Main Task : Process Analysis

Pre-Production:
In the pre-production stage, I believed that this part was the easiest out of the whole process (at the time) but we really learnt about how important the pre production phase, not just through organisation but through filming. If we had spent more time planning the shot listing and storyboarding in detail while having guidance from our teacher then we could of eliminated the need to re-shoot 3 times. Also, working as a team was a key aspect because you needed to understand if the material you presented was satisfying or needed to do more work on.
This helped us to be more organised and make better use of our time.

Production/2nd Unit: 
In the production stage, I thought was going to be the hardest stage but was the easiest in terms of just grabbing the camera and shooting. We were able to use our pre-production pack (such as shot list) to complete the shoot in a given period of time with a few exceptions of 2nd unit shoot (on other days).
This stage really highlighted the importance of pre-production stage but also listening to each other on the day

Post-Production:
The post-production stage, was the most frustrating stage out of all of them but allowed me to use my skills from the preliminary task.

Main Task : Official Film Opening Sequence - 2014 - G321 - Whatever Productions - The Visitor - Final Cut

This is our official final cut opening sequence that we produced.

For this, we had to colour-graded all of the clips to have a cold feel to it. Which wasn't as much hard work but we still had to do quite a lot as we had to make an initial colour that was cold and dark.We applied the cold dark colour to our clips and as we had repeated shots we could save a few shots and reapply them once over viewing the whole opening sequence.

We used the program 'Colour' which we associate with Apple Macs. We had to export our video into the software directly and therefore we could start our colour grading.

As you can see from the larger photo there are 4 rectangles with a line diagonally in the middle. That is where we changed the colour of the image to either make it more blue (bottom left rectangle), red (top left rectangle), green (top left rectangle) and light/er or dark/er (bottom left rectangle)

Main Task : The Vistior - 1st Cut and 2nd Cut

Before our First Cut Video, we had converted and put all the footage we had on Final Cut Pro. We had edited it all for about a few days realising (also through the advice of our teacher) that it lacked a lot of detailed shots that needed to be acquired such as the hand and long nails, back of the head shots or close-up on nails which was frustrating to accomplish as camera were already booked and took some negotiation with it. After sitting down with our teacher we had obtained a very detailed shot list and storyboard on what we are and going to reshoot. This was very irritating as we had thought that we had filmed everything perfectly, but after some peer work and teacher advice, it was understandable (but still irritating) that we had to film again to accomplish our desirable film.

First Cut



The first cut was not very attractive as the only thing that I saw that looked impressive was the titles. After shooting, we had converted and put all the footage we had on Final Cut Pro again. We had edited it all for about a few days realising that we had disliked a few things and more needed to be added. Because of the constant repetition of shots and the blank spaces between each title. When we had done the second unit shoot, we tried to film every appropriate body part that didn't show too much of 'The Visitor' and that still didn't seem to be enough. In addition, the worst possible event that could happen, came true when the little barn that we had filmed at, had been fenced up and therefore no-one could enter or exit that premise. This meant that we could not film in it or around it for that matter. Also, our teacher spotted a very big hole in the plot where, there was no sense of flow from place to place and after repeated discussion on how to make this better we came up with a few solutions.
Firstly, we had to write another shot list and storyboard.
Secondly, negotiate a time which we can do it and book the camera and accessories again.
Thirdly, we had to re-shoot a few more items of not only 'The Visitor' but also the surrounding to flow the 2 minute clip.
Fourthly, we had recorded our friends voice to go over the clip which would help the audience understand what had happened.
Then redit the clip which became...

The Second Cut



The Second Cut was starting to look better as we had incorporated a few things that we really liked and it started to really feel like a opening scene. With the 3rd time that we filmed, we had shot a few clips of the surrounding woods to fill in the gaps that had black screens as you can see from 0:02 - 0:03. In addition, the clip between 0:35 - 0:36, really allowed us to make it seem that she is going somewhere. Especially, when she talks (which starts at 0:39) its really helps as it give context to the audience. Again, after some peer assessment, we were very proud of the effects used between 0:40 - 0:47 to evaporate her at some times which created this ghostly feel to the film.
Unfortunately, the speech didn't correlate with the visuals and therefore seemed strange which we had to fix immediately. In addition, the screen frame had been off putting and therefore we made the entire screen to the exact frame.

GO TO THIS LINK: http://www.sapirasmediastudies.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/official-film-opening-sequence-2014.html  FOR THE OFFICIAL FINAL CUT