Audience Feedback

Seeing as we have now completely finished our production =) it is time to get audience feedback. Today in class Miss Blackborow gave us some tips on things we could do and I decided to blog this so we can later reflect on the things we did or didn’t do.

It is obvious that we will need to hold a Screening Session before which we need to:

- clarify as a group who exactly we want as our audience
- create a suitable questionnaire to record the feedback
- decide whether we are going to book the media room for our screening and if so get in touch with Miss Blackborow asap
- decided whether we are going to hold screenings at home aswell
- decide on how many people we are going to invite

On the day of the Screening we need to:

- arrive ten to fifteen minutes earlier than everyone else
- Set up the classroom (move tables, arrange chairs, shut curtains, lights etc.)
- Test out sequence to see if the DVD works
- Check the volume

During the Session the three of us need to take up either of the following roles:

The Welcoming Person who:
- stands at the entrance showing people where to go and inviting them in
- hands out the questionnaires

The Person who gives the Briefing:
-Thanks all for coming
-explains what we expect from our audience–constructive feedback about the film (what works and what could be better)
- Speaks confidently in a friendly manner

The Technological Person who:
- makes sure the screen is on
- makes sure the DVD is ready to play
- basically presses ‘play’ and ‘stop’


We have already decided to have a group meeting today at 12.30 so we can start discussing all these issues so we are quite organised, and we will definitely be ready for our screening session by next week!

by Aarti for the group

Update:
We have now got a draft of questions for the questionnaire which I will post once I've typed it up. We have also decided that Aarti will be the 'Welcoming person', Alice will be the 'Briefing person' and I will be the 'Technical person', in our screening which has been booked for Wednesday 21st.

- Mel, for the group -

Friday 5th

In today’s lesson we continued editing our sequence together concentrating mainly on the girl, walking out of the shower and getting ready, and a few of the kitchen shots. It was good as it helped us realize what shots need redoing due to continuity problems, or other things such as the shot being too dark, and objects in the background that shouldn’t be there. It was also helpful as we saw that some shots were unnecessary and took up a lot of time so we decided to get rid of them (for example picking up lipstick). We also played around with the sound testing our shower and doorbell sound bridges and we’re very pleased with the way they bring our shots together. Overall we found some shots like the pan of dressing table or putting on towel need to be a bit quicker so that it doesn’t get boring to watch.

Although we had planned to do a full reshoot of the street shots with Barney after school, and a few of Laura’s shots, unfortunately Barney became very ill and had to go home which was a bit of a problem as we need to reshoot nearly all his shots and we don’t have the weekend to do this. However, we managed to solve this problem deciding to use our back-up weekend, next Saturday to reshoot instead. We are still planning to go ahead with tonight’s shoot however so we can get all of Laura’s shots done.

Here’s a List of things we need to Re-shoot

-Establishing shots (2)
- Shot of upstairs corridor and bathroom door
-Barney walking in the park (towards, low level feet, pan through gate)
- LS of Barney walking down street
-CU of Barney on the phone
- Still of Barney walking into frame towards the front door
- Side of Barney at the door, waiting/ringing the doorbell

-CU of Laura’s scary smile (without lights on ceiling)
-Laura picking up knife from behind (more light)
-POV shot of the kitchen clock
-Laura stepping out of the shower
-Laura leaving bathroom

I’m sure today will go well as we are very clear on what we need to get done as we met at Lunch to make a shooting script, and we have done it all once before. We will definately get all Barney’s shots done next weekend.
-Aarti, for the group

In our lessons yesterday and today we watched through our footage and started to edit some of it. This helped us see the issues with the continuity of light in the outside shots, and a smudge on the camera that we didn't notice while watching the footage on the shoot, so therefore we're going to have to retake a lot of the shots of Barney. We're also going to have to retake the establishing shot. In Friday's lesson we're going to see if we can edit the part where Laura takes a match out of the box and lights it, as at the moment the way we have edited it, it doesn't work very well. If editing it differently doesn't work either we will have to reshoot those scenes of Laura as well.

- Mel, for the group -

Meeting 28th November

In our meeting today we've ensured that we're completely sorted for our real shot tomorrow. We've taken the picture of the actors that will be in the photoframe on her dressing table and Mel will post these tonight. Also, we finished our storyboard and shooting script, including when we're taking breaks. We have also checked our equipment to make sure it's all ok, and everything's there. We've also agreed on who's bringing what to the shoot. (Mel: napkins, towel etc, Aarti: Photoframe), we're filming at Alice's house so everything she's providing will be at her house already. Now that we're ready, we're looking forward to the shoot and hopefully everything will go to plan.

Meeting 27th November

We had a quick half hour meeting today(27th November),although Alice couldn't be there and got further ahead with the storyboard although we didn't manage to finish,and we had some issues of how to do the part of the sequence where he arrives at the house and she lights the candle and picks up the knife. This meant we didn't get a chance to start the shooting script but we have a lesson and a meeting tommorow. In the lesson and meeting we need to:
- Complete the storyboard
- Complete the shooting script
- Take a picture of the actors together
- Organise the props we need and sort out who's bringing them

- Mel - for the group

Sixth Meeting

In the lesson we captured our footage and got a chance to edit some of it. It helped us really think about the continuity of our sequence and we got to see which shots we prefered. This meant that we could start our final storyboard, which we started in our meeting at lunch.
In tommorows meeting we need to:
- Finish the storyboard
- Start the shooting script

Posted for the group by Mel

Fifth Meeting

We finished listing exactly what shots are going to be in the sequence because we had to change it slightly and at the beginning of the test shoot we're going to do a shooting script and then test out our shots.

Posted By Group

Fourth Meeting 19th Nov

Today we've decided the days of filming:
Test shoot - Mon 24th Nov at 12.00-8.00
First real shoot - Sat 29th Nov
Back-Up shoot - Fri 5th Dec
For all shoots we will be meeting at Alice's house.
We'll decide the times for the real shoots closer to the time, after shooting script, actors etc are organised. We also decided on a general plan of action for Monday, which in our meeting later on today we will finalise.
We've just realised that lighting is going to be a Major issue when ensuring continuity and filming outside. For example, having him outside in kind of light and her inside in pitch black, which would not work. In the test shoot we're going to test filming our shots during the day as well as evening but we initially planned our sequence in the dark and it's disappointing that it might not work.

In the second half of our meeting, later on in the day, we started listing the shots in the order that they are going to appear, and doing a rough storyboard so we know what we need we're going to shoot. We also started the treatment of the final piece and will post that when completed.

Posted By Group

Third Meeting

In our third meeting we spoke to Mrs B about our idea and decided to move away from our initial ideas slightly. We are now changing the idea of lots of cutaways - as we originally planned to have slow shots of the girl in contrast to the fast, rushed shots of the boy walking. Instead of doing the many cutaways we are going to make her look rushed in order to get ready for the date on time and him looking nervous for the date. We're not going to show him very much, and are instead going to focus on her - so that the audience can really understand what's going on and we will make it obvious that time is an issue by often showing them looking at watches/clocks etc. We were thinking of having a graphic match between the two watches. We have also made more development on the ideas for actors, and have two more possiblitilies. Once we have pictures of all four possible actors we will post the pictures on the blog. We are also going to post analysis of openings that have inspired us to come up with our final idea.

Posted By Group

Summary of First and Second Group Meetings

In the first meeting we shared our ideas and did brainstorms on actors, location etc. We decided to go ahead with Alice's idea and developed it as a group. We then thought about locations, as it's set in a house. Aarti decided that her house would be unsuitable for our idea because the house is too modern and bright, which would not fit the genre. Therefore, Alice and Mel agreed to take pictures of their house and we plan to post these on the group blog, which Alice has already started. We then thought about people in our school who would be suitable to play the roles. We thought of two perfect people, who we have asked and who we feel would fit the roles well. However, we will need to audition, take pictures etc. We also have an issue with the fact that the guy that we want to be in our sequence is only available on weekends and Wednesdays, although both Alice and Aarti are not available on Wednesdays.
In our second meeting we looked at the pictures of both Alice and Mel's houses and decided that Alice's house would be more suitable. Because their would be better lighting on the street and because the layout of her house would work out better. We then wrote out the shots in the order they would appear and each agreed to storyboard part of the sequence.

Posted By Group

Initial Ideas

Before we started looking at locations, we came up with initial ideas for an opening horror/thriller sequence as this is the genre that we decided, as a group, to do. For our first meeting we agreed to each bring one idea:

Aarti's idea:
A serial killer who has had a bad childhood and is back for revenge. He disguises himself as a teacher and comes back to kill all the children, one by one. The opening sequence would be him sitting in his office looking at a yearbook with the pictures of the students crossed out with a black marker.

Mel's idea:
The opening sequence would involve a young boy/teenager witnessing a murder, (maybe his family?), he could possibly be in a cupboard (frame within a frame). The last shot of the opening would be a man opening the cupboard door and looking down at the boy. Alternatively a couple/person on their own could be walking through the woods when they witness a murder.

Alice's idea:
Girl getting ready to meet her boyfriend. Looks at clock. Rings her boyfriend 'Hey hun, I'm gonna ba a bit late'. Cuts to him walking down the street. 'Thats ok, I'm on my way to yours now'. Back to girl 'O..kay'. Ends on a shot of him pulling out a knife as he rings her doorbell.

We then brainstormed on sugar paper and developed Alice's idea and came up with this:

Revised Idea:
Its about a girl geting ready for a romantic dinner whilst a guy is simultaneously walking down a street on the way to her house.
The sequence starts with a girl in the shower. We would film different parts of her getting ready, the whole time not showing her face. Meanwhile, a guy is walking down the street. He looks hurried, worried, shifty. We want the audience to be a bit suspicious about him. The girl picks up a picture of her and the guy and it's obvious from the picture that they are boyfriend and girlfriend. We could possibly hear the picture, laughter etc. She looks at the clock, picks up her phone and phones the guy. 'Darling, you're two minutes late'. The guy says he's at the bottom of her road. She then makes her way downstairs into the kitchen, and the kitchen table is set up for a sophisticated, romantic meal. She lights a match, to light candles and this when her face is first revealed. We want this to be shocking, her very pale, with heavy dark eye-makeup etc. The doorbell rings and she lifts up a very large knife. We cut to a pov shot of the silhoutte of him at the door and back to her face. She is smiling.
We are happy with this idea and are looking forward to developing it and moving forward with the storyboards and shooting.

Posted By Group