Evaluation - Audience Feedback

Beyond creating a rough cut of our opening sequence, I created a questionnaire to gain feedback from our target audience. I asked questions that I thought would benefit our group in terms of making our opening sequence better and more stark in terms of the horror genre. I issued the questionnaire to ten students in sixth form of whom weren't aware of the plot or any aspect of our film before watching it. Doing this allowed me to gain reliable and applicable results.

Through looking at the results, majority of the students said that through our different shots we have created a tense pace to the opening sequence that reflects a horror genre. Although, some also mentioned that in some shots where it was merely of the surroundings and no actor was yet in the shot, it almost broke the atmosphere and they think we should assure that there are no shots like this. In this case, when making our final opening sequence we will assure to cut out any lengthly shots so that a fast paced atmosphere is adament.

Something else I discovered through creating this questionnaire was that use of music would be something that almost defines a horror genre. All students recommended a deep, intense and dark track, and most said that it should be played throughout the whole film; but perhaps quieter at the points of which dialogue was heard. Through looking at the results it is clear that people were pleased with our opening sequence and that we have created an effective film. Other comments that people made were irrelevant in improving our film. Below I have inserted a copy of the questionnaire.

Above I have inserted a clip of feedback among response of watching our rough cut. We asked a group of students that were of our target audiences' age group.

Final Opening Sequence

Above, I have inserted a final cut of our opening sequence "The Forest that Lives". Unfortunately, due to size of the file, when uploaded onto YouTube the visual and the audio are out of sync. However on the DVD copy of the film that the examiner will receive this is not applicable, and that copy will reflect our final piece the way we intended it to be shown.

Post- Production

Above is the clip of our rough cut of the opening sequence to "Forest that Lives". We are pleased with the outcome of our footage, however before a final cut is made we have decided as a group to watch over the footage and edit any issues of continuity that we have now discovered. We will also use this rough cut to gain feedback from our target audience in terms of what we need to do to gain that horror genre that we aim for. The rough cut shows a final outcome of the visuals, in which we have carefully edited and have proven a success in terms of different shots. Watching the rough cut has made us see the fast paced nature of our opening sequence, but at times we thought some lengthly footage of merely the surroundings extracts from the fast paced nature. In this case, we will cut out some of the lengthly footage before our final cut so that the tense atmosphere remains throughout. Overall, we are pleased with the rough cut and feel that with music and some final aspects of editing we would have produced a successful opening sequence.

Before editing we logged our rushes so that it would be easier and more organised in terms of choosing the footage we were going to use. Below I have inserted a copy of our logging rushes.

Production

When shooting, we chose to shoot early one morning to assure that we could get every shot filmed that day hence avoiding any issues of continuity in terms of the weather. In doing this the dark atmosphere of a night time wasn't acheived, however we thought this wouldn't be appropriate for the narrative of the film. We realised that to make it look realistic; that the girls are walking home from school, it would be light overall. However having a lighter environment gave us more of a challenge as a group in a way that the horror genre would be strongly relying on our shots and editing.

Beyond watching our rushes, we were pleased with the outcome of our footage. When filming we had issues with the dialogue, in that we didn't want the lengthly dialogue to make the opening sequence seem like a trailer of a film. However when watching other films of our chosen genre such as "Wrong Turn", their opening sequence was somewhat similar, with the opening being narrative and a strong sense of dialogue. Although in order to avoid this, we cut small chunks of the dialogue out; not so it would be shorter, but so it would make more sense to the audience however still acheiving the idea of two young girls walking home from school. We filmed many shots of the girls running, more than we anticipated, so that if when editing we got continuous jump cuts or we generally weren't pleased with other shots, we would have extra footage to cut in.

As a group we worked well; myself being one of the actors made me step aside from the more technical aspects of filming, but Jack and Liam shared the role of filming whilst we equally made decisions to assure that our shots would look as good as they can. The fast paced nature of our shots acheives the rushed and panicing atmosphere that of a horror genre.

To gain the gothic atmosphere that our genre entails, we decided to manipulate the opening establishing shot into black and white. Doing this, alongside deciding for the credits to appear over the shots rather than a black screen created the tension that we hoped for. Beyond filming, as a group we will sit down and go onto unsignedbandweb.com to find a copyright free track that we can use to climax our opening sequence.

Pre- production documentation

Synopsis of whole film
A scout group go on a trip to a mysterious forest for a weekend of survival skills, they do not know that the forest has some very strange attributes; all unaware that it is haunted by an angry demon in which killed a young school girl many years ago. The story continues and the scout trip is going fine, until the 3rd day when one of the children go missing, bringing tension to the camp. In this case, the leaders hunt the forest day and night until the boy or a clue is found, yet none of the four leaders return. Luckily one of the scouts phoned their parents because of suspicion and all of the remaing scouts escaped from the unbearable fear.


Synopsis of opening sequence
Two schoolgirls are walking home from school when they see a strange path leading to a mysterious forest. Daring eachother, the girls stupidly go and explore the forest when strange things begin to happen.

One of the girls disappears and the other girl starts to panic; as she begins to run out of the forest she trips over a log and then the demon drags her back into the depths of the forest before the visual blacks out.

Treatment

Shot List

Risk assessment

As the setting is in a forest location the health and safety is very important, there is a barb wire fence surrounding the path, we will have to be careful when filming near the path to ensure that the actors do not collide.

There are large logs on the floor in the deep forest so we will also have to watch when the actors are running so that there is not an accident.

We need a risk assessment so that we can see what risks there are during the filming and how we can avoid any injuries.

Shooting schedule

Our shooting was organised in a lesson and we decided as a group that we would start shooting on the 23rd of february during the school half term. The location was organised previously and we agreed that the forest was the best location for our horror genre.

Mise-en-Scene

Lighting:

The lighting in the forest is very mild as we are filming in a night-time enviroment the only light being provided will be that of the moon, we hope to film on an evening where the moon is bright to ensure there is enough to capably see the characters.

Props:

We will only be using a small number of natural props which are in the forest, the first being the log that the character trips over in the opening sequence. The other prop will be a small rotted cabin, this will be used for effect in emphasizing our horror genre.

Costume:

GIRL A: School trousers and white shirt, in school uniform with shoes.

GIRL B: School trousers and white shirt, in school uniform with shoes.

DEMON: It will be wearing dark clothes to camoflage its appearance to the girls.

With these costumes it fits the theme of the characters and makes the sequence more authentic and realistic.

Hair and Make-Up:

GIRL A: Hair will be messy, face will look excited as she enters the forest but sharply changing, this is to represent that she is a school girl and also she is young and excited..

GIRL B: Hair will be curly, maybe glasses to emphasize character that she entails which is a young school girl.

DEMON: hair will be unseen due to hood to make the audience see that he is a dark demon.

Set Design:

The room is spacious and sets a good atmosphere for a horror dark forest. The bright light coming from the moon will give the set a futuristic look but at the same time it will be dark and evil. We will film by the rotted cabin to emphasize the gothic genre we have given the film. The path will also be used which will lead the girls to the forest.

Character Movement:

The two girl characters will be walking towards the camera whilst in dialogue, one of the girls then goes and explores the forest, the girls continue walking and they come to a shed, they then move away from the cabin and move deeper into the forest. The girls are then seen running through the forest, one og the girls begins to slow down as she realises she has lost her friend, she then begins to run again and falls over the log on the floor she is then dragged back by the demon.

Storyboard

Location Recce

Our chosen location is in Chipperfield, and being a natural exterior environment we have nothing to manipulate. We will be using the areas of the forest as photographed for the main section of the shoot, alongside the shown abandoned shed. Among the areas of the forest that we have captured in the photograph is a small pathway, which will also be used as a location in our opening sequence.

Script



Title Timeline

As a group we decided to watch the title sequence to the thriller film "Wrong Turn". The film started with narrative, therefore we began analysing the titles in terms of audio and visual at the timing of 3.00 minutes when the title sequence itself began.

From looking at the timeline one can see that the credits themselves are superimposed over the top of the visual shots, therefore they are gradually integrated between the duration of the sequence. Between each credit a close up shot of something is shown, either newspaper headlines, or establishing close ups of a forest. Simple shots like close ups of disorientated hands look successful in gaining effect, therefore we took this into consideration when looking at our own title sequence.

With "Wrong Turn" when watching it in terms of the audio, we thought the simplistic audio of scratching and sharpening knives added a gothic effect; then hearing the low menacing music that is introduced at about 03.28, giving the overall element of fear. We took this as inspiration for our own opening sequence, where we will attempt to find music along the same lines of this peice, so that it will post no distractions to our visual yet ading a mysterious effect.

Focus Group

Above I have attached a feedback video that we received from a group of students in our target audience. We read the script to them and made them aware of our film and recorded their responses and advice for improvements.