Opening Thriller - The Newspaper

Over the last previous lessons, we had been split up into groups of 4, which would be the people we would be working with when it comes to making our thriller opening. In result of this, throughout the past few media lessons we have been getting ready to make our final thriller openings. This includes learning how to use the cameras, how to use and handle the equipment, in addition we were given a chance to actually practice making an thriller opening, using a newspaper. I am glad that we were given this chance to practice making a thriller opening as it has helped me and am sure others become more confident in how to use the camera and the equipment, and it also helped me personally to be more open minded and into thinking like a director, as a thriller is expected to be full of suspense, action, excitement etc, and what I have now learnt is that by using different camera shots, from different angles, when coming to filming the actual scene, in addition with the soundtrack, can create this type of theme.
Before we filmed, we started to plan what the storyline would be about, and how the newspaper would be involved and related to it. After this stage, we were then set a task which was to create a story bored, by either sketching, or using a digital camera, explaining the ideas we had come up with. I and my group decided to use the digital camera, as we thought it would be much easier, as sketching would have been time consuming, unclear and less accurate. We then began to take pictures according to what camera shots we wanted to include, and from different angles such as medium close up, low angle shot, extreme close up, high angle shot, or other the shoulder, showing the scene from different perspectives allowing us to have a vision, and to start thing of how the scene is going to be. After we had finished this task, we were then ready to start filming in the oncoming lesson.
In the following lesson, we did not just jump right into filming. We were given a tutorial based on how to use the camera, and how to use the equipment. I found this tutorial very helpful, as the DVD went into fine detail on how to use the camera and the equipment e.g. how to insert the tape, what button to press when you want to record, how to set up the tripod, how to place the camera on the tripod etc. Also, the fact that the DVD was stopped at each stage, we were then given a chance to practice what we had just been showed, which was checked by the technician mike. These made me feel extremely confident in how to handle and use the camera, as he showed us everything we needed to know in order to start filming.
After the tutorial had been demonstrated, we then went off in our groups to start filming. Our group decided that we would have the main hall as our main setting, where all the action would be taking place. Our group decided that I would take on the role to be the main actress in addition to Rebecca, while Zeneath and Tony were filming. Overall, we all contributed towards making the thriller opening, as we all combined our ideas together on what shots we thought would be best to use, e.g. other the shoulder shot, low angle, medium close up etc and what improvements we could make into making it more thrilling.
As soon as we finished filming, getting as many shots as we needed, we then took the camera and equipment upstairs, where we uploaded all our video clips onto the Mac, ready for editing.
In our final lesson, we were given a chance to finish editing and also adding on the soundtrack to make the overall video more thrilling. When it came to editing, I had felt very confident and comfortable, as in the first practice thrilling lesson we had, we were shown how to edit clips using Final Cut Pro on the Mac, so that when it came to us editing our clip, we knew what exactly to do. In this lesson, we had to work on a fast pace in order to finish our video, as we also had to add on a sound track to give it the overall thrilling effect. This is where the stress begun, and the hard work came in as it couldn’t be done half heartedly if not the work not be to a high standards. Our group worked exceptionally well, as we all took turns in editing, and we all respected each others ideas and input, which is why there were no arguments, as everyone listened to each other. As myself and Rebecca were mostly doing the editing, Tony and Zeneath added most of the special effect, such as fading. After finishing editing, we then had to add a soundtrack to it. I must say this was the point where I felt less confident, as I had never done this before, I was amazed at how much technology can do. Luckily, Rebecca had done this in her secondary school, so she was well familiar with the software and confident with what to do. In result of this, she did most of the sound tracking along with us other members who were watching, and sharing our view of what we think mostly suited the clip. However after watching Rebecca, I learnt how to do it and then had a go listening to the different type of genres, sound, tone, and tempo, and placing which one myself and my group felt was most suitable for our clip. Our soundtrack was very mellow, depressing, something that keeps you in suspense and sad. This was done to fit the exact mood of what (the acting) was going in the clip. As a result this created a thrilling effect keeping the audience in suspense of what is going to happen with the newspaper, and guessing, as the audience would be interested and wondering what was actually said in the newspaper and what is going to happen next. After completing the soundtrack, we had to save it and put it together with our video clip. Once we had finished compiling the soundtrack and video together we had to covert the video to MP4 format and upload our video onto blogger.com. As a group, we are very pleased with our outcome, and as it was our first time at doing this, we feel very proud, making us more confident and eager into making our next one.