Group Meetings

1. What is the purpose of carrying out your meetings?

The purpose of the meetings was to make sure that everyone in the group had the same view and idea for what we wanted for the thriller film.             

2. Do you think your group worked well together?
I believed that me and Rhiann worked very well together as we both had the same aim, which was to create the best possible film that we could and we were able to take the good points that we both thought of individually and connect them together.

Here are some images of the meetings document that we as a group created:

 

Final 2 Minute Opening Sequence

This is our final version of our 2 minute thriller clip.

Rough Cut

This is a rough cut of all of raw material that we used in our thriller film.

The footage before the flashback were our first option, but for the final one we decided to film it again and we used a different actress.

Practice Shot

This is one of our practice shots from our filming. This is from the beginning of the flashback where one of the characters walks up the hallway.

Planning the sound

Sound is a important part in a thriller clip because it adds suspense, can help to confuse and deceive the audience & keep their attention. If the sound editing is poor in a clip, then it can divert the audience's attention away from the film.

As a group, we have looked at many different sounds that we were thinking of including in our thriller clip. 
The first one that I decided to look at was a cello sound. It had a cello playing in it but it was done in a bumpy way, where it would miss one beat between each part. It sounds like a sinister heart beat and I felt this would be a good sound as the sinister, eerie part would make it more conventional for our thriller & the cello sound is a deep one that would fit into the flashback death scenes in our thriller.
The second sound that I looked at, was a piano one.
The last one I looked at was a sound clip of a man running and breathing heavily. This made me think about making our own sounds that we could add into our thriller once we are editing.

Opening Scene Narration

For our opening scene, we had to plan what the actors would say in it. This was because it would help us to plan our itinerary and make our filming for time efficient. 

The first scene where there is narration is in the flashback, where Charlotte is walking in and showing her friends, the board game. 
They say the following:
                                                                                                                                                                       
Olympia                                 - Charlotte, what's that you've got in your hands?

Jackie (younger Charlotte) - It's a game I just found.
                                                - I found it in my mum's cupboard

Olympia                                 - We should play

Natasha                                 - Why's it so important?

Jackie (younger Charlotte) - Because it's fun!
                                                                                                                                                                         
The next scene which has narration in it is when the girls are going to open the board game. The following is said:
                                                                                                                                                                    
Natasha                                - I've got no idea how to play this but I'm going to beat you guys.

All                                           - Oh, wow!
                                                                                                                                                                      
Once they have opened the box, all the girls are intrigued and interested by what's inside, which is why they all just make excited noises like the previous above.
The actors speak in the next couple of scenes, where 3 of the girls die on the board game. However, me and Rhiann did not plan what we wanted the actors to say in these scenes as we wanted them to be as realistic as possible and felt that they would be more natural if they said what they would normally say.

Planning the editing

Editing helps to create pace for the scene, which can add to the suspense or help create an illusion of danger. If there wasn’t any editing, you would just get the raw material of film that is filmed and this would cause the filming of the scenes to be more difficult as you wouldn’t be able to add or change the scene in any way. 

Editing Technique 1: Kuleshov Effect

This is when two shots are put together to give the audience a third meaning.

In this particular shot the audience will see someone holding the box in the present day and then the kuleshov editing technique will be used as the second shot will then begin the background will have changed but the hands and the box will be exactly the same as before in the first shot.

The reason we chose to use the kuleshov editing technique in this shot is that, the first shot is when the girl is holding the box in the present day, the second when she is holding it in the flashback when she was a teenager and the third meaning portrayed to the audience is that something has happened concerning the girl and the game adding emotional impact to the film, as this editing technique allows us not to have to show the audience exactly what happened without telling them and keeping part of the   story line a secret.

This editing technique is conventional of thriller, this is because thrillers aim to keep the audience in the blue and the story line unknown for as long as possible. This explains why we chose to use this editing technique and that, it may cause some confusion in the viewer as they do not understand what happened and why the flashback has happened, this is another convention of the thriller genre.

Editing Technique 2: Jump Cut

Jump cut is when the film suddenly focuses in on something.

We will use this editing technique when the main character- Charlotte sits down with the boardgame and the box is not opened, to the next shot where boardgame is out and all 5 girls are playing the game.

The reason we chose to use the jump cut editing technique is that we only have 2 minutes, therefore we did not want to waste time and potentially bore the audience by showing the characters set up the whole board game. Another reason we chose to use the jump cut editing technique is that the thriller genre aims to keep the openings brief and jumpy the quick change keep the viewer interested.

Editing Technique 3: Montage

This editing technique focuses more on the speed of editing, a montage is when the shots are quickly juxtaposed together in order to create excitement.

The shots where we will be using the montage editing technique is the shots of when the girls are playing the board game and they switch to showing them dead or dying.

We chose to use montage editing technique for this particular shots as it would cause the audience to have a better emotional connection with the girls that had been killed.

The editing can cause the film to be more conventional as there are many different techniques that can be used. Changing the pace of the film can cause the scene to look completely different. For example, if the shot is editing in a fast pace, then it will make the audience pay more attention and they would expect some action to happen. If it was editing slow, then the audience would be waiting for something to happen and it could create a anti climax.