Evalutation Questions

Question 1

Question 2

Question 2 by Beth Newton


Question 3

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Question 4 + 5


Question 6



For our thriller we used various pieces of equipment and software. None of us had had any experience in using premiere pro before starting to edit our film so we taught ourselves as we went along without using any YouTube tutorials to help us, if we didn't know how to do something we asked another student or we googled it.

The equipment that we used was a Nikon D3330 DSLR camera for all of our shots but to make it look as though the characters themselves were filming the shots we had an old hand held camera as a prop. We also used a tripod which we'd not really used properly before to get steady shots when we needed them in the therapist office and for exterior shots that weren't filmed by the characters. We used a voice recording device to rerecord certain lines of dialogue so they could be heard over a record error in which the sound of the camera focusing could be heard.

We used various sound clips in our thriller from Freesound.org, a website that had many different pieces of music and sound effects that were royalty free. For our thriller we used creepy music box with a heart beat sound over the top of it as moments in our thriller got tense.

For our final shot we needed something a little more enticing for the ending of our thriller. We wanted to have a picture of Jess flash up on the screen so we found a photo we had taken with her special effects make up on and cut the shot into sections making it flash on the screen between static.

Question 7


 

Raven Calls - Final Production

Editing

Editing by Beth Newton

Location shots - therapist office

We decided that we wanted to set one of our scenes in a therapist office so we asked our teacher where he believed would be a good location for this scene. He suggested we used our head teacher's office so we set about writing an email to ask his permission. I wrote the email with Jess and Amy's help and we waited for a reply. 

We soon got a reply which stated that we were able to use the office so we arranged a time to film.

For the scene set in the therapist office we had Amy sat in the black chair at the desk as the therapist whilst I sat in the chair beside the table. We did this to give us the opportunity of using various shots to show a conversation and it also made it feel more believable as a therapist office than that of a head teacher's.

Legal Documents

Before we could start our filming we had to fill in some documents to ensure the safety of everyone working on and filming our opening. These forms contained risk assessments as we would be filming off school sight. We had to write of the suggested risks could be applied to our film as we were filming outside, in winter next to water. Although we believed there was little risk of anything happening to us on our filming day we said that the risks could've been the actors involved getting cold or perhaps being injured near the water.
On this form you can see the names Ellie and Jade, they were who we originally had planned to play the roles of the journalists friends. However, they were unable to make the day of filming so our friends Sophie and Josh stepped in.

Our second document is our shooting schedule. Our plan of shooting that day was to film all the exterior shots, this form showed what order and which shots we planned to film. 

Storyboard

Jess created a storyboard from the screenplay I had written using a website called storyboardthat.

Audience Research

First draft and Feedback

This was our first draft of Raven Calls before we had fully completed our editing We received this feedback from our teacher.

We agreed with a lot of this feedback. The ending of the piece where the blood dripped down the screen did look too 'cartoonish' and made the film look less professional as well as making our opening look more like a trailer. The JAB production logo at the end also made our film look more like a trailer than an opening so we changed this in our final edit by going for something more simple.

We also edited the scene which shows the characters walking from behind the tree to make the scene shorter. We did this, on our teacher's advice, to keep the pacing of the scene and prevent the opening becoming too slow which would make the audience lose interest.

We rerecorded Amy's lines during the scene with the focus pull from Amy's hand to my face. We did this because you can hear the camera focusing which drowns out Amy's line making it hard to hear. We rerecorded the audio of Amy's lines using a voice recorder and layered it over the top of the footage. This was simple to do for Amy's lines as the camera doesn't show her face in this scene.

In our final piece we used a photograph we took of Jess when she had her stage make up on as Raven Black. We used this photo along with a static effect to make her face flash up on the screen during the last few seconds of the opening to bring the tension  of the opening to a close. I believe this worked well and, if the film was to be made, paved a nice way into returning to the action that probably wouldn't be as tense.

Filming Day

The day we went to our location to actually film the exterior shots for our thriller was quite possibly one of the coldest days of the year. But by using our storyboard and screenplay to create a clear plan of what we needed to get done we were able to get our filming done in one day without too many problems.

As our thriller has a horror theme Jess thought it would be a good idea to use Latex costume make up for her character as she plays the ghost.

Here you can see how the process went from nothing to the end result. 

She used liquid latex and tissue to create a ripped skin effect and then painted her face and neck white to give impression she was a ghost. 

She then used red and black to make the wounds looks more realistic and to make her eyes look dead. 

On location for our filming we had to be conscious of where the natural light was coming from as we were surrounded by trees and we filmed at midday. The diegetic sound of the birds can be heard in our footage giving it an eerie sense. We chose to film next to the pond as we thought that water is usually seen as something 'peaceful' and 'tranquil' and setting something scary next to it would make the scenes filmed there seem unsettling. 

We also chose this location as it was close to the school meaning we knew if it would be busy and what the best time to film there would be. On the day of filming the whole area was empty making us the only ones there, this meant we didn't cause any inconvenience to the public.

Looking at the footage we got on the day of filming I believe at the moment there won't be much need for pick ups, we do however, have time to go and film scenes again if needed. 

Our main issue with filming was the weather as it was, as I mentioned, a very cold day. Jess' costume for this scene was a black short sleeved dress meaning every time she had to be in a scene she would be without a coat which meant all our scenes had to be filmed in a very short amount of time to prevent her from being so cold she couldn't move. However, due to planning we had already done we knew exactly what we needed to film and were able to do so efficiently.

Textual Analysis - Endeavour

Advertising

To make our thriller like a real thriller film we deciding to make advertising for it creating a Facebook and Twitter for our film production company.

We made Twitter for our film production company 'JAB Productions' using the logo Jess designed. 

On our Twitter we posted the posters we made for Raven Calls using Canva. This made it seem as though we were a professional film company advertising their latest film. 

On our first poster we included the company logo, release date and the tag line. We think our second poster is better however as it looks more simple and professional as well as still being creepy to make the theme of our thriller. 

Here is our second and favourite poster that we created. We think it looks creepy and professional like I mentioned and gives the viewer an idea on what our film will be like. 

Character Profiles

Raven Calls by Beth Newton

Thriller Film Company Logos

BBFC Age Regulations

BBFC Age Regulations by Beth Newton

Production tips

Audience Theories

Audience Categorisation Theories by Beth Newton

One Page Pitch

In preparation for our thriller task we had to do a one page pitch for our teacher. This involved us writing and planning what we were going to say in order to make our film sound good. I personally think our pitch went well as we were well organised and had a good idea of what our film should look like.

Sound In Production

Sound In Production by Beth Newton

Director Study

Chris Columbus by Beth Newton

Sound and how it can be used in film...

When we make our thriller films something we have to be careful with is sound and using different kinds in our thrillers to convey certain emotions. If we have a sad scene we will need to use music that matches the scene to keep with the theme and create atmosphere.

If we use music that doesn't match the feel of the scene it will feel very strange to watch. For example if we have a sad scene where someone has been killed and then play a really cheery song over the top of it changes the feel of the scene. The viewer no longer feels sad they either feel cheery when they shouldn't be or feel uncomfortable because there's a really happy song being played during a scene that should not be happy.

Here I have taken a sad scene from BBC Sherlock and played different songs over the top to show what I mean. Some of them look and sound completely ridiculous but that just shows you my point.