Journal - 28/01/13 Final Cut Pro

Today I planned to continue the editing of our opening title sequence on final cut pro. However, as I opened my previously saved progress I soon discovered the file had become corrupt and we was unfortunately unable to open it. This was a huge problem because it meant I would have to re-edit everything and so would not be able to hand over to Daisy and Thomas in order for them to add the titles and transitions. To solve this problem me and Nicola decided to split the editing, whilst she converted all the videos and imported them in to final cut pro, I re-edited the green screens that had become corrupt. I feel this situation has taught me to have a back up of our work as technology can be very unreliable, overall I don't feel the day was as successful as I expected because of the negative impact, this means we may not get to go over the editing before the first screening and so will put all effort in to get it smooth, and sophisticated on the first go.

Journal - 25/01/13

I continued the editing of the green screens and feel the progress  has been very successful; the whole sequence will be completed by the dead line and we plan to add the transitions, sound and titles on monday.

I really like the effect the black background had on the falling photo because it decreased the visual aspect of the piece of thread and made the photo appear to be floating, gently down - I really like the outcome and feel it will have a positive impact to the overall outcome.

I also experimented with other footage involving the green screen, however because they consisted of a lot of camera movement and moving props I don't feel the outcome was sophisticated and clear. Therefore I will be using the new footage we shot in order to create a successful outcome.

Journal - 24/01/13 - Green Screen and Re-shooting

 I faced a range of difficulties when editing the final green screens today, the first shots of Mr.Teddy in his office had to be edited in After Effects in which I used the keying tool - this technique had previously been successful when making the background matte black. However, in this shot the black background was making everything in the shot appear dark, expressing connotations which fitted more into the horror genre; the fact he was wearing a black suit made him blend into the background which was a negative aspect because he needs to stand out in order to be the main focus. I then tried putting an office location scene in the background, but this highlighted a situation my group had not previously considered- a still background with a track in clip didn't work because it would mean half the mis-en-scene will be 'jumping' around while the others just continued in the same position. When discussing this problem with my group we all came to the decision to re-shoot the whole scene, even though this seemed time consuming it would in fact save time in the long term. 

I feel the shooting went very well because this time we was able to correct any problems we previously faced, such as using the dolly to track in; before the track in created a wobbly movement and so we decided to remove it from the scene. Overall the shooting contributed to our team work because we had to quickly prepare and organise equipment, props and a location; I was very pleased on how everyone acted towards the situation and will be looking forward to editing these new shots.  We also went on to re-shooting the falling paper because we came up with the idea of using a thin piece of thread so the paper's decent would be smooth and slow; this was very successful because it means there will be less editing needed - no need to zoom and cut in order to remove hands holding the paper.

18/01/13 Re- thinking green screen backgrounds

Today I decided to ask the public their thoughts and opinions on our green screen outcomes; I recieved some negative feedback towards the outcomes which included "The scale doesn't appear to have a sense of realism", " Overall appearance seems very fake", therefore I decided to experiment with different backgrounds. I chose moving backgrounds which was inspired by a film consisting of the same themes and genre as ours; Johnny English. However the outcome didn't feel successful because I feel the movement in the background was distracting and took the main focus off the action in the foreground; and because the main focus was the same colour as the background, the action just blended in which means I will have to re-think background idea's