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.
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