Production

During school time a highly experienced media editor came in to teach us the basics of editing using Adobe Premiere Pro. It was a whole day of learning on how to edit. He went through the entire process from uploading and important footage from the camera to the final outcome of a edited film.

I learnt many new skills like inserting text, playing around with transitions, colour grading, enhancing sound, etc.

We all started with a folder of footage, in which we picked our own and selected what we wanted shown in our final clip. This showed me that even with the same footage, everyone had a different narrative, solely with how it was edited and put together.

It was a very eye opening experience for me, as I played around with different features, familiarising myself with the software. I hope to use my skills learnt from this workshop in the future, implementing it into my coursework later on. I am overall very satisfied with how the workshop went, as I learnt many new editing techniques and gained a better understanding of the post-production process.

Below I have attached my final creation at the end of the day. (It is not perfect as I played around with the different features on the software and was not planning on completing it as a whole)

*Image from the day

Down below is our very first initial brainstorm/plan. We jotted down our very first ideas which came to our mind, and discussed as a group our interest and what we wanted to see come through in the film opening

After coming together as a group for the first time, I felt that we all listened to each others ideas and were very open to our different perspectives. It meant that we could collaboratively combine our creativity and ideas, producing a film which we all had a say in. However, we came up with so many ideas and possibilities, it was hard narrowing down what was most important/significant, especially since we had to keep it under the time limit.

My group and I talked about wanting to have a major event which we branched off ideas, on how the narrative would eventually get to that. Furthermore, we chose action/thriller as our genre, as we felt it we could build tension and suspense through the use of enigma leading up to the event. This would be engaging and leave the audiences interested throughout the duration of the film opening.

We also definitely wanted to play with the nature of time, with flashbacks, and flashforwards, messing with the sequence of a typical linear narrative. Overall, we knew we wanted to have characters who were natural and not out of the ordinary. This would make the problem of the narrative seam more daunting, as it is less expected.

I helped my group create a mood board, as something we could visually reference off of, which allowed us to established a shared vision between us all. It was useful later on in the production process, when selecting scenes, and shots, as it was referenced back to ensure that it aligned with our original concept and vision, keeping us on track towards producing what we initially wanted.

It was challenging to select pictures based on the looping of time, as that was hard to show when the whole narrative wasn’t put together. However, we had the thoughts in the back of our minds during the creation of the mood board, selecting similar images which symbolised that it the time period happened again.

For our mood board, we wanted to go for something dark but also including some bright lights for high contrast. Also the addition of the car in the empty parking lot, creates an eerie effect which we wanted to create suspense and tension. This follows nicely with our genre theme Action/Thriller. The props of the clock and phones helps to symbolise time, which would be reoccurring throughout our film opening. Our colours schemes are located at the bottom, going for cool hues of blues, greys and greens, but also dark blacks, to help set the time of day (Night/Evening)

For roles and responsibilities, before filming we delegated roles to each of us. Because of our small size we had to do multiple rolls each which meant that the workload wasn’t all on one. We filled in for each other when needed, so we all had at least some say and experience in each roll. This meant that we all knew how the roles worked, and to ensure we knew the same objective.

• Casting director– Celina (I knew our group well enough, to identify and utilise strengths and personality when it came to choosing characters)
• Health and safety– Coco (Coco was willing to identify any risks or hazards at the location and make safety decisions during film day as we wanted to film at night, keeping us all safe)
• Storyboarding– Chloe, Coco (Chloe and Coco both enjoyed animating/drawing and were very good at it, they also had the apps and programs available to them)
• Script writer– Chloe (Chloe has had experience taking drama, so was familiar with script writing, although we all had a say on what we felt should of been said/included)
• Location scout– Celina (I was familiar with the areas close to all our group members, and therefore was willing to provide a location which I felt was best suited our vision)
• Costume designer– Celina (I have an interest in fashion, and was very willing to create ideas for costumes reflecting the characters personalities. I also had experience using social media like Pinterest, where I could collect and take inspiration from)
• Editor – Chloe (Chloe was kind enough to take on the responsibility of editing the film, as we had initially tried creating a group project on Adobe Premiere Pro, however it constantly did not sync between our devices. Me and Coco were both there to help her make any decisions or lend a helping hand, however Chloe was the main editor)
• Actresses
  • Blair – Chloe (Chloe has had experience acting, taking drama, so was familiar and comfortable on screen)
  • Eve – Coco (Eventually decided that I would film and capture the shots which meant Coco was playing the other character. She was very willing to do so and was comfortable being on camera)

In depth description of my roles:
Casting Director

As I got delegated with Casting director, Location scout and costume designer, this meant that I needed to choose who was playing what role.

Ultimately, playing to the strengths of our team having 2 drama students, Chloe played the role of the main character (Blair) and Coco being the friend (Eve). I was set with filming but also alongside whoever was not in the shot.

Location Scout

As the location scout, I needed to find an empty parking lot that would connect with the mise-en-scene set. In the end I chose somewhere relatively close to all 3 of us, and for the bedroom scene, we filmed at mine.

Below was our inspiration/plan for what I was looking for, and the parking lot was taken from Google Maps

Costume Design

For costume designing, I wanted to highlight the different characters, distinguishing them between dark blacks, and light colours. I wanted to dress them casually for comfort but also to not create suspicion.

We have decided to dress Chloe (MC) in casual dark clothing. This is because we are filming in dark low-key lighting, and the baggy clothing is comfortable and warm, especially filming later on in the day and at night. Furthermore the dark muted colors represents the darkness in the characters mind as they go through the constant looping of time. It contrasts against the friends light colours which represent the innocence and naivety to the situation.

For Coco (Friend) we have decided to dress her in light coloured tops, and blue jeans, this is very casual and contrasts nicely against Chloe’s dark clothing. Additionally, the light colors represent innocence and purity, which highlights the storyline, implying that the friend did nothing wrong and is not at fault.

Chloe and Coco took on this role as they are amazing artists who loves drawing and animating. We worked on it together in class, while I was doing my other roles so we could discuss decisions together.

Storyboarding is vital in preparation for film day, it acts as a reference which we look back on, ensuring we know exactly what angle to film at, for how long, an it’s purpose/meaning. Additionally, it is a quick visual for us to know the order of shots, and how they appear next to each other, but also allows us to see roughly how long each shots take, and estimate a final duration (since there is no editing done yet).

I feel that next time, more time should be spent on storyboarding as it is so important in knowing exactly what to film in preparation for the film day. It would making filming a lot more clearer, and reduce the need for us to still make decisions. Although the storyboard was brief, it was enough to help get a visual of the order of scenes, and what we would like filmed.

This is the inital first rough draft done on Microsoft Paint, just to get an idea of the order of events

Here is the first storyboard animated by Chloe and Coco

The script created was too long and over 2 minutes. Instead we had decided during filming to improvise the script, which worked well as the conversations felt authentic and genuine.

The script didn’t matter to much, as more of the focus and attention was built around the narrative/storyline. The conversations were there to support the meaning rather than actually taking in the words.

However, down below I have attached our initial script/plan, even though it is very brief and wasn’t used much.

Media Script.docx

During discussion while brainstorming, we had planned for the 2 characters to be best friends. A couple days prior to filming, Chloe had the idea of letting Eve (Coco) wear a bracelet that would break or fall of whenever she died, making it a significant prop/symbol. However, because of the 2 minute restriction, there was not enough time to implement this, and we therefore decided not to use any of the clips, even though we had filmed some just in case.

This was done between filming session 1 and 2. It was a way for us to collect feedback from the class, helping us make any changes to improve the overall outcome of our film opening

In class we had conducted a peer review to gather some feedback from an audience’s perspective, which we could apply and make our work better.

During this time, we presented our first film draft and our draft animated logo. They then completed a Microsoft forms, which help us gather information to analyse.

Overall, they liked the concept of the film after we had told them the narrative, and really enjoyed the thought and meaning behind the logo. Most of the class got the genre, which was shown through our use of the genre (Thriller/Mystery) conventions.

Down below are some responses from classmates which support the paragraph above.

However, we were also looking for critiques to improve.

One notable feedback was that there was some confusion to the narrative. We aimed to resolve this by reshooting the scenes, and editing it in a way that the narrative was clearer and easier to follow.

Additionally, because of the first filming’s inconsistent time of day, Chloe had to colour grade the clips. The feedback for this was that some scenes needed to be brighter as they were to dull, perhaps to hard to see what is actually taking place.

After brainstorming and just before filming, as a group we had come up with some concepts as to what our Production company name and logo could be. This was not finalised until after filming, just to ensure that it suited the film and made sense.

For our logo we needed a name. We all decided that we wanted something unique, and featured in our film. Overall, we came to the conclusion of the word “Rewind”, which was representative in our film opening through the flashback. After having chosen the word, we needed a design. A symbol of time is easily depicted by a clock symbol, in which we incorporated. Using our prior knowledge we decided on something simple, being inspired from A24’s simple yet effective minimalist design. At first, we drew many designs just to see what we liked. Then we slowly narrowed down on the ones that stood out and we really liked. Finally, taking all the aspects and including them into 1 final design.

Below is our rough draft with all designs sketched on paper

I also had completed a digital copy so it could be referenced off the computer. This was done on our shared canva file. Initially, we wanted to add arrows around it however, after discussion with my group, the simplicity of the first design sketched on paper, was more eye-catching from afar so we went with that.

Chloe with her strength in animation skills transferred the pencil sketch, digitally into an animated logo using a software called alight motion

Our first initial draft of our animated logo

Following our first film draft, we also showed our animated logo draft to the class in our peer assessment. Overall, the design was liked and appreciated, however, some critiques were that we should reverse the direction of the clock hands to turn anticlockwise like our company name “Rewind Cinema”. Additionally, we received feedback in which the number of rotations of the clock hands should be increased to match the flickering and end at the same time. This made it seam more cohesive and appealing to the eye.

Final outcome of our animated logo

For the title of our film we wanted something simple again and with bold contrasting colours and font. We came up with a few initial ideas, however ultimately pulled inspiration from A24’s font.

Chloe had then designed the final title card on Alight Motion once again. With the bold contrasting Black and white with the fading shadows, the title is unique and can be easily recognisable, especially useful after distributing the film and referencing off audiences.

Final title

Chloe made a rough cut of our film opening to organise and put into order the wanted clips. It gave her a clearer perspective on the flow and continuity of the narrative and helped pace the overall speed of the film.

This rough cut, is only the clips put into order without editing of additional sound effects, colour-grading, transitions, and production logo and company name

Chloe was the main editor taking the lead in all editing decisions and making. Although I didn’t contribute much to the overall editing of our film opening, Chloe discussed about decisions like the darkness of the colour-grading and what clips to select.

Since I was the one filming, I took the camera home, in which I transferred all the footage from the SD card onto my computer. I then made a shared OneDrive folder with my group members so they all had access to it. I then made a backup copy of the folder and saved it to my personal laptop, incase anything happened to that footage preventing it from all being lost.

For the editing of the film, we as a group decided on what the best clips were, and what narrative order of events happened. Chloe then imported these onto Adobe Premiere Pro which is the software she used to edit the whole of our film opening. Chloe had gone through the clips, cutting down on the beginning and ends of the clips, this ensured that any unnecessary footage was included, like me counting down to when Coco walked to the car.

She also adjusted sound levels, increasing them at times for a more emphasised dramatic moment in the scene and also added sound effects to enhance the quality and and realism of the movements. This overall contributed to a more immersive experience for the audience, as another sense is highlighted.

Additionally, Chloe also colour graded the clips to appear darker as we wanted it set at night. This enhanced the visual quality of the scenes, establishing a eerie mood and effect. It also meant that all clips were constant, helping with the natural continuity of the narrative story told (Happening at once/same day). She also colour graded the beginning bedroom scenes to a warmer tone, which juxtaposed a greater contrast between the scene of the event taking place, and her everyday life, reflective of our narrative’s time looping intention.

Chloe then included the title card at the end, and inserted our production company logo at the beginning, to establish who we are as a group of film makers.

I want to thank Chloe for taking on such a big task, when sharing and collaborating using Adobe Premiere Pro didn’t go our way.