MAIN Post 12.7: Question 7

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

During our preliminary task a lot of the time the camera angles were not always straight. This made the overall look of the film looks very amateur which was not a look of which I wanted. 






For this reason when I was filming the opening sequence of 'Contamination' for the main fast I made sure to use the spirt level on the tripod every time I moved the camera, although this was challenging because we was outside and the floor was very uneven.

In my preliminary task it was the first time I had used the rule of thirds and we was only just getting used to it. For this reason I sometimes broke the rule of thirds during our shot reverse shot conversation of the two characters talking.

During our main task I made sure I used the rule of thirds the whole time as this makes the shots look a lot better and focused on the character.

Another thing that we have improved upon form our preliminary task is the acting skills. In our preliminary task the actor looks at the camera when he is talking which takes away form the realism of the scene as it does not look like he is interacting with the other character.

However in our opening sequence of 'Contamination' the acting skills had been improved and in the dialogue the actor does not look at the camera. This adds the realism to the scene and gives a more professional look.   

In the main task I have improved a lot on my editing skills as well. This time i was more familiar with the basic techniques needed to used Adobe Premiere Pro so became more adventurous with the editing techniques of which I used. In the main task I added in different transitions such a dip to blacks and cross dissolves, changed the level of lighting and sound and also changed the speed of some clips. This helped to give the eery look to the opening sequence that I was looking for. 

MAIN Post 12.6: Question 6

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

Adobe Premiere Pro
This is the software we used in order to edit our Opening Sequence and was provided by the school. We used this software to capture, rough cut and then edit our footage. This allowed us to be able to delete shots the we did not like, for reasons such as them being out of focus or bad acting, and use the best possible footage we could. This software also allowed us to use transitions such as cross dissolves and dip to black's when going from a moving camera shot to a stationary camera shot. We also used Adobe Premiere Pro to add the typography and music over the top of our footage. 

Blogger
Blogger was the first form of technology that I used within my AS Coursework. I used it in order to create a blog page to showcase my work. Blogger allowed us to join different technologies together by uploading photos, videos from youtube and sound clips.

Flip Camera
Throughout my blog posts I have upload various videos, such as audience feedback and a focus group, the use of a flip camera allowed my to be able to upload videos of these things onto the blog post with ease and saved us time.

PowerPoint
Within my blog I used powerpoint to be able to convert documents that I made on other programmes such as Microsoft Word and convert them into a JPEG format without having to print them out and then scan them back onto the computer, i done this by saving the file in the 'JPEG file interchange' format. 

USB
Throughout my AS coursework using a UBS stick has been vital in order for our group to be able to transfer documents between each other and between school and home. It also allowed us to back up our work incase something happened to a computer and it was lost. 

freeplaymusic.com
This is the website we used during the post-production stage to get music to layer over our opening sequence and preliminary task. We used this website as all of the music on there is copyright free. 

youtube
YouTube has been essential throughout making our opening sequence. at the start it allowed us to research into existing opening sequences and see the conventions of them and during post-production it allowed us to upload our own videos to youtube to showcase our own opening sequence. 

PD150 Camera
This is the high definition camera that we used in order to create our opening sequence. This camera gave a high quality finish to out film and allowed us to be able to film outside without the wind being all that was heard in the audio. 

iPhone 4s
The use of smart phones allowed our group to be able to communicate with each other and our teacher whilst we were filming and also at home, this made us be able to make more of the decisions together so we were all happy with the outcome of the film. 

HP Scanner
The use of a scanner allowed me to be able to upload written work and drawings, such as the story board, onto our blog. This also allowed us to have a scanned copy of our written notes incase the original paper copy was lost or damaged. 

Computer Editing Suite
The editing suite which was available for us to use in the media room in school allowed us access the Adobe Premiere Pro. Without the used of an editing suite it would of been impossible for our group to be able to complete the practical element of the course.

MAIN Post 12.5: Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

MAIN Post 12.4: Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target auduiance for our film is males and females aged 15-30. We came to this conclusuon after out box office anaylise and pre pridcution questionsaire showed that this age group is the most likley to watch an Action Adventure film. This research also showed that these are the people that go to the cinema the most, especially with their friends. Action Adventure films tend to have a male dominated audience but in order to attract a wider range of people to see our film we could add in a slightly romantic element, such as a romantic interest for Jacob, as this would then attract more females to watch the film. 

In order to gather more information about our target audience and gain a greater understanding of what type of person they would be I spoke to my friend, aged 17,  who enjoys similar films to 'Contamination'. 



Favourite Films: The Dark Knight, James Bond, Iron Man

Hobbies: Motorbiking, sports, being with friends

"My film taste has been influenced mainly by my friends and what films we can watch together, after watching the opening sequence to your film it seems like something I would enjoy and me and my friends could go to the cinema and watch it together"

MAIN Post 12.3: Question 3

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

The production company makes all of the decisions about a film from pre-production to post production, however, after the post production stage, small independent film companies normally pass the distribution process on to on of the big 6 Hollywood film studios in order for the film to make the biggest profit possible and get the most publicity. These film companies are Warner Brothers, Sony, Disney, Paramount, Fox and Universal. 

I think Universal would be a good institution to distribute our film as it is a big company which is well known although it would be difficult to get them too as they have a choice of so many films they could distribute. This means that it can work in synergy with other companies to get the most publicity possible as well as using convergence between different marketing strategies. Universal distributes a lot of Action Adventure films so 'Contamination' would fit in with this. Also they own Working Title Films as one of their subsidiary arms. This is a British film production company, like ours, that use Universal Pictures to distribute many of their films so this shows that Universal have experience in distubuting small British films and making them get a big profit such as, Les Miserables.

MAIN Post 12.2: Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

MAIN Post 12.1: Question 1

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

Style/colour of font- In our opening sequence we used a Black font though out because of how it would fit in with the dark atmosphere we were trying to create, we added to this by using a slightly gothic font style. For the word 'Contamination' at the end we used a different font as it was the title of the film and we wanted it to stand out. 

However, some of our audience feedback said they did not like this.

Genre- We established genre though the fast paced editing of Jacob running thought the trees. We then added to this by the dramatic and eery music that we layered over the top.

Introduction of characters - we introduced the character by showing various clips of Jacob running in different directions, this shows that he is scared and the fact that he is the only character shown shows that he is alone. The first shot of Jacob that is seen in the opening sequence is a close up of his feet, this adds some mystery to who the character is. 

Camera - Throughout the opening sequence we use various shot sizes such as medium shots, long shots and close ups. We also use a POV shot with a moving camera so the audience is able to see form Jacobs perspective and sympathise with him. We could of build on this aspect more by adding in more close ups of Jacob's face.

Sound - There is only a small amount of dialogue in out opening sequence which involves Jacob shouting 'is there anybody out there?' which gives the audience a hint toward what the film is about. We also have some sound effects such as panting over the point of view shots as this shows Jacob to be out of breath. We decided we wanted there to a eery atmosphere the the opening sequence to was added a dramatic soundtrack over the top of the video. 

Editing & Special Effects- whilst we were editing we made the shots of Jacob running fast paced editing so they added tension the the film. We also used  special effects such as cross dissolves to fade in and out our typograhy which gave a quite mysterious effect which is good because the audience does not get know why Jacob is running, we also used a 'dip to black' transition to make a smoother transition form stationary camera shots to moving camera shots.  

Mise-en-scene - we used the woods as the setting for out opening sequence because it added to the action adventure genre, we didn't use any props except ones which were already in the setting, such as the tree trunk Jacob trips on. The lighting we used was just the natural lighting which is why it varies from shot to shot, this is something that could be improved upon. The costume and makeup that we used is very typical of a male of Jacobs age because of the bight colours he is wearing. 

MAIN Post 12a: Evaluation - Audience Feedback

Part 1 - Audience feedback on rough cut.


We screened our rough cut to a group of 3 people from our target audience to see their opinions on our opening sequence so far, what they thought we should add in, take out or change and what they believed to be the strong points of it.

Here is the list of questions we asked them while getting their feedback.
-What were your initial thoughts after watching?
-What was the best part?
-What improvements would you suggest?
- Would you do anything differently?

We filmed their feedback



After we had received this feedback form our rough cut we summarised what had been said in this feedback video and what changes we needed to make in order to make our video the best it could be and impress our target audience. We decided to change around a few point of view shots so that they didn't go back on themselves, added in a dramatic but eery soundtrack over the top of the opening sequence and changed some transitions so the different shots flowed more smoothly into each other.

Part 2
After we had completed these changes we then screened out final copy to some more people from our target audience and got their opinions on their initial thoughts on 'Contamination'. We asked for positive and negative feedback so that we knew the strengths and weaknesses in our production, this will help us improved our coursework for next year and make sure we don't make the same mistakes.

Here are a list of questions we asked out target audience whilst getting their feedback on the final cut of 'Contamination'.

-What were your initial thoughts after watching?
-Where do you think the film would go from here?
-Would you do anything different?
-If so what would that be?
-Does this look like it would be and effective film?



After hearing the feedback from the target audience I would say that most of them managed to guess the main theme of the film and could defiantly tell the action adventure genre from it.

MAIN Post 11: Final Opening Sequence

Below is the final version of our opening sequence.

MAIN Post 10: Post-production

During post-production we used Adobe Premiere Pro to capture, cut and edit out footage into the correct order that we wanted. During the editing process we were unable to stick to the storyboard and shot list as we felt that the shots would be more effective in a different order. We also had to add some transitions in which we hadn't planned as it made the transitions of shots smoother when it moved from moving camera to stationary camera shots. 

During the post production process I noticed a continuity error, this is because in some shots Jacob's hood is up and sometimes it is down. This could have been prevented if we had payed more attention but it has taught me to pay more attention to the mise-en-scene next year when i film again. Below I have added a few screen shots of the editing process. 

While editing we realised we did not have many close ups of Jacobs face while he was running. This meant that it was harder to see his emotion and the audience can not identify that he is the protagonist in the film. To improve our film we could of added in a few shots like this whilst he was running or fallen over. 

MAIN Post 9: Production

As a group we decided that the best time to film was during the day because then we could use the natural lighting and this could give a good effect of it shining though the tree leaves. We had to go out filming a few times because of factors such as the weather, which was a disadvantage of filming outside, wrong equipment and poor planning, this meant that we missed some shots out and had to re-film them slough this wasn't too much of a problem and allowed us to have the highest quality footage we could instead of having to make do with what we already had. Below I have inserted a few photos that were taken of our group while setting up the equipment and filming on location. 

MAIN Post 8: Pre-production documentation

Full Synopsis of Film:

An outburst of disease, suddenly strikes the United Kingdom. Jacob thinks he is the only survivor however he does not realize that he is not alone as a shadow appears frequently in the distance. Although, Jacob can sense that someone’s following him but doesn't know if its safe to make contact so keeps his distance while he is on his travels to find safety. Jacob finally meets the shadow character and the audience finds out and realizes that they have been working together all along but they just didn't know it.

After meeting each other, Jacob and Catlin (the shadow) Figure out if there able to trust each other and become companions, we then follow there adventurous journey of which they encounter wild animals which have been exposed to the life threatening disease. Of which they fight for survival. Then on their travels they find others that have not caught the disease also finding out that they have paid to keep safe from catching the contagious disease and are introduced to the inconsiderate characters of which don’t care about anyone else and created the outburst.

The audience then find out at the same time as the characters, Jacob and Catlin, that the government were the reason behind it all to get money to help the economy but all when wrong and the disease they created out broke, harming and disfiguring harmless, innocent people. The film then moves on as we come across other survivors of which was not part of the conspiracy to do with the government, the survivors all come together and we witness an action packed scene where the survivors fight against the government for what’s right and make them survive the consequences of their experiment.

The film then comes to a resolved ending and the survivors work together to make a safe haven of which they go off a recruit and help find other survivors of the contagious disease, creating a new civilization.

Synopsis of Opening Sequence:

In the opening sequence for our film Contamination, It starts in future events showing the main character Jacob lost in the woods searching for other survivors after the disease outbreak. It shows him struggling and running around through woods and fields, unsure if anyone else is out there. Its going to be fast pased, with a lot of quick cuts, showing that Jacob is vulnerable and lost. Its going to start with an establishing shot of the location and then finishes with " 2 days earlier " on a black screen, emphasing that the film is going to go back in time.

Our opening sequence is going to include close up shots of feet running and jumping to create and show a sense of action. It going to have Point of view shots to create his perspective and show the audience that his scared and out of breath. Sound is a key aspect in our opening sequence as the snapping of sticks and crunching of leafs creates a dramatic effect and adds tension, also hearing heavy breathing makes the audience aware of what he is experiencing making it more realistic.

The opening sequence ends with dialogue from Jacob "Is there anybody out there?" then the camera slowly backwards tracks away from Jacob who is sitting on a broken tree log which enhances his loneliness.

Location Recce:

Shot List:

Story Board:

Script:

Risk Assessment:

Crew List:

Rosie Christopher : Sound Operator, Editor

Mollie Bugg: Camera Operator, Director, Editor

Fiona Aldwin : Camera Operator , Director, Editor.

Jovell Williams : Actor, Editor.

Mise-en- scene:

Set Design/Location
Woods – natural setting, move rubbish and unwanted trash so location is as rural and realistic for our opening sequence as possible. Will work with location and if needed will move branches and trees.

Props
No props used other than natural resources such as tree branches.

Lighting
As in a wood will have to work with natural lighting that shines through the trees, so for our location it will be quite low key lighting, which we will be able to adjust by using a reflector to create more light in specific areas where needed and to add emphasis

Character Movement

There is a lot of character movement from the start of the opening sequence. As it is an action adventure film it is going to be quite fast pased which means that there is going to be constant character movement. In our film we have character movement such as; running through the woods; jumping over broken trees; walking through the woods; siting on a broken tree trunk; Stepping on branches and leaves.

Costume

The main character Jacob is wearing:

Blue chinos

Green Hoody - hood up

Navy body warmer - hood up

Black trainers

Hair / Make-up

Actor - Natural hair, make up: Powder to prevent shininess when on camera .

Shooting Schedule:

My Individual Report:

MAIN Post 7: Focus Group

MAIN Post 6: History of your chosen genre

MAIN Post 5: Title Timeline

Summery

This timeline of an opening sequence has effected our own opening sequence by showing what names and roles we need to include on screen in the opening sequence. It has also shown that the music needs to fade in at the begginging and fade out at the end.



MAIN Post 4b: Narrative/character research

Background information: 

Jacob is an average young man who works as a HGV driver. His father, who brought him up and was very close to him, was a retired solider who fought on the front lines for Britain but got badly injured and has to be sent home. Jacob sent a lot of time with his father whilst he was growing up and they often went on camping trips on which his father taught him  many survival techniques that become essential for Jacob as the plot develops. In the film Jacob loses everything and everyone he has ever loved becomes on of the final survivors left on Earth. When Jacob finds out the truth about the disease and that the government are behind it, his anger drives him to try and change what has happened.

From looking in detail at main characters in exisiting Action Adventure films, characters are very driven by their emotions. Because of this we will need to show Jacob's anger and determination as well as  fear and sadness in his actions so the audience can relate to how the character is feeling. The use of giving the character a background of his father also helps the audience to sympathise with the character and feel that they know more about him.

MAIN Post 4a:Plot Development

Here is the timeline for out opening sequence.

Title:

Contamination

Genre:
Action/Adventure

Target Audience:
12A

Log Line:
Is anyone else out there?

Synopsis:

An outburst of disease, suddenly strikes the United Kingdom. Jacob thinks he is the only survivor and that he and the shadow that’s following him in the background are the only two left, which they know of. Jacob can sense that someone’s following him but doesn't know if it’s safe to make contact so keeps his distance, while on his travels to find safety. Jacob finally meets the shadow character and the audience finds out and realizes that they have been working together all along but they just didn't know it.

After meeting each other, Jacob and Catlin (the shadow) figure out and learn to trust each other and become companions, we then follow their adventurous journey of which they encounter wild animals which have been exposed to the life threatening disease. Of which the characters fight for survival against. Then on their travels they find others that have not caught the disease, also finding out that well off wealthy people have paid to keep themselves safe from catching the contagious disease and are introduced as inconsiderate characters of which don’t care about anyone else and created the outburst.

We then find out at the same time as the characters Jacob and Catlin that the government were the reason behind it all to get money to help the economy but all went wrong and the disease they created out broke, harming and disfiguring harmless, innocent people. The film then moves on as we come across other survivors of which were not part of the conspiracy to do with the government, the survivors all come together and we witness an action packed scene where the survivors fight against the government for what’s right and make them face the consequences of their experiment.

The film then comes to a resolved ending and the survivors work together to make a safe haven of which they go off to recruit and help find other survivors of the contagious disease, creating a new civilization.

Opening Sequence Outline:

In the opening sequence for our film Contamination, It starts in future events showing the main character Jacob lost in the woods searching for other survivors after the disease outbreak. It shows him struggling and running around through woods and fields, unsure if anyone else is out there. It’s going to be fast passed, with a lot of quick cuts, showing that Jacob is vulnerable and lost. It’s going to start with an establishing shot of the location and then finishes with "2 days earlier" on a black screen, emphasizing that the film is going to go back in time.

Our opening sequence is going to include close up shots of feet running and jumping to create and show a sense of action. It is going to have Point of view shots to create his perspective and show the audience that the character is scared and out of breath. Sound is a key aspect in our opening sequence as the snapping of sticks and crunching of leafs creates a dramatic effect and adds tension, also hearing heavy breathing makes the audience aware of what he is experiencing making it more realistic.

MAIN Post 4: Group Meeting

As a group we had a meeting to discuss what elements we would like to involve in our film. Below is a write up of what was discussed in the meeting.

MAIN Post 3a: Further look at opening sequences

MAIN Post 3: Research into Opening Sequence Designs

I watched these two video interviews with Kyle Cooper who is a famous title designer in which he discusses what he has used in the past in order to make his title sequences stand out. Watching these will give me an idea of good aspects to include when i make my own title sequence. The two links that I watched the videos from are linked below.
After watching these clips of Cooper's interview i now have a better idea of what goes into making a opening sequence interesting, eye catching and stand out. An opening sequence should be the first hook of the film, it should make the audience gain an interest in the film and hint towards what will happen within the film. In the interview, Kyle Cooper also talks about how an opening sequence can sometimes be used and an extra scene at the beginning of a film as a type of prologue. This can be used to give the audiance information about the story line which will help them to understand the film later on.

Watching these interviews has influence my ideas of the opening sequence as it has shown me how import the typography is within the opening sequence.  Cooper spoke about how the typography can not be an afterthought and can be used to add to the overall impression that the opening sequence had. Kyle Cooper's interviews have also taught me that in order to get a good opening sequence it helps to be adventurous and try different ways of doing things to get different effects.

These interviews have helped me to gain an greater understanding of the importance of opening sequences and will help our group find the best ideas when we are designing and creating our own opening sequence.

MAIN Post 2: Choosing a Genre

To create an opening sequence to film, we needed to find out what genre we want our film to be.  When we were first discussing what genre to choose we initially thought about doing comedy. However, once we thought about it in greater detail, we realised it would be quite difficult to create an opening sequence for a comedy film and that this genre would probably not be the best option if we wanted to gain a high grade, therefore, we done some research to find out what is the most popular film genre and what type of film there is a gap in the market for today.

After carrying out some secondary research online I found that the top movie genres are Drama, Romance, Action, Adventure, Animation, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Comedy, Crime, Family & Thriller. So therefore it would be best to chose out of these. I then looked at the best selling box office films of all times to see what genre these films were. I found that most of these films were in the Action genre of a hybrid of this genre such a Action Adventure, therefore this would be a good genre to use.

http://moviedistributionfacts.wordpress.com/tag/popular-movie-genres/

As a group, we then carried out some primary research, by doing a questionnaire, to find out what peoples favourite genre of film is and what genre they would like to see more of.
Here is a screen shot of our Questionnaire we handed out.

Below are the results we recive form the questionaire we handed out

After looking at both our primary and secondary research, we decided upon doing an opening sequence for the Action Adventure genre. Although this was not out top answer in out questionnaire, it was still one of the highest and our secondary research proved that it was popular as well. As well as this, this is a genre that everyone in our group enjoys watching so will make the task more enjoyable.