EVALUATIONArif Uddin

1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR OPENING SEQUENCE USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL OPENING

SEQUENCES?

• The title of the film – The lost silenceWe chose the title name ‘the lost silence’, from being inspired by many other Horror Films. We used these specific words as many other successful Horror Films use eerie words too. Such as ‘Nightmare on Elm Street, Sinister, Psyscho etc.

Also our opening sequence doesn't have a lot of dialogue. Therefore we believe that the verb ‘silence’ is very compatible with our opening sequence. Our opening sequence tension is built through the use of music. Our title therefore emphasises our opening sequence

SETTING AND LOCATION • We shot our film at Sulham Woods as we feel that this is a perfect location

for us to film our opening sequence. It is not only is it easy for us to access, but it is a very traditional setting where Horror Films are shot. This is because woods feel very isolated from the public, giving it a spookier feel. The natural elements of the forest make it easier for students like me without professional gear to be able to shoot a respectable film. We can use the open space and natural environment to be able to create realism in our film. An example would be the trees creating a shaded area, in where very creative shots can be shot like the image bellow.

COSTUMES AND PROPS • For our costumes we really had to take time and think about what each of characters

should wear in order for the audience to have a bond with our characters. This is as we don’t have any dialogue in our film, and the audience need something to attached their thoughts on. Therefore the characters appearance plays a huge role in this opening scene. We have Max who is a masculine badboy teenager. Therefore we thought we would make him wear a black bomber jacket with a white t-shirt. To follow the stereotypical badboy look of a leather jacket and a white t-shirt. However due to some issues we wasn’t able to follow our plan. Tyler’s is a nerdy teen who we planed on him wearing glasses, and a jumper with a an oversized shirt, however due to issues we didn’t manage too. We feel that in our final production our characters were really hard to understand in terms of personality. I think this ultimately comes down to us not being able to supply our actors with the right clothing. However we did try to combat this, through the use of their acting. We wanted their actions to be another way for us to represent their personally to our audience. This did have an effect, however not a greater effect than the effect of having the right outfit could of had.

• We had many props with us on the day of shooting (plastic skull, fake blood, plastic knife, antagonist mask and tribal objects), and had shot some creative shots with them. However when it come to editing, it didn’t fit in, therefore we left them out. We thought it made it too cheesy and unrealistic, therefore we stuck to our gut feeling of leaving the shots out.

CAMERA WORK AND EDITING • Due to our opening sequence not having any dialogue, we knew that our

camera work had to done to a high standard in order for our opening sequence to be effective. For the film we had used an IPhone 6s, because the other camera were unavailable. This benefited us, as we could be very mobile with the camera, but we couldn’t use shots that we wanted to shoot that required a tripod. After watching many opening sequence we found out that many shots the camera is not still when shot, therefore using the IPhone allowed us to do the same. We feel that our shots are very unique and straight away give the Horror Genre feel. Our shots were very similar in style compared with other opening sequences, such as ‘Your Next’. We shot many shots that are very Horror conventional. Example shots would be the vertical shot of the tall trees.

The shot of the long trees was inspired by the image on the right

‘Witch Delivers’The lost silence

Thin branch's hanging over a lake. (trying to escape) Sinister 2

Shot of woods, with the antagonist in the middle

The lost silence Unknown(2016)

Conjuring

Main character glancing over shoulder.

The lost silence

TITLE FONT AND STYLE

The font we used is very simple and basic, which we wouldn’t relate it to Horror Genre. This fits very well with our the plot of our film. As we aimed to begin the opening sequence fooling the audience making them not think that this is a Horror Movie. However the deeper the boys get into the forest and the quicker the sun begins to fall, the mood changes. We show this through the use of shots and a new soundtrack to set a new mood and tone.

Making the font colour white, challenges the Horror Genre convention as the colour white is seen as an innocent colour, in which Angels would be represented with. However we decided to use the colour white, because it is very inviting and bold especially when it is resting on the black background. We feel that this is very appealing to the eye.

STORY AND HOW THE OPENING SETS IT UP – HOW ITS FIT THE GENRE I CHOOSE

• My story is about 3 mates who are going to the woods to try out their new bikes. At first the mood is set to be calm and relaxing through the use of high key lighting and the choice of the soundtrack. However the as we get further into the opening sequence, we gradually see the lighting become dimmer and the music become slower and more eerie. The deeper the boys get into the woods, the mood slowly begins to change and tension begins to rise. We show this through the use of shots and soundtrack we use. We end our opening sequence on a cliff hanger, like many Horror films have done recently. Our opening sequence fits the Horror Genre, through the different types of shots we have used. It also fits the genre as we are following the slasher horror genre of an antagonist chasing its victims.

GENRE AND HOW THE OPENING SUGGESTS IT

Our opening scene doesn’t suggest our genre instantly, as we didn’t intend too. We want to fool the audience, and slowly bring them into the fact that it’s a horror genre film. This comes across eventually in our opening sequence and occurs when the characters get deeper into the woods. The reason in why we wanted to do this, is that we feel that this method increases the fear of the audience as they the tension is slowly built. At first they are presented with three young teens who look relatively innocent. The last thing the audience would want is for them to get stalked by a creepy serial killer. Therefore slowly building their fear as well as tension, allows our opening sequence to be very effective due to this being very unexpected for the audience.

WHAT YOUR LEARNED, AND HOW IT IMPACTED YOU DECISIONS OF PRODUCTION.

When filming our film, I have learnt that planning is essential for the final product to be done to high standard. You should plan what each of your character should wear very carefully as you this is a great way for the producer to create a bond with his audience and his characters. Making the final product even better as the audience would have enjoyed it more. Unfortunately we as a group failed to this, and didn’t mange to create the effect we potentially could off crated. I have also learnt that a lot of time should be put into editing, as this is a great way for a producer to get his genre across to his audience. Also a high quality editing will result in the final copy of the film to be twice as good than the original. To have a high quality final production a lot of time must be put into editing. This includes looking for the right sound tracks, effects, and what shots go where. My research on what shots Horror Genre films use I feel has impacted my production very positively. The day of shooting, I had downloaded many shots that I liked onto my phone, so I could watch for a bit of inspiration whenever I needed it. This helped me a lot, and I feel that the final production shows that.

• I also learnt that you should repeat shots relatively as one will come out better than the other. Which I did on the day of shooting. This impacted my production as I had a selection of the shots I could use for my film, giving us a lot of freedom when editing.

• I researched a lot of Horror Genre conventions and made sure to add them into my work, in order for my audience to be able to know that our opening sequence is a horror film. This is included what slasher horror genre normally require.

2. HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?

The image on the top is a picture of character called ‘Sam; from ‘Kidulthood’. In the specific film he is presented as a trouble maker, who is always involved in action. However Tyler is presented as innocent. Both are young teenage from around the same generation.

Race could be a stereotyped argument, as black characters are often made to be trouble makers in many films, whereas the young white character is often the innocent one. This is a clear evidence of binary opposition.

• Lionsgate could be a possible media institution that could distribute my media products as they have great success with slasher horrors. Some example would be ‘Your next(2011)’ which cost $1million to make and it made $26.9 million. Another would be ‘The cabin in the woods(2011)’ which cost $30 million but made $66.5 million. These examples show us that there are very effective in marketing when it comes to slasher horror movies.

• LIONSGATE is a $2 billion global entertainment corporation that produces feature films and television shows, which they distribute worldwide. They have funds and power to be able to make my film successful.

3. WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND

WHY?

4. WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

• The usual age for someone watching a horror movie is between 15 and 25. During young adulthood they are in the key stages of developing themselves and learning about the world. At that age they want to try new things and experiment with different emotions and feelings. They want to rush into life without being guided and therefore seek all thrill they can get. Horror movies give this thrill and can excite the young audience easier than an older one. The young audiences are also less susceptible to being put off the film by violence or unnatural images which may make older audience feel negative towards the film. However our film doesn't include a lot of violence, therefore I feel that is suitable for a range of ages. 15 -35.

5. HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE

• We tried to appeal to a certain target audience, which is really important to do in the very opening of the film that we made as a group. To attract the audience, we had to make sure our key features were met. We aimed for a movie based on a target audience of any gender from the age 15-35. Once we had figured out the targeted audience we had to think of the different aspects that would attract this audience and how these would help to maintain the interest of the viewers.

• Sound- Use of piano, drums and bass• Music sets up the atmosphere, comes across as creepy and sinister• Silence – is seen as one of the most effective tools, we used silence in the form of having no dialogue. This not only didn’t give to much away but it also shows the disturbing atmosphere of the sequence.

• Our film has a twist in it, in where we aim to fool their audience, in order to make our opening sequence more effective. We didn’t want to give away too much of the film so we kept the details to a bare minimum in the opening so that there would be many questions that the audience would ask themselves when the mood shifts to. These question could be “Who's chasing them”, “Why are attacking the young boys” and “what are they boys doing in the forest. Throughout the film, these questions are no unravelled and questions are not answered, as we end our film on a cliff hanger. The last scene is a quick snapchat of the antagonist, as this will be last thing the viewers remember, increasing the fear.

• But our audience needed to be attracted and drawn in at the very beginning of the film so that they would want to watch the rest of it despite not knowing the full story behind the film. We wanted to make our film slightly confusing to the viewers so they would want to know what happens.

We wanted to have key moments that would attract our audience to our film are moments such as: when our characters rids past an abandoned shoe. This shoes that they is riding into danger, as the shoe could be the belonging of a victim whom the antagonist as already deceased. Or the shot in where we briefly show the antagonist standing in the background, to let the audience know that the killer is around.

The change in the mood of the opening sequence draws the audience in, as the change in mood is very unexpected making them more curious on what is going to happen next.

Panning shots of the scenery(woods) at the beginning give the viewers a slight hint that this is horror film, however the soundtrack shows otherwise. This will intrigue some viewers as they know that something horrible is going to happen to these characters.

panning shots of celebrates - people might even want to see the filmbecause of the pictures on the wall. In a way it is quite misleading as the audience could think these celebrities star in it, but it draws in a audience that may like the celebrates shown.

6. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT

I’ve learnt a great deal about technologies and they have vastly helped, and improved, my media product. To ensure the different shots in our film opening where affective we had to use a camera which was clear. The IPhone 6s has a very good built in camera, that can process 720p. We tried using the Sony camera but they were unavailable at the time. This did affect the overall appearance of our sequence as it wasn’t clear of what was happening in the sequence however the IPhone 6s did a good enough job. The problem we faced with the use of the IPhone for filming was the quality of sound was very poor. We used a IPhone tripod accessory that I had for personal use, and it worked a charm. This made our shots look more sleek and professional. We used a HP laptop to do all the editing and special effects for our opening sequence on the software ‘lights works’. This software enables us to cut/crop the unneeded frames. This would allow our sequence to flow smoothly just like a normal opening film. As we had never used ‘lights works editing software 'it was quite hard getting used to the different programmes. However i overcome this by watching many YouTube tutorial online.

Taking a lot of time this was successful as the editing of the whole sequence was good as the sequence flowed well.

• One of the main aspects that was good with this programme was that it allowed us to edit our soundtrack by enabling us to create the mood we where looking for. We used the site ‘free-soundtrack’ and It offered a wide range of sounds as it had nearly all types of instruments. We also tried to adjust the lighting of our opening sequence, as we needed to use low key lighting for the next half of our opening sequence. The program was quite hard to use and we didn’t manage to use all the effects we wanted too.

• I also uploaded my opening sequence on YouTube and shared the link to my friends and family. This is so i could gain some feedback from users. This helped us to make the sequence better and professional. We could then improve our sequence to meet consumer needs.

7. LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO YOU FEEL HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO FULL PRODUCT?

• Back when we did our preliminary task I felt that I had limited knowledge on editing, filming, types of camera shots and Horror Genre conventions. However know I feel that I have improved significantly on the main task. I feel that my time management, organisation skills have improved. This is as before we went out filming, I made sure that we had all the props that were needed for the specific shots we were going to film, every actor had a copy of the script and I organised the whole team days for the filming day. I also understand framing now and blocking better. I also felt that my creativity has improved as I understand the subject even better. I feel more confident in editing and filming due to repetitive practice. However I feel that I could of considered the audience better for my main product. I have also learnt how to work as a team more, and how to get work finished on time.