot of time and attention in the credits and transitions as we wanted our thriller to look as professional and run as smoothly as possible. When adding credits we wanted to cut between each shot with a black screen with the credits appearing in a fading motion. We decided on a simple colour scheme of black and white and the font fades softly and smoothly for the most subtle professional look. We also made sure there was continuity in our editing and made sure each credit appeared and disappeared in 3 seconds. 

Working on main title credits:

We used the custom fonts for our logo 'RoundWork Productions' and for the title of our film 'Unhinged' as we wanted the best font that would fit in with the clip we had in the background. We further edited the custom fonts to match the colours as well as possible, add subtle blurs and make sure the transitions in the text were not too fast in comparison to the speed of our logo.

For the title of the film 'Unhinged' we wanted to make sure it looked the best it could as this was the main focus of our opening. We started off by choosing the transit we wanted our title to appear in. We chose a fading transition as it suited the fonts we were about to choose the best. To match this transition, we carefully added soft glow effects to the text to give it a slightly blurred effect. We felt this greatly fit in with the name 'Unhinged'. We then added subtle spacing in between each letter as we saw this as a common trend in other thrillers such as 'Scream', 'The sixth sense', and 'Mazerunner'. A black screen as shown below was added with the title for 5 seconds to give people to process, remember and take in the title of our film to make it as memorable as possible.

Construction Post: Editing - Sound Effects (Jodie)

Definition:

A sound other than speech or music made artificially for use in a play, film, or other broadcast production.

Why Use Sound Effects?

Sound effects are pre-recorded sound cues that help us tell a story. It is usually hard to actually detect the use of sound effects, if they have been editing properly, however, if they are missing it becomes noticeable. As an audience we are used to hearing sounds around as constantly, even in quiet deserted room there will still be some source of sound. In order to make a piece of film to come across as natural and realistic we need to match the picture with a sound. 

Why Did We Need Sound Effects?
During the filming of our thriller opening it was very windy, which resulted in the majority of our audio being the sound of gusting winds. To over come this problem we discussed that perhaps we could record the  audio in a recording booth and then in editing piece it together so that is it in sync with the video.
Another problem we faced was cutting out unwanted sounds. As our opening included the use of a dog, during filming Cameron, the owner of  Molly (dog) was often out of shot of the camera telling Molly to sit or stay still as well as in one scene he was calling her name so that she would run towards him. To overcome this problem, in certain clips we took out the audio completely and used sound effects and in other scenes, we cut the audio so that you can no longer hear Cameron's Voice. 

Adding Sound Effects:

Evaluation of Rough Cut (Group)

                           

Evaluation of Rough Cut

After completing a rough edit of our thriller opening, we decided to ask a few questions to some of our peers. We asked specific question that would allow us to understand aspects that are successful and areas where we need improvement.

From the feedback, we found out that it is in our best interest to act upon our continuity editing, so it looks more realistic and is easier to understand for the audience. There were also positive features in our rough cut, including the use of the hand held camera. We were informed that the hand held camera creates a dark atmosphere, which perfectly suits our idea. Overall, once we have added music, transitions and improved our editing, we will hopefully achieve a successful and gripping thriller opening.

               

Behind The Scenes: Molly (Jodie)

Introducing Molly:

As our opening plot idea included a dog we asked a friend, Cameron, if we could take Molly (dog) for a walk and film parts of it to use in our opening, he said that would be fine. Molly is a Labrador with blonde hair. She is a well trained, friendly dog who is rarely phased. 




How did we instruct the dog:

 As Molly is already a well trained dog getting her to cooperate was not too difficult as long as we had the help of Cameron.
In the second scene we needed Molly to sit outside the house patiently so that she appeared to be waiting for her owner, in order to film this Cameron sat behind a bush out of sight from the camera and instructed her to remain there until we had got the shot. 
For scenes where Molly had to run away Cameron or myself would stand on the other side of the park call Molly's name and start running, Molly would then chase after one of us.
In editing we plan to take out the majority of natural sounding as you can hear us calling for Molly several times. 


Behind The Scenes Extras:

As Cameron kindly let us use his dog, he gave us the condition that if Molly went to the toilet we would have to take responsible of clearing it up. Here are a few behind the scenes shot of us filming.

  

Here are some behind the scenes pictures, that we captured throughout the filming process.