FINAL PRODUCT: OPENING SCENE

Our media product was saved on one group members computer and we had difficulties uploading it to any place in order to allow it to be shown on our blog. We tried uploading via the software we used to edit which didn't work and we were also unable to use YouTube to get our video online.

As only one of our members had the footage it can only be seen on her blog, below is a link to our final product:

katieflatters.blogspot.com

Tension Music

Here is the youtube clip of the soundtrack we are using within our project. We used approximately the first ten seconds of sound. We think it suites our thriller film well and adds tension and suspence.

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK QUESTIONNAIRE

After completing the film editing it was necessary for use to create a audience feedback questionnaire in order to find out what people felt about our film and how they thought we could improve. Once we gain results from the audience it will make it easier to evaluate our film as we will have the audiences opinion and won't be able to make bias comments about it ourselves. The questionnaire allowed us to find out how much our film lived up to the typical thriller conventions and enabled us to gain a knowledge on camera use and lighting etc this means we could improve further on any other media filming we did in the future.

Below are the results and evaluations of our questionnaires;

Question One
After watching our film did you feel it met the conventions of a typical thriller film, briefly explain why.

We gained many mixed answers here, below are the answers listed.

"Mostly, what conventions are included are good, some are missing though."
"Yes because it made me want to watch more due to the physiological effects"
"Yes, it was tense especially at the end when the scary person walked out after the young girl"
"Yes, because it matched the thriller conventions of tension and suspense"
"A little it was dark and eerie at some points and did create some tension"
"Yes because it created suspense with the person in the black hoody in the background"
"Yes because it had suspense and the supernatural"
"sometimes, needed a little more suspense"
"Yes, met a psychological thrillers conventions, strange things happening etc"
"Yes, it was eerie and tense"

From these results we can see that the majority of people we asked agreed that it met the conventions of a thriller film, with only a couple of people saying it needed more. This is positive feedback as it means we've created and planned our thriller correctly and it will meet the needs of people who enjoy watching thriller films.


Question Two
After watching out opening scene do you think we have maintained a steady. professional use of the digital camera

Yes - 6
No - 1
Mainly - 3

As you can see from our results 60% of people that we asked agreed that we maintained a steady professional use of the camera. This is positive as it means that most people found it easy to watch and thought it was a smooth use of the camera.

Although the majority agreed with us a couple of people we asked answered no, this could be as they had a higher expectation of standard as they may be expecting the quality you get in a released film. Along with this though 30% said that the camera use was steady most of the time, meaning we may have only slipped up a couple of times.




Question Three
If possible could you briefly explain what you think will happen within the rest of the film

Again we gained mixed answers to this question, they are listed below;

"The two girls get kidnapped, only one escapes and other dies"
"Scary figure will continue to follow them, hurt them etc they will keep trying to escape"
"In the rest of the film i think the girl will be stalked and found which will destroy her both mentally and physically"
"The two girls die in the end and are stalked by the scary person"
"The stalker would stalk the two girls and eventually would get killed"
"The dark figure will torment the girls and they will become trapped in their own house"
"Girls will be kidnapped, friends at party will be looking for them"
"They will carry on getting chased by the figure and eventually be killed"
"Girls will become in danger will be trying to get away from the person, possibly kill her"

From these results the opening scene has showed the audience that the two girls are the victims which is what actually happened throughout the film, however only one girls dies. Only one person who answered predicted this, meaning we have succeeded in misleading the audience. This means when they realize the truth towards the end of the film a bigger shock factor will be created, making our film more successful.

Question Four
Do you feel the use of a soundtrack and sound effects has contributed to creating atmosphere and tension for our opening scene?




Yes - 8
No - 2

From our results 80% of the people we asked agreed that a soundtrack and sound effects contributed well to creating an atmosphere, this shows that it is a good thing to use within our movie and does help to create a thriller effect.




Only 20% of people asked said that they thought the soundtrack didn't contribute, this could be as they didn't like the sounds or just felt it was not needed within the film.


Question Five
On a scale of one to ten could you rate how successful you think our opening scene is:





one-0 five-3 nine-0
two-0 six-3 ten-0
three-0 seven-2
four-0 eight-2

From our results you can see that people mostly went for a score between 5 and 8 this is positive for us as it mean it was successful, it worked but could have been better.



Question Six
Could you give us some feedback explaining what you like and didn't like etc

Peoples answers to question six varied and it was an open question which couldn't be put into a graph, the majority of people said we could improve on how smoothly the film run. This is a very valid comment to say and we have taken it on board for when we produce our next piece of media work. A few other people mentioned that the continuity of the film could have been better, this is vital in a film and we have also thought about how we could make this better. If the continuity is good it also means the film may run more smoothly.

FILM EDITING

The next step within our media is to upload and edit our footage, to create and edit our film we are using Premiere Elements 7.0. This software is the only avaible one we know how to use successfully and is relatively simple to use which will allow us to easily edit our footage.

We decided to edit our footage as a group, we think this is best as this way we each can put our ideas across and let other member of the group know what we do and don't like and are able to change it quickly together, rather than having to go through everything again after the individual has finished editing.

After opening the premiere elememts a screem shows like the one on the left, and asks you to name your project and search for a place in your documents to save it.
It is encouraged to save you prject with and appropriate name and save in a place you will know as it means you can find it easily and it's more likely that you won't loose it.


Once our footage was uploaded we deleted the selected scenes we knew wasn't going to be needed at all within our film. We then also took time to create the correct sequence so that shots didn't get mixed up and we knew which scene came after the next etc and whether it was the right one. This is as we have many scenes in the same place but with the characters saying different things if we don't make sure they are in the right place the conversation taking place would not make sense.

This is a screen shot of what the premiere elemts program looks like once you have uploaded your film and are ready to edit.
The small boxes on the right clips of our film. To put them in place we simply drag them to the small box on the bottom left of the screen.

We are then able to cut the shots into place and watch it all all the way through to see how it flows before editing further. Once we cut all of our clips in the correct places we then added titles and sounds to give a better effect and atmosphere of a thriller.



As we used a soundtrack off youtube, we had to contact the created of the clip in order to follow the copyright laws.
"Copyright is a of exclusive rights granted to the author or creator of an origional work, icluding the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work" -Wikipedia
If we did not do so it is likely that we can get into trouble for copying an artists work therefore we composed and sent an e-mail to the company.

FILMING

In order to start filming we made sure we had access to a camera, we booked a camera on the 2nd of January in order for us to begin filming when appropriate. We used a Digital Camcorder and did all of our clips on various different dates on this one camera.

The people who appeared in our film are three members of our group. Katie and Honor (the two main girls) and Amelia (the scary person.) We decided to use the members of our group as we believed we would take it more seriously and would be able to put our thriller film across better as we scripted it and knew how we wanted it to go. As i was not in the film i was in charge of filming and made sure we got clips we were able to use.

Our first day of filming was on the 10th of January, we can only film when dark which is a disadvantage, and meant on this day we were only able to film the inside shots as it was not as dark as we would have expected or liked.
Instead of filming outside we filmed the scenes in the bathroom, bedroom and games room we managed to get all of these shot in this one day and therefore only needed to finish the outside shots to be able to begin editing.

The next day we filmed was the 31st of January this was our last filming session we had to get our Media Main Task piece finished. We left it late and was running out of the time due to group memebers having work and rarely getting a day with all of us together.
We managed to get the rest of our filming done in the session and are not ready to begin editing and sorting our clips.

COSTUME AND PROPS

We wanted our film to look as natural and as less tacky as possible and therefore costumes were not necessarily needed. Katie and Honor wore their averge teenage girl clothes and some make-up whilst used to show that the girls were getting ready.
Amelia the 'Scary Person' wore a black hooded jumper and we put black eye shadow around her eyes to give a dark effect. We also made sure her hair was messed up so she stood out when she was shown in the mirror.

We had few props, Katie had her toothbrush Honor had her blusher and we used a phone as a torch. For the splashes in the pool we just used our hands to give off the impression someone was in there.

TARGET AUDIENCE

After scripting and storyboarding our planned film we had to think about the age restrictions on our film and who we are aiming it at in more detail. The target audience for many thriller films are 18+ this is as they can include violence, obscene language and may use some psychological issues in which could be disturbing to younger people.
We decided our film would be a 15+ as after researching other psychological thrillers such as 'Final Destination' and 'Disturbing Behaviour' we realised that these films did not include any real explicit conduct in the film, it was based on violence and betrayal etc. These such themes are typical for a thriller film and furthermore are more explict than our film.

Therefore the age certificat 15 is suitable for our film as the content is not overly explicit. Our main characters are teenagers/young adults and therefore the target audience can relate to them.