Final Cut

evaluation questions.

The following questions must be answered in your evaluation PowerPoint:

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Finishing...

today we are finishing off our thriller opening in final cut completely. by the end of this lesson we will have completed our task of creating a thriller opening sequence with credits, logo, filming and editing.
We have added a soundtrack we made earlier to the final cut along with our still images and credits and production logo.
There have been some timing issues and have struggled to get it all completed in time for the deadline because of complications with filming.

Thursday 18th March 2010

We have chosen exposure as our title. We liked the idea of photography metaphors as it is based on what we are producing. It also links into the theme of the opening sequence of the darkness, uncertainty and mystery.

Possible titles

We have been thinking of possible names for our opening sequence. We thought that we should link the name to what we have, something to do with photography. So far, we have thought of; Capture, Exposure, developed, undeveloped.

Feedback...

The feedback we got back from the class was very positive and we had no negative comments about our ideas and work. This was good for us because this shows that we are creating a good thriller convention. Also we knew what the class was thinking about our work because it hasn't been edited or put together yet. This shows that they understand our idea yet we haven't gone into detail.

Filming the end of the opening sequence.

For our opening sequence we have mainly choosen to use still images to create the effect of someone being watched. This carrys on through out our opening until the end of the sequence, This is when we chose to use a small clip of film which would lead to the main film itself. After looking at the filming we have decided to only take a small part as we filmed at night ans decided that due to lack of light only the chosen clip will be suitable...This an important part of our sequence because it need to lead in to main film.

If we were to film again we would need to use some kind of lighting and plan where we are going to film better as this time we rushed into finding the correct location and the style of our film.

Extra effects for our opening sequence:

For our opening sequence we are mainly using still photos, Between photos we will show a blured face for s plit seconde to try and create a strange effect to the viewer. We will be using the same face each time but change the effect of the face by using photoshop. We will zoom out of the face each time the photo appeares and with an edited effect. This will keep the viewer hooked.
Also with our soundtrack we will try and fit the images with the soundtrack such as when the blured faces appear.

This is an example of one of our still images

Thursday 11th March- Similar Opening Sequence

Rough Cut- Tuesday 9th March

We haven't started rough cut yet as the majority of our opening sequence is of still images in old fashioned film frames. But we have picked out the frame that we will be using. We found it on google as we thought it was the most fitting one.

However, as we have been unable to start final cut, we decided to create a soundtrack instead, so that we were not wasting any possible time. After which, we decided to get feedback on it so we could improve. Tanya listened to two different soundtracks, one by Tom and the by James. She gave us feedback on both and now we are changing them to fit in better with the opening sequence.

Friday 5th March

We thought that we were going to avoid roles for certain people, e.g. director,editor etc. We made it so that everyone contributed to each element as not only does it give everyone the chance to do something different but it makes the workload seem less. However if you look closesly at the process people have shown where they are stronger by becoming more active in the area's they are best at. For example Tom and James have been more involved in the camera work and finding good shot angles, whereas Connor and Adam have done more of the written work on the blog, saying this though everybody has contributed in one way or another to every asspect of the task.

From R2-45

They have loads of posts with updates on what they are doing which is very good. We think that some of the posts should contain links so we can see what they are describing. There explanation on Blue Velvet is very good but they could add the trailer so we know what they mean by there explanation. The Older posts seem much more attractive as they have pictures or links, but towards the more updated posts, they begin to look too dull.

The Description on their blog is very good, we understand what they are talking about and we picture what they want as a thriller opening sequence. They should make more posts on films that gave them inspiration.

Blue Velvet - similar film

Blue velvet is a film which we believe portrays the same kind of image we are looking to use with our thriller opening sequence. It shows a scene which is happy, care-free and generally a perfect world. However during all this happiness and light-hearted music a harsh reality of what life is really like comes out with a man dying, yet still things seem fine as a dog plays with the dead body making everything seem fine.

This links in well with our piece as we are trying to show the same thing, a normal yet nice world hiding the disastrous and mysterious things lying beneath the surface. Every dark alleyway and shadow holds its own story, everything that needs a second glance was probably different at the first. Confusion and mystery are the key features of our thriller opening.

Opening Sequnce Latest

The group has decided to place peoples faces through-out the opening sequence. We plan to have them on a white background as a flash. White was chosen as we filmed in the dark and the brightness will come as a bit of a shock.We think that this will keep the audience guessing about what is to come. And as it is slightly different it will keep interest.

Entry about filming.

We went filming out in cambridge city centre on sunday evening. We thought that it would have a greater effect on the audience if it was done in the dark. We have also done some filming during the day to have a contrasting effect on the opening sequence.
We still need to take still images of faces which will be put onto photo shop and edited to the desired effect, of the framed images.

Opening Shots

We are thinking of having a number of still images in old film frames style, like the one above. the non diegetic sounds will be as close to the sound made by a projector, as if it was projecting the actually images onto the screen. Also to start with a black and white image setting is a possibility as it projects mystery which is a factor that helps portray the thriller theme.

certificate..

‘15’ works are stronger than '12' or ‘12A’ rated works and could include any of the following:

• strong violence
• frequent strong language (eg 'f***').
• portrayals of sexual activity
• strong verbal references to sex
• sexual nudity
• brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
• discriminatory language or behaviour
• drug taking

Filming ideas.

For our thriller opening we will be filming in and around cambridge town centre. We plan to film the majority of our film at night to create a more thrilling sequence. Some of our main places of filming will be in car parks, an empty shopping centre and alley ways.

Feedback from our pitch

We pitched our idea's and the rest of our blog to the class to show them what we were thinking of doing and this is the feedback we got:

Everyone thought our logo looked professional and would have a great effect on our audience.

Another thing people said was that our idea of showing an illness or a psychological problem was a good thing and that we could show this discreetly in the opening sequence without giving too much away. For example if someone in the film suffers from paranoia maybe.

These are just brainstorming idea's obviously and we may use something completely different.

Mood Board

This is a selection of photographs that we have looked at in order to try and influence our idea's for our thriller opening.

Production Logo

Epic productions is the name of our production company. We wanted to keep the name short but strong, to promote ourselves with a positive image. We thought that with this name that it would set out our goals to be a global company. The word epic implies sense of drama and quality to the products this company will make.

20th century fox analysis

We think this logo is particularly good because of many elements, the sound is important as it is intense and has the drumming sound as if to be a build up to something big, symbolising the film as something big. The fact it shows Hollywood in the background shows it is a film with huge status and only the best quality actors are going to be associated with this film.

Universal Logo Analysis

We decided to choose this logo as we think it represents its global presents. It also symbolizes that it's brightening up the world, just like the sun. The sounds like a fan fair, which is used when something important is about to happen. We think that is a bold statement showing the kind of influence they want.

Alfred Hitchcock essay"Why thrillers thrive". 1936

The article is explaining how a thriller is meant to create fear but make you feel safe at the at the same time."We have to project ourselves into their consciousness". We think that he means a thriller pulls you into the film its self maybe without you being fully aware of it. where as a horror film tries to place you into situations that you are not comfortable and beyond. We think that most horror films try to force the audience into the film unlke thrillers that are easy to pull out of if you feel uneasy.

Panic Room

As the title suggests, the film is about a safe room within the main characters house.
The opening sequence has panning cameras over new york, the second biggest city in the world, which has millions of different rooms. This isolates the characters and also the audience, by pulling in the viewer to believe that it could happen in any room within the city. This fits in with the thriller convention of abnormal happens in normal, everyday places. It shows a long shot of the sky lie from the ground, as if from a view point, with a calm and sunny day.

opening sequence analysis: Vertigo

Vertigo is a 1958 thriller movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock. In the first part of the opening sequence you are shown a section of a woman's face in a close up shot, you are seeing so little in the picture yet you can tell so much by using your own imagination and slight eye movements. Just from seeing the eye movements it makes you think that the woman is scared, anxious, paranoid and possibly like she is about to have a panic attack when her eye widens and her pupils seem fixated on something. Of course none of this is definate but these thoughts are the viewers being manipulated by minute movements triggering huge speculation. After the opening sequence moves on you are shown a sequence of difference coloured circular shapes spiraling towards you, this in my view gives you the effect of "Vertigo". The spiraling shapes coming towards you makes you feel like you are falling continuously, however it seems like just before the spiral hits you, or you would hit the floor if you were falling, the shape disapears and another apears in the distance doing the same as the previous shape. This gives the typical thriller film suspense, showing when something builds up so much that you almost expect it to happen, for it then to just fade away and start again, this is important to thrillers as when you do get to the end with the big finish there is so much suspense that it can be a relief for the viewer to watch, however if there is no big finish then the whole film can feel lackluster and a disapointment.

The music to the opening sequence follows the same kind of key as the spiraling shapes as the music starts off soft then builds up with dramatic effect enough for you to expect a big noise and action, but just soothes off, calms down and begins to build up again.

If you add all these effects together you feel engulfed into the film with the music, close up shots of the eyes and the falling sensation. All together it makes the opening sequence dramatic and sets the scene well for the rest of the film and gives you quite an obvious link to the fact that this is a thriller.

preliminary task evaluation

Our preliminary task came out very well as the final product had good continuity, showed a variety of different camera shots as well as the fact it looked fluent.

We used a long shot to start with to see Connor walking towards a door which was next to the camera so it looked like he was walking towards the camera to start with, this gives a a good establishing shot of the surrounding area and gives you a good look at one of the characters.
After this we shot an extreme close up of the door handle as Connor opened the door, followed by a long shot of Connor coming through the door on the other side. The key to making this look good is to make sure you have good continuity and fluency. This is why when editing this section we made sure that the amount the door was open when we left the extreme close up was the same as when we started the long shot on the other side of the door.
Then we showed a reaction shot of Adam when Connor walked through the door. Once again fluency and continuity were both good.

Overall i think that the preliminary task went really well and ended up looking great after some good editing work.

Preliminary Task

This is the embed to our preliminary task;

preliminary task infomation

For our preliminary task we had to film a sequence of different camera shots to the best of our ability to show our camera skills, and then to edit our work to show good continuity. The camera shots we had to present are:
Establishing shot
Close-up shot
Match on action shot
Reaction shot
Long shot
Filming a conversation

The task should demonstrate; match on action shot reverse/shot and the 180 degree rule.