Evaluation Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in progression from it to the full product?

          When we did our Preliminary Task, we were new to the editing software, Adobe Premiere Pro, in which we used to edit our task. We completed our preliminary task in an afternoon one hour, 45 minute lesson in which we recorded it and then edited it. This was done in less than two hours which I found we did successfully. Our preliminary task had to include an exchange of dialogue between two people, a shot-reverse-shot and a door opening and closing. What I found a little confusing was the door opening and closing part because first I had to shoot Paul entering the classroom door from the corridor, then I film Paul entering the classroom door again but this time from inside the classroom. The confusing part for me was the position I had to film this part in as I had to make sure it did not look odd for the audience.

          What I learnt from the preliminary task that I included in our final opening sequence was the 180 degree rule where when filming, you have to stick to one side of the line or in this case a character as shown below. 

Here, we see an over-the-shoulder-shot from both characters' point of view, in our preliminary task, this is used for the conversation between the two, repeatedly switching from one character's shoulder to the other's and sticking to the 180 degree rule at the same time. 
         I adapted this 180 degree rule when filming our opening sequence by only filming on one side of the antagonist throughout our sequence as seen below.

 All the above shots stick to the 180 degree rule for two main reasons, one, so that the audience are not confused and two, the audience are only supposed to see one side on the antagonist as to not reveal the full identity therefore creating enigma for the audience by only sticking to the 180 degree rule.
           In our preliminary task we did not need to prepare tasks like costume, props, location, soundtracks, opening credits, storyboard, treatment and the shot list like we had to for our media sequence. Therefore, the preliminary task was quick and easy to do compared to our media sequence and we were able to film and edit our preliminary task all in one afternoon lesson, whereas our media sequence took three months to complete.

Evaluation Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

          During the process  of constructing our media product, I as the cinematographer had to run test shots before actually filming our sequence in order to make sure I was capturing the shots needed for our media sequence. I always ensured I was capturing the right camera shots like medium close-ups, over-the-shoulder-shots and sticking to the 180 degree rule by only filming on one side of the antagonist in our media sequence.
 
Filming Equipment used:

          This is the Sony  HDR-CX410VE handycam with the tripod in which we used to shoot our opening sequence. It includes a memory card and we used a USB adapter in order to upload our clips from the camera onto the computer and then import them into Adobe Premiere Pro software to edit our whole sequence together.

 Editing Software used:

          I also used Adobe After Effects in order to create the two logos that were used in our sequence.

         This is how I created our production logo in After Effects, first I had to create a new composition in which I imported the clapboard image, then in order for the text 'A PJA Production' to overlay the clapboard image, I had to create another composition in which I created the text, then to put these together I created a third composition. For the glass shatter effect I had to create a seperate composition in which I added a red background, then I added a new adjustment layer in which I added the glass shatter effect.

          I also had to change the shape of the shatter effect from bricks to glass, and to make the red background shatter I had to change the view from wireframe + forces to rendered, which gave the realistic shattering effect that was used in our production logo at the beginning of our sequence.

         These are the beginning stages of how I created the final title logo text design for the end of our sequence.

 I used the scratchy film effect to create a more sharp edge to the text so that it would go with the grungy textured background which is seen in the final sequence.

Colour Correction in our sequence:
 
        In the process of editing I used colour correction to make some shots of our sequence slightly brighter than others, I used colour correction to make the shots which included blood more dim than the shots which the serial killer was not covered in blood.

           As we can see the in shots which do not include blood, there is more natural daylight coming from the window than the shots which do include blood therefore seeming more darker. We decided to use colour correction in order to signify his two sides, i,e when the serial killer is not covered in blood, the shot would be brighter than usual, whereas when he is covered in blood, the shot would be dark and dim representing his psychotic side. This we did in Adobe Premiere Pro.
          After we finished the editing process of our media sequence which took us just over 3 weeks to complete, we exported it in the AVI format in order to upload it onto YouTube then finally upload it onto our blogs via Blogger.

                                     Export using AVI format,                          Embed HTML code
                                     upload to YouTube                                     onto blogger and   
                                                                                                             publish onto blog

          In addition, I learnt how to create links on my blog page, so that I was able to easily access my peer group blogs who I worked with to create our media opening sequence.

          Firstly I went to the 'Layout' link on the right hand side of my posts page (the shot on the left hand side), then I clicked on 'Add a Gadget' on my layout blog page, next I chose 'Link List' on the options of various page additions and finally, I was able to add in the URL addresses of my peer group blogs and I decided to name this 'Website Links' as I also added in the website 'Royalty Free Music' link in which my group and I used for our soundtracks in our final opening sequence.
         Overall, I have developed new knowledge and skills of technology especially the editing software, Adobe Premiere Pro for editing our whole sequence of clips together and Adobe After Effects used for creating moving motion logos. This process has enabled me to use the internet and most importantly the software widely than ever before.

Evaluation Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

          The audience for our opening sequence would be between 16-25, these include the majority of students i.e. school, college and university students. This target audience range is suitable for our opening sequence as both genders, especially young couples would be interested particularly in thriller films which is our main genre in which psychological thriller would be under, as one of the sub genres. Similarly, friendship groups would also go to the cinemas to watch thriller/horror films- again between the ages of 16-25 as they mostly have time and enjoy meeting with friends during the weekends especially trips to the cinema would be a popular option throughout this particular audience. 

          The above collage of pictures represent the majority of items and activities of present teenagers and young adults (16-25). As we see in the collage most teenagers and young adults spend their money on technology such as gadgets including: 

• Ipods
• Ipads
• Headphones 
• Iphones

 However, they also spend their money on fashionable high street clothing in stores like:

• River Island
• Newlook
• Topshop/Topman
• H&M

Many teenagers and young adults enjoy concerts with performances by their farvourite artists from many genres of music, however, as a teenager myself I think it would be safe to say the majority of teenagers listen to:

• R&B
• Hip-Hop
• Pop
• Indie
• Bands which may include Lawson, The Script, The Weekend, Swedish House Mafia, Black Eyed Peas and many others

           In addition, another reason why this age range would be suitable for our opening sequence is because they are internet fanatics especially on social networking sites which I have included in the collage above, these include:

• Youtube
• Facebook
• Twitter

... and as our opening sequence will be uploaded onto Youtube, the majority of the audience that may view it, is highly likely to be this age range (16-25).

Evaluation Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?

          Film distributors play a key role in the film industry as they are responsible for the marketing of the film, in which they have to view the overall production stage of a film in order to decide the best ways to target their specific audience according to the genre of the film. At this stage they also start to publicise the film which can be done in various way including

•  Theatrical trailers
•  Posters
•  Websites such as YouTube and official blogs designed for each film
•  Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter etc...

Some distributors may be specific in different media areas such as theatrical, television and DVD/Blu-Ray- these come around three months after the film is released in theatres.

                                             http://www.entertainmentfilms.co.uk/

This UK film distributing company situated in London, may distribute our media sequence because it distributed Seven and Texas Chainsaw Massacre throughout UK theatres. These two particular films fall into the same if not closely related genre categories i.e. Thriller and Horror. Entertainment Film Distributors is a small UK distributing company therefore would be suitable for distributing our media sequence as it would be a low budget production created by our production company - PJA Productions, also because our sequence is set in London with the panning shot of london at the beginning of our sequence, it would represent Entertainment Film Distributors as a London situated company.

          Our Production Company logo is:

Our logo is shown at the beginning of our media opening sequence and includes sound effects to make it more interesting rather than just a still image of the logo.
           Examples of larger distributing companies include:

• Warner Brothers

• 20th Century Fox

• Paramount Pictures 

http://uk.imdb.com/company/co0103790/.

          These two films are similar in that they are both about a psychotic serial killer who thrives off killing and torturing people. Therefore, as our media sequence, Berserk is a psychological thriller about a deranged serial killer, it is similar to both of these successful movies which were distributed by the same London situated company, Entertainment Film Distributors. Both Seven and Texas Chainsaw Massacre have been certifed 18 which is  slightly older than our starting age target audience of 16-17, however, our sequence is suitable for a 15 certificate therefore is suitable for our audience range of 16-25. 

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

         Our media sequence represents the typical working man who goes to work on a daily basis except with a twist as our sequence shows an ordinary looking man with a dark secret. This idea initiated from the opening of The Stepfather 2009 film which is about a man who repeatedly remarries women who are single mothers with children and then kills them and repeats the cycle again, he changes his physical identity in order to be discreet.

Here the antagonist is dressed like a normal, average man in what looks like casual clothing, similar to the antagonist in our opening sequence except he is wearing a blazer therefore more formally dressed than this antagonist in The Stepfather. Some may say that that antagonist in our opening sequence presents himself in a high status category as he is wearing a blazer and is carrying a briefcase. The antagonist in The Stepfather has an upright posture and is presents himself neatly and appropriately- we have used this idea in the beginning of our opening sequence when the camera pans upwards from the antagonist's feet to his shoulders slowly in which we can see he is also neatly and appropriately presented carrying a briefcase.

Here, the screen shot on the left hand side shows the serial killer from The Stepfather switching on the radio to a calm Christmas song (Silent Night). We used this idea in our opening sequence as seen in the shot on the right hand side- a calm piano sound is played at this moment, similar to that in The Stepfather. In both the screen shots the serial killers are looking fairly 'normal' representing average looking men and the key prop used is the radio in both these shots.

Similarly in both these shots (the left hand side shot taken from the opening sequence of The Stepfather) blood is dripping from one side of their face. However, they are both representing different contexts, i.e. the serial killer from The Stepfather has cut himself while shaving, whereas in the shot on the right hand side taken from our media opening sequence it shows the serial killer purposley smearing blood on one side of his face. Overall, the serial killer in The Stepfather represents the typical daily average male, whereas the serial killer in our media sequence is showing the complete opposite in the right-hand shot.

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

            

 TITLE- 'BERSERK'

          The title of our film 'BERSERK' is another term for 'psychotic' or 'psycho', however because psycho/tic is a general term for a crazed individual we decided to research different terms for psycho/tic and found that 'berserk' is not as commonly used to describe a crazed individual like psycho/tic. The 'berserk' title design that I created for our opening sequence is dim and I deliberately did not use bright colours as it would not associate with the theme of our sequence, 'Psychological Thriller'. The brown, stained-like and crumpled paper background sets the atmosphere as it is a sign of unhygienic and old condition-like states. I also used the 'Scratchy Film' effect under the 'Graphical' heading as it gave the title a more horrific effect along with the 'Chiller' red coloured font which represented the personality of the main antagonist serial killer in our sequence. Similarly the colour red is used in the title to signify blood which is shown further in the sequence, red in this case also represents the danger of the character and how he is a threat to the general public. Blood splatters on the top right hand corner and the bottom left hand corner towards the end of the title animation which adds to the effectiveness of the sequence and foreshadows events that occur further in the sequence.

         As we can see the title 'Seven' uses the handwriting font to represent the antagonist in the film. I adapted this idea for our title using the red tone, however I used a more sharp, edgy font-'Chiller', whereas the font showed in this 'Seven' title is more bold and rounded.

This is the opening credit font from the 'Seven' opening sequence (left hand side) similar to the font I used for our title and opening credits as it is 'scratchy' and is sharply defined around the edge. This could signify a blackboard with white chalk, when writing on a chalkboard a scratchy sound is heard and is considered unpleasant and screechy in peoples' opinion. The opening credit font used in our sequence (right hand side). is similar to the font used in 'Seven' however ours is not meant to represent a chalk on blackboard, it signifies the personality of the antagonistic serial killer. Our font colour for our title and opening credits is red-again stresses the danger created by the serial killer. Another difference between our font and that in 'Seven' is that I have decided to use capital letters on every individual letter in the opening credits to create more fear in the sequence.

 SETTING/LOCATION

          The setting of our sequence was in a confined room in an estate flat-Nightingale Estate in Hackney, London. This area is quite high in crime rates and statistics and the view from the flat established the location for our sequence which is very important in every film as it sets the background of the film.

Here, we can see that it is daylight from the shadows created by the props used and  natural daylight is entering here from the left hand side. We filmed our sequence during the day in order to get more natural light so that we were not filming at a time where the scene would be badly lit and hardly anything in the scene is seen. On the other hand, as we filmed our sequence during the late afternoon, we ran into the evening when the sun set, therefore we decided to film another establishing shot of London this time when the sun was setting in order to signify an end to the antagonist's day of 'berserk' possibly schizophrenic behaviour and desire to kill.

This shot from our sequence shows that it is set in daylight like 'Seven' as we see the light coming in through the window. We set our sequence during the day to fit his costume which was a formal blazer and briefcase just like any other ordinary business man looking prepared to work.

This shot shows the sunset signifying the end of the day for the antagonist, another day of his torturous planning day is over.

PROPS/COSTUME

          The props included a pack of colouring pencils, a briefcase, a radio, fake blood and a scrapbook which I created myself by stitching four pieces of A4 paper horizontally.

This is the fake blood we used on our serial killer's hands, face and on the scrapbook. It made his 'psychotic' side more clearer to the audience and showed that he was not 'normal' as they might have first thought, instead he is a deranged, psychopathic serial killer. In addition, it helped create the atmosphere making it more frightening and gory with the blood smeared everywhere when his 'psychotic' side is shown on screen. The shot on the right hand side of where and how we used the fake blood in our opening sequence. Here, the serial killer's hand is completely smothered in blood and so is his scrapbook as a result of him smearing his bloody hands onto it.

This is the radio that we used for our sequence where he switches on his genre of music that he prefers, in this case classical. We decided to have the start of the sequence calm with classical music so that the audience first believe he is a relatively 'normal' man until seconds later his 'psychotic' side shows and this is where the eerie, suspenseful music starts to play and the classical, calm music fades out.

The antagonist in our opening sequence is wearing a blazer to represent his two sides (normal and psychotic), it tells the audience that he is schizophrenic as he presents himself as completely normal at first on the outside, however on the inside he is a serial killer. We adapted this from The Stepfather 2009 film opening sequence where he appeared 'normal' at first as he was wearing normal clothes like any other ordinary man then later we learn he is a killer.  We adapted our ideas from The Stepfather and Seven in order to show more his serial killer side rather than more his normal side.     

 CAMERAWORK

           I used various camera angles and shots as the cinematographer in our group. These included variations of close-ups, medium close-ups, over-the-shoulder shots, pan movements both using vertical and horizontal directions.

This is an establishing shot of London, in our opening sequence this pans from left to right slightly before moving on to the next clip.  I decided to use an establishing shot in the beginning of our sequence to set the location of the film as many films do in their opening sequences aswell. It sets the background for the film so that the audience are able to think of the different types of characters that maybe included, what landmarks in that specific location will be used and other concepts to stereotypical views of any particular location. This shot tells the audience a complete opposite view to what the film actually includes, i.e. this shot is a bright establishing shot of London telling the audience this may be a 'happy' film, however little do they know it has a dark side until further on into the sequence.

This is one of the big close-up shots of the serial killer smearing blood onto the side of his face signifying the importance of his action in this shot. It shows how psychotic he really is to the audience.

This is a shot from our opening sequence on the right hand side, of a ripped piece of paper from the serial killer's scrapbook with a photo of a blindfolded girl, stuck to the wall with a bloody handprint on it. This is meant to represent one of the serial killer's victims and is similar to the shot on the left hand side from the Seven opening sequence on one of the serial killer's victims. We have adapted this shot from the Seven opening sequence into our own media sequence.

This is a medium close-up shot of the serial killer with his hand in a claw shape against the window showing he wants something or someone and he is ready to kill.

SOUNDTRACK

          In our media opening sequence we chose a similar soundtrack to that used in the opening sequence of Seven, however this particular soundtrack is not heard in our sequence until 00.49.21 and fades out at 02.11.20, where the final soundtrack 'Noise Attack' is used when the title of our opening sequence 'BERSERK' appears on screen. We were able to download it off a copyright free website: 

http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?feels[]=Aggressive&page=3 

The soundtrack that we chose is called  'Mechanolith' and has a n aggressive beat to it, it starts off slow but then quickly builds the pace up as the sequence carries on and his 'psychotic' side is showed more. It has this action atmosphere to it as if he is coming after you making the audience feel uncomfortable. At the very beginning of the sequence before the 'Mechanolith' soundtrack enters, we have two other soundtracks, one when the panning shot of London enters on the screen- this soundtrack is again from royalty free music and is called 'Private Reflection' this enters at 00.09.13 and lasts until 00.41.00, when the second soundtrack called 'Blue Feather' enters when the serial killer switches on the radio at 00.41.13 and lasts until 00.49.20.

CHARACTER INTRODUCTION

          In the beginning of our opening sequence, the antagonist serial killer is introduced with a worm's eye camera angle in order to make him seem threatening to the audience.

 

This is also blurred so that his identity is not clear to the audience, throughout the sequence his full identity is not shown as his eyes are never seen in any shot. This was to create enigma and mystery for the audience.

 

GRAPHICS/SPECIAL EFFECTS

The shot on the right hand side was colour corrected to look slightly more brighter than the shot on the left hand side as here he is in his 'normal' state. The natural daylight in this shot coming through the window is clearer and makes the shot slightly more brighter than usual. In the shot on the right hand side the daylight is still coming through the window but is not as bright as the shot above. Here the window looks more frosty and dim and the shot itself does not look as clear as the one above. This was done to make the 'bloody' shots more effective as the darker surrounding makes the shot look more psychotic like the serial killer.

Evaluation Question 5: How did you address/attract your audience?

          Here, we showed our final sequence to a couple of students and teacher for their opinion on our media sequence which includes what was good about our sequence, how it attracted them as our audience and what could be improved.
          In addition, I annotated the video of our opening sequence and took screen shots of the annotations on our video as seen below, which includes analysis of our sequence and how it attracts the audience.