Opening Sequence

Question 7

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

For this answer I chose to do a voice over with images. This is because it is easy to be detailed in what I am saying and it shows the examples on the screen.

Question 6

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

To answer this question I decided to have text with images because it is easy to expand on details but it still keeps it interesting.

I have learnt a lot about technologies from constructing this piece. One piece of technology I learnt a lot about is a camera. The camera we used is a ... I learnt about how to use different features on the camera to get different effects from it. For example, I learnt about how to use the different settings for shooting different scenes. This meant for the close ups I could use the portrait setting which made the image quality better so we could see the actors emotions more clearly. This is the camera we used.

Another piece of technology I learnt about was editing software on a computer. For editing our opening sequence we used Movie Maker 6 Plus. This is easy to use so was great for my group as we haven't got a lot of experience in editing. I learnt a lot about how to create smooth transitions through editing two shots together which helped a lot with match on action in our piece for example when the main character is looking through the post box. I also learnt about how to crop takes more finely as we needed very precise cut offs for the ends of scenes and for example when the door shuts and the music stops which also helped me learn about editing sound and adding in sound effects which was ideal for th crashing sound effect from the basement.

Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

For this I chose to answer with a chart because it is the most obvious way to show our data and it's really clear what it is saying.

This graph shows how we attracted our audience. It represents the amount of people we shared our opening sequence with and how we got them to watch our piece.

These methods were effective and it got lots of people to watch our piece and we could therefore get lots of feedback. The most effective way was through word of mouth. We told people about our opening sequence and many asked to watch it. Social media was also a very helpful tool because we could put our media product online on webistes such as Facebook and Blogger so people could access it and find it easily.

Question 4

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

I chose to do a Prezi presentation for this question because it gives a clear idea of the point I am trying to get across and it looks good to the eye.

Prezi Presentation

Question 3

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

For this answer I decided to do text with some links because it is a simple way to give examples and it makes it easy to go into detail on the topics.

The kind of media institution that would distribute my media product is a small independent institution. An example of one like this is Tiger Aspects. This is an independent company who, just like any other larger institution, distribute films and TV shows.

http://www.tigeraspect.co.uk/

Even though it is a small production company they have distributed some largely popular TV shows and films, like ours. Our media product would most likely be distributed by an independent company like this because we are not well known in the film industry and our film is more suited to a small scale production because of things like the lack of finances available for advertisement and production.

If our piece had been a larger production it would probably have been distributed by a company such as Sony Pictures UK. They are a huge company which have also produced huge films.

http://www.sonypictures.co.uk/

However, our media product is not suitable for a large production like this because we don't have a big budget and we are not well known in the business.

Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

For this piece I decided to do a slideshow because I thought it would get across my answer in a clear and simple way.

Evaluation Question 2 by Amber Mobbs

Question 1

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

Question 1 Plan

We have six questions to answer in order to evaluate our main task. The first question is 'In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?' This means 'How is your opening sequence different and better than others in the film business?'

I think the best way to answer this question would be with an interview style.

This would involve the interviewer asking questions and the actor answering them about our piece. I think this would be effective because it gives the opportunity to be as creative as we would like with the questions being asked and with the answers. Here is an example of a similar interview style.

This is particularly effective because it clearly shows what film is being advertised and has the main actor in it which gives a real sense of the movie. It is also a two person interview which gives the actor a chance to elaborate on their answers and can therefore include a lot of detail.

In this interview I will get the interviewer to ask questions about editing, costume, location and camera shots and angles. It will be a good, simple way to be able to get the information about our opening sequence across.

Costume

The main character in our opening sequence is a district nurse. This means she needed a nurses uniform to show the audience she is professional and is at a normal day of work.

For her costume we used an old nurses top and black trousers and added small details such as pens and a pocket watch to the pockets which gave it  a realistic look. We also used a coat for when she was outside as it was a windy winters day so looked cold outside. This meant it wouldn't have looked right if she looked cold and wasn't wearing a jacket because a district nurse would usually wear one to work.

We thought this was effective because it makes it clear to the audience that she is at the house because of her job as a nurse and it also makes it realistic because she is wearing what a district nurse would usually wear. Here are some examples of a typical district nurse in her uniform.

Location

For our opening sequence we needed a normal house with a basement and various rooms for the character to look around. We decided to use Meg's house because it fit this criteria.

This is a screenshot of our opening sequence showing the front of the house. This was good because it looks like a normal house on a busy street where nothing bad would usually happen. This means the audience wouldn't expect anything to go wrong.

This is another screenshot of our opening sequence which is in the hallway just after the main character has entered the house. It gives the effect of an old house and shows how the house appears to be empty.

This is the main room in our piece where the character looks around. She goes into various rooms in this scene and this one shows how it is an ordinary house where nothing strange should happen and it also shows where she is going when she goes up the stairs and into the basement and other rooms. It highlights the fact that it is all happening in a small area so it is obvious there is no one else there.

This final screenshot is of the basement and is where the final scene takes place. It was a perfect location for our piece because it is dark and has a creepy atmosphere. It shows that it is dark and big so anything could be in the room and the nurse would not be able to see it which adds to the tension.

Props

In our opening sequence we needed some props to get across the atmosphere we wanted. One of these was a folder. This gave the idea that the nurse was professional and was there with work. It was simple but made a big difference because we felt that without it it wasn't clear that she was there on a job.

Another prop we used was a car. This was to show how the nurse had just arrived and was pulling up outside the house. It also gave the idea of a professional adult woman doing her job. It worked well because it showed that it was just an ordinary day at work.

The final prop we used was a candle. This was effective because it gave a creepy atmosphere because it was darker than if there would have been a light bulb. It was effective because it gave the idea that the character was vulnerable due to there being little light so she couldn't see very well.

Actors

In our piece there is just one character. It is a district nurse who is going to visit an elderly woman. This character is played by Danielle Garden. We chose her to play this role because she looks old enough to be a nurse and she was a good actress.

This is a screenshot of her when acting in our opening sequence. We think she looked effective because she fit the part well and she was good at showing emotions which we needed for our opening sequence because the character was scared and we needed this to come through to the audience.

Sound

We decided to use eerie music for our opening sequence. This is because our piece is a horror and we wanted to build up tension. At the beginning, in the first scene all appears to be fine and it is just a normal nurses visit to a patient but we wanted the audience to be on edge and be worried for the character. In order to do this we added a creepy soundtrack for the scene. This means the audience will be on the edge of their seats and will not want the nurse to go into the house because they will know something isn't right. This is the music we used for this scene.

For the next few scenes we wanted the tension to build as the nurse realises something isn't right so we decided to completely cut out the background music when the door shuts as she enters the house. This means all you can hear is the main character speaking and the sounds she makes as she walks through the house. This also gives the person watching an idea of the empty house because you can't hear any sounds other than the ones the nurse is making. Here is one of the sounds we used.

We then made the music get louder and louder to build the tension and make the audience on edge. We also chose dramatic music so the audience knows something bad is going to happen but they can't predict when so it still has the same scary effect. Here is the music from this scene.

We also added the sound effect of a crashing of pans. This gave the nurse a reason to go to the basement as she hears a sound coming from there and thinks her patient could be in trouble. It is also a loud crash so that it makes the person watching jump which is a good effect for a horror production. This is the sound effect we used.

Finally, in the last scene we decided we would add the sound of someone blowing out the candle at the end. This sound effect really matches the visuals as the candle the nurse is holding suddenly goes out. This blowing sound tells the audience that there is someone else in the basement with the nurse who wants to cause her trouble and it is therefore scary.