Question 4 - How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

What Is New Media?

New media is the industry term for the different electronic forms of communication that have been made readily available for everyone to use through the aid of computer technology. This has really benefited the industry as well as the individuals who start out within the schools and colleges such as myself. This is greatly due to the fact that using the internet and technology proves cheaper and more time efficient then the older more paper based forms and this has cut the time it takes to complete equivalent computer based tasks. moreover the internet has allowed small time producers to readily distribute their work on the internet from the touch of a button and this has seen the production and distribution of short films go through the roof. confidence plays a big role within this industry and now that a movie can be filmed, edited and then uploaded to the internet from one room and one person has contributed to the increase in "young talent spouting" up more and more as technology develops and improves. 


In a society where we live our life around electronic systems and gadgets and where even today’s newspapers are being replaced with online e-reading it would be a good idea to talk about all the technologies I use and how they have helped me to get to where I am with my media studies today.


My montage of images of all the new technology I have used over the last 2 years of me A-level media course:

1. Youtube: www.youtube.com This website has been one of the most useful and helpful website to me out of the many that I use daily and over the last five years I have visited it daily, looking for videos ranging from instruction on how to remove the front bumper of my VW golf to pure comedy entertainment. Moreover it had been the foundation to my media studies and has provided me with countless examples of short films and has also allowed me to upload any video evidence that I produce in conjunction with my studies such as the lighting workshops and audience feedback comments, as well as allowing me to upload my final pieces of film for the public to view. Youtube also provides video comments and up to a five star rating system as well allowing private messages to be sent to individual video hosts, which I have made full use of. This feature has really helped me as I have contacted many different members asking questions about elements of certain videos.

2. USB Drives: I have found USB drives extremely useful throughout my media course, as transferring work from school computers to the computer at home has been made very easy with the use of the USB stick. Moreover, when we are working in our production group, the use of the USB stick has really made sharing work and transferring documents such as the production day photos very quick and hassle free, as I experienced when attempting to email over 250 megabits worth of photos to Nicola Carlisle who is the production design manager in our group. I had tried to send them but it was going to take an hour or so but transferring them through the use of the memory stick took 5 minutes and this proved a lot more efficient and less time consuming. I also use the USB drive as a file and document back up, which has proven very effective as I have deleted or “lost” my work on a few occasions and the USB has ensured I still had a copy. I have started to back my USB work up weekly, which means that every week I copy all my school document folders onto the usb which then ensures if I lost everything, I would only ever be one week behind.

3. Hotmail Account: This website has also made transferring work from computer to computer easier as it allows you to send work to your on email address, thus logging onto a different computer and downloading the work. This feature has really helped me to transfer documents and is a perfect example of new media. The hotmail account is also a way of emailing and contacting people, such as other directors and producers of short film. I have not made great use of the website other then to send work to myself and my piers, mainly due to the fact that other websites are proving more efficient as well as the USB taking over the need to send work.

4. Flip Video Camera: This piece of technology is very familiar to us as we have been using it throughout the two years of doing media A-level. It is extremely easy and quick to use and does not come with any of the difficulties a larger video camera would have such as the Sony PD150. The one button start and stop record feature as well as simple USB plug and play features make it a first choice for us when we want to record evidence of work that has completed, such as the audience feedback which could then be simply uploaded straight to Youtube.com and then embedded onto our blogs. The use of this new technology has made recording work and showing it in a simple video very easy and effective and without it, everything we would do would still have to be paper based and would take up considerately more time, which could be spent completing other pieces of work.

5. Sony PD150: The Sony PD150 was the camera we used to film our final short film production Synchronicity. Being a fan of video cameras and in the knowledge that this was one of the most expensive pieces of kit that we would be using, our group was very privileged to be allowed to use the camera. This piece of equipment proved invaluable as I know that many other schools have to make do with standard video cameras, which would not have given us the sharpness and quality that can bee seen throughout our film.

6.  Cannon Digital SLR Camera: Again, this proved to be a very useful piece of new technology throughout the pre and post production stages of our film, as taking photos of what we were doing as evidence as well as taking shots of certain events during the filming day, in order to use them as post card, was made very quick and easy with this camera. It also made us take light into consideration as the post card photos needed to set the correct mood. The quality of the camera was exquisite and it really gave us every opportunity to get the best photos. If this piece of technology was not available, we may be left to draw out our postcard designs which would not give us that professional that the SLR gives us.

7. Blackberry Curve 9300: The use of the mobile phone has transformed the way we communicate and this proved extremely helpful throughout the production of Synchronicity, as all the members of the group would need to talk to each other and communicate outside of school at some stage or another. For example, on the day of filming, I had to communicate with my teacher, Miss Shipp as well as the rest of the crew to confirm when we were filming and general plans for the day. Without the use of the mobile phone, I would have had to email them all which would have taken longer and I could not have been 100% sure that they would have checked there email messages before setting out. Moreover with the use of the Blackberry curve 9300 emails are sent straight to the phone, therefore I can ensure that I will always look at any email that is sent to me.

8. Blogger Website: www.blogger.com This is an online publishing website where we upload all of our work to. It is a very useful blogging site and allows the individual to publish work, attach videos and pictures to the site as well as personalising each channel to suit preferred layouts. For example, as I am aspiring to be a pilot, blogger allowed me to have a plane wing with the sky as my overall background theme as well as allowing my to change colors of fonts and writing styles. The blogger webpage is very clear and simple to use and most of the work we have dad to do has been posted on this website for us to see, so it is vital that the blogger pages are clear and informative, which they are and this makes completing all the tasks that are set, easier and less time consuming as we do not have to spend time wondering what we actually have to do as it can just be posted on here as opposed to Miss Shipp having to tell us firsthand. Without the use of this technology, we would have to have a vast amount of work on paper which would take more time to complete and could cause serious problems if we lost the work, but I back everything up that is on my blogger page, so I know I always have a copy of what I am doing.

9. Scanner: The scanner proved very useful when transferring all the pre production work that we had to done to the computer, such the script, story board, shot list, mood boards and many other pre production documents. It allowed us to save them as a JPEG picture file and then upload them to blogger.com. without the use of this new technology, we would not have been able to add any pre production work to the blog, which meant that we would either have to draw it all on the computer to start with or we wouldn’t be able to do it at all which would have lost us crucial marks.

10. Editing Suite: This is a industry standard edit suite and we are privileged that all of the editing suites within kings Langley school have this program running on them. Having Adobe premier pro on the computers really allowed us to maximize our editing skills and would cater for any effects and visuals we wanted to incorporate in our short film “Synchronicity”. Without the use of this program, editing would have been very difficult and we would not have been able to have such a professional looking short film.

Question 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience Feedback
question 3 requires us to get audience feedback on our production of Synchronicity as this plays a big part of any film and it is vital to found out what the audience likes/dislikes about our film. I found the feedback invaluable as it gave me an insight as to how other people perceived my film.


Below are two videos of my classmates commenting on Synchronicity.




After asking the other groups specific questions about our production, it  become very clear to me that there was a trend in the positive aspecst of the film as well as the negative aspects of the film. Both groups said similar things and this proved invaluable to me as I learnt what we had done well and what didn't come out so well. The question exposed floors in our narrative as it become clear to me that many people did not fully understand the story line. This has helped me to understand that my story line should have been clearer as people to not know where the 'Synchronicity' element is, as the idea of me linking the train crashes was not shown that well through our media production. Moreover the child neglect element proved stronger although, comments suggest that this aspect was still difficult to extract from my film and many people were left slightly confused as to what was going on. So to answer the main question: What was the story about, Child neglect mixed with the synchronisation of the girl causing a train crash, making a real train crash happen, baffling her parents. Another question that was brought up was where is she at the end, as the so called establishing shot does not actually establish where she is at all. She was meant to be in the garden shed, but we felt that it added a feeling of suspense, if the audience do not actually know where she is in the last scene. 
We had many positive comments regarding my choice of music which i was pleased with as it had taken my many hours searching for the correct music that would suit our film.


If I was to film the whole production again, I would ensure that the message comes across cleaere and I would start by firstly brainstorming and then determining the message first, as I came to the realisation that, myself as the director at points was unclear of my own message and this has then passed into my film production as it is slightly unclear as to what is actually going on.
As the message was the main factor brought up in my feedback, then I believe that if I could change it and create a more distinguishable message, then my overall feedback would improve for the film. I would also work on making it very clear that Isabel is what caused the train crash and I would hope to make the films title of Synchronicity be easily recognisable within the production as this was another comment I have had about the film.





It was equally important for us to get comments from staff outside the media circle as this provided a view that came from outside our media class. Miss Wright, the Key Stage 5 Pastrol Leader kindly agreed to watch our short film and I was very pleased with the set of comments that she gave us. She talked about the use of the clocks to show time passing by and how this added a positive effect. With each different comment we have about the film, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the ending is what needs the most work. I now believe that is i was do do the whole production again, making sure that the ending was very clear and that people understand it could make the narrative easier to understand, and this linked with a less complex story line could be what is needed in order to make this short film a higher calibre.


The point I Would make about all of the feedback that we have received is that our classmates feedback and Miss wrights feedback were very different. As our class is an A2 media studies class, they know what conventions make a good short film as it is part of the course to study this and therefore there feddback and comments reflect on the knowledge they already have about media and they used this knowledge to answer the questions. On the other hand Miss Wrights comments were very different as she states that she fully understood the story line and that the characters were easily distinguishable and she also commented on the clock which no one else had done. Moreover she also talked about our ending and how we should work on that if we were to do this production again.


All of the comments were extremely important for us as a production group as it showed us what an outside perspective of our film was like and what points were good and what was not so good.


Postcard Feedback


Getting the feedback for my post card was extremely important for me as I has given me an outsiders perspective of whether I have followed the traditional form and convention of industry standard post card. The conclusion being yes I have followed the conventions as stated in the video. Moreover I was very pleased to hear my fellow class friend tell me that my final post card design was of a good standard and that elements such as the careful selection of the image, which is of Isabel playing with her train which he says "attracts the viewer". He did not mention my tagline but I believe that it is appropriate for the film and it goes well with the picture. The tagline reads "Why wont they come play with me?". Sohail also talks about the back of my post card, saying that it was "good" but could have used more colour to give the reader an image to play with. I chose to leave the back of the post card white as opposed to adding in a picture or colour as I believe this follows the right forms and conventions. 


The final post card looks similar to one of my 6 post card designs I have previously made and with help from my piers I chose post card number 3 for the front and 6 for the back. The feedback that I received from my piers also helped my to determine what to include on the back and in what layout as i had drawn 3 different kinds, all with different layouts.


If I was to do the post cards again, the main thing I would change is the amount of photos I would take on the day of filming, as I only took 3 or 4 good photos, therefore not giving myself much of a variety of images to choose from, which left me not being able to have much choice. But overall I am very happy with my choice of post cards as they follow the correct form and conventions of a short film production.


Short Film Review Feedback

This last video on the audience feedback for my short film review page was extremely important for me as it gave me an outside perspective on my short review and whether I fulfilled the criteria of all the forms and conventions. I gave Sohail, a fellow class mate, a copy of my short film review page 20 minutes before we filmed this clip as I wanted to capture his first initial impression of what he thought about me review. After he had seen and read through the page, we then went and filmed this feedback seen above and I was very pleased with what he said. The fact that he noted that I had followed the forms and conventions of the Empire magazine saying “the contents of what I had written talks in detail about the film” and that the picture described the film and “captured” the audiences imagination very well. He also noted that the picture “helps attract a wider audience”. These comments made me extremely happy about my final result as many of his comments backed up what I had previously said I wanted to achieve in my review. I asked Sohail what could I improve in this review page and he said the best thing would be to add another image. After this clip, I went and added another small image on the bottom right hand side of the review, based upon Sohails comments, and this picture helped to give the audience and establishing shot of the location as well as providing more imagery for the reader to play with and imagine how this train will be incorporated within my film. Something which I did not ask but that I feel should have been noted down was the fact that I had not included a synopsis and character list. The reason behind not including a synopsis was that I was following the forms and conventions to that of Empire magazine and in the reviews I had studied they had not included a synopsis and therefore this is what I believed the forms and conventions of empire was, based on my research. The reason for not including character list is due to the fact that I had completely run out of room on the page and I felt that everything I had already included was very important to the page and therefore I could not afford to substitute anything.


If I was to undergo this task again, the main thing I would change is that I would ensure that the layout I included would allow room for character lists and production company names. I would only add a synopsis if my research showed me that in order to follow to follow the forms and conventions of the Empire industry magazine, I need to include one.

In conclusion to this entire post, I believe that I have learnt a invaluably lesson through asking the questions and gaining the knowledge about the kind of work I have produced. I am very happy with my final short film, my post card design and short film review page and therefore going through all the stages of the audience feedback has proved very effective and without it I would not have been aware of the positive and negative aspects of my three media texts and therefore would not have fulfilled the criteria to the full potential.

Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Ancillary Tasks

The second question involves me looking at my two ancillary texts calculating the effectiveness of them when combined with my short film. My ancillary texts are my short film advertisements post cards and the short film review magazine page. The idea behind the post cards, film review and short film is that they all work together, post cards informing and enticing the audience in, the short film review, giving the audience a industry standard insight into the plot and the characters and finally the short film, hopefully catching the mind and imagination of the audience and projecting my skills as a script writer and director to big named producers who will then hopefully back me with finance and expertise.

I have decided to use screen grabs from my short film, “Synchronicity”, to show how all of the above go hand in hand and to show the effectiveness of the three combined.

Below is a sound recording of myself, talking about the effectiveness of it when combined with my short film and film review page.

Effectiveness of Post Card

Z0000016 by antonr91

I have also included I picture of the post card and the short film "Synchronicity" , to illustrate the effectiveness of the two texts when combined.
Below is an image of my post card and some snap shots from my film. I have added arrows showing the correlation between the post card and the snap shots.

Below is a second sound clip of myself, talking about my Short film Review page which is my second piece of ancillary text.

Effectiveness of Short Film Review Page

Film review by antonr91

Just like in other posts and during my media studies at kings Langley School, I have had to sign up to various different sights in order to complete certain tasks and to get certain files online and onto the Blogger page. As I have not yet used a sound only MP3 file on my blog yet, in order to complete this post I had to sign up to a media hosting site calles Soundcloud. http://soundcloud.com

I am very new to this website, but I already feel that it has played a significant part in getting my post complete and without this new media technology I would have had to use other, more time consuming methods such as writing in on paper and then manually handing it in for marking.

Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Short Film - Synchronicity
Question 1 requires me to think about whether my short film uses, develops or challenges forms and conventions of real media products. The brief states that we need to get 16 screen grabs of our film and write a short explanation, answering the questions above.


Shot 1

This medium close up of Isabel skipping towards the back door uses forms and conventions as it sets the scene as you instantly get the message that this film involves a sweet and innocent little girl clutching her teddy. 












Shot 2

The second shot in this short film also uses forms and conventions of real media products as the panning long shot 


















Shot 3

The third shot uses forms and conventions of real media products. I felt that the lawyers office and surrounding scenery as well as there smart dress code, both wearing suits and the fact that a laptop, filing cabinet and a lamp are centre pieces and draw the eye, suggesting to the audience that this is a office. It is a good establishing shot as it also makes you aware that they are organised, and hard working.

Shot 4

This screen shot uses forms and conventions of real media products as it establishes that Isabel is interrupting her dad and his raised hand would suggest that he is telling her off, or asking her to leave.

Shot 5

The fifth screen grab uses real media conventions as it is a close up of the train and this suggests that this will be part of the film and that she may interact with it. Moreover the teddy bear is still in her grasp and I could be said that it looks sad. The expression on her face shows sadness and this coincides with the previous shot of her dad shouting at raising his hand.

Shot 6

Shot 6 uses and develops real media products as the close up of the clock shows transition through time which helps to give the audience the feeling that time is going past and that Isabel is just wasting away.

Shot 7

The seventh shot challenges real media products as it shows Isabel still in the same setting playing with her teddy which is unrealistic of a girl of that age as they would not be able to stay in one place for long periods of time whilst doing nothing.










Shot 8

The eighth screen shot uses forms and conventions of real media products as it creates a tense feeling as you can see that Isabel is holding back from opening the door. 

Shot 9

Shot nine is similar to shot four and I believe it uses form and conventions of real media products as it is an establishing shot of Isabel interrupting her parents at work. The shot shows Simon, the father slamming down the phone whilst what look like Lisa, the mother reading some vital documents.

Shot 10

The tenth shot uses real media forms and conventions as the camera angle would suggest that the dominant power is coming from the parents. The camera height is that of the Isabel the victim in this story, which shows how her parents are looking down at her and makes them feel superior. This would be a common characteristic of a short film.

Shot 11

I believe that shot eleven challenges media forms and conventions as the camera angle is very low, showing female dominance as Lisa, the mother is standing up. This challenges film conventions as short films always show male patriarchy.

Shot 12

Shot twelve challenges media conventions as the low angle shot continues the feeling of victimisation and makes the audience feel that something bad is about to happen when this was just meant to be an establishing shot that would allow you to psychologically create the train set with her.

Shot 13

In this shot the audience can establish where she is and what is going which is why I would say that this uses real media forms and conventions which the audience can react with.

Shot 14

The fourteenth shot uses and develops real media forms and conventions as the long angle of the camera with the blue effects of the lighting creates an intense action shot and having the teddy get thrown towards the camera as opposed to away from it gives the audience intense visuals and when combined with the sound, it helps to create a truly breath taking shot.

Shot 15

Shot fifteen uses and develops real media forms and conventions as the low angle allows the audience to feel that they are there and that they are really seeing the train get ripped from the table. This helps to make the audience feel more at one with the film.

Shot 16

The last shot challenges real media forms and conventions as it is an establishing shot, but the audience does not get any idea of where Isabel actually is. This has not proved to be a problem as it adds to the effects of Isabel running away and hiding, thus punishing her parents.

                        Postcard

The front of my postcard uses many of the real media forms and conventions. I chose this image based on my research of short film postcard conventions which showed me many of them use the man character as the image, which entices the reader in and also provides advertisement for the featured character, Isabel Earey. Moreover the title follows post card conventions as every post card would include the title of the film on the front. I have decided to have mine on a black background which makes in more distinctive, especially as it 
could easily be lost with all of the colors that are on the page. Overall I feel that my post card has followed the conventions of other short film post cards. The one thing that would challenge this is the fact that I have not included the production company name which some short film post cards have included. I have chosen to leave the front of my post card as bare as possible, just having the image which makes the audience more interested and enfasises the fact that they should look at the back where other information about the production will be.


Short Film Review

My short film review page uses forms and conventions of real media products such as the Empire media magazine. The layout follows all the conventions as I have stated in my research and planning in previous posts. The large picture entices the audience in and captures there imagination as well as providing them with a setting and location of the short film Synchronicity. The writing which is in specific columns also follows the conventions of Empire and when mixed with the images on the front of the cover really add a realistic effect to the whole review. The side reviews, down the left hand side of the page give it a professional look and also advertises real time movies that are set to be released soon. Moreover the smaller image at the bottom right hand corner gives the audience another image to think about and provides them with another element and part to the film. The witty, descriptive writing that I have used follows the forms and conventions of empire very well and allows the reader to relate to the reviewer and the film. All of these elements when put together help to create a truly gripping short film review and it really adds to capturing the imagination of the reader.

Post 20: Final Film, Final Post Cards, Final Review

Final Products

The Final Short Film - Synchronicity

Final Post Card Design
My final post card design was carefully chosen based on the feedback I had gained from my piers and other school members, who had commented on a few different design I had shown them. I chose this particular image to front my post card as i believe that the image of the girl 'Isabel' playing with her train set and the surrounding images such as the teddy bear sitting slanted on the sofa as well as the dull natural light coming in from the door at the rear of the image, really sets the scene, and gives the audience the imagery of loneliness and child neglect. Moreover I think that the colours she is wearing, the contrast between the black and the blue and the expression on her face helps to give out give innocent image of a little girl and the hair band in her hair helps to add to this effect. 


I have not manipulated the colouring on this image, as i believe that the yellow effect on the bottom of the image and the darker layers at the top of the image contrast well with each other and help to create a feeling of loneness and neglect. Moreover my tagline on the front of the post card which says "Why wont they come play with me?", helps to give the audience the impression that she is lonely and that she needs a friend, and I believe that this will help get certain figures within the industry, such as directors and investors, to watch my short film and hopefully fund any other further productions. 


The back of my post card follows similar convetions to that of other post cards i have studied and includes our production group logo which I created and distributed to my group, so that we all would have the same logo which adds to the continently of our film. I have also added lines which i would write who the post card is being sent to as well as any additional comments i would like to send to the specific individual. The lines would also include screening times and screening locations which would be a guide to anyone wishing to view the short. I have also added a short synopsis of the film which reads "When a neglected young girl is left to play alone, and a mysterious synchronisation of events is taking place, who will be the first to notice that not everything is as it seems. Young Isabel is not all sweet and innocent, and upsetting her could be the last thing her parents ever get to do". This synopsis entices the reader in and leaves them wanting to know more. This synopsis combined with the tagline on the front of the postcard really makes the overall first appearances of this film, very mysterious and unpredictable and this should help in me gaining my target audiences.


I have also listed the production company name, "Clockwork Production", as well as the crew and what each member is in charge of. Listing the crew and production company name, ensures that any reader of my post card, knows who was involved in the production of the film, as well as it standing as advertisement for each member and the production company as a whole. This is done, so that if certain aspects of the film are liked such as the camera work by Tim White, or the story line that was written by myself, then each individual has the opportunity to be selected for future work and productions which is why it is crucial to advertise who is responsible for each element as not everyone in the group may have their work appreciated.


There is also a weblink which i have added which anyone could look at for more information about the short film, the history of our production company and would also hold information about the director and all of the crew involved as well as all the cast who star in the production of Synchronicity.

Final Short Film Review

This short film review page required specific research and careful planning as I had to look into the form and convention of a real industry standard review page on which to base my own review on. The magazine that I decided to look and research into was Empire as I found it easy to read and relate to. I looked at different review pages, on their online webpage and in the Empire magazine. In previous post I had noted down the forms and conventions within an Empire review which would enable me to get an insight as to how to create my own page.

When making my short film review page, the aim was to entice the reader with a right, colorful image which would make them want to read the review. So following the conventions of Empire, I added in a large photo of Isabel, the main character in Synchronicity, cuddling her teddy bear, which also plays a big role in the film. The picture also shows where a significant part of the films location as and a smaller photo at the bottom right hand corner gives away another part of the film, the train set. I have picked these two specific and iconic images as I hope to catch the imagination of the reader.  The other main convention I have followed is to add side reviews down the left hand side of the page. As I have noticed that Empire add a fair amount of advertisement within there pages and reviews, such as the use of Blu-ray as well as other media technologies, I felt that it was equally important for me to add these factors in as it gave my review the professional edge.

Lastly, when studying the forms and conventions of the Empire review and style of writing, I noted down that they are very comical and informal in there language which for me, gave it the edge over other industry magazines such as Sight&Sound. I wanted to make sure that I followed the correct way of writing and that my review would live up to the exclusivity of holding the Empire name and status. I felt that my final review was easy to read and it captured the readers imagination as well as providing key information to entice the reader further and hopefully watch my short film “Synchronicity”. 

Post 19: Post Production Report

Post Production Report

Post 19 is the post production report and after we were all happy with the footage we had captured, we then had to go about sorting all of the shots and deciding which ones we wanted to use in our production, this is called logging. Logging required us to individually look through every shot we took and log when the shot started and finished on a Microsoft word document. This was called the Edit Decision List or EDL. We also had to write a description of each scene as well as writing YES or NO next to each shot, yes meaning we would use it and no meaning we wouldn’t. The aim of this is to make it very simple when capturing, as we could just enter the times of the shots we needed and the editing suite (Adobe Premier Pro), would then take the files and add them to a list where we could then select them in the correct order. It is vital that capturing is done, as it would be near impossible to look through every shot and take the ones that you like as you see them and it would also take a lot longer.

I was amazed at how long the logging took us, taking just under 2 weeks to log a film that was meant to be under 6 minutes long, so I am really started to see how strenuous and time consuming the whole process can become and a cannot imagine the effort involved in the making and producing of a full length feature film such as Lord of The Ring, which is over 3 hours long.

Most of the logging went to plan and I was pleased to see that the group was happy to give up their free periods and after school time to get the logging finished. Their was slight issue involving footage that was not actually ours, ending up right in the middle of our footage that we had shot and I was bewildered as to how it had gotten there. I thought that we could just log the shot as well and discard it later on but we asked our teacher, Miss Shipp and she confirmed to just log it and list that we would not need it later on when in the process.

 After we had finished logging, we then had to go through the word document and add all the shots that we had written yes next to, to the adobe premier pro. This process is called capturing. The editing suite would then run through the whole tape, extracting the shots that we had entered and we would then end up with the footage we needed on the suite. Capturing did not take the group very long and once we had finished, it was then the time I had been waiting for since we started the course, editing.

Before we started editing and in past posts, I had made a note that I needed to familiarise myself with the editing suite which would ensure that I knew what I was doing when the editing time would finally come. Just before we shot our film, I had attempted to make a very short film about a train, just get myself into editing again as I had not attempted it in over a year and I knew that there would be many aspects that I would have forgotten. I made a very short and very quick little film about 1 ½ minutes long, and instantly the knowledge such as how to add in a cross-dissolve and how to add the titles and edit them once they had been written came back to me and I think that this was very beneficial to me as it gave me the confidence to sit down and start editing my production groups final piece.

Below is the video I made to Reacquaint myself with the editing Suite - I have used Sony Vegas Platinum 9 Edition to create this short clip

As the Director and script writer of the film, I started the editing and wanted to overlook everything that went on as I had a clear idea of how I wanted production to look. I started by adding in the shots, one by one, cutting them down and making sure they were exactly the length that was needed. I used my past experience to add on the cross dissolves to the clock scenes, although I consulted with my piers before hand, but as a whole, the production of Synchronicity was coming together very well.

Ever since I had written the script for Synchronicity, I had been looking for the correct copyright ad loyalty free music which I could use within the film. I know that there was a scene within the film where I wanted a scary/horror version of the ‘Ringa ringa roses’ nursery rhyme and I also needed to find music to accompany the opening and closing titles and credits. I found this royalty free website where I found this track called “Zombie” which I played to the group and we decided that this would be the piece that would start our film.

Unlike my small home production of a locomotive, our production had to incorporate the universal counter leader and the universal indicator at the to start, which made the whole production look very professional and this also helped us to get the sound at the optimum levels as the counter leader and indicator had a high pitch beep which we would have to adjust the volume to accordingly, and only after the volume was set to the right levels would we alter the sound of the production.

Nicola then took charge of the last part of the editing and I was extremely excited when Nicola called me to say how much they had achieved. The next day I went into the media editing room and I was excitedly greeted by the group who were dying to show me the final stages of the production and the work that had been accomplished.  I was also told that there was a list of things that needed to me adjusted after half term and these things were:

“scene 6 had many continuity errors especially of character movement. We decided we would edit this after the news reported scene had been shot (After half term). From scene 3 onwards, we need to check the brightness and darkness in the office. Scene 11 shot 1 take 2 needs to be cut accordingly, and scene 11 shot 2 take 2 may need some editing of the news reporter. And lastly scene 6 shot 1 take 9 needs a clear sound mix”.

Nicola informed me that while she was editing, she had noticed that the camera had reformatted to 4:3 from 16:9. This was a small problem and a praise her for spotting it. She said that to get around the problem, she had to zoom in on some of the shots which affected some of the quality of the shots but there was nothing that could be done about this.

Nicola also told me that there were some continuity errors with certain shots that I had not noticed and that to fix the issue she had to add some cross dissolves. Nicola states “An example of this was when Isabel is skipping  into the office we could have used a hard cut, however  we decided to cross dissolve it as the motivation would be seen more effective”

To conclude the production before half term, the final piece of music which was the ‘Ringa ringa Roses’ part was actually a recording of some children singing it. Echoes and reverbs where then added to the song which gave it the scary characteristics that I wanted.

It was very pleasing to see that all the groups hard work and that all the time we had spent on all the different stages of production had finally come together and produced what I thought to be a really well made short film.


Logging Rushes
Below are the logging rushes we used in the production of our short film "Synchronicity".