Question 7- Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

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

Throughout the process of creating our opening sequence we used the following technologies such as, Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Quicktime player, Emaze, After Effects, Piktochart, Powtoon, Wix and Prezi, during the research, planning and editing.

The technologies that are brand new to me are Premiere Pro, After effects, and Quicktime player. 

I have developed skills in Premiere Pro, I learnt the basics at how to edit for example the functions and how to add sound and titles. Some effects that I used in Premiere Pro include dissolves. Dissolves allow you to transition between scenes smoothly. We also experimented with sound using effects such as the Bandpass effect in order to alter the voice slightly and make it scary suitable for our genre.
 I also developed skills in Quicktime player, this was used to create our audience feedback. I also developed skills in Photoshop, we used this to create our production ident. When using photoshop a lot of effects were used to try and create our ident. I have also developed my skills in After effects when creating our production ident, since it was our first time using the program we had to get used to it in order to create the effects of the sand.

Photoshop needs careful use and planning in order to apply effects that you want in your product. For example, when creating our ident we needed to watch tutorials and change certain aspects of our plan in order for it to work. Additionally, we needed to continuously start again with our ident due to mistakes or new ideas after looking at tutorials. 

The presentation softwares I used were Powtoons, Prezi, Piktochart, Emaze and Wix. These allowed me to be more interacting by using videos and images in order to make my blog more visual and pleasing to the eye. The internet was very helpful during the research process as it allowed us to develop our ideas and find alternative ways to display our information. For example, different presentation softwares.


The technologies used during production include camera equipment, a DSLR, Fig Rig, GoPro, and Tripod.

We used the fig rig for tracking shots and for hand held shots so it was more stable and less shaky. An example of when we used tracking shots is when the girl is making her way towards the door after it has been knocked on, also when the boy is walking upstairs. These both create tension as it enables the audience to see where the character is going,making them feel apprehensive as if they are being followed. 

The GoPro, although we did not end up using any footage filmed by it, was used for POV shoots and Close ups this is so the audience could identify with the characters. 

The DSLR was used to film all the shots of our opening sequence. The tripod was also used to reduce shakiness and for establishing and long shots. An example of a long shot in our opening sequence is when the girl steps outside to check who is at the door, in the background the audience is able to see the killer who then quickly sneaks into the house. This also creates tension because the whereabouts of the killer is unknown to the character and almost makes them annoyed as she is naive and doesn't see him.

The technologies that were new to me was the GoPro, I was able to find out more about it such as it's not suitable to use in water as it could damage the camera. It is typically used for POV shots so you are able to see what the character is looking at, which can be achieved by wearing it across the forehead. 

Question 5- How did you attract/address the audience?

This video is of people giving us feedback on our opening sequence, this then helped us to make further changes and improvements. Below is a video in response to the feedback we were given.

Audience Feedback:

This video is in response to the feedback we received on our opening sequence. We wrote some questions that they would answer and this video explains the feedback and the our response.

Screencast Video:

This video explains our audience research we received from our survey we gave out.

Director's Commentary:

This video is an explanation of why we chose to include certain aspects in our opening sequence, such as why we used certain camera shots, why we used certain editing techniques, our reasons for the lighting and sound.

Question 4-Who would be the audience for your media product?

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

Question 2-How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Question 1- How does your media product support, develop or challenge the conventions of other media texts?

Reflection

First Shoot

We were able to get a few shots done, we were set back due to a few difficulties which we were able to fix before the next shoot. We focused on costumes and the mise en scene a lot, a lot of work was also spent on deciding what to shoot first and framing the shot. This was our first day so we weren't very confident but that changed as we progressed.

Second Shoot

We finished shooting the rest of the shots and re-shot a few, costumes and the set was the same as before. The whole process was a lot faster as we were more comfortable with the location and what we were going to film. 

Third Shoot

We changed the role of one of the actors, he was made to play just the killer. The costumes and location stayed the same as we re-shot the majority of the shots to improve. This process was quick as we were familiar with the location and considering we only changed a few shots, mise en scene and everything stayed the same. 

Promotion website

I created a website in order to promote our opening sequence, below is the link to the website.

http://edenbanana1.wix.com/mysite

First draft

This is our first draft of our opening sequence, in order to conform to the horror genre we chose to re shoot the majority of our shots in order to match our genre and please our audience.

Final Sequence

This is our final sequence, after we re shot and edited in order to conform to the horror genre. 

Storyboards

These storyboards show what will happen in our opening sequence, each square is a different shot and shows us what we need to include for each scene. 

Shooting Schedule

This documents shows the itinerary for the shooting of our opening sequence. It helps us to be organised and so we know when we need to be filming, with who and what props and what location.  

Props list

This document shows the props we will be using in our opening sequence.

Costume list

This document shows the costumes the actors/characters will be wearing in our opening sequence.

Actors List

This documents lists the actors and the name of their character in our opening sequence.

Animatic

This video is a brief idea of what our final opening sequence should look like. It shows what will happen for each shot and who and what will be included, such as characters and props. 

Location Post

Possible locations for filming.

Location 1:

This could be a possible place to film as it has a bush that we could use for the point of view shots when the killer is watching the characters.


Location 2:

This could also be a possible place to film as it allows us to film from the windows which are from the killer's perspective and it is quite isolated therefore making it viable for a horror film.

Sandman Studios IDENT

This is the final product of our ident 'Sandman Studios'. We originally planned for sand to blow across the screen and then Sandman would appear on the screen in a gold sand like colour, however we decided to use a man instead of it blowing across the screen. It starts off with a wind sound effect and is then accompanied with tense music, which is appropriate for the horror genre.

Feedback

We showed a couple of people our animatic and afterwards asked them for feedback, this helped us to make the final changes and choices to our opening sequence before filming.

Final Font

As a group we decided our final font for our title would be 'Black Asylum'. We agreed that it was appropriate and related well to the horror genre as it represents the mystery within as the identity of the killer is unknown. It best fits the tone of our opening sequence because a lot of suspense will be created when the killer is watching the characters getting ready for the party, his motives are not known. It will appeal to our target audience of females and males under 25 because it is stylish and creative which will attract teenagers more than children.

Horror Fonts

I think these three fonts would be appropriate for our title in our opening sequence, they could all be used in a horror opening sequence as they would create a very uncanny and sinister feeling for the audience. They have conventions of horror films because they have blood dripping from the words and are sharp which could link to a knife, commonly used in slashers.

I think this would appeal to our target audience which is females and males under the age of 25 because being fans of the genre they would find it scary and relates well to the horror genre.

Distribution Company

For our Distribution Company we chose Lionsgate as we believe it appeals more to our target audience, males and females under the age of 25.The majority of their films they distribute are aimed at adults and are responsible for distributing films such as: The Hunger Games, The Divergent Series and The Twilight Saga all which appeal to our target audience. These films usually attract teenagers between the ages of 15 and 18 so therefore would be suitable for distributing our film, which also targets the same type of people. They also known for distributing horror films such as American Psycho, Saw and My Bloody Valentine which is the genre we have chosen for our opening sequence. These films are 

also targeted at those around 18 so will more than likely be attracted to our own. 

American Psycho stars Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman who lives a second life as a serial killer.

The Saw series revolves around a sadistic serial killer who captures people and makes them complete extreme challenges in order to survive.

My Bloody Valentine is about a man who wakes up ten years after being put into a coma and hunts down the person who caused his accident.

This is one of the headers on the official Lionsgate website, it is advertising for the upcoming film from the Divergent series: Allegiant. This targets teens and young adults which is also our target audience, so is best suited for our film. 

The site also contains films that have already been released some which share the same target audience as ours. For example, The Hunger Games which is a film that is aimed at teens.

You're Next is a horror film distributed by Lionsgate, which therefore shows that Lionsgate is appropriate for us to use for our distribution company as they appeal to both fans of horror films and teens, our target audience.

Pitch

This video describes one of our ideas for our opening sequence, which revolves around a group of teenagers getting ready for a party and they are being stalked by an unknown killer. After discussing and reviewing the survey results we believed it was best to go with  a slasher horror, as more people seemed to associate with slashers. 

Production Ident

This is one of our ideas for our production logo 'Sandman Studios'. We plan to create 3D glass text which spells out 'Sandman' and sand which will then blow across the screen filling the glass, the text will be filled with a gold colour which resembles sand finally studios will then fade in below. We thought Sandman related well to the horror genre and represented the mystery and suspense of horror films.

Initial Ideas

Survey Results

Survey Results.

From Questions 1 and 2, we can see the majority of our audience is female and that they are under 25 meeting our target audience.

The results from Question 3 show that the majority of the audience prefer supernatural horrors than slasher horrors.

From Question 4, the majority of the audience preferred classic horror films than modern horror films.

The characters that the audience most associate with horror films are unknown killers and teenagers who are stalked and then killed.

This contradicts with the previous question as people preferred supernatural over slasher however the characters that they have mentioned are usually in slasher horror films.

The results from Question 6 shows that the audience last viewed a horror film in the last month and year.

The prop that the audience found the scariest was dolls, which are usually associated with supernatural horror films.

The character that the audience found the scariest was clowns.

From question 9, the audience found haunted houses more scary, and close behind was woods and church. All which can be used in a slasher horror film.

The results from question 10 show that the majority of the audience find hand-held cameras effective. 

From the results we decided to create a slasher horror as the majority of the characters the audience said they associate with are usually characters that are from slashers, such as murderers and naive teenagers. The most popular location for a horror film was a haunted house which also convinced us to make a slasher because it is an iconic place for teenagers to be and for horrors to be filmed at.