Today we continued to edit the shots that we have. We encounter ye another small problem in that some of the shots are shaky or dont quite flow however we think we have managed to rectify this by cutting them. We have virtually finished editng the shots that we have so far but we still need to add titles. We are struggling to come up with a name for our film-this will be our target for tomorrows lesson along with either looking at where to place the titles in the opening or searching for some music.

Storyboarding extra scenes

Yesterday in lesson we talked about how to get around the problem of the horse shot. We did think we could put the actors in a trolley or sit them ontop of a car but we realised that this was not very safe or practical. In the end we decided that we will have 2 people carrying the 2 actors on their shoulders running along behind each other pretending to be riding a horse. THough this may still be quite tricky to film we will only need a few seconds of it that we can put in between clips of the horses hooves (to be filmed whislt someone is riding the horse and we are on a quad bike alongside filming) with the sound of the hooves over the top to make it appear realistic. We will need someone to ride the horse and 2 people to carry the actors, we have already sorted this out and they have agreed to help us. The only propblem that we may encounter is that we are having to do this one evening after school as the actors have other comitments at the weekend so we will need to be quick and efficient so that we get all the filming done before it gets dark. Given that we will not reach the location untill 4:15 and the light begins to fade at 5 it will give us roughly 50 minutes to film. To give us enough time (and because the horse is in a different location to the actors) we will film the horse one night and the actors another. We have already storyboarded the changes to our plot and are aiming to get this done next week so that we still have a week to finish editing. 

Reviewing previous students work

Yesterday we watched the work of previous media students. I found this interesting as well as helpful as it showed us how careful you have to be of factors such as wind and making sure they dont disturb the film. I particually noticed this as wild interferance was something that was a problem when we were filming, we have revisited our shots and edited the sound so that it is no longer such a big problem. It is still noticable at some points but we are hoping to fix this by reshooting some of it. Another thing that i noticed from watching previous students work was how important continuity is and keeping the camera steady when appropriate. We will bare this in mind whilst editing and filming the rest of our shots.

Editing

During lessons this week we have started to edit our shots. First we watched all the clips and then put them all into final cut pro. We then went through and selected the best version of each shot. After this we started cutting them and putting it all together, for some shots we had to take the filming from one shot and the sound from another as the sound was sometime disturbed by wind or other interfering factors. When reviewing our progress on friday we realised that we wont be able to use the shots of the wife (jane) riding the horse. This is because in the shots she is wearing a riding helmet, this would not fit with the western genre that we have chosen. The reason for her wearing a riding helmet was that she thought it was illegal (if not then still unsafe) to ride a horse without a helmet. This is something that we had not invisaged would be a problem as we hadnt thought of it whilst planning. As her wearing a helmet doesnt fit with our genre we will have to think of a way around showing the horse and re-shoot it. We could have close ups of the horses hooves, tail and head whilst running or crop the shot so we only see the middle of her and the horse. This is something we will have to think about and explore this week.  

Filming

On saturday we filmed our western opening. I feel that it all went to plan, there was a minor problem in that one of our original actors was ill however we managed to find someone else to fill their role. We found it slightly difficult to film the sceens with sound because of the distance the shots were being filmed from and because of the windy weather conditions. The filming also took less time than we expected, for this reason we didn't wholey stick to our initial time plan but it was useful to have it with us to use as a list to see what we had to do. I think it took less time because we were more efficient than we expected we would be, partly because it was cold and windy and our actors could wear coats as it wouldnt have fitted with their costume, so we filmed what we needed as quickly as possible and everyone cooperated and didnt mess around. Below are some photos of us filming. 
 

Questionnaire Results

On friday we analysed the results from our questionnaire. We interviewed 6 people and found that on a whole the results were mostly as we expected. This means that we dont need to change our narrative structure and story board. I think this is because we researched our genre beforehand so we knew what the generic conventions were and we conformed with them. 


Question 1

 

The majority of the people we asked weren't fans of westerns however as expected those that were were male or older. Even though not everyone I asked was a fan of this genre I hoped that by taking on board their views I could create a film opening that appealed to a wider audience.   

Question 2 and 3

The usual plots that people had recognised includes: good overcoming evil, action, guns, cowboys, theft, chases. These seem to be the general ideas that people had and they were the prefered plots. We will bare this in mind, this coincides with our initial narrative ideas so we wont need to change that. I think that the reason it fits with it is as we researched  the genre and generic conventions beforehand so had an idea of what to include.

Question 4 and 5

The stereotypical characters that the people surveyed thought featured in westerns are: Strong fit cowboys, good guys, evil guys/devious baddies, indians, horses. This also fits with my narrative as it (my narrative structure) features many of these c haracters. In our opening we have goodies (cowboys), badies and horses so covering 4 of the mentioned character types. For this reason i don't feel that we need to change our narrative structure as we include the majority of suggested characters. There weren't any characters that people thought were missing from westerns either.

Question 6

There were  several  ideas for the opening of westerns including:  a shoot out in a bar, a chase, horses, rolling landscapes but all of the people we asked said that the opening should include action. This fits with my opening as, though the opening  does not feature a shoot out at a bar, it does include action and this was the most popular response. For this reason i see no reason to change our narrative structure.

Props

Props	Supplied by
Bandanas	Nikki
Cowboy hats	Actor
Logs	Nikki
Blanket	Jess
Make up/Face Paint	Jess/Nikki
Horse	Nikki
Seating (blanket/cushion)	Jess
Bag	Jess
Skateboard	Jess
Rope	Jess
Sledge	Nikki
Umbrella	Nikki