Evaluation - Q7 - Ailsa

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

From the prelim I have learned how to make an opening much more professional. I have learnt how to frame much better and how to be more adventurous when changing the camera angle - this created much more effect when watching the opening in comparison to the prelim. 

The last image here is my favourite shot from our final opening; it is really unique and gives the sense of unease we were looking for. I am also pleased with the filming for the fact we used a wide range of shots - although we did for the prelim this always tended to only show the front of the actor's face, but instead we were bought closer to the character due to showing her from many different angles - especially as we used many CUs. 

The lighting in our prelim wasn't bad, but in some shots you can't see the character enough and in others there is too much exposure. We used it to make each scene more effective, but in our final opening sequence this time around our lighting was much better. In our shot reverse shot sequence there is more light on the therapist to highlight her mental well-being in comparison to Nikki's. We also used lighting at points to signify important elements such as the rucksack.

With the sound, I think the titling creates a good sense of fear for the film, and the lack of non-diegetic sound is more suitable for the genre. In the prelim we used diegetic sound that did not fit that well and was unnecessary. As well as working better for the genre, the dialogue of the opening was made to seem more important without non-diegetic sound. Our script was much better in the final opening as we focused much more on it, the use of repetition ("Nikki, Nikki, Nikki!") creates an effect of a lack of reality. The ambient sound used for the park is also effective for setting the scene and also shows life going on whereas Nikki is stuck in her past.

Apart from previous overly ambitious ideas for the setting, in the end I think the places we used were suitable. The house makes it much more personal and emphasises how Nikki's mental health is caused by something that is much more than a problem that is treated in a hospital, it is something that is caused by something personal. The park also gives hints to the audience about where the problem has rooted from, and makes the plot even more enigmatic as parks are usually positive and innocent. 

 The costume, hair and makeup is the main thing I am unhappy about for our opening. It did not improve much from the prelim to make the characters realistic. The therapist character, although the actual actor chosen was not very well suited, was suitably costumed. The character Nikki did not present a woman having a breakdown, her costume was too fashionable and she had too much makeup on, we should have made her look physically drained by focusing on the costume and makeup more. 

  
The acting in the final opening was much better; the facial expressions created the characters well and the body language also did. The therapist's body language was fairly relaxed and professional and Nikki's was closed in, anxious and presented her as someone unwell.

The props were also much more thought out, we focused on the characters and settings to determine what props we needed to make each scene effective. 

I am really pleased with how our editing went with our final opening, it was much more professional in comparison to our prelim as we thought thoroughly about which transition would create the desired effect. As a team we worked well to decide how we should edit the whole film - how we should structure each scene and Kayla and Claire were the ones to make sure this happened as effectively as possible. The editing continued well throughout and we stuck to the 180 degree rule to make sure the whole opening was smooth and easy to understand.

We very quickly realised that adding an extra minute to the opening is extremely time consuming and requires a lot more work, but with our teamwork and organisation skills I think we managed well in the end. As what will always happen when working in a group, we all had a few different opinions and it took a while to decide on a final storyline, the problems we faced with filming in Brighton and getting actors also contributed to the constant changes in our storyline. Having said that, I am really happy with our final decision and I think it could be the start of a successful thriller film!  

To improve next time, I would like our group to focus more on costume and makeup. We could have possibly also put more thought into our sound as this was done last minute. Overall, I think we did well working as a group - especially when allocating who focuses on what. Me and Luke did well with editing the blog and Kayla and Claire did well with editing, I am mainly proud of how we eventually came to decisions we could all agree on. I think with camera work, mise-en-scene, editing and sound we did fairly well compared to our prelim - we have managed to create an effective and professional looking thriller opening.