Thriller Task- Improvements

Lesson 18- 25/3/10

In today's lesson we decided to improve the editing from the feedback we got back from Tuesday, this included cutting down the length of time of the long shot of Character B walking down the graveyard. In this shot the audience could see where he started walking and looked to rehearsed. I cut down this shot so the audience could now see the character already walking, which gives the question from the audience where is the man walking to. The opening credits needed to stay longer on the screen as they disappeared to quickly before the audience could read them. I extended the clip along the timeline and then inserted a dip to black in between each credit of the opening sequence. This gives the thriller a dark and sinister impression to the audience.

We yet again got feedback from our teacher who watched our thriller opening sequence, he suggested that we should add a flashback which would give the audience an idea of why Character A is at a cliff top and why she is looking sad and suicidal. We decided to create this flashback by filming a shot of where Character A is writing a letter to her mum saying goodbye. This would create an enigma for the audience.

We decided to book the camera and tripod out for the holidays as we could try and film in the holidays this would save us time when it comes to editing for the second time.

Thriller Task- Feedback

Lesson 17- 23/3/10

In today's lesson my group had to export the thriller opening sequence to AVI again as I found the problem of the video footage was not right. When viewing the opening sequence on YouTube and my blog I saw that the footage was grey and you could not the effects that we had added.

Exporting to AVI was not a problem and was simple enough, this took little time. But whist uploading the video onto YouTube, it appeared to take a long time and slowed down the process. All we could do was to wait. Meanwhile, we were watching the other groups opening sequences to see what they had achieved so far. We watched through each sequence and would give both positive and negative feedback about the thriller and what they could do to improve. When it came to show our thriller we had to view it on Windows Media Player as our thriller was still uploading onto YouTube. The general feedback was good from the rest of the class, which I liked to know that others were intrigued to watch on from what we had achieved so far.

The improvements that were suggested to us is to make Character B's entrance more clearer as the audience were not sure of who he was and unfortunately could not understand what he was saying. Another improvement was to use other transitions as the ones that we were currently using were not giving the right impression towards the audience.

After, Shaneece, Trisha and I decided that we needed to re-film some shots for example, Character B's entrance and dialogue, the tracking shot of Character A when she is walking towards the film, music to accompany Character's B long shot. We thought we could try and film in the Easter holidays that were coming up as this would give us more time when we came back to edit the new footage. The video finally uploaded to YouTube and I uploaded the video to my blog to be viewed and marked.

Next lesson, we will change the transitions that we are currently using to give the right impression and atmosphere to the audience.

Thriller Task- 1st Draft

This is our 1st draft of our thriller opening sequence, in which the deadline was today. When we were importing the video to YouTube we saw that the footage did not come out right. The screen was grey and you could not see what was happening. As this is our first draft I know that there are many improvements to be made.

Earlier today Shaneece and I decided to export the opening sequence by exporting to AVI and then uploading the video to YouTube and our blog to meet the deadline. I think that overall our thriller opening sequence does fit into the thriller genre of films as we have tried to create a tense atmosphere at the start which leaves the audience with questions so that they would want to watch on to find the answers. I think that we have used the right actors as Character A fits her role and tries to act out the characters sadness and anger. I think the establishing shot really gives the audience an idea of where the first scene is set.

I think that the tracking shot of Character A walking to the phone gets ruined as the camera moves, although it is not that noticeable, it gives the opening sequence an unprofessional sense. Due to the deadline date we were not able to find music to accompany Character's B scene as he walking down the graveyard. The long shot of this is too long in my opinion and needs to be cut down.

Thriller Task- Final Editing

Lesson 16- 18/3/10

In today's lesson we decided to solely concentrate on the music that we could use for our thriller opening sequence. Individually, we looked at the different websites that gave free copyright music. It was quite hard to find the appropriate music that would give the correct atmosphere and will keep the audience in suspense. I did this by searching keywords on these websites like, 'thriller', 'suspense' and 'dark'. This helped to narrow down the results and was less time consuming. Shaneece and Trisha found a piece of music on the website: http://freeplaymusic.com called 'Abandoned'. (Found on Drama Vol 1, composed by Robert Davidson). I agreed with the rest of my group that music was fitting for the thriller opening sequence. We downloaded the track and then imported it onto Adobe Premier Pro CS4. The starting to the music piece suited the opening sequence so we placed the clip to the right point of the visuals where it matched perfectly when Character A opens the picture, it creates the right mood to the audience. We made sure that it ended at a convenient time so the suspense that is built up is not lost.

Next we moved on to the title sequence which would be placed at the start of the opening sequence. The final title of our thriller opening sequence is 'Absent' which is placed before the scene beings, the transition that we inserted is a dissolve as we decided that it gave a mysterious impression to the audience. We also included the production name and the actors name within the credits by using transitions as well. We decided to slow down these transitions to give a tense feeling towards the audience.

On Friday (19/3/10) is when the deadline for our first draft of the thriller opening sequence is due in. This is where we will receive feedback on the work that we have done so far. I think that we will have to look at the consistency of the sequence to make sure that is flows naturally and is not too jumpy.

Thriller Task- Editing

Lesson 15- 16/3/10

In today's lesson we carried on with the penultimate part of editing our opening sequence. We were currently editing the extreme close up of Character B on the phone saying, 'Don't jump.' From there we carried on editing till the end of the opening sequence by cutting each clip until we were satisfied. We found that many of the clips that we had previously filmed there was white noise that ruined the atmosphere. So we copied the audio of ambient sound of the birds and traffic in the background to this part of the opening sequence. We cut and stretched the audio until the audio blended into the clips. We decided to keep the footage in colour as this would give the full effect of the scenery and so the opening sequence would appeal to the audience of teenagers.

After editing the last clip of a low angle long shot of Character A running off into the distance. This meant that we could now move on to the effects of transitions and the titles. We trailed and error a few transitions that we thought would work when the scene changes. Fortunately, this did not take a long time as we knew what effect many of these transitions gave from the previous preliminary task beforehand. We inserted a editing transition between the establishing shot and the close of Character's A feet walking. We did not add a transition or effect to after every clip as then the opening sequence would not flow and look naturalistic. Also when viewing the sequence it would not give a good impression that it is of a thriller genre.

We again started to discuss what potential music we could incorporate into our thriller opening sequence. I heard that many of the sites which were copyright free were blocked at collage therefore I decided to research into these websites at home to see what I could find. I will report back to the group to show them what I have found.

Thriller Task- Editing

Lesson 14- 11/3/10

In today's lesson, we carried on with editing our opening sequence, currently we are editing the shot of the close up of the phone that is ringing under the leaves and twigs. When we were filming this shot, we found it very difficult to get the angle and the pace of the shot right. On many occasions this was ruined by the camera moving to fast/slow or that the camera did not pick up the phone screen due to the sunlight glistening of it. We could not find a clip that was perfect so we decided to cut clips of each clip to see if it work. This would help us avoid re filming this shot although we do have time. Whilst getting the cut at the right place we decided that the pace of the zoom in was too slow so we quickened the pace. This would keep the audience interested. When we carried onto the next clip, the Adobe Premier Pro CS4 crashed this caused us to lose the work we were currently working on. Unfortunately we lost some of the editing that we had done in today's lesson. Shaneece said she do this part of the editing again whilst Trisha and I would discuss what ideas we had about the music we would use. We decided that we did not need to record any ambient sound. But we would try find soundtrack music (copyright free) that we could use for the end of the opening sequence.

Next lesson we will carry on editing and make a decision of what sound we are going to incorporate in our opening sequence.

Thriller Task- Editing

Lesson 13- 9/3/10

In today's lesson we carried on with the editing by finding the first clip that would appear in our thriller opening sequence. This was an establishing shot which was filmed several times and lasted over 30 seconds. We thought that this time was too long to establish the scene so decided to cut out the last 10 seconds out. This would give enough time for the audience to recognise the scene before they get distracted from the opening. This software enables us to cut parts out of the clip that are not needed exactly to our preferences. The next clip that we edited was the close up of Character's A feet walking, we had to adjust the colour as the clip was quite bright. We went through each clip as a group deciding where to cut when appropriate. On the over shoulder we saw that the sun light was too bright, this caused the clip to look too bright in contrast to the others clips. This stopped the opening sequence from flowing and we were concerned that we had to re shoot the particular clip. But by adjusting the colour we yet again over came this problem. We went through each clip repeating this process of cutting down the clip and adjusting the audio. As all three of us are very opinionated and wanted this opening sequence to be the best as it could be. We would sometimes disagree on the clips, but would offer our ideas of how to improve.

Next lesson we will carry on editing as we have now edited just over a minute of film for our opening sequence.

Thriller Task- Editing

Lesson 12- 4/3/10

In today's lesson we were able to start editing the shots that we had previously filmed on Tuesday. But first we had to capture what we had filmed onto the computer from the tape, whilst capturing we realised that the footage that was playing was blurry and pixelated. This did not look good so we ejected the tape and started again. This did not make a difference and the footage was still not as its best quality. We decided to capture the footage straight from the tape when in the camera that we used. This helped and improved the quality of the footage as the pixels were not blurred. This took a while as we realised that we filmed quite a lot of shots and left the camera recording at times when it wasn't necessarily. We again would used the editing software Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. We saved the clips onto our own 'T drive' that we had been assigned to for this task.

There was over 50 clips that had been captured onto the computer where many of them were needed. Most were attempts of shots that had gone wrong so we recorded again. We went through each clip deleting those that were not needed this would make it easier when editing just with a few clips. When we had completed this we were ready to starting the editing process but the timeline which would help to organise our clips was not present. Unfortunately, this took a while to find as there are many processes on this particular software which made it difficult and time consuming.

Next lesson we will carry on with the editing the clips and add the transitions which are needed. We will also think about the music that we can use and see if any of the footage needs to be re filmed.

Thriller Task- Filming

Lesson 11- 2/3/10

Today Trisha, Shaneece and I decided to start filming as we needed to keep on track in order to finish the thriller task by the deadline that is set. We used the Sony (Yellow) camera which we had previously booked along with the tripod and a tape. We had to walk to our location along with the actor Annie Nurse which was on a cliff in Stapleford. This is the location that Trisha had found and as a group we thought this would be ideal to suit the atmosphere of the opening sequence.

At the location, we started with the establishing shot of the cliff top view which would set the scene in our opening sequence. We took it in turns to film each shot, one would film, one would direct the shot and the other would make everything was alright when filmingg. I filmed the establishing shot and the pan shots of the scene. I also filmed the close up of the phone ringing. This shot took several attempts to get right as it was difficult to get the angle and the lighting right so that the audience can see the phone's screen. By 12, we had managed to complete all the shots of the scenery. The shots of Annie Nurse (Character A) which included the prop with the phone. As the photo which is one of our props was needed was at Trisha's house we had to postpone these shots until the afternoon where Jonathan Tang (Character B) would also be present to film his shots. When filming, we noticed that the tripod was a bit stiff when panning the camera from left or right, or up or down. On the way back to College we decided to change the tripod to enable it to be easier when moving the camera. This would help to eliminate bad shots when the camera is moving.

In the afternoon after we had changed the tripod and collected the photo that we needed. We went back to the location of the cliff top in Stapleford to continue filming the rest of Annie's shot of her taking the photo out. I filmed the mid shot of a taking the photo out and the actor looking out the photo. As Jonathan was also present we started filming his shots which would take present in a graveyard which was quite close to the cliff top which was convenient. I filmed the long shot of Jonathan walking through the graveyard, the long shot of him on phone and close up of the phone and his face. This was the end of filming our opening sequence.

I believe that filming went according to plan as we managed to get all the shots completed. This is because we were able to get at least two or three takes of each shot to ensure we were satisfied with each shot when it came to editing. We used our time efficiently and worked well as a group. We recorded some non-diegetic sound and filmed a few extra shots that we thought would enhance our opening sequence.

The problems we encountered was the naturalistic lighting, as the weather was cold but the sun was out, which were casting unnecessary shadows and in some shot was causing the actor and us to not be able to see properly due to the sunlight. Another problem that had occurred was the destination of the location, on the way there Trisha was not sure where it was which delayed us in filming time. We overcame by working hard together as a group but having as well.

Next lesson we will start editing which will be on the 4/3/10.