I filmed the whole editing process using "Quick Time: Screen-Capture" which is a present feature on the Apple Mac which I used Final Cut Pro X on, this therefore allowed me to essentially save time by completing the editing and the evidence for the editing by using these videos. I've cut the full footage into two separate YouTube videos as this was easier to render, process and upload, also the footage has been sped up by 20x to show 2 hours of editing into a 4 minute long video. I will refer to each video as Pt.1 & Pt.2 respectively.
Firstly, I decided to put a black screen to play then the "Fearless Films" logo because most films do not start immediately thus wanted to emulate this feeling, however this placeholder only last for a couple of seconds and doesn't really add much from the opening sequence but nevertheless it adds to the effect of a professional film. The first thing I did during editing was to get all the clips and add them into the project space, this is so that I did not have to keep looking for all the necessary clips thus increasing efficiency and making the whole process a lot easier.
Secondly I added the "Fearless Films" logo to show that the owner of the piece is us; as seen in the video I sped up the logo because I found that it took 30 seconds to fully complete the clip - this was far too long for a production logo, most only use up to 20 seconds maximum.
Also at 10 seconds into the video above [Pt.1] we used stock footage for the time-lapse of London as we did not have the time nor the proper equipment necessary to actualise our ideas for the setting. We found a drone time-lapse of the city and thus decided to use it as it perfectly visualises our ideas for a master shot - setting the scene and also allowing the audience to be familiar with the location.
I added the stock footage because I wanted the audience to feel the same sense of time as the characters within the opening sequence, goes from evening to morning to afternoon, I did this by adding the time later on when I add the overlays. By also reversing the sun setting, it turned into a sunrise therefore seeming like there is a transition from night to day.
After this I decided to add a cut-off to emulate a cinematic widescreen, which I thought looked very professional and also cleans up the video. This cut-off runs throughout the whole of the opening sequence.
Next, I started to added the text the will transition on to the video. I used the "Blur" transition and the "Minimalistic" font as I felt that they looked the most professional and felt that they fit the story we're trying to create. A blurry past.
From the screenshot above, the "blur" text transition can be seen on the partially blurred "IN ASSOCIATION WITH" this helps to visually express our ideas and also the transition plays very nicely with the transition of shots in the background.
After this I wanted to add the "BBC" logo as our film is made by a London based production company; therefore by being in an association with the "British Broadcasting Company" the film which will use the opening sequence, will be able to reach a national audience. Also the png logo of the BBC was in red, I did not like this colour hence why I used the colour correction tool on the right panel and lowered the exposure of the image to create a black mask over it. Due to this there is a contrast with the bright time-lapse and the dark BBC logo thus pulling the focus on to the Logo, which is what I had in mind.
After adding the BBC logo, I added a cross-dissolve transition between the png logo and the stock footage in the background, this allowed the BBC logo to gradually appear onto the shot. I wanted to create a smooth transition with all the foreground items to make a more natural feel and also to keep the transitions uniform as the previous foreground transitions were in a similar style. For example the "IN ASSOCIATION WITH" text used the blur transition and this cross-dissolve transition almost re-creates this.
Above is a screenshot of a the cursor hovering above the "Detach Audio" option. I duplicated the stock footage and trimmed it to play a certain part of the audio which played a soundtrack that coincidentally became very useful for the scene. I decided to detach the audio as it was easier to edit in waveform and also I wouldn't have to change any of it's colour correction settings if I wanted it to play but stay "hidden" visually - effectively saving time.
The second video skipped some parts of the editing but not much was done within that time, only continuity cuts and jumpcuts were used however apart from that, not much was lost.
The image above shows the parts missing in [Pt.2], I added three transitions. The first, after the stock footage into the tracking shot of the couple - Fade to black was used as a transition into this. Next I used a "Flash" transition from where the the protagonist has a flashback, I thought this was an appropriate transition as it was a quick re-call of the beer bottle clip. Finally, I used the "Flash" transition again to move from the flashback into present time; therefore completing the flashback.
The screenshot above depicts the process of finding the right moment to create a jumpcut by using the blade tool within the program. I found that by using the keyboard shortcuts, it made the editing process a lot easier and very time efficient as going to the edit menu takes up a lot of time and will culminate into a lot of loss time.
The above image shows the blade tool being used as I felt that the shot was too long and I wanted to make it more tense and fast-paced therefore I needed to create jumpcuts where the protagonist looks like she is closing in faster towards the camera. This is done by cutting sections within the shot and deleting them off from the timeline.
After that, I added a POV shot of the bottle colliding with the male character. When the bottle is at it's closest point to the camera, I added a "Bloom" transition into a jumpcut to where the male falls to the floor. Also I added an overlay to these shots - "Focus" was the overlay used thus creating a focal point in the center of the frame and blurring out anything beyond this region.
Also a "Heartbeat" sound effect and "Concussion" sound was used to further enhance this idea.
I used this overlay for this scene as I felt that this would effectively represent "disorientation" of the male character and also helps to make the the protagonist the focal point during this scene as she isn't blurred out, making her very significant. Later on I found out that there was another overlay, which was possibly better than the former as it featured "Double-vision" and created a significant motion blur; this would've been better to use to disorient the audience.
In the screenshot above, 6 transitions can be seen. This is due to the cross-cutting effect I wanted to achieve. From the shot where the camera is on the ground with the protagonist in frame, a "Flash" transition is used to cross-cut to a female on the ground in front of a flight of stairs, this creates a role-reversal which gives a contrast between the two character's positions. In addition to this the other 5 transitions are all "Flash" as well, this shows the audience that the scene is a flashback. Also there are 6 different cuts within the (long take) clip used, which creates a scene where the character on the ground will lose conciousness, this is effect is made by making cuts from different "camera pan & tilt" angles.
To enhance this idea, we added controlled "Female Breathing" for the flashback then when the cut for present POV starts a heavy "Male Breathing" was used to show that he may die. Moreover, the "Heartbeat" sound effect resumes while the "Male Breathing" plays, then dissipates a few seconds after the breathing stops - showing that the male is about to die.
Furthermore, I re-used the stock footage from the beginning of the sequence and reversed the clip and also sped it up by 4x. After I added the "Bad TV" overlay effect to try and reinforce the idea of going back in time, where the story will begin from. To further achieve this I used a stock sound effect found within Final Cut Pro's sound database. "Old Radio Wave" was used to create a static noise and also the audio from one of the clips we filmed (which sadly didn't make into the opening piece) was sped up by 20x and reversed to complete this effect.
The screenshot above shows a time on the bottom-left corner. This is an indicator of the different times present within the sequence. The one after that would be on the "Rewind" section of the stock footage, the text on top has the "Bad TV" effect to fully complete this idea of an "Earlier That Day" scene. Also at this point I would've put a vignette on top of all the scenes we've filmed - this gives a dark effect on the screen and is the exact effect I wanted to create as we wanted a "Dark" sequence and the vignette just beautifully represents the "darkness" taking over the protagonist's mind.
Here, the screenshot shows 2 similar camera angles but from different points within the timeline, this shows a jumpcut trying to be worked at the right points, due to a mechanic within Final Cut Pro, it is possible to see what the frame prior to the one being edited looks like - really useful for trying to get the best time to cut for a jumpcut, this feature helped me a lot and is really useful. Several jumpcuts were made to increase the speed of the scene.
The tool I used the most was the blade tool as it helped with cutting the clips into short, fast-paced scenes.
In the screenshot above, a similar image can be seen as the screenshot prior to this; however in this one, I was trying to get an action match to where the door opened from one side then on the other side via continuity from another angle.
In the image above, 3 things can be noticed. Firstly I detached the audio used for the "Beatings" the protagonist receives. After that I added a shot of the door (from a low-angle close up to give significance to it) and then I added "Fade to Black" transitions on both shots whenever the protagonist receives a hit - emulates what the girl sees, black. So in concept, two views but with one angle.
After that, I detached the audio of another clip as I only wanted a specific part of it - the sound of the closing. I wanted it to end on a black screen with only just the sound of the door closing present. This again, is a symbol for the "Dark", by ending on a black screen with only a sound effect gives a more dramatic effect as the audience will wonder what happens next, they will start to ask questions which in turn would compel them to watch more.
After, I decided to use an effect which acts like an indent with the clip of a POV of the male character watching the protagonist walk away as the background which allowed for a moving title sequence, and overall wraps up the whole opening sequence as the audience will not know what will happen to the male - there are no indications of his health status. Also this indent smoothly transitions from the black screen into it thus completing the scene.
Moreover, we initially had "Sherlock Holmes" style text messages that would appear from a blur/fade but we realised that the messages can already be seen on the phone itself so there was no point in implementing this idea. Furthermore we added an "Iphone Message Notification" sound effect as we wanted nothing but a notification sound, therefore we had to mute the audio as it had interferences.
Lastly I added audio files into the opening sequence, more can be found on Task 16 - Choice of Music
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