Screen Grabs: Soundtrack Pro

Soundtrack Pro is the program we'll be using for our film to add different effects and music to our film. One example that will be in our final film will be the reloading of the kidnapper's pistol before he shoots his victim.

Screen grabs: Live Type

Here are a few screenshots of me using live type. I've been experimenting with a few effects and fonts to try to create a title for our thriller film. I wanted to create a scratchy, more scary looking title for our thriller film to connote the story line of a woman being kidnapped and killed.

Making the Titles

As our rough cut didn't have its titles, me and Sebastian started to create the titles. We used LiveType to do it. 

The title of our film is 'Victim'. We found the right font to portray the thriller element and the right effect to create the thriller feel.

'Directed by...' It is crucial to have who it is directed by because the audience will want to know if it has been directed by a famous directed or one who is just starting out.

It is important to have who is starring in the film because it will attract more people if they know a hotshot actor or actress is in it. in this case Ben is one of the stars and myself is another.

There are many more titles and certain orders in which to add them.

Rough Cut Evaluation

Finally our rough cut is finished. We have, as accurately as possible, made an outline of shots for our Thriller opening.

We had a range of shots including close-ups and long shots. We used these shot for different aspects of the opening. We had both close-ups and long shots of the scenery.

We made the decision to have the main footage in normal colour as it is what the character is seeing then and there. 

We chose to have the flashbacks in black and white because it would distinguish between what had already happened and what was happening then.

Shot of Ben buttoning up his shirt in one of the flashbacks.

Another flashback image of Ben, this time zipping his jacket.

Flashback image again. Putting on his gloves to go and find his prey.

Another flashback image. Ben in examining his knife before going to find his victim.

This is one of the images of Ben just after he had a flashback. In the background, you can see his victim (me) on the grass.

Overall, our Rough cut has been successful in terms of connecting all the footage together. However, we have gone over on our allocated time (2 minutes) by 45 seconds. As a group, we established which shots were too long and we have decided how long to cut each one down by.

Rough Cut: Evaluation

Yesterday was the deadline for us to complete the rough cut for our thriller. Starting at 9am, we edited throughout the day until 4pm in order to get it finished and uploaded to the blog. We did not have time to add the titles, although Courtney did start to create them on another computer, or the soundtrack, which I am planning to create on Logic Express, a music editing program, possibly using some sound effects from Soundtrack Pro.


The total running time of the rough cut version is 2 minutes and 45 seconds, which means we will have to cut out nearly a third of the footage in it (as the limit is 2 minutes). I don't think this will be too difficult, as I can see that some of the shots are much too long, and some of the flashbacks will be edited so that the time between them is shorter, giving the impression that they are flashing up faster.

One of the flashback shots

I think that all the shots we have are alright to use, and with further editing they will look fine, meaning that we do not have to film any again.
Another modification we need to make is to add another video filter on the flashbacks, to make them look more distorted/blurry, as at the moment they look too clear. Also, we will add some fade-ins/outs and transitions (particularly at the start) and obviously the titles.
We also need to edit some of the match cuts, as they look slightly out of sync. 

The opening shot, which is a few seconds too long

Rough Cut

Here is the first rough cut for our thriller, without sound or titles.

Editing 2

In the first day of editing we managed cut clips and put them in order therefore the second day of filming we focused on the effect, transitions and lighting.

Once we had fixed the final order, we experimented with different filters, to make the brightness even on the flashbacks and we also put a black and white filter on, to separate the flashbacks from the rest of the footage, we done this on final cut pro in the modify tab. We explored different effects such as hazed and blurred, then came across 'light ray' effect, which we decided worked the best, as it creates a slightly blurred picture, yet doesn't ruin the footage, so its not completely unclear. 

During the last flash back, when the victim is about to get shot, we wanted to make look more intense than the rest of the flashbacks, so we decided to make a blinking effect, from the point of view of the victim, this we done by cutting the original footage and putting gaps in, between each other.