Evaluation - Question 7

Overall I feel that our opening sequence went well and part of the reason for this was because we had extra preparation in the form of our preliminary task. Our preliminary task and final task did differ in many ways.

 When making our preliminary task because we knew we had far less time to make it we decided that the best thing to do would be to keep it simple and include all the elements that we had to without making things too complicated. This meant that our preliminary task was very unimaginative and therefore boring to watch. When it came to our main task, however, as we had far more time to create it and there was more freedom we let our imaginations run wild and it allowed us to be a lot more creative.

As we were appealing to an audience in the main task we focussed more on what the audience would like and want to watch, rather than just the technical elements, which is what the preliminary task was mainly focussed on. 

As we had far less time to construct our preliminary task we were much more accepting of mistakes in it and used them as improvements for a main project. However with our main project as we did not have another chance to improve so we wanted to make it as perfect as possible therefore we were far more critical and noticed a lot more things when it came down to analysing it.

 After we had constructed our preliminary task we approached the main task very differently and changed many things.

Changes From Preliminary to Main Task

• Planned our time better
• Lots more takes when shooting
• Closer attention to detail with storyboard and shooting script
• More critical
• Booked location in advance
• More aware of sound
• More aware of continuity

 I felt that our approach to the main task was far more professional than the preliminary exercise. It was a lot more replicable of what the real film industry would do whereas with our preliminary task it was far more amateur. We were aware of a lot more things and were more understanding of just how time consuming it is to make a sequence look good, therefore we planned our time better.

For the preliminary exercise, as we were pushed for time we begun our project immediately, ruling out the process of doing detailed planning. However when it came to shooting, it meant that we were far more unorganised and this therefore took up more time because we did not have everything ready. When it came to doing our main task, it made us realise just how important planning was and therefore we concentrated on it a lot more. We felt that it would be better to spend time planning and avoid all the chaos on shoot. If we would have not done the preliminary task we would have not known to do this, and therefore the real task may have been a lot more disorganised.

When shooting our preliminary task we thought that no matter where we wanted to shoot it would be available when we wanted it. When it came down to shooting, most of the rooms in the media block were being used which meant that our original plan for our sequence could not go ahead. This meant we had to improvise and were very limited on what we could and could not do. This taught us that when we were shooting our main task, in order to achieve the desired outcome, always check in advance that your location is available when you want it because then it will save time when it comes to shooting.

When making our real task we found that we were far more aware of the continuity in the background, whereas in our preliminary we were only really focussing on the actor’s continuity. When we watched back our preliminary footage we noticed that despite the actors being in the correct position for each cut, if the backgrounds did not match up then the scene is still not plausible to the audience. When it came to shooting our main sequence we were far more aware of the background and cleared out objects that would affect the continuity of the sequence. We always watched back shots to make sure that there was nothing in the background that should not have been there or to make sure there was nothing missing. Our preliminary task taught us that the scenery is just as important to continuity as the actor’s actions and gestures.

When we watched back our edited footage of the preliminary task, it seemed fairly uninteresting to watch. Due to this it inspired us to approach our main task with a lot more thought and care about what we were actually going to do with our opening sequence. Before we had constructed our preliminary task I did not think that it would have made that much of a difference but now comparing it to our main task you can clearly see the difference in care and thought as one creates a certain atmosphere and grips the audience from beginning to end, whereas one is fairly usual and does not make you want to watch on.

When looking at our final finished sequence, although we were aiming to make it perfect, there are still a few mistakes with the continuity that we picked up on that hopefully the audience will not notice. One of these mistakes was when there is a shot of the girl outside being watched through a window you can see a cars headlights in the background heading towards the house, however in the next shot you never see the car pass the house. Logically it could work because the car could have pulled into a driveway but really the continuity is wrong. Another mistake of ours was at the very end when there is a shot of her hand opening the door, when it cuts to the next shot she has the wrong hand on the door. It is not hugely noticeable as in this shot you do not really concentrate on her hand but if you watch it closely enough it looks strange. The last mistake that we noticed was that in the shot where she enters the bedroom the door is left slightly open, however when it cuts to the next shot the door is completely closed. A few people who watched it noticed this but we were unable to find two shots that matched up perfectly so we just had to settle with the least noticeable one. This taught us that we should have taken more takes and played them back after recording them just to check that there were not any mistakes that would alter the overall look of our project.

If we used this main task as another preliminary exercise there were a lot of things that we could of still improved upon. For example our lighting in some of the shots, mainly the ones upstairs, was not strong enough so you were unable to see clearly what was happening. If we were able to do it again we would try and figure out a way of brightening the lighting, without creating a shadow or making it look too artificially bright. Another improvement we would have made was using different angles. A lot of our shots were straight on and therefore could sometimes get quite monotonous and boring. Although it fitted with the storyline and did the job of telling the story, if we had experimented a bit more with angles we might have got a deeper insight into the story and maybe made viewing more interesting for the audience.

Overall I think our project went extremely smoothly and well and I do not think that without the experience we gained from the preliminary exercise this would have occurred. 

Evaluation - Question 6

Whilst making this project we used a lot of technology and as we have progressed through the stages of our project, I feel my technical knowledge improved. We used different equipment for different parts of our project, for example we only used a camera, microphone, tripod and headphones whilst shooting whereas we only used Premier Pro and the Apple MAC whilst editing. This meant that there was a lot of learning that had to be done throughout the project in order for us to be able to use the technology effectively.

 As we had used the camera and tripod before we found it fairly easy to use and therefore it gave us the confidence to experiment a lot more. The camera enabled us to shoot in digital and therefore once we had finished our project we were able to import it onto a DVD. Although the camera had automatic settings on to enable us to shoot more quickly and easily, we sometimes found this more of a problem. When going quickly from a dark room to a light room we found that the auto-focus did not work fast enough which ruined some of our shots as they went blurry. If we were to re-do this project, I would have liked to have gained the knowledge on using the manual settings as this may have benefited us a few times and it would be challenging to learn something new.

The microphone and headphones were a brand new thing for us so every shoot that we used them was a learning curve for us. It allowed us to have crystal clear sound but also allowed us to hear exactly what sound could be heard in the shot and what could not. Whilst using these things we found the microphone picked up a lot of background noise that we thought would go unnoticed so therefore as we worked through our shoots we found the best way to be as efficient as possible was to keep as quiet as possible.

Adobe Premiere Pro is software that is specifically installed onto the computers for the purpose of editing footage together to form sequences. As we had already had the opportunity to use this programme before we found it straightforward to use and gained lots more confidence when using it. We used this to edit our footage together and to add in a sound track and titles. We edited our footage together using parallel editing. We have used this process in past projects therefore it was fairly easy. We learned that if you do this its far easier to find shots and re-order them later on in the project making it less confusing.

When shooting we shot all our footage onto one continuous tape so when it came to editing we had to somehow split the clips up. We did this using the ‘Capture’ tool that captures each individual shot and saves them separately. This made making the process of editing our sequence together easier and more efficient as we had all the shots ready, we just needed to put them in the correct order. It also made deciding what shots to use a lot easier as we did not have to keep watching through the whole tape, we could just pick certain clips.

When cutting down clips we could do this in one of two ways. We found the easiest way to do it was to use the ‘Razoring’ tool. We learnt that if you did it this way you could get a lot more of an accurate cutting point on the clip and if anything did go wrong you could easily undo it, making the process of experimenting simpler. 

The soundtrack, called ‘In The Mist’ we found off the Internet on a website specialising in free music downloads. We downloaded the music and added it to our sequence via a USB pen and Adobe Premiere Pro. We have never edited to a soundtrack before so we found that the easiest way to create an atmosphere was to edit our sequence to the music, as you can change the sequence but you cannot change the music.

 In order for us to achieve the titles we wanted we first of all found a font on the internet then created our titles on the Apple MAC on a programme called Live Type. It was quite tricky to master at first as we had never used something as advanced before but the more we used it the better and more comfortable we got with it.

 In the professional film industry, when making films they use far more lighting equipment in order to get the ideal lighting. They have more than one camera so that shooting scenes for continuity would not be as time consuming and they have far more microphones so that the sound can be crystal clear. Their editing equipment is also far more advanced than ours, letting them add in extreme special effects and really playing around with their footage. This is understandable though because they have far more money to spend on their project and the equipment is therefore more readily available.

 When using these different technologies there are lots of problems that we can encounter and therefore have to overcome. When we were making our project we found that the technology was the thing that set us back most in making our footage, as it could sometimes be so unreliable. One of the problems we encountered was when trying the capture our footage on Premier Pro it would only let us capture a small section and then refuse to capture the rest. This therefore made it extremely difficult when it came to choosing our shots as it meant that the choice was very limited. Another problem we had to overcome was the fact that when we were out shooting we did not have any batteries for the camera that meant that we had to shoot an entire section of our footage with the camera plugged into the mains. This was very annoying as it meant that we could not go outside or have as much freedom to move around the house. Despite this though we still managed to get all the footage we needed. A problem that we found very difficult to overcome was the camera whir when we were playing back our footage on Premier Pro.  Whenever the shot changed, despite the visual continuity of the shot being perfect, the sound continuity was not due to the whir. We overcame this, however, by lowering the treble on Adobe Premiere Pro, which was fairly easy to do and made a huge difference to our final piece. 

Evaluation - Question 5

Deciding on our target audience was one thing, making them watch and like our film was another. We tried to do this in many ways:

• Using a teenage girl as our actress
• Use of darkness
• Scary music to create an atmosphere
• Flashing, shaky titles
• Close up shots
• Long shots
• Continuity editing
• Making sound louder and softer where appropriate
• Editing it in an understandable and exciting way

We used a teenage girl as the character in our opening sequence because from what people said, they preferred to watch films that were based around their age group to make it more interesting for them to watch. Therefore we thought that if the character in our opening sequence were a teenager it would immediately draw in the correct audience and make them curious to watch it. Films such as ‘Mean Girls’ (Waters - 2004), which grossed $129,042,871 worldwide, and ‘Cruel Intentions’(Kumble - 1999) were said to be very popular with our targeted age group because it portrayed the lives of teens, which attracted them to it as they could relate.

One theme that was used to draw in the horror movie lovers was our use of darkness. We used darkness a lot throughout our sequence and because it was very contrasting to our use of light it is very noticeable to the audience. In the shot where our character walks out of the living room into the kitchen, she walks from a lit up room into the pitch black, emphasising the fact that she is going from the safety into the unknown, making it scary. This would then draw in the horror movie lovers, as they would immediately think that it looks scary and eerie.

When shooting our sequence we used a lot of CU shots to show reactions and emotions. This would draw in our audience a lot more and make them truly understand what our character is feeling, therefore enticing them to watch on. When she hears the TV come on when she is drinking by the fridge, we have a CU of her reacting so that the audience can clearly see the terror across her face. It also brings them into the scene and makes them feel closer and part of it. A lot of our audience feedback said that our use of camera distances made the scene more tense which reflects our aims. 

We used some long shots as establishing shots to show the audience the setting. It would show them how scary the location is and also make them take in the surrounding scenery more, noticing that it is very stereotypical horror and therefore making them want to watch it. Having a LS showing she is in a dark house all on her own sets the story up to be scary and frightening before its really begun. Also the setting is very dominant in our storyline therefore we wanted the audience to become aware of the surroundings in order for them to keep up with the story.

We added in the non-diegetic sound of our soundtrack 'Into the Mist' into our sequence in order for it to build up suspense and therefore entice the horror movie lovers to watch on. If our sequence had just contained the diegetic sound it would have been fairly boring for the audience to watch and the ambiance we would have wanted to create for them would not have come across.

During the process of editing our footage together there were a lot of things that we noticed and had to change in order for our audience to understand it. For example, we had to add in reaction shots to show just how she reacts and a lot more things to react too in order for it to make sense to the audience and for it to be plausible. If we would have not done this the audience would have got bored as it would of come across as very amateur and made up and therefore it would make it funny rather than scary, enticing in the wrong audience.  Also the process of continuity editing throughout our film was done for the audiences benefit. Without it they would not be able to understand what was going on, whereas we would because we know the storyline. We used continuity editing to make the opening run as a seamless sequence that the audience would not get confused with when watching.

As we decided to base our opening on the conventional horror movie we do not really have a unique selling point. It is more or less how you would imagine a horror opening to be, with people referencing it to the likes of ‘Scream’(Craven - 1996) and ‘Friday 13^th’(Cunningham - 1980). We decided to do it in this way because we felt that this would entice in our audience more as it would be recognisable rather than making it fairly original and more appealing to a niche market. They would be able to watch the opening and immediately know it is from a horror genre and therefore within those first few minutes they would be able to decide whether the film was for them or not.

Evaluation - Question 4

When we first begun this project we had to decide before doing any planning who our target audience was going to be. We felt that we wanted to make a horror opening sequence for conventional teenage horror genre lovers, therefore this was our core audience.

 TARGET AUDIENCE

• Carefree
• Like the adreniline rush of getting scared
• Like conventional horror movies such as 'Scream' and 'Halloween'
• Partying
• Sleepovers
• Act older than they are
• Male and female
• Teenagers
• Student
• Interested in horror films
• Staying out late
• Naive but likes to think they are not
• Like going to friends houses to watch horror movies

We did not want a target audience who’s whole lives revolved around horror movies as they would expect too much and want too much uniqueness. Instead we wanted to appeal to those who liked watching horrors on odd occasions but when they did watch them they got the full impact and pleasure of them. We felt that our character used in our sequence reflects our desired core audience quite well. She is a teenager who is fairly carefree and obviously likes to have a good time. It is the type of audience we are aiming to attract and hopefully if they can see their own lives reflected in the lives of the character, it will make the story a lot more scary for them.

 

Secondary Audience
As our core audience was fairly broad we decided that our secondary audience would be hard to pinpoint exactly. We decided that instead of it just appealing to the teenage age of horror movie lovers, we could also make it appeal to various age groups who love the horror genre. We felt that this would be more difficult though, as younger people would not be able to understand a complex storyline, whereas older people tend to prefer it. Therefore we felt it would be harder to target a particular age range outside of teenagers so we just made it appeal to general horror movie watchers who like sitting down on a Friday night and watching a horror movie on Television before they go to bed. Horror films such as ‘Hostel’ (Roth - 2005)reflect these audience’s tastes and it grossed a huge $19.5 million dollars on its opening week.

 When conducting research about our core audience we noticed that films that involved people of a similar age group are more popular than ones that use older or younger actors. Also we found out that there was a fairly mixed approach on the type of lifestyle they liked to watch in movies. Some preferred movies with people who had a completely different lifestyle to them so they could aspire to be like them, however some preferred lifestyles that they could see and relate to. As there was mixed reviews we felt that it depended entirely on the type of film they were watching and we felt with a horror, it would be more scarier, the more alike it was to their lives.

Also when looking back at the research, we found that when going to watch a horror film, the audience expect to be scared, tense and see lots of gruesome murders. This is created by the use of the narrative image with taglines such as ‘How much blood would you shed to stay alive?’ – ‘Saw’(Wan - 2004) and posters that are dark and eerie. We would also create a narrative image that has this effect to entice in the right audience, and we created our opening sequence so that it would not let this narrative image down. 

Evaluation - Question 3

In our opening sequence we made it fairly clear that our distributor was ‘CLN’ as their logo appeared at the beginning of the sequence and our production company was ‘Unchained Productions’. These two companies specialise in producing and distributing low budget films to local cinemas to be shown alongside high budget Hollywood films. Therefore they aim to have the mainstream Hollywood look and style about them. As our film has stuck to the conventions of a horror film fairly rigidly we believe our film would be distributed in local cinemas across the UK. Due to its similarity to other films of its kind, such as ‘Scream’(Craven - 1996) and ‘Final Destination’(Wong - 2000) then I feel that it too could be just as successful as they were so therefore it would be fairly main stream and would not stand out in a high street cinema. When watching our sequence it looks very mainstream Hollywood and it seems like a typical teen horror film. However as it is a British made film by students, I do not believe it can be shown in various places around the world such as the USA as some of the elements, such as the street and house, are a typical British style so it may not appeal that strongly to a different culture. People in other countries prefer their films to be very stereotypical of that country as they can relate to them more. Also as our project was only a student project at school we did not use as much equipment as the real film industry would, therefore our film does not look as professional as real blockbuster movies such as ‘Saw’(Wan - 2004) so if shown in cinemas around the globe, people would not like to watch it. People’s tastes change as you venture into different regions of the world and I think that our film would only suit the British publics tastes and desires as that is the audience we aimed to create it for. In order to appeal to our target audience we would need to market our film as a brand and create a narrative image. We would put our film on websites such as http://www.neoflix.com/ that specialise in showing films from up and coming directors. It would allow a wide range of people to view our film and get our company recognised in the media industry. We would also set up its own film website for people to watch sneak previews and have trailers of our film being shown in cinemas around the UK to entice people to watch it. We want to make them want to see our film as much as Hollywood blockbusters, and not make them see it as a budget student film.

Evaluation - Question 2

We tried to reflect different things within our opening sequence whether they are obvious representations or more subtle. A representation of a particular social group that we tried to portray was the one of teenagers through our use of character and story:

CHARACTER

• Drunk
• White Female
• Taken shoes off
• Vulnerable
• Smudged Make-up
• Come home late from a party
• Teenager
• Naive
• Party Dress

This is very stereotypical behaviour from a teenager as people always think their lives revolve around going out partying and getting drunk. When conducting our audience research, the audience all successfully recognized that she had been out getting drunk and was a teenager, therefore showing a good representation. As the main point of our opening sequence is the fact that she has just got back from a night out it really draws on this point and emphasises the carelessness of being a teenager. We tried to make this a fairly obvious stereotype, as it would draw in the target audience if they knew that teenagers were involved in the storyline. We focussed more on the stereotypical qualities of our character rather than concentrating on making her an archetype. This is because as she is only involved in the first few minutes of the opening sequence and then she disappears we need to show the audience a lot about her within that short space of time and it was far easier to do this with a fairly conventional, one dimensional character, as we would never have the time to find out enough about her otherwise. The CU shots of her show that she is wearing black mascara and black eyeliner, which has all been smudged. There is something very stereotypical about a teenage girl wearing black make-up and it makes her seem like the average teenage girl. The fact it is smudged really connotes that she has had a very rough night as we would normally expect a teenager’s make-up to be perfect before they leave the house. The silver, short party dress that the character wears tells the audience that she likes to get dressed up and go out and party. It also shows that she likes to be noticed because it is the type of dress that people would stop and turn to look at you if you walked in somewhere. As our sequence progresses you can notice the fear and anxiousness that builds up within the character through her expressions and gestures. For example when there the door slams, the camera goes into a CU of her reaction to really emphasise to the audience just how scared she is. As more and more things begin to happen she begins to get more nervous and the audience begin to realise just how vulnerable and naïve she is. When she is walking up the stairs, the long shot shows that she is going into darkness, and also shows the audience just how slow and cautiously she is walking because of this, showing them that she is nervous. The shortness of her dress, smudged make up and the fact that she had been drunk show the vulnerability and the weakness she has. This also introduces the theme in our opening sequence of weak and strong that should be apparent throughout our film.

 

Evaluation - Question 1

When we first begun our project we learnt about all the different conventions of genres of films and the conventions of opening sequences to help us make our own. We knew that the main aspect we wanted to make our sequence do was to show off the fact it was from the horror genre and to grab the audiences attention and make them want to watch on.

 Once we had begun planning our own sequence we felt the best way to make ours successful was to stick to the conventions so that it would be easily recognisable and well liked, therefore we followed the conventional format of an opening sequence. Despite us not breaking the conventions we felt that if we were going to play about with anything it would be the horror genre conventions, as these have a lot more scope to be made different. The main reason we stuck to the conventions was because it was our first time to make an opening sequence; therefore it was a huge challenge in itself. For us to then break the conventions and yet still make it understandable and popular with the audience would have been too time consuming and difficult. When constructing our research we felt that a lot of the films that did break conventions such as ‘The Blair Witch Project’ (Myrick and Sanchez - 1999) and ‘Cloverfield’ (Reeves - 2008)had a lot more of a niche appeal whereas we wanted to make ours appeal to a wider audience. As we were relying on audience’s expectations and conventions that make horror films successful we did a lot of background research into this to help us along. We looked at many opening sequences from various films to see what they all had in common and blogged up notes about our findings. Horror/thriller sequences such as ‘Seven’ introduce you to the storyline almost immediately and with the use of dark shots and atmospheric music tell the audience what genre they are watching. We also looked into different theorists and researched different horror movies. Legendary films such as ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’(Hooper - 1974) stuck to conventions rigidly, making it appeal to the audience. For example they used teenagers as the vulnerable victims, taking into account Propp’s character roles. We also tried to mimic this in our sequence by using a teenage girl as our victim. Films such as ‘The Omen’ (Donner - 1976)broke conventions slightly by using a young boy as the killer, which went against Propp’s conventional characters roles. It still managed to be successful but very controversial among audiences.  We used Levi-Srauss’s binary opposite theory a lot throughout our sequence:

• Weak vs. Strong
• Light vs. Dark
• Naïve vs. Clever
• Innocent vs. Guilty
• Good vs. Evil
• Downstairs vs. Upstairs
• Known vs. Unknown

Our sequence also follows Todorov’s narrative structure of equilibrium-disruption-equilibrium, with the equilibrium being at the beginning when she has just woken from her sleep after getting back from a late night out, a fairly normal situation for a teenager, and the disruption being when strange things start to occur. We have also used one of Propp’s character roles, the typical victim, who is naïve and vulnerable and not a main character in the storyline, just there to introduce you to the style of film. All of these findings we tried to use in our own project so that it could be as successful as possible.  The main bulk of our sequence was aimed to show a real time sequence, where everything occurs at the same time the audience are watching it. The aim was to create more fear and tension as it would be more realistic. The only time it was not a real time sequence was when there is an ellipsis between her getting home and her waking up, which the audience are supposed to fill in the gap and the dissolve between the two shots helps to show a passing of time. 

Audience Feedback- Individual

On Saturday 31st of January i showed a small audience of 4 people  my finished opening sequence and asked them to fill out the questionnaire which we had used in the group screening. It was a mixture of age groups and genders with a 45 year old male, a 45 year old female, a 69 year old female and a 15 year old female The feedback i received was fairly different to that of the group screening but it was still positive. 

All of the viewers said that they enjoyed watching the opening sequence and it built up a lot of suspense. They thought the music built on this atmosphere and made it even more tense when watching it. They all guessed it was from the horror genre and correctly identified the title as being 'Scarred'

When it came to their own opinions of the sequence, however, this is where their answers began to differ. The 69 year old female said she did not enjoy watching it that much and would probably not watch the rest of the film as she does not really like horror movies. The 15 year old female rated it 9 out of 10 and said she would definitely go and see it in the cinema. She said she liked the story line and character and thought it enticed her to want to know the story. The 45 year old woman said that she liked the overall sequence and found it very tense but the teenage character made it seem like it was aimed at a younger audience so she only rated it 6 out of 10. The 45 year old male said it was well shot and made him jump at all the correct places but again the use of the teenage girl made it seem as if he was too old to watch it and horror movies are not really his thing. 

Overall i think the feedback showed us a lot about our audience and by showing it to a wide age range really emphasized the fact that our film is specifically designed for a teenage audience. It was mainly positive feedback which showed that we had made an overall successful film.

Levi-Strauss Binary Opposites

As i have mentioned in my evaluation about us using Levi-Strauss's binary opposites, i have decided to go into them in a bit more detail on here. Here is a list of all the different binary opposites used in our opening sequence:

• Weak vs. Strong
• Light vs. Dark
• Naïve vs. Clever
• Innocent vs. Guilty
• Good vs. Evil
• Downstairs vs. Upstairs
• Known vs. Unknown

Light vs Dark
This is done by the use of lighting in the house and how the house starts off completely in darkness but as she walks into different rooms she begins to switch on the lights to make it less scary but even the light cannot suppress the fear that she is going through.

 

Good vs Evil
This is shown by the female seeming fairly innocent, as we have not seen a reason for her to be killed. The evil would obviously be the killer as they are preying on a seemingly innocent girl and driving her crazy with fear.

 

Clever vs Naïve
There is also the element of clever against naïve as the girl seems fairly naïve, shown by her venturing outside when she hears the door slam and also going into the darkness upstairs. These are things that you would be advised not to do if you were hearing strange noises in your house but yet she does not think and instead does this. The killer is led to be the clever one as he is tricking the girl and making her know that there is someone in the house without revealing his identity. The audience get a real sense of his superiority to her as she seems to be doing all the wrong things and he seems to be keeping himself well hidden and yet still be able to torment her.

 

Known vs Unknown

Throughout the opening sequence the house stands for both the known and the unknown in the different situations she experiences. When it first begins, we see her knowing exactly where everything is and seeming fairly relaxed about everything because she has obviously done it so many times before. However when things start to occur and she starts venturing into different parts of her house, we suddenly get the impression that the known has turned into the unknown and the very surroundings she felt so safe in earlier, do not seem as safe anymore. We have emphasized the known and unknown by the use of dark and light. The element that are normal and logical are indicated by bright lighting, however elements which are scary and different are shown with darkness. 

Preliminary Exercise Differences To Main Task

As our main task differed a lot from our preliminary exercise i have decided to blog up to lists in reference to question 7 about the the differences between the two tasks. 

 Preliminary Task

• Only had 1 hour to shoot and plan
• Only had 1 hour to edit
• Far less creative
• Basic shot types
• More rigid brief
• Not designed for a specific target audience
• No non-diegetic sound used to create an atmosphere
• No titles
• No special FX
• Main focus was getting technical elements correct
• Didn’t mind if there were mistakes
• Put into set groups
• Location had to be in school
• The sequence had to be 30 seconds long
• Did not do any research
• No test shoots
• Did not use whiteboard as effectively

Main Task

• Had weeks to shoot and plan
• Had weeks to edit
• More creative
• More freedom with the brief
• Non-diegetic music added in the form of a soundtrack
• Titles added saying the title of the film, name of actors, etc.
• Special FX were added
• Main focus was on audience appeal
• Wanted it to be perfect
• We researched into things
• Chose our groups
• Had a wide range of choice for locations
• The sequence had to be 2 minutes
• Wider range of shot types
• Had chances to replan
• Test shoots
• More efficient with the white board
• More shot takes
• Had to edit to create suspense

List of Processes Used Throughout our Project

As we used a lot of different processes during the making of our opening sequence, here is a list of all the processes we used:

• Capturing
• Viewing
• Rendering
• Razoring
• Contrasting
• Brightness alteration
• Treble changing
• Unlinking and Linking clips
• Transitions
• Adding in titles
• Adding in sound
• Changing volumes
• Speed alterations
• Cutting
• Organising clips into bins
• Ordering shots
• Editing between two tracks
• Adding new tracks
• Adding new sequences
• Adding in Special FX
• Expanding and shrinking shots
• Zooming in and out of frames

List of Editing Equipment

Here is a list of editing equipment in relevance to question 6 of my evaluation: 

• Adobe After Effects (PC)
• Adobe Premiere Pro (PC)
• Adobe Photoshop (PC)
• Final Cut (Apple MAC)
• Soundtrack Pro (Apple MAC)
• Live Type (Apple MAC)
• iMovie (Apple MAC)
• Handbreak (Apple MAC)
• Font (Internet)
• Special FX
• Sound FX (Internet)
• Soundtrack- 'Into the Mist' (Internet)

List of Shooting Equipment

Here is a list of shooting equipment in relevance to question 6 of my evaluation:

• Mini DV Canon Camera
• Camera Batteries
• Tripod
• Microphone
• Headphones
• White Board
• White Board Pen
• Mains Power Supply Lead

The Conventions of an Opening Sequence

Here is a list of all the conventions of an opening sequence in reference to question 1:

• Grab the audiences attention
• Introduce the audience to the storyline
• Introduce the audience to the genre
• Contain credits/titles 
• Title of the film
• Create an enigma
• Set the scene
• Contain music that is relevant the the action that is occuring
• Introduce the audience to the characters
• Make the audience want to watch on
• Establish the key iconography
• Set up the pace of the film
• Introduce the audience to the key themes of the film
• Set up the target audience

Horror Movie Conventions

Here is a list of all the horror movie conventions as mentioned in question 1 of my evaluation:

• Create suspense
• Darkness
• Contrast (characters and mise-en-scene)
• Ambiguous shots
• Silence
• Creaking
• Screams
• Wind
• Shadows
• Hidden features
• Gory and gruesome
• Death
• Victims
• Murderer
• Scary
• Make you jump
• Get your heart beating faster
• Shock the audience
• Fear
• Stalking
• Old buildings
• Deserted locations
• Sense of claustrophobia (no escape)
• Running away

Information About My Final Opening Sequence

When we were first introduced to the brief, we were told we could make an opening sequence of any particular genre. As a group we decided to go for the horror genre as we thought it would be the easiest to portray on such a low budget. 

Our opening sequence is about a girl coming home late at night drunk and then falling asleep. When she wakes up, strange things start to occur so therefore she begins to investigate. Eventually she ends up upstairs looking out the window and we see the door open behind her, telling the audience that there was somebody else in the house with her when she thought she was alone. The rest of the film expands upon the concept of the murderer praying on girls in a vulnerable state. It is about a taxi driver who picks up girls from parties and clubs and drops them off home. He then returns to their house later in the evening to torment them and eventually kill them. 

When shooting our opening sequence we shot it in a large Victorian House in Whetstone with creaky wooden floor and dim lighting. 

Our cast consisted of Charlotte Cooper playing the teenage girl victim and myself, Loren Dodi, playing the shadow/killer that opens the door at the end. 

As Charlotte was being filmed, this left most of the camera and crew work down to me, Loren Dodi and Nisha Shah. 

Audience Feedback

On Friday 23rd January we did an audience screening to get some views from an audience about what they thought about our final opening sequence. In order for their feedback to be as focused and organized as possible we created a questionnaire for them to fill in. We held the screening in the Latymer Media block and roughly about 30 students turned up, all aged between 14 and 17, so our target audience. 

When looking over the filled in questionnaires most of the feedback we recieved was positive and backed up what we had hoped to achieve. For example many people recognised that the girl had been out drinking the previous night, and they instantly picked up on the horror genre. They all felt the sequence created suspense and tension and would mainly target teenagers. This feedback is what we were hoping to get and therefore i think our audience feedback session went very well. 

FINISHED EDITING

We finally finished editing our project on 14th January. We met our deadline and handed in our finished edited piece ready for marking.
Overall i think it went very well, we managed to do everything that we had set out to do and our sequence has turned out the way we would have hoped. Towards the end of the deadline there was a lot of rushing around to try and get everything finished and looking perfect but we managed to do everything on time without a huge major panic and once it was handed in we could breath a huge sigh of relief.
Now we are concentrating on getting our audience feedback from our opening sequences by creating a questionaire and getting various people to fill it out during sceenings. After we have achieved this we will begin to write our evaluations and tidy up our blog, sadly bringing this project to a close.

Back to School

We have just gone back to school after the christmas break. I had a lot of fun over christmas and new year but now that we are back it means that our deadlines are close...

I will be blogging as much as possible from now until our deadline but as our editing deadline is only a week a way i will obviously be concentrating more on that as it is more important at the moment.

Looking forward to finally seeing the finished product even though it is quite a tight deadline...!