Question 7: Looking back at preliminary task, what have you learnt?

http://zahrabashir.wix.com/questionseven#!form__map/c24vq

Question 6: Technologies

Questions 4 & 5

Question 3: Who would distribute 'It Swings in Roundabouts'?

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups? from CoombeMedia

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Finishing bits up

This week we had to fix parts in our sequence. We were told from feedback that our sound did not create enough tension, which we completely agreed with. So we improved the sound by adding eerie music when she was washing the dishes which helped create tension to the first flashback. We then decided to also add the same music where she dropped the frame to indicate that another flashback was about to happen. This worked well the children's lullaby as it really felt it was a horror film. We were worried that the sound for our credits at the beginning sounded too much like a sci-fi film, however from feedback people said they knew it was horror genre so we left it as it was.

Sound Analysis

Jaws
I analysed only the sound in Jaws opening sequence, as it will help me see how to set the tone of the film and establish genre in my opening sequence.
In the opening of Jaws we hear diegetic sound of the people speaking. By adding no music it almost makes it sound a bit more creepy. When the girl goes into the water at 0:26 we hear the natural sounds of the sea and we also hear a bell which sounds eerie as its the only sound you can hear. When the shots go to the girl from under the water we start to her non-diegetic sounds. It sounds like a piano (0:48) which is quite fast pace, which builds up the tension and implies something sudden is going to happen. Just before the action happens at 1.11, we hear the well know Jaws theme tune, which sounds like something keeps on coming closer to you. It is sharp, piercing music.When being attacked by the shark there is use of both diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. We hear here deep breathing and screaming, but also over it there is fast pace music to add to the tension. There are cuts to the other scene of the person who is not being attacked, we can only hear diegetic sounds, this emphasises the danger of what is happening. At the end the music stops and we only hear the bell which implies this could be significant throughout the film.

http://youtu.be/yjL7VEFvOxM
Let Me In
I thought the sound used in this opening sequence was really effective even though not a lot of sound was used. In the beginning when the production companies are being shown the non diegetic music is very quiet. The music used almost sounds like music which is used for flashbacks. This could help me with my opening sequence as I am using flashabacks. When the actual film starts at 1:00 the music used are sounds of a heart beat. I thought this worked well as it is all you can hear which builds up tension as it feels like something is about to jump out. A bit into the sequence underneath the beat there is music that kind of sounds like the jaws song but its more lengthy and low (a more dramatic scary version), this makes it more tense as we know something is going to happen but it is not going to happen straight away. At 2.20 the non-diegetic sound becomes lower and we hear sirens. This all indicates aspects of horror as the sounds represent danger.

Art of the Title

Film credits almost have the most important role of outlining the film makers intentions and setting up expectations of what the film will be like, it prepares the viewer for what is to come. The opening title sequence of films are becoming works of art that can stand on their own, they are beginning to have a crucial role in the success of films.

Spider-man

• The spider-man credits are a separate title sequence. 
• The titles start with the production companies and then the film title comes up. This fills the whole screen and is in bold. It glows and fades our which makes you focus on it. This also indicates the start of the film
• The names of the crew are on a spiders web but are placed wonky.
• Red, black and white are used for the fonts of the names, this makes them stand out against the web. This is also the colour of the spider-man suit, so it is sticking to the colours.
• The credits travel through a web and are quite dark, this sticks to the genre of the film.
• Throughout the title sequence we see hints about the film, for example we see the back of spider-man, green goblin and the location.
• The order of the titles are: production companies, title, starring..., casting by,co producer, music, costume designer, editor etc.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

• Like the spider-man titles Sweeney Todd also starts with the production company. Unlike the other credits the production company is in the centre of the screen.
• The titles are a separate title sequence however they are in the location of the film. The credits appear in different places each time depending on where the camera moves to.
• The titles are of the camera following dripping blood, this shows us that the genre is horror/thriller. We also know this because of the dark colours used in the sequence.
• After the main actors in the film the name of the film appears. Similarly to spider-man this also fills the screen and is in red.
• By the sequence looking almost animated suggests that the film is an exaggeration (due to it being a musical)
• The font used is quite formal which is suitable for the time era in which the film is set.
• Both title sequences have the name of the person bigger than their job title.
• Towards the end of the credits the name of the producers, screenplay and directors are shown. The are in the centre of the screen, just like the very beginning, indicating the importance.The name of the director is at the end of the credits.

By analysing these title sequences I enables me to start thinking about what I should do for mine. As I know how to make it fit to my genre and what order to put them in.

Credits

Opening credits are shown at the begging of the film to list the most important members of production. Some Opening credits can be presented over the opening sequences of a film, rather than in a separate title sequence; an example is Spider-man. TV shows often use a separate title sequence, to separate the opening scene and the rests of the episode and also to intrigue the audience.

Opening credits usually identify the film title and major actors and crew, whilst the closing credits list an extensive cast and productive crew. A lot of films however only show the production companies (not even  the name of the film), for example Inception.

Usual order for opening credits:

PRODUCTION COMPANY presents

a NAME LASTNAME production

a NAME LASTNAME film

"TITLE"

Lead Cast

Supporting Cast

Casting Director

Music Composer

Costume Designer

Associate Producers

Editor(s)

Production Designer

Director of Photography

Executive Producer

Producer

Writer(s)

Director

Closing credits:

Director

Writer(s)

Producer

Executive Producer

Lead Cast

Supporting Cast

Director of Photography

Production Designer

Editor(s)

Associate Producers

Costume Designer

Music Composer

Casting Director

8/02/13

Today in the lesson we edited a bit more of our whole sequence. I think the editing is going really well as so far the sequence is looking good. We also started playing around with different fonts and styles for the credits.

Fonts we looked through

.
We changed the name of our film to "It's Swings and Roundabouts", we decided to change it as we thought our old name "6/6/6/" didn't flow very nicely. We think this links better with our story line as the flashbacks are to do with a park.

7/02/13

In today's lesson we were editing the park sequence. To make it more like a horror film we changed the colour and saturation to make it more grey, this helps establish that the flashbacks are different clips to the kitchen scene.

7/02/13

The other media groups watched our sequence so far and then gave feedback. This really helped as we now know what to improve, for example a criticism was that the fades were too long, so now we can make them shorter which will help engage the audience. Overall we got good feedback, and the majority liked the idea of flashbacks.

4/02/13

We uploaded our footage of the park scene today. Looking through the clips I thought the footage came at really well. We now have all our footage so can start editing the whole of the footage.

31/01/13-1/01/13

During Thursday and Friday lessons we edited the kitchen scene and we have now finished editing this. We found this process quite quick as we had already done this, so we knew exactly which bits to edit. Once we have filmed the playground scene we will start to inter cut the flashbacks into the kitchen scene.

Continuity Editing

Continuity editing is known as the "invisible art", meaning that the audience don't notice a cut has been made. But it can be deliberate for example:

• when talking to a camera (breaking the 4th wall) 
• fancy edits- unrealistic
• no sense editing

A rule of continuity editing is the 180 degree rule this is when the camera can only move around the 180 degree angle around the people talking and cannot break it. When it's broken it can confuse the audience. 

Another technique used is shot reverse shot, this is where the camera cuts from one subject to another, this is normally done when filming of people talking. We used this technique often in the 'Oceans 12' task we were given, instead of zooming out as we thought it would be more interesting to see the facial expressions of the actors close up.

Match on action is also used, this is done when something happens in the scene then there is a cut to the action that must be going on. 

Cross cutting is where it alternates between shots occurring simultaneously in two or more different locations. We used this technique when we were trying to create the spooks storyboard.

Eyeline match is a cut between two shots, where the first person is looking in one direction, and then in the next shot we either see what the person is looking at or another person looking back in the exacts same direction.  

In continuity editing an establishing shots are used, this is done to show where it is, what time it is and who's in the scene-spatial relations between important characters.

Graphic match is where the scene cuts from A to B using objects that have the same shape. For example in The Mummy there is a literal shape match used.

Oceans 12

Our task we to change the camera shots of a sequence from Oceans 12, we added more close up and over the shoulder shots for when the actors were speaking. By doing this it can help organise what shots we want to do to beforehand,helping make the filming process easier.

Spooks Storyboard

This is the order we thought the shots might go in. When we watched the actual sequence we found we weren't that far off, however we saw our order didn't make sense. This will help us through the filming and editing process as we now know the importance of continuity editing and how important it is for the audience to understand the sequence.

Max Payne Analysis

Shot Number	Technical sound description	Effects on meaning/ sound
1	Sound motif, orchestral	Recognisable- audience is familiar with the company so they believe the film will be good
2	Sound bridge, dark, non-diegetic, voice over	Makes the words more powerful and meaningful as nothing on screen so makes audience more engaged. Mysterious.
3	On screen diegetic, rising	Makes audience jump- visceral pleasure. Unexpected sound suddenly comes on.
4/5	Foley track, on screen diegetic	Water is really loud- emphasises he is struggling, no music in background so we can hear him deep breathing really loudly.
6	Non diegetic, parallel	Only hear water suggests that the man is going to die, we can hear what he can hear in the film.
7	Voice over, off screen diegetic.	Voice goes well over the sound of the water which makes it scarier, serious voice.
8/9	Menacing, ominous, non-diegetic, sound bridge	Hear baby crying in background, hear clock ticking every time he takes a step could be his memories and we can still hear water which tells the audience that he is still under water.
10	Voice over, non diegetic, no music- silence	No music only him talking and the water in the background this makes it more serious.
11	Ominous, rising (door), repetitive	Hear door open- makes audience expect something to happen. Clock starts ticking again which suggests that his time is up.
12	Sound bridge, non diegetic , rising	Still hear water and clock ticking but a child’s toy has been added- more tense and could suggest his memories.
13	Non diegetic, rising	Clock has become really loud which emphasises the point that his time is nearly over.
14	On screen diegetic, eerie	Finally see the child’s toy we have been hearing so the audience are given another clue to what is going on.
15	Sound bridge, voice over, non diegetic	Hear him speaking again but no image which implies everything has ended .Hear sirens in the background suggests that it is either before or after he died.
16	Non diegetic, on screen diegetic	The audience are fully engaged and now want to know what happens. Shown where it is set and time, beginning of story.

This task will help when choosing the sound for our opening sequence, as this sequence I analysed, I found the sound was the key thing that appealed to the audience. 

Class Act

25/1/13

Today in the lesson we found it hard to decide where to cut as we realised that the props in the shot were different, for example Mary was holding her phone in different hands in each shot. Because of this we decided that we will need to re shoot the whole of the kitchen scene.

Also today we were supposed to film the park scene however we had some problems with the person we were going to use and so it was too dark to film. We re scheduled it to next Saturday.

24/1/13

Today in the lesson we found that the editing we had done for the kitchen seen was lost. This was because we hadn't saved it correctly, but now we know how to save so that the files aren't corrupt. We had to redo the editing we had already previously done.

Camera Movement Sequence Analysis on the Rock

The Rock

By analysing what camera shots are being used in this sequence will help with our opening sequences as now I can see what shots are used where and which ones will be effective.

23/1/13

Today we discussed our filming schedule for Friday. We also finished the storyboard for the park scene.

Title Idea

Another idea we came up with is: "6/6/06"
We all really like this as it suits our horror genre really well.

21/1/13

Today we started to edit the kitchen scene on final cut. However we found that we need to re shoot some scenes for continuity like close up of her doing the dishes (for the sequence to make sense). It is good we started editing now as we are able to see where we went wrong.

My storyboard

16/01/13

We started filming today, we filmed the kitchen scene. We had to wait for it to become more dark so that it would fit with our horror/thriller genre. I think it went really well, however we may have to re-film some bits. Later on this week we will film the rest of the sequence.

Research Into Similar Media Texts

The Haunting in Connecticut 

• This film also starts of with the production companies which also suggests it's a high budget film.
• The opening is of old pictures from the past of people looking very serious and there are cuts in between this of what looks like operating equipment, and we also see something dripping this creates enigma as we don't what it is but we assume it may be something from the past. From this we know that the film is horror as things from the past almost connote evil. 
• A bit in to the opening we realise the pictures are of people at a funeral and they are next to the body. Jump cuts have been used to do a close up of the dead body, this jumps the audience so straight away it unsettles the audience. We also see in between the images someone doing an operation which involves blood, however we don't fully see it which add mysteriousness.
• Also by intercutting the images and the operation utensils is implies that they are somehow linked.
• The music is a piano playing which makes it seem odd as it doesn't sound that sad but it does sound creepy and also sounds like diegetic sound making the audience believe it is happening now. However we also start to hear someone screaming as if they are in pain, this adds confusion to the audience as we have clues leading up to what may actually happen.
• They have used techniques such as flickering to show the pictures which indicates horror genre, this may also suggest ghosts and add to the title 'haunting'.
• The music fades out and we hear a dripping sound and see extreme close ups of the blood but we still don't know what it is from (we can only guess).
• The screen goes black and the title fades out and in again straight away. Then a sentence saying "Based on a true story" appears and stays for a few seconds, this is done to make the audience more scared but intrigued to watch the film. 
• This opening sequence is effective as it leaves the audience guessing and we assume that are questions will be answered later on in the film. 
• By using no dialogue it makes the film seem more creepy.

11/1/13

Today Katy and I went around sixth form asking boys and girls aged 16-17 (who are in the age range of our target audience) a questionnaire about films and our idea We asked questions like, "What is your favourite genre?" and "What about our idea stands out to you?"
By doing this we know what elements to add to our opening sequence. The feed back we got about our idea was that the idea of flashbacks sounds really interesting, therefore we need to do this really well to make it appeal to the audience.

Research Into Similar Media Texts

The Women In Black

• Literally as soon as the opening of the film starts, which goes straight into the film rather than starting with credits, we know that it is a horror film. This is due to the mis en scen and the music. The music that is playing at the beginning is very dark and eerie. Because the music sounds like a lullaby but slowed down it adds to the conventions of it being a horror. What adds to that is what we are first shown which are old children tea sets, and the emphasise being added to the clinking of the cups. 
• By just being shown the hands of (what we assume are) children's hands and the heads of old dolls, we can guess as an audience that something bad is going to happen and it will be a key bit for the film.
• At 0.17 the camera zooms out so that we can see the three little girls playing. When the camera does this it enables us to see the mis en scene properly. The lighting is very low and makes the room look one colour. We are also able to see more of toys, in the room we see broken arms and legs of dolls, by doing this it adds suspense to the audience as we are unsure of what is about to happen.
• The camera then does close up shots of the girls playing with the dolls. This has purposely been done, as the dolls from the olden days are seen as more creepy looking compared to the dolls now a days. 
• We see the girls smiling and laughing, which contrasts to the dark mis en scene. However, we don't hear the diegetic sound of the girls laughing as there is non-diegetic music still being played. 
• The music really helps set the tone for the film as it is very slow and you can tell that something bad is about to happen.
• The music starts to become louder at 0:38, this is when the girls stop what they are doing and all turn around at the same time. When they turn around its as if they are looking at something right next to the audiences eye, but we are unable to see it this creates a lot of suspense for the people watching as we are so close to it.
• A jump cut is used to go closer to the girls, but when it cuts to them at the same time they turn their head to something else. By them turning around at the same time it suggests to the audience that they are being manipulated by something, but we don't know what. 
• The same music is still being played but we can hear more bells. I think this really adds to the opening sequence as its the same level throughout which means you don't know when something jumpy is about to happen, this is a technique used to keep the audience on the edge of their seats.
• We are shown the girls standing up (again simultaneously). We are shown certain bits of them when they are doing this. For example we see a close up of a hand dropping a cup. Jump cuts are used to travel down the body to the hand and then when the cup smashes, a cut is used to go to the feet. Close ups are used to show them standing on things and the objects smashing. I think this has been done to show that there is something controlling them and that they are destroying things they were just playing with caringly.  
• The girls walk toward the camera, which looks like they are walking towards the audience. By not making eye contact it draws the audience in more because you want to know what they are looking at.
• There is an extreme close up of one of the girls opening the window, and again there is an echo when the window is opened. The girls jump out almost naturally which shocks the audience, what also makes us more tense is the music as it finally changes- it becomes more louder like a bang is about to happen but then all of a sudden stops. 
• The ending is very effective as the camera zooms out from the window, the music has also stopped so it is completely silent but then we hear a women scream. When she screams "My babies", the audience put together what we have just seen to understand what has just happened. It ends very well, as a jump cut is used to do close up of one of dolls. This links to the beginning of the sequence when we first saw the dolls, however this time it was more effective as the doll was full screen and had big eyes. It then ended on a jump cut to a long shot of the room, enabling us to see the whole room. This implies to us that this is important to the film.
• The use of jump cuts used in the opening sequence helped established that the film is a horror film, as it was fast and sudden. The music also helped establish this.

Importance of an Opening Sequence

What are the aims of an opening sequence- what does it need to achieve?

• To establish the shot and what the film is about (the genre), this is done by mis en scene
• Where it is set
• Apart of the equilibrium 
• Normally shot of something significant that happened that we need to know to understand the rest of the film
• Introduce the protagonist
• Engage the audience with narrative-enigma  

All of these techniques help engage the audience from the start, making them want to watch the rest of the film.

Research Into Similar Media Texts

Final Destination 5

• We know straight away that the film is a high budget film as we see a production company that is recognisable. This instantly would engage the audience.
• After the production companies the music begins quietly and then all of a sudden becomes louder, this indicates to us that this film is a thriller.
• The credits are shown before the film begins. The font of the credits suggest that the film is for a mature audience. It also suggests that the rest of the film will startle you a lot.
• We know what genre it is because in the opening when the names are shown the music is quite but then all of a sudden glass smashes as an object has been thrown. The objects all connote danger and death. The objects include a knife covered in blood, objects on fire and broken objects. From this is suggests that the film included a lot of blood and gore. 
• The way the credits have been done are so that there is a couple of seconds of screen time for the names of the actors/actresses etc and then they have the loud music and smashing of glass. This also emphasises how the film may be, e.g there is a build up and then something big happens.
• As the music has a fast beat we know that this film is a thriller as it suggests that the film is fast paced and there is something constantly happening. We also know it's a thriller because of the colours which are mainly red and black, as these are the conventions mainly used throughout horror and thriller films
• There have been a lot of jump cuts used to cut between different objects being destroyed. This again indicates that the film is fast paced and that there is a lot of things happening at once.