'Post Mortem' Title Sequence

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Looking back to your preliminary task, how do you feel you have learnt in progression from it to the final product?

Without a doubt the most successful area of our task was in editing. In our group, we were fortunate enough to have someone who was familiar with Final Cut Pro thus was about to shoot the sequence with an eye for the final editing. Without the editing the shots what we had filmed were a series of still shots or very little movement, the Bad TV effect gave significantly more movement than what we had shot. I also feel the intensity of the background music created tension in the piece, enhancing the title sequence all together.

Another thing that could be considered to have gone well was the pre-production planning. We had some initial idea changes but that shows advances in our ideas. Our research into killers and their backgrounds and how they’re portrayed in the media and film led us to being able to accurately create a character than could be deemed to be successful in our film.

The least successful part of our task could be considered to be the actual filming. We shot for far longer than we had first set out too, due to the hiccups we experienced when beginning to edit. The first camera we used was a poor decision on my part because the auto-focus was an apparent error as we couldn’t control what we wanted to focus therefore needing to re-shoot more than once with a different camera. Also as mentioned above, the idea changed a few times which led to confusion within the group but I feel this wasn’t too much of a down fall for the final piece.

Finally, I have learnt that pre-production and well thought out planning are handy in filming. Having the correct camera and knowing what you want to film saves a lot of time and means you can do the editing sooner to make your sequence look as good as you anticipate.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During the process of creating our title sequence, we learnt a lot about the importance of knowing how to use the equipment we had hired out properly. We were also able to use film and TV information website IMDB to look at various actors which could be used for the film and what goes into making a piece of professional film (what needs to be included in the pre-production etc).

In the production of the sequence we used two cameras. We started with a Canon Powershot SX170 Compact Digital Camera and did pick up shots and final shots with a Canon EOS 1100D 12MP DSLR. We started with the Powershot because it shot in 720p and seemed suitable for what we needed. It was all good only it takes AA batteries and only has autofocus. 12 batteries later and a dozen blurry shots we gave up on day one of filming. When shooting again we borrowed a Canon DSLR and this was far easier and more successful for shooting with. It focused on the areas we wanted and the battery lasted far longer, which was beneficial. The manual focus meant we could get some extremely close up with a shallow depth of field.

The first day of filming had challenges to it, a) because of the camera used, b) because of the lighting. On the camera screen, the lighting we used looked fine but on the iMac was nowhere near ideal. We had only used a key light rather than a fill light and key light. We re-shot these shots with a brighter light and better camera and they come out fine.

In editing we used Final Cut Pro, which had everything we needed. Many of our shots were stills and in editing we split the screen and put on the Bad TV effect, which gave it a jittery and static look. For the shots that we had first filmed, we used colour correction software to lighten up some shots because the first day of shooting was too dark.