Final Feedback for our thriller

feedback:
the feedback we got from the class was really positive.
We got good feedback on the music and was told how the two different musics worked with the two different scenes and sets. We also got told that our last shot was really good as it looked like a frame with in a frame and they thought this was really effective. People also said that the title was good and effective and it worked with the idea of the film. People thought the timeline of the shots were really good as when you watched it through you got more information on what happened and what was going on and what the story might be about. People also said how they thought it was obvious how the scenes in the wood was present and the scenes and at the party were flashbacks and they thought the contrast of the two with the colour and the back and white was really effective. People thought the shots of the feet were good. We also asked the class if they thought we should have changed the name as we didnt have the footage of the cocktail glass. But the class said that the name was still good but it would have been better if we had filmed a scene using a cocktail glass. they also thought our titles were good and worked with the sequence. We also got told that our different angles and footage was good and effective. One of our comments was how they thought the party scenes were really good and we made it realistic as a club or a party. We thought someone might point out the small number of extras we had, but this wasnt mentioned at all so we're pleased that it worked out and people liked the scenes. We also thought a comment might be made how we only showed female party guests. But this also wasnt mentioned but when we asked if we should have tried getting more male extras we got told this gave them more questions to ask about what happened or that it might tell us what person the character is.

We did however got asked about the actress's name and wether we had made it go into the party shot on purpose. We had done this on purpose we knew that in feature films the actors name is on for longer and we tried it and we didnt realise it would also then be on the party scene. When we did realise this we thought this might be a good idea as it showed the main character so you link the two straight away and you understod who the plot was about.

We were also worried that someone might comment that our wood scenes arent all the same colour. Or that there was a flash of a purple scene but no one had made comments on the day for night. We think that it wasnt noticeable but was to us as we did know about all the problems we faced with it. But did say how they thought the black and white for the wood scenes were really effective next to the colour scenes of the party.

Overall we ended up with very positive feedback and we are pleased with our final opening sequence.

Final Thriller:

This is our final thriller cut: Hope people enjoy it!!!!

Final edits to project

Over the last couple of lessons we have been finishing and editing our thriller video. Our production company was originally going to be 'Paramount pictures' however we decided on making our own production company which is called 'Burning Production' due some footage taken of a fire and we all thought it would be effective to create our very own.

Issues with music occured when we added more footage to the video to make it longer making the wood scenes and party scenes have jumbled up music so we had to delete the music and then re-import it. We had a scene from the party which had the song we needed, it is very long and has the whole of the party music on so what we did was separate it from the scene and cut it to fit our party shots.

For every wood shot we had within our thriller sequence we had to use the effect of Day for night which created a more dramatic effect and made it seem like night time so it was more sinister. We would not have been able to film in the dark very well due to lack of lighting and so nothing will shown up on the screen. By using day for night it enabled our shots to still be seen clearly however we faced a few problems such as the filter made some of the shots seem a blue colour so for every one we had to go through and select the correct colour which created a darker light. Due to the filming being done in daylight it affected some of the shots and so every wood scene had to be adjusted separately.

We were advised by other members to intergrate flash's within the sequence to create the effect that what happened is a flashback so we did this by adding a white matte on a seperate timeline to make the effect work.

Overall as we reflect upon our project we realise that even though we had a variety of shots we could have done with more to make it easier and to have a larger variety which would help make the thriller that little bit more interesting and less repetitive.

For the titles we decided to have a black background with the names in white to make it stand out and have the black refer to party. One of the titles being 'Starring Lauren Bishop' will be held for longer to show she is the main star. During research we noticed that in films the main star will have a title which is held longer due to them demanding for it to make them well publicised and so they can be recognised. Using this knowledge we then adapted this to our thriller sequence making it seem a more professional and proper approach to beginning a thriller.

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

Filming

We have decided that we are filming the weekend commencing the the 2nd of february. We are going to go to a party on the saturday night to film our party scenes. We Hope to film all of our shots in an hour.
We are going to film the woods secnes at a later date, just depending on when we are free. We hope this will know when in the next couple of days.

More reserach in preparation for 'woods' scene

Laura and I found this clip on Youtube


It is located in a forest and so I carefully watched it in attempt to observe the different angles and shots. Because the film is about 'magic' etc, the mise en scene is very different to how we want ours, despite the forest setting. It has a lot of fog, to presumably create a mysterious and magical atmosphere, but this wouldn't be fitting with our sequence as it would most probably appear too cliche. Also, because of the supernatural themes, the tree trunks are over sized.
As with the 'Robin Hood' clip, there are many overhead shots. They look very effective, and-if we can manage it!-we will be using overhead clips of the forest.

Lauren

Feedback from the animatic

The feed back from our animatic was as follows:
Clear shots on the story board
Music need to be cut smoothly
Blurred image of the girl drinking is very effective
Need to decide where the camera will be for every shot
Need a variety of shots and shoot extra footage in case we change our inital shot ideas then we will have extra footage to choose from.
When we move from the title of Daiquiri should we have the transition as bubbles to show that it is a drink and that it has been spiked
We have good shot variety like the close up of the girls shoes
The story board was easy to follow so people understand what we want to happen.

We hope this feedback will mean that our thriller becomes better.

The Wood Scene...

Our animatic shows how we intend to create a party atmosphere. When it changes suddenly to the forest scene, we have only drawn the girl on the floor, and then a shot of her running. We obviously are going to include several other shots in the forest, however, we don't know what ones as of yet. So our animatic will just be the rough idea, rather than a less accurate version of the final sequence.

For inspiration for the forest scene, I have watched 'The Village' (M. Night Shyamalan, 2004) as the scarier parts of this thriller are in a forbidden forest. We noticed that the film uses the trees as props during this part. For example, at one point, the girl stands back to a large tree, and with clever camera angles, we can see someone is standing around the other side, but the angle doesn't allow us to see who. We may use this idea in our sequence.

We want to have shots of the girl's feet. We also want diegetic sound as well as the music, i.e. the girl heavily breathing, the snapping of twigs at her feet as she runs. These will all hopefully add to the atmosphere and build suspense.

I also looked at BBC's 'Robin Hood'. Although this is a different genre of film, it is based in a forest so I wanted to observe the different shots and what works well. They used shots from high in the trees, looking down on the characters. As we only have one VISIBLE character in this scene, this technique would add variation to the sequence. We really want to create the sense that our main character is being watched in the forest. To do this, we will have the camera behind tress and turning round, as well as having the shot slightly obstructed by branches or something to the same effect.

I also looked at 'The Crucible', 'Into The Woods', and 'Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets'.
Lauren

This is a photo of our mood board. we have done this so we know the kind of settings and the moods we want to create in the two totally different settings in our thriller openings. we hope by doing this it will help us to film as we already know the moods we want to create and so we do not have to waste time on the day of filming sorting out what moods we want to create.

animatic story board

This is a video of our animatic story board. This is a very rough idea of how we hope the opening will look. However the end shoots for the flashbacks will be alot longer but we ran out of time before we had to uploa so we thought that if people at least got the idea of how it would look that would be ok.

Our animatic shows how we intend to create a party atmosphere. When it changes suddenly to the forest scene, we have only drawn the girl on the floor, and then a shot of her running. We obviously are going to include several other shots in the forest, however, we don't know what ones as of yet. So our animatic will just be the rough idea, rather than a less accurate version of the final sequence.

For inspiration for the forest scene, I have watched 'The Village' (M. Night Shyamalan, 2004) as the scarier parts of this thriller are in a forbidden forest. We noticed that the film uses the trees as props during this part. For example, at one point, the girl stands back to a large tree, and with clever camera angles, we can see someone is standing around the other side, but the angle doesn't allow us to see who. We may use this idea in our sequence.

We want to have shots of the girl's feet. We also want diegetic sound as well as the music, i.e. the girl heavily breathing, the snapping of twigs at her feet as she runs. These will all hopefully add to the atmosphere and build suspense.

I also looked at BBC's 'Robin Hood'. Although this is a different genre of film, it is based in a forest so I wanted to observe the different shots and what works well. They used shots from high in the trees, looking down on the characters. As we only have one VISIBLE character in this scene, this technique would add variation to the sequence. We really want to create the sense that our main character is being watched in the forest. To do this, we will have the camera behind tress and turning round, as well as having the shot slightly obstructed by branches or something to the same effect.

Other films that had scenes in a forest were: 'The Crucible'

Names for opening sequence

Director by Christopher Davidson
Produced by Eleaner Powell
Edited by William Broad
Casted by Roberta Anderson
Starring Fiona Bridges, Ben Degrandis
These are the names we are going to be using for our title sequences. we hope they sound realistic and they are believiable.

Paramount Pictures

We decided to look at existing picture companies for our opening. Then we would just put them in front of our own title sequence. We thought using an existing Company would look more professional and is safes us saving time creating our own.
These were the two we looked at from You Tube.

Columbia Pictures




Universal Pictures




After researching these different Company names, we have decided to go with Paramount Pictures. We decided this one because we thought it was well known and they do a range of films. So we thought it would be suitable for ours as in the past they have done thrillers.

Feedback

Our group feedback was :
that we may be telling too much of the story and therefore we need quick, shorter shots instead of long ones.
People liked the title because it's recognisable as a cocktail.
People said the idea was easy to picture.
By using older people, it will make it seem more authentic.
It's a good idea to use DayForNight in the forest.
We're going to use music to show the muffled sound of the party.
And finally, it's good that we're filming at an actual party rather than a pretend one.

Party thoughts

We want the audience to see the party being fun,loud realistic. We have looked at the Skins show to help us find the atmosphere for the scene. We want the party to look relistic and not played out.



this clip shows the right atmosphere of the party, with the drinks and drugs.

To get this atmosphere we have decided not to stage the party, we have decided to film a real party so its more realistic and the people in the background are actually having fun not being directed.

Costumes and Props

Girl-
Shoes that can be a focus, as we see her running later in the forest, we can have calm shots of her shoes at the party/bar.
She'll be wearing fake nails that show she cares about her appearance, they will also make her hands look better-as they will be used in close ups of her drinking the Daiquiri.
Straightened hair is typical of teenage girls.
We are undecided as to what the girl will be wearing, although we will probably have her in something white, to portray innocence, also to match the cocktail. In addition, white will get very muddy in the forest and this should look effective.

Man/men-
wearing black-so that they don't stand out, contrasting with the white.
sinsiter, dark colour.

Party people-
in attire that they would normally wear to a party. Bright colours.

Additional props
The Drink -to make the drink not stand out too much and to look out of place, we will have people in other shots drinking from cocktail glasses but not the same cocktail.
Plastic cups -for other drinks.
a pill (soluble paracetamol)
mobile phone -for a shot of vibrating mobile phone on the floor.

We will update this post if we think of any other props to add.

Our Pitch

During last nights planning session, we developed and decided on our initial idea. We are unsure on various aspects of the title sequence, but we have the gist. We're hoping to start at a bar or party. This is dependent on where we can film and when. The initial idea for the name comes from a focus point of the sequence, which is a cocktail. We researched different cocktail names and came across 'Daiquiri' which is a white cocktail. The fact that it was white was significant because it will hopefully stand out in our shots and attract attention.
So at our location (which ever it ends up being), a girl will be be herself. We want to portray her as someone who is waiting for friends. We want to create the impression that she is innocent and vunlerable but not so much that it's unrealistic for her to be in the chosen scene (i.e. she still fits in at the party/bar).
We are yet to decide if we want one or two males as the suspicious characters. We do know however, that he or they will play a key role in the opening scenes. We want to shoot shots that give the impression that the girl is being watched, and also close ups of the man/men and their sinsiter characteristics. The cocktail comes into play when we see it being spiked with a single 'pill'. We want this particular shot to be successful in creating suspence and being visually 'thrilling'.
We then see the drink either being offered, or sent over via waiter, to the girl.
When she turns to see who sent the drink, the man is gone.
There will be a dramatic change of scene which will hopefully create an almost 'nightmare' illusion. She will be lying on the ground in a remote, dark, forest. (we already have this location.) We see her slowly regain consiousness. Then we want to have flashbacks to the party, with shots of people dancing, flashing 'club' lights, a shot of the d.j., her running through the forest in panic and confusion. The two different locations will be a drastic contrast and therefore will build suspense and really emphasise her confusion and provoke questions from the audience: 'what happened to her?' and most importantly 'who did it?' and 'where is he?'
with careful shooting, we hope to create the sense of her being watched without actually showing any shots of another person in the forest. We hope to do this by making the camera angles slightly absract by having them obstructed by objects (trees, branches etc), as though the camera shows the villan's viewpoint.

Surface

We choose this video from the students work.
We thought the cutting from different scenes was really good. How you have a calming scene first with the Ink spilling and then a faster pace scenes. We also liked the way the music fitted with the credits. With the fast and slow speed. The contrast of the scenes are really effective. The names are only shown with the calming scenes with ink spilling the text fades in and out very calmly.

The scenes arent very clear give off a very misterious view. the scenes of the people are very dark, this could be to indicate the dark deed they are doing. Only colour in any scenes are of the red ink spilling and the white text. The red is very effective and it indicates blood/danger/death.

this opening will get the audience asking alot of questions about whats happening, who, where and why. We think this opening will make the audience want to watch the rest of the film. Has close up of eyes to show emotion in the persons face, show fear.

Psycho

The Video above is a differet opening credit we also looked at. We thought the black screen with the white knife was really effective. also with the names coming in with the circle shapes. It shows what the film is about.



This video is of the beginning credits of Psycho; it shows the black backround which grey stripes come into, having seen the film we said that the grey stripes show the two sides of the characters within the film. When titles come in such as Alfred Hitchcocks name we see it break in the middle again reinforcing this fact that the story had two sides to it. The music is very dramatic and fast making the film have a more intense atmosphere.

Thriller openings we have seen:

We've started watching thriller openings carefully to look for different conventions and to hopefully find some techniques that work well that we can incorporate into our own opening.
We've watched student work from previous years and different schools. In addition to this, we have been watching (in class and in our own time), real thriller opening sequences in attempt to trigger ideas for our sequence.
We watched The Butterfly Effect and noted how the opening didn't include any titles other than the film title. The opening sequence was a fast paced scene whereby the audience doesn't understand what is going on. It consists of one actor, dull lighting, diegetic sounds (shouting-in the background), carefully chosen costume, and very fitting music. In conjunction, the aforementioned techniques build suspense and intriege. Maybe we will use these techniques in our sequence! -Lauren
We liked Casino Royal because the titles are visually very detailed and just amazing in general!
All of the titles are linked to the casino theme. It shows animated 'clubs' and 'spades' from a deck of cards and includes real images of the actor playing James Bond. This immediently shows the audience who the central character is.
We evaluated the different aspects and images in the animation and interpreted their significance. For example, the 'vines' represent James Bond's growth in status and position. There is an image of The Queen Of Hearts, and at onepoint her face is shown to be the face of James Bond's love interest. Gun shots are shown repeatedly and in place of bullets, the animated guns shoot red and black 'spades'. The red and black are representative of blood and death, and are a good indication of the genre of film and the occupation of James Bond and what his job entails.
There is a close up of an individual card, seven of hearts, and Bond makes two bullet holes in front of the 'seven' so that it says '007'. -Erin & Lauren

Final Cut Example

The link above is an example of Laura and Alexa practising techniques on Final Cut and Garageband. We included titles, transitions, cut scenes, and fading. The music to go with this was produced by us both in garageband which played through the movie. We combined different sounds we found on Garageband and mixed them together and placed them were we thought it sounded good.

HI!
Above is a short video we made last week, as we were learning different techniques we could apply to our thriller.
We used 'Star-Iris' to make the transition more exciting. We also used a fade between shots. Using garageband, we created our own soundtrack and fitted it.

Welcome