My final opening sequence

 'The Collector'- Final Media Opening Sequence: 

The collector link

CCR Task 4- How did you integrate technologies- software, hardware and online in this project?

  Link to Max Wright's CCR Task 4 WixWebsite

CCR Task 3- how did your productions skills develop throughout this project?

  Max Wright's CCR Task 3 Prezi link

CCR Task 2- how does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

 Which audiences would typically watch films similar to mine?

1) Horror audience- Similar to "Seven" (film about a mass murderer). The typical age of audience members for this genre fit between 15-25. Which is the age rating of our film (15). 58% of the Horror genre's audience viewership is men, whilst 42% is women. Our film, having a man to be the main protagonist, appeals to men, which is the majority of the horror audience. However, our film being made in English reduces its appeal to the horror industry as the nationalities that watch horror films the most are Mexican and South Korean. Horror audiences typically enjoy the development of the character and how the film becomes more and more unrealistic as they can reassure themselves that the film is fake. Our film shows the development of the character and at the end has a game of cat and mouse as his victim escapes her captivity.

2) Thriller audience- Similar to "Don't breathe" (film about a cat and mouse chase between teenagers and a blind man in a house they can't escape) The typical age of audience members for this genre is between 18-25. However, much of the thriller genre's audience are of mature age (typically 50 years old or higher). Which is above the age rating of our film. As the thriller and horror genre typically intertwine when it comes to the product of film studios, this means that the same statistics of men (58%) and women (42%) watch the thrillers. Which means our film, featuring a male protagonist and having a higher viewership by men, is more appealing to our target audience.

3) Psychological audience- Similar to "Zodiac" (film bout the manhunt for the 'Zodiac killer', a mass murderder who terrorised San Francisco Bay). The typical age of audience members for this genre is 25 and onwards. As most psychological films feature a dominant male and damsel in distress, ideally the genre appeals to both men and women as the both the protagonists are presented as strong and resourceful.  Psychological audiences typically enjoy the rush and excitement as the films starts slowly, but becomes incredibly tense in the last 25 minutes. This is similar to the structure of my films story as we see the character move onto human victims and the struggle as one of his victims escapes at the end of the film.

Identifying my target audience:

My films target audience would typically be men between the ages of 25-50. This is due to the mature story of the film. Most young men won't know enough or witnessed kidnappings and women being targeted/ victimised. Because of this, I believe my film would appeal to a slightly more mature male audience. I also believe my film would attract a large female audience, between 15-30, as women enjoy watching films where the damsel in distress develops into a strong, independent character that fights back. Furthermore, as one of the main characters is a young girl, this would attract a young audience of women as they can relate to the girl but also older women who might have children. My film would appeal to English speakers (England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and America) as the film starts English actors and probably would not be dubbed due to our low budget. The setting is late at night in alleyways of busy cities, which is more relatable to the working class. The narrative revolves around kidnaps which typically happens to working class women. I believe the socio-economic classes my film targets would be: C1 status- lower middle class- supervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professionals, C2 status- skilled working class- manual/ labour workers. I also think that my film would target the mainstreamer and explorer psychographic groups as the film is about adventure, struggle, energetic/ chaotic and targets the sentimental values of the mainstreamer audience with the story being about a girls kidnapping.

How does my film engage a specific audience?

My film opening attracts an active audience through the theory of 'Uses and Gratifications'. The first audience my film would attract would be the 'Entertainment & Escape' (people who enjoy drama or action e.g. fight sequences, horror chases...) My film attracts this audience as it includes a dramatic horror chase (game of cat and mouse in the building he hides his 'collection'). This is foreshadowed in the opening sequence as we see him fill a syringe with an extremely powerful sedative. We also see him opening a drawer where there is a girls ponytail and a photo of one of his victims. Furthermore, the excitement and Proairetic and hermeneutic codes draw the 'Entertainment & Escape' audiences attention to the film as we see the man fill a syringe with liquid which raises questions such as: "who is he going to use this on?" and "when is he going to use the syringe?". Another example of enigma code that hooks in the audience is the heart and liver underneath the table; "who's heart is that?" and "who has been killed?"

Another audience I think would engage in my opening sequence and want to see the rest of the film would be the "Personal identity/ Relatability" audience. As the film is about a murderer who kidnaps a girl as a 'trophy' victim, and we see her difficult and dramatic escape for her captor as police try to locate their whereabouts, the film is widely relatable as many people know at least 1 person who has suffered or witnessed some kind of attack on women. The film featuring a young teenage girl (shown as a photo in the drawer) also appeals to a young female audience as well as parents as they are able to feel a closer bond to the character. Finally, my opening sequence attracts the "informed & Educated" audience as the film educates people (specifically young men) about the struggles women face regarding harassment and attack from men.

Regarding technical/ media language, I have engaged horror fans and psychological thriller fans through the mise-en-scene. We created a dark and dingy setting and followed the theme of psychological thrillers by showing lots of close ups of specific things which forces the audience to engage and think about the images on screen. We also changed the pace of the editing to engage the audience and highlight some of the enigma codes that were raised during the opening sequence. For example, at one point we created a brief montage, referring back to Doug drawing in the book twice, to break up the slow paced editing and make the action shots between Doug's drawing stand out, such as the girls photo or the syringe. We also created a 'horror' themed introduction by using creepy music. The music increases in volume and creates an uncomfortable atmosphere and discomfort the audience. 

Audience feedback. How were they engaged?

My class watched my opening sequence and said that they found it made them feel "uncomfortable" and that they thought it was very "interesting", "cool", "well edited", "creepy".

Friends and family said it "looked very professional" and like "an opening to a real horror/thriller film".

My teacher thought that it had "Great camera work, really interesting lighting and amazing variety of props."

However, Becky also said that "It might be nice to have some weirder or creepier items eg insects, more organs etc or have Doug cutting in to organs etc..  The sound at the start of the opening is a little quiet as well." Which is what my initial idea was and shows that Matt's idea (other media teacher) to remove any animals negatively effected our opening sequence. 

Distribution:

Film distribution is the process of making a movie available for viewing by providing cinemas, streaming sites etc... with the product to sell.

Distribution companies:

I think the film distribution company Kaleidoscope because they are a very cheap company to hire and distribute the product very well. An example of their success is Belstone Pictures film 'Tank432' which they hired Kaleidoscope for £20,000 and made lots of profit (for such a cheap film. Predicting between £250,000 and £300,000). Not only did Kaleidoscope help distribute the film, but they changed the name and CD cover of the film to give it a global audience appeal. I think Kaleidoscope would be a good company to distribute my film as they are cheap to hire, help improve global audience appeal and, if the film is a flop, share the loss or if the film is hit, share the profits. 

Marketing methods:

I think the marketing methods best suited for my film are digital and traditional media methods. To attract local audiences I would have articles and pre-view reviews put into my local newspapers. I would also have posters put up in cinemas to attract existing audiences such as horror genre fans as they enter to see a film. as for digital media, I would post the trailer on YouTube and contact large YouTube channels, such as Buzzfeed who posted Tank432's trailer, to promote my film freely to a global audience. I would also create  a film page on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to draw attention to my film across all audience ages, genre fans, genders etc... On these social media pages I would hold contests for people to sign into and win prizes related to the film to promote my product. I Wouldn't hire airtime on TV or put posters on buses/ trains as it is quite expensive for a small budget film. 

Distribution methods:

I would have my film put onto digital platforms such as streaming sites or digital download as it is much cheaper than big cinema releases on film reals. If it was a cheap/ affordable cinema, it would be shown on a digital projector to save production costs of film reels. 

CCR Task 1- how does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups and issues?

 Link to Max Wright's CCR Task 1 Work

Feedback on my opening sequence

We presented our opening sequence in class and received very positive reviews.

feedback received in class:

- very scary

- created an uncomfortable atmosphere

- great cinematography

- good set/design

- interesting use of shots

- large variety of camera work

- creepy music was effective

feedback from friends and family:

- original camerawork was very interesting

- great selection of props

- good lighting

- close ups and detail was a very interesting perspective for the audience to watch

feedback from teacher:

Great camera work, really interesting lighting and amazing variety of props.  It might be nice to have some weirder or creepier items eg insects, more organs etc or have Doug cutting in to organs etc..  The sound at the start of the opening is a little quiet as well.  

Cast explanation and confirmation

The main protagonist in our opening sequence "The Collector" was played by one of the drama teachers and head of performing arts- Doug Quinn.

We casted him as he had lots of acting/ camera acting experience.

Doug's appearance also fit the description of our character, as we wanted a middle aged man who has rough-ish hands from practical work e.g. building his collection.

We went to go and talk to him before filming to let him know what the sequence was about/ what he would be needed to do (if he felt comfortable doing it) and how long we would need him on set. We discussed costume and asked to look at his hands as we wanted our Protagonists story/ history to be as accurate as possible.

editing workshop 2

 As we approach the final few days of our editing week (days 3 and 4), my group and I have edited over half of the rushes and put them into a log bin titled 'The Collector'. We spent most of today assembling the clips together, re-watching the footage and finalising the fluidity and smoothness of the clip transitions. As I have done a majority of the editing so far, Emily had worked on finding music for our opening sequence and contacted a YouTube channel asking permission to use their soundtrack as a feature for the film. Furthermore, in addition to editing, Zoe and I have been adding titles to the opening sequence such as the Production company, actors and director. We are now 3/4 of the way through the opening sequence. I believe we will send days 5 and 6 editing the sound of the sequence and possibly changing the colour grading of the shots.

editing after filming 1

 After filming our footage for our opening sequence, we have started the 'editing week'. The first 2 days of editing have gone very well. At first, we watched all of our footage and eliminated all of the rushes that were un-usable/ bloopers or similar shots. We then started to order the un-edited clips into a rough version of the opening sequence. My group and I then began to make a start on editing the sequence to fit the clips together. Overall, I am very happy with the editing I did.

shooting day blogger and my role

 The day before we filmed our media video we transported all of our props and set to the media room to save time. We collected about 80-100 props/ objects to film and designed the media studio with a large oak wooden table, dark wood cabinet and antique Persian rug. On the day we filmed I woke up and didn't feel nervous or worried about filming because I had planned a long list all of the shots we wanted before hand and knew that I would be in charge of most of the filming. Before we started filming, Matt showed us some example shots of very few props in order to prepare us to use the 'Macro-lens'. We filmed in the media studio, which workers well as the black curtains could be pulled 360* around our set to block any unwanted lighting or background images. The Macro-lens also worked well in the media studio as it proved very shallow focuses, blurring anything in the background such as shelves or equipment. This also helped us create the basement styled location as the blurred equipment added detail and looked like more items the character had collected. Using the media studio was an ideal location for us as it gave us plenty of room to use all of our large props as well as space to manoeuvre the camera and florescent light. On the shoot day we divided our group into 3 roles. Florence and Emily helped set up and unpack the props between filming and record sound. Zoe documented our day by taking photos and also helped me with the lighting by changing the angle of the light and moving it during shots. Zoe also helped Florence and Emily when recording sound. I was in charge of the camera and filming shots.  I also helped our actor (Doug) by giving him instructions on what to do and marks on set such as where to walk/ stand. Although these were our main individual roles, we all participated in different areas of production. On my shoot day I feel like I made a great effort to direct my group and the actor as well as setting up the camera for good angles and shots. The main problem we faced on our shoot day was over complicating shots with too many props or being too indecisive when creating a shot. We solved this by using a maximum of about 4 props in each shot and using the shot list I created earlier to film the important shots e.g. ones featuring Doug. The most successful part of the shoot was capturing the light when gliding it move props to create a light to dark theme and add a creepy tension during the shoot. However, I believe the parts where we filmed Doug blow out the candle could have gone better as the candles kept going out and we settled for footage that we will have to edit out bloopers. The part of the shoot I enjoyed most was directing Doug using props on the desk and in the drawers. I enjoyed this most because I felt best appointed to be directing the scene and could visualise the shot. I am looking forward to seeing the props emerge from darkness and fade into black during the edit as the movement of the lighting is one of the best aspects of our opening sequence. As a production team I feel that my group achieved all of our goals and most desired shots. However, I do believe that Me and Emily did a majority of the work leading up to and on the day we filmed. During the media shoot I learned how to direct crew and use different camera lenses during specific shots. These skills will help me when recording our next media video as I will have a better perspective of shots and how to schedule the day.

Targeted audience for opening sequence

Characteristic of target audience	How my film opening sequence will engage those people
Adults between 18-40 years old	Use of explicit content/suggestions and images is engaging for adult audiences The main protagonist would be in his late 30’s, attacking women in their 20’s, which is recognisable to older audiences.
Mostly male with some female audiences	The film is about women being targeted and kidnapped which would attract the female audience as it is relatable. The film would also attract men as they see themselves in a position of power and find it more entertaining to see a male protagonist
Working class D/E	The setting is late at night in alleyways of cities, which is more relatable to the working class. The narrative revolves around kidnaps which typically happens to working class women.

describing your target audience

Describing your target audience 3^rd may

 

-       Must be specific and narrow down our target audience

-       Narrow it down to: gender, age, nationality, sexuality, ethnicity, relationships, parental status etc…

 

Socio-economic status:

A status- upper middle class- higher managerial, administrative or professional

B status- middle class- intermediate managerial, administrative or professional

C1 status- lower middle class- supervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professional

C2 status- skilled working class- manual/ labour worker

D status- working class- semi and unskilled manual worker

E status- lowest level of class e.g. students- state pensioners or widows

 

Psychographic:

Mainstreamer- seek security- tend to be domestic, conventional, sentimental. Normally largest group

Aspirers- seek status- materialistic, acquisitive. Typically younger people

Succeeders- strong goals, confident, work ethic. Typical professional occupation

Resigned- authoritarian values. Typically older people

Explorers- energetic, invidualism. Younger people, normally students.

Strugglers- alienated, gamers, disorganised. Eats junk food, lottery tickets and gambling.

Reformers- social awareness and independent judgement, antimaterialistic. Attended higher education and uses products of higher quality.

shot list for media opening

Shots:

Hanging coat on coat rack

Shots of jugs and jars as he walks behind in the background out of focus

Cut to another shot of different probs

Quick cut to a footstep with muddy boots

Shot of light through jars

Pull focus of moving in background to book or prop

Pan of the things on his desk

Shot of the insects in jars

Shot of him picking up a tankard and book out focus

Shot of the radio coming on and a close up of the diel turning from his hand

Fast paced close ups of radio and dougs hands

Long lasting shot of the radio and quiet static

Pull focus of the desk props to a deep focus of him walking towards the desk

Shot of the pen lid coming off

Shot of him writing on the label

Shot of the jewellery, try to capture it shimmering

Shot of hair bands 

Shot of ribbon 

Shot of hair in a shoe box hanging out the draw 

Shot of teeth 

Shot of Doug reaching into the draw to get a magnifying glass hair and in another draw the hair 

Shot of Doug looking through the magnifying glass close up shot looking at the hair 

Shot of Doug smelling the hair (just nose and fingers)

Close up of dougs eye frantically moving through the magnifying glass

Mid Shot from the floor of the shoe box as Doug walks away out of focus

More shots of probs, camera panning over or around the items

Deep focus of doug moving again, pulls to the baby limbs in the box/ shelf/ jar

Camera under the jar as doug drops jewellery and coins into the jar (one quick one slow-motion)

Mid shot of doug walking to the box from behind, close up of the thumbtacked polaroid on the box of shoes and hair

Shots of scalpels and biology equipment

More shots of props

Doug rolling up sleeves in the mirror, cut of his face

Try to get a shot of the light flaring the lens when panning around more props

Over the shoulder shot of doug taking the shoe box from a drawer in his desk, with his sketch book in

Several slow and quick shots of doug drawing, ripping, rubbing and looking at/in the book

Match cut shot of props to the sketchbook and radio wheel

 

42 shots roughly

editing workshop 29th April

 In todays workshop we used the 'interview' footage we recorded in the previous workshop and edited it into a professional styled video. We repeated the skills we had learnt before such as creating 'log bins' and saving 'rushes' to a new file to start editing. When making this interview video, we had to address the audio to the rushes and change the volume to make it level throughout the video. This makes the video smoother as there is no sudden jerk to a louder or quieter volume and makes the video look more professional. To edit the sound, we first had to unlink the video and sound clips by right clicking them and selecting 'unlink'. After unlinking the video and sound, we deleted one of the audio recordings as it would overlay with the one we changed. Then we go into the audio setting, un-animate the audio recording and select a volume we want to blend with the video. When we did all of these steps, we put the videos together, watched the edit over and finalised any jerks in the video or sound and saved our work.

filming workshop 28th April

 Today Matt talked us through the different lighting modes on the camera we are filming with. He taught us which mode to use to get the best lighting for the location we are shooting in. For example, when inside the studio we have the camera set to florescent lighting, or if we are outside and its cloudy we set the camera to cloud lighting. The reason we do this is to get the best coloured lighting for the shot. For instance, if we used cloud lighting when inside the mage would look very orange, and blue for vice versa. We also learnt how to use the stick microphone we use to capture the audio when filming. There is an audio input on the camera and microphone which we connect with a sound lead. After this, James, Nosa and I went into a classroom to film an interview. We adapted the lighting mode and exposure to get a naturalistic lighting setting on the camera and shot from several different angles and magnifications in preparation to film our media opening sequence in two weeks.

preparation to filming media sequence

In preparation to filming our media opening sequence in the upcoming weeks, we have started to organise things we will need to film. For example, my group and I have collected numerous props and items to film such as; old jars, books, syringes, scalpels, newspapers, polaroid photos, shoes and other misc items. We also found an old table to use as the desk of our main protagonist. Furthermore, I have written a list of shots such as; close ups; shallow and deep focus shots, pull focus shots, mid shots and panning shots. Currently, we are drawing a story board to use on the day of filming to stick to the footage we planned and get as many shots as we can within the time we are on set.

filming workshop

 In the filming workshop with Matt we looked at used the skills we previously learned (setting up and bubbling the camera) and started to shoot footage with the cameras. The main thing we learned was how to focus the camera on the object we were shooting. The first thing we have to do is zoom as far in with the lens as possible at the centre of the object. After this, we focus the camera by twisting the focus on the camera lens and change the lighting by twisting the exposure circle. When the image is crisp, we moved onto filming shots. The number one rule to filming is to never playback the footage you just filmed while still on set as it wastes your set time.

media editing workshop

 In this workshop Matt taught us how to edit videos on Adobe Premiere and the terminology/ key words to use when editing videos.

The first thing we did was go through the 'rushes' (un-editted clips) and pick the angles and shots we liked best. After selecting the 3 or 4 clips we liked most, we copy and pasted them into the 'log bin', a place where we store the rush clips we want before editing. after moving the clips into the log bin file, we order the clips and edit them to create footage. for example, Nosa and I used the mid side shot of him bending down to the box, cut to the close up of his had on the item and looking at it, to the close up of his face as he stands up and turns away.

media camera workshop 21st April

 Today we looked at how to set up cameras on tripods. we did a workshop with Matt explaining how to unpack and set up the tripod as well as attach the camera and work with the camera lens. here are some notes my group made during the the workshop and some photos

media A1 recap ownership and integration

Media A1 recap OWNERSHIP AND INTEGRATION

 

Keywords:

-       Horizontal integration

-       Synergy- different elements of a company coming together to promote related products

-       Technological convergence: two or more types of media coming together

-       Parent company- owning multiple smaller companies

-       Hardware

-       Cross media convergence- media companies coming together to work across media e.g., promotion

-       Vertical integration

-       Proliferation

-       Institutional convergence

-       Conglomerate- a large parent company that owns a range of smaller companies or types of media

-       Subsidiary- smaller companies owned by parent companies

-       Content

-       Oligopoly- when the market is dominated by a small number of companies

 

 

Horizontal integration- when 2 companies/ businesses in the same industry at the same stage of production come together. This could be 2 businesses merging together or one buying the other. It is also when an organisation grows and buys out the competition in the same section of the market

 

Vertical integration- when 2 companies in the same industry but at two different stages of production come together. This could be through a merging or one business buying the other. For example, A car company could buy a could buy a tire manufacturing company.

 

For example, Warner brothers and Belstone pictures did one of these integration methods. Both of these methods make the competition for other companies more difficult. 

 

Benefits to cross media convergence:

-       Saves costs by doing business with other companies

-       Reduces risk and maximises profits through additional non-film revenue e.g., music sound tracks