Group Evaluation

Foundation Portfolio Evaluation: Group One on Prezi

Individual Evaluation Process

Each person in our group created an individual evaluation as a plan for our main evaluation. We each answered 7 main questions including:
-Our final product
-Camerawork
-Editing
-Who our target audience was
-Our research
-What we learnt about technologies from the process
-How successful we thought our final product was

This was a good idea for planning as we have all contributed and shared our ideas. It also shows we each have a clear understanding of the process of constructing our product and everything we did. For our group evaluation we have decided to make a prezi including answers from all of our individual evaluations, pictures and videos to show our evaluation in a more creative way.

Individual Evaluation of Thriller Opening Sequence

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

Our thriller incorporates specific generic conventions of a crime thriller used in real media products such as films like Taken. We used camerawork techniques similar to Taken to create suspense and leaving the audience wanting to watch more. For example, zooming into close ups showing the emotion and fear on the characters face, blurring the vision of the characters point of view showing the audience that something was wrong with the character as she couldn’t see properly.
We also used camerawork styles making the audience worry about the character. The way we did this was through using handheld camerawork, this can be seen in the scene where the character has fallen and tries to get up slowly, this shows us the wobbly unclear vision of the character. We also used editing such as short shot durations, such as the scene when the character spots the male character and what he is doing, this adds tension to the scene and makes the audience wonder what is happening.
In usual crime thriller films such as The Dark Knight it is conventional to see an antagonist this was also the case in our film as the male character is the antagonist, we can recognise this with the mis en scene, as the male character dressed in dark clothes and is digging a hole with a shovel, straight away it suggests to the audience that he is the antagonist and is doing something bad.
Our thriller opening sequence develops conventions of a crime thriller also through mis en scene.  The setting of our film was in a mysterious looking forest but with dead twigs and swamps of mud all around this made the setting creepy and created realism. Therefore our film develops the conventions of a usual crime thriller.

2.       How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our opening sequence the young people are represented as the social group. Two young girls are shown walking down the street drunk. The male character then pulls up and the girls get in his car even though they don’t know him. This is represented in a stereotypical way as the girls are out drunk, partying and getting into a strangers car. This is what people think teenagers are likely to do. The male character challenges the stereotype as a usual young male wouldn’t usually be the abductor in a film, they would usually be an older character. The girls are shown as passive, as they get into a strangers car and are abducted, the male is dominant as he has abducted them. Our opening sequence link into our target audience as the characters are teenagers, which is likely to interest younger adult viewers, as this would be a usual situation in today’s society, leaving the audience wanting to watch more to see what happens. By researching our target group we found out that teenagers, like to get drunk, party, and socialize, scenes including these things are shown in our opening sequence, therefore this would attract our audience and make them want to watch.

3.       What kind of media distribution might distribute your media product and why?

Our film can be recognised as a mainstream film. There are other existing products in the same genre with similar story lines to our film such as Taken, therefore it could be produced by major Hollywood studio’s, such as 20^th century fox as they have produced films like ours before. Our film would be available to view on TV and internet, and offering opportunities for franchises and merchandise the same way other mainstream films would have such as clothing, mugs and pens etc.

4.       Who would be the audience for your media product?

Because of the narrative and the younger characters involved in our film, we believe it would mainly interest young adults and teenagers. We found this out by our primary and secondary research. We conducted a questionnaire which we handed out to people with questions such as age, gender and hobbies. By doing this we discovered that most people were around the age of 15-18 which helped us find out who our target audience would be and what type of age group we would research. For our secondary research we found out what youths 16+ were interested in and their hobbies etc, giving us a clear idea that our target audience from the age of 15+ but mainly young people.  I think that younger people would be more interested in our film than adults, as it’s a crime thriller with a situation similar to what commonly happens in other films, making them want to see what happens.

Other films such as Taken and Disturbia are similar to our film, as they both are about abduction with unexpected outcomes. Taken I think would be appealing to most ages and adults, as it shows disturbing situations and involves older characters. Disturbia I think would appeal to more of a younger audience like our film, as younger characters and teenagers are involved.

5.       How did you attract/address your audience?We attracted our audience by the choice of characters and the narrative that we created. Using younger characters and a scary situation that may involve younger people attracted this audience. Certain scenes in our film such as the two drunk girls walking down the street, and being asked to get into a random young mans car would interest a younger audience as they stereotypically enjoy being drunk and out and about on the streets. We wanted to use interesting camerawork in our sequence to entertain the audience and keep them interested such as a canted shot, when the girl is looking up from the floor, and unfocusing the camera when we see the girls vision from her point of view. We also used close-ups in scenes of the girl in the forest to show urgency and emotion. Other scenes may even scare our target audience as our storyline is realistic. Scenes such as when the girl is panicking in the forest and the male character comes from behind and grabs her could scare our audience. When we showed the vision from the characters point of view, this makes the audience feel as if they are in the characters shoes and are witnessing the male character suspiciously digging a hole. The vision from the characters point of view is blurred and unstable giving a proper effect of what she may be feeling like. We used generic conventions of a crime thriller in our sequence such as short shot duration to create suspense and tension, medium shots to show that the character cant move their arms, a close up of her hands to show she is tied up, and
a close up of the characters face to show urgency.

6.       What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

We were able to use the camera well as a group, focusing, unfocusing, zooming and blurring were easy to do on the camera and everybody had a go. Final cut express was new and fun to use, everyone in our group got to have a go and learn how to cut, edit and put in the soundtrack. Effects such as adjusting the brightness and lighting in certain scenes such as the close ups helped with the mis-en-scene to create realism, ensuring that the lighting and brightness was the same in all the right scenes. Garage band was fun to use also and was a useful programme for the sounds we needed to create our soundtrack, although it did take us a while to produce the soundtrack as we had to try and do it before filming our film. Once we had finished filming and editing, we reproduced our soundtrack as we felt it didn’t match, we added effects into certain scenes to make them more spine chilling and effective, such as fast paced sounds when we saw the hands of the character tied up and trying to break free. We finished our soundtrack and made sure it matched with everything happening on the screen, but we found that garage band was better for sound effects and noises which we did not need in our production. We found it a little tricky trying to fit the sounds in with images at the exact times but eventually were able to do so after a few adjustments and cutting. During the filming of our opening sequence we faced a few problems. The first time we filmed our film we got a lot recorded and somehow lost the footage as the camera overwrote our tape. This was one of our weaknesses with the camera equipment. Therefore we had to redo it, but faced another problem as our main male character was unavailable to do it. This was very stressful as he was perfect for the role and we had a lot of trouble trying to find another male character as well suited to the role, but finally found someone who also does media, who was able to do it and he did a good job.

7.       Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I have learnt a lot during the progression of my preliminary task before making the final product. During the planning stage we did a lot of research of different genres of films and looked into those genres. We found out what is included in these genres and what type of storylines is usually produced. We researched crime thrillers and found out that most storylines are similar to each other such as Taken and Disturbia, as they both involve violence and abduction. This helped us come up with the storyline for our final opening sequence. From watching the different crime thriller trailers and studying other student opening sequences, this helped us a lot with what shot types we should be using, what kind of camerawork should be used and what sort of editing we should include to make the process smoother. By doing the questionnaire this made us have a clear understanding of the audience we were aiming to target and what kind of films they were interested in. After all having a go at using the equipment during the filming and editing process, we became quite confident in using it and look forward to using it again. We spent a lot of time and effort on making our film to the best of our ability. I feel that our final product fulfilled the task well, as we stuck to our planning, worked well as a group, did a lot of research and stuck to using the right camera shots and editing a usual crime thriller would use.

Individual Evaluation

Thriller Opening Sequence Evaluation

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

Our media product incorporates specific crime thriller generic conventions from real media products, such as films, for example Taken. Our final media product is similar in ways to this film as we built up suspense in the same way, by using similar camera work and editing to engage our audience in the same way. Some of the camera and editing techniques that were used by the producers of Taken were the use of short shot duration, the close ups and the handheld effects of the camera in order to show urgency and worry. An example of when some of these camera techniques are used is in the abduction scene of Taken. They used handheld effects when the girl was looking at her friend being taken by the intruding men. This is also a point of view shot which puts the audience in her position, therefore creating more anxiety and fright for the audience. We also noticed in opening sequences to other thriller films such as Se7en that they included fade in and fade outs to different shots which made it run a lot smoother and so we added these into our own opening sequence. We incorporated these techniques into our opening sequence to suggest to our audience what sub genre our opening sequence was.  Our thriller conforms to the genre of crime, as we came up with a similar narrative to Taken. The narrative for our opening sequence is based on the abduction of teenage girls. It is focused on one girl in particular, who wakes up in a forest to see a man digging a hole and her best friend lying on the floor, looking either unconscious or drugged. Our opening sequence ends with the man grabbing the main characters face, leaving the audience wondering what is going to happen to her in the rest of the film. We decided on this sub-genre of crime as we found out from our primary and secondary research that crime thriller films are popular within the film industry at the moment. From our planning and research stage we came to a conclusion that in most crime thriller films there is a lead antagonist, and one, if not more, protagonists. An example of a film where we found this out from was The Dark Knight. From this research we applied this to our own opening sequence, by including 3 characters, the main antagonist being the male, and two protagonists being the two teenage girls. Our use of conventions indicates to the audience that we have been influenced by other crime thrillers as we have used the same skills and techniques, for example the fade in fade out transition from one character to the next, which is what we saw in most of the crime thriller films, especially The Hostage. We did this in order to make it the best we could, and make sure that we correctly portray this sub genre to our audience. We also researched a lot into the music involved in crime thriller opening sequences. We found that the music in thriller films can vary a lot, depending on the narrative and sub genre of the film. From listening to the music from the thriller, Se7en, we found out that the music in the opening sequence started off slowly, and gradually got faster to build the suspense and is parallel to what is happening in the film. In our own production of the music for our opening sequence, we used windy, slow sounds as this is parallel to what is happening in the film when the main character is waking up in the forest. To add more suspense we added a high pitched, unnerving sound when the camera moves onto her wrists which are tied up with rope. We heard in other thriller films such as Memento that the music starts quiet and gets louder towards the end of the opening sequence and so we added this into our own opening sequence. I think that our media product uses and conforms to conventions of real media products as we were influenced by many popular crime thriller films.

2)      How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product represents young people as our film is based on 3 teenage and young adult characters. Teenagers and younger adults are represented in our opening sequence as the flashback of two girls getting in a young mans car is a stereotypical thing for teenage girls to do. The girls are very stereotypical, as they are young and want to go out and get drunk etc, whereas the man in the film challenges the stereotype in some ways. The man in our opening sequence is portrayed as an abductor and a murder, which is very different to the stereotype of a normal teenage boy. Gender is represented in a stereotypical way in our opening sequence as the man in the film is shown as powerful and dominant and the two girls are seen as weak, vulnerable and defenceless. The male in the film is shown as powerful by the use of the camera work. We made sure that he was always positioned above the girls in the opening sequence, showing his status compared to them. An example of this is when he grabs her face at the end, which shows she is weak and defenceless as she cannot do anything to help herself. It is also portrayed by the use of props. We made it obvious by using an extreme close up of her wrists tied together with rope that she was being held hostage, which again shows she has no control over the situation. The way that our opening sequence represents the youth community links into our target audience of teenagers to young adults. From conducting primary and secondary research we found out that our target audience enjoy to go out with friends to parties, and like to socialise which links in very well with the narrative of our opening sequence. By our audience being able to somewhat relate to the story, whether it being through age or gender etc, it would make them want to watch the film a lot more and so engage them and leave them wondering what could happen throughout the rest of the film.

3)      What kind of media distribution might distribute your media product and why?

I believe that our media product could be distributed by a major film company such as 20^th Century Fox or Warner Bros Pictures as these production companies have produced very successful crime thriller films which are similar to our own media product. I think that it would be a popular film if it was distributed to cinemas as the idea of abduction and murder is very appealing to all types of people, but mainly the younger generation (teenagers and young adults). We found out from completing a target audience profile that teenagers and young adults also spend a lot of their time visiting the cinema and socialising with friends, and so I think it would receive a lot of viewings if it was to be released in a cinema. I also found out that crime thrillers are very popular among the youth generation by looking at the Pearl and Dean Website and looking at the views on crime thriller films. I believe that our film would be popular if it were to be released, and could open up opportunities for merchandise and franchises, as it could be released in different cinemas, such as Vue, Odeon, Empire etc. From our film being released in major cinemas worldwide it would then open up opportunities for merchandising, such as clothing, mugs and dolls.

4)      Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for our media product is young people, ranging from teenagers to adults. Our thriller film is suitable for both genders, as both are involved in the film so that the audience is able to relate in some ways. I think that both genders would enjoy the narrative of the thriller film as it would interest them, and the way the characters in the film are around the same age as the target audience it would engage them more into the film. We found this out from conducting primary and secondary research into what film genres are most popular within the age range for our target audience. In order to gain research into our target audience we conducted a questionnaire which we handed out to people, which included questions such as their age, what their hobbies and interests are, and their favourite film genre. We found out from our questionnaires that our audience would be 16+, and their main interests would be socialising, partying, fashion and music. The genre which came out on top was thriller, with a few people specifying crime thrillers as their favourite. We also used the Pearl and Dean website in order to research a few popular thriller films, for example Shutter Island, to find out what percentage of men and women had viewed the films. We found out from this that the percentage between men and women was quite close, and so we came to a conclusion that thriller films are appealing to both genders. It was very important for us to conduct this research so that we could create a thriller film which would appeal to and interest our target audience. There are already very popular crime thriller films that have been released that are similar to ours, and so we knew that this genre would be very successful if our film was to be released in cinemas. A big inspiration and a film very similar to ours is Taken, which is also about an abduction, but it has a different story behind it.

5)      How did you attract/address your audience?

Our primary and secondary research helped us attract our audience as it gave us ideas on what sort of things our target audience like and are interested in. We involved both genders in our thriller film by creating male and female characters and giving both of these a big role in the film. The age of the characters in the film would also attract our target audience as they would be able to relate with them, and we also found out from our research that 15-24 year olds would be the most interested in the narrative and creation of our film. There are many parts of our media product which would attract and maybe even frighten our target audience, as the film is about two teenage girls being abducted, and so the audience may be able to put themselves in the characters shoes which would make the film more interesting and thrilling for them. We wanted the camera work in our thriller opening sequence to be interesting in order to attract the audience. We did this by including some of the techniques that were used in other popular thriller films, such as close ups and extreme close ups which help show the expression and urgency of the character, and also canted shots. We used a canted shot when the girl had fallen to the ground, in which it followed her head back up to look at the man. We did this so that it would put the audience in the characters shoes as it was from her point of view, which we found was included in other crime thriller films such as the scene in Taken where the main character see’s her best friend get abducted by 3 men. We also used the out of focus tool when we filmed from the characters point of view to suggest to the audience that there is something wrong with her, making them ask questions about what may have happened to her. We received feedback on a rough-cut of our opening sequence which told us that the audience were questioning and worried about the girl, and that they felt on the edge of their seats as the suspense built up, which is what we aimed to achieve. 

6)      What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

I have learnt a lot about technologies from the process of constructing our final media product, especially the use of the camera and Final Cut. As a group we had strengths and weaknesses in our filming stage, but we managed to overcome these in order to complete our opening sequence on time. We were all very confident when using the camera and the tripod as we all had good knowledge on the controls and knew exactly how we wanted our opening sequence to look. By using the camera when filming for our preliminary task and using it for test shots we knew how to use the camera and how to get straight into filming our opening sequence so that we didn’t waste any time. One weakness of using the camera equipment and our filming process was when our footage did not record properly on the tape. This was a big set back as we had completed all of our filming, but then could not transfer it onto the Macs in order to start the editing process. Although this set us back, we did not waste any more time and so went back out to our location to re-film our footage. As we filmed parts of our footage on different days it was quite hard to make sure the lighting was the same in all of the scenes. I think that we managed this very well as our opening sequence runs smoothly and look as if it was all filmed in one take. After we had completed the filming we went straight on to the editing stage using Final Cut. We found this easy to use as we had had practise when editing our preliminary task and so were all confident on how to use the programme. We learnt how to cut certain pieces of footage in order to make sure our opening sequence runs smoothly, and also how to add certain effects in such as a blur. Although we used the out of focus tool we thought it was not enough and so we added an extra blurred effect to make it more obvious to the audience what we were trying to portray. We added in white screens just before the flashback with transition effects to show the audience we are now in a flashback. We also added in a bright, blurry effect to show the audience that it is in fact a flashback and that it has happened in the past. We think this was a good idea as it added in a great effect of confusion and mystery to the audience. We used Garageband to make a soundtrack for our opening sequence. Before completing our real soundtrack we made a practise soundtrack in order to test out the software and the different sounds available to decide on which kind of sounds we wanted to use. We found a few suitable sounds for our opening sequence soundtrack, such as windy noises which built up suspense, but most of the sounds on Garageband were more artificial effects which we did not want to use in our opening sequence as we thought it would take away the realism of the opening sequence.

7)      Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

From completing our preliminary task I have learnt a lot about all different aspects of creating an opening sequence, going from the research into the genre and the actual filming of the sequence. I have learnt that we had to include a lot of research and planning in order to create an opening sequence that is going to attract and appeal to our target audience. We researched into the codes and conventions of thriller films and their sub genres so that we could include these in our own film to make it the best that we could. We also found out from our research what kind of camera and editing techniques are popular within the crime thriller genre, for example point of view shots and short shot duration, and so we were able to include these in our own product. I have learnt from completing a preliminary task that storyboards are very important in the production of a media product as it told us the details of what kind of shot type we needed, and what we needed to include in the frame. When creating the soundtrack for our opening sequence we created an animatic to give us an idea of what is going to be happening in the film when the music is playing in order for it to run smoothly and be in time. By completing a preliminary task before we started filming our actual media product it gave us confidence in some of the shot types we were going to use as we had had practise in filming and editing them. An example of this would be the canted shot of when the girl falls to the ground. As we had tried this out before filming we knew what camera techniques we had to use, and also how to edit it to make it look good and realistic. Looking back at our test shots I think that they have improved greatly as they look a lot steadier and therefore more professional. I feel very confident in using the equipment as I feel that I have had a good amount of experience after filming and editing a preliminary task and also our final media product. I feel that our end product is very successful in fulfilling the task we were set because we have included everything we were asked, such as the footage, the editing process and the creation of the soundtrack. We have included a variation of different shot types in order to make our production as interesting and professional as possible. I feel that we have edited our production well as we have made smooth transitions from different scenes, added in transition effects, such as fade in and fade outs, to add to the quality of the end product, and that we have added in our credits well. We created our soundtrack so that it would be parallel to what is happening on the screen, and I think that we added this into our footage well and that we made it fit as well as we could to make it work together. In conclusion I think our end product is to the best quality it could be due to all the research and planning into thriller films, and also the experience using the cameras in the preliminary task and our test shots.

INDIVIDUAL EVALUATION

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

Our media product incorporates generic conventions from real media products such as the professional film, Taken, a crime and action thriller, we developed ideas through the generic conventions of Taken. The film uses typical generic conventions to emphasis its sub-genre for instance short duration shots highlighting urgency and point of view shots so the audience can relate to what is about to happen. The film shows a clear antagonist and protagonist (which we have in our film) and the narrative is in an ordinary situation where extraordinary events occur... Therefore, in our production we used this to help make it fit well to the sub-genre. For example at the beginning of our opening sequence we created suspense, excitement and tension to the viewer through short shot durations, handheld camera shots and on specific scenes adding a blurred effect. Also, for the music in our production we wanted to add anticipation to the viewer like the way we felt whilst watching other crime thrillers. These were all ideas used from real media products, showing an indication that our use of conventions have been influenced by films like Taken, Eagle Eye and Disturbia. In certain scenes of Disturbia the shots have been edited into a blurred vision which gave us that particular idea, and in Eagle eye the music felt spine chilling and that’s how we wanted our music to be portrayed in our opening scene.   

2)    How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product is aimed at youth social groups, who go out socialising, underage drinking, partying etc. This is represented in our opening sequence during the flashback where you see the two naïve girl characters that have been drinking and are just spontaneously having a fun night out. The two girls are portrayed in a stereotypical way, they are very vulnerable and silly when it comes to getting into the strangers car, like two young girls would be like underage drinking in the realistic picture. The boy character challenges the stereotype as you would rarely see a young man take two innocents girls on a night out especially as they are both around the same age, and same social group. However in some aspects the young man does conform as he is the dominant one and is the one in control of the situation. This links into the target audience because it explains to the youthful groups that this could happen and could be seen as a realistic theory. The media product is more pushed towards this social group because through our research and personal view we can see that this would be something that they are interested in and a film that they would want to watch.

3)    What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I believe that this could be something that could be produced by major Hollywood studios and other big production companies such as 20^th Century Fox who have produced worldwide crime thrillers. The reason for this is because our idea stands out from other crime thrillers and it is appealing to youth social groups and they are the main people who are interested and go to the cinema etc. Our media product is similar to existing worldwide crime thrillers such as Taken and Disturbia, and both films have been very successful and popular. In the opening scene of Disturbia the music is contrapuntal which is the opposite to our opening but through our research we decided that music that compliments with action conforms with the audience and are more likely to be interested. I believe that if our media product was to be released it could be as popular and could offer franchise/ merchandise because as seen from other universal crime thrillers like Taken, people our interested and merchandise like dolls and t-shirts are sold worldwide. Our media has realistic characters that can make ordinary people put themselves in that position which makes our film better than others.

4)    Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our media product is suitable for both genders. The reason for this is because the narrative is about two girls being abducted, therefore is not pushed towards one gender. For our primary research we conducted a questionnaire to discover the expectations of our target audience. We discovered girls would find our media interesting as they enjoy going out socialising, underage drinking and doing spontaneous things therefore could put themselves in the position of the two vulnerable girls in the film and decide what they would have done in the situation. Boys on the other hand, would find narrative attention-grabbing because it is a crime thriller and discovering through our primary research if boys were to go to the cinema they we most want to see crime thrillers or another type of thriller. We also used secondary research to find out more about our target audience, we used the Pearl and Dean website to find out about the audience of crime thrillers from looking at the results we discovered that crime thrillers were most popular between the ages of 15-24 and 25-34. The gender ratio was more popular with men than women; however, the percentage for women was still high showing us that both genders would enjoy the film due to its sub-genre. Our media product also raises awareness to the audience, like professional films such as Taken the youth generation can learn something from it.

5)    How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted our audience by using results from our primary and secondary research. This helped us come out with our audience profile and who we wanted to be interested in the film, we discovered that both genders aged 15-24 would find our media product most interesting and would want to watch it. There are particular points in our media where it would appeal to those certain ages, for example during the flashback the two girl characters have been drinking and are singing, messing around and not really thinking about what they are doing. This could scare and worry the target audience because they can picture themselves in that situation.  We thought carefully about our camerawork during our opening scene, we used a lot of point of view shots so the audience could relate to what was happening, we also did a lot of short duration shots to emphasis the panic and tension the girl character was feeling. Another technique we tried was putting the camera out of focus to show the girls blurred vision, to show that perhaps she has been drugged.  For the mise en scene we created a stereotypical look for both girls, for instance, heels, short skirt and lots of make up etc. We wanted the audience to relate so that it gave off a more realistic feel. In the editing process we had no soundtrack music in the flashback so we could just hear what the girls were saying and how the boy approached them, this was to show realism but also some aspect of raising awareness. We used all these four micro areas to attract and addresses are target audience.

6)    What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing the product?

I have learnt how to use and do a variety of technologies from the process of constructing the media product. At the beginning of the production stage in the preliminary task we used a canon video recorder and tripod; we were then able to be more creative with our real project. This was one of our strengths because throughout the production of filming our media film we thought back to the prelim and what worked well and what didn’t. A weakness of the camera equipment was when we took it out to film and the tape didn’t work, this was a big disadvantage to us and the shooting schedule was delayed and our availability became a struggle. After this happened we made sure during the editing stage that we were more organised and gave plenty of time and space for mistakes if they were made. During the editing stage I learnt lots of new techniques on the editing software – Final Cut. After having a taster of how it works during the preliminary task it was much easier to use, we were able to be creative with our work changing the speed of each shot and using the razorblade tool to cut and paste different shots in the timeline. We found Final Cut very useful for creating our overall mise en scene, adding special effects for instance in our flashback scene we blurred the shots to emphasis the fact that she was dreaming and also in other shots we added brightness to enhance the daylight. When it came to making the soundtrack we created on the software – Garage Band. It was a useful programme for creating a suspenseful soundtrack because we could go through each sound effect we wanted and cut and paste or slow it down, making it sound the best it could be. The challenges we faced using the Garage Band software was that it was hard to certain sound effects of the exact shot type we wanted it, so as a group we went through the film and wrote down the exact time where we wanted extra suspense.

7)    Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back to the preliminary task it was challenging and all the equipment seemed overwhelming but now after completing the full product I feel a lot more confident in using all the tools and different software. During the planning stage it was difficult to put all our ideas into one film, we carried out lots of research (primary and secondary) to find out who liked  our ideas and what type of sub genre we wanted to go for. I evaluated all different types of thrillers and thought what was different about them, what was most popular etc. All the planning really helped when it came to coming up with a storyboard and presentation. We had an idea of what would be interesting to the target audience we were edging towards; for instance socialising, partying being spontaneous etc. After coming up with the storyboard and presentation we as a group completed an animatic. This was where we videoed the storyboard to how we would want it to be for the real product, we took to account timing, speed, how creative it was and even what sound effects we wanted then in their. In conclusion, it is clear that I have learnt a large amount from the start of the project to the finished cut. I know a lot more about the different software’s, the camera equipment and the amount of time that has to be planned.

Final Opening Sequence

How our rough cut feedback helped us

Our feedback from our rough cut improved the making of our final production in many ways.
By our audience noticing our editing techniques and smooth camera work for example the zoom into the main characters face, we know that we edited and filmed it well as we received positive feedback. We also got positive feedback on our location choice which we wanted, so that we know that people understand what is happening in our opening sequence. We used the constructive feedback, such as some of the cuts between different scenes affecting the continuity, and so we went back and edited it by adding things such as transitions to make it run smoothly. Our audience said that our lighting was the same throughout which added to the realism and made the filming smoother as it looks as if we filmed it all on the same day.

We've learnt from producing this opening sequence that next time we film and edit we will make sure that we have plenty of time so that we can make the continuity and camera shots flow and work the best it can be. We would focus more on the positioning of the camera and the characters to make sure it looks the same from the audiences perspective.

Getting feedback from our target audience has made us confident and happy with the making of our final opening sequence production!