Our roles

Steph loved edidting, so she was in charge of the main editing, we all had a turn, but it was made really obvious that she loved doing it so we left it to her. (As well as acting.)

I was in charge of the cinematography. We made decisions about what type of camera shots, but I was the one who handled the camera mostly and what angles it should be in and how effective each camera shot would have.(As well as acting.)

Daniel acted and contributed to some editing and the decisions on the camera shots.

Colette acted in the test shots but not in the real footage and also contributed in the editing.

After the comments

The last lessons, we decided to work harder with the editing because time was running out. With two of our members constantly not here, it was pretty much up to Steph and I. Steph liked doing the editing, and was much more confident editing as well as composing the garage band. I assaited her on what we should put in where, i was like the 'idea man.' As we could not film anymore, we put the test shots together. Since there were test shots, we decided that clips of the test shots would fade in and out so it would look professional. Although these test shots were not intended to be put in with our finished footage, the editing made it look as if it was part of it.
We felt that we had such a big task ahead of us, as we only had three lessons left to compose our original soundtrack, mass amount of editing and titles.
Somehow we managed to finish the editing and titles and make it as professional as we could in the last two and half lessons.
Our next task was the soundtracking and I thought it would take a while and be quite hard but we have already done half of it and now that we have one more lesson to complete the soundtrack, we feel more confident that the thriller sequence will turn out fine. These feelings of confidence however were not there at the begining of the week. Frustration, anger and anxiety is what we felt, because I really wanted to do well in the thriller and hopefully put the grade forward instead of the kidstv sequence instead. So when people did not show up, I started feeling nervous and let down as did Steph. However they did contribute at the start but near the end, which where we needed the most help, no one turned apart from Steph and I. But we worked around that, if we had not done the test shots, then we would have been in troublen and our sequence would have been extremely short. We have worked round it and are happy with what we have accomplished so far.

action to editing plan

There is more footage to come so to make it longer and the narrative understandable. Then we shall edit it to perfection e.g. quick shots and more dramatic transitions.

The sound needs to be adjusted to fit into the drama at the end we need to have music which fits into a thriller convention not a horror.

Response to feedback

More footage to add so it will be longer, soundtrack half done more to do
Add quick shots to increase drama.
To answer the question Lancia is in the house because that is where she gets kidnapped.

Feedback

Editing: Good quick cuts. good use of black screens, good placing of titles
Good effect of scream coinciding with the black screen. Too short.


Camera work:Clear camera work and helps to create sense of being watched
Panning round doors is good

Sound: Could re-record diegetic sound and include music

Mise en scene: Good use of household items e.g. taps
Costumes were good, kidnapper mysterious and dark
Good location

Narrative: It's good, contrast with safe environment (home) with danger

The shoot

My role in our shoot was a helpless victim in a kidnapping case. I am one of the three who is seized out of the bloom from 'my house'. The location and the actions I do is supposed to suggest that it is my house. We have filmed most of our work but we are finding that we are runnig out of time because our rough cut is supposed to be in done for Tuesday and supposedly we are not supposed to filming after the rough cut. Thursday we thought we could do all the filming. The last kidnapping which requires a little time becaue it is quite complex, the room where the victims are put in and the the last shot of Daniel(the kidnapper) walking away and ripping a picture of the friends he had kidnapped. We thought if we could be done with that on Thursday, then we could edit as much as we could on Tuesday, show it to the class then carry on with the editing and soundtracking. We have limited time and getting slightly frustrated and tired of people not showing up. Steph and I then concentrated on titles and editing the film shots. We also need to upload the test shots in our blog. If Daniel can not make it for Tuesday then we would film our other friend who is willing to help. If Colette can not make it then, we would try and find another girl who is willing to help as well. We realise it is a must to finish because the editing needs a lot of time as Steph and I are perfectionists and we would want to try to make it perfect. It all depends on what happens on Tuesday because some of us have been let down a lot.
If I had to change one thing it would be everything. The whole plot of our thriller because a kidnapping has been done countless times. An original idea would have been good and fun to do whereas you know what it's going to be like for a kidnapping. If it was completely original then the ideas would be spur of the moment and could most likely get away with any idea, for a kidnapping, one is slightly limited. Although we had original ideas, it's like we were too afarid to venture into them so we stayed in the safe zone.
But now that we have good ideas, we could make it an interesting thriller opening but if we could only get the filming done it would be fine.

test shots

We still need to do 2 parts of filming and that is the kidnapping and the room where all the victims are. We also need to find locations for the shots.We are still remaining with the idea of the bathroon scene where Colette is seized. As for the room we had some trouble finding a location for then Daniel and I thought of the Media suite. There was a balck room and we thought that would look good because black gives that sense of abandonment and a little mysterious because no one would be caught being in such a place. Colette, Steph and I did some test shots in the black room. Since Daniel was not there, one of us had to film while two had to take their positions as unconcious victims. This could not enable us to see how it would look for all three of us in the shot. But I filmed Collete and Steph to see how their unconcious bodies looked with the dim light that Andrea supplied us with and it looked really effective. I then filmed Steph by herself while Collete was handling the light. She was swinging it because we wanted to get the effect of what other thrillers had done and that is that they had a swinging bulb from the ceiling and it swung so that in the shot there would be light then not. We did not have a swinging bulb but had a lamp which we could swivell from side to side. Colette did that while i filmed Steph and the camera kept going blurry because it was trying to adjust to the light everytime Colette swang it away. We then thought that we could not do it but then noticed that the blurry effect looked really good. It was blurry while I was zooming slowly towards Steph's feet.It sort of gave that effect similarly to when people are waking up-when they eyes go blurry tyring to adjust to light. The blyrry effect showed that they were coming round to conciousness.
The actions that we wnated the victims to do were, slight, light movements that showed helplessnes and confusion on their part. For example, Collete would have her hands tied. The camera would then zoom in on her hands and you can see that she starts twitching and trying to free her hands but she can't because they are tied. She struggles but lightly because she is still half unconcious. Steph is lying close to her but she wakes up suddenly as if in a bad dream she then stares round looking scared and perplexed. I am lying against Colette and i move my head but i find it difficult to lift it then groan in pain. We just act what we think it would be like for an unconcious person. We should then have some sort of transition which will lead to the slow zooming in of the corridor to the room that they are in. We also fit Daniel in a shot where he rips up the picture of the three girls he had kidnapped. We still need to fix those things quickly so that we can focus on the soundtrack fitting in with the actions.

I also found a song that does not suggest that our theme is a horror. If we went with our original idea to put echoes of screams, heartbeats and footsteps, then it was as good as a horror. The music that is in a thriller can suggest the type of genre so i found a song called ANGEL by Massive attack. It seems a little fast-paced and also does not have the high strings or sudden drums that can make you jump. It is the type of sound that suggets that action will take place and not necesarily bloody violence. This song has a steady deep bass and light drums and an ocassional instrument that can make the audience tense. There are some lyrics but not right at the begining, which we might use unless the others have any other suggestions as well. It could start when the slow zooming in begins then carrying on for the titles. It is still undecided of what type of sound we could use in the room. But most decisions should be made in todays lessons.