After finishing our film opening, we wanted to see the reactions from our audience so we asked them to watch the opening and give us their opinions on it. We posted the video onto various social media platforms and received the following feedback:
Our conclusion
The fact that many people said it was tense and scary at some points reinforces the age certificate that we awarded the video. We rated the video a 15 due to the use of weapons and implied violence. In addition, one person had said that it would have been better if there were scenes of the girl dying, however we managed to explain that the video is merely an opening and therefore the idea is that it is 'to be continued'.
After receiving some feedback on our film opening, we realised that we had to re film some parts in order to create a professional look. The focus group (further information on that post can be found here) said:
that we had to re shoot the 'stairs' clip as it was blurry and out of focus
in order to create more suspense and tension, we had to create a new plot towards the end
shoot a scene where the killer turns off the power
re record the killer's voice
Day 1
We decided to film the garage scene during a free period, this helped us to go back to school and import the footage onto final cut ready to edit. We agreed that the main protagonist would not speak as much as we learnt from our mistake that there was too much waffling in some areas.
We created low key lighting by using torches to create an eerie atmosphere but also ensured that the killer was seen in the background
At this stage, the main protagonist is seen filming straight after the power goes off. She is found in a dark & dirty garage where she is forced to 'vlog' her upcoming death
Day 2
After filming the crucial garage scene, we just had to film the stairs sequence and the match on action again. This was quite a simple task to do as it meant that not all of our team needed to be present. We had to film the killer cutting off the power, and this was relatively easy to do and a glove was worn to imply that it was the killer.
We were then able to shoot the stairs scene again this included the match on action scene of the main protagonist walking outside the bedroom door.
Evaluation..
From this process, we learnt that we should get on with the filming and not continuously discuss ideas. By constantly discussing, it meant that we wasted quite a lot of time trying to perfect shots when we could have filmed a series of clips and eliminate the unwanted ones.
In order to make our film opening look as realistic as possible, we used the idea of a 'vlog' throughout the film. This was achieved through both the use of a Final Cut Pro filter and also Photoshop. This was one of many programs that we used for our film opening, these posts can be found here
Firstly, we used a template of a youtube screen, which we then edited in order to make it look realistic. Below is an image of the original screenshot:
The eraser tool helped us to eliminate any unnecessary text and make it our own
We added a new title, changed the account name to suit our character and also added a new profile picture
After editing a series of youtube templates, we then inserted the image onto final cut
We placed the image below our footage, this allowed us to resize the footage and place it into the empty 'youtube' screen.
This worked well as it creates the image of our character actually being a youtube star.
This process was also repeated for the fast cut boyfriend scenes which illustrates that the killer is filming the Bf's death
We decided to use a series of clips which included the youtube overlay because it shows her youtube journey up until the day of her 'death'
Below is a clip on how we edited our film opening, we used the program Final Cut Pro which was relatively easy to use and we got used to using all the tools that were avaliable.
Our film opening is about a young blogger experiencing the problems of technology going wrong. As a very successful youtuber she has gained the attention of many admirers. A supposed visit from her boyfriend turns out to be one of the last times she could blog happily. As she goes to open the door the power in her house is turned off by an Unknown character. What happens next
The plot for our story is as follows:
A young teen is 'blogging' her day and it is implied that the girl is a successful youtuber
since she is an internet sensation - it is clear that she relies heavily on technology
she talks about her boyfriend coming over and the planned day
door bell rings, she makes it to the middle of the stairs
power cuts off
audience see blackness & hear panting
young teen is forced to 'blog' her own death
scenes of struggling by the young teen
killer is seen, and has also killed her boyfriend
montage of bf death and fast cuts of killer with glitches will be shown
killer walks out of killing location (garage)
turns head and you can see the killer
(film title inserted after this)
What's the craziest video you would upload to youtube? What if others don't enjoy what you do? How do you think they should tell you they dont like what they do? There are probably so many answers the proper response will remain... UNKNOWN
Majority of our sounds that were diegetic did not need to be recorded post production as we wanted to keep the sounds a realistic as possible, this was all of Rachels blogging amongst other things.
However sounds like the doorbell, the house power switch and the killers voice were all recorded or downloaded to add post production.
The voice of the killer had to be synchronous with the movement as it was not clear in the first recordings, but the accent and tone was not recorded to fully fit into the conventions of a slasher killer as we believed it would be nice to see how unconventional we could make the voice of the killer.
Although we didn't copy it we asked the voice actor to see if they could put a spin on the sarcastic tone of the killer from Scream 1996.
We started off planning for our project to be a technological horror, using Ratter and Unfriended as our inspiration we decided to learn different ways to try the glitches in our project. As modern technological horror is a new sub genre of horror we have used the freedom we have to suggest its importance but not base the whole story line on it.
To recreate the glitches and effects used we would have to use a lot of post production techniques as the instances are not based on reality.
This video tutorial is what inspired the montage of the boyfriend after he was murdered.
Although our plot had to be altered slightly to increase clarity of it, as the Rachael Bridgit remained a blogger we decided the glitches could be reduced but not removed completely as technology (camera and youtube) were core parts of the plot and the glitches suggest how technology can go wrong. This was inspired by the plot of Ratter.
As evident in the trailer there are various styles of effects we had inspiration to apply to our film opening. However if we used all that we planned too the focus of the genre would shift from a slasher with technological influences to a technological horror. Unfriended is similar in the sense that the cameras they use in skyping themselves have a lot of technological issues which connote the danger of technology.
This video demonstrates the process we used to create some of our special effects for our media project. It takes one of the shots of the dead boyfriend and uses quick cuts to cause a glitch effect.
