Creative Critical Reflection Task 4

 This is my CCR task 4, for which I created a website using an online platform called WIX. The question I was answering in this piece of work was:

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

This is the link to the website I created: https://vitaliiacherepanov.wixsite.com/my-site

Creative Critical Reflection Task 3

 This is my Creative Critical Reflection Task 3, where I was answering the question:

How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

This is the presentation I've created using an online platform called Prezi:

Creative Critical Reflection Task 2

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

After having a discussion with my team, we, first, decided on the primary target audience for our opening title sequence. "A Void" is a psychological thriller with the main character being a teenage girl, which is why it would make sense for us to target young adults (15-25), particularly females, who have acquired higher education (the plot is going to be complicated and, thus, only a limited part of the population will be able to figure it out easily). Moreover, the perspective we present the content through, the morals we promote and stereotypes we reinforce (or challenge in some parts) led us to narrow our target audience down to female adolescents and young adults in the Western countries (the idea/plot is unlikely to be familiar to the population of Eastern countries). This decision we made is quite similar to the ideas we had during the pre-production stage: this is a link to the presentation I made, researching audiences and institutions:  Research into Institutions and Audiences presentation. 

Looking and analysing our product, certain scenes of our film are designed to engage our target audience. 

In one of the first shots of the sequence, Julia is captured in a static mid-shot, as she wakes up and checks her phone. For the youth population this might be considered a common ground: the majority of teenagers nowadays are so inseparable with their devices, that it has become a habit to check one's phone before even getting up. This way the main character appears as a normal adolescent and seems to be trustworthy for he viewers from the very start. 

Julia also looks in the mirror twice throughout the sequence (one of such close-ups is attached to the right) with the takes being relatively long when she does so. Our target audience receives a hint on such themes like self-confidence, self-love and mental health in general: females in the age range 15-25 quite frequently struggle with self image nowadays (with social media being one of the reasons for that). Hence, the audience might relate to these subtle contexts hidden in the senes of this sort. 

Moreover, the viewers' attention is drawn to the box Julia takes out from underneath the sofa. In the over-the-shoulder close-up the female audience we have targeted can see jewellery, nail polish, hair clips etc. which are practically objects this particular gender potentially identifies most with. This sets a comforting and safe atmosphere, which appeals to the viewers. The fact that Julia took the box from a "hidden spot" introduces the theme of secrecy: the teenage viewers possibly relate to the idea of having a strong sense of privacy, which will engage them with the action.

 

Research has shown that there is a growing trend of females watching horrors and thrillers nowadays (BlumHouse films analysis), which is why we would expect the flashback scene to be the most captivating part of the sequence for the viewers. The low key cold lighting, the general urgency of the situation (created using sound and shaky camera movement) might be associated with the Nordic Noir, which is a genre rapidly gaining its popularity nowadays. This scene brings horror into the story that initially seemed to be calm, with this contrast creating a dissonance in the audience and attracting them to the action to an even greater extent. 

Furthermore, the theme of mother-daughter bond is being developed in our sequence with this over-the-shoulder shot in particular implying the lack of that connection (the mother is distant from Julia even though she is extremely distressed). Unfortunately, this type of situation is quite common within the youth population as this gap between the generations is frequently sharply felt. Thus, the target audience might relate to this situation and the nature of Julia-Aveline relationships, which will bring them closer to the main character and encourage them to watch the movie till the end. 

The viewers undoubtedly enjoy cliffhangers, as they create this intrigue, making them watch the whole product to figure out the plot. In "A Void" the closing ECU on the eyes, followed by the title of the movie, implies that this part of the story is significant, however it won't be explained instantly. This can be associated with the enigma code by Barthes: the audience will engage with the narrative due to curiosity and desire to "solve all the puzzles". The fact that Julia is presented through a ECU at the end of the sequence also suggests intimacy, which might ingratiate herself with the audience. 
 

In conclusion, I would say that I am generally happy with the way we engaged our audience, however there were part thats we could have done better. I think, everything starting from the jewellery box and till the end kept the viewers' attention successfully, but the beginning part (morning routine) appeared to be relatively boring and slow. I can't say that I would rather we put more action from the very beginning, however it would be a good idea to add a soundtrack to our sequence in order to keep the audience engaged from the very first second. 

As for any sophisticated movie, it is necessary to create a poster. This is the poster I have designed for "A Void":

Images source: https://www.canva.com/

When creating this poster, I was aiming to set the genre of the movie and emphasise the main themes and ideas the audience should be expecting to see when watching the film:

1. Talking about the background, I decided to overlay the close-up on an eye with a picture of broken glass. This implies that the film is concerned with a story about a certain individual (the eye) as well as the broken glass, creating an illusion of a scar, highlights that traumatic and distressing events will be taking place. 

2. The rope/thread which connects the title letters suggests the pun "avoid-a void", which already sets the genre of thriller. Moreover, it hints to such themes like bond and relationships (within the family) which will be developed in the film. 

3. I placed the letter "O" on top of the pupil intentionally: it represents the inability of the main character to "see the full picture", she is kept in the dark about her childhood. The fact that the rope with the title overlay the open eye also imply this "blindfold".

4. The critics responses and the ratings attached help the audience set certain expectations of the movie (e.g. it should be "a provocative and tense psychological thriller")

Distribution is a significant stage in the film production, which is why I need to think about the studios that would potentially distribute my film. As I already mentioned, I previously created a presentation about Institutions and Audiences, where I evaluated 4 large-scale and 4 small-scale film companies to decide which one would be a fit for my movie's distribution. I considered Altitutde Films to be the most suitable for this purpose. This studio is a vertically integrated UK film production and distribution company, that collaborated with such platforms, like Amazon videos and celebrities, like Drake. They distributed such films, like "Silent Night", starring Keira Knightly, which had 4 wins and 1 nomination. Will Clarke founded Altitude Films in May 2012 and has been expanding his business rapidly since then. This is the link to their official website: http://www.altitudefilment.com/ 

In terms of the long term goals, I would aim for "A Void" to be released in the local cinemas, distributing independent film studios' products (thus, limited, targeted release). Even though potentially the movie could be released in global cinemas, we realistically don't obtain the necessary resources and budgets for doing so. Before releasing the film in local cinemas, it is important to get known, which is why I would suggest to submit the film on various film festivals. Those include both UK and international festivals, like Raindance, UK Film Festival, Outfest LA. Possibly it would later allow the film to get recognition and be shown on "LongShot BBC Film Festival", which would undoubtedly attract UK distribution companies and cinemas that would be willing to showcase the film. As streaming platforms are rapidly gaining popularity in the modern world, I would consider collaborating with Amazon Prime and Netflix to stream the movie after the cinema release (it could be a temporary deal i.e. the movie will be streamed for a limited time). In the meantime, I would engage with the audiences through social media platforms: I could create an Instagram account for the film as well as contact Youtube bloggers who would be willing to promote the film on their channels (for a certain price). 

Creative Critical Reflection Task 1

This is my CCR task 1, where the question was: 

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

This is the narrated video presentation I've made, using Prezi:

Final sequence

This is the final version of our opening title sequence "A Void" 

Editing session №6

Today was our last editing session, where we focused on adding titles, fixing the sound and, generally, perfecting our sequence. We, first, chose our three favourite fonts from the list we created last session and uploaded it to Adobe to see what it looks like in the sequence itself. These are the three types of fonts we were considering:

1. 

(Classic Robot)

2. 

 (Cormorant Garamond)

3. 

                  (Van Helsing)

Cormorant Garamond looked the best, as its style was matching the ambiance of our sequence. We then started inserting titles in the standardised order (we researched it previously) and were trying to place them in the blank spaces of the frame. There was a useful tool in Adobe, which showed the boundaries of any screen (e.g. TV) and helped us place the titles in such way, that they wouldn't get cut after we would download the final version. After inserting all the made-up director, producer etc. names, we made sure the duration of each title occurring on screen is long enough for the viewers to read. To check that, we read each of the titles 3 times with a fast pace and if it was possible to do within its duration - we kept that length. 

Initially, we had a few ideas about the title of our movie ("Mind default", "Blank"), however we brainstormed more options and chose the one we liked the most: "A Void". "Void" relates to Jul's lost memory of her childhood, while "Avoid" refers to the movie action, as she would try to escape her fake family to find her real parents. 

The last modification we made was adding sound to one of the mid-shots of the room (it didn't have any audio). Due to the fact that we only needed some "natural" sounds of the room, we copied the audio from another room shot and pasted it to that clip. At this point, our sequence was completed and our teachers reviewed the video, gave us feedback and signed off the project!

This is one of the latest version of the sequence, however we made insignificant changes (e.g. relocated certain titles) after our teachers watched it (so the actual final version will be uploaded later):

Titles research

I explored StudioBinder and Masterclass to understand what order the opening credits in our title sequence should appear in. From what I found, there is a standardised order for opening credits and they usually appear in the following order:

1. The distributor company name 

2. The production company name

3. The filmmaker name (a particular person)

4. The film title

5. The leading cast names

6. The casting director name

7. The music composer name

8. The costume designer name

9. The list of associate producers

10. The editors list

11. The production designer name

12. The director of photography name

13. Executive producers list

14. The producer name

15. The writers list

16. The director name

Although, we will be following this standardised order, our movie title will appear at the very end, rather than third. The last shot in our sequence is a close-up on Juls' eyes and as she closes them, the shot becomes black, which is the perfect moment for the title of our film to appear. 

A few posts ago I was looking for credits inspiration in films, similar to our sequence. I analysed "Split", "Taken" and "Run" and now want to summarise the ideas we are planning to apply in our project.

After discussing this part with my team, we agreed that we want to use a simplistic font (so that it's not intrusive and distracting) and have the titles fade in and out of the different pats of the screen. We are not panning to apply any animation like in "Split" solely due to the fact that it is time-consuming and will probably be distracting the viewers from the narrative. This is why we are thinking of creating titles, similar to those in "Taken", where they are not a "focus of attention". 

Editing session №5

 I'll start this blog post by saying that it was a beautiful day today, it was warm and sunny and even though we faced obstacles during this session, they seemed like a small inconvenience rather than a huge issue:)) In the beginning of the session Adam was watching all our sequences and giving us feedback for us to improve our projects. This was crucially important, because today our sequence changed quite dramatically. Talking about the issues with our project, they were...

1. It objectively was too boring due to the fact that the whole "morning routine" took up 80% of the sequence with the last 20% being the actual action (flashback). Having received this piece of feedback, we as a group, started thinking about the parts we can cut out in order to shorten the morning routine and get straight into action as fast as possible. We got rid of the "stretching part" and went straight from Juls getting up from bed to taking her clothes and walking to the bathroom. Then we cut out the part where she washes her face and went from her entering the bathroom to taking the pill box and seeing that it's empty. Moreover, we were given advice to delete or change the mid shot of Juls taking the pill box and only keep the close up, because in the first shot it was obvious that the medication we used were just headache pills. Thus, we did just keep the close up and realised that it looks better this way, as it is not clear for the viewers what particular medication Juls was holding. All the following shots were already building up to the climax, which is why we didn't alter them to gradually build tension. As a result, we reduced the duration of our sequence from 2.13 to 1.44 minutes, enhanced its pace by shortening the "morning routine" part and ended up with a better version of our project.

2. The flashback part wasn't as impactful as it should. We were left with this piece of feedback and had to try figure out what we should change/add to make it more tense and ominous. After rewatching it a couple of times, we realised it was important to add more sound effects to it and create the desired atmosphere this way. We, first, edited the voice of the real mom in the flashback by making the sound delayed and, therefore, creating the echo which made the part look dreamy and unreal. Second, we added a heartbeat effect, which played all the way from the transition into the flashback till the end of the sequence. It isn't as noticeable in the beginning, however at the end, where anxious Juls and her fake mom are in one room and everything is silent, it stands out and intensifies the fear and terror of the main character. Moreover, we added a monotonous buzzing sound in the flashback part and a noise crescendo effect when Juls transitions to her subconscious. All these modification, undoubtedly, made the sequence more ominous and helped us achieve the desired ambiance for our video project. 

Editing session №4

 Today we dedicated a session for editing the sound and thinking about the titles in our sequence. In the beginning of the lesson we divided three roles between me, Isi and Zoe. We had to, first, edit the sound of each clip in Adobe, second, come up with a list of names (credits) to put in our sequence and, third, pick a song (diegetic) as background music Juls is listening to. I was responsible for working in Adobe, Zoe - for finding a song and Isi - for creating the names/credits. Reflecting on the process so far, I realised we didn't think the production process thoroughly enough, as we knew we needed a song for the sequence, but we didn't choose it on the pre-production stage. As a result, we were stressed about not finding a soundtrack and Zoe spent time looking for non - copyright music available in the internet. 

For me the process was new, as I've never edited the sound before, however this challenge helped me gain valuable knowledge in terms of film production and using Adobe Premier. Applying crossfades almost on every audio of the videos, I made sure the transition between the shots is smooth and natural in terms of sound. Moreover, I was precisely listening and comparing the audio lines of different shots in order to adjust the pitch and volume for sound and make it continuous. I was paying attention to details, which is why I didn't have time to add all the desired sound effects by the end of the lesson. However, I still managed to apply a high pitched suspenseful sound effect on the moment, where Juls gets the flashback to emphasise the tension in this part. Isi successfully came up with an A4 list full of names for our sequence and Zoe found a few songs that could potentially match the ambiance of our sequence. However, when we started trying to apply it, it didn't sound right, which is why we spend at least a quarter of the lesson trying to come up with a solution for this. I do realise now that this part should have been thought through in advance, as we had important tasks to complete other than picking the soundtrack. At the end we decided to take the first 20 seconds of a track, created by one of the current Hurtwood students, doing music technology (we did get his consent!!) and loop it out. We didn't want to use the whole of it solely due to the fact that it had lyrics in it and we thought it would distract the viewers from the narrative.

Hence, we took the first 20 seconds (the opening of the song), looped it out and adjusted the pitch and beat on every transition part to make it sound like one continuous tune. Finally, we started discussing the title of our sequence and are now thinking of something connected to "system default" or "consciousness glitch". My team also did great job picking multiple fonts for our future titles, that would potentially be a fit for our sequence. Next session we are planning to finish the sound editing, add all the desired sound effects and hopefully, start inserting titles and credits. 

Editing session №3

Today we were aiming to finish editing the video sequence in order to move on to sound and titles on Thursday. In the beginning we were extremely excited for editing the the “flashback” part, however, in my opinion, it became our biggest challenge. Due to the fact that our sequence was already too long (2.15 mins without the flashback part), we had to keep in mind the fact that we will need to shorten it later on. 
Talking about the challenge itself, in the beginning of the session we were convinced we had a lot of footage from the Turrets location. “We definitely have at least 4 versions of the transition” - we all agreed before we even opened Adobe. However it turned out that there were just a couple elf transition shots, which all had their flows. One was too shaky (because the shot was handheld), another one didn’t move close enough to Jul’s hair, the third was too slow etc. We chose the best option we had and tried stitching it with the shots from Turrets. Due to the fact that in the first location the lighting was warm and in the second it was cold (even blue), we had to apply a crossfade to smooth out this contrast. Later on we were playing around with the POV and mid-shots we made. On the shoot day we also tried collecting footage in 25 frames per second to make the action slow-mo. However, when we saw what it looks like alongside all other shots, we decided not to use it, because it made the action discontinuous and a bit odd. More to that that clip would take up too much time, which we couldn’t afford, as the duration of our sequence was already too long. The mid-shots didn’t fit well too, because the “jump” from the POV to the angle we recorded the mid shot from was too small, which therefore made the action abrupt. This is where we started getting concerned, because it meant the only workable footage from Turrets we had were a couple of POVs and two transition (back to reality) shots. We then made a decision to keep the flashback short, which would make a lot of sense - it is a flashback not an actual story, it was supposed to be a plot-twist rather than a significant part of the narrative and our sequence. That’s why we kept one transition into the flashback and one POV only. We then had to stitch the transition “back into reality” which was a big disappointment for me personally. The mid shot, where the camera moves to an ECU to young Jul’s hair looked extremely unnatural. Both the real mom and the younger Juls were in a static position and with a straight face, which made it look very unrealistic and in my opinion reduced the quality of our product.
We were limited in time, which is why we decided to set this problem aside and move on (we kept that transition as it was). It was time for the part where the fake mom comes closer to the disturbed Juls and tells her they “have to go to school”. We had a lot of footage of that part particularly, however half of it was not useable, because on the shoot day we made a mistake of not connecting the microphone before making the shots. Thankfully back to that day we realised it half way through and reshot everything with the microphone. That’s why we selected a few shots with good sound quality that would work for the finale of our sequence. Unfortunately, we only had time to insert one mid shot of the fake mom and here the session was over. We then planned to complete that part during the Wednesday free time/activities slots and start the sound on Thursday as we planned.
A couple of hours later I went to the editing suit (Zoe and Isi were on a Theatre trip, which is why they were unable to join) in order to finish the video part of the sequence and make sure we are on track. After chatting with Tom and asking him for a piece of advice, I decided to get rid of the unnatural “transition back to reality” part and just cut one scene to another. It already did look better. I then tried applying different effects/transitions in Adobe with one of them being a “spiral motion”, which actually fitted perfectly. I then stitched a long shot of the fake mom approaching Juls with an over-the-shoulder of her sitting down and a close-up on Juls eyes, which was actually the ending. As we planned the last shot was a close-up on Jul’s eyes, which close and the screen goes black with a title of the movie on it. Now that the video sequence was finished, my only concern was the duration of the clip, which was 2.23 minutes. I had to reduce is by at least eight seconds. I started by deleting the unnecessary clips: for example, we had three pan mid shots of the room with one of them not setting the ambiance significantly, which is why I got rid of it. Moreover, I went through each video and reduced the majority by a tiny bit (making sure it doesn’t affect continuity). After competing this process, our video became 2.13 minutes long which was perfect. At this point we are ready to start editing the sound and thinking about all the credits and titles we are going to add to our sequence.

This is the video from the morning session (first paragraph):

Independent research

 Pt.1: Biography of Saul and Elaine Bass

Before Saul and Elaine started collaborating, they worked independently, which is why it is important to look into the history of each of them individually before analysing their mutual creations. 

Up until 1955, Saul Bass, who was a a well-known filmmaker and graphic designer, worked alone. He achieved great heights, as he collaborated with such individuals like Stanley Kubrick, Billy Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock, who were all the greatest Hollywood filmmakers of the time. Saul became famous in the film industry after designing and developing the title sequence for "The Man with the Golden Arm". Moreover, he invented kinetic typography, which is an animation technique, that involves moving text and quite frequently an accompanying speech. Apart from the title sequences, Saul specialised on creating logos for large companies in the US. For instance, he designed the logos for Continental Airlines in 1968 and for United Airlines in 1974. 

Talking about Elaine Bass, she wasn't particularly well-known before meeting her husband (and the future working partner) Saul Bass. However, since early childhood she expressed passion towards drawing and signing, which later surprisingly brought her to working in a fashion industry in New York (she worked in the design department). 

Moving on to 1955, the two talented souls collided:) As Elaine became an assistant to Saul (the main graphic title designer), they started developing more and more works together. Elaine herself directed the opening title sequence to "Spartacus" in 1960 and not long after this event, the two got married. Up till 1966 they managed to collaborate in the production of a wide variety of title sequences, including "Walk on the Wild Side", "Grand Prix", 'The Victors" and many more. The pair stopped working for a while when they had children, however in 1968 already they developed a short film "Why Man Creates", which actually brought them an Oscar. After an approximately 10 year gap, Saul and Elaine Bass returned to title design and created sequences for "The War of the Roses", "Higher Learning", "The Age of Innocence" and "Casino", which turned out to be their very last collaboration. Saul Bass passed away in 1996 and Elaine worked on her last opening titles in 1998, which aimed to update the old version of "Psycho".

This is a video, exploring the style of Bass's titles and the impact they made on the film industry:

Pt.2: Analysing an opening title sequence created by Saul and Elaine Bass

I particularly enjoyed watching the opening title sequence to the film "Seconds" (1966), as it is one of the most unconventional yet eye-catching sequences I've seen. I didn't watch this movie, however I read the plot summary in order to obtain a rough idea of what the film is about.

From what I researched "Seconds" is a story about a miserable middle-aged man, who decides to undergo a complex procedure of changing his identity completely (he not only gets surgery to change the way he looks, but also fakes his death and starts his life as a different person). 

This opening title sequence is an example of a minimalistic piece of work, which still creates a great impact on the viewers and undoubtedly sets the most significant themes of the movie. The whole black-and-white sequence consists of close-ups and ECUs on the distorted parts of a male's face, that merge together and transition to one another. The footage flows smoothly and slowly, which makes the sequence continuous. The titles themselves are simplistic (the font is not unique), yet perfectly suitable for the scene. The fact that they are relatively big in the ratio to the frame makes the viewers pay attention to them as well as the fact that they are white makes them stand out against the grey-black background. They slowly fade in and out of the screen, not disrupting the pace of the videos at the background. From what I've described so far the titles might seem average, however it is the art of incorporating them into the narrative that makes the whole sequence so unconventionally beautiful.

The title of the movie fades in (written in caps) along with the background close-up zoom-in shot on the mouth of a person. As the camera moves closer, the name of the movie "Seconds" is almost "eaten" by the opened mouth, which might suggest the main character didn't value the concept of time, when searching for a "better alternative" and changing his identity.

Furthermore, one set of titles (numerous names) are shown when the camera "enters the ear" and as it "exits from another ear" just one title line is revealed. This motion might also suggest the audience that the main character tended to interpret all information in a wrong way and distort/misunderstand certain things in his life.

I also noticed that the titles, including multiple lines (not just one word/name) appear alongside the images that seem to be doubled or tripled. For example, as it cane be seen in the picture on the left there are "multiple mouths" appearing on screen. This way the titles match the style of the image and both components accompany each other. 

Lastly, Saul and Eline clearly thought about the layout of the titles precisely. As it can be seen in the screenshot on the right, a column of titles appears in the darkest pat of the screen - the shadow underneath the man's chin. This sort of layout doesn't disrupt the viewers' perception of the images/videos themselves, but allows them to pay close attention to the background and the titles separately. 

Overall, observing the close-ups shots on the disturbed eyes, dark ears and nostrils undoubtedly makes the audience feel uncomfortable and tense. The titles seem to be adding on to the video sequence, matching its style and possibly creating metaphors, related to the movie. This opening title sequence makes it clear the film will be a psychological thriller, maybe even a horror, which leaves the audience nervous and disturbed.

Editing session №2

As planned we started today's session by trying to figure out how to stitch the footage of the bathroom scene. It didn't take us long to decide to insert a close-up on Juls turning the tab on between the shot where she enters the bathroom and where she takes her glasses off. We then developed everything according to our action list and storyboard. We stitched together the close-up on Juls grabbing the towel, the mirror shot of her drying the face, the mid and over-the-shoulder shot of her taking the pills and the POV shot of the trash bin. 

We then had to put some room items close-ups, implying that Juls is changing to her school clothes in the meantime. There were quite a few nice shots we took, but we only selected the ones with a slight movement in it (e.g. a tilt/pan but not static shots). More to that we made a decision to not add the close-up on the flowers on the windowsill due to the fact that it is static and has cold lighting instead of the warm one we have in almost all the other shots. It would just look odd if the lighting change between the close-ups and make the scene seem abrupt. 

Subsequently, we started putting together the next part, where Juls walks out of the bathroom in the school clothes already. We started with a wide shot, then added a mid mirror shot of her fixing her hair, followed it by two mid shots: to her legs, as she is approaching her bag and to the bag from another angle, when she puts her pencil case inside it. After that we decided to return to a wide shot (while she takes the box out) and put an over-the shoulder shot of Juls looking for the necklace. 

By the end of the lesson we realised two things:

1. We forgot to put the following back shot of the fake mother approaching the door

2. Our sequence is already 2.03 minutes long, which means that we will have to shorten it during the next sessions.

I'm more than happy with the progress we've made so far, however during the next lesson we will need to try and shorten the sequence in order to make its duration less than 2.15 minutes total.

This is what we created so far:

Editing session №1

 Today we had our first editing session, which in my opinion went quite smoothly. Before we opened Adobe I was scared we would have too much footage and would take too long sorting it out. However as soon as we started going over what we shot, it started making more sense.

On the shoot we didn't do everything in chronological order: we started from the middle of the sequence, then collected footage of its beginning and then moved on to the end. This is why our media in Adobe was not organised. As a team we were ready to spend time sorting it out, naming important files and creating separate folders, but we were suggested not to, because we are limited in terms of the time for our editing. 

The first thing we did was finding the very first blur mid shot of Juls waking up. Zoe was the first one to have a go at editing, which is why she started stitching shots together while discussing it with us. As we collected quite a few mid, wide and close-up shots of the same scenes, we were just putting them together in different order to see which go together the best. We also decided to do music and titles later: our priority for now is to stitch the clips together into one sequence. Even though, the skills we gained during our editing workshops helped us a lot in terms of operating in Adobe, it was tricky and challenging to make the action continuous, when stitching shots together. We were trying to be very precise at this point by moving the playback head slowly through the stitched clips and seeing whether the movement looks continuous or whether it is abrupt. About 20 minutes in the lesson, I switched with Zoe in order to try editing myself as well. I was again trying to make different combinations of shots in order to see which ones look better together (e.g. "mid shot+wide shot+ mid shot" or "mid shot+close up+wide shot"). When I finished the "waking up part of the sequence and we started moving on to the bathroom scene, Isi had a go at editing as well. 

This is where we faced one issue we are planning to sort out during the next editing session. We have a wide shot in the mirror's reflection of Juls entering the bathroom and looking at herself in the mirror. As she is wearing glasses, she is supposed to take them off before starting to wash her face. The problem is that we don't have one continuous shot of her entering the room+taking her glasses off, which means that we have to stitch the "entrance" shot with another mirror reflection shot of her taking the glasses off. If we put them one by one, it will not look good, because the frames and her position are a tiny bit different. We thought "okay, we can have a close up of her putting the glasses on the windowsill between those to shots", but the issue is that it turns out we don't have such a close-up. For now, our idea is to have a close-up on the tab between those two shots so that it does look continuous and the action makes sense. We didn't have enough time to completely figure it out yet, but this is our main task for the next editing session.