Wind

Tonight I came in and replaced the wind SFX that we had in the film. The previous wind sounded like the house was right next to the ocean, which is not the mood we are trying to set. I got some new wind SFX from Kasey and have layered them into the film. They sound a lot cleaner and appropriate. THey are more wispy and have a bit of a eeriness to them. I think it's a much better fit.

Festival Plan

Last week, Chris, John, and I finalized our festival plan. We had eight festivals that we found as good fits for The Basement. One of the festivals that I found with free submission is River Run in Winston Salem. They have no charge for NC students, which I thought was great because they are really helping support the students of the state, and if we got into that festival it would be an easy day drive up there. We also finished up our website with the cast and crew bios. It's looking pretty good. Basic, but clean and easy to navigate. We still need to burn a DVD copy and then just need to place our festival plan and completed budget in a binder with the link to our website, and we are good to go.

Whimpers, Wind, and Nearing the End

We've been working on refining the video and then adding sound effects to enhance the film. The video camera scene has not been cut down. Instead of seeing Phil walk away to turn off the light, which kind of broke up the tension, we cut straight from him setting up the camera and hitting record to him going to lay down with Jim in the bed. This not only helps cut down our overall time, but it adds to the scene in that it leaves more to the imagination for the audience. We also tweaked the scene in the woods when Phil goes to pick up Jim and carry him back. There are now a few more cuts with different angles worked into the sequence which helps give the scene momentum, rather than just standing back in the long shot the whole time. That's still something I wish we had more of throughout the whole film: close ups. Having some more punched in shots would be great for this film to really zero in on Jim's fear and uneasiness around Phil.

We've also enhanced the sound scape. In the opening shot in the basement, we hear Jim whimpering a bit which adds a nice touch. One of the whimpers sounds like a girl, so we have to mess with that still, but in all it sounds good. We also need to look for an alternative wind sound because it still sounds like ocean wind outside. Kasey says she has some wind sounds on her hard drive, so I'm going to check those out tomorrow.

Over all, it's looking good. It's still rather long (about 18min 30 sec, I believe) but I don't think there's a ton we can do about that. As long as the pace feels justified and we make it as concise as possible, I think we'll be okay.

I've also been working on the Festival Plan a bunch over the Eater weekend. The website is up and having last touches added to it. We already have our poster, and we're finishing up sifting through the festivals that we want as our top choices.

We submitted to Reel Teal, but they rejected our submission due to mature content. Lame.

Video All Laid Out

Chris came in and looked at what I had cut and then continued on. I liked the shots he used of Phil, however I thought that there was something missing in the tension of Phil catching up to Jim. I decided to add in our shot of Jim stopping to take a breath. The shot was initially planned to be use during a different part of the narrative, but it was able to be worked into the narrative here as well. I cut it so he stops to take a breath, and then that is when he hears Phil screaming for him and realizes that Phil isn't dead. He starts running again and right when he get's some momentum, he trips on a root, which stops him and allows Phil to fully catch up to him. Then the rest plays out well with what Chris cut. I really like our ending shot of Jim coming out of the woods. There's this one take where Jim winces a bit and it works really well with how we abruptly cut without ever seeing what he's looking at. Choosing that take was a good decision by Chris. Also, the score that he put at the end fits very well. We would have to get the rights for it to use it, but if we can, it's great. I've been looking at other choices on realty free music site. I've found a couple so far that may work, so it's good that we have options. We are still in the search for score for other parts of the film, such as when Jim is searching around the basement. All the video is laid out now though, which is great, and we are now working on audio, SFX, and score.

The Chase

Over break Chris and I both worked on the chase scene. I edited a cut that got us half way through the chase. It took a while figuring out what shot to use of Jim busting out of the house and then running into the woods. I wasn't sure if we should use the shot where the camera is situated at the woods line and Jim runs toward the camera and then passes it, moving out of frame and into the woods. Or, if we should use the shot where the camera follows behind Jim and runs with him into the woods. I messed around with some different options and decided on using the shot where we run with him into the woods, mostly because it helps with the sense of urgency as the camera bobbles around because it is moving hand held. Then, we cut to the LS pan of Jim running which is our opening shot of the film. This is proceeded with the fast paced running sequence that is used in the introduction of the film to cue in the audience that it was Phil that Jim was running from in the intro. I then added a few more quick running clips, and then I got stuck as to where to go from here. I wasn't sure how to cut into the visual of Phil running after Jim. I decided to give it a breather and be done with editing for the day. I wanted Chris to look at it and give his input and ideas, and then go from there.

Spring Break Progress

Before Spring Break, Chris and I looked over our film-in-progress and discussed where we wanted to continue with our film. We talked mostly about the chase scene in the woods because it could be cut so many different ways to reveal information at different times, and we wanted to have a concise vision. We discussed that we wanted to have jump cuts during the sequence, similar to the opening, in order to create suspense and anxiety in the audience. We also said that we wanted to hear Phil screaming for Jim before we actually see him in the woods at all. We then picked out a few snippets of the chase that we knew we wanted to use. We left our meeting with a good direction to work at over break.

Edit on

I came in today and looked at what Chris did and then continued on. We're going to have to figure out what we want to do at the end of the bear trap scene because he likes using an overhead shot, and I think it makes the edit look too choppy. I think the end of that scene has more of an impact in keeping with the low angle shot as Phillip drags the bear trap down the hall and out of frame and then cut to him dropping the chain and walking out. We'll have to look at the part together again and make a decision.

I then went to the next scene where Jim tricks Philip and is able to escape, and I briefly started the outdoor chase. I want to wait and collaborate more with Chris on the outdoor scenes because it could be cut many different ways depending how long we want to make it seem like he is running/being chased after. We also don't have to reveal that Philip is chasing him until he's well into the woods, depending how we want this to go. I'd say we're 75% done with laying down the video though, which is great!

Scene 7 Hangup

This past weekend I was in the lab working on our film both Saturday and Sunday. I went through what we already had and made some edits based on some tf the feedback we received as well as things I noticed that I wanted to change after watching it in class on Thursday. Not major changes, but just spots where shots held on too long or looked awkward. I then moved on to the next scene. There was a par tin scene 7 that gave me difficulty because the coverage that we have doesn't allow for a clean cut. Jim is at the window looking at the card and rubbing the pole, and then in the next shot he's down the hall putting the pole back. First, cutting from him rubbing the pole to the shot we have of this finger bleeding isn't butting well barbecue of how he was holding the pole. Then, in the shot where his finger is bleeding, it cuts with him at the window. In the next shot, he's already part way down the hall, yet we never see him move to walk down the hall in the previous shot. It's jump butting and it's bothering me. I'm trying to figure out a cutaway we can go to or something but I'm not sure. I'm going to have Chris look at it and maybe I'm missing something, or he'll have another idea. Besides that moment in the scene, it's been going well continuing on. We should have a rough cut of all the video done by next Thursday. Then we can focus on sound and score.

2nd Cut

Chris and I showed out 2nd cut in class on Thursday and got some good feedback from the class again. We had changed the opening scene in the basement to play out as Philip's POV which seemed to work better this time and not cause confusion. We were also told that the pacing was good. I was a bit unsure if it was too slow and dragged out, but the class liked that it was slower because it allowed them to connect with Jim and how he is stuck in the basement with nothing to do.

One aspect they loved about sound was when Philip drags out the bear trap. It makes a shrilling sound with the metal on concrete and it's great. Going off aspect of sound scape, we have a lot to do with the sound, and I like Andre's suggestion in playing with the sound to help form the story in Jim's perspective so that Philip's dialogue is muffled at times when Jim in in shock and isn't really listening. I think this will be a great way to help draw the audience into the film. It'll also allow them to connect with Jim more. Also, the idea of blending the ambient sound into the score that we choose was a good idea. It'll help create an unsettling ambiguity that'll keep the audience attentive in trying to figure out what's going on. There were a lot of great suggestions for the sound scape and score that i look forward to experimenting with.

Oh, the Jack of Diamonds

This weekend I went in and looked at the bear trap scene that Chris had worked on. I made a few adjustments in sound and a certain cut that looked strange because the angle was too similar. Then I began working on the next scene where Jim find the metal pole. The challenge of this scene is that, Jim finds the pole because the card falls from the window and he goes to grab it, knocking over the poll. However, once he grabs the pole, he walks back to the window and the card in magically back in the window without us seeing him grab the card and put it back. We may be able to take footage from scene 4 and cut it so that we see some shot of him placing the card (back) in the window, but I'm not sure how well it will work. That will be the challenge of this week. Things have been going rather smoothly so far, though. We've made quite a bit of progress.

Bear Trap challenge

Today I worked on the next scene, which is the bear trap scene, a pivotal moment. We want the audience to be taken back by the face that Phillip comes down and drops this vicious trap in front of Jim. We want this scene to further convey Phillip's mental instability. Going through he footage, I was having difficulties because I wanted some close ups on Phillip. I wanted to punch in tighter on him and get closer to his facial expressions, feeling his off kilter mental state. I also would have liked close ups of the trap, so the audience could see this viscous weapon up close just like Jim was. We do have one that may work, but it depends how the first part of the scene is edited. Also, there was a great shot where we see Phillip putting down the trap int he foreground while Jim is in the background watching him. I like the shot a lot, but it was on the wrong side of the 180 line in comparison to the rest of the footage so we won't be able to use it most likely. This is a tough scene to edit in terms of the coverage we're working with and in trying to craft Dave's performance the best way possible because at some points he sounds very cheesy. It will be a challenge.

Jump Cuts

Today I worked on recutting the moment that we are introduced to Phillip. A lot of the class thought that the opening track-in shot was Phillip's POV, and that when Jim looks up, he was looking up at Phillip. I recut it accordingly, going straight from the moment when Jim looks up to a POV from Jim's perspective of Phillip standing over him and then kneeling down. It works well and I think this will eliminate the viewers' confusion.

I also worked on recutting the jump cut sequence of Jim eating breakfast. It still needs work, but I'm messing with it to get ideas on the best way to cut it. I also started working on the next scene and looking at all the footage again so I know what I'm working with for scene 4.

4 minute feedback

Today, Chris and I showed the class our 6 minute intro to the film that we have so far. After showing it, we got feedback from the class, a lot of which was helpful and that we are going to incorporate into our edit. The first comment was about the track in during the first scene. A lot of the class thought that it was a POV shot from Phillip's perspective because it is handheld and looks like someone is walking toward Jim. This is a valid point, and I think we are going to re-cut it so that the shot is acting at Phillip's POV. We had talked about this before, and Chris didn't see it as a POV shot. He wanted to see Phillip pop out from the staircase. But, since it is a handheld shot, most audience members are going to expect it to be a POV shot. We don't want to confuse the audience from the start, so we are going to rework the beginning on scene 1 and see if it works better as a POV shot.

Another important comment was about the jump cuts during the scene where Jim eats breakfast. The shots utilize match on action too much and it's confusing whether we are trying to intentionally jump cut, or if the editing is just done poorly. We need to make it more definitive and obvious that we are jump cutting while he eats, which we are doing to instill Jim's urgency to eat. We also may want to use less clips and make each one a little longer.

We are still working on the sound design and incorporating score, but it seemed like the class liked the breathing in the intro. I was unsure if it was too much to be going steady the whole time, but they seemed to think it worked. Faiza suggested increasing the volume as the intro sequence progresses. I want to try that and see how it works.

So far, we've had a good start and got some great feedback. We're going to have a lot of work ahead with sound design, though.

The Start

Chris and I have gotten off to a good start with editing The Basement. We had some footage issues at first and had to transcode some of our footage, but now all our footage is transcoded, logged&captured, and ready to go.

Over the past two weeks we have begun editing our film and working on our 4min intro to show the class. First, edited our first scene of the film, in which we are introduced to Jim and Phillip, and we learn of the captive scenario. After editing this, Chris and I thought that it would be a stronger opening sequence to begin with Jim running through the woods. We used quick cuts of handheld shots of Jim running through the woods to create a disorienting, yet intriguing introduction. Our goal here is for the audience to wonder who this boy is and what he's running from, or towards, and why. Then we cut into the main story. Later on, once Jim escapes, we will pick back up in this chase sequence and the audience will understand that the intro was a foreshadowing of what's to come.

One aspect Chris and I have to work a great deal on is score. The music is going to play a large role in this film. We have scouted out a couple of songs that we like, but we're still searching and seeing what score fits where.