Film Opening Final

For my final piece I decided to create an opening which had a thriller/mystery genre to it. I wanted to create something that was fresh but with the amount of films under those categories, I found it hard to create something people would find different. The feel of my opening relates to films such as Scream, where the girl is alone in her home when she feels as if she being watched from the outside. I decided to add a twist into the storyline to create a killer within a group of friends which would hopefully add suspense if i revealed this in the opening of the film, it would also capture the viewer's attention and make them want to find out who this killer is.

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

The Title:

For the title of my film, I decided to base it around the list the killer uses which includes the names of his/her victims and at the end reveals who his/her next victim will be. It took me a while to come up with this and since I was struggling to find the perfect title for it, I decided to ask people over the internet what they thought of calling it. To do this I used the site called Yahoo Answers and I got some good feedback. When someone suggested the name 'Checklist' I thought it would be perfect to fit in with the storyline of the film. I did however consider some other options which were suggested, but none of them stood out as much as this one did which made the choice a lot easier to make. If I were to come up with something else to name it, I would stay focused on the list but maybe if I wanted to change it into a killing between a bunch of girls, maybe backstabber, which is what I originally wanted to call the film. The only reason I didn't was because it seemed too cliche and made it seem that this would be how the killer killed all of his victims, and this made me think that the viewer would maybe get bored of just seeing the same angle of someone being killed and wanted to change that by creating a different title.

The Setting/Location:

For the location, I used one of my friend's houses which is on fleet estate which is a quite place so we wouldn't get too many interruptions from outside when we were filming scenes that needed to be done outside. The reason I chose this house in particular was because of the window which looked into the kitchen at the back of the house (in frame 3). This is what inspired me to do this story line as it felt chilling to think of having someone watch you in your own house. When it came to shooting the killing scene (frame 6) I saw the blinds and thought peering in from there would look quite clever as if we were someone else watching the girl about to be killed. I thought the whole location and the setting was perfect fit for the opening scene as i felt it would draw in the viewer and would be good for all the different angles. The only glitch with the location was that it had a porch, so when she walks into the house from the outside, she opens the porch, but when she's inside coming in the house, the porch door is shut. Another glitch is that I filmed everything in the same house, so people could have picked up on that and gotten confused, to make this more clear, I could have filmed at my house or switched the stairs around so they were on the other side when I was editing the footage.

Costumes and Props:

When shooting scene with the knife, I used a real sharp bladed knife to give it the realistic effect, and not get a fake knife which would look phoney and not make the viewer think, that it was an actual knife. I decided that the character of the killer is the type of person who wants to be hidden, so to show this in his costume, I gave him a hoodie to wear so that he could hide his hair and his face and also since the hoodie was quite slightly baggy, the character could have just as easily been a female which would give the audience more to think about when watching the opening. The only glitch I have in my piece  is when I needed to film some extra footage, and my character was wearing different shoes and jeans instead of trousers. To make this professional, I should have made sure my character was wearing the exact same clothes.

Camerawork and Editing:
Before filming, I created a Storyboard to show which angles I wanted from the camera so that I would know how to come across the filming when I was at the location. This helped me to realise what I needed to do to get the better shot. I felt that when she was walking into her house, it would look better to have a following shot instead of a camera that stayed still. This was because I didn't have enough time to get the different shots of her walking through the house as the house had lots of corners and was quite narrow instead of having a wide amount of space. I didn't borrow one of the schools cameras as I had my own own at home, however when I came to editing the footage, I realised that it wasn't the best quality I could have gotten. In some of the shots, I should have used a tripod to make sure that the camera was staying still, except from in frame 3 when I wanted to show that someone was watching her, I decided to shake the camera for an extra effect and to make it slightly clearer that it was filming from someones point of view and not just having a view from a following camera. I felt more confident when using the camera as I had produced a few pieces where I had to work with slightly bigger cameras, whereas he one at home I have used before so I was more familiar with the functions and it made me feel better about filming each scene.

When it came to editing the piece, I realised that I needed to film a few more, which then I went back to the house and got my friend to help me film the extra bits. To make this professional, I should have thought of everything when planning my storyboard, so I wouldn't have the few glitches that I had. I found it easy to edit the footage as I had now edited a few pieces of my work and found it easier to work with the programme. The tools I used were the exact same as what I had used in my previous pieces. This gave me an advantage as it was quicker for me to edit everything because I knew how to use everything and wasn't afraid to go wrong as I'd know how to fix it. When editing the music, it took me a while to firstly find the perfect track to fit on and when I added the track, I realised I had to cut it down to make it fit in with the opening as it wouldn't give the same effect if it ran over or ended up having the wrong bit of music with the wrong type of scene. 
When I edited the music, there was some parts where I had to make the volume of the track go down so that when some dialogue came on, it wouldn't be drowned out by the music. there was also some parts that went wrong, for example I had some noise in a scene which I did not want this occurred when the killer walked up the stairs, so to fix this, I took sound from him walking up the stairs and duplicated it and cut the sound in the right place so it fit with the actions. I also had the problem of when the killer walked out of the house and into another, I didn't have footage of him walking into the house, as I used the same house, and to fix this, I took the recorded sound of a door opening and closing from when the actress walked in and placed it during a title page. This worked to my advantage as the music was not very loud at this point so I was able to make the fact the door was closing very obvious.

Title Font and Style:

The reason I chose the font for the titles, was purely because I wanted a simple text to show against a black background. After editing the 'Reservoir Dogs' film opening, I liked the font they used as it looked simple and professional. I also didn't want my font to look too over dramatic by adding effects or different designs. It also seemed to fit the style of my film as it wasn't as gory in the opening, it seemed quite straight forward. To make it more interesting I could have added a few special effect but since I was concentrating on the tension, it seemed logical to leave the font nice a simple to not get that over dramatic effect. I also didn't want the text to appear unclear to viewers like some fonts do, so to be fair I played it safe and I think it worked quite well.

Story and how the opening sets it up:

The story behind my film is that there is a killer amongst a group of friends who throughout the film will take the opportunities to kill off their friends one by one and do this by following a simple list of names. The opening will start off by having one of the victims walking into her home where she will be alone, then she will start to feel paranoid that something is wrong and will see from her kitchen that something is moving outside kind of like a hooded figure. When she she looks round to see it, there's a knock at the door, not the scary kind of rapid banging, but a calm knock at the door. When she goes to open the door, there is a character wearing a hoodie standing there, but instead of looking afraid, she is surprised to see a person she knows to which she invites them in not knowing what is about to happen, but as she turns around so her back faces the door, the hooded slowly pulls out a knife and slaughters the girl. The figure will then walk out of the house and walk to their own house and to their bedroom where a list is stuck on the wall, the character then crosses out the name of the girl just killed  and points to the next name on the list. 

The opening could have more clues as to a reason behind the killing but in some films, this is not revealed until later on in the film although their are scenes which suggest a reason. The opening sets the film up for a series of murders, purely because of the list and that if at the beginning of a film someone is murdered, that would suggest there would be more unless the film is a murder mystery where there will still be some more thrilling moments other than the beginning, as that is just a slight taster to what the story is about. I definately should have included moreof a script to signal that there would be more murders over a secret, however I felt that I would be re-creating a similar film to 'Scream' which would make my film seem boring instead of having a new insight to the genre.

Genre and how the openin suggests it:

I would definately say that the genre of my film opening would be a thriller or mystery, purely because the fact there would be intentional murder would make the type of thriller as the killer is obviously unstable or going through a bad time or wants revenge on these people. It also fits the genre of a mystery because of the fact that the killer will stay hooded thoughout most of the film and since he was unrevealed through the opening, it would appear to the audience that they do not know who the killer is, and the fact that the hoodie the character wears is slightly baggy, could mean that anyone is under the hoody male or female which definately gives a sense of mystery. If I was to create an action, which this could just aswell be if there were fighting and guns involved, then I would have shown this in the opening as most actions films, such as 'James Bond' usually have a car chase, a shooting or a fight scene. I could have done this by showing how the killer murders his victim. For example she could have put up a fight. I did not do this because I needed to keep my opening to a time limit of at least 2 minutes and felt that I needed to fit a few more key scenes into my opening.

How characters are introduced:

The characters in my opening are introduced simply by them walking onto the frame. The actress is introduced by her walking into her home and being aware she is alone. Her character is not seen fully and we dont really know much about her, but as she is a part of this group, she will be described in a later scene past the opening. If I needed her to be described better, I would have gotten her to speak down the phone or something to her friend, however I did not see this as an important part of the opening.

The character of the killer seems to want revenge for some reason which will be revealed later on in the film (for obvious reasons) but at the moment he could either be wanting revenge or he could just enjoy the feeling of killing people, this is unclear as this is the opening, but I have left it so that the audience can sort of figure out for themselves what will happen druing the film and prepare themselves for the worst.

Special effects:
The only special effects I needed to use was the music and sound. This was because my movie did not need any special effects to create any kind of spooky tension as the fact it relates to a real life story, (story being humans and nothing supernatural involved) The only thing I would of needed to do is to flip over the scene which the killer goes up the stairs, this is so that the viewer did not get confused as I filmed all the scenes in the same house (this could have confused the audience if I had shot the scene from a different angle.

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

The character I've chosen to compare is my main actress from the opening scene with the character Casey Becker from the opening scene in Scream. I chose this character to compare to because she is in the same sort of situation with the exception of a few pointers.

Similarities:

- Both characters are home alone with no one to witness the killer being present. (with the exception of Casey's boyfriend Stave who is tied up on her patio) The actress in my opening would have had a witness if her firend was still in the neighbourhood or nearby, and maybe after the titles or during the film her friend could say she found her or was told by the girl's mother when she came home.

- The two girls look very similar which was not intentional, Casey has short blonde hair and so does the actress in my film. They also wear the same kind of costume when my character takes her coat off, she appears to wear a cream cardigan, similar to Casey's which again was not intentional.

- They are both very vulnerable in this situation as they cannot call for anyone to come to their rescue, Casey being so far out of town and my actress not knowing she was in trouble. They also have a very Similar death where they both are known to be stabbed/slaughtered.

- They are both very similar in the terms of how the start of the film is set out, and is a tension building opening as it starts with a death/murder which will make the viewer intrigued by the storyline. They also start the film off as it would appear that they are both the killer's first victims and therefore a start to a series of murders.

Differences:

- A difference between the two characters is the accents they both have, one is clearly american and the other british. I think this makes a slight differtence in the story as houses in america seem so big and as if anyone could enter without anyone knowing, this makes a slight impact as the killer is entering the house through the front door by being invited in by the actress.

- In the opening of 'Scream' Casey knows that she is in trouble when the killer tells her what he intends to do, wheras the killer in my opening, does not let anything slip about her being murdered which changes both characters feelings of being home alone. Casey being frightened and my actress paranoid, but not scared to the point she almost calls the police.

I also chose to compare the hooded killer from my film opening to the killer in the film the 'Urban Legend'. The reason I chose this character to compare is because he is very similar to the killer in my film opening.

Similarities:
- Both characters are very similar, mainly because they both decide to stay hooded thoughout most of the film, this is so that they do not reveal themselves to outsiders or get noticed during their killings.
- They both kill their victims with handheld blades, not guns and their victims all know each other so they are all connected instead of the killer picking on random victims.
- They are both human and do not hold any immortal powers to isolate their victims, which shows that it is a real life sort of film and not a fiction-like super hero comic film.


Differences:
- The approach they have to their victims is slightly different, in the Urban Legend, he first appeared in the back of a womans car, in my film opening, he was known by his victim and used that as an oppotunity to kill her.
- Their weapons of choice are slightly different, in 'Urban Legend' the killer chooses an ax, which is not very discrete. This shows that he may enjoy watching his victims squirm before the actual kill whereas in my film, the killer went for a slightly sublte approach and used a knife which was can be easily hidden and in my opening shows him fitting it in his back pocket. This shows that this killer likes to use the element of surprise and leaving his victim completely shocked before they're slaughtered to death.

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

Below is the script I used to create my voiceover. at some points my voice may go a bit unclear, so if there is anything that needs to be understood, this is nearly exactly what I said apart from a few parts where I might of added small words or phrases.


Description of my Production Company
I called my Production company 'Jumprope Productions' and I did this because it gives off the feel of an american type of company as in England, a jumprope is known as a skipping rope. This makes the company look as if it were in the same league as high budget Productions. When coming up with the name, I wanted to get a name with only 2 sylobols as it sounds better than having 3 or more.
The role of my company is to be involved in producing medias varying from adverts to films.It will fund low budget projects and maybe the occasional product that would have a huge numbered audience.


What does a Production Company do?
A Production comapny is a sort of firm which will present and fund entertainment such as films, television programs, adverts, radio channels and pre-recorded or live entertainment. A low budget film will have a limit on how much they spend on their cast, crew and special effects which is why films like mine are usually produced by low budget companies. A company can also control who directs and stars in their projects as they either have a set budget, or want to hire that person for a reason. Some actors occasionally make their own company so that they can boost their appearences on screen and control their career. An actress who has done this is Drew Barrymore, she had created a successful company Flower Films and has produced films such as 'Charlie's Angels' and '50 First Dates'.


The idea of a distributor and who that might be.
A distributor are companies which help release films to be put on the big screen. Well known distributors are labels such as :
-20th Century Fox
-Summit
-Columbia Pictures
-Paramount
They do this because they are willing to help the production company sell their media and to get their name on the credits to roll in more business. Some distributors are also production companies.


Where the money might have come from for a film such as yours?
To fund a film like mine, the money would either come from an investor (who will want a share of the makings) or come from a producer, the production company or even banks which deal with fundings for movies. In Hollywood there are banks which help with the funding of a film to get a percentage of the profit to go back in their pocket.


Why the various people are named in the titles, which jobs appear in title and in what order?
In my film, I decided to put my titles in the order that most films do. I put the production company, the Author of the novel and the Producer's first as without them the film wouldn't be on the screen. I then put the cast of actors next as they carried out the story and I put the Director and the Editor last as they helped capture the story which the actors had displayed.


What film is similar to 'institutionally' (films which would be released in a similar way.
Films which would be released in the same way as mine would be in the likes of 'Sweeney Todd' 'Fight Club' and 'Taxi Driver'. Although their titles are in a different order, the titles are still at the beginning of the film. Another difference is that they have all got their titles overlapping a scene wheras I chose to have a black background so the viewer's attention would be on the titles and not just the scene behind them.

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

My target audience for my film 'The Checklist' would be either teenagers or adults since it's a thriller and involves lots of murders. This would not be ideal for children to watch as they would usually label this sort of film a 15 or an 18 so my audience would be either teenage girls or boys or young adults. This would be because the film is based around teenagers who get murdered and the story-line of this film would be based around a High School Drama type or something similar to that. I think there are several types of people who will watch my film but the person below I have picked for a few reasons. Here is a photo of her and a bit about her lifestyle.

Her name is Rebecca Boem and she is 17 years old. She lives in Dartford and she enjoys doing activities such as Ballroom dancing, going out with friends.
During weekdays, she is a student at the Leigh Academy and studies the arts of fashion. On the weekends, she will go out with either her friends or family and practices her dancing. 
She would normally shop at high street shops such as, H&M, New Look, Topshop, Primark and River Island and usually picks things out for her friends when shopping with them as she has a very good taste in fashion.
Rebecca enjoys watching film that are related to her age group, for example 'Mean Girls' (which is her favourite film) and then when she is at a sleepover or has a friend round to stay, she will watch films such as, 'The Haunting in Connecticut ', 'The Unborn' or comedy thrillers, such as 'Scary Movie' or 'Zombieland'. 
The programs she enjoys watching on television would be, 'The Vampire Diaries' 'Gossip Girl' or 'One Tree Hill' she sometimes watches the soap 'Eastenders' but only when she finds the free time. She finds reality programs like 'The X Factor' 'Strictly Come Dancing' and 'I'm a Celebrity' as good entertainment but would rather watch a good film at the cinema on a Saturday Night instead.
Rebecca listens to music from artists such as 'Rihanna' 'Fall Out Boy' 'Jimmy Eat World' and 'Beyonce'. 
I think this film will appeal to Rebecca as she enjoys watching scary thriller films with her friends, and the fact the film may revolve around girl drama could make her get a better understanding of the film. Also, she may go to see this film on an Orange Wednesday with her friends if the age limit was right for her. 


I also think that my film would be suitable for any kind of age group, as every one enjoys a good thriller and no matter how old the characters are or what the story line involves in a thriller, most age groups would enjoy the thrill, suspense and the mystery behind the film. 


Feedback
A lot of people gave me feedback on my film opening about what I could improve on or what they liked about my opening, what worked well and how I captured the viewer's attention and created tension etc.


Aimee said that she liked the variety of different shots I captured in my opening and the music which played along with it had good timing with each clip and some of the actions. 
What she said I could of improved on was the lighting and the close up of the check list at the end. When editing, I did realize that these areas did need a bit of improvement as they weren't the best part of footage I had in the opening.


Yvonne told me she liked the font, colour and style of the titles and that it had a nice simple effect to it. She also said she liked the way I never revealed the killer's face or identity. The part she thought I could improve on was when I used the shot from looking into the kitchen, that I could have held the camera  a little more steadier. At the time of filming, I thought this effect would show a person looking in on the girl, but when looking back and getting feedback on it, I do think I could have shown this a little better with my camera skills.


Kristen's feedback said that she liked the music I chose to fit my opening and that it helps to build tension, she liked the way the titles cut in some of the scenes and that the scene where the girl is being watched was effective to her as a viewer as it gave her the idea that someone was watching her. She also liked the scene where the killer gets the knife out on the girl and felt that since she, the viewer knew what was going to happen before the girl gave a tense atmosphere to the opening. The only thing she thought I needed to improve on was when the knife was thrown onto the bed that it should have been covered in blood, to make it seem more realistic. I did think about doing this and there were a few things I could of added into my opening, but with the deadline being so near I was more concentrated on finishing the piece and getting relevant information into the opening. Now I have seen what I could of improved on I have a few ideas on how I could of improved my piece.

5. How did you attract address your audience?

To create this clip, I used youtube annotations to help me add in the bubbles and links in my video. 

This is the set out of the annotations tool. In the first box there is the clip box, which is used to show what part of the video you're adding an annotation to. Below that is the timeline which is used to show where the annotations are in your video, how long they last for and allows you to move around the annotations to the right time and place.

This is the tool to use if you want to add in annotations, write what you want to say inside the note and then to change the colour so that it is visibly clear on your video.

If I wanted to add a link to my video, I would have to select the option note and then insert the link of the web address which leads to the video.

This is what the video would look like when it got to that part in the timeline. As you can see, I chose to use different colours for my speech bubble and then a different set of colours for my links/ notes. This is to make it clearer for the viewer and both annotations are visible on top of my opening.

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

To help me capture the footage for the opening of my film, I used different types of technologic equipment most of which I used to film previous tasks, which gave me a boost of confidence when I used them. These pieces of equipment included:

-A HD Camera - most people had to borrow one from school but I had my own camera available for me to use (this is not the camera in the photo) I found this came to my advantage because I was able to use it whenever I needed to film some more footage, for example I discovered needed an extra scene in my opening when I came to editing my piece, so to make life easier for myself, I didn't need to consult my teacher as I had a camera available for my use.

-A Tripod - I found that in the footage I took with the tripod I did not need as I needed to make my scenes fit under 2 minutes, so with the footage that I used the tripod to film, I did not need in my final edit.

-A Macintosh Computer - With out this I wouldn't of been able to do any of the editing. I found the Macs easy to use as I've been using the ones at my school for a long time which made it easy for me to use when I needed to edit my piece.

I also needed to use a lot of program software to edit my piece and enhance it's features in areas. These programs consisted of:

-Premiere Pro - This is the program we used to edit out footage and has been the software we've used to edit all of our pieces. I find this program easy to use as I've been taught how to use it well by my teacher and then the experience I've had with all the clips I've edited has really helped my skills in using this program.

-Google - Even thought this is a website, I used this a lot to research my genre and what a good thriller would consist of. I also used this to get some images of similar thrillers to my story and to see how they came along and produced theirs which gave me inspiration to continue on with mine.

-Wikipedia - I also used this for the same reasons as I used Google, however I did not trust this site 100% as it is known to be a site where people can edit the information themselves. Only when I did not find the right information using google, I would use wikipedia.

-Yahoo Answers - I used this to ask some people from the public what they thought would be a good idea for the title of my opening. This helped as I got an insight of what other people would think and gave me a variety of options where I could either use or get some inspiration from.

-Youtube - I used this site so that I could watch clips of movies to prepare myself for this task, I watched a variety of trailors and openings which go from 'Kick-ass' and 'Batman' to fimls such as 'Juno' and 'Meangirls'. This helped me make the decision of choosing the genre and getting the outline of my story.

-Photoshop - although I did not use this to produce my opening, I did use this to help create a lot of images on my blog. I have no problem using this program as I use it in other subjects but I really enjoy using this program and feel that it has helped me a lot with my evaluations.