Target Audience Feedback - Third Draft

After feedback from our third draft we found that we needed to colour correct certain clips, add sound effects, make the titles bolder and bigger, however they did feel that the effects on the antagonists voice was very effective. 

Mise-en-scene Elements in my Opening

Editing Update - Second Draft

During the second part of editing although Kirsty did most of it as head editor, I sat with her and gave her some guidance on what looked good, what we wanted and whether her ideas fitted with the film.

Edit from draft 1

Edit from draft 2

For the second draft we cut down the shots in the clips that were too long or moved parts of clips around to remove unwanted parts but keep small parts that we really liked.

We also added music to fit with our opening.

After the guidance to get rid of the hide and seek board

we went back to a previous idea about creating a stop-motion piece using the font we had previously scratched into the board (which it why the board was kept in so we could have future reference).

We still have to add the production roles, logos and our company name throughout the opening and colour correct specific scenes.

Personally I have yet to be able to film and edit together one clip (where there is a black screen saying 'Charlie and Ant phone call').

Target Audience Feedback - First Draft

After our target audience feedback we found that we needed to create quicker cuts, add music and sound effects, add titles and make the whole thing generally shorter. 

Editing Update - First Draft

When it came to editing our first draft we decided to create a rota where we would each edit our own scenes (Winn's scene 0:00-0:20, Lauren's scene 0:20-1:06, my scene 1:06-1:38 and Kirsty's scene 1:38-2:37) and then have one person assisting us. 

WINN'S SCENE - I helped edit Winn's scene. This scene was very difficult as before we had even started editing we encountered a problem. As a group we were conflicted on how we would go about making it clear to the audience that is was a flash forward and not part of the other three scenes. We had a few ideas; for example making it black and white (however we decided that that would create a feel of a flashback not forward), giving the clips a brownish tint (but this was decided would also give the idea of a flashback, aged look which was not what we wanted) and a Schindler's list/Sin City effect where we would have it all in black and white except from the bright red coat Yoli's character was wearing. As a group we eventually decided on the Sin City effect as it is very evocative and highlights the red, which connotes danger, and got to work. 

This was where we encountered another problem as our group only had basic editing ability so we had to learn from the very begining by playing around with the colour correction filter in Final Cut pro and watching instructional YouTube videos. Winn, Kirsty and I all learned how to create this effect. Although Winn was the person doing the main bulk of the editing, Kirsty and I still learned so that we would also have that skill and in case Winn needed our help (which she did when it came to the more difficult clips with a lot of moving around). 

LAUREN'S SCENE - I was not that involved in the editing of Laurens scene as it was Winn who helped her, however I was always there to help when they needed guidance of which clip to use and where to cut certain parts so that it flowed better. 

MY SCENE - For my scene I had Lauren helping me. I felt that the first part of my scene was fairly straight forward however for the middle part I wanted to create match-on-action which I found rather difficult at first considering how I have had very little editing experience, however I found that I was very happy with what I had produced but felt that to improve it I could have it more cut up and jumpy to really give the effect that the character is travelling (1:22-1:31). 

There was also a small clip that I was yet to film which I had left out but replaced with some text indicating where it went in case I forgot about it. 

KIRSTY'S SCENE - I helped Kirsty with her scene, however she is rather independent and just got on with it. Although she rarely needed my help I made sure that I was there in case she needed my opinion on a clip or a piece she had edited (which I did help her with). 

I believe that we had a effective way of editing our whole opening as we did it in a way that we all contributed equally however not in a way that we were all shouting over each other or arguing about who edits what bit and whether or not a certain clip fit. We made sure to be respectful of each others space and scenes but always being there to give guidance. 

Filming - Day 3

The third and final day of filming was a rather short one. We only needed to re-film Laurens scene and finish the small clip of Charlie running with the dolly. 

Kirsty could not come on this day so it was just Lauren, Winn and I. This day was a lot more layed back than the previous one because we already had the majority of our opening filmed, we already knew what we wanted to do for Laurens scene as we had already done it before and the clip I wanted to film I had practised during the test footage. So everything we were filming we had already really done.

We started by re-filming Laurens scene. I found that this what we achieved was a lot better quality than the previous and I really feel that we made the right decision to re-film it.

The running scene was a very interesting thing to film as at first i just couldn't get the lighting right -it was either too light or too dark. I had to shoot it multiple times until I finally got the colour that I wanted.

Me and Tyler (Charlie)

Looking back over this day and the filming as a whole I am very proud of how the group has handled the filming process and how we effectively bounced off each other when coming up with ideas creating a piece of work that I am immensely proud of.

A picture of the group once we had finished filming

Filming - Day 2

On Sunday the 15th we planned to film from 10 o'clock to 6 o'clock, however due to one of our actors having other plans we had to film from 10 to 4 instead with Tyler going home a little earlier at 12:30. 
As Lauren couldn't make to this filming day it was just Kirsty, Winn and I. 

The night before I created a loose timetable for our cast and crew to follow so that we used out time effectively as well as having a good amount of breaks so we didn't get too tired and over worked. I feel that the timetable helped the group a lot as we had struggled before with time management.

When we arrived we encountered a small problem. The owner of the barn had forgot to mention to one of the people who used the barn that we were filming that day, so he had not moved his van. The place he left his van was the only place where we could film the running shot with the dolly, as it had the most space. we decided that we would film it on the third filming day instead. It turned put that he arrived a little later but as we had already decided to film on a later date we did not bother him and get him to move his van. 

We started off the day filming my scene.I feel that my scene had its challenges when filming however i feel that i effectively took on the role of director and got the majority of the shots that I wanted to get (apart from the running scene with the dolly shot and the shot with the antagonist). 

One shot I was particularly proud of was inspired by Kirstys idea to use the horizontal ladder as a way to prop up the camera. I took a wooden rod and wrapped the camera strap around it and then got Tyler to hook it up on the rungs of the ladder. This gave Tyler more of a vulnerable fragile look as it created a tilted down shot. 

We then shot Kirstys scene however as a result of the van and the little space we didn't know where to film her ones. We finally figured it out how we would shoot it however it did set out filming scheduled back a little bit. 

We got all of Kirstys clips filmed dead on 12:30 which was the time that Tyler needed to go home. After this we had a look around the location in the daylight and then filmed Winns scene. We collectively took a part in helping each others scenes whether that was in the form of holding a piece of equipment, coming up with ideas or filming from a different angle. This helped us quickly get shots filmed and generally just move the whole process of filming on quickly. 

I particularly helped in the scene where Kirsty wanted a shadow to fall over Tylers face, I came up with the idea to use one of the many ladders to stand on and then stood up when she wanted the shadow. I feel this gave a very good effect.



I feel that although there were some little problems that we faced, I believe that we were very effective and had progressed a lot from how we were on the first day. When looking back at the footage i can see that it is a much better quality and the groups decisions to film when it was brighter and change the costume were very good and effective decisions. 

Filming - Day 1

The first day of filming allowed us to gain a lot of knowledge when it comes to the practical side of media, however when looking back at all the footage we had gathered we realised that all our footage was basically useless.

As we were all at school we decided that we would go to our location after school and film from 4 o'clock to 6 o'clock. This gave us two hours to set up and film Lauren's scene (this was because she would not be able to be there with us on the second filming day).

We set up as soon as we arrived which took about 30 minutes and we then went straight into filming Lauren's scene. However by the time we had finished setting up the sun was setting already.

Winn, Kirsty and Lauren all filmed at the same time from different angels resulting in more footage that we could use and myself and Tyler acted.

As a result of it getting dark very early in the winter we thought that it would be fine and we would be able to see our actors as a result of our light however when looking back on the footage we could hardly see our cast and we decided that if we wanted our opening to be the highest quality as possible we would have to re-film it. 

In addition to the bad lighting we felt that looking back on the day the use of our time could have been more effective and we collectively made the decision to create a scheduled for our next filming day and make sure we make the most of our time. 

Kirsty edited together the clips we got from Lauren's scene that we filmed. I feel that despite the bad quality this clip gave a good idea of what we will want out final product to look like. In addition I feel Kirsty did a really good job at editing the very low quality footage and making it appear well on the screen. 

We also found that the costumes that some of our actors wore were not effective in the dark lighting causing us to reconsider the 

I feel that although the footage we got was -in my opinion- awful, it allowed the group to gain insight into how sometimes things wont go as planned and that we need to be prepared for the worst to happen. 

Storyboard - Whole Opening

Storyboards - My Scene

Test Footage

As a group we went to our location and took some test shots so we were prepared for our three filming days.

We decided that to save time and keep on project that we would test the shots that we were not sure would actually work when actually filming.
I has two shots that i wanted to test, these were the close up phone call shot with the antagonist and Charlie, and the tracking shot of Charlies feet running. 
I felt that i needed to test these out as I have never used a dolly before and felt that I needed to practice and see whether it is effective. I was also worried about the close up as i felt that it may be difficult for me to capture the scariness of the antagonist and capture the fright of Charlie.

Looking back at the process I believe that we came up with a very effective way to combat the problem with how bumpy and uneven the floor was. We decided to place one of the wooden boards on the ground and that created a smooth surface for us to use. I then experimented with the dolly:

After playing around with the dolly I felt that I was comfortable with my handling of it and that I was happy to keep it in my scene.

I also tested the close up shot. I found that it was surprisingly easy to capture facial expressions and that I was actually worrying over nothing. However I realised that although the angle in which I was filming here was effective as it made Winn seem more powerful, I felt that I would prefer to have it be a straight on shot because I feel it would come across as more menacing. 

I also decided that I wanted to see how a worms eye view would make the character look. After filming I came to the decision that it made the character look too powerful and dominant when I want them to look vulnerable and scared, to achieve this I decided that I would film it from a birds eyes view to make them look small and vulnerable. 

Kirsty also wanted to test one her her shots. This was the one where there is a help face shot of the character and a shadow falls over their face. We wanted to see how we would go about creating the shadow. We experimented with different types of shadows for this.


Personally I experimented with different density of of shadows to see what ones I felt were most effective. 

I felt that the denser the shadow the more of a creepy effect it gave and decided that I wanted to incorporate it at some point in our final piece. 



Over all I feel that the test footage day helped us realise what worked and what didn't making our overall opening more professional   and effective. 

Film Title Decision

https://www.goconqr.com/en-GB/p/8068905

Film Titles Ideas

https://www.goconqr.com/en-GB/p/8068905

Location Scouting - Engine Room

Location Scouting - Abandoned WW2 Control Room

Location Scouting - Castle Farm

Castle Farm is a farm that is owned one of my family friends, so we have permission to film in the main barn and all the other subsequent storage areas and sheds. 

The barn that we are planning on filming in is very large and old looking both on the outside and inside, with ivy and moss growing all over it giving it a run down and decrepit look to it. 

The inside is very similar, with lots of old furniture, doors, planks of wood, lawn mowers and ladders (these make it seem like the perfect place one would play hide and seek in adding to the realism of our piece).

Looking at the farm on a whole i believe that this location would be prefect for the setting of our opening not only because it we have permission for it, but also because I feel that on the whole the look of the barn and farm is exactly what the group was looking for and that the atmosphere of the area is very chilling and neglected which adds to the overall spine-chilling feeling that we want to capture. 

Location Scouting - Torrells Hall Farm

Torrells Hall Farm is a farm that is a two minute walk away from where I live - making it a very practical place for us to film. In addition it is in a very isolated location which is perfect for a thriller. 

However after looking around the location we felt that it was not what we ideally wanted as it did not look that abandoned and run down, more-over it did not give a creepy vibe at all. I also believe that we would not have got permission to film there as it is a functioning farm and is still active. 

As a group we decided that Torrells Hall Farm was not ideal for our location and decided to keep looking. 

Costume Ideas Mood-board - Tyler (Mood-board 2)

During our test footage we realised that the costume for Tyler was not effective as it was generally very dark and it was difficult to see the characters. So we changed the costume to a larger variety of colours. 

Costume Mood-board - Antagonist

Costume Mood-board - Tyler

Costume Mood-board - Charlie

Selections for Actors

Audition - Tyler Munson (Second Audition)

Tyler

I was very happy with Tyler's original audition, however we wanted to have a closer look at her acting skills.

Although Harry Jones(the person she auditioned with) was able to distract her, she was able to make him feel more comfortable about his acting and bring out a better overall audition. 

In this audition i did not like the fact that she was sitting down and not using body language to her best abilities, however from her previous audition i know that she is skilled in this. 

Her performance is outstanding and i was very happy with the idea of working with her.

We decided to cast her.

Auditions - Harry Taylor and Lydia Terry

Lydia 

I felt that Lydia was very confident, expressive and was able to very quickly get into the mindset of the character we had created. 

Unfortunately Lydia had other commitments and subsequently couldn't make our filming our filming dates. 

We decided that we would not cast Lydia.

Harry

Harry was professional, expressive and was happy to be a part of our piece. 

However after looking at the filming dates we found that the dates he was filming for another group clashed with our dates.

As a result of this we decided not to cast him. 

Auditions - Tyler Munson

Tyler

I felt that Tyler's audition was one of the strongest out of everyone that was auditioned. She is hugely expressive and and i felt she was very excited about being a part of it. She was also available for all of our dates as she had no other commitments.

The only thing I can fault about Tyler's performance is that they were very short. 

After taking all of this into account we decided that Tyler is perfect for the role of Charlie and we are very interesting in casting her. 

Auditions - Cydney Purcell

Cydney

Cydney is very charismatic and natural actor, she was excited about being a part of our opening and we felt that as a result of this she would be prefect for the character of Tyler. 
However she was very giggly and unable to stay serious for a long amount of time resulting is having to do a lot of take for only one little scene. In addition she was unable to do many of the dates that we had set out. 
After taking all of these aspects into account we decided not to cast her in out two minute film opening. 

Auditions - Luke Adams

Luke Adams

Luke was very enthusiastic and confident in his acting skills resulting in that coming out in his acting. He also easily made the character his own.

However i felt that Luke was not suited to the character that he had originally auditioned for. In addition we feel that he would be prefect for our antagonist character.

We decided to cast him.

Auditions - Charlotte Barclay and Sophie Painter

Sophie

Sophie was very professional, pronounced very well and given that we had only just given her the script she was able to very quickly get into character and make it her own.

Unfortunately she could not make our filming dates.

We decided not to cast her.

Charlotte

Charlotte was also very confident and comfortable acting in front of a camera. She was also very professional as it took one shot to get the audition done.

However she could not make our filming dates, in additions she didn't really want the part.

So we couldnt cast her.

Auditions - Lauren Ramsden

Lauren

Lauren read clearly and stayed to the script.

However she did not make that character her own and she wanted to be able to focus on the behind the scenes work. 

We took this into account and did not cast Lauren.

Auditions - Samantha Le Roux

Samantha

Sam kept to the script and tried her hardest.
However she was not very confident when acting in front of a camera, she also kept laughing and coming out of character.
We decided not to cast Sam.

Auditions - Sarah Scott

Sarah

Sarah had extremely good pronunciation of her words which I really liked.

However she was not good at getting into the role and was not committed to the role enough. 

As a result of these elements we decided not to cast her.

Auditions - Sam Mullins and Daniel Dean

Sam

Sam was very confident and happy to act in front of the camera, he was very expressive and worked very well with Dan.
However he didn't take the audition very seriously as he stated that he only auditioned for fun, in addition he could not make our audition dates. 
This caused in him not being cast. 

Dan

Dan's audition was very enjoyable as he was very over dramatic and took on his role very well.
However, similar to Sam, he only wanted to audition for fun and couldn't make our dates.
We decided not to cast him.

Focus Group - Pre-production

What we took from our focus group:

 - The group all felt that individually all of our plots had very good aspects to them, however they all felt that if we took those elements and created a new idea it would make it very effective.

 - They felt that all the logos and production company names were at a high standard (although a few felt they were rather boring and stereotypical), however they felt that 'Conundrum Co' stood out due to the alliteration of the C's and also that the word conundrum related to the thriller genre. They felt that my logo for Insidious productions was very effective as it gives a contrast and the colours are what you would associate with the thriller genre (dark).

 - They all had a mixture of preferred sub-genres however they all felt that for our opening the sub-genre Psychological thriller would be the best option for our opening.

 - The expected to see low-key lighting, jump scared, complex narratives, quick shots and fast pace.

 - The felt our Location needed to be isolated, abandoned and rural to make it feel more like there is no one who can help the characters.

 - They had a few ideas for our location such as abandoned warehouses and abandoned farm houses. 

 - The felt that Sam and Sarah did not take the auditions seriously and advised not to cast them, however they felt that Yoli, Tyler and Cydney stood out and that we should consider them. 

Questionnaire Results

I gave the target audience questionnaire to 15 people in our target audience and I got back a series of interesting results that have helped me through out the pre-production and production stage.

The first question was "What three words would you use to describe the thriller genre?". This got back a variety good good answers such as intense, fast-paces, complex, tense, underrated, mentally-stimulating, suspenseful, interesting and scary. These were very interesting and useful as it gave me an idea about what people are looking for in a thriller. 

The second question was "What is you favourite thriller film?" this got a a mixture of answers;

These answers allowed me to see what people like and gives me an idea about what people will want from our thriller film.

The third question was "Do you prefer a tense opening sequence or an opening sequence with more backstory? (Tense        Backstory)" 10 of the group said 'tense', 4 of the group said 'Backstory', and 1 of the people said that it should 

be 'a mixture of both'. 

The Forth question was "What makes you want to watch certain films?

•   Celebrities

•   Popularity of film

•   Film trailer

•   Poster

•   Other________________"

 

The 'Other' included 'The story' and 'The movie topic'. 

The Fifth question is "What thriller sub-genre appeals to you the most?

• Supernatural Thriller
• Crime Thriller
• Mystery Thriller
• Psychological Thriller
• Action Thriller
• Romantic Thriller
• Other___________"

Here I can see that Psychological thriller is the most preferred sub-genre of thriller.

The sixth question was "What do you find builds up suspense in Thriller films (Circle all that apply)?

•   Music

•   Lighting

•   Costume

•   Setting

•   Sound Effects

•   Dialogue

•   Other ________________" 

As shows above 'Dialogue' builds more suspense and that one person who said other was 'Silence'.

The seventh question was "What don't you enjoy from Thriller films (Circle all that apply)?

•   Story line

•   Jump scares

•   Crime scenes

•   Characters

•   Complex ideas

•   Other _________________" 

As shown above the thing that people hated the most was 'jump scares' and the one person who said other stated that 'lack of disobedience' was the least thing they enjoyed.

The Eighth Question was "What location are you more interested in when watching Thriller films?

•   House setting

•   City setting

•   Abandoned setting (forests,fields etc.)

•   Other __________________"

Here it is obvious that hardly anyone liked the idea of a house setting, but they did both like the ideas of a city location and an abandoned location. 

The ninth question was "What lighting would you prefer to watch?

•   Low key lighting

•   High key lighting

•   Lots of shadows and silhouettes

•   Other __________________"

This shows that the majority of people liked both the Low-key Lighting and Shadows and Silhouettes. 

The tenth and final question was "What do you think is the most important part of Thriller films?

•   Costume

•   Props

•   Lighting

•   Setting

•   Story line

•   Sounds

•   Other ________________"

Here we can see that more people felt that the story line was the most important element of a thriller. 

Overall the results I obtained from the target audience questionnaire had helped me understand what people want to see in a thriller and will help me when deciding what to create.