Class Feedback

Our media peers watched our opening sequence, 'The Hanging'. They were all given 4 questions to answer:

1. What film does it remind you of?
2. Who do you think is the main target audience?
3. Do you think it's a mainstream (wide-appealing) film? 
4. What are the film's main strengths? (Choose one from camera shots/sound/titles/editing).

90% said our target audience were 15+, which is what we aimed to achieve. 100% said our film was mainstream/independent, which is what we thought our opening sequence was too. One person thought our film was like The Shining, in which we intended to recreate with the flashbacks. 60% decided our sound was our strongest point. We focused especially on sound, because it would instantly create the atmosphere we wanted for the audience. 

From our feedback, we can see that we have created the opening sequence that we intended to. Our feedback was positive. However, we noticed several people said our target audience were females. We think this because in our opening sequence, there are no males. 

Evaluation- Question 7

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

At the start of the year, we did a preliminary task to get used to using a camera and to experiment with different shots and angles. We also got to practice editing the clips, cutting them up and playing around with different sound effects using iMovie on the Mac computers. This task was extremely helpful in introducing us to the equipment and programmes available to us, and we feel that we have learnt a lot since then and have come a long way.

Shots
Although some of the shots we used in our preliminary task were within a wide range and all quite different e.g. the aerial shot, we do feel that we could have included better ones to fit the mood of the scene accurately and to represent the characters a lot more clearly. We have learnt from this task that the type of shot impacts the meaning.
For example, a POV shot can encourage the audience to identify with a character or emphasise with his/her situation. As shown in the POV shot below of Izzie running, we wanted the audience to see it from her shoes and sympathise with what she is experiencing and how panicked she is.

Continuity
After showing our preliminary task to our peers, we gained feedback and they thought that the continuity was the best aspect, so we took what we had previously learnt from this progress and applied it to our opening sequence. It was very smooth and clean cut, and we wanted to achieve this in our opening but to an even higher degree.

Above shows the transition between two clips of a girl opening a door in our preliminary task, which came out extremely smooth and looked professional with no random jump cuts. Below, shows the smooth transition of Izzie turning around from two different angles, which we edited and cut down to make sure it didn't look out of time. We also learnt from our first task that it would be a good idea to film each scene from various angles so that we could look over them again once we had finished filming and pick the best shots, especially to edit jump cuts like these.

Another example of good continuity from our preliminary task is when Amanda is walking over to Serena and we view her from behind, then it smoothly cuts to her stopping and pulling her hood down. This is shown in the screen grabs below.

These shots influenced us to include a jump cut in our opening sequence when Amanda's character stands up to respond to Izzie. We believe that through editing we have made the continuity here very clear and it looked very successful. The screen grabs below demonstrate this.

Mise en Scene
For our preliminary task, we didn't have as much freedom with our mise en scene since it had to be filmed in school and it had to be done quite quickly. This restricted our use of location, costume, make-up and props, so we learnt from our task how much these things made an impact to our filming and decided to use them as much as possible where appropriate in our opening sequence.

In our preliminary task, we had to film in school, so the location wasn't the most fitting for our short storyline. However, for our opening sequence we could film wherever we wanted to, so we picked the woods in a park. We chose a woods in the park because it fitted into our storyline, added an eerie effect and it also made our film more relatable to our audience since the park is probably a place many teenagers frequently visit, so they could ask themselves what they would do if they were in the position of the victim and use their imagination a lot more.

For our preliminary task, the clothes our characters wore were basic since it was a usual school day and we couldn't be extreme with the costumes. However, we learnt that this makes an impact because it suggests to the audience the kind of characteristics that certain character hold and what their role in the film may be. So for our final product we dressed up our young girl in a blue dress, with white socks and black school shoes, a ribbon in her hair and we made her make up pale, to show that although she appears a sweet little girl from afar, as she gets closer and her make up becomes clearer she may not be the same as how her costume portrays her. 

As previously mentioned, we were very restricted with our props, so we could only use paper to demonstrate the money being handed over. For our opening sequence we used a teddy bear to suggest the innocence of the girl as she holds it, however when Izzie hallucinates and sees the teddy covered in blood it could suggest her innocence being violated since she technically isn't alive. Also, the noose was an essential prop in our sequence as we named it 'The Hanging', which gave clues as to how the girl may have died. Without props, our opening sequence wouldn't be as successful because they can give information about the different characters.

Evaluation- Question 6

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

We used a Panasonic HDC -SD90 video recording camera. Neither me nor Clare had used this camera before properly, apart from in our preliminary task. However, it was compact and easy to handle. We picked up the techniques needed quickly and without any problems. 

For stability, we used a tripod. We learnt the tripod had three different heights. It also had features which enabled us to pan a shot, zoom and tilt. We found that even though it was a hassle to carry around, it was an essential part of our equipment because it ensured our film looked professional. 

In our product, we used several types of technologies. We used Live Type for our fonts. We did this because it gave us a range of fonts, and effects to improve the outcome of our main title and opening credits. We learnt how to create effective titles, linking to our genre, using this programme. We gained knowledge of LiveType, which could be useful in future projects. We are sure we will use this again. 

For our production company logo, we used Photoshop. Clare had previous experience of Photoshop, so she guided me through the techniques and skills needed for the programme. We used layering and colour dilation, to increase the intensity, and the professionalism of our finished logo. We learnt that Photoshop can be used to modify objects to become their full potential. 

To edit our opening sequence, we used Final Cut Pro. We think this was the best software to use for our opening sequence. This is because the software is very modern, and has all the applications and effects necessary to make an excellent opening sequence. From using this software, we learnt how to put credits over a black screen, and have them over the opening sequence.

Evaluation- Question 5

"How did you attract/address your audience?"

We focused on sound and our production company logo to attract the audience. From our interview, we discovered one person doesn't like the music as it is too scary. We thought we could use this to our advantage to tense the audience into suspense. 

Here is a video with annotations to show these points in more detail: 

Evaluation- Question 4

"Who would be the audience for your media product?" 

We interviewed six girls by structured interview, and four boys by questionnaire. Our questions were: 

1. How old are you?
2. What is your favourite film genre? 
3. What are your top three favourite films? 
4. What do you like/dislike about horrors? 
5. Would you watch a horror centered around a supernatural child? 

From these questions we got theses results;

1. Five people were 16, and five were 17 years old. 
2. Six people are Horror, and two each for Romance and Comedy. 
3. Dear John, Scream X3, Think Like a Man, Aladdin, Princess Diaries 2, Mean Girls, James Bond, Woman in Black X4, The Descent, High School Musical, Forrest Gump, The Truman Show, Moulin Rouge, Taken X4, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, Sixth Sense X4, What Happens in Vegas, Saw X2. 
4. 'I like the adrenaline' X6, 'It is boring', 'I don't like the make up/gore.' X2, 'I don't like the music.'
5. 'Yes.' X7, 'No.' X3

From this, we can see the majority of young people we interviewed like horrors, and would watch a horror relating to a supernatural child. This shows our target audience would be both males and females, ages 15-25. 

Here are the girls we interviewed:

Evaluation- Question 3

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

Evaluation- Question 2

"How does your media product represent particular social groups?"

In our opening sequence, we wanted to go against the main stereotype of young children, especially girls, being well behaved, polite and angelic. We represented our young girl as someone of this type through costume, by dressing her appropriately in a dress, with a bow in her hair and she held a teddy bear as a prop. This look gave off the impression that she was innocent and sweet. However, through quick cuts we made her jump increasingly closer, so that the audience became much more aware of her makeup and abnormal characteristics, suggesting to them she isn't a usual child. 

In the opening, we are straight away introduced to the first victim of the child, Izzie. We wanted her character to be represented as a normal teenager, so that our audience, which are at a similar age, could relate to her strongly and be more affected by the situation. We portrayed her as a normal teenager by introducing her walking through the woods on her phone, which is a huge stereotype of teenagers to always be talking to their friends or using technology. 

Evaluation- Question 1

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



Main Title
The title of our film is 'The Hanging', and we chose this name because it relates very strongly to the storyline in our film, about a girl who was abused by her father and resulted in hanging herself in the woods, only to return and haunt others. This title is suggestive but it also leaves many viewers on edge as to what may happen. We stuck to the theme of red and black because it represented the genre of the film efficiently. The text is bold and daring, and looks like blood on a dark background. 

Since our main title was partly inspired by 'The Descent', we used Live Type to make it into an animation and to make it much more interesting for our audience. We also wanted it to fit into our genre so we added a heart monitor along with the noises it makes to add suspense and the sense of increased pace to our opening sequence. We continued this theme at the end of our opening sequence with a flat line sound and thought this was really effective.           





Opening Credits
For our opening credits, we decided to include some of our main credits on black screens in between the shots of Izzie walking through the woods. We used this idea because it showed time passing by and it also showed the woods getting gradually darker.

We decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to use black screens between every shot so later on in our opening sequence we added our credits to the side of the screen. We kept the same font as it was essential we kept the 'horror' element and it had to be continuous. We also placed the credits at the same corner of the screen and within every other shot so that it wouldn't distract the viewer from the main film. This worked really well as it didn't

cut up our film and also meant that it kept the pace we intended. We got this idea again from the film 'The Descent', where we could see the opening credits appearing alongside the scene and we believed that this fitted nicely. It is also very well suited for our genre.

Genre
The film 'Orphan' inspired our film genre because it had a very dramatic and chilling story, and the main focus of the film was a young girl which we wanted to use in our opening sequence too. Another film that inspired our genre was 'The Ring', which also greatly influenced our main focus of the young 'innocent' girl who became evil and the location as she was drowned in a forest.

Costume/Make Up
'Orphan' also gave influences to the style of the girl, as in what she wore, for example she appeared very innocent with small pigtails in her hair and bows, then she wore a dress with buckled shoes and long socks. We interpreted this style into our work as we wanted our young girl to have a hidden identity, where she may look very sweet but has a very dark side to her. The contrast of costume and personality was a very important factor in our opening sequence and story, because we wanted to deceive the audience and make them believe that this girl isn't as normal as some may think. We also used the element of make up to  make her appear deathly and haunted, by making her face extremely pale with talcum powder and then adding some darker eye make up underneath her eyes to hint that there was something unusual about her, and also to imply she could be dead. 


Another inspiration for our costume was from 'The Woman In Black', since the opening sequence to this film shows three young girls, about the same age we wanted, wearing very old and Victorian styled clothing to make them appear well dressed hinting they were very well behaved. We wanted to give this impression so we used this style in our little girl's costume.

Location/Opening Set up

These establishing shots were used for the opening of the storyline and they set up the scene quite nicely because they showed a teenager walking through the woods on her phone who was about to become a victim, and these shots also allowed the audience to see where she was and how time was moving on with the credits. Since the woods was empty whilst filming and all you can see is the teenager and nature, there is a sense of isolation and fear as if something dramatic is about to happen. The music in this sequence also helps to emphasise this and adds suspense. The audience can tell from both these shots and the music combined that the genre is horror. 



We got this idea after watching the opening sequence to 'The Shining' and also 'Twilight', as both of these included establishing shots in different ways, and we thought this would ease the audience into the storyline and show a build up before something dramatic happened instead of jumping straight into a murder scene. It increased the suspense and made the audience much more curious as to what would happen, and it also allowed for credits in between the shots.






Flashbacks

In 'The Shining', we discovered there was a scene which included flashbacks of these two young, innocent looking girls being brutally murdered and covered in blood. After viewing these clips, we were greatly influenced to produce similar shots in our opening sequence because it would demonstrate to the viewers why the young girl is haunting the woods. It also added pace to our opening sequence. However, since we had to change our storyline as our young actress (Emma) could no longer be a part of our filming, we used a teddy bear covered in fake blood to demonstrate the girl being murdered, then we also shot the noose hanging from the tree to represent her death of her being hung in the tree. These small, fast pace shots add suspense whilst revealing some of the film and making the opening sequence more interesting to view, leaving the audience on edge and wanting to find out what actually happened to this girl.

Final Opening Sequence

Editing

Once we had finished our filming for our opening sequence, we uploaded all our clips onto the Mac computer and imported them into Final Cut Pro, where we could arrange the clips in order and cut them down to the correct lengths. This process was time consuming because we wanted the cuts to be exact and perfected down to the last second.
After cutting down our clips, we added in the titles which we made using Live Type, an editing programme. We decided to place the titles at the beginning of our opening sequence and also at the end, overlapping the scene. Doing these effects allowed us to discover new applications and ways to edit on Final Cut Pro. When the titles and clips were arranged, we realised it didn't look very scary, so we added in the music and sound effects. We learnt from this process just how much of an impact it has and a difference it can make to your work, because once sound was added it started to appear much more realistic and it fitted the genre better.
We finally had all of our clips organised and the music added, so the final process was the transitions and video effects. Between some of the clips we often used the 'fade to colour' transition because we found it fitted in really well and made the clips transfer a lot smoother. In the scene where Izzie is 'hallucinating', we edited the clips to give a fuzzy, unclear look, suggesting to the viewer that this could be the character's imagination and making them question the situation.
Overall, editing was a long process, but the options available to us on the software we used made a great impact on our work.

Filming Schedule

Above is our original filming schedule. However, we had to film on different days due to one of us being ill and the other at work. Then we had a casting problem, since Emma Winn could no longer be present in our opening sequence, we had to rewrite the ending scenes and change from the previous 'hanging' scenes into Izzie encountering a stranger. Below is our actual filming schedule.

Filming Problems 2

Unfortunately, Emma Winn (the young girl) changed her mind about the filming after our first session for unknown reasons. Due to this we now have several problems. We are unable to re-film any bad footage that we have of her. Also, we have had to change our ending. We came up with the idea of Izzie (the elder girl) running away and grabbing a stranger (played by Amanda Thompson), she informs the stranger that someone is in the woods and starts to receive hallucinations of the girl, a hanging noose and a blood covered teddy bear, when in actual fact there will be nothing there. This ending then leaves the audience in suspense as to whether Izzie is abnormal or the whether the young girls exists. It also still fits with the title 'The Hanging.' as we will still see the noose. We will re-film on Tuesday 5th March. 

Also, we have decided to have our credits on a black screen in between the opening sequence. This is because it shows time passing and we can show Izzie in different parts of the woods as it gets darker.