Final Product - AS Opening Sequence 'Premonition'

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

When looking back on my preliminary task it becomes startlingly obvious that my personal ability and skill in film-making has improved vastly over the duration of the AS Media Studies course. The quality of filming itself lacked steadiness, each shot was badly framed and 'wobbling' - this was counteracted in my later work as we used equipment such as a Tripod and FigRig which steadied and straightened our shots where needed.

In the preliminary task no real consideration to mise-en-scene took place. Costume, lighting, make up and setting wasn't thought about - we wore the clothes we happened to be wearing, used the natural lighting through the windows and filmed wherever was free at the time! After the careful construction of mise-en-scene in 'Premonition', I can now see how lack of consideration hinders audience understanding of the film - for example, the fact that Kayleigh who portrays the teacher character is wearing similar clothes to my own although I'm portraying a student character makes the storyline and characters hard to understand when watching the sequence.

We also didn't use any soundtrack in our preliminary task (only diegetic dialogue), at the time it didn't really seem relevant but after studying film further it is clear that soundtrack helps the flow of a film as well as understanding of the film's events. Even adding diegetic sounds for everyday objects such as the toaster sound in 'Premonition' enhances audience understanding and continuity/realism greatly.

Most importantly, my grasp on continuity editing has made a much needed improvement, both in filming the correct shots to create the effect of continuous flowing film and editing these shots in such a way that enhances this. Simple techniques such as match on action have been mastered to a greater level in my opening sequence for 'Premonition' - for example when Damien picks up and opens the red box (filming and editing that particular sequence took the longest but is the most effective example of continuity editing in the whole film). In my preliminary task we tried to master 'Match on Action' with a sequence of throwing paper in a bin, although this appeared to be effective at the time now with much more informed and intelligent hindsight it it clear that our editing of the shots wasn't precise enough and there is a significant 'jump' between the scenes which hinders the 'flow' of the film and is unrealistic.

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

During the construction of our film we have used various different technologies to ensure the outcome was as we had originally desired and we achieved the best possible.

When filming we used cameras, as I had done media last year I was already familiar with the layout of a video camera but as they had been updated this type used a memory card not a tape reel. So we learned how to use the memory card, to film in sequence and to steady our shots on the camera. During this time, we also used a tripod which had been familiar with before to help us in steadying our shots and a fig rig, a large wheel construction in which the camera is placed in the middle, effective for tracking shots. We hadn't used a fig rig before so it took some time for us to learn how to steady our shots using a fig rig and how to handle it effectively. We used it for our starting shot which depicts walking along leaves from the point of view of a person, after several shots we did manage to work the rig to our favour after practice.

In editing process we used three different programs to perfect our opening sequence. Firstly, we used iMovie to edit clips, insert transitions etc, I had used the program before but I did learn how to cut clips more efficiently and use the effects available to my advantage. Some of our group weren't as acquainted with iMovie so the members of our group that were helped them to fully understand the program to the standard we do and edit effectively. When finished, I composed a soundtrack for the sequence on GarageBand, I hadn't really used the program before so learning how to use it was new to me and I asked a friend from outside of my media class to help me understand how to use it to a more advanced standard before composing a track and importing it into our movie. However, when the film was what we considered complete our audience feedback made it clear that the soundtrack wasn't really right for 'Premonition' - to quote some feedback 'The music was far too much of a juxtaposition and hindered my understanding of the film.' Following this feedback, we decided to use a mixture of different sound clips to create a modified soundtrack. We used LiveType, a software that enabled us to add professional looking titles to our movie. This proved the most difficult technology to master over the duration of our time constructing our opening sequence, we had trouble placing the titles and timing them correctly to look effective with our sequence. Eventually, we sought help from another source who taught us how to use the software properly, it was still tough to master but eventually we did manage to create the professional and interesting titles we were aiming for. Lastly, we used Final Cut (as I am seen using in the image below) to put our iMovie files and LiveType files together, creating our end product of moving image, editing, sound and titles.

How did you attract/address your audience?

We addressed our audience firstly through casting, we chose a young person to play the part of Damien so the target audience would find him easy to relate to and empathise with as he'd have relevance to themselves through age.

We also used influences from other popular thriller genre productions such as 'Dexter' and 'Memento' which the audience would recognise and connect with and enjoy.

As a group, when filming we put a lot of effort into creating an interesting synopsis and mostly an interesting storyboard to ensure our end product was unique, edgy and contemporary. Thus, appealing to our niche target market.

The video below is a commentary by myself and group members which helps to explain the more technical aspects of the film and how we used them in order to attract our audience.

We also got audience feedback via social networking site Facebook. This has been noted as a hobby of our target demographic, therefore we considered this an extremely effective way to address our audience and gain feedback which would help us to improve our film...

It became clear that understanding of the storyline was an issue following these comments, we counteracted this by later adding effects to the opening dream sequence.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our audience would fit the 15-24 year old, young adult age bracket.

During casting we chose an actor who fitted the age group himself in order to allow the target audience to relate and empathise with the character on a more relative level than with a character older or younger than themselves.

The idealistic type of character for our audience would be students, people who work hard but like to have fun too and intelligent so as to understand the intelligent nature of 'Premonition' and Damien (the main character). Our audience would listen to alternative, 'indie' bands such as 'Crystal Castles' and 'Two Door Cinema Club' which have a more niche market than what is considered 'mainstream' music (for example, Rihanna). They may also listen to 'harder' niche market music such as 'Lamb of God', this is because the film itself is aimed at a smaller market and with its low budget could be considered an 'indie' film production - although produced by a relatively well established institution. The key demographic would consist of the type of people who shopped in independent stores for clothing, opting for more vintage styles (perhaps charity shops or purely vintage shops which sell individual pieces - such as those which are particularly common around Camden Market, London). Although, they may also indulge in more high street fashions such as Topshop. These people would probably play fantasy based video games such as 'Legend of Zelda' and perhaps even 'The Sims' as these both contain a similar element of surrealism to 'Premonition' (although, in terms of 'The Sims' this is dependant on the gamer themselves modifying the game to become surrealistic as it can be played with extensive realism). The ideal audience would use blogging sites such as 'Tumblr.com' which is based around fashion and indie culture as well as websites like 'Facebook' to connect with friends (which is typical of the age group) and perhaps MySpace.com which provides excellent access to unknown, unsigned or 'indie' label music artists - which would be of key interest to our demographic.

The person themselves would probably be moderately affluent, with a weekend job alongside their studies in order to afford music, fashion and going to the cinema in particular (hardworking!!!). Would probably aspire to be involved in the music/film/fashion business themselves and take a keen interest in these areas of media, they'd be intelligent and outspoken - would perhaps study to become a journalist.

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

A film company such as Vertigo Films would be the best to produce and distribute our film, Premonition. As ours is a British production it would fit well with Vertigo's distribution of purely British and classic British based films (such as 'The Firm', 'the Football Factory' and 'the Business').

Vertigo have also produced and distributed similar thriller films in the past, which is well suited to our film as 'Premonition' is a psychological-thriller involving some elements of romance. Some of the thriller films produced/distributed by Vertigo include 'Shrooms', 'Outcast' and 'The Children', each of the films are alternative, contemporary, edgy and slightly different from the 'classic' thriller film setup (a classic thriller film example, 'The Sixth Sense', eerie realism based around the supernatural/ghosts - very different from Shrooms which is very contemporary in using modern drug culture as a basis for a thriller genre movie). This further matches the style of our film as we tried to make Premonition new, interesting and outstanding amongst other films with a modern twist that isn't shown in many films in this genre.

As well as this, 'Premonition' would be a lower budget production which is a stance often adopted by 'Vertigo Films'. In our group during planning stages we decided that as a feature length film, we would have liked 'Premonitition' to be one of excellent artistic flair and intelligence, using our own initiative in cinematography, mise-en-scene and sound to create surrealism with less focus on 'special effects' editing which is evident in 'Hollywood' high-budget productions. Therefore, an institution such as 'MGM' or '20th Century Fox' would have been unsuitable to 'Premonition', but Vertigo is a perfect choice.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The only character seen by the audience in our opening sequence is Damien.

Our choices for Damien were to represent the hard-working, skilled, young man. He would have been to university, studied hard and got to be in a high standard job. We represent this mainly using costume, Damien is seen in a suit during the forest/dream scene, suggesting this is what he is used to wearing - hence why he wears it in his dreams and also when he gets ready for work in the following scene. A suit usually depicts smartness, in high ranked jobs men are often required to wear a suit or for special occasions, so the costume depicts our character well. We achieved this through casting by using an easily recognisable character similar

to most men of around the 15-24 age bracket. Slim build, short hair, average height and white as it is stereotyped in television and film that most men in these types of jobs are caucasian although this isn't necessarily true of the real world.

However, we do present the main male character in the first forest scene alike a victim of surrealism against the supernatural powers that are inferred by the mise-en-scene of the symbol, tilted camera angles/movement, and choices of soundtrack, this convention of a character is usually depicted by a woman in media productions, therefore we challenge the typical gender stereotype. Although, later in the opening sequence the character does convert into a typical male character heroic and dominant. During planning, as a group we decided to portray the character as 'dominant' by creating an air of arrogance about Damien as a character during the 'getting ready' scene - this was depicted through his acting, for example, when he is dressing himself in a flash manner looking in the mirror.

This example of comparing our two film sequences is interesting as we worked to portray Damien as a victim with use of a long shot to emphasise vulnerability which is also portrayed in the classic damsel in distress scene.