Feedback session 2

How effectively edited is this thriller? Give and example of a section of effective editing or a single cut that you like and explain why:

Edited well - the backwards shots were cool, but didn't seem to fit.
Didnt like wide screen shot.
Ending - cut from video to Polaroid - smooth movement (burning fits in with thriller)


Discuss the use of sound in this thriller, both diegetic and non-diegetic. what emotions does it invoke and how effective is it?:

Dripping? - the tap was running, hot dripping - confusing.
The flashes were timed well the music - impressive.
quality, it creates a good sense of tension and mystery. its intriguing.
only improvement is titles.



What words would you use to describe the visual style? Give an example of effective use of either props, costume or location. Be detailed in your explanation.

discombobulating - effective for a thriller.
Thriller like.
Blood in the bath/coming through the tap works well - adds confusion - makes you ask questions eg why is there blood coming out of the tap - which is a good thing


Highlight at least three things that you think are good about this thriller and two areas for improvement:

Shot with stalker - bloody brilliant.
Burning picture good, music good, shots generally good- cup of tea
Why is tap running red water?

Final stages of editing

During editing we found it was a lot harder to craete the effects we had first wanted. Although we knew what direction we wanted our thriller to go in we found many different ways of doing this when it came to editing and found it hard to decide which pieces of footage followed on to each other best and which transitions looked good with our sequence and which transitions did not fit.
We decided that slow fades would look best to introduce our sequence and to create a dramatic piece of footage. We also enhanced many of our scenes such as the blood and the burning photograph by speeding them up, slowing them down or playing them in reverse. We found this a very effective way to create emphasis and drama and when placed with the music created the mood we wanted to acheive.
Although we had some problems with the sound fitting together with the footage after it had been rendered the two pieces fitted together very well and complemented each other.

Creating the final soundtrack

After we had finished the bulk of our editing we exported our project to a Quicktime in order to create the soundtrack on another computer whilst we also finished the titles on our own computer. We found this the easiest way of doing it as it allowed us to do two things at once whilst also ensuring our music was in time with our shots. We created a dark piece of music with fast paced parts where the shots were faster or when the pictures were flashed up. We felt it complemented our footage very well and added to the sense of confusion and danger.

Response to final feedback

some of the feedback was useful and honest, however some responses were not helpful at all. Also some quite childish and immature.

Feedback on final

1. What is one best shot and why, and what is the one shot you would remove and why?
Flashes good
Blood in bath is good
Bath bit was good
Tea to plug good
Bath with crossed knives excellent
Nice plug-hole and blood shot
Change end title.
+00.16 can see reflection

2.Our thriller was supposed to convey confusion, was this effective?
Quick cutaways work well to confuse
Didnt really know what was going on, no idea what the film is about. very confused.
Very confusing- no idea who the victim or killer was
Yeah it was confusing

3. Can you describe what happens in our thriller?
Victim in bath- stalker
I agree.
Stalker with photographs?
Stalker loves the girl but she has a boyfriend?

4. Were our transitions (flashes +fading) effective?
Yes
pretty yes :)
Effective when flashed in time with the music
Credits could be more interesting
Yes loved the images and footage turning into photos

5. What generic conventions of a thriller did you spot in our thriller?
I cant remember

6. What would you improve and why?
Blood not realistic
Titles boring
More boobs

Transitions

Mainly we used fade in and out throughout our sequence as we thought that looked the most effective with the variety of shots we had. We also used flashes of white in between shots which made the transition from one shot to another look more confusing and to mimic the flash of a camera, as the stalker in the film takes photos of the victim throughout. We also used the flash effect to separate out the more grotesque images to emphasise them.

Action Plan

We need to put the rest of footage in and make sure the order is right, adding titles to footage of blood and transitions in between each clip. We also need to start to create our soundtrack.

Response to feedback

Editing-
Only very rough idea of whats to come, just order. The photos will be flashed up quicker with transitions making then smoother and faster, and they aren't copyrighted images as stacey took and edited them. Final footage will involve transitions as rough cut has none at all.

Camera work- thank you :) we had to re-shoot the bath scene several times to get it still

Sound- Plan on leaving the sound of the taps dripping like you said, and also will considering the noise of faces being scribbled out. Hopefully we will create our own soundtrack

Mise en scene- we intended the snapshots of blood to build tension and add mystery so thank you!

Narrative- the story would be revealed more in the film as to whether she was raped or killed

Generic convensions- we planned to use all of the ones mentioned =)

Feedback from other members of the class

Editing-
Editing was good but photos need to be smoother and faster. More transitions could be good. Copyrighted images?

Camera work-
Nice bath scene, still camera good

Sound- Will look good with non diagetic sound for bath and scribbling faces bit. Maybe volcanoes would be effective.

Mise en scene-
Spooky scene, snapshots of blood builds tension, darkness effective, view from outside increases sense of being watched.

Narrative-
Fairly obvious whats happening. It is clear but not sure whether he wants to rape or kill her.

Generic conventions-
The "gaze" plus voyarism, stalking, murder, threat, contrasting setting, ordinary setting.

Rough cut

This is our rough cut for our thriller.
We have not yet added our soundtrack so there is lots of noise.
We haven't added any transitions in yet but we hope that once we do we will create a more confusing and disturbing effect.
This is just our basic order and we have more work to do.

Blood

Before we filmed we tested some different ways of creating fake blood however we found that in water they were not very effective. On the day of our shoot we simply used red food colouring in water and found that it spread very effectively and gave the effect we wanted. Hoepfully when we come to edit our sequence the effect of realistic blood will make the audience feel that it is more genuine and make them more uncomfortable.

Soundtrack

We are about to start creating the final soundtrack for our thriller project. When making the animatic we found this very time consuming and didn't quite get the effect we wanted. We will create the soundtrack at the same time as editing the shots to ensure that they fit well together. Although it will take a lot of time we want to create a good soundtrack to accompany our opening sequence as we have put a lot of preperation into the filming and want to create a good effect.
We hope to create a very mysterious soundtrack that enhances the idea of being watched and makes the viewer feel uncomfortable. We will acheive this by using stringed instruments and loud bangs when an unexpected shot comes onto the screen.

Problems during filming

When we were filming we encountered quite a few problems that we didn't expect. We had planned to start filming a lot earlier than we were able to on the night and this meant that it was very dark outside. When we filmed our original shots we found that it was hard to make out what was happening. We solved this by moving the shots closer to windows so that there was a light source nearby.
Filming in the bathroom was also harder than we expected as Helens clothes kept showing through the bubbles which meant we had to refilm the same shot several times. We also found that the shape of Helens bathroom was hard to film in as we needed to pan from the bath to the window whithout shaking the camera to create a smooth shot.
When we started filming our camera didn't have the clip to attatch it to the tripod so we found it extremely difficult to get some of the smooth panning shots that we needed.
Although we encountered a few problems we managed to overcome them and film successfuly.

Filming

The filming of our opening sequence was harder than we expected. We managed to get all the shots we needed and we stuck as closely as possible to the shot list. As we knew exactly what effect we wanted to create and how we would need to do that we put a lot of preperation into our shot list to save us time and make our filming as simple as possible. We didn't add any other scenes or shots into our shot list but if a shot was too hard to film because of the angle or light then we edited it slightly so that it would fit in with the rest of our shots.
We found filming in the bathroom the hardest as rotating the camera from the bath to the window was more complicated than we thought as it was a long rotation and the shots often didn't come out as smooth as we would have liked.
When we filmed outside the wuality of light was an issue as it was very dark so we edited our shot list slightly to make sure that any shots filmed outside wold be filmed near night sources such as windows. Tgis was sucecssful as we managed to create a shot of Helen being watched from outside with James' sillouete in the frame which was very effective.
Overall our shooting went well as we prepared the props and shotlist beforehand and we knew what we needed to do. Because of this we were able to get all the shots we needed in one night.

Teacher Feedback

Your blog looks great. Your animatic is excellent, it very effectively communicates your idea. The mark of a good blog is whether or not it gives the reader a strong idea of what you are trying to achieve with your project, this one definitely does that. Well done.
I really like your idea and I think it makes interesting use of the concept of 'The Gaze' and the different camera shots you are intending to use highlight different perspectives of watching and being watched. It emphasises feelings of paranoia and suspense.
Great work so far.

Our animatic

Soundtrack

We have just finished composing the sketch of our sound track to accompany the animatic. We found that this was harder than we thought it would be as many of the effects we wanted to use did not work well together. We eventually decided to use a guitar as our main instrument, but timing it with the changes of scene in our animatic was hard. We have recently included some different effects to make our animatic sound as if it includes both diagetic and non diagetic sound. The sound effects we used include a dripping tap in the background of the scenes in the bathroom to give the effect that the there is no other sound in the bathroom itself.

fake blood test

I recently followed the recipe we found on the internet on how to make fake blood to make sure that we could get the effect we wanted when we filmed our sequence. I made sure that the blood spread well in water and didn't look too pale. I tried several different methods in order to make sure that we got the best possible effect. Hopefully the method that i have found will give us an effective scene and won't look too tacky.

Shooting schedule

Order to film shots: 22 23 24 16 17 19 18 12 13 5 9 28 29 30 15 8 7 6 4 3 2 1 10 11 14 15 20 21 26 26 27

This order groups all locations together which will save us time and make it much easier to film.

We will try to do all filming on one tuesday night and arrange another day to finish off any other filming needed

Props & Costume

Costume-
Victim: Red bikini to wear in bath scenes but cant be seen in shots.
Normal clothes when walking about house- casual

Stalker: Dressed in dark but casual clothes. Mostly black
Black hat

Props: Polaroid camera
Home-made dark room
Knife
Kettle
Mug
Towel
Bin
Pegs
Fake blood

Blood: we found a recipe how to make fake blood -

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 colouring.

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.

Finalising our idea

We have decided on our locations for shooting our thriller film, we are going to use helens house for a lot of our filming as it suits us quite well for what we need. Her bathroom is above her kitchen, giving us good long shots from outside, her bath has feet, making it look more realistic and her kitchen is very long, which can give our shots more variety. We have also decided to use a dark room either at school or a home made one, to add realisticness to the stalking storyline (taking photos of the victim).

Our final plot is going to be a man stalking a girl, who in the first initialising shots is shown as 'dead'. You seen a man walking around the house, and flasbacks of devleoping photos and following her. There will be point of view shots to add the effect of being watched and there will be lots of flashing fast paced shots to add to confusion.

We are going to use several props such as a bath, fake blood, cups, cameras, scissors, knifes, polaroids etc.

Shot list

1. Mid shot of victim in the bath, eyes closed and completely still with blood in bath
2. Zooming shot onto victims face
3. Close up shot from side of bath, face flops to face the camera with eyes closed
4. Mid shot of victim in bath, panning around to an open window in the bath room
5. Long shot from the garden, including open bathroom window and kitchen downstairs with mysterious person walking through.
6. Mid shot of blood in the bath reversing.
7. Close up of blood in reverse going back to completely clear water .
8. Zooming out and panning towards open window.
9. Long shot as the stalker leaves, filmed from the open bathroom window.
10. Close up of polaroid photo
11. Polaroid being moved to a pile of photos
12. Shot inside house of victim opening back door
13. Long point of view shot from behind bushes with victim taking rubbish out and going back inside house.
14. Mid shot of myterious man un-pegging photos in a dark room
15. Close up of photo of victim in bath
16. Mid shot inside kitchen of victim walking in.
17. Close up of kettle being filled.
18. Point of view shot from outside of man peeking through window and victim looking out.
19. Close up of tea being poured.
20. Close up of faces being scribbled out of photos
21. Mid shot of piles of photos and faces being cut/scratched out.
22. Point of view shot of victim being watched from grave yard entering her house
23. Close-up of key going in door
24. Long shot from inside the front door of grave yard, door closing on camera
25. Still image of blood running down drain
26. Still image of knife
27. Still image of more blood
28. Long shot of victim in bath, zooming in
29. Close-up of face
30. Exteme close up of victims eye opening

Location Test Shots

Here I have just taken a few test shots to get an idea of how the shots might look.

Finalising the idea

We have decided on our locations for shooting our thriller film, we are going to use helens house for a lot of our filming as it suits us quite well for what we need. Her bathroom is above her kitchen, giving us good long shots from outside, her bath has feet, making it look more realistic and her kitchen is very long, which can give our shots more variety. We have also decided to use a dark room either at school or a home made one, to add realisticness to the stalking storyline (taking photos of the victim).

Our final plot is going to be a man stalking a girl, who in the first initialising shots is shown as 'dead'. You seen a man walking around the house, and flasbacks of devleoping photos and following her. There will be point of view shots to add the effect of being watched and there will be lots of flashing fast paced shots to add to confusion.

We are going to use several props such as a bath, fake blood, cups, cameras, scissors, knifes, polaroids etc.

Initial Ideas

Our first ideas involve a sequence starting with an eye being closed on a dead body, lots of flashing images and settings such as a grave yard and a church, and ending on the eyes of the body opening again, making the sequence really fast paced and exciting.

We then developed this first idea by deciding on our storyline. We decided that our film was going to be about a stalker and would involve a lady being stalked.
Our first shot would be of the victim lying on the floor and the audience would not know if she was dead or alive. Then there would be a series of flashbacks and shots from the stalkers perspective such as being watched through her kitchen and the next shot would be of the stalker developing pictures of her in her kitchen.
We will use fast paced shots and different video effects to create the feeling of being watched.
The final shot will be of the stalkers eyes looking up at the camera and fading into the victims eyes opening suddenly.

Real thiller titles analysis

The opening sequence for Man on Fire involves lots of different techniques to grab your attention right from the start. It uses lots and lots of different sound effects to make you aware of what the film is about (for example gun noises, heartbeats, screaming etc) and also sound effects to show theere will be several other issues/themes in the film and it wont just be straight forward (church bells, car brakes, children laughing). It freezes the footage in several places which looks like photos being taken which adds suspense to the titles, and also there are some ghostly images of people walking through the city which gives you a creepy feel that something is wrong, also adding suspense. The music used gives you the setting straight away by using latin music but with deep droney tones giving the effect of darkness and sadness. The pace of the titles change alot which reflects the theme of the film and throughout the sequence there is lots of flashing added which fastens the pace and adds to the confusion.

Example of previous student thriller

We like the way that this sequence uses special effects to make it look more abstract, with the lava like fire being repeated in several different directions adding confusion to the titles. There is mystery added to it by the fast paced extremely close-up footage which also adds to the confusion, and we think that the music quite suits the footage that they used.



We didnt like this sequence as it was so boring and just the same shots all the way through. The pace of it was far to slow and we couldnt work out how it was a thriller.

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