Final Opening Sequence

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

Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this process?

Question 5: How did you attract /address your audience?

Interviewer: How have you attracted/addressed your audience through genre?

Me: My group and myself have attracted the audience by the use of genre by using a very popular genre, crime/thriller, we have used conventions of this thriller so the audience knows exactly what it is they are watching. Our opening sequence is a mystery that creates suspense; it attracts males and females as females can relate to other females and men particularly enjoy watching good looking women. Throughout the sequence tension is created, for example quick fast pace shots, non-diegtic sounds and diegetic sounds; which makes you want to carry on watching the film. Our thriller is also very similar to films such as Colombiana and Rear Window, so for people that enjoy watching these types of films I believe would enjoy watching ours.

Interviewer: How does the setting of your film attract/address your audience?

Me: From our opening sequence you can tell straight away that our film is set in England; this is because of the location and the weather. Our opening sequence is set in a secluded car park in the surrey hills, However the audience will not know this they will just see the car park and setting around it. The audience will know that you do not see this type of location in hot countries and you would definitely not see this type of weather in hot countries. Once the opening sequence starts we begin to see two cars parked up, from this we are then able to see there number plates which tells the audience again that the film is set in England. After this we then hear the two female characters have a conversation and from this we can hear there english accents. As our film is a crime thriller I believe it will attract an audience who live in England and an audience from different countries. People who live in England will want to see what image of criminal life is being portrayed in Britain and people in other countries will be interested as they will want to see what culture is like in Britain when it comes to
criminal activity.

Interviewer: How does the narrative attract/address your audience?

Me: The opening sequence to our thriller has very clear linear narrative which enables the audience to follow step by step what happens; as if they are investigators themselves. In opening sequence the audience see a photographer hid behind trees taking pictures of the action that is happening between the two female characters; this gives the audience a clue as to what the women are doing is suspicious as they are not only in a secluded car park but you can tell from there character positioning that they are very nervous. In the opening sequence we see one of the women give the other women an envelope, however we do not know whats inside. This intrigues the audience as they do not know but what to find out. Another key moment that intrigues the audience is when the photographer hold his walkie talkie to his ear and you can hear the conversation the two women are having, however the walkie talkie is broken so we are unable to hear properly what they are saying... making the audience what to watch the full film to find out.

Interviewer: How does the music and editing attract/address your audience?

Me: To create as much tension as we could to convey our thriller genre we used a a parallel soundtrack to match the action; by having this soundtrack it highlighted key moments and made the sequence more intriguing. We also used the diegetic sound of the radio and used an effect to make it sound unclear so the audience will not be able to hear what they are exactly saying. When it came to editing we used fast pace shots for when the action gets more interesting and long pace shots of vital moments, when we paused to use a template of a camera as if the photographer was taking a picture. By using this template of a camera it makes the sequence seem very POV making you feel like you are really there. This all attracts the audience by using conventions of a thriller and is what people are wanting to see if they see this type of film.

Above are the notes I used to help me write my interview.

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Below there is an account I have created on a social networking site. The account I have created I feel would be the perfect target audience who would watch our film.

• I feel the perfect target audience age for our film is anything from 18 years onwards. This is because if anyone who was younger than 18 was to watch our film they would be hearing very strong language and see very disturbing scenes which I personally don't think they should see un till they are a old enough to be able to understand the film and the hidden meanings it entails. 

• Our films target audience is mainly females, as it is about females killing there husbands. Females would be able to relate to feelings and emotions the characters are feeling more men would which is why I feel more women would enjoy the film and want to watch it more than men would.

• The women below doesn't work, so she has lots of spare time on her hands where she enjoys watching any type of genre movies on her own and with her friends. I created this person as I feel she would be our ideal audience as she enjoys watching any type of films. Also she enjoys watching films with her friends would bring in a bigger audience. 

• As the genre of our film is a thriller involving crime it attracts both genders. As majority of male and women enjoy thrillers and males arguably particularly enjoy crime. Which makes both genders attract to our film. Also as our film is about women killing there husbands I think men in a roundabout way would enjoy this as the women are very sexy and seductive. 

• Below I have created the female to be 27. However this does not mean this is the only age range that would enjoy our film. Personally I think anyone over the age of 18 would enjoy it as it is exciting and can be watched by both genders.   

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

To find the ideal film company to make my group and my self’s film, I did a lot of research using IMDB to find the ideal company; and searched films that had similar themes and conventions to our film.

The ideal institution to make our film I believe would be Vertigo Film Company as they are a British film institution that focus on producing and distributing low budget films, which is what we intend our Thriller to be.

Vertigo films have made various different genres of films; an example of some of the films they have made are: Shotgun Stories, Spring Breakers, Walking on Sunshine and Horrid Henry. However I feel the film they made called WAZ is the most similar film to our film as it involves a lot of mystery and close up facial expressions which is what we are using in our film to convey emotions and to build up tension and confusion for the audience; which is something they could help us with.

From my research and knowledge I feel our film would particularly fit the ethos of Vertigo institution.  As I mentioned above Vertigo Film Company are a British film company that produce and distribute low budget films; which is what we are intending to produce with our Thriller. There website http://www.vertigofilms.com/ advertises the films they have produced and distributed and I feel our film would particular fit in with their other films as there is such a wide variety of genres. Also as it is my group and my self's first time directing a film I feel Vertigo institution would really help us,  just like they helped Gareth Edwards when he directed Monsters for the first time in 2010. Again I also think our film would be good for their company as they seem to have produced a few thrillers before so they will already have experience in order to help us to make our film the best it can be.

As my group and myself are a small group of teenagers we have a very low budget for our film, however  we could market our film on the internet; for example social networking sites such as Twitter, Face Book, Instagram etc - as this does not cost anything.  Also with the help of Vertigo film company it would be easier to get our film seen at film festivals and put on imdb’s listings as Vertigo is a lot more well known in the film industry than us. 

Vertigo Film Company own the Firm and Football Factory which clearly makes them target a male audience. However, our film, we believe is targeted more at women than it is at men so I feel working with Vertigo Film Company would bring in both male and female viewers, therefore increasing the films profit.

Question 2: SOCIAL GROUPS WITHIN OUR OPENING SEQUENCE

In our opening sequence there are three characters; two females who are in there early twenties and one man who is in his early thirties. The man in our opening sequence plays the character of a spy, one of the women plays the character of a house wife planning to get her husband killed and the other women plays the role of an assassin. 

Throughout the sequence we continuously see the image/what happens from the character playing the spy’s perspective.

At the beginning of our opening sequence we see a close up of the character playing the wife sat waiting nervously in her car. We can tell that she is nervous in this shot as she is fiddling with her fingers and is constantly looking around. When we see the close up of the women’s hand we realize she has red nail varnish; which could be indicating love, passion or hatred. By seeing that the women is nervous this adheres to the stereotype of women as people expect women to be the more weaker gender and most likely the victim. This character is also blonde which is also stereotypically known as ‘dumb’. However, at this point in the opening sequence we do not know why this character is nervous, and to what reason is she sat waiting in her car. 

When we then see the character of the spy, is also blonde; stereotypically known as ‘dumb’. However, we see him taking pictures and recording the two females conversations which subverts his stereotype as he is finding out information and is clearly not dumb. 

As the opening sequence carries on we see a black audi pull into the car park and park next to the car the wife is waiting in. This shows a social class divide as both women who are in the car park both have nice cars, however the the spy is hiding behind bushes. As the audi pulls into the car park we see the camera lens focus on to her car and we hear the non-diegetic sound of the camera taking a picture. This straight away creates suspense and makes the audience interested in this character. When the car parks up, the camera lens zooms in and takes a picture of the number plate; using a non-diegetic sound effect again. By taking two pictures of this persons car without the audience seeing them really makes the audience suspicious to who this character may be. After these camera shots have been taken, we finally see the door open and the women get out as she walks around her car; the lens then focuses on her face and takes another picture. 

The character playing the assassin in our opening sequence is tall, brunette, sexy and sophisticated; making men warm to her character even though they are her biggest target. However in the opening sequence we do not know who she is or why she is there but we do know she is very confident and is clearly powerful by her character positioning; which subverts the stereotype of women being the weaker gender. By the woman having brunette hair its adheres to her sophisticated stereotype as women with brunette hair are considered more classy than women with blonde hair. As the woman gets out of her car the audience are able to tell straight away she is not the stereo typical person to come to the country side and does not intend to stay. We can tell this by the way she looks around when getting out the car, her posture/attitude and her outfit. She does not look like she is type of person to enjoy walks in the countryside. Stereotypically when we see people in the country side they are not bothered about what they are wearing, and most of the time have walking boots on. However this character is wearing a grey roll neck top, black jeans and long black sexy boots. 

As the this character gets out of the car the camera lens follows her to meet the other women. The shot then changes and we see the camera lens focusing on the wife getting out of her car. By seeing the camera lens take pictures and focus on both of these two characters we can tell very early on that they are clearly up to something. 

As the two women begin to speak the camera continues to focus on them, taking pictures from different angles which we can hear from the non-diegetic sound and we can see as the camera lens on the screen moves position continuously. As the women stand talking to each other we can see what each of them are wearing. The wife is wearing a beige cardigan, a black top, a black skirt, black tights and red flat pumps. This adheres to her stereotype as we expect people her age to be dressed in this way. From this angle the shot was took in we are able to see a full length shot of both the female characters; this enables us to see that they clearly both look after them selves well and take care into the image. This again adheres to there stereotype as we expect women to take more care of them selves than men do. 

Towards the end of the sequence we see a close up shot of the character playing the spy fiddling with the walkie talkie and not being able to hear what the two females are saying. This adheres to his stereotype of being a ‘dumb blonde’ as he is clearly not able to work out how to use it therefore he will not be able to get full information as to what the females are saying. 

At the very end of the sequence we see one final shot of the two females; this image is a still shot where we see the women realize someone is watching them. When we see this shot the women are obviously very scared. Which adheres to there stereotype as women are known to be a lot less powerful then men. 

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

EDITING PROCESS

To edit our opening sequence we used adobe premiere pro software. The first thing my group and myself did to start the editing process was reviewed all of the footage we took on the day of filming and wrote down each clip that we would like to use. When we had done this I then dragged the eliminated shots and grouped them together on the timeline into scenes. 

When we were looking for shots we would like to use we had to make sure that they were in focus, and fitted with the 180 degree rule. As there were more clips/shots than we actually needed I used the blade tool and the cropping tool to start cutting down the scenes to form the two minute sequence. As editing can take a long time I used the shortcut ‘ command & K ‘ in order to cut and crop are clips quickly. 

I started by using the clips I wanted to use at the beginning of the sequence and cut certain shots that weren't needed or I did not like and kept the shots that I did like. I did this for all of the clips I dragged down onto the timeline which then enabled me to begin placing scenes together. 

When placing scenes together myself and my group found we changed the order of the scenes that we had originally planned around as it didn't look as good as we thought it was going to on our story board to what it did on screen. 

Once my group and myself had finished the final cut; we started thinking about the audio sound effects we could use to enhance the atmosphere we were trying to create. To start of with I went through the current sound on the clips and unlinked them so I could cut them without cutting any of the video. I cut out all of the sound from the camera mic that was not needed; for example directions to the actors and unwanted background noise. As our thriller is set in a car park in the woods we used the sound effects of birds whistling to make the audience feel like they are really there. Another effect we used to create suspense was a soundtrack; this highlighted key moments in the opening sequence which made them stand out to the audience. Last of all on the day of filming we filmed a conversation between the two female actors, however when we came to editing we wanted it to sound like the conversation was coming from the walkie talkie and the actor playing the role of the spy was not able to hear it. To do this effect, we played around with the sound and cut parts of the conversation that we did not need we then added an effect to make it sound like it was coming from the walkie talkie. 

Finally, the last thing we had left to do was the titles. To do this I would go to the top tab and click title then insert title which then brings up a title tab and allows you to reposition, resize etc. When I made each title I placed them on the timeline in the place I wanted them to come up on; making sure they didn’t cover any action.