Evaluation Task Question 7

7. Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to
full product?

Evaluation Task Question 6

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

Evaluation Task Question 3

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

Evaluation Task Question 2

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Dexter Opening Sequence Analysis

The title's writing is in a big, bold and red font, possibly representing blood and death. It shows us the character's name in this font, implying what the character is like and that he is central in the TV show. The specific type phase is known for horror and violence, conveying the show's genre. The water marks smudging blood could represent the substance trying to be washed away.

This shot shows an area that is dangerous to hold a blade near, as the neck could be easily cut. There are sound effects of the blade scraping up his neck, adding to the effectiveness of the sequence. When he does cut himself, he doesn't react, implying that blood is a normal aspect of his life. He is cautious, but if someone else were in his situation he would act differently. His hand is also in a gripping position, as if to portray a strangling notion.

 

The motif of blood is exaggerated in this shot, soaking into the material slowly and spreading rapidly. This blood eventually fills the screen, with the sound intensifying as the blood soaks, emphasising the suspense during the shot. This is increased by the disturbing music, yet creepily jolly, making the sequence have a more up-beat feel.

Ordinary food is expressed in a sickening way, being sliced lie flesh. The normality of this compares to the normality of killing someone by one quick slice. Ripping apart the egg with a knife and fork, along with the ketchup splashed on top of it, representing blood, is assisted by the sound of the knife scraping the plate. This creates an uncomfortable series of images and sounds for the viewer that adds to the gruesomeness of the sequence.

 

Even though he's making breakfast, it's done in a vigorous and angry way. The open fruit oozes with a red interior, fleshy and bloody, split open and squeezed. A body could be interpreted by the food, mashed up and pouring the entrails out. By what is being shown in the shot, it could be portrayed that he is practicing for his next victim, all of which is familiar to him.

The wrapping of the string around his fingers shows he's in control, and a possible situation that he's been in before. It is being carefully entwined around his fingers, and cutting off the circulation, suffocating his victims. This is something you do in the morning, and what he does in the morning, yet he thinks of it differently. His slow movements show he is taking his time, and he's precise and experienced with his hands.

Evaluation Task Question 4

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

This is Sam Johnson. He is 27 and lives in Henley, Oxfordshire. His occupation is working for an architecture business, also in Henley. He is good at maths and art, making him excel at what he does for a living. He has a wife and a two year old daughter whom he likes to spend time with when not working. He enjoys watching films at home with his family, in particular thriller, horror and action movies with his wife. His favourite movie is The Imitation Game, his favourite book is Shutter Island and his favourite TV show is Game of Thrones. He likes to listen to music in his spare time, especially Ed Sheeran as it relaxes him. His main interest is in cars, as he has a car collection that he likes to show off to his mates. This makes him a perfect example of our target audience as he fits into the ages we aim to market for, as well as his intrigue in the thriller genre and suspense films in general.

The statistics shown here would be our preferred demographic split, with male being the majority. This is because the thriller/horror genre generally appeals more to a male audience. Also shown here is the higher percentage of viewers being 15 years and older, supporting our original target audience. This is because of our unsuitable content for a young audience.

Evaluation Task Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?



In this video, we discuss the ways in which we attract and address our audience. The use of our popular locations around London allow the audience to relate to the film with greater ease, as well as using iconic monuments such as the London Eye to let the audience feel more involved with the sequence. The blackout at the beginning with the sound of the chopping attracts the audience's attention as the sound can relate to many different things, not just chopping of the meat, therefore increasing the intrigue as to what's going on. When the butcher turns up the radio, the audience is left wondering why he is so interested as to what's being said on the radio, along with who the character actually is, due to the fact that his identity is left unknown. Soon after is when the sequence turns into black and white with the bag in colour, attracting the audience as the bag is bright red, standing out in the shots. The sequence begins to pick up momentum with the quickness of the music and train passing by, condensing the time from which the bag is being passed from the man at the train station in Cookham to the my character in London. By doing this, we maintain concentration from the audience and try not to lose their attention by keeping the shots pace faster and along time to the music's beat. When my character is walking through the station whilst on the phone, the audience is drawn in as they want to know who I'm talking to and where I'm going next, along with the paranoid behaviour I show through my quick pace walking and looking around. In the shot showing the telephone box without the with then later without the bag, the audience is addressed to as we leave a question being asked in doing so.. 'Where has the bag gone?'. This creates intrigue as it's the first time in which the courier is in the frame without the bag, adding a suspicious element to the shots. The ellipses sequence helps to break the repetitiveness of the passing of the bag, maintaining the attention of the audience as the shots are shorter and along with the beat of the faster part of the music. The changing of the background and character gives the sequence a creative element in which the bag is in the same position throughout. When the last shot comes up, the scene is shown through the audience's perspective, involving them in the sequence and adding a diversity to the ways in which we have filmed the opening. The sequence's ending of the zipping up of the bag leaves it on a cliff-hanger and making the audience want to know more about what happens next.

Font Research

As you can see in this selection of thriller fonts, the title tends to be in red against a black and white background, enhancing the boldness of the title and the connotations that red brings (e.g blood). We chose to use a typed font in order to maintain the secrecy and suspicious nature that our sequence brings, assisted by the name 'anonymous'. The fonts tend to be in capitols, which we have deviated from in our titles, as we use all lower case letters we are able to keep the simplicity of the word against the black and white background and red bag. We have also used black titles in our film poster, against a red bag and black and white background to keep the titles in bod, but make the bag the main focus. However, in our sequence we use red typed font, to compare with the typical thriller font colour, and matching our red bag idea, standing out against the darker background colours throughout the sequence.

Secondary Audience Research

On the Pearl and Dean website, I have researched a selection of Thrillers which clearly show that the majority of the genre's viewers are male, mostly in the age range of early 20's/late teens onwards. This gives the impression that a vast percentage of our viewers for our sequence would be aimed for a male audience, in which many would be early 20's, matching what we said our target audience would be in our Treatment Video. This is because some of our content might not be as appealing to a female audience, and would not be suitable for a young age range to watch (e.g the murder) which would be extended on if the film was not just an opening.

Storyboard

Planning notes on Evaluation Question 5

Evaluation Task Question 1

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



In this video, we discuss the ways in which our media product uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products. The use of specific editing techniques help to assist the 'thriller' genre, with connotations provided by the red titles, red bag and the knives used at the butchers. With the titles being in a typed font, the thriller genre becomes more obvious, as well as being a suitable font for the name 'anonymous' as it increases the secrecy. By using well-known locations in the sequence, it allows the audience to feel more involved with the film and gives the impression that atrocities, such as the murder, can happen anywhere. Sound also helps to challenge and develop the thriller genre along with the mise-en-scene described. We use non-diegetic background music to give off a suspense filled atmosphere, latching the audiences attention throughout due to our shots cutting on the beat in time to the music. Sound-effects are added to the sequence both in the butchers (e.g. meat sounds- chopping, knife sharpening, being thrown on the table) with the titles and the zipping up of the bag. This helps to give the piece a more realistic feel, accentuating the original sounds given when filming and further enhancing the importance of the moments when the sounds are needed. We develop the thriller idea by constantly giving the audience something to think about, not answering the questions, this leaves them wanting to know more information and therefore watch the rest of the film. We challenge the genre by using a bag as the 'main character' rather than the obvious 'bad guy' and 'good guy' shown in thriller movies. By doing so, we are able to focus in on the bag and involve little attention on other characters, shown by the highlighting of the bag's colour, and including a greater amount of people to show the vast amount of demographics and agents involved in the murder.

Original Film Poster

 

This was our original cover photo for 'anonymous'

 

This is our final cover photo for 'anonymous'

 

 

 

 

 

To improve our original photo, we decided to remove the capitol letter at the beginning of the word. We did this in order to make the title more discrete, and fits in with the meaning of anonymous, to remain hidden and simplistic. We also made the photo less animated and more naturalistic, decreasing the brightness of the red in the picture and making the bag look less like a cartoon.

'Anonymous' Final Piece

Here is our finished Media Coursework sequence, 'Anonymous'. Since our rough cut, we have been able to improve our piece by changing all the shots, apart from the beginning scene in the butchers, into black and white with the bag highlighted in red. To do this, we used colour splash and edited each shot individually to be able to make only the bag red. The effect of having all but the butchers in the black and white colour scheme was to intensify the importance and 'normality' of the meat being cut up, with the whole of the 'move' sequence presented with visual effects. For our titles, we decided to use our teachers names, in order to show that there were no set positions from people in our group, as it was a collaborative piece with joint efforts made. We have also taken on board the feedback we received from our audience response based on our rough cut. To do this, we switched around some shots, changed the timing for specific moments, adjusted the speed of other shots and added more footage onto the end of the video, along with the needed sound effects and titles to finish the opening off.

Rough Cut Audience Feedback

This is the video in which we asked a variety of people to watch our rough cut all the way through, followed by answering a series of questions in which we created. These questions were;
1. What did you like and what would you say was your favourite aspect of the opening?
2. Did you notice any of the editing used in the sequence? (e.g continuity editing/distinctive breaks)
3. Would you change or improve anything from the clip?
4. Did you think the ellipses sequence was effective?
5. Did you think the length was appropriate? (e.g too long/too short)
6. Did the music suit the content?
7. At the beginning of the sequence, was the concept of the radio and the meat clear? (e.g representing the murder)

Judging by the feedback we received, our piece worked effectively in presenting our ideas about the murder and the victim in the bag, suiting the thriller genre we aimed to present. Our music choice worked well in creating the tense atmosphere and assisted the way in which we cut shots to move onto the next one on particular beats in time to the music. Our ellipses sequence worked well by presenting the shear amount of people involved in the passing of the bag, condensed into a short amount of time that was creative and intriguing to watch, especially as it included random people and increased the realism of the piece. However, a point to pick up on, along with the positives of the ellipses sequence, was the comments that there may have been too many people involved. This meant that some viewers felt that the clip dragged on too much and wondered when it would finish, as well as the beginning part when the butcher cuts up the meat. Many viewers most enjoyed the mystery created by the red bag, and how you never actually see what's inside it, making them wonder where it will end up and who for, based on the wide variety of people carrying it. A clip improve on would be when the bus passes Cam, and when it does he disappears, leaving the bag behind. We could do this by playing around with the speed of the bus passing by, as it starts slow, speeds up and slows down again. This has been noticed by the viewers and doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the sequence due to how abrupt the shot is compared to the precision of the rest of the shots. We could also improve the transition and flow of a series of shots near the beginning of the piece when my grandpa walks out of the butchers. We could do this by lengthening the shot when he is shown going through the door, allowing him to walk a couple steps more, and then cut to the over the shoulder shot when he is walking down the street. Overall, the length of the sequence could be condensed a bit due to the viewers feeling it drags on a little, along with the need to re-edit the bus clip, however our ideas worked effectively and the ellipses sequence created a mysterious attribution to our video, assisted well by the music throughout.

'Anonymous' Rough Cut

 Here is our first rough draft of most of the sequence. We have yet to include the ending 'Move' clip and of the bag being opened at its final destination to finish the opening. Furthermore, we will need to colour correct the clips to make it in black and white excluding the red bag, as well as adding finishing touches to the video. With this video, we will ask people to watch it and interview them afterwards to obtain feedback which will be useful when making final touches to the sequence.

 

Six Feet Under Opening Sequence Analysis

Pink Panther Title Sequence

Coraline Title Sequence

Edward Scissorhands Title Sequence

Pretty Little Liars Opening Sequence Analysis

Downton Abbey Opening Sequence Analysis

American Horror Story Opening Sequence Analysis

True Blood Opening Sequence Analysis

Behind the scenes of filming in Cookham

Here is a video of us filming in Cookham station and butchers. At the butchers we managed to capture several shots of the meat being cut, chopped and some radio shots. These shots were shown from a variety of camera angles that should give the film an effective touch and gruesome atmosphere. At the station, and partly at the butchers, we used my grandpa for the shots as an actor holding the bag for a duration of the sequence. We were able to have a shot of him standing at the station when the bus arrived, then when the bus left, he was remaining standing there except the bag had gone. This implied that the bag had been taken by someone on the train and starts the travelling of the bag being passed by many people in London.

Behind the Scenes of 'Anonymous'

This is a video of footage from when we went to London in February half term to film for our film 'Anonymous' including shots of videos, pictures of filming and comments on how we made specific shots more effective (e.g. using equipment to steady the camera for tracking shots).

Ellipses sequence planning and preparation

During class, we filmed our group discussion on the Ellipses Sequence in which we were influenced by the 'Move' video. In this documentation, we talk about the characters that would be involved in this sequence, the positioning of it in the video, shot types, the ways in which we will make it an effective piece of filming, precautions to take, the shots after the video and provided examples of images of locations. There will be a variety of locations used, including Cookham, all around London (including transportation- on buses and trains) and in Shiplake Basement, adding to the diversity of places we can film at.

We used different places around Shiplake to test out our Ellipses Video, using ourselves and others to make it more convenient and to make sure we know what to do before traveling to London and filming the real thing.

Shooting Schedule

Here is our groups schedule of what times our shots will be taken at, how long they will be, the locations they'll be taken at, the cast&crew involved, any equipment or props needed, the shot type and any notes that will give more further information valid to detail of the specific shot.

Planning for Storyboard

Here is the video for when we were discussing the storyboarding we have done previously, for example the meant being cut up in Cookham, around Cookham train station and various shots in London.

Risk Assessment

In order for our trip to be safe, we must take precautions into account, therefore our risk assessment allowed us to know what to do and what not to do whilst in London.