Preliminary task

10. Titles

In the opening sequence of a film you are presented with the production and distribution logo first. The cast then crew appear afterwards in order of importance. A good example of this title structure is the sixth sense, where you see Hollywood pictures and spyglass entertainment at the beginning going then cast, then crew.

The appearance of these titles are interesting due to them being a very basic cosmic sans font whilst fading in and out from a black background they create an eerie, tense atmosphere for the spectator. However, I don't think this would be an appropriate way to superimpose our titles on the screen as we only have the time scale of 2 minutes to make it and the black screen would lose us marks.

10. Casting

The Main Character

We decided to cast Jacob as our main character because we felt that it would be better if this character was male. We made this decision because stereotypically, male characters are the antagonists in Thriller films. We also thought about the fact that females are generally seen as weaker and more vulnerable, so the character that plays 'The Victim' will be female. Furthermore, Jacob is the main character because we thought that a male dominant Opening Sequence would challenge other stereotypes of Thriller film. 

The Victim

We decided that I should play the part of the victim because we felt it would be better if this character was female. We also thought about the way that the characters had to be dressed in order to enhance our marks when it comes to Mise en Scene, and this decision fit the best. 

The Schoolgirl

Finally, we decided that Toni should play the part of the schoolgirl(passer by) that we see in the middle of the Opening Sequence and who sends the Main Character into a spiral of thought about his previous decisions. We made this decision based on filming timings, and Mise en Scene (when it comes to both characters and settings).



11. Titles

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

This is my preliminary task:

This is my Final openign sequence:

I have looked back at my preliminary task and compared it to my final opening sequence. Im going to address the issues about the two and how i have improved my skills.

The first noticeable problem was continuity, this is an editing technique which i believe is improve through practice. In this clip you see a shot reverse shot of me drawing on a piece of paper, when the shot reverse's to reveal the Ben's reaction and goes back to the original shot, the camera positioning changes and the speed in which I'm drawing speeds up. This is an easy mistake to make, you have to have a clear outline of what your trying to achieve in post production
in order to get the shots you need to be seamless.
I believe this is a good example of a continuity edit in my final draft. Here you can see my main protagonist putting on his jumper despite the frame changing twice when his top half is revealed his jumper is in a logical position in terms of how much time has passed. This shot reverse shot doesn't change angle or speed of pan because i cut the shot in post production this is a good technique to pull of great cut-in, axil cut. 

Final Anamnesis (Final)

Here's our finished opening sequence:

Feedback questionnaire results

Here are my questionnaire results. As you can see we met the audiences expectation of the film. They asserted its genre as a thriller as well as enjoying it. Most found the underwater shoot most aesthetically pleasing and thought mise-en-scene could have been improved. Over half of the people who took the questionnaire were seventeen and found it easy to understand, this leads me to believe our target audience is just about the right age to understand its depth. This is supported by most of the people answering yes to there age reflecting their opinion. They all found camerawork, mise-en-scene and the soundtrack their favourite.

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

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Our target audience was students aged 16-24. Our aim was to find out what they expected to see in a thriller opening sequence so we decide to carry out a questionnaire. We analysed our results so we were able to find out whether we were attracting/addressing the right audience. The questions we asked were;

- How old are you?
- Are you male or female?
- What types of characters are expected?
- What do you expect to see in the first 20 seconds of a Thriller film?
- What sounds/music are expected?
The results assured us we we addressing the right audience. Following the stereotypical answers we realised people of this age group do expect to see the usual conventions of a thriller opening sequence, and the even spread of variance in the data supports this. 

Final Pie Charts

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Who would be the audience for your media product?

What is the demographic of our audience?

Our opening sequence is targeted at 17-25 year old males, this is due to nature of the narrative as well as, the age and gender group being able to relate to the characters within the media product. I do not feel the ethnicity of the audience comes into account as we live in a multicultural society that does not tend to take into account ethnicity when choosing what film to watch. I feel the geographical location being Britain prevails in audience demography over ethnicity. Occupation and education coexist as our audience is targeted at full time students. This allows for the large amount of buzz we aim for when releasing our film as this age group is well connected with one another; by crow barring our way into this target audience we hope to shock and please these young students. The JICNARS scale has to be taken into account even when targeting the following age group. We are targeting the lower middle class as they are the ones with the disposable income to freely go and watch films, this ensures the buzz created is satisfactory.

What is the psychographic of your audience? 

My ideal audience member would have personal interests such as being creative, reading thrilling novels and a well established library of music. A good lifestyle assuring they have enriched values so they divulge in great media that keeps them on there toes. Behaviour that has allowed them to succeed in everything they do and assures they are achieving well in every aspect in there life. Lastly, high valued opinions that shape their brain into enjoying a good niche of media. All of these thing's boil down to a culture individual, this doesn't necessarily mean we going for a high browed audience but, instead an audience that can understand the ambition within our piece.

Draft 2

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

Production company

Our production company's name is "Invisible Ink", we felt this name would be valid given the context of the film there is a sense of immorality and tension about the combinations of words invisible and ink. We could relate it to the film in many senses the fact of the main protagonist not being caught for the atrocities he has committed to the darkness of ink. A production company handles budgeting, scheduling, scripting, the supply with talent and resources, the organization of staff, the production itself,post-production, distribution, and marketing.





















We then had to research distributions companies that would distribute our film. 
Momentum

Momentum seems to be the favourite at the moment because of the range of different thrillers it has within its list of films.

Main films include: Tamara Drew, The Kings Speech, The Fighter, Limitless, Chalet Girl, Insidious, Dear John, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Skyline, The Rebound, The Young Victoria, Milk, Let the Right One In, Amelie, P.S. I Love You, Men Who Stare at Goats, Defiance.

Lionsgate

Lionsgate is more based around quite risky films to release mainly in the horror genre. Our film is not risky to release because it is a stereotypical thriller film that most companies would release.

Main films include: Saw Series, Disaster Movie, Bratz: The Movie, Killers, Kick-Ass, The Expendables,  Dirty Dancing, Rambo, American Psycho, The Girl with the Pearl Earring, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Abduction, The Hunger Games, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Safe, Good Luck Chuck, Why Did I Get Married?.

Miramax

After much debate we decided to go with Miramax pictures, we chose miramax due to the nature of films they produce. We felt our film could be related to the gritty type thrillers they produce.
Main films we'd relate our film to: Pulp Fiction, No country for old men, The debt, There will be blood, Reservoir dogs.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The clearest social group our work represents is definitely gender. Gender plays a key role in asserting power within the main protagonist. This assertion of power withdraws power from the other side of the social group, females.  Representing the male as a criminal lives up to the stereotypes expected in thrillers of this type. We represented our social groups throughout, in particular during the park shots. We chose to have the male leading the conversation goading the female into engaging back in conversation, due to the shots and tone prior to these park shots we know the male has a bad intentions with the female, this causes the audience to feel the female is vulnerable and under threat. 

When choosing how to present the male and female's conversation in the park we chose to use a focus pull distorted by a tilt and set on a banister. This allow for the character to be out of focus drawing attention away from who they but what they represent, almost as if it just their silhouettes. This combined with the fast high pitched score adds tension asserting the threat and vulnerability of the female. The main character has been represented as immoral and psychotic, this representation is also represented in the same shot by the distortion of the frame. As the audience has a hint of what the males intentions are the tilted frame and out of focus presents the immorality within the piece and main protagonist.

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

An opening sequence contains conventions that are typical and found in many different opening sequences. Conventions common to opening sequences are; production and Distribution Company, establishing the mood, the introduction to characters, plot clues, titles, establishing shot, an equilibrium or disequilibrium and finally to get the audience asking questions. These conventions are used in strength of each other; one convention crafting another however, their primary use is to engage the audience. For instance, establishing shots are used to allow the audience to gain their bearings within the film; allowing them to ask questions about the environment and ultimately engaging their thoughts within the narrative of the film. 

Real media texts:

In American Beauty Sam Mendes uses an establishing shot that tracks down towards his street. Kevin Spacey’s voice then narrates introducing the audience to his street, whilst you hear the narration Mendes introduces the slow paced, low pitched soundtrack. By doing so he creates a mundane tone to match the mundane life of Kevin Spacey’s character we are about to be introduced to. By following these introductory steps Mendes is able to chronologically build on each convention and build up a tone/mood within the audience all before the introduction to the disequilibrium.

Conventions of an opening sequence conventions also can be specific to a genre. As we chose to make a thriller we had to follow the conventions that are usually found within a thriller. Convention specific to our genre are; location, low key lighting, ambient sound, soundtrack, extreme close up, loose frames and rule of thirds.

loose frame is a convention that is used that could be detonated to loneliness or isolation. It allows the audience to draw their attention to different aspects of the setting and engage themselves with a character. In this particular shot the audience notices the character but they also notice the characters environment, which is an introduction to the setting.

Another convention specific to our genre are close ups, they could either be of a characters profiles or of things related to the narrative. Close ups are used constantly throughout thrillers, a good example of a close up is in we need to talk about kevin. Lynne Ramsay uses symbolism throughout, in this particular case the close up was related to the plot. 

In our opening sequence we used a close up to represent death/ murder. We decided to get a close up of and hand with ink splattered over it, to represent the idea of blood being on the main protagonists hands. 

In some case directors have challenged or developed on a convention. Not all cases a director will chose to follow the convention by the book, they will develop or challenge them for a greater impact on the audience. In this particular example Lynne Ramsay chose to frame her main protagonist in the middle of the frame in front of these cans of soup, which represents a theme that runs throughout the film.

In our opening sequence we chose to frame the character in certain ways to loosen up the frame and allow for the audience to draw different responses from different things in the loose frame. 

9. Character Description

 Age: 16

Gender: Female

Occupation: Student 

Looks: Blonde hair and blue eyes. Stereotypical young girl.

Personality: Not outspoken nor shy. Enjoys shopping, spending time with friends and family and a dedicated student. She is the innocent character (protagonist) who was what we believe to be murdered by the Main Character.  Also known as the victim.

 Age: 24

Gender: Male 

Occupation: International Sales Executive

Looks: Average height, brown hair. Very stereotypical male of his age, however, we do not yet know about his past that haunts him. 

Personality: Dropped out of university and now works in Sales. He seems very quiet and shy however as i said before we do not yet know about his past actions that have chosen his future. We know that he has a mental illness however we do not actually see this develop in the opening sequence. Also known as the Main Character.

Age: 17

Gender: Female

Occupation: Student

Looks: Brown hair, green eyes. Very sporty and friendly and fashionable.

Personality: Outspoken and popular. Also a dedicated student but is very focused on spending time with friends and going to parties, etc. She looks at the main character when walking down the street and is the one that causes him to be paranoid. Also known as the schoolgirl.

8. Shooting schedule

This is our shooting schedule. By budgeting our time properly we can remain on task and get the shot we need when we need them. We've found creating a shooting schedule really does help us get an understanding of the time we have.

3. Shot ideas

By not revealing the characters identity it leaves the audience questioning to whether this character in the cutaway is actually the main protagonist. We could reveal his identity at the end with a graphic match.

We planned to use a crane at the very beginning in order to disorientate the audience. The crane will set a pace that will make the audience feel comfortable with the main character.

A close up will allow the audience to build a relationship with the character. He can express the emotions we want the characters to feel in his face.

5. Storyboards

This is a short animation that we created in iMovie that we thought would give a feel of how our real opening sequence would look like. Creating this has given us a clearer view on timing, framing and the order of our shots. This is beneficial because it will save us valuable time when filming, and was also an opportunity to get to grips with iMovie.

4. Sound research

Idea's for the score :-
 


This piece of music is very different from the previous two, but could be a unique approach because it is slower, calmer and challenges what is actually happening on the screen in our Title Sequence which is based on the Thriller genre. I also think that this piece would work well because it has deep and meaningful lyrics, and our main character is suffering from a mental illness, so there is a strong link.

6. Props, costume and loction ideas.

Props-

A phone that the main protagonist can use at the beginning.

The usual house furniture will need to be moved around in order to get the best shot.

The piano used will allow us to have a more extensive range of items in the mise-en-scene.

Costume-

Smart casual wear.
 A combination of collared shirt (such as a dress shirt or polo shirt), cotton trousers (such as khakis or blue, green, brown, or black trousers) with a belt. Jeans are not acceptable business casual attire. A blazer or business jacket can optionally be added. This will assert the status of the male character as we dont want him to seem like a complete degenerate.

Pyjama's.
Consist of a jacket-and-trousers combination made of soft fabric, such as flannel. This will show the main character in his natural environment.