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

At the start of the year when we did our preliminary task, we were not experienced with camera work and the editing software. For the preliminary task we did not really focus on the technical aspects of the camera work. We didn’t worry about the location we filmed in, it being an empty classroom we found. We didn’t really consider anything that was seen in the background so possibly school bags, desks etc. When editing, it was the first time we came across the software so we didn’t have any editing experience therefore the editing wasn’t probably the best standard it could have been. When filming we used the first shot taken instead of revising each shot we filmed to see whether it was good enough to use. In terms of planning we didn’t really think about a time to do the piece we just used a lesson for filming and a lesson for editing. However this was very different for the final media product that we produced. We first planned where and when we were going to shoot. We thought about the content of our product thoroughly to make sure that every fitted and would be easy to understand. Every shot was taken into consideration and we at least took two takes for each shot. When we edited we fine editing the start and editing of each shot carefully picking what we put into our final product. We chose transitions to run throughout our product, and we picked different time scales for each of them to last ranging from about 0.1 seconds to 1.5 seconds. In my opinion I feel like I have progressed majorly from the preliminary task to my final product and I feel a lot more confident with filming and editing.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During the process of constructing our product we used a lot of different equipment. First of all we used blogger to keep a log of all our work that we make and to show evidence for what we have done. From this I have learnt how to use a blog successfully and learnt how to keep up to date with my work. We used Google images to get images for our research and influences for our media product. YouTube was a great way to look at other film openings and find different sources for us to look at and learn how openings to films are structured. For our music we downloaded it all from www.freesound.org. This is a great website for free sounds and there is a great range for the genre of film we have chosen. After downloading the sounds we imported them into iTunes and then found them in iMovie. iMovie is the software we used to edit our film. We found this software prefect for editing our film because it was easy to use, we could insert the text that we wanted and it was good for picking out little snippets from long cuts. We could manipulate the colour of each shot, so we adjusted the brightness and the contrast to give darker effects. For our production company name we used Corel Draw, which allows you to make professional logos and other various stuff. Here we came up with the production company name seen at the start of our product.

4. Who would be the audience for your product?

For my media product the target audience will be aimed at anyone between the 16 to 30 age group as the opening contains moderate violence and shows scenes of distress so it would not be suitable for anyone below the age of 16. Also some of the content in the opening to the film would be hard for some people to understand such as the time shifts so this is another reason why I have chose a more mature audience for my product. I think that the older audience will benefit from this more because they can understand what is going on and can take in fully what is happening.

I created a questionnaire for a small audience of 5 people to fill out after watching my film opening. For the first question I asked what age rating they thought the film was, the majority answer being 15 as it didn’t have excessive violence. A couple people rated it at 18 suggesting the film opening could be classed as a mature film. For the second question I asked what genre of film would our opening come under. Here we had a mixed view of what genre the film was being between horror and thriller. Out of the 5 the majority picked horror and this may be because of our “Saw” influences. The third question I asked was, in one sentence, tell me what you thought of the opening. For this the majority of people told me that the opening reminded them of a typical horror/thriller opening and that the changes in time were good. They thought that the sound was effective and worked well with the actual opening. So after feedback and research into film audiences I would say that my media product would appeal to possibly a teenager/ young adult.

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

Our media product is a low budget film opening made by amateur film makers and amateur actors that no one have heard or seen before so in terms of distribution it is best to start off small by distributed on the internet to get going and building upon that. Sites like YouTube allow you to create accounts and this gives you a “channel” for you to post any videos you choose. This is a great way to get your video out to the public as millions of people use YouTube everyday.

From YouTube there are various social networking sites that help to advertise and distribute products that you choose. An option on YouTube allows you to upload videos onto sites such as MySpace or Facebook allowing you to distribute further so that other people such as friends can see your product(s). Normally small unsigned music bands use these social networking sites to get their music across to the public but this can also be applied by people in the short film industry and sites like MySpace promote this well. Fully customizable pages help to create a page that suits you best and helps audiences get attracted to the product you are selling. Once a few people are noticing your work on these social networking sites, they can suggest your page to other people. Eventually this builds up to a bigger fan base and this is when you start to get noticed for your work.

I think that YouTube is the most suitable for our media product as it has no budget and it is easy to use. As we our not continuing to make short films, maybe Facebook or MySpace are not the best options because they are for people who want to get their work noticed so they can carry on to do more of the same work.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our film opening Sam represented the role of a normal person. We show this by clothes that he wears; being average casual clothes and the environment he is in. Sam, who plays the protagonist in our opening, is in a typical living room sitting down watching the television. This represents everyday lives of the normal person. Jacob, who played the role of the Villain in our opening, wears dark clothing and his identity is never revealed adding to mystery. He represents someone possibly associated with death as he is wearing a hooded jacket, suggesting the grim reaper.

The use of props shows representation throughout the opening to out media product. The red rope connotes blood and death. We used a sack to cover over the victim’s face which represents an air of mystery to what is happening. Around the setting that we used for our media product, we see various sharp objects and heavy machinery representing possibly a plot for something big or the objects simply add to the sinister atmosphere.

1. In what ways do media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The genre of our media project is a thriller. The opening of the film starts with a black screen with the digetic sound of sirens in the background. Next we hear an unknown digetic voice quoting a page from the bible. Although we don’t see where the sound is coming from it is still classed as digetic. This challenges forms of and conventions of a real thriller because the audience is in suspense as they do not know what is going on and the shot causes distortion due to not knowing anything. This builds an eerie atmosphere and creates tension.
During the opening we used black and white shots to signify changes from the past to the present. Black and white conventions have been used in the thriller genre many a time. We took our influence for the black and white flashbacks from the 1940’s thriller “Double Indemnity” and the neo noir/ thriller “Sin City” made in 2005. The black and white shots show us that they are distant memories and show that it is not happening in the moment.

The use of red rope in the 360 degree pan throughout our opening signifies blood and death, suggesting that the victim is trapped and death is inevitable. WE took this convention of red objects from “Sin City” where blood is the main focus and colours are enhanced. This is what we aimed to do in our opening because it would create impact.

The lighting during the 360 degree pan is all artificial as we used hi-key lighting. This gave an impression of an interrogation room used in a police headquarters focusing on the victim. Although we used hi-key lighting during the pan scene, we edited it and reduced the contrast to show a more sinister looking place. This made the atmosphere look darker and created a more eerie feel.

The setting of our opening was set in two locations; a metal workshop and Tom’s house. We chose the metal workshop because it looked abandoned and fitted our ideas of what our opening was going to look like. We went for an abandoned looking place because this is a typical convention of a thriller and has been seen in other thrillers and horrors such as the “Saw” franchise where people are likely to be kidnapped and isolated in an abandoned room where they are likely to suffer.

The titles are seen throughout the whole of our opening. We spread them out because we researched different film titles in different films of the thriller genre and the typical layout of titles were spread out throughout the whole of the opening. This made our titles look more realistic and professional. We used a red font for our titles because this again signifies blood and death.

The use of transitions between the 360 degree pan and the flashbacks show a change in time. From the flashbacks back to the 360 degree pan we used sharp cuts to make the opening look as distorted as possible. These types of shots are normally seen in films like “Saw” and short, fast paced shots are seen in nearly all thriller genres so we incorporated this convention into out product.

Preliminary Task

Final Product

Storyboard

final idea for production company name

This is our final design for our production company name. We chose this font because it was the most appealing to 7 out 10 people that i asked. I then created a pair of dice on corel draw, using the colour red to symbolise the thriller convention. This is what the production company will look like when it comes round to the final cut of the film opening as it starts on a black screen.

Health And Safety

. Careful of surrounding equipment- there are hack saws and sharp pieces of metal lying around in the room. Although they may give effect to the opening they cause a threat to our health so we will make sure to stay away from any of these pieces of equipment.

. Not to use any machinery in the room- There are blow torches, soldering irons and much more different machinery inside the room so before we begin filming we will make sure that any machinery is turned off to avoid any of it threatening our health and safety during filming. Also we need to be careful where we place the camera incase of any damage that may occur. To prevent this we will put the camera well out of the way of everything

. Don't tie up actor too tight with rope- In our opening we need to tie up one of the actors. To prevent him from being tied up too tight, we will ask him how tight the ropes are .

. Make sure actor doesn't suffocate from being under sack- in our opening we will have to place a sack over one of the actors heads. To prevent suffocation will make sure it is easy to take off and it will not be kept on for long periods of time.

. Lift actor carefully when moving into car boot- We have to lift one of the actors in one of or scenes so when we do this we will be careful in how we are lifting him and make sure we are not hurting him.

. Don't close car boot on actor's head- In our opening there is a scene where we must close a car boot with one of our actors inside. To make sure we do not injure him we will do a few test runs of closing the boot.

Shooting Schedule

DATE: 11/03/10
SCENE:360 degree pan, removing of sack, flashback 5
LOCATION: College metal workshop, Art & Design area
ACTORS: Sam, Tom
PROPS: Chair,Sack, Extras, Sugar paper, lights
COMMENTS: Done during double period on Thursday


DATE: 12/03/10
SCENE:Flashback 1,2,3 and last shot of tom in bed
LOCATION: Toms house
ACTORS: Sam, George, Jacob
PROPS: Cloth, Bed, TV
COMMENTS: Done before school on study period


DATE: 15/03/10
SCENE: Flashback 4
LOCATION: Toms house
ACTORS: Sam, Jacob, George
PROPS: Car
COMMENTS: Done after school in the dark

Fonts for Production Company

Here are a few fonts that we tested out for our production company name. The fonts in blue are the final ideas that we chose and what we found most suitable and appealing for our production company name.

Lighting Continued...

hopeful outcome...








The image on the left is what we took without covering up the ambient lighting from the skylights, as you can see its too bright for us too film in because it wont have the same impact that a typical thriller would because of how much light there is. On the right is an edited version of the original picture which has been edited on Macro media Fireworks and this is what we hope the outcome will look like after covering up the ambient lighting. The image on the right makes the room look more eery and sinister. This sort of lighting would be typically seen in a thriller as it has low key lighting. It would have a bigger impact because the darkness disorientates the audience and gives a bigger sense of mystery.

Setting and Lighting

We came up with several locations for our film opening to be set in. Our first possible setting was in my bathroom as it was an open area but we thought it wasn't suitable and would only be used as a last resort if we couldn't find anywhere better. We then thought of using one or our group's garages as they are open area that would be dark so don't have to worry about ambient lighting. The problem with this was that the spaces in each of our garages were cluttered up and we wouldn't of been able to move everything around. Having failed to have found a location outside of college we then searched around for a place in school. We found a storage room in the design section of college but we were told we couldn't move around any of the work inside there so we couldn't use that room. We then found a metal workshop, also located in the design area which was pretty much perfect for our setting. There is a few problems with the room but its nothing we cannot sort out.

The ambient lighting is one of the main problems that we will have with the film but this can be overcome by placing black sugar paper over the skylights to block any incoming light. This will then make the room dark enough to be filmed in.




This is an establishing shot of the room we are using for the opening. Its a spacious room that we can easily maneuver around when we shoot the 360 degree pan. Some of the stuff in this photo will be moved when we get round to filming the final peice. For the lighing we will be setting up two spot lights either side of the room but out of sight so there will be no continuity problems.


This is the only ambient light that we will be using during the opening to our film. The fan makes the shot more full and if we have ambient light coming in from the fan it will make the shots with it in more eery and sinister.

Costume

For costume, in my opening, the victim is going to be wearing casual clothing as he is not expecting to be kidnapped so it will make it look more realistic. The two people kidnapping the victim will be wearing black clothing, so possibly black jeans or black tracksuit bottoms and then a black hoddie or jumper. Their faces will be covered with possibly a scarf or something else that will keep their identities hidden. For footwear we will be wearing black trainers or boots, just to keep within the theme of wearing dark clothes to make it look more sinister and professional. The man in the room will be wearing a black hoodie but it dosent really matter exactly what hes wearing because we wont actually see him as we are keeping his identity secret.

Props

Here is a list of props that we will need during the opeing to our film:

.Bag (sack made from woven material)
.Wooden chair- Victim sits here for whole opening
.Bed- Last shot, graphic match changes to victim lying in bed
.Lights- From left and right, shows possible interigation
.Black sugar paper- to cover up ambient light
.Brown envelope- Package given during first flashback
.Cloth- Used to drug victim
.Car- Used to bundle victim into the boot
.Rope- to tie up the victim

Thriller Conventions

Quick cuts and different camera movements and angles
Music that gives tension
Lighting- Shadows, mirrors
Hear and see the point of view of the killer
Told a story with a use of flashbacks
Fast paced
Frequent action
Includes many sub genres
Dramatic rendering of psychological, social, familiar and political tensions
Overlap with mystery stories
The identity of the villain or murder is always known just not uncovered
Crimes that must be prevented are on a greater scale, mass murder, terrorism, assassination, or the overthrow of governments

Target audience

My film opening is going to be aimed at the more mature generation so from teenagers onwards. I have picked this age boundary because i feel that the content in my opening will not benefit from younger child watching. My opening is a thriller so it would be harder for younger children to understand what is going on as it contains a lot of unanswerable questions and is complex in the way that it has been created with time shifts from the past to the present. Also, some scenes in my opening contain viloence and is not appropriate for anyone younger than at least 15. I feel that the older genration will appreciate the opening more because they will have a better understanding for what is going on and therfore can enjoy it.

Initial Ideas (possible idea)

Shot # 1: Black screen, titles appear, sound of police sirens and walkie talkies
Shot # 2: Man walking through door
Shot # 3: Cut to victim tied up in a chair with bag on his head
Shot # 4: Cuts to back of first man, over shoulder shot of victim and man
Shot # 5: Start of 360 degree pan of the room
Shot # 6: Cuts to first flashback, black and white, man hands victim bag containing unknown content
Shot # 7: Continuing of 360 degree pan of man in chair
Shot # 8: Cut to second flashback of victim hearing the door being knocked
Shot # 9: Dissolve back to 360 degree pan of the victim
Shot # 10: Cut to third flashback of man being captured by two men. Cloth is put over face to show being drugged.
Shot # 11: Dissolve back to 360 degree pan of victim
Shot # 12: Cut to fourth flashback of victim being thrown into boot of car. point of view shot of victim looking up at two men. Hazy view due to drugs
Shot # 13: Dissolves back to 360 degree pan of victim
Shot # 14: Cut to final flashback of man walking through door from the beginning of the opening. Black and white flashback turns into colour to merge the past with the present
Shot # 15: Dissolves back to 360 degree pan and finishes at victims face in bag. Man then begins to take bag off.
Shot # 16: cut to inside the victims bag. Bag begins to lift off face but as soon as it reaches eye level it cuts back to the man pulling bag off from outside
Shot # 17: Extreme close-up of victims eye. Graphic match is used here and zooms out to see victim lying in bed. Present turns to the past again

The Usual Suspects Opening Sequence

The Usual Suspects Opening Sequence

Mise-En-Scene
· Starts with black screen, gives air of mystery
· Company appears on the right hand side of screen
· Production company then appears, company is put first because of importance
· Black screen then turns into rippling water. Reflection from light sets the time of day.
· Director then appears on the screen followed by the title of the film
· Actors names then appear
· Peoples names are in bold whereas there job is not
· Rippling water is continuous throughout the opening sequence
· Titles go down in order of importance so the least important people are the last to appear
· Screen goes black again
· At this point we don’t know the significance of the water or the reflections
· “San Pedro, California-Last Night” appears, setting the time and place of the film
· Matches being lit, suggests violence due to fire
· Matches light up the black screen


Camera Shots, Angles And Movement
· Pan of rippling water
· Rippling water shot is looped over and over again
· Close-up of man striking multiple matches
· Pan up to see man lighting cigarette
·


Editing
· Opening shot is one long cut




Sound
· Music fades into the opening sequence
· Starts off quietly and gradually gets louder
· Calm piece of music
· Use of string instruments, gives eerie presence
· Wind instruments backs this theory
· Typical thriller opening music
· Faint sound of percussion in background but isn’t main focus of track
· Music is quite sinister
· Music has a thick texture, built up in layers to give more full effect
· Gradually gets louder throughout

Se7en Opening Sequence

Se7en opening sequence

Mise-En-Scene
Old messy looking book, gives creepy feel
Open book suggests it being read or written in
Hand in background, blurred out to add to mystery
Title appears bottom right corner, out of the way of the focus of the shot
Font is different to company shown at beginning. Creepy “child-like” writing used to give eerie effect
Two hands separated by red line, which could suggest blood
Hands are broken so could show pain and torture
Hands have no real significance but are there just to make us think and to disorientate us
Again, font is placed out of the way of the main focus of the shot to avoid distraction
Mysterious hand turning metal object with some sort of material in other hand, audience has no idea what this could be so it confuses them
Another mysterious object is being used, still have no clue what film is about
In next shot we find out that mysterious object is in fact a blade case, this is revealed by blade being taken out of case and flashed across the screen
Black screen reappears, possibly does this to show importance of names that appear
Subliminal message appears on screen, too fast to notice what it says
Blade appears again shows importance, this time its inflicting pain on person who is holding it. Fingers are in bad state, suggesting suffering by man holding blade
Object being dunked into water, possibly tea bag but unsure at this point because of how short the cut is
Black screen with film name appears in big bold letters showing importance
Recurring theme of book with writing in it, suggesting planning for something
Red lighting could represent blood even though by the looks of it is developing a photo.
Film being cut backs up theory of photos being developed
Pictures, being stuck into what appears to be a journal shows something is being planned
Man gives himself paper-cut shoes he isn’t afraid of pain
Drop of blood makes audience cringe
Man using marker pen to scribble out boys face suggests a possible vendetta against someone?
Long pieces of text, too fast to read so audience cant get their heads around what’s going on
Strange pictures of how people died, shows violence is a main theme within the film
Possible other books aligned against each other. Shows organisation, shows its not his first time in making one of these books, suggests he is planning something big
Hair sample being but underneath person in picture, suggests he’s possibly killed that person and took hair sample from him. Possible keepsake?
Man cutting the word god out of a dollar bill suggests religion within the film

Camera shots, angles and movements
Starts with close-up of book, don’t know what’s happening
Focus on book
Aerial shot of hands to show whole picture
Shadow casting over hand picture shows movement in shot and pulls us away from picture
Extreme close up of metallic object, because of how close camera is to the object we cannot make out what the object is
Another extreme close-up of another unidentified object
Extreme close up of same object but focus is drawn away by blade flashing across screen
Continual occurrence of extreme close-ups to show intensity



Editing
Long cut at start of title sequence
Cut to black screen, represents darkness and disorientation, don’t quite know what’s happening
Short cuts begin to appear to keep the audience on their feet and disorientated
Continual short shots to keep disorientation
Cut to black screen again
Three really short cuts of same object, aims to show what the mans intention of blade is
Montage of shots of book put together to show what’s going on
Shots begin to get faster and tension builds as more pieces of paper are being added to the book/journal




Sound
Music starts non digetic
Begins quiet ambient sounding
Starts with a powerful sound, immediately sets eerie mood
Digetic sound of possibly door creaking in background. We see this from shadow
Same music is looped but has other tracks playing over the top
Sound of blade case opening almost cringe worthy
Lots of warped sounds within opening gives the disorientating feeling
Repetition of door creaking
Sound of man scraping finger along paper, adds to the impact of what he is doing. Without the sound wouldn’t be the same
Music begins to get faster, building up tension
Music is in time with the cuts used
Music sounds like it gets louder towards the end
We begin to hear words but are put behind the track so they sound muffled and unclear
At the end of opening we hear the words “you got me closer to god”. Signifies the end of track and goes well with image on screen.

Casino Royale Opening Sequence

Mise-En-Scene

• starts with scene of bathroom
• white walls contrast against man dressed in black
• gun lying on floor infront of man
• we dont know who the figure in black is as his back is turned
• man picks gun from floor
• traditional james bond start
• bullet flies acroos screen
• screen is black and white, only colour is blood which drips from top of screen
• use of simple animation for title sequence
• clubs and spades suggest card game withing the film
• titles in the centere of the screen show importance of the people involved
• hearts and diamonds appear back up card game thoery
• recurring theme of card suites
• background of titles could possibly be back of deck of cards
• main character holding gun, shows action in film
• picture of jack on left side of screen backs up card thoery
• multiple guns show film is about violence and action
• two figures, black and red, red is clearly villain and red is the hero (bond)
• fight scene upon back of cards
• when punched, red figure turns into deck of cards
• target going over queen suggests love interest within the film
• targets turn into roulette wheels showing casino theme
• green segment of roulette wheel draws us in and we see 007 printed across the wheel
• constant violence shows death is important within the film
• Bond running between pillars shows typical spy movie
• cards slicing bond then him recovering suggests he is invincible
• target shoot two holes in card to make 007
• typing on screen shows brief intro to film
• flying cardss turn into bank notes showing money is important in the film

Camera Angles, Shots and Movement

• establishing shot of bathroom
• long shot of man
• medium shot of man laying on floor
• long shot of james bond
• zooms out when bullet is shot
• pan of scenery throughout titles
• close up of gun being loaded
• close up of gun shooting bullet
• long shot of multiple guns shooting

Editing

• jump cut to man on floor
• short shots at start
• animated title sequence
• use of card suites give kaleidoscope effect
• long cuts of title sequence
• graphic match of 007 from card to 007 on screen
• bond turns from animation to real life back to animation

Sound

• ambient sound of water falling
• man shouts abruptly
• film theme song starts, non digetic music
• big band music, typical james bond music
• changes to more mellow sounding music