Wednesday 1 July 2009
Tuesday 31 March 2009
Thriller Evaluation Edit !
Thriller Media Project Evaluation.
Our task was to make an opening sequence to a thriller film; we had to secure the interest of the audience in this opening 2 minutes so we made sure to include a variety of interesting and experimental shots to grab the attention of the audience. Our Group having these shots in our opening sequence meant that we could achieve a higher grade whilst creating a sequence that is interesting to watch.
We wanted to take a different approach on what our thriller was going to be about, to do this we started off by doing a fairly large mind map of what thrillers would usually include. Once we were happy with our mind map, we took a step back and looked at the ideas we had discussed to think about what hasn’t already been done or if one idea could be developed into a new and fresh idea. We really wanted to make sure that our thriller was different from the others that were going to be made by the people in our year.
The story line we came up with was about a girl whose mother was murdered, she then gained revenge at the murderer by killing his wife; the one person that he loved and trusted. I am happy with what I was able to achieve as I felt our finished project was to a high standard considering the equipment available, the lack of budget and the short amount of time we had to complete the project.
To make sure that out film kept good pacing and didn’t become boring, we used fast paced cuts from the victim walking to other scenes to not only build tension but to keep the visuals interesting. I wanted to avoid keeping the shot on the victim walking for too long as there was little action in this footage; fast pace cuts help to build tension and create a thriller like atmosphere. I think that the way that I have edited our film opening was simple yet very effective because I decided we should work on sections individually instead working on the whole thing. This way we could insure that every part of the sequence had as much attention paid to it as all the other parts. This also gave us the advantage of being able to develop on interesting and abstract ideas effectively, as we were focusing on one section at a time, perfect for a thriller film.
I wanted to change the conventions a bit by having both our characters as females; the killer and victim. Because of what is shown often in mainstream film, the expectation held by the audience are that a man will attack the woman so by changing it to an all female cast it adds to the shock value when she is attacked, as the audience is likely to expect a male attacker. This also makes it harder to predict what the story is about because it’s not what is expected. Showing this in the opening is effective because it captures the imagination of the audience without giving away too much of the plot.
The conventional idea of male attacks female will be very recognizable and familiar with today’s audiences. So instead I wanted to change the way the audience was seeing this situation, and feel as though there was something more to this attack that is happening in front of them. The sequence then holds more importance to the audience because of this unconventional detail that I have created.
We felt it was important however to include some of the conventions to keep our project true to the thriller genre. Some of the conventions we included were not showing the killers full identity, the only parts of the killer we did see where her eyes. By only showing her eyes it makes the audience feel intimidated. This adds to the tension that is slowly climaxing to the attack. We had point of view shots from just the attacker throughout the sequence, this was done to create the feeling that the main character was in danger and she was being watched by someone she obviously cannot see, another aspect of the thriller genre. By showing the audience that she is being followed, more tension is created as they are aware of the present danger but are powerless as they can only watch in anticipation.
These are just two of the conventional methods that we included in our sequence that helps to work the imaginations of the audience because it’s not obvious what will happen next. I think that involving these conventional methods was worth doing because it helps to create a relationship with the audience by making them understand the sequence enough but not too much, ensuring that they are paying attention. The conventions also add familiarity as they are related to the thriller genre.
I felt that the preliminary match cutting that I had done earlier in the year was very use full when it came to making a rough draft of our whole sequence. Also it was useful in learning how to use the editing software, this benefited me a lot because later on when it came to doing this thriller opening we had no problems with trying to find tools on the program and were able to get straight into putting all the cuts together without problems. The story boarding that was involved in this match cutting exercise also benefited our group because, we knew what key shots we should be focusing on; when it came to story boarding for our thriller opening, We was also able to fill in the text boxes provided with our ideas and how the shots that we had sketched would be interesting for the audience to see.
The filming that we had done for the match cutting, allowed us to experiment with different shot types, angles and ideas. We used different kinds of shot types for example; over the shoulder and tracking shots, which when used in variety are very interesting to watch. All the different types of shots that we tried out in the filming process made it seem worth while later on.
Because the plot for the match cutting exercise wasn’t very exciting but the various shot types helped to make something simple look visually appealing. This fact helped us a lot later on because it was pretty much the same case with our thriller opening, the plot wasn’t that interesting or different, but using lots of different shots instantly made it more interesting. The match cutting also gave us advantage in choosing the kind of style that we wanted to shoot our thriller in later on. We also got to use the Sound Track Pro software allowing us to experiment with the different types of sounds that are on the program and create a sound track to suit our footage.
By looking at our thriller opening, we can clearly identify that both character where females and this factor I think, will definitely attract a wider range of people to come and see the thriller film because it is in some ways breaking the rules. This would attract people by interesting them with the fact that they are females and young also. I think that because we have quite a few unconventional traits our thriller film will be more suited and accepted by small independent cinemas that with releasing our film we will make it a small independent UK release. This will be distributed around a small number of UK ‘art houses’. By choosing to show our film like this we are taking less of a risk with how much money we could lose, although there is still a probability of losing money , it wouldn’t be as much money that could have been lost if we where to try and distribute our thriller opening to a big Hollywood blockbuster company. Another alternative is having the film released onto a TV channel and DVD at the same time, or even making it available for download on the internet. By doing this it our thriller will get a reputation on TV and even bigger exposure on social networking sites i.e. Facebook and Myspace which will then make the DVD more appealing when it’s released.
Our main target audience was young adults (14-22), but our full thriller film will involve a lot more parts for example the themes of revenge where input from the audience will be needed for it to be understood and somehow justified. The film will be more based on thoughts rather than action making it a physiological thriller. This creates a specific audience for viewing our thriller film and understanding why certain events took place and why the main character chooses to think the way she dose. The typical type of young adult that we have tried to aim for would be; someone who is into novels about revenge and mysteries maybe English students, someone who is interested in watching a film which covers many social problems which are difficult to express, and someone who is interested in new ways of filming and new types of narrative. Overall I am very happy with the outcome of our project and feel that the things I wanted to communicate to the audience through our film will be realized, I also learnt many lot of techniques which I can carry through to the next project I work on.
Tuesday 24 March 2009
thriller evaluation!!
In our final work, we were asked to create a two minute opening thriller of our choice. This involved planning, filming and editing. The first task was to plan and brainstorm different ideas, which we thought of as a group, during this task we came up with different ideas which we brainstormed in detail. For instance the different locations, like the park, the city, a club and even a library. As well as thinking of the different narratives, costumes and characters. Furthermore as a group we discussed potential storylines for our opening thriller such as a chase, a dream, a search and revenge. After planning and discussing different ideas, we based our thriller opening on revenge, where a character seeks revenge to the anonymous killer of her mother.
My media opening challenges the forms and convention of a real film because of the stylized effects used in the opening and at the end of the sequence. The overdrive effect used gives an eerie and uncomfortable mood which puts the audience on edge when watching it. For example at the beginning of the first sequence you see several shots with different effects, like the blurred close up shot of the attacker’s hands reaching for her pocket.This shot puts the audience on edge because the effect used and the slicing sound, makes the audience question what is about to happen. In addition the repetitive images shown in the film allows the audience to take in and understand the storyline but at the same time, it leaves them wanting more. Like the meeting point where the attacker attacks the victim, this is shown at the beginning; this leaves the audience with a cliff hanger because they do not know what happens until the end of the sequence where you see the vulnerable victim screaming because the attacker has grabbed her.
Furthermore in this work we used forms of convention used in real products like a company logo of the distributer. For instance in our opening sequence we have a flower shaped logo called J.A.D.S Inc Production. As a group we wanted something which represents each member, so using initials was the easiest way of creating a name for our logo. Furthermore I think the first scene of my thriller opening grabs the audience attention with its tense sound and effects.
Looking back at past projects like the ‘thumbs war’ match cut lesson, I have learnt and progressed from that project. As we extended our skills and knowledge when filming, we captured various shots like a low angle shot of Dominique the victim, walking in to the park, also match cutting shots which made the images flow, we did this when editing. Furthermore I learnt how to use sound in more detail, as I experimented with the sound after editing the shots, we as a group had to create a tense soundtrack which fitted with our film sequence. The duration of making the soundtrack was long as we experimented with a lot of instrument like the piano, brass, drums, vocals and many more. However the longest part of the whole project would have to be editing because we had to match cut shots to create a flowing sequence, we also added different effects like solarise and negative to create something unusual. I noticed that the final project took a lot longer than the thumbs war project because we finished that project in three days, whereas the final project took weeks to complete. In this project I learnt how to cope under pressure, I also did things I need thought I would do like filming nonstop in the cold and rainy weather.
My media product represents women in society because in this film the victim is a woman and the attacker is a woman. We tried to convey power amongst women by using female characters rather than the usual male attackers. By doing this, it challenges stereotypes, which viewers would find unusual. We also portrayed the dominant and powerful women who takes role as an attacker but still had the ‘weak’ stereotype. We also challenge race by not using a white woman as the weak character.
I think this film would be distributed in small UK ‘art house’ cinemas, like the film ‘Kidulthood’. Also as this is a low budget film, the distributer would also release this on the internet to get recognition then releasing it on DVD. The film audience for this film would be working class people from the ages of 15-25, male and female who are interested in thrillers. The reason for this is that the viewers can relate to films that are about revenge and the majority of people like this type of thrillers.
I would attract the audience by making trailers for my opening thriller’ An Eye for an Eye’, which is seen on TV, internet and other video sites like Vimeo and Youtube. Also on social networking like facebook and MySpace. Through marketing it attracts bigger audiences which would bring more money. Also through marketing in can widened potential audience around the world because social networking is known worldwide, even if the film is released in a small UK cinema it could still bring money through the internet as people can download the film.
I have learnt a lot about the technologies from the process of constructing this product. First of all the filming process allowed me to experiment with the camera, allowing me to become a lot more creative in the shots I took. I believe good camera shots allow the story to become to come alive as the emotion of the characters is transpired in this way. For example a close shot of the victims face when walking pass the attacker, shows vulnerability and the feeling of insecurity because of her up tight facial expression. Moreover the camera allowed us to test different shots like a low angle shot of the victim walking through the park, a behind the bush shot which a high angle shot, I believe the different angles signify hierarchy, showing who is in control and who isn’t.
Furthermore I learnt how to use the features in the Mac computers like final cut pro and the soundtrack when editing. This widened my knowledge because it allowed us to create a film sequence when using the features in the Mac. Using final pro cut was an amazing experience because it allowed me and the group to become creative with the shots we captured when filming, also allowed us to play and experiment with the sound, and affects which was fun.
Last of all I believe the internet was very helpful because it allowed us to use sites like blog spot to record are days in media, also allowing us to record the filming process. In addition the blog spot was very useful because you could access other members of your group’s blog to see if you’re up to date with everything. In addition the internet also allowed us to release our thriller movies on sites like Vimeo and the blog site, where other media groups could watch your thriller and give feedbacks.
My media opening challenges the forms and convention of a real film because of the stylized effects used in the opening and at the end of the sequence. The overdrive effect used gives an eerie and uncomfortable mood which puts the audience on edge when watching it. For example at the beginning of the first sequence you see several shots with different effects, like the blurred close up shot of the attacker’s hands reaching for her pocket.This shot puts the audience on edge because the effect used and the slicing sound, makes the audience question what is about to happen. In addition the repetitive images shown in the film allows the audience to take in and understand the storyline but at the same time, it leaves them wanting more. Like the meeting point where the attacker attacks the victim, this is shown at the beginning; this leaves the audience with a cliff hanger because they do not know what happens until the end of the sequence where you see the vulnerable victim screaming because the attacker has grabbed her.
Furthermore in this work we used forms of convention used in real products like a company logo of the distributer. For instance in our opening sequence we have a flower shaped logo called J.A.D.S Inc Production. As a group we wanted something which represents each member, so using initials was the easiest way of creating a name for our logo. Furthermore I think the first scene of my thriller opening grabs the audience attention with its tense sound and effects.
Looking back at past projects like the ‘thumbs war’ match cut lesson, I have learnt and progressed from that project. As we extended our skills and knowledge when filming, we captured various shots like a low angle shot of Dominique the victim, walking in to the park, also match cutting shots which made the images flow, we did this when editing. Furthermore I learnt how to use sound in more detail, as I experimented with the sound after editing the shots, we as a group had to create a tense soundtrack which fitted with our film sequence. The duration of making the soundtrack was long as we experimented with a lot of instrument like the piano, brass, drums, vocals and many more. However the longest part of the whole project would have to be editing because we had to match cut shots to create a flowing sequence, we also added different effects like solarise and negative to create something unusual. I noticed that the final project took a lot longer than the thumbs war project because we finished that project in three days, whereas the final project took weeks to complete. In this project I learnt how to cope under pressure, I also did things I need thought I would do like filming nonstop in the cold and rainy weather.
My media product represents women in society because in this film the victim is a woman and the attacker is a woman. We tried to convey power amongst women by using female characters rather than the usual male attackers. By doing this, it challenges stereotypes, which viewers would find unusual. We also portrayed the dominant and powerful women who takes role as an attacker but still had the ‘weak’ stereotype. We also challenge race by not using a white woman as the weak character.
I think this film would be distributed in small UK ‘art house’ cinemas, like the film ‘Kidulthood’. Also as this is a low budget film, the distributer would also release this on the internet to get recognition then releasing it on DVD. The film audience for this film would be working class people from the ages of 15-25, male and female who are interested in thrillers. The reason for this is that the viewers can relate to films that are about revenge and the majority of people like this type of thrillers.
I would attract the audience by making trailers for my opening thriller’ An Eye for an Eye’, which is seen on TV, internet and other video sites like Vimeo and Youtube. Also on social networking like facebook and MySpace. Through marketing it attracts bigger audiences which would bring more money. Also through marketing in can widened potential audience around the world because social networking is known worldwide, even if the film is released in a small UK cinema it could still bring money through the internet as people can download the film.
I have learnt a lot about the technologies from the process of constructing this product. First of all the filming process allowed me to experiment with the camera, allowing me to become a lot more creative in the shots I took. I believe good camera shots allow the story to become to come alive as the emotion of the characters is transpired in this way. For example a close shot of the victims face when walking pass the attacker, shows vulnerability and the feeling of insecurity because of her up tight facial expression. Moreover the camera allowed us to test different shots like a low angle shot of the victim walking through the park, a behind the bush shot which a high angle shot, I believe the different angles signify hierarchy, showing who is in control and who isn’t.
Furthermore I learnt how to use the features in the Mac computers like final cut pro and the soundtrack when editing. This widened my knowledge because it allowed us to create a film sequence when using the features in the Mac. Using final pro cut was an amazing experience because it allowed me and the group to become creative with the shots we captured when filming, also allowed us to play and experiment with the sound, and affects which was fun.
Last of all I believe the internet was very helpful because it allowed us to use sites like blog spot to record are days in media, also allowing us to record the filming process. In addition the blog spot was very useful because you could access other members of your group’s blog to see if you’re up to date with everything. In addition the internet also allowed us to release our thriller movies on sites like Vimeo and the blog site, where other media groups could watch your thriller and give feedbacks.
Thriller evaluation (The End)
Thriller opening: Our task was to make an Opening sequence to a thriller film, we had to insure that we had included a variety of shots and interesting (experimental shots) while making the opening. By our Group having these shots in our opening sequence, meant that we would get more marks later on and the sequence will look interesting to watch. We tried to take a different approach on what our thriller was going to be about, to do this we started off by doing a fairly large mind map of what thrillers would usually include. The idea behind us doing this mind map was that, once we thought we was done filling our mind map up, we would step back from what we was doing and look at the mind map and think about what hasn’t already been done or if one idea could be developed into a new and fresh idea. We really wanted to make sure that our thriller was different from the others that where going to be made by the people in our year.
The story line we came up with was about; a girl whose mother was killed by a man, the girl whose mother was killed tried to get her own back at the murderer by killing his wife (the one person that he loved and trusted). I think that our thriller opening looks professional, because of the way both sound and affects that where put onto the footage matched up and made sense when it was watched all together. I could imagine a proper film editor doing something like what we did with the footage that we had taken. Although many long shots showed just the two characters walking, we managed to use this and cut it up into pieces that we could later on order into an interesting fragment of the sequence. I think that the way that I have edited our film opening was simple yet very effective because we worked on fragments instead working on the whole thing. This way we could insure that every part of the sequence had as much attention paid to it as all the other parts. This also gave us an advantage of being able to have interesting and abstract material, perfect for a thriller film.
I think that we changed the conventions a bit by having both our characters as females (killer and victim). The reasons for this, as a group agreed the audience will expect to have the whole one male and one female character in a thriller film. In a normal mainstream film, the audience will be expecting to see a man attacking a woman. This way of plotting out a thriller will be very recognizable and familiar with today’s audiences. So instead we wanted to change the way the audience was seeing this situation, and feel as though there was something more to this attack that is happening in front of them. The sequence was to hold more importance to the audience because of this unconventional detail that we have created.
However we did involve some of the typical conventional aspects in the film. Such as; not showing the killers full identity, the only parts of the killer we did see where her eyes. By only showing her eyes it makes the audience feel intimidated. This adds to the tension that is slowly climaxing to the attack. We had point of view shots from just the attacker throughout the sequence, this was done to create the feeling that the main character was in danger and she was being watched by someone she obviously cannot see. But the audience know she is being followed because, we are showing them that she is being followed. These are just two of the conventional methods that we included in our sequence that shows the audience instead of telling them what they should be expecting to happen next. I think that involving these some of the conventional methods was worth doing, because it helped the audience understand the sequence more and that’s what we wanted them to do, making them understand the sequence enough but not too much would insure us that they are paying attention to the details that we have included in the editing process and also the filming process.
The preliminary match cutting that I had done earlier in the year, I feel that it was very use full when it came to making a rough draft of our whole sequence. Also it was useful in learning how to use the editing software, this benefited me a lot because later on when it came to doing this thriller opening we had no problems with trying to find tools on the program and we was able to get striate into putting all the cuts together without problems. The story boarding that was involved in this match cutting exercise also benefited our group because, we knew what key shots we should be trying to focus on; when it came to story boarding for our thriller opening, We was also able to fill in the text boxes provided with our ideas and how the shots that we had sketched would be interesting for the audience to see. The filming that we done for the match cutting, allowed us to experiment with the angles and ways we shot what was going on. We used different kinds of shot types for example; over the shoulder and tracking shot. These shots where all every interesting to watch, all the different types of shots that we tried out in the filming process made it seem worth while later on. Because the plot that we had wasn’t as exciting as it could have been. This fact helped us a lot later on because it was pretty much the same case with our thriller opening (the plot wasn’t that interesting or different). The match cutting also gave us advantage in choosing the kind of style that we wanted to shoot our thriller in later on. We also got to use the sound track pro program, this program allowed us to experiment with the different types of sounds that are on the program to create a sound track to suite the footage that was taken and the idea of how you want it to sound.
By looking at our thriller opening, we can clearly identify that both character where females and this factor I think, will definitely attract a wider range of people to come and see the thriller film because it is in some ways a way of breaking the rules a bit. This would attract people by interesting them with the fact that they are females and young also. I think that because we have quite a few unconventional traits our thriller film will be more suited and accepted by small independent cinemas that with releasing our film we will make it a small independent UK release. This will be distributed around a small number of UK ‘art houses’. By choosing to show our film like this we are taking less of a risk with how much money we could lose, although there is still a probability of losing money , it wouldn’t be as much money that could have been lost if we where to try and distribute our thriller opening to a big Hollywood blockbuster company. Another alternative that we have is, having the film released onto a TV channel and DVD at the same time. By doing this it will mean that our thriller will get a reputation on TV the will be brought by viewers when the DVD is released.
Our main target audience was young adults (14-26), but our full thriller film will involve a lot more parts to it where input from the audience will be needed for it to be understood a somehow justified. The film will be more for thought so that we have a specific audience viewing our thriller film and understanding why certain events took place and why the main character chooses to think the way she dose. The typical type of young adult that we have tried to aim for would be; someone who is into novels about revenge (English students), someone who is into seeing social realism and someone who is interested in new ways of filming and new types of narratives. So I think that having a specific target audience will be a bit harder for the case with our thriller film, but I would have to say that we aimed to make it suitable for young adults to understand and to be able to watch.
The story line we came up with was about; a girl whose mother was killed by a man, the girl whose mother was killed tried to get her own back at the murderer by killing his wife (the one person that he loved and trusted). I think that our thriller opening looks professional, because of the way both sound and affects that where put onto the footage matched up and made sense when it was watched all together. I could imagine a proper film editor doing something like what we did with the footage that we had taken. Although many long shots showed just the two characters walking, we managed to use this and cut it up into pieces that we could later on order into an interesting fragment of the sequence. I think that the way that I have edited our film opening was simple yet very effective because we worked on fragments instead working on the whole thing. This way we could insure that every part of the sequence had as much attention paid to it as all the other parts. This also gave us an advantage of being able to have interesting and abstract material, perfect for a thriller film.
I think that we changed the conventions a bit by having both our characters as females (killer and victim). The reasons for this, as a group agreed the audience will expect to have the whole one male and one female character in a thriller film. In a normal mainstream film, the audience will be expecting to see a man attacking a woman. This way of plotting out a thriller will be very recognizable and familiar with today’s audiences. So instead we wanted to change the way the audience was seeing this situation, and feel as though there was something more to this attack that is happening in front of them. The sequence was to hold more importance to the audience because of this unconventional detail that we have created.
However we did involve some of the typical conventional aspects in the film. Such as; not showing the killers full identity, the only parts of the killer we did see where her eyes. By only showing her eyes it makes the audience feel intimidated. This adds to the tension that is slowly climaxing to the attack. We had point of view shots from just the attacker throughout the sequence, this was done to create the feeling that the main character was in danger and she was being watched by someone she obviously cannot see. But the audience know she is being followed because, we are showing them that she is being followed. These are just two of the conventional methods that we included in our sequence that shows the audience instead of telling them what they should be expecting to happen next. I think that involving these some of the conventional methods was worth doing, because it helped the audience understand the sequence more and that’s what we wanted them to do, making them understand the sequence enough but not too much would insure us that they are paying attention to the details that we have included in the editing process and also the filming process.
The preliminary match cutting that I had done earlier in the year, I feel that it was very use full when it came to making a rough draft of our whole sequence. Also it was useful in learning how to use the editing software, this benefited me a lot because later on when it came to doing this thriller opening we had no problems with trying to find tools on the program and we was able to get striate into putting all the cuts together without problems. The story boarding that was involved in this match cutting exercise also benefited our group because, we knew what key shots we should be trying to focus on; when it came to story boarding for our thriller opening, We was also able to fill in the text boxes provided with our ideas and how the shots that we had sketched would be interesting for the audience to see. The filming that we done for the match cutting, allowed us to experiment with the angles and ways we shot what was going on. We used different kinds of shot types for example; over the shoulder and tracking shot. These shots where all every interesting to watch, all the different types of shots that we tried out in the filming process made it seem worth while later on. Because the plot that we had wasn’t as exciting as it could have been. This fact helped us a lot later on because it was pretty much the same case with our thriller opening (the plot wasn’t that interesting or different). The match cutting also gave us advantage in choosing the kind of style that we wanted to shoot our thriller in later on. We also got to use the sound track pro program, this program allowed us to experiment with the different types of sounds that are on the program to create a sound track to suite the footage that was taken and the idea of how you want it to sound.
By looking at our thriller opening, we can clearly identify that both character where females and this factor I think, will definitely attract a wider range of people to come and see the thriller film because it is in some ways a way of breaking the rules a bit. This would attract people by interesting them with the fact that they are females and young also. I think that because we have quite a few unconventional traits our thriller film will be more suited and accepted by small independent cinemas that with releasing our film we will make it a small independent UK release. This will be distributed around a small number of UK ‘art houses’. By choosing to show our film like this we are taking less of a risk with how much money we could lose, although there is still a probability of losing money , it wouldn’t be as much money that could have been lost if we where to try and distribute our thriller opening to a big Hollywood blockbuster company. Another alternative that we have is, having the film released onto a TV channel and DVD at the same time. By doing this it will mean that our thriller will get a reputation on TV the will be brought by viewers when the DVD is released.
Our main target audience was young adults (14-26), but our full thriller film will involve a lot more parts to it where input from the audience will be needed for it to be understood a somehow justified. The film will be more for thought so that we have a specific audience viewing our thriller film and understanding why certain events took place and why the main character chooses to think the way she dose. The typical type of young adult that we have tried to aim for would be; someone who is into novels about revenge (English students), someone who is into seeing social realism and someone who is interested in new ways of filming and new types of narratives. So I think that having a specific target audience will be a bit harder for the case with our thriller film, but I would have to say that we aimed to make it suitable for young adults to understand and to be able to watch.
Monday 23 March 2009
My Thriller Evaluation
From watching the ‘Watching’ Documentary, I’ve learnt what ‘A favourite trick of Film Noir’ is, which is a process where it reveals the opening credits starting from the end of the story therefore becoming more understandable to the audience once the same clip is shown again but near the end of the film this time. Also that a good beginning makes the audience feel that they don’t know enough yet, at the same time as making sure that they don’t know too little so that it creates a suspense towards the audience and keeping them engaged so that they have enough information to help them know what is going on in the film. This influenced our thriller seeing that we created quick flashbacks near the beginning and ending of the film.
The features of both an opening and a thriller that we’ve put into our film were the effective titles sequences to help create a chilling effect towards the thriller, the characters (the victim and the killer), setting and location (in college and in quiet chilling area near a park), the use of camera and editing (matching points, panning, tracking etc) and the ideas of lighting and music. The dim lighting is revealed in the scene where the killer is researching information on the victim near the beginning. The darkness in the room is not only to cover the identity of the killer, but to express the anger that she is feeling through this revenge, contemplating the reason why she is doing this.
The props used were the chair, computer, umbrella (because it was raining during the filming) and the ipod. The non-diagetic sound is used when the victim is listening to music on the ipod. This was used in order to distract not only the character itself but the audience too. We made this shot last long to build tension so that the audience don’t know when the killer scene is about to happen. The diagetic sound takes place when it is raining and when the victim screams.
For the shot types of our thriller we used medium shots to concentrate on the character and their reactions, a close up shot implies after the victim walks past. This shot here focuses on her facial expression at this moment which is anxious as she starts walking slowly. An extreme close up is shown when the killer looks at the audience in the dark, here focusing on one detail. As an audience, this would give me the impression that the killer is looking at me as if I’m her next target. We also have a point of view shot when the victim looks into the camera to experience how the killer views this victim to show that she has got something to do with the main character. Other then that we used long shots to focus on the victims surroundings in this scene where the killer is about to attack. Here the audience know that the killer is following her however the character does not. This is where dramatic irony takes place.
Based on the film making, I’ve learnt how to do a panning shot on the tripod when following the characters movements rotating the camera while its still to reveal what is happening from the characters point of view, I’ve also learnt how to do match-cuts which is when you are shooting or recording the same shot but at different camera angles, plus I’ve learnt how to edit the clips when connecting it to the computer such as trimming excessive clips, deciding on whether the shots are at good quality or not, selecting which clips were effective and suitable for the genre along with the arranging the footage smoothly in with the rest of the shots.
In my film, there are two characters, one is a strong female killer who is 21 years old whilst the other character is a weak woman as a victim who is 30 years old. We thought to make the killer a woman because in normal thriller movies, men are often the killers and so we as a group decided to make it different.
As a group we feel that our thriller movie would be a small independent UK release because the film is good based on the work we have done however not as good if it was going to be big as its not as professional looking as we wanted it to look plus we have a typical storyline as we watch the opening however not so typical as the storyline behind this is about a girl (the killer) who is searching for the person who was responsible for her mother’s death to get revenge. However what this person does not know is that the blameworthy man is in prison, so whilst she’s looking for the killer, she is killing the ones closest to him which starts off with his wife (the victim).
The audience for our thriller would have to be from 15 years and over.
We would market our film by advertising posters outside shopping areas on the walls, phone booths and perhaps on the buses, on the internet and through trailers. The typical shots we might add for our genre is a piece where it mentions whose starring in the film, three seconds of a clip where the victim is crossing the road and looks at the killer before she makes the move, the typing on the computer, zooming in the victims face and showing the killer following the victim through the bushes before the murder.
Based on the process of constructing this product, when it came to editing our thriller, we had to use a program called ‘Final Cut Pro’ I had a good experience in using this program when cutting out unwanted bits from the shots using input and output and fitting it in to another shot to make it flow nicely alongside with including effects using the ‘Soundtrack Pro’ and ‘Live Type Pro’ for the titles. Before, during and after making the film, we had to write everything we did on a blog, to keep track on what we’ve done or are doing so far with our thriller. After we finished, we had release our movie on not only our blogs, but on a website called ‘vimeo’ too. This will most likely widen the amount of audience who would watch the thriller.
Our thriller was very successful because of the positive feedback we had from the class. Most of them liked the variety of shots along with the effects, camera work and editing. They also mentioned that the sound track went exactly with what was happening in the thriller.
In my opinion I liked our thriller and most of the shots were good quality. On the other hand the only problem was that it did not reveal much of the background of the storyline because the narrative of the thriller is about a woman who is getting revenge but set to kill the closest person to her original victim, however watching it from an audiences point of view, looks like a murderer searching to kill for no reason. I think to improve it we should revealed a flashback on what the actual murderer did to her mother near the beginning then show the thriller the way it is now so that the audience would have a better understanding on what is happening in the film. Other then that I am happy with the results.
The features of both an opening and a thriller that we’ve put into our film were the effective titles sequences to help create a chilling effect towards the thriller, the characters (the victim and the killer), setting and location (in college and in quiet chilling area near a park), the use of camera and editing (matching points, panning, tracking etc) and the ideas of lighting and music. The dim lighting is revealed in the scene where the killer is researching information on the victim near the beginning. The darkness in the room is not only to cover the identity of the killer, but to express the anger that she is feeling through this revenge, contemplating the reason why she is doing this.
The props used were the chair, computer, umbrella (because it was raining during the filming) and the ipod. The non-diagetic sound is used when the victim is listening to music on the ipod. This was used in order to distract not only the character itself but the audience too. We made this shot last long to build tension so that the audience don’t know when the killer scene is about to happen. The diagetic sound takes place when it is raining and when the victim screams.
For the shot types of our thriller we used medium shots to concentrate on the character and their reactions, a close up shot implies after the victim walks past. This shot here focuses on her facial expression at this moment which is anxious as she starts walking slowly. An extreme close up is shown when the killer looks at the audience in the dark, here focusing on one detail. As an audience, this would give me the impression that the killer is looking at me as if I’m her next target. We also have a point of view shot when the victim looks into the camera to experience how the killer views this victim to show that she has got something to do with the main character. Other then that we used long shots to focus on the victims surroundings in this scene where the killer is about to attack. Here the audience know that the killer is following her however the character does not. This is where dramatic irony takes place.
Based on the film making, I’ve learnt how to do a panning shot on the tripod when following the characters movements rotating the camera while its still to reveal what is happening from the characters point of view, I’ve also learnt how to do match-cuts which is when you are shooting or recording the same shot but at different camera angles, plus I’ve learnt how to edit the clips when connecting it to the computer such as trimming excessive clips, deciding on whether the shots are at good quality or not, selecting which clips were effective and suitable for the genre along with the arranging the footage smoothly in with the rest of the shots.
In my film, there are two characters, one is a strong female killer who is 21 years old whilst the other character is a weak woman as a victim who is 30 years old. We thought to make the killer a woman because in normal thriller movies, men are often the killers and so we as a group decided to make it different.
As a group we feel that our thriller movie would be a small independent UK release because the film is good based on the work we have done however not as good if it was going to be big as its not as professional looking as we wanted it to look plus we have a typical storyline as we watch the opening however not so typical as the storyline behind this is about a girl (the killer) who is searching for the person who was responsible for her mother’s death to get revenge. However what this person does not know is that the blameworthy man is in prison, so whilst she’s looking for the killer, she is killing the ones closest to him which starts off with his wife (the victim).
The audience for our thriller would have to be from 15 years and over.
We would market our film by advertising posters outside shopping areas on the walls, phone booths and perhaps on the buses, on the internet and through trailers. The typical shots we might add for our genre is a piece where it mentions whose starring in the film, three seconds of a clip where the victim is crossing the road and looks at the killer before she makes the move, the typing on the computer, zooming in the victims face and showing the killer following the victim through the bushes before the murder.
Based on the process of constructing this product, when it came to editing our thriller, we had to use a program called ‘Final Cut Pro’ I had a good experience in using this program when cutting out unwanted bits from the shots using input and output and fitting it in to another shot to make it flow nicely alongside with including effects using the ‘Soundtrack Pro’ and ‘Live Type Pro’ for the titles. Before, during and after making the film, we had to write everything we did on a blog, to keep track on what we’ve done or are doing so far with our thriller. After we finished, we had release our movie on not only our blogs, but on a website called ‘vimeo’ too. This will most likely widen the amount of audience who would watch the thriller.
Our thriller was very successful because of the positive feedback we had from the class. Most of them liked the variety of shots along with the effects, camera work and editing. They also mentioned that the sound track went exactly with what was happening in the thriller.
In my opinion I liked our thriller and most of the shots were good quality. On the other hand the only problem was that it did not reveal much of the background of the storyline because the narrative of the thriller is about a woman who is getting revenge but set to kill the closest person to her original victim, however watching it from an audiences point of view, looks like a murderer searching to kill for no reason. I think to improve it we should revealed a flashback on what the actual murderer did to her mother near the beginning then show the thriller the way it is now so that the audience would have a better understanding on what is happening in the film. Other then that I am happy with the results.
Sunday 15 March 2009
My evaluation draft
My thriller was about a woman wanting revenge but set out to hurt the nearest person to his potential victim. The beginning of the thriller that we had to film takes place from the main characters house as she leaves and as she walks through the park, where she meets her end.
My thriller challenges forms and conventions in the fact that stalkers are normally thought of as male and their victims are normally female, but we wanted to change this and make the stalker female to create a new sense of fear for the audience because society have a set idea of how stalkers work and just by making this little change the audience expects something new from the very start.
Some of the openings of thrillers gave the story away from the start and this is a common way of shooting the opening so the rest of the film can give the explanation of what happened. And some gave away very little, we watched many different examples of this is well known films and had the choice of what we wanted to take from them to make our opening.
One example that slightly influenced us was the shining. The camera slowly follows the car like a bad omen and the only thing that gives off fear in the character is the scary, dramatic music that creates suspense.
Looking back at the first short film i did, i can see that my knowledge of camera shots and techniques are of a wider range and i have managed to include them in my thriller. I’ve also been able to include these shots in a complex way by learning how to use 'match cut' and make it flow nicely so it looks professional and this made it easier to make my thriller more interesting to the audience.
I’ve also learnt that planning plays a key part in making the beginning of the thriller because in situations that we were in we could only shoot most of the film in one day and planning it made sure we didn’t waste any time because we could always refer to the storyboards we did.
My Thriller does represent woman and how powerful they can be. Because most thrillers portray a female being the victim we wanted to change this and be different. Even though we still had the victim as a female we also had the stalker as a female so women are shown in two ways strong and also weak.
I feel that our Thriller would be a small independent UK release just because we have changed many concepts of a stereotypical thriller, which might not appeal to a wider range of audience for example abroad. But i do think that this would not hold the film back and it would prove its self as a successful film in the UK due to the open mind of the British public.
The audience that i think would best suite the thriller would be 15+. By having this age restriction on the thriller it is suitable for teens and older members of the public and they will be able to understand the concept of the thriller where as younger members of the public might struggle slightly. Families with older children can see this film together which would benefit us more because of a larger amount of people going to view it. I also think more women would go and see the thriller due to the fact it challenges the typical conventions of other thrillers by including a female character more heavily than usual thrillers might. The typical person that i think fits my target audience is a female who wants to watch something different and has an open view when going to see the thriller, she most probably wont be mainstream but want to experience and different take on the way she watches films and this thriller i think, would do just that not just in the way woman are represented but also in the different way its edited and the way it was shot.
I would market my film by addressing my audience through having a star as the lead role but making sure i the thriller still had British actors being an important part in the film, this would then attract a wider audience as they would recognise the lead character and draw their fans in to watch the film.
The trailers for my film wouldn’t be to long because i would want it to reflect the film and the way its been shot, so i would give away very little and tell the basic story through fast clips. I would also make it clear that the lead role was played by a 'star' but not take away from what that person’s role in the film actually is.
In my thriller there are typical shots that show the genre of the film for example the stalker grabbing the victim, and i would show this in the trailer but only at the end to leave the audience with a strong idea of what the films about or what they 'think' the film is about.
I would advertise the thriller using a strong influence from the internet and make sure it was seen heavily through this because the audience i would be trying to reach use the internet a lot and i would be able to get the film recognised more by using this to the films advantage. I would also have some billboards around places like west end etc that way i can reach a large amount of young people.
I have learnt many new ways of using technologies in my work for example Blogging my progress as i went along was something very different, and before i started working on the thriller i had in fact never blogged before. It was a something new i experienced and it helped with planning my thriller and learning from what goes into making it.
Using the cameras to film the thriller was also very beneficial because i learnt how to get different camera shots using a tripod or hand held. In addition, i learnt along with the rest of my group so this gave us more of an option on what we could do and different shots available to us.
When it came to editing, all the programs were quite new to me for example finale cut pro and sound track pro. This helped our film develop the way we wanted others to view it, we used this new technology to add music to the film and match cut all different shots.
When we had finished the film some of my group stored it on there USB and added it to youtube this meant more people had could view the film by visiting other sites than Blogger.com and Vimeo, we were able to reach a wider audience through the internet and new technology.
My thriller challenges forms and conventions in the fact that stalkers are normally thought of as male and their victims are normally female, but we wanted to change this and make the stalker female to create a new sense of fear for the audience because society have a set idea of how stalkers work and just by making this little change the audience expects something new from the very start.
Some of the openings of thrillers gave the story away from the start and this is a common way of shooting the opening so the rest of the film can give the explanation of what happened. And some gave away very little, we watched many different examples of this is well known films and had the choice of what we wanted to take from them to make our opening.
One example that slightly influenced us was the shining. The camera slowly follows the car like a bad omen and the only thing that gives off fear in the character is the scary, dramatic music that creates suspense.
Looking back at the first short film i did, i can see that my knowledge of camera shots and techniques are of a wider range and i have managed to include them in my thriller. I’ve also been able to include these shots in a complex way by learning how to use 'match cut' and make it flow nicely so it looks professional and this made it easier to make my thriller more interesting to the audience.
I’ve also learnt that planning plays a key part in making the beginning of the thriller because in situations that we were in we could only shoot most of the film in one day and planning it made sure we didn’t waste any time because we could always refer to the storyboards we did.
My Thriller does represent woman and how powerful they can be. Because most thrillers portray a female being the victim we wanted to change this and be different. Even though we still had the victim as a female we also had the stalker as a female so women are shown in two ways strong and also weak.
I feel that our Thriller would be a small independent UK release just because we have changed many concepts of a stereotypical thriller, which might not appeal to a wider range of audience for example abroad. But i do think that this would not hold the film back and it would prove its self as a successful film in the UK due to the open mind of the British public.
The audience that i think would best suite the thriller would be 15+. By having this age restriction on the thriller it is suitable for teens and older members of the public and they will be able to understand the concept of the thriller where as younger members of the public might struggle slightly. Families with older children can see this film together which would benefit us more because of a larger amount of people going to view it. I also think more women would go and see the thriller due to the fact it challenges the typical conventions of other thrillers by including a female character more heavily than usual thrillers might. The typical person that i think fits my target audience is a female who wants to watch something different and has an open view when going to see the thriller, she most probably wont be mainstream but want to experience and different take on the way she watches films and this thriller i think, would do just that not just in the way woman are represented but also in the different way its edited and the way it was shot.
I would market my film by addressing my audience through having a star as the lead role but making sure i the thriller still had British actors being an important part in the film, this would then attract a wider audience as they would recognise the lead character and draw their fans in to watch the film.
The trailers for my film wouldn’t be to long because i would want it to reflect the film and the way its been shot, so i would give away very little and tell the basic story through fast clips. I would also make it clear that the lead role was played by a 'star' but not take away from what that person’s role in the film actually is.
In my thriller there are typical shots that show the genre of the film for example the stalker grabbing the victim, and i would show this in the trailer but only at the end to leave the audience with a strong idea of what the films about or what they 'think' the film is about.
I would advertise the thriller using a strong influence from the internet and make sure it was seen heavily through this because the audience i would be trying to reach use the internet a lot and i would be able to get the film recognised more by using this to the films advantage. I would also have some billboards around places like west end etc that way i can reach a large amount of young people.
I have learnt many new ways of using technologies in my work for example Blogging my progress as i went along was something very different, and before i started working on the thriller i had in fact never blogged before. It was a something new i experienced and it helped with planning my thriller and learning from what goes into making it.
Using the cameras to film the thriller was also very beneficial because i learnt how to get different camera shots using a tripod or hand held. In addition, i learnt along with the rest of my group so this gave us more of an option on what we could do and different shots available to us.
When it came to editing, all the programs were quite new to me for example finale cut pro and sound track pro. This helped our film develop the way we wanted others to view it, we used this new technology to add music to the film and match cut all different shots.
When we had finished the film some of my group stored it on there USB and added it to youtube this meant more people had could view the film by visiting other sites than Blogger.com and Vimeo, we were able to reach a wider audience through the internet and new technology.
Monday 2 March 2009
My shots
We finally got to actually see the inside of the library. We found out that it wasn't the kind of library that we was hoping it to be, we was expecting the library to be more dark and old looking but it was the total opposite of what we was expecting. So after we had a quick talk about how we could do the scenes that we was going to do in the library somewhere else, we all agreed that we should go back to college because we figured that we didn't exactly need this scene after all.
Once we got back we met our teacher who suggested what we should do instead and that it would be better if we done another scene. Where we see what the killer is doing by her self, he told us that we could use the studio room that was also our class room at the time because no one was actually using it at the time. We decided to follow this idea and so we moved on to shooing some shots of me on the computer doing some research on lethal poisons and strange articles on strange people. We decided that, we should start off by shooting a high angle shot of the computer on the desk with the chair under it. Then have the camera zoom in and out of focus, then have the same kind of shot but with me sitting in the chair but this time zooming out and into focus. This way when we go to edit this part we would be able to put the two together to give it a interesting effect. For the second shot we decided that we should have the camera at a lower angle. To create the effect of the viewers being smaller and over powered by the killer who is at the computer.
Over all i think that we succesfuly shot everything that we need for our film opening. We have enough material for when we come to edit all of our clips together.
Once we got back we met our teacher who suggested what we should do instead and that it would be better if we done another scene. Where we see what the killer is doing by her self, he told us that we could use the studio room that was also our class room at the time because no one was actually using it at the time. We decided to follow this idea and so we moved on to shooing some shots of me on the computer doing some research on lethal poisons and strange articles on strange people. We decided that, we should start off by shooting a high angle shot of the computer on the desk with the chair under it. Then have the camera zoom in and out of focus, then have the same kind of shot but with me sitting in the chair but this time zooming out and into focus. This way when we go to edit this part we would be able to put the two together to give it a interesting effect. For the second shot we decided that we should have the camera at a lower angle. To create the effect of the viewers being smaller and over powered by the killer who is at the computer.
Over all i think that we succesfuly shot everything that we need for our film opening. We have enough material for when we come to edit all of our clips together.
Sunday 1 March 2009
Final changes!!!!!!:)
On Thursdays morning I found out that our film was not finished, because Tony had sent the group an email to inform the group, the changes we needed to do to our film. We started to panic because none of my group members could edit the film on that day and the last day to edit was Friday and on Friday people had appointments and lessons that day. So we decided to come in at Friday lunch time to finish it off changing the titles and names, as well as putting our soundtrack on final pro cut.First the soundtrack did not fit in with the film when we placed in on final pro cut, so we had to edit the soundtrack again to make it fit. In addition we also added more titles to our film such as camera work, cinema photography and more. After making all the changes we finished our film and we were happy with it and ticked our name off the wall as finished group. :)
Half term
We had come in on our half term and finish off out fim because at this point we we're very far behind and only had done basic editing.
We ended up changing some of the effects we used in the fim because they made the film look finished.
At one point we thought we we're finished but realised it was only 16 seconds long so we had to start all over again and plan how we could make it longer without giving to much away. We included the footage of the charcter walking from her house into the park and used other random clips that we had shot after like someone on a computer and a persons eyes. this made the film more scary and it helped with making it longer.
We ended up changing some of the effects we used in the fim because they made the film look finished.
At one point we thought we we're finished but realised it was only 16 seconds long so we had to start all over again and plan how we could make it longer without giving to much away. We included the footage of the charcter walking from her house into the park and used other random clips that we had shot after like someone on a computer and a persons eyes. this made the film more scary and it helped with making it longer.
Still Editing!
We started use effects to make out film confuse the viewers, we did this by usin negatives and rewinding the footage so the charcater (me) walked backwards and fowards.
We wanted to use the effects we're the camera was hidden in bushes and etc.
We also slowed down the footage of the character walking normally so the viewer still knew what was goin on.
As we did this we we're learning how to use final cut pro so it took us two lessons to complete but in the end we we're happy with the end result.
We rembered some of the tecniques we had seen in other thrillers in media lessons and tired to use parts of it in the way we used the effects in our film, we didnt want to use to many of them but also had to be careful we didnt use to little.
We wanted to use the effects we're the camera was hidden in bushes and etc.
We also slowed down the footage of the character walking normally so the viewer still knew what was goin on.
As we did this we we're learning how to use final cut pro so it took us two lessons to complete but in the end we we're happy with the end result.
We rembered some of the tecniques we had seen in other thrillers in media lessons and tired to use parts of it in the way we used the effects in our film, we didnt want to use to many of them but also had to be careful we didnt use to little.
Editing our thriller
We started editing straight away. we had to log and capture all the shots we had filmed and because we wanted to make sure we had a good shot of every part of the thriller we shot them 3 or 4 times, this make it take a long time to log and capture everything but in the end we we're left with some great footage to use.
We then watched them through all together and picked out the parts we new we wanted to use then started putting them all in order. This was not the hard part of the editing put what i found difficult was cutting and matching all the clips so it flowed nicely together.
This took a whole lesson to do but once it was done we had a strong foundation to base all the effects on because it already went well without them.
We stayed as close the plan as we could and made sure we included the shots we used from the angels that we're harder to shoot because we wanted our film to look professional and be different from the others.
We also made sure we saved all our work all the time to make sure nothing happened to it.
The first day we edited our film went well and we we're happy with what we had so far.
We then watched them through all together and picked out the parts we new we wanted to use then started putting them all in order. This was not the hard part of the editing put what i found difficult was cutting and matching all the clips so it flowed nicely together.
This took a whole lesson to do but once it was done we had a strong foundation to base all the effects on because it already went well without them.
We stayed as close the plan as we could and made sure we included the shots we used from the angels that we're harder to shoot because we wanted our film to look professional and be different from the others.
We also made sure we saved all our work all the time to make sure nothing happened to it.
The first day we edited our film went well and we we're happy with what we had so far.
Wednesday 25 February 2009
Final film!
We have finally completed our film today, adding the soundtracks, and credits. It took a while to complete the film, when adding the soundtrack because we experimented with a lot of unusual and abnormal sounds, which at the end fitted with our film. We used effects like FX, DJ, percussion, piano and many more. Plus we decided not to use Columbia pictures because we couldn’t add their signature opening into our film because it was copy righted, which we are not allowed to use.
So we decided to use our logo as the production company which is a colorful star with our initials in each side of the star. Today we faced many difficulties, like at the last minute of editing we could not find our film, which we thought we lost, we started to panic but we found it at the end because we realized that we renamed the film to something else. Overall I think my group worked really hard to complete the film today and I am very happy with the work we have produced. :)
Last Day of Editing Thriller
Today we were adding beats to our soundtrack for the thriller, to help create tension towards the film. In order for this to happen, we tried to make it sound as chilling as possible by using certain types of sound effects appropriate for our storyline such as percussion, DJ scratching, etc. Instead of repeating the same beat continuously throughout the whole of the sequence, we used different types of sound effects for different clips. At first we started experimenting the sound effects until, we ourselves felt tension. We worked well together and each came up with good ideas to help gain those marks.
As a group, we chose to add tapping sound effects for when the killer blinks twice or when the negative effects appear. We then had to produce a beat suitable for the scene where the victim is listening to music on her ipod. During the soundtrack making, we found out that we were not allowed to use the Columbia Pictures because its film copying, which is not allowed so we decided to add our logo instead. Finally, we managed to complete the soundtrack. It taken us the whole lesson to finish off, but it was worthwhile.
As a group, we chose to add tapping sound effects for when the killer blinks twice or when the negative effects appear. We then had to produce a beat suitable for the scene where the victim is listening to music on her ipod. During the soundtrack making, we found out that we were not allowed to use the Columbia Pictures because its film copying, which is not allowed so we decided to add our logo instead. Finally, we managed to complete the soundtrack. It taken us the whole lesson to finish off, but it was worthwhile.
Tuesday 24 February 2009
Monday's Lesson
On Monday, we continued editing our film adding more titles and features, plus a Production Company. Out of all of the companies, we preferred the Colombia Pictures one and added it to our film. We then created a logo which looked like a wavy shaped star. Whilst making the logo, we decided to add a production name called J.A.D.S Inc, the first initial of our names because we all wanted to be apart of this logo as a group. So far, our editing is going well so hopefully we will manage to finish off the whole of our opening scene in the next lesson.
Closed on Wednesdays
We had all finally decided on when we should start filming and where, we had everything sorted out and in order. We had planned to go to the library and film the parts that we needed for the begging of our film opening. We wanted to use the library ( south library a public library in essex road ) because we thought that the dark and old look of this library in particular would look the part in our film opening and also that it would fit the kind of theme and atmosphere that we was trying to create. But once we go there we found out that the library was CLOSED !
So we had to think of something else to do instead of what we was going to do. We hanged around for a bit trying to think about what we could do instead of what we had planned to do. We started to walk around the library after deciding that we should just do some filming out side the library while we was doing this we found a small park like path that we could use as a location for our outside scenes.
This small path/park that we had found looked appealing to us. So we decided to walk all the way down to the bottom of the path to see if there was more settings that we could use. We walked down to the bottom and found that there was a couple of flats that looked interesting. So I suggested that we had a look at them too see if the main doors would open for us to use them as a location that our main character comes out from, then later on to the path that we had just walked down on.
After we stood around for a bit, talking about how we should shoot our new and totally unplanned sequence of, our victim walking from her flat to wards the path and then through the path. Once we started to shoot our first shot I decided that, it would be best if we done at least 4 takes for each shot, this way when we come to editing we would have enough material to work with. while we was filming what we had quickly planned, we tried different camera angles and effects that we could create by playing about with the lens. We thought that by doing this we might come across more instresting ways to shoot our shots and make them look intresting as well. So you could say that we experimented a lot with our camera angles and shots.
Although our day dident go to as planned, we was still able to replan and shoot a whole proper sequence. This whole process has taught me that I can work under pressure, I can be resorcefull and good at solving problems. Also that im willing to expirement with the camera.
developing and planning
We started to develop our idea for our short film, we made the story more simple and understandable for the audience to follow. To do this we tried to make the story get to the point of what the film is going to be about with out revealing all of what is going to happen or all of what happened before. This way we will be able to keep the attention of the audience and make our film opening interesting to watch.
The idea we had to work with was about a killer and a victim, the back story behind these two characters will make up most of the story. Which is that the killer has had a hard time growing up with out a mother to care for her, her mother was killed by a random serial killer who just decided to pick the killers mother. Ever since then the killer as a teenager growing up had always wanted to get revenge back on the killer some how who was now in prison serving a life sentence. this fact is not enough for the character who is later on going to be a killer her self, she cant feel that justice has been done the way it should be. This character was brought up to believe that the way to deal with unfair and evil situation was to go by the eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth methodology. ( the name of our film is,eye for an eye .) I chose this because it made more sense to write the whole back story this way, it also gave a good enough reason for the killer to try and find a way to get back at the killer who killed her mother. The killer is going to get back at the original killer by killing the killers wife .
I think over all even though how i have written out the whole story plot is a bit hard to understand, once our film opening is done it will make much more sense to the audience as well as the teachers.
Pitching our ideas
pitching our ideas, this was going to be a task for me because I'm not really good at explaining things. But when it got to our groups turn I had to do most of the talking, over all I think that our pitching session went well I got to tell our teachers my idea and explain what we was trying to aim for with different types of shots that we was going to use in our short film. I found that convincing the teachers about how my ideas would work and turn out was a bit hard, but as I carried on explain my idea properly they eventually sort of agreed with what I had in mind. They gave me a few suggestions to what I could do instead which was helpful.
After we had finished pitching our idea the other groups where up, while they were pitching I was thinking on how our film could be better and alternative solutions to our problem areas that had just been spotted by the teachers. I also wanted to change our story a bit more to make it more interesting and make it look like there was a point to our film
Monday 23 February 2009
First lesson back from half term!!
Today we continued to edit our film, adding titles, features and a Production Company.As well as creating a logo for our production name, we decided to use Columbia Pictures Company as our production company.Also creating a logo for J.A.D.S Inc production, we decided to call it this because we wanted include each member of the group in our the production title, so by taking the first initial of our names, we came up with J.A.D.S Inc. In addition we created a star logo for J.A.D.S, we used a funky star as our logo. Today we have finished editing and adding the titles and next lesson we plan to make a soundtrack for our film and hopefully finish the whole production.
Wednesday 18 February 2009
Half term Monday
Our group had to come in today to try and finish our editing.
So we started off by adding more shots from the other lesson, also more effects, we did this for few hours. After finishing the editing we found out we only had 16 second of film and we was shocked because we had spent hours editing and we only came up with 16 seconds of a clip.
So we called Micky and asked him what we can do, so he played around with it by trying to add more shots to what we already had, this took about half an hour and he decided that it wasn’t going to work, so he called Rebecca, Mary and another media teacher, to look at our first sequence, they all thought that our first sequence was good however it was too short.
So after they had deliberated, Mary told us that the only way we can make our sequence longer, is too use the first sequence as the title and add the normal shots after, as the first bit of the actual film. So the teachers left us to do that, spending an hour adding shots, we called Micky to see what we had done to it, he was happy with what we got, he then told us to add the title and the features, we gave it ago by playing around with the writing, we found several writings for the title which we found suitable for our sequence. We then decided to leave it for when we come back because we had spent 7 hours editing.
So we started off by adding more shots from the other lesson, also more effects, we did this for few hours. After finishing the editing we found out we only had 16 second of film and we was shocked because we had spent hours editing and we only came up with 16 seconds of a clip.
So we called Micky and asked him what we can do, so he played around with it by trying to add more shots to what we already had, this took about half an hour and he decided that it wasn’t going to work, so he called Rebecca, Mary and another media teacher, to look at our first sequence, they all thought that our first sequence was good however it was too short.
So after they had deliberated, Mary told us that the only way we can make our sequence longer, is too use the first sequence as the title and add the normal shots after, as the first bit of the actual film. So the teachers left us to do that, spending an hour adding shots, we called Micky to see what we had done to it, he was happy with what we got, he then told us to add the title and the features, we gave it ago by playing around with the writing, we found several writings for the title which we found suitable for our sequence. We then decided to leave it for when we come back because we had spent 7 hours editing.
Filming for the 2nd time-11.02.2009
Our group decided that we didn’t need the library to film the shots we wanted of Aiko, so instead we used one of the media rooms where they had black curtains and a computer where we can film. So we had set the room and the cameras and light as we wanted to and took several takes of the mystery person (Aiko) on a computer searching important information of the victim (Dominique).
While we were filming Andrew had played around with shots by adding effects and other short shots, after he had done this he called me and Dominique to see what he had produced. He came up with a good idea, I liked the effects he added and the pace of it became faster. He then took of the things he added and told us to add shots and effects to our story line, so we gave it ago adding shorter shots to what we already have and it looked good.
After that we went back to class room where Shanice and Aiko was filming and continued to film.
While we were filming Andrew had played around with shots by adding effects and other short shots, after he had done this he called me and Dominique to see what he had produced. He came up with a good idea, I liked the effects he added and the pace of it became faster. He then took of the things he added and told us to add shots and effects to our story line, so we gave it ago adding shorter shots to what we already have and it looked good.
After that we went back to class room where Shanice and Aiko was filming and continued to film.
Editing-9.2.09
In this lesson we went to the library to shoot Aiko scene where she is searching information about Dominique who is the victim of this story. When we arrived in the library, it didn’t look as old as it did outside, and it was too bright which change the mood. So as a group we decided not to film out in library and stick with the stuff we got.
We headed back to college and explained to tony what we thought, so he advised us to edit the shots we already have and see what we can film to add to the shots we got. so we put a couple of shots together and left it for the next lesson.
We headed back to college and explained to tony what we thought, so he advised us to edit the shots we already have and see what we can film to add to the shots we got. so we put a couple of shots together and left it for the next lesson.
Back to lesson after snow days- 4.2.09
We missed Monday’s lesson because of the weather. It was snowing pretty badly so the college decided to close it for two days.
In this lesson we decided to stay in college to upload the shots we took when we filmed the week before, in the computer/ editing room. When we uploaded the shots we had over 40 shots of the day, I think this is because we took 4 takes for every shot to give us more options when choosing in the editing process.
After Uploading each shot we watched through them to see what ones where good. It was also funny watching what we had filmed because you could tell that everyone was tired towards the end by looking at their facial expression, especially Dominique who had to shoot 4 takes for every shot.
The second half of the lesson we decided to go to Essex road to take pictures of the outside, to show Tony how it looked, and hopefully we could film inside next lesson. After taking the pictures we headed back to college and it was time for lunch.
In this lesson we decided to stay in college to upload the shots we took when we filmed the week before, in the computer/ editing room. When we uploaded the shots we had over 40 shots of the day, I think this is because we took 4 takes for every shot to give us more options when choosing in the editing process.
After Uploading each shot we watched through them to see what ones where good. It was also funny watching what we had filmed because you could tell that everyone was tired towards the end by looking at their facial expression, especially Dominique who had to shoot 4 takes for every shot.
The second half of the lesson we decided to go to Essex road to take pictures of the outside, to show Tony how it looked, and hopefully we could film inside next lesson. After taking the pictures we headed back to college and it was time for lunch.
First day of filming-28.1.09
Today was our first time to film; the weather was terrible, it was raining all day. As I got to college Dominique and Shanice had collected the camera and tripods for the day. So we made our way to Essex road to film in the library, the weather was of putting we wanted to head back to college but we decided not to.
When we arrived at Essex road, the library was shut and we didn’t know this, I was angry and disappointed that the library was shut and on top of that the weather was helping. But I put my feeling behind me because I wanted to get things done because we planned to film in previous lesson. So we decided to walk around and we found a park, and it lightened everyone’s face because the park had this atmospheric mood, from the trees, to the rocks and the gardening done to it, plus the weather had helped bring a spooky mood. So we walked through the park and found a long pathway which led to Kids Park and houses. For that reason we didn’t film to plan and used our initiative to film outside because believed we would have got something out of the location.
The first thing we filmed was of Dominique coming out of her house, we used several shots like long shot of her walking out, mid shot and many more. After this we came up with different shots of her walking out the house, from a back view of her walking to a shot of her through the fence. We also used panned while she was walking. During the filming we captured interesting shots through the park, using different angles, also using the things around us, like the rocks and the bushes.
Towards the end it got really tiring because we filmed for 3 hours nonstop and it was raining throughout the times we were filming. On top of that people kept delaying our filming because they wanted to know what we were filming for, also walking pass the camera while we was filming. Overall the whole day was fun and the end of it we looked a mess which was pretty funny.
When we arrived at Essex road, the library was shut and we didn’t know this, I was angry and disappointed that the library was shut and on top of that the weather was helping. But I put my feeling behind me because I wanted to get things done because we planned to film in previous lesson. So we decided to walk around and we found a park, and it lightened everyone’s face because the park had this atmospheric mood, from the trees, to the rocks and the gardening done to it, plus the weather had helped bring a spooky mood. So we walked through the park and found a long pathway which led to Kids Park and houses. For that reason we didn’t film to plan and used our initiative to film outside because believed we would have got something out of the location.
The first thing we filmed was of Dominique coming out of her house, we used several shots like long shot of her walking out, mid shot and many more. After this we came up with different shots of her walking out the house, from a back view of her walking to a shot of her through the fence. We also used panned while she was walking. During the filming we captured interesting shots through the park, using different angles, also using the things around us, like the rocks and the bushes.
Towards the end it got really tiring because we filmed for 3 hours nonstop and it was raining throughout the times we were filming. On top of that people kept delaying our filming because they wanted to know what we were filming for, also walking pass the camera while we was filming. Overall the whole day was fun and the end of it we looked a mess which was pretty funny.
Production sheet
On the following Monday we decided to stay in and do a production sheet, where we had to plan and decide the days we were filming and the roles for each member of the group. For example we decided to book the cameras for Wednesday’s lesson, so we could film. Also decided to make Dominique the main character and her role was the victim. We weren’t sure who would take the role as the attacker and decided to wait until Wednesday lesson.
Pitching our ideas 21.01.09
In Andrew lesson we carried on planning our thriller openings. As a group we pitched more ideas, coming up with fresh storylines, however some of the ideas did not work because it was to complex and others which we could produce because of the location. For example an idea that we came up with was bed scene with two characters, we all agreed to do this but as a group we did not have access to a bed so we could not do it. We tried to think of public location where we can do the scenes like IKEA but it was a bad idea.
In the second half of the lesson Andrew told the class that we had to pitch our final idea in front of Marissa, Micky, tony and Andrew, who were going to judge and give each groups feedbacks on their idea. We had to present our storyline in front of the class and the judges, also presenting the location, characters, and the shots. After we presented our ideas the judges gave us feedbacks, good and bad feedbacks. For example all the judges liked our storyline; however they thought that we should film in the library instead of the two locations which walking scenes were outside and an indoor scene. They thought that we should find an old library to give an atmospheric mood to our story line.
After listening to all the feedbacks, we gave ourselves homework until the next lesson, and that is to research old library’s in the city.
In the second half of the lesson Andrew told the class that we had to pitch our final idea in front of Marissa, Micky, tony and Andrew, who were going to judge and give each groups feedbacks on their idea. We had to present our storyline in front of the class and the judges, also presenting the location, characters, and the shots. After we presented our ideas the judges gave us feedbacks, good and bad feedbacks. For example all the judges liked our storyline; however they thought that we should film in the library instead of the two locations which walking scenes were outside and an indoor scene. They thought that we should find an old library to give an atmospheric mood to our story line.
After listening to all the feedbacks, we gave ourselves homework until the next lesson, and that is to research old library’s in the city.
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