What I've learnt about the techology

1. What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing
this product?
There were additional shots to those that were originally planned because of
the location that was used and the time of day that was decided. This meant
loud non-diegetic noises that were heard in the background, which was written in
the storyboard, couldn’t be used because of the time of night we had recorded
the footage and also filming in the private estate.
One problem that occurred with the equipment was that despite having a
tripod, the size of the room that we used was a limited size; causing difficulty
with spacing – meaning it was tight when varying the shot lengths. Meaning they
didn’t match up to the ones that were mentioned in the storyboard. To get over
this issue, closer shots were recorded in certain parts of the bedroom scene.
The only problem that occurred with the mise-en-scene, costumes and props,
was the corkboard which was filled with the fake pictures of victims. The board
clearly appeared to be artificial and there was limited usage for items to make up
the board and other props. There were also problems when it came to the
lighting side of the process. Because of the shots being in different parts of the
bedroom, different shadows were casted onto the footage causing different
levels of lighting. This is clearly evident in the footage by each shot being in
different keys of light.
The
final

2. film differs from what was originally planned as shots have been taken out which
appeared in the storyboard and some had even been filmed but was then
decided when the sequence was watched back that certain shots were not
needed to complete the opening. Plus, there was an issue with the length and
timing of the Thriller opening. It originally went over 2 minutes and was nearly
going into its third minute. The product seemed to drag and lose its thrill, which
wasn’t the intention that was wanted at all. To resolve the issue, eliminating the
unneeded shots was relevant.
I didn’t have any problems with the sound because of there being no dialogue
incorporated in the opening. The only sound which is heard is when the actor
breathes heavily at the start. When it came to the editing process, it became
difficult with the breathing suddenly stopping when the next shot had begun. To
fix this problem, a special effect called fading was used to make the two shots
together flow by them combining with each other.
First shot Fading effect Second shot
There were no problems with regards to the actor, Max Knowles, except the
times where he was available to film for the group. But overall, Max worked well
on set and followed directions clearly. There were only a couple of mistakes
through him either laughing or not realising the film had began to record, but
showed good characterisation of an assassinator.
With the shots that had been chosen, I decided to add music when the actor
who plays Brad looks into the mirror. The reason for this was because at this
point, the pace of the sequence slows down and becomes more of a calmer
atmosphere. To create this mood, I wanted a piece of music that sounded
unpleasant but must have violins as the dominant instrument because of the
results that were received when participants from the target audience was asked
what instrument would be best for a Thriller. My aim was to make the audience
still feel uncomfortable despite the setting being calm visually. The picture below
shows the starting point of when the music began.

3. There were two particular shots which caused problems and had to be recorded
several times, shooting from the actor then panning left to the television and
panning right with the actor then tilting up whilst we walked up the stairs. The
main reason why these were shot more than the others was because of the
camera not remaining steady when the movement began.
Special effects were included in the sequence. Different use of transactions,
fading and zooming in at slow motion, was used to make the opening flow and
slow down the pace as an overall thing. Fading was used at the beginning of the
opening, showing a slow start, with then the pace gradually quickening up, the
whole thing slowed back down by the use of slow motion being shown at the end
of it. Not only was the product edited through special effects but also
incorporated with titles, all being used by the software adobe after effects. For
example, the title ‘Target’ was made by the ‘shatterize’ effect, also known as the
pixel polly plugin to the title. It also needed a metallic background so that it made
the texture seemed more realistic. This wasn’t always easy to do as it took a
couple attempts to get the credits right. The first time, the text was too large to
fully fit onto the screen so it needed to be edited it to make the font size smaller.
Overall, I thought that using Premiere
was easy to pick up with regards to adding the shots into the sequence and being
able to cut them shorter or separating one shot into two parts. Another point
which the software is easy to use is the fact that it’s easy to rearrange the shots.
However, I noticed that if you didn’t shift the over shots over and just placed a
shot over the top of them; it would remove the certain part of footage that was
covered up. Premiere was difficult when the credits were involved as for an

4. example, there was difficulty getting the ‘name credits’ to crawl across on the left
side of the screen. But it was soon resolved by making the font size smaller.