Evaluation

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Final Editing

After getting our feedback, we went back and tried to change some little things in our opening to make them that little bit better. The first problem was my voice in the dialogue, we cleverly thought chloes pitch in her voice would suit our genre much better, so straight away i got her to re-record over my speech. This worked very well. The next cristism we got was that some parts of our opening were 'over edited' we decided to tone tone the editing and make it look more natural, we then showed it to a few peers, and the response was much better. We connected all of our digetic and non-digetic sounds to our opening, and together it looks so effective, and very professional. We then worked on making the credits look more realistic in a film, and also evenly set them out, as two names came up quicker and more rapidly than the other two. But overall we are all very proud of our progress as a group, and have had a lot of fun filming an editing this opening.

Feedback from our audience

The final question on the feedback sheet, which would generally help us to improve our opening was;
Did you notice any serious issues such as continuity errors, strange edits - Did anything not make sense to you?
"Story line was a bit confusing but knew roughly what was going on, sharpen the shots so they are closer together"

• "Storyline was a quite confusing but i knew roughly what was going on. Maybe sharpen some of the shots a bit?."
• "Sound needs a bit of work."
• "Didn't get the bit with the train."
• "Some bits are too dark, can't see as well."
• "Camera shots are slightly jumpy."

With this helpful critisism, as a group we can now go away and thouroughly look over these points and tweek our opening sequence were we need to, this will make it that much more effective for the audience.

Feedback from our audience

The next question that was asked was;
Who do you think the target audience is?

• "16+"
• "Mainstream"
• "People who like horror"
• "15+"
• "18, Indie Horror"

We was happy with these answers, as this is the actual target audience we was aiming for.

Feedback from our audience

As an extra bit of help, and to gain advice from our peers, after filming and editing, we decided to do a film showcase. This was so we could all show our films to an audience and get feedback and helpful critism so we could further improve our work. We gave out 'Feedback Sheets' to several people in the room and asked them to fill them out whilst watching our opening.
The first question that was asked was;
What was especially good about the film?

• "Really good editing- (Red lipstick with black and white) shot and good camera work and use of sound."
• "The camera work was really good."
• "Good use of colour."
• "Lighting was very good."
• "Never see the face till the end."
• "Good shots of the knife."
• "Shots of make-up and nail varnish at the start were really good."
• "Lighting suits the genre"
• "Good acting."

These points gave us a general idea that we was on the right tracks, and that the reaction was fairly positive.

Some problems we faced throughout this project

Throughout this whole project, me and my group have faced various problems that we had to sort out.

• We started out quite slowly as i think we were all quite nervous to work amongst people we wernt so close to. After we put that all behind us, we actually all got on really well, and then found it much easier to start working.
• The next thing that slowed us down was the fact that all four of us lived quite far from eachother, so it was difficult to meet for filming. We decided to film mainly at Jessicas house, as this seemed the easiest for us all.
• After filming all quite well, we had to begin editing, Jess and Chloe wernt in for a lesson when we learnt how to edit on the software so Efosa decided to go through it with them, this caused us to be a lesson behind our class, but we soon caught up
• The last thing we needed to fix, was that after we got our feedback from the class after the showcase, our teacher informed us that the dialogue that i infact say, didnt fit the genre of the film, as my voice is quite high and not eery. We decided chloes voice would fit the genre better, so she re-recorded my dialogue, and it now looks much better!

A Rough Version of our Opening Sequence

Here is a rough version of what our Opening looks like so far, We are at the stage were we are tweeking little areas that arent tidy, and really focusing on getting all the sounds completed and exported. Miss explained to us that the dialogue used in this sequence kind of made our genre go off balance, so we decided to re-record that bit of dialogue. My voice didnt seem to fit the horror genre to well, so chloe decided to have a go, and her voice definatly connects more to the genre than mine, which has really improved the whole sequence.

Feedback After Media Showcase

This excersise was used to get some feedback for individual groups to improve and develop their work further. Our teacher decided to set up a showcase for us all to show what we had got up to on editing our opening sequence and to show the rest of the class to see the reaction. Noone had finished so we was all at ease as to why some of the feedback was negative, but this really helped us all. Our feedback shocked our group, as we were all thinking alot of work was needed to be added, but our audience had a different reaction and on evaluation sheets we handed out, came back very positive and the main negative point was some over editing, which can easily be changed.

What we had to do was stand at the front of the class in our small groups introduce our opening with the title and everyones roles and then play it to the class and some extra students and teachers. we then got some critism about there being no sound, which we already knew was a problem we needed to solve next.
Other than that the feedback really has help us to improve and make our opening that much better.

Research on other films

I decided to research some other films connected to the same genre as our film, to see what editing has been used, how the credits have been placed, sounds etc..
I firstly looked at when a stranger calls. This film starts with a blank black screen, where the opening credits begin to show one at a time. An effective device they used at the same time is a narrative voice-over, this works well in the horror genre as it adds suspense. In this case we here a phone call between a girl and a strange sounding man. Without seeing anything on the screen the viewers are already asking questions.

I then looked at the opening of 'hide and seek'. This also begins with a black screen but quickly cuts to the face of a young girl where there is eery music in the background. This is the sort of sound we will use for our opening. Difference is this opening lasts 10 minutes before the opening credits begin.

Looking at these two horror based films, gives me an idea of music and where our credits can be placed. Research definatly has helped alot during this editing process.

'When a stranger calls' Opening Sequence

We firstly see the porduction company 'Screen Gems' which is in association with Sony. Whilst this is introduced on the screen behind a black background, the digetic sound in the background is an eery phone ringing. This makes us straight away link back to title, anf we start to think whos ringing? and whos answering?
The voices then appear, on one end of the phone line sounds a normal vunrable teenage girl, and on the other a creepy sounding man.
The shot is then of a house, where we can see a window with a light on, we expect this to be where the girl has answered the phone, and the tilted low angle shot looking up could be where the man is standing on the other end of the line.
We establish straight away by the voices that these two may infact be the main characters, and the film is based on them.
From this enigma we can tell this is a horror film, without seeing any characters just by the background sounds.

We then move setting to a funfair, and whilst we are using the shot type 'tracking' of two children, the first name of 'Brian Geraghty' is shown in the bottom left hand corner of the screen.
Following with some eery, jump shots showing a man where we cant see his face, to a girl on a merry go round. In the background we then see the house again, and the phone rings once again. This causes a very dramatic atmosphere, and makes the audience want to find out why this man keeps calling, and where he is? This is where the second name 'Katie Cassidy' is shown again in white font in the bottom left hand corner.

Whilst on the phone we hear some non digetic sounds of the funfair, but also some heavy breathing. This creates tension, and would make the viewers be on edge.
The background noise is mainly of the screams from the funfair, but behind it there is a slow eery music playing, when the lightng is very dull, and u cant see any peoples faces.

Whilst at night time down a dark street we are introduced by some more names, and this eery music has gotten louder. This is making the atmosphere more thrilling.
We are then focused on one house, which would make the audience think this is the house where the main action will take place. There is then a lighted pole, which reads 'JESUS' which could be a represntation of death.
From then on the camera seems hand held, as if we are the enemy and we are looking at our victim, we can also tell this as we can hear the heavy breathing which brings suspense. We are then shown many fast zooms and flash backs of the funfair and children, which is quite creepy.

This is when there is a third phone call. But this time we only hear the girls voice, we are then shown the house again, and then quickly the shopt is swept back to the funfair, this is very jumpy, and has the audience on edge.
In bold white letters 'When a stranger Calls' is then placed in the centre of the shot, and the digetic sound sounds like knifes being dragged across something, which could be a connotation linked to the film.

Preliminary Sequence

Before we begin to work on our own opening sequences, we got given the chance to experience the use of the camera and how to do various shot types in different setting. As a group we went to many different areas of the school to see how different light sources affect the outcome of the picture, and we all had a go at using the camera on the tripod. This was also a great chance to get practice on different shot types such as a pan and a crash zoom. Which are popular shots we may use in our final piece of work. We then got a greater understanding of using the new editing softwares that were still very new to us. We learnt how to extract different parts of our filming and join them to other parts using techniques such as fade ins. This was a great success to practice for our real sequence.

Recent Progress

We can finally see an effective opening coming along, and it actually looks very good. The acting and camera shots are spot on and the editing is looking really effective. we still need to convert our voiceovers and backing sounds to complete our opening, but as a group we are very happy with our progress so far, and look forward to seeing the finished sequence.

We then decided to think of a production name and logo for our opening. I decided to do a mindmap of all my own ideas and then would show my group to see what they thought and mix together our ideas.
Together we all decided our top 5 production names were:

• lightbulb productions
• newhouse productions
• wonkey donkey productions
• transform productions
• lighthouse productions

Together we decided that 'Lightbulb Productions' sounded the most professional, and the logo was much easier to make it stand out. Efosa added together our logo and production name onto a black screen and edited it in to the beginning of our opening. It actually stood out for me, looked very effective and professional, and worked well with the theme and genre our film uses.

Pillow Talk Vs Fringe Essay

“How are the sequences from ‘pillow talk’ and ‘fringe’ different? Discuss the differences in pace and style of editing as well as the effect the editing has on meaning/the audiences reception of the extracts.”

Editing plays a very important roll in the TV and film industry. Without it, film would consist of boring and unenthusiastic shots.

Editing involves a variety of shot types and fast-paced scene changes. this technique cleverly joins together different sequences involved.

In the two sequences I compared, I noticed the editing in both, tries to alter the frames and shot types, to give us a different perception on certain characters. When the scene seems more up-beat the pace of the new frame comes sharper and more frequently, like in Fringe. Whereas in Pillow Talk, the frames come less often, and dissolve out less rapidly.

Pillow talk, directed by Michael Gordon in 1959, is a relaxed, intimate conversation that often occurs between a man (Brad Allen played by Rock Hudson) and a woman (Jan Morrow played by Dorris Day) through telephone line.

As it is mainly focused on the phone line between two characters, the director cleverly uses various camera shots and editing styles.

The main style of editing used is a split screen, where the camera dissolves from an original shot, into one containing the position of two characters in different setting. In this where someone answers the phone, and the other is calling.

The first cut is a simple dissolve from the two men talking, to mid shot of ‘Jan’ in the mirror. From then after, the shots seem to all be straight cuts. Beginning with the split screen effect.

During the split-screen, a zoom occurs to show the facial expressions of both characters. Where the cuts are not very frequent, we see the sequence to be very laid back, and not so serious.

When we see the man and woman out together, it is a very relaxed conversation with two typically good looking people on a date.  The shots differ according to the character that is speaking.

We do in fact see both characters in the frame, but the camera angle seems to be focused on that one character whom is talking. There doesn’t seem to be much editing used in this sequence, due to the fact that the conversation seems to be slow. This in the outcome would attract more of a female audience, as it is focused on love and being in the position of finding love.

In ’Fringe’, created by J.J Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, we are following F.B.I investigations of a series of unexplained often ghastly occurrences, which are related to mysteries surrounding a parallel universe.

 Premiered in 2008, we already can see that the editing and style of this sequence will be more current, up to date, and more intriguing than such of in ‘Pillow Talk’.

The extract itself seems more mysterious, as there are so many more cuts according in the amount of time. The camera angle is shown many times at a worms eye view, this seems to give the person in the shot more power.

Having quicker straight cuts to a new shot, gives the audience a build up of tension, and I also found that to introduce other characters a ‘pan’ shot is used.

It begins showing a conversation between a man and another man whom is on video.

When we are introduced into the next set, which is outside showing what looks like an important building, we are drawn to the flying machinery in the sky. The editing used next shows the machine disappearing, then onto a pan shot.

After this we are introduced to another set, what looks like a serious interview maybe held inside this building. The pace and style of the shots are still more fast-paced then Pillow Talk, but come less rapidly at this point.

Overall, as the audience watching both of these extracts thouroughly, i most certainly enjoyed Pillow talk over Fringe. This is because i love a rom-com, and have never been very interested in the whole sci-fi thriller typed films. Pillow Talk was girlie and i can relate the situation between the two characters, and i liked how comfortable it was to watch. Whereas Fringe was very boring and gave me no interest, it also seemed a very fast-paced programme which you would have to watch thouroughly to understand. So after all my reviewing id much prefer to watch Pillow Talk again.

Further Editing and Media Film Showcase

Before showing an audience our progress for our opening sequence, as a group we tried to neaten some of the shots up and add in some last minute effects to make the sequence that much better. Still by using final cut, we faded in some of the cuts and also added in the credits showing who starred and directed etc our film.
We then carried on working on GarageBand to mix together some sounds and music that fit our film genre. We decided that a music box track would make the film sound eery. We aren't fully satisfied with our sounds yet, so are still working on them before we add them into our opening.

We then decided as a class to show an audience our work so far to get some feedback on our opening sequence so we can go back and improve to make our work even better.

Editing

We began editing in our last media lesson, and firstly we struggled to get to grips with the new program 'Final cut.' Together we managed to get all the shots cut down to the right length and started putting them in order. We then found a different editing program 'i-movie HD' which we found so much easier to use and to edit our sequence! We began browsing the program looking at what editing techniques it has to offer. We looked at music which we would use in the backing and also looked at some non-digetic

We are currently editing the opening sequence of our horror opening. It is coming on really well, and all the shots gel together well. we have slowed down many of the shots to make it look more effective, and added colours to make the picture stand out.

We then had a browse through GarageBand to look for some eery music to use in the sequence.

Sounds

• We have been working really hard on a software caled 'Garageband'. On this site, we can merge sounds together and create the eery music that connects to our genre for our Opening Sequence. 
• I thought of the idea of a music box, as it uses the same affect as we have in our shot, looks normal but if you listen carefully theres something not quite right about it, and its actually effectivly creepy.
• We then had to re-record the dialogue to make it clearer, and we also had to change my voice to chloes, as my voice didnt exactly fit the genre of our film.
• We then discovered some problems with a sound which appeared in the middle of our opening, which sounded like a squeaky bad connection. So we cleverly covered that up, and added some other sounds to make the setting look and feel more natural.
• We then had to export these sounds onto our editing station before merging it with our opening, and making sure the voice-over of chloes voice that covered mine, was lip-synced carefully.

My groups Planning And filming For our 'Opening Sequence'

The last few weeks me and my group have been working through planning and filming of our own opening sequence. To plan this, we all separately came up with storyboards, which in conclusion we all combined together to get our final storyboard idea. We all had ideas within the horror genre, so it was fairly easy to combine our work. I believe we all had our fair opinions into the ideas for our final storyboard.

 After a slow start, and a lot of planning, we met at one of the group members house to look at setting and props for filming. Once we believed we had the perfect set we began filming were me and a fellow member were the two main characters. We worked well together and followed the storyboard as our director told us to. We began filming in Jess' bedroom, on to the living room and then completed that scene in her garage. I really enjoyed filming this, as i believe the storyboard would have a good outcome, so tried hard whilst acting alongside my friends.

The final story  involves me capturing Jess and being in connection with a physic man played by efosa. The vibe of the film opening is very unusal and physcotic. E.g. when the makeup is being applied, this will make the audience ask themselves questions as to why things are happening. Chloe filmed and helped give us directions whilst filming, as we struggled to get things to look correct at the start. We noticed what setting would look more realistic and worked on changing things to make it better.

Our Final Storyboard

Original Ideas

When we was all completing our storyboards, our original thoughts were based on a girl who was home alone, thinking she is dillusional and hearing noises around the house, we then would introduce another character, a man who would be inside the house tormenting her to a point of her killing herself.
This idea was generally going well, untill we all decided as a group it would be hard to act these characters out without making it look lazy and boring.

This is when we decided to make another new storyboard, containing all four of our ideas. This made our storyboard that we will keep, which is about a man and a woman, looking normal but really are physcopaths, who kidnap a girl, hold her hostage and torment her, and take pictures of her.
This we thought would be easier for us all to act and film, and we are certain this will come out more effective and more thrilling, and have a better response from an audience.

Children of men Essay

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?"

Opening sequences are very important for the filmmaker. This short sequence depends on if people will continue watching the film or get bored and be no longer interested. An opening needs to grab the audiences attention and make them ask questions as to why, what, who etc is happening. Using codes and conventions to establish the surroundings and be introduced to the initial characters.
I am going to look at how effectively Children of Men's opening uses these typical film codes and conventions, and how i personally respond to it. 


I am immediately drawn to the first colour used. A black screen opens the film which is followed by the production companies. We then suddenly are introduced to some digetic sound, a voiceover, which is commonly recognised as a news broadcast. This is an interesting factor to be used as we can hear this sound but still can only see this black screen, which could mean there is nothing else to be focused on other then the sound, so it may be important to listen. Throughout these first few minutes we see very dull colours which could represent the pollution that the world is suffering through industrial problems. This is an effective connotation were the viewers will start asking why are we listening to the news, as a news broadcast is to show a problem or to inform you about thins occuring in the world. 
We are then introduced to the first characters, from a high angle to establish our surroundings, a group of distraught people are looking towards the camera to involve the audience more. We are seen to be focused in a coffee shop where all the people are huddled together to hear what the news lady has to say. To create the effective atmosphere, dull colours such as greys blacks and blues are used all around the setting and in prop and costume. This makes the audience realise that the news is portraying a shocking/sad story and the people are sad/shocked.
The story being broadcasted is about the youngest person left in the world, an 18 year old boy, had died. This sends out a message as to why was he the youngest? Why are people now infertile?
But we know that despite the lack of human birth, there are still animals living, as the old woman at the front of the shot is holding a dog. 
Dialogue can really be a useful bit of information in a storyline, and this broadcast is very important as it is a vital bit of information that may very well be used later on in the film.


The lighting throughout this opening is very dull and dim, and the only light used is the gloomy sky from outside, and artificial lights coming from the telivision and flashing billboards on buildings.
When what is noticably the main character, by tracking shot, moves outside we establish that we are in London, firstly from the busy surroundings, sky scrapers, traditional red london buses, advertising and then a subtitle, stating that they are infact in London in the year 2027. I noticed this opening states it is 2027 many times, as repeating it will make the audience remember this, and not miss out on what could be an important date.
We are introduced to more connotations linked to london such as typical police men in uniform and busy streets.


London seems very degraded, more polluted and much dirtier. There are piles of rubbish at the side of the road, motors on the back of bikes which adds more pollution, and the whole area seems less wealthy then we would expect, and had an economic downfall.


What we think to be the main character is then noticed putting some sort of alcholic beverage into his coffee, this is another factor which would make the audience ask many questions, such as why is he drinking alcohol? why is he being filmed the most? is he ill?
These questions the viewers ask in their head are a very important part of film openings. They are wanting to be answered, so therefore the viewers want to continue watching to find out who the character is, and what their role is. Because Clive Owen, who has also starred in famous films such as King Arthur and The Golden Compass, is the main character we are expecting the film to live up to his star expectation.


At this part of the opening we are already expecting to know the genre of the film, and we find out just as the first exciting bit of action happens, an explosion occurs behind the man, and we see an injured woman walk away from the wreck. We then realise it is an action/thriller/horror type film. Action based referring to the explosion and thriller and horror as we see the gore of the wounded people. From genre, setting and character we can start to understand what is going on.


My personal response as part of the audience was that i found this opening very interesting. The way it uses enigmas to create atmosphere was very effective, and the director was very clever as to make the audience ask questions as to why the characters are acting the way they are etc. I liked how its set in what could be London in years time. It definatly made me interested and made me want to continue watching the film.

Roles in the organisation and shooting of the opening sequence

We had to choose between our group who would take each role in producing our film from our storyboard. Chloe is the most sensible out of the group so she firstly suggested she be the director and cameraman. She was very useful at researching into her role, and we are all very confident she will be the best at this. Me Jessica and Efosa were then assigned roles as 3 seperate characters in the film. I took the role of a physco woman, this was an easy and fun role to play. Jessica is a helpless girl who has been kidnapped and abused. Efosa is a creepy physco killer. We had a lot of fun preparing for our filming, and work well in our group.

My personal Response to the storyboard

Me and my group each drew out and wrote detailed notes on a film we would like to do for our opening. We decided it was only fair to mix all of our ideas together to produce a final outcome. To our suprise all of our storyboards were based on the horror genre and all contained the setting of the house. So this made it quite easy for our group to come to an agreement as to what we was planning to do. We decided one of our group members Jessicas house would be a perfect setting for our filming and chose to d our first night of shooting there. We found that we were actually a lesson behind everyone else in our class, so had to speed up alot in lessons to get back up to date with our class. We work very well together so this doesnt seem a problem.

Harry Potter Merchandise and advertising

This is the original harry Potter and The Deathly hallows book. It is aimed at a variety of audience, and many ages have read this book. It has been on sale for a long time, but has been published more recently since the film began being promoted and advertised. 

This is the new poster advertised for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. We automatically are attracted to the characters who are shown in the centre of the frame. I also noticed, even though it is partially faded, that there is what looks like blood splattered over the picture. This would make the audience ask questions. 

This new xbox game got released at the same time as the film did. It is aimed obviously at people who play games. Preferably teenagers. Harry, the main character, is placed in the middle of the frame, which attracts our attention well. 

Horror Still

For my horror image, as soon as i saw the snow i knew id shoot mine outside. Its from a birds eye view, which made my image look asif we are the person we can see. It shows a boot walking through the snow, where the person is dressed all in black. this gives mystery. The hand is closest to the screen showing more power in the knife. lso the knife stands out most as there is a glare on the metal, and also the 'blood' is the only colour in this shot.It differs from what i originally planned, as i actually planned to do the same shot but set inside a house, but i think the setting of my shot is better now. I took this picture above a friends head to show the person has power. I think my shot came out very well and effectivly looks like a well planned out horror still.