Opening 2 minutes: The Lost Locket

Make up

Here we have practiced trailing some of the make up that could be used on the protagonist during filming. In this picture we have focused on the eyes as we have shown an extreme close up of them to show the detail of the makeup. To achieve this look look researched into different makeup tutorials that could be used we followed some of the steps and altered some of them as well as we were changing some of the colour to suit the skin tone of the person that we used to trail on. We have shown shown that we have used a winged eye liner to make the eyes look fuller, and this will enhance the make on camera as it will stand out more. in this eye make we have also used fake lashes, as we thought that it would look better on camera, we want to make sure that make is able to show up and and should be able to make it obvious towards the audience who the protagonist is. we also put few layered of mascara to take out the separation within the lash line. Also the makeup will be something to focus on as the voice over will talk about how she has made an effort on her first day, and the audience can relate to her makeup. For the eye shadow based we have decided to go for suttle colors, so we used creams, beiges and a light brown, do come out with this effect we blended them out showing tone, so darker in the inner corner and coming out light. Finishing off this make up  look we have put on some eye liner on the bottom lash line, However this could make it look too much for the story line, as it will make it look too bold, which will make this look more occasional. The aim of this was to create a school makeup look, so we could possibly take out the eyeliner on the bottom, so it wont't look too bold.

 

We decide to focus on the eyes and lip makeup, as we thought it would be one of the most important features to focus on whilst filming. The base of the face we have decided upon using the foundation called Revelon Photoready, this foundation will be use on both the protagonist and the rest of there cast but using the right shade, which will match there skin and will look good on camera.  But we have decided to just focus on the protagonists makeup, as the audience will be able to focus on her throughout the opening scene to our film.

During the makeup we looked at what we should put on the protagonist lips, which will be suitable for our theme of having a school makeup look. here we have gone for a light pink on this skin tone, which suit well, as it doesn't look too much as we have the eyeliner we didn't want anything else to be overpowering the overall makeup. This color of lips tones the overall makeup down as there is already a lot going on with eyes. However we want the lips to be present, so adding a bit of colour to the natural lip color will make the lip present during filming.

This overall makeup for this trail, will suit the protagonist, because we though that we need to put the makeup in as its one of the key aspect in which the protagonist talks about how she will be making an effort on her first day at college and so the make should have reflection on what the protagonist says.  

Hairstyles

TIGHT FISHTAIL

Here we have been practicing some  hairstyles for possibilities for the protagonists hair during filming. Here we have practiced doing a fishtail braid on two different colored hair. The first type of coloured hair, which we trailed the fishtail braid, is on light brown hair. The lighting which compliments the braid well, as it shows the pattern of the braid. This braid is quite tightly done, and is done on the side of the face. This would be suitable for the protagonist to be  wearing during filming, as it keeps the hair out of the face whilst filming. Also the fishtail braid creates a clear, and sophisticated look on the person wearing this, so would suit the protagonist on the first day of her were wearing this look, as it will show that she is making an effort on her appearance as spoken through the voiceover.   However we could possibly make the braid a bit loser to create a more casual look, and would appeal more to a school/college look.

                                                       

LOOSE FISHTAIL

The loose fishtail braid has been created on a more mixed colored of brown and blond dyed hair. The loose fishtail braid creates a more casual look on the protagonist wearing this, with added part of a fringe or extra hair. Pulling out extra hair helps to creates a flowy, loose look,  So this could be used for our protagonists hair during filming, as it shows up in good lighting. so this will taken into consideration when using it during filming. However depending on the weather during the day of the filming it could cause the hairstyle to come out of place, make it it look messy, which can have an effect on the appearance of the protagonist.

STRAIGHT HAIR

Here we have gone for the simple hair straightening technique. This is a very simple, and easy hairstyle, which would be suitable for both protagonist and her friend, as this hairstyle would be a casual hairstyle to wear to school. however due to the weather conditions, straightened hair can get frizzy, so during filming we could possible be using hairspray to keep the hair in place. This will would our final hairstyle the we will use on both the protagonist and the friend as the protagonist will have brown hair and her friend has a blond/brown hair, so theses will show different outcomes in terms of personality wise, as the friend will have a bubbly personality which will be shown as she takes the protagonist round school.

Voice over for our film

We recorded the voice over on our phone using the voice recorder and uploaded it on to the computer, we recorded the voice over two/ three times, some with the non diegetic sound and some without so that we were able to get the timing right with the opening scene. However whilst recording, there were times when the voice over went too fast, and so it didn't fit the 2 minutes opening, so we had to slow down what we we saying, and so that it would work well with the non diegetic music. Also during this found out that the script didn't fit within 2 minutes, so we improvised some more information for the opening scene. This would allow the audience to find out more about the protagonist as she talk through her journey to school/college and talks about her life. During the voice over the female protagonist will be introducing herself to the audience and she will also be talking about her past, and introduces her family. The audience will find out a lot about the female protagonist personality and gives an insight into her life. This will allow the audience to feel apart of the film as the voice over will seem as if they are having a conversation with them. 

Day 8 of editing

During day 8 of editing, we filmed the voice over first hand by Hayley, and we put it into our opening scene, when putting it with the opening, we had to adjust the volume of the other footage in order to make sure we could hear the voice overtaking place. we also decided to place the voice over near where the protagonist started walking towards the camera with a closeup shot. we decided to put the voiceover there because it will allow the audience to engage with female protagonist and it will let them in on personal level on her life and what has happened in the past. This will also let the audience be involved in the film. The voice over lasted for about 30 seconds, so we faded them in and out in order to let some of the dialogue to be include when the non diegetic sound will be playing quietly in the background. We then render the footage to see how the it looked overall in the film. However we had to re-film the voice-over because we thought that it sound too similar to another characters voice, so filming it again but with another voice so it doesn't clash with another characters voice during the opening.  

Day 7 of editing

During the seventh day, we decided that we had to add in the soundtrack to make sure we had picked the right one. Once placing it into adobe premiere elements 10 we had to find the best place to put it. We decided that we were not going to start the music straight away but as the female protagonist starts walking to school. We had to fade in the music so it wasn't abrupt. The difficulty which we experienced through this was trying to get the background noise to not be as loud. We spent around 10 minutes trying to find away to lower the volume. Once we eventually found the way to do this, we made sure that the volume of the background noise could still be heard but also so the music was still the main feature. We then had to stop the soundtrack in a certain place so that when the characters begin talking they could be heard. We done this by fading out the music in time for when the first character begins to talk. This proved quite effective but was also a difficult task at the time. We then had to place the soundtrack back into the film once the dialogue was finished. Seeing as we had previously done this it wasn't as difficult this time. Once we had added in the soundtrack and thought that it was in a suitable place we had to create production credits. We found a picture on Google of an old camera. We saved this image and put it into two frames. We then added the effect of black and white onto the first frame and added the transition additive dissolve where it changed the black and white image to colour. We then had to add in a title underneath the picture so we had our own production credit. We were pleased with the outcome and finally rendered the footage to make sure it went well with each other without any jumps.

Day 5 of editing

During day 5 of editing we continued to experimenting with displaying the titles in our opening 2 minutes. We had decided to create some black blank shots so that we could display some of the titles for example introducing the director and editor, then introduce the character. The font that we used for the titles was adobe casalon pro, using size 54 as the font as this look most appropriate for the display in the shot. We decide to use this font because it would suit the conventions of a romance film,by having this italic bold font. It would also make the appearance of the titles easier for the audience to read and identify the production behind the film. We then looked at different colours which we could add to the titles. The first colour choice was black for the titles because we thought it would show up well for some of the titles which will show up on the location of where we have filmed, However it would suit the convention of a romance film as the black would present as more sharp and so we changed it white as it represent innocence and purity, so this would link to the storyline as it will show the atmosphere of what the audience should be expecting. We then decide to add a hint of pink to represent the the couple who will be shown in the film, it represent more of blossom of love will occur between the couple which the audience will expect to see.       

Day 6 of editing

During the sixth day of editing we continued with adding titles into our footage on top of the black shot. This meant that the titles would be clearly seen. We adapted the titles into different font and different sizes to make sure we felt that the titles were suitable. We also changed the colour of the font back to white because we felt like white could be more effective in fitting the conventions of a romance film. White could represent innocence and purity which is what we are trying to portray in our female protagonist. We moved the titles around on the black shot to see if they were placed in the right place. We then had to faded them in and out, each time making sure we were rendering the footage so it was not jumpy. We then had to add in transitions to the story of the film to make sure each clip flowed into the next with no jump cuts. We found that adding in the black shots made the film run over the allocated time and so had to crop some of the footage down. This involved making sure that the film still made sense with some footage being cropped. We found this part quite difficult because we had to still make sure that the film would make sense but also so that it was in the time limit. We ended up having to crop some bits out but also adding them back in and cropping another section out because we thought that it seemed better with the original clip.

Update on costumes and props

Costumes

Our female protagonist is going to be wearing a grey coat which will be done up. She will also be wearing tights and a skirt so that it looks casual but also smart. She will also wear black boots to go along with the black in her coat. This look will look smart but also casual for a school/collage setting. The costume will help the audience to gain knowledge of what she is like as a character and personality. From this look, we try to achieve a grown up, sophisticated look.









The male protagonist will be wearing black jeans which loose fitting and a grey hoodie. He will also wear trainers. This will show that the male protagonist is casual but also laid back. This will make the character seem like a stereotypical male teenager who does not want to go to school.













Props

Here are some of our props which we are planning to use to help us to get the collage feel to the film.

 The bag will be used as the school bag for the protagonist. This is just a simple bag which the protagonist will wear so that the audience knows that this is a bag used for school.

This is a folder which the protagonist will have but this will not necessarily get out. This will remain in her bag unless when we come to film, we decide that it is better for her to use the book. This will allow the audience to know where the setting is and also what her life is like.

Day 4 of editing

During the fourth day of editing, we had to swap the layout of the titles so they could fit in with the genre. We chose to use the font Adobe Caslon Pro with the effect of bold italics. This was an effective way to show the titles whilst the film is playing. We changed the colour of the titles to white because we thought that this was the best colour to represent innocence and the characteristics of the protagonist being naive. We added more titles into the film to show the cast and also the points of who directed it and edited the footage. After we done this, we decided that adding a plain black shot would be effective to get the titles to stand out. We created the black shot using photoshop. We then placed the black shot into our film to the place where we thought it was suitable. We also used the black shot for the main title of our film because we thought that if we done it this way, we could fade the text 'The Lost Locket' in and out of the film. Once we had faded the text we rendered the clip to prevent it becoming jumpy.

Day 3 of editing

During day 3 of editing we continued to trim/crop our footage, so that it fit within the time of 2 minutes. so we cropped our small parts of common room and some of the stairs scene so that we get a cut, so as the protagonist walked up the stairs and the cut to when they they enter the second set of stairs. After we went onto adding titles, so at the beginning when the protagonist enters to start the opening we added the title ' Directed by Fahmida and Hayley' at the beginning, so when we were positioning the text, we decide to have the 'directed' part of the text in the middle, and the name on a separate line directly below the first line. The font style that we used was italic bold we use this font style because we thought it would complement well with the opening as it will help inform the audience on more information about the opening. the size of the font that we used was 53, as we thought it would be the most appropriate font to use, but we did trial different fonts to see which would fit and would look more appealing to our opening. The colour of the font that we used was black as we though it would show up well when the opening begins. using the colour black connotes a mysterious, which would link to what happens in the opening as the is an unknown relationship, which will show the introduction of the male and female, so during the opening its will leave an enigma for the audience to find out about there relationship, and the colour of font contribute it. Also we made the smaller titles to introduce the cast in our opening and we placed, where there was empty space in the shot, so in this case, when Bronte was walking one side, then we put the smaller titles on the right hand corner, on the other side of her. so we decided to fill up the shot, but not make it too crowd in the shot. When making the titles we had problems with adding the animation to the title, we wanted to have a fade for a duration of 5 seconds, so we went onto you tube and looked for a video, which will show us what how to add the animation. (Youtube clip start from 2:07) from this we tried to apply this to our opening. However when doing this found out that we could  edit the animation on the timeline and apply through it as well by right clicking on the fade out button. We then rendered the the whole opening so that it would play more smoothly.

Day 2 of editing

Day 2 of editing we continued to crop our footage and separate them from the behind scenes and the consent parts of the footage. By this we had to render the footage so that it play back more smoothly. during this the opening was still over the time limit of being within 2 minutes. So we had to cut some of the footage out so that it fit the timing requirements. We decided to take out some of the journey scenes, as it took a lot of the time, and there was a lot of it. So we took out some of the beginning where Bronte was walking into school. We also cropped the distance of how far Bronte was walking, so instead we had to cut from the street, to when she entered into the school building. We also put a transition of a dip into black to show her entering and when she sign in. We also cropped parts of of her walking, as she looks at the display, so we made that shorter and show a cut into her close up shot of her walking. In that scene we shorten this scene and then we we get a cut into when Bronte comes out of the green doors. The common room room scenes were shorten and trimmed, we had to crop the parts where we just started filming, as the Hayley (protagonist's friend), because at first she was stood alone waiting to be filmed, so cutting this out,and showing her directly going to the protagonist. During the dialogue between the Bronte and Hayley, the lighting was a problem as Hayley face was very dark during this scene, so we added some enhance to the background, in order to fix this. However this still had an impact on lighting in the opening.​

Day 1 of editing

After filming out opening scene we had to put our film together. We had to finalize the footage on the camera, then connect the a USB to the computer, then change the format to put it on a disk (CD). Afterwards we used the adobe premier elements 10, to edit our footage that we had filmed. When we opened the software, we had to change the setting so we had to change to the format to Pal - HDV - 720p and then made a new folder for a our film and gave it a title of our film, "The lost locket". When we opened the software we uploaded the footage and we found out that the footage that was filmed in two clips or parts, so we had to separate all the footage and the behind the scene main them separate, so that they would be easier to put all the relevant section together to make our opening. So in order to do this we used the same footage a few times to get each shot out, and repeated that process again to get all the footage. Afterwards we added the dip to black transition on our opening, we added them at the beginning of the opening and at the opening and one at the end. This would allow to show a start of the film and where the opening end, with out showing a harsh cut.

What went well was that we were able to upload the footage and start to crop the footage, so it was relevant to our opening. We also trailed some of the transitions as well to see which one which one would fit well with our opening so we trailed dip into white, black. so we decided to use the dip into black as it looks better and fades well as it introduces the opening and closes the scene.

To improve we could crop more of the footage so that it fits the 2 minutes that we have been given. Also add the front title and the production title in, and add the transitions which will help fade the into the opening. So also adding these titles would fit to convention of how a opening should start.

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