Evaluation of the preliminary task - The Tribulation

What new skills, techniques and knowledge have you learnt from producing the preliminary activity?
In producing the preliminary activity I learnt how to use a camera for filming, I have moved to a different media form which requires film clips rather than photos, which has meant that I have had to develop skills in filming. Doing this task has taught me the importance of planning as I have learnt that clips are made faster and at a higher quality if I go into each session with a clear objective of what shots I want to get. Furthermore, without planning shots often become confused and then have to be re-done at a later date. I have learnt about the software iMovie which I previously had no experience with, I learnt how to edit my clips with as smooth as transition as possible, I discovered the importance of titles to make it clear and coherent. Similarly, when editing my clips I also learnt how to edit music, this is because the soundtrack that I selected had a middle section of music that I didn't want, I therefore, had to delete that section and replace it with another without ruining the music.

How did you work with other people in your production team?
I think we work well as a team, we were all in the scenes in different parts which meant that we had to organise our roles carefully so that there was always someone available to film as well as someone else able to position the lights without it running the scenes. As a group we put in extra hours to make sure that we had the right shots. Everyone was clear on their roles which made the process move at a faster and more efficient rate with less mistakes.

What role did you play in the production?
In the production I had multiple different roles, I had to act in certain scenes as well as incorporating lighting through my phone as a flashlight. Due to the filming being in a dark place, I used my phone's flashlight to make sure that the camera would have enough lighting so that I would not have to adjust the brightness, as that may have affected the quality. For certain scenes, such as the establishing shots, I was the person filming, as within the clips I had a certain idea of what I specially wanted the shot to look like. For the close ups of the ghost I had to improvise to make sure that the shot had the correct lighting, therefore, myself and Gemma stood on chairs either side of the camera with our flashlights posing down.

Would you have done anything differently?
If I were to do anything differently I have chosen my soundtrack first before I started editing the clips together, because when I added in the soundtrack to my clips there were parts that I didn't completely fit with the clips and the dialogue. Due to how short the parts that didn't fit were I was unable to edit out parts of the soundtrack as the music would loose its clarity. Similarly, I would have re-shot some of the close ups as when evaluating my final product, I have noticed how some of the shots have lost some of the focus in the zoom.

What parts of the process did you find the most challenging?
When editing, I found that selecting the correct soundtrack was challenging as it needed to fit with the conventions of a horror trailer and correlate with the clips. Also, I found deciding what camera shots to use for each scene difficult because I didn't want to continuously use the same shot and a convention of a horror trailer is making someone jump and reusing the shots wouldn't have allowed me to do this.

How did you overcome this?
For both of the main difficulties that I faced I used current trials for horror movies that have been released last year or this year. This allowed me to discover the type of music that was used to accompany trailers and how they were incorporated with the different clips. Similarly, I was able to discover how often close ups were used in a effective and efficient way. This allowed me to compare my own clips and plan if any needed to be re-shot again, this made the editing process easier as it allowed me to have a clearer idea of what I wanted mine to look like.

How successful was your final media product? What are the strengths and the areas that you need to work on in future products?
I think that the filming of the clips were successful, as the clips were in focus and achieved the effects that I wanted. However, I think a weakness is that I may not have included all of the required shots as I found when editing the time limit to be quote restricting. Furthermore, I think that through the process my editing skills improved but when evaluating I think that the use of a white background transition shouldn't have been used, in favour of a black background transition. The areas that I think I need to work on is the editing as whilst I think I improved, I believe that there are still parts that need to be improved. Finally, I think I need to work on using the tripod as some on the shots were not fully level and did not move in a perfect movement at the same speed and level.

Preliminary Task - The Tribulation

Shot List - Preliminary Task

Script Draft for Preliminary Task

INT.  HALL- NIGHT
Three friends are looking an antique book

ASHLEE

I really don't know why you would want to read this book anyway

JUSTINE

It's interesting

ASHLEE

Alright lets see what its about then

INT. STILL IN LOUNGE- EVENING
Sits down to watch the tape

GEMMA:

(walk to tv and puts in the tape)

The screen comes up with a grey, fuzzy screen

The phone rings (S.E) 

GEMMA:

(walks to phone and answers)

Hello...(confused)

Small pause, with no reply

GEMMA: 

Who is this?. 

Still no reply

Silence before loud, screeching noise

GEMMA:

(jump, and hangs up phone)

Goes back to the tv and the tv screen goes black

GEMMA

(go upstairs)

END SCENE.

INT. BEDROOM (CAMERA OUTSIDE DOOR)- STILL EVENING

Bedroom door shuts but we can hear banging and screaming and creaking doors

(door opens)

GHOST: 

(varied shots of ghost in different places around the room)

(ends with ghost in middle of the bed) 

CLOSE UP ZOOM TO THE GHOST.

GHOST:

(looks up to camera)

Screen goes to fuzzy grey

END.

Treatment for movie trailer production

Production Company Name -  Aurora Studios
Team Members - Jia Le, Justine Ryan, Gemma Tarrington, Ashlee Trail
Title of production - The Tribulation
Genre - Horror
Age rating 15

Synopsis - An old tape that has been lost for generations, has been discovered by its next victim.

Narrative Outline -  A teenage girl is looking through a box and finds a old tape, later that evening she watches the tape. The screens comes up with fuzzy grey screen cut to phone ringing. she walks and answers the phone but there is no answer. There is silence before we hear a screeching noise and she hangs up. The screen goes black and she goes upstairs and when she enters her room we hear a scream and banging. The door opens and we see the ghost travelling around the room but it ends with image of ghost sat in middle of bed and gets closer to the ghost and ends with the ghost looking at the camera. The last thing on the screen is the fuzzy grey screen.

Key characters - victim and ghost
Victim - Gemma, older teenager who is home alone.
Ghost - Unknown female

Location - House, first part is in the front room and the second is in her bedroom

Mise -en -scene
Low key lighting, except for day light when finds tape
Rest of scenes are at night.
Victim - Normal clothes
Ghost - Long baggy dress
Intense atmosphere with an ominous ending
The expectations of the audience means there is a need for quick jump scares

Target audience - Aged 15 and over, male and female. Audience must enjoy classic horror films, and they mustn't be easily scared or put off. Can be in full/ part time education or could be in full/part time occupation.

Preliminary Narrative Ideas

Teenage girl who is home alone, her phone rings with a caller withheld when she answers a clock can be heard that chimes to three.
After the third chime the lights go out and it is turned into night vision. The camera jerks around as screaming can be heard and shows another figure sitting on the bed behind her. The girl asks who she is and what she wants but there is no answer.
She quickly picks up her and hangs up. The night vision disappears and the lights turn on, but reveals an empty room with the phone on the bed, three chimes can be heard in the background.

Shot Type Video

This videos purpose is to practice a variety of shot types with a camera and work on editing them together, with inter-titles as well as transitions.