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

When looking back at the preliminary task, one aspect I feel I have improved on is the editing. When it was the preliminary task, I was very unsure about what different tools were on Adobe Premier Pro and what I would need to do on this software in order to create an effective film. However having high hopes for the outcome of our opening sequence made us more adventurous in terms of editing; we now aimed to use special effects and manipulate aspects of the music in order to make our film perfect, therefore we had no choice but to get alot of practice in using this programme.

 

Something else that we learned from the preliminary task was to back up our footage. When we were doing the preliminary task, having to re shoot alot of our footage due to continuity issues set us back in time by a great deal. Therefore when filming for the main task, we thought that doing at least two takes for each shot would assure that one would be appropriate for the film. In this case, we were not set back in time because we had no footage to re shoot. Our organisation became more adament and we were more aware in spotting faults in our footage.

Lastly, I acheived a personal development throughout the main task. The preliminary task made me realise that alot of time and detail needs to go into my blog, to assure that I can get the best grade that I can. Therefore, unlike within the preliminary task I dedicated time to blogging; which made me more organised and in my personal opinion reflects a higher quality blog. This is one aspect I am pleased that I improved on.

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

Below I have created a moodboard of the key technologies that we have used as a group throughout the project. I have learned alot when it comes to filming aspects of technology, however with other technologies that I have perhaps used before, this project gave me the opportunity to learn new things about them.

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

Through watching our final opening sequence, I have picked up upon some unique selling points that attract the audience to our film. The first thing I thought of was by the screen grab to the right. Seeing the two main characters as young girls deviates from the conventional horror film, where stereotypically the main character of a horror film is a female, alone in a setting. By looking at the two young girls and also seeing that they are linking arms hence hinting at a relationship; this attracts our younger target audience because they somewhat relate to the film. This could be considered a unique selling point.  

Something else that I picked up on that could be considered a unique selling point is the mysterious element. When looking at this screen grab you can see a smear behind a tree, which when watching the film a mysterious person runs past our lead character. Throughout the opening sequence the audience are unaware of what, who or why this person is in this forest; something that not only confuses the audience but attracts them as to see what it is. This fast paced and mysterious element could be considered a unique selling point to the film.

To gain the audiences' feedback, firstly I issued some questionnaires to some students at school of whom I consider to be our target audience. Doing this gave me confidential information of which I used to help rectify any issues that the audience had; although most of it came back positive. The group of students also allowed our group to record their feedback upon watching our rough cut; of which again mostly came back positive. They had no ideas for improvements for our piece, except giving us ideas for music to add intensity. They all enjoyed the plot and commented that they would watch the remainder of the film out of choice. This gave us the impression that we have acheived our target audience.

Upon looking on the BBFC website, I believe that our film would be certified a rating of 15. In terms of showing horror, of which is most applicable to our film, BBFC states that "strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised". Being a film revolved around the basis of children, actions would not be sexualised because that was not the style of film we wanted to acheive. We wanted a more fast paced and mysterious film, to which we regulate to the certificate 15. In attempt to make our audience feel fear, we may require strong language to portray this. BBFC states that "there may be frequent use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’). The strongest  terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be acceptable if justified by the context". It also states that "violence may be strong". To assure that I was gaining a reliable estimate of rating, I researched into other horror films to see what they were certified. "Paranormal Activity" is the route we aimed to go down, of which is a 15. Also, after looking at the regulation for an 18 certification, I think our concept is not gorey and visually violent enough to reach these regulations.

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

Our target audience would be teenagers and young adults, perhaps between the ages of 17- 25. I think this age group would be appropriate because the fear is evoked in very mysterious things throughout the film, aspects that perhaps an adult wouldn't find as scary. I think to find a film like ours frightening you have to have a sense of naivety to your character. However any younger than 16 would find it too frightening, therefore the distribution aspects should be aimed at the older teenager. The idea of watching a film with the intention to evoke fear and get scared appeals to this age group; whereas the older age groups do not appeal to the idea of watching a film to get scared. We want to attract an audience who are aware of the typical conventions of horror.

This is Tony. He is 19 years old and studying physical education at university. Tony has always been someone who is on track with his grades and popular with other students and teachers. When he isn't studying, Tony enjoys renting films from blockbuster and going to the cinema with his friends and on the rare occasion, his girlfriend. People call Tony lazy, he is forever sitting infront of the television and always the first to tell people about a new trailer. Tony is a person who loves to impress- he is forever the class clown and grabbing the attention of all. Although he can be quite loud and disruptive, Tony also likes going to the pub for a quiet drink with the boys. After watching a film, Tony will be the first to tell all of his opinion.

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

Looking back at the films that influenced our production of the opening sequence, films such as "Paranormal Activity", "Blair Witch Project", "Wrong Turn" and "Se7en", most of them successfull or not were low budget independant films. None of these were produced by a well known production company, however all deemed successful. It is a risk producing a low budget film.

The role of the production company is to not only raise the funding of the film, yet to physically produce the film. Film production is everything from the initial idea of the film, shooting and then editing the film. With this in mind, we are aware that our film would not be produced by a production company such as Working Title; primarily because it is to large and the genre of our piece, horror, does not attract a wide scale audience. A production company such as Working Title also has an expectation to uphold, something that a film like ours is a risk in creating. Majority of their films are family orientated and comedies.With this all in mind, I think a smaller production company would be more applicable to our film. Although our film was a success in terms of creating the horror genre and our focus groups seemed very pleased with the outcome; as previously mentioned there is limited audiences for this style of horror. A small production company would still allow the film to be a success, alongside avoiding being a huge risk for more multinational instutions such as Working Title.

Distribution concentrates on the marketing and promotion aspects of a film. "The Blair Witch Project", a film we took close reference to when producing our film, was distributed by Artisan Entertainment. Artisan Entertainment spent a reported amount of $1.5 million on web promotion as part of its marketing strategies, something which caused an eruption of excitement towards the film hence gaining an immediate audience on the day of release. Where the production side of things I believe should be left to a smaller company, in contrast, the distribution should be dramatic and impactful. With the genre of film that we have produced marketing could be very clever globally, and overall gaining a profitable outcome.

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

To compare to the characters in our opening sequence, I have chosen two characters from horror film "The Orphan".

 I chose "The Orphan" as a comparable film to our opening sequence not only because it is a clear horror genre, but because the main characters are children. This posted a link between the two films. The screen grabs I have selected were from school scenes in the two films, therefore it gave me a good opportunity to compare the two.

When looking at screen grabs from "The Orphan" one can see that the children are of a younger age than the two characters in our opening sequence. The mise-en-scene, in particular the costume is representative of a childlike nature, particularly through the hearts on the girls jumper. In the below photograph of the other character, the child's social group is represented through seeing her frilly dress, and also that she is clutching a book. It is clear that these images are attempting to show a child's and perhaps naive social group. I took these elements as inspiration when trying to represent the adolescent social group in our opening sequence.

In a similar context, our opening sequence is representative of an adolescent social group. It wasn't that difficult in representing this age group when filming because the actors, one being myself, are part of that age group. However in order to represent this social group through filming, we purposely added elements, particularly within the mise-en-scene that would make the audience aware that they are teenagers. One of these was through the use of costume. One can see through the screen grab that the girls were dressed in school uniform; this not only adds to the narrative that they were on their way home from school, yet shows how young and perhaps innocent they are through seeing their scruffy presentation. Another element is the body language. The girls, through alot of the opening sequence were linking arms and in some cases holding hands. When putting it into perspective, adult friendships dont do this, therefore it could be somewhat representative of a childs social group.

Our opening sequence also shows a teenagers social group through knowing the context of the actual plot; knowing that it was all a matter of 'dares' that the girls ran in there. When looking at the teenage stereotypes, they are known to gain a thrill and excitement from daring and intimidating things. It adds an element of immaturity knowing that they find it 'cool' to go into an intimidating woods; it is all very naive and childlike. When contrasting it to adults, they do not gain any thrill from doing intimidating things such as running into the woods. This creates a clear representation of the teenage social group.



Above is a screen grab from our opening sequence, showing two characters in full costume.





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

1. Structure of sequence: I believe the structure of our opening sequence is that of a conventional horror film. It firstly establishes the scene through establishing shots, before introducing key characters and showing relevant credits. The short amount of narrative in the opening sequence is conventional in a horror film, making the audience establish what is happening.We did manipulate the structure of the sequence ever so slightly, as initially the title of the piece was at the end of the film; however we thought this made it look like a trailer. In this case we put it at the beginning to make the structure more logical.

2. Style/colour of font: As a group we chose an almost harsh looking font; one that is in capitals where the straight structure and line through the lettering adds a serious element to the film. We chose for the font to be in white, one reason for this was because it made the credits stand out over the top of the clip; where the clip was either in dark colouring or black and white. This font was applicable to creating the horror genre, mainly because if it were a more curvy and comedic font, the serious and eerie tone we aimed to acheive would be distracted from.

3. Genre: The genre chosen was horror, a challenging genre to create yet one that after researching with our target audience was needed more in the film industry. Horror is created through simplistic elements; one being that the actresses are the same age as the target audience. This evokes fear in the audience and creates a sense of realism within the piece, alongside challenging the conventions within a typical horror film. The setting, a forest, evokes the horror genre and is that of a conventional horror film. We thought that to make the most of this genre, we could not deviate from the conventional horror films in such a drastic way. Horror genre is limited with it's audience, therefore we needed to place a fine line between 'different' and 'conventional'.

4. Narrative enigma: The main element of enigma is created through the mystery of what is in the forest with the girls. Where we used the setting and the camera to make the audience feel that there is someone with them, we reveal nothing about this person. There is also a sense of mystery as to what happens to the missing girl; and in a similar context, we reveal very little about this element. Mystery is very conventional in horror genre in the sense that it almost plays mind games with the audience.

5. Introduction to characters: We introduced two characters in the opening sequence of our film. Seeing them walk with linked arms immediately sets a relationship between the two, something which is furthermore explored as the opening sequence continues. The dialogue that we have included initially sets a conversational tone to the piece, giving the aspect of teenage years, but as the film continues you can notice that the dialogue changes to a sense of worry. This sets the image of a strong relationship between these characters. The characters being young girls deviates from the conventional horror film; where stereotypically it would be a female victim alone in a mysterious setting. However deviating from this and making it clear that the actresses are of the same age as our target audience gives a stronger sense of horror.

6. Camera: We used a series of different camera angles in the attempt to not only present a relationship between the characters, but to evoke horror in the film. When both girls were in the shot we used medium shots and in some cases close up's to gain a relationship with the two girls. However when the camera concentrates on one of the girls, close up's are more appropriate because the reaction and worry in her face is what we want the audience to concentrate on. Something which we took inspiration from the film "Paranormal Activity" is the idea of a handheld shot. The handheld shot that we did in the final scene of our opening sequence creates a sense of menace and even mystery; it is the peak of our horror simply because it seems so real. By using these shots, horror is evoked within the audience and it gives us a more stable chance of acheiving our genre.

Sound: As previously mentioned, one aspect of sound in our opening sequence is dialogue. Dialogue sets a conversational tone between the two girls and adds a young, adolescent tone to it. Dialogue and narrative in general is conventional in the horror genre. Also, through watching the opening sequences to films such as "Paranormal Activity" and "Blair Witch Project" we became aware that music was a huge element of horror. We wanted to find a piece that wasn't too distracting from the dialogue, but evokes fear in the audience. Therefore once we found an appropriate, copyright free track we put it over the top of the whole film. By making it quieter in the moments of dialogue hence making the peaked moments of the film; the opening and ending reflect the dramatic moments of the music an overall tense atmosphere was created. We also edited the music in a fast paced and almost blunt ending, because we thought any lengthly cut wouldn't be appropriate on the film that would continue.

7. Editing and special effects: The only special effect we used was at the beginning of the piece. We transformed the establishing shot of the forest into black and white, alongside adding a blurred effect which made the forest look more mysterious. Other than this, we only added different transformation tools to make the camera work look jittery and eerie. Most of the special effects and editing that we came across in producing this opening sequence is seen in conventional horror films.

8. Mise-en-scene: We had our characters wearing school uniform so that a childlike essence was shown hence adding to aspects of horror. The only propping we had was that of the girls' school bags, which we only used in order to make the audience aware that they were coming home from school. Without the mise-en-scene making this clear, the storyline wouldnt have been as effective.

Evaluation - Audience Feedback

Beyond creating a rough cut of our opening sequence, I created a questionnaire to gain feedback from our target audience. I asked questions that I thought would benefit our group in terms of making our opening sequence better and more stark in terms of the horror genre. I issued the questionnaire to ten students in sixth form of whom weren't aware of the plot or any aspect of our film before watching it. Doing this allowed me to gain reliable and applicable results.

Through looking at the results, majority of the students said that through our different shots we have created a tense pace to the opening sequence that reflects a horror genre. Although, some also mentioned that in some shots where it was merely of the surroundings and no actor was yet in the shot, it almost broke the atmosphere and they think we should assure that there are no shots like this. In this case, when making our final opening sequence we will assure to cut out any lengthly shots so that a fast paced atmosphere is adament.

Something else I discovered through creating this questionnaire was that use of music would be something that almost defines a horror genre. All students recommended a deep, intense and dark track, and most said that it should be played throughout the whole film; but perhaps quieter at the points of which dialogue was heard. Through looking at the results it is clear that people were pleased with our opening sequence and that we have created an effective film. Other comments that people made were irrelevant in improving our film. Below I have inserted a copy of the questionnaire.

Above I have inserted a clip of feedback among response of watching our rough cut. We asked a group of students that were of our target audiences' age group.

Final Opening Sequence

Above, I have inserted a final cut of our opening sequence "The Forest that Lives". Unfortunately, due to size of the file, when uploaded onto YouTube the visual and the audio are out of sync. However on the DVD copy of the film that the examiner will receive this is not applicable, and that copy will reflect our final piece the way we intended it to be shown.

Post- Production

Above is the clip of our rough cut of the opening sequence to "Forest that Lives". We are pleased with the outcome of our footage, however before a final cut is made we have decided as a group to watch over the footage and edit any issues of continuity that we have now discovered. We will also use this rough cut to gain feedback from our target audience in terms of what we need to do to gain that horror genre that we aim for. The rough cut shows a final outcome of the visuals, in which we have carefully edited and have proven a success in terms of different shots. Watching the rough cut has made us see the fast paced nature of our opening sequence, but at times we thought some lengthly footage of merely the surroundings extracts from the fast paced nature. In this case, we will cut out some of the lengthly footage before our final cut so that the tense atmosphere remains throughout. Overall, we are pleased with the rough cut and feel that with music and some final aspects of editing we would have produced a successful opening sequence.

Before editing we logged our rushes so that it would be easier and more organised in terms of choosing the footage we were going to use. Below I have inserted a copy of our logging rushes.

Production

When shooting, we chose to shoot early one morning to assure that we could get every shot filmed that day hence avoiding any issues of continuity in terms of the weather. In doing this the dark atmosphere of a night time wasn't acheived, however we thought this wouldn't be appropriate for the narrative of the film. We realised that to make it look realistic; that the girls are walking home from school, it would be light overall. However having a lighter environment gave us more of a challenge as a group in a way that the horror genre would be strongly relying on our shots and editing.

Beyond watching our rushes, we were pleased with the outcome of our footage. When filming we had issues with the dialogue, in that we didn't want the lengthly dialogue to make the opening sequence seem like a trailer of a film. However when watching other films of our chosen genre such as "Wrong Turn", their opening sequence was somewhat similar, with the opening being narrative and a strong sense of dialogue. Although in order to avoid this, we cut small chunks of the dialogue out; not so it would be shorter, but so it would make more sense to the audience however still acheiving the idea of two young girls walking home from school. We filmed many shots of the girls running, more than we anticipated, so that if when editing we got continuous jump cuts or we generally weren't pleased with other shots, we would have extra footage to cut in.

As a group we worked well; myself being one of the actors made me step aside from the more technical aspects of filming, but Jack and Liam shared the role of filming whilst we equally made decisions to assure that our shots would look as good as they can. The fast paced nature of our shots acheives the rushed and panicing atmosphere that of a horror genre.

To gain the gothic atmosphere that our genre entails, we decided to manipulate the opening establishing shot into black and white. Doing this, alongside deciding for the credits to appear over the shots rather than a black screen created the tension that we hoped for. Beyond filming, as a group we will sit down and go onto unsignedbandweb.com to find a copyright free track that we can use to climax our opening sequence.

Pre- production documentation

Synopsis of whole film
A scout group go on a trip to a mysterious forest for a weekend of survival skills, they do not know that the forest has some very strange attributes; all unaware that it is haunted by an angry demon in which killed a young school girl many years ago. The story continues and the scout trip is going fine, until the 3rd day when one of the children go missing, bringing tension to the camp. In this case, the leaders hunt the forest day and night until the boy or a clue is found, yet none of the four leaders return. Luckily one of the scouts phoned their parents because of suspicion and all of the remaing scouts escaped from the unbearable fear.


Synopsis of opening sequence
Two schoolgirls are walking home from school when they see a strange path leading to a mysterious forest. Daring eachother, the girls stupidly go and explore the forest when strange things begin to happen.

One of the girls disappears and the other girl starts to panic; as she begins to run out of the forest she trips over a log and then the demon drags her back into the depths of the forest before the visual blacks out.

Treatment

Shot List

Risk assessment

As the setting is in a forest location the health and safety is very important, there is a barb wire fence surrounding the path, we will have to be careful when filming near the path to ensure that the actors do not collide.

There are large logs on the floor in the deep forest so we will also have to watch when the actors are running so that there is not an accident.

We need a risk assessment so that we can see what risks there are during the filming and how we can avoid any injuries.

Shooting schedule

Our shooting was organised in a lesson and we decided as a group that we would start shooting on the 23rd of february during the school half term. The location was organised previously and we agreed that the forest was the best location for our horror genre.

Mise-en-Scene

Lighting:

The lighting in the forest is very mild as we are filming in a night-time enviroment the only light being provided will be that of the moon, we hope to film on an evening where the moon is bright to ensure there is enough to capably see the characters.

Props:

We will only be using a small number of natural props which are in the forest, the first being the log that the character trips over in the opening sequence. The other prop will be a small rotted cabin, this will be used for effect in emphasizing our horror genre.

Costume:

GIRL A: School trousers and white shirt, in school uniform with shoes.

GIRL B: School trousers and white shirt, in school uniform with shoes.

DEMON: It will be wearing dark clothes to camoflage its appearance to the girls.

With these costumes it fits the theme of the characters and makes the sequence more authentic and realistic.

Hair and Make-Up:

GIRL A: Hair will be messy, face will look excited as she enters the forest but sharply changing, this is to represent that she is a school girl and also she is young and excited..

GIRL B: Hair will be curly, maybe glasses to emphasize character that she entails which is a young school girl.

DEMON: hair will be unseen due to hood to make the audience see that he is a dark demon.

Set Design:

The room is spacious and sets a good atmosphere for a horror dark forest. The bright light coming from the moon will give the set a futuristic look but at the same time it will be dark and evil. We will film by the rotted cabin to emphasize the gothic genre we have given the film. The path will also be used which will lead the girls to the forest.

Character Movement:

The two girl characters will be walking towards the camera whilst in dialogue, one of the girls then goes and explores the forest, the girls continue walking and they come to a shed, they then move away from the cabin and move deeper into the forest. The girls are then seen running through the forest, one og the girls begins to slow down as she realises she has lost her friend, she then begins to run again and falls over the log on the floor she is then dragged back by the demon.

Storyboard

Location Recce

Our chosen location is in Chipperfield, and being a natural exterior environment we have nothing to manipulate. We will be using the areas of the forest as photographed for the main section of the shoot, alongside the shown abandoned shed. Among the areas of the forest that we have captured in the photograph is a small pathway, which will also be used as a location in our opening sequence.

Script



Title Timeline

As a group we decided to watch the title sequence to the thriller film "Wrong Turn". The film started with narrative, therefore we began analysing the titles in terms of audio and visual at the timing of 3.00 minutes when the title sequence itself began.

From looking at the timeline one can see that the credits themselves are superimposed over the top of the visual shots, therefore they are gradually integrated between the duration of the sequence. Between each credit a close up shot of something is shown, either newspaper headlines, or establishing close ups of a forest. Simple shots like close ups of disorientated hands look successful in gaining effect, therefore we took this into consideration when looking at our own title sequence.

With "Wrong Turn" when watching it in terms of the audio, we thought the simplistic audio of scratching and sharpening knives added a gothic effect; then hearing the low menacing music that is introduced at about 03.28, giving the overall element of fear. We took this as inspiration for our own opening sequence, where we will attempt to find music along the same lines of this peice, so that it will post no distractions to our visual yet ading a mysterious effect.

Focus Group

Above I have attached a feedback video that we received from a group of students in our target audience. We read the script to them and made them aware of our film and recorded their responses and advice for improvements.

History of your chosen genre

Horror films within history have included some of the most popular and well known films of all time. They have varied through time, however, in the sense that within previous decades the term "horror" was associated with ghosts, vampires, curses, cannibals, haunted houses and the supernatural in general. Although over time, "horror" has now transferred into explicit gore, jump scares alongside the supernatural content in some cases.

Early horror films are based on classic literature; for example "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", "Frankenstein" and "The Phantom of the Opera". Many of the earliest feature length horror films in the early 1920's were created by German filmmakers, during the German Expressionist Films era. Little did they know, later on in time these would influence the Hollywood horror films. Early Hollywood horrors included "The Hunchback of Notre Dame"; then later on in the 1930's Universal Pictures Co Inc. popularized in the horror genre, where the popular "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" were produced, beginning to gain an audience for this genre. In this case, many actors such as Boris Karloff used horror as their speciality genre. Horror was becoming widely known.

Advances in technology then saw a change in the genre; where the gothic based focus changed to a more modern approach that would relate to the later century audience. This was the stage at which more gore was seen; which again met a hugely popular target audience. The 1980's saw the financial successes of low budget gore films from previous years; which lead to the release of films such as "The Excorcist" which through time has proved one of the most well known horror films of all time. Sexual overtones and the use of children were frequently becoming more popular and thhe subject of these films became more and more relevant to the target audience; increasing the amount of fear within the reaction hence giving a big word of mouth. At this stage, the audience of horror genre is at its peak.





Group Meeting

We held a group meeting in the intention to gather our ideas to produce an effective opening sequence to a film. Through independant research towards deciding a genre of the film, as a group we decided to choose horror.

Liam thought the intial setting of the opening sequence would be effective within a frightening woods in the local area, immediately setting a gothic tone to the rest of the film. Liam then also thought of some ideas for the main plot of the film; where we settled on his idea of a scouts weekend trip in the forest. As a group we agreed with Liam's idea, because we thought it would me more frightening knowing that the film would be about children.

Lucy then thought of the physical characters within the production; where we would use the gothic idea of a demon to create an unknown atmosphere. She thought adding another character that isnt seen throughout the opening sequence would create a sense of mystery and tension for the audience.

Jack then gave his ideas on the editing part of the production. He thought the credits should appear slowly at the bottom of each shot in a scrappy, handwritten font. He then discussed his ideas with music; and how gothic, high pitched music would add tension and thrill to the piece as a whole.

Then as a group, we thought we needed to post some type of link to show the danger this forest without introducing the scouts in the opening; which is where we came up with the idea of two young school girls.


Our Final Plot for the Opening Sequence

Two school girls are walking home from school when they begin to dare eachother to explore a strange looking forest. When they enter, strange things immediately begin to happen. When one of the girls disappears, the other panics and attempts to run out of the forest before tripping over a log and falling face down. With the constant feeling of being followed throughout her experience in the forest, the girls' body is dragged backwards by an unknown person.

Further look at Opening Sequences

To merely gather a further understanding of opening sequences to assure that our opening sequence includes as many conventions as possible, I watched a few opening sequences of different genre of films. I attempted to analyse what works within a sequence and what doesn't.

The first of the opening sequences that I watched was from "Mission Impossible". From watching it for a first time through, although a very short opening sequence, I thought it was very effective. To target the audience it has included elements of the key conventions, one of which is the audio. "Mission Impossible" has a very distinctive soundtrack, in which is the main focus of this opening sequence. The visual shots themselves do not deem as important as the audio in this opening, merely because visually not much happens. The shots are very short and sharp, where the audience do not receive a detailed view of what each element of the shot entails. I thought this was clever in adding effect; perhaps adding a sense of mystery on what the film is about. Through looking at the computers, ID cards, close up shots of the protagonist and several close up shots of objects within the sequence, the audience are aware of the crime genre of the film, yet not much of the narrative has been revealed. This opening sequence I thought was very simplistic, yet extremely effective merely due to the use of audio.

Another opening sequence I watched was from "Catch Me If You Can". An immediate difference I noticed between this and "Mission Impossible" was the fact that this one was all animation and had no live action shots. However it could be argued this one is equally as effective. The audio included in this title sequence is jazz style music for the duration of it; giving the animation a mysterious feel, which when I watched it did grasp my attention. The links between each animated shot are very clever and well produced, however I thought the opening sequence seemed very similar for the whole way through and due to the long nature of it eventually lost my attention. This I thought was the only downfall to this opening sequence. I do think it is effective in portraying the mystery genre of the film, and proves that animation can be just as effective as live action.

Alongside looking at opening sequences from existing films, I went on YouTube and searched for some produced by media students in order to see what looks effective and anything that our group could learn from. I found "Scapegoat: Horror Opening Sequence (AS Media Studies Coursework)" and thought it was a high standard example of the genre of film my group aim to produce. The simple audio of howling wind and a strange atmosphere gives an instant effect, where it is further emphasised through the close up shots. However the element that most impressed me on this video was through the use of editing; shots have been manpulated in the way that some look like they have almost been fast forwarded. This definately gave an eerie effect to the opening sequence and I thought was an extremely effective method of editing. Although the only critiscism of this video I could point out is the repetition of this effect. They have put the fast forward effect in the film throughout the whole of it; hence becoming less and less effective each time. I think it would have been better through using less of these and concentrating on the different types of shots.

Research into Opening Sequence Designs

To get a better understanding of what makes a successful opening sequence, I watched and took notes on the ideas of Kyle Cooper, the acclaimed title designer.

Kyle Cooper Interview Part 1 and Kyle Cooper Interview Part 2

Through watching these two interviews with Kyle Cooper, I have learned simple methods in which create a memorable opening sequence. An opening sequence that will be successful is the kind that sets an expectation for the film; one that makes the audience excited and nothing will distract them from it. Cooper uses "Se7en" as one example of a successful opening sequence. The credits themselves in this sequence are hand written; a tool that is not only a suspicious and eerie effect, but is symbolic to the film as a whole. A huge element of "Se7en" is the way in which the protagonist keeps a journal of the events. The hand written font in this sense links to this; making me understand that an opening sequence should post clear links to the actual film. Cooper said that you should make the typography in the context of the film your about to tell; random sequences will lose interest of the audience.

Something else Cooper taught me from watching the first interview is to use out of the ordinary images to capture the interest of the audience in your opening sequences. For example, Cooper stated he likes using cells, and elements of the skin in horror/thriller films. Thinking of new ideas and being creative within the editing suite is what makes a good shoot.

Typography is seen at it's most effective when simplistic. An opening sequence that made an impression on Cooper was "The Dead Zone"; a key example of simple typography through use of mysterious overtones of music, and effective fonts. Also through watching the opening sequence to "To Kill A Mockingbird", I discovered that linking the opening sequence to obsessions of the protagonist in close up macro format are hugely effective. It allows the audience to gather an insight to the characters without initially seeing them, and making a judgement on them. Comfortable opening sequences are ones in the form of a story; where you could use this opportunity to introduce the metaphors that the film will entail.

Opening sequences are important in giving an opportuinity to advance on the plot of the film. From looking at the advice of Kyle Cooper, our group now feel confident with our ideas. We will use close up shots, perhaps take the form of a narrative opening sequence and link small elements of the sequence to the main plot of the film in the hope to make it effective.

Choosing your genre

The above table I found on http://www.the-movie-times.com/, and it shows the top grossing films of all time in the U.S. By looking at the titles of the films, five out of the top ten films are Sci Fi. This includes Avatar, Star Wars, E.T, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, and Spider-Man. When looking at these films individually and in the context of producing an opening sequence in that genre, Sci Fi would be very difficult to establish the different conventions in order to make the genre clear within the first couple of minutes.

Alot of the above films are adventure, which also would be hard to differenciate because to make it look realistic and effective, the opening sequence would need to be fast paced as adventure and action films are. Aside these genres,  the only other was animation, which for us, would be virtually impossible.

Therefore, I researched genres that I thought would be approachable as media students to address and make look effective as an opening sequence. These included Romantic Comedy, Horror, Comedy, Crime or Musicals. To get a further look at these remaining genres, we devised a questionnaire that we gave out to people of different age groups.

Questionnaire

Our questionnaire consisted of the following questions:
1. What is your favourite film genre and why?
2. What is your favourite film and what genre what you categorise it under?
3. What do you expect to see in an opening sequence?
4. Is there a genre you would like to see more of?
5. What makes you interested in a film?
6. What is your gender?
7. What is your age?

From gaining the results of the questionnaire, a common answer for a popular genre of film was horror/thriller. Therefore we compared our results of the questionnaire to our independant research of genres, and discovered there was a need in the market for thriller/horror films. As a group we took this into consideration, and beyond thinking of initial ideas for this genre, we decided this is the way we would head.

Conventions of an opening sequence

The opening sequence of a film is the key part in initially showing the audience an introduction to the genre of that film. It sets the standards and base of the film that is being shown, and make the audience gain that important first impression. Throughout an opening sequence the intention is to gain an establishing shot, alongside the characters being identified through visual and audio. Therefore I have chosen two films, one being "Austin Powers; Goldmember", an action comedy, and the other being "Juno" comedy, and have taken screen grabs of the opening sequences. Doing this will enable me to gain an understanding of what makes a good opening sequence, a skill that I will need to know when completing my main coursework.

Austin Powers: Goldmember

I had chosen to analyse the opening sequence to this particular film because I feel it drastically portrays the genre of it immediately. The key conventions within this opening sequence are the audio, costumes, props and also the idea that the titles themselves arent included within the very opening.

When watching this opening sequence, the first thing that struck me was the action in the opening. The audience see what appears to be a male skydiving, therefore the audience get the impression that the film they are about to watch is pure action. This changes, however, when as shown in the fourth image, props are beginning to be introduced. The main prop that is seen within this opening sequence is the car, showing the union jack flag and a numberplate that is shown in a close up to give a sense of comedy. Knowing this prop is added so immediately to the opening sequence makes the audience aware that the initial impression of an action film that they perceived is not one hundred percent true, and that this film is also a comedy. Adding to this thought is the drastic, over dramatic action stunts that are included in the opening sequence, such as screen shots 5 and 6. Seeing that they are so overly dramatic gives a sense of being false, which also adds a sense of comedy. This is somewhat confirmed towards the end of the opening sequence, where costumes and actors are revealed. Costumes are of a comedic value and are the same as the traditional 'Austin Powers', however the actor seen is Tom Cruise, which the audience will be well aware is not the actor of this character. When the final clip of the opening sequence is revealed and it is shown as a film set up, the audience are now confirmed of the action comedy genre of this film.

The audio also plays a main part to this opening sequence. There is a slight use of dialogue towards the end of the opening sequence, adding to the 'set up' effect and not distracting the audience from the genre to be focused upon.

Juno

I thought this title sequence would be good to analyse due to the differenciation between animation and live action. It is clever in making it tie in with the opening storyline, and the jittery animation gives a clear account of the comedy genre.

One of the main conventions in this opening sequence is the use of animation. The props shown are in animation, such as the bottle of milk, which you could say represents a sense of childhood. Credits shown in the opening sequence are superimposed over the top of the existing image; which is done because the actions in the sequence is merely a girl walking down a street, therefore credits do not distract the subject. Animation itself adds a sense of childhood and naivety, something that distracts a serious tone to the film. In this case, the audience are clear that the genre is one of comedy. Also within this sequence the audience are introduced to the protagonist of the film, in this case is a young girl.