Tuesday 22 March 2016

Final Edit - Agent X Title Sequence Final

 

This is our final edit for our Agent X Title sequence and my group and I are very pleased with it. It has turned out exactly as how we planned with better developments as production went on and by having more research we were able to improve our title sequence for our target audience to enjoy. I feel that we don't need to improve this title sequence anymore, made we could've just added more establishing shots or London Landmarks but even then its only a slight improvement.

Friday 18 March 2016

Journal 17 - Completing the Editing

Yesterday, James and I completed the Final Edit for our title sequence and I will soon upload it on YouTube and as a post on Blogger. James gave his views and opinions as well as advice on how I can improve the editing as its always great to have a second opinion. I have done the time lapse edit, slow motion edits and I have also added colour filters which I created myself along with a CCTV filter which was pre-made by Final Cut Pro X. Then last part was to add the Typography with the fonts we chose and then add the soundtrack for the Chase scene and Voiceover for the chase scene where i say "I found the target". Our teacher wanted us to re-film the desk shots but we explained to her that we tried and it looked very bad as the camera was shaky, she then said it will be fine to add a filter and to add slow motion and a black and white filter in the tear down scene. Thats why I decided to add dark filters and to slow the tear down scene to add a more dramatic effect.

I will now export the Title sequence and soon upload it on YouTube.


Thursday 17 March 2016

Journal 16 - Creating the Title for the Sequence

Today I created the title design on Photoshop and this will be used with various transitions to appear on the screen in an animated form. This will be done on Photoshop and then on Final Cut Pro X. See the images below of screenshots of when I was making the title.


I made the main logo first on photoshop, I then spilt them into three parts which will gradually transition on the screen.




After creating all this, I put the files into Final Cut Pro and editing in transitions and effects to make the title animated and appear on the screen gradually, the title video can be seen below.


Journal 15 - Choosing the Final Font and Typography

My group and I decided on the font and typography we will use for the title and the main text with cast names and production company. For the cast names and production companies we used the font Neuropol and that was also the top font in the questionnaire that I conducted.



For the main title typography, I did some research on the internet for spy fonts and I found a font called Spy Agency, that font can be seen here: http://www.dafont.com/spy-agency.font

My group and I decided we liked this font a lot and we will use it for our title. I will make the title on Photoshop and then put it into Final Cut Pro X.



Journal 14 - Finding the Soundtrack for the Chase Scene

Today I have started editing and I will soon hopefully complete the editing for the Final Title Sequence of Agent X. My group and I looked at various soundtracks and we decided to choose this one of our Opening Scene (Chase Scene).


I uploaded this chase scene soundtrack on YouTube and it was copyright free, so we decided used it for our final edit.

Journal Entry 13 - Re-Filming The Desk Shots

Today my group (Adam, Thomas and James) re-filmed the desk scenes. Last time I was the main cinematographer but yesterday I wasn't able to be there to re-film the desk shots. The desk shots yesterday were instead filmed by Adam but my group decided they didn't want to use these shots as the camera was very shaky and the lighting wasn't very good. My group decided to keep the same shots from before which I filmed as it was less shaky and it had good lighting.

All thats left is for me is to finish off the editing and create that final edit for our title sequence because we now have all the shots we need. I now just need to choose a font for the typography and the soundtrack for the opening scene (Chase Scene).

Tuesday 15 March 2016

Journal 12 - Completing the Opening Scene Shots



Today my group and I went to Bexlyheath during our media lesson in order to complete the opening scene (Chase Scene). The start of the chase scene was filmed in London we just needed to finish the scene off and that was done today. We shot the scenes in London of Agent X going down the stairs and those stairs lead to a car park shot which was filmed today in another location. We filmed it in such a way that it was all continuous and it looked like the same location. My group has planned on refilling the desk scenes but that has not been fully confirmed. The chase scene will have its own soundtrack which links to the scene and builds suspense.


Sunday 13 March 2016

Journal 11 - Re-filming the Establishing Shots

Today my group and I went to Central London to re-film the establishing shots and the briefcase exchange shots.  Adam and I both took turns to film the shots and I filmed the shots of the Parliament House, the British Flag, the time lapse shot and the brief case exchange shot was filmed by me. Adam filmed the tilt up shot of the MI6 building and the CCTV shot of Agent X. Some of the pictures of us filming can be seen below.




Some of the shots were taken in different places as before and we decided to add a shot of the British flag to show this is a British film and its also iconic. We had to film the time lapse shot in another location as there was a event at trafalgar square so we filmed the time lapse shot slightly away from there. In our first edit people didn't notice that Agent X walked by in the time lapse shot, this time I placed the camera in the right spot so Agent X can be seen clearly and I will edit the shot to slow down when Agent X is on screen and then pick up speed when he is off the screen.

While we were in London we decided to film our opening scene which we planned as a chase scene. In this opening scene I play the Antagonist (Morgan Freeman) and I spot James who plays the Protagonist (Agent X). I then chase him down the stairs into a car park. This scene will be completed at another car park as we couldn't film at the car park in London. The opening scene shots were filmed by Adam.

Saturday 12 March 2016

Our Production Schedule



This is our production schedule and it shows what times we have planned and are going to plan to shoot along with the location, equipment and the members of the group who will be coming. This schedule helps us stick with the times and informs us when and where we filmed certain scenes, which can help us when we need to reshoot some scenes as we will know where to go.

Friday 11 March 2016

Questionnaire For Typography

I decided to create a questionnaire for the typography just so I can see what fonts we may need to look out for. This questionnaire was not conducted as a group, because I am the main editor I conducted this questionnaire so that I can see what typography and fonts my group and I can use for the Final Title Sequence. I used the fonts we found before and asked various people in my school which font they prefer for a Spy/Action Film Genre.


5/11 people preferred Neuropol and 4/11 People preferred Xperia, whereas only 2 people preferred Breamcatcher. This questionnaire will now help me decide want font my group and I may want to use and it will also help me decide what type of design I should look out for when picking the typography. The results in this questionnaire doesn't confirm that we will be using this font, it just helps us choose a font or find similar and better fonts.

Thursday 10 March 2016

Feedback For The First Edit

These are the feedback sheets for our first edit of the 'Agent X Title Sequence' and these sheets were filled by our teacher and fellow pupils. We have read these feedbacks and we will improve the title sequence in our final edit, hopefully being able to improve it.







Journal 10 - The New Soundtrack

My group and I have decided on a new soundtrack for the final edit. We went back to our before research where we found various soundtracks, that before research can be seen here: goo.gl/zJHoc8

We have decided to choose Soundtrack 1 from our before research - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNzEtud5rFM


All thats left for me to do is put the new soundtrack in the final cut file and edit the shots and the text so it is synchronised with the new soundtrack and so it suits the new soundtrack.

Tuesday 8 March 2016

First Edit for Title Sequence


This is my groups first edit of our title sequence. This will be developed with additional shots and new fonts as well as a new soundtrack. I edited this on final cut pro x and some of the editing processes can be seen in my previous posts.

Journal 8 - Presenting the Class our First Edit

Today my group and I presented the first edit to our class and we gave feedback sheets to the audience and asked them to fill in the sheets after they have watched the first edit of our Title Sequence. Some of the feedback suggested we choose a new soundtrack which my group also agreed with. We were also suggested to choose a new font which I was already in the process of planning as this was just a rough edit. Some people were also very confused with what was happening in the title sequence as I played two roles, this will be changed when we re-film some of the scenes as only then it will make more sense. The title sequence also felt short and we were told to then create an opening scene which the exam board also wants us to do.

Monday 7 March 2016

Changing the Soundtrack

My group and I have decided that we no longer like the first soundtrack we chose for the first edit. We chose that soundtrack from a link provided by the Welling Media and Film Blog Site (http://wellingmediafilm.blogspot.co.uk), (https://audionetwork.lgfl.org.uk/terms.aspx). My group and I don't feel that the soundtrack suits our film and it doesn't synchronise well with the text and the scenes. We have found some more copyright free soundtracks before, and we may consider using one of them now, we will be conducting a class feedback tommorow and then we will decide what new soundtrack we should consider for the final edit. It takes quite some time to find a copyright free soundtrack for this genre, but my group and I will be working together to find the soundtrack that we like.

Friday 4 March 2016

Journal 7- First Edit Completed

I have finished the first edit for our title sequence and I will soon upload this first edit on YouTube and on this blog. We still have some more improvements to be made in our final edit such as re-filming some of the shots and establishing shots and we need to chose a new font for the title and text along with a new soundtrack that suits the genre better. We have put this first edit on a USB and presented it to my class. The class will give us feedback which will hopefully give more ideas and help for improving our title sequence and to create the final edit. We also made a very big mistake i he first edit, I played two characters in the title sequence which made things very confusing for the audience. My group and I decided that either Thomas or Adam will play the role of Michael Caine at the start of the title sequence. I will be refilling most of these scenes as I am the main cinematographer and therefore I need to make sure that the video quality is perfect as well as the smoothness of the camera, but most important I need to make sure the tripod is level and not slanted.

Tuesday 1 March 2016

Journal 6 - Typography Ideas for our Title Sequence

We have now completed the first edit but now we just need to find the right Typography and Font for the title and text throughout the title sequence. We have looked at various sites and sources to find these fonts such as DaFont.com and 100freefonts.com. The image shown below are some of the favourite fonts we preferred for the Spy/Action genre.

My Group and I have decided that "Xperia" and "Breamcatcher" is so far the best suited fonts but we change this when we create our final edit.




Editing Process of our First Edit Title Sequence


 Here are some screenshots of editing that I have done on Final Cut Pro X



I have sped up this scene on final cut pro to give a time lapse look and feel and also gives a really nice affect to the audience.


I added transitions on the start and end of the text in the first edit. I will do this in the final title sequence too, once we have picked our finalised font.



I used the blade key on Final cut pro to create a jump cut in the final scene.


I added stabilization in this video as it was very unstable and shaky because I filmed it handheld. With the stabilization this scene looks very smooth and more professional.