thriller feedback, Take two!

• How effectively edited is the thriller?

All the footage is nice and cleanly cut.
Good variety of shots
Every shot finishes in time with the music.
variation in the amount of shots- mysterious.
Panning shots upwards- vertical pan- from cards to characters.
Some shots are a little bit too long, but overall, very good.

• Discuss the use of sound in the thriller both diegetic and non-diegetic. What emotions does it invoke and how effective is it?

Dietetic sounds make it realistic and adds to the narrative, helps explain the story.
Music good, a little to happy for genre but could add to a twist in the film? adds suspense.

• What words would you use to describe the visual style?

Props were really good and costumes were excellent. We liked the way the nervous guy looked; the way he loosened his ti, it was very effective and acted well. The location of the film was very good.
Artistic, realistic and very good.

• Highlight at ;east three things that you think are good about this thriller and two areas for development or suggestions of how things could have been done differently.
  

Really like how you create a story. you have put in a lot of effort with your costumes and props which help you create the thriller genre you are trying to achieve.

Only main suggestion for improvement would be about the body bag- doesn't look like body otherwise really good.

Feedback from students

we asked 6 questions that the media students from other classes had to answer, they include;

1. Can you describe what happens in the thriller?
Man bets he can win with risk of his death on the line (original)
Stereotypical Gangster film, gambling with dangerous men, presumably a hit was taken out.
Gambling film. gambling takes place, thats a bout it.

2.what was your favourite aspect of the thriller? (Acting, Camera angles etc)
Unsure, Fairly average. poker shot over the shoulder. camera work and camera locations, props and costumes were good- well thought out.

3.what improvements could you suggest?
Close up on winning hand, more variety on shots. loose the bigging chicken scene- its unnecessary. different names for the characters, make it look like an opening sequence rather then a short film.

4.Do you think the music fitted the genre?
To an extent, but w`s very repetitive: maybe cut down the speech.
guitar didn't fit; was too happy.

5.How would you describe our visual style
Nothing special, stereotypical black and white.

6."no feedback left"

Feedback on Rough Cut

to be able to improve our footage we asked for feedback from our media class to ask their opinion on what parts they liked and disliked in the execution of our thriller sequence.

feedback on the rough cut:
Editing (how effectively edited is this).
one group said "simple but effective, CCTV footage looks really good, black and white brilliant.'

later on they mentioned that the camera was a bit wobbly, but makes up for this with really good angles.

Another group mentioned said that close ups are good of hands and poker table.


More feedback is needed to be reported

In return to the feedback we received, below is the response:

Editing - the idea of the Black and White effect we had over the poker scenes was commented as very effective however, one group though that it was meant to be CCTV camera footage. Also, the camera work we used changing the scene from one to another gave the effect that it was a flashback view from the past. This went well with the Black and White effect and contrasted with the Scenes in the field which were in color and present time.

Camera work - like mentioned in the editing paragraph, the use of the flashback effect was good and gave the thought of the body being carried in the field scene was somone from the poker game. This was correct and will be further evidence of this when we complete our editing process.

Filming the first part of our rough opening sequence

Throughout the half term, we filmed the first part to our project. We had trouble trying to plan a date that we could all attend at the filming location. Once we managed to settle a date that we could all attend to,we prepared props, filming details and necessary equipment.

Filming night
On filming night, weather toke a unexpected turn for the worse with bad fog. We looked on the positive side of this setback and decided to create lighting to help the camera film in a lot more detail after test footage of our scenery was to dark to capture anything.

The Lighting was the fog lights of a car aimed at our background because of the bad weather conditions was the only source of light we could use that proved effective when filming. This bright lighting also created tension.

In conclusion the first part went well even though we was in bad condition.

Today we have slightly alterd our soundtrack and made it the required length which is two minutes long. this enabled us to fit the footage that we shoot around the track

What we have done so far...

Recently we have been updating our blog with background research on the theme and style of the kind of characters that feature in the poker game in the opening sequence.

We have also been to fulbourne to take test footage of the surrounding fields and footage to find the perfect background for our scene. While there we tried different angles and views to attempt to recreate some of the shot angles in our anamatic.

overall the test footage has proven useful in finding the right location for each scene in the forest part of our anamatic as well as the right angles that we need when filming these scenes.

Teacher Feedback

I really like your idea, I think it is very original and has a lot of potential. Your idea is very 'props heavy' and will require good organisation in order to achieve it.
Organisation and good communication will be key to the realisation of your idea.
My only concern is your intention to put someone in a body bag, where will you get a body bag from, how will you film this in a realistic and safe way?
Make sure you address these issues in a blog post.


In addition - these blogs are also part of your course work and they need to be approached in an academic and serious fashion. They are marked as part of your planning.
Ammending my post is unaccaptable.

Overall character backgrounds

The kind of backgrounds our characters come from is the seedy underworld of modern gangsters. We chosen modern gangsters as most of our props and location is fairly modern and would make it differcult to recreate the time period of which the great gangster films such as "The Godfather" was filmed.

An example of modern mafia/crime organization would be the hit film ....

ideas for Title Opening

This is the type of poker scene that we will be doing for our thriller opening.
This is a clip from the movie James bond casino royale which is useful to our proJect research.

Props ideas

A prop that we will be using would be a BB gun resembling this model that would be on the poker table as a symbol of power to the poker player owning it as well conveying one of the generic conventions of a gangsta

Example Stuff

To go with the poker table, we will enhance the scene effects by adding some props such as hand guns, cigars and cocktails all of which will be used responsibly.





Here is an image i found on Google of a poker table that is very similar to the one that will be used in our project.










Here are some image examples of what the costumes that each of the characters will be wearing. Our aim is to resemble the look of four Gangsters/Mafia members playing a game of poker.

Animation

Below is our amazing animation but is NOT the final piece in terms of timing!

Shot List

Shot 1 - a panning view of the forest from right to left stopping slowly when the characters are in the frame.

Shot 2 - switch to a short clip of a poker game with little detail of characters,

Shot 3 - quickly returning the the forest scene but with the characters closer to the camera

Shot 4 - the forest scene dissolves into a still image as it zooms out as a picture frame on the wall of the poker room.

Shot 5 - a closer view of the characters, the poker table and the props within it.

Shot 6 - the acting starts at this point and carries out shot reverse shot between the characters

Shot 7 - shot reverse shot continues

Shot 8 - shot reverse shot continues

Shot 9 - shot reverse shot continues

Shot 10 - shot reverse shot continues

Shot 11 - shot reverse shot continues

Shot 12 - shot reverse shot continues

Shot 13 - third person camera angle of both characters

Shot 14 - wide angle panning from a height looking down on henchmen

Shot 15 - low angle from the ground looking up at body bag onto camera

body bag lands on camera, complete blackness over the camera

Shot 16 - still in complete blackness, title shows "Double or Nothing" fade in from the darkness

Shot 17 - still in complete blackness, title fades away and hear sounds eg heavy breathing

Shot 18 - first person angle from inside the bag, still complete darkness until bag is opened in front of camera to a view of blue sky


thats all folks,

team green

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