Main Task - Title of film

Film Name

We decided to call our film name Paranoia. This is because we thought that the name fitted it with the plot of the story. We had several other names which were similar aswell but decided to use this as its short and catchy. We used the colour red as it signifies blood which is what we wanted to get across to our audience. Our film is a horror movie and there will be blooshed init and the colour red shows this. We chose this font because there were not that many choices to choose from but also this one looks scary and gives the sharp knife effect which is good for our movie. We chose to do it on a black background so that it stands out more and it gives the dark look to it.

Main Task - Production Logo

Production Logo

This is our film's production logo which is called 'Sister Productions'. This logo was produced by hand by one of my group members Aabidah Ali who wanted draw this as she wanted to produce something unique and not copy anyone's idea. The logo is a representaion on our chosen genre which is horror as the picture is of a knife going through a heart which is supposed to bring out a scary and terrifying effect. The logo shows blood which is what our film's will be about as our particular studio will only create horror films or horror/thriller combined. This is because we thought of this idea after doing some research up on the different productions and their studios and found that productions such as TroubleMaker Studio only make films within a certain genre. They only make films that are horror or action movies. They do this because of many reasons such as that their logo is made only for these type of films and would not fit in with movies that are comedy or romantic which also leads to the name of the production which is called 'TroubleMaker Studios' wouldn't suit with other types of films but this isn't the case all the time as they could get away with producing comedy films with their production name. 

We have also decided that Sister Productions will only produce horror or horror/thriller films. This is because we produced the logo only bearing in mind that it will fit in with out film Paranoia and it does. This kind of logo would not suit if we made romantic films as this shows a knife going through the hear killing that person which people wouldn't approve on in a film about love. 

Main Task - Feedback on Draft

Feedback on first draft

After we had finished the first draft, we wanted to know the audience’s opinion on it so that we could improve on it. We did this as we wanted to see where we had gone wrong and whether or not they were completely satisfied with it. It was interesting to see where they thought we had done well and what we could do so that they feel happy thinking that it is good. This would also help us knowing whether or not we are able to complete this to our fullest abilities. We showed this to many people who are in our target audience as it has to fulfil their requirements. 　

Sabah Sarwar

Opinion on the opening scene

Overall, I found that the film that was made by Sister Productions was very good and looked very professional. From the opening scene I could clearly illustrate what the film was about. As well as it being a good production the actors were very good and had showed clear sign of good acting. This was probably due to the fact that the directors were very efficient and knew what they wanted.

What needs to be improved

If there was something to improve about the film it was the end acting scene to where the actor (Memz Karakus) lacked the role. By this I mean the jump he did to hit Nadia was a bit slow. 　

Sonia Ahmed

Opinion on the opening scene

I liked the whole concept of the film and it makes sense. Where they have put in the sound effects, I think they should have taken the natural sounds out. The credits at the start are coming too quickly not letting the audience see them.

What needs to be improved

I think that opening credits could maybe be slowed down a bit. They need to put in the production logo at the start.

Husaam Hussain

Opinion on the opening scene

Overall I think it was a good production for the first draft. The camera work seemed pretty professional and the background music suited the scene. There were good effects used as well.

What needs to be improved

The thing I think could be improved is the style of font for the credits; it should be clearer so the person watching can read it properly.

Umar Hussain

Opinion on the opening scene

I think that it has been done professionally. Over the shoulder shot was used in a professional manner and the editing effects was done in a high standard. The background engaged the audience and it makes you want to carry on watching ahead. I really liked the flashback idea; it seems that it has been done by a professional editor.

What needs to be improved

I think that they should add in the production logo.

Basil Hassan

Opinion on the opening scene

I think that it is dramatic and builds tension for the audience. The way the roundabout makes the audience anxious about what’s going to happen.

What needs to be improved

They should keep the camera staedy.

Shabir Dogar

Opinion on the opening scene

After watching the first draft of ‘paranoia’, I think the storyline is very good. This is because it makes me want to watch on and is very interesting.

What needs to be improved

I believe the font used for credits should be changed as it is barely visible on the background.

Choi Tsang

Opinion on the opening scene

I think that it is good but it’s not as scary as it should be because of the people in the background. The background music is high quality and suited the atmosphere. It doesn’t create the suspense because it should be quick.

What needs to be improved

I think that scene should be speed up a bit.

Our Opinions

Aabidah Ali – Director

Opinion on the opening scene

I think the first draft was good but the only problem we had was the lighting as we were filming in the daylight. Though we changed it to black and white, I could see the errors that we made in it due to the sun.

What needs to be improved

I think that we should really have done the night shots at night so that the audience can see that it is clearly in the night. We also could have choreographed better. We should have got Nadia screaming at the right time.

Safina Rashid – Director

Opinion on the opening scene

In my opinion, I think that the first draft was quite good despite being our first attempt. However there are a few things that I disliked about the production such as the black and white effect where you can see the sun in the background. This is because it is supposed to be dark showing that it’s a horror film. I also didn’t like that at some points where the camera is moving, it wobbles a bit. Another thing which is quite frustrating is that Nadia starts to scream when she is walking backwards however this isn’t shown in the production as its been cut out and the audience only hear her scream at the end shot. On the Mac, the credits are shown clearly and are big however on the computer it comes up fuzzy which doesn’t look right.

What needs to be improved

I think that we should find a way to find to get Nadia’s scream back in where she starts to scream as it shows that she is scared. Also we need to sort out the opening credits and keep them clear so that the audience can see them. We should also do the night shots when it is actually dark.

*Saman Ali was unable to comment.



Main Task - First Draft

Paranoia - Draft

This is our first draft of our opening scene. In our original script, we wanted the flashback scenes to be black and white so that it shows to the audience that its going back in time in the past at a certain time and place. However when we used the black and white colour, it didn't look right and you could tell that the filming was done in the morning as you can see the sun's reflection in the camera where as we wanted these shots to be as if it's in the dark. This caused a problem for us as it didn't make the atmosphere scary or as if it's a horror film. As this is our first draft, we could use this problem as an experience which we will overcome but to do this we have to find another way to resolve this issue such as maybe filming those particular shots in the dark or changing it to another colour which will bring out that scary effect.

Another problem that I feel isn't right is how some shots go too quicly and the audience can't see what is happening. Though it's supposed to be horror movie and everything should happen quite quick, if I can't tell what is happening in the film then the audience won't be able to either. To resolve this, I am going to have to slow down some parts so that audience get a feel of the film and are able to pick up on what is happening.

Also we haven't put in the production logo at the start which is quite an important thing to miss out as in real films, the production logo symbolises the company's identity and what it does. We completed the production logo abit late which is why we were not able to put it into the film but we will include it in the final piece.

Main Task - Crew

Crew

　

Safina Rashid

I think that in creating this opening scene, I played a significant role. This is because even though our actors/actresses kept backing, I still kept looking for other people who would play the roles and in the end helped get the characters together and sorted out. I also used Garage band on the Mac to create our own background music from scratch so that its more original and matches out setting rather than picking something which has been used several times. I was also there at all times when we had to start editing the piece which took long hours even staying after school and was stressful at times when something we wanted we couldn’t do it but because I had another member in my crew, we were able to complete the work by working together and reduced the tension. I also was the one who wrote the final script. Overall I helped put the whole piece together by first help film the shots and then editing it on the Mac.
　
Aabidah Ali

Aabidah also played a significant role in the production. She also helped me with the casting of the characters even though it was getting really stressful when no one was willing to be in it. Aabidah has been there the whole time from shooting the scenes to editing the work. She helped place the characters and tell them what to do and how to do it in the shots which wasn’t easy while I shot the scenes. As I was filming the shots, she focused on the scene to see what we were doing right and what we could improve on. In the end most of the things she picked out that were wrong helped us to improve on the work. She was also in charge of the costumes and so she had to make sure that actors/actresses were wearing what we needed to wear so that it fits scene. She has also been there every time we were editing the piece and kept suggesting ideas on how to improve on the work.
　
Saman Ali

Saman wasn’t able to participate in the production as much due to her having lessons when we were doing the work. However when she was there, she did give ideas on what we could do to improve. Saman was there for the first playground shots we did but because of the lighting we had to do these again. She also was there a couple of times when we were editing but didn’t actually put it together but she did give suggestions on what we did and if she liked it not and if the audience might like it.
　

Main Task - Cast

Cast

In our film, we have two main actresses which are Katie who is the girl that has a shadow stalking her and Dr Macbeth who tries to help Katie getting rid of her fears. However, in our two minute opening scene, none of these actresses are in the clip. This is because we decided to use some creativity and wanted to begin with a mystery and so the audience will feel the need to watch further on. The scene involves Katie’s mother and her murderer who are shown during the film but near the end of the film where they are revealed in front of the audience.

We had to change our actors/actresses many times before we actually shot the whole scene with the actor and actress shown in the scene making it our final and finished piece. This is due to various reasons which affected our production badly. Our original actors who were going to play the part were Sabah Sarwar and Furhaad Ahmed. After Furhaad was unable to do the acting part, we asked several other male actors who would be willing to be in our film but some were unable to take part due to their and our filming schedule clashing. Others said they have tried acting in the past and were not able do without having to laugh and making strange faces. One of the main reason was that many of them were to shy and didn’t want to be on camera. By then, we had to think of other ideas to get a male actor as no one would help us and so we had idea of dressing a girl up as a boy as the boys face in the film is going to covered anyway. However, we chose not to use this idea as there were many drawbacks to this and that it might not work as the audience may figure out that it is a girl rather than a boy acting. In the end we picked someone who was capable of acting with a straight face and who could film on our time that we needed him. Even though our original female actor backed out on us, we were easily able to replace her as we already had a another actress who would do it as she told us beforehand at the start of our production that she would be willing to do the acting for us and so it didn’t take us long to replace the female actress.

Actor/Actress in the finished piece

Katie’s mother is played by Nadia Hafiz. We chose Nadia in the end as she has past experience in acting which made it easier on us and her aswell. Her acting benefited us and our production in many ways. This is because when we tried filming with the actors we had before her, they were unable to keep a straight face and we had to take individual shots many times. This was very time consuming and made it harder on us as they were unable to do the acting without having to laugh. However, when we did our shots with Nadia, she was able to get into the flow and kept a straight face and do the acting perfectly and in the way we wanted her to do. The only problem that we were facing with Nadia was her facial expressions. For the scene, the actress had to be scared, terrified and tired. For some of the early shots, Nadia’s facial expressions did not show this and didn’t fit in into the atmosphere we were trying to create but once trying some shots without recording, she was able to understand the emotion that we were trying to capture and show this on her face. Nadia is an hardworking and excellent actress who was able to complete our filming task within 2 hours, even though we had to retake some shots a few times before getting it right.

Even though the boy shown in the scene doesn’t play a long role and is only seen after half of the scene has gone, he plays a very significant role not only in that scene but also in the film as a whole. This role was played by Memz Karakus who in the past has no experience in the acting field. However he completed our task with patience and focusing directly on the acting. In the opening scene, we don’t actually see his face but only his eyes. This is because we don’t want to reveal his identity to the audience yet as it creates suspense and urges the audience to watch further. Memz easily understood what he had to do and we only had to retake some shots couple of times. Overall we were satisfied with Memz acting as it was first time that he has tried to do something like this in the acting field.

Actor/Actress that were picked originally

Sabah Sarwar was supposed to be playing Katie’s mother when we first started our production. We had already done most of Sabah’s shots which did take a lot of time to do. Although Sabah hasn’t done any acting before, her acting was very good and believable. Her facial expressions were the best part as she showed to the audience what we looking for as she looked scared and tired. This would have been a great effect in the movie if we had put her in. However we were not able to complete her shots due to her not wearing the same clothes as when she wore them in the shots we had done and this was the case every time we were going to do some filming. Another reason that we couldn’t complete the filming with her was that the male actor in our film was done free when Sabah was which made it hard for both us and Sabah. In the end, she backed out of the film for reasons unknown. However we already had a back-up actress who was willing to be in our film which benefited us in many ways.

Furhaad Ahmed was going to be our mystery character in the original cast. We had not done any filming with Furhaad and so we didn’t lose any work with him however it was very stressful for us when he did leave as it was harder for us to replace him. We had not seen any of Furhaad’s acting in the past so we don’t know whether he fitted the role or not but personality wise he was perfect for the role. Due to mainly scheduling problems and other small issues, Furhaad decided to back out of the film. It took us a long period of time to find Furhaad to do the acting for us and so when he dropped out it was difficult to find someone to replace but in the end we did find someone else suitable and free to do this for us.

Overall I am glad the way things turned out and am completely satisfied with the cast who play a role in our production. They worked well together and individually and were also very understanding and patient towards us as they knew that we did not have much experience in the filming field.

　

Main Task - Software

Software

To upload and to edit the shots that I had recorded, I used the software iMovie. This is because iMovie is a very efficient software to use especially to make a film look high of high quality and done professionally. This was my first time using the iMovie on my own as I wasn’t able to be there when the editing part was done in the preliminary task so I wasn’t used to it and didn’t really know how to use it properly. However after uploading the shots that I had recorded on the camera on to iMovie, I found that though difficult at first, I was able to play around with the features on it which made me get used to it. Even though after I while I got used to using the software, as I was editing the movie I found that from time to time there were certain problems that would occur which then we resolved after playing around on it. I found that at every stage of the editing, I found something new which was very useful and sometimes helped me in making my final piece better.

I did have some difficulties with the iMovie such as that I wanted to change some parts of the film into a black and white colour which we didn’t know how to do but then though it did take some time, we found how to change this however it didn’t really turn out the way we wanted it to. We also had problems such as the fonts that we were using for the opening credits. This is because there wasn’t much of a variety that we could use and that would go best with our film and at times it wouldn’t let us change the font which was quite annoying but in the end we found another way to solve the matter.

I think that using iMovie to create the movie was very useful and beneficial for me as it increased both the quality and standard of my film. There are many features and options on how to edit the film which is effective and handy for us. I have also found that over time, I have gotten used to on how to use the software and have learnt a lot from film making because of it which could be beneficial for me in the future if needed.