Final AS Thriller Video - "Silent Waters"

Evaluation 7 "Silent Waters" Analysis: Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task (The Continuity Editing Task), What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To Your Full Product?

Evaluation 7 Prelim Analysis: Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task (The Continuity Editing Task), What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To Your Full Product?

Evaluation 6: What Have You Learnt About The Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Product?

Throughout the making of our thriller video, we have had to research and experiment with a number of different technologies that have enabled us to up date our blog, made the video appeal to the specific target audience and let the finished outcome of the opening to be the best it can be. This specifically includes the quality, editing and characters.
 

Evaluation 5: How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

Evaluation 4: Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

Evaluation 3: What Kind Of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product And Why?

Evaluation 2: How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups

Evaluation 1: In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms And Conventions Of Real Media Products?

To gain inspiration for our thriller video, "Silent Waters", we had to research the forms and conventions of real media production thoroughly before deciding on locations, characters and the plot. We decided to develop the typical thriller ideas of the title, costumes etc. However, we also decided to adapt the traditional view and challenge the forms and conventions with our unique location choices.

 

1) The title of the film

             The title of the film was a crucial issue. At times, the group were of two minds as to which title we should go for. Our initial thought was to name it, “You’re Next”. We decided that this would be an effective title for the thriller because it is the subject in the text that Chloe receives in the first scene on the beach. However, members of the group felt that this title seemed too simple and cliché. Furthermore, it was not inventive and gave too much of the story away to the audience. After re-checking the codes and conventions of a thriller, we discovered that short, secretive titles gained the most effective response from the audience – making them feel curious and attracted to the film. Our title, “Silent Waters”, develops the forms and conventions of a real media product because of this.

2) Setting/Location

               The main location for our thriller video was a beach. We also filmed in a forest, train station and car park. The reason we chose these locations were because we felt that they went against the original forms and conventions of real media products because not many thrillers are set at these locations. For example, the beach, which we decided to use after watching the horror film ‘Jaws’. We knew that we would face challenges choosing all four of these locations and to keep the videos looking like a thriller  all the time but we felt that if we kept with the story line that once it came to editing and putting music to the video then these locations would give a ‘goose bump’ effect for the audience.

 

3) Costumes and Props

 

                     We decided that specifically for Ginny’s costume she would wear a normal running kit but with a white top showing her purity however with dark leggings and jumper showing the darkness of when she gets possessed. We got this idea from Cape Fear when the girl in the beginning is wearing white showing her innocence. Due to this, we felt an immediate emotional connection with the girl and worried what would happen to her as the film progressed. Therefore, this shows the development of the forms and conventions of the thriller by going with the stereotype that the colour white is pure and innocent and black is evil and dangerous.

 

4) Camerawork and Editing

 

 

                     In terms of camera work, we decided to use two point of view shots in the forest and car park scene. We chose to do this because we thought it gave an effect to the video to show the audience what the person is seeing. We felt this camera shot broke up all the other shots and gave a closer connection to the audience as if that was the audience who was seeing these things. In the scenes that are meant to be Chloe’s flashbacks we edited them to black and white because we wanted there to be a contrast between what is happening now in present from what has happened in the past. This develops in the forms and conventions of the thriller because it shows that we have experimented with different effects and camera shots to try and make the film as interesting as possible.

5) Title Font and Style

                      We left the title to come right at the end of the video. We did this because it was hard for us to choose a name that we all liked and thought that we should make the film first and decide on the name last minute so we could get inspiration from watching the film. We decided to use a large font so that the title would stand out from the background and is clear to the audience that this is the name of the film. We used a font that had an eerie shadow to it to fit in with our thriller video. However, when it came to choosing a style to put our title in, it became an issue. This was because what we were editing on only had limited choices for us to choose and have in our video. What we decided to go with went well into the video and we kept the title in a white colour so that it did not take too much attention away from the video as it was starting so the audience got an affect from it straight away. This develops the forms and conventions of a thriller because, after watching a popular horror film called ‘Cape Fear’, we liked the idea of the white font of the title because It stood out to the audience watching.

6) Story and how the opening sets it up

 

               As stated above, we decided to use a text message on a phone to start the story. We decided to have the text as follows, “You’re Next”, this was supposedly meant to trigger our main character into becoming possessed. Furthermore, the audience will understand that these events have happened before, so they immediately feel a sense of dread and fear for our initial protagonist. The viewers will also believe that whatever will happen, will continuously last, almost like an unstoppable force. As a result, the audience’s interest is instantly taken to the film, and they will be willing to watch on to see what will happen to this girl, and what has happened before. By doing this, we are using the traditional forms and conventions of a thriller video and grasping our viewers’ attention from the start. They are left questioning which is what our desired response would be. 

7) Genre and how the opening suggests it   

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                We researched into a number of horror genres before making our decision as to what genre we would base our video on. We discussed fantasy such as zombies or ghosts but eventually decided on a psychological thriller. In these types of films, fear is the main emotion that they want their audience to feel, and we decided that this would be a challenge but if we did it well, we would gain very effective results. However, we realised that when the main tension and suspense is built is generally at the end of psychological thriller films such as, ‘Psycho’. So we had to find a way to make the audience ask questions to themselves in our opening. A main aspect of our video where fear and tension is built is in the train scene. Where Amber is seen at the edge of the platform, then the train passes and the last shot of the scene is of the blank platform. We believe that this develops the forms and conventions of a thriller film because the audience are left asking themselves vital questions. They will wonder where she has gone and form their own opinion of the plot, which is the desired reaction for us because we want them to gain as much interest as possible from watching our video.  

8) How the characters are introduced

 

                                 Each character is introduced in a different way, however, every character is shown dropping something. Whether it be a bag, bottle or phone they all drop something and this, along with make up, signifies their possession. Each of the girls is our video appear to be average, teenage girls who are carrying out every day tasks. This aspect was important for us because we want our audience to feel as if they can relate to the action and feel a sense of fear that this may happen to them. As our target audience are teenagers, we decided that this could be a possible reaction from them. Some popular thriller films appear to want their audience to relate to the characters, such as Nina in "Black Swan", where she is just a typical ballet dancer but then lets her mental disorder take over her. Due to characters like this, audiences can relate to them and they personally feel the tension created by the action, but some well-known thrillers opposed this idea, such as, "Alien" where audiences know that the plot is fiction and are unlikely to relate to the characters. It could be said that this idea is challenged and developed through forms and conventions of real products, because each film uses different techniques to introduce their characters, but we have decided to introduce ours as average teenagers to gain an effective response from our viewers.

Evaluation 7 Blooper

  

Here is our first attempt at filming Evaluation 7. As you can see, we encountered some issues. This includes, Rosie looking straight at the camera, Chloe unsure as to when to stop the film and the sound of a hoover in the background.

Bloopers Video

Bloopers Analysis

Changes And Problems Analysis

Changes And Problems

Audience Feedback Three

Audience Feedback Two

Audience Feedback One

Audience feedback from rosieellieamberchloe

Editing Diary

Filming Diary - Day Four

Filming Diary - Day Three

Third Scene Diary by amberandellie

Filming Diary - Day Two

Filming diary day two from rosieellieamberchloe

Filming Diary - Day One

Statistics

 

This is a stats page from our blog will back up what will be said in Evaulation 6. We thought this was very interesting to know about because we can see how gobal our blog actually is. As you can see we dont just have viewers from around Europe in countries such as Germany and Russia but we also have viewers from the United States of America. By gaining these viewers, the group realised that this was another way that we can market our film. The audience get to see everything we have been doing over the process of our filming and editing our film.

Costume For Scene Four

This photo shows character four's costume. You can see that she has wearing casual clothing. The fact that she is wearing dark clothing suggests that she could have a big impact in the film but on the other hand, she is wearing a white shirt and light colour shoes suggesting a sense of purity. This makes the audience ask more questions, whether she has something in common with the possessor or she is just another helpless victim.

Costumes For Scene Three

For character three, we chose to use a very casual type of clothing. This picture shows her wearing leggings and a grey jumper. This, to the audience, means that she is a teenager that has been out for the night at a party or a gathering and has ended up staying overnight at the location. Another aspect about this costume that shows that she has been out is the fact that it is a little bit roughed up. The off the shoulder jumper and the make-up stained white top shows she has been wearing it a while.

Costume For Scene Two

Costume Two - Student

This is what we decided to have Amber wear in the train station. It is very different from what the first character is wearing. We wanted her to dress like a student so the target audience can relate and show that she is younger and more venerable. As we were filming this scene during the evening we thought that we should dress her in darker clothing. We hoped that were the train station didn't have much light and she was wearing dark clothing then when we put the make up on her the white paint would stand out more and make her face stand out more effective. The dark clothes go well when she has become possessed to show the evil in her.

Costume For Scene One

Costume One - Runner

This is what we designed for Ginny’s scene in the forest. We thought that for her to were a white top it would show purity in her and her innocence. However we wanted her to have a contrast in her costume and have darker elements in with what she is wearing as she is the first victim we see in the flashbacks so wanted to show the darker side of her when she gets possessed. We felt adding the black in to her costume would show evil, danger and mystery with what is about to happen. We needed the character to carry a water bottle with her so once she had become possessed she would drop the bottle and this would symbolise that something has happened and taken over her.

Evidence For Filming

This is a photo from the car park scene; in this photo you can see Rosie and Chloe filming from the ground floor trying to get shots of Emily's face standing at the edge of the roof.
In this photo, we are discussing whether to zoom in on Emily's face as she comes close to the edge. This would give the audience the distinct impression of the fear upon her face and, in turn, they would feel the suspense and terror of what is to come.
However, we did not use this shot in the end as our film was too long but it gave us more options when it came to making the final cut of our thriller. We decided to use the shot of her stepping up onto the railing because this gave the audience more questions to consider. For example, instead of actually seeing Emily vanish from the roof, the audience are left contemplating her fate and forming their own conclusions as to how and why she has appeared to commit suicide.

Directing

This is photo evidence taken by me that shows Ellie directing the third scene. She helped me make suggestions when it came to filming and told our actors what they had to do so that it went with the storyline of the video. She made practical decisions, especially in this scene when it came to Chloe walking into the water that would allow me to get the shot but not put Chloe at risk. She also led the rest of the team throughout the process of filming and lesson discussions, and organised blogs that we must do. However, if some members didn't complete the blogs needed she would try to divide them equally but this proved difficult. Me and Ellie had to work closely together to get the right shots that would go well with the video and that would stick to the storyline. This is something that I believe me and her did successfully because we got the shots we wanted.

Southend Beach Filming

This is the main location to our thriller video. As we discussed using Southend beach as our main location, a number of problems arose. We didn't want Chloe to completely enter the water up to her waist, therefore, we were lucky that we found this spot on the beach. It was a pathway that led to the water and we decided to shoot under the pillars because it gave us more cover. After Amber and I did the necessary risk assessments on the path we decided, due to the shoes that Chloe was initially wearing, it would be safer if she walked on it with her shoes off, as this would give her more grip on the slippery surface. Although it was cold on her feet, Chloe did not have to enter the water completely and we still got the crucial shots we needed.  

Filming

This is a photo taken by me that shows Rosie filming the first scene. This evidence applies to our whole video, which Rosie also filmed. Whilst I directed the scenes, Rosie offered practical suggestions that would enable her to get the best shot for the Thriller. For instance, in this picture, Rosie is taking the shot from a high angle to suggest that our character is vulnerable and is likely to be in danger. This shot, along with others that Rosie suggested fitted with the codes and conventions of a typical thriller video. Therefore, the initial ideas of direction that I suggested had to be adapted to work alongside the vital camera angles.  

Schedule For Filming

Why We Chose Not To Use Dialogue

As a group, we all agreed that we didn't want to use dialogue. We had a discussion and decided that using dialogue would ruin the feel of the whole film and that it would kill the tension and the suspence. The use of dialogue would ruin the pace of the video and the audeicen would be distracted by what the characters are saying instead of following the storyline. You have to be able to have the facial expressions and the body language to match as well, otherwise it wouldnt sound right. We did think about using dialogue but soon after we all agreed that it would ruin our video. In the end, we all made the decision that it was best to present our storyline through imagery rather than dialouge.

Props We Chose To Use In Each Scene

Marking Other Students Work Two

Marking Other Students Work One

Logo Analysis

Our Film Poster Analysis

When it came to making a poster for our thriller video, I used the initial title idea of, "You're Next", and created a poster based around that name. When we went to our main location, we thought it would be effective to write the title in the sand. It would remind the audience of our thriller's unique location and  call attention to the original title. However, when it came to creating the poster I used the photo, but I had to be careful not to stretch it. If I did, the audience would not have been able to read the text and it would have looked fundamental. Furthermore, I had to write the reviews that our thriller supposedly got and add the credits at the bottom. The colour of the sand disabled me to do this because I couldn't find the right font and colour that made the text visible to see clearly.

After this, I discussed other possible titles for our thriller and proposed that we call it "Silent Waters". The rest of the group were sceptical at first because the original is linked significantly to our thriller opening. However, after researching the codes and conventions again we concluded that a short, mysterious name was popular with awaiting audiences. For the poster, I decided to use a dark image of water as the background, and then use a simple, white font for the text. Initially, I wanted to use a red colour font for the text but it did not accompany the image and did not give me the effect I desired.

For me, the main inspiration for this poster was the poster for the 1991 thriller film, 'Cape Fear'.

 

I liked the distinct background image of water because it gave the connotations of being mysterious and unknown. I also liked that the title was designed to be in the middle of the poster with a simple, white font. Due to this, I was drawn directly to the title and then looked at the images alongside it. I noticed that the director was put first, followed by the well-known actors. This was the inspiration for my poster because it was effective at letting me form my own opinions of the film, and I could clearly tell that the antagonist was the one almost absorbed in the water, staring directly at the viewer.

"Silent Waters" Final Poster

Silent Waters Final Poster

"You're Next" Original Poster

You're Next Original Poster

Marketing - Twitter

Marketing - Instagram

Marketing - Facebook

First Session In Editing Room

This is a photo taken by Ellie. This was our first session in the editing room, this shows me and Rosie exploring different editing techniques with Pinnacle. As none of us have ever used this program and did not know how to use it. It took us a while to figure out how to put the videos onto actual program to make the film. When we did this tough we when went through all the different types of edits we could have used in the film and as a group decided what thought looked better for the video.

Character Profile - Amber

Here you can see another victims profile and you can see straight away that she is in her collage years, studying alevels and getting the train home to where she lives in Upminster, Essex. You can see that she is stuck in a train delay at this point and that she isnt happy about it. The audience can see that she is a pretty girl and has really long brown hair and brown eyes.

Character Profile - Emily

This character is one of the victims that get possessed by the antagonist. From her profile, you can see that she is a teenage shopaholic from Brentwood in Essex. You can see that she enjoys a midday shop on her own and that she is quite popular in the community. She is a pretty girl with long brown hair and a nice smile.

Character Profile - Ginny

From looking at this characters facebook profile, you can instantly tell that she loves too keep fit and go running. To the audience, she comes across as an energetic teenager from Shenfield in Essex. Shes got midlength curly hair and brown eyes. From her picture, you can also see that she is really up with the fashion. She often has early starts and enjoys her sports and socialising.

Character Profile - Chloe

This is a character profile for the main character in our thriller film. You can see that she is a young teenage girl who likes to socialise and go out with her friends. She lives in Brentwood and clearly is very popular with the people around her. By reading this, you can see that she is getting ready for something important and she is really excited for it. This could also explain to the audience why she has woken up on the beach in the opening shot of the film.

Storyboard, Ideas and First Scene Discussion

Make-Up Evidence

This is photo evidence of me applying the make-up design to Amber in the second scene. I also applied the make-up to each character in every scene so each design would be the same. Here are the finished results:

 

This was the first scene in which I tried and tested the make-up. After testing the design, the group decided that Ginny's face looked gaunt and dissimilar to her original features. After hearing the groups feedback, I was satisfied that our target audience would react the same way.

 

In the second scene, I changed the make-up to adding more coats of the white base face paint. This was necessary because we shot this scene in darkness, and I wanted the make-up to be the centre of the shot to accentuate the characters possession.  

 

The beach scene is the main scene in our video. Initially, I wanted to change the make-up to make Chloe appear different to the audience because she is the main protagonist in the video. However, I also wanted the characters to be linked in an obvious way, so I decided, with the groups input, to leave Chloe's make-up and change it in the last shot. Although this shot is not used in the final cut of the video, the make-up that Chloe has defiantly sets the scene, and thus, the story would begin.

 

For Emily's make-up we had to use different brands as we encountered some problems. However, the finished result looked similar to the original design and accompanied by editing techniques, you couldn't see any obvious differences.

Pitch and Brief

"Silent Waters" Storyboard Two

"Silent Waters" Storyboard One

Make Up

Make up is a very significant part of our video. Each of the four characters that appear in the video have the same make up, with an exception when it came to the main character, Chloe, who has slightly different design in the final shot. The make up we chose was a plain white face paint  on the face and dark outline around the eyes using a black eye liner pencil and black eye shadow. We decided to use this make up design because we wanted the faces to appear skeletal and gaunt.  

First Make Up For Our Thriller Video

Music

Main Prop For The First Scene

The rope we used in the runners scene was the main prop. After Rosie and Ellie got permission from the site team to use one of their ropes, we had to figure out a place for it to go. As the character saw this hanging from the tree that was what caused her to become possessed. The last clip in the scene you see Ginny's character holding the rope around her neck and this makes the audience think 'what is she about to do?'. As a group we had a lot of problems with trying to get the rope hanging from the tree as all the trees has very high branches, this made it difficult for us to make a knot in the rope to keep it in its position to make it look realistic. Once we got it tied to the tree it became stuck and we didn't know how to get it down. Therefore me and Ellie discussed how to solve this problem safely, we decided to look for a branch long enough to reach the rope at the top of the tree. Thankfully we were able to get the rope down and return it to the site team as planned.

Our Final Location Choice

Final Location Video

Forest Risk Assessment

Forrest Risk Assessment by

Train Station Risk Assessment

Train Station Risk Assessment by

Multi-Story Risk Assessment

City Risk Assessment by

Beach Risk Assessment

Beach Risk Assessment by

Brain Storm Ideas

The Importance of Title Sequences

Make-Up Analysis

Make-Up Analysis

Influences For Our AS Thriller Video

Analysis Of Third Set Of Results

Third Results

Analysis Of Second Set Of Results

Second Results

Analysis Of First Set Of Results

First Results

Questionnaire Results Introduction

Questionnaire Blank

Questionnaire by rosieellieamberchloe

Focus Group Findings

After receiving the results from our focus groups, we were left to discuss some major aspects of what should be included in our opening thriller video.
The first results were taken from students of our target audience age range. This was crucial to us as we ultimately want our video to be viewed and enjoyed by teenagers. They specifically stated that they would expect a thriller film to make them jump, and have a number of red herrings. Therefore, we can assume that they would enjoy a false sense of security, only to be surprised and taken of guard when a new revelation is revealed. The also told us that they would expect talented actors to star in a thriller film, so that they can deliver the lines given in a believable way. This is something we will defiantly have to consider when making our video.
The second results were taken from our two media teachers. They have stated that they expect the feeling of suspense when watching a thriller. They also explored the idea of an unexpected antagonist, where the main villain in the film could be an ordinary person, the result of this being that the audience do not suspect them and are eventually surprised. Furthermore, a popular thriller film was mentioned, "Physco", this is a film that we plan to watch and hopefully gain inspiration for our video. Finally, a common idea that was discussed was being able to ask questions about a certain film throughout. This led them to becoming more involved in the film, something that we wish our viewers would feel also.  

Focus Group 2

Focus Group 1

Film Poster Analysis

Film Poster Analysis

Demographic and Psychographic Profiling

Demographics is a way of sorting the general public into different sectors, making it easier to market and sell products like films and television programmes. It helps when it comes to the marketing process of these products because it allows the producer to know who will come and watch the product when it is released.

The Demographic classes consist of:

A- Higher Management, Bankers, Lawyers, Doctors and other professionals.

B- Middle Management, Teachers, Creative and Media people such as Graphic Designers.

C1- Office Supervisiors, Junior Managers, Nurses, Specialist Clerical Staff (White Collar Jobs).

C2- Skilled Manual Workers, Plumbers, Builders (Blue Collar Jobs)

D- Semi-Skilled and Unskilled Manual Workers.

E- Students, Unemployed, Pensioners and Casual Workers.

From our own past experience and other peoples advice, we worked out that the most common demograpahic class to be seen attending the cinema is class E. We, as a group, then agreed that making our thriller video for these sorts of people would be the best thing to do. Also some of the higher classes might be interested in watching it too.

Demographic is about peoples place in society, their class and jobs whereas Psychographic Profiling is about the general publics personalities and what they like and enjoy.

The Psychographic classes consist of:

Mainstreamers- These sort of people tend to be domestic, conformist and sentimental. this is usually the most common, biggest group seen in society.

Succeeders- This group of people usually have very high goals, confidence, a high work ethic, good organisation, typically seen as higher management and professionals.

Aspirers- Materialistic, serious about their apperence and fashion, usually seen as sales workers and typically protrayed though young people.

Resigned- This group are very interested in the past and history, they also take concern for the economy and safety. Mostly seen as old people.

Strugglers- This category is seen as very alienated and very disorganised, they buy alot of junk food, lottery tickets and alcohol, seen as money wasters, usually put in the D or E sector in demographics.

Reformers- This group has freedom of restictions and personal growth, Social awareness and materialism isnt a big thing to them but good taste is. they have usually atteneded some form of higher education and have a better qulity of life.

Explorers- This group has alot of energy, experience and individualism, people that want to travel the world is an example of this category and they are seen in the form of students.

We all agreed that the group, Mainstreamers are would be the obvious group to aim our thriller at. As we are students ourselves, we know what is expected from the youth in society. We are trying to aim our thiller at both Aspirers and Mainstreams. Even though this will be a big challenge, we believe that if we work as a tight team unit and co-operate well together, we will achieve a thriller video aimed at our desired audience.

Our BBFC Rating

BBFC Research

BBFC Research by rosieellieamberchloe

The Woman In Black Opening Sequence Analysis

Woman In Black Opening Sequence Analysis by

The Woman in Black Opening Scene (Title Sequence Chosen By Me)

Cape Fear Opening Sequence Analysis

Cape Fear Opening Scene (Title Sequence Chosen By Our Teacher)

Information Gained From Year 13

 

Do's and Dont's When Creating A Thriller

Top Five Thriller/Horror Films

Mood Board Analysis

Mood Board Analysis by

Codes and Conventions for a Thriller

Pre-Production Evaluation

Pre-Production

Before starting to film our prelim, we all discussed what storyline we would base our short video on. As the prelim was estimated to be around thirty seconds long, we knew that we had to create a basic story that would enable us to add in the necessary camera angles and editing techniques. We were told that we had to include a shot reverse shot, match on action and we had to stick to the 180 degree rule. We had to include a character walking through a door and also a bit of dialogue must have been implemented by two or more people. By brainstorming our storyboard as a group, we came to the conclusion that the prelim must be simple. We decided to base the action in a detention room where two students are sitting and seem to be having an argument, (shot reverse shot, dialogue). Then a teacher enters a room through the door, (match on action). The teacher would hold up two exam papers and ask who copied of whom, (180 degree rule), as the exams were identical. The original story board is as follows: As a whole, using a storyboard definitely benefitted us as a group. We learnt that it is crucial to have a plan before filming because you have to keep organised. Furthermore, we knew when we were going to add the compulsory requirements. After having the lesson with the year 13s, it really gave us an insight on how many problems can actually arise during the filming of our thriller, some of them also came up in our prelim video. Some of the best information that they gave us was about filming the footage. We had never realised that when filming, you would have to take some risks such as deleting some of the footage that you may thought working with the other scenes you have filmed. They also taught us that we shouldn’t be afraid of things like editing and trying different things. They also mentioned that when you are filming, don’t rush it but editing takes longer so it’s best to film all the footage first so you can spend the majority of your time editing and making your thriller film better. Another thing that we had problems with is trying to find a good way to film our prelim. We decided that the best way to do it was on the Smartphone app, IMovie. We found this app really easy to use and helped us a lot because we have never done anything like this before. This also made the task a whole lot less stressful for the group, causing fewer arguments.

Production Evaluation

Production  

When filming out Prelim, we encountered a lot of problems. Due to the absence of a member of our group, we had to film it more than once. The first time we filmed, we did a run though so we knew how it was going to look when we filmed the final video. It also allowed us to change any problems and timings needed to make it better. The second time we filmed, we had to we had to use another person due to the absence. This didn’t affect us as much because we were confident that the other person would fit in and work as well as the absent member of our group. Another problem that we came across was trying to find a location. The room that we previously filmed in wasn’t available when we had the opportunity to film the last few scenes. This meant that we had to film it all again in another room that was available at the time. This did set us back quite a bit because we had to go through the whole process of filming and cutting out footage again. Costume was also a big problem because we had to make sure that the actors in the prelim had the same clothes and hairstyles on both days of filming. But luckily for us, we filmed all of our final footage in the last day. In the planning process of our prelim, we as a group, created a storyboard. We thought this would really help us because it had all the characters positioning and the camera shots that needed to be used.  However when it came to filming our prelim, we didn’t actually refer to it as much as we thought we would. It did help us on the basis of positioning and camera shots but the timing didn’t work out as well as we planned on the storyboard. We also added props to the story board as a general idea but it turned out that we used a lot more than we thought we needed to use. Even though we had to overcome a lot of problems, we did learn a lot of lessons from this prelim experience. One lesson we believe will benefit us a lot from, was when filming out thriller we have to take into account how long it does take to film every bit of footage. We thought that because it was only a 30 second long clip, it would be really quick and easy to film. We were soon proved wrong when we realised that some of the footage we had filmed didn’t really work well with the other scenes, causing a problem that we had to film the scene again to make it fit in. Taking this experience though to the production process of our thriller, we think that all the lessons learnt will benefit us a lot because now we know what possible problems may arise during the filming and we also know how to overcome and work around them.

Post-Production Evaluation

Post-Production

In the pre-production phase of our prelim, we thought that there would be a lot of problems when it came to editing our prelim, because we thought that if the footage didn’t fit then we would have to film the whole thing again. When we realised that we could use the Smartphone app, IMovie, we found that this task got increasingly less stressful. We quickly got to grips with the techniques that we can use and used a lot of them throughout our prelim. For our main thriller task, we found that we can use a lot of different editing techniques and apps to help us create a thriller video for the main task. When we showed some people our prelim video, we did get quite a lot of positive feedback. Some people said that they liked the way that we used the fades between each scene; they added that it made it look really effective. Some people said that they thought the different camera shots we used made it really effective and meaningful. You could really see the emotions and annoyance in the characters faces. When we watched the final video back, it did match our visualisation quite a bit but our ideas did change throughout. This didn’t help when it came to making our final video match our visualisation but as we went through the production process we realised that some of our ideas really did fit in well with what our original idea. By having this experience, we still haven’t decided whether or not we are going to use a phone and film it on IMovie or if we are going to use the software on a computer and film it with a video camera. By using IMovie to film this short 30 second clip, it gave the experience and taught us a lesson so we know how to use it when it comes to filming our actual thriller video. The prelim really helped us because it also taught us a lot a different skills we can use, how to shoot the different camera shots and also to use our timing efficiently. We as a group are quite glad that we got the chance to film the prelim because it taught us to work as a team and made us realise that it is harder than it looks. Therefore we now know how all the possible problems and dilemmas that should come up during our thriller. We went to our media teacher for some feedback on our final prelim video and there was a lot of constructive criticism given. Some of the things that were discussed were about the transitions used. Using the amount of fades and whips, took away the continuity and the flow of our video. This helped us because now we know that not to use as mush or even no transitions at all in our final thriller piece. Team work was one of our strongest strengths in this task. Even though we had a few disagreements, we managed to overcome them and still stay as a tight team unit.