Editing: Adobe After Effects

As our thriller is a political action thriller (similar to the Bourne trilogy or Taken), it required a certain amount of special effects in order to add an element of excitement to it, as there types of films are known for their action, shooting and fight sequences. The one that really required the use of after effects the most was the shooting of Simon's 'deemed expendable' step-daughter Georgia. After Maggie, the real daughter is kidnapped, Georgia is left and attempts to escape but is picked off by a sniper from range, as no witnesses are desired and these guys need to send a message that will still leave them with a bargaining chip. For the sniper clip, we needed to do a few things to make it obvious to the audience that they were looking down the sight of a sniper rifle, and of course to kill Georgia. This meant that we had to create the boundries of the scope, a crosshairs (one long range and then a transition to the zoom optic), the sight recoil as the gun fires and of course, the blood as the bullet hits Georgia square in the chest. In order to create the sight boundries, we first had to create a background mask on the shot, then cut out a circle where we need the sight to be, center it on the target and blur the edges so that the target is in focus. Because we had two separate shots of Georgia stepping out of the car, it meant that we had to come up with a way to justify the sudden jump-zoom, so we added an optics change in to cover it up and enhance the shot. This was done with the use of more masking. Next, we added the crosshairs to both sets of optics, simply taking one from the internet, removing the white background in photoshop and placing it over the required shot. The recoil was done exactly the same way as the optic change, simply moving the mask where and when needed. The blood was an animated spatter effect that we put into the shot, centered on the target. In the final cut, there were two separate ones used to acheive the desired spread and volume.



The Zoom Optic. Note the boundries and blurred edges.

The Long Range Sight

 

 

We used a wide spread splatter like this one, only animated to digitally re-create the effects of having a high velocity round punch through one's vital internal organs.



Editing: Final Cut Pro

The majority of the time editing was spent on cutting and chronologically ordering the shots of our thriller. First we uploaded all of our takes from shoot day onto Final cut pro via final cut server, we did this so that we could use any computer in the room to edit and that if the one we were using crashed, we could easily switch over and resume from our last save. The next job was creating or rush and log bins, which was the tediously painstaking task of watching all of the takes and deciding which ones we were going to use and which ones we weren't. Of course, none of those decisions could only be finalised after it had been pieced together into it's final form, so this task lasted almost the duration of the editing process, or close enough. Then came the most difficult part, the sorting and cutting shots into place. This is the reason that shots the log and rush bins were seldom segregated, as it proved too difficult to solely use takes from our log bin in order for our thriller to make sense. Other tasks included converting the film to HD and widescreen format. The widescreen was just a mask on the top and bottom of the frame that wasn't necessary, but looked much more professional.

Editing: Soundtrack Pro

We used soundtrack pro to create the sound effects that we needed for our thriller, fortunately our job was made a little bit easier as due to certain major changes that involve the entire plot, there is no longer any music in our thriller, which means that we didn't have to edit or cut any in. We were previously going to use music by the Dakota Stars, but sadly the music no longer matched the movie. I was responsible for the sound effects in our thriller, these include gunshots, impacts and of course the whistle that I couldn't do during filming. For a few of the effects I had to cut up and edit the sounds themselves in order to make them fit better into the sequence. I then had to synchronise them with the action on-screen, which was probably the hardest part of editing sound. The sound for our thriller was relatively easy, as there was no music and only a handful of strategically placed sound effects.

Replacing Hartman

Due to the changes of our thriller idea because the actors pulled out two days before the shoot, we had to come up with a new storyline and cast. Our new main character has changed to Simon Woods instead of James Hartman. We choose Simon because he has the mature look which fits to the category that we need because we need him to portray the father role which needed to be mature, looks in control. Also we need someone who is fairly good-looking to attract the audience and he looks similar to Clive Owen from cirtain angles. This will help to attract the mid 30s to mid 40s year olds, which are our secondary audience.

Simon Wood



Clive Owen

Script For Our Thriller

Scene 1; Right side of car.

Simon: Can I help you officer?

Shane: Could you step out of the car please?

Simon: Okay.
Simon: Don't worry girls, I won't be a minute. We were probably going a bit too fast.

*Gets out of car*
*Protests as Shane pushes him into the car*

*Shane hands Simon a cellphone*

Simon: Hello?
Simon: Yes, speaking.

*Pauses to listen*

Simon: NO!



Scene 2; Left side of car.

George:Afternoon

Georgia: What's going on?

George: How many of you are there in here today?

Georgia: There's three of us.

George:  Is that your father?

Georgia: Yes, what do you want?

*George pulls out some paper from jacket pocket*

George: I'm going to need you to step out of the car for a minute please.

Georgia: Maggie, no.

*Maggie exits the car*

George: I need you to turn around and face the car.
George: Hands behind your back.

*Draws handgun, pushes muzzle into the back of Maggie's neck*

George: Get down.
 
*Whistles*

Georgia: Dad!

George: Stand up, head down, don't talk.

Change Of Setting For Our Thriller

We chose to use this as our destination to film our thriller, this being Cornhill Manor located in Ewhurst. We wanted to film here as for one, the driver of the car (Simon) is meant to be some sort of successful politician and this house indicates that he has a lot of money and could potentially be easy to target. Another reason why we chose to use this location is that the house has a long drive way which we could stage the shoot on and this made it easier for us to utilise the weapons used for there potentially, without attracting any form of attention from the law. Isolation within some of the most famous thrillers are used to emphasises tension & threat, this also being a key convention in a thriller film. It also meant that we did not have to gain permission to close off public roads, so instead we managed to gain access to the drive way of the manor.

Cornhill Manor

 

Changes To Our Cast

We have chosen these two girls, Maggie & Georgia as firstly they appeal to a male target audience of 15 - 24 years due young appearances and air of vulnerability.

Maggie Campbell (Plays as Simon's Daughter)

Georgia Powell (Plays as Simon's Step-Daughter)

Secondly, they were young enough to be our main actors daughters and as our film is going to be an action film like 'Taken 2', we felt that Maggie, as the dark haired girl had the requisite looks to be the new Jennifer Laurence which would help her appeal to a target audience of girls.

Account Of The Shoot Day

The day started out with us gathering our equipment and props including cameras, tripods, costumes and weapons. We gathered our hardware and our actors and headed to Cornhill Manor to shoot. We began by holding a brief on what we were going to do, which shots and angles we would do first and progress from there. We set up the tripod on the driveway and white-balanced the camera before proceeding with the shoot. The interior and exterior car shots were the ones we did first, from when Simon drives the car up the driveway until Shane flags him down. Next we did the mercenarys' approaches and the dialogue shots, ending with the long shots. The dialogue was the hardest to do because Georgia completely overacted, with all the screaming and panicking as soon as I opened the door of the car. I didn't think my character was particularly alarming, I am meant to be a false police officer after all. All the hair probably set her off. I also couldn't summon the loud whistle that I can usually do, so that's another thing to add in during the editing process. After returning from Cornhill Manor to school, we set up the sniper rifle and did the sniper at the top of the hill. When all of the takes were done, we watched every one and decided what our course of action would be for editing.

Changing The Story Further

Two days prior to the shoot, we realized that it would be impossible to get the Russians, James Hartman and Ted Jackson for our thriller as all of our actors had pulled out of the shoot. We went back to the drawing board and decided to come up with a more realistic and 'believable' storyline, while still following the basic principals of our original idea. After much deliberation, we decided to do a more politically based film. Many of the concepts are similar between our two ideas, there is an 'ambush' in which we used the same car and the same guns, however we changed the army uniforms with police ones. The police uniforms were inspired by a recent news article which states that the police are using private contractors; mercenary police officers. Instead of having mercenary soldiers ambushing a car with Ted and James in, we had two hired guns posing as officers flag down and intercept a car containing Simon (as some kind of political figure), Maggie (as his daughter) and Georgia (as his step daughter). We also have changed the location of the shoot from the woods to Cornhill, as this kind of estate looks like the kind of property a government minister might own. Shane and Myself played the intercepting officers and Greg directed much of the shoot and made an appearance as the sniper who takes out Georgia. In our new idea, the officars intercept the car, and Simon and Maggie are instructed to get out. Simon is handed a cell phone by one of the officers, with the man who employed the mercenaries on the other end of the line supposedly giving him some kind of ultimatum. In the meantime, Maggie is told to face the car, then restrained and dragged off by the second officer. Simon is then pistol whipped in the face and the phone is left in his pocket as he lies there unconscious. Georgia, who is left behind, attempts to escape and moves to exit the vehicle, but is shot and killed by the sniper as she is a witness. The reason for her death is that the hitmen want to make a point by killing someone close to Simon, but not someone who they feel is a necessary bargain chip, someone who is both invaluable and expendable at the same time, his step daughter.