Question #7BY JACOB MAYUGA

IntroductionFrom our initial preliminary exercise to our final piece, I think I’ve learnt quite a lot about the overall production of an opening sequence and film in general. Main highlights include:

The use and importance of continuity editing and having shots that include; match on action, shot reverse shot, 180 degree rule etc.

The potential impact of the use of a specific score and sound effect. The importance of having a planned schedule and sticking with it. How certain shots could really effect and engage the audience into the scene. How certain editing techniques can really have an effect on the overall

atmosphere and mood of a scene. How special effects can really increase the overall quality of an opening

sequence.

Importance of Certain Shots andContinuity Editing

In the preliminary exercise we learned to really focused on continuity editing and making sure the scene flowed seamlessly that the different camera cuts where unnoticeable. We did this by including things like match on action shots like when she walks through the door in the video, it can be seen from two different angles.

Overall in some areas I think we definitely continued this specifically when it came to the close up shots of the tied up victim then cut to long shots. Also how it goes from a close up then straight to a POV shot of him looking up to show what he sees and continuing the continuity. Another example would be just before the jump scare when he looks to his left it immediately cuts to a POV shot where the camera pans at the same speed and height to give the effect that its his perspective and to really engage the audience in the jump scare.

Although throughout most of the opening we decided to fade to black then fade back in, ultimately ruining the continuity of the scene but we did this specifically to establish the overall mysterious atmosphere of the opening and set the mood as a whole.

Impacts of Sound In the preliminary exercise we had some trouble with the microphone of the camera which

meant that we didn’t record any sound for the first half of the video, although this was quite problematic we did manage to bypass it by using a score and having it play in the background when we edited the video. We ended up using quite a dramatic soundtrack to play along while the character walked through the corridors. Overall it set quite a serious mood and atmosphere for the whole scene and in a way foreshadowed that she would be giving quite a sad/serious message with the paper she was holding.

In our final piece the addition of a score again really effected the overall mood and tone of the scene. The eerie and quite monotone music really added to the mysterious and quite ominous atmosphere that we were trying to build. Overall it also made the scene a whole lot more scary and gave the opening a lot of quality.

Specially added with the sound effects like the girl laughing and footsteps, it really made the scene seem a lot more scarier and creepy. The same goes for the sudden loud noise at the end to really make the jump scare impacting.

Use of Special Effects Use of special effects wasn’t very apparent in our preliminary exercise as

we didn’t really have the time to add any but certainly for our final design we made it a priority.

Overall the special effects we used for the title credits really helped firstly to really establish the main themes and genre of the film but it also really gave our opening sequence a lot more quality.

I feel that in our preliminary exercise we learned that the shots on their own aren’t always enough to convey a certain atmosphere and mood so by adding this we further emphasised the horror aspect of our film with the use of blood splatters on the wall and red font for the names.

Uses of Certain Shots In our preliminary exercises we used a lot of close up shots and shot reverse

shots during the conversation to really show the characters emotions and facial expressions.

In our final we deeded to do the same sort of thing so that the audience could really engage with our main protagonist and in many ways feel empathy for him and overall focus on the blood and scar make up that was on him so they understood the sort of position he was in.

In the preliminary exercise we also learned how some very close up shots could really let is get the audience to primarily focus on a certain object or aspect of the Mis en Scene so in our opening we wanted to get the audience too focus on the protagonists' tied up bloody hands so we did an extreme close up of it.