Final draft

This is our final draft of our title sequence where we have had reshoot a multiple of times in order to get the sequence up to a satisfactory result. We filmed an extra short clip at the end of the sequence where we set up a zombie attack where we had to run away from.

Evaluation Part 8

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






In the progression from the preliminary task to the completion of the final peice i have leart a multitude of different things which will aid me in the future when i contine to create pieces of work associated with media. I have learnt that in order to get a great concluding final piece you need to work as a group and be able to work with the people in the group and neither have arguments or talk too much but just being able to have a friendly chat then being able to get on with the task at hand until it is completed.



It is important not to be carried away with other less important things and just focus on you piece of work. I have learnt from this experience that listening and doing research pays off, being able to put what you have learnt into practice has been the most productive and fun thing for me. Learning a new camera movement or angle then being able to mention it into your work to achieve higher marks.



As a group we have learn what software is better to use and works more fluently with our style of work. For example we will not be using screen recording from the Apple macs again due to the poor quality and the inconsistency in the footage and know from now on to always use hyper cam which has served us greatly in the process of making our title sequence. I also feel that i learnt that i am capable of being given a task and being able to complete for the group. This is a very important part of knowledge which i have uncovered and notably a valuable life skill which i will treasure in either future education or job experiences in the future.

Knowing everything i have learnt from the transition between the preliminary task and the final piece is a valuable skill in itself because being able to pick apart what you have done an what you haven’t allows me to see where i need to improve in the future and makes me able to make improvement on the task which is imminently due in

Evaluation Part 7

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



From this process I have learnt a variety of skills which have helped me to further my understanding in creating things on Photoshop, Final cut pro and even me understanding how to create a blog which I did not know how to do before beforehand. From the creation of the title sequence with my group I have learnt how to use different functions on the camera which I did not know existed before. These functions improved our title sequence and made it a lot easier to shoot.

When we created the part of the sequence based on the Facebook element of the title sequence we had to learn how to screen capture. After have a briefing about the screen capture we began to make our title sequence but shortly found that the screen recording on the Apple macs was too jittery and out of focus and knowing this we had to change the way in which we recorded the screen which crated major complication because a single member of our group had to go home and begin to screen record at home. After using a website called Hypercam we had the capability to record the screen to show a clear and present representation of teenagers and Facebook.

We recorded all of the footage on a DSLR but found that to do the final piece recording we had to use a mobile phone to record the footage then upload it. This allowed us to experiment with a new type of footage and meant that it represented and connoted that a teenager was using the phone to capture the footage and hat it is something that a typical teenager does in order to upload it to social network sites
.

Evaluation Part 6

How does your media product represent particular social groups? 



Our finalised media title sequence represents particular social groups by using things like handheld cameras and certain types of music. Towards the end of the title sequence which me and the fellow members of my group made we used a hand held camera to record something which happened inside of the woods. This gave it a realistic effect since there was not a initial camera set up and it was a spare of the moment decision to pull out the phone and begin to record.

When deciding on the music we had to initially decide what our target audience would be and this eventually led us to the YouTube where we search for different types of un-copyrighted music. We found a couple of songs which we listed and posted onto our blogs and then ultimately decided on "Silver Medallion". The reason why we chose to use this piece of music in our title sequence was the simple fact that it would appeal to our chosen target audience. This is because it is a new type of music which would appeal to the teenagers but it also has some explicit lyrics which have been muted in parts of the songs which shows the audience that they are not part curly young teenagers but older ones due to the swearing.

Our title sequence represents the teenage group as someone who has a advanced knowledge in technology in the technological side of the internet and just technology in general. This is because of the way in which we used the Facebook profiles to introduce our three protagonists into the title sequence. This already tells us a lot about the three protagonists because the Facebook profile connote that they know and understand how to use the website and the when showing the images of them with each other and friends connotes to consumer that the teenagers have a good social life and know one another very well.

Evaluation part 5

How did you attract your audience?


 
 During the making of the title sequence we had to make a few designs and plans on the ways in which we would capture the audience’s attention and how ewe would attract them to see the film. This involved thinking about when the film would be released in order to capture a higher number of the audience but also many other factors such as music, speech and even cinematography. This meant that we needed to decide which would be the best approach in order to tackle the problem of attracting audiences and dealing with competition.

For our title sequence we wanted to keep the ideology of zombies in the title sequence so that the zombies would gradually appear during the sequence and give more connotations of zombies such as images. This means that we needed to give the right impression to show that our film is about zombies but without making it too obvious within the title sequence. We wanted this to be that that way so that the protagonist wouldn’t even realise that there is a problem.

When receiving feedback from the questionnaires back from the students which have been producing their own title sequences we have found that the first draft was unsuccessful and needed to have improvements made to it. The most reoccurring theme was that there was not enough themes and connotations of zombies. In order to solve this problem we had to make another draft and begin to sort out the problem at hand. We started by reshooting some pieces of work and making them smoother and clearer and making sure you could see everything which was shown, then we had to make it so more connotations of zombies were present in the sequence and to do this we had to proceed in making a couple more drafts and making them better each time with advice from fellow classmates and some from teachers.

When asking the class what they thought many were i disagreement with each other, some said it was good and others said not so, however many did say they did like the music because it connoted a modern urban style of life and how fast paced, hectic and sometimes how social networking sites can be the most used way in which teenagers who fit this role communicate.

Evaluation part 4

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

 When first starting the research we decided to do a group analysis on the title sequence of the Evil Dead. We found many things with the connotations of horror in the genre. The Evil Dead conveyed connotations of horror using imagery which can connote the genre of horror using violent imagery. One of the things which we happened to noticed was the ways in which the weapons were presented, they appeared covered in a red blood like substance which connoted the theme of murder and danger. The low key lighting and the presence of chains on the wall gives the sense of sadistic thoughts and actions which may take place later in the film. The low key lighting give us the impression that evil and horrific sights should be hidden away from peering eyes.

The sequence of the Evil Dead allowed us to pick up on a couple of connotations of horror. The way in which the sequence used close up was very unusual and only seemed to show part of the image of either weapons or strange things which all must have a meaning within the film. The sequence showed us that using low key lighting and a very heavy blood red coloured tone in the sequence can lead the audiences mind to conclusions about the film. This idea is then turned on its head when looking at the representations of horror in the title sequence of Zombieland. In this title sequence it shows a very clear depiction of the zombies and the weapons which they may use, by using these two things it allows the audience to a summary that the film is heavily based around weapons and they will a be a lighter theme to the film (possibly an aspect of comedy) due to the lighting being very normal with a high contrast of semi bright colours.

In contrast to the title sequence of these two sequences is ours. Our title sequence is very modern and is based on modern technology and to do these we used a social networking sites (Facebook).We based it on a few finds who are the protagonists. We used social networking sites and elements to give the effect that it is a urban area where the film is taking place. When making the film the effect of a hand held camera would be used to show the panic in a zombie apocalypse scenario. 

When researching the conventions of a horror title sequence we found many things which we compiled into a list. The list had many on it but also some we had made up as a group:

· Low key lighting 

· Faint images

· Foreshadowing of death/bloodshed

· Isolation

·  Scenery - rural/urban

·  Foreshadowing

·  Psychopath/killer - glimpse of character

·  Sets Equilibrium

·  Knife (other weapon types) - foreshadowing physical weapons

·  Medical imagery - experiments

·  Dark clothing 

·  Handheld footage - intensifies the particular area for the audience

·  General slow paced editing - longer duration of time for the audience to observe specific characteristics

·  Orchestral music or heavy rock

·  Scrape like sounds - dissonant sounds

·  Words scraped - engraved into materials - suggests or foreshadows something

·  Connotations of weapons

·  Connotations of blood  

·  Hand held - shaky - unbalance 

·  Close ups - close ups of weapons, characters (abstracts of character qualities)

·  Tracking shot

·  Point of view shot

·  High and low angles 

·  Bird’s eye view

·  Worm eye

·  Pan movement 

·  Establishing shot

The conventions (part of research) of a title sequence may consist of the following:

• Introduction to the protagonists
• music and sounds being elaborated throughout the title sequence
• The editing - time and pace of the shots - continuity
• Connotations of weapons which can be considered to be a way in which the film connotes to the audience that there is going to be bloodshed
• Genre information which is conveyed to the audience 
• Enigma 
• Setting and location: rural/urban
• The use of imagery
• Mise en scene/cinematography/sound and editing- emphasised
• characters/protagonists - types/roles
• Cast and crew
• Film title
• Lighting - affecting mood and tone for the audience
• Colour - establishing the particular concept of connotations (meanings for particular colours used; red could indicate violence/danger and blood)
• Location
• Soundtrack/theme tune
• film contrast
• patterns and tones of editing

 

 

Evaluation Part 3

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

I believe that a major distributor such as Columbia would distribute our film because they have previously done films with conventions which are much like our film. This means that they cover the conventions of Horror/ Thriller and Comedy. The budget isn’t very high for our film and it is only around £15 million. This allows us to make the film for a cost effective price with the back and security of the major distributor behind us.



We have looked at a couple of institutes and they are Sony pictures and 20th century fox. The reason why we did not choose them to distribute our film was the simple reason that they really only deal with a highly quality of film with budgets which much exceed ours. This would create problems for our film as it would not be accepted and would end up losing money due to the label of "Sony pictures".



When looking at 20th century fox we encountered a similar problem and that was that the budget for their films was also very high. They produced a film which we used as an influence/inspiration and the film was 28Days later. This meant that they can cover the genre which we have been looking for but 20th century fox are normally associated with films with a lower age rating which will make them as a choice obsolete due to the age rating on our film being (18-25).

                                                                                                                                      

Evaluation Part 2 Target audience

Target Audience

For this target audience i can deduce that our audience would be (18-25) years of age and would most likely have an interest in the conventions of Action/Horror/ thriller and have a sense of dark humour. The age of the audience would be fixed in the parameters of the age which has been typed above because they would most probably be the ones who are most likely to not only enjoy the film but be able to make reference to other films which they have seen previously and will be able to understand the humour aspect which lurks within the film.

The three main protagonists within the film have all been placed as teens or "young adults”. This means they are adolescents and therefore suggests the target audience to the public. This will allow for a greater understanding to the film and may be relatable in some aspects. We also wanted our audience and our protagonists to be a relatable age therefore they can relate to other films such as: Zombieland (15); 28 days later (18) and 28 weeks later (18).

We believe that age rating which our film could be (18+) and hopefully appeal to the age range to 25.We believe this would be the best target audience and predicting a successful output to the film. After having this concept thought upon by the group we decided to begin with our pitch for our title sequence.

As a group task we handed out questionnaires to fellow members of the media projects and other students. Some questions entailed: What would be the age rating? ; What would be the font of your choice? and even what would be the best possible title. We received the information back about the group work and decided that the three most popular answers to the age rating were:

· 18-26

· 20-30

· 15 Plus

 The three protagonists in the film we played by the three male occupants in the group( myself, Louis and Terry). This meant it was easier to play the assigned roles due to the age of the protagonists and the age of the actors. This meant that we did not need help from anyone else when filming and we all live relatively local so meeting was easy.

The pieces of work which have been placed underneath are the copies of our group planning towards the target audience:

Evaluation Part 1 (Brief)

Brief

For this project we had to decide what members we wanted to have participating in this project. We had to pick people who would be productive with our time and not get each other distracted. This meant that we may not be able to go with our friends due to the lack of work which would be the end result to the project. We decided on a group of Terry, Louis, Lauren and myself. Me and Louis have worked on media projects before so we knew we worked well together and this made it easier to be able to complete the task at hand.

For our title sequence we decided to go with the genre of horror incorporating the addition of zombies. To decide on whether or not to have the addition of zombies into our film we looked at films which contained zombies. For this we looked at the title sequences of dawn of the dead and also Zombieland. After looking at these two sequences we decided that we should maybe look into some more so then thought of the title sequences of horrors with similar conventions.

 

Stincs

We watched the title sequences: Catch Me if You Can, Skyfall and Vertigo and as a class discussed the elements within the title sequences. We analysed the sound for Se7en and listened out for foley sounds.Emily shortly asked us to go off and begin a small group task where we had to go and record our own foley sounds.This meant that we had to make a few unusual sounds from natural objects which can be found around the school.We then played the sounds infront of the class but unfortunatly our sounds did not work on the speakers so we were unable to show an example of our work.

Font notes

Forrest Gump
-Serif font
-plain, long (stretched)
-white - purity
-older- more traditional font/film
-newsprint
-slow paced, soft and steady, gentle
-fades in, soft and gentle
-large font, centered

Lord of War
-White font - dark background
-Small, centered
-Bullet - dehumanises - not attached to characters
-San serif font
-Soviet writing - Russian, cold war, warish
-military cap letters (serious, no humour, unemotional)
-printed in metal
-Actors names - centered, lesser actors and crew to side
-roles - simplier - rounded, constrast

Catch Me If You Can
-Smooth
-Flowy
-Sense of constant movement (characters are constantly moving/running away)
-2 fonts represent two different characters
San serif font - outlaw, the font is changing and moving
serif font - official, government, western? FBI Agent
-clear fonts, easy to read
-Saul Bass esque (lines and colour)

Sound

This is the soundtrack to A zombie move title sequence. There is a few problems with this copy and the first is that it cannot be heard clearly and the second is that due to this it is not a clear representation of what our music will be.

When created and edited on final cut pro the quality was perfect but for an unknown reason when putting it onto youtube the quality dropped.

The item below is another example of jump scares and why it is used for effect.

5th draft

This is our final draft which will be the one which we submit.The reason for this is we have added more zombie connotations because of the feedback from the questionnaires which said that we need to add more zombies because it is not very clear at the moment.

4th draft

For this draft Lozzie made the cuts much more cleaner and everything was as clear as it was going to get.

We decided on having the title of the film at the end of the sequence to add a little suspense to it and to but this will also help to not connote zombies too much within the title sequence.

These are the order in which the titles should go:

3rd draft

For our third draft on this title sequence Lozzie has taken the lead role in editing.She has decided to download the hyper cam which enables her to record what is on her screen.

In the making of the third draft she has had a play around with foley sounds which we all agreed ultimately will not be used, this is because you cannot really hear the sounds over the soundtrack and therefore would make the use of them pointless.

2nd draft

When making our second draft we encountered a few problems similar to the first.The screen became very "jittery" and almost impossible to read to the poor quality of the screen recording which was produced from the macs.

In an attempt to fix this problem we found a website with a download on it for a screen recorder called hyper cam.This meant that we were able to download it and receive higher framed and higher resolution images from the screen recording.

Over the holidays

Update: Over the Holidays

On Monday Terry, Lozzie and myself reshot the blurry/ out of focus/ too dark frames for our title sequence.

Me, Louis and Terry presented our first draft to Shaun and this is what we were told to improve on many of our shots but it was mainly directed towards towards the recordings of the computer screen since it was handheld and shaky .Over the holidays we had completed the taking photos and videos for the Facebook profiles for our protagonists and uploaded them. We also filmed our title sequence clips (such as opening the laptop and the viewing of the photos and videos). The only troubles we had were the uploading (my upload speed at home isn't too great, and therefore that took longer than it should have done) and when other members in the group were unable to film on certain days due to other plans.

•  

In one of our clips, there is footage of a zombie that the protagonists don't notice in the background,this is a photo to document what our zombie looked like, we decided not to be as detailed as the make up tutorial previously showed due to the fact that the video would be filmed on a phone and not

on the zombie all the time as it was to be un-noticed.

Now we need to:

• Convert all the clips on mpeg stream-clip to dv
• start the editing process (first draft finished by 4th March)  

• Sort out the sound (sort out the soundtrack and film foley sound) 

Research

The following songs are some that we could most likely use if we could not use the original.We researched into the "jump scares" which they use for horror films. This is meant to add a scare element to the start of the film.

These sounds such as jump scares help to add to the connotation of the film.

Feed back from draft 4

Feedback from 4th Draft

This is the feedback we got from our screening in one of our lessons. 

Although I wanted the title sequence to contain no zombies (as it confuses the audience and makes the audience continue watching), that seems to be what everyone complained about and wanted us to improve. We filmed some more screen captures of more zombie related things and will edit that in today. 

Confusingly, the class complained about the music while others liked it. 

I do like the idea of the title names being facebook related, so I have filmed something to create that. 

It was suggested that the title didn't work and to perhaps use; 'Facebook Feed' instead. 

There is a really short time to complete all this work in time for the deadline AND finish the evaluation. 

Costume plan

These are the items of clothing that our protagonists will wear when the filming begins.This will help us to keep a good knowledge of how are characters to act and will perform in that manner.This will allow for greater planning.

This is a plan of the clothes that our protagonists would wear (of something to that effect). Throughout the shoot, our actors will wear something to this effect. 

Questionnaire

In our groups, we came up with a questionnaire to give to people about our film, this is the feedback we received from the participants:

 

Summary:
 Overall, our audience expect for our film to be a dark comedy/horror/action. They expect to see death, violence and zombies. They expect to see zombies, killing, news footage and an introduction to the film within the title sequence. They expect to hear screams, zombie noises, gunfire and slow deep music in the title sequence. They expect to see low key / dark lighting. They think the protagonist should be aged from high teenage years to low 20 year olds. There is a 3 - 2 on the type of font the title should be (we should play around with the title more with these fonts and ask again). The audience would typically see the film late at night and at the weekend, typically children aren't around at night and this would put the audience in the mindset to be scared, getting the audience ready for the diegesis of the film. Typically, the audience expect to see a low budget.