Rough cut and feedback

Feedback

1.     How well have the technical areas been produced? (camerawork, editing, sound and mise 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?

Group 1's feedback

1.       The camerawork is good because it is in order. It shows clearly what the man is doing, with each shot. The mise en scene all matches as it is all modern and not mixed with anything that would not correspond with the characteristics of the antagonist. The sound matches the action of the man urinating and the water running, the ambient sound is clear. There is no editing yet.

2.       Nothing happens for the viewer to guess what sub genre it is. It just shows a normal guy waking up and using the bathroom, without any concept of a psychological thriller.

3.       I like that it is simple and clearly shows what the man is doing, which is good for the viewer to understand. 

4.       You could add more natural sound in the background instead of it being nothing then suddenly the viewer can hear the man peeing and water being flushed.

Group 2's feedback

1.       The beginning of the rough cut is good and the camerawork uses good angles. The mise en scene is also good, especially the costume and the characters stubble. However, the editing is lacking continuity and could be smoother. There are good sound effects in the form of the man peeing, the toilet flushing and the tap running.

2.        Not sure yet as to what the sub-genre is because all the rough cut shows is a man participating in his daily routine.

3.       We like the different variety of angles used and the shot where the camera follows the man to the bathroom.

4.      The error at 0:17, the continuity is a bit off.

Group 3's feedback

1. The camera work is good as there are plenty of different shots such as medium and over the shoulder shots. The ambient sound is clear and natural which creates realism. Their is lack of editing such as transitions used which makes the sequence plain.
2. At the moment, i cannot identify the sub-genre due to the normal start of the sequence.
3.  I like the clearness of the ambient sounds as it is engaging and how everything is normal at the start which builds suspense for the ending.
4. You can improve the rough cut by adding more details to suggest that this is a psychological thriller. More editing techniques should also be used to make the piece more interesting.

Group 4's feedback

1. All four technical areas have been used effectively. However, there are lots of features for camera work yet there is none for editing. All four technical areas should be used consistently and equally. The sound has been used effectively as it creates a surreal feeling.
2. We cannot identify the groups sub-genre because no stereotypical features have been used to suggest whether the piece is psychological or action etc. 
3. We like the continuity of the rough cut as it is smooth without any mistakes. We also like the character as we think his appearance resembles a rapist.
4. Add some features of a psychological thriller so the genre is clear and not mistaken for another genre.  Also speed up the duration because it is quite boring and takes a while to get to the point.

Character profile

Since we decided the storyline of our opening sequence, we had different discussions about the details of our main character.

For us, it was very important to make our character look like a normal person for most of the opening sequence and not like an antagonist because it would create an enigma within the audience. The audience would be confused as to why the character was included in the opening sequence until the end of the sequence, when it is revealed that although he may look normal, he isn’t.

Our antagonist will be wearing a shirt and tie for the second half of the opening sequence, making him look like a stereotypical male going to work. These clothes are countertypical for antagonists to wear in thriller movies. They also aren’t the sort of cloths you would expect a character with psychological issues to be wearing either, creating further enigmas.

Until he goes on his laptop and onto Facebook, our character looks normal and there is no reference to him being an antagonist with psychological issues at all. However, when he leaves the room, it becomes clear to the audience that he is a rapist as they can see the strange things that he has collected in his room. These things include bras, knickers, high heels and condoms and they are scattered all over the floor. There also three girls, two of which are tied up and one is unconscious, lying across the floor and a sofa. This shows that he isn’t psychologically normal, as he has kidnapped three girls and has brutally raped them, and relates to the theme of our thriller.

We have decided that the main character’s room will be displayed with lots of laptops and electronic equipment to give our audience the first indication to his normality because it’s unusual to see more then one computer or laptop in a person’s room. This also represents that he is using social networking for searching female as his next target.

To show what we wanted our main character to be like, we designed our own main character. The picture that one of our group members drew shows that our character will have messy hair and be dressed in smart clothing. We also used different images from the internet to show the different objects that will be displayed in his room.

Possible title effects

Our team wanted our titles and credit of our opening sequence to be exclusive and unique. In order to achieve this, we searched the Internet for possible title effects. Here are a few examples that our team preferred.

This first title effect to the right symbolises the urban feel to our film. Considering phishing is quite a modern feature with the 21st century that occurs in most urban cities, our aim was to built something

current and modernistic. The font is bold and thick which is more appealing for the viewersw. The only negative about this font is the way the title does not represent a psychological thriller as the title is not spooky or scary.

The second title effect, is quite plain but it represents abuse with the slightly worn out and crumpled tones of the letters. The sophistication and boldness is toned down by the use of lower cases, in comparison with the bold one above.

The third title effect is quite similar to the second, but more eye catching with more disstored letters.  The splatter of the letters creates a messy feel which corresponds with the bedroom of the antagonitst.

Practise test shot in bathroom

This is a practice shot in the bathroom of the antagonist casually cleaning his teeth. We used an over the shoulder shot to film this. Firstly, we recorded the sound of a tap running in order to capture the sound with clarity. We then recorded the actual clip of the antagonist cleaning his teeth. On GarageBand, Frankie then deleted the natural sounding of the clip, and replaced it with the sound of the tap running.
The sound is now clear making the audience feel involved and engaged with the clip due to the effect of realism that has been created with GarageBand.

Animatic

Location report

Previously, we had many ideas of location. Initially, we had the aim to film inside school during school hours because the timing meant our group could all participate without practical issues and the school also had the majority of the equipment we needed to film. Because our opening sequence reveals different electronic devices, we thought of filming in the Windsor Girls IT suite as there were plenty of computers, PCs and headphones there that we could borrow for prop. However, due to the issue of the busy environment and the fact that we needed the antagonist to wake up in his house, we decided to ignore that idea as our continuity would have been poor when trying to create the feeling that we have used just one location to film. Our team member, Thuraya, quickly stepped in and nominated her cousins bedroom, considering he was our antagonist. Everybody was comfortable with this decision as the location was relatively near and we had all the facilities from computers to beds in Thurayas cousins bedroom.

When we arrived in the bedroom, the location was perfect. The setting of an ordinary 21year old room related well to our plot of the story. The contrast between normality and insanity was a feature we wanted to achieve as we felt it was unusual and peculiar because the stereotypical antagonist in a psychological thriller is supposed to behave inhuman. Therefore, by making our antagonist act as normal as possible in a normal environment, the plot will be counter typical and different from other thrillers. In the location, there were several posters, of which we wanted to keep, and a messy desk space that contributed well with the average males room. The modernity of the room also worked well with our plot as Facebook is a modernised concept in the 21st century. There were two sofas which was useful as it made the bedroom look like an appartment enviroment, this added realism. The bedroom also had an ensuite, making it perfect for our bathroom scenes. The bathroom had a shower, sink and cabinets.

There were some issues in the location, which were also identified in the risk assessment sheet. Our team had to work well to prevent any lighting errors as the bedroom was located at the highest point of the house where the natural lighting of the sun kept shining in. We returned several times to our location in order to re-film and add in shots that were not initally planned. The nearness of our location made it quick and easy for us to go back and re-film. For example, we filmed several shots of the antagonist communicating over a Facebook message with his protagonist. By sticking to one main location, we were able to repeat our mistakes and keep the continuity of the film.

The location has televisions and space to put all our wanted electronic devices such as three laptops and a telephone. We wanted our antagonist to be stereotypically technical with computers as this is what people associate with phishing.  The messy and unorganized living space is a stereotypical feature associated with young adult males. Our use of props resembled our modern narrative because we used Mac laptops, which are current for today.

Practise of sound on GargageBand

In order to create this sound, I used GarageBand. At first, I was inexperienced with the new software, but from the help of others, I quickly grasped the concept of GarageBand. Taking into account our psychological genre, my intention was to compose a mysterious and creepy sound that was parallel to our opening sequence. I listened to many acoustics and piano sounds because I wanted to achieve quite a suspicious non-diagetic background track for our opening sequence. After deliberating with different instrumentals, I was able to mix three sounds together found in the Mysterious and Intense section. I was taught how to fade in and out the sound to create the gradual flow of the track. I was also taught how to soften sounds so that they were not so loud.

Although this is just a practise copy, I feel that this track could play a major part in our opening sequence. The reason being is that the sound creates the illusion I wanted and it relates well with the antagonists characteristics of secretive and sly. Its suspicious and builds up the pace which goes with the slow duration of our opening sequence. It also creates enigmas for the audience as the public will wonder why the music is intense when the antagonist is just brushing his teeth or getting out of bed. During the later stages of editing, I hope to add a number of diegetic sounds to the background music from girls screaming to the doors locking. We have recorded each diegetic sound we are going to use, in order to achieve clarity and definition. This will be added in our final piece to create suspsense and uncertainity.