Soundtrack; Followed On.

• On Monday 18th January (Today's lesson), me, Raza and Suhail continued working towards our trailer. Raza was focusing on the Editing aspects such as sorting out the duration of the shots and splitting them so overall it'll look original. Suhail was helping him and getting a "feel" for how editing works out. I wasn't focusing on the editing as much as I was on the soundtrack as I don't have much experience or much knowledge of how to edit the individual shots, but I did help out in terms of assistance, as I provided the captions layout, which sets out the order of our shots in the trailer, I printed it off my blog as the yellow book was currently unavailable. We have now learnt not to rely too heavily on the yellow book, as it isn't always available so luckily I found another source of blogger to print off our scheduele and other information.
  
• Having the role of sound, I must entail my role through research and investigation. In today's lesson, I simply converted all of our soundtracks off youtube to mps using http://www.mediaconverter.org/ which is a great site for converting youtube url's to any other format, in this case, mp3. Fortunately, I converted all of our video's so we have a diverse collection of tunes to choose from whilst editing after college on Wednesdays, as we agreed. Having done so, I also set out to research various other soundtrack's and trailers in order to understand their layout and how it's structured, i.e. whether it's in chronological order, the sound effects used within it's narrative, etc. The trailer for Avatar was interesting as the score and soundtrack for the film is very much related to it's fantasty genre.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xkwbwk-ACc&feature=rec-LGOUT-exp_fresh+div-1r-3-HM
  
  
  
• Also, we decided to stay after college, this Wednesday as we' all a Wednesday 20th Jan Raza and Suhail have decided to shoot the toilet scene again which although will last 10 minutes, it's still necessary as the shots had a scene where a bag was once played on top of the drier and in the next shot, it had disappeared, which not only looked inconsistent but also illogical. Thus, while the boys will film in the toilets at 3pm, I will come in at 4, after my lesson, and focus on the script as we need Raza to speak a few lines to establish his role more further and more realistically.

Interuptions...

Due to many exams taking place the previous week and this week in January, as a group, we have finalised to extend our editing hours for the week after in order to fully concentrate and to focus only on our editing and our trailer specifically.

Rather than rushing around like headless chickens, and being over-stressed for the January exams, we'd much rather prefer to concentrate fully and give attention to detail when all the fiasco is over. It is much about quantity rather than quality. Thus, we have postponed our trailer editing time for next Wednesday 27th January as everyone would have completed their examinations and shall have time to focus on our trailer for perfection!

The Schedule.

The Schedule.

Monday 4th Jan 2010Schedule IN ClassWednesday 6th Jan3-4 (PHILL) Editing4-5 Voice Over CompleteMonday 11th - 8thEditing IN classWednesday 13th - 10th FebEditing in Mac RoomFriday 12th FebTRAILER + BLOGGER DEADLINE!
So, we were set the task to create a Schedule among our groups in order to organise ourselves much better and visualise what needs to be done next in order to complete our trailer in sufficient time and space. So, in today's lesson, (Mon 4th Jan 2010), we all huddled together and started grouping our ideas together of what to do, when to do. So, today we spent deciding on our Schedule and what everyone's initial role was and what they'll be contributing in relation to this. Thus, we have finally decided to meet up weekly on Wednesdays to help Raza out with his Editing, as this role entails a major aspect of the trailer as it's the most hardest role to complete as well as the longest process. Therefore; we have all concluded to help him out with any problems which may occur and anything else in order to improve the finished result.

Genre

Genre = Thriller

In order for me and my group to produce a Thriller Trailer which is professional and effective, we can only compare and contrast previous Thriller trailers; from which we can establish what the conventions of a Thriller trailer are characteristics of. The locations used in the trailers are essential and useful as they set out clues about what the film entails and what it's about in terms of storyline. In Afterschool, for instance, the locations used reflects the protagonist's contrasting school-like behaviour with his bizarre and osychotic personality.

This simply demonstrates the locating of the character's first and how effective it turns out to be, first we see the protagonist in his school and we see him surrounded by normal sophisticated and respectable people such as teachers, colleagues, etc. and at this point we notice a very kind-hearted and mature side of the main protagonist, however the next location is his bedroom where he is with his school mates and we notice a sort of perverted side to him and we see various shots of a girl getting murdered brutally which leads us to this protagonist as a main suspect which starts to arises questions which therefore refers to locations as being a common convention of a Thriller trailer.

The use of Mise-En-Scene is highly effective in Thrillers as they're used to create suspense as it's approached in many different ways. We can see this in Moon as the Mise en Scene used in this British Thriller is spectacular as we get an eery sort of sense through the low key lighting and dark atmospheres used within the storyline.

Audience

In terms of audience, most Thrillers would have as much of a mass target audience as possible, to increase their fame and film awareness, and usually Thriller films would range their target audience from 14 to 50 year olds, but a majority of 18 to 24 years olds would be their primary target audience as they'd be able to understand the concept more and would relate to a preferred meaning (they would agree with what has been given to them). Thus Thriller-film directors would try and resist attracting a Niche audience (except if it were an Independent Thriller film) then they would most likely have many who'd have an Oppositional Reading towards the film (Disagree with the given medium) or even a Negotiated Reading (Understand the text but agree on some aspects of the film). Also, we would aim toward a both male and female audience and try and expand our target audience as much as possible, in general 57% of women are targeted to watch a Thriller movie whereas 43% of males are targeted for Thriller films. In terms of demographics, we would aim our Thriller trailer towards working class (Group D).

In relation to our trailer, we have aimed our Thriller film towards 18 to 24 year olds and we may rely on a Niche audience, as it is classed an Independant British film, which was similarly styled with This is England which was an Independant film as it consisted of a Low budget (1.5 Million), distributed by an Independant film company (IFC) and had unexpectadly won an award at the 2007 British Academy Film Awards for best film thus transforming from a Niche audience to a Large worldwide reception.

I have also created 2 polls on the sidebar to see what others think in terms of Thriller movies, their conventions and what they'd usually expect to see in a Thriller trailer and what they'd expect from this film in general.

~*Filming*~

What went WELL

• Everything went according to plan! Well for instance, if we had booked out the camera equipment for the weekend to film in the exterior locations, that's exactly what we did. Everyone turned up at the exact place and time and we weren't too dependant on one another.
• Everyone was brimming with ideas and enthusiastic about the filming experience. In other words, when we had our weekly meetings, if one was stuck on something, say they had trouble writing a script, either one of us would help the other in aid of what to write next.
• Also, if we had planned to take a shot of something and we didn't, we would change the shot afterwards as a group and come up with a unanimous result and change it together rather than doing it without the other's consent or agreement.

Plus, the shots we had taken, as a group, were dynamic and as proof I'd taken photographs of the group working as a team rather than an individual, I also shared the pictures among the group to prove it was a group effort.

What went Not so Well:

• As a matter of fact, although everyone was dedicated to their role, we still had trouble with our cast list. Although everyone bought some people to play the parts, we couldn't settle on who's who. To solve this crisis, we decided to have a vote on who would play their role best and who is to play the protagonist along with the antagonist and who would portray real chemistry between other members.
• Unfortunately, not everyone was flexible with time. For instance, if we were to film a scene which was necessary to film, some weren't available at the time and had lectures, such as when Raza and Suhail filmed the uploading scene, me and Sameria had lessons at the time and weren't available to assist the crew. Also, if we'd booked the camera equipment overnight, not everyone started at 9 to hand in the equipment before 9, as it's a college policy to follow, so to fix the problem, some made compromises to come in early to hand in the camera equipment which is what I did as I had the equipment to film the scene with my parents.

~*Post Production*~

In terms of Post production, the group underwent a great deal of research and planning in order to get the overall perfect score. There is proof of this which can be seen through the rough edits used for captions, JPEG's, Logo's and the overall structure of our trailer. The JPEG's we used were mainly for the use of logo's such as Film4, Gogo Media, Paramount Vantage and the UK Film Council. Basically,

Not only did we create rough edits f

or the actual logo's we were to use but also captionsfrom film critics and 5 star ratings along with the actual title of the film along with the release date and the website for further information.

Reflection on PROGESS...

Fortunately, our trailer is running along smoothly and fine and have been able to fulfill all the requirements there are in order to complete this, such as; booking and returning camera equipment on time which has enabled us to film what we've had to film in the given time, completing the voice edit and voice over, filmed all the scenes according to the step outline & storyboard and editing as much as possible before breaking up. In other words..

Completed List: Voice Over Soundtrack Filming Scenes Storyboard Storyline Photographs Script

What we have left to do is the editing aspects which is ideal as the editing process is the longest to complete so

we shall help Raza complete the editing process and help him conjure all the individual shots into one long strip to

create a Trailer. We also have the written work to complete which would be the evaluation, the problems we encountered

along with the improvements we made, in conclusion, although we have maintained a lot, there is yet more to maintain in

order to complete our trailer

To Do List: Editing Written Work Evaluation Upload Voice Edits

~*Individual Role & Contribution*~

Role

My initial given role was music sound. Having given this role, I have had to maintain many responsibilities such as:

• Making sure everyone knows what to see whilst filming (speech and dialogue)
• Undertake specific aspects of research to perform better in my role (Voice over conventions)
• Research many sound tracks, and look through what might sound realistic and what is actually conventional in an Independent film trailer. Here are some examples of the music videos and soundtracks we have seen and considered;

Contribution

Having been given this role, it's my duty now to carry it out through actions, here are a few things I have contributed for the group:

• Firstly, my role was sound thus I have shown much attention to our voice over and the music edits. I was in charge of script, and making sure Sam and Michael knew what to see along with the rest of the actors.
• Also, the sound effects were essential in order to complete the voice edits.
• And I have contributed to the group as a team member, by making sure everyone is present at our weekly meetings, making sure we book the equipment and making sure it's returned aswell and making sure everyone puts all their effort into our trailer project!

~*Strenths & Weaknesses*~ So Far...

Strengths:

• My group is very reliable and enthusiastic with ideas which is always an advantage as we all construct good ideas and produce them well. Everyone has a copy of everything, such as the storyboard or the script so we all know what's happening where...
• Everyone is dedicated to their role. For instance, Raza is in charge of editing and has already produced some shots for the trailer such as the awards/nominations to help express the work and to use his role, has already edited it.
• We all work as a team and nobody is left behind, such as Sameria. Although she is in charge of scriptwriting, we all work together to help improve each other's qualities instead of debating about individuality.
• Everyone is flexible with time. Suhail for instance, he is in charge of camera and had scheduelled to film on the weekend, everyone was on time and worked as a team.

Weaknesses:

• Although we are subject to our roles, we aren't as organised as we should be. Although everyone has a copy of everything, our work isn't in one place. In order to improve this, we have set everyday Wednesday afternoon as a meeting day we're we all meet up at a specifiic time and explore the written aspects of our trailer further such as the step-outline.
• We are currently having trouble with our cast. Although we need more assistance with this as our cast list isn't set yet. We need to be more flexible in time and make sure others are also to aid us. To solve this dilemma, we have also conjured up a plan to ask our cast for any available time on their hands whenever we have the chance. So instead of relying on just one individual to ask our cast for their time, we will all ask to our best.