Evaluation 7: looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to your final product?

Evaluation 6: What have I learned about technology?

               

Evaluation 5: How did you attract your audience?

Evaluation 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Question 4 from Ben Hunt

Evaluation 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product?

Evaluation 2: how does your media product represent particular groups?

Representation from Ben Hunt

Evaluation 1: in what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Genre------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Narrative &Structure--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Form & Style-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                                                                                                                       
                                                 
 

Final product

This our final product, however the soundtrack didn't come through for some reason.

Monologue

I have written two alternatives for a monologue that the detective will speak over the opening sequence.

1. This is my town, I've lived here all my life, the streets have been good to me, and the people better, so I repay them in sweat and tears keeping them safe.... but even I cant be everywhere at once, its only a matter of time until it's one of my own that gets hurt, then its personal, screw the law, I'm out for revenge. Confucious once wrote that 'before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves'. I had better get digging then.


2. I was born in this town, I know the streets and their seedy underbelly, I do my best to police them and protect the few good people still left in thus hole.... but even I can't be everywhere at once. I lost my sense of humour and sensitivity years ago, they only slowed me down, made me weak.......... I didn't know all of those lost feeling were about to all come rushing back to me. (uncover body)

Academic mentoring day

Today it was academic mentoring day and after my 10 minute apointment with my tutor to check up on my progress in all of my lessons I went up to media to edit more of my sequence and change some of the credits to include last names and spread them out some more. I think the editing is going well and with only one scene to add in, I am pleased with our progress.

Advertising case study

Representation

Representation in film is mostly done in a very stereotypically way with women in films being seen as helpless and weak and men being seen as very strong individuals that have to save the women from certain situations.

This can be seen in the Indiana Jones and the temple of doom, where Jones (Harrison Ford) saves Willie Scott (Kate capshaw) at the beginning of the film from a bar in Shanghai by dodging bulletts and trying to get the cure for the poisonthat was slipped into his drink. He then proceeds to save Willie again in the temple of doom just before she is incinerated.

Indiana Jones is seen as a powerful character capable of doing almost anything like dodging bulletts, finding valuable treasures and to top it all off, he always gets the girl in the end.

However in some films representation of males and females can be flipped on its head. For example in the film Kill Bill, Beatrix Kiddo AKA the Bride (Uma Thurman) is seen as a very powerful, self driven character as opposed to the men in the film which she manages to defeat in duels. This shows that women in films are not always necessarily portrayed as weak, helpless characters but rather powerful, unbeatable characters that accomplish their goals.

In our opening sequence we dont necessarily portray men or women in a certain way, we portray both halves of a community from the bad at night to the good during the day and the crossovers between them with the police.

Editing - Adobe 1

Now that the new macs are here and set up, I have managed to re-edit my group's opening sequence  using Adobe premier, which isnt that different from Final cut. I am happy with the sequence and I feel a little better about the deadline but there is still alot to do with the sequence. We still need to finish the credits and touch up the soundtrack so that it fits and also finish the monologue but at least the editing is mostly done, with exception to the green screen scene, but its looking better.

Se7en opening credits

The opening credits to Se7en have the film studio, producers name and the directors name as the first 3 credits followed by the main cast and then the title of the film before the minor cast is introduced and the sountrack composer, costume designer and editor all towards the end, finishing again with the directors name. this seems to be the conventional way of applying the credits to a film with the production company and studio being credited first and the director last.

The credits for Se7en are fitting for the film as they are in a scratchy font that jump off the screen, fitting the thriller genre. The scenes behind the credits are also fitting as they add to the creepy, moody tension of the film and add to the tension it creates further telling the audience what type of film this will be within the first few minutes.

opening sequence

The Lie to me opening here starts with a woman at a crying in a toilet cubicle and dropping a used syringe on the floor, this leads the audience to believe that the woman, who now stumbles out of the bathroom bumping into people, is struggling with drugs abuse. We then see the woman on the phone to someone in some sort of distress before cutting to a girl, who we believe to be her daughter, waking up and calling out for her mum and not being able to find her. The sound used in this opening sequence creates tension and a good sense of atmosphere telling the audience exactly where the woman is with the music and talking/ laughing being played in the background and the spanish radio station coupled witht he sound of cars in the background tells me that the girl is in a Mexican motel by the side of a busy road. It is helpful to the audience that they can make their own conclusions about where the characters are or what is happening in the sequence purely from sound as it can help add to the enigma of the sequence which is what a detective/crime drama tries to create.

For my groups main sequence I want to try and keep some of the original background sound to give the audience the feel that they are in the heart of a busy community and that it is bustling with life, however this may backfire if the sound isnt of the right quality or someone talks over it.

Robbery

Last Monday the media department of the sixth form was broken into and all of the Apple Mac computers were stolen along with the tripods and almost all of the cameras. This will hinder our progress with the completion of our opening sequence as it was saved onto one of the Macs desktops that were stolen. hopefully we as a group can pull together to get everything done before the deadline, which has been pushed back slightly.
We still have to finish the credits and re-edit the opening sequence as well as check that the music fits the timings of the sequence and record and add my monologue to the sequence. However with proper planning and if everyone does their bit, we should be able to complete the sequence to the best of our abilities.

credits

For the credits to my opening sequence I want to have make it simple white colored font with our sequence as its background. I feel this will look good with the snow on the background. I want 'a simple yet effective' approach.
The credits will include:

• An atom productions film
• Edited by Ben Hunt and Tom Fry
• soundtrack by Chloe George and Aaron capociemma
• Directed by Ben Hunt
• starring Aaron capocciama, Tom Fry, Ali Sadique, Chloe George and Ben Hunt
• Credits by Tom fry 

opening of detective films and series

The opening of a detective film or series usually follows the same basic pattern of the audience being shown the crime being committed (usually a murder), where you cant see who's done it, then someone turning up to find the dead body and then the main detectives turning up on the scene to examine the body with the forensics team.

the opening 5 minutes of this episode of Law and Order: UK shows an innocent father and daughter finding a burning house with people trying to get out through the windows which are bared. This is the innocent bystander stumbling upon the body. The enigma within the audience is to weather the fire had been started by a criminal or if it was simply an accident. The scene then changes to the fireman team and the forensics team on the scene as the main detectives turn up to look at the body and the burned house before the credits.

I will try to use this pattern in my opening sequence by following the same rules with the audience seeing someone being attacked and asking why. Then the scene will change to the main detective turning up and casing the scene whilst working with the forensics team.

Green screen

For the last scene in our opening sequence I wanted to try and use the green screen to create an effect when the detective character drops his flask in shock after seeing who the dead person is. The effect I wanted to create was to put a black baground on the flask and slow down the scene to add to the dramatic effect within the sequence. I set up the green screen and filmed the flask dropping and I managed to get a black backround on to the greenscreen but it was too dark to see the flask properly so I'll have to try ironing the green screen which should help the flask show up better and make for a smoother background.

Colour correction

To add our pickups into our sequence we had to use the color correction tool on Final cut  which allowed us to change the color and brightness of the scene for it to fit into the rest of our sequence, I feel it went quite well and we managed to correct the color and blend the scene into our sequence therefore giving  it more of a flow and clarifying a part in the sequence.

Editing - 2

Today we continued editing and we just tidied up some sections of the sequence and have had thoughts on how we could end it by using a green screen and creating a slow motion effect just to bring the whole sequence to a close. I think this could work well and add to the enigma and dramatic effect of the sequence as well.

Editing - 1

Today we edited the first part of our sequence, I feel it went well and that we have a good range of shots and that the snow added to the general look of the whole scene and could work to our favor. I think the main problem we will have when editing is matching up the shots and adding all the ones we want into the sequence.

Filming 2

last week we had to re-film the first part to our opening sequence because it wasn't light enough and we didn't use a large enough range of shots to show reactions and setting.
I am pleased with what we re-filmed and how the shots came together and it was much better than our first take and we are all much happier with it as we have used more shot types such as close ups to further show what is going on in the scene and show enigma.

Opening sequences - 2

This an extract from the opening of Trial and retribution which shows how a woman returns home and is murdered. When the woman returns home she goes upstairs and hears a noise in one of the rooms, she walks into the room and smiles, as she seems to know who it is. The scene then shifts to the house with flashes of a scuffle going on between the woman and the person she encountered in the room. She is then pushed down the stairs and there is a sound of smashing before the scene changes to her parents coming home and finding her dead.
I liked the split shots that were used at 0:53 to show the family returning in their car from 2 points of view, I feel this better established the scene to the audience. I also liked how the credits were presented at the sides of the main picture and in between. This didn't quite fit the mood of the sequence but it still seemed to work in a simple way.
The sequence creates a lot of enigma for the audience, especially when the cyclist passes by at 0:10. the enigma is created as it seems to be late at night, you can't see the cyclists face and he looks directly at the house that the woman is in.

Opening sequences

The music used in this sequence adds to the tension in the air as it starts of very light and happy sounding as the couple are talking and then changes around 0:45 to a more dramatic sad sound as the body is dicovered.

This is an extract from the opening of an episode of Lewis which is a crime drama series on ITV. The exctract shows a male and female characterwalking down a street late at night alone. It is all shot from a wide angle which further exagerates the fact that the street is empty and the two main characters are alone. There is then some dialogue and the camera changes to a mid shot to focus on what the characters are saying and when the male character notices the dead body the camera pans down to show a part of the body, then drops down from above to show focus on the face of the body
.

What I liked about this extract is how it used different angles to show the dead body and how the empty streets were shown in the wide angles. I also like how the music changes to a darker tune when the main character sees the body in the pond, it adds to the atmosphere of the scene.

Filming - Day 1

Today was the first day of filming our opening sequence. I feel it went quite well and we managed to get some good shots done and I think its coming along well. As a group we got on really well and managed to have a lot of fun as well as communicate successfully and make some good group decisions on how we each thought a scene should be shot. All in all, a good days work.

Production companies

One of the biggest production companies in the world is Universal studios, with big productions to their name such as Jaws, The mummy, Back to the future, Jurassic park, E.T and more.
Universal has been active for over 100 years and has reportadly pulled in a revenue of 4.3 billion dollars in 2011. One devision of Universal studios is Working title films which is a British film production company and lends its name to films such as Shaun of the dead, Hot Fuzz and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Johnny English and more. All of these films have been quite successful and have won many awards contributing to the growing success of the British film industry as well as Universal Studios.

Production companies

The production company is responsible for the fundraising of the film on its own or through a parent company, partner company or private investor. The production company also handles other aspects of the film making process such as the budgeting, script, supplying the actors/actresses, marketing the film and its distribution.
For our sequence if it was picked up and made into a full length film we would probably ask for funding from the British film council in association with another small british film company such as Cipher films as I doubt big American production companies would pick the movie up.

Storyboard

Setting

I took pictures of the setting and uploaded them to the group blog. This is where we will film the bulk of our opening sequence. I am happy with the setting as it provides a lot of space to set up the camera aswell as enough lighting to film at night which will add to the mystery of our opening sequence.