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

Look back I have realised how massive the leap is from a continuity piece to a whole sequence and that creating an opening sequence is not as straight forward as it seems. While making my continuity I didn't know much about creating an title sequence or putting it all together to create a film. I wanted to work in a group as group work for me is when I work hard an achieve what I think I can do. Although now I wonder what working alone I could have maded, I have learnt better filming knowlodge and that creative shots look and work better. Although keeping everything the same eg costume was the hardest as we had to re shoot so we had to make sure all the characters had the same outfit on and all the items were placed in the correct place.

I have enjoyed making my title sequence and have learnt alot about filming and editing while in the procces I would never have fought i would be able to achieve an opening title sequence.

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

From the process of constructing this opening title sequence I have learnt many new techological devices in detail and that will help in late in this course. Whislt film I learnt how to use the tripod more effectivly in our title sequence the shots are tight and steady this helped alot to achieve this, I also learnt how to move around the camera on the tripod, look back on it now it seems like an easy thing to know. I also learnt how important mise-en-scene was and how one small thing out of place or missused could ruin the film, we became picky on what we placed on the doctors table by his bed. We placed a calander of a woman on the wall to incitate that it is a mans domiated room and house.

When it came down to editing I found it hard to make the jump from imovie to final cut pro as I did media last year I had a rough idea on have imovie is used. We decieded we would do it step by step we created a rough copy of our film in imovie than transferred it to final cut pro to add the finsh touches. I felt on final cut pro it made the procces seem more profession and the sequence flow better and smoothly. We also made a dvd cover aswell as a poster to do this we had to use photoshop I knew alot about photoshop from last year but I think I have added to the knowlodge I had on photoshop by making the dvd cover.

How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted our target audience as they could relate to the main character somehow, we wanted to make the audience ask questions about the lifestyle of the doctor and what were the tablets he was taken. We added in a monotage to draw the audience attention more and to also make them ask questions, in feedback we got people liked the beggining and ending but were unsure on the scream of the doctor once he has seen the ghost, the main thing we wanted to achieve was to make the audience have some sympathy for the doctor.

We also had to make our shots more tigher as that was the only feedback that was negative. The tension and subspence that we created in the title sequence holds the audience attention and make them want to know the outcome of this issue.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My target audience is middle-aged adults of both genders, but more so males as I feel this particular genre is more appealing to men. We gave our film a rating off 15 as it is supernatural and a thriller. I think it would appeal as the main character is a middle aged doctor who is suffering from isomnia, people in their 30-40 might be able to relate to not being able to sleep or over working to hard or find comfont in watching someone suffer and someone being worse off than themselves.
In our feedback the audience wanted us to make them feel more sorry for the main character so we tried to achieve this so that more of the audience could relate to the real life issue that the doctor is suffering.

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

To get a rough idea of the type of film we wanted to make we looked at other films that are similar, the one we found most useful was the machinist, in this film the main character also suffers from insomnia. The film was distributed by 'Paramount Classics', I think that as the film was a success, the company would be interested in distributing our film as it covers the similar topics. As they also have good experience from the sales and marketing off the machinist it would find it easy to market and boost the sales of our title sequence.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product represents one particular social group, which is the employed, middle aged group of men and women. Men and women who have no social lives and that live to work day in and out.

My opening sequence shows an male getting ready in the morning, from this it indicates to the audience through mise en scene and also use of editing to give the audience background information of the male introducing him as well as the sequence. this also reflecting a middle aged society representation , this shown through the characters age who he is portraying as a exhausted doctor tired due to the amount of not only overwork but the lack of sleep. The doctor has insomnia the first chances the audience get off this problem is the tablets taken and the lack of sleep. We tried to make our film the most realistic we could make it, we wanted the audience more aware of this situation in the real world, and that our story that we portrayed is believable and could happen in the real world.

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

Our title sequences uses the form and conventions of a real media products by using the same element that is used to make up a real film. We challenge the way that media products use different ways of bringing in an audience, through using the conventions that make up a thriller/supernatural film, such as suspense and tension. Once we establish the theme we wanted to do which was thriller/supernatural we fought off other films that are either thillers or supernatural and looked at the plot that they used then we followed the many conventions of a thriller. We looked manly at the film the machinist as it followed the fought of imagionation playing tricks on your mind. We used a font that looks creep and tight to create the effect of scary and unknown. We have used quick, snappy shots and created an monotage with quick shots added in we wanted the audience to ask questions about the film like what is happening?.

We added the heartbeat sound to create more tension and hold the audience's attention. Also the eeriness sound at the end to add a ghostly touch and wonder what this eeriness is going to lead to. We decieded to make our title sequence black and white as this is more dark, creep and more ghostly it also shows that the man has no life outside his job. The tablets are a strong example of the Iconography, they make the audience question what disease he has or illness and why he has the tablets, he suffers form insomnia and through this the consequence is the woman haunting him from his past.

finished piece

imovie against Final cut pro

We started editing on imovie which we all new the basics off on imovie we cut a rough copy of our film the changed it to black and white on imovie before transferring it over to final cut pro. On final cut pro it started as a challenge for us all as it was the first time we had all used it however after we were shown how to use final cut pro we found it easy to work with. Although imovie is simple and basic final cut pro beats it hands down, I personally think final cut pro makes the film smoother and there is more different things to add or change by using final cut pro. I will use final cut pro for all my work now for sure.

Production company

Our production name is KLND after the letter of our first name Kirstie, Lauren, Nick, Dan. we choose to do this as it was fair for everyone. We also couldn't think of a name of our company.

Re-Shoot

On Thursday 11th Feb we re-shoot the bathroom scene with the doctors scream, the re-shoot went okay, the scream was more effective and louder than the first time (It made the rest off us jump at first). The facial expression looked more scared and shocked than when we first filmed it which will help create more off a effect on the audience.

We have added the re shoot into our movie it looks alot better, we have also added music we decided to go for a heartbeat that we have placed in different stages of the movie, at the end we have created a subspence sound that creates tension.

Deadline been changed!

Our deadline was changed lucky for us as we still have to edit the clips we have re shoot, Lauren and I are trying to do that today so hopefully it will be out the way for half term. But when we get back we still need to make the ghost lighter.

Update

We have finshed making a dvd poster that actually looks good. Also we made a poster promoting our film. After we did this we talked about how we was going to do our evaluation we fought it would be a good idea to record ourselves answering the questions. All thats left to do is brigthen up the ghost and add it what we have re shoot.

Poster

To add to our dvd cover we made a poster that continued promoting our film. The poster had the same picture with the same effect on it, this also looks good and I am happy with it.

Dvd cover

We have finshed making our dvd cover- we started it off by taking a picture of the ghost and the doctor, then in photoshop we played around with different effects on the picture untill we found one we liked, we have made it black and white as our film is black and white. We used the same font that we used for our titles on our dvd cover. On final cut pro we took print screen clips of our film at different stages to add to the back of the dvd cover, we also wrote a short brief of our film on the back.
Overall we are happy with the outcome and think it looks good.
We have put a certificate rating of 15 on it,

Location Shots

Here are our location shots, we took shots off the bathroom we used, the bedroom and the stairs. We choose the bedroom and used props that are normally found in a man's bedroom such as aftershave, poster of a female and hair gel, as it is a middle aged man who is living on his own we made it less feminine (so both the boys in our group had to dress the room). For our plot we put tablets, alarm clock and a lamp on the table next to the bed.

No Re Shooting :(

Today we couldn't re-shoot as not every member could make it, but no worries we have arranged it for next week, hopefully before half term :).

The Machinist

I looked in to other title sequence with a similar theme that we have, The Machinist was one that stood out. It starts with a old looking piece of paper with a square in the middle, the square than opens out to show us what is underneath, it uses a fade in and fade out. The titles are simple and on the side. It becomes clear to the audience that it is a game of hangman on the piece of paper, The paper and text looks destorded which could relfect what the film is about. The picture of the hangman starts getting closer and the audience feel like they are playing the game. The lines that are spelling out words is the title of the film. The hangman game could reflect also what the film is about or what is going to happen to the main character in the film. They is no music playing this is also effective on the audience and helps to catch the attention of their audience. Finally as the title of the film is spelt out the game of hangman finshes.

Overall personally I think this title sequence is brillent it catches the audience attention to make them want to watch more of it, it is simple with no fancy acting. during the title sequence we dont see anybody apart from this game of hangman.

Deadline in 8 days!!!!

Today we talked about what we else we have to do on our title sequence we are thinking of re shooting the doctors scream on friday then hopefully cut it into the sequence monday. We also would like to create a dvd cover and a poster but time is running out so we will have to see next week how much we have to do and if we have time.

The Machinist

We looked into the film The Machinist as it is similar to our film. It has a similar storyline to our title sequence, as it is about a man who has a sleeping disorder (insomnia) he also is haunted by images of his past, this idea we also use in our film for a doctor he imagions he is seeing a ghost.

Music

As a group we talked about the different sounds that would work with our piece, we fought off using a piano to create a slow sound but that upbeated when the ghost arrives - not to sure yet what we are going to use.
We are going to talk to our teacher and other friends to see what they think we should use so that we get some ideas on the music.

Crit Lesson.

On the 28th we had a crit lesson where we all showed our title sequence other students commented on what was good and we could do to improve it.

The comment's we received were,
-That we should re-shoot the part of the film when the doctor (Daniel Pye) screams after seeing the ghosts they fought that it wasnt believable by his facial expressions and his scream. Hopfully by re-shooting this it will help to improve our final grade.
- Another comment was that the shots wasnt tight enough so there was a slight jump between shots. We agreed that we are going to edit so that we can cut a second or so off the shots to make them tigther and sharper.
- Another thing that was talked about was the music that we should use, we all agreed in the group and including our teacher that the music we should use should just be a heartbeat or a clock ticking we decided this because we think it will create the effect we wanted towards the audience.
Overall the class and the teacher fought that our title sequence is good, and has good shots, with

Update

We started to use final cut pro at first we found it hard but now we have got use to using it, we decided to add fast shots into our montage such as one of the time passing, one of the doctor in a mask. We are hopeing to make them fast to break up the montage but to also grab the audience attention.

Update

We have changed our film to black and white on imovie this makes it look much better than when it was in colour, we are hoping to add a ghostly effect into our title sequence. So far everything is going to plan and going well :)

Key Ingredients off a thriller opening.

In a horror opening the main conventions we notice are:
- Creepy music to create tension and atmosphere.
- Creepy location where victim normally lives or visits.
- Hint of something bad going to happen normally made by music or effects.
- Lighting that creates tension.

Update

We filmed our title sequence on the 8th January and got some good shots, we have edited it on imovie over the past week.
Today we finshed editing on imovie and uploaded it on to final cut pro, we started to brighten up the lighten on the ghost to make her bright compared to the Doctor.

Shooting Schedule.

Film Title- Traces

Filming day- Friday 8th January

Location- Lauren's House

Cast- Daniel Pye as Doctor
Kirstie Houghton aka Me as ghost

Film Crew (on set) - Lauren Scotcher
Nick Storey
Kirstie Houghton aka Me
Daniel Pye

Times-11:25-3.30

Filming Day

We flimed on the Friday 8th January, we changed our loation to Lauren's house as it was easier to get to. When we started to film we came up with different angles to shot from, We setted the room we used as a man's room but putting up a calander placing aftershave on the table. During shotting the shots we filmed were good we had point of view of the doctor turning on the tap. The best shot we filmed would have to be the ghost scene as it just made us laugh but we did have good shots of it that we can edit to create the opening sequence we want.

Being as Creative as we can :)

We started to think of shots to use and tried to be as creative as ever we fought of crazy shots that would work, as we are trying to create tension for the audience we are thinking of shots that can connect the audience with our title sequence :)

What we want to achieve

We talked about what we want our opening title sequence to achieve on the audience, we decided we wanted it to hold the audiences attention to make them want to watch more. We want the audience to get hints of the film by the opening sequence but not the whole storyline, we want them to be shocked at the end. Our title sequence can only last 2 mins so within them minutes we want to show the doctor grabbing the tablets and have a montage of the doctor turning in his bed to show that he has trouble sleeping, We also want to involve the audience with what is happening and for them to be asking questions while watching it for example why cant he sleep? what tablets is he taking? and why is he taking tablets?.