Evaluation 7

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

Below is my preliminary task:

Here is my final task:

Evaluation 6

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

Sound 
From making our opening sequence I have learnt a lot about sound and its importance within films. Before we even started to film or plan our opening sequence we analysed lots of different opening sequences. From this we  knew that sound could make or break a thriller as a lot of the tension and build up comes from the music and the sound effects. From this we learnt that we shouldn't rush the process of finding non-diegetic backing music but make sure that we have selected it carefully and appropriately. In terms of editing the sound I have learnt a lot about how to change, cut and edit sound on Adobe premiere pro and Adobe sound booth. Within the editing software I have learnt how to alter the volumes of different audios such as creating the perfect volume for the music, how to fade things in and out such as the sound effect of the shower and this played a crucial part in adding to our narrative enigma. The fading in and out of audios added to the verisimilitude of the scene as it didn't sound like the effects such as the sound of the shower didn't obviously sound like they had been added in as a sound effect rather than the natural sound. Experimenting with the sound also taught us to incorporate different audio techniques such as a sound bridge.

Camera
Before creating our thriller opening sequence I had no/little experience with camera handling and filming, I have therefore learnt a lot. When filming, we decided to use the Cannon 700D which was one of our media departments newly purchased cameras and so we knew it would offer a good quality of footage. This camera has a modern touchscreen feature which made it easier to focus and this therefore gave us professional looking footage. We only found out that we could use this to focus after trying to continually focus manually, learning this then helped us massively to speed up the process and give better looking footage. This easy-focus feature was particularly helpful when shooting close up shots as it captured the detail well and an example of this was when our female actor presses the doorbell.
 Along with the camera I learnt how to use all the equipment involved with using the camera such as the tripod and microphone. I also learnt that if you don't set the white balance correctly then it can effect the quality of the footage and distort the colour. We therefore set the white balance for every shot by placing a piece of white paper in front of the camera and making sure all the camera settings were correct.

Editing 

The editing software we used was Adobe premiere pro. Like with filming, before making this I had no previous experience with editing and so I have gained a complete new skill set. By doing the Prelim task I learnt how to do basic editing and this meant I could quickly edit together a draft edit and it didn't take too long to create the main structure of the opening sequence only using the razor tool to cut down the footage. After further practice I learnt about all the different features of Premiere pro and can now edit to a good standard, incorporating lots of different features such as the audio and visual effects and transitions. Examples of these effects and transitions is the 'black and white' effect which was put over all the footage and the 'dip to white' transition allowed us to signify to the audience when the flash backs were happening.

Evaluation 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?
Thriller films appeal to both female and male genders of a variety of different social classes. There are however a variety of sub genres within the thriller genre and so certain sub genres may appeal to one gender or social class more than another depending on how relate-able the characters and themes throughout the film are to them. As we have only created an opening sequence and not a whole film this has the potential to appeal to any gender and any social class.
In terms of age, thriller films appeal a wide range of ages and so it is difficult to specify which ages would like them most. However, they are mainly aimed at 15-40 year olds. I felt as our characters would all be young adults that an age group of 18-25 would be most appropriate for our target audience age. They would be able to identify more with the characters and this seems correct. However, after doing further research into this I found that psychological thrillers, which is the genre that I feel fits our group, appeal to mainly over 25 year olds because they're intellectually demanding.
We also have to take into account that most psychological thrillers are given the label 18+ because of the content of some of the topics which can be rather disturbing and have long lasting psychological effects if a younger person were to watch it. I would therefore say our thriller would be aimed at people aged 18-30. Other people aged 16 and 17 could also watch this but only if they took an interest in horror/thriller films and so knew what they were getting themselves into.
Both genders would enjoy our thriller however women may enjoy it more as women typical enjoy psychological thrillers more because they can try to work out what is happening and predict a possible ending.

Links I used:
http://www.slideshare.net/jphibbert/thriller-film-research
http://www.slideshare.net/jphibbert/thriller-film-research?next_slideshow=1

Evaluation 3

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

Evaluation 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation 1

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

Conventions of thrillers and opening sequences from izzyhumphriss

22/01/2016 - Audience feedback from lesson

Audience feedback
In our lesson today we watched our fellow classmates final versions of their thriller opening sequences and gave each other feedback. Some of the positive feedback we got included praise on the radio style voice overs we created as they saw them as effective and suspense building. They also liked how it flicked between flashbacks and real life, building tension and creating mystery. One of the shots that was singled out as particularly effective was the one directly aimed at his face so you could see him looking at the wall filled with girls faces. The song that the antagonist sings was seen as very unusual and left them wondering more about his character and what was going on. The final piece of feedback we got was that the music, title and buildup leading to the end left it on a cliff hanger and wanting to watch more.

FINAL VERSION OF THRILLER OPENING SEQUENCE

Final version of our thriller opening sequence- unorthodox

21/01/2016 - Re filming and final changes

Re filming and final changes

After the original and second version of the establishing shot of the house were both unusable and our deadline tomorrow we had to film for a final time today. We went to re-film at lunch time so that we could use our two hour lesson to make final changes and upload our thriller opening sequence.

As today was the last day that we could film we had to make sure that we had lots of shots so that at least one would be of good quality and look professional. We filmed a range of shots including several normal tilts (from the floor to eye level), a tilt downwards from the sky and panning shots from both the left and the right. We also recorded a short clip of the house without any movement from the camera incase any of these shots didn't work and we had to use a still shot as our opening picture. Thankfully the weather today was quite glum which fits with the mood of our film and also meant that we didn't face the problem of the light reflecting off the window and being over exposed. 

Once we returned back to college we downloaded the footage on to the computer and chose a tilt shot which was of good quality and in focus. We removed the old clip and added this one in, cutting it down to fit into the space with the razor tool. We then added the black and white effect so it was the same colour as the rest of the film. 

Next, we added the audio of Evan singing the song 'Daisy, daisy' (which we recorded yesterday) into the video. We faded it in and out, got it to sync with the movement of his mouth and raised the volume of him singing to stand out. 

Once this was finished we watched the whole video through from start to finish just to make sure there was no clumsy editing that we had missed and once we saw there wasn't we uploaded it to my youtube account.

19/01/2016- Editing sound

Editing sound
The editing focus of the rest of the lesson was to sort out the sound when Oliver is walking down the corridor toward the stairs. What we were trying to achieve by inserting this sound would be to give the audience some more clues as to what is happening and we did this by using key words like 'rapist' and  'missing'. It was meant to sound like lots of different radio reports of missing people which were his victims and this could either be interpreted as him imagining them or as completely non-diagetic and used for the sole purpose of informing the audience. I feel we've managed to achieve this effect as we have cut down the clips and overlapped them, added the 'special distorted' effect in Adobe soundbooth and overlap them in audio 3, over the top of the copy right free sound effect of an out of tune radio in audio 4.

19/01/2016- Editing

Editing the re filmed footage
In today's two hour media lesson there only seemed to be a few little bits we needed to improve before being completely done and ready to upload the final version of our thriller opening sequence. As there were only a few bits to do we split up the jobs between the tree of us in order to make sure we gave an equal contribution. Emma decided to sort out the audio of Evan (Oliver) singing daisy, daisy as she is good at editing the sound and so tried to fade it in and out whilst also positioning it so that is synced up with the video of him singing it on screen. Unfortunately they didn't match up and it was quite clear that it was out of sync and this couldn't be sorted through editing so we asked Evan if he would be willing to come in and re-record the audio on a different day, thankfully he agreed. Me and Tammy then began to edit the establishing shot of the house into the video. We cropped it down so that it fit the gap where the previous footage had been but it didn't look right. Once it was inserted we found that it appeared surrounded by a black boarder, we thought the best way to fix this issue was to zoom in on the clip so the frame fitted the whole screen. However, this made the footage look blurry and lag so we asked our teacher for assistance. She pointed out that something had been changed on the camera settings when we'd filmed and this had changed the format of our clip. Another problem with this footage was that when we filmed on Thursday, it was unseasonably sunny and therefore the light reflects off the windows of the house, making the clip look over exposed and takes effectiveness away from the low, dingy mood of the film.
We are left with two options:
1) To film the establishing shot for a third time.
2) To cut out the tilt and keep the opening shot as a still of the house paired with the sound effect of the shower.

15/01/2016- Editing in free periods

Editing new footage

After re-filming some footage yesterday we decided that it would be a good idea to use our two free periods this morning to edit in the clips we took yesterday. We uploaded the clips from the camera, on to the computer, and then into Adobe premiere pro (the editing software we are using to edit our opening sequence). First of all we edited the sound of Evan saying 'Daisy' to be inserted into the end of the video when he opens the door. This was tricky to do as we had to match up the audio so it was in sync with the actors mouth and looked realistic rather than sound which had obviously been added in at a later date. We managed to do this and the sound is now of a good quality and is effective in building tension as it is clear and harsh sounding. We next inserted the new footage into our video and this included the establishing shot of the house and the doorbell being pressed. We removed the old clips and re-inserted the new ones, cutting them down with the razor tool in the editing software to fit into the original clips place.
After doing this I went back into the studio and recorded some more of our friends for our distorted news reports on my iphone. The reason we used my iphone and not a proper microphone was because it was a lot quicker to transfer them from my phone onto the computer and the quality of the clips were meant to sound distorted anyway and so slight background noise may add to the verisimilitude of the audio. Once we uploaded these to the computer we were faced with the problem of adding the distorted affect on them as Adobe soundbooth said it couldn't locate the files. To overcome this we simply had to move the clips into a new folder and make sure they were saved to the computer rather than the memory stick.

14/01/2016- Re-recording

 Re-recording
Today we had a two hour media lesson timetabled in our scheduled but in order to maximize time we decided that part of what we wanted to achieve today would be done at lunch time. We asked our actor Evan (who plays Oliver) to come in and re record parts of the audio for our opening sequence. This is because the original sound is quite quiet and muffled in places which takes away effectiveness. We tried to avoid this from happening on our day of filming by using an actual microphone which we plugged into the camera rather than just relying on the audio picked up by the camera but despite our best efforts this didn't work. He can in to re record the part where he sings the childrens nursery rhyme 'daisy, daisy' and the word 'daisy' at the very end of the sequence where he opens the door. To do this, we used a hand held microphone and an iphone voice recorder just to compare the quality and went into the studio where it was quiet and Evan could concentrate. At first the audio Evan recorded today didn't match up with the original clip as lip syncing is hard but he soon grasped how to do it and we got what we needed. We secondly recorded ourselves and some of our peers saying words like 'missing', 'not found' and other words you would hear in news reports about a missing person to add into the audio when Oliver is walking down the corridor and we will add the effect 'Special distorted' to the clips using Adobe Sound-booth.

14/01/2016- re-filming

Filming 
Today, my group and I decided to go and refilm a couple of shots at our previous location. Our friend Frankie kindly let us return to her house and so in the second half of our lesson we went to film. The first shot that we had to refilm was a two second clip of the doorbell being pressed. In the original clip you could see the reflection of the camera in the window and this was unproffessional so we filmed again and got a clearer more professional shot. Next we re-filmed the establishing shot from the road because the original footage lagged because we slowed it down for effect. It was originally set to 24 frames per second but slowed down made it lag as there were too little frames per second to make it flow. We this time filmed it with the camera set on 50 frames per second so when slowed down it would still flow and not lag.

Audience feedback

Audience feedback 

What do you think of the flashbacks that appear throughout the sequence?
Person 1: 'I like them, they look edgy'
Person 2: 'They really made me wonder what was going on and added tension'
Person 3: 'I particularly liked the ones which appear when the man is walking down the corridor, they're good'

What do you think of the name 'VISION PRODUCTIONS' instead of 'TIE PRODUCTIONS'?
Person 1: 'It sounds more professional'
Person 2: 'The new title fits with the video of the eye more'
Person 3: 'I think that both or good but I do prefer vision productions as it sounds like it could be an actual company and will be easily remembered'

Do you think there are any parts which need to be re-filmed?
Person 1: 'Maybe the part with the doorbell, I could see a reflection in the window'
Person 2: 'It would be beneficial to refilm the part with the doorbell and the shot of the house'
Person 3: 'The shot at the start seemed to lag a bit but it was still good'

What do you think about the titles?
Person 1: 'They look strange, in a good way so catch your eye'
Person 2: 'I like the simple colour as it contrasts with the dark footage'
Person 3: 'Yeah, I liked them, I think they're effective and fit with the theme of the film'

What do you think to the ending of the sequence?
Person 1: 'Very dramatic, I love it'
Person 2: 'The tension was really built up and the ending was perfect to fit with this'
Person 3: 'It fits in with the thriller film very well'

Second Edit

Second Edit 
Since our first edit was published, my group and I have made huge progress and we felt it was best to publish a second to mark our progress. In this edit we have nearly finished and only have a few more changes to make.

12/01/2016 - Editing

Editing 
Today our main focus was sorting out the titles as these are essential for a good grade. We started from the beginning and working our way through in chronological order so that it would flow well. On reviewing our company brand we thought it was appropriate to change our company name from 'TIE productions' to 'Vision productions' as it fit in with the clip of the eye opening. We also didn't like the name and picture of 'Woodfire images' as it didn't fit with the rest of our footage and seemed slightly random. As we still liked the name TIE, incorporating all of our names we changed the second company to 'TIE images'.

Next we moved on to the actual titles which included the actors featured in the film and the crew eg. the director, editor and others. We went for an originally simple white font but then used the distorted function to make it seem stranger and fit more with the thriller genre.  

Once we had done our titles we shifted our focus onto creating  the distorted news reports. We did this by editing the audio clips in adobe sound booth clicking and made them sound like they were coming through an old radio. We also found a copy right free sound of a radio being tuned and added it to play underneath the reports. We faded the sound of the tuning in and out to make the whole thing flow.  

Ending of opening sequence

Ending of opening sequence 
An important thing we need to consider for our thriller opening sequence is the way in which it ends as this is the last impression the audience will have of the video and what will stay in their minds and make them think about.
In terms of appearance and sound our thriller sequence is going to build up tension throughout the whole video, making the audience ask lots of questions, the only audio clue they will get is the antagonist singing the old children nursery rhyme 'Daisy, Daisy'. By building this tension its natural progression suggests that it is leading to something at the end. We have him walking to the door saying the word 'Daisy' then once his hand pushes down on the door handle the screen goes black, a boom sounds and the name of the film appears. This creates tension as we as the audience realise that the girl from the picture, the girl he was singing about is at the door and coming inside the house. This boom sound also helps the audience to feel emotion inside as the vibration of the sound can be known to make your tummy drop due to adrenaline and this is a sign of a good cliffhanger.

When approaching the actual title of the film we took inspiration from a previous students work titled 'TORN'. Their titles are black and white and very simple but look classy and professional which is what we wanted to achieve. Therefore we used this idea although  used a slightly different font.

Check list

Check list of what we have left to do
In order to keep organised and time manage our progress I decided it was a good idea to make a list of the main things we had left to do with our editing and titles so we would have clear aims for each lessons.

• Upload the current draft to youtube.
• Cut out at least an additional 10 seconds of footage. 
• Re Film the clip of the doorbell being pushed as you can see a reflection. 
• Get Evan to re record the audio parts of the sequence and overlay them on the footage.
• Record and add in the audio news reports and make them sound distorted.
• Make the flash backs more edgy and flow more easily. 
• Create/finish the production and main company titles either within adobe editing program or with adobe after effects. 
• Create the titles to go throughout the opening sequence.
• Get audience feedback.
• Make final changes.
• Upload the final draft to youtube.

08/01/2016- Free period work

Editing and Titles 
After making good progress with our thriller opening sequence yesterday we were keen to continue this in this mornings work. Sound was our main priority today and within an hour or so we managed to sort out, fading in and out, the added sound effects and sound of our character singing in the mirror. We are now pleased with how our sound has turned out and it all flows nicely so you wouldn't be able to tell certain sounds like the shower and doorbell have been added in after filming. The next thing we need to do in terms of sound is ask Evan, our main actor to come in some time next week and record into a microphone him singing the song 'daisy daisy' and the final word 'Daisy' at the end of the opening sequence. We will then add this into our video and it will sound more clear and of a better quality adding to the professional look.

We also managed to get around to re filming Chloe opening her eye. This was done using a camera, tripod and studio lights this time and we got a much better quality video as a result of not taking short cuts and filming properly.We uploaded this clip to the computer and with the O in productions  made it into a graphic match with the pupil of the eye. However, we decided that this didn't look as good as we'd hoped and so instead placed the company name 'TIE productions' level with the pupil of the eye but in the space next to it rather that on top of this and this looked less amateur and more formal and professional.

Once we'd looked at the titles from start to the actual opening sequence starting we decide that the image of the trees which was placed underneath the production name 'Woodfire productions' didn't really fit with how we wanted it to look and so removed it and changed the font and colour to all white, fitting in with our overall black and white, mysterious but professional theme.

07/01/2016- Lesson two- Titles

Titles
In the second half of our lesson my group and I focused on titles. So far we haven't really invested much time in to creating titles of a high standard because the main opening sequence footage had been listed as our priority and we want our footage to be complete before we start adding titles over the top. This is also because our titles will appear in certain places and so if we put our titles into place then move and change our footage it will make life a lot more difficult to rearrange and sort it.

We decided to brainstorm company names so that we could start to create the titles which come before the footage, rather than the titles in terms of who is featured in the video such as the director, actors ect. We had already decided that TIE productions was our main company name as T I E was the first letters of each of our group members names (Tammy, Izzy, Emma) and sounded professional. For the second production company we came up with 'Woodfire productions'. Again remembering that we could only use copy right free images we used a picture that Emma had taken on a walk a few weeks previously and it fitted in well as it is mysterious and dark.

For T I E productions, in a previous week we decided on an eye as our company logo  and our friend chloe kindly voulenteered to let us use her eye as it is very blue and so stands out. Whilst Emma stayed on the computer editing, Me and Tammy went into the studio with chloe and filmed her opening her eye on my iphone. On reviewing the clip we realised that without a proper camera and tripod this clip wouldn't be usable as it was too shakey but we will sort this next lesson as we ran out of time to film again properly. The one thing we did take from this is that when she kept her eye closed for a long time and then opened it again it dilated which added a cool effect we now want to incorporate into our titles.

07/01/2016 - Lesson one- Editing

Editing
After being on holiday for two weeks without being able to continue with editing we planned that in order to stay on top of things and meet the final deadline at the end of january, we needed to be efficient with our time and create aims of what we wish to achieve from each lesson. This lesson our main aims were to continue cutting down the footage as our opening sequence was still too long and needed to be ideally around two and a half minutes rather than over three. We also needed to sort out the sound in our video as added effects such as the sound of the shower needed to be faded in and out to add to the verisimilitude rather than sounding like an added in effect. Finally we needed to start thinking more about the titles but would only focus on this after we'd finished doing the other things to the footage.

To cut down our footage we looked at which parts were crucial to keep in and added to the suspense and which bits could be removed as they didn't add anything to the plot or tension. A part we managed to cut out was Oliver (the male character) walking towards the wall of pictures and articles. This meant it jumped straight into him stroking Daisy's (the female victim) face and kept it concise to the plot. It also draws the focus of the section to the girls he is victimising.

Next we considered cutting down the time it takes Oliver to stroke the other girls faces and in particular, Daisies. However before we made this change, as it was a big one, we asked our friends/class mates what they thought of this particular section and whether they thought it was needed. The feedback we got back was that it was an important clip to keep in as it added to the representation of Oliver and to the mysteriousness of the overall plot so we kept this part in.

Another part we felt could be cut as it didn't add much to the plot was the sequence of our character walking down the stairs. However we again decided not to cut this out as this particular action contains a range of diverse shots such as a close up, low angle and high angle shots and these will help contribute to us getting a good final grade.


Although we took into consideration different sections of our opening sequence to cut we decided that everything contained in our video was important and relative to the narrative so no full action could be cut out. Instead, we snipped parts off from various places throughout the sequence and managed to get our footage down to 2 minutes 42 seconds which was a big goal of ours. We will still however aim to remove a further 10 seconds in another lesson. We didn't managed to sort out the sound today but me and Emma, another member of our group agreed that we will come in tomorrow, during our 3 free periods and sort out the sound.

17/12/2015

Editing and creating titles
Today we continued to edit our opening sequence and to make the most of our time we decided to split into two groups. I continued to edit, managing to cut out two minutes from our video. These parts included the dialogue at the end of the sequences we believe having minimal dialogue would add tension and give little about the character away. I also edited the flashbacks to a better standard and made them flash into colour rather than black and white, adding the 'dip to white' effect on to create the stereotypical image of a flashback.
 Whilst i was doing this Tammy and Emma started to look for copy right music and sound effects. This included a backing music sound, a door bell, a shower sound and a low toned boom sound at the end. They magaed to find suitable sounds for all of these and we were particularlly pleased with the none diegetic music which we would play over the top of the footage as it adds a lot of tension and is appropriate to the thriller genre which our opening sequence fits into. Once we had all of these sounds we put them onto a memory stick, transferred them over to our main computer and I started to add the sound into the right places.

Next we started to look at our titles and decide how we could make them look effective and fit into how we wanted the representation of the company who made the fim to look. We did this by going into 'Adobe After Effects' as this was reccomended to us to create proffessional looking titles. When brainstorming we decided that the image or gif of an eye blinking would look good with the pupil of the eye moving into a graphic match with the 'O' in TIE productions. However we soon learned that by using a gif or picture off the internet we would be marked down as it wouldn't be original and created by us. We therefore decided to take and use a picture of our friend chloes eye and confirmed that we would continue with the titles next lesson.

Audience Response To First Edit

Audience response to first edit 
To see whether normal people liked how our thriller opening was starting to look I conducted some interviews. Firstly, asking them to watch our video and then gatehred feedback.

Do you think there was enough tension?
Person 1: 'Yeah'
Person 2: 'Yes, there was it was good.'

What improvements could be made?
 Person 1: 'It could be more fast paced and the sound needs sorting out'
Person 2: 'Edit out the background sound as it takes away from the tension.'

Which parts cut out to make it shorter?
Person 1: 'The bit at the end where they exchange dialogue'
Person 2: 'Not as many pictures need to be crossed out as it goes on for quite a long time and you don't really need a shower scene.'

Would you want to watch this film?
Person 1: 'Yeah I would, I think'
Person 2: 'Yeah, any day.'

15/12/15

Editing
Today my group and I continued with editing our project. The first thing we did was unlinked all of the sound from the video clips  and deleted it where the sound wasn't relevant, for example where there is dialogue. This eliminated the sound of background noise such as people laughing and ambient sound which sounded fuzzy.
We also started to cut down our footage as its twice as long as it should be so only the clips that are relevant and add to the story line will stay in our final opening sequence.

Another thing we did was start to move the clips where oliver draws over the girls faces on top of the normal footage. We cropped these clips and spaced them out so they will appear on screen as distorted and weird. This will make the audience question  whats going on and add tension. By keeping the small clips relatively close together you can still tell what is happening in this sequence of events as well as the main story footage.

Construction- Editing

Construction- Editing 
Yesterday me and my group began to edit our first version of our Thriller opening sequence. Our main aim was to upload all the clips and make them fit together so we had the main structure of the opening secquence to work with later on. We managed to do this succesfully and include two titles which included the production name and title of the feature. We were pleased with how the overall look of the video turned out, however we need to focus a lot of time to sorting out the sound as only half contains adequate backing music and the rest hasn't yet been unlinked and deleted. This means that in the second half of the video you can hear people talking in the background and although we used a seperate microphone, the quality of sound of the characters talking isn't to a high standard.
We also need to cut down the clips by almost half as the video is nearly double the length it needs to be. To make it shorter we will cut the length of the clips where he is walking around, speed up the clips where he crosses over the girls faces, delete and cut some of the dialogue at the end, and remove clips which don't help add tension or to the plot.

Construction- First edit

Construction- First edit

Here is the first version of our Thriller opening  sequence. It is no where near finished but is a basic edit to start with and gives an indicator of what the finished project will look like.

Day of filming- Filming

 Day of filming
On the day of filming we came across a few issues which we had to process and deal with. Our main actor, Evan couldn't find his dark coloured shirt and so made so with a lighter coloured, striped one. Although this isn't what we planned for it didn't take away from the overall effect and we still managed to portray him as a creepy character without. He also couldn't find his watch but our friends dad kindly lent us his and so we could continue to use that as it was originally meant to be used.
Another problem we encountered was, in our first scene one of our lights blew and the other wouldn't turn on to start with.  This meant that we had to film with natural light and any other lighting we could use from within the hosue. We had to do this apposed to going away to fix them and filming on another day as Sunday was the only day that we all had available to film before the deadline.
When we set up the equpitment in our first location we made sure all of the wires were taped down to the floor so nobody would trip over and also took a test shot to set the white balance so our footage would be of the best quality.

Day of filming - setting up props

Day of filming - setting up props

Once we arrived at our filming location at 10:30am we promptly started to set up the scene so we could get on and film. Me and Tammy did this whilst Emma took the lead in setting up the camera and tripod. In the bathroom we positioned the pills inside the cabinet and layed the watch on the sink. We stuck all of the pictures on to the wall, organised the desk and put the record player on a stand.

The only problems we faced when it came to props was that our actor Evan who was lending us his watch to use couldn't find it but we solved this issue by borrowing our friend Frankie, dads watch. If we were to do this again we would also print off more photographs for the wall and of different people rather than using the same picture twice.

In terms of costume, he was also unable to bring a dark shirt but it didn't matter as the shirt he did use, a light blue one still looked effective and din't take away from the overall look we were trying to achieve. 

 

4th December - Pre-filming preparation

4th December - Pre-filming preparation 
Yesterday my group and I visited the location we will be filming at to take recce shots, view the location and space and create a risk assessment. In addition to this it also allowed us to see the sort of natural lighting we would be working with and what additional lighting would be needed. This was a useful visit and gave me confidence that things will run smoothly on Sunday.
My friend Emma later went back to college to collect the equipment we will be using which included

• Studio lights with stands 
• A camera and camera case 
• A sound microphone 
• Tripods
• Light reflectors

In a previous lesson we were shown how to use all of these by a man who kindly helps out in college and specializes in media so we will be able to use the equipment safely and effectively. 

Risk assessment

Risk assessment 

In order to make sure that we are as safe as possible when filming this Sunday, we visited the
 location and found any potential hazards and addressed how we can prevent them being an issue.

Recce shots and possible shot plans

Recce shots and possible shot plans
After considering Emmas, Tammys and my own house for filming locations  but concluding that none were quite right or available to use our friend Frankie kindly said that we could use her house to film in. In preparation, we visited the house to start to visualize what the footage would look like, where the camera could be positioned in order to get the appropriate shots and conduct a risk assessment.
Here is the front of the house which will be the establishing shot to our film, letting the audience know where the action will take place and setting up the scene and location. The fact that this is a detached house shows the viewers that the character living inside is all by himself as even his house is separate from others. It helps to create the representation that he is a bit strange and independent so even before we meet the character, the audience start to question what they are like.

This is the bathroom which is where the beginning of the scene takes place. This shot angle may be used to show the antagonist looking in the mirrored cabinet as we get to see not only the setting but also him placed within it. The clear shower door will be steamed up and then our actor, evan will wipe away the condensation, leaving a gap where the title of the film will be positioned in during editing.

This hallway can be used to film a tracking shot to show the character moving from the bathroom, into his room. The colour scheme of the hallway and the rest of the house is neutral which seems normal to the audience and therefore the weirdness of the character is shown through objects and his actions. The masks at the end of the wall also seem strange and keep the audience wondering who this man is and what his temperament is like.

Once he's entered the room he can do things which show the audience that he is OCD, solidifying their knowledge that he has mental problems. These tendencies will be shown through straightening things on the bed such as pillows and the duvet andthings on the desk such as a calculator, pens, and note books which may indicate to the audience that he is a teacher. The empty wall shown in the picture picture below will be the wall which all of the pictures and newspaper clippings will be stuck. This is the ideal wall as it is clear and so can be filled with the pictures.

The shots filmed on the stairs will show him approaching the door to meet the unknown (to the audience at this point) person. The low angle shot from the bottom of the stairs is used to show that the antagonist at the top of the stairs holds power in the situation, making the audience feel vulnerable and intimidated. The high angle shot from the top of the stairs allows the audience to see that he's approaching the front door.

                                                                             

When Oliver (the antagonist and main character) goes to open the front door either of these shots can be used to show him, and the person on the other side of the door. The fact that the door is translucent works to our advantage because it will be clear that the character is a girl but we won't be able to see her face and this adds to the suspense of the unknown. 

Filming Schedule for Sunday the 6th of December

Filming schedule 

Here is a copy of our filming schedule. It was important to make this so that our filming was organised and we were efficient with our time and got the footage before we lost the light.

Time schedule	What is required	People required	Equipment required
10.30	Setting up- Putting all props in place, such as medication in cupboards and putting up the photos on the walls.	Izzy Tammy Emma All required to set up	All props listed on prop sheet.
11.00	Put makeup on our actors. Get them into costumes.	Emma Evan Tammy- doing makeup	Make-up Costume.
11.15	Put up lighting and set up camera. Sort out white balance. Set up sound mic. Connect to camera and set tripod up in the first room.	Emma Tammy Izzy	Lights Camera Sound Mic Tripod
11.30	Check all props and in place. Do a camera test shot to ensure all equipment is working.	Izzy Tammy Emma	Lights Camera Sound Mic Tripod
12.00	Film shots 1-8. This includes the establishing shot and the shower scenes.	Izzy, Tammy, Emma required for filming, sound and lighting. Evan acting.	Lights Camera Sound Mic Tripod
12.30	Film shots 9-16. This requires filming the cupboard, and getting dressed.	Izzy, Tammy, Emma required for filming, sound and lighting. Evan acting.	Lights Camera Sound Mic Tripod Pills and needles.
13.00	LUNCH BREAK	LUNCH BREAK	LUNCH BREAK
13.30	Continue filming shots 17-24. This involves the filming of the wall, the flashbacks and close up shots of the antagonist.	All members including Evan.	Lights Camera Sound Mic Tripod Pills.
14.00	Film shots 25-32. This involves the filming of the wall, the flashbacks and close up shots of the antagonist.	All members including Evan.	Lights Camera Sound Mic Tripod Record Player. Pen. Photos of girls on the wall.
14.30	33-35	All members but Emma is required to act with Evan.	Lights Camera Sound Mic Tripod
15.00	Check all footage is how we want it. Re-film shots if necessary.	Izzy Tammy Emma	Camera and then all equipment if re-filming is necessary.
15.30	Tidy and pack equipment and props away.	Izzy Tammy Emma	N/A