Question 2

Question 7

Question 7 

''Looking back on your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?''

When looking back on my preliminary task that I completed at the beginning of the year i can see the progress I have made since which has helped in the production of my final product. When I first started I had little knowledge of what each shot type was and how to use them to their full potential. Since then I have improved my skills and i now know the correct terminology for each and how to use them appropriately. During the filming of my preliminary task I learnt about the 180 degree rule, match on action, shot/reverse shot, continuity editing and how to frame a steady shot. When I had used these shot types in my preliminary task at the beginning of the year, I used them in a basic format but did not push the skills further. Since this task I feel I have pushed these skills along when producing my final product.

During the time that I have spent since the preliminary task I have seen my progress in the use of match on action. When I first used match on action I wasn't entirely sure how to use it properly so the shots where it is used arent as clear. In comparison to this, when I used match on action in my final product it was clearer as to what  type of shot has been used. This shows my development in the understanding of how to film and edit a video clip in a professional way.


 

In this clip we see Aaron looking at Darren who is asleep on the desk. We then get a shot of Aaron's puzzled facial expression as he is talking to Darren trying to wake him up as he is late. After this we get a final shot of Darren again from Aaron's point of view as he is waking up from his sleep. These shots are slightly shakey which throughout the time that I have had to produce my final I have improved. They have also improved in the way that we view the shots as now in my final piece they are a lot clearer.




As there was no dialogue in our piece because we wanted to use sound to create the atmosphere, we only used match on action when the main character was in the bath. This clip shows the main character casually having his bath going about his normal, daily life and we don't think anything of it. We then see a shot of a blank ceiling for a long period of time as if it was shot from the characters point of view. After we have focused on this for a while it goes back to the shot of the character in the bath where blood suddenly drips on him. This is an example of where my knowledge of match on action has increased as the shot is pretty clear to what it is and the shots are not as shakey as they appear in my preliminary task.




Throughout the process since the preliminary task I have developed my skills in continuity editing. As you can see the main character first grabs the pills that stop his hallucinations and opens up the box. There is then a different shot where he takes them and breathes. The two shots where cleanly edited together so that the two shots looked like they run smoothly into each other. This has improved a lot since my preliminary task as before you could tell they were three different camera shots.




In this clip the editing is not as smooth so the two clips do not run clearly into each other. When looking at this clip in comparison to the other you can see a great contrast in the skills that I have improved on. You can tell in this clip that they were three different shots taken at different times.

Directors commentary; question 5

Directors Commentary Script

Directors Commentary


Hello I'm Sophie and I'm the director for the opening title sequence called Vanish. 

At the beginning you can see our distribution company which is vertigo films. We chose this because it distributes low budget films which are mainly in the genre of thriller like ours. For our production company we designed it ourselves. We named ours 'Thrillseekers production' as we feel this is appropriate for a thriller genre as you watch them to gain thrills throughout. We used a lion as the main logo point as we felt it reflected the idea of thrills and being scared as a lion is the main animal for this.

We chose our target audience to be between the age of 16-25 and to also be a mixed gender. We chose to use this everyday setting as we felt all our audience would relate better to it. To go along with this we chose to use everyday items that most people from our target audience would already have at home and regularly use. This is to show that the character we chose is relate-able as he lives in a normal home. 

Throughout this opening sequence we have used eerie music to create the atmosphere needed for the audience to fully feel like they are watching a thriller. In our opening title sequence we decided that our main character would not be shown to wear a costume as such but to only have a white towel. This is to show purity and how innocent he is when he is just having a regular bath that everyone else in our target audience has or has heard of. 

After he has had the hallucination, taken the pills and then calmed down we see him sit down to try and relax on the sofa. The camera then zooms into him to show the audience that he is alone. We did this so that the audience know there is no one else with him which foreshadows events that happen later on in the piece. At the end after we have seen the 'thing' in the bath we see a lot of black flickering light and then it suddenly ends with a big title on your screen. We used this to try and scare the target audience which reflects our genre.

Focus Group

After the focus group, we evidently learnt that we had reached many of our goals and aims which were previously set by us, prior to the actual creation of our opening sequence. This included aspects such as:

• Making our audience want to watch on
• Ensuring that we met all the conventional features found within an opening sequence
• Ensuring that our editing and title sequences looked professional and that they were well placed within the frame
• Appealing to our target audience
• Ensuring that our overall opening sequence flowed well together

We also recieved some great criticisms and feedback such as making sure that the dynamics within one of our takes is well balanced and even, in comparison to the rest of the opening sequence.

Audience feedback powerpoint

Feedback Questionaire Powerpoint

When doing our feedback we found out that most of the people we asked thought our opening title sequence was successful as the sequence reflected our chosen genre. They thought that we represented this chosen genre well through our choice of props, characters and settings.They all wanted to continue watching on as it left them asking many questions. For example they all wanted to see who the person in the bath was at the end as they didnt expect to see her. This meant that we feel we did a good job in all the choices we made into the lead up to the final piece.

Question 5

Question 6

Question 4

Feedback

Question 3

Question 3: 
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

For our film we decided to base it on the genre, thriller. In this genre you typically get a sense of fear as you are scared at what is going to happen next. We aim to target teenagers or young adults from the ages of 15-30 in a white, middle class working background. This is because when we did our research into what type of audiences like thriller, this age group appeared more popular. Also, many teenagers would go to the cinema with their friends to see this genre of film. The title of our film is called Vanish. We named it this because we felt it was more appropriate for our style of film as our main character suffers from illusions which can quickly 'Vanish' at any time if he takes his special pills.




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We have chosen the distributor of our film to be Vertigo films as we feel it is the most appropriate for us. This is because we have a small budget and we are not that well known in the industry. This distribution company also do films that have the same target audience as us (youth) which is handy as they can make sure that they get to see our films.

Our production company is called A Thrillseekers Adventure. This is because it is relevant and well fiting to our genre, thriller as when you watch a thriller you expect to feel nervous and have a lot of emotions inside you. This is just like you would if you where to go on an adventure or ride etc. Also you feel like you have to almost go on an adventure through/with the character and we feel that our film reflects this by the genre and the name of our production company.

Feedback

Things we need to change:

-  We found that some of the clips could be shortened, the bath plug and the shot of him getting out the bath.

-  The shot of Sterling at the end sitting on the coach needs to be slightly longer so that we get to see Sterling's feet and the edge of the coach.This is because otherwise he looks too inclosed and cramped in the little space we get to see.

-  The font style needs to be changed as you cannot read some of the words well as the font characters look like different letters.

-  We also need to change the music as the speed and tempo is too repetitive. We could add lower tones to create a more tense atmosphere.

-  One last thing we need to look at is finding a different production company that suits our film and genre. We also need to check that the titles are in the correct order. ( Production x2 )

Vanish - First Draft

Question 1

Question 1:
For our coursework we had to make a two minute opening title sequence of a specific genre and therefore we had to do a lot of research into the different genres and their conventions.  We found out that there are many different conventions of an opening  sequence. One of the conventions is slow paces editing. This is used to help the audience question a particular clue that is being given to them by the director of the film. This will engage them to start asking lots of questions and to slowly start piecing the answers together. This will interest the viewer and make them want to watch on. This is to see if their predictions are correct.

The next convention that is important is close ups. These help the audience see everything more closely and in plenty of detail. It also means that the close ups are almost intruding the personal space of the characters within the film meaning we feel more involved within the piece. Also, it helps us see the characters facial expression so we know how they are feeling at the time.





Two  more conventions that are very important to create a opening title sequence correctly are logos and titles. This is because they help us to see who created and took part in the making of the film. It also means that we get the chance to see familiar actors and directors through the use of familiar logos on many different films. This adds more importance to the film because it shows us everything about the film.





For our genre, we chose to do Thriller as we thought it would suit the people in the group the most. We also chose it because we all liked thriller style movies and therefor would have load of ideas. We could also use some of our favourite thriller films as inspiration for our piece. The typical conventions of our genre is quick cuts, close ups, low key lighting and eerie music. The low lighting and eerie music create the tense atmosphere needed to pull of a thriller. In our thriller, we had one section which had a load of fast past cuts to add up the tension and create a feeling of jumpiness. The fast cuts almost link in to your heart beat and go at the same pace which helps build the atmosphere.

Low key lighting

Music

In our thriller, we have challenged the conventions as we used some medium shots which aren't usually used within this genre. We tried to get the persons facial expressions and surroundings from as many different angles as possible. This was to show how the person lives a normal life but suffers from underlying problems.

moving production company logo

Production logo final draft- still image

Distrubution company logo and sound track

Media Studies Assessment

 This is teacher assessment sheet that we got given for the planning posts on our blog.

Production company logo - first draft

Animatic - second draft

This is the second draft of our animatic which includes the titles for our opening sequence. It shows the order of our clips in the order that they would be throughout the opening.

Metro Goldwyn Mayer Lion

Filming/Location Permission

We have briefly spoken to Sterling's mum and she has said that it is ok to film within her house.We have shown her the days that we will be filming in her house and she is ok with them.

Casting Decisions

This video is our casting decisions for our title sequence.It is shot from a directors point of view as he explains why he chose to hire the actors that he did.

Character Description

This video is the character descriptions of the main characters we will see within the title sequence of our film. It explains a bit about them like their age, name and what they are like. This helps to build up a bigger picture of what the characters are really like which helps us understand them more. It also helps us to see what sort of characters will be within the film so we know how they will play a part in getting the theme across.

Costume- dress design

This is an example of what the costume will look like for the girl who comes out of the bath. It will be a black dress which will look old as it matches how old the character is. It also shows that the girl will have long hair as it will be covering her face. Her hair will also be wet to give a straggly effect. The reason the dress is black is because it con notates the character and fact that she is meant to be scary.

Animatic

* Spelling mistake on distribution
 This video is our animatic where we have out all of our storyboard clips together to create a mini video of what our title sequence should look like. We have also included the right timings and shot types to make sure that it is more realistic. After all of the shots where added in with the correct timings we can see that our title sequence should be exactly two minutes. A good thing about doing this is that we can see if any of the shots will not work and then can go on to improve/change them. 

Storyboards

These are a scan in of our story boards. These show each of our clips in detail including the type of shot, how long they are there for and the sound/camera movement. This is so that we know how long each shot should be on for so that we have a simple plan of what to do which leads to good organization. It also shows a mini plan of what our film could look like in the end.

Soundtrack

This is the idea that we have for our sound track that we created ourselves for our opening sequence. It contains eerie sounds which brings mystery to the film as well as water drips which is an aural match to the mise en scene when our protagonist is in the bath. It also makes the audience feel cold and isolated as well this is because water drops are related to torture. Of course, within the soundtrack you can hear the clear disequilibrium within the track leaving the audience feeling on edge and in suspense without even having to watch anything. 

Props and Location

PROPS

The props are an important part of our opening scene as they are used a lot throughout. Below are the following props we will need:

Pills; For when the man takes them to stop/calm his hallucinations down so he can continue with what he is doing.

A simple black dress; This will be what the girl is wearing when she appears out of the bath. It is black to con notate evil; which the person is as she is a dark character/illusion. 

A towel; This will be used when the man is coming out the bath as he will need too cover himself up as otherwise it would be inappropriate. Also he will need to be able to grab it quickly so that he can take his pills.

Fake blood; This will be used when we see the blood dripping from the ceiling in the mans hallucinations. It will only be seen a few times so we only need to use a small amount as its only a couple of drops each time.

A cigarette; This will be used when we see the ECU of it when it is lit. The smoke from it will be used to do a graphic match on another item that contains smoke. 

A kettle; This will be used to connect with the smoke from the cigarette. It was also be seen in the kitchen as its a homely prop that is usually seen.

Location

For our location we will using an urban setting as our opening sequence. We have picked this setting as it means that our target audience can relate to the film more. This is because they may live in this sort of environment themselves. Inside the house we will be using  a low key lighting as it creates an eerier atmosphere. We will be trying to use the natural light that the home environment creates. We will also be filming at night because it will create a scarier setting in our film. Also we will be using a range of different camera angles to make sure we get the most out of our location and what it couldhelp us achieve ( atmosphere wise ).