Evaluation Part 8

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? (200 words)

Overall what was successful about your preliminary task?
What was less successful?
How did you improve upon each of these areas when making your opening sequence? 

Evaluation Part 7

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

What key decisions did you make about technology during pre-production/production/post-production?
Why were these decisions made?

What technology did you use at each stage? (you need correct names to identify how/where/why used)

What were successful used of new technology in your production process?

What were less successful?
What have you learnt?

Evaluation Part 6

How did you attract/ address your audience?
Refer back to the planning and your audience feedback

Do you think you have reached your target audience?
What did you include when planning your production that you thought would appeal to your audience?

Using quotes from the audience feedback address how these did appeal and why?
Overall, what else has been successful in your production according to the audience feedback?
What was less successful?
How could the work have been improved? 

Evaluation Part 5

How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

Evaluation Part 4 - Unfinished

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

A horror is an unsettling film, which is designed to frighten and panic the audience, as well as causing dread, and alarm, invoking everyone’s hidden and worst fears. Along with captivating the audience, entertaining them in a cathartic experience, often concluding in a terrifying shocking finale.
Horrors set out to create fear in their audiences, this can be through nightmares, the vulnerability of the viewer, revulsions, the terror of the unknown, a loss of identity, dear of sexuality and alienation.

There is always a lead character, that often results as the survivor in the film; the killer of the monster often has a trademark characteristics in the way that he kills or challenges the characters, for example the type of person that he kills or terrorizes, a weapon that he uses to kill them, or a way in which he plays with peoples minds. Horrors/ thrillers are usually good against evil, with two characters complicating. The outcome is the good person always survives, defeating the “bad guy”.

I personally don’t think that our film/ opening sequence does not challenge all of the conventions or a thriller/ horror; we have a main character, and a “villain” as such, who has his signature ways of tormenting his “victim”.  

Narrative

Follows a plot

Goodwins theory

Camera angels

has a wide range of different shots, both close up and long shot, but to a point where you don’t know what is hiding around the corner, behind doors, or the camera (the shadow at the end) the use of hand held so that it looks like it is through the eyes of someone else, not being able to see the boys face to council his identity, camera angels of the pictures of the wall – panning around the room. Still shots from both a close up and long distance.

Continuity and editing;
 the use of slowing shots down – why this was done; the darkness, the use of quick cuts,

Sound and music;
As individuals we researched into the type of music that we would be using for our opening, we thought that it would be best to look at the music that has been used for other openings of horror/thriller films, after looking at many different types, we decided that we would focus more on the music that was created for the remake of the Omen, and base the music that we would be making ourselves around this.

The music that we ,made for our opening does not challenge the forms and conventions of horror films as it sets the mood and creates an eerie feel, drawing in the audience.

Mise-en-scene / expression (lighting and colour)
darkness at the beginning; dullness through out the house, the shadow

Typography;

Iconography;
the images and symbolic representations that are traditionally associated with a person or a subject;

Indexical/ iconic/ abstract signs;
the drawings that the young boy had done and put up on the wall, the teddy bears.

The children – the director and the codes and convetions that he uses – its not what you can see, its what you can see.

Codes and conventions of thriller films

Other films that are similar 

Evaluation Part 3

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

As a group we thought that Universal would be the best institution to distribute our film because they have been distributing films for years, which range from many different genres as well as new thriller/ horrors which are different from the normal slasher.  As well as this we have chosen Universal as they are a well known mainstream company which have a big success when releasing films, as well attracting people to pay to watch our film. 

Evaluation Part 2

Who would be the audience for your product?

The target audience for Walking with the dead is both young males and females from the ages of 15 – 25, who come from all different back grounds and cultures.

We researched into the psychographics of different age groups and this was the one that best suited our audiences;

Age: 15-24 year olds

Gender: male/female

Race: N/A

Sexuality: N/A

ABC: C2-E

Marital Status: N/A

Geographical region(s): Worldwide, but mainly English speaking countries.

Media Interests: They are likely to be interested in things outside of the mainstream, including less famous musicians( or even unsigned acts), small chain supermarkets such as the co-op. They are likely to read the SUN newspaper, as it is aimed at the people at the bottom of the food chain. It is also the newspaper that most teenagers read, if they read one at all. They are likely to listen to a radio station such as Radio One, as it provides them with a mixture of music, not just mainstream pop/R&B.

Psychographics: Explorers – they are likely to enjoy the thrill of the genre of my film. They are generally younger people – students.
Together we researched into who would be the best target audience by looking into the film certificates from other thriller films as well as asking friends and family what they thought of our concept for a film and whether or not they would be interest to see it, and applied this to what we had previously researched and used the two together to decide who would be our target audience. 

Evaluation Part 1

Brief

As a group, we have been working to the brief of creating the titles for an opening of a new fiction film. The titles have to been between 90 seconds and 2 minutes.

Our opening title sequence set the scene and the main character “Harry” although you never see his face or his whole body as once as we wanted to conceal his identity to keep the audience wondering who this boy is.  As well as setting the scene and the character we wanted to set an eerie mood and show that our film is a horror and that “Harry” is not your not your normal child without giving too much away.

The main genre of our title sequence is Thriller/ Paranormal with a sub genre of realist/documentative along with being a psychological thriller. 

Titles 2

After being told that we should change our title font, Megan and I went straight onto da.font.com to look at new fonts. We put "hand written" into the search bar as we knew what type of font we wanted and we wanted to narrow it down. We looked through all of the fonts that they hand and decided that this one would be the best because it still looks like a child's handwriting but it is easier to read than the last one and as well as this it is quiet bold so it will stand out better on the screen.

Journal

Thursday 10th February
During todays lesson, for the first hour we put the finishing touches onto our title sequence, we concentrated on the music as all of the editing had been done.
During the second hour of the lesson we watched everyones Title Sequences and gave them feedback. We did not have time during that hour to watch everyones finished title sequence and our group and one others did not get seen. In our lesson on Tuesday we will get our feedback from our teacher as well as our class mates.

Monday 14th February
Today we got feed back from one of the Media teachers and one the media technicians. We had been told that we was there favourite title sequence from our class and we had the least improving to do. We was told that we should cut the universal clip at the beginning as this is too long at 20 seconds. AS well as this we was told that we should change the font of the titles that have the cast and producers names etc, as a different font would have a better impact and it needs to be bigger and clearer so that it is easier to see, as well as lengthening the time that they appear on screen. Another improvement that needs to be made to the jump cuts as this does not work, it just looks like we are missing a shot.
The points that they did like was the shaddow at the end, the use different shots and the use of the static shot. As well as this she liked that we made our own music on garage band.

Now we have our feedback from our teachers, we are going to improve our title sequence so that it will be ready for tomorrows lesson. We have already started to look at other fonts on dafont.com to put onto our title sequence as well as making sure we don't have the jumpy cuts out.

Final Cut!

Universal

This is the production Logo that we are using at the beginning of our title sequence as universal is the distributor that we have chosen for out film. As well as this, by adding the production company logo before the beginning of the film will help to add will suspension as well as making it look more.

Journal

Monday 7th February
Today we put the soundtrack to The Omen on to our footage to see how it worked as this is what we decided we would base our music on, and because Megan was not in, so we did not have the music that she had been making at home on her mac.
As well as this Laura and I played around with the footage and changed some of the transitions to make some shots flow better, as well as adding a fade out to the end so that as the shadow moves across the screen, the shot will fade out as it reaches the end of the screen.
We are all pleased with the work that we have done and the shots that we have, as well as the way that the title sequence flows with the music.

Tuesday 8th February
Today Megan brought in her mac and we uploaded the music to our finished title sequence. After watching it we agreed that at the beginning of the music it needs to be more lively to grab the audiences attention. Now we are all working together to make the music better and to see where improvements are needed.
Both sets of music that we have used with our title sequence defiantly work  well with the footage that we have used, and draws the audience in even more, as it makes title sequence have a more eerie feel to this, as well as the music building up first before the title "Walking with the dead" appears and again when the scene changes from Harry walking around the house, to sitting in his bedroom.

Title Sequence

This is our title sequence, which is nearly done apart from the music. We have no put in all of the titles as, and we have all of our footage edited. For now we have put in the music from The Omen, as this is what we based our own music on that Megan has been making at home on our own Mac. We have based out music this because we like the eerie child like feel that it gives to our title sequence, and this also links into the theme of our "film" as it is based around children and there imaginary friends. As well as this, we all agreed that we like the way the music would build up before the title of our film appears on screen, this gives it a dramatic edge.

Sample Music

This is the music that Amy found on a royalty free website that we could use on a title sequence if Megan making it on Garageband did not work out in the way that we wanted. We are also going to use this music to help us to make out own final cut of music on garage band.

Rough Cut

This is the rough cut of our title sequence with the titles on the screen. We put the titles on by using dafont.com and print screening the letters, and then editing them in photoshop.

Journal

17-01-11
Today we have uploaded the filming that Megan and Laura did after on Thursday as well as the Recce shots.
I have uploaded all of the shots to iMovie and I will start editing, taking out what we don't need and putting everything in order. As well as this I am going to finish the titles.

Recce Shots

Music

Laura has been looking into types of music from other horror/thriller films, she found a sample which we could use as a template before making our own piece of music to fit the title sequence. Laura decided to pick 'The Omen's' title sequence music as a starting point on the research of music and it too has the same film genre as ours. She also wanted to look at a horror which involves a child, this is when she decided that 'The Omen' would be a good film to look into. 

The Cast

Scott Smith - Actor (Harry)...

Grace Covill - Actress (Grace)...

The Group

LauraPound...Director/Storyboards/Filming













Amy Clement... Producer/Brief and treatment/Editing

Megan Ellis...Director/Sound/Filming 

Hayley Laurence... Producer/Typography/Editing

Journal

13-01-10
Today we are starting to film after school at Megan's house.

Journal

11-01-11
Today we went over our story boards and spoke to our teacher about all of our shots, together we decided that we would change the shots of the young boy Harry, to make sure that we do not see his face or his whole body in any one shot - we will only be seeing his feet, hands and back of his bad/back. We are doing this to create an enigma, and to draw the audience in so that they will want to find out who this boy his, and why his character is so dark and unknown.

As well as this I am going to be making the titles for our title sequence today using dafont.com and photoshop.

Research on Casting

Casting and Production Team

The casting and production group

View more presentations from Laura Pound.

Journal

10-01-11

Today we decided that we would start filming on Thursday after school, and we are going to go over the story board and take out shots that we don't need to make sure that some scenes are not too in your face. Sometimes being subtle has a stronger impact on an  audience that something that is more in your face.
We are also deciding on the title fonts that we will be using.

Our Film Classification

While researching the different film classifications, I felt that the certificate of a 15 would match the ideology and main theme of the film in which we are planning on creating the title sequence for.

Suitable only for 15 years and over
No one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work.

Discrimination 
The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

Horror
Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

Imitable behaviour
Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Language
There may be frequent use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’). The strongest terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme 
No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

ViolenceViolence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.

Story Boards

Order of Titles

Example of order of titles:
1. Company names...
2. Distributor 1st ...
3. Production 2nd ...
4. Film by...
5. Characters names/actors...
6. Film name...
7. More actors/actresses...
8. Casting by...
9. Music by...
10. Costume designer...
11. Editors...
12. Production designer...
13. Director of photography...
14. Co producers...
15. Co executive producers...
16. Executive producers...
17. Written by...
18. Produced by...
19. Directed by...

Story board order

Shot 1: Camera movement is still while the boy walks up the hill. Sound of footsteps (3-4 seconds).

Shot 2: Boys cuts across view of house to walk up the driveway into the house. (3-4 seconds).

Shot 3: Handheld camera follows behind the boy giving the idea that someone is following him. (2 seconds).

Shot 4: Camera shots from other side of door. Show door opening and boy walks in ( walking towards camera). (10 - 11 seconds).

Shot 5: Camera shot of the hallway and the child putting down their school bag

(showing the idea that he comes across as a usual child). ( 5 - 6 seconds).

Shot 6: Boy opens fridge to get something to eat. When the fridge door shuts the titles begin to show. Music changes tone. (2 seconds).

Shot 7: Camera pans in on the fridge and the beginning of the credits. (2 seconds).

Shot 8: The camera (handheld) then follows the child as he walks up the stairs. (7-8 seconds).

Shot 9: Light beams out of the other room and boy runs upstairs into his room which is very dark, camera pans into child's dark room. (5-6 seconds).

Shot 10: BLACKOUT SCREEN. Sound of child breathing. (3 seconds).

Shot 11: Camera starts of an image in which the child is drawing, and then pans onto another image. Then all the images on the wall; disturbing images in which the child has drawn.

(10-11 seconds).

Shot 12: Camera begins to start on individual drawings, which show different names and credits of the film. (10-11 seconds).

Shot 13: Teddy bears which are sitting on the shelf have been changed in some way by the child, such as heads missing. Pan onto one of the teddies to see yet another credit. (5-6 seconds).

Shot 14: Close up shot of an image of his hand destroying the teddies. (5 seconds).

Shot 15: Camera pans from the image of the teddy to the mirror, the other side of the room.

(3 seconds).

Shot 16: Child writes, 'It's your fault' on the mirror, with the reflection of his face at the side of the mirror. (5 seconds).

Shot 17: Someone walks in front of the image of the boys face and text on the mirror, music builds up. (6 seconds).

Shot 18: BLACKOUT SCREEN. Title sequence ends, film begins. (3 seconds).

Typography

Typography is the art and technique of arranging type, type design, and modifying type glyphs. Type glyphs are created and modified using a variety of illustration techniques.""http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typography"


We have been looking into different fronts that we could use for the titles in our title sequence.
The name of our film is "walking with the dead", and as our film is a horror the font will need to be eerie, we also thought about trying fonts that look like a child has written it, or it has been scratched into something.
We use the website "dafont" to try different styles of fonts and this is what we came up with;

Whilst we was looking for fonts for the main titles, we came across type writer fonts that would look good for the titles during the title sequence. Amy and I decided that it would be good if we show the insertion point and the letters being typed into the shot.

TITLE SEQUENCE ANALYSIS

HALLOWEEN 


CREEEP 


PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 


LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT 


THE CHILDREN 


6TH SENSE 


THE DEVILS BACK BONE 

Journal

In our lesson on 06/01/2011, Megan started to look on Garage band at possible sounds for our Title Sequence. The sort of sounds to be featured in our Title Sequence are quite eerie sounds, to make it seem quite dark and sinister. Sounds that link to children will also be featured, such as keyboard music/nursery rhymes. We have also thought about featuring a child breathing.

Also in the lesson, another idea for something that could be featured in our title sequence came about. We were discussing the ending to our Title Sequence, when we stumbled upon the idea of the main character writing a message on a mirror. We would have him actually write on an acetate sheet, so that we can also get a shot, as if the camera is in the mirror. We would put the acetate over the camera lens, and he will write onto it, so that we can see him actually writing it. For the message that is going to be written, we thought about a couple of ideas. At first I thought it would be good to say something quite dark, so I suggested 'it's all her fault' but after discussion, we came up with 'it's all your fault.'

Production Schedule

We decided that the best time to film would be after school as the people that we would be using will be at school and we not be able to pull them out.
We would be filming at Megan's house any time after school or on the weekend, whenever everyone is free.

British Board of film classification

"The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom. It has a statutory requirement to classify videos, DVDs and some video games under the Video Recordings Act 2010."





All ages admitted, there is nothing unsuitable for children. Films under this category should not upset children over 4.
Examples: FernGully: The Last Rainforest, The Incredibles

All ages admitted, but certain scenes may be unsuitable for children under 8.
Example: The Simpsons Movie

Cinema only. Introduced in 2002.

Films under this category are considered to be unsuitable for very young people. Those aged under 12 years are only admitted if accompanied by an adult, aged at least 18 years, at all times during the motion picture. However, it is generally not recommended that children under 12 years should watch the film. Films under this category can contain mature themes, discrimination, soft drugs, commonly used milder swear words, and moderate violence/sex references.
Examples: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pirates of the Caribbean, Yes Man

Home media only since 2002. 12A-rated films are usually given a 12 certificate for the VHS/DVD version unless extra material has been added that requires a higher rating.

Nobody younger than 12 can rent or buy a 12-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game. Films in this category may include infrequent drugs, infrequent use of strong language, brief nudity, discreet sexual activity, and moderate violence.

Only those over 15 years are admitted.

Nobody younger than 15 can rent or buy a 15-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game, or watch a film in the cinema with this rating. Films under this category can contain adult themes, hard drugs, strong words, moderate-strong violence/sex references, and mild non-detailed sex activity.
Examples: Black Christmas ,Final Destination 3

                Only adults are admitted.

Nobody younger than 18 can rent or buy an 18-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game, or watch a film in the cinema with this rating. Films under this category do not have limitation on the bad language that is used. Hard drugs are generally allowed, and strong violence/sex references along with non-detailed sex activity is also allowed.
Examples: Hostel, Saw III

Material that is exempt from classification sometimes uses symbols similar to BBFC certificates, for example an E "certificate". There is no legal obligation, nor a particular scheme, for labelling material that is exempt from classification.On the BBFC's online classification database, material that has been refused a classification uses a red serif R in place of a rating symbol.

Journal

06/01/2011:

We started to look on Garage band at possible sounds for our Title Sequence. The sort of sounds to be featured in our Title Sequence are quite eerie sounds, to make it seem quite dark and sinister. Sounds that link to children will also be featured, such as keyboard music/nursery rhymes. We have also thought about featuring a child breathing.

Also in the lesson, another idea for something that could be featured in our title sequence came about. We were discussing the ending to our Title Sequence, when we stumbled upon the idea of the main character writing a message on a mirror. We would have him actually write on an acetate sheet, so that we can also get a shot, as if the camera is in the mirror. We would put the acetate over the camera lens, and he will write onto it, so that we can see him actually writing it. For the message that is going to be written, we thought about a couple of ideas. At first I thought it would be good to say something quite dark, so I suggested 'it's all her fault' but after discussion, we came up with 'it's all your fault.'

Production Logo

When making this logo for our production company, we chose to use quite dark colours as the company are going to mainly produce horror films. The name of our company came about randomly, but when thinking about what could symbolise it, we started to think about sharp objects. The image we chose to represent sharp was a syringe. A syringe can be associated with death and illness, which is quite a dark thing to think about. This links to the types of films the company is likely to produce. The font of the company name was found on DaFont under the Horror section, which perfectly fits in to the genre. The writing is quite formal in a way, but there are little blotches over the writing, which make it look slightly distorted, and less clean. The red line underneath the writing makes the writing stand out, and the colour could connote blood and anger.