Audience Feedback of the Completed Film

In order to get some insight to what an audience would make of our film opening we asked a few people on what they thought worked well and parts which could be improved upon. One of the people we asked said...


"A great movie opening, can be to dark in the cellar, but did have a great effect, not seeing much. The beginning didn't give to much of the story line away which made me want to watch more. Excellent editing of the T.v scene extremely effective movie opening. It gave me chills."

From this feedback, I reckon if I were to film in a dimly lit setting again, then I would consider adding more light and make sure I still have the tension, though coming through the music, costume and dialogue. It was good to hear that Amie said the beginning did not give to much away, which was important to us because we wanted it to end with the audience wondering how it will continue. 

Other people we got to watch our end result said that "it was really good" and that it was clever how we zoomed in on Daisy's eyes on the poster and then transitioned it so it would then go to Daisy's eyes in the cellar. Also a few people said that the part which they were most fond of, was the very first bit when a girl walks past the poster and the whole shot is in slow motion. It was said that the slow motion was a great idea as it helped create a tension and it also added to the sympathetic voice over playing at the same time. 

When Beth was asked what she thought was good about the opening to Daisy, she replied, that the variety of shots was very good, for example, in the park there was a horizontal pan shot, a point of view shot and a long shot. The one thing she picked up upon which could have been improved was the darkness of the cellar, as stated by Amie as well. 

Overall, the feedback which we managed to collect was generally quite positive and from this my group and I felt more at ease with what we had managed to create. If I were to do this again, based on the feedback, I would make sure everything is clear to see and also, I would have added a few more types of shots and angles. 

DAISY- The final film opening

Editing

Editing was a task itself, none of us had an inkling of what to do once we had opened up the programme. As we started off with no knowledge of Final Cut Express, this has made the editing process the part I was most proudest of.
Each of us did a bit editing, this meant that we had a wider coverage of how to work the programme and what each button meant and we helped out each other whilst taking the wheel. We did have our fair share of dilemmas, for example, accidentally having deleted the opening credits, our file not being able to be saved, finding the most suitable transition/ filter.
We have managed to reverse footage, make our footage look like it is on the TV, add a ripple effect in between transitions, add and takeaway necessary audio clips, make some tracks louder than others whilst being played at the same time and much more.
As we are almost at the end of editing the footage we have been collecting over these past weeks, my group and I have started to make sure we reach the targets we set for ourselves each media session.
One thing that editing made us realize was that, by not including any dialogue within our opening, the audience may find it confusing. When we recorded the voice over we played around with it in Garage Band, however, none of the filters we tried sounded good. So we added the voice over in and decided that with no changes to it, it sounded how we wanted it. One other problem we had to solve was that when we recorded a voice for the man that walked down the cellar steps, we thought the person's voice we used to say "Look at me!" did not sound right, after much deliberation. This is when we found that on Final Cut Express, by slowing down the voice it makes it appear much deeper. This voice was then put into our final version of Daisy.
If we had came across this problem earlier on, then we would not have came up with a solution as quick as we did as we had no awareness that audio clips and video could be slowed down.
Furthermore, another problem we would have been able to tackle as easy was how to reverse a shot.
We managed to reverse the shot were it goes from the eyes on the Missing Person's poster, to the cellar. Originally, the first shot the audience sees of Daisy was a zoom in shot, though with the ability to reverse the clip this enabled the extreme close up shots of her eyes flow.

Filming Session #5

As our new idea was to film a poster with the voice over of Daisy reflecting on the effects of her kidnapping we had to book the cameras again and get the tripod.
This was the most planned session of all of the them as it dawned on us that it was getting closer and closer to the deadline and we did not want to still be filming a week from here. Before we went to the corner we were filming on, we made sure we had the poster, sellotape, tripod and camera. This session took approximately 25 minutes to film. We knew the shot needed to film, but while we were there we also practiced other shots and it seemed that the shot we did not plan was the one we would later put in the film. Whilst we were filming there were people in the background and cars driving past, we thought this helped add to the scene.
Most of the time spent filming that day, was spent making sure that the camera was in the right position to follow the girl walking past the lamp post and then zoom in perfectly on Daisy's eyes on the poster.

Filming Session #4

From the audience feedback half way through our editing process it was highlighted to us to there needed to be use of a point of view shot. We knew we had to revisit the cellar, and within five minutes of being down there we knew we wanted the point of view shot to look like you were seeing exactly what she is seeing, so when she blinks the screen goes black. We thought this would look more effective. It did not take us all that long to figure out to show that. We realized, by using our fingers, resting them at the top and the bottom of the lens and then moving our fingers it created the effect that it was someone's eye.
We figured that her point of view would be showing the man that captured her coming down the stairs, this meant we had to ask one of our Dads to just walk down the stairs. This took a matter of a couple of minutes and that was the end of another session. Even though the shot only lasted about five seconds it was absolutely vital to help the audience to see what was going on and help the audience feel sympathy for the victim of the kidnapping.

Music

Finding the correct music and more importantly copyright free music, has been an on going struggle for my group. In the end (due to other student's knowledge of where we could find copyright free music), we ended up on the website named http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/index.html?
This is where on the website it states that all music on the website is copyright free -
http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/faq.html

Once we had found this site, we narrowed our search for the best fitting music by searching via genre. Under the genre Horror, there were many options which we had to choose from. When we first started editing, we found two soundtracks which we really liked, "Quinn's Song - The Dance Begins" and "Warlord", this soundtrack however, was found on youtube and we later found it to be an unusable song.

Quinns Song-The Dance Begins.mp3

My group, due to the restrictions of "Warlord" resulted in downloading "Quinn's Song - The Dance Begins". Our reasons for using this particular song was due to fact my group and I thought the song had a low tone to it and reflected sadness which could be related to that of Daisy as she is in captivity and feels very isolated. The overall feeling of the song had an unease and mellow tone to it and fit in well with our idea of a opening to a film. 

As our editing started to take shape and begin to look like an opening to a film, following a couple weeks of undecisive editing it was time Amber, Grace, Shannon and myself considered everything we had done so far and questioned whether we have looked at all the possible choices for music, amongst other things aswell. Our decision was to search for any other possible songs we could apply to our filming. This is when we found the music we now have, "Dark Walk".

 Dark Walk
The other option which we were also wuite fond of was Awkward Meeting , however, after deliberation we thought that Awkward Meeting did not have the right feel we wanted for the story, it did not seem sincere and low and slow enough. In the description of the track it said 'mystical' which is not what we had in mind. Dark Walk was described as having an eerie, unnerving, somber and dark feel to it which is why we chose this, also to make sure it was the right track we imported it in to our file on Final Cut Express, put it where we imagined it to be and saw if it looked good and added something to our film. With the transitions put in place and the music, it was a mutual feeling to go forth with 'Dark Walk'.

Props

The main aim of my group and I was to use an array of shots and to make sure our concept of an opening to a film was easy to grasp by having a steady cadence to it. Props was something, which with all honesty was not given as much consideration as something like how we were going to edit our footage. There were very few props needed, such as a missing poster, a collection of papers during the news report, a chair and rope for Daisy's character whilst being the subject of captivity.
The Missing poster was absolutely vital to include, as the audience see the poster they have an instant understanding the film would be about loss and an abduction. In contrast, the collection of papers for the news coverage was not as important as it did not add a meaning, symbolism or give a targeted audience a more developed insight of what the plot of the production would be about. The chair and the rope, was used as it aided us to recreate what would normally happen to someone who had been captured in a crime/ thriller film and also the uncomfortable position helped Grace to get into the right frame of mind. Another thing which helped her to get into her character was the damp, cold conditions of the cellar.
I reckon if I were to start this project again, my approach to props would not be massively different, although I may have thought about them more and if there was any symbolism to be drawn out of a prop to help the targeted audience to comrehend the situation, whatever that may be.

The News Report

Some research went into what a news report about an abduction would consist of. The result of searching the internet led me and my group to a trailer called "My Kidnapper", in the trailer their was footage of a news report which proved itself to be very useful as we ended up with our very own report, going something like this...
"I am here at Rainham School for Girls, the school which Daisy Robinson, a 17 year old girl that went missing 10 days ago: attended.
Today, I have met some students which knew Daisy on a personal level. It is astonishing to see just how much the school has been affected by her disappearance and how much the school is helping Daisy Robinson's parents to find her.
No ransom has been asked from Daisy's kidnappers, so the response of the government will not determine the fate of Daisy.
Back to studio with Mark Jobs with the weather."
Due to editing, some of this is not included, however, the majority is. From audience feedback we got a good response, someone highlighted the fact that it was good the report said "No ransom has been asked from Daisy's kidnappers, so the response of the government will not determine the fate of Daisy" as it suggests that the investigation is still ongoing and therefore, sets up the rest of the film.
Whilst filming the report we were keen to try and shoot in different angles to show a variety of shots, however, it came to our attention, previous to filming, that there was a video filter, which could allow our footage to look like a bad television. Therefore, different shots would be wasted due to the filter.
When we started to edit the news report, we played around with it to try and see what is more effective and if there were any other television filters we could use. Although there were not any other filters, we managed to edit the clip in with other footage so, the audience would be able to hear it yet, see the filming of Daisy being taken in the park. We thought this would work best as a continuous use of one shot of just someone talking for roughly, 20 seconds could loose the attention of the audience , also it is showing people how Daisy's story first began, just as you are receiving all the information for the first time so you are concentrating on both the visual and aural elements.