Thursday 31st March

Today I was away on a University Convention Trip, But Alex made some changes to the video to make sure that the audience understood what is going on.

Here she has put the screaming of Me and Shasta at the beginning where she wakes up, as though waking up from the screams...

I think the plot is now so much easier to understand as Alex can be woken up from the screams and remembers she has to start looking for them knowing that they have gone missing.

Here she has put added another layer of the Close up of Alex again to give a better effect of the awakening from the uunconsciousness...

Here she has put the Logo at the end. This makes people want to know what happens and now knowing the title of the film can give a better understanding of the story and how the title can be related to the characters "Stage Girls" knowing that the girls are performers and that they are being stalked (Aaron stalking them from behind the curtain and sniffing the scarf).

Here she has made the scene where she is running over the bridge and the piano overlay darker to give a more mysterious and dark atmosphere a sort of gloom and sadness that she has lost her friends...

 

Process of making the 'Stage Girls' Title of the film

 Today we finalised our film title 'Stage Girls'. It was a simple process, we saved an image off google and uploaded it to photo shop, as we wanted to edit it slightly to make it look more effective, here are the stages....



This is the original picture taken from www.google.com we copied it to photo shop and decided to smooth the edges out. So by using the blur tool the edges become softer which allows us to edit the edges better through the Eraser process.

 We uploaded the picture and cropped it using the lasso tool. The magnetic Lasso tool is easier to use as it finds the areas you want to crop, attaching itself to the areas you are going round with you mouse and therefore makes the cropping process easier and makes the picture look smooth.

 

 

Here we have edited the lights by going to Filter - Render - Lighting Effects. We found this was different to that in Photo Impact 10 but the Cloning and the Eraser tools are similar.



This is the finished product, our film title which appears in the film!

 



Screen grabs from editing

Today I got some screen grabs of our working progress of editing our film. Here are some I have uploaded

Windows effects controls. Here you can change opacity, then see how it looks, and you can also blend video 1 + 2 footage together.

Over lapping the footage of the piano and the hospital shots.

Another example of layering/overlapping.

Text box for text controls, and to add text to footage etc.

Beginning to use the editing software...

Today I have looked at the editing software for Adobe Premier. We have now started on a working progress of our film and are all finally beginning to get used to editing. Here is what I have learnt about the editing software so far:

1 - Panel, footage, text and pictures are imported here.

2 - This is where effects audio a videos are added.

3 - This is the editing screen where you can edit individual pieces of footage.

4 - This is the editing technique for footage you want to use. There is a marker to mark the start of the footage you want to use.

5 - This is the last marker, which shows where you want your required footage to end.

6 - This is a scroll for when a long piece of footage is imported, it makes it easy to find the piece of footage you want.

7 - This is where I can have complete control over rewind, fast forward and speed.

8 - This is where you put your markers, and where you can click it and drag it onto the timeline.

9 - This shows whether the footage has been rendered or not, if the marker is red, it has not been rendered. This ensures all the effects run smoothly.

10 - This is the video overlay, where you can put one piece of footage over the other, or text over footage etc.

11 - This is the main line of footage, and no text.

12 - this is where audio is imported.

13 - Where the soundtrack is imported.

14 - Where you can watch the full preview of the film to see what it looks like.

Friday 18th March - Starting on editing

Now we have all the shots we need, we can start editing the film and we ahve lots of deas for this. We are all relieved to have finished filming and now we can focus on editing it to look fantastic and make sure our blogs are up to date. Today we put all the shots we were using on a the timeline and began editing.
First, we produced the Production Title, and Opening credits of the 'producer' and 'director'. It looks great when played together. Now we can start editing and producing our opening of the film. Its very exciting.

Thursday 17th March - Filming session 3/4 and change of plan

Today we had the idea of Alex waking up in the middle of a street remembering her friends (Me, Chloe and Shaista) as we are missing and Alex is having flashbacks of where we could be and things she remembers. We filmed Alex led on a cobbled road and waking up, although We had a slight problem, she wasn't wearing the same clothes that she was wearing on Tuesday. So we had to make sure we only got her head and shoulders. We had Alex to wake up in shock to show that she was unconscious for a long time. As well has this we filmed me and Shaista doing the performance piece and we wanted Aaron to be in this too behind the curtain watching us. Chloe used a zoom on him with me in the shot playing the paino, oblivious to him. Chloe then filmed a point of View shot from behind the curtain.

Tuesday 15th March - Filming session 2

Today me and Chloe were going to do the performance shots again, but unfortunately I was unwell and didn't feel up to it, so instead we went to the park to film. Because Chloe is the person with the most experience of using a camera, it was decided that it was going to be Shaista and me walking in the park with Aaron taking pictures of us. So, we went to the park with the camera and tripod and Chloe began filming and over-the-shoulder shot of Aaron holding a camera behind a tree, taking pictures of me and Shaista walking through the park. Also, we could re-film the poor shots (on college grounds) of Alex running looking for us in a better location, next to a train line, on a bridge, in the park etc. This would overall set a great mise-en-scene and engage to audience.
The outcome of today filming has been brilliant. We've got some great shots from all different distances and angles. We also came up with the idea of filming empty shots and deserted places to give a sense of emptiness and give the audience something to think about. So, we went back and filmed swings swinging empty, an empty train line and empty woods. Now we are going to the editing suite to put the shots together and edit to make it all look really effective.
Here are a couple of pictures of the filming for today...


Chloe setting up the tripod and camera ready to start filming...



The pieces of footage now being edited...

Thursday 10th March - Change of plan

Today I thought we should have a change of plan considering the story and the plot. My idea was to film Aaron (the stalker) taking pictures of me and Chloe walking in the street and in a dark room pinning picutres of us on a wall. I thought we should still use the camera flash which would be consistent throughout our film as it gives a good effect and relates to what the film would be about.
Alex had an idea of me and Chloe being tied up and her running through college trying to find us, as well as using the performance and the stalker piece. However, this would be very time consuming.
Overall, we decided to stick with using my piano performance, but using Alex running around parks and deserted areas trying to find me Chloe and now Shaista too. This way it wasn't too complex to film, we could all contribute and if all put together correctly, edit and make it look brilliant.

Wednesday 9th March - Feedback

Today we showed our teacher our footage we filmed from the previous day. He gave us some constructive criticism and advised us to film the shots again as we had quite poor shots. He also said the fact we filmed on sixth form site was an issue as it gave the impression of a poor mise-en-scene, so we decided we would film it again in a better area for a decent mise-en-scene. As time was a major issue now, our group now began worrying the film wasn't going to be shot and edited in time. We decided to use the footage shot of me on the piano, but to film the overall performance again and film the shots of Alex running.

Tuesday 8th March - Filming session 1

Today we filmed the performance of Me and Chloe. I decided to be in the film as i didn't know a lot about how to work the camera, so i participated in the film by acting instead. It took around 30 minuites to get the stage prepared along with the piano, but when it was done we changed into our costumes and started filming. We used a range of camera shots and angles to make the film exciting and effective:

-Mid Shot - From the other end of the piano, camera sitting on the piano
-Close Up  - Of my fingers playing the piano
-Low angle Shot/Tilt - Of me playing the piano
-Bird’s Eye View/Tracking shot/Close up - Along the piano Keys of me playing the piano
-Close up Shot - Of me playing the piano, front view, so you can see my face and half my body  and me playing the piano.

With lots of variety shots it makes the film more exciting and interesting for an audience to watch. If we had the same shots throught the film it would be extremely boring.
We had difficulty trying to get the sound to work, but a friend came and prepared sound and it was OK from there.

Later on Alex and Shaista arrived and so it was now easier to film as we had all four of us. This meant me and Chloe could focus on acting and Shaista and Alex could film.

So, overall today went well. We filmed lots of scenes from the performance which is a massive part in our film, it will all look great once edited.

Here are a few pictures we took whilst in the process...


Camera in place with tripod
 

Capturing good angle shots and pictures of the performance


Me helping with the filming of Chloes solo shots


Pictures for the 'stalker' and good angle shots of the performance


Getting help with the sound sytem


Jenny helping with the panning shots


A shot of the whole stage and piano

Thursday 3rd March - Decision on our group Logo

We have looked at two possible logos for our company. With our name "M.A.S.C Productions" (using all of our initials) we found that it looks like an ironic word of "Mask" so we have decided to have masks has out logo. Here are the two we looked at and what we decided.


We took this image from Google Images and we thought the black ribbons didn't go well, so we uploaded the image into Photo shop. Whilst editing the ribbons out, it left some black marks around the masks where the editing didn't quite erase. Only realising this when we had imported it into the timeline in Adobe Premier Chloe decided to work with Shaista to find another picture. So the group decided that they didn't like the masks so Chloe said she could find another picture from a site called Deviant Art (http://www.deviantart.com/) and found the picture below. 

We found this picture here -  http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=Masks&order=9&offset=24#/dxd4v3. We emailed the owner (voorikvergeet ) and asked permission to use the picture. On Deviant Art they are certain rules people need to follow by, as Chloe is  member on the site for over 2 years she  has learned to respect other artists work. One of the rules which is appreciated a lot is to ask the artist if it can be used for there what ever reason, unless told by the artist in their artists comments that it can be used, it is free or it is free but you must give me link to the work you have used it for.

Here is the final outcome of our logo. The black and red darkness gives and insight the the genre of the film, a psychological thriller. We are very pleased with our logo and hope that the irony and wittiness catches the eye of the audience.

Recent changes to our sequence and storyboard

After producing a story board for previous ideas on our psychological thriller, we have now decided on changing the shots and plot. Here are some pictures of our first storyboard...

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

After completing this storyboard and shooting the first few shots, we decided to change the plot and improvise our ideas. Our new plot consists of an girl waking up in the street and remembering random scenes of two other girls who have been abducted. The opening sequence will then lead to a plot of the girl trying to find her two friends with lots of complications, mind games, plenty of twists and turns and excitement throughout (as it is a thriller!)

I am waiting on pictures of our new and improved storyboard and will upload them soon :)