Recording/Editing our Film Opening

Starting at the very beginning of our editing journey for our film opening, my partner and I decided on using a different angle than the one we agreed on previously in the storyboard. In the blogpost in which we included the storyboard, we had agreed on using an establishing shot to portray Lucy's living room, in which she would be viewing the news broadcast. However, we thought that for the very first shot of our film opening we should start with a more visually appealing shot. Therefore, we ended up using another shot as our first shot, and this shot was an extreme close-up of the remote control, with the main focus on the remote control and not on the rest of the background. The use of this shot did not only make a more visually appealing first shot, but it helped the viewers get a sense of what was to occur in the next scene. Located below is the first shot we decided on using.

Another noticeable change with our storyboard and the actual clips that we got when we filmed on Wednesday is that we did not use many of the tracking shots we had initially planned on using. Instead, my partner and I ended up using a combination of shots that consisted of Lucy walking to certain points in the area we were filming. The reason we did not use the tracking shots is because we were getting our footage handheld; therefore, it would have been nearly impossible to get professional-looking tracking shots. However, there was a time in which we did use a tracking shot, and this was the bathroom scene where Lucy goes to turn on the shower and her cell phone rings so the camera followed Lucy into the bathroom to turn on the shower and it also moved with Lucy to pick up her cell phone. Located below is the tracking shot that I previously described. 

As for the editing of our film opening, in which we utilized iMovie for because of how familiar it is to us, there were there were three major elements to this very long process: 

1.  Making sure all of the clips flowed and were continuous 
2.  Getting the text messages to appear on screen 
3.  Getting the right sound effects and background music 

So to start off, our first task in editing was getting all of the video clips we had recorded on Wednesday in the order in which we wanted them and making sure that the flow was continuous with the action happening on-screen. For example, when Lucy was walking and sitting down in between shots, we had to make sure that the two sequential shots were continuous. Located below is an example from our film opening. Furthermore, once we had reached the bathroom scene we did not have to worry that much on the continuity in between shots due to the fact that we used a tracking shot. However, we did have include a cut when Lucy opened her eyes because of the fact that we had to use a snapchat red colored contacts filter to record our last scene showing Lucy's possession, and during this cut we had to make sure it was hardly noticeable that there were two separate clips making up the one action of Lucy looking upwards.

Now moving on to one of the most tedious parts in our editing journey: getting the text messages to appear on-screen. So when we filmed this video clip, we made sure to utilize the rule of thirds to leave a large space on the far right side of the screen where the text messages would be placed. Moreover, this use of the rule of thirds to position our main character was very useful when we had to position the text messages on-screen. Moving on to the actual editing part, my partner and I had initially decided on using a template for a text message script on the editing application After Effects to display the text messages on-screen; however, once my parter signed up for the free trial and we opened up the editing application to try and get started working on our text messages, we realized that this process using After Effects was way to complicated for us to actually produce a visually appealing text message, on-screen chat. Of course, my partner and I looked up various YouTube video to guide us along the way in this complicated journey using After Effects; however, we finally decided that there had to be another way to get the text messages to appear on-screen. Thus, my partner and I brainstormed different ideas and among these was the one we ended up using. It consisted of us using an app to create a fake group chat conversation. Then, we saved that conversation as a screen recording in our camera roll and layered it on top of the footage of Lucy texting, and we would put it in the space in the far right corner. Moreover, when we actually created the fake conversation in the fake group chat, the application we utilized also let us add pictures for the contacts and name the group chat (which we named "Girliess" with emojis in the end). Located below is the scene fake group chat conversation we created along with the pictures with put for each contact. 

Maria Prieto as Tiffany

Rebekah Rotman as Sydney

Malena Diez as Taylor

As for the sound portion of our editing process, we first focused on getting all the right sound effects that are shown on screen. For example, the sound effects for the on-screen sounds of iPhone texting, iPhone SMS messages receiving/sending, iPhone receiving call [Marimba ringtone], and the shower turning on. Moreover, in order to get the 5 sound effects instead of going online to search for royalty free sound effects, my partner and I decided to record the audio of ourselves doing those actions that produce the sound effect we needed. For example, I turned on the shower while my partner recorded the sound of the shower turning on. Another example is when I texting on my iPhone and my partner recorded the sounds that the texting produced. Thus, we put these sound effects where they belongs in our film opening. So, the iPhone texting and iPhone SMS messages receiving/sending all belonged in the fake text message conversation scene. The sound of the shower turning on belonged in the last scene along with the sound of an iPhone receiving call [Marimba ringtone].

My partner and I also thought about detaching the audio from the news broadcast and placing it in our film opening just to make the sound more clear; however, we decided on keeping the sound the way it is because the sense of space regarding the sound produced by the television would be lost if we were to detach the audio and just place it in. Thus, we didn't change the anything with regards to sound for the clips where we recorded Lucy watching the news broadcast. 

Later on when my partner and I were rewatching our film opening after thinking we had finished, we knew it was missing something. Thus, this is where we took it upon ourselves to add suspenseful background music. Moreover, we tried looking on websites that showed suspenseful background music; however, none of them really convinced me and my partner. Therefore, we then decided to look on iMovie to see if they had any good suspenseful background music, and to our surprise they did! We ended up adding the music named "Drone Dark Suspense 1" as our background music. 

In the process of spicing up our film opening with background music, we decided that we needed to find a sound effect that made the clip where Lucy becomes possessed look very intense and give the viewers goosebumps when they watch it. Thus, we went on the website https://www.soundsnap.com and found the perfect sound effect named "Creepy Transitions (152)" to give our film opening ending more dimension as well as a suspenseful aspect. 

Finally, when my partner and I added our movie title, "The Call", we had the sound effect from the last scene where Lucy becomes possessed come into it for the slightest second, but one aspect that I would like to point out is that we continued the sound effect of the shower on purpose. We did this to keep the viewers wondering what happened to Lucy and how she never got to take her shower.