Final Film Opening Sequence

Draft 3 and Final Opening Sequence

This is one of the final versions of our film that we have produced. 
There are a few things that need to be improved but over all, this is pretty much our perfect copy. Some things that need improving are to do with the titles. For example, we feel like the actual title of the film is far too quick to leave the screen after its only on for a few seconds. We tried to give all the people in the cast and crew equal amounts of time for their names to be on screen, however, some names aren't on for nearly as long as others. It may not be noticeable to the audience but we feel like we should make it as close to perfect as possible, so we will need to change the timings for those giving some people a longer or a shorter amount of time on screen.

Assessment of Evaluation posts for Q. 1 and 2 (SJA Feb 14th)

WWW:

• Your written comments for Q.1 and 2 show a good understanding of what the questions are asking of you, and there's evidence of good thought about both...

EBI:

• Ellie, I'm concerned that all I cann see are two posts for the evaluation so far (for Q. 1 and 2) and that these are text only?? You know that you needed to create super visual posts?
• Q. 1 - Forms and Conventions shod SHOW rather then tell. I would suggest you either do a Youtube edit (tagging / voice over commentary) of a draft version of your opening sequence to explain the conventions you have incorporated. You could also make this visual by taking screen grabs of key shots from your film, and then comparing these to key shots (screen grabs) of a film that really influenced you. Your written explanation should comment on the attention to detail your group explored through mise-en-scene, camera work, sound, editing, shot types and framing... placement of titles, etc...

Overall effort at this stage (as only 2 non visual posts appearing on your blog) - PR - Poor. Please address this over the half term break Ellie.

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Question 3 & 4 were supposed to be marked, we decided to change it to them instead...

Assessment 06/02/12

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

Our female is very stereotypical of the thriller genre. She is essentially the main character alongside our male whom is also very stereotypical. Our female lead is a typical damsel in distress type of character, often seen in thriller films. She is similar to characters such as Kim from the film taken (as seen below). This could make the film slightly less appealing to women, especially ones with strong, feminist views, because the woman is shown to be weak compared to the male character. Our female lead contrasts with the character Alice Creed from the film 'The Disappearance of Alice Creed' because of the characters submissive personality, allowing the man to take control.

The male character in our film is very much like a majority of the characters in thriller films. He is seen to be strong and full of courage, ready to save someone if needed. Our character relates strongly to most thriller films' protagonists. He starts off as a normal person going about his everyday life but gets caught up in a terrible crime of revenge. The characters storyline is similar to most. We would relate him to the character of Teddy from Shutter Island. 

Through audience research on social networking sites, we found that our main audience was 16-30 year olds. The characters were found to relate to peoples every day lives but the situation still unlikely but not entirely impossible, adding a slightly harrowing and almost worrying edge to the sequence that we found these people to enjoy. However, the film also has a reasonably happy ending to the situation which the audience tended to enjoy.

Self Assesment

Question 7. How have you improved from the preliminary task to the main task?

I feel like I have improved a lot since my preliminary task in most areas.
I think my editing is of the same quality here as it is now. Sound, however, I think is terrible because of the way in one section of the clip, it is almost completely silent before jumping into a loud, windy sound. I think now that I have learned how to control the sound, I have applied that to my new video. I think that I have now also improved greatly in my mise-en-scene as I have given more thought to setting, costume and props. Cinematography is my most improved area as I now give far more thought to the shot types and the angles I use within the shots, as you can see here, a majority of the clip is made up of close ups and long shots whereas now I think more about different, more abstract shots to use to make the film more interesting and exciting for the audience.

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

Possible distributor companies to consider with an example of one of their films.

• Momentum

- Main films include: Tamara Drew, The Kings Speech, The Fighter, Limitless, Chalet Girl, Insidious, Dear John, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Skyline, The Rebound, The Young Victoria, Milk, Let the Right One In, Amelie, P.S. I Love You, Men Who Stare at Goats, Defiance.


- Momentum seems to be the favourite at the moment because of the range of different thrillers it has within its list of films.

• Studio Canal

- Main films include: Bridget Jones's Diary, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, W.E, The Awakening, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Bel Ami, Carnage, Mirror Mirror, Brighton Rock, Unknown, The Burma Conspiracy, Kill List.


- Studio Canal would be one of our main choices in distribution company because a majority of films they produce are thrillers or have thriller sub themes in them.

• Artificial Eye

- Main films include: Melancholia, A Separation, The Big Picture, The Hunter, Eros, Russian Ark, The Edge of Heaven, Offside, The Trial of Joan of Arc, The Tales of the Four Seasons, Zidane, Tales of the Four Seasons, Life is a Bed of Roses.


- Artificial Eye is not one of our main choices, this because it is an indie film company, only showing the films in selected cinemas and to very specific audiences whereas our film is more directed at the mainstream cinema chains like Empire, Vue and Odean. We feel like our film would be aimed at a bigger audience.

• Walt Disney Pictures

- Main films include: Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Tron, Peter Pan, Tangled, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, Herbie, Tarzan, The Little Mermaid, Pirates of the Caribbean, Aladdin, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Pocahontas, Toy Story, Iron Man, The Muppets, Sleeping Beauty, Up, Hannah Montana: The Movie, WALL-E, Finding Nemo, Hercules, A Bug's Life, Mulan, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, Bedtime Stories, High School Musical. 


- Walt Disney Pictures is more a family based company whose films would appeal to a huge range of people whether they are lower class or upper class, or 3 years old or 93 years old. Our film is directed at a far smaller range of people, for example, the certificate for our film would be a 15, so it would not  appeal to anyone younger and would not be likely to appeal to anyone above the age of 50. Our specific target audience is from 16-30.

• Lionsgate

- Main films include: Saw Series, Disaster Movie, Bratz: The Movie, Killers, Kick-Ass, The Expendables,  Dirty Dancing, Rambo, American Psycho, The Girl with the Pearl Earring, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Abduction, The Hunger Games, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Safe, Good Luck Chuck, Why Did I Get Married?. 


- Lionsgate is more based around quite risky films to release mainly in the horror genre. Our film is not risky to release because it is a stereotypical thriller film that most companies would release.

• Summit Entertainment

- Main films include: The Twilight Saga, Man on a Ledge, Remember Me, Knowing, Sorority Row, Step Up, American Pie, Insomnia. 


- Summit Entertainment we decided were not right for our film simply because it just didn't fit with our film and, again, was slightly too mainstream.

• Warner Bros. 

- Main films include: 42nd Street, Harry Potter series, Sherlock Holmes, Final Desination, The Hangover, Inception, The Blind Side, Sex and the City, Orphan, Star Wars, I am Legend, P.S. I Love You, The Departed, 300, V For Vendetta, Corpse Bride, The Phantom of the Opera, The Excorsist, The Polar Express, Terminator, Scooby-Doo, Bait, Batman.


- Warner Bros. was one of our original choices because of its range of films and some films similar to ours. However, we decided Warner Bros. would be too big to get our film into straight away as it really only produces films with big stars in the cast and crew.

• Entertainment One

- Main films include: The Grey, The Twilight Saga, 50/50, An Education, Mirrors, The Runaways, The Howling, Alice in Wonderland, Closer to the Edge.


- Entertainment One, like Artifical Eye, was slightly too indie for our film and didn't have the advertising our film needed.

• 20th Century Fox

- Main films include: Titanic, Water For Elephants, Knight and Day, The A-Team, Avatar, X-Men, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Jennifers Body, Deception, Shutter, Walk the Line, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, I, Robot, Moulin Rouge, The X-Files, Romeo + Juliet, Independence Day, The Crucible, Mrs Doubtfire, The Vanishing.


- 20th Century Fox, like Warner Bros., was too mainstream and too bigger company for our film and would not fit our film just yet.

• Dreamworks/Paramount

- Main films include: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, The Uninvited, Paranormal Activity, Lovely Bones, Disturbia, Shrek, War of the Worlds, The Island, The Ring, What Lies Beneath, Saving Private Ryan.


- Dreamworks/Paramount was our second choice for distribution company. It has a good range of films especially in the thriller genre giving us a range of other films to have alongside ours as inspiration. However, we felt the company was ever so slightly too mainstream for our film.







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OUR FILM:
We have decided as a group to use Momentum Pictures for our video production distribution company. We have used Momentum because a lot of the genre's and storylines of other films they have distributed matches with our video production, also Momentum's main films relate to the thriller genre and has distributed some well-known films today. 

GIFSoup

Assessment 23/1/12 MCU

WWW


- All four posts complete, but will need more effort and detail to finish them properly.
- Some attempt seems to have been made to make some posts supervisual, make sure you embed this work or get help doing so.
- SPAG is good, just one sp 'focusses' should be focuses. 


EBI


- You need to write in more detail for Q2 and Q4. You should write about other social groups as well as age, what about gender? Ethnicity?
- Put Q2 and Q4 as seperate posts for now, so that it is easy to see what you have done.
- 17-50 is much too large a target audience. I agree that anyone in that age range might go to watch your film, but who are you actually targetting? You cannot please everyone so who have you made the film for?
- You must state specifically what you have put in your film that will appeal to your audience. E.g. specific shots, editing, clothes, music.


Remember you will need all your posts to be supervisual, think about how you can do this. I would like you to start going beyond prezi and images, consider creating a voice over commentary or a mini-documentary to reach level 4.

EFFORT GD (for now as we are in early stages, but more effort and detail will be required) 

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

How did you attract/address your audience? on Prezi

Example Film Viewer Profile:

Name: Becky Thomas
Age: 19
Background: Middle Class

Becky has just finished sixth form and is now on her gap year before attending University. She is currently spending her time working in HMV and is also taking time to do charity work in her local area making her application for University more appealing.

Becky enjoys hobbies such as reading, playing sport, listening to music and watching TV. When she watches TV, she enjoys programmes such as Friends, New Girl, QI, Spooks and Eastenders.
When watching films, her favourite genres are horrors, thrillers and comedies. Her favourite films include The Woman in Black, Bridesmaids, Se7en, The Excorsist and Sweeney Todd.

Becky likes to be with her friends and they go to the cinema as often as possible seeing a range of films, especially if they are in her favourite genres.

She enjoys listening to pop, indie and rock music. Her favourite bands and artists include Greenday, Katy Perry, Rhianna and Coldplay.

After her gap year, she will be studying Criminology at University because of her deep interest in those sorts of topics.

She enjoys doing girlie things like shopping and hosting sleepovers, as well as parties. She likes to shop in Primark, Dorothy Perkins and Topshop.

Question 6; What Media technologies have you used?

Technologies we have used:
- Jing
- Imovie
- DaFont.com
- TriPod
- Camera
- SD card
- Fig Rig
- Blogger
- Youtube
- Live Type
- Itunes
- FreeSound
- Bubbl

Tools/Effects we used
- We used a master shot to display to the audience where the film will start.
- Fast/Slow/Reverse was used to slow down certain shots to make the shot more eerie.
- Brightness and contrast was used to darken the shots making them seem scarier and making the audience feel uncomfortable.
- Cuts were used in between each shot to seperate them and to move on to a new one.
- Sound extracts were used to create a louder doorbell sound effect.

3 Technologies and why they were used
- We used slow motion to create an eerie feeling as the audience had a better view into the damage that had been created by the killer making it uncomfortable to watch. We used it when we tracked back from the phone making it look like it was from the killers perspective.
- We used the effect of 'Ghost Trails' to make the shot look more blurred and again, make it look like it was from the killers point of view. It made the shot look like the person who was looking was on drugs or was not 'all there' and he/she was disorientated.
- We made the shots darker through the colour and contrast adjustment scale to make the whole clip more creepy and to make it all very enclosed.

We used these 3 technologies in this short video we created to show the viewer an example of what they are hearing about in the short clip.

Question 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the conventions of a real media product?

Our opening sequence uses and develops most of the typical conventions for thriller films.



Within our opening sequence, we developed conventions of real media by adding in key elements from the typical thriller films. For example, within the cinematography, we used typical thriller shots such as extreme close ups and tracks to make the audience feel like they are looking from one of the characters points of view making you feel like you are involved in the story and to give them clues about what could possibly happen in the future within the film. As another example, the props, setting and costuming are probably one of the biggest issues with the films because if they are not right then your film is going to fall apart.


Gif animation generator

Shots We Will Be Using..

Mid Shot

Extreme Close Up

Over the Shoulder Shot

Long Shot/Establishing Shot

Mid Shot

Long Shot

Shooting Schedule

We are planing on doing most of the filming during the Christmas Holiday and during some of the media lessons. We hope the whole team can turn up to each session which shouldn't be too bad as we all live relatively close to each other. 

Naturalistic Photos - Props

We wanted to have, in the background of some of the shots, family photos showing how close they are and the relationships they all have. We wanted to make it naturalistic so they audience would see it in the corner of a shot and believe that they are close and that they are your normal, everyday family, no different from anyone else. The only issue is that Matt, who kindly stepped in to play Robert for us, looked too young to be a 40 year old man and we had the same issue with Emma playing his wife Wendy also. We have decided to re-shot the photos using different costume choices and try and edit the photo, still keeping it as naturalistic as possible, making them look older.

Testing Panning Clips

Myself and Emma decided to create a short clip displaying some of the shots we are planning to use in the opening sequence of our film. We decided to test out our plan to see if it was effective and would work well in our sequence. In the end, we thought it worked effectively and we credit the university film students opening sequence for 'Kill Your Friends' for giving us the ideas and inspiration for some of these shots which we will now weave into our film. It went well because we thought the clip gives the audience clues into the families life and what the killer may have been after or wanted to find.  Things we can improve on are the steadiness of the camera when filming and trying not to jolt it too much.

Costumes and Locations

For costumes we have decided to choose relativiely dark clothes with a rather casual feel. This way we can show the audience that the film is a thriller yet it is happening to an ordinary person. I hope that by doing this we will achieve a succesful synopsis that makes sense. If the character was wearing suitable cargo clothes that would be good for running around in it would loose the whole mystery of the thriller.



We have decided to include a dark thick coat and a scarf that would indicate the cold weather of the time in the setting. By showing that it is a cold it will reflect the cold feel of the film giving the audience more reason to watch the film. The rest of the clothes will be quite casual, chinos and a shirt. The character will look smart, as though he is prepared to go to dinner with the family he is supposedly meant to have dinner with.

Our location is mainly on a dark busy road near the station. The area needs to seem grey and and urban. The station he gets off at is Cashalton Beeches station. In the morning and evening the area is quite busy, but during the day it is usually very quiet. We would have to film during the day so we can achieve an isolated feel for our thriller film. The idea is to make the area look inhabited but quiet at the same time. This way will be able to make the crime thats about to unfold, believable.

Opening Title Fonts

This title font caught my eye because of eerie handwriting style. The handwriting suggests a criminal and a ransom message. However I decided not to choose this font as it implies the criminal is unprofessional 

This font signifies an Eastern European setting for our thriller. The font is bold and stands out. Because of the European look of the font, it suggests a large grey urban area that would be a perfect setting for our thriller. 

The title immediately signifies a large city like area thanks to the skyline imagery used at the bottom of the font.  Also the font seems to have like a dirt effect that could convey the idea of grit or blood to the audience, possibly highlighting the violence of the film. Also the type of letters suggests a danger like sign warning. maybe foreshadowing the danger for the main character. 

The label like title suggests professional criminals which is a main theme for our thriller. Furthermore it also suggests a police case which also a theme for our thriller. However the title seems old fashioned and our film it set in the present so I have decided not to choose this font. But this font could work for subtitles e.g. crew, cast etc.

I have decided to choose this font for our thriller film title. It stands out bright and bold, there isn't too much going on. The dirt like effect on the font will signify a gritty urban setting, or it will imply blood and violence. This will attract audience members who are fond of action and violence. The title 'danger sign' like font will also highlight the idea of violence and danger. The title in this font will suggest the main themes of the film thus making it a perfect for our film.

GIFSoup

We will have our titles flashing on and off as though as you are not meant to see the title. However unlike Seven (1995, Fincher), the title's will be played over the moving image of the film and not a title a sequence.

Similar Opening Sequence Ideas

Kill Your Friends Opening Sequence
This is a title sequence made by University students that is similar to the ideas we have for our film. We, as a group, really like the way the titles are film as they appear to be on everyday objects. The slow pans and tracks draw us into wanting to watch the whole film and the way the flashbacks are so fast paced and quick give us snippets into the remains of the film. The way the shots and cuts just show a normal apartment after a night of partying and drinking and the after math and mess of it all.


Our Groups Ideas Inspired by this Clip:

• Slow pans will now be used
• New ideas for titles over everyday objects 

Peer Assessment - Panning

Final Synopsis

A man goes to visit his friend at his house. He rings his friend as he walks there to make sure everything is still okay. There is no answer. The man assumes everything is okay and carries on his journey to his friends house. When he arrives the door is open, he still knocks but there is no answer. He opens the door to see if everything and shouts out his mates name. Still no answer, so he goes inside only to find his mate and his wife dead. He immediately goes into shock and panics desperately trying to bring his mate back to life without realising that he is contaminating the crime scene with his fingerprints. He eventually notices that their daughter is not there and then starts to look for her. He finds her upstairs under the bed, alive.


The man and the daughter then take part in a journey to avoid the people trying to kill her family and the police who believe that he was the one who killed the family and kidnapped their daughter.

Costume, Props and Location

Casting

AWhen deciding on the cast of our film we took into consideration the typeof characters but also we thought about how accessible different people would be when filming was needed to be done.


The first character we decided on was the main character, Mark Wilson. He needs to be someone who looks quite tough and strong. Also he needs to be fearless and knowledgeable.
We have chosen to cast George Blewitt (a member of our group) as Mark as he is well built and suits this role quite well. Another reason for this decision is , as he is in our group he will be easier to get hold of when we need him for filming. Also, he can put his own twist on his character and put ideas to us as a team. He will also be dedicated to the group and we know we can rely on him.

We then cast Megan Thornton, the daughter. She is 17 years old, average teenager therefore she was easy to cast. Also, you only see megans hair in the opening so we didnt have to put much thought into the casting.
Taking all this into consideration we cast Rosie Winton (another member of the group) as Megan Thornton.

Casting the mother/wife, Wendy Thornton, was again very easy to cast as she is not in the opening sequence. Therfore, we cast Emma Chapman (a member of our group) as Wendy Thornton.

The last character we cast was Robert Thornton...

Thriller Opening Sequence Storyboard Animation

Includes:

• Sound effects
• Original shot-by-shot storyline
• Locations
• Soundtrack

Script