Last year whilst creating our film opening we used a range of different technology. For example, to shoot the majority of the footage we used the Panasonic video camera given to us by the school and a few clips of the film were shot on an iPhone 5s using a fisheye lens and our flip camera. Most of the footage was reasonably well shot as we used a tripod to steady the camera, but we could have improved upon the footage shot on the iPhone and flip camera as it was not as in focus and clear as the rest of the footage. To shoot our music video we have been given a new SLR which will hopefully improve upon the quality of our footage.
We edited our footage on iMacs, using iMovie which was fun and fairly simple to use once we got used to the settings. However, it was quite restricting when we were creating our titles for the film opening, due to the fact that we wanted a more creative font for our text to fit the psychological thriller genre we were aiming for.
CREATIVITY:
Within our group we had so many ideas, but most of them were too complex for us to create, causing us to be the last group to agree on an idea, film and then edit our final film. We initially had three different ideas planned (although we only started to film one), until we came up with our final idea for 'When the bough breaks'. Looking back as a group, we realise that with each idea we were trying to be far too creative, and eventually we realised that less was more and that we needed to use the unique resources we had access to i.e. Emily's dads taxi, and our creative and this time, more realistic, idea followed from there. We then used locations close to us that were easy and convenient for us to get to, in contrast to our previous ideas that required various different locations in London which would have made things like reshooting difficult. This year we are definitely more aware as a group that simplicity is key!
RESEARCH AND PLANNING:
Once we had decided on our genre, our whole group watched as many film openings and title sequences for psychological thrillers and we were mostly inspired by the film 'The Bone Collector' as it contained key features that we had access to, like the taxi. I used my blog to record any aspects inspiration that came to me during the planning process. To plan, we initially used a brainstorm of all our ideas and then as a group made a detailed shot by shot plan that made our filming process efficient and productive to ensure that we weren't wasting any time.
POST PRODUCTION:
Whilst editing, we realised we were not going to stick to our original storyboard and ended up editing for hours on end to fit the footage together in a way that flowed well, but also created a great deal of tension to fit our psychological thriller genre. We had to re shoot the first clip of the boot closing as it was first filmed the wrong way round. When we were putting the finishing touches to our opening and editing the sound (which was the hardest part of the process), we jokingly added a baby crying noise to the end of the film, and even though it was extremely twisted and sick, many people we asked loved it and said that it made the opening completely. We also ended up changing the song we were using in the background at the last minute as we found 'My funny valentine' on a whim and decided that it fitted better and added a creepier and more eery feel to the opening.
