Our Project Finally Gets a Title!

Our group have finally agreed on a title for our thriller project 'Oblivious' we all feel that this title is perfectly suitable for our project and helps tease the story behind the opening sequence.

The "Oblivious" is 'not aware of or concerned about what is happening around one' this perfectly reflects the character of Joseph; he is an individual is in undermined by those around him and is not aware his true nature. In addition to this, those around him are oblivious to his true intentions.

I am truly satisfied with this choice for the title. Other title suggestions for the project we had were:
-Interloper
-Snake of England
-Joseph

 The issue I felt with those selections where that none of them were captivating or hinting at any aspect to the story.

2nd Day of Re-shoots (Bomb Assembling)

As apart of our plans to re-shoot the bomb assembly sequence, our main priority was to fix the match on action of Joseph's movements and planned the shots the continue those actions.

Another aspect of this sequence we had to replay was the shot used for the opening threat video. In the first draft of our project we used a medium shot; however this unfortunately cropped a small fraction of the subject's forehead which was due to the framing and the fact that the project is presented in an anamorphic aspect ratio. So for the re-shoot, we've decided to shoot the "Threat video" at a wider angle so we can fit as much of the subject as possible.

Behind the scenes (The team re-creating the set)

As apart of the re-shoot, we also had to gather all the props needed to re-create the set exactly as it was before.

After we spent a few hours re-organising the set for shooting, we went forward with production and have successfully captured all the footage we intended on getting whilst achieving what we feel is an improvement on the match on action of the sequence.

We now head on with post-production and assembling the clips together along with the audio.

1st Day of Re-shoots (Late to School)

We began our reshoots by filming the sequence that taken place as the character 'Joseph' is at school and is late for his lesson. 

This shoot was successful as we had learnt from our time shooting this sequence before ; we were aware of what needed to be improved from this sequence and we also knew how we intended on capturing the dialogue between Joseph and his classmate.

A photo from today's shooting (Joseph and his classmate's interaction)

This additional interaction has extended the duration of the scene within the school; this is why we had previously decided to remove the additional shot of Joseph walking through the corridor as it had taken 8 seconds of screen time which now has been filled with this dialogue sequence.

Only minor issue with today's shoot was that fellow crew member 'Ashley Banger' who played the classmate interacting with Joseph; despite the reminders in advance, Ashley had forgotten to wear the required clothing that he wore in the previous edit, ultimately causing us to prolong the shoot more than scheduled. We had to unnecessarily re-shoot filler shots of the two actors which we intended on re-using from the 1st draft but due to the actor's change of clothing would have jeopardised the continuity of the project. Despite that issue, as we adapted to this unfortunate hiccup and finished with enough time at the end of the shoot to glance at the footage and was certainly satisfied. 

Preparing for the Re-shoots

In order to prepare for the re-shoots, we all had to look at the still we compiled at decided on what definitely needed to be planned.

One of the main issues we faced in the first draft of our sequence was the poorly planned match on action of the main character. Therefore we decided the plan every shot and every movement the actor made in order to ensure a high level of fluidity regarding the
match on action of the scene.

Another issue we faced was the location within the school where we placed the subject walking down a corridor; however this corridor had no effect on the sequence and instead decided to scrap that brief shot and instead cut to the character as he approaches the classroom door.

The most significant change we have made to our project was to include an interaction and dialogue between Joseph and his classmate; which involves Joseph teasing the potential threat he poses to the story.

The Editing List

This is a list that was compiled by our group which contains all the particular parts of our project that must be improved either through post-production or by re-shooting shots.

The way we came to these decisions was by watching the rough-cut all together and picking it apart frame by frame and stating what needs to be improved and how we're going to do it. 

Ultimately this list is going to be helpful when it comes to re-shooting the project but also in the editing room ; this list will help remind us what definitely needs to be done in order to perfect our project.

Thriller Opening (1st Draft)

This is the 1st draft of our edited sequence which only contains the footage without any titles added to the piece. The reason for this edit was to test out the footage that we shot along with anything that may impact the flow of the sequence. What we picked out was that there are in fact many shots that poorly fit with the next ; making for a poor match on action. We also encountered two shots that weren't stable enough which caused difficulty seeing what was happening on screen.

However, we where extremely impressed with the lighting in the sequence which was a successful test; there were also a few shots that we perfectly shot that we had planned from the storyboard. But due to the faults in continuity; caused our group to decide on re-shooting the entire project in order to perfect on what we did well but most importantly learn from this draft and focus on fixing the shots that affected the continuity of the sequence.

Overall I felt that this draft gave us the chance to reflect over our ideas testing what works and doesn't work; allowing us to see how we can improve our project and make it better as we move forward with the project and ensure that the re-shoots reflect on what we've learnt from this draft.

1st Editing Session

'Preview screen from the editing session'

For the first editing session my aim was to at least have a complete draft of our entire sequence that only included the footage itself without the credits or any other visuals added within post-production.

As the director of this project I wanted to approach this editing session with the intentions of taking the footage we had captured throughout the entire course of filming and then edit the sequence to match frame by frame with the animatic. 

'Editing timeline from the rough-cut'

I approached this idea by overlapping the edit I had made for the animatic with the footage for the sequence to ensure that the shots played for the exact amount of time it was intended to last instead of possibly changing the way we planned the sequence to be.

Once the sequence had been assembled, co-editor 'Jamie Gerrish' and I spent a large amount of time playing the sequence repeatedly and analysing our project in order to then see what's the most logical way to handle our project throughout the rest of post-production.

After Jamie and I spent while screening the sequence, we had compiled a list on what needs to be altered within the edit of our sequence; we then came to a conclusion that we must re-shooting the entire sequence. This decision was made after looking at the footage we had already taken and realising what worked and what didn't; then caused us to learn from our first attempt and execute it better in the re-shoots.

Once we all had got together as a group, we all had watched the sequence then Jamie and I explained our thoughts on what we need to change in terms of the editing of the sequence but also explaining why we should re-shoot the entire project. Once the rest of our group had understood our judgement and came to terms with this idea we all collectively agreed on the decision.