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.

Deadline Opening Sequence Evaluation - Part 1 Brief

What brief were you are working to?

Our brief that we were asked to work at was to create an opening sequence to a movie that we had to create ourselves.

Explain the title and what happens in your opening sequence in your opening sequence making reference to the treatment?

The title of our film is called Deadline, this is because of the narrative of the film and how it comes to the conclusion of the the teenagers having a race against time and survival. 4 Teenagers survive an airborne virus that has accidentally been released into England by the military. The boys (John, Ray, Matthew and Shaun) hide out in their school for security, but zombies eventually find them and break into the school. Which leads to John and Shaun running away from the zombies after retrieving something that could help them survive.

Explain the sub-genre.

The genre of our film is horror/action this is because we incorporated the fear that horror of a zombie film has mixed with the effects of a gun-ridden society that would associate with an action film. We chose to do a horror film because it is the most exciting and suspenseful genre we thought of doing and it is also the most entertaining.

Deadline Opening Sequence

Casting For Deadline

Charlie Hopwood as Shaun

Steven Power as Matthew

Mikey Masher as Ray

Tom Brown as John

Audience Research/Feedback

For our audience research we have found out that the key audience and our main audience target is teenagers aged between 15-19.

The gender for our film 'Deadline' would be male because it has features in the film that would mainly attract a male audience to go and watch the film, for examples guns and zombies.

We asked these questions to 3 people and the feedback for them follows:

1. Are you male or female?

A) Male
B) Female
C) Male

2. How old are you?

A) 17

B) 17

C) 16

3. Do you prefer English films or foreign films?

A) Foreign Films

B) Foreign Films

C) Foregin Films

4. What genre of film do enjoy best?

A) Horror

B) Comedy

C) Action

5. What would you expect to see in a horror zombie film?

A) Guns

B) Death

C) Blood

6. What did you think that 'Deadline' has that makes its opening sequence?

A) The Music

B) Sound Effects

C) Sound Effects

7. Do you think the time length for the opening sequence is too long?

A) No, it starts and stops in a mystery

B) No, i think it needs to be longer

C) Yes, it could be shortened

8. What do you think could be improved?

A) The pace of the character running

B) The use of clothing and props

C) The length of time

9. Is there anything you would add to make the opening sequence better?

A) Add a zombie into the sequence to show what they are running from

B) Make the running scenes shorter

C) Have more angled camera shots

10. Is there anything you would take out of the sequence to make it better?

A) Some of the running scenes

B) Some of the running scenes

C) Some of the running scenes

Feedback from teacher (Miss Whittaker):

There are some things about the opening that need to be improved, a selective piece of text needs to be removed otherwise the opening sequence may look like a trailer, the amount of time that the text has to appear on the screen, the length of time that the production logo has to appear and the text that appears during the opening should be placed in the corner instead of being in the lower centre of the screen.

We have improved the video by removing the selective text so the opening does not look like a trailer, we have lengthened the amount of time that the text scrolling scene has so the text can be seen clearer, we have also lengthened the amount of time that we see the production logo and finally we have edited the text so it appears in the corner of the screen instead of being in the lower centre of teh screen.

Recce

Gate

Gate

Corridor


Safe house


Pathway


Pathway


Door To Safe House


Desk In Safe House

Deadline Animatic

Deadline Animatic

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Production Logo

Here is are company Logo it is called Bunny hell productions. We decide to use a scared bunny has some viewers would find the bunny cute to look at. We used the back ground of hell as it was called bunny hell productions. We called it this as it is similar to bloody hell and we wanted it to sound like a commonly used phrase but with a difference.

Typography

Our film is a zombie, horror so for our film we have been looking at the typography from Dawn of The Dead, 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, Diary of the Dead, Land of the Dead, here are some typography examples for our film Deadline. We chose to use the 3rd typography because it has most characteristics of a zombie film to the others and this typography also has a dark and gloomy effect to it.

Shooting Script

Media horror presentation

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Meeting Minutes

Start Filming - 13th - 17th January 2011

Filmed the sequence on the 13th then added the footage onto iMovie to edit, then we realised that we needed more footage in the sequence so we hired the camera for another day and we filmed the last part of footage that we needed.

Edit Footage - 17th - 24th January 2011

We edited the footage in iMovie, this took a while to do because we had some footage that did not fit in with the sequence so we had to alternate the footage and it turned out to be ok when we finally finished it.

Add Music - 24th - 31st January 2011

It took a while to try and find the right music that we wanted for the sequence, at first we wanted to use heavy, loud music but we then tried an alternative of a quieter and suspenseful music which turned out to be better than our first choice of music soundtrack.

Add Sound Effects - 31st January 2011 - 3rd February 2011

The sound effects were added in the last stages of the editing sequence, we added sound effects that have a loud and scary vibe to them that also give off an effect of horror. There are a few sound effects that are the same but it builds the suspense of the film by having a repeating effect.

Production Schedule

1. Create blog and post our meeting minutes, production schedule, a questionnaire, a written script, evidence of what we have researched our horror, institution research, typography. we filmed our continuity piece so that we could get use to the equipment(camera, tripod, how to put the dv tape in safely) we recorded our continuity piece and the took the film to the mac room so we could edit it and get use to the imovie programme.

2. For our planning evidence we looked at other movies from our genre such as dawn of the dead, shawn of the dead, land of the dead, diary of the dead, zombie land and we also looked at a foreign film called dead snow. we also looked at the typography from other films and we went to da font to play around with different titles.

3. We drew our storyboards and started to snowball ideas. when we finished this we then hired out our equipment and started to film our final decision.

4. After our filming this is when we started to edit, this is where cut unnecessary clips and added effects using i movie. we added our sound effects in from garage band.

5. This is our final step where we decided if anything needed changing with sound text and more cutting.

Production Treatment

Narrative Plot: 4 teenagers survive an airborne virus that has accidentally been released into England by the military. The boys (John, Ray, Matthew and Shaun) hide out in there school for security, but zombies eventually find them and break into the school. Which leads to John and Shaun running away from the zombies after retrieving something that could help them survive.

Target Audience: The target audience for our film 'Deadline' would be male aged from 15-18, we feel that this is the right age to target because of the blood, the dialogue, and the maturity of the film. We also think that people from 15 years and up can relate to the four teens.

Media Languages: The style of our opening sequence would be to try and make the sequence as tense and also as questionable as possible. The lighting was set to be dark at some points in the sequence to represent the darkness of the zombies but also bright to show that there are no zombies about and they are safe. There is an enigma in the sequence, at the end of the scene where we see John, Matthew and Ray inside the safe house, Ray asks John 'Did you get it?' Which John replies 'Yeah'. This leads onto an enigma because the audience at this point in the film do not know what they are talking about and that they could have got anything.

Institutions: The distributor of out film is Columbia Pictures because they have distributed many other horror films before such as Zombieland, which hit the box office at a good standard rate. Our production company is called 'Bunny Hell Productions' because we wanted to think of a phrase that is commonly used and alter it so we sound unique.

Representations: The characters are represented as a group, where we have The Leader (John), The Hard man (Shaun), The Smart man (Ray) and The Brave man (Matthew). These representation are good for the characters because of the roles that they carry throughout the film.

Genre: The codes and conventions of the film are that everything is suppose to be horror and scary because the boys don't know whether there may be zombies near by and if there is danger around them. The text is very dark and gloomy and the title of the film 'Deadline' is shown in a very dark and horror text whilst being in a dark red colour representing blood and death.

Production Brief

Production Brief: To create the titles and opening sequenece of a new fictional film.


Project Name: Deadline


Length: 90 Seconds - 2 Minutes


Deadline: Friday 11th February


Group Members And There Roles:


Mikey Masher - Actor, Director
Tom Brown - Actor
Steven Power - Actor
Charlie Hopwood - Actor


Brief Overview: 4 teenagers survive a biological weapon released by the military, the weapon transforms everyone but a certain blood type into zombies and the 4 teenagers try to survive from the zombies and also try and find help.


Target Audience: Age 15 - 21


Scheduling: Our film is aimed to be released during the Easter holidays so the people who are aged 15 -18 can have more of a chance of seeing the movie during the holidays as they are our main target audience.


Research: We have researched films such as Dawn of the Dead, Zombieland, 28 Weeks Later and The Crazies.

We will test that the product is successful and accomplished its intended effect by screening it and getting feedback from people so we can see what parts of the sequence went well and what parts could be improved.