Shreyaa's Thriller Blog: March 2011

Monday, 14 March 2011

Goodbye!

Dear Moderator,

Thank you for viewing my blog, I hope you enjoyed all the work I created.

Shreyaa
:)

Sunday, 13 March 2011

Final Product & Preliminary task

Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at the preliminary task, and looking at what we have achieved now I have learnt a lot to do with the technology, the shot types, editing and much more.

In our preliminary task we were required to produce a 'door opening scene', this consisted of filming and editing a character opening a door, and crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom he/she would exchange a couple of line of dialogue. The shots types included match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree angle. This was a quick task so it did not require as much research as the final task, our planning consisted of the shot types we were going to include ,what the dialogue was and the storyline. Our storyboard was drawn on posticks and we included all the different shots we wanted to use and any props we had.

For our final product we had to do it as a thriller genre, and research into that genre, thriller conventions were obviously a big part of the research, for example low lighting, not letting the identity be revealed to create an enigma for the audience. We also planned out which shots we wanted to use, our storyline, the plot also how the editing would go which order to do what, and the type of soundtrack we wanted.

From the duration of the final task and preliminary task I have learnt a lot, for the beginning of the preliminary task we learn the rules for each shot. However we only had very basic knowledge of shot types and filming, whereas we got to develop them further in the final task. I found it much more comfortable filming in the final task, this is because of the preliminary task and we knew what we shouldn't do and if anything went wrong we would know. Some of the shots included long shots, close ups, medium shots, these were the basics for our preliminary task, some other shots that we developed on were point of view shots, tracking shots and many others.

The shot on the left is a long shot from our final product, the shot on the right is also a long shot from our preliminary task.

These are both close up shots. The image on the left is taken from our thriller opening, showing the victims legs. The image on the right is from our preliminary task, showing one of the characters about to open a door.

Some of the other shot we developed for our final opening scene that we used was a point of view shot. Here is a screengrab of this shot used in our final product:

We also learnt about establishing shots, which is the type of shot that sets the scene for the audience. These shots are usually taken looking like a long shot, but in fact establishes the scene.

This is an establishing shot, from our thriller genre. Which is also where the scene is set for most of the opening.

Another shot that we learnt in order to make our thriller opening a success was a high angle shot. This shows that the person is vulnerable, and possibly the victim.

This is a high angle, this is taken from our opening as well. This is portraying our victim in the torture scene.

This is a two shot from our preliminary task.
It shows both of the characters facing each other during the conversation. This is a good shot to show emotions of the both characters and reactions to actions.

The first part of the match on action shot

And this is the second part showing him coming through the door.

Another aspect of the making of our thriller opening scene, 'Captivity' is the editing part.

To do this we needed to use our editing programme, Final Cut Express we edited our whole scene on this programme. This allowed us to cut parts of our takes and edit efficiently to create good continuity. Final Cut enabled us to add titles, and also add transitions into our opening sequence. The first time I used Final Cut i did not enjoy it at all, but as I progressed through the project, i found it much easier and more enjoyable to edit and create continuity. We also learnt how to use various programmes such as After Effects and Garageband to help create our soundtrack. From our preliminary task I learnt that to have a successful sequence we need to have precise planning as it is a big part of creating it. By knowing exactly what shots, the scene, storyline we can efficiently create a hopefully, successful media product.

On the whole I feel that our media product was successful, because we researched carefully into our genre and were able to apply the conventions we wanted to use to go with our storyline. The part of our opening scene that I think is the best are the torture shots, because of the lighting ans some of the angles of the shots. One of my favorite shots is when the antagonist (david) grabs the victim (manan) from behind.

Evaluation Question 6

We used a variety of programmes, using the apple macs. This proved to be quite a challenge as we progressed, through the duration of completing our final media product. As none of us had much experience with macs and some programmes, that were found to be a necessity, we found quite difficult and frustrating in the beginning. However by using these new programmes more often we had gotten used to them and learnt to use them easier.

Some of the programmes we used were final cut, which we had used before briefly so wasn’t a big challenge for us. Whereas programmes such as after effects, which we had never used before. This programme proved to be the biggest challenge of all.

Before we began production we chose after effects to create our titles as it was the best programme for it. Final cut is a movie editing programme therefore this was an obvious choice for us.

We chose to use HD cameras so that our shots came out clearer and looked much more professional. The first ever shots we took in the shopping centre we taken with a standard 5MP canon camera, which is why they were not good quality. But for our actual real shots we used the HD camera. We didn’t face any major problems with the camera, our only minor problems were uploading it onto the mac, which we easily resolved. Using the HD camera was a great success for us as we achieved the shots we wanted, and the camera did not have any technical faults before, during or after production.

To help create our soundtrack we used a new programme to us, garageband. during production i learnt how to use the programme further and started to produce a thriller soundtrack that fit our own product. Garageband was a very useful programme in a 'thriller soundtrack' but only to certain extent. it was limited in the sense it didn't have the best of most suited sounds for our product. Nonetheless it was an aspirational starting point and we developed it further using various websites and other music resources.