We finished editing our video today adding subtitles and picking a good font that fits in with the genre of our film , so yes eventually we finished after a lot of rethinking and reshooting. 

Storyboard

We have produced a new storyboard for our reshoot AGAIN we have made so many storyboards for this film but this is our final one!

Shot 4- zooming out from the screen which has the video of her being tied up
shot 5- pans across keyboard and mouse while the phone rings and you can here the person on the other end

Shot 6- close up on text as it pans across computer screen- message will be like we have her, do not call the police

shot 7- Pans across the phone then back across keyboard

shot 8- Diagonally pans across screen

Throughout this the conversation carries on

So this is the film we made and got audience feedback on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2IMEZRGaq0&context=C48cd6b8ADvjVQa1PpcFMnhLDBgC0m0tFVT6mvigZZ18eeZMDE6OQ=
We have to decided to alter the second part completely( baring in mind this is not our finished video)

Feedback questionnaire

The other day we got our feedback from the A2 media group who watched our film and filled in the questionnaire we created. 

The first bit of our opening got much higher marks than the second part, we had already expected that to happen.

These were the questions we asked and we tallied them up and came out with a score which had the most for each.

1. Did the opening appeal to you? 4
2. Did the black and white create suspense? 4
3. Was the monologue clear? 4
4. Did the monologue create suspense? 4
5. How successful was the montage? 1
6. How successful was the cutting and walking shot? 2
7. How was the positioning of the credits? 2
8. How effective was the sound? 1
9. Did the ending make sense? 1
10. What is your general rating of the opening? 2

General overall opinions were good to help us work on what to do next

Good points about our film were-

• Beginning is really good, Beginning is better than the second part
• Kettle noise is good
• Good title positioning
• Good cutting effect when walking up the street

Things that weren't too good-

• Tension is spoiled when it starts the montage
• montage music is too upbeat and happy, sounds like a 'children's nursery rhyme type song'
• The second bit just doesn't fit

So we have decided on changing the second part as the feedback is not that good for the second part.

We have come up with a few ideas 

- Kindnapping

- filming dark alleyways

- 999 call

Feedback

So today we got our feedback from our film and we are just in the process of rethinking and analysing our feedback sheets from our questionnaire which was very helpful.
I will be putting up what people have said were good and bad and any improvements we can make. Also i will be putting up the first draft as soon as it is uploaded to youtube.

Planning

Genre: Thriller

Narrative:  

A girl is tied up in a chair in a dark room (light swinging overhead)                                                                                                                            

We hear a narrator speaking over the scene (non-diegetic)                                                                     

Then we hear a kettle boiling and it cuts to a breakfast scene                                                                          

The same girl is getting ready to leave  the house                                                                                                 

The girl then leaves and walks down a street

Script:                                                                                                                                                                      Narrator, “I always wanted to be a hero. Ever since I was little. Not a super hero like Wonderwoman or Catwoman, though there clothes are pretty cool. But someone that mattered, someone who had made a difference and left there mark in history. What I didn’t realise then was...........................................I would need a hero.”    

Roles of Group:                      

Adam Bennett = Sound                                        

Jess Palmer = Camera Shots                                                         

Laura Shackleton = Mise en Scene               

Joseph Elton = Editing

Shooting Schedule:                   

Tuesday 21^st February – Recording the monologue (double lesson)                               

Saturday 25^th February – Filming all shots (all day)                   

Monday 27^th February-Friday 2^nd March – Editing  (lessons, frees, lunch and after school)

Risk Assessment:               

1.Dark room , be careful when moving around.               

2.Moving in and out of buildings be careful of steps.                                                                         

3.Kitchen, be careful when using electrical appliances and boiling water, keep the camera away from water.                                                                                

4.Outside, be careful of vehicles when crossing the road, be prepared for weather-don’t get the camera wet, if icy or wet be careful of slippy surfaces.                       

5.High powered light, be wary of hot bulb. 

                                                                                                                                                                                          

Timeline

Here is the timeline for our planning stage (click to view bigger version)

     

Research

So for our research for our 2 minute opening sequence we looked at lots of different videos and were just looking at different genres. We especially liked this with the use of monologue over the top which started the film off and thought we could maybe create something with a monologue over the top.

Thriller-Action Genre Research

This type of genre seems to promote intense excitement, suspense, a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety, and nerve-wracking tension. Thriller films are virtually synonymous and interchangeable categorizations, with similar characteristics and features.

Thrillers are often hybrids - there are lots of varieties of suspense-thrillers:

• action- or adventure- thrillers
• sci-fi thrillers (such as Alien (1979))
• crime-caper thrillers (such as The French Connection (1971))
• western-thrillers (such as  High Noon (1952))
• film-noir thrillers (such as  Double Indemnity (1944))
• even romantic comedy-thrillers (such as Safety Last (1923)

We then thought about openings to thrillers and how we could create our own opening we looked at a few and came up with a few different ideas which i will explain in the next post.

Change of idea

So after a lot of discussion we completely changed our idea as we had nowhere to film our second idea which was the warehouse.
Our new idea is somebody tied up to a chair, where we have the monologue over the top and then go back to that persons normal life and add the titles then

Our next task

Our next task is to create a 2 minute opening to any type of film we want so today we just though of ideas of what we could do. 

One idea was to create a sequence of a women going through the woods with flashes of someone after her.

Our second idea was someone dead on the floor in a warehouse/ or a car garage with police investigating, close up on different body parts where we would put the titles

Preliminary Video- Undetected

Yes we finally finished editing our preliminary and managed to come up with a name which took some time choosing, so here you go.

We managed to stick to the storyboard very well while doing this and we found that the piece of music we used is very effective in building up suspense. We edited the quick shots when the women (which is me) does the part where she is putting the memory stick and things to make it more effective. 

Storyboard for our preliminary

1. Long shot of man leaving room, where the women is writing. 

    Sound-door closing, footsteps

2. Camera pans round as women runs to the other desk

3. Extreme close up of women plugging in the USB pen. 

    Sound- music gets louder

4. Close/mid shot as camera goes on the screen and the memory stick going in pops up

5.  Extreme close up on the mouse as it's moving. 

     Sound- mouse clicking

6.  Close up/mid shot of the computer as it's downloading the file

7.  Close up ad head turns towards the door to check if he's coming back yet

8.  Skips to a low angle shot of him walking down the corridor. 

     Sound- footsteps

9.  Extreme close up on the memory stick again but this time pulling it out. 

     Sound- computer pings

10. Again pans round following the women who now runs back to her desk.

11.  Long shot like shot number 1 but this time he comes in

12.  Mid shot as he walks to his seat to sit down

14.  Mid shot as the women is talking to him, shot reverse shot action. 

       She gathers her things together.

13.  Again mid shot of the man sat talking.

15.  Long shot of the women who gets up and leaves the room.

16.  Mid shot as the women walks across the screen with a smile as she has the memory stick.

Panic over

Good news we Mr Croft found our filming for our preliminary so we eventually could stop stressing out about filming it again, phew! So we got on to editing as soon as possible as we only had one double lesson, which was much less time than the other groups.

Oh dear

Uh oh when we came to our lesson after filming our office scene we came to put it on the computer it wasn't on our SD card from the camera. Mr Croft said this would be a very good learning curve as we will know now to make sure as soon as we film to put it on the computer.

Preliminary Planning

Preliminary Planning-Week commencing 23rd January
Our task was to create a film where a character walked across the room sat down exchanged dialogue, maybe using shot reverse shot action but remembering not to break the 180 degree rule.
We didn't have much time to plan and film so we decided it would be best to do it in school, but try make it so that it didn't look like we film it in a school environment.
- Our first idea was to film in the school lift and someone having a panic attack and having to sit down and have a conversation but due to health and safety and limited time we decided to not go with this.
- Another idea was to sit in the cafe and have a discussion but we though that this may be too boring
 -The other idea we came up with, which we stuck with was to have an office situation where theres two people one goes out and the other steels something off their computer

Practise final edit- Territory

This is our final version of our practise film called Territory.

In this video its a man walking (our actor which was Adam benett) and we wanted to get it so you didn't get his face in the camera so we filmed from a high angle shot for the establishing shot then for the main part videoed his feet to make the part where you see his face have more of an effect. then we did shot on shot face shots when he bumps into his friend (played by Joseph Elton) when he says 'where have you been?'.  

We also chose to do this in black and white to create more of an eerie effect. The piece of music we used is also to build up a dramatic effect.

I think that this was very successful as it was are first time eve making a film and only had 2 hours to film and edit it which i feel is a very good achievement. Without planning i don't think we would have achieved the final outcome.

Storyboard for practise film

This is the storyboard for our practise, it is only one page as it was only a 30 second film.

1. The opening shot is the establishing shot where we get Adam Benett our main actor to walk round a corner with his hood up so you cannot see his face.

2. Here we have a close up on Adams feet as he is walking and is a close up, we also wanted to add the sound of his footsteps in the filming.

3. Only just a close up on his back as he walks up the steps and walks through the door, where we had the noise of the creaking door.

4. A high angle shot from the other side of when he walks through the door.

5. Then a high angle shot with the door frame covering his head so we still do not see his face.

6. Goes black 

7. Bumps into Joseph Elton(our other actor) and Joe says 'where have you been?' the lines our short film had to be based around.

8. (Shot on shot talking action is happening in this and the shot before) In this Adam pulls his hood down and the sun light beams through and it is in slow motion and the music also slows down.

First ever attempt

The other day we did our first attempt at creating a film which had to include the words 'where have you been?'. We had to plan, film and edit this all in the space of a few lessons and all the groups videos were really good for the first attempt. In our film we based it on a person walking through the school not showing the face and then bumping into someone and them saying 'where have you been' on the editing side we turned it black and white to add a dramatic effect with the every music.