Evaluation

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Final Editing

After getting our feedback, we went back and tried to change some little things in our opening to make them that little bit better. The first problem was my voice in the dialogue, we cleverly thought chloes pitch in her voice would suit our genre much better, so straight away i got her to re-record over my speech. This worked very well. The next cristism we got was that some parts of our opening were 'over edited' we decided to tone tone the editing and make it look more natural, we then showed it to a few peers, and the response was much better. We connected all of our digetic and non-digetic sounds to our opening, and together it looks so effective, and very professional. We then worked on making the credits look more realistic in a film, and also evenly set them out, as two names came up quicker and more rapidly than the other two. But overall we are all very proud of our progress as a group, and have had a lot of fun filming an editing this opening.

Feedback from our audience

The final question on the feedback sheet, which would generally help us to improve our opening was;
Did you notice any serious issues such as continuity errors, strange edits - Did anything not make sense to you?
"Story line was a bit confusing but knew roughly what was going on, sharpen the shots so they are closer together"

• "Storyline was a quite confusing but i knew roughly what was going on. Maybe sharpen some of the shots a bit?."
• "Sound needs a bit of work."
• "Didn't get the bit with the train."
• "Some bits are too dark, can't see as well."
• "Camera shots are slightly jumpy."

With this helpful critisism, as a group we can now go away and thouroughly look over these points and tweek our opening sequence were we need to, this will make it that much more effective for the audience.

Feedback from our audience

The next question that was asked was;
Who do you think the target audience is?

• "16+"
• "Mainstream"
• "People who like horror"
• "15+"
• "18, Indie Horror"

We was happy with these answers, as this is the actual target audience we was aiming for.

Feedback from our audience

As an extra bit of help, and to gain advice from our peers, after filming and editing, we decided to do a film showcase. This was so we could all show our films to an audience and get feedback and helpful critism so we could further improve our work. We gave out 'Feedback Sheets' to several people in the room and asked them to fill them out whilst watching our opening.
The first question that was asked was;
What was especially good about the film?

• "Really good editing- (Red lipstick with black and white) shot and good camera work and use of sound."
• "The camera work was really good."
• "Good use of colour."
• "Lighting was very good."
• "Never see the face till the end."
• "Good shots of the knife."
• "Shots of make-up and nail varnish at the start were really good."
• "Lighting suits the genre"
• "Good acting."

These points gave us a general idea that we was on the right tracks, and that the reaction was fairly positive.

Some problems we faced throughout this project

Throughout this whole project, me and my group have faced various problems that we had to sort out.

• We started out quite slowly as i think we were all quite nervous to work amongst people we wernt so close to. After we put that all behind us, we actually all got on really well, and then found it much easier to start working.
• The next thing that slowed us down was the fact that all four of us lived quite far from eachother, so it was difficult to meet for filming. We decided to film mainly at Jessicas house, as this seemed the easiest for us all.
• After filming all quite well, we had to begin editing, Jess and Chloe wernt in for a lesson when we learnt how to edit on the software so Efosa decided to go through it with them, this caused us to be a lesson behind our class, but we soon caught up
• The last thing we needed to fix, was that after we got our feedback from the class after the showcase, our teacher informed us that the dialogue that i infact say, didnt fit the genre of the film, as my voice is quite high and not eery. We decided chloes voice would fit the genre better, so she re-recorded my dialogue, and it now looks much better!

A Rough Version of our Opening Sequence

Here is a rough version of what our Opening looks like so far, We are at the stage were we are tweeking little areas that arent tidy, and really focusing on getting all the sounds completed and exported. Miss explained to us that the dialogue used in this sequence kind of made our genre go off balance, so we decided to re-record that bit of dialogue. My voice didnt seem to fit the horror genre to well, so chloe decided to have a go, and her voice definatly connects more to the genre than mine, which has really improved the whole sequence.

Feedback After Media Showcase

This excersise was used to get some feedback for individual groups to improve and develop their work further. Our teacher decided to set up a showcase for us all to show what we had got up to on editing our opening sequence and to show the rest of the class to see the reaction. Noone had finished so we was all at ease as to why some of the feedback was negative, but this really helped us all. Our feedback shocked our group, as we were all thinking alot of work was needed to be added, but our audience had a different reaction and on evaluation sheets we handed out, came back very positive and the main negative point was some over editing, which can easily be changed.

What we had to do was stand at the front of the class in our small groups introduce our opening with the title and everyones roles and then play it to the class and some extra students and teachers. we then got some critism about there being no sound, which we already knew was a problem we needed to solve next.
Other than that the feedback really has help us to improve and make our opening that much better.

Research on other films

I decided to research some other films connected to the same genre as our film, to see what editing has been used, how the credits have been placed, sounds etc..
I firstly looked at when a stranger calls. This film starts with a blank black screen, where the opening credits begin to show one at a time. An effective device they used at the same time is a narrative voice-over, this works well in the horror genre as it adds suspense. In this case we here a phone call between a girl and a strange sounding man. Without seeing anything on the screen the viewers are already asking questions.

I then looked at the opening of 'hide and seek'. This also begins with a black screen but quickly cuts to the face of a young girl where there is eery music in the background. This is the sort of sound we will use for our opening. Difference is this opening lasts 10 minutes before the opening credits begin.

Looking at these two horror based films, gives me an idea of music and where our credits can be placed. Research definatly has helped alot during this editing process.

'When a stranger calls' Opening Sequence

We firstly see the porduction company 'Screen Gems' which is in association with Sony. Whilst this is introduced on the screen behind a black background, the digetic sound in the background is an eery phone ringing. This makes us straight away link back to title, anf we start to think whos ringing? and whos answering?
The voices then appear, on one end of the phone line sounds a normal vunrable teenage girl, and on the other a creepy sounding man.
The shot is then of a house, where we can see a window with a light on, we expect this to be where the girl has answered the phone, and the tilted low angle shot looking up could be where the man is standing on the other end of the line.
We establish straight away by the voices that these two may infact be the main characters, and the film is based on them.
From this enigma we can tell this is a horror film, without seeing any characters just by the background sounds.

We then move setting to a funfair, and whilst we are using the shot type 'tracking' of two children, the first name of 'Brian Geraghty' is shown in the bottom left hand corner of the screen.
Following with some eery, jump shots showing a man where we cant see his face, to a girl on a merry go round. In the background we then see the house again, and the phone rings once again. This causes a very dramatic atmosphere, and makes the audience want to find out why this man keeps calling, and where he is? This is where the second name 'Katie Cassidy' is shown again in white font in the bottom left hand corner.

Whilst on the phone we hear some non digetic sounds of the funfair, but also some heavy breathing. This creates tension, and would make the viewers be on edge.
The background noise is mainly of the screams from the funfair, but behind it there is a slow eery music playing, when the lightng is very dull, and u cant see any peoples faces.

Whilst at night time down a dark street we are introduced by some more names, and this eery music has gotten louder. This is making the atmosphere more thrilling.
We are then focused on one house, which would make the audience think this is the house where the main action will take place. There is then a lighted pole, which reads 'JESUS' which could be a represntation of death.
From then on the camera seems hand held, as if we are the enemy and we are looking at our victim, we can also tell this as we can hear the heavy breathing which brings suspense. We are then shown many fast zooms and flash backs of the funfair and children, which is quite creepy.

This is when there is a third phone call. But this time we only hear the girls voice, we are then shown the house again, and then quickly the shopt is swept back to the funfair, this is very jumpy, and has the audience on edge.
In bold white letters 'When a stranger Calls' is then placed in the centre of the shot, and the digetic sound sounds like knifes being dragged across something, which could be a connotation linked to the film.

Preliminary Sequence

Before we begin to work on our own opening sequences, we got given the chance to experience the use of the camera and how to do various shot types in different setting. As a group we went to many different areas of the school to see how different light sources affect the outcome of the picture, and we all had a go at using the camera on the tripod. This was also a great chance to get practice on different shot types such as a pan and a crash zoom. Which are popular shots we may use in our final piece of work. We then got a greater understanding of using the new editing softwares that were still very new to us. We learnt how to extract different parts of our filming and join them to other parts using techniques such as fade ins. This was a great success to practice for our real sequence.

Recent Progress

We can finally see an effective opening coming along, and it actually looks very good. The acting and camera shots are spot on and the editing is looking really effective. we still need to convert our voiceovers and backing sounds to complete our opening, but as a group we are very happy with our progress so far, and look forward to seeing the finished sequence.

We then decided to think of a production name and logo for our opening. I decided to do a mindmap of all my own ideas and then would show my group to see what they thought and mix together our ideas.
Together we all decided our top 5 production names were:

• lightbulb productions
• newhouse productions
• wonkey donkey productions
• transform productions
• lighthouse productions

Together we decided that 'Lightbulb Productions' sounded the most professional, and the logo was much easier to make it stand out. Efosa added together our logo and production name onto a black screen and edited it in to the beginning of our opening. It actually stood out for me, looked very effective and professional, and worked well with the theme and genre our film uses.

Pillow Talk Vs Fringe Essay

“How are the sequences from ‘pillow talk’ and ‘fringe’ different? Discuss the differences in pace and style of editing as well as the effect the editing has on meaning/the audiences reception of the extracts.”

Editing plays a very important roll in the TV and film industry. Without it, film would consist of boring and unenthusiastic shots.

Editing involves a variety of shot types and fast-paced scene changes. this technique cleverly joins together different sequences involved.

In the two sequences I compared, I noticed the editing in both, tries to alter the frames and shot types, to give us a different perception on certain characters. When the scene seems more up-beat the pace of the new frame comes sharper and more frequently, like in Fringe. Whereas in Pillow Talk, the frames come less often, and dissolve out less rapidly.

Pillow talk, directed by Michael Gordon in 1959, is a relaxed, intimate conversation that often occurs between a man (Brad Allen played by Rock Hudson) and a woman (Jan Morrow played by Dorris Day) through telephone line.

As it is mainly focused on the phone line between two characters, the director cleverly uses various camera shots and editing styles.

The main style of editing used is a split screen, where the camera dissolves from an original shot, into one containing the position of two characters in different setting. In this where someone answers the phone, and the other is calling.

The first cut is a simple dissolve from the two men talking, to mid shot of ‘Jan’ in the mirror. From then after, the shots seem to all be straight cuts. Beginning with the split screen effect.

During the split-screen, a zoom occurs to show the facial expressions of both characters. Where the cuts are not very frequent, we see the sequence to be very laid back, and not so serious.

When we see the man and woman out together, it is a very relaxed conversation with two typically good looking people on a date.  The shots differ according to the character that is speaking.

We do in fact see both characters in the frame, but the camera angle seems to be focused on that one character whom is talking. There doesn’t seem to be much editing used in this sequence, due to the fact that the conversation seems to be slow. This in the outcome would attract more of a female audience, as it is focused on love and being in the position of finding love.

In ’Fringe’, created by J.J Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, we are following F.B.I investigations of a series of unexplained often ghastly occurrences, which are related to mysteries surrounding a parallel universe.

 Premiered in 2008, we already can see that the editing and style of this sequence will be more current, up to date, and more intriguing than such of in ‘Pillow Talk’.

The extract itself seems more mysterious, as there are so many more cuts according in the amount of time. The camera angle is shown many times at a worms eye view, this seems to give the person in the shot more power.

Having quicker straight cuts to a new shot, gives the audience a build up of tension, and I also found that to introduce other characters a ‘pan’ shot is used.

It begins showing a conversation between a man and another man whom is on video.

When we are introduced into the next set, which is outside showing what looks like an important building, we are drawn to the flying machinery in the sky. The editing used next shows the machine disappearing, then onto a pan shot.

After this we are introduced to another set, what looks like a serious interview maybe held inside this building. The pace and style of the shots are still more fast-paced then Pillow Talk, but come less rapidly at this point.

Overall, as the audience watching both of these extracts thouroughly, i most certainly enjoyed Pillow talk over Fringe. This is because i love a rom-com, and have never been very interested in the whole sci-fi thriller typed films. Pillow Talk was girlie and i can relate the situation between the two characters, and i liked how comfortable it was to watch. Whereas Fringe was very boring and gave me no interest, it also seemed a very fast-paced programme which you would have to watch thouroughly to understand. So after all my reviewing id much prefer to watch Pillow Talk again.

Further Editing and Media Film Showcase

Before showing an audience our progress for our opening sequence, as a group we tried to neaten some of the shots up and add in some last minute effects to make the sequence that much better. Still by using final cut, we faded in some of the cuts and also added in the credits showing who starred and directed etc our film.
We then carried on working on GarageBand to mix together some sounds and music that fit our film genre. We decided that a music box track would make the film sound eery. We aren't fully satisfied with our sounds yet, so are still working on them before we add them into our opening.

We then decided as a class to show an audience our work so far to get some feedback on our opening sequence so we can go back and improve to make our work even better.