Editing

The editing process was quite fun and educating. I learned so much from it! For example, to add special transitions such as dissolve fade in and outWhich could helps to smoothen the gap from scene to scene and aloes creates a very cool effect! I also learned that we have to cut on the movement so that that action won’t look robotic and will flow smoother and naturally. The hardest part in editing is the background music. As we have that lovely harp music and those amazing shots of Heather playing the harp. So we decided to have some shots of her playing the harp in the sequence randomly to gives that mysterious effect. But the problem is that obviously we have to match the action of her playing the harp to the music which is very hard to do. However, Matt helped us and told us we should make those little tags first and that will be much easier. He also taught us that to create more intense effect in the background music we could add up some artificial sound in it for example the low-pitched sound which suggest something bad will happen. Also at the end when the girl wakes up back in her room we add the sound of the city as well to make it more realistic rather then the weird silent.

Our shoot began at 9 in the morning. We collected equipment which included a Sony PD170 MINI DV CAM, SUSPENSION MOUNT, REDHEAD VIDEO LIGHTS+TRIPOD and
Props from the theatre which include the smoke machine( which we didn't actually use as it will set the fire alarm) and black cloth etc. We took them to the main house as we first decided to shoot the corridor part first. But as it is too bright outside so we won't be able to use the red heads to create the shadow of the bars on the windows. On the other hand the black cloth won't be strong enough to block the sun light totally. So at last, we decided to shoot in the lodge first. So we move to the lodge and set upped the camera in Dalia’s room as planned( we took photo of it and discussed before) due to the cool decoration. After our actor Gemma finished dressing up we start shooting. The first part went well we learned that to cover the red head with a blue limpid could create an early morning feeling. However we do have a problem of how to have the foot print on the floor without damage the actual carpet in the room and how can we have the ‘goowy’ tart. We than decided to borrow the black paint and a n old carpet from the theatre. As the problem has solved we start the shooting we learned some shooting techniques which are new to us such as to do a focus pull. After this part’s shoot which went quite successfully we did a bit of another version of shooting in a neat and elegant room.
However, after that, we have another problem of how to have the ‘goowy’ tart coming out from the floor as obviously we don’t want to pour a whole bucket of black paint on the library floor. After a discussion with between the group and Matt we agreed to change our plan and shoot outside on the grass. Luckily, when we all moving out the weather becomes good and there were a glamorous sunset and the light it created was just fantastic and gives a splendid and mystery feeling which just fit our story! So we quickly set out camera and other equipment up and start shooting quickly to catch the amazing shoot. At last we made it! And it was brilliant! Than we fall into another rush as the sun goes down the light just become darker and darker so if we couldn’t shoot the next scene which is the tart coming out of the ground and coming up to her body now, the light won’t match. So we quickly mixed another bucket of the tart with the black paint and set all the equipment up again. And we find a tube to spread the tart. The first shoot didn’t go very well the tart was too thick and it weren’t spread out so we mixed another bucket and tried again and it was good.
As it becomes dark we could finally move to the library and shoot the scenes there. We set out the red heads behind the book shelf and it creates an amazing mystery and visionary feeling.
The shooting went really well and we also recorded the background music with Heather playing the harp we got a lot of amazing shoots of parts of her playing the harp. Then we went on the shooting in the corridor we put candles on both side of the corridor which gives us a mystery feeling the shooting in the corridor went quite quickly. And everything was great!
After the shooting I become more confident. I think we did a good job and the things we need to improve in the future may be the planning of timing such us when to shoot different scenes. And make sure we get every props beforehand. And also make second hand preparation for bad weather.

Who is our target audience and how to get our film to the customer

As our film is only a low budget student production. So it is kind of much harder for us to attract audience and compete with those high budget Hollywood big productions and it is likely to be a niche market. So we might try to target different type of audience such as media student or teacher who are interested in consulting and researching different work done by student. Also, as this is a thriller with very strong artistic feeling so we might try to attract people who are interesting in art and visual effect and cares more about the techniques, lighting more than the scenario. And maybe the young thriller fan as well. We may want to classify the film as 12 which is only available to the people above12. So our target audience may be people above 12.
As it is so hard for us to put our film on screen in large cinemas in big cities. And Nowadays, as the new media technology has been improved so much and for our audience who are above 8 are more than capable to get resources from the internet. In that case we could upload our film on the website such as youtube, tudou, youku etc. And if our film becomes popular I believe there will be a chance for us to put it on to the screen or it will be a great help for our marketing as word of mouth can be count as the cheapest and most effective way of advertising. Through this way we can also get some feedback and research from the audience focusing on how they feel about the film and also how could we improve it. Also, we can give the audience the chance to vote for the ending that they want and through this process it is also a way to attract more audience.
On the other hand we could also use viral marketing for example using existing social networks as the local town council and local radio and also newspaper magazine to advice and introduce the film to the public. This path of starting from the small community would eventually help us to be known by the public and gain more attention. As the youth are so keen on games nowadays we might also develop a little game and putting it on the internet and by playing this game more people may be attracted as they may want to find out more about the gut or how the story ends.
On the other hand we could also propagandize our film by attending the film festival for independent film. And also we may get grant for our film so that we will have the money to distribute it.

Shooting schedule

We planned to shoot in the corridor and the library first as there will be exam there in the afternoon so it won’t be available after 4pm. So as it will be bright outside we will have to block the sun light out by using black cloth which is already in the prop list. So that means we have to arrange the time for setting up the room.
SHOOTING IN THE CORRIDOR AND LIBRARY BEFORE FROM 9AM-1:30PM
SHOOTING IN THE LODGE 2:30PM-4PM
AND IF SHOOTING DIDN’T COMPLETE IN THE MORNING RESOLVE IT AFTER THE SHOOTING IN THE LODGE