Our Preliminary task was worked on with different people than my thriller opening, but still with the same amount of people. When I first did the preliminary task I just acted in the film and nor did I take and footage and nor do any editing. We used different camera angles and did a variety of shots, however we did not use any establishing shots and nor any close ups or extreme close ups. This meant that it was confusing for the audience and they wouldn't be able to understand what was going to happen. Moreover in our preliminary task we used dialogue which was not the case in our filming of 'The Neurotic'. We insured that we did not break the 180 degree rule other wise this would just confuse the audience. Our costumes were not planned and instead we just wore whatever we were wearing that day and made sure we finished filming in one day. Most of the camera work and editing was shared with the other members of my group because I didn't know how to use the camera correctly to get the correct shots and nor did I know how to use the editing software. The use of gender was equal and the female was not objectified, but to an extent it could be argued that the male character was in control because he had the purse. We used panning shots and also over the head shots which were not used during our thriller opening. There was no casting of characters to who fit the role instead it was members in our group at the time including me who had to act. There was no use of a soundtrack nor any non-ambient lighting the whole film sequence was executed with ambient lighting and diegetic sound/ audio that was recorded with the footage.
Transition to our Thriller opening 'The Neurotic'
In comparison to our preliminary task the main difference was the fact that I did most of the camera work and also the editing which was easy to learn once I actually tried. I learnt how to use the editing tools and how to add titles, how to create a tint, give a high contrast much like Bill Brandt's photography:
High contrast usage meant that we had to spend even longer editing the correct shots and making sure each one was at the same contrast to the last, although this was easy because it could be copied and pasted. The continued use of cross dissolve and fades were not used during our preliminary task because it was a short film sequence where as because 'The Neurotic' was a lot longer it had to run smoothly and so there had to be use of edits to make it play smoothly. A lot of planning and initial research had to be done about our audience demographic which was interesting because we found that most people preferred mainstream thrillers to independent thrillers, but we still chose to make an independent thriller in order to push controversial ideas. If you look at our thriller research you can see that many people did not like a psychological thriller however our thriller opening is a psychological thriller. The research allowed us to see what the audience demographic conventionally watch and meant that we could push the barriers needed. We didn't want our thriller to just convey the conventional views and ideas and so the research helped us learn what people like and dislike. The casting of characters was easy because the two other people in my group were drama students and also fit the characterization that had been planned and so we didn't have to spend a long time doing a casting. The ideas for a location were harder to chose. On our preliminary task we used the school grounds however for our thriller opening decided to use the train station. This was difficult because we needed the station's permission to do filming there and so we emailed them, then were given a number which then we phoned and were granted access for filming for our thriller. We learnt that its hard to find a suitable location because of all the people and needing their permission.To help with the costume I used the website 'www.polyvore.com' to enable me to choose what kind of costume Sarah's character Eve could wear.
Thinking of a title was also important. From research we had noticed that most thriller's were named according to the plot of the film and so we wanted to give the audience a similar idea. And finally we settled on the name 'The Neurotic' because it tells the audience what the movie is about without giving away any key details, also because the title is unsettling which is atmosphere needed for a psychological thriller. The soundtrack had to tie in with the title of 'The Neurotic'. The use of an eerie soundtrack which is covered by a provoking voiceover means they both work hand in hand to provide a better finish. Here is some research on what the audience prefer a soundtrack or a voiceover or neither many people said they didnt prefer neither of them and so we decided it was best to use both voiceover and soundtrack.
To use the voiceover we had to use a dictaphone to record Harley's voice whilst he read the written script. Then upload it to the computer and add it to our thriller. Also the soundtrack had to be used from an appropriate site where nothing is copyrighted because we couldn't use something that is already owned by someone else for our own thriller opening. This proved very difficult and we learnt very quickly that those soundtracks that were from unsigned artists were not what we were looking for and so ultimately we used sounds that were already saved on the school memory stick and from there we selected the right soundtrack. However we kept one of the audio sounds from the raw footage which was of the train horn which we felt was frightening and appropriate for our thriller opening.
The time frame was restricting because it meant that we had to delete a lot of camera shots and so we couldn't use all of our footage so as consequence we had to be selective with our shots. Altogether I learnt how to use a digital camcorder, how to organise filming shoots, organise characters and costumes, and mainly how to use editing software to ensure our thriller had a perfect finish.
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