Nearly Finished!

After completing our evaluation, we are now, as a group, uploading both our evaluation and final film opening onto You Tube so we are able to link it to our blogs. We are doing this so our teacher can look at our evaluation and final opening sequence on both our group blogs and individual blogs.

Sleeper Evaluation:

After completing our opening sequence as a group, we were told by our teacher to complete an evaluation on our film opening sequence now that it is finished. We were given the option of either: making a powerpoint on our opening sequence individually and adding voice overs on top of these presentations or answering questions on our film opening as a group whilst being filmed. As a group we all chose to film us all answering the questions together on our film opening, Sleeper. We chose this as we thought it would be better and more productive to work as group on our evaluation so we can all add in our own opinions and feedback when asked the questions.
So, we simply got a tri-pod and camera and filmed all three of us together at a table answering the questions for the evaluation. It went really well as all of us put an effort into the excerise and answered all the questions together.

Sleeper Film Opening:

My group has completed editing our film opening and added music for the show case in class, we showed our film to both the media teachers and our class mates and received overall good feedback. We added a music track called 'abducted' which includes tense sounds and the sound of a heartbeat to make our film opening a lot more dramatic. We completed editing our sequence, adding dissolve cuts and dip to colour cuts to improve the overall smoothness of our film. We also made sure whilst editing that we did not have any spaces in between our edits, so that there is no black gaps in between shots. 

The only piece of negative feedback we received was that whilst we played it on the big screen in class the technology was not fast enough and jumped in between cuts which made our film look unorganised and not edited properly. My group was very happy with our film opening and so was I, I feel we have worked really hard to achieve our film and am happy with the constructive criticism we received. 

Our Film Opening:

As a group we are all working gradually to produce our film opening, Sleeper. We have been filming over the past couple of weeks and are now onto editing our film opening. We are using Final Cut to edit our film, there are a variety of tools available on Final Cut such as tools which let us add sound and change the lighting of our opening. As a group, we are working really well together and can see our film opening ending successfully.

Essay on Pillow Talk and Fringe:

How are the sequences from ‘Pillow Talk’ and ‘Fringe’ different. Discuss the differences in pace and style of editing as well as the effect the editing has on the meaning/the audience’s reception of the extracts?

From looking at both ‘Pillow Talk’, and ‘Fringe’, it is obvious that each sequence has a different style of editing, different pace and are both received very differently by certain audiences and viewers.

The first sequence that I analysed was ‘Pillow Talk’, a late 1950’s romantic comedy film focusing on Doris Day and Rock Hudson and how they eventually after many arguments fall in love. The second sequence in which I looked at was ‘Fringe’, a modern science fiction television programme in which lasted three seasons with the last premiering in 2010.

Firstly, when looking at the paces of each extract we must take into consideration the time periods at which each film was made. ‘Pillow Talk’ was made in the year 1959 and ‘Fringe’ was last seen on television screens in 2010. From this we can automatically conclude that the two pieces of film will have very dissimilar paces.

‘Pillow Talk’ has quite a disinclined and leisurely pace and the time in between each edit is quite timely. The average time between each edit within the ‘Pillow Talk’ sequence is twelve seconds. On the other hand, ‘Fringe’ a programme that was made at least forty years later has a much brisk and accelerated pace. The average amount of seconds in between each edit is only four short seconds. This proving how over time films and television programmes have picked up a faster and more modern momentum.

As well as the pace of the two sequences being different, the editing within ‘Pillow Talk’ and ‘Fringe’ has been constructed very differently.

When watching ‘Pillow Talk’ it is clear that a variety of different edits are being used to keep the audience entertained and informed on the storyline. For the majority of the sequence, ‘Pillow Talk’ uses straight cut edits due to the fact that they are easy and simple and also quickly jump to and from different characters within the scenes.

Also, within ‘Pillow Talk’ dissolve cuts are used. Dissolve cuts create a sense of later on in the day and as well as this the dissolve effect used within this particular edit can move to the subject in which certain characters are talking about. For example, at the beginning of the ‘Pillow Talk’ sequence two male characters are talking about a female character and the dissolve effect is used to edit to the scene where the female character is seen.

Yet another edit which is used throughout ‘Pillow Talk’ is a wipe to split screen. This is used during a telephone conversation; it is very helpful for the audience as they are able to see both sides of the conversation. To add to this, a wipe to split screen edit had only recently been introduced during the time in which ‘Pillow Talk’ was filmed, so for the audience at the time it was clean, fresh and new.

On the other hand, ‘Fringe’ does not in actual fact use a range of edits, it seems to use straight cut edits throughout the whole sequence. Due to the fact that ‘Fringe’ is a modern television programme the straight cut edits keep the episodes looking neat, sharp and precise. Also, because the time in between the edits is very short the straight cut edits suit the genre of science fiction and keep the programme fast and energetic.

Additionally, within ‘Fringe’ special affects are used, an example of this is when a plane seen by the audience in the sky suddenly disappears with a mysterious sound. The affects definitely show how modern these episodes are due to the fact that special affects are considerably new and were not around at the time when ‘Pillow Talk’ was produced.

The shots used within both sequences to capture the characters are very similar. Within both clips, close ups are used the majority of the time, this is mainly so the audience can analyse each characters facial expressions.

Due to the differences in periods of time in which the two sequences were made, the audiences’ reaction is very different to one another.

‘Pillow Talk’ was well received within the 1960’s, however modern audiences would most probably find the lengthy time period in between each edit rather boring and uninteresting causing them in some cases to loose interest. An example of this in ‘Pillow Talk’ is when the male and female couple when in the restaurant have the camera focused on them for over 1 minute 37 seconds with only two edits used in total. To add to this the storyline and plot is rather uncomplicated and easy for the audience to follow. This is also shown when the couple are in the restaurant as this scene takes up a big proportion of the film.

However, ‘Fringe’ is almost the complete opposite to this as the fast pace of the episode makes it sometimes a little difficult to work out the plot and storyline. To add to this there is not a large percentage of dialogue within this sequence, this again causing it to be a struggle to work out what is occurring within the episode.

The minute gaps between each edit within this episode tends to appeal to the more modern audience due to the fact that it is fast paced and entertaining.

To conclude, both sequences are obviously very different, this is mainly due to the significant gap in the periods of time in which the two were produced. Audiences back in the 1960’s preferred a different type of film with different pace and editing in comparison to the audience of modern society, who the majority prefer a faster and more exciting type of film.

Filming One:

Last weekend, my group began to film for our film opening. Due to the fact that we need a male in our opening, we asked our friend James to come and help us film, however he pulled out last minute so we were unable to complete the majority of the film which we wanted to complete. We did eventually get the little sections of our opening sequence done that we could do without our male character.
The scene we were able to complete was the scene when Lucy (our main character) wakes up scared from her dream. My role was the lighting, we set this in Lucy's bedroom and had dark lighting to make it look as if she had just woke up in the middle of the night, it did look realistic.

Overall, our first filming was not very successful, however, next time hopefully we will have a reliable person to play a part in our filming. To solve our problems, as a group we have discussed that we need to have a more reliable actor and be a little more organised.

Juno Opening Credits: