Our chosen genre for our sequence was Psychological thriller, which influenced how I created the soundtrack and how the rest of the group made decisions about location, costumes, camera work and the final piecing together when the sequence was edited. The decisions i made to make the soundtrack conform to the Psychological thriller genre included how i attempted to create a build-up of tension. this I achieved by using a number of sounds at certain points, for example when the camera tracks Sheridan's character up the stairs you get a sudden sight of the psycho which I used an unnatural noise that added to the jumpy and tense atmosphere.
These decisions helped develop the narrative of my specific area of micro responsibility (sound). Other aspects that helped this was the need to work closely with the editor so the soundtrack relates to the sequence. This meant changing a large amount of the soundtrack to fit into it precisely as the original draft was way too short. As a group we discussed our original ideas and put them into a story board, from this I created the draft soundtrack, knowing that some changes are going to need to be made, as the director and editor adapted the plan to improve it.
The response I was after from the audience was for them to feel the tension throughout the sequence, and hopefully my area of micro responsibility will help it be a success. From feedback we received there was good and bad points to the soundtrack, for example: "Diagetic sound is too quiet (overshadowed by sound)" I didn’t think this was such a bad mistake as there is very little diagetic sound, only things such as: Opening of doors, the brief dialogue at the beginning and the sound of Sheridan's character walking. But if we got the chance to tone down the soundtrack then it should be simple enough. Good feedback we received was: "suitable soundtrack, changes the mood as it progresses". This was our main aim for the Soundtrack so was pleased with the response.
My technical skill enabled the group to proceed swiftly throughout the project. The fact I take film studies as well as media studies helped me become familiar with the programmes needed to complete the task of making a soundtrack.
Overall I believe our film sequence was a success but would say there are few things that could be improved.
The genre that we chose in our planning was a Psychological thriller. This influenced our film extract and the decisions we made about Location, costume design, camera shots and the soundtrack. The location we chose was influenced by the genre because we needed a place that was very large and because of all the different mirrors and rooms it was quite confusing which worked well with our film. I especially like the part where you can see the woman's reflection in the mirror, I think this is a very effective and confusing shot because we wanted the audience to feel the suspense and confusion. The costume designs were not well thought out however we just needed something plain and basic for the Psycho and we also need to keep him disguised. I think that the plain black jacket did this well because it hid his face which kept the suspicion and mystery. The camera shots we used worked well and was affected by the genre that we chose, the shot in the lift is very good because its suspicious and surprising I like the way the camera stayed in the lift whilst the suspect killed the victim. There are not many close ups which isn't very good but I think the various long shots that we have work well because they do not reveal the suspects face.
My micro responsibility was costume designs and some editing. I think the editing has developed the narrative because it put everything together, the shots created suspense in the narrative. As the extract goes on the scene builds up suspense which is created through the editing. The editing combined the sound track which helped to build the tension.
The whole group worked together in the planning to create the narrative, characters and genre. We had a few planning lessons where we created mind maps and discussed the ideas and decisions. Me and Phil created the narrative in one lesson it started off as a basic thriller but it seemed like an unoriginal idea so we decided to add some twists, the genre then lead to be and Psychological Thriller. We devised the characters whilst we were creating the narrative and I think the characters are very effective and work with the film well. My favorite character is Phil's character, the accent that he used was not planned but I think adds a slight amount of humour which I think is needed to break the tension. After we had created the narrative we thought up and drew a story board which had all the different shots we wanted to use.
We adapted and changed a lot of our plans as we went on. Some due to not being able top create what we wanted and some because we thought it would improve. The mirror shot is my favourite and this was not in the story board, it was an accident by I think this is very effective and lucky. The costume design ended up different because our organisation was not good and for the killer we ended up using a coat we had with us which was lucky. I brought in my costume which was planned. did not plan to use the list however I think the shot is great so that worked out well.
I wanted the audience to react in a shocked way I wanted them to feel the tension and suspense as it went along. I think the editing did this well because it was adapted to fit the soundtrack which meant that the right sounds happened at the right time. I also wanted the audience to react to the location in a good way because I think that the location that Phil found is very good and looks very professional.
We received mixed feedback for each micro element. For the camera work people thought that the following of the woman builds up suspense I see this as a success however I would have liked to have had a lot more varied shots such as close-ups. The mise-en-scene had good feedback, people said that the mirror shot gives a strange and confused effect. The feedback showed that there was a good use of props and costumes, this surprised me so it has tuned out as a success. the other groups liked the elevator scene where it opens and closes. there was no bad feedback about mise-en-scene so this was a success also. The sound had mixed feedback. People liked the soundtrack and thought that it built suspense however they thought that the diagetic sound was too quite but altogether I see the sound as a success. The editing had good feedback, the audience liked the fact that the shot flowed into one another. however one person noticed that the was a slight jump cut.
My technical skills did not hold the group back. I have learned to use all of the programmes through media and film studies. We only used programmes that i am familiar with so my knowledge has not hindered the creating of the film extract. We have been able to use and create all of our ideas because the whole group knows how to use all of the programmes.
Altogether I feel that the film extract was a success and I would not changed many things at all.
