Final Opening Sequence

Evaluation: Question Seven

Evaluation: Question Six

Evaluation: Question Five

Evaluation: Question Four

QUESTION 4 from kate fleury

Evaluation: Question Three

Evaluation: Question Two

Evaluation: Question One

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

By completing previous research in which I analysed and studied before coming up with the final idea for my opening sequence. This allowed me to clearly distinguish the forms and conventions of a psychological horror film.

A film which I personally focus the majority of my research on was Insidious. I took fragments of the features in this opening sequence to incorporate within my own opening. The lighting, which was low-key throughout the entirety of the beginning, this was an aspect in which I individually liked and therefore suggested to the rest of the group in order to try and include in my opening, we tried to mimic the low key lighting by apply a vintage, dark filter. Other films I looked at were, Silence of the Lambs, Gothika and The Shining, which also gave me inspiration for my own sequence and allowed me to identify the common forms and conventions to replicate in order for my product to be developed in such a way the it would be recognisable in a much easier way as a psychological film. However, the lighting used in our opening sequence also features high key natural lighting which goes against the typical conventions of the genre.

In my research, the conventions found in horrors are used to scare, thrill and entertain the audience, they centre around the dark side of life. This feature is what we wanted to develop in our film opening, this is evident as our main character is found in an asylum as she is not a sane human being, you can also see the ‘dark side’ being portrayed through our lighting. Due to the fact that we filmed during the day it meant our footage was good quality and made it much easier for us to create a filter over the top, to do this we reduced the saturation massively and added an old fashioned filter, which also depicts the conventional cold, spooky and out-dated feel.

My media product involves both conventional and unconventional aspects of real media products. As a group we did not want to move too far away from the conventional way in producing our psychological horror film, due to the fact the genre in which we chose to explore is confusing within itself and we didn’t want more factors confusing the audience when watching the opening sequence. Nevertheless, we also wanted to challenge this and make our film more unique to the typical and conventional horror opening sequences, therefore incorporated flashbacks/ flash forwards in the opening sequence.

Furthermore, I feel that we have not only stuck to the typical conventions, them being low key lighting throughout and a continuous scene, of a psychological horror genre but tried to be diverse. By this I mean that compared to other opening sequences of the same genre they do not contain fear and fright in the first few minutes of the film, however, I feel like I have done so. For example, in the opening of Insidious it consists of a basic tracking shot and nothing extremely frightening or revealing happens within this, we completely flipped this idea round in creating a clarifying opening by using a tension building non diegetic sound throughout the sequence.

The sound used in our sequence is very conventional due to the fact that there is diegetic sound of screams, twigs breaking and the rustling of leaves and a non-diegetic sound in which gets louder at certain points and develops a lot of fear for the end of the sequence. Originally we wanted our non-diegetic sound to be different to the typical psychological horror, still, I feel like sound is a key element when identifying the genre of a film from its opening sequence so this being more conformist is a good thing.

Editing 7

Once again we spent time outside the allocated hours we were getting in order to get the majority of the sequence completed. Both of us wanted to change the narrative slightly. By doing this we would incorporate the interview scenes into parts of the forest footage, in order to really empathise that it is her mind in the forest and she is in the asylum for the reason that is revealed at the end of the film.

We did this and fir in the transition ‘flash’ so it was evident they were flash forwards and flashbacks. I also thought that it would be massively better if there was one continuous non diegetic sound playing through all the footage, we added this alongside other sounds which we overlapped. This was a slight problem in terms of editing just the fact that it was hard to fade the two types of music together so it would fit nicely. We also used the blade tool and turned the volume up in order to make certain parts of the audio louder than the other parts.

Towards the end of this session we began to add titles and credits, we used the blur title effect. This is a very basic transition but we felt that was need to complement our slightly indistinct sequence. We used the same font as we used in the titling of ‘The Subject’, we did this to create continuity throughout.

Editing 6

Both Charlotte and I took a session to do outside of the time we were given inside of lessons due to the fact that we had recently re filmed a lot of footage to add in our sequence. We felt it would help us and the group if we spent a long period of time on the whole sequence and fit everything in. We came to the conclusion that the order of our opening was confusing and as more and more people watched it they didn’t understand the narrative that was being suggested, so we made a new timeline to really begin again and do every in order and make it perfect, it also make it less complicated and confusing.

I also learnt more about the tool ‘colour match’ which allows you to make sure each shot is the same colour throughout. This became very handy when we began to bring in the new footage. The new footage of the interview, which is the only dialogue which is in the opening sequence will feature as the beginning of the film after the title of the movie comes up.

Overall, I feel this session allowed us to really organise where we were up to and prepared us for the final editing sessions. 

Re-film footage

This is a selection of raw footage in which I filmed. The footage in the white room was acting as the 'interview scene' in which we decided to incorporate in our discussion session. These parts were filmed by Charlotte and Lucy. This was when we were going to add dialogue in our sequence. However, because we decided as a group to create tension and enigma by not having too much dialogue there is only a small question that will feature. 

After realising that we needed much more footage in order to complete our opening sequence perfecting. I played a huge part in filming and directing this footage. Especially the footage taken in the 'forest'. I did all of the filming at this location with slight direction from Charlotte.

I made sure the match on action scenes were perfectly the same by directing the actor to walk in the same place, I marked the start and the finish so this would look the same.

Editing 5: discussion

Both Lucy and I felt like this session would be much more useful using the time to be more of a discussion session. Due to the fact that both Sophie and Charlotte we absent and this being a very crucial time, we didnt want to make any drastic changes to our product without the input of both people in our group.

We discussed which shot types etc. we will film during our filming day 3, on Thursday. Both of us had great ideas to infuse dialogue into our sequence. Lucy came up with the idea of using an interview and the 'camcorder' feature on final cut to create a 'Blair Witch' feel and a brilliant way to let the audience understand the narrative much more clearly. In order to use more props we are going to use a file and a camera.

We then made a note of shots we wanted to take and would be essential for our final product. For example, lots of diegetic sounds like braking of twigs, rustling of leaves and teeth chattering.

Editing 4

 During this editing period, I made the changes alongside the rest of the groups input.

As a group we all came to the conclusion that another filming session was needed and we have organised to do so on Thursday 23rd.

We decided that the forest was the best footage that we took so this is where we will definitely re film. Also in terms of dialogue we prefer the opening to be mysterious and therefore contain no dialogue. However, I believe that this is an important aspect of the sequence so feel like we should incorporate some sort of dialogue into our footage. Both Lucy and I have wrote down the important shots and footage in which we need to film, so we can get everything filmed on our day of filming.

 We love, as a group, incorporating the flashback (light) transition to our sequence. I added another two into the footage.

Editing 3

We continued to add more footage in the areas that we needed. And began to create some continuity fitting in footage, using the blade tool to perfect our shots and make the match on action fit. This was the area in which we spent the majority of our time on during this session due to the fact that we had to be precise and do this correctly.

During the session we added another flash into our footage to once again create the flashback effect. This effect will be well used in our opening sequence. However, this has also cause slight problems as because we began to edit the end of our sequence first it is slightly hard for us to put footage and edits before this. But after working this out we have got used to working with this issue.

Our computer had some issues which caused a chunk of our session to be wasted, this definitely caused, in terms of timing, us to be slightly behind in where we wanted to be. We feel the issue was caused by us using too many editing to slow down our footage. We tried this to put a section of our opening sequence in slow motion, however, we ended up deciding against this edit as it made it look very unprofessional and did not fit with the rest of our editing.

Editing 2

 During this editing session we began to edit our footage which we took at Sophie's house. This meant we had to fit in this footage with the previously edited footage. Most of our time was took doing this as we had to pick the clips in which we were actually going to use.

A lot of progress was made during this time. We had decided to fit in the transitions and effects as the majority of our footage was on Final cut. Lucy was controlling the cutting and finalising the effects we were putting in, for example flashes, in order for it to look like a flashback.

I suggested that the shots taken at Sophie's house would look much better if they were brighter, so we changed the brightness in order for it to look like is was more of an hospital feel. 

Production So Far

This is a clip of what we produced during our Editing 1 session:

 

 

Editing 1

During our first editing session. We focused our time on the footage which was taken at Alderley Edge due to the fact that we all felt this footage needed a lot of editing.

Because it was our first time really editing our own footage both myself and Charlotte decided to try different things in order to understand how everything works etc.
In this session it really inspired us and pushed us into a good direction.
As you can see we changed the saturation on each of our shots in order for the footage to look more like it was darker and more spooky, to fit the conventions of a psychological horror film. We played around with this until it was how we wanted it to be.

We also wanted to play about with sound as we have a scream in the background of our footage which we really wanted to enhance. In this session we both also wanted to add sounds, for example we added wind in the background of our footage and also a chime sort of sound which makes our footage much freeky and creepy, which is just what both Charlotte and I wanted.
 Also Charlotteand I felt it would be much more effective if the font that we used was more basic and therefore were also testing the best suited fonts.

Day 2: filming

On the 18th February we filmed at Sophie's house. Due to the fact that her house is getting re-done we felt it would be the perfect setting for our opening sequence to create an eerie and dead atmosphere.
This setting is where we decided the majority of our filming would take place as it would act as our 'asylum' based setting. We successfully completed what we felt was enough but once again agreed that another return may be needed when it comes down to editing this footage on final cut pro.
I
 feel like I personally had a more directive role on this day of filming as I directed where the shots would look best and where we should film them. The rest of the group also had an input on how to improve some of the ideas that we had when filming.
Our guidence to our filming came from our storyboard, however once we go into filming we realised that some shots were harder to complete than others. For example, we only had a small rocking chair which we wanted to featue in our sequence.
In terms of makeup and hair, we wanted this to be very clean unlike filming on day 1. Once again this was my asigned role so I made sure everything was as it should be.
I made sure the actor knew what she was doing in every shot and felt comfortable do so.

Also we added scenes in which were no focused upon on the storyboard for example, we had our actor walk towards the window. This was a problem due to the fact that cars were driving past the window and we decided our sequence will be set in the 1930's. But we have more footage that we can definately use insteads of this.



 

Practicing Titles and Fonts

Together Charlotte and I have been practicing the editing of our titles. We have kept the font very basic due to the fact that we don't want the title to be too overwhelming.
After using our footage in final cut pro we realised the font in which we wanted to use originally could not be put onto final cut. As a group we will most definately have to look at this and decide together what font is similar to those picked by our focus group and fits nicely within opur opening sequence.

Day1: Filming

During our first day of filming we filmed at Alderly Edge.

I had the responsibility of makeup and costume, individually I had to ensure that it was just how we planned and looked how we wanted it to look when filming.

We had also planned to share all of the filming equally. This is how it ended up happening. During this time filming, I feel Charlotte was the main director and I made sure every shot, like our long shots, were perfect. Both Lucy and Sophie did the same and we all followed the things everyone was saying.

 

In terms of getting the perfect setting we all made sure everyone was happy with the area in which we were filming. I really wanted it to look like the forest never ended which I feel we did achieve.

In order to get the perfect match on action all of us filmed from different angles to create close ups to head and shoulder shots of the same scene. Each of us had an idea of which shot to film but we always confirmed with the group before filming.

We filmed in the daylight in order to get the best quality of filming, we also did this so it would give us shots which would be easy to darken in saturation to make it appear as if it was darker.

 

In terms of directing the actor I feel Sophie and I stood out in this case. We all knew what we wanted to create in each shot so it only took a couple of us to direct the actor in a certain direction. If we didnt feel like the shot was good enough we would re take it, however, because we had prepared so much for this day this did not happen too often. We re took a couple shots but when we did so we'd do it straight after so everything would flow, we stayed focused and on schedule.

 

We felt that the filming went very successful and we filmed everything we planned to. Each of us had a our roles in which sometimes would rotate.  The only problems we really had was our mobile phones, which we were filming on, ran out of battery. However, we worked around this as there was four people in our group.

As a group we also agreed that we may need to go back if there is any footage we missed or want to add during the process of editing the footage.

This is some raw footage from our first day of filming:

 

 

Production Schedule

Date: 8th February

Location: Alderley Edge Forrest

Description: In this location we will be filming the flashbacks which feature in our opening sequence. This will give the audience snippets of the main characters life. As a group we have decide to start filing at 4:30pm, this will then allow us to use the lighting as our advantage. In this scene we only need to feel 2/3 shots. However, we want to get the best shots possible so will do each shot multiple times. To do this we will need a couple of hours to do so. 

Date: 18th February

Location: Sophie's House

Description: This location is where the majority of the scenes will be shot so we will need to spend most of our day here. The shots we are filming are the 'hospital' scenes and where all our characters will feature. Two characters will be wearing nurse outfits and the third character wearing the hospital gown. The room we are filming in is empty but we will add multiple props, for example a rocking chair, small bed like area and other props to make the room look more spooky. The lighting in this location will be artificial lighting but we will add a 60's like filter over the top so the audience understand this isn't the present day.

Talent Release

In order for us to have our actors permission and their managements confirmation we gave them talent release sheets in order for our filming to take place.

Shot List

After producing a storyboard for our opening sequence we produced a shot list.
This doesn't just break down our filming step by step but also makes it much more easier to follow.

Credits and Typography

The title of the film will appear after a few seconds after the opening sequence begins as you can see in my storyboard. Our aim for the enterance of the title is to scare the audience and make a loud enterance to the film and it's name, 'The Subject'.

In terms of transitions our ideas revolve around the idea that the title fast cuts on to the screen on a black screen in order for all the focus to be on the title of the film. I feel like the fast cut is a very convential way to enter the title and in some terms is seen to prepare the audience for the rest of the film. The inspiration for such an enterance is from the film 'Insidious'.

I personally found this opening to the title very interesting and suitable for the genre.

The names that will be displayed in the opening sequence will be actors names, studio name, directors name etc. We feel the focus should be put on the opening sequence itself so therfore feel like the names that are exhibited should fit into the scenes

 

We took out target audience focus group feedback on board and have decided on the right font.

As a group we also decided in order to create a recognised font for our film out name titles for characters and directors should also feature in this font.

The font connotes a tormented and broken effect which can be juxtaposed with our main charcter, 'The Subject'. Also it is almost like it has been scratch in therefore suggesting the character may be insane and troubled, this being the representation of our character.

Opening Sequence Storyboard

Updated Opening Sequence Idea

After searching a lot about psychological thrillers we have made some improvements on our initial idea.

This is an update on our ideas, with have made changes on characters, costume and makeup. We have also developed our opening sequence idea in general in order for it to make much more sense.

Filming Practice

  Within this task we included several different camera rules for example: 

• Match on action
• 180 degree rule
• Reverse shots 

By practice filming it allows us to identify the areas in which we need to improve our skills on.

For example, small shots were missing when attempting to create the match on action (00:11) which is an important issue I will definitely focus on when it comes down to filming the footage for our opening sequence.

Also we realised when editing that we switched the camera from portrait to landscape in the middle of the video (00:08), this must not happen when creating our sequence as this is a major issues we have found and putting a lot of focus on.

When looking back after editing we felt unsure on the match on action of the handle (00:07) and feel like next time we need to go over it plenty of times in order to get it perfect.

However, it gave me an opportunity to perfect the 180 degree rule in which I feel confident with filming now. As well as this we feel confident on our ability to create reverse shots and perfect them.

Music Ideas

From my research of many psychology horror films, I found that the majority of the music consisted of string instruments, most commonly violins. 
The music in 'Insidious' really appealed to me and really would fit perfectly with our ideas for our opening sequence.

The music 'Tip Toe' is extremely different and is not really a common type of piece you find in psychological horrors, I like this idea of going against the codes and conventions of the genre and would really love to incorporate this into my opening.

Focus Group 2: Target Audience research

In result of our last focus group we discovered that more individuals from our targeted audience were needed in order for us to get a much bigger range of feedback.

Also we realised much more planning should be done. I researched suitable fonts in order to show our focus group and get their feedback back on which font would be suitable for a psychological horror film.

These two fonts were the most popular and were decided to meet the conventions of the psychological horror genre. We will take this into consideration and decide which one will suit the storyline we are showing and fir our opening sequence best.

The  feedback we got from our costume and makeup were all really positive and we received the exact response that we were looking for. Our target audience liked our actors pale looking face and the costume as it suggested a hospital / asylum theme. All of our focus group liked the makeup and costume as it also allowed them to understand that the film was in fact a psychological thriller.

Opening Sequence research: Gone Girl (Sound)

This is a very short clip from the opening sequence of gone girl. It is very basic by just featuring a close up of the main character and a voiceover. The man in the voiceovers dialogue is very gruesome and violent: "I picture cracking her lovely skull" "unspooling her brain" this is an example of contrapuntal sound as the speakers voice is very calm and tranquil which is completely opposite to what he is saying.

Personally, I like the idea of a basic opening sequence as it sort of frightens the audience as they expect jumps and scares in a horror film. As this is a psychological horror is definately portrays this through this small section of the opening sequence. That is what I want to achieve in my own opening sequence.

Sound and Lighting research: Sixth Sense

The opening sequence mainly focuses on the titles for the first couple of minutes. However, features a creepy and daunting soundtrack in the sequence and contains no dialogue which makes the beginning of the film much more chilling. The music is easily described as empathic sound as it matches the psychological thriller conventions very clearly. There is no lighting when the titles are being played though the sound suggests a lot about the film already due to the fact that the tempo of the music continuously rises almost giving the idea of the narrative that there is something to figure out.

The instruments used in this opening sequence begin the layer up (2:20) which creates a disturbing atmosphere. Once the titles come to an end a light bulb begins to light and provides some direct light for the opening scene. As the bulb lights the volume of the soundtrack starts to dim, then there is completely no music. This is so we can hear the women’s footsteps (3:00) the synchronous sound of her walking is almost exaggerated to create more of an eerie atmosphere. Shadows are created through the natural lighting through the window (3:13). Harsher shadows are then created in the long shot from the side lighting created by the window.  

This certain opening sequence gives me ideas that I can imbed into my own work. For example, the use of no sound and no dialogue to create a very eerie atmosphere to begin the film. I will definitely try to use this idea when it comes to producing my own opening sequence.

Location Ideas

The final ideas for the location of our film involved a creeping forest and an old fashioned room. We felt this was appropriate due to the research myself and my group have done into other psychological thrillers. In order for our target audience to recognise the genre we will slightly mirror the location of films like 'The Blair Witch Project'.

Our location shots were taken in Alderley Edge. The natural lighting would be perfect to challenge the conventions of horror films and the shadowing from the trees would give us a creepy and mysterious element.