Rough Cut

Feedback from Group 2:

How well have the technical areas been produced?
- Good establishing shot
- Good use of eye line matches
- Slow down reaction to twig sound, make more of a reaction
- When Chloe runs towards the camera it is very shaky
- Try and have less shaking of camera

How well has genre characteristics been used? Can you identify the sub genre?
- The eye line matches make it more mysterious, portraying it's a thriller, but from what we've seen we struggled to identify the sub genre.

What do you like about the rough cut?
- The different shot types
- The ambient sound
- The suspense and location

How can they improve the rough cut and what constructive criticism can you give the group?
- Positioning and more control over the camera
- More emotion/reaction from Chloe

Feedback from Group 3:

How well have the technical areas been produced?
- Good variation of shots.
 -Consistent lighting.
-Used long shot and short shot duration. Not consistant shot.
-Should have heard breathing in Chloe's point of view shot.
 Natural make up and costume makes character more normal, adds realism - audience can relate to her.

How well has genre characteristics been used? Can you identify the sub genre?
- The shot types make it appear to be a thriller (the hidden ones), however long shot duration is used to much which contradicts the thriller conventions.

What do you like about the rough cut?
- The various shot types engage the audience.
-Good location.
-Costume makes character relatable.
-Enigmas created towards the end of the clip.
-Easy shot creates tension and urgency.

How can they improve the rough cut and what constructive criticism can you give the group?
- Continuity. Chloe lets dog off lead, the dog is ahead, then the next shot of dog it's running from behind her when it should be in front.
-Chloe smiles at the camera after letting the dog off the lead.

Feedback from Group 4:

How well have the technical areas been produced?
-Good camera angles and a good variety of shots
-No music but ambient sounds like the birds tweeting add to the realism
-Could be smoother and flow better
-Great costume, well behaved dog, good weather typically gloomy
How well has genre characteristics been used? Can you identify the sub genre?
-Cannot identify sub-genre as yet, maybe music would perhaps make this more obvious

What do you like about the rough cut?
-We like the different angles like when she turns around and the camera goes with her.

How can they improve the rough cut and what constructive criticism can you give the group?
-Make editing transitions smoother
-Add sound
-Cut when she first lets go of the dog as it looks to rehearsed

Feedback from Group 5:

How well have the technical areas been produced?
-The slow pan creates tension
-Straight cuts keep the continuity
-Costume of Chloe is realistic and suitable
-High key lighting does not scare the audience or make them feel on edge
-Ambient sound of birds sets the scene

How well has genre characteristics been used? Can you identify the sub genre?
-I can't identify the sub genre as no characteristics stand out at the moment which could be a good thing as it builds suspense.

What do you like about the rough cut?
-I like the prop of the dog as it allows realism
-Point of view shot engages the audience and is a feature of a psychological genre.

How can they improve the rough cut and what constructive criticism can you give the group?
-The actor looks at camera and waits a few seconds before bending down to take the dog of the lead which makes me feel she has been directed to do this.

Final Logo

Here we have made our final logo on Photoshop. We decided to use this software as we could manipulate and change images to suit our ideas. Firstly we searched on google images and then we found the megaphone which looked unique from the rest. Next we saved it and then opened it up on photoshop and dragged the background into the bin icon. We then used the burn tool with an exposure of 25% to shade areas of the picture darker to give it a more vintage look. After we went onto filter gallery and chose the drop down selection of 'Artistic' and chose the design poster edges which gave the image a fuzzy background effect. Following this, we then clicked on the horizontal type tool where we selected the font 'sprint SF' where we typed our text. Later, we selected the free transform option which then enabled us to tilt the writing to make it in line with the way the megaphone is facing, we also used this tool to shrink down the writing 'productions' as we did not want it as dramatic as the main name of our logo.

Throughout the beginning of this process, we found this task challenging as we had never used this software before but we eventually figured out how to use each tool on this programme, which then aided our ability to create our logo.

Make Up Ideas

The only makeup that is going to be used in our opening sequence will be on the main female character and the antagonist. This gives us a chance to think about the type of makeup we want to use on each character to relate to their situation happening in the opening sequence. The girl will have natural makeup on during scene one in the Great Park. However in scene two, when she is tied to a bed, we will use dramatic makeup to portray her anxious feelings. The antagonist will also have makeup on his hands and underneath his eyes to emphasise that he is a threat towards the girl by protraying his scary makeup to the viewer.



Picture from the thriller film Sinister

 As you can see above this is a picture from the film 'Sinister'. Very gory makeup was used on the young female character, which you would normally see in horror movies, but we are doing a thriller so will have to consider a less amount of gore as we do not want to fall into the horror generic conventions. The red makeup all over the female character's hands portrays that it is blood to the audience which makes the viewer suddenly assume that the girl could be hurt. This is useful when relating the makeup used here to our own opening sequence as we want to portray our female character to be hurt, we will be doing this by giving her false cuts over her body.

Picture from the thriller film Safe Haven

This second picture is a shot from the film 'Safe Haven'. The makeup that has been used is very natural and inoccent looking. This portrays a normal looking young lady to the audience. During the first scene of our opening sequence, the main female character will be walking her dog minding her own business, so normal natural looking makeup will be used. This does not suggest any apparent events occuring to the audience but there will be a twist as there will be a kidnapping event.

Camera Work and Editing In Thriller Movies

Looking at professional crime thriller movies, we have noticed the different editing and camera techniques they have used within their opening sequences. The crime thriller we have chosen to analyse is 'Panic Room'.
The first editing technique they have used is a fade from black transition, which fades into a high angle of a city revealing the production names. As we see this appear on the screen, it then beings to zoom in. This matches the soundtrack being used in this opening sequence. It then cuts straight to the next shot of another production name at again; a high angle in a city. These production names continue in the same location and style until the majority of the cast and crew have been shown. This also includes the title of the opening sequence, which appears in this way too. On each of these titles/names which appear, there are a range of different transitions used such as zoom in, pan, tilt, low angle and high angle. All of these names and titles are shown in 3D as if they are big letters across very tall buildings in a busy city. This opening sequence tells us the location of where the film is set.

Make Up Trial

Here is a trail run of Chloe's make up who is the protagonist whithin our openeing sequence. We decided to test this out before the bedroom scene to make sure that everything looked realistic yet effective which would then overall make the mise en scene pristene. In the first trial run the eye make up looked too exaggerated and dark, so in our real filming we added a lighter tone of cream eye shadow as well as the dark tones in order to balance it out and look realistic as possible. We thought the cut on the side of the cheek worked really well as we added layers of vaseline to make it 3 dimensional.



This was the eye shadow pallet that we used, there were a variety of colours as you can see in the picture so we were able to mix and blend colours for a better effect. As we wanted to exaggerate the female character's eyes we used 'Powler' as this is the darkest colour in the pallet, this was smudged gently around the protagonists eyes to show the lack of sleep and empahsis the fact that she has been drugged. We also used a cream white eye shadow which were blended into the highlighted areas such as above the eyes and on the nose, this left a slight shimmer and gives a sign to that audience that she may have been sweating, this is a sign of shock.

Moodboard of Thriller Films

Here we have collected a range of thriller movies and created a moodboard. Many of these films we have previously evaluated or looked in detail at these films in terms of sound, mise en scene, editing and camera work. They have all influenced our ideas in different ways, one being that in silence of the lambs there was a forest openeing scene which we thought worked really well. We have used this idea which led us to choose our location. In the majority of the collection of films they use the generic thriller convetions which ensured us that we will need to include these when filming our sequence. Overall we believed that looking at these films has helped us out in the longrun.

Photoshop Logo Production Practice

We have created a practice production logo using photoshop. Firstly we decided to use an old tv as the main focus of the logo and this reflects our subject of Media, to enebale us to get this photo on Photoshop we found the picture we wanted, saved it into our own documents and then opened it up in Photoshop to minipulate it using certain tools. Secondly we had to come up with a name for our Production company we came up with M.B.C.C as this is the initials of all of our names and sounds professional. As our Production company makes films only for thrillers we had to find an appropraite font that will fit all genres, to add text over the picture we used a tool on the left hand side of the page called the horrizontal type tool, we used the font 'Algerian' for our M.B.C.C and a more simple font for the 'productions' here we used 'Calbri.' For our actual logo we also plan to use photoshop in order to minipulate the image in a creative way to make it original to our company.  

Location Report Scene 1

This is our main location where the first scene of our two minute openeing sequence will happen. It is in the Windsor Great Park and our female character will be walking along this track while she is walking her dog.

This is another shot from the top of the track looking down at where the antagonist will be hiding looking up at the protagonist. We thought it would be good to test this as we don't want the female character to be able to see him. This will be made possible by the branches and trees to hide him and also the time of day when we are filming as it will be getting dark.

This is a low angle shot from the antagonist's point of view. We thought we should test this shot to show how the antagonist is looking at the protagonist from behind the tree's. This shot creates suspense for the audience as he's watching every step the girl takes.

Logo Research Ideas

Here are four examples of four film production logos, we looked at these for inspiration ideas for our very own logo. We noticed that the most popular and creative logos have clear bold stated titles of the name of the production companies. There is also normally an object above or around the title that relates back to filiming such as the camera next to the title 'Creature Productions inc' and the filming tape roll above 'Wilson Film Productions inc' This gives us ideas to relate an object around the theme of filming, such as a tv, camera or even filming tape like the logos above. The logos are also very limitted in what they display there isnt normally a background of a picture of something but just a plan background. However the 'Dream Works' logo does have a background picture, famously known for the cloud background which is still very limited and simple, which is something we will bear in mind when creating our logo.

 The first logo we looked at was the 'Hand Made Films' this logo looks slightly different to the other three logos. This logo has a bold black background of what looks like the universe, where you can see all the stars around the black. The title of the film and object above the title is also outlined with a bold white line. This is not used in the other logos which we have looked at which makes it look very unique and clear. The logo also is only displayed in black and white with no other colours, this makes the logo look very professional.The font also has a curved style which gives the look of authentisity, which relates to old films.

The second logo we looked at is 'Creature Productions inc' this is different to the first logo we looked at. The logo does not have a background and is just plain white, which makes the logo and object very eye catching. Furthermore compared to the first logo 'Hand Made Films' does not have an outline around the title and object which makes the logo look more simple. However the object used of the camera on a tripod is also used in the first logo we used which makes the two logos look very simular beacuse of the matching objects. Aswell as the logo before they both are in black and white. The font looks very light and not in bold like the other logos. The word 'Creatures' is seperated with each letter in the roll of film. this makes the logo look very playful which relates to films as they are know to be creative and spontaneous.

The third logo we looked at was 'Wilson Film Productions' is displayed in big clear font, with the main name in bold and the word 'productions' in light font. The font also looks very modern and clear because of the way they have laid it out. There is a camera roll above the title. This relates back to filming as the roll is known to be used for filming. There is no background to the logo and it is just plain white, this makes the logo stand out more to people. Another technique that is used is the shading on the filming roll, this also makes it look modern as it is very smooth and professional looking.

The last logo we looked at was by 'Dream Works' it is very different to the rest of the logos displayed above as all of it is in colour. Each of the letters of the title are mostly different colours. This displays it as being very colourful which is different to the others as they are just in black and white.

Risk Assesment

Animatic

Practice Shots

We decided to do some test shots in the location that we will be filming, which is the Windsor Great Park. We done a tracking shot, an establishing shot, a close up to zoom out and lastly a handheld tracking shot. We felt that it would be best to test these as we will be using all four of them in our opening sequence. From testing these the zoom out and handheld tracking work the best in our opinion, but when doing an establishing shot in our real sequence we will need to use a tripod to keep a steady balanced camera without the unstable feel. Also we have found out that the wind in the background was a problem as it creates a shaky camera and doesn't give off the effect that we intended. However we believe that the location was appropriate and we feel that the scenery will work really well when filming our sequence.
By practising the test shots we have been able to decide a day which wont be windy and therefore will stop the problems we had when filming these shots. We can see by practising first really helps us to figure out the best possible outcome to make our sequence the best that we can.

Video Shoot Shot List

Production Logo Analysis

We have chosen three production logos which have produced films within the same genre as ours - Crime thriller. As a group we have decided on 'Dream Street Pictures', 'Pardiman Productions' and the well known 'Universal'.

Dream Street Pictures - Dream Street logo is very plain and simple, using minimal colours such as black, white and royal blue. It is simply just a black background with a road in a circular shape. The words 'Dream Street Pictures' has been added underneath the image of the road, they have used two different colours and also two different fonts. The iconography goes well with the name of the company on the logo.

Pardiman Productions - There also isn't very much to this logo as it is again a plain black background with a single film strip placed on the left hand side with the letter 'P' in the middle. They have also used the colours black, white and a variety of blue. The writing 'Pardiman Productions' is placed on the right hand side written in two different fonts but all in white. Although this picture is very simple, that is the reason it stands out and catches people's attention.

Universal - This logo has a lot more to it as they have used a range of colours such as yellow, blue, green, purple, orange, black and white, taking up the majority of the space provided. They have done this as they produce films under every genre. This is eye catching as they have used space as the background with an image of the earth placed in the middle. The company's name 'Universal' is written over the earth directly in the middle of the logo. They have simply just used one font as it is only one word and have used a mix of yellow and orange for the colour of the font. The images they have used are appropriate and match the name of the company.

In comparing all three logos we have noticed that there are both similarities and differences which are established within the production. Dream Street Pictures and Pardiman Productions have both used a black background and the same colours: black, white and blue. They have both also used minimal colours as they have kept it very straight forward. Where as, Universal have used more of a variety of colours in their logo and also more detail in iconography and the background. Though Universal have done this, it doesn't mean that this logo catches people's eye any more than Dream Street Pictures and Pardiman Productions logos.

Soundtrack Practice - Garageband

We have used Garageband to create a practice soundtrack for our thriller clip. We have used various tools to complete this soundtrack. To begin with we chose two longer sounds to ensure that our soundtrack has continuity, however, we added shorter sounds at points throughout the clip to add suspense to match the actions, this also emphasises the actions and adds meaning.

The soundtrack we have created has a mysterious feel which again reflects our clip and helps to add to the enigma.We started our soundtrack off with a thunder roll, this comes in when the logo appears on screen. The calm, but dark and eery music begins with our establishing shot just showing our location. When we've got an ordinary action of the girl walking with her dog, the music is parallel to the action but is also mysterious. When the shot changes to the kidnapper's point of view from in the tree's, the speed and tone increases which creates tension for the audience.

Towards the end of this soundtrack we have added a 'mysterious accent' to play at the same time as one of the longer sounds. This gives suspense and blends well together, we changed the volume of the shorter sound to over power the longer sound. At the end of this sound, a thunder clap is added to the soundtrack which leaves the audience curious.

Mise en Scene Practice

To make sure that our mise en scene was on point and we could create the best atmosphere to match our scene as possible, in the second scene of our opening sequence our protagonist is tied to a bed, having been drugged and is very delusional as to what has happened. We came up with the idea to use a smoke machine to create this effect. We decided to use revealing clothing in this scene as it gives away a small clue as to what our antagonist is doing. The clothing, atmosphere and location gives the audience the impression that the protagonist is very weak and vulnerable.