Evaluation of our opening title

Sequence

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

Our opening title sequence was in the horror genre, in many ways it conformed to the codes and conventions of horror films. For example low-key lighting was used throughout the whole opening title sequence; another horror film which used low key lighting was the woman in black, in both cases the low key lighting was used to build tension and mystery for the audience. Our film was also set in an abandoned building which is another convention often used because it makes the audience feel uneasy and tense. Other films, which use similar abandoned locations are “SAW” and “The shining,” I think that using this location was effective because it strongly indicated that our opening title sequence was a horror genre of movie.

Ways in which our title sequence has challenged codes and conventions of horror movies were at the beginning of our title sequence when the characters were outside on a bright, clear day with high key lighting. This challenges conventions of many horror movies because high key lighting signifies happiness, which is the opposite of what horror films try to convey, however it was used in our title sequence because due to time constraints, we were unable to wait for darker and dull weather.

Other ways in which our title sequence follows codes and conventions of horror movies is through representation. Our movie represents young people very stereotypically and similarly to other horror films such as Friday the 13th. Both represent young people as being mischievous and often getting into trouble.

In our opening title sequence, blood was used as a prop which is a convention of action, thriller and horror films. An example of a horror film which uses blood to scare the audience is

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? Our media product represents particular social groups through the use of clothing used, as both characters in the opening title sequence wore casual clothes such as jeans, a t shirt, sneakers and hoody’s. This shows the audience that both characters are of the same social standing and that most teenagers wear similar clothes. Our opening title sequence also conforms to the stereotype that teenagers get up to mischief and are not fully aware of what they are getting themselves into. We have shown this by having the 2 characters trespass a farm on which there was an isolated barn where they broke into to play the Ouija board. Many of the people in the audience may also relate to the characters, which shows that we have represented them stereotypically, as many teenagers don’t take responsibility over certain things, causing them to do stupid things that would get in in some sort of trouble, in this case, them trespassing private property and playing the Ouija board. We have also used positioning within the frame by placing the 2 characters close together, which indicates that they are friends, which is used in a lot of horror movies, for example Final Destination. This creates a contrast in horror movies between close friendship and separation, as many horror movies start off with a group of friends, which shows friendship, but further in the movie the friends become separated due to certain things happening, for example demons or spirits killing off the friends one by one, which is also shown in Final Destination.

Characters Social Group How Represented? Conforms to/subverts stereotype?

Effect on audience

Character 1: Guy holding Ouija Board (Marc)

Teenager-aged 19 Represented as the more ‘naughty’ teenager seeking trouble and mischief. This is shown by the character holding the Ouija board, as well as how confident the character looks as he is influencing the other character to play the Ouija board game with him. This is also shown by the characters body language.

Stereotype is represented in the way that the character is dressed by wearing very casual and scruffy clothes such as jeans, a t shirt and a hoody. This represents stereotype, as many teenagers are seen as irresponsible and are not dressed for success, whereas not all teenagers are irresponsible, but we are trying to convey this message of irresponsible behaviour in this character.

The audience is persuaded that this character is up to no good, due to the character’s attitude, which is shown by his body language, as well as the scruffy clothes he is wearing and the Ouija board that he is holding. The audience gets a sense of feeling that something bad is going to happen next, as many teenagers get ideas that land them up in trouble.

Character 2: Guy holding Lantern (Josh)

Teenager-aged 17 Represented as the more quiet and risk-averse teenager who is afraid of getting into trouble. This is shown by the characters nervous body language and when he tells the other character to climb the ladder first. He also asks the other character if it is a good idea to play the game, which also tells us how nervous he is, which could could be due to he is only 17 and the other character is 19.

Stereotype is represented in the way how the character is dressed by wearing casual clothes such as jeans and a hoody, which many teenagers wear and this subverts stereotype, as teenagers are seen as laid back and this works well, as both characters are friends and of the same social standing.

The audience gets a feeling that something is not right, which they can tell from this character’s body language, as he is nervous and they suspect that something bad will happen next, as the audience can trust this character and are able to predict from this character’s sense of nervousness that they don’t know what they are getting themselves into.

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

What kind of media institution would distribute our film? There are two types of audiences that film producer’s aim at they are mass and niche. A mass audience film is where the media product is designed to reach a large market. And a Niche audience is for a product which is specialising on a subject with a smaller amount of interest usually with a more focused subject, an example of this would be if there where to a documentary released about the conservation of the British woodlands. Institutions which distribute niche productions are mainly independent institutions. Independent institutions are smaller companies who are one company whereas mass producers are usually conglomerates. Examples of independent distributers are- Warp- British films- genre of films limited and doesn’t appeal to other countrys like the US. This is was founded by their company ‘warp records’ by the partners Rob Mitchell and Steve Beckett. The company have made the films ‘This is England’ and My Wrongs 8245–8249 & 11. ‘This is England’- This is a film of the genre of drama, it was made on a low budget of £1,472,500. The low budget was stuck to by the way the company used the following: hand-held camera, no star cast, pre fabricated sets using items bought off of ebay and natural lighting.

Plot- 12-year-old schoolboy Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) gets into a fight at school after a classmate, Harvey (Michael Socha), makes an offensive joke about his father, who died in the Falklands War. On his way home, Shaun runs into a group of young skinheads led by Woody (Joseph Gilgun), who feels sympathy for Shaun and invites him to join the group. They accept Shaun as a member, and he finds a big brother in Woody, while developing a romance with Smell (Rosamund Hanson), an older girl who dresses in a new wave style.Combo (Stephen Graham), an older skinhead, returns to the group after a prison sentence, accompanied by a knife-wielding mustachioed man called Banjo (George Newton), and a bespectacled diabetic called Meggy (Perry Benson). A charismatic but unstable individual with sociopathic tendencies, Combo expresses English nationalist and racist views, and attempts to enforce his leadership over the other skinheads. This leads the group to split. Combo is impressed by and identifies with Shaun, who in turn sees Combo as a mentor figure.Shaun stays in Combo's group instead of the apolitical skinheads led by Woody. Shaun goes with Combo's group to a white nationalist meeting. After group member Pukey (Jack O'Connell) expresses doubt over the group's racist and nationalistic politics, Combo threatens and abandons him. The gang then engages in racist antagonism of, among others, shopkeeper Mr. Sandhu (Kriss Dosanjh), an Indian man who had previously banned Shaun from his shop.Combo becomes depressed after Woody's girlfriend Lol (Vicky McClure), whom Combo has loved since they had drunken sex years before, rejects him. To console himself, Combo buys cannabis from Milky (Andrew Shim), a member of Woody's group, and the only black skinhead. At a party with Shaun and the other members of Combo's group, Combo and Milky bond while intoxicated. Combo invites Milky to tell him about himself. Milky describes his many relatives and comfortable family life to Combo who listens with increasing jealousy. When Milky invites him to a family dinner, Combo becomes enraged and beats Milky into a coma whilst Banjo holds Shaun down, who watches in horror. Ashamed and devastated by what he has done to Milky, Combo then turns hysterical, violently dragging the others out of the room and glassing Banjo in the face, covering Meggy in blood. Shaun returns, and he and Combo are shown crying and panicking whilst dragging Milky to a nearby hospital. The film cuts forward to Shaun in his room brooding about the whole event, with his mother (Jo Hartley) assuring Shaun that Milky will be alright. Shaun is then shown walking near the beach and throwing his Saint George Flag into the sea.The plot was based upon on young skinheads in England in 1983. The film illustrates how their subculture, which has its roots in 1960s West Indian culture, especially ska, soul, and reggae music. This plot attracts a niche market because the subject the film is based upon a subject which does not have a mass or large interest from most people. This is because the subject can mainly only be related to by people who live in the UK.

In terms of how the film was funded the company ‘film 4 productions’ was a main investor and was also co- funded by the national lottery fund. The film was distributed by the company Optimum releasing which was owned by universal but is now known as studio Canel and owned by NBCUniversal and Vivendi who are independent film distributers but are also owned by conglomerates. Marketing- facebook and twitter, festivals before main release, Opened in 62 Screens which is a lot for an independent, low budget film £207,676(Opening Weekend - UK).

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for our opening title would be aimed at people between 15-25. This is because our opening title sequence is of a horror genre, as well as it contains scenes not viewable for people under the age of 15 because they may disturb people of a younger age, as well as influence them by getting an idea to play the Ouija board, as well as trespass private property as they could think it could be fun.

Our opening title sequence will be aimed at an audience who seek the thrill and suspense of horror movies that seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience’s primal fears. Our opening title features scenes that will startle the audience in a supernatural theme, which overlaps with the supernatural horror genre. Our film is mostly aimed at men, as they are more likely to be able to interact with the characters on the screen. Women on the other hand would react differently to men, which could affect them in a negative way, for example giving them nightmares.

We as a group have also done a lot of research on the BBFC age certificates for film, which helped us target an age group for our opening title. Under the BBFC 15 age certificate, films can include strong language, portrayals of sexual activity, strong verbal references of sex, sexual nudity, discriminatory language and drug taking. Graphic detail of sexual activity should only be moderate. There may be strong violence, but not a lot of graphic detail that is not suitable for someone aged 15.

From this research we have targeted our opening title at the right age certificate, as in our opening title there are no scenes that people aged 15 cannot watch.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

We carried out different types of research in order to find out what would be the right target audience for our opening title sequence. We firstly wanted to create an opening title sequence that would suit a horror genre. Having this in mind, we researched different film certificates on the British Board of Film Classification in order to get the right certificate that would suit our opening title sequence, and decided on rating our opening title sequence 15+, which would mainly be aimed at people aged between 15-25. This is because our opening title contains some disturbing scenes and effects that may effect viewers under the age of 15, and may influence them to play the Ouija board, which is not what we are trying to convey, so by rating our opening title with an age restriction of 15, we are not setting any examples of being influenced, as people of this age group are responsible enough not to be influenced in any way and are able to handle any disturbing scenes or effects.

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

What we leant about technologies? SLR camera- Single Lens reflex The following features of the video shooting settings we learned about ISO shutter speed, framing, exposure, and white balance. The ISO- This is the light sensitivity of the cameras sensor, this allows you to change the amount of light that the camera picks up in the image, this is important because a piece of footage can be too grainy. The higher the ISO number the more light sensitivity the camera has to light. This allows the camera to have a high shutter speed in a dark situation. Shutter speed- The length of time the camera’s shutter is open and how long the image is exposed before the image is written. Framing- The camera allows for a grid to be placed on the screen while filming to make sure the thirds in each image are aligned properly and that the camera is positioned properly. F-stop- This is the setting on the camera which allows you to alter the aperture the camera is using to capture the motion. The aperture is the setting which controls how much the iris of the camera opens to let light in this allows the details in the footage to be seen and also for the camera to focus. White balance- This allows you to control the colour balance of the image taken from the camera from the electronic sensors.

And also about the technology behind: sound recording, quality, video systems, lighting, data writing, movie formats and lenses. Sound recording- The camera allows you to plug in an external microphone or use the microphone build into the camera. The settings on the camera allowed the sound balance to be changed Quality- Video systems- There two different types of video systems these PAL, NTSC and SECAM. These are different in various regions, PAL is used for Western Europe, SECAM is used for Eastern Europe and NTSC is used for north America. Data writing- Movie formats- MOV, AVI and AVCHD. MOV- This was created for apple QuickTime movie format, which was introduced in 1991as a movie player for apple macs. But the software is now used on window based computers as well. It is a multimedia container format, this means that files which contain a wide range of media like video, audio, text, image files. Other examples of multi media containers are wmv files, .mpeg. This type of file can be used for posting on web 2.0 systems such as: Firefox,Safari and Internet Explorer this is as the file format of MPEG-4 was originally based upon the ‘.mov’ file. There are various movie quality formats one is 720p HD which 1280x720 pixels per frame, another is the quality of 1080p HD, Live view- This is where the image is shown on the liquid crystal screen which the camera has, SLR cameras also have a optical viewfinder but the live view mode means that you can watch the scene while having the camera mounted on a tripod and move it easily and quickly which you wouldn’t be able to do if you were using the optical viewfinder. But because the camera is using more power to light up the screen. But there are disadvantages of live view such as the fact the mode is slower when taking a image but it’s easier to shoot footage because the camera operator doesn’t have to stand at an awkward angle while using a tripod to capture the motion.

Lenses- Wide angle- This is a lens which has a wider lens width than the standard lens this means that you get a wider shot than with a standard lens. Prime- This is a lens which has a fixed length, meaning that you can’t zoom closer or further away from the subject. But this does mean that the footage quality is better as the lens doesn’t have multiple glass panes, this means that the image which is produced has a more sharp, vibrant and clear appearance this is from the way the light can get into the lens much more easily because it uses the minimum amount of glass panes, this therefore means that the light has less of distance to travel to capture the image. Standard- A standard lens allows you to zoom closer and further away from the subject which is being filmed. Fish eye- A fish eye lens is used for wide angle photography but unlike a wide angle lens the lens is designed to create distortion and obscuration, this is created by the way the lenses have an angle between140° and 210° and are used for images which are greater than 110. Garage band- we leant about: mixing, layers, copy write, ownership, file sharing, editing tracks, fade in and out. To make the soundtrack for our film introduction sequence we used the software of GarageBand, this is a piece of audio recording software which was produced by apple as part of their ‘ilife’ package. The software allows you add and create multiple tracks and layer them over each other and then compress the file which is called ‘creating a mix down’ and then open in itunes from itunes the file can then be moved as a MP3 file or other audio file to use in imovie or moved to an external memory device. It also allows you to record instruments such as: voice, guitar, piano drums and most other instruments if you have a microphone or a MIDI connection for the instrument. The audio software also allows the user to add effects such as a filter on the sound which resembles something like a robot. Or more manual operated effects such as fade in and fade out which we used, it is more of a manual effect because you can control how loud or soft the sound goes and at whatever time you want on the track.

ITunes- After we had created the mix down we opened the file in iTunes and then moved it onto the desktop to drag into ‘IMovie’ to layer over our video footage. Sound Cloud and Sound Bible- copy write, ownership, file sharingSoundcloud is an online audio distribution platform, it allows collaboration, promotion and distribution of audio recordings by users. The website requirs that you register before you can upload or download files from or onto the site, it is like a social media website which allows you to post and download audio similar to ‘youtube’ but for audio instead of video footage. Soundbible is another website which you can find audio files to download for free and in a legal way, for soundbible you don’t have to sign up or register before downloading or uploading audio files, but this does also mean that some of the tracks on the website could be of bad quality because it means that any user can upload audio files to the site. iMovie- we learnt about: file types, adding text, effects, adding soundtrack, shot mirroring for match on action, cropping a frame, exporting movie files, iMovie is another piece of software which apart of the ‘ilife’ package by apple, it allows you to import video footage and then cut the part of the footage which you want in a sequence. It has effects which allow you to have different cuts than straight cuts examples of these effects are: fade in, fade out etc. iPhoto- iPhoto is another package which is included in the ‘iLife’ package by apple. The software allows users to do photo editing, manipulation and storing. It allows photo importation from digital cameras and scanners. The software supports many photo file formats, after the image files have been imported they can be labeled, named and sorted by type or category such as a specific date or event. The software also imports movie footage which can then be dragged into Imovie to edit or software such as the adobe suit programs. Card reader- Another device we used was a card reader, a memory card reader is a device which has a USB interface for accessing the data on the attached memory device such as a USB stick, SD, SDHC, compact flash and XD picture cards.

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? We feel that our final opening title sequence had a dramatic improvement over our preliminary task. This is because throughout the planning stages and analysing other title sequences we learnt a range of techniques of how to use and operate a camera, as well as learning how to keep the continuity. We learnt how sound could be used in order to build tension and represent a setting or characters in a certain way, for example in our final opening title sequence we used a soundtrack to make the interior of the building seem unnatural, as if there was a spiritual presence.

We have learnt how different camera shots have different meanings and are used for different purposes. An example would be a point of view shot, which shows the audience what the character is feeling and puts them in the same position as the characters, as they were experiencing it for themselves, however a low angle shot is used to make someone or something appear taller and make it appear to have more power.

In our first preliminary task we used a GoPro camera, which has a fish eye lens. This didn’t work well because it gave an obscured effect and didn’t look realistic and withdrew the audience because it seemed less real. This camera also had a waterproof housing, which affected the sound of the video recording, as we were not able to hear the audio of the video.

From this preliminary task we decided that a different camera needed to be used in order to improve it, so we used a hand held camcorder. The camcorder improved our preliminary task because we were able to mount it on a tripod, which improved the stability, whereas in our first preliminary task, the camera we used was not able to be mounted on a tripod, meaning we had to record our preliminary task hand held. By using the camcorder, we also got a better sound recording and were able to hear the characters talking, whereas in our first preliminary task we were not able to hear the characters due to the waterproof camera casing.

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