Thriller Questionnaire

This was the questionnaire we handed out to a variety of people before we started filming, to get some feedback from people as part of our research.

The End Is Here

Today we finished our media just in time for the deadline of today at 3.30pm!!!! We found some really good music on 'Free music archive'. We spent all lesson today uploading the footage we shot last night to complete the narrative and editing it. At lunch we added the music Jeffrey found. Our media has come together well and we are all happy with the end result. All we have to do is upload it to the teachers archive for the first screening on Monday the 22nd of March. We have achieved all that we set out to do. Now all we have to do in the upcoming lessons is our evaluation and continue to blog and upload all the planning and ideas as well as the storyboards. We have decided to evaluate in the form of a DVD commentary.
OVER AND OUT!

Almost finished

Today we continued to edit. We have completed the first part of our opening sequence and we our happy with it. We have also sorted out the 'jumpy' cuts in the middle section as well as the credits in between. At first we decided to have the credits appear by fading in and out however we have re-evaluated that this lesson and decided to keep it more in keeping with the theme we should make the credits appear more 'jumpy'. Therefore we have made the credits appear as if they were being typed on the screen. Despite the changes in the way the credits appear we have chosen to keep the same colour scheme of orange and black.
We also looked through our media today with a critical eye and deleted any footage we found unnecessary to the narrative or we feel did not work. To make our media make sense and work we our going out tomorrow for one last re-shoot. We would have done it today, however Chelsea is ill and as she is our protagonist we need her for the shot, especially as this shot is to make the narrative flow and make complete sense. We have been experimental with our shots and hope the overall effect works on our target audience.
Jeffrey also had a thorough search for music and has discovered a couple of pieces of music he feels would work well with our piece. As they are big files we need to find a way of transferring them over to the computer we have our project saved on as we need to listen to them and make a final whole group decision. We also think if we can not find the right piece of music for the credit part that we attempt to make our own.
We our approaching our deadline now! FRIDAY!!! We still have a few things to do however our media seemed to take shape today. We have a clear list of what we need to do in our lat couple of lessons.

The persuit of editing.....

For the last couple of lessons we have continued to edit. To maintain a high standard or work we are taking time and care whilst editing so we can be sure to achieve perfect results. As we are being so thorough editing is proving to be a lengthy process and is taking time and patience. As our group has such interesting and original ideas it is taking us a long time to capture every ones inspiration and incorporate it in our media.
We have decided the genre of music we would like to include in our opening sequence however we are still looking/creating a piece to fit perfectly with out opening.
As we our creating a thriller we have to create a 'jumpy' opening that grips the audience from the start. So, the opening sequence has a lot of jumpy cuts.
To make sure the cuts are in the correct place and create the desired effect we our spending a lot of time making sure the cuts are in the correct place. Despite just typing that the first part of our sequence uses 4 longer shots. One of a plane of water, a pan of an empty playground (In keeping with 'playtime productions'), Protagonist walking away from the camera and the Protagonist being followed by the antagonist. These shots all sound pretty simple however we have put a twist on them leading them to benefit our genre choice, Thriller, We like our choice is contrasting the shot type. The change in shot and length shows the change in the story and the pace of the story.

Starting to edit

We have recently begun editing. We began by watching all the footage we already had and working out if we had to do any re-shoots. We decided to make the narrative and sequence flow better we had to add and re-film a couple of shoots. After that we needed to create the correct mood throughout our film so we went through and darkened a considerable amount of the shots. We decided to have a slow paced beginning, speeding up to a sequence of jumpy quick shots progressing to a fast sequence until retreating again to a slower end. To create the jumpiness we wish to achieve in the middle section we have decided to use 'cuts' instead of fades or anything alike. Using cuts allows us to create the desired affect and keeps the audience intrigued as well as keeping them on the edge of the seat and not giving them a false sense of comfort.
Despite having footage that we are happy with, we had a lot of footage that was unnecessary and not needed. However we are glad we had the option to use this footage if needed.
We have to have a rough cut in by Friday the 12th of March so in the up and coming lessons we will continue to edit as well as searching for unlicensed music that we feel fitting. If we can not find anything on 'Freeplay' or any equivalent. We always have the option to compose are own on garage band. Using garage band we can be sure that it is complete original and fitting however it takes a lot of time and skill to compose a successful piece of music.
We have also began thinking about the structure of are opening sequence. We placed all are shots in a rough order of how they we finally appear and began working from there. We made copies of every shot so that if we accidently lost a shot or needed to start again we still had a fresh unedited version. The structure is also starting to form by us adding our credits in. Credits will display the information of the production company, name of the film, actors, producers etc: This will add structure to our piece and give it format.
So we continue to edit :)

Uploading...

Today, we uploaded all the footage we've done so far onto the mac. We put the clips into a rough order so it becomes easier for us to edit them later. On Thursday we are going to edit them so we end up with a draft for the real opening.

Second day of filming...

On the second day of filming, we went to our location which was the woods where we came across some sinister looking garages. We decided to film them beacause we may use them as an establishing shot for the place the kidnapped person was being held. After that we moved into the woods and began to shoot the mid-shots of Chelsea walking through a path. Then we shot low angle shots of Justin and Chelsea walking in and out of the frame. Then we took some point of veiw shots of Justin taking a weapon out of his pocket. There was also another point of veiw shot of Justin where he grabs Chelsea's shoulder in a menacing way. After this, the last shot was of Justin attempting to hit Chelsea We also did shots of an empty moving swing in a playground, creating enigmas for the audience at the start of the film.

First day of filming...

On thursday we went to Ellie's house and prepared the area for filming. We cleared space around her garden/garage and then set out the tools on the table. We then filmed shots outside where Chelsea (the victim) is outside tied up next to a petrol can and other dangerous objects to create enigmas. Unfortunately we didnt have the right costume arrangements to film all of the shots as we didnt have the protagonists attire available.So amongst the group we arranged a later date (sunday) that we could film our footage. We also decided to film in the woods near Ellie's house which we werent originally going to do, this would be a scene where the victim is going to be attacked and abducted by the protagonist.