Filming schedule- 28/03/2011

Time	What is happening?
1.20pm	Make sure all of the props are collected together ready for filming
1.30pm	Meet Alex and Emmie on the school field
1.45pm	Walk to the location in the woods
1.50pm	Set up equipment and get the actors in place ready for filming
2.00pm	Begin filming
2.30pm	Finish filming in the woods
3.00pm	Check through each shot, to make sure we have got all the shots we need
3.15pm	Dismantle equipment
3.20pm	Walk back to the classroom with the equipment

28/03/2011   

Before filming, I thought it would be appropriate to set a timetable for the day so we could each see what we needed to film and what time. Although it will be hard to stick to the timetable, it will give us some indication and guidelines of what is being done throughout the day. I have given a significant amount of time for everything to be filmed as we may need longer on some particular parts, but this will be changed throughout the day.

Feedback from peers

Today we got feedback from both my media teacher and from peers in my class, the feedback will help us to make some changes to our thriller and we also received positive feedback what the viewers liked about our thriller.

The first feedback we received was we should cut the story of the ex-boyfriend out as the storyline as it is too long for our 2 minute shot We have both acted upon this feedback and decided to cut the ex-boyfriend storyline to just an stalker as it makes the thriller more realistic. The second feedback we received was to re-film the shot of the letter scene as the lighting is to dark, and also to add more to the letter scene by filming a shot of the stalker cutting up the letters from the newspaper and see him making the letter. When filming this shot we are going to use a range of shots but not shots of his face so the audience can’t see the stalkers emotion. The third feedback we received was to cut the effect of the blur as it makes the shot look out of place, also we are going to cut the scene of the footsteps shorter and slower to make it look more dramatic. We have decided to use cross cutting throughout our thriller by cutting between the girl and the boy to make it more dramatic. We are also going to add more to the credits and change the credits to make them longer and more effective.

From the feedback we received it helped us both gain ideas of where we can improve to gain a higher grade.

Thriller Draft

This is the first edit of my opening sequence for my Thriller 'The Day After'. Although we have worked extremely hard to get our first edit together there are still a number of problems which we currently have with our work. There needs to be some re-filming done, the credits need rearranging and the length of 'The Day After' needs to be made longer.

Firstly, the first problem I believe that is wrong with the first edit is the credits, the credits are not in a chronological order and do not look like an opening sequence. Before the final draft we will have to look at the way in which we have put the credits in and find a suitable way of improving them. Over this weekend I am going to do some research into opening sequences of Thrillers and see how they use credits, this will be valuable as it will give us both an idea of how other thrillers do this.

Secondly, the second problem I believe that is wrong with the first edit is the length of our thriller. At the minute the first edit is just less than a minute long and this is not enough as it needs to be nearer two minutes. Before we hand in our final edit we need to make our work longer, this will give the viewer a clearer idea of what our thriller is about.

The last problem I believe is wrong with our first edit is we do not have enough footage we will film some more footage over the next week so we can extend our work to nearer two minutes. Before we film we will make sure we have a clear outline of what we need to film so it will not take us very long.

Soundtrack of my Thriller

The sound within my Thriller will be one of the most important if not the most important part of my Thriller. Audio creates the atmosphere and builds up a significant amount of tension up within film.

Throughout the whole of the footage which we filmed there was voices talking in the background and a lot of other background noise so I muted out all of this noise as it didn't fit in with our Thriller. I muted all of the sound out of all of the footage as I wanted to add a soundtrack in the background. As I didn't know how to mute the sound I used my own resources and searched it on the internet, I found a suitable website which showed me how to do this is a valuable skills which I have also learnt whilst in the editing process. 

This image shows to mute sound on Adobe Premiere Pro. To mute the sound you have go onto the timeline and go on audio 1 and pull the yellow line down to the bottom.

I spent a considerable amount of time searching for a suitable soundtrack which will be played throughout our Thriller. I searched through a lot of websites which were copyright free but I didn't have much luck! I found a video on YouTube.com which I liked the soundtrack to and this was copyright free. The video I chose did not require any editing to be done on it as it was perfect for our Thriller. As it was from YouTube I did have use a YouTube Converter this converts the soundtrack from the YouTube video to an MP3 soundtrack. Whilst searching for a soundtrack I came across a large amount of soundtracks which were copyright free but they wouldn't have fitted in with our thriller.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07ckZLm9jJM

This screenshot shows that I had permission to use the soundtrack within my opening sequence.

I also had to search for a sound effect for the door opening. Although there were a large amount of these sound effects online a lot of them were not suitable as they didn't sound right. I went through 19 different sound effects for the door opening and I could only find one that would be suitable. The website where I found this sound track was a copyright free website and the sound effects were free! (Door sound effect) 

Both the soundtrack and the sound effect fitted perfectly in our thriller and they was just what we was looking for. No extra editing was required as both of them were perfectly and it sounded great with the shots we have produced. 

Editing the re-film of the Thriller

As we decided it would be a good idea to re-film, this obviously means that we will have to re-edit, although this was a time consuming task it will be beneficial for us to do this. As I had learnt valuable skills whilst editing the first edit, I began to edit the re-film throughout this week. I had previously used the software Adobe Premiere Premiere to edit the first time and this was where I had the skills so I continued to use this software for the re-edit. My confidence whilst using this program has grown massively and I have learnt a lot of skills. As seen in the picture above, all of the footage is imported by clicking on 'file', and then 'import' once on import you just select the files you want to import. Then it is a simple drag and drop process onto the timeline, you can edit each clip and add transactions or effects. Once I had learnt the simple skills I found it easy to create my thriller.

I managed to get all of the filming done of the weekend with help from Alex Redford (the ex-boyfriend). As I had done all of the filming it was a perfect time to begin the re-edit, I have work continuously on the re-edit this week in order to finish it for the deadline. The idea was the same as the first one but I had to change it slightly for maximum impact and for it to look effective. I have done all of the re-edit on my own this week, although I found this hard I worked very effectively to finish the re-edit. In the re-edit I learnt skills that I did not know how to do before I started, I learnt how to change the amount of time the transitions last for and how to add effects (looking through the eyes of the ex-boyfriend who is appearing to be drunk) I did not know this skills but they was crustal to learn in the editing process. Although whilst filming we was unable to stick to the storyboard completely, this was due to some of the shots not being as effective as we thought, we have adapted the storyboard to make it seem more effective and we have stuck we the ideas we initially had. 

This is Adobe Premiere during the editing process, on the left handside it shows how I added effects to our thriller and how I inported each part on the film onto the timeline.

I have found the editing process relatively easy and I am proud of the skills I have learnt and what I have achieved throughout this process. As I have finished the initial edit I needed to focus upon the audio side of my Thriller as this is the most effective way of creating tension towards the audience. 

Updated character profile- Victim

Character: Emma Brown

Actor: Sophie Dainty (George Spencer Sixth Form Student)

We had to adapt our characters due to Casey Vickers being unavailable when we was re-filming. I decided to act as I will be reliable and I will be available if we need to re-film any of our thriller at any time. Although I haven't had any experience acting, I was a suitable alternative to use in our work.

  

The character Emma Brown is currently a hard working student, who currently is unemployed. Both Emma Brown and Sophie Dainty, who is acting this character, are both the same age and have similar interest. Sophie hasn't had previous experience acting but she will be reliable to use in our thriller. Sophie will also be able to help with filming as she is studying AS Media Studies.  

Re-Filming

On Saturday I began to re-film our work with Alex Redford, I managed to get all of the filming done and I was quite confident that all of the re-filming was done to a high standard. Although previously we had Casey Vickers acting the ex-girlfriend she was unavailable to do it for the re-film so I took on the role acting this character. Although I haven't had any experience acting, I was reliable and available on the day we needed to film. Emmie was unavailable on the day we re-filmed so it was just me and Alex to film it and act, although this was difficult we overcame this and managed to film. The day which we filmed on was warm, this was a lot different to when we first filmed, as it was different conditions to the first time we had to adapt our thriller and make alternative arrangements.

Before we began to re-film, the night before I created a schedule of what will need to happen today and the times of which everything is happening, I tried to stick to the schedule as much as we could but it was hard due to some scenes took a little longer than expected and some took a shorter amount of time. The planning schedule which I created was very helpful as it allowed the day to run smoothly and we could make sure that we was on schedule for everything throughout the day. Also the risk assessment was very helpful as it allowed us to know the risks which was involved in filming in this specific area and preventing any injuries happening to both me and Alex. 

After I had filmed I sat down and decided whether or not anything else should require to be re filmed, I decided that we should have enough footage for our thriller film. I worked incredible hard in order for the filming to take place. I undertook all of the filming and Alex assisted if it was a shot of me. I am very happy with the work I have produced, both I and Alex did a great job!

Editing the Thriller

To edit my Thriller I have chosen to use Adobe Premiere Pro, I chose to use this software as I have this on my home computer and I can also access it from the college computers. Although I wasn't very confident using this software, as I had only used it briefly during the Preliminary Task I thought I could learn some very valuable skills using this software. Before we had begun editing I practiced using the software at home so I could get an idea of where the tools were situated, how to import video footage and I also tried some simple editing, this experience was very valuable as it gave me the necessary stills I need in order to edit my work. As seen in the picture above, all of the footage is imported by clicking on 'file', and then 'import' once on import you just select the files you want to import. Then it is a simple drag and drop process onto the timeline, you can edit each clip and add transactions or effects. Once I had learnt the simple skills I found it easy to create my thriller.

Once all of filming was completed it was an appropriate time to begin editing. Once we had finished filming I and Emmie looked at the footage on the video camera and it looked like it was enough footage to create our Thriller. Both I and Emmie knew we was going to have opening credits at the beginning of the sequence, displaying the name of our Thriller and who it was produced by. We decided that the opening credits was just going to be text, the titles will be inserted between the opening two shots. 

While we beginning to edit we discovered that the footage that we had wasn't enough to create our thriller and it wasn't very effective for what we was trying to show. So instead of wasting time continuing to edit something we didn't think was very effective, I decided that we should re-film I discussed this with Emmie and she said we should re-film.  

Filming Schedule- For Re-filming

Time	What is happening?
4.00pm	Make sure all of the props are collected together ready for filming
4.10pm	Meet Alex in Stapleford
4.15pm	Walk to the location
4.20pm	Set up equipment and get the actors in place ready for filming
4.30am	Begin filming
4.45pm	Set up in other location on the field
5.00pm	Finish filming on the field
5.10pm	Move locations to the canal
5.30pm	Film on the canal
5.45pm	Check through each shot, to make sure we have got all the shots we need
6.00pm	Dismantle equipment
6.15pm	Walk home with the equipment

12/03/2011   

Before filming, I thought it would be appropriate to set a timetable for the day so we could each see what we needed to film and what time. Although it will be hard to stick to the timetable, it will give us some indication and guidelines of what is being done throughout the day. I have given a significant amount of time for everything to be filmed as we may need longer on some particular parts, but this will be changed throughout the day.

Images from filming

Whilst filming both I and Emmie took some pictures so we could have still images of what we was filming. This would be valuable if we will require re-filming selected shots of our thriller work as we will be able to continue to use continuity throughout our work. We took a variety of different shots which was of all our location and the surrounding areas of our location. We also took images whilst filming both of our characters ‘in action’ so we could unsure the costumes and mise-en-scene was correct.