Message to Moderator

Dear Moderator,


This blog belongs to Alexandra Torrens, and I worked with Beth Thornton and Shauna Luckett. We were asked to create a 2 minute opening sequence to a Horror film including titles. Follow the order of the posts, the oldest starting with Research, followed by Planning, Construction and Evaluation at the top. 


We took approximately 3 months to create our film and I hope you enjoy watching the film and looking through my blog.


Regards, Alexandra Torrens.

Timetoast Process Timeline

This is an embed to our Timetoast timeline, showing you the order in which we did things for our coursework. This kept us organised and let us see what needed doing and what had already been completed.

Final Edit - Opening Sequence of Three

Above is our final cut of our horror opening sequence. After making several adjustments to the final cut, this is the final video which has been uploaded to YouTube and embedded onto this blog. The final cut was made with a program on the Macs called Final Cut HD. This was a step up from iMovie and was more complex in terms of editing. It allowed us to put sound (imported through Garageband) and text (either imported through LiveType, which we did for our production logo, or through Final Cut itself). The whole editing process took approximately two weeks to do.
The feedback of our final cut was definitely improved from the rough cut. Comments that people made included:

• The sequence had a clearer storyline to it, with the help of the additional footage at the beginning of the sequence.
• The footage was much lighter compared to the old footage in the rough cut.
• The sound was added, which also made the video more interesting.
• Titles were added which was essential in the final cut.
• The jump cut edits at the beginning of the sequence made the video more interesting.

Prelim Task

This is our preliminary task that we made right at the beginning of our Media course in September. We had to include three editing techniques in the prelim task to gain the full marks, including shot reverse shot, 180 degree rule and match on action. The feedback we gained from the prelim task was:

• The match on action editing technique was good.
• The 180 degree rule could have been made a bit clearer.
• The shot reverse shot could have also been made a bit clearer.

Evaluation

When you click on the image above it will link you to our evaluation on Wix.com. The above image is a print screen of the home page of our evaluation. Use the tabs at the bottom of the Wix to switch to the different questions.

Rough Cut

This is the rough cut edit of our opening sequence. We edited this using Final Cut. The final edit was predicted to be very different to this as the rough cut was just putting all footage in the correct order, without imputing editing techniques and sound.
We also gathered research from our class members for our Rough Cut. The main points they mentioned were that:

• Some footage was too dark to see, therefore the lighting would have to be considered.
• There was no sound in the video. We then explained that we would later add sound to the video but we didn't feel this was needed in the rough cut.
• The video had no clear storyline to it. The video would have to have more footage added into it in order to make more sense.
• There were no titles.
• Some of the shots were a bit wobbly.

Draft Evaluation Questions 6 and 7

Evaluation Questions

These are a couple of the answers I drafted for our evaluation. We all assigned either 2 or 3 questions per member of the group so the amount of questions was shared out fairly and no member of the group would have too much work to do. We then analysed these questions and improved them before finalising them and putting them onto our Wix Evaluation.

Recce Shots

Recce Shots

This word document consists of a few photos of the location and actors which were involved in our final sequence. 

Storyboard Animatic

After drawing out our storyboard, we had to present the images in an animatic, with commentary made on each image to describe the camera shots/movement, mise-en-scene, editing techniques and sound. We made this video using iMovie.

Creating a Logo (by Beth)

Creating a logo

Beth made our logo for our opening sequence, which is shown at the start of the final edit ('Jigsaw Productions'). This Powerpoint embedded through Slideshare shows the steps she took in making the logo. The logo was made using the LiveType software.

Example sound clip for sequence (made on GarageBand by Shauna)

Soundclip by user375308

This is a short sample Shauna made on GarageBand to experiment with the type of sound we would hear in our final edit of the opening sequence. We wanted the sound to be different to the typical horror sounds you heard in a horror film, so she combined a variety of 'suspense' and 'ambient' sounds that were defaulted from GarageBand.

Shooting Schedule

Shooting Schedule

This is a list of shots that we were planning to use in our opening sequence that I made. We had to state specific detail about each shot, including whether the shot was going to be filmed indoors or outdoors, the time of day and if there were to be any actors in this shot.

Pitch

Pitch

This is the pitch Beth made to give companies more information about our opening sequence and ideas. 

Storyboard for Opening Sequence

 This is the original storyboard that I drew for our opening sequence to help plan our shots and camera angles/movements etc. This will later be made into an animatic with added commentary.

Treatment Sheet

Treatment Sheet For Opening Sequence

This is the Treatment sheet for the planning of our sequence. This adds more detail onto the Call Sheet and explains the original ideas for our film (for example: The Witching Hour).

Call Sheet - Three

Call sheet for three

This is the call sheet for our opening sequence which Shauna made. This basically explains the location we planned to film in, including a map of exactly where that would be, and contact information in order to get hold of actors or group members. It also includes a list of props we plan to use in the opening sequence and detail on the lighting in the film (for example, if natural lighting was not to be used we would need to use torches/candles/other light sources).

Risk Assesment Sheet

Risk Assessment Sheet

This is a risk assessment stating the risks and things that could happen during the process of filming and our coursework. 

Primary Research from Audience Questionnaire

Primary research from Audience Research Questionnaire

This Powerpoint presents a summary of the results we gathered from our Audience Research questionnaire. It includes the responses we got from the questionnaire we posted on Twitter.

Audience Questionnaire

Audience questionnaire

This is a print screen and short explanation of the questions we posted on Twitter aiming to gather audience research. 

Audience Research

Audience research

Shauna word processed this research that she gathered on Audience Research. She used sites such as BBFC to read about the different age ratings on films and what they had to include to be certified to that certain age. She used this research to come to a decision to award our opening sequence as a 15.

Institution Research

Institution Research

This is our institution research. We used sites such as boxofficemojo and the-numbers.com to research on what type of sub-genres within the horror genre were most popular, with the help of cinema ticket sales and profits. The research showed us that supernatural was said to be the most popular sub-genre, therefore to gain the most profit from our film we decided to stick with the most popular choice in the film industry.

Shauna's 9 Frame Analysis of The Unborn

The Unborn 9 frame analysis

This is Shauna's 9 Frame Analysis of the horro film The Unborn. She watched the opening 2 minute sequence of this film and analysed 9 different frames/shots. This would give us some ideas and inspiration for our own opening sequence.

9 Frame Analysis of The Ward Opening Sequence

9 Frame Analysis of The Ward Opening Sequence

This is my own 9 frame analysis of the horror film The Ward. I watched the first 2 minutes of the film and analysed 9 different frames/camera shots, commenting on other aspects such as mise-en-scene, editing and sound.

Analysis of Psycho

Analysis of Psycho

This is my analysis of the famous thriller film Psycho. After watching the opening sequence of this film, I analysed camera, editing, sound and mise-en-scene. 

Timeline of Saw 4 title sequences

This is one of the first tasks we did within our research of our coursework. We all watched the opening sequence of Saw IV and commented on what the titles said and how they were presented (the type of font, the colour of the font etc).

Initial Ideas

Initial Ideas

These are our initial ideas before we started our coursework. We discussed storylines within the group.

History Of Horror Films

History of horror films

This is some research we did for our coursework. We researched the history of horror films, focusing on things like when the first ever horror film was released and what its content was, and we would compare this with modern day horror films.

Conventions of a Horror Film

Conventions of a Horror Film on Prezi


This is a Prezi we made on the conventions of horror films. We looked at the common things that people normally associated with horror films.

Deadlines 2012

Research & Planning (20 marks) | Friday 10th February 2012

Construction (60 marks)

• Completion of filming | Wednesday 28th February 2012
• Rough Cut | Friday 2nd March 2012
• Final Cut | Friday 16th March 2012

Evaluation (20 marks) | Friday 20th April 2012

ALL deadlines must be adhered to. Failure to meet a deadline will result in referral to HoD and ST.

Sally's blog hub

http://hsfcg3212011.blogspot.com

Shauna and Beth's blogs

www.beththorntong321.blogspot.com


www.shaunaluckettg321.blogspot.com