EVALUATION; question seven.

My group and I had our first taster of production and planning of a thriller opening when we made our preliminary film. We didn't have a lot of time and only had limited use of sources. During the preliminary film, we had acquired a lot of skills, which we had learnt on the day or had knowledge of from when we were first introduced to the equipment in class.

In the pre production of filming our preliminary film we had to plan what the thriller was actually about and the storyboarding; whilst planning our preliminary, we had to consider who our target audience were so we can make the film suited to our ideal audience. We also had to make a storyline that to the preliminary and had to make sure the prelim opening did not look like a trailer, otherwise we have failed our purpose of an thriller opening. We then had to make a storyboard which would be very useful as we were able to know what we would film, in what order and how we would edit it. The storyboard also allowed us to put all our ideas on paper and see whether they were achievable or not. It also gave us a sense of how we would like each shot and where each shot would be placed in the sequence. During this process, I believe we acquired good drawing, planning and organisation skills, which proved to be very beneficial to our end media product, TWELVE. Due to the fact we had limited time for the prelim the sketches were drawn roughly whereas our actual thriller opening storyboard, we had time and we properly thought and organised what shots/angles and what the character was going to do. We were extremely organised in planning from, what time we were going to get to the location of filming to how/when we were going to edit our film. 


Our camera skills were praised by my media teacher and others; it was my first time using the camera as I was not present during the tutorial of equipment. As a group, we thought of different angles and shots we can use for our prelim. The different angles of each character puts the audiences attention just to that character, which I thought would be very effective for the prelim and our future thriller opening. One of the things my group were praised for in camera skills in our prelim was the panning technique; we showed the panning technique in our thriller opening and it turned out that most people liked it as it was very effective and added more tension.

We used some props in our prelim; we used an envelope, as the title was called 'The Letter'; we also used a chair, to show authority and status. We did not use a lot as we didn't have time to get a lot of props and we hardly needed any props which suited our prelim. However, during the planning of our thriller opening we thoroughly thought of everything; including the mise en scene. We bought some candles and got some from home so it would set the eerie mood of the supernatural being. We planned for the male victim to wear white so it represents innocence and wealth, and for the female supernatural being to wear black clothes and make-up to symbolise death and horror. We needed a charm-like book for the character to read. I searched in libraries and shops to look for a old-looking book. I did not find any so at last minute I got a book from which happened to be a Harry Potter book. It was dark and a fairly suitable size - it proved to work well in the end, as it looked effective and most people noticed it.

As we filmed in daylight for our prelim, we hardly needed any lighting equipment. However, I would say that if we did film in darkness for prelim, it would be effective and add tension to the whole prelim. In contrast, in Twelve, lighting had a lot more input in it; we had the candles obviously which a gave luminous glow on the character, which added suspense and proved to be effective. We also used artificial lighting underneath one of the characters to add suspense and makes the character look even more scary. 

After we had filmed everything, we had to move on to the editing. We all played a part in the prelim editing as well as the thriller opening. During the editing of the prelim, that is when we were learning how to use Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro, and in my opinion, I think we were exceptional for beginners. The shots we had to make were; match cuts, jump cuts, long shots, close ups, establishing shots, wide shot, 180 degree rule, etc. We used all these in our prelim and thriller opening, to make sure we had a range of shots that we could use to make the film more effective. I think we applied these really well and showed them best to our ability. The editing was a bit difficult as there were twice as many clips to put together and title sequence. The title sequence was a bit of a bother as we were unsure of what to use and how to use it. In the end, we used the same narrative opening sequence in our thriller opening as the prelim. We used some video transitions to make the clips flow more smoothly and so it does not cut the attention of the audience. We used a slow motion technique to show the emotion of the character when he sees the supernatural being. In my opinion, the sound we used in the prelim was better than the sound in the thriller opening. They were more on point and the music added more tension and suspense. The sound in the thriller opening seemed slightly dead and the music did not gradually go louder when something dramatic happened, like I wanted it to. One thing I was proud of was the foley sounds for both of them; in the prelim, we used foley sound for the doors opening, the chair spinning, the hand banging on the table and foot steps; in the thriller opening, we used foley sounds for the blow of a match and candles, the slamming of the book and the scratching of the match stick against the match case.

Overall I have learnt a lot of skills from pre production, production and post production which I am confident on expressing and using independently. The thing in which I was most confident on is using the camera, as I had a steady hand and the ideas were quite effective when shown in film. The skills in which I acquired during my media course and the prelim helped me in producing a near professional thriller opening.