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

After filming our preliminary task we could asses our work it allowed us as a group to identify the weaknesses in our filming methods and our attention to detail. The biggest flaw  was the contunuity of our piece, having people in the background of one shot but not in the next, this flaw meant that when filming our opening sequence we had to make sure to film without public or elements that could change shot to shot.  Another thing that improved was the type of camera that we used. we used a small flip-camera to film our preliminary task whereas we have now used a bigger digital camera to film our opening sequence. the quality of the image was much better and we were able to use a wider variety of camera angles and techniques. such as: the flip cameras could only be used hand-held, whereas the larger digital camera could be used on a tripod to keep the camera steady. It could also zoomed in with much better quality than the flip camera. Between filming the preliminary task and the footage for the opening sequence, we had the chance to learn about a large variety of different camera angles and filming techniques, making the variety of shots seen in our opening sequence much better. When it came to filming our opening sequence we realised that it would be more difficult to keep the continuity  in these 2-4 minutes than it was in the short 10-20 seconds of the preliminary task. This is down to the amount of filming time in one day being limited and the shooting being spread out over a few days. This also meant that weather conditions, lighting and the amount of pedestrians around at our locations would vary. The things that we learnt about editing software and techniques allowed us to edit the footage to keep the continuity running throughout the opening sequence. Since doing the preliminary task, I definitely feel that I have learnt much more about the editing process and methods that can be used when making a film. The editing process for the preliminary task was quite easy; the different shots and camera angles simply had to be edited together so that they flowed and didn’t look choppy. However, when it came to editing the opening sequence footage, a lot more editing had to be done.I learnt how to use transitions to link the different shots together, as well as how to add music and dialogue over the footage to make it more effective.

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

Over the course of production, we have learnt about a wide variety of different technologies. When doing research into opening sequences of comedy-thriller genre, we learnt about a few classic technologies of this genre, like type of shot.

The main technology was the internet, it was used for most of the research, gaining acsees to opening sequences throuh youtube for example. It allowed us to find out other people opinions on our opening sequences and the comedy-thriller genre, this was done through social networking sites.

While making the storyboard we had to consider the different shots and camera angles that we would use in our opening sequence. this taught us how an angle could impact the status of a character, e.g. a low or high angled shot.  It also taught us about the different ways that a camera could be used, for example using a tripod to make the camera steady, or using the camera hand-held to create different effects such as making the footage shaky to add tension.

The actual production of the opening sequence was the part in which we learnt the most about technologies. we used a range of cameras from flip cameras to handheld cameras it meant we could experiment with zooming and panning that achieved different camera shots and framing.

We also learnt how to use a tripod or handheld, the most of the footage was filmed with a tripod creating precise and crisp shots, but when filming the point of view shots we filmed them hand-held to create a more realistic view through the characters eyes.

The production process also allowed me to learn about editing shots and music software. At one point in the opening sequence, the female character used an internal dialogue to tell the audience what she had done that night. to do this we had to use a sound recording software to record the dialogue that would later be edited over the footage. A similar thing had to be done for the music that is featured in our opening sequence.

Post production/editing allowed us to learn about editing software and the effects that can be achieved. The main editing software that we used was ‘Sony Vegas Pro’, this enabled us to change the colour-grading of our footage to make it darker and more sinister, in-keeping with the genre. We also used this program to do certain cuts in shots/frames that were held for too long; one shot was showing the victim walking down the street and so we faded the victim out and then faded her back in when she was further up the street, which sped up the action and pace.

• 5.How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract our audience, we uploaded our finished product to youtube & shared the link on facebook and twitter. The reason that we have used these social websites to attract/address our audience ,and receive feedback, was because these websites are mainly used by teenagers and younger adults, as well as various other people who may be interested in our genre of film, our target audience. By sharing it on these websites, it allowed us to receive some more feedback from people who watched our opening sequence. we asked people two questions about or film, after watching our opening sequence what genre would you say it is? and after watching just the opening sequence would you carry on to watch the rest of the movie? Here is some of the feedback that we received:

-” a thriller/comedy and yes, because I want to see what the stalker does to the girl, its left on a cliff hanger!”

– “Thriller and yes because it makes you want to guess what’s going to happen next”

-” Genre wise I would say it was either thriller, drama or even biographical if it’s about his life… yes I would watch on, because I would like to see what happens next, it’s quite mysterious, I do think more could be happening the opening sequence to grab more attention.”

– “The film, while being quite humorous and light-hearted, does seem to have some slight editorial glitches in sound and picture quality.”

Getting feedback shows that we were able to achieve the comedy-thriller genre in the opening sequence. Many people also said that they would watch the rest of the film as they want to know what happens next to the characters because of the ‘cliffhanger’ ending. The fact that people said that they would want to carry on watching the rest of the film show us that we have been successful in drawing the audience in with the opening sequence. However from some of the feedback some elements where not clear and they thought more could have happened, the quality also showed to be a big downfall but that was down to what was available.

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

Our film is a comedy-thriller so our target audience will be people interested in this genre such as teenagers/young adults. The age range can’t be specifically targeted as a comedy-thriller isn’t aimed at any age group. A comedy-thriller would generally appeal more to the male audience rather than the female audience, as stereotypically the thriller side would be more gory. The film that our opening sequence is made for would probably get a rating of 12-a to a 15, mainly due to the sort of themes that appear in the sequence, such as drinking and having a character being stalked. Even though the film is a comedy-thriller, these themes may not be suitable for the impressionable younger audiences.

To elaborate on our choice of rating, we have chosen to have a rating as showing some of the themes present in our opening sequence, even though they meant to be funny, could still be portrayed as good to a young audience who are not mature enough to understand the themes or understand there context. There are also a couple of moments where there is bad-language used, another reason as to why the film would most likely receive a 15-certificate.

We have used some of typical genre conventions to make the opening sequence appeal to a comedy-thriller audience. One is that we used slap-stick violence  in order to parody the usual violence that occurs in normal thriller films, we also decided to use this convention as it is used in most comedy-thrillers that we researched. Another that we used was filming shots from the antagonist point of view, this puts the audience in the position of the stalker, making them feel as though they are part of the film and the action.

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

Distributors job is to make the largest possible amount of audience want to see and the new film when it is released to a theater. They do this by many  marketing and sales methods such as advertisement, online promotion, etc. A distributor is the link between a film production company and getting the film onto the film watchers screen. The distributor also in the film business would also market the circulation of the movie in theatres world wide, but also manage the film distribution for viewing at home after being show at theatres, this would be ports such as DVD, blue-ray, video-on-demand, downloadable content and television.

Our opening-sequence in a low-budget British film so we would need to be co-funded by a distribution company. A well-known British distribution company is film4, they produce and air films that are co-funded and would be perfect for our film.

Film4 have been involved in the production for many well known and very popular films, these are such movies as the classic ‘four weddings and a funeral’,  eight Oscar winning ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ and many more. They have also been involved in the production of new to be released ‘Attack the Block’.

As our film would be a low-budget British production film4 would be the perfect distributors for our film, as they specialize in the distribution of low-budget films that they see potential in.

Film4 is well-known and has collection of companies connected to it, this will help when trying to target the best possible audience. Our film would be classed as a 12a or 15 rating so it needs to be advertised to the right people. To do this film4 would advertise our movie in the ad-breaks of programmes to the same target audience as our movie, as they are connected to channels such as e4, channel 4 and many more this would be very easy to do.  The more people that are introduced to the advertisement means more possible viewings at theatres and more likely to purchase DVD copies in the future.

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

The representation of social groups in our piece was hard, we didn’t have the chance to to class our characters into a social group as there are only two. We also had trouble  as after watching other comedy-thrillers, such as scary movie, the characters are all very stereotypical and two dimensional meaning they didn’t have a certain group they could be classed into.
We found this from doing research into other comedy-thriller opening sequences, we found that many of the opening sequences didn’t contain many characters and if they did they didn’t have much depth into their character and were just stereotyped. It seems very important to put over the story and comedic elements that be able to make the audience relate to the characters in a comedy-thriller.

Another element to looking into social groups is the different elements of a character such as  age, ethnicity, gender, regional identity, status amongst characters, social status and stereotyping. These are all things we have considered and applied to our characters that are in-keeping with our genre:

-for our victim figure, we have made her stereotypically pretty pale  female English rose

-making her young and therefore vulnerable.

-as we want to put across that she is posh/upper class, the motive for the stalker to attack her, we want her to have a posh very British accent.

-we don’t really see the status between them, but using high angle shots to make her look small will show her in a vulnerable light.

-for our villain/antagonist, we don’t really see their ethnicity but make them look dark and mysterious.

-stereotypical male, being older that the victim to seem more dominant

-we will use low angle shots to show him overpowering the victim.

We can however in some occasions class our victim character, this would be in a teenage social group this is because she has been out that night drinking and it enables young people to relate to her in that situation. The other character is our opening sequence is the stalker. But overall the main aspects of the characters shown in our opening sequence don’t reflect any specific social group aspects.

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

For our opening sequence we have decided to do a comedy/thriller, it combines both scary and comedic elements. To achieve this we have had to look at the conventions of other similar movies that are in the same genre of comedy thrillers. We researched movies such as, ‘Hot fuzz’, ‘Shaun of the dead’, ‘The Scary Movie’s’, ‘Pink Panther’ and Epic movie. These films enabled us to see the classic links between each and the classic traits of a comedy/thriller.
The main link in all is that they have an innocent character that get in to trouble or has bad things happen to them. This character is mainly stereotypically female, innocent and vulnerable; this is a normal trait of a thriller movie. They also have a stereotypical “baddy” character, this character looks dark, menacing and the one who is dammed the enemy.
Another element that I found was that they all use music to make a big impact in different scenes, Using tense, moody music when building up to the climax/main event of the movie, they also use some cartoon-style, comedic music to funny moments in the film. From this we have decided to use the cartoon-style music from the Pink Panther films to add to the comedy element in our piece, this will appear when the stalker is running from hiding place to hiding place. In Epic movie they use a lot of good slapstick comedy so we can use this in a new way in our opening scene, the parody elements of Epic Movie add an 80′s style comedy to the film so we will be created by the comedic music. We also need to build the tension at the start so we are going to take our inspiration from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz to keep the thriller element involved with creepy, tense music, this will appear when they are in the woods and he is very close to confronting her for the ring.
We decided to use all of these elements in our opening sequence, these classic stereotyped elements of a comedy/thriller will make it clear to the audience what genre of film we have chosen and it is proven they are successfully achieved from our researched films and will be easy to replicate. Of course we need to make our piece individual and by this variation of lighting used, instead of using darker, more menacing lighting as seen in most thrillers, we are using strong day light. This will create a less tense setting but it means that it is easy to capture all the action as we don’t need to bring in artificial lighting. It will also fit our story line of the girl waking up from a night out and being hit by the harsh day light, it also makes it more plausible for the stalker to notice her ring glinting in the daylight. 

What is an opening sequence?

“A title sequence is the method by which  films or television programs present their title, key production and cast members, or both, utilizing conceptual visuals and sound. It usually follows but should not be confused with the opening credits, which are generally nothing more than a series of superimposed text.” (“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_sequence”)

Title sequences are the first few minuets of a film, they introduce the title, film ideas, build up, main cast and sometimes the director.They are their to grab the audience’s attention, to fill them with emotion and the drive to carry on watching to see how it all plays out.  The opening sequence should include hints to the rest of the film, indication the genre and conventions of the film. They are designed especially to capture the imagination of the watcher so are sometimes grander that the whole movie. most opening sequences try to tell a story, they are very well thought of as they are short they need to not drag on but lead onto an equally daring and challenging, or clever and wonderful movie.

the opening credits are similar “In a motion picture, television program, or video game, the opening credits are shown at the very beginning and list the most important members of the production.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opening_credits)

they words over the opening sequence introducing the main cast and crew used in making the movie. it can also be put there to advertise the movie to the audience, if an actor is in it they like, they are more likely to stay and watch.

Research into title sequences-kyle cooper

Kyle Cooper

Kyle Cooper is a very well-known creator of new and interesting opening sequences to block buster movies. 

Se7en is the most famous opening sequence that Kyle has created, he was working as the creative director for R/GA.(the company that deals with all ranges of the digital age media)

He was allowed to go off and be creative with his opening sequence, using snippets from the movie, giving subliminal hints to the audience about great details in the movie. He just shows the audience a brief outline of the next couple of hours he doesn’t tell them too much as that would put them off from watching, but also doesn’t tell them too little, though it doesn’t tell you clearly what the film is going to be about it interests you to want to watch on and see how these things have reliance.

Kyle Copper’s other famous opening sequences are also known world-wide as he has a great history of working in the film industry, some of these include:

-Iron Man in 2008

-The Incredible Hulk in 2008

-Tropic Thunder in 2008

-Wimbledon in 2004

-Dawn of the Dead in 2004

-Spider-Man in 2002

-Zoolander in 2001

-Flubber in 1997

sound and music

diegetic: the diegetic(the natural or alongside film frame) sound we use are:

-natural bird sounds

-walking/footsteps

-stalker shouting

-victim talking

-cars/buses/planes going past

-sound of keys shaking

-sound of car door being pulled

non-diegetic: the non-diegetic(sounds added after filming, what where not taken whilst filming) are going to be:

– the internal monologue, the thought proses of the victim.

-musical score

the musical score:

the music we will use is going to be created and recorded by us, but we are taking inspiration from many other films of a similar nature. Such as:

We No Speak Americano this is the Charlie Chaplin style of comdic running music we will use

halloween theme song- tense music  this is our tense music, used from a horror film, we want to create a un-nervy atmosphere for the audience.