Post-production

Post-production

The main issues for my group were in the filming stages, this made this process both a slow and irritating part of our project. In order to get our media project up to scratch not only did we have to film out of time table, we had to re-film several scenes, several times out of time table. But once this was out of the way we began the editing process, my group had no problems with this phase of the project, both myself and Sam were able to confidently use the editing suite and show both Anthony and David how to use it too. We had a few minor glitches with editing but they were mainly down to the footage we had, it was difficult to get rid of all of our jumps and keep the continuity up to standard.

The background noise of our clips was the first thing we fixed, as there was no dialogue in our opening sequences we lowered the background noise in every scene other than the shot in which Anthony is hit over the head as we felt the background noise added to the atmosphere and helped create the 'thriller' element in our film. We then also added in music.

Production report

After finishing all of our pre-production work we were now ready to start the filming process, in order to successfully complete the filming during the time period we were given as a group we had to arrange filming slots that were not during our media lessons by checking what frees we all shared. We all managed to find some slots in which to film as well as the timetabled slots, we also came in on one day in half term to complete the parts of the filming that had not been completed to a satisfactory standard. We attampted to follow the shooting schedule but it was not followed completely due to people not showing up to film and not getting as many shots completed in the time slots we had. To begin filming we gathered the equiptment needed including the video camera, tri-pod and a reflector we had previously spent our class time making, we also took with us the shot list and the story board in order to get the correct shots needed. According to the shooting schedule we also shot the scenes in the incorrect order due to both people not turning up again and due to weather conditions. All of the filming got progressively better as we carried out filming and as a group engaged more with opinions on different shots and our understanding of the genre grew.

The footage we filmed on our last day of filming was the most successful, the footage was all very clear and the background noise was at a minimum unlike the rest of the shots, the weather was perfect for creating the desired atmosphere for our project and we had the longest amount of time in which to film. We took advantage of this and as well as filming what was needed we also re-filmed any shots we had doubts about. On this same day we began the editing phase of our project, we captured logged and began the inital stages of editing our footage, whilst doing so we realised that we had crossed the 180° rule otherwise known as 180 rule otherwise known as 'crossing the line'
180° rule - two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other.

We then changed shots in order to correct this major problem, we tried to do so without affecting the contuinuity of our project. Once having corrected all of the major problems we made a 'rough cut' of our film, gathered audience feedback and made the appropriate changes, unfortunately once again this meant re-filming for my group as we had not quite successfully pulled off the POV shots we had filmed.

Pre-production report and documentation

'JAMS', my media group for this coursework task chose to base our opening sequences on the thriller genre, other than the reasoning for chosing this genre previosuly explained in my blog 'Group meeting' we chose to use this genre because certain members of our group including myself had previous experience in creating media products of this genre. Also as previously mentioned in my blog 'Group meetings' we researched and then used codes and conventions of other thrillers styles to create our coursework piece, our main influence was 'The Blair Witch Project'.

'The Blair Witch Project': The narrative is presented as a documentary pieced together from amateur footage, filmed in real time. The film was produced by the Haxan Films production company.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blair_Witch_Project

In our opening sequence there will only be two characters, the main focus is on 'Rory' (Anthony Johnson), the characters will be established in a range of shots including tracking and panning shots. There will be no dialogue in our film as the two characters only briefly 'meet' on their seperate walks through 'the woods', we believe that this lack of dialogue makes the opening sequence seem more realistic and gives it an overal more eerie atmosphere. Due to the lack of talking that will be feature in our product during the editing process we will focus especailly on enhancing the background noises and adding in music that will create the correct match-on-action. We have now proceeded to watch several 'thriller' films to make sure that all of our decisions match the conventions of a typical 'thriller', we found that 'The Silence Of The Lambs, 1991 follows a lot of the same conventions as our piece.

opening title of 'The Silence Of The Lambs'.

We started our pre-production work off with the writing of our treatment of which I did the majority of the work due to the fact that I had previous experience in writing treatments and was confident in doing the work. Despite myself doing the majoirty of the work, the rest of the group sat with me whilst I did so in order to give me verbal information and support incase I missed anything out and also to further their knowledge on writing treatments for next year. The next task we set out to complete was the 'shot list', this has to be done next as we needed the shot list to proceed in our task and to know exactly what we were going to film and how long for. The task of creating the 'shot list' was attributed mainly to David, although we left him to do this task, we stumbled across a problem when we got to the stages of filming, so the shot-list did had to be completely re-created, also due to fact that we had to film in the original time slot we had to shoot and then adapt the next part of the shot list ready for filming, this whole process because of this took us an elongated two weeks when infact we could have been filmed within a week.

The next step in our pre-production was to create our cast, crew, costume and equipment list which was by far the easiest part of all of the pre-production work as all it entailed was the creation of a list of the protagonists in the film (their character name and actual name), who did what in terms of filming, 'the filming crew' and the equiptment that what we needed make the film happen, including props. We did this piece of work as a group as it was easier for us all to have an input whilst one person types as this piece of work took the least work and research.
Our risk assessment was next to be created, this was done by myself and Sam as he was confident in identifying and how best to solve the risks. Due to the fact that we were filming in woods near our school there were a lot of risks to identify. Once we had completed the risk assessment we looked over it as a group and added in and changed accoridng to other members of the groups ideas. We have no script in our pre-preduction as there was no dialogue and therefore no need for a script.

The penultimate part of our pre-production work was the location reccees, this part possibly took the most time and patience, it involved taking photos from one point to the next of an area, the photos were then edited and placed ontop of eachother to create one image. We then had to write about power sources and lighting.

The final part of our pre-production task was to get the correct permission from the correct people to film on Kings Langley common on the desired days. In order to do this we rang watford police station and explained in detail what our fiming task would involve, they then accepted out filming dates and gave us a refrence number, URN 180 incase we had any troubled or were asked in future if we had permission due to the content of our film. We also then rung Kings Langley council and followed the same routine, they also agreed and gave us permission in the form of an email.

Treatment and title planning

TREATMENT
SCENE 1:

VISUAL- Establishing shot that presents the woods as eerie and uneasy, the woods will be lacking in light, creating an anxious and daunting atmosphere, where trees are almost shown as silhouettes and the shadowing is distorted.

Male approaching the entrance to woods listening to music, unaware of anything going on. Eventually he enters the woods.

The male ‘victim’ is uneasy whilst proceeding through the woods but is put at ease when he see’s the female ‘killer’, the two cross paths and seemingly carry on, on their separate journeys.

The male ‘victim’ realises there is something is going on; he turns around to see the female ‘killer’ running towards him and as he does so he is struck round the head by the female ‘killer’ and blacks out.

AUDIO-

Music – String music of a steady beat, staccato, that gradually gets louder until the titles have rolled then it will gradually fade out as characters enter the scene.
Diegetic Sound – Audience can hear the music he is listening to as well as general background noises e.g. walking noises.
Music – Fast, built up and heavy music will accompany the drama occurring in the scene.
Diegetic Sound – Rustling of leaves as the female ‘killer’ runs towards the male ‘victim’.

SCENE 2:

VISUAL - All that is visible is the male ‘victim’s’ torso as the female ‘killer’ drags him knocked out through the bush.

AUDIO -

Diegetic Sound – The female ‘killer’ breathing heavily whilst dragging the male ‘victim’. Dragging sound is more dominant, as the breathing fades.

SCENE 3:

VISUAL- The male ‘victim’ wakes up in the middle of a large ditch. Blurred the male awakens and slowly sits up, after several seconds the male falls back down to his original position.

AUDIO -

Music – Build up/increase of volume then
a sudden stop when he collapses again.

The title of our film was decided as a group, we originally named our film 'behind closed eyes' and then renamed it 'The woods', the title was appropriate due to the location and mysterious nature of our film.

Questionnaire to target audience & Evalution of results

Questionnaire:

The aim of the below questionnaire was to establish our target audience, the questionnaire has a variety of questions addressing several different opinions we needed to know from people. The questionnaire was given to fourty people, the majority of whom were teenagers and nearly equally half male and female.

Evaluation of results:
Because of the almost perfectly even handout of questionnaires between males and females the evaluation of our questionnaires was relatively easy in terms of gender:
Females tended to:
- Prefer comedy, action and drama genres of films.
- To go to the cinema on a more regular basis, either once a month or 2-4 a month.
- To find blood and gore more offensive than males and prefer psychological attacks over physical attacks in thriller films.
- Go to the cinema with friends and partners.

Where as, males tended to:
- Prefer horror, comedy, sci-fi and action genres of films.
- To go to the cinema less, either once a month or less.
- To find blood and gore not offensive and prefer physical attacks in thriller films.
- Go to the cinema with friends and partners, the same as the females.

Recent films from genre.

Recent films from the thriller genre:

Shutter Island:

Shutter Island starring Leonardo DiCaprio, 2010 is defined as a 'psychological mystery-thriller' directed by Martin Scorsese. Based on the 2003 novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. The production of the film began in March 2008 and was finally re-completed by March 2010 after a slip-up in October 2009.

Popularity:

Se7en:

Seven, written on the movie covers and often reffered to as 'Se7en' released in 1995 is a crime film or a 'psychological thriller' directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. A film based around a series of murders inspired by the seven deadly starring Morgan Freeman and Bad Pitt. The film was considered a financial and critical success.

Popularity:

Fight Club:

The 1999 adaptation of the 1996 novel of the same name written by Chuck Palahniuk starring Edward Norton, Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter. Edward Norton plays the nameless main protagonist who creates a "fight club" with soap salesman Tyler Durden. The films popularity grew over the years after its release and financially was relatively reliable.

Popularity:

History of genre

Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film and television that includes numerous and often overlapping sub-genres. Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more-powerful and better-equipped villains. Writer Vladimir Nabokov, in his lectures at Cornell University, said that "In an Anglo-Saxon thriller, the villain is generally punished, and the strong silent man generally wins the weak babbling girl, but there is no governmental law in Western countries to ban a story that does not comply with a fond tradition, so that we always hope that the wicked but romantic fellow will escape scot-free and the good but dull chap will be finally snubbed by the moody heroine.Literary devices such as suspense, red herrings and cliffhangers are used extensively.

"Homer's Odyssey is one of the oldest stories in the Western world and is regarded as an early prototype of the thriller.” A thriller is villain driven plot, whereby he presents obstacles the hero must overcome. The genre is a fascinatingly flexible form that can undermine audience complacency through a dramatic rendering of psychological, social, familial and political tensions and encourages sheltered but sensation-hungry audiences, in Hitchcock's phrase, "to put their toe in the cold water of fear to see what its like.

refrence: wikipedia.

Group meeting

GROUP MEETINGS -


16/11/09:
In the initial stages of creating our JAMS production coursework piece as a group we held several group meetings both during and out of our media lessons. Our first meeting was on the date we started the task.


The first meeting consisted of making decisions about the genre of the product and beginning to outline to plot for the opening sequence we were going to create. As a group we came up with three genres that were of interest to us all, they were comedy, thriller and horror. From this point we weighed up the positives and negatives of each genre and considered the sub-genres we could venture into with each genre.


As a group with a united decision we all agreed that altough following comedy through into producing a 'spoof' would have been something we were interested in doing it would have been very difficult to effectively achieve comedy in the two minutes we were given for the opening sequence and equally as difficult to achieve a comedy that would suit the majority of the audience. We also decided that to create an effective opening sequence for a horror film would have been unachievable due to the amount of time we had and the lack of equiptment, costume and lighting both meaning the continuity and mise en scene of the finished product would have been questionable.



The genre we chose we thriller, as a group we felt this was the most appropriate choice based on several points:
- Location: The woods surrounding our school would make an ideal place to film a thriller.


- Lighting: Other than natural day-light, the lack of artifical lighting equpitment at our school and the fact that we planned to film outside, we decided that 'reflectors' made by our group in school would be all we needed.
- Costume: Minimal costume would be needed in a thriller.


In this meeting other than establishing the location, lighting and costume we also began to work on the details of the outline for the plot of the opening sequences. The first thing we established was that we wanted the minimum characters due to there only being four people in our group and also that we wanted POV shots due to our interest in the case study we carried out on 'The blair witch project', 1999 in previous lessons. We decided on the names of our characters, 'Sarah hughes' and 'Rory'.

18/11/09:
In our second group meeting we began to plan the plot for the whole story, this involved expanding on the plot for the opening sequence, determining certain traits about the characters and their relevance.

Conventions of an Opening sequence

The thriller genre focuses on audience reception they advertise intense suspense and excitement typical characteristics of thriller films are for the sequences to be very fast paced, for there to be some kind of frequentaction and the films usually encapulate a hero and a villain. Generally thrillers are known to focus on plot over character.

Typical points:
Camera:
- Point of view; the camera should take on human qualities, the camera should reflect the way in which something is being done e.g. looking around a room for an object.
- High angle shots; used for victims. The high angle shot on the victim works as the shot makes the character appear vulnerable; Alfred Hitchcock used this in ‘Psycho’.
- Low angle shots; used for the aggressor. - The low angle shot on the aggressor works as the shot makes the character appear menacing; Hitchcock also uses this in ‘Psycho’.
- Quick cuts; used in thriller films to let the camera tell the story rather than the actors; for example in Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ there are quick cuts from the knife to vulnerable parts of body, the camera tells the story as you never see the knife pierce the body.

Editing:
- Point of view;
- montages;
- camera tells story;
- lots of cuts during action;
- Use of effect such as sepia, b/w.
Sound:
- Strings
- Classical music

Themes:
There are six main themes that are carried out throughout thrillers:
- Reality – The theme of reality is often displayed in thrillers with the characters or often the main protagonist trying to determine what is ‘true’ or ‘real’ and what is not within the narrative.
- Perception – The theme of perception is a person's own interpretation/ view of the world around them through their senses. Often characters misperceive the world around them, or their perceptions are altered by outside factors within the narrative (see Unreliable narrator).
- Mind – The human consciousness; the location for personality, thought, reason, memory, intelligence and emotion. The mind is often used as a location for narrative conflict, where characters battle their own minds to reach a new level of understanding or perception.
- Existence/Purpose - The object for which something exists; an aim or a goal humans strive towards to understand their reason for existence. Characters often try to discover what their purpose is in their lives and the narrative's conflict often is a way for the characters to discover this purpose.
- Identity - The definition of one's self. Characters often are confused about or doubt who they are and try to discover their true identity.
- Death - The cessation of life. Characters either fear or have a fascination with death.

Narrative:
A successful way of keeping the audience following the film is to use a narrative that shows the story from one of the character's points of view. By following one individual character, the storyline is consistent and the audience is also able to relate to the character, meaning that it is easier to build up the tension within the film because the viewer is able to relate to the character with greater ease.

Examples of thriller films:
- The godfather - Francis Ford Coppola
- Psycho - Alfred Hitchcock
- Se7en - David Fincher
- Silence of the lambs - Jonathan demme
- The shinning - Stanely Kubrick
- No counrty for old men - Ethan and Joel Coen
- Jaws - Stephen Speilberg
- Basic Instinct - Paul Verhoeven

Characters:
- Minimal characters- Typically consists of a hero and a villain.- Macguffin's are often used - A macguffin is a plot device that motivates the characters or advances the story, but the details of which are of little or no importance otherwise e.g. the policeman in 'psyhco'.