Blog Update: Editing (Transitions) 31.01.11

Today we have continued to edit as a group, focusing more on cutting our footage to the best we can and adding transitions. I looked closely at the editing of our main scene and tried out different cuts and transitions which could fit, to make it flow more where we had to cut some footage. For our main scene we filmed several versions of the same scene but in one, so when we edited it and did the shot reverse shot it meant that we was able to just cut in between and get an effective shot reverse shot. We experimented with many transitions, however once we looked at our examples of other opening sequences to dance films from our genre research, we realised that the majority didn't include many transitions. The one which our piece relates most to is 'Step Up 2' because they use a few transitions and the ones used are similarly to what we have used in our work i.e. zoom, fade to black and fade to white. Next lesson we need to carry on from where we left off.

Blog Update: Editing 25.01.11

Today we continued editing our work on iMovie and here is a screen grab to show some of the editing that was completed. We began to look at transitions but focused more on cutting all our footage to the appropriate lengths and we cut our shot reverse shot. During this editing we realised that the voiceover was longer than we wanted it to be and this caused problems with our timing, because the whole thing has got to be a 2 minute piece. With our voiceover over 1 minute we had to add in extra footage of the dancers at the beginning to fit with the voiceover. Even though we had more footage after the voiceover, which was our main scene, we couldn't start it without the voiceover finishing,s o we had to work around this, trying to keep as best in the time limit as we could. We also adapted the colour to the footages that appear, while the voicer and music is playing, to black and white. This is because having the colour in black and white gives the impression that it's showing flash backs and past moments, which is what we were looking for. By the end of todays double lesson all our footage was rough-cut and we had everything in order to start editing in more depth next lesson.

Blog Update: Editing 24.01.11

Today we began our editing and to make a good start to this editing process we each took turns on iMovie and took on different roles. My role was to complete a rough cut of our footage, after David uploaded the footage, and i put them all in the correct order they need to be. Here is a screenshot of iMovie, and our rough cut, including the footage we have uploaded today, and it shows that we have put it into an order. David, Andrew and me then started to look at titles and effects and made a good title page to open our opening sequence. After experimenting more with iMovie, I can use it better and i am now more confident in exploring my ideas and trying new things. We also had a little look at Livetype and created some animated text on this. We still have a lot of editing to do in the following lessons, like sound, transitions, text etc...

Production Schedule

Voice Over	10.01.11	Vikkie, Yasemin      DONE
Dancing Feet	10.01.11	Vikkie, Yasemin      DONE
Curtain Scene Backstage	18.01.11	Andrew, David        DONE
Film Opening Titles	19.01.11	Vikkie, Yasemin,  Andrew, David         DONE
Backstage Scene	20.01.11	Vikkie, Yasemin,  Andrew, David        DONE
Start Editing Credit Titles	24.01.11+	Andrew, David,  Yasemin, Vikkie      DONE

Blog Update

Last week we used both our double lessons on Monday and Tuesday to film the beginning clips which appear in our first storyboard. On the monday David and Andrew were in an exam so it was just me and Vikkie. We filmed the dancing feet which appear at the beginning of the scene and this took some time to perfect it to the image we wanted. We also did the voiceover but when we saw David he said that it was best to record it in the studio not as sound on a camera and we agreed so we scrapped that footage. The next day me Vikkie and David went to the recording studio and recorded the voiceover with me and Vikkie taking turns, seeing who sounds best. To get the right tone, timing and feel we had to record many times and additionally we put the music into the recording so the voiceover and music fits on top, this way we don't have to edit it in and all timing will be to perfection. Also there was a few technical problems so it took time, but we managed to record it to the best quality we could and now have our final piece on CD. This means that we have our voiceover for the start of our opening sequence and we have a couple of shots that fit into the beginning as well.

Asking permission to use music from youtube for our opening scene

10/01/2011

On the 11th jan 2011, we are going to be off site in various different locations doing our filming in different  locations for the different scenes. We will be on site for a short while then for the rest of the lessons we have took as off site work time, as a group we will be travelling around doing as much filming as possible.

Outline of 'Live To Dance'

The opening sequence for 'Live 2 Dance' starts with a black screen. A slow piece of music starts to play and red text zooms in from right saying; 'V-DAY Productions', gets to centre, slows down and then zooms out on left. 'Proudly Presents:' then appears in from top and zooms off the bottom. A shot of feet dancing slowly fades in from black. 'Live 2 Dance', in  graffiti styled text, appears over the top of the dancing feet. After about 10-15 seconds of footage, this clip fades out and a close-up shot of the dancing character appears. With this, the named credits appear of the actor/actress and who they are playing. After all the main characters  credits have gone off screen, the screen will fade to white. After this we begin with the end. The shot opens with the dance group standing, waiting behind closed curtains. The curtains open, the stage is full of bright lights and the music starts to play as soon as the curtains open. The camera then reverses so you see the dance troupe come out onto the stage and begin to dance.  After 20 seconds of the dance, the footage starts to flick and quickly fade in and out. This footage fades to white. The film then goes to footage of the main character from when she first finds herself in trouble and how she decides to fight through it and create the ultimate dance troupe.

Progress I have made towards meeting my second target 14.12.10

My second target was to: Understand how the 4 technical aspects (camera, editing, sound & mise-en-scene) represent different things in different TV extracts effectively, and be able to evaluate them in detail.


I have made progress in meeting my second target because on my second milestone assessment i got a C, which is an improvement from my first E grade and the question was associated around the 4 technical aspects - camera, editing, sound and mise-en-scne and how they represent different things in a particular TV extract. I evaluated them in detail, and from my grade I can see I have improved. Also, every friday we have been doing this task with different Tv extracts, (Friday TV drama analysis) and it has given us good practise with these questions and I now feel more confident and happy in writing a question evaluating camera, editing, sound and mise-en-scene.