Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

How has your knowledge of …..

·        Films: our knowledge of films has improved from before, we started media because at the start we just knew the basics but now we know what is involved in making a blockbuster and the different aspects of the whole British industry. Our skills in this area did develop a tiny but not much because we did not learn about films and the British industry at the time. But since we started learning about the British industry our knowledge has grown so much.

·        Opening sequences: our knowledge of opening sequences has improved a lot since we did our preliminary task because we have learnt and understood what makes a good opening sequence and what makes a bad one as well. Our knowledge grew after we analysed an opening sequence of our chosen genre because then we learned a bit more about the camera angles, Mise en scene and we then used our knowledge to make our own opening sequence the best we could make it. Our skills in this area had developed since our preliminary task because we now have understood everything to do with the strengths and weaknesses for an opening sequences and the camera movements and angles.

·        Technology: our knowledge of technology that was used in the process has improved so much because at the start we didn’t even know how to get the videos on iMovie and now we know how to put in special effects, add music etc because we sat down as a group and did the work together as a group. Our skills in this area has developed since our preliminary task because we all understand all the different parts of the technology like camera movement, Mise en scene and all the different effects that is on iMovie. The preliminary task provided us with the opportunity to develop these skills

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

How has your knowledge… developed since your preliminary tasks and now?

·         Group work: Our group work improved in the creating of our opening sequence in comparison to that of the preliminary task. This was due to our knowledge of the ways each other worked and the strengths and weaknesses of the other group members that was established and developed throughout the process of the preliminary task. It meant that we were aware of our own personal roles within the group and knew what the other members were good at so were able to delegate appropriate tasks to the appropriate group member. This helped to improve the efficiency of the production process and the quality of the final product. When we carried out the preliminary task we had not worked together as a team before so had little knowledge of how we would work together or the way that the other group members worked. But when we started work on our opening sequence we had learnt these things when doing the preliminary so were able to work as a more effective team.    

·         Time management: Working as a better team helped us work more time efficiently as it meant that we were all working together and splitting the tasks between us so that they could be completed to a high quality but in a shorter amount of time. Therefore our time management was better when we were doing our opening sequence than when we did the preliminary task. We were also more aware of deadlines and split the tasks better over time than we did in our preliminary task, another improvement on our time management skills.

The roles involved in film production: The preliminary task taught us about the roles involved in film production, who would be best for which roles within our group and how to take on these roles. This meant that when we starting planning for our opening sequence we were more aware of what needed to be done so could plan more effectively for the production stage and carry out the production stage in a more productive way.

Evaluation Question 6

How did technology impact each stage of the process (blogs, planning and research, filming, sound and editing)?

Blogs were good because we can keep updated with all of what we have been doing. Blogging is a good means of communication in a group because they can easily edit and it is easy to create a post and track your group’s activities through their posts. The technology impacted our planning and research because we could use a variety of programmes such as google and Wikipedia for research into the streets where we were going to film. We used a video camera that was a high quality so we had the most realistic film that we could have. Also we used iMovie for editing on the macs and that gave us the best possible editing that we could use.

What have you learnt about the importance of technology in the production and editing of opening sequences?

I have learnt that it is important to have technology in a film because of a variety of reasons. The first reason being that it is important to have a crisp picture for the video so that it will be a quality film. Also the sound must be good. it is so important to use the technology to your advantage and then you will have made a good production.

Are there any limitations to the technologies that were available to you,

If so, what did you hope you would be able to do that you didn’t achieve?

They were quite a few limitations to the technologies that were available because we had a low budget we didn’t have the money to get loads of equipment and props so we were limited on what we could get and what we could use. We were also limited on location being in a small town we didn’t have a lot of places to go and film so this also applies to low budget because if we had the money we could have gone abroad or to a different location in the UK. But overall we had to really work with the low budget to be able to do anything for out opening sequence.

What technologies have you used?

We have used many different types of technology in our research and planning, filming, sound, editing, word processing and blogs to gain the right result. For our research we look on the computer and made good use of Google Maps to research our locations such as the fields that we were going to use. I think this really helped plan out exactly where we could go and it saved huge amounts of time so that we didn’t just have to drive round aimlessly looking for the best place. In the filming process we used Nikon D70 camera to film all of our clips as we tried this camera out in our research to make sure the quality was good enough to use. We used the computers to look for royal free music to use for certain parts of our film, gaining the right atmosphere that we already had criteria to meet that we made in our planning and research. To put things on the blogs we had to use the computers and type up our notes on Word.

Have your skills in using these (or your knowledge of them) developed as a result of using them? How?

I believe that my personal skills and I strongly believe that the whole group’s skills have developed since this project. I think that my editing skills have greatly improved by spending a lot of time on my own using the Apple Mac’s to edit our film. Also, I think that my camera work has greatly improved using the different devices and rules more appropriately to gain better results.  I also think that my camera work has improved in the way of stability and steadiness gaining better clips. I think that because we all had the same amount of time as each other to use all of the pieces of technology like the camera and macs so we could all teach each other new things that we have found. I found this a lot easier to learn this way than using a YouTube video or listening to a teacher. I just think the bigger time period was the best thing we had on this project as we all had a lot of time to spend going through different functions on iMovie and other programs to gain good results.

 

 

 

 

Evaluation Question 5

How does your opening sequence appeal to your target audience?

The chosen genre for our opening sequence is physiological thriller, the target audience for this genre is generally not young children, as they might find the events of the films disturbing and frightening and the storylines too complex to understand fully. Making the genre more appealing to them. Our sequence will appeal to our target audience because it has everything that would intrigue someone who likes psychological thrillers. We use a range of locations for filming that would frequently pop up in a lot of films in this genre for example dark alleys and grave yards. This would make our Film appeal to the target audience as it would meet the criteria to make it a psychological thriller.

How is it relevant to them?

Our opening sequence will be relevant to our target audience who will be young adults and this will be relevant to them because of the video games that they play and the music they listen too. This will effect what they watch. We have made this film relevant by taking into consideration the wants and needs of someone who likes these films and we have look at other physiological thrillers to see what they have and what we can put into ours.

What messages or values are you trying to communicate to your target audience?

One of our hidden messages is karma. Because our main character gets haunted by the fact he kills his friend he thinks he is being followed all the time, he feels like he is never alone and his life has turned unbearable. This is karma for killing his best friend. Karma is a belief in life that we wanted to portray in our film.  Also there is a message about how important friends are. I know this is a broad message but it shows that once he has killed his friend, though he is schizophrenic and feels like he is never alone. He happens to be a very lonely person and has none to talk to once his friend is dead. This would show to the viewer about how important friends and family are and how close you should keep them.

 

Evaluation Question 4

 Who would be the audience for your media production?

   In the audience research we undertook before making our opening sequence we decided that the target audience for our opening sequence would be teenagers and young adults between the ages of fifteen and thirty who are interested in solving complex storylines and find the often dramatic twists intriguing. We will be trying to appeal to both male and female aspirers (Young and Rubicam) who are looking to watch films as a diversion to entertain them (Blumler) and are of the lower middle, skilled working and working classes (socio-Economic Scale). The opening sequence should also appeal to others that do not fit under all of these categories but are fascinated by the physiological thriller genre.

   Our opening sequence does not have a mainstream audience, because the physiological thriller genre does not appeal to some groups and they are not often seen as family films. For example it would not be suitable for young children who may find it frightening and disturbing and would find it difficult to understand the complex storylines associated with this genre of film. An older audience may also find it disturbing and stereotypically prefer a more classic genre of film. However teenagers and young adults tend to enjoy physiological thrillers and find them interesting and entertaining. Therefore we have a ‘niche’ audience, as this genre of film does not appeal to all. This has made it possible for us to focus more on our target audience throughout the planning and producing stages, because we know exactly who they are so can focus our opening sequence on what they want to see and what will appeal to them. 

Evaulation Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

In what ways would your film belong to and be distributed by the British film industry?

·         Niche audiences: Our film is aimed at a pacific target audience. We were aiming our opening at teenagers and young adults between the ages of fifteen and thirty who are interested in solving complex storylines and find the often dramatic twists intriguing. We are trying to appeal to both male and female aspirers who are looking to watch films as a diversion to entertain them and are of the lower middle, skilled working and working classes. Therefore our film is aimed at a ‘niche’ audience. It would not appeal to all age groups or classes due to the genre and themes of the film. This fits with the conventions of the British film industry where films are often aimed at a niche audience.  An example of this is ‘The Woman in Black’ which is also a British physiological thriller aimed at a similar niche audience, as it has many of the same themes as our opening sequence (e.g. death, mystery, confusion and uncertainty) .

·         Educational or making a moral statement about British culture: Although our film does not have an educational message like many conventional British films it is making a statement about British culture.  It shows a different side to Britain to what many foreign films (especially American films) tend to portray. Conventional American films represent the upper classes in Britain and abide my stereotypes such as posh accents where as we represented the less privileged members of British society and highlighted the problems they may face. An example of a British film that has also uses this technique is ‘Attack the Block’ which is set on a council estate in London, showing a very different side to British culture.    

·         Examples of small British, studios that might take on the production and distribution of your film: British production company Hammer Studios are well known for a series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films (Including ‘Dracula’, ‘The Cures of Frankenstein’ and ‘The Mummy’) so may be interested in our film as it is a physiological thriller so contains many similar themes and ideas so would fit well with the image of the conventional film produced by Hammer Studios. It is also a typical and stereotypical British film in many ways including small budget, statement about British culture, niche audience and so on. This means that it would appeal to British studios such as Hammer Studios.

·         Ways it could be distributed and how this could reach our audience: To reach our audience through the distribution stage of our film we could create a trailer to be shown on British TV channels and in British cinemas. This would be seen by a range of British people and if it included the key parts of the film that would appeal to our target audience it would encourage people to go and see the film. An example of a British film aimed at a similar target audience to our production is ‘The Woman in Black’. Their advertising campaign also included adverts at; Bus stops, buildings, press such as newspapers, radio and online. This would advertise the film to our target audience effectively and would also help it appeal to a wider audience because the advertisements would have been seen by a wide range of people.  

Why would Holly wood not be interested in your film?

Our film would not appeal to the Hollywood film industry as it does not fit with the conventions of a stereotypical Hollywood blockbuster movie. It has a low budget and does not have expensive or excessive use of special effects and CGI like typical Hollywood films. It also does not have any well-known actors/actresses, producers or directors like most Hollywood films, for example the ‘Iron Man’ films that star Robert Downey junior and Gwyneth Paltrow who were already well known before the films were released. Our film has a niche audience whereas Hollywood films are aimed at a wide, often family, audience. An example of this could be ‘The Avengers’ which is a superhero film, so therefore has a broad audience. Therefore our film does not contain the key conventions needed

In what ways would your film belong to (and be distributed) the British film industry?

·         Culturally specific: Our opening sequence, was cultural specific to a British person because the stereotypical British person, would have a posh accent and be well mannered where as our characters show the opposite side, the side of Britain that you would not normally see, so all the gangs’, violence drugs etc. So we didn’t plan for it to show just one side of the British culture but because they are teenagers/young adults they will get caught up in the wrong environment so they would not be well mannered.

·         British content and themes (appeal to British audiences):  our opening sequence applies  to the stereotypical British content and themes because most British films are more violent and ours is not as violent but it will still be that the audience will watch it because of the content that one friend kills his friend and then his friend comes back to haunt him but it could be his guilt for killing him that makes him see his friend, this will appeal to the British audience because that is what most teenagers/young adults want to watch when they go to see a film.

·         British locations (appeal to British audiences): our opening sequence would appeal to the British audiences because of the British locations we used because we filmed everything in Britain so we followed this point because we would not have the money to go abroad to film because we had a low budget so we would only be able to film in the Britain.

·         Controversial subjects/themes (not likely to appeal to mass audiences): our opening sequence goes against how foreign film makers present the British population because they would make the British population act like stuck up snobs that only care about themselves when our opening sequence goes against it because our characters are not stuck up but they will be into gangs, violence, alcohol, drugs, etc.

·         Low budget: for our opening sequence we had a low budget because we are a media school group so we would not have the money to make a well-known film like most directors do so we had to edit most of our special effects to make them look like special effects this also links with the British film industry because most British films are filmed with low budgets. Even though British industrials sometimes have a low budget and they make successful films doesn’t mean that we could do the same and present a successful film from a low budget because the producers know how to make a successful film and we don’t so we are not expected to present a 5 start film when we only had a certain amount of time to do the whole thing.

 

Evaluation Question 2

Can you tell me what social groups you think our opening sequence represents and how you think they are shown?

I believe that our opening sequence represents many social groups as it shows the innocence of young adults and also a side of older teens that maybe is a bit out of the ordinary. We did this to try and make the viewer think about this through the use of their costumes. We decided to show this social group through this way as we thought it would be most effective when looking at these age groups. We also used location to show this social group in a very different comfort zones. We used Mise en scene was used well to create atmosphere and to show the social groups a lot more prominent. Although we didn’t have any lot of dialogue in our opening sequence, if we did it would be typical to the social class and area that the location was shown.

Why did you choose to represent the social group that you did?

We chose this social group to represent as it is a time of your life where you can gain many emotions, some more extreme than others, and we tried to show how far some people’s emotions can take them at this early age in life and how wrong a path people can take due to their social groups. We saw how no one else really picked up on this issue and we wanted it to gain some attention, however extreme we had to make it. I think that we didn’t take it too far we just pushed the boundary of what we knew we could do. We showed how anyone of any social class and background can be capable of things you wouldn’t have thought and I think that the element of surprise due to the characters young ages really made this more thriller-like. Also, these are our target audience so they can relate.

How do you feel you represented this social group in your opening sequence?

I feel that we have represented this social group well in our opening sequence as we tried to capture the emotions of this social group and the things they would go through, however extreme this might be. By having our main and only characters as the same social group, this shows how we have thought that this would reinforce the idea of the two different ends of the social group.

 

How do the following help construct a specific representation of your characters and their social group?

The lighting in our opening sequence makes our main character look lonely. We used a sepia effect for some of it this makes the scene look like it’s in the past where its meant to be set. The lighting is always dark which means there is a sense of loneliness with our character which leave mysterious questions in the audiences head about him.

We used a variety of camera shots and movements to portray the characters in different ways.  We used a lot of over the shoulder shots to get the actors point of view and what he can see.

In some of the parts of the film we changed the colour of the production to sepia which gave it the effect of being old. We also used black and white for a flash back so that the audience can recognise that it is a flashback.

We used a sound effect of a heartbeat to make the whole scene seem like the person is nervous and something is about to happen. We also use the music to give depth into the scene.

Evaulation Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

·         Camera

·         Titles

·         Special effects

In our opening sequence we attempted to conform to the conventions of the psychological thriller genre with the camera, titles, and special effects. We used forms and conventions for our psychological thriller through the use of our camera movement/angles. One way that we used the camera movement to focus on the conventions for when it is the graveyard scene we used a camera movement that makes it twist.  The roof of the building twisting around represents the emotional turmoil of the character as they are unsettled disturbed and confused. The camera angles in our opening sequence shows conventions of a psychological thriller. The use of the crab shot at the start fits with convention as it doesn’t reveals the identity of the character so add more mystery to it and that makes the audience want to know what will happen next. The titles we used fit very well with the conventions because of the front style we used  ‘rough typewriter’ which fits in well with the conventions because for a psychological thriller you would not expect to see a font style that would be for a comedy we use black and white so that it fits even more because you would not use pink font colour for a psychological thriller because it would just ruin the mood completely so altogether the font style and colour goes with the genre that we wanted it to, the most frequently used colours in psychological thriller titles are red, black and white. The special effects fitted well with the conventions because for the murder scene we put it into black and white and the graveyard scene it was sepia which fitted really well because it created an eerie atmosphere for example in the film  “The Blair Witch Project” they use black and white footage for effect.

In our opening sequence we conformed to the conventions in our product by using camera, titles and special effects. Yes we did achieve this our titles were well fitted with the convention of a psychological thriller because we use black and white writing instead of using colour because it give it that effect to it. The special effects achieved the conventions because of the sepia and black and white effect we use. The camera I think did not achieve the conventions that much because we did not use that much camera movement although we have the part where it looks like it twists but nothing else is really that affected. There are a few areas where we could improve because even though the title and special effects were effected the camera angles/movement is not so if we had to redo it all over again we would make sure that all the camera footage fits the conventions.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media productions?

In our opening sequence we attempted to conform to the conventions of the typical physiological thriller genre with the plot, mise en scene, sound, use of the camera, titles and special effects.

·         Storyline/plot (themes): We abided by many of the typical conventions associated with the storyline and plot of a physiological thriller in our opening sequence. For example we had a more complex storyline, with the twists and turns this genre of film is famous for. For example in our opening sequence, after you have seen what seems to be the death of a character, they walk past the gate. This is an unexpected twist and it is unclear what it will lead to. This technique is demonstrated in the physiological thriller  ‘Prisoners’ where the whole way through the film the audience are lead to believe that certain characters are responsible for the crime, but at the end of the film it is revealed that they are victims and a different character is the criminal. This makes the genre of film more interesting as the audience are constantly attempting to second guess the twist and work out what will happen. We also avoided too much blood and gore in our opening sequence. This follows convention, as physiological thrillers are known for being ‘creepy’ and ‘jumpy’ and, although some violence is bound to be included, extreme violence and gore do not fit with the conventions of this genre. If a film contains too much brutality and bloodshed then the clever storylines can get lost in the violence and the film becomes more of a horror than a physiological thriller. We also attempted to enrol many of the themes typical to the genre into our opening sequence; death, mystery, confusion and uncertainty. These are themes conventional to physiological thrillers which help to add atmosphere to the films and make them ‘spooky’ and ‘creepy’. They also tend to develop ‘ordinary’ characters to create a sense of realism and so that the audience can associate with the characters and understand them. We interpreted this convention into our opening sequence by creating teenage characters with ordinary backgrounds, which our target audience would be able to relate to.    

·         Mise en scene (setting, lighting): The settings we used in our opening sequence fit well with the conventions of the genre. For example we used a graveyard and an alley way which are both typical settings for physiological thrillers. They are stereotyped as ‘creepy’ locations so fit well with the themes of the genre and helped to add atmosphere to our opening sequence as people subconsciously associate them with scary scenes. This technique is demonstrated in the film ‘The Woman in Black’ where a graveyard scene is used to create a sense of foreboding in the audience.  Also, the settings we used were deserted, other than the two characters of our opening sequence. This is typical of this genre as it creates a sense of apprehension; no one is there to help. We used a darker lighting throughout the majority of our sequence and added sepia and black and white effects to some scenes making them appear darker and fairly dull, this is a technique often used in conventional physiological thrillers to add atmosphere to certain scenes as the lighting then represents the mood of the scene. This is shown in films like ‘Paranormal Activity’ when all the action takes place at night as the darkness is often linked to fear and danger. However we didn’t follow convention so tightly when it came to costume. Our characters wore casual clothes and light colours, whereas in many typical physiological thrillers darker, more mysterious costumes are often worn, such as large dark coats. We chose to challenge conventions here to emphasise the normalness of our characters and their lives before the events of the film. We believed that this would add to the effect of the opening sequence by making it seem like this could happen to anybody, adding to the realism.

·         Sound: Many physiological thrillers have limited dialogue as too much speaking can spoil the atmosphere and any suspense that has been built up. More atmospheric sounds, such as ‘creepy’ music are more common. A perfect example of this is ‘The Woman in Black’; the film has very little dialogue but has lots of atmospheric music and exaggerated bang and creak sound effects.  We conformed to convention in this area as we didn’t use any dialogue in our opening sequence but did incorporate atmospheric music and a heartbeat sound effect. We decided to conform to convention with our use of sound as it was the most effective way, using sound, to add suspense and tension to our opening sequence. It creates the appropriate atmosphere for the genre and is one of the characteristics of the stereotypical physiological thriller that improved the effect of our opening sequence.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0jxbicpd2I&feature=c4-overview&list=UUjHuNVIIWPIwhQVbNlPkQ7w