Title sequence evaluation Dinner For Two By Georgina Phillipps

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
From making a title sequence I think we have all learnt how difficult it would be to stick to every convention of a horror thriller. We all watched numerous opening titles for horror thrillers so that we knew what the norm was. All films are built through the use of camera, editing, mise en scene and sound however how these elements are represented and used to compliment one another makes it the genre it is.
Characters was the first dilemma we were faced with, we could either conform with the conventions of a thriller by making the female character the protagonist and the male antagonist or making our story original by having it the opposite way round. Yet we felt that in the end it would fundamentally come down to conforming to simple conventions through typical representation of gender in order to create some verisimilitude as well as this being the convention presented through almost every thriller- reflective of previous research. Moreover we tried to reflected upon the research of thrillers by the presentation of women. Women from our research tells us they are presented as isolated in a large spacious environment as well as very much alone throughout. We therefore took the setting of the ring (2002 horror thriller) and represented in our own work. The female character throughout the opening is walking around a large house and the scene moves along very slowly. I liked the isolation of the young protagonist and wanted to use this in our own work. Our female character was shot within her home with no sound or indication of life around her.

Moreover in our research we saw that women were presented to be very feminine therefore we reflected this in our own piece by having Daisy doing her make up , spraying herself with perfume and playing with her hair.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our opening title was always to be heavily influenced by other horror thriller opening. This is something I personally did a lot of research on. I wanted to find the perfect font, colour, bold/ standard, capitalised etc. After extensive research I finally came to a personal decision of how I wanted it to look. I wanted it to fit the conventions of horror thriller perfectly by doing this it must be white font on a black background, block type looking font which was centred.

Horror thriller openings incorporate transitions which then lead onto simple white, clear font centred clearly on the screen. This is a convention I was adamant we stick to. This would work effectively on After Effects.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Camera: Throughout our opening sequence our work has been ambitious in that we have tried to include as many shots as we can to prove that technically we are capable in Media Studies. One shot we used three times in our opening was a pan shot, this is a shot which as a group we struggled with at the start however we worked on this so that we could make our thriller opening original since this is not something commonly seen in thriller. I feel it is used to suggest the idea of someone watching the protagonists every move. As well as letting the audience in to the diegesis. Following on from the establishing shot of the home with flickering frantic lights we have a zoom out of the protagonist sitting on a chair passed out. This clearly represents the importance of the character as well as suggesting her vulnerability as she is low down in the rule of thirds. As well as this we are using a medium shot to symbolise and present her being isolated and contrasting against her white wall surroundings- suggestive that she does not belong in this place. Throughout we showed lots of medium shots; these are standard shots used to show the characters body language and make the narrative clear. In addition to this we included an over the shoulder shot of the male antagonist, this again was in an attempt to hide the identity of the character yet show his aggressive motives. By using shots throughout the hide this mans identity was to add mystery to our opening as you are in suspense to whether the males face that you see asking the protagonist outs intentions are genuine/ Mise en scene: Through our setting, lighting and costume I feel that we developed horror conventions. The setting throughout was always spacious and isolated which is reflective of our research: warehouse looking room, large home, empty field. The lighting we edited throughout to ensure our colour correction made the scene feel much colour than originally filmed by increasing the blue content. Moreover the costume we used for the characters were everyday normal clothes which were normal, noting extravagant. The male character is seen in scruffy clothing which is representing him as being more scummy ; again following a stereotype. These do develop media conventions as normally you would see plain black or white, yet we just did what you would see an everyday average teen wear in order to make it relatable. Ultimately we aimed to make our two characters fit and suit their surroundings so by putting the protagonist in a lovely, grand home with good clothes we are building a real person for the audience. The establishing shot is significant for me as you are presented with a frantic fast moving scene which then fades to a shallow focus shot of the protagonist with a slow zoom. I feel here we have successfully connoted binary opposition from antagonist to protagonist. By changing the pace of the two it builds confusion for the audiences which is reflective of the female being tied up. Editing: Within the initial part of our opening the jump cuts are significant thus to create a grabbing and tension filled start to keep the audience interested. Then as the opening continues we see a significant part of parallel editing. The editing here is used to show the binary opposition from the male and female/ antagonist and protagonist. This technique is very important throughout as it creates a clear narrative and intentions from each character after the two shot on a walk together. This is an example of us conforming to conventions In addition the parallel editing is connoting the good and bad character by using binary opposition of the two. The female presenting doing make up and hair and the male using corrosive material, setting up rooms in darkness.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Mise en scene: In order to make the scene feel more horror based we did conform to horror thriller conventions by darkening the scenery. On the left you can see the original piece which shows yellow to be a very bright happy colour which over rights the entire atmosphere of the scene by presenting it to be something happy. Therefore on premiere we used colour correction to take the brightness down. This is apparent through the contrast of the picture on the left and the picture on the right. Yet here we have also challenged a horror thriller through the unnatural light. Conventionally horror thriller would strictly be natural light yet here we have challenged this.

We used natural light vs non natural light to show binary opposition of the safety of the protagonist. When Daisy is with the antagonist it is dull/ creepy yet when she on her own it is warm comfortable and safe. This challenges horror thriller conventions.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
From my research I learnt that the music always matches what is being played on the screen. Therefore when a scene is more mellow with no much action happening in the music would become slower and more monatonal. Here for example is when the two are on a walk and it is a simple pan of their isolation. Nothing dramatic is happening. When a scene had some sort of danger or something dramatic is happening the music becomes a lot more up beat and matches to the actions that are happening. This happens to keep the audience interested in what is going on. Here is where the poison and weapon is coming in therefore dramatic so the music crashes and heightens. Finally from my research I found that when something is about to happen the silence is set into the scene in order to have the suspense built. We challenged this conventions by having music running throughout in an attempt to keep the audiences moods in confusions.

There is an array of diegetic sound throughout or opening which I feel adds some sort of suspense to our opening. For me I feel that it was important that we kept in the diegetic sounds which were conventionally a creepy element. A good example of this is when the antagonist enters the room where the protagonist is tied up- the creaking door is an extremely notorious diegetic sound in a horror thriller. The dialogue in a horror thriller is common yet we have one line which could be seen as unusual in a horror thriller yet it is clear from research that there is either no speech at all or a lot. We have gone in the middle therefore we yet again challenge.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The particular social group that we have presenting in our opening is teenage/ young adults. We chose this social group because we wanted to present the idea of mistrust. By presenting this theme we wanted to use some sort of character who would be naive and trusting toward someone as she is trying to find love. By using a teenager/ young adult we can see her being naive and trusting in anyone especially when she is dating. The narrative we hoped to present was a kind of date between the two which then turns out that the male antagonist is crazy and really just wants to torture her. In this case we took a female character as females are stereotypically more concerned on love and idolising over the idea of having a family and falling in love. As well as this teenagers stereotypically see themselves as untouchable and therefore put their trust into people until that person proves them otherwise. By putting the two in a date situation and not showing what happened to get her in the tied up position but just hinting at what happened leaves the audience wanting to find out more and ultimately grabbing their attention. Stereotypically girls are concerned with their appearance therefore we showed shots of her getting ready using her make up, doing her hair and spraying her perfume. In addition to this we had Daisy in clothes which looks like she had just been on a jog to connote the idea that she is also conscious of her figure therefore adding to the idea that she is a stereotypical woman conscious of their appearance., Daisy wearing trainers and gym leggings

A close up shot of her mascara

Daisy putting on some perfume

Daisy arranging her hair.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Throughout the opening our protagonist is wearing black clothing which is unconventional to horror thrillers as usually you would have the protagonist in white to show her in innocence. Yet here we thought that it would be more appropriate to have the girl in clothes which were current to what people would wear when they go for a date whether than to be an indication of her innocence. Yet the males costume connotes binary opposition through the casual clothes he is show in. this connotes the idea that she has high hopes for her date whereas he is shutting them down immediately. In addition we have presented our female character to be weak and having less dominance over the male character. Following the stereotype we have in the real world that women are weaker than men. In general we see that men have a lot more power over women therefore when it comes to films to create the realism we had to make it relatable to real world. As well as this the weakness of the female character physically is evident as she is clearly in a situation that she cannot escape from,. We when filming made her jewellery a significant part of the opening as this connotes the idea that she has wealth which therefore could therefore present a motive for the antagonists capture and torturing of the female. In our piece throughout the woman has less lines than the male therefore showing her outspoken characteristics and the ability that the male character would have to walk all over her. In order to fit the stereotype of a standard British teenage/ young adult we wanted to think about the life style they would be living at this age. Therefore putting the female character in a house alone without parents/ siblings around connotes the idea that she has moved out which is typical of a young woman of her age. As well as this, she is in a room which reflects upon the character we are trying to build of her. By putting her in a classy looking, grand room with a chandelier which is clearly her own is significant of her wealth.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

For the male character we have created someone is connoted to be more casual with their clothes and arent concerned with their appearance throughout. In this close up of Joe he looks innocent which therefore connotes further the idea that he a twisted character; reflective of the social group of teenage males.as he seems sweet but then ends up being an antagonist.

Here we see the male antagonist in a standard polo which connotes the idea that he looks like a standard teenage/ young man therefore making it easy for the antagonist to fall for his plan. As well as this the colour of the polo is a deep blue which is a dark, rich colour which connotes the power and evilness of the character. The particular social group of teenage/ young male as further been presented through the dialogue of the character- Daisy I was just wondering if you would like to come round for dinner here our antagonist appears sweet and innocent as well as having some charm, therefore making him an endearing and confusing character.

This stereotype works throughout as the male characters identity is hidden throughout therefore in the opening sequence you do not know if the character that Joe plays is the same as the person setting up the room.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? Who would be the audience for your media product?
From my point of view our thriller is a very typical horror thriller story line therefore if it was put out in the Hollywood Films Studios this is something that is known to be widely enjoyed by many people from past experience and has also been enjoyed many times before, therefore they could take our opening and put the twist on it to be the film that they I know people desire to see. Throughout the making of our opening we have stayed to the conventions very much so by making the opening dark, cold, gloomy, the music is what you would expect, the settings are strongly reflective of what you would expect in a horror thriller.. There are original aspects which would make it different to the rest of the horror thrillers that have been put out there but I think this would work in our advantage as no body wants to see something that they have seen 100 times before. The examples of these are costume, props and lighting. I think that our film would not work as a TV series or drama as this is a story line that will go on for a while and would change with a twist at the end whereas ours I feel does not have a strong enough or a complex enough plot to continue for the amount of time. For example a thriller series works if it is some kind of serial killer or murder mystery yet this is about one man and woman whom stay stereotypically to a Hollywood Studio Film typical plot. Looking at the previous work of Lionsgate I feel that that would be the most appropriate one to distribute our film as it has released films similar to our such as: Woman in black Youre Next The Evil Woods Deliver Us From Evil Saw II Hostel

Liongates Film Production distributed 460 films, many very similar to horror thriller like ours.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? Who would be the audience for your media product?
Because we set out for our thriller opening to have a saw type edge to it, in that it was fast to happen plot as well as the lack of identity that the audience and the protagonist has over the audience it is important for us that we distribute our film with someone who has done similar films before. Therefore Lionsgate doing Saw before this film will therefore help us to even more fit into the genre that we want our target audience to feel we are basing our horror upon. Not only does the front cover suggest the idea of torture due to her finger nails appearing to have been attempted to be ripped out but it also look grimy as though they have been put in an environment against their will. Which is reflective of the idea of the woman in our story. In addition to this you can see the hand looks very feminine from the long finger nails therefore another element that makes it similar to our opening. However I would like to have a more courageous front cover for ours as it is inevitable for the protagonist to end on top. The font on this front cover although appearing very different for the movie name is similar for the other writing. Here it is written in French however it is the same for the British version. The font here reflects upon the story of saw as this is plain grusem whereas our font reflects more upon the idea of the two being on a date. The most significant part is the idea that that is the black writing over the white background which shows contrast and standing out which is something we would like to create and establish for our film.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? Who would be the audience for your media product?
I also feel personally that our product could be distributed by Dreamworks Pictures. Dreamworks have ditribted many thrillers much like lionsgate therefore their success may help to promote our product. Dreamworks pictures have produced thrillers such as In dreams and the ring. The Ring is a film I took a lot of research from the Mise- en- scene and learnt a lot from what they expect within a thriller opening. Although the ring is an American psychological horror film from 2002 it is not dissimilar to the atmosphere that we have tried to create in our work. For example the young vulnerable female who is taken down due to her gender. The ring is a film which I took inspiration from and tried to reflect the young vulnerable teen in that and put it into our own therefore I feel that Dreamworks would work well with this. Another theme that I think is very important from the people we distribute from is the cover being simplistic. This cover again is simple black and white colours to take away from the audience having any idea of what the film is to be about. The font again is very simple, plain yet reflects upon what is happening in the story. I think its so important that when a person is to distribute your work you need to grab the audiences attention. The font on the picture of the moon is very child like which is a conventions of thriller- children being used to create creepiness. Also hinting the films narrative.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for our media product is the audience rating 15. 2009. 15 This film is not suitable for any under the age of 15. People under the age of 15 can buy or rent a 15 rated film. Discrimination The media text cant encourage discriminatory language or behaviour. Drugs Drugs can be shown as a whole but you cannot promote or encourage the use of them. Showing the misuse of solvents and alcohol are unlikely to be acceptable due to them being easily accessible. Horror Horrors can be threat and menace but sexualised and sadistic is unacceptable. Imitable behaviour hanging, suicide and self harming should be shown in detail as it could be copied. Easily accessible weapons cant be glamorised. Language Strong language can be justified if in the right context. If repeated the strongest language this could be seen as unacceptable. Nudity Nudity is allowed in educational sense and in a non sexual sense. Nudity is allowed in sexual scenes but not in detail Sex Sexual activity is allowed but without detail. this includes sexual references, Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable. Theme No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds Violence violence can we strong but not in infliction. Sexual violence is allowed but mildly. The strongest gory violence is unlikely to be acceptable.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? Who would be the audience for your media product?

From previous research we found that people 15-17 (our target audience) where those who wanted to watch the horror thrillers. Therefore we took this feedback and decided it was to be the genre we choose.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? Who would be the audience for your media product?
The characters within our piece are teenagers, therefore we feel that to make it scarier we should make it more relatable to the people that it is aimed for. Therefore by making the film a 15 the characters within it will feel similar to themselves, therefore making it feel relatable. The Gender we are trying to aim the film at is both female and male. By making it a film which will have gore and blood, romance and escape we are making it open to a lot of peoples taste. Male audiences stereotypically like to see the fore and the escape of it whereas females may watch for the romantic part which goes wrong. Our thriller is open to all ethnicities as it is a film which can be relatable to everyone. You could not narrow it down to a specific ethnicity implying that only that social group would enjoy this horror thriller. We hope that we have made it interesting for everyone. By asking people I know about what they thought of the thriller I could get a feel to whether we have succeeded in making it for the appropriate target audience. By not saying that its mine and saying that its my friends in order to get a honest response: 15 year old cousin- Emily Tutty: I thought that it was really good especially as I dont really like scary films but it is something I am intrigued by now. 18 year old friend- Molly Aldridge: I thought it was good but it was a bit scatty in parts but generally the story line seemed interesting. 19 year old sister- Katie Phillipps: I like that story line because Im not sure if that boy is the bad guy or not 11 Year old cousin- Sam Tutty: Dont like scary films at all and wouldnt want to watch that From this feedback I can see that 15 is the right age because Emily seemed most interested by it and genuinely seemed intrigued to know what happens whereas my sister, Katie didnt really seem to care either way but still was engaged as she watched it. I feel that 15 is definitely the right age rating considering the restrictions and the responses I gathered,

How did you attract and address your audience?

I personally feel that the best thing we did to attract and address our target audience of teens was by making the two main characters in it teenagers. By doing this you are making the audience feel as though it could happen to them. As well as this by putting the young woman in clothes which teenage girls would like as well as giving her interests which are relatable to teenage girls this will address them and attract them as they may feel similar to the protagonist. Throughout our entire piece we have incorporated a sense of mystery to keep the audience guessing. I think this has worked through the way that we put the end of the opening at the beginning in order to make the audience wonder throughout what is going on and want to keep up with the story line. As well as this there is a huge mystery over whether the boy who asks Daisy out on a date is antagonist. This is something we were told may not work in our favour however when thinking about it time and time again we felt that we should stick with it, because to us the mystery of it kept it interesting for audience as well giving another reason to watch. Sound: The sound we used before made the film opening jumpy, engaging and generally added an element of fear and excitement to the opening. By making the sound so directly contrapuntal with what you see on the screen, the audience will be drawn in because if they were to look away and something happened, a loud sound would alert them. Out of 21 responses only 1 said they were not engaged. Concluding our attempt to keep the audience engaged worked, as well as everyone saying they would keep watching.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this project?
For me, when we initially began this project there were three main things that were making the first stages very hard for me as well as putting me off from putting my all in. These things were the tripod, the camera and the laptop . Tripod: When I first started the project I genuinely had no idea how to work a tripod, or had never seen one before. The tripod was totally new for me and I didnt even know how to attach my camera which at first put me off Media as I felt there was no way I was going to grasp it, however now I feel I have come along way. I feel confident when using one as I am well aware of how to adjust the legs and tilt in order to capture different shots as well learn how to pan. For me the pan was the most difficult one to grasp as I constantly found my self shaking or going ahead of the person on screen however after many attempts I feel that I can finally confidently do everything. I think its important that I take from this project that I should give it a go at the start or I will never understand- because at the start of the project I just offloaded all the camera work onto prentice in the continuity task, I was clueless when I had to do camera work on my own. Camera: In the initial stages of the course I was aware of how to use a camera but I never knew the technicalities of it for example how to make a POV shot work or how to do a over shoulder shot where you cannot rely on the tripod. Although we didnt incorporate a POV shot in our work, its still nice to see that I have learnt some new skills. As well as the theory side of media helping me to know what shots I should use in which situation to create the best effect. For example in order to make a character look weak I should use a high angle shot etc. Laptop: When I first came to media studies I didnt even think I would grasp the idea of getting footage onto the laptop let alone the programs. In this case I knew if I wanted to achieve something I would have to teach myself. I went on to media page and found the tutorials as well as YouTube. I can now confidently edit on Adobe Premiere cs6 as well as make basic titles. I feel I have come a long away on After Effects as I made the opening titles after a lot of research, which I am extremely proud of.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt from the progression of it to the full product?
Technically from the preliminary task I have come a long, long way. From this task our camera work was sloppy, the narrative didnt work and generally was something I look back on now and think how poor. Here is a prime example of how we have improved. These are both attempts at pans. The one at the left the character is not in the centre of the frame whereas right she is. The pans in our final task were good I feel, which was worth it after the effort we put in.

In addition the verisimilitude within our piece was not evident as here you can see Joe looking straight down the camera whereas now you can see Joe speaking to daisy as though the camera is just over Daisys shoulder.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt from the progression of it to the full product?
Another shot is a standard close up. On the left the shot is held for a very long time which is very unrealistic whereas we created the same effect of showing the bottle but making it smooth and not held in front of the camera for a long time.

When we first spoke about doing the continuity task we were very unbothered by it and had very little motivation to complete it, not realising the preparation it would give us for the real thing. We had no schedule for when we would shoot and I personally had very little interesting in having an part of the editing. In addition to this as a group we did not share the work well. For me I feel that Joe and I stood back while Prentice did the editing and filming where as I just told the actors what to do. However when it came to the real thing I did quite a bit of the filming and parts of the editing. I think also that this will help prepare me for next year when I am doing work on my own. For our real thing we also made many story boards to help us visualise what the shots would be for each part of the story as well and when the story line was to change we would make sure the storyboard was developed until it was the end of the project where things changed but we were too consumed in making our piece perfect that was no time to change the story board. In addition to this I feel that as a group we werent actually focusing on the narrative or it making sense what so ever, we were just throwing together some shots and just hoping it made sense from the outset. Whereas with our real thing we were constantly looking at the conventions of thrillers and making sure that it made sense, was relevant to horror thrillers yet was still original.