Weekly Update

Last week the editing was completed on our film and we were able to transfer it onto the DVD. We had also uploaded our final draft onto YouTube so that we were able to gather back feedback for our Post-Questionnaire. We will now individually be starting our Evaluations.

log rushes

I logged and capture all the film that we shot. I then categorized them into groups such as Landing scenes, Bedroom scenes and Basement scenes. This was so that if any thing went wrong on the time line I was able to find exactly what shots i needed and re edit them back into the timeline.

Sound Journal

As I was also sound editor as well as camera person it was my job to find and convert sounds to use within our production. With sound there are two types these are DIEGETIC and NON-DIEGETIC. Sound thats source i visible on screen or made my action within the film is known as diegetic or sometimes 'actual sound'. examples of this are:

- Voices of characters
- Sounds made by objects in the story
- Music from instruments within the story

Non-diegetic sound is made for the audience and is not visible on screen and has not been suggested to have been made by anything within the film. Examples of these may be:

- Narrators commentary
- Mood Music
- Sound effects added for dramatic effect



Above shows a snap shot where we can see an online software programme called freesounds.org this was where I gathered most of my sound effects came from. This site was really easy to used and enabled me to find sounds that met my genre. i was easily able to download the sounds i found most suitable to my personal itunes account as seen below.





The next stage was the hardest in terms of sound. Now that I had all of my sounds and music gathered I had to use final cut pro to download my music onto so that I would be able to put it onto what is called the timeline alongside our footage. However this was not always as simple as that. I also had to use soundtrack pro to to edit my sounds as some of the ones download were suitable for my film however were too long. for example with our main soundtrack used at both the beginning and end of our production up until 1:48 it was fine but the track then begin to change pace and tone and was not suitable for our horror genre. I therefore had to cut the track to finish at 1.48.



Here shows how I was able to cut and fade out sounds. In this particular case I needed a scream , however the one I had downloaded was too long i there for used this feature on final cut pro to pin point the individual points of sound in order to cut the specific part of the sound that I wanted to use.

Editors Journal

Editing Date: October 22nd 2011
Place: Editing suite
Time started: 3:10
What did I do: Logged and captured all the film onto Final Cut Pro and sorted them into categorised bins.
Problems encountered: No problems encountered
Time completed: 5:15

Editing Date: October 23rd 2011
Place: Editing suite
Time started: 3:30
What did I do: I started editing all the shots and putting them on the timeline in chronological order. Using trial and error I looked at what shots fitted and what didn’t. This took quite a lot of time, I wanted to make sure everything fitted perfectly and wanted to experiment with different shots and transitions.
Problems encountered: Because I was new to the software the shots I had put on the timeline kept moving around as I didn’t know how to lock them. Also shots kept over lapping and so the edited shot I had put on were shortened.
How I resolved the problems: I went on Youtube and looked at tutorials on how to use Final Cut Pro and found out how to lock the shots on the timeline. I also found out how to ‘Edit Undo’ so that I could get back to the original timeline without any problems.
Time Completed: 6:35


Editing Date: October 24th 2011
Place: Editing suite
Time Started: 3:30
What did I do: I continued placing shots onto the timeline. As I became more experienced I was able to work faster and get more done. Everything was placed on the timeline and it played smoothly. I started turning up the sound in each scene as some of what the characters was saying wasn’t very clear. I also turned down some of the sound as there was talking from the director and camera person in it. You could also hear the moving of the camera.
Problems encountered: Some of the sound wasn’t able to be turned down completely and there seemed to be shots that went from silent to having some background noise. I had to come up wit ha way to make it seem like there was no noise at all.
How I resolved the problem: I looked on YouTube again to find possible solution to the problem. I found a way to mute the whole shot which was good because we could then add ambient sound on top to make the scene to work a lot better.
Time Completed: 5:40


Editing Date: October 25th 2011
Place: Editing Suite
Time Started: 3:10
What did I do: I made sure all scenes were in place and made sure all the sound was perfect so we could add ambient sound and add sound effects at appropriate times. The Sound Person and me looked at lots of different sounds and tried them in lots of different places. It took a while to get the correct sound for the bang but after many attempts we found the right one. We then had to work hard to get them in sync with the acting and make sure they faded in and out correctly. We also had to make sure that all the sound didn’t exceed the sound limit.
Problems encountered: The only problems we had were that some of the sounds didn’t download properly so we had to re download them. Also some sounds had to be cut down into the size that was needed for each shot and cutting them was slightly difficult. We had to make sure that it didn’t cut out any important bits.
How I resolved the problem: We worked cautiously around the sound and if things couldn’t be cut accurately we downloaded a different piece of music that also fitted correctly.
Time Completed: 7:15


Editing Date: October 276h 2011
Place: Editing Suite
Time started: 4:00
What did I do: Today we completed all the sound and made sure it ran smoothly. I then went on to creating filters for the film. We wanted it to look like it was the early hours of the morning so we had to make it dark. Using Colour Corrector 3 way I created a dark blue filter. This took a lot of time, as I had never used this software before. I played around with the contrasts and finally made a colour that looked like early morning.
Problems encountered: Because the Camera person filmed during the day it was very hard to get the filter to look dark but make sure everything was visible in each scene.
How I resolved the problem: Using trial and error we tweaked each filter until it looked the same throughout.
Time Completed: 7:15


Edit Date: October 27th 2011
Place: Editing Suite
Time started: 3:10
What did I do: Today I looked over all the film and made sure sound, filters and all the shots were in chronological order. I made sure everything was perfect. I then set about adding title sequences and end credits. Katy Kennedy Created them and I placed them on the timeline adding transitions and sound to them. This took a while because I had to wait for the credits to be made and then decide what transitions worked best with each bit. Also having to choose music for the beginning.
Problems encountered: The only problems we had were trying to get the resolution on the credits to look good. Because they were made on Photoshop, when they were transferred over they became blurry
How I resolved the problem: To resolve the problem we increased the resolution of both the film and the credits this made it less blurry but it still wasn’t clear enough so Katy re typed the credits in a clearer font and they looked much better.
Time completed: 7:15


Edit Date: October 28th 2011
Place: Editing Suite
Time Started: 3:20
What did I do: I checked every part of the film adding the final touches and making sure everything was in place. It then came to putting the final draft on YouTube and putting it on a DVD. I had to export it to QuickTime and then upload it to YouTube, which didn’t take too long. I then had to Use iDVD and create a sequence for the beginning of the film. This meant creating a play button. I also added a few snippets of the film and some scary music. Once this was done I burnt it to 3 discs so there were 3 copies, 1 for each member of the group.
Problems Encountered: When exporting the video to QuickTime it often took a very long time and when it did finally export the film was blurry so again we had to change the resolution. We ended up using Apple Pro Res, which then increased the quality. We then had to Re Burn the discs and upload a new version to YouTube.
Time Completed: 6:45

Directors Journal

On the 18th october 2011, we began filming our production ‘House Forty Two’ a short horror film, which is the genre that we had all agreed on. Camera Woman Katy Kennedy, Director Hannah Molloy-Herat and editor Sereena Lewis had met at the location, 42 Aldborough road South at approximately 4pm with our cast, protagonist Helena Morais and Natalya Martin.

After Katy Kennedy had set up and prepared the camera, we then went into the bathroom so that we could apply Helena’s makeup. Her makeup consisted of talcum powder in order to give her an eerie ghostly effect. We also used black eye liner on her lips and around her eyes as well as dripping blood (food colouring) from her eyes so this would emphasise the chilling, creepy effect that we wanted her to give off. She had also put her costume on which was a long white nightdress which had been designed too look as if there was blood on it, fitting in with the conventions of protagonists within many horror films.

Due to the camera being set up already, this meant that we could begin filming straight away. We entered the first bedroom, which would be the first scene of our film, and Camera Woman Katy Kennedy had got into position to start filming. Hannah Molloy-Herat had got into position as she was also in the film as well as being the director. This is due to her taking place of another individual who was not able to film that day. Although the storyboard was available, as the director, I had to make sure the Camerawomen could vision the production that I wanted, and the angles and shots that I wanted this short horror film to be consisted of. So myself, in collaboration with Katy Kennedy were able to figure out what the most effective way to film this production was. I was in charge of the rest of the crew and had to make sure that they knew what they were doing, knowing their lines as well as following my directions of when to start and stop acting.

Within the opening scene, I had decided to use various Close-up shots such as ones of their hands gripping together as well as a close-up of both of the characters eyes. I believe these close-ups were effective within the beginning of the film as it meant that the audience would be able to establish the fear that these two individual characters were encountering. Another shot, which I believe was used effectively within our piece was the point of view shot. At the time, you are able to see the ‘presence’ behind the protagonist, which then turns into a point of view shot when she briskly turns around to see what is behind her. It allows the audience to feel scared for the character as they know what is in the house but can see that the character is unable to see it, building up suspense and tension. The main shots that we used were close-ups of the antagonist faces, fitting in with the conventions a typical horror, showing the fear that these characters felt and allowing the audience to also feel this. We also used various other shots, regularly moving and re positioning the tri-pod in order to test numerous shots and angles in order to see which ones were best.

Throughout my role as director, I was constantly giving directions in which I believed would benefit our film and engage the target audience that we wanted to engage. I believe that all of the crew and cast worked very well together, taking and following directions that I had given, effectively. I feel that throughout the filming process I was able to take on the dominant speaking role highlighting what I wanted and expected from this film as well as allowing other individuals to express their ideas. I was very confident in conveying what I wanted, as without this confidence I wouldn’t have been able to fulfill the role as director effectively. Although everyone began getting tired of filming, and we had to keep moving and reapplying makeup, everyone worked very well together, supporting each other in order to get the best out of one another. We all individually developed our skills in time management as well as being able to work well within a team.

Fonts Used

Fonts Used

Post Questionnaire

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Post Questionnaire Graphs

Once my partner had produced and given out the post questionnaire form to a selected group some of whom met our target audience criteria and some who didn’t, I had the role of collecting and converting the results. As there were a significant number of feedback forms I decided that the best way to do this would be to create simple graphs to show our results. The programme I used to do this was excel as graphs can easily be formed using a simple spread sheet. As I was familiar with this programme already I was able to create these graphs within a short amount of time. Below shows a print screen of how I did it.



The first graph shown below shows the results of the question ‘are you male or female?’ as you can see the results are 50/50. Some may find that this question is not very important however it is quite the contrary. This in fact is a vital question as we are trying to gain to feedback from our target audience which are both males and females therefore an equal amount of feedback from each is important. We also felt that perhaps individuals from each gender may be able to provide relevant feedback that will be constructive and help us to improve that we may not have been given if for example we had only surveyed females.



Below the results from the second question are shown in the form of a pie chart. The question asked was ‘how old are you?’ as we can see the majority of the people asked were within the ages of 12 and 15. It also shows that three percent where above the age of 23. This demonstrates that we surveyed a variety of people ranging for 12 onwards. However our main focus was in fact to looking at those within the blue and red categories as these are our main target group for our film due to the fact that our age rating is 15.



The third question asked was ‘what did you find most professional about our film?’ his was a very interesting question to look at the results for as we were able to see not only where we could have improved but also what we did well and how the audience felt about our piece. We can clearly see that in fact a large amount of those surveyed felt that the camera aspect of our piece is what made it look most professional. Second to this with 6 votes was the music. This was not a surprise to us as when constructing our film we found from feedback that the Main changed that we had to make were related to sound. Sound is a key feature in the film and we have learnt how much of an impact it really has on the production as a whole and that audience. However the aspect of our film that got the least amount of votes for professionalism was the acting ability. We feel that our production has depth and good acting quality and feel that we agree with the pole as the acting ability is not in fact influenced by our editing ability.



The fourth question that we had asked was ‘on a scale of 1 – 10 with one being the least how scary do you think our film was?’ This in fact was one of the most important questions we had asked as we did have some reservations on whether or not it was suited to the specific age rating. However we were pleasantly surprised with our feedback for this question. Three rated our film as 10/10 for scariness and only the majority of votes were placed at number 6 on the scale. We feel that the music and sound affects played the biggest role in the area. Without the music we feel that our film would in fact not meet this high on the scale and that it has helped us to create the atmosphere we originally wanted when making this psychological horror.



The final question asked was ‘do you feel that the genre of our piece is clear?’ This is the upmost important question as it was vital to meet the codes and conventions of our genre. With 26 out of the possible 30 voting yes we are confident that we did in fact meet our conventions. However out of those remaining 4 who voted no when asked to explain why they disagreed they gave the following statements. ‘I understood that the spirit creature shown was to be dead however I was not sure if the generally production was in fact a sci-fi or not.’ Another statement made stated that ‘It was hard to determine whether or not the film was in fact a horror or psychological thriller.’ We have taken these comments on board and understand where the audience are coming from and feel that we could have made this clearer with better use of costume and make up to establish that the demon was in fact the girl featured at the beginning who has died all those years ago.



In conclusion we are grateful for the audience feedback and appreciate their time. Generally we are happy with all comments made and understand where we could have made adjustments to improve our film. We feel that we have learnt a lot from this project and wouldn’t not have been able to achieve such a piece, if it weren’t for the audience feedback. As after all they are target audience and we are constructing our product to meet their needs.

Short Film 'House 42': Second Draft

Weekly Updates - Week

This week we made a budget so we could keep track of all the money we needed to spend. We then got a letter of permission for the persons house we wanted to use. Also we got an actor release forms written and sent to the actors we wanted to use.
When all of the above was completed we produced the shooting schedule to let us and the actors know when and where were filming.