The day of our presentation

Today is the day of our presentation to Suited and Booted and the Bath film office. We have spent the first hour setting things up and running through our speaking parts and the technical side of the presentation. We basically just finished off all of our bullet points for our speaking and decided on what order to go in. We had a practice run through and it was roughly 10minutes long which was the required time. We went next door, when it was time to start, and watched Ashley, Harriet, Olly, Frank and Lauren do there film presentation first. We were to go second and be filmed and asked questions about our filming experience. We were lucky to go second as watching the first presentation gave us an idea of what sort of questions we were going to be asked and also to see if our way of presenting would work and be acceptable. Our presentation went really well and I felt as if we really connected with the audience and carried out the brief well. Sara, Jenny and Rachel seemed really pleased with our effort and our outcome and only queried our choice of costume. We would have done this better had we had a budget and dressed in more appropriate period costume.

This was a really good opportunity to watch and get some insight into how the other groups worked and created there films. It was really interesting to see and hear how differently we all went about planning and creating our films. Another thing that I found really interesting was how we all interpreted the brief and seeing how different everyone's ideas about the word and meaning 'Gothic'. After watching the films I think that everyone stuck to the brief and created unique films.

5th March lesson - planning for our film presentation

This lesson was dedicating to making the finishing touches to our editing and planning our presentation for Suited and Booted and the Bath film office. We have been asked to design a 10 minute presentation between us to pitch our film to our clients. Our group has decided to design some postcard sized handouts to promote our film. We took on different roles in our presentation, for example, I am going to be talking about our locations and the acting in the film. Jenni is talking about the reason why it should be put on the website, overall filming and the music aspect of our film. Jack is making a power point presentation in order to demonstrate to the audience how and why he has edited the chosen film the way he has. Behind me and Jenni talking there will be an enlarged version of our handout to provide a backdrop to our speaking section.

Unfortunately Daisy was not present in this lesson so we had to assign her the section of how the filming and directing went as she was primarily the main person to have worked on this.

Sally's song analysis - Nightmare Before Christmas

This is 'Sally's song' from the film The Nightmare Before Christmas directed by Tim Burton. the song is a crucial part of the film as it lets the audience know how Sally feels about Jack and his plans to take over Christmas. The background music to the song is very dark and played using an accordion - which creates a very awkward sound to the song. This is very apt due to the way the film is made and presented. The lyrics to the song are as follows:

I sense there's something in the wind
That feels like tragedy's at hand
And though I'd like to stand by him
Can't shake this feeling that I have
The worst is just around the bend

And does he notice my feelings for him?
And will he see how much he means to me?
I think it's not to be

What will become of my dear friend?
Where will his actions lead us then?
Although I'd like to join the crowd
In their enthusiastic cloud
Try as I may, it doesn't last

And will we ever end up together?
No, I think not, it's never to become
For I am not the one.

The lyrics to the song tell the audience of Sally's want to be with Jack and stand by him. It also tells us that she fears the worst for him as she can see how he has gone too far with the idea about delivering Christmas. This clip is a non-diagetic extract from the movie. The audio explains how Sally feels towards Jack and how she doubts that they will ever be together. The tension of the scene is built mainly through the lyrics and the high pitch tone of the voice. The music that accompanies the lyrics builds the atmosphere that something bad is going to happen. This scene begins with joyus, happy music that is suddenly contrasted and transitioned into Sally's song. This abruptly changes the mood of the scene from happy to sad. The overall mood of the extract is how Sally is feeling worried and fearing for Jacks safety. It also explains to us how Sally feels emotionally about Jack and whether or not she thinks they will end up together.

Friday 12th Feb - last day before half term!

During this lesson we refined our films and reviewed them. We sat as a group to discuss which ones we should put forward to the film office and we all decided on Jacks. His film just seemed so much more professional and well thought out and looked like a proper short film. We were all so pleased with all of our outcomes and I personally am proud of mine considering that I have never used Final cut before or edited a film at all. All the techniques I used, for example the speed and the soft edges, all made my film what it is. In thus session we also decided on a name for our film - we came up with Red Dress, After Life and Ghost of Bath. We eventually decided on After Life as our title. We thought this was very apt due to the story and journey of the ghost in the film.

Permission to film

These are all the permission letters and emails we received whilst trying to get permission to film in the places we wanted to shoot in.

5th Feb

Unfortunately I was not present in this lesson. I had a meeting with my group about what had happened whilst I was away and they informed me that they continued to edit their films and also discussed slightly the name that they wanted to give the film. I have continued to edit my film to get up to date with my group and am now ready to continue with it during our next lesson.

29th January

During this lesson we continued to refine our film edit. I added soft edges to the film to create a softening and old fashioned feel. I also added my dialogue boxes using the text tool. These occur every so often during the film to tell the audience the story of our two characters. The text tool allowed me to change the font, size and colour of the text. It also allowed me to move the text where I wanted it to be.

Editing our film and the processes - 15th Jan

Today we continued to refine our rough edit. I reviewed what had achieved last week and added different affects to our scenes. The first scene, at Helting Close, has been slowed down to 80% to add atmosphere. Other scenes which I have slowed down are when I am running through The Royal Crescent and the last half of the last scene which takes place in Southgate. I feel that these were the right moments to use the slowing down movements to create an atmosphere of longing. This affect also makes the audience pay more attention to the scenes which, I feel, are better quality. I also shaved down some of the scenes to make them flow better and begin and end at better points. To do this I just clicked on the beginning or end of each scene in the timeline sequence box and dragged it left or right to make it shorter. Overall the rough editing has gone really well and I have learned a lot about different techniques to edit film.

In and Out

The in and out process is how you select which bits of your shots you want to incorporate into your rough edit of your film. To get the beginning of the shot that you want you simply press 'i' for in and to finish the shot you simply press 'o' for out. You then drag the selected scene down into the timeline sequence box.

How to change the Speed

This is a print screen of how to change the speed of the scene. In the little box you can change the percentage of the speed higher for quicker and lower for slower.

Importing

This is a print screen of how you import files into your browser screen!

Friday 8th jan

Today we are roughly editing our Gothic film in Final cut pro. We began by importing the folder with our film in it into the program. Once we had done this we watched our shots back and decided individually what parts of the films we wanted in our own personal edits. To do this I watched through each shot and once I had decided on what part I wanted, I used the shortcuts on the keyboard (I for in and O for out) to choose the parts I felt had worked best to put in our final piece. After doing this I had a rough edit of the film in order. This is called a rough cut. We haven't done any of the editing properly yet as this is just a rough draft. Other editing we have planned to do is to make it Black and White with a vibrant Red dress for our only colour. We will also edit the speed of some of the shots and put a piece of piano music over the top.

The order of the shots are;

• Hetling Close
• Hetling close 2
  
• Railway tunnel
• Paragon steps
• Laura place
• The Circus
  
• Royal Cresent
• Suthgate
  

From Hell

This film is very relevant to the Gothic film we are trying to produce for our project. It is a very dark and sinister tale of the Gothic side of London in the 19th century. Watching the character of Mary Kelly, with her bright red hair and lustrous dress, running around the city looking for her friends and running from the horrors of Jack the Ripper are what we want to achieve with our film. Although the film is in colour there are certain aspects which are more vibrant than others, such as, the prostitutes dresses and blood of the victims. Also the scenes which are set in Buckingham Palace are very vibrant. A lot of red, purple and gold are used to show off her wealth.

From Hell - The Plot to a Gothic Film

It is 1888 in London, and the poor lead horrifying lives in the city's deadliest slum, Whitechapel. Harassed by gangs and forced to work the streets for a living, Mary Kelly and her small group of prostitutes trudge on through this daily misery, their only consolation being that things can't get any worse.
Yet things somehow do when their friend Ann is kidnapped and they are drawn into a conspiracy with links higher up than they could possibly imagine. The kidnapping is soon followed by the gruesome murder of another woman, Martha, and it becomes apparent that they are being hunted down, one by one.
Sinister even by Whitechapel standards, the murder grabs the attention of Inspector Frederick Abberline, a brilliant yet troubled man whose police work is often aided by his psychic "visions". Abberline becomes deeply involved with the case, which takes on personal meaning to him when he and Mary begin to fall in love. It is then revealed that Sir William Gull, the doctor of the Royal Family, is Jack the Ripper. He has been killing the witnesses to Prince Eddy's forbidden Catholic marriage to a prostitute who bears his legitimate daughter (Alice), who is therefore the heir to the British throne. The Freemasons, a secret society of which Gull is a member, decide to lobotomize him to protect the Royal Family from the scandal. Mary Kelly doesn't die; Jack mistakes Ada, the Belgian girl, for her and kills her instead. Mary lives happily ever after with Alice in a cottage on a cliff by the sea. Inspector Frederick Abberline dies alone of an opium overdose, knowing he can never see Mary again without endangering her.

This is taken from Wikipedia..

Edward Scissorhands Analysis

Edward Scissorhands is a film that isn't obviously gothic. Edward Scissorhands home up on the hill is typically gothic and matches his personal image. The scene in which 'Peg' the avon lady discovers him in his gothic home is so well done. It shows obvious contrast the little town down the hill. The interior and colours of the gothic castle also contrast with Pegs costume which is a happy, pastel, lavender shade. The use of pastel shades in the town is a direct contrast again with Edward Scissorhands black and white costume, pale face and jet black hair. The production crew found, in the words of the production designer, Bo Welch:

"a kind of generic, plain-wrap suburb, which we made even more characterless by painting all the houses in faded pastels, and reducing the window sizes to make it look a little more paranoid."

The atmosphere and mood of the film is different throughout. To begin with, during the credits, it is shown as a Gothic, dark and scary film because of the black and white detail, the music creates tension and mystery and the images of the castle and of Edward himself are all shown in a Gothic way. However, this is heavily contrasted with the pastel town and from then on it is sadly clear that he doesn't fit in with the suburban life.

The film itself differs from a classic horror film as it is solely focusing on the character to provide the Gothic element to the film. I personally feel that the horror actually comes from the people of the town because of the way they treat Edward. His only horrific quality is his scissors for hands and the crimes he commits with them are always innocent and by accident. The horror of the film is provided by the way he is treated and also the atmosphere of his home. Edward Scissorhands also falls in the romantic genre as it is primarily about him falling in love with the daughter 'Kim'. This aspect of the film can be compare to Beauty and The Beast as he is unable to consummate is love for 'Kim' because of his appearance. Other themes Burton acknowledged are that of self-discovery and isolation.

The music in the film also represents a lot about Edward Scissorhands as a character. The credits in the beginning are alongside a very Gothic, eerie and scary piece of music. This is used to create tension and evoke feelings of the unknown. The music throughout the film is very atmospheric and is clever conducted allowing for extremely tight parameters that help the score for the film tell the story by itself. The film also features three of Tom Jones’ songs (‘It’s not unusual’, ‘Delilah’ and ‘With these hands’) which have been highly criticised claiming that; “The Tom Jones songs are an unfortunate downside to the score; his voice and the style of the song may have been an attempt to mimic the 50's atmosphere of the film, but its tinny recording sound is quite irritating. Burton and Elfman would have been better served by having a sensitive vocalist provide a song version of Elfman's love theme.”

In my opinion the ending of Edward Scissorhands is sad but it adds to the affect of the film. If it had been a happy ending it would have been a typical fairytale essentially with the "beast winning the love of the beauty". The ending is still riddled with hope as they both live happily ever after just without each other.

A summary Edward Scissorhands

Edward is an unfinished creation of his inventor/father who dies before he can complete the job. He is removed from his lonely existence in a hilltop castle by Avon lady Peg Boggs and finds himself living with her family in a pastel-colored version of suburbia. He becomes the source of fantasy, gossip, resentment, adoration and lust for the neighbors, whom he wins over with his outlandish haircuts and elaborate sculptures. Burton explained that his depiction of suburbia is "not a bad place. It's a weird place. I tried to walk the fine line of making it funny and strange without it being judgmental. It's a place where there's a lot of integrity." Kim leaves her jock boyfriend (Jim) to be with Edward, an event that many have postulated as Burton's revenge against jocks he encountered as a teenager. Jim is subsequently killed; a scene that shocked a number of observers who felt the whole tone of the film had been radically altered. Burton referred to this scene as a "high school fantasy".

This is taken from Wikipedia.

11th dec - last lesson before christmas

This was our last film lesson before we broke up for the christmas holidays and for the first half we uploaded our films onto the computers and split them into manageable chunks to edit. Unfortunately I was late due to my car not starting so I missed the instruction on how to do this on the macs. For the second part of the lesson we watched Edward Scissorhands in preparation for the christmas homework we were given to be completed by Friday 8th January and written up on our blogs.