PLOT.
BY HANNAH.
Tuesday 25 May 2010
PLOT FOR THE FILM.
Wednesday 6 May 2009
Hannah Greenfield.
Evaluation : Foundation Project.
Fixation
The project our group produced is the opening sequence to a certificate 18 horror/thriller film. I worked with Rebecca Thorburn , Emily Howarth and Charina Clarkson. My contribution to the project was the camera and filming work and editing the project once filmed. The genre of the production is horror/thriller and is inspired by the film “saw”. The appearance of the characters and the way they acted gave a basic horror film setting , e.g. in most horror films villains dress in black to give a dark and mysterious look , and the victims act very sheepish and scared as to not knowing in they are going to survive . Where as the way the characters are introduced shows that there is more to the opening horror sequence than just the typical killing scenes as our opening sequence shows the kidnapping and the torture scene.
The way we tried to make our opening sequence stand out and to show a successful horror , was by using an obsessive killer , who is not just obsessed with the two young girls but is also obsessed with perfection maybe due to the way he treats his murder weapons.
Our feedback shows and all around view that our opening sequence was different to any other opening sequence and that it fits in well with the genre , and also that the way the victims are introduced gives a sense of mystery that makes you want to watch on more.
The type of people represented in our opening sequence are teenagers who are very frightened by what is going on . Our villain is represented as a potentially dangerous person , by the way he acts with his knives .
This is how we wanted our audience to see him to establish that he is a very dangerous man. The actions of the victims are that they are very young and frightened due to them not knowing where they are , where as the villains actions are seen as obsessive and controlling by how he organises his knives. No speech was used in our opening sequence just the scream at the end which I think worked more of effectively than speech would have done as the victims were under the influence of drugs so the villain would have only been able to talk to himself. I think the teenage girls in our opening sequence are stereotyped as clueless and vulnerable.
Our feedback told us that the way the villain acted was stereotypically how they normally acted I.e. intending to scare or hurt someone and generally look unhappy and sinister.
The audience for our opening sequence would most likely be 16-25 as many teenagers like watching films as a leisure activity and with teenage victims in the opening sequence itself, teenagers can relate to what they might be thinking or how they are feeling. Fans would just be any type of person who are interested in this sort of genre.
Our audience expect to be thrilled by the opening sequence and to be scared by the film. The shot of the victims suddenly appearing in the background of the room I think comes as a shock as you weren't expecting the victims to be in the room at the time as the previous shots gave no mention of them.
I think this set s enigmas such as how did they get there ? What is he going to do to them ? And Why does he want them ? I think this is important for reeling the audience in to carry on watching the rest of the film. Our soundtrack in the background fits in well with the opening sequence as it is a typical low beat track with high jumps that set an eerie feel. The way he uses the knife to stroke the victims face builds up the tension to “ Is he going to kill her ?”but just cuts to her waking up and screaming which then cuts to the title . I think this is good as you ask yourself what is going to happen next ? Which leaves the audience in suspense. Our opening sequence sets ideologies that crime can be very unexpected and can happen to anybody who may have done a lot or nothing wrong. I think our opening sequence shows men as having power over women and that they feel they can treat young girls as they want and it gives a very pathetic and helpless view of the victims.
The lighting in our opening sequence is very dim low key to the villain being in a dark place which shows off his psychological state , but this builds up to when he turns the flickering light on to reveal the victims this was important as it showed that he didn't maintain the place they where in and also the flickering light only gave bits of the victims away at a time. The panning shot at the beginning fits everything in ( pictures, alcohol and drugs) and then cuts to the shot showing how precise he is about the arrangement of his knives .
The lighting in our opening sequence is very dim low key to the villain being in a dark place which shows off his psychological state , but this builds up to when he turns the flickering light on to reveal the victims this was important as it showed that he didn't maintain the place they where in and also the flickering light only gave bits of the victims away at a time. The panning shot at the beginning fits everything in ( pictures, alcohol and drugs) and then cuts to the shot showing how precise he is about the arrangement of his knives .
The slow tracking shot reflects his slow and deliberate actions. The medium camera shot where the girls appear works very well as it is a very centred shot and works well at establishing that there are two victims here that the audience did not know where there. We edited the panning shot and added on titles and a short amount of cast just to establish a few of the characters names. Using the cut to black screen at the end made the opening sequence look better as you weren't able to see what happened to the character after she started screaming. I think this may have made the audience wait to watch more to find out what happened to the victim next.
Using the internet to research films gave me a more insight view of what goes in to making a horror film fit its genre. Certain sites helped us to pick the route of how we wanted to go with our opening sequence , for example youtube, where we could watch clips of “Saw” ( which we took inspiration from).
Using the internet to research films gave me a more insight view of what goes in to making a horror film fit its genre. Certain sites helped us to pick the route of how we wanted to go with our opening sequence , for example youtube, where we could watch clips of “Saw” ( which we took inspiration from).
The blog helped me to keep track of where we were up to in the project. Being mainly the only one to use the camera , I had realised how much I really didn't know about a video camera. Being able to move the camera to what angle I needed and being able to use it on the tripod making the camera more steady really helped in making out shots a lot better . But with the camera not having wheels it was harder to move on our panning shot . The panning shot had to be done quite a few times as finding the best way to film it was hard , we tried using the camera hand held but this made it shakier , so when using the camera on the tripod at a high angle distance it was clearer and easier to fit the whole of what we were filming in.
Our opening sequence is a big improvement from our preliminary task as many aspects have changes like the lighting,, the camera angles the use of sound and how we made our characters look , as the characters in our preliminary were just ordinary people but in our opening sequence they fitted the genre. The light was much better used as we where able to move and dim the lights to give our opening sequence a sinister look. Our shots where smoother and more precise as having more practise made our shots look even better. There wasn't much of a character in our preliminary but in our opening sequence we now have three main characters who we can identify as either villain or victim. The final credits and end Title make a good overall finish but adding a male name to the titles made the film seem that it wasn't full of girls . the end title was hard to come up with as we didn't wan't a basic title.
Over all I think our project was a success a very long and hard success , but in the end all though filming and editing where hard due to never really having done them before I think our opening sequence is a very good opening sequence .Despite the difficulties we faced such as us all being there at the same time and ready to film , or that many more people are needed to make it easier , I still think that the work we all did has contributed to making a better overall project.
Tuesday 5 May 2009
Evaluation - Emily Haworth
My project was to create an opening sequence to a film, I worked with three other people , Charina Clarkson, Rebecca Thorburn and Hannah Greenfield. I mainly contributed in the the pre-production, doing research on other films and characters. Also in the production stage by directing.
1. For my media project I decided to create the opening sequence for a film, along with three other people. The genre that we choose was going to be Horror. We researched some of the main conventions of the horror genre and used it within the sequence. These conventions are for instance an intense and disturbing atmosphere with the use of sound effects. The props, lighting and camera angles are usually in the opening sequence of any film to give the audience to give different enigmas. Also in the opening sequence it has to give a time and place in which the film is set and also to give character detail. For instance in my opening sequence, we have used images on a wall of the main characters to gather enigmas of what they look like, their age and the fact that they are possibly being watched or already captured.
2. The particular social group that my opening sequence represents is teenagers. In the first clip of the sequence, we see lots of images of two girls that are on a brick wall, the images of the two girls show that they are teenagers. The social stereotype that are usually put in horror teen films are helpless and defenseless teenage girls which are commonly used in the media. This is because females are seen as the weaker sex and teenagers can relate to the situation because it happens in real-life, this makes the audience more interested and keeps them hooked to see what happens.
The costume of the two female characters are the the same as other young adults such as fashionable, everyday clothing. The setting of the sequence is in an old run down garage, these types of derelict scenes are usually seen within this genre for the teen audience. There is no speech within the sequence, however at the end one of the girls scream which is very stereotypical and represents the female population like many other teen horror films.
3. The main distributor that have put money behind similar films are Miramax, this film company are responsible for movies such as Scream, Halloween H20 and The Crow. All of these films are famous teenage horror films that gather a similar audience to my media product. I believe that this company would back up my product because they have a lot of similar teen films that they have distributed too and have a particular audience that watch their films and will keep that audience watching their films with another one such-like ones before.
4. The audience for my media product would be teenagers, particularly ages 16-15. A students socio-economic status would be E because they do not have any full-time job at this point and have the lowest income. Also, the audience for my media product could also include people who have a certain interest in one specific genre.
I believe that this is a good audience because teenagers, statistically, spend more money at the cinemas than any other age group. Therefore, more profit would be made and also potentially a larger mass audience. A secondary audience for my media product would possibly be parents. They may want to view the film before their son or daughter will watch it.
From my audience feedback sheet my product gained a positive and negative reaction from the target audience.
Do you think the age certificate fits with the genre?
1.No it should be an 18.
2.Yes, there is no bloody violence.
5. To attract the target audience we had to create a narrative to give the basic information of the film without giving too much away. At the start of the sequence we set up the understanding of the characters, such as sex, age and their appearance. Later in the sequence they are shown and the audience understood that the photos on the brick wall were of the two girls that had been captured.
We had to make sure that the sense of place and time was made clear within the few seconds of the opening sequence. This happened from the dark lighting that was used to create the sense of being during the night but also being able to see the derelict surrounding. During the sequence we made sure that there were lots of different enigmas to keep the audience hooked. Some of these were showing pictures on the wall of the girl, the panning shot of the table with alcohol and drugs and also the knifes that the killer laid out very neatly in a particular order.
When the killer lays out the knifes very neatly and all in order by size, it creates a conflict within the situation and makes the audience think that something isn't right with the man and that something is going to happen to the female characters in the photos. Tension is built within the start to the end of the sequence from the non-dietetic sound. The sound creates suspense and gives a chilling feel to the audience.
The messages that the opening sequence suggests are for teenagers to try and stay safe and tell somebody where you are going because anything can happen even if its only ten minutes on your own. This message is very effective within the sequence because the audience can relate to the message and realise that it can actually happen and has happened in the past.
The number of stars in the media project has on three, mainly because the opening sequence shouldn't include too many or the audience will become confused and not understand the narrative of the rest of the film. Non- dietetic sound has been used throughout the entire opening sequence to get the feel of the genre, this creates and intense and scary atmosphere. The mise-en-scene of the opening sequence includes such things like bottles of alcohol, brick wall, gags, rope, light switch and knifes. We made sure that everything in the frame was cold and chilling to make sure that the right atmosphere was created.
The panning shot at the beginning of the sequence was used to give the audience a sense of the place and the narrative of the film from showing the photographs on the wall. Several shots of the photograph being cut but the male character were used within the sequence, we used a birds eye view shot, then a side shot of the picture falling on the table after being cut then a point of view shot of the man sticking the cut out photograph onto the wall. The editing pace of the opening sequence is quite slow, this was done to make an intense, chilling effect of not knowing what is going to happen next.
6. The use of technology has helped a great deal within the project, for instance, to help me research for the blog I had to look on in internet for useful sites such as youtube.com, blogger.com and other useful sites that I could use for research. By using the internet it has allowed me to embed video clips onto the blog so that my visual aspects could be seen and understood.
Over the course of this project I have learned to use equipment such as cameras and software for editing. Being able to use the software has let me be able to cut clips, add music, add different effects, slow or speed up clips and also add and change titles. Some of the shots that we had taken had to be re shot, this was because the lighting was wrong on some of the clips and also the speed of the panning shot was too fast.
7. Looking back at the preliminary task, I believe that progression has been made has been better. For instance, I have learnt to use different camera angle within one scene and being able to edit and cut clips to make sure its correct. Also to create the right lighting which will not create shadows on the camera.
In conclusion I believe that there have been many strengths throughout the product, some of these are the sound that was used creates the right atmosphere and genre for the sequence. Also the lighting when the two characters are tied together and the lights flicker on which creates a scary effect to the opening sequence. The panning shot that was used at the first part of the sequence worked very well because it created several enigmas. However there were some weaknesses, one of these was the fact that we had to re-shoot the panning shot several times to make sure the lighting was correct which was very time consuming. For example, on picture shot to the light switch shot the light is different.
1. For my media project I decided to create the opening sequence for a film, along with three other people. The genre that we choose was going to be Horror. We researched some of the main conventions of the horror genre and used it within the sequence. These conventions are for instance an intense and disturbing atmosphere with the use of sound effects. The props, lighting and camera angles are usually in the opening sequence of any film to give the audience to give different enigmas. Also in the opening sequence it has to give a time and place in which the film is set and also to give character detail. For instance in my opening sequence, we have used images on a wall of the main characters to gather enigmas of what they look like, their age and the fact that they are possibly being watched or already captured.
2. The particular social group that my opening sequence represents is teenagers. In the first clip of the sequence, we see lots of images of two girls that are on a brick wall, the images of the two girls show that they are teenagers. The social stereotype that are usually put in horror teen films are helpless and defenseless teenage girls which are commonly used in the media. This is because females are seen as the weaker sex and teenagers can relate to the situation because it happens in real-life, this makes the audience more interested and keeps them hooked to see what happens.
The costume of the two female characters are the the same as other young adults such as fashionable, everyday clothing. The setting of the sequence is in an old run down garage, these types of derelict scenes are usually seen within this genre for the teen audience. There is no speech within the sequence, however at the end one of the girls scream which is very stereotypical and represents the female population like many other teen horror films.
3. The main distributor that have put money behind similar films are Miramax, this film company are responsible for movies such as Scream, Halloween H20 and The Crow. All of these films are famous teenage horror films that gather a similar audience to my media product. I believe that this company would back up my product because they have a lot of similar teen films that they have distributed too and have a particular audience that watch their films and will keep that audience watching their films with another one such-like ones before.
4. The audience for my media product would be teenagers, particularly ages 16-15. A students socio-economic status would be E because they do not have any full-time job at this point and have the lowest income. Also, the audience for my media product could also include people who have a certain interest in one specific genre.
I believe that this is a good audience because teenagers, statistically, spend more money at the cinemas than any other age group. Therefore, more profit would be made and also potentially a larger mass audience. A secondary audience for my media product would possibly be parents. They may want to view the film before their son or daughter will watch it.
From my audience feedback sheet my product gained a positive and negative reaction from the target audience.
Do you think the age certificate fits with the genre?
1.No it should be an 18.
2.Yes, there is no bloody violence.
5. To attract the target audience we had to create a narrative to give the basic information of the film without giving too much away. At the start of the sequence we set up the understanding of the characters, such as sex, age and their appearance. Later in the sequence they are shown and the audience understood that the photos on the brick wall were of the two girls that had been captured.
We had to make sure that the sense of place and time was made clear within the few seconds of the opening sequence. This happened from the dark lighting that was used to create the sense of being during the night but also being able to see the derelict surrounding. During the sequence we made sure that there were lots of different enigmas to keep the audience hooked. Some of these were showing pictures on the wall of the girl, the panning shot of the table with alcohol and drugs and also the knifes that the killer laid out very neatly in a particular order.
When the killer lays out the knifes very neatly and all in order by size, it creates a conflict within the situation and makes the audience think that something isn't right with the man and that something is going to happen to the female characters in the photos. Tension is built within the start to the end of the sequence from the non-dietetic sound. The sound creates suspense and gives a chilling feel to the audience.
The messages that the opening sequence suggests are for teenagers to try and stay safe and tell somebody where you are going because anything can happen even if its only ten minutes on your own. This message is very effective within the sequence because the audience can relate to the message and realise that it can actually happen and has happened in the past.
The number of stars in the media project has on three, mainly because the opening sequence shouldn't include too many or the audience will become confused and not understand the narrative of the rest of the film. Non- dietetic sound has been used throughout the entire opening sequence to get the feel of the genre, this creates and intense and scary atmosphere. The mise-en-scene of the opening sequence includes such things like bottles of alcohol, brick wall, gags, rope, light switch and knifes. We made sure that everything in the frame was cold and chilling to make sure that the right atmosphere was created.
The panning shot at the beginning of the sequence was used to give the audience a sense of the place and the narrative of the film from showing the photographs on the wall. Several shots of the photograph being cut but the male character were used within the sequence, we used a birds eye view shot, then a side shot of the picture falling on the table after being cut then a point of view shot of the man sticking the cut out photograph onto the wall. The editing pace of the opening sequence is quite slow, this was done to make an intense, chilling effect of not knowing what is going to happen next.
Over the course of this project I have learned to use equipment such as cameras and software for editing. Being able to use the software has let me be able to cut clips, add music, add different effects, slow or speed up clips and also add and change titles. Some of the shots that we had taken had to be re shot, this was because the lighting was wrong on some of the clips and also the speed of the panning shot was too fast.
7. Looking back at the preliminary task, I believe that progression has been made has been better. For instance, I have learnt to use different camera angle within one scene and being able to edit and cut clips to make sure its correct. Also to create the right lighting which will not create shadows on the camera.
In conclusion I believe that there have been many strengths throughout the product, some of these are the sound that was used creates the right atmosphere and genre for the sequence. Also the lighting when the two characters are tied together and the lights flicker on which creates a scary effect to the opening sequence. The panning shot that was used at the first part of the sequence worked very well because it created several enigmas. However there were some weaknesses, one of these was the fact that we had to re-shoot the panning shot several times to make sure the lighting was correct which was very time consuming. For example, on picture shot to the light switch shot the light is different.
Evaluation - Rebecca Thorburn
During the time we had to produce an opening sequence I think there have been ups and downs. I think the ideas we produced have changed over the filming time we set for ourselves and adapted to what we thought would work better. But the downside was that the time limit and the editing part was maybe rushed or not done to the best of our abilities.
I am happy with the outcome of the opening sequence we have all made as we all tried our best to fit in with the timing of the film which was 2minutes and the lighting which was dark and eerie.
An over the shoulder shot of the villain and his knifes, a point-of-view shot of the light switch,
The two protagonists are mainly shown in three point lighting to balance out he shot as they are placed in the centre, this shows their innocence and vulnerability.
The costumes they are wearing are contemporary teenage clothes and the appearance of them is quite stereotypical due to them both being girls which are blonde. In horror films and also in the media it is usually the ‘blonde’ girl who ends up being the victim.
Does the appearance of the victims suit its genre?
a) Yes it is effective.
b ) Yes the two girls look realistic for the situation they are in.
The target audience for this opening sequence would be mainly for people aged 16-25, so the actors in the film are around those ages allowing the audience to relate to them.
The socio-economic status of the audience for this film would fall into group E who would be mainly students watching this genre of film. These are good target groups as they have the highest disposable income or have spare time at weekends and are able to afford the cinema more, this helps the product financially.
Looking back over my audience feedback I am able to tell that there are more positive responses about the opening sequence in general than there was negative.
This shows that our opening sequence as a whole was successful for the certificate we gave it initially.
Did our choice of film work effectively for the audience?
a) Yes as teenagers.
b ) Yes for young adults.
As our target audience is teenagers attracting them with a horror film should have been easy but a lot of points had to be considered in our own horror opening sequence.
We needed to set up enigmas which draw the viewer into the first few minutes of the film then wanting to find out what happens throughout the rest of the film. The setting in which characters are in needs to be shown as there should be a disrupting event happening which will intrigue the viewers to watch the rest of the film.
We have not used narration in our opening sequence, we have used a soundtrack, which was chosen to build up tension and suspense. The soundtrack also helps set up an enigma when the villain strokes the girls face, you are able to sense the fear in her face, without the soundtrack it would not have been successful.
Should we of used dialogue in this opening sequence?
a) No definitely not, it would be less scary if you did.
b ) No it was not needed.
The mise-en-scene in most frames we have shot are in low-key lighting and this can make the effect of harsh shadows on objects and people. Everything in the frame has been placed there, an example of this is the villain at the table with empty alcohol bottles surrounding him, this seems like a normal person would not portray his actions.
The characters movement throughout the short lasting sequence is very slow as it is just the opening, trying to set up a sense of time and place. The slow panning shot which is slow and deliberate also reflects the villain’s mental state as we see this through his actions.
Do you think the panning shot work well as the opening shot to a sequence?
a) I like how the credits were at the very beginning as the photos were shown, it made it look like a real film
b) Yes definitely, the names appearing work well.
This media course was a new course to me this year. I have learnt a lot of new skills, mainly with technology being introduced to new software. We created a blog to record all the research and talk about the film process, I have learnt how to contribute to that. Also during the production I learnt how to use the camera equipment correctly and safely as I shot the preliminary task.
During the post production we got taught how to use the editing software on the Macs which we had to keep adapting all the time. As the editing process took longer than we expected we eventually ran out of time but managed to finish it to a suitable standard. Although if more time was allowed then our opening sequence could have been much better.
Overall learning all this new information and techniques has helped our opening sequence turn out much better than I hoped it would.
Looking at both the preliminary task and our final product it is clear to see how much better our skills have expanded. The camera movements on our opening sequence are much steadier and use more varied movements than just tilt movements using a tripod and hand-held on the preliminary task.
The lighting differs also as the low-key lighting in the final sequence but we only use natural lighting in our preliminary as it was mostly shot outside.
There is better use of sound as we have used not used speech just a soundtrack throughout, in the preliminary we used speech but it did not work too well as it sounded too monotone.
We have also used props in our opening sequence so then it is able to fit with our genre of horror, yet we did not do this with the preliminary task.
Overall our product I think is a success, after gathering feedback off people who watched it, I think they thought it was successful too. Its strengths have been backed up by all the research into other films we have done, and included ideas from their films into ours.
Weaknesses have been planning and deciding what we all think would be a successful opening sequence in a group of four girls, but eventually we all agreed and I think has worked out quite well.
I am happy with the outcome of the opening sequence we have all made as we all tried our best to fit in with the timing of the film which was 2minutes and the lighting which was dark and eerie.
The target audience for our opening sequence we have made it appealing to teenagers and young adults, the certificate we put with the film was 15. This we thought was appropriate as the actual filming of a horror opening sequence certificate 18 would be too difficult.
With this in mind we asked two people both over the age of 15 to answer questions and relate them back to the sequence. I have placed questions from the questionnaire throughout my evaluation.
My project was a horror opening sequence to a film, the certificate being 15. I worked in a group of four girls and we all came up with different ideas then placed them all together and decided on the basics of our opening sequence.
There were three stages in producing our opening sequence and we all took part in them all. The pre production was the planning as I have said above we all pitched different ideas and all agreed on creating a horror opening sequence. Shot lists and storyboards were created but kept needed to be amended as we were still unsure of the final scenes.
To familiarise ourselves with the camera equipment we made a preliminary task which was only short but we did learn how to use all the equipment correctly.
During the production we all contributed in different things but I participated in basically all areas of making and producing the sequence. These were acting, lighting and filming some of the panning shots of the photographs.
The choice of non-diegetic sound was all decided as a group and I think we found the correct soundtrack for our sequence as it is tense and fits well with the genre we have chosen.
The post production was the editing part of the sequence which we all took part in we had to cut the scenes which would not work in the final opening sequence and as it ran over the time limit we had we had to make some cuts but we kept the narrative sense. We have used chronological editing which clearly defines the time of what is happening in the opening sequence.
The genre of our film is horror as we thought this would fit well into what teenagers view the most.
We wanted to try and make our opening sequence significant with other horrors found in the film industry so the conventions we used do match with typical horror. Examples of this is lighting as we use dark and hard lighting. But the cinematography used we tried to get various angles and movements.
The camera movements used in our sequence are the panning shot showing the photographs on the wall,
With this in mind we asked two people both over the age of 15 to answer questions and relate them back to the sequence. I have placed questions from the questionnaire throughout my evaluation.
My project was a horror opening sequence to a film, the certificate being 15. I worked in a group of four girls and we all came up with different ideas then placed them all together and decided on the basics of our opening sequence.
There were three stages in producing our opening sequence and we all took part in them all. The pre production was the planning as I have said above we all pitched different ideas and all agreed on creating a horror opening sequence. Shot lists and storyboards were created but kept needed to be amended as we were still unsure of the final scenes.
To familiarise ourselves with the camera equipment we made a preliminary task which was only short but we did learn how to use all the equipment correctly.
During the production we all contributed in different things but I participated in basically all areas of making and producing the sequence. These were acting, lighting and filming some of the panning shots of the photographs.
The choice of non-diegetic sound was all decided as a group and I think we found the correct soundtrack for our sequence as it is tense and fits well with the genre we have chosen.
The post production was the editing part of the sequence which we all took part in we had to cut the scenes which would not work in the final opening sequence and as it ran over the time limit we had we had to make some cuts but we kept the narrative sense. We have used chronological editing which clearly defines the time of what is happening in the opening sequence.
The genre of our film is horror as we thought this would fit well into what teenagers view the most.
We wanted to try and make our opening sequence significant with other horrors found in the film industry so the conventions we used do match with typical horror. Examples of this is lighting as we use dark and hard lighting. But the cinematography used we tried to get various angles and movements.
The camera movements used in our sequence are the panning shot showing the photographs on the wall,
An over the shoulder shot of the villain and his knifes, a point-of-view shot of the light switch, 
A medium shot of the two protaganists tied up on the floor, then the close up shot of one of the girls screaming.
We hoped with these varied shots the sequence would be successful because then the cinematography would have a range of different shots to it. I think that it worked effectively as the questionnaire proved that the target audience that is teenagers thought all the cameras angles worked.
Do the cut out shots of the picture from another angle work well?
a) Yes it intrigues you.
b ) Yes it sets up and enigma of the villain watching the two girls.
From the photos in the panning shot is it clear to understand who the main characters are?
a) Yes as you can guess that the photographs are from young children to the present day.
b ) I don’t think that it is clear as it could be.
There are only three actors in our opening sequence, one being the man who is the villain, we tried to represent him in a way of being obsessive and dominant. The costume he wears is dark this is typical villain this signifies that he may be potentially dangerous and this is shown without using dialogue in our sequence. The actions this man is doing makes you think is this man mentally ill as the way he handles his knifes portrays this as he is stroking them like they were precious objects to him.
From what you have gathered from the villain, does he seem sinister and potentially dangerous? a) Yes you can see the villain is sinister and dangerous, it gave me shivers when he stroked the girls face.
b ) Yes you are able to tell it is a man obsessed.
a) Yes it intrigues you.
b ) Yes it sets up and enigma of the villain watching the two girls.
From the photos in the panning shot is it clear to understand who the main characters are?
a) Yes as you can guess that the photographs are from young children to the present day.
b ) I don’t think that it is clear as it could be.
There are only three actors in our opening sequence, one being the man who is the villain, we tried to represent him in a way of being obsessive and dominant. The costume he wears is dark this is typical villain this signifies that he may be potentially dangerous and this is shown without using dialogue in our sequence. The actions this man is doing makes you think is this man mentally ill as the way he handles his knifes portrays this as he is stroking them like they were precious objects to him.
From what you have gathered from the villain, does he seem sinister and potentially dangerous? a) Yes you can see the villain is sinister and dangerous, it gave me shivers when he stroked the girls face.
b ) Yes you are able to tell it is a man obsessed.
No speech is used throughout but overall I think that it is not needed as everything is shown by characters’ actions or the music which builds tension. The lighting in which the villain is usually shown in is hard or low-key lighting so the setting in which filming is taking place is darker than normal reflecting his psychological state.
The two protagonists are mainly shown in three point lighting to balance out he shot as they are placed in the centre, this shows their innocence and vulnerability.The costumes they are wearing are contemporary teenage clothes and the appearance of them is quite stereotypical due to them both being girls which are blonde. In horror films and also in the media it is usually the ‘blonde’ girl who ends up being the victim.
Does the appearance of the victims suit its genre?
a) Yes it is effective.
b ) Yes the two girls look realistic for the situation they are in.
The target audience for this opening sequence would be mainly for people aged 16-25, so the actors in the film are around those ages allowing the audience to relate to them.
The socio-economic status of the audience for this film would fall into group E who would be mainly students watching this genre of film. These are good target groups as they have the highest disposable income or have spare time at weekends and are able to afford the cinema more, this helps the product financially.
Looking back over my audience feedback I am able to tell that there are more positive responses about the opening sequence in general than there was negative.
This shows that our opening sequence as a whole was successful for the certificate we gave it initially.
Did our choice of film work effectively for the audience?
a) Yes as teenagers.
b ) Yes for young adults.
As our target audience is teenagers attracting them with a horror film should have been easy but a lot of points had to be considered in our own horror opening sequence.
We needed to set up enigmas which draw the viewer into the first few minutes of the film then wanting to find out what happens throughout the rest of the film. The setting in which characters are in needs to be shown as there should be a disrupting event happening which will intrigue the viewers to watch the rest of the film.
We have not used narration in our opening sequence, we have used a soundtrack, which was chosen to build up tension and suspense. The soundtrack also helps set up an enigma when the villain strokes the girls face, you are able to sense the fear in her face, without the soundtrack it would not have been successful.
Should we of used dialogue in this opening sequence?
a) No definitely not, it would be less scary if you did.
b ) No it was not needed.
The mise-en-scene in most frames we have shot are in low-key lighting and this can make the effect of harsh shadows on objects and people. Everything in the frame has been placed there, an example of this is the villain at the table with empty alcohol bottles surrounding him, this seems like a normal person would not portray his actions.
The characters movement throughout the short lasting sequence is very slow as it is just the opening, trying to set up a sense of time and place. The slow panning shot which is slow and deliberate also reflects the villain’s mental state as we see this through his actions.Do you think the panning shot work well as the opening shot to a sequence?
a) I like how the credits were at the very beginning as the photos were shown, it made it look like a real film
b) Yes definitely, the names appearing work well.
This media course was a new course to me this year. I have learnt a lot of new skills, mainly with technology being introduced to new software. We created a blog to record all the research and talk about the film process, I have learnt how to contribute to that. Also during the production I learnt how to use the camera equipment correctly and safely as I shot the preliminary task.
During the post production we got taught how to use the editing software on the Macs which we had to keep adapting all the time. As the editing process took longer than we expected we eventually ran out of time but managed to finish it to a suitable standard. Although if more time was allowed then our opening sequence could have been much better.
Overall learning all this new information and techniques has helped our opening sequence turn out much better than I hoped it would.
Looking at both the preliminary task and our final product it is clear to see how much better our skills have expanded. The camera movements on our opening sequence are much steadier and use more varied movements than just tilt movements using a tripod and hand-held on the preliminary task.
The lighting differs also as the low-key lighting in the final sequence but we only use natural lighting in our preliminary as it was mostly shot outside.
There is better use of sound as we have used not used speech just a soundtrack throughout, in the preliminary we used speech but it did not work too well as it sounded too monotone.
We have also used props in our opening sequence so then it is able to fit with our genre of horror, yet we did not do this with the preliminary task.
Overall our product I think is a success, after gathering feedback off people who watched it, I think they thought it was successful too. Its strengths have been backed up by all the research into other films we have done, and included ideas from their films into ours.
Weaknesses have been planning and deciding what we all think would be a successful opening sequence in a group of four girls, but eventually we all agreed and I think has worked out quite well.
Evaluation - Charina Clarkson
Evaluation
Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The genre of our product is a thriller. Therefore the conventions used were vital to reveal the type of film. Elements such as knives, photos of the young girls, drugs and alcohol represent the genre of our opening sequence as they convey violence (see image 1, 2 and 3). The mise-en-scene is another element to making our genre look like a thriller. We decided to use an old looking garage/workshop. We did this to reveal what type of character the protagonist was. Also, the garage/workshop is typical of a man’s work. The brick was old and the paint work was pealing – this was to add the thriller aspect of the film (see image 1). Our feedback made us aware that the location worked well: “The brickwork made it look scary! And because it is set in a garage, it makes it realistic”.
The characters also reveal the genre because they are stereotypical of thriller films. We used a male villain and two young innocent girls. This demonstrates the realism we have tried to create to engage the audience. I will later discuss the characters we used.
The text we used also enhanced to thriller aspect. It gave a sort of carved effect and made it looked old. We decided to use the colour white as it stood out from the dark, mysterious atmosphere created in the sequence (see image 4 and 12).
I feel we fulfilled the challenges set. The task was to do an opening sequence. An opening sequence needs to establish time and place; to set up enigmas; to establish the main characters; to set up an initial equilibrium; to introduce any themes and motifs linked to ideologies (messages) in the film and to set audience expectations e.g. style and plot. I feel we fulfilled these requirements. We set up time and place by introducing the mise-en-scene slowly. This was done by a slow panning shot giving iconography away e.g alcohol bottles, drugs, knifes etc. (see image 2 and 3). When the audience watch the sequence they would be able to piece the setting together. Finally, we showed the girls in the garage/workshop – this gave away the whole of the setting. We can tell the film is set in the present day due to clothing.
The main characters were introduced in an unusual way. The girls were firstly introduced at the very beginning: the panning shot of the photographs (see image 1 and 4). When they were shown, the audience were unaware of why the photos are used. I feel this gave our product an innovation because of the unique introduction of the characters. They were then properly introduced when the light switches on to reveal the situation. The audience then realises that the two girls shown are the two girls in the photographs. The villain is introduced by using a panning shot across his table (filled with empty alcohol bottles and drugs) to show him cutting up a photo of the two girls to add to his collection (see image 5 and 6). His identity is not revealed, this creates an enigma to the audience. Enigmas were set throughout the whole of the opening sequence. Later on in my evaluation I will discuss the enigmas we created.
Our feedback told us that they liked the panning shot at the beginning: “At first when you see the photos you don’t really realise who they are, but then when you see the girls centred in the room you realise that it is them”. “I like how the credits were at the very beginning as the photos were shown; it made it look like a real film."
Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The types of people we have represented are two young innocent teenage girls and a villain. We paid particular attention to their clothing and the way they were represented: as naive teenagers. The villain was our protagonist because he will be shown mainly throughout the film as the main character. We did this by introducing him to the audience first. In a typical thriller film, the protagonist is usually a hero – again, this is other innovation we created. The villain’s face is never shown throughout the opening sequence. This is to show he has a hidden identity and to add the suspense of the film, typical of the genre. We dressed him in a black coat – the black represents his power and his mysterious nature. The girls were dressed in modern clothing worn by girls out our era. One of the girls is wearing a white vest top – this portrays her innocence (see image 7, the girl on the right). Our feedback commented “You can see the villain is sinister and dangerous…it gave me shivers when he stroked the girl’s face!”
Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Because our target audience is aimed at teenagers, the film could be shown at the cinema. Young people enjoy going to the cinema quite regularly so I feel it could be successful. Our opening sequence was produced on a limited budget and think it could work as a British production to make a good profit. The first ‘Saw’ film was distributed Lionsgate. ‘Saw II’ was distributed by Twisted Pictures and Lionsgate. These companies will be an appropriate distributer for our product as they have distributed a lot of the same genre as our film.
Question 4: Who would be the audience for you media product?
We decided to aim our opening sequence at young people (i.e teenagers 15-19). We chose this target audience because we can relate to it and know the audience’s expectations. However, anyone over the age of 15 will still enjoy it if they like thriller films. I feel gender and ethnicity of any individual will also like our product. People who share the interest of thriller genre will obviously also enjoy it.
We gave the certificate of our film at 15; this allowed 15 years old people to watch it as well as anyone older. We made the victims young girls because this invited the audience of the same interests. It makes the audience feel more scared when they are watching it because they feel like it could be them.
Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?
Because the genre of the film is a thriller, the audience had expectations that needed to be fulfilled. I feel we did this well by attracting and addressing the audience.
We set up equilibrium and disruption in the narrative. We firstly introduced the setting and the main characters. The story was set up and then disrupted when the light switch was turned on the find the two girls on the floor – this created an impact to the sequence and shocked the audience (see image 7 and 8). Because we decided our opening sequence was going to act like a prologue we could disrupt the equilibrium early. This makes the audience hooked and will want to see a re-equilibrium established.
Sense of time was created by using contemporary clothing and equipment (i.e bottles of alcohol, beer etc).
Enigmas were set up constantly during our opening sequence. Why is a man setting up knives? (see image 9) Why is he collecting photographs of young girls? (see image 1 and 6). Why has he captured the girls? Is it out of revenge? What will he do to them? Our feedback told us: “The knives being set out created an enigma. When he puts them in order, it contributes to his obsessive nature.”
We created a ‘binary opposition’ by creating conflict between the characters. The audience can immediately understand the contrast between the characters due to the man and his violent weapons, and the use of innocence and vulnerability the girls portray. This was shown through facial expression, body language and costume (see images 10 and 11).
We built up tension during our opening sequence. This was done by adding music that created suspense. Our feedback told us: “The music fits well with the genre of the film. It sets a good scene and tells the audience that something bad is going to happen and you just don’t know when!”. The use of a slow panning shot at the beginning was used to introduce the characters and created a sense of anxiety. The use of props used (i.e alcohol, knives, drugs) added tension too, as they are typically associated with violence (see image 2). The characters also did – they are typical of a thriller film.
I feel our project conforms to dominant ideologies showing young females at risk from violent males. The themes were created were obsession and love.
Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of construction this product?
We constructed the opening sequence on iMovie. This was a new programme to use for me. But after being taught how to use it I became very good at using it. I didn’t find any limitations; I felt the software made it accessible to make it look like a real film. This programme allowed us to cut the film; rearrange the shots; add audio; add text (credits).
We did research on the internet before we set to film out product. We went on sites such as youtube.com to look at how other producers made an opening sequence to a film. On the internet is where were composed our blog – this allowed us to keep a record of our research and the construction of our product.
Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I feel we have developed so much since the preliminary task. Elements such as the composition of the shots; the smoothness of editing and transitions; and sound and lighting are improved. The narratives of our preliminary task and final product are completely different, so it is hard to compare the two. However, I feel the overall progression has developed dramatically. The preliminary task taught us the importance of continuity techniques such as match on action; shot-reverse shot; 180° rule – all of which we used well in our project.
To conclude, I feel our overall product worked quite well. I feel it creates tension and mystery. However, because we worked in such a large group we had a lot of different opinions on how the product could be structured. However, having a large group meant more ideas were available. I believe that the overall opening sequence could be used as a real piece. However, better quality of camera, acting and setting will need to be improved. Lots of time and effort went into making our piece a success. And now I appreciate the amount of work real films have to make them achievable.
Charina Clarkson.
Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The genre of our product is a thriller. Therefore the conventions used were vital to reveal the type of film. Elements such as knives, photos of the young girls, drugs and alcohol represent the genre of our opening sequence as they convey violence (see image 1, 2 and 3). The mise-en-scene is another element to making our genre look like a thriller. We decided to use an old looking garage/workshop. We did this to reveal what type of character the protagonist was. Also, the garage/workshop is typical of a man’s work. The brick was old and the paint work was pealing – this was to add the thriller aspect of the film (see image 1). Our feedback made us aware that the location worked well: “The brickwork made it look scary! And because it is set in a garage, it makes it realistic”.
The characters also reveal the genre because they are stereotypical of thriller films. We used a male villain and two young innocent girls. This demonstrates the realism we have tried to create to engage the audience. I will later discuss the characters we used.
The text we used also enhanced to thriller aspect. It gave a sort of carved effect and made it looked old. We decided to use the colour white as it stood out from the dark, mysterious atmosphere created in the sequence (see image 4 and 12).
I feel we fulfilled the challenges set. The task was to do an opening sequence. An opening sequence needs to establish time and place; to set up enigmas; to establish the main characters; to set up an initial equilibrium; to introduce any themes and motifs linked to ideologies (messages) in the film and to set audience expectations e.g. style and plot. I feel we fulfilled these requirements. We set up time and place by introducing the mise-en-scene slowly. This was done by a slow panning shot giving iconography away e.g alcohol bottles, drugs, knifes etc. (see image 2 and 3). When the audience watch the sequence they would be able to piece the setting together. Finally, we showed the girls in the garage/workshop – this gave away the whole of the setting. We can tell the film is set in the present day due to clothing.
The main characters were introduced in an unusual way. The girls were firstly introduced at the very beginning: the panning shot of the photographs (see image 1 and 4). When they were shown, the audience were unaware of why the photos are used. I feel this gave our product an innovation because of the unique introduction of the characters. They were then properly introduced when the light switches on to reveal the situation. The audience then realises that the two girls shown are the two girls in the photographs. The villain is introduced by using a panning shot across his table (filled with empty alcohol bottles and drugs) to show him cutting up a photo of the two girls to add to his collection (see image 5 and 6). His identity is not revealed, this creates an enigma to the audience. Enigmas were set throughout the whole of the opening sequence. Later on in my evaluation I will discuss the enigmas we created.
Our feedback told us that they liked the panning shot at the beginning: “At first when you see the photos you don’t really realise who they are, but then when you see the girls centred in the room you realise that it is them”. “I like how the credits were at the very beginning as the photos were shown; it made it look like a real film."
Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The types of people we have represented are two young innocent teenage girls and a villain. We paid particular attention to their clothing and the way they were represented: as naive teenagers. The villain was our protagonist because he will be shown mainly throughout the film as the main character. We did this by introducing him to the audience first. In a typical thriller film, the protagonist is usually a hero – again, this is other innovation we created. The villain’s face is never shown throughout the opening sequence. This is to show he has a hidden identity and to add the suspense of the film, typical of the genre. We dressed him in a black coat – the black represents his power and his mysterious nature. The girls were dressed in modern clothing worn by girls out our era. One of the girls is wearing a white vest top – this portrays her innocence (see image 7, the girl on the right). Our feedback commented “You can see the villain is sinister and dangerous…it gave me shivers when he stroked the girl’s face!”
Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Because our target audience is aimed at teenagers, the film could be shown at the cinema. Young people enjoy going to the cinema quite regularly so I feel it could be successful. Our opening sequence was produced on a limited budget and think it could work as a British production to make a good profit. The first ‘Saw’ film was distributed Lionsgate. ‘Saw II’ was distributed by Twisted Pictures and Lionsgate. These companies will be an appropriate distributer for our product as they have distributed a lot of the same genre as our film.
Question 4: Who would be the audience for you media product?
We decided to aim our opening sequence at young people (i.e teenagers 15-19). We chose this target audience because we can relate to it and know the audience’s expectations. However, anyone over the age of 15 will still enjoy it if they like thriller films. I feel gender and ethnicity of any individual will also like our product. People who share the interest of thriller genre will obviously also enjoy it.
We gave the certificate of our film at 15; this allowed 15 years old people to watch it as well as anyone older. We made the victims young girls because this invited the audience of the same interests. It makes the audience feel more scared when they are watching it because they feel like it could be them.
Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?
Because the genre of the film is a thriller, the audience had expectations that needed to be fulfilled. I feel we did this well by attracting and addressing the audience.
We set up equilibrium and disruption in the narrative. We firstly introduced the setting and the main characters. The story was set up and then disrupted when the light switch was turned on the find the two girls on the floor – this created an impact to the sequence and shocked the audience (see image 7 and 8). Because we decided our opening sequence was going to act like a prologue we could disrupt the equilibrium early. This makes the audience hooked and will want to see a re-equilibrium established.
Sense of time was created by using contemporary clothing and equipment (i.e bottles of alcohol, beer etc).
Enigmas were set up constantly during our opening sequence. Why is a man setting up knives? (see image 9) Why is he collecting photographs of young girls? (see image 1 and 6). Why has he captured the girls? Is it out of revenge? What will he do to them? Our feedback told us: “The knives being set out created an enigma. When he puts them in order, it contributes to his obsessive nature.”
We created a ‘binary opposition’ by creating conflict between the characters. The audience can immediately understand the contrast between the characters due to the man and his violent weapons, and the use of innocence and vulnerability the girls portray. This was shown through facial expression, body language and costume (see images 10 and 11).
We built up tension during our opening sequence. This was done by adding music that created suspense. Our feedback told us: “The music fits well with the genre of the film. It sets a good scene and tells the audience that something bad is going to happen and you just don’t know when!”. The use of a slow panning shot at the beginning was used to introduce the characters and created a sense of anxiety. The use of props used (i.e alcohol, knives, drugs) added tension too, as they are typically associated with violence (see image 2). The characters also did – they are typical of a thriller film.
I feel our project conforms to dominant ideologies showing young females at risk from violent males. The themes were created were obsession and love.
Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of construction this product?
We constructed the opening sequence on iMovie. This was a new programme to use for me. But after being taught how to use it I became very good at using it. I didn’t find any limitations; I felt the software made it accessible to make it look like a real film. This programme allowed us to cut the film; rearrange the shots; add audio; add text (credits).
We did research on the internet before we set to film out product. We went on sites such as youtube.com to look at how other producers made an opening sequence to a film. On the internet is where were composed our blog – this allowed us to keep a record of our research and the construction of our product.
Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I feel we have developed so much since the preliminary task. Elements such as the composition of the shots; the smoothness of editing and transitions; and sound and lighting are improved. The narratives of our preliminary task and final product are completely different, so it is hard to compare the two. However, I feel the overall progression has developed dramatically. The preliminary task taught us the importance of continuity techniques such as match on action; shot-reverse shot; 180° rule – all of which we used well in our project.
To conclude, I feel our overall product worked quite well. I feel it creates tension and mystery. However, because we worked in such a large group we had a lot of different opinions on how the product could be structured. However, having a large group meant more ideas were available. I believe that the overall opening sequence could be used as a real piece. However, better quality of camera, acting and setting will need to be improved. Lots of time and effort went into making our piece a success. And now I appreciate the amount of work real films have to make them achievable.
Charina Clarkson.
Evaluation Images - Charina Clarkson
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Thursday 30 April 2009
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