Final Cut for Opening Titles: Ethan

This is our Final cut for our opening titles that we have created. It is called Ethan.We made the changes that were suggested to us which were adding some sound at the start, changing the font of the four door institution because it was hard to read and moving the end titles near to where the title of the film is.

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

I fell that there are quite a few main differences from our final film opening to our preliminary task, the first being that in our final opening we paid a hell of a lot more attention to detail and continuity, as you can see in the preliminary task when there is an over the shoulder shot there is equipment in the shot which should have been moved if we had considered mise-en-scene better and this is poor because it breaks the realism of the film and in comparison to our film opening where we clearly paid attention to all mise-en-scene to make it as realistic and as much as we planned out for it to look like as possible.

When we were doing our research and planning in our film opening we planned and research loads more such as researching into different genres and generic conventions then we did for our preliminary task because we didn't really plan much at all for our preliminary task. When filming our preliminary task we didn't really have a plan of action but with our film opening we had our actors scripts, made a directors vlog, had our diary of shoot and that with us so that we could really make this as good as we possibly could. My analysis' were in a lot more depth for my film opening than in my preliminary task and also the shots that were used in the preliminary task were very basic such as a match on action, over the shoulder, close up and mid shot but we didn't really pay much attention to what shots we were using. In our film opening we used very basic shots but these were used on purpose to add effect, we used mid shots and close ups mainly because they are typical of a psychological thriller as they make you feel on edge, when doing our preliminary task our use of 180 degree rule was shocking but we learnt from that and in our film opening we incorporated it nicely.

I personally felt a lot more confident when using the equipment and I know how to set it all up and get all the kind of shots that I like. In my preliminary task I had trouble setting up the tripod and some of the shots were handheld and shaky but since knowing how to use it, it was a piece of cake in the actual film opening and I feel that all the shots were really steady. We considered more complex procedures for our shots like using a dolly for the tracking shot round the corner revealing Ethan in our film opening then we did the tracking shot in our preliminary task.

Overall I feel that my film opening was much more of a success than the preliminary task and after all of the preparation that went into the film opening I am glad at how I/we have progressed so much and our film opening was a lot more creative with the narrative, shots, mise-en-scene, equipment used, research and planning and how the final product looked in comparison to our preliminary task.


This is our Final Film Opening:



This is our preliminary task:

Evaluation question 6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

Equipment that we used to create our film opening:

The first piece of camera equipment we used was a standard quality camera to do our auditions and we also used it to record some background sounds (atmosphere) to give our opening an effect as if Tom and Ethan are running outside through a forest even though they aren't, this is basically the Foley effect. 

Panasonic SD camera

We also used a dolly to film a section of our opening, the dolly was used at the beginning of our opening where the camera pans around the corner and reveals Ethan sitting down playing with his toy truck on his own. The shot was a tracking shot around the door and shows Ethan sitting there. The dolly was good to use because it allowed us to do our tracking shot nice and steady and that's what mainstream companies aim for.

Dolly

We used this dolly in conjunction with a tripod, the tripod held the camera steady whilst the dolly allowed easy mobility of the camera. The tripod held our shots steady and was a lot better than doing our shots handheld because mainstream film institutions make their films really steady and clean. We used the tripod for nearly every shot because as we are a mainstream institution we want our film to be as clean and steady as possible and we didn't want the handheld camera effect. 

Tripod

We used a Panosonic HD camera that we used was very good, it had loads of cool features that made our life easier when we were filming. It had really good zoom, head tracking feature so that it focused well and tracked the head of the person that we were filming, the screen on the camera was touch screen which allowed easy use for us as we are part of a generation that knows how to use touchscreen devices and it was easy to navigate through the menu's and there was a remote control to use the camera from a distance so that we didn't cast shaddows when we were filming.

 Panansonic HD camera

The computer that we used to edit on was an Apple Mac, I found the computer ok to use but it was a little bit tedious at times because I really didn't like using the mouse, the editing software that we used was iMovie on the Mac, I think that this software was alright but not the best that I have used. The main reason was because if you wanted to put a file on the Mac, you have to convert the file before it went on there. I have learnt from editing that the actual editing takes longer than filming the film and there are a lot of things to take into consideration when editing such as the CC, sound and how the audience will feel when they are actually watching the film.

Apple Mac



There were some good effects on iMovie as we used a CC to emphasise certain bits in the opening, the CC that we used dimmed out the edges of the screen as we are making a psychological thriller and we wanted the opening to look mysterious.

iMovie







Things we could improve next time whern editing is not to leave shots to go on for ages,

Our group worked pretty well at times, when filming I feel that our communication and teamwork was excellent, when doing the blog work however there was a little bit of conflict because we were all getting stressed out because the deadline was fast approaching and we had to get everything done on time. Overall I feel that we have got through this as a strong team because we only had 3 people in our group so we had to work extra hard to get everything done as all of the other groups had 4 people in them.

I used blogger to log my individual and our group work, this was advised by the exam board and my teacher. I found blogger easy to use and a good way to upload work, the only downside to it I thought was the spellchecker as sometimes it was quite annoying. To get around this problem though for some of my posts I did them on Microsoft Word first so that I could get the correct spellings and format for my work.

In conclusion, to all of this I feel that the camera equipment was excellent, the editing software was bareable and our group work and blogger was good as well. I am happy with our finished product and hope we can improve upon it next year.



Evaluation question 5) How did you attract/address your audience?

Video on question 5:

Evaluation question 4) Who would the audience for your media product?

The ideal audience we are aiming for in our media product is mainly middle aged women, around 40 years old that like Psychological/Supernatural Thrillers. We are using a mum that is around the target audiences age because we want the middle aged women who will watch our film to relate to the mum. We also want them to feel sorry for the little boy because women normally are more emotional than men and women tend to get emotionally attached to little boys in a film. The picture on the right shows the main targeted audience for our film.

Tom who is Ethan's brother is a teenager so hopefully because we have an actor that is a teenager in our film, we would get male teenagers coming to watch our film in the cinema as they will be able to relate to Tom in the film. Ethan is our main male protagonist because he is a lot more grown up than a lot of boys his age because he acts mature in our film this will make it attract a teen audience and the type of teenagers we would prefer to watch psychological/supernatural thriller films and are more focused on watching films than being in relationships. The picture on the right shows our broader audience and who we would also like to watch our film. I think including a few main characters of different ages is good because then we are appealing to both middle aged women and male teenagers and we hope that they would watch our film ultimately.

We wanted Dr Michael Staines who is our second protagonist male to be American because it would make the film appeal to more countries other than the UK, we purposefully chose this to target a mass audience and gain a bigger profit. Some people who might feel a connection to Michael Staines in the film would be American who don't agree with the stereotype of being a character in a UK environment and may enjoy his wise feel throughout. These type of people would be people who would spend more time on their work than on their family and perhaps like a spot of golf now and then.

The main reason why we wanted these three vast target audiences is because we wanted to appeal to a wide range of audiences to give us much more profit and so that lots of people would spread the word of our film as sometimes that is one of the best ways of getting your film well known.

Evaluation question 3) What kind of institution might distribute your media product and why?

The kind of media institution that might distribute our media product would be a mainstream company, this is because I feel that our film is made for a mainstream audience and we would want a mainstream distributor to distribute our film out to a lot of people in a short period of time and they will be able to get it out in a good HD format and digitally. The only problem putting it out digitally is that everyone could illegally download it which is piracy but that is the only downside really.

The company that we would like to distribute our film is Paramount Pictures because they have distributed two very known psychological thrillers which are Psycho and Shutter Island. We feel that this would be the best choice because our film would be the most clearest and coherent as a psychological thriller if we were to distribute through paramount pictures.

The company that we have chosen to distribute our film is actually Universal Pictures, as one of their subsidiary companies that they partly own, is Working Title and they have produced many films that are similar to ours in the genre of psychological thriller such as Gone. I think this will help us achieve the type of film we are going for as the synopsis of Gone is very similar to ours that it also features a male protagonist. Universal Pictures also have a lot of money which is good as they will be able to distribute the film out to lots of cinemas and places much quicker than our institution could.


As our media product is for a mass mainstream audience then cinemas such as Cineworld and Odeon will exhibit our film and this is good because the exhibitors that we are aiming for appeal to mass mainstream audiences. Odeon and Cineworld only distribute mainsteam films this is because they target a mainstream audience but if we were a independent company we would have gone with picturehouse cinemas who exhibit independent films.

Evaluation question 2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product represents particular social groups because we use, age, gender, ethnicity and nationality, disability and social class. We also tried to use Verisimilitude in our opening. 

Our piece uses verisimilitude by the use of naturalistic lighting connoting the piece to be real and also by going against many stereotypes.








With gender in our opening, males are shown as the stronger characters by having our male antagonist feel no emotion while our female is crying connoting her weakness and dependency.

With age in our opening, Ethan's age is connoted through playing with toys going this goes with the stereotype of playing with plastic toys to make him seem a young innocent boy. Later on in our opening the fact that Ethan drinks water instead of lemonade or coke goes against the stereotype of his age therefore making him look more mature and also the fact that Ethan walks around the house goes against the stereotype of young children being excited and energetic and running around the house. We also see how Vicky Hilling is represented as a middle aged woman by her poorly made clothes and tiresome attitude making her seem under a lot of stress, this goes with the stereotype of middle age.

We see our piece set middle class environment by keeping the house clean and well light giving off the stereotype of this house to be a safe place.







In our piece we represent ethnicity in a white dominant environment portrayed in a stereotypical white British household. Later on in the film we introduce Michael Staines who is an American doctor, he is represented as wise going against the stereotype of Americans in a British environment. 

Disability plays a major part in our piece and is shown against the stereotype of dependency because we see Ethan play by himself and walking around by himself connoting he is independent we also see he has no physical form of disability going against the stereotype of disabled people standing out, he does in fact have a mental disability which affect his brain so is is basically an invisible disorder and the disability that he has means that he feels no emotion.

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

These are the typical generic conventions found in a Psychological Thriller:

Mise-en-scene: usually set in an isolated area, dark/mysterious mood surrounding the characters.

Characters: There are normally two main characters in a thriller. The heroes are often men and the villains are also typically men who are creepy and weird. In psychological thrillers they are quite intelligent and think about original ways of taunting victims.

Themes: Normally based around the mind set of someone, for example something mentally wrong with them and seem to be isolated. There also seems to be a scene that makes the audience feel uneasy. Normally shown from the victim’s point of view so you can see and feel what they are going through. Make the audience feel uncomfortable and concerned. Try and fit the film around common fears.

Music: Eerie sounds, chilling effects. Climax normally and a low beat when it hits the climax this can have connotations of a heartbeat.

Our product used the dark and mysterious mood surrounding the characters because Ethan's mental disability makes everyone around him seem dark and mysterious. Our product also had two main characters in our opening that were shown and that was Vicky and Ethan this was to appeal to different audiences. Our product also used the mental illness as a main part in our opening because Ethan has something mentally wrong with him so therefore he doesn't feel any emotion. Our products music also goes with the eerie sounds and chilling effects I think because it makes you feel on edge at times.




A film that is similar to ours in the Psychological Thriller genre is The Sixth Sense (1999), this involves a young boy who has a mental disorder (a sixth sense) where he can see dead people, this relates to our final opening because we have a young boy and he also has a mental disability but his is to do with feeling no emotion but he also sees his dead brother later in the film as well. The way that the boy acts and dresses is similar to ours because he acts mature for his age and dresses up in quite plain dull clothes like in our opening. It is also similar in the use of characters because the sixth sense has a male, a female and a young male like ours.

A difference from ours to The Sixth Sense is that The Sixth Sense has more of a horror feel to it whereas ours has more of a mysterious feel to it and we made it mysterious by the use of sound. It is also different because of the type of shots we used because we focused more on mid shots and close ups whereas The Sixth Sense uses more two shots and long shots. It is also different because our characters story lines are different for our three main characters. It is also different because we used actors that are from different countries as we tried to reach a wider audience.



Our film was mainly influenced by the film The Sixth Sense hence why ours is pretty similar to it.