Evaluation Interview, Question 6 & 7

Exclusive Interview with Director and Producers, Luke Denny and Abigail Stilgoe of new upcoming blockbuster "Isolation!"


Q - Hi Guys, Welcome to the studio. Let's get straight to the point, We all know what this new film is about but what strikes the film market is the equipment you guys used. Why did you chose the use this equipment?



L - Well, We used a couple of differnt peices of equipment. This consisted of a mac computer, photoshop, garageband, video and still cameras. We chose to use all of this so we got a variation of different editing technigques and widened our experience with using different types of programme. For instance, we used imovie for the editing, and a video camera to film the shots. We then also used a still camera and photoshop for the film logo. For things like the titles in the film, were also done on imovie. Imovie also allowed us to change our font and titles and make them more interesting to the audience.

A - We used the equipment because we felt that it would really help us in finalising our piece and help us to create the clean finish, even though it may not have been the most expensive or high quality.

Q – What were the advantages of using these?

L- As i said before, all of these pieces of equipment we used allowed us to do so many things making our film better in many ways. While filming we used a tripod which created much smoother shots and allowed us to create a professional looking film.

A - Using the tripod really helped us to achieve steady shots so that it looked as professional as possible rather than having a shaky picture on screen. Using iMovie on the macs, gave us a lot of varied effects, transitions, sounds etc. that we could incorporate into our film to improve the final product.

Q – Do you feel you have learnt much from using these piece of equipment?

L- I feel that I have learnt much more than I ever thought I would. I knew to some extent I would learn about the programme, but to no standard as what I have. I feel that now I could start all again, with the feeling, and the editing, and know exactly what I am doing.

A - Definitely, I feel that I've really progressed with my skills after using them as now I'm more confident with what I'm doing and I know how to edit and polish clips so they look as best as possible.

Q – Looking back at a prelimary example of a film, How much do you think you have improved?

L - Looking back at our prelimary, I can't even believe we were so bad! One of the main rules in filming is the 180 degree rule, and we even messed that up. I am glad we did though, because through the whole process of creating our film, we were so careuful not to make silly mistakes like that, and without making that mistake early on in the process I think we would be less immune to the silly things that could go wrong.

A - A lot! During our preliminary we didn't even do the 180 degree rule! Now I think that we aren't making small mistakes like that and we know how to make things like the continuity of the film much slicker and look realistic whereas our preliminary wasn't a good example of that.

Our Logo

This is our film logo to our film company "Twisted Motion"

Final Thumbnails

These are our final thumbnails for our film. We re-did them as we changed a view ideas for the opening so created a new set of thumbnails in order to help us get our film how we wanted to.

Update

During our first session to film the new footage, Maddy was unavailable but we were able to film all of the other scenes and this meant we could still work on our film in the following week before we could re-film the other scenes so we were still making good progress with our work.

During our second session to film the new footage, Luke was unfortunately unavailable. This meant I had to film the rest on my own. However, filming still went well with both of our actors being able to complete the process and ready to film the final shots. We did face a couple of problems though, including the tape running out but luckily I had another tape I could use at home. Also, both of the batteries we were given for the camera hadn't been charged fully and ran out but I had managed to film the main footage I wanted to so it didn't ruin the whole thing.

Update On Progress

In today's lessons, we managed to complete our film. We still have to add finishing touches and make things more sharper and clear but we made a lot of progress today. We have still incorporated some things from our draft like shots of Maddy, as we are using them for the flashbacks which I think work effectively within the rest of our footage.

Recce Shots

These are shots of our location which is my garage. Obviously for filming we removed the car in order to make room for filming. However, I think this is a good location for us to use and has effective mise en scene that makes our footage more believable.

Target

For today's lesson, we want to have completed the logo to put at the start of our film for our film's company by using photoshop and uploading it on to our blog.

Draft Thumbnails

Photos Of Model

Here are some shots which we took of Maddy whilst we were filming the draft of our film opening. We have given her a dirty look to show what she has been through but we are hoping to emphasise this even more in our final opening. We were originally going to use these photos in our opening but for our draft we decided not to do this, however we hope to still include pictures of her in our final film opening and will take more during filming.

The make up on the girl in these pictures looks unprofessional and not realistic. When we come to shooting the final thing we need to make it more realistic looking, as if she ahs been dragged across the floor to be taken into the garage and kidnapped. We plan to do this, by taking off all of the actresses make up off, remove ehr of persoanl items such as her head band, and make the fake blood more realistic looking.

Coursework

We have finished a rough filming of our two minute film opening. We have started editing and have completed the titles to our film, including music and shots of things like the knife and rag etc. During filming we realised that we would have to cut certain elements for the rough draft as when we filmed we were not able to finish the shots of the kidnapper's camera. However, we still hope to incorporate this into our final edit of our opening.

Halloween Opening

I think that this is a great example of a good horror film opening. I like the use of POV as I feel it leaves the audience wanting more and they want to know who the character is and what he is doing. I think it would be good if we could somehow incorporate this into our own opening film sequence as we don't want the kidnappers face to be shown to the audience to leave it as a mystery to who they are. I also like how they show the pumpkin which your eyes are automatically drawn to and is a hint for the remainder of the film.

Grey Hand Gang

http://greyhandgang.com/index

I found this website useful in giving me inspiration for types of shots, settings and camera angles etc. that I would be able to use in my film opening.

Audience Feedback On Pitches

Name Of Group And Task Idea
Luke and Abbi - Film Opening

Genre
Horror/Thriller

Target Audience
15+

Other Texts It Reminds You Of
Scream, Saw, The Ring, Kiss The Girls

Potential Problems

• Too much work
• Pictures
• Could be quite scary for 15 year olds
• Quite technical
• Not much happening may get boring
• The locations may not be appropriate - garage works best
• Offensive
• Who's perspective are we seeing it through?
• Lighting - Is it night?
• Mise en scene - Convincing location
• Could be a short movie

Positive Comments

• Really know what we're doing
• Good storyline
• Good ideas
• Very good pitch - nice consideration of costume and location
• I like thrillers
• Makes me want to watch the rest
• As it's similar to Saw, it could be quite hooking
• Good planning
• Really inventive and well thought out ideas, good setting and sinister ideas
• Good idea to be like Saw because it could bring Saw fans to watch it

Advice/Suggestions

• Keep it simple
• Garage would be best for setting - dark, cold and gloomy
• Don't complicate things too much
• Look at other thriller movies for more ideas
• Look into music which helps enhance the genre
• Research effective camera shots
• Build tension
• Don't reveal the kidnapper
• Flashbacks to abduction

Musical Inspiration

We think that a sound like this could be effectively used in our film opening to help build up the tension.

25 Word Pitch

Sam Parker, 17, Taken by her next door neighbour. The opening scene is her waking up in the place she has been taken to. Thriller genre.

About Our Film

Synopsis;

Sam Parker, 17, was abducted on the 19th August 2010. She was violated by her next door neighbour. As her parents struggle to find any clues to where she is, next door down in the basement un imaginable things are happening, and when they finally figure out the riddle, they're in a race against time to save their daughter.

The title of the film; The Parker Riddle

Catch line; Sometimes, what your looking for, is right next door.

Our Idea

After watching the opening to Saw 2, which Abbi posted on to our blog, i had the idea of creating the opening to Saw 7. This is because i think it would be possible to create the same sort of effects which are shown in Saw 2. Obviously we could not actually do Saw 7 because of copyrighted issues.

This then gave me the idea of having somebody kidnapped and the opening of the film would be them waking up. The reason i think this would be good is because it is un explained and un known and the audience would feel scared for the person waking up and also confused because they will have no idea what is going on.

After thinking about this we decided that this is the idea that we are going to use for our film opening.

Possible Ideas

http://www.eng.umu.se/monster/john/sound_music.htm

I think that this website could be very useful in helping us to decide what type of musical elements we may want to include in our film opening. We can see a selection of different varieties in music that are used in many popular thriller films e.g simple three note melodies as used in Jaws and the Halloween series. Therefore helping us to decide what style of music we want to include to help our opening fit the genre of thriller.

The Ring - Film Opening Analysis

I think that this is a great example of a horror/thriller theme opening. It straight away makes the ordinary house look creepy and you can already start to get a sense of something bad happening. When the girls are talking it seems like a normal night but as soon as one of them tells the story of the video, we are automatically drawn into the film's main plot. We can already assume that the video will have a reoccurence later on and the fact that she says people have died, we are left wanting to know what will happen.
Also, the fact that it is two ordinary girls we realise that it is happening in everyday life which makes it a more realistic situation.

Scream - Film Opening Analysis

Scream is a classic example of a great horror/thriller film. It is also a good example of a 'whodunnit' film. It allows the audience to join in with the characters at figuring out who the killer is.

The mise en scene is the opposite to the saw 2 opening because this doesn't look like the setting of a horror film, this looks like the setting of just a normal film but that could be what makes it so scary. This could happen to anyone. Later on in this seqeunce the character being played by Drew Barrymoore is murdered by the man on the telephone who is dressed in a long black cloak and a mask. It leaves the audience wondering who this person could be. It is not revealed til the end of the film.

This film was a succesful one and we can see why. What we want to take from it is the idea of not knowing who the 'bad guy' is and allowing the audience to also try and figure it out, along with the other characters.