IV Trailer

We uploaded the video to Elena's brothers Vimeo account, Vimeo is an easy video sharing site giving us the opportunity to upload videos wherever and whenever .

IV Trailer from Louis Christodoulou on Vimeo.

Filming Focus Group

Monday 8th February

People Present: Thegla Savvides, Elena Christodoulou, Natalie Michael.

We showed a number of people which fit our target audience the trailer, we then filmed their responses to what they had seen. We asked them a number of questions,

"Our target audience are people aged between 16-25, do you think this trailer would attract our target audience, if so how? "

"What is your opinion of our trailer and what worked well/didnt work well?"

"The soap will be aired on Tuesdays at 8pm, would you be willing to watch it?"

"Does the timing of the soap affect anything else you usually watch?"

We took all useful comments and criticisms and will quote them on the website.

We then ingested the footage into the macs and worked on editing them together successfully. With both of us being new to the programme we spent a lot of time trying to get used to the new short cuts and software.

imovie is very different to Final Cut Pro so it was a huge contrast.

We encountered a few problems, the first one was when we added effects like fades and dissolves, our whole video would become out of sync. We would see one person but hear another ones voice. We decided to leave these out. We added title scenes throughout the video with the question written on it. We added each person's response to the question. These titles seemed to have been too long so we cut them down.

We uploaded our video onto our web page which turned out to be relatively easy to do. We clicked on the media symbol, then movie and our video was there. We dragged and dropped it onto the webpage we wanted and re-sized it to fit our page.

We then repeated this process for our outtake video. We attempted to add fades on this too, but the same problems occurred.

Print screen of iMovie HD during the editing process.

Written by Elena Christodoulou and Natalie Michael.

Group Filming Day One to Three Plans

For every filming day Elena and Natalie M organised a plan in order to make our filming days run smoothly.

Day 2- Filming Schedule Sheet

FADE IN

1. Wide shot

- Thegla sitting on the bed, crying, everything in shot.

-Hair down, make up running

-Props: tissues on bed scrunched up, notes on bed, artificial lighting.

2. Close up

-Front shot of Theglas face, crying red eyes, looks down at notes

3.

(i) Point of view shot

- looking down at notes, Theglas hands and legs in shot.

(ii) Over the Shoulder shot

-Side of Theglas head in shot, her head begins focused, notes can be seen but out of focus, she picks up note “WE”, note focuses, head unfocused.

FADE/DISSOLVE

4. Low shot (floor)

- Feet walking past the camera, shadows help to add to the dreary effect

5. Wide shot

- (i) letter box, post dropping

- (ii) Post drops, Thegla walks into shot picks up post

- Props: Newspaper, note: “WE”, basic letters, leaflets (-focus on newspaper to allow audience to understand note later on)

FADE/DISSOLVE

6. over the shoulder shot

- (i) See Thegla putting the note “WE” away from the other notes

-(ii) same shot, Thegla in focus, picks up the note “KNOW” , she fades out of focus, the note focuses .

Props: tissues on bed scrunched up, notes on bed, artificial lighting.

FADE/DISSOLVE

7. Side shot, panning around Thegla from right hand side to over the shoulder-

-Thegla sitting at the table- sorting out her books, getting a pen out of her pencil case.

-when camera stops over the shoulder she opens her folder, turns pages, sees post it note with “KNOW” written on it, goes to pick it up- assuring the audience she has seen the note.

-Props- Folder, pencil case, phone, pens, highlighters etc

FADE/DISSOLVE

8.

(i) Reaction shot-Close up, shocked, loud breathing closes eyes, tear falling.

(ii) Pans around from front shot to over the shoulder- Theglas head in focus puts down note “KNOW” next to note “WE” which is separated from the others, notes out of focus.

(iii) Thegla picks up note “WHAT”, as note is brought closer to her, it focuses- shows her hand shaking.

Props: tissues on bed scrunched up, notes on bed, artificial lighting.

FADE/DISSOLVE

9. Wide shot-

- shot from the hallway, (sound of keys) Thegla opens the door walks into the house carrying shopping bags, walks directly past the camera.

10. side shot-

- Thegla walks into shot, stands with the camera on her side, tips open one of the bags onto the table, and she picks up the clothing- now on the table, as she unfolds clothing, note falls out drops onto the floor- doesn’t take much notice of it.

Props: keys, shopping bags, clothing, note

FADE/DISSOLVE

11.

(i) Reaction shot-Close up, shocked, loud breathing closes eyes, tears falling.

(ii) Wide shot - Thegla picks up note “DID”, as note is brought closer to her, it focuses- shows her hand shaking.

Props: tissues on bed scrunched up, notes on bed, artificial lighting.

FADE/DISSOLVE

12.

(i) DID??

FADE/DISSOLVE

13.

(i) Reaction shot-Close up, shocked, loud breathing closes eyes, tears falling.

(ii) Pans around from front shot to over the shoulder- Theglas head in focus puts down note “DID” with the other notes.

(iii) Point of view shot - Thegla looking at notes in order of “WE KNOW WHAT DID”.

(iiii) Reaction shot – Thegla looking confused but still worried, tears and make up running down her face.
look of recognition appears.

FADE/DISSOLVE

14.

(i) Wide shot Thegla sitting watching tv, phone beeps

(ii) Over the shoulder shot – Thegla opens text from unknown sender

(iii) Point of view shot – text on the screen showing just the word “YOU”

(iiii) Reaction shot – looking worried but not taking too much notice of note. Puts phone down

Props: tv, phone

FADE/DISSOLVE

(v) Wide shot - Thegla gets up off bed and gets her phone

(vi) Point of view shot, phone in focus, hand shaking – text seen earlier with the word “YOU.”

(vii) Thegla places phone in place between notes “WHAT” and “DID”.

(viii) Reaction shot – Thegla looking terrified, panic in her eyes

15. Point of view shot- all notes including phone.

Props: tissues on bed scrunched up, notes on bed and phone, artificial lighting.

BLACK OUT/FADE IN

15. Close-up of dead body, camera zooms out showing a wide shot of dead body lying in the street.

FADE IN

17. I.V appears on screen

FADE OUT

by Elena Christodoulou

Group Day Three Filming - Pictures

Group Filming Day Three - Evaluation

Sunday 31st January 2010

Members Present: Natalie Michael, Thegla Savvides, Elena Christodoulou, Natalie Nicolaides

The session started at 10.30am


On Sunday 31st January was our final day of filming. When we met up the first thing we did was to go through our plan of the day and establish what the outcomes of the day were to be. Firstly we set up the camera on its tripod, and position the microphone. We also had to adjusted the lighting for our first shot as we had too much natural light coming through the window, which created the wrong atmosphere for our scene. Whilst experimenting with the camera angles and shots we decided to frame the shot with the leaves of a plant positioned next to the camera, this allowed us to play around with focus within the shot, which will also benefit us when we come to edit as we would have a selection of shots to choose from.

The filming of our first shot was the finding of our fist note coming through the post box with the mail. This shot allowed us to play freely with the camera angles and shot, for example, we experimented with low shots of the floor just showing Theglas' feet walking into shot picking up the mail finding the note and then walking back out of shot. We also experimented with extreme close up shots focusing just on the note. Another shot we tried was filming the post as it was coming through the postbox and allowing the note fall to the floor to the rest of the mail. Wide shots were also an option for us in this scene as we brainstormed around the idea of getting all that was happening in the scene to establish a comfortable home atmosphere for the audience.

The next note we filmed was the note found in Theglas' pocket. The scene is of the character returning from shopping, and as she arrives at her door reaches into her pocket to get her keys but finds a note in her pocket too. Again, here we decided to film a number of different angled shots in order to have a selection to choose from when editing. For example, we filmed a variation of over the shoulder shots which allowed us to show the note as the character finds it. We also experimented with wide shots showing Thegla walking up the driveway past the camera and a few shots where the camera follows behind her.

Our next shot follows on from our last shot of the character walking through the door. Here we see Thegla walking straight into the kitchen once she has come through the door and rests her bags on the table. Here we used a wide shot to show her walk into the room, mimicking an establishing shot to inform the audience of where we are. For the rest of the shot we used a variation of different zoomed up shots and panning shots of the character emptying her bag and finding the note in the clothes.

Our next shot was of the character sitting at the table doing homework, and she finds a note in her folder. For this shot we panned the camera around Thegla as she was looking through the folder, this allowed us to view the scene from different points of views, allowing us to manipulate what the audience sees.

Our final note is found by text message. In this shot we had to re-film a number of times due to technological issues as the text message that the character receives was not in time for the scene so we had to do a few re shoots to get it right. The shots that we used here were were mainly establishing/ wide shots of the character watching television and receiving the text message. Once the messaged was received we used a close up shot of the characters face to show her emotion/expression.

Finally our last footage of the day was the shooting of the dead body. This involved Natalie Michael having to play dead in the bushes, here we experimented with long shots, panning shots, close ups and establishing shots. The darkness of the alley and the diagetic sound of birds and twigs breaking adding to the tense, awkward atmosphere of the scene.

written by Natalie Nicolaides

Group Filming Day Two - Evaluation

Saturday 23rd January 2010

Members Present: Natalie Michael, Thegla Savvides, Elena Christodoulou

The session started at 10.30am

We were less organised on the previous filming day and we wasted time on efforts we couldn't use. This time round we were more organised with equipment, scripts, and what shots we needed to film.

What we aimed to achieve by the end of the session was to complete the part of the trailer featuring the character in her room, crying on her bed and rearranging notes for the audience to see. There was only one character in the trailer so she was dressed in Black and Grey to show neutral yet dark colours, we thought vibrant colours would give the sense of happiness whilst these darker colours symbolise sadness.

The first shot we filmed was an over-the-shoulder shot from different angles to give us variety during editing. Theses shots were the hardest because we had to make sure we never moved anything/or placed things back in the right place before filming again. Some of the shots we experimented with where: Zoom, close-up shots, over the shoulder shots , panning shots , wide shots, reaction shots. We used natural and artificial lighting from the window and light bulb to our advantage during the filming.

Elena C and Natalie M took it in turns to film and to hold up the microphone to which we attached to a pole in order to get closer to out actress and it not pick up our own movement.

Whilst filming, we connected the camera to a TV using a scart lead so that we could all see the shots we were taking and all that was on the screen. This enabled us all to notice different points which turned out to beneficial to our product. For example, Thegla noticed during one of the shots that the microphone had been lowered and was in the shot. We then re filmed this bit.

We did not need to use many props, however, the props we did use were:

• tissues scrunched on the bed (to show the character had been crying)
• a phone (When the character remembers the text she had received)
• the notes

Some problems we experienced was with the text on the phone, it came up very small and the camera found it hard to focus, so we came up with the idea of taking a picture of it from the newspaper and leaving it widescreen.

We decided to change around the way the notes were received as this would confuse the audience and create suspicion within the trailer. From the notes forming 'WE KNOW WHAT YOU DID', they first create 'DID YOU KNOW WHAT' then when Thegla finally remembers the text she re-orders them to say 'YOU KNOW WHAT WE DID', then finally 'WE KNOW WHAT YOU DID'.

To make the actress cry, Olbas Oil was applied under the eyes which successfully made her cry and make her make-up run. This was applied three times because the scene had to be shot numerous times and the effects had worn off.

Overall, the day was successful and did not run as long as the previous filming day. We learned that the more organised we were the easier our schedule became. The extra concentration put into the organisation of the script enabled both actress and behind-the-scene's individuals to easily work together quickly and efficiently. We did, however, encounter some problems which we were able to sort out without issue.

Group Effort, Written By Thegla Savvides

Editing progress / Finding the soundtrack

EDITING...

We chose to use Final Cut Pro because i feel more confident with this programme and feel more comfortable using it.

All the footage filmed was ingested within correct time codes and where all rendered. i used keyboard shortcuts to cut in (I) and cut out (O) of the film in order to save the clips i renamed them in order to make editing easier. For example, during the interview scenes i renamed them as Question one Take two, Question two Take three, Question 3 Take one, etc... The clips where arranged in order of the way they come up, for example, the note DID comes before the note WE is found. After ingesting the footage i watched it through to make sure the sound was alright, because during filming day 3 we noticed that the sound was jumping, so we changed the tape just in case it was faulty and that seemed to fix the problem. I went through the clips and marked them in and out, renaming them to make it easier to establish between the different scenes. Slowly began editing together the clips adding fades and black outs, we decided a dissolve effect was better than a fade in fade out effect because it looks more dreamy, as if the character was having a flashback. Our planning was beneficial because i new exactly how the group wanted it and was able to follow through faster. With the music, i found one which best suited the video, its low percussion, piano with a slight beat 30 seconds in, i like the way it fitted perfectly with the scenes i have edited so far and i edited the music slightly to fit within the correct timing and also in sync with the movement of the trailer.

i experimented with a few random shots we'd filmed, arranging clips in order to confuse the audience more, i added a few more fades/dissolves and edited a bit more of the interviews scene, the interview scene is by far the most difficult, we didn't plan it very well and so the shots are all over the place with no real structure to show where everything goes.

I began arranging them from where i wanted them to cut in. i experimented with the saturation, mids, blacks and highlights, adjusting the warmth of the pictures by adding oranges and more blues to make it colder.
Under Video filters- colour corrector then i had a choice of yellows, greens, blues etc.
I took down the saturation by about 15% , shifted it slightly to the blues.
This was all a part of colour grading perfecting the lighting in order to create the moods we wanted. giving it a uniform feel, making some scenes warmer, for example, the scene with the dust and the sun coming through the letter box. i changed the colour magnitude making the door richer in colour. bumping up the highlights made the sunlighting coming through the letter box sparkle more.


With the IV Natalie N came up with the idea of having IV written along a line, so i downloaded a Font called Neon, under Video Generator effects, i clicked Boris then text scrambler, i increased the reveal time , decreasing the opacity creating the effect on IV....................
I experimented it with 3D by adding a spin in the axis, i then decided to add INDEPENDENT VARIABLE to the IV effect i did the same making it 3D and put it underneath the IV line...............

To create the words, i clicked Apple V (paste) to keep pasting new clips and on each one i typed different words that best represented our soap, For example, like Love, Revenge, Hate, Success.etc it was rendering slowly so i created new sequence and pasted the words in because the text requires rendering and laying them all on top gives it a lot to do at once so it takes longer.
However one problem i had with the words was when the computer froze, after a quick panic, i was thankful to have saved it just before it closed but i still couldn't add anymore to it but i think i had added enough words anyway so i am grateful that worked out too.

In order to make editing easier, we printed off a keyboard shortcuts guide to editing.

Written by Elena Christodoulou

...............................................................................

Finding the Soundtrack

We was given an OCR sheet that had a number of links for music websites, many of them had to be bought and prices ranged from $30-$50.

I found a track i liked from "West One Productions" however after emailing them if it would be possible to use there track i decided to take the safer option and just carry on searching for copyright free music.

We found the London Grid For Learning (lgfl) website where track downloads are free and downloadable via the school, however they where still low priced so i decided to just purchase it from home and get on with the editing straight away.

Written by Elena Christodoulou

Creation of Website

In order to create the website, we used a programme called iWeb on a Mac computer. The whole process of making the website took a long time, but we are happy with the end result.


As a group, we sat together and planned what we wanted on each page, using what we had found to have been successful from our research on current soap websites.


Natalie Michael and Thegla Savvides began with the basic outline of the website with inputs from the other group members. Once this was mainly done, Natalie Michael and Elena went through this, changing fonts and colours making the website clearer and more attractive to our target audience. We changed the white font to red on the character profile pages making it much clearer and eye-catching for the audience to read. The fonts were changed throughout most of the pages as through feedback from peers, the original one wasn't as good as the new one. We also hyperlinked the pages together making pictures and text link to the appropriate pages.


On the page for 'Andrea's Diary', we added stars to the corner of the pages. This made the page seem more fun and girly and should make the viewer feel comfortable visiting the page. We were unable to change the colour of this stars from white. After some more exploration, Thegla realised that this was indeed possible and we changed them to a calming pink and yellow colour. This fitted with the feel of a diary page.

Our drawn website plans and the macs with the website production on it.

Group Effort: Written by NatalieMichael