Wednesday, 30 April 2014

Editing stages


This screenshot displays the editing of my sound clips. Here it shows me adding an effect to the screams which are heard at the beginning and end of the opening. The effect I put on the clip was an echo to make it sound more haunted and eerie as II wanted to portray it as the voices were in her head, as she was being haunted by them.
This is a screenshot of my timeline, here it shows an additional sound clip on its own line, this is the sound of the little girl saying "why are you touching that?"










These two screenshots show me playing with the different sound effects, to add to the footage. I had to do this because the diegetic sound from the camera, picked up other sounds e.g. people talking and the wind from outside which interfered with the sound track and made it unusable. I then had to add the previous sound from another take.

Tuesday, 29 April 2014

Director's Commentary




I decided to add a directors commentary onto my video to explain all my decisions and reasons behind my choices.

Sunday, 27 April 2014

Rough Cut- Feedback







The overall feedback I received for the rough cut of my thriller was positive, however, there were comment that was raised many times:
  • Make the story a bit more revealing to get a better understanding
  • The sound effects at the beginning were too loud
  • The transitions from the credits didn't flow well 





This is a screenshot of me editing the sound effects for the screaming. I used the pen tool in Final Cut to adjust the sounds and added a gradual fade in and out, as I was told the screaming was uncomfortably loud.


Evaluation 7


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


During the early stages of year 12 - I had no experience at all with general media. I had never edited any footage before and for my preliminary task it was the first time. During the planning stage for my preliminary created a story board: That is where I learnt how important and crucial planning all my ideas ahead really is. This was the stage where I first was introduced to the numerous different shots and how to use them. From this task I was able to again confidence with using the different types of shots and techniques used such as the 180 degree rule, match on action, shot/reverse shot, continuity and camera work to build tension, suspense and empathy. These particular shots turned out to be vital in creating my film. I discovered that the use of the different shots had an impact on what needed to be stressed. An example of this is using an extreme close up to show the characters inferiority and the sense of entrapment whereas using an extreme long shot can encapsulate someone’s feeling of alienation and loneliness.


I also learnt how to adjust the lighting of my footage as some scenes were poorly lit due to me not having the lighting equipment at that time. Therefore, I had to fix this because the scenes were consecutive and it wouldn't have looked good thus would impacting the continuity, I fixed this issue with the colour corrector tool on Final Cut.





 However, from looking back at my preliminary task I knew I needed to use the knowledge from working with the different techniques and implicate them into my thriller. Moreover, due to this being a proper film opening, I felt I had to make it look far more professional as in some of my preliminary tasks the footage was quite shaky and didn't flow particularly well. Therefore, to improve on this I had to research in depth how shots and techniques really help to impact the scene and how they needed to be edited, I learnt that this wasn't executed as well in my preliminary tasks.






For my opening thriller I created a shot list to remind myself which shot is which, as my preliminary taught me how much planning and structure is necessary in making a successful video.
  






In this task we were focussing on continuity, making our different shots flow after each other, smoothly. This is also known as invisible editing. We also tried "match on action" which is when you cut between two shots whilst trying to not let it look like time has passed as they must look like two consecutive shots. This is crucial to the editing process as this is what helps to keep the flow of a scene and this is why there are people in the media industry whose sole purpose is to check the continuity. This video shows the match on action for when the character goes through the door and when she goes up the stairs.

The preliminary task really helped to make me realise how crucial continuity is, when making a film, because a poor execution can damage the films credibility and lose the audience, as poor transitions can take the audience out of the story, thus failing to keep their attention. However, one of my preliminary tasks executed this well as the transitions were smooth and flowed well together. However, the use of a POV shot at the end was fairly shaky and from this I've massively improved and learnt from my mistake.


I learnt how to use 'over the shoulder' shots and tracking shots - On top of that I learnt that the sound track can really affect and change the view of the audience. The sound track built suspense and made the preliminary more tense than what it is without the sound track. I also learnt how to work with the camera and the tripod more, being able to keep the camera steady for a neat outcome. My thriller opening needed effective work and effort in the mise-en-scene as it needs to create a mood and scene so that the audience can relate and connect themselves with the movie more. Where as in my preliminary we did not think about what could have ruined and effected the genre. The lighting was more thought through in my final thriller opening as in the preliminary we used the original lighting with no editing included.






Above is the preliminary task I did prior to my thriller. I found this particular task quite useful in building my knowledge of what shots work best and understanding what makes a good film opening as we did our best to copy the original opening sequence. This task was by far the most beneficial preliminary task I've done due to it fitting the brief of an opening sequence which is what my thriller is as well, an opening to my film. Moreover, I found by partaking in this task I learnt so much about organisation; organising venues to shoot in and organising the actors. I also learnt about editing in a lot more depth as I now had to think about the sound track as well as the film, whereas, in previous tasks sound wasn't an issue. The editing process also helped me to develop my knowledge and confidence with the software Final Cut Express and all its tools.



Saturday, 26 April 2014

Evaluation 6

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

During the process of creating my media product, I managed to gain experience and knowledge of what goes into the production of  a film by using the many different technologies. The main tools I used consisted of the Macs and the software programme Final Cut Exppress and Garage Band. Unfortunately for me, the last time I used the Mac was in year 9 so I started of a tad rusty in terms of using Garage Band and I was a complete novice to Final Cut, however, I started to feel really comfortable after using the different tools and software in the many different tasks. Nonetheless, there were times when I got stuck and wasn't sure what to do, but thankfully I was able to turn to the How-to-guides on youtube to figure it out. The programme Final Cut was vital for the creation of my media product because without it, my film wouldn't have looked half as good nor professional.



From using Final Cut I was able to edit my footage by adding special effects to it; such as the light rays I used when my main character was enduring a flashback, to show the that she was transcending into a dream-like state. I also used After Effects to create the credits, this was sometimes frustrating as I had a few difficulties with this as I kept changing my mind on whether I wanted the credits to overlay the film or be placed on a black page, to be more abstract.



The left shot shows the original clip and the right one shows it after I used the colour correction tool.







 There was a limited amount of editing involved in my preliminary. In contrary to my final thriller opening as I had many different editing techniques involved such as, zooms, fade in fade out, cross fades etc. I felt far more confident using the equipment, software's and websites  this time around as I was fully informed about what they are, what they did and how to use it.


Tripod: The tripod was useful and essential to the filming of my production, preliminary and thriller opening because it helped to stabilise shots that needed to be static, helping to make it look more professional. My skills with the tripod definitely improved because the first time I used it, I didn't realise that i could have extend the legs therefore I was carrying the tripod when I wasn't to get a higher angle


Camera: I used a Sony Handycam camera to film all my preliminary videos and my final thriller. Due to this being a fairly simplistic camera I didn't have to worry much about how to use it as it was fairly straight forward. However a disadvantage of this camera was the focussing, as other cameras you're able to change your focus by twisting the lens, this camera didn't have this feature and during the editing phase of my production I noticed that there was a part of my film that lost focus. Another issue I had with the cameras was that the batteries kept dying which interrupted the filming process and delayed the schedule.

Blogger: I had used Blogger fairly briefly before starting my media course but nowhere near in as much depth. I enjoyed changing the layouts and I learnt very quickly how to embed different features such as pictures and videos on my blog which once I knew how to do allowed me to become more creative and productive with it.






Google: I used Google for all of my research on genre and sub-genres, theorists, and conventions. I did a lot of in-depth research to find out about thrillers that have been released, producers and distributors.


Final Cut Express: Final Cut Express is the software I used to edit my thriller opening. I was a compete novice with using this particular software, however through the many different tasks we did, I soon become accustomed to it.

Youtube: This website was definitely important in the upcoming stages of planning for my thriller; as I used it to research other thrillers from the same genre as my film. This site was also helpful for the publication of my thriller as I tried to upload my thriller straight onto Blogger and it just wasn't working so I quickly resolved the issue and uploaded it to Youtube then embedded the code to my blog.

After Effects: I used After Effects to create my titles for my opening. I found it fairly simple to use as I wanted to make my titles simplistic. I only added an animation on the movie title because I wanted to make it stand out, I downloaded the font from Dafont.com it was called "28 Days Later" and then added the emotion of "Office lights" onto it.


Art of The Title: Art of the Title was used in the planing and research stage; I used this site to get a better understanding on how professional film openings begin. This site helped with the placement of the titles and also an idea of font styles as I watched film openings from films from the psychological genre as I wanted to see what effects they used. This was really beneficial for me as it inspired me to create my credits in a similar fashion.



Was my opening successful?

My thriller was successful because I believe that I have fulfilled the task, to the best of my ability. My thriller is clearly a psychological thriller through the conventions I used such as the abstract storyline and intense start which builds up suspense. I think the soundtrack worked well with the video as it wasn't to cliche and over exaggerated, it was fairly subtle as it allowed the visual to narrate the story, rather than the other way round. Moreover, through the array of different shots I've used to engage my audience and present my narrative with the use of match on action to ensure the continuity of the film was spot on and flowed well, making it easier for the audience to follow. In preparation for my thriller, I watched many film opening to ensure my titles were correct, I made sure they were bold and clear for the audience to see. I truly believe that I have improved massively since my preliminary project in every way from filming and using different angles and shots to editing and using different softwares and effects. I also think I have a better appreciation for the producers and editors of films as I now know that this is isn't as easy as I'd originally though, I also think this has made me view media and its institutions in a different light. As an actress myself, I've only looked at the actors and directors of films and programmes and never really thought about the all the people behind the scenes and how important they really are to the production of a film. I have gained a lot of confidence in using editing software like Final Cut and using different sites and programmes, I believe that I'm far more knowledgeable in the media of films and I think this project has really opened my eyes to the vast array of film genres out there. I'm happy to say that I really have dramatically improved over this course and I hope to keep learning and improving.

Evaluation 5




How did you attract/address your audience? 

 My intention for my thriller opening was to really capture the audience and make them think, my thriller was fairly simplistic through it only really following one character and my narrative was non-existent. Therefore, I had to rely on grasping the audiences attention through my camera work due to the different shots and angles, costumes and sound effects.

Below is a video response from a person that fits the criteria of my target audience, explaining why this thriller attracted her.




The feedback I received helped me to see where I could improve and what worked well in my opening. By making these improvements, I will be able yo attract an even bigger audience perhaps branching out to an even older audience, as the narrative is quite a sophisticated and confusing one. My main aim of my opening was to engage the audience and build up enough suspense to leave them wanting more.


 Below is my thriller opening annotated with my intentions for each scene and how I felt it attracted my audience.



Friday, 25 April 2014

Evaluation 4

Who would be the audience for your media product? 




Here is a video response by Manna explaining why this film is best targeted at her. My target audience ranges from the ages of 15- 45+ as I believe that this film relates to people from these ages and the content of the thriller isn't appropriate for younger audiences. Even though my opening scenes won't include any of the conventions and themes in a 15 rated film I still believe that it is better suited for a 15+ audience as if it was to continue on, there would definitely be intense scenes, profanity and scenes of a sexual nature as the main character would be a victim of rape.


Name: Claire Kyle
Age:  22
Info: Student, University - Studying Criminal Law

Claire loves watching programmes that feature the supernatural because "I love the idea of the unknown, so I enjoy watching shows that feature elements of the supernatural and people with psychological problems." She goes on to say that, "I love scary films, even though I do spend most of the time watching it behind my pillow, I think it's the suspense that makes me want to carry on watching. I enjoy trying to figure out who the stalkers and killers could be. My favourite films are the ones that either leave me wanting to sleep with the light on or make me question life." Her favourite films are Black Swan, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Butterfly Effect and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. She enjoyed watching them in the cinema and watching them at home on DVD with her friends.


I think my film would appeal to Claire and Manna because  the genre of my thriller is the genre of their favourite movies. Moreover, through their inquisitive minds and their love of the supernatural I confidently believe that this film will be right up their street As you can see from my two example profiles teenagers are clearly my main audience as the horror genre is very popular with them and my thriller contains generic conventions of a psychological thriller mixed in with the conventions of a horror film. However, the key issues tackled in my thriller are universal as both teenagers and adults have and can deal with issues such as: domestic abuse, relationships, drug abuse and the need to be famous.

General feedback from my target audience:
  •  This was a very good video.
  • I loved the effects that you used to show flashbacks in her head.
  • The story line is very interesting.
  • Sound effects are really good and fit the thriller genre very well
  • Overall, it's a great and very abstract opening.
  • "I would definitely want to watch the rest of the film."



Evaluation 3


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

Here is a slide share detailing information on the production company FilmFour and why I chose it.


Thursday, 24 April 2014

Evaluation 2


Below is a video commentary discussing the key decisions behind the making of my coursework project - the opening three minutes of a feature film.






My thriller opening stars a teenage girl aged between 17 and 18, teenagers are normally represented negatively in media, due to gang culture and the negative press that the youth of today receive. Teenage girls especially are read with the connotation of "helpless" and "damsel in distress" this is until their help is required. Even when female characters help out and save the general protagonist, the male protagonist is still assumed to be and seen as the main hero. The antagonist is also seen as the big macho male who is generally very built up and walks with a mysterious manner.

Considering the costume of the character in my thriller I wanted to convey the effect of normality as I put her in a red dress rather than a white one to illustrate her innocence, I also chose to have the male character in normal clothes so he wasn't a clear antogonist.



Evaluation- 1


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

I have selected 8 frames from my film opening which I believe best use and challenge the generic conventions of my chosen genre, psychological thrillers. Some frames illustrate how I've intertwined the horror and psychological thriller into one, to create a hybrid film.

Frame 1: Story & How the opening is set up
Frame 2: The title of the film
Frame 3: Setting & Location
Frame 4: Special Effects
Frame 5: Costumes & Props
Frame 6: Genre & How the opening suggests it
Frame 7: How characters are introduced

Frame 8: Camera Work & Editing

Frame 1- Story & How the opening is set up



Due to my film being quite abstract, I decided to go against thriller norms of starting of with a pan of the room, to give the audience a sense of what the film will be about through the mise en scene. I believed that opening a film this way helps to build and create suspense and I believed that this would be better as it helped to create a sense of ambiguity from the beginning. Whilst this is being shown, the audio behind the clip is of screaming fans yelling out "Debby, Debby/ Take my picture." I've chosen to have this enter under this particular frame to create an enigma and t draw in my audience as they'd want to know who this Debby is and why these people are screaming her name.
From my research, I discovered that a lot of psychological thrillers start of slowly and quite ambiguously as the storyline builds up, nothing is revealed till later. Hence why I decided to have the second frame be an aerial shot of the main character sleeping, to start feeding questions into my audiences head. Who is she? Why is she fully clothed? How did she get there? Moreover, the audience can already start to make assumptions and judgement of the character through her costume as she is wearing a red dress and red is usually associated with promiscuity and danger.

I chose to make this shot a static one rather than have it pan in because I didn't want the audience to connect to the character straight away. This was inspired by the opening scenes of the Machinist, as we are first introduced to the main character through a long shot coming from outside of the window looking in, which made it quite intrusive.


Frame 2- Title Font & Style

The second frame chosen to demonstrate how I incorporated the conventional techniques of a thriller into my piece is the title of the film. The title plays a key role in providing the audience with a taster of the narrative of the film without revealing too much of the plot. With my title being "Broken", I decided to have it on black background as it just broke the scene of the main character awakening through its entrance, this is a reflection of her fragmented mind as she isn't sure of her location, her identity or what is happening.

The title plays a key role in providing the audience with a taster of the narrative of the film without revealing too much of the plot. With my title being "Broken", I decided to have it on black background as it just broke the scene of the main character awakening through it's entrance, this is a reflection of her fragmented mind as she isn't sure of her location, her identity or what is happening.

The capitalisation of the letters, has been purposefully done as I wanted to create a sense of urgency through this and also to stress the importance of the word, hinting to the audience that this film is an abstract film that will be "Broken" and fragmented. I believed that this would have created intrigue as the word itself is quite ambiguous as it could be relatable to anything, thus becoming an enigma. This fit in well with the psychological genre as the titles are usually quite simple yet strong and powerful such as "Awake."

The font is representative of the characters fragility, through the patchiness of the letters. This once again relates to films such as "The Butterfly Effect" as this film's title is also simplistic yet bold as the writing reflects its message as one of the "f's" is backwards to create the look of a butterfly.



 The motion of the text is each letter flickers on light a broken light, this is a reflection of the narrative as the main protagonist Debby is like a flickering light bulb, as she is constantly getting flashbacks of herself and a little girl. Moreover, the addition of the sound effect helped to add depth to the title, heightening the flashes of the letters. I chose to do this, to illustrate the irritation received from Debby after getting a flashback, through the harsh sound, an effect often used in films and television shows.


Frame 4- Special Effects




Here is a screenshot of the program "After Effects." I used this to find my font and to create my credits which I then imported into "Final Cut."
Frame 3 is one of many flashbacks that Debby gets, this particular flashback is of her and a gentleman planning to embark on what looks to be a kiss, however before the audience is able to tell it would have already gone of the screen. I chose to add the dream effect on the flashback sequence because I wanted to distinguish that this is what she sees in her head, I added "light rays" on the shots to blur the picture to demonstrate her haziness and lack of clarity of the situation she is in.  I think this effect was successful as it was essential to the narrative as it echoed the confusion she felt.



 Lighting in my thriller took a very long time to perfect due some of the scenes taking place in poorly lit rooms, during the production of the film there wasn't an issue as I was able to see everything I wanted to see clearly however when I was editing I noticed that there subtle differences in colour that would have been a continuity mistake. Therefore I had to use "Colour Corrector" on Final Cut which helped to brighten up the clip. The shot on the left is a product of the colour corrector tool.



Frame 5- Genre and How the opening suggest it


This is a screenshot of the part of the film in which Debby has a flashback of herself and a man, this is often found in psychological thrillers. However, through my editing I realised that my thriller could be perceived as a hybrid of mystery, horror and psychological. I have incorporated many shots which imply that the character is mentally unstable through the constant flashbacks and the paranoia of seeing the child and hearing things.


My thriller incorporates the genre of a psychological thriller through the special effects; the soundtrack, the ambiguous narrative and the constant flashbacks and the cyclical quality of ending my thriller with the main character waking up in bed.



Frame 6- Costume and Props


During my thriller openings there isn't a wide range of props used  as it fairly simple and abstract
  • Teddy bear
  • Toys
  • Red dress


The costume in this thriller is symbolic, as the red dress symbolises the possible promiscuity of the character as it red, however, the leggings are worn to protect her modesty, showing that this character is fairly innocent and young. Moreover, I chose to keep her face completely clear, as I wanted to illustrate the character's vulnerability and youth, making the audience sympathise with her confusion.


She isn't wearing anything that looks particularly expensive or extravagant, perhaps suggesting that she isn't a character that is well off. This suggest to the audience that the house she wakes up in might not neccecassirly be hers or that she doesn't live there alone, making them question who that is and what is their relationship. In one of the scenes you can see a flash of a little girl playing in the living room, I chose to use a POV shot for this to create an affiliation between the two characters, suggesting that they might know each other even though, my main protagonist doesn't remember.

Through the constant flashbacks and back and forth editing, it is hard for the audience to figure out who the antagonist of the movie is. In frame 9, you can see there's a character whom the audience have not been introduced to and do not know how he looks like. However judging from his trousers and shoes he's not someone that is financially healthy or he's part of a gang. Wearing ripped jeans and Nike shoes is stereo-typically someone who is rough or is part of a gang.

The teddy bear is a motif as it is in a lot of shots, this bear is symbolising the characters innocence because every time she only sees it in flashbacks, and it is only when she goes into the room, to follow the voice she heard from upstairs, that she actually sees the bear in person and triggers her to see a little girl in that same room playing with the bear, thus helping to create an enigma through the ambiguity.

Frame 7- Introduction of characters

My target audience is introduced to three characters in the opening of my thriller through different types of shots. My first character is someone whom we takes prevalence in this opening, as the audience follow her through her coming to turns with her surrounding; this helps to give the audience a connection with her as we're discovering new things at the same time she is. The audience are introduced to her lying down on a bed, the aerial shot used is quite intrusive thus making the connection between the audience and this character quite intimate. The second character we're introduced to is male, yet he remains unknown as the audience only see's glimpses of him in flashbacks and in a photograph, which has been blurred to match the haziness of her memory of him. This then leaves the audience with questions like "who is he?" and "what is his relationship with the character Debby?"

We're then introduced to the little girl playing in the living room- editing was used to introduce the little girl, as I used the video tool on Final Cut to make it look like that particular clip was a home made video. Once again making the audience question who this little girl was and what she meant to Debby. Typical conventions are used while introducing the characters through various camera shots. A lot of medium / close-ups are used to give the audience a clear view of what the characters look like.

Lighting in my thriller took a very long time to perfect due some of the scenes taking place in poorly lit rooms, during the production of the film there wasn't an issue as I was able to see everything I wanted to see clearly however when I was editing I noticed that there subtle differences in colour that would have been a continuity mistake. Therefore I had to use "Colour Corrector" on Final Cut which helped to brighten up the clip. The shot on the left is a product of the colour corrector tool.

Frame 8- Camera Work and Editing



I decided to use POV shots to film the child as I wanted to give my thriller a more intimate vibe, making it more personal, this also helped to structure the narrative as by doing this it was clear that the protagonist Debby has an affiliation with the little girl. However, due to the fast paced editing, I've left this to be quite ambiguous as the audience are unaware of the two's connections, thus leaving them to ask questions; building a sense of intrigue and suspense and the need to know more.

 I used a variety of different shots e.g. CU, Mid shots, POV shots, Over the shoulder shots, tracking shots etc.. however I deliberately chose to use shots that were in close distance rather than panning shots and extreme long shots because I wanted to create a sense of intimacy as this is a very abstract piece, the intimacy if the shots represented the entrapment of the character, how she's confined in close quarters.

 I think I was successful in doing this, as I believed it was really effective as it helped to develop the narrative as well because these different types of shots each have a purpose and therefore, fit in with the story.

This is a screenshot of the part of the film in which Debby has a flashback of herself and a man, this is often found in psychological thrillers. However, through my editing I realised that my thriller could be perceived as a hybrid of mystery, horror and psychological. I have incorporated many shots which imply that the character is mentally unstable through the constant flashbacks and the paranoia of seeing the child and hearing things.


This is an example of a POV shot that I used, I found using point of view shots really effective in my thriller because it really helped to create an intimate intense atmosphere that most thrillers create, it put my audience in the film as it made them feel like it was them, which helped to create suspense.



Lighting in my thriller took a very long time to perfect due some of the scenes taking place in poorly lit rooms, during the production of the film there wasn't an issue as I was able to see everything I wanted to see clearly however when I was editing I noticed that there subtle differences in colour that would have been a continuity mistake. Therefore I had to use "Colour Corrector" on Final Cut which helped to brighten up the clip. The shot on the left is a product of the colour corrector tool.

Wednesday, 23 April 2014

Broken- Rough Edit


Here is the first draft of my thriller.



This is the First Draft of my video.

 I showed this clip to numerous different people who I thought were best suited for this film, as they fit the criteria of my target audience.


The general feedback was positive yet there was still some suggestions for improvement:
  • Make the story a bit more revealing to get a better understanding
  • The sound effects at the beginning were too loud
  • The transitions from the credits didn't flow well 

I've taken all of this into account and I've adjusted the sound at the beginning of the film and I'm currently working on fixing the transitions.





Friday, 11 April 2014

Behind the scenes

 

Below are behind the scene shots of the props and equipment that I used in my thriller.
 


 Here is a picture of one of my actors helping me, by holding the light reflector.





 



Here is a picture of the hair light that I used in my thriller to highlight key props, such as the bear.



The little girl I was working with got a bit restless, so my friend had to entertain her whilst I sorted out the equipment.


These are the toys that the little girl is found playing with but the main one is the teddy bear as that appears in other scenes as well as it is a motif in this thriller.