Editing

I feel our editing process was very successful; we all work extremely well together as a group; this meant that we could listen to all of each other’s ideas and make good decisions. The software was easy to understand, we all helped each other to work it out.
I'm very happy about the finished piece, and we got some more good feedback from other classes who watched it again.

They commented on the acting, saying it was very good, this makes our opening scene successful because if the acting was bad the audience may laugh at what is meant to be serious and thrilling.

They liked our music, saying the volume was perfect.

Overall i am very proud of what we have all achieved.

Editing

Although our opening title was exactly 2 minutes long as stated, from the comments amongst our colleagues and peers, they had mentioned that the titles were slightly long and does tend to drag uneccerasliy for a few seconds.

Therefore our group had decided, that instead of cutting out the less important titles, we thought of shortening the existing titles so that all the titles are exactly two seconds in length each, except the first and last title which are a second or two longer, as they are the most important titles which create more suspense.

Editing.

The past two weeks the group has completed editing, titles and the creation of our background music.  We worked well as group,  we chose roles in the group that we thought suited our skills.  Jakob and fhahima, completed the editing of our filming.  Therefore Holly and Myself worked on music and sound effects. 
We managed to successfully make our opening sequence two minutes long and convey our storyboard well. Although we had some issues with titles to begin with we found a perfect font with a well suited effect feature.

Overall, the classes criticism was positive. They all seemed to be impressed with our opening scene.

Class Comments on our Opening Sequence.

Positives

• The titles cleverly flash in time with the heartbeat.
• The Lighting creates a scary atmosphere.
• Really good.
• Very scary
• Like the titles font.
• Love the Sepia effect.
• Too Good.
• Great sound effects.
• Really Creepy.
• Good Music.
• Amazing acting.

Negatives 

• Maybe too many titles throughout.

Fonts

We looked through various font lists to determine the kind of font that we are looking to use. We drew a short list, shown below:

All eight of the following fonts are possible candidates for our titles, however we will continue to look for other fonts in the case that we find something more suitable.

Motion Shot

One of the main concerns that we had before filming was the shots when Holly begins to run through the woods and we see her enter and run from left to right. To see the possibility's of running this sequence we enlisted a member of group to create a still's sequence of the event:

Prior To Filming

We have fully completed the tasks that we need in order to ensure that the research and planning have been  carried out fully. The group is going to have a production company meeting to finally decide the locations for each partition of the sequence. This is because there are quite a few different options for some of the shots such as the opening shots of the three girls partying. It is still unclear if we want to film this part in a secluded wood area or in a more open clearing. The props have been collected.

Location Shots

We also took some final images of the set that we want to use. Partly to get an idea of what will work and partly to understand the exact location of each individual scene within the wood. These images have been taken with individual shots in mind:

Possible Locations

We looked at three possible locations before deciding to shot in the woods. The majority of these were still pretty rural however one does feature quite suburban features. When we took some photos of our original set we also took some of the other possible locations:

End Of Planning and Research

We have completed all of our planning and research and are now looking forward to filming in the coming week. The following tasks have been completed:

• Brief
• Inspiration
• Synopsis
• Storyboard (3 Editions)
• Further filming information
• Shot list.

There will shortly be some images of the set, however during day light to ensure that the place can be viewed from a more complete image. After this we will film and edit.

Inspiration Pictures

Prior to taking original images of the set we decided to look on the internet for some inspiration images, then when we went out to take some still shots of the set we would have an idea of what we wanted to achieve.

We found this image as a still for a film called 'Dark Woods'. We've previously commented on the film itself and decided that the overall plot and synopsis was very similar to the remainder of our film. This image sums up the final 5 shots before the title's.

The stranger in the wood is in no way a 'ghostly' spirit or supernatural but this image is quite good at showing his mysteriousness and the sensations surrounding him. The hand of the stranger becomes quite symbolic towards the end of our opening sequence and a lot of emphasis is placed upon himself and the way that he reacts to others.

We found it extremely hard to find an image that was like the atmosphere we would like to build up. In the woods itself we are looking for a more secluded area and without the bright lights that are in this picture. It's important that the image we found was based at night. The atmosphere built up by the failing light is a definite director on the way that the audience will be convinced to react.

Final Storyboard

We created this final storyboard to ensure that our shots will be correct and match up to our desired result. The images were all hand-drawn and we inserted the frames that are going to be edited in, such as the title slides before printing out the frame.

Shots such as this are quite realistic of the finished product, we are keen to ensure that the font is not as displayed here because it doesn't give the right kind of atmosphere.

These frames were hand-drawn onto a pre-printed template. We drew the frames in pencil and highlighted the main lines in a black pen.

Storyboard 3rd Edition (5)

Storyboard 3rd Edition (4)

Storyboard 3rd Edition (3)

Storyboard 3rd Edition (2)

Storyboard 3rd Edition (1)

Shot List

We produced a storyboard prior to creating the shot list. After creating the third draft of the storyboard the group felt as if they had created a polished list of the shots we would like to take during filming. We then added detail and put these on the storyboard. That detail has been stripped of this shot list so that it conforms simply to the shots we need to film.

1. Black screen - inserted during editing, no filming necessary.
2. "Whatever Productions", title slide, inserted during editing, no filming necessary.
3. A Mid-Long Shot of the three girls from behind, a man or shadow of a man should be seen in the foreground.
4. A secondary mid-long shot that is similar in everything except the proximity of characters. Diagetic sound to be recorded on set of laughter.
5. A three-quarters shot of the girls, however looking at them from the front. We will hear low level in-scene sound of whispering, we won't be able to hear this. It will be heavily shadowed.
6. A Mid-Shot of two girls (cut off one) dialogue from diagetic but also hear other girl in scene (non-diagetic)
7. Mid-Close up shot of singular character, sound as before.
8. Black screen - inserted during editing, no filming necessary.
9. Black screen - inserted during editing, no filming necessary. There will also be a scream, we'll record this afterwards.
10. "Holly Keane", title slide, inserted during editing, no filming necessary.
    
11. A Close-Up establisher, side of lead's face. Must be shadowy.
12. Big-Close Up from front looking up into lead face, if possible we would film this with her running on the spot. It would have to be very shadowy overhead to achieve the desired result here though
13. "Hannah Jones, Fhahima Hussian", title slide, inserted during editing, no filming necessary.
    
14. Close-up of erratic running feet. It doesn't matter whose this is.
15. Continue with feet at close-up, slightly different angle, the feet stop here.
16. Continuation of 15/16, similar to 15 with close-up of feet however opposite direction.
17. Mid-Close Up of a path.
18. Mid-Close Up of a path and character running into left hand side.
    
19. Mid-Close Up of a path and character passing through, middle of scene here.
    
20. Mid-Close Up of a path. (Character left)
    
21. A mid-shot of character looking up from feet, the remainder of the body will be in view.
22. A mid-shot of the feet of the character.
23. A mid-shot of the torso/chest of character.
24. A mid-shot of the characters face, a pan and swivel into this shot.
25. A very-close up could be achieved here by entering closer to the scene. We are unsure whether to currently include this shot as it is unclear how we could achieve it well.
26. A big-close up of the face will be in shot with a hand reaching out to touch it.
27. The hand will be removed and a final big-close up shot will establish the remainder of the film.
28. Black screen - inserted during editing, no filming necessary.
    
29. "Abandoned", title slide, inserted during editing, no filming necessary.
    

Production Plan

We have decided to film in chronological order. This makes the most sense because Holly appearance will change over time according to the order through the storyboard.

We are going to film on set over the period of one evening. We have planned this in the hope that the weather will be okay and dependent on the time that the sun sets. We would like to film from 17:00 - 19:00 on the days to create an eiree effect and to ensure that the correct filming light conditions are in place. If, for any reason, i.e weather,  we can't complete filming on the Thursday, we are taking Friday as a 'back-up' day.

We have decided on a location as a small woods. For practical reasons the wood is fairly quiet.  For atmospheric reasoning the woods is very isolated and can be used to create a feeling of being lost.

We have previously outlined the props that we need to collect and have assigned roles for each person to collect specific props. We have made arrangements to have both a camera and tripod over our shooting days. The storyboard will be on set when were filming and we are going to ensure that we have several copies. This is to ensure that the crew and cast are co-ordinated in filming and the roles are understood. We've made a plan to record our sound effect - Holly singing. We are going to do this a week prior to filming on the Friday.

More Inspiration...

We have looked at yet more films to find some final inspiration for our shots. One of the films that heavily relates to the style and synopsis of our opening sequence is 'Dead Wood'.

They use the ideas of a group of friends and a mysterious stranger. The circumstances surrounding this film are very similar to ours and has given us some good ideas for what we would like to add to our shot list.



Towards the end of the trailer you see much faster shots - something that we are very interested in bringing into our opening sequence because it shows the dramatic increase in tension. Another point that's interesting is some of the sequences such as the flickering torch and the quick shots of the villain. The obvious conventions of  thriller film are used in perfect context to the way that we would like to use them.

Target Audience

'Abandoned' is a teenage thriller, we decided on this category for many reasons.  Firstly, many of the characters within the film are teenagers themselves creating a more adolescent enviroment, which may be more appealing to younger adults.  They can relate to the scenes in which the characters appear in, allowing them to create opinions and feelings toward characters.  The main focus for a film is to appeal to their target audience, as this is the key to failure or success.  We must ensure the content of the film is interesting and overall enjoyable to the audience in focus. 
We chose to brand the film 15, this is because we thought the content was too mature for anyone younger, we believe anyone less than 15 may find it hard to understand and relate to the scenes, they also might be disturbed by some of the images and ideas. However we didn't want to make it 18 because we thought we may miss out on a huge potential audience, and we did not believe it was necessary.

Props

In order to create and produce an opening of a thriller film, to make it a success we have to include certain conventions, including props. We as a group came up with a variety of props to include in the Mise-en-scene to create the whole thriller theme.

These include;

Torches (F) - Creating shadows which create the mysterious and spooky feel, and is also an artificial light which will stand out amongst the dark woods during the night.

Fake Blood  (Hj) - Is a typical convention used for a thriller, yet works very effectively making the audience gringe in horror.

Beer Cans - (J) To create the party scene in which the girls are involved in.

Shoe - (Hk) A random shoe to show the audience a sign of escape.

Camp Fire  (N/A) -To create the whole camp atmosphere which takes place in the woods.

Costumes - (A) Casual teenage clothes, to show a sense of reality in the girls.

CD Player - (Hk) Instead of editing and attaching the music in the background, we decided that playing music in the scenes will create the more realistic sense of atmosphere i.e. hip-hop and heavy rock.

Note: Key to who's bringing what:

• Hk - Holly Keane
• Hj - Hannah Jones
• F - Fhahima Hussain
• A - All
• J - Jakob Lewis

The Storyboard

The storyboard was created by hand, using the ideas dreamt up by the group. The opening sequence has 30 frames including titles.

The originals of the storyboard were created, with a quick sketch of one page outlining the main ideas behind what we would like to achieve in the opening sequence.

After this we took the development of the storyboard a step further; we developed five pages of 30 shots in which the ideas were outlined more thoroughly.

We are currently working on a more developed version of this storyboard, hopefully this will further develop the efforts made here and make the final outcome easier to use when filming.

Music

A stong feature of our opening sequence was the music and noise effects. We believe this contributes considerably to a thrilling atmosphere and we wanted to get it perfect. We had to create our own music, this was a challenge at first, we began by drafting some ideas and eventually came to an interesting and natural solution. We decided on using a young girls voice humming to a tune, this reinforced our idea of the villan being childlike and also gave an eerily sweet tone to the scene. This is very much unlike many other films of the same genre but we thought the sweet humming of a child would contradict with the haunting scenes, giving an intriguing twist. This is known as the digetic element of sound as it is clearly not from the original scene.
For our non digectic sounds we have many ideas, these include panting, running footsteps, screams and a heartbeat. Firstly the panting insinuates someone is in panic or worn out, this emphaizes the terror and effort the chractors have gone through. This is also true to the heartbeat and running footsteps. The Screams show terror and shock, this will add to the terrifying atmosphere giving a shock factor to audience. All these sounds are easy to obtain and can be done by us in the classroom.

Production Company Name

Before begining to think about our title sequence we had to establish a production company name. We thought as a company we would be interested in creating mainly 'Teen Thriller's' and wanted a name that reflected this.

"WHATEVER Productions"

The name would be the first thing to feature in our credits. The main reason for this is that the production company will pump the majority of the money into the film and they would want to recieve gratification for there efforts.

For now, we also created a logo...

Inspiration for Titles

Se7en sums up the way that we would like to open our film. The methods chosen by the director seem to directly reflect the way we would like to have our titles. We also think that the convention of flipping between titles and film is an exciting way to keep the audience interested.


We really like the font used. The font is of handwriting and we would like to incorporate something similar into our design. The music is also quite reflective of the scene and this is something that we might like to bring in. It gives the audience an idea of what to expect.


We also decided to look at the order the credits have been shown:

• The production company
• 'A film by' director/producer
• Lead Star. Protagonist/the biggest pull name.
• Co-stars
• Title - As a group we like the way the title jumps to a bigger size and fill's the screen, this really grabs the attention of the audience and subtly highlights this certain portion of the credits.

The Blair Witch Project

Before we looked at this trailer, the non-diagetic and diagetic sounds were similar to our original ideas.

Synopsis

We have created a working title for our film - Abandoned. The name 'abandoned' reflects the central characters' past.

Our main character (who has no name, but is known as 'Wood Man') was abandoned as a child due to his disfigurement. He brought himself up in the wood's and now resents anyone that crosses his path. He takes a young girl and keeps her for his own company; her friends and family try to locate the girl. They trace the man's past and attempt to understand the man's psychological issues.

Draft Outline

Our film is of a thriller genre, we decided not to create a hybrid film because this is seen too commonly across the media industry. We have decided to add a lot of drama in our film - this is one of the main parts that we want to come across to the audience when they watch the opening scene. Our target audience will be a young adult age group. This will be conveyed through the modern surroundings and the age of the actors - not all of this will be apparent in the opening scene however. The dominant sound will be diegetic sounds - heavy breathing, heartbeats and footsteps. The non-diegetic sound will be a sinister undertone; this builds the overall atmosphere of a typical thriller opening - creating suspense and tension.

We came up with some potential locations for the opening sequence. These included a cave, an abandoned train tunnel and a woods. The woods was our final choice - the large expanse and the open area, we believed, creates a sense of being trapped. Because the area is of a similar nature throughout, the characters will begin to feel lost and confused, a human nature is to feel scared of the unknown. To add to the drama, we would try to film the sequence in early evening as the sunsets - beaming natural light, this would distort the true context of the situation.

Our opening will be seen from the point of view of a stranger in the forest. The stranger will have been abandoned, rejected and be disfigured. He will have a past of being harmed and he raised himself, alone in the forest - he now despises anyone who has a good image - anyone better than him.

Outline of brief

We have been given a brief to create an opening scene of a Thriller. The maximum time allowed for the production is two minutes. We had to include the typical conventions of a Thriller Film. These consist of; background music, props, narrative enigma, to create a sense of intrigue, however ultimately to portray a thrilling atmosphere.