FINAL OPENING SEQUENCE

Here is our final coursework. This is a compressed version to meet Blogger upload maximums. Please see DVD for full quality:

Evaluation of Appeal to Audience / Feedback

This presentation shows how we are hoping that our film will appeal to the target audience. This has been carried out as a group project and we have all been involved in the creation of the captions.
Please view the full quality version on DVD as this is how it is intended to be seen.

Evaluate what you have learned about technologies

Please click on the link below to see the PowerPoint we have made discussing what we have learned about technologies across the process.

Presentation

Evaluate your progress from the Prelim Task to the AS opening sequence

 

 

Progress in Research and Planning

Prelim
 

From looking at our prelim task, we did not have the range of initial ideas that we had for our final piece. We used this prelim to practise our composition of shots and camera angles in order for us to be confident when selecting techniques that we would want to later use.
 

The techniques that we used did not relate to our chosen genre as at this time, we had none. With this, we had no plan and had not even considered music as this was just a practise. The dialogue used was roughly scripted so that our actors knew the basis of how the seen needed to plan out.

Final Task

To do our final task, we looked at many openings of films and looked into how they had specifically targeted both genre and age of the audience in just the first 2 minutes. We also picked up on the standard techniques that the genre uses in relation to camera angles, sound, editing and mise-en-scéne.

 

In planning our final task, we drew out each individual camera angle that we were planning to use as this later helped us when we started to film. We too looked into how much dialogue appears in the opening of thrillers which is quite minimal. We also researched the type of music we would need to use in order to create an eerie atmosphere that is common within a thriller.

Progress

Our prelim task helped us focus on the specific areas that we were poor on such as panning shots. In our final task, we made sure that when using panning shots, we chose someone with a steady hand that would move the camera smoothly. Shot reverse shots are common in thrillers and were a key feature in our film as it establishes the initial relationship between the two female characters. 

Progress in Camera Work

Prelim

We used the tripod but we weren't familiar with it yet so we had trouble adjusting it to the angle and/or level we wanted.

Screenshots of oupoor camera work on our preliminary task:

Hands in view on left

Poor framing

Again the tripod is tilted and framing is poor

This shot has Hanisha's hair blocking some of the lens

This is a poor shot-reverse-shot as Hanisha is nearly blocking the camera lens

There were also jolting shots - we were not familiar with using the handle and swivel so went we did the panning/tracking shot, it didn't appear to be smooth.
Screenshot of shot-reverse shot - continuity error, Hanisha and Shannen stay in the same side despite being in different over the shoulder shots.
Lighting - we had problems with backlighting.
Over the shoulder shot - there was no shoulder, we only had part of Hanisha's hair.

Final Task

Using the camera often, with a bit of practise, we were comfortable with using it.
We learnt how to loosen the swivel and the handle for a smooth panning shot.
We took more time in levelling out the camera for a straight angle.
Lighting - backlighting problem solved by considering in making the room brighter by turning on all the lights and closing part of the curtains.
We improved filming our shot-reverse shots by considering where people's positions were and what they will be in a different shot.

Screen shots of better camera work in Final Task

 

Curtains pulled to help back lighting issues

Two shot of the sisters

Shot reverse shot showing a conversation

This long shot shows the aggression through Ellie's POV

Transition between dreams and reality

Progress in Storyboarding and Script

Prelim

For our preliminary task, we didn't create a proper story board but we did put a small script together so that each character would know what to say and it would flow for us to see what we were doing wrong or right. We filmed our task in a classroom were the tables and chairs were situated in awkward positions and we hadn't planned where we were going to film which could be another reason why the camera angles are strange.


Final task

For our final task, we created a story board which we decided to alter a few times to make it flow better. The storyboard showed to us where we had to change certain aspects of it.

When we put the animatic together, it allowed us to experiment where to put certain pieces of music and dialogue.

We also knew where certain locations were going to be.

Progress

because we made sure the animatic and storyboard, it meant that things went smoothly on the day of filming.

We followed the script well meaning weren't improvising on the day.


Screen shots of our animatic:


The animatic has captions of what we had intended to put at that part of the extract

Shot / reverse shot sketched and planned

Thought about camera angles

Dialogue was thought through

The arrow shows the intended movement

This has a focus on sound



This screenshot has where we intended to put the movie title

Progress in Editing

Prelim

When we used Final Cut Express for our prelim task, we did not have much experience in using the software. This meant that we were still learning how to use the software so the editing that we did was not of a high standard.

There were several different problems we encountered whenusing Final Cut Express, for example we did not know how to close the gap properly, so therefore we had to manually close the gaps which sometimes was not accurate.  Another problem that we encountered when editing is that we kept cutting the piece in the wrong places at one point our prelim task we cut Hanisha out completely, which would be seen as her leaving the scene, when in actual fact that scene carries on and she is still in it.

In our prelim we did not use any sound or include music or titles and credits so we did not have any experience in putting our titles and credits in. We also did not have any music in our prelim so when it came to the real piece it look a long time to search for the right music and put it in at the right places and to make sure that each cut of music fits in with each cut of our piece.

Final Task

When it came to editing the final piece, it took a couple of lessons to get into the swing of constantly editing, but when after about one week of editing, we got into the swing of it, making progress quickly. Once we had the rough cut of our piece, we all took it in turns to make adjustments to the piece to make sure that it was up to the standards that we wanted it to be to.

When editing our final piece we used lots of layering to make our piece more effective to ensure that we achieved what we intended our outcome to be. We built up layers of sound as we had different music playing at the same time. We also had music and dialogue playing at the same time so there was sound layering where this occurred.

We were a lot more careful with continuity in comparison with our prelim task. Especially when we were editing match on action shots. We took into consideration when the character was in frame and making sure that each shot linked perfectly. We did this by enlarging the tracks to check we were cutting at exactly the right moment for matches on action.

We used different effects and transitions in our piece to make sure that it flows smoothly and to allow the audience to understand the general mood of the piece, for example a fade of non-diegetic music is used when the younger sister is hiding to make sure the audience knows that something bad is going to happen. It also creates an atmosphere which tells the audience how to feel depending on what type of music is being played at each point during the piece.
 

We used a different program to make the title and credits, called Live Type. Once we made the titles and credits we transferred them over to Final Cut Express and put them in the places allocated for each title and credit. Once we did this we became a lot more confident in our piece. The comparison to our prelim task has such a big gap as we would not have been able to add in titles and credits as we did not have much experience.

Progress

We can see a significant amount of progress that we have made form our prelim task to our final task. We have improved majorly when it comes to editing. We have much more understanding of the potential of the editing packages and how they can be combined. Our editing is a lot more accurate compared to the editing of our prelim task and it is very clear to see this. Final Cut Express became a lot quicker and more efficient to use as we used it a lot more frequently in our final piece.

Evaluate how your product used, developed or challenged the form and conventions of real media products

Title (1)

• ·    Black background with white plain text
•     Gives the impression of eeriness, a typical style for a thrillers 
•     Suits the unexpected style of our genre

Credits (2)

• Follow the same style of the title
• Appear after we see each character
• Black background again so its avoids a ‘busy’ screen
• We wanted to have simple credits from the very beginning as we knew from our research that having upbeat, animated credits would not fit the genre due to its realistic nature

Characters (3)

• Thriller films are all about the unexpected happening and the consequence of silly mistakes. With this in mind we had to make our film as realistic as possible that could happen in real life
•  Characters used in thrillers generally have a dark, mysterious side to them that leads to the events that take place
• They tend to come from broken homes and have some criminal background as well as being white males as the main characters
•  Our main characters are young females which is common in thrillers
• The girls' home life isn’t really elaborated upon a part from the sense that they are not struggling financially due to the use of mise-en- scéne
• The casting that our film went for broke the general conventional genre as the typical main character is a man in his mid-20’s with a high sex appeal. Our characters are both young, white females and play on the ‘innocent’ factor that would make them the ideal victim.
• The mother leaves the girls home alone and is not seen again in the 2 minutes after she leaves the house - absent parents are a genre convenetion as this leaves the young characters alone and vulnerable.
• (6) The ‘villain’ is our piece is a typical kidnapper. The man’s face is not shown clearly as it is hidden behind a hood and over powers the older sister which is a usual stereotype in that the kidnappers always are stronger than their victims.
• The use of vulnerable characters is a common trait in a thriller film.

Mise-en-scéne

• Typical thrillers are set in the suburbs where everything appears to be safe - but isn't.
• Often under-recognised cast members are used to create a sense of reality. These actors would be of average looks (yet if the main character is based around a young adult, he generally would have a sex appeal to entice the female audience) to make them more believable.
• The location is the home where both the girls live. We left shoes and bags around to give the impression the house was ‘lived’ in
•  (5) The location never ventured from the house itself but ventured into many of the rooms inside it
• The costumes were casual and nothing that would distract the audience from the action taking place
• The villain is dressed in dark clothing that doesn't reveal much about his person only that he didn't want to be recognised. This is common in thrillers as witnesses would end up dead due to them knowing his face.
• (9) Another proper used is the photo frame containing a picture of both the sisters together. This clearly shows the audience that Ellie misses her sister and possibly regrets nagging her to play hide and seek. Both sisters are seen to be smiling and appear to be quite close to each other. This moment allows the audience to guess or predict what the younger sister’s intentions are.
• Use of photographs is common in thrillers as they always have a story that link into the situation that the lead role is involved in. As the father of the girls is neither mentioned nor seen, this could easily be used as a stimulus for the back story as he could have been a criminal that got into trouble and now his children are been kidnapped in return.

Camera Work

• We used a variety of shots in our film to convey the relationship the sisters have with one another.
• (4) We used shot reverse shot and two shots to show the closeness of the siblings despite seeing the younger sisters annoying tendencies.
• The use of close ups help portray the emotion being felt at a specific moment in our film. This allows the audience to be placed more sympathetically towards one character over another e.g. During the younger sisters nightmare we see the distraught look on her face which helps builds her ‘heroic’ attitude later on in the film.

Editing

• (7) We used ellipsis in our film to allow time to pass which was created simply by fades in and out and cross dissolves which allows scenes to change into another
• We used cross cutting shots from the younger sister’s reaction to her older sister being kidnapped which shows the audience the strong sense of panic occurring in this scene. This is a common technique in thrillers as it builds up a climax with the use of tension to the scene.

Sound

• We had no enhanced sound in post-production as we felt it wasn't necessary, yet debates are on-going to whether dramatic music is needed for the kidnapping scene. We just had normal ambient sounds which I personally found gave a more realistic feel to the overall atmosphere.
• Dialogue is in constant use as it reflects both siblings characters and feelings towards each other e.g. the older sister telling the younger sister to leave her alone due to the work she has to do in an authoritative  tone to which the younger sister ignores and proceeds to annoyingly beg
• (8) Match on action with sound was used as this highlighted the strong emotion triggered at this point. 

Evaluate who would be the audience for your product

Evaluation of Distribution Institution

From left to right: Shannon, Hanisha, Georgina, Shannen:

Please view the full quality version on DVD.

Evaluation of Representation of social groups in our media product

Representation of Gender

• Our representation of gender in our film followed the stereotypical trail of male kidnapper and female victim. Our two main characters in our film are both females under the age of 18 and often teenagers are casted as the younger they are the more vulnerable they appear

 

• With younger characters, the role of the ‘victim’ is then easier to portray as it is stereotypically presented in film that female characters are physically weaker than males so are less likely to fight them off, which we showed when Georgina gets kidnapped.

• This stereotype can be taken from films that revolve around a kidnapping such as Rush Hour where an 11 year old girl is kidnapped. The victim is young and female just like the characters in our film. During the film, the little girl is dressed in her school uniform which stresses her innocence in the matter.

'Rush Hour' Child kidnapped

• Generally a psychological thriller features a family with a key focus on the children as this pulls on the audiences heartstrings. Our film too follows a similar path as in our film the children are seen to be clearly the victim in the events that take place.

Representation of happy family life

• Casting younger actors allow them to be presented as more likeable and innocent even though they can be troublesome children. Ellie (the younger sister) is a fairly conventional younger sibling as she has that ‘cute’ factor which comes from her youth. We might expect her to be kidnapped, as this seems to be her role - she follows the classic horror stereotype of being curious, rebellious, a bit of a nuisance. But then we twist this by making the older sister who has been working quietly upstairs the victim. This shows how representation and narrative are linked. Adorno suggests stereotypes operate as a shorthand for the audience - but because of this you can also surprise them when they think they know the role characters will take.

 

• From the beginning of the film, we can see that the relationship between the two sisters appears to be more sibling irritation that dislike for another. This hopefully puts the female gender representation in a more positive way. The relationship follows Althusser’s theory in that the more frequently we see the ‘love-hate’ sibling relationship, the more it becomes real.

'New York Minute' - Representation of an annoying sister relationship

Our sibling rivalry

• An example of a negative representation of sisters is the film ‘In Her Shoes’ which strongly focuses on the jealousy brought with sister relationships. This is negative representation of sisters yet this is done to make the audience feel sympathetic for one of the characters. At the end of the film though, the representation changes to positive one as the sisters settle their differences and become close. Our sisters squabble a little at the beginning but are close in reality as the photo of them shows.

'In Her Shoes' - Sister  representation of jealousy/ irritation

Family photo

• What is quite unconventional about female representation in our thriller  is the role which the main character takes as it is not a usual plot for a thriller - she becomes a hero and therefore a stronger and more important character than you would expect. In a stereotypical thriller you would see this character killed or kidnapped and she might develop mental problems because of the trauma. This helps perpetuate a stereotype of women as being weak; both our characters stand up for themselves and fight back.

• In the film 'Out of Sight' we see that a woman is ambushed by two authoritative men, picked up and forced into their car boot. This shows a negative representation of woman as they are stereotyped as being the weaker sex. The men ('villains') are both dressed in dark clothing and appear to know each other and are breaking men out of prison.  The location of this kidnapping is outside a prison by the wired fence which is quiet but not the prison guards main focus. 

Kidnapped -'Out of Sight'

Forced into car boot- 'Out of Sight'

• Another film 'Man on Fire' shows a young girl getting kidnapped due to her association with someone. This too shows the negative representation of women and this girl is female and of a young age which makes her more vulnerable and easier to kidnap. The location of this kidnapping is on an avenue of houses which has been blocked off by the police. 

Child being kidnapped -'Man on Fire'

• Our take on a kidnap follows a similar path as other films that feature an abduction. Georgina (a young, female teenager) opens her own front door to be attacked and dragged out the house. This happens in broad daylight just like in the film 'Man on Fire'. The location of this kidnap takes place on an avenue of houses, on a quiet road where you would least expect a kidnap. As women are most often the victims of domestic abuse, this taps intoa  common fear that the home is not the safe place it should be.

Georgina getting kidnapped in our film 'Hide and Seek'

• We tried to make sure that the audience would feel more sympathetic to the two girls due to their age and innocence even though at the beginning, the older sister had a more negative portrayal through her bossy older sister role. 

• When originally casting our villain, we all agreed that it was necessary to have an actor that came across as strong and overpowering. In stereotypical thrillers, the villain would be aggressive quite robust and male. Yet this stereotype is a negative representation of women as it implies that they are all easy to kidnap and are always the victim. Our chosen villain was taller than Georgina and with the use of mise-en-scène we created an appearance of a bulkier man by wearing a dark jacket which enhanced his shoulders. This could stereotype men negatively as the aggressor.

'Don't Say a Word' Stereotypical 'metal health' problem 

 

Our character is shocked but determined to find out what happened to her sister, even many years later

Next Cut of Coursework

Cut for Audience feedback

Progress With Editing

Some screenshots showing our approach to editing and two versions of an early cut of the footage.

Photos from Filming

These photos were taken while we were filming and show us trying different camera angles and distances to get our shots.