Reflection of Entire Process

After spending many hours on perfecting my blog and creating my thriller opening sequence, I can say with confidence that I feel a sense of pride and relief now that the process is over. At the beginning, me and my partner James wanted to create a gripping thriller opening sequence with and interesting plot that left the audience desperate to watch more and looking back now, I believe that we have achieved our goals that we set at the start. We did encounter some issues when filming regarding equipment and also actor availability, however we tackled these problems well and this contributed to creating the best possible product that we could. In my opinion, filming the product was the most challenging part of the process however, I thoroughly enjoyed editing the footage that we collected and when it all came together in the end, it felt that it was very rewarding. I enjoyed the editing so much that I have considered it as a possible career option for myself and is something that I can definitely see myself doing in the future. 

As for using the blogger programme to record my progress throughout the process, I feel that it has its perks and its drawbacks. It is a relatively simple programme to use which meant I adapted to it very quickly however, sometimes it didn't fully cooperate which made simple tasks, like inserting images, much harder than they needed to be.

Concluding, despite having to deal with some technical issues, I rate the blogger programme highly and believe that I am likely to use it in the near future. I have enjoyed the entire film making process and hope to do it all again very soon.

Link To Final Cut AS Main Task

Link To Final Cut AS Main Task

Evaluaion Question 7

Evaluaion Question 7 Presentation Explained

Finally, for question 7 I made a bullet point list stating some of the issues we faced during the making of our preliminary task and how we resolved them in the main task. I also talked about some of the skills that I learned and improved upon during the entire filming process. I had not used this form of presentation yet and felt that it suited the question well and so I used it to create a clear response.

Evaluaion Question 6

Evaluaion Question 6 Presentation Explained

On question 6 I decided to record myself talking to a camera; explaining what I had learnt about technologies from the filming process. It took me a short while in order to get used to talking to the camera because it was not something that I would normally do however, I eventually became more relaxed and was able to speak clearly and fluently. I then edited the video using an app on my phone called 'Imovie'. I chose this format of presentation because it is different to just typing a paragraph on how I used technology which made it more interesting.

Evaluaion Question 5

Evaluaion Question 5 Presentation Explained

Question 5 was a very straight-forward question and so I used a word document to copy and paste screenshots from my opening sequence and then wrote about them in detail. There were not many ways of making this question visually interesting and this is why I used a plain and simple format to keep my answer well-structured and clear.

Evaluaion Question 4

Question 4 from owenmassey

Evaluaion Question 4 Presentation Explained

For question 4 I decided to create a PowerPoint presentation showing my research into my chosen target audience. I thought that this format was the best way to convey my ideas and so this is why I chose it. I also included a Facebook profile of a typical audience member that would be likely to view my film because this was a fun and interesting way of showing my target audience.

Evaluaion Question 3

Question 3 Youtube Link

Evaluaion Question 3 Presentation Explained

I used a PowerPoint presentation accompanied by a voice over to tackle question 3. This format allowed me to advance and explain some of my ideas on the PowerPoint in more detail which enabled me to go into more depth when explaining what a distribution company does what methods we would use to distribute our product.

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 2 Presentation Explained

For my second question of the evaluation, I felt that the best format of presentation would be a glogster. I have used this programme multiple times now during this process so I knew how to create two posters which were both quite simple but effective. I made two posters because I didn't want to compact all of my information into one poster as it wouldn't look as visually pleasing and would have been unclear.

Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 1 Presentation Explained

For question 1 of the evaluation, I decided to present it in the format of a prezi. The reason I chose this format was because I knew that the question would include a lot of in depth analysis so I needed to convey my thoughts and ideas in an interesting way rather than just writing long paragraphs and so prezi helped me to do this perfectly. I was able to incorporate all the information that I needed to whilst making sure the question still looked visually interesting which was very important.

Filming update #3

Last weekend, me, my Mum and Dad went out to film the final scene of the thriller opening sequence. We were originally going to film at a nearby rugby pitch because there was an open space which we could use so both cars pull in and meet up. Unfortunately, the entrance to the pitch was locked so we had to find an alternative location. Luckily, not too far from our original location was a small cemetery which was actually better than the first location because it was more isolated and suited the scene better. We did have to change some shots because of the change in location however we still kept a lot of them the same and I am very happy with the footage we got.

Audience Feedback 2nd Cut

Editing Update #3

Today we have added in shots of the protagonist walking from his house to his car with the voiceover being played over the top.To create suspense, we have made it so that the protagonist's identity is concealed which I believe creates more tension and makes the audience feel more excited.

We have also been experimenting with titles and have tried to present them in an exciting and interesting way, One of our more complex titles comes onto the screen as the antagonists drive away with the victim in the back of the car. We've created the effect that the title seems to follow the car which looks very clean and fits the scene well. We had to experiment with this a lot to get it to look right so this developed our editing skills and knowledge and will definitely help in future.
 16:9 bars have also been added as well as a colour filter to make the opening sequence look more professional and visually interesting.


What we need to do now is get the final scene filmed and maintain this high standard of filming and editing throughout it. We also need to add in another voice over part for when the victim is on the phone to indicate him to turn around and see the kidnapper who is calling him. We will record another voice memo and apply an effect to it to make it sound like the person is on the phone. We will also make the voice much deeper to further mask the kidnapper's identity which means the police can not trace it. To do this we will use a sound effect.

Audience Feedback

Yesterday, me and my partner James showed the progress we have made on our final product to our class. We are yet to film our final piece of footage so we showed them what we had so far. Thankfully, I can say with confidence that the feedback we received was extremely positive and there were very few constructive criticisms.


The audience enjoyed the way that we edited the scene and more specifically the way in which we timed the editing to match the non-diegetic soundtrack. They also thought that the variety of shots that we used were very interesting and also felt that the pace of the scene was very good and suited the thriller genre well. 


As for improvements, it is very difficult to make the editing match the soundtrack so we will have to spend some time making sure that the sound levels are all the same and that the main parts that we want to match are edited and trimmed very precisely to make the product the best possible standard that it can be. We were also told to continue at the same high standard when filming our final scene to make sure we can make the product the best it can be.

Editing Update #2

We've now managed to not only to fit the dramatic soundtrack into the scene, but we've also made it so that it puts emphasis on certain shots by raising the volume at certain points. This makes the audience feel on edge and eager to find out what will happen to the person in the scene and also makes the scene more intense and exciting. We had to take a lot of time trimming and editing the soundtrack to fit the scene but after a while we managed to get it exactly how we wanted and are now very pleased with it. Furthermore, we've added in the opening dialogue over the black screen at the very beginning of our product. In this part, the protagonist talks about 'trust' and how 'he should not be trusted' which fits his personality of being intelligent with a sinister element about him. Next we will add in some shots of the protagonist while the voiceover is played in the background to make it more visually interesting.

Filming/Editing Update #1

Today I have started to edit the kidnapping scene with my partner James, we are exploring different effects and techniques and our product is starting to look very slick and professional.

Last weekend, me, James and one of our actors called Tony went down to a quiet woodland area to film the kidnapping scene for our product. The setting was well lit and surrounded by trees which meant that we were able to keep the camera quality high and clear whilst also maintaining an eerie atmosphere. We stuck to our shooting script as much as we could but when we were filming, we found ourselves creating other higher level shots which made our product more visually interesting and exciting so we did change some shots. I really enjoyed the experience, as I did last year, because some of the shots we achieved were difficult to capture but when we eventually got them they looked very good and I felt a sense of pride when I started to edit them. One shot in particular which I am very happy with is one where the kidnappers close in on the victim and as they get up they step on the camera so the screen goes black. As soon as this happens we see the victim walking over the camera too and this shows the change in location from the kidnappers watching the victim, to the victim casually walking down the path.

As for the editing, so far me and James have focussed on getting the scene into chronological order so that we can easily add in the extra scenes that we need to film. We have also concentrated on editing the scene very finely to make it look sharp and enable continuity. Furthermore, we've found a dramatic and intense soundtrack on YouTube which compliments the scene perfectly and creates the suspenseful tone which we were aiming for. So far we are very pleased with how our product is looking and we want to continue this high standard when filming and editing the rest of it.  

 

Detailed Planning

Detailed planning from owenmassey

Ident Ideas

Storyboard (Photographic)

Storyboard (Drawn)

Final Shooting Script