WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?

WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY?

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https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/eaAG9qQUkwO/question-three/?mode=movie#/

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP, OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

Within the media industry, film producers and directors typically tend to stick to conventional elements of narrating and presenting within their products. They do this as it increases the probability of a product succeeding, and so helps to ensure that a film is going to be a success with its audience and make a profit. I learned this information through researching into the media industry, and the information which I found out showed me that film products which have stereotypical elements within them tend to generate more profit than those that don't. Furthermore, I tried to add a variety of stereotypical elements into my film opening to ensure that it applied to a specific genre and so my target audience would enjoy the contents of my product. 

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My film opening begins with a series of shots, one is of a doll (which shows up a numerous amount of times again within the rest of my opening), there is a shot of a teddy bear, and other shots which follow similar conventions. All of these items displayed within my film opening are codes for childhood. I am aware that you would suspect that this is the complete juxtaposition of a horror genre, however I do believe that, when looking at popular horror films in today's society, it is not uncommon for child like conventions to be used within horror products. Furthermore, this could mean that my media opening follows a route which is both conventional and unconventional, meaning that I could potentially get the benefits of having an unconventional media opening (audience intrigued by unconventionality), whilst still reaping the benefits of my media product being somewhat familiar to an horror audience through certain stereotypical shots (the forest, people running).

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The opening of my media product is a close up of a doll, the shot stays centre to the dolls face and the camera slowly tilts, moving horizontally until the camera stops moving, displaying the doll from an horizontal angle. The turning of the camera movement is slow, and in the background plays a child laughing. My aim when filming this shot was to convey to an audience a sinister undertone to this scene by increasing the the slowness of the tilting camera, and hopefully, by focusing upon the doll, display to an audience that this code is significant within the rest of the narrative. The backing track is asynchronous to the clip as they both link to childhood, however, by adjusting the lighting in Final Cut and adding the VHS tape effect on Imovie, I believe this adds a what Strauss called a binary opposite composition to the mise-en-scene of my plot, as the dim lighting contrasts a character which would otherwise be seen as innocent. I think this is a relatively conventional route to follow, as successful horror films such as Chucky and Annabelle both focus on on codes which would typically connote childhood and innocence, but, through the use of composition and character, ensure that these what would be "childlike" codes are presented in a darker light. 

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Another way in which my product may be seen as conventional is due to titling. Like in film openings I studied for my research and planning, I decided to display my titling over the top of the scenes first played within the beginning of my main sequence. Within my first edit this was different, as I displayed the titling on a slide of it's own between clips. I changed this due to my film opening having too many compositional elements which were similar to that of a film trailer, however, regardless of this, both ways of displaying titling followed a conventional route as, within almost all film products, things such as main actors and film company logos are shown within the beginning of the product. This may be due to media organisations wanting to publicise their company so, if an audience member liked the film they were currently watching which displayed the company's logo, they may be more inclined to go and see future releases of the company at the cinema, helping the organisation to survive and compete against other businesses. The way I went about displaying my titling to my audience is by having it scroll down the bottom of my clips, exclusing the title that appeared on its own slide. The colour I selected for my titling was gray as I realised that both black and red seemed to clash with the rest of the colours of the mise-en-scene of the shots they were in. The colour gray for a film of a horror genre is un stereotypical as the titling of the films I have seen of that genre typically tend to be white, black or red, furthermore, you could say that this colour is unconventional compared to existing media texts. I realise that this was a risk on my part as the colour gray is rather monotone and may bore an audience, however, I do believe that the colour gray provides an aged, old fashioned, maybe even newspaper like feel to my media product and that is why I took the risk of selecting it for my film opening. Hopefully, the dated quality to the colour will spark what Barthes would call an enigma code within my text, and cause an audience to wonder why I used this colour, and what it could possibly mean, evidently persuading them to keep watching and providing intrigue.The reason I wanted my text to scroll along the bottom of my clips was because I believed this may add an old style crime like vibe to my text. However, watching my film opening back now, I realise the text swipes along too quickly, and so, if I were to have more time on this in the future, slowly down the speed of my titling may be a crucial element to display my product in a more professional manor.

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A way my film opening my be unconventional is due to backstory of a character being shown within the first 2 minutes of my product. The main villain within my film is shown within a shot within the last frame of my film opening and the shot before that is supposed to be a sentence from an article informing my audience about a missing girl. When I was making my film opening, I wanted the last two scenes to respond to each other in a way that created an enigma code within my product, as I wanted an audience member to be curious as to who this character was, if she was the girl form the article, or if she was the victim of the girl from the article. If the rest of my film existed, you'd find that the girl was in actual fact a victim of the character mentioned within the article. This shock narrative follows a conventional route as it focuses on the element of surprise, something common within horror films, however, as an audience member may not be able to gain this knowledge through the opening alone, they may assume that the girl shown in a close up shot which ends my film opening is the same girl mentioned within the article shown prior. This provides an answer to the question of who the girl was rather quickly, providing an un conventional element to my product as horror films tend to have mysteries are typically an element to them within them as this usually provides intrigue to a text, persuading an audience to to keep watching. 

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When analysing my film, I realise that i have a variety of elements that are present within other horror films (Sinister, Annabelle, the conjuring). This could potentially mean that, overall, my film is conventional as it fits into the Postmodernism Theory, the theory that states that every media product is in some way a replica of what came before. My film opening is like Sinister as it has the VHS like effect over some of my clips, my film is like Annabelle and the Conjuring because of the shots which involve the porcelain doll. Furthermore, these elements which are all arguably unconventional within their own right, are based upon successful ideas which stemmed from successful horror products I had gained inspiration from. Furthermore, this may ensure that, in reality, my product is not unconventional at all. This would be a safe side to play as it may help to secure the probabilities of my product succeeding with an audience. 

Final Product

https://youtu.be/I2606a2y7Fo

Film company logo

For my film opening I have made a film company logo. I made this logo on Photoshop and added motion into the moon image which I included in order to make it move. The reasons in which I have done this are because it makes my film company logo appear to be more professional and realistic, and furthermore I am hoping this will help to increase my over all mark.

I have named my film company 'moonlight productions', as I believe this name sounds both professional and original. This will once again add a realistic vibe to my film company logo, which should in return help to add a sophistication to the entirety of my films opening. In addition to this, the reason I have selected the name 'moonlight productions' is because I think it fits in with other successful film company names within the industry such as Universal studios etc.

Making this film logo has not only showed me how much work can go into even what appears to be the most simplistic parts of a film, but it has also taught me how to add motion into final cut and helped to familiarize me more with Photoshop.

Film company logo P2

After adding my original three logos into final cut I determined that they didn't exactly look the way I wanted them too. Instead of the more sophisticated, believable logo's I was aiming to achieve, they looked very un professional and they didn't have the realistic, film company logo quality to them which I was aiming for.

Furthermore, I decided that I wanted to create another film logo that would be of a quality I was happy with. To ensure that the next company logo which I create wont look different when moving it from photoshop to final cut, I am going to create the logo in final cut itself in order to avoid things going wrong at transition.

VHS tape

During the production of my film opening I decided the dated, vintage, and realistic vibe which I wanted to add into  my video wasn't as apparent as I wanted it to be. Furthermore, I thought about how I could change this, and decided to add a VHS tape like effect over the top of my clip. This idea was inspired by the film sinister, and I believed that making some of my clips look as if they were in actual fact filmed with a dated camera would not only add a realistic vibe into my film opening, but it may also ensure that the clips which are intended to be set in the past are clearly set in a different time zone to the clips which are set in present day.

First impressions and worries of foundation portfolio

After finishing my first draft of my main video, I am slightly worried that the beginning sequence of my main video I have added in order to try and include a flash forward vibe to my main video-like in the film blood brothers-is going to add a trailer like vibe to my main video and furthermore lower the marks in which my video will recieve.

Furthermore, I am going to talk to my teacher about her opinions on this, as well as researching into several other videos made my previous students to see if any had similar videos to mine and the feedback and marks they received.

Audience

As a media student, I realise that an audience is the main successor in making a product of media successful. Furthermore, I have created a website using wix in which I have collected some information about audience as a generalization which should furthermore help me in making my main video.

The link below will take you to my website.

 Audience (http://haga11mh1.wixsite.com/website-6)

Typography

When thinking about the the ideal font of the titling I wished to include within my main task, I didn't have a set idea of what I wanted. However, I did have the idea that I wanted a titling that would represent my horror genre, whilst also having elements that could represent codes for the rest of my narrative. After browsing through several different fonts on website 'dafont', I decided that I like the idea of a type writer style font.

After making this decision, I came up with a few of my favourite typewriter decisions form daft, and ask my class mates on their opinions about which font I should use. They all selected one named "typewriter style", however, when I went to download this font I saw a different typewrite style font named "1942 report". I was immediately drawn to this font as I believed it fit in perfectly with the vintage, VHS like effect I planned on featuring within my film opening. And after asking the people in my class what they thought, they all agreed that this font was better suited that the one previously selected.

My reasons for this are that, when deliberating the plot and back story of the main 'villain' within my film opening, I decided that I wanted my main villain to be a the ghost of a young girl which died at the hands of her fellow classmates in school. Furthermore, I have decided that, if possible, I want to try and convey that my film opening is set in the mid 90's, maybe even earlier than this. Therefore, it would be more likely that, in these times, typewriters would be a more common form of typing than using a computer. Evidently, this would mean that, to include a font the style of a typewriter in my film opening, i am producing an enigma code within the rest of my narrative. 

Audience feedback

After conducting my research into audience, I realised just how important their opinions and feedback are when creating good content media products. Furthermore, I created a grid when considering the different types of titling I was thinking about including in my main product, and asked people within my class to state which titling they thought fit in best with the genre of my film opening. The results are demonstrated below. I am aware that my results are not representative due to the limited amount of people which gave their opinions, however some research is better than none. 

New storyboard

This is my new and final storyboard. The shooting of this storyboard will take place soon.

Re shooting

After looking back at the shots I have collected from my first attempt at filming, and after attempting to put them together in final cut express, i have realised that I have some continuity issues due to the fact that when I started filming, it was light, and when I finished filming, it was dark. In addition to this, another problem I have come across is that my film opening gives strong elements of a film trailer, and the clips I have collected don't fit into the original concept thought of for my main task. Because of this, I have decided to re shoot my films.

I am aware that this will be time consuming and will push my pace back, however I am going to alter my storyboard and select specific locations before I go to re shoot in order to make things run as efficently as possible.

American Horror Story - All Seasons Opening Credits (Season 1 to 5)

The opening scenes to American horror story have all inspired me when thinking about what I would like to shoot for my main task.

Sound

In a media text it is very important to establish context and atmosphere. One of the most effective ways of creating an atmosphere is through music. So, in order to help me with my main task, I have created a mind map showing which types of sounds can be used within film.

Storyboard

This is my story board:

Making my storyboard

When creating my story board I have gone down a different route that I was planning to originally, the circus theme I was planning to follow has changed into a more generic horror theme, and the film opening will now be more action filled than previously planned. When creating my storyboard something I have realised that my opening sequence has the potential to come across as a film trailer, so when editing my clips together I need to be conscientious that an examiner will be able to recognise that my opening sequence is in fact an opening sequence, and not a film trailer.

When creating my story board I was inspired by the opening sequence of scream, I have included hints of my killer in my opening sequence, and hopefully my audience will be able to recognise that the murder that takes place in my opening sequence represents the first murder of many that would potentially take place in the rest of my narrative. 

Soundtrack- Part 3

I have come across the following the following soundtrack which I think fits in perfectly with the tone and genre I want to create for my horror film. As showed in the screenshot above, the music is copyright free as long as I credit the creator of the soundtrack.