Rough Cut - Miss Miller

A rough cut is important to consider as it gives you a chance to share your work with others to gain constructive criticism from them to help make it better. Even if the clip is not finished, it should resemble the final finished product so the audience can give their opinions. If I was to; in terms of making a thriller opening, to submit my work without doing a rough cut, then the clip may not show its full potential, meaning it would not get as many marks as it could have.


Audience feedback is very important to consider as it give you a chance to get a 'fresh' opinion on our opening sequence. They can give you constructive criticism to help you improve elements that may not be working, but also tell you what elements are working and are effective, so that you can enhance them, or simply make sure you keep them.

When receiving feedback, my group and I created a presentation, which we showed to our class to allow them to get a better understanding of our clip, so they would be able to give us some feedback. The presentation included;

• What my groups individual ideas were.
• What our final narrative was.
• What we wanted to create. + How we think we have created it.
• How is it conventional.

We then showed our class our rough cut of our thriller sequence, which we had previously exported to you tube, allowing the option of feedback to be given through comments on the video.


When receiving feedback, we were told that we had many strengths and weaknesses. Our strengths included;

• Good use of low key lighting - conventional
• Good variety of shots used - high angles, low angles, eye levelled shot, handheld, etc
• Good variety of shot distances - Close up, Extreme close up, long shot, aerial shot, etc
• Good use of sound - builds tension/suspense.

Our weaknesses included;

• The plot was not clear.
• Not enough credits.
• Transitions between frames was 'messy'.

When thinking about how we could improve each of these weaknesses, we decided that we would make some changes. To make the plot clearer, we are going to add in some footage which shows the older sister in our narrative placing the gloves used to kill the little girl into a bag and throwing this into the forest. This would hint to viewers that perhaps the older sister was involved in the killing, and so would leave them wondering what her motives were. Although this was a weakness, it was also good because we wanted to leave the audience feeling confused, which we did, but having gained the feedback, now know that we should be leaving the audience questioning what happened, instead of them not knowing what they have just watched.

The weakness of there not being enough credits is a fair comment, simply because we had not finished all of the credits yet. It was good to show the few credits we had made as there were no comments as to the fading and blurring on/off of these credits, and so I have assumed these were effective, although it is hard to tell without them all being completed.

The transitions between the frames needs polishing, as it was commented that they looked messy. This probably occurred whilst cutting down the clip to under 2 minutes, as the sounds that originally matched the images, no longer do. To improve this, it will mean slowly going through the entire clip, and making sure that all the edits and sounds etc match the images.


This feedback will help me with finalising my final thriller opening sequence as it has given me and my group ideas as to how to improve our clip. We now have an understanding of how the audience will react and can hopefully adjust and change certain elements to help make our thriller opening sequence the most effective it can be.

Opening scene naration - Miss Miller

The final narrative my group decided on is about a little girl walking through the forest alone, and whilst she is walking, she experiences several flashbacks. These flashbacks show happy memories of the little girl with her older sister walking and playing in the same forest. The story develops through these flashbacks as the audience begin to get a better understanding of the characters. There is an underwater fight scene in the form of a flashback, which is triggered by the girl looking at the river. This follows with the realisation of the little girl realising she is dead, which is shown through the iconography of the rose. There is some confusion and an enigma created as to who the killer is.

The first shot we decided to use to start our thriller opening was an eye levelled (from the ground) shot. We had not originally planned to use this shot, but decided it would be a good way for the credits to begin; they would appear over the dark corner which is covered in leaves, allowing the audience to watch the girl begin to walk away, as well as seeing the credits beginning

I wanted to use a long shot in the first frame, 
which would change into a mid shot and panning shot to emphasise and convey the girl walking through the forest in different ways to keep the audience interested. These frames can be seen opposite and below.




In the first 3 frames shown opposite and above, we included a tension building deep piano soundtrack, which is parallel to the sounds of the leaves crunching beneath the girls feet. This should build suspense as the opening sequence begins as it suggests that the girl is in sync with the sound, foreshadowing that when the music reaches it climax, so will the girl, through her death. This will make the audience want to continue to watch the rest of the opening thriller sequence.


I used a mid shot of the girl here which would flow into the POV shot to make it clear to the audience that what we are seeing is what the little girl is seeing. The POV shot is used to help viewers connect to the girl by feeling like they are in her shoes, seeing what she sees. They will then be able to sympathise more easily with the girl, as well as feeling more nervous for her.






All of the frames shown opposite and above will all be in a low key light and will have a non-diegetic, tension building soundtrack playing softly in the background. This will help to build suspense through the music and the limited detail shown through the low key lighting which makes it conventional.





This frame shows the first flashback of the opening which shows the 2 sister happily playing around the tree. The flashback will be made clear to the audience through the use of high key lighting and the Gaussian blur effect used on this frame, shown opposite.  Using flashbacks is conventional because it interrupts the actual narrative, to give the audience more information on the characters past; in my narrative, this may make the audience learn more about the girl and so feel closer to her. To make it clear when the flashback has finished, we used a fade into the frame showing a long shot of the little sister continuing to walk into the forest, where the lighting would also switch back to being low-key.


The transition of the fade is a quick and simple way to make it clear to the audience the difference between normality and the flashback, without it taking away from the effect of the actual thriller.

 

The next frame shows another mid shot and panning of the girl walking past a tree with the scarf on, to show a variety of shots, which will trigger her next flashback. This can be seen opposite. The idea of the girl walking straight past the scarf without even noticing it, shows how stereo typically dumb victims can be, but to make this idea unique, the following shot shows the girl actually noticing the scarf, suggesting that our narrative is not going to be predictable.

 
The next 2 frames shown opposite and below, show a zooming in shot to a close-up of the scarf, followed by the next flashback portraying the 2 sisters, one with the scarf on. The zooming in shot into the close up of the scarf shows the importance of the scarf within the clip, foreshadowing that the next part of the opening will be about this scarf, and due to the tension building sound playing in the background, gives the ongoing impression that the flashbacks are leading up to something very bad.

When editing, we added an effect over the zooming in shot of the scarf, to make it look blurry and out of focus for a few seconds. This created a nervous atmosphere as the audience don't know why the scarf is like this, or what is to happen next, and so they begin to feel curious as to what the thriller opening will lead on to.


Shortly after this, there is a blackout which leads into the underwater scene. During this blackout, the audience will hear a crescendo of music and sound effects, beginning with the sound of footsteps running through the forest, then into a scream and lastly a the splash sound, which will be followed by the underwater scene. This manipulates the audiences senses as they cannot see what is happening and so have to imagine the events through the sounds they are hearing.

Whilst this crescendo occurs over the blackout, the title credit of the film 'Nostalgia' appears through a glow fly in/out effect. The colour white contrasting to the black background suggest the differences between good and evil; victim and villain, which is a conventional and typical element to include in any thriller film. The hint of red in this credit suggests danger, and so foreshadows how the opening will end. It builds tension and makes the audience sit on edge to find out what will happen, which is very conventional in thrillers.



The first frame is a mid shot showing the killers arm around the girls throat strangling her; I only wanted the killers arm in this image so we can keep creating the enigma of who the killer is, which is conventional to the thriller genre.






The next frame in this underwater scene is of a close up of the girls face to show her shock, having been attacked.
The music played during this underwater scene is very fast to help build tension. It helps to increase the pace of the clip, meaning the audience don't have time to process and think about what they are seeing. The music then slows as it fades from the extreme close up of the girls eyes in the flashback, to the extreme close up of the girls eyes in normality. This shows how the images match the sound, making the audience feel in sync with the little girl, experiencing the same shock etc that she is feeling.


This leads into an extreme close-up shot of the girls eyes, which should emphasise the shock on her face. By ending the underwater scene with the close up on her motionless eyes, it makes the audience believe she is dead. It is here I want the audience to be asking questions such as 'how can she be dead if we are seeing the flashbacks in the first place'; it creates a sense of confusion, which heightens the emotions viewers are feeling.


This shot then fades into an extreme close up of the girls eyes but this time in reality. The reason for having the same image of the girls eyes in both the flashback and in reality is to highlight the shock the girl is feeling from remembering the flashback; she experiences this shock at the same time the audience does and so I hope this will help the audience feel connected with the little girl


The next few frames involve the girl looking at some track marks, supposedly leading out of the river. This then fades into the flashback shown opposite of the little sisters body being dragged out of the water. This shot would be shown very quickly so the audience don't have much time to think and question what they are witnessing, which makes them feel nervous and also builds suspense, making it conventional.



The next frame shows a zooming in shot to the rose which has been placed near where the younger sister was when she died.








We then see the little girl pick the rose up for closer examination, which tells the audience that she too doesn't know why it is there.

The next frame shows an over the shoulder shot of the little girl holding the rose. 

It is this scene involving the rose, where the little girl realises that she is dead. This should be a surprise to the little girl and the audience, which builds suspense as it is so shocking. This therefore incorporates the 3 S's (Surprise, Shock & Suspense) into our narrative which is very conventional in thrillers. 



The close up of the rose, along with the shallow focus used, allows the audience to think of its purpose and meaning within the narrative. The iconography of the white rose is to symbolise the sisters death, whilst conveying her innocence and purity. This should confuse the audience but also make them feel sorry for the little girl




This then fades into the next flashback showing the older sister placing the rose down. This will make the audience feel mixed emotions towards the sister such as how she is loyal or confusion as to her where abouts. This creates an enigma as to what actually happened to the girl and where did the older sister go. It is these many questions that viewers ask that makes our narrative conventional as it proves they are confused, and confusion is a well known theme in thriller films.
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The frame shown opposite is the last frame in our opening. It shows a zooming our shot of the little girl dead on the floor. The zooming out shot creates some distance between the audience and the scene, allowing them some time to reflect on what they have just seen.

All of the elements that my group and I have used in our thriller opening sequence are conventional in some way as they make the audience feel or think something. This incorporates the 3 S's (Surprise, Shock & Suspense) into our thriller narrative. Whilst our narrative is not the most stereotypical of thriller films, as it doesn't focus on the attack and death of the little girl, the credits make our opening more conventional. Our credits, shown above, are of a child's style, and the 'tracking' effect we put on them in our opening, helps them to build tension. The child's style could suggest that the little girl in our thriller has written them herself, and so has written this narrative too. This creates an enigma of how she can write this story if she is dead, and will confuse the audience, building more suspense.

Our finished thriller opening sequence can be seen below;