Police Voice Over

Today I wrote a script for the voice over I intended to do for the opening scene of the film. I needed to make sure it sounded as realistic as possible to a police helicopter radio. I looked up many effects on Google and downloaded a few and none really worked with the recording. I went onto YouTube and researched different police helicopter chase videos and copied some of the linguistic terms they used to tructure my own script. Luckily, I was obessesed with the police a few years ago so I had picked up some basic language that they use so this benefitted me as I already an an idea of what langauage to use.


As a result I thought that I could use my recording equipment to record with a fan next to me while I speak and this would give the helicopter cockpit effect. This worked very well and it sounded very realistic. I then started to record myself as the helicopter pilot and I then used my brother as the officer on the ground. We recorded myself speaking as the pilot and then my brother as ground units and then back to me before we lost the target. This then ties in well with the second scene where our actress is sitting by a river after losing the police.


As I recorded the voice over using my music software called Pro Sound on my desktop, it saved as a PTF format and I could not convert it to any other format. This meant that it was not being recognised on the Apple laptop I have at home so I was pretty sure it would also be unreadable at school on the Apple's. 


As a result I decided that the best thing to do would be to put my desktop speakers next to me Apple microphone and then record the sound from the computer to the laptop. This worked very well and the sound sounded even more realistic. 


I used garage band to record this straight through the speakers and then I saved the file as an MP3 and put it on ITunes and then transferred it onto a memory stick so it is ready to be taken into school. 


At first I did plan on using a walkie talkie and placing one walkie talkie next to the microphone and then talking through the other one from another room. I felt this would be a good effect and would give that slight fuzz after speaking. This proved to be a problem as the walkie talkies needed batteries which I didn't have.


I then tried to use sweet wrappers to create that fuzzy sound but this did not prove effective.


Finally I decided to use my own voice to make this fuzz sound and it proved to be the most effective out of the 3 ideas I had.

Film Title

The film title "Case Closed" comes up at the end of the film just before the last tick. I felt this would make the film name stand out and the audience would not mistake the film name with the titles at the beginning of the film. 


Here is a screenshot of the title at the end of the film.

The Bag Shot

This shot took us a few attempts before we were happy with the footage. We placed the camera inside the bag nestled in with a scarf and started recording. We then had Flora opening the bag and this gave us a close up of her face smiling. This builds tension as the audience wants to know what is in the bag and what is making her smile. 


Here is a screenshot from Final Cut Express of the close up shot from the bag opening.

Our Bomb Countdown Timer

I filmed my IPhone countdown timer on my HD camera for 5 minutes so that we could cut it down to put into our opening between scenes to build tension amongst the audience. 


Here is a screenshot from Final Cut Express of the last second of the timer.

Our Titled Aerial Scene

This is a screenshot from Final Cut Express of our titled aerial scene at the beginning of our opening. 

Police Helicopter Voice Over

I have started to draft the recording I need to do for the aerial scene at the beginning of our film. I have some recording equipment at home whereby I record my own music and this is perfect for what we are trying to do in our film. We want to re-create a police helicopter pilot reporting to officers on the ground from a YouTube clip we have found. I will then use the script from this and then re-write it so that it sounds more appropriate to the specific location of our film. For example, the YouTube clip is reported over somewhere up North so obviously we could not use this exact scripting as it would not relate to Saffron Walden, our film location, in any way.


Yesterday I began to re-write the script and did a few practise attempts on my equipment. I felt that I needed to find some sort of effect for my voice so it sounds more like I am speaking from a helicopter and not a vocal booth. I am currently trying to find this effect on Google but have had no luck yet.


In the worst case scenario, I may not find the appropriate effect so I will have to use what I have and change the sound on the editing software I have in order to edit my music.

Film Name

We are now at the stage of deciding on a name for our film. We do not want to give too much away in the film name; however, it obviously needs to relate to the film in some way and the plot. 


As a result we went onto an online thesaurus and typed in, "bomb" and we got some alternative words for this word. I then decided on "Case Closed" for our film name as I felt it tied in well with the police investigation from the police helicopter at the start of the film opening. 


We used, http://thesaurus.com/browse/bomb 

Current Situation

Currently, we have almost finished editing and all we have left to complete is the police voiceover for the plane scene at the beginning. I will be doing this at home with my music recording equipment and I will write a script similar to what the police use when in a chase in a helicopter.


I will have this completed this weekend and will add it to the film on Wednesday. I feel this will be very effective in the film and will set the film well. The film titles will appear during this scene and the font will be similar to the timer font and the letters will hopefully tick over.

Downloads

Other than flying and taking footage from the sky today, I have also managed to download 2  helicopter sounds in an mp3 file. One is a sound from outside the helicopter as it flies over and the other is from inside the cockpit of the helicopter so we will use both in the film. This will be in the background while either myself or my dad do a voice over from a police mans point of view in the helicopter. We will find out what kind of vocab and langauage the police helicopter pilots use and we will then create a small script in which we will do the voice over to.


I also downloaded a ticking noise for our bomb countdown which will be playing throughout the film but getting louder towards the last few scenes and eventually the ticking will be the only sound in the last scene.


I then went on to film my mobile phone countdown and this will be flashed up in some scenes to remind the audience that the timer is ticking and to make them wonder what this timer is linked to.

Aerial Scene

Today I went to film from my dads plane. We flew over Audley End House, Saffron Walden and smaller areas around here and I managed to get some really good footage. This footage will be used at the beginning of our film and will be made to look like a police helicopter is searching for the girl with the bomb. I made sure I zoomed in quickly on certain places such as; Audley End as this is a place where the girl was seen so it looks like the police are specifically searching this area.

More Images of New Locations

Saffron Walden Alleyway...

Fowlmere Airfield...
  



Pictures of New Locations

Molly and I decided that we were not going to use the school scene as we couldn't make it tie in with the rest of the film. As a result we decided to film in different places and here are the images of the new locations.

Great Chesterford River...

Music for the film

This is the music we are going to use throughout the film and i may create my own slightly more upbeat song on garage band for the ending.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETJ5cdDBoaE&feature=related 

Filming Agenda

Due to us not being able to film in Cambridge, we are now going to film in Saffron Walden on market day.   Unfortunately we have had to fire Chloe as our actress as she was not reliable and we have hired a new one who can attend all of the filming days.


This is our plan of action for this week;


Wednesday 5th- Film children coming out of school and actress walking towards town 
Thursday 6th- Film children coming out of school at the C corridor exit 
Friday 7th- Uploading blog with progress
Saturday 8th- Film actress walking to town from a cars point of view and from a followers point of view
Sunday 9th- Film from the plane over Saffron Walden market