Reverse Entertainment's Blog

Reverse ENTERTAINMENT

PRESENTS

Social 25

The Group Blog The group

Lychelle – Editor

Marium – Producer

Mohammed – Cinematographer Stefan - Director

Preliminary Activity• For our preliminary activity we had to demonstrate our knowledge of the 180 rule when filming and

our use of shot reverse shots and continuity editing . It gave my group a real understanding of the techniques we would need to use when it came to filming and editing our thriller opening.

• The role I had while doing the preliminary activity was editor as editor I guided the group and advised them to how to shoot the sequence to make it easier to edit. I also made sure the cinematographer left at least a 3 second pause at the end of each clip to also make it easier for me to edit.

I firstly created the storyboard we used this to assist us when filming and to help filming flow properly

After doing the storyboard we were given cameras to film, however when filming we did not use it directly, we only referred to it as we were going along. Therefore our final preliminary is different from our initial storyboard.

The filming came to an end, as my role was editor I had to start editing the different shots together to make our final piece for the preliminary activity. We then put our preliminary o YouTube to get feedback.

Link to preliminary

As editor i had to consider a number of things when editing. I gained a good understanding of the skills needed when editing videos and it also gave me good practice for when it came to editing my final piece for the thriller activity.

• The final product for my preliminary turned out very well I think we showed our understanding of the 180 rule and an understanding of the use of shot reverse shot well as shown in these pictures.

• The shots we used at the beginning was an long shot we done this to show the area in which we filmed

• We also used a two shot in our preliminary to show that there were only two main characters in our story

Preliminary Activity

When filming our thriller opening sequence I used the feedback from our preliminary from my friends on Facebook, to make sure the same mistakes did not happen. mistakes such as shaky camera work and a closer look on continuity editing was not overlooked when filming our work.

This really helped as I then understood that more continuity editing would of made my preliminary more realistic

Feedback on our Preliminary Activity

For example here

And here

• From doing the preliminary I have learnt that being organised and having a clear idea of what to shoot before you shoot is key to having a successful shoot. While shooting the preliminary we did not have a shot list with us so we found it hard to quickly decide what we should shoot next. Also that time is very limited when filming. I learnt that by having a time schedule, filming would flow much quicker.

• I used final cut pro to edit together the preliminary activity, as editor It was the first time I had used this program so I had to learn the basic controls very quickly with the help of my teacher. As I started to play around with the program I started to learn how to add effects and more sophisticated titles witch helped me when It came to edit my thriller film overall I think I could of used the program more effectively if I had more time to get to know how to use it more.

example

What I learnt

• To edit Social 25 I used ‘Final cut pro’ I found the program relatively hard at first as I had never used an apple laptop before, but as I used the program more I found it easier. I also used a Mac program called garage band I used this program to add sound effects to our thriller, I found this program relatively easy to use as I have used music making software like this before.

• To help my group along with our task we used Facebook YouTube and for our blog we used Wordpress. Facebook helped with research and planning as it helped promote our video and getting allot of feedback. Also we could readily ask questions about what people would like to see in an urban thriller. We also used Facebook to recruit actors for our film, and organise meeting places and times. Another thing that helped with research and planning was the BLOG. The blog aloud us to keep an accurate record of what we were doing on each day of production and preparation. Also we was able to get ideas from the feedback about our preparation which helped us with production.

• We used YouTube to post and promote our thriller video this proved successful as allot of people used YouTube and have accounts so would leave comments for us about our film, this proved helpful for our evaluation.

• Overall I feel I used the technology well, I updated the groups blog regularly. I also feel I used final cut well although if I had more time I would of used it more effectively and efficiently .

• I think if our group had the use of professional lighting and sound, the final edit of our video would be of much better quality, also my first choice of editing software “Sony Vegas” was not used as it was not practical and cost too much money to buy . If I did have this software I feel our video would have been of much better quality.

Technology

• Seven

• Memento

• Last house on the left

• The Decent

• Signs

Thriller films that have influenced Social 25

• The conventions used in this opening are:

• extreme close ups

• Dark claustrophobic settings

• Heavy Base tense music

• Fast paced editing

• Black outs

• What i liked most about this opening is the fact that It gave away the characters motives without using dialogue or showing the characters face, also the use of music as it had I heavy beat and long drones

Form this extract I decided to use• Black outs

• Fast paced editing

• Heavy base music

• Extreme close ups

• Dark claustrophobic settings

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Our thriller opening is a series of different shots put together. We decided to use over the shoulder shots to build tension throughout the extract.

We decided as a group not to show the killers face to build a sense of suspense

We also decided to use young people as we knew this would appeal to our target market

Thriller Opening Background Information

Thriller Opening Background Information

We also decided to use a bits were the sequence goes blank between shots as editor I decided to do this to build suspense and tension.

We decided to film in the wood because we used the thriller convention of using a claustrophobic setting to give a sense of someone feeling trapped and frightened, we also used handy cam shots to show this.

It also features tense music at different parts throughout

We decided to film in different unusual areas such a subway (recently show on Eastenders) as subways usually are usually associated with bad things

• We posted and advertised our group on Facebook and asked people to answer this questionnaire:

• Thriller questionnaire

• As a group we were given 10 questions and asked to make up 5 more questions about people going to cinemas. the showed a pattern. Most participants between the age 16-18 like going to watch thriller films at the cinema, but a small percentage showed that they would rather prefer to watch it at home. participants aged 25 and older liked watching films at home on DVD rather than going to the cinema it also showed that male over 25 preferred to watch action films rather than thriller films. Other conclusions we have made from the questionnaire is that men prefer to watch thriller films than women, women like to watch romantic comedy films rather than thriller films.

• from the analysis of the questionnaire we chose our target audience as males and females aged between 16-25 as they are most likely to go and watch the film.

Because of this We decided to rate our film

Target Audience

• Social 25 appeals to our audience of British 16-25 year Old's as it features teenagers all aged between 16-17, also because the main character is a 17 year old male.

• Our film would also appeal to our target audience as the sound track uses a heavy base, popular with young people at this time.

• The theme in social 25 is violence this directly appeals to our target audience as most young people prefer to see violent films rather than non violent ones.

• Social 25 is set in a uniquely British setting(an urban forest area) this would appeal to our target audience as they would be able to relate to what is on screen.

• I feel our idea for Social 25 is unique as thriller films do not usually include young teenagers being stalked on Facebook which eventually leads to them being killed

Our thriller would be released in the cinema, it would be released during the summer holidays as teenagers would most likely to go see it as they would be off school and have money readily available to them. I feel Social 25 would best be distributed by Revolver Entertainment as they have already successfully distributed films such as Kidulthood adulthood and most recently Anuvahood (which is an urban comedy) which all are urban thrillers set in London and appeal to our target audience. Presents

Audience appeal

• Fast Paced Edits

• Dark secluded and claustrophobic settings

• Tense/Heavy base music

• Creation of suspense by concealing characters

• Plot revolves around crime.

• Black outs

• Extreme close ups

How we met our thriller conventions

I First started the production process by making a storyboard after we had a set idea of what we wanted to be in the sequence.

After I had made the storyboard we sat down as a group and discussed the things we wanted to change and the things we wanted to keep. This resulted in us changing the storyboard and producing a shot list.

It took us three days at first to film our thriller but due to technical difficulties (our files became corrupted) we had to reshoot. some of the shooting was delayed due to time management problems.

I then moved onto the editing stage of the production process, to do this I used ‘Final Cut Pro’ I edited the shots together and added the relevant music and effects.

example

Feedback made us reshoot

Production process

Audience feedbackRuff cut

From the feedback on our ruff cut we found that the audience did not like the fact that there was no sound and that the gaps between shots were too long.

Also because of the feedback we got saying it was too long we decided to cut some shot our from our final products such as the continuity shots in the subway. We also decided to shorten the handycam shots

• The music at the beginning set the tone for the rest of the sequence its dark and it echoes which makes it seem scary.

• The sequence starts off with the killer on the computer the camera slowly zooms in on that he is doing on the computer the music that is played on this clip is low and has a long drone.

• This long shot shows the group and establishes the theme that they are all young the music is loud and resembles a scrambled radio sound making the audience feel uneasy .

Final product analysis

Final product analysis • We diced to leave this shot without

music as we wanted to hear the actors screaming without the distraction of music.

• The handy cam shot used hear shows the killer searching through the forest for his victims. The music and the sound of the killers shaky footsteps show he doesn’t no were he is going and gives the viewer a sense of suspense .

• Throughout we synced the sound of the bangs in the music to the turns of the head of our actors this emphasises the fact that they have seen their killer .

Final product analysis • The music gets loud at this point

and we see a high angle shot of the killer cleaning his knife the fact that you cannot see his face heightens the anticipation of the viewer as they want to know his identity.

• The camera then slowly tilts down to see a dead body on the floor , the music is very loud and prominent at this point.

• The end credit links in with the theme as it looks like dripping blood.

Audience feedbackFINAL CUT

• In my role as editor I have learnt allot of new things. I learnt how to professionally edit videos, and I also have learnt how to use new software such as final cut pro and garage band.

• I learnt that shooting and editing films is much harder than it looks, there are allot of technical elements such as lighting sound and locations that you have to consider, all of these things plus a lack of professional equipment make shooting very difficult

• I think as the task went on I learnt allot and improved my skills allot. I progressed from not knowing allot about editing to knowing sufficient amount to be able to edit a 3 minute sequence

What have I learnt