Feedback from class

Music: Varied, fitted running, fast pace showed urgency, diegetic sound worked well E.G knocking on door

Narration made the close up of face more interesting

Good editing and good development

Titles had a sense of branding, titles were difficult to read and first one was far too quick, distracted person from actually reading the credits

Filters showed it was definitely a flashback and was much clearer than the rough cut

Referenced "Prison break" and "Memento"

Hard to see man in tracking shot in forest

Blood looked good

feedback on finished film 2

what did you think about the flashbacks?

-good visual style.
-clear difference between normal footage and flashbacks.
-it looks proffesional.
-maybe a bit too blurred.


we asked them what the rest of the story is about. on the whole they got this right, this must mean that our opening sequences suggests what is to come, so we are pleased that we have achieved this.

music.

-pace of music fitted editing.
-background beat is good underneath the narration.
matched the fast pace of the sequence.

feedback on final product 1

- Titles look great and have a very professional look

- Distorted effect feels over used

- Colour corrector could have been used to give a smoother feel to ordinary footage

- "Someone in wrong place at the wrong time gets convicted and wants revenge" for plot of film (this is pretty close to what we initially had thought)

- The credits are effective because they catch your attention, "Catch me if you can" style.

- Effects used on washing hands was effective in random ways

Final Film

This is the finished film with sound. David C. wanted to add more to the music but he couldn't because we were out of time, but in hindsight David said that he could work on it forever and it would never be perfect.

Response to feedback on rough cut

Editing:

"judges gavel is too short" we have taken this into account and we will freeze it when the title appears over it.

"flash backs not distinctive" we understand this, and we are adding filters to this to show the difference.

Camerawork:

they felt that the running shot was repetive but good. the reason for the repetitiveness is because it is goping back from flash back into real time, to make it more interesting one shot will have a narration over it.

"stabbing looked fake" we need to pick out the right shots so that the knife doesn't hover in the air.

Sound:

they felt that it didn't fit in with what is going on, we are going to re make the music once the video is finished so that it fits in time with the visual.

Mise en scene:

"costume could be better" in other shots the costume is more prominant, we felt that our prison convicts costume was suitable, but we will use the other shots which show it clearer.

Narative:

"flash backs are not distinctive" this will be clearer because we are going to add filters to show difference.

Title cards

During the editing process, we decided that we should create some title cards. We hadn't initially any thought into this during filming or during the other processes until now. We decided that in order to have titles that would fit the film, we should get a black and white picture of a convict and then write our information onto the picture. After this, we decided that we could animate the picture so it could be "running away' like the character on screen. The pictures above show what we did to the image.

EDIT: Here are our finished slides



We were going to use this as our beginning slide, however, we felt that it didn't surprise viewers when they saw it for the first time and wasn't really part of the film










This was the first slide we created, the production company was just all of our first letters of our names combined into one









This is the second slide we created, we had some difficulty getting the names to fit in the stripes but with a lot of patience we managed to make them fit









This is the third slide we created. Even though David W isn't actually a junior, we thought we'd add it because there was too much white space left on arm and we wanted to fill otherwise it wouldn't look right.

Filming the narration

In today's lesson, we intended to film our narration. The narration will be recorded in a quiet area with the lens cap on as it is only the voice that we want, not the picture.

Feedback on rough cut

Editing:

Positives
Black and white was effective, causes tension (which is what we wanted)

Areas of Improvement
Couldn't follow it, needs more editing for pace


Camerawork:

Positives
The tripod running shot was effective, interesting shots in general

Areas of improvement
certain shots were bit too long

Sound:

Positives
Typical of a thriller, builds atmosphere

Negatives
didn't fit properly (we were already aware of this and are rectifying the situation)

Mise-En-Scene:

Positives
Blood looked good, location was a good choice, effective use of shadows

Areas of improvement
Costumes weren't spectacular, blood on face where did it come from

Narrative:

Positive
Ideas and conventions are suitable

Areas of improvement
End of film was random, flashbacks aren't clear

THE ROUGH CUT

Here is our rough cut for our thriller project. We have included several effects like fades and day-for-night. We have also put our unfinished soundtrack on the video, this will be completed when editing is finished.

FILMING DAY 2

Last Thursday, we filmed the majority of our indoor shots. These consisted of the killing shot, introduction to the victim and the scenes after the killing. However, we didn't manage to film our narration or lead up to killing. Since this is only a rough cut, it wasn't essential and we can simply shoot this along with any footage that we felt may not have worked in our rough cut.

Props for next shooting day

Knife - Cameron
Spray bottle - Cameron
Blood - David W
Gavel - David C
Kettle - College
Mug - College
Sink - on location
Chalk - David W
Bin bags/plastic sheet - Cameron
Newspaper - David C

All to meet at film studies room (G23) at end of day for filming

the fake blood

Using the website that we discovered earlier, I made some fake blood. Below is the ingredients and how I made it:

Cheap 'N' Easy Blood


This is good for spidering and works like a dream:

Plain Flour
Water
Red Food Coloring
1 tsp. of Coffee

Boil the water on the stove, then sieve in the flour, making sure you get ALL of the lumps out. The quantity of ingredients aren't important, it just depends on how much you want. Once you have the flour mixed nicely into the water it should look nice and thick. Next, add the red food coloring.

You will notice that it's a ghastly, bright red colour but don't worry this is why we add the coffee. It is important that when you add the coffee to make sure the mixture is hot, otherwise it wont dissolve, but up until adding the coffee can be done in a ordinary mixing jug or pan.

Character narration

we have decided to narrate shot 8, this will have the character calmly talking over the visual of him frantically running. we have intertextualised the American Beauty opening.

here is the original speech;

lESTER (V.O.)

My name is Lester Burnham. This is my neighborhood. This is my street. This... is my life. I'm forty-two years old. In less than a year, I'll be dead.

INT. BURNHAM HOUSE - MASTER BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS

We're looking down at a king-sized BED from OVERHEAD:

LESTER BURNHAM lies sleeping amidst expensive bed linens, face down, wearing PAJAMAS. An irritating ALARM CLOCK RINGS. Lester gropes blindly to shut it off.

LESTER (V.O.)

Of course, I don't know that yet. He rolls over, looks up at us and sighs. He doesn't seem too thrilled at the prospect of a new day.

LESTER (V.O.) (cont'd)

And in a way, I'm dead already.

And here is our edited version for our film;

My name is James Burnham. Behind me is a prison where I have spent the last two weeks. Infront of me is the unknown. I am 25 years old, and less than 6 months ago I led a 9 to 5 life: simple, boring, straight forward. Of course, i didnt know then that i would be in this situation.

We have made the monologue show the characters personality, this way we could mold him into a respectable character. An example of this would the "i have" rather than "i've", this makes it seem more formal and less conversational. The colon make his life seem more formulaic and listed.

Wandlebury

This is some of the planning and research that we have done on wandlebury ring. ^^^

This is the letter of conformation that we can film at wandlebury. vvv

Dear Cameron

I write to confirm that we would be happy for your group to film at Wandlebury Country Park on Monday 11 February, from 1 pm to around 3 pm as part of your student film project. Please call our Head Ranger Jon Gibbs when you arrive on site. His mobile is: 07833 598155.

Our permission to film form is attached. Please complete this and post it back to me. Good luck hope all goes well.

Yours sincerely

Janet Cornish
The Secretary
Cambridge Preservation Society
Wandlebury Ring
Gog Magog Hills
Babraham
Cambridge CB22 3AE

shedule for monday 11th.

Call time: 1.00pm monday 11th Feb

1.00 - 1.20: Location scouting + set up.

1.20 - 1.30: Set up tripod contraption on to Dave.

2.00: Begin montage shots of running through forrest.

3.00: Finish shoot.

Music

In the last few lessons we have been composing and changing our music to suit our thriller project. At the moment we are testing different sounds on garageband and seeing what could fit with our footage which is yet to be filmed. We are using and trying out different classical instuments and different beats. We would like our music to be fast paced at points and suitable music for the flashbacks. We hope to acheive this by using a dramatic change in style, I.E fast paced/ frantic while convict is running and more dramatic music when it cuts to a flashback.

Here is what we have produced:

test footage

We went to film some complicated shots to see whether they would work. these shots was of the convict running with the tripod attached to him and the blood splatter scene. The tripod running shot would work well and isn't as complicated as we once thought it would be. It was very distressing for the actor though as it was painful so we need to find a more comfortable solution. We put filters on the stabbing shot so as we could get a feel for what it would look like. The end result was very pleasing.

Here is our test footage:



EDIT: In order to attach the camera to dave c, we used several belts to secure the tripod to his body. We pointed the camera towards his face and ensured that the belt wouldn't show. We were originally going to use gaffer tape as well, but after the trial we decided that we wouldn't need it as the belts would secure the tripod in place.

Shot list

this is our shot list with the exact details of what will hapen in the shot.

1. shot of the forest floor, foot enters frame and snaps twigs on the floor.

2. previous shot fades to black, then appears title 1.

3. fades into shot of a fence, the convict then hops over it.

4. previous shot fades into black where title 2 appears.

5. shot of forest. large depth of field, focus on distant trees, body then closely moves past camera.

6. previous shot fades into title 3.

7. longer shot of forest, full length shot of convict running, camera either pans on him, or tracks on him, our decision will be based on the surface and how smooth we can film.

8. camera attached to convict, shot of his face whilst he runs. camera will remain static so that his face will stay central but the background will move.

9. previous shot fades into white, all the flash back shots are very white. victim is making tea, full length shot of him doing this at worktop.

10. shot of dark room, victim enters, light comes from door only, victim closes door. dark. walks past camera turns light on that is behind the camera, see murderer behind hiding behind the door.

11. fade back from white into the shot of the convict running through forrest again.

12. fades back to white flash backs. murderer is above camera stabbing victim, blood is splattering onto murderers face and body.

13. fades back into the convict on the run through the forrest.

14. fades into flash back. shot of sink, hands washing of blood.

15. cuts to murderers blood covered face.

16. gavel hits the table, then slow moo-ed up, with dust flying up into air, title then appears under the slow moving gavel.

End.

Gavel prop

We have decided to purchase this gavel:


Because this gavel is made of plastic, we will have to edit in the sound of a knock to make it seem more authentic.

Prison clothes research, costume

Such shows as Prison Break have used prison costumes like this.



We are thinking along the lines of. Black trousers, black boots/shoes and orange shirt which was previously blogged.

Feedback on Animatic

There was mixed understanding of what happens in the animatic but it was explained and understood. The flashbacks were well used and the idea was well planned out. Some parts of it were rather confusing, such as the blue images and the blood effect on one of the last clips. The title was good and straight forward as well as the idea itself. People liked the idea of the man escaping prison and at the end the title conviction coming up. The music was tense but will be changed for the final sequence. The music will need to be fast for the escape sequence and for the murder sequence the music will build the tension up. The idea of the knock at the door and then the gavel coming down and finishing the knocks there was good response to this idea. The title summed up what the film was about.

Location

We have decided that we will film our running sequence in Wandlebury. While the indoor killing sequence will be filmed somewhere around Long Road. We will scouting for locations as we go to lessons. We are thinking of doing the chase sequence on Monday or Tuesday the 11th or 12th of February, this will be easiest due to other commitments.

Animatic

Here is our animatic, since finishing it, we have changed the shot where the victim is stabbed.

Potential costume

When discussing what our character should wear, I had remembered that my brother had a shirt with a "unique" motif on it. I took some pictures of me wearing it to show the others.

General Research

We decided that while the others were creating the animatic, we decided to take up some research. The thing we researched was how to make fake blood due to the fact we have no budget and don't really want to buy it.

http://www.halloween-website.com/fake_blood.htm

This website contains many recipes and we will choose which one looks the best to get it right for our film.

We also made a list of props that we need to aquire:

Knife
Prison suit (IE boiler suit)
spray bottle (for constructing one of our shots)
Fake blood
Gavel and pallet
kettle
lighting in some form
mug
teabags
complementary mint (after eights except its not after 8)
digestive biscuits
newspaper (some civilized newspaper, preferably a broadsheet)
belts
masking tape

THE PITCH

We have settled on using the prison run idea. The working title for this film is "Conviction" as it is to do with a an escaped prisoner.

The film itself starts with a prisoner running through a forest. This is spliced with footage of a murder as explained in the previous post. The film will end with a gavel being slammed down on a pallet and the title will appear.

Sound would be mixed of fast paced and atmospheric. Some diegetic sound might be used such as panting and Gavel/hammer/knocking.

Shooting will ideally take place in two settings, one location will be a house while the other being in a forest/shrubs/bog/jungle area near an urban town.

We are trying to get other people to appear in this film rather than starring in it ourselves. This is because there will be more people on the crew and hopefully will make it very creative and stylish.

Any problems we might face would be lighting in the forest, finding a suitable cast and finding locations might be slightly tricky.

We have not settled on a filming schedule as of yet.

previous idea + elaboration on recent idea

a previous idea before we settled on the one David wrote about below, was that there are two backpackers walking along a road in a forrest. they come across an empty car doors left open, things thrown out from it, the backpackers decide to leave it as they have to set up camp before it gets to late, further down the road they come across 2 people, they lead them through this forrest to safety, they then walk of and disappear because they are the ghosts of the car incident and they were helping others so they would not meet the same end.

to elaborate on the idea of the prison run; it starts with a man in a prison boiler suit running through a forrest, there are noises of dogs, also there is a voice over, it is this mans voice talking calmly over the visual of a scared frantic looking man on the run, he will say something along the lines of "6 months ago i had no clue i would be doing what i am doing now etc". we then flash to white and it is a flash back of this running man, following someone, it then flashes back to the man running. we then flash back again to see this man stabbing this victim, we then flask into real time again. there is one last flash and it is of this man cleaning the blood off himself, there is then noise of a knock at the door, we see only his reaction shot, the knock of the door turns into the knock of the judges hammer, the hammer is then slow-moed as it raises back up and that is where the title appears.

3rd Idea

I came up with the idea that there's a prisoner who has escaped from jail. There are then flashbacks to a night where they had previously killed a group of people. The titles would be simply inserted in as to fit with the nature of the film and darkness of the film.

first ideas

one idea we had, which we later evolved to what we have at the moment, is that there are two people in a car kissing on the front seats. the car is in a dark forrest with no one around. there is a long shot of the car and you can see the silouhoutte of the kissers. a man then enters frame suddenly and it cuts to a blank screen where the titles begin. there is then a montage of an empty car, doors open, empty, things thrown around to the floor. we then moved from this idea to the one in another blog.

problems we are having at them moment is that we are thinking of horror more than thriller, we want to move away from suits and guns because we did this in our kids tv and we want to stretch ourselves.

Second Idea

Group of people in a car/ couple together. Body or corpse in the middle of the road. Car stops and people get out. The corpse gets up and kills both of them.
Cliff hanger style, in forest point of view shot of killer. Car shots point of view etc.

Killers presence is felt camera shows killer. Dark clothes.
People killed off 1 by 1, with titles between.
Car steaming up, killers hand on window
Playing towards horror style, not supernatural but more human.
Not a lot of blood needed otherwise it would seem more like a horror than a thriller.
MUSIC: Will be more atmospheric and leads to conclusion, rather than music trying to get a scare out of the viewer. Music must be tense, and fairly straight unlike horror which is jumpy and creepy.

Previous student example

We liked this video out of the ones we viewed because it managed to build up an element of suspense and captures the viewers attention. It is also easy to se that the film is an opening to a thriller film due to the music and bleak colours.

The Reckoning Review

In The Reckoning there was good lighting in terms of colours, because it was dark it could have looked really bad, but they changed the RGB giving it a different edge, also only half his face at the begining was lit this made it more interesting to watch. The music worked extreamly well and matched the mood of the sequence. It was in time with most of the footage and fitted in well with the introduction of the character. It showed us what sort of a character he is and it lets us know he is a good character. There was a good range of shots with different levels and depth. we felt that the second character wasn't established as well as the first, maybe costume would have helped to make it clear who was who in the low light conditions.

Steve and Cameron Thriller Opening

We made this short title sequence using Final Cut and Garage band. During the Final Cut sessions we added different transitions and text moving across the screen in different fonts and sizes and doing different actions. We selected different short clips of music and put them all together using Garage Band. We exported it into itunes format and added into Final cut to make it play with the video. We then saved it into quicktime format.

LEARNING FINAL CUT AND GARAGEBAND

We created this video using Final Cut and Garage band. We feel that we have learnt the essential basics in order to create a short title sequence. We tried to use as many different transitions as we could to create an example of a title sequence. We also experimented with Garageband to see which instruments can be used, this can be heard in our video E.G funky guitar, bells, R&B horns.

Welcome