The narrative for our film opening consisted of a reporter discovering a killer's lair. The building which we had chosen to film in was a shack in a nearby field, obviously located outside; due to this location choice, we had to film outside and thus were restricted with the natural light from the sun over a specific time period. Once the footage that we had recorded was imported into Final Cut Pro, we noticed that some of the colour and lighting would need to be altered so as to appear more authentic and realistic.
Altering Colour and Saturation:
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| We had included a number of flashback clips whereby short flashes of a fire appear between footage. The original clip was very bright and inappropriate for the genre and context. For this reason, we changed the colour and saturation using the panel in the top right hand corner of the screenshot; this was to make the fire appear darker and more dream-like. In addition to changing the saturation, we also added an effect called 'Heat wave' to add a darker outline to the fire, making it appear to take place at night. |
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| This problem was the same for the opening clip; during the scene whereby the victim is seen walking towards the old shack, due to the issue with filming outside with natural light, the scene was too bright for the genre in terms of common conventions. To solve this, we again changed the colour and saturation in the same format. We also added the 'Heat Wave' effect to this clip to alter the lighting also. |
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| For similar reasons, we then also changed the colour and saturation for a few of the clips in the middle of the film opening, such as the image above detailing the clip where the victim lights a match. The 'Heat Wave' effect was added to this clip also. |
Adding Effects to the Flashbacks:
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| Figure 1 |
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| Figure 2 |
In addition to the fire flashbacks, there are a few flashbacks we included whereby we added burns to coincide with the narrative of our opening (female burns victim is the killer). To create the burns, we used various types of make-up (figure 2); however, when we then tried to record a video and take photos, the burns came out looking sparkly and unrealistic. For this reason, it was imperative that we add a filter or effect onto the clip (figure 1).
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| After much experimentation, we decided to alter the colour and saturation slightly and also chose to use the 'Film Noir' filter effect onto the clip. As the image shows, this made the dark areas of the image appear black and the lighter colours appear red; this made the entire burn look more authentic and sore looking as the image above and figure 1 shows. |
Evaluation:
I feel that altering the colour and saturation and adding various filters to the different clips of footage made the clips appear more realistic and coincided better with our chosen genre. Due to the limitations we faced when filming, such as the time of day and the natural sunlight, this method was an easy yet successful way of improving the footage. Overall, I believe the end result of the clips is better suited to our genre and concept.
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