Editing Schedule

As we only had a short amount of time before our deadline, we decided to split our free periods up so that we could take it in turns to edit our trailer. This process has been ongoing for a few weeks and has been very successful as our trailer has transformed into the trailer we originally had in mind whilst we were planning.

Filming - Day 4 & 5 (Private Location)

After capturing the initial shots of our killer, we noticed that we didn't have any shots of the victims. It also came to our attention after showing our rough cut to the class that we reveal the killer far too early on in our trailer. In order to create tension and give the trailer a dramatic feel to it we needed to keep the killer more hidden to make the audience anticipate what is going to happen next.

We arrived at the private location at around 9.30 on day 4 of filming. We captured a number of very effective shots which created an opening scene for our trailer, opposed to a compilation of shots of the killer as we had before. As it was mid november the weather worked in our favour as a misty morning is perfect for a horror film, giving the footage an eerie feel to it, along with providing us with appropriate lighting for filming. One of the opening shots shows the victim approaching the killer, we decided to face the killer away from the camera to create the tension as i mentioned earlier.

We returned to the private location for day 5 of filming a few days later. Our intention was to re-shoot some of the shots we had filmed on day 4 as they had not been framed exactly how we wanted or were of a bad quality. However the trip turned out to be very successful as we came up with some new ideas for shots that would be perfect for our trailer. One of the new shots we thought of was too show the victim running back to the car as a point of view shot from the killer, instead of the tracking shot we decided on first of all. Another idea we had turned out to be the best shot of the entire trailer. The shot was a point of view shot from the victim, it was very unique as it showed the killer slowly walking towards the camera, we then had an idea whilst editing to cut the shot up and place long fade to blacks inbetween, giving the impression that the victim was fading in and out of consciousness.

Feedback notes

Jamie, Will, Lyle

To get a rough structure to the shots to create a narrative
Use the strongest shots and get rid of the weakest
Try to find shots that don’t reveal too much information about the subject straight way to keep the audience on the edge of their seats
Good use of fast edits, use more of this within reason
Use the existing music but add some sound effects to add atmosphere to it….. speak to James or AJ for advice.
Get some simple but effective titles

Feedback From our First Cut

We recieved some fairly mixed feedback on our first cut after presenting it to the class. The majority liked the way in which we had portryed our killer, saying that the costume was very effective and unique. They also liked our footage from the old church, especially the shots of the killer standing by the entrance with the candles. The class also thought that our decision to use a children's nursery rhyme as the sound track for our trailer was a very good idea, due to the fact that it works very well in other classic horror films plus the fact that we had recored someone singing it ourselves made it a very unique version which was a clever idea. But although they liked the idea of the music, we were told that the use of short sharp shots combined with a slow sound track did not work well together and the meaning was unclear. They also didn't like the fact that we revealed the killer to the audience immeadiatley claiming it would work better if we kept him more hidden and mysterious throughout as it is only a teaser trailer and therefore will build tension far better.

Also with no titles, sub-titles or font it was difficult to understand what type of genre our presentation was add to the fact that we were unable to complete most of our filming in time for the first cut they thought that it simply appeared as sequence of different shots of our killer, containing no real meaning or building any tension or anticipation.

We were already aware we needed to add some different shots and a few different editing techniques before we showed our work to the class. However, we have recieved some very constructive criticism which can only help to improve our teaser trailer for the final cut.

Editing

When it came to editing the intial footage we had collected the editing process was going smoothly and we managed to create a tense atmosphere for our trailer, in particular the establishing shot leading up to the old church. We added a number of cuts in between. This made the sequence appear as if the camera was skipping, which is tradionally used in horror films. However, we had someproblems occur when preparing our trailer for the first cut. Although we had a good number of shots, they were in no particular order. Jamie was unable to edit in the time myself and will had allocated for editing which made issues even more difficult as we could not be unanamous as a group on editing choices. Will and myself did manage to create a vague stroy line, which was respectale enough to show to the class for a first cut, although it still needs alot of work doing to it.

New Location for Filming

Whilst we were going over the footage we had already collected it came to our attention that we didn't have any shots that signaled that our killer hated family life (which was the initial idea to why he was out to kill people)therefore our new location to record shots is at one of our group members house. As it is a very small isolated area, surrounded by fields and woodland it blends in perfectly with the rest of the shots we are going to be using for our trailer. As it was one of the group members houses no permission needed to be obtained for filming.

Filming - Day 3 (Old Church,Thundridge)

For our third day of filming we decided to return to the old church at Thundridge. This time all three members of our group were present so we were able to capture a number of decent shots that were required for our trailer. We decided between us that on our last visit to the church we did not capture all the footage we needed, plus we had a few problems with the focus on the camera. The decision to re-visit the old church proved to be successful as we managed to film some very useful shots of the killer in his lair. The shot of our killer standing by the entrance of the church with his face illuminated by candles works very well in our trailer. Along with filming shots of the killer, we also managed to filming a few more short establishing shots of the church itself, which helps to set the scene. However,our filming was cut short as the light started to fade which resulted in some of our final shots looking very grainy, which we had to delete.

Filming - Day 2 (Abandoned Pig Farm, Great Amwell)

On the second day of filming we decided to get the shots we required from the abandoned pig farm, which is located just behind jamies house, As the area is public now we were not tresspassing. The suit we had ordered for our killer had arrived so it meant we could get some shots showing the killer. Whilst at the pig farm we managed to film some effective shots, which included some long shots, showing the killers surrounding's, some medium close up's concentrating on the top half of the killer. This shot worked well as there was alot of hanging debris such as vines etc, which was exactly what we wanted. We also filmed a low angle shot where the killer is looking away from the camera then turns his head to face the camera. Not only does this particular shot make the killer look intimidating it is also a classic horror film shot.

Filming - Day 1 (Old Church, Thundridge)

We decided as a group to begin filming at the abandoned church at Cold Christmas, Thundridge. As will was unable to attend, myself and jamie decided that we could still get some good shots. We arrived at the church at around 4pm, just as the light was starting to fade, perfect filming conditions for our horror trailer. Unfortunatleyas the suit that our killer was going to be wearing had not arrived we couldn't get any shots with our killer in. However we still managed to film a number of very good establishing shots leading up to the killers lair. We also filmed some shots inside the church, but without the killer they were not very affective and didn't really work. We did encounter some problems whilst filming when we discovered that the focus was far too close, this took a little bit of adjusting to correct it.

Lyrics for Music

Incy wincy spider climbed up the water spout,
Down came the rain and washed the spider out,
Out came the sun and washed up all the rain,
Then incy wincy spider climbed up the spout again.

We decided to use a traditional children's nursery rhyme as it gives the trailer a creepy feel to it, similar to other horror films. We achieved this by altering it slightly to make it more darker and as it is sung by our friend perry we ensured it was not copyright. It also works well as our killer envies family life and happiness.

Animatic Feedback

We recieved mixed feedback from our animatic. Our teacher complemented us on some of our shots, such as the establishing shots which set the scene, but said there was room for improvement on others. She did however like the fact that we used a vast number of different types of shots.

The under the arm shot of our killer looking at a family through the window was one of her favourite shots as it was relevant to the killer despising family life. The shot shows the killer clenching his fist at the sight of the family.

Although we were complimented on our establishing shots we will attempt to make them even better by making them slightly more exciting for the audience. We will do this by adding more spooky elements to the shots, such as the killer lurking in the shadows.

We also recieved criticism as we had not added titles to our animatic shots. Therefore we currently have no visual evidence of us knowing where the text will go or when the title of the film will be revealed to the audience. We will use the feedback we have recieved to ensure that we have improved any weak shots so that they are as good as possible for when we come to filming.

The Recluse - Animatic

Shot List

Sound FX

We tried a number of different sound fx after we had recorded the first part of our film. Although we selected a few different sounds from the internet for our opening shot, we discovered that a scissors sound effect is very effective. Not only is it quicker as we can record it in a few minutes it also works very well with the first part of our footage.

Group Job Roles

Will Turner:
Editing
Acting
Filming
Props
Scrip



Lyle Petts:
Editing
Acting
Filming
Sound & Music



Jamie Branston:
Editing
Acting
Filming
Location
Costume

Risk assessment

We decided to create a risk assessment so that there was no chance of any of us getting injured or into any danger whilst filming. We were aware that the weather was likely to be the biggest problem as it could restrict valuable filming time, meaning that we would have to reschedule when we all had free periods, which could lead to further problems with the production schedule. There were other more serious factors which could affect us like falling debris from inside th church, but we felt this was more unlikely to happen.

Props for filming

Our killer will have a personal scrap book which will contain pictures of each of his victims, along with pieces of their clothing. There will also be a written description next to each victim which includes their name, date of birth and gender. The scrap book will be very old and dirty to give the impression that it is very personal to our killer.

The killer will wear a very clean, smart looking suit, which supports his title of being very deranged as although he enjoys brutally murdering inncoent people, he likes to look very respectable. His personal hygiene however will be very poor, wearing clean surgeon gloves to cover his dirty hands. The killers identity will be hidden by wearing a morph suit, not only does it cover his face, as it is simply a plain white piece of clothing it is similar to his personality, very plain, with no emotion.

Candles will be lit inside the killer's lair, giving it a somewhat homely atmosphere.

The killer's main weapon of choice for carrying out his sudistical crimes is a gun or knife, we are trying to avoid the more common murder weapons.

This is a picture of our poduction schedule. We have allocated time slots for each part of the production, the squares which are pink indicate the time we have allocated for pre-production. The yellow squares represent the production tasks, however some of the yellow squares show times we have allocatedfor pre-production, this is because we had to move the date of our first cut forward. The blue squares symbolise the post production stage, with the one red square stating the dat of the final deadline, which is the 6th December. After we have shown our final cut we will begin the ancillary task, which we will create a new production schedule for.

We drew the images above before we made our animatic, we decided to do this so that we could present all of the ideas we had on locations, shots, props etc as individuals so that we could then put all of the ideas together as a group for filming. The first picture is ideas for filming at Cold Christmas church, in Thundridge. The second picture is different types of shots at presdales woods, one of three selected locations. The third picture shows an idea we had of a classic horror film shot, where the killer is looking through the window, but the camera is waist height and behind him. The final picture is a spider diagram of a number of different ideas we had, showing different locations, ideas about our killer, and magazine clippings of different attires for our killer.

Feedback for our pitch

Once we had showed our pitch of our film (The Recluse) we recieved some mixed feedback. We were told that we did not have enough visual evidence of our killer, instead we had just explained what he would be wearing, such as his suit, gloves etc. Therefore we decided to add a further slide showing inspirations from other films of the same genre. The images on the slide included the mask from the killer in 'Dead Man's Shoe's' as we thought it would be a good piece of costume to hide the killers identity. We also collected pictures of a suit and surgeon gloves as we decided as a group that was what our killer would be wearing during filming. We recieved criticism on our plot of the story, as the class felt that we had not entirely thought the story line through.

We was told that we presented our horror film trailer very well, with the majority of the class liking our ideas. They were all in agreement that a number of film companies would be interested in showing our film on there channel, with Warp or Film4 among the most popular. Our choice of locations was also appreciated as some of the places we are choosing to film at are fairly difficult to get to.

After recieving the feedback we have decided to make a few changes to our pitch so that a production company would be more likely to purchase our film. The main changes will include a better plot summary, showing that we have a better understanding of how we are going to make our film, also to add more images to show exactly what atmosphere we want our film to have.

A level media studies dog soldiers trailer, powerpoint

A level media studies dog soldiers trailer, powerpoint

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Powerpoint pitch- The recluse

Powerpoint pitch- The recluse

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Feedback from presentation of Holloway Road

We showed our two minute film opening of 'Holloway Road' to the class. At the time we did not have any fonts orsounds because we could not find any suitable. For this reason we recieved rather varied feedback. Some positives were that our opening shot was very effective, because it jumps straight into the story, our pre-prepared worked effectively, and our fridge shot and match on action both were both good. Some of the things we needed to work on were the music, as there was very little sound at this point, we also needed to add more titles to the shots and adding a soundbridge at the beginning was recommended.

By recieving feedback from our classmates, it will help us to gain the best possible mark. We will definetely add a sound bridge at the beginning of our film, along with the music and extra titles, to ensure our film is as good as it can be.

Evaluation of Holloway Road Notes for Q 1 and podcast

7 questions answered in podcast with Will Turner - if it won't play then the same podcast is on Will Turner's blog. Unfortunately our answer to the first question is missing from this video, so these are our points about question one:

• We only used narration in our two minute film opening at the very end, when me Will and Andrew are walking down the alleyway, this gives some good background information on who we are and why we are part of the Arsenal firm.
• We didn't use any flashbacks or flashforwards in our opening, instead we had the story from my view, getting ready, and Will and Andrew's view of walking to meet me. This helped to build up a clear picture of the events unfolding.
• Our film is typical of its genre, the opening is similar to that of "Football Factory" or "Rise of The Footsoldier" where we are all gathering to go to football and cause trouble.
• We decided that to make the film opening seem more realistic, we should dress the way football hooligans do, and use similar language, hence the reason we occasionally swear, of course this had to be moderated to a degree. The mise en scene is clear, we are all wearing jeans, generally looking fairly casual.
  

The rest of our evaluation is on this podccast :

Analysis Of A Professional Film Opening

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Lyle Analysis Of A Professional Film Opening

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