AS Production Group 13: 2011

Tuesday 10 May 2011

KS: NAVIGATION

Monday 9 May 2011

With our preliminary task, we were very much experimenting with our use of sound and effects. We used one of the schools tracks as our sound, simply placing it into the time line, on top of our footage without too much thought. However, in our final piece I went to a studio, recorded my own sounds and mixed it so it would fit our final edit exactly. I recorded myself singing, laughing and screaming as well as making sound effects such as scratching metal and screwing up paper.

The software I used to do this was 'Pro Tools', this is a professional software that allowed me to be creative with my mixing. I spent two days in the studio to come out with the final product, I feel that the way I used sound and edited improved dramatically from the preliminary task. After recording each sound, I took the front seat in cutting each track down and then placing it appropriately on the time line. I had to make sure I cut each track precisely so it matched the video exactly. This job was made harder by using montage editing as the cutting rate was so fast.

In our preliminary task we played with the effects that we may want to use in our final piece. After looking at opening sequences such as 'Vertigo'(Alfred Hitchcock,1958), we thought that a colour wash of red on our piece might work. To create with wash we used an effect called 'Channel Mixer'. The use of red brought strong iconography from our chosen genre and gave a more sinister look to our footage.

After doing more research we decided to choose a black and white colour scheme. We liked the idea of our footage looking old and distressed. We wanted to use symbolism of red though. The text in our opening sequence is blood red and we used an effect called 'Colour Pass' in some of our footage; this allowed us to pick out the colour red whilst still having the majority of the image in black and white.

For our preliminary task we used continuity editing. We experimented with a mixture of angles and shot sizes to achieve a variety of perspectives in our piece to make it more interesting. We found that when editing our footage, each clip had to be cut at exactly the right point so that the line of action in each clip did not overlap. Pauses between cuts had to be removed to give the illusion that are queues were one continuous dialogue. Because of errors in using the camera incorrectly (not pressing record!) and a vast amount of wardrobe changes across a few days, we had to re-shoot some of our footage. Everything in each shot had to match up to the next e.g. the background, the hair, the costume.

Whilst researching film openings, we found 'Se7en'(David Fincher, 1995). We loved the use of montage editing and the use of close ups in the piece. We wanted to use our opening sequence as a window into our character's twisted mind; we thought montage editing would help us achieve this. With montage editing we had to do considerably more storyboarding. Our preliminary task was around a minute long with very little different shots when compared with our final piece. Because we used montage editing our cutting rate was fast. This meant we had to draw several pages of storyboards. Our storyboards were much more detailed the second time round. Not all of our initial ideas could be used in our final piece though. One of our original ideas was to show a mirror smashing on the floor; for safety reasons this was not possible.

Sunday 8 May 2011

LH: Evaluation Question 6

Use of Web 2.0
Throughout our coursework we have been using blogger to showcase our work. We set up our own blog, designing its layout ourselves. We collaborated on posts and commented on each others private work. We used youtube for some of our research, embedding videos onto the blog where appropriate. As well as youtube, we used websites such as watchthetitles.com and artofthetitle.com for our research. These helped us to build on our own idea whilst showing us how different films within a genre can be.

Use of Camera

For our piece we used a Nikon SLR camera for filming. It produced:

great quality pictures,

HD filming and sound.

The zoom was 18-55 mm, and allowed us to do some great shots.

For each shoot we took a tri-pod with us so we could get a smooth camera movement. For the majority of our filming I held the and tracked in and out of the shots. We decided in areas that we preferred the look of using handy-cam in our piece.

Throughout our piece we had to make sure to always film with the camera landscape. So all of our footage would match up to the size of the screen, we could shoot portrait. One of our early mistakes was to shoot in both layouts. Instead of proving our photos useless, we fixed the problem by zooming in on them so they met the edge of the screen.

Use of Premiere 8

To edit our footage we used 'Premiere 8'. These were the steps we used to make our film opening:

The first step to editing our footage was to upload everything we had shot onto 'Premiere 8'. Once everything had been uploading we looked at everything we had decided on which we wanted to use in our final piece. Whilst filming, we always wanted to shoot too much rather than just a little.
We then watched some of our footage back on the computer, we realised that some of it was unsuitable to use in our final edit. Once we had all of our footage, we could start editing.
To edit our footage, we had to drag each clip one by one onto the time line. We then had to create an order for all of our footage.
We decided to edit everything in one location together, separating each location by a common clip. Throughout our piece used an extreme close-up of the girls face to create a separation between each location, giving the impression that each location, each memory is deeper inside her mind. These clips helped to define the line of narrative more clearly.

Effects we used with Premiere:

A black and white effect. This was used to make our footage look artistic and intense.

To add to the look of our footage, we also used a 'brightness and contrast' on our clips to heighten each image. We then edited these factors more, creating a darker look to the film and a higher contrast between the black and white.

On some of our footage we added 'old film', this made our images more static and paler, giving it a more damaged look. It also helped to build on the idea of a flashback.

As a few of our clips were quite slow and long, we used a 'compression of time' to speed them up. This tool was very useful and it allowed us to use more of our footage.

To make the effect work so the girls image would stay in the mirror, even after she had walked away, we used 'Four-Point Garbage Matte'. The first time we tried using this effect our footage had movement, consequentially the effect would not work. Because the use of this effect was so important to us, we went back to the location and re-shot that scene, this time using a tri-pod.

With two of the clips in piece we used 'mirror'. This split our image and showed two opposite images in the clip, making it look like the image had had a mirror placed next to it.

In our piece we wanted it all black and white except from using one colour, red. Other than our titles being red we wanted to bring out the red from one of our original images. To do this we used 'Colour Pass'.

For our text we used a 'Fade Out' to smooth transitions into our piece.

Use of Pro Tools

For our piece we wanted to create our own original sound. To do this we went to 'Blizzard Records' and used the studio. We had a strong idea of what we wanted in our sound; a number of different sound effects that would all build together to create a crescendo at the end of our piece. To edit and record our sound we used a software called 'Pro Tools'. In the studio we recorded each sound separately, created different tracks on the computer. This allowed us to edit each sound individually, tailor-making the soundtrack exactly for our piece. The sounds we recorded where:

Myself singing

Myself giggling

Myself screaming

Screwing and ripping up paper dramatically

Scratching metal

We also used a heart beat track throughout the soundtrack to keep it consistent and to add a build of tension to our piece. We spent a long time in the studio to get the sound just right; we had to cut the sound to each different clip which was difficult with montage editing and a fast cutting rate.

LH: Evaluation Question 4/5

I asked a non-media student a set of question about our final piece; these are the questions and the answers.

What were your favourite parts of the opening?
"I liked the part were the girl was looking in the mirror and you could still see her reflection, that looked really good and professional. I really liked the girl singing and laughing, it was really creepy. And the scream at the end, there was a nice build up to it"

What did you think was bad about the opening?
"No, I thought it was all really good"

Did you understand the narrative? What was it about?
"I think so. It was about a teenage girl. It showed the girls memories or her dreams? And the doll in the video was evil and had brainwashed her"

Would you go watch this film in the cinema?
"I definitely would. If I was old enough"

LH: Evaluation Question 3

When we thought about making the film, we knew it would be a small budget in an independent company. The artistic look of our opening meant that if we continued with that style for the whole feature, it could be considered as an art house film. The unusual narrative, character journey and mise-en-scene in the film would mean that potentially the best place to exhibit our film would be in a curzon cinema. Considering this I think a company like 'Optimum Releasing' or 'Working Title Films' would be suitable to distribute our film. These are distribution companies that have taken on a variety of different films; ranging from big money makers to small art house films. We could even showcase our feature at film festivals such as 'Sundance' in America.

Saying this, the majority of our feature would demonstrate mainstream themes. Our piece mainly attracts a teenage audience, the majority of which would be female. This is because the main character can be more related to them. However, we have stock characters that would appeal to other audiences. Our film would provide a lot of the conventions of a traditional psychological thriller; it involves murder, inner turmoil, unstable characters and iconography. Although the family featured in our piece would be predominantly middle-class, we feel that a selection of cultural backgrounds would enjoy our film.

As this is the case I think a platform release would be suitable for our film. I think this because it may not be marketable worldwide, so choosing locations where similar films have known to be acceptable would be the easiest and safest option. Another idea though would be to have a blanket release. We would create a buzz about the film using twitter and facebook to connect to a wide audience. We would use posters and teasers to showcase our idea and create a buzz factor. Is this was our strategy we could potentially get backing from a conglomerate like Warner Bros. or like 'Silent Hill'(Christophe Gans, 2006) use Columbia TriStar. For companies like this, our film would be exhibited in cineplexs like 'Odeon'.

LH: Evaluation Question 2

The social group represented in our piece is a young female. Our main character is a teenage girl. In our piece she is shown in a negative light, she goes insane and kills her friends and family. In our opening sequence we show her smearing blood on her face and across a wall. We show he playing with dolls and doing other child-like things. The fact that her mind becomes much like a child's, obedient and fragile, challenges the traditional idea of a teenager being more mature.

In our soundtrack we used giggling and singing to show her insanity. We feature a nursery rhyme style song that adds a creepy edge to the imagery on the screen. The lyrics bring everything in the piece together creating a line of continuous action. The music makes her seem a lot younger and shows her as someone who is also playful and fragile. This challenges the stereotypical idea of a teenager as they are seen as strong, argumentative and loud but we show her as someone who is broken.

In horror films, the female teenager is shown as the target and as a victim. In our piece, however, she is the murderer. The most common antagonist is usually a male. We wanted someone who we could relate to and someone who was accessible to us to use in our piece. The antagonist is someone who can overpower their victims and is seen as somewhat threatening. We wanted to use the idea of the murders being performed in the spur of the moment with the element of surprise. This would give our otherwise weak character, an edge with spontaneity and a burst of adrenaline. It did however fall to the stereotypical view of a female being quite weak, especially when compared with a dominant male figure.

LH: Evaluation Question 1

The style in which we used to edit our opening sequence was montage editing. This leaded us to using no continuity editing. After researching the opening to 'Se7en'( David Fincher, 1995), we decided that we wanted to create something very similar for our opening. Our idea was to use our opening sequence as a window into our protagonists twisted mind. This is an oxymoron as our main character as a protagonist, performs wrong doings without any good in the outcome. The dynamics of our character challenges the traditional conventions, they would usually be portrayed as some type of hero, but our protagonist has characteristics of an antagonist.

Our text in our opening sequence uses iconic conventions for real media products. The font is damaged and disjointed in a dark red colour. With our genre as a thriller/horror, the titles show ideas of blood, death and danger reinforcing our narrative which allows the audience to be aware of what is in store.

We used iconography such as mirrors, blood and dolls. We took influences from film noir and 'The Black Swan'(Darren Aronofsky, 2010) to help build on our ideas of using a mirror to show split personality and the ch

aracter's inner turmoil. We used an effect called 'Four-point garbage matte' to create an image of a reflection of a girl in a mirror, even after she has turned away.

As used in horrors we used the idea of blood, using red as the only colour in an all black and white piece. Our titles are in a deep red and we used 'Colour Pass' to show our protagonist smearing red (blood) all over a wall as if possessed. In our narrative we see a girl gradually going insane after finding dolls in her house. In our opening sequence we featured two dolls; still and moving. The fact that the 'evil' in our piece comes from a doll challenges the idea of a strong male figure being the antagonist. In our research we looked at the film 'Child's Play' (Tom Holland, 1988) and some of its sequels. We dislikes the look of the dolls in these films, so chose something more sophisticated and feminine.

The majority of the films we analysed for our researched were in colour, we used black and white. The look of our piece is quite artistic. By using black and white we could pick out red as a stereotypical colour for our genre. 'Silent Hill' (Christophe Gans, 2006) was the first title sequence that inspired us to use black and white. The colours made our images look eerie and sinister which would add to the tension and drama in our piece.

Thursday 5 May 2011

KS: Evaluation 6/7

Evaluation: Developing skills through technology on Prezi

Tuesday 3 May 2011

KS : Evaluation : 5 : Final audience research

Final Audience Research

View more presentations or Upload your own.

My response to the qualitative interviews formulated at our audience screening.

Wednesday 27 April 2011

KS: Evaluation - Question 4 - Audience research

In order to collect research on the sucess and popularity of our film opening we aim to sufficiently research audience opinions and interpretations of 'The Dolls House'. We will be presenting our work to a group of 15-18 year olds on Tuesday, which we believe is the key sector of the films target audeince, and will be filming their reactions and opinions of the opening. We will use both questionnaires to gather statistical data to present on a graphs asking a range of questions such as 'Please describe your interpretation of the narrative' to ' Out of ten what would you give our opening for its selection of locations/props/costume that are appropriate for our genre?'. We will use simple questions such as 'What genre do you think our film opening is' and more specific ones, in which we will film people asking to provide a more detailed account and interpretation.

We aim to gather a large group of mixed race, age and sex people as we feel our film has the potential to attract a large audience demographic; particularly popular amongst people aged 15-30 who enjoy psychiatric thrillers/horrors, films which challenge the mind of the viewer and may also challenge traditional ideologies.

A key question we will ask the audience, is how and judging how well does the films characters appear to the audience, whether they are able work out why they are behaving unnaturally, and what they believe are the main features of the opening.

After testing our rough cut to our peer relations, results were positive they said both technically and visually the film opening was good, but needed further work into the presentation of the characters state of mind and the order of the footage so the narrative was clear. So it is vital we re address this issue in our audience research now further editing has been made.

We will post the findings of the audience research in both a concluding form, with bullet points, graphs and charts, also copies of the questionnaire we will give out; but also as a short video of peoples responses to particular aspects of the film and how well they understood and enjoyed it, with clips from the opening, clips from the audience research, and voice overs from the creators of the film Kitty and Lilli.

Friday 15 April 2011

KS: Evaluation: 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of making your film opening?

We presented all our research and work we completely collaboratively on this blog. We equally divided our tasks up and decided to comment on each others work to show our progress and how we are supporting each others judgements.

After researching locations and planning which scenes and shots we would be filming, we then created risk assessment forms for each location we would use to enable us to minimise risks and problems that may occur. We shot our film on a Nikon digital SLR camera and used a tripod so we could create smooth camera movements, for example tracking shots and zooms, however at parts this was not necessary when we chose to film in handy cam style.

Weather conditions made our shoots difficult, we shot our footage at different times of the day so the lighting was different, in parts the light was dull whereas in other very bright (ruins scene). It was also very important when shooting the mirror scene that the camera was not visible in the reflection of the mirror. We had to make sure that all footage we took was landscape orientation and that shadows where not wanted were not scene; particularly in our psychologists room we liked the shadow of the cinematographer however when a shadow of the camera emerged this had to be cut.

Our original footage of the mirror scene where the girl turns around yet her reflection stays stationary originally did not work as we did not use a tripod so the camera jumped and the lines of the mirror didn't match up so a re-shoot was required.

We over came this issue with the mirror by using a tripod and making sure the footage was very steady and didn't move so when we cut a still from the footage the points of objects matched up. Also when it came to editing we were able to adjust the brightness of the footage so the scenes matched up better and was not obvious the lighting was different. We encountered what we thought a major problem when capturing new footage, we overwrote previous footage which had been uploaded in our premiere editing software, and therefore replaced our original footage with this new unedited footed, deleting our previous footage. Luckily we had previously exported the first draft of the two minute opening so we were able to cut these scenes, save them and re enter them in our opening.

We very closely edited our footage by first uploading all our footage, selecting the files we would be using and dragging it all into the time line. We would then attempt to order the opening and edit scene by scene.
We filtered the piece as a whole in black and white and added 'old film' editing technique where needed. We individually edited the brightness and contrast of the footage and stills as the extent we used varied depending on the footage. Editing the white balance so the footage all matched up.

Our first steps of editing involved cutting down films and compression of time. We made sure the speed of our still flashes in our montage editing were sharp, even and jumpy and that it cut to the footage smoothly, deciding which parts of the footage to use and which could be cut.
We added techniques such as 'spotlight' on the wallpaper scene and a series of very quick black flashes in the mirror scene and ruins scene to create a disjointed sense to the film. We did this by selecting a black image, placing it on another layer on premieres timeline and pasting it so they were consecutively repeated.

The 'Black Swan' style mirror shot was the hardest to edit however the results were great, we had to cut a still from the footage where we wanted the reflection in the mirror to stay still and match up the points of the mirror, so the image on top on the footage replaced the moving reflection of the girl with her stationary. We created this effect with '4 point garbage matte' positioning points where the still image fitted against the footage so this could be over layered. (See KS: Thriller Research: Black Swan)

http://twgsbmedia11asgroup13.blogspot.com/2011/01/ks-thriller-research-black-swan.html

We added the mirror effect on the footage running down the side of the church to create an abstract distorted feel thus reflecting her state of mind.

A 'blur' editing technique was used in the ending wallpaper scene to add intensity and reflect back on the original footage. In the end of the opening we also picked out the colour red from the black and white connoting blood, a traditional horror convention which worked very well to contrast against the film noir style.

We chose to insert the colour red in our wallpaper scene using the technique 'colour pass' to give the impression of the psychologically unstable girl smothering blood on a wall, this particular colour holding traditional horror conventions, creating a sinister feel.

After separately editing the scenes on our footage we then added flashes between them of the possessed girls twitching and eye movements from the start of the film opening where she sits in the psychologists room. By doing this the narrative was more clear cut and the audience was able to relate the fast pace action and turmoil to her mind. We repeated these shots at the end of the opening to conclude that was all part of her imagination, flashforwards of what to come; ending on a final close up shot of her opening her eyes directly pulling the audience in and closing the madness of the narrative where the film and her story can be presented.

The final stage of our editing was to add titles and transitions, we used text overlayed on our images and added the 'fade out' motion so they dissolved to the next sequence. We made sure the text was cut to the footage so it ran smoothly and looked professional. We left ourselves adequate time to do final editing and check the time of our film opening was roughly two minutes.

When we were happy with our piece we exported it on premiere by navigating on the 'share' button, saving it on our personal computer, uploading it on our youtube account then embedding this clip onto our blog as demonstrated.

I learnt a lot in the process of making our film opening particularly the fact you must shoot a lot more footage then needed so you can select the best files to present. We learnt about depth of field and how this changes how the footage must be edited and that our composition must be clearly planned before shooting. Storyboarding was very useful to visualise how the film would look before shooting it, considering framing, camera angles and mise en scene so our composition looked how we plan when it came to filming. It was important we considered the rule of thirds when filming and the 180 degree rule .

When comparing our production to real film production, personally I think with regards to our availability of locations, actresses and filming time we successfully created a realistic yet individualistic film opening. Although it does not look as professional as mainstream movies, we created a free film opening with a unique theme and reflected horror and thriller genre conventions. The opening has proved popular amongst our peers, particularly impressed by our editing techniques and selection of locations.

KS: Evaluation: 3

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

Once our film is made our production company will need to secure a distribution deal offering a cut of the box office and or DVD sales. The distributors must then invest in designing the marketing, such as posters and trailers, print copies of the film and distribute them to our chosen cinemas. We will need to clearly define our chosen audience, which we believe at the moment ranges from ages 15-55, particularly popular amongst the 15-25 age group of both genders and a variety of ethnic backgrounds, however this will need to be further researched and determined. We will need to decide on how much to invest on promoting 'The Dolls House', determining if exhibition will be worldwide, or nationally, targeting mass audience in large multiplex cinemas such as 'Odeon' and 'Cineplex' or niche audiences showing in art house cinemas such as 'Trinity' and 'Screen Cinemas'.

Our film I believe should target a mass audience as it is neither culturally or gender specific, instead it will attract a large audience and so should be distributed to multiplex cinemas such as Odeon or Cineplex. However we will need to do further audience research on the popularity of the film before releasing to determine the type of distribution and exhibition, as it may appeal to the more intelligent audience in art house cinemas.

When considering art house cinemas, 'Indie Films', an independent company would be particularly appropriate. However if we look at other independent productions such as 'Paranormal Activity'(peli,2007), produced by Stephen Schneider and Jason Blum, for Blumhouse productions and Solanda films. The horror film was successfully co distributed by Paramount Pictures, Dreamworks and Icon Film Distribution and exhibted in many worldwide cinemas including Odeon and Cineplex. Although a small independent production such like ours the film was able to achieve it exhibition worldwide in multiplex cinemas and reached its mass audience; therefore these distribution companies we should consider for our opening film sequence.

Our film opening is likely to go on general release if audience research is successful so it can be released to the mass audience collaboratively, as a worldwide mainstream film. When researching the distibution and release of 'Silent Hill' a similar film in its genre and independent production, I can conclude that I believe our film could be blanket released worldwide. 'Silent Hill', distributed by 'TriStar Pictures' was released to theatres on April 2, 2006 in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Ireland. France, Belgium, Hungary, and Greece and later released in 19 other countries, however I believe our film would benefit greater if released collaboratively such like 'The Age of Stupid' a small independent film which's success was generated by its large worldwide release through webcasts and cinema chains.

Therefore 'TriStar Pictures' could also be a suitable company to distribute our media production as it is a subsidiary of Columbia Pictures, itself a subdivision of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, which is owned by Sony Pictures, with backing of a larger conglomerate this means our independent production can greatly benefit by marketing the product through these conglomerate lines, thus increasing the 'buzz factor' before release.

KS: Evaluation: 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Only 1 particular social group is prevalent in our film opening narrative, this would be the teenage, white female. Firstly we decided on the female stock character rather than the male and this is a conventional feature of horror films that the victim character is a female yet the antagonist a male. We then decided on the white ethnicity for our main character, as not only was this an obvious and easy ethnic background for our actress to locate, but it also represents a large percentage of the social demographic, a usual, yet in some ways predictable ethnicity for our horror films main character. The late teenage social group appears in our opening as we feel this age group is appropriate for its target audience, and certificate 15+. The narrative includes other marganalised characters such as white family, including middle aged parents and a younger sister, and the older male psychologist; however these do not appear in our two minute film opening.

Our main female character is not represented in a positive light, but a possessive, insane and unstable young woman, therefore can be negatively interpreted. She does not depict traditional gender roles but instead challenges social norms. Although woman are usually presented as the emotionally unstable characters, they traditionally reflect materialistic sexual characters, or house wifes marganalised by the male characters. Teenagers are often depicted as argumentative and moody, geeky or rebellious, we however challenged all these stereotypical presentations. Instead we presented our female character as psychologically unstable and particularly creative, allowing her mind to transform the way she thinks and believes, to become possessed by dolls.

This social representation is obvious through her untraditional costume for a girl of age 18, thus reflecting a young doll like child, rather than usual street clothing that a traditional teenager would wear.

The non verbal language also both reflects and challenges gender stereotypes. The twitching of the eyes, the scratching of the face and ripping down of wallpaper reflects the traditional unstable presentation of women, however to a greater extent, instead presenting women as insane inferior characters, behaving in bizarre and inappropriate ways. 'The Grudge' however presents a similar style and behaviour of women through their possessed, cannibalistic character, smeared with black makeup and blood, a more extreme challenge of traditional gender roles than that of what we displayed.

The mise en scene we displayed our female character in does also challenge social norms in an ironic way. Where usually women would be seen putting on their makeup in the mirror, instead we presented our possessed girl scratching her face and smearing liquids aggressively on her face in the mirror. Rather than decorating the house, as a traditional house-wife would do we had our female character ripping down the wallpaper, and covering it with blood. Also rather than showing protection over their children or family members, we showed our female protagonists obsession over her dolls. And so although the settings of our film opening depict traditional gender roles and ideology, the mise en scene, props and non verbal language do quite the opposite.

The sound we used does however reflect traditional gender roles, but not of the teenage age group but one much younger; for example thing child like singing and laughter we used in our voice over presents the feminine and happy gender traits however of a younger child. The heart beat we used could also be interpreted to represent traditional gender roles in a positive way presenting their passionate and loving nature or negatively as their passive controlling and obsessive lives, thus reflected as the heart beat pace quickens and the volume increases representing the different sides of their personality and the turmoil they go through.

The camera work used in our opening does not necessarily reflect either traditional or non-traditional social norms but instead conventional horror techniques. The editing technique in the mirror scene however, influenced by the 'Black Swan' does again reflect their changing personalities and their obsessive and possessive natures, watching over people in a controlling way, and sometimes not realising their intentions. The close ups used on the hand movements and eye twitches further reinforces their turmoil. Also the tracking shots around the ruins scene as she trails around the locations reflects their free willed and calm personality, however this can be negatively interpreted as why was she there? What was she doing wandering around?

When considering macro issues of our film opening, and how it serves to reinforce or challenge ideologies I can conclude that although it reinforces minor female personality traits it challenges the traditional ideologies that women are just subservient, marganalised roles to men, blank slates lacking individual personalities and beliefs, but simply conforming to western ideologies. Instead our opening suggests greater depth to women's personalities, underlining the pain they go through and their lack of withstanding influences from the stronger male, in this case she is possessed as a result of the male psychologist taunting her, and so instead we constructed her conforming to the traditional ideological discourse of women as weak and vunerable people leading passive lives.

KS: Evaluation:1

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

The form of our opening, I believe takes quite a unique and unconventional structure. Although montage sequences are widely used in contemporary film openings, they are usually mixed amongst a series of continuity edited clips as flashbacks or photograph snippets. Our opening does however follow a conventional form, with use of fast pace montage flashes and creating enigma through camera movements and iconography.

We were influenced by a variety of films for our opening, for particular aspects of editing, titles, mise en scene and camera techniques. Firstly the titles we used are conventional, a traditional angular yet bold red font on a black background. The colour red conforms to the traditional horror conventions as well as the style of our font, with the swirled style particularly suited to the doll theme. 'Sweeney Todd' uses similar style of deep red text against a dark black background. Although we originally aimed to use animated text of scratches of handwriting flashing over the text, like seen in 'A nightmare on Elmstreet' and 'Se7en', we agreed on just simple bold font to anchor the storyline and make a dramatic statement, with a fade transition connoting her sanity being lost. We also geared away from 'Se7en' as it is set against a sepia backdrop, a warmer colour rather than the dramatic black we chose. (See KS: Film opening research of 'Se7en'(Fincher,1995) ) http://twgsbmedia11asgroup13.blogspot.com/2011/01/film-opening-research-of.html
(See

We decided on positioning our titles on the corners of the scenes so the audience was not distracted from the fast pace action going on, similarly used in 'Silent Hill'.

The plot of our opening, based around a psychologically unstable female protagonist who ultimately becomes possessed by dolls due to the influence of her new house move and her male 'psychologist', does conform to the conventional horror/thriller form. Conventions of the horror/thriller genre usually form around a victim character, normally a female and through character exposition explore their struggle, a similar form to that of which we chose. Our female character was the central factor in our film opening exploring the madness going on in her mind through series of flashbacks and flashforwards. Her non-verbal language is particularly iconic to setting the insanity of the scene and to create enigma, including the turmoil in her eyes and the scratching of wallpaper; with dramatic mise en scene and soundtrack. And so although the conventionally character exposition was not used poignantly in our film opening we still explored the mindset of our protagonist a popular style, thus scene in 'Se7en'.

Our mise en scene, although individualistic does heavily conform to conventional psychological thrillers. The use of scissors iconography is a popular convention however the styles of some of our scenes are particularly unique, the wallpaper scene for example. The protagonist is seen ripping and taring at wallpaper, underlining her turmoil which is further reinforced by the intense metal scratching soundtrack overlayed. I personally think this scene does not conform to traditional conventions as they usually include scenes such as torture and death in stock locations such as a haunted house or a woods, we however explore her personal torture in her doll style house location.

We set up a series of situations through mise en scene and props including a mirror scene, a psychologists room, and the wallpaper scene. The mirror scene allowed us to explore many editing techniques such as that used in 'The Black Swan' and the props of the dolls. Mirror reflections is a popular film noir style in which we were inflenced by, as well as the black and white colour scheme we decided on, the shadowing and the stark lighting. These images below show the technique we recreated from 'The Black Swan' as we thought it particularly challenged conventional styles of the genre.

In the 'psychologists room' the first and last scenes in our film opening, we used just a single arm chair prop placed in the centre of a dark lit room to create enigma, using strong non verbal language. Lighting was a huge part of this scene, with a pitch black room and a spotlight on the female protagonist, conforming to conventional film noir styles, but visually very interesting. This lighting style and contrast of stark colours was influenced from our research into 'Silent Hill' which explored locations and characters with similar visual techniques.

However 'Silent Hill' used a variety of tracking and zoom camera techniques when searching the locations, we however you steady cam followed by a zoom in, therefore not achieving the horror conventions 'Silent Hill' did through the swirls and camera tilts.

The costume for our female protagonist was a traditional doll style outfit, conforming to conventions of horror genre, as seen in 'The Shining'. We decided not to change the costume but keep it contant throughout the opening so it was clear the possessed girl did not change her state of mind. Although many other horror films used anamalistic costume and rough rags of clothing for their stock characters, such as the creature seen in 'Silent Hill' and 'The Grudge', we thought the simple doll style dress would connote and sum up the narrative perfectly. However at the beginning of the opening, in the psychologists room we had the female character in a school blazer to reflect her more stable state of mind at the start of the narrative.

(See KS: Film research and ideas ) http://twgsbmedia11asgroup13.blogspot.com/2011/03/ks-film-research-and-ideas.html

Our sound track was very successful in creating enigma throughout our piece, increasing in pace and volume throughout the end to increase intensity and drama, ending on a last scream and silence as the title 'The Dolls House' is revealed. A heart beat is used as a steady beat throughout the two minute opening with a variety of different sounds layered on top such as girls laughter, the voice over of the girl singing, a murmuring and metal scratches and twinges. Not only does our soundtrack conform to conventions of the horror genre, but also develops it. The murmuring, scream and scratching noises are traditional sounds to create an eery feel to the opening however the girls laughter and singing creates a more unique and personal sountrack to this particular opening. We originally researched sound looking at the instrumental music in 'The Invasion', however rather than the dreary montonous sounds we decided on more punchy mucic. We felt 'The Invasion' soundtrack had a more sci fi genre style than a psychological thriller style soundtrack we were interested in creating. Although 'Terminator Salvation' had a masculine feel to its soundtrack, the tempo and punchiness was a lot more appropriate for our opening conforming to the conventions of horror/thriller genre. We then looked at the soundtrack for the opening of 'Nightmare on Elmstreet' which had a lighter more feminine feel , with dramatic instrumental music throughout and clock chimes and other sounds layed over, similar to our constant heart beat and laughter layered over; still conforming to the conventions of a thriller genre. And so we combined influences from all the elements of these films opening soundtrack to create our soundtrack in which we hoped would develop forms and conventions of media products. We chose to use no digetic sounds but instead relied on non digetic music and voice overs to characterise our opening. The non digetic laughter and scream closely related to the footage in the opening so we felt it was not necessary to use digetic sounds.

(See KS: Sound Research) http://twgsbmedia11asgroup13.blogspot.com/2011/02/ks-sound-research.html

http://www.watchthetitles.com/articles/0096-Silent_Hill

The colours we chose to use were black, white and red, thus incorporating both 'film noir' and 'horror' styles, influenced by 'Sweeney Todd' with its dramatic use of deep red colours to connote blood and horror, and 'Silent Hill' which uses dark black locations and settings with white stratches, text, images and lighting cast over to create a film noir yet horror style opening. We took various camera techniques and framing from the opening of 'Silent Hill' including the use of zoom, and tracking around locations to create a fast pace action feel. We applied the zoom technique to our psychologists room, ruins and mirror scene, and tracking around the girl in the wallpaper scene and at the ruins. We used a variety of shot sizes, influenced by this research and both high and low angles to show where the power in the frame is cast, for example an establishing long shot to display the ruins scene, yet a close up of both the doll and girls face to relate the narrative back to her mind.

(See KS: Technical Deconstruction: Silent Hill(Gans,2006) ) http://twgsbmedia11asgroup13.blogspot.com/2011/02/ks-technical-deconstruction-silent.html

Medium shots were used in the mirror scene and wallpaper scene to show the protagonists interactions around the set. We used both handy cam and steady cam as used in 'Silent Hill' and 'Saw' to create an enigmatic sense of the conventions of horror genre. The tracking shots and handy cam in both the wood and ruins created a disjointed feel to the opening, thus reinforcing the insanity and turmoil the female protagonist feels. Other techniques we used include the use of blur technique and compression of time to reflect traditional horror conventions and create a face pace dramatic sense, similar to that used in 'Dawn of the Dead' and 'Silent Hill'. The blur particularly creates an enigmatic feel by slowly revealing the scene after a blurred setting, in the wallpaper scene; and the compression of time worked well in the playground scene where the protagonist is seen swinging on the swing. (See KS: Film Opening Analysis: Dawn of the Dead ) http://twgsbmedia11asgroup13.blogspot.com/2011/02/ks-film-opening-analysis-dawn-of-dead.html

And so when considering and analysing the styles and techniques used in our film opening, then comparing to other films of the same horror and thriller genre we have researched, I can conclude that parts of our opening conforms to the conventions, such as the stock character and costume, part develops conventions through our camera and editing techniques, and soundtrack, and other elements of our film opening challenges conventions through our montage edited sequence, combining both footage and camera stills.