Preliminary Task - Actors

Actors

In terms of acting, we, as a group, decided that to make the film as good a quality as we could, we needed actors that made the narrative believable. This being said, we decided to use A Level drama students to capture the realism and bring the script to life. Mattie is an A Level drama student, and by recruiting her to help shoot our film, we had a good actress who could show emotion and who was comfortable in front of the camera. She has played a range of roles, and talking to Mattie as a group, we decided she would be best suited to the role of the Inspector, as she could use her acting qualities to portray this character in the best way.

As an A Level drama student, I also acted in our piece, I played the role of the defendant. In terms of character, I decided to use a range of emotions as the Inspector continued to break down my character's resolve, the intensity was matched with shot's getting shot and snappy to show the impatience and uncomfortableness of my character.

I think our choices of character enhanced our film as it made the narrative more believable but also easier to watch as it was less cringy and arguably more professional.

Written by Connor Southwell

Preliminary Task - Feedback

Thriller Planning - Storyboard

Thriller - Final Cut

Evaluation - Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

As a production team I truly believe we have come very far since our preliminary task in terms of our editing, technical skills and in my opinion our most developed area, planning. 

The preliminary task provided us with the opportunity to exercise skills and develop new areas the seriously needed developing. For example prior to the preliminary task I was clueless as to how to use lighting and camerawork effectively to connote different feelings and engage the audience.

The preliminary task taught me about the various rules we must follow and stick to when filming to ensure a believable and professional film, such as the 180 degree rule and the 30 degree rule. Also, the preliminary task was my first time properly using any sort of camera equipment or shooting anything close to what could be deemed as a professional film sequence. In addition, we were given the chance to learn and use the new technology that we had been provided such as a DSLR, a tripod and a microphone. This meant that when it came around to filming our thriller we had some degree of knowledge and understanding of the equipment. In terms of the kind of skills we learned when completing the preliminary task we established how to use camerawork such as mid shots and shot reverse shot, this I feel we did very successfully. As well as learning from the elements of the preliminary task that we did well we also thoroughly learnt from our mistakes and errors. For example, in our preliminary task we failed to demonstrate any essence of continuity or ambition, in the sense that we played everything very safe. By only including two or three different camera angles we limited our piece, but we learned from this and in our thriller we included a variety of shots which gave our piece depth. As you can see here in this screenshot, we demonstrated our ambition that we just didn't have in the preliminary task by using a close up accompanied by low key, diegetic lighting immersing the audience in the mystery of the plot and character.

This is a screenshot from our thriller
displaying Tom's character in low key
lighting through a close up shot.

In terms of continuity we made sure that we did it right this time, as in our preliminary task we failed to execute this, as we changed the mise en scene between shots. Furthermore, in our preliminary task we included large amounts of unnecessary clutter, creating a messy mise en scene and an all round unprofessional sequence.

Compared to our preliminary task I feel like our planning for 'Torpidty' is amazing, we display our in depth knowledge of the genre conventions and show our complete thought process when deciding each key part. For example, our mind map of initial ideas is extremely thoughtful and displays how we considered various plots and genres before choosing our current one. Also, the planning process, as seen through my blog posts displays our fantastic level of teamwork and group discussion. Compared to our preliminary task where each of us would randomly come up with ideas and incorporate them, with our thriller we systematically went through possible ideas and asked for each group members input on each idea.

Evaluation - Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Research and Planning

Prior to filming we chose various platforms to document, record and present our research and planning. For both our research and our planning stage we consistently used blog posts, as they are the simplest, easiest and most effective way to display our work. By using blogs we were enabled to present our findings in different formats such as presentations, images and videos thus demonstrating our professionalism and improving our works clarity. In addition to this the use of blogs meant we could constantly update, improve and rewrite our work and add any improvements highlighted by our teachers comments. Another key piece of technology we used in our research is YouTube, by incorporating video clips into our work we were able to capture screenshots of certain camera angles and narrative techniques then annotate and incorporate them into our thriller piece. Furthermore, YouTube allowed us to watch clips from films in the thriller genre and gain knowledge on powerful techniques such as shadows, soundtracks and flashbacks which we could mirror in our film. In addition to that the video clips of films from the same genre allowed us to gain knowledge of the genre and it's general conventions, stereotypes and representations. However, I am yet to mention the most important and useful piece of technology that was key to our thriller research and planning, the internet. Websites such as IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes were extremely useful in gathering key information on conventions and styles. For example, without the use of the internet our production team would never have come up with the idea to incorporate a key piece of camerawork taken from the film 'Inception' where we see an extreme close up of Josh waking up. Without the use of the internet we wouldn't have been able to use the sound effects we used or soundscape, which would result in a very dull sequence. As well as this, without this piece of technology we couldn't have used the website DaFont, which would mean we couldn't research around what type of typeface to add to our film.

Production

During our filming we used DSLR Camera's which are vital in making our film professional and clear. One of there key features is that there is they allow instant playback, meaning we can see the footage we just shot and evaluate to see if the lighting, sound and angle is perfect thus making our film making process faster, easier and more efficient. Another key piece of technology we used in the production of our thriller is a tripod and a stabilizer. Firstly, the tripod allowed us too get steady and focused establishing shots and mid shots and prevented any sort of camera jolting resulting in a smoother sequence. Secondly, the stabilizer is a piece of equipment that our production team had never previously worked with, this piece of technology allowed us too do smooth, fast paced and steady tracking shots. For example the tracking shot we used of Josh sprinting, without the use of the stabilizer then the clip would have been much to frantic and chaotic.


Post Production

After gathering all of our necessary clips and footage we moved into the editing stage, for this we used the professional editing program, Premier Pro. This program allowed us to reshuffle our clips organizing them, edit the colour adjustment, the lighting and the sound. One major aspect of Premier Pro is flipping shots and organizing shots to maintain continuity, this is vital as your thriller film must maintain a consistent narrative and make sense. Another key feature we used from this program was editing sound, we were able to alter the volume, tempo and length of the soundscape. This software also allowed us to input our chosen soundtracks and sound effects into our film with ease. Another aspect of Premier Pro that we utilized was being able to add in credits, we could change the fonts and colour of the text. For example we could change and edit the kerning, the point size and typography of the font. This enabled us to make our credits and title sequence much more personal and conform with the general conventions of the thriller genre.

Evaluation - Question 5

Q5 from Thor Forster