Progress

As I did Media Studies at GCSE Level and got an A in my results, I felt confident, at the beginning, with my knowledge and felt that I could contribute well to the group - as 2 of my group members hadn't taken Media at a GCSE level. From previous knowledge, I feel I understand the codes and conventions of the films well and know the effective ways in which to engage the audience. What's more, I felt I had some good ideas to contribute to the group and found my group easy to communicate with. However, what I didn't feel confident with was the practical side of the task and I also didn't really know the people in my group well, thus I lacked in confidence. Nevertheless, having done the animatic tasks, my confidence began to rise with using the software and I now feel I can help with the practical side a lot more. As a result of this, I enjoy working with my group and helping out with the practical side - as well as the written side of the task. I am not as confident as other members of the group with the software, but I do feel I can help out effectively with it.

On the other hand, I do feel that there are certain individuals in the group who don't pull their weight - and others take too much responsibility. For example, I would like to be involved and given more opportunity in the practical side of the task, as this is one of the main processes in this piece of coursework. Nevertheless, I have enjoyed working with my group and I think that we communicate well, which makes it easy for me to be confident enough to contribute ideas etc. to the group.

Additionally, my progress with the blog has gone well. I do feel that I should update my blog on a regular basis more often and be more detailed and analytical in what I blog, but I am happy with the amount of effort I've put into keeping the blog up to date. I have found it difficult to remember to blog, as it's quite easy to forget to do so, but I am now starting to do this regularly.

Rough Cut

Our teacher discussed ways in which we could improve our rough cut, these included:

- Put some titles over the shot, to enable more time for footage
- Editing to be adjusted on shot 2
- Alter the shot of the female to an over the shoulder shot
- Include more footage of the male character. For example, where is he going? Where does he end up? Change rooms and show his environment
- Classic shot of character falling over
- Put the last three titles over black
- Male character to clear up after himself


Our teacher said our footage was good, with effective shots. We had previously changed a few of our shots and this improved our rough cut effectively. What's more, it was our titles that really let us down on our footage; it was felt that they were unorganised and took up too much time - thus meaning that we had less footage, so the effect of our opening wasn't felt as it should be. We had arranged our titles to be at the start and end. Our teacher gave us some ideas on how we could alter our titles and create a more effective opening. Therefore, we changed our designs, and decided that putting titles over footage would create a better effect to the audience, while enabling us to give more footage to the audience. Having the titles over the footage means that the audience have less to focus on - rather than spending time looking at titles, they can get a sense of the atmosphere and keep with the narrative - keeping the suspense. Overall, our comments on the rought cut have highlighted what we need to change and how we can improve our opening. The most significant being the titles, we as a group feel that having the titles over the footage will have a much better impact on the audience.

Shooting

Our group planned to do a shooting on the 17th January, however we had to cancel - last minute - as one of our group members wasn't available and our planned location to shoot was unavailable. This resulted in us being behind on our filming. Nevertheless, we rescheduled for Wednesday 21st January and Saturday 24th January.

Furthermore, we had originally chosen James Hall and Georgia Bowers as our actor and actresse in our film. However, neither were available for when we needed to film, thus we had to change and use Jonny Furze and Abbie Jones, instead.

So far to date, we have completed most of the outside shots and have re-done our inside shots.


Wednesday 21st January

For our first filming session, it went well and effective shots were produced. The shots were steady and a variety and combination of different types of shots were used. Communication and team work was effective. Nevertheless, there are some changes that need to be made:

Feedback:

We began with a slow zoom of the door, but while this was an effective choice of shot, the way in which we created it was not. The quality of the camera was not very good, which was quite evident on the zoom, so we decided to change this. Instead of using a video camera to record the zoom, we used a still camera - taking a photo of the door and using the software to create a slow zoom. This was not seen as effective by our teacher; it was quite recognisable that it was a still picture, so did not have the correct impact.

The tilt we used was not very effective; it needed to be held for longer and we did not reveal the male character's face. Instead we cut off before his face was revealed, we originally thought this was best, however it didn't give off much of a reaction to the audience. We wanted the audience to feel anxious and tense and as his face was not seen, there was little for the audience to engage with.

We also did not direct the male character well. As the character had just murdered someone, they should be a certain level of fear and anxiety evident and this should have been shown when he was washing his hands. However, he showed very little fear and the way in which he was washing his hands wasn't realistic.

The way in which the camera was positioned when he is washing his hands wasn't completed well. We chose to do a close-up of his hands being washed to engage with the audience and highlight the aggression he is washing his hands, while allowing the audience to see the blood. However, this was not presented in a clear and realistic light.

Therefore, there are quite a few significant changes that we need to make and so far our verisimilitude isn't very high.

Saturday 24th January

Andy, Georgia and I worked well as a group on our filming; we communicated effectively and were able to establish what we needed to change and what worked well. For example, we decided that our outside shots should be re-done, as they were done in dark conditions and we feel it would be more effective if the shots were completed with brighter lighting conditions

Prop List

Actor: James Hall
Actress: Georgia Bowers

Costume:
Man - jeans and plain top (hoodie, with his hood up?)
Woman - red clothing to symbolise death, love, passion and danger - linking in with the theme of the narrative
Red coat, heels and dress etc - middle class

Props:
Knife?
Blood for face and hands
White hand towel in the bathroom - so the blood can be seen
Chair
Notice board
Pictures of the actress
Desk
Corridor
Keyhole?
Mirror
Sink and tap

Shooting Schedule

Questionnaire

Thriller Questionnaire

1. What age category do you fit into?

16-18, 19-24, 25-30, 10-35, 36-40, 41- 45, 46+,


2. Are you male or female? _______________________________


3.What thriller sub genres do you prefer? (Please circle as many as apply)

Action
Spy
Romantic
Psychological
Crime
Supernatural
Drama
Political
Medical
Other


4. What do you look for in terms of story with a thriller? – E.g. Twists,



5. How much gore do you expect to see in a thriller?



6. What do you like about the thriller genre? (Please circle as many as apply)

Confusion
Suspense
Hero vs. Villain
Twist
Cliff Hangers
Mystery
Danger


7. How do you think a good thriller should open? (Please tick one)
Death
Chase
Everyday Life
Flashback
Other

We created this questionnaire, as a way of enabling us to see what the target audience look for and want to see in the thriller genre. Thus, the answers we received allowed us to create an effective beginning - with a good impact on the audience. For example, many people wanted to see a flashback in the opening, which was a big part of our final opening - so the questionnaire helped us establish what would be best for our audience.

The Shot List

This is our finished shot list. We will storyboard it and then create an animatic.

This is our final animatic.



Creating the animatic has contributed a lot in distinguishing what we need to improve, need to change or need to remove. Especially focusing on camera, editing, mise-en-scene and sound - the animatic enabled us to visualise these ideas and envisage how they would look in the final piece. From looking at the animatic, the areas in which we have used codes and conventions of the thriller genre can be seen; such shots as, the slow zoom towards the door and through the keyhole can be related to the thriller genre. What's more, the non-diegetic sound used also contributes to the codes and conventions; the background music creates a tense tone, and the music used with the flashback generates more suspense. Additionally, the editing used with the flashbacks — the jump cuts — make the sound of the flashback stand out even more, which also gives a 'jumpy' impact to the audience. Furthermore, one of the most significant thing that the animatic outlined was the changes needed to make to the sound we used; we were able to recognise how the music and sound needed to be layered. Also, the sound of the footsteps doesn't fit well with the music or the slow zoom, as the pace is quite fast when compared to the speed of the zoom into the door.

I believe our animatic is good, and really accentuated the changes we could make to improve our opening and underlined the positive and negative aspects of our narrative. Our narrative does work well, however it did get quite confusing for the audience towards the end, thus some shots will need to be changed to keep the audience engaged and understanding the narrative. It can also be said that the pace could be altered to be a little slower; this would be better for our narrative and would contribute well to the codes and conventions.

Overall, working together to create the animatic was very effective; we each had our own roles and responsibilities in the creation of the animatic. We each had different ideas towards the narrative, camera, editing, sound and mise-en-scene and this meant that we had many ideas to work with.

Non-diegetic sound: Crescendo Music

As seen in the shot list, we came up with the idea of using a type of crescendo music for the flashbacks. This will give a 'jumpy' feel to the flashbacks and highlight that they are flashbacks. Additionally, I remembered the film Resident Evil and how a similar sound was used in the film. It can be seen at 1.09 of the youtube clip, as a character quickly moves her hand. It gives the same impact to the audience that we wish to create.

Initial Ideas

We chose to go for the crime thriller genre. We made quite a few changes to our initial idea of the crime thriller and these will be shown in the animatic and shot list.

First practice filming

As a result of a fault with the camera, it's not possible to upload a copy of the filming.

However, I think our filming went very well - considering it was our first attempt as a group and we all learned a lot, such as using the premiere software and learning about the cameras and how to do certain techniques effectively, e.g. panning.

We didn't break the 180 degree rule and while our panning could have been a bit smoother, it enabled us to see the effect of it. Also, our editing could have been smoother, primarily our knowledge of the software was very limited, so we began quite slow but each of us soon developed more of an understanding and how to use the software effectively and quickly. Additionally, we worked very well as a group; we organised and communicated well, and quickly decided who would be doing what, which saved a lot of time. This will definitely be important when it comes to filming our thriller opening.

What we learned is that using members of the group is not the best thing, firstly because they are not drama students so acting isn't natural them, and secondly we couldn't work as well as a team when it came to filming. Thus, with our final piece using people outside of our group for the acting will enable us to work more effectively as a team.

Continuity Task

Our group was awarded a level 2 from the class and teacher, and we were given feedback in ways of which we could improve.

One of the main issues found with our piece is that it was incomplete; there was no physical evidence of the character exiting the room. Another problem is that the music was seen as needless - that it didn't really flow with the piece and it could have been faded out. Furthermore, facial expressions were quite unclear as a result of the framing of shots, which didn't engage the audience well, as it was unknown what the reactions were and took attention away from the action.

To improve on future tasks, it would be best to allow the audience to know, more clearly, what's going on, so improving on facial expressions and the framing of shots. Overall, our task was completed well, in terms of effective camera work and working as a group. We worked well as a group because we each knew what area we would be working on and organised our time well. However, we will need to take more notice in camera positioning and who to use for our acting.

Additionally, the sound wasn't very good quality as the clicking of the camera could be heard, thus causing a distraction to the audience and reducing quality. Along with this, clips could have been shortened and editing could have been completed more effectively. By using shorter clips, we could have engaged the audience much more because more tension would have been built. Other improvements would be to organise more efficiently before hand; the location and actors of which we had planned were not available, so we had to improvise. Resulting in an unideal location and using actors that were not drama students. In future, we will use drama students to engage the audience and make the piece more believable, and also make sure that we prepare and organise well before shooting.