Final Product - Seized

This is our final final product of our opening sequence seized.

Facebook feedback

The post on the feedback from the social network of Facebook was uploaded by Shehabur, because he put into his Facebook and wanted his friends and an audience to give us feedback on the good and bad points to our opening sequence.

This was really effective because as a group we could see what others though about the sequence and if it was good for them to watch and not just the people in my group that enjoyed it.

This is a very good way to get important and effective feedback.

Also on the 5th of May 2011 we had an evening where others where able to view our film and get more feed back from people that never new we had a task like this or what it could be about. So this was very exciting because my group was a waiting to see what will be said about our opening sequence.

Audience feedback

Sophie: This is our type of audience that we have targeted to watch our opening sequence, because they are 18 and over and into these types of films in there everyday lives.

Facebook Feedback

print screen of seized on fb

My script

This is what I will be saying for question 5.

Hi my name is Sophie Hardy and i was responsible for making the titles and thinking of the type of location we could use for Seized. I also was responsible for the casting and so I decided that i wanted Donna to play the part of the victim and Shehabur to play the part of the 'psycho killer' although you don't see his face you know he is the main character. I thoughy this would have a good impact on the audience because, it's exciting and interesting to watch. Therefore the audience will be griped to the seat and wanting to see more and before they know it, it is over and they are left wondering what happend to Donna?

I was inspired from the film seven, so from this we got some good shots to use within Seized. I think the shot I liked the most would be the shot of the props we used, for example the shot of the sharpening of the pencil, it seemed so sinister and it went along with the opeing sequence. This for me as a viewer made me feel scared of this character and this is what I wanted my chosen audience to feel, as they saw this particular clip and type of shot we used.

My shot list

Shot List for Media Studies[1]

The new story board to 'seized'

This is my groups new storyboard. That was done by Donna. We have each shot that we used, props we used, camera movement we used and small drawing of what we want our set to look like when we film.

This is showing you in more detail the desions that we made when we was planning our opening sequence. This is also the second story board that we have done, because we had to change a lot of idears that we had because they where too long and they gave away to much on the story. Also we decided to make it more scary and intresting, so this is why it was also changed. This new story board will help us to picture what we want the sequence to look like, and how we want it to be like a real thriller film.

Question 7

Question 7: Looking back at your perliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

The difference between my perlimary task and my final opening sequence:

In the perlimary task wasn't in as much detail. The cuts where longer and not as well filmed. As a group we used a lot of mid and long shots when filming. We used dialogue to make it more intresting. There where only about 10 cuts to the filming and it wasn't edited much. The whole clip was boring and too long. We had no music to make it more intresting to watch. The setting to the task wasn't as well planned out.

In the final project (seized) we used music to make the filming and watching it more intresting. We used a lot of good, sharp and intresting close up shots. We also used a different and an establishing shot to get the audience thinking in the first few seconds of the opening sequence. When I was editng my groups clips I made sure they where quick cuts to keep the viewer intrested and wanting to see more. I also put in some fade in and out clips to make the story flow better and smoother this helped the audience to see the continuity (the smooth line) to our editing of our opening sequence. We used no dialogue to give our film more a better mood to it and it will also keep the audience intertained and griped to there seat. All of the cuts in my final task where quicker and better because we planned them out with more, with more time and we put more effort into making sure our opening sequence was the best in the class.

I have learnt: How to be patient when filming and putting together a story to my film. I now know how to put myself into my audiences shoes so I know what they will like to see and how my film will be good to watch. How to edit a film to a higher quality. For example to this I would: cut and speed up clips, fade the music out as I fade the last shot out. I am able to add in text to my clips and make sure it is all in time together. I can imput some intresting music that fits in with my mood to my filming and that is in time with the filming. I know how to film using the tri-pod so the filming looks better when it is finished and viewed by others. I know how to plan a good opening sequence that will make me happy to watch when it is finally done.

I have learnt how to use a camera effectivily. For exampl you can see in the screen grabs I have put together at the top that I can film from different angles and I can also put alot more into one frame. You can also see I can use an effective pan shot and have close-ups of characters and I am able to locate my scence's in a different place that gives a good mood to my group's thriller. I have used all of the skills I leant in the first few weeks of media, for example you can see I can use the 180 degree rule to a high and belivable standard, that is effective. You can see I no how to catck the match on action from each clips and to get this into a good frame. I am also able to use shot/reverse/shot more effectivily now because I have used it more in my filming process. So from what I have learnt in the first few weeks of media when I just started the year, to what I know now I have really improved all of my media skills. I can see it has been alot and I have put all of my hard work into my task of putting together in a group a thriller opeing sequence. This has been a big chalange for me and I think I have really done well.

Question 6

These are of me with others in my groups working on the Mac pc's. I am on the left hand side. Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have leant so much from media this year. At first I didn't really like it, but I have really started to enjoy the subject of media, the work and the people in my class. I am also so much better with technology now then I was before I started media. I think I want to get a Mac PC myself now I know how to use it.

I have leant:

How to use a Mac PC. (top pictures) For example: What icons mean what, where to save my projects into my 12ams folder, how a blog works and what it is, to upload stuff to my blog, how to use the key bord effectivly when editing and cutting my media filming. Also how to use the key board to screen grad parts of my media work and put them into a contact sheet and how to copy and paste. For evidence I have two pictures (at the top) of me using the Mac, when editing my groups opening sequence and when adding the titles in.

How to upload and export films to and from the Mac. For example: When I have been in a group doing filming and we need to get it on the Mac pc I know where to plug the video camer lead in to the camera and the Mac. Where you have to go so you can imports the film clips to Imovie. I also know how to upload and embed my work to youtube and blogger so it can be viewed by others and my teacher.

How to import pictures from a digatal camera: I know where to plug in the camera and that I have to go to Iphoto to look and use my photos that have been uploaded

How to use a video camera. For example: I leant how to turn it on and get it ready to film, I leant how to change the battery and sometimes I couldn't do this but I overcomed in the end. I know how to film people with the camers by pressing the rec button. I also have leant how to use a tri-pod when filming and I now know that it is used to make sure your filming isn't wonky or shaky and it looks really good when you play it back

How to use a digatal camera to take photos: I know how to turn it on and off, put the memory card in and take it out, how to take pictures and how to delete pictures.

I know how to use all of the camers equipment when we need to film for example I can set the tri-pod up by myself and I also know how to put the video camera on to the tri-pod at the top by screwing it on. How to use Imovie: When I have uploaded my move to the Mac you click Imovie and it will load onto it so you can start editing and cutting and doing what you want to complete your task.

How to use blogger (thrid picture of wallander post): I have set up my own account with blogger. I know how to make a post, edit the post, delete the post, publish the post, make sure the post has the correct date. I also know to put my posts in different lables so when my teacher looks over my work she can see what posts are the different parts to my media work. I know how to upload pictures and how to embed video's to my blog. Blog has been a big success for me because I am able to show all of my good and creative work to my teacher, and I have also wanted it to look nice and to stand out with all the different contact sheets I have added and all of the colour. As you can see at the top I have added one of the post that I have done really well and that I got an exclent for. You can see it is in a lot of detail and I did put a lot of hard work into it.

How to edit a film: I can know edit a film on the Mac PC on my own and I don't have to ask for help from my other class mates or my teacher, because I now know all of the diffent key bord buttons to press when I am editing and I am able to input and take out sounds and music to my film/clips. This is a big achievement for me because I have never been good with computers but now Im confident to use the Mac alone when I have home work to be complted or when I have to do class work.

Question 5

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

These are the pictures of the cast to my groups film. There are only three of the cast members in our overall film. We choose these characters to be in our film because, Donna is a young woman and she is of the age of our target audience, so we used her as the main character in our thriller film so that it was more real for the audience to view. We done this because we thought it would be affective to the audience point of view. So we used pictures of the victim so the audience could see that a young girl is being watched by someone. we used a missing poster of my to show the audience that he has killer before and Donna isn't the first victim that he has targeted. We used Shehabur as the killer one because he was the only boy in our group and this is very stereotypical of who a character of a killer would play, in a sequence like this. This to me is a typical thriller opening sequence, but with our hard work that we have put in, we have made it really different to what we wanted the audience to expect. But we haven't shown the audience who the killer is so he is unknown and hidden. So hear we haven't addressed our killer to be any particular type of audience member watching our opening sequence. This will have hopefully put more people on the edge of there seat and wanting to see more.

Voice over commentary for 'seized' first draft.

This is the groups voice over of our opening sequence first draft. We have made more improvements to our opening sequence from the feed back we got from our target audience. So this was just to help us show how we addressed and attracted our audience. This was a good success because it helped us to make some good improvements to our final opening sequence. This will hopefully get us some more marks. Unfortuntly Alisha wasn't in the day the rest of the group made this so she was unable to take part in the exclent voice commentary.

Qusetion 4

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

I think I would be the perfect audience for my group's thriller film. This is because my kind of taste in films is a thrillers and a good horror. I am 19 years of age so I am the age rating for our film. I thought I would be a good example of my target audience because my personality is like my choses in films. I like to watch these types of films because they make me jump and on edge, so they are fun to watch and they are interesting to me. I also like them because, I am always questioning what going to happen next. So this is what the groups wanted our audience to feel when watching it. I shop in all different types of stores, so this shows I like to shop in places that interest me most and stand out to me. I also listen to a lot of music thought the day. But I do mostly listen to 95.8 Capital FM. My favorite TV program is A good TV drama, that is interesting and fun to watch. An example of this is Desperate house wives on channel four at 9pm on Wednesdays. This is because it is funny, emotional and interesting to watch each week.

Question 3

Question 3: What kind of media instituation might distribute your media product and why?

These are the different types working titles that we looked at when we was watch different opening sequences. All of these productions have a lot of money that they put into good films so they will be heard of more and other directors will want there logo at the begining of there film.

I would also want these distribution company's be associated in 'Seized'.

I would really like one of theses titles to be apart of the production of my groups film because as soon as the viewer sees one of these they will know they have seen it before.

This is because, I know that if my groups film went publick then everyone would want to see it because it has so many good convetions that make the film so intresting and wanting you to see more. 'Seized' would be a very big blockbuster film! The stars that will act init will be: the killer will be- Dr Hannible (Anthony Hopkins) or Jack Nicholson. This would be because these two men are very good actors, and they always are up for a challenge. I also want them to star in my film because the other films they have been in have become top thrillers, so they would easily promote my film. The victim will be-Cameron Diaz or Nichole Kidman. This is because they are in the top 10 list for the best actresses, also because they are very famous and very good at there jobs.

Qustion 2

These are the character's that I wanted Shehabur (at the top) to be like, for his character to be like them and the way they act in films. In the thriller they will be similar because, they are both serious about what they are doing and there planning is effective to what they want and who they want. I wanted him to have the same /similar costumes as the Joker and Mike Mires. This is dark and black, so it shows he wants to be unseen by the victim. The differencs is that the backgroug if different from my character and the real actors. Shehabur's picturs is light and in the day, where as the three pictures of the actors are dark and they have whites faces from make-up. this is not similar al all but if Shehabur's character was seen in our thriller film we would want it to be the same as these with it dark, shadowy and fidden. So my ideal picture of the killer in my thriller fim would be like the examples I have shown. The hair style of Mike Mires and Shehabur are similar because they are neat and short, this is so they can't be indentifired by any one. So from the elements in the photos you can that these characters are similar but, the Joker have red make-up on where as we wouldn't make Shehabur where make-up. Also from these pictures you can see Shehabur is a normal boy, but in the world of acting he is as dangerous as the other two characters are. So when you use you imagination you can see that each appearances is hidding some good imformation about there personality.

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups? My group haven't really targeted a particular socail group that we would like to watch our film. But we have desided that over 18 year old may watch our opeing sequence. This may be because we don't have much acting in it so there isn't lot of cast members. But if we filmed the whole two hours of it them I will be able to see why we want over 18's to view our film. The socal group that we targeted was a type of killer ( a psychotic one) This is always seems to be aimed at a man as this type of character. So with this in mind we had Shehabur playing the psychotic man killer, and the female character in these films is always seen to be the victim so we used Donna as the helpless female victim.

The pictures at the top are just some of the bad people we choose to set our character Shehabur to be like. I chose these types of people because they are scary and look like a good types of character to be in a thriller film that alot of people will want to watch. I chose the Joker in Batman films, because he is a cunning, a clever and a creepy character to have in a good thriller film. This is the type of character I wanted Shehabur to become when we started to film. I wanted him to pretend to be the Joker so the audience could see what, and feel the same way as they do when they see the Joker character. I also wanted to compare Shehabur's character to the horrible and mean character that is in Halloween films, because he is a character that most people, watch in films and who they are mostly get scared of when they see his face or know he is in the film. This will set a good mood to me film atmosphere.

Question 1

The first contact sheet is of my groups film and the second is of the film seven. This is the film we go most of our idears from as you can see they look mostly the same.

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My media product was based on the thriller film se7en. As a group we watched seven a few times and we thought it would be intresting and effective to make our opeing sequence look like the opening sequence of seven. This idear gave all four of us in the group some good idears on what we wanted to have in the 2minutes we had to put togehter. So to show you our good effort and what inspired us to put our opening sequence together like this, I have put together 9 screen shots from my groups opeing sequence (seized) and for the opening sequence of seven.

You can see from the contact sheet that most of the shots are the same because they are all mostly extream close up shots. You can see we also use some of the same props. You can see the killers tools in some shots. Also from these few shots even though they are pictures they give a scary and creapy mood to the opeing sequence. Also from most of the shots you can also see the type of location that the killer has set his self in. Its dark, so he is hidden and unseen. To the viewer and even the victim.

So from the shots I have grabed, you can see our film is a typical thriller opening sequence. From the design of what is in the frame of each shot, all of these different factors show the way we made our opening sequence have all the conventions it should to make it real and intresting to watch.

This made our opeing sequence very effective because, The audience we have targeted that are over 18's. They would have mostly likely seen the film seven. This will stright away click in there head so they will understand what we have done and what we want the audience to think when watching our opening sequence. From the 9 shots of each opeing sequence I have chosen, you can see how we was inspired by the film seven.

There are some clips that are the same as seven because, in the shot you can see that we showed the killers hands so that the audience would question who they are and what they look like.

Story and how the opening sets it up: From 3 of the screen shots from seven compared to 3 shots of my groups thriller you can see that we both used pictures of the victim so the audience can see who the killers intends to catch and even kill the victim. Also in these shots you can see the location of where the killers is and where he is setting out his plans for the victim. This made the opeing sequence effective because it makes the mood of the film more intense and creepy. Also we wanted the audience to feel as if they are being watched too by the killer, as they watch the first few minutes of our film.

Costumes and props: We wanted to made sure that you could see the props we used for example in one of the shots you can see we used tweezers to pick out the eyes of Donna, and in the shot of seven you can see they also wanted the viewer to see the killer using a pair of tweezers to place small bits of evidence that he has collected together. This is effective because each conventions are the props to a creepy thriller film, these types of props also give means. For example from these props you can tell the character of the person collecting all of this information has spent a very long time doing this and they have put a lot of effort into making sure it is rite and exact to there plans and what is intended to happen to the victim.

Camer work and editing: We also wanted to show that the killer really prepared what he has put together, by showing this in the same way as seven did from the killer having a lot of writing on the vitims. This is in one shot of seven but in a few shots of seized. This also shows how similar my group's opeing sequence is to the opening sequence of seven! We made sure we done very quick cuts so that the audience was keept intrested, watching and that it also was as effective as seven is. The editing and camera work was a very big part to making the opening sequence to a high standard of film work but to also keep the sequence making sence to the audience.

title front and style: This is simalur to seven because the font is bold and it starts with the same letter. But also because, it is white writting on a black background. So even thought seven is small and seized is big they both stand out to the viewer. The style of each set of writting is cracked and creepy so it helps to set the mood on the thriller.

How the characters are introduced: they are introduced in the same way as most good thrillers introduce there most powerful character in the opeing sequence, this is hidden and so the audience puts together a picture in their head of what the character looks like. So as the film goes on the character's are show more and more so the audience is still putting peices together of the character and there personality. In my groups film you see Donna (the victim) in pictures, in drawing and then in the flesh. So she is know to the audience fisrt but this is because she is not the main character, the killer is. So we have introduces his smaller, but stronger features such as his hands a fingers so we start to think what does he look like? This is to kkep the audience watching and wanting to see more. So this is why we was inspired to used this technique, in our opeing sequence.

Genre and how the opeing suggests this: This is done mostly by the music, because it is perfect for a thriller and that you feel the hairs on your neck stand up as it starts. This is how we gave the genre away. We also done thid thought the lighting, that is dark and in the shadows. This is also done becuase of the quick close up shots of the character and his tools. These convertion are how you can tell it is a thriller.

Setting/location: There is only two different ones of these. The first is of where the killers is in the opeing and the second is at the end of the victim as she walks home. These are all show to the audience in a quick shot that is close up. This is so not much is shown to the audience but it has a lot of meaning to the mood on the thriller.

Final Product of film

This is the final draft for our opening sequence. But as a group, when we looked at it with a fine tooth combe we decided to change and add a few more bit to the final opeing sequece we have made. So in the next blog of Seized you will see that we have changed the music and we have added an extra shot in the end of Donna. This is because we thought he music should be better, so we looked more on free sound for the best to suit our sequence. Also we decided to add an extra clip od Donna (the victim) so the audience could see she was real and that he had followed her more than we was letting on in the sequence. This will have a better impact on the audience because it is more detailed of the victim and the music gets the viewer more into the state of mid, of watching a thriller film.

Pictures of the group in action

I took these pictures for some evidence of the gruop working together to film our triller opening sequence. These are really to show how hard we worked on the film and as a group, the dedication it took to get it just right and the location's we choose to make the thriller stand up to its name!

Our thriller location for our film

Titles.

Titles

In this lesson we came up with the relevant titles that will appear on screen at the beginning of our opening sequence.

Name of Studio

Shemol Studio’s

Name of Production Company

Million Productions

Director Name

A Film by Donna Ellis

Starring

Shehabur Rahman

Donna Ellis

Casting by

Sophie Hardy

Music composed by

Alisha Salas

Sound to our thriller opeing sequence.

As a group we will find some good music for the opening sequence to our thriller using a range of different wedsites to help us find the best music to set the right mood to our thriller. For example we used a site called www.freesound.com

This is the link you can use to find the music we used to make our thriller.

http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=105044

This really helped us choose some good music to be used in our opening sequence. This will be a really good idea because the music will be original and different. As a group we will listen to different thriller films so that we can analyze what sort of mood and atmosphere is generated and incorporate that when we find a the right music we will know it is right for our opening sequence.

As there is no dialogue within our opening sequence we will be using a variety of different sound effects to try and convey an eerie and scary mood. Some of these sound effects will vary from heavy breathing, quick paced footsteps and a car boot door slamming. This will also make the viewer feel more into our opening sequence because they will have to focus more because it has no dialogue in it so it will be more intresting top watch. So the audience will want to watch on but then it will be over and it will leave the audience thinking "whats going to happen next?"

Before my group put together some music for our thriller opening sequence I listend to a lot of different music, so I got some good examples in my head of what types of sounds I liked first and then I thought of some music I wanted to be similar to the things I heard. These pictures (at the top) are of some examples of what I like the most, from different films and sound tracks.

In the end we couldn't deside what music we wanted to use so Alisha decided to put her musical skills to the test by putting together a good piece of music together by her self, with the groups small imput to what types of instrument's we want in it. This was more effective to the mood and the completion of our opeing sequence. I also have a few pictures of the one we wanted most to play a big part to our music.