The Final Product

AS Level Media Studies Film Opening: The Red Herring

Also accessible via Dailymotion

Creative Critical Reflection: Part IV

 How did you integrate technologies - software, hardware, online - in this project?

With the proliferation of technology in recent years, the software needed to create a low-budget film has become quite accessible. Accordingly, below is a presentation of the various software and hardware that I used when creating my film opening. I have also included a short video with examples of how I used this technology throughout the process of making my sequence.

Creative Critical Reflection: Part III

How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

Embedded below is a Prezi presentation detailing how my production skills have improved throughout the process of making my film opening.

Creative Critical Reflection: Part II

How does your product engage with the audience and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

Below is a Prezi on the research that I conducted in regard to how my product is likely to be received by audiences and how I would distribute my product.

Creative Critical Reflection: Part I

How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues? 

Included in the Prezi Presentation below is a depiction of the codes and conventions that I followed and challenged within my opening as well as how it represents an under-represented social group in a unique manner.

Creating a Production Logo

 For the start of my film, I wanted to include a fake production company logo to add to its authenticity. I decided on using the name Araliya Productions because the Araliya is a well-known flower in Sri Lanka which would help to indicate the setting of where this film is located, as well as because Araliya is a very nice sounding name.

I used a combination of software to create the animated logo; Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Photoshop. Firstly, I created a png version of the logo on Adobe Photoshop using a free downloaded image of a flower silhouette and some shapes, text and adjustment layers.

Once I had created the logos I  used masking in Premiere Pro to animate the logo. This type of masking had to be done keyframe by keyframe and it took quite some time to finish the logo but I was very happy with the results.

When adding the logo to the start of the sequence I included a copyright-free sound effect to mimic a production company theme sound.

Editing the Credits

 The Credits

I used an Adobe Premiere Pro template for the credits but altered it slightly so that instead of flashing with a blue light which I felt looked odd, it remained all white. I liked this particular template because while it is completely visible and animated it does not detract too much attention from what is happening in the sequence.

Given below is the credit structure that I used:

Araliya Productions Presents

THE RED HERRING

Starring

Dayadi Seneviratne

And Indeevari De Silva

Music Credits

Director of Photography, Yeshiah Peries

Produced by, Yeshiah Peries

Written by, Yeshiah Peries

Directed by, Yeshiah Peries

Editing the Title

 After doing some research online and watching a few productions by various media studies students I decided to use Masking to display the title in the opening. I felt that this was an interesting and creative way of displaying the title, starting off and ending with a fade-to-black transition and using masking so that the letters display a blood spatter design which fits with the general theme of the movie and directly references the first scene. I created the blood spatter background using Adobe Photoshop.

Designing the Title

 Brainstorming

After a long time of deliberating over what to name the film I had to choose between two options:

1. The Crimson Clue
2. The Red Herring

Although I liked the alliteration in the first option, it felt a bit generic and obvious, considering the nature of the first scene. Therefore, I decided on the title 'The Red Herring'. This was because, in the plot that I envisioned for the film, the word 'RED' written in blood would turn out to, in fact, be a red herring, which accidentally points to the wrong killer. This would fit in with the usual practice of misdirection in mystery movies. I also liked that the word Red from the title was therefore incorporated in the movie in two ways, in the literal usage of the phrase 'Red Herring' and secondly in the fact that the clue left behind by the victim is written in blood red.

Picking the Font

I used an online site called Fontspace to search for footage that would fit the theme of murder. Initially, I used a thick angular font to create a professional and sombre look for the film, but I was not completely satisfied that it fits the genre of the film.

 Therefore, I tried a few different fonts before finally deciding on one called The Macabre, which I really like as it looked very much like words written in blood which acted like a different reference to the start of the film. I also knew that I wanted a deep red colour for the title.

Adding the Soundtrack and Editing the Sound

Choosing the Music

 Now that the footage was ready I searched online for some music that I could use for the opening. I had already decided on using a song that I had heard from an episode of Castle which I felt would really fit the murder scene. 

Thus I added the song 'No Envy, No Fear' by Joshua Radlin for the murder scene and kept looking for audio for the scenes of the detective. Typically in moves when a protagonist is getting dressed in the morning, cheerful and upbeat music plays in the background. Here, however, the sequence is quite dark; we've just witnessed a murder. I wanted a more serious type of non-diegetic sound which would not sound too cheerful.

Ultimately I settled for a song that I found whilst searching on YouTube for serious music called 'It's All Downhill From Here' by Amy Kuney ft. Tim Myers. I felt that it struck the right balance between upbeat and sober. The music itself has a slightly cheerful tone but the lyrics and vocals stop it from being too happy. The turn that the movie is about to take is indicated by the song title itself, things are indeed, going to go downhill for the detective as she starts investigating the crime.

Editing the Sound

I kept most of the non-diegetic background music at a constant volume of -16db, using the audio gain feature to do so. However, the non-diegetic music in the murder scene is somewhat loud since there was no dialogue or important ambient noise that was used as well in this scene.

The diegetic ambient noises were usually kept at a volume of around -18db and the dialogue sounds were not changed but kept as they were so they would be clearly audible. I also used an Exponential Fade audio transition to transition from the soundtrack music to the phone ringing and a Constant Gain transition to return to the soundtrack music once the phone call was done so that there would be no other noise during the important dialogue bit.

Editing the Opening

 After uploading all the footage to my laptop I started a new sequence on Adobe Premiere Pro. I then started editing the scenes together according to the script and storyboard.

For the most part, the editing was quite simple. I especially made use of the razor tool and the Adobe Premiere Pro built-in video and audio transitions such as exponential fade and cross dissolve.

(using the dip-to-black transition)

Another technique that came in handy was the Lumetri Color Preset which allowed me to lighten some clips so that they would match the lighting of the previous clips. For example in the shot seen below the original footage was somewhat dark but I was able to fix this using Lumetri Colorbrighten Presets to slightly increase the exposure and temperature. 

In some parts of the sequence, I also reduced or increased the speed of the footage, such as when I slowed the clip of her holding the picture frame so that the moment would be emphasized and feel nostalgic.