Our Final Opening Title Sequence: 'Voluptuous Vehemence'

Voluptuous Vehemence from SCHS TV on Vimeo.

We were finally able to sort out the technical difficulties with uploading our OTS to Vimeo, with help from the school technician! So this is the final edit of Voluptuous Vehemence, enjoy!

Evaluation

Below is the link to the website I created to evaluate my opening title sequence. I found that I learned and improved various skills from the wide use of different formats for my answers!

http://lanekatie97.wix.com/voluptuousvehemence

Technical Issues with Audio

After having uploaded Billie's music to the OTS (which took a lot of experimentation and Google searches to work out how to spread it across the whole of the OTS), I realised there was a problem with the audio. When I played it all back and watched it, I noticed a small section of the OTS where neither the voiceover or the background music could be heard, and then the sound came back and simply carried on. I don't know why this is happening but I will seek support with finding out why and how to resolve the issue. 

Update: I Googled this and it seems that this is quite a common issue as others seem to be experiencing similar problems to me. I cannot find any answers to this, however, and so I will talk to my teacher when I see her next. 

Second update: I've just figured out what the problem was! I went onto the audio adjustments for the clips that the sound cut off with and 'ducking' was ticked! This meant that other audio tracks attached were reduced in volume.

Our opening title sequence is now finished! :)

Music

I had given my good friend, Billie Bell, the task of composing music for our OTS, and had given him a list of the sort of atmosphere we were looking for. He had also sat down with me to view our OTS draft so that he could get a feel for the story and the time etc. (I suggested he filmed it via his phone so that he could refer back to it, so this is what he did). 

This is the beautiful piece of music that he has composed for us, and I think it conforms to our narrative and Neo-Noir genre perfectly. Thank you so much, Billie! 

Production Roles

My role throughout this project has included filming, most of the editing and organising actors, locations and music. Meanwhile, Eloise has focused on directing, cinematography, overall organisation (eg. props and setting us jobs) and some of the editing.

Animatic Complications

I created an animatic of our opening title sequence over a month ago but Eloise and I unfortunatley couldn't locate where it was saved and we forgot about it, deciding that we didn't have time to complete another one before the deadline.

However, yesterday, we found the animatic on a different computer! So I exported, compressed and uploaded it to Vimeo in an attempt to post it to my blog. But Vimeo didn't allow me to upload it for reasons unknown, and I have been told that this has been a reoccuring problem for the media department recently.

And so, I will do my best to find a way to resolve the issue, as I spent a fair amount of time on my animatic.

Femme Fatale Scene

Once having uploaded our footage, we noticed that what we had didn't quite work. This is because:

• The lighting was inconsistent because it was darker than the rest of the footage, as we filmed this later in the evening. 
• Furthermore, the smoke from the electric cigarette didn't show up on the camera when we watched it back, and this is an important factor as it is part of an action match.                                                                                                              

To resolve this issue, Eloise has now re-shot this scene at her house so that she was able to experiment with lighting and mise-en-scene etc. It is much better quality.

First Day(s) of Filming

Due to Eloise's work & my Grease rehearsals, it has been very difficult for us to find time for filming. Although we found time to do so last Wednesday, we didn't manage to get much done. We found some locations in the city (& took some photographs that I will post soon) & shot a small amount of footage before the batteries ran out on the camera which-as we discovered when we got to Norwich- had not been charged. We even had difficulties with transport getting into the city, as we waited at the bus stop for approximately 50 minutes waiting for a bus that never showed up & then got on the later bus only to have a disruption on the way which wasted more of our time! Our actors were not very happy as they had been waiting for us in the city for all this time but there was nothing we could do about it, & then for our cameras to die after going through all this trouble of transport was guttering for Elly & I!

The only other day we were both available to film was this Wednesday (yesterday), and so- as we had two periods of Media Studies in the afternoon- we got our teachers' permissions to leave the school at lunch time in order to allow us more filming time in the city. Luckily, our actress who plays the part of the anti-hero (Leannan) had free periods in the afternoon, however, Lydia (who was originally going to play the part of the femme fatale) couldn't join us this quickly & was quite busy so wouldn't be able to spend much time filming. Eloise then put forward the idea that she would play the femme fatale (& these would be the scenes that I would need to take on her roles of director & cinematographer as well as my role of camerawoman) so that we could ensure that she is always available when we want to film. We returned to the locations & filmed from the beginning, ending up with approximately six & a half hours spent in the city before we returned home extremely tired but glad that we got most of the filming completed! 

All that is left to film now is:

• different camera angles revealing the dead body (which I aim to do tonight, using Connor rather than our original actor, Toby, due to Connor's availability & short distance from my house)
• an extreme close-up of Connor slowly opening his eyes (which I also intend to do tonight)
• Eloise walking up to a front door (which we will film as soon as the time is available)
• a shot of Eloise framed through a letter box (which we will also film as soon as the time is available)

Time Management

Week beginning 13th January

• finish filming footage
• start editing to complete first cut
• create studio & production idents/screens

Week beginning 20th January

• finalize first cut so that it's ready for feedback
• preparation for presentation of first cut
• send Billie first cut for preliminary composition of music

Week beginning 27th January

• first focus group work with peers & teachers
• re-editing
• planning & completion of any re-shoots
• planning construction of sound

Week beginning 3rd February

• construction of sound
• finish all titles
• final edits of film OTS

Week beginning 10th February

• exhibition & distribution of first cut of final films shared on social networks for the purpose of focus group feedback
• use surveys/questionnaires (surveymonkey) & allow time for feedback
• work on blog to ensure all the above is evidenced (talking head, reflective note, production plans, slideshares etc)

Week beginning 17th February (half term)

• complete focus group research
• complete blog
• plan final improvements to productions in response to the feedback

Deadline for completed Research & Planning Blogs & First Drafts of Productions is the 28th February (Friday after half term)