Product Review

           Our final product has many strengths and weaknesses. The main strength that was highlighted was that our editing was very fluent and that everything linked together and makes sense. The font was all symmetrical and linked throughout the whole product, which made it look more professional instead of having mixed text fonts, which would make the product look like nobody has bothered to do the editing for this product. The effects to change locations worked well and the music choice adds to this because the final shot of the first filming location has the horror music starting, which implies to the audience that the actors having evil thoughts and then the music plays through until the chase scene. The match on action shots worked well as they made the product more fluent and they linked one area to another in the house and in the woods. The music choice worked well because it showed to the audience that one actor was having evil thoughts and then the chase music clearly implied there was going to be a chase from the first beat, which was loud and powerful, which helped assert the power of one actor over the other.

          The main weakness was the filming. Firstly, all most all of the shots were not stable and you could see the shaking in the final product; there weren't any clips that were completely stable except the shots that used the tripod - this can clearly be seen in the final product because the shots that use the tripod are a lot more stable than those without. There were multiple shots which had things such as bags in the shots, which weren't meant to be there, which then meant we had to edit them out and then make sure that the shot didn't look stretched and blurry because that was the only way we could get rid of the bags in the shots.

             Another strength is the location choice. The first location that we chose had decent lighting, but was too bright on the day we filmed and it was a good place to construct a chase scene because there were many paths that lead to different locations in the woods. Our second location choice was good as well because we were able to make a narrative to make the chase scene believable. The second location allowed us to explore more into the chasers lifestyle instead of just having him chasing the other actor. 

Selected Music

Final Film - Stolen

Evaluation - Question 7

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

Evaluation - Question 6

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

Evaluation Question 5

Evaluation Question 4

Film Title

We have decided to change the title of the film to 'Stolen' so that it wasn't as cringe as 'The Secret Betrayal'. Also the title 'Stolen' makes more sense to the new narrative that we created because the first title we came up with suggests secrecy and a larger betrayal than someone stealing something - it also suggests that the 2 actors know each other and that they are close friends but from the footage we got this cannot be seen so we decided to change the title to what happened in the our film - this is so it makes more sense to the audience.

Second Alterations

          After our final film was finished we were asked to make a few more alterations to our product to get the best marks that we could get from the footage that we already had on the mac and camera's.

        We were asked to change the lighting settings because in the outside clips there was a problem with what had been done to the lighting, which made the film look dodgy and not very good; the light kept changing from really dark to really bright, whilst everything else in the shot stayed the same.

           I had to change a couple of the fonts because not all the fonts were the same so it didn't look symmetrical and didn't look as good as possible.

           I had to add fades to the first location in the film to the second one so that I had somewhere to place the title of the film so that it was clear the audience and so that it looked more professional than the shot changing randomly from 1 location to another.

          I had to change where the horror music started from when the outside scene started to when the chaser runs out of his back door and the camera shows a close up of his face - this is so that it suggested to the audience that he started to have evil or dark thoughts about the person who stole the thing from him.

Evaluation - Question 3

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

Second Filming Location

We had to add a second filming location so that the chase scene in the woods made sense to the audience because before it looked like someone chasing someone, randomly trying to kill them. We added this filming location to add a stronger narrative to the opening sequence.

Evaluation - Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation - Question 1

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

Alterations

          After our initial filming session and compilation of our film we had to make a few alterations to the film so that it would be more entertaining and interesting for the audience.

          The main problem with our film was that we needed to add a narrative to the story because when it was watched the audience said that they didn't understand what was happening because it only showed someone chasing after another person, which is random when you watch it for the first time without an explanation. We decided on having the person being chased break into the chasers home and steal something personal and important to him. Also, this showed an insight into the chasers home life and it explained why he was chasing the other actor.

         We also got told that we had to make the shots darker because the natural lighting was too bright for them to see what was happening because the sun was shinning and reflecting off the camera lens, which made the whole shot a lot brighter.

          I hade to make titles for the film so that it made it look more professional. I decided to make titles explaining who was starring in the film and I made titles about what company produced the film, which made it look more professional.

          Effects had to be added to the sound because it was crackling when the old sound finished and the new sound started so I had to add a fade to the sound so that it faded out and in and didn't crackle. I did this to the text as well so that it didn't just appear and disappear without an effect, which wouldn't look as good or professional.

Attempted Editing

This morning we entered the lesson and gathered the camera from the store room. Then suddenly, to our surprise the camera was out of charge. This meant the previous group to use our camera obviously didn't bother to charge the camera after they had used it. This lead to an inconvenience for use when we tried to copy our shots from the camera to the mac because we have had to waste our valuable lesson of media, charging the camera so that we can copy our shots over.

Editing

We are doing are final editing of our opening sequence because we have missed our actual final deadline and we now need to get it finished as soon as possible so that we can have time to edit it further if it needs to be before it is actually sent off to the moderator. 

Behind the Scenes

This is a picture taken of the first day of filming when we were getting everything prepared to start filming. This is also where we planned where we were going to go in the woods and in which direction we were going to go and what way we were going to film - this means what way we were going to face, for example; if we were going to face towards the road or if we were going to face towards the woods.

Animated Storyboard

This is a very bad rough animated version of our storyboard. It displays the main points of what is going to occur throughout the opening sequence.

Filming Session 1

This was our first filming session, this is everything that was filmed on the initial filming day. Some of the footage that we recorded wasn't used to keep the overall time of the film lower and it didn't work with the rest of the film. Some of the shots recorded weren't very good because there were things in the shot, which ruined the whole shot so we couldn't use them. Most of the footage taken is very wobbly and isn't very stable, which means it doesn't look as good as it could be. The lighting in the shots is too bright, which meant that a lot of work had to be done so that it didn't look as bright in the final product. There is good link up between the clips, which means that it is fluent and all joins together and doesn't jump to a random location, which is far away from the last past filmed. There were quite a few mistakes which were made, which had to be looked at and got rid of because they couldn't be used in the final product because either the camera wasn't filming the correct thing or the actor said or did the wrong thing.

Filming - Take 1

Yesterday, 4th March 2014, we scheduled to meet at the filming location to start shooting our opening sequence because we were at the point in our project where we were ready to start filming. We planned to meet at 4.30pm at Sparrows Den in West Wickham but there was a problem with me not being able to get to the location at this time because I live an hour away from the filming location and I didn't get home at 4.00pm and changed into my outfit by 4.30 so by that point if I left to go to the filming location, I would've gotten there an hour later whilst everyone else would be waiting for me to arrive. We then planned to get to the location at 5.30pm but then we couldn't contact the director Max Brindley, by the time we had gotten in contact with him it was too late for Sam Wills to turn up because he had to go to football.

So in conclusion, our first attempt to start filming was a massive fail and wasn't planned very well at all. We have planned to meet on Thursday 6th March at Sparrows Den for our second attempt of filming our opening sequence.

Knife

I have got a rubber knife off of a friend. This is so we do not have to spend money on buying one, even though minimal. It looks very realistic, which is good otherwise it will make the opening sequence look a lot worse. The main problem will be transporting the knife to the filming location and back to my house.

Props

Plastic Knife - The Mad Hatter Joke and Fancy Dress Shop

This gives us a rough idea of what the plastic knife will cost us so that we can add it to our budget of the rest of the film.

Rock

This will be found in the surrounding location because we do not need to buy a rock to trip up Sam because we will be in a place where there will be various loose rocks on the floor that we will be able to pick up, manoeuvre and place where we want it to be.

Phone

This will be an actual phone that we will just use so that it doesn't look as fake as it would with a teenager walking through the woods not looking at his phone. It adds a sense of realism to the opening sequence because the stereotype of teenagers is that they are always on their phones.

Final Filming Location

Sparrows Den

We have decided to film in Sparrows Den Woods because it gives off the correct and wanted natural lighting to create the most tension for the audience so that it isn't too bright so that it doesn't give off a creepy and eerie scene and mood type. Also, it is very close to everyone and has paths feeding through the woods although we aren't going to use them directly but we will have a rough idea of where we are because the other woods don't have any paths feeding through and if they do they aren't very recognisable, which we need as the last scene will be on a path.

Film Title

The title of our film will be based on the person running away from the chaser betraying the chaser by taking something from him that was very special and personal to him, which he wants back, which is displayed in the opening sequence.

Our first thoughts on a title was 'The Secret Betrayal' but after talking about what could be the storyline of the rest of the film we have favoured the name 'The Unknown Betrayal'. This is because it sounds more discrete and it adds more mystery to the rest of the film and what may happen throughout.

Risk Assessment

Opening Sequence Companies

In our opening sequence we need to decide what companies we will have displayed such as, paramount pictures, 21st century fox, film 4 and many more. The choice of the company we choose declares where the film will be shot and what the budget will be; if we choose film 4 it implies it is a low budget film and will generally be shot in England and then produced by someone like Warp Films. On the other hand, if we choose bigger names like paramount and dream works then it implies the film is a hollywood film and has a bigger budget than those funded by film 4.

Our Production Company Logo

This is our draft production company logo that we are planning to use in our opening sequence. We are planing to have the film strip spinning to the right as if it is playing something and then have the text "open-ended" enter the screen from the left and move to the right and stop in the centre of the screen and have the text "productions" enter the screen from the right and move to the left and stop in the middle of the screen as well.

We are planning to do this because right now the logo is very simplistic and it may look very dull and boring to the audience.

This is the type of thing we would like the film strip to do because it makes the logo more interesting than just an image of a film strip.

Production Company Logo Ideas

For our opening sequence we need to come up with a production company logo. In this post I will display image of logos, which we are thinking of basing our logo on.

This logo is very simplistic and the name literally describes what the image shows. The font is very dark and implies that it has a deeper meaning behind the choice of font, this is because it is a faded/destroyed type of font, which is used for war and apocalypse films but in a company logo it implies that there is a personal reason behind the choice of font. The image itself is quite boring as its just a lower case 't' which could be seen to look like a cross to those that only look at the image and not the name of the company. The colour of the logo may also be part of a deeper meaning.

This logo is very simplistic but it relates to the type of company that it is because of the image used, which is meant to be a camera, which implies filming. The image helps the viewer know what type of company this is. There is a wider choice of colours compared to the previous logo, the majority of the colours are seen to be feminine, which might suggest the company is run by a woman or it has more women under the logo construction, also it could be used to brighten up and make the logo more interesting because if it was all black then it would be seen as being boring to the viewer.

This logo is very plain and quite boring because it only has 2 colours, there is some change in the typography because one word is bolder than the lower word. The 'o' in locked has a keyhole in the middle, which makes the logo multimodal but it does not make the logo more interesting to look at.

This logo implies that it is a film related company because of the film reel being the 'o' and the film strip being an underline under the companies name. The use of the colour purple brightens up the logo and makes it more eye catching to the audience. The font is very simplistic and can be seen as being boring or plain for some of the viewers of this logo. The fade around the outside of the logo makes the name of the company the centre of attention as it makes it look like it is under a spotlight and that it is all you need to look at.

Importance of Trailers

The trailer is the main link between the film and getting people to watch the film because if the trailer isn't shown to them they will not want to see the movie; they have never heard of the movie nor have they seen any evidence of what genre the film is and whether or not it looks good enough to pay to watch it.

Also if people do see the trailer and they way it is edited and the camera quality is poor it'll put people off wanting to watch the film; the trailer doesn't do the actual film any justice.

This highlights that the trailer is very important because without one the film wouldn't be exhibited and if the production of the trailer is very poor it'll cause people to not want to go and watch the film.

The main reason of a trailer is to promote the film it is trailering, if it does not do this well enough people will not go and watch the film.

In addition, trailers display the most important parts that relate to the genre off the movie. For instance, if the film is an action film the trailer will display a lot of action and have the dialogue of the movie playing in the background. This is so that people see what they want to see from an action film in the trailer but they also hear some of the main dialogue in the film in the trailer.

Music Choice - Horror/Thriller scene

This is the part of the opening sequence where Victor Merryfield has fallen over and the chaser Wayne Walker slowly enters the shot.


This scene will need a slow soundtrack to create tension and also it will cause the audience to get more scared than they would if it was a faster soundtrack because it wouldn't give the right mood to the audience because a fast soundtrack suggests action when we need the mood to be horror. The soundtrack needs to have a high pitch with sharp notes because from personal experience it creeps the audience out and if this type of music is played it will create a mood of horror and make the audience feel as if they are in the scene with the actual actors.

Music Choice - Chase Scene

This scene needs music that will create tension but also cause the audience to be intrigued by the action of the chase and make them want to keep watching to see the outcome. The music needs to be dramatic to create the most tension to keep the audience thinking if the runner will get away from the chaser. The music needs to be loud to cause the most impact on the audience and it needs to have a drop for when the runner trips over and then it will switch to another genre of music. The best music will be upbeat because it implies the running of the scene instead of a slower soundtrack because slower music implies something is about to happen so the trip will be more expected if the music is slower than it would be if it was very sudden at a drop in an upbeat soundtrack, which in turn will create more tension because even though it will be expected it will be more of a surprise if the music is faster than slower.

Sound Choice Throughout Opening Sequence

Throughout our opening sequence we will have 2 main genre's of music that will be playing in the back ground. The first and the longest will be an action chase scene type of music such as music played in main chase scenes in James Bond films. The other type of music that will be played is a scary, high pitched, tension creating type music, which is played in horror movies when something bad is about to happen. This will be played when the first person has fallen over and the chaser slowly walks up to the first person.

This is a soundtrack from "The Dark Knight Rises" from 1 minute 42 seconds we could use this music clip for the chase scene as it implies the action of the chase but it also creates the tension that we would like to be present. At 3 minutes 10 seconds up to 3 minutes 40 seconds we could use this for the main part of the chase and also the falling over because there is a large drop where the first person could trip and then the music could cut out and the only sound could be heavy breathing. 

This is a soundtrack of a man breathing very heavily, we could play this after the chase scene music to create more tension, also from previous experience the shakier the breathing sound is the more tension that is built because it sounds like the person breathing is very scared, which is one main thing we are trying to put across to the audience.

This is a soundtrack from the horror movie "Insidious 2". From the very start of the clip the music is very creepy, scary and tension creating. We could play a high pitched sound like this when the chaser starts to enter the shot to create tension for the audience because the high pitches makes you feel like something very bad is about to happen.

Casting Shots

Mysterious Murderer - Wayne Walker (Josh Hoare)

To  create a character that looks very mysterious and stereotypes a murderer we have looked at previous films with murderers in them. The main stereotype of a murderer is that they wear dark clothes to blend in with their surroundings, which is always night time. Their face is covered or it can't be seen because of a hood making their face shadowed. They generally don't look formal and are dress very informally.

This image shows what we want our murderer to look like. Their face is covered and they are wearing thick black clothes. They look very suspicious and bland in with the night because of their black clothes.

Innocent Man - Victor Merryfield (Sam Wills)

To create this character we have looked at the victims of the murderers in films and in real life as well to create a realistic character. We have looked at what they are wearing and how they act and if they have certain accessories. We will have a character wearing very common clothes as this makes them look very normal in todays age, which is what most victims in films and real life look like.

In this image the victims of the murderer dress very normally, how you would expect normal people of the time that the film is set to dress, which is what we want our innocent person to look like, which will make it look more realistic to the audience.

Mise-en-Scene for Opening Sequence

Props

- Knife
- Rock

Setting
- Forrest/Woods

Casting Shots
- Innocent man walking in woods = Victor Merryfeild (Sam Wills) 
- Mysterious Murderer = Wayne Walker (Josh Hoare)

Costume
- Victor = Black Trousers/Polo Shirt/Jumper
- Wayne = Leather jacket/Hoodie/Jeans/Trainers

Lighting
- Dark

- Natural light (sun)

- Minimal light (light that gets through trees)

Draft Script

Proposed Camera Shots

Track
When the first person is running have a track shot so it looks like they're being chased/followed

Point of View

This will be a shot from the first and second person showing what they can see. This makes the audience feel as if they're actually there. The first person will show the woods and the second person will show the first person but in the distance. The following image is an example of what a P.o.V shot looks like.

Pan 

This will be a wide shot of the woods, the first person running will enter the shot on the left and whilst he is running through the woods, the shot will pan around (almost following him across the woods), once the shot gets to a certain point the person running will exit the shot to the right. This shows the location as well as the people in the opening sequence. The following clip is an example of a pan shot but in our shot there will be someone running through the shot.

Upwards Tilt

This shot will be almost a point of view shot from the fallen persons view. It will start off showing the woods at ground level and then will tilt upwards towards the sky showing the ceiling of the woods. The chaser will then slowly enter the shot from the bottom of the shot, which makes them look powerful and in control of the fallen person.

Match on Action

This shot shows the lead up to an action and then a close up of the following action that was built up to in the previous shot. This means that it jumps from a mid to close up shot. In our opening sequence this can be used when the first person is running away and trips over an object laying on the floor of the woods. The lead up to the falling can be the person running and then the close up can be their foot hitting the object and then it could switch back to a mid/wide shot of the person then falling over.

Location Possibilities

Sparrows Wood

We could go into Sparrows Wood and shot our opening sequence in this woods. Sparrows Wood is located in Petts Wood, which is easily accessible and you are allowed to enter the woods, there are paths feeding throughout the whole woods.

Inchwood

This woods is located in West Wickham. As can clearly be seen access is allowed and there are paths feeding through the woods.

Elmstead Woods

This woods is located in Elmstead but it isn't as crowded by trees as much as the previous locations, which means that too much light will probably get into the shot, which is not the type of lighting we are looking for.

The Warren

This woods is located in Keston and has very minimal clearings and there are minimal paths, which gives the deserted look of the shot, which is what we are mainly looking for.

Opening Sequence Pitch

In our opening sequence we are planning for it to be a crime thriller. It will start off with someone running and there will be multiple shots of them running such as; track shot from behind, close up (person running holding the camera pointing at themselves), point of view shot (person running holding camera showing what they can see), pan shot (person running enters shot from left and then shot pans following person until they leave shot on the right). The camera will switch to a person chasing the first person whilst holding a knife. The shots will be identical or similar to the first person. The following images are examples of the types of shots that will be captured when we are filming.

The first person running will then fall over something and there could be a match on action of the object in the way and then the first person falling over. The next shot will be a tilt shot from the fallen persons point of view and it will show the ground level and the first person walking towards the second and then it will tilt to the sky and the second runner will slowly enter the shot and it will be a close up or mid shot of them. The screen will then go black to create tension and then the title of the film will pop up and there will be a sharp high pitch music that plays to cause the viewers to be scared. The next shots will be freeze frames from different angles of the person on the floor and the credits will fade in and then fade out and switch to the next shot.

Storyboard Idea

This is a storyboard plan that I have created, which could be what happens in the opening sequence I am going to film. In this it starts off with someone running away in a woods and then it switches to someone chasing them whilst holding a knife. It constantly switches between the 2 people whilst they running and shouting out. The first man trips over something in the woods and the next scene is the person chasing slowly enters the shot and looks down at the person who tripped. The shot could then fade into a black screen and then the credits start to fade in and out. The last shot is the man chasing standing over the fallen man, after this the scene could go black again.

Analysis of Filming

Successes and Failures of the Filming Practice

Successes

In the filming task we were able to get all the shots that we planned to use, which were: Match on Action, Rule of Thirds and 180 Degree rule.

This allowed us to make the video look very realistic as if the person watching the video was actually in the video, talking to the people because of the 180 Degree rule and the use of Match on Action to make it look as if the viewer was the person opening the door and shaking hands with the other people.

Failures

This video failed because the very first clip is very blurry at the beginning when I walk up the stairs, this would look better if the footage started with me behind the wall and then walking up the stairs because it would look more believable and less blurred. 

Another failure is when I enter the room the video jumps straight to a hand shake where the last shot shows me only just entering the room, which looks very unrealistic because it looks like I have jumped a few metres from one shot to the next shot.

Preliminary Task

Crime Thriller Movie Opening Sequences

Thriller Survey

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Target audience of thrillers