Audience feedback

Feedback is important during the editing process as other people may notice things that we don't.

As a group, we shared the post around our friends and families. I myself, posted the rough cut (shown in Diary Entry- ALMOST FINISHED) onto my Facebook, asking for feedback from friends that i'm maybe not close to who aren't worried about giving me feedback.

From Facebook, I received praise for the film, people saying it was 'effective' and 'well made'.
Someone commented that the typography wasn't very in keeping with the theme of an action thriller. So I revised the simplistic typography and decided it did work because, well it's simplistic! It doesn't draw away from the flashbacks and voiceover, audience don't have to think much as there isn't to much going on.

Comments from friends, including our actors, were all positive, apart from them being a bit camera shy, thus feeling embarrassed about watching themselves.
They especially like the ending when there is a freeze frame of Brooke, commenting that it that it makes you 'know she's important to the plot'.
Also, that the small silence before the antagonist appears 'stand out' as you suspect 'something was coming'.
There only criticisms were the lack of sound in some places, but this wasn't new news as I knew I had to add extra sound effect in and add to the score.

Comments from fellow peers, ones that know all of the similar camera and editing techniques that I do;
 gave generally good comments.
When watching my rough cut, points for improvement included points such as the digetic sound not matching action on screen. But after the mistakes regarding the sound were corrected, comments became positive in that it was unnoticeable that sound effects were added. Another comment was that the voiceover was spaced too far apart and some tended to forget what had previously been said.
It was clear to viewers that the target audience are young people; 15-24 year olds, similar to the protagonist. It was also easy to identify the thriller genre.

The general consensus was that it was ranked around 81/2 out of 10! A result  I am incredibly pleased with!

Brooke Parker - Final Cut

The making of Brooke Parker; Editing, Rough Cuts and Music

Here are a few clips collard together from our time filming. This has allowed me to see what needs to be done next and enabled me to look back on my work and discover what parts need improvement. I feel like this is a good point to notice flaws in my work as it is easily rectified at this current stage.



Editing diary entry 1:

Editing is going well! We have managed to re-film the shots we needed to as mentioned above!
I have started to think about sound as well.
I have looked at several tracks on YouTube under the specification of 'suspenseful', 'thriller', 'action' and 'chase sequence'.
These tracks are characterized by a building tempo and dynamics.
However, the tracks I looked differentiated from dupstep-style tracks to classical pieces made for more slow action.
Our sequence needs a good variety of music as it is slow at the beginning; no action is taking place, yet we want a sense of tension to build throughout the opening sequence. This part is where the more classical piano tracks would work.
However, this would not be fitting for the actual chase sequence in which we aim to give a fast paced, yet still tense feel. This is where the dubstep music would fit nicely.

Taking this into account, I took a few copyright free tracks from YouTube and edited them together to make a short track that can be manipulated (cut, looped etc) to fit our chase sequence and adapt to the four individual edits within my group.

After working for a while on Audacity, I managed to create this track that in cooperates both the classical and modern elements of music that appeal to our target audience.

Here is the final track, having compared its duration to my rough cut, it is unfortunately not long enough for my film opening sequence, luckily, I can cut it and loop it to extend the track and make it fit to the relevant frames.




Editing diary entry 2:

So it's been almost three weeks since we began filming and during the whole time, I have been roughly editing the clips that we gathered, now that all the filming is done I can begin to create the final product.

I have edited in the flash back frames and coloured them appropriately so as they are clearly presented as flashbacks. However I still need to colour correct the rest of the sequence.

I have leveled the sound on all of the clips, using both digetic and Foley sounds; the sounds of running were not clear on the recording, so I edited them in, whereas the sound of Brooke dropping her bag, is a great on screen sound which didn't need any further improvement or enhancement.

I have recorded and edited our simple voiceover.

I have also managed to edit on my music track to fit and make it seamlessly loop for as long as I need.

Here is a second rough cut of what I have created so far:

I have added a lot more ambient sound to compliment the background images. For example, I noticed there is a frame in which, behind Brooke Parker, the trees are blowing around, so, I added a quiet sound of wind.

I also filled in the gaps in which there was no sound at all, mostly adding in footsteps.
Whilst I was lucky enough to have found most of the sound effects I needed on Final Cut Pro, however, I required a few extra sounds such as fumbling as Brooke Parker takes off her bag.
After searching YouTube for a while, i found a sound named "Rustling Plastic Film' and used this to create the sound of Brooke removing her bag and placing it down.

All that's left to do is the colour correction! I'm hoping to make the frames seem warmer in colour and have a bit more clarity.

The next step for Brooke Parker is to show it to classmates, friends and family members. This will provide us with a range of feedback that will give us points for improvements, and parts that work well. I am going to be sharing the film of the social networking site Facebook so as not to have a biased view that close friends and family may give.
My group and I also are going to leave the room when our classmates watch it so as they feel confident enough to give feedback without worrying about offending us, which I will be able to act upon in the final stages of my editing.

Editing diary entry 3:

So, I thought I was done, but after reviewing it with my tutor, we took a look at the sound perspective and the length of some clips.
After looking at the clip where the antagonist first appears; we chatted and decided that the clip was too long and it drew away from the already built tension.
I played around with sound and visuals as well so I decided on a black screen with the sound of a heartbeat over it, the banging sound that accompanies the antagonists first appearance sounds almost like a gunshot and the pace of the clip means audiences may not have noticed whether the antagonist is armed or not, amplifying the tension.
I looked at maybe bringing in the music during this window of black,however, it didn't work for the rest of the sequence.

The revised clips now are more tense and certainly add to the thriller/action genre that I am aiming for.

About to shoot

It is almost time to film, we have all of our planning and preparation completed and we feel confident that we know exactly what we need to film. Unfortunately we have had to make a few changes to our film opening sequence. Due to illness one of our actors playing a 'henchman' is unable to film. Luckily this won't effect the filming and finished result too much as we had put in place two henchmen at the start. Although we are now down to one henchman we have discussed this as a group and decided to film from a low angle at the remaining henchman to ensure that he looks villainous.

Props and equipment list

Production Schedule

Contracts, Permission Sheets and Call Sheets

Actor Contract:

Permission Sheet:

Call Sheet:

Shot list

Risk Assessment

Location Reece

Storyboard

Starting point progression:

In todays lesson we created a storyboard. Within this storyboard we needed to show:
-An engaging sequence to hook the audience
- Inventive and creative use of titles
-A clear meaning and narrative
-The genre is clearly shown
-Seemless cuts to show the continuity
-Attention to the mise-en-scene
-Attention to the sound (labels of what will appear where)
-Varied camera angles and steady shots

These all need to be shown through the drawings of our opening sequence. They need to be detailed so we can capture every frame that is needed.

Finished result:

Storyboard animated:

Screenplay

Moodboard

Here is a mood board of images that I feel connects to the current ideas for our film opening sequence. I have combined some images from current action thriller films and strong women spy figures that can relate to our main character. I have also shown images that can connect to the action thriller genre with gadgets and dark clothing. These images have provoked ideas within the group and we are now more than ever wanting to hype the action roles within our opening sequence.

Elevator pitch

25 Word Pitch:
Teenage girl leading a secret life which puts her in extreme danger from her enemies and forces her to fight back in a thrilling chase.

Opening synopsis:
Based in a dark eerie woods on a cold winters morning, a runner stops for a breather whilst out in the woods, seemingly alone. There is a tense air around as the runner seems to be keeping a weary eye constantly looking over her shoulder for something, or someone…
As a voiceover explains her day to day normal life; two darkly dressed men appear and stop as they see the runner, who quickly sprints away. As a chase breaks out, atmospheric music kicks in intensifying the scene and it's outcome. We see the character having near misses with fallen logs and low branches as she tries to give these mysterious men the slip.
As the runner pulls away, the voiceover explains the double life she is forced to lead. During which, she pulls out gadgets from pockets and her bag, inferring a secret agent lifestyle.

As she leaps over a log, a freeze-frame presents the title of the film. which doubles as her name: Brooke Parker

Initial Ideas

Here is a video of the ideas we had for our film as a group. We came up with a number of ideas for different film openings that we could create then chose one of these ideas which we later expanded in the same video:

Overall I feel like this was a successful first brainstorm of our ideas as a collective and I am extremely excited to carry on expanding these thoughts, I hope to have many more successful group meetings such as this in the future.

My Ident

Firstly I came up with the theme of the sea to base my ident around. This is what lead me to the idea of 'shore productions'. This would be a short yet recognisable name to viewers. Using this idea I decided to use the image of sea waves. After putting the image into Final Cut Pro I altered the colouring of the image until it was to my liking.

I then added the text. I was originally planning on placing the name Shore Productions over the top of the image but I found a type of text which combined the two which appealed to me more than my original idea. This is where the image was shown through the text which I feel looks more technical and professional than my previous idea. I also decided to make it zoom in and back out again, I done this by key framing at what points I wanted the text to be a certain size.

I then decided to add sound. I inserted the 'Ocean Surf' sound and the 'Seagulls' sound as these are the noises that are commonly linked with the theme that I am basing my company ident around. Finally, to make the transition from my indent to the beginning of the film more fluid I decided to make the sound fade out towards the end again making my product more professional.

The finished moving ident:

This will be used in my moving images however I will also be needing a still image as a company logo for my documentation, for this I captured part of my moving image leaving me with this as the finished result to represent my company:

Continuity task 2 - directors commentary

Here I have gone through my most recent work commentating on reasons why I chose to use certain effects. I done this as the use of sound in my work is my most recent developing skill in the editing stages so I wanted to look back and see how effective my work was. I found this reflection on my work extremely helpful as it has shown me not only the strengths in my work but also the weaknesses which will help me to avoid mishaps in topics such as representation in future tasks.

Continuity task 2 final cut

This is the final cut for my continuity task 2. I feel like I have improved greatly from my previous work as I have now widened myself to experiment with adding in sound to my clips giving me something else to work on and improve when it comes to my final task. I found it much easier when filming and editing this as I had already put much planning and preparation into my work before hand making the practical work much simpler. I will be using this experience as a tool to guide me whilst preparing for my final piece.

Continuity task 2 planning

Sequence 1)
Long shot - Alice sat in a dimly lit room tied up with rope

*SOUND EFFECT* - BOOM
*CUT*
Medium shot - Alice looks up to the camera (scared)
*SOUND EFFECT* - BOOM
*CUT*
Close up - To shot of Alice’s hands
*SOUND EFFECT* - BOOM
*CUT*
Point of view shot - From Alice's perspective
*SOUND EFFECT* - BOOM
*CUT*

Sequence 2)

Long/Medium shot - Beth walks down the corridor towards the door, leading to the room Alice is in

*MATCH ON ACTION*

Medium shot - Camera is behind Beth walking to the door

Long shot - Beth is at the door looking around suspiciously then begins to open it

Sequence 3)

*MATCH ON ACTION*

Long shot - Beth opens the door and begins to enter

*MATCH ON ACTION*

Medium shot - Beth enters the room where Alice is being held captive

Sequence 4)

Medium shot - Beth sits down opposite Alice
*ESTABLISHING SHOT*

{DIALOGUE}

*SHOT REVERSE SHOT*

Over the shoulder shots - 

Beth: 'Hello Alice' (sarcastic smile)

Alice: 'Why am I here?'

Beth: 'I think you know'

Alice: 'It wasn’t my fault!'

Beth: 'Does it matter?'

Alice: 'Of course it does, I’m stu-'

Beth: 'I don’t have time for this!' (hits table and storms out)

Sequence 5)

Over the shoulder shot - Beth storms out

*CUT*

Medium shot - Alice left scared in the room

*SOUND EFFECT* - BOOM

*CUT*

This is a brief storyboard of a selection of clips that I wish to use in my second continuity task along with a short script. I have developed my skills since my first continuity task as I now understand the importance of planning ahead and how useful these tools can be when it comes to shooting all of my clips. I also feel like this task will be much more developed as the story behind it has been more thought out and much more planning and preparation has been put in place before the day of filming. I will be taking this lesson learnt and applying it to my opening sequence to ensure that everything is planned in much greater detail before the crucial filming days.

Primeval visual essay

Here I went through a short clip from primeval, analysing the representations that are shown for each character. This has helped me to understand the importance of things such as mise en scene and it can change the connotations that are linked with individuals. I will be taking this into consideration during the preparation for my film opening sequence making sure I get each character correct with the representations that I wish to be shown.

Continuity task

Here is a short continuity task that I have use to experiment with and develop my editing skills. I will be using the skills I have learnt whilst doing this project in the edit of my film trailer as I have learnt key skills and rules to go by when filming and editing a sequence of clips.

What went well?
I think that the match on action during the clip where the actor goes through the door is good as the door is at the same angle when filming on one side of the door to the other. This makes the clip look seamless and makes the audience believe that it happened all at the same time. For this reason I don't think this needs any futher improvement if I were to do this again. I hope this same flawless effect can be replicated in my final cut of my film opening sequence.

 

What didn't go well and how would I improve it next time?
When the actor is going down the stairs the clip appears to be wobbly. This is because a tripod wasn't used as we followed the actor down the stairs instead of having it in a fixed position therefore we were unable to get a smooth clip. To avoid this from happening again I will film the enitre film with a tripod and find a suitable place where you can see the action happening without having to move the camera therefore making the quality of the clip suffer.

The transition from the actor walking down the stairs to taking her seat at the bottom doesn't quite show very good match on action. This is because the actor wasn't filmed traveling from the bottom of the stairs to the place where she started walking from the bottom therefore making it look jumpy. To prevent this from happening again I will make sure that the whole journey is filmed as it can be confusing to the audience if they don't see everything that happened.

The last thing that I would improve next time is the use of dialogue. The eye lines were good but there needs to be more dialogue included to show the shot reverse shot rule to its full potentiol. I will do this by extending my dialogue therefore creating more opportunity to film the actors and show the use of shot reverse shot.

I feel like as a first attempt of editing a sequence of clips together this is a very strong video. In the future I wish to take these skills and apply them to a more adventurous context.

What media do i consume?

Here I collated a brief look at the media I consume on a daily basis. I will then be using this to look at how I can use these forms of media to enable me to distribute my final product to my target audience in the best means possible to appeal to my target audience.

The Film Industry

Film Corporations

The film industry is mainly dominated by four multi national corporations Universal, Sony, Warner Brothers and Disney. These corporations are referred to as 'The Majors'. The majority of these have stakes in other industries besides film such as music, tv and electronics. Most of these major corporations own subsidiary companies which are smaller in order to reach different target audiences who are interested in different genres such as Columbia and Syco these companies are known as major independents.n there are independents, these are a number of small companies with little or no financial connection to the majors. These companies often concentrate on a smaller number of acts within a specialised industry. An example of a highly successful independent company is Edison Trust. It is often that film companies begin as small independents but then are bought by a major and turn into major independents making their way up the film company chain.

Synergy

The film trailer exists as only one part of the multimedia campaign as it is only one way that a film is promoted. The film industry uses a number of different media for different purposes such as radio, tv, print and music. There is often a clear sense of synergy across a number of media platforms.

Audience

The audience for the genre that I have chosen would range from teenagers to young adults with the majority of it being male. To understand my audience better I am going to look into them, their likes and dislikes so I am able to cater the trailer to their expectations. Whilst doing this I hope to have a clear idea of who would look at the genre of film that I am creating. I will start my investigations by getting a focus group of people who are fans of the action thriller genre to find out more about them.

Focus group
As part of my focus group I had four volunteers take part who watch action thriller films. I found out why they watch this genre and what they get from watching these types of films.
George - He likes the build up of intensity throughout the film and the explosives used in high end films.
Louis - He likes the dominant male characters that can be seen as male role models.
Beth - She likes the stunts and speed of these films as there's 'never a dull moment'.
Nicole - She likes the strong women in these films however would like to see more women used as a main action character.

Research into the audience (Qualitative and Quantitative date)
A survey into the age and gender of the action thriller target audience has been collected and the following data received: 'Do you watch action thriller films?'

From the responses to this survey, I can clearly see that most 'Yes' answers to the question 'Do you watch action thriller films?' are in the 16-20 age group and male. From the results there is a great difference between the number of female action thriller watchers compared to the males. This supports the research found when looking at box-office results. It was found that men watch action thriller movies to involve themselves into a man's world with fast cars, weapons and women. Although fewer women were seen to attend this genre of film some went due to reasons such as the male gaze. Looking at the occupations of my audience their demographic profile wouldn't be categories such as aspirers or conformers as they do things outside of the norms of society and seek for individuality.

Audience profile
Name: Lucy
Age: 18
Gender: Female
Likes: Films, Gaming, Friends
Dislikes: Concerts, Shopping
Hobbies: Playing video games
Clothing: Gaming T's, Pullover jumpers, 'Kitch' accessories
Audience demographic: Disconnected, these people are detached from mainstream society and live in the 'ever-present-now'
Salary: Student
Output on media: Roughly £74 per month, Games, Cinema, Conventions
Shops at: GAME, Origin, Online gaming merch shops
Relationships: Family, Friends
Intake of media: 75% of the day, aspires to work in the entertainment business so she revolves herself around this world

Name: Calvin
Age: 20
Gender: Male
Likes: Cars, Friends, Sport
Dislikes: Shopping
Hobbies: Hanging out with friends
Clothing: Topman clothing
Audience demographic: Connected, these people are extremely attached to mainstream society and the latest trends/affairs
Salary: 21,000-25,000
Output on media: Roughly £50 per month, cinema tickets, latest dvd releases
Shops at: Topman, HMV
Relationships: Family, Friends, Partner
Intake of media: 60% of the day, watches films with friends or at home when not at work

Marketing
After looking at this target audience I have decided the best way to advertise my upcoming film trailer is through the types of media that they use such as, posters and social networking. There is no  use in spending money on advertising in places that they don't relate to as the target audience would not be in view of something that they would be interested in.

GROUP WORK
Here as a group we collated our idea on target audience and marketing to create three short videos. One showing a female who would be part of our target audience, one showing a male who would be part of our target audience and finally the last one on our opinions on marketing our film trailer.

Female-

Male-

Marketing-

Genre

My chosen genre is Action Thriller. I am going to focus on films such as the James Bond trilogy, Mission Impossible, Inception and The Dark Knight. I have chosen this genre as it is becoming increasingly popular amongst teenage audiences, with films more frequently using teenage protagonists in the action setting, such as Abduction starring Taylor Launtner. I will be looking into the codes and conventions of this to help me understand what that audience will be expecting from our final product.

Action thriller films are action packed that aim to get you on the edge of your seat with pyrotechnics, amazing story lines and plot twists. They typically deal with semi realistic story lines with a major twist of weapons and missions. Plots written within the Action or Thriller genre often involve a typical theme of heroes and villains mixed with guns and other weapons, although most action genres are realistic, and have many sub genres such as adventure, spy, war and superhero. Most action films contain moderate forms of gore and violence such as fight scenes, war violence, torture etc. This is where the thriller side comes in as they add suspense mysteries and twists into the story. The action thriller genre hasn't changed much over the years, but more recently the sub genre of super heroes has become more popular with companies such as Marvel Comics and DC Comics being made into films meaning there is a high demand for this sub genre.

Settings
Action thriller films are typically known to be located in an everyday location, mostly big cities as this is where the most disturbance can be caused when the chaos occurs. These places are often hard to obtain unless you have a high budget as you'd have to shut down major areas. This makes the action thriller genre extremely exclusive normally only being accessed by companies in the big six rather than smaller independent companies. Although this is going to be hard to access we will be trying our very best to come up with public locations that we can record action happening yet not disturb anyone in the area.

Mise en scene
This is a critical factor to the action thriller genre as it helps give the film context. People in these films range from normal everyday clothes to full costumes making the range of possibilities extremely wide. Props also play a large role as they add the realistic touch. For the action thriller genre this includes stuff such as weapons and spy gear.

Performance
Action thriller films are all based around the actors performance. With this in mind it is critical that we have reliable and serious actors who will take to the role professionally as would someone do on the big screens.

Camera
The action thriller genre includes a variety of camera shots but mainly uses a tracking system to help capture the moving action. Long and wide shots are also common as they are used as established shots to initially set the scene.

Editing
The editing pace is the most important factor of a film trailer. This is where separate clips are able to be formulated into a plot. The action-thriller genre in particular are best known for its high effects adding in gun shots and explosions. This quality and impact is extremely hard to access from independent companies making it only available for companies such as the big six.

GROUP WORK-

After looking at the genre individually we have decided to come together as a group and collect all of our opinions, facts and ideas based around both action and thriller genres separately to help us identify what makes them different between each other and enabling us to combine them to our best abilities.