Group 5

Q8. What do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

Before creating our opening thriller sequence 'Nameless', we were given a preliminary task where we had to create a short film showing a conversation between two people. The skills obtained when filming our prelim short film, were used to help us film our thriller opening sequence. The prelim task was very different in comparison to our thriller film for various reasons. One reason is that , when we created our prelim short film we were only given a day to film which means that we had less time to prepare. In comparison, for our thriller opening sequence we were given a month to film and enables us if necessary to re-film some scenes. As we were more prepared , we were given much more time to plan and organise features such as Mise-en-Scene, costumes. Another main comparison is that our prelim short film was not based on a genre (thriller), meaning that we did not have to stick to one particular theme.Only filming a conversation between two people made it much more easier to come up with an idea and film.

Below shows both the thriller opening sequence + the prelim short film.

Thriller Opening Sequence

Prelim Short Film

The location of our prelim film was shot in college. This was due to the fact that we had less time to explore other possible locations. As we were given only 1 lesson to film our short film, we had no choice but use the college building. In comparison,when filming our thriller opening sequence we used a range of 3 locations ( Angel, Hoxton and the Basement in College). We decided to use three locations in order to show the contrast of the actions of the characters in all three settings.

For both our thriller opening sequence and for our prelim short film, we used a variety of camera shots and angles. For our prelim short film, we focused more on using the 180 degree rule when shooting the two characters having a conversation with one another. In comparison, for our thriller film, we used a wide range of shots, such as Close-ups, mid shots, tracking, birds eye view etc... This suggests that we wanted to show a variety of shots the second time round when filming to show our ability of filming the action taken place within the film in different ways.

For our thriller opening sequence we created a Soundtrack using the program Soundtrack Pro,we chose and explored a wide variety of sounds and mixed the sounds we wanted into a Submix in order to overlay on top of our thriller film.In comparison, For our prelim film, we downloaded an instrumental from the internet (Youtube), that we felt both suited our film. The similarities between the two soundtracks were that they both had suspenseful music. The effect of this was to create suspense and keep the audience's at the edge of their seats. As we felt a suspenseful soundtrack worked well within our prelim, we wanted to stick to what we knew worked place and use the same type of soundtrack.

The digital technology , equipment used in our thriller opening sequence was more complex and technical then the digital technical techniques used in our prelim short film.We used more equipment for our thriller opening sequence such as Lighting kit as we wanting to produce shadows of items and show peoples body actions threw the shadows in-order to create suspense for our film. As previously used in our Prelim short film, we used the tripod, JVC Video Camera and Batteries. As we were familiar with using these equipment, we knew how to set up the equipment and the functions needed to operate the equipment.

For our thriller opening sequence we used a wide range of effects and techniques in comparison to our prelim short film where it looked quite basic. This suggests that we began to explore the techniques more for our thriller opening sequence then our Prelim short film. This was because we became more comfortable and familiar with the program Final Cut Pro , as we learnt new methods and techniques and new ways of making our film look more effective. The effects we used in our Thriller opening sequence include the following:

- Cross fades
-Black outs
-Quick cuts of scenes
- Pleasantville Effect ( keeping only one colour that we wanted to pop in contrast to the desaturated background shown in the beginning of the thriller opening sequence)
- Split screen of images ( Having 3 images being shown in one scene to see the reaction and action of three characters all at once)
- Colour Correction (desaturation effect)

In our prelim short film we did not require any form of props as we mainly concentrated on showing a conversation between the two characters. In comparison, for our thriller opening sequence we used a wide range of props such as: a Mobile phone,a newspaper,fake blood, Pound coin, Bottle of liquid ,A pole,Paper Notes ,Desk, Wooden Plank,Table and Chair. The use of these props helped make our thriller more successful in comparison to our prelim.

The final comparison between our Thriller opening sequence and our Prelim short film is the credits and titles seen within the beginning of the film. In our thriller opening sequence we included much more credits and titles and followed t6he order in which both the credits and titles should appear, in comparison to our prelim film were we only added selected credits and titles.