Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
TITLES During the progression of my final project i have found that the quality of the editing and titles have improved drastically and believe this can be the most noticable and distinct improvement.
The titles in our preliminary task consisted of us merely using the simple 'Add titles' tool provided on premiere pro, which overall produced titles that looked simplistic and dull. Creating our titles for 'Death On Tuesday' however proved more effective when completed on after effects as it provided a wider range of effects to add onto our titles to make them look more professionally produced. This was due to the fact that after effects enables you add graphics and animation to make our production logo and titles look more effective and of a higher quality.
CAMERA WORK During the preliminary task the camera work we produced was of a poor quality as it was the first time handling the camera for most of us. Our final product, 'Death on tuesday' however, showed us having more of a skilled hand and being able to fully function the cameras with ease, overall creating a smooth piece of footage. During the production of our final piece we also imporved our skills of filming and editing into one consecutive piece of footage. This can be noticed with Stephnie (our female protagonist) walking into the camera and Nathaniel (male protagonist) walking out of the audiences vision.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
During the production of our title sequence we used many different types of software, the first being Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. We had some experience of how this programme worked from the editing stage of our preliminary task. We also had to use Adobe After Effects CS4 which i myself had no experience using. Nathaniel however, was familiar with this programme and he therefore controlled a majority of the editing.
Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 was mainly used to import footage from the digital cameras onto the computers. We mainly used Adobe After Effects CS4 however to edit the majority of our film and to also encorpret our soundtrack into our footage. This programme made our footage look very professional and therefore worked very effectively overall. Our titles and production logo were all created using this programme, and the amount of effects supplied within the programme provided a wider variety of ideas for us to chose from which overall helped create the perfect logo and titles. However i did find using this programme difficult to manage and relied on the help of our technicians, Nathaniel and tutorials to help me use it.
Our soundtrack was created by, myself using a programmed called Reason 3.0. i have used this programme many times before to create music and therefore my team elected me to be in charge of the production of the soundtrack.
LOGO
We created our production logo ' Half moon productions' firstly as a worded logo supported by a dull background, this was due to the fact that our film is from the thriller genre and audiences are expecting scenes of a dull and gritty nature.
We then show an image of a moon next to the worded logo to help the audience associate the figure of the moon with our production company, therefore making it easily recognisable. We decided to keep the image simple as it would be easy to remember and because a 'Moon' is commonly seen by people.
ESTABLISHING SHOT
Our establishing shot shows an image of the city. The effect of this is that it begins to set the scene, with the rain connotating bad circumstances to come during the film.
FIRST FRAME
The first frame of our film shows our female protagonist proceeding on a seductive walk towards the camera (or the audience). The efffect of this is that it introduces her character as being sexy and lustful, so that the audience have some indication of what is to come for her character.
TITLES
he names of each character and people involved in our film fade in. This holds a chilling 'Thriller' effect to support the genre in which we have chosen. The pace in which the titles enter also go with the temp of the music, this makes the footage seem as if it is running more smoothly and in sync in comparison to if the music and footage were not in sync.
SECOND FRAME
The second frame introduces the male protagonist as being dominant with a strong and powerful walk, heading away from the audience. The effect of this was that it portrays him as walking away from his crimes (or hinted crimes), as the women who walked into the frame has now dissappeared. This will arouse suspicion amongst the viewers, maintaining the key elements of mystery on action-thrillers.
THIRD FRAME
This frame shows the female protagonist walking innocently passed the screen, with the titles following her. The effect of this is that it connonates the aspect of her being followed or 'Stalked' by the male protagonist.
FOURTH FRAME
The male protagonist during this moment of the film is shown smoking a cigar. As cigars are commonly and sterotypically associated with people of high status, usually in societies like 'The maffia', audiences will encorpret this idea into their view on his character. Creating assumptions that build on what they acspect from his character.
SIXTH FRAME
The male and female protagonists of Death on tuesday are at this point seen greeting eachother in a way suitable for lovers. This provides some indication for the audience to kno that the two are infact in a 'relationship' of some kind.
SEVENTH - END FRAME
These frames show the male protagonist following the female to portray him ultimately as a stalker towards the audience. As you can see there are red particals within the sillhouetted figures, this connotes the aspect of blood. Blood is a conventional aspect seen time and time again in many famous thriller movies, so we decided to incorporate this idea intevtively into our sillhouette idea
END TITLE
This frame introduces the name of the film to the audiences. It closes a dramatic end to the title sequence enabling a fresh start to commence for the film to proceed.
The title is presented in red, again connoting blood, which can be further shown by the blood stained patched pictured around the title. This could also represent the theme of love strongly present in the film as red is a sterotypical colour full of love, lust and sexual emotion.
Who would be the target audeience for your media product?
The target audience for my media product range from the ages 15 and over. We chose to target this particular audience as they are aware of aspects that occur in adult life, or example, elements of love and passion. Sexual desire is a dominant feature in which our protagonists share in Death On Tuesday and therefore it is essential our target audience are of age to understand the relationship both characters have. As violence is also an element included within the story-line it is important our audience are of a suitable age to acknowledge the fact that those particular scenes are not to be copied.
Here is a photograph of the adolescents we are aiming our project at. Sex and violence are contriversial issues surrounding people of their age group and therefore i believe they will be interested in watching Death On Tuesday.
Shops and Style The target audience we are aiming to please, i would say generally base theyre shopping around high street stores as they offer fashion at an afforable price. Most people in our targetted audience age group will not have jobs and if so, they are merely part-time/weekend jobs and this therefore means they will have a budget with items they wish to posses. Teenagers and young adolecents are very materialistic people and reply on clothing to in many ways represent who they are and which social group they belong in. For example, it is sterotypical for 'Goths' to wear dark coloured clothing and wear symbollic skulls and crucifixes included in their outfits.
Music Generally the music that our viewers would typically listen to consists of many different types of music; pop, hip-hop, rock and r&b mainly. Our soundtrack in ways encorprets all these sounds to make our film even more appealing to the targetted audience. For example, the piano and violin sounds benefit pop and r&b fans where as the base and drums would suit those more into hip-hop / rock music.
TV Programmes typically watched by young adolescents include; Skins, Eastenders, Hollyoaks. These shows portray relationships and violence which are aspects also strongly included within Death on tuesday. As the content of our film can be seen as relatable to the television programmes our target audience watch, this will help influence them to be even more intrested in watching the film.
Free Time It is typical of those aged 15 and over to socialise very often. For example, attending parties and going to the cinema. They also share very varied relationships between them whether it be of a sexually premiscuious nature or of a subtly close friendship. many teenagers free-time consists of par-taking in different habbits, such as smoking and drinking which are elements involved within Death on tuesday.
Media Consumption Popular forms of media consumed by our audience consist of:
Magazines
Movies/Films
Music
Television
Their reasons for keeping so in touch with the media is to ensure they are always kept well informed of the latest fashions and 'must-have's' at all times. Due to the fact, i earlier to stated that they are materialistic beings. Taking this point into account, targetting an audience well in touch with the media is a wise choice as we could get many young people conversing about our film, effectively encouraging others to talk about and view our film.
Would They Like Our Film? I believe our target audience will enjoy our film as it holds elements of surprise aswell as tension. Young adults enjoy films that make them 'jump' as they provide them with a thrill and afterwards creates conversation amoungst peer groups. It suits both make and female audiences as it is action filled to sterotypically please the males and iincludes scenes of love and affection (sterotypically set to suit females). Another reason in which our film will attract female audiences is because it shows a female challenging the normal sterotypical role for women in thriller movies, as our female protagonist is not a victim.
Maslow's Heirarchy Of Needs
This is a diagram showing the psychologist, Maslow's famous heirarchy of needs. This pyramid details the needs that need to be satisfied before one can proceed onto the next step of the pyramid, until u eventually reach self-actualization.
Death on tuesday can be seen as helping our target audience reach self-actualization. Although it cannot provide physiological needs (basic needs), such as food and water, it does supply a level of secruity, especially amongst the female viewers. Fpr example, it portrays a sterotypically 'weaker' sex to take centre stage as being dominant, showiing females in our audience that security can be provided against men who take advantage of women.
A sence of affection can also be noted within the film as there are times when the male and female protagonists are set to par-take in a loving scene of romance. This creates a sense of connection and intimacy towards the audience, ultimately feeding them with a warm-hearted feeling.
Self-esteem and self-confidence can also be build through viewing our film as the audience will have a chance to compare their lives to those of the characters which will ultimately make them feel better about themselves and glad that the lives they lead are a lot simpliar than those of our protagonists. It could also encourage audiences to better themselves if their lives in some ways can be related to those of the characters.
Once all these aspects are successfully completed, viewers will be able to reach self-actualization through watching Death on tuesday.
What kind of media instituiton might distribute your media product and why?
We names our production company 'Half Moon Productions' and aim to produce mainly films from the thriller genre. ALthough thrillers are our speciality, we do infact exapand on this idea and produce 'hybrids' (a combination of two genres). For example 'Death on tuesday' is a action-thriller film. After much research into what film companies would distribute our film, we came to the conclusion that 'Hammer film productions' would be a great choice as in their early years they were mostly associated with films from the thriller genre - perfect for 'Death on tuesday'.
Many famous thrillers have been sucessfully distributed from this company including; 'Dracula' and 'The rude awakening'. These films were distrubuted around the mid 50's, and compared to our thriller are not very modern, however, the company has recently been sold to 'John de mol' (big brother creator) and he has annouced that he promises to spend £25million on new horror/thriller films. This budget would prove very useful to our film.
We have decided to distribute our film to cinemas all over the globe eventually as the target audience can be widely spread to teenagers everywhere as after much reasearch shows, the majority of teens enjoy feels that make the 'jump' and provide the 'thrill factor'. However as our production company is new, and not very well-known we plan to start locally, releasing our film to cinemas all over london to start with.
The money to fund our film we have decided will come from sponsors, advertisers and grants, etc. The best time to release our film would be during the school holiday period, as this is the time most teenagers will be free to attend.
How does Your media product represent particular social groups?
Women are presented to be a strong sex within our film, ultimately this idea challenges the sterotypical role of females in action thriler movies. In many intances, women are presented as the weaker sex, waiting to be rescued by a male or even over shadowed by the heroic male figure. However in death on tuesday the female protagonist (Stephnie) plays a female assasin who sets out to out-shine/defeat the male serial murderer and infact make him her victim. This idea challenges the cliche idea surrounding women to be the weaker sex. This idea is also presented n the action thriller 'Smokin Aces'. This film shows the protagonist (Alicia Keys) also challenging gender sterotypes as she takes the lead in victimising males. Alicia Keys and Myself (Stephnie) both hold these similarities within our characters. Another similarity both characters have in common is that they both use the desirable nature of the female form to lure their victims into a spot of vunerability. The way in which they do this can also be compared, for example, theyre costumes are both fitted to emboss their shape to make them seem for desirable and attractive towards the opposite sex, and both wear their hair down - againg connoting sexual desire within females.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)
Title The font of our titles were kept simple to maintain the audiences attention. After much research we found that other film opening sequences from the same genre as our title sequence, also presented simple font for theyre titles as it is not only clear for the audience to read but also doesnt give away too much of the story-line, maintaining the theme of suspence surrounding films from the thriller genre.For example, the titles within the opening of TexasChainsaw massacre can be compared to the titles within Death On Tuesday:
Setting Our film opening was filmed entirely within our school television studio. The point of this was so that we could use the blue screen to create a key light effect making our characters appear as nothing more than sillhouettes. This again was to create an atmosphere of suspence and mystery, conventional aspects to an action-thriller. Our establishing shot is of a city, the reason we chose to base our establishing shot around this image was because many acton thriller movies make the city a dominant location for action to take place in. For example; Sin city. The opening of this sequence also presents an establishing shot of the city in a animated manner. This is where we gained inspiration for the location of our establishing shot from. We also decided to make the establishing shot animated as it proves effective with the sillhouette effect created amongst the characters as well as it being efficient time-wise.
Costumes Protagonists in our movie wernt set to wear any particular costume. However, it was thought appropriate that as our chracters were going to be merely sillhouettes that the outline of their figures presented the audience with some indication of who they are, yet still maintaining the element of mystery behind our chosen genre. For example, it is typical for someone of a high status to me well dressed. Taking this into account we chose to present our male protagonist in a suit to show his authority. We ensured that the movements involved with this character during the opening sequence indicated that we was wearing a suit. For the female chracters, it was essential their clothing was fitted to present to the feminism behind their sillhouettes to the audience. This also creates a feeling of lust and sexual temptation behind the females, effectively raising suspicion about their characters.
This idea was also presented in sin city:
Editing
Action-thrillers conventionally contain editing techniques that arouse suspicion and amazement amongst the audience to keep them engrossed in the movie. Film makers spend a great deal of time and money during editing of films and although the after effect creates this conventional aspect of the film genre, it is also very time consuming. Taking this into consideration, we kept our editing simple yet higly effective, like those of the techniques shown suring the opening of Sin city. Below is a screen shot contrasting the technique used during Sin city and that used during death on tuesday, and effectively shows some level of similarity.
Setting the scene
Lighting and sound were key elements that contributed to creating a successful action-thirller title sequence. As our film held a dominant theme of passion and murder, this had to be interpretted into the opening sequence without giving away too much of the story-line. The music holds the voice of a female (the protagonist) and helps set the story and hint that love and passion are key themes. However the drums along with base in the theme tune, suggest the murderous, mystery and action elements of the movie. Drums can in many instances connote the sound of a heart beat, with this in mind, the drums within Deat on tuesday's soundtrack can help highlight the feeling of suspence and mystery within the film. It could also signify a build up to the story that is about to unfold as the story progresses, hence, upholding the feeling of suspence.
Lighting was an important issue when filming our title sequence as too much lighting in the television studio wouldve and did effect the appearance of the sillhouttes when proceeding to produce the key light effect. First off we used the lights supplied within the room yet found they created too many shadows, effecting our overall product. In the end we chose to settle with using natural lighting as this created a more realistic effect when it came to producing the sillhouettes.
Iconography As it was essential not to give too much of the story-line away, levels of iconography were kept to a minimum within our title sequene. However, our male protagonist was pictured smoking a cigar sitting on a chair. Cigars are often associated with 'Gansta's' and 'The maffia' (people involved with crime). The effect of this is that the association between the nature of those sterotypically known to smoke cigars and our male protagonist can be made quickly to subtly hint the audience, what this character is about - without giving too much away.
The chair can represent authority. He sits high (like a throne) showing his level of importance within his role and the film.
Genre
A famous well known action-thriller is die-hard. This film has a variety of high and lowe key lighting to create the feeling of mytery within the film. It creates elements of mystery as well as maintaining being relatable to the target audience. This idea was kept into consideration whilst producing Death on tuesday as we wanted to create the feeling of mystery as well as maintaining our audiences attention. Keeping our charcaters relatable helps do this.
Analysis Of Texas Chainsaw Massacre Title Sequence
The opening of this film starts with the presence of eerie music which immediently builds suspence and gives the audience the impression that something not particually normal is either happening, happened or about to take place. The music involved in this scene works effectively as it not only creates a certain amount of tension amongst the viewers to prepare them for the events that are due to follow, but also compliments the low key lighting to ultimately generate a dark mysterious setting typical of a horror genre. The low key lighting is created by the use of candles, which also act as the key light. The candles during the title sequence create a gothic feel as they are mostly identified in churches and hold religious significance.
This title sequence is dependent on the use of photographs, a very simple yet effective decision as it makes the audience feels as if they are people told a story from a family photo album, making them more interested to proceed to find out about the storyline. The use of close-up shots on the photographs and news paper cut outs also helped to create a feeling of involvement towards the audience as if they are being shown the items personally. However, the camerawork was presented as very fast paced. The effect of this is that it dosen't reveal too much of the storyline and helps to also build tension and suspence, keeping the audience gripped and staying true to the horror genre.Other aspects that contributed to making this title sequence successful were the use of iconic and conventional horror figures. For example, blood.Blood is commonly connected with movies from the horror genre as there is usually always elements of death present within them. The other conventional aspects involved during this title sequence were the use of knives and chains. As the film title includes the word 'Chainsaw' this could also be a play-on aspect. The title of the film also suggests mass murder within the word 'Massacre' and therefore, the presence of knives are chains could help portray this idea and theme of muder further.Close-up shots of dead animals and newspaper cutouts involving the words 'Killing' and 'Murder' also help do this.
At the end of the title sequence, a photograph of a baby with a deformity, a cleft lip (which was also shown at the beginning of the title sequence) is being burnt. The connotation of this action is that it suggests the innocent baby in the photograph is nomore, and could infact imply that the baby is now of another form and plays some involvement into the murders that have been taking place as the photograph was shown at the both the beginning and end of the sequence.
Hustle Opening Sequence
Analysis Of Hustle
Hustle comtains elements used witih the iPod advert which eventually is the product we plan to produce with our short film coursework.
The opening credits of this television drams has acted as inpiration for our film and also provided us with a few ideas of which we would creatively change, and incorporate into our own work.
THIS BLOG DETAILS ALL THE INFORMATION SURONDING THE PRODUCTION OF MY FILM TITLE SEQUENCE.
