Tuesday, 29 September 2015

My Chosen Genre

Film opening- My chosen genre

I have chosen to do a horror genre because my group and I believe we can make a professional high quality opening of a film with the use of this genre.An advantage of using this genre is the fact that we watch a lot of horror films ourselves and therefore know what codes and conventions are expected of this film in an attempt to make it the highest quality we can.Furthermore we have ideas of what the story line will be and how we will use lighting and music to complement this. Finally I have already considered where our filming could be set and what costume we could use,I was thinking a forest, basement and old looking house along with dark costume. Overall I think horror is the best genre for our group as we can experiment with shot types and make use of our extended knowledge of the genre to excel in film production.

Friday, 25 September 2015

Introductory Kitkat Filming Analysis

Storyboarding

Before putting together my video footage and editing it on the final cut pro software I started by storyboarding the plot of the video along with what audio and shot types I would be using. This step was essential to the success of the short video as it gave me a guide to what needed to be filmed and where it needed to be cropped and edited on final cut. With storyboarding my group and I knew exactly what our plot was and in what order we needed it to be placed. Also the added info that we wrote helped us when it came to added sounds to the clips as we already had it written and it worked well. It was also very important to have the shot types of what I was going to use already on the storyboard so when it came to the filming we could use a large variety such as low angle shot, close up and long shot: there wasn't too much repetition because we had planned them prior.
Organising filming
As our story consisted of the KitKat being a sort of cartoon we had to move it whilst it was attached to a piece of string. It had to be attached in this way so my hands weren't in shot. However this could prove quite difficult at times because it could move the wrong way or my hands were in shot. Therefore close up shots were quite easy as it was focused on the KitKat and no movement was needed meaning the camera didn’t have to be moved and there wasn't the risk of getting other items in the shot and making it look unprofessional. It was also quite difficult to get good lighting in some of the shots because we filmed in a variety of locations meaning some weren't as bright as other. When editing the video it was easy to import the videos and crop and slice them to make them flow together and show a clear narrative. My group and I added non diegetic sound to the clips such as laughing, crying, water splashes and others to make the film more interactive and understandable.  The effects were at first quite difficult to use because they had to be placed over the clips or at the end so I had to think carefully about where they would fit and if they would work well.
Filming for portfolio coursework
I feel very confident about filming and editing as I can already film with a complex range of shot types varying from an establishing shot to a close up shot and I can film clear steady footage. As for editing I am very familiar with the use of final cut pro and can add non diegetic sound, cuts, edits and filters to produce a professional looking product. Furthermore I can use advanced aspects such as the ‘ken burns’ feature which I used as an edit on ‘the story of a kitkat’ to gradually zoom in but I would like to develop these skills more to create split screens and other new skills that I can use in my coursework.

Tuesday, 22 September 2015

Previous Final Cut Pro Experience



Previous experience
I have previous experience using the final cut pro technology as I completed a music video for my GCSE.I know the basic skills needed to use this software such as importing media cropping and slicing as well as adding in audio and effects. However I do think that more advanced aspects of the software are easy to understand with use of online instructions and tutorials. With the use of other sources I can successful pick up knew knowledge to make my editing skills on final cut pro more advanced.