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.

Casting

We chose Ryan Clark to play Damien, which is the main character, as he is roughly an average height, innocent looking, yet he's not weak. He is dressed smart throughout the film to reflect his intelligent persona. Damien works as a clinical psychologist with a keen interest in Cognitive and Psychodynamic psychology, and this is the reason as to his interest in dreams. The character is of around 21 years old, and the audience are instantly 'fond' of him.

Character Desciption

For our main character, Damien our group want him to be of a normal height and weight. We would like him to be roughly in his very early twenties, and we want him to wear a suit and a dressing gown in the opening sequence; this will make him look smart and professional. He should look smart and healthy like the male above. It will allow many men to be able to aspire to be like him, as well as find similarities between themselves and Damien. We want him to be imstantly liked, and just an all-round generally nice male character. Moreover, we want the audience to see this character as the 'hero' of the movie, and just generally really like him.

Shooting Schedule

This is our shooting schedule for our movie 'Premonition'. We will follow this schedule, in order to have our filming complete in time so our group are able to edit the opening sequence and make it the best and the most effective possible.

Script

Within our opening sequence of ‘Premonition’, as a group we decided not to have any dialogue. We felt that dialogue would distract the audience from watching the opening sequence, and the clever shots that were composed. As a group, we thought that dialogue would also have a poor affect on the surreal, and sinister atmosphere, which we wished to create. In order for the surrealism to be created, we wanted the audience to understand this by actually watching the opening sequence, and allow the shots used to convey this approach to a Thriller genre film, rather than dialogue to ‘tell’ the story. Moreover, our carefully conposed opening sequence, we felt would be ruined with the use of dialogue as Damien would have no one to actually talk to. Also, we felt that it would overtake our very well thought through shots and use of non - digetic sound, such as the keys, the fridge opening, and the toaster popping up the toast.

Props List

These are our groups location shots, and these are of Nonsuch Park in the woods. These shots are interesting angles, and the sharp twigs only emphasize the danger that is there. Also, the shot above makes it seem as if someone is hiding behind the tree, and this further creates an eerie atmosphere. The obscure composition of these shots meerly reflects the obscurity of the storyline itself, and this will make the opening sequence very interesting for the viewer to watch.

This image shows the blue colour scheme kitchen along with our other prop, the toaster. Blue was the main colour scheme of our movie, and these were to be used in the house scene.

This dressing gown is part of costume for the character of Damien, and again this is following the colour scheme of blue.

This prop is a red gift-box, and this prop is very important within the forest scene. The giftbox is used to introduce the symbol to our charcater Damien.

Props

For the first scene there will not be many props but the ones we do use will be important to the storyline. We want to have some clocks scattered around showing different times which hope to get the audience thinking that it is not real and is a dream. Another prop we will us in this scene is a small box that will have the symbol inside it. The second scene will use a lot more props as it is set in a home. The props that will be important to the story are a toilet, cup of tea, bread that will be toasted in a toaster and a knife and butter. Smaller props will include a set of keys, plates and other items that are around a normal home.

Costumes
There are two main costumes that the main actor will be wearing. The first one being a blue dressing gown which he will be wearing in him premonition and also while before he gets dressed in the next scene. We decided to put him in the dressing gown in both scenes to link the two scene together and to help to audience understand that the first half is a dream. The dressing gown will be blue as it is the main colour scheme. The other costume will be a grey suit which he will put on in the end of the second scene. The suit will show that the character may have a good job and cares about his appearance.

Locations
We thought very carefully to wear the film would be set and decided to set it first in a forest followed by a scene in a house. We decided to do this as it scored highly in our questionnaires we created in the research stage as well as linking well with the story and ideas we had as a group. We decided to set the forest scene in Nonsuch Park as it fit well with our ideas. For example we knew it had paths of which we can film up and many surrounding trees that will block out anything as well as creating an extra frame. The forest also create a sinister feel as many of the leaves will have fallen of the trees and it is also very quite and still. The second scene we decided will be set in Katie's house as it fit in well with our ideas of having blue as the main theme as the kitchen is blue themed.

Written by Gemma Flinders, photographs of props by Katie Lee, and photographs of Locations by James Sullivan.

Storyboard

This is our storyboard that we created for our movie, 'Premonition'. We wish to follow this storyboard so the opening sequence will look effective, However, when we actually start to film we might not completely follow this storyboard just incase the shot doesn't look right; but we will try and follow it as much as possible.

Sound

There are going to be two different types of soundtracks throughout the opening sequence of our film. The first scene will have a low resonant sound that will be played throughout the entire scene. This will create a sinister feel to the beginning, and make the audience feel as if something is not right. As well as this we might add sounds of footsteps or a clock ticking to add to the effect of the dream.

The second scene will have completely different music, emphasizing the fact that the first scene is a dream and the next scene is a normal day. Similar to the first scene we have thought about adding sounds over the top of the clips, and this will be during the editing stage. An example would be making the toaster have an exagerated sound. As a group we decided to not include any dialogue in these scenes, due to the fact that we wanted their soul focus to be on what is happening within the frame and make sure there are no destractions.

This is an example of sound we could possibly use in our movie.
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=15396
We may use a diegetic sound similar to this for the scene which involves toast being ejected from the toaster. This is because we discussed how this would work during filming, and came to the conclusion that the sound picked up by the camera from our toaster wouldn't be as effective and 'strong' as putting a soundtrack over it.

Shot Lists

Premonition

Shot number:	Brief description of the action (what is going to happen in this shot?)	Description of Shot Type and Camera Movement
1	Leaves will be within the frame and it will be leading up to Damien.	Tracking, close up. A fig rig will be used to keep the shot steady.
2	Damien’s eyes open, he looks around the setting at which he is placed.	Panning, and long shot. This will show the audience where he is.
3	The audience is shown the symbol that is in the giftbox.	This will be a close up, and it will be an over the sholder shot.
4	Damien will then use toilet.	This will be a long shot, but only of the bottom of his legs, and then a close up of him flushing the toilet.
5	Damien opens up the fridge.	This shot will have the camera in the fridge itself.
6	The toast pops up from the toaster. He then butters the toast and eats it.	This will be a mid shot/close up of the toaster and toast. Then a close up of him buttering the toast and then eating it.
7	Damien gets dressed for work.	Panning up Damien, and it will also be a long shot
8	Lastly, Damien will leave the house.	Steady long-shot behind him opening the door, then following continuity a long-shot of him leaving the house with the camera in front of him.

Film Synopsis - Premonition

Premonition:
Our main character, Damien, has continuous premonitions in his dreams involving specific reference to a symbol (pictured to the right).
As these dreams become increasingly frequent and vivid, Damien becomes fascinated by this symbol and makes it his own business to find out what it means within the real world. The symbol is on advertisements, clothing and other manufactured products and although it seems to go unnoticed, Damien realises that people are becoming emotionally affiliated with it. As well as this, he also faces troubles at home when his girlfriend begins to turn against him.

Damien's intense research into the symbol produces no deep results and is he is kickstarted into physical action when he discovers a tattoo of the symbol on his girlfriend's neck while she sleeps thus explaining the way she's been acting.

The next month Damien spends examining the REM of his girlfriend in order to discover as much information as possible, the name of a man is repeatedly evident. He tries to find the man to no avail and later realises the man only exists in dreams/premonitions. People in the world around all seem to be becoming brainwashed by the symbol and eventually people are spending 23 hours a day asleep - the only place they can see their Master.

Damien finds out that if he applies pressure to the tattoo on his girlfriend's neck it allows him to intercept her dream, he there interrupts a meeting with the organisation and its followers with the intention to kill the master...

Initial Ideas

The main idea for the whole opening sequence is that it will be set in two scenes. The first being a forest scene, which portrays our character having a strange dream (premonition) involving a strange symbol. The second scene being a scene filmed in a house, showing the main character Damien getting ready to go to work, just like any other normal day.

We put down some ideas about Cinematography, and we have decided to use a tilted angle for some scenes to portray our vision of a premonition, and they would then be obscure. Also, we would have close up shots, to make the audience seem closer to the charcter, and his actions which will make our film more sinister. Our inspiration for this was the opening sequence of a popular television programme named 'Dexter'.

We also discussed ideas for the Mise en Scene of our film, deciding on bed clothes for our main male character and a prodominently blue and neutral colour scheme. This colour scheme will be reflected by both costume and prop, for example, blue dressing gown, and the blue gift box. In the first forest scene, we will use a lot of clocks to connote the idea of time running out, and to further portray a sense of eeriness and obscurity. The forest scene will be filmed in Nonsuch park as during some of our location research we discovered that this forest best fits our ideas as it has lots of trees and is potentially eerie. The second scene, which was influenced by 'Dexter', will be filmed in Katie's home as her house is very easy to get to, and she has a neutral colour scheme throughout and a blue kitchen. We decided on a house scene as the analysing of our questionnaire results during the research stage, showed that the idea of a house setting was popular with our audience.

For editing and sound, a kay idea was a low resonant sound during the 'dream' forest scene to further connote the idea of something not being 'the norm' and this will create further tension in our opening sequence. At the moment, our ideas for titles is to use bold font in blue along with the scene in the house, but the name of the film 'Premonition' will appear on its own on a black background between the forest scene and the house scene. At the end of the house scene to depict a symbol appearing on the back of a door, we will use a shot of the blank door and then a shot of the door with the symbol using a cross fade to make the sequencr 'flow' between the shots and give a supernatural, magical effect to the opening sequence. We also discussed using a 'zoom' sound whenever the symbol is seen or appears, ant this will then be known by the audience if there is ever going to be the symbol, this soundtrack will play so they get an incling that the symbol is going to appear, and possibly something bad will happen.