Completed Film Opening

Below is the finished product 'Alec'. This is the first 2 minutes opening of 'Alec' including opening titles, the distribution company and our production company. Below that is my preliminary task i did at the beginning of the year.

Question 1, 4 and 5 done by me.

Question 2 by Sean.

Question 7 by Sean.

Question 3 and 7 done by Sam.

Draft Opening: Audience Screening

We have completed our first draft of the opening to our film "Alec" including titles. As a group we held a private screening involving our target audience to critique our opening two minutes so we can see what we need to improve on.





After screening several time we were told our opening felt more like a trailer as all of our titles were at the end rather than spread amongst our opening. After having a look at many other movie openings online we found that most of them also had their titles more separated that the ones we had done so we are going to change that. Also they found that the beginning of our opening started way to fast and needed more of a slow introduction so that they were not bombarded with information all at once. We placed them between shots we had already taken so that the audience can take in little bits of information so they can focus on the actual movie opening. Other than these minor corrections our audience feedback was rather good. It provided the right atmosphere and challenged horror movie conventions by not having somebody die within the first 2 minutes but also stayed true to the genera by being in a secluded location.

Construction: Evidence of Editing

Written by Sam

This is a short video of me editing a part of our film using videos and pictures to display evidence: 

Construction: Filming and experimental edit

By Ashley

During filming we shot each scene multiple times to make sure we had enough footage to edit with: if a shot wasn't good enough at least we had back up footage. Problems we came into were that the candles we used were less luminecient than we initially thought they we're going to be so to combat this we altered the position of Alec (Olly) to be in front of the candles so you can clearly see his silloette.

Here you can clearly see the candles not emitting enough light for the setting. This is where the beginning shots were taken.

Also the location we went to had been littered since we had last been there to scout for location planning. It took us considerably more time to set up and make sure the location was dressed to our liking. In contradiction to my last statement the location looked more rustic and abandoned so the audience watching can clearly seen this is a secluded location one of the key conventions in horror films. The graffiti added to the spooky and mysterious feel we were looking for within our opening.

In these photo's you can see the graffiti and how it makes the setting more spooking. You can also see us altering the alter for some of the scenes.

Construction: Evidence of Editing Opening and Logo

Editing of the film was a long and simple process in which me, Sam and Sean went through. Sam had edited many rough versions until he came up with this final version which me and Sean had our say. It wasn't a very hard process as Sam have already had strong experience with editing in Adobe Premiere pro, After effects, Audacity. Microsoft encoder, Adobe encode and adobe audition. However with Sam editing our 2 minute horror film opening it has given him more experience and more knowledge about the software he had used. For instance 3D animation he had learnt when creating our logo and setting a light in during the film.  

This is a short video of Sam editing a part of our film using videos and pictures to display evidence:

Below is a short video of Sam editing our logo in which Sean had produced, however he had animated it to give it an old film look and added an old feel reel sound effect above it. I created this in Adobe After effects and premiere pro, I used these softwares to increase its professional value . 

Mine and Sean's contribution to this process was mainly opinion based. We looked at each version of our opening and logo that Sam had edited and gave constructive criticism to make it stronger. Examples of this is when sam had the first edit together I thought the beginning was way to short and sharp there was no gradual start to the opening so tension was lost; he combated this by adding a prolonged darkness to the start of the film.

Also with Sean's  titles first they were plain white which we thought were fine for a bit then I recommended we tried rust as in making the letters look like they were made out of rusted metal. Sean tried this and it worked very effectively so we kept this idea.

Sam using green screen to give it an cinema effect called ' Letterboxing'


Lighting was also used in the post production of Alec because we hadn't had the best of lighting to see lighting and we wanted to get rid of any natural light so we can make the audience feel as if the main character is closed in. Below is the settings Sam used for the scene were Alec exits the first scene area and you can see red against the wall. That originally was natural light lighting but changed. Sam also gave an orange tint glow to the words on the wall so the audience is able to read it better.

Construction: Titles

Sean created the titles in photoshop.

First, Sean took a copyright free rust texture from google. Recommended by Ashley.

After that, Sean clicked on the 'Text outline' tool.

Sean type out the desired text.

Next, Sean right click and press 'Select Inverse'.

Sean then press delete, removing all of the texture (bar what Sean selected).

Finally, Sean delete the white background, leaving it transparent. Sean saved the image as a PNG, in order to retain the transparency, and send it to Sam to be edited into the film.

My contribution to this process was opinion input like the rust and a discussion on what the font should be. Also in the poisoning of the titles on screen. Where they should be and in what order.

Planning: Filming schedule

We have created a filming schedule so we know what time we are all available to go out and film our horror teen movie (Alec). So when it comes to us filming we know the schedule and set times for when we will film each individual shot. This will ensure that the whole group will know what dates we are filming.

Saturday 28th of January

At 13:30 on Saturday us as a group will be filming altogether at the abandoned building located at Grafton Underwood at 13:40 we will do our first shot which is a long shot of Alec praying at the alter slowing tracking in.

From 13:40 to 14:00

During this time period we will be dressing the location to fit the feeling of an abandoned yet occupied establishment. We will dress the alter with a bible, crucifix , several church pillar candles and a piece of fabric to cover the table itself. For the hall way we will add bible verses, giant cross, add more church pillar candles and a dead body (actor).

From 14:00 to 15:00

From this time frame we will be filming 2 - 6 scenes and making them in the finest detail for our viewers. We will film he scenes in the hour (estimated time) which will the lead us to the next hour when we are able to complete scenes 7 - 11.

From 15:00 to 16:00

During this time, we will be filming our scenes 7 - 11, during January it gets dark around 16:30 so we plan to go back the next day which is Sunday, and finish our final scenes.

Sunday 29th of January 

From 13:30 to 14:30 

This period, we will finish all the scenes we have been developing through story boards and performing all of the shots so we are able to move on with the editing.