foundation portfolio

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

I have learnt a lot during this preliminary task, such as why its important for films to make a good impression in the opening sequence, why it will be helpful to aim for a certain audience and about the use of convergence and synergy, for example; McDonalds with Disney, and film 4 with a TV channel, website and production company. I have also learnt other aspects like why it is important to keep continuity in scenes.

For our thriller sequence it took a long time to get all the shots, as we took each shot 3 times, but most of them took more due to people laughing and doing things wrong. It took a lot longer to film than we had hoped because we had to arrange days when everyone was free, and we had a lot of shots to film.

In our preliminary task i had to learn how to use the camera and i was in charge in the use of cinematography. The preliminary task helped me greatly as it helped me to manage time and to understand the camera ready for our thriller sequence.

I have enjoyed my experience of creating an opening sequence and found the filming fun. I have given all my effort in this task and hope that it will be successful.

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

Effect	Scene	Evidence
Use of Narrative		The opening shot for the beginning of our sequence is the twisted pictures production company. We chose this production company as they are well known to make horror movies and it sets the mood for our film as the barb wire and dagger connotes the feeling of death. This then fades to a black and white shot of a young girls legs, skipping and doing hopscotch which connotes a flashback scene, usualy associated with thrillers as it is a common convention. We focused the camera on the young girls legs, in which her face is never seen. This connotes mystery and keeps the audience questioning. The sequence reveals the plot of the film as you see the antagonist and tension is built up. This is a common convention of a thriller as usually the audience chooses to watch this genre of film to get a thrill, and to start our film like this is necessary. We believe that our film follows the Levi Strous theory and we chose to base our narrative on "candy man" as we liked the fact we could use the mirrors for many of our shots.
Mise-en-Scene		We have set our film in a typical bedroom, with a double bed and big mirrors. This is a common convention of a thriller as it is a place that people would feel comfortable and they would feel nothing would happen in there. We also needed floor length mirrors for the part where Saskia is summoned. We did the filming of the flashbacks outside as this is where children tend to play. To give it a more creepy feel, we filmed Saskia playing before she died, this acts as a flashback from her childhood. She is playing alone during the filming so this creates isolation as she is with no other children, this could create an insight to why she committed suicide. Most of our filming was done in the day and then for the bit where Saskia arrives we filmed it at night as the darkness is visible through the window and would create suspense as its believed most supernatural activity takes place in the dark. For the costumes all of the actors we decided they should wear their everyday clothes, this expresses a more stereotypical teenage group. For Saskia we decided to dress her as a stereotypical ghost (like 'the Ring' or 'The Grudge'), in a dirty gown with long, dark, messy hair and bare feet. This gives her a more creepy feel as she is unclean, which shows she isn't looked after. The props we used are everyday objects. This is a common convention of a thriller because there is nothing suspicious about the items and can lead to a better thrill/scare due to the audience unaware of them.
Editing Techniques		We have edited our film in many ways such as black and white shots, slow motion, shot reverse shot and cross cutting. The opening of the sequence begins with Saskia playing hop scotch and skipping, to show this is a flash back we used black and white for the scene and slowed it down. We also added a sound bridge of jodie singing a nursery rhyme to add to the effect of the flashback and drawing people in to want to see what the flashback is about.
Use of Camera		We used alot of different camera angles in our filming and had to improvise to get some of the shots. We used a two person shot at the start of our film as one of the girls was leaving to show that they were more dominant, and were trying to peer presure her. This shot is a high angle shot looking down at them to show they will soon become the vunerable ones. To achive this shot I had to climb onto the bed with the camera. When the girl left we decided to use a high angled long shot out of the window to show how she was being dominated by her friends. This is a common convention of thrillers as there is always one out of a teenage group who is the vulnerable/weak one. We used the mirror shots due to our main film idea coming from the 'candy man' film, where alot of mirror shots are used because it is cleaver and makes you feel like you are there as you can't see the camera. Also you could see inside and outside at once by looking in there which is good for when you see Saskia outside. Towards the end of our film we used a close-up on the actors hand trying to open the locked door. This connotes isolation and fear as there is no escape out of the room so they are trapped with Saskia. At the end of our film we used an eye level shot on the floor as Saskia was crawling out from under the bed towards the camera. We thought this would be a good idea as it is placed where the phone was dropped. This also creates suspence as Saskia crawls from under the bed.
Special Effects Characters		The only special effects used in our film is the film title and the opening credits. We didn't go against the conventions of a thriller/horror as we stuck to the colour red and used a sharp edged font which instantly connotes the horror/thriller genre. We have very stereotypical characters in our film, Saskia the ghost, is the antagonist who is a young female with long, dark hair and a white gown. We then have the group of friends, Keira, who is peer pressured into leaving early, and the two other friends who are the protagonists.