6. People would usually associate the characters involved to be using drugs, and would expect older, middle-class males to be the dealers (like the character Daniel Craig plays in Layer Cake), they would be middle class because of the money they make. We decided not to follow this stereotype to allow the audience to work out where the story is going and who each character is. There is a slight hint in one scene which gives the audience a clue about who the main character is. He gives his sister a birthday present and she asks how he could afford it, but he doesn't give her an answer. This tells the audience that he makes money somehow. We have a similar shot to this one from Layer Cake in our own film opening, even the setting is similar.
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9. The suspense throughout the whole film will keep the audience on the edge of their seats and at certain points will particularly terrify them. For example whether or not the sister finds out what her brother does for a living, and whether or not she will support him. This might appeal to a female audience member because she could relate to the sister in the film. The age certificate for our film is 15, so it is targeted at an audience aged 15 to 25.
10. The camerawork used at these points is vital in capturing the right mood and feeling of the scenes. For example worm's eye view is used to just view someone's feet. The feeling of being watched is created by using obstruction shots and the main character is followed when he is walking at night. Because of these shots, the audience will feel as though it is them following the character and watching them. They are also being allowed to witness what the main character does that other characters do not know. This will make the audience feel as though they are involved with the action in the film. This photo shows footsteps in the snow, but the person making them cannot be seen. This features in our film opening.
11. Strengths and weaknesses of the camera equipment There were difficulties with using the tripod because there wasn't always one available, and the one that we did get had the screw missing so we had to hold the camera in place ourselves. Problems with filming Although we had our shooting schedule, the actors were not always available when we were. This meant that filming took longer than we had planned, but we managed to film everything we needed. Also, we were not particularly happy with the scene where Jake spins around in the chair because we had to make it faster. He also had to use his feet to spin because the chair we needed to create the correct mise en scene was broken. Techniques We experimented with new filming techniques such as using a worm's eye view shot, obstruction shot and also filming high shots from the top of a roof. These shots helped create the right mood that we wanted for each scene.
12. Shot of titles which move upwards and sit on the rooftop.
13. Editing Software Many effects on Imovie were useful when we were putting the finishing touches to our film opening. For example, we were able to make the scene with the main character and the main dealer darker to show that the main dealer is not a good character. Also, we could make the flashback black and white to show that it is a flashback. The scene involving the main dealer spinning around in his chair and standing up was slowed down to make it more effective. I have learnt that editing can't fix everything, and that the shots have to be right in order to edit them to look how you want them to. Soundtrack We were not able to remove the vocals from the soundtrack that we decided to use, so we had to work around that issue. Instead we decided to use the vocals to enhance parts of the opening and found that this worked well. However, we did not want the singing to continue for too long throughout the opening, so we repeated the first part of the song before the vocals started.
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16. Audience Questionnaire Feedback Actors Most people who watched our film opening said that the actors used were suitable for our thriller, apart from one who thought that they should have been older. Because the majority of the audience thought we chose the right actors, we are happy with our decision. Soundtrack Everybody in the audience who completed our questionnaire agreed that the soundtrack was suitable and fit the film genre very well. Some said that it built up with the action and matched scenes which is what we were hoping for. Production Almost everybody said that if our film was produced, it would be made for TV and cinema, which we were very pleased with because we were only aiming for an internet release because of the small budget. Overall the outcome of the audience questionnaires was very good and we got the results we wanted.