Rough cut

After presenting our rough cut to our class we got feedback from 3 of the groups on how to improve our sequence we were given a set of questions that we needed to answer for each opening sequence the questions are as following:

1) How well have the technical areas been produced? (camerawork, editing, sound and mis-en-scene) 

2) How well has the genre characteristics been used? can you identify the sub-genre?

3) What do you like about the rough cut?

4) How can they improve the rough cut and what criticism can you give the group?

The first set of feed back we got was:

Group 1 feedback:

1) - Good Sound - Dialogue and ambient sounds were clear.

    - Location was good as the room was plain.

    - Low key lighting may of added to the mysterious feel.

    - Good use of make-up and costume. 

    - Camerawork could be more accurate.

2) The beginning of the rough cut is what gives the main characters of a thriller, it also helps to add    

    meaning and gives it an edgy feel. psychological thriller is easy to identify 

3) The makeup and costume is what makes the rough cut professional and realistic, the acting was on     

    point.

4) To improve the rough cut you could keep the camera still whilst in the hall way, 

    different shots need to be used. 

Group 3 feedback:

1)  The camera work in the first shot is effective and professional however the second shot is wobberly       

     and the harsh lighting takes the attention slightly away from the actresses. 

    Good acting. The zoom is blurry and slightly unclear.

    Good, effective, costume and makeup.

2) Psychological thriller is clear as we can see that the woman is confused about what's going on. The     

    mis-en-scene and camera work help to show the audience this genre as the characteristics are     

    realistic. 

3) The original narrative. The setting is professional and matches well. Costume and paper work props 

    work well.

4) Camera work needs to be steady and focused, lighting could be improved. 

Group 4 feedback:

1) Camerawork - good angles.

    Sound - Nice sound, we like the police siren added.

    Mis-en-scene - brilliant costume/make up and also good acting. 

    Editing - Smooth editing 

2) Psychological thriller, is obvious because of make up and acting. Also back of 'patient' builds  

    enigmas, white costume implies mental institution. 

3) We really like costume and make up. We are confused already and asking questions 32 seconds. 

4) Some camerawork was a bit shakes (the zoom) more explanations as to why its 'her turn'

    Make editing faster and a bit more slower at points.  

Shooting schedule

Photo evidence of filming

This is a collage of our filming process.

Test shots

   

The short clip uploaded above is a series of practiced test shots done by our group. 
By the use of final cut we separated the test shots and sequenced them together in order to produce this 30 second clip. Secondly we then followed a sheet of simple instructions on how to convert our test shots into a You tube video, but encountered difficulties located the video so we directly uploaded it from our desktop file.

The test shots were filmed at the initial location of Marnies apartment. We thought it was a significant process to practice in order to perfect our initial production. We also agreed that by having as many different types of shots will allow us to play around with the editing and enable us to add as many different shot types within it. By filming a variety of shots we are able to make it more visually appealing and allow the audience to understand what we are trying to portray.

By having a variety of shot enables us to capture different angles of our film and see what works best for each scene.

By using final cut we were able to edit and put together our test shots, enabling us organise and analyse what would work best within each scene. The way we have combined it makes it easier for viewers to understand what we are trying to achieve within our sequence. Next we were given a set of instructions to follow that would help us upload our short clip onto Blogger along with the rest of our work.

We believe our test shots would be effective as it gives the audience an insight into what is in store during the sequence without giving too much away.

Test shots allow both us and the audience to assess whether certain shots would work within certain scenes, enabling us to create different enigmas at different points.

While conducting test shots for the sequence we stumbled across different issues that we faced making us aware of thing we would have to avoid while filming the final production. Examples of this would be..

- How to best deal with hand held filming without unnecessary movement or zooming.

- finding the right camera angles

- Continuity

- 180* rule

- Control of external sound.
by taking all of the above into consideration, it will support us to avoid any mistakes or errors that might occur and that have come to our attention while producing the tests shot.

Animatic

Camerawork For Thriller Movies

The most common shot types used in thriller films are close ups and longs shots. For example, in The Watcher a long shot was used at the beginning of the film when the audience saw the SWAT team walking towards the door. This shows the audience where the action is taking place and creates suspense. There was a close up used at the beginning of the antagonist dancing with a gun in his hand. This leaves the audience puzzled because they’re unsure about the situation at hand, it leaves them asking questions like “what has he done?”. Tilt shots and Pan shots are also common in thriller openings to lay emphasises on the action taking place at a particular moment in time. For example, there was a tilt shot used to show the audience a building and it was followed by a pan shot of several police vehicles speeding towards the same location. High angle shots are used in thriller films to focus on a particular subject and this creates a dramatic feeling if there is someone at a higher level that can seethe characters below. An example of this would be when the helicopters were flying over the sea and the audience could see police vehicle patrol. However, low angle shots are used to show people who are below and may not necessarily the main character. For example, there was a low angle shot used to show the SWAT team when they were about to break into the room.

Editing in Thriller Movies

We thought it would be a good idea that before we started editing our actual film to look at other opening sequences from thriller films to get some inspiration. There are so many thriller film that are all edited is different ways to try and makwee themselves stand out from the rest, but they are all very unique in their own ways which is what we intend to do for our film.
We have chosen two different thriller opening sequences which in a way relate to our film but also how the editing catches my eye. The first one we looked at was the opening sequence from 'THE WOMAN IN BLACK'.. The opening sequence to this is only 1:31 minutes long but it tells you so much about the film in that short period of time making you want to watch more and find out what happens, which would be a good focus point for our film.




The first thing you see in the opening sequence is a close up of a teapot and teacups being played with (pretending to pour cups of tea), then you see a child serving a doll a cup of tea which lets the audience know that their are children involved in the opening sequence. After serving the dolls with tea it goes to a Medium shot of all three of the girls playing with dolls, this makes things more clear for the viewers.. Next we have some short shot duration shots/close ups of the girls brushing the dolls hair and tucking them into bed, which then got to a two way head shot of two of the girls smiling, symbolizing that they are all friends having a nice time playing together. This then goes to a head shot of the third girl smiling back at them and moving forward for the camera to then show a match on action shot of what she was leaning forward to do which is placing a cup onto a little plate. after showing this the camera goes to a slight low angle view of the girls as if someone is looking down on them, this is a long shot duration shot to show that the girls are still playing and slowly all together look up at this mysterious person. This leads to a medium shot of all of the girl turning to look in the other direction which leads to an eye match shot of the window at the end of the room. We then snap to a shot of all the girls standing up, a close up or two of the girls standing up and then a close up of the third girls feet as she has stood up. Next is a close up shot of the girl holding one of the teacups and dropping it which is then shown in a close up shot falling to the floor and smashing into pieces. 

This is to show that the girls were having a good time playing with their teacups and dolls but now whatever they were doing has taken all of their attention and have almost forgotten about what they were playing.

To help with this point there are more close up shots of their feet and them all walking towards the window, along the way they all tread on teapots and dolls faces which all smash and break under their feet. They then use tracking to show the girls all mesmerized by something which is making them walk towards the window simultaneously. Followed by a long shot of the girls stepping up onto the ledge by the windows so they can reach the handles to open the windows, a close up of one of the girls opening the windows is then used for it to then come back to the long shot of the girls this time showing them standing on the edge of the window to then suddenly jump out of the window. To end all of this the camera stays shooting the window while slowly tracking backwards, there is a quick close up of one of the girls dolls, however it comes back to the slowing tracking backwards of the camera to finish it off.

We believe this is a good opening sequence to a thriller film, as the shots, angles and movements of the camera are not to complicated and it has already shown you quite a lot of the film without giving to much away.