Nigel - Evaluation Question 7

If I compare the preliminary task to the thriller opening, there are a lot of differences as well as improvements. There is a lot different in the research, planning and overall time spent completing the thriller opening compared with the preliminary task which means that it isn’t fair to compare them directly, but from the preliminary we can learn some lessons.   

For starters, we planned titles in our thriller opening whilst in the prelim film didn’t have any specific titles, only credits. This was mainly because our prelim was made to show that we could put a sequence together following the 180 degree rule and having a shot reverse shot successful sequence. We didn’t necessarily use this in our thriller as there were no conversations but most importantly the rules were followed where it was needed to keep continuity at the end product.

One great lesson from the preliminary task was FOCUS. Focus was a great focal point of our thriller opening due to the errors in our prelim. Every shot that we took, we spent at least a minute deciding the focus (as we used a camera which wouldn’t automatically focus for us). Although human error, there were ways to attempt and prevent it. We didn't get all the focus right in our thriller opening as some shots were off the standard of the overall project,  but the preparations we made to make sure that the focus was perfect on most of the shots showed that we learnt from our mistakes and what happened in the preliminary task wouldn't be repeated once again. 

Obliviously the prelim wasn't intended to have an outrageous amount of story and depth but when it is compared with the thriller opening the idea of the story and narrative seem even worse.  There was unsurprisingly more time and effort which went into crafting the story and plot for the Thriller opening. The prelim narrative honestly didn't make that much sense, it made sense to us before scenes were cut and ultimately just not filmed. Although it fit the criteria which we had pursue to fulfill what was expected. I think this helped us figure out that there needed to be more planning which needs to have gone into the actual narrative and story of the thriller, so we could make an opening which would make sense. To do this we, as a group, sat down and discussed the whole story; start to end for our film idea, creating our film synopsis. The whole concept 

The soundtrack and sound overall had more effect towards the audience and mood in the thriller opening than the preliminary; this may have been because there was more to work with the whole narrative or that the music choices were better.  The prelims sound was very vague and quiet at some parts because it was all synchronous sound. We learnt from the poor sound and decided to record extracts and clips of sound with the recorders to add into post-production. Although we did actually add sounds into the prelim, it was a basic comedic bird sound which gave the character, or the stuffed animal, more realism for the audience, the added foley sound showed that we tried to create something which was planned, as we planned what we would add in post-production but not to the extent that was done in the thriller opening.  

Nearing the post production, of course there was time spent doing the preliminary task but I think that was because we were growing our skills and knowledge on the editing software itself. There was a lot more work and time which went into the thriller editing than the prelim for obvious reasons, this wasn’t just because there was more to edit but because we were being more ambitious with the overall editing to create a much more complex and exciting project. One major difference was the ambition in location and settings. I shot a few short clips of the locations that we filmed at so we could keep a record of it. We went to the locations early in the morning, first the graveyard so we could get the morning effect with the cold breathe in the air and the overall cold effect. 

One final point of improvement is the organisation, from the photo below you can clearly see that we had forgotten to take our bags out of shot, therefore there were some issues there, to fix this we could have put the bags the side of the room which wasn't in the view of the camera at any time. In our thriller, bags are out of the frame and far away whilst every shot is taken. 

In the end, I believe that the preliminary task allowed for more practice and experience before the thriller opening. This was as useful to us as we could go into the thriller project with more confidence and experience. It allowed us to get together and plan to create, film and then something we are proud of. 

Nigel - Evaluation Question 6

I personally feel like that I’ve learnt quite a lot about the technology which my group used to construct the thriller opening throughout the whole production of it, for example editing, the actual cameras, lighting and other pieces of equipment like the tripods. This was easy to learn with a mix of lessons taught by people around who knew more than me in the first place and trial and error. I believe that although the opening is not perfect, it allowed a lot of these lessons to be taught.  

I became more confident and able to use the camera more efficiently because I had a larger role in being the cameraman. I do think this has helped my ability in camerawork and has allowed me to learn a lot more than I knew when operating a camera before this project. The actual technology was a special camera which one of our group members was generous enough to allow us to use so he could teach us how the use the actual piece of technology, as we did the same the first time in the preliminary task. The first few shots that I was in charge of shooting, I made sure that there were more than one take so if one failed we could hopefully use another, I also had asked for other people’s opinions on every shot that I was put in charge of, which helped to boost my confidence. There was a focus pull which we shot, which ended up in the final product as we wished it to look like. We used focus to show that Geoff had been effected mentally by the situation after all this time, in our graphic match.

Something which I feel I learnt the most about was the editing stage of the production. As a group, we spent a long time editing our project, the sequence and the titles, this was a big learning curve and the amount of time spent on this allowed us all to become more familiar with using the editing software and the technology in general. Creating continuity and aiding the sequence to flow smoothly was a big boost skill which was improved. We came into some issues with making the sequence flow at one stage in particular so we had to go and reshoot several shots to be placed in-between. I think these re-shoots helped us to keep the attention of the audience and basically not be so boring. To be more ambitious, we used a graphic match between two locations of the character with the same expression, with the same composition at different settings. I feel this was planned well and the technology allowed us to complete this. We took a picture of the setup on our phones and recreated it with the tripod and camera position being the same.  There were no fancy transitions used but to help show that the location had changed in the graphic match, the background sound changes noticeably. But there were filters to show that there was a flashback to a past event when the shots appeared to and from the present. Another editing section was the titles. To do this we created a separate project and worked on it, experimenting with different ideas until we came to the conclusion that the fog on the black screen with the transition of the text would suit our context.

Using technology was obviously an important part of the whole thing for us. But to try and make the best thing we could, we tried to perfect the sound with sound recorders and royalty free music websites.  The sound recorders allowed us to take sound produced at different times and locations and then add it into the project later on in post-production. Although we tried to keep these away from the shot, at one shot taken had a small recorder shown, so our placement of these and vision of them on camera should be limited to none next time we use them, and instead perhaps record asynchronous sound instead of recording it as it happens on camera, adding it in later in post-production.

For this project, we did use lighting in several scenes to make sure it was perfect. Setting this up took several minutes each shot so we could all adjust it to a general agreement on the quality. I learnt that lighting is essential to keep continuity and bringing something into more depth in the frame. It didn’t have to be blaring light but can be a small dull shine to do this.

Nigel - Evaluation Question 5

The audience that we were aiming for was roughly a 12 rating for the certificate for the film, this doesn't mean that the audience couldn't be older; it is just what is included in the actual film. To attract this audience, we decided to have a younger actor and cast. The characters in the narrative aren't meant to see so old, but are meant to be around 20 years old. Although this isn't exactly 12+, it connects with the audience because they are still young. Geoff is a good example of this because he is the main protagonist, as shown in the thriller opening.  This wasn't just because a younger cast would be more accessible for us as a group but because of our target audience.  We could have got an older cast but this wouldn't help the younger audience to relate with the story. 

An attempt by us to get to a more male audience was adding action into the opening, but if we really wanted to appeal to that audience we could have added weapons, guns and more violence. After my research of all the thrillers, action and not, the weapons they used seemed to involve more firearms than sharp objects like knifes. Our opening thriller used nails as a weapon, as Susan hits the assailant, which shows a grave on his face, not quite gruesome blood but shows that there is a hint of violence. The police tape, again, helps us to target the audience who wish to be thrilled, suggesting that it is a crime thriller as the 'police line do not cross' stands out clearly.  

Nigel - Evaluation Question 4

Gender 
The audience for our media product could be said to be males. This could be debated because there are aspects for both genders in our thriller opening. The protagonist is obviously male which can help target the male audience because it makes it easier to relate to. The gender is important to decide what to include and decide what characters to involve. We have several female characters, Susan and Rachel in the thriller, shown in the opening and important in the films narrative. This could help to reach out to the female audience, although they aren't the protagonist of the story. As shown by this website, Pearl and dean, females do not like the type of opening we were aiming to create so we had to develop on this, making sure we aimed for males.

Age
Also its debatable that the thriller opening has a set age audience but we tried to implement conventions to narrow it down to one. The age we targeted could be young adults because of the certificate that we aiming to focus for. There was no excessive blood or gore, which helped to keep this around that age rating. There is weapons planned later on in the films plot so the opening shows that there is a hint of violence. There is a film called 'The gunman' which is aimed at males 15-24 year old males, this shows that guns and weapons are a convention of a males film. The fact that this film is also aimed at 15-24 year old males helps us compare the thriller opening to a action/thriller. As guns connote violence and we used violence in our opening.  

Nigel - Evaluation Question 3

For our low budget thriller,there are a few options that we could take to distribute and exhibit our film. One of which is the internet which is possibly the best option. This is because an independent small film would usually struggle to get a place in a cinema and getting the word out to people to buy hard copies would also be difficult, an example of a hard copy is a DVD release, this could be very difficult to sell as shops would not be the option and you would be forced to either sell the product online or at a low rate. It could be done but it would be hard to convince people to buy a film without any promotional features (reviews, ratings, trailers ect). This suggests that internet would allow the film to be also viewed by many people and create more promotion with word of mouth.  Something like this would not be big enough to be aired on TV of course, so that option isn’t accessible.

By placing the film onto the internet, a large amount of people can access it nearly everywhere. This means that the audience is increased to the extent that pretty much anyone who has access to the internet globally can view it. It connects to the audience and allows people to connect with the actual producers; this means that perhaps the audience feel closer with them. This is the same concept with producers using social networking, which is also a good option. Social networking brings personal aspects seeing a film, if a film is advertised on Facebook after being shared from Youtube, because it’s a social and personal place people go.

Youtube would most likely be the best option to distribute the film onto the internet. It is easy to secure a placement, simply by creating an account. Then the film can be exhibited to anyone who wants to watch it. Profits can come along by allowing Youtube to advertise on the films page. This is a huge advantage also because it can act like free advertisement as the more views a video gets, the more chance people will click on it. It also allows a person to easily share it on social networking sites, which also means there will be more publicity and means.  Since YouTube is the 3^rd most popular website, this shows that posting a video on here is well known and visited. 

Nigel - Evaluation Question 2

Geoff
When looking at the representation of particular social groups in the thriller opening, Geoff stands out as a very vulnerable male character. The editing process and camerawork work in synergy to portray this. The out of focus shots and filters show exactly what he is feeling at all points of his existence on camera. This isn't like what males are usually like, Geoff is unstable mentally. This could make him seem somewhat weak. Men are usually shown as being heroic, brave and ruthless in some films and narratives. Geoff is shown by this by his body language, the actors performance and camerawork. His costume shows that he is in a mourning state, the black colours suggest this. There is a use of restricted narration, as the assailant is standing behind Geoff. This could suggest that Geoff is unaware of everything going around him because of his head is far away. Using the actor which was did (Ben) was also convenient on our behalf as he would be ambitious and work as a group. 

 

 








Susan
Susan doesn't have as much screen time as Geoff but is an important character. She is the victim of the Assailants, the mystery is why. She is involved in a heated fight where she is knocked down to the ground. Her costume makes her seem very casual, she was not expecting to have the conflict which she did. She is why Geoff is how he is, she is suggested to be weak as she is captured, without her Geoff would miss a chance to have character development. Susan is the whole point of the narrative, that Geoff will eventually find and rescue her. She is presented in a very stereotypical feminine way, wearing pink for a starter. This could suggest that Geoff and Susan are lovers as it is the typical boy and girl relationship, the fact is Geoff is shown mourning over her grave. 

The Assailant (Unnamed)
Not much is given away about the Assailant with the camerawork that we chose, it creates enigma behind the whole concept of the 'bad guy'. The fact it is a male doesn't really break the stereotype but his whole character is presented as being the opposite to Geoff. This is done by his body language and ability to smile, as if he knows that he has succeeded in victory.

Nigel - Evaluation Question 1

There are many conventions which we could have added into our thriller opening to connote that it is a thriller. Firstly, a convention we planned from the start to use was the scratch. It helps show that people can be harmed in violence, setting the mood of the whole sequence. The police tape clearly shows 'Police line do not cross' which suggests that it is crime based, this could help suggest that it is going to involve violence and perhaps murder. The next image shows a conflict between two people, this can create suspense because it isn't clear who will win, usually not leading in a death. The setting is a isolated place, which is just like most thriller, for example the Fargo snow area's opening. The enigma is created by camerawork which shows restricted narration. An example in the thriller opening of this is the mysterious feet which you don't find out who they belong to yet, the same effect is done when you first see the assailants feet, a few shots later he is shown from behind, so you cannot see him clearly again. The title that is placed next to an object is similar from one thriller opening that I researched, Identity. More enigma is created when the assailant and Susan are hidden, only sound reveals them. The camera focuses on the light switch instead. The setting of the graveyard is ominous and connotes death, it is a good setting. This is a convention of a thriller, because of the setting has to be uncomfortable for the audience. The title has fog surrounding it, this is similar to the Fargo as it makes the Title seem more mysterious.

These are the examples from real thrillers, just like the examples that I have got from thriller opening that my group created. The conventions are shown in each image, the facial expressions, body language, colour, the settings etc. Fargo is a good example of an isolated setting, especially as the title sits on top of the nearly unclear background. The identity title as it has a close up next to a piece of text. The costumes used in the examples can suggest the characters role in the narrative, importance, class and even mood. The two characters on the Shutter Island image dressed in suit-like costumes seem of great importance. Just like the thriller opening, kill bill didn't release much information about the antagonist. Bill is behind the view of the camera, creating enigma circling around his story.  

Stephen- Evaluation Question 7

Developing on from the Preliminary task to the Main task

On reflection upon the Preliminary task, there are many things that stick out as being 'wrong' in a way; or simply not worth being included- and there's a lot of things that I would put into it given the chance. Subsequently, I know that I have, personally, learned a lot from the beginning of the Preliminary to the end of our Main task. I know I have developed my skills further from what they were at the beginning of the college year; and I also know that I will continue to improve with each piece of work I do.

Camera-work

The Camera work was the thing that, I believe, we improved on the most. Thankfully we never forgot to set the white-balance on the cameras, so all our shots were good in that aspect. However, in our preliminary task we had a few shots out of focus, like this one (The first shot of our Preliminary task):

Out of focus!

The shot shows Ben's character (Something I'll pick up on later) as being out of focus for no good reason. It distorts the shot unnecessarily resulting in something that looks rather ugly. In our main task we only had one shot that was out of focus; and it was done intentionally as to distort the shot and put is in Geoff's perspective; unclear and uneasy. Additionally, the shot in question was a graphic-match; something that we didn't use in our Preliminary (And something that we definitely would use again, being more confident in our camera-work.)

Out of focus to show Geoff's emotional instability

Sound

Our sound for the preliminary was good; we learnt where to add Foley effects and where to increase the sound to crescendo. From what we learnt in the Preliminary we moved to the Main task; resulting in a seamless music piece which flowed throughout the film (With one change in beat in the brief fight scene.) From reviews of the film, I have gathered that while some aspects of the sound were good, others were bad. The fast-paced drum beat was in stark contrast with the rest of the music and it didn't go too well with some people; though others liked it as well. From this, I know now to keep the music in our next piece relevant and not in too much contrast (Unless we find a way to make it seamlessly flow.)

Music gives the audience a shock surprise! (even though it's annoying)

Setting

The setting of the project changes drastically. The preliminary was set in college, we weren't fully confident in our abilities to film outside of it, where we would have had an extra scene in a McDonalds. All our shots ended up being taken inside of College, not creating a good ambience for the film.

 However, for our main task we went all out. We filmed in a Graveyard and in a nearby nature reserve; both with permission from the owners. These new settings proved much harder to film it; getting the light level the same in the changing day was the most difficult. However, the end result was perfect; with the cold breath showing clearly creating a much more ominous scene. Below is a video of all our locations for the main task:

Plot

Our preliminary task had no set plot. It was just us testing our camera work and knowledge of all aspects of filming. None of our characters even had proper names, Changing from that to an entire plot of a film was very difficult (Thankfully, two of us had experience writing story lines so it was easier than it was first made out to be.)

We chose ordinary names that you'll hear day-to-day, to make the film more realistic and in doing so making the film more thrilling, giving the audience the feeling that it could happen to anyone-even them. Our plot as fully built around the stages defined by Gustav Freytag. Our opening shows the exposition and the inciting incident; leaving the viewer to watch more in order to feel at-ease with the cliffhanger we left before we cut to the title. On the contrary, the preliminary assessment didn't follow Freytag's rules, instead going from exposition to the climax with no full understanding of how it happened.

Editing

Our preliminary film had little amounts of editing done. It featured sound editing and basic cuts. The sound had very little editing done to itself; just around other parts, and it feature a single edited crescendo. To look back on the editing of our preliminary click here

Our thriller opening was much more diverse and complicated. To begin with, we named all of our footage to make each shot easier to work with. We also labelled them with colours to show the locations of the shots. When this was done it was far simpler to edit together the film, without wasting time looking through each shot for which was good and not so good.

From techniques learnt from the preliminary film, we over-layed several sounds to create a good music effect. With different Foley sounds being added at different points it is easy to see how precise we needed to be. To ensure the sound was going in the right place, we also labelled the Foley and Recorded sounds with the same colour as the shot.

Additionally, we had ambient sound to make sure it wasn't only music and voices; something we did not feature in the Preliminary, and it's something that worked out rather well- making the scenes much more eerie. To see our thriller editing blog post click here

Prelim audio and video

Main task audio and video

Conclusion

 Looking at the work seen in our Preliminary task it is obvious how far we have come. We have developed several skills; sound editing was the most obvious. We have each grown more confident in the use of cameras. Our lighting was spot on in the preliminary and it continued over to the main task; proving that we learnt what to do with lighting from experience. I have also developed skills that will prove useful: I have developed my skills with a camera from being out of focus most of the time to using focus pulls efficiently.

Stephen- Evaluation Question 6

What I learned about technologies from the development of our Thriller opening

Camera work

For me, I found that throughout our film project using the camera effectively was the hardest job. However, we will start with what we did well:

• White balance- Never once did we forget the importance of the White balance, resulting in a perfectly colour film straight onto the camera.
• Focus and Depth of field- From playing around with Depth of Field I believe we have learn a lot; how when something is out of focus it distorts our vision upon them; and how focus can be perceived to be a mental state. With thrillers, if something is blurred out but another is clear you will obviously pay more attention to the clear item- and if you want a shock factor, a quick focus pull will achieve your shock factor.

  
  

  The depth of field shows the Assailant being clear, and Geoff being blurred

• Framing- From the work we've done we have used framing effectively; giving each shot the perfect balance of subject and empty space. We have learnt that each shot requires careful planning on how the framing is used- and if it's broken then the scene won't look as good. However; the use of framing can be effective and metaphorical; in the below shot, we decided that the more space shown will show how empty Geoff feels at that point in time; a hollow being.
  
• Tripods- Nearly all of our shots made use of the very essential tool that is the tripod. Behind the scenes, you can clearly see us making use of one bar one scene. In the one scene that we didn't use one, it was for a tracking shot. Due to the hard and rough ground it would have been difficult using a dolly or other form of stable movement to get a good effect. Behind the scenes video here: 

Overall, our camerwork will forever be improved by the lessons learnt through this project; we will always fill the frame with what we need, we will always set the white balance and we will most certainly attempt anything to keep the camera steady when on the move.

Editing

The editing of our film went spectacularly; we had very little problems if any at all. We learnt a lot from the use of Final Cut Pro, as well, including how to edit effects to fit perfectly into our plan for the title.

• Continuity editing- Throughout our filming process we made sure that not a single thing broke continuity. We knew that it was important to never break continuity, else the film wouldn't make sense and would be a failure, so thankfully we didn't break it! 

1. 180 degree rule: When filming we looked carefully for the best spot to film the sequence in; and then we drew an imaginary line so we knew where not to cross. Where in the preliminary assignment we nearly broke the rule, we made careful plans so not to break it.
2. Match on Action: We had two main match on actions in our sequence; the first being the placing of the rose and the second being the hand of Susan's attacking the Assailant; both proved to be effective at getting their point across. We learnt, here, how important it is to convey actions through this continuity editing. 
   
   
   
   

• Duration of shots- A few shots we took were rather long, however we knew they had to be short and punchy, to make the film fast paced and tense. We edited down several shots to shave time off, which was needed in the end.
• Pace- In one of our shots, our lead female protagonist (Susan) was running away from the assailant. However, this shot was far too long- so, in order to speed it up, we edited the pace. The edited version is unnoticeable changed, and is much more seamless throughout the sequence.

  

  Did you notice the altered pace?

  
  
• Titling- We learnt that the titles were of great importance to the film. So, to make the film look better we each devoted our time to making the title look as good as possible; the result proved that it was time well spent. We learnt how to alter the given effects to make the title go backwards, and how to make a good fog effect to add a more threatening vibe. 
• Sound- Throughout this task we were recording sound separately; whether that was diegetic voices, ambient sound or Foley sound- each sound was asynchronous to the film. We did this because we knew that any sound recorded on the camera may be fuzzy and unclear; and we will continue doing this in the future. This proved to be a very effective way to record sound; and with multiple takes you don't have to restart your filming. 

Blogging

From this assignment I have learnt that blogging is a vital part of getting audience feedback and a way to convey your own thoughts. I have learnt that walls of text aren't always good, however they are sometimes necessary to get your point across. 

Overall, we have learnt a lot from the project, however with the few mistakes we did make we will adjust accordingly for the future. We will use all the good techniques that have been used again in the future. We will adapt with new techniques and the technologies used will improve as we do so.