Evaluation - Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

In our preliminary task, the main focus was on the continuity of the sequence and making sure that we got the right shots to be able to edit it together in a way which flowed and wasn't jumpy. As of this reason, there wasnt a very big variety of shots included in the sequence, it was quite simple and basic. However, in our opening sequence, we were very keen to make it quick and choppy with lots of different shots but still have a good flow.

To create the opening sequence that we wanted, we used the skills we learnt from when we made our preliminary task and advanced them and used them to help us achieve the same continuity at a better level throughout our opening sequence. Our opening sequence is made up of lots of different shots such as close ups, long shots, high angle and low angle shots. All of these shots work well together because it creates an interesting flow and gives the opening sequence a quick, fast pace.

In our preliminary task, we used a the match on action skill, this is what creates continuity and makes the viwer think that something happens all in one take and the character only does the action once. When really it is made up of lots of different shots taken in different angles and edited together to look like one movement. Since we had dialogue in our preliminary task, we used the 180 degree rule. This is where we used an imaginary line, and the camera had to stay on the same side of the line, we just moved the angle in which it was facing to film different shots. This was used so the characters conversation flowed well and kept the characters eyeline match so it looks realistic. We also used the 180 degree rule in our opening sequence so it looked like the characters were always running in the same direction.

When it came to editing our opening sequence, we had to do similar things to what we did throughout editing the preliminary task and cut down the clips lots and make sure that they begin and end in the correct places so each clip flows into eachother well without it looking jumpy or unprofessional. For example, there is a shot in our opening sequence where the characters are being filmed running from a long shot and it goes to a close up of their feet, we had to make sure that the characters feet were in the same position in both clips so that it looked like it happened all in one movement, this is another example of the developement and improvement we have due to filming and editing our preliminary task.

To add interest to our opening sequence, we used background music which was slow and low beat and we also added voiceovers of the characters speaking throughout the sequence. I feel as this creates the tension and atmosphere of a thriller/horror film and I think that if we had added appropriate music to our preliminary task it would have made it much more interesting and exciting to watch.

I feel that from creating both our preliminary task and opening sequence that my filming and editing skills and greatly improved. We were able to use skills that we had learnt and apply them to our opening sequence which made it become a much higher standard of quality. I do not think that if we had not done the preliminary task, we wouldnt have thought about the framing, shots, composistion or location of filming as well as we had. I am very pleased with the outcome of the final cut of our opening sequence, I feel that it is successful and reflects what should be involved in a thriller/horror film very well.

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

Evaluation - How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation - Who would be the audience for your media product?

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

Evaluation - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

When teenagers star in films, it is quite often that they have the sterotype representation. In films teenagers are usually the ones who are causing trouble, caos and haning around the streets, just because this is what the teenage generation are expected to be like. In my opening sequence,  I wanted my characters to look like normal teenagers, ones who do not cause trouble but just usual teenagers you seen on a day to day basis.

I did not want them to have the sterotype representation because that wasn't want I wanted to opening sequence to be about. To get this image for my characters, it was important on what costumes they wore and what they looked like. To do this, I looked at myself and others around me, and observed how they dress and how they acted. Many people I saw dressed casually, so I thought this was a good way to go and kept it simple. My characters wore very basic clothes such as plain T-shirts, jeans, Converse trainers and jackets, I chose these costumes because these are the type of clothes that I see teenagers around me wear, so by doing this I was keeping a true representation and realistic appearance. It was also a good way to show what time period that the film was set in as the clothes they were wearing were quite modern, so it looks like a new film.

The first picture is of a character from Paranormal Activitiy 4 and on the second is a image from my opening sequence, 'The Following'. The first image is a teenage girl from Paranormal Activity 4, as you can see she is just wearing basic clothing, just like i described earlier on. I chose this image because firstly I thought it was relevant to take an image from another horror film, and secondly I thought it was a very appropraite image because it shows the same representation of a normal teenager, just like I wanted. I also thought that choosing this character to compare with my characters was suitable as they play similar roles in their films, in paranormal activity, this girl plays the character that is being chased by the demon and is trying to get away, which is very similar to the roles that my characters play.

 The costumes in this image and the ones I chose for my opening sequence are very similar, they are both wearing basic tops with a jacket over the top, and normal jeans. Another similarity is that neither the characters in my opening sequence or the girl from Paranormal Activity are wearing lots of make-up, this is good because then they would older than the characters they are playing and would not suit the teenage role as well.

 The only difference is that the character from Paranormal Activity is wearing her hair up, where the characters in my opening sequence are wearing their hair down, however, it is still very obvious that she is an ordinary teenage girl.

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

To help me answer this evaluation question, I am going to be comparing my film opening sequence to real film openings of horror films. The film opening I will be using is from the film 'Se7en' as I think the style and layout of the opening is quite similiar to my own. I will be using this film opening to compare the characteristics and features which should be included in a horror film, and talk about which of these aspect also appear in my opening sequence in a similar way.

Film Title

Although both film titles are different fronts, the way that both main title's are used and layed out is done a similar way. Se7en's film title is big, very bold and almost takes up the whole of the screen, which is similar to the way I have presented my film title in my opening. They both have dark backgrounds with white font which I think looks good as the main focus is on the title as it is made to stand out well. The creators of 'Se7en' chose to have the main titles in the middle of the opening sequence, there is nothing wrong with this and I think it is effective, however I wanted mine to be at ending as I wanted to build tension throughout the opening sequence then have the title very big and bold at the end.

Setting/Location

What I think is similar with both of these opening sequence is that they are both very dark, which makes it slightly unclear where they are set. Eventhough there are obvious features such as you know in Se7en that the character is working in an office or some type of basement because of all the documents he is dealing with, and in my opening sequence you can see they are running through the woods, these locations could be set anywhere in the world and at any time period. I like the fact that the setting and location isnt totally given away to the audience because it sets up some sort of mystery for the viewers. The dark lighting is a typical feature for a horror film and can be related, which makes the genre of the films is obvious from the very start.

The difference between my opening sequence and 'Se7en' is that in mine you get to see the characters straight away and see what type of people they are, whereas in 'Se7en' you do not get to see the characters at all, so you do not meet them until later on in the film.

Costumes and Props

The use of the costumes and props in very limited in 'Se7en' as you do not see what the character is wearing, you only see their hands and the documents and images they are dealing with, however in my opening sequence, even though we didn't use many props you can see the whole of the characters costumes. Just by looking at a characters costume, you can tell what type of people they are and which time of year the film is set in such as Winter or Summer depending on if they are wearing warm clothes or not. In my opening, you can see that the characters are two girls because of their long hair and that they are teenagers by the style of clothes they are wearing (jeans, converse trainers,basic tops).

In 'Se7en' all the viewer gets to see is peices of paper, documents and the character writing things, this does not give much away about what is happening or what the character is doing. It may suggest that the character is doing an in investigation and is on a mission, it could also suggest that they are quite a smart and intelligent character.

Camerawork and Editing 

Both opening sequence use a variety of different shots, including lots of close up's and medium shots. 'Se7en' uses a lot of close up shots more than any others, this is to show lots of detail of what is happening. The editing of 'Se7en' opening sequence is very quick and chopping, showing lots of different close up shots, some get repeated but they are mostly all different. The choppy style of the shots is a good way of showing lots of happening and to show the quick movement in time. In my opening sequence, I used a wider variety if shots including long shots, close ups and high angle. These shots were mainly used to show vunrability of the characters as they are running away, and to show different points of view. The different points of view were from the characters as they were running, the villan chasing them and other long shots which suggest that maybe someone is watching them. When i was editing my opening, I tried to make some of the shots  quick and chopping, similar to how 'Se7en' has been editied together, as it think that it makes it more exciting to watch.

Title and Font Style 

'Se7en' and my opening sequence 'The Following' both have similar titles through their openings. They are both quite a 'scruffy' looking font, as if they have all been handwritten, which I think looks good and effective for a horror film because it sends questions to the audience such as 'Who wrote them?'. They are also the same colour, white on a dark background. The font isnt as big as the main title in both sequences which is good as the main title is the one which is supposed to stant out the most, but they have to be big enough size for everyone to be able to read. The way that the titles are positioned in 'Se7en' is similar to 'The Following' because all the titles in both sequences are randomly placed throughout the whole sequence and in 'Se7en' the titles are postioned near the middle of the screen, which is very similar to how I have posistioned my titles in my opening sequence. Both of these sequences contain the correct amount of titles and are in the correct order.

Genre 

If they didnt already know, features such as characters, costumes, lighting, music and setting usually suggest to the audience what type of film they are about to watch. I think that the film opening to 'Se7en' doesn't give away much or give many clues to what genre it is apart from the dark lighting,font and music because you do not get to see many things such as characters and their surroundings. In comparison with my opening sequence to 'The Following' the audience gets to see the setting straight away and the low pitched, dark music starts to play. I think that straight away the audience can guess what type of genre 'The Following' is because the woods is a typical setting for a horror film and the music starts to build up tension almost from the beggining. However, because you do not get to see any characters or setting in 'Se7en' this builds up curiosity as the audience do not know what is happening and will want to carry on watching to find out, so either way I think both are just as effective.

Construction - Final Cut

The day has come where our final cut has to be handed in! We exported in from Final Cut and exported it again for the web, the makes it a smaller file and this means that it would be uploaded quicker and played better when it is on my blog. A few things that we had to do before we exported it was add the voice overs into the correct placed and add in our extra bit of filming that we had filmed earlier today. We also had to change colouring of the extra clip so that it matched with the rest of the sequence and flowed well.

We are now going to show our opening sequence to people in our target audience and recieve feedback from them about what they think about it, what they like and what they think we would have improved on or done differently.

Preliminary Task

Final Cut Feedback

After we had shown our opening sequence, we wanted honest feedback from the audience. We were prepared for some negative feedback and these will be taken into consideration, but overall we were quite excited to see how our target audience would react to our film opening.  I had taken record of what was said about it so I could post it on my blog!

Positive Feedback:

• Was very good, built an atmosphere.
• Continuity was well done.
• Effective- but not a lot too it.
• Appropriate music.
• The feet shots were really good.
• Captures the eerieness well.
• Well filmed with smooth continuity.

Negative Feedback:

• Running could be a little more convincing, looks a bit like jogging.
• Was like a trailer.
• Not enough storyline
• A bit repetitive. 

Re-filming Again!

After watching our opening sequence through, we decided that we needed a shot at the end of the sequence between where the characters are running and where they fall to the floor and get dragged away. We thought it would be a good idea to have a shot which shows someone actually pulling them to floor and then they get dragged along, this will help it make a bit more sense.

By having this shot at the end, it improves the story line of the sequence as the audience now knows that someone as pulled them to the floor, and they are the ones that are dragging them away along the floor, where before it wasn't as obvious.  It also adds a wider variety of shots as this is a close up and we do not have many of these through out the sequence.

As we were at college when we discovered this problem and decided we wanted to add more filming, we were not able to get to our original location. However, we were lucky as there was like a little area with lots of trees and bushes, which we made to look like the woods we filmed in before by filming very close up to the trees and trying to cut out anything we didn't want to be in the frame.

When we added the extra shot into our filming opening, we cut it right down so that when the film opening was played it was like a quick snap shot of someone reaching out and putting their hand on the girls shoulder. We thought that this looked better because when the clip was longer, it seemed to go on for too long and didn't look as good and wasn't as effective.

Re-Filming

Today we did the extra filming that we needed to add continuity to our opening sequence and add in a wider variety of shots. We returned to Weston Woods and went to our original location where we filmed before, luckily it wasn't as cold this time!

We filmed a few more long shots of the characters running in different angles, for example we put the camera on a tripod and filmed from high up in the trees, looking down on girls to show vulnerability and to give the effect that someone may be watching them and another with the camera filming face on. We also did a few shots on the girls running towards the camera and then away from the camera to improve continuity and also a few shots with the camera of the floor so we could get shots of just their feet as they run past. We filmed a few of each of these shots, just incase some were better than others and so that we could use them for extra footage to make the sequence a little more quick and choppy.

There were a few things we had to be careful about such as the characters wearing the same costumes and making sure that we were filming in exactly the same place as we did the first the first time. If these things weren't the same, it would look strange because the costumes would suddenly change and the same for the location. We also had to make sure that there were no public people in the camera as this would ruin the effect if the girls be scared and alone.

Rough Cut Feedback

Today was our deadline to have our rough cut finished so that it was ready to be shown to an audience and receive feedback from them. The feedback that we wanted to receive from them was what they thought we had done well and what they think that we need to improve on. We would then take this feedback and think about what we could do to improve our opening sequence.

OUR FEEDBACK:

- Titles are good - accurate and well timed.

- Music works really well.

- Interesting hook - Who's chasing them, etc?

- Need a greater variety of shots in the chase sequence - to create continuity/make it more interesting and create more drama.

- Hand held camera shits were effective

- Go Pro creates 'creepy trees' - good!

Fortunately, the majority of the feedback we received was positive and I am very pleased with what was said. The only real negative that was said was that we needed to add a wider variety of shots in the chase scene and add continuity, which both me and my partner recognised ourselves and were planning on fixing after we had finished our rough cut. We are going to be returning to our location to film different shots and we are hoping that this will add continuity to our opening sequence and that it will flow better and look more professional.

Rough Cut

Today we continued to edit our film opening together and we managed to get all of the titles onto the clips and in the right places, we added the ident to the beginning and a sound effect at the end of the sequence to give the effect that something bad is happening to the characters. We also had a look around for some background music, it had to suit the genre of our film and we wanted it to create tension. We found some music called 'Forest Silence' and we both agreed this is music was the most appropriate for our opening sequence.

                                                            ROUGH CUT:

Voiceovers

On the Sunday after we had finished all of the filming in the woods, we recorded the voiceovers which will be played throughout the opening sequence. We had to use a voice recorder, this was quite easy to used at all you had to do was press a button to record and turn it off and the type of mic it had was good because it recorded all of the sounds that were around you, even if we did have to make sure it was extremely quite! 

All of the voiceovers that we recorded are written on my Screenplay post. There you will be able to see all of the voiceovers that will be played during the opening sequence and all of the actions that will happen.

1st Attempt

 The video in this post is our first attempt of our film opening sequence.I do not think that this is a very successful attempt as there are quite a few things that need to be done. We havent included any titles, music, or sound affectts so it is not very clear what the genre is or what is happening right now and we also need to improve the continuity throughout the sequence. To fix these problems we are going to return to our location to film a few more shots to which will improve the continuity throughout the sequence, we will also add our titles and find some background music which is appropriate for the thriller genre of our sequence. We also need to add the freezes when the titles are on screen and remove the audio which was originally on the clips from when we were filming.

Day Two of Editing

Today was our second day of editing, we managed to editing all of our clips together and in the right places. We did find a few problems though, these were that the colours of the clips did not match throughout the entire sequence and we feel that we didn't have enough footage.

To fix the colours we played around the the colours, saturation and exposure of the clips in Final Cut Pro to make them match as closely as we could, this made it look a lot more professional and better overall. We also made a few of the clips darker and lighter because some of them were too dark on screen and you could not see the footage clearly. Some other clips were too light and did not look dark or scary, which did not suit the genre of the film.

As we don't have enough footage, we are going to edit together what we already have and export it ready to be shown as our final cut, however we are then going to be returning to our location to do some extra filming which we hope is going to improve the continuity and general flow of the sequence.

Day One of Editing

Today during our media lesson, we uploaded all of our footage onto the computers and loaded them into Final Cut Pro. We watched all of them to help us decided on which ones we will need during our editing process and which ones we do not need and can be deleted. There were a few clips that we didn't need because they were little clips that were taken by accident and others that didn't look as good as we had expected. However we did film each part several times just incase some of them were as usable as others, which was good as we needed the extra clips! 

We also got time to start some of the editing today aswell, which is good because it means that we will find out if there is anything we need to re-film or improve on sooner rather than later. We decided that we were going to edit all of the clips together first and then add music,effects and voiceovers afterwards.

 

Behind the Scenes

I thought that it would be good to show a few clips that were filmed during the day and show you what happened behind the scenes! These few videos are short but show our planning throughout the day and a few decisions that we made.

Filming Day 1

Just a short post to say that today we went to Weston Woods to start the filming of our film opening title sequence. It look us a little while to get there as we had to get two buses and walk up a giant hill, it was also very very cold but we got their in the end. The shots that we filmed today were the first 4 from our storyboard. I will include some examples of the shots that we had taken below.

The equipment we had to take to the woods with us was a tripod, a hand held digital camera, a GoPro camera and a voice recorder so we could record our footsteps whilst we were running. We also took all of our storyboards with us to keep track of what we were meant to be filming. I think that today was quite successful and we got lots of filming done!

Some examples of shots that we have filmed so far:

Filming Schedule

DATE	SHOT	LOCATION	EQUIPMENT
Wednesday 20th February 4.30pm	We will be filming shot 1,2,3,4 on this day. We will not be filming the rest of the shots as it will become too dark to film.	Weston Woods	Hand held camera GoPro Camera Tripod if needed. Characters Costumes.
Friday 22nd February 4.30pm	On the Friday we will be filming the remaining shots. These are 5,6,7,8. We will have to make sure than we film at around the same time a Wednesday so that the lighting is the same.	Weston Woods.	Hand held camera GoPro camera Tripod if needed Characters costumes
Sunday 24th February 12.00pm	On Sunday we will be recording the voiceovers so they are ready for when we start editing the footage together.	Josie’s House	Mac Computer using Final Cut Pro

The table above is the time schedule that my filming partner and I have agreed on. The dates and times need to be suitable for both of us so we decided on days that we can go to our location together straight after college and on the Sunday when both of us are free.

We had arranged dates and times previously over text and discussed this in more depth at college to decide on what shots that we are will be doing on certain days and what we are going to need. Evidence of these text message are below, I print screened them and uploaded them to my blog.

Props List

For my opening sequence I do not need many props as the main focus will be creating a scary atmosphere and using different camera shots to help create the atmosphere and help the audience relate to the emotions of the characters. However, we do need a few props and these will be simply the characters costumes, tripod and a head camera. The costumes the characters will be wearing will be a simple and casual day to day outfit consisting of plain tops, jeans, a jacket and plain Converse shoes.

I think these costumes show the age of the girls well as they are teenagers and shows that the film is set in modern day (2013).  We will use the tripod to film our long shots of the girls running through the woods and this prop will be useful because we can vary the hight of the tripod to show different angles of the characters, giving different emotions of vunrability and status. The head camera will be used to film shots which are coming from the girls point of view such as when they are running through the woods, looking around and behind them so show they are scared and uneasy. 

Location Scout

The location that I chose to film in is Weston Woods, this location is in Weston super Mare in Worlebury. This is the chosen location because it suits my storyboard as I wanted a location with lots of trees and bushes, and thought the best place in Weston is the woods! Another reason that this location has been chosen is because it is convenient to get to as I live in Weston and all I will have to to is get a bus to the woods, which is easy and will not cost me any money as I have my bus pass from college. I did not want to travel far because I will have to carry equipment with me and I do not want to risk ruining it or breaking it.

I like this location because it is very big so there will be plenty of places to film. I also like the fact that the floors have lots of leafs, sticks and stones and I wanted these things to be shown in the shots. Another reason I like this location is because I think it is a good place to set the scene of a horror film as it will be dark and it is a typical setting for horror films which is easily recognisable.

Title Sequence Ideas and Planning

Before I decide what shots will be in my film and what is going to happen, I need to decide and plan on thing such as the type of font, colours and where I want my titles to be, during the sequence or before. To get started, I am going to research and look at different fonts that relate and suit a horror film well. The fonts need to be relevant because it would be useless having girly, pretty writing as it would look strange on a title sequence for a horror film. To research different fonts, I went onto Dafont.com.

1.

2.

3.

4.

These are the four fonts that I thought were most appropriate to use on a horror film title sequence. I have decided to use two different fonts, one for the titles telling us the people who were involved in the creation of the film and a different font for the actual title of the film which will appear at the end of the title sequence.

For the titles which will be on screen throughout the sequence, I have chosen to use Example 4. This is because it is not as bold as the other fonts and I think it would look better and be easier to read and it isnt as chunky or bold. For the main title of the film, at the end of the sequence, I need a font which is bold and will grab attention. The font I have chosen for this is font example 1. This is because it is a strong, bold and rigid font and I think it stands out a lot. I also like the scratched detail filling the letters.

These fonts relate to what the film is about because they are simple, easy to read and they don't look 'gory'. By this I mean that they dont have blood dripping off them as this wouldnt suit a thriller film because it doesnt have any blood or gore in it. For a thriller film, you need simple fonts that stand out at the same time. I like font example 4 because it looks like it has been hand written and if you were to find handwriting in a thriller film it would normally scare the audience and create tension, which is the main objective.

I have decided to introduce my titles throughout my opening sequence as it is playing. They will be placed on the trees, on the floor and moving behind the characters as they are moving. This incorporates the titles in with the opening sequence which saves time and also makes it more interesting as I will be able to animate the titles more and it will add different shots into the sequence.

Storyboard and Shot List

Shot 1
This first shot in our title sequence is the establishing shot, this will be a Medium Long shot which will show the audience where our sequence is set and give a wide view of the woods. We chose to use a medium long shot because it introduces the setting to the audience well, it will also be a hand held shot to give the filming a documentary/home video effect. This shot will last for the first 1-10 seconds and the first voice over will be played throughout.

Shot 2

The second shot in our sequence is where our first title will be on screen. The title will on the tree as the two girls are running past. When the title appears on screen, the whole screen will freeze and go fuzzy for a few seconds. The type of shot we chose for this is a Medium Shot,this shot was chosen because as the two girls are running, they will be closer to the trees than in the first shot, but not close enough to be called a Close Up. This shot will last for the next 5 seconds, and these type of shots will be repeated throughout the sequence to allow screen time for the titles.

Shot 3

For the third shot, this is where the audience are introduced to Olivia. She will briefly appear on screen and as this happens a voice over of her thoughts will be played. The shot type chosen for this moment is a Medium Long Shot, this will allow enough space on the screen to be able to see the majority of her body. Another title will appear in this shot behind Olivia and move with her as she runs as if it is following her. This shot will be on screen for 5 seconds.

Shot 4

The fourth shot will be a Medium Close Up and the camera will face down to the floor, as if the camera was looking through their eyes. This is where another title will be on screen, it will place on the floor of the woods, the screen will freeze and go fuzzy. After a few seconds the screen will unfreeze and start moving again and the whole shot will last around 5 seconds.

Shot 5

The fifth shot of the sequence will be a Close Up and will be filming their feet as they carry on running.     The title will be behind them following their feet and this will continue until the character has gone out of the screen. Behind them we will be able to see lots of sticks, mud and stones on the floor and trees in the background. Again, this shot will last for 5 seconds.

Shot 6

The sixth shot of our sequence will be a High Angle, establishing shot. In this shot, the two girls will be running together through the woods and we will be able to see them looking behind and all around them showing that they are scared. This shot will include Match on Action as we will see them running from the side but will also go back to seeing through their eyes, so they will need to match and look like it happened continuously otherwise it will not play smoothly and will be jumpy. When we see the two girls running together through the woods, another title will be on screen following them.

Shot 7

Shot seven will be where Amelie will be pulled to the floor and get dragged backwards along the floor. For this we will need to use a Low Angle Medium Shot and to show her being dragged along the floor, the camera will move backwards. This shot will also be on screen for 5 seconds. At the very end of this shot, a screaming sound will start and carry on into the next shot.

Shot 8

Shot eight of our title sequence will be where the title of our film will appear on screen. This will be a Medium Shot and when the title appears on the screen it will be very sudden and quick. In this shot the music will stop, we will just be able to hear the screaming and this will slowly fade out as it will be the ending of the sequence. In the background of this shot, it will be a dark shot of the woods and the title will be projected onto the trees in our chosen font.