On Wednesday 10th December, the Media Studies department held a screening for all of the groups opening sequences to be shown to our target audiences. We were told to invite some people in our target audience and ask them to fill out a simple questionnaire so we could get some feedback on our final cut. The screening went very well however, when it came to our piece, the soundtrack was not playing and it turned out that it was not on the exported file. Even though this happened we still managed to get our questionnaires filled out and we had some sensible feedback which we will talk about in our evaluation.
In our next lesson we opened up our project in Premiere to see whether the soundtrack was there or not and when we played it back it was. We do not know what happened in the screening but we still managed to get suitable feedback so it wasn't too much of a problem.
The results from the questionnaires were all very positive despite the fact the soundtrack didn't work. I would have to say that if the soundtrack worked we could have had much better feedback on our last question as the only improvements were to make sure the soundtrack worked.
Sunday 14 December 2008
Monday 1 December 2008
Rough Cut Review
After presenting the rough cut of our opening sequence to the class, my group and I received both positive and negative feedback which we were pleased to keep both. Our group was rather nervous before showing the class the footage as we hadn’t shown that many people the progress we had made, however it was interesting to see what there reactions were like and whether the audience actually understood the story behind it.
After listening to the comments our audience had suggested it was obvious we needed to at look at the following things; how long our opening sequence lasted, music both non-diegetic and diegetic-which helps to anchor the images, ensure that the opening sequence comes across clearly as a opening sequence and not a trailer and finally piece all the loose ends together making sure everything is easy to understand. Our group has now taken into consideration the comments received and for our remaining editing time we will focus on these issues. My group and I knew when presenting our footage that there were areas which still needed clips added into it, as it was only our rough cut, but we were pleased to receive the negative issues as it tells us what we need to focus more of our time to. We will now make sure these issues are fixed by the required deadline. Furthermore when showing our rough cut we had not added our backing sound onto premier, meaning that our rough cut did not have the tense and scary atmosphere we were hoping for, however once this has been added my group feels it will transform our footage. This will then give the opening sequence an overall dramatic effect. Finally making sure the story is apparent to the audience, we feel that by the time we have finished all the editing the storyline will be obvious to the viewer. We were extremely pleased with the feedback because the comments were helpful for us to see what other people thought rather than just our group and also the positive comments were nice as they showed us that our hard work was paying off. The footage the audience seemed to enjoy the most were; 3 sudden shots which we anchored by music the shots used were extreme long shot, medium shot and close-up and finally they liked the ending shot where there is a punch, whish leads into the title, they said it was dramatic and effective. We feel our opening sequence makes you want to watch on to find out what happens.
Overall we felt presenting our rough cut was enormously successful.
After listening to the comments our audience had suggested it was obvious we needed to at look at the following things; how long our opening sequence lasted, music both non-diegetic and diegetic-which helps to anchor the images, ensure that the opening sequence comes across clearly as a opening sequence and not a trailer and finally piece all the loose ends together making sure everything is easy to understand. Our group has now taken into consideration the comments received and for our remaining editing time we will focus on these issues. My group and I knew when presenting our footage that there were areas which still needed clips added into it, as it was only our rough cut, but we were pleased to receive the negative issues as it tells us what we need to focus more of our time to. We will now make sure these issues are fixed by the required deadline. Furthermore when showing our rough cut we had not added our backing sound onto premier, meaning that our rough cut did not have the tense and scary atmosphere we were hoping for, however once this has been added my group feels it will transform our footage. This will then give the opening sequence an overall dramatic effect. Finally making sure the story is apparent to the audience, we feel that by the time we have finished all the editing the storyline will be obvious to the viewer. We were extremely pleased with the feedback because the comments were helpful for us to see what other people thought rather than just our group and also the positive comments were nice as they showed us that our hard work was paying off. The footage the audience seemed to enjoy the most were; 3 sudden shots which we anchored by music the shots used were extreme long shot, medium shot and close-up and finally they liked the ending shot where there is a punch, whish leads into the title, they said it was dramatic and effective. We feel our opening sequence makes you want to watch on to find out what happens.
Overall we felt presenting our rough cut was enormously successful.
Monday 24 November 2008
Filming [:
On Wednesday the 19th of November, we completed the second and final shooting of our opening! As Matt was away, we only filmed shots of Nellie. Firstly we filmed shots of Nellie running, and we did these in 2 different styles. First we shot her feet and lower legs running, and we then switched to a shot of her head running and occasionally turning around. We also did a point of view shot, with Nellie running along with the camera and doing a 180 degree turn, to give a panoramic view of the surroundings which we think will work really well. We then shot Nellie tripping over, and falling on to the ground, which we are hoping to edit as they look quite staged. Finally, we shot frames of Nellie lying sprawled on the ground looking up at her attacker, and taking her last breath.
This time all went smoothly, and we remembered all equipment. Lighting was not a problem this time as we got there in plenty of time so it did not become too dark. However, as the shots do not exactly match up with the lighting of the last shoot, we are hoping to edit this. As we expected this problem, we feel confident in achieving continuity editing in this aspect. We are extremely happy with our shooting and are currently editing the footage now.
This time all went smoothly, and we remembered all equipment. Lighting was not a problem this time as we got there in plenty of time so it did not become too dark. However, as the shots do not exactly match up with the lighting of the last shoot, we are hoping to edit this. As we expected this problem, we feel confident in achieving continuity editing in this aspect. We are extremely happy with our shooting and are currently editing the footage now.
Monday 17 November 2008
Filming
On Friday the 7th of November we decided that it would be a good day to begin filming, and so we collected the camera, tripod and tv lead and headed to our location in Pembury. However, when we arrived we realised we had forgotten our tape and so we were unable to film. Although this was a set back, we are now more careful when collecting equipment so that we don't forget anything!
After this problem, we decided to re-set the date of filming for Tuesday the 11th of November. This time we remembered all our equipment and were able to film. We started with the scenes of Nellie and Matt in the playground of Pembury Park acting like a happy couple, and these went really well we thought and we are hoping to use a lot of the footage in our piece. We didnt use the tripod for any of this footage, as we thought the use of the handican would be much more effective, and give a more home - footage style to the shots. We then went to the forest, close to the park and filmed various shots of Matt. Again we didnt use the tripod, we used a handi can effect which is more effective for a horror genre we thought. We filmed Matt walking down an opening in the forest, Matt standing in the opening and Matt from a low angled shot to give a menacing impression. We tried to get all of Matt's scenes done on this day, as he was going away on Thursday and so it would be more convenient this way. However, it began to get dark at about 4pm and it was simply too dark to film, as it was difficult to see on the camera screen. We then realised that to have effective continuity editing, we would have to make sure that shots of Nellie and Matt together in the woods will be in exactly the same settings and of the same light as the already shot scenes of Matt, which may prove difficult.
We hope to film some of Nellie's scenes on Wednesday the 19th of November.
After this problem, we decided to re-set the date of filming for Tuesday the 11th of November. This time we remembered all our equipment and were able to film. We started with the scenes of Nellie and Matt in the playground of Pembury Park acting like a happy couple, and these went really well we thought and we are hoping to use a lot of the footage in our piece. We didnt use the tripod for any of this footage, as we thought the use of the handican would be much more effective, and give a more home - footage style to the shots. We then went to the forest, close to the park and filmed various shots of Matt. Again we didnt use the tripod, we used a handi can effect which is more effective for a horror genre we thought. We filmed Matt walking down an opening in the forest, Matt standing in the opening and Matt from a low angled shot to give a menacing impression. We tried to get all of Matt's scenes done on this day, as he was going away on Thursday and so it would be more convenient this way. However, it began to get dark at about 4pm and it was simply too dark to film, as it was difficult to see on the camera screen. We then realised that to have effective continuity editing, we would have to make sure that shots of Nellie and Matt together in the woods will be in exactly the same settings and of the same light as the already shot scenes of Matt, which may prove difficult.
We hope to film some of Nellie's scenes on Wednesday the 19th of November.
Sunday 9 November 2008
CF feedback background research
Excellent work. You have met all deadlines and this blog demonstrates that your research is clearly informing your creative process and that you are using ICT to collaborate as a group. The pitch was very promising and clearly informed by research into product and audience. Your characters were well researched and I particularly liked the concept of flash backs. All group members are making excellent contributions to the research and you are clearly working well as a team. Your storyboarding (beautifully drawn Nellie!), scripting and location reccies show that you are carefully planning your work in advance of shooting.
Your planning mark currently stands at a level 4 - well done.
To achieve this overall, ensure that your time management and shoots are well organised.
I’m looking forward to seeing how Matt fared as an antagonist…!
Mrs Fernandez
Your planning mark currently stands at a level 4 - well done.
To achieve this overall, ensure that your time management and shoots are well organised.
I’m looking forward to seeing how Matt fared as an antagonist…!
Mrs Fernandez
Evaluation of Technical Analysis
To give us a better idea of how many shots we need to take and how to edit them together we had to a technical analysis of a film. We had to list every shot that was taken in roughly 2 minutes of the opening sequence. We had to list the shot size/angle/movement, mise-en-scene and the use of transitions. I analysed 'Halloween II' by Rick Rosenthal. Here are a few of the technical shots:
- PED DOWN from tree, TRACK into house CUTS TO
- MS of mother and kids crouching down CUTS TO
- MCU of mother leaning against wall with a masked man sitting up in background CUTS TO
- ELS of kids running out of house screaming CUTS TO
- LS of a man walking along the street CUTS TO
- LS of kids running along pathway screaming CUTS TO
- MS of man walking towards the house CUTS TO
- ESTABLISHING SHOT showing house CUTS TO
- CU of woman standing up, man stands up in background CUTS TO
From these shots I can understand more about what makes a good horror. All of the shots cut from one to the other which is an effective way of creating suspense compared to fading or wiping. The shots only last for a few seconds which also adds to the suspense. I also noticed that there are a wide range of shot sizes used. This means the audience can see the reactions of the characters and still get a full view of where they are and what is happening in the background. This isn't necessarily the typical way in which horror films are done as they quite often try not to give much away. However, by showing more of the background, the audience can get a better idea of what's going on and, if there are any clues, the audience can try to work things out for themselves.
- PED DOWN from tree, TRACK into house CUTS TO
- MS of mother and kids crouching down CUTS TO
- MCU of mother leaning against wall with a masked man sitting up in background CUTS TO
- ELS of kids running out of house screaming CUTS TO
- LS of a man walking along the street CUTS TO
- LS of kids running along pathway screaming CUTS TO
- MS of man walking towards the house CUTS TO
- ESTABLISHING SHOT showing house CUTS TO
- CU of woman standing up, man stands up in background CUTS TO
From these shots I can understand more about what makes a good horror. All of the shots cut from one to the other which is an effective way of creating suspense compared to fading or wiping. The shots only last for a few seconds which also adds to the suspense. I also noticed that there are a wide range of shot sizes used. This means the audience can see the reactions of the characters and still get a full view of where they are and what is happening in the background. This isn't necessarily the typical way in which horror films are done as they quite often try not to give much away. However, by showing more of the background, the audience can get a better idea of what's going on and, if there are any clues, the audience can try to work things out for themselves.
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