Don’t Close Your Eyes Opening Sequence Evaluation

By Coral-Anne Houghton

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

•One film that inspired our opening sequence was Blair Witch project, although this film is a true story we used the same kind of location e.g. the woods we did this to create a isolated feeling to the dream scene of our opening credits. This is also a conventional setting for a horror film that works well to create and creepy and eerie feeling to our opening sequence. Blair Witch Project

My sequence

•Although my sequence wasn’t a documentary like Blair Witch Project we use some hand held camera shots just like Blair Witch Project to give the sequence a more realistic feel to it.

•Final Destination is another film that we used for inspiration For our sequence, final destination is about a teenage boy who experiences an accident before it happens meaning that he see’s the further just like the main charter of the sequence. Also the main charters of this film are mostly made up of teenagers/young adults just like our opening Sequence.

•For the opening we stated by going straight into action instead of building up to in, this is something that is also used in final destination. We did this because we thought it would work well because it makes the film interesting and gripping from the very start.

This is a screen shot of the scene where the main charter has just ha the dream about the murder

•Another film that we took inspiration from was Scream, Scream is mainly made up of charters who are teenagers\young adults just like our sequence and also the killers identity is unknown when they are murdering there victims, this something we also wanted to have in our own sequence.

•When we were deciding on our costume we thought it would be best if we kept the clothing simple and normal wear for teenagers but to show that the killer wanted to be kept unknown we used gloves because we only wanted to show the killers hands we still wanted to make sure that nothing about the killer was known.

•Also the heroin is also a female in the scream film just like in my opening sequence

•Also another conversion of horror I used was for our logo to make it fit the genre of horror we wanted to use a font to make in look more eerie so we used two different fonts which were Blood Crow and Survival horror, this made the logo look more interesting and creepy. This something used on horror movie posters for films like “30 Days of night”.

• For the soundtrack of my opening sequence I wanted to use a mix of sounds to create an unease atmosphere, the same feeling that the soundtrack The Shining used at the start of the film. This was something I heard when I watched the opening sequence for assessment two and it made me feel jump and anxious to find out what is was leading and I decided this was the same feeling I wanted to give my audience.

For our opening sequence I used a lot of conventions of real media products especially horror films that have mainly used a teenage cast for the main charters like Scream and Final destination.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product mainly represents young females because I used an all female casted who where between the ages of 16 to 18 making the the charters all young adults/teenagers including the victim, I decided to make the victim a female because I wanted to make the charter seem as vulnerable as possible and this was accomplished by using a young female, who was also dressed very girly and young to make her look more vulnerable. Another female charter in this sequence was the main charter who I wanted to seem more mature and stronger so I used plain clothes so she didn't look as girly looking as the victim but I also didn't want the attention take away for what was going on in the scene because over powering costumes so dressing plain worked well.

• Another way a young social group was represented in the sequence by using the Internet to show the news of the murder, This represents a young social group because teenagers are more likely to find the news out on Internet sites like facebook or blogger then read it in the news paper and we used blogger for the report in the sequence.

This is a screen grab of the article that I created for my sequence to report the news of a murder.

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

• The way the very start of my opening sequence that was filmed outside looks like an art house film because of the sun and visual effects used and also because of the shot and angles used like the hand held and point of views used but the storyline its self makes it a Hollywood teen film like final destination because the age rating for my film is an 18, the cast was between 16 to 18 and the main charter is a teenager who has to be the heroin of the film but she is someone who teenage girls can relate to. These are mainly conventions of a teenage Hollywood horror film and this was shown in question one where the two of the films that mainly inspired my sequence are teen Hollywood horror films e.g. Final Destination and Scream.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

• I rated my film an 18 so the target audience is mainly around that age to mid twenty's. I think the young audience of around about the age of 18 would enjoy it because they would rate to the cast who are the same age as them but I think bother a groups would enjoy the storyline because its scary, mysterious and jumpy and I would as the film would go on the deaths would be more violent to make the film move gripping. The sequence is also rated an 18 because I thought that a younger audience would be unsuitable because of the violence and also because its a very mysterious film because its about a girl who can see the future including random strangers been killed and also the mysterious killer, this a complex storyline that I think a younger audience would not enjoy and possible find uninteresting compared to a young adult or a adult I think in this sense it relates to the storyline of The strangers because that is an very complicated film because you don't truly understand why they are torturing a young couple and the killers are unknown and even when their faces are shown the have no significance because they play no roll but the killers.

How did you attract/address your audience?

My film mainly addresses females because they can relate to the charters because the understand the vulnerability of the victims in a way and how scared they would feel in the same position and as they would want to be like the main charter because she is one minutes a normal every day teenager the next she has to play the hero and save people, they might want the pressure and fear the charter would feel but they would like the glory and to able to save the day without the help of a man to make them feel more dominate. The viewer also see from the killers point of view when they are about to attack this makes them fear more for the victim because they are giving the knowledge that someone is in fact watching her this makes the scene move gripping for the audience because they sense what is about to happen.

Angle used in my in my sequence

The main charter in my sequence is an teenager.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

• From my research before recording my sequence I learnt how over the years technology has changed and using new technology has improved the horror genre. It has come along way from silent, black and white films. While making the sequence itself I developed my camera skills, using a lot of angles, shot and movements to create an atmosphere or feeling to a scene e.g. using handheld to create a jumpy and panicked feeling or using a tilt to go from focusing on someone’s hands to their face so it looks more effective. Another technology program I have learnt about is garage band I used this for the first time to make the soundtrack to the opening sequence I used sounds like the piano and the guitar to make a gripping and effective soundtrack that worked well on the sequence.

• I also used imove to edit the sequence but this wasn't the first time I’ve used it but its the first time I have added images and sound onto a clip/sequence. The only other Mac program I used was Photoshop to create my logo which i also downloaded fonts to add to make in fit the horror genre of the sequence. From using all these different programs to create my sequence I learn how to edit clips together to make an effective horror sequence, how to create a soundtrack that fits the atmosphere of a horror film and to create a logo in a style to fit my film.

Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the

full product?

After planning and producing this product I have learnt that a lot of planning goes into making something like an opening sequence I started by researching in the convention of horror were I looked at things like different types of charters and setting used in a horror. Then I watched an opening sequence of the horror film The Shining and saw what camera angles, shots and movements I was also inspired by the soundtrack used. I also look at the credit order so I knew what order to put my own credits. I then look at the history of the horror genre to find out the different types of horror films that have been created over the years and the way technology has changed over the years and how it has effect horror films. Also I looked at age ratings of different horror films and what certain age rating contained I then decided on what age rating we were going to have for our own sequence. I then planed what the story-line was going to be for our sequence and where it was going to be set. once this was complete I created an animatic so knew the order of our scenes and what camera angle was going to be used in the different scene.

• When it got to filming our opening sequence I struggled with the camera angles at first because I was filming in the woods and the ground was muddy so it was hard to get camera shots level and at first they all looked very uneven. I also used a lot of tracking shots in sequence so I had to make sure that we used right speed and angle I think by the end of filming our tracking shots had improved. At the start of filming our knowledge of using the camera were basic I knew the different angles and what they look like but I had never tired them myself so I found how to make the different camera angles more effective and where the camera should be to get the best angles and if certain angles or movements would work in the location we were using. At first I didn't feel overly confident using the camera but after using it I felt I could use the camera a lot more confidently because I now to know how to set up the shots that need to be used. This was a grate improvement from the premiary task there wasn't many angle and shots used for it and they were all very basic and also we didn't used any soundtrack so the sound was very good. also the whole scene wasn't very well planed out so the dialog wasn't very clear and didn't completely make scene so I think this sequence shows a lot of improvement.