Team Meeting 9: Finalising our Final draft of our Short Film - KARMA

The screenshot above represents Asmaa & I finalising our final draft for our short film extract. Unfortunately, Anita didn't choose to stay with us to be able to complete the final draft due to personal reasons so it was only Asmaa & I that worked together to try and fix the feedback and comments given from our initial draft; from the people in our class as well as the target audiences for our short film, KARMA, which is for 16 years old and above (boys and girls). This was suitable as most of the people in our class is over 16 years old and its culturally diverse.

In order to meet our final deadline in using the editing suite, Asmaa & I decided to book the editing suite from 10:10am until 11:20am since Asmaa have a lesson starting from 11:30 am. However, I had a lesson at 10:20 am so I could not be there with Asmaa during our scheduled time to edit however, we discussed how we should take in turns on finalising our final draft in order to improve the elements such as, removing multiple scenes that were not needed as we had trouble overcoming the length of the short film video as it overpass 5 minutes; when its supposed to be at least less than 5 minute on the dot.

Asmaa was assigned to take care of cutting down a few more scenes that were not needed but still making sure it flows naturally and not including any jump shots as it will make the plot of the short film not make any sense. We have planned on just applying appropriate video transitions, mainly cross fade as it will flow naturally and work well together to move one scene to the next.

In addition, we have booked the editing suite from 12:50 pm until 13:45 pm as it was my role to check over the changes that Asmaa did earlier today. As I briefly re-watched the short film  from Final Cut Pro, I have spotted a couple of sound effects that were not synchronise well with the chosen scenes and some sound did not flow naturally as there's a slight second of pause in between the scenes. For this matter, I have fixed the sound by fading in and out from one soundtrack and ambience sound to the next. The music will be able to flow naturally and efficiently so it will go with the mood of the scenes towards the target audiences.

Finally, I kept on re-watching the short film over and over again to make sure we did not make any mistakes nor forget to add certain video transitions as we have had a couple of jump shots (as we lacked filming more scenes) so our short film would make sense and make the target audiences understand easier. Also, I have re-edited the credits scene at the very end of the short film since the layout of the text appeared untidy and messy to look at which makes it unprofessional towards the target audiences to see; as they might say we did not bother on fixing it.

MAC KEYBOARD NOTES ON USING FINAL CUT PRO

The image above shows the basic information knowledge that we need to encounter whilst using a MAC computer on editing our short film using Final Cut Pro. We, as a group, have assigned roles as Anita would be the main editor so she will be in charge of the mouse whilst Asmaa and I would be contributing by telling her what to do in case she was stuck and did not know what to do. 

However, us assigning roles for each person in the group does not work efficiently as sometimes we lack confidence in our assigned roles so what we did to improve our team work- was that we assigned Geneva, me to take in charge of the mouse as Anita and Asmaa would also be in charge of the mouse less however, they have contributed on assigning me what to do because I own a MAC laptop at home so I was more fitted for being in charge of the editing since I knew some of the keyboard shortcuts, like shown above.

The image shown above represents a MAC keyboard, similar to the one we have constantly been using to edit our short film. Also, the skills I have learnt from editing is that I have learnt how to add an mp4 or any music data file on to final cut pro. At first, I did not know what Render was and how it was significant for us to know what the purpose of Render was. When you are ready to render, you need to select a sequence from your scenes in final cut pro that you want to render. The Rendering process is by default- as render files are created at a good quality. You can choose to render a video, sound or both.

Overall, Rendering is a process of creating temporary video and audio render files for segments or a sequence that Final Cut Pro cannot play in real time. This has helped us understand the benefits in having to make sure to click on alt buttons and the letter R at the same time once clicked on a specific sequence.

Initial Sound Effects Sample - KARMA

The sound samples shown above represents the chosen initial sound effects that I have chosen in order to add it into our final draft of our short film. I have found these free copy right sound in iMovie, an editing software found only in Mac based computers as there's already some appropriate sound effects for any type of genre's such as, comedy, romance, action, horror, thriller and many more.

In this case, I have found these free copyright sound effects underneath the title genre of 'Texture' from iMovie and chosen Mystery 01, 02, 03 and 04 as the initial sound effect to conclude for our short horror/thriller film because it would be able to create a sense of suspense and tension between the ghost, Diana and Priscilla.

UPDATE

Since I have shown these sound samples towards my team members, they think it's good and appropriate but unfortunately, at the same time, they think it would be too much to keep adding more and more sound tracks nor sound effects as we already have just enough so it would appear like it's a horror/thriller genre based of a short film. In my point of view, I completely understand what they meant as it would have so many different sounds overlapping each other that it may sound too irritating and annoying towards the target audiences so we did not want for that to happen.

Exploring iMovie Sound Effects

The screenshot above represents some of our initial sound effects to use and apply for our initial short film. This is what I went and did during the weekend in order to save us some contingency time and be able to meet given deadlines, such as having to complete our final draft for our short film by next week friday.

I have briefly looked over for appropriate sound effects, ambience sounds from my macbook pro laptop, by clicking on iMovie editing software. I tend to look for sounds that would be appropriate for a horror/thriller short film so in this case, I went and clicked on Textures and I was able to get some relevant and suspense sound effects in order to apply into our toilet and park scenes. The chosen sound effects that I have chosen was Mystery Accents 01, 02, 03 and 04 as they sounded spooky and suspense which would go well with some of the scenes in our short film. However, I just need to show these chosen sound effects towards my team members - to see if they agree with my choices.

Team Meeting 8: Completing editing & Applying Appropriate Sound Effects

The screenshot above represents Asmaa, Anita & I coping with finalising our editing for our final draft of our short horror/thriller film called Karma. We have decided to re-edit the scenes again since the length of the initial short film had overpass the 5 minute range rule as it was stated from our main task sheet. For this matter, we just copy and pasted the scenes from our old initial version into our new initial version as our mentor suggested that we don't really need to include a lot of scenes as they were irrelevant and it was too much to watch.

Also, we have explored and played around GarageBand as it's a type of music making application as we wanted to create some ghostly whisper sound effects in order to apply it in the park scene, all the way the ending and climax for our short film. However, since I experimented at using GarageBand at home, I knew some of the basics whilst having to teach myself how to record and apply different types of mic's, such as bright vocals, telephone, echo strum and so many more. In this case, we wanted to make the voices of Diana, sound like an echo so we decided to apply echo strum and hit record and be able to record Asmaa's voice since she was cast as one of the lead for our short film.

Overall, the sound that we made turned out great as it took us at least 30 minutes to record and export (or save as file) and be able to apply it into our initial draft. Asmaa & I recorded the sound at lunch time since we booked it in order to complete the initial version of our short horror/thriller film called Karma.

Working on GarageBand for Initial Sound Effects

I have been working on producing echo sounds using my own vocal voice using GarageBand at home. We would be able to use this for the park scene where Diana is slowly walking towards the ghost in order to make it appear spooky and suspense as the vocals are indicating that it is the voice of Priscilla which is the ghost.

I have decided to work extra time at home to browse through more initial sound effects to include onto our short film because it would save us time management as we're having a screening on Tuesday and we're only halfway finish on editing our short film. Also, I have asked Anita to browse and look for appropriate sound effects and soundtrack (not forgetting to ask permission to use it from the owner), so it would not be seen as a copyright act.

Focus Group Feedback based on Print Pitch

On this pitch, we have received useful feedbacks as we have encountered some of the options picked by our focus group, as they are an example of our target audiences. We have asked a few questions whether which options of font styles, tagline and others which had helped us shape our ideas.



UPDATE: In the end, we have not encountered the ideas from our focus group because we did our own researched and browse through different font styles for out title to include on to our print products as well as tagline and journalism text. Either way, it has helped us have an idea based on the picks that they have chosen that will be appropriate for our print products.

In the end, the font style and all the other house style element features that we have included on the final version of our print products has worked well together professionally.

Team Meeting 7: Meeting Deadlines & Continuing Editing

We have been told from our mentor, Vanessa, that the deadline for our initial short film draft should be completed by this Friday, however, she said that we still have a little bit of time to edit after friday since the screening will be next week Tuesday. In this case, Anita & I booked the editing suite from 10:10 am until 11:30 pm tomorrow in order to try and complete our initial short film draft done in a standard and having not to rush it- since it will become messy and unorganised. Also, we have texted Asmaa to let her know what we did today and how we have booked the editing suite tomorrow and asked if she is free so we can all work together as a 3; which will be so much easier than having 2 people.


Today, 18th November, we planned on continuing to edit our short film as we re-shooter some scenes and completed all of our scenes for our short horror/thriller film. 

Unfortunetly, Asmaa wasn't present today due to a trip so it was only Anita & I that continued editing and imported all of the scenes shot from friday and weekend onwards; including the establishing shot of the house. Anita & I took turns on editing as we had to import the scenes we shot over the last 3 days in order to follow up our final story board. However, it was quite difficult since we both have different views on how long we should leave the scenes for since Anita said that the scenes were going too fast as the readers would find it difficult ad confusing to follow but as for me, I thought they were just fine.

Further more, I have agreed on some scenes from the locker scene being too long as they were not necessary to watch at. In this case, we briefly re-watched our initial editing draft quite a few times in order to shorten some scenes that were not interesting to see e.g. the scene where the two friends, Diana and Rachel, throughout the locker scene was too long since we don't have no dialogue script- Anita and I have shorten it so we only see a split of seconds as we also have to keep in mind of our length ability of our short film based on the Treatment pitch we have presented towards the class. 

It was difficult editing when your group have different set of views based on editing, which I think wasted a bit of our time management due to countless arguments as we wanted to get our individual ideas out, however, one person would or may disagree as it would cause some conflicts and frustration amongst the group altogether. It is quite a waste of time having to argue at times, so I have made sure I listen well towards the group about their own view and tell them what I think in a way that would be appropriate to add on our short film based on our chosen genre; horror/thriller. 

Before, we have had some conflicts and little arguments about particular scenes not being focused, the actors not keeping in character throughout filming and also, for the actors not available when we needed to shoot even though it was urgent. But now, since we have learnt to become patient with another- I told my group that whatever their view is on editing, they should always refer back to the genre and target audiences- if it's appropriate for them to include a certain aspect or element such as a particular type of video transition effect, sound effects and the length ability of each of the scenes shot.

BTS images whilst editing with Anita & I (Asmaa's absent due to a trip)

Anita & I editing the first scene of our short film as it was shot last Friday. As you can see, we're nearly halfway done editing our initial draft but we still have to make sure the short film overall doesn't appear rush or too quick for the target audiences to watch it; which are 16 year old and above (boys & girls).

On this scene, it represents us still editing the first few scenes for our short horror/thriller scenes without the present of Asmaa.

KARMA TRAILER (Initial draft)

The trailer above represents our initial trailer draft for our short horror/thriller film called 'KARMA'. However, I still need to add some more appropriate scenes from the locker, park scene and toilet scene in order to captivate the target audiences attention more. This short video was edited by me, Geneva using iMovie editing software; which it was simple and easy to use and work my way through it.

The screenshot above represents comments based on my initial draft that we have created for our short film. Vivian & Anne are both my peers as they're 17 years old which would set a good example of a sample for my target audiences, which was 16 year olds and above. Since they're both girls, they have feedback nice and encouraging comments as seen above. However, Anne have feed backed stating I need to add more work as she stated when I was talking to her face-to-face that 'I need to choose a more appropriate scenes to establish the genre horror/thriller; as I understood her clearly. From this feedback gained, I will be replacing some scenes included on my initial trailer draft onto my final trailer to make it more gruesome and scary based on the comments received.

BTS: Final shooting scene based on the feedback from our Mentor (Vanessa)

Camera Technique: Establishing Shot (Location)

The image above represent the final shooting scene that we had to do based on the feedback from our mentor, Vanessa as she suggested to film an establishing shot of the house we have used for the bedroom scene. This will make it more presentable and clear towards the target audiences as it will be intriguing to watch our short film.

Unfortunately, we can't all be together as a team to shoot this part of the short film due to personal reasons because we were going to shoot it on Saturday. So, since we shot the bedroom scene in my bedroom, I have decided to be the one responsible of shooting the establishing shot of the house to showcase the location change. This will be easier as a team and it will only take me about less than 10 minutes to shoot the scene in this particular camera technique. Also, I'm already confident enough to know my way around the DSLR camera as I borrowed it over for the weekend, as well as using the tripod since I've been taught from my Photography lessons.

I shot the scene today, 16th November 2014 at around 12:15 pm as the weather appeared quite gloomy but later on, it was sunny for a slight moment. Even though I shot it early at noon, it would still appear like it's in the afternoon after college as we shot the bedroom scene around 12:30 pm when it's supposed to represent late in the afternoon on the short film since Diana came home from college then.

My Plans for the Weekend: Browsing through initial sound effects & Meeting the Editing Deadline

After asking my mentor, Amy, about when the deadline for editing our final draft for our short film- she said they have extended the deadline date to next friday, which would be Friday 21st November 2014.

 Personally, I am worried because my team is still browsing through sound effects and sound tracks that are horror/thriller related themes in order to add and apply them to our specific films to make it appear and sound like it's building up tension; scene by scene. Also, we still needed time to get use to working with Final Cut pro editing software because every time we come up with a certain effect, we don't know how to apply and look for them around the software provided.

In addition, I have decided to teach myself the basic tools and techniques to use for my short film, such as, black and white effect- so it will save me some contingency time in the end in order to edit and improve it later. Also, tomorrow on a Saturday- I will be carefully browsing through some of the free copyright sound effects from my iMovie editing software as I have come across with  few that would work and blend well together with parts of the scene shot. At the same time, I will be engaging my team members via Facebook message in order to ask them their own views and opinions about which particular sound effects/soundtracks to use for our horror/thriller short film produced.

However, alongside all of the troubles and difficulties we're facing as a group when it comes to editing- it had given me an insight on what it's really like working in a team and how different views will create problems as well since they will be some conflicts between each other. But I can now say that, as a group, we have learnt how to be patient and understanding with each other since we didn't listen to each others opinions before since we were raising our voice.

BTS: Last shooting scenes & Making of the Fake Blood (Props)

Behind the Scenes of our Final shooting scenes in the tree (near the college) as it will include 'fake blood' dripping slowly on the trunks of the tree alongside the mud and grass on the ground. Unfortunately, we have changed our final scenes based on what it's drawn from our final storyboard because we have had some troubles writing down 'R.I.P Diana' on the tree and we did not want to waste our time focusing on the tree so, as a team, we have decided to shoot a tree pasted with 'blood' in order to showcase and engage the target audiences so it will make them wonder and ask questions on what happened to Diana next; after the ghost were strangling her...

Final Location Image

We shot our final scene on this location near our college so it will save us time than having to walk and travel to the park or anywhere else. And also, we did not rush this time compared to before as we did not have that much 'blood' in order to create tension or dramatic effect towards the target audiences in order to make it seem like it's an actual horror/thriller short film based.

DISCLAIMER: We did not film our final scenes on the same day we took the image above as they're both set in different days hence the weather change; the image above location was sunny and the part where we shot our final scenes were gloomy/rainy hence the grey clouds.

The three sample images above represents us shooting the final scenes for our short film; Karma. As you can see, after we had shot the tree part- we made sure we clean it after as a sign of respecting the college property as we're not seen vandalising the college. This shows how much consideration and care we take this responsibility whilst filming for our subtask. 

Starting from Scratch: Fake Blood (Props)

-Golden/corn syrup

-Red colouring

- A plastic cup

-A plastic spoon 

-Tissue Paper

-A key or fork (to open the lid of the golden/corn syrup

-plastic bag

-add little drops of water (to make the liquid more runny)

Behind The Scenes: Toilet Scene

Team Meeting 6: Discussing Final Filming Sessions & Props

Our next team meeting held today, as we have come to conclusion to finally complete filming tomorrow, Friday 14th November. The reason why we have had exception on filming since the deadline was on Monday. 

Our mentor, Vanessa, had a one-to-one discussion about how our editing as well as filming session is going and asked if we needed extra time to shoot some scenes due to our actress being occupied whenever we set a date to film. This had made us quite behind because we needed to complete filming in order to finish editing and addicting our finalise scenes then having to add appropriate and suitable sound effects and soundtracks for our thriller/horror short film produced. We are re-shooting the toilet scene that lead Diana towards the 'ghost' in the park the next day by the mirror written red-lipstick on the glass in the toilet. Also, I (Geneva) will be taking the DSLR camera home to capture and film the establishing shot of my house in order to add it on our short film to make sense and run naturally.

Furthermore, since we have run out of fake blood and halloween had passed- we have decided to make our very own fake blood from scratch by gathering ingredients e.g. golden/corn syrup, red colouring and cocoa powder (and water to make it runny) so we can use it for the final scene, which will be pasted in a tree on its trunks.






SAMPLE OF THE INGREDIENTS:

BTS: Park Scene & Weather Conditions

BEHIND THE SCENES TEASER IMAGES: PARK SCENE (ABBOTS PARK)

We have filmed on Tuesday, 11/11/2014 at 12:30 pm as we were shooting the park scene where Diana comes to the park in company with her best friend, Priscilla, as Priscilla is not aware of what's been happening to Diana from the past few days...

The image above represents I, Geneva, producing and working with the camera as we focus on the scenes in the park obtained from our final storyboard processed. The scenes include many variety of camera techniques and angle shots such as, panning shot, medium shot, over shoulder shot, full shot, extreme close-up shots, lower to high angle shots and many more. We, fortunately, have another extra person as she helped us keep the actors entertained and content due to the misery and cold/rainy weather we have faced throughout this day of filming. 

We have faced some trouble based on the gloomy weather because it made our actors cold and shivering so they were quite miserable and lacked energy as well as emotion to not act. However, throughout it all- we have dodged the weather by not caring at all and not letting us interrupt our filming sessions so we continued filming as we pretended that the weather was nice and sunny; which it actually helped us keep in mind that we can just ignore the coldness of our hands and face and complete the park scene at ease. We also made sure we look through our storyboard to make sure we didn't leave anything out, however, since it was extremely difficult to write on the tree as mentioned for the very last scene of our short film- we, as a group, have decided to not include the 'R.I.P Diana' message on the tree and include a scene of a tree, drenched in 'blood' of Diana's as the 'blood' flows slowly down to the trail of the tree trunk, then including the last scene where the blood drops one by one to the ground...

WEATHER FORCAST UPDATE: GLOOMY/SHOWERING RAIN

Fortunately, we have had an extra helper on set this day as she had an umbrella to cover the DSLR camera whilst we were shooting as it didn't effect the park scenes that much- in case, it had created a reality kind of effect as the clouds appeared grey and gloomy; matching the same feeling going on around Diana's mind as she finally arrives at the park where the ghost 'Priscilla' told her to meet her, without the notice of her best friend...

COSTUMES OF ACTORS: Diana

- Pink cotton coat

- a nice, modern scarf

-black skirt

-black tights

-pink flats

-tied up hair style with a side fringe alongside a cute hair brand

This is an overview of what Diana was wearing throughout the park scenes. In addition, she almost wore the same pink jacket in the short film which would link it back to her personality type of being a 'popular type of girl' in college.

Location Release: Permission to use the Bedroom

This is a location release form that my dad has signed in order to confirm and allow us to film in the bedroom as well as use the location of the house. Also, this has helped us go through real life form license in order to confirm and provide permission to use someone else's house (we used my house) to film the bedroom scenes for our short film.

Team Meeting 5: Editing Conflicts & Feedback from Mentor (Vanessa)

We have held another team meeting and this time, we have been working on editing our first and second draft of our short film using Final Cut Pro editing software. We have been editing our locker scene as well as our toilet scene; which is the very beginning entrance of our scenes overall. 

Throughout this team meeting, we were discussing and pointing out our different ideas based on how long each scene should be in order to make it run smoothly and naturally as our target audiences watch it. Also, we had technical difficulties when using the editing software because even though I use some common editing software like ADOBE Premier Pro, I still find it quite a struggle since the layout structure of what we're looking for, e.g. the sound volume, is placed differently than the one I (Geneva) normally use.

So, for this matter- I suggested to the group that what if we just focus on the beginning scenes because I felt like it was edited in a rush as we have to make sure the different angle shots and camera techniques, e.g. medium shots, extreme close-up and so on are being portrayed in a way that is suitable for the chosen genre of the short film; which is thriller and horror. I felt the need to take our time as well as not fall far behind as we need to work on our time management well enough to meet certain deadlines for our subtasks and main tasks gained. However, my group do not agree with the idea of start editing back to the first scene (since we don't have the establishing shot of the college yet and certain other camera angle and elements that we needed to shoot for), since they said it'll waste time and just focus on continuing editing our toilet scene.

 Asmaa have said that we can always put everything together in place as our initial draft scenes then we can always swap and edit things around while we're done filming the scenes based on our storyboard so I have come to agreement and just go for the best choice for now.

____________________________________________________________


FEEDBACK GAINED FROM VANESSA (MENTOR)

The notes made above showcases our multiple feedback notes based on camera techniques to work on after our mentor, Vanessa had watched our first and second draft for our short film. She had briefly recommended to re-shoot some scenes, e.g. the toilet scene and bedroom scene as we have lack on some camera shots and angles in order to run our short film smoothly and naturally for our target audiences, which is 16 years old and above.