Olivia's media blog

Conventions Representation of Social groups and issues One main theme in my film, is the binary opposite of the rich vs poor. This is present due to the wealthy couple's enjoyment for 'hunting' those who aren't as well off as them. This raises the issue that is commonly seen in reality - rich people getting away with things because they are able to use money to get rid of their problems. It can be discussed whether the couple are able to pursue their interests because they are able to 'persuade' people to look the other way. Another film that also looks at the accessibility that comes with having money, is "Surviving the Game" (1992) - which is about wealthy businessman who pay to hunt humans in the mountains for sport. This has a similar theme to my film, but with more emphasis on hunting.

  Target Audiences Although Clementine and I worked together on our film, we made sperate edits which resulted in slightly different tones within the film openings. For this reason, our target audiences may be slightly different. Within my film opening, I used the song 'Run Rabbit Run', which introduces the suggestion of the couple being predators. The theme of hunting, particularly rich hunting the poor (which can be interpreted within our film due to our characters middle class appearance), is featured within films such as "Surviving the Game" (1994), "The Hunt" (2020) and "Ready or Not" (2019) - just to name a few. On top of this, the movie "Ma" (2019) depicts a middle-aged women who befriends a group of teenagers, before holding them captive and torturing and killing those who come to save them. Although this film is more about a psychological disorder rather than killing for pleasure, it carries the same idea of the illusion of a nor

Development of Skills Over the course of working on my film opening, I was able to develop my film skills, as well as experiment with new techniques. For example, I used Adobe After Effects to create some of my credits. It was my first time using this program, but after some practice I was able to improve the quality of my film. I also used new technology for the first time, which helped me expand my skillset. I made two top trump cards to show my progress within each skillset side by side. Codes and Conventions ~ After analyzing multiple Thriller films and their openings, I can confidently identify codes and conventions that are present within the Thriller genre and it's most popular subgenres. Although I had a basic understanding of the Thriller genre from taking GCSE Film Studies, I have now gained the ability to recognize and recreate common iconography, cinematography and storylines. Although my film isn't entirely conventional, I used my understanding of the codes and c

Working out Target Audiences Pearl and Dean is a company that sells advertising space for UK cinemas. They analyse potential movie audiences, in order to calculate where is best to show the adverts (in order to reach the right target audience). They analyse the audience in terms of gender, social grade and age. and you can access the information online. I used some of this information to estimate the target audience for my film. 'Don't Worry Darling' - Directed by Olivia Wilde (2022) The analysis of the film 'Don't Worry Darling', shows that the target audience is quite evenly split between genders. It also appeals to a younger audience, with only 17% of people above 45 being likely to watch the film. 64% of what is considered 'upper class' make up the audience for this film. As this film has a similar concept to our film opening, I used this research as a basis to figure out my own target audience. Similar to 'Don't Worry Darling', I bel

Inspired by my chosen song, 'Run Rabbit Run', I experimented with adding a low opacity layer of gun shooting over the lyrics of "bang bang bang bang". This added to the ominous tone of the film, and gave more insight into the murder of the person in the back of the car. In the end I chose not to include this detail, as I didn't like the sound accompanying the overlay. Without any sound effects the footage seemed underwhelming, however the version with gunshots (which can be seen below), was unnatural and I felt it took away from the rest of the film.

Final adjustments Once I finished with footage, colour grading and sound, I started adding in credits. When I submitted my rough cut I was using placeholders to map out which shots I wanted to place credits over, and rough positioning. I finished them off using a combination of Adobe After Effects and Final Cut Pro. I also responded to feedback from the class, and made some adjustments to the colour grading and added in some of the diegetic sounds I had missed. I experimented with adding a few extra effects like a cross fade between a shot of the drain and the lady putting on her necklace, as a reference to "Psycho" (1960).  

Sound The next step after adding the footage and colour, was to add the sound. I started with diegetic sounds, and evening out background noises. As the microphone didn't turn on properly for part of the shooting, I had to use a sound recorder to recreate some of the noises. I selected and favorited the sections of the sounds I wanted to use - similar to what I did with the footage - so I could just drag and drop the correct sounds instead of searching for what I wanted. I also named each recording so I knew what I was listening to, and what shot it needed to go with.

Colour grading After gathering all the footage, I began the process of colour grading. I predominantly used colour curves and simple tools to adjust the Saturation and exposure of the shots to bring out the colours and contrast. We shot the footage in very neutral tones, to allow for colour grading. On top of this, the day was quite overcast which meant we had to digitally adjust the lighting. Below you can see some screenshots of me using the program - Final Cut Pro - to colour grade some of the footage. I found that using colour curves could change the footage quite drastically, so I had to make very small changes on the curve and move individual point to get the tone I wanted.

Assembling clips Once we finished filming, I planned to assemble all the clips and put them in their rough order, before adjusting the timing and positions. Below, is the video once the clips were put together in their final order. I started out by going through the footage and finding the useable clips. Some takes were test shots, or ruined by background sounds/camera wobbles etc. By highlighting the footage that was good enough to end up in the film, it cut down a lot of time when I started putting clips in their order as I didn't have to search through waste footage for what I wanted. You can see the in the clips above, I started to add clips together and work out how long each shot should be.

Clementine and I decided to name our film 'Red Herring', which is a device that is designed to steer the audience to a false conclusion - a trope that is commonly used in crime thrillers and dramas. We decided o name our film this, as we use in our film by misleading the audience with the cooking scene and the romantic imagery, before revealing a dead body and adding an ominous twist. It also gives foreshadowing towards the events in the movie, and helps establish the movie as a Thriller. The term also refers to a clue or piece of information that is misleading, which, in our film, is the representation of the couple. Clementine and I also wanted our film to have a relatively simple title, giving a clue towards the the narrative of the film. We thought that this title fit, especially as we used a lot of red imagery, and the title seemed match the general tone we created.. 

  Animating Credits For animating my credits, I used Adobe After Effects for the first time. This involved watching YouTube tutorials, and asking for advice from my teacher. I was able to learn how to use the Roto-Brush tool to create layers, and place overlays on top of my creates (so they interacted with the props in my shots). I also pinned my credits to a specific object in the shot, so that as the camera moved they stayed in place. This added some interest to my credits and allowed to expand my visual effects skills.  Different layers within the shots The car and motorbike highlighted, creating a layer so they move on top of the credits

Rough Cut Our teacher decided it would be a good idea to show our progress so far to class, so we would be able to reflect on our feedback and make improvements to the film. At the stage where we downloaded the rough cuts, I had yet to add sounds, and the credits were used as placeholders rather than functioning credits. Clementine and I had decided to edit our footage separately, however we chose to present my version to the class as I had gotten slightly further along. Feedback I mainly need to add more diegetic sounds and make adjustments to the credits. I had been considering using after effects to animate a few of the credits, and the class agreed with this idea as it would add some more points of interest. As you can hear, the music in the rough cut abruptly cuts out. Clementine and I had been experimenting with different sounds to see how they would sound with the foota

Inspiration We looked at sound and music used in film openings for Psychological thriller such as "Panic Room" (2002), "The Shining" (1980) and "The Silence of The Lambs" (1991). The music in The Silence of the lambs uses low pitch horns to play the melody which releases a diminished sound that creates a feeling of unease. Similarly, The Shining uses brass instruments as well as unsettling chimes and other percussion instruments to create a disturbing atmosphere. Panic Room also uses horns playing at a low pitch, creating an ominous build up to the start of the movie. However, Clementine and I decided to go for a completely different approach. Inspired by movies such as "Reservoir Dogs" and "A Clockwork Orange", which use upbeat songs that contrast the dark themes of the film. This adds a sinister tone to the film and the music does not match the imagery at all.  Experimentation

  Experimentation Before choosing my font, I looked at movie titles for popular thriller films. I found thriller movies generally use fonts with very straight lines, rather than cursive - creating a bold look. I wanted to keep my credits fairly conventional, and not too distracting from the footage in my film. This is because I wanted the red imagery to stand out, and I preferred my audience to be disturbed by the imagery rather than distracted by the credits. As you can see above, Thriller credits tend to be written all in capital letters to make a striking impression. I chose the font Heiti-SC (as seen below) as it fit my criteria for my font choice. In some shots I used a 3D text effect to add some interest to the credit, especially when the background did not have an obvious subject. I did this using Final Cut Pro, however I also used Adobe After Effects to made more interactive credits. Final Credit, 3D Text effect with Heiti-SC font made with Final Cut Pro 3D text effect with Hei

  Preparation The day of filming, a few hours before we met up, Clementine and I called and I made a quick checklist to make sure we had everything prepared so as not to hold up the filming once the actors arrived. We prepared the gimbal (finding the right balance for the camera), as it can take a long time to make sure it is evenly balanced and didn't want to take up too much time during production setting up equipment. Behind the scenes

  Discussions Due to complications such as COVID, travelling over Christmas, and other absences, Clementine and I were forced to find other ways to communicate. We used a variation of different texting applications, as well as various calls to check in. This forced us to develop our organizational skills and learn to coordinate with each other. At times where we were in different time zones, we had to adapt our communications system to ensure we were getting everything done. Padlet Initial Ideas Scheduling Sound Costumes Filming day

  Aims In our short film we planned to have a short driving scene in order to get the characters to a different location. Originally we had planned to do an aerial tracking shot of the car, however I decided to experiment with some different camera angles that would add interest to the scene. Below are some behind the scenes pictures of me attaching my camera to a suction camera mount. In the footage the car reflected quite a lot of the surroundings making it difficult to see inside the car, however this will work out well in our film if we choose to use the footage, as we want to keep the characters anonymous (introducing an enigma code). I also practiced using the drone to get some tracking shots of the car from different angles.

  Costumes We wanted to incorporate the colour red into the costumes, to match the bloody imagery. We made the choice for the girl to have red fingernails, and we originally planned to have a bit of fake blood on her fingertips (however this wasn't picked up by the camera very well). We came up with three outfit options for the girl, however we ended up going for the long dress (the picture on the left). This was quite dressy, adding to the unnatural situation, and had rust coloured features without which also matched the theme of red.  To match the dress, we wanted to have a necklace that would appear quite dramatic from the back, as we had planned an over the shoulder shot of the girl putting on her necklace to showcase her red nails and fingertips. Clementine (my partner) and I found necklaces that would look like a pearl necklace, as we were aiming for something elegant that would contrast the uncomfortable and messy close ups of preparing food. The red lipstick also added to t