Audience Feedback

We decided to show our clip to who we feel would be our target audience, we showed the clip to 15 people, ages ranging from 16 - 22, all ages within our target audience. Our clip received mixed feedback from the viewers. Some said the clip was 'realistic and actually believable' and we kept to the conventions of a thriller. It appealed to them and they felt the suspension that we built up through the clip kept it interesting and exciting.
Whilst others commented on the fact the clip had no dialogue, and they found they got a bit confused. They also said the murdered victim didnt look as realistic as possible and gave the clip away a bit.
However, we felt the clip as a whole though was a success, out of the 15 people we showed it to, 12 said they would go and see that film in the cinema whilst 13 out of the 15 said they would more than likely purchase the film on DVD at a later date.
The audience said they liked our choice of actress for our murder victim, they said she played the part well and fitted the role of the vulnerable 'damsel in distress'. They commented on the murderers costume and added that it was very well chosen, they felt the black was very suitable and that it was very similar to other thrillers in that sense. Another thing our audience brought up was our variety of shots, they agreed that each shot had a different effect and they fitted in well with the genre.
We were also told that although the clip was good, it seemed fairly bright in the clip and this is unlike most other thrillers, this is true but we also had no choice and had to film on the bright days to get the filming done.

Our thriller and our Preliminary task is on a hard disc and will be available for moderation.

Maria Rostkowska

Evaluation Activity 7

What have we learnt from our preliminary clip to our final product:

For our preliminary task, we had to demonstrate that we could use the 180 degree rule, shot/reverse shot, and a match on action shot and then edit the footage to create the final 30 second preliminary clip.

There were many aims and objectives we tried to achieve whilst doing the preliminary task. It was so we could get used to working with the cameras, undertanding how to use them and then edit our footage on the editing software, then to put the finished clip onto a disc, the preliminary task was also useful because it helped us discover techniques and ideas for our final thriller clip later on in the course.

After filming the preliminary, it was discovered that filming, holding the camera ourselves wasn't a good idea and found it was best to use the tripod for most shots, apart from one off shots, where the camera is hand held to give the effect you're seeing through the eyes of our character. We also discovered what shots gave what affect. We varied the shots used, as to keep the audience interested and engaged in the clip. We used high angle shots to establish power and importance of certain characters but we also used low angle shots to emphasise the vulnerability of other characters.

Considering we were limited to what shots we could take, due to the location where we filmed, we felt we used as many angles as we could and varied the shots where possible. We feel that we learned a lot from our preliminary about use of the camera. Different shots we could use, editing software that could help us add effects. Also we discovered how important it is to make sure the light setting matches the genre, filming in the day made it difficult to add suspense to some of our shots but by filming in a dark room, we were satisifed with the end clip.

Maria Rostkowska

Evaluation Activity 6

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The Video Camera

We used the video camera to shoot all of our footage and store it on a tape to later upload to the computers. We could also it play back which allowed us to know whether we needed to re-film some parts on the day, rather than having to go back to the location at a later date. We also frequently used the charger to ensure that we would have enough battery to last throughout filming and uploading.

The Tripod

During filming, the tripod enabled us to achieve straight angles using the video camera and we could also get steady movements such as panning and titing the camera. We could also adjust the height in order to gain our preffered shot.

Facebook

We used facebook to communicate with eachother and to discuss arrangements for filming and blogs that needed to be completed, we also used it to discuss ideas about our clips when we wern't in school, this made us bettter organised because instead of only making arrangements face to face we were able to plan ahead.

IPhone

We used Roberta's iphone to take pictures that we needed for our clip, we then uploaded them to the computer and printed them for use in our film, aswell as upoading them to blogger to illustrate certain blogs.

Georgia Day & Maria Rostkowska

Evaluation Activity 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

When thinking about how we would promote and advertise our movie to attract our target audience, we considered possibilities of ways we would advertise the movie.

Our target audience was 16-24 year olds. We found that it was usually teenagers and young adults who when visiting the cinema want to see films of the ‘thriller’ genre. So we mainly wanted our movie to appeal to them. We also wanted to advertise it well for when it comes out on ‘DVD’ because chances are it will be equally or even more popular.

We decided to use dark colours on our poster and have mist across the poster, this gives it the eerie affect and this will attract the audience into looking at the poster closer and getting their attention. For inspiration we used posters from films like ‘Twilight SAGA, New Moon’ and ‘Cape Fear’. Both posters used dark eerie scenery and had used low key lighting. All of these features were ways of attracting the right target audience. We wanted to attract the same type of audience that the ‘cape fear’ movie attracted because our movies were alike in certain ways. We also agreed we would put advertisements in magazines that young teenagers are commonly known to read like ‘OK’ magazine ‘Kerrang’ and ‘HEAT’.




We also considered the likeliness that we would advertise on television, we would use eerie music like the music used from the Alton Towers advertisement for the ride ’13’.




We kept the advertisements in keeping with the conventions of a thriller. We made the advertisements creepy and use dark images from our clip; this teases the audience and gets them intrigues in the film. We also discussed using slow motion to build up the tension. This all adds to the convention of a thriller and this would help us to attract our target audience.

Maria Rostkowska

Evaluation Activity 4

Our target audience was 16-24 year olds. We found that it was usually teenagers and young adults who when visiting the cinema want to see films of the ‘thriller’ genre. So we mainly wanted our movie to appeal to them. We also wanted to advertise it well for when it comes out on ‘DVD’ because chances are it will be equally or even more popular.
Our target audience would be mostly students. They would be into the latest music and films. Shop and wear the latest fashions, all in high street as they are students they would not be able to afford the most expensive goods.
They would watch our film as it would be the newest film to hit cinemas they would want to fit in and be the first to see it so they didn’t miss out

Georgia Day

Evaluation activity 3

A production company produces films and is responsible for the development and physical production. In earlier research we looked at various film institutions that could produce our film. We decided after our initial research that we would choose Universal pictures. Universal has produced many thriller films over the years including Psycho and cape fear.

In our title sequence we showcased the actor’s names in order of the way they appear on screen. We also showcased the name of the 'camera man' and director (Maria Rostkowska) but we showed her name after the actor's because it is traditionally the actor's who are more impotant to the viewers and therefore their names come up first, none the less, the 'camera man' and director are also important to the film, and are usually displayed when the ret of the credits appear. We also included the title of the film again before the cliff-hanger at the end, allowing the full production credits to roll in the main title sequence that would follow the cliff-hanger.Universal has shown a tendency in the past to release new stand alone films such as Cape Fear and Psycho. It is because of this that we chose Universal to produce and release our film as they have experience in dealing with new upcoming films, with the potential for sequels based on the success of the film.

When discussing where we would find the financial backing for a film such as ours, we looked at possible sponsers, people within the film/media industry that would want to invest in the project. However if we wanted to make the film a big success, we thought it would be much better finding a company like Universal Studios, then presenting our script to them and trying to get them to buy the script and produce the film with a decent budget.

Georgia Day and Maria Rostkowska

Evaluation activity 2

I decided to compare our main heroine to Drew Barrymore who plays Casey in the film ‘Scream’. I thought our characters were very similar they both challenged the ‘norm’ of thrillers and had a woman as the leading role. The characters also had the same type of costume both were wearing jackets with shirts buttoned all the way to the top making them appear more vulnerable and insecure, we however opted for a more girly look and choose purple colours where they chose to have ‘Casey’ in white to make her appear innocent.
The role in the film they played was both quite similar they both played damsels in distress however; ‘Casey’ was in fact trapped whereas our character was free but being followed. However they were both being stalked by their killers.

Georgia Day

Evaluation Activity 1

The title of the film:
The title of our film is displayed in the first frame. We used the font Orator STD to give the spaced out deranged look. The title of our film is ‘The Watching’. Our font is also just one colour, white, to make it stand out more and make it more eye-catching. This style of font is very common among the thriller genre. Such as the cape fear title
We used this title to influence our decision on the design of our title as cape fear also has the same spaced out typography and the bold one coloured scheme.

We came up with the title of the film based on the setting of our thriller as it was about a girl being stalked we finally decided on the name 'The Watching'.

Special FX:
We did not use any special FX in our film apart from fading to black and our special FX on the poster. We made the colours sharper and brighter to make it give a disorientated feel.

How characters are introduced:
Our characters are introduced one by one the first character to be introduced is Georgia who plays the girl this shot is seen in frame 3. You straight away see her dead with blood running down her face. This automatically gives the audience the impression they are watching a thriller. Roberta is the second character to be introduced she comes in from off shot and an over the shoulder shot this is because you never see her face as she is the murderer and we want to create an air of suspense.

Story and how the opening sets it up:
The story line of our thriller is a girl being followed then killed by her stalker. The opening to our thriller sets this up by first introducing the girl with a close up of her dead. There is then a shot of her killer looking at pictures he has collected of her showing his obsession with the girl.

Genre and how the opening suggests it:
Our genre for our thriller is psychological thriller as we never know who the murderer is and this is shown in our opening as the murderer comes into shot from behind we do not see the killers face. It is also suggested from the shot of the girl dead we do not know how she died which starts to get the audience thinking.

Settings and Location:

We decided to base our thriller in the forest outside shenfield high school. As a comon stereotypical trait of thrillers is that it is based in a deserted area. As the girl is getting ready the setting in her room is colour coded pink to make her seem more innocent and childlike.

Costumes and Props:

The only prop used was the knife to kill the girl with. We used a knife as our choosen weapon as it is seen widely in most thrillers. Our costume for the girl chosen was a purple shirt to make the character seem more girly and also the top button was done up to make her seem insecure and scared. The murderer was dressed all in black and with a hood to make him seem more mysterious.

Georgia Day

Editing our Thriller

Once we had finished filming our thriller, we decided to start the editing straight , so there wasn’t a big rush at the end to finish and edit an opening thriller sequence. The main problem we had was how to create the scream affect at the beggining of our thriller we wanted a black screen and a sound of Georgia screaming over the top however after being told we could not do this on the editing programme pinnacle we decided to scrap the idea. We all decided to edit at one time to put our ideas together to get the best out of the thriller. Georgia was especially the best at editing, knew a lot about it and did most of it. The other problems that we confronted was that the editing suite was sometimes busy so we couldn’t always edit when it was suitable for us, so we would go at allocated times or book the omputer for our use. To start editing we put the camera on the dock, which was connected to the computer and uploaded the footage to the editing software. The software we used was Pinnacle. We filmed each scene a few times so we could choose the best shot for this, these either had to be ‘cut’ because they where too long or if it didnt fit to flow into the next shot. The ambient sound in the background as we were filming such as birds singing we didnt want so we had to edit that noise so you could hear our music. Before we even started to film we didn’t want to have any dialogue, only screaming was involved. We finally had to add the usic in we wanted as we could not use the choosen theme song we wanted from the film 13 as that would be copyright. In stead we had to find another pice of music to use. In the end we decided on pice that was creepy and bulided suspence until the end. Georgia then had to edit the music to make it louder towards the end when the suspence was building and quiter when our character was talking.

Georgia Day