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.

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

Our product is influenced mainly by two real media products.

The first of these products is 'Dexter', a popular American television drama series about a forensic blood-patternist working for the police who sets about murdering serial killers. The opening sequence for the show influenced our decisions for the house/getting ready scene from our film. Dexter uses a collection of close up shots to show the character performing a routine of somewhat ordinary household tasks before leaving the house (cutting an orange, flossing his teeth, breaking an egg etc), yet producers constructed this to appear sinister with this use of close ups. We replicated this by also using close up shots of everyday occur

rences (toaster, looking in the fridge, buttering toast etc). We also chose to place our titles in this scene, similarly to Dexter. We develop on these conventions by using a male as the dominant, powerful character in the scene which is something very common in the thriller film genre.. However, our inspiration for colour scheme throughout the film (including titles) was from the 2000 thriller film Memento...

The producers of Memento decided to use a blue colour scheme

throughout the movie, this inspired our costume design, props, location and titles. We felt blue was an effective use of colour for our thriller film as it conveys the eerie nature and feelings of our main character in the film.

We challenged typical thriller film stereotypes by using a male as the 'victim' type character in the dream scene (despite him also becoming the dominant hero) unlike Alice (Alice in Wonderland) and most films where this type of 'damsel in distress' character is portrayed by a female. This stereotype is usually only challenged by a 'femme fatale' character depicted in Film Noir genre thrillers in which the woman is depicted as the more dominant. However, we decided to oppose this and use a male victim figure in the scene, although he also acts as the hero. Alike 'Alice in Wonderland' in casting we chose Ryan to play Damien, he has blonde hair, blue eyes and he wears blue in the film, much alike Alice's character, challenged only by gender. In terms of stereotyping, the fair skin/eyes/hair combination is also one which conveys a victim or a 'goodie' character as opposed to dark complexions, hair/skin and eyes being related to the 'baddie. For example, Princess Aurora in 'Sleeping Beauty' is shown to have long blonde hair, pale skin and blue eyes, wearing feminine colours and soft feminine facial features versus the 'bad' character, 'Maleficent' has dark skin, eyes, clothing and sharp, harsh features.

The second of our main inspirational products was Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland'. We based the first (forest) scene from our opening sequence upon this movie. Our aim was to create an essence of surrealism to portray to our audience that the character was in a dream rather than reality. Alice in Wonderland captures this sense of surrealism through use of special effects and graphics as well as lighting sound etc. As we didn't have such access to special-effects equipment etc we made the most of lighting, prop, costume and particularly sound to convey this. The location was a forest, we decided the trees in the forest were helpful as we found many twisted branches to work with and create surrealism. Despite our access to special effects being quite limited, we did the make the most of the resources we did have opting for effects such as blur and colour manipulation during the editing stages of constructing our opening s

equence for 'Premonition'. Our use of sound meant we could use low resonant sounds to create eeriness and build tension as well as hyperbolic forest sounds to further enhance this and remove senses of realism from the scene thus accentuate surrealism.

Script

Our group decided against using dialogue in our opening sequence and therefore we do not have a written script.

We chose not to use diaogue because we felt this would further create surrealism for the audience and allow them to focus on the screenplay and our well composed shots. As well as this, we used soundtrack instead to develop audience understanding and further build surrealism rather then achieving this through character speech. As a group we felt that dialogue was simply unnecessary as there is only one character involved in the opening sequence so there wouldn't be anybody for him to talk to and would overtake our well thought through use of non-diegetic soundtrack and diegetic sound effects (birds, toaster, keys etc...).

However, we did use a form of scripted speech as we did plan a heavy breathing sequence

Working On Our Film

During the production of our opening sequence, our group has spent a lot of our free time as well as time in class to ensure we have perfected our piece to the best of our ability and secure the best possible grade. During filming, we used our class time, free periods and the weekends to make sure we filmed shots the best we could.

Afterwards, during editing we spent a lot of time during class, after school and free periods. For example, Gemma and I were in school until 18:30 working on our film (James and Ryan worked after school on another day).

Shot List

Group Members: Katie, Gemma, James and Ryan

Title of Production: Premonition

Shot number:	Brief description of the action (what is going to happen in this shot?)	Description of Shot Type and Camera Movement
1	Leaves within the frame leading up to character	Tracking, close up. Fig Rig to be used in this shot.
2	Damien’s eyes open, he looks around.	Panning, long shot. Create the effect of opening eyes using the lens cap of the camera.
3	Audience is shown the symbol in the giftbox	Close up. Giftbox prop needed.
4	Damien uses the toilet	Long shot. Toilet prop needed, socks and dressing gown costume also.
5	Toast pops up from toaster	Extreme Close Up. Props needed for the shot; toaster and toast.
6	Damien opens fridge	Mid-shot. Fridge, butter and jam needed.
7	Damien gets ready for work	Panning upwards, long shot. Suit costume needed for shot.
8	Damien leaves the house	Steady long-shot. Symbol prop on door.

Title fonts

This font is called 'Walk Around The Block', the reason I picked out this as one of my key fonts was how the light structure of this title would contrast with the forest scene but would relate effortlessly to the light 'getting ready' house sequence, which would follow this title. The white centre of the letters could connote the empty holes of questions that are yet to be answered throughout the film.

This font is called 'Jailbird Jenna'. The font grabbed my attention as it is bold, upper case and moderately traditional. However, the unmatched, strewn placement of letters could connote the instability of Damien's thoughts in the film and his lack of understanding.

This font is called 'DreamScar', which is initially relative to the film itself. The font is appropriate as a lot of the letters use symbolism, such as dagger shape for the 'T', the font also has some parts of the letters missing which connotes the missing information the audience watch the film to answer. The font is also bold and the shape of letters is moderately traditional which fits in with the typical Thriller genre titles.

Sound

http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=30608

This sound is a clock 'tick tock' which would be used as a diegetic noise in the starting forest scene when Damien comes across the clocks around the trees (symbolising 'time running out'). This would emphasise the sound of clocks in the mind of the character and for the reader.

http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=15396

We may also use a diegetic sound similar to this for the scene which involves toast being ejected from a toaster. This is because we discussed how this would work during filming and came to the conclusion that the sound picked up by the camera from our toaster wouldn't be adequate.

http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=48970

We discussed in our group a non-diegetic sound alike this one, with a 'zoom' edge would be appropriate to our forest sequence, it could be used between shots as a transition/sound bridge and it gives a sense of eeriness to the whole scene.