This is my evaluation. I had a bit of trouble uploading it onto my blog as I found the websites that you can use to do so quite tricky to use. However, I finally decided to use Slideshare.com, and here it is.

Media Film Coursework Evaluation

Editing Our Film Finally

Due to the technical difficulties we had when we were trying to edit our film round Matthew's house, we were left with no choice but to finish editing our film at school when I had free lessons. Zoe and Matthew gave up their I.T lesson to do the work, and we spent all day doing it, going into our media lesson. We spent alot of time cutting and editing specific shots, muting the sound and refining slight errors we had in between shots which had an overall large impact on the way the film looked. We also spent alot of time tring to sort out the effects on the voice over and how it would sound when corressponded with the music. The music- compossed by Zoe's friend Sam, was hard for Matthew and I to time with the film sequence properly as we had not been there ourselves when it was being composed, so we did no know how to synchronize it for it's proper full effect. So, after we added it to the sequence and gave it to Zoe to listen to, we discovered we were very poorly synchronized and ended up having to move the music to the left quite alot to get a certain loud sound to corespond with the closing of the door of the bedroom. At the end of the film, after we had stranded everything together, we felt we needed to add a bit of suspence and hair raising tension , so we decided to record me screaming and add it in at the end when Zoe's hand is reaching towards me in the wardrobe, and you hear the scream as the screen blacks out. I really loved this effect, and the scream sounds realistic and does not sound too mature. This is good due to the fact that it was supposed to be coming from a young girl, the younger version of me played by Matthew's sister Emma.
We added in the scream, and made sure that the voice over was at the right volume for the film to work and appeal properlly to the audience, otherwise the music would end up being louder than the narrative, and that would not be good at all. After that, we had to make sure the title was exactly in the right place and there were not any errors with the editing. We also took time to try to get the right colour size and font of the title, as this obviously has an effect on the opening of a film. Especially a thriller where the audience are just getting into the mood and feel of the theme of the film and need to be drawn into the story straight away and be put on the edge of their seat with suspense. It was hard to find the 'perfect' title font, but we went with the closest one. We kept the effect of the title coming into view simple, as the movement of clouds is slow and drifty, so we used that effect to convey that. This is conventional of thrillers as every thriller has the title to suit their opening. For example, 'Cape Fear' has its title appear with the soundtrack at its loud height, and the faint backdrop of a close up of freaky looking eyes looking around the whole screen, and this conveys the stalker horror of the film.
We finished and then Matthew burned the film onto a DVD and gave it to sir, and we were finally finished.

Analysis of Thrillers- 'Psycho'- The effect of character's fear on the audience

'Psycho', 1960 by Alfred Hitchcock was based on the novel written by Robert Bloch who was inspired by the crimes of Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein.

The scream at the end of our film can be linked to 'Psycho' because, this is a film which is famous for its scene in the shower when the young woman gets attacked and the soundtrack heightens as we see her terrified face, and she lets out a long loud scream as she gets stabbed. Our film had my character hidden in the wardrobe at the end, and then Zoe walks past and sees Anna in the wardrobe, and the audience see her hand reaching in towards Anna as the narrative stops, the music comes to its loud end, and we hear the scream as the screen blacks out. It is not the same with 'Psycho', however, the idea of the scream is similar and conveys to the audience what is about to happen to Anna, and the audience ask themselves narrative enigmas such as How does Anna get abused? What made Anna scream?

Editing Our Film- 27 April

Again, we went round Matthew's house to try to edit our film and it was going really well until the computer crashed. It was late at night, so we decided we would take it into school in the morning and try to work on it there and get it to work.

Here is a link to our thriller opening which Matthew and Zoe posted on to Youtube. It is not finalized yet, but is quite good so far. It needs to muted, have the voice over and music added to it and be finally edited before it is finished.

Filming the Voiceover and adding in the music- 26 April

Zoe and I went round to Matthew's house so that together as a three, we could record the voice over before he had to go out. Zoe wanted to write the script because she was able to come up with a good narrative which included many adjectives which, on the whole gives the film and my character more ambiguity, which is what we wanted because we didnt want to give away too much.
So Zoe handed me the script, and I started practising reading it out ready to record the voice over. I tried to get in the character of Anna by elaborating and trying to picture myself as a depressed drug addict. However, Zoe did not like the way I was reading it, and after many attempts, as we were pressed for time, I agreed that maybe it would be a better idea if Zoe read it, as she knew how she wanted to read it and how she wanted it to sound. It was a shame because I did want to read it, and my voice would have been ideal as i have a quiet calm voice and it would have been ideal for the character of Anna. However, Zoe read it, and we recorded it. We made sure to record it in steps so we wouldn't catch the rustles of the page turning of other sounds which would have disrupted the voice over.

Working Progress/ Completing the Storyboard for the Group Because of Me Leaving to go to Cyprus for Easter

Sorry for going to Cyprus in the break.
I have helped Prince with the Recce form and the risk assessment.
I managed to use my packing time to complete the final story boards in neat hand drawn boxes on A3 sheets of paper. I used the rough story boards Zoe and anyone else had sketched as a rough guide for the story board, but as I knew in my mind what the film would look like, I improvised and added quite a few shots so that the opening would flow better.
I finished the storyboards, made sure they were detailed enough, and with the rough copies dropped them off at Zoe's house the next morning.
I am deeply disappointed that I was not here to finish filming our film and edit it, however I am really happy with the way Matthew and Zoe managed to do it. It works really well and it is what we had in mind.

Filming Day 2- 4 April

That day, we met up at Sainsburys at 6pm again and made our way to Muswell Hill. Due to traffic, we got there a bit later than last time, and we were surprised by how little time it actually took to grow dark. So we were filming in darkness the whole time again. We re- filmed shots which needed to be filmed again, as we knew we would not come back to re- film at this location as time is aginst us so we needed to have good shots so we would have less to worry about when it came to the filming.

Analysis of Thrillers- The Butterfly Effect

'The Butterfly Effect', (2004) Directed by Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber.
I watched this film a while ago and my first impression was how unusual and jam packed it is. There is always something important going on- what with the whole point of the film. The theory in the film is that one tiny difference in the time continuum will change the rest of history like stepping on a butterfly. The same lifetime of the main antagonist changes repeatedly throughout the film due to his ability to change events in history just by focusing his thoughts to travel back in time inside his head.

I feel that both 'The Butterfly Effect' and 'Clouds' portray memories of the antagonists' childhood which shows their unhappiness. 'Clouds' shows how Anna has turned towards drug addiction as her 'sanctuary' because of being depressed because of what has happened to her, and not being strong enough to pull herself out of negative thinking.

Thriller Analysis- Mum and Dad

'Mum and Dad',by Stephen Sheil (2008) is a microwave film, and is the first film that was available in cinemas and DVD at the same time meaning that you could choose to watch it either at home or out. It was based slightly on real life seriel killers making it even more serious and horrific, because it makes the audience think of how the happenings in the film actually occured to people in real life. It is about a polish girl who gets led into a trap and is repeatedly tortured by a psychiatric couple who get pleasure from sexualy, physically and verbally assulting her. It is not a film for those who do not enjoy thrillers.

I feel that this film is linked slightly with ours as it shows horrific abuse and torture, and our film has the mysterious backdrop of parental abuse in it, in the way that the audience can tell that Anna has been abused in some way by her mother, and it has left her psychologically alienated in a society where she would not originally have taken up heroin addiction if she had not been abused as a child.

First Day of Filming- 31 March

That night, we went to Muswell Hill together and started to prepare for a night of filming. I went dressed in my casual every day clothes, how ever, Zoe and the rest of the group felt that I needed to get more into the character of a heroin addict, so I borrowed Matthew's hoody, which was too big for me, thus making me look not feminine, and grungy. I messed up my hair to let it hang messily, because our character, Anna would not care (or notice) how her hair looks.
The Filming was a success. Going along with the storyboard, I was directed and told what to do so that our filming would go according to plan. We got loads of shots of me running to my 'sanctuary' and running down a huge hill as well as climbing up a brick wall over a far drop on the bridge where Matthew zoomed in under my arm to get an angled shot of London.
However, it got dark quite quickly so we actually filming in pitch blackness and as it wass getting late, we had so finish off for the day and go home.

Group Meeting- 31 March

As a group, we met up to discuss the progression of our filming and when and where we would be able to meet up to start filming.

- We decided that Zoe would charge the camera and bring it along to where ever we are meeting this evening.
- Matthew will bring a camera to document our work, and also upload it onto the group blog so we can reference to it later on.
-We have decided that we will meet up at Sainsburys at 6pm so we can all go as one to our filming location which is Muswell Hill.
- Tomorrow, Khalid, Prince, Matthew and Zoe will visit the other three locations. I will be unable to attend due to the fact that I will be spending the day attending a UCAS convention.
- Matthew will take a camera and take pictures.
Khalid and Zoe will take brief notes so that Prince can complete a Recce form for us.
- There will be a quick rehearsal to see if the group are able to carry out the more complex shots.

Location Test- 24 March

That day, we met up at Sainsburys at 6pm (after the first attempt did not go according to plan) and together, we visited our possible locations to decide on which ones would work for the feel of the film that we wanted to create.
First we went to Alexandra Palace to look at how the rooftop shots we wanted would work. We knew that we would be able to get some amazing shots of London from the top of the hill, so we tested the camera on a few shots of the view, and I have to say- they were pretty good, so it was a definite possibility.
Next, we went on location to the old train tracks in Muswell Hill (they've been turned into a path now). We explored with different angles and lighting, although it got dark quickly so we did not have a lot of time to see what it looks like in day light. However, we used this to our advantage and made sure that we considered all possibilities with how we could carry out our planned shots with what we had. The old train tracks under the bridge were surrounded by shrubbery, and when we explored up the stone steps along side the brick wall of the bridge to see what we could use on top of the bridge, we found that the view of London at night was quite impressive considering we were not as high up as Alexandra Palace.
Compared to Alexandra Palace, Muswell Hill was more gloomy, isolated and quiet which we felt was perfect for what we were looking for so we decided to use Muswell Hill instead of Alexandra Palace.