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.