When producing my “Hostage” video, I used the following copyright/royalty free sources to use in my piece.
Sounds:
These free sounds were collected from: www.freesound.org
However the rest of what you see has been produced by me or my group, including the video in the credits.
Overall I feel that this project has been a very difficult one. The key issue our group faced in the shooting stage was organization. In our group everyone had strong opinions about which script to shoot, how we would shoot it and the locations we would use. A lot of the ideas faced practicality issues. I think that with their being so many strong-minded people in a group that it caused unnecessary debates. However in contradiction to that I do believe that because of this it did drive us to work harder, come up with better ideas and work to the best of our ability, as previously mentioned I think the only problem was the groups organization skills.
In reflection of the edit I am happy with the way it has come out and I believe it does involve a lot of my own personal editing style within it. I am most pleased with myself about this project because I feel like I pushed myself further than normal, especially in the editing stage, as I spent many extra hours fine-tuning and experimenting with different styles and narrative. One interesting thing I did discover was how many different narratives you can produce out of one selection of shots, and although a more controversial edit would have been interesting I didn’t believe that they flowed quite as well as a basic linear narrative.
Considering each member of our group had their own individual scripts at the start of the process and in the end decided to create a brand new script, combining all of our ideas I feel that this worked better. This is because it had parts of everyone’s creativity in and allowed everyone to become more driven about the project because they weren’t being led by someone else’s idea.
The thing im most proud about in the film is the use of cinematography. This was the first film I have worked on where we used extra lighting to create a more intense atmosphere and I really think it pays of. The reason being that it makes it look more professional and not like another amateur 17 year olds film.
A big decision we had to make was whether to include dialogue or not. The reason we chose to use dialogue was because none of use had really produced films that did have dialogue. Although I don’t regret using dialogue it has taught me a lesson. The lesson being that if your going to include dialogue, you have to use good actors, as it will come across fake. Unfortunately, this is what I think it did, although technically the film is good, it does partly get over shadowed by the bad acting, and in the future I may hold auditions for the film, just to make sure that I could produce the most realistic film possible. Overall I am really happy with my finished piece, especially my individual edit as i did manage to make some badly filmed shots, look a lot better. But im also happy that in the end our group pulled together and produced (in my opinion) a fairly good piece of work.
After endless hours of planning, filming, re-filming and editing, the final piece is done! Throughout the project i was a bit wary about the outcome i would produce.
Would it be any good?
Would the narrative make sense?
How will i make my edit different to the rest of the group?
But as a whole i am happy with my finished video. I think i found the editing process the most simple part of the project as i was able to work indipendantly and didn’t have to rely on anyone else. The angle i wanted to take the video was the key concern. At the beginning i was planning on creating a surreal type of film which is reflected in my rough cut. However once i began piecing together all the footage i had, i realised i wanted to take the film in the linear narrative direction. Although it isn’t a straight forward form of linear narrative editing. Although the main kidnap scene takes place in chronological order, the flashbacks scenes obviously break the piece up which allows the audience to fill in the gaps of how he got there.
The main decision i had to make was how i was going to end the film. I didn’t know whether to produce a film where the ending was a very stereotypical ending where the audience feel for filled after watching it. However i decided to end on a cliff hanger, although the decision may bite me on the arse in assessment or not, it is my creative decision. The reason why i chose to do this is because throughout the film, there is a continuous theme of mystery, and it offers a lot of unanswered questions, which i believe keeps the audience engaged. Therefore why would i then stop the essence of mystery by ending on a happy note. Thats why i decided to end on a very simple fade out shot, to illustrate that the hostages nightmare is nowhere near over, and is an ongoing struggle.
This is my final piece which shows everything i have just spoken about, but i hope it also reflects the previous stages i have spoken about in the Research/Development posts. The reason why i say this is because the medias that i watched and researched such as Se7en, inspired me greatly when editing my piece and i think the key element my film has in common with the films i researched is the element of contrast between dark and light, but at the the same time, even the light still appears quite dark.
Another challenge i found when editing was the use of sound. I didn’t know whether to use just the sounds we had captured during shooting or whether to use so manufactured foley sounds aswell. The sound we collected while shooting were good quality as we used the proper equipment and we made sure we captured the appropriate ambience of the locations. However i later decided that i was going to use some pre recorded/foley sounds from online sources to emphasise certain actions that were taking place. Such as the lights being turned on and the main character being hit around the face. Below is an image of the amount of layers, sounds and shots that i used when editing, as I’m quite proud of my edit as i feel i pushed myself further than normal and also did some extra research to allow me to use final cut pro x to its full potential.
Overall if i was going to analyse and criticise my piece i would say that it is shot well, and has a good flow. However some of the shots may be slightly unnecessary and could be cut out, the shots could be cut together slightly quicker, to create more tension. I would also say that although some of they foley sounds sound good and effective, they don’t necessarily sound realistic as if they’re coming from the films world. Also the non diegetic tension building sounds may also be slightly unnecessary.
Below is the rough cut for my piece. After exporting the video and watching it back properly on full screen there are a few issues which i will have to change. Such as:
However there are elements which i really like about how my film is coming together, such as the lighting & the types of shots (Tracking and Over the shoulder shots)
All the issues will be resolved for my final piece and the film will be completed.
After understanding the concept of our groups film, i began to research various editing styles, to get a deeper understanding of which direction i wanted to take my film in. When looking upon the genre of the film, it would be a crime/thriller therefore i decided i wanted to create something, dark and monotone, to re-create the atmosphere of the scene, but also to represent the emotions of the main character.
Therefore when thinking about directors that produce quite dark films, but not necessarily of the horror genre, i decided to do some extra research on my favourite director “Tim Burton”. The two films of his that i looked at were “Edward Scissor hands” and “Batman Returns”. After looking at these films, i found that both contained two key elements which only personify the atmosphere Burton tries to create. The first is the dark use of the cinematography. Burton uses lighting to make everything look dark and grimy. The use of shadows are a common element in his pieces which often create tension. As for Edward Scissor hands, although the film focus’s quite heavily on colour contrasts i.e the bright houses of the neighbourhood and the dark, eery feel of the castle. The scenes in the castle represent Edwards emotions, as he is so used to being alone and scared, that the darkness is a metaphor of his whole world being engulfed in nothingness.
After deciding upon the dark features my film would posses, i re-looked at a film which i had recently reflected on in a previous blog post, A Single Man. The editing style in ” A Single Man” is an interesting one. The edit is unique, because when the main character is of high emotion the video filter goes to high saturation, giving a clear indication to the audience the visual stimuli of an over powering feeling, felt by the main character. Therefore i decided that i wanted to produce a piece that has a interesting visual filter over my video. I didn’t want the footage to look to raw, even though i planned to light the scene well. Therefore i wanted to put quite a low tone filter over the hostage scenes to represent the unnatural situation taking place.
For the first time, i watched the film Se7en which really related to the dark elements i wanted to produce. The film makes certain locations feel very claustrophobic due to the clever lighting and editing styles, therefore below i have analysed the film in detail, and i must admit, this is where i have taken most of my inspiration for my edit from.
Se7en is a film starring Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey. The film follows two detectives who begin to investigate a serial killers murders. As the film progress’s it becomes clear that the killer’s victims each has something in common. One of the seven deadly sins.
The mise-en-scene has been created well within the film, as everything the audience see’s reflects the tone of the film. The film takes place in a very run down city where crime is on every corner. Visually the scenes look very grim, as everything seems desaturated, dirty and dark. Which as a whole is the theme throughout. Pathetic Fallacy is used a lot within the film, as rain and dark clouds hang over the city representing the dark cloud hanging over everyone’s lives.
The film towards the end is very much a mind game. It gets the audience guessing what will happen next, making them come up with endless outcomes that may take place, and although it took me a while, I figured out what the ending was going to be before it happened. Although normally I like to be surprised, it was a good feeling knowing what was going to happen next, because that way, you then become on edge to the decision the main characters are going to have to make.
The editing was almost a combination of two styles. The first being a classic Hollywood style, showing action with fast paced cuts. But the other editing style was almost like that of CSI, or any other crime scene programs. Where it is edited together, so that the audience have time to focus on the evidence and other aspects that when edited normally, people wouldn’t notice.
The opening credits was also another interesting editing technique, as it seemed to foreshadow what was going to happen in the rest of the film. The way it did this was by using creepy music, disturbing images and dark lighting.
The majority of the sound within the film was diegetic, and occasionally the audio sounded like it had been produced in a Foley studio. Such as papers being slammed down, knifes and forks clanking and the sound of heavy footsteps and gunshots. The only non-diegetic sound in the film was at the beginning and the end in the credits which was purely used to build the audience up in the beginning and keep them shocked by what they saw happened at the end.
I found that I really liked the film, and this was because it was clever. When a film is mentally stimulating you it not only keeps you engaged, but it allows you to become part of the films world, making you do just as much detective works as the characters within the film.
The cinematography was used to a very high standard, as the lighting only emphasised the dull, grim tone of the film and built tension in the necessary places.
Overall I found the film very entertaining and worth a watch, the combination between the killers and the detectives stories tied in very well at the end.
The process of this module has not been the most straight forward. When we formed into our group, we all looked through our scripts, and found it difficult to choose one to shoot. Although the majority of the scripts were to a good standard. The main problem we faced was the practicalities of shooting them.
We then decided to shoot Terances script. Which was about a young man, going about his day to day struggle to attract women. The script was of the comedy genre. However after shooting the first couple of scenes we found that it wasn’t working, and the comedy element wasn’t there. And without that, it is just a very awful film.
Therefore we decided to create our own script which was practical, contained an interesting story, would have an impact on the audience and would look visually very good. We came up with an idea about a young wealthy man, who gets kidnapped and held hostage. The film will show the mans day before getting kidnapped, by the use of flashbacks. The script for the piece is in the previous blog post.
Normally i am not the most organised person. However for this module i decided to plan in depth our film. Therefore although my drawings are not the best i have storyboarded our film.
The storyboards show the main scene and the three flashback scenes. I am happy with the outcome of them, as although it isn’t the neatest storyboard, it gives a good idea of how the story will come together and a basic view of how the film can be edited. However i only storyboarded a basic narrative for the film, as all the group will be using these in their planning. The reason I’ve done this is due to us having to produce are own individual edits, and i have a couple of ideas, to make my piece different.
Therefore although the process and development of the film, wasn’t the most straight forward, in the end in came together well. The reason i know this is because when we filmed, we knew exactly what we needed to shoot and our planning only helped the process along.
Below are the storyboards i have produced:
For our 162mc Module, we’ve struggled finding a film that worked. Initally we found a script within our group which we all liked. This script was a comedy which is something none of us had done before. The reason why we choose it was because we thought it was going to be fun to film.
However once filming we realised that it wasn’t really working, and certain elements that we wanted to use, such as music, we would face copyright issues. Therefore we then sat down as a group and brainstormed another idea.
This is when we came up with HOSTAGE. For this idea we found that we had more room to experiment with such things as lighting, tracking equipment and dialogue. Dialogue was one of the main issues we faced during shooting as we were all used to shooting films with no dialogue in.
Below is Our New Revised Script on the film we are producing:
Introduction
DAMIEN JACKSON IS A LONELY TWENTY YEAR OLD MAN WHO HAS NEVER FOUND LOVE. HE RECENTLY INHERITED A SMALL CLASSIC HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE COUNTRY IN AMERICA FROM HIS LAST REMAINING RELATIVE WHO TURNED OUT TO BE A VERY RICH DISTANT AUNT. THE NIGHT OF THE 25TH OF NOVEMBER HE SITS ALONE IN HIS HOUSE ONLY LITE BY CANDLE LIGHT DUE TO THE OVERPOWERING STORM WHICH HAS CUT THE POWER.
ACT ONE:
ON THE MUDDY COUNTRY LANE A NINETEEN YEAR OLD FEMALE IS DRIVING ACROSS THE STATE TO MAKE IT BACK TO HER FAMILY, THE THUNDER IS ROARING AND THE RAIN IS POURING, ALL OF A SUDDEN A TREE FALLS FRONT THE SIDE OF THE ROAD, BLOCKING THE NARROW PATH AHEAD OF HER. THE WIND IS BEGINNING TO PICK UP AS THE GIRL FRANTICALLY MOVES HER HAND AROUND THE CAR IN ALL DIRECTIONS TRYING AIMLESSLY TO GET SIGNAL TO CALL FOR HELP. HER SURROUNDINGS ARE ENGULFED IN DARKNESS AND THE ONLY SOURCE OF LIGHT GOES FROM A DISTANT ORANGE GLOW FROM A HOUSE IN THE DISTANCE. ALL OF A SUDDEN THE GIRL SEE’S A DARK FIGURE RUSH PAST THE SIDE OF HER CAR. THE GIRL PANICS AND LOCKS ALL THE DOORS, SEARCHING FOR THE FIGURE THAT JUST APPEARED. THE CAR BEGINS TO SHAKE AND THREE LOUD KNOCKS CAN BE HEARD FROM THE BACK WINDSCREEN. IN THE GIRLS MOMENT OF PANIC SHE BURSTS OUT THE CAR AND RUNS FOR HER LIFE, DOWN THE LANE THROUGH THE ENDLESS MUD AND PUDDLES.
ACT TWO:
DAMIEN SITS ALONE READING THE DAYS NEWSPAPER WHEN HE IS ALERTED BY THE FRANTIC KNOCKING ON THE DOOR. HE BECOMES SHOCKED AS THE KNOCKS TAKE HIM BY SURPRISE AS NO ONE EVER PASSES BY THROUGH HIS AREA. HE CAUTIOUSLY APPROACHES THE DOOR, WHEN HE OPENS HE FINDS A SOAKING WET GIRL ON THE OTHER SIDE LOOKING EXTREMELY SCARED. THE GIRL EXPLAINS WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE CAR AND SHE ASKS IF SHE COULD USE HIS PHONE. FOOTSTEPS CAN BE HEARD FROM UPSTAIRS WHICH IS WHEN SHE SAYS “SORRY, IS THIS A BAD TIME”. DAMIEN REPLIES “NO, I LIVE ALONE”. THE TWO CAUTIOUSLY LOOK UP THE STAIRS IN EXPECTATION AS TO WHAT OR WHO COULD POSSIBLY COME DOWN THEM.
The thunder was loud and the rain was pouring, a youthful woman is sitting in her broken down car in the middle of nowhere. She is frantically moving her hand around all dimensions of the car trying to find a glimpse of signal on her phone. The vehicle is leaning down one side as the flat tyres drown in the ever-growing puddles. Darkness engulfs the surroundings outside with small rays of light visible from the moon and a distant house on the horizon. All of a sudden tapping can be heard on the back windscreen of the car and a black figure are seen running past the side of the car, the woman panics and jumps out of the car and runs as fast as she can through the muddy puddles down the country lane.
A twenty-year-old man is sitting in his large 19th centaury house, which he recently inherited from his deceased distant aunt. Thunder roars can be heard from outside as the weather gets significantly worse, which is indicated from the flashes of light coming through the netted curtains. A pounding is heard on the door, the man jumps, as the knock is unexpected due to living in the middle of no-where. The man cautiously opens the door to find the woman soaked from her head to toe looking alarmed and scared, she explains what’s happened and the gentleman looks concerned. All of sudden footsteps can be heard from upstairs; the women say, “sorry have I come at the wrong time”. The man replies looking shocked, “No, I live alone”. The two people gaze towards the stairs in fear as to what may come down them.
. David Bird Media . 