Filming

When filming we came across some problems, such as the lighting was a huge problem for us as most of our shots were far too dark to be able to see. This meant that i had to re-film the outside and bathroom scenes and try to add more light into the shot without the light being over powering, because i still wanted to keep the dark scary atmosphere. I did this by turning on surrounding lights in the hall when Abbi would be on the floor crawling out of the toliet, and the way i got round the problem of the outdoor shots being either too dark or too light was while editing changing the contrast and brightness within the shot. This worked very well as we were able to make all of the shots look the same.
When we edited all of our film together, we discovered that some of the shots didnt move smoothly onto the next, therefore I had to re-do numerous shots to make sure that the action within the final film opening 1. made sense and 2. the film was smooth with its editing.
The shots i had to re-do were when Abbi was walking towards the house, as I was told that i needed to make the audience feel more involved with Abbi's character and have more emotions to her about the way she was feeling within the scenes. Another shot i needed to re-do was when Abbi and Chloe turn towards the knives, here i used match on action with Chloe's head turning from Abbi's point of veiw then to the knives point of view. This looked professional as i have edited them to move smoothly and make sense of the action within the shot.

Editing Of The Film

Once I had filmed all of our shots for our film opening, I uploaded all of the shots used onto one of the Macs. Here i was able to see what shots were effected and which ones weren't, while also enhancing the effective ones.
The problem I came across when editing the shots, was that the outside shots, some were darker than others, this couldn't be helped durring the filming process as it was getting darker as the night went on. I worked around this by editing the contrast and brightness of the shot. This then got rid of the mismatch between each outside shot.
The things i found easy on the editing of our film was how i could make each shot flow easily, while also breaking up one long shot and putting a shorter shot inbetween to break the action up. This was effective i felt as it would make the audeince feel more involved with the action within the scene while also making the overall shots look more professional.
Putting the credits and title onto the film was also easy, but i had to consider which font and placement of the credits looked more effective. I did this by researching different film openings with the same genre and target audeince. However, this was hard to find as most of the thiller/horror film openings dont include credits or a title, but the title does appear at the end of the opening. I didnt want to put the title at the end of the opening as i thought it was over done and it would be more effective for a audeince member to get a sence of what the film includes from the title, "The Unbeknown" before it even started.
Adding in music on the film opening was also something i found very difficult to get around because, i wanted to enhighten certain parts of the film opening to add more tension, however, this would of been far too time consuming so i looked on some legal music download sites, to find a piece of music that fitted really well with the action and context of the film.
I edited the music into the film and made the parts of the film where i wanted the action to be enhightned by music louder, these parts of the film were when we first see Chloe, who's playing the iminary friend, this is because i wanted the tension to build and make a bigger impact on the audeince as it would hopefully scare them.

Research on Schizophrenia

As the character in our film opening suffered from schizophrenia, I decided to research the effects and symptoms of the illness. I did this because it would help more with the way i want the character to act and to make it clearer to the audience the illness they're suffering from. 

The way of researching schizophrenia was by typing it in on google, looking at its effects and treatments of the illness. 

Research i found about the effects of Schizophrenia is that "Schizophrenia is a chronic mental health condition that causes a range of different psychological symptoms. These include:

• hallucinations - hearing or seeing things that do not exist, and
• delusions - believing in things that are untrue.

Hallucinations and delusions are often referred to as psychotic symptoms or symptoms of psychosis. Psychosis is when somebody is unable to distinguish between reality and their imagination.

The exact cause of schizophrenia is unknown. However, most experts believe that the condition is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors." (http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/schizophrenia/Pages/Introduction.aspx, 24.03.10) 

This research helped with how Abbi could act out her character without being offensive to people who do suffer from the illness who may be watching the film opening, the way that Abbi acts out her character, without being over the top or offensive would help with the way that the audience feel closer to her and sympathise with her due to her illness.

I found out from doing research on the treatment of schizophrenia that most cases of the illness is controlled by anti psychotic medicines, this was good to know as it was what i was able to look further into and put onto the pill box that Abbi's character throws on the floor once discovering that its empty. 

The main medicine i focused on was Resperidone, which is taken orally by a pill, it is a one of the treatments for schizophrenia. Knowing this i was able to write onto the pill box,  "Resperidone. Anti psychotic medication. Two tables to be taken every hour with food." The final pill box looked really effective as it resembled a real-life pill box, as it didn't have the illness plastered all over the label like our first pill box did. 

Photo's whilst doing filming

Here is a photo of when Abbi gets to the door and searches for his pills, but finds out that she's got none left. Here I used a point of view shot because i wanted the audeince to see what Abbi's character sees. This will again make the audience feel more involved with Abbi's character, and they'll understand more what's happening and why.

Photo's whilst doing filming

Here is a camera angle I used in the second lot of filming to break up the long walk to the house, while also making the audience feel more involved with the character. The idea of this shot is to also make the audience even more a wear of where Abbi's character is heading, while linking to the dizzy way she walks and acts as she approaches the house. 

Photo's whilst doing filming

This shot i didn't use while doing the second lot of filming, but if i was too film it again i think i would use this shot to make the audience feel more involved with the character. And obviously I'd have Abbi looking more dizzy as i told her to walk towards me normally so i was able to get a full shot of her.

Photo's whilst doing filming

Here is a photo of Abbi standing at the lamppost, which is where the audience and viewer first see Chloe as the imaginary friend, this is also when the audience see the location of where Abbi is heading. 

I think this is a good shot, as we use a eye line match shot for Abbi, as shes looking at the house then the camera goes to a point of view of the house. Obviously his cant be shown in the camera shot, but i think it's very effective in the film opening. 

Music

When choosing music i was originally going to make my own music to fit in with the film opening, but due to not having enough time i was unable to do this and had to result in finding music off a legal down load page. The free down load website i used was www.freeplaymusic.com. Here, after putting in several key words, such as; scary, tension and horror i found my piece of music which is now in my film opening. The title of the music is called Platform, and it was found under the key word of tension. The music is slow building with tension building sounds, done by quite builds up of string music then loud drums. 

I think this piece of music fits in well with my film opening, as it shows adds tension to the action within the scene. 

I'm considering adding my own music underneath, to add more tension to the action, this could improve the affect it will have on the viewer. 

Target Market Questionaire?

1. What do you think of the title "The Unbeknown" for our film?
2. Is it the kind of film you would watch at your leisure?
3. From the opening would you want to watch the rest of the film?
4. What do you think of our actors?
5. What do you think of the story line?
6. Is the story line easy to follow?
7. Do you think that the effects used work well?
8. What do you think of the music?
9. What things do you like/dislike about our film opening?
10. Overall does it look professional?