Making the Film

BASICS OF MAKING MY FILM

I began creating my film by creating my clip library, this was done by uploading the clips from my camera to iMovie on my apple Mac. For this clip library I kept all of my outakkes in contrast to my preliminary task, the reason for this being that because this was a fight in order to construct it best I would need every single shot in order to choose the best bits. This way I could clip together a fight with the very best of every movement.

I began to piece together the best bits of my movie making sure to use the best of every shot, at the point where the clip went wrong would obviously be trimmed off as that would be unneeded, this would be done using the "Split clips at playhead" icon. 

First, Second and Third cut

Making the film began  with obviously uploading the clips I wanted onto iMovie, I then saved this clip library as "Main task base" from which I could create and edit new videos without having to upload another clip library which was a good thing as a director as it saved camera battery. I then changed iMovie to its edit mode.

From "Main task base" I created the preliminary film, which in essence was the first cut of the fight I had created. This was a basic cut with few additional effects, the editing was not brilliant and was composed of my best quality shots rather than caring for mise-en-scene. This was to give me, as an editor, the feel of the film and a greater knowledge of my clip library so that i in later cuts would be able to edit the film together in a more professional manner. I then played the clip to the actors and they gave their thoughts, they believed it at present basic but well cut.

Again from "Main task base" i created a second film of the same fight. All shots apart from specific match on actions had been filmed from multiple angles, so using the extra clips I created the fight again as the "Second cut". The extra angles provided a different viewpoint of the fight and greatly affected who the audience sides with, such as more close-ups on Ben made the audience more attached to him as a character

For the "Third cut" I opened "Main task base" and built another movie of the fight, this time looking at what I liked best about certain portions of the fight and my preferences. This created a much smoother fight but retained its original feel and was more pleasing to an audience. This arguably was still not perfect as some areas of the fight such as "The Kick" were still not cut very well, this was changed slightly in this film

During re-shooting I selected the still rough areas of the fight and made new smaller films of that. Also with the additional re-shot clips I created further improved parts of the fight. These re-cut shots allowed for greater dramatic effect or the original effect intended that was not delivered in the first, second or third cuts.

My method of making my film

Camera

When selecting the clips to use for my final cut I specifically used shots that incorporated the framing rules and photography's rule of thirds, as this appears more aesthetically pleasing to the audience. Any clips that did not do this or did it badly I eliminated in the editing room.

If i had a character moving through shot such as in the opening scene, I would begin the clip with the moment he had entered the first third of the frame, I would then cut the shot as he entered the opposite side of the frame's third. This looks far more aesthetically pleasing to a member of the audience.

During the fight it was important that I maintained the two shots needed from alternate angles, to keep the action interesting to the audience. I would alternate the angles to show both characters, this constant changing of shot demonstrates faster and more intense editing.

Editing

For editing I used a slightly old fashioned technique described to me in the way that Spielberg edited "Jaws", the method being that as soon as I feel the cut is long or short enough I cut it. This was the generic method that I used to edit the opening titles and the scenes outside the swordfight.

During the swordfight I edited similar to the fashion done in "Troy", the method being rather than cutting every time an actor makes a move. Instead I used my own method where we can see an attacking actor make the action, and then cut and view the defender's response mid-swing. This keeps the audience in touch with both actors during the fight and makes them appear relatively equal fighters.   

Sound

Sound inspiration for non-diegetic sound was taken from numerous films notably "King Arthur" and "Troy" for music as I thought that it incorporated the elements that I needed in my film, mainly being atmospheric opening music and intense fight music to make the audience feel on the edge of their seats.

For diegetic sound such as the sword clashes I largely used recorded sound using a small sound recorder, or I simply used the original sound from the clip. Usually however I would mute certain areas of the clip by extracting the sound from the original clip and cut where the clip is supposed to be silent, such as where a character is standing still.

Mise-en-scene

Any shots that compromised mise-en-scene were removed, such as in my fight I had a small child walk into shot, obviously i had to remove the part where he entered shot, however the rest of the clip was perfect so I kept it. This is the magic of "Cyber editing".

Final Cut

I opened "Main task Base" (Where I had stored all of the clips i needed with a fresh timeline), next I selected the best clips from each angle and dragged the clips I needed into the timeline.

I loaded them all on and began to cut at the sections of the fight that i had planned in the First, Second and Third cut, this way my effort wasn't in vain. This way my film looked professionally edited due to the number of times it had been done. I then cut out the unwanted sections of the clips and pieced together the fight and the opening, making sure to include alternate angles and the match on actions at significant moments.

I then chose the best of the angles which I had already decided on and cut using Spielberg's method during the fight and scrapped the unneeded pieces of the fight and the opening. I did this using the "Split clip at playhead" tool on iMovie. I realised then that the clip was significantly shorter than it had been the first time I had edited it. This was possibly because i had learnt that less was more.

I then sped up the swings during the fight to make it more atmospheric, I did this using the video effects tool "Fast/Slow/Reverse". I did this in a way akin to "28 days later" where they sped up the speed of the zombies by a fraction of a second to make it look as though it was not quite right but not unrealistic. This increased the fights interesting value. 

Similarly i added slow motion using the same tool to make certain actions appear faster than they really were.

I then added "flashes" for when the swords collided, this was created by the video effects on iMovie. This was an idea taken from anime and other eastern based swordfights, I largely did this because i thought it made the fight look cooler and more interesting.

I then added my transitions, these are used to make the clip flow better, I chose mine according to what i thought best for the scene I was creating. These were largely used in the opening during the voiceover to make the actions and shots flow into one another. The transitions I used were "Fade In" for the fade in from the titles to the actual film and the "fade out" from the voiceover to the second scene. I also used "Cross dissolve" to make the flow work better in the voice over opening, this way the audience was more relaxed and there were less fast cutting. 

I then added my titles for my film, I styled the opening largely as an homage to "King Arthur" with a black background fading into a large title. I created it using the editing section on iMovie under titles, you select your font, colour, whether the title plays over film or over black. I selected a longer duration for my title so as to fit with the music.

I then after several viewings of the film made some changes to the effects, such as using the white point adjust tool this obviously adjusted the colour white to a colour of my choice. I choose a brown/pink colour giving my orginally blue film more of a browner colour. It also made it appear more professionally lighted and appear more natural and appealing to look at. 

I then muted areas of clips where there was background noise using the "Extract Audio clip" and I then trimmed the audio clip using the "Split Audio clip at playhead" tool i then deleted the unwanted section of the original. This additional diegetic sound would have created a sense of disbelief in the audience which was the opposite effect that i was trying to put across.

I added my voiceover for the opening by using the media option on iMovie HD to create my homage to "King Arthur", i recorded my dialogue in my clearest possible voice to make sure the point was put across easily. I had to try and loose some of the buzzing in the background which was in reality the Mac working, a slight design flaw is that the mic is right next to a fan, this blurs the voice over slightly

I then added my audio files created in garageband as an mp3 file, I then added this to my film using the media section of iMovie HD. I then dragged the audio files to the place that they were needed and effectively worked like my music bedding track so that my film wasn't quiet where it was muted and made the film feel professional and my opening sequence atmospheric. With the addition of my non-diegetic sound my film was complete.