Final Tweaks: Green Screen

Looking at some of our feedback on our trailer, it was obvious that tha narrative was not completely clear. One of the main issues was that during the facebook scrolling scene, the audience did not have enough time to read the facebook comment on the screen. Therefore, I decided to make amends and edit this scene.

Method

1) I had to create an image of the necessary facebook comment zoomed in on the screen.This proved to be a tricky process as when I first tried to do this on photoshop, the comment was too long on the screen. Therefore, I had to edit the image by duplicating the zoomed in screen shot and layering the images on top of one another so that you could read the whole comment. I had to erase around the edges of the top layer to ensure that it had smooth edges and looked professional.

2) Then, I imported the image into Final Cut Pro, and put dragged it in position so that it was the background of the footage of her sitting on the laptop. However, this was still not very effective as the protagonist was sitting directly in front of the comment. So, I decided to make the footage of the protagonist disappear so that the audience could read the comment.

3) Therefore, I split the footage of the protgagonist on the laptop into two parts. Then, I moved the second part along so that it would not be featured at the same time as the close-up of the comment.

4) I had to put on the 'Keying' effect on the second part of the footage filmed in front of the green screen so that the background would come back when the comment disappears.

5)  I made the image of the comment longer so that it was long enough for the audience to read. Eventually, I made it 2.0 seconds long to make it effective.

6) Finally, I put on the 'Static' transion 'Style B' on either side of the image of the facebook comment to make it fit in with the sequence effectively.

Evaluation

Pros

• This new version makes it easy for the audience to read the comment as the protagonist's head is no longer in the way, making it clear to read. It is also larger and stays on the screen for longer. This makes the narrative much more clear for the audience and we will not have so many problems of people misunderstanding the relationship between the two characters.
• Using the Static Transition 'Style B' twice, rather than 'Style A' looks much more professional, rather than overusing various different effects, which looks a bit childish. I think it also suits the psychological, distorted effect that we want for the genre.

Cons

• Having the protagonist disappear for a while may seem a bit unprofessional and random, however there is not many other options for us after receiving feedback that the protagonist being in the way is a problem for the narrative.
• The facebook comment could be seen as lingering on the screen for too long, which may ruin the pace of the trailer, however it is still important for the audience to understand the narrative.

 

Final tweaks on sound

Final tweaks on sound

After receiving feedback from our audience about our trailer, a lot of them noticed that minor parts of the sound could be changed slightly producing a more fitting sound.

Our audience noticed that the "booms" leading up to the montage were not effective enough, however after some consideration we realised that the build up in sound towards the montage was actually not effective enough at all.

To overcome this issue, we decided to not use the same "boom" track in the build up to the montage that is already being used in the montage. That way, the new timbre of the "boom" in the montage will have a bigger and more effective impact on our audience as it's not a sound that they have already heard in our trailer. It makes it less predictable. We decided to cut the piano track earlier than we had previously, therefore it didn't play during the montage scene.

Additionally, we also also cut the "woosh" audio clip from one of our audio tracks that were previously used in the trailer and applied it to the end of the title to create a bridge passage between the sound of the scenes before and the montage scene. Once we had applied all of these changes to the sound, we copy and pasted the "booms 1" track below the "woosh" creating another layer but we cut to the climax of the "boom 1" audio clip and this added to the tension and created an entrance that was needed for the montage scene. Furthermore, the "boom 1" track was cut as close to the climax of the track as possible, this way the booms got faster as we neared the montage building up suspense and anticipation in the trailer. Using track "booms 1" instead of the "booms" track which were used in the montage scene allowed us to pace ourselves a lot more in the build up rather than building up the tension in the wrong place altogether. Overall, this solved the problem and the booms used in the montage scene, proved to be more effective.

Final website tweaks

As we are coming to the end of developing all parts of the promotional package for our teaser trailer, we decided to make some final adjustments to the website so it fitted well with the new typography on the poster.

First of all, using Photoshop, I took the typography from our poster and changed the colour to white, as we thought this would probably show up most on our website, and would fit with the rest of the typography currently on there.

Here you can see I uploaded the typography onto our website, after removing our other design. I resized the image and positioned it on the left hand side of the webpage. This still fits in with the template, matches the typography placement of the poster, and is the part of the webpage where the typography should show up best.

Here you can see my final placement of the typography. We had a discussion as a group and decided we really liked using the new design on our website, however, we did have some concerns about the typography not being very easy to read, due to the bright tones in the background picture. We decided to create another version and compare the two, to ensure we were making the right decision.

Here you can see I went back to Photoshop and used the typography which was black, exactly as it is on the poster. I then saved this as a transparent file and uploaded it onto our website removing the white one.





Here you can see I positioned the typography in the same place, and was quite happy with the results. However, as a group we discussed again how this would be quite difficult to read too, because of the darker tones in the photograph in the background. Due to this, for now we have picked the white version of the typography, because it matches the rest of the typography on the site.

We also decided that it would be best to change the placement of the tagline, so that it matches a similar format of our poster, you can see the results of this in our final image below.

In addition to these final tweaks, I also had to add to the social networking links we had on the website, including both Twitter and Facebook. I have now added this links onto our webpage and below you can see the final website. 

Final Tweaks on the poster

 Looking at our final poster, we felt that the title was not big enough and this made the whole poster seem a bit lacking. Although there is not much space to make it any bigger we thought we could put parts of the title on different levels as this would also make it look more chaotic.

1) First of all, I made a duplicate copy of our poster so that we could make changes without losing the original poster in case it went wrong.

2) Then, I deleted the title so that I could insert it in again without it being in the way.

3) I opened the image of the title typography and then dragged each letter in individually.

4) I used the 'Free Transform' tool so that I could make it the right size for the space that was available.

5) Finally, I used the 'Rotate' tool to make some of the letters more wonky and twisted than the others as this made it look more delusional.

Evaluation

• The result of this makes the poster look much more dominant and noticeable.
• It also makes the genre come across more clearly as it looks more psychological.
• This also uses the space that we have available more effectively.

Montage editing

Finally, I completed the editing of the montage.
Within the montage, I used a variation of clips to interweave with the shots of the Victim being stalked, which we filmed specifically for the montage.

1)Firstly, we used old-fashioned documentary clips, which I found on youtube, downloaded and imported into Final Cut Pro. This proved to be a challenge because all the documentaries were on average 1 hour long, and so not only did they take a long time to download but finding the 1 second clip that we wanted proved difficult.



These old-fashioned clips are effective because they reinforce the psychological genre and the message about mental discrimination. They also have a very creepy, sinister feel to them, which helps us fit in with the conventions of our genre.


2) Secondly, I included News Clips which discussed mental illness. I downloaded many clips of various mentally ill criminals being either discussed in a studio or sentenced in court as I thought these would look official and also show the audience what the protagonist fears the most. I ended up using this clip of a woman in a new studio as this has an official, clinical feel.



3) Thirdly, I used actual footage of the protagonist having a mental breakdown to what's happening to her. These clips are important as they show the effects and symptoms of the mental illness.


4) Lastly, I decided to use more footage using the green screen so that I could give a surreal edge to the montage. Therefore, I created two clips- one of the protagonist screaming at the camera with an image of pills, distorted in the background. This conveys that her illness is overwhelming to her.


5) I also created a clip of the protagonist spinning round with her imaginary friend in the background, flashing in and out of view. This conveys that the friend is not actually real. I put a spinning background on this clip, and put the effects 'Bad TV' and 'Beach Bypass' to give a distorted, overwhelming feel to the clip.

6) I also made the montage tenser by cutting out some clips and and making others shorter. This makes the overall montage snappier and more dramatic, which leads up to the eventual climax well.

Layering the audio of the news-clips

Layering the audio of the news-clips

Step 1:

- First I detached the audio from the videos clips. 

- I then dragged them along so that they followed the news clip in the montage and made them overlap one another in certain areas which would make it sound overwhelming to the audience. 

Step 2:

-I also repeated a few words such as 'insanity' throughout to quicken the pace and suggest the instability of the protagonist's mind. 

Step 3:

- Once I had the layout sorted I then played around with the effects, adding distortions to the audio or making it sound demonic. 

- One effect I did was called 'monster' which made the audio sound much deeper than it actually was, another made the audio have an echo which I added onto the clip mentioning 'hallucinations.'

Evaluation:

- Although the tension doesn't build I feel it will sound much more effective with the cinematic bass sounds at every black slide and with the high tension music leading to the loft scene. 

- We are also considering adding a 'whooshing' sound at the end before the silence in order to signal to the audience the end of the climax. 

Inputting the sound into our trailer

Inputting the sound into our trailer

Now that we have been able to produce non diegetic sound to go alongside our trailer, all we have left to do is insert it into our trailer with the other non diegetic sound that we have already inserted. 

I started by aligning the new non diegetic sound up with the production company clip, in order to have the sound begin as the production company is shown on screen, this was it eases the audience into the narrative of the trailer with no sudden changes in the sound too early on in the trailer. However, I did encounter an issue when inputting the non diegetic sound of the piano melody into the trailer.

 Although I had made sure that the sound matched up to the exact timings of the trailer as I produced it, I did not trim the track of the "ear ringing noise" therefore it went on further than needed. To resolve this issue, I had to delete that individual track from the Logic Pro project, bounce the file and import it into our footage. From then, I had to import the "ear ringing noise" file into iMovie separately and adjust it by changing its fading options in accordance to the piano melody. 

I noticed that the ear ringing noise, once aligned to our footage, that it automatically lowered the volume of the non diegetic sound piano melody. To resolve this, I had to select the ear ringing noise track and unselect the ducking option, which enabled the dominant track to be automatically lowered in volume so new tracks could be heard. By doing this, it allowed the piano melody to dominate the trailer instead, which was what we were hoping for. 

At this stage of inputting the sound into our trailer,  I decided that the other non diegetic sounds that we had recorded prior to making the piano melody such as the whispers would extremely well with our piano melody. I dragged the whispers into place and then had to make sure that they did not dominate the sound entirely. We also thought it would be effective to add the sound of an old TV as it would help build suspense and add to the relevance  of the bad TV effect on our  green screen footage. 

Overall, adding the sound to our trailer has definitely heightened the effect of it. The sound for our trailer becomes the climax in terms of sound. We made sure we were able to build tension threough using sound effects such as 'swishing' noises and sinister sounding crashes. We applied each track carefully making sure that nothing overlapped the other causing extreme discomfort in the sound all together. We also had to make sure that the volumes of each track were fairly similar anbd worked well together, so we had to manually apply a fade out or fade in to certain tracks so the audio sounded together and not random and detached.

The montage scene is an example of how we manipulated audio of a video clip, in the sense that we layered and echoed certain dialogue such as "Schizophrenia" so the audeince to make a direct link to what our narrative entails. 

Lastly, we chose to use silence after the montage scene so the suspense and tension that we built through our montage is now being held by the audience so that way we can have them on the edge of their chairs. We decided to end our trailer with the scream from the antagonist in the loft and non diegetic sound as the title of our trailer flickers on the screen.