A level media coursework: Production

Final Piece

After weeks of research, planning and editing every article included in the blog, we finally reached our final product- X. Our thriller opening had a variety of versions and although isn’t as long as hoped for, still portrays all the skills and techniques we have adapted over the course.

Pre-production

Using GIMP I created a poster for our film. I wanted to tackle this challenge using Photoshop this software is really easy to install on a standard ‘hp’ laptop and the soft where is fairly easy to use. The poster will be used for advertising on billboards, websites, and newspapers, furthermore generally as a poster around major cities. I made false press reviews to show how an authentic version would have used them to their full advantage to gain interest and potential viewers. My aim with the poster was to focus the attention on the name and the main protagonist, however leaving most of the films concepts to imagination; I didn’t want to give too much away because the unknown is a great USP within thriller films.

I also created a Facebook page for our film, which is what a lot of modern day films are increasingly getting involved in. They can engage targeted demographics and promote to really everyone even those who do not necessarily ever consider a thriller. Having a Facebook page is useful for posting updates and involving fans in the process of production and distribution. They can interact with us easily and see what’s going on.

Using social network also helps spread the word about the film a lot quicker, hashtags, retweets and shares can help get the updates out there with little effort and no money cost.

Production

Lighting and cinematography

The lighting and cinematography can have a huge impact and therefore can ultimately control the audience’s reactions. Thrillers mostly use chiaroscuro lighting; this is an effect of contrasted light and shadow. This in turn makes the audience feel uneasy as they are not aware of the true intentions of the character, they may have a darker side to them. We tried to achieve an element of this in our final piece; we chose to film our opening credits at 6pm, after sunset in the winter by using the natural lighting/ lack of to establish a sinister atmosphere in the scenes. The only artificial lights we used were the street lights which can be seen during the alley way scene and a torch to create some light on the character in the park setting. This is due to the fact that because it was so dark we weren’t able to capture aspects such as facial expressions and it was hard to establish certain objects such as the rocking horse. This spotlight worked in our favour as it ultimately added to the eerie effect we were aiming for. We felt it was best to film in the dark as many people associate darkness with fear; we used low key lighting throughout as it adds to the dramatic feel and the fear of the unknown.

Here is an example of how we tried to accomplish this:

Image editing below

The editing software we chose to use was iMovie this was due to the fact that the application was easy to use and understand. I chose to repeat the shot of the out-of-focus lights in between the action. Are opening credits were shown over this shot, this decision was made since we did not want the credits to distract the audience from the essential action on screen. Another reason we chose to repeatedly show this shot throughout was to build suspense and tension from the beginning so that we could build up to a dramatic climax. Another editing technique we used to build suspense was the use of the transitions: cross blur and fade to black. However, we had an issue with these transitions because we would have preferred the transitions to be extended as this would have increased the tension even more. The issue was the software was not allowing us to extend the transitions to any longer than 1 second.

We used continuity editing throughout and edited so that it was in chronological order for it to make sense for the audience and added to the realism of the film. An example of this we used was a eyeline match shot of the phone and receiving the text messages. Another example we used was an establishing shot of the park to clearly show location and fit with the storyline. Additionally the shot durations were used to reflect the context as it adds to the intensity of the film.

As you can see in the picture below this is how we edited it using the iMovie software.

Sound editing

Even though the natural diegetic sounds, captured when filming, were evidently present, they were not at a loud volume so that the audience could vividly hear. Therefore as said before we chose a few natural sounding clips from a website that matched the action on screen to emphasis and accentuate which included; footsteps, creaking of the rocking horse and the swings. These needed to be highlighted as they were key elements of suspense and can add to forming fear. We chose the ambient and diegetic sound in the background which had an eerie effect. Finding the most suitable sounds was difficult and took a lot of experimenting with a range of background music clips to fit best with the bustle. Furthermore finding the correct length of a sound clip to download and use. After much experimentation I finally found one that fit appropriately over the opening film we have constructed. As well as experimenting with the sounds for the background, I also had to experiment with the sound clip to use at the end of our film to build the uneasy atmosphere and suspense towards the final moment screening the "X". Before choosing the sound for the ending of the film, I tested a few other diegetic sound clips; however, these were rejected due to the crescendo not gradually increasing till the climax. Another difficult task I was faced with was making sure the pace and timings of the sound matched the activity perfect try on screen. I had to adjust the speed of the sound clips many times until it fit completely.

Post-production

We scripted together a short mock interview that may have taken place between director and actor. Beth has been named on the thriller opening as the director and I have been named as the leading actress, Sophie was behind the camera again for this short mock interview.

https://youtu.be/D-MDzTmf80o