A rough cut is important to consider because it allows you to collect feedback from people who watch it and improve on the constructive criticism they give you, this helps make the final opening scenaration better as you get the audiences opinions on the clip that resembles the final finished product. Without a rough cut, the clip may not be seen with its full potential, meaning if it was submitted it would not get as many marks as it could of had.
Audience feedback is also very important to consider, this is because it gives you a different and fresh perspective on our opening sequence. It allows us take into consideration the audiences constructive criticism to help us improve the elements that may not be working, but also tell you what they feel the strengths of the clip are and are effective, allowing us to know which parts to enhance, or ensure we do not cut them out or shorten.
My group and I created a presentation for our class to allow them to get the understanding of our clip by telling them about our narrative and what we wanted to achieve through our opening scenario. This enabled them to give us feedback as they were able to give their opinions based on how well we pulled it off by comparing it to how we explained what we wanted to portray and achieve. Our presentation included;
- Our individual ideas for a narrative.
- Those ideas put together to make our final narrative and what that was.
- What we wanted to create and how we think we have created it.
- How is it conventional to the thriller genre.
After the presentation, we then showed our class our rough cut of our thriller sequence, which we had exported to youtube previously, which allowed their feedback to be given through comments on the video.
When receiving feedback, we were told that we had many strengths and weaknesses. Our strengths included;
- Good use of low key lighting - conventional
- Good variety of shots used - high angles, low angles, eye levelled shot, handheld, etc
- Good variety of shot distances - Close up, Extreme close up, long shot, aerial shot, etc
- Good use of sound - builds tension/suspense.
Our weaknesses included;
- An unclear confusing plot.
- Not enough credits.
- Transitions between frames was 'messy'.
We took the weaknesses given to us into consideration and decided to act on them by changing them or deleting parts. Starting with the making the plot clearer, for this, we are going to add in some footage which shows the older sister in our narrative placing the gloves used to kill the little girl into a bag and throwing this into the forest. This would hint to viewers that perhaps the older sister was involved in the killing, and so would leave them wondering what her motives were. Although this was a weakness, it was also good because we wanted to leave the audience feeling confused, which we did, but having gained the feedback, now know that we should be leaving the audience questioning what happened, instead of them not knowing what they have just watched.
The weakness of there not being enough credits is a fair comment, simply because we had not finished all of the credits yet. It was good to show the few credits we had made as there were no comments as to the fading and blurring on/off of these credits, and so I have assumed these were effective, although it is hard to tell without them all being completed.
The tranisitions between the frames needs polishing, as it was commented that they looked messy. This probally occured whilst cutting down the clip to under 2 minutes, as the sounds that originally matched the images, no longer do. To improve this, it will mean slowly going through the entire clip, and making sure that all the edits and sounds etc match the images.
The feedback given to us will help us finalise our thriller opening sequence as it has given us ideas and a different perspective of ways in which we should improve our clip. This has now given us the understanding of the audiences reactions and opinions meaning we can adjust and alter certain elements to help bring out the full potential our thriller could possibly have.
Within our opening sequence, our narrative was adjusted only once. This was when we put all of our individual ideas together and altered it into one group idea. This final idea consisted of a little girl walking through a forest alone, and whilst she is walking, she experiences several flashbacks. These flashbacks show the audience the happy memories the little girl is reminiscing on, including her and her older sister playing in the forest she is currently in. The story develops through these flashbacks as the audience begin to get a better understanding of the characters and their relationships with one another. In one of the flashbacks, there is an underwater fight scene between the little girl and the killer, this is triggered by the little girl looking into the river she is killed in. Once this flashback has taken place, the little girl comes to the realisation that she is in fact dead, this is portrayed through the iconography of the white rose. There is some confusion and an enigma created as to who the killer is, this is because we wanted our killer to have a hidden identity but at the same time give hints that the killer could be the little girls older sister. We wanted to end our opening sequence on this cliff hanger as the audience are left in shock and are left wondering what the motive could of been and how twisted the killer must have been to commit this murder. We thought by ending the scene on confusion the audience would want to see more and watch the rest of the film to obtain answers which is the main purpose of the opening scene of films, to draw the audience into the film.
The first shot that we used in our opening sequence was an eye-levelled shot/from the ground shot. This shot was not originally planned to go into our clip but we decided it would be a good way to introduce and place the first of the credits into.The credits used in this shot show the name of the company name 'Dark Productions' in white, the effect for these used is called tracking which we used for the majority of our credits except our title 'Nostalgia'. We used low key lighting in this shot. For the music, a paceful intense piano harmony is played to begin with. A sound also included in this shot is the crunching of leaves beneath her feet. The scenery is in a forest.
(Use screenshot of shot from youtube)
The next shot is a long shot of the little girl walking away from the camera. Here, we again used low key lighting but with some light coming through the trees to make it visible. The credits in this shot display 'A film starring' again in white to make it stand out, with the same 'tracking' effect. The music is the same as in the first shot; the intense piano which is used in most of the parts where the little girl is walking through the forest with the crunching sound of the leaves as well. The little girl is wearing a pink dress as she is throughout the rest of the opening scene.
(Screenshot)
A mid shot and panning of the little girl is then used with dim lighting and the same music as used previously. The credits displayed here show the name of a main actor 'Yasmin Bhatti'. This then goes on to a point of view shot of the little girl looking at a tree, whilst zooming into the tree the music gets more intense and deeper, around the tree are dark shadows to emphasise its significance. The lighting therefore appears darker than the previous shots.
(Screenshot)
A shot of the same tree is then shown but this time the lighting is alot brighter and the image is blurry to show that it is a flashback. The characters in this shot are both the little girl and her older sister playing around the tree in a happy memory. here, the main sound is the diagetic sound of laughter, whilst the main piano sound has been turned down for this particular shot. They are both in casual clothing and here the little girl is wearing a pink scarf which is going to go on to be the main iconography in the clip. The credits here display my name, one of the main actors, 'Ayesha Bhatti', we put my name here as this is when I first appear in the clip, this again is in the effect 'tracking' and in bold white.
(Screenshot)
Another longshot is then faded into the clip showing the little girl walking in her pink dress with dim lighting, with the main music of the piano turned back up, but also still hearing the crunching of the leaves beneath her feet.This then goes into a side panning midshot of the little girl walking past the pink scarf on the tree with the same music which then changes for the next shot when the music gets sharper and the beat gets deeper. The music changes as there is an over the shoulder shot whilst zooming into the scarf. Around the scarf there are dark shadows, the same used when zooming into the tree in a previous shot and the lighting has also been darkened here to reflect the dark music. The credits here display 'Director of photography by'.
(Screenshot)
After this, it then goes into a flashback the little girl is experiencing of the older sister putting the scarf of the little girl. Here, the lighting is bright due to it being a flashback and the sides are blurred out to enhance the change from reality to the flashback. The little girl and her sister shown are in casual clothing with the use of the scarf as iconography. The scenery again is in a forest. The music used is of the main track played throughout most of the clip - the intense dramatic piano, however, due to it being a flashback the volume is lowered to focus on the deeper sound added in. There are no credits displayed in this particular shot.
(Screenshot)
The next shot is of the little girl walking up to the camera with the main sound being the crunching leaves but also the continuous piano subtly playing in the background. The lighting has been dimmed and she is wearing her pink dress. Here, the credits shown display 'Deanna Mathers' following the previous credit saying 'Director of photography by' this is in white with the tracking effect. After this, the little girl then stops, and it zooms into a close-up of her emotionless face with the same music and dim lighting.
(Screenshot)
This then fades into a quick high shot of the back of the little girl kneeling by the river. The lighting is dim and the music is the same piano. However, this soon changes when the sound turns into heavy breathing and running and the lighting is completely black due to it being a blackout, after these sounds are played through for a few seconds we then introduced a sound of a little girl screaming leading to the sound of a splash. As this shot was completely black we thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce our film title 'Nostalgia' as this would bring more attention and focus to it. Unlike the rest of our credits in our clip being all white and in the 'tracking' effect, the title is white with a red glow and is in the effect 'glow'.
(Screenshot)
Following the last sound heard which was the splash, the next shot was underwater. Here, we see the little girl in her pink dress getting strangled and drowned by her killer wearing a long sleeve black top. The sound of the piano is turned back on to pick up the pace and intensity. The lighting is dim and we changed the coloring of the swimming pool to more brown-green to make it appear more like a river. Due to it being underwater, we decided to put the credits saying 'Director of Underwater Photography', back to the same effect of 'tracking' in white.
(Screenshot)
When filming our opening scene, people need to be allocated specific roles in order to get everything done and completed efficiently. By doing this everyone is secured with their own jobs to get on with and can contribute their small
part to the making of the film. The possible roles within creating a film is the director, producer, the actors, directors of photography (cameramen), sound technicians, screenplay writer, MES co-coordinators and the editors.
When planning our opening credits our group had to make up some names so that there
wasn't the same names being repeated throughout, this would make the film opening appear
unprofessional. However, we still had to divide the names between the three people in our group, me Deanna and Lilian in allocated roles.
During the planning of our narrative for our opening scene, we decided to include 3 characters, a little sister, an older sister and the killer. We decided on me playing the role of the older sister as the little girl playing my younger sister is my actual little sister so we thought this would be appropriate in looking more realistic and truthful. An actors/actresses role within the film is to be prepared to follow the directors instructions to ensure their carrying out their role appropriately with the right emotions, they also need to learn the lines of the character they are playing if dialogue is included. In our opening scene there is no dialogue as we discovered that silence is conventional to the thriller genre in creating a more tense atmosphere. Our filming is made up out of two days that the actors would have acted out in each frame of our group storyboard, the first footage filmed in the forest, and the second in a swimming pool for the underwater scene, where the actors are required to have a reasonable amount of patience and also swimming ability.
I was designated the role of the producer and also the Mise-en-scene coordinator. We decided on this because I decided on the location of the filming in the forest. Also, me and my sister were the actors so it was easiest for me to figure out the costs etc. I was also able to plan the costumes due to us being the actors, as i could decide on what would be most suitable for our narrative whilst at home for the both of us. My role as producer included working alongside Lilian, the director to assist Deanna with deciding on shots we may be unsure of whilst filming. I felt that I carried out my role at a good standard as my chosen location of the forest looked good and fitted well with our clip, also my idea to use the school swimming pool worked out well as once the underwater scene was edited you could not tell the little girl was not in a river. I found it easy choosing costumes as I only had to dress myself and Yasmin in clothes we already owned. I also provided the iconography which we also had possession of, this meant that our group did not have to pay for anything apart from the underwater camera which we did not have to begin with.
The role of the director, who ensures everything is going to plan and running smoothly by ensuring that all the roles have been allocated and completed by people to good standard before the deadline was to be taken on by Lilian. We came to this decision as for one Lilian wanted to do this, following by the fact I was already acting in the opening scene so would be unable to control everything and make sure things are completed. Me and Deanna also played various other roles so by giving Lilian the role of director she would be equalled out with her contribution as this is a big and important role to play and would have plenty to be getting on with. Unfortunately, Lilian was absent during the filming of both the underwater scene and in the forest, therefore leaving me and Deanna to split the role of director. This did not cause too much disruption as we compromised and made sure everything was running as planned between the both of us. Despite me and Deanna having had several other roles to be completing I felt we were able to carry out role as director sufficiently which helped us with production as we guided one another and Yasmin through their allocated roles and what we/they should be doing.
Deanna was the director of photography. We decided for her to have this role as it was the most suitable role for her due to Lilian directing and me acting she was left to operate the camera and decide on the various shots included. The role and jobs of the director of photography included looking at both our filming schedule and group storyboard to assist her in what specific shots to film and carry out, this also guides the actors in making them aware of what they need to be doing and portraying in the certain shots. Deanna will be in charge of the filming taking place in the forest and also the filming underwater in the swimming pool, this means she must decide on what shots will look best and suit our narrative most appropriately. I felt that Deanna completed this role perfectly by providing us with all the footage we needed at all the right angles and shots. She was able to operate the camera with no issues and was also patient with the actors when having to repeat shots that had gone wrong. When filming the underwater scene Deanna was able to film great shots at hard angles to capture with an underwater camera she was unfamiliar with. By Deanna carrying out this role it helped us with production massively as we got masses of good footage for us to work, edit, and perfect on.
It was also decided on that Deanna would be carrying out the role of the main editor. This leaves her in charge of all of our footage, with the assistance of me and Lilian. We thought this was suitable as Deanna has the basic understanding of the final cut c pro editing software being used as she edited and put together our preliminary task. We therefore thought Deanna would be able to familiarise herself with the software faster than me and Lilian could, leaving us to complete our opening scene by the deadline given. However, when it came down to editing I ended up taking on the role as main editor as I very quickly familiarized myself with the software with few complications. This therefore meant that we were able to edit everything at a faster pace then expected and whilst doing so Deanna and Lilian gave me their opinions on what they thought looked good and what they didn't like meaning we all contributed in this specific role which was helpful in producing our final piece.
Overall, the allocation of roles to each of us in the group helped speed up the process of both the filming and the editing and guided us in what to do without any confusion. I felt that we all worked hard on the roles given to us in making sure our opening scene turned out as planned and expected. The only thing I wish we would have done differently was make sure all our group were present during the filming as this would have equalled out our roles as some of us had too much to do at some points. Excluding that all roles were completed how we wanted them to be and turned out to be a success in our eyes.
