Audience feedback is important to a production, both positive and negative; as this allows various improvements, as well as seeing any intentional elements that were included in the production amazed the audience. Such as using good forms of cinematography such as close ups to get many and good details of a characters expression, the audience may comment saying they enjoyed seeing how the characters reacted to parts within the scene and being able to see how scared they were for example.
For my completed production, a small focus group was gathered who were given a simple questionaire which contained two collums in a simple table; Negative and positive, and were gathered in a room for screening of multiple productions that have been completed and ready for viewing, this includes my completed production as well.
The focus group, by using the questionaire, are simply going to feedback at least three points for what they enjoyed and thought was good (a positive) and what they belived required improvement on or did not fully understand. (negative)
The feedback that will be collected from these questionaires and the focus group will be of great value towards the production as it will allow us to get a full description and experience from the audiences side, the production who it is directed to, if we can get any feedback in example of say; using more close ups if a character appears stressed in a certain scene so they can comfirm and witness how stressed the character is. Then we can improve by using that feedback and going back to the editing phase, by using editing software we can make the screen zoom in rather than re-shoot the whole scene. It will also benefit future audiences, allowing them to see more positives than what the first audience had to watch and then feedback was given out on what to improve.
Here are some positives and negatives we recieved from our focus group after our production was screened.
Positives recieved;
- Good sound use, sound and footage went well together (Feedback from Christopher), soundtrack throughout the clip gave it a creepy atmosphere. (Adam)
- Transitions between the scenes were smooth and the quick dissolve was a nice effect. (Feedback from John)
- Really enjoyed the filter effects and on-screen effects used within the scenes, such as the white light strobe effect where the screen flickers. (Chris)
Negatives recieved;
- The narrative, as interesting as it is, needs to be a bit more clearer for me as an audience member to understand what is really going on. (Aaron)
- Dispite the good use of cinematography, I believe there should have been more uses of it such as more variation in different camera angles, pannings and zoom ins, etc. (Ben)
- At one point the actor at the "rocking" scene was smiling slightly. (Ben)
Overall, The good and bad feedback will allow me to focus back on the production and make certain changes required that has been pointed out in the feedback, such as making the narrative more clearer, etc.
I also believe that I have followed the aims of the brief by attending and recording feedback from the focus group by screening our production and then handing questionaires to a small audience who have agreed to watch and comment upon our seeing our two minute production.
Thursday, 3 May 2012
Soundtrack of thriller production
A soundtrack plays a major role in both modern day media (such as the common soap operas) and the movie industry.
The main purpose behind a soundtrack is to add atmosphere to a scene that may orginally in raw footage format have none at all. An example is a in-door built set that has been built to replicate a forest, a soundtrack will be required to add specific ambiances to replicate the orginal feeling behind it. (off-screen sounds such as birds chirping in the distance, etc)
However, Thriller films heavily rely on soundtrack to add the chilling, high tension environments they require where the suspence is always high and the audience feel on edge with moments when the killer is nearby the victim or a chase scene between the two takes place. (Usually at this point of the film there is non-digetic sound in the form of a soundtrack that has a fast paced, dark beat to it)
For my thriller production, there was a large selection and variety of sounds to pick from thanks to an application that was selected to be used in editing the soundtrack of the final thriller production which is called Soundtrack Pro from Apple.
This application allows the function of playing your movie along the timeline of a modifiable soundtrack timeline. Any sound that is on a specific time such as one minute in, the sound that is there will play when the movie reaches the one minute mark. The application also contains a huge quantity of pre-made, free to use and ready to use sounds in a large and neatly catagorized library, such as Dark, Sound FX, Vocals/Voices, and more.
For the thriller production, a good amount and variety of different sounds within the soundtrack were inserted and included, this includes the use of a main soundtrack, a non-digetic sound in the form of a soundtrack in the background that is played for majorty of the production, as well as many small, off-screen, digetic and non-digetic sounds were added within the production. All of the above are aimed to give the production a certain atmosphere towards the audience, for the production I was trying to create a stable but yet unsafe, eerie, misleading environment to the audience. Dispite the footage being within what appears to be a tidy house and the character is wearing mostly white, the later narrative and the soundtrack being more and more noticable and giving off a larger effect. The soundtrack and narrative are both misleading and turn one concept of the narrative on its head, that being that what the audience belived was a stable and normal character and home is actually a very unstable and dangerous area. and with use of the soundtrack, we add even more feeling towards that atmosphere.
I believe the atmosphere of dangerous and unstable has been created by the use of eerie, distance howls and one specific screech that was used during a certain scene where the main character appears to have a flashback of him rocking back and forth with the screen flashing dramatically fast.
The reasons behind using these "eerie distant howls" was to give hints to the audience within a few seconds in of the opening scene of our production, that what they are seeing currently in the clip, (character performing a standard day to day routine of watching tv, house is tidy, nothing out of the oridinary at the moment) does not match to what they are hearing, where the non-digetic sound of the eerie howls are heard; giving the impression that the area may be haunted or is frighting if such noises are heard within what appears to be just a normal home.
The main highlight of the soundtrack however, where a "screech" is heard, was used to awaken the audience to the very frighting truth that has been unfolding infront of them. (at this point of the narrative, many flashbacks of the character have been shown, showing his unstable other self, during the screeh, the "main" flashback which consists of just a longer flashback of him rocking back and forth with a flashing white filter)
Reflection:
I believe that the soundtrack is parallel to the final production of our thriller, as well as seeing it fit with the generic thriller conventions of sound too.
This is because I have added, inserted, and used sound at specific points and parts of the soundtrack for the production, when combined as a final production piece. I believe that the soundtrack goes very well with the film, which in turn, adds a dark and sinister atmosphere as distant eerie roars are heard and the dark and slow paced soundtrack is played throughout the scene. This will in turn surprise, confuse, and disorientate the audience as the narrative goes further as they watch more of the opening scene as it changes their expectations on what they belived was going to happen during the next following scenes.
The main purpose behind a soundtrack is to add atmosphere to a scene that may orginally in raw footage format have none at all. An example is a in-door built set that has been built to replicate a forest, a soundtrack will be required to add specific ambiances to replicate the orginal feeling behind it. (off-screen sounds such as birds chirping in the distance, etc)
However, Thriller films heavily rely on soundtrack to add the chilling, high tension environments they require where the suspence is always high and the audience feel on edge with moments when the killer is nearby the victim or a chase scene between the two takes place. (Usually at this point of the film there is non-digetic sound in the form of a soundtrack that has a fast paced, dark beat to it)
For my thriller production, there was a large selection and variety of sounds to pick from thanks to an application that was selected to be used in editing the soundtrack of the final thriller production which is called Soundtrack Pro from Apple.
This application allows the function of playing your movie along the timeline of a modifiable soundtrack timeline. Any sound that is on a specific time such as one minute in, the sound that is there will play when the movie reaches the one minute mark. The application also contains a huge quantity of pre-made, free to use and ready to use sounds in a large and neatly catagorized library, such as Dark, Sound FX, Vocals/Voices, and more.
For the thriller production, a good amount and variety of different sounds within the soundtrack were inserted and included, this includes the use of a main soundtrack, a non-digetic sound in the form of a soundtrack in the background that is played for majorty of the production, as well as many small, off-screen, digetic and non-digetic sounds were added within the production. All of the above are aimed to give the production a certain atmosphere towards the audience, for the production I was trying to create a stable but yet unsafe, eerie, misleading environment to the audience. Dispite the footage being within what appears to be a tidy house and the character is wearing mostly white, the later narrative and the soundtrack being more and more noticable and giving off a larger effect. The soundtrack and narrative are both misleading and turn one concept of the narrative on its head, that being that what the audience belived was a stable and normal character and home is actually a very unstable and dangerous area. and with use of the soundtrack, we add even more feeling towards that atmosphere.
I believe the atmosphere of dangerous and unstable has been created by the use of eerie, distance howls and one specific screech that was used during a certain scene where the main character appears to have a flashback of him rocking back and forth with the screen flashing dramatically fast.
The reasons behind using these "eerie distant howls" was to give hints to the audience within a few seconds in of the opening scene of our production, that what they are seeing currently in the clip, (character performing a standard day to day routine of watching tv, house is tidy, nothing out of the oridinary at the moment) does not match to what they are hearing, where the non-digetic sound of the eerie howls are heard; giving the impression that the area may be haunted or is frighting if such noises are heard within what appears to be just a normal home.
The main highlight of the soundtrack however, where a "screech" is heard, was used to awaken the audience to the very frighting truth that has been unfolding infront of them. (at this point of the narrative, many flashbacks of the character have been shown, showing his unstable other self, during the screeh, the "main" flashback which consists of just a longer flashback of him rocking back and forth with a flashing white filter)
Reflection:
I believe that the soundtrack is parallel to the final production of our thriller, as well as seeing it fit with the generic thriller conventions of sound too.
This is because I have added, inserted, and used sound at specific points and parts of the soundtrack for the production, when combined as a final production piece. I believe that the soundtrack goes very well with the film, which in turn, adds a dark and sinister atmosphere as distant eerie roars are heard and the dark and slow paced soundtrack is played throughout the scene. This will in turn surprise, confuse, and disorientate the audience as the narrative goes further as they watch more of the opening scene as it changes their expectations on what they belived was going to happen during the next following scenes.
Preliminary Task
What was the preliminary task?
The preliminary task that was given was involving to work within our production groups, (In this case, consisting of me and Bianca) and within the group, to plan, then record, and then edit a small one minute sequence of recording to just demonstrate our understanding of both equipment and our skills with certain mirco-elements such as cinematography.
Upon recieving our task, our first step was to plan a narrative, which then followed up to what locations and settings we will be using. There was no specific aim given for the task aside from showing our understanding and recording for at least 1 minute in total, we were; however. Limited to just the school premises, our options were limited in terms of locations. This did however easily narrow it down to recording within the school building.
Before being more precise on where exactly in the building we will be recording in. (such as a specific room, etc) We first had to build up a simple and small narrative that would give us roughly one minute of footage in the first place.
After a lengthy discussion and on the fact that this is just a one minute task, we created a small narrative to now use for our task. This being that a man (me as the actor for the character) will be making his way down to the libary, and will then ask someone for a book. During the small journey to the libary, this is where we will demonstrate our understanding of cinematography elements, such as close ups, pannings, etc.
Now that we have created a basic narrative to follow and how to show at least a rough understanding. We now start to decide on our locations within the building to demonstrate these different shot angles and cinematography techniques. For the locations within the building for the travel path to the libary, we picked the long, narrow corridoors as this gives the character who will be walking down the middle, with the camera focused on him as he walks closer a very powerful and dominate feeling to the audience. It can also be related to a slightly fear feeling if the corridoors are empty (the feeling of isolation aside from the one character in the area). We picked a corridoor as the main travel path as it gives the audience no other points of interest to focus on aside from the character walking down the corridoor.
After the corridoor scenes, we then will be focusing on entering the libary, where a close up of the character's hand as he places it on the handle and then pushes open the door. To the audience, it can give curiosity as it does not show the full picture; or in short. They can not guess that it is a libary the character is entering as there is no hints to it, such as books, desks, etc).
Then when the character enters the libary, the camera will be shortly following from behind the character as he walks to the table with a friend who currently has the book that the character wishes to ask for back. As the character approaches the friend and asks for the book, a few straight cuts and shot-reverse-shot is used between the short converstation as the character asks for the book. Upon recieving the book, he then opens it shortly, as he does this the camera goes into an extreme close up of the book and then as the character closes it, it goes back to a mid-shot of the character and the friend at the table, with the character walking off the screen to the right side.
After our locations and narrative are decided, we then gathered our equipment, which featured of just a video camera and a tripod. The tripod would greatly aid us in static camera scenes, or where the camera would be fixed in place and then used to pan across as the character walks by the camera in the corridoor as this reduces the amount of shaking when the camera is being used.
With our equipment and our ideas ready and in place, we begun shooting our film and after we gathered our footage, we headed back to class for a debrief and to gather up our total footage and started to work on editing.
Editing mostly consisted of smoothing our transitions between scenes by adding a very short dissolve so the two scenes blend in more smoother. We also moved clips around, for example, during the planned shot-reverse-shot while the exchange of dialog was taking place in the libary between the character and the friend.
Reflection:
Once we completed our preliminary task, I believe that it was helpful in allowing us to understand what is required as a baseline to be used within films, and in terms of aiding us more precisely for our Thriller task. We believe that gaining an understanding in the use of cinematography, such as using a close up to hide certain parts of a scene on purpose to confuse the audience or to hide what can hint will happen in the next scene, can have certain wanted effects from the audience of our film. A general understanding in both how to use the editing program as well as the equipment, such as being able to set up a camera mounted on a tripod to remove shaking when recording helps as well towards our main task so that it appeals more to the audience.
We encoutnered some problems along the way with our preliminary task, which in turn allowed us to understand what difficulties to expect when planning for such a task in the future. The main problem was our location and how open and populated it was, as orginally we hoped for an empty corridoor, but majorty of the time other people were crowding around. But on the other hand, we are happy that we found work arounds, such as simply walking down the corridoor and recording at a later time, or trying another nearby corridoor, and then using the editing program to smoothly blend the two different scenes together to make them appear as if they are linked as one whole scene.
The preliminary task that was given was involving to work within our production groups, (In this case, consisting of me and Bianca) and within the group, to plan, then record, and then edit a small one minute sequence of recording to just demonstrate our understanding of both equipment and our skills with certain mirco-elements such as cinematography.
Upon recieving our task, our first step was to plan a narrative, which then followed up to what locations and settings we will be using. There was no specific aim given for the task aside from showing our understanding and recording for at least 1 minute in total, we were; however. Limited to just the school premises, our options were limited in terms of locations. This did however easily narrow it down to recording within the school building.
Before being more precise on where exactly in the building we will be recording in. (such as a specific room, etc) We first had to build up a simple and small narrative that would give us roughly one minute of footage in the first place.
After a lengthy discussion and on the fact that this is just a one minute task, we created a small narrative to now use for our task. This being that a man (me as the actor for the character) will be making his way down to the libary, and will then ask someone for a book. During the small journey to the libary, this is where we will demonstrate our understanding of cinematography elements, such as close ups, pannings, etc.
Now that we have created a basic narrative to follow and how to show at least a rough understanding. We now start to decide on our locations within the building to demonstrate these different shot angles and cinematography techniques. For the locations within the building for the travel path to the libary, we picked the long, narrow corridoors as this gives the character who will be walking down the middle, with the camera focused on him as he walks closer a very powerful and dominate feeling to the audience. It can also be related to a slightly fear feeling if the corridoors are empty (the feeling of isolation aside from the one character in the area). We picked a corridoor as the main travel path as it gives the audience no other points of interest to focus on aside from the character walking down the corridoor.
After the corridoor scenes, we then will be focusing on entering the libary, where a close up of the character's hand as he places it on the handle and then pushes open the door. To the audience, it can give curiosity as it does not show the full picture; or in short. They can not guess that it is a libary the character is entering as there is no hints to it, such as books, desks, etc).
Then when the character enters the libary, the camera will be shortly following from behind the character as he walks to the table with a friend who currently has the book that the character wishes to ask for back. As the character approaches the friend and asks for the book, a few straight cuts and shot-reverse-shot is used between the short converstation as the character asks for the book. Upon recieving the book, he then opens it shortly, as he does this the camera goes into an extreme close up of the book and then as the character closes it, it goes back to a mid-shot of the character and the friend at the table, with the character walking off the screen to the right side.
After our locations and narrative are decided, we then gathered our equipment, which featured of just a video camera and a tripod. The tripod would greatly aid us in static camera scenes, or where the camera would be fixed in place and then used to pan across as the character walks by the camera in the corridoor as this reduces the amount of shaking when the camera is being used.
With our equipment and our ideas ready and in place, we begun shooting our film and after we gathered our footage, we headed back to class for a debrief and to gather up our total footage and started to work on editing.
Editing mostly consisted of smoothing our transitions between scenes by adding a very short dissolve so the two scenes blend in more smoother. We also moved clips around, for example, during the planned shot-reverse-shot while the exchange of dialog was taking place in the libary between the character and the friend.
Reflection:
Once we completed our preliminary task, I believe that it was helpful in allowing us to understand what is required as a baseline to be used within films, and in terms of aiding us more precisely for our Thriller task. We believe that gaining an understanding in the use of cinematography, such as using a close up to hide certain parts of a scene on purpose to confuse the audience or to hide what can hint will happen in the next scene, can have certain wanted effects from the audience of our film. A general understanding in both how to use the editing program as well as the equipment, such as being able to set up a camera mounted on a tripod to remove shaking when recording helps as well towards our main task so that it appeals more to the audience.
We encoutnered some problems along the way with our preliminary task, which in turn allowed us to understand what difficulties to expect when planning for such a task in the future. The main problem was our location and how open and populated it was, as orginally we hoped for an empty corridoor, but majorty of the time other people were crowding around. But on the other hand, we are happy that we found work arounds, such as simply walking down the corridoor and recording at a later time, or trying another nearby corridoor, and then using the editing program to smoothly blend the two different scenes together to make them appear as if they are linked as one whole scene.
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