Editing: Focus blur animation

In our film opening, shortly after the blinking animation, I edited the footage to imitate someone's vision slowly focusing on an object, as it adds a sense of realism and helps reinforce the narrative.

I started by selecting the focus blur from the blur filters and applying it to the clip I then centred the effect so that the focus was on the actress' face. I preferred this to the other blur filters as it blurred more at the edges than the centre, which is more realistic. I set the time to the point where I want the transition between "out of focus" and "more focused" to begin.

I then adjusted the values for the focus blur to obscure the image more, to resemble a person's vision shortly after waking up. I then toggled keyframe animation for the "amount" and "softness" values (+ icons in the diamonds).

I then moved the timeline forward slightly and toggled the keyframes again, and adjusted the values. I did want to adjust the interpolation of the keyframes, but I could not find a way to do so in final cut pro. The result can be found at 2:13 in the opening. The effect ends up only being about a second long, but I think it adds a lot to the piece and makes the events clearer (makes it more obvious that he has been struck in the head). If I were to do it again, I would most likely make it longer.

Editing: Adding Titles Credits

Titles credits  

In accordance to the deconstruction I had done, I decided to use the titles that had previously been made by Xena and put them into place.

Like in my research I put the names of the actors first which I put in as soon as the opening begins.

 

Then after I had finished with the actor's titles I moved onto ordering the production team's titles, with the director and executive producer's names last, which adhered to my deconstruction.

 

 

 

 

 

After viewing all the titles in order, I noticed that each time the appeared seemed too sudden and contrasted too much with the texture of the background filter and soundtrack, which generated a smoothness to tones of the footage. 

 

 

 

To solve this issue I added cross dissolve transitions to the titles so it faded out and looked more like the deconstructions of film noir that I had done.       

 

The typography itself seemed quite intense than it had done when I viewed it as an isolated picture, so to sort this out I went into the lighting control and adjustments, and moved the highlights down by -11% to make it blend into the background just a little, so there wasn't such a big contrast. I then went back and did the same thing to all the other clips.

Once I had finished I went back to view the changes, which I was happy with, then I made sure that all the titles appeared before the one minute mark because I didn't want them dominated the frame through the action scenes- or scenes of tension.

Overall, I was satisfied with how the titles turned out and fit in with the conventions of film noir, and was generally integrated well.   

Planning: Storyboard redraft

During our filming, we had to make several changes. The reasons include not showing part of the location that was not appropriate for our setting and being unable to include any tilts due to the shaky camera. Some shots were added for the sake of continuity. Here is the revised storyboard.

Practical Task: Voice Auditions

I used the website CastingCallClub to post our project. Despite offering no payment, several people auditioned for the role. I cast one of them using the website, and uploaded the script, along with a message stating we may need additional lines at a later date.

All of the auditions, including the one that was cast, can be viewed on this page. The actress responded promptly with a recording, however this recording was too fast, so I sent her what we had of our film opening so far to help her get a better idea of what she should sound like.

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.  



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.     

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. 

 



Practical Task- Typography

Harlem Sunset title screen typography practical

Using Paint.Net, an image editing software, I was able to create my 'Harlem sunset' typography. I wanted to take a modernist approach to the making of the title, so from film noir into a neo-noir.  



 Step one:
I got an image of a sunset which I copy and pasted as my background and selected the sunset outline, then blacked out the rest.

Step two:
Next I found a concrete wall image, and merged it with the sunset layer. This makes an industrial image, conforming to our theme of film noir, but the sunset adds the hint of red which conforms to neo-noir.

 

step three:

 On 1001 fonts generator, an online collection of various fonts.  I found the sans serif font to go over the sunset. I liked the fact that it seemed smudged or burnt out which went with the sunset image.   





 

 

Second Photo Edit

 

Step one:

I selected a concrete wall image with some stairs which I though looked mysterious, like it was going into some sort of den. 



 



 

Step two:

I added a sun light image in the corner, which makes it seem more mysterious as you can't see the outside. Using a similar process to the previous picture, I went back to 1001 font generator and found a more block lettered sans-serif font which looked smeared.    



 

 

The result:  

 

Evaluation :

 In the beginning the design process was slow as I was getting used to the software, but when I played around with the software a bit more it became more easy to use.

Overall I prefer the first edit that I did as it has more relevance to the title though it's not all black and white or the conventional typography of film noir, in a previous deconstruction I found that film noir in the 1950's adapted their typographies to colour.