Candidate Names and Numbers

Emily Davey- 6185
Rose Eustace- 6195
Serena Evans- 6196
Holly Stallard- 6354

Evaluation Question 7

Evaluation Question 6

Evaluation Question 5

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?  

To find out more about our target audience of 16-19 year olds, I interviewed a number of people from this age group to carry out a more in depth analysis of their typical hobbies, film watching habits and more.  

Evaluation 4

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

'The Greater Good' Film Opening

Here is our final version of our film opening 'The Greater Good'

Difficulties with Footage

We have finally finshed filming all of the needed footage for our film opening. We made sure to overfilm but sometimes found that once at the editing stage the footage didnt work or could be improved. We went through all the different shots, eliminating the footage that wasnt good enough for the final cut. When doing all of this we found that many shots were too bright/dark and whole scenes had to be refilmed because of this problem. However we managed to find the time to re-film thse shots and edit them into the sequence effectively. Another problem we encountered was that some of the shots didnt fit in with the Psychological Thriller genre and so therefore we decided that we would replace them, such as the crime wall we we had in our first cut and the stalking scene that peers suggested should be done in a more appropiate setting as we had used an empty room in school.

Editing our Opening Sequence

Once we got all of our footage onto iMovie we bagan to roughly cut the film, so that it was in the correct order and that the story line made sense. On multiple times we found that some of the shots didnt work as well on a large screen or that the continuity of the shots was wrong. when this haooened we had to find another day to refilm and make sure we had the right shots. We played around with different effects including black and white, sepia and reverse frames. We included jump cuts to create confusion for the audience.

The Camera Work - Shot types, angles and post production effects

Firstly, we researched into the typical camera work that occurred in psychological thrillers. We did this by watching a series of Psychological thriller films to expand our knowledge on the codes and conventions and to give us an insight to the different shots and angles used to create an appropriate atmosphere. 

Seven: 
- Out of focus shots
- Disjointed angles
- Flashing images
- Unsteady, hand-held camera work
- A combination of fast and slow pace shots
- Unclear images
- Unusual and diagonal angles
- Jittering credits
- All camera shots are close ups
- Same shot repetition
- Coloured washes of majority of the shots
- Limited camera movement within a shot
- Cameras angled specifically to capture      
  certain shadows

Black Swan: 
- Opens with a long continuous shot to 
  build tension and create atmosphere
- Fading transitions
- Close up shots
- Sepia wash
- Pace quickens as it progresses
- Switches from in focus to out of focus
- Fairly steady camera work
- Slanted angles 
- Continuous idea throughout opening
- Unclear what drawing is being created




To conclude...
Overall we decided to combine what we had found out from our research, along with incorporating our own ideas to create the angles and shots needed for our opening. We experimented with different angles when filming which is evident in out final opening as we included a variety of the successful shots. When in the editing process, we made sure to create a variety of short and long cuts and to add a series of washes to the shots to ensure that we fitted the codes and conventions of a psychological thriller. 

Additional Sound Clips

Here I looked at another website to find some additional sound clips we may want to use in our film opening to enhance the mood of it being a psychological thriller.

I used this website called 'Melody Loops' which is copyright free, so that I can us the sound clips in our film opening freely. It states on the website that 'these sounds are available for anyone to use in their productions.'

Here are some of the music overlay clips which we could possibly use in our soundtrack:

 
All of these sound tracks in which I have selected are under the title of 'Horror' or 'Mysterious'. This however does not clash with our psychological thriller genre as I will be using them as an overlay over our music piece. This will add more tension and ambiance to our opening to make the atmosphere more thrilling. It will also create more danger and an uncomforted feeling which will enhance the mood of our psychological thriller.

Here is the link to the website page, locating where I found all of the sound clips: 

http://www.freesfx.co.uk/soundeffects/music-tracks 

Foley Sound

Despite already finding sound effects that are perfectly fitting to our opening, we felt that if we could better any of the sound effects by creating them ourselves we would. This is why we decided to research Foley sound. 

What is Foley? 
Foley effects are sound effects added to the film during post production. They include sound effects such as foot steps, rustling, crockery clinking, paper folding and doors opening. 

How is it done in professional films?
Foley is usually performed by Foley artists. Ideally they stand on a Foley stage, an area with a variety of possible surfaces and props, in a Foley studio, s specialised sound studio. They Foley artists can clearly see a screen which displays the footage they have to add sound to, and they perform their sound effects whilst watching the screen for timing. The actions they perform can include walking, running. rubbing clothing, handling props and breaking objects, all whilst closely observing the screen to ensure their sound effects are appropriate to the vision on screen. 

Why is it called Foley?
The technique is named after Jack Foley, who established the basic modern techniques still used today. Like most terms that are named in honour of people, it is always spelt with a capital F.

Here is a video linked, demonstrating how Foley is carried out in a Foley Studio:

Foley Sound

Sound Effects in our Film Opening

Sound Effects

We used this website to get our sound effects for our film opening. We wanted to find atmospheric sounds that created tension and suspense. We made sure that they were all copyright free- http://soundbible.com/tags-scary.html

We used the 'Scary Ambiance' sound which increased the tension within our opening.

http://soundbible.com/1756-Scary-Ambiance.html

We found 'Backward Souls" which again added to the atmosphere.
http://soundbible.com/383-Backwards-Souls.html

We used this at the beginning of our film opening for the phone call to the police.
http://soundbible.com/1868-Ringing-Phone.html

We incorporated more digetic and non-digetic sounds into our opening to create more realistic mood.

Iconic Sounds Related to Psychological Thrillers

There have been many pieces of music and sounds used in thriller films. Typically eerie music is used to create suspense and keep the audience on edge for what happens next in the narrative. Dramatic and scary music are played in many scenes that often make the audience jumpy, producing different moods and settings for thriller films.

• High pitched sounds/orchestral stabs, such as screeches. Eg. 'Psycho' when the female is stabbed in the shower - adds suspense and horror/ thriller to the film
• terrifying screams
• squeaky doors
• disturbing laughs
• diegetic sound 
• non-diegetic sound
• synchronous
• asynchronous sounds
• ambient sounds

In contrast some quieter pieces may be used, usually they are soothing with a consistent beat throughout. This type of music will have the opposite effect on the audience making them feel calm/relaxed/lulled into a false sense os security so when something happens the audience jumps suddenly and the audience will not be expecting it.

Sometimes slow music is used when a character is hiding (not during a chase scene) - adds tension and tone/atmosphere

Usually the music/sounds associated with thrillers are edgy and dark, sometimes sinister depending on the subject and generally classical. The sounds can give information to the audience about the character on screen.

Psycho: This was a groundbreaking thriller film with many iconic sounds. The film uses the famous 'da da da da' sounds, later recognised in thriller films when something pivotal is going to happen. The iconic sound usually appeared if the antagonist was creeping up on the protagonist or if a character is about to get hurt/murdered. Another famous sound used was the 'ding ding ding ding' when the woman is murdered in the shower, then changes to a lower pitch.

Title Fonts

Choosing the fonts for our psychological thriller

We used this website to choose the right font which would suit the genre of phycological thriller - http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=603&page=5


Are all the fonts free of charge?

The fonts presented on this website are their authors' property, and are either freeware, shareware, demo versions or public domain. The licence mentioned above the download button is just an indication. Please look at the readme-files in the archives or check the indicated author's website for details, and contact him if in doubt. If no author/licence is indicated that's because we don't have information, that doesn't mean it's free.

The Note of the author:

"Fun, crafty font. Free for personal and non-profit use."

This meant it was copyright free so we were able to use it our credits. 




We decided to use this particular font because its imperfect style reflects the dysfunctional editing and complies with the overall mood of our genre.