Editing Sound and different shots:

Today I spent time editing the sound of our film to ensure it flows smoothly. It is frustrating as when the film cuts to the next frame, the background noise is not consistent, therefore, can be very off putting and not professional.
I made sure each audio for each frame was edited so that sound faded in and out so that it sounded consistent to the viewers.

I then added in shots of Elliot (our stalker) on the computer replying to Amy (our school girl), using a variety of transitions so that it smoothly flows correctly. It was hard to place each shot and also add in shots of the kettle as a symbol that time is running out.

The kettle is particulary symbolic in our piece as it represents the rising tension, I ensured that the sound reached a peak as the kettle boiled, alarming the audience and suggesting that something bad will soon occur.

It was irritating having to detach the audio from the filming of the kettle and then add it to specific sections of our film as background noise. I had to copy and paste it at least 5 times as the sections when Elliot is in the attic would not have had that background noise realistically. However, once done it was effective and believable.

I am glad that we spent time filming with a range in angles to pick from as it makes our film interesting to the audience.

I also converted the third shot of Amy walking up the stairs in order to slow down its pace. This is important as we used this technqiue earlier on therefore, it again suggests to the audience that she is walking into a dangerous situation.

Finally I enhanced the sound of the creeking of the ladder as this is

the peak of our film and the tension. I also added music on top to make it more frightening to the viewers.

Other AS Level Influences:

I found another AS Level Thriller Trailer on YouTube, similar to our film. There is a good use of music and shots of computer screens which have helped when creating our film. This AS piece is ironically very similar to the plot of ours, therefore, is useful when making our own film.
However, our group came up with our idea before watching this film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6EjOgU6qXY

Certificate:

I would say that our film should be aimed at around a 12a certificate.
It is not gory and there are no dramatic shocks therefore, it is not frightening enough to be classed as a 15.
However, it is psychologically frightening which could scare younger viewers, therefore, a certificate of 12a seems appropriate as it enables younger viewers under the age of 12 to also watch it provided they are with a parent or guardian.

Our Actor & Actress

Our Chosen Actor:

We chose to use Elliot Williamson as the actor in our film. We found it difficult to find someone of an older age to star in our film, luckily Elliot had the potential to look older than 17 for the role so we thought he would be suitable, with the right lighting, costume etc.

Claudie used make-up to make him appear older than he was, and furthermore the costume we dressed him gave the impression he was an adult rather than a student.

Our Chosen Actress:

We chose Amy Williams as our chosen actress. She seemed suitable for the role as she is very petite so could be easily portrayed as vulnerable to the viewers. We made her appear younger by not allowing her to wear bearly any make-up, tying her hair back and having her wear a school uniform which instantly establishes her age to the audience.
Furthermore, the white shirt portrays her as vulnerable in her plight.

Influences

When making the opening to our film, we watched the opening of the film 'Creep' as the use of eerie music and it suggests what is about to happen to the audience before it actually begins, just like our film which uses the narrative in future tense as a suggestion.

Here is the opening section of the film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peggLQ1fLg8&feature=related

Our target audience

We are aiming our film at a target audience of around 14-18. We think our film would appeal to girls as it is quite stereotypical of teen horrors which are commonly watched by a females. Young girls may be able to relate to the build up in events, silly things such as hearing worrying noises upstairs when home alone, or talking to someone unknown over the Internet at a naive age.

Filming our final scenes:

We decided to film the ending of our film with our male actor.
We have changed the plot to make it more exciting and unique to our audience, we have decided to have the man in the attic of the young girl's house. It may seem very unrealistic however, we were able to film successful shots such as when the girl hears a noise and walks along the upstairs corridor, searching the rooms, in the background the later is slowly lowered without her knowing.

We filmed our male actor as the 'killer' in the attic, we turned the lights off so the only light seen is the blaze from the laptop screen and the small fragment of light from the attic door. It looks creepy as Claudie did his makeup to make him look tired and appear older, also we dressed him in a checkered shirt and jeans and he hunched over with ruffled hair so that he looks quite frightening and stereotypical.

We trialled a variety of shots during our filming and also had shots of Amy playing the school-girl walking up the stairs from different angles so that we can make the film exciting and intriguing to our audience.

Editing Shots

Editing process for opening scene:

Filming process:

This photograph is one of the many we used as the fake picture for the man's msn account which appears whilst the school girl is chatting to him.

Shots of our opening scene and the fake MSN account:

Photo's of our filming process:

These are shots of how we shot the opening scene of our film, you see our actress from a distance and using the transition effect, she merges gradually into the foreground.

Filming the Conversation:

We spent Wednesday afternoon filming the MSN conversation between the two characters. We also filmed the girl entering her study and logging into her account.
We wanted to make our film look interesting and edgy so we tried out various shots concerning the height of the camera. We had shots of her feet as she crossed the kitchen, and then trialled high angle shots to make her look vulnerable.
We filmed the conversation from 'point of view' so that it looks as though the girl is watching the screen. As we had already made a fake account, it was easy to adjust the settings and add a picture of a different girl. We used close-up shots to re-instate the fact that the girl is pretending to be someone she is not.
We then filmed a close-up shot of the kettle boiling as we needed the sound so that we could edit it in as background noise, as we wished for the sound to be constant. However, when the kettle is boiled and the button clicks off, we will use this shot as it is the time when the girl gets up to make her drink.

Adding in Diagetic Sound

We searched online to find a piece of diagetic sound which would be relevant to our thriller. We wanted something subtle and suggestive, which the viewers do not obviously notice so it does not steer attention away from the action.
We searched lots of various websites, along with Garage Band, and finally found our music on a site named 'Music Arcade.'
We have used the music in the opening sequence, however, it fades out quite abruptly when the young girl enters her house to portray the reality and her usual routine. We are planning to re-use the music later on as a suggestion that something bad my happen.

Title of our Film:

We wanted a dramatic and relevant title for our film so we started by brain-storming different adjectives which could describe the young girl and her dangerous predicament.
One of the most obvious words we thought of was the word 'prey'. We then decided to look up the definition in the dictionary and find the most suited one for our film.
The defintion we found was 'one that is vulnerable in the face of attack' which we thought suited our opening as the girl is unaware of her dangers and needs protection.

We then added the title into our film at the sigificant point when the girl is walking up towards the house. At this point we have slowed down her movement and then freeze-framed the shot. When the narrative says 'like i was his prey', this is when the film freezes and the title swishes onto the screen with the defintion underneath, set out in the same structure as in a dictionary, which the noun sign (n) in brackets.

We thought this was particulary successful as all the edits, such as movement and the freeze-frame along with voice-over and finally the title are good suggesters that the girl is walking into a trap which she is vulnerable as his prey.

Voice-Over

We have decided to use a voice-over as a narrative for the first part of our film. We chose to use Claudie's voice as though she is the young girl, however, we have made it seem like she is being questioned about the case as though looking back and retelling the events.
This was quite difficult to record judging on the tone of the voice and how the laptop picks up any background noise.
Firstly we recorded the entire sequence at school however, any slight background noise is heard therefore, Claudie and I went to her house and re-recorded the voice-over so that the background was completely silent.
We played around with different tones for the voice, eventually deciding on using 'Female Basic' as it has a defined effect and almost a crackly background as if she was being recorded on an audio cassette. Furthermore, we recorded the last line which was 'like i was his prey' in a different tone which had an echoing effect to create an emphasis.
We uploaded this onto our film and then adjusted the timing so that she says the word 'prey' as our title appears on the scene.

Edititing Sound

Sound was a big issue in our media task as we wanted it to sound realistic and not too cliche so that our film was serious to an audience.

We decided more or less straight away to not use any soundtracks in the background just so all the focus is upon the situation and doesn't detract attention.

Initially we copied the first piece of background noise which was around 2 minutes across the entire opening of our film so that it was a constant sound. However, when listening to this using headphones the continuity of the sound was not perfect, as you could hear the sound of aeroplanes flying past stopping and starting.

Therefore we decided to record sound in today's lesson for one minute which could be added from garage band into the opening section of our film. However, as every small noise is picked up this meant that you could hear vague talking and loud sound from far away so we could not use this.

After a lot of searching we finally chose to use a backing soundtrack of bird sounds from garage band. We initially did not want to use this as it sounded not as realistic as we hoped, however, after turning the audio down very low, it did sound successful in our film. We were pleased with the outcome as once we had faded in and out the sounds it fitted perfectly when Amy opens the front door to start her 'routine'.