Final Evaluation

Group Evaluation

As a group we came up with various ideas in the way we wanted to present our evaluation, we came up with PowerPoint presentations, live commentary, question and answer sessions, but we believed that the best choice for our group would be one that is engaging and not overloading with too many words. So we decided to create our evaluation on Final Cut Express, by using this software we are going to have a split screen where on one side will be the image/footage of our opening thriller sequence and the other will have written commentary to answer the evaluation questions thoroughly. By doing this we hope to engage and entertain the viewer without making them feel bored and want to stop watching. This will hopefully come across as there is a minimum amount of writing to take in without an excess to read, accompanying this are going to be many visual examples and sounds from the beginning process, to production through to the actual opening sequence itself. Overall allowing our evaluation to be interesting and easy on the eye without making it dull and tiresome.

Individual Evaluation

Thriller Opening Sequence Evaluation

1)      Our media product has incorporated some generic conventions, for example the sound track which played throughout the whole sequence was made up of creepy sounds which are typically used in psychological thrillers to create a tense atmosphere. Another typical generic convention of psychological thrillers that is evident in our opening sequence is long shot duration which adds to the suspense, this was when the main character was walking along the path. It also had a number of enigmas for example where is she going? What has she just done? These were developed by the camera work and dialogue. This is also a common generic convention used in psychological thrillers. However our opening sequence does challenge the typical conventions of psychological thrillers, this is because it is located in a public place instead of a remote area.  Another way in which our opening sequence challenges these conventions is because of the main characters costume, her outfit was smart and sophisticated which isn’t normally associated with psychological thriller murderers. The use of most of these conventions makes the sub genre of the movie clear to the viewers, this is because of the slow pace which has been created by long shot duration and the use of slow motion during the editing process. The use of these conventions indicates that the film ‘The Shining’ influenced us during the production of our opening sequence. This is because ‘The Shining’ uses long shot duration for example during the scene where the protagonist is hiding from the antagonist this created a very tense atmosphere for the viewer. So we tried to create this effect. ‘The Shining’ also had creepy music through out most of the film, especially during the opening sequence when the antagonist’s car is driving down the road. The storyline also involves a psychologically disturbed murderer, similar to the one in our film. Another film that influenced us during the production of our opening sequence was ‘Shrooms’ this is because it contains a lot of high angle and low angle shots for example when the antagonist confronts the protagonist, the antagonist is portrayed as in control by the use of a low angle shot . Taking this into consideration we decided to use this in our opening sequence and as a result we used a number of high angle low angle shots to illustrate the main characters vulnerability.  

2)     

The particular social groups that our thriller opening sequence represents are gender and class. However in our sequence, not all of these groups conformed to there typical stereotype. This is because the main character was female and women are usually portrayed as passive and harmless, not as murderers. But at the end of the sequence it is clear that she is being controlled by a dominant antagonist which could be a male, so the sequence both conforms and challenges the gender stereotype. Our thriller opening sequence also challenges the social class stereotype as the main character was middle class and people from the middle class are usually looked up to by lower classes. They also aren’t associated with deviant crimes.  This links to our target audience which is mainly made up of females because they can relate to the gender of the main character.

3)      The kind of media institution that might distribute our product is Paramount Pictures this is because our thriller film is a mainstream movie. Paramount Pictures has also distributed many psychological thrillers which are similar to our product for example Shutter Island. The reasons for this similarity are because it has a similar target audience to our movie, however ours is mostly female and Shutter Island has a mainly male audience. The mise en scene that has been used in Shutter Island is also similar to the mise en scene used in our film this is because the characters are wearing sophisticated clothes and the lighting is very low key and dull which creates a dark, gloomy atmosphere. Our movie could be released as a TV film, broken down in to about 5 episodes this is because it contains a sequence of events that would leave the audience wondering what’s going to happen next. It would be released because psychological thrillers have recently become very popular and it would also offer great opportunities for merchandising, as extreme fans may want to purchase posters, badges, dolls of the main characters or buy the sound track off of itunes, this would dramatically increase the popularity of the film and the profit made.

  

4)      The target audience of our thriller opening sequence is older teenagers ranging from the ages of 16-19. Although national statistics state that males are the main target audience of psychological thrillers, our primary research indicates that our target audience is mainly female. This is because they enjoy watching psychological thrillers as it gives them a boost of adrenalin which they like. The majority of our target audience live in urban areas, our primary research revealed that most of them lived in the town centre, this would enable them to see adverts of the film because posters and other ways of advertising are more likely to be placed in urban areas instead or in rural areas. So they are more likely to want to watch the film or buy merchandise. There hobbies are also listening to music, shopping, swimming and reading. A similar film that may appeal to our target audience is Black Swan. The reason for this is because it is also a psychological thriller, with some gory scenes and has suspense through out the whole film.

5)       One of the ways we attracted our audience was by using micro areas that many psychological thrillers don’t have. For example during the editing process we made our opening sequence black and white to add a creepy atmosphere, this would attract viewers because they will think that it’s a scary film. This also made the lighting dim which creates the same effect. We also attracted our audience by using facebook this is because facebook is very popular with teenagers and is a good way to advertise a product. We could also attract potential viewers by producing adverts on the TV and radio. This is because one of our target audience’s main hobby was listening to music so it is very likely that they will hear the advert on the radio. Another reason is that stereotypically teenagers watch a lot of TV so they would also see the advert. There are some points in our film that would terrify children and younger teenagers especially girls. For example throughout the rest of the film there will be some gruesome scenes. But I think this would appeal to most teenage boys as they usually enjoy watching films from the same genre. Elderly people and sensitive adults may also find some elements of the film disturbing so it wouldn’t really appeal to them. The audience is asked to put themselves in the position of the main character which at the beginning of the film is seen as an antagonist but as the film progresses you will discover she is a protagonist. This is because she is being controlled by a psychologically disturbed man. With the use of point of view shots the audience can easily put themselves in her position as they are able to see what she is witnessing. Another camera technique used that allows the audience to put themselves in her position is the use of close ups. This is because it shows her facial expressions and the emotions that she is feeling. It also emphasizes the little details that she is experiencing. So it enables the viewer to be put in her position. The audience is being allowed to witness how devastated and distraught she feels when she is forced to kill a number of people. This would have a massive impact on the viewers because not only would they be anxious during the film from the creation of suspense they would feel emotionally attached and sorry for the main character. However this is not a common generic convention of a psychological thriller as the audience usually isn’t asked to put them selves in the position of the person who is doing the killings. But on the other hand in other psychological thrillers the audience typically puts themselves in the position of the vulnerable protagonist, so you could say that this is a common generic convention of psychological thrillers.

6)      Whilst making our opening sequence I learnt how to use lots of different, new technologies for example garage band when we created the sound track. Another technology that I learnt how to use was Final Cut Express. I learnt how to select the right clip, shorten it to the bit we wanted and how to add different types of transitions. Another new technology that I learnt how to use was Photoshop. I used this to produce the logo and I used a number of the tools on Photoshop such as the bulge and distortion tool. During the filming process there were a number of problems that we faced. These were making sure that pedestrians didn’t walk through a shot and if they did we had to make sure that they was there throughout the next couple of shots. Noise from aeroplanes, houses, cars and pedestrians was also an issue. But we overcome this by filming when aeroplanes weren’t flying over. We also changed the volume of most of the opening sequence and added a soundtrack to it. This made sure that some ambient sounds were still evident without effecting the overall quality of the sound. Another problem we faced was the weather this is because one of the days we filmed on was sunny and the other days were cloudy. But this problem was overcome by changing the colour of the sequence during the editing process. However the sunny weather also caused a couple of delays as in some shots we could see the shadow of the person filming but we filmed those shots again to make sure that this could no longer be seen. The strengths of the filming were that everyone got an equal opportunity to film and we were able to get the camera in the position that we wanted to, which allowed us to capture shots with the right feel that we was looking for. The weaknesses of filming were that one of the shots was filmed on a slope making it very awkward to get the camera straight. However we were eventually able to straighten the camera out by adjusting the tripod. The editing software that we used was final cut express. During the editing process we added a number of transitions for example dissolves, fade in and fade out to both the text and the scenes. This was a very useful effect as it made the opening sequence look more professional and made it flow a lot more smoothly. We also adjusted the speed in some parts of the opening sequence for example on the establishing shot and when the main character was walking along the path. This was also very useful as it added tension to scene as well as long shot duration which is a common generic convention of psychological thrillers as it creates suspense. To create the sound track we used garage band. This was also very useful as it had many sounds to choose from which allowed us to create a creepy sound track. However we wanted to put breathing or a heat beat during the point of view shots to add realism and to engage the audience even more.

7)      The preliminary task allowed us to practice different shot types and enabled use to perfect them. This was a very useful process as we were able to get used to using the camera and tripod. It also allowed us to practice editing on Final Cut Express and gave us some inspiring ideas on what editing techniques we could use in our final opening sequence. By researching psychological thrillers it made our task a lot easier as we knew what kind of effect and narrative we wanted our opening sequence to portray. During the research process we made a story board, test shots etc. This helped us because we knew what shots would work and what shots didn’t. This enabled us to improve the shot types we used. The story board helped us because we knew exactly what we were going to film. Overall I feel confident with our final product and I think that it was successful.

Individual Evaluation

Thriller Opening Sequence Evaluation

1.      In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms of conventions of real media products?

We decided as a group to do a psychological thriller, we then researched what conventions a psychological thriller has and how we could adapt them to our own opening thriller. Our media product has incorporated some generic conventions, for example the soundtrack which is played throughout the sequence was made up of creepy sounds and dramatic effects. This is a characteristic of a thriller movie to help create the anxious atmosphere. This is used in the film Shutter Island with the sound of the lighthouse horn throughout the movie helps create real mystery in the movie. Another representative generic convention of psychological thrillers that is apparent in our opening sequence is a long shot which adds anticipation; this was when the main character was walking along the path in our own thriller movie.

The use of these conventions has helped use to develop the forms of conventions real media products use for our sub-genre. We had to make sure the movie is clear to the viewers; this is because of the slow pace of the long shot and us using a slow motion during editing to add to the tension.

2.      How does your product represent particular social groups?

The main social groups that a thriller movie represents are either youths or working class. The main stereotypes of youths are that they are loud and antisocial when in a group of youths or better known as a gang. After deciding that we were going to have a gang of youths in our opening we wanted to make sure we conformed the stereotype of youths.

Towards the end of opening we had a gang in the scene. Having them with their hoods up, being loud and anti-social. This is the normal description of a gang and how they act when in public. Making sure they were conforming the stereotype of the youths we looked at the psychological thriller Clockwork Orange to see how gangs our represented in thrillers. In our opening sequence we hoped to represent a young female working woman travelling home from work. Personally I think we conformed the stereotype of women because we made the character look fragile and look like a woman returning from a hard day at work. Using high angles and presenting high angled shots of the character helped with the portrayal of a fragile woman. Although our main character is a female murder this challenges the stereotypical female character seen in our opening sequence.

3.      What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Personally, I think that Momentum Pictures would be perfect for distributing our thriller movie because not only is it a British company, it also distributes thriller movies such as ‘The Woman in Black’. Our film is similar to ‘The Woman in Black’ because of the use of creepy sound effects used within our opening sequence and ‘The Woman in Black’. They will also be able to market our film to big cinemas and produce a lot of DVD’s of our thriller film. Also because they have produced ‘The Woman in Black’ that is very similar to our own thriller being in the sub-genre of psychological. Our movie would be a main stream film if it was released this is another reason why Momentum Pictures would be an amazing institution to distribute our media product. Personally, I don’t think our film would offer opportunities for franchises but maybe merchandise for example Momentum Pictures could release things like t-shirts or mugs with the films title on it but not anything else.

4.      Who would be the audience for your media product?

Before we started making our media product we looked into what audience we wanted to aim our thriller movie to. The specific target audience that we wanted to focus on was our own age group of 16-19 years old. We had to look closely on what our audience looks for in movies and what they enjoy the most. This is why we had to do both primary and secondary research to get the most reliable and non-bias results. We wanted to make sure that our opening sequence was right for our audience. We did some primary and secondary research to establish who we wanted to target our media product to. After going on the pearl and dean website to found out from their own surveys and questionnaires what people said about thriller movies and what the outcome was of the questions were. But from finding this information out that thriller movies were mainly promoted to the 18+ age range because of the disturbing scenes and violence that is seen in thriller movies. We wanted to try and aim our own opening sequence at the age range of 15+ so from finding out the information about other thriller movies this helped us to decide on what questions to ask when we did our own research. We asked a range of different people from age, gender, where they lived, hobbies and interests and also their occupation. This was to help us to find out who our audience was going to be as well as what our media product was going to be about. We also watched a number of psychological thrillers to see what audience the films would be for and how similar they were to our idea for the media product. We looked at ‘The Black Swan’ this was because the whole film is about two young characters which is similar to what our idea was for the media product, after looking closely at the film, we picked up a number of ideas of how to choose who our audience would be.

5.      How did you attract/address your audience?

After doing all the research on who we wanted our audience to be, which was the media product was going to be aimed at 16-19 years old and would be unisex, so had no particular gender aimed at. To attract this sort of audience we needed to use modern day language in the speaking parts of the opening and also try and have the main character wearing the clothes that are in fashion. We also had the main character in the same age group as what we wanted the audience to be this was to help with the realism of the situation that was happening. Also as a group we did an audience profile, this was to show what audience we had chosen and we looked further into the variety of things that age group does. We found out that our target audience likes to party, drink alcohol and socialise with friends. So when thinking about the shots we were going to use to help attract our audience, we thought that having a lot of Point of View (POV) shots would help with the audience being able to see what the character is seeing and how they would feel in those circumstances. We had a lot of long shots of the character so that the audience could see the way in which she was walking and what the surrounding area looked like. This also helped address the audience with how a normal teenager would looks like in that sort of situation. During our editing stage, we had a look at what other films do in there editing stage and tried to adapt it to our own with the technology we have to help attract the audience. We used things like changing the speed of the footage we thought this  would help with the addressing the audience, by that the footage is slow and can be seen easily.

6.      What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

After learning how to use all the technology that we needed to construct the media product we could then use our knowledge to make the media product over the period of two weeks. Firstly we had to make sure we knew what we were doing with the Canon camera like how to record and how to stop the recording. We also had to make sure we had the focus right. When using the canon camera we had to learn how to use the camera and all the extras onto of the camera to ensure we got the right effect and made sure we were recording the right parts that we needed to construct our product. We had a few compliances with the focus and the camera lens because when filming one part there was a slight mark on the lens which caused problems with the filming. I, personally have learnt how to make sure the camera is positioned correctly and that I used the camera in the right way to get the shot that I needed. After filming we had to upload the footage onto the Apple Mac computers, I have now learnt how to use the programme Final Cut Express and how all the side options that contribute to the making of the opening sequence. Final Cut helped us to add different effects to what we had recorded; we took advantage of this by using the black and white tool to add effect to opening sequence. We also got to use Garage Band this was at first quite hard to get the hang of because personally I had never used it before but after having a couple of trial runs the programme helped with knowing what all the sound effects sounded like and what ones would help with the making of our soundtrack. After making the soundtrack we then had to make sure we converted the soundtrack properly so that we could get it to work on the Final Cut programme. This was quite hard to do because we had to try and remember all the steps of how to convert the soundtrack but after doing it a couple of times, we managed to do it without even thinking. We also had to produce a production logo, we did this on Photoshop. We decided that individually we would produce a logo each and then get feedback on what people thought of the different logos and then ask them to choose the best logo. After receiving the feedback, we found out that our target audience preferred Alice’s logo so we went ahead with that one as our production logo. We also made a poster on Photoshop that would be used in cinemas and on billboards around the country if our film was ever released. This was really good to produce because we could put the main character on the poster and all the names of the other people that would have contributed to the making of our film like the distribution team, music and soundtrack assistants, the producer, the camera assistants and so on.

7.      Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full production?

Before we started filming the actual opening, we did a preliminary task we had a selection of different shots that we might use to make our thriller. It was really helpful because we got to grips with the camera and how we can make the certain shots look effective. After doing the preliminary task, we did some test shots of what were going to use this was also helpful because we could look at the shots back on the camera and see whether the shot worked with what we wanted it to portray. After looking at them we could see whether the shot was useful to us or whether we needed to change it something else. Those tasks also helped us to practice some shots that we thought were going to be hard for example the 180° rule and the Point of View shot. It also helped us to see that maybe we would have to change the shots because they were not effective enough for our opening sequence or wouldn’t work when at our location.

We had many weeks to complete the whole production from the research and planning to the end of the editing. As a group we sat down together to come up with different ideas of what to do for our opening sequence. We researched into what different sub-genres there were within the main Thriller genre. After doing this we had to decide what sub-genre our film was going to be. We watched a number of films within the psychological genre to get a feel for what these films consisted of. We looked at the conventions were in a psychological thriller so that when we made our own thriller it had the same conventions, we had to do this so that our thriller came across as a psychological thriller. After deciding what story line we were going to go with, as a group we sat down and draw up a storyboard of all the shots and the narrative we were going to use so that when it came to filming we had a rough idea of what shots and props we needed in that frame. This was good because when it actually came to filming, the person who was filming was able to look at the storyboard to see if they had the right angle and it portray what we wanted it to. We also produced a risk assessment, this was everything we thought would either effect or contribute to the filming of the opening. This was really useful because when we got to the location of where we were going to film we were able to move or try and dodge around the risks. A film schedule was also produced this was really helpful because we knew when were having the camera and then we could plan when we would have time edit. This was also brilliant because it aloud us to see if we had enough time to re-shoot any shots if we needed to.

I definitely feel more confident with all the equipment, doing all the tasks leading up to and after the filming was very helpful, especially the test shots. I think having them to have a go at before doing the actual filming was brilliant because we could see whether we were using the camera correctly or whether it was picking up unwanted sound in the sequence but more importantly the wanted sound.

As a group, I think we definitely fulfilled the task to the best of our ability even though we did have a few challenging problems to deal within the group but overcame them to get the production finished to the best of our ability. Individually we all did the tasks that were set and more to help contribute to our final product. 

Individual Evaluation

Thriller Opening Sequence Evaluation

1.  In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Throughout our thriller opening sequence there are many generic conventions as well as incorporating challenges to type of conventions. We created a soundtrack on GarageBand that included many generic conventions, such as having the music low key and unsettling. We played many different sounds to find the best suiting ones for our opening sequence, but the ones we found most appropriate were sounds that gave us the feeling of being dark and gloomy. When we listened to a sound effect and felt emotion towards it as you would when watching a thriller movie, we decided it could be a perfect match. This, we believe, makes it into a generic convention as the attributes we have used are matching to what a thriller should be like. Deciding to convert our thriller into black and white gave the opening sequence a sense of immorality and gave the feeling of a dark and tense movie, therefore conforming to generic conventions. As we also slowed down the speed at some points during the opening sequence, such as the over the shoulder shot of the main character walking down the pathway, we believe it to add a sense of discomfort and weariness for the audience watching. This also creates a generic convention. Using camerawork such as POV and high angle shots convey to the audience what the main character is experiencing and showing them as weak and vulnerable by looking down onto them, therefore she is being portrayed as easy to manipulate and influence, emphasising the use of the mind. These different factors created enable the audience to recognize the sub-genre we have chosen to portray, psychological. For example, these type on conventions are portrayed throughout the movie The Woman in Black, there are many scenes during the thriller that convey the sense of vulnerability and suspense by using high angle shots.

2.  How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The different social groups represented in our thriller were a gang of female youths and a young female worker. We took a very stereotypical route with the gang of youths, trying to embrace what many people’s perceptions of young people are. We filmed the youth’s scene from the main characters point of view to show her vulnerability and helplessness to the audience. By doing this it will show the youths to be the dominant, aggressive type, over shadowing the main character. Overall, conveying the youth’s to be a stereotypical archetype. The main character is shown to be walking home from work, as she is dressed in a classical work uniform it allows the audience to understand where she has been, maybe not what job she has but that she seems to have a highly profound job by the clothing she has on. This can be seen to challenge a woman’s stereotype as they are usually portrayed with a lower status, whereas she is shown with a high status. However, she is seen as vulnerable and weak through her body language. The different camera angles we used also helped to convey these emotions and characteristics, such as using high angle shots to show her as defenceless and passive. Overall portraying her with archetype and countertype stereotypical traits.

3.  What kind of media institution might distribute your major product and why?

Metrodome is a small British company that distributes small movies. Through their microwave scheme they give small British films a chance to be made with a budget of £100,000 and 18 days to make it. For example, the movie Shifty as it is also a small scale British film that needs to use viral marketing to get their film across to the media market. I see this movie to be only as internet release as it’s a small scale film itself that no one will have heard of and we will not have much money to market the film so we need to get our film across to everyone cheap and make sure we attract them to watch our film. Having the money given to you to produce this thriller it will enable the film to have a chance to be made with sufficient funds from the company.

4.  Who would be the audience for you media product?

We anticipate our target audience to be within the ages of 15 to 19 with a split of both female and male genders, with there being slightly more female candidates than male. To find out our target audience we carried out primary and secondary market research. We asked many different people, from ages 15 to 50, male and female many questions relating with their personal life, such as what are your hobbies? And how old are you? This enables us to establish what kind of audience we were going to be aiming our thriller opening sequence to. This allowed us to match our opening sequence to appeal to the most likely potential viewers. Then we created the audience profile to finalise our actual potential audience and help us in the making of our thriller. We believe that as we have produced a psychological thriller, which engages the mind quite thoroughly it will appeal less to males as they would prefer a more action related thriller. This is not saying that all men would prefer an action thriller to a psychological, but that it’s the minority wanting to. A familiar thriller to our opening sequence “No Way Out” includes “Shutter Island” and “Black Swan”. As with Black Swan, it is mainly aimed at young females aged 15 to 30, yet with a high aim to males. This thriller is similar to ours with the consideration that it is all to do with the mind; however, it is very different as we have a murderer in our thriller whereas “Black Swan” doesn’t. “Black Swan” involves two young dancers who expand their rivalry into a twisted friendship, where one of the characters begins to get more in touch with her dark side- a recklessness that threatens to destroy her.

5.  How did you attract/address your audience?

Through our audience profile we finalised our audience to be of the age 17 and above, with a split of both male and female viewers. There are not any particular points in the opening sequence that would appeal to or particularly terrify a certain age or gender. We aimed to produce a beginning that wouldn’t be terrifying or disturbing but to set the scene for the audience, as the thriller continues we intended to use more frightening and startling shots to make the audience scared. The audience we would’ve aimed to terrify and appeal to, if able to produce the rest of the thriller, would be the majority of viewers, we didn’t want to pin point any specific age or gender as we want most people to have the chance to feel involved and drawn in, and appeal to the thriller, making more people have the enjoyment of watching a thriller movie. Camerawork we could’ve used to enable us to do this task to the best of our ability are high angle shots on the main character to show her as vulnerable, handheld POV shots to show the shakiness and the unsettledness of what the main character is feeling and going through. Maybe a few shots of short shot duration during a murder or a breakdown type scene to show the rush and intensity of the situation. All of these will help to convey a terrifying and bizarre narrative to our target audience. The audience are asked to put themselves into the main characters shoes, to see what she is seeing and what she is going through, this will aid viewers understanding if they can see from her POV and witness the events she is going through then they will understand and maybe feel empathy towards her, yet feel angry and terrified of her at the same time. This may leave viewers to feel more connected to the movie and understand what is going on rather than being completely oblivious and confused. All in all this can have a huge impact when it comes to building up the suspense. In the making of our opening sequence we used sound, mise-en-scene and editing to also keep our audience interested. By using our editing skills on Final Cut Express it allowed us to use many transitions such as a fade in to produce an opening sequence that didn’t entail the same boring cut all the way through, this made it much more interesting to watch so the audience will want to continue watching. Using sound, we created a soundtrack on GarageBand full of many different sound effects to create a realistic yet spooky backing track to match our sub-genre. By doing this is will aid viewers understanding and add emotion so the audience won’t get uninterested.

6.  What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

During the beginning process of using different technologies we used many technologies such as Final Cut Express, GarageBand, camera and more. As we started to use the different software’s and technologies we found it hard as we weren’t sure how to work it 100%, however as we got used to it, it became natural to us and we became much quicker at it. Whilst filming we had many problems, yet successes when it came down to using the camera equipment, some problems were that the actual camera lens itself had dirt on it that we couldn’t see when filming, but was clearly evident when we put it on Final Cut Express. This made the sequence look unprofessional and not clean and cut. We had to solve this by cleaning the lens thoroughly even if we hadn’t touched it, just to be 100% sure.  When we took the camera out to film, most of the time the camera was fully charged, but one time it had a low battery which could have been detrimental if the whole battery had gone whilst we were in the middle of filming. Luckily we had enough battery life to film the needed shots at that time, but next time we are going to check if it is charged thoroughly before filming, so we have the needed time to film and endure less panicking that we don’t have enough battery. We had many strengths whilst using the camera equipment, such as, when we needed to film a steady shot we used the tripod, and as we knew how to use it and how to connect the camera, foot, etc to the tripod it made it easier to function. Making the process much quicker as we had the knowledge of what to do, allowing us to have more time to focus on the actual filming itself rather than wasting time trying to figure out how to function the use of a tripod. Also, we made sure we had ALL the correct equipment with us before we left to film, such as a camera, tape, tripod. This helped us greatly; as we had everything we needed therefore less time was wasted. Whilst we were in the filming process we did have some problems such as not pressing the record button at the right time, which we had to resolve by being patient and directing each other better, allowing us to not leave out any valuable footage.

After the filming process we used editing software, including Final Cut Express, this enabled us to edit our filming so only the important, useful parts were used.  We learnt many different techniques involving the software, such as how to cut out particular parts we don’t want, add text into the sequence to make it look professional. Using Final Cut Express we also discovered how to change the speed and colour of the shots and many more. This all helped us to create a sequence to match the sub-genre we picked, which will help to portray a psychological thriller to out audience. This helped portray the mise-en-scene ideally as it allowed the location to look mysterious and spooky, as well as the costumes looking dull and the lighting very low key. All creating a perfect match to our sub-genre, psychological. Another software we used was GarageBand, this programme allowed us to create a soundtrack to match and compliment our thriller opening sequence. It had many songs, dialogue, ambient sounds and artificial sounds to choose from, giving us a wide variety to work with, helping us create the most suitable match for our opening sequence. There were some challenges with both software, such as having to get used to it before knowing where every single thing was to help create the perfect soundtrack. But after a while, as we got used to it, it became natural to us and we came more familiar with where everything was place, making us quicker and more efficient in using the software. Lastly, we used Photoshop in order to create a logo and a poster for our opening sequence, in order to do this our teacher gave us a lesson on which tools to use and how to use them effectively. This looked like a complex task, but as you got the hang of it, it began much simpler for us to use.

7.  Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full production?

During the preliminary task we were quite weary and cautious with the equipment as we weren’t very fond of it and didn’t feel 100% comfortable using is, however. When doing the actual task we knew what to do and how to overcome any camera issues. This enabled us to feel more confident filming and editing as we had already practised on them before. I believe that our end product is a success of fulfilling the task as we worked hard in the research and planning tasks, filming it and editing. We also continued to do work in our own time, allowing us to get more done and have a continued knowledge.

We had many weeks to complete research and planning tasks to help us in the actual production of our thriller opening sequence. As a group we explored into the movies sub-genre; psychological and discovered the well known conventions to do with it and understood the challenges against that convention. We thoroughly planned every detail of what we wanted our actual opening sequence to be like, such as creating a storyboard, creating an animatic, researching and analysing many psychological opening sequences to understand and be able to help us recognise what one entails. We created a shot list of the different camera techniques we wanted to use in our opening sequence and put them in order to help us reach this task in an easy manner, as we have planned for it. Creating a storyboard where we sketched out each camera shot and wrote the different technique and location we were going to use, such as, close up of main character as she walks down the pathway helped us to film smoothly. This enable us to have a quick and easy start to begin filming as we knew what we wanted/needed to do therefore we got on with it without any queries to do with camera shots and movements. It also allowed us to film in the correct order instead of filming the ending, then the middle ect. This made it easier for us to edit as it was near enough straightforward as it ran from the beginning scenes to the ending scenes allowing us a simpler way of editing. As we created test shots and a preliminary task before our actual opening sequence it gave us the well needed experience to carry out the main task later on. Choosing of the shot types from the preliminary tasks to our actual task have improved as we were more aware of what shot types worked well and what didn’t. We also found out which camerawork techniques fitted in with a psychological thriller to be able to portray to the audience the theme we want to produce. During the preliminary task filming of some of our shots, such as over the shoulder we realised that we filmed it rather shaky and didn’t pay much attention to what was actually in the shot (cutting half of someone’s head out of the shot). This was intentional therefore it didn’t fit in very well with our particular scene. So when we went to film our actual thriller opening sequence we made sure we were aware of what was in the shot, to be able to produce the full effect and tried to be steadier with our hands to reduce the shakiness. Overall producing a better outcome.

FINAL PRODUCTION

How Our Rough Cut Helped Us

How our rough cut helped us in the production of our opening thriller sequence:

Before we finished editing our opening sequence we made a rough cut. This was to help get feedback and to see what we needed to change to make the opening seem like a thriller opening sequence. Using the feedback from the rough cut has helped us the editing of the opening sequence. One of the comments we got said that the first few seconds didn't flow properly so when we went back to start editing the rest of the sequence we changed the first few seconds so that it flowed properly.
We've learnt from producing the opening sequence that if we get a chance to film and edit again we will make sure that we leave plenty of time to film and edit because from doing the rough cut we saw that we didn't leave enough time to re-film any shots that we didn't like. As a group we should think more about the positioning of the camera and what the characters look like from the audiences perception. Getting feedback from our target audience (15) has made us more confident and helped us alot to be able to make our final opening sequence production.
After analysing our rough cut, we found that we should've left plenty of time before starting to record each shot and after recording each shot as some of the scenes we filmed had the ending or beginning cut off, therefore some of the shots were unable to convey the full story.