Final Evaluation (3/3 Sections)

Section 1

Editing

For my film project i will be head of editing. When we do our final edit we shall be using a editing software called Premiere Pro. Film editing is part of the creative post-production process of film making. The editor works with the raw footage, selecting shots and combining them into sequences to create a finished motion picture. The editing has been refereed as the 'invisible' art behind some of the greatest motion picture sequences of all time. The editing helps to establish a structure, tempo, mood, and style. 

Some types of editing techniques are:

- Cut: 

A visual transition created in editing in which one shot is instantaneously replaced on screen by another.

- Continuity editing: 

Editing that creates action that flows smoothly across shots and scenes without jarring visual inconsistencies. Establishes a sense of story for the viewer.

- Cross cutting:

Cutting back and forth quickly between two or more lines of action, indicating they are happening simultaneously.

- Dissolve: 

A gradual scene transition. The editor overlaps the end of one shot with the beginning of the next one.

- Establishing shot:
A shot, normally taken from a great distance or from a "bird's eye view," that establishes where the action is about to occur.

- Fade:

A visual transition between shots or scenes that appears on screen as a brief interval with no picture. The editor fades one shot to black and then fades in the next. Often used to indicate a change in time and place.

- Jump cut:

 A cut that creates a lack of continuity by leaving out parts of the action.

- Montage:

 Scenes whose emotional impact and visual design are achieved through the editing together of many brief shots.

Section 2

Target Audience.

Me and my group were given the task making a 3 minute thriller mini film. We were then asked to pick a sub-genre for the thriller and we decided to do a psychological thriller. We then decided what roles we would be given within the group and my group and I decided that I would do the editing because I had the most experience with it. We had set dates to complete each task by.

We all had to do research on our given roles. I research all the editing techniques that are used when making a psychological thriller. I found out that a lot of montages are involved and that the filters used for the filming are usually dark to add suspense and help to re-enforce the thriller conventions. I looked into the conventions and iconography of the genre and sub-genre to help us get a better understanding and knowledge of it. This helps to attract the correct target audience for our film. This is because the audience will look for these conventions within the film to attract them to watching it. Watching the opening to the film 'Memento' i saw some interesting ways to challenge some conventions of the psychological thriller but still include some strong conventions to the genre. Some of the iconography that i found was similar to most thriller iconography such as, Shadows, Confined places and weaponry. This help my group and I to get a better understanding of what to include in the film to help strengthen  the conventions of the genre.

We used the internet to research on what is included with psychological thrillers. I found out about the conventions and iconography of the genre as well as different editing techniques involved with the editing and final cut of different films. We also used own experience which we learnt in lesson and from our own knowledge to figure out the different features and functions of the sub-genre to help improve the ideas for the film. We drew our own storyboards to help us come up with individual ideas. We then compared and contrasted our different ideas to make our film have the correct conventions and iconography to match a psychological thriller but we also managed to include ideas so that we could also challenge them. In the end, we added different elements from our storyboards together but to stick with the story of one of them so that we didn't have to re-write another whole storyboard and waste filming and editing time.

The genre of our chose will have a target audience of 15+, this is because of the psychological element about the film and that young teens and children will not understand. I believe that my chose of target audience is good because if the audience doesn't understand the genre and purpose of the film then there is no point in watching it and it makes the film irrelevant. I also asked people of my own age group what their favorite elements of the genre our. Most of them said, "My favorite element of a psychological thriller is the plot twist that normally happens within any good psychological thriller." This helped me to plan what type of ideas i would use within the film to help make the audience happy and at least satisfied with the film. Others also said. "I enjoy the mystery that is unfolded throughout a psychological thriller." This helped me to create ideas about involving a hidden mystery that the audience will be wishing to find out so that they stay focused and intrigued on the film.  "

The film will involve challenged and original conventions of a psychological thrillers such as the plot twist and the reality vs. illusion convention. This will cause the film to be more interesting and gripping on the audience which will help to attract the target audience we are looking for. The feedback from the people I asked and the research that i carried out helped me to come up with some ideas on how the conventions can be challenged but stay relevant to the genre that i have chosen.

Our final storyboard has both its strengths and weaknesses. I believe that we have stuck to the conventions of the genre well and managed to challenge them at the same time. We also managed the timing of the film so that when it is finished it shall meet the 3 minute task. But, we could of spend more time planning and constructing ideas about the film at the start instead of just sticking to one idea and then trying developing them later on as we film our movie.

Part 3

Final Evaluation.

I chose to do the editing for our three minute film. We were given the genre of thriller but we chose to do the sub-genre of psychological so that the film had a real meaning and clear theme to it. The editing techniques that I used when editing the footage for the film involved me having to use jump cuts, filters and tints, fades and colour corrections. These are important for a psychological thriller because they help to meet and challenge the conventions of the genre as well as adding meaning and depth to the film.

Firstly, the genre has help to influence decisions that I have made about the editing techniques I have used. For example, because the film is a psychological thriller I have used darker tints to add depth and meaning to the genre. This has helped to strengthen the conventions of the genre because the film feels like it has a darker side to it than a techno thriller which would be lighter and futuristic which is what I didn’t want mine to look like. This is because if the films conventions help to attract the correct type of audience which would be people between the ages of 15 to 30, I will also make sure that the film makes sense so that the audience is at least satisfied with it. 

Secondly, I had to work with both the cinematographer and the sound artist to make sure that the cuts and edits fit in with the sound effects and Foley sounds. I also had to make sure that the cinematographer was happy and satisfied with the order the cuts have been put in and that the film is how he envisioned it. This is important for the film to work because it means that the film will make sense and wont seem jumbled up or difficult to follow since most thrillers are should flow well.

Next, I took advise from other people within the class after they watched it. Some comments I got were positive and made me realise that some scenes were good and didn’t  need attention and fixing. But, I was also given constructive criticism saying that some people didn’t understand some of the filters that I used and that some of the cuts were too long and needed to be changed so that the audience doesn’t lose interest when watching the film. I worked on the criticism that I was given and I removed some of the filters that didn’t meet the genre conventions and I changed them so that the conventions were meet. I also changed the length of some of the scene to add variety so that the audience doesn’t get bored by watching the same shot from the same angle for a long period of time.  

Finally, I had to change and adapt to some ideas I wanted to use because I was unable to do some things that I wanted to do. On the other hand, it was kind of a good thing, because now I am able to do different things so that the film makes more sense in the long run so that the film doesn’t always meet the generic genre conventions such as, dark filters and quick fast paced montages. I planned to try and challenge them and  give a different view on the style of a psychological thriller from other films.


In conclusion, I have acted on feedback and also overcome issues and problems that I have faced whilst doing the editing for the film. I believe that me doing this has helped to set the film apart from any other psychological thrillers and makes it feel different but also including some preferred and common conventions of the genre. I added dark filters to a lot of shots so they seem more mysterious and they play on the audiences mind so they don’t know what is happening so they want to find out.

By Nathan Hardwick

Evaluative Report- Section 3

Evaluative Report Section 3

After creating the first draft of our media production we decided that we needed to re-film what we had, as after receiving feedback from our fellow peers some key points were continuously mentioned; the scenes we filmed only made up one and a half minutes out of the required three minutes, the story line did not make sense, the camera work was sometimes not stable and didn't have a variation of shots, also the scenes did not create the excitement and suspense that is usually a key factor of psychological thrillers. Therefore the group’s director, Zaki, made the decision to film the production again, but also combine the ideas from the two films together. Consequently this decision, in my opinion improved our project as we took into consideration how to make the film longer and more suspenseful and so have made a higher quality psychological thriller opening scene.

I now feel that our variation of camera angle/shot types work effectively to broaden the visual position in which the audience watches the film from, e.g. positioning the camera on the floor and high up in crane view points, CCTV imitation, and canted  angles.

The establishing shot at the start of the film is effective as it shows the Cambridge skyline where the film is based and also, the pace of the camera panning from left to right creates a mood within the production and gives time for the credits to appear.

Another element of our media production that I feel was effective was the use of Foley sound; as it works well in some cases throughout, e.g. when the camera blacks out and the audience can only hear heavy breathing.

Looking back at the original production and the feedback that we gained, there were a number of key factors that were not as effective as they could be, such as: the sound, due to not having any Foley sound and the background noise was too loud. The production was too much like a trailer as it was so short and ended very abruptly.

Although there were problems with our first production, the second project was much improved as it was longer, there was more variation of shots and just looked much more professional. From the feedback that we were given on our final production we could have made the storyline clearer, as the audience had confusion in understanding who the protagonist and antagonist were. Another point is that we could have used a larger selection of soundtracks and sound effects throughout, due to pauses of silence at the end of some scenes; this would have made the production much more ‘cutting edge’ and professional.

From looking at my own role in the group as the camera man, I think I could have improved the production by using some more professional camera shots like, canted angles, panning, and extreme close ups; all of these could have created more disorientation and suspense.

                Comparing our psychological thriller production to the professional film, The Game, there are some similarities and differences that can both scrutinise our production, but also help improve it. Between the two, the audience for both films can easily tell that they are thrillers due to the classic conventions being displayed; dark, unsaturated colour, suspenseful soundtracks. I think that The Game has a different target audience to our production, as it seems that I is for an older audience due to the darkness that the scenes posses through the lighting and storyline; whereas our media production is targeted for young adults. Obviously from being a professional production it is a lot crisper due to camera work, editing and acting so there always will be significant differences between the two. I feel if we had the resources and time the group could have made dialogue for our film and use actors to then really create a hopefully near professional looking/sounding production.

Word count: 659

Opening sequence evaluation

overall:
looked like a thriller but wasn't very clear on what was happening, who was the antagonist and protagonist.
A bit confusing what was the plot how does it all fit together.
Cutting was abrupt, some of the shots could of been cut down to get rid of camera shake.
Some more sound could of been used fill a blank.
More transitions were necessary to link it all together to make more sense of what is going on.
The train track scene was well used but could of done with more shots to establish what was going on.
The panning/establishing shot was well used with all of the colours of the sky and the steadiness of the camera.
Could of done with more "takes" on most of the shots because you could see the actors smiling and some shots felt as if they weren't as serious as they could have been.
The screaming sounded a bit extreem but worked well with the train in the background.

Evaluative commentary Zaki Dowd

Evaluative report of AS coursework - Zaki Dowd

Section 1) 

The task we were set was to create an opening sequence for a thriller film. In groups of 4 we were to choose a typical thriller sub-genre for the production and then individually come up with ideas for the film. We also had to draw a detailed storyboard that showed camera movement and clear director instructions. The opening sequence had to be three minutes long, include the film title and credits, positively establish the chosen genre and target audience, and clearly show common conventions of the chosen thriller film. We chose to do a psychological thriller. We also did research into our chosen sub genre, we evaluated psychological thriller openings. I evaluated the opening for the movie 'se7en' which is a very we'll known psychological crime thriller. I chose this films opening sequence as it includes many typical psychological thriller conventions. The purpose of this research was to identify common thriller conventions e.g. certain shot types, camera angles, film noir and to be able to identify them when watching a film. In my research I also identified the target audience for my thriller, aged between 15 and 60. This is because, to understand a good thriller the viewer must engage in the story and keep interested in it. The viewer must be old enough and mature enough to understand the film and also young enough to not get bored and not bother with the film. The target audience for many psychological thrillers are 18, this is because they include a lot of violence and some psychological issues which can be disturbing for many younger viewers. My thriller however, will only be aged from 15 as it will not include any content which will disturb the viewer. The gender of the viewer is not very important as it depends on the persons personal preference, regardless of their gender. However, in my thriller, the viewer will have to put up with a bit of blood and fighting, which typically men prefer and women do not. Because of this the movie may be slightly more appealing to men. However it is more to do with the persons personal preference of film, whether they are male or female. The viewer must also have an interest in the sub genre of the film (psychological thriller) so they can engage and relate with things in the movie and follow clues and hints hidden in the story. overall my target audience which i am aiming to attract are 15+ males or females interested in psychological thrillers. The movie will have a age rating of 15+ as it will contain aspects of violence, death and a character with psychological problems. However i am not rating it an 18+ as the content is not overly explicit and teenager will enjoy the movie§ as adults. Psychological thrillers with similar target audiences include ‘Memento’ - directed by Christopher Nolan, ‘Se7en’ - directed by David Fincher and ‘Silence of the Lambs’ - Directed by Jonathon Demme.

Section 2) 

From the research i carried out i learned how to identify thriller sub genres. A way of doing this is using Lacey’s Repertoire of Elements, this is a useful framework to follow when analysing genre. Lacey breaks a texts down into these five areas to identify the elements in each:

• Narrative - (a spoken or written account of connected events)
• Iconography - (symbolic representation, especially the conventional meanings attached to an image, images or an object)
• Characters - (The characters in the film)
• Setting - (The position, direction, or way in which something, such as an automatic control, is set.
• Style - (The way in which something is said, done, expressed, or performed e.g. camerawork, editing)

From doing my research i have added certain things into my opening which i would not have thought of before. For example, from watching the opening scene from ‘Memento’ it gave me the idea of playing the opening scene backwards. This was interesting because i had never seen this before and made it very memorable. Another example was watching the opening scene for ‘Heat’ gave me the idea to have an establishing shot of a busy road in a city to open the first scene. I asked 4 people from the age group i had selected (15-60) what aspects of psychological thrillers they most enjoy. I asked one 16 year old boy, one 16 year old girl, one middle aged man, and another 16 year old boy. The two 16 year old boys and the 16 year old girl all said that “the best aspect of psychological thrillers are the plot twists and changes in the film”. However the middle aged man i asked said that “a psychological thriller must have a solid storyline and not have too much going on so it is hard to understand.” This showed that it is obviously much easier to engage in a film if you are younger than older, it also showed me the different aspects of a psychological thriller which people most enjoy, this helped me plan my opening by giving me guidelines of what people want to see in a psychological thriller and helped me think of ideas to use.  

 section 3:

Overall the opening sequence did meet the expectations of a psychological thriller. As the director i believe that it is a clear representation of what i wanted to show and also shows very clearly and effectively the chosen sub genre. I wanted to have a variety of camera angles and shots in the opening sequence and i believe the camera shots which were used, were very effective and looked very professional. For example the establishing shot shows a overview of cambridge from the top of a car park. While the camera pans, the film name is faded in one letter at a time. As this happens, a piano tune is played in the background. This is effective as the piano tune juxtaposes the films sub genre as it is a happy, relaxing melody and not a eery, dark sound commonly used in psychological thrillers. Another shot which is very effective is the second establishing shot which is shown in reverse. This idea is used in the opening sequence for the film “memento” which inspired me to used it in this. The shot is a POV shot of a person being thrown off the side of a building, from their point of view, being hung upside down, very dazed and confused. We used this shot to show the credits fading in one at a time. The reason the shot is shown in reverse is because i used the same shot later on in the opening but not in reverse, to make continuity. 

However there are certain aspects of the opening that on reflection, i would have done differently. For example, between the second point of view shot of being held off the building and the elevator shot, i would have added another shot of the victim being taken from the roof to the elevator. This would have made the sequence flow better and easier to understand for the audience. Also the only dialogue in the opening is shouting “help” and there is no real dialogue e.g conversation. If i had more time i would have included some dialogue between the characters and possibly a narrative, from the point of view of the persons mind. This would have been effective as it would have made the story easier to follow and also made it clearer what the sub genre is, as a narrative from the persons mind is a very common convention found in psychological thrillers.

My finished product includes aspects which are similar than those of other thriller films. For example, the second establishing shot is in reverse, i got the idea of this shot from watching the film “memento” which also has the establishing shot in reverse. “memento” is also a psychological thriller. 

The original storyboard idea was changed a lot as it was not as easy as expected, because of this we virtually changed the whole opening. However we did include certain aspects from my original storyboard. For example, we included the same psychological idea that the person believes he is killing someone else when in fact he is killing himself. We also included certain shots which were used in the original storyboard e.g. the establishing shot as an overview of cambridge.

Zaki Dowd

Evaluative Report.

Evaluative Report.

Me and my group were given the task making a 3 minute thriller mini film. We were then asked to pick a sub-genre for the thriller and we decided to do a psychological thriller. We then decided what roles we would be given within the group and my group and I decided that I would do the editing because I had the most experience with it. We had set dates to complete each task by.

We all had to do research on our given roles. I research all the editing techniques that are used when making a psychological thriller. I found out that a lot of montages are involved and that the filters used for the filming are usually dark to add suspense and help to re-enforce the thriller conventions. I looked into the conventions and iconography of the genre and sub-genre to help us get a better understanding and knowledge of it. This helps to attract the correct target audience for our film. This is because the audience will look for these conventions within the film to attract them to watching it. Watching the opening to the film 'Memento' i saw some interesting ways to challenge some conventions of the psychological thriller but still include some strong conventions to the genre. Some of the iconography that i found was similar to most thriller iconography such as, Shadows, Confined places and weaponry. This help my group and I to get a better understanding of what to include in the film to help strengthen  the conventions of the genre.

We used the internet to research on what is included with psychological thrillers. I found out about the conventions and iconography of the genre as well as different editing techniques involved with the editing and final cut of different films. We also used own experience which we learnt in lesson and from our own knowledge to figure out the different features and functions of the sub-genre to help improve the ideas for the film. We drew our own storyboards to help us come up with individual ideas. We then compared and contrasted our different ideas to make our film have the correct conventions and iconography to match a psychological thriller but we also managed to include ideas so that we could also challenge them. In the end, we added different elements from our storyboards together but to stick with the story of one of them so that we didn't have to re-write another whole storyboard and waste filming and editing time.

The genre of our chose will have a target audience of 15+, this is because of the psychological element about the film and that young teens and children will not understand. I believe that my chose of target audience is good because if the audience doesn't understand the genre and purpose of the film then there is no point in watching it and it makes the film irrelevant. I also asked people of my own age group what their favorite elements of the genre our. Most of them said, "My favorite element of a psychological thriller is the plot twist that normally happens within any good psychological thriller." This helped me to plan what type of ideas i would use within the film to help make the audience happy and at least satisfied with the film. Others also said. "I enjoy the mystery that is unfolded throughout a psychological thriller." This helped me to create ideas about involving a hidden mystery that the audience will be wishing to find out so that they stay focused and intrigued on the film.  "

The film will involve challenged and original conventions of a psychological thrillers such as the plot twist and the reality vs. illusion convention. This will cause the film to be more interesting and gripping on the audience which will help to attract the target audience we are looking for. The feedback from the people I asked and the research that i carried out helped me to come up with some ideas on how the conventions can be challenged but stay relevant to the genre that i have chosen.

Our final storyboard has both its strengths and weaknesses. I believe that we have stuck to the conventions of the genre well and managed to challenge them at the same time. We also managed the timing of the film so that when it is finished it shall meet the 3 minute task. But, we could of spend more time planning and constructing ideas about the film at the start instead of just sticking to one idea and then trying developing them later on as we film our movie.

Word count- 779

- Nathan Hardwick

Evaluative report of AS coursework draft

 Evaluative report of AS coursework draft - Zaki Dowd

Section 1) 

The task we were set was to create an opening sequence for a thriller film. In groups of 4 we were to choose a typical thriller sub-genre for the production and then individually come up with ideas for the film. We also had to draw a detailed storyboard that showed camera movement and clear director instructions. The opening sequence had to be three minutes long, include the film title and credits, positively establish the chosen genre and target audience, and clearly show common conventions of the chosen thriller film. We chose to do a psychological thriller. We also did research into our chosen sub genre, we evaluated psychological thriller openings. I evaluated the opening for the movie 'se7en' which is a very we'll known psychological crime thriller. I chose this films opening sequence as it includes many typical psychological thriller conventions. The purpose of this research was to identify common thriller conventions e.g. certain shot types, camera angles, film noir and to be able to identify them when watching a film. In my research I also identified the target audience for my thriller, aged between 15 and 60. This is because, to understand a good thriller the viewer must engage in the story and keep interested in it. The viewer must be old enough and mature enough to understand the film and also young enough to not get bored and not bother with the film. The target audience for many psychological thrillers are 18, this is because they include a lot of violence and some psychological issues which can be disturbing for many younger viewers. My thriller however, will only be aged from 15 as it will not include any content which will disturb the viewer. The gender of the viewer is not very important as it depends on the persons personal preference, regardless of their gender. However, in my thriller, the viewer will have to put up with a bit of blood and fighting, which typically men prefer and women do not. Because of this the movie may be slightly more appealing to men. However it is more to do with the persons personal preference of film, whether they are male or female. The viewer must also have an interest in the sub genre of the film (psychological thriller) so they can engage and relate with things in the movie and follow clues and hints hidden in the story. overall my target audience which i am aiming to attract are 15+ males or females interested in psychological thrillers. The movie will have a age rating of 15+ as it will contain aspects of violence, death and a character with psychological problems. However i am not rating it an 18+ as the content is not overly explicit and teenager will enjoy the movie§ as adults. Psychological thrillers with similar target audiences include ‘Memento’ - directed by Christopher Nolan, ‘Se7en’ - directed by David Fincher and ‘Silence of the Lambs’ - Directed by Jonathon Demme.

Section 2) 

From the research i carried out i learned how to identify thriller sub genres. A way of doing this is using Lacey’s Repertoire of Elements, this is a useful framework to follow when analysing genre. Lacey breaks a texts down into these five areas to identify the elements in each:

• Narrative - (a spoken or written account of connected events)
• Iconography - (symbolic representation, especially the conventional meanings attached to an image, images or an object)
• Characters - (The characters in the film)
• Setting - (The position, direction, or way in which something, such as an automatic control, is set.
• Style - (The way in which something is said, done, expressed, or performed e.g. camerawork, editing)

From doing my research i have added certain things into my opening which i would not have thought of before. For example, from watching the opening scene from ‘Memento’ it gave me the idea of playing the opening scene backwards. This was interesting because i had never seen this before and made it very memorable. Another example was watching the opening scene for ‘Heat’ gave me the idea to have an establishing shot of a busy road in a city to open the first scene. I asked 4 people from the age group i had selected (15-60) what aspects of psychological thrillers they most enjoy. I asked one 16 year old boy, one 16 year old girl, one middle aged man, and another 16 year old boy. The two 16 year old boys and the 16 year old girl all said that “the best aspect of psychological thrillers are the plot twists and changes in the film”. However the middle aged man i asked said that “a psychological thriller must have a solid storyline and not have too much going on so it is hard to understand.” This showed that it is obviously much easier to engage in a film if you are younger than older, it also showed me the different aspects of a psychological thriller which people most enjoy, this helped me plan my opening by giving me guidelines of what people want to see in a psychological thriller and helped me think of ideas to use.  

Word count: 870

Zaki Dowd

Jack Colling Evaluative report final version

Jack Colling

Section 1:

Brief:

To film, and edit our own thriller opening sequence with our own choice in sub genre e.g psychological or crime thriller. The opening has to be two to 3 minutes long, and each member of the group has to head a section of its creation. For example one person would be in charge of filming and one person in charge of sound ext.

Thriller opening sequence analysis:

The dark knight rises:

The opening sequence to the dark knight rises is thrilling right from the start as it follow the usual thriller conventions. For example the film features this deep, mysterious background music which builds an exiting atmosphere into the opening sequence. The film doen’t hold back information like most thrillers do because it reveals the main character two minutes into the film and the action starts immediately which draws the viewer into the film immediately.

Leon:

The film leon does follow ordinary thriller conventions as right from the start of the film the main character “Leon” is sent to assassinate a man, this is thrilling in many ways as the director uses a small amount of film noir as the opening scene is shot in the shadows with intense beams of light shining through the bullet holes in the wall. However towards the end of the opening sequence the main character come across a small child, this is quite out of the ordinary as most thrillers do not feature children in them.

Target audience:

The target audience for our product 16 and over.

1.    James Taylor:

James likes a psychological thriller which builds up the picture of what is going on throughout and then at the end of the film there should be a dramatic twist which no one was expecting to shock the viewer.

2.    Liam Griggs:

Liam likes a psychological thriller to be very in depth and complex like the film “Shutter island” where the viewer thinks they understand the film completely and then at the end of the film it turns out that everything that they thought was correct was completely wrong.

3.    Joseph Gruby:

Joseph likes a psychological thriller to be complex and interesting but for it to feature film noir techniques to help build suspense and depth.

4.    Ross Keeling:

Ross likes a psychological thriller to be dark and quite sinister with a slight element of complexity but it should feature a lot of jump scares throughout the film.

5.    Kirsty lilley:

6.    Kirsty likes a psychological thriller to be complex and in depth but to have a fair amount of horror mixed in with it to make the film a gory thriller.

Storyboard preparation

·      Artificial lighting (carbon filament, light orange glow, street lamps)

·       Sub genres(psychological, hint of horror, element of crime)

·      Sound(background, foley sounds e.g character footsteps)

·      Character(secretive not much is known about him

2.

Shots:

·      Panning/establishing shot- used to establish the setting and can be used to set atmosphere for the film.

·      Close ups extreme close ups-used in a thriller to show fear or distress

·      POV- uses in a thriller in a intense part of the film to put empathy onto the people viewing the film

Section 2

The elements which I found most useful when regarding the pre production process was what people wanted the thriller to be like. For example the majority of people that I asked wanted a psychological thriller to be complex and interesting in order to make the viewer really think about what is going on in the film, “thriller to be very in depth and complex”.

The research that I did influenced my storyboard ideas greatly. For example I used flash backs with a blurred, out of focus effect to make sure that I didn’t give away lots of information about the film and held most of the information back from the viewer to give a element of mystery to my opening sequence. There is also a slight element of horror in my opening sequence due to one person saying that they like a thriller with a slight “element of horror”. After looking at some psychological thrillers I found that they almost always feature a house as the “main” setting, the story line mostly involves family whether some one has died or gone missing e.g a small child. It is for that reason that my opening sequence features a house as the setting and the base line of the story as about a family going missing.

The research that I did influenced my storyboard ideas greatly. For example I used flash backs with a blurred, out of focus effect to make sure that I didn't give away lots of information about the film and held most of the information back from the viewer to give a element of mystery to my opening sequence. There is also a slight element of horror in my opening sequence due to one person saying that they like a thriller with a slight “element of horror”. After looking at some psychological thrillers I found that they almost always feature a house as the “main” setting, the story line mostly involves family whether some one has died or gone missing e.g a small child. It is for that reason that my opening sequence features a house as the setting and the base line of the story as about a family going missing.

Section 3
Sound:

• "The first shot needs to have no wind noise" We responded by re filming our establishing shot on a day when the air was still so that there was no longer any un-wanted wind noise.
• "Add in a discrete sound when the main character is revealed" we responded by enhancing some of the normal sounds that featured in the shot.
• We noticed that we didn't have any sound effects which is why we added in sounds of intense heavy breathing and a strong heartbeat soundtrack.
• "It ended quite abruptly" we responded by taking a camera out overnight and we filmed a extra two minutes which left our total time at 2 minutes and 45 seconds after editing.
• "No credits or titles" We responded by adding in the title of our film over our establishing shot and putting the credits into shot number 2.

What parts of our production are effective and why?

After we had acted on our feedback I believe that our second shot is effective as the footage has been reversed and fades in and out to give the effect of someone fading in and out of consciousness, in-between the fades we added in the credits (Directed by...) we also changed the opacity of the shot to give the effect of it being in the past.

What parts of our product were less effective?

The shot of someone being held off of a roof top is the less effective part of our final cut because we recorded a Foley sound of someone screaming and shouting. However after we added this into the film we found that it didn't quite fit as it did not sound realistic. 

When I compared our final cut footage to the film Shutter Island I saw that our final cut was indeed worse because the film Shutter Island had a bigger budget than us so they used professional people and software to edit, record and cast their film which is why it is sleeker and easier to understand. The main item was the cinematography and camera work used in Shutter Island as the director used many different shots and they were so well used. For example he used a helicopter to do an amazing high angle long shot of the island he also had lightening and storm sounds going on intensively in the background, this set the atmosphere amazingly even before the actors started acting.