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

Looking back at the Priminary task that i created i have learnt that working in a group is a good idea, as you are able to share things out so there isn't as much work to do, also it helps as there are a lot more ideas to bring to the table. When we were told what we had to do for our final piece i thought that creating a two minute sequence really wouldn't be that hard after making the Priliminary as that took no time at all, however, i realised it was a lot harder. In the priliminary task we have a far amount of issue that we needed to adress in our final piece these being,
- Making sure everyting was the same in each shot ?
- Have a various of shots been used?
- Has a tripod been used properly ?

So in the opening sequence none of these accured. Due to the Primliminary only being 10/15 seconds the narrative was really easy to come up with, whereas to come up with a narrative for a 2 minute squence was a lot harder.
When it came to the shooting as a group we tried to get everything done on the same day, however, this didn't seem to work. We got to the place we were originally filming the whole sequence, Ferry Meadows, but it ended up that we could not because of many reason. One being that we didn't think the forrest was really good enough for what we wanted but the park however was very good and met our critiera exactly. Another issue we had was that the camera died so we didn't actually get to finish the filming, but in the end this happened to go in our favour. Compared to the Priliminary this was alot different due to the fact that the camera didn't get used that much for so long as it was a short amount of footage.

During th filming of the Priliminary the Storyboard was used but it wasn't needed that much as not many shots were needed to be filmed, whereas when it came to the final piece the storyboard was used a fair bit in the start of the filming, however, when we changed our idea we just wrote down on a scrap piece of paper what shots we wanted and how we wanted it to look so everything would be filmed and nothing would be forgotten. This was a good idea as it didn't take up filming and editing time byt re-doing the whole storyboard in the such small time scale we had, but it also meant that nothing was forgotten when filming and it meant all the editing was great. All in all i am very happy of my groups final piece i believed that we all worked well together and it meant that we had a very interesting final opening sequence and the hard work paid off.

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

Throughout the process of creating the opening sequence i have learnt a lot about several different technologies that i have come across and had to use. During the process of shooting the sequence i developed my knowledge in the equipment used, although i am quite confident about cameras, video cameras and tripods as i have a job in John Lewis, Peterborough in the Audio and TV department working on mainly the camera section. Within the opening sequence a Canon MV500 was used which is an old video camera that runs on tapes also a Panasonic SD200 was used later on in the filming, this was because the Canon ran out of battery and we needed a camera quick fast. During the filming of the Preliminary task a basic range of camera shots and editing was used, due to it being a Preliminary task the need to spend a mass amount of time on it didn't see necessary therefore a quick edit was done. It was a short and simple task yet a fun one. It was a good starting point that allowed me and my group to get familiar with what was available to us and what we would be able to use again. When it came to the opening sequence we knew what we needed to use and how we needed to use it. We used both the Canon and Panasonic Video cameras, but before any of the filming could take place we had to plan and research this meant deciding what genre we wanted and what films we could look at for ideas. As a group we decided to take up the genre "Thriller" but we wanted to go into more depth therefore we decided to use "Physocolgical Thriller" this meant doing individual research, i researched about "Schindler's List" and "The Blair Witch Project" to research about these i looked on the Internet to get the basic information the i suggested that we should watch the film, luckily one person had it in the group so we got together and watched it through once and then we watched the opening sequence a few more times on its own. This allowed us to fully understand what we needed to do to achieve the standard we wanted. It then came to the planning, this is the moment we all sat in the library and collected all the information we could in books, the Internet and just from general knowledge. Then after this we went into the filming.

The technology that i believed i learnt about the most was the editing software, we were able to use SonyVegasPro at school. When we first used it in our priliminary we weren't sure as a whole group how to use it, but the person who got use to it fastest was Olly Aird, so he sat down and taught me the basics. As a system it is very easy to use, easier than i first thought. It was as simple as adding the footage you wanted and then either editing it in colour, or speed. Then you could overplap footage to give it a double effect.

I believe that the technologies used throughout were all very useful, books, DVDs, and the Internet. The most useful was probably the Internet as everything that was needed was right there, but having the access to books enabled me to find out more information that was definitely reliable.

5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

This questionnaire was created to see what the audience we showed it too really thought about the opening sequence. In total 50 people were asked. Under neither there are many charts and graphs to show the results.
The questions on this questionnaire are as follows:
1) So you understand the narrative?
2) What genre would you say this piece falls under?
3)Under the guidance of the BBFC what age restriction would you say this film falls under?


After getting all the feedback we needed from people, we wanted to ask them one more simple question this was "Would you carry on watching from this opening sequence?" In reply over a 2 thirds of the views said that they would as the sequence was an enjoyable experience, and it was also intriging. They also stated that they wanted to know why that happened to the girl and how she got into that situation. This shows us that the opening sequence did what i should of, it brought the view in and made them want to carry on.

This graph is for the first question, "Do you understand the narrative?", as you can see from the results of the graph more than half said that they did understand the narrative, this is helpful to shows us that we have create the final piece correctly to get the narrative across to the audience.

This is the pie chart that i created to show the results to question 2 "what genre would you say this piece falls under?" The results are clear that most believed that is was a thriller, but some people thought it was a horror and a few others, this may of been because they either got the conventions of our opening sequences crossed with the conventions with a horror. Or it may be that they aren't that clear on what conventions are actually involved in what genre.

This is a chart for question 3 "What age restriction would you put this under? as you can see from the results most people who watched the opening sequenced believed that it suits the age restriction of 15. This means that as a group we have aged the film correctly as other people agree.

After we produced what we thought would be our "final edit" we added it onto facebook (a social networking site) this was so we got get feedback on it and so people could share their views and say what they think we could improve. On the left was th feedback we recieved. Many pepole said that they really enjoyed it, and that it was really good. However, a few of the people that gave us feedback suggested that we should keep the music playing in the background when the girl is singing "ring a ring a roses" We took up this suggestion and tried it out on the editing software "sonyvegas" and as a group we did think that it was so much better than before. This made us very thankful for the feedback that we recieved.

All in all i believe that this feedback allows us as a group to know that we have done what we set out to do, create an opening sequence to draws the viewer in and makes them want to watch on.

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

My target audience is both genders of the younger generation 15+, however, i do believe that other age ranges will be interested in this film but it was particularly aimed at the younger generations. I do believe that women would be a lot more interested in my film as it is a Physocological Thriller. This means that there is alot of thinking involved, not saying that men don't like to think but it is typical for men to like action movies that have blood, gore and are fast paced throughout. Whereas, my opening sequence is fast paced but if i were to created the whole movie it wouldn't be fast paced throughout just tiny little sections the rest would be a thinking film where the audience would have to think about everything that is happening. Both genders may like this film, but typically i would think it is alot more focused at women. The audience would have to have an obscure film taste to enjoy this film as it is very up and down, it would aslo appeal to an audience that watch films to watch movies for the storyline and not for the mass amount of publicity it has recieved.

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

My opening sequence was made on a very low budget which means that it is an independent British film instead of a Hollywood film where they would have millions of pounds to spend on their films. Film4 often distributes high quality films that have been created on a low budget. On their website they state that "revitalise the British Film Industry". Film4 have produced succesful films such as "Slumdog Millionare" this was a very low budget film that was directed by Danny Boyle. Although it was a low budget film it ended up getting "Best motion Picture" and the profit that was created from it was outstanding. This is what Film4 try to do, the support the low budget films but they are still looking at making a profit. This is why i am confident for them to disribute my film.

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

My film focuses on the younger generation/young adults, but it can also interest people of the older generation/middle aged adults. But it was mainly focused on the younger generation. Personally i believe that my film doesn't really focus on a social group in particular but if i were to chose i would say it would represent the working class. Kourtney Haw was cast for the role of the protagonist this was because my group and I had a picture of what we wanted "The Girl" took look like, outrageous in body and mind with hair that looks mental she fit the role perfectly as she is able to act this character well. I knew this because i have seen her play this role and many others in many of her shows for KYT and other theatre groups. This meant the Kourtney was able to represent the character really well, and relate back to the audience that would watch as the understand how to get across to the audience in more ways than one. When it came to the man in the trench coat, as a group we decided that Ollie Arid would be the best at this character, not only would it be easier for us as he was in the group but he is also a A-level theatre student and is very good at acting different roles. He dressed in a black coat with a trilby hat, this made sure that the camera didn't really show a lot of his face so the character he played wasn't given away to much. Originally, there were many characters involved in the opening sequence including, a clown, a nun, two children from the 1940's period as well as "The Girl", "The man" and the person who chases the girl. After the first filming we decided that the earlier characters didn't fit into our final edit, so they are in their briefly but not as much as our original storyboard suggested. The reason we changed the original edited to the final edit was because when we first asked for feedback people didn't really understand what was going on, and they also stated that was very slow. That was when we thought, as a group, that we should make the pace speed up after the setting had been set. This is when the chase seen was added in with the man in a balaclava, Jon Orrell was cast for this character, as the characters face wasn't being seen this meant it didn't really matter who it was. Also Jon is a very healthy person so was able to run for quite a while. His body structure is very built which made the character a lot more interesting and scary as it made him seem like he was the "hitman" for "The man" so it worked out well. As all the actors/actresses were aged between 16-17-18 it allows the audience of the "yonger generation" feel connected to them as they would be around the same age. If i had to give the opening sequence an specific age i would give it a 15 due to the contents although there isn't much in the opening sequence the rest of the film would contiain a lot more violence.

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

An opening sequence is really vital to a film as it sets the setting, genre and narrative as well as visual style and ideology (whose side are the audience on). The opening sequence should draw the audience in without giving away too much of the plot. My opening sequence goes by the forms and conventions of an existing opening sequence by: establishing the narrative, introducing the audience to the protagonist and drawing the audience in. Immolation is based on the genre of Psychological Thriller.
The film was inspired by "Schindler's List" as well as "The Blair Witch Project", my opening sequence gives visual reference to the film "The Blair Witch Project". Although my opening sequence follows most of the typical forms and conventions to a Psychological Thriller, i also believe that it has its own sort of style with the way it has been edited, with the fades in and out, as well as the over lapping of two different pieces of footage i think it makes it a little bit weirder than it normally would be. Within my opening sequence there are common themes of identity, perception, mind and death.
The point of view shot worked really well in my opening sequence i think as it shows destress in the character, the method is common in many different Psychological Thrillers including "The Blair Witch Project".













These two photos are both screengrabs, the one on the left is from "The Blair Witch Project" and the one on the right is from the opening sequence i help create. I have placed them both together to show how we have taken up the conventions of a thriller. In this sequence in "The Blair Witch Project" the people are running away and the person behind is showing their point of view through the camera, thats what we have tried to achieve, whilst the girl is running from the man the camera is from the point of view from the man, to show the audience the girl running away into the forest, just like "The Blair Witch Project".


(Screenshot for "The Blair Witch Project" is taken from the website, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CZldyEIW5s&feature=related)

Editing.

When we started editing we had a plan of how it was all going to look with the slight change to the storyboard with the additional chase scene added. BUT, as we continued to edit we decided that the opening sequence wasn't up to it's full potential. So as a group we sat down and discussed what our next plan of action should be. We all agreed that the storyline/plot had to change therefore going against our original storyboard, however, we all agreed that it would be for the best. At first as a group we thought that we could have the opening sequence edited so that it was a mix matched idea and that the audience saw random clips of the girl being chased, but when we came round to editing it like this it didn't work, therefore, not giving us the effect we wanted. That's when we sat down and had a talk with our media teacher and we came back to the original idea but add in a lot more pace, so we started off with the girl in the park but took out a lot of the shots we took of the past victims and we also edited the girl so she slowed down when she was swinging on the swing. We also decided that we should make the beginning seem like a memory so we made it "sepia" and added grain to it. Then with the chase seen we played around with many different effects the best effect we had was to just leave it running so the audience knew who was who and what was going on, but the only problem we had with this was that it was way to long and boring. This is when we started overlapping clips and two clips were shown in one so the time was not only cut down but it also gave it a better effect and made it seem a lot more interesting.
Another reason we decided to cancel out a lot of the different, abnormal characters in our opening sequence was not only because we changed our minds on the editing but when we did watch it with them in, it didn't make sense. It made sense to us as we created the idea and we had all the background information but the audience who would be watching wouldn't have that so we thought it would be for the best.
The first idea we had when we started editing was that the film was going to be in black and white and all you could see was the red of the girls dress (like our researched film Schindler's list), but we asked someone who helps us in media and he said that it would talk along time, and this just wasn't good for us as we had a deadline and it was getting close. So that's when we came up with the idea of playing around with different effects and it was also when we found the "sepia" effect with grain on the top which was really affective.
The programe we used for editing, was sony vegas. The screen that was shown whilst editing was this..

This programme allowed us to edit in the way we wanted, it allowed us to slow down certain clips, speed others up. It also allowed us to change the colouring of the film with a click of a button which was very handy.

This was our original edit, however once we uploaded it onto a social networking site (facebook) people said that we should change the part whre the girl in singing onto the bridge so the music was still playing over and wasn't faded out totally.

This was the second edit, we decided to change it after we uploaded our original up onto a social networking site (facebook) to see what responces people had for us, as shown above. As group w much prefered this edit, it was something we discussed to start with but we weren't that sure about it so we left it, however, when we got feedback from people saying the would think it would be better if we had the music playing over the top it made us think that we should do it.

Filming.

When we avvired at ferry meadows, we decided to take a variety of risks which would drasticaly change our final piece. This was because we felt that it would result in great benefit as it would add a variety of new shots and increase the pace of the film dramatically. We also chose the option to shoot frames a lot longer than we intended to as we felt it was much better to have too much and simply shorten the frames, than to not have enough.

Things we have decided to change.
After we had finished all the filming we started to edit our peice to create the opening sequence, but as agroup we thought that the pace of it just wasn't fast enough to make the audience feel uncomfotable and that it did not grab the audiences attention. Therefore, we decided to return to the woods and refilm some in more of a "chase" aspect. Unfortunatley the first time that we went to do this it was very dark and we did not realise how dark. This meant that the recording did not show on the camera, and it looked like this only if we had torches on and close up, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CvLa7K2vS8. So we decided to go back a third time to make sure we had everything filmed, when we returned for the third time it enabled us to be able to involve shots such as close-ups of the mans face in a puddle with the girl running through it to disturb the image a little, it also adds in extra pace. Also, to create a bit more pace and make it seem alot more chasey like, we decided that we would involve a point of view shot, or 'handheld camera' to create a shakey feel. As the weather was bad on the day of filming, the red ribbon that we planned to include was ruined, this didn't make the filming lose its affect so we decided to just carry on as normal, as a group we thought that we could possible go back and film again but because we had a strict time to do all the filming and editing in we decided that it wouldn't be the best idea and see what happened with the filming, as it may not effect anything that much. Whilst filming we recorded shots that we didn't have in our storyboard but that we thought may look good, again as we had a strict filming and editing time we thought we may as well have shots there that we may not use but could use if we chose to and not have the pressure of having to go back and film again. We came up with such shots as: high angles, unusually tilts and a mixture of shots underneath and behind objects.

Obstructions and Difficulties.
The weather was a difficulty whilst filming, flooding occurred in the park with we were worried about jeopardised our use of the park, however, we soon overcame this and came up with a route which meant we could avoid the flooded area so we could carry on like normal. The weather also became a problem for our equipment as at one moment through the filming there was a moment of torrential rain which meant we had to cover the camera (as that was the most important) alothough the heavy rain stopped there was still a little bit of drizzle around so we came up with a great idea of using the umbreallas to cover the camera instead of ourselves as the camera was more important that the way we looked. The battery life on the camera was a big issue in filming twice, the first time was when we filmed on the first go, this was because we used a very old camera and the battery ran out just before we finished filming the wood scenes, however when we walked over to the Ferry medows restaurant to warm up we asked if we could borrow one of their plugs in the seating area, and the allowed it so we over came a problem. Obviously one of the main problems we occured was when we filmed for the second time and it was very dark, we thought we could atleast try the nightmode but the problem with using that was that alothough it means the lens becomes bigger to allow more light to come in, on the camera we used it didnt have a light (unlike high tech cameras now days) so the recordings were very slow and it just didnt give us the effect we wanted.

Pictures of Charcters involved.

THE GIRL!

The pictures above are the characters that we used in our filming, we took them the day that we filmed after knowing what we wanted everyone to wear. The girl is wearing a red dress that is in the style of a prom dress and army style boots. The reason why we decided to make her wear this outfit, is because although it makes her look niceish, it makes her look a little bit wacky and out of control. The second picture is of a man in a trench coat, he is the murderer in out opening sequence, therefore we wanted to make him very dark and so you couldn't see his face that well. The third picture is of the nun that the audience see for a very short while in the background behind the girl swinging. The reason we added in this character and the other three characters (the two children and the clown) was to add effect and show the audience pass victims of the murderer. The only problem with doing that is that the audience may be unable to understand who they are without being told, but as it is only the opening the audience would be aware at a later time in the actual film. The picture at the bottom is of the assistant killer, he is all in black and his head is covered this is so we never know his identity later on in the film the audience may know who the character actually is and it may be a total suprise to them!