Production: Editing (Rough Edit)

Before anything else (and even before the filming started), we have  cut
the music clip to our liking and put the markers on selected bars to
align the footage later on in the editing process.

You can see the marker at the point where the audio clip
was supposed to start playing. 

Here, all of the footage (excluding the final title)
 was simply cut and put in the correct order
(without touching any nuisances such as speed, stabilisation
or colour correction).

Since I wanted to have the pipette shot reverse, so here I just
made sure there is such a possibility! 

After consulting, I decided to add the Pluton Productions logo
before the actual opening began. 

I decided to reverse the second clip, so the footage looped
just like the original gif.

Using the gif twice seemed too rushed, so after consultation
I decided to put if in four times and bring the speed
down to 80%. 

I toggle locked the video footage and deleted all of the
unwanted audio clips, so the chosen audio
clip was clear and not disturbed by other sounds. 

I finally got around to duplicating and reversing the pipette
shot (later increasing its speed to 200% as well + adding the
audio clip to the sequence). 

  

This shot (which we used toothpaste for) was great, but the
resemblance to the previous one was not the best - so I
decided to colour correct the toothpaste. However, Premiere Pro
did not allow me to change the area of colour correction; so I had
to learn how to use After Effects to an acceptable standard. 

After Effects was... eventful to say at least, but I finally figured
out how to manage masks and adjustment layers, resulting in
nicely colour corrected toothpaste drip.

A little side comparison of the
original clip and the one
undergoing colour correction. 

Since all of the other clips from the street scene had
blue lighting, I decided to adjust the colour balance
of that clip so it matched the rest.

Colour correcting that bit of footage
(and the one with the flask, but unfortunately that's the only one
I do not seem to have screenshots of)  was the last thing I
have done before exporting the rough edit in order to
get audience feedback. 

          

Above is our rough edit uploaded to YouTube (the music carries on after the footage ends, but this will be worked on later.) From the audience feedback we were given we've gathered that:

• the transition between 'Pluton Productions' and the beginning of the actual footage was too sudden;
• the lack of sound between the beginning and the start of 'Danse Macabre' didn't (ironically) sound very good;
• the clip of the victim and the toothpaste was described as "uncomfortably long";
• the footage will look much better when aligned with the music;

Our group, despite the audience saying it did not look bad, also felt like the final bit of the opening (the 'title sequence' so to speak) was not up to the standard of rest of the footage, so we decided to experiment with it and if we're still not satisfied, remove it altogether.

Even before receiving the feedback, I've been planning on working on those particular aspects of the opening, but we found hearing multiple opinions from different people important to see which flaws were the most frequently mentioned.

Production: Filming 'TOXIC'

Below is the video documentation of the filming process of our two-minute opening.

    

Planning: Filming Schedule

Planning: Props Update

Unfortunately, although we have ordered the props for our film opening weeks in advance to the deadline, we have heard nothing of their delivery. All that has arrived are the work gloves that are a part of the Killer's costume. As such, we are going to have to make do with what we can get, and hope that the mise-en-scene looks as effective when we come to film our opening.

Mr Henton has ordered a UV bulb for us to use with a desk lamp, so hopefully we can continue with the planned lighting (we are also 100% sure we'll be able to use a coloured source of light in addition to the UV); because it is low-key, this may reduce the negative effects that having improvised costume and props may create.

Planning: Shotlist

This is the first draft of the shotlist for our opening: we might have to changed in the filming process due to circumstance (e.g. our ideas being too complicated for our filming abilities), but this is what we have planned. 

 

Planning: Considering Mise-en-Scene For Your Opening

COSTUME: 

When it comes to costume, we first and foremost went for practicality and the nature of the circumstances. The killer will be working with a lot of dangerous chemicals, so he has to be wearing a gas mask and protection goggles. Instead of conventional, see through ones, we decided to use ski ones - they reflect all the images (which may be a disadvantage when filming, but we will try to figure something out), dehumanising the killer even more than the eerie gas mask. He will also need protection gloves, which we decided to keep yellow, just like the air filters of the gas mask. The Killer will be wearing a tracksuit (adidas, ideally, since it's the most popular brand right now and it is likely to exist in the future). 

   

The character of the victim will be planned in less detail, as most shots will be close-ups on certain aspects of his body and, as a dying victim, he will not need to portray as much exposition or personality through his choice of dress. However, he will need to indicate that he is of a high class, and so we will keep this in mind whilst choosing his costume.

PROPS: 

Our opening will require a considerably large amount of props. Our list includes: 

• animal stickers (specifically pig) - the killer sticks one on his mask at the end of the opening
• scraps of paper/receipts 
• Schweppes - which will act as the main glowing chemical
• food colouring
• artificial foam - for the murder scene
• an iPhone
• a pair of bright headphones
• a bowl full of fortune cookies
• flasks - the type does not matter, as long as they look scientific
• all the scientific equipment we can get  
• a 'conspiracy theories' type corkboard 
• a sharpie/highlighter - so the killer can cross out the pig
• animal photos (the zodiacs) - to put them on the corkboard
• a mirror 
• the sign 'TOXIC' 

In the search for scientific equipment me and Emma have visited the science department; they agreed to lend us some flasks and general science oriented 'stuff'. Additionally, they have given us some great suggestions for safe and impressive looking experiments we could use in our opening (plus, we have also found out that we could borrow a smoke machine from the school, so filming one of the scenes would be considerably safer: since we have thought about using solid carbon dioxide, which is not the easiest to handle). 

Planning: Location Planning

We needed an industrial looking location, so we considered using a warehouse for our workshop and bathroom scene. Immy found a local warehouse and her and Emma managed to get the keys to it from the owner. The floor is exactly what we were looking for (polished concrete will reflect the lighting in a great way) and the main hall is very spacious, so we can easily set up the workshop. The vehicles will be gone by the time we film and we already know that there won't be any time restrictions when it comes to the day of filming; thus we will probably end up using that warehouse as our final location for the opening. 

   

   

  

  

   

   

 

Since we will have to use special lighting as a part of our setting (which kind of counts as location as well), we have also looked at various sources of coloured light available to us. There is a lamp with coloured filters available for us in school and we are also looking at purchasing a UV lamp, so that we can use it for the glowing Schweppes shots and to make the scene more eerie and futuristic looking in general.