Questionnaire feedback

Hannah, aged 16

1. What Genre of film would you say this film is and how can you tell this?
Either horror or thriller, because its got you in suspense right from the start as you can't tell whos she talking too.

2. What was your favourite aspects from the sequence and why?
I like the setting and how it's remote. The graveyard also looked rather eerie and creepy.

3. What areas do you feel could be improved and how/why?
The voice overs and dialogue could have been improved as they didnt quite look right or fit in with the film sequence.

4. Do you feel the storyline was easy to understand, if yes or no explain why?
Yes I got the jist of the story straight away, and i think that comes down to the production.

5. Do you feel the name of the film related well to the story?
Yes i think it suited really well.

6. Did you think that the editing and credits were done well and flowed well? Explain why/why not.
I think the editing was good and the credits flowed well and were positioned well in the shot (i.e not blocking an actress in the frame).

7. Do you have any other comments/feedback?
Very well done.

Questionnaire

To get some feedback from our film I decided to create a questionnaire that I would give to a few people, and ask them to watch the final film sequence then answer the questions as honestly as they could. This was so we could see what other people thought about it, and recieve any feedback on what we could improve if we was to do something similar to this project in the future. The questions i asked were:

1. What Genre of film would you say this film is and how can you tell this?
2. What was your favourite aspects from the sequence and why?
3. What areas do you feel could be improved and how/why?
4. Do you feel the storyline was easy to understand, if yes or no explain why?
5. Do you feel the name of the film related well to the story?
6. Did you think that the editing and credits were done well and flowed well? Explain why/why not
7. Do you have any other comments/feedback?

Horror Film Survey

We decided to create a set of questions that we would ask a range of different aged people in our school. The survey would help us establish the sort of codes and conventions that interest our audience, and give us a better understanding of what people enjoy. The questions we asked them were:

1. Do you like Horror films?
2. If you do, why? If you dont, why?
3. What aspects do you look for in horror films?
4. If you were to watch a horror film, who would you watch it with?
5. What is your favourite horror film that you have watched?

These are the research/results we collected:

Meghan, aged 16
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_kAjr2_GFA&context=C3e14c51ADOEgsToPDskJwfzX5j8UhB9XDRKFizrgm

Ellie, aged 16
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuvrY-h1XY4&feature=related

Kara, aged 17
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOM5cCLSxQc&feature=related

Callum and Hannah, aged 16
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwV7criCyt0&feature=related

Hannah, aged 16
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_IFUTlzo0c&feature=related

Luke, Michael and Kieran, aged 18
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_XXFXXvVZY&feature=related

School Librarian, unknown age
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrzIbjuPpK4&feature=related

Mia, aged 16
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_p66yWECMA&feature=related

Character Profile

For part of my horror film survey, i have created a character profile for one of the audience memebers in which i feel our film will be aimed at. Here is a small section of information about one of the people i have chose to take a picture of and analyse.

Gwen is 18 years old and is currently studying at Knights Templar 6th form. Gwen's main interest are fashion, going out with friends and her puppy. I took the picture against a plain white wall to really show of what she is wearing and so people dont get distracted by other background happenings. The white colour could represent her freedom and open minded personality, and how shes not too fussy. Which could link to films and suggest she's not fussy on what type of film she watches.

She is dressed in a bright red/orange, vibrant coloured dress which could represent her fun, out-going sort of personality. What she is wearing implies that she may be about to go out to a party or even at a party. Also, the alcoholic drink that she holds could also imply she's the party type and likes to have a good time! This could suggest that she likes to spend time with her friends, which could tell us that she'd be more inclined to watch horror films with her friends over family members or others.

Gwen has told me that she enjoys watching mostly all types of horror films and doesnt have a particular favourite. She watches horror films atleast twice a month, usually with her friends. Gwen doesnt have a job, but recieves £10 a week as pocket money from her mum and dad. She said she would pay up to a maximum of £10 to see the new latest horror film at the cinema, and she would pay a maximum of £15 to buy it on dvd. She sees films advertised mainly on TV and quotes "The trailer usually makes me want to see the film. If the movie isn't portrayed well in the trailer I wouldn't go and see it". If we were going to publish our film, our trailer would have to engage the audience so that they would then be willing to go and see the film or buy the DVD.

The Unseen Poster

This is the poster for our film 'The Unseen' that Harri Nicholls designed but with ideas from the group together. The idea behind the poster for our film was for an eye to be the main focus of it so that it emphasized the fact of knowing that you are being watched but not knowing what exactly what is watching you (voyeurism). Because in our film the character of Thomas the ghost is only seen by one person; the character of Katie. Even though other people surrounding her can experience what she is going through, they cannot see what she see's, therefore it is unseen by the surrounding eyes of onlookers.

The reason for having the text in the bottom right hand corner with the white etches around it was created in a way that we felt made it look mysterious but also as the white area surrounding the text could symbolise the ghost, as ghosts are usually portrayed to be stereotypically white; fixing in with a typical convention of horror. But also, it was done so that the text had some parts that were black within it which could represent how people are so close to finding out what Katie's 'new friend' is, but then in contrast the majority of the white surrounding the text, which represents Thomas and how he is in a more superior position as he is in control of the situation and no one else can change that.

I think the poster fits well with what our film is about. If our audeince where to look at the poster, they would have a bit of an understanding as to what the film involves, but doesnt give away too much! The colours used are your typical horror genre colours e.g. black and whites. Overall we are pleased with how the poster turned out

Editing

To edit our filming we used a programme called 'Final Cut' on the Mac computers at school. We connected the camera we filmed our footage on to the computer and uploaded them and saved them in a file on the computer. We opened Final Cut and clicked 'import files' and selected our footage. All these files then appeared in the browser and we were able to drag the shots we wanted down on to the timeline.
After putting the shots we wanted on the timeline we were then able to adjust them to how we wanted them. We put them in the correct time order, cut the length of the some of them and mooved them about. We also added in transitions between the shots, by selecting the shot and then clicking on 'effect' on the top tool bar and then selecting a transition such as 'fade in, fade out' and 'fade away', having the transitions made the film run smoothly and look professional. For one of our shots filmed inside the house we realised it looked too dark after uplaoding it and watching it back, so we needed to lighten it up so the audience could clearly see what was in the shot. We did this by using one of the tools on Final Cut and adjusting the ligting levels
We imported sound files in to the brower aswell, and dragged this on to our timeline. We had a spooky soundtrack running throughout the duration of most of our sequence. We downloaded this from a website called http://www.freesound.org/, and then imported it on to our timeline in Final Cut. Using the 'cut' tool we were able to crop the sound file so it fit in with the timing of our footage. We also downloaded short sound effects that went a long with some of our footage, such as the sound of a door creaking and loud bang noises. We added these in to our sequence to emphasise the 'horror' genre.
After we had finished adjusting our footage and editing it, we imported the file for our animated logo for our production company that we made ourselves. We put our logo at the beginning of our sequence before the storyline had began. We chose to do this as we had researched film openings beforehand and recongnised that the procution company was always introduced before the film began, and so we wanted to follow this to make our film professional and relate it to other well-known, sucessfull films.
Above is what our production company logo looks like. The name of our production company is 'H2B Productions', we thought of this name because there are two girls in our group called Harri which accounts for the 'H2' bit, and then theres a Becky (me) which stands for the letter B. We thought the name sounded similar to a scientific formula or a mathematic equation, making our company seem professional and intelligent! We used the colours black and red as they are mostly associated with horror genres and also the red colour could have connotations of blood and gore. The devil horns above the text symbolises the fact we are a horror film production company along with the colours used, as you would usually associate red horns with the horns of a devil or villain. We used this particular font as it looks uneven and rough around the edges, which could make it look like someone has quickly and roughly carved it somewhere - making it seem mysterious, a bit like the type of film we have produced.
When we were editing we added in text (screenshots above show this). We used the style of a typewriter when the writing appears, so each letter comes on the screen one by one. We used this effect as we thought it looked as if someone was writing it, but as an audience you cant see whos typing it creating a spooky and mysterious effect. It also links to the name of our film 'The Unseen' and emphasises that unknown effect we created throughout our film. The slow movement of the text appearing on the screen nervs the audience. The black writing is very bold and solid and the dark gloom colour has connotations of death and something lifeless e.g. a ghost.This shot apeared at the end of our film. 'The Unseen' is the name of our film and so we wanted the font to look haunting to match the genre and type of film. We chose this thin, crooked text as it looked slightly myserious as if someone had again carved it carelessly somewhere. The plain white background linked to what the writing says 'The Unseen' it's blank therefore theres nothing to see. Also our storyline involves ghosts and the colour white is mostly associated with ghosts. Overall we had around abouts four 2 hour sessions to complete out editing, so in total it took us 8 hours.

Voice Overs

Non diegetic voice overs were used twice in the editing of our film. Once because a scene that we had where the character of Katie said a monologue, turned out to be slightly muffled and the sound of her voice had been quietened due to the weather conditions surrounding her. Because we were using one of our friends Ellie, she also had other commitments for other subjects and work during school so therefore we decided to use my own voice for this particular section as my voice sounded slightly similar to Ellie's, but also it meant that we would save some time. We used a second non diegetic voice over of Harri's voice saying 'Katie' in a spooky eerie way as she ran away from the graveyard; we did this because we felt that it made that particular scene more dramatic and built suspense as it led to the next scene. Plus it linked in with the unkown effect we were creating throughout our film as you cant see who's saying it, you can just hear it, therefore this puts our audience on edge and emphasises the thrill factor. We also added in a pre-recorded monologue of when Katie is speaking to the ghost of Thomas in her room, we pre-recorded this of Ellie's voice when filming our sequence, we added in the voice during editing to ensure that what she was saying could be heard loudly and clearly.