Evaluation part 2 Georgie Holmes

7. During the process of our practical in Media, creating this short introduction to a horror film. I have learnt many news forms and skills using different technologies for example; Blogger, Imovie and Garageband. Using these different technologies have helped to create the atmosphere and tension for my film, for example Garageband was great for creating a horror soundtrack which is played in the background of our film. The use of soundtracks like the 'string instruments' and 'Base' really work well to create a tense piece of music with the use of high pitch cords that sound like a 'scream'. Although we felt that having unnatural events we wanted to use instruments in the Synth Textures, as they were interesting. Listening back to the soundtrack it is effective as it keeps you on edge at all times, creating the ghostly atmosphere intended.

Throughout creating our soundtrack I was fascinated with the Synth Textures- Izmir Ambience, because when I was playing with the different keys, I felt that this was perfect for our Ghostly feel. I changed the cords a lot to get both a lower and higher pitch to make the track more tense.  

This is a screen capture of the process
of making my music track for our film
using garage band. 

Working with Blogger helped me and Ryan to keep in control of our coursework (planning, research, evaluations, etc) as it was a very easy and quick piece of technology to organise and 'blog' your work. It has been great to work with and I would be more than happy to work with this website in the future for many different reasons as it is extremely helpful.
Imovie was good to work with as it gave you the opportunity to create a film using the different edits like; 'Fast/Slow speed' and 'colour balance midtones' these are a couple of edits that we have used in our film. As well as the editing, getting on track with the cutting and splitting of each shot was extremely easy and quick to learn and I enjoyed trying out these new skills. Imovie was good, but near the end we did have a few problems with it as it began to crash and loose work that we had previously done. But with these faults it helped us to learn from the problems that had occurred and make sure that we were saving every time we created or changed something, which was ok.

This is what we used for editing, to make
the pace for the title sequence run faster
keeping the audience on edge. 

On here I have shown what we used for editing our film, to make it the correct length and how to cut the shots from one to the other, at a fast and slow pace depending on the atmosphere being created. The majority of the time, we used the cut key and the Split to tidy the shots ready to edit and create a ghostly film.

Using these technologies to create our horror film helped us to improve our control over the work we were creating, as it kept us in an organised structure as we kept on track of everything we had done. Making sure that we were taking everything one step at a time. At first after shooting our film, we spent quality time organising our film and starting to cut it to make sure it was just under 2 minutes.

8. Working with both our production and the preliminary task there were a few differences for example, with the preliminary task it was both mine and Ryan’s first time using Imovie and Garageband therefore we struggled and had to learn a lot of new skills ready for creating a film of our own. It didn't take long to learn how to use to technologies and software on the Macs and was easy to work with.

This was the scribbely writing that
inspired our Title sequence from the
Preliminary Task.

The preliminary task was a great advantage for me and Ryan as it gave us ideas for our initial ideas, we liked some of their ideas, we took them on board and briefly used them to change and improve our own ideas and designs for our film. For example, with the preliminary task, their title sequence was very interesting with the scribbled writing which links in to horror as it seems quite un natural and surreal, this inspired us to create our own design with the victim writing the title and other information, to help you as the audience be aware that she is not all there anymore as something has made her turn the way she is. As well as that doing that practical before creating our own, helped us to achieve the skills we needed and improve on our work, to eventually make a thrilling horror film.

If we were to do the production again, I think the first thing I would change is our plot by making it more interesting and frightening, not giving to much away keeping the audience wanting to know more. As well as the plot/storyline. I would like to have worked in a scary, older and grand house, as this would have been a stereotypical place to film but you could do so much with it, and the shots being used. I would make sure we use a lot more close ups to attract the audience, getting as much detail in the threats body language and facial expressions as we could to increase the suspense.

This was the location we filmed at and as you see if doesn't look quite as affective as if it was set in an grand, old and frightening house. With using a bigger house it would be more realistic and scary. The positive side about using a modern house in a horror film, is that it is unexpected and the audience will feel tense and nervous at the idea of it happening to them. But to make ours more dramatic we would change the location,

9. My Contribution towards the Practical.

In the process of the practical, we both took the time to contribute in the work, to make sure that we would come out with a successful film in the end. Although we both took the time to work, I took on the role of the leader and made sure that I completed everything that was set. I organised when and where we were going to film and meet for planning. As I am a very organised person, we both felt that it would be best if I found locations that in the end we could both agree on the final place.

In my spare time, I took these photos for our recee, so we could physically see where we would be shooting which was good to make sure we were prepared. 

   During the planning, I said before, I found the location to use, both in the production and preliminary task. We both shared the planning but discussing our work together after we had done it to make sure we were both happy with everything. Along with the recee I did the lighting as they were both included in the similar task. I looked at what natural lighting we could use and what lighting we had in the location and this was very useful for our final filming.

This was the lighting sheet that I filled out. 

In the process of writing our script and developing our story board we shared the work out evenly, to make sure it was fair and that we were both bringing our ideas together.

These are a few of the sheets that I did to put towards the planning of our film. I completed all of the shot list, after we had put the work together.

   In the production, I did all the filming and make up, while Ryan looked after the storyboard and shot list, making sure we were on task and preventing continuity errors and focusing on the lighting and sound. It was interesting and fun to work with the camera (filming) because when we did the Preliminary task I didn't really use the camera, as I was more the director, but I was able to learn new skills and gradually have improved. This time I was both the cameraman and Director making sure that everything was running smoothly.
 After filming at the location, we made sure that we both worked hard on the editing and sound, Ryan worked well on the editing, and was very successful. I worked on the sound and came out with a good result. We both thought it was important to learn new skills.