RESIT: G321 Evaluation Q5 - Attracting Our Audience Through the Use of Media Techniques

Attracting Our Audience Through the Use of Media Techniques

For our G321 film opening project, we incorporated specific media techniques in order to attract our audience including Mise en Scene, camera angles, sound and editing techniques.

Mise en Scene

An example of when we used Mise en Scene to attract our audience was the use of props in Stacey's room. Because they did not go hand-in-hand with her personality and stood out as nerdy and lame, they created a sense of curiosity for the viewer and lured them into the storyline of the film.

Camera Angles

We used plenty of close-ups and and extreme close-ups in our opening to focus the viewer's attention on a specific area. We purposely used these shots on the props and objects that our characters interacted with to feed our audience information about the characters and their liftestyles. By introducing the characters we established a connection between the viewer and the protagonists, which in turn attracts the audience to the film.

Sound

We cut out the majority of diegetic dialogue and sound in our opening to enhance the atmosphere created by the non-diegetic music. The music we used was up-beat and lively, and created a positive and happy mood for the audience. In collaboration with Mise en Scene, camera angles and editing techniques, we used subtly used sound as a way of attracting our audience.

Editing

One of the best editing techniques we used in our title sequence was the four-way split screen. This was evident in our film's feedback and the reception we received after the first showing of our clip. We chose to use the split screen as it showed that our film would be busy and filled with lots interesting scenes. We found that our editing techniques were successful and contributed towards attracting our target audience.

RESIT: G321 Evaluation Q7 - My Personal Progression

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My Personal Progression from the Preliminary Task to the G321 Film Opening

Between the Preliminary Task and the final AS project, I have developed both my creative and my analytical skills. I have learnt basic media techniques and terminology, and expanded my knowlege through learning from the practical mistakes made in the Preliminary task. The areas I have mainly improved on are:

• The importance of Mise en Scene, camera angles, sound and editing
• Using media terminology
• The importance of planning
• Targeting an audience and why it's important
• Using the equipment and Final Cut Express

Before the Preliminary Task, I learnt how to analyse media texts in terms of Mise en Scene, camera angles/movement, sound and editing. We also learnt about semantics how these media techniques can determine what messages the audience receives. Although I understood the importance of these aspects, it didn't really occur to me to incorporate them into my Preliminary task.

Learning how important it is to include media techniques into the work was my most important form of progression. Although it seems like an obvious thing to do, my mentality was to keep theory and practical work separate and learn the media course in 2 halves. It wasn't until after the Preliminary task that I realised that the two sides support each other and are meant to mix together in order to achieve a well-rounded knowledge of media.

Mise en Scene, Camera Angle, Sound and Editing

Before the Preliminary Task, I learnt how to analyse media texts in terms of Mise en Scene, camera angles/movement, sound and editing. We also learnt about semantics how these media techniques can determine what messages the audience receives. Although I understood the importance of these aspects, it didn't really occur to me to incorporate them into my Preliminary task.

Learning how important it is to include media techniques into the work was my most important form of progression. Although it seems like an obvious thing to do, my mentality was to keep theory and practical work separate and learn the media course in 2 halves. It wasn't until after the Preliminary task that I realised that the two sides support each other and are meant to mix together in order to achieve a well-rounded knowledge of media.

Through the evaluation of our Preliminary task and the preparation for our G321 film opening, I learnt that Mise en Scene is incredibly important in terms of semantics, creating a particular atmosphere through colours and lighting and how props can reflect a character.

In the Preliminary task, the antagonist of our piece was wearing a bright pink robe. Although we did not intend to, the colour held connotations that his character was feminine. Our intention was for his character to come across as nutty and strange, but because we didn't consider semantics in the Preliminary task, our clip gave the audience the wrong impression. This is a prime example of how I've progressed, as I now understand the importance of using these media techniques and semantics in my own work.

I also learnt that choosing the right camera angles can have a huge effect on the tension of a shot and how much the audience engages with a particular character, that sound is particularly important for creating tension and setting an atmosphere and that editing plays a huge role in the pace of a scene and the amount happening at a time.

Using Media Terminology

Although I have always tried to use media terminology in my work, my media vocabulary has expanded since the Preliminary task and I've learnt how important it is to use the correct terms in order to get my point across.

The Importance of Planning

In our Preliminary task we did not plan as thoroughly as we could have, and it was evident on my individual blog and on the group blog. This resulted in confusion for anyone who watched our clip as they did not understand what was happening in the text and what it was about. 


The planning stage we missed out was what message we wanted to send our audience and how we would do this. Our intentions for our clip were clear to us, but we did not consider how we should make our clip so that the viewer understands the concept of the film as well. This was a major planning flaw that I encountered during the Preliminary task, and I learnt how important it is to plan our film properly to prevent this mistake from happening again.

Targeting an Audience and Why It's Important

For our Preliminary task, we did not target a particular audience and our film ended up appealing to a very small selection of people. We knew this from the feedback our clip received, and the majority of respondents found the text confusing and difficult to follow.

After learning more about target audiences, I learnt that if I have a target audience during the planning stage, I can shape the contents of the film around what would appeal to them and create a much more structured and organised film. The reason target audience ties in with organisation is because it sets a foundation for the film content that can be developed.

Using the Equipment and Final Cut Express

Prior to the Preliminary, we experimented with using the camera, tripod and dolly. Because we understood how to use the filming equipment, we chose to to develop our knowledge of editing equipment after the Preliminary.

We went from using iMovie to Final Cut Express for our G321. I enjoyed experimenting with the program and playing around with effects. After I became more confident with Final Cut, I actually found it more straight forward than iMovie and much easier to use. I'm glad I understand how to use this program as I can use it to edit and manipulate my next film.

RESIT: Ideal Audience Member Moodboard

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I have created a mood board based on my ideal audience member. Looking at existing film characters, appearance, role models, life experiences, interests and relationships, I have created a detailed example of a typical audience member who would be able to enjoy and fully engage with the film.

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Appearance

My ideal audience member is quite young and stylish, but also casual and laid back. This applies to their dress sense, hairstyle and personality. Anything from T-shirts to heels goes, but they should have a good sense of humour and enjoy comedy films. It's also important that my ideal audience member can either relate to the characters or relate to the high school setting of the film.

A: Existing Film Characters

If I were to choose who my ideal audience member would be like based on existing comedy film characters, I would choose a combination of of characters, including Harold & Kumar, Jim from American Pie (1999) and Seth, Evan & Fogell from Superbad (2007).

The reason I chose these characters is because they all live typical lives, but get involved with extraordinary situations such as drug and crime related incidents. This relates to the idea that my ideal audience member should live an average life that contains comical elements.

B: Role Models

The role models of my ideal audience members would be Russell Howard and Jack Whitehall. The reason I chose these comedians is because their style of comedy is quite immature and uncouth, which relates to the sense of humour used in our film. Both comedians are also young and dress casually, which my typical audience member would be able to relate to.

C: Life Experiences

Our film would include unusual life experiences involving women, crime and embarrassing situations.  The ideal audience member for our film would be able to relate to these events through experience and socialising. It's important that our audience members understands the occurrences in teenage life so they can connect with the characters and storyline of the film.

D: Interests

One thing that the characters in our film and our audience members should not see eye-to-eye on are interests and hobbies. Because the characters of the film are nerdy and social rejects, our audience members should find their lifestyles and interests laughable.

E: Relationships

Like all films, our comedy would contain relationships, both romantic and hostile. In order for our ideal audience member to engage with the film, they would be able to relate to these relationship types and understand the feelings and emotions associated with these connections.

RESIT: Character Profiles

We have created character profiles for our 4 main characters who will be starring in our film. The purpose of this was to distinguish each character's personality and to assign each one a set identity, allowing us to use our imagination in how we will portray each character to our audience.


Each character comes with a name, a role in the film, an age, hobbies, likes, dislikes and a short description about them.

RESIT: G321 Initial Ideas

To show our thoughts and ideas for our G321 Film Opening and how they developed, I've created a spider diagram mapping our decisions and processes. I will explain each stage in detail using the correct media terminology.

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We always knew we wanted to produce the opening to a comedy film. Because all of the past students chose the horror genre, and the majority of my classmates followed the same path, we chose not to follow the crowd and go in the opposite direction with a comedy.


At first, we wanted something very unique and niche, and started looking into black comedy conventions and storyline ideas. We looked into films such as Hot Fuzz (2007), In Bruges (2008) and Fargo (1996).






But after some brief research, we found that it would be difficult to distinguish a comedy opening from a black comedy opening in such a short duration of time without incorporating blood or violence. We also knew that if we used blood or violence, the genre could be mistaken for horror. For these reasons, we chose to move on from black comedy and began to research into comedy films.


After looking at film examples, such as Superbad (2007), Napoleon Dynamite (2004) and Step Brothers (2008), we knew that we could create the opening to a mainstream film that targets a mass audience while keeping a unique and original comedy style. This was great news for us as creating a mainstream film and targeting a mass audience gave us more to research and talk about in the evaluation stage.


One of the main similarities we found in all comedy title sequences was how the characters were introduced. Unlike other film openings, we found that comedies had a tendency to introduce characters more thoroughly through things like interests, habits and lifestyle. We decided to use this generic convention in our own opening sequence.

All three of the films we looked into followed this pattern. A great example of a film that introduces the character, and how the storyline began, is Step Brothers. Both of the protagonists are introduced separately, and we learn where they live, what they enjoy and what type of character they will play in the film.


After deciding on a genre, we started to look into who our target audience would be and what would make them attracted to our film. Because comedy is a major genre, we knew that our target audience would be expansive and that our film would appeal to a mass group of people.


We then turned back to research, and began looking at films such as American Pie (1999), Role Models (2008) and There's Something About Mary (1998).


The reason we chose these 3 films, and the previous 3 films, is because once we knew that we wanted to create a comedy film opening, we also knew that we wanted to use an immature/teenage comedy style. This was based on the reason that we did not want to produce an '18' film that contained frequent swearing and explicit adult content, and we did not want to produce a family film, such as a 'G', 'PG' or '12'. For this reason, we chose to certify our film as a '15', which mainly targets teenagers and young adults.


After looking into these 3 films, we found that they were all certified '15' films, and used a very similar style of comedy to the one we intended to use in our own film. This confirmed our film certification, and we then moved on into the topic of attracting our audience.


We wanted to appeal to our target audience by presenting our film as entertaining and funny. As a group, we discussed how to do this and came up with two main ideas: our audience can laugh at the film, or laugh with the film. We knew that if our audience were to laugh at the film, our style of comedy would venture down the 'parody' or 'satire' route. Because these comedy styles did not coincide with our original ideas, we knew that our other option was to create a film that our audience would laugh with, the difference being that the style of humour is inoffensive and innocent, as opposed to mockery and disrespectful comedy.


The style of comedy we chose was 'screwball', which derives its humour from bizarre and surprising situations and characters. Because we knew this would connect to our characters and themes, we began to discuss our next decision.


Applying our target audience ideas, we decided our main theme should be high school and geeks. We knew from our research that a lot of film characters' personalities matured during high school, and decided to make a film based on the typical hierarchy and personalities found in the learning and personal development stage. We also chose this theme as it went hand-in-hand with our thoughts and ideas of who our characters should be.


The last piece of the puzzle was choosing our characters, and seeing as most of our planning was finished, our characters were obvious. Inspired greatly by Superbad, we chose to have 3 protagonists. The main characters we chose to incorporate into our storyline were your stereotypical geeks, each character a social reject in the high school environment. We decided that one of the 3 geeks would be overweight, as it would enable us to mix an element of dark humour into the film.


We also needed to create an antagonist for the sake of narrative theories and creating an engaging storyline. We wanted to associated our antagonist with an unconventional twist that would only be revealed at the end of the film. We hatched up this idea to challenge generic conventions and create something even more unique.


After some careful planning and detailed research, we wound up with our final characters and advanced into the making of our G321 Film Opening project.

RESIT: Props for Our G321 Film Opening

RESIT: Our Film Opening Titles and Conventions

To challenge generic conventions, we decided during the editing of our 2nd rough cut to change the order of the title sequence. Instead of our film title appearing at the beginning of the opening, we've chosen to display the title at the end of the opening.

This idea was inspired by the film Step Brothers (2008), where the film title does not appear until the very end of the opening scene.

Step Brothers Opening Scene

Although film openings are not generally associated with this title format, the sequence works successfully in this example as the opening uses clear generic conventions and contains content that prevents the audience from interpreting the opening as a trailer, such as the storyline and introduction of characters.

For our film opening, we also plan to challenge this generic convention by using it in our piece. We believe that by using the same techniques, our film could also pull off this convention. We also believe it would benefit our piece as it would make it unique and original.

RESIT: The History of Comedy

RESIT: Target Audience Profile

For our G321 film project, we have decided to create an opening to a comedy film. Because comedy is a major genre and generally targets a mass audience, we have targeted a certain audience that fits this specification.

Our film is mainstream, so our goal is to target a wide range of audience members. We’ve chosen to target demographic groups C, D and E, which includes the unemployed, students, blue collar workers and un-skilled/semi-skilled workers. We’ve intentionally left out high social class groups, such as A and B, as we have taken into account that upper-classed citizens would not be able to engage with the characters or relate to the events of the film. From a stereotypical point of view, it is also likely that people within demographic groups A and B would not appreciate the language, sexual references or general rude sense of humour the film contains.

More specifically, our ideal target audience member would either be a male or female between the ages of 15 and 24. Although 3 out of the 4 protagonists are male, and explicitly targeting a male audience would mean that all of our audience members would be able to fully engage with the characters and events of the film, we have chosen to include females in our target audience as the style of humour is extensive and could just as easily reach out to female audience members as it could to males.

We chose the age range of 15-24, with 15 being the minimum age of a person that would be allowed to view our film, due to certification purposes. Although we have stated that our oldest ideal audience member would be 24, our film may appeal to people within their 30’s, 40’s or even 50’s. We chose the age of 24 as an estimation for when our target audience member may grow too mature for the style of comedy used in the film.

A film that inspired the inner workings of our film opening and targets a very similar audience to us is the film Superbad (2007). Like Superbad, our film is certified as ‘15’ and has a ‘high school geek’ theme. Superbad is also a mainstream comedy film which targets a mass audience and made a gross revenue of £109,006,682.

Superbad played an important role in the planning stage of our G321 film opening. When looking into comedy, we were unsure as a group whether targeting such a small audience when trying to produce a mainstream film would coincide with a film based in such a major genre. But when we started researching existing films with similar themes and characters, such as Superbad, Step Brothers (2008) and Napoleon Dynamite(2004), we found that the combination of a small audience and a mainstream film was actually successful for films within comedy. This knowledge enabled us to create a foundational base for who our target audience members should be, and allowed us to develop our ideas and become more specific in how to attract and approach them.

RESIT: Why We Chose the Comedy Genre

According to CNBC, an American broadcasting channel, 5 out of 'The 15 Most Profitable Movies of All Time' were comedy films, including Mrs Doubtfire, There’s Something About Mary, The Hangover, Home Alone and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. This information shows that comedy films are a popular, successful genre that targets a mass audience.

Why comedy is a great genre to choose:

• The history of comedy dates back to the 1800's, and has been a successful genre ever since
• It is difficult for comedy to appeal to a lot of people, but if it does, it can only make a turn for the better
• Most comedy films target mass audiences and are mainstream, resulting in a large profit and a high popularity rating
• Comedy is subjective, meaning one person may find something funny and another may not. But being a comedy, several types of humour can be written into the film to suit all preferences without confusing the audience on what genre the film is meant to be

Why we chose the comedy genre:

As a group, we all decided that we wanted to film the opening of a comedy. One of the main reasons we chose this genre is because it requires a lot of creativity and positive thinking, which each member in our group had a lot of. We wanted to create something clever and imaginative, while keeping a positive and uplifting atmosphere. We understood that making an opening to a comedy would be challenging, and were prepared to push ourselves to produce a product that successfully resembled such a popular and well-known genre.

We also wanted our ideas to be original and indifferent from our other classmates'. Several groups in our class decided to produce a film opening for a horror or drama, and we felt that if we could take our ideas in a completely opposite direction with a comedy opening, we would stand out from the crowd. We used this fresh approach to our advantage and threw all of our efforts into our coursework to prove that we could make a successful film opening by being original and choosing a genre outside of our comfort zone. It was this drive that propelled ourselves through the Preliminary task and into the G321 Film Opening task.

RESIT: G321 Evaluation Q1

RESIT: Certification and Justification

I feel that an appropriate certification for our film would be for people aged 15 or over. This prevents exposing young children to strong language, references to drugs and adult themes. It is important to take these things into consideration when certifying a film, as a low age certification (such as PG or 12A) could mislead a parent into thinking the film is suitable for their children when it may include explicit content.

The reason we chose not to certify our film as a 12A is due to the fact that our film may contain a lot of rude adult humour and sexual references that a 12 year old may not understand.

It wouldn't make sense to rate our film as an 18 either, as our film does not contain any graphic gore, sexual images or heavily explicit content. If we did decide to rate our film as anything other than a 15, we would not be reaching our target audience members and the people who do watch our film would find it difficult to relate to the characters and events of the film.

January Resit 2012

Any posts created/posted after April 20th 2011 is involved with January 2012 resit.

G321 Film Openings - Rough Cut 2 and Final Cut

Rough Cut 2



This is the second rough cut of our G321 film opening. In this cut, we have gone through with our original idea of presenting the film title at the end of the opening, which was inspired by the film Step Brothers (2008).

Final Cut
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After doing more research and recieving feedback for our 2nd rough cut, we decided to change the title sequence so that the film title appeared after the character Stacey was seen for the first time. This creates a link between her character and the storyline of the film, whereas our audience was unable to make that connection before.

G321 Evaluation - Q7

G321 Evaluation - Q6

G321 Evaluation - Q5

G321 Evaluation - Q4

Q4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

G321 Evaluation - Q3

G321 Evaluation - Q2

G321 Evaluation - Q1

G321 Group Blog: Green Productions

The following link will direct you to the group blog, Green Productions, where you will find work we completed together as a group for our G321 film opening.

Green Productions

Analysing Film Openings Within Comedy

To see what type of conventions are used in comedy films, I will be comparing 3 film openings within the comedy genre to pick up on any similarities in how the opening conveys the genre of the film.

Step Brothers (2008)

Step Brothers Opening Scene

The film begins with the titles appearing in a casual, handwritten font. This immediately gives the audience the impression that the film is a comedy. The music in the background is non-diegetic, and is very upbeat and lively. This creates an content and relaxed atmosphere for the viewer. The lighting is generally natural or high key, creating an uplifting mood and distinguishing the film as a comedy.


The characters have a humorous appearance which is made up with their bizarre and wacky hair. The costume is also portrayed as comical as one character is dressed in childish pajamas, and the other is wearing an outfit that is too small for him. This suggest the humour used throughout the film will be immature and would appeal to a youthful target audience. This humour is also portrayed through the fact that the main characters are grown men and still live in their parents' houses. The titles follow an nontraditional format as the film title is not shown at the beginning of the opening. This suggests that if the opening is clearly distinct from a film trailer, the film title does not need to be presented at the beginning of the opening.

Napoleon Dynamite (2004)


Napoleon Dynamite Opening Sequence

The film begins with the titles appearing in a casual, handwritten font. This immediately gives the audience the impression that the film is a comedy. The music in the background is non-diegetic, and is relaxed and casual. This creates an content and upbeat atmosphere for the viewer. The lighting is natural, creating an uplifting mood and distinguishing the film as a comedy.


The main character seen is very comical looking and adopts the image of a stereotypical nerd. This suggests that the sense of humour used may be slapstick and immature, which would appeal to the young generation as a target audience. This style of humour is also conveyed in the drawings of fictional beings later in the opening sequence, and the card pulled out of the character's wallet that says "U.F.O. Abduction Insurance".


The titles are displayed in a quirky fashion, suggesting that the humour used in the film is unique. The titles include objects such as pencils, a rubber and a protractor which suggests that the character is a teenager who attends school. This also links into the target audience. The titles also follow a traditional format as the film title is displayed towards the beginning of the sequence. This is used to distinguish the film opening from a trailer.

Superbad (2007)





 The music in the background is non-diegetic, and is very upbeat and lively. This creates an energetic and stimulating atmosphere for the viewer. No particular lighting is used as the opening is presented in a cartoon fashion. This could be interpreted and juvenile and suggest that the film's target audience is teenagers and young adults. The dancing is lame and idiotic, suggesting the genre is comedy.


One of the 2 character silhouettes seen is thin and weedy, while the other appears to be more fat. The contrast in character physique also suggests that the genre is comedy. The opening uses a variety of bright colours, contributing towards an uplifting atmosphere. The titles follow a traditional format as the film title is displayed towards the beginning of the sequence. This is used to distinguish the film opening from a trailer.

Overall, there are several conventions used to show that the film is within the comedy genre, such as the following:

• The music is generally upbeat and energetic
• The font is casual or handwritten
• The characters/costumes are used as portrayed as comical
• The lighting is generally natural
• The style of humour appeals to a youthful generation

When creating our final G321 film opening sequence, these conventions will be taken into account to ensure that our opening successfully represents the comedy genre. From this comparison, I have learnt that all of the above conventions are vitally important to setting the right mood for the audience and introducing the appropriate genre.

Opening Titles Research

Seeing as our film ideas were inspired by the film Superbad (2007), I will be recording when the titles appear on screen using a timeline, and evaluating how useful this research is towards our G321 film opening.

Superbad - Film Opening

For this opening, the titles follow a very traditional sequence that tends to begin with the production companies and distributors, following onto the film title, then comes the main star(s), miscellaneous cast & crew and ends with the film writers and director. This format was used to distinguish the opening from a film trailer.
The titles are not spaced out at all, as one title appears instantly after the last one disappears. This may be due to keeping the opening sequence short and snappy or keeping to a certain time frame.


Although our film opening will not consist of as many credits and titles, I have learnt from this task that timing is vital in the film opening so that titles appear at the right time and remain on screen for the appropriate duration. I have also learnt that if titles come and go too quickly or too slowly, this could affect the pace and atmosphere of the opening in a negative way.

Comparing Ideas Within Comedy

The idea for our film is based around 3 nerdy characters competing to win the girl of their dreams. This storyline was inspired mainly by the film Superbad (2007), as the narrative is very similar.

Although the film plots are similar, we intend to disassociate our opening with the opening of Superbad as we want our film to be distinctive and separate from other existing films.


Superbad - Film Opening





Our group was not inspired by the opening of the film, but by the characters, storyline and comical style. We chose Superbad as it was a successful mainstream film in the comedy genre that was produced to appeal to a mass audience, like we intend for our film. 


Superbad is an admirable example as it shows that if our group can successfully create an opening that indicates our film is in the comedy genre, our film has the potential to be as successful and massive as Superbad.


We then compared our film ideas to the storyline of There's Something About Mary (1998), which we found that our film idea contains a similar competitive narrative for the desirable female.


We decided that this similarity is a great idea as our film would share a similar comedy style, and comparing storylines would benefit our film as There's Something About Mary is a successful and reputable mainstream film within the comedy genre.


Overall, we have decided that, although our storylines are similar to other comedies, we do not intend to replicate or mimic ideas, but to see them as inspiration for our own film and see successful ideas in other comedy films as potential successes in our own.

G321 Ideal Actors

Institutions Research

One way of identifying whether a film is aimed towards a mainstream audience or a niche audience is by looking at what company funds and distribute the film.

The mainstream institutions tend to have a much more flashy and whizzy logos, and include some kind of jingle, animation/motion or both. This is because the company wants to excite their audience and maintain a certain reputation or status.

2 great examples of famous mainstream institution logos are Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures.

Both logos have:

• A recognisable jingle that is distinct and associated with that institution
• Very flashy effects, such as the shimmering gold and powerful glow
• A fade-to-black finish and a fade-to-image begining, easing the audience in and out

On the other hand, companies who target niche audiences tend to have a more simplistic logo that may or may not include motion/animation. This is because the company is not as famous and glamourous as the more reputable film institutions, and usually have a smaller budget.

2 great examples of smaller film institutions that target niche audiences are Warp Films and Film 4. 

Neither logos have:

• A recognisable jingle that is distinct and associated with that institution
• Flashy special effects or motion animation

Another huge difference between mainstream films and niche films is whether it is funded by a big American company or an independent UK based company, as American film institutions tend to be more famous and leading as opposed to UK film institutions which are more local. Whether a film goes with an American production company or a UK production company can have a massive impact on, or even decide, whether a film is mainstream or niche.

For this reason, we have decided that our film would be a mainstream film. This is because we aim to target the general population and attract a larger audience.

Jelly Babies - Experimenting with Film Openings

Considering Genre - Ghostbusters, Blade & Star Wars

The purpose of this comparison is identify how different aspects of a film opening distinguish a genre. I will be doing this by comparing 3 seperate genres.

Ghostbusters (1984)

The lighting in the text is low key and sets a dark atmosphere. The woman at the beginning of the opening screams diegetically as she faces a ghostly glow. This suggests the film is a horror. The title of the film is 'Ghostbusters', and suggests the theme is ghosts and paranormal activity. This is also evident as the words 'Paranormal Studies' is seen on an office door. A red circle encloses the image of the woman, holding strong connotations of violence and bloodshed.

The film jingle is upbeat and comical, showing juxtaposition as the theme is horror. This suggests that the film genre is comic horror. The setting of the film is in the 1980's. This is evident in the hairstyles, dress sense and technology used in the opening. The male carrying out the test is clearly the protoganist, as he is seen through mainly medium close ups and midshots. The attraction between the protagonist and the blonde female suggests the film will also contain romance.

Blade (1998)

The lighting is low key and is set at night, setting a dark atmosphere. The strobe lights create a fast pace setting, and the editing and non-diegetic music are equally as fast. This builds tension for the audience and suggests that the genre of the film may be thriller. The titles are in block capitals and are bright red, conveying strong connotations of blood and violence. This suggests that the genre is also horror. The characters are lively and youthful, setting an up beat atmosphere for the audience.

Star Wars (1977)

The genre of Star Wars is sci-fi. This is evident in the setting as the film is set in outer space and uses spacecraft. The lighting is low key, setting a mysterious and ominous atmosphere. Diegetic sound effects, such as guns and lasers, suggest the genre of the film may also be action. Fast pace and non-diegetic music is played throughout the opening, and sets a triumphant and heroic mood for the audience.

Evaluation of Student Film

The purpose of this evaluation is to identify strengths and weaknesses of 3 student film openings, as well as suggest improvements, and be able to use these points to benefit the making of my film opening and avoid making similar mistakes.

Student Film 1 - Peephole Productions

Strengths

• The genre is clear and is evident in the use of blood and black/red colours.

 Weaknesses

• The font seems misplaced. Instead of resembling the opening of a horror, the font represents stationary, stamps and DIY shops.
• The opening consists of fade to black editing techniques, which resembles a trailer as appose to the opening of a film.
• The pace of the clip is too fast. Too much seems to be happening in the first few minutes, and leaves the impression that the narrative is closed when it should be open.

Improvements

• A good improvement would be to leave out some of the content. The opening lacks subtlety and ease, when it should be an introduction to the film and characters. This could be done by using more enigma codes instead of giving away the whole film plot.
• Use a more relative font. A font that picks up on the genre of the film would benefit the atmosphere of the film and set the right mood for the audience.
• Avoid using fade to black too much. It's not often seen in film openings, and gives the opening a false trailer effect.

Student Film 2 - Fugitive Productions

Strengths

• The non-diegetic music works well and fits in with the film genre.
• The setting is chosen well - the spookiness of the woods and the dark street build tension for the audience and create an appropriate uneasy mood
• The use of collages also work very well. The cuts are very fast paced and the noise is unsettling, reflecting the genre of the film and sparking curiosity in the audience to find out more about the film
• The font also corresponds well with the film genre as it is creepy and the flashing is spontaneous and jumpy.

 Weaknesses

• The zoom in shot in the woods does not work. It's too quick and shaky, and is an immediate tension breaker.
• Although the pace of the opening is slow and doesn't contain too much content, the ending is left as a cliffhanger and leaves the impression that the narrative is closed when it should be open. It's more representative of a trailer as oppose to a film opening.

Improvements

• Leave out the zoom shot in the woods and stick to the long-shot. It keeps the pace of opening slow and retains tension for the audience.
• Leave the film opening with an open narrative so the audience are not misled and the opening leaves the right impression.

Student Film 3 - One Bad Apple Productions

Strengths

• The production company logo for 'One Bad Apple Productions' contradicts the genre of the film opening and looks more cute than horrifying.
• There is a good use of red and red colouring, conveying strong connotations of death and violence. This successfully supports the film genre and atmosphere.

Weaknesses

• The camera switching to outdoors after the male has entered the house doesn't seem to work. There is no apparent reason for the camera to switch positions, and confuses the viewer as the camera positioning is not consistent.
• The wind shield wipers change position in the clip, showing a lack of planning and detail awareness.

Improvements

• Keep the camera indoors to avoid confusing camera repositioning.
• Pay more attention to detail to avoid small mistakes that give the opening a bad impression when noticed by the audience.

From this, I have learnt what techniques to avoid in the making of my film opening to prevent misleading my audience and creating a trailer as appose to the opening of a film. I have also learned how certain props and aspects convey certain genres, and will use this to my advantage when creating my film opening.