Editing on Adobe After Effects & Premier Pro

In order to create a series of glitches, effects and our title sequence, we decided to use both Adobe After Effects and Premier pro. These two programs were vital, (along with Final Cut Pro) in our process of creating a film opening.

The inspiration and help 

If you refer back to our editing programs post, we decided to revert to Youtube tutorials and professional websites which guided us to create our own effects.
This particular tutorial was vital in helping us to produce our killer glitches:

• One reason why we used this particular video was because it had thousands of views with positive comments - this encouraged us to use this video as help and inspiration as it was simple to follow 
• Timing is a big factor and many videos and tutorials that we found lasted around 45 mins or more. This is why we chose this video as it only lasted 17 mins which meant that it was simplified for the audience.
• In addition, the use of visual aids such as Youtube videos were extremely useful as you are able to pause and complete the step. You can also actually see what you need to press etc - this is better than step by step written instructions because they can be misinterpreted. 

The killer's montage/glitches

The killer's glitches were edited and created on After Effects and took around 1 hour to perfect and complete.

• Firstly, we cut the clips that needed glitches and imported them onto the program, where we started off adding a range of default After effects filters. These defaults included both 'distort' 'smear' and 'griddler'. 
• These default effects had to be adapted to the actual video and had to be synchronous too
• The horizontal lines effect was the effect 'griddler' and in order to make them extremely small, we had to change the width and height of the lines. This can be found in the left hand bottom corner, where there are a variety of tools
• Under this, we were also able to change the colour of the video and create a Red, Blue & Green colour effect
• Along with this, you are able to see a moving glitch that runs up and down the killer's face
• To do this, we had to create a new composition and add the 'smear' effect' In order for the effect to move up and down, we had to drag the small transform dots. 
• After dragging these dots to the top of the page ( outside of video) we had to create a keyframe for the 'smear' effect. These key frames set the precise times in which the effect moves up and down.  

The black & white typing screen

For the glitch that pops up from time to time on our film opening, we also used After effects, but this time we imported a picture from google.

This picture was found under the 'Verbose mode' title and after watching a series of movies for inspiration, the 'verbose' effect created an idea that the person was 'hacking' into the device of the character.

In order to create a typing effect, we watched this particular video to get some help:

For the green glitch, we used the default 'griddler' effect once again, but adjusted the width of each line that appeared and also managed to change the colour of the glitch. 

Green was the colour we decided on because we knew that it would be eye catching and allows the audience to ask questions on what just 'popped' up. 

Final title decision & title sequence

After doing intense research on what our film opening title would be, we conducted another quick survey on the website "Survey Monkey".

This was a great source as it helped us create a quick, easy and simple survey in which many people could answer. We chose this particular website as it allowed us to distribute the question extremely fast and the analytical feature allowed us to track the results when ever we received a new response.

Here are is the result:

From this, it is evident that the most popular title that fitted best with our film opening was "The Unknown". This piece of research helped us to then create a film title opening on Adobe After Effects. The result turned out like this:

Improvements

FOCUS GROUP - IMPROVEMENTS THAT NEED TO BE MADE

• During the editing process of our film, we held a focus group to get some constructive criticism about our work and how we could improve.

• We were told we had some strong footage but a major downfall for our group was the narrative of the film. Throughout the playing of the focus group we were frequently asked what was happening and why.

• To ensure we didn't loose marks on our final piece, my group and I chose to meet up and film a few more scenes for the film, just clearing up the narrative, trying to make it obvious about what was going on as possible.

• To conform to the blogger style in our movie opening, and to further make clear of the plot, we added a Youtube style framing to add to the mise - en - scene

• We also decided to re-draw our story board to fit the changed storyline of the horror film. If you look further down the blog, you can see the changes we made from our original story board. 

• We had to re-film some aspects of the opening due to the camera being out of focus in some places and also extremely shaky

• We added in a computer generated voice - however this was another downfall to our strong ending of the opening. So we decided to get a character to record the voice which was much better. 

British Board of Film Classification - Age restrictions

British Board of Film Classification

What do they do?

The BBFC examines and age rates films and videos before they are released. 

They watch films and videos all the way through and award an age rating and BBFCinsight to each one. They then reach an age rating by applying the standards and criteria contained in the Classification Guidelines. 

Typically, two examiners view a film for theatrical release. In most cases a Senior Examiner will confirm the examiners’ recommendation. 

With our film opening being in the technological horror genre, it is clear that we have to distinguish the rating in which our movie should be. This will allow younger and more sensitive viewers to avoid watching the film opening. There are a range of ratings for horror movies, these include:

 Suitable for all - A U film should be suitable for audiences aged four years and over. However, it is impossible to predict what might upset a particular child, especially at this lower end of the category range.

Parental guidance - his means a film is suitable for general viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for young children. A PG film should not unsettle a child aged around eight or older. Parents should consider whether the content may upset younger, or more sensitive, children.
Cinema release suitable for 12 years and over - video works classified 12 contain material that is not generally suitable for children aged under 12. No one younger than 12 may see a 12A film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult. Adults planning to take a child under 12 to view a 12A film should consider whether the film is suitable for that child
Video release suitable for 12 years and over  DIFFERENCE between the two- The 12A requires an adult to accompany any child under 12 seeing a 12A film at the cinema. The 12 is also a simpler system for retailers. It means they cannot sell or rent the item unless the customer is over the age of 12.
Suitable only for 15 years and over - 15 rated works are not suitable for children under 15 years of age. - movies rated this may include:

•  strong violence
•  frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***').
•   portrayals of sexual activity
•   strong verbal references to sex

Suitable only for adult - not suitable for those under 18 and may include:

•   very strong violence
•   frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***') and / or very strong language (e.g. ‘c***’)
•   strong portrayals of sexual activity
•   scenes of sexual violence
•   strong horror
•   strong blood and gore

After reviewing the types of ratings that we could give our  film opening, it was decided that we should place a 15 age restriction on our film opening. This is primarily due to the blood and use of weapons within film. These items could cause upset to younger views and therefore it is a good decision not to risk harm to young people. 

Lighting in our film opening

This is a screen shot from ''Unfriended' showing specific lighting. The lighting is mostly artificial coming from on screen objects like lamps and light bulbs. Since is a house, this sort of lighting is common in a technological horror. We tried to include lighting variations in each of our shots to ensure more marks.


This is a few shots from of our horror film that use artificial lighting. We tried to mirror the same sort of lighting from 'Unfriended' to capture the same conventions of lighting 

This shows lowkey lighting from the technological horror 'Stay Alive'. Lowkey lighting is the most common in the horror genre so we had to make sure we incorporated it into out horror film

This is a shot from our film that shows lowkey lighting to create an eerie atmosphere.

This is another shot from our horror film where we have used back lighting to illuminate our antagonist from the back. 

Research on production companies

Research on production companies
When researching production companies, we looked for the ones that specifically did horror movies and chose between the ones most suited to our film opening. We wanted to choose a production company that also was a smooth fit for our opening and didn't look out of place. These are the companies we found ...


Blumhouse productions

• Founded by Jason Blum 
• Specialise in low budget films
• Since it's launch in 2000, the company have been involved in over 30 films
• The most popular movies include Paranormal Activity, Insidious and The Purge 
• Blumhouse productions is a multi media production company that has developed a new model of studio film making, producing high quality but low budget movies. 

Ghost House Pictures

• Robert Gerard is the founder of Ghost House Pictures.
• Launched in 2002 and has produced 19 horror films
• It's most popular movies include The Possession, Drag Me To Hell, Boogeyman and The Grudge 2

Dark Night Entertainment 

• It was formed in 1999 by Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, and Gilbert Adler.
• When first formed, the goal was to remake Castle's horror films but starting with RocknRolla, the company began producing films in genres other than horror. Initially, most of the company's films were mostly critically panned
• Most popular horror films include: The Orphan, The Reaping, House On a Haunted Hill

Platinum Dunes 

• Created in November 2001 by filmmakers Michael Bay, Brad Fuller, and Andrew Form.
• The company specialises in horror films, particularly remakes.
• Platinum Dunes plan to branch out of the horror genre into action and thrillers with a new deal with Paramount Pictures.
• Most popular horror movies include: The Purge, Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Friday, The 13th 

Our Final Decision 

After researching different horror film production companies, we decided to choose Blumhouse Productions as my group and I decided it was the best fit for our horror film as ...

• Our film was low budget
• The type of films they have already produced have elements of our horror film in it e.g Paranormal Activity using a cam recorder screen.

The other production companies I researched seem to be branching out to do other deals with other genres of films but as we have done a horror film, we wanted a company who's main focus is still horror films.

Pre production experimenting

Pre production experimenting 

In this shot we were experimenting with the camera and how effective a fast pan would be to add tension whilst someone runs down the stairs as opposed to a low angle of the whole body. However we decided the mid shot from the side of the stairs allows a juxtaposition between the imminent danger and a seemingly neutral angle as opposed to an oblique angle which will instantly impose fear on the audience.

An initial idea for the plot was to have a stalker in her house so we decided to see what it looks like to record her bed from the mirror. Not exactly sure how well it would work due to the small size of the room and no way of seeing the mirror through the door we scrapped the idea as it would be obvious they were in the same room and she should be able to see the killer.

Fun flickering light...was supposed to add suspense for the final scenes but it did not come out as planned. Could be edited post production though.