This blog has been marked. SJA 08/05/11

Final Product - AS Opening Sequence 'Premonition'

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

In my opinion, I feel that I have learnt an awful lot since the preliminary task and this final product. The aspects, in which I have learnt the most, would be ‘eyeline match’ and how this creates such a great effect on a film. We decided to use this in our opening sequence of ‘Premonition’, as we felt that it would be very successful in our opening sequence, and we would be able to show off our skills within this area. Moreover, a big part to play in the learning from the preliminary task to the final product is continuity editing. I realised that this is the key aspect to creating a very believable and outstandingly well opening sequence to a movie and we took this on board because we wanted our opening sequence to be perfect. I have realised that continuity editing is crucial within a movie, and I really focused on getting it absolutely perfect. Moreover, since the preliminary task I have been able to understand the Thriller genre movie a lot more in depth. I was also able to distinguish the true meaning of a Thriller based movie, and the elements that are decisive within it, such as the slow paced editing, the slow resonant sound. Also, other aspects that are needed in the opening sequence are low lighting, and the audience need to be asking questions in their head; they need to be hooked and want to watch on and find out what is going to happen in the end. All of these play a key part in the success of a Thriller based opening sequence, and I made sure that we followed this as closely as possible in order for our opening sequence to successful. I have learnt all of these different aspects, and I now know a lot about Thriller genre movies and the different editing rules, as well as the aspects needed in which an opening sequence will be made triumphant.

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

During the construction of this product, I have learnt many new technologies. Firstly using the video camera, before starting this process I have only minimalistic knowledge of using the video camera and the use of interesting shots within our film. Therefore using this steady cam was a first, as I had never used it before. Another technology that I used during the process of the construction of our movie ‘Premonition’ was the Macs and iMovie. I had very minimalistic knowledge of iMovie and the Macs, but as the process of making our opening sequence my skills using these technologies also developed. The first instance of trouble that our group came across was importing the footage into iMovie, and I very quickly learnt how to convert the footage so our group were able to import it into iMovie. Moreover, I very quickly learnt how to input transitions into our opening sequence as well as inputting sound effects from ‘freesound’.
Another technology that I used was ‘Live type’, and this was a piece of software in which we were able to input the footage into ‘Live type’ and make the titles for the opening sequence. ‘Live type’ was quite easy to use, apart from the fact that it was very temperamental to use; however it was very effective. This has now made our opening sequence of ‘Premonition’ very professional, and this process of constructing this product has made me very knowledgeable with these products.

How did you attract/address your audience?

In order to attract our audience of the 15 - 20 year old age group, our actor Ryan Clark was within this age bracket, meaning it was very easy for them to relate to him. This enables us to attract our target audience of 15 - 20, and they would also aspire to be like him, smart and generally nice young man. My group also decided to show the character getting dressed into his work clothes, which is a suit; this clearly implies he is getting ready for work just like any other normal day. Many people of this age will just be starting to get a job, and be able to understand more of what the character is like by picturing themselves in the role he does. Our movie, ‘Premonition’ will also attract an older audience, as the storyline behind the actual movie is quite interesting and that should interest hem. It will also attract an older audience as the main character to films which are similar to our own, is usually a young female. However we challenged this stereotype and it would be interesting for the audience to watch our movie. This may also attract a female audience as well as the older male audience, because they are used to seeing females as ‘the victim’ and ‘damsel in distress’ so it would be interesting for them to watch a film that has challenged this stereotype. Having set the beginning of our film in a forest with clocks and various other objects to show a ‘dream-like state’ should allow the audience to instantly know the genre of the film, and this will attract an audience that really enjoy the physiological Thriller genre movie.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my media product would be mainly for 15-25 year olds. This is because the main character shown is around them ages so they would be able to relate to him and become more engrossed as they would be able to picture themselves in the events that occurs. It is targeted at older teenagers as it may be slightly confusing for a younger person and and older teenagers may enjoy trying to figure out what is happening and what will happen to the main character as the film develops. The certification of the film would be a 15.

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

I believe that our movie might be distributed by either ‘Paramount Pictures’, ‘Hollywood Pictures’ or even 'Vertigo Films'. Firstly, the reason that I feel that ‘Hollywood Pictures’ could distribute our movie, is because they have produced similar genre movies to our movie, for example they have produced ‘The Sixth Sense’, ‘Shadow Conspiracy’ and ‘The Invisible’. This distributer is very well known, and I believe our movie will be a very big hit if they decide to distribute our movie, ‘Premonition’.
Moreover, the reason that I believe that ‘Paramount Pictures’ could distribute our movie, is due to the fact that, again this film distributer have produced similar genre movies to our movie ‘Premonition’. ‘Paramount Pictures’ have distributed the movie ‘Vertigo’ and this movie was very similar to our movie, as this movie is a physiological thriller; alike ours. For that reason, I feel that this film distributer would be perfect to distribute our movie, as the film ‘Vertigo’ was also a very popular.

Vertigo is another possible company that will produce and distribute our movie 'Premonition'. Due to the fact, that Vertigo Films are a british production company, and we felt that our movie should be produced by a completely british company; alike the movie 'The Business'.

Moreover, Vertigo Films have produced movies that are of a similar genre to our psychological-thriller movie 'Premonition', such as 'The Children', and 'Outcast'. These movies are interesting Thrillers, and they create a great impact on the audience that are watching. We want this element within our movie, and we wanted our movie to be different and stand out; similarly to these films. We have a modern turn on our film with different elements, and we believe that Vertigo Films are best suited to produce our movie 'Premonition'.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Within the first two minutes of our media product, the audience are only shown 'Damion', our main character of the movie 'Premonition'. 'Damion' represents stereotypes as he is young, blonde haired and blue eyed and seems quite a cheeky younge man'. He represents young, hard working men and this is represented through the use of the suit he wears in the opening sequence. To follow this representation when he wakes up he activly takes part in a younge mans typical 'everyday' activities, and these activities include eating breakfast, and getting dressed into his suit. These activities add to the fact that many people of his age group, which are our target audience, would do these activities. They would be able to relate to him, as he would be doing the same things as them.

Our media product, 'Premonition' also challenges many gender stereotypes, as the predominant character would be a female, and she would usually be the victim and targeted. The beginning of our movie was influenced by 'Alice in Wonderland', and our actor, Ryan Clark, who played 'Damion' is similar to the typical connotations of 'Alice' due to the blonde hair and the wearing of the colour blue. The stereotypes were challenged in our opening sequence, because we had the victim as a male, as apposed to a female.

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

Our media product, Premonition was uses real media products as our project was influenced by ‘Dexter’. This is because we decided to film part of our opening sequence in a house, which was our main characters and we wanted everyday normal aspects of life to be made sinister and as if someone was possibly watching him. Moreover, the use of the knife scraping the butter was completed in such a way, that our intentions were to make the audience feel very uncomfortable, and ‘on edge’. We chose to use a house, because we wanted to challenge the idea that a house is a safe place. A house is associated with a safe place, yet we wanted the audience to watch an opening sequence that challenges this; that way even more of an eerie and sinister atmosphere will have been successfully created.

Also, we had a scene in the opening sequence which has the main character in the woods, and this part was influenced by the movie ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Alike this movie, we had clocks on trees, umbrellas and the males dressing gown in the woods area which shows the confusion and dream state which we wanted to demonstrate. Moreover, I believe we created the confusing atmosphere that we intended to create, and this was done with the use of the physical objects. Moreover, the colour blue was a common occurrence throughout our opening sequence and we wanted the audience to ask all sorts of questions. Questions such as why is this colour keep occurring, why are there all of these objects and why are they in these specific locations? This is the common convention for a Thriller genre opening sequence; therefore we wanted to uphold this.

Titles

This style of front is called 'Precosia', and the reason i chose this font is because it looks very original. The sharp looking edges will reflect the our movie is a Thriller. The sheer style of the font looks like a tattoo, and that then reflects the symbol that will be used in the film.

This style of text is called 'Obelisque', and the reason i had this text as an option is because it is very simplistic and this will contrast against our movie. The unsteady letters that are used, could connote Damiens unsteady mind and unsteady life, and this will reflect the charcater within the title.

This style of font is called 'DreamScar' and this instantly relates to our film because of the name. This style of font has symbols within the letters, and a symbol is prime within the movie 'Premonition'. Again, the sharp looking letters connote a sense of danger in the film, and this is typical within this genre of film.