Why we chose Universal Pictures

During our research for choosing what studio to use for the opening of our film we looked at other film openings and we found that there were so many different movie production companies but we found that  Universal Pictures or 20th Century Fox were the most popular for thriller/crime films. So, we randomly chose between the two and eventually chose Universal Pictures. 

Final Missing Persons Poster

This is the final copy of the missing person's poster created. We used it in a scene where it is taped to a lamp post.
We used red font for the 'missing' as it is such a bright colour that it automatically would draw someone's attention if they were passing by the poster.
 We had to use a picture of the actress that clearly showed her eyes because we knew that we was going to zoom into the eyes of the poster which would then have the actual footage of her eyes come through the image.

Missing Person Poster

For part of our film we have a scene including a missing person's poster. We each designed our own one of how we thought it should be presented, these were the three options and we used aspects of each one to develop the one we would use.

Changes in Monologue

After members of our group watched The Wolfman in their spare time, they were inspired and proposed an idea. In the opening of The Wolfman a woman is speaking, explaining things. This is where they got the idea for the main girl in our film to be speaking. We compared this with the news report idea and we decided that as it is actually the victim narrating it, it gives it a more chilling effect and would entice the audience more as it is more personal.

Also, we thought that we could create a missing persons poster and stick it on a lampost, and then track down the lampost and then zoom into Grace's eyes (Grace is our actress) and then it would fade into a black screen and fade out of a black screen into the filming of Grace in the cellar starting with footage of her eyes. Instead of filming more footage for this, we used footage that we already have. However, it was zooming into her eyes. So we found a way of reversing the clip so it zooms out of the eyes. 

Script for the voice over: "My Grandparents always used to say, 'the older you get, the faster time passes' It certainly feels that way, it feels like a lifetime since I have seen my family. I have so much yet to experience, my first kiss, marriage, a job. The memories of my family are still so strong, however, I do not know if they will stay like that. One thing I do know is, I will get out."

Deciding on The Film Title

When deciding on the title for our film opening we thought about the contents of our opening. We came up with a whole page of possible names but the main ones were as followed; Daze, Daisy, Dais, Unknown, The Lost Abduction. Daze, Daisy and Dais were all really a play on words, we knew we would be calling the main character Daisy and we knew that she'd be in a dazed state in the cellar so we played around with the words. However, we realised that that someone is either 'in a daze' or 'dazed' so we would have to call is 'Dazed' to ensure the context was correct. I really liked the idea of calling it 'Dais' because it gives the film a more personal touch because it would've been the nickname of the girl, however, we realised that using a word that is not grammatically correct could be an issue so because on the uncertainty we ruled that idea out. We found out that Unknown was already a title to a film that was released recently so we did not want to use that incase audiences drew similarities between the two. So we were down to Daisy and The Lost Abduction and all of the group agreed that we preferred the name Daisy. We also asked other members of our class which seemed more appealing and the generalised comment we received was that 'The Lost Abduction' sounds like the film would just be an ordinary crime/thriller film so it wouldn't appeal to them whereas Daisy is quite an unusual title. Using the victims name, which is quite an innocent name, intrigued them. After considering all factors the group decided to name the film Daisy.

Production Company Logo

These were four production logo's designed by members of our group. Three were fairly similar with the same name "Cameo Productions" and the other with "Ask G". Both were extremely different because Cameo was clean and straight to the point whereas Ask G was eye catching but yet somehow distracting. We had a discussion about which we preferred, asked people in our class and we also researched into how other production companies had designed theirs. We found that major companies kept it clean and simple. For example, Pixar Pictures is black text on a white background. All of the group decided that less was more, therefore we decided to go with the last image as it stands out because of the contrast in colours and goes with the clean and simple convention. Choosing the font for the logo was difficult as there was so many to choose from but after thinking about how the conventional production companies designed their we decided to go with one that if bold yet simple so that the audience is not distracted by creative font. 

We asked members of our class to comment on which one they preferred and why. Some said they preferred the Ask G image because the colours and design is eye catching but some said that they preferred the Cameo Production logo's because they are simple and look more professional. 

When it came to deciding which to use we thought about how it would look with the rest of our credits and the appropriateness and effectiveness of each in relevance of our film. We all decided that the white text on black background for Cameo productions was the most fitting with the genre and the other credits. 

Adjusting To The New Equipment and Software

We were introduced to Mac computers, Final Cut Express and the video camera's at the beginning of the school year. We didn't have long to really figure out how to use everything so we had to learn as we went. I didn't have any trouble with using the Mac computers as I have one at home so I am already adjusted from PC to Mac, however, I think the main struggle for most people was coming to grips with using Final Cut Express as it was completely new to everyone, so learning how to use everything and find everything was a real struggle. This was gradually solved as we all became more familiar with the software. Another issue which we had was uploading the video footage from the tapes to the computer. However this was easily solved as the IT technicians gave us a step by step guide on how to do so.
So overall, the problems that faced us we overcame them by the time we began editing.