Task 7 Looking back at our Preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product

When comparing my preliminary task to my thriller opening, i realise how much I have learnt in regards to filming and editing and the production of films.

Looking back to our preliminary task, I see how much more detail went into the preparation for our thriller. Our preliminary task was very basic. Planned, shot and edited over the course of a week. It was roughly shot without an accurate storyboard and we had put little or no thought into the arrangement of the shot or lighting.

Our Thriller took much more time to prepare, as we had to decide on a concept and storyline, and produce a planned concept folder which included an accurate storyboard and plans for all the cast and locations. The thriller was much more in depth and every aspect of the shoot day had to be addressed, including finding appropriate cast members and giving them details of when and where they had to be on the shoot day.

In the preliminary task we used a basic selection of wide shots, mid shots and close ups to basically show a story using set dialogue. In our thriller we decided that it would be a much more effective storytelling medium to shoot the same moment from different angles on camera phones. We did this to tell the story from different viewpoints, which is something we didn’t consider when shooting our preliminary.

The editing of our preliminary was incredibly basic compared to the editing of our Thriller. Preliminary editing included logging the rush tape and cutting from one shot to the next. No work was done with sound or after effects.

The editing for our thriller was done in much more detail. We used 4 shots of the same moment which played simultaneously beside each other. They were shots of casual conversation between friends in a college. They are very long shots, which means it gives the opening a gentle yet tense mood, and leaves the audience asking questions. These shots reveal very little about the movie and so the audience start to feel comfortable watching the action, and connecting with the characters. When the fifth screen is introduced with the POV shot of the killer, the action changes very suddenly and so shocks the audience and changes the mood to a more fast paced and chaotic one.
The muzzle flashes were added to the guns using After Effects, which we had never used before, and which gave our thriller and much more professional look. The blurry outlines of the camera phone shots was also done in After Effects, it made the screen more visually pleasing and look more professional, it also gave the opening a flashback like feel.

Sound was also a very important part of our thriller, an aspect we didn’t look at during our preliminary editing. The dialogue of our different shots was faded up and down to subliminally draw the audience’s attention to different shots. We did this slowly to make the audience feel as though the sequence is much longer than it is, because they keep noticing different things. Also the sound of the gun shots was very important. They had to sound aggressive enough to break the calm of the action beforehand. We used the last shot of a machinegun burst and edited the EQ so it sounded more aggressive. Then we turned up the volume and recorded onto a mobile phone. We then put the mobile phone version into the thriller. This enhanced the realism of the scene massively as it sounded just as though it was a real gun. We also took sections of the screaming sounds recorded on the shoot day, and added them in in the sections we felt needed more of a panicked and chaotic feel.

We didn’t really use music in our thriller, apart from a low rumble that gradually gets slightly louder. We made it very quiet so the audience would hardly notice, but so they would feel the tension rising.

In regards to our titles, we researched an appropriate distributor for our film, i.e. Film Four. We followed the traditions of title order, starting with the companies that put up the money, then the stars of the film then ending with the director and the films title. The credits were done in a docu-drama style, aimed more at a younger audience, and to make the story more realistic. We decided to make the credits subtle so we wouldn’t draw attention away from the action on screen. We did this by making them fade in and out slowly and using an OTC font. We used the same font throughout.

Everything we did in our thriller was done to target a specific audience, i.e 15-25 year olds, and a more niche audience who are more interested in Arthouse movies. This was reflected in the pacing of our film, our title sequence, our choices of production and distribution companies and our editing processes.