Final Film opening

 This is my final film opening

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13D1TSLGwpUAkpbfZM-d9h7N-rZinXO4P/view?usp=sharing 

here is the link to my video file incase anything goes wrong with the video in blogpost. ⬆️

CCR 1

 This is my Critical Creative Reflection (CCR) 1

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGewN-tcoA/-c-iuz6gqrj3lsMN_APtcA/edit?utm_content=DAGewN-tcoA&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton 

 this is the canva link to my CCR 1 presentation incase the embedded one does not work ⬆️

CCR 2

 This is my Critical Creative Reflection (CCR) 2

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGewoEg5TA/_vx4BQbC5GtdTUL2J4YdmQ/edit?utm_content=DAGewoEg5TA&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton 

  this is the canva link to my CCR 2 poster incase the embedded one does not work ⬆️

This is my audio file ⬆️

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RxOoWboQgQ_QKjPmLEN2bgHZ4LOGfZpy/view?usp=drive_link

 here is the link to my audio file incase anything goes wrong with the audio in blogpost. ⬆️

or 

This is my video file for CCR 2 just incase the audio file doesn't work ⬆️

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18kxBb6CHfRbVgOHluHzZIpaYLl1Rg7P-/view?usp=sharing 

 

here is the link to my video file incase anything goes wrong with the video file in blogpost. ⬆️

This is the bullet pointed script for my audio and video file (it's quite disorganize but it somewhat is what I said in the audio file)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VbJrzKIu6PFwqWvs5OXvhnEuloQu7I4V7OXN8O8Jcso/edit?usp=sharing

here is the script to my script file incase anything goes wrong with the docs file in blogpost. ⬆️

CCR 3

 This is my Critical Creative Reflection (CCR) 3

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGfm9W6mFk/ravlI_K9ucAl_t1146nrRQ/edit?utm_content=DAGfm9W6mFk&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

this is the canva link to my CCR 3 incase the embedded one does not work ⬆️

CCR 4

This is my Critical Creative Reflection (CCR) 4

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGfnCk-FaY/5CTjUOZrrH7VQkwQg5nuig/edit?utm_content=DAGfnCk-FaY&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

this is the canva link to my CCR 4 incase the embedded one does not work ⬆️

Production: Behind-the-Scenes

This is our group's behind the scenes. This was done entirely by Maxine 

Director: Max, Shannon
Cast: Max, Kenneth, Bams
Production company: Regents Media Production
Editor: Kenneth
Mise-en-Scene manager: Max, Bams

Self reflection:

I think we took enough behind the scenes pictures to show the overall process of our filming. This included pictures of the transportation to go to Naga Eight and the overall camera work that goes in these projects. I think we have taken more to show other scenes like the tent one so people who see our blog can understand the bigger picture. But overall, with the quality of these pictures the behind the scenes turned out ok. 

Post-Production: Editing

 This is our group's editing blog. This blog was done entirely by Kenneth

I use Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects 2025 for the editing of this project.

I began editing as soon as we finished shooting. Initially, I started off in After Effects, where I color graded the raw footages to look like nighttime.

Before

After

I found this Youtube video explaining the process, and it really helped a lot. Though, I ended up tweaking the little details of the color grading settings to achieve a result of my liking.

I also experimented with light leaks, which I had planned to apply on some shots.

I again made use of a Youtube video explaining the process of achieving this.

But shortly after, I found out that putting it against a black background makes for a really unique shot, much better than putting it straight above the shots. So, I decided to use this for the first few seconds into the opening credits of the movie intro. I chose a simple fade animation for the credit texts.

Moving on to Premiere Pro, I placed all the dark version shots that I wanted to use for this movie intro, and aligned them in order on the timeline.

Then, I added vignettes to all the shots and made some more changes to the color grading, which in the end improved the look of the shots and make them feel more cinematic.

At first, I had the idea of having voiceover throughout the movie intro, as if a mind-reading machine is being used to enter the mind of the killer, in hopes of finding the truth behind the murder. And we as the audience watches through the POV of the machine entering the mind. I even went on to create a wormhole on After Effects, which I had planned to use at the very beginning of the intro, when the device enters the killer's mind for the first time.

This is thanks to a Youtube video tutorial I found at the time.

But after discussing with my team members, we decided to drop this idea, since the mind reading device plot doesn't suit horror that well, and leans more into sci-fi.


Meanwhile, choosing the right audio was also quite a challenge. I initially had footstep sounds play at the first few seconds of the intro, then followed by a swoosh sound as the wormhole plays. But, dropping the mind-reading device plot meant choosing a different set of audio as well.


Picking and rearranging shots on the timeline was also a back-and-forth task, with new ideas cancelling the previous arrangement. But in the end, I found the arrangement of shots that I loved and sticked with that.


Finally, I opted for a creepy-sounding music to play throughout the whole intro, and I found the perfect one to do just that. I used this music as a base for the timing of the transitions between shots.


So far I've used several moon stock videos at some points of the intro, which I really loved. But halfway through the editing process, my media teacher reviewed the edit and told me to not use stock footages, so I removed the moon shots and opted for our own shots of lighter instead.


The rest of the editing process went smooth from then on, and most of the clips were arranged based on the beat of the audio I chose for this intro.


There's one particular clip that I put extra work on, which is this shot below.

The silhouette of the killer behind the main character is actually fake. It's an image that I tracked into the shot using the "3D Camera Tracker" feature available in After Effects. I wouldn't say the addition of the silhouette is perfect, since it is static, but it definitely helped intensifies this last scene of the movie intro.


Meanwhile, for the main title animation, I initially considered going for a bluish theme.

But at this point, my teammates suggested me to change the font to a scratchier hand-written style to further enhance the horror feel. And with a different font in use, I ended up changing the main title animation as well, to this blood-dripping style from the Youtube video below.

End result, with new font and animation

Self reflection:

I gave Kenneth ideas for the main film title which included a bloody title with red color. The change from the normal to the handwritten scratchy font was also a suggestion from me and max and overall I think kenneth execution of these suggestion and ideas are good and also align with the overall conventions of a horror movie. Maybe next time I could physically help the editor at work. 

.

Typeface Development; Title + Credits

This is the title and credit ideas as well as the typeface decisions for this project. slightly edited by shannon)

Title ideas:

Silent whisper

Silent stalker

Dark secrets

The haunting shadow

Whispers in the dark

In the shadows

Sinister Lurker

The night's prey

Dark pursuits

Veil of fear

Silent terror

Lurking shadows

Behind the shadows

Typeface ideas:

This is our title font

Thinker (capcut)

Thinker-RG (capcut)

Relax (capcut)

Ravenly (capcut)

Merchande-Rgh (capcut)

Sticky (capcut)

IM FELL (capcut)

(This is made by maxine) ⬆️

Eventually our group and I decided on this font which combines the fonts of Thinker in cap-cut and the crazy killer font from the pinterest board to create the font for the whole text of the movie except for some modifications from the movie introduction's title sequence that will be discussed further. 

Movies that created the inspiration for our font choices 

The crime and horror movie Se7en inspired the hand written scratchy look of our fonts. 

I liked how it's handwritten which gives it a personal and raw feel connoting  the eerieness and mystery of the Se7en's theme. I didn't like how it isn't really as messy or scribbly as what my team and I had planned but it's a good enough foundation / inspiration for our team to start with 

this is the final font we choose for the credits its called 

Jo wrote a love song regular using the official title "in the shadows"

We eventually choose this font because it's all over the place and messy enough to connote the energetic and anxiety induced thrill of our movie . We choose this style because it conveys the adrenaline and unsettling atmosphere of the whole movie opening. It's as if the killer himself wrote a notes to these teenagers which is exactly the feeling we want our audiences to feel. 

This was done by shannon ⬆️

Self Reflection:

I think this typeface quite suited for a movie title since it's about murder and horror. I particularly like the "thinker" font in cap cut as well as the ink font from pinterest which reflects blood and the tragedy that would occur which matches with the overall theme of our movie introduction but I'm glad we chose the final font to give the same feel for both the title and the credits. 

Production Organizing footage

This is the blog post that shows on what tech or applications used with screenshots, how it helps and what systems did we use to do this (made by Bamz, edited in detail by me)

To communicate with the group members :
WhatsApp

To download & store footage :

Google Drive

To edit the footage & organizing the footage within the application :

After Effects 2025

How Does it Help?

This was mostly done by Bamz ⬆️

Google drive

• It helped with sharing the files to others so, instead of one person that only has the access to the footage, everyone in our group has the access to the shared file this minimizes more work with exporting.
• This app also keeps the quality of the original footage from the camera in check without any quality compressions from other apps.
• This app also organizes our documents into a file to make it easier to find for our editor and keep many other files in one link that has already been shared to our group chat

Whatsapp

• Through communication apps such as WhatsApp as the app reduces the resolution and quality of the video which ruins the whole immersive aspect of the film opening. 
• However, whatsapp allows for easy communication between our 4 group members even if they are not physically in a room with me. We can still discuss, plan out new shooting dates, etc. 
• We also used WhatsApp to show the part where the editor is finished with the video so we can see segments of the video so we can make less mistakes instead of showing the full clip and finding it all in one that way

Adobe After Effects 

• In addition to that, our editors used After Effects the latest version which has more features such as the CGI as we have an idea of using CGI although. With the help of CGI our editor can make the audience feel immersive and more realistic and since it is the latest version of the editing software. 

•  This app also allows our editor to manipulate the lighting realistically to fit the movie genre. Because we filmed our video in the day which doesn't fit with the overall mood of our horror movie. 

• This app also allows the editor to download cool transitions from google that have hundreds of them which makes the movie more interesting for the audience. This also makes it easier and convenient for him to download and use many transition since adobe after effects offers many things. 

This was mostly done by me  ⬆️

Self reflection:

I think the existence of these apps are useful since it really help us manage our workload, communicate and edit efficiently. I think we as a group have better teamwork and synergy when using apps like whatsapp. Adobe after effects seems like an intimidating app but our editor is use to it so his editing looks good so far. 

Screen Test: Audience Feedback

This post explains how we showed a rough draft of our film opening to some members of our target audience in order to receive helpful feedback.

The purpose of a screen test is to gain audience feedback about our work and see if their are any improvements that can be made. We decided to use google forms to create a survey to share with our audience because it is a convenient way to get information without wasting time finding people around the school to interview. A link also allows our group to reach people outside to school without going to another school physically which is convenient.  Here are our questions:

What do you like about this horror movie introduction ??

What are your thoughts on the characters of the movie ??

What can we improve on ?

Which movie title for this horror movie ???

if all of these feedbacks were implemented in this movie opening would you watch the rest of the movie ?

If in the previous question your answer was no please explain your answer ?

We chose these questions because we wanted to understand our audience's dominant reading on our characters and how we could further make this movie introduction interesting to the point where our target audience would watch the whole movie. We showed the clip to 3 members of our target audience to ensure that the feedback we receive is appropriate and it was "horror" enough and suit their expectations. We also provided title options to them so the title wouldn't sound "cringey" or "weird" but suit the whole premise of the movie. 

Finding people for the screen test was quite difficult for me especially because most of my friends or people I know don't watch horror movies in general so it's hard for me to distribute this survey and get useful feedback from them. Luckily my teammates Max and Bamz do have friends who are horror / adrenaline enthusiasts as such we were able to get 3 people to answer the 6 six questions. 

Here is the draft that we showed audiences for the screen test:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aZNoa5TS_LFWem8HayxCq2i23cp7k_I0/view?usp=drive_link 

Here are the results from the audience feedback:

• What do you like about this horror movie introduction ??

• What are your thoughts on the characters of the movie ??

• What can we improve on ?

• Which movie title for this horror movie ???

• if all of these feedbacks were implemented in this movie opening would you watch the rest of the movie ?

• If in the previous question your answer was no please explain your answer ?

From the feedback we learned that we need to make our movie deeper, which means add more story / foreshadowing in the movie intro so they would be more interested. Another said we need to add context, it makes sense since the movie introduction is unfinished and our editor hasn't added any scene that moves the plot forward and the context / information on each character and their traits and what will happen. The dominant reading of the character were mysterious which is concerning as each character in the movie introduction should have different somewhat dominant readings than just "mysterious". The last thing they touched on is the fact this movie introduction leans more into mystery than horror. It's great constructive criticism because we can make that happen via editing and honestly after reviewing the footage again I completely agree. 

We are going to change the font of the title and add blood splatter animations to make it more horror filled. We might add more red to the introduction as a semantic code for death and destruction. The music can also be changed to more eerie and "ritual" like non diegetic or diegetic music so the movie can be more recognise as a horror movie. For the context part we can tell our editor to stitch up the important parts to add description into each scene and also add more depth to each character in the scene. 

This screen test was a useful part of our process because we are able to fully understand what the audience's preference so they could be intrigued into watching the whole movie. Even though the introduction's editing isn't finish and our editor left many parts behind leading to some of the criticism some of them made us change some parts of our movie so it can greatly improve. 

Reflection: This screen test made me rethink what a good horror movie should look like and allowed me to critically think of ways to improve like what the audience says. I think we could've ask more in depth answer to further understand their preference but overall this really helped our project. 

Dominant Reading

Here's our blog of my team's dominant reading for our film opening scene project

This is just a quick catch up session that we did as a group. We thought it would be a good idea to check what our intended dominant readings are for the different things being represented in our film opening. We have recently learned about Stuart Hall’s Reception Theory with Dominant, Oppositional, and Negotiated readings. For our media text to be successful, we want to make sure the message is clear and able to reach the correct audience. Below we will discuss our intended readings, and compare them to the intended readings we made in our Statement of Intent earlier on in the project. It will be interesting to see if our ideas have evolved.

 

	List	Our intended  Dominant Reading	How we will achieve this with technical elements
Individuals	Greg, Kenneth, Max	Kenneth = a paranoid  teenager  Greg = Kenneth's good friend, mindful of his surroundings  Max = careless, ignorant teenager	Kenneth  Mise en scene: The actor constantly looks at his surroundings and whatever's around him.  Camera: There is a close up of his concerned expression. There are also medium shots of his concerned body language. The camera pans from Kenneth to what he is looking at.  Editing: Multiple cuts of different camera angles. There is also an eyeline match of kenneth looking to his surroundings  Sound: Diegetic sounds of rustling leaves and footsteps of the stalker.  Greg  Mise en scene: The actor performance contained looking for his friend (kenneth) when he disappeared  Camera: There is a tracking shot of him trying to follow Kenneth's tracks. Medium shots of his body language turning around to find Kenneth.  Editing: Multiple cuts of different camera angles. There is also a reaction shot  of his worried face and Kenneth's “blood”.  Sound: Diegetic sounds of the actor’s dialogue contained words that worried about Kenneth after he disappeared.  Max Mise en scene: The actress carries headphones and has her emotionless expression when the camera focuses on her.  Camera: There are close up shots of her expressions that show that she doesn’t really care.
Social group	Teenagers	Teenagers should not be left alone without adult supervision.	There are multiple camera angles / close up shots of the paranoia of the teenagers. There is a tracking shot scene where Kenneth gets killed. The body language of both Greg and Kenneth are shaky and scared.
Places	Forest	Forests are a bad place to hangout.	There will be low key lighting that’s used to present the place. Many bushes and leaves will be used that hides hidden cameras that makes the scene unsafe for the characters and the audience.  Discordant non diegetic sounds will be used.
Events	Murder	Murder is bad / traumatic.	There is a medium shot of Greg worried for kenneth. A close up shot where he is shocked at the blood splatter. There is blood in some scenes and the color red on blood is a semantic code for death, anger, etc.
Overall Message	Teenagers shouldn’t be left alone in the forest because tragedies may happen as a result of murder.

How similar is it to the statement of intent ?

I think this is almost 90% similar to our statement of intent. Some of the similarities are,

• The name of the characters. Each character is either named greg, max or kenneth just like what our group discussed in the statement of intent.

• We represented places using low key lighting and a monochrome color palette which is what we said in our statement of intent which appeals to our horror audiences as well. 

•   In both the dominant reading and the statement of intent we have murder as one of the main action and a message that it is traumatic and bad. 

However, 

• We changed the storyline from a bunch of detective to a bunch of reckless teenagers who are left alone in the forest hanging out which changes the overall message / the dominant reading to the social group.

• The dominant reading or main message has also changed from "Always go home early, never go out at night alone. " to " Teenagers shouldn’t be left alone in the forest because tragedies may happen as a result of murder."

Self Reflection: 

I think this dominant reading make us reflect on the main meaning of our movie and what we want our audience to feel and think about when they watch our movie introduction. We also realize we changed some things from our statement of intent which is normal since we change the characters and some of the storyline of our original draft. Overall, hopefully our audience would get the same messages. 

Classwork: Editing practice

This blog post contains the work I did in my lesson on how to successfully edit. My teacher filmed the footage but I edited it together. My teacher also provided the template for the blog post.

Why is continuity editing important?

Continuity editing includes making sure that items like props or costumes stay consistent from scene to scene. But the more important work lies in editing shots together in a way that leaves viewers thoroughly grounded in both time and space that leaves the audience with an immersive and realistic experience. 


Different types of continuity edit

• Straight cut (cut)
• Eyeline match
• Shot /reverse shot
• Cutaway / Insert

*Match cut

Footage

Here is the footage that my teacher shot which utilises a variety of camera angles and movements. The scene is very simple, it involves a student standing up and leaving the classroom. A single shot here might be quite boring for the audience, by editing and combining the shots together we can make the scene feel more dynamic and exciting. 

Here is the youtube link to all the raw clips: 

My editing process

This is my first attempt at editing these clips.  I used an editing software called capcut so I can edit the clips smoothly. The clips given had some continuity errors such as the first clip they didn't consistently  put their hands inside their pockets so I had to cut the scenes where he doesn't put his hands in his pocket and another thing is the weird camera angles in the 4th and 5th clip but eventually I manage to sort it out by making a cut on the 4th and 5th clip. 

Some of the minor errors I made was audio. I didn't really have time to think about the audio and for the first clip I muted the whole clip which is not a good decision as it made the first scene boring. I also didn't consider the fact that cut are used to film the next action or make the film more dramatic but I think my cuts were kind of like that but next time I will keep that in mind while editing to make each action more immersive for the audience. 

This is the youtube video for my edited clip. 

Self Reflection:

I think I did an overall good job at this editing thing maybe next time I'll just figure out the audio for the next time I edit but luckily I'm not the editor in this comp 1 project which is a relieve. For the 4th and 5th clip transition I don't think I figured out as well as I thought but with the limited time I was given I thought it kind of make sense. I think this tutorial / trail will really help all of us especially our editor Kenneth so he can edit the shots for our movie opening smoothly.