FINAL CUT- THRILLER OPENING SEQUENCE- OBSESSION

HERE IS THE FINAL CUT OF THE THRILLER OPENING SEQUENCE.

EVALUATION QUESTIONS (UPDATED VERSION)

CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO VIEW MY EVALUATION QUESTIONS

http://reggiekensah.wix.com/media-evaluation

Reflection part 2- what we could have done to improve the opening

One Major thing we could have improved was our planning skills.We sometimes left our planning till the last minute meaning it was rushed and not detailed. However overall our planning skills were quite good. Communication was a problem sometimes for example on halfterms we could only chat on social media websites meaning we could not get a detailed feedback of what the other team members where up to.

Another thing we could have done was not spend too much time on the little tasks. For example to ensure that all my team members had an equal say I often organised meetings and one of them was to choose the right cast for the project. It took us a few days and a long debate before we selected the cast members. This could have been avoided by appointing one person to take control over the casting and providing the rest of the team feedback.

Sometimes it was not clear who's job it was to do certain things, which meant we left it till the last minute. For example after the group collectively appointed the actors, it was not clear who was suppose to help them with rehearsals. We resolved this issue by taking turns. Further more our other courses got in the way of our project. For example on some days one of us would have a course trip or be absent from school, ergo the work load on the members present that day increased.

Reflection on the project.- Part one- Teamwork and vision

My media opening sequence is about a troubled working class detective who becomes obsessed with investigating the illuminati, he starts to lose his sanity which resulted to him getting fired at work. And now his main aim is to reveal the secrets of this cult and prove to everyone he was right. However he faces the danger of being kidnapped and assassinated. I originally came up with the idea of basing our opening sequence around the life of a troubled working class detective. I was inspired after seeing the film seven but wanted to add my own twist to is. I wanted to create a character that most people could relate to and empathise with.
Overall as a team we worked well together even though we were often slowed down by arguments which meant we had to organise meetings, sit down, discuss and then vote on every major issue. As the director of the team I adopted the role of a democratic leader. I ensured that everyone's views were equally taken into consideration. The filming process was enjoyable and we were all very passionate about the project.

However I must say the outcome was a little disappointing compared to the grand opening sequence I envisioned. We were unable to do most of the things we planned due to limited budget and time. For example we were unable to buy a full detective kit for the two main characters. And also the time frame we were given was not long enough, we only had two minutes ergo we had to cut out many of the scenes we filmed which we believed added to the story line. furthermore we had to closely trim the footage we chose because after we edited the opening we noticed that we were over the time limit.
My team members were very hard working however we often had a clash of creative ideas which meant we had to compromise.

List of keyterms I came across during the making of the opening sequence.

Key terms I learnt during the making of the project.

Patriarchy:

A system of society in which the father or the oldest male is the head.

Matriarchal:

A system of society where by the mother is seen as the head or dominate figure.

Narrative:

A spoken or written account of connected events.

eg, A gripping narrative

Realism:

The attitude or practice of accepting situations as it is and being prepared to deal with it accordingly.

eg, The summit was marked by a new mood of realism

IMDB:

International movies Data-base

Binary:

1, Relating to, compose of or involving two things.

Commercial:

Making or intended to make profit.

Audience:

The assembled listeners at a public event such a play, film, concert or meeting.

Audience can also mean the group of people which a media product is targeted at.

Ensemble cast:

A group musicians actors or dancers who perform together.

Exposition:

You see the main character(s) in their daily life, gaining a sense of their ‘big dream’.

Rising Action:

The steps they take to achieve their goal.

Climax:

The part where the story either has a good or bad ending.

Falling Action:

Everything between the Climax and Resolution.

Resolution:

How they solve the ‘big problem.

Media:

A way to communicate with others. Usually associated with it being received to a mass audience.

Sub-Genre:

A subdivision of genre; Slapstick Comedy, Romantic Comedy, Zombie Horror.

Hybrid Genre:

The combination of two or more genres; Comedy/Horror, Western/Science-Fiction.

Iconography:

A familiar stock of images or motifs associated with a particular genre, the connotations of which have become fixed.

Media Institutions:

The corporate side of the media; like Sky.

Semiotics:

The study of signs and symbols and their representation. Also, how they are used.

Arbitrary Relation:

When the symbol does not look like the index.

Hyper real:

Exaggerated in comparison to reality

eg, 'His characters are hyper-real rather than naturalistic.

Pedigree:

The record of descent of a person or thing.

Hegemonic: 

Ruling or dominant in a political or social context.

Bond Franchise:

A bond that insures a government, state or organisation against loss due to a franchise holders failure to complete work specified in the franchise grant.

Conventions:

The widely recognised way of doing something - this has to do with content, style and form

eg the conventions of music video.

Convergence:

The way in which technologies and institutions come together in order to create something new. Cinema is the result of the convergence of photography, moving pictures and sound. The iPad represents the convergence of books, TV, maps, the internet and the mobile phone.

Research- Inspiration- Petesmediablog

Another blog that inspired me Petesmediablog

(www.petesmediablog.blogspot.co.uk)

I learnt a lot from this blog because it provided me with examples of other students work and what could be done to improve it. This gave me and insight of what is expected of me thus making it easier for me to work hard to achieve the best results. More recently there was an article about re-makes on petesmediablog that I found very interesting. It showed me that every team member is important no matter how small their role is. For example one the projects he talked about was the re-making of a painting set, Where students visit a gallery study paintings by some well-known artists, then they comeback to school and then build a replica on a specific painting they have studied whilst at the gallery.

Further more another good article was the article about team work. I read out the article to my team, which helped pick up their motivation for the final leg of the project. One thing that the article stated was that ''you could agree that if one person is alone editing, they stick to an agreed plan and if they do anything 'individual' that they agree to accept the view of the rest of the group when they come back to see it''. This is exactly what we did and we were happy to see that someone else agreed with this. However we often interfered in each others roles, which was probably not the most efficient thing to do.

Media Evaluation questions

Here is the link to the website I made for my media evaluation questions.

http://reggiekensah.wix.com/media-evaluation

Audience research- Part 2- Interviews

This is part two of the audience research I conducted. This audience research shows a sample of the audience watching the video and then a selected few giving their feedback. Overall I was happy with the sample I chose, even though I believe I could have selected more people to watch  the video. Most people that saw the thriller opening sequence enjoyed it however a handful of people did not get the story line, which meant that I had to explain it to them.

Audience research- Part 1- Survey

My team and I came up with the questions about the video. I then went out and handed it to the target audience. Overall I was content with the response I got back from the audience. Before the chosen sample were given the questionnaire I made them promise that they will give their honest opinion on the matter. I must say, I was very surprise with the feedback I received from the older audience. We picked out a random sample of the teachers whom we believed were within the target age for the thriller opening sequence. Overall most of them gave me a neutral or negative response.

 Bellow is a little screenshot of the survey to prove that we actually did that.

Audience research (survey)

Role as the Director- Research

My role as a director.

Right at the start of the project my group came to together to decide the role of each member. I put myself up to be the director of the opening sequence and all my team mates agreed that I will make a good director. After I was appointed the director of the opening sequence I decided to research what it means to a director, that's when I came across the website called creativeskillset.org. They had an interesting news article about what it takes to be a good director and that article inspired me to go out there and try my best to direct the opening sequence.

Here is a screen shot from the website, describing the role of a director.

To me being a director meant being the group leader and key team member. It was my job to ensure that everything runs smoothly and my team members are working as efficiently as possible. This role had no boundaries meaning I was able to work in all the different areas such as editing, mise-en-scene management, photographer etc. This helped me develop skills such as leadership skills (through making important decisions and managing the group), creative skills (through coming up with new ideas and adding special effects to the footage we had.), motivational skills (through lifting the spirits of the team up by ensuring they always worked in good working conditions and they had all the equipments needed.), organisational skills (through managing the team's time table and agenda book), communication skills (through providing and receiving feedback and holding meeting to discuss certain issues) etc. One of my main roles as director was agenda building. I had to ensure all my team mates were happy and well motivated. I had to ensure that they were well informed on the key dates such as rehearsals and meetings shooting plans.

I had to make crucial decisions, such as selecting the right cast, and locations for the film. I then directed rehearsals, and the performances of the actors once the opening sequence was in production. I also managed the technical aspects of filming, including the camera, sound, lighting, mise-en-scene and special effects areas. I made sure that my team members were always using the best equipment. I went round to all the locations and took pictures and then presented them back to the team. I often organised meetings to ensure that we were all on the same page and ensured that we were all aware of what needed to be done urgently.

I worked closely with the editor of the opening sequence, often taking over entirely when she needed a break. For example I attended after-schoolediting classes in order to improve my editing skills. I learnt some great tips and often passed on my knowledge to the main editor of the opening sequence.

Mise-en-scene evaluation

In the first scene the main character wakes up and looks up at his wall with a pile of notes, posters and letters stuck to the wall. This gives the audience the impression that the character is obsessed about something. The montage seems excessive and over done, which was exactly what we were going for. I wanted to encode the message that it was not just an obsession or phase but rather it was a way of life for this character. Also one could notice he was sitting at his study desk when he fell asleep which shows that he's always working and implies his whole life is consumed by this major project that he has embarked on. The next scene was filmed in a park near Chelsea. It was filmed on a small pier/bridge. This location was perfect for the crime/flashback scene because it looked like a building site and had a dodgy look to it. The characters were dressed in long black coats and smart wear because they were detectives, and the long black coat is a conventional look for detectives.

In the scene after the flashback scene we used a mid-shot view. This showed us what the characters room looks like. We intentionally made it messy before filming to encode the massage the character hardly has time for himself.

The messy room

Opening sequence- Analysis- Sound Evaluation

The film greets the audience with the logo for or media production company. It was important to put the the logo before the first scene as this is the identity of the opening sequence. After that the first thing we hear is the sound of a man waking up from sleep, he sounds like he just had a rough sleep. This sound gives the audience the impression that the character in the scene needed his rest due to a long day, which shows that the character is a hard working character. He then looks up and the title appears on the screen with a loud bang. This was used to grab the attention of the audience and the vivid red font of the title signifies danger. One thing we could have changed here is prolong the time it took for the character to wake up and the time it took for the title to appear on screen. There was some important information on the wall (mise-en-scene) and we wanted the audience to notice it. However due to the short duration of the scene it was rather easy to miss. In the next scene (Flashback, crime-scene on the bridge) we can hear sirens in the background (ambient sound). This was not planned initially but we kept it because it helped us encode the message that the area was a dangerous area thus adding to the thrill.

The dialogue used by the characters was vague, rude and aggressive which gives the audience the impression that they are troubled and passionate about the subject they were talking about. After the flashback the sound of the character waking up comes in again, we made sure that the sound matched the sound in the previous scene before the flashback where we left off. We did this because we recognised it was important that the audience knew the flashback occurred when the character woke up in the first scene, thus showing the three scenes were linked together. The team and I decided to add the type- writer effect to highlight the fact that the names and roles were on the screen. The next major sound effect we used was the creaking door (in the bathroom scene). The character in the scene hears the creaking door and starts panicking and shaking. This could be decoded by the audience as fear and anxiety. Thus helping build up the tension, which is one of the main convention of thriller films. The soundtrack has a heavy base to it and the rhythm is like a heartbeat as it gets faster in the audience begin to anticipate what will come next thus bringing them to the edge of their seat. 

Panicking in the bathroom scene

flash back scene. (the use of aggressive dialogue)

As the character starts to leave the bathroom the soundtrack slows down, this represents the clam before the storm. As the character starts walking down the hallway the lights become dimmer, and it seems the character is walking into a trap. After he gets to the room the scene fades to black and we hear a voice-over of the character saying 'it's gone'. This is a major cliff hanger as the audience do not get to witness the danger.

walking down the hall way. (Its a trap)

Cinematography- opening sequence- Analysis

During the planning of the opening sequence I decided that the first scene should be a close up of the character sleeping. The intense expression on the character's face can be decoded as stress and nightmares by the audience.  After the character in the scene wakes up the camera then tilts upwards thus showing us the posters and notes on the wall. The message we tried to encode by doing this was that the character is a hard working person who is completely obsessed with something, ergo making the audience question the mental health of the character. It also makes the audience anxious to know what he is obsessed about.
The beginning of the second scene (bridge/crime scene), my team and I decided to use a mid shot to show the two main characters investigating the scene. After that they walk of onto the bridge and the camera tracks them as the walk. One could argue that the character at the front is the more dominate character as he is the one leading the second character. The camera then moves to a close up up the two characters talking to show their facial expression. This close- up reveals the cigarette in the main character's hand. This connotes stress and addition. After the two characters finish arguing the camera angles moves to a long shot of the main character walking down the bride. I added this to show how lonely and depressed he was.

The next scene is a mid shot of the main character's room. We can see that it is messy and the walls are a full of paper and notes stuck onto it, thus showing the main character hardly has time for himself but rather spends most of his time researching. He then walks towards the camera and there shot becomes and extreme close up on his shirt. The whole bathroom scene was filmed in a close up to show the reaction of the character. After he leaves the bathroom the camera tracks him till he gets to the room.

Our production company (Thriller nights)

A production company is a company which is mainly liable for the physical production of films. They are in charge of the funding and making of films. We all sat down as a group to discuss what our production company should look like. Our production company is an independent British company that specialises in thriller films. This production company is suitable for our opening sequence because it is low budget production company that produces films which will other wise be avoided by the major production companies due to the intensity of the story line or controversy behind the story.

The logo of the company was designed by the editor of the group. she chose the the font for the logo in the horror category from the website 1001freefonts.com and after consulting the rest of the group we all agreed to add a picture of a crescent moon on the right hand side to fit the theme of the production company.

Our production company mainly concentrates on small independent thriller films. I believe that even though our production company is a small independent company it still has the potential to become a big mainstream company. because as we raise awareness about controversial topics more people will become intrigued, thus causing them to consume more of our films.

Here is the logo for our production company. 

Opening Sequence- Changes- OBSESSION

We made many changes to the opening sequence but the biggest change we made was the removal of the picture collage -  opening credits. This was a collection of pictures we came across during our research on the illuminati and the thriller genre and some of it was footage One other team member and I shot during lessons. I printed outed out some articles and we filmed in from a close up angle. Then we uploaded the footage and added some special effect to it to make it appear noir. We also wanted to include clues as to what the title 'OBSESSION' was referring to. We got our inspiration from the opening of the film 'seven' which is a psychological thriller. At the time we made it we believed that it was the best way to set the tone for the opening sequence but as time went on we noticed that it did not adapt to the new developments we made. Further more we afraid of going over the given time limit for the opening sequence as a whole, meaning we had to make some cut backs.

Overall I do not regret taking this out as it did not work with the other changes we made. It also wasted a lot of time ergo giving up little time to include the other footage we had.
Here is a reminder.

Opening Sequence- Final Cut - OBSESSION

Here is the final cut for our opening sequence. The name of the opening sequence is obsession because we think it works well with the theme of the film and it also helps set the tone for the film. After carrying out some audience research we made some changes to the opening sequence, taking into consideration the views of the target audience. Further more my team and I decided to cut some scenes and remove some entirely in order to keep within the time frame we have been given. But overall the opening sequence turned out well and even though we were not able to include all the potage we had, I believe it still works well on the target audience.

Group discussion- Disagreement- Opening sequence

One of the main disagreements we had in our group was whether or not we should get rid of our initial opening credits. Our original plan was to include a montage of pictures of the illuminati and news paper articles highlighting the horrifying stories. Thus helping us encode the message that the main character was in great danger because he was caught up with this cult which he knew little about.

 I believe that our original opening credits for the opening sequence helps build suspense which keeps the audience at the edge of their seat. The music we chose was the sound track from the film inception. This sound track goes well with the images on screen. The sound track and the images helps build the idea of danger in the mind of the audience, which is exactly what we were going for.

However after a lot of planing, hard work and effort one of my team members raised an issue about the opening credits. Her main argument was that the length of the opening credits was too long and that we would not have enough time to include the other footage that we had. Further more she claimed the quality of the images did not correspond with the quality of the footage we filmed. Our other team mate was torn between both argument.

After discussing this we came down to two conclusions (Option 1 & 2). I was for option 1

Option 1	Option 2
The first option was to make the length of the opening credits shorter by taking out some of the pictures and reducing the time each picture appears on the screen for. Also we would have to adjust the music to make sure it flow smoothly with the pictures.	Delete the entire opening credits and titles sequence. Also we would have to go back to the planning board and decide where to fit the credits in

After voting on this I discovered that majority of the people in my group were for option 2. So we decided to delete the entire credits and start all over again.

Equipments used

HD Sony Handy Cam.

This was the main camera we shot our entire opening sequence with. The camera had a fairly good quality and gave us no problems during filming apart from the fact that the battery runs out quickly. The camera was very easy to hold and very lightweight thus making it easier to carry and keep stable for a long period of time. I quickly got used to the Camera due to the simplicity of the software and layout. With this Recording camera I was able to do quick basic editing without transferring the footage onto a PC, which was very useful.

Tripod

The tripod that came with the camera was also very lightweight and easy to use. All the components fitted together nicely which meant. I learnt how to use the tripod to move the camera up and down smoothly, which meant that the footage appeared steadier.

Final cut pro.

This was the main editing software used to edit the footage. The software came with many features which was very useful to us. It come with a good number of effects, transitions and option buttons. However it wasn't always easy to use because some of the buttons and settings were hidden thus making it more difficult for me to find. Leading to me wasting more time on simple tasks.

Iphones .

My team and I used and iphone to record the creaking door sound effect. The iphone has a high quality voice recorder.

H1 Zoom Handy Recorder

This equipment was very useful to the team. We used it to record a voice over of the main character in the last scene of the opening sequence. The sound quality was very high and clear.

Ipad

The ipad is a very useful device which helped me take quick pictures during the making of the opening sequence. I also used it to record some sounds and edit some pictures for the making of the opening sequence.