Final 'The Unknown' Opening

I am pleased to say that I have finally finished my final film opening and I have really enjoyed making it but I am sad to say that I am now closing my blog. Below is the final version of my opening film 'The Unknown' Enjoy !! :)

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

Evaluation 7

View more presentations from Chloé.

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

This is a video of our group talking about what we have learnt about technologies whilst in the process of making our product.

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

4) What would be the audience for your media product?

45336642-Evaluation-4

Here is a video showing the interview I had with three of our target audiences and there will also be an image of one of our questionnaires. These are the pre-production research I used:

3) What kind of media instituation might distribute your media product and why?

Evaluation question 3

View more presentations from Chloé.

Evaluation 3 by ChloeG

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

The picture of the girl on the right is one of the main characters in our thriller opening 'Unknown'. She is a 17 year old girl who is unaware that she is being stalked.  The blond girl on the left named 'Donna' is from the film 'Prom Night'. Both these girls have similarities and few differences in the way they are represented.
Lauren who is the teenage victim in our film unknown is represented as a stylish, popular, fun girl who likes to go out and socialise with her friends a lot. This is very similar to Donna in Prom Night as she is a well known girl and popular in her school, she is one of the of the students nominated for prom queen which resembles her popularity and she also is very fashionable and up-to date with the latest fashion just like the victim in our opening.
They both have similar roles in the films, they are both young blond females who are being stalked. Lauren is unaware that she is being stalked even though she has been having frightening nightmares about a man stalking her and doesn't realise that her nightmares are slowly coming to reality.
Donna isn't exactly being stalked but shes being watched by a killer from her past which she is unaware that he is back just like Lauren.
These characters are quite stereotypical as most young victims are blond teenage girls who are oblivious to everything around them. They may also be stereotyped as stuck-up and dumb because they are popular, pretty and blond who are easily victimised.

In our film unknown, we have used a variety of camera shots and movements to construct representation of the main female character such as close ups, high angle shot and medium shots. The high angle shot shows how small she is compared to her stalker and that he is more powerful and dominant than her. The close up shot of when she wakes up from her nightmare denotes emotions and facial expressions and it connotes fear, worry and sadness as she feels it is really real.

The picture on the right is of the stalker who is another main character from our film unknown. He is psychologically mental and has no relatives or friends and has never been seen before. He has an obsession with a teenage girl and stalks and harasses her.

 The picture on the left is of a man from the film 'One hour photo', he works in a photoshop and like our stalker from unknown, he starts to have an obsession with a woman and her family and stalks them.

These antagonists are not exactly the same in appearance and in their roles but in some ways they are.
The man from one hour photo is quite old and he has a job and comes across as a nice, friendly guy who doesn't really seem suspicious or mysterious however the stalker from our film unknown is a lot more different, he is around late twenty's-early thirties, he dresses suspiciously because he always wears a hoodie to cover his face, no-one has ever seen him before and his identity is hidden. The only way they are similar are that they are both stalkers but they go around it different ways.

To construct our representation of the man in our film unknown we have again used a variety of camera shots and angles such as close-up shots, over the shoulder shots and medium shots. We never see the stalkers face in the opening as he is always covering his face with his hood, this makes him seem very mysterious and suspicious and it creates a tensed atmosphere as the audience don't know who he is.

Also the music makes him seem a lot more dangerous and creepy as it builds up tension and suspense and the setting also adds effect as silent housing estates and parks are often where incidents and crimes take place.

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

Frame 1: This first frame is of our production logo 'Swivell Productions', we have aimed to make it look quite feminine as our target audience is mainly females.  The font of the writing seems quite feminine as it is quite thin and swirly. As our opening is a thriller, we made the production logo dark but make the writing stand out, we made the background black and made the logo a blue/green colour to give quite a mysterious and suspense look.

Frame 2: The second frame is of the teenage victim sleeping, which sets the scene as it shows she is sleeping and may be having a nightmare and it shows that part of the opening is set in a house.We used a medium shot, as we wanted to get quite a close shot of her sleeping but get part of the surrounding environment in the shot around her to show where she is sleeping. This second shot introduces one of the main characters which is important as the main characters should be in introduced in the opening so that the audience know who they are. We also filmed this shot in night vision to show the fact that she is sleeping in the night and not in broad day light and we aimed to get as much low key lighting as possible to make the scene mysterious and tensed.

Frame 3: The third frame is a High-angle shot of the the girl walking away from her house, we used this angle because the shot connotes the vulnerability, powerless emotions of the girl as she is a victim of a stalker and he seems a lot more powerful, dominant and strong than her and this shot just shows how small she will become and useless.

Frame 4: After our two main characters are introduced, the actresses names enter and exit the screen, I think the names really adds the emphasise that our opening is a thriller genre as the font and style of the text and the way they enter and exit is effective. The writing is on a black background and the text itself is a bright white/light blue colour and we have made the text flash and look jumpy as this creates a thrilling effect and a cold and creepy atmosphere.

Frame 5:  This frame is an over the shoulder shot of the stalker looking at a photo of the girl on facebook, this is not the first time the character is introduced but as said before it is important to introduce the main characters in the opening so the audience know who they are.

Frame 6: This frame again shows another over the shoulder shot of the unknown man watching the girl walk by. Frame 3 is related to this frame as it is a continuity shot of her walking away from the house into the park, a jump cut is used to speed up the process. The audience now know that the man in the white hoodie is definitely stalking the girl in reality as previous shots show a man in a white hoodie still looking at the same girl.

Frame 7: This frame denotes an extreme close up shot of the victims phone and connotes a mysterious and thrilling message from someone unknown. The shot is not shown in the frames but the shot before this is a mid shot of the girl receiving a text and then it suddenly jump cuts to an extreme close up of the text she has a received. This extreme close up shows the text is important.

Frame 8: This frame denotes a medium shot of the stalker looking at pictures of the girl his been stalking on the door. It connotes obsession and fear for the girl. We used a medium shot because we wanted the audience to see the stalker but also see what he is doing and looking at. We have quite a few shots of the stalker as we want the audience to know the storyline about an unknown man who has an obsession with a teenage girl and stalks her.

Frame 9: This frame is the title of our film which appears at the end of the opening as most other thriller opening titles appear in the middle of the opening or at the end. We've aimed to make the title appear creepy

and have a thrilling atmosphere to show that it is a thriller genre by making it dark and making the font red

and like the other titles, animating it to glow, flash and jump.

Frame 1: This shot is from the film seven, the mise en scene shows that it is a thriller genre as the lighting is quite low key and the colour is red which could represent blood. Also the titles make seven look more like a thriller they are bright and flash. The way Sevens titles are animated and represented inspired us so we did our titles similar to seven to create the same effect and atmosphere. Frame 2 is similar in some ways as we filtered the colour of the scene to night vision to create a tensed atmosphere just like seven have filtered part of the frame red.

Frame 2: This shot is also from seven, it is an extreme close up shot of dirty, bloody fingers and a sewing needle. Seven have established the plot which is visible to the audience as they can see only the mans fingers which we assume is a serial killer because of the other weird shots shown .

Frame 4: This frame denotes a close up shot of a man putting on his shirt, however it looks as if someone is being strangled because of the way he pulls it over face which resembles that Dexter is a thriller. Frame five from our opening thriller also resembles that our opening is a thriller because it has an over the shoulder shot of a hooded man sitting at his computer staring at a girl's picture on facebook. This will give the audience that he has an obsession with her and so should see that the film is a thriller. 

Frame 5: This frame is an over the shoulder shot of Dexter looking in the mirror but you can only clearly see part of his head as his reflection in the mirror is blurred. This is an effective shot as the audience will wonder what he is looking at and why he is staring at his reflection.

Frame 6: This shot sets the setting as it shows that the film is set in the city. This shot shows big city buildings and busy streets full of cars and people with an opening title as the name of the building. The title on the front of the building is effective as the person's name fits in with the scene.

Frame 6 from our thriller opening is similar as it also sets the scene, you can see that part of the opening is set in a park where the girl is being stalked.

Frame 7: This shot is from the film hostage, this shot is showing the opening titles which exit and enter very effectively. They make the titles look like they are part of the building and it also shows that its a thriller because of the dark and tensed atmosphere created.

Frame 8 & 9: These two shots are also from Hostage, the shot in frame 8 is the opening title and it is made to look like it is falling down in between to buildings and the shot in frame 8 has people all armed with guns and etc which I assume are police, so this tells me that this is a thriller. 

Conventions of a title sequence

Conventions are what makes a title sequence in a thriller opening. Here are the list of conventions that should be in a opening sequence.

• What makes our title sequence is the characters introduced and their role in the film. It is important that the audience know straight from the start who the characters are and identify their roles. Our thriller opening meets this convention as the two main characters are introduced and the audience can easily identify who they are, what they do and whether they are a protagonist or an antagonist.

• Also the title sequence is what makes an opening sequence, the main title of the film is very important otherwise if there was no film title there would be no point in an opening sequence as the point is to introduce the film and so therefore include the name of the film. Also the names of the actors and actresses should be introduced as well as the director, music production, costume design etc. The way the titles are presented are very important. The colour, animation, lighting, font style and etc are important as it reflects the mood, genre and storyline for the production.
  For our opening our titles reflect fear, danger, darkness and more as it is dark and the main title is red and the other opening titles are white and all the titles flicker in a spooky way.

• Camera movement and editing is important in an opening sequence, the different angles and movement create a mood and atmosphere for the audience. Different use of editing such as jump cuts, cross cutting, match cuts and transitions and etc helps the storyline. In our opening sequence we have used a variety of camera angles and movement and editing directions which meet the conventions of a opening sequence as they create the storyline and mood.

• The mise en scene is also important this is the visual information in front of the camera that the audience see and it communicates essential information to the audience. The mise-en-scene includes setting & props, costume, hair & make-up, lighting & colour, positioning of characters within the frame and facial expressions and emotions.
  Our thriller opening meets these conventions as we have focused on the location and the props, costume designs, lighting and colour and etc. We have chosen carefully as our location and props and the lighting and colour as we want to represent and produce a thriller so we made it so the audience can visually see that the film is a thriller from the mise-en-scene in the opening.

• The music or some kind of digetic/non-diegetic sound is also very important, it is a convention which needs to be included and makes a thriller opening because  it sets the mood, scene and storyline. 

Unknown thriller Overall Review

Editing

Today, I, Lauren and Kerry stayed after school to continue editing out thriller opening and music and make a rough cut. Unfortunately Emily was unable to attend as she was not very well however we managed fine with her absence and achieved to create out rough cut.
Today, we added effects to our film and added the production logo, film title and opening credits which went really well  and we also added the music.
Myself and Lauren focused on the editing of the film and Kerry focused on the music so that we could get everything done in time.
There are a few screenshots below which show how and what we were editing:

We used Final Cut Pro to edit and create our film.


This Screenshot shows us adding in the opening titles and adding effects so that the titles fade in and out

These two Screenshots shows changing the colour contrast and brightness to make it a little bit darker and a more tensed atmosphere also with the screenshot below we have also added a white light  when it films the stalker just standing there and then a white light comes up then it has zoomed into the stalker. We have used this to create more effect.

Thriller Opening Rough Cut

Here is some feedback we got from people on our thriller opening rough cut. We put our rough cut on facebook to see what some  of our target audience thought, here are their comments:

Keeley Knell:

i think that your thriller opening is going to look really good, however it think that the writting needs to be made more better because cant really see it.the clips need to be made shorter as they drag on.

Lauren Walker:

oh wow i think its great, very impressed girls!!!!

Stacey Sorahan:
oooooo i reeeally like it :D  what stars you all areee!


Leanne Hillier:
i like the way that your titles are presented, and the part were you are in bed (night time effect) also that you used differant angles i.e at 1:29. The music is also relevent to the theme.

Tamara:
i liked yout thriller opening, i thought that it was interesting and keeps the viewers engaged. I also really liked the way Lauren walked past her stalker wihout knowing, thought that was a great idea.

Also our Media teacher commented:

Well done girls, really good. You have a really good story line and some excellent camera shots and movements however you need to make sure that the music fits in time with the opening and you should add some effects and add in your opening titles too!!

Pooja: Really good!! Good quality, looks like are real thriller opening. Love the music. Just add some effects to make it really effective

Garageband Training (Rough Cut)

For our thriller opening, I have used a software called garageband to create our thriller opening sound track. At  times the software can be quite difficult and confusing to use but I soon got the hang of it. The first time I used garageband I played around with the software and created a short soundtrack that I though would be suitable for a thriller opening and gave me further ideas for my groups final thriller sound track.

Garage band thriller music by ChloeG

Preliminary Task

For part of our coursework, I had to complete the preliminary task which involved working with someone else and filming an interview  which must include the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot reverse shot.


The '180 degree rule' is where the camera must stay on one side of the line the whole time whilst filming and keep within the 180 degree arc. If they cross over the line this is called 'crossing the line' and may confuse viewers.

.



'Match on action' is cutting the scenes and editing them so they flow consistently. For example, two characters are having a conversation and match on action is where they cut the conversation from character to character without big pauses in the dialogue so that it flows consistently.


'Shot reverse shot' is when the camera alternates between two characters to show their building relationship. It will show a character looking at the other character and then that character looking back at the first character and this shows the audience that their is some kind of conversation and relationship going on.



Above is our preliminary task and personally I do not think that it is that good and that we could do better. At that time we did not have much knowledge and experience with the camera we used and we didn't have as much knowledge on camera angles and movement and editing as we do now. If we were to re-film our preliminary task, as we have much more knowledge and experience we would focus more on the three basic rules which were 180 degree rule, match on action and shot reverse shot and we would also focus on the movement and handling of the camera and the camera angles.
We performed all three basic rules however I think some of these are not clear as the camera was moving a lot and the editing wasn't very good.

Student Film Research

This is a student AS film that I found on YouTube which I think is a very good thriller opening. I looked at many different thriller openings and decided this one would be the best to analyse.
The strengths of this opening thriller is that it does not give too much away, it keeps me engaged and interested and I want to carry on watching it.I think this is partly due to the suspense and tensed atmosphere that has been created. Also the creepy and tensed music also makes the opening more effective and engaging as it is very suspense and keeps you wondering.
Also the lighting and location is very good, their whole film is viewable as it is not too dark and the video is also good quality.
Their opening is also very good due to the variety of camera shots and angles that they used which makes it look very realistic.
A weakness is their production logo and opening titles, their production logo is good and unique but to make it a bit more effective, they could have made it move, this is the same with their opening titles. Their opening titles has some effect but they do not really enter and exit dramatically or effectively. They just enter with a glow and exit.