Selecting Shots...

Over the course of filming shots that would be used for our draft and also our final film, we accumulated a variety of shots which all differed in terms of dialogue, lighting, speed and length. This meant we had a wide range of footage to choose from when selecting what we wanted to use.

It was during the editing process of our film when we looked through all our footage and decided what we wanted to use and what was not really relevant. 

We were able to rule out some shots immediately due to the quality of them not being very good, however, there were some shots which took a lot more decision to whether include them or not. We did find it quite challenging to find a range of shots which clearly reflected our narrative in under the two minute time limit. 

We experimented with all our shots during the editing process and overall, I feel like we chose the right range of shots which reflected our narrative well. 

Below are some photos of the shots we did not include in our final edit:

Changes & Improvements to 1st Draft/Edit

We were working alongside our initial story board to make our first draft, however, as we were fine editing and coming to stronger terms with the narrative we noticed that there were aspects we liked and also felt like that a few aspects needed to be changed. 

Strengths about 1st draft

• A range of shots used including: close ups, pans and low angles.
• Runs smoothly from start to finish.
• Clean dialogue, which provides an insight to the films narrative.
• There is an evident range in Mise-En-Scene used throughout. 

What needs to be improved

• In our draft, 'Title Here' is displayed rather than an actual title to our film, therefore, we need to come up with a title for our thriller film.
• The beginning shots (close ups/pans) are held for slightly too long. I think that the shots should only last for around 3 seconds each to conform to the conventions of the fast paced nature of a thriller film. 
• I feel like we should continue our sound track to underscore the dialogue, as there are some slightly awkward pauses between speech which is silent. Having the sound track underscore the dialogue would also add tension to the conversation and provide a sense of anxiousness. 
• There is a continuity error in the last shot our our draft; the door is shown being closed in the close up shot, however, in the long shot of myself & Hannah outside, the garage door is shown to be open. 

These improvements can be made when we visit the college again, on our several planned visits to edit and produce a final version of our film. Overall, we were happy with what we produced a a draft but looking at what needs to be improved, we feel like our final edit will be much better. 

Before we visit the college again, we also need to discuss and research ideas for the title of our film in order to be able to add all our titles such as, edited by and directed by in the opening of our film.

1st Draft of Film

Below is the first draft/first attempt at editing and putting together our thriller film. 

Group Roles...

To ensure we are successful in making our film we decided we needed to allocate definite roles for each person in our group.

Director: Caitlin Elward                     

Editor: Josh East

Producers: Hannah Martin & Jasmine Greene

Even though these are our individual roles, we will all be working to produce the story board and script together.

We decided that Caitlin would be the perfect person for the role of the director as she had a very clear idea of where she wanted the film to go and was also very assertive; therefore meaning, that she would be able to successfully tell the actors what she wanted them to do.

I was the editor for our thriller opening, this was mainly due to because I had some experience in using editing software in the past but I was keen to let my experience grow and learn more about the editing process as a whole.

Hannah & Jasmine both took on the role of producers for our film, we all thought this was the best idea as they are both very organised people who could easily co-ordinate everyone and make sure we all knew what we were filming on what date. Jasmine & Hannah were responsible for creating the filming schedules which we used to see what we were filming , on what date and what time.

Getting permission to use music...

SONG: FRANKIE MILLER - JEALOUSY

Getting permission to use our 2nd track proved to be much more challenging than getting permission for the first. We tried numerous points of contact but failed to get a reply, this was unfortunate however, we do hope for a reply soon. If any issues arise when we upload of film onto YouTube with the music content we have proof that we have tried to gain permission throughout ways on contact.

Jazz tried to email and use Facebook as a point of contact but we have yet to receive a reply on either.

Getting Permission to use music...

MUSIC: THRILLER OPENING -G321

As one of the sound tracks we are using in our film is on YouTube, I decided to contact the uploader to ask if it would be okay for us to use the track in our film due to copyright issues.I had a quick response and we are very happy with the answer!

Music...

From research into thriller openings we decided as a class that the music used can really make a difference to the feeling of the film. I also thought that the correct music can help the narrative become clearer and tie in all the elements that are conventional of a film within the genre of thriller.

For the very opening of the film we decided to use the song 'Jealousy' by 'Frankie Miller'.

The main reason for choosing this song was because of the lyrics. When we listened to them we immediately thought about how it links to our narrative. The lyrics reflect how there is a sense of 'jealousy' between two people and how one person feels guilty, "I blame you but it's really me". We wanted to choose a song which wasn't very stereotypical of a thriller as we wanted it to contrast with what was going to follow, therefore, this song was perfect as the lyrics matched the narrative making this song feel more eerie and sinister.

In our film Hannah was jealous of Josh (me) & Jazz's relationship leading to a terrible ending for Jazz after Hannah and Josh's plan works to get rid of her. Therefore, the 'Jealousy' song is played just before the audience would start to notice this so they would be able to infer that the plot is based around 'Jealousy'.

When the audience starts seeing what's happened to Jazz we thought we needed different music as the mood would've changed since the start. Therefore, the second track we decided to use was rather typical and conventional of a thriller film.