MAIN: Post 12.1: Question 1

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


I was unable to upload our final opening sequence onto my blog so I have put a link to below to click on and it will show our opening sequence.

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrsShipp100#p/u/39/mZKSK9mFFrQ


Task 1.1-
Directors Commentry on 'Suspect'

The storyline of the film is a police investigation of a girl going missing after school. We placed the stalker in front of the camera while following the girl out of the school and this created the genres that we were trying to create which was mystery/ crime/ drama. By putting the man in front of the camera gives a sense of all three of these genres. The storyline is simple by the way we have done it so it is easy to understand, we have also made it more clear about what is going on by putting a voice over of a police report about what has happened and that the fottage being shown was sent into the police station and then leads on to the rest of the film about a detective case of trying to find the girl that has gone missing.

The narrative enigma is not answered in the opening sequence about whether the girl is going to be found so for it to be answered they must watch the whole film to find out. As the film goes on it is a detective case to try and find the person who has taken the girl and as it tells us in the voice over the kidnapper is believed to have been involved in other crimes and is a threat. The storyline of this will unfold as the film goes on. So therefore, the opening sequence we have created and the feeling it gives off will make the audience carry on watching the rest of the film.

The camera angles and sizes that we have used are effective in the way the it gives of different feelings for the rest of the film. We have also placed titles in places where it goes from one shot to another. We found that watching someone walking and a camera following them for too long looses the audiences attenetion so we placed titles in certain places and we jumped to different parts so it would keep the attention from the audience. By doing this we saved alot of time on the opening sequence to add more titles and it does not allow the audience to get bored and loose interest too soon.

We have a non-diagetic light tempo soundtrack playing the whole way through the opening sequence and this is creating a mood where the audience is being drawn in to what is happening on the screen and creates the intensity of the sitiuation. There is also a voice over which is layered over the other soundtrack which we have used and this is building up more of an atmosphere.

The titles that we have added in our opening sequence all have a purpose to where they are placed in the sequence and for how long they last. We have placed them in parts where we want to go from different shot sizes, e.g at the beginning of the sequence it shows a long shot, then goes to a title and then it goes to a medium shot and this is a good way of going to different shot sizes and angles so we do not have to use jump cuts. The titles fade in and fade out and the font is not very big but is the right font to catch the audiences attention.

The mise-en-scene of the characters is a school uniform with a maroon blazer and black skirt, they are also holding school bags and this is creating the idea of them being school girls without having to question it, so the characters purpose is stated through their costumes.

I found this image from the website http://www.artofthetitle.com/ and this is an image board from the film 'Se7en' and they are screen shots taken from the opening sequence of this film. I have looked at this because the genre of the film is a mystery thriller and our genre had a part of mystery in it and I looked to see what kind of screen shots they used to show their opening sequence. This helped me make my image board with screen shots from our opening sequence and below is the one that I have made...

This is a table of nine screen shots that I have collected from our opening sequence 'Suspect'. I have chosen these pasific screen shots because I think that they give you an idea of what happens in the opening sequence and what the story line for the rest of the film will be about. I have shown two images of different titles, the first is showing the title of the film which is 'Suspect' and the second one is showing the company of the production of the film. I have then shown the other images because I feel that it makes it look intense about what the film is about and if someone has not seen the clip then these images would make people want to know more about it and would have more public interest about the film. Also some of the images such as the fourth and the sixth images have dark lighting and this is showing the mood that is being portrayed.

MAIN: Post 12a: Evaluation- Audience Feedback

To get feedback on our opening sequence we showed four people that are the age of our target audience and we asked them a series of questions on their thoughts of our opening sequence and we recorded their feedback. Any criticisms they had on our opening sequence we took into account and made any possible and necessary changes to our sequence in the time we had left. We found that by doing a viedo recording of their feedback was a good way in helpin us as a group develop our opening sequence and helps gives us some other ideas which would help it appeal to the target audience.
I was unable to upload the video of our feedback to my blog so I have put a link below which whill take you to our feedback.

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrsShipp100#p/u/10/zriilFwMlRU

MAIN: Post 10: Post-production

The first stages of editing that we had to do was to capture all of the filming that we had done. We then created a table on microsoft ord and this was called our logging rashes and we had to give exact timings of our filming and say if we are going to use this piece in our final opening sequence or if we are not going to use it. This stage took us about 1 hour and the reason why this is useful because it saves us time while editing and we know exactly what parts we want to use and it makes the editing stage more organized and saves us time. During editing we had to make many decisions within the group such as what parts of the film we wanted in the final thing and the shot sizes of this and what works best with each other. We also had to put titles in different parts of the sequence and we had to decide on what fonts and font sizes would work best and also how long each one was on the screen for and if it worked in that particular part of the sequence.

MAIN: Post 9: Production

Production Report
During the filming part of our task we had to work together as a group to come out with good results. We had to plan out when we were all free to film so that we all could work together. We set a time and location for the three of us to set up and film our sequence. When we has set up all of our equipment we had to think about what was the best place to postion the camera due to the lighting and the suitability of the surroundsing whilst filming. We also had to decied on what shot sizes we would use and we had to think about doing a couple of different shot sizes of the same scene because during the editing stages it would give us more of an option to what shot we wanted to use in the final sequence. We had to work together if we thought that something that we was going to do in our original idea did not work out to plan so we had to come together and think of different ideas that we could do instead of this original idea, and example of this was when we had the idea of kidnapper having his own footage of the two school girls and having it from his perspective and we realised that this was not working out as well as we planned because it would confuse the audience when the film carrys on to be in the thrid person not the first person. Due to the fact that we had already filmed our whole sequence in the first person we realised that our footage was not good enough because our camera was not stable and the distance from where it was filmed and it was zoomed in when there was movement there was a shadow of the movement and we all decided that it was not of a good enough quality and come to the conclusion that we would have to re-film the whole sequence again. We made ourselves more organized and changed parts of our origninal idea to make it better. We got more people involved to help us out and be in the background to create the school scene. We did a lot more different shot sizes and this would help us during the editing stages. We found that the second time filming was more successful than the first time and we ended up with better results.

MAIN: Post 7:Focus Group

We set up a focus group of two boys and two girls, they are around the same age as us but they each have different interests in films. We sat them down together and explained in detail our idea for out opening sequence, we then gave them time to think about it and what they thought and we then asked them a series of questions while filming them. We asked them questions such as 'what genre of film do you think this is?' and the main answers were mystery, drama and thriller. We also asked questions such as 'what are your first impressions of the film from what we have told you?' and by us asking these questions has given us and idea to whether we think we need to change our idea for the opening sequence and how to improve. This is a key piece of research into whether our idea is good because it tells us if this opening sequence will make people want to watch the rest of the film which is what an opening sequence is meant to do. This is our video from the focus group..

MAIN: Post 8: Pre Production Documentation

Synopsis of opening sequence

There is footage from a handheld camera that follows two school girls out of the school gates and follows them. It cuts from different footage of the girls. The girls say goodbye to each other just outside of the school and it carrys on to follow one of the girls down the road, it shows the girl walking down the road and the camera is behind bushes and while the footage is showing there is a news report voice over the top and informing what has happened saying that a school has been kidnapped.

Synopsis of whole film

Our film based around the concept of an investigation following a man who's known to a series of kidnappings that have hit the news recently. The plot will cover a group of investigators trying to discover the criminal through numerous traces of evidence and forensics. With the film being introduced in the opening sequence with personal footage from the kidnapper, discovered by police, they are trying to track down the kidnapper- name known, through the use of numerous investigations and sispect interviews. Bodies of young girls and teenagers are found throughout the film; however the murder still remains unsolved.

The Script
Voice Over:
On the 12th October, a teenage school girl went missing. At approximately 3:30pm, two 16 year old girls, both of which dressed in black school skirts and maroon blazers, were seen walking outside of Kings Langley School gates. The girls parted their seperate ways, and one of the girls has not been seen since. At this moment in time we are unsure of her whereabouts. With a strong lead from a local neighbour, we are under the impression that the suspect is a middle aged man of medium build and around 5 foot 11 in height. The man dressed in dark clothing was seen wondering around Love Lane- the road on which Kings Langley School is situated on, looking suspicious with a video camera in his hands. When confronted by the neighbour whose name we are guarding for security reasons, the white male with dark "scruffy" hair dismissed our witnesses, explaining he was a health and safety investigator who was observing the wellbeing of the school.
With a recent rise in the number of school girls going missing in the Hertfordshire areas, the police are urging any witnesses to step forward and share any information you may have. The growing concern over the number of girls being abducted is something that the community needs to be aware of. Bodies are being discovered weekly, within local woods, canals and back streets. Evidence suggests the murderer may have a mental condition, and health records show a patient from the surrounding area, matching the suspect's description. The mental patient also withholds previous convictions of which we cannot discuss for legal reasons, however let it be known to all that if you are under any suspicion or feel under threat, call your local police station as soon as possible. The kidnapper is out there, and although the murders may not be linked, it is important for him to be found before further peoples' lives are put to risk. This home footage was sent in to the Hertfordshire police station, showing the girl leaving school, matching her description.

Film Maker: George Cambridge
Director: George Cambridge

Crew List

Actress One: Lauren Phillips

Actress Two: Charley Britton

Costume Designers: Lauren Phillips and Charley Britton

Editors:George Cambridge, Lauren Phillips and Charley Britton

Location Reccee

 

Mise-En-Scene Plans

Costume
Both Actresses- Black school skirt, white school blouse, maroon school blazer.

Make-Up

Both Actresses- Natural day make-up.

Props

Actress One-  School bag,

Actress Two- School Bag, phone

Lighting

Natural day light.

Pre- production individual report

Throughout the pre-production stage we had to make final decisions about what we were going to do for our final opening sequence. We had a meeting with our teacher as a group and we discussed the ideas about our opening sequence. We was told that before we go any further we need to think about what was going to happen in the whole film and not just about the opening sequence. So we sat down as a group and mind mapped all of our ideas and put them together and talked about what would be a good idea and what wouldnt work within the opening sequence. We also looked at all of the things we needed to do such as find the location of where we would film and we created a location reccee and we had to do many other things such as mise-en-scene and the treatment etc. We split our work up into two and two of us did half of the things that was needed to be done in the pre-production stage and the other two of our group did the other half. We felt that this was the best way of doing it because it would be done quicker and we could work together. I think that this worked well because we got our work done quicker and it was better to work together.

Location	Scene	Shot	Description
Outside of Kings Langley School gates.	1	1	CHARLEY and LAUREN walking out of the school gates
At the T junction opposite the Kings Langley School entrance.	2	2	Both CHARLEY and LAUREN walk over the road and split at the T junction on opposite corner.
T junction.	3	3	LAUREN walks down to the left towards the dead end, CHARLEY walks to the right.
T junction.	4	4	CHARLEY walks down the road towards the common.
Right from T junction.	5	5	KILLER starts his movement following CHARLEY.
Right from T junction.	6	6	KILLER walks behind CHARLEY about 15m away.
Right from T junction.	7	7	KILLER speeds up his walking until behind CHARLEY.
Right from T junction.	8	8	View right from behind CHARLEY getting closer and closer.
Approaching Kings Langley common.	9	9	CHARLEY looks behind herself as she hears footsteps
Approaching Kings Langley common.	10	10	Charley screams in front of the camera.

Treatment 

Visual	Audio
Scene 1: CHARLEY and LAUREN walking out of the school gates (5 – 6 secs)	Non-Diegetic Sound
Scene 2: Both CHARLEY and LAUREN walk over the road and split at the T junction on opposite corner. (6-8secs)	Non-Diegetic Sound
Scene 3: LAUREN walks down to the left towards the dead end, CHARLEY walks to the right. (8-10secs)	Non-Diegetic Sound
Scene4: CHARLEY walks down the road towards the common. (4-7secs)	Non-Diegetic Sound
Scene 5: KILLER starts his movement following CHARLEY. (7-9secs)	Non-Diegetic Sound
Scene 6: KILLER walks behind CHARLEY about 15m away. (7-9secs)	Non-Diegetic Sound
Scene 7: KILLER speeds up his walking until behind CHARLEY. (8-10secs)	Non-Diegetic Sound
Scene 8: View right from behind CHARLEY getting closer and closer. (4-6secs)	Non-Diegetic Sound
Scene 9: CHARLEY looks behind herself as she hears footsteps (2-5secs)	Non-Diegetic Sound
Scene 10: Charley screams in front of the camera. (4-6secs)	Non-Diegetic Sound

Technical detail

·         To start off the shooting we will have a long shot of both CHARLEY and LAUREN walking out of the school gates. The camera will be positioned on the opposite side of the road diagonally facing CHARLEY and LAUREN.

·         The next shot will go back about 10yards and show CHARLEY and LAUREN furtherly walking towards the opposite side of the road. The camera will track their movement across the road and stop when they do.

·         CHARLEY and LAUREN then split and go down different routes. The camera will follow LAUREN for a short amount of time establishing where she goes and then show CHARLEY heading off in another direction.

·         The camera will then track CHARLEY from a distance following her movement. The camera will do this a couple of times getting closer with every shooting.

·         As the camera reaches CHARLEY we will have a close up of her head turning round and screaming.

The location this will be shot in is outside the school gates we will take the footage when there are a decent amount of people walking out of the gates so it seems like it is the end of the school day. The lighting will all be natural due to the footage being taken outside. There will be no external lighting used. The camera movement will be handheld.

Storyboard
We all made a storyboard and we used it while we were filming but before we did this we did not scan the storyboard and did not have a spare copy of it. While we were filming we lost the original copy of the storyboard. One member of the group agreed that he would re-do the storyboard but he failed to do this. This is why we have not been able to include our storyboard.

MAIN: Post 6: History of your chosen genre

History of genre
Chosen genre: mystery/ drama/ crime
The genres of mystery and crime tracked back to Ancient Greece where play writers such as Sophocles and Euripides showed the citizens their plays combining mystery and drama. The earliest mystery film was called The Three Apples and it involved a suspense thriller with multiple plot twists. In a mystery film there are elements of it of a detective case and solving a crime.
In the early days of mysteries, a popular form was when a short tale was published in magazines. Mysteries are usually staged as play, and a more modern way is movies and television shows. But another modern way, which is the most popular way is to have a mystery novel.