Evaluation

In what ways does your opening sequence use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real life opening

sequences? Opening sequences are a way to establish the scene before the film first starts. So for example in North by North west there are various establishing shots that shows the film is set in a busy city in America. Using the rule of thirds you can see that in the bottom half it is just filled with busy people with a place to be. Then on the far right you can see the American flag. Whilst the whole top two sections are filled with buildings. This is a way to show the viewers where the film is set. Also the genre is established as well you can tell by the music that it is fast and high pitched showing the film will be some what like an action. Whereas in my film the setting is a house, you can tell this by the furnishings and the music also sets the scene of a genre as the music is low and draining. Also the idea that my film contains mostly medium and close shots scare the viewers as they will be scared of the unknown as they will not be able to see what else should be in shot.

A shot from North By Northwest opening titles. A shot from the opening in my film.

Within my opening titles I have no characters. The characters are shown through objects. For example the marble represents the evil within the film. The child’s toys represent the victim. I decided to use children’s toys instead of a child because the toys show emptiness as there is no child there. Also the toys show the child's vulnerability. Conventions of a film opening do not normally give much a way in the way of plot and characters. My opening is simple, I didn’t want to complex it so much that it turned out like a trailer. In the end of the sequence I have a selection of child’s toys, this is the characterisation of the sequence. It shows the child’s character but through an object. They show the child’s innocence. When the marble finally rolls into the toys it shows the child’s vulnerability. As the marble represents the evil and the toys represent the child. Therefore this still ties in with typical conventions of a psychological horror as in my research and planning I had found various films that include a child or an object that relate to a child in some way.

A shot from the film I made showing children's toys

My opening sequence starts with the titles, then fades into a scene with a marble on a dining room table. The curtains start blowing on their own, this already creates a sense of unease. Then the marble starts to roll on the table then falls off. Whilst this is going on there is music of children singing, this is a typical cliché of horror films. Then after seeing the marble fall onto the floor you get to see the ‘Journey’ of the marble. The sounds along with this include the screeching of the marble on the floor this was created by scratching a glass bottle on my desk. Then the marble is out of shot and you see the marble from its point of view on the journey. This is where the journey Is bumpy and even as it isn’t totally smooth. You then see a birds eye view shot of the marble rolling along a corridor. Then you see a porcelain doll, the camera zooms in and out around the doll. The doll is a clue that there are some little children living in the house. The point of view shot then continues. You then see the marble roll around a corner then you see some children's toys on the floor. You hear a crackling fire and then the camera zooms in on a book that has a house fire on a page. This hints that there is danger involved in the film. From what I have done, I have attempted to put a fear into who’s watching and create anxious moments.

How does your opening sequence represent particular social groups?

In my opening sequence I have purposely steered away from introducing any characters as I want the viewers to be scared of the unknown as they do not know exactly what is happening. Therefore I have dropped hints within my sequence to show that there are children involved by showing toys, having children is also a way to create emotion because as children need protecting and they are vulnerable to anything. I did add an extra scene onto the end of my opening sequence to make it look as if the film is starting properly, and in this I did have my step-mum standing at the kitchen sink washing up. Although I only got a medium shot of her body from the hands down to the floor, I didn’t want to show her face yet as it’s the theory of scared of the unknown. However from this we can tell she is a motherly figure as she is in slippers and from the dialogue. To create the dialogue I used a voice recorder and I spoke. From the dialogue you can tell the woman in the film is a mother as she is speaking firmly to a child in the next room about playing, however only we know as the audience that it isn’t the child playing with the marble. Therefore this show's the naïve mother unaware of the danger in her home.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product?

I have been looking at a range of production companies. I have been looking at twisted picture, they are an independent production company that creates films mainly for the horror genre. The saw films were all produced by twisted pictures and the latest film Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 3D was produced by them. As there only genre is horror they will enjoy fairly most of the films this company brings out as it is the genre they enjoy – therefore this is important that twisted pictures don’t bring out different genres of film for example like a romantic comedy as they can loose there audience and ruin the company's image. The production company that would distribute my product I would choose vertigo films as they are the leading British independent film production and distribution company. I wouldn’t choose someone like warner bro’s because their company is far to big for a low budget film like mine. Vertigo films have produced films of all different genres such as Street dance, The inbetweeners movie, The king’s speech and ‘The children’.

Who would be the audience for your opening sequence?

My target audience will be 15-20 year olds. Making my film classification that of a 15. Meaning that according to the British Board of Film Classification (www.bbfc.co.uk) my film cannot contain any of the following: • References to sex• Sexual nudity• Brief scenes of sexual violence• Drug taking• No gory images, nothing to extreme/graphic • No detail into self/harming or suicide

These are precaution measures as 15 year olds will look up to what they see and try to copy. For example seeing someone taking recreational drugs and enjoying the effects, can lead a teenager to want to try and do that to. Bringing my certificate down is always a good thing as it opens up more potential customers at the cinema for example, as more people can go see the film and buy it on DVD legally. The no gory images side doesn’t affect my film at all because I do not intent to use gore like a Body horror or slasher film would. I want to keep the fear and horror side purely psychological (hence the psychological genre).

Also knowing my audience has helped with my market research as I posted a video on my blog as I was researching asking children from my school (age roughly 15-17) about what they would expect to see and want to see in a psychological horror. This has helped me a huge amount in creating my product as I know what my target audience will want to see meaning I can make the film to the best of my ability for them so that they enjoy it.For example, I don’t want to be adding ideas into my film that a 40 year old would enjoy when my film is not aimed at the particular age grouping.

How did you attract/address your audience?

As I mentioned In the previous slide, I addressed my audience by asking questions to the age group I have been targeting the film at – 15 up to 20 year olds. I have gathered from that research that this age group expects to see realistic settings within a psychological horror, this is something that I have gone along with. I haven’t changed my original setting which was my house. Also I did give out questionnaires at the very start of the research and planning that contained the same questions as the video questionnaire I posted on youtube.com. I think it is very important to attract your audience as you can make big mistakes in including something they don’t want to see, or missing something out that they want to see. Also attracting your audience can get them interested in the film. As an example, being stopped in the city centre to answer some questions on an idea for a product someone is thinking of bringing into the market, will make you want to keep up to date with that product to see if any of your ideas have been heard of and used. Another way I attracted my audience was to constantly keep my friends (who are the age group in which I am targeting) up to date with my film, I asked them to watch the film numerous times and advice me on what they think of it, it really helped having this moral support as when they felt something was out or place or didn’t flow correctly they would tell me and that gave me an opportunity to try and perfect my product.

A key thing I also done was to ask my family members to watch the film without telling them anything about it and tell me what they thought about it. My older brothers and sisters who fit in the 15-20 year old age gap and just a few years above correctly told me the genre and what the film could possibly be about. Although my younger brother of 8 year of age could not tell me correctly, he guessed it was a comedy as its stupid that a marble is moving on its own. This doesn’t worry me what he though as I haven’t targeted my media product at his age and also tells me that I shouldn’t target at his age group because they do not understand the myths of todays world about spirits as he is to young, but it does make me confident in knowing my older brothers and sisters confirmed what my idea was without me having to tell them!

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

Looking back a year ago today, I have learnt so much through this project. Firstly, I have learnt how to use programmes on the computer such as coral video studio this is the programme that I used to edit my filming. I didn’t want to use the schools sony vegas as I wanted to work a lot from home on my product and focus on theory within lesson time. Therefore as my dad had brought the software a while back I taught myself how to install it on my laptop(that took time) and messed around with it a bit and finally got to grips with it. Also I used sony vegas during my GCSE media studies and I found the programme and the school computers froze a lot and therefore I lost work from where I had forgot to save. However with the programme I used, It ran smoothly and was good to use once you got to understand how to use different tools. With this I was able to use the monochrome effect on my filming. I added this during editing. I was able to film in monochrome if I wanted to but I was still unsure at the time whether I wanted it in monochrome or not, therefore added it during editing. I have also learnt about the different options that can be seen on a DVD, for example extras like the directors commentary. I have also learnt about different sounds for example non-diagetic sound that is sound that has been added to filming during editing. I have also learnt about diagetic sound that is the original sound that was present during filming. Also alongside this I learnt about the different camera angles, such as birds eye view and point of view shots and what they can represent if used correctly.

I learnt that using different camera angles can have effects as well, a high angle shot is when the camera is looking at the subject from above, this can make the subject seem less powerful whereas a low angle shot that sees the subject from below, can make the subject look as if they have power. Here are some examples of this:

Source: http://www.jupiterimages.com/Source: http://www.featurepics.com

As you can see the high angle shot makes the dog look venerable and less powerful than the bird.

Here you can see how the low angle shot makes the bird look powerful.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

When I made my preliminary task video, I didn’t take into account things such as lighting and how to get filming done quickly. If I knew now what I knew then It would of taken me less time to film the preliminary, I would plan what my locations and film shots when I am in that location instead of filming in the sequence of the scene. In the preliminary task shots were all basic, not many angles was used whereas my full product contains different angles and the shots are not as shaky (although some are purposely shaky) also the image quality is much more clear. I have also learnt that background sound can be very annoying. Whilst filming the preliminary I found that you could hear a lot of background sound, I soon learn that the best way to change this is by muting the sound on the film and recording the sound as non-diegetic. As an example from my full product whilst filming the marble rolling I was going to use diegetic sound but whilst playing it back it was too muffled therefore I added my own sound in during editing.