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 forms and conventions of real media products

Title (1)

• Hide and Seek – minimalistic. Fading white against black background. 
• Vertical stripes, looking as if they were lights streaming through blinds or in a wardrobe, like the idea that someone is hiding somewhere dark. 
• Appears after Ellie closes the cupboard door and turns off the light.
• Used silence – to give it that empty yet creepy feeling.
• Thin and capitalised – thin for the minimalistic effect, capitalised – similar to ‘Taken’, a film we have taken inspiration from for our plotline – but bigger compared to the credits – this is to enforce its importance.
• Simple animation: appear in a typewriting style, stretch and fade to black. Reason for doing this is because our film is on the serious side; we don’t want to have over-the-top animations and we wanted to keep it simple. Seen in other films of similar genre such as "What Lies Beneath'.

Credits (2)

• A HANISHA MISTRY Film – Similar to the title, white is more prominent compared to it.
• Appears after our ident.
• Uniform.
• Similar to the format to the title. Animation is simple.
• Used smaller fonts. So as not to take over the title.
• White against black background. Similar to ending credits in ‘Taken’.
• After the appearance of certain characters, the screen fades to black and their names will appear as it fades in. This is so the audience can know who’s playing who. 
• We decided to have a white text against a black background instead of just having it appear as the opening goes on because we felt that the background is too busy and that the credits may not be seen.
• Quite simple and unobtrusive in keeping with the genre.

Characters (3, 4)

• In the two-minute film opening, we have to establish the fact that the two sisters have a close relationship (apparent in exchange of dialogues and the high-five). This is vital because later in the film, it will show just how important Georgina is to Ellie.
• In psychological thrillers, the main character is usually in an unstable mental state of mind. They often have to deal with conflicts of their mind – their upsetting past; crimes they have witnessed and suppress; dealing and resolving with a restless memory; going on a journey, looking for unanswered questions from the past.
• Therefore we chose to have our main character, older Ellie (Gillian) having nightmares of her sister being kidnapped back when she was younger. Later on in the film, we will have older Ellie looking for answers to rest her troubled past.
• Most of the opening is in younger Ellie’s POV so she may be an unreliable witness – similar to Briony Tallis, a young girl (older than Ellie by a few years) in ‘Atonement’ so her memory could have been suppressing important information.
• Georgina acts as a careless teenager who opens the door without any precautions, leading to her kidnap.
• Casting Georgina: she had the appearance of a ‘hip’ teenager – short, stylish hair and trendy clothes.
• Casting younger Ellie: she had a stereotypical appearance of a sweet younger sister with a child-like face and cute fluffy, clothes.
• Casting older Ellie:  we had to make sure that they have something in similar so the audience can tell that they are the same person but in different stages of their lives. Both Ellie and Gillian have a long brown hair with a slender frame.
• Use of younger versions of actress shows importance of past events which is very typical in our genre.

Mise-en-scene (5, 6, 7 and 8)

• Kidnapping takes place at home, this means that the kidnapper either knows Georgina or stalking her. House is large and brightly lit, this suggests that the sisters belong to a rich family. This implies that kidnapping or any form of a traumatic event can take place anywhere, even in the safest place you know. This is slightly similar to the hostage situation that takes place in Bruce Willis’ ‘Hostage’. 
• Georgina’s room is chic, has some stuffed toys on the bed and has a very nice layout. This represents a fashionable teenager’s stereotypical room.
• Older Ellie’s room is darker and colder. We chose it this way because we want it to appear like she woke up in the middle of the night.
• The costumes asked to be worn are clothes suitable and often stereotypical of their age.
• Older Ellie’s costume is a pair of pyjamas, to create a sense of media realism as people in films tend to wake up in the middle of nightmares.
• The actor who played the kidnapper had a hoodie on to conceal his identity. Hoodies have the reputation of being worn by youths who occasionally get into trouble or ‘chavs’.
• Usually, films in our genre have cold and dark lighting throughout the film: ‘Don’t Say a Word’ and ‘Shutter Island’ respectively. We broke the convention by having bright and warm lighting throughout the memory but we would plan to use dark and cold lighting throughout the whole film after that sequence.
• Props such as magazines and paperwork are spread out on top of the bed to show that Georgina is easily identifiable as a student – this is an easy way to portray her as a teenager.
• The most important prop is the photo frame of the happy sisters, young Ellie and Georgina. Like a close-up of an object (tape) in ‘Stuart: A Life Backwards’, it shows that it is very important. When older Ellie looks at it just after a nightmare, it shows that she still remembers and thinks of her sister and it relaxes her.

Camera Work (8 and 9)

• We used two-shots and over the shoulder shots as we wanted to show that they are both important and that they have a close relationship. 
• In one two-shot, it almost seems like an edge of the frame shot – which suggests distance between characters – but they lean towards each other which shows a stereotypical sibling relationship: although they may sometimes fight, in the end they still love each other.
• When younger Ellie looks for a place to hide, we have unusual shots such as inside the cupboard when she looks in, a shot from above on the banister depicts her playfulness.
• High angle shots such as the one from the banister or the one behind her when she hides behind the table looks like someone is looking down on her and it captures how small and vulnerable she is.
• Georgina has almost as much screen time as Ellie has, but gets kidnapped. This is similar because in ‘Taken’, the daughter had a lot of screen time in the beginning, but was missing throughout the whole film and her father is looking for her.
• We took inspiration from this and will have older Ellie looking for Georgina throughout the whole film, and whatever may happen to Georgina, the audience will sympathise with her because of her earlier screen time.
• As the opening is supposed to be a memory, it is mostly in younger Ellie’s POV. The POV shot of her looking at her sister getting kidnapped is shot under the table and is moving slightly up and down to make it seem like she’s breathing heavily. This is similar to the scene in ‘Don’t Say a Word’ in which a young daughter witnesses assailants pushing her father on the train tracks and killing him. The use of a POV shot can make audiences empathise and see what is going on through a distressed child’s eyes.
• We also show a close-up of her face as she sees what is going on. Her face displays emotions of helplessness and this causes the audience to sympathise with her. 
• When older Ellie wakes up, the camera pans to the left as she reaches out to the photo frame. The use of this technique makes it look smooth and it seems like it’s routine for her.

Editing (2 and 5)

• We used ellipsis as the sisters high five at the door so it would make sense that time has passed before Georgina is seen up in her bedroom and younger Ellie makes her way upstairs. We did this by fading in and out to black; as we did so, we also added the actors’ names.
• Other times when it fades in and out, the title and credits appear, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s an ellipsis.
• We used cutaways during the scene where younger Ellie witnesses her sister being kidnapped. We did this by switching from a close-up of her face to her POV shot.
• We used a dissolve to show the transition from the dream to reality to make it easily distinguishable.

Sound (3, 4 and 7)

• The dialogue at the beginning between the mother and her children is light and caring. This gives the audience the impression that they are a close family. Georgina makes sure that her mother has everything so she wouldn’t come back in case she has people coming over. The children saying their goodbyes to their mother at the door is similar to Cady Heron in ‘Mean Girls’ saying goodbye and waving to her parents as they drive off – she does this to make sure they’re gone before she has other people coming over.
• The exchange of dialogue between the two sisters is casual and stereotypical of siblings – the older one lightly tells off the younger before deciding to go through with her games.
• Before Georgina goes down to answer the door, her dialogue has been added in post-production because we felt that it was too quiet and the dialogue doesn’t seem right. 
• As the dream dissolves into reality, we overlapped younger Ellie shouting, ‘Georgina, no!’ with older Ellie shouting it as she slowly wakes up and younger Ellie’s voice slowly fades out. We used this technique to give the feeling that Ellie’s nightmares creeps and still haunts her after many years.

Target Audience

Evaluation of Distribution Institution

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

Please view the full quality version on DVD.

Next Cut of Coursework

Representation in our Media Product

Representations in Our Coursework

Family

• In the two minute sequence shown, the three life stages are represented. Ellie, a child; Georgina, an adolescent and the mother, an adult. The quick representation of different ages in the first 2 minutes is stereotypical – the child wants to play, the adolescent is studying (and refusing to play) and the adult is shown going to work.

• In the screenshot below, this shows a stereotypical aspect of family life: nagging but caring.

Waltons - classic happy family stereotype



My Family - nagging but caring stereotype

• This  also represents role reversal between teenagers and children and their parents; they make sure that their mother has everything so she wouldn’t have to come back and that they would have the house to themselves - classic set up for a thriller and the familiarity of the representation makes it feel a believable situation.

Outnimbered - children often control parents

Home Alone - stereotype of left behind child and ensuing drama

• The extract takes place in the house the whole time. Locations within the house include the teenager’s bedroom, the kitchen, stairs and hallway. The house is shown to be warm – this suggests that the family is happy and comfortable (reinforced by the exchanging of dialogue between the children and their mother before she departs). This is one of the two conventional representsations of family life in media. For us, it needs to be stable and harmonious for the disruption to occur. In other genres, it is often a broken environment and this provides the drama rather than just being a back drop.

• A key point is that representations are often a matter of convenience rather than thought by the producer,

• The mother’s keys and mobile phone (the fact that her children have to remind her suggests that she might be a forgetful person).This is an almost teen drama representation where parents need to be like this so that the teenagers get left alone a lot so the drama can take place.

Saying goodbye

• This screenshot shows a picture frame as a prop. This over the shoulder shot of the older Ellie (younger sister) looking at the old photograph of her and her older sister. This represents the close bonds of family and makes sense of the fact the younger sister will spend the rest of the film looking for the older. Continues positive representation of family.

Looking at the photo frame

• There is a transition towards the end of a cross-dissolve from dream to reality. This represents passing of time and shows the yonger sister has not forgotten - family loyalty is paramount and drives the rest of the film.

• The lighting throughout the house is welcoming – warm, soft, natural and high-key lighting. In contrast, after the nightmare the lighting is cold, hard, artificial and low-key created by the solitary bedside lamp of a grown-up Ellie.

The cross-dissolve

Film representation of close relationship between sisters

 

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.

Researching the Target Audience

Researching the Target Audience:

Psychological thrillers tend to appeal more to adults, but since the protagonist of our story is a person around our age and the plotline is simpler than most psychological thrillers, our target audience would be teenagers (16+) and above and of mixed gender. People who watch psychological thrillers are more fascinated with the mind and how the protagonist struggles with overcoming an obstacle. Rotten Tomatoes’ (a website dedicated to reviewing films in a critic’s point of view) current highest ranking psychological thriller is Alfred Hitchcock’s very own ‘Psycho’. Other films that made the list include ‘Black Swan’, ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ and ‘Se7en’. Below is a link for the rest of the films:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dream_house_2011/news/1923552/10_certified_fresh_psychological_thrillers/

In this genre, people who prefer to watch psychological thrillers like to solve the mystery the protagonist is trying to solve and get ahead of them. Our film does pose a key mystery - what happened to the older sister? what did the younger sister see that can help her? And therefore I think we have the key element in place to attract audiences who enjoy this genre, which is a plentiful one we can assume from the Rotten Tomatoes poll.

While researching, I have found a great description about what effect psychological thrillers have on an audience – “The psychological thriller deliberately uses psychological tricks to create tension in the audience, for example by showing only indirect signs of a stalker or playing on the anxiety of the victim. As these stories make maximum use of suspense, action can be relatively slow, fizzing along like a slow-burning fuse. Whilst the audience may not be excited, they should be gripped by the story and glued to their seats.” The link below is the source:

http://changingminds.org/disciplines/storytelling/plots/classic/psychological.htm

having our POV filming of the kidnap and the slow reveal of what actually happens should tap into this appeal successfully.

The main conventions we applied to our film to appeal to our target audience are:

>Use of close-ups to show emotions and significant objects, long shots to keep the identity of the suspect a mystery and  tracking shots to build up suspense

>Ideas of nightmares and reality – flashbacks of a traumatic event

>A protagonist searching for answers about an event that happened in the past

>Death and people missing

The film, ‘Black Swan’ is about the mental destruction of a timid ballerina who slowly evolves into an obsessive perfectionist. Below is a link of an article about the aforementioned film:

http://theloquitur.com/?p=17025&doing_wp_cron=1354818941.3109080791473388671875

 

This article suggests that we like to watch someone slowly self-destruct as we can imagine it happening to ourselves and it is in some way reassuring to see it happening to other, successful people. Again, we feel we provide an element of this in the way the younger sister is traumatised by the past and cannot rest until she has solved the mystery.

Research into Film Industry

Production

The main stages of a film production include: 

1.      Development – A producer picks a story; whether it is going to be an adaptation from a book (fiction and/or non-fiction), play, musical, another film or a story they may have created on their own. The producer then works with writers to develop the story and outline. The writers focus mainly on the context, mood and character developments. They then work with screenwriters, who then write screenplays. They focus mainly on how things would look like on-screen i.e. visually – they would focus on how the actors will act, how the actors would be dressed, add stage directions and add dialogues. Sometimes, some companies only hire a writer to act as both the writer and the screenwriter. The producer and writer then ‘pitch’ their idea to sponsors. If their pitch has been accepted, then the upcoming film is ‘green-lit’ – meaning that the producers are financially secured by sponsors.  A deal will be made and the companies involved sign a contract. The film now is set to go to the pre-production stage. We have replicated this stage in our development of the film outline and 'pitching' some of our ideas to the class.
2.       Pre-production – A production company is then created (usually is led by the producer or director). The film is then ‘storyboarded’ by illustrators and concept artists. The production budget is also being taken into account at this stage.  A production company depends on the type of film – e.g. blockbusters hire a large number of cast and crew whilst independent films only have no more than 20 (including cast).  These are some of the jobs in a production company:
   >Director:  In charge of telling how each departments should work and makes the decisions (what makes in the final cut). Helps the actors – how they would want them to act.
   >Unit Production Manager: Manages production budget and production schedule. Reports on behalf of the production company to the sponsors.
   >Assistant Director (AD): mainly manages the shooting schedule.Casting Director:  responsible for picking the right actor for the right role.
   >Location Manager: finds suitable locations for the film – sometimes it’s in the studio or in a specific location.
   >Director of Photography (DP): takes care of the photography of the whole film.
   >Director of Audiography (DA): (sound designer/supervising sound editor) takes care of the audiography (sound) of the whole film.
   >Production Sound Mixer: head of sound during filmmaking. They record audio on set – dialogue and sound effects. They work with the director, first AD, DA,DP and the boom operator.
   >Composer: Composes original score for the film. (usually not until post-production)
   >Production Designer: works concerned in visual matters works with art directors.
   >Art Director: in charge of the art department – makes production sets.
   >Costume Designer
   >Makeup and Hair Designer
   >Choreographer: helps and instructs with movement and/or dance. Fight choreographers and stunt co-ordinators help make a fight scene believable by training the actors in combat. We have replicated this stage through our storybvoarding and our organisation of the cast, locations, props etc.
3. Production – This is the stage where the all the film shooting takes place.  The cast and crew have their own ‘call times’. A call time is the time when the cast or crew is supposed to turn up for shooting in a specific set/location. Set construction, costume and lighting are usually set up in advance as they take many hours or days. Whilst the crew prepare their equipment, actors get ready by going to the costume, makeup and hair department. The actors then rehearse their script and ‘blocking’ with the director and practice with the camera and crew before taking the shot. The director shouts ‘cut’ and the camera and sound stops recording. If the director is not satisfied with the take, they may take as many shots as they want. When the whole production stage is completed, the production company usually arranges a wrap party to thank the cast and crew for their hard work. We have replicated this stage through our filming - apart from the wrap party...
4. Post-production  – This is where most of the editing takes place. Clips are put together, dialogues/narrations are added, score/music is added, special effects – CG work if needed, additional videos (archival footage or others that was not shot by the company). We will use various editing packages to put together our film.
5. Distribution – A distribution company has the say on how the film is distributed and can turn down production companies’ work if they don’t think the film will be a huge success. They work to get the films distributed in the cinemas (mostly blockbusters) or the Internet (independent films – paid or unpaid). After a few months, the film is then released into DVDs with special features such as commentary, behind-the-scenes or a gag reel to garner the attention of the moviegoers. If a specific film belongs to a series i.e. Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Captain America, Thor all belong to The Avengers they may be released into a box set edition, usually with a limited edition packaging or a special edition item. A distribution company is also responsible for the creation of advertising the film to attract a large audience. They usually create posters, magazine and newspaper adverts and trailers (on TV and in cinemas) etc.
6. Marketing – Audience research can usually add up to $1 million for each film. These areas are involved in audience research (source: Wikipedia)
   >Positioning studies versus other films that will premiere at the same time
   >Test screenings of finished or nearly finished films – this is the most well known
   >Testing of audience response to advertising materials
   >Tracking surveys of audience awareness of a film starting six weeks before premiere
   >Exit surveys questioning film goers about their demographic makeup and effectiveness of marketing >Title testing in an early stage
   >Concept testing that would occur in development phase of a film before it is produced.

Each blockbuster film may have its own website. On this, fans loyal to an adaptation of the film or the stars can explore the film via games, trivia, competitions, some clips in the film and several versions of the theatrical trailers.

Advertisements of such films include: trailers (on TV and in cinemas); posters; games and trivia on advertising banners on websites; standees; 

merchandising such as action figures, 

books tied-in with the film,

replicas of props and printed images of the film on various everyday objects e.g. lunchboxes, notebooks, mousepads etc.; interviews/talkshows with the director/producer/main actors; 

viral campaign – ‘leaks’ of some clips of the film or building up a fanbase. Sequels or spin-offs may be green-lit if the film’s box office was successful.

Mr. Nobody
Produced by: Philippe Godeau
Distributed by: Wild Bunch
Budget: $47 million

Thor
Produced by: Kevin Feige
Distributed by: Parmount Pictures
Budget: $150 million

X-Men: First Class
Produced by: Gregory Goodman, Simon Kinberg, Lauren Shuler Donner and Bryan Singer
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Budget: $140-160 million