ICU - First Media Studies Project! (One minute film challenge)

I.C.U - One Min. Film

Hello, fellow bloggers! Here on my first ever Blog post, I will talk about my first ever AS Media Studies project. Our task was to create a 1-minute trailer of an interrogation movie. I was put into a group with Gigi, who was a very good camera woman and George, who was our skillful Audio guru. 

As for myself, I worked on the video editing.

Equipment:

2 GoPros for chase, handheld, and CCTV scenes.

1 Mirror-Less camera for high-quality footage, mostly for scenes with minimal displacement.

Macbook Pro

Macbook Pro with Retina Display

High-Quality Microphone

Software used:

Adobe Premier Pro CS6

Adobe Photoshop CS6

Preview (Standard Apple Software)

Audicity
iMovie

Day 1: Today we were given a choice, either do a 1 minute remake/parody of a film, a heist, or an interrogation. We decided as a group to work on a heist film, as it we had great ideas and thought it best suited us. We started by coming up with a basic story line, the plot, a basic timeline, and what a rough plan of when and where we'll be filming and when we should start editing. The plot was that a man was mistaken to have stolen something, when in truth he was running away from an unmentioned/mysterious/dangerous *thing*. The name I.C.U. comes from the fact that the man is then later hurt and is put into intensive care. The name also suggests that he is being "watched" by the "thing". *Haaaa double meanings!*

Day 2: Today was our first day of filming. We focused manly on GoPro shots, one handheld by George whilst running, and the other held on an extension stick (similar to a selfie stick but a little shorter and designed specifically for the GoPro) with me holding it, running after George, for the low angle shots.

Day 3: Today was our second day of filming, with most of time spent on the "interrogation" scenes. We took this in a small, dark, storage room. Here, we installed a small lamp (in which we broke... oops) behind the actor creating a silhouette effect so that the actor's face was hidden/unseen. Here we also placed the GoPro at a high angle so that, so that it created a CCTV effect (more details later).

Day 4: During day 4, we filmed the last bits necessary; the phone/message. In one shot, a hand is seen holding a phone, and another shot of the same hand tapping the screen to receive and accept/activate something.

Day 5: Today, George worked on editing the audio and I worked on editing the video. George added sound effects as well as did voice over recordings. He also added a lot of other audio magic to enhance the viewer experience and generally make the audio sound professional and interesting (in which I have no idea how it was done). After George finished the audio, I made the video so that the transitions matched the audio, as well as worked on the CCTV scene. Here, I created a CCTV-like HUD, as well as added occasional "wave" effects to the shot, so that the shot was as realistic as possible.

What went well:

In my opinion, I think the overall quality of the video was good. We purposefully made the footage shaky to give the "panicky" effect. Video and Audio effects were used appropriately, such as the single drum hits when the video cut from one shot to another, or when I added the "wave" effect to the CCTV scene in order to make it seem a little more realistic. Lastly, the Audio was exquisite; the audio went with the video flawlessly and was of extremely high quality.

What we could've done better:

In terms of footage, we could've used more cameras for multi-angle shots. Furthermore, we could've made sure that all the cameras had matching FPS, footage size, as well as resolution simply increase consistence, and make the process of editing (AND RENDERING) faster. Thirdly, we could've added glimpses of the rest of the plot, and hinted on the "thing". Lastly, we could've utilised a tripod, as it would help us in scenes such as the first scene; it was done using a hand-held phone and was swaying left and right.

The following is the video in which we've put together. I hope you've enjoyed reading my first blog post as well as the video my friends and I have put together! :D