Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.

What are conventions of a film opening?

Using conventions in a film opening is essential. This is because the purpose of it, is to begin the audiences interest so they immediately stay focussed and engaged in watching the remaining of the film. Conventions of a film opening include many things, such as; introducing the main characters, so the audience are aware of what characters they should be following throughout the whole film, introducing the plot which will give the audience an idea of what kind of genre the film is and what it is about, establishing the setting, which will help the audience know the exact location in which the film is set, credits and titles, a key event occurs and non diegetic sound is used.

What are the conventions of a title sequence?

A title sequence is a method used in the opening of a film to present all the titles and the credits. This usually comes in a specific order. The production icon usually comes first, then the distribution icon comes second, the first actor then comes in, followed by the second actor, after this the title of the film is shown, this is then followed by the remaining of all the actors, after all the main characters are shown the casting is next, then the music superviser, then the costume designer, then the film editor, then the production designer, then the director of photography, then the executive producer, then the screenplay then the producer and then finally the director is shown last.

Recording over the film to show how we have used film conventions in our opening

Throughout the beginning of our thriller opening we followed all the conventions of a film opening. This is because we introduced the main characters, the plot, main setting, a key event occurred, we used titles and credits and non diegetic sound. We also followed the order of the title sequence. 

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Media representations are the ways in which the media portrays particular groups. There are seven main main categories , there are; class and status, age, ethnicity, ability and disability, sexuality, regional identity and gender.In our film opening, many media representations of these social groups were portrayed. The two social groups in which we represented were age and ethnicity. Age was represented in the opening of our film as the location was in a college which therefore links it to students of young age. Ethnicity is represented as society mainly sees and stereotypes the Asian community to be more academically able and successful which portrays the Asian chemistry student. Bullying and committing suicide is seen as a negative thing therefore these social groups are represented in a negative aspect.

Interviewing some members of the target audience

Evaluation Question 3

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

 

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Thriller films in general are targeted at mainly older teenagers in the age range of 18. This may because they include violent and upsetting scenes. It may also be disturbing or scary for younger teenagers to watch.  However the age range varies due to the different types of thrillers. There are psychological thrillers which may be aimed for older teenagers or even adults, romantic thrillers which are aimed at adults and supernatural thrillers which are mainly targeted for older teenagers. The audience more specific to our sub-genre would be teenagers from the age of 14 up to 19. This is because it is based around bullying and being a student and as it is also set in a college. 

Here is a Facebook profile of a member of our target audience. As mentioned, thrillers are mainly aimed at teenagers, this is shown on this persons Facebook account, in their bio that they are interested in thriller films as stated 'Love my thriller films'. This already shows the interest and engagement this person will have upon our thriller film. 

This member of our target audience has written a status stating how much she would like to see our thriller film and also how 'awesome' it looks. This helps to keep a larger audience as she is clearly has friends her age on Facebook, and therefore advertising it to all her friends, that they should watch the film also. This is how social networking sites such as Facebook help to get a larger audience for new films. 

You can see the excitement this member of the target audience has to watch the thriller film, again proving that thriller films are indeed aimed at teenagers.

Here she has written a status about watching the film and that it is a 'must watch' film. Writing 'must watch' helps the audience grow as this is again advertising and sharing the film amongst other members of the target audience. 

Evaluation Question 5

 

How did you attract and address your audience?


Visit to the cinema ( premier of our film screening)

Our film being shown on the big screen!

Interviewing the audience that watched our film in the cinemas

   

 

Interviewing the main actor from our film



Evaluation Question 6

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

During the process of producing and constructing our final thriller film opening, we used a number of different technologies. The variety of technologies we used included Macs which helped us to access safari and firefox which then helped us to access blogspot, other technologies include Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro, Motion, JVC camera, mobile phones, flip cameras, still cameras, video drives, memory cards, camtasia and MPEG stream clip. Using these different technologies helped us to make our film opening as successful as it could be and without them it would of been very difficult. It also helped me as a individual to become more independent.

Using the Macs helped us to access nearly all the necessities we needed in order to create our film opening. This included technologies such as safari and firefox. Safari and firefox helped us to access google, youtube and blogspot. These three technologies made it easier for the researching and planning of our film. This is  because google helped us to find images and information we needed in order to help us with the planning of our film, youtube helped as we were able to watch clips of real film openings which gave us an insight on how to create ours and finally blogspot was a extremely vital part as it was through blogging that we could put all our research and planning together in order to create ideas for our final thriller film opening. Blogging helped me become more independent as I was able to blog whenever and whatever I though was necessary to contribute to the making of our film opening. 

 

One of the most important technologies we used which without, would not have been possible to create our film was the JVC cameras.The JVC cameras helped us to capture all the footage we needed in order for our film to be of best quality. It also allowed good shot compitsion and let us film a variety of shots such as close ups, mid shot, establishing shot, high and low angles and many other shots. It was difficult at first to get the camera to capture all the footage as we were not used to this new device however over time we began to get more and more used to it and very much enjoyed using them. Additioanlly the camera allowed us to take footage of every movement and all the footage we filmed were of high quality. Because of the high quality footage, it helped to make our film look professional. Before using the JVC cameras we had a health and safely tutorial on how exactly to use them and all the basic 'do's' and 'dont's' of using them. Using the JVC camera helped me to become more independent as I was mainly the one fiming the final product.

 

Another technology we used to constuct our film were the flip cameras. The flip cameras were a small, simple and easy piece of technology used as it was just swicting it on and getting on with recording whatever needed to be recorded straight away. Getting the footage from the flip cameras to the Mac computers was very simple as the flip cameras had a USB connected to it in which we had to plug into the computers. From there we had to covert the footage to MP4 using MPEG streamclip. The flip cameras were usually used to get feedback from our audience and teachers and also used for interviews. Using them really helped me to again become independent. It helped me to develop my planning skills as the feedback I got back would have a affect on me and I would take on board all the feedback I  receieved.

 

 

Still cameras was another technology used which helped us immensely throughout the process of our preliminary exercise. This is because it helped us to creare our storyboard as we took a number of pictures to create a storyline. The still cameras were also used to take pictures of the props and locations we used in our prelim. Using the still cameras helped me to become more creative as I took a number of pictures. All these images were then put on our blogs which therefore helped to develop our research and planning skills as it was helping to build up a story for our prelim.

 

 

Having the three memory cards, A, B and C helped keep everything stored as everything we filmed and took pictures of were always stored on the memory cards. This is due to the large storage capacity it has. This was one of the most important technologies because without it all of our work not have been safetly saved and stored anywhere. It was easy to put all the footage and pictures from the memory cards on to the Mac computers as all that needed to be done was inserted the memory card into the side on the computer. We were shown a tutorial from candimedia on how to insert the memory card into the camera. This was a significant part in filming as the footage we had filmed would not have been saved

or may not have got recorded without them.

 

 

The video drive was the most essential thing we needed in order to keep all our footage in place. This is due to the large storage capacity it has. Everything we had filmed was always stored in the video drive and this was useful as some of the clips from the footage were edited on Final Cut Pro and was put on to Soundtrack Pro. This was done by plugging the video drive into the Mac computers. It was often difficult remembering to safetly remove the video drive, by dragging it into the trash. This would of been a major problem as all our hard work would of been lost. A advantage of storing all the footage on the video drive was that it is portable therefore it was able to be moved around from computer to computer.

 

SoundTrack pro was another very important technology we used to create our film. This is because this is where the main sound was creared to put into our film. We found that choosing and creating a suitable sound for our film was very fun. This helped me as an individual, become more creative as it was me creating my own sound to put into the film. When we were happy with the end product of our sound we imported in on to Final Cut Pro. I was happy and very confident that the sound in which we created went well with our film plot.

Final Cut Pro was another technology we needed to create our film and without this it would of been very difficult to constuct our film. This is because Final Cut Pro created the whole film by putting all the scenes together in order for it to flow well and look as professional as it could be. This was done by trimming and deleting the clips that didn't go well together or clips that did. This was done by arranging all the footage on the timeline and editing them from there. In addition Final Cut Pro allowed us to add in effects such as flashes and transisitions, this may engage the audience. Final Cut Pro also allowed us to add in titles, credits and the sound and music we had created on Sound Track Pro. This helped me become more creative as it was about putting everything together in order for it to all flow well and also get the sound on the precise timing as the film.

Finally Motion. This is where we created our Distribution Icon for the very beginning of our film opening. We chose to name our Distribution company 'EyeWatch Films'.
We used Bokeh effects and transitions to create a professional look and also because we thought it would engage the audience further. This helped me develop my creativity skills as this was all created by myself and Fareena.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evaluation Question 7

What do you think you have learnt in the progression from the preliminary task to the full product?

               

Looking back at our work with the cameras

Looking back at filming

Naziara positioning the camera for when the book is thrown

Fareena also using the camera - not sure what she is doing :)

We're Done!!

Finished our final edit of the opening with success ! :)

Marys feedback on our final film opening

Marys feedback on our final film opening

Using Motion for our distribution icon

Motion

 

 

 

Making the final piece

Putting together our final piece on Final Cut Pro

Adding in the production icon at the start

Adding in the titles

Watching over what we have so far

Shuffling some scenes 

Choosing how we want our font to appear

Putting our titles in order

Rendering the titles and effects

Succubus- Analysis of a previous student film opening

Analysis of a previous student film opening-Succubus

Camera
The camera is used in a number of ways such as using medium shots and wide shots. This is used to show the audience the whole shot which may include the main characters, the setting etc. A high angel of the camera is also used when the victim is getting stabbed this higher angel of the camera is used in order to show the vulnerability of the victim. This helps to keep the audience stay engaged as they will feel sympathetic towards the character getting stabbed.


Sound
The sound used in the opening of the film 'Succubus' helps to keep the audience stay engaged whilst watching it. This is because non diegetic sound is used, which is sound added in post production which uses sound effects. The sound used is a loud scary note towards the end of the opening. This will create suspense for the audience and therefore want to carry on watching the rest of the film.

Editing
The way in which this opening is edited is done very well. This is because the use of cross cutting is used. This is when the editing takes us from one situation to another, usually back and fourth, to suggest two things are linked. In this case, a female is walking very slowly through a corridor and up the stairs this cross cuts to a male character in a shower. This shows that both these scenes will soon be linked. Another way in which this opening is well edited is because it uses slow and fast motion and. Slow motion is used when the female character is walking into the bathroom and fast motion is used whilst she is stabbing the male character. This may help the audience stay focussed and interested.

Mise en scene

-Lighting
The lighting in the opening of this thriller film is not very good as it seems to be very dim throughout, this makes it difficult for the audience to see the facial expressions of the characters and makes it difficult to watch it as a whole.

-Body Language
The slow motion in which the female character is walking indicates somethings about to happen. This leaves the audience is suspense

-Costume
No costume

-Setting
This opening is based in a bathroom

-Props
Knife

Analysing the Opening of Manhattan

Analysing Film openings

Manhattan 

We will be analysing the opening of 'Manhattan'

This opening is an opening where the narrator opens the opening of a film. This is different to how the credits and titles and the discrete title sequence would open the film as a discrete title sequence is edited separately and the credits and titles appear on a black screen.

Camera
The camera is used in a number of ways. Firstly when children are running out of school in a scene from the opening the camera is placed in a high angel to show the children are vulnerable. Secondly there are medium shots and wide shots of the opening. This may be because it is trying to show exactly where the setting is placed.

Editing
The editing of this opening is done very well. It uses cross cuts which is when the editing takes the audience from one situation to another, (in this case the streets of new york to buildings in new york) usually back and fourth, to suggest the 2 things are linked. Also slow and fast motion is used to help keep the audience interested in the rest of the film.

Sound
The sound which is used in the opening of this film helps to keep the audience engaged. It uses non diegetic sound which is sound added in post production, which uses sound effects. Also sound bridge is used, which means sound linking 2 scenes together, hearing the voice of an actor and music put together. 

Mise en scene

-Setting
The opening of this film is based in New York city.

-Lighting
The lighting is very dim and this may be a disadvantage as it may make the audience lose interest and bore them.

Analysing Film openings

Analysing Film openings

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Opening

We will be analysing the opening of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'

The type of opening of this film is a Discrete Title sequence. This is because Discrete title sequences are sequences which are separately edited and that stand well from the film opening. They are stylised and edited alot, and they support nearly all of the opening credits and film title. Also the opening of this film includes a title sequence where we see the title and the credits appear over the main opening of the film this is when the film begins. Majority of films use credits and titles through out the beginning of the film. 

Camera
The camera is used in number of different ways through out the opening of this film. For example many close ups are used such as extreme close ups and big close ups. These close ups may be used in order to keep the audience interested and engaged. Another way the camera is used is tracking. This is where the camera is moving along, as it is following a moving subject. In addition the camera is also panning which means that it is on a fixed point, swivelling left or right. 

Editing

The way in which this film opening is edited is very good and this helps the audience stay focussed on it. There are many ways in which this opening was edited. For example there are many transitions used, which means effects added (during the opening). The effects used were objects fading into a black and deep blue colour indicating something scary or bad is about to happen. Another example of how this film opening is very well edited is because it uses slow and fast motion. In addition many flashbacks are used to create suspense.

Sound
The sound that was used during the opening of the film opening 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' was very helpful in making sure the audience stay interested, focussed and engaged. This is because non diegetic sound was used which means sound is added in post production such as sound effects. A bit of sound bridge might be said to also be used in this opening as there is a screaming sound which has a tune to it, throughout the opening along with music with it. Finally many sound effects are used to create excitement for the audience such as bangs, crashes, screaming etc. 

Mise en scene

-Body language
The body language of the two crystal characters in the opening of this film seems to come across as a bit spooky. This is due to their slow movement and of course the obvious of which they are not actual humans. 

-Setting
It is difficult to say where exactly the setting of this film opening is based as it comes across as a blur. 

-Props
No props

-Lighting
The lighting of this opening was not of good quality as it was dark which made it very difficult to see what was going.

-Costume
No costume

Health and Safety tutorial

Health and Safety tutorial 

A few lessons before we started filming we were taught exactly how to use the camera in one of Dan's lessons. This lesson was useful as it helped us understand the 'dos' and 'don'ts' of how to use a camera.
For example:

-Don't run with the camera in your hand
-Don't hold the camera with only one hand
-Don't keep the camera switched on when you are not filming as this wastes the battery
-Do film as much as you can in the given time
-Do remember to keep the camera in safe

We were shown a tutorial from candimedia on how to insert the memory card into the camera. This is a significant part in filming as the footage you have filmed will not be saved or may not get recorded without it. In addition memory cards store all the images and footage you have taken, therefore remember to keep it safe!

Equipment you have been introduced to


We were introduced to the tripod and the camera on that day. At first trying to set up the tripod was very tricky as it wouldn't stand straight and this meant that the camera would not have been stable on the tripod. As we filmed lesson after lesson, I soon got the hang of it. Also switching the camera on and switching it off was always something I would forget however as mentioned before I soon got the hang of it. It was also difficult trying to keep a balance whilst filming.

Opinion?

Personally, I feel like from Dan's lesson I learnt a lot about how to set the camera and tripod up and also  how to insert the memory cards. This was useful as filming in the lessons after were more enjoyable and more easier.

Looking back at our best day of filming

Looking Back On Our Best Day

 

 

The day we thoroughly enjoyed filming was the day we went into the Science labs.           

 

 

We had to get permission to go into the Science labs, and once we were there it felt like being back at school in a Chemistry lesson haha.

 

We managed to get tons of footage with mixing "chemicals" (which was actually KA fizzy drink and food colouring and stuff), Fareena enjoyed playing the part, Naziara had fun filming it and Asiya had fun directing it.

 

The colours picked up really well on camera and we ended up with a lot of science-y footage!

 

 

Looking back at day two of filming

Looking Back On Day Two

 

Day two was thankfully a success whilst filming the bullying scene. This is because we made much better improvements.

 

- We chose a brighter location in the college building

- There were less bullies than on day one, so there was less commotion on screen.

- Told everyone to think of dead puppies whilst filming to stop them from laughing.

- We had the wheel to place the camera in so that it is easier whilst walking and filming up the stairs.

Looking back on day one of filming

Looking Back On Day One

On the first day of filming, we were not very satisfied with what we had and decided not to put it towards our final thriller.

It was a disaster because during filming, we could not get the scene right without someone laughing. On day one, we had a larger group of bullies which seemed a bit over the top whilst watching it later.

We also did not like the lighting because after watching it we noticed it was too dim. However, we kept the footage in case some bits would come into use later on.

Bad angle, just a very bad scene.

Further Inspirations for our Thriller opening

 

She's The Man

 

 

 

 

The main character of our thriller was also inspired by Eunice from She's The Man. This clip was filmed in a Science laboratory. We've noticed that in most films where the characters are "geeky", they have their hair tied with glasses. Eunice also has a wild side like our character.