Thriller Opening Sequence (Draft Edit)

Thriller Draft 

This is my thriller draft. In this draft I show the first 13 seconds of what I have edited so far as this was the most time consuming part of the editing process.

4. Construction - Editing

Editing

When it came to editing the first thing I wanted to do was review all of the footage I had and to then select the shots that would be used for the final piece. I went about going through all of the footage and marking down which ones would be used and then I separated the footage into another folder to make it easier to access when using the editing software. 

When it came to editing this was something which I was already confident at, so I decided to use a software which I am familiar with. I chose Sony Vegas Pro 13 to edit my thriller on. The first thing I did in the editing stage was to put together all of clips that were being used in the correct order before I started editing. This was done very easily as I had already selected the shots being used. I then set about doing the only real editing that needed to be done which was the opening distortion for my thriller and the titles.

I started with the opening scene and started adding static T.V effects with some screen cracking to really convey a thriller and give it a scary feel. This was very time consuming as a lot of key-framing was needed to really show off these affects in the best light. This was then the first draft which I rendered out with just the opening distortion sequence.

After I had finished the first draft with the opening sequence the editing process was then much quicker. I only had the titles to really edit as well as adding some music/sound. I added the titles selecting a front from online to really add to the thriller look with the text being that with a slash through the center of the text.



Sound was relatively easy to edit in, with my sound being chosen before I had filmed and then I simply added it into the project.

3. Construction - Filming

Filming - 2

Day 2 of filming both actors again turned up on time at the new location for 2pm. Again I briefed both of the actors on the shots that we would be doing and what they needed to do. Once I had done this we went about shooting the remaining shots. 

The shots which had to be filmed were filmed with no mistakes apart from a couple shots which after reviewing had to be done again because they did not turn out how I expected. Once again by sticking to the schedule it meant that we had plenty of time to re-shoot anything that wasn't perfect. The shots that needed to be re-shot were and then we had to tidy up the props which we had used for the outdoor scenes. I again went home and dumped the footage onto my computer to keep safe. 

2. Construction - Filming

Filming - 1

The first day of filming went really well with both the main casting actors that I needed turning up 15 minutes before I wanted to start filming. We quickly went over the shots using the storyboard and I directed them on what they needed to be doing. Once this was done we went about shooting the first couple scenes. 

The first day of filming was suppose to be for 2 hours on the once set, which was my house. Everything went smoothly and we even had extra time after filming to review footage and re-shoot a couple shots that did not come out as well as they could of. After the re-shooting had been done the actors left and I imported all of the footage which I had filmed that day onto my computer, to make sure we didn't lose any footage. 

1. Construction - Preparation

Preparation

Preparation had to be done before starting the filming process. The preparation was done by looking at the filming schedule I had made previously and then looking under the equipment tab. This was so I knew what equipment I needed, this would make the filming process more efficient and would keep the filming process moving fast as I had little time with the cast.
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As well as making sure I had the equipment needed, I also had to check that the equipment worked and was setup correctly so this would not have to be done on the day of filming. Checking the tripod worked smoothly and was adjusting correctly was one of the tests I did. Another test that needed to be done was the white balance on the camera. I found out quickly by doing a test shot that the camera had not been white balanced correctly, which I then fixed ready for shooting.

 

6. Preliminary - Evaluation

Analysis of Preliminary Clip

I am pleased with the final product that we produced as a group. Although I am pleased there are quite a bit of things I would of changed if we did it again or if I had enough time. One thing that we did well was the range of camera shots that we used. We used quite a range of camera shots to prove that we can use them and when they are appropriate to be used.  The range of shots that we used also helped to improve the overall feel for the clip, as we wanted it to have a dark and mysterious feeling to the whole thing. The camera shots helped to emphasise the feeling we wanted to get across. The camera shots also helped to show the importance of our main character,Toni. Most of the time the camera was on Toni, this was to show the importance of Toni and to also suggest the threat that Toni might cause. At one point of the clip we had a low angle shot and Tommy was the low angle part of the shot sitting down, were as Toni was walking in stood up to show dominance that Toni had and to again suggest the threat that Toni opposes.

For sound i was really pleased with how the ambient sound really helped to give the whole project a mysterious and dark feel. We added the ambient sound throughout the whole thing to help create this feeling of something was going to happen. The ambient sound helps to keep the view thinking on what is going to happen. One thing that I was not too happy with was the dialogue that was included the clip. The quality was not very good and really let down the feel of quality that I wanted the project to have. Also the background sound that was picked up by the mic also really let down the overall clip, as it gave it a low quality feel. Luckly by adding the ambient sound we managed to combat the background sound as you can hear it but only a little due to the ambient sound that we added. I was going to remove the sound from the clips all together and just have the dialogue included but i wanted to keep the sound of Toni walking through the hall way. If I had more time I would of added the all of the sound over the top and dubbed the dialogue that is also init.

Overall I am happy with the way it came out and it looked reasonably well done. Like I said if I had more time i would of redone all of the audio in the editing stage to really improve the whole quality of the clip.

5. Preliminary - Film

4. Preliminary - Editing

Analysis of Editing the Preliminary Task

After we had shot everything we then moved to the editing stage, We started off by first analyzing the clips which we had shot. We went through all of the clips and noted down the ones we wanted to use and the ones we did not want to use. This was a little time consuming and may of been a mistake shooting so many shots although it was nice to have a selection of clips so we could pick the best ones. Once we had done this we then set about encoding the clips as they would not work in the editing software that we going to use. This did take up a lot of time and left us with little time to edit making it a little stressful. Once all of the clips had been encoded we then moved to the editing process. We imported the clips and the set about cutting the clips down of any unnecessary parts that were not need. Once this was done we set out the clips in order of how we wanted the clips. This was very easy as we had previously numbered the clips when we were picking the clips we were going to use, This helped a lot and meant we saved time which we had lost previously on encoding the clips. Once we had them in order we set about adding fades at the beginning and adding little things here and there just to improve the overall look of the clips. The most important thing we wanted in the final product was to have a dark and mysterious feel to the whole thing, which we would do through sound. We added in ambient sound throughout the whole thing to make it feel these factors which we wanted. There was slight problems with some of the sound as dialogue at some points was not very clear and if we had more time it we would of dubbed the voices instead. We added a gun sound affect at the end when the close up of the gun occurred. We also made this screen cut to black when the sound of the gun went off. This added to the suspense and suspicion of what had happened to Tommy. When we had done this we then simply rendered the clip and uploaded it to youtube.

3. Preliminary - Filming

Analysis of Shooting Preliminary Task

The first thing we did as a group when shooting our task was to get the camera in the right position for our first shot. This was made very easy and saved us time by using the sheet we had already planned out all of shots previously. We then followed the planning sheet and tried replicate the first shot like drawn on the planning sheet. This was done very easily and saved us time having to find a place of our first shot and whether we liked it or not. After we had the camera set up we took the shot a couple of times so that when it came to the editing stage we had plenty of shots to pick from so we could use our favorite one. After shooting the first camera angle when then moved to our second shot. This was again easy as we just replicated what was already planned on the sheet. When then did this for all of the shots in the Preliminary task. Again following the storyboard with each of our shots on. Sometime we changed the shot only slightly, by this I mean the height of the shot. For example we had a wide shot at normal height, after setting it up we decided it did not look as good as we thought it would look. When the lowered the camera to shoot a low angle shot which looked a lot better and we were more satisfied with it. Every other shot that we took was fine and we had no problems shooting the clips. 

When we were shooting the clips a hard thing that we tried to over come was the lighting. We wanted our final product to have a dark feel to it and very mysterious feel which would be created by little lighting. We tried to set up only one light so that you could only just about make out the scene and the characters expressions. One light was used and we thought it looked good so we kept it. Although we liked having the shots dark this proved a problem at some points as the shots were to dark at times, making it hard to see what was actually going on. When we noticed this we tried to add more light to the scene making the shot easy to view when we reviewed it back. This was the only major problem we faced when shooting the Preliminary Task. About from the small problem we had, everything else went very smoothly. I base this down to good planning before we shot so we knew to do when it came to shooting the whole thing.

2. Preliminary - Storyboard

1. Preliminary - Planning

Planning of the Preliminary Task

For the first part of the planning we had to work out the camera shots that we wanted to use. We did this by using a storyboard system which is displayed below. On this sheet we planned out in order of the shots we were going to use and what our clip was going to be about. We then carefully picked out the camera shots that we were going to use, as we knew this would be important to give our clip the edge on uniqueness. Planning out the individual shots was a great idea as when it came to shooting the clip we had all of the shots set out and we knew what to do. This meant that we saved time and we were able to shoot all of the clips in the time given not going over the time set. Planning the shots out on a storyboard helped also by determining how the final piece was going to look. It helped as well as some of the boxes have been crossed out, this was due to us not liking the certain shot so we just got rid of it. This helped when coming to the editing process as we had enough clips and we had the clips that we wanted, instead of unnecessary clips that we did not like.

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After we had planned out the shots that were going to be used we set about to write out the script that the characters were going to say. We did this by writing down the characters names and then words that the character was going to say horizontal to the name. This made it easy to follow and clear. In our clip we decided to go for minimal speech as we wanted the atmosphere of the clip to be very dark. This was achieved by little speech. Any dialogue that was said we made sure that they were not just a average conversational dialogue. We wanted it to seem like something had happened previously between the two characters which would get the audience thinking on what might of happened to add suspicion. The dialogue between the two characters was not meant to flow not a normal conversation, were a question would be answered. Instead Tommy said,'Toni?'. Which was answered by Toni saying,'I've been away awhile'. This is clearly not a answer to the question that Tommy implied. We did this to show that and suggest that Toni was not there for a friendly conversation with Tommy, instead Toni was there to enforce a threat which was later fulfilled in the finished clip.

10. Film Schedule

Film Schedule

9. Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment Table

8. StoryBoard

Story Board

These are all of my shots planned out using a story board.

7. Planning Shots

Planning Shots

I decided to plan the shots that I was going to use for my thriller. This was done as I wanted the camera shooting to go as smoothly as possible and also as quickly as possible. This was because I only had the actors for a short amount of time. Planning the shots meant that time was spent efficiently. If I did not work efficiently then we would of ran out of time and this would of been very bad as I only had the actors for a short amount of time.  If we ran out of time then this would result in having to re-shoot another day. This could result in unprofessional looking shoots as the weather may not be the same on the re-scheduled day. This meant time was a factor when it came to shooting. This meant that by creating a storyboard of all of the shots I wanted to use we saved time.

This planning sheet is very similar to the planning sheet used for my thriller. It has different columns for different descriptions of the shot and for the order in which the shots are to be shot in.

Planning shots also meant that there would be no confusion on what the characters were doing and where the camera would be set up. All of the camera shots would of been brought to the shoot of the thriller and then it can be easily read and performed in order to keep things running smoothly and effectively.

6. Costume

Costume

When it came to customer I wanted my actors/cast to be wearing what a typical teenager would wear. This would be anything from tracky bottoms to jeans and a shirt. I wanted my characters to not standout as not being your average teens, so I gave my cast the option of letting them wear what they wanted as I needed it to look as realistic as possible. The only character that needed to be given something to wear specifically was the criminal/killer. I gave them instructions to wear a hooded item of clothing preferably black. This was done so that the killers identity was not revealed to give the thriller look and feel.