Filming and Editing of OUCH Productions Film Opening Sequence

The filming of our opening took place on one friday night and took no longer than about 2 and a half hours and therefore continuity was not a problem for us. In this time we managed to capture enough video footage from various camera angles etc. to piece together the opening of L'asso di Cuori. An advantage for OUCH Productions being able to film in just the one evening was that we didn't have to go to any further trouble in getting everyone together again, including the actors present to film more video footage.

Throughout the filming stage of our opening sequence everyone within OUCH Productions had an input on our various camera angles and what we wanted the actors to be doing and when. We all decided together that we needed camera angles such as over the shoulder, bird's eye view, panning, zooming in and out, close - ups, high angle shots, low angle shots and point of view camera shots. The use of the soundtrack within our opening sequence means that while filming we could direct the actors vocally as our voices will be cut out during the editing stage anyway.

The editing to our opening sequence was the toughest procedure in this production due to the amount of time and effort put into doing it. As a group we spent approximately 3 weeks worth of media lessons editing our video footage, sound and music on Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9.0. Using this editing software we were able to turn our video footage into black and white. Originally on top of our black and white effect we wanted the red on the 'Ace of Hearts' to be shown, but due to the software not being good enough to do so we had to do without this great effect.

To begin with our opening sequence was about 20 seconds too long and one camera shot; of the poker game; was held for far too long therefore we had to use the editing software to cut this down to make our piece only 2 minutes long.

As a group we must have gone through about 50 soundtracks until on the deadline day we hit the jackpot! The Scarface theme tune was exactly the same length of time as our opening sequence and went extremely well with our video due to it coming from a film of a similar genre. As it was the same length of time we did not have to shorten or lengthen our soundtrack but only add in voice overs and make the volume louder and quieter when appropiate. Everything we did throughout the editing stage was a group decision; for example the accent of our voice overs and who was going to do them. To begin with we were going to keep the voice overs being English but due to the American/Italian Gangster genre of the film we decided that Alex's role within our opening sequence was of a young American man and therefore the voice overs were going to be in an American accent. The use of the American accent will instantly establish his characterisation withink the opening sequence. Then to find who was going to do our voice overs; we recorded 4 people (Alex Baines, Henry Dunn, Kieren Rodgers and Joe Baines) doing the voice overs in an American accent and then once again sat down as a group to discuss which of the 4 we believed were the best. OUCH Productions chose Alex Baines' voice overs to be the better ones and we therefore decided to use these within our piece.

Posted below is OUCH Producions edited and rendered opening sequence of L'asso di Cuori.

After completing our opening sequence we felt it necessary to recieve any feedback from friends and family, and to do so we posted our video onto the social networking site Facebook aswell as the student resources at school for our fellow school pupils to view.

After recieving feedback messages on facebook such as 'that's sweeeet!' and 'love it, the soundtracks awesomeeeeeee!' we felt it very necessary to say that our opening sequence production was very successful! :)