rouchcut Feedback

Suggestions-
these are some comments people have made to improve our thriller we think some of these might actually be useful and we are considering using them. One group came up with the idea of using white flash's before the party scenes so people will know that they are memory's of the party the night before. another group said our music was good but to use another instrument to add effect to the scenes where shes in the woods. People also suggested that we used black background with the titles as this will make it more effective and add length to our opening sequence. One group suggested that we shortened the scenes with the feet as they are too long. We do want our shots just to be quick flash's and we think this is a good idea. One group suggested making it more obvious that the party is night so people can assume that the party is the night before.

Positive Feedback:
People did think the feet shots were a good idea and mixing the two together and going back and forward between the woods shot and the party scene. They think the beginning was good with having the girl on the floor. the Audience first thinks the girl is dead but then sees her rising and realised that she is passed out. People thought the mood was moody and we wanted this effect. People understood what the plot of the film would be just from seeing the beginning. they think the switch through out was really effective and worked well with what we were trying to do. We wanted to know if people understood what was going on and whether it made sense. We got told it did make sense and they could work it out. But as before i mentioned they thought of an improvement so they could work out it was a flashback and make it more obvious. People thought the most striking image was of the girl on the floor of the woods and her passed out.

our rough cut

Filming

Woods/Forest - We decided the location to be a wood area in Histon. This location was really good, the only thing we had a problem with was the clear paths. But we were easily able to avoid these while shooting. We also had problems with house's and open spaces near the woods. We wanted it to seem completely closed off and in the middle of woods. So we were careful not to film in the open spaces and to keep them outside of any of the shots. We also made sure we werent filming in the direction of any house's. Also some of the formation of the trees looked as if it was planted so they looked a bit like a park. So we made sure not to use it too often, but there is a shot were we used it to our advantage and we will cut down the scene. The weather was really good but we are worried that it might have been too bright. Our time was limited because it was freezing and we were worried about our actress. We also had limited time because of bus times but we filmed as much as we could. We did it from lots of different angles and some from different view points. we decided we wanted some shots filmed from the girls view and another of a man watching the girl in the woods. We did this by filming behind different trees and kept the camera following her. We thought if we did this by hand this might make the camera shake and we thought this would be good as it showed how the girl was disoriented. We also wanted to make her foot a main part of it too and show her walking and falling down to show the state shes in. It also shows the contrast as shes wearing shoes as if shes at a party but shes lost in a woods. We had also planned to film her foot for the party scenes too to show her character and to make it clear she is the victim and the main character through out.

Party Scene- Our first location didn't work out the way we hoped it would. So we changed it to film in the black room in college. We found that when we decorated the room with different lights and played music it looked really effective and realistic. We were careful not to get the corners of the room as we wanted it to seem the party was allot bigger. Because we had to change our filming to this we had to change our plot slightly and the sequence of the shots. We decided to make the woods/forest scene our main part and have flashbacks of the party and the girl having a good time. We thought this would be just as effective. We also thought we could keep the music playing through out but do different effects to make it seem like shes got a headache and is really confused but is remembering what happened to her. We were worried about filming a party at college though as we only had a few people that could be in our shot. So we used the same people again and again. We were able to get lots of really good different shots. We got shots of the party people dancing and drinking so it showed the atmosphere of the party. We also got shots of the main characters feet so this could link in with the forest scenes. this would make a really good contrast from her dancing at the party to walking in the woods. We did have problems with lighting and making sure the feet were visual but we were able to bring in a lamp and shine them on the feet. We tried to make sure the camera was focusing on our main character so we made sure that the faces of the extras didn't show very much. We also made sure we filmed the main character drinking and acting like shes drunk or been drugged. We also got a few angles from high above and this looked really effective. We filmed different shots of the girl socializing and dancing with a group of people we thought this might show the personality of the main character.

Trial footage

Today we went to the black room in the media studio and shot some trial footage.
Once uploaded, the footage has turned out suprisingly well. We used blue lights and a torch, which combined, created a busy/partying effect. We only had five people maxium dancing at the same time, and this didn't look too bad. But we hope with only a few more people, we can get it looking busier than it is. Because the lighting is dark, it adds an air of mystery to the setting, for example, you can't clearly see anyone's face and that clouds the viewer's vision of what's going on. With good camera angles and with fast, slightly shaky/blurred shots we will create a party atmosphere successfully, as well as showing the audience that there has been a substantial amount of alcohol consumed by all party people!! -thus making sense for the drink to get spiked without anyone at the party noticing.
We need to, however, make it obvious to the audience that the girl's drink is spiked. We hope to do this with the slow shot of the drug disolving in the cocktail. This shot will be slow in contrast to the others, therefore standing out and looking significant to the story-which it is.
Lauren

New Ideas

After we did not manage to film on staurday night as we planned to. We have now had to come up with another set of ideas. Now we thought that the main idea we had was good and so we didnt want tochange this idea. We have deccided to stadge the party in the schools media room, the black room. We hope to make this look like a party and also to keep the same atmostphere.
We hope to achieve the same result doing it this way.
We are going to do some practise shots tomorrow.

Filming The Party Scene

As we've already mentioned, the first part of filming will take place on Saturday 2nd Feb.
Our aim is to film in excess so that when we bring the material to be edited, we will have loads of shots to choose from. It may be that the angles we thought would work (from our animatic), don't quite look right and therefore we will need to shoot things we need more than once.
To really emphasise the party setting, we want an excess of shots with alcohol, dancing etc. We want to show there are loads of people as well so that it would be realistic for the girl to go missing without people neccessarily noticing straight away.
We face a slight problem as we aren't sure how the lighting is going to be. It may be really dark and when we import our material, we may find it's not useable (which would be a total diaster!!) so to overcome this, we will have to think of some lighting we can bring to the party if possible. I don't think the birthday boy would overly appreciate it if we made them turn the lights on!!
Still thinking of lighting, we want to add a LOT of colour in these shots as it will dramatically contrast with the second setting of the sequence, therefore adding to the sequences effect overall(hopefully). We may have some strobe lighting at one point, but only briefly as I think this would become very tedious for our audience if over used. We want different colour lights to make our shotsmore interesting, and in addition to this, we hope all party goers are dressed colourfully!
We are still unaware of what our actress is going to be wearing. We know we want her in a dress but what colour, we don't know. White was our initial idea, but now that seems a tad too obvious. It really depends on her wardrobe-although she probably has a dress in every colour under the sun!-and this is why we are going to meet before the party and see what looks best.
We know what kind of shots we want, and when editing, we definiitely want a fast pace. We will try and have the mysterious man standing in the background of several shots. This may or may not be noticed by our audience (well, for the first viewing anyway) but we can write about it when doing the assignment. We'll have him watching the girl as she dances etc.
We hope for a wide range of shots, high/low and close ups/long shots etc. And I really hope we can get this looking as good as possible!! WHOOP FOR SATURDAY!
Lauren