Construction: How do I know that "Rewind" is a Horror movie and not a thriller movie? and interim

As you can see, "Rewind" has become a horror movie. In order for me to establish this, I had to do research on horror movies.

As a result, my research enabled me to identify why "Rewind" is a horror movie. Down below is a list of horror conventions that "Rewind" establish.

Camera shots/editing:

Fast editing during shock - At this point the audience feel very confused, the tension is built as the enigma's set in place and the audience at this point are very focused.
Slow and long cut when tension is built - for example when the female character picks up the image, the shot is very slow, however, before that the shots are very fast, this builds tension as the audience are able to see the importance of the image.
Long shots to emphasis vulnerability of protagonist
Close up of threaten face - This makes the audience feel sympathy towards the female character
Panning shot to build tension - In "Rewind" there is a victim who sitting on a chair, she then turns round, at this point the antagonist, (killer) has approaching however, a panning shot takes place so that the audience are in the perspective of the victim. At this point the audience are very engaged as they want to know whether the victim will see the antagonist, and if the victim doesn't see her, the audience know that the antagonist will still kill her. Therefore, at this point tension is built to be very high.

Now I will talk about the mise- en scene for horror movies and how it relates to "Rewind"


Mise-en- scene:

Dark, mysterious costumes for the antagonist or threat - In "Rewind" the character is wearing black, this emphasizes on the fact that she is a killer, and that there is death associated with her where ever she goes.For example, in funerals people wear "black" when somebody dies. Therefore, the same way, the character is wearing black to represent death.
Ominous setting in this case a house

Sound:

Silence is used to build tension - At the beginning of rewind, tension is raised through silence, which can also build an enigma for the audiences; also at this point the audience attention is grabbed because they want to know what happens next.
Music is used to slowly increase anxiety in audience - when the female character puts the image back down a "music box" is playing.
Loud sudden beats to shock the audience - when there is constant flashing shots, loud noises suddenly play, this shocks the audiences and makes them feel even more scared.
Diagetic sound - this takes place when the female character looks at the body. At this point the audience feel scared and are shocked to know what they see, moreover they are positioned in the victims view therefore feel sympathetic towards her.

To conclude, by establishing the conventions of a Horror movie, I felt that "Rewind" more likely fits in under the genre: "Horror". However, just to make sure I decided to watch a few horror movies, these consist of "Saw", "The ring", "the grudge" "butterfly effect" and "The howling". One this each movie had equivalent was the use of flashing shots. Each movie represented shots flashing or a flash back. Moreover, "Rewind" constantly has flash backs and flashing shots which builds tension, as the audience attention at this point is very focused.

Having done some shots with my group I decided to work individually by exploring and experimenting. The reason behind this was because with the shots that we produced, whilst having a look at them in school I was not very fond and happy with them. Therefore, I wanted to shoot better footage however, my group refused and that is why I thought working on my own would be much better. I feel by working individually I was able to achieve many things, for example, I explored how to create effects on my footage by editing them. Moreover, this enabled me to understand how important effects are for example, by using effects it grabs the audience attention. Furthermore, I can now create credits by adding effects on them using a program called "Live type". At the beginning when doing my Juno video I was unaware of this program and was clueless on how it functions however, now I feel very confident to use it, therefore, can create a lot of credits using different effects. Moreover, I learnt that instead of having a range of different effects for the credits, it is better to keep the effect consistent. Also, I strongly believed I used my camera angles and shots wisely for example, when the female character picks up the image, there shot is a close up of the image. This puts the audience in the female position and signifies the significance of it. Therefore, I believe I learnt how camera angles and shots can make the audience feel a particular way about the atmosphere, location, prompts, costumes and characters.


Down below is a list of all my achievement along this process:


1. Expanding my skills on "Final Cut Express"
2. Using a range of camera angles
3. Broadening my skills on editing
4. Understanding the importance of credits
5. Expanding my skills on "Live type" when creating the credits
6. Understanding mise en scene and using it wisely in my video
7. Combing shots together
8. The importance of sound and why thriller opening usually have non-diegetic sound
9. How to identify my target audience
10. The importance of planning
11. Importance of research
12. Conducing research
13. Conducting Planning
14. How evaluating and analyzing other thrillers can help me make my thriller video
15. Understanding of equipment and how to use it
16. understanding and a better knowledge of horror conventions

Construction: peer-assessment

By analyzing Mathuras rough cut it helps me improve mine, by inspiring me with ideas. For example, the way in which sound was used, was very effective in creating tension. It really grasped the audience's attention by making them feel emotions, such as fear and curiosity, which effectively made the audience want to carry on watching. In the opening scene, the music is quite deep and intense, therefore it created suspense. Furthermore, the groups use of lighting was very good. They used the dolly very well, for example, when the character is on the floor, you can see her facial expressions very vividly, as the lighting brings attention to the female characters face. This engages the audience and they are made to feel sympathetic towards the character because she looks as though shes been hurt by someone. One reason for this suggestion is because the light clearly shows the blood on her face. However, if there was no light on that character the audience would not feel connected to her and understand her importance. Furthermore, one thing she could improve on it adding more credits, if they included more credits it would makes the movie more seem more real. Also, one thing I would recommend them to do to improve is, the costume. The character costume does not signify the characters personality and establish the character. Therefore, the audience are not as attached to the character. If the character costume consisted her wearing dark colors it can signify death, which promotes the characters past as in her past there is a lot of death involved. Moreover, Mathura's thriller opening introduces "mood". For example, at the beginning of the thriller movie, the audience are sympathetic towards the protagonist, laying on the floor, however, the mood changes as she is suddenly reminded with a flash back. At this point the tension is building up and the audience are engaged. However, the mood then suddenly changes when the female character identifies a body on the floor. The atmosphere becomes very tensed and at this point the audience are urgent to know why that body is there. Therefore, have a lot of questions that needs to be answered. The opening also introduces the narrative, for example, it illustrates there is a girl, that wakes up in a strange room, who remembers only a bit of her past. The female character then sees loads of pictures on the wall, her hands reaches on image and by mistakes she drops it onto the floor, just then she is shocked by what she sees. The body on the floor is the exact same girl that she saw in the picture she dropped. Through the use of camera, body language, lighting, editing, effects and facial expression of the characters, the narrative is told. The effects of the titles are consistent which is also a positive thing, because it doesn't distract the audience attention from the main focus point. Furthermore, there are loads of way in which enigma is established for example, when the dead body is lying on the floor automatically the audience start to raise questions in there head; "Why is that body there?", and "who killed her?". This makes the audience want to find out the missing pieces of the puzzle. Overall, I think that there video was very good especially due to the sound.

Construction: Feed back

I showed my class my rough cut and they gave me feed back. They told me what areas I should improve on and thing that worked effectively.For example, one of the things I need to include are the credits, they said if i don't have credits the opening is not realistic. Also, another thing I should focus on is, audio. They explained that I should carry on including a bit more audio because during the opening some bit have audio therefore, it will create excitement for the audience, however, it just stops half way and therefore, does not seem to be realistic.
One thing they said I did very good is adding in effects, they said that it was something unusual and unique, moreover I explained how I was inspired by Memento's video therefore, added similar effect. Also, they like the idea that each clip was short however, when the character picked up the picture and it slowed down, it made them see that the person in that picture has some sort of connection towards the character therefore, makes them what to know what it is.

Construction: Rough cut 2

Here is my second rough cut.

Construction: Storyboard changes

This is a picture of what my storyboard was for my thriller movie.

However, along the process whilst shooting these shots, the storyboard starting changing because some shots did not flow as expected. Moreover, the plot was kept the same; the female character wakes up in a room where she's confused. She see's pictures on the wall and picks one up. Then the picture in her hand falls and she sees a body on the floor. She matches the image with the body. Here are some examples, how my story board changed:

As you can see in our storyboard the first shot is meant to be a close up of a book, however, I decided the first shot would be black then suddenly have a medium - close up shot of the character body on the floor. The will creates more suspense for the audience, rather then the first shot being a book. Furthermore, another change that I made is the few last shot consist of people faces being zoomed into. At first I thought this idea was very good simple because it makes the audience curious as to who these people are however, later I realized by having so many faces the audience attention my be neglected therefore, I decided to end the opening with a close up of a persons eye. I also added effects; the eye makes the audience think that someone is watching them and in that way they are connected to the opening as it builds suspense. Furthermore, in our storyboard it does not represents the reverse shots in my thriller opening. I decided to do a couple of reverse shots, to signify the importance of the title, "Rewind". By having reverse shots, it makes the audience think there's something in the characters past, therefore, want to know what it is and the importance of each thing shown in the shot. Furthermore, another change I made was shot 17 shows a jump cut of the body from a long shot to a medium shot, however, I felt that by having a jump shot, distracts the audience attention by making them focus on the body, however. therefore what I did is make sure they see the body but the focus is more on the character. This makes the audience want to know who the mysterious person on the floor is and how the main character has a relationship with her. Never the less, Shot 15 and 16 shows a close shot to a long shot when the female is looking at the pictures on the wall. I felt that by having a medium shot then a close shot makes the audience see the importance of the image as they are more focused towards it and puts them in the characters perspective.

Credits

0:02 A Rar3 production
0:07 Aisha Halling
0:11 Monica Deol
0:22 REWIND
0:27 Holly Amy
0:35 Chetan Raja
0:40 Kajeni Bob
0:55 Nakul Rana
1:00 Ronak Shah
1:05 Music composed by Sarah Ann
1:19 Production designed by Anik Tail
1:28 Edited by Aroon Shah
1:52 Director of photography Meera Ali
2:03 Excutive producer Neam Singh
2:12 Sagar Rizwan
2:19 Story by Dina Rana
2:25 Directed by Nishal Singh

Planning: Changes made along the way

Having done my shots there were a lot of changes that was made. I decided to work individually when filming my shot because when I filmed with my group there were some shots that I was not happy with however, they were not happy to retake them. Therefore, I decided to work individually so each shot can be done to my preference. Moreover, the first change was my story board. Instead of having loads of peoples faces zoomed into that blurred I decided to only use one. The reason behind was because having to many faces can loose the attention of the audience. Therefore, by having one face it builds the excitement and chills towards the audience. Also, my shot list was interpreted. I decided to change some camera angles according to the shots because when filming I felt it was not appropriate therefore, adjusted it. Also, Included some more shots for example, at the end of my rough cut it ends with an eye. This implies that there is someone always watching the character however, because the eye is a close up it makes the audience think there is someone looking at them, therefore builds excitement.

Planning: Costumes research and ideas

I did some research on costumes too see what the significance of costumes are and found the costume identifies what type of class the character belong to, it also makes the audience view the character in a particular way for example, if the character wears a lot of bright colors and casual clothes it can indicate to the audience she has a very strong bright personality and is happy, also it can tell the audience she is working class whereas, if a character was to wear a suit he is more likely to be middle/upper class. Moreover, in "Se7en" the guy mostly wears suites, this tells us he is middle/upper class however, because i was inspired to them i thought i should change my costumes and see what the result would be. To make the character look working class, we decided she would wear a tank top. This would enable the audience to connect to the character because the audience that would watch my film, through my audience research, i conducted is working class. Moreover, the color of the tank top we decided should be black. The reason behind is because, the characters past is not a very nice past, therefore black is a solid color which links to death, and mysterious.


The image below represents a little brainstorm of some of the costumes we could have considered

Expiramenting on titles

Planning: Props and brainstorm

The image below shows some props and objects that we considered to use in our opening. The reason we did a brainstorm is because we could all right our ideas on what props/objects we think would be good for the opening and come to a final conclusion. Also, I did some research on other movies such as "Se7en" and "Memento" to see what props they considered as i was inspired by them for example, one of the props they use in "Memento" is a book. I found this very inspiring, therefore thought our film should consider a book, whereby the character whats down what she does, sort of like a diary. Moreover, props are important because it creates the atmosphere you want the audience to see from the directors point of view. for example, by having newspapers on the floor it shows us that the house is very messy and no one has been in their for ages perhaps.