Finished!

After fixing up our sequence using the feedback from the test screen, we were due to test screen again but were forced back because of the many changes we needed in our editing. This left us to test screen after school at about 4pm. Since lunchtime there had been further changes to the sequence applied by Jack and Shaun - this being the main title being finished by Jack, and some further changes by Shaun who had replaced the 'help' shout with a horrifying scream of pain. This, somehow over the top, seemed to work really well because of its shocking nature. It was perfectly timed with the hand banging against the door glass and we though it would make people jump, which is the point of a horror film. Also we had responded to more feedback from Miss Blackborow, adding more titles for the duration of the sequence as otherwise our piece would not technically be a "title sequence". We filled this with random names and media-related roles.

We did not get to test screen until about 4.45 because of other test screens, so we showed fellow media students around the department the sequence and asked for more feedback. This was alot more successful because of the miraculous changes, but there were still one or two things to fix up! We were told to change one of the names of our extra titles as it was distracting from the scene. This name was 'Han Chan' who is actually a boy we know, but we saw how funny this name could be percieved as if we had made it up. We were also told to move around some of the titles away from the main subjects on the screen such as to the sides and the bottom corners. The only other thing we were left to think about was the volume of Matt's voice over the music on two very short occasions. Other than that the changes we had made were fine, and the shocking ending was successful in causing the students a fright!

We went away for 15 minutes and quickly applied these changes, lowering the volume of the music on two parts of the dialogue in order to hear Matt, moving the titles around to fit perfectly on the screen without being distracting and adding a new name to one of the titles - an ambiguous and boring name, Tom Matthews, instead of Han Chan. We checked the whole sequence with Miss Blackborow one last time, saved, rendered and we were done, concluding our editing time at approximately 17:05.

Now our sequence will be put on Youtube and DVD, whilst we must get on with our evaluations... but our days in the edit suite are officially over leaving us with nothing but a gloriously completed sequence, fond memories and a tint of finalitic sadness.

Test Screen Reaction

After test screening we recieved alot of critical feedback - the minor mistakes that we needed to fix in order for our sequence to run perfectly. There was some obvious hiccups with the sound on the big speakers such as background fuzz in some shots and not others, and Rob's voice still being too loud but Matt's being too tired. There were also a couple of dodgy cuts during the conversation to fix. People liked the beginning titles but were dissapointed by the main title at the end as they thought it was too small, did not stand out, was not distinctive from other films and was boring as it used the same font as the rest of the titles. The last thing people suggested was a lock sound on the door rather than the shout of 'help' as this could also anchor the meaning of locking the victims away and the hand appearing being of a trapped man. This obviously left us with some work to do...

We worked hard on the sound, getting the voices the same level throughout. We also had to play around with the music for it too rise and fall with the sequence. We were told about a technique to take off the camera fuzz by lowering the treble booster, so we applied this to every clip and we were amazed at how effective this was. It cleared up alot of mess and helped make the dialogue clearer. It was miraculous! We also fixed up the cuts in the conversation as we were told and played around with the main title. We were not happy with the effects used on the editing software so we consulted our media technition and he suggested a programme called After Effects. We played around with this as well as checking out some effects on the technition's Imac before deciding to edit the effect of each individual letter in RESERVATION on After Effect. Jack did this in a free period, adding a mysterious glow and thickness to the font, whilst making random letters fade up until it spelt the word, RESERVATION. We loved the spooky, mysterious feel it gave to add a chilling end to the piece, accompanied by the music going silent leaving a thrilling echo. Finally, we found a sound of a locking door and applied this to the scene where the door is closed. We kept the 'help!' in for further feedback, but overall we feel we are one step closer to completion.

Test Screen

We are planning to have a test screening today in lesson to get feedback from fellow media students on the sequence and the title, as well as looking for mistakes we might spot ourselves as it may look different on the big screen.

BLK Feedback

Miss Blackborow took a look at our (finished) project and gave us the go ahead for our test screening. However she did have a few issues which we will look at when we have a screening. There was issues with fuzziness on the audio of some of Matt's shots and it is noticeable when they cut to shots of Rob. She wasn't 100% on the title as well and thought the shot with Matt shouting should be closer shot but it is impossible to change now.

Death of the Shoot

We have come to the conclusion not to shoot tonight, Tuesday the 6th January. It is our last chance to re-shoot in our basement location but once again we have experienced problems in communication with our actors, and one of them is unfortunately unavailable. However, since our decision last term to re-shoot on this date we have made some successful changes to our current sequence of footage and we believe this has come together nicely and would be fine for our final piece. We are beginning to sort out the problems with lighting and sound that we originally intended to change by re-shooting, so for this reason the failure to re-shoot tonight is not such a disaster.

We are now making decent progress with the footage we have. We have learnt many lessons about communication and actor problems along the way, some which could have been dealt with such as phone numbers, and some which could not have been dealt with such as illness and unattendance. Now, we are officially not shooting again for this project.

BLK Feedback

Miss Blackborow watched our sequence thoroughly and analysed it. Overall her comments were very positive about the titles, visualisation, pace and structure. She pointed out a few more little niggles for us to deal with to make the sequence perfect. This included making the fades between titles longer at the beginning to hold suspence, and bringing in the story slower. She also advised us to make the actor titles the same length, and take out one clip towards the end which is too dark. It was of Matt walking down a corridor towards the basement exit to link him walking away from Rob to him opening the door. However, taking out this clip made the sequence faster with this clip being irrelevant as the two fitted together fine for continuity. Other than this we still have to work on the sound with the help of Ryan, the media technition, and continue to work away at the tiny little bits of perfection such as cutting down shots slightly. This feedback was very useful and now we feel we have a finished sequence that we simply need to smarten up a bit, and Miss Blackborow agreed on this.

Hello again!

We're back.

Christmas was great.

Shaun is still ill.

The rest of us are fine.

Shaun is still showing lots of group commitment so everything is good and we are ready to go again!