Evaluation

Brief: To create a title sequence and opening scene of a new film.


Genre: Action Thriller


Target Audience: 15+ both male and female

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

When doing the research and planning for our title sequence, we made sure that we would follow all the codes and conventions of the genre that we decided to choose for our title sequence. We did this by researching on lots of different films.

During our title sequence we wanted to make the audience want to carry on watching, so this is why we left the ending on a cliffhanger and making the audience think who is the kidnapper? I feel that to follow the conventions of an action thriller we need to give little pieces of information away at a time to give a sense of mystery. Some of the elements of an action thriller are dark, spine-chilling, restlessness and discomfort. I feel that we incorporated all of these elements into our title sequence and doing so we created a successful narrative to our title sequence. By creating these elements within our film we used different camera shots and editing process like such things as our split screen. This was done so that we could show two clips at once and would also suggest that our kidnapper has a split personality. Our group sat down and talked about what we wanted to call our title sequence, we wanted something that wouldn’t give too much away but yet still gave clues to the audience on what might happen. This is when we decided that we was going to have one word that associated with “Kidnap” this is when “Seized” was then created. I believe that our title sequence looked professional and was really successful when finally completed.

Who would be the audience for your media product? How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We decided to target our title sequence at people 15+ both male and female.  We decided to do this as we felt that there would be no restrictions on what we could or couldn't include in our title sequence. We also decided to aim in at 15+ audience because if we didn't do this then we would have had to be very careful on what we could include in the narrative as kidnap is a very sensitive subject. Another reason why we targeted this audience was that we felt that the young people love films that show energy and excitement within films and it would appeal to them largely. We used young people of a similar age to your target audience in this film to appeal to the audience more. having actors the same age as our target audience will make them realize that this does happen to people and can raise awareness and make sure that they are being careful on what they do in there everyday yo day routines.


What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
After doing a lot of research on different types of media institutions and different films and who they are distributed, we decided that we would want a institution that is going to be well recognized with our title sequences genre. after a lot of thought and trying looking at various other films we decided that we was going to use "Lionsgate". We decide that they have great experience with action thriller genre films and that they would be the best choice for us. They have distributed films such as "American Psycho" and "Saw". Lionsgate have two different introductions to films , both have the cogs turn inside the gates, however when the gates open one has clouds behind the Lionsgate where as the other has red, dark clouds. we decided to use the one with dark, red clouds as this is the one that is mostly used on thriller films.


How did you attract/address your audience?
We decided that we wanted to create a title sequence that no one has ever seen before so that they would immediately be drawn to watching the rest of the film. We then started by exploring different camera shots, music and transitions and how they would come across within the film. By having someone of a similar age to the target audience we found that this would be able to relate to the audience and they would know how the young girl was feeling.Being able to relate to a film with draw them back in to watch the rest of the film.


What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Having used video camera's before but not in such a sophisticated way, we straight away realized that we would have to be careful making sure that the title sequence ran smoothly. this allowed me to learn a lot more about the cameras functions. Also only having used iMovie in the past, when it came to using Final Cut Pro i was quite reluctant on how i would do using it. Once we got started and learnt the basics of the programme it all started to become a lot easier and we was exploring and finding new and quicker ways of completing things.


Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Form the preliminary task to the full product i have learnt lots of new and useful skills. One of the most important skills that i feel that i have learnt is time management and how to use the time we had efficiently. We had lots of deadlines that we had given ourselves and we wanted to make sure this was done so that we  could finish out title sequence and make sure that everything was completed that we need to. Another thing that i have learnt is the importance of having a storyboard. Without having a storyboard we would have not been able to keep up with what we wanted to include in our title sequence and may even had forgotten to include an important element in our title sequence. I have also learnt that there can be many obstacles filming on the open street, such as people walking past, cars driving past and animals. although this does not sound like a big problem it is when its wasting the time and ruining the shots and continuity of the title sequence.


Overall i feel that we have created a professional title sequence that has followed the codes and conventions of a title sequence. I also feel that with all the research we done before hand it helped us portray the narrative through and has exceeded all expectations on how our finished product would look. 

Our Final Title Sequence

Feedback!

This is some feedback that we got back from people that have watched our title sequence. The majority of our feedback was positive and complemented our title sequence. We have not needed to change anything in our title sequence as we have had great feedback from everyone.

9/02/11

In todays lesson we created a questionnaire and are going to screen our title sequence and ask for feed back on the title sequence, we also uploaded screen shots of the editing process.  Now we are just doing finishing touches on our blogs! :) xx

Screenshots of Editing!

These are a few screenshots we took while we were editing our footage.

After filming the footage we had to upload everything that we had on the camera so we could then decide what parts of the footage we wanted to keep. This was done by attaching the video camera to the macs via a usb cable and then importing all the footage.

The first thing that we decided to do was to upload our film distributer , we decided to add this on to our title sequence to make it look more authentic and we decided that LIONSGATE was a distributer that would fit with our film as it haas done many other horror/thriller films.

We decided after picking the font that we wanted that we wanted it to jump quickly around the page, we didn't want this to be too drastic but just slight movements. We did this by first of all having to download the font that we wanted and then cutting the sequence up into little pieces and then moving the text a little bit on each one. We done this because it felt and looked deranged just like our main character.

This is our Production logo that was designed, we felt that this wasn't to heavy and bold but felt light and had a sense of ease towards it, which i feel does not give to much away about our film.

We decided that we wanted to fade in and fade out some shots so that it didn't look as harsh and flows a lot better within the sequence.

This is were we was editing footage that we had filmed.

This is also editing the footage we had filmed.

This is when we uploaded the music that we chose for our title sequence.  We spent along time choosing the music as we felt it was a big part in setting the scene in the title sequence so we wanted to make sure that we got it right.

This is the screenshot of when our title sequence was completely finished :)  

Audience Response Questionnaire

We have decided to screen our title sequence and give out a questionnaire to receive some feed back from people about how effective our title sequence is.

Final Typography!

This was the font that we decided to use for our title sequence, we found this certain font on a website called Picnik. We then downloaded the font so it was on the macs so it was easier to use. We found that this font worked well with our title sequence as it looks good in white on a black background and is bold. We feel that this font represents the stalker/kidnapper within our a film as the font has bits coming off of it with which relate to decaying like our character who has a sense of decaying mentally.

07/02/11

Our title sequence is DONE!! everything is now finished on the production side of our project and now we are just focusing on our blogs and making sure that it all up to scatch!!! :) xx

Cast Members!

Emily Neil- Emily starred as the the main girl in the title sequence who was being followed

Jon Purday- Jon starred as the man who is the kidnapper/stalker within our title sequence.

Final Chosen Soundtrack!!

This is the song that we decided to use as our soundtrack: 

In the beginning

Music Research

Finding music for a title sequence is very important, it cant be to over powering and too much of a cliche. We found finding the right music really difficult and it took us a good few weeks to actually find the right music. We went on audio.lgfl website and started listening to various different types of music. We decided that we wanted some sort of classical music as it gives a sense of suspicion. Some of the songs that we found it did not feel like it went with our title sequence. After listening to many we found that violins within the music sets the right atmosphere  and after much consideration we finally found our music!!


These are a few of the songs that we were considering: 
Track one- Cold city
Track two- In Memoriam
Track three- Three -Hell's Harp 

4/02/11

As our title sequence is nearly finished it should be completed by the end of this lesson!! Just some finishing touches on the editing and making sure everything is done properly!  :) xx

2/02/11

In todays lesson we watched a couple of film title sequences with the class and discussed them. After that we then want on to the macs to find our music. We Finally found some!! The music is not to over powering and fits in the appropriate genre of thriller/horror. We then put on the music and a couple of the other groups in our class including us then showed our title sequences to the class and got some feed back. Our feedback was that they suggested that we faded out titles in and out which we have decided to do next lesson!! :) xx

Chosen Production Logo!

"With each of the previous production logo's we used a white background with black imagery and typography; in this design we used a negative effect to vary our possible options. The typography resembles the different strokes of the feather. In this design we were able to incorporate all the different elements we realised from our first few designs. The contrast of the white on the black creates a softness to the image without losing the sharpness on points of the feather. So far this is the design which we are most likely to use in our opening title sequence as it fits in with the whole look of the sequence."

28/01/11

Hiya, We are stillllll editing!! were putting our titles on today and TRYING to find some appropriate music to set the mood of our title sequence. :) xx

26/01/11

Well, well,well, where does one begin! Well today we continued to edit our title sequence which is now coming on B-e-a-utiful! We now need to add a few finer details and find the music and then we are finished! Peace out!! :) xx

Production Logo

These are various different logos that we are considering to use for our title sequence. 

This is the very first production logo we created, the feather itself has slightly been softened, and the typography we used follows a movement which mirrors the feathers movement. The typography colour has been faded in a way which adds a softness to it again relating make to the feather image. This is not my favourite production logo because it is very basic and there is no dimension to it or fading of colours or graining of the image. 

This was the second production logo we designed; from the first design we realised the different elements we had to consider to create a production logo which was the opposite to the first one we designed. Firstly we began by strengthening the dimensions of the feather making it more darker adding further depth to it- which we did not achieve in the original design. Also we added graining over the entire logo this give's an essence of the silent movie era. I thought it would be a good idea to use a typography which resembled an earlier period therefore I chose a font which looked like it had been hand written with ink; the typography also has a motion to it which follows the feathers shapes. A criticism of this design was that the heavy graining could have a harsh effect on the eyes. 

With each of the previous production logo's we used a white background with black imagery and typography; in this design we used a negative effect to vary our possible options. The typography resembles the different strokes of the feather. In this design we were able to incorporate all the different elements we realised from our first few designs. The contrast of the white on the black creates a softness to the image without losing the sharpness on points of the feather. So far this is the design which we are most likely to use in our opening title sequence as it fits in with the whole look of the sequence.    

This is a design for a possible production logo; in previous designs we had used a dark background with lighter imagery. So, in this design we went back to our original design with the lighter background and then chose a varying grey for the feather and writing. We used a soft effect on the image  of the feather as we thought it created a pleasant effect as it had done on the first and third designs. As for the typography, we juxtaposed the previous idea of having the font mirror the movement of the feather and chose a sharper type of typography; although bearing this in mind throughout the different letters there are breakages which could show some of the strokes in the feather.

 

This was our next attempt at a production logo, we had the idea to relate the logo to the genre of our film, so we used a dark ash grey to create a dark mysterious mood to begin the title sequence. As in previous designs we chose to use a typography which mirrors the movement of the feather, as for the colour of the font we chose a slightly lighter version of the grey we had used for the feather- first we used the same colour but found that the writing could sometimes be lost in the background; but by using the lighter colour we were able to make the production name stand out against the black background. 

19/01/11

In todays lesson we managed to film all of our footage!! I feel the filming went really well, we had some troubles with passing cars and me now being able to catch up with emily whist filming but overall everything went really well. Its editing time now!! :) xx

17/01/11

In todays lesson we decided to film some close up shots of the book as we would like to edit 
these in as a fading effect throughout the title sequence. I believe these shots where very 
successful and think that they worked really well. We now need to start editing! We also 
uploaded the footage to the macs and are going to film more on Wednesday to then be able to 
edit them all together :) xx

14/1/11

In todays lesson, emily is at the doctors so when she gets back we are going to look into start Filming!! For the moment were just updating our blogs :) x

The Book!!!

These are some of the images within the scrapbook of the kidnappers. These Photos will appear at the beginning of our title sequence when the kidnapper is flicking through his book. 

12/1/11

In todays lesson we printed of some of our pictures so that we could stick them in our kidnappers scrapbook ready for filming. We couldn't film today as sarah wasnt here so we are having to postpone the filming :(  I also updated my blog so it was up to date :) x

Typography Idea's

Here are some typography ideas that we came up with. We wanted our typography to have sense of deterioration and decay. We also wanted the typography to have a ransom feel to it.  so here are just a few examples that we chose to look at.

Type of Audience

There are some questions which need to be asked before deciding the audience of our piece these include:

• What kind of people may be interested in your story?
• Young people, older people?
• People from different communities?
• Specific groups of people?
• What else might your target audience go and see?
• What would they watch at the cinema?
• What would they watch on television?
• Would you want to watch your film?
• How would you rate the content of your film?

Q:What kind of people may be interested in your story?
A:I think the type of people who may be interested in our story would be those who enjoy the excitement of the unknown and the constant questioning of what may happen next.

Q:Young people, older people?
A:The age range which we decided to aim our film at was the over 15s, therefore we would expect above 15 year olds onwards. So our film is aimed at both young people and older people.

Q:Specific groups of people?
A:There is not a single specific group which our film is aimed at although we would not recommend it to those who do not enjoy the genre of crime, thriller or drama.

Q:What else might your target audience go and see?
A:Our target audience would most probably go see films within the genre's of horror, crime, realism, drama possibly period drama's and also thriller's. Films such as 'The Stepfather', 'Disturbia' etc.

Q:What would they watch on television?
A:There could be a range of programmes which our audience may go see from documentries on the topic of crime to social realism as our film relates to some issues which arise in society.

Q:Would you want to watch your film?
A:I would watch my film because it falls into the genre of film I enjoy watching, also there are constant climax's and cliff hangers throughout the film enabling the audience to want to know what is going to happen next. Also I would enjoy watching the film because it is the type of film which always keeps its audience on edge.

Photos of Various Locations That We Plan to Use

Here are some photos that we plan to use whilst filming our title sequences. There is also various different options if a location is not possible on the day of filming.


The Images below are photos of where we may possible consider filming the desk scene.

The next images are photos of where we may shoot the stalking scene of the title sequences.

These next set f images is where the girl and kidnapper engage in their struggle with the camera on tilt

10/01/11

As i was not in for last lesson due to being ill :( so todays lesson i caught up and added the photos to my blog that the rest of my group took on the friday. We have also decided that we are going to start filming this wednesday. :) xx

Final CCTV Images

Here are some of our images that have been edited into the style of CCTV footage. We looked on Google to see what CCTV images look like so that we could get a realistic look to our images.