Wednesday 30 March 2011

Question 6: Tasnim Anisa Ali [EVALUATION]



Audience feedback and comment:
 I believe the response which I had gotten back from my audience is exactly what I and my group had wanted. We wanted our response to seem as if the viewer had never seen such gruesome things and to be honest, most of the feedback did mention how ‘dark’ or ‘red’ it was.

I was also observing the audiences facial expressions. They seemed to be astounded of what was on the screen. Perfection! One element that I think was the cause of them being drowned in into our film would be the pounding up beat music. In contrast to many other films, our film seemed to have the loudest music. The thumping music was well suited well to our film. The sudden fade of music seemed to create tension. Also I had seen that when the viewers saw the mask and the blood on it, they had a slight disgust expression on their face. Wonderful! I was ecstatic as I sat there analysing their reaction. It seemed to have ‘ticked off’ all the boxes that I had on my check list of how I wanted our film to make the audience respond.

I believe that the target audience that we started off with, which was ‘15’ is still the correct age group that we are targeting at. This is because the age group that was watching the film, 16-18, seemed to reflect the film as being well suited for them. I believe that ‘12’ may have been fairly too young as the beginning does seem a bit too much for that age. Whereas ‘18’ would be too ambitious. The reason why I believe ‘15’ would be well suited is because it does not contain ‘pornographic’ content and the film does not need to be under any parental supervision.

Friday 25 March 2011

Changes to be made in light of feedback from roughcut


After our supervisor viewed  our rough cut, we weir informed we must commence to add sound and titles as soon as possible because we are a little behind. 

The clip looks good, however, we need to cut a few things out because it seems like its going over time so we need it to be perfect timing. The group decided to come in on the days we weir all free to work on our clip, the deadline is soon and we still have a few things to work on. 

ALL DONE






Overall i found this experience very enjoyable and i would love to do it again, as it really gets your creativity flowing and taught me a lot of skills in a very short time. I would to say thanks to my group for sharing the experience with me and the help ad guidance of my teachers. 







Final edit


THE DEATH CLICK
AVAILABLE NOW!

We have finished our opening to a thriller, personally its the BEST!.
After hard work our film looks amazing, the sound the editing the title sequence looks really good, i'm proud of all my mates for their commitment and hard work, and feel pleased to have worked with  such hard working students.

I feel each member of the group contributed a lot and now feel very happy and proud of the work we all produced, we had our ups and downs and sometimes thought we may not even manage to get to weir we have now, but it all shows that we all stuck together as a team and worked extremely hard to produce this clip.

ALL I HAVE TO SAY NOW IS, 

THE DEATH CLICK 
OUT NOW!!!!!
DON'T MISS IT

Storyboard


After all agreeing into producing a psychological thriller, we made a brief storyboard of what we intend to produce. The story board demonstrates and elaborates our points, maybe its not the best of drawing however,  gives a clear view of our film. 

Brief ideas

  • Killer enters dark room
  • killer cleans mask with blood
  • shadow of killer putting his mask on
  • view picture of past victims deaths
  • flash back of victim
  • satisfied killer

Problems I had with our thriller


The only problem i found difficult  was helping my group with the editing/fonts on the computer, i just did not understand how to use the program's, I've got an idea but not perfect. In the same way, the adding titles, i have developed a brief understanding however, as we go on i should get better. I'm more of the type who comes up with the ideas and likes to contribute and take part and share my thoughts, and of course do wonderful acting as you will witness by the end. 

Rough cut edit


Our film is now looking more into place, with hard work, commitment, and coming in on  the days we are free has helped us boost up massively, the clip now looks more than perfect however, we still have a few small bits to work on such as the sound and titles. 

In addition, the clip now looks terrorizing, horrific, tense, full of suspense, and shocks which was our aim to achieve, keep the audience on the edge of their seat wanting to know more.

Furthermore, our objectives weir to interact with the audience, we want to catch the audience attention from beginning to end,  and the clip just looks like we have matched all our goals, i think once we include the sound it would just look, 'WOW'.

Editing our thriller


Editing

After having finished our filming, we then proceeded to the editing which is one the main attributes in to leaving the film awesome. Final cut pro enabled us produce an organised well presented clip, we began uploading every shot we took followed by analyzing the clips and the began to put everything into place. 

At first, it seemed we could not get everything in order, like as if we weir lacking shots, however it was not the occasion and after a quick run through of all the clips, we started to work on the the door handle, something we have worked on in previous lessons and now trying to produce it to perfection. 



Furthermore, we made many scenes slow motion to provide more effect on the audience, like for example on the mask, we produced a slow motion close up building that tension, that feeling of suspense towards the audience. 

On the other hand, i found it difficult to use final cut pro, i had very good ideas to contribute, however not so good with the computers, so i shared my ideas with the group and then they will teach me how to use the pro gramme.

Creation of Sountrack


One of my favourte lessons was to add sound to our thriller opening. The sound we used was just perfect for our film, it was upbeat, tense, touching, grim and really keeping the audience on their feet. We used one track throughout the clip which had razors, screaming, hammers all in the background combining with the killer and his actions. 

The soundtrack was made of different dangerous items to create the feeling of power, of a complete psycho, someone out of their heads, not normal demonstrating to the audience that the sound has a major saying in the clip.  

Personally, i think the sound is part of the story telling, depending on how u present the sound will depend on how the audience create a stereotypical image of your clip. The opening is only two minutes, so therefore the audience have to be left amazed and feel that connection with the film, we want to leave our audience confused, thinking whats going to happen? who's the killer? why does kill? 

24 march Last day of editing.

I was really impressed with the way my whole group worked as a team. We all put all our effort in just to finish this film as it was our last day. The only things we had to do left was add a few sounds in and complete all the title sequences. We managed to finish that just before the lesson ended and I can say I am extremely pleased with how our film came out. A big thanks to Anisa, she has encouraged us to work together as a team rather than arguing and disagreeing all the time. I feel that after all the hard work and what my group has been through, we done very well. I did not expect it this good, I think our film looks better than what we have planned. Many thanks to Anisa, Carlos and Samire.







Filming

To begin with, we found it very difficult to obtain a location as we had planed,  we rang safe storage and made an appointment to go down and film, however on the day of filming it was not possible for the company to lend us a unit. Due to this situation, we spoke to our supervisor and asked if it was possible to use the college basement, we made arrangements and despite the fact we weir unable to use it on that day, we used our time wisely and carried on planning so on the day we had everything clear in regards to what we had to film.
In addition, when the day of filming arrived we well prepared and everyone had their
 priorities. As an A grade drama student in secondary school we decided i should fill the role of the killer, we firstly started by filming the entrance to the killers room, we used an over the shoulder shot to make the audience feel the presence of the killer walking into a dark red room, creating the feeling somethings going to happen or jump out any second.
Furthermore, we used shadows to demonstrate suspense as the killer puts on his mask, personally i fond this original because to what i have seen so far, none has done the same. 

In my opinion, our film does not have major images or varies locations however, we have used one location two characters and have a made a film that leaves the audience wanting to watch more, we tried to make it specific, detailed but confusing, thats what we wanted, leaving the audience not knowing whats going on, lost, but intrigued from the second it started.



StoryBoard :)

Thursday 24 March 2011

Producing titles for our opening thriller


To speed up the process we separated into groups of two, two members of the group done editing and the other focused on the adding titles. To be honest, myself and my partner found it easy to play around with the titles, sometimes by just making a specific letter slightly bigger may produce more impact, originality and just be different from the rest. Title sequence are vital elements of an opening clip, why? because its presenting the film to the audience, giving them a brief outline of the story, the genre, the actors and either leaving them wanting to watch on, or immediately finding it boring.

Furthermore, we had to get a clear understanding on the order of each title, so we went on you tube to view previews of opening clips to see how they set up, for example directed by, produced by, etc.

  •  Director 
    Writer's ( both screenplay and story ) 
    Cast 
    Produced By: 
    Original music by: 
    Cinematography 
    Editing 
    casting 
    Production designer 
    Art Direction 
    Set Decoration 
    Costume Design 
    Makeup Department 
    Production Management 
    Second unit director or Assistant director 
    Art Department ( with job title nest to name) 
    Sound department( with job title next to name ) 
    Visual effects 
    stunts 
    camera & electrical department 
    casting department 
    costume & wardrobe department 
    Editorial department 
    Music department 
    Transportation 
    Other crew

Last Day of Editing =))


We’re done! I feel absolutely great. I feel like, after all the hard work, and all the things that we went through, it paid off!! I’m ecstatic, I’m lost for words! I hope my group feels the same as well. After constant hard work and constant editing, we managed to do it!
In my opinion I believe that it was everything that I could have imagined it to be and more. With every edit, we came closer and brought a big smile on our face to be honest. In my point of view, I found it extremely hard using the iMac’s. I would much prefer using the normal computers. But it’s always better to experience new things and learn new things. And since Apple is dominating the technology market, I guess it’s beneficial for all us! =)
Watching our final clip was kind of hard to watch in my point of view to be honest. I found it kind of hard to watch, because it felt like the end of the journey. The responses from all the classmates that were editing beside us were extremely astonished with our video. I guess that was a great advantage to us as we knew we had succeeded what we wanted, that was, making our audiences be proud of the video as we were. =) Thanks Jade, Carlos and Samir for this journey. =))

Final Edit :D








NOT GOOD


This is a clip that was produced in the days in which we were just learning how to use programs like final cut pro and getting the hang on how to edit, add fonts and sound, as you can view this clip does not represent any of the key features of the main type of elements needed to produce a well presented clip.

SHOTS LEARNED.



Extreme Wide Shot
EWS (Extreme Wide Shot)

The view is so far from the subject that he isn't even visible. Often used as an establishing shot.
Very Wide Shot
VWS (Very Wide Shot)

The subject is visible (barely), but the emphasis is still on placing him in his environment.
Wide Shot
WS (Wide Shot)

The subject takes up the full frame, or at least as much as comfortably possible.
AKA: long shotfull shot.
Mid Shot
MS (Mid Shot)

Shows some part of the subject in more detail while still giving an impression of the whole subject.
Medium Close Up
MCU (Medium Close Up)

Half way between a MS and a CU.
Close Up
CU (Close Up)

A certain feature or part of the subject takes up the whole frame.
Extreme Close Up
ECU (Extreme Close Up)

The ECU gets right in and shows extreme detail.
Variation: Choker
cut-in
Cut-In

Shows some (other) part of the subject in detail.
Cutaway
CA (Cutaway)

A shot of something other than the subject.
two-shot
Two-Shot

A shot of two people, framed similarly to a mid shot.
over-the-shoulder shot
(OSS) Over-the-Shoulder Shot

Looking from behind a person at the subject.
noddy
Noddy Shot

Usually refers to a shot of the interviewer listening and reacting to the subject.
point of view (POV)
Point-of-View Shot (POV)

Shows a view from the subject's perspective.

CAMERA MOVEMENTS

CrabA less-common term for tracking or trucking.
DollyThe camera is mounted on a cart which travels along tracks for a very smooth movement. Also known as a tracking shot or trucking shot.
Dolly ZoomA technique in which the camera moves closer or further from the subject while simultaneously adjusting the zoom angle to keep the subject the same size in the frame.
FollowThe camera physically follows the subject at a more or less constant distance.
PanHorizontal movement, left and right.
Pedestal (Ped)Moving the camera position vertically with respect to the subject.
TiltVertical movement of the camera angle, i.e. pointing the camera up and down (as opposed to moving the whole camera up and down).
TrackRoughly synonymous with the dolly shot, but often defined more specifically as movement which stays a constant distance from the action, especially side-to-side movement.
TruckAnother term for tracking or dollying.
ZoomTechnically this isn't a camera move, but a change in the lens focal length with gives the illusion of moving the camera closer or further away.



Screen grabs of Prelim film

Screen Grabs of Editing

Planning towards our thriller film

As we are approaching the date to commence filming our group began to share thoughts and ideas to use as a possibility towards our film. Evey member of the group contributed until we all decided to produce a psychological thriller; something that would leave the audience feeling shocked, disgusted with an 'eww' as an expression.

Furthermore, we decided to locate our film in a small room, weir we just concentrate on the killer who will always be viewed in all black, white mask, and red/white lighting. The small room was chosen in order demonstrate to the audience more specification on the killers attributes, his mask, the victims death pictures, the lighting, showing everything with great detail and leaving the audience in suspense, wanting to know more and creating questions in their minds, who's the killer? the victim? why is he mental?.

The film will include, close ups of the mask/victim to demonstrate feelings/emotions, long shots of the room and shadows, shot reverse shot of killer and victim, over the shoulder shot of killer, showing the audience everything from the killers point of view

Main attributes

  1. Grim white mask
  2. black suit
  3. dark lighting (white and red)
  4. small room
  5. Blood

    Thriller planning - The Pitch





    The film needed to be pitched to the members of staff in the media department to give them an understanding of the idea we had concluded to produce our thriller opening. The pitch consists of a summary as to what we intend to produce, we began by discussing the title 'The death Click' and why we chose that name, followed by a brief outline of the opening, this included an overall view of the film, what was going to happen, how? where? why psychological? and just brief information of the ideas we had all contributed towards the opening of our thriller.

    In addition, we also spoke about films which we will use as a reference to our opening, films such as 'silence of the lambs' and 'Batman' which obtain a similar contrast with our film and ideas. The batman is a film which has a character that is viewed as 'grim' (the joker) which at the beginning of the film we don't see his face however only view his body and actions in a small location. 

    Mise en scene was the following slide, a simple demonstration on the themes and props that we had in mind to use, of course the white mask, the black suit, the red lighting and the small room all crucial features and main priorities of our film.

    Furthermore, we elaborated on the location of the killer, a small room with all the killers props, in this case his mask, blood, table which are very basic but eye catching and important images and features of the killer. Finally we discussed our view on the sound we intended to use; something that would keep the audience on their feet the whole two minutes, looking calm on the outside but really touched on the inside.

      

    Wednesday 23 March 2011

    LiveType of Me and Jade:



    Live type was a killer! Me and Jade had come in on Tuesday morning to try to tackle this. And to be honest, we done a pretty good and a well off job of this. We had done the main titles for the film now e.g. Producers, Directors and Actors. All we got left is it export and import it into our main video. It was pretty straight forward. We really wanted to get a striking effect so we started looking at different transitions in order to see if we could find the ‘one’. And we did. It was called ‘Frigid’. This gave a really enticing effect and it was nice to see how shocking it looked on the screen. It was a discovery that me and Jade were extremely proud of.

    Another day in Edit :@

    Another day in edit! What a headache! But it was great to be honest. It was much better than last time by miles! J We actually did our work without any arguments and we actually got cracking. I was really proud of us! We had done all of the edits to be honest. Well the visual things. All I think we needed to do that was left was all the listening things i.e. the Music and Sound effects. 


    Samir came up with a great music which we, as a group, were extremely proud of. We were first put off because we thought of the music as being a bit too hard and too violent. However that way we seemed a bit different. We saw most of the other groups clips and some of the previous years, and witnessed that they all seemed to use the common sort of ‘lullaby’ tune for their main theme tune. The fact that we had a loud thumping tune, made it seem quite different and grabbed most of the listeners attention. The reactions that we had got from our class mates were really positive. For example, there was ‘aaahhh that’s scary’ or ‘oh my god, that sounds freaky’. Listening to these reactions made us feel more confident as we felt that we were going down the right path!
     

    Editing of ‘The Deaths Click’ :

    Editing is extremely hard to be honest! I can’t believe how much hard work it is. One thing that I found was extremely hard was putting all our ideas together and having to agree on certain things! We had a lot of quarrels to be honest on what we wanted and how we wanted. This is probably the first time that us, as a group, had faced this.
    Final Cut Pro, didn’t make it much better as well! We kept fighting over the mouse at certain points! To be honest, we also found Final Cut Pro rather hard to use as well. One of the main problems we had was when we would accidently change the positioning of the timeline. We found this such a hassle as we had to keep undoing everything majority of the time. We then turned to our teacher for help when he showed us the ‘lock’ key on the panel beside the timeline. This was a life saver! Funny how one click of a button could do this ain’t it! Anyways first day of Editing... Not good. But we’re getting there!