Editing My Film

The editing of my short film has been one of the most important parts of the making of it. This is where I was able to see my narrative come to life and create the effect I wanted through the film. I wanted to create something slightly jumpy with focusing my editing skills on cutting. The music was also important layer on the correct scenes as I have used a varied amount of sound and music.

Software has created a slight issue for me as it would've been ideal to use iMovie but I do not have access to this. I also found that the editing software provided on the computers at my school (Adobe Elements) was very hard to work with due to constant freezing and it taking a lot longer to get things right. It didn't play my film in real time when I had edited so I had no way of knowing if what I had cut out was correct.

I decided to complete all of my editing at home using Windows Live Movie Maker. Although this is considered to be amateur I found it the easiest to work with as it is very simple to grasp and played my film in real time so I knew exactly what I was cutting. The only issue I have had with this software is the lack of variation for editing the actual image for example contrast and brightness, I may use a different software to do this later on in my work. Overall I think this has been the best way to edit my film.

Photography for Poster and Review Page

This is some of the initial photography that I have taken for my film poster and possibly to use in my review page as well. As it has been difficult to arrange a scheduled time to meet with the actor/actress from my film to model for the photography I wanted to try taking some images using the setting as the focus. I still might take some images of the actor/actress to try with the setting images in the future.

I am pleased with all of the images as I was unsure if it would look good with no models but I quite like it. I have used a range of shots, such as long shot, extreme long shot and medium shot. I think this gives a diverse choice for the final images that I choose to use. All of the images were taken at night which is the same time that my film was shot showing continuity in my products. I also like the variation between in focus, out of focus and blurry shots that I got and I think once I have edited the images I will be able to make a clear choice on which ones I want to use.

Film Poster Planning: Billing Block

A billing block usually features at the bottom or top of a film poster. It contains the credits given for the creation of the film. I think it is important that all aspects of my poster look authentic so I will create my own billing block. For inspiration I have found some from the internet to ensure I know the conventions of billing blocks and what to include.

All of these billing blocks have similar conventions. There is varying font size used when it states roles and names to make the names stand out more and create diversity so it looks less uniformed. Also the fonts style is the same in all of them giving me a clear idea of what font styles work in billing blocks. The colours are all back and white which is useful as I know not to over complicate the billing block, it needs to be more subtle and not take the focus from the main features of the poster. At the very bottom there are also other features such as the film website, institutes that have endorsed/produced the film along with the rating for the film.

Planning my billing block:

• Production Company - Revolution Productions
• Starring - Charlotte Liggins and Will Harris
• Music - 2hear/turkitron/PacmanGamer/DirtyJewbs
• Casting Director - LG & Co.
• Costume Design - LG & Co.
• Editing - Lucy Stafford
• Written by - Lucy Stafford
• Produced by - Revolution Productions
• Directed by - Lucy Stafford

My billing block:

This is my final billing block that I created. To do this I typed everything out on word and changed the font and sizing to make it look professional and to give the look of a real billing block that would be used on a real produced film. To the bottom I added the website for the film in a standard bold font I think this stands out well form the rest of the billing block which is important for the audience so they know where to get more information on the film. I also included my production company that I made and an already existing production company as every billing block seems to have more than one institution in it. Then finally there is the rating that i think my film would receive as this is often a common feature of billing blocks.

Film Poster Planning: Font

This is the first option for the text in my film poster. I want to keep the style similar to what features in the first scene of my film, I think this keeps continuity and creates a set house style for this film. I like this font but I don't think it fits in at all with the genre of film and the content. I also think that it won't be bold enough if I used it in my film poster. I need a font that will stand out strongly so it lures the audience and I don't think this font would work well.

I prefer this font because it is a lot bolder. It still uses a similar style to the one in my film which is important. I think the boldness of this font will make it stand out clearly in the film poster. I also like the font style because the lines aren't perfectly straight which makes it appear less clean and gives a distressed effect.

This final font is my favourite. It still has the typewriter style that I think is important to keep the house style of my film. The lettering is also very bold ensuring that it will stand out. I think the best thing about this font style is the distressed look to it. It isn't overly distressed so is still readable but that slight effect on the style embodies the horror theme and hints at the distressing narrative of the film.

Film Review Annotation

Rough Cuts

I have started the filming for my short film and now have some rough cuts. I will be editing the clips to create the desired effect with them but these rough cuts are what I will be starting with.

Storyboard

I have used a storyboard to help in planning my short film. This has allowed me to clearly plan out every scene so it will be easier to film. It will also be useful during editing as I will know my original ideas for the film.

I haven't gone into a lot of detail regarding sound because that is something I will decide upon during editing but I have specified the type of shots I am planning on using to give me a guideline for filming.