Filming and Editing experience

Filming:

Filming took a lot longer than we originally planned as when we were filming we thought that it all looked very good. However, when we returned to school and started to edit the clips together we realised that many of the shots didn't flow very well and the lighting on several occasions wasn't as continuous as we wanted. This resulted in us having to film more times than expected to make sure that small parts were improved from the last filming instead of filming new footage each time. This made filming difficult for us as we had figure out extra time after school that we could all attend.

When we were filming we took a fair amount of time filming each day to make sure that we all had an equal amount to say that we filmed. Alicia, filmed mostly the first day, filming shots outside of the mum walking into the house and kitchen parts. I filmed mostly the second day filming when the mum is in the kitchen and her walking into the kitchen with input from Demi on a few shots in the living room that I found difficult to hold in one position for a long time. The third day was filmed again by me with Demi filming the mum and dad in the living room talking. The fourth day was filmed by Amy in the scene where the children were taken into a run down barn which is our most suspenseful scene in the opening meaning we had to make sure that the shots and angles were jus right. I feel that while we were each filming we had different ideas at the time of the different angles that would look better than planned. This made our filming more successful as we were continuously improving it each time that we shot something. For example, we decided to change the field scene as we thought that a run down barn would look a lot more effective and would enable us to use the shots that we wanted to use to make it look more suspenseful. The only part about filming that wasn't very good for us as a group was that we had to re film several times which made the filming process even longer than we had originally planned. However, we did make sure that we were editing as we went along so we weren't too far behind. Overall, filming went well and the shots that we did get I feel worked and looked very effective in the end.

Editing:

We each took our turns editing different parts of the opening, Demi was the main editor and I helped make improvements to what he had done and what could make it better and did so. Nobody, except Alicia had used the editing software meaning that it took us each quite a while to get used to where everything was and how to use it. When we did grasp how to use the editing software it was a lot easier for us to know what we want and then immediately after do what we thought would improve it. For example, a transition between the shots in the children running to show the increase in suspense. I was in charge of the music and I needed to look for a piece that wasn't too climatic and calm as our opening is very normal and at the start nothing much happens. One part of the editing that at the end was hard for us as a group was that we had used many transitions and sound effects meaning the time of our thriller was over 2 minutes so by the end we had to be very brutal about parts that we cut out and kept which some of us where indecisive about. This I because some of the scenes that we took out people in the group had taken a long time editing but we had to make sure that it was shortened but still flowed well. Overall, I'm very happy with the sound that I have found and how it flows with the dialogue and shots. We all edited the scenes together constantly giving suggestions that could improve it but we each had to pick out three scenes that we needed to analyse. Here are the three examples of some of the scenes that I edited.

1. I edited the shot where the mum walks into the kitchen which is a behind the shoulder shot to the high angle shot from the top of the stairs when she shouts for the children. I decided to make the behind the shoulder shot continual from her walking to her looking up the stairs by using a quick shot change of her looking up the stairs. I needed to add a sound effect of her heels which I found on iMovie as in the previous scene you could hear her heels and I wanted to make sure that it is continual. I inserted it and made the sound effect in slow motion to make sure it was in sink of when she walked. I am happy with the way this turned out as it sounds like it did before and it isn't an obvious sound effect. I had a problem when editing the stairs change of her walking to the low angle of her looking up the stairs as I wanted to make the shot last as long as I could of her looking up the stairs to make sure the audience could see that she didn't get an answer. The low angle shot that we filmed wasn't held for as long as we wanted so I decided to split the clip of when she was looking up the stairs and used a slow motion effect to make her move slower into the next shot of her walking to the fridge. I feel that this made the connection between the audience and what was happening better as they could clearly see that something wasn't right. When she walks into the house you can hear her footsteps very clearly but when she walks into the kitchen the footsteps can't be heard as well so I decided to look for sound effect of high heels to make the sound continual from shot to shot. I had to make sure that the sound of the heels were in sink with her moving so I decided to cut the clip down to make sure that the footsteps were more spread out and fit with her movement. I then added the background music that we had chosen previously and saw how it fit. I was overall happy with the way that the background sound fitted but the sound of the heels was very loud so I decided to decrease the volume of the heels so that the music could be heard and the heel sound was more subtle. I then added the name of the next actor that we were using "Idris Elba" in the bottom right hand side making sure that it was the same size and font as the ones I had previously made. Overall, I am very happy with the way these shots continued together and the sound that I edited with it.

2. The second shot that I edited was the establishing shot of the mum walking into the living room and sitting down on the sofa. When I first looked at the shot I realised that the shot lasted a very long time (30 seconds) so I decided that it would be best if we decided to split the clip to add a shot in between it to break it up. I decided that we could add a shot of her looking at the TV from a point of view shot to make the shot not as long. I feel that this was a very good idea as it made the audience know exactly what she was doing and what she was looking at that time. I decided to make the diegetic sound of the TV quite loud to make it look normal and what she would normally do. I feel that this made the scene look very natural. I then looked at the background music and decided that this would be a good place to change the music as when the dad walks in it starts to grow in suspense as they start to make the audience realise that the kids are gone. I cut the music and inserted the new music but I saw that the music stopped very abruptly which didn't sound very good so I decided to fade the music out and fade the music in when the dad walks in to make the audience see that this was a suspenseful moment. Overall, I was in charge of most of the music throughout and this was a key moment as the music was needing to be changed to something a bit more upbeat and suspenseful which is why I decided to edit this scene mainly. I am very happy with the change in music even though it look a long time to make the fades happen at the right time but I am happy with the way it sounds and the shot changes that I have made.

3. The third part of the thriller opening that I edited was the production names at the bottom of the screen throughout the opening, I imported all of the footage from the camera onto the computer and then edited all of the soundtrack throughout. When we were thinking of the names of the people who were going to star in our opening it wasn't too difficult as we had already researched different actors and actresses that we were going to put into it. However, the tough part for me was making sure that the size and font was right and I did this by looking at previous thriller openings and looking at the positioning that they had the names in. I soon realised that they were all placed at the bottom of the screen and were shown for no more than 4 to 5 seconds at a time. I choose a font that I liked from the iMovie titles then inserted it into the clips making sure they were all on for the same amount of time and the same distance apart. This took a long time to do but when it was eventually done I showed the rest of the group and they were happy with how it turned out. I made sure to add the actors and actresses names at the beginning and the producers at the end as this is what I saw most openings do in ones that I had previously researched. When I saw the titles all together I decided to show our teacher to see what she thought as I wanted to get some feedback on how I could improve it. Our teacher said that she liked it but I should look into making the titles smaller in size as they were filling the whole of the bottom screen and they stood out too much against the things that were happening that we wanted the audience to see. So we decided to make the titles smaller in size, so I made the fonts all smaller from 120 to 74 on all of them which looked overall a lot better and made them not stand out as much which is what we wanted.

The next part of the opening that I was in charge of was getting the sd card from the camera and importing all of the footage that we had filmed onto iMovie where I then put all of the clips in rough order of where they go so we could then all edit all of the footage to make the clips shorter and so on to fit. I feel that this was a very important part of the editing process as I needed to make sure that all the footage was in order so we could then go into editing the shots further.

The last part of the opening that I was in charge of was editing the soundtrack throughout the opening. (I have previously discussed in an earlier blog the different choices that we like and which ones we decided to use in the end). I found editing the soundtrack very difficult as when researching I realised that the non diegetic sound in thriller openings is very important in ensuring you create a suspenseful atmosphere for the audience. We decided to use the mafia theme song at the beginning of the opening as it didn't sound very jumpy and is what we wanted to get across to the audience as there wasn't anything happening at the beginning. I added the mafia theme song to the clips after the part where the mum walks into the house as I liked the diegetic background sound of the birds and the cars going past to set the scene. I felt that the soundtrack sounded very good however, it was very loud and didn't sound very effective with the scene as nothing was really happening. I decided that I needed to lower the volume of the soundtrack to make it so the audience don't concentrate on the music but do on what is actually happening. I did this with help from Demi as he knew how to lower the volume as he had been able to do this from the part where he added sound effects of rain in a later scene. The volume was then well done and looked effective but I know had to find a place in the opening where things started to get a bit more suspenseful where I could add the other soundtrack. I decided the part where the dad walks in to the living room is when it starts to get suspenseful so this would be a good place to cut the music and insert the other music.

I inserted the next piece of music that we had chosen " Suspenseful cinematic background music" and added this just before the dad walks in. I looked back at where the music changed over to see how it fitted and realised that the music stopped very suddenly so I decided that I need to fade the previous piece of music out to make the transition more continuous. As I previously said I have never used iMovie before so Demi again helped me to be able to do the fade and once he showed me how to I took over and found a place that the fade would look good from. I was overall very happy with the way that the fade sounded.  I then realised that the sound of the next piece of music was very high in volume so I decided to lower the volume again. However, I decided to have the volume slightly higher than the previous piece of music as I wanted to make sure that this piece of music emphasised the suspense that was starting to arise. The soundtrack sounded good but I realised that the you couldn't hear the mum and dad speaking very well so I decided to increase the volume of them speaking which sounded a lot better and made sure you heard them better. I had the soundtrack playing through out the whole of the rest of the opening but once Demi and Amy had edited the sound effects of a heart beat into the barn scene I decided to cut the music at the beginning of the scene where you see the children running. I feel that this looked very effective as the audience would be fully concentrating on what has happened to the children and start looking for clues as to who the person is that has taken them. I decided to again fade the music out to make sure that the ending wasn't to abrupt. Overall, I am very happy with the way the sound ended up and I'm happy with the volumes and the change in music that I had edited.

Overall, I am very happy with the things that I contributed to most when editing and I believe that the choices that I made, make it look more effective and add to the suspense that we wanted to create. I also helped the others  by pointing out things that they could do to certain shots and transitions to make it look more effective and continual.

Filming Day Five

Filming Day 5: Amendments:

On the 27th March Demi and Amy after school re filmed the parts of the conversation that needed to be improved. The parts that needed to be improved were the angles that the shots were taken and to make sure that the shots and dialogue flowed the best that it could. Demi came up with the idea that instead of him coming into the living room and sitting on the sofa opposite, coming and sitting next to Amy to make the shot reverse shots easier to see and make the lighting similar in both shots. They made the lighting the same by closing the blind and turning the light on as we have done before to make sure that the lighting is continuous throughout what we have filmed. With Amy's idea of Demi sitting next to her it made the shots look a lot better and made them flow. They filmed the conversation differently to how we had done it before and it seemed to work a lot better. Instead of changing the shots each time when a new person speaks they filmed each other continuous and said what they would say so when it came to editing we just needed to split the clip and insert what the other person said to make it flow better. Also, another idea that they had that made the conversation more successful was the idea that the shots of Demi walking in and sitting down were shot as point of view shots. This looks very effective as it shows to the audience that it is normal for them and they don't suspect that anything is wrong. I added the music change at the point of view shot where Demi sits down as it shows the start of when they realise something is wrong with the children. I feel that this conversation is a lot more effective and the shots flow a lot better as the lighting, dialogue and shots work a lot better together. The dialogue in this scene has improved greatly and I feel that it is a lot more suspenseful and works a lot better overall.

They also re filmed the scene where the mum shows the step dad the note as the facial expressions that we had before weren't as good as we wanted. We wanted to make sure that the  close up of the facial expressions were very suspenseful and looked very real. I believe that the new close ups are a lot better and are a good starting point to when the location changes to show what has happened to the children.  They also improved the dialogue making it more dramatic and showing the worry in there faces. I feel that overall, the new conversations and facial expressions that they have filmed are a lot better and with the music they work Delete repeated word

Unfortunately, when we got to class to look at the shots that Demi and Amy had filmed we realised that one of the shots that we needed in the conversation was missing so Amy and I had to quickly film this shot during lunch. The shot and dialogue that we had to re film was the one where she says "they left a note, I'll show you". This is a very important shot that we had so we had to make sure that we added it in for the rest of the dialogue to make sense. I made sure when I filmed that the lighting in the room was like it was before and also the angle that the shot was recorded was in the same frame as all the other previous shots. I have now added this shot and it makes the conversation flow a lot better into the next location's dialogue.

Fonts for the titles

Examples of font Titles:

The font for the thriller opening is very important as it is the part of the thriller that people remember and will see and will recognise it by this. This means that the font, size and colour has a huge impact on what the font looks like and how appealing it is. Also, it makes it eye catching for the audience and will eventually make them want to watch it. The font has a huge impact on suggesting what the movie is going to be about and what it is going to be like.

The Butterfly Effect:

The title of "The Butterfly Effect" is very effective as it is in front of a skull showing that it has something to do with someone's mental health and psychological issues . The background is dark to suggest that someone dark is happening that will be answered further on in the opening. The name of the film is in a lighter colour of blue which stands out against the blue skull and the black background. The title is also in bold letters which is very eye catching to make the audience want to watch on. This font is very successful as it suggests the uncertainty that someone is having some psychological problems.

Gone Girl:

In the thriller movie "Gone Girl" the font is very successful as it is very bold to stand out to the audience to be the drawing point of which people see and want to watch. The part of the title "GONE" is in bold writing to suggest the emphasis that someone has gone missing which is going to be a major part of the film. This also creates an alarming feel for the audience as they start to worry about who has gone missing.

The Women In Black:

In the thriller film "The Women in Black" the title is in bold writing to suggest a stand out as a clue of something that the audience need to look out for. The font is white which is opposite to the black that stands out against the dark, black background. The writing looks smeared which suggests to the audience the ghostly presence that someone is always there in the background.

Overall, the fonts that I have looked at have all been in bold and had white writing to stand out against the dark background as a stereotypical thriller film is dark to suggest something is about to happen. I will now talk to my group about the different suggestions that they have researched and what fonts they like the most.

The name of our thriller opening:

We originally decided that we would call our thriller opening "24 hours" which we felt was a short and catchy title  that enabled the audience to have an interpretation of what is going to happen in the film without telling them exactly what is going to happen. However, when we researched this name on the internet we found there was already a well known film named this and we wanted to make sure that it was original and not copyright.

Another idea that we had to call it was "diminishing hope" which was suggested by somebody who was looking at our thriller opening. We originally all really liked this name as we felt like it was very original and suggested the fact that the children were missing and their parents had no idea they were gone to suggest the hope of finding them was getting narrower by the second. After much thought about the name we decided that the name was just too long and didn't flow very well when we put it at the end of our opening. Overall, I decided that when I was researching the different titles of thriller films I realised that they were all very short and simple to be catchy for the audience which is why we decided against this idea.

We then decided on a shorter more catchier title of "Hours" as we felt that this was short but also was able to represent the fact that the children had been taken. After much thought we decided not to go with this title as we felt that it was to simple and didn't stand out to people what in fact the movie was going to be about. We then thought about the statistics that we had added at the beginning of thriller opening. We then realised that it would be important to add the "24" to the hours to represent to the audience that the statistics show that if a child is still missing after 24 hours they're more likely to be dead. We then eventually decided that it would be a good idea to go with "24 hours left" which is still short and catchy but also not to long.

The finalised idea that we decided to go with is "24 Hours Left" as the idea of our thriller is of missing children and statistic say that after 24 hours, "the chances of a stolen kid being returned are forever diminishing". We felt that this was a good link to make the audience see the suggestion of the time and the children missing. Overall, I feel that this title is a very good title as it is short and catchy but also gives a clue to the audience about what may happen to them.

Main font (24 Hours Left):

We are using iMovie to edit our thriller opening so we decided that we would look at the titles that are used as a template for the titles. We first of all looked at the different titles that we could use for the name of the thriller. We looked at several ideas but decided that we liked "Expand" the best as I looked quite simple but the font looked very good with the name that we wanted to call it. When I did some research on the titles of films I realised that many of them had a black background to set the scene of what the film was going to be about and to link to the thriller aspect of the opening. We liked our name in the title, however we wanted to add a transition to make the font appear better than just have it come onto the screen. We found a transition that looked like it wobbled around on the screen to suggest the uneasiness that the mum and dad are feeling as they don't know where the children have gone. I think that the title looks very effective and the transition adds to the effect that the title has. When I looked into the music of the opening I looked into different sound effects that I could add to the title to make when the title come on be the climax of the opening after seeing the children being taken. I got this idea from openings that I have researched as they have mostly got a sound added to the title to make it be used as more of a climax to the opening.  The size of the font is 112 as it is a big size to make it cover the whole of the page and stand out to people wanting to watch the movie.

Another example of where we used the fonts on iMovie were the titles that we used for the production, editor etc in the right hand side of the screen. We wanted to make the font clear to read and also in a white font as many of our shots are of the darker colour. Furthermore, when I researched openings of thriller films many of them used a white font for the names as they stand out to the audience looking but not to much to distract them from watching what is going on.  We have decided to follow the theme of the first word of the name to be in a smaller font than the surname as this makes it easier for the audience to tell people apart from one another. The first name is in size 94 and the second name is in size 112.The font that we chose to use I believe looks very effective and really shows clear the roles but not to obvious to make the audience only look at them a that's not what we wanted. I added all of the titles at the bottom of the screen and made sure that they all were the same size and font each time for the production names and the actors.

Soundtrack

Soundtracks:

Sound has been one of the most difficult parts for us as a group to get right about our thriller opening. This is because our thriller opening isn't very intense as it is a very normal situation until the end where the suspense starts to build like your stereotypical thriller. We wanted originally to look for a piece of music that wasn't very suspenseful but was quite plain to show the audience that it was a normal day for the parents before something happened. However, at some points in the scenes we have suspenseful moments that are clues and hints for the audience, for example when the mum sees the note we wanted to make the music slightly louder and tense to show the audience that something wasn't right. This was difficult for us as when we researched different thriller music background tracks they were either very jumpy or not at all.  At the end of our opening it is very suspenseful so we wanted to make sure that we added a very tense piece of music to go with the thriller stereotype.

We have each taken a lot of time researching different music on YouTube that would be fit to go in the background. I was in charge of the music so I experimented with each piece of music and put several of them in the opening to see what it sounded like but none of them seemed to sound like what we had in mind.  I decided that instrumental pieces of music would be best as we would be able to increase and decrease the volume as we wish so the audience don't concentrate fully on what the music is doing but what is actually happening. I believe that an instrumental would fit best also because when we researched other thriller films they each had this and it worked very successfully to create suspense at certain points in the opening.

 A few examples of the music tracks that we looked at are:

1. We didn't know where to find a piece of music that would fit our thriller opening as it is not like your stereotypical opening as it is very slow and nothing climatic happens till right at the end. I typed into YouTube "Suspenseful thriller background music" and this piece of music came up as the first option. I listened to the piece of music over and over again and decided that we were going to put it onto the opening. When I added the piece of music we realised that it sounded very adventurous and optimistic when our thriller opening is not very adventurous nothing is happening at the beginning. I liked a part of the music as it was very climactic which we thought would look good at the note scene. However, when I added this piece of music we decided that it didn't sound like we wanted it to so we decided to keep looking for another piece that was instrumental but not too adventurous and climatic throughout.

2. The second piece of music that I looked at is the Mafia theme song which was suggested us by Demi. We listened to it and at first really didn't like it, but when we continued to listen to it we started to like it so we decided to give it a try and put it in the beginning of the opening. I think that Alicia, Amy and I were worried about it being dramatic and climatic again which is not what we wanted.  When I inserted the music into the beginning of the thriller when the mum walks into the house and into the kitchen we were surprised with how it fitted with the opening as it didn't sound too in your face but was in fact very calm. I tried this piece of music in the sequence where the mum walks into the house and goes into the kitchen as it was emphasising that nothing was wrong from what the mum could see. I had a slight issue with the music in the kitchen as we wanted to make sure that at certain points the music increased to emphasise that something was happening. We took a long time listening to the music trying to look for parts that were climatic and others that were calm to fit the normal environment that the mum was in. We eventually found a climatic part in the theme song and inserted it into the part where she looks at the note. I feel that this looks very effective as it shows a clear distinction between the different volumes that allows the audience to see that something isn't quite right about the note. We decided in the end to decrease the volume of the background music in the other parts of the scene to make the audience concentrate on what is happening and also show them the distinct reference to when something isn't right. Overall, I am very happy with this piece of music as it suits the feel that we wanted to get across to the audience and fits our opening very well.

3. We found looking for a piece of music to fit the parts where the mum and step dad talk very difficult as we wanted the music to be soft and not very climatic to make the audience concentrate on the dialogue rather than feeling tense to give the audience clues as to what has happened. We looked for a piece of music very difficult to find again but I eventually came across this piece of music that is very slow but at the same time creates a massive amount of suspense to make the audience realise what is going to happen. I inserted this piece of music into the conversation part and really liked the way it sounded against the dialogue. However, I did have to decrease the volume of the music and increase the dialogue to make sure that the audience could hear the dialogue clearly. When I made the adjustments to the volume of the music I really liked the way that it went with the dialogue. I then listened to the first piece of music with the second piece of music and realised that their was a very sudden stop to the music so I decided to fade out the first music to allow the transition from song to song to flow better. After doing this I was very happy with way the music flowed and how it went with what we have filmed.

We looked at putting music into the scene where the children are running and are in the barn but when we continued the music we realised that the use of sound effects on iMovie would be perfect to making it have the right amount of suspense. In the scene where the children are running through the trees, Demi added the sound effect of heavy rain to empathise the dark atmosphere and a dog barking that could suggest that the children are in danger being left by themselves while being taken. I really like this as it shows that the children are in danger and I feel that music doesn't need to be added as it looks effective without music. We added the sound effect of a heart beat to show the audience that it is the children who have been taken and makes the audience almost feel as scared as the children. The heart beat really adds to the suspense and I feel tops of this scene to make it very effective.

When looking at the sound in the barn scene we realised that to keep the continuous flow of the shots and sound we decided to carry on the sound of the heavy rain and heart beats which we felt sounded very effective with the other scene. The sound of the rain creates a very tense atmosphere and adds to the tension of the children being tied up and someone watching them. I decided to stop the sound of the rain just as the person comes close to the children and just add in the simple sound of a heart beat to show how the children were scared in that particular moment and makes the audience want to know what happened to them. I feel that the sound effects make this scene very suspenseful and overall creates the feeling that we wanted to get across. We did try the piece of music that we had before but the sound didn't fit with the climax that we wanted to get across so we decided to stay with the sound effects that we originally had.

Famous actors and actresses

Research into the actors and actresses that we have chosen to put in our thriller opening:

Emma Stone:



Emily Jean "Emma" Stone (born November 6, 1988) is an American actress. One of the world's highest-paid actresses in 2015, Stone has received such accolades as an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. We have chosen Emma Stone to be one of our leading stars in our opening as she is a very well known actress all around the world and has also starred in many thriller films such as "The circle" which had global success. I feel that she will play the role very well in our thriller.                                     

                                 Lily Collins:

                                                       

Lily Jane Collins (born 18 March 1989) is a British-American actress and model.The daughter of English musician Phil Collins and an American mother, Jill Tavel man, she was born in Surrey and moved to Los Angeles as a child. Her first screen role was at the age of two in the BBC series Growing Pains. She had the leading roles in the sci-fi action-horror film Priest (2011) and the psychological action-thriller film Abduction. She has been nominated for the Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress and Sci-Fi/Fantasy for her role as Snow White in the fantasy film Mirror Mirror. She is most well known for her role in The Mortal Instruments City of Bones which is a very well known film all around the world. We chose to have Lily Collins in our opening thriller as she is very well known and has appeared in various different thriller movies.

Idris Elba:

Idrissa Akuna "Idris" Elba, born 6 September 1972) is an English actor, musician, and DJ. He is known for playing drug lord in The Wire, Detective John Luther on the BBC One series Luther, and Nelson Mandela in the biographical film Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013). He has been nominated four times for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, winning one. Additionally, he has been nominated times for a Primetime Emmy Award. Demi decided that he wanted Idris to be in the opening as he felt he was very well known and he thought he could play his character well.

Jamie Campbell Bower:

James Metcalfe "Jamie" Campbell Bower was born on the 22nd of November 1988 and is an English actor, singer, and model. He is best known for his roles as Anthony Hope in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Caius in The Twilight Saga, King Arthur in the Starz series, Camelot, the young Gellert Grindelwald in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, and Jace Wayland in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. We all agreed that he would be a very good person to put in our thriller opening as he has been in very successful action, thriller movies and we feel he will play the role very well.



Props and Costumes

Props and Costume Prezi:

https://prezi.com/g7ku1hceubyf/edit/

Filming Day Four

Filming Day Four: Thursday 23rd March:

Today, we filmed the scenes where the children were shown being alone having been taken by somebody. We had a slight change of plan in where we were going to film the scenes as we discussed the different places that may look more effective and Alicia said that she had a run down old barn just around from her house that would look good. We thought about filming in a field and agreed that it would be very difficult to make it look very suspenseful as we wouldn't be able to show much of the background and it would be difficult to show different angles of the children being tied up. So, after school Amy, Alicia and I went to the barn in Newington and looked around the barn. We face timed Demi, who was doing some editing in school and agreed that the location was a good place to film.

Demi started to edit the part where himself and I had filmed some shots of him running along the school field the other day when it was raining. We felt that  this would look effective to show the children running from someone who has taken them. Demi did this by adding sound effects of heavier rain, heart beats and dogs barking to increase the suspense of what is happening. This looks very effective and we are all happy with the way that this part looks. Here are a few pictures of the field that we filmed this part in:

Alicia and I wanted to make sure it looked as life like as possible so we got some fake blood and smeared it all over our arms and hands to make it look like we had been hurt. We also used fake tattoos of cuts to show some close ups of what had happened to us. We both decided to wear casual clothing as we wanted it to look like the kids had just been out and something had happened to them.

When we arrived at the barn it was the perfect location as it was very abandoned and the ceiling was collapsed which made it look very spooky. This added to the very eary feel that we wanted to get across for the thriller to have. Also, the lighting looked very effective as we wanted to make sure that it looked dark and gloomy as the scene previous to this was filmed in the rain to show the "children" running through some trees to add to the tense atmosphere. To do this when we got back into school we added a sound effect of heavy rain to this and a heart beat sound to reinforce the danger that the children are in to the audience. This looks a lot more effective as it shows the panic that the children are feeling on the way to being taken to the barn.

As we had changed the location of where we were going to film this scene we wanted to see what we could do when we got to the barn and we were very surprised with the amount that we could use. First of all there was a window looking into the barn which we thought would be perfect to start filming from a point of view shot to show the children waking up having been knocked out and terrified, having no idea where they have been taken to. I feel that this looks very effective also as the audience will know that someone is watching the children and wonders what they will do to them. Amy who filmed this point of view shot made sure that she stood on branches and made the camera shaky as she walked up to add to the sound that somebody was coming and making them uneasy. Amy also filmed this shot  of her walking slowly moving forward as we wanted to create as much tension as we possible could by making the audience wait.

We then had the idea of Amy filming a close up of the blood running down the girls hands shaking as we wanted to add to the tense atmosphere. We felt that this would look very good however, when we got into class we realised that the point o view shot looked very by itself and didn't need anything else with it. Also, we were running over 2 minutes by 30 seconds which in the end we had to be very brutal with what we kept and what we didn't.

The point of view shot of the person who had taken them walking from the window all the way up to the children looks very effective as you're able to see the children scream in desperation to get away from the person. This looks extremely effective as it is a very high tension point in the thriller opening and I feel that this is shown through the shot that we have used as it reinforces the very dangerous atmosphere that we wanted. When we got back to class we added sound effects of rain and an increase heart beat to show more suspense.

When we got back to class the next day and showed Demi what we had filmed he was very happy with what we had. We then looked at some music that we could use to increase the tense atmosphere and decided that we could empathise the scream making it a higher volume and also add a sound effect of heavy rain to make the scene flow on from the previous scene of them running in the rain. This makes the scene look very effective as the non diegetic sounds and diegetic sounds together makes it look very dangerous and tense. However, when we looked back at the music from the start of the running scene we decided that the background sound took over from what was actually happening in the shot so I decided to cut the music at the start of the barn scene and just have the rain and heart beat as I feel that this bought even more tension and suspense than having the background music as well.

Overall,we are very happy with the barn scene that we have filmed. I am extremely happy with the change in location that we have had as the barn definitely looks a lot more effective than if we filmed in a field as the lighting and the mise en scene was a lot more dark and more like a thriller we were also able to adapt our thriller around what the location had to offer which was very helpful.

Filming Day Three

Filming Day Three: Tuesday 14th March:

After school we went to Amy's house again and re-filmed when the dad comes into the house. After looking back at what footage we previously have we realised that the speech and the way the dad came in was very aggressive. When we researched thriller films we saw that most thriller films create gradual suspense so we wanted to make sure that the speech that he said was less aggressive and more of a relaxed conversation. We changed the shot so it was from a side mid angle to show the dad walking in and going to sit straight on the sofa. This looked very effective as it showed the audience that they were unaware of anything that was happening and they weren't worrying too much as they're sitting down. We also decided to change the conversation between the mum and dad to show a gradual rise of tension as the conversation goes on. We decided that a phone call would look effective as it shows an increase of tension for the characters as they start to realise something is not right. We used shot reverse shots to show the conversation that they were both having and a point of view shot to show they're having an important conversation. Overall, I think that this looks very effective as it shows the gradual rise in tension very well. However, when we looked back at the footage some of the parts that the dad said were slightly out of place as the camera died while we were filming. This was only a few different shots so we will be able to quickly film these another day to make sure the conversation is continued on and flows well. The part of the scene where the phone is used we are going to add sound of a phone dial to add tension and show the audience that they're not getting a reply.

Also, we re-filmed the scene in the kitchen where close ups were shown of there worried facial expressions after they find out that the kids are gone and they are no where to be found. When looking back at this footage we were overall very happy with the way it turned out as the facial expressions looked a lot more effective and they also showed more emotion and really showed how they would be feeling. This is a very suspenseful moment in the opening so we wanted to make sure that we were able to add tense music at this point to make the audience feel tense for them in wanting to know where the kids are.

Overall, we are very happy with the footage that we have and we now need to film the part where the kids are shown in a field which is the most suspenseful scene in the whole opening. We also need to re film the parts of the scene where the dad is talking to the mum in the living room to make sure that they flow better. However, overall we are very happy with what we have so far.

Filming Day Two

Filming Day Two:

Firstly, after looking at the previous footage that we had filmed while editing we realised that we needed to re film some parts as the lighting was too dark at some points of the mum walking into the house and when the mum looks at the note. We wanted to film the note part again as the note was different to the previous scene that we filmed and we wanted to make sure that it looked the same. We also wanted to make sure that the reaction was filmed from a better angle to make sure that we got that the mum was anxious about it. 

We needed to make sure that when we filmed this time that the lighting was better and to get more takes of things so we could edit things together that looked effective and continued better together.

For the second day of filming we wanted to make sure that we filmed again the parts that didn't look as expected and that we filmed the dad walking in and the conversation between them.  We had to make sure that we were all wearing the same costumes as last time to make sure that the continuity was effective. Alicia was unable to film on this day but helped with editing on our return to looking back at the footage.

The first part that we needed to re film was the part where Amy walks into the kitchen  and looks up the stairs as the lighting didn't look very bright and also a part of her head was cut out of the shot so we wanted to make sure that you could see her whole body in the shot. 

We then re filmed the part where Amy looks up the stairs, as before we only had a shot of her looking up the stairs shouting. We discussed and thought that it would be more effective by having a mid shot from the top of the stairs to emphasise to the audience that there wasn't an answer from the children. When we looked back at the footage we decided that we liked this a lot more as it made the overall feel of the situation darker as it made the audience question if something was wrong.

We also filmed the note part again as we needed to make sure that the note was the same as the previous scene which was half a page not a full page. We also changed the name of the children as when we come to film the field scene it would be easier to have two girl names as Alicia and I could both be the children. We decided that the children would be called "Alice and Izzy" and therefore we had to change the names on the note so we wrote it again and filmed the close up. We made sure that we filmed this for a longer amount of time as when we edit we want to make sure that we can add some dramatic non diegetic music at this point to emphasis something is wrong. at the note as we wanted it to last longer to create as much suspense as possible.

We also filmed the mid shot of the mum again to show her sighing and throwing the note along the table. Overall, this looks very effective as the audience realises that something is wrong however the mum is still oblivious.

I then filmed the part of the scene where the dad walked into the house as before the footage that we got wasn't clear and was very shaky. We discussed the different angles that we could use as we wanted to make sure that the lighting was best from the angle that we chose. We decided that we would film from the opposite side of the room making it easier to see him walk in and come into the room. 

However, looking back on the footage that we got we saw that a light was reflecting from the window onto him meaning we couldn't see him as clear as we wanted so we will film this again next time. However, the mid shot that we chose to use was a lot more effective as you were able to see him walk into the living room with a whole body shot making it look better than seeing only his face in the shot. We will have to film again to make sure that the lighting in the mid shot looked better and more continuous from the lighting of the other scenes.

We also filmed the shot reverse shots of them both talking about where the children were. We used a low angle when filming the dad to show that he has power and could also suggest that the mum is very oblivious to things that about to happen and is weak at this point. We then filmed using a high angle to show the mum looking up at the dad to again reinforce that the dad has more power than he does.
However, when we looked back at the footage and got some feedback from our teacher we thought about changing this scene slightly. This is because we started off by having the dad come into the house very angrily asking where the children were however, we thought that actually he would come into the house less angry as the audience and them are still unaware of what is happening. Also, we realised that in thriller films suspense is used of which is why we wanted the conversation between them to build up tension it's self and not just have a climax at the beginning. We will film this part again and make sure that he comes in less aggressive and let the conversation build up. We also had the idea that we could add a phone call to the kids where they don't answer to create continued tension and questions of where the kids were.

We filmed an over the shoulder shot following Amy into the kitchen showing the dad the note that the children left. This looked very effective as it was a point of view shot of the dad walking behind her also, however a part of her head was cut off meaning that we will have to film this part again. We filmed a shot reverse shot of the mum and dad talking about her getting the note and also we did some extreme close ups of both to show that they are now worried about what is happening and that there may be something wrong. However, when we looked back at this in class we realised that the facial expressions weren't as effective as we thought that they were so we will film this again next time to make sure that it looks effective to create a dramatic atmosphere.