Q1: Evaluation: Development, challenging of forms and conventions of media product.

the typical ways in which a film opens up is by introducing all the main characters, most cases the stars, the directors come towards the end, editors, directors of photography, production crew members etc. but before all of this we get all of the idents of the production companies involved in the creation of the film.

the typical conventions to a opening sequence of a film are as follows in order:

• the idents for the production companies and distribution companies.
• the opening credits begin
• the first to come is the production and distribution company names in the style of the credits
• we then have the names of the main stars that feature in the film
• now we have the directors name, 'a film by' BUT this is not always the case as it does come at the end sometimes.
• we then get the name/title of the film. 
• now we get different people from the production team such as 
• editors
• directors of photography
• co-stars
• line managers
• production crew
• camera crew
• now we usually have 'directed by' or 'a film by' so and so....

we decided to follow this convention but changed it a little bit. we used the same order and technique of the film the stepfather. 

as the credits rolled through the screen, the opening sequence to the film was playing in the background. the location of the names as they appeared changed from side to side and up and down. 

Q2: Evaluation: Representation of social groups in media product.

Q3: Evaluation: Media institution and distribution.

This is an interview between a chat show host and a member of the production crew. In it it talks about how we chose the production companies, what companies we used and why.

Above: these are distribution and production companies that regularly create and distribute thriller films.

We researched into these companies and found that twisted pictures was the smallest of private companies that regularly work on thriller films such as saw. we thought that as a film that has similar attributes to the film saw, it would be best suited for our opening sequence.

We also used the candi production ident as the film is a small budjet film with a local release which again is quite small so dosent require a huge budjet for advertising and distribution.

Q4: Evaluation: Target audience for media product.

target audience is usually determined by the genre of the film. the genre of our film is psychotic thriller. this is your typical innocent guy act before he shows his true side to unsuspecting victim, by which time, its too late. these genres have a very gory sense to them. the violence, scenes of torture and sometimes sexual scenes, all of which are inappropriate for people aged under the age of 18. these scenes can be very disturbing for young viewers and we intended to include such scenes into our film opening so we set our target of around 18-30. we didn't think people aged 30+ would be interested in such a film yet a much younger yet appropriately aged group of people would be able to understand the conventions of our film.

the following thriller movies share our thriller genre, some also share our sub genre of psychotic thriller.

the two videos below are of feed back from our target audience after a viewing at the local cinema.

Q5: Evaluation: Attraction of target audiences.

TARGET AUDIENCE Q5 on Prezi

Q6: Evaluation: Technology and its uses in our film.

HARDWARE:
we used various types of hardware in the creation of our opening sequence. these were the JVC pro HD camera which was exceptionally useful as it was very lightweight which allowed great manoeuvrability, small and compact so easy to take to most locations, the picture quality was very good and also it recorded footage straight onto the SD memory card on quicktime format so there was no time wasted in converting the files when it came down to editing.

we also used harddrives to save our work on whether or not we had finished. we used lighting on set to make the shots look clearer and brighten up the set or create certain shadowy effects.

SOFTWARE:
In creating the final product, our film opening, we used three different pieces of software. we used final cut pro, soundtrack pro and livetype.

the different ways in which we used these three pieces of software were:-

final cut pro: after filming footage, we used this software to cut and edit together all of the parts of our opening sequences together. we also used this to insert transitions such as fade in/fade out into our sequence and we also used it to insert titles at the start.

above: this is how we used final cut pro to insert text into our opening sequence. here, you can change the size and font of the text. you could also change the position of the text as it appears on the screen.

above: here you can see how you can put up different types of titles in different colours. there is also a green 'wire frame' around the text. this is used to drag the text around the screen to position wherever you wish.

above: this is the time line on which you create and piece together your film. the blue blocks are of the parts of film recordings. these are put together with transitions such as fades, those transitions are the small grey blocks in line with the blue boxes. the green blocks underneath them are sound. these are usually taken out because of unnecessary sound or background noise. these are replaced in soundtrack pro with other sounds and music.

 soundtrack pro: after finishing all our editing, we used this piece of software to create a soundtrack for our opening sequence and to also insert other sounds such as footsteps and impact sounds.

above: this is soundtrack pro. on the top right is our final edited film. this runs all the way through to the end so that we can use it as a sort of time line to put our sounds in. these would be stuff like the ident sounds, Foley sounds and also when to start /stop the soundtrack and how to keep it in time with the opening sequence.

above: this is me searching for different sounds for our opening sequence. in the drop down menu you can look through different types of sound, different genres of soundtracks and also many types of Foley sounds from footsteps to car noises.

above: this is the sidebar on soundtrack pro. here you can adjust the level of the sound and the positioning of the sound from which it comes out of the speakers i.e left speaker, right speaker or from both (centred)

above: this is our final edited soundtrack. here you can see various different pieces of sound block put together. each one has its own level of sound and they all fit in time with the film footage.

livetype: we used this piece of software to create the actual title for our opening sequence. here you can write whatever you wish and then edit it around to make it fade in/out, give it a shadow, give it random effects like distortion and other interesting ways to present your title or maybe even create your own ident.

above: on the right hand side are all the different types of edits, transformations, fonts and transitions that you can use to create your title sequence or own personal company ident. 

above: the time line represents the length of how long your title will run on screen for. it also displays the different edits that are currently in use so that you can change it or apply the same one to another ident you may be creating. 

above: this is the full screen of the editing for our title. as you can see we have the title created already here with the size and font we required. now all we needed to was add in different effects and transitions to create a very professional looking title but we also needed to make it match our them colour of red so this is why we added in the red highlight/shadow.

we used these three pieces of software to finish off our and create our final edit after the rough cut. i personally found these very useful because of the ease of which you could use them with a very good outcome. without final cut pro, we would have a really badly edited opening sequence that would have taken forever to do so this is why it is very useful. without soundtrack pro we wouldn't have been able to put in sound and create a specific soundtrack to suit our sequence and also insert all of our Foley sound. without livetype, we wouldn't have been able to create a interesting title for our opening sequence.

Q7: Evaluation: Progression from preliminary to full product.

there were a number of differences between our prelim and our title sequence.

PRE-PRODUCTION
pre-production for prelim: we had no set location so it was done in the college. the story board from the prelim contained rough, even bad, drawings of the scenes we wanted so when it came down to filming, we were sometimes a little unsure of how to shoot the scenes and how long for. we were also not 100% convinced with our storyline. we also had two props, the drugs and the phones. with little props of not much significance such as the drugs, the story wasn't very good at all. we didn't believe in it and so because of these reasons, the pre-production of the prelim wasn't very good at all. instead it was just bits and pieces of film footage put together.

pre-production for opening sequence: we first thought of the film location. we decided to do it at Juliana's friends house. after deciding a film location, a story came into formation. from this we decided what props to use, what clothes to wear, what time we should meet on set and what we should bring with us. the storyboard also was done very well. the pictures were drawn accurately as to how we want it to come out on the screen and we were also talking about how long each shot should take. the whole thing was very well planned out so we knew what we had to do and so didn't waste/lose any time.

PRODUCTION
production for prelim: the production process for the prelim was a very long process. firstly one of our group members turned up late which delayed the start of filming. we also had to set up the camera and the setting. this took allot longer than we had predicted because we didn't book a room to film in so we had to find a spare room. we also had run through each and every shot to try to get it perfect as it was the first time ever that some of the group had ever filmed properly. that day felt very long because of the lack of planning and the dedication that we all put into the filming of the prelim.   

production for opening sequence: the production process of the opening sequence wasn't easy because this was the proper thing but it was allot easier than it would've been if we hadn't planned it all out properly. we knew that this was our coursework so we worked extra hard in trying to get properly framed shots, realistic looking make-up and also put allot of effort into the acting to make it look professional. we arrived on set on time and started setting up the set and the equipment promptly which left us plenty of time to film all the scenes we wanted and some extra scenes as well. everything ran smoothly even though it was a long process because we planned out carefully what we wanted to do on the day onto our storyboard.


POST-PRODUCTION
post-production for prelim: in the editing suite, we realised we didn't have enough footage and we also realised that we were missing some footage that we failed to film because of the lack of time we had left ourselves. because if this we tried to edit the prelim as best as we could but the prelim looked too short and it also felt like there was no real story behind it. we also were not very good at editing and we still hadn't learnt some of the skills that we have learnt now. when we edited the sound, there was a lot of background noise so we tried to cover it up with a soundtrack but we didn't know how to create a soundtrack o soundtrack pro properly yet.


post-production for opening sequence: when we came into the editing suite and started on our film, we realised that we needed one small scene just to to be able to tell the story better. we didn't worry too much about this because two of us worked on creating a storyboard for that small part whilst the other two continued on working away at editing the opening sequences. we filmed our extra scenes an then added them to our opening sequence. we also knew how to properly work on final cut pro, soundtrack pro and we also started to learn how to use live type. by the end of the three weeks we were given to edit, we were very happy about our final product. we were even surprised at the final product compared to our prelim because the difference between them two were massive.

first of all our prelim didn't have a opening title sequence with production and distribution companies idents.

above: prelim without production and distribution companies idents

above: opening sequence which includes production and distribution company idents. 

we also had full titles in our opening sequence, we had no such titles in our prelim. no text at all.

above: prelim without any titles at all

above: full titles of production company in titles and also text appears alongside the actual footage from opening sequence.

we also learnt how to quickly and efficiently set up the set using the camera and the lighting.

above: our equipment ready to film our prelim yet we wasn't ready ourselves. we also used no lighting but we discovered that the opening to our prelim looked quite dark without it.

above: once at we arrived on set, we quickly set out the camera and also the lighting needed for the set.

FINAL CUT -RESOLVED

This is the official film opening of 'Resolved'

Editing Process - Final Sound Additions

Shown above is the final sound editing that we put on our final film opening. We had some problems in this area while we were putting the final touches on our film but we were able to solve them and put the sound on our film.

Shown above is a screenshot of the music we downloaded from youtube that we wanted to use. Out of all of the listed soundtracks, we decided which one out of all of them that we liked the most and used it for our film opening.

Evidence of Non-Copyright

Below are screen shots of evidence that we collected off YouTube that the sound we used for our film opening wasn't copyrighted. 

The screen shots show conversations that the owner of the sound had with other youtube users, saying that it was alright for them to use his sound.

Risk Assessment

As one part of our scenes was filmed in the storage room of CNI we had to create an risk assessment because there are many risks when filming down there.

Additional Story Board

As shown below,the last two storyboards of our film which we improvised during one of our filming sessions to add into our film opening. 

The two story boards, shown below, are of the contract scene where the murderer and the victim (the dad) were signing the contract. 

Rough cut of film opening and feedback

As shown above, this is our rough cut of the opening sequence. It has a few titles and we have not included the sound yet.

 We were given feedback by our teacher, which we are going to use to improve our final film opening.

Day 3 of filming

third and final day of filming. today we filmed a sequence which helps to tell the story of the film better. the scene of both men signing the contract. the day was very easy as we planned it out shot by shot for hours the week before so we knew everything we were gonna do.

film location: in college, room 330
meeting time: 1:15
equipment: camera, tripod, dolly system
props: suits (2), contract paper, pen, chair & table

this day was planned very well and so the shots came out brilliant. the lighting was great on the footage and  the setting was done properly to make it look better than we actually thought it would be.

Day 2 of filming

day 2 of filming was very quickly done because of the short amount of time that we allocated ourselves. because of this, some of the shots look rushed and poorly lit but the quality of the different shots and shot types and angles were very good.

film location: candi basement
meeting time: 9:00am
equipment: camera, tripod, lighting, batteries
props: rope, chair, wooden bat fake blood, black shirt with blood

this day went very quickly because we knew we had to set up the camera and tripod and fix up the set asap as we did not have much time so we did rush through. i still believe the quality of the work was still to a good enough standard.

Day 1 of filming

the first day of filming went very well. we stuck to our plan, arrived on set on time and took more shots than we actually planned to.

film location: juliana's friends house, near brick lane
meeting time: 4:00pm
equipment: camera, tripod, light, lighting stand, wall adapter.
props: dark/black jacket, wooden bat/weapon, fake blood

as it was the first day of filming, it took us a little long to set everything up like the scene and positioning of the camera in the room but after we decided how to do everything, practised each shot once or twice, we got the hang of everything and made alot of progress on the day.

Camera shots of the opening Storyboard

Mise en scene of Our opening