Film Opening - Final

This is the final edit of our film opening.

Feedback for final film opening

After putting our completed product up on Facebook seeking potential feedback from our target audience, I received feedback shortly after. This is what was said:

- Sharmarke.

Feedback

After showing our first copy of the film opening to our teacher Mr. McManus, he made a couple of suggestions to our group with regards to how it could be improved. He suggested we take out a few extra shots that were not particularly necessary. Also, our film opening featured a point-of-view shot from the gambler's perspective however that wasn't needed as the gambler wasn't the most important character. We decided to take his advice to go back and do the changes suggested to us. Also, we still needed to do something about the sound.

Film Opening - First Upload

This is what our film opening will look like. At the moment it is without sound additions or alterations.

Sound choices

Our decision for sound on our project was a tough one. Instead of playing a whole soundtrack above the project we decided to just add some sound here and there. We chose to do this because
we felt that our film would seem real to the audience if we kept the majority of the film strictly diegetic and soundless, in terms of sound we could have potentially add in. This was in the hopes that it would have built up tension in the audience as it would be a very thought provoking thing, which is a very strong convention for thrillers.

Addition of Dialouge

Dialogue was something that was suggested that we keep to a minimum due to the lack of professional skill. However, as our film was to be a thriller and we needed a few bits of speech here and there to help the audience understand what is happening in our film opening as, without it, the plot would have been harder to follow. Phrases such as "place your final bets" and "all in" were used to create a dramatic effect among the audience, perhaps suggesting that they are keeping talking to a minimal due to professionalism. Also, whilst Sharmarke is in the mask we considered the option of putting a voice-over suggesting to the audience that his voice has been disguised however we struck that out because it sounded unnatural and it would have been confusing as to why there was a vocal disguise when the mask is a basic and rubbery mask.

- Kausar.

Editing Software - iMovie Vs Sony Vegas Pro

We used iMovie for the editing of our film. The reason for this was that Sony's Vegas Pro (our other choice of editing software) was a bit too complicated for our liking. It had many features we were unsure of and we thought learning to use it during the post-production process wasn't a smart thing to do. This is why we had chosen to use iMovie; it had a simpler, cleaner look to it that made things clear and we have in fact already used iMovie in the past which meant we were very familiar with it. Ultimately, it meant we could creative our film as effective as we could.

An example of the Sony Vegas Pro interface.

Our film opening being edited on iMovie.

- Sharmarke.

Completion of shoot

The filming by the end of it all, took us just under 2 weeks to film, including the days we were unable to film. Now we had to start the editing process. The car scene took no longer than 3 hours for us to film with everything we could have needed. The flat scene took 4 days for us to film because we went back to re-shoot some footage. The poker scene in the school took the remaining days for us to film.

Unavailbility of rooms

During production, we faced many issues of gaining access to the drama studio, a key area for our project. As the drama studio became unavailable it meant we had to postpone our shoot for a week. In order to make use of our time during these four days, we decided to focus our energy towards the other scenes first. As we had unlimited access to the flat and near unlimited access to the car, it seemed as the most secure decision to continue filming later scenes and do the remaining drama studio scene during a later date when the room becomes available. This change in schedule helped us keep on track.

Weather issues

The car scene was the only scene that was actually shot outside. As such it was the only scene we had to worry about weather conditions for. We would prefer a typical cloudy and dry weather conditions. This is due to give the scene a mundane feel to further enchance our thriller. The bright sunny weather would indeed look 'nice' however it would not suit the tone of the project as we intend to make a dark undertone to suit the scene rather a sunny, happy feeling. We decided not to film during rain either - rain tends to be the most unpredictable factor of typical British weather and would potentially damage our equipment. Indeed it would suit the conventions of thriller if it rained by setting a 'mood' however the conditions for us to use that type of weather seemed to unreliable. We decided to film the car scene all in one day, in order to ensure we kept the right weather conditions. This meant we had to get what we needed without much reshooting.

Rain which we did not want. Rain came a week later from our shot.

Our ideal weather condition. Murky and dark, with small rays of diluted light.

- Sharmarke.

Production schedule

• Filming period - 1 week
• Editing period - 1.5-2 weeks

Actors and their roles, choices we made and the replacement of characters

The actors for our five characters were chosen. They comprised of the three of us and two other individuals from outside our group. These were:

• myself
• Sharmarke
• Aram
• Ali
• and Luke

Sharmarke.

Aram.

Luke (left) and Ali (right).

Our actor decision were based on a number of different factors. We considered availability, possible stereotypes and suitability of each actor. The reason for choosing ourselves to take part was the fact that we were always available to take part, along with the stereotypes associated with black people for Sharmarke. Our choice in choosing Luke was similarly because of the stereotypes associated with white people and how they are rich individuals. Aram was chosen to be the driver/mastermind of the plot due his ethnicity. A very extreme stereotype of an Arab is their ability to plot which is why we decided to fit this stereotype into our film opening in the form of Aram. This again enable the film opening to be carefully planned out with suitable characters playing each role.

Previously, we had two other characters replacing myself and Luke. These were Shadia and Charlie. We had replaced the two due to Charlie being permanently unavailable and Shadia not being able to help out anymore.

- Kausar.