Production

When filming the opening sequence I think everybody cooperated well together to make a successful film, we shoot the film on two different days which I say was a total of three hours and in between those days we reviewed the shots and planned questioned ourselves if we should improve some scenes which we did on four occasions.

When filming there was a few out takes also when editing some shots was cutted strongly this suggesting that some of our shots were a waste of time and unnecessary. Me and Jordan were strongly organising the set as it was our duties to make sure everything was done correctly because of are roles; as my role of being the camera man and Jordan's being the director we strongly had to work together on how to catch the right facial expressions and body language from the actors to create a strong thrilling tense atmosphere for the narrative. Richard wasn’t used in many shots as the lighting wasn’t mainly an objective. Jona had to organize herself, props also give Karl his costume and spend an hour putting make up on him this making him look more realistic for his and her shots; in my opinion Jona had the most work to do as she had to cover being the props, hair and make-up manger also being an actress which covers many demands.

The location of our production was filmed in Jordan's house on Bell Lane Road Enfield, it was easy for each remember of our group to make to the location as each of us lived close to Bell Lane Road, the reason we choose to make are production in his house was because it suited our narrative for example use of props and settings.

When recording the production inside the house it was simple to complete all shots from our storyboard and acting as it was a large house which affords a lot of freedom. We couldn’t use the house freely due to Jordan's mum and family members being in the house some times so we had to confirm dates to Jordan of when we wanted to film are production, this forcing us to make sure we finish the production on these dates only. Our location is relevant to our production because the scenes we filmed in are all related back to our storyboard as we used dark locations of the living room, bed rooms, stair way and the garden; this relates to a thriller because the locations look mysterious and unsettling. The location targets are main audience because the use of locations the lifestyle of a normal person and babysitter and what they have to deal with by going in the baby room also resting in the living, the use of the baby monitor prop also helps out to attract the target audience in this way.

I have learnt many techniques in the process creating this production by learning how to capture actor's feeling and emotions by the use of the right camera shots, also by seeing everybody else's roles it has helped me understand what it takes to be a director, lighting, props, hair and make-up manger by seeing my group members complete their roles on set.

The reason why I made a thriller film was because I believe that the generic conventions are easier to follow and are simpler for the audience to understand as they find it easier to relate to the film and realise what’s happening in the scene. For example the location and low-key lighting was very important towards my narrative as the low-key lighting in the front room makes the location look dark, shadowy and secretive which creates suspense which leads to a nervous response from the audience. The low-key lighting also helped as the audience have trouble seeing the main characters emotions this making as she uses her phone this creating tension. The cinematography used was mainly close ups and a mixture of high and low angle shots to show different other shifts to make the audience sympathise with Jona and know she is distressed.

Some strong points of my production were my conventional use of micro features as they followed the conventions of a thriller film. For example the non-diegetic music is very sharp and, intense, as it creates a lot of suspense throughout the scene. We changed the non-diegetic music for the phone point-of-view scene as we planned to add heart beats in the soundtrack to make the scene look tense and serious, thus we decided to change it as the audience realise already what is happening in the narrative. When making the soundtrack the use of sounds creates the impact of excitement, suspense and tension making the audience feel on edge. I used this because I wanted to create anxiety, fear and thrill as a response from my audience because these feelings and emotions are conventional to a thriller.

One of the weaknesses my group had whilst creating our production was using low-key lighting to express the dark atmosphere surrounding the main character, as a defenceless person. Daniel had to adjust the lighting many times from the right angles to create the perfect setting. The way we overcame this was by making less light come in through windows and directing the main character Jona to look more disturbed and shocked in his facial expressions, so our audience could recognise and understand her facial expressions.

One of the most crucial shots of the scene was the over-shoulder shot from the clown  showing the main character look at the clown shocked, this created shock and suprise as the audience are brought to the attention of the clown. This was important because it allowed the audience to acknowledge the importance of the clown in the narrative as a new character.

The way we could have improved our production was through the mise-en-scene by having better costume and by making the suspicious clown look more devious by having him wear a darker costume this making him look of much more of great importance giving the audience a feeling that the suspicious character is not just a normal toy clown but a evil being.  This would make the audience understand the narrative better as showing that the main character has got involved with something to do with the super-natural evil. This have creating even more climax and excitement to our scene.

I have learned that the micro elements are important in any scene as they cause meanings and reactions from the audience. The audience needs to understand the generic conventions used in order to recognise that the film is a thriller, and without the right use of generic conventions, this could be misunderstood. I believe we used the micro elements well in my scene because they all worked together in each shot in the production which made the audience understand my thriller which allowed my audience to enjoy it.

In conclusion I think we could have filmed some shots better. Some shots were rushed as I believe we should have taken more time on crucial shots because when filming with the camera it wasn’t steady enough when filming. In the end I still think we did a great job on tracking shots and close ups especially point-of-view shots of Jona using her phone this shot was hard as the camera moved often and it was hard to steady, the second point-of-view shows somebody message Jona as we were recording. Our group decided to keep that shot and not record a new shot as it makes the film look more realistic as if neutral events are taking place. I think when filming every body did their job well enough to create not a perfect film but a successful thriller opening which creates a cliff hanger for the audience, I believe the narrative is clear  to the audience and also I believe the acting was done well by are actors.