Audience Feedback

Audience Feedback Results

1. Can you identify the genre the film would be?
Most people showed they recognize it was from the horror genre, however some thought it was slightly unclear. Yet I believe from adapting the sequence since the viewing- for example adding the sound- the genre has become more apparent.

2. Do you think our titles (i.e. font, size) fitted the genre?
The titles were positive to the viewer as were said to be clear, and easy to read, however some could have been kept on for a longer period of time. We have understood this point and changed them to stay on the screen longer, which adds to the intensity making it easier the read.

3. Can you explain the significance of the flat? Explain what has happened here before?
There were mixed views from this question as some people were not entirely sure of the significance. However more people than not new that there had been murders before hand involving the HOODED MAN.

4. How did you feel the costume, location and props contributed to the narrative?
The costume was good as it portrayed everyday life, except from the HOODED MAN which showed him to be mysterious and creepy. The props worked well as thy helped with the understanding of the girls moving into a new home. The location gave a realistic sense and the surroundings made it seem spooky and secluded. Combined, the mise-en-scene helped build suspense and intensity and fitted well with the genre.

5. If you had the chance would you continue watching the rest of the film?
Unfortunately a few people declined the offer to continue watching the rest of the film. This was down, in most cases, to them not enjoying the horror genre as a whole, but some believed it to be slightly amateur. Yet these people are outsiders who did not realise we had little funds and a single camera and were more understanding when informed of this. Luckily on the whole most people wanted to continue watching to find out what happens in the flat and to the girls, as the opening sequence grabbed there attention and did not give to much away.

6. Where the superimposed images effective? How do they help show you what has happened?
Some people did not think they were that noticeable so we extended the overlap of the superimposed shots and darkened the opacity to make it more visible. But the main contentious was that they added something different to the piece, which mad the sequence easier to understand as it gave an insight of what happened in the past, and worked with the rest of the footage to predict the future.

7. Any other comments?
Not many people added extra comments, but the ones who did said they enjoyed our sequence and would want to continue watching to see the outcome.

The overall feedback was positive in many places which is good for our sequence and the criticism was constructive and helped us improve sections which needed work.

We asked an audience to view our opening sequence and then filmed there responses. However because of technical difficulties it is not possible to put them onto our blogs.

Production Report

We filmed our opening sequence on the 6th February 2010 at Charley’s flat on Elstree Road in Woodhall Farm. I enjoyed the few hours it took to shoot, however we did come across a few problems. These include lighting, camera work and forgotten lines, as well as starting late.

The first problem we encountered was within the first scene where the three girls walk into the block of flats. This shot, which should not have taken along time, in fact took around 5-6 takes. This was because I needed to walk faster than the other girls so that we could have a smooth transaction into the next scene, on top of this forgetting our lines and bursting into laughter which was unprofessional.

When moving onto the next scene we had a problem with the camera work as the shot did not look as it was meant to. I was meant to Pan around the hooded man without revealing his face, however I tracked around him and instead of stopping on his face I moved past him. This went wrong because I used the wrong technique and now must be re-filmed as it does not look as mysterious as expected, therefore isn’t as interesting.

One of the major dilemmas which we faced was the lighting within the stairwell. The only lights placed there are set to a timer and only come on at night. Also there are no plug sockets to add any extra lighting unless attaching an extension lead from the flat, which could cause disruption to the other residents which we did not want to happen. This caused the shots in this location to be very dark and again we will need to re-film these parts, such as the girls walking up the stairs and the conversation with the old lady. Yet this time we will see if using night mode on the camera will brighten up the scenes, or by using a powerful touch high in a corner to make it look like a lightened room.

As we continued we had more difficulties with the camera work. One of the most obvious was the panning with the girls walking up the stairs. Although this was partly down to the space issues as there was not a lot of room to put the camera on the landing and then walk past it. This lead to cutting off the girls heads and not following there movements well as the lens would go out of focus if the camera or people moved to fast. What should have happened was the camera operator setting the camera higher, as well as allowing two of the girls to be out of shot, then following the third up the stairs. As we are going to re-film this section we will do it like this, whilst making as much space as possible to make it easier to move around.

Three mistakes which should have been avoided were firstly the re-watching the tape. We have been told never to do this, just to film a shot again if we didn’t think it was right. However at the time we did not think and watched a few shots back. This caused breaks in times which made it harder when blogging. The second was the height of the camera. In most of the shots it was to low and cuts the tops of people’s heads off. We now have to re- shoot these shots as they look silly and look very amateur. Lastly the actors did not know there script 100% so improvised certain sections. This was not good as it goes against what we have put in the pre-production section in our blogs, however will be learnt and said correctly with the scenes that are going to be re-filmed.

When editing one of the main problems we faced was issues with continuity as some of the scenes do not flow to well and do not match 100%, yet we managed to cover these with fade in black screens and titles. This is why there are many more titles than shown in the treatment and shot list as we needed to create more to overcome certain issues, yet having more seems to add to the effect of the overall sequence as the fade in and outs create more intensity. Also there is a section near the end when Laura walks up to the door frame and pauses and then the camera moves forward closely behind her. The effect we wanted to give was the impression that she wasn't sure weather to answer the door or not as she did not no what she may come across, however this in fact does not appear like this and seems like dodgy camera work which we now regret creating. Another was where Laura has her back to the camera, with the next shot being a close-up of her face where she has changed direction which looks strange and is incorrect. At the time we did not think about this as where more concerned about fitting different shots in. I realise how careful you must be as little things make a big difference.

The final cut is also over the required amount of time but we decided that we needed all the footage as it made a good introduction to the film and included an insight to the characters, past events and a feel for what the rest of the film is going to be about.

Pre- Production Report

During the pre-production stage we made the decision to use the horror genre straight away as we all enjoy watching these types of film and know we would not loose interest. However we had a few difficulties with deciding on the story line as there were communication problems within the group and many ideas to choose from. We finally came up with the basic outline of what the sequence was going to contain, however we all had our own ideas and views on what should happen, and unfortunately none of them matched. For example killing three girls in the opening sequence and having the film as a detective finding out what happened to them. This led to us having a group meeting to discuss all the options and to decide on the best action to take for our film. Luckily we agreed on a storyline which we have stuck to.

One of the first pieces we had to write was the treatment. This did not go to plan as we made many mistakes and had to add parts and change the order of scenes. This again was down to communication and misinterpretation of what was happening, and when, in the film. Yet when we went through the whole idea whilst writing the shot list we found it much easier to correct the errors of the treatment and make the two pieces match. We also had a problem with our storyboard as it did not match the shot list or treatment at one point. We also found that it needed to be in more detail with the sound used and how long each shot was. So we had an extra lesson re-arranging the storyboard to make it correct and easy to follow. The other items from the pre-production went ok and everything was completed quickly without as many problems.

We had to post all of our work to do with our production on our blog. This meant scanning in certain parts like the storyboard and inserting it as a JPEG image, also with the shot list, script and location recce, as they cannot be copied and pasted onto the blog as it does not allow this to happen. A problem that occurred for me during the transferring period was that my computer at home would not allow me to copy and paste onto the blog so I had to relocate it to school to do so. I tried to keep this as up to date as possible with our group work and also our independent work about the genre we have picked, but also the reasons why we chose to do it. Throughout the project I feel that the group has worked well together with the sharing of the work over the group so one person isn’t doing all the work. We also had a few disagreements about things like the name of the film as someone wanted to call it Nightmare of Elstree as it is a play on words of another with the name 'Nightmare on Elmstreet', however we decided against it as it sounds witty so could be confused as being a comedy as well as being unoriginal. Also different ideas of what the actual storyline would be like, and what the plot would contain.

Our first idea for the plot was for three girls to move into a flat and get murdered by a hooded man. However we changed this as it is a predicable story for a horror film and would not leave a great plot for the rest of the film. We decided to keep the three girls moving into the flat but not getting killed, instead just getting the impression they would later in the film. This is done by viewing the hooded man watching the girls, as well as an old lady getting worried at the thought of them living in the flat. This gives a mysterious vibe and sets up the narrative enigma to the film as well as seeing the superimposed images of past events including the hooded man, leaving the audience wondering.

Risk Assessment

Location Recce

Storyboard

Script