My Completed product

Soundtrack:
Website I used for non-copywrited music:
http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?feels%5B%5D=Action
Song 1:
Ice Demon
Song 2:
Hitman

Actors:
David Robinson
Katie Roddis

Director:
Rebecca Burrell (me)

Editor:
Rebecca Burrell (me)

Lighting:
Rebecca Burrell (me)

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

Preliminary Task:

My Finished Opening Sequence

From comparing my Preliminary task to my final outcome of my opening sequence it is safe to say that I have come a long was regarding my use of mise-en-scene, technical codes, camera work and editing. As you can see between the two videos, there is a huge amount of convergence between the overall look of the two pieces as well as how confident my male actor is at representing his role and character. The change in confidence and character representation from my male actor is down to the fact that I walked him through all the relevant planning I did for my opening sequence so that he had a clear idea of what he needed to do before we filmed. 

Examples of this include showing him my story boards several times, during filming I directed him by telling him what facial expressions to pull and what body language he should use and I we also went through practise runs of the entire opening sequence without recording to ensure that everyone knew what they needed to do any when. I also told him when to freeze his stance during filming so that I could adjust the camera to a different angle and height (because I only had one camera available to use) to then let the scene continue with continuity. As you can see in my preliminary, there is a lack of continuity as the 180 degree rule was broken slightly when the camera angle change from being behind the characters to being right in front of both of them and so on, however, I managed to keep the camera constantly in front of and next to the protagonist. 

I feel that I have learnt how to use the editing software Final Cut Express much more confidently and effectively due to the fact that I managed to include texts, fading transitions between the titles and some text, which i didn't do at all in my preliminary task. In my preliminary task I simply used cuts and nothing else when I edited it because I was unfamiliar with the software and I was too apprehensive to play around with it and see what it could do. However, in my opening sequence I ended up being able to include effects pull them off rather well e.g. when i included the 'solar' effect on the protagonist and antagonist - it worked well because it wasn't just a constant effect over the image but I made it sort of 'glitch' out in a way that made it jumpy, and I tried my best to make this 'solar' effect on the antagonist 'jump' in time with the non-diegetic sound in the background  it belongs in the clip 

and doesn't look too random. 

Before the footage fades

As the footage fades

Use of text in my video

 Use of visual effects - 'solar' effect

Overall i feel that I have made a huge jump regarding my skills since I started using filming and editing soft wares in late October of 2013. I am aware of this from my own personal evaluations when comparing my previous attempts at producing a short video clip and my current efforts on producing an opening sequence. I also was given feedback from some of my peers in the target audience - Corey.F aged 17 said that my current video was "Fantastic" and "wasn't what I expected". Alexandra.G aged 16 said that my video was "Thrilling" - both truthful and 'punny' to my films main genre. The male actor who played the protagonist in my film (named David.R aged 18) said that "The video attracts me to watch it with the ambiguity of the character Caden at the beginning - the music and lighting both added to the, mystery which added to the thriller genre. The tension also builds up throughout which is an aspect of horror films that I really like, and attracts its audience very well. The fact that the film used older teenagers attracts the audience because it makes the characters easier to relate to. The editing was very well done, and the visual effects that were used made the story able to be told fluently without the need to dialogue unless it was simply used for effect.". So overall i had positive feedback from viewers in my target audience for my Opening Sequence, therefore meaning that it was successful. 

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

Throughout these past 5 months of being on this media course I have been given the opportunity to use the technical equipment as well as do a little bit of research on it. In doing this I have made a huge jump in my skills regarding using the technical equipment - as we can see from these two shots, my preliminary task lacked life regarding its mise-en-scene and technical codes (colour, lighting and quality). However, as we can see from my current product from the image below, I managed t focus the camera much more and add certain colour and lighting onto it (using final cut pro and soft-box lights) in order to create a much more crisp image and create a certain mood to fit the genre.

Preliminary Task

My opening sequence - finished product

The equipment I used:

Soft-box Lights: 
When I fist did my preliminary task I didn't use these soft-box lights because I thought that I would have had enough natural lighting and classroom lighting in order for the shot to look good. However, after using the soft-box lights in my opening sequence I found out that they are very useful to create a soft light into the main subject in the frame in order to enhance it and help it stand out from the rest of the features and aid the viewer in understanding what subject in the frame needs to have the most attention paid to. You can see the difference in soft lighting and the clarity of an image when using the soft box lighting from the 2 images above - the top one is from my preliminary task and the second one is from my final product. As you can see, the second one has much softer lighting and is in far better focus, and that is the one that I used the soft box lighting on.


Nikon D3100: 
I really enjoyed using this camera because it captured really great white light levels from the soft-box lighting, and this made it very easy to put filters over the footage when I came to edit it, and the image itself looked very crisp and clear. In using this equipments I learnt that it is best to use a professional camera such as this in order to capture HD footage, and I know this as I have learned from my mistakes - when I created my preliminary task I used a not so professional sonny digital handheld camera, and this produced a slightly blurred image and it didn't pick up natural lighting too well so the image overall look quite dark when uploaded to my mac when I
came to edit it.  



Tripod:
I used a tripod for the entirety of my video due to the fact that if I held the camera with my hand then the footage would have looked very shaky and therefore unprofessional. Using the tripod allowed for me to to achieve a smooth pan when we look at the antagonist walking down the corridor from the protagonist point of view (during the solar effect on the antagonist and just before she shoots the protagonist). I also learnt that I could adjust the tripod to different heights in order to get slightly low angle shots and slightly high angel shots on subjects in the frame in order to connote the amount of power that said subject has.

TascamDR-40 Linear pcm recorder:

I used this recorder in my video in order to record a voice over of my antagonist saying to my protagonist that she was going to find him (its left to interpretation whether the viewer thinks that she is really saying it from a distance as she is looking for him or if she is saying it in his mind and its just an effect of the pill that he had taken). I did this because in previous attempts on recording, the camera simply wasn't strong enough to pick up the level of sound that I wanted - it ended up being too difficult to exclude the background noise that the camera picked up, so I didn't even get the chance to edit the echo and pitch how I wanted because the quality of the original audio just wasn't there. I found out that using this recorder to overlay the audio was much more useful -the audio was much more crisp and clear with limited background noise. I was also able to adjust the two small speakers at the top that picked up the sound in order to position towards where my antagonist actress was speaking.

I also found out that I could stop and start the recorder whenever I wanted and when I uploaded it it didn't matter how many times I stopped it - it uploaded as one set of audio, not several different sets of audio where I had stopped

 and started it which I found useful when it came to editing.

Final Cut Express:

Another technology that I learnt to use was the editing software Final Cut Express. In my preliminary task I didn't experiment with this software very much meaning that I found it quite difficult at first to use and use it well - I didn't know where to find any of the filters, how to put them into the video or how to alter the appearance of the video itself. However, after watching a couple of YouTube videos and searching the Internet throughout the production process of creating my video, I managed to figure out the vast majority of things that I could do with the software in order to manipulate the video and audio in the way that I wanted. After watching a certain video on YouTube, I found out how to find as well as use the video effects (such as the 'solar' and static' effect on my antagonist and protagonist),
therefore creating the image that I wanted, trying
my best to communicate the genre of the footage
further and overall give the footage my preferred
reading (the interpretation that me as a director
wanted to get across to the audience.

Screen grabs of my final product in order to show what I managed to achieve from using the editing software Final Cut Express:

 Here I used 'colour corrector' in the Final Cut Express software which allowed me to change the colour, brightness, contrast and white light in the footage until I achieved the look I wanted, I initially played around with this feature a little bit as I had to add this effect to several different snippets of the same clip, and I had to do this manually and accurately so it was a long and time consuming process, therefore I played around with one rather lengthy piece of footage that I wanted to add this effect to until I was satisfied with the image created. I ended up going for a slightly blue filter over the image as well as a low contrast level and enhancement of the white light and in doing this I excluded a lot of the shadows and enhanced the angelic look of the image in order for the viewer to infer that the person I this footage will be connoted as the antagonist/a good character in this footage.  

This screen grab shows the static effect that I used on the clip of my male and female characters in two different sections of my film. I used this effect on the male and female characters in order to create a link between the two of them. I also decided to used this effect on the male character when the female characters voice was playing over footage of him in order to create more of a link between the two, to show that there is something wrong and uneasy about the two of these characters being together. It was also beneficial to use this effect on my male character in this section of the film because it occurs right after he had ingested some kind of drug in the form of a tablet, therefore connoting that this could be some effect of the drug, and maybe that he had taken the drug BECAUSE of the female character. I created this effect by adding 2 different image sharpening filters to the footage - the over usage of the sharpening filter made the image look static, so I then played with the intensity of this static look until I achieved the effect that I liked.

Here shows the Solar effect that I used on again the male and female character in my film opening, and i used it with the static effect as shown above for the same reasons specified above. I didn't need to play around with this effect because it was already perfect and had a good mix of colours - blue and reddish, which contrast each other nicely as the blue has connotations of being angelic and good, and red has connotations of evil, and this mirrors the roles of the two characters in my video. 

 

Here I again used the colour corrector effect in order to increase the shadows and dark lighting in the footage when I introduced my antagonist because this has connotations of evil and darkness and this then reflects upon the subject in the frame. 

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

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

Here shows my previous post on audience consumption habits - the contents of this post is a questionnaire explaining the and gender of my chosen target audience which is relevant to answering this question is quite useful to have on hand to refer to if you wish.

In the beginning of my research and planning I created a questionnaire (my audience consumption habits research) in order to find out what kind of genres people were generally most interested in. Once I had printed out my questionnaires, I handed them out mainly to people in my media class (as I can trust their opinions and honesty when it comes to media) as well as a couple of friends outside of my media class. this therefore means that my overall age group was only between the ages of 16-19, therefore this was my target audience. However since the age ratings go from 15 to 18 years of age, I had to go for the age rating of 15 because I didn't want to have to disincline the 16-17 year olds information from my questionnaires because almost every single one of them was filled out by people in this age group, therefore I had to go for the age rating of 15.  I am also very glad that I went for producing a film that was aimed at people in my own age group because it meant that I could apply many things to it that I myself enjoy and it also meant that I had a much better understanding of what people in my target audience really want to see when they watch a film. 

Also, a 15 seemed suitable for my film opening since I wanted to create a film with elements of the thriller genre, therefore I knew even in the  very early stages of the research part of my blog that there could potentially be some horror, violence or gore in my film, which would not be suitable for people under the age of 15. However, I never chose to go for a male or female audience because I myself feel that in most cases, a lot of films will appeal to both men and women, so I didn't want to try and appeal to just one because I would have probably ended up appealing to both of them to some extent any way. Also, because I tried to get my film opening to appeal to both men and women it meant that I was able to have double the chance of my films success. In saying this this I mean that if the film was ever distributed to TV, cinemas or DVD, then it would have double the chance of being sold because both men and women would buy it (as men and women make up roughly half of the population in all areas). Also, as seen in my questionnaire, both men and women mostly gave the answer that they sometimes use film as a form of personal relationships with people (one of 5 elements to the uses and gratifications theory by Blumler and Katz), meaning that both men and women in the age group that I am targeting would potentially speak about my film with their friends after seeing it, therefore spreading the word of my film around and increasing its popularity.

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

 

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?

My opening sequence draft 1

My opening sequence before teacher feedback

Change of plan

First shoot attempt:

Here shows the footage that I captured for the initial idea that I had for my opening sequence. When I filmed my initial idea this was some of the only footage that I got for it because I never ended up carrying this idea through because after filming this I realised that it wasn't working. You simply can't hear what the two characters at the end of the corridor are talking about and you can't understand the full extend of what its meant be happening.

So after attempting to shoot the footage for my video around 3 times with no success due to nervous actors I decided that it would be best to reduce the amount of dialogue in my opening sequence and also change my approach (while still keeping key ideas from my first idea) so that my actors can relax and really get into character.

I first decided to cut out most of my initial dialogue due to the fact that the people who I chose to act in my opening sequenced changed 3 times because each time we shot footage, it became apparent that they were nervous and were messing up their lines and all of this resulted in them messing up their cues and there was a lot of re-shooting of footage which I found overwhelming to edit.

I also decided to change around 2/3rds of my story board because When it came to shooting the footage where I had my main character in the foreground and an argument between two unidentified characters in the background I noticed that you couldn't really make out what the people in the background were doing  and I thought that something like this could confuse the viewer.

So, as a result of all of this my final product should consist of the following:

-Caden runs down corridor I a long to medium shot -  he looks scared and frantic.
-Close up of Caden taking some pills again looking scared and frantic.
-Close up on Caden's eyes showing his fear as the ONE main evil character (Samantha) says eerily "Caaaden, can't hide forever...Caaaden".
-The camera is then closer to the double doors at the end of the corridor that are in frame when we see Caden run down the corridor in the first shot. Here we watch Samantha walk down the corridor quite calmly - almost as though she doesn't care which contrasts the fear that Caden had making everything seem quite creepy and mysterious. In this shot we focus mainly on Samantha body and not her face because here we see her pull a gun out of her pocket as she walks closer and closer to the camera.
-The camera will then position farther down the corridor but this time on eye level with Samantha as we carry on watching her walk down the corridor till she edges nearer and  nearer to the camera (this is where her characters name will appear and the person who plays her) till she is in a close up and we see a mischievous yet angry look on her face.
-We will then watch the Samantha walk down the corridor from Caden's perspective - here the footage will be slightly static to links to the fact that he had just swallowed some pills - at the end of this short clip we will see Samantha raise the gun and everything will cut to black as a gun shot goes off.
-The black screen will then cut back to Caden and Samantha in a shot together - Samantha will be on the phone here saying "Yes boss, we've got him..." and Caden will be in the shot on the floor writing in agony as he has just been shot. He will then grab onto Samantha in the disorientation as he is filled with anger as well as wanting nothing more than to live and be safe, but will just bat his hand away in disgust (this is where the humour comes in).
-Samantha then grabs Caden up off of his feet and forces him down the corridor in a long shot (the long shot will allow us to see how much Caden is injured and disorientated due to the situation and pills he had taken previously).

Ways to shoot a video like a professional

http://lifehacker.com/214043/8-ways-to-shoot-video-like-a-pro

I found this website to be extremely useful because it gives you 8 descriptive ways on how to shoot videos and make it look professional. I find this as an amateur film maker to be extremely useful due to the fact that I want my videos to look as professional as they possibly can.
The tip that I found to be the most useful was number 4 - this tip explains how to use lighting to your advantage in order to get clear and crisp shots of your subjects - I found this useful because I am going to be lowering certain lights in order to set a dark scene, therefore I must take lighting into consideration otherwise the subjects within my frame wont be very easy to see and will simply be sunken in with the background.

Videography tips

Videography tips:
http://www.videomaker.com/tips-to-get-started

I found that the website above proved to be rather helpful due to the fact that it basically told me all of the do's and don'ts of film making when it comes to using the camera to get good shots, how to achieve crisp and clear audio with no fuss or re-shooting in order to get the audio that I want, how to prepare myself before filming and a checklist of all the equipment I may need for filming so I don't forget anything.

Filming tips for post production

10 tips for videos at post production:
http://www.alastairhumphreys.com/10-tips-video-post-production/

I found the website about extremely useful for me because it gives relay good advice on things that you should think about when filming, but will probably overlook as an amateur film maker (much like myself).
My favourite tips were numbers 2 (keeping your footage short, sweet and to the point), 4 (keeping clips short in order to create a certain mood and only include what is relevant) and 6 (varying your shot types in order to get the finished product that you desire). I found these 3 tips the most important because they cover everything they are the things that I am most concerned about for when I come to making my own film opening. Also, it was nice to have a little advice a well as encouragement from this site in order to keep these tips in the back of my mind for post production and production.

Tips for post production

10 tips for videos at post production:
http://www.alastairhumphreys.com/10-tips-video-post-production/

I found the website about extremely useful for me because it gives relay good advice on things that you should think about when filming, but will probably overlook as an amateur film maker (much like myself).
My favourite tips were numbers 2 (keeping your footage short, sweet and to the point), 4 (keeping clips short in order to create a certain mood and only include what is relevant) and 6 (varying your shot types in order to get the finished product that you desire). I found these 3 tips the most important because they cover everything they are the things that I am most concerned about for when I come to making my own film opening. Also, it was nice to have a little advice a well as encouragement from this site in order to keep these tips in the back of my mind for post production and production.

Plot Brainstorm

by buzzbecca16

Script

There is minimal talking in my opening sequence, it will mainly be made up of music and facial expressions. However, there is a section of speaking about mid way through the scene and just at the end of the scene:

Middle script:

Unidentified person 1:Oh poor thing, you’ve run out of options I’m afraid, now turn yourself in peacefully and we won’t do you any harm. We will however get you a lovely dark cell organized, how does that sound? Haha
Unidentified person 2: I'd rather you shoot me right here right now if that's the case, but just so you know, we all thought you were different, we didn't think that you would crack under the pressure like Ray did, but I guess we all had you completely wrong, didn't we. YOU'LL ROT IN HELL FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE!
Unidentified person 1: ...Mouthy, aren't you, but I guess you always were weren't you. Well we can't have that, can we? Say goodbye to your pathetic life, sister, say hi to dad for me, will ya?
Unidentified person 2: NO, DON'T, PL.....
(gun shot has gone off)
Unidentified person 2: *makes short breaths and gasps - dying noises*

End script:

When camera is on last frame - close up on protagonists face (Caden)

Caden: Bollox.

Costume

For my opening sequence I am going to try and keep as much black and professional costume as possible in order to maintain the narrative of my storyline - that being a serious nature in the film contrasted by humorous elements in order to create comedy.

The costume I think would best suit my protagonist (man who is running down corridor who ends up trying to save injured person at the end of the corridor) would be a pair of smart black shoes and black trousers because they are very uniform and can apply to a lot of job roles (therefore carrying out enigma codes even further as there isn't any significant thing the character is wearing to identify who he is yet). He would also be wearing a brighter coloured shirt e.g. purple, blue, pink etc... This little symbolic code represents him as being a good character because the shirt he is wearing is light and bright, stereotypically showing the good in him (as light and bright things are stereotypically seen as almost angelic in media) - however, this also contrasts the dark showing that there may be more than one side to him. Speaking of having more than one side to him, the character will also be wearing a mid length black coat and a black waist coat - the waist coat will be another element that supports the formal element of the clothing and narrative, but it will also be an item of clothing that is significant to the character so that there is something else about him that people will remember. The black coat he is wearing will again support the formality but it will also had a little bit of mystery to the character - metaphorically, people want to see what could be hidden underneath.

The costume that I think would best suit my antagonist (the man you see right at the end of the opening sequence when the protagonist is ‘caught’) would again be in black trousers and black shoes because they can be applied to a lot of different job roles but also keep that fear people have for those in strict and clean cut uniform – they tend to be the bosses if the average man/women, therefore they have more power over a large number of people and have the power to fire you or get you to do something bad in order for you to keep your job (however this seen far more in films than reality, but the fear still stands). He may also have a black coat...depending on whether the people I know who will star in the film do in fact have a black coat. They will also have to wear a shirt that connotes something evil or dangerous e.g. red or black – these colors are often associated with danger and bad emotions and I want that to reflect onto the antagonist.

However.

 In my final product I didn't end up following the conventions of this costume for my characters because my antagonist ended up being a female so she couldn't wear a suit like this and my protagonist didn't have a light shirt to wear for filming nor could he borrow one. So, I instead made it clear that my protagonist was in fact a protagonist by putting him in a jumper because jumpers conventionally generally make people look soft and 'cute' or 'sweet'. If I had put my protagonist with clothing with straight lines and harsh edges such as a suit, it could suggest something evil and strict about that character (as this can be linked to the bosses of big corporations who are often portrayed in the media as ruthless, money grabbing tyrants)

However, despite clothing with a harsh and sharp shape having connotations of being evil I decided to put my antagonist in clothing that was quite loose which made her look as though she didn't care about what she looked like, making her seem like the kind of criminal that isn't attached to some big evil organisation, but some little gang that plays by its own rules and laws, making for a looser and less conventional plot where the outcomes of situations aren't as predictable as current media films.