Main role in production of the film

I believe my main role in the pre-production, production and pro-production was a good one. The story line is based on my own idea, but the whole group dynamics helped craft it and make it what we all wanted it to be. I believe we all put in the same effort and contributed in our own ways, but in each way we contributed, that helped to improve the quality and the smoothness of this production. I have a very specific way of how I want things to be and I was very adamant that I wanted it to be in a era that was not the era we are in now. I knew that it would add some more interest if we are not dressed the same way we are now, and that it would add some interest to our movie. As Anna and I are very good friends with Perry, the boy who played Teddy, we knew that he would be interested in acting with us, which was an advantage as we knew we wanted to have a boy in our production.

Music

As we are not able to use copyrighted music and have to have our own, we had chosen to use Susudio by Phil Collins but now that will be an issue to use that music. We did think it would go very well with the theme of the 80s but we will have to re-think our music to be used. Music is very important for our sequence as no vocals are used.

What is left to be completed

So far we have to finish out editing, which includes
-Title sequence
-Credits
-Scream (audio)
-Music

Editing

With our editing we were told to use Final Cut express when I was used to using iMovie from year 10 to year 11 but it's always good to try something new out, also Final Cut express seems more professional and can do alot more. We were taught the basics as a group and we picked it up fairly quickly. We started putting our clips into the software and trying to put them in order of the story line. We had a few clips of a certain scene we filmed so that we had more variation to choose the perfect one, after we had chosen these we put them into the timeline. We started to cut each scene that seemed to go on for too long, we soon seemed to realise that if a scene went on for even a second over it would look wrong and as if there was a error in the editing. We would all watch the clips and decide when to cut it, and then we would erase the bits that we did not want in the scene, we would move the clips around to see what looked better and made more sense to the storyline. Each time we would edit a few clips or cut the time down we would watch what we had so far, just to make sure that there was not something that we had missed out on.

Phantom of the opera analysis

Part one of ‘Phantom of The Opera’ starts in black and white with little lighting (low key lighting). Within the black and white colours being used it is clear that the black is more prominent.

The lighting is low key, this means that the people and objects are lowly lit. You can see that only half the people’s faces are lit, making a more gloomy and intense feel to the scene. The light that we can see in this scene appears to be coming from above. It is purely natural daylight and coming from the top of the theatre.

Silhouettes are used heavily to add a more mysterious feel. Another technique which was used was to shine light down in rays, which creates a dramatic feel to the scene.

Further on in the scene a chandelier is shown and hoisted up into the air. When this happens light becomes a lot more visible, light is very evident here to add an effect of surprise and shock. The audience would then understand that this is a significant part of the scene.

Colour is then introduced into the scene. A wipe effect is used as colour is slowly brought to life where ever the chandelier passes. The colours introduced are rich colours of red and gold. These are very regal colours and add the effect of the theatre being very grand and bringing it to life.

Light is then visible and not shown in any way to add an intense feel. The light is simply there to light up the theatre and show how it has been brought to focus.

Individual idea/response to the group choice

I was dissapointed at first that the rest of the group did not feel the same as me about the victorian theme idea, as I had high hopes for it and really felt that it would work well and be very inventive. But I knew that the idea would not work if the rest of the group were not on the same page as me about it.
Luckily the second idea that I proposed to the idea they liked and thought would work, we all felt excited about it. I liked my idea of using a 80's theme as I felt that this added more of a edge to our sequence as I find that when I watch horror/thriller movies, I can get bored if its a typical teenager horror or thriller film set in the modern day. So I felt an 80's feel would add more of a funky feel to the sequence and a light hearted feel to the begining of our movie. I did enjoy planning our filming and outfits, I also enjoyed getting into character and filming it as we all had fun and got along and swapped ideas and got our thoughts across clearly. I am sure that the music we have also chosen will go well with our sequence, as I like the song and so does Anna and it gives the sequence a more fun feel.

Week 3 - FILMING

On week 3 we filmed our opening sequence. Anna and I met, and then we both met Catherine, in our costumes. I brought a bag with touch ups for make-up and the camera and other props we would need, we also brought the tripod. When we arrived at the location (A house in New Malden) we all sat down and decided where we would start, which we thought it was right to start the filming at the beginning of the opening sequence that we had planned, this was because the last time we filmed, we started filming from the end of the sequence and then to the beginning, and we wanted to switch things around this time, and this worked well and made more sense. We all worked as a group and knew the ideas we wanted to get across to other people, although we knew initially what we wanted to film, where and at what angle, we did change things slightly during the process and we thought they seemed better, and these worked well too. The dynamics of the group worked well as we all get along and I felt that every idea we each had was thought on and a rational decision was made. After filming each clip we would then look at it to decide if that was what we were happy with, if we were not, we would then shoot that scene again until it was up to our standards of what we wanted to put across to our audience. The filming lasted around an hour or so and we were satisfied at the end of it that we had achieved what we wanted to, and we felt we could do alot with what we had. Personally I was very happy of what we had filmed because I felt that the quality of the filming was great as we had used HD filming, the costumes worked well and the location went well with the story line. I know that we can make something great with this and I hope that all of our efforts show in the editing of the clips.