Editing

I have now started the editing of my opening sequence and so far it has gone really well, apart from the first time I did edit, in the end it didn't save so I had to start all over again. When I did it the second time round, starting all over again, I managed to think of a lot more ideas and chose some effective transitions between shots of the victims etc. I also listened to some music and sound effects that was available for me to use so next time I do my editing I will start to incorporate some of this. However, what I did do was add some effects to a lot of the shots like the pictures of the victims are in a black and white effect and they are all split up with the credits splitting each picture up. I think this went really well and it would have been better if I had more time to do it then and there and if I had a bit more practice on the mac's but I soon learnt how to use it.

Filming

The last time any filming was done of shots like the ring being on Nathan's hand as he is going about during everyday life were taken, although I was absent from this lesson. It would have been good if I was actually there to help but the shot only needed to be of Nathan's hand clicking on a mouse and then the camera zooming in onto this, so I may not have actually been needed to do anything in particular. The shots however, are very effective and help the story progress. It would have been better if we stuck to the original storyline of having the tattoo on Nathan's wrist but it isn't actually needed in order for the story to keep going so it doesn't really matter, however it would have looked like this (how we planned it to look like on Nathan's wrist):

Filming

The second time we filmed, we managed to get a lot done. We went out onto the field which was full of snow and ice, and we filmed our main section that we really needed to do out there. We were able to get some red food colouring to pour onto the snow and ice which looked even more effective then we first thought and Casey acted as the victim on the floor. It would of been EBI the floor wasn't so cold for Casey to lie on as this did create a few problems, as he couldn't go a long time laying on the floor, but this couldn't be helped. We filmed Nathan dropping the ring in the blood, some shots of the snow and ice of the scenery like footprints and deserted benches etc. Shots of Nathan running were also made, as he runs away from the dead body and then down the main road, which we used a range of shots from zooming into him running off and a hand-held shot when he is actually running. WWW was the fact that we got a lot of shots available for us to use, including eerie shots of everything being deserted and quiet, full of ice and snow; the fact there was a lot of this also helped a lot as it made it look much more scarier.
Below is a picture of the snow surrounding the area we took some shots of:

Filming

We first started filming and so far it has gone ok; We got the pictures of the victims and then stuck them up on a board to look like a victims board. We then filmed this many times so then we had various shots of the board to chose out of, from zooming into each individual picture, to panning across to each one. However, we also tried to get a shot of a newspaper with the murders written about on it, but this did not look effective and didn't look real enough so we decided not to use this; This would be my EBI for this session of filming as it could of looked effective if we had made the newspaper and been more prepared for it. My WWW was the fact that we managed to get some pictures filmed and the amount of various shots we were able to take was very effective.

Questionnaire Answers

The answers of the questionnaire were quite similiar in many areas and many of them thought the same as one another. Below is a pie chart showing the favourite thriller answers:

This pie chart shows how Godfather and Sixth Sense are the most popular so, if by watching this and looking for conventions they use, our film could be as effective as these. The questionnaire also shows how many people felt that to be an effective thriller the use of close ups should be used as well. Dramatic thrillers and crime thrillers are also very popular due to how scary and they are and how they keep the viewers entertained. They also keep them asking questions- this came up a lot with everyone i asked as how a good thriller should have in its story. Death and flashbacks proved the most popular with how a good thriller should open and this will be taken into account for when we do our film; we have decided to include a death and a flashback to this death. This questionnaire has helped us to think of many more ideas to put in our opening sequence and how to make it even more effective so more people would want to watch it.

Questionnaire

I made a questionnaire in order to find out what different people think about thrillers and its conventions. I found out a lot from the different age groups I asked and I found a trending topic amongst the answers from them all. An example of one of my questionnaire is below:

The questions asked were:

1. What is your age?

2. Are you male or female?

3. What is your favourite thriller?

4. Why?

5. What shot types do you expect to see? choose 2 of the following:

Close ups, extreme close ups, long shots, mid shots, low angle, high angle

6. What type of thriller film do you enjoy most?

Gangster, Crime, Physiological, Action, Dramatic

7. What do you look for in terms of story with a thriller? e.g. twists, questions etc.

8. How do you think a good thriller should open?

Crime, death, everyday life, flashback, something unknown happening, images, other

Titles

For opening titles, the names of the people involved like the actors, director etc will appear right at the beginning just after the company and company logo of who made the film is shown. The distributor of the film gets a mention firstly and then after this the names of everyone else involved makes its way through. In thrillers there are mainly two types of titles that they stereotypically use which include either the titles being over a black screen and slowly coming up to create an eerie, strange atmosphere or they use it over pictures and hints to what the story will progress into. Some examples of these titles that would be used could be:

A '(name of company)' production, Directed by...., starring..., music by..., edited by..., written by...

For my own titles, I decided to use all of the specific titles mentioned above, using mine, Casey's and Nathan's names, changing them around so each person does something different. I also used the title at the end of the whole film instead of usually putting them at the front with the rest of the titles:

Casting

In our opening sequence we need a murderer, one clear victim that you actually see and then a few people to have pictures of them, posing as the victims he has already killed before. The murderer and the boy who is the victim focused on will be played by Nathan and Casey because this is easier for us to film as we can rely on them as it is their film too. They both know exactly what the story is as well so can play the characters exactly the way it needs to be and they also know the story well as they helped make it up. They are the best two to play the main characters in this opening sequence. The pictures of the victims will be me and people from our media class already as they will be around at the same time as us, and are not needed for anything major; only to take a picture that will appear on the screen when the titles come up right at the beginning.

Shooting Schedule

A shooting schedule is needed when actually filming the opening sequence of our film. It allows all of the people in our group to be there in order to film and it keeps shooting the film organised and so everyone knows what they are doing and when. It also helps the making of the film go smoother as then you know if all of the shots are in it or not. It helps to know what props, costumes, locations and cast are needed at what time so everything can be there and with the correct things in order for it all to appear in the film.

Our shooting schedule looks like this: