First Editing of the House scene

The house scene was one which would be on screen during the fast pace of the chorus of our song. Therefore, I knew that the editing had to convey the argument between Alice and Ashleigh as quite aggressive.

Firstly, I looked through all of my clips and chose those which looked as though they would be most successful. 

As shown below, I was able to take my filming and cut it down in order to have only specific clips to put into my movie. This was helpful as it meant that I can take more than one clip from each section. Due to this scene being the argument, it was essential that we had different angles represented in the movie. Some points in the filming went wrong. Being able to use specific parts of the film was essential in creating a successful first draft. 

I was also able to use the 'Cross Fade' function. This allowed me to have successful transitions from one part of the argument to another. It also allowed me to maintain a fast pace through this scene which is crucial in presenting the violence of the argument and the build up to Alice's self destruction at the end.

Stretching the clip out allows me to adjust the specific sections easily. As there are many small sections put into this part of the editing, it is essential that I do not miss out any good parts of the filming or have them lost behind the other video clips. One example of this is me having missed out part of the clip where Ashleigh pushes Alice. I believe this shows her violence effectively so, in the second draft, it will be ensured to be put in.

PROBLEMS

Problems with this editing include that which is shown below. This is a print screen of part of the first edited draft. As you can see, Alice is laughing due to not being composed when arguing with Ashleigh. This has caused problems during filming at points as the two actresses sometimes find it difficult to keep composure. This part of the video will have to re-shot in time for the second draft. 

Seventh Filming

For our seventh filming, we changed the House Scene to be an argument with Alice's friend. In my opinion, this scene was a lot more successful than the previous attempt. 

The first shot we did was just Ashleigh normally going to the house. This allowed us to imagine different ways of filming.

 

Next, we decided to do a follow shot of Ashleigh, allowing us to see her go through the garden. As you can see by looking at the video, the leafs on the trees brush past the camera. I think this is an effective technique as it foreshadows the violence and distorted friendship that is about to occur in the clip.

We then wanted to film the scene from different perspectives. To try and heighten the sense of drama and allow the viewer to experience what the character is, we decided the film from both characters point of view. This is shown below:

I believe this type of filming is very effective, especially the use of Ashleigh's point of view as it allows the viewer to experience the drama themselves. It expresses Alice's anger at Ashleigh when coming out of the house which can be viewed as a metaphor for her anger at the world and herself.

Another type of film we were keen to do was the 360 degree angle shot. Having used it previously when Ashleigh played the part of the mother (This is again shown below), we decided it was a successful shot in conveying drama and promotes that both characters are losing their control of their emotions. In the first 360 shot, Lauren and Jess were seen in the background making the clip unusable.

The second however, was more successful and allowed me to use sections from it. Within this video, a close up of the two characters is also shown allowing the viewer to capture their emotions successfully. 

The pan shot we used was simple and effective is showing what was happening plainly on screen. it shows Ashleigh getting from A to B.

To show extreme emotion, I believe close ups are essential. We also filmed some of these. Although this time, they did not appear so successful due to the composure of Ashleigh and the apparent bad quality of the camera when filming Alice, in a re-shoot, we will try using more close ups.

Another shot we tried was that of the over the shoulder shot. This allowed us to see a slight point of view of Alice. 

First Editing of the Memory Scene

For the memory scene, our group decided to make the clips in Black and White. This effect is commonly used in films and music videos. Therefore, we were very keen to incorporate this idea into our own. 

After our successful filming (made good due to the help from our other classmates), we used the few clips and went straight to editing it. 

Firstly, the clip needed to be made black and white. As shown below, it was easy to get the hang of. We were about to give the clip a 'Black and White effect. Other effects we could have used are shown below but we stuck with our original idea.

Shown below is the first edited draft of the memory scene. Although the black and white appears as a good effect, I believe that this film in general, does not work. I believe the pace should be slower and there needs to be more extreme close ups and close ups of Alice.

Sixth Filming

Next on the list was the classroom scene. Luckily, our teacher Mrs Mckenna (photo shown below) was willing to film for our video. This included her having to have an argument with Alice.

First, we wanted to organize our room and the scene. This meant that we organised the tables (shown below), allowing the clip to gain a more classroom like scene. 

Firstly, we decided to video the class just casually working. Through the clips, Alice is shown as the only student not working showing her lazy attitude. This foreshadows the bad essay and the argument that is to come between her and the teacher. As well as this, throughout you can see that Ashleigh does not look impressed by Alice. This is used to foreshadow their argument later on. We decided to make the class an English Lesson as we know that all students have to take this subject and it is very important for future education. Shown below is the evidence for the filming of the lesson taking place before the argument:

First, we filmed from the back of the class room allowing us to gain a students view of the lesson:

Next, we decided to film from the front  right of the classroom, allowing us to capture the students impressions of the lesson. Looking at Alice who is sitting on the front right table, she is disinterested and bored within the lesson, building up to Mrs Mckenna becoming frustrated with her.

Next, was filming from the front right side of the room. Shooting from here allowed us to get a clear view of Alice, allowing us to capture how unenthusiastic and unmotivated she is about her lesson:

Wanting to emphasize what the argument between the teacher and Alice was about, we decided to film Mrs Mckenna marking Alice's paper with a red pen. Using Zoom and other features, the audience would be able to see how unhappy the teacher is with Alice's work. The use of the red pen is crucial as red is used to have connotations with danger and negativity.

The Extras

After filming this, we wanted to start filming the main part of this clip. This meant that we decided to film some normal mid shots for when she was giving out the work to the other students (our extras).

Next, we took an over the shoulder shot of Mrs Mckenna allowing us to see the students slightly from her point of view whilst she hands out the work to her students.

Just incase it would be needed, we decided to shoot some clips of the extras. This would allow us to contrast them against Alice, showing her as an unproductive, bad studnet compared to the rest of them. This means that Mrs Mckenna's frustration  becomes more realistic.

 

We then went on to to film mid front shots of Alice and Ashleigh, allowing the audience to see Ashliegh's annoyance with Alice's behaviour. This will foreshadow the argument that is yet to come between them.

 

The Argument

We filmed a midshot from the right side of the classroom, allowing us to get a clear view of the argument. Luckily, Mrs Mckenna and Alice were able to succesfully work together to refilm the same shot and keep composed.

The second shot we tried was Worms Eye view. We used this as we thought it would promote the teachers dominance over Alice as well as allowing us to catch her anger more successfully. As well as this, the worms eye view allowed us to see Mrs Mckenna from Alice's perspective allowing the audience to feel the threat that Alice feels.

After taking a worms eye shot of Mrs Mckenna, we then decided to take a slight birds eye view of Alice, reflecting her inferiority.

The filming of the argument, in my opinion, was very successful.Through the different points of view shots, the point of the film is coming across to the audience in a effective and obvious way.

When Alice is storming out, we took two different types of shot. A mid shot from the side and then a shot from the back of the class room. This second shot allows us again gain the other students perspective.

Overall, I think the filming of the classroom argument was extremely successful. Due to our reliable extras and actors, we were able to easily film without too much nervousness or laughter. Although there is accidental laughter in some of the videos, it can easy be Trimmed.

Fifth Filming

Preparing our actresses:

Alice, we wanted her make up exactly as in the other filming. Shown below is her again preparing her make up for us:

Unlike Alice who needed to be made up, Ashliegh needed her makeup taken off. Below is how we prepared her for the filming:

 Both together:

Once our actresses were prepared, it was time for us to begin the filming.

Firstly, we did a couple of shots from the left hand side of the room:

 

These were clips we were keen to use as they showed simply the beginning of the argument.

Next, we decided to film 'follow shots' of Alice coming into the house. This allowed us to slightly see the house from Alices perpective. The follow shots appeared very succesful in previous scenes specifically when Alice leaves the school classroom, therefore we wanted to retry this:

After finding these quite succesful, we then decided to try a varitey of angles. This included many examples of us using 'worms eye view' and 'birds eye view' to help to convey anger and dominance within the relationship.

Shown below is some shots of a 'birds eye view' of the argument in general:

 

Birds eye view with a slight pan:

The worms eye view was mainly used on Ashleigh in order to emphasise her authority over Alice. These are shown below:

Although the worms eye view is used a lot on Ashleigh, shown below is a couple of exceptions where Alice has a worms eye view on her at the point when her anger is developing:

 

This second video, as you can see, is very bad when it comes to lighting. It therefore, cannot be used. When next filming, we need to ensure that the top lights are not on again. We need to focus on lighting more.  

Due to Alice not having any words, we decided to create a sort of script. Although we hoped this would be successful, we realised that having lines to say made our actresses less confident and kept forgetting the lines. The evidence of this is shown below:

 

Next, we decided to take some more shots from different areas of the room:

From the back (slightly from Ashleighs point of view):

From the back left:

From the front of the room:

This shot is from the right hand side of the room. It also acts slightly as a follow shot and allows us to experience the action partly from Alices point of view. 

 

Knowing that we needed to capture the anger of both characters, we decided to do some close ups and some extreme close ups. This allowed us to be able to capture reactions.

 

 

Not all of the close ups turned out well as at some points you can tell that the characters are not speaking actual words, making it look unrealistic. We therefore, will need to cut out the points which look the most fake.

Over the shoulder shots are some that we have used often previously. Therefore, we decided to do this again with this scene.

The two videos below show slightly Ashelighs point of view. We can see Alice's actions clearly from this angle.

We also took some shots that we thought would be good extras for our clip, hinting away from the actual argument. This includes Alice kicking the beer bottles on the floor and a shot of Ashleigh before Alice comes in.

Our last shot, and in my opinion, the most succesful was our 360 degree angle shot. I believe that the use of this shot allowed the drama to build up, reflecting how Alice's upset and frustration is building up and it seems like a vicious cycle of emotion.

Problems:

This scene did not turn out as well as we had hoped. As you can see through looking through the videos, it was hard to make Alice and Ashleigh look serious during filming. Their laughter through the clips makes it look unrealistic and un professional. However, this could be solved through cutting them laughing out through the use of editing.

Another problem we came across was the fact that Asheligh was playing a character who was much older than her actual age. We were forced to do this due to no adults being willing to film for our video. Although we hoped it would look realistic and good, after talking to our teachers, we realised that to them, it was not realistic enough.

We therefore, needed a group discussion in order to see what the next course of action was for us.