Deadline Opening Sequence Evaluation - Part 8 What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To The Full Production?

Overall what was successful about your preliminary task?

Overall the successful rate was really good because it was a really good experience to use the cameras and mac's for making the sequence and overall it turned out to be a successful opening title sequence.

What was less successful?

I don't think that overall there was anything that was less successful about the sequence or the production in it.

How did you improve upon each of these areas when making your title sequence?

We improved by when we made a mistake in some of the filming or some of the sound was not in time with the film we changed it straight away so everything was ok and it was improved to look like a better opening title sequence.

Deadline Opening Sequence Evaluation - Part 7 What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process Of Constructing The Product?

What key decisions did you make about technology during pre-production/production/post production?

The key decisions that we made about technology during pre-production was what type of system was we going to edit the footage on, either iMovie or Final Cut Pro, we used iMovie. What type of camera we were going to use whether it was the camcorder or a digital camera, we used the camcorder.

We did not have to make any key decisions during the production stage and the post production stage.

Why were these decisions made?

These decisions were made because non of us from the group had used Final Cut Pro before so we all decided to stick to the basics by using iMovie which was very helpful in editing the sequence and we chose the camcorder because it was easy to use and had a better picture resolution to the digital camera.

What technology did you use at each stage?

At the start of the stage we used a camcorder to film the sequence.

During the editing process we used the Apple Mac's to edit the footage on iMovie.

What have you learnt?

I have learnt that the technology in making a film sequence may be only at a small scale of things that you use but it is the feature that helps you make the filming and edit final production.

Deadline Opening Sequence Evaluation - Part 6 How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

Do You Think You have Reached Your Target Audience?

Yes i think we have reached our target audience because we have used many characteristics and features that other horror movies have that are also aimed at the same target audience as ours.

What Did You Include When Planning Your Production That You Thought Would Appeal To Your Audience?

When as a group we decided that we was going to do a horror sequence we planned that we would create a zombie film because zombie films are the most common feature for a horror film and from recent zombie horror movies that have been released practically all of them were a huge hit at the box office making a big profit. The other thing we decided on that would appeal to our audience was that the sequence would have a cliff hanger in it so it makes the audience question what is going to happen next in the movie.

Using Quotes From The Audience Feedback Address How These Did Appeal And Why?

The feedback that we got from the audience that watched the sequence was mainly good points.

Feedback Quotes:

'I want to know what happens next!'

'Good sound'

'Good selective shots'

'Good narrative and typography'

From the feedback that we got we could tell that the sequence was a good success and that there was not much work that needed to be done to improve it.

Overall What Else Has Been Successful In Your Production According To Audience Feedback?

Overall in our production that we done the successfulness was achieved by the effort that each group member put into making the sequence what it is. The feedback that we got back was from the viewing audience was mainly saying that the sequence had good sound, narrative, shot selection, typography and they wanted to know what would happen next in the film.

What Was Less Successful?

The main thing that people said was less successful about the title sequence was that it looked a little like a trailer than an opening sequence, but the problem was because of some of the clips of text which have been changed so the sequence does not look like a trailer.

How Could The Work Be improved?

From the sequence the only thing that I think could be improved would have been that we added a zombie so the audience would have been struck be a bigger fear of a scary figure on the screen.

Deadline Opening Sequence Evaluation - Part 5 How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

Camera, Angle, Shot Movement And Position

The opening of my title sequence shows a persons face looking very scared, from a close up shot. When we want the audience to focus on a specific age group for the movie we wanted this face of John to represent what that age group was. The close up shot was used because it strikes a bigger impact of fear into the audiences eye and makes them think about what is there.

Editing

The editing used differed, sometimes there was fast jump cuts but then sometimes there was shots that took a while before it jumps to another scene. We tried to use a mixture of both short and long because of the impact they have on an audience. The shorts jump cuts keep the audience guessing what is it going to go to and what might happen. The long cuts make the audience think about what is happening in this scene and because of it being on for sometime what might happen next.

Sound

The sound of the sequence is very unique as it has a very mysterious effect to it. The sound does not fit in with any social groups because its not very heavy and loud or too quiet and soft, it has a unique effect to it that makes it go well with the sequence film.

Deadline Sequence Evaluation - Part 4 In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop, Or Challenge Forms And Conventions Of Real Media Products?

Narrative

The opening title sequence of 'Deadline' has a very unique narrative of 4 teenagers surviving an airborne virus that has accidentally been released into the air space of England by the military. From this the group of friends try and survive the attack of zombies and look for other survivors by hiding out at there old school because they thought it would be a good place for shelter. From what we see in the opening sequence the main character (John) meets up with (Shaun) and they are running away from the zombies because the zombies found out that they were taking shelter in the school. At the penultimate part of the sequence we see John run into the safe room with Matthew and Ray waiting for him and Ray says 'Did you get it?' to which John replies 'Yeah'. We used this as an enigma and this part of the sequence because we want the audience to be thinking from the start of the film what is it that he got? Our movie would have ended by there being a cliffhanger of the zombie rampaging forward towards the teenagers in one last stand to fight them and if help might come.

Genre

From the begging of the sequence you can see that our sequence is a horror mainly because of the sound that we used but also because of the text that you first see as it crawls up the screen. The sound is very striking at first then goes into a more calm but edgy feeling because the sound seems to be too mysterious to what is happening in the sequence. The text itself looks very dark and gloomy almost like it has a broken bone effect to it.

Camera, Angle, Shot Movement And Position

The main camera shot that we used when we see John and Shaun running from the zombies is a long shot this is because as the shot cuts to the next shot we wanted the audience to feel like they might not know if the zombies are gonna run out at any second or if they are far behind, so it is another mystery that keeps the audience thinking. most of our shots were of the upper body so the audience could see the expression and fear in the characters as they are literally running for there lives from the zombies.

Continuity & Editing

In the sequence there are a lot of cuts from different places from where we see John running from the zombies. From this we did mainly use editing techniques rather than trying to film the whole sequence in one go.

Sound

The sound of the sequence is very unique as it has a very mysterious effect to it. the music fits in with the pace of sequence but it has an effect that makes it sound like something mysterious and scary is about to happen. The final part of the sequence we see John waking up from his bed and walking into the bathroom to wake himself up. In this part we decided not to use any sound because it would have more of an effect of suspense when you hear the alarm clock go off and when there is just the sound of the running water.

Mise-En-Scene, Expressionism

For the Mise-En-Scene is the sequence we added things into the sequence such as the decapitated hand that is seen in some of the shots, from this we think that we know the zombies have been around here and they could still be there waiting for the teenagers to walk about there before they try to kill them. The lighting that is used is at some points differs, when we see John running in the corridor the lighting is very dark this is because we have the feeling that the zombies are near and it has a frightening effect. When we see Shaun closing the gate at telling John that he will try and hold the zombies off we see a bright sky and lighting is good because it looks like Shaun is is maybe suppose to be the one who stops the zombies and is represented in this scene as a hero or savior sent from heaven to defeat the evil monsters.

Typography

The typography of the writing throughout the sequence is very gloomy and looks like it has a broken bone effect to it. The typography of the title Deadline has a more bloody and dark effect to it because of the edgy effect used it has a more rough visually effect almost like you can not see what is there.

Deadline Opening Sequence Evaluation - Part 3 What Kind Of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product And Why?

Use real examples of companies, Use examples of films with the same genre/same audience and films they have distributed.

The institution company that we used to distribute our media product was Columbia Pictures this is because from the research that we done about institution companies Columbia Pictures was a company that has distributed a lot of big name films some of which are horror films such as, Zombieland. A film that has many of the same elements as our film, e.g. zombies, guns, blood, death and suspense. Columbia Pictures have also distributed a lot of other big name movies in the past few years that have had a huge success at the box office such as Terminator Salvation, 2012 and Quantum Of Solace. This would be good to distributed our movie because Columbia Pictures when they do distribute movies they are movies that make a lot of profit at the box office.

Deadline Opening Sequence Evaluation - Part 2 Who Would Be The Audience For Your Product?

Who are the target audience?

The target audience for our media sequence is mainly aimed at people aged between 15-21 this is because our film has the appropriate aims to reach that certain age group. The main gender of the film would be male because of the film being mainly about guns and zombies, which we would mainly be represented as a male type of features in a movie. We did not have any main target of when it came to targeting people on sexuality and race because anyone may want to watch the film. An aim for our target audience would also mainly be an audience who like and can cope with watching a movie that makes you jump and creating suspense.

What pre-production research did you conduct with them?

To find out if our audience would like the idea of our film we created a presentation for our pre-production so we could research whether the idea for our zombie survival film was a unique idea for a film. We researched other films that also have the same main feature of it that ours has, zombies.