Feedback to our film opening

After finishing the film opening, we gathered a group of people and sat them down to watch it and give us their opinions of what they thought of it. Below are the comments they made about our video.

"A nice and wide variety of shots and effects, both used effectively.

The music selection was good for the story line.

Mise-en-scene could have been better (The use of a better knife) also the tissue that appears from nowhere. WTF." - Charlie Poole, male, 18

"- Good camera angle, plus shots were used to make it look professional.

- It was simple yet really effective and put across well.

- The music suited the genre but it was repetitive.

- The dark effect used created a suitable atmosphere for the film to make a negative effect.

- No speech being used helped to create a mysterious effect." - Tom Whelan, male, 15

"The music is very effective as it is a clear genre signifier, but alternative audio should be used at some points. The camera was used well and there many different shots. No speech was used, this made a mysterious effect. Overall it was good and encouraged me to watch the rest." - Max Brawn, male, 15

" - Very realistic

- The music was perfect for the nightmare theme

- The opening gripped me and made me want to keep on watching.

- The opening made me think about how this relates to real life today.

- I identified with this film strongly.

- Colour changes and style changes in filming were great and also helped show the difference between flashbacks." - Emma Clark, female, 39

"- Got attention immediately.

- Music set the mood for the film straight away.

- Very dramatic.

- Kept my attention throughout.

- Emotionally powerful.

- Interesting photography and camera work.

- Very compulsive and disturbing.

- Wanted to keep on watching, very effective cliff hanger." - David Hall, male, 52

" I liked the effects on the movie which helped keep my attention strong, although it kept me hook i think the opening gave a bit too much away also. In respect to the flashback and voiceover, i felt the flashes of the past were better later on in the movie as short snaps as it felt like more of a memory fragment as opposed to the longer flashes, and i really liked the muffled voiceover." - Jenny Gaylor, female, 30

" - Good use of lighting and the font works well with the chosen lighting.

- The coughing etc in the sound bridge sounds good and freaky

- Rocking around in the bed is a bit fake and melodramatic.

- There wasn't much of a build up to the dream/flashback.

- The effect used on the dream/flashback sequence was good.

- Overall good editing but could be quicker towards the end of the opening.

- Music is good for the scenes and nice flash backs.

- Blood looks very real and makes the genre clear to the audience.

- The reason for his self abuse is clear and shown well.

- Good use of the blur effect at the end to symbolise the confusion etc." - Hannah Smith, female, 16

Our response to the feedback

The main negative points that kept being brought up during the feedback to our film was the continuity error, repetitive music and the cheese knife.

If we were to go back and start our film opening from the beginning again, we would definitely find more adequate props such as a better knife.

We would also delegated our time more appropriately which would of help us spot continuity errors and sorted them before producing our final version of the film opening.

As for the music the feedback showed that the music was repetitive and some people believed that it became boring after a while, we would change this by using another piece of music which would help the pace of the second half of the opening.

Overall we believe from this feedback that our film has been a success and appeals to a wide social demographic. This then relates to what was written in the audience theories before we started shooting it. There are a few issues with the final version of the film but we believe overall we have created a great film opening that meets the conventions of a horror/thriller film and therefore appeals to the intended target audience.

Psycho Opening By Kevin Gallagher

During the opening sequence on psycho the film starts with the name so that the audience knows what the film is they are about to watch. After this the films dramatic music starts straight away causing the audience to become engage into the film. Through out the opening sequence Alfred Hitchcock uses a lined effect which changes direction across the page, he uses this to symbolize a knife slashing effect when the lines are going downwards which can be seen to relate to the iconic shower killing scene, when the lines go side to side through the film title its to symbolize a broken mind. When introducing the actors names they start by being slashed and become more prominent to allow the audience to see who they are, by doing this through out the opening sequence means that it keeps the audience's attention.

For the time the film was made it was in black and white, and has been know through the years to have one of the most know killing scene in a horror movie were the main character is slashed and stabbed to death in the shower. by having the credits in the middle of the page makes it more easier to read, but also by having the block names in the middle of the page also helps the audience to see the moving side to side of the credits to help associate them with the broken mind feel.

'When The Bell Rings' Storyboard

Preliminary Storyboard

Initial Ideas

The initial idea of our opening sequence is about a boy who has been bullied through his life who is about to take revenge on those he feels has wronged him in the past. The first four minutes shows the boy preparing to go to school, this also shows to the audience through visual imagery of him getting ready, flashbacks and sound bridges the trauma the bullies caused the boy and how it led to himself harming. The audience will also get an insight into the boy’s life as they see his possessions within his room and his general attitude whilst by himself proving him to be a very mentally disturbed and lonely individual. The only other scenes we see where the boy is not in his room is in the flashbacks where we see him as a child where the bullying takes place. In this the audience will see how out casted the boy is from the rest of the peers resolving in his future mental break down and lust for revenge.

Results of Questionnaires and Key findings

Question 1

- 12 people were between the ages of 15-18, and 3 people were between the ages of 38-41

Question 2

- 8 people thought Horror

- 2 people thought Action/horror

- 3 people thought Comedy

- 2 people thought Romantic Comedy

Question 3

- All agreed on topics like blood and death

Question 4

- 10 people agreed a movie from the Saw films

- 2 people said Donnie Darko

- 1 person said Nightmare on Elm Street

- 2 people said The Messengers

Question 5

- All results varied though 4 people agreed the Blair Witch Project was the worst that they had seen, whilst 3 agreed on Jeepers Creepers 2

Question 6

- 13 people said trailers

- 2 people said posters

Question 7

- All agreed on some sort of insane murderer.

Question 8

- 12 people said yes

- 3 people said no, they would prefer something more general to all ages

Key Findings

We then used these results from the questionnaires to decide that a psychological thriller/horror would be the best film to create. This is because the majority of results called for an insane murderer which would fit perfectly in a psychological plot, this is also backed up by the top preferred films being from the Saw franchise and Donnie Darko which are both of this genre. Lastly using the research we decided not to film the movie opening in the style of The Blair Witch Project as that particular film came up as the least preferred film to watch in this genre field.

Copy of a completed Questionnaire

1) How old are you?

17

2) What Genre of Film do you find most exciting?

Action Horror

3) What conventions would you expect to see in a Horror/Thriller Film?

I would expect to see blood and gore as well as lots of violence

4) What is your favourite Horror/Thriller Film?

Saw

5) What is your least favourite Horror/Thriller Film?

Blair Witch Project

6) What makes you want to see a Horror/Thriller Film e.g. Posters, Trailers?

Trailers as they make me want to see what happens

7) What kind of characters would you like to see in a Horror/Thriller Film?

A deranged murderer, which is involved in a giant plot twist at the end

8) Would you like to see a Horror/Thriller Film aimed specifically at teenagers?

Yes, definitely

Thank You for completing this questionnaire

Written Analysis of Se7en opening By Rhys Crane

Se7en was released in 1995, directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker.

The sound in the opening sequence is conventional horror/thriller music shows the audience genre of the film by backing up the mise-en-scene. The non-diegetic sound starts off at a slow pace giving a chilling affect. This becomes faster towards the end which builds tension to engage the target audience. The diegetic sound throughout the opening scene of se7en is of a scratching like sound which I believe represents the scratching of a weapon, which is possibly a knife. This immediately indicates the genre through the diegetic sound as 'weapons' are one of the generic horror/thriller conventions.

The mise-en-scene of the opening of se7en is quite disturbing as the audience see a mysterious man slicing his fingertips. This engages the target audience as they begin to ask questions about what the character has done in the past. The face of the character is not shown to the audience adding to the mystery of the scene. The audience however can see from the mise-en-scene that the character is deranged as he does some disturbing things such as cutting his fingertips, cutting and developing photos as well as crossing out pictures of people. This shows the audience that the character could possibly be a criminal running from the law. The sticking off the photos in some kind of scrap book signifies that the character has certain victims which, along with the sound make the film scary from the start therefore engaging the target audience.

The camera work that is in the opening credits of Se7en are mostly close ups, showing important parts of the character and the setting such as the slicing of the figure tips. Through only showing certain angles such as the high angle shot of the character tension is built allowing the audience to feel nervous when watching. The camera is often in one steady position throughout the scene. This subjective filming allows the audience to feel as though they are watching the actions of the character from the outside. This engages the audience as they become anxious when watching the scene.

The edits very fast, not lasting more than a few seconds each in the opening credits. The editing that used matches the horror/thriller genre is it's a psychological thriller so there are multiple cross cuts. This keeps the scene fast paced which therefore builds tension throughout. A black background is often used to place and put emphasis on the credits, such as the actors names and the director. The onscreen graphics are in a font that looks like it has been handwritten of scratched which is what the character has been doing, this matches well with the mise-en-scene. The credits are also distorted which creates a creepy sinister like feel. The black signifies darkness and death which relates to what the audience have seen in the mise-en-scene of the film so far.

Overall the camerawork that is used in the opening of this film engages the audience as it creates an air of mystery surrounding the character in the scene and the setting around him. This is backed up by the mise-en-scene as the audience are unable to see much but from what they can see they begin to wonder what the character has done in the past and what he is running from. The fast pace edits are key to building the tension in the film opening which is accompanied by the diegetic and non-diegetic sound to make it quite unnerving to watch. This therefore means that it suits the genre of the psychological thriller.

The Messengers analysis by Tom Gartell

The Messengers opens in colour showing the distributing companies, this is specifically shown with Columbia pictures that starts out as colour and then fades into black and white, which shows the opening to this film is set in the past. The camera work starts off on a crane which moves around a lot this gives an impression of disorientation, throughout this clip there is an extremely eerie string and piano soundtrack that signifies the horror aspect of this movie, this is a good example of the music used in many horror films that date back to Psycho.

From the beginning of this clip credits fade in and out in the same vein as a ghost. The establishing shot of the scene sets the location for the movie as a remote, overgrown and rundown country house. As we enter the house the camera switches to a subjective camera angle via a third person scenario, throughout the scene they show mainly close-ups and two-shots which show conversations and peoples reactions and expressions. In the clip we see the youngest family member grasping a toy tractor, this signifies an air of safety and security that he feels this toy will bring. The boy is frightened by an unidentified being and when he hides in a cupboard you see one light source in his location, this is called a chiaroscuro effect. As the action in the scene continues the crows previously seen on the roof of the building fly off and this signifies the death of the child, as the rest of the screen fades to black one window is only source of light in the shot, this also slowly fades and the title of the film appears white on a black background.

Evaluation

Over the past couple of months we have learnt how to use media technology that has recently been introduced to us. This included shooting and editing using camcorders and editing software called 'Final Cut Pro'. Over this time our skills have developed greatly from an initial film idea that was relatively simple to the creation of a much more complex opening sequence of our film 'When The Bell Rings'. The following is an evaluation of the film itself, the reasons the film has turned out the way it has and how we have developed our understanding of media technology in order to create the final version.

For our movie opening we chose to do a psychological thriller genre. When doing research into the conventions used in horror movies we decided that our opening would use these conventions instead of challenging them. Our group decided to do this as we felt that our movie might be quite hard to classify from the opening without the use of these conventions, this is because the opening consisted of our main character getting ready whilst remembering his past, when he was bullied in both his home and school life. He then decides to go out and kill those who harmed him in the past. The specific horror conventions we chose to include in 'When The Bell Rings' opening are the use of blood and weaponry which instantly signifies to the audience that the film will include blood and gore and eventually death. We also specifically chose the font from 'Life type Writer' and the effect for the font in the grunge catergory called 'Lurch'. We did this as it created a distorted effect which helped to signify a horror genre whilst also engaging the target audience through showing the jumpy or distorted effect of the film which is parallel of the text.

Our media group consists of a range of different people with different personalities and interests. This was very useful when coming up with our media product as when dicussing ideas we all had shared experience of bullying or knew someone who had been. This then turned into our main theme through the film and how it drives the main character to revenge from being bullied in his past. We believe that in respect to bullying, most social groups have had some experience with this as the people in our group have though this mainly resides in the teenage years, which is why our social group consists of teenagers to early twenties. Another element that links to this social group is the dark side of a the characters personality and the feeling of causing harm to those who do to you, this is also relatable to most in our social group as everyone has felt wronged or depressed in their life, though few may go to the extremes that the character in 'When The Bell Rings' did but there are some cases especially in the teenage years of self harm which is shown by our main character when he cuts his hand purposely in front of the mirror. This engages the audience as they can relate to what has happened in the opening of the film, in relation to self-harming.

We believe our film overall would be classed in the niche category, as, though it has elements that more mainstream films include we think that our films layout and plot classes it better as a niche film. Due to this fact it is highly unlikely that any big Hollywood studio would distribute our film as opposed to a Independent British Company. Though if a Hollywood company did wish to distribute our film, we think that ‘Twisted Pictures’ would be most likely to. This is because they have created such movies as SAW, which is also a psychological thriller

Our target audience is specifically men aged between 15-35. We have decided this through the research we conducted for example; questionaires to which the highest interest rate came from this group of people. We have also aimed our social demographic as C2-E as we believe it will have a greater appeal to the lower class background though we still believe there may be people from higher classes who would also enjoy this type of film, as for ethnicity we do not believe there is a specific group that wouldn't enjoy our film opening but rather it would be enjoyed by all as it appeals to any ethnicity and does not offend anyone from a certain race or background.

In reference to Grayham Burton’s audience theory, which says that an audience can be grouped by their common interest which in the case of the film industry would be the genre of a film. Thus if you wanted to target an audience who likes interlectual films with blood and gore, you would create your film in the psychological horror genre which is exactly what our group have decided to aim for when creating the opening for 'When The Bell Rings'.

Though this still leaves our target audience very broad so we wanted to narrow it down even further by using John Hartley’s social grouping theory. In this theory he says that an audience can be grouped further by their social background which could be split into five categories; Self, Gender, Age, Group, Class/Social Demographic and Ethnicity/Race. An audience member who likes our film opening's genre for the category Self would have to specially enjoy watching the pain of the characters within the storyline, which is called ‘Schneidenfraud’. With gender we believe our film is enjoyed most by men rather than women specifically aged between 15 (as that is the age rating our film would be given) and 35, which also covers the category Age Group. In reference to the last two categories we believe our film would do best targeted at C2-E as people with jobs such as trademen down to the unemployed should enjoy the disturbing footage and storyline more than people from higher classes. In reference to Ehtnicity, we again do not believe that a particular person of any ethnic background would prefer it over someone from another.

We also believe that the Richard Dyer Utopian theory relates to our films target audience as it states that an audience will respond to a media text if it offers a compensation for the inadequacies of the audiences own lives. This relates to our movie as when the audience watch the opening they may get a rush of excitement via being scared which gives them a sense of life and takes away any boredom a person may have felt before hand in their life, thus a Utopia is created.

Lastly we have used the Uses and Gratifications Theory which was created by Blumier and Katz. This theory suggests that there are different reasons that a audience would consume a product including movies. These consist of

Entertainment; which our film achieves by scaring people and making them feel uneasy which gives a sense of excitement to them. In the case of 'When The Bell Rings' the audience could find excitement through the tension that we have tried to build through the non-diegetic sound.

Social Interaction which our opening shows by targeting the viewers emotions by given them mixed feelings towards the main character who is seen as evil but shown via flashbacks to himself originally to be a victim causing empathy but also fear to what the character may do because of his past.

Escapism, which is shown as when the viewer is engaged by our opening via emotional feeling towards the main character they will lose their selves within the world of the film.

With Information our film opening shows real life applications as children or even adults today our victims of bullying though all may not result in such drastic consequences as shown in our movie though there have been some cases though very few

Lastly our film involves Identification which is where an audience feel they can identify with a specific topic or character shown within our film opening, as said in Information, there are cases worldwide of bullying specically at younger ages which makes it very relatable and would attract the younger audience of our target.

When creating our film, we chose specific subject matter, props and costumes to help attract our audience. We also addressed them via making these groups as relatable to the audience as possible. We did this specifically through the use of verisimilitude. This was targeted mainly in the setting of the characters room as it is where the majority of filming takes place. We wanted to include things that would be seen in people’s rooms across the world such as a bed, curtains, mirror, desk etc. Though we kept the walls bare as we wanted to express this child is deeply unhappy and therefore has no interests that would bring pleasure to him. Though we have put a specific poster type collage of photographs covered in blood on the wall to show that the character expresses himself to show his disturbed or twisted mind. Through research that we did, we found that it's quite a common practice for those with issues to suppress them in such ways that may be seen as odd to most people, we put in this collage pictures of specific people with red paint smeared over them which signifies blood to the audience which can be taken from the audiences frame of reference in the media as these characters are targeted and the blood signifies that the characters in the photographs are to be killed or have been killed. This unknown fact also engages the audience as they now have seen potential victims of murder and they want to carry on watching to find out if the fatal act was carried through or if it is still to come.

Lastly we used flashbacks to help attract/address our audience by using a very relatable subject matter within them. This subject matter was bullying, which as we have stated before within this evaluation is a worldwide problem, affecting people from all ages. This attracts people via identification with this topic and the characters emotions in relation to it. There is also another subject matter, which the audience may find they can identify and relate to which is self-harm. Though there are many types of self-harm, we found that people from our personal social group (teenagers) self-harm mostly through cutting themselves.

Over the last couple of months we, as a group have been introduced into using new technology in the media to create the opening sequence of the film that we created 'When The Bell Rings'. The main two technologies that we used in order to create our opening were a camcorder to shoot the footage for the film and Final Cut Pro Editing software in order to edit the footage that was previously shot. When we first started using the camcorder we had some trouble that resulted in the us having to re-shoot the footage as we got some of the lighting wrong which meant that some shots were unusable when it came to editing the opening together. When using Final Cut Pro it took the group some time to work out how to use it so that we could make the best opening possible. this meant that the process of editing the film together took a lot longer than it should have done as we needed to play around with the software in order to find effects, for example and see if they would work in relation to what we were trying to create in the initial ideas. However from doing this project we as a group have become more confident to use a camcorder to gain good or even great footage for any future project that we do. In the last few weeks i feel that we have also learnt how to use Final Cut Pro editing software effectively in order to create films that meet a specific need and are finished to a professional standard.

As a group we feel that we have improved greatly in organising, shooting and editing a film together. When we were first introduced to all of the software we felt that we created a good preliminary task. However, after using the technology over the past couple of months we believe that the preliminary task was good but if we were to shoot it again it would be much better. The reason for this is because we as a group have learnt how to do more complex procedures on Final Cut Pro that would make any film that we produce look professional. This means that we feel we have developed the skills needed for this project, starting with a good preliminary film and ending with an opening to a film that is shot and edited to a high or even professional standard.

Mood Board

Questionnaire

1) How old are you?

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2) What Genre of Film do you find most exciting?

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3) What conventions would you expect to see in a Horror/Thriller Film?

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4) What is your favourite Horror/Thriller Film?

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5) What is your least favourite Horror/Thriller Film?

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6) What makes you want to see a Horror/Thriller Film e.g. Posters, Trailers?

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7) What kind of characters would you like to see in a Horror/Thriller Film?

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8) Would you like to see a Horror/Thriller Film aimed specifically at teenagers?

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Thank You for completing this questionnaire

Film Idea

'When The Bell Rings' is a film based on many real life situations that often happen around the world but famously in America. We researched these situations by using stimulus material from many different parts of the media such as Newspaper Articles, News Broadcasts and documentaries made on the real life events in America e.g. Michael Moore's Bowling For Columbine.



The film itself is based on a typical English teenage boy who has been physically and mentally bullied in both his home and school life. This has left him deranged and disturbed by what has happened to him. The main character within the film doesn't want to live anymore but wants revenge for what has happened to him throughout his life of misery.

The only way that the character can see his revenge is to seriously hurt the people around him including the bullies that had made his life hell at school. This results in many violent murders within the school. After murdering over thirty different people that he comes across the character is violently killed when he places the Knife that he has used through his neck.

Overall we feel that by using this storyline and the research from different media sources we can create a film that meets the conventions of the horror/thriller genre as the film will have Murder/Killing, Blood, Victims and weapons. We also feel this storyline will also be relate able to members of the target audience as they may have been through the situation that is being portrayed.

Props List

Clothing
Black Pyjama Top The black pyjama top is going to be what the main character wears throughout most of the opening of the film.
Black Pyjama bottoms The black pyjama bottoms are going to be what the main character wears throughout most of the opening of the film.
Black Coat/Jacket The black coat/jacket is going to be what the characters in the flashback are wearing. This includes the main character and the bully within this specific part of the film opening.
Grey T-shirt The grey t-shirt is going to be worn by the main character towards the end of the opening. We have chosen the grey as it matches the flashbacks and because it is the neutral colour between black and white.
Jeans The jeans are going to be worn by the main character towards the end of the opening.
Props
Kitchen Knife The kitchen knife is going to be used when the character is self-harming. He will clench this prop in his right hand to show this part of the opening.
Make Up
The make is going to be used to create bruising on the main characters face throughout most of the opening, excluding the flashback sequence. Blood
The blood is going to be used when the character is self-harming. This prop will run or pour down the characters arm when he is clenching the knife. Mirror
The mirror is going to be used throughout the film opening. It will be used for abstract camera shots and angles as well as when the character is self-harming. Photographs/collage
The photograph collage that is going to be created will be of other characters within the film. This will hang on the wall and will be shown in a pan at the beginning of the film opening. Red Poster Paint
The red poster paint will be used to write the title of the film ‘When The Bell Rings’ on the photograph collage creating a blood like affect. Lamp
The lamp is going to be placed beside the bed and will be the main source of light throughout the film opening, excluding the flashback. Tissues The tissues are going to be on the desk and will be used to wrap up the knife before the character puts it in his pocket.