Completed film opening

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

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

Our film opening titled 'Inheritance' uses elements of mise-en-scene, suitable font styles, use of sound, interesting locations, and use of camera angles to challenge and develop the codes and conventions of a typical horror film that the audience would expect to see. In terms of mise-en-scene, we have a young girl studying on her laptop, whilst listening to music with her earphones which conveys a typical teenage girl. She has a pink, girlie room with a few teddies in the background which suggests she is innocent and perhaps easily afraid and naive. This instantly tells our target audience that this girl is the main victim/character of our horror film, as she is also the second character introduced in the opening (the first character is clearly represented as the killer.)

Camera angles our used to show our victim, Jemma as vulnerable as there are a variety of shots of her, The characters vulnerability truly shines through particularly when the camera is positioned at a high angle looking down at her. Close-up shots are used to show our actor studying, which allows the audience to see she is a young student taking pride in her school work, it connotes that she is a 'good girl.' Long shots are used to highlight the location, this allows the audience to see the elements of mise-en-scene, such as the teddy bear, the pink walls with floral design and the light coloured bedding.

We chose to use a simple white font for our opening titles featuring on a plain black background, the white font and dark background was decided after our titles research focussing on the film 'se7en' as those were the colours they used to represent 'se7en' which is the same genre of film as ours. Our decision to use a white simple font on a black background gives the film a more mature feel to it, it's not overly complicated with fancy fonts of different colours and backgrounds; Which helps to convey our genre to the audience, for example it is obvious through the use of mono-tonal text that it is not a film targeted at young children or families. This decision was also inspired by 'The conjuring' which was a popular horror released in 2013. We've used similar layout of opening titles, for example showing important actors names first individually and then showing actors that have smaller roles on the same screen, all titles have been positioned in different positions on the screen.

The first two images were taken from our opening titles, the second two were taken from "the Conjuring' the two different opening titles have evident similarities between them. We have thought carefully about the non-diegetic and diegetic sounds featuring in our horror opening, after listening to openings with sound and then no sound it made us appreciate how importance every little detail of sound is and the impact it will have on our horror opening. The non-diegetic music for every scene has been selected to create a certain atmosphere, for example, when our killer is shown the music is dull and eerie, diegetic sounds have been added such as whispers and the sound of typing to emphasise the actions taking place in each scene. Diegetic sound has been created in our scene, our victim is wearing earphones so we added in a pop track over the top of the scene to connote ideologies of a typical teenage girl, we also re-tuned the music so it sounds a bit tinny to make it appear as though it is coming from the character's earphones.

The first character the audience is introduced to is the murderer, the characters role in the film is clearly constructed through use of camera angles, sound, mise-en-scene and location. The opening begins with the camera panning around the location, allowing the audience to see what appears to be a lonely wooded area; The camera continues panning until the first actress is in full sight, she is surrounded by a white ring which was created through talcum-powder. The reasoning for creating this ring effect is because it creates a spiritual feel and appears strange and abnormal to the audience which is a key aspect in horror films. The actress has back-combed hair, we also used white talcum-powder as part of mise-en-scene in our actress's hair to make her appear aged, as we associate white hair usually with more matured people. We also chose to use dramatic black eye shadow on our actress, we chose to do this to add a gothic, intimidating impression of her to our audience. She is also wearing all black because it's a dim, unexcitable colour and helps to portray ideologies of this character being very miserable, bitter and twisted.

A red filter has been added to the footage of our killer, this is because red connotes danger and death. Our filming was recorded in daylight which isn't as effective as it could've been if it was filmed in a darker setting, the red filter was used to rectify this. Our opening develops, challenges and uses forms and conventions of a typical horror film, as we have done deep research into other films and noted down and developed their ideas. For example, In 'The woman in black' the killer is obviously dressed in black. We have taken this idea and used it in our opening, although the costume is different we have stuck to the colour scheme of the costume being black. The mono-tonal film openings challenge forms and conventions because although other horror film openings feature dark backgrounds and simplistic fonts, majority use red font in their opening titles(e.g. scream) to connote danger and blood. However, we chose not to because we found a way in which our film opening could look just as effective and clear to it's horror genre without using this typical convention. Another way in which our film challenges a typical horror film, is that in many horror films the killer is usually always male; The audience expect this. Our killer is in fact female, we felt that the audience would react more surprised to this in a positive way, as research shows things that are unusual or comes as a surprise to the audience when viewing a horror film tends to create more fear and suspense in their mind. We have used typical conventions, such as using a young girl who the audience will assume is very weak, innocent and vulnerable to be our main victim. Similarly in Insidious 2, the killer targets the young, innocent and the weak.

Question 2

Question 2

Question 3

Question 3

Evaluation questions 4, 5 and 6

Question 4 and 5 

The audience we have aimed at to go and watch our opening is for teenagers/students aged 15-21. We decided this by creating a A3 mind map at the start of our filming process and discussed what groups of people would go and see the film. The mind map helped as we could then cast our young victim as someone that relates to all of these things and make the audience really connect with the character. To attract our audience in to watching the film we used mise-en-scene to attract our audience and help them relate to materialistic features they may own themselves such as paul frank, apple macbook and disney in our opening.

Question 6 

From no experience of media at all i have learnt how to use several different types of technologies from constructing our opening and preliminary task. 

The first thing i learnt was how to create a blog using blogger and upload a post with links,embedding videos and images on. I also learnt how to present my work a different way by creating a powerpoint and uploading it on to prezi. I prefer to upload my work as a blog post as all of my work is on one page and the process of completing written work is quicker. 

I also learnt how to set up a video camera adjusting the lighting and filming different camera shots on different devices such as an iPad and nikon Coolpix p520 bridge camera. For our first preliminary task we used iPads to film and iMovie to edit and create a short film. We also used the iPads to film our 60 second pitch and uploaded it on to iMovie to edit and put on youtube. For our horror film opening we used a nikon coolpix p520 to get a better quality film, we had a basic understanding of how to use the camera but throughout the process we learnt how to change the lighting and colour balance. We also learnt how to use tripods and get a steady shot with the camera and when filming our tracking shots to show the two settings. 

                                    
We used the internet to download soundtracks from free sound and watching youtube videos of other students film openings to gain ideas and inspiration.The internet played a big part in our filming process as it helped when researching about sound and film titles from different films and horror films as a general to find out what conventions they use and the history of horrors. 

 

                                    

we also used the internet to insert sound in to our horror film opening. We used free sound where we could search and download the tracks we wanted to use. In the editing process we learnt how to overlap sounds and change how it sounds for example the victim is listening to music through her headphones, we changed the sound so it sounded like the music was coming from her headphones.The sound plays a big part in our opening as it introduces the titles and shows the difference between the two characters.We also learnt about sound in famous movies like pulp fiction and how they use sound to represent things such as day and night.  

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

Through completing our production of an opening sequence with credits, I feel that I have learnt a lot since making our preliminary task. The main areas I feel I have improved in since making Inheritances opening credits are camera skills, editing and improved knowledge of mis-en-scene and the impact of soundtrack.

Camera

 In our preliminary task we only had access to an iPad. 

This provided us with basic tools to film our footage. The camera work within the preliminary task is fairly smooth however the colour within the shots should have been altered and since creating this clip, I have learnt more in relation to utilizing the tripod as efficiently as possible. When creating our opening credits, we had a tripod. This meant I learnt how to smoothly pan and tilt whilst recording. Also, having access to more than one camera when filming meant that I learnt how to control white balance and exposure within a scene, ensuring we had the best visuals available to us. Also, you can see the change in quality from the preliminary task to our final opening; this is because in the preliminary task we used iPads to film however in the final opening we had access to higher quality camera which provided us with a professional touch when filming our final production.

Editing

 As you can see in our preliminary task we cut and link shot without cross cutting them, this means the whole clip lacks fluidity and just looks poorly edited together.  Since finishing the preliminary task and creating our final project I have learnt that with planning, you can ensure you will gain a continuous style throughout. We also organised ourselves so that we were sure we to be able to gain excess to Premiere Pro, this mean all of us were able to learnt and gain new skills from Premiere Pro. Having minimal knowledge of our editing program Premiere Pro when compiling our footage of the preliminary task together, the standard of editing is poor. You can see this as we have not cut some clips short enough and some cuts are untidy. Since doing this, I have learnt how to successfully edit on Premiere Pro and ensure the finished cut has as much as professional look as is possible. This was especially important within our chanting scene as we needed to show to the viewer point of the chanter and the victim in different perspectives. I  learnt how to reverse play of one shot this adds a spooky effect which will make the audience feel a bit edgy. I also learnt to put colour balance on the chanting shots in the opening, I chose the colour red as it symbols death, hell and blood which will also add a spooky effect to the final opening 

Mise-en-scene

 In our preliminary task it is clear that we have not considered mise-en-scene.Through use of research into horror films, and through looking at miss-en-scene on a deeper level since filming the preliminary task we became much more educated on the importance of mise-en-scene and was able to use our new found knowledge when filming inheritance.In the opening scene of inheritance, it is clear to see our group have thought a lot about the location, the costumes, the makeup, the shot types, the lighting and appearance of the characters. This was not portrayed within our preliminary project. In our final project we ensured that the costumes worn by our two characters represented their roles; the victim had props such as a teddy bear, Paul Frank products also featured in her bedroom which is a well-known brand popular with many teenagers. The killer's costume is black with white backcombed hair,black eye makeup and red lipstick. The red lipstick resembles death, blood and hell. Mise-en-scene allows the audience to identify the characters personalities and their role within the film, it is evident that the young girl studying is the victim, as she displays vulnerability. This is displayed through her pink bedroom with floral print, her teddy bear on the bed, and the way she is dancing as she is listening to music through her earphones, completely oblivious to what is to come. Whereas, the killer is shown quite clearly as an evil psychotic killer through her costume and make-up. 

Sound

During the production of our preliminary task we didn’t actually add or import any soundtrack/sound effects over the top of the filmed shot. However, when creating our final opening sequence, we knew we had to add and import sounds and effects into our film piece. We did some research into sound to help us make appropriate decisions about the non-diegetic sounds we should add to create the tension conveyed in the typical horror genre. There is diegetic pop music playing every time we are introduced to the victim, it is diegetic because she is listening to it through her earphones. We placed a pop track over the top and edited it to give it a tinny sound, we also lowered the volume of the track to make it clear to the audience that it is a song listened to through the characters earphones.   helps to convey to the audience that she is a typical young teenage girl as she enjoys pop music. When the killer is shown the music is dark and dramatic, there is a reason why this is done as it will add tension whilst the audience is watching the killer. 

Construction:Filming and re-filming

The first time we filmed was in the February school half term. On the day, we filmed at lucy's house in the corner of a dark room, as we only had a couple of hours to film it was very rushed and we forgot to adjust the lighting settings on the camera. As a result of this our filming was extremely dark and as we had a candle it kept changing the colour of the lighting as the flame flickered. Not only was the lighting a problem but we had a small variation of camera angles and shots which made the filming we had look extremely weak and we found it hard to make a rough edit.

We then decided to change the location to my house filming in the same sort of setting and making sure we had changed the settings on our camera so it would pick up all the image. However both mine and Dannie's cameras weren't picking anything up and it was darker than the first time we filmed and we didn't get anything we could use for our opening filmed at all that day.

As we were having such difficulty with the lighting we decided to change our opening slightly because we where finding the set up process too long. we also changed our lighting by filming everything using the natural daylight and change the lighting when editing as it is much easier and we won't need to keep filming like we have done in the past.

Our first location was at my house again, with a teenager doing their school work in a stereotypical girls bedroom. We filmed as many different camera shots and angles so we had a variation and found it easier when editing. Our second location was in the local woods with the devil worshipper aunt possessing the victim, it took us a while to find a suitable location and really show the audience when it was set. We also found that the woods was a more suitable location for our scene with the aunt in as it was natural daylight and we didn't have any issues with the cameras and instead we could focus on our camera shots and angles.

overall apart from our issues with lighting I think our filming and re-filming was proficient and after having problems with the first time we filmed it really made us think about the set up and direction we wanted for our opening.