Possessions. My final movie opening piece.

 

Evaluation question 7. - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

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

I think i really improved on the filiming and editing together and chosing shots from my preliminary task to my actual movie opening in various ways, for example one key feature which was really not sucessful in my preliminary task was the continuity editing as from shot to shot there were gaps where the chararcters involved had clearly changed their positions, also camera shake was abit of a problem although a tripod was used, especially on the high low angle shots, so i was aware of this while filming my opening.

These two shots are from my preliminary task and as you can see the shot goes imediatly from him drinking out of a cup, to a shot of him looking down at it; so this shows my really bad ability to sucessfully portay continuity editing, and this is something i beleive i improved on a great deal when filming and editing together my movie opening as there is continuity editing throughout the second half sequence. Whereas the first half of all the close up art shots do not need to focus on continuity editing.

In this shot reverese shot you can see that all positioning of the male character being film are completly different once again showing bad continuity editing another thing i had to always remember and consider when filming my opening.

In comparison to my movie opening where i used a tripod throughout and focus on keeping the camera steady at all times, i think the quality of filming is much better than the preliminary task. Also the continuit of the whole piece worked really well also in me opening.

As you can see here, these are two shots my my movie opening which are next to each other and the continuity works really well as the shots are from different angles but in both the character is stiring the tea, so from the audiences perspective they would see it as being one whole sequence, but from another angle rather than they fact i filmed from two different angles, at sperate times.

This is another example of where i think the editing worked well and it was where the shots chnaged from her making the tea to walking over to the table and it was from two complete opposite sides of the room in which i filmed the shots, but keeping to the 180 degree rule in filiming and always keeping to one side of the objective meens that the shots look the way they should, and arnt confusing to the eye through continuity editing. 

Evaluation question 6. - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout the whole of this project i have used many types of software and technologies which have been new to me, and i have learnt to use to enable me to create my final coursework opening piece. Below are some example of new thing i have to learn in order to sucessfully do so.

LiveType

Livetype is a programme i used in order to create my titles that appear throughout my opening, this was a very complex programme that i somtimes struggled with, in order to sucssfully create my titles, i have to set many different thing individually including the font, timing, transitions of the text, the spacing of where they were to be seen on the opening and also the ammount of time they were to be on the opening for; all these aspects were something that had to be set and applied in livetype.

Slr Camera

Throughout the project many types of camera were used, one in which was and slr, which i used in order to take photos for casting, and i also atempted to filmd footage using the slr, but the quality wasnt appropriate so i decided to use a HD camcorder.

Apple Mac

The whole of the editing of my piece was done using a Apple Macpro which at first i found extremly difficult being used to an ordinary computer, but this is where all my footage and every aspect of my opening was made, another new technology i had to learn to use!

Final Cut Pro

Final cut was the programme i used in order to edit my clips together and make the piece work as a whole, i added fades between shots here and cut the clips down, and converted them to the appropriate file type. Things such as the titles and the soundtrack were thing i had to import into final cut and edit into the piece, colaborating the different programmes together in order to creating a piece was also somehtign new to me.

Flip Camera

A flip camera was used in order to film tesing parts and also i use the flip camera to upload people video responces to my oepning, this was surprisingly simple to do as the camer consisted of a usb and a cable from the mac pro working togetehr in order to uploading the videos to the mac, then quicktime, and then uploading them to youutbe to post online.

Blogger

Blogger was a programme i have heard of before and was fairly familar with, so was quite easy to come to terms with, and i find it a really useful way in which i could keep track and keep up to date with all work.

HD Camcorder

The HD camcorder was the technolgy in which i filmed the footage for my opening and i firstly found it very difficult to work and control; once i got used to using it, along with a tripod, it was down to angeling the shots and keeping the camera steady.

Youtube

Youtube was an extremly helpful online programme in which i used throughout the project, for research, uploading my own videos, and also uploading the responces to my opening. the most difficult aspect was the converting of the video and chosing the right settings in order to the videos being recognisable to the programme meening they can be uploaded sucessfully.

Soundtrack Pro

A programme in which i used to create the soundtrack for my opening, and this involved choising the different sounds, sometimes extending them, and creating the different sounds through many layers of sounds. I had to look for sounds that i thought would work well in my piece and create tension and atmopshere.

Evaluation question 5. - How did you attract/address your audience?

If you watch this version of my Opening and turn on annotations yuo will see my comment on how i think i have sucessfully address the audience.

Evaluation question 4. - Who would be the audience for your media product?

I believe if my opening were to be made into a full length feature film it would appeal to a younger audience between the ages of say 15-25 and i wanted my opening to still appeal to this audience age range. One important thing is that i didnt want my opening to appeal to just one gender, so i had to think about this whilst planning my opening. The opening does only reveal one character who is female, but i think this doesnt particularly matter, and doesnt meen it is a female dominate film, as the eerie gripping opening i think reveals and hits at the idea that the genre is thriller/mystery and i think this appeal to both genders.

If my film were to be full length it would feature many other aspects as music, possibly music from similar artists as kings of leon, or chase and status as some of there tracks are effective along with visuals in creating tention. Other aspects will also be included, possibly like crime, alcohol, music and betrayal, as these relate to the genre and would work well with fitting with the age range of 15-25 as these are often subjects in which they are interested in or can relate to at that age.

This age is also the most dominate audience for thriller films which is why i wanted to aim my film at this age range. Below are some examples of typical teenagers which would i am aiming this opening at, i have also asked people from this age range of there responces to my opening and the out come was positive, meening that if this were to be a feature film i believe the audience age range chosen would be appropriate.

Evaluation Question 3. - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

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

Evaluation question 2. representing social groups

In these shots you can clearly see images of my main charatcer and what she is wearing, i chose this choice of clothing as i believe the clothes are very basic and classic, not too revealing for the audience, showing that she is a modest characters. Along with her innocent activity, for example, making tea and calmly reading the paper connates that this girl is quite intellegent. Also in the surroundings of her own home the audience would gather that the girl would have a middle class status, due to the respectfull looking location and resonably sized kitchen.

When looking at the first part sequence of my opening you can see parts of the characters coat and jewlery which look particular expensive also, so this once again highlights the class of this charatcer would be middle class. There is a long shot of the charatcter laying down, abandoned, at the beggining and it may not be very obvious, but you can see the girl is wearing wellies, this also connoates that the girl may be middle class or even higher class, living the country lifestyle, and the fact the location is in the countryside.

In Comparison to the female character staring in my opening, you can clearly see the difference between the 'gritty' girls style from independent movie 'This is England' who are portryed as much lower class, and you can tell this due to clothing and body language, i purposly didnt want my charatcter to be portayed in this way as i belive the 'innocent' girl next door look creates alot more sympathy and grabs the attention of the audience alot more.

Evaluation question1. - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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

The start of my movie opening i believe works really well, as all objectives are built up gradually, including the music and the visuals, and the music increases and the dynamic and interesting shots used gradually speed up and i think this is very common with movie openings; as its not often that the movie dives straight into something action packed and fast, its common for openings to gradually built up, have a questioning part to it and make the audience question what is going on, and keep them engaged in the opening.

Its also very typical to have opening credits and 'staring' name slowly running over the top of visual footage and i think this worked particularly well, as once again its a key feature that keeps the audiences attention as they follow the visuals and they staring names.

As the opening sequence rolls there are many quirkey shots used that are almost quite eerie, which creates alot of questioning and tenstion form the audience, as the opening carries on the shots get faster, and shots change quickly this grabs the audiences attention and is simliar to existing openings as quirkey images are often used to grabs the audiences attention. Also the countryside setting, in which you can see the unusual shots also creates an atmosphere; with a location such as this you would expect a independent movie to be shot in a similar location to this, and this is what i would relate my film to be if it were made into a full length feature film, as the britsh settings would be similar to a britsh independent movie. The eerie shots and the fact there is a motionless body in the frame could hint at the idea that this movies genre could be thriller, crime or mystery, and i think its effective leaving part of the awnsering to the audience to decide on a genre.

Similar to existing movies, i thought after the gripping, fast shots i used at the start of my opening it would be effective to dive straight into the title 'Possessions' which relates to the previous shots of a girl, laying motionless, and many closeups of various objects, possesions, which can also be later seen in the latter part of my opening. I thought dropping the title in here with some blunt non-diegetic sound worked really well as it split up the two parts of the opening the more artistic obscure angles and then in conparison to the section after which is the same girl featured in the first half, going about her day to day activities.

After the title is shown, the shot then changes to a medium shot of a kettle which is boiling, i think this visual works really well after the eerie first sequence, the shot is then interupted as a girl, the same girl featured in the first half, reaches into the shot with a mug and makes a cup of tea. Now this is quite common for an opening as after an artistic or unusual opening it works really well when human activity is first noticed.

I took some video footage of the charatcer going about her day to day activities, as i think by this time the audience will notice that this girl is the same girl featured in the opening shots, and this will make them interested in what is going to happen next, a gripping topic, similar to other movies, keeping the audience interested. The fact that these shots are quite casual and its a girl in her own home location could also introduce the idea that this film could be set under the title of drama as a genre, as similar subjects and locations would be used in a drama.

Attached here is a video of an opening of movie, 'Harry Brown' Featurinf Micheal Caine relased in 2009, which follows a similar idea to mine, where in which something quite peculiar and gripping happens, then credits roll, in my case its the movies title name, and then this changes to a character going about there day to day activity, this video example shows at the end the slight snipet of the character waking up, and then clip then stops; but in the actual longer version in the film it carries on with the character waking up and getting ready. I think this was a similar example i found to the idea i used in my piece, and relates quite well.

Inbetween shots of the character going about her day to day activity i have included the running credits of the productions company, distribution company, who funded the movie etc, as in the first part sequence i revealed the staring characters, i thought showing these inbetween clips would work well, as it breaks parts up, making it more interesting and creating a gradual build up.

In comarison to the first half of the opening the second part is alot slower and more casual, as its almost as if we are just watching the girl, and these shots used are alot longer, and i think this works well as its almost like the actual movie is begginging and a build up is starting, but as she is reading the paper, we see a change in attitude, and she becomes very anxious and storms out the house.. this is where the opening ends, but i think it works well as this slight built up to her storming out creates alot of questioning for the audience, and they would start to relate and try to fix together how these two seperate parts work together, and what happens inbetween for her to be in the state she was in at the start.

Audience Feedback on my Movie Opening

Focusing on my Target Audience

If my opening were to be carried out and developed into an entire movie i think the target audience for my piece would be teenagers and older, due to the theme of my opening as i want it to be a 'mysterious thriller'. i want my piece to be quite diverse, and will have an independent movie kind of feel to it, due to the location in the opening, and other features; for example i plan to film my opening in two separate location, one being in the countryside, this part being particularly eerie and mysterious, using unusual camera angles and shots. The other location being in a household location, of a girl going her day to day activity, and i wanted the two scenes to link in a way in which makes it very questioning for the audience, and this will involve the character featuring in both scenes, and her activity which will be juxtaposing in both scenes which will create questioning from the audiences perspective.

A younger audience may find my opening quite confusing and possible a little frightening with the visiual and audio sounds working together as i want to make it quite eerie, so i think my most appropriate target audience would be from 15 years and over.

Using Livetype

Livetype is a programme i used in order to create my titles that appear throughout my opening, this was a very complex programme that i somtimes struggled with, in order to sucssfully create my titles, i have to set many different thing individually including the font, timing, transitions of the text, the spacing of where they were to be seen on the opening and also the ammount of time they were to be on the opening for; all these aspects were something that had to be set and applied in livetype.

This is an exmple of my text which reveals the production company name, and the blue line is the positioning of where the text is going to appear on the screen of the movie opening, wether it be over the top of footage i have recorded or a plain background, the finalising and editing wether it will be on footage or not will be done in final cut. Underneath is the timeline in which you can edit the transitions of the text.

This is the selection and toolbox where you insert the text you want and then edit the text in many different way, looking at font, colour and shadowing. This is also where you add the transitions and how and how and where the text appears and dissapears on the screen.

As you can see here, my possesions title i thought would look best in white with black shadowing, and underneath you can see the yellow and purple timeline, which you can edit, allowing how long it take for the text to fade in and out, how long it stays up for and the different transitions used for the text.

Using Soundtrack Pro

A programme in which i used to create the soundtrack for my opening, and this involved choising the different sounds, sometimes extending them, and creating the different sounds through many layers of sounds. I had to look for sounds that i thought would work well in my piece and create tension and atmopshere.

This is a shot of my soundtrack from soundtrack pro, and as you can see all the seperate green sections are all the layers of sounds i have used and included to create my soundtrack. Some fade in and out at different times for effect, and i have used different sounds that i think complement each other and work well together for my piece, as i want to create alot of the tenstion and atmophere from the sounds used, as i think alongside the eerie images at the start of my piece this will work really well.

Using Final Cut Express

Final cut was the programme i used in order to edit my clips together and make the piece work as a whole, i added fades between shots here and cut the clips down, and converted them to the appropriate file type. Things such as the titles and the soundtrack were thing i had to import into final cut and edit into the piece, colaborating the different programmes together in order to creating a piece was also somehtign new to me.

 As you can see here final cut express consists of two split screens, one in which you drag the clips form the left into, and you can edit and cut clips whihc are shown in the first screen. The next screen is where the final outcome plays over and you can see how things work together, which is helpful and this prevents you going back and forth from clips and losing work and edits.

Here is a shot of the timeline used in final cut, where all editing clips are dragged in series and then can be played or transitions can be added in order to create the final piece.

This is a close up of the timeline, showing where i have put two seperate clips together and added a cross dissolve meening the clips will descretly fade which i think works really well. Above is a seperate piece which is one of the titles, made in livetype and imported as a sperate file, then edited into the timeline also.



 This is a shot of the opening sequence of my opening as you can see there are mnay short clips, with titles running over the top, the soundtrack throughout, and then it leads onto the 'Possessions' title where you can see the gap in the series, then this changes to the main part of my opening where the female character is going about her day to day activies.



Potential Production company names

For my movie opening i will have to come up with some production company names in which i will use in my opening, the name will have to be quite memorable and catchy for the audience, and may have some relevance to the movie, or the genre in which i base my movie on.

Existing Hollywood Production Company names
- Paramount Pictures
- 20th Century Fox
- Universal studios

Exhisting Independent Production Company names
- Big Arty Productions
- Caravan Films
- Many Rivers Films

As my film would fall under the Idependent film category if it were to be a full length film i think i need a name that isnt to explict and over exagerated, so i have come up with a few suggestions..

Marble Lights Productions
Northen Lights Procuctions
Clearly Misty Productions
Newton Heath Productions
Newton Production

I think alot of these titles work well as they are not to elaborate, but i chose some title that i think worked well together listed below.

My chosen running titles in order are..
- Marble lights presents
- A Newton Heath production
- In association with the bristsh film council

Preparation for Filming.

Casting Sheet

Filming- Chloe Newton

Staring - Megan Smith

1pm 

Props & Objects Needed

Camera

Tripod

Possessions used

ie, newspaper, bracelet.

Props available in the household

Costume.

ie, black, dark clothing for character.

Health & Safety Issues

Whilst filming i and people in the opening must be aware of health and safety issues constantly. For instance in my piece i plan to film my character going about her normal day to day activity and making tea, so simple things like safety using the kettle must be made aware of; making the tea, transferring boiling water, and general activity moving around with camera equipment etc. 

Also whilst out in the countryside location, we must made sure the location in which we chose to film is allowed and accessible, and around the village in which i film we must be aware of generally health and safety issues, including traffic and various other issues that may occur. 

Casting

For my Movie opening, one feature which is key to a successful opening is the main objective and focus of the story which us to be lead on by a particular character. So in my case there is only going to be one key character who is featured in our opening, so the acting needs to be very particular and the way in which she looks must be very also striking and rememberable to suit our theme of the opening being a drama thriller. This character is also portrayed as very innocent as this will create sympathy and questioning from the audeinces perspective, so her character must be very believable from the audiences perspective!

I thought from my idea that a girl would be more suitbale, as it easier to generate sympathy and have more of an emotional conection with a female charatcer as they are genrally more emotional and easily portrayed an innocent. From my initial planning i thought of the opening being based around something mysterious that has happen to a girl, maybe quirkey shots of parculiar things surroudning, and in connection with the girl, and then shots of her going about her day to day activity. I thought it would be easier using a girl to portray this innocence and questioning as they are easier to portray with a female charatcer through different aspects such as body language, style, voice and even costume and props; whereas it is harder to portray a male character as all these aspects and still be believable so we thought a female lead would work well and be most appropriate.

After talking to a male and talking to him about ideas and ways in which we thought he could effectively portray the idea him being isolated and innocent, we thought it would be most effective to stick to the lead being a girl and casting females only.

I liked the look of this female as she could effectively portray innocent, but thought maybe her tone of voice may not work for my particular idea, if i were to use speech in the opening, although the character wont actually say much, just a few key lines and quoters we thought it was still and important aspect to consider.

After talking to this Female we thought as our main feature character she wouldn't work as well as some of the others casted, as we generally thought her look wasn't what we were looking for, and we generally thought she looked too happy to create sympathy from the audience!

After casting to this character i thought she looked to edgy and rocky to be portrayed as a innocent key character, i thought her voice worked well, of i was going to use voice in my opening, which is yet decided, but her hair and overall looked wouldn't have worked as well as other although for our final 'look' we will be looking and choosing costume.

I really liked this female and thought she would work really well as my chosen key character as she has a really innocent look about her, with her pale skin tone and light blonde hair, another key factor which is important was the fact she is very petite, and this will work well in the audiences behalf in the idea of creating sympathy. She also had a really quite and subtle tone to her voice, which is appropriate for the small piece of dialogue she may have.

Storyboard

 

This is my storyboard plan of my idea and what i am planning to film as my movie opening, timings may chnaged around and be a little different, but im pleased with my idea generated and think with my chosen location it will work really well and go to plan.