Ready Or Not - Final Cut

Ready or Not Final edit from Hannah Boardman on Vimeo.

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 7: Editing and Camerawork

I feel that I have learnt a lot since the preliminary task and that this has shown through in the final production.

The first thing we learnt whilst filming the Preliminary Task and perhaps the most important is the variety of shots needed, from Close-ups to Long Shot, not to mention the Establishing Shot.

 Here is the Establishing Shot for our Preliminary Production:

This variety of shots is vital in order to keep the viewer interested as one long shot would bore the viewer, it is also handy if mistakes are made because you only need to retake one 5 second long clip rather than the whole conversation. But also it is useful for using Extreme Close-ups on something important that you don't want the viewer to miss, we didn't need to use one of these in our Preliminary Production however we did in the Thriller Opening to emphasise the importance of the keys on the hook which later disappear.

In the Preliminary Production we used an extreme Close up at the end of the clip to emphasise intimacy within what the character was saying but to also show that what she said was very important.

The preliminary task allowed us to explore different camera shots and techniques I had never used before. We were taught how to create a perfect match on action edit to show the movement of a person, for example, we used a match on action of someone walking through a door:

We used this technique a few times in our final production, when Holly was panicking about the intruder and was running around the house into different rooms. I think this was very effective because made our film very fast moving and created tension for viewers. I also feel that it shows how much we have developed our skills since the beginning of the year.

We also learnt about the 180 degree rule whilst doing the preliminary task; we practised this rule by filming a conversation between two people on the phone. The camera was always kept on the right hand side of the actors, within the 180 degrees. This is important because if the rule is broken it can be very disorientating for the viewer and won’t make sense causing confusion. However we didn't need this technique in our actual opening because we only had one actor.

Editing the Preliminary Task enabled me to get used to the software I would be using, Pinnacle, here I learnt the basics of how to cut and create a sound bridge but I also learnt how to add titles, full screen and not full screen. This was important for our Thriller Opening as we had to add our candidate names and numbers as well as create a Production Company Logo. 

My Preliminary task group realised that we had only filmed each clip once and say we weren't happy with one of the shots we had to use or cut it out so when it came to editing my thriller opening I learnt from this mistake by filming shots lots of times to make sure that we had at least one that was good enough.

As we filmed over a couple of days, we were wearing different clothes. This caused continuity errors and meant that we had to redo all the filming we had done on the first day and finish it all on the second day.

To prevent this when we were filming ‘Ready or Not’, we planned beforehand that we would allow enough time to  film everything we needed to in one day. This meant that everyone was wearing the same clothes and there were no continuity errors in our final production.

Here is an example of the continuity error within the Preliminary Task:

Since the preliminary task, we have also learnt the situations in which certain shots are commonly used such as close ups for emotion or to direct the audience to specific details whereas in the preliminary task when we were just using random camera angles. We can explain why we used different types of shots in our production. For example, we used a shot from inside the shed to show there was a presence and made sure it was slightly shaky so it looked like it was actually a point of view shot from another person. I think our understanding of camera angles and shots has grown a lot since we started learning about filming and editing at the start of the year. 

Overall I am very pleased with the final product even though there are many improvements that could be made if we did it again, for example I personally felt that there was a lack of tension in the middle of the production, however I think this was due to our choice of music but if we had chosen a louder and fast track then it wouldn't have fitted in with the opening of the movie. 

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 6: Equipment

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 4 & 5: Audiences

Ready or Not evaluation tasks from hcbrgsmedia

Audience Feedback

In order to gain feedback from our audience we put together a questionnaire which we gave to a few people who watched out opening. Here are the questions asked:

1. Gender:
2. Age:
3. What genres of film do you prefer?
4. What genre do you think our film opening was?
5. What gave you this impression?
6. Could you give a brief overview of the storyline of what you’ve seen?
7. If this was made into a full length film, would you watch it?
8. What was best about it?
9. What needed improving?

We gave our questionnaire to a range of people between the ages of 14 and 18. One of the most popular film genres was horror, and other answers included thriller, comedy and sci-fi.

Everyone identified the opening as being either a horror or a thriller. There were a number of answers given as to why people thought this, including:

• The background music and sound effects
• The font of the titles
• The events occurring in the film such as things disappearing and the dark figure appearing (the people who said similar to this thought the film was horror rather than thriller)

When asked for a brief overview, everyone who filled out the questionnaire seemed to generally understand what was going on throughout the opening. There seemed to be a little confusion over the idea of the knives disappearing, and two people didn’t realise that it was the intruder’s phone ringing near the end and not Holly’s. Most people also presumed Holly was killed after she was dragged from under the bed, however we planned that later in the film it would turn out that she was just kidnapped.

The majority of people said that if this was a full length film they would go and watch it, however there is a chance that there answers may have been slightly bias due to the fact that they we were there when they filled in the questionnaire and they wouldn’t want to offend us. We got 2 people who said they wouldn’t watch it, one of them was because they hated thriller/horror films. Everyone else was curious as to what had happened to Holly.

We also asked our viewers to tell us what they personally thought was the best part of our opening and they answered with the following:

• The suspense being built throughout the opening
• The cliff hanger ending
• There were lots of shots which made it look more professional and well thought out

We also asked for some thing that they thought could have been improved, answers included:

• The video quality
• The background music
• The lighting
• Some parts of the story could have been made more obvious

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 3: What kind of media institution might distribute our media product?

A production company is a company legally responsible for the physical production of new media, performing arts, film, radio or a television program. The company is also directly responsible for raising funds for the production. The production company can be either a small company or a larger one, selling its products to a film studio or presenting it at a theatrical venue, or, in my case of film and television, it may be the studio itself.

Some examples are:

The film distributor is the company or individual solely responsible for the marketing of a film. Because of the enormous amount of cost in money and time involved in distributing a movie, a distributor must feel confident that they can make a sufficient return on their investment. Having the backing of a major studio or a well known director or star can greatly improve the chances of securing a good distribution deal. Independent filmmakers often use film festivals as an opportunity to get the attention of distributors.

Our film would be a low budget film and therefore we would not easily find a distributor, A likely solution for low budget films would be to screen your film at a film festival, for example,  ‘Sundance’ from which you may receive distribution offers.

Another option would be the ‘British Film Institute’ who is keen to support UK distributors to help ensure that the best British and specialised films connect with a wide range of audiences across a range of platforms throughout the UK. They develop the export opportunities for British films by providing funding to promote them at major international festivals.

Two examples of Low Budget Films which have become majorly successful are, ‘The Blair Witch Project’ and ‘Paranormal Activity’ they are both self-financed, have an unknown cast and had no distribution deal prior to production, just like ours. The Blair Witch Project grossed over $300,000,000 worldwide and Paranormal Activity broke that record when the original budget was $15,000 and only $35,000 for The Blair Witch Project. This proves that with a good story, it is possible.

For our production we chose to use ‘Touchstone Pictures’ logo for the real production company as during our thriller research we found that they were involved with a lot of the movies we analysed such as, ‘Face Off’ and ‘Bringing Out The Dead’, then whilst researching Touchstone Pictures we found that it typically releases films that feature more mature themes and darker tones therefore we felt it fitted well with our film.

When creating our own production company logo we came up with the name, ‘Nebula Productions’ as we felt that we could manipulate this name in order to achieve a space theme with the font of the writing and add some space-like effects to create motion within the logo as we had found out whilst researching production companies that most of them had some motion within the logo. We also felt that the black colour involved with space would be great as a background to set the mood of the thriller by using white writing to show the binary oppositions found within the movie, eg. Good vs. Evil. 

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 2: How our characters represented particular social groups

Protagonists

Holly in our movie and Bella Swan in ‘Twilight’ are similar in the way that they go against Propp's character theory of the protagonist being 'girly' damsel in distress figure relying on a (male) hero to save her and instead they show a resourceful and independent character. They know what they want in life and won’t rest until they achieve it, in Bella’s case however that is to become a vampire whereas Holly’s would simply have been to finish college and go to university and get a job, until she is kidnapped.

Bella shows her independence at the beginning of the movie as she made the courageous decision to move to her father’s home, Holly shows her independence straight away by being home alone. Having strong, powerful women characters add a sense of diversity to the film instead of the usual weak female and this is becoming more and more popular for example, Bella in ‘Twilight’, Katniss in ‘The Hunger Games’ and Tris in ‘Divergent’.

Each of these women connotes their power through what they wear, they do not wear pretty dresses and skirts, and they tend to wear jeans or in some cases combat clothes which are more functional and action oriented. This is why we decided to dress Holly in a hooded jacket and army printed jeans.

We also decided to show Holly’s boyish character through the semiotics of her bedroom, which in actual fact is our friends brother's room, we decided to use this room for Holly because of the football themed layout and the blue wall, the colour blue is usually associated with boys whereas the colour pink is connected to girls and also only boys tend to be football fans and the fact that she is a fan of football further connotes her 'tomboyish' personality; it also suggests that she has a close relationship with her father as they would go and watch the matches together.

Villains

The Villain in our movie and the Villain in ‘Ils’ (Them) are quite similar in the way that they are both manipulative intruders who invade a house but remain unknown to the victims and the audience. We feel that this creates more suspense to the audience but also leaves them unsure throughout the movie which adds tension and is a common theme in thrillers.

In movies where you know the villain you may become to feel sympathetic towards them and understand why they are doing what they are doing whereas if you don’t know much about the villain they may seem more frightening, mysterious and powerful to the audience.

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 1: Directors Commentary

Directors Commentary from Rebecca Ainsworth on Vimeo.

Evaluation of the Shoot

We began our filming just after school on a Friday afternoon; we felt this was the best time because it was convenient because we were all already together and had all afternoon to film. Also, it meant that it would soon get darker which was perfect for creating the atmosphere for a thriller. We filmed in Hannah’s house because it is close by our sixth form and we needed a house to film in.

Our first establishing shot was perhaps the trickiest to shoot because of the constant passing cars which obstructed the camera’s view of the actor. 

We also felt the cars made the scene seem busy instead of the deserted surroundings we wanted however we managed to get a couple of good shots to choose from when editing, also whilst filming this shot we recorded the diegetic sound of the phone call to later edit onto the sound track which would create a better sound than if we were to film from far away.

 We then moved inside the house to film the rest of our footage. Filming inside the house went quite smoothly other than the first shot of in the hallway. 

The camera hadn't fully adjusted to the inside lighting yet which meant the shot was tinted red and you couldn't read the important writing on the key hooks very well which read ‘Remember tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life’. This was needed to foreshadow that she dies that day. However, we only noticed this when we were ready to start editing on the computer but we managed to resolve this by using the colour correct setting on Pinaccle and hopefull it has turned out much clearer. 

Overall, we think the shoot went well; we got all of our filming done in one day which prevented any continuity errors and we managed to film all of the footage we needed. We think that filming went quite smoothly as we worked well as a team with our actors which meant that they weren't afraid to give us feedback or constructive criticism.

Although we were very pleased with the footage, we feel like the ending could’ve been even more effective if we had created more tension in the previous shots throughout the opening. Also, our idea was to have the intruder’s phone go off in the same room as the girl and when we notice it’s not her phone ringing, we realise there must be someone else in the room. However, this didn't work as well as we thought it would as it didn't come across clearly enough to viewers, however we will get definite feedback on this when we show some of our friends for the evaluation questions. 

Ready Or Not - Story Board

Choices we had to make

Title ‘Ready Or Not’

Choosing the title of our film was quite difficult, we only decided on a name once we had edited the film. Some of the other film names we had come up with were, ‘Footsteps’, ‘Trapped’ or ‘Possession’. However we decided that ‘Ready Or Not’ fitted best as the opening scene is almost like a game of hide and seek between the protagonist and the villain. 

Production Company ‘Nebula Productions’

Our original thoughts for the Production company name was ‘Majestic Giraffe’, although we had come up with a good logo for this with a walking giraffe we felt that it was too comical for a thriller production and decided to change the name. After much discussion and brainstorming we came up with a more sophisticated name, ‘Nebula Productions’.

We felt that we could manipulate this name in order to achieve a space theme with the font of the writing and add some space-like effects. The darker colours in this logo set the mood of a thriller movie much better than our previous idea. 

Music

‘The Orphanage’ 

We got our music from http://www.purple-planet.com, we chose the song ‘The Orphanage’ in the Tense section as we felt it sounded nice as a sinister backing track without focusing too much on the music yet setting a ominous feeling to the movie. 

We then added 'Conspiracy and Danger' to certain parts of the movie to create tension when something out of the ordinary happens. We decided to use this for the deep bass notes which create an ominous tone it also reaches a very loud crescendo at the end with was perfect to fit in with the scream from Holly leaving the audience on a cliff hanger. 

Completing Your Blog

You have got a good amount of posts and info for your research Rebecca including links to the films you’ve analysed and pics in some posts.

You have got SOME useful planning info including pics of your cast /costumes/locations but you need some discussion of your choices, some evaluation of how your shoots went, analysis of your choice of titles, production Co. & logo and similar info about the music you used. You also need Storyboards.

By now ALL of this should be done and you should be working on your EVALUATIONS which MUST be completed and posted by the end of the holidays.

Cast, Location and Costume

Holly – Played by Holly Watson

Holly is a schoolgirl, which will initially make her appear vulnerable, however we also wanted her to have a tomboyish manner to try and indicate that she isn’t going to be a girly ‘princess’ character. She will wear:

• -          A red hoodie - to connote that she could be in danger
• -          Dark jeans with a camouflage pattern – to connote her tomboyish nature
• -          Black shoes
• -          Shoulder bag – to denote that she is a school girl

The Intruder – Played by Hannah Cocklin

The intruder remains anonymous through the whole of the opening to create mystery. They will wear

• -          Black pants – to connote their dark, evil nature
• -          Black coat/hoodie – to again connote their dark nature and also cover their head and face to make them more unknown and mysterious

Props

• -          Keys and key hook – Holly’s way in and out of the house, when these go missing and she is locked in we know she is trapped and in danger

• -          Knives – used to cut the cake so initially just a normal, everyday item. But Holly chooses to use it as a weapon when she is worried, to find her choice of protection has gone, and so have all the other knives

• -          Cake

• -          Mobile phone – used to indicate the presence of the intruder in the bedroom, when we discover it is in fact not this phone which is ringing, but somebody else’s (and Holly is supposed to be home alone)

Location

We chose Hannah’s house to film at. We filmed in:

 The kitchen – this is where the intruder initially tries to get in

  The Living room- where the first unnatural event occurs

The Hallway- where we see the first sighting of the intruder in the house

The bedroom- For the final shot, being dragged from under the bed

Outside – For the establishing shot

Script

EXT. WALK UP TO HOUSE - EVENING

One girl, HOLLY, is walking up the road to her house when her phone rings and she answers.

HOLLY

Hello… yeah alright. Let me ring you back in 5 minutes. See you.

Holly walks through gate and into her house.

INT. HOUSE - EVENING

INT. KITCHEN - EVENING

Holly goes straight into the kitchen to get some food. INTRUDER walks past window.

INT. LIVING ROOM - EVENING

Holly sits down on the sofa in the living room to eat her cake. Suddenly she hears a thud at the window and gets up to investigate. She looks out of the window to see the gate swinging shut but nobody there. She closes the curtains and sits down to carry on eating.

Holly is startled by the loud noise of the intruder trying to get through the back door. She gets up and runs into the kitchen. Panicking, she feels around for knife. Realising it has gone, she checks the kitchen for another knife, but they've all gone.

INT. HALLWAY – EVENING

Holly runs to do the front door to try and lock it, but finds the keys are gone. Instead she tries to get out, but somebody has already locked the door. She runs upstairs to hide.

INT. BEDROOM – EVENING

Holly hides under her bed in a panic. Suddenly she hears the sound of a mobile phone ringing.  

 HOLLY

Oh no, oh no… (whispering to herself)

She tries to grab her phone to turn it off, realising it is not her phone which is ringing. She tries to stay as quiet as possible, but is dragged out from under the bed by the intruder.

HOLLY

(Screams)