Preliminary
For our preliminary task, we did not do a large amount of research. We didn't do a large amount as we didn't have a lot of time to film and edit it compared to the amount of time we've had for our final piece. We did minor research into what certain things make horrors scary, and some research on the generic conventions for horror film, for example a good horror should have an element of mystery until the end, and murders are usually put in there too, so we ended up using both of these conventions.
The picture above shows the convention of mystery that we used. The killer is wearing the mask in order to protect his identity. We had the killer wear a mask because in horrors such as Scream and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the killers have worn masks, and we believe the mask makes the killer look more frightening, although the mask has a smiley face on it, but however in the horror films Scream and Smiley, the killer also wears a mask with a smiley face on it, and it is a very effective way to scare the audience even more.
Final piece
For our final piece, we have done a huge amount of research into films similar to ours, and what they have done to make their film a success. We have done this because we believe that if we use techniques similar to popular films similar to ours, for example Jumanji and The Goonies, we can create a very good opening.
Things that we have research into include institutional logos, effective advertising techniques, what types of actors/actresses to use, conventions and a lot of research/information about the genre of film that we have chosen to do, which is family adventure.
Doing research on all these things is very good because we then have a lot more knowledge about our chosen genre, which will then help us when planning and editing our final piece, and we will have lots more ideas about what to do to make it the best film possible.
EDITING AND CAMERAWORK
Preliminary
When editing our preliminary task, as we did not have much knowledge about the software we were using, which was iMovie, we didn't do much complex editing as iMovie doesn't give us the chance to make it look very professional, and with regards to the camera we used, which was a basic video camera, we weren't able to make it look like a real film opening, and things like wind in the background couldn't be shut out as they camera did not have the ability to do that.
Although we were not able to do very complex editing, we did manage to get in a match-on-action, we kept to the 180 degree rule and we also had a shot reverse shot. Although we included a match-on-action shot, it was not a very advanced one, as it was two people opening a door and walking through it, and our shot reverse shot was also not very advanced as it was a quick one whilst two people were having a conversation whilst sitting at a table.
This is our shot-reverse-shot. It is not very complex as we did not have the equipment to make it look very professional.
This is our match-on-action. Again, it doesn't look very professional as the location (school corridor) was not ideal and the camera wasn't HD quality.
Final piece
To edit our final piece, we used after effects, which is a more complex, upgraded version of iMovie. It allowed us to do a lot more to our film in order to make it look like something done by a professional film company. To film our piece, we used a very expensive, HD, soundproof camera. This allowed us to capture all of our shots in much higher quality compared to our preliminary task, and not as much wind was heard in the background as the camera had the ability to avoid it.
As well as having much higher quality equipment at our disposal, we also had an appropriate location to film at, which made it a lot easier for us to include things such as match-on-action shots, shot-reverse-shots, and it was easier to stick to the 180 degree rule as there was more space to film in, meaning we could move the camera around more and still stick to the rule.
These screenshots show the match-on-action shot we did.
We did have some shot-reverse-shots in our piece however we cut the end part off as it was too long.
What have we learnt overall?
Over all from using the various equipment and editing software to make both our preliminary task and our final task, the main thing we have learnt that is that it is the small things on the camera make it better, and we learnt how to use all of the features of it by practising with it before our actors turned up, and always use more complex software to edit, for example After Effects, rather the more simple ones just because they are easier, such as iMovie.
Before our actors turned up to our location to film, we was playing with the camera to see how good it was compared to the one we used for our preliminary task. This was a good idea because we then noticed that it had the walk-proof feature on it, which helped us massively as without it, a lot of our moving shots would have been a lot lower quality, like in the preliminary task, as a dolly would not have worked in a field due to the bumpy surface. We also got to learn about the wind-proof feature, and how we could then film in more open spaces and not worry about the sound in the background, rather than film in condense spaces to avoid the wind.
We then learnt a lot about the editing software by playing around with it before we started editing. It was a lot more complex than iMovie, as iMovie doesn't have the complex features on it like after effects, but although it was more complex at first, practising with it made us better at it, and we were then able to use it with ease, like iMovie.
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