LOCKED

This is our finished opening sequence and we are all so happy that it is finally complete. We have put so much time and effort into this sequence that is so nice to see it all come together! Although it was stressful at times it was really fun to film.

There is still the issue of the sequence being over three minutes but we hope that this can be fixed.

Completed!

Today, we finally competed our opening sequence! We are so glad to have finally finished all of the editing, sound and credits! We took a selfie to celebrate:

We have exported our sequence and it will be uploaded shortly! Overall we are very pleased with the end result and we will now focus on our evaluation.

Update - Credits

Sound Effects and Problems - UPDATE

Today we spend a free period going over the sequence and adding in some sound effects. The 'boom' sound effects that we wanted are finally part of the sequence and the credits have been completely finished. We have edited all of the shots so they flow - continuity editing - and the sound now matches the corresponding shot which is what we wanted. We have also made the 'LOCKED' logo move towards the screen which adds a bit of movement instead of it remaining in the one spot. After all this we were so close to finishing! However, after showing the sequence to our teachers they pointed out that the font  used for the credits looked a bit like an 'essay' font and did not match our genre, although we personally liked the font we were happy to change it which we have started but not completed. The second issue was to do with the length of our sequence. Our sequence is around 3 minutes long when it should be around 2 but there are no shots that we can cut out without our character jumping from one shot to another or the story missing a large piece, making the audience miss out on something. We have decided to wait until the whole group is together before cutting anything out so we can discuss as a group what can be removed without messing up the story.

 

This is the font we used for the credits but had to be changed as it was said to look a bit like a font used in a essay.

 

Update - Finishing the Sequence

As our sequence is nearly complete we watched it all the way through to see if there are any errors in the editing or sound missing. We think that it could use some more sound effects, so it looks professional. We will add in our heartbeat and some dramatic 'boom' sound effects to create suspense. After we have completed this and watched it through again, we will have completed the entire sequence!

Update

This lesson we decided to change the distribution company from Artisan Entertainment to New Line Cinema which is an American indie company owned by 20th Century Fox (one of the six most successful distribution companies in the world). The reason why we think this distribution company will be better is because they distributed the "Paranormal Activity", which is a really successful psychological horror film series.

Update (sound) 20/03/2015

Today my media group and I arranged the sound effects and the music in the places that we needed it. We added diegetic and non- diegetic sounds to it. The diegetic sounds were the TV static that we added when the computer screen turns back on and says "YOU SHOUDN'T HAVE DONE THAT" with an appropriate creepy font. This creates a creepy and robotic effect to the sequence as if the character that wants to kill her is inside the computer and makes it obvious that he is controlling the computer. It also makes the sequence look professional.

We also decided to make the atmosphere more intense by adding the sound of a heartbeat. The sound of a heartbeat racing is often heard when a person is scared and the fact that it is dead silent in the room and we can hear it intensifies the setting and adds to the suspense, because the audience feels like they are the character as they can hear the heartbeat so clearly.

We added non-diegetic music in the background. The violins also add to the suspense and the feeling of fear that the character might be experiencing at that moment. We also removed the violins for the last part of the sequence as silence is the most important sound that can be used for a psychological horror because the audience feel like they are alone in that room and expect something bad to happen and by adding silence it feels like the moment is longer then it actually is so it adds to the anticipation. 

Update

The editing of our opening sequence has been completed and all that needs to be done now is finishing the music and adding credits in. These two things were left until after the editing process was finished so we would know exactly what to put in and where. We had made a short repetitive piece of music but for our final we wanted to change it so that it was less repetitive but still matched the scene and managed to create a tense atmosphere. These two things will be completed in our next lesson so that our sequence should be completed by the end of the week.

Update on Progress

Today (16/03/15) we had to film the new ending for our opening sequence. This took place in a small media room with all of the blinds down to make the room darker. Unlike the last ending we made we wanted the new one to focus more on the psychological horror theme. We had the figure show up for a third time before disappearing once again and the computer suddenly turning back on with the words "YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE THAT" on the screen. However the whole opening sequence ends with the protagonist waking up back where she started before hearing the knock that starts the sequence over again and to get to this point the protagonist needed to die. As the murder scene in our old ending had to be removed as it took away the suspense we were unsure on how to kill our character but also make it tense. We decided that after the screen turns back on, their would be a point of view shot of the killer lunging at the character, this way the audience will not see the killer's face. We are still unsure whether we will use the shot as it is a sudden transition from the last shot and it still might not match the genre. We will decide whether to keep it in the editing stage.

There were some minor issues when filming such as the wrong outfit however we managed to work our way around this with a very similar replacement and as the room is dark it would be hard for the audience to see a difference anyway. We also ran out of time when filming the last few shots and were rushed to come up with our death shot.

The Message Shown on the Computer in Our New Ending

Update + Screenshots

After re-shooting and editing the packing scene in our opening sequence we now have to re-shoot the ending and sound. We are hoping to improve our music and maybe even create a tense atmosphere through sound effects. Our sequence is still around 3 minutes which we will need to cut down to 2. This will mean that certain scenes will have to be cut out and replaced with shorter shots.

These are some screenshots of the packing scene that we re-filmed and edited. The shots were taken in different camera angles such as a low angle, medium close-up and one shot taken from inside the protagonist's backpack which we thought was different and interesting to watch. The shorter shots are a lot better to watch rather than one continuous shot.

New Ending

Ben Drowned

As our previous ending went against our genre we had to plan out and film a new one. Our new ending is:



Girl runs into the static room and looks around, the static then turns off on every computer except one. She walks over to the screen and turns it off. She turns around to walk back and in the background of the shot a silhouette however when the girl passes the shadow the figure is gone. Her name is suddenly whispered out and she turns around to see the computer has turned back on and says "You Shouldn't Have Done That". We might add some sound effects to this part to make the tense atmosphere. When she turns back around there is a close up of her gasping and then she will wake up back in the science room where the whole experience is repeated.

We got the inspiration for this from the videogame Silent Hills P.T as it is a psychological horror game. We will also use similar sounds from the game to create a tense atmosphere. We also got the "You Shouldn't Have Done That" from the creepypasta "Ben Drowned".

Silent Hills P.T - Corridor

Our Opening Sequence





Post Production Updates

Today in our double media lesson we tried to film the scenes that needed improvement in our opening sequence. Here is a picture of jasmine as she is a doing a subjective POV shot ,running across the science corridor. Some of the shots were successful and have been uploaded and edited into the opening sequence, but some of the shot were not very useful and we will need more time to film one last shot in order for our opening sequence to look good and have a suspenseful and enigmatic feel without boring people or being too long and not having a proper story. We also thought that our story was not very clear and needed to be shortened so it does not over complicate our opening sequence and our audience only concentrates on the important parts and the actual story line rather than a lot of running scenes which don't really need to be in the sequence .  

Shoot Location

We shot our opening sequence in our school's science block, one of the media class. The two pictures below is the corridor where in the film our main character is running out of one of the classroom (below left) as she hears a knock.

                                

Our Storyboard

This is the original plan for our opening sequence which we kept to quite well, we did cut out some of the scenes drawn in the storyboard and added others in replacement.

Audience Feedback on Our First Draft

On February 13th 2015 we showed our first draft of our film opening sequence to our media class and to someone that is unfamiliar with editing so they would notice the obvious cuts and the story better. The first comment made about our sequence was that it was 3 minutes and needed to be cut down to 2, this would mean taking out a lot of scenes to make it shorter.

The next comment was that the scene of our main character packing her bag was too long, we were already aware of this before showing it to the class and it will be fixed when we next get the chance to film.

Although it was not brought up we noticed that the lighting needed to be fixed as some shots were darker than others so footage will either need to be edited or re-filmed.

The shot of the girl getting grabbed but in the next shot the person who grabbed her is gone was pointed out to be good job as it portrays our genre and shows what the film is about.

Shots inside the static media room were also liked as we used a creative way to make a everyday classroom have a creepy atmosphere. They also matched the psychological horror genre that we need to follow.

The ending was said to be to quick and as the killer attacks the main character it ruins the psychological horror atmosphere and quickly becomes a everyday horror film. A new ending will have to be planned out and filmed.

The last comment was that there should be more hints at the killer stalking or watching the main character which means several scenes will have to be done again. This will let the audience know that the stalker is always there but they will have to look for the clues.

The student that is not familiar with editing watched our opening sequence and said that she enjoyed the whole storyline as it was interesting and even though it was set in the school we did a good job of making it look creepy which is what we wanted. She also said that she did not notice that edits (continuity editing) which is good as it means no cuts were obviously bad to someone that is unfamiliar with editing.