Post production feedback

This is a photo we took of two people of the relevant target audience watching the final product of our thriller opening. We did this to gain constructive criticism and useful feedback about whether our selective audience would have enjoyed the film. This is some of the feedback we received:

"Overall, the thriller was enticing, consistent and well edited with some effects that really gave the 'wow factor'. The quality of acting remained strong throughout and the play with time effectively revealed the storyline. To improve, I would recommend choosing a slightly thinner and more crisp font that suited the genre more"
This was useful in telling us the positives of our thriller such as the consistency of our acting and the quality of our editing. The feedback also enabled us to see areas of improvement for next time which were that the titles were not as fitting to the opening and did not add to the suspense we created through different methods such as use of the wind sounds during the opening. Therefore, if we were to do the opening again, we would spend more time selecting the appropriate font considering the size, colour and transitions used during editing.

Deciding on the location

This is a photo from the planning stages of our thriller opening during which time we had to decide what location would be most effective convenient and appropriate for our piece. As you can see, we noted down a range of potential locations noting down both the positives and negatives of each before discussing the options. After a group discussion a decision was made to film our piece in Darley Dale due to it being the most fitting for what we had in mind for our thriller opening.

Sounds used within our thriller opening (post-production)

During the planning of our thriller, we did not plan to add diegetic sounds in as we thought that our camera would pick up such sounds. However, when filming it proved difficult to pick up sounds such as the car door closing which were almost crucial as these sounds helped make our piece look natural and flow better. We therefore used the website http://www.sounddogs.com/ to get the sound of the creaking of the gate.

Due to the tight atmosphere we wanted to create due to the nature of our opening (thriller genre), we thought it would be effective if we used a wind sound effect. This helped to create a chilling and rather spooky tone to our opening and helped in the foreshadowing of the more negative events yet to come. We therefore created this sound using a software called Mixcraft. Once we had added this sound it was important that we got it at the right volume so that it was still able to be heard but did not overpower the voiceover. Its important that the voiceover be more loud that sound effects as the voice over is crucial in telling the audience the story of the Marshlands.

Filming

Bellow shows two photos from one day of filming. as you can see, we all had direct involvement in the important decisions such as deciding which camera angle was most suitable and whether it looked effective on film. Setting up the equipment was also important in doing it right not only for the safety of the equipment itself but for establishing the best angle/shot using things such as the tripod.

Music Practice

http://laurajaynebacom.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/music-practise.html
The link will lead you to the music that we created on the music software of mixcraft. This piece of group work enabled us to experiment with sound in order to find appropriate background music for our thriller opening.

Storyboard for our Preliminary Piece

These are the storyboards that we started to create for our Preliminary Piece. These were useful in creating guidelines for us to follow when filming and helped us in terms of experience with storyboarding when it comes to the planning of our Thriller Opening.

 

As you can see, we did not finish these storyboards. This was because we were rushed for time and so focused more on filming than thoroughly planning the piece. This taught us that when it comes to our Thriller Opening we need to start planning earlier in order to develop a well structured plan for the piece.

Camera Angles for our Preliminary Piece

Bellow show some stills that we took when we began planning for our Preliminary Piece. we chose to take photos instead of drawing storyboards because it enabled us to use the camera to our advantage in the sense that we could experiment and see what camera angle we wanted to use within the piece.

These pictures gave us a baseline that we could refer to when it came to filming the piece and it helped us stick to what we had planned which shows that this method od planning was effective for our Preliminary Piece.

This this photo you can see a low angle shot to show the character running. This closer shot allows the audience to see that the character is in a rush.

This was originally how we had planned this shot to look like however, after filming, the shot changed slightly where we film the character from the other side.

We chose to use this shot because it not only gave a full view of the character but it also helped set the scene as you can see the school in the background.

Practising with green screen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqXc4unVAUs This video shows the work we did with a green screen shortly after our preliminary piece which was created using Adobe Premier Pro (chroma key effect). We did this to evaluate our piece and found it an effect way in using different editing software's. This allowed us to work using methods of which we never have done before and gave us more experience with such media technologies. Although this method of evaluation proved to be too time consuming, it was an effective way in gaining experience and helped in the preparation of our thriller opening.

Question 7

'Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?'
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s397/sh/fc761b78-4dc1-4708-b5fc-94d7e4caca07/858d085488e2f4eeaba061bd32a9afdf

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s397/sh/e66dd4e4-0a2a-4d2c-8492-dc8b2af084bf/3a820516fbab9271535b81e39dd06db1


https://www.evernote.com/shard/s397/sh/6ee8756e-0cf3-44db-990c-448d81f37a48/caeccff76cee3a82c656fd4490267e51

Question 6

'What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?'

Created with Padlet

Question 4 & 5

'Who would be the audience for your media product?' & 'How did you attract/address your audience?' http://bubbl.us/view/1eebc5/3e7332/20Ov8KqqAChwU/

Question 3

'What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?'
http://prezi.com/eaaoqymcux-5/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Question 2

'How does your media product represent particular social groups?'

Question 1

'In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQY13EOdtpU&list=UUht5fxUjha19_XNfG0mi2EA

 

Storyboarding

During the planning of our thriller opening (as you can see from previous blog posts) we started to storyboard our thriller. However, after taking location shots we found it much easier to work from our location shots using them as a reference to what we should do instead of the storyboards we produced.

The Marshlands final piece

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McIa2LdENCQ&list=UUht5fxUjha19_XNfG0mi2EA This is our final piece named The Marshlands.

Risk Assessment

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B67RT8bm1JWHT1Y3dl92cmJUVTQ/edit

This is the risk assessment sheet that we completed before going to film our media in Darley Dale. We did it to ensure that we would be safe throughout the filming process.

Filming

This was us setting up earlier today for the scene with the nuse.

Updates on Production

Last week, we recorded the monologue for our thriller opening. This will be used as the main script except diegetic sounds within the opening and after a few takes we're happy with the outcome. Along with this, we've managed to get some more filming done and we plan to start editing it this week.

Filming

This is a photo from earlier taken in Darley Dale where we are filming our thriller opening. This was taken whilst we were setting up our equipment. We plan to continue filming throughout the weeks to come.

Problems with Filming

Due to an unexpected down pour of rain on Sunday, we were unable to start filming our time lapse. We are however, planning the next date to do so and we should begin filming within the next two weeks.

Film Classification

This is a piece of our group work. This research was effective in helping us decide on what age was most appropriate for our thriller. It's important to understand this in order for us to appeal to the right target audience. If we were to advertise our film with the wrong age rating, it would attract the wrong people and therefore result in unhappy customers.

Story Board Part 1

These are the first four shots that we have storyboarded. We've wrote down what setting, shot, angle, movement, action, lighting, props and sound we plan to use in these four shots.

First Draft of Our Thriller Story

This was the first draft that I completed as a summary of our story for the thriller. After creating this, we had to edit the story based on what we were going to include in our thriller opening. We have now changed this story slightly after further work on the task.

Overall Story of Our Thriller

This photo shows the overall story of our thriller (Marshlands) that I wrote. I decided that it would be a good idea to think of the whole storyline and not just the opening as it would help us develop a better thriller opening if we have more understanding of the storyline. 

 

However, the opening of our thriller will only show the three friends preparing for their trip and setting up there. It will also include a monologue from the last remaining character in the film with flashbacks from the night that the group camped there.

Film Production Companies

I researched brands that have produced film companies in order to find the best and most suitable to produce our thriller. Naturally, my mind first thought of Warner Brothers with it being one of the most successful brands of its kind. However, I soon discovered that its not the most appropriate due to the lack of Thrillers that they have produced (the only two on the website are Red Riding Hood and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride). Furthermore, these two thrillers don't fit our criteria in the sense that one is 12 and the other PG. This differs from ours as we've decided to have our thriller as a 15.

I next researched other various companies that may be suitable for our thriller. For example, I searched who produced the Bourne films. However, I thought that selecting an English company would be more suitable rather than American based.

I finally came across Hammer Films. Known for their Gothic films having produced many successful thrillers and horrors I was intrigued to find that this particular company may just be the most suitable for our thriller. Hammer Films was previously sold after their previous success and then sold again in 2007 where production went into action again. Since then Hammer has produced the highest-grossing British horror film in 20 years, making $127,730,736 as of June 2012; The Woman In Black starring Daniel Radcliffe. Hammer is also now in the process of producing The Woman In black sequel Angels Of Death (with great expectations, having read the book written by Martyn Waites myself).

This particular success caught my attention as a lot of the inspiration for our thriller was based on this film. Having personally studied the opening to this film, I learnt what to expect in the opening of a thriller as well as various other aspects such as how exactly the directors create a tense atmosphere without giving too much away (a very important aspect in determining the success of a thriller).

I finally decided that Hammer Films is the most appropriate production company not only due to its success worldwide but because of its success with the appropriate genre (thriller/horror). I feel that even though The Woman In Black is a different age rating to our thriller, it is relatable as there is a similar theme to the film as both are meant to mildly scare viewers with the sense of an unknown presence. I therefore feel that we could potentially gain the same success with the right Company should we have to choose one.

Hard at work Storyboarding

we've started to storyboard our Thriller Opening to enable us to start filming this Sunday! Our group have also come up with the title of our thriller: Marshlands.

Monologue Script for Thriller Opening

This is the first draft script that I wrote yesterday for the monologue of the main character in our thriller opening. We decided to start to write the monologue before storyboarding so we could get a realistic idea of when the narration would stop and so what we would then inlude in the opening in terms of camera angles and different scenes.