We used our rough cut video as our Final Thriller opening because there was some complications with our group at the beginning of the project. Because the day we filmed the preliminary video, we thought we would roughly edit it to gain some skills for our final movie. However, some members of our group refused to do work and because we were so short in time we had to use the preliminary video for our final movie. From this I gained organizational skills and i also learn't that i need to have a back up plan just in case something goes wrong. Also, I've learned to work alone, without depending on teamwork and also be able to work under pressure. Overall this helped me plan a bit better .
Comparing our rough cut to other professional movie opening sequences, I learned that There shouldn't be too much going on at the start of the movie as this confuses the viewers/audience. So in our opening sequence, we carefully chose the scenes and created an interesting beginning for a thriller movie. We've also learned how to split the screen and show two different point of views/stories going on in different places. For our Final movie we've also added some credits and title sequences.
This coursework was a very useful experience as I've gained some personal experience as well as gained some professional filming techniques.
I've learned that technology is very useful - because it helps us construct our thriller movie, the camera work we used was all wisely picked, to suit the certain scene. I believe the use of camerawork help us build a lot of tension and suspense.
For filming our thriller movie opening sequence we used a professional JVC camera. this was very helpful because we were able to get clear and professional shots and also the camera had many other handy techniques which we used in our film such as the 'focus' effect and zooming.
This is a tripod this was used to hold the camera still so that we were able to get a steady shot of certain scenes so that the film looked realistic and professional.
Lighting kit was really important as it helped create a certain mood and effect for our film especially in the last scene.
SOUNDTRACK PRO:
Soundtrack pro is very useful because it help you add music into your thriller opening. We made our own beat to form some kind of a music that would suit the thriller genre. This was the first time I was introduced to soundtrack pro, I believe that AS Media has helped me a lot as I've learned new skills and techniques using this certain programme. I found using Soundtrack pro very fun as there was a lot of beats we could add to our original background tune to match our scenes and create a suitable atmosphere for the viewers.
FINAL CUT PRO:
Final Cut Pro is a programme we used to cut and edit our clips to make it into a big thriller movie opening which is just under 3 minutes long. This programme is also very useful because it help you use the razor blade tool and cut the clips at the right time to make it seem more realistic. This wasn't the first time I used final cut pro - as I've used it in secondary school for Media GCSE before. I was pretty familiar with this programme and had not much trouble at all.
LIVE TYPE:
This programme helped us to make a title sequence for the thiller, after we've gathered the soundtrack and the movie from Final Cut Pro we had to use Live Type for credits and title sequences of our Thriller opening.
For our preliminary task we had to do a short clip of a guy meeting another guy, but it looked very suspicious along the way. This was very amateur compared to the thriller, but we was gien a short space of time + we just got use of using the camera and tripod, alot of errors were made which include one of my group members not even saving that prelim as a final product :/
A main difference between the prelim and actual thriller is that they was not the same genre, also the fact that the prelim was very vague and it did not have a proper opening title sequence it was very much improvised. For the prelim we added in music by a famous rapper but with the Thriller and copyrights we pretty much had to make our own beat.
Our prelim did not include many shots and effects it involved alot of straight cuts, there was no title at the beginning. But with the Thriller a title had been added along with credits, in doing that it made the Thriller have that certified professional look and obviously by then our knowledge of editing and filming expanded.
Our locations in our prelim was set in the college as well as the Thriller but with the Thriller we used the basement area. Personally this easy a disadvantage because i think the set could of been filmed some where better.
The shots that we took in the prelim was very unsteady it shook alot at times, we kinda thought at the time we was too good to use a tripod. In the Thriller we had an effect of the camera being the actual person so the audience would think their actually involved.
With the costumes there was not much difference in it because we were in a college so it wasn't like the college had a school uniform.
Technology that we was to add everything for the final cut was the Apple Mac alongside the programmes such as Final Cut Pro/Sound Track Pro. To be honest I only knew how to use the basics but then towards the end with a little help of my teacher I kinda knew what I was doing.
The editing and effects we used in the Prelim did not compare to the amount of things that we used in the Thriller. Instead of having straight cuts that we had in the Prelim which used alot of fades throughout the thriller to make the transitions more smoother and when that took place that's when we placed the credits, we done this by using Final Cut pro and when we done the prelim I had no idea of putting in effects, i thought it was a simple drag & play situation. The two main effects we used was the split screen view & the slow motion effect towards the end of the film.
As a whole this was a mind blowing experience, it really did put me in a directors seat and made me see hwo really hard it is, the fact that we done an open sequence and it took us a few weeks to complete made me just dread on how these directors spend months even years like the film Avatar
Hey Jumper
'Hey Jumper' was done by some college students and it even won an award. If this wanted to get distributed even more, perhaps get it recognized but the professionals the internet is on the best way to get it out there.
Youtube is the obvious and most vital one because even the the big stars you see on T.V started off by putting video's on youtube and getting themselves recognized. And not to mention the two main social networking sites :
Just for the sake of distributing their product giving out copies out on DVD is a really good method, it is also smart to give them out for free. Also if it's been given out for free this enables it to get around more so there is no hassle. Due to it being a low budget film you may be able to get a cinematic screening to show your product to people maybe even a director. In my groups case our video has been posted up on Vimeo and of course our own blog so that our peers are able to view it, it all relates in the same way because we also have it being shown to our target audience.
The ways in which i would distribute our opening sequence:
By posting it on youtube...
Posting it on Vimeo...
Through word of mouth...
And i would also post the video on social websites such as:
As an example of a student Media Opening sequence of a Film I've found the following video on youtube which has received great comments from the viewers:
"Endorphin" is a 2008 short film directed by film student Michael J. Sirois. It won Best Film at the 2008 CUFS Student Film Festiva
This video is very good because it had all types of different shots and the soundtrack is there to put the audience into a certain mood. Also the lighting is good, which was what we couldn't get to be perfect in our movie.
Our movie consists of 4 actors (Netitia, Jin, Sam and Lorenzo). They're all great actors, however if i could choose from professional actors that have starred in thriller movies it would be the following actors/actresses:
NETITIA:
Maggie Grace, young actress had starred as 'Kim' in the movie 'TAKEN' 2008. I'd choose her to act as Netitia (the girl that gets kidnapped and tortured), because in the movie 'Taken' she had amazing acting skills and i had goose-pumps the first time i watched her!! so i think that she would have a great reaction from the audience and the movie would look very realistic.
The following video shows how effective and realistic 'Taken' is. This also depends on the director and now only the actors. So i think that Pierre Morel is a great director for making the movie so eye-catching and realistic:
JIN:
Christian Stolte could be a good actor to play the role of Jin, who's the man that tortures the girl. I think he'd be an good actor fort his role is because his appearance looks scary and mysterious. He has starred in movies such as the 'Law Abiding Citizen' where he plays as Clarence Darby, a rapist, robber and a drug dealer. He was knows for committing more crimes in the past.
In the following trailer, you can see his role and straight away you can tell that he would be suitable for this role.
We can get sites of Darby at 0:35, 0:50, 1:00, 1:23 and from 1:26-1:33.
LORENZO:
Paul Walker, most known for his acting skills in 'The Fast and The Furious'. I think that he'd be a great actor to play as Lorenzo because he is charming and on the other hand you would suspect that he would have an evil side which is not obvious at all. He has an appearance of a womanizer which is also handy because in our opening sequence, Lorenzo flirts with Netitia to get her to go where he wants her to.
This photo is from one of his movies, he has a good communication skills with women which is what we would need for someone to act as Lorenzo who charms Netitia.
I had to use my rough cut video as my preliminary video was with another group .Because the day we filmed the preliminary none of the members of my group were in to film with me .From this i gained organizational skills and i also learnt that i need to have a back up plan just in case something goes wrong . Overall this helped me plan a bit better .
From the rough cut I learnt that we need more shots take make the storyline a bit clearer and also we need some close ups so that audience felt like they had inside knowledge of what might happen in the film next. I also learnt that there was certain effects needed to make it more interesting and so that we had space for titles .
