Audience feedback

We have shown our film and allowed people to anomynously submit their opinions and sugestions about our film. This is important in the industry because this allows us to reflect on our work and see if we suceeded in engaging with our key demographic.
We were given 4 good, 1 average and 2 excellent marks overall. We were also given 4 'some imagination', and 4 'high imagination & creative flare'.
Our shot composition was graded overall as a very good, with only one other person scoring ours as average. Our mise-en-scene was graded overall as very good also. Our editing was marked at very good, and our sound and music was graded an excellent, and our titles were given an average. This was the weakest score we recieved.
The constructive crticism we got back was, our storyline was a bit unclear to figure out, and i agree that it is hard to figure out, however as it is only the opening two minutes, a element of mystery is meant to be maintained. We were also told we could use more props, and that our titles were too close together.
The positive feedback we recieved, was praise for our use of music and sound, our editing and smooth transitions.

Evaluation

In our production we had strengths and weaknesses. One strength we had was flexibility so far as filming. We changed our ideas alot to make improvements, we were able to work around our problems. We were available to film most days and were well organised.
Our evaluation went quite smoothly, with the exception of a few nervous stutters.
I enjoyed this project and learnt alot from it, for example the importance of efficiency and organisation. I learnt alot of technological information which i can use in a variety of different situations and will always be of value to me.

Editing

We've been editing our film and its been alot of work. First there was the logging and capturing which took a while to sort out. However with the help of our Edit decision list didn't take half as long as it could have done. Our Edit decision list contains all the scenes and clips we actually need in our film. The list would have been hard to compile if it wasnt for the Recording log which contains all the clips we have filmed, whether they were out-takes, perfect or just a blank screen. At first i suggested we use a soundtrack which sounds like people speaking on the radio to give a slightly eerie feeling and support our storyline (Bloc Party- Hunting for witches). However after putting this into practice we realised that the song was too fast to accompany our slow and creepy film and had to find another soundtrack. We used a black background for the titles which is conventional of a thriller film, and originally we had red font, but we decided that looked more conventional of a horror film than a thriller and changed the font to white.

Filming

Over the past few weeks we have been filming and have come across a few technical problems and filming difficulties.

On day #1 of filming, the camera battery died after five minutes of filming.
On day #2 of filming, the public disrupted our filming and we had to change our location.
On day #5 of filming, we needed to continue a scene we had previously began filming, however the weather was dramatically different and would ruin the continuity of the film. We decided to go back to that scene when the weather was more suitable.
On day #10 of filming, we forgot to check the tripod before disembarking and later found out one of the legs was broken.

Alot of the time we had to remind ourselves of pre-roll and post-roll and the 180° rule, and in some cases we had to film sequences again. However all of these problems we overcame and learnt from them.


"Crime scene" photos took whilst filming.

Planning

As soon as an our idea was formed i started on the storyboard right away. With the storyboard, filming will be alot easier as we know what shots we need, where to film them, and how long it should take. This helps us make our ideas practical.
We decided on alot of the transitions and effects we would use and also what framing and camera movement.
We then began a production schedule deciding where and when we would film. This organised us and helped get the job done.

Choosing a story

I had lots of ideas for different genres, so I narrowed it down to one idea for each genre that i could later present my group with.

#1-Thriller
A detective is researching a series of murders and begins to realise that all the evidence leads to one person: Herself.

#2-Horror
A girl is walking away from a creepy stalker who coincidentally chases her so she is in a part of a neighborhood she doesnt recognise. She goes into the only shop she can see and asks for help and she is given a broach of protection which awakens a evil entity who wants to kill her.

#3-Romantic comedy
Boy who works in shop serves a beautiful girl, after flirting for a while she gives him a contact card. Later when he is home he calls her phone and realises shes a acting scout, but he is too embarassed to admit he thought they had relationship potential and agrees to work for her.

#4-Horror
Modern take on the story from mythology; Pandora's box. A girl opens a box which unleashes evil on the world.

After conversing with my group we decided to concentrate on idea #1.

Questionnaire results

After recieving my questionnaires back from those who had filled it out i sat down to take a look at their answers and see if it would benefit my film and help decide what to do.
Seven out of ten people said their preferred choice of genre is the thriller genre. I thought age and gender would affect this so i distributed my questionnaire to a range of ages and genders. Suprisingly only two people preferred the horror genre and one person liked romantic comedies.
It became apparent to me that a thriller film would appeal to the biggest range of people.
Most people agreed that slow and eerie music is most effective in the horror genre, and four people said they like horrors to be psychological, and four said they like horrors to have a detective theme, two said they like gore.
There was a tie as to whether people preferred to watch an authority figure/celebrity or and everyday person. Only one person disagreed that the ending should be a cliffhanger and wanted a happy ending. Six people said that a horror film should open with a flashback two said with a murder, one said with information and another said straight to present events.