Trapped In Purgatory

Evaluation

End blur.

To end the dream sequence we placed a Fast Blur effect on the end using the key frames to control when it starts to blur and how long it lasts for.
Key Frames:

Because our last frame is water we changed the blur from "Horizontal + Vertical" to just Horizontal to give this water motion effect, so it blurs horizontally like moving water.
Screen shot:

Outer Glow effect

Creating the Outer Glow effect:

• We opened a new document on Photoshop changing the page size to 1280 by 720 so it was the same as the video.
• We then drew four black lines around the page to create a rectangle.
• Selecting the outer glow effect we then played around with opacity and the amount shown on screen.
• Saving it as a PNG file allowed the effect to be saved without a background, so when transferred onto Premiere the effect will allow the video to be shown through.
• We then imported the effect onto Premiere.
• Placed it over all of the top frames for the dream sequence.
• Then we changed the opacity to blend into our video creating a softer edge.

Screen Shots
Before Effect:

Creating the effect:

With Effect:

We then simply changed the outer glow from black to white to have a more serene dream effect.

Editing

Over the past few days we've been playing around with the editing to get our shots the perfect lighting and the perfect sequence. We:

• Blurred the opening and the ending to create a dream effect.
• Changed the Brightness and contrast of the film but decided to use the real lighting of the footage as it looked more appropriate.
• Changed the colour of the last shots. We tried to Saturate them into a dark blue but we still haven't achieved this, we've got a saturation of blue with a tint of green. We used the Tint effect on the selected shots to achieve this.
• Changed the speed of the waterfall to 275% to get a fast shot with the quick cuts to support this disturbing event.
• Slowed the speed down to 50% of "The Bride" walking across the bridge and also the cut to the close up of her.

Screen Shots:

Tint:












Natural Lighting:

To do in Editing:

• Get the right saturation at the end of the dream sequence.
• Soften the edges to make more of a surreal dream feeling.
• Film the last sequence.

Monday 8.3.10.

We captured the footage and put it successfully on to Premiere. After, we picked out the favoured parts of the filmed pieces to create Match on Action for "The Brides" walking down the stone steps. We managed to pick out a long shot of her walking and then a cut to a close-up of the neclace, returning to the long shot. We then got an establishing shot of her walking behind, then a long shot were she turns around and then a cut to her at the front edited so it matched her movement from behind.

Holding the letter in front of the brown stone gave it a more prominant image in comparison to holing it infront of her white dress since the dress was also white. We then used a close-up shot to show the letter from the first shots of the opening in her hand, also she wore a ring on her engagement finger.

To connect the letter writing to the Rivington shots we used a Dip to White dissolve from panning upwards from the candle finishing with a bright light to then transitioning to a shot of the sun panning across to get an establishing shot of the area. The next shots are edited together using cuts, but one dissolve is used when she is further down the steps after that cuts are again used.

Filming in Rivington

We used two locations for the filming in Rivington:

1. Steps leading towards an arch
2. Waterfall

Filming, we took the shots with the sun behind us achieving stunning and bright shots which we wished to achieve for the dream effect. It took from 1:15 till 4 to get the shots we wanted and we did so successfully. Ready on tape we will upload our work and start the editing process.

Thursday Lesson.

Wigan Met informed us that the weather tonight should be dry, with tomorrow being a perfectly clear day. Hopefully this is true.

Our lesson is the last period tomorrow meaning we have from 1:15 to film our Rivington shots, it should take a good while getting there, but hopefully the weather will be nice enough so we can get them done quickly as this is the largest section of our opening sequence. Once these have been shot too, it also means that I can start to sketch the images needed for our bedroom shots of The Girl and The Bride.

Needed tomorrow:

• Neclace used to seal letter.
• Copy of the letter. Possible spare letter incase the other is ruined.
• Costume.
• Wipes, incase of anything getting dirty.
• Bin bag to place beneath camera.
• Just anything handy!

Editing

From the 21 minutes of footage, we managed to edit it down to just 25 second. We selected our favourite shots which involved just four different shots:

• "To my love" and the letter.
• Close-up of writing the letter.
• Stamping the wax seal.
• Panning upwards from the wax seal to the top of a candle.

To allow the shots to piece together showing the passing of time, we used the Dissolve transition in all of them. This is our first scene complete.

To Do:

• Music score for this section.
• Transition from this part to the Rivington shots.
• Consider credits layered over the footage.

Production Shots

Equipment and area of filming:













The creation:
















Playing back what was filmed:

Editing Plan

Key moments:

• Start: "To my Love"
• Close up of "Honest Bride"
• End: "Goodbye"
• Dripping the wax seal onto the letter.
• Seal stamp within the wax.
• Candle creation just because it looks pretty.
• Ending shot ready for the next transition.

Filming Scene 1

It took 4 hours to film 21 minutes for a 30 second piece.

Before:
This was the scenery before filming and all the equipment that was going to be use

During:
Problems

• It took a good hour before I realised I was using the broken pen nib which caused all the unnecessary blotches and was difficult to write with, causing a problem with filming as I kept having to re-write words.
• One of the candles had two wicks within it and therefore burned out resulting in a trip to Asda to purchase another 2.
• The candle wax ran onto the page when I was writing as it caused a river.
• Over time my hands became very dirty due to mauling with wax and ink.

These problems need to be identified in order to correct the mistakes made in filming.

As the candles continued to burn the wax melted into each over creating this beautiful section of candles looking like a volcano letting out lava.

After:

The candle creation has not yet been cleaned up in case in Editing we decide to re-film a certain part. It also took just as long cleaning up as it did to film the piece.

Script

serene background music used in establishing shots

bird caw (possibly raven) at the moment of change in colour




overvoice
-To my love
-Bethrothed
-My father
-How i can live?
-My heart is torn
-Be with you
-Honest Bride
-I can't cope
-Last letter
-Goodbye

Over voice done in a whispered vocal tone and with rapid speed to create confusion


Dialogue

Girl in room to Bride: 'Okay i'll help you, but i need to know exactly what happened!'

Filming

Within yesterday's lesson we went to Wigan searching through several Charity shops, we could not find a costume which was suitable and if we do not find one by Thursday our filming schedule for the rivington shots will be delayed. Also, Monday's lesson we aim to film the letter scene, but if we fail to create the right atmosphere we shall do it after college at home completing 1/3 of our film.

It would be better to film the bedroom scene after the Rivington shots to get correct scenery sketched however, with time running out we may have to do this first to allow a decent amount of time for Editing.

Genre change

Through the development of the film, we have decided that the Genre didn't follow the conventions of a Psychological Thriller so instead we have changed it to a Drama Thriller.

Letter Design with writing

Open:

Done by a pen which dips into ink.

Sealed:

The words within the letter have changed since this shot as we did not feel our old one did not get across to the audience what we needed.

Note: The letter is not signed by The Bride to keep her identity hidden. If we named the character the audience can then become personally attached which will take part of the mystery behind the story.

Letter

The opening sequence letter reads:

To my love,

We can not see each other any more, my loyalty lies with my betrothed. My father has chosen him; he is a good man. I want my father to be happy, he has done me well in my entire life, I can not disgrace his name, but if I'm not happy I do not know how I can live. My heart is torn as I wish to be with you, I will always love you, but I will not wait for you. I lie devoted with my family, but my heart lies with you, I don't think I can go through with it. I want to be an honest bride, but I don't know if I can. I can not live without you.

This will be my last letter to you. I will not write again. Maybe our paths will cross again in another life time.

Until then my love.

Goodbye.

This establishes that the ghost is a bride who is not yet married. She loves someone else, but due to an arrange marriage she can not see him no more to please her father.

Improvements to story:

• We will now refer to our ghost as "The Bride"
• A love triangle shows a problem The Bride had before her death.
• Line; "This will be my last letter to you. I will not write again. Maybe our paths will cross again in another life time.", implies suicide as she may end her life or that she's erasing the man out of her life sociably.

Sketches.

Images of sketch compared to dream.

The lighting within the bedroom will be darker due to night time. Images will be stuck, overlapping and under-lapping each other to allow a more compact area. Many of these images are still needed to be drawn but some will only be able to be done when the Rivington shots are finished. This will allow a more accurate drawing of the area to show the dream is constant and does not vary much.

Reccy shots of letter.

It's important that with the first shots, the lighting is perfect, we have to allow a certain amount of light in that looks natural but not too dark. Achieving this we had to move the candles around in certain positions checking:

• Where the shadows are facing.
• If the light highlighted the area we need.
• If the candles where in the same position when writing further down the page but keeping the same level of light on the words.
• If the background gave away a modern era.

Due to the photo's not being placed in the area we will be filming (Which as not yet been chosen) the back ground is still important in viewing how much we will have to show.

With the pen:

Results:

• Candles would have to be placed on the other side to get the shadows off the page.
• When the candles are lower there is a better light, the larger one is currently being burned down.
• More candles would have to be used to get the lighting needed.
• Different levels of candles give off a better effect.

This photo shows that we can get a good level of light but still not enough. The grey was a fault with the camera.

Sealing the letter was quite effective, the centred candle light allowed the red to be shown. The letter of course would have more writing, but we have not yet wrote the script for this part.

A close up of the seal. Which would have an imprint when we figure out what item can be used.

NOTE:

A Tea-light was used which will not be used in the filming. It would be a naturally melted down candle.

To Do:

• Find seal stamp.
• Melt down candles.
• Write what will be said in the letter.
• Signature of character design (Give Characters a name).
• Handwriting design.

First Frame lighting and Mise en scene.

The opening of "The Craft" emphasises the Mise en scene by focusing on very small detail.

The use of candle light for the key lighting creates an outline of darkness allowing the audience to focus more on the detail of the items, it also highlights the colour of reds, greens and yellows which make it visually alluring.

This is what we would like to achieve within our first frame. The use of candle light will remove the background and place it in darkness allowing the audience to focus more on the letter being written. It allows brings focus to words, the wax being used and the pen which will create beauty. The use of a darker background also hides any signs of modern traits and makes it more antique as the table used can not be analysed fully. Also the yellows show ageing and implies a different time period to the 21 century.