Practical Task: Editing the voice over

As a group we edited in the kidnapper's voice over, which was voiced by Devin Mombourquette.

 

 

 

In this blog post I will detail how I edited the various sound effects such as tape recorder clicks and briefcase latches in to the video.

First I downloaded this clip . I dragged it from safari downloads in to final cut. I cut off the sound of the tape recorder stopping. I also copied the background noise of the tape recorder playing so I could have it play while the man was talking. I moved the sound of the tape recorder stopping to the end.

I then added a sound effect of a lighter being lit when the detective lights his cigarette. This is the video with the tape recorder section edited.

Editing Harlem Sunset - Fade transitions

I edited in fade transitions for our production company openings by overlapping the clips and then applying a fade to colour transition. I also added in a fade in to the first shot. I added the title typography to the end of the opening. I did this by dragging the cross dissolve transition over the clips. I then double clicked them to open the close precision editor, shown below, to adjust the timings of the transition.

It was somewhat difficult as I had never used the close precision editor before but I was able to precisely edit the times of



Harlem Sunset voice-over Script

Voice-over of Scarlett "Harlem Sunset" practical

 

Once we had the majority of the continuous editing was done, I got a sense of  how long the script had to be in order to fit in the last part of the final production of 'Harlem Sunset'.

 

 

 

Whilst writing I realised I couldn't write all the script all together in one block, as I needed certain parts to be isolated in order for it to be edited in to correspond with what is happening in the frame; during the "where's the money" as this is what another actor is saying on screen.    

 

Film Noir slang

• Snooper: detective or private detective 
• Kick: Complaint
• bracelets: Handcuffs

I wanted the script to contain film noir slang in, however I felt that too much would make it less natural so I stuck with only three so there is continuity in the use of film noir slang (as shown in previous script).  

Evaluation

The writing itself was easy as it fits the general narrative of the second half of the film opening, however I may have written too much, but if this is the case I can cut bits out if the sound track is too long. Though doing four different recordings could make the editing process easier as we can easily remove bits we don't need and re-order them, thus improving the continuity of our film opening.  



Deconstruction of Voice Overs in Film Noir

Within the Film Noir genre it is common to have a first person voice over. The main character is usually the voice over. It allows the audience to get a clear picture of what is happening in the film and shows the story from the detectives/villains/protagonists point of view. As well as this a voice over can give extra details in addition to what the audience can see on the screen. An example of this is in 'Double Indemnity':

  NEFF
                              (His voice is now 
                              quiet and contained)
                          It began last May. About the end of 
                         May, it was. I had to run out to 
                         Glendale to deliver a policy on some 
                         dairy trucks. On the way back I 
                         remembered this auto renewal on Los 
                         Feliz. So I decided to run over there. 
                         It was one of those Calif. Spanish 
                         houses everyone was nuts about 10 or 
                         15 years ago. This one must have 
                         cost somebody about 30,000 bucks -- 
                         that is, if he ever finished paying 
                         for it.

By having the voice over from the detectives point of view, as seen above, the audience can get to know this specific character in detail therefore evoking certain emotions such as sympathy or fear for this particular character. 

The voice over may include details of the characters back story to describe what they are about to do in the film and why they are doing it. It may also include what the character is thinking and feeling about certain situations or other characters within the film. 

Normally the voice over is male however in our opening scene we may subvert this convention and use the female, femme fatale, as the voice over as this would make more sense with our storyline.

Practical Task: Voice recording

For our film, we needed someone to voice our kidnapper's monologue. Mindi wrote a rough draft of it here:

My brother volunteered to record it. The voice actor had asked to take some artistic liberties. We agreed as a group that it was acceptable. We decided that anything was fine as long as it followed the general gist of "give us the money for the girl."

I asked him to try two slightly different accents. The first one sounds better and is most likely what we will use. I also posted it on various social media sites, open for strangers to try. Devin Mombourquette's was the one we chose to use:

film-evaluations 22nd of december

22nd of December

 

On the 22nd of December we arrived at the location promptly at 10 o'clock in order to set up. As a group we decided that we wouldn't do any filming as we didn't have our actor who couldn't make it on the date, but we were together to take polaroid pictures and set up for the 2nd of January. We had planned to do the last scene which doesn't involve the detective, however due to the weather being unpredictable and wet, we decided against it.

 

We were using the corner for the brick wall background, which Zayanah set up by installing a chair to the place where we can't see the garage door.

 

Unfortunately, we did not have a tripod on the day and we couldn't find a person with a tripod that was nearby, so to do this we used step ladders in order stabilise the camera and balance it at the right height. Eventually we decided on the taller step ladder, as it had the right height, which allowed the camera to capture the right shot. Despite the lack of tripod we worked well to move past it and work with our resources.

 

This was part of the wall that the camera had taken, which was the right sort of shot we wanted.

 

 

As I was the victim, Hazel had helped me with my costume and did my hair, ready for the picture. Zayanah held the garage down as it kept rattling and opening, and Xena took the pictures.

The last part of props was the whisky glass for the pictures, we used a small glass in which we diluted coke in water to give it some colour.

Photos

Our first set of photos were of the victim in the kidnappers location.

The next we had done were of stalker like pictures which suggested a long obsession. This fools the detective into thinking that she's a real victim.

 

 

Lastly, we finished the day with regular looking photos of the victim, we then chose the best two to put on the evidence board.

 

 

Although we had a few set backs such as the weather and no tripod, we persisted as a group, and got as much done as possible, though we then had lots to do the next time we were together. However, seeing the layout of the rooms and area we were filming prepared us for the next time when we were filming.     

Practical Task - Props

Detective's Office Practical Task

Using ideas I had previously explored in my first prop experiment, we created the scene which would be used as the detectives office. Many of the items seen in the previous post were also used in this, such as the water with the tea bag to resemble alcohol, the ashtray and the old phone. As the camera was on the tripod for filming at the time these were taken, I took them on my phone instead so they're not of the best quality.

Several extra props were also used that were found inside the house and we felt would look suitable. We placed a load of old books on the desk, including two bibles and religion often played a bigger part in peoples lives during the 50s than now. A desk clock embedded in a pine-cone and an old photograph were also on the desk to fill out the space a bit more. The main item was a large typewriter provided by Mindi which served no real purpose but was a great prop which makes the desk seem more authentic. 

We also had some props specific to our storyline, including the tape recorder which can be seen above and the package addressed to the detective. 

Hidden around the room were also fake documents, fake money and jewellery which would later be removed by the detective and placed into the briefcase. The documents and jewellery were inside a filing cabinet which we got some shots of.  

The money was hidden both inside the lamp and behind a photo frame. This was to mimic the creative hiding places often seen in classic detective films.

Here is a picture of the full set-up, including the evidence board which was stuck on the wall with copious amounts of blu-tac. 

Overall, I think our scenery looked good and props such as the type writer and a vintage looking lamp made it seem much more realistic to be set in the 50s rather than in modern day. There are a few wires hidden behind the bin which I was unable to remove, however we were careful not to include any of these in the shots.

Practical Task - Evidence Board 2

Evidence Board Practical Part 2

Now that we had confirmed that Mindi would be our actress I was able to create the real evidence board that would be used in our production. We began by taking polaroid pictures that would fall out the package and later be pinned to the board. There were three types of polaroid we took. The first were shots of her tied up after she had been kidnapped. 

The second were shots designed to look as though they'd been taken by a stalker. I did this by including part of whatever I had been hiding behind when taking it to show the stalker was trying to stay hidden, in this case, the side of the door frame.

Finally, we took regular pictures implied to have been taken just during her daily life. 

This time, instead of just scrawling notes and pinning them to the board I cut out small sections from a newspaper and pinned them up. As the board is just used as a background prop and there are no close-ups of it, the articles are random and make no sense to the actual storyline. I left the map from last time up as I liked the idea of linking pictures and stories to different locations with string. Here is a picture of the finished board.

I feel as though it looks much better than it did last time however it could still be more detailed. However, it still serves it's use as a background prop and looks pretty effective in the footage we got. 

Film evaluations 2nd of January

2nd of January

We arrived at 10 o'clock to start filming the alleyway scene first, as the forecast had said it would start raining at 12 o'clock.  

 

 

Unfortunately we were, again, without a tripod though we later borrow one.

During filming, we were unlucky enough to be hit with some light showers, so we had to quickly rush through the filming. We tried many takes as we wanted a variety of shots to edit, however some came out quite blurry because of the rain, which may be the case for many of the videos.

 After we had finished the outdoor filming we then did the office scene which we set up.

 A lighting experiment was also done to make sure the venation blinds looked realistic and also make sure that the space wasn't too dark for filming.

 

 

Last minute touches were made with the evidence board, as we added newspaper articles and polaroid pictures.

 

When we finally got the tripod we were ready to carry on with the rest of the filming indoors, but we didn't get too much done as the camera battery had run out and we waited for it to charge before we could go further.

 

 

Although we had many set backs in the day I believe we worked well with what we had in terms of resources and time, there was nothing we could do about the rain but we were able to get most things done. Some things may need to be redone, like some of the alleyway shots.