music....

We as a group found that finding non-copyright music quite challenging. However, after hard reasearch we founf two websites that had the type of music we were looking for. Iqra found one of our music sounds from www.soundsnap.com and i found a heartbeat from soundsnap and a fast paced sound from www.incompetech.com.

Development of ideas

During the process of our filming, I found that some of our storyboard ideas did not show a clear link betwen shots and made an engaging appeal to the audience. Therefore, instead of having a direct shot from the close-up of the eye to a
mid-shot of the girl. I decided to show photographs of the girl and her friend to illustrate to the audience their significance within the opening sequence. For the flashback to show who was the murderur, I decided that instead of using a flashback of the killing, the girl ripping the photograph would clearly connote to the audience who was involved in the crime and to make it seem more realistic and believable. This also made the flashback flow better with the other shots in our sequence.

As well as this, i decided to use a link between two of the characters in order to make our opening more interesting. Therefore, i used two of the people at the murder scene cleaning blood of their hands.

In addition, i decided to use use more shots of the boy to connote his significance within our opening sequence. This included him crossing a date out on a calendar and going in a lift. This made our thriller more interesting and also to connote to the audience that he was going somewhere mysterious on that particular day. I believed this would make the audience begin to ask questions and be more engaged with our thriller. As well as this, by not showing his face it would create an interest amongst the audience. Along, with Iqra's idea of showing a point of view shot of him pressing the lift button. We as the audience can see from his perspective and would be more involved.

Shots

In the piece i wanted to include as many different shots as possible. Our idea as a team was to concentrate more on the type of shots and narrative equally. We felt that if s shot we intended to put in the opening was either to difficult or did not have enough effect, then it was to be replaced by something that did. Another tactic was that if we thought a shot would look good visualy, then we would find a way to fit it into the stroy even if was not apart of the original Storyboard.

Some of my best shots include the close of the eye. I felt that having an extreme close up of just one eye was more effective than having a close up of a pair of eyes as it gave the footage more quality and sophistication. Another, was the shot of the killer through the fence. Although this was a group idea, i felt that a slight angle on the camera would make the shot more visually interesting and it would also enhance a sense of realism.

In a shot where the killer was in a lift, we wanted to film him pressing a button. The original group idea was to have the shot from the side, but i thought that a shot directly from the persons point of view would be alot more effective and give the shots in out thriller more variation. Another idea of mine was to split one of the scenes where the killer walks out of the lift and heads towards the gates. My idea was to cut the video into three main sectors whilst editing and change the speed on each section. I thought that something like this would show we had a broad knowlede about skilled shots, and also show that we understood what people would want to see and enjoy watching.

Most of our ideas had started off from things we had seen on tv or in films. However, what i found hard to cope with once i had begun filming was how much harder it was to actualli use the camera and get shots just as i had imagined. My main shooting tactic through out the piece was to use shots that flowed, and looked good. This was based on a theory known as 'continous editing' or 'hollywood editing'. This involved alot of cuts and split shots but i felt it was worth the hassel.


Iqra.

As we near the end of the task, we have managed to keep upto date and overcome some of our earlier problems. Some of our biggest struggles included the actors. Our main actress was due to go on a Spanish exchange, as a part of her AS course. What we failed to realise was the time in which this was to take place. On the last few shots of the opening sequence, we felt that the shots were rushed and not up to our standards. After some hard thinking, we finally thought of some ideas in which we could use. We needed to have some shots without actually having the actress there yet passing it off as the same character.

My team mate, Sanna came up with some good ideas which fitted just what we were looking for. These included some over the shoulder shots, where the frame was to contain just, the characters hands and jacket. Another of the ideas included a shot where the 'killer' crossed out some dates on a calander. The thinking behind this shot was to make the peice more lengthy and to give the film more flow. Right now we are at the stage of shooting our final shot and finishing off the editing and music.


Iqra.