Forgotten final cut

This is the final cut of our opening sequence. It is an improved version of our rough cut. In order to improve it we took into account the feedback we got and reshot and recreated some titles.

Hanah Eltaher: Evaluation: Question 7

Hanah Eltaher: Evaluation: Question 6:

Hanah Eltaher: Evaluation: Question 4:

Our opening sequence would work well for our target audience because the main character is an Asian Muslim teen-aged girl meaning that the target audience can relate to the character,our target audience is 16-22 years old, makes the opening more thrilling for them because this means that they can relate to the character, and feel sympathy. 

Hanah Eltaher: Evaluation: Question 5

Mise en scene

Using an unconventional character, the protagonist is an Asian Muslim, which isn’t very frequent in the thriller films, this would immediately grab attention 

 We incorporated the dreams to create a sense of confusion; this puts the audience in the character’s position making them feel the same events as the character.

Narrative

The story-line is based similarly on Memento, but it’s more appealing to female viewers rather than male viewers, it also needs more thought to be understand

Camera 

Throughout the opening sequence there are traces of clues, foreshadowing later events in the story

We have many close-ups to give viewers a clear idea on what is happening, not to disorientate the viewers.
Use of mid shot, allowed the audience to see the hand gestures of the girl in the dreams, this allows the audience to relate to it.

Editing
In our sequence we added the fade to white, to make the audience understand that its a series of dreams, rather than just flashbacks.

                                                                                        

Hanah Eltaher: Evaluation: Question 3

3:   What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

• Our opening is fairly niche and compact, it only applies to a minority of the population therefore, I think an independent distribution company such as Intandem Disruption Company.
• The narrative of our film is complex as it involves a process, and the audience have to pick up various hints from the opening sequence to understood the story line. 
• Our use of an untypical protagonist makes our film easier to distribute  with an independent company because it's more compact and doesn't apply to the whole population.  
• A film from Intandem Disruption company: Incubus - Stranded after a car accident, a medical school student and her friends try to find shelter - only to cross paths with a deranged killer.

• This is a smaller company which is more likely to distribute it to smaller theatres, and from there it can start to gain it’s credit and appear in cinema’s.

Hanah Eltaher: Evaluation: Question 2

2)  How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We feel like we have represented a niche audience, an Islamic Asian teenager social group

• The young Muslim character 'Noor' is the protagonist of our film  
• This is representation of them, is stereotypical  suggesting that perhaps young Muslim teenage girls are suppressed and feel the need to rebel. However it goes against the traditions of the religious views, which makes the narrative seem anti-stereotypical. 
• We created this image of the protagonist  to challenge the audience's usual 'thriller film' experience, it challenged the conventions as in most thriller films, older white males are the lead characters. 

Muslim women in general are out cased from the 'media' and aren't given a specific role in any leading thriller films. This video is the main reason, as to why I felt that our main character should be untypical of a thriller film.

Hanah Eltaher: Evaluation: Question 1

1.     In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

 

Title of the film

In our titles we used a white on black fits in with the aesthetic atmosphere we were trying to achieve.  We were inspired by the title from the film ‘Seven’, this film inspired us because it was a psychological thriller and it uses all of the conventional features of a thriller, to create an unsettled eerie feel to the opening sequence

The setting/location

·            Another technique we used to show the various aspects of a thriller was the significance of the weather: extremely gothic; the first opening scene is of the sky, with cloud, suggesting an eerie atmosphere..
·            The soundtrack of the religious call to prayer made it seem more like a religious thriller, however it was to give an insight on the character that was going to appear in the shot.

The costumes and props

·         In one of our panning scenes we used various props to relate to this psychological thriller genre, we wanted to create this hospital like atmosphere. We developed this convention very well as we were successfully able to mimic a hospital form, make it look realistic. In the shot below there are the white sheets that we also used to make it seem like a hospital bed and again add to the subtle hints of it being a psychological thriller.
Another major convention used in our thriller, was to make the character from ethnic minority religious group: an Asian Muslim girl. This is untypical of an English Thriller film, because it applies to a more niche audience, the items of clothing used are more suited for an Asian Islamic girl, and this is why we decided to dress the character like this

How the characters are introduced

In our thriller opening sequence, we did not want to create a conventional idea for the characters, we avoided keeping the central character ambiguous because we understood that the story-line was already hard to grasp. A long shot of the main character is incorporated before the titles, and a closeup of the side of her head, however in the side view she still remains hidden. As we put the shots together we decided to put the side view before she is viewed in the shot below, just to add to the religious aspect of the thriller.

 

Camerawork and Editing

• Most of our camerawork and editing challenge the conventional features, as the shot on the left was not filmed in the typical ‘gothic’ weather; this was utilized to make viewers disorientated on the genre of the film, although the next few shots make it clear that it’s a psychological thriller.

• The editing was done very carefully to add this ‘dream like effect, while the central character is laying the hospital, the transitions fade in and out of her hands and face, into the dreams, with a white flash, the dreams have bright ‘fairy-tale’ like filter, which makes the shots glow. The close-up of the ring is very important as it will be featured later on in the film, it will be the only piece of evidence that will tie the central character with the crime. This is a very conventional feature as the use of a prop indicates the foreshadowing in a thriller film.

Title font and style  

 We decided as a group to use the same font style as the title, for all of the other titles, our font style is very simple and not at all conventional. The title choice was very unconventional as many thrillers incorporate the word ‘the’ before the title example ‘the grudge’. However like ‘Seven’ and ‘Inception’ we decided to go for a short snappy name, which wrapped up the film in one word, ‘forgotten’.

 

 

Story and Genre: How they were presented in opening

• The story was presented very realistically in the opening shots, with the prayer call soundtrack playing in the background, and camera panning down from the sky onto the shot of the central female character; it frames the idea of a Muslim Asian girl going to pray. The car accident that she falls into arrives unexpectedly to give other turn to the story line.
• The genre is presented as a psychological thriller through the props and use of the hospital scene, the dream like scenarios, and the soundtrack all come hand in hand to create an illusion of memory loss, which relates to the title.

Special effects

• We used a blur in sfx for names of the producers, directors and editors to create the illusion of memory fading or becoming blurred. It also looks like her memory has been erased as the names come off the screen.

Elaine Allotey: Evaluation Question7 Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

 

Elaine Allotey: Evaluation Question 6, What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Elaine Allotey: Evaluation Question 5, How did you attract/address your audience?

As my opening would have a 15+ certification, there are limitations in how far I can go with content such as sexuality, strong language and violence. Below are the guidelines :

We had to abide by the BBFC rules for 15+ classification in order to produce our opening sequnece.

Below is an annotated video of how I tried to target the audience:

Elaine Allotey: Evaluation Question 4 Who would be the audience for your media product?

In order to find out and investigate the target audience and age certification, we carried out a questionnaire to ask people about their ages and the different conventions they liked in films which we incorporated in our films once we came to conclusion about who the target audience was.

We collated the results and came to a conclusion that the target audience for our opening was 15.

This meant that there had to be minimal use of violence, drug use and sexual content in our opening.

One limitation was the fact that we distributed the questionnaire in our school mostly to the students which meant that we didn't get varied responses to make an opening which is 18+.

 

We also gathered from our questionnaire that our opening would be a niche product target young Muslims girls as they are able to relate to what is happening and might not target all Muslim women as the older generations whether Muslim or not are seen as very traditional.

Having a 15+ classification means there are ceratin guidelines we had to follow to make sure our opening was approriate.

Typical audience
Generally, a typical audience would include 15+ males or females depending on what type of thriller it is. Normally, psychological thrillers will be 18+ as they include a lot of violence and is therefore harmful for younger audiences.
For our opening, a typical member of our audience has to be 15+ as it contains minimal use of violence and
sexuality. They can belong to any gender but will have to enjoy psychological thrillers. Also they h=may have to be interest in themes of independent films as our opening targets a niche audience which we expect to grow due to the increasing breakdown to traditional conventions such as Asians or Muslims being seen as villians.

Elaine Allotey: Evaluation Question 3, What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

 After the collation of our audience research, we came to the conclusion that our target audience's preferred factors and techniques are those  that make mainstream films and conventions. Our film however tackles problems associated with independent films. it also challenges and subverts typical conventions of a thriller therefore, an independent institution would be more effective.

Why?
This is because our opening has a complex narrative due to the misleading of the audience through the charcters friends and the ambigious charcter.  It is also character driven with the conventinal dark themes been represented.

I think the most effective company would be Miramax films which is supported by the big six companies which include Walt Disney and Filmyard holdings. It is one of the leading independent film motion picture distribution and production companies. 





'prepared to take significant risks in choosing films with difficult themes and tailoring marketing strategies to suit each film's strengths' - Bob and Harvey Weinstein

They have produced and distributed films such as Good Will Hunting, Pulp Fiction, The Crying Game, and My Left Foot.
Looking at the above films, you can see the diversification and variation when it comes to an independent label. For example, The crying game explores themes about racism and sexuality through Irish Troubles whilst Pulp Fiction is a crime thriller. Both are thrillers but explore different types of issues.

Also another independent label we might consider may be summit entertainment which is a subsidiary of Lionsgate Entertainment. This label has produced movies such as The Twilight Series. This may be suitable majority of the films are independent.

Elaine Allotey: Evaluation Question 2 How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The prezi above shows the social represntations and how I used and explored them

Elaine Allotey: Evalution Question 1,In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The Title (location, typography and meaning) of the film

In order to have a successful and effective film title to captivate the audience, I researched titles of different thrillers and how they use font and the different variety that they use. For example, pulp fictions 3D title still manages to attract the audience even though it is not the usual convention when it comes to font for thrillers. For the title I used Bebas Neue to give my opening a more professional look. Also I used a glass shatter effect on after effects to reinforce the accident scene that happens with inspiration from M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable.

The only difference is that the glass shatter was at the background of the title as seen above. I felt that in our opening,  the actual title shattering was more suitable for the scene as it reinforces the accident and links in to the idea of minimal violence for a 15+ classification.
Also the glass shatter effect goes with the storyline as the protagonist loses her memory i.e title represents her memory and it shattering represents her memory loss.

The name forgotten, is a summary of the plot line and is the main reason for the protagonist’s behaviour in the rest of the film. This is a general convention of films as the title is short (Memento, Inception, Pyscho) and very catchy. This may not be the same any more as movies such as the Silence of the lambs. Originally we thought of films with Latin or Spanish titles such as Memento and Da Vinci Code.

Location

Also majority of our opening was set in a hospital

with the first couple of scenes outside near the streets this allowed us to film the accident scene.This allowed us to challenge some thriller conventions especially when it came to lighting as the lighting was an uncontrollable factor. Therefore we had to film late afternoon to add a gloomy feel to the scene. We also used the hospital like scene inside with high key lighting. This convention was used to represent the intensity of the dreams the character is having.

Plot and Characters 

The main plot of our opening can be described as quite conventional but with a twist. Our main character is peculiar character as she's not the normal character seen in most thrillers. Her Islamic values and appearance physically adds a twist to both the story line and the scene.  This is because the costume and props the characters use in a scene somewhat describes their nature and adds some detail to the scene. Furthermore, muslim characters tend to be cast as the role of villians due to their representation in the media. Also the fact that she's a young girl makes our opening very unconventional as protagonists in thrillers are mainly males who are mostly dominant.

The costume in this image adds some sort innocence to the whole scene.

The plot of the film is quite conventional as we have the mentally challenged individual who kills people which is mainly due to an incident in their childhood but in our opening the protagonist waywardness is due to the impact of the friends she chooses.

Sound & Editing

The heartbeat used after the accident is quite conventional as it is an up building beat and tends to create tension and suspense on the audience. also the sound used in the dream is to add a dreamlike effect to it. This also links  the jump cuts in the hospital creates that sort of suspense as it fades to black.

How Character Is Introduced

When we first introduced our character, we could see her walking out of a building with the Islam call to prayer playing in the background. This reinforces her strict Islamic background. Unlike some thrillers we challenged the dark lighting that is conventional especially at the openings. This was done to highlight the innocence of the character and introduce her as a protagonist.

Story and How The Opening Sets It Up

The opening almost sets the scene, lays foundation and allows the audience to have some background idea of the storyline. In our opening we did this through the protagonists dreams, where we highlighted what had happened before with her friends.

Genre and How The Opening Suggests It

Most thriller openings are seen as very conventional i.e. dark lighting, ambiguous characters, violence etc. This then keeps the audience in suspense and gives them something to wait for. The opening acts as some sort of hint as to what is happening in the film. For example, in the silence of the lamb;

In the above, we can see that already there are some themes that have been introduced.

Saddef Anwar: Evaluation -Question Seven

7. Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Looking back at my preliminary task I feel that I have progressed a lot not only as an individual but also as part of a group. Though we had a bit of a rough start with our preliminary task and made some silly mistakes whilst filming, we had to reshoot everything, however, we learnt how to avoid making such mistakes again. For example when filming the over the shoulder shots, one actor was filmed over the right shoulder, whilst the other on the left, breaking the 180degree line rule.

One area in which we have greatly improved in is our camera work. In our preliminary task we had to end up reshooting the conversation since we did not use the 180 degrees line when filming the over the shoulder shots for the conversation.

This is a shot from the reshoot of the shot reverse shot of the conversation in the preliminary task. One error with this shot is that we see too much of the male character, and therefore it just looks like the audience is standing behind the male character, also it makes the male characters head more dominant and the focus is laid upon him, rather than the female character who is speaking.

We also used a variety of close ups on the characters, we' mainly used close ups of the legs and feet and used the editing technique match on action to enhance the continuity.
Also you could see the clear cut the match on action especially when the main character was opening the door at the first scene.

In terms of sound, the dialogue was not as clear as it should have been but then again we had no control over that and it was very difficult when trying to find a quiet environment.

In terms of mise-en-scene our female lead is wearing black suggesting a dark personality, this is reinforced in the content of the clip where she is breaking up with her boyfriend. On the contrary the other male character is wearing lighter colours, for example white an beige, these colours reflect his innocence and vulnerability in the clip. 

Overall I feel that the use of making a preliminary task was very useful as it helped us to get comfortable using the cameras and experimenting different shots and compositions, and also it helped us to identify ourselves with the macs in terms of editing. due to this we did not have that much of a problem and loads to learn whilst actually making our final product.