Response To Peer Feedback

We felt as though the one long shot of the detectives table worked better than several shorter ones. We feel that it builds up more tension, rather than suspense which would be showed with short durationed, quick-cuts, but we feel that for the opening sequence the tension needed to be built before the suspense.
We also felt as though the music was fitting to the visuals- it might not have fitted the genre, but at the opening sequence we thought that it was more important for our project to fit the visuals, than the genre. We thought that it wasn't contrapuntal in any way, but it does challenge the traditional thriller sounds. We do agree that the sound in the middle of the sequence changes too quickly, and this is a big shame, as it could easily have been fixed but only if we had more time.

Peer Feedback For Final Piece

1) Describe the type of camerawork which has been used. Do you think it is effective and why?
Good camera shots but are a bit too long.
Good use of pan.
Point of view puts audience into scene.
Close-ups and panning shots sheds light on surroundings.

2) What type of sound has been used and does it work with the visuals? How?
Non-diegetic tension-building soundtrack.
Sound doesn't fit the thriller genre- contrapuntal.
Sound challenges traditional thriller sounds.
Seemed unfitting in some ways.
Soundtrack changed in the middle too suddenly.


3) How has the mise-en-scene been constructed? Does it have an impact on the thriller genre?
Good use of location.
The fire was a good effect, as were the desk with profiles.
Well set, well lit, which fits the genre type.
Both settings worked well.
Good contrast.
Props- white sheet to cover body .


4) What editing techniques have been used?
Jump-cuts used.
Editing of the text being typed was good.
Overdone shot duration.
Transitions were fitting to the genre.
Good continuity.
Good font and typewriter effect.
Fading in and out of music and scenes.


5) Can you think of any constructive critisisms?
Overdone shot duration.
Music is a little unfitting to thriller genre.
Could have been more tense- looking for suspects.
Have a better soundtrack.

6) What was the most effective element of the production?
Lighting.
Scenes set mood.
Location.
Location and credits are good.

Evaluation Of The Editing Stage

Editing is a very important part of the movie process, especially in thrillers. It proved to be very hard for us, harder than we thought! This was due to our planning changing because of bad organisation, and we had a lot more footage than we originally thought! As we had a lot of footage, there was a lot for us to choose from, and we were able to have a variety of ideas in which we could be able to connect them in different ways. This proved hard to find the best and most effective way, however we came to a conclusion to just have the first scene. This then became a problem, as it was too short, so we cut part of scene 2 into several short clips which we inserted within scene 1, enabling the audience to gain an idea of what has happened before the detective scene, without giving it all away, and letting them imagine and think for themselves (a convention of a thriller).
Our choice of font and style for our credits proved an easier part of the editing stage for us, as we were able to get and use these with ease, and the program we used helped us to find the right style and the right transitions for these credits.
GarageBand, when a amateur user, can be difficult, and it was as it didn't provide us some of the sounds we admired, but we were able to put together a decent soundtrack which went with our theme. From this to our final piece on FinalCut, this process to us was easy.

Evaluation Of Our Project So Far

So far I think we have done well on this project. We have met the aims we set out to when we planned the project and in most areas done better than most of our objectives.We each took upon ourselves an individual task which all of performed well in and it shows in our final product. Overall I feel like we could have done better with planning however. We were not as ready to film as perhaps we should have been, which was clear with our lack of props where we filmed a body under a sheet. But, we did film it well, the camera angles used and the movement of the camera really gave acroos the atmosphere we wanted the audience to feel. This was also the case with how well we made the location low lit. The editing used slow cutting to build the tense atmosphere which is what we planned and the music also helped to create this. Overall we feel everyone performed well and we are pleased with our final cut, even if there are areas we could have improved if we had other equipment.

Evaluation of Music For Thriller Opening

After viewing the film with the finished piece of music on it, we found that for most of the scene the music fitted well. However, we did need to go back and adjust some small parts, where the timings were a bit out. When we went back to 'Garage Band' we soon sorted this out and it now works really well.

Final Cut - Resolution

16th March 2010

Today is our last lesson for editing.
This lesson, all we need to do is add the soundtrack to the video and then upload it to youtube ready to blog at the end of the lesson. Our thriller project will then be complete!