I created our ident through the use of Photoshop CS5 and Final Cut Express, the original image was in fact found through a google image search, however, I have gone on to manipulate it in such away to reinforce the originality of the group. The production company – Andrew Helmervin Productions – we decided, needed to be established as a production company that particularly position themselves within the very genre and style of this film, therefore it shows that this production company wouldnt produce jolly fairytales and love stories, we clearly set our selves out as a company that deal in these slightly disturbing and close to the bone films. I used the innocent appearance of a child to portray our way of turning things on its side and not being scared of presenting gritty themes and ideas in our films, the single image of the child is changed and developed from its original state to then its eyes glazed or sewn shut- I used the spot healing brush in photoshop to drag skin tones over the eyes, then to a darker, sinister, possessed image that flashes in sync with the non-diegetic scream, and final to the production company logo that jitters and blips enforcing the uneasy, unnerving feel in our audience leaving them not particularly knowing what to expect. I used the wire frame on the image in final cut to bring the still image closer and back again creating the blips throughout the clip.
Once the ident was complete and our very first clip was decided on we left the computer and sat down and had a discussion on the order of events, we had already spent a while sifting through all our footage and it was CRUCIAL that the two minutes played through in an order the optimised its effect on the audience, because a lot of our footage was similar, all in one confined space, one scene, the same props the same two actors- who’s faces we barely ever see, every shot needed to be choreographed into an order that worked and that kept the viewers mind away from the idea that everything was so similar to make sure you felt captivated by it and not bored! Part of this decision came down to the order of the credits and the title of the film. The order in which we wanted the credits were sketched and noted down on paper show here-
The order we wanted them in and why we wanted them in that order was a fine, important detail also keeping in mind the fact that the introduction of Henry in the two minutes would be a part of intensity in the sequence so his title would be specifically positioned two thirds of the way through, small aspects of the film such as this were regularly debated and mapped out intricately. We previously did various research into the order of credits in existing films one of which being Se7en just to see who were listed first and where abouts the actors names were positioned within the credit order.
In Final Cut I predominantly took the reigns following Chris’ self confessed incapability with computers and software in general. Andy tried his hand now and again but more than anything I was merely the groups hands, the ideas and insructions were being fed into me, in each ear and my hand on the mouse would make it happen. With no changing scenes, introduction of new characters, new settings, my description of the editing process will most probably sound dull. The group and I discovered a new best friend relatively early on in the process-
“Dip to colour” became a transitional favourite for Andrew Helmervin and saw us through a lot of hard times, i’d just like to take this moment to thank it for all it did towards the vast success that Honey has gone on to obtain.
On a serious note, for what ever reason, perhaps the colour and darkness in our shots, dip to colour provided us with great subtle and seamless transitions from clip to clip, and along with my other little friend-
Vignette, if you are not already aware does this to a shot or an image-
Although a very gawky example, vignette, I think, gives quite a professional look to low light images with the levels manipulated to up the contrast slightly, followed by a tweak with the RGB balance just to get everything looking as good as it can do with the grainy texture that comes with shooting dark shots.
Examples of where I’ve taken shots and separated them and altered each of their colour balances for effect is the flashing sequence following Henry’s credit.
When integrating credits into our two minutes I made another little friend that allowed me to make text imported from photoshop transparent completely, to expose the scene behind it through a black screen. “Chroma keyer” was in fact introduced to me by a dear, close friend Mr. Bevan John Morris – an experienced, superior media student who had enjoyed its benefits many a time in the past (Y).
In Photoshop I opened a new canvas and selected “Film & Video” (because thats what its for, i’m making a film :))
making sure that the dimmensions were correct to be compatible with Final Cut I opened the new canvas.
The guidelines shown in the PS canvas help me to make sure I keep everything within the shot and that nothing gets chopped off the edges.
I used the bucket tool to fill the canvas in black and then the text tool to type my text over the black backgound.
I selected a bright, vivid green to type in so that Final Cut would have the best possible chance of highlighting the colours I wanted rid of (green) and the contrast between the two colours will allow this 🙂
Here is the chroma keyer tool in final cut
I widen the measure focussed on the green area in the top bar to allow the tool to extract as wider tone of green as possible so that no bright green pixels or anything show up in the credits of our final film… ha. That wouldn’t be great. Then I would bring the saturation level right down the far end leaving the lighter measure where it is and finally open up the luma levels completely allowing the tool to extract all light and dark shades of the colour selected, again to make everything is clean and crisp and therefore effective as it can be . 
