Evaluation

evaluation

More PowerPoint presentations from aSGuest93971

Preliminary Sequence

Pink Booklet

Today i have been filling out the media pink booklet. For this i had to complete the brainstorm sheet with ideas for our opening sequence & questions about product. I also completed the shooting scheduale & information about the soundtrack, camera work, action, iconography, titles & visual style. The next job will be scanning these onto our blog.

Final Opening Sequence

Summary of problems faced in group work

For our first opening sequence about a girl being murdered we came across several problems. The first being meeting times. It was difficult for the three of us to arrange a time to meet due to people working & having other loyalties. However, we found a date where we all had to give up time to film for the sequence but managed to get the filming done in one night.
Once we uploaded all the footage to final cut we noticed that the lighting was not good & it looked quite grainy. It was also too long. We was not happy with this so we decided to completely redo our coursework

Another problem we encountered was that a member of the group was very often off school due to sickness or other reasons. This made it difficult to discuss as a group, ideas for the new sequence. To overcome this, myself & Vidur took control & created a new sequence without Saskia as she was off school.

When Saskia returned to school. We had already filmed our sequence & started editing on Vidurs Mac. As she was off school during all the planning & filming she did not know how she could help & would sit idle whilst me & Vidur completed the work.

A major problem we encountered was that Vidurs Mac broke. This meant we could not complete editing or sound on his laptop & would need to find another way to finish it. As we were very behind we could not finish work on the school computers as we did not have time. To resolve this, we used my Mac (which had final cut) to do the editing. This was good as we spent a lot of time over the weekend completing the editing & sound so we were up to date & ready for the showcase.

Evidence of how Opening fits with research

After looking at different horror openings we knew that they all had specific conventions which we would stick to, to make our opening look realistic.

The openings were all very dark & dull, there were no bright/vivid colours used which made the setting look scary. We also made our sequence like that. The shots were all dark but had been lit by natural lighting (candles) which made the setting spooky. 

We also made sure that the mise-en-scene was good to create a scary atmosphere which is needed for a horror film to make the audience feel on edge. 

We also noticed that the music was suited well to the film to give suspense. We made sure that when we added music, it built up tension & also created suspense.

Overall, i think we managed to stick to these conventions to make our real look as real as possible.

Evidence of how Opening fits with research

Se7en Opening Credits

This was the most influential sequence that we looked at for research. Due to having little time to completely redo out opening sequence we decided to adopt this style of film but change it to make ours unique. We used short, snappy clips in our opening sequence but ours were not as random as Se7en's & had more of a story as someone was going to get killed. We liked how they're credits were flickery so we also made our credits flicker & jump in different ways like flipping then round.
We also didn't want a character to be introduced as we wanted our film to be quite mysterious, which is also like Se7en as they did not introduce a character either.

Evidence of how Opening fits with research

Sorority Row Opening

This was one of the opening sequences we looked at hen researching horror films. At the beginning the film starts very dark & we noticed that the credits were shown over the shots. We also saw that they came into the shot in clever ways & faded out. When we did titles for our sequence we decided to use credits over our sequence & have them fade out aswell.

Feedback & Improvement

We showcased our film on Thursday. Teachers & students gave us feedback on our movie. In general, the feedback was good but the main problems were that people did not understand who was trying to be killed & there was no main character. They also said it lacked narrative progression.
In order to improve on these things, we have tried to make it more clear about who is going to be killed by showing the image of the man more frequently & ending the sequence with a photograph of him with the word 'KILL' next to it. This should make it more clear for the audience to understand. I have also used more shots with the character in it so people can see him, however we do not want to give away who our character is because we want him to be mysterious. This will add to the suspense of the film.
In order to create more narrative progression, i showed the shot of the man in a shadow playing with hair, so people can see the character in the beginning of the film.
Once this was done we had to export it into garage band & move our sounds so they fit in with the new sequence. This has been a success & i believe we have now finished our opening sequence.

Creating Music In Garage Band

We had to have layers of different music so that it all flowed & no music sounded out of place. We used loops & i also created our own song using the keyboard. I put it in different pitches so i could use all different sounds. 

Individual Response To Idea

My response to the idea was that it would be good if we can make the effects & sound suitable & give it a scary effect. After creating the storyboard i was happy with the idea & was looking forward to getting it filmed & to start editing.

Inspiration About Opening

We created an opening sequence several weeks ago but we have now decided to change the idea because of complications.
To get inspiration for our new sequence we looked at different horror film openings & analysed the conventions of horror films.
Myself & Vidur then brainstormed & came up with an idea for our opening. We decided we wanted it to be mysterious & create an enigma for the audience. We decided to use props to add a scary effect such as candles, knives, & a bloody book. We made the colours dull & dark to add to the effect of the genre of horror. We decided the sequence would be short & snappy & include lots of titles to break up the footage.
We also had thoughts about sound, we wanted the sound to be eerie & strange to give it a suspicious & freaky effect.

Own Initial Idea Submitted To Group For Consideration

My first idea to contribute to the group was about a group of friends who have been dared to sleep in a forest that is notorious for murders. I wanted to group to set up a tend & film them in the evening & then they all get murdered.

I made a basic storyboard for this idea to show the group so they had an idea of what i wanted. After discussing this with the group, we came to the conclusion that this would be too difficult due to lighting problems & the sequence would be too long. We then came up with an idea as a group & created a storyboard for this.

Editing

I have now completely finished editing on final cut. I used many different transitions & video effects such as cross dissolve, fade out, cross zoom & dip to colour dissolve. I also used video effects such as gamma control, strobe, blur motion & decreased saturation.
The editing was a long process & took a lot of patience as sometimes certain effects wouldn't work properly. I also had to film some extra footage to put into the sequence as we filmed insufficient footage to make the sequence long enough. I also added a lot of credits to break up the footage.
The clips are very short & snappy, I did this because I wanted the sequence to be mysterious & edgy. I wanted it to create an enigma for viewers.
Once the editing was completed I needed to export it & save it as an mp4 file so I could open it in garage band to add sound. I then transferred it into garage band & started playing around with loops & the keyboard to make my own track from different types of sound. Vidur then came over & we decided on loops to use & where we should put them. I have completed quite a lot of the music now & I am going to carry on testing out different loops to add layers to the music & to make the sequence intense.

Production

Myself & Saskia created the production about two weeks ago. We had many different ideas about what we could do, but we found that our ideas were too complex for the program we were using. Therefore we had to come up with a more simple idea. Creating the production was difficult, as neither of us knew how to use the program. With help from our media teacher we played around with the program & figured out how to use it. We decided to call our production 'Lightning Studios' & we made a lightning bolt flash on the screen & the name 'Lightning Studios' fading into the shot. This took a whole double lesson to complete & we had alot of trouble importing it into final cut but we managed in the end.

New Opening Sequence

Due to technical difficulties, we have had to restart out editing. We are now using final cut to complete the editing. I have played around with the program & tested different transitions & video affects to decide which ones are suitable for our type of film. I am now 1:20 into the film. Due to not enough footage, i am going to do some more filming to add to the sequence today.
I intend to complete editing by the end of the day & start adding music tomorrow so we are ready to showcase our film next week.

New Opening Sequence

We have decided to create a completly new opening sequence due to some problems.
Myself & Vidur came up with the idea on March 10th during our Media lesson. I then created a storyboard & we filmed that night at my house.
For the props, we needed a notebook with lots of writing & cut up pictures of people. I made this once i got home so it would be ready when we started filming. I also got all the other props together & arranged them on my desk, where we would be filming.
I filmed most of the sequence with the help of Vidur for some shots. Filming went well & we managed to complete it withing 1/2 hours.
We then uploaded the footage onto Vidurs Mac the next day & began cutting the film & arranging it in iMovie. The next step is to beging editing.

Progress in Editing

We have now completed all of our editing for our film. The next stage is adding sound to complete the sequence.
I contributed to the editing stage by transferring the footage to FinalCut, cutting the shots & adding them to the sequence. I also did effects & transitions with the help of my group members who gave their input into what would be most suitable.
Editing went quite well, we all sat together & made decisions about which shots to use & effects & transitions. We tried out transitions & effects & decided which would be most appropriate & fitted in well with our sequence.
A main problem was that the sequence was too long; we resolved this by cutting out several shots at the beginning & shortening some other shots to tighten the sequence & to make the pace faster.
Me & Saskia made the 'Lightening Studios' Production using flash player. We worked together whilst making this.

Filming

This was the first day we met to film due to the fact that the whole group was unable to attended several other dates. Filming took place on the 26th January at my house. Saskia & Vidur came over at 5.30pm. We filmed for approximately 3-4 hours. In that time, we managed to complete all the filming for our opening sequence. For each shot, we did about 2-4 takes, this enabled us to have more choice when choosing which shot we would use during the editing stage. We also filmed each shot using several different angles, this also would give us more choice for editing. We did encounter a few problems whilst filming such as unwanted shadows & lighting problems. We worked together to solve this problems & continued filming efficiently.
I think that overall we worked well as a group. We all had a job & carried out that job well. The next step would be to upload the shots & start to edit.

Zombieland Opening Sequence Review

Notes: 2009
Director - Ruben Fleischer
Actors - Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone & Woody Harrelson
Opening Conventions: The institution sequence (Columbia) is played loudly at the start
There is a voiceover to explain where we are & what is going on.
Furthur on in the sequence the titles are shown over the sequence but they are placed asif they are part of the scene eg. letters break off if someone falls through them. This is effective as it is interesting & differernt.
Narrative Function: We can guess the storyline because we are told that there are no people left in America & we can see zombies chasing everyone so we can guess that it is about the survival of someone living in zombieland.
We do not start withing the story, we just have different scenes of people being killed by zombies whilst the credits are shown.
Characters: No charachters are introduced but we assume that the person who is the voiceover must be the main charachter as he is the only one that is being focused on.
Hook Audience/Enigma/Action Codes: The sequence is done very cleverly which makes it interesting for us an audience to watch & we want to watch more. Also, we want to see if the voiceover survives & what the storyline is going to be throughout the film. This film also used very modern technology & despite the slow-mo, it has quite a fast pace which keeps us interested.
Film Lang - MES, Cinematography (Light & Colour): There is a US flag at the beginning so its clear that the film is set in America. Horrific events are shown straight away so we know that the film is going to be gorey & a horrow but there is also a hint of comedy from the voiceover, The colours are quite bright & vivid which would give the impression of a happy film.

Film Lang - Movement, Framing, Editing & Sound: The use of the hand held camera at the start puts us in the point of view of the man who has just been attacked. It also allows us to have a closeup of one of the zombies. Also, the camera is tilted at the start which gives the idea of chaos & that the world is not right. The opening sequence is all in slow-mo, this allows us to focus on the horror & makes the pace not fast yet still not boring. The music is heavy metal which fits with what is going on. At the start the sound is diegetic as we can hear the sound of the man screaming & the zombie chasing him. Each rule is shown on screen which makes it interesting & it makes sure we saw the rule. Also, due to their being violence & swearing withing the sequence, we know that it would not be appropriate for children instantly.

Rules are written over the sequence

Cleaner Opening Sequence Review

Notes: 2007
Director - Renny Harlin
Actors - Samuel L Jackson
Opening Conventions: The credits are played over the sequence
There is a voiceover which gives us an idea of what the film is going to be about
The institution is shown with mysterious/eerie music played over it to set the tone of the film
Narrative Function: A voiceover introduces us to what the film is going to be about so we know what is going on.
A man explains our job to us through a voiceover, this shows that he must be a main charachter & the film is based around his job
There is a flashback at the start
Characters: The voiceover is of a man whom we assume to be a main charachter as he is telling us about his job. His job is to clean up dead bodies but he is humourous when he tells the story which brightens the tone of the film despite it being about death.
Hook Audience/Enigma/Action Codes: We are not told much about what the film is actually going to be about other than a man who cleans up dead bodies so we want to learn more & find out what is actually going to happen in the film.
Film Lang - MES, Cinematography (Light & Colour): Eerie/mysterious music is played at the start which makes it quite intense. After we find out about the death of them women, the music changed to more cheery, this is known as contrafuntal sound, as cheery music is played as we see a dead body. The voiceover leads into the scene so it turns out that it was diegetic. During the flashblack, the colours are quite bleak & the lighting is dull but when we are at the start, its alot brighter & more colourful.
Film Lang - Movement, Framing, Editing & Sound: There are lots of low levels & sweeping, this makes the scene more interesting & fun to watch. It also fastens the pace so we do not feel bored. The start of the scene fades in as the titles start to appear. There is also a close up to the blood on the floor as it is what they want us to focus on becuase there is alot of it & it all needs to be cleaned up.

The Prestige Opening Sequence Review

Notes: 2006
Director - Chris Nolan
Actors - Hugh Jackman, Michael Caine & Christian Bale
Opening Conventions: The titles & institution sequence (Warner Bros) are silent which builds up tension.
A voiceover is used to talk to us about the three stages of magic tricks which allows us to guess what the film is going to be about. It also does not give us much information about what is going on so we are curious.
Narrative Function: Starts in the middle of the film, this then sets it up for the rest of the film so we know what is going on
We are introduced by a voiceover, what the story is going to be about
Characters: The voiceover is Cutter (Michael Caine), we are told he makes the apparatures for illusions. We can see his is passionate about his job as he refuses to disclose information about the illusion which cause death to a man.
Angier (Hugh Jackman) is introduced as he is on stage perfoming a magic trick to people in a theatre. We see him drown in the sequence & then we see the court case about his death which shows he must be important within the film.

Spotlight on Hugh Jackman as he perfomes on stage

Alfie Borden (Christian Bale) is introduced in court as we see he is being blamed for the death of Angier.
Hook Audience/Enigma/Action Codes: Enigma is the most important part of this sequence, we want to ask alot of questions which hooks us in & makes us want to watch the rest of the film. We want to know why the man is in court, who he is & why he killed the magician.
Film Lang - MES, Cinematography (Light & Colour): The setting looks old fashioned because there are alot of dark, dull colours. Also, in court, everyone is dresssed in suits & tophats which also is very old fashioned. The costumes match the setting. There is a spotlight on Hugh Jackman whilst he is on stage to show his importance & that he must be a main charachter. Flashes of light focus on a strange man under the stage which makes us think something mysterious is going on.
Film Lang - Movement, Framing, Editing & Sound: There is a fade in from the titles to the film.

During the magic trick, eerie music is played which builds intensity. It then goes silent when Hugh Jackman goes through a trap door & then eerie music is played again as he drowns in the tank. There is alot of cutting & intercutting withing scenes. The camera is also hand help which makes it seem like we are following Christian Bale around.

The Mummy Opening Sequence Review

Notes: Director - Sreven Sommers
            Cast - Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz & John Hannah
Opening Conventions: Institution sequence is Univeral Studios so we know it will most likely be a Blockbuster & will be a good film.
Scary/eerie music played over institution sequence which sets the tone for the film & allows us to guess the genre
A voiceover tells us where we are & what is going on so we know our setting well & gather information about the film, this is non-diegetic
There is a graphic match transition from titles to film
Narrative Function: We start at the beginning of the film but later on in the film we sip forward in time & the story continues
This sets up the backstory so we know what is going on in the rest of the film
The use of sound & colour/decore is most important in this sequence.

ASN - Gold & Black makeup

We are introduced to the two main charachters as we are forced to focus on them.
Characters: The Pharaoh is introduced first, his body language, clothing & the music shows that he is powerful. We are then introduced to Imhotep (High Priest - Keeper of the dead). He is standing looking out over the city & over the soldiers which shows his importance & power. Finally, we are introduced to Anuksunamun; she is introduced by a voiceover telling us who she is. She is covered in makeup which has been drawn on carfully. We see ASN & Imotep together & we can feel the intamacy between them through their body language.
Hook Audience/Enigma/Action Codes: There is enigma as we want to know what is going to happen with ASN & Imotep. We are curious as we want to ask many questions & find out more about each of the charachters.
Film Lang - MES, Cinematography (Light & Colour): We can see at the start that Egypt is just being built, which makes it evident that we are in the past. There is alot of gold decor which shows the countrys wealth & power. We can also see tha the culture is thriving, due to how busy & noisy it is. We are interested in the Pharaoh because loud, powerful music is played upon his arrival which connotates how strong & important he is. The voiceover tells us we are in Thebes (the city of the living), but we are also told that Imotep is the Keeper of the dead, which creates enigma as we want to know why the living & the dead is so focused on. ASN is also covered in gold & black makeup, which makes her look like an expensive item, so she looks very precious.
Film Lang - Movement, Framing, Editing & Sound: Egyption music is played, to make sure the audience is aware that it is set in Egypt. When we see ASN & Imotep kissing, there is a close up of him smudging her makeup, this is a clear sign of how important this is & it makes us as an audience look into it & suspect something will happen. Due to the film being a PG, there are rules & regulations which the director must stick to, therefore, when ASN stabs herself, it is a sillouette so there is less detail & focus on the violent act. By sticking the these rules & regulations, it gives them a bigger audience, allowing them to make more money.

"How effectively does the opening sequence from 'Children of Men' (2006) use the forms and conventions of film openings? What is your personal response as a member of the audience?"

Children of Men effectively use the forms & conventions of film openings. It used credits & titles at the start of the sequence. It also shows the company “STRIKE” & Hit & Run productions. Also, because the Universal Studios sequence is shown at the beginning we instantly assume that it is probably a Blockbuster film & that it will be very good because Universal Studios have a reputation for making good films & having a large budget. It also has a very slow pace. At the end of the opening sequence the film title appears dramatically. There is a strong enigma in the film opening because we find ourselves asking many questions & wondering what is going on, e.g. why has the café been blown up? Why is there so much emphasis on the youngest person dying? Why is it so dark? What did the man pour in his drink? This then makes us want to watch the rest of the film which is very effective.

From just the opening sequence of the film, we already make assumptions of what the film is going to be like. We expect it to be quite a dull, sad, chaotic film due to the bleak colours & explosion in the first few minutes. We are told at the beginning of the film that are in London on the 16^th November 2027 but we could probably guess that already due to the mise-en-scene. We can see red buses on the street but they look futuristic due to the moving adverts on the side of them. We also see a lot of Police Officers in uniform which instantly allows us to distinguish that we are in London. There are a lot of tall buildings with St Pauls in the background. We also enter the film in a café which is quite British. All these things make it clear that we are in London even if we missed the title telling us.

The lighting & colour are very dark & dull. The street looks dirty, dusty & rundown & there are motorised passenger bikes which makes it look like a third world country. The lighting is natural because it is day time but it still looks very dull outside & there are no bright colours that stand out anywhere. This is effective as it creates a mood & allows us to figure out the genre quite quickly. The people we see in the café also look very miserable & are all dressed in dull, dark work clothes. The use of dark colours & dull lighting set the mood of the film & makes us curious because we want to know what happened to London & why everyone seems so depressed.

We are introduced to one main character in the opening sequence because he is being focused on. The first shot consists of a variety of people in a café watching a news report; there are also quite a lot of Police Men too. The news report is about the death of the youngest boy on the planet & it is emphasised several times that he was the youngest child, this gives us clues about the rest of the film. We also hear a women crying due to the death of this boy so it is clear that his death is a very big deal & it upsets people. We are aware of the main character because he is focused on from the start. He enters the café & shows little interest towards the news report & orders a drink, the camera then follows him out of the shop & allows us to see him pouring some kind of alcoholic beverage into his drink. This creates enigma as we want to know who he is, why he is not interested in the news report & why he is pouring alcohol into his drink.

The pace of this opening sequence is very slow as it only consists of two cuts throughout. The movement of the camera is more important than the pace because they use a handheld camera to follow the main character out of the shop which pans to follow him. This gives the effect that we are spying on him to find out what he is doing & it almost feels like we are in the film. It starts with a mid-shot so we can see his face & then changes to a long shot so we can see the explosion when it happens as well as him & his reaction to it. At the end of the sequence after the explosion we see a women walk out of the café holding her arm which has been blown off. We are shown this so we can see the seriousness of the explosion & it also creates enigma.

After the titles, there is a sound bridge over a black screen; we can hear sound before the picture appears. It is a voice over of a news report. This is effective as it makes us listen intently to what is going on & shows the importance of what is being said because they really want us to listen. The news report gives us information about what is going on in the world which makes the world sound like it is in chaos. This adds enigma because we want to know why. The main story on the news report is about the youngest boy on the planet being murdered. The reporter repeats this several times so we defiantly know what’s going on in case we missed it the first time. This shows that this information is very important. The sequence consists mostly of diegetic sound from the television, people & cars but there is also non-diegetic sad music. The sound of the explosion & of screaming people has been enhanced so it is louder & so it is more shocking. It makes us jump because it is so unexpected.

Our personal response as an audience is positive as the conventions of this opening is very effective. We want to ask many questions as we have been given unexplained information which we want to know. Due to there being a lot of enigma, this makes the opening sequence very successful because as an audience we are very intrigued & we want to watch more to find out what is going on. I found the sequence quite interesting as it keeps the same colour scheme & lighting throughout, even outside. London looks very dark & everyone seems miserable, we want to know what has happened. Despite the pace of the sequence being quite slow, it was still interesting due to the use of the handheld camera following the main character. Also, because the film is set in the future, we want to carry on watching so we can see what London is like & what the world has become.