Final Cut - Blackout

Editing our final cut

Main Shoot

The weather forecasts for the whole weekend were bleak, with on-off showers forecast for both days. We decided that if we got any luck with the weather, and it remained relatively dry, we could reshoot all of the shots with the kidnapper in, so that he could have a different costume, and a couple of the shots of Matt outside. If the weather was as forecast, we would leave me in the same costume, and only reshoot the fight scene, and a few indoor shots of me, for example this one.

On the day, the weather was terrible, so we had to do the latter. Considering the weather, the shoot was successful, and we got all of the shots we needed. We are now onto editing our main sequence, especially the fight scene. Much of our sequence is remaining almost exactly the same, but the fight scene gave us some trouble to put together (both in shooting and editing).

Here is our 'making of' video to illustrate this (particularly 1:55 onwards)

Rough Cut - Reflections

We have completed our rough cut and here is my personal views on what needs to be improved for the reshoot:

• When Matt enters the house (0:22), he leaves the door open, which I think he would not do in that situation, so he will pause for a second to close the door before running up the stairs in the final cut.
• His boxers are showing for the entire sequence - pull your trousers up boy!
• In the shot from inside the car, although its not immediately obvious, you can see some people in the middle of the road. This shot needs to be redone.
• My acting is terrible. More effort is required.
• When I barge the door open, I dont really push it that hard. This was because we found that if I pushed any harder I would break the glass on the door. On the reshoot I think I should kick the door, and we can then lay a sound effect over the top in post production.
• In the final room, when I reach the mirror, there is a cut and I am suddenly walking backwards, which doesnt really work, as in that position you would turn around to walk out
• In the final room, you can see everything that we had cleared behind the bed, door, etc in some shots. This is because we couldnt really be bothered/didnt have time to clear it away properly. In the reshoot we need to clear away properly before we begin

Rough Cut

We all had a great half term and have finished our rough cut. Here it is.

Rough cut editing

We have captured our footage and have edited them into a basic continuity sequence. This will be the basis for us to work from, adding music, sound effects and contrasting as we go along.

I think it looks very good for an initial rough cut, but there is much that could be improved as well, especially a few continuity errors we have noticed, such as a siren going off when Hugh is walking up towards the house, and Matteo opening the door without putting the keys in the lock.

We look forward to getting the rough cut finished so that we can begin to plan for our main shoot after half term.

I'm off skiing for the week, so goodbye for a bit.

Test Shoot: Day 2

Today was the second and final day of our test shoot. After yesterday, we knew we still had the bulk of our sequence to film, so Tom, Tom, and our second actor Matteo turned up nice and early at 8.00am ready to begin.

 

We filmed in the garden first before going out into the car park as soon as possible after the gates had been opened in order to get our footage before the area got too busy. We had finished all of our outdoors shots by around 11.00am, giving us time to do the simpler shots of Matteo before lunch. Afterwards we made a start on the shots of me following Matteo, which again, was pretty straightforwards. We shot the fight scene that comes at the end of our sequence last, which took almost an hour, but we were finished and packed up ready to leave by 4.30.

We will return all our equipment and start editing our test footage tomorrow.

Test Shoot: Day 1

Today was our first day of shooting, and we arrived on location (which, conveniently, was my house) at 10.00am sharp ready to begin at 10.30.

We managed to do all of the shots on the street at the front, including the car shots, which were the most difficult shots of the sequence. In the absence of our other actor, we also tested some shots that we will use at the start of our sequence, e.g. some running shots in the car park and the arial shot in the garden.

Tom, Tom and Matteo will arrive back here at 8.00am tommorow morning ready to start as soon as possible. Weather forecasts say tomorrow will be exactly the same as today. We hope to work as quickly and efficiently as possible tomorrow and get all the shots we want ready to begin editing on monday.