AS Coursework Reflection- Creativity

AS Reflection Page- Creativity

Creativity is one of the most important elements you need in order to plan and create an opening two minutes. It allows you to make your idea to thrive and come alive, right in front of your eyes.

Where did the ideas come from?

To begin with we researched which genre we wanted to make and a genre which, as a team, we all agreed on. We researched many genre from romance to comedy, which in the end we chose horror, which is where all the ideas started to flow. After watching and analysing countless horror openings, we began to understand what we needed for the opening two minutes of a horror. We realised horror openings differed from each other, as some started off with frightening and scary scenes of people getting murder, which introduced the antagonist straight away; but others initiated with a happy welcoming neighbourhood, for example. We decided, as we had a set amount of time our opening could be, we would have a scary opening, therefore introducing our antagonist. Personally my favourite genre for films is horror, as they always keep you on edge and many, have unusual twists, which stun you all, which is why I was very pleased with doing a horror opening. As I have watched limitless horrors, I had many ideas which we could do for our opening, which allowed our group to all input ideas. After analysing openings, we researched various antagonists, which have been used in published films throughout the century; from the antagonist from ‘Scream’ to the Freddie Groger from ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’. This generated designs for what our antagonist was going to look like and what we would need to ensure that they did resemble our designs.

How did you work collaboratively to share ideas?

It was vital that we all stayed as a team and that any ideas, thoughts and opinions we had were said, no matter if it meant discarding ideas which other members of the group preferred. To avoid numerous disagreements we decided we would sit together to have a discussion and note down all our initial ideas of what everyone wanted to include. We discussed what shots we wanted to use, how the antagonist was going to enter, if he was going to be present within our opening two minutes and various other elements we wanted to feature in our opening. Furthermore, we then began to narrow down our ideas deliberating which ideas were better and which ones would attract our audience more. Doing it this way meant that all our ideas were taken into account, meaning everyone had a say in the production.

How did you change things?

We had a few problems during the planning stages, for example, we had three ideas of what our opening two minutes could be on. The ideas were ‘HiJack’, ‘The Woods’ and one which involved demon girl in the woods; which we made storyboards for each of them, as it would give us an idea of what each opening would look like. Still after making these we couldn’t decide, so we made questionnaires on which ones which we should do, and the results stated ‘The Woods’. This was the only creativity problem we had during the planning stages. During the filming stages, we had to change many things, such as, the protagonist we were going to use, as she did not fit the part. We also changed what shots we were going to use as the lighting within the woods was changing all the time, therefore having to change the shots, which is where we just experimented with different shots. We usually discussed what, why and how we were going to change certain things during the filming process as it allowed to get our ideas across.

How did you use tools, like Adobe Premiere Elements etc., to achieve something imaginative?

We used Adobe Premiere Elements to edit our shots and to bring all our filming together. We used Premiere Elements to change the saturation and filters of the shots to create a more eerie effect within the shots, which would make the opening scarier for our target audience. To make our opening two minutes more imaginative, we applied the music we made, to our film allowing tension and suspense to build throughout it. However, we didn't really need to apply many special effects or features which Adobe provided us with, as we didn't think we needed them, as we had quite a few effective and unusual camera shots, such as, the under the water shot.

What stylistic techniques were used to appeal to the audience?

The stylistic techniques we used during our opening two minutes were the use of our stylish font. The font which was present within the film was designed to be scary, which is why there were fine scratch marks within the letters. We also involved our antagonist being within our opening, which obviously would attract our target audience as it gives the scare factor to their cinematic experience. The antagonist was also masked, which is expected; meaning this increases the scare factor of the film. Also having the use of blood, would furthermore attract them as these are the conventions of a horror film, which people expect to be included.  Having used an everyday location of a house, makes it even more appealing for our target audience. This is because it means our audience can relate to this, as they feel as this could happen to them, therefore appeal to the audience. Having ended the opening two minutes on a cliff-hanger, especially a scary one, means that it makes the audience wanting to know more, therefore appealing to the audience.

What was the intended outcome of the production?

Our intended outcome was to make an effective opening two minutes of a horror, which we did to the best of our ability. We wanted to make a production, which would not only be enjoyable to watch, but to also scare them as much as they could; hopefully we achieved this. We also wanted to increase the popularity of our film, meaning the opening two minutes had to be the best opening two minutes there could be. This would mean it would intrigue our audience to wanting to watch more, therefore it could be classed as a marketing campaign, as we only show the opening two minutes, where it ends on a cliff-hanger.

How were these outcomes achieved in terms of page layout and camera shot choices (codes and conventions)?

To make our opening two minutes frightening for our audience, we had to cleverly choose what camera shots would aid us for doing this. We used a lot of close up shot to increase suspense and tension, as these shots do not allow the audience to see much. We also had used a low and high angled shots within our film, which, firstly the high angled shots made our protagonist more innocent and timid, whereas the low angled shot made the antagonist over powering and scary, especially the last shot. Some of the shots that were use were continuous shots, meaning it also built up tension. Having this tension present for the duration of the opening two minutes, meant that the final shot would have the biggest impact, and creating numerous unanswered enigmas, as this is the first time you see the antagonist and maybe the last time you see the protagonist…