Sneak preview of our logo and Nocturnal titling

The one of many, exciting times are here!! We have decided on 1. Our company name and 2. A company logo. So our name is.. Salt Sisters Production, we thought this was catchy due to the alliteration used. A logo is a critical aspect in marketing, which is extremely important for the industry we are in. Logos anchor a company's brand and becomes the single most visible manifestation of the company. Hence why one is so important. One of the members in my group, her last name is salt, which is where the idea originally came from, and the use of the salt and pepper bottles, (which if i remember correctly Charlie came up with) is an extremely clever way to associate our name with our logo, enhancing our brand image.

And here is our main title of our THRILLER!!! The idea stemmed from 'Insidious' titling, and this is where we had to do lots of researching using YouTube to perfect our title, and here is finally is..

Ideas for marketing and distribution

My role in our thriller opening

I have been SOOOO busy working on this thriller opening!!!! Who knew it would be such a huge task??? well not me anyway!!
At first I thought my role would be mainly doing the camera work.. which it was, everyone had little parts in the film as we all needed to be there to set the scene, but some people obviously had larger roles in the acting side of things, which wasn't me at first so i along with the rest of my group could focus on getting all the shots we needed, as well as ensuring our continuity was accurate! So for a while my main role was camera work and being part of the technical side whilst filming, however... Mr Welch then prompted the idea of adding more footage to enhance the story line and add suspense, and this is where my main acting part came in lol. I had to play the serial killer and portray the idea of preparing for the killings, now you couldn't see my face as we wanted to include the mystery aspect into the film in order to get the audience engaged with our production, and this was probably good as i have very little practice acting so i would have probably been seen and heard laughing, whilst walking down the street with a knife (that would've really ruined the mood we were trying to set)!! Its a good job we're good at editing so that couldn't be heard lol !

When it came to the editing side of things it started off going well, and everyone played a part in the editing of the thriller, which is where we used Adobe Premiere Pro CC, however when things started going majorly wrong, (there were software issues, nothing we could prevent) we had to split the group up to make better use of our time, me and Charlie worked on the titling and Sav and Eloise worked on finding the sound, this actually worked well as it gave everyone in the group a chance to get more hands on with the production instead of us all gathering round one computer. We then switched it up to give everyone a chance to do all aspects, me and Sav then worked on changing the sound levels to fit perfectly with the scenes (which was a lot bigger task than we set out for due to ANOTHER software malfunction, and Eloise and Charlie created out company logo which is Salt Sisters, for anyone that's unaware)
Due to all the errors we had, and i am NOT being dramatic everything that could have gone wrong did!! We didn't get the chance to make good use of Adobe After Affects, which we had great plans for, many other groups were able to fully progress their films using this software, and it would have defiantly benefited ours with the ideas we had, even just little ones to do with the titles, as it shows a greater understanding and knowledge of 1. using the different technologies and 2. meeting the audiences demands/wants for a thriller genre. There is no point dwelling on the past though, there is nothing we as a group, Mr Welch or even the IT help desk in school, could have done to stop, prevent or even correct the errors which happened!
Overall I would say everyone in my group played a big part in the making of the film in different ways, and even though the editing side didn't go as well as we anticipated (due to the errors) its been a real learning process, which has bettered us for our progression to A2!

Tutorial: Adjusting volume levels

So we've been looking to do some volume changes to our thriller so the sound we add in sounds better with the scene it is being used with, and this is where we needed to do some research. If I remember correctly we didn't have to do anything like this is my preliminary task, so it was completely new to me.. which is where YouTube comes in handy!
I like this guy as he also (in this tutorial) had a slight technical difficulty, not quite as bad as the ones we have encountered but at least it shows it doesn't just happen to us lol, and ejoy :)

Locational Sneak Preview

Me and my group needed what seemed to be a secluded location, in order to meet the demands of the thriller conventions, therefore we chose the entrance of a woods, a few minutes walk from Charlie's house, this was an ideal location for all the group as we were able to get to it by foot! The shots which were taken in this environment were proposed as the journey to the log cabin, which is in the starting seconds of the film opening. The setting helped create a rural, solitary feel for the viewers, helping to build up the tension and suspense which we are hoping to achieve.

Another location sneak peak is inside the log cabin (located on Charlie's garden). This is the location of the girls perfectly normal mini break.. so they thought. The cabin is seen to be cosy, and pleasant which causes a major contrast with what actually occurs just outside the door, which is my opinion adds suspense, and creates the realism that you never know what's around the corner.. literally!! 

(The shot shows the group of friends in the cabin, except me and Sav as we were setting up and recording the shot)

Tutorial

Hey guys!! So we are still currently in the process of editing out thriller opening (Nocturnal). We have been using the program 'Premiere Pro', however we also have the opportunity to use 'After Effects' which enables us to put the finishing touches on our opening, improving the editing techniques we have already used. As our group consists of 4 people: me (Brooke), Sav, Charlie and Eloise we thought it would be more beneficial, (as the film is all now in sequence) to allocate roles, me and Charlie are going to be working on titles, and Sav and Eloise shall be working on sound. Anyway enough rambling, i thought it would be a good idea to do some research on how we could make our titles stand out, and use unique approaches, which is when i decided to look at tutorials.
Here is tutorial which I found on Youtube, teaching us how to motion track our titles,




There are many tutorials available on Youtube, which we shall be watching to help us along the way, but for now we'll see how motion tracking looks for our titles, and i'll let you know!! See you soon :)

Filming our thriller opening

Hey guys!!!
So finally we have finished filming!!! It has taken us in total 5 attempts to film our opening and believe me it has been one tiresome but exciting experience. First of all me and the rest of my group (Charlie, Sav and Eloise) began filming in the woods near Charlie's house, this was in order for us to get location shots so we could set the scene we were trying to portray right at the beginning of our thriller opening, overall this went well, we managed to get a variety of shots so we had many to chose from and we got it all finished with pretty quick (1-2 hours).
As you can see from the photo below this is a sneak preview of the setting we are portraying throughout our film:

The hard parts came next.. We then had to focus on filming in the log cabin, and for this we needed all our characters, trying to organize when to shoot with people who have other important commitments proved to be very challenging, and obviously because our actors weren't media students it wasn't their first priority like it was ours, however they still managed to make it every time, so THANKS GUYS ;). We ended up filming in the log cabin 3 times!! We wanted it to be the best it could be and due to the season we are currently in, obviously as everyone knows it gets dark very quick, hence why we spent so much time filming otherwise the lighting would have been different!

Then came our last time filming, which was at my house, the narrative we were trying to achieve was a serial killer preparing for his murders. (I had to play the killer and walk down the jitty with a knife, which i'm pretty sure thinking about it now would have got us in some serious trouble *YIKES* it worked though and we got the shots we wanted!!!

Now you're just going to have to be patient wait for the final product :D
See you soon!!!

Binary Oppositions

Binary Oppositions - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Age ratings

This is my age rating audience task, which explains what each symbol that you see on all films mean, and why they apply to specific age ranges..

Age ratings from _brookepollock

Nocturnal storyboard

The storyboard may just seem like an extra, some may say tedious, step in the whole film making process.. but it's defiantly not! A storyboard is the best way to share and explain your vision, not just with any interested parties, but also with the rest of your group, as all the group members will vision how the thriller will go slightly differently, so its best to ensure people are on the same wave length.. well try too, but also to ensure other people can also understand the idea.
Story boarding makes overall production a whole lot easier, as it sets up a plan for the production, including all the shots, the order and how those concepts will interact with the script. This makes the filming slightly easier as you've already planned the coverage, and it ensures scenes wont be forgotten, obviously the storyboard isn't set in stone so there is always room for improvement, but its just a guide to help.
You may not think it but the storyboard process actually SAVES time!! So spending a little more time on the storyboard, in the end turns out in your favor as it helps piece the parts together.

So anyway enough of me rambling on, here is our Nocturnal storyboard, hope you enjoy!

Social media marketing

Hey guys! So I've been thinking lately around how we could market our film, i mean obviously we want to reach the biggest audience we can, but at the cheapest option! So the conclusion came that marketing our thriller opening through social media would defiantly work in our favor. Social media is drastically taking over, which means sooo many people will be able to view and engage with our product. If people are to see our brand becoming well established by creating set ups like twitter accounts, it is going to increase brand recognition, meaning it will increase its visibility and value to our possible audience. This is important because it simultaneously makes it easier and more accessible for new customers/audience types and will also make us more familiar and recognizable for our existing customers.

The social networking site chosen, was twitter, as you can see from the image below:

Twitter also allows us to survey and gain feedback of our ideas through the use of polls and reply sections. There are many reasons why Twitter is useful for our production, firstly it allows us to connect and build relationships with our customers/viewers, which is extremely important in the industry we're in. 

Be sure to check out our twitter, and give any feedback you like :) 

Risk Assessment

Ok, so in order for me and my group to go through with the creation of the thriller opening, we had to take into account any risks which could possibly occur during the makings! Obviously some of the risks may be a little OTT but they're just precautions we have to take..

Below is the second part of the risk assessment where we had to think of ways in order to make the risks less of a hazard/harm to anyone/thing in the production. 

Being the examiner

Hi guys, ok so we recently had a lesson on being the examiner, obviously I am an amateur at this but I thought id give it a go.. with a little help. So, I was given a mark scheme for the level 4 (grade A) which needs 48-60 marks in order to achieve this top band mark. After thoroughly looking at the mark scheme we were able to see how professional examiners marked specific areas of the media videos and what techniques deserved specific marks. The task I was given was to watch some AS thriller openings, and mark them accordingly with what band mark I thought they deserved. Obviously when I first heard of the task role I was about to take on, I didn't think much of it and thought it was going to be pretty easy.. I thought wrong! In actual fact I was a much harsher marker than what the thriller openings were actually awarded.


The level 4 mark scheme which I was focussing on was (Grade A) involved:

The first thriller opening I was told to watch was 'Leah Reid's' production:



I awarded this opening a level 4, grade A, with 50 marks. This is due to the amazing and creative editing skills used by the film maker, in my opinion the material was task appropriate and audience appropriate. However the actual marker awarded this clip 52/50 which is secure level A. When thinking back to the clip compared with the mark scheme I can see that the film producer actually achieved 4/5 bullet points for 'Level 4' which were; using titles appropriately according to institutional conventions; using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task; shooting material appropriate for the task set including controlled use of camera, attention to framing, variety of shot distance and close attention to mise en scene. Which is clear to me now why the higher mark was achieved.



Another thriller opening I viewed was 'Peek-a-boo'


In my opinion this was the least enhancing clip out of the ones watched, due to the clip seeming more like a trailer than a film opening which is defeating the object of the task set. Therefore I only placed this opening in 'Level 3', in my opinion it was a low level 3, giving it 37 marks so it only just achieved a C. The clip started well however the thought and planning that went into this was quite clearly not up to scratch as it was clear the setting was supposed to have that night time, spooky feel to it, however the shots were taken in the day time! The actual marker however gave 44/47 for this opening, as it seemed to tick most of the boxes for the level 3 mark band.


Below is the markers annotation of the level 3 mark band for this opening:

In my opinion this task was helpful as it helped with the realisation of what I need to include in my thriller opening, and specific things I should be extra cautious of, for example the timing shots are taken compared with what I am trying to create.

Nocturnal One Page Pitch Video

Audience task

Audience Tasks - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Nocturnal One Page Pitch

One page pitch from _brookepollock

Nocturnal Screenplay

Nocturnal screenplay from _brookepollock

Narrative codes

The Plot- initial ideas

In our thriller opening, it will introduce the main characters. The location of the thriller will be set in a rented out log cabin for a girly weekend break (including a gay guy), which is owned by one of the girls family members. Typically the log cabin will be in the middle of nowhere, which helps prompt the horror setting. Whilst in the log cabin, its just a casual night in, with some drinks and snacks scattered between the characters while background music is playing and conversation is occurring. After having a few drinks a phone rings, but when its answered there is no response on the other end, thinking nothing of it everyone carries on with the night. However when the boy goes out for a wee, he hears a noise and then brutally gets dragged away..

Conventions of a thriller

                         
What is a thriller? A thriller is a novel, play , or film with an exciting plot, typically involving crime or espionage. Thrillers use suspense, tension and excitement as its main elements in order to heavily stimulate the viewers mood.


 Types of thrillers:

• Spy thrillers
• Political thrillers
• Medical thrillers
• Forensic thrillers
• Psychological thrillers
• Military thrillers
• Horror thrillers
• Supernatural thrillers
• Romance thrillers

Conventions of a thriller- 

Most thrillers usually have a protagonist (hero) and a antagonist (villain) revolving around a type of grand crime, with the story evolving and building up tension and suspense for the climax. The protagonist is stereo-typically a brave male, and the antagonist is stereo-typically seen to be a hidden identity character who is revealed as the story progresses. One of the main conventions to a thriller is to make the story realistic, so they believe it could also happen to them!

Thrillers are often shown through the use of camera angles, editing and sound. For example quick cuts will be used for a shot of the antagonist in order to keep them unidentified whilst still giving clues to the audience. Added sound such as the diegetic sound of the villain's breathing and background music will also be added into parts of the thriller to arouse tension.