Editing Footage

Here I was editing the opening titles to correct the timings and make sure that the transition between the ident, titles and opening scene worked well and wasn't too sudden or too slow. I did this by adding a 'fade to black' transition before and after the large amount of text that appears so that it flows well with the rest of the product.
At first I couldn't decide whether to have a normal cut between the titles but after trialling it and seeing the effect and feedback of my peers I chose to use the fade to black as it was more appealing and also gave it a smoother finish instead of jumping too quickly to the different scene.


In this section I was editing the speed of this scene as I needed to speed it up so that my product does not overrun the 2 minute mark by much, luckily even with the footage sped up it still looked natural and did not look odd. I also added a 'cross dissolve' transitions between the two scenes where my actor is walking along the bridge so that it gives it a sense of an advancement in time and it gives it added affect to the audience.
I received a lot of positive feedback on using the 'cross dissolve' technique as the audience commented on the effect that it had saying that it was 'effective and different' which means that it worked well and was not a sort of technique that is used often.


At the end of my product I had a slow-motion effect on the footage of when the bullet shell casing hits the floor, I did this because I thought it added a good effect and makes it seem as if time is slowing down, also with it being slow motion it can add a sense of discomfort which is what I was aiming for.
I received very good feedback about using slow motion as the audience that I showed it to said that it allows them to see the shell casing spin in the air which they thought was effective and different in terms of that it isn't something that is usually seen within other media (film) products.

within my product I used a variety of editing techniques to create different effects, for example I added a filter over the footage so that it creates a more gloomy and slightly unnatural look to the final product, by adding the filter it also made the genre of my product clear, making it seem like a horror or a thriller film of some sorts. In the end scene I used a fade to white transition between the actor pointing the gun at the camera and shell casing hitting the floor, I put this transition at 0.2 seconds so that it would be a quick jump from the gun firing and the shell casing hitting the floor, this is more realistic and also by having it as white it acts as the flash from the gun being fired.

Filming Day

To film footage for my film, it only took one day as I managed to agree timings to go to the shooting location and made sure that my actor was not busy on that day.

During my day of filming we arrived at the location in the morning and quickly set up the props within the barn for the later scene. After I had set up the props and equipment in the barn we went over the plans for the day and the narrative to the story so that my actor could understand the situation in which my product was based in. Once we had set up and got ready I gathered the footage in which I needed for my product, I shot it in order of how my final product would go so that I knew what I had shot and what still needed to be shot.
After looking through my shots on the camera at the location I noticed how a few shots needed re-shooting as they were either out of focus or were not very good so I re-shot them, for example one of the shots in the barn was not very good as in part of the footage the actor was behind a pillar as a piece of action was taking place, so I had to re-shoot that scene in a different position which allowed me to shoot and see the action that was taking place clearly.
The weather on the day of shooting was quite overcast and slightly foggy which worked in favour of my product as it gave the footage a more eerie and spooky effect. Also it was fairly dark as there was a lot of cloud coverage, which again added an affect to my footage giving it a more post-apocalyptic look and feel.
An issue with filming on that day was that the ground was very muddy and the bipod to the camera kept sinking into the mud which sometimes made keeping the camera steady a little bit tricky, but I managed to overcome this by finding a way of keeping the bipod still so that I was able to shoot footage without the camera sinking into the mud. Another issue was that part of the costume kept falling of and moving about so in some shots it was in a different position to what it was in before, so some of these shots had to be re-shot.

Production schedule

23rd & 24th Filming at location

25th-29th Editing footage and assessing whether re-shoots are needed, if so then decide what parts need re-shooting and how to make them better.

changes to my film and ideas

Originally my film was going to be called Day 185, but I changed it to Day 785 as I thought that with it being a longer time later (over 2 years) instead of a few months as this would add more effect as it shows that the situation is not recent and the older and damaged props would suit better instead of after a few months as the damage would be more expected after an extended period of use.

I also changed some aspects of the props as on the assault rifle initially had a form of optics on it but I decided that in a post-apocalyptic, battery-operated optics would not be very practical as the batteries may run out at any time which would not be ideal.

Another aspect that I changed was the opening as I changed it from my initial ideas as i realised that the opening that intended would last longer that the time limit that we had. Before i was going to have a collage of different shots followed by the opening and titles but then I realised that having both the collage of shots and the opening would take longer and would substantially run over the time limit.

Also I had to miss out the dialogue as my actors were unable to attend so I could not have a scene in which dialogue was exchanged.

Issues with filming

I encountered issues with my film when it was during production, the main problem with my production.

One issue was that the dates i had in place for filming were not convenient for my actors as one-by-one they had to cancel which was very unfortunate, but luckily i managed to cast my father as the main actor and changed my ideas of the film opening slightly to suit the situation that i was currently in. Luckily the footage worked and it made for a good film  opening, by having only one actor and using the shits and angles i used it raises questions at the end which i believe is good as it catches the audiences imagination and thoughts, allowing them to wonder whet the opposition is and how the actor will overcome it.

Another issue I encountered was that some of the ground where i was filming was very muddy and sunk a bit which caused a few angles to look a bit odd, but i made the camera level, even so some of the angles added e=an effect to the final production which was unplanned but did turn out good.

Risk assessment for my filming location

Below is the risk assessment for the location that i will be shooting at.

call sheet

below is a copy of my call sheet which I used for my production: