Jonny's Evaluation

There are different thriller conventions that we employed in our media product. I have seen few films where the two lead roles have been women. This is different from many thrillers that are dominated, but not exclusively, by the male actors. We ha a female lead. The second part to this convention is when there is a woman they are often portrayed as weak and vulnerable. This we didn't conform to. Other conventions were aimed at creating the right atmosphere. Footage was taken with a dark mise en scene limiting what you could see. This lets the audience’s imagination wondering at what is there. This is another luring affect of suspense. This was a favourite technique of Alfred Hitchcock who favoured suspense
over surprise. The other variation is to show the audience what the characters cannot see and then toy with the audience as to what will happen next. These conventions puts the thriller in the mystery and psychological sub-genre. There were no films that influenced us as a group. We did our own research and brought thoughts from films to the table. One that influenced me was Double Jeopardy. Specifically, that it was as much psychological as mystery really enthralled me. Another series fuelled my inspiration was CSI.
The way they have flashbacks to the crime or a related scenario: The jumping images, grainy images, colour changes and focus changes inspired my contribution to our flashback sequence.

The social group that is represented by our media product is not of a very large spectrum in terms of race and class. All the characters are working and middle working class people of a British white background but there was a reasonable distribution of both sexes. The main character was defined as a quiet individual and through this unique attitude, draws your attention. The age has a much broader potential range. The main and her friends are young, in their late teens. The antagonist at the end is also an unknown quantity as the main character does not know them. However they are also an unknown quantity to the audience as they do not know any more than the girl.
Our representation of women does follow the stereotype but would develop away from it. At first the women are far more responsible and as the scene shifts from the group to the individual girl she is defined to as the quiet, young and naive girl who inevitably gets into trouble. She would become stronger and independent in time.
This would draw the target audience in as the ages are similar to the target audience and because its a twist on what happens. Starting with a stereotypical background puts the audience at ease but by then throwing them it draws them in.

If this film were to be distributed and had been made to cinema quality I think it would be a film that has a period in smaller cinemas and art houses for maybe three weeks. It has all the main conventions included and challenges them enough to attract people. It is though more experimental and doesn’t follow the mainstream take on a thriller. On the grand scale of things it would be a DVD and TV film later. If the script and the copyright were sold to a Hollywood studio/company then that combined with the budgets would make it a big release. Like many ‘pure’ thrillers this would be a single standing film. It would be difficult to make a sequel. There is though the possibility of franchise and also merchandising. Primarily, the soundtrack to the film and also the prestige of big name studios. Also, if the film is publicised enough there is always a opening for merchandise such as small paraphernalia and shirts. A film that is not designed for children is often limited in terms of merchandise. This link has only three items for this adult thriller/horror film. The visual style of the thriller does not lend itself to a variety of merchandise which is down to the darker nature of the film.

The target audience for our media production is broad. It is aimed at those that enjoy the complexities of a psychological thriller which keeps you guessing. The age range of this is large but we limited this with our cast. By using young actors and actresses we brought the age of appeal down to 15 to 35 on a large scale, focusing mainly on the 15 to 25 year olds. This was the only real limit on target audience that we deliberately made, though with little diversity in race and social backgrounds of characters, that may prove to be another audience limiting factor.

To attract our audience we made the characters a similar age to the target audience.

This allows the audience to 'experience’ the emotions and feelings of the characters.

There are sections to the film that would terrify younger age groups: the flashback sequence would be disturbing and upsetting. The same sequence could also be found upsetting by women as the graphic is that of a woman’s murder. Inversely, the mystery and suspense would appeal to the older region of our age bracket. For example in the opening at the very end with the shadow in the window; it could go anywhere and those who appreciate suspense thrillers will enjoy it. To help put the audience in the position of the lead character we used point of view shots. Also the use of tracking shots incorporates a sense of voyeurism. This heightens the suspense of the film because the audience isn't sure if she is being followed. The suspense is in both what you do and don't see.

From filming I have learnt a great deal about the equipment and the filming process. From deciding the best angle of the shot to whether we should use the tripod or handheld techniques. The equipment we had was adequate but had its faults. The battery lasted an hour or so which was suitable for most of our filming. The camera ran on tapes and making sure the tape was in the right place before and after filming was an inconvenience. Also, when uploading we often had to re-synchronize the audio and video signals. (Indicated by red boxes)

One thing which we did have a few issues with was transportation. It came down to using a quad bike, a forklift and walking. During filming though we only seemed to have two issues: lighting levels and how to get the right angle. To solve this we employed some industrial lights that ran off a generator. This presented a problem when we uploaded which was the camera picked up the noise of the generator. So we had to re-shoot those sections with the light and without, overlaying the two takes. The second problem left us using a very short tripod at angles to give the worm-eye-canted shot and me climbing up on tractor to take our establishing shot. The camera and myself were securely fixed to avoid falling which was a hazard. The reason that I climbed the tractor was that I am comfortable with heights and can deal with falling if our precautions were not enough.

Final cut though we were quite successful with. We very quickly picked up the art of cutting sequences and rearranging them in to the correct order. This was particularly interesting when creating the killing sequence; having to cut different angle shots of the same action and piece them together as a coherent sequence. It did work very well though and the time was well spent. However making this sequence was difficult because we had used two different cameras to produce the footage. This in turn produced about 20 minutes of raw footage from the two cameras to watch and select the best parts of.

Once we had the desired footage we had to learn to adjust things about the image like brightness, contrast and colour; particularly for the killing sequence which we made black and white for effect. On the actual editing window you are able to further alter the sound volume to customise it to the sequence. This proved very useful when changing the volume of the background music scary playground and awkward meeting (courtesy of Enetiworld and Incompetech) and the footsteps through the leaves. There were a list of effects but certain ones appealed for

varying reasons. The cross-fade appealed because it enabled us to convey a greater passage of time. We used a blink effect for the killing sequence to produce the start and end of the flashback and although we could not find a flash, we produced our own using a blank white screen with a fade followed by the blink effect.

Since the preliminary task I feel I have learnt a lot about the equipment and about final cut express. I have been able to use both to much greater effect. The hardest part was the storyboarding and deciding what sort of shots we wanted, due mostly to the length of the two pieces comparatively (15 seconds and 2 minutes) . This took us around two weeks to finish. The research was time consuming but was very useful. Knowing what sort of websites to look at and films to analyse helped.

The use of different shots was most definitely better in the actual task. We did however use match cuts effectively in two sequence.

When Amy is running in to the caravan and the killing sequence shortly after:

The only jump cut section which goes between the caravan and the camp was very effective and which I had a large hand in editing in.

As regards the equipment by our first actual filming day I was very happy using and manoeuvring it and I felt we managed to use it all to quite a good effect. Over those filming days my confidence grew and the shots themselves were up to a reasonable standard. All the aspects of suspense we wanted, we had incorperated into the piece and I feel it does keep you on the edge. As with all things it could be improved with a better camera and more time but the overall effect, atmosphere, feeling and mood tallied up to a very good thriller opening sequence.

Henry's Evaluation

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

Our thriller conforms to conventions of thrillers in several areas of our film. There is a generic convention with the antagonist-protagonist relationship between the two main characters, seen in many thrillers.



The use of voyeurism is a convention, the idea that something or someone is watching you. This allows the audience to ‘step in to the character’s shoes’ and understand fully the situation they are in. This can be identified in the 'entering the woods' scene with the use of the 'crab shots'. This photo shows conforming to conventions; the antagonist is seen in a hooded coat, adding to the dark, mysterious character profile that is represented.

The flash of light during the flashback sequence is archetypal. Seen in many psychological films/media (like Seven, CSI, Criminal Minds) indicating a previous event somehow linked to the character. These media products have influenced our work, clearly illustrated by our content.
However, our film does challenge conventions as our lead character is female, going against the idea that the main character is a tough (alpha) male figure. Our conventions indicate our genre is psychological. This involves asking questions of the audience and surprising them, demonstrated at the climax of film when the antagonist appears in the window this is left at a point where the outcome is hinted, but not shown: a ‘cliff hanger ending’. A sub genre of crime could be indicated by the stabbing scene, showing violence/murder.


How does your media product represent particular social groups?


The social group that is represented in our media is white teenage males and females. This links into our target audience of both genders, between the ages of 15-35. In our film, the social group that is heavily represented is the white, middle class. I believe gender is represented very stereotypically:a vulnerable girl and a powerful man. We have represented the (assumed) male as strong and the female to be vulnerable and weak. In the ‘killing scene’ the male uses his power over a helpless female victim. However, if we could show more than the opening we would show the female lead growing in character as the film progresses.

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

I believe our film could be produced by a major Hollywood studio, many conventions of mainstream thrillers are shown. The topic can be widely understood by our target audience.

Our product would not be released as an art house film as the film is not heavily reliant on aspects of mise en scene. It is not very experimental either; the camera shots are fairly conventional to a thriller, for example: tracking, close-ups, and long shots.

This film would not be an internet only release; meaning limited access for consumers. Our film is appealing to a younger audience (the people who watch films regularly and buy DVDs) so it would need to be as widely accessible as possible, to maximise profit potential.

It does give opportunities for merchandising; t-shirts and posters could be sold. The merchandising would take into consideration our target audience (15-30) as university students could use posters to decorate their rooms, if they could not afford to spend money on expensive artwork.
Our film could be made into a franchise, for instance video games based on the storyline. We are now increasingly dependent on technology; so this could sell based on the target audience. The potential for DVD sales after the initial cinema release would increase revenue.

Who is the audience for our media product?

Our film targets those aged 15-30, this should not limit the appeal of the film to this age group, those older may also enjoy it.
The film would appeal to our target audience because they can relate to the situation the characters find themselves in. The age of our cast is similar to our audience; meaning they will feel more connected. This age group are generally more aware of newly released films and have more free time, making it easier to target this audience. The certification for the film is a 12A but this will not stipulate the age of the viewers.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Our audience profile consists on both genders, aged 15-30. We attracted our audience by including a violent stabbing scene. This age group would be the most accepting of this ‘horror-like’ scene, this could almost be an expectation of young audiences.

 

We made the flashback particularly terrifying because of the black and white hue; this confuses the audience slightly, as the focus is altered. This effect helps to differentiate from the rest of the film. The changes of perspective (created using 2 separate cameras) and the harsh jump cuts speed up the action, increasing the viewer’s tension. We used a point-of-view (POV) shot allowing the audience to become involved in the terrifying situation with the main character, seeing what she sees, increasing anxiety. 

The non diagetic music is crucial to attracting our audience. It is conventional, ‘chilling’ music that is almost continuous throughout. The changes in pitch of the music arrive at key moments, giving 

the audience (in some cases) an unwanted indication of what is about to happen.

We used close ups to show the panic and fear of the girl taking the audience into her mind.

We used a motivated cut to increase the viewer’s interest as she enters the caravan. We cut away at the point where the audience wishes to see something (the body) which is not quite visible.

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

To always check that the camera(s) are charged! We had problems whilst filming because we were left with no battery left. Fortunately we had two cameras available to use, so we could use one whilst the other charged.

The camera we were given limited what and how we could film. To counter this, we used one of our own cameras in tandem with the one we already had. This allowed us to get two perspectives of each shot, (for example a different POV angle) seen most effectively in the flashback killing scene:

During filming, the sound was difficult to control. As we had to film in the dark for most of our piece, we had to think of an alternative light source other than natural lighting. Lighting was checked during practice filming. We used lights off a quad bike and a generator. The generator (whilst giving the right amount of light) had overridden the diagetic sound and was picked up easily by our cameras.
We had to re-film what the opening sequence. After this we filmed each sequence several times with and without the generator. We then (when editing) chose the clip that was most suitable. Re-filming was another problem; there was no guarantee that the same cast would be available again. We had to swap actresses for the re-film.

I learnt during the editing stage how to edit together effectively using the software final cut express. I learnt how to sync the film with the sound (as they came from different sources). When we exported our film, the sound was out of time with the film so I had to drag the respective bars into position; the sound then fitted with the sequence.

Since the preliminary task I have learnt the many effects available to us. One effect which is evident throughout, is the ‘cross-dissolve’, this softened the transition form shot to shot. I learnt how to change the colour of the original killing sequence to black and white.

We had a track from other sources that had copyright free use. We also had several tracks from a composer of thriller music. The main problem was getting the copyright free versions from him. but we managed to do this.

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

After the preliminary task, we started research and planning. We worked well as a team, bringing different ideas to the process. We tracked our progress with ‘meetings’, which summarised what we had been doing and delegated responsibility of different tasks to each person. Storyboarding was the hardest process of planning, as it was so specific and we were bringing together all our research on to one piece of paper. This did help us when filming, as we knew what shot to film in what sequence.

Our research into current thriller films and their conventions helped, as we started to formulate an idea of what an audience expects of a thriller. We narrowed down a ‘mental check list’ of shots commonly used in thrillers and then tried to expand:

- Voyeurism (Tracking, Crabbing)
- POV shots
- Close-ups
- Long shots
- Canted Angle
- Establishing shot
- Low angle / Worms eye view

-Matched Cuts - This shows matched cuts being used to show compression of time to the audience.

The practice filming was vital. This gave us the chance to test each shot and its length based on the storyboard and work out what worked the best. Lighting was the main thing we tested, and whether people would be visible from different angles. This was all done a week before the real filming, when the cast arrived.

I feel my filming skills have improved. I have learnt to adapt the shots to my needs and abilities after extensive work during practice filming.

Overall, I believe our team has created a very good end product that would be successful if made for real. I think it fulfils the task set and I am proud of what we have achieved.

Grace - EVALUATION

In what ways does our media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The conventions of a thriller are shown in the spider diagram. Our thriller incorporates the crime and murder convention and the antagonistic - protagonistic narrative structure.
It also contains voyeurism, which is a general convention of thrillers.

However, we do challenge some thriller conventions such as the lack of a male lead. In most thrillers the lead character is male but in ours the lead is female and the developing character gets stronger as the film progresses.

Our thriller is a psychological thriller with some crime. This is indicated through the flash-back to the antagonist performing the killing and through the voyeurism. The voyeurism causes the audience to wonder who is watching the action - is it them? Is it Amy? Is it the antagonist? This psychological confusion is created by jumping between different perspectives and camera angles - between the body, camp fire and the POV shots in the different scenes.

Each group member came up with a story idea and we chose one of these to develop. The final storyline was created from my original idea. I was influenced by my location and some aspects of the crime convention in CSI. As I live on a farm, I know how scary it is at night and this gave me ideas on what sort of effects could be created if we filmed there.

How does our media product represent particular social groups?

The social group represented in our media is white males and females around the age of 17.

Gender representation in most thrillers I've seen include a stereotypical male lead for example in the film crank (watch from 2.40 to 3.45), all the focus is on the male lead who has to keep his adrenaline pumping. But ours is not stereotypical of gender because it has a female main. The secondary lead could be male or female, however from the stance and style of the figure the assumption is that they are male.

However, this is not revealed in our opening so this is not proven. The antagonist is very dominant as we see from the flash back, and both the victim and the protagonist are the vulnerable females which are general thriller conventions.

What kind of media institution might distribute our media product and why?

Our film could be produced by a major Hollywood studio as it contains all the major thriller conventions and challenges consumers.

If our film were to be released it would be a TV movie because our target audience (15-30) includes students still in school or university who tend to watch more TV. Our film probably would not be an Internet release only film as it is aimed at an audience who are more likely to watch TV than spend time searching the Internet for thriller films.

Our film would offer opportunities for franchises such as video games and investors. Merchandising could offer opportunities to make money through the making of t-shirts, mugs and posters. Also money could be made through DVD sales. Posters would appeal to our target age group as they are likely to be young people who like decorating their rooms with posters.

Who is the audience for our media product?

Our film is made to appeal to young adults aged 15 to 30. However, this is not to say that others older would not enjoy it. I would certificate our opening sequence as a 12A because it includes some violence and horror (the killing) but this is moderate and not frequent. The guidelines for classification are on the following PDF (please copy and paste into your browser):
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/downloads/pub/Guidelines/BBFC%20Classification%20Guidelines%202009.pdf

How did we attract/address our audience?

Our audience profile is both genders between the ages of 15 and 30. One of the ways we attracted this audience was by using characters of a similar age, for example the group of friends around the camp fire are all meant to be 17+ and the antagonist and victim are slightly older, aged 20-25.

We also attracted our audience by making the flashback brutal and violent to increase the tension and to confuse the audience as to what is going on. However, a younger audience could be terrified because of the jumping between angles and because the sequence is in black and white to make it dark and show that it is a flashback.

We used two cameras to film the same action from 2 different angles to create an interesting effect when jumping between the two. We jumped between shots to make the opening run fast and build up tension. We used Point of View (POV) shots to make the audience unsure of whose POV the action is being seen from, which makes it a psychological thriller. We used a high angle establishing shot at the beginning to show the audience where the action is taking place and to introduce from a distance all the characters and the situation.

Throughout, the audience are asked to put themselves either in the position of Amy or watch the action themselves. They are able to witness what is happening to Amy as well as the positions she is in. They also witness what she sees in her mind when the flashback occurs. This allows them to see character development and allows the audience to be in Amy's position.
This creates suspense by them not knowing whose point of view it is from and who is meant to be seeing it happen? - The audience, Amy or the antagonist? This is what also causes it to be a psychological thriller because it jumbles things up in the audiences mind.

The music and sounds used attract the audience because they build suspense, eg. a mix of the feet walking through the leaves and the eerie sound of 'Scary Playground' over the top. Since the music had to be copyright free we used the websites below and got permission:
http://www.enetiworld.com/Enetiworld/Music.html
http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/index.html?genre=Horror

The mise en scene we created was one way we attracted our audience, shown below: (click the image below)

Only 2 props were used in our thriller but these were major to creating the suspense that we needed.

The video below shows how the knife works, without causing harm:

What have I learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing this product?

One of the main problems we experienced during filming was the camera batteries were not charged, but as we used 2 cameras we were able to leave one on charge while we used the other, as the scene we were filming at this point didn't require 2 angles. We experienced problems with a generated light as the generator made too much noise and so overpowered all of our speaking. We resolved this by re-filming the parts with the problem without the generator, using a different power source.

Another problem with the re-film was that we had get back the actors that we had before as other scenes that we had already filmed included some of those from the original footage. We managed a date where most who were in the original footage were available and others replaced those who could not attend.

One piece of new equipment that I had never used before was the gels which changed the colour of the light. We used a blue one in the killing sequence and this deepened the colours but enhanced the knife as the light caught it. We turned the final killing sequence into black and white to give a better effect because the blue gel used didn't make the scene dark enough.

I have learnt more about the use of final cut express and what the tools and features do. Since the preliminary task I have learnt how to add effects.
One useful effect was the cross dissolve as it was a way of showing time passing. I also learnt how to make the sequence black and white.
One interesting feature was the speed effect. We sped up part of the flashback where the knife is pulled away from the body. In final cut express we edited the music and sound using the sound bar so there was no need to use garage band. (to view image please click on it)

One thing I found useful was the amount of filming that we did. We asked our actors to repeat the same parts 4 or 5 times so that we could get a good range of takes and any problems that occurred could be discarded. We did takes with different light and different angles which helped us when we came to edit because if there were any problems we were able to use a different take and combine takes to get a sequence that we liked. Using this process we got many outtakes from it like the one below:

Looking back on the preliminary task, what do I feel I have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Throughout the planning and research we worked well as a group to put our ideas together to create the final outcome. We brought together our different interests and knowledge to create the camera angles and effects. (to enlarge image please click)

Storyboarding was one of the hardest parts of the project because we had to think about our sequence of events and try to create a frame for each. As a group our storyboard was successful and we were able to easily follow it when filming. The image below is a sample of our storyboard. (please click to enlarge)

The practice filming that we did a few weeks before our final filming allowed us to make changes to our storyboard. We were able to work out what lighting would need to be changed and what angles. It allowed us to see which gels would work best for lighting effects and where the light needed to come from to illuminate important features.
You can view our practice filming on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/nfgsearth#p/u

Since the preliminary task I have a better understanding of the shot types and how to use them. We used many different camera angles within our piece, one of the most used being POV shots. We also used simultaneous time to show that the group of friends were carrying on as normal while Amy was wondering through the woods finding the caravan. This is shown where the scream is heard by the friends.

I feel much more confident with all the equipment than I did in the preliminary task. This is because in the meantime I had practiced with the camera and got much more experience during the filming process. I had a lack of understanding on how to use it before we had started our filming. The practice filming and testing helped me to gain confidence and understanding. I now understand how to set up all the equipment and how to use it.

Overall we have met the task requirements of making an opening to a thriller. It meets our aim of making a psychological thriller that creates suspense and confusion.
I asked some viewers for their opinions on the opening and their feedback is on the following link: http://nfgsearth.blogspot.com/p/audience-feedback-grace.html

Editing

We completed our editing on friday and have exported it to be burnt to disk.

We are pleased with the outcome and have now began our evaluation.

Titles

After looking at what both Jonny and Henry have suggested i feel that we do need a shorter title and i like the title 'unknown'.

I feel that if 'the' was added before it then it draws attention away from the one word effect.

I agree with what Jonny said about one word titles bringing fear and suspense.

I like this and think for the purpose of our film it would be the best title to go for.

The Dilemma - Part 2

Henry has bought up a very good point here regarding the conventions of a thriller and the way thrillers are named in conjuntion with these conventions. In the research which I did about the titles of a thriller there were two main catagories that I could see:

1. short names, often one or two sylables that convayed a sense of fear, intrigue and mystery, and;
2. longer titles that have words relating to high-octane action and often to the main action sequence of the film.

Henry has put forward title ideas before and the two best are Hunted, (The) and his latest one Unknown, (The). I am also putting forward a variation of a previous title, Details (In the).

Title Dilemma

After we decided our title needs to be changed, (in order to better fit thriller conventions) I came with an alternative title:

- (The) Unknown - this few syllables than 'Attention to detail', has links to the plot (unknown antagonist, stepping into the unknown) and leaves the audience guessing as to what this might involve.

I have also added this post to my "possible titles" post which I wrote on 01/02/10 because of its relevance.

Meeting 21 - 03/03/10

Everyone attended today.

We used our lesson as well as one of our study periods to get to were we are now. In the last lesson we were able to gather clips ready to insert in the main sequence which is what we did today.

Between us we arranged more of the sequence and continued to add to it, as well as discussing what we still need to include, actors names are one of the things we are yet to add. We also talked about the title and agreed that it was too long and so needed to be shortened or a new title come up with.

On the editing day (05/03/10) one of our main targets is to arrange the shots in a more accute manner, so that it holds our target audience in suspense whilst at the same time showing our technical skills with the camera.

Tomorrow we aim to FINISH THE EDITING PROCESS.

Titles

After group discussion on friday and Grace and Jonny's discussed titles I believe:

DISAPPEARANCE would be my first choice: this title is an polysyllabic abstract noun so I believe has more of an impact on audience, there is one obvious link to the plot (the girl) and then one slightly more subtle (the antagonist).

ATTENTION TO DETAIL my second: I am less sure where this fits into the story. I see this as more generic but I would still be happy for it to be used as our title.

The title to our film

After spending sometime looking at the outline to our full story to try and make a decision on the title, we decided to make to lists. One for the main male character and one for the female to try and put some words together to make our title.

Him - hunted, death, night, disappearance, strange, cloak, chasing, shadows

Her - disappearance, thoughts, stronger, psychic, happening(s), hidden

Film - meeting, details

After looking at these words we we thought about the story details and the part where her things disappear and other things reappear and came up with the title

'ATTENTION TO DETAIL'

Meeting 20 - 25/02/10

All Attended.
Today was simply a continuation of yesterday's work, editing through the 'Woods' sequence. This time we focused more on the non diagetic music, trying to use the music more appropriately and build it up towards the end to create tension and an air of mystery ready for the upcoming sequence. It was also discussed that we should intertwine shots of her walking through the woods with quick shots of a 'presence' in the midst of darkness to speed up the action, as it is fairly slow to start.

Meeting 19 - 24/02/10

All Attended.
Today we continued to edit sections of our uploaded footage. We made the opening shots shorter as we all felt it dragged on too much, believing that this would fail to capture our audience's attention. We also found how to vary the levels of sound in the film through Final Cut Express. This will be useful as we do not want our audience to become immune to parts of our film(immunisation model) because they have been exposed to the same material for so long that it has no effect on them. We added a close up of the main character early on in the sequence so that the audience can establish who she is, then we can put more focus upon her and carefully start detach her from the group around the camp fire.

We will continue to edit through this week with a view to getting at least one scene of the film fully edited by Friday (26/02/10)

Titles

I was thinking about Henry's title idea Shadows and The Deathly Silence and thought the may work well together to make 'The Deathly Shadows'.

However, I dont know whether our title should refer to Amy rather than the attacker.

Meeting 18 - 10/02/10

Today all were in the lesson.
We uploaded the re-filmed footage and reviewed it. We all felt that it was much better than last time.
We started to put this in place of our previous filming.
The uploading took most of the lesson because we had a problem with capturing it onto the computer and we have yet to still capture some. We tried lots of different cameras as we thought it may be a problem with the camera but this made no difference, so Grace is going to try the tape in her video camera at home to see if it is a problem with the tape.

Meeting 17 (Lesson Update) - 08/02/10

Unfortunately both Jonny and Grace were unavailable because of 'drama production' commitments.
So the only thing I (Henry) felt I could do (that we hadn't already covered) was to practise more editing techniques in final cut express, as my skills in editing needed to be improved.

I will take a look at the footage shot from re-filming when we meet again on Wednesday, and again begin to edit through the appropriate shots. We may also finalise a title for our film.

Re-filming - 05/02/10

Unfortunatly Henry could not attend the re-film but as he had been there before he knew what was going on.
However we were uable to use the forklift this week as there was something wrong with it but this was fixed by using a tractor instead to gain the height.
Overall the filming went well and we didnt have to use the generator this time. Grace also thinks that the acting was better as we had an extra peron to the nuber before which added to the action.
We hope that this was a success and next time we are all together we will upload the footage and begin to edit it.

Meeting 16 - 05/02/10

All Attended.

We continued to edit clips filmed, focusing on getting the sound to syncronise with the piece of film. The pieces of film we looked at was the 'Opening Credits' leading into 'Through the woods' scene with our main character.

Grace showed Henry and Jonny the video effects she had found from the previous lesson. Now they both understand what is available in 'effects' and how they can be altered.

On Friday afternoon/evening Grace and Jonny, along with our main and supporting characters, will reshoot the opening sequence because of the unfortunate sound problems encountered last weekend. Henry is unable to attend but will keep up to date with the progress made this weekend via the blog.

Titles

It is very hard to come up with a title as most that come to mind that will fit in with our storyboard have already been taken. However i have managed to come up with some:

The Dark Stalker
At Nightfall
The Follower

Meeting 15 - 4/02/10

Today all attended.
Jonny unfortunately had to leave early but this didn't effect our work as we just continued to look at editing our film.
We (Grace and Henry) started working on another frame of our storyboard and managed to synchronise the sound with the action that was on screen as we had to take sound from one area and used it elsewhere.
Grace also played around with final cut express and looked further into making the sequence a little brighter to make the action clearer.

Video Effects

Today I played around with the video effects to try and make the woods sequence slightly brighter and have found out how to do this so will show the group next time. It makes the sequence much clearer and brighter but still creates the effect as though it is in the dark.

Meeting 14 - 03/02/10

All Attended.

Today we focused on continuing to edit particular pieces of our filming from last weekend. We also looked through the filmed shots that we had uploaded from last time but not viewed as a whole, to see if the camera shots, lighting and sound were at a good standard. We were happy with most of the shots we took it is mainly the sound and lighting that is causing problems. We also considered a titles for our film, Henry has already come up with a few whilst Grace and Jonny said they will do the same in coming lessons.

As discussed this week, we plan to re-film the very start of our sequence as we are now aware that by using the generator to gain extra light in certain shots, we lose alot of the natural and ambient sounds within the film. We thought about overlaying non diagetic sounds but are very aware of overusing this technique, we want the music tracks to add to the suspense and tension of the film not ditract from it. Over the couple of weeks we will continue to edit filming trying out different effects in Final Cut Express as we go.

Possible Titles

We have already posted a video on our chosen title sequence, thinking about the layout/order and several texts creating a variety of different effects. However, as yet no one has come up with a title for our opening sequence and I had a moment of inspiration today. I realise that this title decision is small in comparison to rest of the filming process, but it is something that needs to be considered.

Here are some possible titles that I came up with for our film:

- Shadow, (In the) Shadow
- Silouette
- Target
- Disturbed
- Hunted, (The) Hunted
- Dead Silent, The Deathly Silence

On 04/03/10, after we decided our title needs to be changed, (in order to better fit thriller conventions) I came with an alternative title:

- (The) Unknown - this few syllables than 'Attention to detail', has links to the plot (unknown antagonist, stepping into the unknown) and leaves the audience guessing as to what this might involve.

Opening Title Sequence

Below is the opening title sequence that we have come up with.

Logos

Below are the logos that we constructed for our opening sequence

Meeting 13 - 29/01/10 to 30/01/10

All attended at Grace's house.

Friday: Max Gibbens, Lewis Rendell, Rosie Hogg, Jack Banks and Abi Carsberg were able to get to Grace's and film the parts with multiple actors and the killing of the deceased victim. This was successful. We also looked over our opening sequence and came up with logos for our company.

Saturday morning: We uploaded the raw footage that we had taken on Friday evening. We began importing it into our opening sequence on final cut express, to see if it worked in the places we wanted it to go and that it was fully syncronised. One problem with our footage, was that when we used a generated light, the noise of the generator was picked up too well by the camera. This meant that it was the dominant feature in our footage instead of the noise made during the action. We have come up with a solution to this, which is to re-record the sound and then place this over the top of the old sound to cut out the generator. However, if this does not work our only other option is to re-record the whole of the footage.

Saturday afternoon/evening: Abi returned and we filmed the woods scene with her. Since our problem with the generator from Friday, we knew that we had to do something about the noise of the noise of it. We decided to record the footage with the generator on, so we had the light and then we re-recorded it without the light and when it comes to editing we will overlay the sound without the generator onto the footage.

Saturday evening: We finished filming our storyboard but until this has been fully viewed it is unknown to us whether the outcome is what we expect. We uploaded our latest footage to final cut express. We will start to view and edit this next time.

Meeting 12 - 29/01/10

Everyone attended today.
We reviewed the uploads that Grace did of the videos last time.
We all then played around with final cut express working on our opening titles and looking again at the fonts we had short listed.
We changed our production name from Drunken Duck Productions to Nightmare Productions as we felt that our Drunken Duck Productions was a bit comical for the Thriller Genre.
We continued to work on our opening titles sequence and have constructed this how we would like it to be but there are still some changes to be made later.

Practice Filming

If the videos below fail to work please go to our youtube page.

Meeting 11 - 27/01/10

Today all attended.
We looked at all the fonts that we had on the CD and narrowed our favourites down to 13. We will choose the ones we will use once editing.
We played with final cut express to work out how to import these fonts and also played around with them once they were on there to see which ones looked best.
Grace edited and uploaded all of our practice filming.
We had a small passing discussion on the positioning of the text and feel that it would look good in one of the bottom corners so as not to be obstructive to the action. However, this will not be fully decided until we are at the editing stage.

Woods - practice filming

This clip shows the practice filming we did in the woods. We have decided that we need more light to show up the person. This will be in the part where she is running towards the light through the trees but we need light from behind so that she shows up and so does the pathway she is running through.

The biggest problem is getting a large enough light source into the woods.

To do this we will use the quadbikes lights and also an industrial light on a portable generator. These will be strategically placed to make the character visible while leaving appropriate shadow. 

High angle moving - practice filming

This clip shows the use of the forklift to create a high angle effect. This is not the setting it is going to be filmed in but this was the easiest place we had access to for filming. I think it worked well, however as said before we need a better lighting. This clip was taken mainly to establish whether it was going to be possible to create a moving effect. The other thing that I can see is that as the angle descends the light from the forklift lights is blocked so extra lighting will be needed here to make sure that the scene is still in light.

Lighting outside the caravan - practice filming

This clip shows the lighting outside of the caravan. As you can see the lighting was not that great and Grace did not show up in it. We tried in from different angles but this did not achieve a better effect. From this we have realised that we need more lights to make sure that the person within the sequence can be seen as well as the surroundings. Again the audio is just for interest.

Inside the caravan - practice filming

Here is a video clip from inside the caravan showing the lighting that there will be. It also shows the angle we are filming from. It will not be a mess when we come to use it as it is being cleared out soon. In the caravan is the place where the gels that we acquired will be most useful. Blue, yellow or red gels would be best but we will find out soon.  The audio over the top is just for interest.

As a Note - Title Credits

At the very start of the film we must include:

For the benefit of the Exam board, on the first screen we have to put:
the centre name and number
each of our names and individual candidate numbers

Gels Practice

As regards the gel testing of which there is a video below, the colours came through better than expected. I managed to get hold of them through the drama department and they were better expected. The red and green gels gave the richest colours on the brick. The blue I think came out too dark and while causing a dramatic change in light, I'm not convinced that it would cause the right wash effect. All of these gels are usable though I can't immediately see a use for the green gel. The one thing I will do now having seen the clip is try using a blue gel that is lighter in colour. This would give a better cold wash.

Actors

Here is our final list of actors:

Jack Banks - Attacker

Abi Carsberg - Amy (main girl)

Grace Menhinick - Deceased Victim

Fonts

Here are pictures of the fonts that i showed you just as a reminder of ones that we have access to that are not on the school system. These are the ones that interested me. I know that some are not appropriate but these were the ones off of the CD that we interesting and not just simple and basic like the ones that are already on the system at school. I will bring in the CD so that you can view the other fonts in it incase you prefer any others.

Titles

I had the same sort of idea as this but i think that rather than having the titles placed in the centre at the bottom i was thinking to the right nearer the corner to make them even less obstructive as in our opening we have much action which requires more of the image to be seen. I have to say that i don't like the fact the the word 'Staring' stay on screen throughout. I think it would be better if it was to fade in with the first name and then fade out again.

I like the slanted 'A' in the title and I think it may be worth thinking more about detail like this when it comes to editing rather than just having plain font. As Henry said, as we have little time to achieve putting in our credits i think that ours would have to move at a slightly quicker pace than this, however i did notice that the pace fitted in with the music.

Titles: 'Altered States'

Watch from 2.20 onwards. My focus on this video was purely the text used and how it was done, not the title sequence storyline. I hope to bear my findings in mind when we come to choose our final title/opening sequence.

The first thing I felt was quite interesting was the way the actors names flashed up after the word 'Starring', this made the continuity of the sequence much better. It also saved time as the names were shown on the same screen. If we wanted to progress our film within the sequence, and get alot of information across in a short period of time, this might have to be changed. But we could still use the flash effect whether or not the names appear on the same screen.

Also, it is in a small text making it fairly unassuming. This does not dominate the audience's view and allows them to follow the story easily whilst the credits are rolling. This is, I believe, is the effect we are trying to create because when researching titles we felt big texts took something away from the film.

I like the originality of the text, shown very well at the end of the clip. The 'A's are slanted, giving the title of the film some extra interest aesthetically and pragmatically.

Titles: 'Altered States' Video

More info on Props

Today the special effects wax arrived.

Also while my mum was out she managed to buy a retractable plastic knife so now these two items we have got covered.

Meeting 10 - 25/01/10

All Attended. We revised our post on risk assessment to include a more detailed response. We successfully uploaded our storyboard in video form, with background music (this may feature in our film). We briefly started to have a look at titling and in particular what text is used for the thriller genre. We have considered changing our production company name to suit the thriller genre better, as the previous one although clever could be seen as humourous. This is is not the effect we want our film to have on our audience.

Next time we will look into titling and fonts in more detail. We may also think about the non-diagetic sounds we want to include in our film and where they could be placed.

Storyboard

Here is the video of our timed storyboard. It contains audio and this is some of the tracks that we will later use in our final piece.

Meeting 9 - 22/01/10 to 23/01/10

These last few days we have been looking at the last things that we need to focus before filming.

We spent time Friday looking at the different lighting that was avaliable and taking video clips to see which angles worked best for the certain lights. We edited the clips but these are yet to be uploaded. The only one we have uploaded is the clip on gels.

Yesterday we scanned and uploaded our storyboard, but as well as this we also filmed a timed version of it and added over the top some of the tracks we will be using for our final piece. This is also yet to be uploaded.
We went out to our different locations and took photos of the final places we would be filming and posted these on the blog.

We also spent much time thinking about our characters and what their codes. We looked at the costume and continued to recruit actors. We are still yet to find the main girl for our sequence. Grace is to get in contact with Abi Carsberg to find out if she is avaliable to do it.

We looked further at the sound tracks and made a decision on which sound/music we would use where in the opening and put this onto our storyboard.

Gel testing video

below is the video of the different coloured light gels and what colour they made the white light.

Cast - Character Codes and Costume

Antagonist:  

Mysterious and reclusive individual. Social background and ability are lacking. Avoids human contact when possible and has rigid patterns which they follow subconsciously. He is a methodical killer as opposed to a killer of opportunity and anger, planning what is to happen.

They are very careful not to be caught or recognized by others.

Antagonist would wear all dark clothing concealing all possible parts of the body with the exception of hands that would be gloved. (Hooded jacket, gloves, mask?)

Victim:

Socialistic person with a personality generally agreeable to most. Out with friends as often as not yet still well read in literature. 

Would wear jeans and top. Flipflops. Hair done up. White make up and wounds after death.

Amy:

Again a fairly social and rowdy type of person. Not so keen on academics as others but is very easy to get along with. 

Would wear boots, skirt and leggings and a mid cut top with a warm, decent jacket. Make up, mascara, eye shadow, blusher.

Extras:

Male 1: Good jeans, shirt and fleece jumper with converse style shoes.

Male 2: Good dark jeans, good t-shirt, jumper, long coat and boots.

Male 3: Slacks, short shirt, coat and fleece, casual trainers (not sport).

Female 1: Jeans, long top and big belt, jewelry, fleece

Female 2: Big Warm Hoodie and jeans

Sound for Thriller

This morning Henry and Jonny were looking at the music that we could potentially use to accompany our film. One of the tracks which we have acquired we believe is suited to a particular sequence within our opening. Using GarageBand we have removed some of the more inappropriate pitch notes. We thought that doing this aided in creating a more tense and fast paced atmosphere. 

   

Locations

This is where we aim to have the campfire and the friends around it as there is a patch of dead grass where there has perviously been a fire which is convenient and also there are many trees for the girl to run through.

These are images of the wooded area that we will be filming in. These are the bits where the girl is running through the trees towards the light. We spent a while trying to work out which direction the light is going to coming from and have worked out that we will need light from behind as well as in front so that the girl shows up on the camera.

These are images of the caravan that we will be shooting our murder scene in and also where the body of the deceased is found.

Storyboard

Here are the stills from our storyboard but changes will be made as we film and find faults or better ways of getting a good effect

New Music that we have chosen to use

We have chosen to use the awkward meeting track that Grace found for our opening because as she said we think it will fit well with the action and create suspense and make it eerie. We like the track the came from Henry called scary playground as well but feel that this would fit in well later in the opening as well as the beginning, so will use awkward meeting to fit in music from different sources.

New Music

From the website that i have added, I liked the track Awkward Meeting, Aftermath, Decay and Dark Walk, but the one that i think would work best for the opening is Awkward Meeting because it would create suspense and also fit in with the action.

Sound

From the work that has been done so far on sound I would say we are making reasonable progress considering we don't have any action sequences to match the music to yet. Grace and Henry edited 2 pieces of music using garage band on the Mac. This while I was scrounging for Light Gels. From what I have heard they have managed to do a good editing out the louder, more inappropriate instruments.
We have found, on a different website, a new piece of music we found. I intend to have a go at editing this track which we will most likely use for the first 10 to 20 seconds.

Props List

Here a run-through of the props and equipment  that we intend to use in our film: 

Props 

- special effects wax 

- spring-loaded knife

- make up - face paint 

- fake blood

- drinks bottles (empty)

Equipment

- camera (and battery)

- tripod

- light gels (5 colours)

- electrical tape

- foil/white sheet - to reflect light

-  torches 

- industrial lights 

- quadbike

- forklift

Test Filming

We have been looking and analysing different lighting techniques. This included looking at lighting angles, distances and colours. We also tested the location and how different prominent features came out on camera.

We found out what we needed to change in terms of what direction the lighting will come from and also the angle that we will film it from, as we realised that there was little room in some areas to film from the angles that are shown on the storyboard.