MJC Production presents 'The Woods'

Software research

Software Research

The type of software we use during the editing process is a vital part to achieve a high standard opening two minutes, as we need to understand the whole programme, from the cutting shots to the precise point to knowing how to arrange them. This is important so we can benefit from all the technology provided from the editing software.

 

Microsoft Movie Maker

This is an example of an editing software which we could use for producing our film. Movie maker is made by microsoft, which, as you know, a very well known company and is very user friendly as it should appeal to all ages interested within media and producing films. This software makes you be the editor, with no complicating buttons and techniques needed. Movie Maker also ensures that photos and videos are imported quickly and at the highest and clearest resolution, so the images are clear, avioding buffering and blurriness. It also enhances your movie by providing ready made themes and audios, which could be used for different genres of film and videos, which give us ideas of what kind of music we need and which would suit with the shots we take. Finally, once our movie is ready, we can share it online on Facebook, YouTube or other social networking and video sharing sites, and if neccessary we can send a link of our movie in an email so we can transfer our production to each other to do some editing and to make all our ideas come alive. There are many aspects of this software which may be ideal for producing our film such as the transitoin elements and havign ready made horror music if we needed it. However this software is fairly ammateur, meaning there isn't as much variety of transitions, sounds, cutting techniques etc, which could be a problem.

 

Adobe Premiere Elements 10

Another software which we could use for creating our film is a software called 'Adobe Premiere Elements 10', which from the title of it is made by 'Adobe'. Although this software is another editing software like Microsoft Movie Maker, this is software is aimed for making and creating videos and films, which is more of an advantage using this software. This software also gives you a more clearer timeline with audio and soundtracks below so you can line the shots and the music precisely together. It also has much more advance effects such as the stabilizer effect, which keeps shots still if they are shakey when they are not meant to be. This may benefit us as we want to make our opening two minutes as best as we can so a more advanced software would aid us for doing this, right? This may not be true as it makes the process a lot more complicated as there is more techniques you can use, meaning more complication. However this software includes a range of transitions, effects, cutting proceses etc, which would definitely benefit in producing our film.

 

Software used

 

In the end we used this software as it was the most suitable software we could use and excess. To edit our clips together and to make our movie run smoothly we used the editing software called Adobe Premiere Elements 10. We decided on using this as one of our editing softwares because it is what many professionals use when they edit movies, this gives us the experience of a real movie editor and what they have to do to achieve what they achieve.

 

The effects on this movie editor are acceptable for our genre of movie because they able you to control how the lighting and sounds are e.g. the volume; because our movie is a horror we like to experiment with these things to create tension and fear when you are watching it, making it beneficial for us as editors. Some of the clips had unwanted scenery in them so we tried to figure out a way to remove it; cropping the clip the same way you crop an image was the best way. We explored the editing software to enable us to find the right tool to crop our clip, we managed to find one which brought us to realise how advanced this editing software really is.

Overall this is an ideal application to use to edit our film as it makes the finished project look professional and neat, it is also easy to use which is necessary because we are unexperienced movie editiors. The range of transitions, effects and sounds makes it fun to use. The only bad thing about this software is that they lack a choice of titles and fonts to create the theme for your project, because of this we decided to look at different editing software to create our titles and fonts. We thought that IMovie had a lot of possibilities for our movie as it lets you decide on many fonts and use ones your have downloaded from the internet etc.

The Woods- Behind the scenes

Video diary #5

These behind the scene filming gives an insight of the amount of retakes we had to do, discussions and problems we had but most of all the fun times we conjured! Hoe you enjoy it and maybe 'The Woods' will be coming to a cinema near you...

Video diary #4

This is our video diary from the final day of filming, which invovles trying out the antagonist costume to see if suits and reflects what we are trying to portray. It also shows all the precures we had to do to get the right framework of them and how we made each our antagonist costume as scary as we could. Be careful you he may be in your house tonight...

Soundtrack research

Soundtrack Research

Our film soundtrack

For our film soundtrack we will be making our own music but making sure we get the right sound so that it creates the right effect on our main target audience. We will use a piano and guitar to make our music and then we will edit it when it has been put on a computer to layer it on top of each other and make a tension building and creepy piece of music. We will start it off being slow and quiet and as the piece of music goes on we will make it get louder and faster to create tension within the audience.


Horror Soundtrack

The sound track that is usually in films is tension building and scary music. It usually starts off quietly and as the antagonist gets closer it will get louder and louder; this allows the audience to build tension therefore when the antagonist is shown it makes it a lot more jumpy compared to if there was no music as there would be no build up. One good soundtrack which shows the build up well however it is for a horror/thriller is Jaws. It is a film about sharks attacking people and as soon as you hear the music you know the shark is someone and that the people who are in/ near the water are in danger. The soundtrack starts off slowly and as the shark gets closer it gets faster and louder making the audience build tension and jump more when the shark catches the person. The sound track which shows the tension build well is below.

 

 

Action soundtrack

Action sound tracks are usually very fast pace and sound a little like an orchestra. This makes the audience feel like they need to get away quickly and something bad might happen. It also makes the audience feel as if there will be some explosion about to happen as the build up of music makes it sound as if there will be aloud bang at the end of it. As the pace of the soundtrack is very fast it suits the camera shot that are used in action films as they are always very fast to make it seem as if they are moving quickly and fighting well. A typical time that this music would be shown in action films is when there is a car chase scene or a fight scene as the camera shots and sound track need to fit in well together.

 

Romance Soundtrack

The type of soundtrack that is played in romantic films is quite slow however can become quite fast when a scene is being shown when a couple are running after each other and so on. The music is always light hear ted and happy as romantic films always end up happily ever after and the couple always end up together. Slow music can also be played in romantic films if there is a love scene or just a scene where they are having a deep conversation. The type of music can also change when a bad character comes it, the music can become faster and less light heartened to show the audience that they are not wanted in the relationship- the sort of characters that this music is related to can be the interfering mother, the jealous ex boyfriend or the jealous sister/brother.

 

Film treatment

This is our film treatment, which introduces the institution of our film, MJC Productions, where in the editing stages we will make these for the beginning of our opening two minutes of our film. We speak about what we hope to happen during the beginning, middle and end/ climax of our opening two minutes, which helps with our planning as it gives us an insight of the structure of our film. Also it shows how we came to our final production as you would see in this video. We have then edited the video for our film treatment on 'Movie Maker to cut the bits, which were unnecessary and unneeded to see. 

Animated storyboard- The Woods

Antagonist Costume- Final costume

Final Antagonist costume.

This is our final antagonist costume. We have used parts of our initial ideas however we adapted it in a couple of different ways; we still have the brown mask/bag covering the face however we have changed it from being a bag to a brown towel with masking tape around the neck to create the shape of the antagonists head. We changed it so that it would make an unusual shape to make the antagonist look even more scary. We also changed the way we did the mouth as; we decided to draw the mouth on with a a black marker pen and make it look like it had been stitched although our initial idea was to just cut the mouth out. I think this creates more of an enigma towards the audience because they end up seeing less of the face as they were in our initial idea making the antagonists identity to be hidden even more. We decided to have the mise-en-scene of the character to be wearing a rustic look however look like he is quite well off. He is wearing a brown jumper with a darker green/brown jacket over the the top, he is also wearing reddish cord trousers. Overall he stereotypically looks like he has come from a rural area which links into the film because at the beginning all the shots are set in Bookham woods.This creates a link and makes the audience think that he has come from somewhere around where the film has been set - which will make them feel self conscious and worried through the rest of the film as they will be wondering who the person is and wont ever be sure because we have hidden his identity through mise-en-scene.

Video Diary #3

Video Diary #2

Music video diary

This is another of our video diaries, which involves us in the music studios composing sections of our music for our opening two minutes of 'The Woods'. These video diaries shows the amount of planning and effot we had to have to produce our film to the highest standard we can. This gives an insight of what music we are preparing to use and how we came to our final decision. Keep tuned for more sneak peeks!

Storyboard- Paper version

About our storyboards- This is our storyboards which gives us a step by step visual plan of what we hope to produce for our production. The pictures gives a visual perception of what we want to capture for the audience, which would help has during the filming and lighting stages. We also wrote description to aid us when we are on the set so it would help us picture what we want to portray. The shot types for each shot is also written down as well so it would give us a basic idea of what shot to use unless it makes the film less fluent, which means we would have to 

alter what shot we use. During filming stages we would film various shot types and lighting effects (brightness, contrasting lighting etc), so it would ensure us to gain a fluent and high quality opening two minutes as we would have many shot types to choose from and edit from.

Analysis of our storyboard- As you can see this is our storyboards for our film, 'The Woods', where we have discussed and drawn out our opening two minutes down on paper. However, we have to prepare if things go wrong while we are filming such as the shot type we use of the lighting, for example. 

Firstly, one of my favourite shots would be the first one, because if it works it would be very effective as the shot begins blurred and as she walks onward the camera focuses, meaning the girl becomes the focus pull of the shot. This would be perfect for the beginning as it introduces the film simple and subtly. This shot would also allow the audience to see the scenery and location of the where the film is set to begin with.

The forth shot may cause a slight difficulty as we need to ensure that the camera focuses on the protagonists and not the tree trunk as the camera would be constantly moving from behind the tree and back and vice versa, to suggest that something is looking at her. If the camera continuously blurs and does not focus on

the girl we will have to change the shot into a different one. An alternative could be a high angled shot of the girl walking through the woods, which would allow the audience to see the location a lot more.

Shot six is another shot I like as it would make 

the audience feel as if they are part of the film as it would seem as if it was through their eyes. If the shot work this would be very effective due to the point of view effect. This shot would also emphasis the panic and anxiety the protagonist is having as you would be able to hear her deep breaths and the camera would be moving frantically. 

We need to ensure we place a transition of some kind between shot 8 and 9 to show that there is a change in time, so we avoid confusion due to the change in lighting and location. The transition could be a dip to black from scene 8 which would then link the shots together and would create an enigma for the audience as they would want to know why she is running or what is 

she running from...

Another shot I would like if the filming goes correctly would be the use of match on action with shot 17, 18 and 19. This would be one of my favourites as it would show that we can achieve a high standard of technique of using a camera,

and would make our opening two minutes look very professional if we pull it off. 

One of my most favourite shots of the film would be the use of an underwater camera, meaning if this works we would have shots from under the water. This would be perfect as it would show the 

clear water gradually changing into a scarlet red colour from the girls bloody cut hand. However if the camera does not work or does not produce a clear image we could use an over the shoulder shot or a point of view shot so it would reflect how the protagonist is feeling due to 

the cut on her hand. 

Jumping to the final shot, as the other shots should be simple to do; this would be the most important shot of the film as this would be the last shot the audience sees of our film, meaning it should be the most memorable to make our opening two minutes stand out from the rest. This shot may need to be taken a few times so we can have various takes of the same shot, meaning we can get the perfect one! We should also make sure the background music sets the tension, for example when she opens the door the 

music goes silent and then a loud sound ends the scene. This would create another and final enigma of what she is looking at and most importantly who is standing behind her...

Overall our storyboard gives a clear perception and plan of what we need to do to produce a high standard and professional opening two minutes.

 If our filming succeeds 'The Woods' may be coming to theatres near you...

Video Diary #1

This is our first video diary of our film diary, which shows what we had to do to get various shots, effects and lighting techniques. These diaries gives insights of our thoughts and creates an image of what our final production would look like. Keep updated more to come!