18th December 09- loading and editing film on the macs

Today we started to think about editing our films. Firstly we had to load our films onto final cut pro and saving them onto our own scratch disks. We then started by putting the films into the correct sequence that we wanted them in. Following this i decided to edit each section of the film using the colour corrector to give a good colour balance and also adjust the brightness and contrast so that the dark areas were more visible and the lighter areas were not to light.

After this i decided to experiment with a few transitions i only added a couple where necessary because if there were too many it would have become messy and looked like rushed and bad editing. I decided to use transitions that faded into the next scene because they're subtle transitions. Following this i also experimented with other effects to give the film a more gothic effect where needed.

After this i started to introduce sound to my film, i started by deciding i didn't want a particular soundtrack to my film but instead adding lots of sound effects that relate to things that are happening in my film such as where Harriet is running past the abbey i introduced the sound of a clock bell which then fades into the next scene along with a fading transition. i got all of my sound effects from the college sound library.

11th december 2009

Today we went out filming again, it was really cold and no one wanted to go filming in Widecombe cemetery so we improvised and went to St Micheal's church at the bottom of Widecombe instead of at the top of the hill. It was easier than last week as we got to know the cameras more quickly so therefore were able to start filming straight away. We filmed about 15-20 shots and managed to complete filming in under an hour.

We didn't originally have the permissions to film in the graveyard of the church but asked the owner hoping she would let us film and she did. We should have rang up first in case we were left without a location but it all worked out well in the end. Overall i was pleased with the way things went today as everyone knew exactly what they were doing and we got on with our work straight away and managed to complete it.

4th december: Filming day!

Today we started filming, we started off with a tutorial on how to use the cameras as we had never used them before . We learned how to change the shutter speed, aperture and depth of filed and also how to change the white balance, how to change the lighting to fit indoor or outdoor filming. We also learned how to use correct filming terms whilst we were in or teams which helped us communicate more when filming.

I found the filming a struggle at first as it was very cold and busy walking through the town as the Christmas market was on and carrying the camera through crowds was difficult. The rain also mad it a challenge as we had to use the umbrellas to shield the cameras whist filming.

In my opinion it would have been useful if we did more planning at home and communicated more as a group as we were quite unprepared when it came to arranging the order in which we were filming each scene. We spent about half an hour in town deciding on the right locations also which wasted a lot of time. I did however enjoy using the cameras to film with. Our group chose to not use a tripod to add to the suspense and tension of the film and give it more of a hand held effect. Our group took it in turns to direct, co-direct, act and film. I liked filming as I learned a lot from it and got good feedback after my first attempt of filming with those cameras.

Overall I think we needed more organization and to have completed more detailed filming but I really enjoyed working with my group and filming and think the day went well and we got all we needed to have done in the end.