Evaluation Question 7

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

From looking back at both of our preliminary tasks, we feel that our final opening title sequence had been a big improvement compared to this. This is because throughout the planning stages and analysing other title sequences we learnt a range of techniques of how to use and operate a camera properly, as well as learning how to keep to continuity, match on action, and how not to break the 180 degree rule. 

We learnt how sound could be used in order to build tension and represent a horror setting or characters in a certain way, for example in our final opening title sequence we used a soundtrack to make the interior of the building seem unnatural, as if there was a spiritual presence, which was one of the main aims of our opening titles, to make the audience aware that the old building had spirits present.

We have learnt how different camera shots have different meanings and are used for different purposes, for instance an establishing shot is used to show the setting of the scene, close up shots are to show things such as facial expressions on characters, long shots can also be used to show a setting or action, etc. Another example would be a point of view shot, which shows the audience what the character is feeling and puts them in the same position as the characters, as they were experiencing it for themselves, however a low angle shot is used to make someone or something appear taller and make it appear to have more power.

In our first preliminary task we used a GoPro camera, which has a fish eye lens, wide-angled lens. This didn’t work well for us because it gave an obscured effect and didn’t look realistic and withdrew the audience because it seemed less real. This camera also had a waterproof housing, which affected the sound of the video recording, as we were not able to hear the audio of the video, such as the characters speaking. From this preliminary task we decided that a different camera needed to be used in order to improve it, so we used a hand held camcorder. The camcorder improved our preliminary task because we were able to mount it on a tripod, which improved the stability, whereas in our first preliminary task, the camera we used was not able to be mounted on a tripod, meaning we had to record our preliminary task hand held. By using the camcorder, we also got a better sound recording and were able to hear the characters talking, whereas in our first preliminary task we were not able to hear the characters due to the waterproof camera casing. We also didn't abide by the rule of thirds, as the characters were not positioned in the frame properly. 

Comparing our final opening title sequence to our preliminary task, we have progressed much further into using a variety of different things, such as editing softwares, such as Imovie, which allowed us to edit our title sequence by putting frames together, cutting them, adding a soundtrack, and adding titles, etc, which we have not used in our preliminary task. We have also learnt how to use Garageband for our opening title, which allowed us to create our background soundtrack. 

Evaluation Question 6

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

Throughout our project, we have researched and learnt about different types of technologies that helped us to create our opening title sequence such as different camera equipment and cameras, different editing softwares and file sharing softwares, video uploading websites, etc. 

SLR camera- Single Lens reflex (Canon 600D)
We have learnt many new things from using this camera, such as changing the ISO, shutterspeed, white-balance, exposure, and more, which allowed us to film our opening title sequence, and gave us a lot more to work with compared to the camcorder we used to film our preliminary task.

The ISO is the light sensitivity of the cameras sensor, which allowed us to change the amount of light that the camera picks up in the image, which was important because if we had to put the ISO too high, then the piece of footage could of been too grainy. The higher the ISO number the more light sensitivity the camera has to light. This allows the camera to have a high shutter speed in a dark situation.

We learnt about shutter speed, and how it is the length of time the camera’s shutter is open and how long the image is exposed before the image is written.

We also learnt about framing, which allowed our camera for a grid to be placed on the screen while filming to make sure the thirds in each image are aligned properly and that the camera is positioned properly. This helped us to stick to the rule of thirds in order to frame our characters properly. 

We learnt about F-stop, which is a setting on the camera, which allowed us to alter the aperture the camera is using to capture the motion. We learnt that the aperture is the setting which controls how much the iris of the camera opens to let light in, which allows the details in the footage to be seen and also for the camera to focus on. 

The white balance allowed us to control the colour balance of the image taken from the camera from the electronic sensors.  

We have also learnt about different video formats, sound recording, lenses, and different softwares, as seen below:

Sound recording: The camera allowed us to plug in an external microphone or use the microphone that was already built into the camera. The settings on the camera allowed the sound balance to be changed.

Video systems: We learnt about the different video systems and formats and in which countries they are used.  There two different types of video systems such as PAL, NTSC and SECAM. These are different in various regions, as PAL is used for Western Europe, SECAM is used for Eastern Europe and NTSC is used for North America. 

Data writing: We learnt about different video formats, such as MOV, AVI and AVCHD.

MOV is a format that was created for apple QuickTime movie format, which was introduced in 1991 as a movie player for apple macs. But the software is now used on window-based computers as well. It is a multimedia container format, this means that files which contain a wide range of media like video, audio, text, and image files. Other examples of multi media containers are wmv files, and mpeg. This type of file can be used for posting on web 2.0 systems such as: Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer, as the file format of MPEG-4 was originally based upon the ‘mov’ file.  There are various movie quality formats one is 720p HD which 1280x720 pixels per frame, another is the quality of 1080p HD, which is full HD. 

Live view: This is where the image is shown on the liquid crystal screen which the camera has, SLR cameras also have a optical viewfinder but the live view mode means that you can watch the scene while having the camera mounted on a tripod and move it easily and quickly which you wouldn’t be able to do if you were using the optical viewfinder, because the camera is using more power to light up the screen. There are disadvantages of live view, which we figured such as the fact the mode is slower when taking a image but it’s easier to shoot footage because the camera operator doesn’t have to stand at an awkward angle while using a tripod to capture the motion.

Lenses: We learnt about a variety of different lenses, such as a wide angled lens. This is a lens which has a wider lens width than the standard lens this means that you get a wider shot than with a standard lens.

Prime: This is a lens which has a fixed length, meaning that you can’t zoom closer or further away from the subject, but this does mean that the footage quality is better as the lens doesn’t have multiple glass panes, this means that the image which is produced has a more sharp, vibrant and clear appearance this is from the way the light can get into the lens much more easily because it uses the minimum amount of glass panes, this therefore means that the light has less of a distance to travel to capture the image. 

Standard: A standard lens allows you to zoom closer and further away from the subject which is being filmed.

Fish eye: A fish eye lens is used for wide angle photography but unlike a wide angle lens the lens is designed to create distortion and obscuration, this is created by the way the lenses have an angle between140° and 210° and are used for images which are greater than 110. 

Garage band: From using Garageband we leant about mixing, layers, copy write, ownership, file sharing, editing tracks, and fade in and out.

To make the soundtrack for our film introduction sequence we used the software of GarageBand, this is a piece of audio recording software, which was produced by apple as part of their ‘ILife’ package. The software allows you add and create multiple tracks and layer them over each other and then compress the file which is called ‘creating a mix down’ and then open it in iTunes. From iTunes the file can then be moved as a MP3 file or other audio file to use in iMovie or moved to an external memory device. It also allows you to record instruments such as: voice, guitar, piano drums and most other instruments if you have a microphone or a MIDI connection for the instrument. The audio software also allows the user to add effects such as a filter on the sound, which resembles something, like a robot. Or more manual operated effects such as fade in and fade out which we used, and it is more of a manual effect because you can control how loud or soft the sound goes and how long you want the track to run.

 

ITunes

After we had created the mix down we opened the file in iTunes and then moved it onto the desktop to drag into ‘IMovie’ to layer over our video footage.  

Sound Cloud and Sound Bible

Copy write, Ownership, File Sharing:

Sound cloud is an online audio distribution platform, it allows collaboration, promotion and distribution of audio recordings by users. The website requirs that you register before you can upload or download files from or onto the site, it is like a social media website which allows you to post and download audio similar to ‘youtube’ but for audio instead of video footage.

Soundbible is another website which you can find audio files to download for free and in a legal way, for soundbible you don’t have to sign up or register before downloading or uploading audio files, but this does also mean that some of the tracks on the website could be of bad quality because it means that any user can upload audio files to the site.

IMovie: We learnt about file types, adding text, effects, adding soundtrack, shot mirroring for match on action, cropping a frame, exporting movie files,

iMovie is another piece of software which apart of the ‘I life’ package by apple, it allows you to import video footage and then cut the part of the footage which you want in a sequence. It has effects, which allow you to have different cuts than straight cuts examples of these effects are fade in, fade out etc.  

iPhoto- iPhoto is another package which is included in the ‘iLife’ package by apple. The software allows users to do photo editing, manipulation and storing. It allows photo importation from digital cameras and scanners. The software supports many photo file formats, after the image files have been imported they can be labeled, named and sorted by type or category such as a specific date or event. The software also imports movie footage, which can then be dragged into IMovie to edit or software such as the adobe suit programs.

Card reader- Another device we used was a card reader, a memory card reader is a device which has a USB interface for accessing the data on the attached memory device such as a USB stick, SD, SDHC, compact flash and XD picture cards. 

Below is a table i create showing the different technologies that we researched and used in order to help make our opening title sequence, and how we have improved and learnt:

Technologies	What we learnt & benefitted from these technologies
GoPro Fishe-eye Camera:	How this camera captures very wide angled footage with an fish-eye effect, which is not what we intended to use, as a fish-eye view would not suit our preliminary task. We thought by using this that our footage looked too obscured or warped and that the sound recording was not good due to the waterproof housing of the camera, which affect the speech of the characters, as we were not able to hear them. This camera is more suited for action sports, for instance capturing sky diving footage.
Camcorder:	We though that the camcorder was better to use, as it was easily mountable onto a tripod, giving us smoother footage. the sound recording worked better compared to the GoPro, as we were now able to hear the characters. This camera also had a LCD screen, which allowed us to see what we were recording, whereas with the GoPro camera we were not able to see anything, as it didn't have a screen. We used this for our second preliminary task, which was our improved and final version.
Canon 600D DSLR Camera:	This camera has a lot more function, which benefitted us, as we were able to change the ISO, white balance, shutterspeed, etc;. This camera also allowed us to capture footage in full HD 1080p, which gave our footage a more professional look. This camera was also easy to mount on a tripod, and it was easy to view and delete any footage on this camera. This camera was the best camera we used out of all the three, and we used this camera to film our opening title sequence. We were also able to capture more footage on this camera due to the SD card, compared to the camcorder where we could only film on film, which also made it difficult to upload onto the computer to edit it.
Tripod:	The tripod allowed us to capture smoother images by mounting the cameras onto it. This made our opening title an improvement compared to our preliminary tasks. The tripod also helped us to get a tilt shot of the characters climbing up the ladder. We were also able to change the length and angles of the tripod, which helped us a lot, especially filming inside of the barn, as it was very difficult to film in there as the ceiling was very low, meaning we had to shorten the tripod a lot, which then worked well.
IMovie 2009:	IMovie allowed us to upload our footage from an SD card straight into IMovie to be edited. With this program we were ale to edit our footage, for instance putting clips together to make a sequence, adding sound effects, titles, other effects, etc. With this program we were able to convert our footage into an opening title sequence.
Garageband:	Garageband allowed us to record podcasts and create and edit the sound track for our opening title sequence, for example adding a fade out to the end of the soundtrack making the sound fade out at the end. We were also able to cut the soundtrack to make it the right length for our opening title. We learnt many new and different features of this program, such as adding different soundtracks or effects, for example sounds of a guitar or drum. With this program you are also able to create your own music by recording it and then editing it.
www.blogger.com	Blogger enable us to upload our coursework for our opening title to create a blog, which allows other people to view it and comment on it. Blogger also allowed us to edit our posts in a similar way to word, for example changing font types and sizes, colours, adding images or videos, as well copying a embed code of a video, which enables blogger to make it viewable to other people on our blogspot.
www.scribd.com	Scribd allowed us to upload our powerpoint presentations and word presentations in order to publish them onto our blogs, which can be done by copying the embed code from scribd in the HTML document.
www.youtube.com	You Tube allowed us to to do a lot of research on film companies and films, which we were able to analyse by viewing them. We were able to find almost any video we were looking for on You Tube, for example looking at opening titles from big movies to help inspire us and give us ideas to create our own opening title. You Tube benefitted us, as we were able to upload any of our footage and then publishing our footage onto our blog through copying the embed code from You tube onto a new post on an HTML document.
www.soundcloud.com	Soundcloud allowed us to search for any sounds for our opening title, for example any sounds or scary sound effects to do with horror, for instance screaming sounds or spiritual ghostly sounds. This benefitted us, as we were able to find a good background soundtrack called "remote location", which made our opening title more creepy and eerie. We were then able to download this soundtrack and upload it onto IMovie and edit it into our opening title sequence.

Evaluation Question 5

5. How did you attract/address your audience? 

We carried out different types of research in order to find out what would be the right target audience for our opening title sequence. We firstly wanted to create an opening title sequence that would suit a horror genre. Having this in mind, we researched different film certificates on the British Board of Film Classification in order to get the right certificate that would suit our opening title sequence, and decided on rating our opening title sequence 15+, which would mainly be aimed at people aged between 15-25. This is because our opening title contains some disturbing scenes and effects that may effect viewers under the age of 15, and may influence them to play the Ouija board, which is not what we are trying to convey, so by rating our opening title with an age restriction of 15, we are not setting any examples of being influenced, as people of this age group are responsible enough not to be influenced in any way and are able to handle any disturbing scenes or effects. 

Evaluation Question 4

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

The target audience for our opening title would be aimed at people between 15-25. This is because our opening title sequence is of a horror genre, as it contains scenes not viewable for people under the age of 15 because they may disturb people of a younger age, as well as influence them by getting an idea to play the Ouija board, as well as trespass private property as they could think it could be fun.

Our opening title sequence will be aimed at an audience who seek the thrill and suspense of horror movies that seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience’s primal fears. Our opening title features scenes that will startle the audience in a supernatural theme, which overlaps with the supernatural horror genre. Our film is mostly aimed at men, as they are more likely to be able to interact with the characters on the screen. Women on the other hand would react differently to men, which could affect them in a negative way, for example giving them nightmares.

We as a group have also done a lot of research on the BBFC age certificates for film, which helped us target an age group for our opening title. Under the BBFC 15 age certificate, films can include strong language, portrayals of sexual activity, strong verbal references of sex, sexual nudity, discriminatory language and drug taking. Graphic detail of sexual activity should only be moderate. There may be strong violence, but not a lot of graphic detail that is not suitable for someone aged 15.

From this research we have targeted our opening title at the right age certificate, as in our opening title there are no scenes that people aged 15 cannot watch.

Evidence of horror target audiences

Below is a screenshot from an entertainment audience website that consists of segments of people who are highly engaged with entertainment, as they are looking to access the latest news on celebrities, TV shows, movies, and music. The screenshot below gives evidence of what people like horror films, as shown below it says that horrors are mostly attracted at males, as males have a target audience percentage of horror movies of 54.98%, whereas females only have 45.02%. This information is relevant to us, as we have targeted our opening title at males mostly between the ages of 15-25. 

Below is a graph from the national metro showing that people aged between 18-24 are the target audience for horror films, even though this age group is classified as the smallest population group, as seen on the second graph. 

Evaluation Question 3

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

Midnight Releasing

'Midnight Releasing' is a company that distributes new horror movies mainly in North American Territory. They also distribute films of other genres such as thriller, and supernatural ghost story films, which is exactly what company I am looking for to distribute my film, a my film is of a horror/supernatural genre. 'Midnight Releasing' releases new films each month on DVD, VOD and more, which will benefit me, as this company will be able to distribute my film for me and making it available for people to view on DVD. 

Below is evidence given of what 'Midnight Releasing' does, which i have explained above. By 'Midnight Releasing' distributing my film, it will not only benefit me, but also the company, as they will make a percentage from the DVD sales made, so this company will distribute my movie, especially that my movie is of a supernatural/horror genre. 

Below is a screenshot of "Midnight Releasing's" Facebook page. From this Facebook page we can see that "Midnight Releasing" advertises and promotes the films they are distributing on here. This is a good way of 'getting their films out there', as many people all over the world have a Facebook account, meaning they are able to log into their Facebook account and view any promotions and advertisements on the "Midnight Releasing's" Facebook page, for example trailers of films that they are distributing. This shows us that 'Midnight Releasing" uses different types of media and technologies to promote and advertise their films, which helps to attract more customers and increase the number of sales made. 

This would benefit me a lot, as they can advertise and promote my film on Facebook or any other sites to help attract consumers who might be interested in my film and make sales. This would benefit the company, as well as me, as my film will be distributed and the company will get a percentage of what I make out of the DVD sales. 

On the left is a screenshot from "Midnight Releasing's" webpage. This screenshot shows us that they also advertise and promote their films on ITunes, which you are then able to download. This tells us that this is a successful company, as they have a wide range of advertising techniques such as convergent technology in order to attract as many customers as possible and help distribute films. This is why i would use this media institution to distribute my film, as they are able to target and attract a wide audience. They will be able to distribute my film by attracting audiences this way, as the more convergent technology they use, the better. 

Below is a screenshot of "Midnight Releasing's" Twitter page. This again shows that they are using convergent technology in order to advertise their films. This allows people to view information on their Twitter pages about any films that "Midnight Releasing" advertises, as well as watch trailers. This also helps to attract a wider audience, which is what will be good for my film, as by reaching a wider audience, my film will become 'more known'. 

On the left is a screenshot of "Midnight Releasing's" YouTube page. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original-content creators and advertisers, large and small. This again shows that 'Midnight Releasing" is able to attract a wider audience through YouTube, as YouTube is the biggest online company where you can view and upload videos or films. You are also able to download full films on YouTube. This is a great convergent technology for distributing my film, which is why I think that "Midnight Releasing" would be the perfect company to distribute my film for me.

Evaluation Question 2

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

Our media product represents particular social groups through the use of clothing used, as both characters in the opening title sequence wore casual clothes such as jeans, a t shirt, sneakers and hoody’s. This shows the audience that both characters are of the same social standing and that most teenagers wear similar clothes.

Our opening title sequence also conforms to the stereotype that teenagers get up to mischief and are not fully aware of what they are getting themselves into. We have shown this by having the 2 characters trespass a farm on which there was an isolated barn where they broke into to play the Ouija board. Many of the people in the audience may also relate to the characters, which shows that we have represented them stereotypically, as many teenagers don’t take responsibility over certain things, causing them to do stupid things that would get in in some sort of trouble, in this case, them trespassing private property and playing the Ouija board.

We have also used positioning within the frame by placing the 2 characters close together, which indicates that they are friends, which is used in a lot of horror movies, for example Final Destination. This creates a contrast in horror movies between close friendship and separation, as many horror movies start off with a group of friends, which shows friendship, but further in the movie the friends become separated due to certain things happening, for example demons or spirits killing off the friends one by one, which is also shown in Final Destination.

Below is a table i created showing how our opening title sequence represents social groups

Evaluation Question 1

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

Narrative Our horror movie had a supernatural story which is a convention of many other horror films such as “paranormal activity” however the narrative structure of our title sequence is very similar to todorvs narrative theory and many of the films I analysed did not follow the narrative theory such as “Dawn of the dead” however for our film was also set in an abandoned building which is another convention often used because it makes the audience feel uneasy and tense. Other films, which use similar abandoned locations are “SAW” and “The shining,” I think that using this location was effective because it strongly indicated that our opening title sequence was a horror genre of movie.	Mise en scene Low-key lighting was used throughout the whole opening title sequence; another horror film which used low key lighting was the woman in black, in both cases the low key lighting was used to build tension and mystery for the audience.  Ways in which our title sequence has challenged codes and conventions of horror movies were at the beginning of our title sequence when the characters were outside on a bright, clear day with high key lighting. This challenges conventions of many horror movies because high key lighting signifies happiness, which is the opposite of what horror films try to convey, however it was used in our title sequence because due to time constraints, we were unable to wait for darker and dull weather. In our opening title sequence, blood was used as a prop which is a convention of action, thriller and horror films. An example of a horror film which uses blood to scare the audience is  “Texas chainsaw massacre”
Camera work In our opening title sequence we used many shots which are often used in horror movies, for example we used close ups to show facial expressions as well as point of view shots when we took a handheld shot from behind a wooden beam to suggest and signify that something was present whilst hiding.	Editing The editing of our sequence also complied to codes and conventions of horror films, for example when the situation became tense we used fast and sudden editing to create tension for the audience when the blood fell onto the Ouija board.  The pace of our editing was used to build tension which many other horror films do to scare their audience as well.
Sound The non-diegetic sound, which we used, conforms to codes and conventions of horror films. This is because when the characters were inside the building, spooky and unnerving music was played in order to make the audience feel uncomfortable in this situation and make them feel that something else is present in the room.	Other Other ways in which our title sequence follows codes and conventions of horror movies is through representation. Our movie represents young people very stereotypically and similarly to other horror films such as Friday the 13th. Both represent young people as being mischievous and often getting into trouble.