Evaluation grid

Digital technologies Editing For our thriller film, I experimented with using different editing techniques on final cut pro. I decided on a light ray effect to represent a flashback to the audience. This changed the narrative to become non-linear which gave  This helped me progress by exploring which editing effects gave a certain image and I can now use final cut pro to its full abilities. Whilst editing, I chose a curtain transition effect near the beginning of the flashback to experiment and vary the shots. However, as I later realised this was a poor decision as the transition did not fit in with the genre of thriller. A more suitable transition could have been a fade to black to indicate something about to happen which would create fear and build tension.   Blogger I used blogger for documenting my progression and the details of the production of our film. Going back to previous posts meant I could see how to adapt the film and keep track of organisation. It also showed how I have improved, as to begin with the blog posts were simple and full of texts, whereas now I am able to use multi-media forms to keep posts interesting with more detail. Camera techniques I used a variety of point of view shots within the film. One example is an extreme long shot in the action part of the flashback where the antagonist chased the protagonist. I found this portrayed emotion, especially where the hand held camera pans round to see the man running towards the character in a point of view. This creates the feeling of fear for the audience and positions them as the victim. Using a handheld camera meant the film became more realistic and coincided with the effect of point of view. Research I had to use the internet to research similar thriller films. An example of this is Arlington Road, where I took ideas and inspiration from one of the scenes. Without the use of the internet I would not have been able to do this so this digital technology was one of the most important.

Research and planning Internet research I looked at a variety of thriller openings online with the use of sites such as YouTube and Vimeo. This inspired ideas that I could take from the film and develop and adapt them to fit in with our film. Without the use of this equipment and the internet, our film would have contained much less conventions and a less creative narrative. From the internet we took the idea for using a flashback and using a non-linear narrative, we also took inspiration from the film 'Arlington Road' with the scene of blood dripping down onto the boys feet.  Storyboard Planning the storyboard meant that every shot had to be thought about carefully and I used the internet research I had done before to help with this and again take inspiration. When filming I made sure to keep coming back to the storyboard as it was essential in producing our film the way we wanted. However, some of our shot we had to change due to the circumstances when we got to our location. For example, the close up of the protagonists legs walking with blood dripping we planned to track, however, as we were out in a rural lane we did not have something we could roll the camera on for a smooth track and we did not pick up a steady-cam. This made the shot much less effective than it could've been with more planning. Planning the narrative also was a long process but being able to put it on blogger for our group to see made it much easier for us all to put up different ideas and adaptations as the film narrative progressed. Blogger Using blogger meant I could record every decision made and keep track of any ideas we had taken from the research. Being able to look back and adapt ideas here made our film piece together more as a project. For example any information I wrote about the props or location could be changed if I had thought of a more appropriate idea and all thriller opening research could be easily accessed.

Post production For our thriller film, I experimented with using different editing techniques on final cut pro. I decided on a light ray effect to represent a flashback to the audience. This changed the narrative to become non-linear which gave  This helped me progress by exploring which editing effects gave a certain image and I can now use final cut pro to its full abilities. Whilst editing, I chose a curtain transition effect near the beginning of the flashback to experiment and vary the shots. However, as I later realised this was a poor decision as the transition did not fit in with the genre of thriller. A more suitable transition could have been a fade to black to indicate something about to happen which would create fear and build tension. I created a few Foley effects to put over the film. I produced these by using techniques such as banging on a door to represent the banging on the gate in the film which would not have been loud or clear enough to use as diegetic sound.  I chose a tempo building soundtrack to fit in with the conventions of thriller as it parallel sound so makes the audience suspect something bad is about to happen which creates feelings of fear.

Using conventions of real media texts: Soundtrack I chose a tempo building soundtrack to fit in with the conventions of thriller as it parallel sound so makes the audience suspect something bad is about to happen which creates feelings of fear. Saturation In editing I decided to dull the saturation slightly, this made the colours slightly grey which acted as pathetic fallacy and reinforced the effect of fear and also made the film appear more serious.   Fake blood For the victim character I decided to use fake blood to create cuts and dripped blood. This is a convention of thriller which we took inspiration from the film Arlington Road where a young boy is walking down a road with blood dripping. We used a close up of our victims feet and legs walking with blood dripping to the floor to try and recreate this idea. Male antagonist I chose a male antagonist in a hoodie to represent a stereotypical thug/rough character. This played with the convention of thriller as using a stereotype means it was clear to the audience who the antagonist was and contrasted strongly with the victimised, vulnerable look of the protagonist.