Flim openenigs 08/01/09

During this lesson we watched a documentary about film openings and had to answer questions. This was done so that we could get an idea of the different ways in which we could open a film and see which ones were effective. One example of a film opening is 'Flashback' and this is when a film starts with something you would use for an ending. Other film openings are Classic - this is when the film starts with instant arousal, however instant arousal may cause high expectations and the film may need to have another thing that is good to keep the audience interested. After we watched the documentary and answered questions such as 'Why is kyle coopers title sequence to seven so effective' We watched some of the past thriller openings and saw what we could and shouldn't do.

Sound- 05/01/09

In this lesson Mickey showed us a clip from Casino Royale to show us the different sounds they use and how effective it was . Then we done an exercise on Soundtrack Pro andwe hade to edit in the sounds for example dialogue, soundtracks and sound effects. After doing this i realised how important soundtrack was because a good soundtrack may attract and help build suspense. I found that editing sound into a film wasn't easy but it wasn't hard either it just required patience and was very time consuming but the result was good.

Editing first practice film -newspaper

This lesson we began editing our film using the Final Cut programme. We used 'Cature and Log' to get the shots we wanted to use. I found this very difficult because when we chose our shots we had to edit them so each shot flowed into the next shot and look like a real film. I quite liked the finished film because it looked and it was our first time using cameras. After we picked the shots we wanted and put them in the right order we then decided to add non diagetic and diagetic sounds for example the cup crashing and a soundtrack to build tension.

First film practice -newspaper

During this lesson we were taught how to use the main features on the camera for example how to put a battery into a camera, open a tripod and insert and eject tapes.
Last lesson we were given a story line about a person reading a newspaper and it was compulsory to use Close up, Over The Shoulder and Point Of view Shot. It was up to us to try convert something boring into something thrilling. So our group got together and started filming our storyboard which we had planned. When filiming we tried including a variety of shots. We began with an over the shoulder shot of a newspaper ( which was opened) and a cup of water then Khaleda walked into the shot and sat down .Previously before we edited the original shot we had decided to have a close up of the closed newspaper however we changed our minds because we had realised that the next shot began with the newspaper opened and it didnt make sense because we did not show any on open it . Also in our film we used extreme close ups for example on the eyes to show the 'shock' and we also used extreme close up to show a hand crushing the cup of water. Another shot we used that was good was the worm's eye view on the feet taping frantically not only because i was the one who done it but because it looked professional and was not shakey .Overall in the film we managed to include all the complusory shots and even add some other ones. For me i found the lesson to be quite interesting because it was the first time that we used the cameras.

Filming Our Opening

Monday 26th January:
In todays lesson, me and my group decided to start filming some scenes from our opening. We chose a location close to our college. It was a street full of houses. We recoreded the character walking towards the camera which was hand held to make it seem more realistic. We took photographs of her to use when editing the opening. We also used panning to give the scene a more intresting look. The charcter wore normal clothing; a jacket, jeans, bag and shoes.

Planning Our Thriller Opening

Thursday 22nd January:
In todays lesson, me and my group had to start planning our real opening sequence for our thriller. We thought about what the story should be about and decided to make it about a crazy man who stalks young girls and takes photos of them. We have flashbacks of victims he's kidnapped before but then we mix it with the present when he kidnaps the final girl. We wanted to show this by starting off the film with him secretly watching each girl and taking a few pictures and we have quick cuts to him pinning the photos to his collage of other victims photos. As he takes the pictures we hear camera shutters to add tension against the background soundtrack which we haven't decided yet.

We decided to keep the stalker a mystery by not showing his face. We will do this by having point-of-view shots and over-the-shoulder shots. He will be wearing dark, plain clothes as this connotes that he does not want to be noticed. The female victims will be wearing normal, everyday clothes eg. jeans and jacket.

The locations we chose were the park, the bus stop and a street. These are everyday locations that the audience can relate to and familiarise with. The target audience is aged 15+ as they can relate more to the situations and characters.

First Film Practice.

During this lesson we were told that we had to practice filming. We were given a storyline, that involved a person and a newspaper and had to contain at least 12 shots. We had to elaborate, and make the storyline as thrilling as possible. Our film had to contain a extreme close up, point of view shot and a over the shoulder shot. So our group got together and we started discussing what other various shots we could use to make film excting and thrilling. After several minutes we wrote down the shots we were goin to use for our film on the storyboard and off we set to film! Working the camera was not so bad, as we were given a tutorial on how to use it. At first filming the shots in order, according to the storyboard, but soon later we realised it was easier and quicker to film any shots and later we could just edit them and put them in order. I would say i was happy with the camera work, as we managed to capture nearly all the shots we wanted. I think the most successful shot we managed to capture was the worms eye view of my feet tapping on the floor, this is because this particular shot looked more proffessional, as the camera was not hand held, or moved about so it there wasn't much shaking. One shot we originally planned to have didn't not work. This was the slow zoom in from a high angle, it was difficult to capture it because it was difficult to control the zoom in button and our media teacher said we should avoid using it because it's hard to make it look perfect, instead we decided not to use the shot. Finally we captured all our shots, and we were told we had to edit our shots next lesson. This lesson i found very enjoyable, as it was my first time handling the camera.

The next lesson we were put in the media room. We were asked to edit our shots using the programme Final Cut. This i found very fustrating, as i had very little knowledge on how to work it. It was very confusing as i kept deleting the film we made and had to 'Capture and log' several times. We looked through our film a couple of times and decided on what shots we wanted to keep. It took several minutes to capture the shots we wanted, we then had to make it run continuously to make it look like an actual film. I would say the editing was very successful, because i was happy with how our film turned out. Our film was about a girl, flicking through a newspaper frantically, when she comes across an Al-Quieda aritical, she loses it and runs out of the building. We managed to create suspense and tension through our various shots. The exteme close up of her eyes expressed emotion and the close up of the crushing of the cup expressed her shock. We had other shots such as long shots of the newspaper, and a long shot of the girl runnning out of the buliding. I would say our film shared some of the conventions of thriller films. As it contained quick cuts, and our film was at a quick pace so that built up tension. Another thing we tried to work on was the music, music plays a big role when creating tension. We had run out of time to edit the music further. If i had more time i would have worked on the music allowing it to create more tension and suspense for our film!