Question 5 part 2

Question 6;

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

What technologies have you used?
Throughout making our opening sequence we used a number of different techniques which helped us to improve our piece expanding our skills and gain a better grade. We used blogger, screengrabbing, screencast, tripod, fig rig, live type, final cut pro, da font, youtube, freesound and imovie. When filming the tripod and fig rig helped us to sustain a steady shot to avoid camera shake or to make our shots smooth and interesting. We managed to get some good shots with both equipment by adjusting the height of the tripod to get various levels (ground or high) or using the fig rig during out running shots to give a more jolty effect. Live type, final cut pro, da font, free sound and imovie basically created our opening helping us edit and change different things like the sound to get the result we wanted and to emphasise our piece. Using imovie, blogger and youtube we made our piece a video format and uploaded it making it easy and viewable. Blogger helped us keep track of our work e.g. planning etc and kept us organised keeping it all in one place.

www.youtube.com

What technologies are brand new to you?
Using Imovie was new to me as even though I knew roughly what it was I wasnt completely sure how to use it. Whilst creating our opening sequence I learnt a lot about effects and sound making our opening a good standard and allowing us to expand our techniques coming to a final piece which portrayed our storyline and atmosphere.


What technologies have you developed your skills in?
 Throughtout planning and constructing our opening I feel i've mainly developed my skills in filming and general camerawork but more so editing and working with the macs. I think I have improved alot in using imovie and understand it a lot more now and am able to do basic editing skills using effects and sound techniques. I also feel I have improved using the macs in general e.g. knowing where everything is and being able to find what im looking for on my own.

What technologies have allowed you to produce something really creative?
Imovie was the main thing that helped us produce our opening. The effects or transitions etc and colour change really linked to our storyline and helped us portray the atmosphere and feeling we wanted to give.

What technologies have allowed you to display your work in a certain way?
Blogger has been the best and most effective way of showing and displaying work. It keeps your work in a neat and tidy format which is easy to use and understanding making it easy to find your work as its displayed in order over time. Youtube has also been effective when displaying work. When finished with a video we would render and upload keeping our videos together and uploading them so they are easy to access and availible to look at.

What technologies need careful planning?
Using the camera when filming needs careful planning for booking equipment
because you cant use the camera in the rain. You also need to plan what your doing and what your going to film to ensure your doing the right thing and get everything done that needs to be achieved. Editing also needs to be planned to have a rough idea of your film/opening which also helps when filming.

Were there any times you had to do something again because you didnt do it correctly?



What have new technologies allowed you to do that old ones didnt?

Who would be the audience for your media product?

 Our opening sequence is a thriller about child abduction and kidnapping so the age of our viewers would be 18-24. Our opening is mainly aimed at young people and students who can quite easily associate and relate to it because it is about a young girl and it helps young people be aware of dangers. We have aimed it at young people because we feel these will be the best at watching our film and thinking of it in a creative way and remain focused because they will be intrigued and interested. We want them to understand our piece and enjoy it making them ask questions and feel involved with whats happening. We decided to focus on a feminine/female audience because we feel these can best relate mainly because of the female characters within our film. We also hope that as a female audience they will understand and feel the emotion involved and possibly become emotionally attached to the characters.

My media opening sequence

Opening Sequence: Second Draft

Question 3;

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

Pathe is the distributor of our film. It is a french company which became the worlds largest film and equipment company. We chose Pathe because we felt it best suited our film and genre. Pathe mainly distribute low budget, low key films and aim on films with a creative or interesting streak/twist. Pathe normally focus on films with hidden meaning making them entreging and exciting for the audience. It normally distributes creative film linking with the conventions of our genre.

We very much focus around the idea of family within our thriller even though its aiming on something that is distressing and bad, we have very much aimed it around the idea of family and relationships/bonds. Because of the connections and bonds between each character e.g. the two young girls being sisters it displays the emotion em-phasing the abduction and the traumatic happening. Because our film is about teenagers and child abduction and crime within young adults our film is aimed towards this age group as they could have best possible understanding and it raises awareness for them speaking for victims of such crime.  This is why we feel Pathe best displays this as it works for thrillers which is our genre and is best for creative film e.g. hidden meaning which is good because ours very much links to mystery but at the same time displays to certain people/age group.

127 hours is another film which Pathe have distributed which is similar to ours. It includes life and survival which links to ours as ours is also based around life or death situation. It displays the family view as he often talks of home and his family life showing his love for his life linking with emotions. The film isn't just a crime that needs to be solved but also gives a meaningful story to emphases him as a person and whats going on, this also links with our film.

Question 1;

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

In an opening sequence there are 8 different conventions these include titles, soundtrack, establish mood/theme, establishing shot, giving the audience clues, prompting the audience to ask questions, equilibrium or disequilibrium and a production/distribution logo. Titles are used to introduce the film and show the name which could lead to knowing what the films about. It could also tell who’s in the film and the director or camera crew etc. to give main information on the film in general e.g. the film ‘Brick’ clearly says the title to let the audience know the name of the film. The writing is in clear white font. It is quite plain and not very colourful which makes us focus on the text and what it says. The soundtrack helps to enhance the atmosphere and feel of the film and usually links with the genre and what the films about. It normally creates a feeling for the audience to gain a response or reaction. By giving the audience clues it makes the film more interesting and exciting because it doesn’t give the full information and leaves the audience wondering about certain aspects e.g. why is the character there? What’s happening? It gains their full attention throughout so they remain intrigued and focused on the film. A production/distribution logo lets the audience know who’s responsible for creating the film and getting it well known. It is more for the benefit of the production team so people know who helped make it reach the cinemas or become public etc.

The genre of our film is thriller. The conventions within a thriller include Cinematography; Characters; Theme; Sound/Music; Mise en scene and editing. These are used within a thriller to help emphasis what is happening making it more exciting and what it’s about etc. We used a range of conventions within our opening including including close-up’s and distant shots (When shannen is running and when I’m in the kitchen turning the kettle on). We showed our characters in a natural way but kept the girl and the man hidden to avoid showing their true identity. We wanted to do this to keep the audience interested and excited about the opening as they didn’t know who the characters were making them wonder and ask questions. We used a wide range of different shots to make it more exciting from different angles and to show it in different aspects e.g. from each character. We decided not to used any talking as we thought it may be easy to understand for the audience and we wanted it to be secret and a sense of mystery so the use of faint, spooky, eerie music gave a unnerving atmosphere and feel to the opening fitting with the story. Our fast paced editing and cuts between two different scenes built tension reaching a climax.

Question 2

  How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We have shown a number of characters through our opening involving a young girl (teenager), her mother and the abductor committing the crime. These are a range of ages to make it more interesting and not just the same thing or appeal to a specific age group. We have used a range of age groups also to emphasise the fact the young girl is somewhat innocent and vulnerable making it more interesting. By using a young character it gains the audience attention as they feel sympathy for her because there is a sense of innocence and vulnerability. We show this when she is running because this tells us she is in danger and essentially the vulnerable one. We show the mother as a stereotypically viewed mother in the kitchen, cleaning and making tea. We thought that this will also make it easier to understand and work out who she is.

Opening Sequence First Draft

Producing a shooting schedule

Portrail of roles

Hannah- The mother of the teenager that gets kidnapped. She is in the clips where it is set in the kitchen, Hannah will be dressed in normal, casual clothes because it is a mundane atmosphere. Shannen- I will play the teenage girl running in the field away from the kidnapper because i have clothes that fit the costume that my group wants her to be wearing. Lewis- Lewis will play the role of the kidnapper because he is the only male in our group and we envisioned the kidnapper to be a man. He also needs to help with the camera work while me and Hannah are in the frame because the kidnapper is the character that appears least.

Producing an animatic

Producing a storyboard for our opening sequence.

Producing a script in our opening sequence.

In our thriller opening, the use of dialogue is somewhat minimal, this is deliberate as although dialouge is a much faster way of bringing points across, visually portraying dilemmmas/themes portrays a more lasting appeal.

[Radio]: ‘So that’ll be coming up.

Breaking news on today, there has been a significant rise in the recent child abductions mainly effecting young women aged in their mid-teens. We would like to take this opportunity to alert both parents and children to be aware of their local neighbourhood for this recent incident. Mandy Corfeild was the last recorded victim abducted in London, her parents are avidly searching for her.'

Our script is based off a radio report which would diageticlly play through the first few moments of the opening sequence. Considering this line of dialogue is being produced by a radio, we plan to edit the audio quality by dropping the bass and eq level, and adding in a low level of white noise to create a more immersive atmosphere.

All the editing will be done on a free music editing program called Audacity

When planning the dialogue to be a radio broadcast, we wanted a convincing V/O artist to record the lines, the head of the Media department, Mr Metacalfe has previously worked in the radio buisness, announcing news bulletins, I decided to Email him about recording several lines for this broadcast. 

Designing a production Logo

In our opening, including our titles we had to produce a logo for our mock-up production 

company which has developed the film opening. 

The logo designed is influenced by the electronic soundtrack and historical decades in which the film is set in.

The logo itself uses a series of complimentary colors which create a contrast between the forms in the logo, much like the contrast between the mother and daughter in the film.

Props and costume;

Props;

- Radio

- Newspaper

- Kettle

 

Our opening starts with the newspaper and focuses/aims on the title as this plays a big part in our storyline. It then pans from the newspaper to a radio in the kitchen whilst following the mother. The next major important prop is the kettle as this plays a big part in creating the scene and building tension/excitment.

 

Costume;

Because our opening is set in 1995 the fashion and clothing will be a bit behind to show and represent the timing of our story. We want the mother to appear and show shes older and somewhat 'stuck in the past' represented by the classical, outdated, 70's look to portray the character and time set. We want to show the daughter more young and free by giving her more updated and recent clothing to also show and represent her age and somewhat innocence.

 Post 4 - Sound;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX0-FSZuHww

I quite liked the sound of this clip and thought it would fit and work well with our piece. Its quite scary, jumpy but also mysterious creating a spooky and on edge atmosphere. It very much portrays the emotion of fear working well with our theme of kidnappying and abduction esspecially with the scream of a girl. I think alot of this could be used towards the beginning to start and set the atmosphere and like how it starts calm and builds to a climax. It also uses the natural idea of weather well e.g. making it more scary by having thunder and rain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZAn-gIiqfY

For some reason I really liked the sound and feel of this one. Its more natural and calm and actually saw it working well at some parts of our opening. It was a general one of what could possibly be the surrounding area of a certain place maybe where the girl is or when she goes home to discover her mother isn't there. Its calming and soothing but also gives an empty and quiet feel and makes you question and wonder if anything is going to happen suddenly because it works well creating tension and for a tension builder. It also contrasts with the other sounds and music I chose which I think could work effectively and make the opening more interesting and exciting.

What titles;

Distribution logo;

The distributer is the logo of a company which helps promote and get a film out into the cinema or on DVD. The more famous and well known the distributer the more succesful it my be because people will know who they are and how the film may be, making them want to watch it.

Cast;

Cast are often shown in the order of their importance/priority. The most important actresses and actors etc are often shown first and then the others follow. Their importance also depends on their role and how long they are shown for. For child actors their name is always put afterwards because of their age being young so even despite being a main character they will be put after the adult characters e.g. 5th onwards.

Crew;
A film crew is a group of people hired by a production company for the purpose of producing a film. The crew are shown/introduced in the opening sequence normally after the cast. The crew are the main people to have organised and created the film.

Title sequence VS trailer;

 

Title sequence;

A title sequence normally introduces what your watching e.g. film, show or programme. It normally includes titles, main cast, and key production often following opening credits but doesn't give full information like storyline etc but does relate and link to what the programme or film is about.

 

 

 Trailer;

A trailer is more of an advertisement if anything of a featured film that will appear in the cinema, showing clips and scenes from the film and gives a rough idea of what its about e.g. storyline. It introduces some of the characters and gets the audiences attention making them want to see/watch it. Trailers are often shown before a film so the audience will see them.

 

 

 

The difference between a title sequence and trailer is that a title sequence introduces and informs you about the film e.g. characters and production however a trailer actually shows and advertises the film using clips from it giving more of the storyline.