Rough Cuts: Screen + Study

Rough Cut 1 (Screen + Study), 3 minutes: 

I pieced both of the two parts together to see how long the whole opening will be and I edited the titles into the opening as well to see the overall effect. The whole opening comes to 3 minutes which I'm happy about as its not too long but i would like it to be a bit shorter in the screen capture part as i want it to be more snappy and fast pace to really build up the tension but I'm not sure if speed up that part or take a section of the screen capture out.

Rough Cut 2, 2 minutes 53 seconds:

I added in my ident at the beginning to sort out the transition between the ident and my opening.
In addition I deleted a section out of the screen capture to make it more shorter and snappy, also that part of the screen capture was the longest part and it was just a mixture of clips and photos and I didn't really think it all worked well together unlike the other sections of the screen capture therefore I deleted it without any form of regret. Furthermore it speed up the montage, I sped up three parts of the screen capture by 20% just to make it faster but not too fast which makes the audio high pitch.



Rough Cut 3, 2 minutes 49 seconds: 

I cut the opening little bit, only 4 seconds but its still good as I want the opening to be short. So shorter the better. The transition between the scene capture and study scene was difficult at first because the two parts didn't flow as well as I hoped. So I copy a clip (over the shoulder shot of the hooded figure looking at the computer) and shortened the shot and reversed it to the shot shows the focus changing form the computer to the hooded figure's jaw and ear. I decided that this shot would work at the beginning of the study scene as it instantly reveals some sort of identity to who is viewing  the stuff on the computer.

Over the shoulder shot

In addition to help build and to stain the tension between the two parts I added in a blank, black screen to give add a bit of thrill to the opening and almost give the audience a bit of a shock when it goes black and then image appears again. Also the music stops and when the second part appears the dark backing tracking becomes even louder adding to the tension and the shock.

All I have left to do is to record, edit and add the voice over into the opening so it fits within the opening and the actions around it.

Rough Cuts: Study scene

Study scene rough cut 1:

Rough Cuts: Screen Capture

30/03/17: I have my first rough cut of the first part of the opening, the screen capture. I'm happy with it since its my first rough cut. It definitely needs shortening down to less than a minute and it needs to be more snappy and quick to help build the tension and the creepiness and I don't think I have those two elements yet.

Screen Capture rough cut 1:

Screen Capture rough cut 2:
In my second rough cut I added a backing sound, called Drone Dark suspense from the final cut library. I think this works well as its a dark tone which helps adds tension.

Screen Test

Screen Capture Test Footage 

I don't have any test shots for the study scenes but I do have a test of the screen capture for the first half of the opening. 

The reason why I wanted to have my screen capture at the start of the opening so it can help build up Millie's character, background and personality via the photos and videos, such as; pictures with friends to show her sociability and close friendships, pictures with family members to connote how much of her family means to her, pictures with boys to hint towards past or current relationships


What I learnt from the test: 

• I couldn't control where the images and videos popped up on the screen. My intention was for the images on the screen to pop up around the screen to form a collage but they just appeared over the top of each other. 

• Quicktime player (the software which I used for the screen capture) doesn't record the sound for the videos therefore when I'm editing I need to add the sound in for the video clips 

• I liked the ending bit when it closes down all of the images, so maybe when the Hooded Figure leaves the study I could include that ending section at a faster pace to emphasise the rush that the hooded figure is in.

For my desire look for the screen capture, I will have to edit the footage to add sound, build up the images and videos to create the montage I want to help build the tension and the creepiness. I'm going to do my final screen capture and edit from that one and maybe from the test and just build it up from there.  

Filming

On Sunday 12th March, I started and finished filming for Obsession. The location was at my Nana's and Grandad's house in their spare bedroom. It took long than expected as it took a couple of hours to set up the scene and pinning up the 'obsession wall' as the map kept falling down and I had to cut and ripped the photos, notes, etc...

It may seem embarrassing to some but I used my grandad as the hooded figure as I wanted a guy to be the hooded person but I don't have many guy friends and they were already busy and my grandad was happy to help. You can't really see his face so the audience won't know its an 70 year old man instead of a 25 year old guy.

After setting everything up, camera in position, grandad already, I went to go and turn on my camera, then I checked that I've left my camera battery at home charging from the night before. A phone to my mum and half an hour later my annoyed mum gave me my battery and another half hour later at 5:45pm I finished the filming for Obsession. I think it went pretty well, I haven't look through all of the footage in detail but when I had a brief look to see if they were in focus they looked good. I got all of my close up shots, some with focus transitions.

Behind the scenes vlog:

Ident

I have a couple of ident ideas around the idea of popcorn and balloons. I thought popcorn as it associates with the verb 'pop', it relates to movies and it's fun. As much as I like the idea of popcorn popping around the screen for my ident, a balloon popping on the screen has a always been my original idea.


My ident would start with someone holding a balloon against a background, then a pin comes into shot and the balloon gets popped from the right. After the balloon gets popped, sound of a baby cry appears which cues for the production name "Popping Productions"

I brought some cheap balloons the other day and tomorrow I'm going to film my ident against a plain background. I'm going to film using a large depth of field, on a tripod, using natural light and ask my mum to help pop the balloon for me. I've got plenty of balloons so if a shot goes wrong then I can easily just retake the shot.

31/3/17: My ident is finally done!
I edited it in Final Cut. I altered the colour to make it more pink, purple tones to match the colour of the balloon and to make it more fun. I used the 'Knock Out' effect  for the text with the Strenuous font     to help emphasise the pop. Then I added in the crying baby when the text appears.

Locations/Props/Characters

Location
Location at this moment of time is unknown as I am finding it difficult to find an empty room/study/bedroom where I can decorate the walls and a fit a table/desk and a chair in. Similar to the photos below but a bit smaller.

Update: (29/2/17) I'm using my Nana's and Grandad's spare bedroom as it has a old vibe as it has a lot of dark wood furniture. It also has a blank white wall and a desk which was a staple when searching for a location.
Props 

• laptop
• photos and videos of the teenage girl protagonist 
• maps 
• documents, sheets of paper
• tape 
• black clothing: top, jacket, hoodie, jeans, shoes, hat 
• a phone 

Characters 

Millie: a teenage girl, aged 16/17, blondish hair, blue eyes, average height. She a sociable person, funny, outgoing, bright girl. Currently doing A levels at a high achieving Grammar School.

Hooded Figure (known as Brett later in the film) age 25-40. Works at a television company, quite mysterious