Evaluation - Q8, Our Progression

Heres our Prelim and our thriller opening for you to watch again to see exactly how our techniques have improved

Evaluation - Q7, Technologies

EVALUATION 6 - THE CINEMA VISIT PART 2 .

ON THE 5TH APRIL THE MEDIA STUDENTS WERE TAKING TO THE SCREEN GREEN CINEMA TO VIEW THEIR THRILLERS.  I FOUND THIS USEFUL BECAUSE I WANTED TO SEE WHAT KIND OF IDEAS PEOPLE HAD AND HOW WELL IT WORKED.

ALTHOUGH THERE WAS SOME
FANTASTIC THRILLERS WHICH I THINK CAN BE USED IN AN ACTUAL MOVIE AS I WAS AMAZED OF THE QUALITY AND HIGH STANDARDS.

GROUP 30 WAS REALLY GOOD . ME TALKING ABOUT IT


HERE IS WHAT SOME STUDENTS THOUGHT OF MISSED AFTER THE SCREENING.

Evaluation - Q6, Audience feedback (part 2)

Yesterday, we went to the cinema near our college called 'The Screen on the Green' and we viewed all of the thriller openings that were made.

This was a good opportunity for us to see our project on the big screen and for us to get feedback about our thriller from the rest of the media department. The films of the feedback from the cinema are on the other blog of evaluation question 6, which I have been tagged to along with other members of my group.

The visit to the cinema was very good and many of the thriller openings were of a very high standard didn't come to much of a surprise because there are many talented people in our media department. Some of these thrillers were even good enough to be on the big screen and used in real films. I am proud of what my AS year and especially my group have produced this year :)

Evaluation - Q6, Audience feedback

During our first screening of our thriller during class we asked for feedback from our class mates after they had watched it.

They have also written down on a feedback form what they had thought.

From the feedback that we got there were some key words that came up. These were some of them:

Tomorrow we will be going to the cinema to have our films up on the big screen. This should be a good experience to get more feedback and see what a wider range of people thought. Also it will be good from the people who go to the cinema with us because they all do media and the will know what can be done to make the film better with more detail.

Q6 - Evaluation, video feedback

Video Feedback

Evaluation - Q4/5, Media institution (distribution). Attracting/addressing your audience.

'MISSED'

If our film was to be played on the big screen, it would be played in an independent movie theatre, like The Screen on the Green or another one in Leicester Square, which is the Prince Charles cinema. As we were producing a low-budget, amateur film we had to do the best with the facilities that we have been given.

If we were to make a whole film, I believe that it would be made into an independent release as it doesn't really have the budgeting and the level of acting that a big budget, HollyWood film would have. 

The independent movie theatre in Leicester Square

This could be the place where our film could be shown to get it seen by many people and give us our big break. This is a small movie theatre that would gain a small audience but as people speak about it the audience may grow along with the amount of feedback and good or bad reviews.

Facebook could be used to get more views and feedback on our thriller film for improvements and also for our thriller to be seen and maybe recommended to others. It will also be the quickest and easiest way to gain feedback

Blogger, Vimeo and YouTube are used to upload our video onto to get it seen publicly.

I have searched for other short films/openings by other students and this one came up.

TWISTED - A short student film

(Uploaded by MythicomOnline)

By uploading this to youtube they were able to get reviews from the public by comments; 

and also by likes and dislikes;

The comments and the likes/dislikes provided the group of people with positive and negative feedback but also with constructive criticism. 

Evaluation - Q3, Audience

Our audience would include someone like James.

James, aged 20, is a single man, who has just found himself a full time job in Selfridges. As he is still young, he enjoys partying and socialising and is very fond of going to the cineman with friends. As he is a Orange customer, he has the advantage of getting one free ticket to the cinema from Orange Wednesdays, which he uses to his full advantage.
He enjoys films that have a suspenseful and thrilling edge, which is why I believe our film would be a good film for him to watch.

James emptied his "man-bag" to find -

There wasn't much in his bag but remember, he is still young!

This film would be good for him because he is young and this film will make him thing and would be good for him as he enjoys thrillers films.

Evaluation - Q2, Representing particular social groups

In our thriller there are many things that describe our main characters..

Many of these characteristics are also present in the main character of 'The Stepfather', excluding the fact that the main character of that film is a character who intends to kill whereas our main character isn't expressed in that way, even though he is.

The setting makes the audience think that people who live in the suburbs are more secretive than others as both ours and 'The Stepfathers opening establishing shots are of suburban houses. 

Both of the characters costumes connote their mature and fatherly-like presence

Both thrillers present the fathers of families in a psychotic and murderous light and make them seem sly and secretive as nobody knows what they are up to or what they have done, as they live their lives as normal.

Evaluation - Q1, Forms and Conventions

During lessons we learnt about the structure of many thriller title sequences and how most usually have the same conventions, for example it might be suspenseful, the music may be scary/suspenseful, the titles may be in a specific order (the main/most important characters name/s put first, and then other cast members names following), might establish main characters or location, it could help to establish the 'theme', mood and tone for the rest of the film to come, there may be intertextual references which tells the audience about the genre, and it could include the age certificate.

Our group have not followed all of the usual conventions, but we have followed conventions similar to the opening title sequence of 'The Stepfather'. Although our actual film is very different to 'The Stepfather', for instance, the actual story and aims of the characters ('The Stepfather' has a villain, whereas ours doesn't), it still has similar conventions.

Like our own thriller opening, The Stepfather establishes the location and the main character in the very first shots.

- The Stepfather
establishing shot of location

main character

- Missed
establishing shot of location

main character

Another convention that is used is putting the titles in a specific order; usually having the most main actors name first shown, then the second actors name, the rest of the cast named after and then the people in the technical crew are named. Our opening and the stepfather both do this.

The Stepfather
Cast:
Dylan Walsh - David Harris (main character)
Sela Ward - Susan Harding
Penn Badgley - Michael Harding
Amber Heard - Kelly Porter
Sherry Stringfield - Leah
Paige Turco - Jackie Kerns
Jon Tenny - Jay Harding

'The Stepfather' Opening

Missed

Cast:

Jack Callow - John Harris

Jenifer Molone - Amanda Harris (Wife)
James Hunter - Main characters best friend
Michael Rose - Police Officer

Missed' Opening

(there were problems upload so if there are difficulties viewing the opening, you can view it on one of my other blogs)

The soundtrack for 'Missed' and 'The Stepfather' are both quite suspenseful as they lead the audience to believe something is being left out or parts of it make the audience intrigued to see what will happen in the rest of the film.

The beginning half of the soundtrack for 'The Stepfather' is slow and deep leading the audience into the main part of the opening and making the audience wonder why such music is being played as the main character performs, what seems to be, such a usual daily routine. When the christmas carol Silent Night is played the audience can sense something is not right with the house and the main character and the pace and harmonies of the song make the finding of the bodies more shocking. When the bodies are found there are deeper sounds played. Basically there are added sound effects and music when important things happen and this also happens in 'Missed'
The soundtrack for 'Missed' includes a clashing cymbal-like sound at the end to indicate the change of the characters mental state, just like the bass sound was added once the bodies were found.

Our Final Diary Entry

As a group we feel that our final version of our thriller could of been a lot better if we had the determination from the start. During the final stages of the makings we were more interested in completely and getting it all done by the deadline that it become to much to handle at times.


Having a member of our group not be as involved as they should of been made us have to rush at the end to make sure we were at a stage to hand everything in on for TODAY the 25th March 2011, but in the end we were able to do it.

Thanks to everyone for all the support and faith given to us to make sure we got everything in on time. *Kisses*

THE LAST DAY

TODAY IS THE LAST DAY OF OUR FINAL THRILLER AND BLOGS. DEADLINE!!!!!

THE MEDIA ROOMS ARE FULL OF STUDENTS DOING THEIR LAST EDITS.

 GROUP 24 HAVE NOW FINISHED WITH LOTS OF HARD WORKED INVOLVED EVEN THOUGH WE ARE  SHORT OF A MEMBER.

HOPEFULLY WE WILL ACHIEVE THE HIGHEST GRADE POSSIBLE .... I JUST WANNA SAY THANKS TO ALL THE MEDIA TEACHERS FOR THEIR COURAGE AND SUPPORT ESPECIALLY THE DIFFICULTIES !!!

A quick analysis

Here are a few recordings of us saying what task we were given and what we did throughout the making of our filming to ensure everything went well. 

Our Final Thriller Opening: Missed

We managed to complete our final version of our thriller opening in time for the deadline. So we posted it up for you to watch and ENJOY !

Screen Grabs of Editing for Final Cut

These are some screen shots of the editing and sound process for our final film.

Difficult Times!

As we didn't get to book the camera's during the half term we've had to spend the time we had left on filming, which was around three weeks. We managed to film enough for the rough cut but still haven't managed to film the final scene. We were supposed to use time today to film but unfortunately that never went ahead for specific reasons. We have until 3pm on Friday 25th March to complete the opening of our thriller film. Due to the fact that we all have different timetables, this should be a difficult task but as a group we work quite well and hopefully we can come together at certain points of the day and work our hardest until we have completed all that we need to, and then edit the rest. Up to now, we have used Final Cut Pro, LiveType and Sound Track Pro to edit and add sound to our current film but we need to add as much as we need to before our final deadline. As a group, we are all stressing out about how far we've got and are all trying to get as much work done as possible. Tomorrow will be one of the hardest days as media students so far but hopefull we come together and do our very best!
Wish us luck - we may need it. I have faith in my group though, as we are all determined to do well. :)

Completing Our Final Version

We added titles onto our opening using FinalCut Pro instead of Live Type as it would be a lot easier. We were even able to create a 'Frigid' effect on it

We created our own sound for our thriller by messing around and trying out different sounds until we found a perfect combonation of sounds to add to our sequence

We then adding the sounds to FinalCut Pro to match the music with the action happeneing

Changes for final cut - Editing

Our rought cut showed to us that we needed to edit more to make our transitions clearer and to make the film seem more thrilling than it does so far. The shakey effects make the flashbacks seem more hard to take in, due to the mental state of the character. Our edits need to relate to our film as much as possible so we will add more and clean up existing effects that are included in our thriller opening

Changes for final cut - Sound

From our rough cut we realised a few things needed to be changed or added; sound-wise.

For our Final Cut we need to add the soundtrack which will consist of deep breaths, childrens laughter and sounds that resemble the sounds in the thriller opening for the movie 'Se7en'. The sound track will have to be completed one we get the chance to edit the film along with it. Hopefully, we will be able to take away any unnecessary background sounds from the shots and add the sounds needed to give our thriller opening the full effect.

Rough Cut Evaluation

Our rough cut gave us a chance to see if our shots work well together and also give us the chance to see what was good and what could be improved.

Strengths:
I believe that the strengths of our rough cut video are the edits that we have made so far. The first edit we see is the shot which goes through the house, and the edit we use has a kind of rushed feel about it and this emphasises the mental state of the character. Our establishing shots of the road and the house work well as they introduce us to the setting of the scene. The first shot of the couple walking through the park works well after the shot of the man looking at the picture of his wife; it shows the audience how the character is feeling.

Weaknesses:
There a quite a few weaknesses in our rough cut, but this will help us as we will have more to improve on and we will learn what does and doesnt work for our final cut.
The first establishing shot of the house, could be a bit shorter as it doesn't take that long for the audience to establish the set. Also, in this rough cut, we have no titles or soundtrack. The titles should be added to the final cut, using live type. The sounds that were added didnt work because they were randomly put in and not played along with any other sound tracks, and this ruins it because it looks and sound unprofessional as there are sounds of wind and speaking in the background, but this will be fixed for the final cut, by creating a soundtrack using SoundTrack Pro. The length of our opening needs to be longer, but that was expected because our final scenes have not yet been filmed, and not all of the edits, titles and shots have been added, but they will be for our final cut.

All in all, our rough cut was done quite well, but it shows us that it could do with a lot more work to make it look good enough to upload it as our final cut!