Final Edit Of Opening Title Sequence - Grifter

This is our groups final edit of our opening title sequence "Grifter". I can honestly say we have put in 100% effort into our work trying to get the best out of it. We kept going over it trying to fix minor issues and constantly looking for ways to improve our opening sequence. I am very pleased with what we have been able to create with in this time as well as not falling behind but meeting the deadline. As a grope we worked together well and did each of our part to create the opening. There were some extra bits added that took much more time then we expected but we managed to get though it. Now that this is complete i am able to now answer my evaluation questions and see what and how i have developed over the period of doing this coursework.

Rough Edit Of Opening Title Sequence - "Grifter"

This is our groups rough edit of our opening title sequence "Grifter". We have tried to go for a fully abstract opening by following the conventions that it shown in "Catch Me If You Can & "Superbad". This is only the rough edit and there is much to do in terms of editing. We need to adjust the soundtrack, fix the continuity, add the required text and maybe possibly looking to add some extras that would push us to get higher marks. From now we hope to achieve well, as we had a clear vision from the start of what we wanted to create and so far have stuck to it.

Coursework - Editing Day #5

As the 5th day rolled in we began to reach closer in finishing our opening title sequence. All that remind now was too finish off the soundtrack, add the gold background & text and find a suitable sound track for the institution animation. I exported the film where the chroma key was inverted as well as the opening text, this would be the base of the edit. I created a new project and had to now chroma key in the gold background to the rest of the footage. This was very simple but of course i ran into a few problems doing so. First of i ran into a big problem. I noticed that when i tried to chroma key in the gold there was a shadow which showed to be pixelated. Since there is no feathering tool within Final Cut Express this was quite difficult so i tried my best to make it look perfect. Also at the bit where the bars fall i noticed a black bit at the bottom right. This was not a problem in the edit but a problem in the filming. What happened is that part of the black curtain came up. A way around this would be to keyframe part of the gold background and patch it up. Once this is complete then the final few titles could be added to the opening sequence. After all this it is just a matter of adding the soundtrack and opening institution animation then the opening title sequence will be complete.

Coursework - Editing Day #4

So the 4th day of editing began and we simply had to carry the task from the last editing period. I continued with the editing such as trying to show continuity between each scene as well as starting to add the text.




There are still some finalisations to do but so far the edit looks very decent. Also we sorted out our opening institution animation. Since the last lesson we all had decided on the template but decided it would of looked better if it had a logo. This was finished during the lesson and here is the outcome of it.

Coursework - Editing Day #3

 Day 3 was quite more productive we finally got down to the main editing. Once again we all worked individually but each work would assist towards the final edit of the opening title sequence. Since i have been using Final Cut Express the most and i was confident with it i carried out the required tasks. I fine tuned the editing to show continuity as well as that i chroma keyed the characters within clip. This was quite a lengthy procedure but once the green screen was chroma keyed it was easy just to press the invert button then have the characters turn into the desire colour. Also i need assistance with some of the animation that we really wanted in our opening sequence so i requested help for this.

 Samuel sorted out the desired text's for the opening sequence. For this he used photoshop and created each text. The text will use a custom font downloaded from the internet and each text will be displayed in white. It is quite vital that we use white since the colour of the objects and characters would be black and the background would be a golden colour.

 Ja'van had the task of creating the opening animation for our opening title sequence. For this we needed to use After Effects as in terms of animation this software is really needed as it has features which others do not. Since After Effect is a very complicated software and takes a long time to learn we were advised to look for a template. We did initially have a certain way for the opening animation to look but there is not other option, so we need to adapt to this. After some research Ja'van managed to find a template which has good resemblance to our original idea so we decided to use this.

Coursework - Editing Day #2

On day 2 there was much to do but i feel we could of done a lot more. Since there were 3 people in the group we split the duties between us. I started on the editing on Final Cut Express, Samuel worked on the soundtrack on the song using Garageband and Ja'van worked out how to use After Effects to create our opening animation.





I was in charge of editing and since i have edited before i was used too it. In terms of using Final Cut Express i was not that confident but i tried my best. On the first day of editing i was simply having a play around with the software and working
out how to use it, since it has been quite sometime since i used it before. I was getting my head round the video & audio tracks, placement of each individual clip as well as setting the in and out points.

Since i have edited before i had quite a good of idea of doing the muzzle flash and lens hit. It was just a matter of downloading each individual stock footage from youtube the adding it to the timeline. Since the stock footage has a black background i was having a hard time finding the composite settings, but once i found it made life easier as i was contemplating on keying out the black. The basic edit was complete it was now simply to wait to the 3rd day to get into the more complicated parts of the edit.

Coursework - Editing Day #1

Today was our first day of editing. I tend to not work with Final Cut Express so i had to take some time and work out how to use it. Our original idea was to have a coloured background the invert then invert it to the character who the would have a different colour from the background.

Since i am unfamiliar with Final Cut Express i was having some difficulty to find the invert button, i requested help and i got it. After that i tried to work out how to chroma key because with this software it is fairly different then Final Cut Pro X.

Coursework - Filming Day #3

Today we managed to complete the filming of our coursework. Surprisingly it was not a very lengthy procedure i am very glad we managed to complete within 3 filming sessions. We did not waste any time as soon as the lesson started we collected our tripod and camera and directly went to the TV Studio to record the remaining footage. We tried our best to line up the tripod from the last recording session to give a sense of continuity, clothes did not matter if they were changed as the person will not be visible when we edit the footage. We only need two actors so it made it easier to film as only one of us can stay behind the camera and tell us how it looks without going back and forth.

 We did make a quite a few adjustments in our script and storyboard. Not a lot of it made sense so we had to rethink our ideas, Even so the story board was not in order so it lead to some confusion when filming. Also since the green screen was not partially the floor and we cant track our whole body many shots had to be changed or either removed so it was easier to adjust. We did take some time in this but it is safe to say that we did our best and tried to balance the time of looking at the script as well as filming.





It takes us only 2 filming sessions to finish but finally it has been complete the only thing left now is the final edit and this may just be a lengthy procedure.

Coursework - Filming Day #2

The second day of filming was a bit more productive and we managed to complete the first bit of the opening sequence. At the start we did have a problem as other people needed to use the area which we needed for filming so we were delayed in that. Also there was quite a delay at getting our camera meaning we were 45 minutes behind schedule. Either way eventually we got somewhere.

The first step was to get the area ready and reveal the green screen. This was very simple to do as it was just a matter of pulling the rope and revealing the screen. We did however run into a bit of a problem as the initial idea to me, was that the green screen runs across the floor but it did not. We then as a group decided to change the angle of the camera and not point it towards the floor.








There after we all got into costume and character. This was not very time consuming as it was just a matter of putting on a few clothes. No much effort and time was taken into this, as soon as costume was on we got ourselves into character and promptly started to film.









As i have experience with using a DSLR i knew how to use the camera so i did tell the rest of the group to how to white balance,  zoom and focus. This was not very difficult and they understood straight away. As soon as the camera was ready and in place we began our filming straight away. We managed to complete the first 3 pages of our storyboard with-in the 45 minutes we had and i say we done that pretty well.
There was some what of a problem at the start but we got through it, hopefully we will be able to finish filming with-in the next 2 filming sessions. So far so good.
Overall 2nd day could of gone better but now that we know what we are doing i am sure that the 3rd day would be perfect.

Coursework - Filming Day #1

Sadly today was a very disappointing day of filming. We never managed to get anything done and this due to the area we needed to use was booked, so tomorrow should be our start day in hope that we can finish it one day. Even so we did not waste any time. We began to do some research on what music to use in our Opening Title Sequence. Of course for this we had to use Copyright / Royalty Free Music. There are a number of websites out there, but we decided to use:  www.incompetech.com/ I am quite familiar with this website and have used it before so I know the content it has would be beneficial to us. We are looking to use a jazz style music that will match with the on-going action; so far we have narrowed it down too 3 different options. Currently we are stuck between the 3, if we cannot come to a conclusion we decided to mix all 3 of them our selves. So far the day may not have gone us planned, but at least we managed to do some sort of work that will benefit us in the long run.