Editing

Our media technician looking through our edit to feed back on potential improvements

Georgie and Maisie editing

Sound Mix

Music

Due to the track we used and our sequence not lasting the same length of time, we cut the music half way at a point we found appropriate to end on due to it being a quieter part of the track where only the 'siren' noise (hence the name of the song) was present, slowing the pace in absence of the fast paced drums yet upholding intensity, enigma and suspense at what may happen next. A straight cut to silence in the music would limit its ability to do this, so on the Premiere Pro timeline we faded it out gradually at the point where 'Dan' enters the house.

We decreased the volume level of our music proportionally so that at the end of the running sequence where the dialogue begins there would hopefully be a seamless or less obvious transition. If the base levels of the music and dialogue remained too much in contrast as they did originally, the audience would have far less potential to be absorbed in the product and to suspend their disbelief.
Dialogue

We often sound-bridged across cuts of dialogue, particularly in our uses of shot/reverse shot in the house where the protagonist attempts to explain his predicament. It was vital that our shot choices for this were tactical, as we shot dialogue from multiple angles and had to make sure that if we were to continue one line of speech while cutting to another shot (to view the other actor's verbal response and emotions) we would have to ensure the characters' mouths were synchronised with the bridged dialogue track or not moving when they are not speaking.



Sound Effects

Contrary to some of our earlier planning we used no sound effects in our sequence. A previous idea was to implement a metallic banging noise which would introduce the titles right at the end, in synchronisation with bangs on the door but fortunately our choice of music having the 'siren' noise in it gave us an effective option to use instead. Timing it with the entrance of our institutional titles at the beginning as well as our film's title also worked well.

Adobe Audition
We used this programme (shown below) to get rid of unwanted buzzing and camera whirring in the background. We reduced the noise level of parts of the sound clips which had inconsistent sound, and added atmos to make the sound level consistent.

Grading

Before we started grading we researched films which had the same type of grading which we wished to replicate in our opening sequence.

• We looked at Misfits because it is a British drama and we thought it would have the similar 'look' which our opening sequence would eventually have. However we found that the grading was too unsaturated.

• The 'look' of Skins was much closer to that which we wanted to create in our opening sequence as it looks natural however there is still quite a lot of colour in each shot.

To grade our film we used Adobe PremierPro. Within the program we used the tools 'three-way colour corrector' and 'procamp'.

We used 'three-way colour corrector' to adjust the colours within each shot.

We used 'procamp' to change the brightness, contrast and saturation of each shot.

For our outdoor shots we added more colour and contrast. We also increased the brightness of each shot to make the lighting appear more natural and for the shot to look more appealing.

For our indoor shots we made the colours of the furniture truer to their natural colour. We also increased the contrast of each shot to make 'Dan' and 'Lucy' stand out more. We used the three-way colour corrector to make 'Dan' and 'Lucy's' skin colour more vibrant and healthy.

After Effects

We used After Effects to put effects on two of the titles.

We went through the shots frame by frame, drawing a mask around the text in each frame, so that when the clip plays the text disappears or is revealed as 'Dan' runs across:

Final Edit Titles

Our original plan was to have titles similar to those used in Zombieland, which would be integrated in to the action. However, we found that this didn't work as well as we had hoped with our sequence and so, while two of the titles are inspired by the titles in Zombieland they are fairly subtle, and the rest of the titles are simple and plain. 

The simpler titles are similar to titles used in Da Vinci's Demon's (shown in the Art of the Title format below), which are smallish, white, have simple fade in/fade out effects, and are consistent thorughout the opening.

Before our opening sequence starts, we have titles for our production company, GEMM Productions, and our distributor, Studio Canal. This was inspired by the beginning of Adulthood, which has separate titles against a black background fro the director and the production company, as shown below.

In terms of genre, our titles can be compared to those of the British drama film 'This is England'. Like our titles, the typography is bold and white with the titles fading in and out. We liked the simplicity of these titles as they do not distract from the action of the sequence yet they still create enough impact for the audience to acknowledge and read them.This is England Opening Sequence

Final Shoot Reflections

As a whole, our final shoot was much more successful than our test shoot as we had a clear idea of what shots we wanted to film so the day was much more well organised than the test shoot.


What went well:

• Due to our shoot being much more organised, we wasted a lot less time discussing shots and we spent a lot more time effectively shooting footage which we knew would work well in our opening.
• The weather was a lot more consistent during this shoot because during the test shoot it started to rain which largely disrupted our day and effected the continuity of our sequence. Luckily the weather was sunny which will hopefully result in no continuity errors associated with weather during our opening sequence.
• The final script is also a lot more successful than the original version as it creates a lot more suspense and the entire conversation comes across as relatively natural.
• We managed to shoot a wider variation of shots inside the house because in the test shoot we found that we only filmed the conversation from three different points in the room. Hopefully the variety of shots which we now have will make our opening sequence more interesting which will improve our sequence as a whole.

What didn't go well:

• Certain shots taken indoors were difficult to obtain due to a lack of space.
• It was difficult to ensure that all of mine and Matt's movements during the conversation were exactly the same in each take.
• There were a few people who didn't realise we were filming and walked through a couple of out shots. There was also a man washing his van in a section of road which where we wanted to film which meant we had to film that shot later on in the day.

Final Shoot Photos

Ellie shooting one of our favourite shots in our sequence (the ECU of 'Dan' running towards the camera)

 Georgie shooting 'Dan' running around the corner towards 'Lucy's house

Maisie shooting an establishing shot of 'Dan'