The End

Thank you for reviewing how my media skills and knowledge developed throughout this course. As it was something I had never done before, it was a really exciting and new experience for me and I am glad I had the chance to have such an opportunity. I learned many things about the film industry that I never knew before, and I was also able to get a hint of how things moved behind the scenes. Although it was quite difficult to get a hold of at first, through loads of practice and through the help of my fellow teammates and my teacher, I was able to learn many things such as how to handle a camera, how to edit films, how to work in a group, the different types of shots and editing techniques and many more. I know that I have many areas I need to improve in, but I was quite pleased with how far my teammates and I have come in terms of filming. I hope to continue to prove on these techniques so I can hopefully do even better next year.

Evaluation Question 5

Production Team

Nour: Editor

Ramsha: Camerawoman

Sasha: Made questions

Response To The Video

I was pleased to see this type of response for our film opening. We had the desired emotional effect we wanted to have originally an am glad we were able to pull it off.

The shots that were unfocused was a mistake on our side as we didn't really pay attention on the day we were filming. Due to us being unable to film again we had to go with what we had and just made sure they cut quickly. It annoyed me as it was very unprofessional for us to do but the people who acted for us on that day were able to find a day free to do it for us again so we decided to keep the shots in.

I was quite disappointed when it was mentioned that some things were hard to understand due to how they were laid out, but I understood their perspective as we told a very important plot line at the beginning of the film itself, so it would be quite difficult to understand. I do believe we could've improved some of the ways we told the story, by for example, having the flashbacks in a more coherent structure, but once again due to us not being able to film again we had to use what he had, and tried our best to make sense of that.

Their thoughts on the pace, editing, and audio was positive which made me glad as those were the thing I personally was the most worried about. I agree that the audio quality was not the best, but it helped the audience understand more of the character which is exactly what we were hoping it would do.

In terms of the font and film title, I do agree that they didn't follow the normal boxing conventions, but it was the best we could do given the late time we finished our film at.

Overall we had a positive review which I am thankful for. The impact we had on our audience was exactly what we wanted, and I'm glad we were able to pull it off properly. 

Evaluation Question 4

How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project? 

Production Team

Nour: Voiceover (blogger, lighting), script

Ramsha: Voiceover (camera, internet), script

Sasha: Voiceover (final cut pro), script, editor

Evaluation Question 3

How did your production skills develop throughout this project? 

Production Team

Ramsha: Voiceover/drawing (preliminary task, day 2, day 4), script

Sasha: Voiceover/drawing (day 1, day 3, conclusion), script, editor

Evaluation Question 2

How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text? 

Made by me using prezi

Evaluation Question 1

How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues? 

Production Team

Ramsha: Script

Sasha: Editor

Final Product

Production Team

Eman: Actress, camerawoman

Nour: Camerawoman

Ramsha: Camerawoman, editor

Sasha: Camerawoman, editor

Deconstruction Of Shots

Soundtrack

The hardest part for us while editing our film was looking for a soundtrack that would go along with our film opening. We didn't want to use a soundtrack that would contain lyrics in it so we were limited to just instrumentals. It was hard to find one that suited our film opening as some that we found were either too intense or just weren't enough.

At the beginning, we had decided to just use a soundtrack and not have any narration at all. This is shown in our film draft. As you can see it made our opening seem very trailer-like, and made it and for the audience to understand what was going on. The soundtrack we used for that one was Sleeping At Last by Saturn.

We still kept it even after we added a narration but once again the film opening became too dramatic and too trailer-like. Knowing we had to change it our teacher advised us to look for ambient tracks rather than actual instrumentals as they'd help our audience focus more on the diegetic sounds than on the non-diegetic sound.

Due to the addition of the narration we needed sound that would be faded into the background but would still have an impact on the audience. Something that would increase in intensity as the opening played but would not make it too dramatic. So in order to do this each of us decided to look for a soundtrack until we found the best options for ourselves.

After searching around on youtube, Nour and I found this soundtrack.

It was exactly what we were looking for. The sound has just the perfect amount of intensity and sadness we needed and also wasn't taking anyone's attention away from the narration like the previous ones did. I'm glad we found something suitable to the genre of our film opening, it really helped convey the feelings the protagonist felt even better than before. Because of this we are one step closer to finally finishing our film.

Evaluation of Draft Film + Targets

Made by me using Canva

Final Film Draft

Production Team

• Eman: Actress, director, editor, camerawoman (mother's shots)
• Nour: Camerawoman (tracking shot), editor
• Ramsha: Editor, camerawoman (tracking shot)
• Sasha: Director, editor, camerawoman (tracking shot)

Behind The Scenes: Day 4

Go Pro was handled by Sasha, Nour, and I. Video was edited by Sasha.

Final Location

Due to our change in film idea, we had to find a different location to film at. We couldn't go to the location we had filmed for our first day due to the owners charging us a fee to do so so we had to look for another place where we could go.

Thankfully, Eman had looked around and found the perfect place. Our new filming location was at The Cage Qatar. The owners were more than happy to let us film at their gym, and we were happy as their gym was exactly what we had been looking for.

They had their own ring in a corner and were surrounded by punching bags. It was much better than our first place as our first location's boxing ring was surrounded by exercise machines and people which made it harder for us to film. The owners of The Cage were also nice enough to let us film before opening hours so we would be able to finish everything up before customers came in.

Inspiration

Source of Inspiration

Southpaw

To do the tracking shot we decided to follow a theme that is somewhat similar to Southpaw. The idea of wrapping hands in boxing tape to get ready for the match is exactly something we want to achieve as the idea is simple and to the point. It is much better than our previous ideas of a boxing fight or the mother abusing the protagonist one. We didn't realize at the time that our previous ideas were way too complicated to do and not as simple as we thought they would be.

The tracking shot we did during Day 3 was taken as more of a test run rather than actual footage we could use due to the low quality of the shot. At least because of that we were able to practice how to properly produce tracking shots.

One shot however, came out extremely well and if we are able to use it I believe it would make a very good ending shot before the title screen appears. It was the shot where we used the chiaroscuro effect. I believe it came out extremely well quality wise and its symbolism parallels to that of our film title 'Black Heaven'.

The chiaroscuro shot

Here are a few example shots from Southpaw we plan to achieve during the day we go for filming. 

This time we will make sure to keep things to a minimum. We won't have too many people, only Eman who plays the main protagonist will be shown getting ready to get into the ring. We will still incorporate the shot's we got of the mother during Day 2 of filming, because we need them for the story telling purposes. However, only the good quality shots will be used, and since they appear in flashback format we will use quick cuts to quickly replace them with the better quality shots we will hopefully obtain during the fourth day of filming.

Entry

While editing, the four of us noticed that the shots we had taken had once again not come out properly. The shots of the mother had come out unfocused, not only that but

With the thoughts of re-shooting some of the scenes, we asked the actress who played the mother if she was available. Unfortunately, she couldn't due to her own work load, and we were left with thoughts on what we could do to improve our video. Time was running short and we couldn't afford to redo the whole project, so we decided to come up with a new idea that we could add into some of the better shots so the flow wouldn't be disrupted.

We decided to do another tracking shot, this time at a gym. We made sure that we have a better high quality camera at hand so that the shots wouldn't be too unfocused. We also had a stabiliser a hand so the tracking shot can be done more smoothly.

We also have planned everything together beforehand so that we won't waste our time as we did the first few days of shooting.

This time I hope that everything goes better than the previous days of filming. We have learned from our mistakes, and I hope the new shots that we get from filming will help us complete the film, and not cause any more problems.

Editing Process: Day 2

Editing Process: Day 1

Editing Idea

Inspiration for flash backs: Vixx's Error

We struggled quite a but to figure out how we could out put the scenes together so that they wouldn't be awkward to watch. We tried to use different types of methods to do this. For example, we tried to show the flashbacks first and then cut to the present time, we tried to put the scenes around a bit hoping it would make sense. Unfortunately, nothing worked.  

To avoid  shooting any more we all decided to search up what we could use. Whilst looking for different ways we could present the flashbacks and present time in our film opening more smoothly, I remembered this music video I once watched. The idea of having different filters and transitions to present the flashbacks seemed like a good idea. It would help us set the time frame apart, and make it easier (and less confusing) for the audience to watch. It would also help us in achieving the desired continuity affect.

Difference in past and present times in the music video

Filter for present time

Filter for past memories/flashbacks

The transition they used for cutting between past and present was wavy and robotic which suited the theme of their music video, but it wasn't something we could use. 

In order to fit the theme of our film opening we used a more standard 'flash' transition which helped us tell the story of the film opening in a more smoother manner. Along with that we also used 'cross dissolve' and 'fade' so we could have different types of transitions instead of only one. Moreover, for the flashback scenes we set a filter known as 'desert glare' in order to set it apart from the present time shots. 

Thanks to this idea telling the story in our film opening became much more easier to do, and once we showed it to our teacher he also agreed to it giving it a better flow.

Behind The Scenes: Day 3

Log

Production Team

Eman: Speaker, editor

Nour: Camerawoman

Ramsha: Camerawoman, microphone handler 

Sasha: Speaker, editor