Saturday 12 April 2014

Evaluation - Part 8

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


Overall, I think our full product was very successful in conveying the genre of our film idea.  Our film idea includes a complex plot, yet our title sequence gives the audience explicit hints such as the gravestone and extreme close up of the cut throat.  The clear display of the two narratives by using effects also worked well, especially teamed with the typography, as these had were both jittery and emphasised the creepy tone of our title sequence.  It was made successful by our research into various existing title sequences of the same genre, and helpful feedback from our target audience.
The weaker aspects of our title sequence were the planning stages, as our time was restricted due to the changing of groups and missing some lessons.  This caused us to have a weak ending to our title sequence, which seemed like a resolution to our product.  This was not our original intention and to improve on this, I would include more shorter shots similar to the cut throat.  I would also have a more sudden ending to keep the audience on edge and engaged.

Evaluation - Part 7

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


During pre-production we decided we wanted to use basic technologies such as a DLSR camera and tripod when filming our title sequence.  This is because our production company we created, Armored Ink Productions, is an independent film company, therefore would not have a large budget for expensive and excessive equipment.  Besides a DSLR camera and tripod, we did not use any other technologies to film with.  This was also because we thought the conventions of a horror/thriller film would best be created in post-production, such as adding effects in Final Cut Pro.  Through this process, I have learnt that you do not necessarily have to have a great amount of high tech equipment to create a successful product, especially when it comes to the genre of horror/thriller.

Evaluation - Part 6

How did you attract/address your audience?


The target audience for our title sequence is people aged 15-25; with the majority of them being male, as research has shown this gender enjoy horror and thriller films more.  We first started addressing our audience with questionnaires about general things related to our genres of horror/psychological thriller and our initial ideas.  We did this in the form of questionnaires as it was an easy and quick way to gain lots of information from our intended audience.








When planning our title sequence, we decided we wanted to include canted angles to disorientate the audience.  This also foreshadows that bad things will happen, engaging the audience and making them question what the film will be about.  We also wanted to show a difference between the two characters, therefore added a ‘Bad Film’ effect to the ghost character’s shots.  Feedback from our audience showed that these were good things to include as they were their favourite aspects of our title sequence.  However, the feedback we received about our first cut of our title sequence also indicated we did not have a strong ending for it.  My group liked the ending shot of the characters walking off together, as it would lead well into the film itself.  Therefore, we tried to edit it slightly to improve it like our audience suggested.  We added another shot between the end clip; a close up of the characters holding hands, with the ‘Bad Film’ effect added as their hands touch.  This breaks up the longer end footage, also adding an eerie feeling to the end that will keep the audience interested.






Evaluation - Part 5


Evaluation - Part 4


Evaluation - Part 2 & 3

Evaluation - Part 1

Brief



Our brief was to create a title sequence for a fictional film of our choice.  In my original group we decided the genre should be horror, as the conventions of a horror film are commonly known.  We discussed ideas for our plot and how we would relate our title sequence to the different ideas.  We thought our plot ideas also fit the themes found in psychological thriller films, so chose this as our sub genre.  We decided on a supernatural theme of ghosts and brainstormed title ideas for our film.  Despite myself having to change groups, we stuck with the same genre and plot ideas, as my original group wanted to change to a romcom genre.  My new group (Chloe and I) gave out questionnaires and received feedback about the title ideas, and finally decided on ‘Beyond The Woods’.  ‘Beyond’ has supernatural connotations, relating to our plot.  In our film, our setting was the woods, so we stuck to this setting throughout our title sequence, with effects added to portray the supernatural parts of it.

Friday 11 April 2014

Final Title Sequence


Editing (10)

After the feedback we received, we made slight changes to our title sequence.  I rendered everything as that had not been completed properly before showing it to the class.  I also added more 'Bad Film' effects on the shots of the older ghost character.  We were not able to reshoot the footage to add the suggested close up of the two characters holding hands, with the 'Bad Film' effect added as soon as their hands touch.  However, I worked around this by zooming in and cropping the existing clip.  I also slowed the clip down slightly, adding tension to this part.  I trimmed some clips as that was another suggestion from the feedback sheets, which made the sequence slightly more fast paced, and therefore less boring.  After completing the minor adjustments, I made sure the clips were all aligned correctly so there were no gaps, and found that some of the footage was almost in time with the second uncomfortable piece of music 'Nightshade'.  I liked this outcome and continued editing the length and speed of the clips until they were in time.  One shot shows the young girl turning around after a loud click/bang in 'Nightshade', making it seem as if she had heard something.  I finally exported our finished title sequence and uploaded it to my YouTube channel.