Media Evaluation Question 7

Question 6

Evaluation Question 5:

Question 4

Evaluation Question 3

Question 2: How does your media product represent social groups.

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

Genre:
This video explains the genre is our film.


Narrative Structure:
 The idea for our opening sequence was about a mother who believed she

Black and white: Tilted Flashbacks

was responsible for the death of her daughter, in the opening sequence she starts to have flashbacks to the playground where her daughter was happily playing before she died. The story would then go on to the mum retracing the steps of the day she died. Her ex-husband would actually be the killer and would have been responsible for turning the wife mad due to her believing it was all her fault, his motive for doing this would be in revenge for the wife flirting with other men while they were still married. The story would follow the classic narrative pattern as suggested by Todorov. The equilibrium is shown in the opening sequence, she is washing dishes, she here is depressed and clearly troubled, but is still relatively sane in the way that she is trying to live a normal life this is shown through her clearly have eaten recently and watching TV etc. although these are acting as distractions from what has happened. The distribution then comes from her flashbacks and the electronic devices being interfered with by something. The recognition of the disruption would come later in the story when we see the male character and realize he is causing the problems, an attempt to repair the distribution would be the mother trying to work out exactly what happened. The final equilibrium would be the realization that the father caused the death and the reasons he was doing it. Our film in this sense conforms to the typical narrative structure of Todorov. However, you can also apply the other narrative theories that I looked at in my research. The hero was the mother, the villain the father, the daughter is loosely the dispatcher as she triggers the mother into working out exactly what happened. There are also binary opposites of good vs evil and supernatural vs natural.

We also used specific narrative techniques such as ellipsis to cut out the daughter’s death and used flashbacks to show her at the park. We also used retardation to create enigma for the audience, for example we don’t know how the daughter died but we see clips of her in black and white which suggests she is dead and a shrine on the table as well as the mother’s general depression.

C: Form.

Examples of Openings

The job of an opening sequence is to show the most important members of the production for the motion picture. Since the 1980s they present all the major cast and crew while the closing credits list the extensive cast and production crew. The typical order is: Name of Production Company, Director, Producer, Executive Producer, Top billing actors, Title. Our credits followed this for the most part. We used  the Production Company and the distributor first then the we moved onto billing actors and then on to credits and sound, then directors and producers  and finally the title at the very end of our opening sequence. We felt that doing the credits this way round made more sense, as we wanted to finish on an enigma and we did that by not showing the protagonists face at the end and then cutting to the title. The idea would then be that she would wake up in a different setting e.g a mental hospital and the story would continue.

On the left: Our titles. On the right: Se7en's titles

D: Style: I think our the beginning of our film with the credits has a Se7en feel to it as it has slightly tilted typewriter font. I designed the credits and I was greatly influenced by Se7en. I think from this you can tell its a horror movie, along with the sound in the background as it is quite spooky and eerie. We used black and a textured background as this looks classier and more professional, the black is unisex and also connotes evil and danger. I used the swirly textured background as it reminded me of a cartoon drawing when someone is all confused, and as she is mental and this a psychological thriller I thought it fit really well.It also suggests a confused story.  We used no dialogue in our product as we didn't want to complicate any of the emotion with her talking, we wanted her actions to make the maximum impact.The music we choose we wanted to be relatively calm along when see is washing the dishes but build and cut out before and after flashbacks. Using the sound to really maximize the drama and scare the audience, plus the sound is part of their senses so they feel anxious because of the sound matched to the character feeling anxious. We used fast editing to create pace in our movie and also used jumpcuts for the flashbacks, we did this as it gives her a jumpy feel and you don't know when she is next going to be closer which keeps the audience on the edge of their seats. We also used tilted camera angles for when the flashbacks are happening we did this as we noticed this in other horror/thriller. This shows that something is not right.We also kept to the 180 degree rule as we didn't want our audience to be confused.

20/03/13

Here is another vlog of what we did in todays lesson. This is me talking about it, if you would like to view mine and Nari's progress review you can click this link. 

18/03/13

Heres my video of what we did in todays lesson.
If you would like to you can click below>
Click here to view the vlog me and Nari did together on the group blog.

14/03/13

Today was academic mentoring at school which meant we only have to come in for 20 minutes for a talk with our tutor. We saw this time as an opportunity to get going on editing as we have been set back with the robbery. We met at 10.30 to start work and began by adding some effects, and all was going fine until the computer crashed and our clips went black. We had a similar problem before so we just reconnected the clips, this worked for a short while but as it turned out it was an issue with unrendered clips. This means that unfortunately we have run into issues which have again got us behind, which is very tiring and group moral is beginning to run low. The others left at midday  however, I stayed to make sure the clips finished rendering, at the end of the day the estimated time read 33 hours and the computer had again crashed. We have decided that we are going to come in everyday after school next week to sort the problem out.

11/03/13

We finally got to start editing in today's lesson. We have a new system to work with however, so there are some issues getting used to it but what we can see is that it is very like final cut pro. After 2 times re editing we know where we want things roughly and this hopefully should take less time.

Sound in Se7en

When looking at sound for our work I have been very inspired by Se7en's opening sequence.

I love the distorted noise used and think it is very creepy, which obviously is important in a horror film. The sound is non diegetic however, it matches what is being shown as it is quite mechanical sounding. The unregularity of the sound also matches the visuals as they flick on and off and reverse themselves. The sound gradually builds up and more and more 'layers' are added over the top. The pitch of the sound also seems to  get higher which is quite uncomfortable to listen to.

As I said I really like this opening sequence for not only the music but the titles as well and the way they fit together is very interesting and they match. I like the idea of the mechanical sound being used and the distorted music, although I am not sure how well it would fit. However, I think the static and other noises close to this would work quite well together. I would really like to take the aspect of the sound matching the movements of the titles though when we make our credits as I think it makes a much better finished product.

Sound In Jaws

In the beginning of Jaws we hear diegetic sound which is sound you would hear if you were there, this sound is the sound of the boy and the girl talking. The long shot of Chrissie running has off screen sound of the boy. Diegetic sound can be on or off screen. There is also the sound of heavy breathing from Chrissie, this is still diegetic however, it was most likely added in later to enhance the film. Only having diegetic sound at this point creates a higher contrast when we do have non-diegetic sound later, and also the audience are beginning to think that something is about to happen as there is only talking.

At around 48 seconds we can begin to hear the bell in the background faintly, this begins to warn us of something however, it is barely noticeable.

At 1:15 we hear some non diegetic sound which is quite light and sounds like bubbles rising to the surface of the water, we could say this was the shark. This is suggested from the use of camera angles as we can see the girl’s body from a low down shot and we are under the water. This music is not very scary itself but put with the images builds tension. At 1.75 the recognisable motif of the Jaws theme starts playing. The low sound from the tuba suggests something edging closer and the increasing sound also increases tension and scares the audience. The contrast of the bubbles which are quite high and the low tone of the tuba also work’s well to make the sound quite menacing and sinister.

We also hear Chrissie screaming very loudly which comes quite suddenly making the audience jump, this also contrasts against the other shot where the boy is sleeping on the beach. There is non-diegetic sound here but it is one high pitch note being played rather than a lot when Chrissie is being murdered, this makes it quite eerie, also we cannot hear her from where he is making her very isolated and the cut to him makes us feel very helpless and there is nothing that can save her.

She is dragged under the water after a lot of screaming which leaves the audience shocked. We then cut back to the boy who is still asleep; we can hear off-screen the diegetic noise of the bell still ringing which before foreshadowed the shark this ringing and the lapping of the waves are rhythmic which again are very different to the frantic screaming and splashing of the girl. This rhythm helps give back the feeling of control but also acts are a reminder of what just happened.

6/03/13

In today's lesson we did more exam practice and looked at a distribution help film again making notes. We are still waiting to start editing again, this situation is less from ideal but we are making do with the time.

28/02/13

In today's lesson we got on with an exam paper as we are still waiting for the new computers to be installed. We have two lessons today so in Mr Phillips lesson we watched the extract for Ashes to Ashes a couple of times and made notes. Then in Miss Thrashers lesson we wrote our notes up in an essay.

Art of the Tiltle

The art of the title is important in a credit sequence as it signposts the key genre, narrative and theme of the film. It is one of the first impressions you will make on the audience, so it important to get it right and make sure it flows smoothly with the film.

In Dexter the titles are in a blood red colour. This matches with the theme of blood in the credits, first with the mosquito and then Dexter cutting himself shaving. The font used in Dexter is strong and bold, this matches the character of Dexter as an antihero. However, sometimes the titles shake or move around, this could suggest Dexter's unconventionality and also suggest he is not perfect which matches with the fact that he is a serial killer.

Another example is Game of Thrones. The titles in this are set on a map, this is done to show you that the show is set in another place. The font is really majestic looking and fits in to the medieval theme within the show. The color of the font is gold which again adds to the regal feel and the medieval theme.