QUESTION 6WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?

By Alice Childerhouse-Boulter

Before I actually made the film ‘Dark Angel’ my group made a completely different film, but during the process of editing decided it wasn’t good enough and started over again with a different idea. The original was about a troubled girl who is followed by a mysterious man, when watching it back we realised it was seriously lacking in generic thriller conventions, complex characters and elements of mise-en-scene. We tried to use a creepy setting by filming in some old dirty looking flats but despite this being a good quality it didn’t capture peoples attention as nothing really interesting was happening.

However this allowed us to learn from our first attempt so that when we made the second one it was much better because we knew what to change to make it better. Despite this attempt consuming a lot of our time it gave us an insight into what not to do which really helped. It also gave us practice with different types of shots and how to work the various functions on our cameras. It gave us really good experience for when we came to make the real thing because we knew exactly what we needed to do.

When it came to us filming the real thing we knew a lot about how the cameras worked and how to use them effectively to create the right kind of atmosphere. Robin and I did the filming outside as Jono and Lyndsey were both in those scenes, and we were able to create some really good shots such as the tilt shot of Robin when he finds Lyndsey’s bracelet in the snow which I filmed.

The tripod also allowed us to film still tilt shots as it has a tilting action on it, which was really useful when filming high shots such as when Robin is in the bathroom. One really difficult shot was the shot of Robin in the bathroom getting his phone out to call Lyndsey, as Lyndsey had to balance on the bath with the tripod to the a still high angle shot. This was a bit of a learning curve as it made us realise that it can be useful to make the most of the location in which you’re filming to get interesting and effective shots.It was sometimes difficult to get hold of everyone on the right days, as some people were ill, or were caught up with other work. This became a problem sometimes, as for example if the weather is perfect for filming but no one is free then it becomes difficult to get any filming done. However I think this has a lot to do with our age, because obviously if we were doing this professionally then this problem wouldn’t happen

As I was away due to illness when my group was editing the preliminary task I didn’t have any editing skills when it came to making the thriller opening. To learn how to edit I asked peers in my media group, teachers, and my practising on the original opening that we decided not to use. This gave me hands on experience so that when it came to editing the new thriller I knew what I was doing. I had to capture the film, cut out what shots and clips I wanted to use, put them in the right order, add effects between shots, add titles, and then upload it correctly so that the film was of good quality. This was a very long process and involved a lot of computer work and learning processes such as adding effects. This method consisted of a few simple steps that are very easy to follow:1. If you want to add an effect on Premiere Elements between two shots click of

effects, and a small box will appear with a list of all different types of effects.2. If you want a dissolve then click on the dissolve section, and a list of various

dissolves will appear.3. Click the dissolve you want and drag it to where you want it to be in your film at

the bottom of the page where you’ve been editing.4. Once you have placed it where you want it you can now extend it to however long

you want it to last, by hovering the mouse over the side of the effect, clicking and dragging across. And if you don’t want to use that effect then simply highlight it by clicking on it and press delete on your keyboard.

I wanted to add titles to my thriller with the names of the actors in the film, the name of the film, and the production companies. I was told that the kind of font I used was very important, so I read through part of my book ‘Just My Type’ by Simon Garfield. I considered what my film was about, the characters and locations and how they all fitted together so I could represent it as a font. In the end I decided on a simple square like font, which allowed the film to be represented as sophisticated but not over the top. I also made the titles various different colours, the first is the same colour as Lyndsey’s coat so a slightly off red, which represents blood that is perhaps going off. This represents the shock factor of my film. The names of the characters are all white which is my way of suggesting that any of them could be the killer, as it isn’t suggested in their names that they’re guilty. Lastly the name of the film is in black with a slight which glow behind it, so the black and white contrast suggesting the contrast between the characters. I chose to put the names of the actors in the corners of the screen to suggest that the names aren’t important but really the actions and what they do. The title of the film ‘Dark Angel’ is written on Robin’s back to suggest that he is the dark angel and builds up an interesting atmosphere for the rest of the film.