Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Question 1

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


We have used typical conventions that are seen in real media products and have put them into our opening sequence. In an opening sequence all of them have to have these specific conventions to make it good and get the audience hooked to it. These are - editing, props,titles,establishing shot,giving the audience clues, equilibrium or disequilibrium, production & distribution logo, soundtrack, establishing mood & theme or film, prompting audience to ask questions. All these conventions are used in an opening sequence because it allows the audience to understand the different view points from characters, the genre and knowing all the information about the film and what its all about, but not giving away to obviously. For example in the opening sequence to Bridget Jones' Diary, the director has used close ups of her showing that she is the main character, its used emotional music to show what has just happened and how the character is feeling, the titles look like someone has just wrote them emphasising the idea of her diary and in the scene is shot from outside in the cold to her warm room showing the difference in settings. An example of ours that links to Bridget Jones' Diary is that ours also uses specific titles because ours are all in a bold and capital font indicating how serious the matter is and the storyline.

Our opening sequence is the genre horror and these are how we have used the conventions needed. We have used in our opening sequence are titles, soundtrack and giving the audience clues. I believe these are the most effective in an opening sequence as they all give the audience information about the film they are about the watch and it gives them clues for what the film is about and how it is being portrayed. Firstly, we have used the convention titles because we are showing the audience what the film is called which is 'Lethal Media'. This title gives the audience an idea what the genre of the movie is and clues for what the movie is about. For example the word 'lethal' gives the audience a very scary but moving idea about the film and that what's going to happen in the film is not going to be all that pleasant. Additionally, the word 'media' tells the audience that the media altogether has something to do with what is going; but consequently it gets the audience answering questions like 'what type of media is involved in this movie?'. 

Next in the convention titles, we have also given all the names of the people involved meaning the director, producer, the actors and actresses etc. Therefore this insists to the audience which people have helped create it, and it can help them see if they are very well known in famous films. The next convention we have used is the soundtrack. As a group we really focused on this as the soundtrack is the thing that helps get the audience hooked to the screen as firstly tells them what type of film its going to be but also it gets them asking questions such as 'what is going to happen?' making them hooked and wanting to know more. I believe this is really effective as the soundtrack we have used is a huge monotone but scary drone that creates the atmosphere to the sequence, but at the end when it has ended with a cliff hanger the title comes on and it has a famous heartbeat on in the background. Evidently you can see that the opening sequence is about the matters of life and death and the heartbeat shows that clearly. The next convention we have used in opening sequence is giving the audience clues about our opening sequence. We as a group believe it is effective to give clues throughout our opening sequence because it gets the audience more hooked to the screen and wanting to watch what's going to happen next. Also it gets them thinking after when watching about the opening sequence all these different questions that they want to know, as it interests the audience more. We haven't really used many props in our opening sequence just a mobile phone. The mobile is very important in the film as it shows the texts between Demi and John Slasher (the villain) and how he is trying to lure her into the woods and to meet with him, which also links to the title as the word 'media' links to the texts they sent each other. 

We have used the convention of the equilibrium because the main idea of it is to show the normality of the world the characters are in. We have showed that by showing the idea that these 2 girls (Megan & Demi) are friends and that they hang out together, but also we have showed it through the texting between Demi and John as it shows that many incidents like this has happened before in the world today. The last convention we have used is establishing shots as they show the setting at first where the two characters are but also where they are going. There is a specific shot where Demi says 'I think its over there', we have shown an establishing shot of just the forest they have approached too, and have therefore shown the audience where all the action will happen.

As you can see in famous horror movies they use very specific things that we have devolped in our opening sequence. For example the cross cutting between when Demi is calling John to see where he is and when Megan is running away from someone. These incidents all show the seriousness of what's happened and also they are so different but link so well with each other, and show two different matters all linking into one. Carrying on, the most effective is when each of them die because we have cross cutted it that Demi dies first of all and then Megan dies after showing that possibly there deaths linked to something meaning linking to the two boys they were supposed to meet. We as a group believe this works as it shows that actions they do seperately are quite different but it comes together at the very end, and all links together.
 

Animatic Storyboard

This animatic storyboard is essentially is a short animation that we created in iMovie. Our group produced this storyboard to give us more ideas on on what shots we should use in our opening sequence and how we should incorporate sound into our product in post-production. Creating this storyboard in iMovie was useful for various reasons; it allowed our group to get a better idea of how to work with iMovie, gave us a better idea of how long our opening sequence will be and helped us to determine which sounds would and wouldn't be appropriate in our opening sequence.

Storyboards

Casting

Characters of my Opening Sequence by zoeharris63 on GoAnimate

Animated Presentations - Powered by GoAnimate.

Titles

Titles used in our opening product:

- New Wonder Productions
- Working Title Films
- Casting by Demi Proud, Megan Harris and Charlie Price
- Edited by Mike Adams
- Music by David Laws
- Produced by Ann Lee
- Directed by Nikola Busonovic

These are the titles that will appear in order for our horror opening sequence.

 These are a few ideas of the fonts of titles we are going to use. We are unsure as to now of what one will be using.

Post 9 - Characters Descriptions

Post 12 - Location permision

Post 7 - The Script

(Shots of previous messages between her and John)

Demi- I think its over there.
Megan- Are you serious?

(walks into the forest)

(the two girls are walking through the forest, many different sounds occur, quiet music is playing very quietly in the background. )

Demi- I think we're lost.
Megan- What do you mean we're lost?
Demi- look don't panic, you go that way and look for the warehouse, i'll stay here incase the boys come out and look for us.
Megan- Ok.

(Megan departs to the left of the forest looking for the boys, Demi stays in the same place trying to call for the boys)

Scream coming from Demi, Megan runs. Scream at the end from Megan.

Post 4 - Sound

http://www.freesfx.co.uk/sfx/snapping?p=1 - Horror Small Bone Or Finger Snap 003

This first sound is a sound of twigs snapping in trees. This sound is to resemble the killer guy character hiding and camouflaging into the trees behind the two girls so he cant be seen but so he lets the girls know that he's watching them. This sound is effective as it is very eerie and it brings up a lot of tension as we don't know who's in these bushes and we don't know why this killer is watching these two girls. Furthermore, the sound makes the audience believe that it can be anything meaning it could be animals in the bushes or just the wind, consequently bringing up the scary atmosphere as the audience don't know what's going and it gets them hooked to the screen as they want to know what happens next.

http://www.freesfx.co.uk/soundeffects/horror/ - Is it safe out

This second sound/piece of music is a very tense and atmospheric piece of music which allows just the music to bring up tension, nothing else. This would possibly be used at the beginning of the opening sequence as it indicates to the audience the type of film they are watching and they want to know what happens next. The climax that starts to increase in the piece of music is effective as the audience are expecting something to happen but they don't know what, which additionally gets them hooked to the screen as they are anxious to know what happens next and how the story is going to evolve.

http://www.freesfx.co.uk/sfx/scream?p=2 - Scream, High, Female

This last sound is of a female screaming. This sound clip would be very effective in our opening sequence as we can use the sound from a distance and not just from the girls actual scream and shooting it. We were planning to when my character collapses on the floor from her fatal heart attack we hear a scream in the background, she hears it slightly but cant do anything about it. This scream is really good its a very demanding scream so it wants the audience to hear it and wonder what's going on and what's going to happen to these 2 girls who have been suddenly screaming for their lives. Evidently, after this is where we see the close of demi's hand and the guy all in black walking away and you can either see his figure or his shadow.

Post 6 - Costume

Costume
The costumes we will be using is:

The two girls: The two girls will be wearing for the opening sequence will be wearing stereotypical teenager clothes meaning leggings, blazers, boots, jeans etc and winter coats to show the time of year and that it is in winter time. They would wear normal clothes to show the normality they are in from the beginning and show that the would be doing a normal thing. In their eyes they wouldn't expect the incident to happen. Additionally these normal clothes replicate that they are just innocent young teenagers who didn't realise they were doing something wrong, therefore contrasting with the killers clothes as the killer wore all black on purpose.
The guy/killer: The guy/killer would be wearing all black to show that he is a dark and bad character. Also it could show a type of camouflage as its being shot in the dark, the guy has a chance of hiding and making mysterious noises to haunt them and especially as it's dark they cant see him so its easier for him to catch them or come up to them. His clothes will blend in with the dark to show that he does not want to be seen.

Post 6 - Props

         Props

The props we will be using for our opening sequence will be 2 objects. These 2 objects are a phone & an asthma pump/an inhaler. We will be using a phone as that is the object that keeps Demi and the two guys connected, meaning thats the way they organised their date. In some of the shots in the opening sequence we will be showing the messages from Demi to the guy who she's meeting up with and we will show a shot of the phone with the message from the guy where he changes the location of where they had to go. This therefore shows the audience the change of scenery and how the theme of horror is starting to be shown in the opening sequence. Also we use the phone in the woods as well when the two girls split up and the Demi tries to call up John.

Three Potential Images for our Opening Sequence

This first picture shows the picture of the scary woods we could use for where the two guys say to the two girls to meet up but however get lost in it and unfortunately die in it. The spooky and intertwining branches show all in night time all the images and shadows it can pull, so they could possibly show ghosts, animals or humans from the weaving of the bushes. This woods can furthermore be used as camouflaging as there are so many branches and the colours are very neutral, showing that people could hide very well in these woods, but while hiding they can be watching people without them knowing. Evidently, the picture shows two paths that split from one big one. This can show which way to go and the directions but it can be spooky because if people step on the paths their footsteps can be seen so the characters would know which way people have gone.

This second image shows the path/road just before the woods. The trees at the side make this picture effective as they have been split up showing to the two girls that this is the way we get to the woods. This image makes us feel quite intimidated as it looks like an innocent woods with houses at the side showing its very suburban and friendly but actually it isn't as it witnesses murders and deaths. The fact that the path in the middle of bare trees shows it to very bleak but very welcoming, but you can imagine at night time in the cold where you can only hear the squeaking of the branches moving and the rustling of the leaves, it makes you feel like your not alone.

My third and final image shows the path next to the forest and next to the houses in the background. This icy cold setting is effective as the colours on the leaves symbolise a theme of death as the colours are bleak and this white ice colour is the same colour of someone when they have passed away. The bushes on the right show it to be very covered up with ice indicating that the bushes could be hiding something as all the spider webs and ice over the leaves are intertwining with each other. The track could show two images, one where it is leading into darkness where no one could see you. However, the houses in the distance of the track could show that there is a light at the end of the tunnel showing that there is safety close by; therefore showing that they can see you but they cant hear your screams.

The Titles in an Opening Sequence

Plot Synopsis

Our opening sequence is based on the genre of 'Horror'.
It is about two girls (Me & Demi) who are going to meet up with two boys on a double date. However, Demi met this boy on Facebook so she has never met the guy before. So they organise to meet up by getting each others numbers and texting each other. His name is John, and he lures the two girls into the woods to meet him. When they reach the forest, they cant find them and get it lost, so they split up but then Megan heres a scream in the background so she runs. But then gets captured by the killer and John Slasher kills them both. The text messages before are very significant, as they show the mood swings he has and how he reacts to Demi in these text messages. They sum up the whole meaning of the opening sequence, is to be careful on the internet and only talk to people you know.

Initial Ideas for our Horror Opening Sequence

These are our initial ideas for our horror opening sequence. They show the audience what type of film we are going to be showing, the whole plot of the whole opening sequence, what we are gonna do to it to make it very eye catching and we described hwo we want the audience to feel when they watch our opening sequence which is to feel tense and want to know what happens next. We all have a visual idea in mind of the whole plot and what we are going to do for this opening sequence and we feel positive with the ideas and creating it.

Audience Research 2 - Analysis through Pie Charts

These pie charts help me and my group understand what different people think about horror films. It gives a broader mind about what people expect to see in for example the title sequence or how they like a horror film to start off and end. We first of all got this data from our questionnaires that we gave out to 15 people, and it was a mix of different people. As you can see in the first pie chart the participants have mixed views and the chart has balanced out quite equally, whereas in the second pie chart (on the right) a lot more people like horror films than people who don't so it shows that a horror film is a popular film to do and most people like it. Going on to the third pie chart you can see that most people while watching horror films prefer the film to start off peaceful and then get into to the horror rather than watching it all frightening the whole way through. Lastly, on our last chart its quite balanced, as nearly half amount of people like either the titles to be in a 'bloody' effect or a 'scratched off' effect.

Audience Research - Vox Pops

 This is my group's(Me, Demi & Charlie) vox pops, which shows what our potential audience thought about horror films, what they expect to see in horror films and cliffhangers. As you can see their are a mixture of views on horror films. We asked different questions to do with horror films which were "Do you like horror films? and if so why?" , "What do you most expect when watching a horror film?" and "Do you a cliffhanger at the end of a film? if so why?" These three questions are all quite different and all relate to horror films and helps the audience not repeat themselves. All the answers we got back from the participants helped us decide the typical horror film and what they expect to see in them which makes them more viewable. Furthermore we got different views from different types of people meaning people who don't really like horror films to people who find them more interesting, but they all each their on own opinion on the type of film, which allowed us to understand what we need to put in our opening sequence. These opinions influenced our opening sequence as it allowed our group to understand what we had to do to effect the audience like this, and it has given us ideas how to make the audience feel uncomfortable and scared when watching it. Their thoughts and opinions count on our work as they are the people watching and judging what they see, and if it's scary they know its a horror film.

Conventions of Horror film

Conventions of a Horror Movie on Prezi

Genre 2 - Opening sequence to The Exorcism of Emily Rose

Genre 1 - The Strangers Opening Sequence

Conventions of an opening sequence

Analysing the opening sequence of The Spiderwick Chronicles

Analysing the Opening Sequence of Bridget Jones' Diary

Bridget Jones Analysing on Prezi

Wallander 'Firewall' December 7th

Wallander 'Firewall' (December 7th) from megelle15

Analysing the opening sequence of 'Brick'

This first image is a wide shot, and its one of the first shots in the movie. It evidently shows what has happened in this opening sequence. The colours are go from very light down to very dark showing how the mood has changed from the sunlight making it a bright happy place to a dark sewage tunnel where death has happened. How this scene has been arranged shows that the guy bending down has got something to do with her death, and the fact that hes just looking and watching her shows his state of shock. You dont see either his face or hers, as the have both been turned away and its at an angle where you cant see their faces. His hands are in his face and mouth showing that he is in such shock he cant speak, so hes consequently moved his hands there to show hes afraid. In this shot, you do identifiy what each character is wearing, which allows the audience to know what she was wearing when she died and what he was wearing when he was there.

This next image shows an image of a girl dead on the sewer floor, but this girl has her face covered by her hair which identifies what features she has to her. It shows she has blonde hair as well as a white cardigan/jumper. This consequently shows the audience the type of character she is, and also lets the audience know. But they do not know fully who she is as her face is covered by her hair, which tells the audience that the director does not want the audience to know who she is in the opening sequence. This could make it more mysterious for the audience because they would want to know who she is and the fact the director isnt letting them know shows that actually the audience do not know the real identity of this character even though we see some of her features. The colours the director has used are very dark, showing the theme and atmosphere within this opening sequence and the colours really match how pale her skin is, meaning the character and setting all fit together.

This image shows a completely different scene to the one above as the colours used are lighter, which shows its a brighter setting and different atmosphere. It makes the audience more calm but however very puzzled as we still don't know who's arm this is, but the cardigan is very familiar to the cardigan in the image. This consequently shows that these two people could be the same however in this image it shows how much maturity this girl has and how old she is by the bright blue bracelets. It also gets the audience answering the question, why is she putting a piece of paper in this locker? This shot is a close up of her hand, showing the bracelets she's wearing and showing part of the item of clothing she is wearing. Also its shows the background of where this happening, which tells the audience one thing that they are in school. In comparison to the first picture the pace of the shot seemed much slower as death had happened, whereas this scene seems to have increased in pace, as there is much more going on in the scene.

This picture is a wide tile shot showing where the scene is being set and showing the full length camera shot of this male character. It shows us that this character is very similar to the character in the first shot as they are wearing the same items of clothing. As he is turning around, it makes the audience feel as if this character is being watched by that person who put the note in the locker, but he cant see this person as its from such a far shot. However, the shot could be showing him turning around as he's looking for the person who put this note in his locker, and that he's looking but he cant find the person as there is no one around in the scene; in fact the school looks very deserted. In this scene before this one, the bell goes on from the before scene to this scene, which is called a sound bridge as the sounds transfer over from one to another.

Analysing the opening sequence of Memento.

The Sixth Sense Analysing Shots.

This beginning shot shows the title, and the type of font that is being used which is serif writing, meaning bold capital writing with that edge to it. This beginning title sequence uses a blue/white colour showing it to be very mysterious and stand out, also it uses colours that could represent the colour of ghost as the film is about ghosts. However if the audience do not know that, they could think it to be very eery as well as the colours but consequently it uses a sting in the music, which makes it rememberable to the audience. Also, it gets the audience feel very uneasy as thats only the title, showing their is more to come..As an effect the director as used sped the pace and music up with this section, so the title comes very quickly and not as slow as the others, also finishing it by panning it out. That could evidently show it to be 'ghost-like' as its dissappearing quickly like a ghost.

This next image is very puzzling at first as you dont know what it is, however even if you dont know what it is, it looks very eery as its full of darkness and you dont know what this bright image is but however it does get the audience engaged as they try to figure out what it is. When i first saw this i didnt know what it was but it did make me feel very nervous. As the scene goes on you seem to see a light bulb reappearing, however its not really covered with for example a chandelier, its very isolated showing that where this is lighting up could be isolated as well. This shot at the beginning is a close up emphasising where this is light bulb is and that this room could be very important to the film, meaning showing what type of room it is to start off the movie.

This is shot straight after the unknown image at the start, showing therefore its a bright light bulb. This image of the light is very dusty and seems very old and desserted which shows the audience what type of room we are in. It also shows that this is the only light in the room, emphasising that this room is very dark, possibly underground. When this light is full to the max, you hear a diagetic sound of door opening but you dont know who it is, as its happening on this shot. This could make the audience uncomfortable as they are not sure whos walking into this room, whether it be a villain or good person, therefore creating tension in this beginning scene. Furthermore, the door is very creaky which is very typical in a horror film, so it therefore brings up the atmosphere in this scene.

This next image shows the person who has walked in. However, the camera is at a view from behind the wine cabinet, which could possibly show that someone is watching her or someone is in hiding but she cant see it however from her facial expressions she can feel someone there as she stops immidiatley. You can see from the cabinet and the wine in on each shelve that its very old and dusty showing the room to be very deserted, also which links to the colours around her as they are very dark colours, in contrast to her dress which is very bright colours. As this room is so desserted it shows the lighting to be a very low light, showing how old this room is. It gives a very cold atmosphere.

This image shows what type of character she is, meaning what shes wearing and how she looks. So for example shes wearing very bright colours on her dress, shes got her hair up, shes got makeup on and shes wearing heels therefore showing that shes going out, no one would really wear all of that to go to a wine cellar. This image would make the audience feel very uncomfortable as shes right at the end of the full length shot but looking into the opposite direction showing that someone or something should be in that shot on the other side, as it startles her. This could let the audience understand straight away the type of movie its going to be as its used very ghost like features within the film right from the beginning. Also the use of her shadow is effective as the light is on her side and on her, whereas opposite her where she is looking, there is nothing there. This emphasises the different types of light and colours the directors has used in contrast to each other.

This last image of the scene changes position from when the camera was at the wine cellar. It shows that this person or thing watching her has moved from where it was before, therefore showing that this thing has been watching her and has been moving around. From this shot you can see the whole of the wine cellar and see it to be very a dark and damp room, also very echoey as you can hear her footsteps as well as her shivering. At the side of the shot you can see her quickly running out of the room, showing that something has scared as she is leaving in such a hurried manor which makes the audience very uncomfortable watching it. From this specific shot it makes her vunerable as this thing or person thats been watching her has seen her and knows officially what she looks like, and the fact that she cant see it shows that from her hurried manor she doesnt know what to do. This whole beginning clip shows that shes really not meant to be here, it shows its not her repsonsibility to go down into an old wine cellar, where the room is very isolated and very echoey making it very nervous, so hes swapped over roles and responsibilities.

Brief

Our Foundation Portfolio

So for our foundation portfolio, we are going to make an opening sequence of a fiction film with any theme to it for example thriller, romance etc. Our opening sequence needs to consist of- Two company logos- one is a distributor logo & the other is a production company logo which can be a made up logo, titles, the sequence has to last of 2 minutes. All video and audio material must be original with exception of music ( or you could create it yourself ) or audio effects which can be from a copyright free source. I will be working with Demi and Charlie to create our 2 minute opening sequence.

Comparing a Trailer & An Opening Sequence

Example of Trailer:
A trailer is a video that encourages people to watch this new film coming out. However, a trailer only shows the most important scenes and the ones that seem more intriguing than others, which help get people to watch it at the cinemas. It also shows the whole plot of the story and what's going to happen throughout, so in this film Wild Child it shows all the characters and all their personalities for example Poppy Moore is shown to be a bit of a spoilt brat who gets everything whereas the head of the Boarding School (Natasha Richardson) is shown to be a kind but strict character and would not tolerate Poppy's attitude to her new school. I've noticed in this film trailer that you get told who the main character is but you don't get told the story therefore the director is getting you to figure out what the main plot of the film is and what you think is going to happen; however it does give you clues.
 Example of Opening Sequence:
 An opening sequence is the beginning of a film, and only the beginning. There is no footage of any of the other parts of the film, in an opening sequence. The music in it helps provide the atmosphere and tension in the first section, for example in The Dark Night the music is a very low pitch which allows the audience to understand the theme and atmosphere and action that's going to happen in the rest of the film. Also it shows only some of the characters, not all of them so in The Dark Night only the villains are shown at the beginning.  However, you notice in this opening sequence it has not introduced us to the main character Batman/Bruce Wayne which is interesting as you can understand that the director wants you to understand who the enemies are and what they look like, but as you can hear them talking right at the beginning you don't know who The Joker is, until the end part. These questions build up interest in the audience as they want to know who the joker is, why are they all wearing masks, and why he is robbing this bank?

Donnie darko.