Evaluation Question 1: How Our Film Uses, Devolps And Challenges Coventions Of Real Media Product

Evaluation: Screen Shots

Evaluation: Audience Feed Back and Comments

Evaluation: Audience Feedback And Comment

Final film

In Thursdays lesson we had to finish our film.  So we decided that we would firstly finish off the sound then move on to the titles. We focused on our titles because we hadn't really started them  It was my first time using LiveType and i found it quite difficult. We added a couple of effects and then ended up transferring them over to FinalCut Pro. It took us  while to do this, but we finally managed to get them done. I preferred working on the sound as I'm used to SoundCut Pro.
           We finished off our sound by adding a few extra sounds to make it more interesting.  This wasn't as difficult as LiveType because I am more familiar with the other software.  After we found sounds that fitted perfectly with the opening sequence we transferred the sounds onto FinalCut Pro along with the titles. We made sure that everything was in time before we saved it and transferred it into handbrake to put onto our blog.  We have now completely finished and our final film has been posted on our blog.

Rough Cut of our film analysis

  Our rough cut still needs a lot of work however I think we have done quite well so far. One thing we are still working on is the sound. We have just started adding sound but we still need to add more. We chose a sound motif for the little girl which is used every time the audience see her.  This way the audience will know that she is a major character and that it is critical that they pay attention to her.  We still need to add more sounds to make the opening scene more effective.
We used many different shots in our opening scene including lots of close ups of Prince sleeping from birds eye view and side shots.  We also go a few point of view shots from Prince when he wakes up.  In our flashbacks we got some cutaways such as the knife and we also took shots of the TV. Whilst editing the film we used cutaways rather then fading as it gives it a sharper clean effect.
Making sure that the mise en scene was clear was difficult.  We had to put blood on the knife and the little girl, to make clear to the audience that she had been stabbed.  Occasionally there are scenes where there's not much light but through editing we should be able to fix that for the final film.
For our final film we are going to, finish the sound editing, and titles.

Planning our pitch

To film we were told that we needed to pitch our ideas on the film . At first we decided that we was going to present our pitch on PowerPoint but then decided not to as we had found a more friendlier and presentable website called prezzi . We were all assigned stuff to work on and present . So we lined up notes to each sector so when it came to presenting we knew what we were going too talk about . .

x

x

Final Edit

During today's lesson we all worked on finishing off adding the sounds to our title sequence . In the previous lesson me and prince were working on the titles whilst maria and Rosie were working on the sound . I feel that working together works way better then separately as it gives us a wider range of ideas and you are able to gain help from more people when your stuck . This was the last lesson we had to get out film finished . Although we had limited time we were not under too much pressure and were able to finish off the sound affects to title sequence calmly . As this was the last time  we were going to work with the sound we had to check it over again and again to make sure that it was all in sync and perfectly fitted the piece of drama . Once we had made sure this happened we imported them into final cut pro

In this lesson we also had to add the titles to out actual drama . We were not sure how to do this so we got assistance from another member of another group . The titles didn't take long to do as we knew what direction we was pushing in  . Once we had finished all the titles we move them over to final cut pro and our title sequence was finished .

Tension In Step Father

In Step Father there are many examples of techniques that create suspense .

In the opening scene the director uses Mise en scene is used to creat suspense and tension . The scene begins with standard props such as bread , cups , toaster , kettle ex  to create a normal atmosphere .Although the use of a creepy background makes something seem not right . This idea is justified as the camera then tilts down for us to see a dead body on the floor . We are schocked and this instantly leaves us wanting to know more about what has gone on .

Mise en scene also plays creates tension and suspense in a another scene . David and Micheal are in the basement . The lights are low and the background is dark which ultimately sets the mood. They are also surrounded  by many tools that could kill in a instant , this leaves us all expecting David to kill Micheal . We already know about Davids ruthless murders and the fact that we know more information then Micheal perfectly creates tension  .

Another example of when suspense is created is when the Stepfather is out side the lady with the cats house . He drives past her and they make eye contact . Convinced she knows about him being the murder he drives past . The cat lady then continues the play with her cat , we then hear ring at the doorbell . We are suspect it too be David at the door ready to kill her off . She then opens the door and theres no one there . The camera is then at a low angle but nobody is there . Just pause for a couple seconds and closes . With the great speed the cats jumps on her and screams right in front of the camera . We then are left  schooked and most of us jump and are terrified .

Evaluation Of Snatcher

I think filming snatcher turned out to be way better then the filming of bag swap . Looking back at the film i think we have learned from our previous mistakes . This time we did not leave so much space over the characters head and the film ran more smoothly . We were also able keep focus and be time efficient as before we were mucking about and not taking it too seriously . I have also learned how important having a thought plan . In bag swap it was more about improvisation and we went along with what came to mind . With snatcher we had a solid thought out plan and it really showed in the quality of our drama .

Were also taught how to fade sounds in and out of our drama which gave our drama a boost. Although there is it still room for improvement as we need to learn how to mute out all background sounds but i feel that once we get the hang of it we will gradually master all the techniques .

Sound

Once we had finished editing our film we knew that we needed to add sound to our opening . It was hard because we could only find upbeat music on Sound Track pro . We continued to look hard and it became frustrating and tiring when we could not find anything else but this jolly music . We knew that if we wanted our title sequence to live up to its full potential then the music had to be perfectly suited to our drama . After searching for a while we finnaly found and sample piece of sound of a violin played in a minnor tone . Once we heard it we knew it was perfect for our drama . We then repeated this throught the rest of our piece . Our teacher then recommended that we add a motif to the girl everytime she appeared . We then asked if every one in the group was happy with that idea and  no one had any complaints. So we played around with sounds and finnaly found a screeching and screaming that gave the desired affect we aiming to achieve . Although we still have some work to do everything seems to be promising

Adding Titles

As we were short on time prince and i decided to start creating titles that would be appropriate for out film . Before we got started we did some research on other films in the same genre as ours ( psychological thriller), as we wanted to get a rough idea what type of font we should  use and what affect we were looking for .  So we went on you tube and analysed films such as 'Fatal Attraction' and ' Mulholland Drive ' .

To create title we knew that we would have to use LiveType . This was hard as neither of us had used Live Type before , so at first we had to play round and roam all the features of the software . It was clear that we didn't know what we were doing some we asked a teacher for some assistance . The teacher told us the basics on how to : add text , add effects and how long each title should be . This was helpful and we started to get the hang of it . Although we did find some trouble in finding the perfect font for out opening . We knew that would hard to go for a hard edged font and something that is powerful .We eventually found and used a effect which shakes and drops down which found to be very affective and fitting perfecting with what we envisioned . . We then typed in names of the producer , editor , director ex . Although we did not finish all of it in this lesson , we wont have much more to do and the assistance of Maria and Rosie shall be useful .

Final Edit

Today we finished off editing and decided to work as a group instead of separately. We focused on our titles because we hadn't really started them and they are one of the most important things for the opening sequence. It was my first time using LiveType but once i got the hang of it I found it quite easy. We added a couple of effects and then ended up transferring them over to FinalCut Pro. This took quite a while but finally I added them onto the film and made sure the timing was fine.

We finished off sounds and adding some extra sounds to the ones we had. This was harder than LiveType because we had to make sure they had perfect timing. After I found sounds that fitted perfectly with the opening sequence I transferred the sounds onto FinalCut Pro along with the titles. I had to make sure everything was in sync before I was able to save it and convert on handbrake to put onto the blog. It was fine and now I have posted onto the blog as our final piece.

Analysis of Rough Cut

Our rough cut is still a work in progress but I think we have done quite well for a rough cut. One thing we are still working on is the sound. We have just started adding sound but we are not finished. We chose a really good motif for the little girl which is used every time we see her. This way the audience will know that she has an important role and will want to know what is so important. We still need to add more sounds to make the opening scene more disturbing.

We tried to use many different camera shots in our opening scene. We tried to get many close ups such as when Prince is sleeping but I think there should be more. We got shots from the side and from above Prince. In our flashbacks we got some cutaways such as the knife and we also took shots of the TV. For the editing we used many quick cuts instead of fades to give it a sharp effect. We agreed that the flashbacks look better as quick cuts because it jumps straight from Prince to a flashback.

We had to make sure the Mise En Scene was clear. The knife was shown with blood on it to let the audience understand that the little girl had been stabbed. Also we made sure that in the scene where she is dead it is clear that she has blood all over her dress. Without this the knife and death would not make sense. We used scenes that had enough lighting but there are a few dark ones which we will try and fix for our final film.

Three things we can improve for our final film:
1. Better and finished sound.
2. Titles added.
3. Perfect the editing and effects.

Final Film- Amnesia

Screenshots

Planning Our Filming

To make a opening title sequence we first had to plan what we were going to film . We all sat down together in class came up with aload of ideas . The hardest part about having so many ideas is that every one wants to do there idea and no 1 wants to give in . This made it extremly hard to come up with a decison on what we were going to film .

We were first going to do a scene in a park of a guy kidnapping some1 daughter but then we were told it wasnt original and had been seen numerous times every year . This made us re consider and we eventually decided to use Princes idea . His idea was to film a guy on his bed having a nightmare . There were going to be mutiple flash backs of him and a young girl . From here we got the basic plot of our idea we then all added to this plot with mutiple ideas shaping around it . The plot suggested that our genre was going to be a pyscological thriller . At first i wasnt to impressed with the idea but eventually i came around to liking the idea when one or two things were changed it was broken down to me.

We then had to decide on the location we would  film it . We choose to film at rosies house at first i wasnt to happy with the idea as it was too far away from my house but then nobody else wanted to film in their house so it had to be done . The next topic we had to discuss was filming the little kid who would be able to find a child that would be able to film in the time and day we had . Prince then said his friend sister could do the job and that would be all taken care of .

We knew that we had to give our film some variation so we planned on what diffrent type of camera angles were going to film , under what lights and on what day . We were then told that we could take the camera on friday and he had to be returned on wednesday . But none of us were free untill tueday so we would only have 1 day to film it in the half term .   

Planning our film was a stressfull but enjoyable process and i hope it goes as well as we have planned .

Taking A Look At Our Rough Cut

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=&feature=player_embedded

This is our rough cut of our opening title sequence . Watching it over i think its good , the sound fits perfectly with with the scenes and it creates the desired atmosphere we require . The affects also give it that creepy feeling ,  the fuzzing and shaking will be sure to spook out the audience . As it a pyschological thriller , we choose to use a discrete opening to confuse the audience but at the same time give a sample of what to expect from the movie and keep them intrigued and wanting to watch more . I think our opening looks realistic and my group and i can be very proud of what we have achieved.  We still are yet to add any titles but looking at the film we have comed up with quite a few spots to place them .So we have planned to come together next lesson and finnish it off shouldnt take to long as we already know where we our putting the titles

Adding Titles

While Maria and Rosie continued to add and edit the sound for our film. Me and Rhys decided to should start to create the title that would be in our film. We found it very difficult because today was the first day me and him have ever used Live type. We have used final cut pro and sound track pro but we have never gotten the chance to experience what live type is about. So we asked the teacher for some assistant. The teacher showed us the basics like.

• How to add text
• How to change the font of your title
• How to add effects
• How long each title should be
• How to personalise it

So we decided we should just play around with it just so that we can get used to working on live type. After a whole we was familiar with the different little buttons. I decided I should do some research on what is in most opening titles so I went on youtube and I watched a couple of opening films and I took note on what people come first and which type of people for example. Production team, producers, directors, actors, sound, costume design just to name a few.

When we decided to do some we got stuck yet again because we could not decide on what font to use for our film. As our film was a psychological thriller and is kinda scary we wanted a font that also showed that. In my head I was thinking about the font being small and fading in slowly and out and maybe shivering a little. That would have been perfect but it was hard to find and decide on which font worked best at the end we found this font. Out font is big and it looks deformed and rough, we also added an effect where it appears and the it shakes and starts to drop off the screen which was really cool. We then started to do the first few title and we will do the rest in our next lesson.

Adding Sound

When it came to adding sound we used sound track pro. We found it really hard  because there are so many sounds and music in the system to choose from and it takes a while to find that perfect sound that set's the mood and keep's the audience at the edge of their seats.

When we disused about the type of sound that we want, we had in our minds that it would be very Slow, gritty, scratchy. We also liked the sounds used in seven as we thought they where random and out of places just like we wanted.  We wanted a sound to be played at the back at all times and then we wanted to add extra sounds to create a motif whenever ever he had the black flashes of the little girl.

We kept on searching and searching through the sounds to see which ones we can take and work with. After a while we found some high pitched sounds which I thought where great as they where very in your face and loud and caught people attention, We also found this very slow and dark sound which was low and I thought this really helped to set the scene and we decided to use this as background through out as I thought it was effect and i got the audience into the film. We also found these disturbing high pitched sound which reminded me of screaming and scratches which I though was perfect so we put them in the flash back clips as they both contrasted.

We have not fully finished working with sounds we are in our final stages but we still think we could add more sound to create more tension and to really impact the audience. We will add more sounds later but we have gotten our basics so far but we want to take that to the next level which we will do for our final out come.

Rough Draft Of our film

We now have a rough draft of our film and this just helps us to look at what we have done so far what works and what doesn't.

From watching our rough cut I can already identify what works I think the music fit's perfectly with the theme and it really helps to create that atmosphere and sense of something is about to happen to already this get's the audience's attention. The Mis en scene works well I like the lighting that we used at it is not to dark or too light for us not to be able to see. I liked the recurring sound that come son when you see the little girl in the back flashes this helps the audience know what type of thriller our movie will be about.

Things we need to do

• We do not have titles or opening credits in our film which we really need to work hard on to get that in
• We need to work more on the sound
• Add more effects in some parts ass they look to 
• Add more effects to make it more dramatic and in your face

Adding effects to our film

As our film was a psychobiology thriller I thought it would be perfect for us to add come effects which can help make the visuals for our film better but also it can play with the audience minds. Effects also help with the mood and make you see things in a different way.

When adding effects we first looked at the wide range of effects there was. There was so many for us to pick from but we could not just pick anything that looked nice we had to make sure the effect contrasted with our film also that the effect did not distract the audience to much. When first thinking about effects in my head I though that our film should be like as if it was live and that the audience where watching tv so I was thinking that it should be very shaky and be out of contrast plus the opening of our film my idea was to have a tv on standby with the fuzz I really liked that effect a sit was very eye grabbing and hallucinating.

At first I found bad tv and we thought it was so great but it was very hard to watch as it was very fuzzy and unclear so we thought we should leave it out but we may still use it again we don't know. I found a earth quake effect so we added that in the flash back clips this effect made the screens shake, and I thought it was great as it reminds me of having a headache and it makes the audience feel what the character is going through. We also changed the colour for the flash backs so that it could be clear to the audience what was a flash back and what was not so they did not get confused. We used a little tint of black and white to at that old past effect.

After finishing with the flashbacks we looked back at the film and some people in the group thought that the other parts without effects looked dull and we should also add effects to them a swell so we thought of making everything black and white or sepia but I disagreed with this idea as I thought that it did not look good and we should keep it the way it is after a couple of chats and experimenting we decided to leave it. I still think we could do add more effects not a lot but a small amount to some areas we will look back at the film and decide at another time.

Editing our final film

When we started to go into the editing process what we first done was we looked back at all the previous clips that we filmed. We then started to delete all the clips that we did not need like the ones that were out of focused or that The actors came out of character and only kept the ones we needed. We then renamed them by the scene or what happened in the clip. When we finished we then converted the clips into final cut pro to start putting them together.

We all talked about what order the clips where going to go in and we decided that we was going to have clips of me sleeping and then other clips of back flashed and that will go back and forth until I wake up. So we had to decide on which clips worked best for each part some times we got it wrong and had to start all over again or edit it as it did not move smoothly. We did not know how many flash backs we was going to use but we wanted to get as many as possible we was going to use a flash back of me washing a knife and the blood getting drained down the sink but I personally thought that the blood looked so unreal that it would ruin our film so we decided to leave that out so we deleted it.

Surprisingly it did not take as long as we thought to edit the film, I think it is because we now had the hang over using final cut pro and we are used to putting clips together now. It took us like a good two hours to put the clips in sometimes we would get it wrong and change our minds but at the end we was happy with the final outcome. We did not have time to do no editing our sound this day but our film already was looking good in it's rough form we had a little while left before the end of lesson so we asked a teacher one where we find effects he showed us so we played around with all the effects just so we can get a glimpse. Our film already was nearly one now we only have to add sound, effects, titles and maybe a tiny bit of editing.

Filming our final opening sequences

We shot our film in half term as we where all free and available. It did not take as long as we expected as we shot the whole film in one day it took us approximately 4-5 hours to film the entire film. We chose to use rosie's house as the mis en scene in her room fitted the movie just perfectly. Things like the small tv that fuzzes on stand by, the size of her room was good for all 4 of us to be able to move around and shoot the scenes. Another thing we had to fit perfectly was the time we filmed as we had to make sure we filmed it when it was not to dark so the audience wont be able to see anything but not to light so that it takes away the mood and tension the darkness creates.   

What we first done was we sat together and talked about all the roles we was going to do for the day so that we did not get confused we made sure that everyone took part even I who was featured in the film as an actor took part to film and direct the others. We also made a list in which we ticked off slowly until we where done. as it was hot in rosie room and rosie being a girl we had to make sure we changed her room to make it look more masculine. After we got everything organised and everyone got into character and changed costumes we had to make blood. We thought we needed blood to represent the violence and death we put it on monica to show the audience that she is dead or has been hurt this makes it very disturbing for my character and also the audience. We found it extremely hard to create the perfect type of blood as it was either to watery or to thick but add the end we was satisfied with what we created.

When filming we had to take our time as we wanted to get everything just right we had to be extreamly quiet not to distributive others as they film and we also had to get ourself in the mood of the film so we had to be very serious. It was kinda hard as we had to repeat certain parts so we can either get it from a different angle or to errors so it can sometimes get frustrating. As we was working with a my friends sister monica who played the role of the girl I have flash backs about, as her age is young she found it very difficult to pay attention and keep concentrated for a long period of time but she really put a lot of effort in her part of the film I was really proud of her performance.

In our film we tried to make it seem very confined and interment so that the audience feels like it's only them and the characters in the room. So we used lot's of wide shot's, close ups and extreme close up's, some seems we had to be careful of our safety like in one scene where I was suppose to drop the knife next to the little girl but we decided to do two different shot's just so that we can be safe so nobody get's hurt. We came up with the idea while I'm having my back flashes that I should be sweating to show stress so we decided to use water. I was worried that this would look unreal but it turned out great and it helped to make it seem more real it was also hard as rhys had to reply the water every time we had to stop and repeat the scene. After we done the bedroom scene we done other scenes like the one outside where I'm walking away with monica these other scene's where easier, the bedroom scene took most of the time as it was the most important. After we shot all the scene and parts we looked back quickly at what we have done and we agreed that we got all the shot's that we needed and we called it a rap. I think that my group worked really hard as we came together as a team to complete our film.

If I could do this again we would have maybe came more prepaid like maybe we could have done rehearsals so that we would know exactly what we was going to do. We could have gotten the blood prepared days b4 and maybe we could have done more shot's with more angles but when I look back at it I feel like we done a great job.

Font Analysis

Serif Font: Like Times and courier Are a more traditional and they have small details to them.

San Serif fonts: Like Ariel and Comic Sans these fonts are more informal and modern they are also known as friendly font's. 

In this rocky poster the font used is Franklin Gothic Heavy. The title is placed at the font and it is big and bold and it catches your eye. 

The font it self look very sharp and it has this masculine look about it which goes with the film so it goes with the theme of the film. 

Title Sequence: Dawn Of The Dead

Structure of thriller Openings

In Thriller Film there are four different types of opening you got

• A narrative opening 
• A discrete title sequence
• A titles over blank screen followed by a narrative opening
• A stylised edited opening

A narrative opening usually begins by introducing the audience to the setting or characters in the film. This opening is used a lot in most thriller films.  For example the shinning has a narrative opening as it begins with a wide angle of the landscape as the camera hovers by this shows the audience where the movie it set and give out little information. We are then later on introduced to the characters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgCejsyS0t8

A discrete title sequence is separately edited from the rest of the film. It probably has nothing to do with the rest of the movie but it helps to give a hint and set the vibe on what the movie will be about. YOu can see this in the opening for se7en.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEZK7mJoPLY

A titles over a blank screen opening consist of  titles rolling or appearing on a blank screen while there is a sound track playing at the back. The most important thing is to make sure to use interesting fonts and to pick the right music to engage your audience. A titles over a blank screen is use in movies such as donnie darko, Dead calm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TBbd89F-xE

A stylised edited opening sequence is focused on the editing aspect. In these types of opening the makers try and make the opening as effective as possible so they use stylised editing taking different shot's and putting them together. Most of the times it is fast and spontaneous while other times it can be slow and subtel can be seen in movies like The taking of pelham 123 and Enemy of the state.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Qznsf0i1wQ

Editing Our Film

In the following lesson after we had filmed our film we decided to edit our film and delete all the irrelevant scenes that weren't needed . We also had to come together and decide the chronology of the scenes . This was the first time we were able to watch the scenes back . There were quite a lot of scenes that didn't work and need to be cut . For instance the blood in the knife dropping scene didn't work as it looked fake and way to unrealistic to make our film credible .Once we had put the scene is the order we felt it worked ,we decide it was time for some effects . We all had different ideas on the affects we should allocate to individual clips . We knew that for the film to be effective the editing was maybe even more important then the filming . We decide the transition of the TV to prince would be more effective in slow motion and we also assigned princes flashbacks as bouncing and fuzzy as we wanted the audience to get the idea the flashbacks weren't clear and still have them wondering what was going  . We tried not to get carried away with the affects as it wouldn't be practical . We tried to keep it to the minimal to make or title sequence presentable .

Presenting Our Film

We were asked to present our pitch for a title sequence to the class and anarbel . Using a website called prezzi we made a fun and simple presentaion which contained the basic idea we had on our title sequence . The presentaion contained : the story line ,location , set ,characters , sound, lighting , genre of film and target audience . For all of the stuff we were presenting we had to explain why we had chosen to do that stuff in a certain way and why we had chosen that idea . We knew that we had to pitch our presentation carefully and everything had to be thought out thoroughly. Once we had finished our presentation we allowed the class to ask questions . There was some compliments and constructive criticism which i thought was helpful and needed . The main question that had our brains running was about lighting . We initially planned to film in the dark but we had been ask how could the film be seen with the lack of lighting . We questioned Anabel and she reassured us that we could attach a bright light to the film and it would be perfectly fine . The feedback and questions we got were productive and allowed us to question our ideas and re consider and change some stuff . In conclusion i think we pitched our title sequence well and  were able gain something positive out of it .

Filming

We met up during the half term to film our opening . Our main objective was to get all the filming done on that day  , we decided to film at Rosie's house . Once we were all together we go to filming straight away .  We already had a our plan on what scenes we were to film  , this was useful as it made us time efficient and if we made errors or never planned something out properly we could go back and sort it out as we had time on our hands.

Although we had our story board and everything planned we decided to change one or two things that didn't work around . Coming into film we knew what problems we may occur and we generally did well to over come them .We made sure that all the irrelevant stuff in the back ground was moved and the bedroom didn't look like 'Rosies' but the actual characters . We also made sure that we filmed under the most effective lighting . We turned off the light in the room and used the light attached to the top of the camera . We were also careful in having a wide range of shots .These ranged from , close ups , extreme close ups and wide shots . We also used our imitative decided to used water and drip it down prince face to get the affect of sweat . For blood we used a mix of shampoo , ketchup, water and pink food colouring although it looked good at the start eventually i didn't like it because it looked unrealistic

The little girl in the scene was played by pr

Publish Post

inces friend Monica . I think she did a great job of acting and had a positive effect on our filming .

Editing Screenshots

Rough Cut

Editing Our Film

Our Pitch for the Film

In lesson we had to present our film and a rough plan and idea to the class.

Me and my groupe decided to make our presentation by using prezi as one of the people in our groupe has used the application before. We decided to use prezi as it's a more fun and modern way to make a presentation as you can have text and images and ect. We had to sell our film to the class and our teacher to see if we where ready to film and if our story line is good.

When we went up to present our presentation, we tried our best to go into a smuch detail we talked about

• The story line
• Location
• Set
• Characters
• Reasons on why we choose our idea
• Themes and sub generes
• Sound

After we finished our presentation our class was allowed to ask us questions, some asked us about the charcters and some asked us about the lighting. We anwerd all of them to make everything more clearer to them. We aske dout teacher if she was happy with the idea and she agreed and said we would be bale to film whenever we was ready some people did not have that privilage as when they presented their worth they did not tal about it in detail or they had a few thinsg missing so they where not allowed. I was happy we doe eveyrthing so quickly and smoothley.

Planning our final film

When we had to plan our film we sat down together as a group and we just gave each other our ideas. Everyone had their own plans on what they wanted the film to be about we found it very difficult to make our final dissusion.

My idea for the our film was about somebody who is having a nightmare and they see these back flashes that I have not decided on yet but he has back flashes distubing things, he then wakes up to a dark room where the tv is left open and as he reaches or looks into the corner he is then horrified by an image or figure that when itc omes closer we see that it is the girl he was having bacl flases about he then hides under his covers and when he looks agin she is gone.I got this idea from looking at diffrent movies it was inspierd by phylogical thriller momentom and The little girl thing wa skinda inspred by films like the grudge that horroh aspect.

We still could not decide on what idea we should take on but I luckley persuaded my grupe and sold my story line and told them in detail what it was going to be like. I told them that it is the best idea out of us and it will be the most esiest for us to shoot looking at aspects of location, characters, mis en scene . We took time to think about it and we decided to go with my idea some people wher enot really big fan sof the idea but after a while they where happy with it.

We do no t have the name for our film yet but we decided it was going to be set in rosies house and I was going to get my friends sister to play the role of the little girl and it wa s going to be a phycological thriller.

Editing The Sound of our Animatic

After we edited our film and cropped it into it's final sequence we edited the sound using sound track pro. The first thing we done was to take away any unecessary sounds like laughing our back ground sounds. After that I took away all the sound  from the video and muted it and kept the parts that we needed. For our film we wanted there to be music playing at the background to set the scene and help create tension. So we found this one song which was kinda up tempo and we then added andother song at the end which was very high pitched and misterious.

After adding the sound and music we was then taught how to fade music in and out from one another , so we made the sounds fade in and out from one another so that it can flow more perfectley.This was new to me as I have never used final cut pro before, but it was nice to learn something new.After we finished making and editing the sound for our film, we then how to tranfer the sound to final cut pro but we kind of got stuck and we had to call for assistants from a teacher to help us transfer it.

I think for me persoanly I find it hard to use sound track pro as It has more devices and extra buttons you have to click and It can become confusing and misleading. And  I think you would have to use it for a long while before you can hav ethe hang of it. I find it easier to use final cut pro as I have had prior experience.

Filming Snatcher (Animatic)

To shoot our snatcher film we used the slide show we made with the jelly babies to help guide us. We first decided on who was capable on playing which roles, we also thought about location. When thinking about location we thought about somewhere that was easy for us to find and was secluded from people. So we decided to use the toilets, it was a good location as it set the scene and it was small and toilets are used a lot in thriller films. The Mis en scene for the film was the toilet, mirrors, tap's, make up.

The Opening of the film was set out side the toilets and we see the character's enter the toilet, when filming this time around we tried our best not to leave to much space above the characters like we did with the bag swap. We tried our best to use a variety of shot's. We used a point of view shot of the person watching rosie which I thought was important as it created tension. We had over the shoulder shot's when rosie is talking to me and when she is looking in the mirror. We also had a match cut when Me ans rosie entered the toilet's.

Overall I thought we done a good job as we learnt from the last video what errors we should avoid. We deleted some clips as we found errors or we messed up, When looking back at the clips when we finished we discovered that the first scene was out of focus so that helped up to always remember to put the focus on when filming, When editing it was easier for us to make sure everything is goes through more smoothly and we also found out that we need to plan more carefully before going out to location to shoot. But overall I was pleased with our final out come.

Sound

We started adding sounds to our opening. This was quite difficult because most of the sounds are upbeat and we were not able to use them. For our film we wanted to use sounds similar to 'Seven'. We liked the idea of sounds that don't go together and that sound very awkward. Also our teacher gave us the idea to have a sound motif everytime the little girl was on screen.

 We finally found a type of sound very similar to violins and screams that we decided to use as a motif. We also found a type of scary high pitched sound to use throughout the whole scene. We did not have enough time to finish off the sound so we are going to finish them next lesson. We want to add more disturbing and arkward sounds and finally add the titles Prince was working on.

Effects For Our Film

After putting the clips together we decided to look at effects. There were so many such as bad film, bad TV and Sepia. We looked at bad TV and it looked amazing, but we didn't think it would go with our film. In the end the effect we chose was earthquake. This makes the screen look like it is shaking at we let Prince sort out the colour. He decided to make the colours dim and close to black and white, which we all liked and decided to keep.

We spoke and half of us agreed that the rest of the clips look dull and we should add effects to it and the other half said there shouldn't be any effects at all. We looked at the whole clip being in Sepia or in Black and White but it looked quite tacky so we didn't use it. We still haven't decided on what effect will be used or if an effect will be used.

Editing Our Film

In lesson we started editing our film. We started by deleting many scenes that we did not need, such as scenes where Prince might have laughed or clips that were out of focus. We decided to talk as a group and decide excatly what order the clips will go in. In the end we decided that we will have short clips of Prince sleeping with the flashbacks. One flashback that did'nt work was the clip of Prince washing the knife. The blood looked too fake so we decided to leave this flashback out.

After we finally put the clips together we started looking at a few effects in the time we had left. We were shown how to slow down and speed up some of the clips. We decided that the first clip that overlooks the room and moves from the TV to Prince should be in slow motion. This then doubled the size of the clip so we had to cut some parts of it such as the extreme close up of the TV.

Rough Draft of Film

In todays lesson we did some more editing for sound, credits and posted the rough draft on our blog.  We didn't manage to do all the the credits, as we did not have enough time.  In mondays lesson we will carry on doing them and find backgrounds, different fonts and ways of the credits coming in and out.  Today we also did sound we decided that we would have a reaccuring sound for every time the little girl was shown on the screen, added to the background music which sounds mysterious.  I think it gives clues towards the genre of our thriller film.  We will add more sound to our film in mondays lesson to make it more effective.  My group was also thinking of adding more editing effects to the film, as it doesnt seem much different.  I believe we need to make it more dramatic and not just count on the sound to do so.

Filming our Opening Title Sequence

We all went to Rosie's house to film are opening titles. It was a fun experience and we were much more prepared than our other scenes we done such as the 'Snatcher' and 'Bag Swap'. We knew what problems we had to focus on, such as space above the head and focused clips.

We filmed in Rosie's room and we made sure you could not see any of Rosie's things so that the room looks more manly. We shut all the lights and used the camera light that we were given to attach to the top of the camera. We started filming shots of Prince sleeping at we made sure we got many shots such as close ups, wide shots and extreme close ups. We had a few problems with the tripod and the bed, so we had to do some of them hand-held and hope it wasn't shaky. We also tried making it look like Prince was sweating which we splashed water over his head and neck.

Prince brought a friend to play the little girl which she done very well. We had to cover her dress in blood but we didn't have any so we had to make it from scratch. Me and Rosie decided to experiment and mix shampoo, ketchup, water and pink food colouring to create the blood. It looked good but it kept drying so we had to keep re-applying. We had to shoot a scene when Monica had to act like she was dead on the floor and Prince had to chuck the knife next to her. We were worried that the knife might hit her so we shot them separately. I think that it all went well and I can't wait to see the final film

Story Board

Editing our Final Film

In todays lesson we started editing our final film, we had already in a previous lesson deleted some of the clips and renamed them so that we could find exactly what clips we needed.  Then we converted all the clips into Final Cut Pro.
  We talked in our group about what order we wanted to put the clips in and where we wanted to cut them, then we all did a bit of editing one by one.  We had to do a lot of editing and re-editing as we kept changing our minds or getting it wrong.  Finally we got the simple, final film and next lesson we're going to add sound and effects to it, to make it more real, sinister and mysterious.

Our Prezi

Working Title on Prezi

Pitching our Film

In class all the groups had to present their ideas. My group knew exactly what we wanted our film to look like so we were quite confident. We had to put all our ideas into a presentation and decided to use a website called Prezi. By using Prezi we were able to present our ideas in a fun way and attract our teachers and the rest of the groups attention. We wrote about where we would be filming, what the outline of the opening is, the type of sounds we will decide to use and the mise en scene.

After we presented our ideas we were asked a few questions. One main question was how were we going to have dark lighting, but be able to show everything. We decided to have a small light in the background or use a camera light. We also had the problem of fake blood and the knife, but we decided we would either buy fake blood or make some and we were not really sure what to do with the knife. Our teacher really liked our idea and let us film during half term

Step Father

I have just watched stepfather at home as i wasn't in for the lesson where the class watched it . Step father opens with a presumably "normal " guy walking around house . The back ground is in a minor tone , the tone of the music create suspense as it keeps me thinking something is defiantly going to happen .The guy is making toast a yet no thrilling action had taken place . Until , it emphatically tilts towards the ground a shows a dead kid . I LOVED this as it left me shocked and caught me off guard . We then see another body of a woman on the ground from this i came to the conclusion that this guy is a mass murderer .I specifically choose this scene as it leaves the audience in shook and fear that there going to see some more disgusting murders . 

Filming our film

We filmed our film within about four hours, and completed all our scenes.  We did it on the Tuesday in half term at my house, having to get the timing right was difficult we had to make sure it was dark outside but not so dark that we couldn't film.  It also had to be dark in my room but we had to be able to see Prince and Monica. We made a list of the scenes that we had to film, and filmed them one by one slowly taking shots from different angles and making sure we used close ups, wide shots and other wide ranges of shots.  We found that we had to do a lot of takes as we kept laughing or we noticed things that were wrong.  The actors found it hard to concentrate sometimes, as we kept having to retake shots from different angles.  When making the blood we found it very hard to make it look realistic and it also kept drying out so that the colour faded and it looked even more fake.  Also in one scene where Prince is seen washing the knife that he used the blood looks very fake, we are hoping that editing can make it seem slighter more realistic.  In one scene we had to drop the knife next to the little girl, there was obviously a large risk that it could hit her, so we had to film Prince dropping the knife first and then we'll do a jump cut to the girl lying on the floor dead.  The last scene was filmed outside in a road, so we had to make sure we did it quickly so that no one including me who was filming was in danger.  We found that our camera kept coming out of focus and we became worried that all our filming would have been out of focus.  Luckily we had loads of different scenes only a few of which were out of focus.  We decided that if everyone was to film it would have been easier so we all took turns to film the different scenes.  I believe that my group worked very well together as we listened to everyones ideas and opinions, this caused no arguments, and it enabled filming to be a lot easier.

The filming of the animatic

On thursdays lesson we created a story using jelly babies that we could transfer to real life in the next lesson . At the start of the lesson we needed to find the location to film in . We all came and decided we was going to film in the toilets , this was as the toilet was a small area and the actors would be cut off from the rest of the world . The proximity of the actors also would suggest a closer intimate relationship and the small closed toilet is a perfect discreet place for the attack to take place . This was the main part of the mise en scene that we could control although we also used the mirror shot to create shook . Looking back at it think this technique was effective as it was quick and emphatic .Unfortunately we couldn't control the lighting as the lights came on automatically . This was unfortunate as ideally we would of preferred a dark setting ,this is as it would of created a morose atmosphere .Whilst we were filming we decided that we need to use a variety of different shots . Whist we were filming we used : over the shoulder shots , match shots , extreme close up , close up , mid shot , point of view shot . 

In editing , we realised we had too many shots . This meant that it was harder for us to decided which one was the best . Furthermore this meant that we wasted a lot of time and was not as efficent as we could be next time i think we need to work on that . Although i think we improved from our last filming , this time we made sure that our shots weren't out of focus and that there wasn't a huge amount of space above the actors head. We also added background music to our film that was simulatneous to our film this contributed the atmosphere that we wanted to created in our film.

Planning Our Film

In class we spoke about the ideas that we each individually had. For example we thought of a child being kidnapped and something to do with flashbacks.  We then decided to change the idea from being kidnapped to killing a child and having a twisted story. We then had many debates of how we were going to use the child, and watched many film trailers to give us ideas.  We were still unable to think of ways we could use this little girl, we then spoke to our teachers and they gave us their opinions and helped us choose how we could use her.  She would be a mysterious character.  The audience wasn't to know weather she was the bad character or if Prince was.  The existence of her character would be unknown to the audience.  We then decided the location of our film, and thought it would be best to film it in my house as it was in the middle for everyone and most convenient.  We needed to make fake blood and use knives and toys.  We will have to make my room completely plain so that it can pass as a boys bedroom.