By Patrick Metry

Evaluation

Introduction

For the AS Media Coursework I was assigned to create a Movie opening title sequence. By conducting research into different film genre’s and look at existing professional and non-professional film opening title sequences we then had to create are own.

Opening sequence contact sheet…

Opening sequence contact sheet…

1. This is a contact sheet for our opening sequence, the first image you see in the contact sheet is of our film title, “Split”. We decided to call it “Split” as the story is about a man who has two sides to him therefore has two sides to him hence the name “Split”. The reason we decided to put the film title as one of the first titles is because we researched the order of title sequences and we found that it would be appropriate for us to put at the begging of the title sequence as it starts the story straight from the opening therefore introduces the film title before the opening.

2. As you could see in the second frame the setting was in a graveyard. This second image was a pan of the graveyard. We chose a graveyard as it’s a typical convention of a thriller and also relates to are opening sequence. The graveyard gives the opening sequence that horror feel and signs of death which makes the sequence more intimidating and scary.

Opening sequence contact sheet…3. The third frame represents the camerawork and editing. this

image we selected has was an extreme close up of the characters eyes as he gets flashbacks. We used lily puts to create the effect on the lighting then enhanced the effect by turning up the contrast on Final cut pro.

4. The fourth frame is to show the story and how the opening sets up. This image creates enigma as to why this boy is running out the house. This image is of a flashback which Is later reviled in the opening. The shot is an extreme long shot as it shows the setting and you could see the boys whole body.

5. The fifth frame I chose is of a church in a graveyard this frame represents the genre and how the opening suggests it. The genre of our opening title sequence is a thriller however there are many sub-genres of a thriller a few sub-genres include: conspiracy thriller, crime thriller, disaster thriller, mystery thriller and supernatural thrillers. However the sub-genre of our thriller was horror. a few things that give away that our opening is a horror thriller is that the image is of a church in graveyard which is great imagery of death and a typical convention of a horror film.

Opening sequence contact sheet…6. The sixth frame is to represent the title font and style. The font we

used for our titles is ‘Cracked’ we used this font because it gave our opening that horror feel and effect. For our titles we had a white background and a white font this is because they go well together, contrast nicely and goes with the theme for the whole opening sequence.

7. The seventh frame shows how the characters are introduced/established. In this frame we can see a young boy looking sad as he has his fist and his head against the wall showing his suffering and pain. This frame was originally taken from the montage which was of the boy in this room by his self getting angry/sad.

8. The eighth frame is for the special effects that we have used. The effects we have used in this frame is black and white, we used this effect as we wanted to make the shot look like it was a memory and flashback therefore black and white gives this effect.

9. The last frame is used to show the costumes and props used. As you can see in the frame the boy is in a casual tracksuit and is wearing trainers and his dad is wearing jogging bottoms, a jumper and sandals. The reason we chose these costumes for the characters is because we wanted to make it look like an everyday event therefore the casual clothing was appropriate. The props used in this frame was a bottle alcohol which the dad was holding although you might not be able to see it in this frame. The bottle was used as a prop to indicate that the dad was drunk and was an alcoholic therefore lashing out at his son.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

This image on the right was taken from the film “Spirit of the beehive” in (1973) and the image on the left was taken from my opening title sequence “Split”. These two images are similar in numerous ways as: both these images portray loneliness and the two boys are both sat down against a wall. In terms of appearance the both boys look around the age of 8-9, are both fair skinned and have the same hair style which is the brushed down curtain hair look.

However looking at these to images I could also see a number of differences such as the costume/clothing of the boys, the boy on the right is wearing a tracksuit and trainers which is more casual whereas the boy on the right is wearing a shirt and jumper which is more formal this could be because the difference between the time of age as it was released in 1973. another difference is the lighting and effect on the shot. The image on the left is in black and white and has low key lighting whereas the image on the right is the total opposite as its in colour and has high key lighting. Finally the boy on the left is occupied with what looks like bees unlike the boy on the left which just has his head down.

Overall I reckon these two images stereotypically represent young boys as they are very sensitive and often experience rejection or loneliness at this age.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and

why? The production company for our opening title sequence is ‘STAP

Productions’. We came up with STAP Productions as it represents our group names, the ‘S’ stands for Shauna, ‘T’ stands for Tayla, ‘A’ stands for Aliysa and the ‘P’ stands for myself Patrick.

A production company is a company responsible for physical production of new media, performing arts, film, radio or a television program. The company may also be directly responsible for raising of funding for the production or may accomplish this through an representative. The production company may be either a small company or a larger one, selling its products to a film studio or presenting it at a theatrical venue, or, in the case of film and television, it may be the studio itself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Production_company

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

The idea of a distributer is to market and distribute new media to television channels, fund the script, film development and production, inward investment, certification, co-production, film exports, statistics, distribution and exhibition.

Our film would be funded by the UK film council and all the expenses needed to create the movie would be given by them, this is where the money would come from.

The UK Film Council is the Government-backed lead agency for film in the UK ensuring that the economic, cultural and educational aspects of film are effectively represented at home and abroad.

The various people are named in the titles to show who done what to give credit to those who helped make the themes or to even attract some people into watching the film if they see a big name such as a celebrity staring in the film. A few of the jobs that appear in the titles include cinematographer, actor, director, music, producer etc.

Our film “Split” is similar institutionally to ”Dr. hyde and Mr. jeckyll” (1931) as the story is based on scientist which secretly has two sides to him when he drinks the potion. It is released in the same way as our thriller “Split” as the man also secretly has two sides to him hence the name “Split”.

Who would be the audience for your media product? For our media product the audience we were aiming

at were the older generation of youth this is the age of 15-25.

This is Charlie he is 18 years and 4 months old, and lives in West London. Charlie is currently in full time education.

Charlie is an average guy he likes to go out and play football with his friends. Charlie is an standard student and dresses casually. He enjoys movies such as “Tormented”, “Shaun of the dead”, “ Scream 1,2,3,4” , “Spiderman”, “The American”. Charlie enjoys playing video games such as the ‘Playstation’, he enjoys playing games such as Call of duty, and Halo. His favorite food is Chinese and loves to go to Chinese restraints. In his spare time he would watch TV, some of his favorite shows include “Eastenders” , “Top Gear”, and “CSI”. I think this film would appeal to this boy Charlie as he is our typical audience that we were aiming at. Also stereo typically teenage boys like Charlie enjoy horror thrillers such as ours. I reckon if Charlie and his friends were to go out and see a movie and our film ‘Split’ was on, him and his friends would watch as its similar to the films he likes such as ‘Tormented’ and ‘Scream’.

How did you attract/address your audience?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuxtEa6B5Ik

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?During the process of film production I have

learnt many things about the technologies used in constructing media products

Final cut pro

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

i have learnt a number of things such as: match on action, 180 degree rule, Mise-en-scene and shot reverse shot.

The 180 degree rule is a basic rule in film making which means that two characters in the same scene should always have the same left/right and the camera must never cross the180 degree line.

Mise-en-scene is simply everything we see in the background, this could be from scenery, setting, props to characters etc.

Shot reverse shot is a very common technique used in film making, it is where one character is shown looking at the another character and then the other character is shown looking back and this creates an effect as if they were facing each other. This technique is often used in conversations or arguments in films.

Match on action is a technique used in film editing, its a cut that connects two different views of the same action at the same moment in the movement. By matching the movement across the two shots, it makes it seem as if the motion continues uninterrupted.

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

Our media product is a horror thriller. In a thriller genre film, often, the story will centre around a crime. Many popular thriller films, for example, revolve around a serial killer on the loose. The films try to convey a lot of action in order to “thrill” the audience, or in horror thriller a lot of tension to scare the audience or keep them at the edge of there seat. This will often involve ordinary situations where surprising things take place.

For our media product we created a thriller opening, in our thriller opening we introduced some familiar forms and conventions of a thriller, these were; death, violence, graveyards etc. by looking at these common conventions we have used it would be fairly simple to tell that the sub-genre for our thriller is horror

Our use of camera, sound, editing, mise-en-scene and titles follow/deviate from thriller codes and conventions for example the black and white effects used in the graveyard, the high contrast used on an extreme close up of the mans eyes to show his pain, the broken font on the titles, the shaking and glow effect on the title of the film.

A lot of our common forms and conventions used came from other thriller movies which influenced us a few of these include ”Dr. hyde and Mr. jeckyll” and ”Dawn of the dead”. These films influenced us in a number of ways including; ”Dawn of the dead” helped us with the structure of our titles also with the effects on the titles, most of our effects were influenced by this, ”Dr. hyde and Mr. jekyll” was a great influence in our story as it again shows two sides of a man.

Our thriller establishes the setting and location which Is mainly inside the graveyard.