How did you respond to audience feedback and how valuable was it to you?

Once we received feedback from the class, we took into consideration their opinions and advice for improvement and, if we could redo this task, would have used some of that information to better our project to suit said qualities. For example we received criticism that the final was somewhat like a trailer, and that the soundtrack stopped abruptly – because of this feedback if we had more time we could have changed this by adding more effects and fading out the end of the soundtrack.  However we did also got some more positive comments, mainly about the genre appropriate non and diegetic sound effects and soundtrack and the good use of props, used to portray a message to the audience and to aid them in seeing a small glimpse of a deeper side to the character and her bizarre mental situation. We did also get feedback before the final deadline, which we did indeed use to improve our opening sequence, such as the fact that the title of the project; “Evanesce” was unclear to actually being the main title as it was incorporated into the rest of the sequence and not really distinguished well enough to catch attention. Also after being told there were problems with the colouring of our work, to which we edited it with colour correction upon the final edit deadline. The positive comments we got were helpful in many ways also, not just for a confidence boost but also to help us in the future with other projects we may take part in. We know what things worked well and could use them as a reference or inspiration. We also know that, should this opening project actually make it into the film industry, that certain audiences would appreciate and watch it. Getting feedback upon our work was rather valuable in the respects already stated, for improvement and help should we take part in future projects of the same nature. However receiving feedback after the work was submitted was a little irritating as more things were pointed out that we could have changed to possibly improve our grade, but of course we could not by which time. It was good for the future but not for the current situation. 

Screenshots for Evaluation

Class Feedback Summary

GOOD

• Good use of books as props to show protagonist's mental state
• Good variation of shot types
• Good credits implemented into the scene and suitable for film
• Good use  of diegetic and non diegetic sound effects

IMPROVE:

• Make the ending less like a trailer
• Fade out the soundtrack (was supposed to fade - final cut problem?)

Title Pane

 

(numbered from left to right)

1. (Convention 1) An example of a normal activity happening in an extraordinary situation which is the girl having a murderous split personality.

2. (Convention 2) A flashback is a common convention of a psychological thriller.

3. (Convention 3) The eye is a common convention used in psychological thrillers as it gives a sense of mystery and covers the themes of identity.

4. (Camera work 1)We used this significance of an eye and used extreme close ups to give a sense of distortion. 

5. (Camera work 2)This is an example of a mid shot.

6.  (Lighting)We used dull lighting to create a dreary atmosphere.

7. (Costume) A shot of a main costume of the protagonist.

8. (Prop)A shot of a prop with narrative significance.

9. (Location) An example of an important location.

Final Thriller Sequence

Final cut deadline day.

Today is the final cut deadline and we have and we feel we have completed our opening deadline and have achieved our aim of completing it on time as we were unable to do so for the children's film project.

However, we received some last minute feedback from Andrea in which we have corrected which was to have more continuity within titles. Also we got feedback in which required us to make some adjustments with colour correction. We are also anxious as our thriller opening sequence is 1 minute 30 seconds which is shorter than the recommended time by Andrea and Holly. However we are happy with the piece and feel adding more would compromise the quality.

To conclude, We feel we have followed the marking criteria and are happy with the sequence we are submitting.

Feedback from the Class

Editing: Continuous, pace was the same throughout, could vary a bit. No different transitions, all using cuts. Add different shot types and transitions.

Camerawork: Good range of different shots, suitable for the genre. Steady camera, helps promote mystery by not showing the girl's face. Well done :3

Titles: Nice use of titles, creative way of using them, the typewriter effect is really good. unclear of what the name of the film is.

Sound: Music was appropriate, went well with what was going on. Fitted in well with the thriller conventions. Voice-over was good, sounded realistic.

Mise-En-Scene: Good use of significant props, realistic blood was good. Good use of the book. Locations could be more connected.

Thriller conventions: Narrative centres around crimes, the antagonist is the protagonist (don't know if its a convention but I like it), micro elements combine to create suspense, the audience is placed in the voyeristic place. We can see the girl is the murderer but the characters cannot.

Action Plan

After having other students review our rough cut film, we have created a list of things that would improve our work for the deadline next week.

• Editing: A slight differentiation of transitions, pace of editing and to use fewer cuts - we shall improve this by adding different effects between film clips, probably subtle and not too overbearing as to not distract or take away from our current work. However we do disagree that the pace of editing is not varied, within the montage the pace is much faster for example compared to the phone call. 
• Camerawork feedback was positive.
• Titles: The title of the film is unclear as it is placed in the middle and not at the end - We shall move the title to the end of the work. 
• Sound feedback was also positive. 
• Mise-en-scene: Locations of filming are a little isolated from each other - We cannot do anything about this as we do not have the time to re-film nor are there many places in Cambridge that we can film using very realistic fake blood or violent weapons.    

RoughCut

This is our rough cut ready to present to the class on thursday 10th of march.

Everything has gone to plan and it is how we anticipated it to be. We believe to have achieved our aim to portray to the audience the genre through the opening sequence. This is because we were cautious when brain storming ideas that it might look more like a movie trailer.

However, the fast editing and and putting our ideas into a montage to make it less like a story and more like an opening sequence to a film.   Another element of our opening sequence i feel went well was that we managed to use a variety of shots types such as establishing shots, close ups, mid shots etc. There is also the use of hand held which helped to give a sense of distortion.

In tomorrows lesson, I believe the class will be impressed by our credits as they are unique and appealing to the eye. Furthermore, I believe they will appreciate the variety of shot types and fast paced editing in the montage.

However, this may come to be disadvantageous to us as they might find it confusing but that may not be a bad thing as it is a psychological thriller and we deliberately have ambiguous sections.

I am looking forward to what the class have to say tomorrow and hope to improve on any criticisms that we receive.

More accurate film poster

Poster 1

7th March Progress

After discussing our rough cut so far with our teacher, we will be making the following changes if given a chance to shoot more film and also some other general improvements:

• In the part where there are 'typewriter' style credits we will reshoot this to be typed on 'Lucy's' laptop to add to the element of confusion.
• We will re-film the phone conversation to make it less obvious that the voice is voiced over by another person. 
• We will take still photographs of 'Sean' to place in between the shot of the memo and the end of the conversation, probably with an accompaniment sound effect to portray the shock. 
• We need to cut/change the baseball bat scene to look more realistic

We have added an animated title and finished the majority of our other credits, as well as mostly finished the sound and editing, with a wide variety of transitions and effects.

7th March Update

This lesson we will be completing our credits and hopefully add an animated title 'Evanesce' to our sequence which will hopefully make our piece more unique and dynamic.

Thriller Opening Classification

I believe that our thriller would be a 15. Though it contains violence and gore, it is very moderate and the film does not focus on these elements. The violence does bump up the rating, along with the psychologically disturbing theme of split personality. However, it would not contain strong language or scenes of nudity.

Marking Criteria - Self Evaluation so far

Level 1 = Up to 23
Level 2 = 24 - 35 (Basic)
Level 3 = 36 - 47 (Proficient)
Level 4 = 48 - 60 (Excellence) 

• Holding a shot steady where appropriate. 
• We think we are level 3/4 on this, as we have used the tripod to hold the shots steady in some places such as establishing shots, and used a shaky, handheld effect for an anxious atmosphere in certain scenes. 

• Framing a shot, including and excluding elements.
• We think we are level 3 for this as we have framed shots, eg. The picture of the empty bench is framed by a tree, and possibly may reach a low level 4. 

• Using a variety of shot distances. 
• We think we definitely are level 4, as we have used long shots, close ups, extreme close ups, mid shots, establishing shots etc.

• Shooting material appropriate to the task.
• We think we have shot material appropriate to the task as it fits in with the conventions of a psychological thriller - imagery of an eye,  not trusting the narrator - we also think that it is clearly an opening as the beginning of the plot is shown chronologically - so a level 4. 

• Selecting mise-en-scene
• We think we should get a high level 4 for this, as a large amount of the footage is focused on mise-en-scene, especially costume and make up - the evil Lucy wears black make up and nail varnish, with dark clothes - and good Lucy has the opposite, no nail varnish and little make up. The locations have also been chosen carefully, for the effect of unsettling the viewer as they are conceivable places.  

• Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer.
• I believe we have achieved a comfortable level 3 at this as we have edited in a way that portrays confusion and anxiety to the viewer, and allows them to understand the situation, eg. 'evil' scenes being edited to be black and white.

• Using varied shot transitions and effects.
• I would guess we reached a level 4 at this because we have used several different shot transitions available in final cut, as well as using effects to blur and affect the footage in different ways.

• Using sound with images.
• We have used a lot of sound to achieve the atmosphere - a soundtrack and also several sound effects to the make the situation seem realistic.  

• Using titles appropriately
• At present I would say we were only a level 3 as our credits are animated but still very simple - we are planning to use photoshop to edit text and spice up the credits and titles to fit the genre. 

Credits

We have several screenshots of footage which needs credits, and are now looking at fonts which match the theme and atmosphere of the clip.

Update - 2/2/11

So far we have...

• Completed a rough cut of our footage, lasting roughly 1min28secs
• Added sound (voice over, music, sound effects)
• Edited the footage
• Edited part of the credits
• Looked at fonts for the rest of our credits

We are aiming to...

• Add photoshopped text to the rest of the credits