Film Opening = Evaluation Activity 7, Shot Reverse Shot

Shot reverse shot is another continuity editing technique which again is used in conversations or when characters are looking at each other. It is used to show the reactions of character to speech or action. A shot showing what one character is looking at, this could either be a point of view shot or over the shoulder shot, is followed by a reverse angle shot of the character themselves looking at whatever it is, or another character looking at them. Shot reverse shot is closely linked with the 180 degree rule to retain continuity by not changing the audience's sense of location of the characters in the shots shown.

Film Opening = Evaluation Activity 7, Match on Action

Match on action refers to a film editing technique for continuity editing where the editor cuts from one shot to another, with a view that matches the first shot's action. A common example is a someone walking up to a door and reaching for the for handle.  This technique is used to hold onto the viewers attention, if this technique wasn't used the shot wouldn't flow and would give the audience a chance to loose interest, due to the slight cutting or continuity issues. We use this technique in our opening, to show Christa returning into the church.

Film Opening = Evaluation Activity 7, 180 Degree Rule

The 180 Degree Rule is a filming guideline that actors and actresses uses whilst filming scenes such as conversations. They should have the same left-right relationship to each other, with filming only taking place within the 180 degree angle established at the beginning of the shot. This technique allows the audience to have a greater sense of location in the scene in terms of what may be off-screen in some shots. For example, in King Vidor's The Big Parade, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_-BvxzdOr4) the audience's viewpoint is constantly southward of the action. The soldiers walk front left to right when heading to the frontlines and then right to left when returning home, creating a sense of direction.

Film Opening = Evaluation Activity 7

Evaluation Activity 7 from Ella Sandison

Film Opening = Evaluation Activity 6

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

The Camera
The camera we used to film our film opening was a Nikon D3200. One main thing I learned about using this camera is that for a steady shot you will need to use a tripod. Millie and I couldn't gain access to one of these, so all of our shots were filmed handheld. Despite this giving a great effect to the shot as it makes the audience feel that they are 'the camera' or in the film. I believe there are some shots in our film that could've benefited from being filmed with a tripod, as there would have been a contrast between the shot types.

IMovie

Here is a photo of Millie and I using the Apple Mac for editing. IMovie is an film editing programme which comes on the Apple Mac computers. We used this software as it was provided for us at school. I learnt so many different editing techniques from using this software. One main skill I learnt was editing the sound on our individual clips, both diegetic and non-diegetic. We did this with the wind in one of our clips by either completing removing the background noise in the clips or adjusting the volume of the sounds we wanted to be ore noticeable. Another very important skill I learnt was trimming shots, this helped with continuity editing very much so. One example of this is when we did a shot reverse shot of Christa walking back into the church. We had to really focus on trimming these clips so they matched exactly in order to keep the shots flowing together.

The Apple Mac

Millie and I used an Apple Mac download all of our clips from our camera and edit them all as well. I also used the mac to conduct all of my research on studio logos, potential production companies and other thriller/horror films. We also used the mac to access YouTube which is where we uploaded our preliminary task and our complete film opening. Using YouTube also meant we could easily put a link onto our blogs so readers could easily access and watch them. Before studying media I had little experience with Apple Mac's so it took a while to get used to the differences between a mac and a windows pc. Despite this, I managed to get a hang of it quite quickly and use it to edit, research and produce my final film.

Film Opening = Evaluation Activity 5

Evaluation Activity 5 from Ella Sandison

Film Opening = Evaluation Activity 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

I believe that our film would attract an audience of 16-25 year olds, both male and female. However predominately female. Despite the that fact that figures show males are more likely to watch horror films, I believe our opening will attract more females due the fact we have a female protagonist.  who were into horror/thriller films. For example, they would be into TV programmes such as The X-Files. This programme is a American science-fiction horror drama, which is about an FBI team who try to solve paranormal phenomena. This is very similar to the theme of our film opening, due to the aspects of unknown phenomena.

They wouldn't shop in high street stores like Topshop and H&M. They would shop in small individual vintage clothing stores, such as 'Vintage To Vogue'. They also drive so this allows them to be specific with which theatres they go to, and they chose ones that show indie and individual films, such as our film opening 'The Anti-Christ'.

They wouldn't be interested in chart music such as Rihanna and Craig David, instead they would listen to indie artists such as Nirvana. They would have digital copies of songs on their phones but also be into owing CD's and vinyl's. They enjoy small level festivals and concert that show new alternative upcoming acts, that wont/don't feature in the charts.

Film Opening = Evaluation Activity 3

Evaluation Activity 3 from Ella Sandison

Film Opening = Evaluation Activity 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I have decided to compare our main character, Christa, to the main character of 'Black Swan' Nina. One reason I decided to compare these two characters is because they are very similar in their role of the film. They are both the main female lead, who has a task to complete with something or someone holding them back from doing so.
Another way in which these two characters are similar in their costume. Despite Nina's being very eye catching, they both have the same simplicity of colour, black and white. Nina changes costume throughout the film to represent the different roles she is playing, however Christa stays in the same costume, as we didn't want the audience to be distracted by this. Both Christa and Nina's costumes are also none sexualising, the stereotypical ballet dress, despite being short and fitted, doesn't have any sexual connotations attached to it, so again like our costume for Christa, we wanted her to be respected and acknowledged for her intelligence and assertiveness.
Even though Christa and Nina are very similar in some aspects, they are also quite different. This is shown in their general appearance. Christa has a deceptively soft looking face whereas Nina has a firm and confident look to herself, however is quietly unconfident at the beginning of the film. This is another similarity the fact that their looks don't always represent their characters. The two characters are also different in age, Nina is older than Christa but still young. This would suggest that they would attract different audiences, however I believe that the fact that both story line are rather complex, both films would attract the same age bracket, 16-25.

Film Opening = Evaluation Activity 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)

 Millie and I decided to place our title at the end of our film opening, and this was for many reasons but one main one was because we both liked the way it brought the film to an obvious and complete end. Our film title first appears whilst there is still action continuing in the background but then fades to a black screen, pictured above, the contrast between the black and the red makes it really stand out from the background but also represents the contrast of the subject of the film opening. We used the same font in our film title as we did in the credits throughout the opening and we chose this font specifically due to the fact it slightly looks like it has been written in blood and looks slightly medieval, which relates to the imagery of candles used in the opening.

This screen grab here shows the location of where our opening was set and unlike many other film openings such as Gossip Girl, Funny Games and Skyfall which show a selection of shot to present the audience with the general area the film will be set in, our only shows this one location. However I believe this accentuates the importance of the religious aspects and recompenses the fact that that we couldn't film all the shots we wanted, such as a bird eye view of the village (general area) around the main location. Another bonus to  only having the one shot of the location is that it doesn't give away much about the rest of the film, and this was a key aspect of what I reported in my audience questionnaire.

This shot shows the costume which we dressed our characters in, there isn't many shot which fully shows the character's costume as we didn't believe this was main aspect which we wanted to focus on. However, we did use it to make another contrast between colours, in this case black and white. We also tried to chose a costume which didn't fit to female lead stereotypes, such as a fitting or revealing costume, despite the example above still keeping the . Keeping it simple encouraged our audience to focus on the more important parts of our film opening.

This screengrab here is an example of match on action, which is a camera technique we learnt about and how to use whilst filming our preliminary task. Despite this technique normally being used to help portray a conversation in a more realistic way, we have used it here to show the main character walking through the church doors. I believe this makes the audience feel more involved in the film as they can see what is happening from all angles, as if they were in the film themselves.  We also learnt other camera techniques in our preliminary task such as 180 degree rule and shot reverse shot, we would have included these if we were required to make the entire film, however with a maximum time of two minuets we wanted to focus on other shot and images.

This screengrab is taken from within the first 15 seconds of the film opening and immediately creates a feel of suspense and tension as a tracking shot reveals empty pews and then shows a character sat on the end of a row that wasn't previously there. Creating a feel of suspense, and so quickly, fulfills an aspect of thriller straight away and doing this so early in the opening allows the audience to quickly understand the genre and allows them to start anticipating what's to come. Another convention of a thriller is flashbacks, we used this in our opening to show the current girl and her old self. This almost creates a sense of confusion in the audience and puts them on edge as they are unsure of what is exactly happening. We also used over the shoulder shots to create a feel of someone being behind the main character, dark lighting, close up shots to show the expression on the characters faces and music connoting tension.

Both of these shots here include special effects, Millie and I decided to slow down both of them in order to create a sinister and ghostly feel. The shot on the left hand side is a very typical thriller shot as you cannot see the face of the character, which creates a mysterious feel and creates the image that the character may be secretive.

Film Opening = Evaluative Questionnare Analysis

After I collected all the feedback from my evaluative questionnaire, I read through all the answered and I was pleased with what I read. Response 1 said that she really like the fact the camera was filmed from a first person point of view and I was pleased with this because I was worried the audience might misinterpret the unsteadiness for just poor filming and not think it was done intentionally. I was also pleased the amount of responses that commented on the choice of music. Responses 1, 2 and 3 all said that they believed the music enhanced the genre, which was really good to hear as Millie and I worked really hard to make the music interesting and not just a background sound. All responses believed that our production name and logo were suitable for the film opening and all responses said they editing was smooth and professional. However, despite all of these encouraging and positive comments, response number 4 said he would of like to hear some dialogue and this would've encouraged him to watch the rest of the film if there was one. Response 2 said she thought the scenes without characters were stronger than those with them, she wanted more of a balance between the imagery shots and the character shots. In response to this I would say that Millie and I really wanted to show the importance of religion in the play, hence the amount of setting and religious imagery shots. If we were to film the whole film the actors would defiantly have more involvement and feature a lot more in the filming.

Film Opening = Evlauative Questionnaire Answers

Evaluative questionnaire from Ella Sandison

Film Opening = Evaluative Questionnaire

I conducted this questionnaire in order to receive evaluation from our audience on our film. Here are the questions I asked them...


1. What did you like about our film opening?
2. What didn't you like about our film opening?
3. What genre would you categorise our film opening as?
4. How does our film opening represent our chosen genre?
5. Does our studio logo and name 'Grave Productions' work well with our film genre, if so how?
6. What did you think of the editing? Did the different shots flow smoothly together?

Film Opening = Final Piece

Film Opening = Editing

This is Millie and me working on our film opening in the editing suite.

Film Opening = Studio Logo

Millie and I decided on the name of our production company whilst editing our film. We decided to call it "Grave Productions" we believed this would again reinforce the gothic theme and tie in well with our opening. After choosing the name of the production company we needed to create a logo. We wanted to keep it simplistic, like the decision with the costume, in order to keep the audiences focus on the opening. Here is our original logo design:

After creating this and places it in our opening we decided that something wasn't right. Millie and I messed around with different filters and decided that we wanted it to have inverted colours, this made it more creepy and sinister. Here is the design which we finished with and have placed in our film opening:

Film Opening = Studio Logo Research

The first logo I looked at was 'Walt Disney Pictures' this is a very well known film production company. This logo is my favourite due to the fact that it pictures a Disney castle in the background just like in the real Disneyland has. I also like the simplicity of this logo, the choice of the colours black and white help the audience stay focused on the actual image rather than the colours. However, I do believe that they could have targeted their audience a buy better by making it a colourful logo, as their target audience is primarily younger children. One way in which they have targeted their audience is by the font of the text, they swirly almost handwritten look type font makes the logo seem slightly childish however it still looks professional. The half circle around the logo, makes the brand almost seem exclusive but also creates the feel of a tight knit family business, a business who is focused on producing the best films for their audience, like they have been for generations.


The second logo I looked at was 'Universal', like Walt Disney, Universal is known all over the globe. This is demonstrated in their logo by the fact they have a picture of earth in the center and the name is almost wrapping around it. The bold font accentuates the importance of the company and the sizing of the text to the image shows how 'Universal' dominate the world's  media business. Universal doesn't specialise in a certain genre of film, but is known for being a top studio in Hollywood, US.

Film Opening = Title Sequence

In order to decide where would place our title credits we watch a couple of opening sequences from other films and made a timeline of the sequence. Here is my title sequence for the film Divergent.

After looking at a couple of these we then decided the order we would place ours in, considering we have a lot less to credit than the Hollywood produced films, we had to have more time between each credit in order to fill the whole opening. During the section in our opening when there are shots of outside the church there are no credits shown, we decided this because we didn't want to draw attention away form the chilling change of mood in the opening. We realised, after watching other openings, that this isn't normally done but we wanted the attention to be fully on the shots and not on any written credits.

Film Opening = Risk Assesment

One step Millie and I took to avoid any risk when creating our film opening was to ask permission from one of the key holders of the church whether it would be OK to film in there. One we received permission we agreed on a date and time in which we would use the church to ensure we didn't clash with any services or activities going on in the premises. After this was all confirmed we got given the key and were asked not to touch the heating and to remember to turn off all lights we turned on. We also made sure that any candles we lit, to use in our filming, were then blown out before we left.

Film Opening = Storyboard

Film opening = Storyboard from Ella Sandison

Film Opening = Sound and Editing

Sound
Our film opening starts with non-diegetic music. Millie and I spent a long time trying to find the perfect track for our film and I believe this piece really works well. The music is very electronic and this is a massive contrast to the traditional religious setting. The use of minor chords, along with the high pitch tones, creates an unsettling feeling for the audience. We liked the fact that the music almost sounded metallic this gave it a dangerous and deadly feel. During our film opening we have a key low angle shot of a prominent crucifix in a window with two lit candles either side. We purposely timed the change of music over this shot in order to intensify the significance of God in the film. A high pitched ringing noise is heard which stimulates feelings of fright and distress.
As well as non-diegetic sound, our opening also includes diegetic sound in the external shots. During the shots which were taken in the graveyard you can hear a slight undertone of winds and rustle from the leaves. This is sound from the original clips however we did have to increase the volume of the wind so that I would be heard by the audience, but we made sure it didn't overpower the non-diegetic music that was playing at the same time.

Editing 
We used various techniques in our film opening in order to enhance the thriller/horror genre we wanted. One main technique we focused on was continuity editing. This editing technique would make our film flow smoothly and make it look professional as well as holding onto the attention of the audience. We also used this type of transition whilst filming the religious imagery as it created a contrast with the harsh music and images shown on the screen. This contrast again would put the audience on edge and reinforce the thriller theme. Another editing technique we chose to include was a split end, which is a media term for an overlap. In a split edit the audio and video don’t start at the same time, one or the other is slightly delayed. When Christa returns from the graveyard and into the church, before the music starts the audio comes in. We chose to use this because we wanted the audience to focus on what had just happened and to be guessing about what is going to happen next and not be distracted by the new audio.

Film Opening = Character Profile

Whilst planning for our film opening we had to consider the characters. We decided we would have one girl, played by two people,  called Christa, an older version of her and a younger version.

After deciding the character we decided on the people who would act them. We chose Millie and my sister, Martha. Both Millie and Martha have blonde hair and fair skin, which we believed would

help with the gothic theme and help with the idea that they were the same person but at different time periods. We also chose them because we knew it would be easier to organise dates to film as there were less people involved in the production.

Film Opening = Audience Research Questionnaire Analysis 3

Finally I analysed the final question, number 6 'What attracts you to watching a film?'