This is our Preliminary task video:
This is our completed Thriller opening:
Pre-production, Planning:
Firstly, pre-production played a huge underlying role is the success in producing our thriller opening in comparison to our preliminary task. This is due to the fact that we had about 20 minutes to plan our preliminary tasks in comparison to the pre-planned and discussed plot for our thriller sequence. We achieved this by each person proposing a film plot to the people who we decided to be in a group with. Then we collectively decided which one would be plausible to do and which one we could film and have the best outcome with. With this we brainstormed and altered the plot slightly to achieve a more realistic reality of what we could produce with less resources than a full scale production company such as Warner Bros; with this plot fully understood and each person in our group satisfied we collectively presented our ideas to the class through a power point presentation.
Following this, we further developed our idea by story boarding each scene with the camera shots that will take place , the transitions ect. In which we added our preferred soundtrack that we made on garage band as we felt that each 'sinister' or 'eerie' piece of music we found without copyright sounded almost cringey and took away from the uncomfortable feeling we wanted to achieve.
We also planned and mapped out the days we were going to film and the locations that the filming was going to take place, as well as the dates we were going to spend editing. Furthermore; for our preliminary we had to put our script together whilst we were filming where as we were set on having very little dialogue throughout our opening from the offset as we believed it was quite conventional of thriller films to help build suspense. Overall, our planning for our final piece was a lot more detailed and thought through in comparison to our preliminary task and as a result of this it made filming and editing a clearer and smoother task; and made our media product more successful overall.
Production, filming:
Secondly, During production planning made it easier to achieve what we wanted; not only this but because I had experience using the camera when filming Ciara and Hannah for our preliminary task I found it easier to get used to when we were filming this time round, where as I struggled to move the handle and get good un-jittery panning shots previously where as we have smooth and clear panning shots multiple times in our thriller opening. Not only this but i believe we got a really good point of view shot when you are the 'eyes' of the murderer running through the forest , we experimented here and got a really successful shot by running with the camera ourselves which makes it realistic.
As well as this , we had a more developed understanding of shots which made our final piece appear more professional. I think this is really apparent in our match on match action shot where Hannah is seen leaving the bedroom and then seen shutting the door on the other side as we have achieved continuity editing very well here , very different to the beginning of our preliminary where we try to achieve this when Hannah opens the door and is seen walking up the stairs.
(insert screenshots of both examples)
Furthermore, in our preliminary task the biggest problem we encountered was a lack of light as we wanted to achieve a dark and dingy appeal, in order for the scene to appear as if the protagonists were in an integration room. However , what we learned through the fact that most shots were too dark to see the character that we could have used final cut pro and put a filter on it so it looked darker but you could see our characters instead of them being indistinguishable.
So from learning this in a preliminary , we built apon it in our thriller opening filming the establishing shot up to the shots of the protagonist acting distraught we wanted to appear some what grainy and grungy so we filmed them in a very light location so that the audience knew what they were seeing but then coated the shots in a filter whilst editing to achieve the effect we wanted.
Not only was i more comfortable and confident with the equipment this time, we had more equipment to film with which made the overall process a lot easier. Although we did not need it , if we were to recreate our preliminary we could have used LED lights that were available whilst filming this time. More over, our most crucial part of equipment that was very useful for our group that contributed to the success of our thriller opening was the mic. This is because it captured the crying of our protagonist which is very chilling and gripping , it adds to the cynicism of our sequence. Furthermore , it captured everyday sounds such as the door closing and the person walking down the stairs really well and it just adds to our continuity editing as it makes the piece overall appear more real instead of false and forced.
Post production , Editing:
for our preliminary task my group left the editing mostly to Hannah , however this time round i done a lot of the editing by myself, i manage to pick up what to do and learnt to edit certain bits of our sequence which look really effective; some of these shots include the shot of Hannah leaving the bedroom then shutting the door behind her which across really smoothly. Another shot is at the very end of our sequence where it slowly begins to zoom in and crop out surrounding things and ends on the Hannah's hand and face closing the door.
we managed to create our own production and distribution logo to go at the beginning of our opening , which ensured that our piece looked more professional to add to this we added sound affects such as the kiss and the tiger roar which correlates to the pictures but it is similar to famous company's such as Pixar and Disney which have the bouncing light and the sprinkle on the castle.
We encountered a few problems in the editing process which includes; struggling to find a filter that made the first half of the opening look sinister and eerie without making our protagonist and the hand look quite green. In comparison to our preliminary which we really struggled with the lighting in which you could hardly see our characters and we didn't have the experience with final cut pro in which we did not know how to lighten the scene. Not only this we found it difficult to cut and trim shots to ensure that they didn't look like they ended to abruptly or continued for too long in order to achieve good continuity editing. However for our preliminary we hardly cut anything and was left with basic and elongated shits. Aswell as this we struggled to find a suitable soundtrack for the first half of our opening that ensured it gave us a good tone from the offset we achieved this by making our own on garage band which i believe to be successful. In comparison to our preliminary where we just took one of YouTube unaware whether it had copyright or not.
What I learnt:
Overall i found the production of our thriller opening satisfying as i believe we have really progressed form our preliminary task. This is due to the fact we have gained more experience and confidence with our equipment and applications.
However , next year i would consider working in a group with different people because although being friends with people i was in a group with was easy in order to work out when to film and edit ect. It meant that we got almost too comfortable and relaxed when needing to do tasks also it could have created tension and awkwardness when distributing tasks to people in our group.
I believe that our thriller opening met generic thriller conventions and was overall successful , next time my goal would be to improve our overall clarity of shots and the professionalism of shots which would make our piece appear better and more realistic.
So from learning this in a preliminary , we built apon it in our thriller opening filming the establishing shot up to the shots of the protagonist acting distraught we wanted to appear some what grainy and grungy so we filmed them in a very light location so that the audience knew what they were seeing but then coated the shots in a filter whilst editing to achieve the effect we wanted.
Not only was i more comfortable and confident with the equipment this time, we had more equipment to film with which made the overall process a lot easier. Although we did not need it , if we were to recreate our preliminary we could have used LED lights that were available whilst filming this time. More over, our most crucial part of equipment that was very useful for our group that contributed to the success of our thriller opening was the mic. This is because it captured the crying of our protagonist which is very chilling and gripping , it adds to the cynicism of our sequence. Furthermore , it captured everyday sounds such as the door closing and the person walking down the stairs really well and it just adds to our continuity editing as it makes the piece overall appear more real instead of false and forced.
Post production , Editing:
for our preliminary task my group left the editing mostly to Hannah , however this time round i done a lot of the editing by myself, i manage to pick up what to do and learnt to edit certain bits of our sequence which look really effective; some of these shots include the shot of Hannah leaving the bedroom then shutting the door behind her which across really smoothly. Another shot is at the very end of our sequence where it slowly begins to zoom in and crop out surrounding things and ends on the Hannah's hand and face closing the door.
we managed to create our own production and distribution logo to go at the beginning of our opening , which ensured that our piece looked more professional to add to this we added sound affects such as the kiss and the tiger roar which correlates to the pictures but it is similar to famous company's such as Pixar and Disney which have the bouncing light and the sprinkle on the castle.
We encountered a few problems in the editing process which includes; struggling to find a filter that made the first half of the opening look sinister and eerie without making our protagonist and the hand look quite green. In comparison to our preliminary which we really struggled with the lighting in which you could hardly see our characters and we didn't have the experience with final cut pro in which we did not know how to lighten the scene. Not only this we found it difficult to cut and trim shots to ensure that they didn't look like they ended to abruptly or continued for too long in order to achieve good continuity editing. However for our preliminary we hardly cut anything and was left with basic and elongated shits. Aswell as this we struggled to find a suitable soundtrack for the first half of our opening that ensured it gave us a good tone from the offset we achieved this by making our own on garage band which i believe to be successful. In comparison to our preliminary where we just took one of YouTube unaware whether it had copyright or not.
What I learnt:
Overall i found the production of our thriller opening satisfying as i believe we have really progressed form our preliminary task. This is due to the fact we have gained more experience and confidence with our equipment and applications.
However , next year i would consider working in a group with different people because although being friends with people i was in a group with was easy in order to work out when to film and edit ect. It meant that we got almost too comfortable and relaxed when needing to do tasks also it could have created tension and awkwardness when distributing tasks to people in our group.
I believe that our thriller opening met generic thriller conventions and was overall successful , next time my goal would be to improve our overall clarity of shots and the professionalism of shots which would make our piece appear better and more realistic.
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