Editing evaluation on Final Cut Express

Throughout editing our film we faced many difficulties which took time and patience to fix. 

For example our first issue was importing our footage from the camera onto final cut express. For some reason it wouldn't allow us to select the footage from the camera or from the desktop. So we researched if anyone else had experienced this problem and many others had. We then found out that we had to put all the clips onto iMovie and make a video out of them.

We then had to export the movie which was on share, located at the top of the programme.

After we had done this we could finally get it up and running in Final Cut Express. It took us quite a long time to get used to the programme and one of the hardest things was finding where things were and the functions to do what we wanted to do. We faced many issues such as trying to put edits on our footage in order to make them appear like a dream or on one of the shots we needed a cctv appearance. We used youtube tutorials to figure out how to put edits onto the footage and had a play around in order to see which edits we liked. One of the hardest parts of the editing stage was doing the credits, because we initially wanted 3D text which we couldn't seem to do, we watched various youtube tutorials to help us however the software kept crashing and we lost our work numerous times which was inconvenient as we were coming closer to our deadline and were having to re-do work.

However, there were lots of things that went well such as being able to do our music quickly and we picked up on how to cut and put together the footage very quickly. We also were able to put everything together and in order from our animatics which helped a lot due to having a clear image in our head of the order already. 

Edits we used

At the end of our film opening we used a technique which made everything reverse backwards, as we wanted it to appear like a nightmare reminiscing what happened to the main character Beth. We put all of the shots in the opposite order and made them black and white which was quite easy to do once we knew what we were doing. We then sped up the speed of each clip and put the reverse tool on it. This made all the clips go backwards from end to appear like a memory/flashback. 

When the two characters walked out onto the platform, we wanted it to appear like cctv footage to give a variety of effects used. This shot was filmed from the bridge initially to look as if it was a cctv camera, and then when we added the image it made it look affective and realistic which helped to make our film opening look more professional. 

We also found out that not only were we able to make clips faster but also slow them down. This emphasised the clip and made it look important and dramatic. We used this tool for when Beth tries to grab Charlotte to save her from falling. This was an important shot in our film opening that we added towards the end as an improvement, as it helped portray exactly what has happened. Without this shot the audience may of been left confused. To make this shot look more dramatic we added a slight blur to it, this helped to make the shot look like it happened so quickly that it was a blur to the main character Beth.

When the train was coming towards the platform, we needed the train to go a lot faster than usual as originally the train was slowing down and didn't look as dangerous. We sped the train up a lot, this helped to show the audience the train had no way of stopping and hit Charlotte at an intense speed. This made the audience feel more tense,

 Sound effects we used 

Through out or film opening we added sound effects to make our footage more dramatic. We added train noises that we actually filmed ourself for the start of the film just as the music begins. We thought this would give the audience a good feel to the atmosphere of the train station.

The second time we used a loud train noise was when the train was rushing towards the platform when the tragedy takes place. We needed to add this sound effect to show how dangerous the train was and emphasise that the train was coming towards the characters.

When Beth tries to grab Charlotte to prevent her from falling we added a scream of Beth shouting her name. This made it very clear exactly what is happening with our film and without this added the film opening appeared less dramatic and confusing. 

When the footage starts to reverse we cropped and edited the music to make it appear like a broken record, this created a circular feel to the experience Beth faced. Which suggested the event that happened will never leave her memory.

Also during the footage reversing we added a heartbeat towards the end, this tells the audience that the flashback is scaring Beth, and that it really had a big effect on her life. 

When Beth opens her eyes we added a cinematic bang which I think looks really effective. It was just something that added more drama to our piece when she wakes up.  The heartbeat is carried on for a few moments throughout the title and when everything goes back as well. 

Changes whilst editing

We showed some of our family and friends our almost finished film opening to get an idea of what improvements need to be made and also to find out what the audience like about our film. 

Whilst editing our film opening, we come to the conclusion that our original song choice of an upbeat house song didn't reflect our film genre as a Melodrama. This was due to in our feedback a lot of people mentioned this, they thought everything happened very sudden and wasn't aware or had any ideas that it was a Melodrama.  As the music was so happy and joyful it did not really give out any ideas or suggest that something bad is going to happen. We thought that as a consequence of this we would lose marks as it would be hard to guess the genre and everything would not be clear what has happened at the end of the opening, it may leave the audience feeling confused. So due to this we decided to change our music to a slower more melodrama sounding song, but due to copyright laws we had to search for a song or piece of music that was not copyright. We found it very difficult to find any music that wasn't copyright and fitted what we needed. So therefore we made our music ourself by getting a friend to sing a cover of Coldplay - Fix you. We thought this song had the right tempo and dynamics to fit our Melodrama genre. 

Also another concept of our feedback was that when Charlotte got hit by the train it wasn't clear enough, and it left the audience confused on what had just happened. One suggestion was that we added a scream and more significant shots to show exactly what has happened. This will also work with our new choice of music to ensure it looks more like a Melodrama and is emotional. So we then decided to add in a scream from Beth shouting Charlotte's name, and also added some footage of Beth trying to grab her. We hoped that this would make the occurrence look more believable and clearer. We also added a scream with this footage in order to emphasise it to the audience.

I personally think that these changes due to audience feedback have improved our filming opening a lot, and helps the audience understand and enjoy the opening more. 

Film Titles

We had a long think to what our film should be called. It was important that we picked an effective title so it reflected our Melodrama genre. We did not want a title which completely gave the story line of the film away, as then it wouldn't be worth watching. We needed a title which would make people interested in the film and want to watch it.

Torn 
The film title torn was one of our possibilities, as the main character Beth is torn what to do next. 
The scenario is a form of guilt so we thought torn is an effective title as it doesn't give a great deal away. However, when I think of the word torn I instantly think of a sad film, as its as if someones heart or feelings have been torn (damaged)

The self reserve 
We got this idea as it again relates to the rest our film; Beth with draws herself from future happenings.   

She is very self reserved in her manner and doesn't participate in other things, this is because of the death of her best-friend. She finds it hard to let in anyone to help her, meaning she pushes any future love relationships away. Again the title isn't obvious and doesn't give away anything that happens in our opening but still refers to it from a visible view for the target audience.

Morals

We come up with the name different morals because it doesn't give a great deal of information away about the story line. 

There are two different ways in which Morals can be defined:

1 - A lesson, esp. one concerning what is right or prudent, that can be derived from a story, a piece of information, or an experience.

2 - A person's standards of behaviour or beliefs concerning what is and is not acceptable for them to do.

The first definition relates to our story line, so we could use it for our film title.

Elapsed in Time
We liked the name elapsed in time as it means the measured duration of an event. It gives off the idea that the main character is stuck in time, like she can't get the event out of her head.

Originally we chose the title Morals, but we soon changed this after getting feedback that it doesn't link very well to the film. A couple of people said they thought it was irrelevant and should be more specific to the story line, so we then chose to use Elapsed in time as we think this related to the story line the most, but doesn't give lots of information away. It relates to the film as the main character Beth, is left stuck with the tragedy in her head and she cant remove it as if she is stuck in time.  

Filming Evaluation

We filmed all of our footage on Monday 19th November 2012 as planned. It was a dull day which was what we wanted and luckily it had been raining which meant that we had puddles to use to our advantage. It didn't rain any of the time throughout filming which was good.

We filmed all the shots we planned to film plus a few extras to ensure we had enough clips to fill in any gaps or additional time to make up to the 2 minute boundary.

Here are a selection of different shots we achieved:

As you can see by a snippet of our shots we have achieved a variety of different shots including close ups, long shots, tracker shot and match on action.

What went well 
We were happy with our shots as we had the perfect lighting and day, and accumulated some good techniques which were going to look good once edited. My favourite shot is when the two characters walk through the puddle which makes a splash and leaves the ticket floating in the water, this is my favourite because I think it looks professional and very effective. Also the shot of the water on the bench arm looks detailed and is a good example of a close up. The fact that we got so many shots was excellent as it was such a small area and one place of setting however we managed to get near to everything we needed. We used the bridge at the train station to our advantage, and filmed a lot of the shots off the edge and had the side wall to rest the camera on to have a stable non-shakey shot. We tried to follow our animatics whilst filming, which helped a lot as we knew exactly what shots to film, and then added any additional ones we thought would look good. Overall I thought our filming session was successful and we got everything done in one day. 

What problems we had
When we first arrived at the train station and informed the ticket lady we were filming for our media coursework she said we needed to contact a certain number in order to have permission. So we contacted the number and had a long wait until we finally got permission which was time consuming. Once we started filming we had one main problem, and this was actually filming effective shots that would show that Charlotte gets hit by the train. This was very hard to portray whilst filming our shots due to safety; as obviously she cannot jump in front of the train. So we had to think carefully how we was going to film it and just filmed little snippets to indicate a hazard; like her shoe laces being undone and being too far over the yellow line. We knew that we could make it more obvious when editing and could hopefully make the audience know what happens.

Due to us choosing such a difficult opening story line I think we done our best to portray what we wanted to happen with our filming.

Character profile: Charlotte

History of women in the film industry
Women have been central to the film industry since its inception in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. From Nickelodeons to full-length feature films and from silent films to talkies, as writers, directors, actors, and audience members, women have influenced the trajectory of the film industry. Female stardom was an essential component of the rise of the industry, though many of these women were celebrated more for their appearances than for their acting ability.

While the popularity of certain female stars offered them legendary status, the kinds of roles they were asked to play often reinforced traditional gender roles. That story is the familiar one. This exhibit intends to reveal a lesser known part of the story. Women actually played a powerful role in shaping the early film industry. As both consumers of film and professionals in the field, both in front of and behind the camera, women dramatically affected the development of American film.

In our film there are two characters that are important to the films storyline. They appear in our film opening. Below are their character profiles.

Name: Charlotte Wyatt
Age: 17
Date of birth: 23/06/95
Clothes size: 8
Height: 5ft4
Weight: 8st 2lb
Hair colour: Brunette
Eye colour: Hazel 
Siblings: Three brothers and one sister
Favourite colour: White 
Favourite music band: One Direction
Favourite music artist: Rihanna
Favourite film: Wild Child 

(Outfit in film opening)
Green parker coat - £50 H&M
Black leggings - £15 forever 21
Grey cardigan - £25 topshop
Red Vans - £50 office
Black bag - £15 New look 

In total this outfit was worth £155, however we already had the coat and the vans. So we only purchased the leggings and grey cardigan for the footage. We chose to dress Charlotte in these clothes as it is quite a cold day, so it was important for her to rap up warm. The leggings are comfy for travelling which is what the two friends are doing in the opening as well as the red vans. 


Charlotte is a very outgoing, kind and generous person. How ever she can be shy when meeting new people. She is funny and can always put a smile on her best friend Beth's face. Charlotte doesn't have a part time job but is currently studying legal secretary at college which she plans to get a career in. 
Likes: Charlotte likes to socialise and loves to sing. She likes horses and spends a lot of time down the stables. She has an interest in music, she spends a lot of her spare time with her earphones in listening to her favourite artist Rihanna.
Dislikes: Charlotte has a phobia of spiders.
Background:  Charlotte comes from a stable middle class background, she is supported by her parents but has additional financial help from her grandmother. 

Character profile: Beth

Name: Beth Morgan
Age: 17
Date of birth: 27/09/1995
Clothes size: 8
Height: 5ft6
Weight: 7st 8lb
Hair colour: Brunette/Blonde
Eye colour: Blue
Siblings: One brother called Ben
Favourite colour: Silver
Favourite music band: Bombay bicycle club
Favourite music artist: Alicia Keys
Favourite film:  Mean Girls

(Outfit in film opening)
Blue parker jacket - £65 River island
Light pink jumper - £20 Select
Black Jeans - £35 New look
Brown shoe boots - £25 Internationale
Black bag - £15 select 

In total this outfit is worth £160 however we already had the outfit, the only purchase we made was the jumper. We dressed beth in a simliar way to Charlotte, with the parker jacket to keep warm on the cold day, with a casual pair of jeans and a jumper. The little boots made the outfit differ from Beth's and included a bag




Beth finds it easy to make new friends, how ever she can be quite cold hearted and isn't the relationship type. She is a bubbly person and loves her family unconditionally. She works hard at her job in New look, and is currently studying at Sixth form. She is currently studying business, psychology, ICT and Maths; and plans to go on to university to get a degree in Accountancy. 
Likes: Beth is an average teenage girl, she likes socialising with friends and shopping as she is fashionable and has a fairly natural appearance. She is a very creative individual and likes drawing and can be very imitative in her fashion sense. 
Dislikes: She dislikes jelly as she doesn't like the texture. She also has a fear of wasps. 
Background: Beth comes from a financially stable family. Her father is a successful business man and her mother is a secretary. Her brother is younger than her, and she gets on well with him. 

Our chosen film institution

For our film we have chosen Universal Studios: 

We have chosen this as it is our favourite and most memorable opening institution. 

Recent films Universal have produced:

- The unborn (January 9, 2009)

- Kick-ass (March 26, 2010)

- Paul (March 18, 2010)

- Bridesmaids (May 13, 2010)

- Snow white and the huntsman (June 1, 2012)

- Ted (June 9, 2012)

All the films produced by universal are very different genre's, for example The Unborn is a Horror, where as Snow White and the Huntsman is an Action. 

We chose this as our film institution because in our opinion it is the most memorable and dramatic one. However we are aware that there is a 100th Anniversary version so we are going to try and use that, to make it a little bit different.