Saturday, January 31, 2009
Q7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Film Brief: The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes (all video and audio material must be original, produced by candidates, with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source).
Our preliminary task has created a large impact on our final opening sequence. I learnt a lot from our preliminary task which I bought forward to our opening sequence. The preliminary task helped us with the brief, pre production, production and postproduction.
THE BRIEF
-The impact the preliminary task brief had on the film brief was that we realised we shouldn’t make shots too complicated and be too experimental as it would be hard to edit and would disrupt the continuity.
-We realised we should check whether locations were available and we had permission before shooting there in order to prevent other people from being in the same place at the same time. This problem occured very often whilst shooting our preliminary task because we had a very limited area where we could shoot. Because we were shooting in my house, I was easily able to chuck my parents out for a few hours every time we shot!
-For our opening sequence we had a target audience and could therefore work around it by using our own range or props, characters, costume etc. Finally for the opening sequence we did detailed research on previous successful films in order to make our own successful.
PRE-PRODUCTION
-From our preliminary task we realised research was essential. We drew out a story board many times until we settled on which one worked the best, we used a script as we learnt, from the preliminary task, how smoothly it made the shooting run. If it wasn't for our preliminary tak we wouldn't have thought about actually making a storyboard at all because we wouldn't have known how useful it would be.
-From the tight timing of the preliminary task, we learnt how to use our time efficiently during planning for the opening sequence. Finally we were more creative with shots for our opening sequence as were confident with what kind of shots would look good or bad and how we could edit them.
PRODUCTION
-The preliminary task came very useful in the production of the opening sequence. We learnt to shoot every shot at least three times because once we put our footage onto the editing sweep we noticed many things we didn’t realise whilst shooting.
-We realised the microphone picked up unwanted sounds and that setting up took up longer than expected, therefore we made use of the time we had efficiently when shooting for our opening sequence.
-Finally we were very aware of continuity and we made sure that every thing was kept in the same place for every shot and that the actor had not changed position or appearance between shots. If we didn't do the preliminary task we wouldn't have known the notion of a master shot, how to do cut away shots or match on action shots.
- From the preliminary task we learnt to always say 'Camera ready, sound ready, actors ready, roll camera, ACTION!', before every shot so that it is easier to capture.
-We also figured that running on the action was very useful so that we could cut into the shot, making it look more realistic.
POST PRODUCTION
-Editing for our preliminary task made us aware of how to use the editing computer and the individual timelines. We noticed how flexible the non-linear editing programme was and therfore we were aware of experimenting on other timelines. This made editing sessions much more time efficient.
-We learnt we should name our footage as soon as we’ve captured them to make editing much easier.
EVALUATION
-Reflections for my opening sequence were much more detailed and critical in comparison to reflections for my preliminary task. This is because I had a target audience to get feedback from for my opening sequence whereas we only had other media students to criticise our preliminary task. The evaluation for our preliminary task helped us improve our opening sequence and prevented us from making the same mistakes again.
-I learnt how important audience feedback is, and how it much it helps to improve our sequence.
Overall, we benefited a lot from our preliminary task. We were aware of any problems we would've faced and how to over come them. We were aware of how long the shooting and editing process would take and we noticed how important little things in the production process were.
Overall I think our opening sequence was to the best of our ability. It fitted in well with the genre and targeted our audience well. It looked professional and of high quality. If I were to do this project again, I would use more protagonists to make the opening sequence more interesting. I would also re shoot the end bedroom shot where the bedroom door looks like its closing in one shot and then is suddenly closed in the next shot. Fnially, I think we could've been slightly more experimental with out shot types as they were all very much the same (straight on), other than that I think our media product would run successful with our target audience and amongst horror fans.
Q6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Using the headphones was the hardest to grasp onto as it was difficult to remember to listen through them at all times. Our camera was high definition, however we didn’t shoot on high definition tape as it is too expensive and in order for it to be produced in high definition we would need all the appropriate equipment. I would however, like to work with high definition equipment in my next project. Lighting wasn’t an issue for us as our opening sequence was shot mostly indoors. The lighting was bright and focused making the quality look professional.
During shooting I perfected my hand held shots; I figured in order to get the smoothest handheld shot you should hold the camera away from you and take small steps. I also learnt for a zoom out to be as smooth as possible you should hold the zoom out button on the same position throughout the shot. I learnt how to manually switch off the buzzing of the headphones through the camera. The camera was set on auto settings and so we didn’t get to experiment as much with the camera as we wanted to therefore next time I will use focus settings. Below is a list of the main equipment we used and the advantages and disadvantages of them.

The software we used includes the creative sweep package (CS3) which contained Adobe premiere pro, adobe Photoshop and Adobe after effects. I learnt how to use the Mac computer which contained Live Type (which we used for title effects). . In order to create title effects we chose the font ‘dispersion’ and ‘frigid’ to give our titles and eerie mysterious look. In the editing process I learnt many things on Adobe premiere pro.(I.e., capturing, rendering, rasoring, unlinking and linking a clip for the continuity, adding music (diegetic and non diegetic sounds) and how to add transitions onto the sequence.
During editing it’s best to try out each shot of your action with other shots and then choose which one looks best regarding continuity. The flexibility of the Non Linear editing allows us to experiment on separate time lines. I learnt how to adjust the sound on our video sequence by making it louder or softer in various places to smooth the continuity between two shots. I also learnt how to contrasting footage, making it look professional and high quality. Finally I learnt how to get rid of the treble which was the unwanted buzzing sound caused by the camera was very useful as it prevented the audience from being distracted.
Overall, I learnt a lot of new technical techniques. The schools' equipment was very useful and of very high quality making the shooting experience much more productive.
How did you attract/address your audience?

Q5)
In order for a film to be successful it needs to target its audience appropriately. Our film is targeted at 15 to 19 year olds, who are a fan of horror movies. In order to attract our target audience we used many horror conventions giving the audience something they expect. We shot in many dark areas to create eeriness and tension within the opening sequence and we used a teenage victim as it was an ideal role to base a horror movie around. We decided to stick with the original conventions of a horror movie rather than having a unique selling point as we thought the selling point of our movie is the similarities and likeness it has to other successful horror movies. (I.e Halloween, which is based in an ordinary house yet inside it, lives someone rather deadly.) Furthermore we used many close up and extreme close ups. (I.e the zoom out of the eyes which in my opinion, is the most intimate shot in the sequence) creates maximum impact and to really engage the audience with the character in order to make them empathise with her. Contrastingly, ‘Exorcism of Emily Rose’ (2005, Derrickson) has many establishing shots to guide the audience through each step the charater makes. We also had many long shots, otherwise known as establishing shots to create an eerie atmosphere and to familiarise the audience with the location aswell as emphasising how empty the house is. Our opening sequence is very enigmatic in the way it leaves the audience on a cliff hanger wondering what is going to happen next. The last bit of our opening sequence, when the door slams open, leaves the audience in anxiety making them wanting to watch more. This attracts the audience as it involves them with the story line. It also leaves it to their imagination to decide what will happen next. In order to make it appeal to teenagers rather than another age group, we got a young teenage girl to be our actress as this gives the audience something to relate to. We used an old creaky house rather than an office of building as this involves the audience. We had to also make many decisions in order for our target audience to understand the opening sequence without any difficulties. We had to make sure the continuity was invisible, avoiding any distractions which may take away the audiences focus on the film itself. We had to also make sure the lighting was bright enough to prevent unwanted shadows which may have confused the audience. We had to make sure the lighting was spot on in every shot to avoid continuity errors. Sound and volume was another thing we had to alter to make it seem realistic and appeal to its audience. Sounds we had to alter include the soundtrack of the movie being watched on the TV (frame within a frame). If the sound didn't match with the previous shot it would confused the audience and wouldn't look realistic. The soundtrack really keeps the viewer engaged with the sequence. The music’s eerie undertone sets the atmosphere, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats.
Finally, we had to take out thirty seconds worth of a phone conversation as it would've bored the audience and dragged the opening sequence on for too long. These were all factors we had to decide within our group to make sure we can target our audience in the most efficient way.
Our opening sequence attracted horror fans by its typical horror conventions. It engages the audience and keeps them on the edge of the seat as they urge to know what will happen next. It creates a sense of tension and fear which confirms the audiences’ expectations and therefore satisfies them. The sudden actions and enigma codes I.e the door opening at the end of the opening sequence, gains the audiences attention and therefore keeps them engages throughout the film. Finally we used the Soundtrack- 'Into the Mist' (Internet) to really engage the audience and to create more impact on the horror of the film.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our opening sequence successfully targeted our audience (as proved by our questionnaires.) Our opening sequence was viewed by media students and non-media students in year 12 who gave our film opening sequence an average rating of 8 out of 10. Similarly, my 13 year old sister and 19 year old friend were also intrigued with our opening sequence and wanted to know more. Finally, I asked people who weren’t in our target audience (Male: 40 and Female: 28) who said they wouldn’t want to watch the rest of the movie as they have nothing to relate to it and didn’t find it as scary as our target audience did. We reckon this is because our target audience are at the age where they get scared easily. Someone being in your house is fearful in itself and our opening sequence has simply exaggerated the event to really target a certain audienceTeenagers are most likely to consume their films on the web and therefore it is wise to distribute our film to websites (refer to question 3).The age certificate for our film is 15 because it some murder scenes may be disturbing to younger children. Similarly ‘The Omen’ which is has an age certificate of 18 due to the disturbing story line based around a young boy which would not be suitable for anyone under 18 to watch.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
A website which may distribute our film is www.firstlightmovies.com which is the one of the internets resources for low budget film makers. An example of a low budget movie which has been distributed via first light movies is ‘Demon Army’ which also follows a horror genre. If we had professional casting men and high level actresses our movie would’ve made it to the big screens as our film does follow all the main stream conventions (I.e continuity and character roles) contained in 'Final Destination’(Wong - 2000) and other successful horror movies. It would be wise to show our film in cinemas such as Enfield ‘UGC’, and Finchley ‘VUE’ rather than Wood green ‘CINEWORLD’. This is because Cineworld shows a range of movies from Bollywood to Hollywood giving our film more films to compete with. The range of movies reflect the area and also gives each individual film a shorter viewing period as many other movies would be in cue to be released. According to our audience feeedback, most viewers expected to see our film in local cinemas.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
She was stereotypical rather than an archetype as we thought this is more likely to give the audience something or someone to relate to. We chose a white female as oppose to white male because females tend to be more vulnerable and more victim like.One of the representations for our opening sequence is femininity in teenage years. This is shown by the actress dress code, actions and lifestyle. The actress is dressed in a short, silver, metallic dress which signifies she has just come from a wild night out – a life of a stereotypical modern teenager. Her smudged chaotic make up mirrors the chaotic story line and also adds to her vulnerable personality. Her destroyed make up causes the audience to sympathize with her as the film’s protagonist. The mise – en –scene also represents a particular social group (i.e the wine glass beside her) We learn more about Charlotte herself through the state of the citing room – the shoes and bag thrown on the floor, the TV still switched on and the blanket spread across the sofa. It all suggests she is quite a laid back person and not wary of her surroundings. This makes the events that occur even more primitive as we see a relaxed person transform into a person filled with anxiety.
As the opening sequence unfolds we see Charlotte’s action codes change. The sequence starts off with her walking into the kitchen in a relatively steady pace. As soon as she hears the TV switch on her pace quickens as she urges to know what is going on. However towards the end of the sequence, her nerves take control of her as she slows down her pace; clogging the atmosphere with tension. Her naïve personality is exacerbated by her walking upstairs into the dark on her own.
Finally the second main representation of our opening sequence is middle class ‘Britishness’ which is portrayed by the location and the ethnicity of the actress and her accent. .
The empty house, Victorian styled, wooden house, represented a middle class character. The creaky staircase and the dark rooms simply add to the horror of the movie. If it was shot out doors the sequence wouldn’t be as eerie as she could easily run away, however the fact that someone is in HER house makes the story line more disturbing.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Institution information (titles and credits)
Establishing iconography
Music or lack of music/soundtrack
Create enigma
Reprentation
Ideology
Clues that relate to the future of the story
engages the audience
sets the atmosphere (audience can establish the genre)
CONVENTIONS OF A HORROR MOVIE
Darkness
Suspense
Big houses
Mental illness
Deserted places
Death/Gory
Secret/mysterious unknown characters
vulnerable girl
Devil/ghosts/zombie/villain
For our media project we were put into groups and asked to prepare an opening sequence of a new fiction film lasting roughly two minutes. My group consisted of three people; Loren, Charlotte and I. We decided to work on around a ‘horror’ genre as we thought this would be challenging yet enjoyable. Our opening sequence is about a young girl who has just come home from a wild night out, not expecting what is yet to happen to her. Whilst she is home alone, she hears things in her house (I.e. the door slam, or the TV switch on.) Little does she know someone else is in the house with her. This someone else is the local mini cab driver, who drops off drunken girls back to their house. He is mentally disturbed and kills every girl he drops home, leaving them with nothing but a scar across their neck. The character in our opening sequence is a girl from our own group, Charlotte. The crew list include Charlotte, Loren and I. Finally the location we shot our sequence at is a house on Buckingham Avenue, Whetstone. The conventions of a horror genre include the narrative structure (equilibrium), the mise-en-scene (darkness, wooden decrepit buildings e.t.c) and the characters (villain, zombies, a vulnerable young girl e.t.c) In ‘Psycho’ (Hitchock, 1960) the villain is Norman Bates, played by Anthony Pekins, who kills the main protagonist.
Similarly, the villain in our opening sequence is the mini cab driver who however, isn’t shown in the opening sequence. Todorovs’ classic narrative theory is otherwise known as the equilibrium. This is portrayed in our opening sequence as it starts with a shot of Charlotte entering the house slightly drunk, during these first shots, the opening sequence introduces the character and the location. We then move to the disruption; when mysterious things (i.e the door slamming and TV switching on) start to occur. We can relate this to successful horror movies such as ‘Disturbia’ (Caruso, 2007), which begins with Kyle and his father in a normal situation, it is the disturbed by the car crash and the father dying and is then met to a resolution by Robert Turner being caught and all is happy again. Our sequence shows the earlier signs of the equilibrium theory, we weren’t able to present the resolution through our sequence as we didn’t have enough time and it would’ve left nothing to the audiences’ imagination.We were very much inspired by the decrepit, deserted house the mother stayed in, in Psycho and thought it worked really well with the genre. Similarly our mise-en- scene fitted in well with our genre as we shot in an ideal location of a large, empty, old fashioned, Victorian house with a creaky staircase. Using a big, isolated house rather than a small flat makes the girl seem more vulnerable as nobody is like to save her. Finally, the character played a classic, horror based, young, white, middle-class, vulnerable girl, naive enough to walk outside into the dark on her own! Charlottes’ role serves a certain function in our narrative. It gives the audience an insight into what will happen to the rest of the girls the mini cab mans victims. The typical theme of our film is isolation and voyeurism.
The conventions of an opening sequence should contain the narrative functions (i,e establish narrative structure, introduce a character, etc) and also contain narrative conventions (i,e use of titles as credits/event signifiers, significance of soundtrack – establishing mood etc). A font that inspired us was the shaking font used in ‘The Ring’ (2002, Verbinski) opening sequence. The font created an eerie feel which we wished to bring across in ours. Below is a sample of one of the fonts we looked at for our opening sequence and the font which was used in 'The Ring'

We used Levis Strauss theory of coping with the fundamental contradictions by using binary opposites such as good/evil and light/dark. In ‘Scarred’, Charlotte represents the good as she plays an innocent, vulnerable young girl and the unknown mysterious character plays an evil role. Light/dark binary opposites play a large theme in our opening sequence as Charlotte is always walking into the darkness. (She enters the dark house, she walks into the dark kitchen, and she walks up the stairs into the darkness e.t.c)
We thought creating enigma is an important aspect of a horror genre, and made sure our sequence was very enigmatic. The TV switching off and door opening makes the audience want to know more. It imposes questions such as ‘Who is this person/object?’ and ‘Why are they doing this?’ ‘The ring’ is a spine chilling movie which contains many enigma codes. In the opening sequence for the ring, there is an extreme close up of the actress’ hand whilst turning the knob on a door. This leaves the audience wondering what is on the other side of the door and imposes many questions amongst them. Finally we’ve set our opening sequence in real time as we thought this would be most plausible and would create most impact as we take the audience through Charlottes’ every step second by second.Overall, our opening sequence stuck with the main conventions of a horror sequence, like successfull horror movies - 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’(Hooper - 1974) as we wanted to please the audience and make the sequence familiar to other film openings rather than giving them something new. We used a variety of shots to stick rigidly to continuity and we deliberately had no dialogue so that the audience focuses on the action codes.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PRELIMINARY TASK AND FILM BRIEF



Thursday, January 29, 2009
PRE-EVALUATION SUMMARY

Editing: Charlotte, Loren, Nisha
Written by:Charlotte, Loren, Nisha
Acting by:Charlotte
Location: A house on Buckingham Avenue, Whetstone

Number of shoots: two
film summary: A mini cab driver drops drunk girls home at night. Later that night he returns to their house and murders the girls, leaving a scar on their neck. Throughout the movie 3 girls get murdered however the fourth one manages to survive.
What happens in the opening sequence: A teenage girl comes home from a wild night out. She goes to sleep on the sofa and then wakes up to the noise of the TV. She switches it off and as she walks to the kitchen she hears it turn back on. She switches it off again, and simultaneously hears the door slam shut. She goes to check if anyones there, and decided to go upstairs and look out through her bedroom window. As she walks towards her bedroom window the door slams open behind her...
Saturday, January 24, 2009
EQUIPMENT
HARDWARE
A Cannon HV30 HD mini DV camcorder (with touch-screen controls!) + mains power supply + batteries
Audio equipment such as a microphone and Sennheiser headphones
A tripod
A mini-whiteboard
Mini DV tapes
PC - windows XP and a Mac (for extra effects)
SOFWARE
The creative sweep package which includes:
Adobe Premiere Pro,Adobe After Effects and Adobe Photoshop
i-Movie (Apple Mac)
Livetype (Apple Mac)
During editing I learnt more on the following:
capturing
rendering
rasoring
contrasting
treble
speed duration
unlinking and linking a clip
adding music (diegetic and non-diegetic sound)
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
INDIVIDUAL AUDIENCE FEEDBACK
21 year old female
Rating: 9/10
She likes the idea and could relate to the storyline herself and was very impressed by the acting. She thought it was extremely scary and urged to know what was going to happen next. The part which frightened her the most was 1.12, when the TV turns on with a scream. She thought the location was ideal however the door opened to fast at the end, it should've been more subtle.
40 year old male:
Rating: 7/10
Thought the opening sequence was put together well, however the idea didn't seem to frighten him. He is not into horror movies and therfore wasn't really engaged with the story line. He thought the soundtrack was of a good choice and fitted in with our opening sequence perfectly. Again, he agreed that the acting was very realistic and that the storyline was plausible.
14 year old female:
Rating: 10/10.
Thinks the actress was very professional and the enigma actions worked very well. However, she would be 'too scared' to watch the rest of the film and said it would stop her from staying home alone for a while (therfore I think the 15 age certificate for our film was accurately set!) She also said it reminded her of the opening sequence from 'Halloween'
Overall, I think this individual feedback anchored many facts. Our target audience, 15 to 19 year olds, (feedback shown on group blog) really enjoyed the opening sequence and wanted to know what was going to happen to the character next. I think it was useful to do this individual research of people other than those in the target audience and see what they have to say about our opening sequence. My 21 year old sister was really impressed with the opening sequence, she thought it looked professional and could imagine it being released in a local cinema. However, my 4o year old dad wouldn't watch the rest of the film because he didn't think it was scary enough, and couldn't relate to many events that took place. Finally, my 14 year old sister was amazed by our work and thought it was too scary too watch!
Overall, our core audience really enjoyed the opening sequence. However our secondary audience, along with horror fans, also had a enjoyable viewing experience .
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
DEADLINE
The text - (changed the blue shadow to no shadow as it didn't fit with the theme of the movie)
- Faded the text in and out to make it seem more realistic
- Changed any typing errors
Shots - Changed the corridor shot of Charlotte walking towards the front door as it wasn't a good match on action. We solved this problem by extending our previous shot and shortening the shot after.
Title - We figured that Engima productions was a well known productions so therefore we changed the name to ' WHAT DID WE CHANGE IT TO '
- CLN films was the name of our company. (Named after Charlotte, Loren, Nisha)
Contrast - We contrasted the shots to give it a professional, high quality finish.
Sound - Finally we edited the treble so that the sound of the camera does not distract the audience.
Monday, January 12, 2009
TARGET AUDIENCE
Gender wise, the film can be watched by both genders, however it is more female - orientated, because they would probably find it more scary and would be able to empathise with how the girls in the film must feel.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
CHARACTER ANALYSIS

Charlotte plays a young, naive, innocent girl who is rather laid back and doesn't care about anything much other than partying and having a good time. She comes from a middle class family and lives in a large house with her parents. Her being an only child makes her rather spoilt.
COSTUME
Charlotte played the role of the teenage girl coming home from a wild night out. We dressed her in a metallic, silver, short party dress. This makes her look like every other teenager - giving the audience something to relate to so that they can really empathise with her. Her heels were placed beside the sofa and there was a half drunk bottle of alcohol on the table in the first few shots, making the scenario of a tipsy young girl coming home and hitting the sofa seem realistic! Her make up was smeary and smudged making her look vulnerable and as if she had just woken up. I thought this costume worked really well with the role because if she was dressed in something more casual she would look more powerful and in control of what is going around in the house rather than timid and insecure.

