Preparation:
It is very clear, that preparing the process of our preliminary was much easier than preparing our thriller production.
When we did the preliminary task, we were already given a storyboard, including everything. This was practical because therefore we didn’t have to plan anything as everything was already given. So it made it easier for us, because the Storyboard is one of the most important parts in shooting. Furthermore we were given in groups randomly in which we had to film than. At first we took a look at the Storyboard and than searched for actors. It was very difficult to find somebody, because it was only a little production, we were not allowed to take people out during lessons so we had to find people who were free at that time. As we found two people a male and a female, we than started to shot. We set up the cameras, the equipment and the furniture we needed and started first of all deciding were we wanted to set up the camera and which lights we want to use. Than we looked at the storyboard and chose which shot we have to shot and how.
We started to prepare our thriller about six or five weeks before our actually shooting day. This process was much more difficult and complicated because it was a harder and precise process. We had to decide ourselves for a special idea and get together in groups. Everybody had to present a thriller or another idea of a story and the other ones had to vote for this one he liked most. After that we formed the groups. As we sat down together as a group, we had to think over the Story again this was effective and important for our group for example that we were certain we have to change our story and took somebody else’s idea from our group because we knew the first idea of story we were chosen was way to difficult to film. After that we had to talk with our teachers about our thriller idea to decide again if the idea is not too difficult to film etc. than we started to produce our first draft for our storyboard. This was very hard and difficult because we had to imagine every single shot we wanted to film. As this was very hard we had to change our storyboard several times because we always thought we could do it better or different. But this was not the only thing we had to care about; we had a list of all the things we had to think about, like cast list, Props list, Sound list etc. this was important for us so that we are well organised. Furthermore we had to think about the actors and had to make sure they don’t have to go to lessons during our shooting day. As well as this we had to find all the props and make sure we have all the locations like the students room and also make sure that nobody is there during we film. We also had to draw all the locations we wanted to have which was very difficult because it was very hard to draw them realistic and nice.
However we managed all this and in the end we had everything together, the actors, the props and the permission from the teachers for our actors.
Improving of film making skills:
When we did our preliminary task everybody was very unsure in what we were doing and even though we have been explained in using the camera we weren’t that confident. Our skill of film making was very poor.
Furthermore we had lots of support from our teacher and we constantly had to think about the 180*rule.
We also had to think about simple things, for example that our shadow is not in the shot, or that nobody is speaking, or that the actors are not doing a mistake during we were filming. Furthermore we had some difficulties with the arrangement who is on the camera and who is looking at the light etc.
When we were shooting our thriller, we had a bit more experience and so we had not that many difficulties as we did in the preliminary task. Furthermore it was much more fun, because we had bigger locations and we used exciting shots like tracking shots etc. It was also more interesting because I was personally more involved as the first time because I had a bigger part and could tell my opinion more.
Camera:
When we did our preliminary task, we did exactly what was shown on the storyboard. We didn’t really looked at how we can do this shot more exciting or different. But of course this was the matter because it was our first time. But it could have been better, because for example also the light was too bright and the shots were probably to far away. But it was very difficult because we just had this one room and so everything was very basic.
If I compare this to our thriller production it is very different. Because everything, the story the locations etc was our idea, we could say more how we wanted to have the shots etc. Also we were more prepared. Even though we used the same camera for example, everything was different, this was perhaps because we were more confident in what we were doing. It was much more interesting and fun to film now because we could use all our knowledge of what we learned after and in the preliminary task. We knew what we wanted to translate trough the camera and how we are going to film it. Furthermore we had much more opportunities and space. We had so much space for example that we could do a tracking shot. We also had to work much more with lighting for example as we created two different worlds, the ghost world and the real world. So we could play around with dark light and bright light.
It was also great to work outside. As it started to snow what we didn’t expect, we had to be very spontaneous with our filming. But this was even more exciting as we could play around with the camera and look at what we liked most at that time.
Sound:
In our preliminary task we didn’t had music. The sound was the speaking and the use of for example furniture like the door. So it was very basic. But it was also very difficult because during we were shooting; we had to be very quiet because you could hear everything we did when we looked at the tape.
In our thriller production, we used lots of sound like recorded sound or separated music sound. We used for example the recording sound where our actor walks in the snow along or we used the noise of the telephone. This we have recorded during the shot day. But what we mostly used was separated music. We could play around with the sound so we could use our recorded ones and put in separate music over it. So we had two different effects that fit together later on because we could connect them together.
Editing:
In our preliminary task we had an introduction how to use final cut pro. But it didn’t really help that much because it is a very difficult program if you don’t just try to play around with it. At the first time I didn’t really understood it, so it was very difficult for me to use it. Furthermore we didn’t really use it that much.
First we had to look at all our shots and afterwards we had to decide which ones we liked and which ones we didn’t. We had to separate all the shots from each other. For example the medium shots in one folder and for example the close ups in one folder.
Than we started to connect the shots together, this was very easy because we didn’t have sound either special effects we had to use.
When it came to our final cut pro in our thriller, everything was much harder. First of all we had much more shots and secondly it got difficult with our ghost world and real world. So we started same as we did in our preliminary task. We collected all the bits we liked in one folder and after that we did a real world and a ghost world folder. First of all we tried to play around with the program because we had a little problem. When we had our shooting day, as I said we didn’t expected it is going to snow, so we had to shot the real world shots on another day. So first we had to do all the ghost world part. After we have done this, we waited that it is going to be nice weather and went outside again to shot more of our real world part. As we were finish, we started to connect those two Worlds together. It was hard work. For example we started with the scene in the corridor. As she walk along. We used the real world shot of the corridor and than we put in her with a special effect, so that it even looks more ghost like. We worked like this the whole time.
After that we had to work with music. This was also very hard because we never done this before. First we looked at sound we were interested in using in our thriller. After we had a view, which were for example birds noises and wind blowing we put them in the right order. The bird noises had to go to the real world shots and the wind blowing for example to the ghost world shots. As we did this, we looked for music.
This was also very difficult because it had to fit in perfectly with the two different worlds.
After we did the sound it was time to use the titles. This was not as complicated as working with the sound or cutting. At first we took a paper and a pen and wrote down how many titles and which titles we have to use. So we started with our production: Fox searchlight production. After that we had to name the actors, the writer etc.
As we finished with the titles, we did some more special effects, for example when we were shooting outside in the snow and Sarah our actress had shoes on we had to cut them away in our thriller so that it is more ghost like. So we did on the end some more special effects and after that we were finish with our process of our first thriller.
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