I've finished editing!

I have now finished "Fo' Sho' Mo' Fo' That's Crackalackin'!". It comes to 2m 59s long. I edited it using Apple's Final Cut Studio. I'm very pleased with the results, it's turned out well despite some of the issues I had along the way. The worst of which was glitches and missing audio.

I have also updated the script and evaluated the piece so it's all complete!

A bit further in the process of editing...

I now have all the footage I need. The other end of the phone call with Sergeant Tinkle is done and I have a few establishing shots of Leatherhead.
For Sergeant Tinkle's part, after looking for a tea set but failing dramatically, I used a plate of cookies instead, which he offerred to his friend "Corporal Cuddles".
I will update my script with the additional dialogue and change the gangsta talk as Hisham improvised in the end.
In the end I decided not to use the shot with the tripod as it doesn't look very good when you've cut it out and zoomed in to fill the screen.
On with the editing!
Oh, and I plan to do the phone call with a split screen, like you see in cartoons.

In the process of editing...

I have most of the footage I need for my film, only Sergeant Tinkle's end of the phone call is left, which I will do once I've bought George a handlebar moustache and a plastic tea set. I used Final Cut Studio 5 and half the film has been cut together now. I have used Motion to create intros for officer Retro-Face and officer Tubgins.
For backing music I am using "Don't Like It Do Ya" by Paul Linford for dramatic pursuit music. At the end I have opted for a rather more funky hip hop number; "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugar Hill gang.

I have thought of adding a bit more into Sergeant Tinkle's end of the phone call. He's meant to be the tough, scary guy. And comes across as this when on the phone to Retro-Face. But to add to the comedy aspect I want to give him a soft, childish side. So after he shouts "SHUT UP! I'M SERGEANT TINKLE!" and hangs up, perhaps i could have him offering more tea to his imaginary friend. :D

Fo' Sho' Mo' Fo' That's Crackalackin'! filming.

I have now finished the script, story board and all preliminary work, and am ready to film.

FILMING...We had a successful day of filming, in Leatherhead. The pursuit scene is finished and all i need to do now is Sergeant Tinkle's end of the phone call.

We were lucky with the weather, it was quite cold, but sunny, despite the forecast of rain. All in all good enough conditions.

The whole thing took only a few hours and most shots took about 2 takes. There was only one major mistake which was me leaving the tripod in the shot, but i will try to edit this out.

Nearer to the end we were attacked with water balloons fired from a three man slingshot, however, they were a very bad aim!

A few changes were made during filming simply due to the context or suggestions from the cast, such as waiting for the traffic lights and jumping over various obstacles.

Here are some photos of the filming in action...

Next piece of coursework - 2 minute intro. to a film.

I had originally chosen to do an action/thriller film. I researched the generic conventions of this genre, analysing "Gladiator", "Gone in 60 Seconds", "Shooter", "Jet Li's Fearless" and "The Matrix".

However, somehow my idea transformed into a comedy. The film is set in the modern day and is a cop comedy called "Fo' Sho' Mo' Fo' that's Crackalackin'!"

100 Word Synopsis

Fo Sho' Mo' Fo' That's Crackalackin'!!

The film begins showing the characters doing what they do; the officers are in the field, the sergeant is at the station. There is a massive heist and Sergeant Tinkle calls his best officers only to find they’ve all fallen ill. Leaving Officer Retro-Face, who’s stuck in the 70s, and Tubgins to solve the case. The film follows the duo on their Tandem as they attempt to solve the mystery. They often don’t get very far into their detective work before Retro-Face hears a funky jam he can’t resist and Tubgins sees a hot dog stand. Then they stumble upon a friendly gangsta who takes pity on them and teaches the ways of hip hop allowing them to get inside the hood and find the criminals.

The Finished Product...

Our film...

First piece of coursework - planning and filming

After we finished story-boarding and had decided on what we were going to film we were ready to start filming and almost nearly knew what we were doing. Well, we would have been ready had it not been for a couple of lower school bunkers; trying to work out how the tripod worked and being hairstyle critics. Once they had established who had bad hair and who had good hair we decided it was time to try and start filming...only to find that the camera was dead so had to go and get another one. Pudders gladly stepped in to go and change the camera.

On his return the 2 girls clicked that we were quite boring and unenthusiastic about what they has to say, so left us to go and interrogate the group downstairs. We then filmed josh walking down the corridor, but all the rooms down the N corridor were full so we planned to do that scene the next lesson.

This corridor was still full the next lesson, but we managed to find and empty room; miss Percival's and she kindly allowed us to film in there.

So much time had been put into the storyboard but we had no script.  No problem though, nothing we couldn't sort; we simply borrowed someone else's. The script from Frankenstein to be precise. This added an unintentional melodramatic flare, which meant it took many takes to get our actors to get all the way through their lines without laughing. But in the end it was to good effect. Then for continuity we filmed the walking shots again in the S corridor.

Editing

Editing was made a bit confusing at first by Visual Studio 8 but in the end Jeremy and i got the hang of it. Our group of 4 was split in 2 an we both edited the same footage. Capturing was easy, plug the camera in and press capture. Then set in and out points on the film to cut out different clips and simply drag them into the timeline in order. Then we had to cut out defects and sound pops. We got quite far and then noticed that Josh had not closed the door on entering the room but when he sat down it was closed. So we recorded the sound of a door closing and added it on top, cutting out him not closing the door. 

It took a while to work out how to do a fade to black, and we found out how to fade to a peacock before! but then josh showed us where we could find a black slide.

After comparing ours with the product of the rest of our group we realised how much music makes a difference. They have a melodic, sorrowful piano playing in the background, with a dramatic crescendo on the last line. Yet ours, with exactly the same footage, at the time had the kind of music you'd find on a children's' program, and it could have been exactly that. But the music had to go unfortunately as it was inappropriate.