AS Coursework Reflection: Creativity

How did you use media forms to come up with something new and original?

We did a lot of research of other films and media forms in the horror genre, before coming up with our own story. We picked out the conventions we wanted to include in some way in our film, as we had seen that they worked well in other films and heightened tensions within the film, which is what we wanted to achieve. We used our environment around us to influence the story however, we used props, makeup, camera shots and overall setting to make it look new and exciting whilst sticking to a tried-and-tested, successful genre.

Where did ideas come from and how did you work collaboratively to share ideas?

We collectively shared ideas in order to gather and intertwine different things that we liked and disliked to come up with an idea that we were both confident and excited to film and put together. We worked well together as we managed to combine bits of ideas to create the final film. As well as our own ideas, ideas came from people and things around us as they influenced the decisions we made, as well as encouraging us to use more to enhance the film. Ideas also came from other films, as they influenced the conventions of the genre in which we were making our film.

How did you change things?

Whilst filming, many things meant that we had to change our original plan. The main issue was our time frame  and the sun fading quickly, which limited our location which in turn meant we had to change our whole story and change how and when we were going to film it.

How did you use tools like Adobe Premiere Elements to achieve something imaginative? What stylistic technologies were used to appeal to the audience?

We used Adobe Premiere Elements to create our final film. Within the software we used effects such as fading in and out as well as to cut and paste clips in different places to increase the tension in it.  We used transitions between some of the clips to make it flow better as a film, but we also used effects on the titles to make sure they came in smooth to not distract from the film and add to the genre conventions. Using transitions and effects helped to appeal to the audience as it made our film flow well and enhanced the conventions we had included into the film. This made the film look more professional and exciting, increasing the ability to attract an audience to watch it.

What was the intended outcome of the production? How were these achieved in terms of page layout and camera shot choices (conventions)?

We wanted to make an effective horror opening for a film. We feel we used effective camera shots, most of which are conventional of the horror genre. This meant our film looked well put together as we had many choices of shot to use to create the right mood for the particular scene we were filming. Our favourite conventional camera shot we used was the mirror shot in the bathroom right at the end. This was one of our favourites as we think we framed it really well and that it looked very professional for the scene it was in. This shot, and the cross-cutting  to follow, were able to increase the tension ready for the final cliffhanger of the opening.