Evaluation Activity 7

This is our preliminary task which we produced at the start of the course.

This is our final opening sequence.

Throughout this process, there are many things which we have learnt about filming in general. Looking back at our preliminary task, we did make a lot of mistakes which we would have been able to change easily however we have looked back at this and improved by making sure we do not make the same mistakes in our final opening sequence.

The first screen grab is from our preliminary task and as you can see, the person filming the scene can be seen in the reflection which actually makes the scene look quite ridiculous because the audience would be more focused on the fact that you can see the person filming. We did learn from our mistake as the second screen grab is from our final opening sequence and we made sure that you could not see the person that was filming the scene so that our film would look more professional.

In our preliminary task, we made a script so that the characters could follow this and it would make it easier for the scene to be continuous however, we kept forgetting the lines which made it harder to make the shot look continuous. We decided it would be best not to have any characters talking in our final opening sequence so that it would be more suspenseful and the opening sequence would also look more professional because there would not be any parts of the film that would not have necessarily gone to plan.

In our preliminary task, we used simple camera angles and shots because we did not really experiment with the camera and just wanted to get the filming done quickly and easily. However, when it came to making our opening sequence, we decided to try out many different angles and shots in order to get the full effect and so that we had more knowledge on how to use a camera. The first opening sequence we made consisted of many shots however, we did keep it quite simple. Here is a screen grab of a basic shot which was included in our first opening sequence.

Our final opening sequence is much more advanced as we included many more shots and angles. An example of this would be how we put the camera above our character in order to make her look vulnerable and as if she was not in control of the situation at all. Here is a screen grab of how the shot looks.

We also used a panning shot in order to make our character look powerless. This was very effective as it gave a completely different look as to how our character looked in other parts of the opening sequence. Here is a screen grab of how the shot looks.

We did this quite close so that the actual shot looked a lot more intense so that the audience would feel sympathetic towards the character. By including this in the opening sequence means that the audience would be more likely to be drawn in into the film.

Evaluation Activity 6

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

We used Adobe Premiere.Without this, we would not have been able to put together all of our clips. We used this to edit, cut, crop, add effects, add sound etc. It was the first time that I have used this software however I found it very easy to work with as there are simple guidelines which help you to find your way round working everything out.

We also used Photoshop. We used this to put together our nine frame analysis, edit pictures and edit fonts. This also has guidelines which help you to find your way around the software.

Blogger was the one I used the most as this is where I post all my blogs. This is very straightforward and easy to use.

We used Picnik to edit pictures and so on. I have used this program before and therefore was comfortable using it throughout this process.

We used Prezi to make many different presentations. This was a program that I had used for this first time but automatically knew how to use it straight away because it is very straight forward.

We used Youtube to search for any video that we needed for example, opening sequences of other films. This was very helpful as this was a big part of our research.

Evaluation Activity 5

The way we decided to attract our audience for our opening sequence for 'Dolls' was by uploading the short video on Youtube. Youtube is the dominant provider of online video which seems like the best way to let everyone know about it. Youtube is very easy to use as all you have to do is make an Youtube account (which is free) and then you can upload videos and decide how you want people to find them.

We gave our video a very simple name so that it could be easily found which was 'DOLLS AS Opening Sequence'. By giving it a complex name just means that you would get less views on your video because not many people would be able to find it. 

Youtube has a description box which allows you to add a description about your video so that your video is easier to find as you can explain what your video is. It also has a feature in which you can add tags to your video so when someone searches something that is included in your tags, your video will come up in their search. Here you can see we have added some tags like a-level, opening sequence, thriller etc. Another way of getting many views would be by linking a very well-known thriller/psychological horror like Se7en to our video.

When you do upload a video on Youtube, you can decide whether you would like everyone to be able to view your videos or just certain people who either have the link or are subscribed to you. By making it private, you are setting a restriction to the public from watching your video so we decided not to do this and just let it be viewed publicly. By doing this, we are letting our video go international and this means we can get a variety of feedback if seen from people all around the world. 

Comment voting is another feature which helps maximise your hits as if your video has many likes then people will see this and want to watch your video because they would want to know what it contains that people are liking it. You can even set your comments to whether or not you would like everyone to see them or not however if you do set this to not being able to receive comments, then you will lose out on feedback which will not help you knowing what needed improving on your video. People can also rate your video out of a star rating of 5 which helps with feedback.

Youtube offers many different options in order for your video to be seen at any time and place for example, embedding. This gives external websites your permission to allow your video to go up on their website so that it may be viewed by many more people who may come across that website. There is also syndication which is where your video can be viewed on a mobile device. 

We also spread the link on Facebook to each of our friends so that our video could be viewed.

Another way of promoting our video was through Twitter. We each tweeted the link and asked our followers to retweet it so we could get more views.

Evaluation Activity 4

                                                   

For our film, I think we would be targeting to an age range from about 15+ because people from that age would be able to handle scenes which would appear in our film. Anyone younger than this could be affected by the scenes as there is blood and violence shown. I have not put a limit to the age as I think that the film can  be suitable to people of ages over 15 because they will understand the story line and relate to what is being shown. The audience we are going for can be either male or female but I chose to draw a male. 

I have chosen this particular audience because I feel that they would watch my film due to the story line being different to other types of films. Our film is a lot more realistic and many people out there may even be able to relate to it which would draw them in however action films and sci-fi's are fantasy and therefore a lot of people would not take their time out to watch such films.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/15-2/

’15′

Suitable only for 15 years and over

No one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work.

Discrimination

The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

Drugs

Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.

Horror

Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

Imitable behaviour

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Language

There may be frequent use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’). The strongest  terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Nudity

Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

Sex

Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme

No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

Violence

Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.

Evaluation Activity 3

This is the production company logo which Tasnim produced for our opening sequence. We decided for the actual logo to be very plain as we did not want to go over the top as this only does last on the screen for a few seconds and also, we wanted our production company logo to fit in with our opening sequence which is why it is quite dark and eerie.

We decided for the font to be simple and just used plain white text. The reason we chose the colour white was because our production company is called 'White Shadow Productions' and so it would fit in well with this and this is a convention of thrillers. We needed to keep the same theme throughout the whole opening sequence in order for it to look professional.

We also had the choice to use an existing production company logo however we thought that making our own one would have more of an effect. We researched as to which actual production companies would have produced our film and we found that Coffee Films fitted in quite well. The reason for this is because it has previously produced films which have either the same genre as ours or similar so it would only make sense for it to produce ours.Coffee Films incorporated in 2003 and was recognised as one of Europe's leading young production companies just after a year.

Here is a link to their website: http://www.coffeefilms.com

Other production companies which may produce our film in the future would be Celador Films or Hammer Films Productions. Celador Films produced Dirty Pretty Things which won a British Independant Film Award. Hammer Films Productions would be suitable because it produces

This is a definition of production companies from Wikipedia:
A production company provides the physical basis for works in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, and video.

Production companies supervise the film as it is made from start to finish. They look over pretty much everything that goes on in the film like scripts, budgets, resources, schedules and location of the filming. They handle pre-production, post-production, distribution and marketing. 

Production companies tend to gain most of their profit from the advertising revenue. It is mostly up to them to fund the production of the film. Our film was made from no budget whatsoever and we only used props and equipment which we already had. 

We researched that in independant films, it is normally the director or a cast/crew member which actually came up with the storyline and script. The film also consists of hardly any credits because there is a lot less people involved and so we decided to do the same thing as we are also independant. We followed the style of Se7en by putting our credits in different parts of the screen.

Films like Monsters and Four Lions were released by film festivals and by having the film uploaded online. Magnolia Pictures is a production company which done this for many films. We decided to put our video on Youtube so that we could target an international audience rather than having limits as to who could see our opening sequence. Youtube is also easily accessible at any time and place.

Evaluation Activity 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I would say that our film represents teenagers as a social group, mostly females. This is because our film consists of a teenage girl who is very modern, looks quite smart, independent and has a bright future. She is shown as a typical girl who likes to dress up and go out.

In this screen grab, I have chosen a shot from Pretty Little Liars because the girl is also putting on red lipstick. The reason for this is because although they may not look the same, they have the same type of interests as they are both looking into compact mirrors and putting on red lipstick. This portrays them as 'normal' teenagers because it seems like all they want to do is look nice etc. However, they do both have a different side to them and by using the colour red, they are revealing danger.

There are many similarities between the two characters which can be seen from the picture alone. They both like to wear red lipstick and carry round compact mirrors which could portray that image is a big thing for them. They dress very similar and leave their hair down which is how a 'normal' teenager is. However, the similarities between the two characters are not just by what can be seen, but what lies beneath. By this I mean that they both hold deep secrets which would not be able to be known just by looking at them as they seem like happy people.

Although there are similarities, there are also differences. The character in our film has dark hair whereas the character in Pretty Little Liars has blonde hair. Using the stereotype of how blondes are seen as 'slow', the character from Pretty Little Liars may be portrayed as someone who is gullible and not so intelligent and just takes everything how it is however in our film, our character is always seen walking alone which represents independence and that she has no reason to rely on anyone else which also comes back to holding deep secrets.

Evaluation Activity 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)

Here is a nine frame analysis of our final opening sequence. I have specifically chosen these different shots because each and every one shows a different technique we used throughout our opening sequence for example, special effects, camera angles etc.

Shot #1 – This is a shot of our main character walking past a bush. We deliberately put our camera on the tripod and hung it onto a branch because we wanted to give the impression that someone was ‘stalking’ our character as she was walking. At this point in our opening sequence, the main character is being shown as she is walking down the street, putting her headphones in. We felt it was necessary to include this in our opening sequence because what our character is like is revealed to our audience straight away as she is wearing a pink dress with heels, she has long black hair and she is putting in pink headphones. This shows that our character is a ‘girly girl’. She is also walking on her own which implies that she is independent and does not rely on anyone. I chose this to be in my analysis because this is one of our unique shots as there is more focus on the bush than the character but the audience would still be more focused on the character.

Shot #2 – This is a shot showing our production company. We chose the background of the production company to be dark and gloomy so that it would fit in with our film. We chose ‘White Shadow’ because it is ironic as shadows are black and therefore we wanted to create an eerie atmosphere even through our production company.

Shot #3 – This is a shot of our title ‘Dolls’ with our establishing shot of the city in the background. We decided to use this type of font because it looks ‘girly’ which fits in with the title as it is to do with dolls but also the font looks creepy due to the colour we decided to use. We felt that using grey would fit in really well with the background even though it does stand out as well. Also, the font looks like a shadow which connects with our production company. We filmed the establishing shot because we wanted to show that the location of the film was completely normal as it was of a busy city and so the audience could relate to this in some way. We chose to call our film Dolls because we wanted our character to be represented in a form of a doll. Someone who is innocent and liked by everyone, pretty much perfect. The reason I chose this to be in the analysis was because this is one of our best shots due to the quality of the camera and the way the sun is setting, this makes the scene look really nice.

Shot #4 – This is a shot of our character walking whilst introducing names into our film for example, who directed the film. We decided to film our character walking in a reflection rather than just having a whole scene shot in the same way so that we could create uniqueness. Having different camera angles makes the scene a lot more interesting and therefore attracts the audience. Making the opening sequence interesting is the key factor of drawing the audience in. We decided to use this font and colour for the names because it is simple however stands out at the same time. We also move the names around the screen and the scene goes on as this doesn’t make the opening sequence boring and because this is also done in the film ‘Se7en’. We deliberately chose not to show our character’s face throughout this scene because we wanted to create suspense although we expect our audience to know which character it is.

Shot #5 – This is a continuous shot from shot #4 of our main character walking up the stairs however for this part of the scene, we decided to put a black and white effect on it so that the audience could tell that this was a scene from the past, like a flashback. Once again, our character is walking alone which suggests independence. I decided to use this in my analysis to show the different variety of special effects we used throughout our opening sequence.

Shot #6 – This is a shot of our character looking into a mirror and putting on red lipstick. There is also another mirror in front of our character and so we focused in and out of the two different mirrors to create a good effect and move the audience’s attention. By doing this we showed that because our character is looking into her own mirror, she does not realise that others are looking at her through a different mirror. From this screen grab, you can also see how we moved the names of the character from one place to another.

Shot #7 – This is a shot of when our character is walking up the same stairs but this time in different clothing and without any shoes on. We suggested that we should make our character’s feet look dirty to show that she had been through a lot and ended up in the same place as before when she seemed to have everything. We decided not to show the character’s face again as we know that the audience will know who the character is and this makes the scene a lot creepier as it leaves the audience wondering what her face must look like.

Shot #8 – This is a shot of the weapons that the kidnapper was using for when our main character was kidnapped. The reason I chose this shot to be in this analysis was because we used a different angle to shoot this. This also shows the different variety we used throughout our opening sequence. We felt it was important to show these weapons as it shows just how crazy this ‘kidnapper’ really is.

Shot #9 – This is one of the last few shots and it is of our character when she has been kidnapped. We felt it was important to show this in the opening sequence because it sets out the story really easy and quite simply. We thought it was best to do a close up because this really showed how intense the scene was as she looks bruised up and tired and unconscious. Also, the red lipstick smudged over her face was done because we wanted to show that the kidnapper was ‘weird’ in a way and wanted to make her look pretty but was not able to and this suggested some kind of psychotic behaviour. We decided to use a blindfold rather than show the eyes open or shut because this creates a bigger effect as it demonstrates that the kidnapper does not want the victim to see anything, like his face or the surroundings.

Setting/Location - We filmed in many different locations for our opening sequence as we felt this would create a greater effect and make our sequence a lot more interesting. Our establishing shot was filmed on the roof of our school so that we could get a clear view of the city. We filmed in town for when our character was walking up the stairs and for when she was putting on red lipstick in the mirror. We filmed outside Tasnim's house (media partner) for when our character was walking down the road whilst putting her headphones in as this was a quiet road and so we would not get any distractions whilst filming. We filmed inside her house for when our character was getting kidnapped. All of this was filmed in Coventry.

Costume/Props - We only used two costumes throughout the whole opening sequence. One was a black blazer, pink dress, black leggings and brown/red heels. This was for when we wanted our character to look really 'girly' and smart to show she had a bright future. The second costume was just where you could only see the trousers which were beige chino's. We used this because we wanted to show a contrast between the two different time periods. The second costume gave the character a messier look which is exactly what we were going for.

Camerawork/Editing - We used a whole variety of camera shots and angles throughout our opening sequence like establishing shots, close-ups, long shots, tracking shots. We used two different types of tripods to help us with our filming. We used Adobe Premiere in order to help us with our editing so that we could add special effects, shorten scenes, add sound etc.

Story and how the opening sequence sets it up - The story of our film is that a girl who lived a 'normal' life ends up getting kidnapped which changes her life forever. She's stuck with a kidnapper who will do anything to ensure she does not escape and after many attempts, she finally does. This slowly starts messing with her head and she ends up doing all the things he used to do to her for example, cutting her hair, burning her etc. She ends up in a mental hospital as she is crazy but escapes from there too and ends up walking into her own death as she runs into a fire. The opening sequence sets this up by showing how she was before she was kidnapped and then how she was after but just in brief parts as these scenes are some form of a flashback. We did not want to give too much away nor make our opening sequence look like a trailer so we just kept it simple.

Genre and how the opening sequence sets it up - The genre of our film is a psychological thriller/horror. Our opening sequence sets this up in many different ways, one of them being by having eerie music (Lana Del Rey - Video Games). The music is quite slow and seems hypnotic in a sense as the singer is dragging out the words. Also, the different colours which we decided to use are pretty much dark which creates a gloomy atmosphere. There are a lot of dull shots throughout the opening sequence which helps set the genre out as everything is dark and this automatically creates an uncomfortable atmosphere.

How characters are introduced - In our film, our character is introduced straight away as the first scene is the girl walking down the road as she puts her headphones in. Just by these scenes, you can automatically start to gather what type of person she is just by the clothes that she wears, the way that she acts, the way her hair and make-up is done etc.

Special effects - We used different types of effects in our opening sequence for example, making a scene into black and white in order to reassure the audience it is a flashback. Also, we brightened many scenes so they were clearer and added some contrast. We used many different transitions so that our opening sequence would be attractive for the audience.