Wednesday, 31 March 2010

Feedback

Here are a group of comments made by viewers on the Youtube post of our thriller:

hermionecameron (13 hours ago) Show Hide
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i like the pov shots and the titles. good choice of names
hurtwoodhousemedia (18 hours ago) Show Hide

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screams and punching dont sound very realistic
hurtwoodhousemedia (20 hours ago) Show Hide

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the sound is a bit strange sometimes but in general i really really like it
hurtwoodhousemedia (21 hours ago) Show Hide

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good use of sound during the beating. good job
miterxx (21 hours ago) Show Hide
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I like the special effects and the way you managed to make the torture look so realistic. I dont like the music in the background it doesn't suit it for me.
fatboy22222222222222 (22 hours ago) Show Hide
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Adam and Edward are proper hardmen in this nice stuff! Propa Nawty!
stephaniemareen (23 hours ago) Show Hide
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nce use of violence, makes it really effective, also perfect choice of actors.




I am happy with the positive nature of the comments made by people that have viewed the thriller. The comments made about the violence/ torture are uplifting because that was the area we worked most on and where a lot of our creative input was used. There were mixed reviews on the sound effects which is strange because we felt we did a good job on them, but this may be because the exaggerated punch noises may not have appealed to certain viewers. The soundtrack was also a controversial issue which is perfect because we aimed to break normal conventions in that area and create irony.

7) What do you feel you have learnt in the progression for preliminary to full product

Friday, 26 March 2010

4)


Name: Magnus R.
Age: 19
Nationality: English
Ethnicity: Caucasian

Magnus fit the criteria for a candidate to generalise movie goers. Research suggested Magnus was the perfect person for the job due to his age, nationality and ethnicity.

What is your favourite genre of film?

Dark comedy.

Are you a loyal cinema goer?

Absolutely. I tend to always see new films that I see advertised that interest me.

Would you normally just go to the cinema for the latest Hollywood blockbuster? For example: Spiderman or Avatar.

No way! I’m more into Indie films. Films that focus more on the plot and aren’t all about the money!

Hypothetically. Do you think it’s realistic to say that you probably saw films rated 18 before you reached the appropriate age?

Hypothetically? Yes.

Magnus’ answers were very interesting because he seemed to be the perfect movie fan for our product.

Thursday, 25 March 2010

3) What kind of institution would distribute your film and why?





When planning our video, we agreed that we wanted to create something that even though there were aspects of dark humour and stylised violence, it would incorporate the sense of gritty realism that comes with crime and obscene violence. Never when discussing the film, did anyone expect or want it to come across as a large budget Hollywood blockbuster. Glamorising organised crime was never our aim; rather it was to make a filmed comedic perspective and insight into the minds of two psychopathic mobsters using influences from Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and Robert Rodriguez’ Sin City.A large budget would not be necessary to fulfil our aim. We feel that a small American studio such as Miramax who funded Reservoir Dogs would be perfect to fund and distribute our film. Advertisement would be vital to get the film noticed but good promotion could easily come from film festivals if the film was raw enough. An excessively large budget is not needed but in order for certain action sequences to work, we would need suitable funding. Focusing more on the dialogue and performance would enable us to create some powerful and thrilling rather then relying on special effects.

Friday, 5 March 2010

Account of shoot day.

The hectic week before the shoot day was filled with excitement, nerves, drawbacks and re-scheduling- but when I finally arrived to the night before, I was charged with a sense of eager anticipation for my first ever chance to direct a video of any kind.
The morning of the shoot day started with a large breakfast and gathering up all the props and our three actors. We also had to collect the keys to the car we had been promised and once we had them, Adam moved the car slightly to a more appropriate location for the boot scene. Once we started filming I had the pleasure of positioning myself in the boot of the car to film the protagonist POV shots. After a successful first part, we were ready to pack the kit into a mini-bus we were using and relocate to a nearby suburban road we previously decided to use for our jogging shots.

When filming the jogging sequence we remained almost completely faithful to the story boards, where we only changed one shot to include both antagonists, instead of just a close-up. My favourite part of filming the jogging was setting up the camera in the bus and then driving alongside the protagonist actor whilst tilting the camera up and down to create an effective pan shot. We took several takes of each shot to ensure we had the best quality film we could produce. We then packed up our kit once again and moved to Adams house to set up for the torture scene which would take up the rest of the day, before going back to school and having lunch with the actors; which was all on our shooting schedule.

After a large meal we were ready to take on the most challenging shot sequence so far, and after checking that there were no extra props we needed from school: we headed back to Adams’ to finish the shoot.
The position we had previously set the lights up in, gave the room a musky warm feeling, and along with the sandy red bricks which were part of the location, I was happy with the atmosphere we had built the shoot in.
We shot the torture sequence in near chronological order due to the fact that as the scene goes on, more fake blood is used, so it was more efficient opposed to then cleaning up the blood after every after every shot. We again remained fairly faithful to the story boards, changing several things if any one in the group had sudden inspiration. One thing we decided to do on the day was a torture method which included the use of fake nails. We then realised the potential of the method, but due to the fact that it had not been pre-planned, it looked to fake to use in the video.
Other torture methods we used included the use of a hammer, a metal bar, a Stanley knife and a power drill. We shot each different torture from various different angels to attain the fact that we would have choices in the edit suite. After hours of hard work we had a good amount of film to begin editing and we were all happy with what had taken place.

Overall I am very happy with what transpired on the shoot day and while I learnt many lessons in the importance of pre-planning and organisation, I thoroughly enjoyed directing my first ever video.