The audience feedback we got from the audience during the screening was mixed. We had over 30 people attend, filling in questionnaires and the majority were able to identify the themes, target audience and genre of our opening.
Many of the comments were very positive and there was also a lot of constructive criticism to take into account. Below is an example of a questionnaire that was filled in by a member of the audience.
Audience Feedback
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Screening
We decided to screen our sequence during a school lunchtime as this would be best for everyone.
We chose to invite years 11 and above, as they include 15 year olds+ and this is our target audience.
To make sure we had as many people as possible, we thought it would be a good idea to create a facebook group as this would advertise on a platform that the target audience would definitly use:
Furthermore, we made notices that would go in class registers so that any people we did not reach were aware of the screening.
Also, we designed a questionnaire with questions that would be important and helpful to use. We chose to use multiple choice answers so that they would be easy to fill out and data would be gathered more easily.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Titles
Using LiveType application on Mac, we have been able to create effects add atmosphere, as it seems to crawl in, like the stranger who appears in Dark Summer. As we intended to layer the titles over the shots, instead of having cutaways we made the colour of the font white, so that it would contrast with the dark lighting of our shots.
We also made the final title, "Dark Summer" white because we wanted the last shot to fade to black.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Teacher Feedback
We received feedback from Mrs Blackborow, on our most recent edit with titles. The main points were:
- The typewriter sound effect when 'Impact Films' comes up goes on for too long, even after all of the letters have already shown up.
- Also, with the shot of the masked man at the window, she felt that the initial shot from the test shoot worked a lot better and had more of an impact and a grater reaction from the audience. We aim to add this shot into a new timeline and get feedback on which works best.
- The sound of the music box in the child's bedroom was too quiet Miss felt and after adjusting the volume of this, it sounds a lot more effective.
- The over minor detail of the sound was that when in the hallway, it was quite grainy and muffled due to the microphone. We took out the audio on this section, and it also works well.
- The final correction was moving the final title of 'Dark Summer' over a bit so that it does not fase out too soon.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
4th Shoot
Despite the fact that we had planned in our third shoot to be our last, the shots we took did not make sense and we will have to arrange one last back up shoot to correct these mistakes.
What we have to change:
(1) As the girl walks into the room the window should be closed and the curtains drawn. In the last shoot the girl did not register that the window was open, which should have been a major factor. To counter this we have decided to keep the window and curtains closed to simplify things and to avoid confusion.
(2) The girl should walk up the second flight of stairs when looking for Summer. This is so the audience know that the girl has looked everywhere she can for Summer.
(3) Zoe will then sit on the stairs and start to panic. The house phone rings and she runs down the stairs to answer it. She picks up the phone, the last line she says is "What have you done with her". This is so we know that someone has taken Summer.
What we have to change:
(1) As the girl walks into the room the window should be closed and the curtains drawn. In the last shoot the girl did not register that the window was open, which should have been a major factor. To counter this we have decided to keep the window and curtains closed to simplify things and to avoid confusion.
(2) The girl should walk up the second flight of stairs when looking for Summer. This is so the audience know that the girl has looked everywhere she can for Summer.
(3) Zoe will then sit on the stairs and start to panic. The house phone rings and she runs down the stairs to answer it. She picks up the phone, the last line she says is "What have you done with her". This is so we know that someone has taken Summer.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Sound Effects
When researching music for our opening sequence, we used a website called freeplaymusic.com, a website full of copyright free music. We found some possibilities to go with the actual footage and also sound effects for when the production company logo appears. The category of music in which we searched was, building tension and intensity.
www.freeplaymusic.com/search/category_search.php?sindex=11&i=70&t=s
Option 1: Off Center- This was one of our favourites from the beginning. The music starts of slow and then builds up. There is a lot of tension and the echos within the music adds an edge and fits in with the genre of our film quite well.
Option 2: The Under World- This is also a possibility. The music starts of very quiet and than rapidly gets louder with sound effects in between creating a very spooky feel. This could work well, however only if we fitted the timing of the music and the sequence effectively.
Also, for our production logo of BFE Productions, I thought that we could use the first three seconds of 'Undercurrents' as it sounds similar to the sounds used in other production company logos and sounds professional.
Another posibility music wise to go with the production logo, is 'Behind the Haze', which sounds very cinematic and exciting. This is our favourite track so far out of the ones we listened to and can be found on this link: http://www.freeplaymusic.com/search/category_search.php?t=s&i=71
www.freeplaymusic.com/search/category_search.php?sindex=11&i=70&t=s
Option 1: Off Center- This was one of our favourites from the beginning. The music starts of slow and then builds up. There is a lot of tension and the echos within the music adds an edge and fits in with the genre of our film quite well.
Option 2: The Under World- This is also a possibility. The music starts of very quiet and than rapidly gets louder with sound effects in between creating a very spooky feel. This could work well, however only if we fitted the timing of the music and the sequence effectively.
Also, for our production logo of BFE Productions, I thought that we could use the first three seconds of 'Undercurrents' as it sounds similar to the sounds used in other production company logos and sounds professional.
Another posibility music wise to go with the production logo, is 'Behind the Haze', which sounds very cinematic and exciting. This is our favourite track so far out of the ones we listened to and can be found on this link: http://www.freeplaymusic.com/search/category_search.php?t=s&i=71
Friday, March 5, 2010
3rd Shoot
On our last shoot, we did not get what we had hoped for. This is what we filmed:
We have decided to hold another shoot
Plans for this:
Final Shooting
We have decided to hold another shoot
Plans for this:
Final Shooting
New Ending: Storyboard
New Storyboard for Ending Group 1
Because the ending we had decided on previously did not flow and did not make sense, we drafted a new one, which will carry on from the previous storyboard, starting from shot 19.
However, because there were many different endings which we though up of, the ending on the storyboard above is the main one, though we will experiement with a greater variety of shots on our back up shoot (04/03/10).
This ending shows Zoe going straight to the child's bed to check on Summer. She peeks in, and instead of seeing the child, sees a doll in her place. She panics, but does not jump to conclusions, thinking that the child is playing a game. She accidentally knocks over the music box, and when picking it up sees the reflection of the masked man in the mirror.
When it comes to capturing and editing, we will see which endings and shots suit best with the overall tone of our opening sequence.
Because the ending we had decided on previously did not flow and did not make sense, we drafted a new one, which will carry on from the previous storyboard, starting from shot 19.
However, because there were many different endings which we though up of, the ending on the storyboard above is the main one, though we will experiement with a greater variety of shots on our back up shoot (04/03/10).
This ending shows Zoe going straight to the child's bed to check on Summer. She peeks in, and instead of seeing the child, sees a doll in her place. She panics, but does not jump to conclusions, thinking that the child is playing a game. She accidentally knocks over the music box, and when picking it up sees the reflection of the masked man in the mirror.
When it comes to capturing and editing, we will see which endings and shots suit best with the overall tone of our opening sequence.
Second Cut
Having changed the ending, we are still not happy with it. Many things went wrong:
- The POV shot running into the room - pace doesn't fit properly
- Why would the babysitter start to rearrange the room? Doesn't make sense
- CU of doll has more of a comical effect, which is not what we were aiming to achieve
- The noise is strange at the end - doesn't really have a purpose
- When Mel drops the doll, the shot is stange and this ending is boring with no purpose
Monday, March 1, 2010
Weekend Shoot Fri 26th and Sun 28th
Friday 26th February 2010
We did not manage to get as much done as we would have liked. This was because we found it hard to adapt to the new storyboard as there was a greater variety of shots to get used to.
On the other hand, we did manage to re-shoot the bedroom scenes and we managed to re-shoot the shot from inside the fridge of our actress.
Additionally, the actresses fringe has grown since our first shoot, therefore not being continuous from the scenes we wished to keep (the first scenes where she is on the phone to Mrs Matthews). This means that we have to re-shoot the scenes from the kitchen. This is an error we could not have prevented or anticipated, so we just have to work around it.
Maybe next time we could counter this by arranging a group meeting prior to the actual shoot itself and go over the shots with our actress.
Sunday 28th February 2010
Unfortunately, our actress fell ill on Saturday evening, so was unable to make the Sunday shoot. However, we can work around this again, and hopefully arrange a weekday shoot so as to avoid shooting at the last minute.
We did not manage to get as much done as we would have liked. This was because we found it hard to adapt to the new storyboard as there was a greater variety of shots to get used to.
On the other hand, we did manage to re-shoot the bedroom scenes and we managed to re-shoot the shot from inside the fridge of our actress.
Additionally, the actresses fringe has grown since our first shoot, therefore not being continuous from the scenes we wished to keep (the first scenes where she is on the phone to Mrs Matthews). This means that we have to re-shoot the scenes from the kitchen. This is an error we could not have prevented or anticipated, so we just have to work around it.
Maybe next time we could counter this by arranging a group meeting prior to the actual shoot itself and go over the shots with our actress.
Sunday 28th February 2010
Unfortunately, our actress fell ill on Saturday evening, so was unable to make the Sunday shoot. However, we can work around this again, and hopefully arrange a weekday shoot so as to avoid shooting at the last minute.
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