The Production Logos

We decided that we needed at least one production logo as we had planned to use a sound bridge from black to the opening shot with ‘Hey Joe’. This also conformed to film techniques as most films have production logos at the beginning. We decided we wanted to create our own. We made three different logos and decided to use them all as we had time (after cutting the unnecessary shots and parts of the story). They were also all of good quality. We added sound effect from iMovie that suited the logos and carried on. I made the ‘B Productions’ logo and Sonia made the ‘Spark Productions’ and ‘Bulls eye Productions’ logos. Sonia used Swish Max3, whilst I used stop motion animation for mine. Not having the software Sonia had, I used PowerPoint Presentation to create a smooth animation. I used ‘Academy Engraved LET’ font and created the shining star with various shapes. I then sent it to Sonia to put it into the software as everything I tried to use couldn’t flash the slides fast enough to make the sequence smooth.

EDITING: Monday 1st February to Friday 12th February 2010 (main)

The editing process was filled with difficulties and brilliance. We had to change the original ideas we had as the editing techniques weren't as wide n iMovie as they are in Final Cut Pro. Helpfully, we had made a conscious effort to ‘Film for Edit’ whereby we constantly thought about how we wanted to edit the material. This made putting the piece together much easier than it would have been if we hadn't. After labelling all clips and separating the bloopers from the usable takes, we started editing. We found that some of the takes, although looking good by themselves or on the camera, didn’t work well in the final cut. Some of these shots include the tracking shot that circles the table (specified in the story board) as it was too shaky (due to our lack of dolly) and we found that the lighting picked up some other lighting stands in the background. This was unavoidable as we had to light the whole table, not just a part of it. We also had to cut a lot of the story as we found it made the piece too long. These included some birds eye view shots and the beginning was changed. Some of these decisions were made during the filming process either because we couldn't get the shot we were looking for with the equipment we have (e.g. the birds eye view shots; essential ones had to be changed to high angle shots) or we realised they would not make much sense so we changed them (e.g. the opening shot of everyone coming to the table).

Within the editing process we had trouble with the angel and devil scene. We decided that the whole tilt and pan shot was too long for the rhythm of the scene (we wanted short shots for this scene as it is a fragile and unnatural atmosphere). Therefore had to cut it up. We also found that some of the shots had varying performance qualities (some had Sonia being brilliant with me being bad/falling out of frame and visa versa), or the lighting varied (on the shot of Sonia and Matt’s hand). So we had to try and match the shots to create a continuous sequence. We tried inserting fades instead of straight cut but found it made the piece seem too much like a trailer. We finally decided to keep straight cuts (with Jack cutting two different takes together seamlessly) and add a ‘ghost trail’ effect to further the idea of the angel and devil being unnatural. The final product also has different effects and grains added to the picture. We lowered the saturation levels to take the peachy colour out of the picture and applied a ‘peep hole’ to the picture to soften the edges around the frame. We applied these effects to everything in the opening except the angel and devil scene as we decided to keep their pictures as different as possible from the other shots to signify that they weren’t actually in the room. A ‘black and white’ effect was also applied to the title sequence to suggest that it was a title sequence.

The credits were done using a ‘typewriter’ effect in 'Impact' font. We did not originally want to use this effect but found it was the only style that would allow us to move the credits around the picture and not have them constantly centred. We did not at first want to use the idea of pausing the picture, applying a ‘black and white’ effect and having the names appear for credits (as used in films such as Train Spotting) but decided it was the better option for the film. We did this by screen shot-ing a still of each character, inserting it for a few seconds, changing the colours to black and white and adding the names. A problem that occurred during adding the title was that when trying to add the Movie Title, 'Poker's Advocate' to the end of the film, the software wouldn't allow it as it needed more film time to apply the effect. Therefore, we had to trick the software by adding about six minutes of blackness to the end of the film (it demanded at least six minutes more time onto the film), then added the titles, then went back and deleted the blackness from the end of the film. This trick took six of us to figure out...

Music was applied during editing. We decided to use Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Hey Joe’ as the main track as it captured the rhythm and atmosphere wanted. Whilst the narration played, we decided that having Hendrix’s lyrics beneath would be distracting so took the opening instrumental and looped it. We were advised after a session of audience feedback to let the track carry on throughout the piece as it is such a famous song that viewers would expect the rest of the song. We decided to fade Hendrix and use a different tune for the angel and devil scene as ‘Hey Joe’ had the wrong vibe for this part of the piece. We decided to use the theme from the movie Sin City and ‘Warrior’s Dance’ by The Prodigy. We planned to use only one of these tracks, but found that merging the two and lowering the ‘Warrior’s Dance’ line compared to the theme tune line created the perfect track that suggested creepy and unstable. Finally Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’ for the title sequence as it captured the feel we wanted for the rest of the film – fast paced and unstable. We cut all the music and faded them in and out depending on when one finished and when there was no talking.

Friday 29th January 2010

During our break, free period and lunch today we filmed the angel and devil part of the opening. Having known about how long it took to set up a shot, we started early and tried to get shots done as quick as possible. This was the one scene that required makeup, Sonia and I spent most of the time doing the art work on our faces. We decided to expose this scene less than the rest of the opening to further suggest that the angel and devil are not actually there. Jack directed this scene, including a tilt and pan shot of the devil and angel. I think this shot was brilliant. We added a line for the devil to whisper; “Go for it”.

We then went on to capture all the footage and get to editing the final product.

Thursday 28th January 2010

Today Matt and I showed Sonia and Jack what we had done and they critiqued it. We carried on editing and found that there was some creative difference between four people. But we came to a middle ground and edited more. We also found that some of the establishing shots of Jack and Matt after Sarah and Luke have folded had a leg of the light stand in the corner of the picture. This was not picked up when filming as a dark picture n a dark room couldn’t pick it up. This made us remember to keep an eye on framing each time we shot.

Tuesday 26th January 2010

Today we got hold of the hand held recording device and learnt how to use it (a simple mp3 recording style with a button to record and a button to stop. It looked like a taser in which you spoke into the spikes). It took a while to get used to saying the lines in a narration type way. In the end we got a few takes and chose the best one. Returned the recording device and started to split the narration. We split it in order to control the speed to lines were said as well as match them to the pictures we wanted.

We split them in these places (signified by ‘//’)

“Flush. // Straight. // Full House. // Pair…// These have been running through my head for the past forty eight hours. // I knew the possibility of getting them; // 500/1, // 250/1, // 700/1… // For me… // I got nothing.”

This allowed us to have more freedom with what we did with the narration. We started placing these sound clips and carried on editing.

Monday 25th January 2010

With Jack and Sonia away on a school trip, Matt and I were left to start editing. We managed to upload the footage we had already shot onto iMovie, and sort through the footage (separating what was good and what was bad/outtakes, and labelling the different clips so it was easier to find them. This was a technique suggested in the editing master class. We knew we wanted a narration over the top of the beginning of the clip and therefore tried to record it. We originally wanted to use the recording studio in music, but it was fully booked due to Music coursework taking place. We then arranged with the head of music to use a hand held recording device (something neither Matt nor I knew existed) the following day. We went back to editing and sorting through the material.

Friday 22nd January 2010

Editing. We attempted to upload the footage we had shot onto the Macs to start editing. However, due to us using a camera other than the hand held ones hired out by the media department, we had trouble. We first tried to upload using one of the hand helds, but discovered that it wouldn’t capture onto Final Cut Pro (the software we wanted to use to edit our film due to it having more effects and abilities than iMovie). We then had to get the original camera in to see if the footage would capture onto the software with that camera. However, the footage wouldn’t capture either. It came down to finding out that Final Cut Pro hadn't been set up on the machine properly therefore we would have to use iMovie. This lead to us having to change some of the editing ideas we had including some ‘ghosting’/layering techniques in the Angel and Devil scene learnt in the editing master class.

Thursday 21st January 2010

During the lesson today (period 2) we filmed the card tricks we play to use in the Title sequence. We filmed it in the joining doors between Drama and Music. Although the area didn’t have a black background, we were able to make the room dark enough to light it properly, and then framed the shots to get as little of the white walls in as possible. We did have trouble controlling the extraneous sound levels as we were just outside a working Music studio, however we were able to block out most of the noise. We did get interrupted many times with people walking through the doors (a side effect of our location), but it did not disturb the filming process enough for us not to get the shots we want.

After school, we were filming in the drama studio with the full cast. A main problem was, with a larger cast of friends, everyone wanted to talk, thus we took a long time. The character Leo was also cut as the actor playing him was, at the last minute, unfortunately not available to film. As Leo is a minor character we were able to cut him with minimum disruption. If fact, during filming we found that this was for the best as we could only fit five people comfortably around the table we used (compared to the six that there would have been). As we had to film everyone, the process of lighting and shooting everything took even longer than just with Matt and Jack. However, everything went according to plan. We did film a tracking shot around the table, which proved challenging as we still had to light the shots and thus had the cameraman’s shadow falling across the table at points. We had to film this shot in steady cam style as we could not find a dolly or a trolley to make a make shift tracking system. Running around the table also proved to be dizzying and disorientating and probably created a wobbly shot.

Wednesday 20th January 2010

Today we filmed the dialogue between Dave and Gary. It was the first time we used the specialist equipment so was a big learning curve. We had to think about the lighting, the audio boom, the camera angles as well as the actors performance. We only had Sonia, Jack, Matt and I there instead of the whole cast because we planned to use close ups or tighter therefore did not need the others in shot. We learnt that moving the lights and equipment to get a good shot took a long time therefore it took a long time to film the shots we need.

We used a shot list to help us make sure we got everything we needed;

• Extreme close up of Dave’s eyes
• Pained shot of Dave (at different Dutch tilt levels)
• Gary close up – ‘trouble? Wanna back out?’
• Close up Dave – ‘Course not’
• Establishing wide shot of Gary, Dave and Dealer at the table
• Dave pushing the chips into play

During filming we did find that the line ‘Course not’ did not work as it seemed like a more immediate response, whereas we wanted a pause for thought from Dave. Therefore, we decided to change the line to ‘No way’.

Original Costume Ideas

The Players:

The Devil:
The Angel: