Completed Opening Scene

Evaluation 7

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

Compared to our preliminary task I think we have managed to work better and more successfully as a group, and we have also put a lot more effort into the filming and editing of our media product. My knowledge of the camera equipment and editing software has increased since then as well.

During the preliminary task I didn't know any media terminology, or the camera angles that were available for us to use. We were also limited to using match on action, shot/reverse shot and 180 degree rule, but because of this I learnt what they meant. Since then I feel that I have learnt about more of the different types of angles as we were able to experiment with more than the 3 we were previously restricted to.


One of the main differences between the preliminary task and the main task is that in order to keep track of our progress throughout our preliminary task we used Microsoft PowerPoint. This was very different to the blog as the blog was much more technical and allowed better presentation because we could create separate posts.


During the preliminary task we were introduced to the programme Adobe Premiere Elements 7.0, none of us had ever really used this software before, so it was a chance for us to familiarize ourselves with it and to make mistakes and learn from them so that we wouldn't make them during out main task. This was the same for the cameras we were given.


When creating our preliminary task we didn't put much effort into the editing. We didn't spend much time on it either, this is evident because when watching the clip back you see that it is very jumpy, we didn't know how to make the transition smoother, but after this task we figured out how to smooth out the clip and therefore incorporated it into our main task scene.




Our first shot in the preliminary task included the title. We used the colours red and white. We didn't think about why we used those colours or the links between those colours and the feelings associated with them, whereas in our main task we thought a great deal about what colour we were going to use and why we intended to use it. We also thought more about the font during the main task than we did in the preliminary task.

Another difference between the tasks were that in the preliminary task we didn't change much of the scene. We left it pretty much exactly the same, instead of editing the saturation and brightness like we did with the main task. This was partly because at the time we were creating our scene for the preliminary task we didn't know how to, whereas during the main task we learnt how to use the effects properly and therefore could use them more effectively.

I feel that since the preliminary task I have learnt a lot more about editing and the software best to use in order to do so. Also because we had to edit our scene for the main task twice due to technical difficulties I have gained a lot more experience using these programmes and therefore I feel that I will be able to use these programmes much more comfortably.

Evaluation 6

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

During the creation of our media product we have used a lot of different programmes and technologies in order to make the process easier and more effective.

- Sanyo Xacti Camcorder

- Blogger

- YouTube

- Adobe Premiere Elements 7.0

- VLC Player

- Paint

- Microsoft Word

- Microsoft Excel

I was familiar with most of these technologies beforehand, but I have improved my original skills with these programmes etc, but I have never used Blogger before and therefore have learnt a lot more about this site. I also can now use Adobe Premiere Elements 7.0 a lot more comfortably than before.

Evaluation 5

 How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted our audience by uploading our video to a popular website called YouTube, therefore our audience could easily access out product.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSaZ7jjjD8o

This is the link to our annotated video. We annotated it by using the annotation tool that YouTube offers so that we can explain how we have attempted to attract and address our audience.

Evaluation 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation 3

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

A production company is responsible for the physical production of new media. The company doesn't necessarily have to be a large corporation, they just need to sell their products.

A film distributor is responsible for releasing the new media to the public.

One example of a production company is Lionsgate which has produced films like

• Saw

• The Expendables

• The Lincoln Lawyer

In our case the production company could be our group, our teacher and the ICT office, as we all took part in creating the product.

Evaluation 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The key character I have chosen from our media product is the little girl, she can be compared to the main character in 'The Grudge' films.

The Grudge is about a curse on an old house. The general storyline revolves around an American nurse who lives and works in Tokyo is exposed to a mysterious supernatural curse, one that locks a person in a powerful rage before claiming their life and spreading to another victim. This is quite a different storyline to our film Distorted, but they do share some similarities.

Similarities

• In both films you discover that the character was once a normal person, but what happened to them during their lives cause them to act this way.
• Both these characters are fairly young females. They both wear white dresses which contrasts with their dark hair, and also contradicts the idea of purity and innocence.
• They both look quite similar, they have dark hair and pale skin.

Differences

• They have different reasons why they act this way, the grudge character was violently abused and killed by her husband, whereas our character is not actually dead, also she was abused sexually instead.

Evaluation 1

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

The title of the film comes up on the screen right at the end of the scene. We decided to make it flash on at the same time that the dead character's eyes open, this is because it is an unexpected shot and therefore makes the audience jump. By doing this it should make the shot memorable, which therefore means that the audience should also remember the name of the film with the shot. The font of the title is 'Papyrus', which we chose because it is quite a creepy looking font, which matches the stereotype of the genre horror. We chose the colour red because it is associated with blood and anger, which are some of the main themes that run through films of this genre.

We thought about the setting/location carefully and decided that we wanted to use the church steps because they are very enclosed which therefore makes the audience feel claustrophobic and uncomfortable, and also it contradicts the usual connotations of a church, for example it is thought of as a 'safe' place for people, but after watching this scene it is clearly not true.

We also decided to use another setting, the forest, because it is very different from the church shot, it is far more open, which indicates that the little girl isn't just stuck in one place, she is free to roam around and obviously kill people, which isn't a very comforting thought, so hopefully this would creep people out.

We decided that we would use a simple white dress for the little girl, because white is seen as symbol of 'purity' and 'innocence', so then when we tore it and covered it in blood it would contradict every typical idea you usually receive when looking at a girl, the innocence and purity.

We decided to use typical clothes that someone would wear around the house, because the character just a normal person to anyone that doesn't know what he's done.

We decided to use the oblique camera angle when filming our product because we found that not only would it add an eerie effect but it would also make the editing process much easier. When editing we started by brightening the scenes in the church so that they could be scene better, but then decided to dull them down a bit because it would make the shots look creepier and more frightening. By doing this we created a gloomy setting, which is stereotypically associated with horror films.

I think this opening scene sets up the story well because it creates suspense and confusion, which causes the audience to want to watch further into the film to find out what happens. The opening scene is a clip of the main events that happen throughout the film, and then the rest of the film illustrates what happened leading up to those events.

We feel that the opening scene represents the genre well because it includes blood and gore, which is one of the main aspects of horror, as well as the colour scheme and also the settings.

After we evaluated our audience research questionnaire results we discovered that the most popular element of horror was Blood and Gore. From these results we decided that to create a successful opening scene we needed to include this element. We attempted to incorporated these ideas into our scene, and so created a bloody wound on the victim. We also put blood on the little girls dress to add to this element.

Within our opening scene the colour scheme mainly consists of dark, plain colours such as black and grey. This continues throughout the whole of the scene, until the end when the red title appears. This makes the red stand out as it is a far more vibrant colour than black or grey. Also the colours black and red are typically associated with death and therefore works well with our plot.

The setting is very important when it comes to presenting our genre. We decided to use the church stairs because they are very closed off, dark and claustrophobic, which makes people feel uncomfortable. We used the forest because they are quite isolated places, as not many people venture into wooded areas because it is difficult to see clearly due to the trees and leaves obscuring the view, which creates tension and a feeling of isolation. Both of these settings create feelings that are stereotypically associated with our genre.

During the opening scene only two characters are introduced, but they are the main characters. When you see the characters is it difficult to understand what is actually going on, therefore creating an element of confusion, this means that when the audience watches this scene they wont fully understand the characters that they are introduced to, because they are not properly introduced. This all would hopefully make them want to watch the rest of the film.

During our editing process we decided that our scene was too jumpy, so in order to try and smooth it out we used a special effect called 'cross dissolve'. After doing this we noticed that our scene was much smooth in transition, making it more pleasing to the eye because it made it easier to watch. The scene was still jumpy enough to fit in with the typical elements of genre, but not so much so that it was uncomfortable to watch.

Review Questionnaire Analysis

Question 1.



From the data I have collected you can clearly see that the majority of people who filled in our questionnaire were within our target audience, who are aged between 15-20. This means that our questionnaire results will be based on what our target audience thinks, meaning that we will get a good set of data to base our evaluation on.

Question 2.

We asked this question so that we would discover whether or not we had made a successful horror clip, as if people thought that our genre was comedy then we clearly had made a big mistake with our opening scene, but according to our results the majority of people we asked thought that our chosen genre was horror, with thriller as the second highest choice while comedy and action received no votes, therefore we have made a successful clip.

Question 3.

We had decided that we wanted our clip to be between the 15 and 18 age limit, so we asked this question to see if we had managed to achieve that target. The majority of people chose 15 as the age rating, with the rest of the people asked choosing 18, therefore we have successfully created an opening that has enough violence/gore to be included within our target age ranges, which are directly linked to our target audience.

Question 4.

We chose to ask this question so that we could make sure that our audience could clearly see the name of the film, if we had continued to make a film out of this opening scene and the audience couldn't see the title then they wouldn't know what it was called and if they had enjoyed the film then they wouldn't be able to tell their friends about it, which would lead to a loss in sales in the long run because nobody would know about it, therefore if we make sure it is visible everyone will know what it is called.

From our results you can see that everyone who filled in our questionnaire could clearly see the title, which meant that we had successfully edited it into our scene.

Question 5.

We asked this question because we felt it was important to know if our target audience thought it worked well as an opening scene. The majority of people we asked thought that it was a good opening scene, and the second highest result was the 'needs some improvement' option. This means that our opening scene was a fairly successful one.

Question 6.

This question relates to our first audience questionnaire, we asked what our audience's favourite elements of a horror film were. We have asked this question so that we can see if we successfully managed to achieve incorporating those elements into our scene. Our results from the last questionnaire showed that our audience expected to feel scared after watching a horror film, and our results from this questionnaire match those as most people said they felt scared after watching this clip. Therefore indicating that we have created a successful opening scene.



Question 7.

We asked this question because we wanted to find out whether our character was effectively created or whether we should have changed any particular aspect of her. The majority of the people that we asked said that all three of the aspects of our character were effective, and no people said that our character was completely ineffective, meaning that we have created a successful character for our opening scene.

Question 8.

We discovered that most successful horror films create suspense and eerie feelings, so we decided to attempt to do the same thing. This question was asked so that we could find out whether we had managed it or not, and our results so that a large majority of people felt that we had successfully created that kind of atmosphere.

Question 9.

We asked this question because we wanted to know if our audience actually liked the way we edited our film, or if they would have preferred it to be presented in a different way. According to our results the majority of people who filled in our questionnaire liked the way we had edited our scene, therefore meaning that we have created a decent opening scene that most of our target audience would enjoy watching.

Question 10.



The style of music that we put with our video clips included the tune that is linked with the children's nursery rhyme, 'if you go down to the woods today', we thought this was a good link to include because a lot of people have heard of this rhyme and therefore can relate to it better. Also it links well with our only spoken line within the whole of our scene, therefore tying it together nicely. We wanted to know if our audience agreed with us that this was a good choice of soundtrack, and from our results we can see that the large majority of them did agree with us, therefore we have decided that this was a very successful music track to use.

Question 11.

This was an open-ended question that we asked so we could take into accound not only if people would want to continue watching the film, but also why this was.

The results of this question were:

Yes - 17

Reasons why...

• Curious to know what happens
• Looks like a good story line
• There are questions to be answered

No - 3

Reasons why...

• Too scary
• Don't like that kind of film

These results show that the people who said no were part of the minority of our target audience who don't enjoy horror films or are too easily scared, therefore this shows that the people who actually enjoy this genre of film thought this looked like it was going to be a good film, and therefore would enjoy continuing to watch the rest of it if it was created.

Audience Review Questionnaire

This is the questionnaire we created in order to see if our audience thought our opening scene was successful or not:


1. What age range are you?
15-20         21-25        26-30        31-35        36-40       40+

2.What Genre is this film clip?
Thriller              Horror               Comedy                Action
3.What age rating do you think the clip is?
12                       15                     18                   18R
4.Is the film title clearly shown?
Yes                             No
5.Do you think that this works well as an opening scene?
Yes                             No                    Needs some improvement
6.What do you as the audience feel from this film clip?
Suspense               Uncomfortable             Scared              Humour        
7.Is the make-up, hair and costume effective in this clip?
Yes, the make-up    Yes, the hair     Yes, the costume     Yes. All three    None
8.Do you feel that the setting creates suspense and an eerie feeling?
Yes                                                 No
9.Is the editing aesthetically pleasing?
Yes                                                 No
10.Does the music fit well in this opening scene?
Yes                                                 No
11.Would you want to continue watching this film? Give your reason why.
Yes_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
No________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Plot Synopsis

Distorted


The opening scene of our film is a flashback of the main events within the film.
In the story the little girl's parents die in a car crash on the way to the lake, she managed to escape from the wreckage as she was small enough to climb out moments before the car exploded. The girl then has to live with her aunt, who takes her to her parents funeral. At the funeral there is a shifty looking man who tries to comfort her. The man then becomes violent and drags her towards the church. As he forces her up the stairs her head hits one of the concrete steps which leaves her unconscious. The man panics as he thinks he may have killed her, so he abuses her and leaves her on the stairs not knowing whether she is dead or alive.
You then watch the man after this event, you follow him through his usual life, and everything seems fine until he starts seeing the girl everywhere he goes. She appears and then quickly disappears before he can be sure of what he saw. His guilt is growing. Then one evening he is walking his dog through a forest and you see her following him, appearing and disappearing just like before, then suddenly she stabs him, he falls to the ground and struggles, begging her not to kill him while the dog runs away. He then falls silent and she thinks he is dead but then as she is walking away he grabs her foot. She swiftly turns around and stabs him in the head. She then drops the knife and it bounces on the ground, she got her revenge. The end.


We decided that if we made the opening scene a flashback then the audience would want to continue watching the film because they would become curious as to what happened to the man who is dead on the floor, and also what happened to the little girl to make her like this.
The plot is quite violent which is one of the features of a horror film. The idea of someone following you and watching you all the time is creepy and would make the audience nervous and uncomfortable. Also we have included gore, this is when the girl stabs the man, particularly when she stabs him in the head. These are some of the things that are needed to create a successful horror film.

Editing

We did a lot of editing to create our scene because we decided that in order to create a successful clip we needed to do more than just film it.


During the editing process we had multiple difficulties, all of which we needed to overcome in order to create a successful scene.

At first we found that when uploaded onto the computer, our clips that were filmed within the church were too dark for us to be able to see anything.We had to change the saturation  and the brightness of the clip in Adobe Premiere Elements 7.0 to make it visible. By doing this we also added a slight fuzziness to the clip, which we felt made it look creepier and decided to keep it that way.

We decided to cut the clips into smaller sections and spread them out throughout the scene because we thought it would add a jumpy effect to it, which is a main feature of 'horror' films.


We then added the fuzzy screen sections that we wanted to use to create a tense and jumpy atmosphere. To create these we had to use a plain black image, and then added the effect 'noise' to the clip, then we changed the saturation and the brightness to make the shot lighter to achieve the effect that we wanted.

Then we discovered that for some reason we couldn't add titles to our clip. After going to the I.T office and doing everything possible to try and fix the problem, we were told that there was nothing they could do, and so decided that the only way forward was to re-create the scene on Emma's profile, as we couldn't send the clip either due to the large size of it.

To do this we had to ask the I.T office to copy the original clips from Sarah's profile onto Emma's, and then had to go through the first draft of the edited scene and attempt to cut all the clips and edit all the shots the same on the second draft. This was very time consuming but was the only way we could possibly continue with our work and therefore was a necessary set back. We finally managed to get titles onto our scene.

After adding the text we added the music to the scene. This was simple to add because the music plan had made it possible for it to already be at the right timing. Then we recorded Rebecca whispering the line 'If you go down to the woods today be sure of a big surprise'. To do this we used the narration tool and then used a headset that included a microphone to connect it straight to the scene. We cut the sound track just before the girl starts talking and made it slightly quieter so that it was easier to hear the narration clip. We had some trouble recording the clip because the room we were in was rather noisy, so we needed to find somewhere quieter to record it, which we managed to do.

Once we'd finished editing we rendered the clip so we could put it on a disc and show it to an audience so we could get the reviews we needed in order to evaluate our work.

Planning - Film Title

We were unsure of what to name our film, so we decided to brainstorm a few ideas. We decided to go for a title that went well with our plot.

We couldn't decide which title to choose, so we picked our four favourite choices and wrote them down on pieces of paper, then picked one. The four we chose were 'Thana', 'Distorted', 'Twist of faith' and 'D3AD'.

We thought that Thana would be a good name because after doing some research we discovered that it was a Greek name meaning death. We decided that because our film included death, having a special meaning behind the girl's name would be a good option.

We thought Distorted would be a good title because it gives the impression that nothing is quite right, which fits in well with the story line as it is partially set in a church which is thought of as a 'safe' place, but that is the location of the traumatic things that happen within the film and therefore contradicts the whole 'safety' idea.

Twist of faith came from the idea that faith is linked with churches and other religious things, and because our clip is set partially in a church it links in with the faith and religion idea. Also the fact there is violence within the church is different to what you expect and therefore adds a kind of twist to the plot, leading to the name idea.

We decided that D3AD was quite a good option because its short and sweet, and gets straight to the point. It immediately gives the audience an idea of what the film is about and what to expect from it.

The title that we finally ended up with was Distorted.

Filming

We used the camera on 11th January 2011 to film the first draft. We made sure that everyone took it in turns to film so that it wasn't left to only one person. We decided that by filming it all in separate little clips and then editing them together would create a jumpy and creepy scene, which is also why we decided to use two cameras instead of one.

When filming in the church we found that it was too dark for us to be able to see anything on the camera, so we found some battery powered candles to increase the lighting to make it possible for us to film. We didn't use actual candles because we decided it would be too dangerous as someone could knock one over accidently and either burn themselves or the church, so for health and safety reasons we used fake ones.

We decided that this first draft was successful enough to use as the actual product.

Scripting

We aren't including any conversations in our opening scene, so the only speech we have is the little girl whispering 'If you go down to the woods today you're in for a big surprise' at the end. We decided it would be best if she whispered it because it sounds creepy and eerie and therefore would frighten people.

There is also continuous creepy music playing throughout the scene. This music was created by a friend called Mateusz Tuora. He is studying Musical Technology at university and offered to help us create an eerie sound track, so we sent him a brief describing what we wanted and he sent us the clip so we could encorporate it within our film. After listening to the clip we decided we thought he had done a great job and that we would definitely use it.

This music plan was very useful when creating the music for our video as we were unable to send our clip out of school, we used milliseconds when recording the times of each individual clip, by doing this we were able to produce an accurate sound clip that would go well with the video clips, for example there are only fuzzy noises when you see the fuzzy clip on the screen.

Characters

I took pictures throughout the creation of our characters before we filmed.

 In this picture Sarah is cutting up the girl's dress and putting blood on it. We did this because we felt it would make the dress look creepy, which was the effect we were trying to achieve in order to successfully scare our audience.

In this picture we are putting make-up on Rebecca so that her face is almost white, this gives her an unnatural look, and things like that tend to make people nervous, which leads to them being scared which is our aim.

In this picture we are also putting make-up on Rebecca's arms so that it matches her face, if only her face was pale it would look unrealistic and would therefore not be a successful horror film.

 
 This is a picture of before Rebecca's hair was done, this was how we planned to style her hair, so that it was covering her face, making it difficult for people to properly see her, hopefully making them feel uncomfortable and frightened.

This picture shows the finished make-up. We decided to use black eye shadow around the eyes because it contrasts with the white of her skin and dress, it is also unnatural and should hopefully make it unnerving.

This is our finished character. We put gel in her hair to give it a wet, greasy look. We thought it would be a good effect to make the character look as frightening as possible, so by making the hair partially cover her face we thought it would be creepy and scare the audience.


This is the wound of our victim. We used one of Sarah's old coats. First we cut a hole into it and then we covered the surrounding area and the visible skin with fake blood. By doing so we hoped it would look as if the main character had violently attacked the victim.