7.) Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression rom it to full product?

With our prelim task, one of the task we were asked to do was match-on -action. Which my group done when the character opened the door.

Then with our opening sequence we also used match-on-action, when the main character is walking to the main door.

On my prelim task we didn't pay much attention to text and how it related to what type of genre we were using, and we just done it simple and didn't do anything technical.

Whereas with our opening sequence we had more time to play around with the different software we could us to create our text. In the end we used livetype and put it over a clip, we also made our text fade in and out which kept to the genre of film we were creating an opening sequence to.

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

Imovie is the main software that we had to use to create this product and we used it to edit our opening sequence. I had experience of using in my own time out side of school and when we made our preliminary task. We imported the clip that we filmed from the camera, and then organised it in order so we knew how our opening sequence would look like. The we cropped the clips so that the timing was right and it didn't look jumpy, but some times this didn't work to how we wanted because the clips we filmed jumped so it was hard to make them flow, therefore we decide to use transitions to make it look smoother.

We also used LiveType, this software was a bit harder to use than imovie and we also used it for the editing process. At first i was only able to make clips with text that when imported to imovie wasn't able to fade over the clip from where it had a black background. Then i tied to find out how to put a writing over clips and i finally found out that you had to export the one clip you wanted the text to be over then make it as a background on LiveType. This ended up working so we decided to put most of our titles and credits over clips that we wanted.

Itunes was the software we used to upload our music on to so we were able to put them onto our opening sequence, and from where itunes is connect to imovie once our music was on itunes it was easy to get it up on imovie.

We used a camera to capture the clips that we needed, and we could also look back at then to see if there was any other clips that we needed to film.

This is the wire we used to upload the clips we recorded to imovie. The wire plugged into the camera and to the computer.

 We also used a tri-pod to hold the camera steady. It also help move the camera left to right steady, where as free hand it would be quit wobbly.

The mac was another main part to help us edit our opening sequence, the reason for this is because all the software is on the computer.

This is a screen grab of blogger. I used the blogger website to publish my work and communicate with my group. I also recored all my research and information from the questionnaire's i asked to find the target audience for thriller genre.

We also used youtube to upload our final product and blog updates, which we posted to blogger as well to show a verity of way to put my work on my blog.

5.) How did you attract/address your audience?

4.) Who would be the audience for your media product?

This is Bob, he is male, 18 years old, and enjoys watching thriller films.
He like to shop in JD and loves his trainers, he is usually casually dressed but dresses to impress when he goes to parties.
All types of music is enjoyed by Bob, but his favourite genre of music is dub-step.
When he see a film that interests him he would usually go to the cinema to go watch it, because he enjoys watching good films on big screens. He also is more likely to see a thriller film in the cinema from where it creates a more scary atmosphere and when one person reacts it make everyone react, and that makes him more scared. When he does see a thriller film he likes to bring a girl so that when she is scared she can cuddle up to him.
Bob usually watch's thing like game shows and documentaries about teenage's, from where he can relate to what is going on.

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

What does a production company do?
A production company usually take care of concept and completion of the film and the supervising of the whole thing. They also are responsible for the financial side of the creating the film and selling it to make money. They don't only help create films but the can help t.v programmes and performing arts. They also take care of all the advertising so that people are aware of the type of media they are trying to promote.


What is your idea of a distributor and who that might be and why?
My idea of a distributor is a shops and cinema's companies, this is because they are the ones that help sell films. Also thing like youtube is a type of distributor, from where it lets people world wide see trailer or opening clips to the film.

Where the money might have come from for a film such as yours?
If we did wanted to create our opening sequence as a film we could pitch it to a production company. Then if they believe it has potential to make money they would invest in your film, and give money to create the film, advertisement and help with distribution. Then with the profits you make they would take a cut of it so that they don't lose out on money, which they in vested in. For example big companies like Warner Bros. Pictures, which produced the film Gothika, would need to know if the film has a big money potential before the invest from where they cant afford to have there company name put by an unsuccessful film.

Why the various people are named in the titles- Which jobs appear in the titles and in what order and how have you reflected this?
There is various people named in the titles, so that people that have help working on the film can be referenced on it. Usually the actors are named first in the titles because they are the most important people in the film because without there wouldn't be a film, and the last person in the titles is usually the director.

How is your film similar 'institutionally' to others? (name some films which would be released in a similar way)
Our film is similar institutionally to low budget films that don't have the money to advertise the film in large way and rely on the film being cheep and the film looking interesting for people to buy the film to see what it is like. Going back to the research of 5 opening sequences Butterfly effect and Seven are both produced by New Line Cinema, this shows that this production company likes taking on thriller movies. From knowing that new line cinema produces thriller film if we done a good enough pitch they would most properly invest in our film.

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

This is the main character in my groups opening sequence and his name is Fredrick. He is casually dressed, laid back and is a generally nice person who is easy to talk to. He cares about other people rather than himself and would put his life on the line for something he believed greatly in. He would also be classed as a middle class person from where he lives a normal life and is just able to pay his bills. Amongst his friends he has a high social status from where they look up to him and aspire to be kind like he is.

Here is a screen grab of the main character from Memento and compared to our main character his is more or less the complete opposite. I know he is the complete opposite from where in the opening sequence you see him kill a person, therefore out straight away no that he is not a nice character. He also seem to have high social status amongst people from where we find out he was a investigator. He is dressed more smartly to suit the type of work he does, which also is different compared to our main character.

This is a screen grab of the main character from the film Gothika and she is more like our main character but she is different gender. She has a higher social status amongst her pears as well from where she works in a mental institution and people usually think that mental people have low social status from where they find it hard to communicate to people. She also dresses casually, because the type of work she does she need people to feel comfortable around her. Altogether our character and Gothika's main character are very similar in a way that they both try and fight for someone's justice.

1.) In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

1.) Title of film over clip

This is a screen grab from the film Memento, this shows the convention of the title of the film over a clip in the opening sequence. The shot used is also an extreme close up of his hand holding the photo.

We then incorporate this convention into our own work and make sure we had the title of the film over an extreme close-up shot.








2.) Close-up of face

The screen grab we took of Butterfly effect is of a close-up of the main characters face, showing he is stressed and frightened. It is also the first character you see in the opening sequence giving the audience an idea who the main character is.

Yet again we used this in our work to make sure we made our opening sequence seem like a real film opening. The close-up of our main character is also the first character that you see. This creates tension knowing that the main character is in distress and is in a difficult situation.






3.) Blood

This is a screen grab from the film Memento, showing the convention of blood and how it is key in thriller films. It not only shows death but it can show the blood from where someone has been beaten up.

This is our interpretation of blood in our film opening sequence. We used a bit of blood underneath his nose to link up the flash back of him being punched around the face, therefore his nose started to bleed because of the punch.







4.) Shows a death

This screen grab of the film Seven, which shows a person dead on the floor, yet it only just a clip of it. The clip gives the audience brief information that someone has been killed, resulting in an investigation with police.

We then used the convention of death in our opening sequence, we also made sure it was just a clip to make sure the audience could assume that someone has died. We also done it has a flash back to show that the death happened before the main character got tied up.






5.) Weapon

In Memento one of the characters also has a weapon. Then weapon he has was a gun and he uses it on the character that is the person that dies, and from where it is in reverse we no that that man is dead before he gets killed. Altogether it shows that in thrillers some sort of weapon is used.

In our opening sequence we had one of the characters have a baseball bat, which is classed as a weapon, and then uses it on the other character.








6.) Unknown Location

In this screen of Gothika show two women talking, but you are unable to see the background so the audience are uninformed about where about's the characters are.

We incorporated this into our opening sequence and put on of our main characters, who is then joined by another character, in a room with just dim lightening on his face so that the audience do not no where about's the scene is set.







7.) Dark lighting

This is a  screen gab from the film Gothika, which shows dark lighting. The dark lighting creates an eery atmosphere also adding tension making the audience wonder what will happen.

We then used this in our opening sequence and used a dim spot light on our main character, this makes the audience uneasy and also wondering what will happen.










8.) White or baby blue colour text

In Butterfly Effect they also used white text, this shows that we have stuck to the conventions of thriller films because a real thriller product used it.

We used white text through out our opening sequence, and shown in the screen grab of our opening sequence is some of the white we used.









9.) Creepy Music
In the opening sequence of Silence Of The Lambs creepy music is played, creating tension and adds to the atmosphere of what the film will be like. We then also used creepy music, which we made ourselves, in our opening sequence making sure that we stuck to the convention of having creepy music.

Questions to ask class about opening sequence

1) Do you like it?
2) What genre do you think it is?
3) How does it make you feel?
4) What works well?
5) Does the titles work well?
6) Does the music work well?
7) What type of character is Daniel playing? (e.g evil, good)
8) What could we do to improve?

Self-Assessment Worksheet: Year 12 Film Opening Sequence Production

Self Assessment Worksheet Feb 2011

End of term blog update

I feel that i have met my target of making sure i put examples and proof read my work.

Treatment Feedback

After are we presented our research for Thrillers, the genre we decided to do, we got some feedback from our class and teacher. The first bit of feedback we got was that we needed to research a bit more for the conventions of our genre, and choose a convention which we are going to change to challenge it. We also need to find a few more example of films with the genre of thriller and analyse them in more detail. There was also a suggestion that we should use voice overs in the opening sequence to set the scene and create the mood of the film. We then got told that thriller make the audience comfortable and then immediately make then uncomfortable again, constantly keeping them on the edge of their seats.

The thing that work well in our narrative is that the murderer is going to be someone least suspected and has been working in the police force all along. This will throw the audience off a little bit because it is not usually someone who you would consider a good guy to end up being the bad guy. Also having the main character and the murderer as brothers who work together as well creates a bit of atmosphere from where the main character has no clue that his brother will end up turning on him.

We could make our initial idea better by challenging some of the conventions to make it a bit different to normal thriller films. Also in stead of having our play set in busy streets it would be more mysterious to have it set in a dark ally, this was suggested to us by our teacher, and it would work well from where it will create more tension and atmosphere.

Next we thought that we will start thinking about what kind of shots and angle types we should use to create tension and atmosphere for out opening sequence. Then we will get together as a group and make our main narrative a bit more interesting. We should then figure out what we want to be shown in the opening sequence, so the audience will be left wanting to find out what happens next. Then we will create our story board getting the main shots and angle types down, so we have an insight of what the opening sequence will look like.

Peer Assessment

My idea i had was that all the characters are women in stead of men and bribe the police by flirting with them, therefore they got away with killing a guy and are more or less invincible from where everyone is on their side.

In my group they thought that the idea i had of all the characters being women instead of men work well, this is because in stead of the gangsters using money to bribe the police the women flirt with them to get their own way being cute and innocent. This is the way women in society as being the ones who don't do anything wrong and are venerable compared to men.

My group thought it would have been better if I come up with ideas of some camera shots and angles to create the opening sequence, and if I had more imagination with what could happen in the opening sequence I thought of.