Opening Sequence (Final Cut)

Evaluation Questions

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (I.e. of film openings)



EVALUATION ACTIVITY 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?



EVALUATION ACTIVITY 3
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?



EVALUATION ACTIVITY 4
Who would be the audience for your media product?



EVALUATION ACTIVITY 5
how did you attract/address your audience?



 

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 6
what have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?




EVALUATION ACTIVITY 7
Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?


These are the evaluation questions I  have analyzed below.

Evaluation Activity 7

Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Here is our preliminary task which we produced at the start of the year:

Here is our final opening sequence:

From when we produced our preliminary task at the start of the year to creating our opening sequence, there are many things which I have learnt in order for our opening sequence to be of much better quality so it is easy for the audience to watch. I have learnt many new editing skills and camera skills. Looking back to our preliminary task, there are so many mistakes which we made without realizing I didn't do as much paper work for my preliminary task because i thought i would be fine, i was arrogant and thought its only filming a few shots, hows paper work going to help only to realize it cost me severely as my preliminary was a disaster but i learnt from this and did over 3 times more paper work for my opening sequence so working off my preliminary helped me prepare myself and this is all shown through my blog as there's hardly an posts for preliminary and loads for my main task.   I used this to help me look over our opening sequence to make sure it was made upto a high standard. 

This screenshot has been taken from our preliminary task and the reason I have decided to talk about this particular shot is because as you can see in the reflection, a camera and tripod being held by a person can clearly be seen. This ruins the whole scene as it just takes away the attention from the character and does not look very professional at all. We did learn from this as shown below.

This is a screenshot from our final opening sequence which is a long shot showing the location of the character and his legs. The reason I have decided to compare this to the preliminary task screenshot is because we learnt that during filming, we need to focus on what is going to actually be seen on camera and ask you can see in this shot, there is no-one or nothing around the character which puts all focus on him. This  creates such a good look as it shows the cast have taken time out to ensure all shots are perfect without anything ruining it. 

Our preliminary task consisted of many camera angles and shots however they were very basic because we did not think to experiment with the camera and find out more. Although the shots were basic, we were happy with them at the time until we found out we could shoot many more different camera angles. We researched different camera angles and shots and decided to use ones which we found interesting for example, a point of view shot. Here are a few screenshots which show where we used the point of view shots in our opening sequence. 

This shot was taken during the interrogation scene which is my character's point of view.

This shot was also taken during the interrogation scene however this is Raqeebul's view.

This screenshot is blurry due to the shot being so intense as this is when Raqeebul punches my character but does it towards to camera instead to make it look more realistic.

This shot was taken during the climbing scene which is my character's view.

In our preliminary task, we put together a script which the characters found easy to follow so we thought it would be good to continue this for our opening sequence which is why speech is involved. We thought by having no speech in our opening sequence, it could take away the atmosphere we intended to create.

There is a clear difference between our preliminary task and our final opening sequence as you can see as soon as you start playing them both. We did not render our preliminary task which is why it is such bad quality and the whole video looks blurry and so we later on found out how to do this and applied it to our opening sequence. This has raised it's standards making it look very professional. Also, we did not add any effects in our preliminary as each shot has just been placed next to the following one which does not make the filming look consistent but quite ammateur instead. We decided to add effects to our opening sequence so that each scene would flow and so the audience would be kept interested. Overall, there are many things which I have learnt from due to the mistakes made in our preliminary task however I have overcome this by making sure I did not make the same mistakes when it came to producing our opening sequence.

Evaluation Activity 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?



During filming, we used Nikon cameras which I am quite familiar with as I did use these in GCSE however, there are many more tips which I learnt off my peers for example, adding certain effects and changing the focus on the camera. With this camera, we also used a tripod in order to keep our shots steady.

 
The computers and laptops which we used were both Apple Mac and we used these to go on to the following softwares and websites. I have used both of these before therefore I was familiar with everything on there.



Blogger is the website which I used most as I regularly updated my blog by adding posts. Blogger allows me to post pictures, videos and links alongside anything else I would like to write. I have used Blogger before therefore found this very easy to continue using.



During our media project, we used Adobe Premiere Pro in order to put all of our clips together. Both our preliminary task and our opening sequence were used with this software. This allowed us to shorten, expand, edit and cut our clips. This software also allows you to add effects onto your clips and take out any sound which you would not like to include in your video and then add any extra sounds you would like. Although this was my first time using Premiere Pro, I managed to work it out quite quickly as there is a very helpful guide which teaches you step by step anything you may have a problem with. Here are a few screenshots showing what you can do on Premiere Pro:










Adobe Photoshop is another software which allows you to edit, cut and crop however this is only for pictures. We used this throughout our project to produce any pictures we needed to create like our nine frame analysis. Photoshop also allows you to edit font which we did try however we decided that a simple font would look much better. I have used Photoshop before but did find out many more things which I did not know before.



I had not used Prezi before but found this very straightforward as there are easy guidelines to follow. It allows you to learn step by step as you are making your first Prezi. Prezi is used to make presentations which flow from one point to another which I found very helpful whilst showing certain presentations I had made to my peers. You can choose different fonts in different colours and also add any pictures, videos and links which you would like to include.


Youtube played a huge part in our project as we were constantly using this. I use Youtube very often therefore it was easy for me to use however, even if it was my first time, I would still find it easy as it is very straightforward. Youtube was particularly helpful during our research stage as we were able to find other opening sequences very easily. We also shared our opening sequence on Youtube in order to gain feedback and let viewers see what we had created.

Evaluation Activity 5

Evaluation Activity 5 Notes

How did you attract/address your audience?

   

The way we decided to attract our audience for our opening sequence was by uploading our video on YouTube.  YouTube is the dominant provider of online video and its easy to get your video's on there as all you have to do is make an YouTube account (which is free) and then you can upload videos and decide how you want people to find them.

We named our video AS LEVEL MEDIA- opening sequence as the name is simple and easy to find so our video will get more views attracting a larger range of audience from all around the world because YouTube is a world wide website where all videos uploaded can be viewed from anywhere around the world.

YouTube also has a section on which you can comment on videos and like videos. The. More likes you get on a video the better as it basically shows people like your video making it look good, this also gives your video a good reputation.
People can comment on the videos you upload, there are no restrictions when commenting so you can write anything, the only thing you cant do in the comment section is posting pictures. People will comment saying all sorts of things, they will tell you where you've gone wrong, how you need to improve or you could just get good comments praising your work, don't forget the bad comments though, people can comment what ever they like so you need to be aware of that. You can also post your videos link on other peoples videos using the comment section.

You can make your videos private on YouTube which means the public wont be able to see the videos you post, the only way people would be able to see your videos is by subscribing to you or by getting the link to the video. We obviously didn't want to do that as we wanted the audience to view our video. Now all that is done the public can actually put our video on there websites by embedding it, They can also view our video on mobile devises using syndication.

We used twitter to get more hits on our video. I posted the video on twitter so my followers can view it and what twitter users then can do is re-tweet the video so there followers can also view it. Re-tweeting is tweeting somebody's tweet so that there followers can view that specific tweet. The more Re-tweets the more views so this is a good was to get my video across to the audience.

We also used Facebook to get our video across to the audience. Facebook is very much like twitter just small differences split them such as re-tweets and likes, they do the same thing, getting what someone else has posted or tweeted across to your Facebook friends and your twitter followers. I posted our video on Facebook hoping to get as many likes as possible in order to get more people to view my video.

Evaluation Activity 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Teenagers who are both male and female and middle aged men would be the audience to my media product. This is because our opening sequence consists of many action scenes which would be seen as more targeted at the males rather then females. We also involved romance in our film in order to focus more at females. The contrast between the action and romance will increase the audience range allowing our film to be aimed not just at male teenagers but at females as well. We wanted our opening sequence to be the best it could be despite us not having the best camera equipment, our script, our camera shots and our story line will be enough to draw all audiences in no matter what sex they are.

The age rating for our film is 15 therefore this immediately prevents a certain audience from watching our film which is children under the age of 15 but this also shows that our film is aimed at teenagers. The action in our film is not too violent and appropriate language is used so we were allowed to keep it at 15 even though we have a scene where the audience can see my character bleeding. There is also a gun in our film which meant we had to up the age rating by a couple more years and the fact that the story was based on mobs/gangsters also meant we had to increase the age rating, me and my crew were wanting our film to be a 12A but after research we concluded that the age had to be 15.

I went on the British Board of Film Classification's website and found this information:

What does the 15 symbol mean?

 No-one under 15 is allowed to see a 15 film at the cinema or buy/rent a ‘15’ rated DVD.  15 rated works are not suitable for children under 15 years of age.

Are there any limits on what sort of theme a work can have at 15?

No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

Is 15 really stronger than 12A?

 Yes. 15 works are stronger than 12 or 12A rated works and could include any of the following:

• strong violence
• frequent strong language (eg 'f***').
• portrayals of sexual activity
• strong verbal references to sex
• sexual nudity
• brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
• discriminatory language or behaviour
• drug taking

How much strong language is there in a 15?

There could potentially be a great deal. At 15 there is no upper limit on the number of uses of strong language (eg f***).

Occasionally there may be uses of the strongest terms (eg 'c***'), although continued or aggressive use will not normally be passed 15.

What about discriminatory or offensive terms?

There may be racist, homophobic or other discriminatory language, and the work could explore themes relating to this.

However, at 15 the work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

How much sex and nudity is allowed at 15?

At 15 sexual activity can be portrayed, as long as there is no strong or graphic detail. Some sex scenes can be quite long at this category and may involve some nudity and movement. Though nudity may be allowed in a sexual context there should be no strong detail.

There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

There can be strong references to sex and sexual behaviour, but especially strong or crude references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context.

Heterosexual and homosexual sex and sex references are treated the same.

Can there be strong violence?

Yes, at 15 violence may be strong. It should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury, however, and the strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable.

Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable.

Easily accessible weapons may not be glamorized.

What about sexual violence?

There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence (for example descriptions of rape or sexual assault in a courtroom scene or in victim testimony) but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.

What about horror works?

Many horror films are rated 15. At 15 there can be strong threat and menace (as long as it is not sadistic or sexualised), although the strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable.

Can you see drugs in a 15 rated film or video?

At 15 drug taking may be shown but the work as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse.

The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances like aerosols or solvents is unlikely to be acceptable at 15.

What about dangerous behavior or things teens might copy?

We consider the risk of potential harm to impressionable teenagers. For example, dangerous behavior such as hanging, suicide and self-harming should not dwell on detail which could be copied.

I have drawn this on paint by copying a image into paint and colouring the the skin colour and clothing, i drew this because this is what the target audience will appear like. This is the sort of clothing our middle aged men target audience would be wearing and this is the look they would have. In my drawing you can see the man is wearing dull colours with a hat which and a small beard gives off a intimidating and older look. He also holds a bat which indicates he is not to be messed with.

I also drew this on paint starting from scratch. This drawing was pure imaginary, a image i had stuck in my head after watching my clip back so i decided to draw what i was seeing in my head as it was the audience we were targeting at. This drawing looks more teen as this would be the younger audience our film would be aimed at, he's wearing bright colours which make him stand out and he has his hair styled showing that he wants to look good as he's young. He looks tough due to him slightly leaning back showing he's relaxed may whatever the situation be. 


I asked two of my friends, one male and one female, to analyse my opening sequence once they had viewed it. Here are there responses: