Evaluation 7- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?



Evaluation 6- What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?



Evaluation 5- How did you attract/address your audience?

How did you attract/address your audience?

When considering the numerous storylines which we could have included in our opening thriller sequence, we decided that the most important aspect was to ensure that we included the typical conventions of a thriller in order to meet the thriller criteria. This therefore ensured that we would meet the needs of the audience interested in the thriller genre, as they would expect to see certain conventions, even if we were creating just the opening sequence. We therefore had the aim of drawing out the suspense and having high levels of tension in order to engage our audience and make them wonder what is going to happen next. We aimed to use a wide range of camera angles in order to show our character from different angles and aspects, so the audience could have a clear insight into what exactly was happening in each frame, meaning that we avoided repetition and each frame gave the audience something different to keep them interested and engaged.

I asked a range of my peers and family members to say what they liked and disliked about our final opening thriller edit.

 

Here I have summarised my audience feedback from the final edit:

Listening to audience feedback after each edit allowed for my group and I to tailor our opening thriller sequence to what our audience wanted in order to produce the best opening thriller sequence we could. This should allow us to attract an audience by including a narrative enigma, and an interesting storyline which included conventions of a thriller to engage our target audience. Our actor's real age is 18, and so his character fits perfectly into this our target market age bracket, making it more relatable and enabling the audience to identify with our character and attract audiences. However, it must be noted that the majority of people this age are not rapists or murderers and so it is an unlikely characteristic of this age group.

 

According to audience feedback, overall our opening thriller sequence really engaged and excited the audience, which is a huge relief. In regards to sound, we used this to enhance each frame. Throughout the opening sequence, we had non diegetic music which was very eerie to set the atmosphere to attract the audience initially. Then, ambient sound was something the audience identified as doing well, such as the shower sound at the beginning which could suggest that our character was obsessed with being clean, or that he has just been involved in a strange act with a girl and so he was cleaning off the evidence, all of which are questions which should be going through the audience's head. The voice recoding was also successful at addressing the audience as it enforced the name of the next victim- Daisy, adding even more tension to the narrative. A slight negative of the voice recording was that it didn't match our actors voice exactly, the timing was slightly out, but it isn't too noticeable and our audience didn't notice this. This is something we concluded as a group.

The audience commented on the seamless editing- how professionally the footage had been put together. The black and white effect on the footage creates an eerie feel for the audience, presenting the storyline as being 'dark' and having connotations of death and suffering. The black and white idea was from research and questionnaires completed before the filming of our opening thriller sequence, all of which helped to attract the audience as that is what they wanted to see. As well as this the wide variety of camera angles also engaged the audience significantly, as a different shot and fast paced editing helped to keep the audience from getting bored, as something different is presented throughout each frame.

The audience commented on how difficult it was to chose something for my group and I to improve on. However, if they had to choose something, it would be for the production company titles to be improved, as we used a video and didn't use Adobe After Effects. This could have made our opening look slightly more professional, however my group and I were happy with the look we achieved.



Evalutation 4- Who would be the audience for your media product?

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation 3- What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

 

Evaluation 2- How does your media product represent particular social groups?

 

 

Evaluation 1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Conventions of a thriller:

From research conducted before planning, I looked into the typical conventions of a thriller in order to obtain information about what should be included in our opening thriller sequence in order to create a narrative enigma, with aspects of verisimilitude for the sequence to appear more 'real'. Typical conventions of a thriller include:

• The narrative is usually based around a crime scene; often a murder and involves a strange storyline, which keeps the audience on their toes.
• Contains elements of mystery, action and fear, and narrative enigma.
• Often creates suspense for the audience,  with the tension increasing throughout.
• Provides the audience with an adrenaline rush in certain aspects of the scenes in order to keep them engaged.
• Often, the narrative makes the audience feel disturbed and uneasy due to the abnormal images.
• A thriller is more realistic than a horror film, and aspects from camera, sound, editing and Mise en scene all add to the verisimilitude of the narrative.
• Thrillers include protagonists and antagonists. Previously, thrillers had dominantly male protagonists, but recently both genders have been cast as protagonists.
• Protagonists will overcome challenges and obstacles throughout the narrative.

Conventions of an opening thriller sequence:

An opening sequence involves the first 2 minutes (can sometimes be longer) of a film, whereby the opening titles and usually the title of the film are displayed. The titles are introduced whilst the beginning of the film is shown, usually portraying a background to the narrative, or showing an insight into what the film is going to entitle. An opening sequence will often contain a narrative enigma, not giving too much away about a given character or the plot, making the audience wonder what is going to happen and the often significant pointers to the film will be shown. This adds to the verisimilitude making the audience want to find out more. 

Conventions we chose

As a group, we selected the conventions we felt were appropriate to include in our opening thriller sequence, the ones which would add the most suspense and make the audience feel on the 'edge of their seats' whilst watching our opening thriller sequence. For example, not showing the girl's face at the door at the end, left the opening thriller sequence on a cliff hanger. We based our storyline around our antagonist, who had a strange obsession with girls.

Establishing shot: The establishing shot at the very beginning of our opening sequence is commonly used in opening thriller sequences, as it helps the audience establish the location/setting and make them ponder as to what could happen and who will be involved. Setting our opening thriller sequence in a house definitely added to the verisimilitude, instantly distinguishing this as a thriller rather than a horror. Setting our opening thriller in a house signifies the normality of our character from an onlookers point of view due to the familular family house which is uncommon of a thriller, and so the audience don't realise the abnormal side to our character until the opening thriller sequence progresses.

Here is where we used an establishing shot.

Flashbacks: We contained elements of mystery by using flashbacks, because the audience had to establish who the girls on the wall were and why those particular photos were used, as well as hinting at what has happened in the past. The duration in which they appear on he screen for isn't very long, making it harder for the audience to establish what these flashbacks represent which engages the audience but also gives an insight into the antagonists past. This narrative enigma is a typical convention of a thriller.

One of the flashbacks of the girls being crossed off on the wall

Male antagonist with a female protagonist: We casted Evan Jones, as our male antagonist. Thrillers usually have a male antagonist and female victims, as a male is stereotypically more stern and mysterious, again containing elements of mystery, whilst a women is presented as more vulnerable, which is what we did. The way our actor played the role was just how we envisioned our character to be, and with not including much dialogue, meant that the audience don't really find out too much about the character or the victims in the first 2 minutes of our opening, again adding to the narrative enigma. 

Our male antagonist: Evan Jones playing Oliver

Sound: To add to the tension, we used eerie, deep, prolonged string non diegetic music. This really added to the tense, suspicious and mysterious atmosphere, adding to the tension for the audience, reflecting from the mood of our character in our opening thriller sequence. If we didn't include this particular eerie non diagetic music, the whole atmosphere would be completely different and not as tense and engaging for the audience. We also used sound effects, such as the enhanced doorbell sound. Following on from this, we have voices of news reporters which are distorted, adding to the tension and eerie personer of our character making the audience wonder how many girls he has been involved with. 

Titles: A typical convention of an opening thriller sequence is for titles to be included throughout the duration. This indicates to the audience who was involved in the production of the film, and the titles are usually white. This is something we included, but felt as a group and from audience feedback that the titles should be subtle and simplistic in order to not distract away from the footage. Our titles reflect part of the narrative. We wanted the titles to resemble handwriting, as our character is a maths teacher and so he writes down the appointments which is shown in the opening thriller sequence. We were also inspired by the 'Se7ven' titles

Here is an example of just one of the many titles used throughout our opening thriller sequence, inspired by the Se7ven opening title sequence.

Here are the Se7en titles we were inspired by.

Mise en Scene: Low key lighting is a typical convention of a opening thriller sequence adding to the eerie atmosphere and narrative enigma. This gave our opening thriller sequence a 'darker' feel. Our actor also wore clothing which was smart, portraying him as the serious, creepy maths teacher we wanted him to be. His costume was effective because the audience question why is dressed so smart to tutor girls. His unusually patterened socks with his smart atttire also reflect the abnormality of his character and how there is something particularly unusual about the way he dresses. This was done very skilfully and so our actor portrayed the character effectively. 

The Final Edit

The Final Edit

Here is our final edit for our opening thriller sequence.



21/01/16- The last day of editing

The last day of editing

Today, we aimed to get our final edit completed and uploaded to YouTube. Firstly, we desperately needed to re-film the establishing shot of the front of the house. So, Tammy, Izzy and I walked down to where we originally filmed. We took the camera we used originally (The Cannon 700D) and a tripod. We filmed various shots of the house to enable us to have a variety of footage to choose from. We then walked back to college.

Tammy and I filming

When we got back to college, we imported the footage we had just filmed onto the computer, and selected the establishing shot which we thought was best suited. We then imported this into Adobe Premiere Pro, trimmed it, edited it into black and white and checked that the quality was still good, and to our delight it was.

After this, I then decided to try importing the new voice recording of our actor Evan singing 'Daisy Daisy' over the top of the video. After trimming the audio with the razor tool on Adobe Premiere Pro, I was then able to insert it. After a while of moving it around, I finally got it to fit.

We then decided to check our opening thriller sequence and look for any final adjustments which could be made. We then decided to make the 'Daisy' audio at the very end louder to add suspense and leave the opening on a cliff hanger. We then also make the news reporter voices a little quitter as they were slightly overpowering.

After this, we then watched the entire opening thriller sequence to make sure that it flowed and that we were happy with the editing, which we were. We could then export our video onto YouTube. 

20/01/16-Voice recording...again

Voice Recording...Again

 

19/01/16-Editing

Editing

Editing the audio sound.

Today, my group and I had only minor improvements to make in regards to editing our final footage. The only outstanding scenes to sort out were the audio of our actor singing 'Daisy Daisy' and the establishing shot of the house at the very beginning of the narrative. 
I decided to add the voice recording of Evan singing 'Daisy Daisy' into our footage. However, the audio which we re-recorded didn't quite fit to Evan's lip movement from the original footage. I then tried to use to razor tool to cut the audio, however this didn't really work. Even though the beginning of the audio fitted the original footage, the end part didn't. This wasn't down to our actor or our own fault, it was just a slight timing issue when we recorded. This is something we can easily resolve by asking our actor to come and record his piece again.
Then, Izzy and Tammy began to add in the new establishing shot which we filmed the other day. For some strange reason, the footage was very pixalated and was a smaller size compared to the original footage we filmed. This could be because when we re-filmed, it was a sunny day and so the footage appeared to be over exposed. This therefore means that we must re-film this part in the next few days in order to solve this issue. 
Izzy and I then continued to edit the sound. We recorded some more of our friends being news reporters and imported these audio clips into Adobe Premiere Pro, editing them on soundcloud as we did before. We then rearranged all of the clips we collected so that it would fit nicely with the narrative, and agreed on an order we thought worked best. This now means that our news reporter sound aspect is now complete.

 

 

15/01/16- Continued editing

Continued editing

 

14/01/16- Re-filming and re-recording

Re-filming and re-recording footage

Today, we had a media lesson scheduled for 2 hours in the afternoon.

Evan and I voice recording

Our actor, Evan (who played Oliver) was meant to voice record on Tuesday but he wasn't able to come into college. So, today I arranged for him to come and do a voice over of the part where he sings 'Daisy Daisy'. This is because the quality of the sound could be improved by making it more clear. In order to do this, we used a hand held microphone and then when we had voice recorded Evan, we imported the clips into Adobe Premier Pro. To start with, Evan found lip syncing a little difficult, but after listening and watching the original clip and then whilst recording, playing the original footage, he was able to produce a really great recording.

Then, we decided to voice record some of our peers, as well as ourselves for the news reporters. We started to do this the other day, however after importing them into our opening thriller sequence, we found that we didn't obtain enough footage to allow for us to overlap each voice, to make them sound strange and distorted.

On Tuesday, I completed my audience feedback for the second draft edit, and so we decided to use the feedback our audience had given us to begin to make any changes which were still outstanding. Something which was apparent from all our audience surveys was that the establishing shot of the house at the beginning of the opening sequence was a bit jumpy, and the doorbell footage was filmed without a tripod. So, my group and I went back to the location where we originally filmed. We took the Cannon 700D camera (used originally to film) and a tripod. When arriving on location, we first re-filmed the doorbell footage. It was very sunny today, and the sun was shining directly on the house, which wasn't ideal. This is because unwanted shadows were created. However, we found a camera angle and position where the shadows were not as bad, and Tammy ensured that when pressing the doorbell, to move her hand in a certain way to avoid casting shadows. 

We then moved the tripod onto the road, in front of the house. We ensured that the tripod was stable and level, and then locked the tripod so that the head could not move side to side, and only move up and down. I loosened the handle to allow a smooth panning shot to be achieved. We also changed the setting of the camera to shoot at 50 frames per second, so that when we import our footage we can slow it down and so it should be a very smooth panning shot.

After shooting numerous shots to ensure we would have some decent footage to work with, we headed back to college. We then imported the footage off the SD card onto the computer, and began to select the footage we would like to use to replace the old footage. Tomorrow, we plan to use our free period to add the footage into our opening thriller sequence, as well as adding the new voice recordings and editing them further to make them sound distorted.

Izzy and I re-filming the establishing shot of the front of the house.

 

Audience feedback of second draft edit

Audience feedback of second draft edit

I have created a second questionnaire in order to obtain information on how our second opening thriller sequence appears to our audience. This way, we can make final changes based on audience research and our own personal judgement to improve the quality of our opening thriller, so that it is of a very high standard when we upload the final version.

Person 1

Person 2



Person 3



Did you still find the opening thriller sequence engaging?

Person 1: Yes, the music was intense and the flashbacks really added to the tension. It wasn't just one long scene, I really liked the different elements. It made it very fast paced.

Person 2:  Yes, I do find it engaging because I was wondering what was going to happen next. The music gave it an eerie feel.

Person 3: Yes because it is full of suspense.

How this affects our production:  This means that we don't have to re-film any parts of our opening thriller sequence to make it more suspense. This means my group and I can continue to edit and pick out smaller parts which may need perfecting.

Do you think the editing includes smooth transitions?

Person 1: Yes, the scenes flow nicely into one another. The editing has been executed professionally.

Person 2:  Yes, however there are one or two transitions where the edit hasn't been cut properly, but it is nothing major.

Person 3: Yes, the editing is really good.

How this affects our production:  This means that we still need to perfect some of our transitions where the scenes haven't been cut as well as they could be. This won't take very long and is easy to fix.

Do you think the titles are positioned well on the screen?

Person 1: Yes, because they don't detract away from the storyline or images.

Person 2:  No, because they are in the corner so you might miss them.

Person 3: Yes I do because they are all the same and consistently in similar places.

How this affects our production:  I personally think that the titles are positioned well on the screen. We don't want the titles to distract away from the action in the background.

Does the music fit the narrative?

Person 1: Yes definitely, I think this is a real strong point.

Person 2:  Yes, it is very haunting.

Person 3:  Yes because it is full of suspense.

How this affects our production:  This means that the music we chose is suitable and adds to the suspense and tension, and doesn't need to be changed.

Are there any parts we should re-film?

Person 1: The establishing shot of the house and the doorbell.

Person 2:  The house at the begging and the doorbell. All the other scenes are of a really good standard.

Person 3: The panning shot of the house at the beginning of the opening sequence.

How this affects our production:  These scenes are scenes that we have arranged to re-film. This will be done in the next few days.

Do you like the flashbacks and do you think they should be improved?

Person 1: I love the flashbacks, and I don't think they should be improved.

Person 2:  Yes, I don't think there is any need for improvement.

Person 3: I do like the flashbacks because it gives an insight into the characters background, making you wonder what is going to happen next.

How this affects our production:  The flashbacks therefore need to be reviewed but not changed dramatically.

Second draft edit

Second draft edit

My group and I made our first edit around a month ago. Since then, we have made very clear changes, such as cutting our footage by almost half the time, and really getting it to look sleek and professional. We felt as though it was important to upload a second draft edit to allow for audience feedback as well as for our own benefit. This way, we can make any amendments which we feel are necessary after watching our opening thriller sequence, as well as taking into consideration our audience's opinions.

We only have a few changes to make, such as perfecting the opening titles as well as audio voice overs and re filming the doorbell footage. Overall, we are very pleased with our progress so far.



12/01/16- Editing, editing and more editing.

Editing, editing and more editing

Today, we had a 2 hour media lesson. With our 'To do' list prepared, we made a start with making some clear progress and being productive with our time. First of all, we decided to continue with adding titles to our opening sequence. As mentioned before, we felt as though this is what our opening sequence was lacking and it was something we were continuing to put off. So, we decided to continue to make amendments to our opening titles first. On reviewing our opening titles, we decided to change the name of our production company, from T I E Productions to Vision Productions. We felt as though this fitted with the eye opening at the very beginning. We then changed Woodfire Images to TIE images. We felt as though both these names were much more professional and better suited for the task in hand. 

The new production company name.

The new image company and different font

We then went on to add the titles throughout the duration of the opening sequence. We used the blog post where we had pre-planned the titles, which made adding them much easier. Something my group and I found difficult to agree on, was the font in which the titles should appear. Eventually, we agreed that a sans-serif, white distorted font would look particularly effective, and fit with the thriller genre, for now. This is something we can ask in our audience feedback. We also ensured that each title would appear in the same size, colour and font to make the appearance consistent. As well as this, we decided the best positioning for most of the titles would be the bottom right hand corner.

An example of one of the titles which appear.

After completing our titles, we then went ahead and adjusted some of the sound. This was because we needed to add in the voice recordings of the news reporters and so the non diegetic music needed to be faded in and faded out. After this, the voice recordings of the news reporters could be added. These then had to be inserted into Adobe Premier Pro. After inserting them, we realised that they didn't sound distorted or fuzzy, which was our intention. So, we made each voice recording sound distorted by adding in a fuzzy radio sound over the top of the voice recordings, and then edited them in a programme called 'Adobe Sound Booth'. This way, we could select the 'distorted' option, which gave the effect we were looking for.

The clips of audio can be seen in green.

We then felt we were ready to upload our second draft edit.

Title Analysis-Inspiration for our opening thriller sequence

Title Analysis-Inspiration for our opening thriller sequence

Torn

Previously on my blog, I have done a full analysis of Torn, which is another Media students work which was awarded a grade A. When watching this opening sequence, the titles really inspired my group and I. This is because the titles are sleek and professional.

We felt as though it is very important for the ending of the opening sequence to build tension and make the audience want to carry on watching, if the opening sequence was to be produced into a full length film.

The film 'Torn' used a font which is in a bold, sans serif font against a plain black background, which appeared at the very end of the film. Therefore, we have decided that we would to use the same effect but in a different font. The title 'UNORTHODOX' combined with a 'boom' sound will give a dramatic ending for the audience when watching the opening sequence. The title will be simplistic but will add to the suspense. This is because the girl, Daisy, will appear at the door, but will not show her face and so the audience are left to wonder if this girl is Daisy, who she is, and why she is at Oliver's house. This will add to the narrative enigma of the opening sequence. 

The title of 'Torn' appears at the end of the opening sequence.



Here, is our title which is inspired by Torn.



Title Planning

Title Planning for the opening thriller sequence

Before adding titles to our opening thriller sequence, my group and I thought it would be ideal to come up with the names we would like to include. We decided to use our real names in the titles, but even though each name is put with a specific title, we all had a role in every aspect of creating our opening thriller sequence.

 

The titles will appear in this order:

 

Vision Productions presents

In association with T I E images

A Theo Jackson film

Produced by Tamara Harris

Directed by Emma Snow

Edited by Isobel Humphriss

Music by Kevin MacLeod

Harper Williams

Chloe Mar-Gerrison

Frankie Kemp

Evan Jones

 

Obviously, some of the names are made up, but some are real as we have credited our friend who let us borrow her house, and our friend who let us film her eye for our opening titles. Now we have planned the titles, we can add them into our opening thriller sequence. 

Plan of action for the next week!

To do list...

With only two weeks left until the final deadline, we decided it would be a good idea to come up with a 'To do' list. This way, we will have set tasks to complete this week which should maintain our productiveness and help my group and I to efficiently meet the deadline.

• Upload the current draft to YouTube.
• Cut out at least an additional 10 seconds of footage, if completely necessary. This is something we need to discuss with our teacher.
• Re-film the clip of the doorbell as you can see a reflection of the film crew. 
• Make the flash backs more edgy and flow more easily. 
• Create/finish the production and main company titles either within adobe editing program or with adobe after effects. 
• Create the titles to go throughout the opening sequence.
• Get audience feedback.
• Make final changes and small amendments
• Upload the final draft to YouTube.

I think that this will be effective in guiding us with how much time we have left, compared with how much we have left to complete.

18/01/2016

Continued Editing and Title creations

We didn't have a media lesson scheduled today, but seeing as the deadline is nearing, we decided to carry on editing.

 

We felt as though the next important part to complete would be to sort out our sound. This is an area I feel confident on and so I volunteered to complete this part. I adjusted the sound levels so that you can hear the dialogue, and made sure the sound faded in and out in the correct places, as well as the sound effects matching the correct part in the footage. 



This is where the sound is edited in the left hand window. The orange dots can be moved to fade music in and out without
it sounding jumpy or harsh.

Then, we decided to re-film the eye opening. I wasn't really happy with the clip because it wasn't stable, as a tripod hadn't been used to film originally. I therefore suggested to the group that we should re-film, and we all agreed. So, we went back into the studio, with the Canon 700D camera, set up the lighting and got a tripod. We then filmed our friend's eye, taking multiple shots until we were happy with the outcome. This was then imported into Adobe Premiere Pro ready for titles to be added.

This is the new eye with the titles (the production company) inserted over the top.

After reviewing our 'In association with Woodfire Images' we decided that the opening titles didn't really fit. We therefore deleted the picture and instead, added the titles where the establishing shot of the house is shown at the very beginning. This helps to keep the duration of the opening thriller sequence as short as we can, and we feel as though it looks more professional and classy. Originally, we attempted to graphic match the 'O' into the centre of the eye, but the title looked out of place in this position, so we opted for the title to be positioned on the left hand side to the eye opening, but level with the pupil.

Here, we have the new titles.

Next, Izzy decided to start adding more titles, such as the title of our opening thriller sequence, which is Unorthodox, to the end of our sequence. Tammy and I helped to advise her on the fonts and text colours. This was inspired by a previous media students work which I analysed earlier in this blog. This title was particularly effective at the end of the opening sequence and added suspense to the clip.

Here is the title of our opening sequence, to appear at the end.

Next week, we plan to add the titles throughout the opening sequence, such as editors, directors, actors and scripters. We also plan to add voice overs for the news reporters and also get our actor to lip synch to his dialogue to make the quality crisp and clear. Another thing we must do is replace the doorbell footage where the shot is stable and where you can't see the person filming in the glass.

07/01/2016- Creating opening titles

Creating opening titles

Today my group and I also started to create opening titles for our opening thriller sequence. We felt this was important because when we submitted our first draft edit, this was something we really need to work on, as our teacher pointed out. The only reason we hadn't tackled the titles yet, is because we felt the editing of the actual footage was much more important to complete first, and then anything extra can be added once we were almost finished with the editing aspect.

 

We first thought of different image company names and we did this by brainstorming our ideas. Eventually, we decided on 'Woodfire Images'. We also decided to use an image which is copyright free, and so decided to use a photo I had taken a few weeks ago. This was just something to go there temporarily as we were lacking inspiration. This is something we can work on tomorrow.

A screenshot of the opening titles being created.

Here, an image has been added.

Next, we started to create our other opening title which will appear at the very beginning of the opening sequence. This will display 'T I E productions' which is the name of the production company. Each letter represents each one of my group members name's; Tammy, Izzy and Emma. Izzy and Tammy filmed one of our friends opening her eye in the studio, whilst I continued to edit. Tomorrow, we hope to continue to make amendments to the opening titles and if we have time, add titles throughout our opening sequence.


This is the clip of our friend opening her eye.

07/01/2016- Editing

Editing the footage even more!

After the Christmas holidays, it was time to get back into editing. With having a break from our opening thriller sequence footage, we were able to get back into editing with a fresh eye. This gave my group and I to firstly identify the things we must do in order to make some significant progress as the deadline is quickly approaching. Here is the list we came up with:

• Edit our footage down as much as we could, by cutting out parts which were too long or not of a high quality. This is because our opening thriller sequence was well over 4 minutes long. Seeing as the brief is to make it around the 2 minute mark, drastic editing was needed. We were able to look at our questionnaires which we conducted before the Christmas holidays in order to see what our audience felt should be edited out, as well as using our own personal judgement and advice from our peers.
• Sort out the sound! The sound was fading in and out in random parts where it wasn't necessary. This was because we had edited the sound and then cut parts out of our sequence, which had moved the sound from the clip is should be with.
• Try and make some opening titles. This is really important to enable my group and I to achieve the high grades we desire, however at this point, I believe it isn't essential. This is because the footage should be our priority and getting it to a high standard and to match the brief is the most important thing at the moment.

Firstly, we decided to watch the footage and identify parts which we could delete. By cutting parts down here and there, we managed to get the footage down to 2 minutes 40, which was a huge achievement. Cutting out pieces of footage was very difficult, as knowing which parts to delete was very tough. Shown below, is part of the footage we cut out. We had our actor walking towards the wall, but we felt as though that part didn't really add to the narrative enigma, and so we cut it straight from the girls face below in a flashback, to Daisy, (the victim in the present). This is effective because it shows our antagonist has an on-going problem with victimising girls.

One of our shots which we edited to make the duration of our opening sequence shorter.  



We then were looking at where else we could cut footage down. Originally when reviewing our opening thriller sequence, we thought that the part where our actor is strangely stroking the victims face on the wall was for too long. However, when our peers watched our opening thriller sequence, this was the part where they thought it was most disturbing and weird to watch, which a convention and aspect that really makes a thriller scary. We decided to not cut this part out.

We decided to not cut this part out as it adds to the narrative enigma. 

My group and I then reviewed the part of the opening thriller sequence where our actor makes his way down the stairs. This part takes up quite a bit of time in the opening thriller sequence, and so we were planning on cutting parts out. My group and I debated on whether to cut this part out entirely, but we then decided that this part contains aspects of good editing and so this could minimise the chances of achieving a high grade. We also thought that this part creates suspense as he makes his way from the bedroom to the front door, and so we have also decided to not cut down this part either.

We then cut down the overall time of the footage by cutting out little parts of scenes which weren't adding much suspense to the narrative. This therefore allowed my group and I to get the final time down to 2 minutes 42seconds.

 

We didn't have time to sort out the sound today, but tomorrow we have decided as a group that I am going to edit the sound so that it fades in and out in the right places.