Title Sequence Evaluation

Revelations
Imogen Welsford

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
In order to create the finished media product we made sure that we used, developed and challenged codes and conventions. To accomplish this we needed to research the codes and conventions of existing thriller films. To begin our research we each looked at some thrillers and took notes on the openings, specifically focusing on the codes and conventions. Once we had decided that we were to create a religious, horror, thriller we started to research these films, so that we could see the codes and conventions. When we started planning our opening, discussing the narrative and the script we decided that our film would follow the majority of the conventions to make sure that our film was realistic and similar to other religious thrillers.

From our research on other religious thrillers

such as Se7en I discovered that the titles, especially the name of the film is often shaky and moves around the screen in the time that it appears. This was something which we decided to have in our film as it draws attention to the name, in addition to this it adds to the horror element of the opening. This was the same for the font, we chose a grainy, blurred font; conventional for a horror, thriller as its thick, bold and black which makes it stand out from the white background.

Our film opens with a scene of the protagonist sitting in a living room with his son watching television; we decided to focus on the protagonists family life to begin with rather than focusing on the victims. This isnt conventional for a thriller as the audience would usually be asked to put themselves in the position of the victim and sympathise with them, however our film is ambiguous in the beginning as the protagonist is presented as a stereotypical fatherly figure in the very opening. The juxtaposition between the dark, dangerous torture room and the bright, family living room was a factor conventional for horror, thrillers as it allows the audience to also see the contrast between the two different sides to the One scene in particular that we protagonist; the loving, family man decided to make sure we kept and the ruthless, murderer. conventional was the scene where the victim wakes up, for us to ensure that this scene was successful I researched some other films which had scenes similar to the plan for ours. The waking scene from Saw was something which I found interesting so we tried to make our

In Saw theres an extreme close up on the victim when we wakes up, however we decided to use a mid-shot to show the victims surroundings and her body pulling away from the car that shes tied to.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (continued)
From our research I learned that thrillers need to be exciting, with the tension building from the beginning of the opening to the end; many thrillers have action in the openings, often with a chase scene or a fight, however we dont include any action. It could be argued that we are breaking this convention; we decided not to have any action, I think that our storyline was already dramatic and shocking enough therefore we decided not to include this element. I think its fair to say that our editing is conventional for a religious, horror thriller. From my research I learned that thrillers often have flash backs or transitions to another setting to create suspicion. The black and white effect separates the protagonists family life from his secret life, which was an effect necessary for this contrast. I think its important that we have used point of view shots as it helps the audience connect with the character and put themselves in their position. This is conventional for a thriller as there are often point of view shots from the victim which allow the audience to sympathise with the character. Furthermore after we decided that we would make a religious thriller, we realised that we would need to make it clear that this was the genre of our film. We researched some religious terms and bible quotes that we could include in our opening so that the audience would know that it was a religious thriller, after researching the conventions of a religious thriller I believe that its very clear that our final product is a religious thriller.

Although we didnt break many conventions in our film, I believe that this was the best thing for ours as there were many things that we needed to keep conventional in order for the audience to actually understand our film and for it to be realistic and successful.

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

WARNER BROS.PICTURES . The suit, protagonist looks smart

and well presented. Stereotypical male. Smart clothing, suit and tie represent masculinity. Religious paraphernalia, similar to our film as weve included a Bible and Bible quotes. Weapon suggests danger. Dark and cloudy background, makes it clear that the film is a horror/thriller. Black symbolic of danger, depression. Also creates a sense of mystery which is conventional for a thriller.

Red font, symbolises danger and anger, red cross brighter than text- stands out. Makes it clear that the film is related to religion.

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

UNIVERSAL PICTURES
Woman in position of weakness, sense of naivety. Passive, focus on her body, not face- dressed provocatively. Woman in position of danger- someone behind her.

Dull, dreary colours in the background allow woman and title to stand out. Colour scheme kept simple, conventional for thriller/horror. Mirror/reflection could suggest spilt personality or secrets, similar to our protagonist. Woman dressed in white, mise-enscene suggesting shes innocent, similar to the woman in our filminnocent and in position of weakness. Traditional, simple font- conventional for thrillers, capital letters and white font allow the words to stand out in front of the background drawing attention to UNBORNconnotes danger, death, horror.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? (continued) If our opening was to be extended into a whole film then I believe that it would have the potential to be a Hollywood studio film, the narrative of the film is very similar to many other Hollywood studio thrillers that I had researched. It shares many of the conventions of religious thrillers; the sub and hybrid genre (religious horror) are both clear throughout the opening and I believe that this is something which could be developed if the film were to continue. Some of the ideas created in the film are similar to existing films, however Revelations has the potential to be a Hollywood studio film as the narrative is fresh and not something similar to other thriller. If our title sequence had been created into a film in full, I dont think that it would be considered an arthouse film or an internet only release. Our title sequence is highly engaging and interesting- factors traditional for a Hollywood thriller film.

From researching production companies and some of the thrillers similar to ours, I believe that the best choice would be Warner Brothers Pictures. Upon analysing some of their films similar to ours such as Constantine and The Exorcist I believe that Warner Brothers would be the best choice for our film as its very similar to these films, however each thriller is very different at the same time. Warner Brothers Pictures has produced and distributed many thriller films and religious horror thrillers, therefore as our thriller includes similar ideas and themes as films such as The Exorcist and Constantine I believe that Warner Brothers would be the production company to distribute Revelations.

2. How does your media product present different social groups ?

One particular social group which our film focuses on are those with religious beliefs. Featuring in our opening there are two different characters that are religious, we decided to contrast these characters however. Although they are both from the Christian church, they both have very different ideas of religion. One religious character is the Priest, who is giving a speech broadcasted in the very opening of our thriller. He is presented as a stereotypical religious man, caring, selfless and his character is a conventional Priest. Our other religious character is the protagonist; we decided to present him as an atypical religious man; we wanted to break the stereotype that all religious people are good and loving in order to present a very sinister side to religion and that if religion is taken too seriously than it can be very dangerous. I think its important that we included the priest as we didnt want to give an idea to the audience that all religious individuals behave and think in the way in which our protagonist does; I think we needed another religious personality in our thriller to convey the different sides to religion. In addition to this, the juxtaposition between the protagonist and the priest allows audiences to see the sheer In addition to weve represented in ruthlessness of this, the protagonist as wevegender created aa bold contrast traditional way; men are most dominant throughout between good and evil. our opening, there are four men who feature in the opening and only one woman. We decided to have a stereotypical representation of gender in our to make it more realistic, the fact that the protagonist is male fits with this stereotype as its a male who has kidnapped a female. The stereotypical role of a helpless woman whos trapped, in danger; kidnapped by a strong, large man is conventional for thrillers and horror films so we wanted to keep this stereotype. Women are presented in a stereotypical way, a young, beautiful woman has been kidnapped- this is a very traditional representation of women in thriller films and how the public generally perceives woman; she is passive throughout the opening, staying in the same place, unable to move; reinforcing the presentation that shes weak and vulnerable. This appeals to viewers, making our opening seem more Most of the characters in our film are around the age of our target audience which is 18-30. I think that this will be effective as the audience will be able to relate to the characters, for example; girls in their teens will be able to relate to the female victim, this also allows viewers to sympathise for these characters. We chose for the protagonist to be a man around the age of 40, we chose for him to be this age because its the average age of a father; additionally I think the fact that he is a fully grown man adds to the shock and horror of our opening as its not what would be expected from a man of his age or life experience. In addition the fact that the protagonist has a young son around the age of 8 presents him to be very nave, he doesnt know about his fathers secret life and wants the fathers attention and love; therefore presenting children to Due to the fact that our film is a religious thriller, based on be nave and innocent. Christianity; all of our characters are white-British. We wanted to have a stereotypical representation of our protagonist, which meant having a white, British man; this was the same case for the priest and the son. One of the reasons that we decided for the female to be white was because we didnt want to confuse viewers about why the man had kidnapped the woman. For example if the woman was Asian, people may have made the assumption that this was the reason that the protagonist had murdered and kidnapped these people, therefore we chose for the woman to be white and British. Another reason for this was because we wanted to present her in a stereotypical way, young, slim, white, attractive; this is conventional for thrillers and is a stereotypical representation of women. Stereotypical representation of men and women, man has more power, filmed at a low angle. Woman weak and vulnerable; filmed at a high angle, presented to be weak and

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Before we began creating our product we decided that the film should be an 18+, from the research I looked at on age ratings and which factors determine an age rating, we concluded that due to the violence involved, our film would be an 18+. Our target audience is aimed at those aged 18-30; the main reason being that most of the characters in our film rage between these ages, therefore audiences can connect and relate to the characters. In addition, from my research I discovered that generally, the target audience for thrillers is usually 15-40, which is a very wide age range, this obviously varies depending on the sub genre or the hybrid. However the fact that ours is a religious, horror, thriller, we also had to research into these genres. From this research we concluded that our target audience would be 18-30. Although Thrillers are often targeted towards men and women, I think that our film would mainly appeal towards men. This may be because we have included the stereotype that women are weaker than men, this is conveyed through the fact that the only woman alive in the film is tied up, presenting her as weak. Whereas all other characters are men, the protagonist is a stereotypical male; powerful, dominant and intelligent. However I think that if the film was to continue then it would be aimed more towards both men and women as the female character could be considered important as she has a lot of prevalence throughout the opening.

Films which are similar to ours, for example, Se7en, The Reaping, The Da Vinci Code, The Calling and Lost Souls main target audiences range between 15+- 40 and 18+-50. The fact that these films are very similar to ours and include some of the same events and similar characters helped us

How did you attract or address your audience?

Before we created our finished product we decided that our film would be aimed at both genders, however mainly men aged between 18-30. Previous research allowed us to come up with this target audience based on similar thrillers which we had looked at and then found out what the target audience was for these. The age gap for our audience is very wide which meant we needed to make our film appeal to people in between the age of 18-30; we took this into consideration and decided to base the majority of our characters around this age. The protagonist being in his early 30s and the female victim being in her late teens/early 20s. This allows audiences to connect and relate to both of these characters as most viewers would be of a similar age. In addition we decided that the two main characters would be of both genders, the protagonist is first presented as a stereotypical male, a family man who seems like a traditional father. Therefore most audience members are able to connect to his character, however when its revealed that he is actually leading a double lie this is when viewers are shocked and sympathise with the woman. We decided to make the female victim a stereotypical woman, passive, attractive, fairly weak to begin with and we also decided that she would be a young character. This allows the audience to feel sympathy for her and connect with the character as she is put in a position of weakness by a dominant male which is conventional for a thriller or horror.

I think that the scene which most people would relate to would be when the protagonist enters the room where he is holding the torture victims. Most of the audience, especially women, would be able to relate to the female victim in this scene as we are made to feel sympathy for her as shes been kidnapped. Many people will be able to connect with her character as shes been put into a position of weakness, dominated by a man. I think this scene would particularly appeal to young women as the victim is in her early 20s and shes a traditional woman. The point-of-view shots focusing on both the protagonist and the woman put the audience in their shoes so they can see things from their perspective- the low angle shot of the protagonist causes the audience to empathise with the victim, allowing them to connect with her.

How did you attract or address your audience? (continued)

Furthermore we decided to have a closeup of the protagonists hand reaching for the knife creating a sense of danger and horror as the audience know whats about to happen. This also allows the audience to see the blood on the knife and can therefore see that he has previously hurt or killed people in this torture room.

Close up of protagonist aggressively pulling girls hair

Girls facial expression depicts anger and frustration, power

Knife covered in blood Protagonists hand reaching for knife

Weve also used a close up of the victim whilst the protagonist is holding her hair. Although at first the victim seems work, her facial expression denotes anger and struggle which therefore presents her as strong willed and brave. The close up lets the audience see her protagonist holding her hair and pulling tight, which makes us feel anger and hatred towards him and sympathy towards the victim.

How did you attract or address your audience? (continued)

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK
65% of people who watched the opening were in between the age of 16-20. I can infer that the majority of people who watched the film were in their late teens, this suggests that they related to the characters or found the narrative engaging. I think that the reason the majority of people who watched the film were in the lower half of our target audience was maybe because there wasnt an older character to connect or sympathise with. This means that our thriller was successful, most people enjoyed it, only 12% of people didnt.

88% of people enjoyed our opening.

The recurring flashback scenes created an abundance of tension and suspense. Deffo got the thriller genre correct I thought it was very realistic, I enjoyed the editing and effects and I was very drawn in to the story line. Dramatic shift in setting towards the end. It was a satisfying resolution to tension built up throughout the intro I was engaged specifically the very beginning, the news cast. Then I One of the main parts was engaged once the main character entered the room with the that people enjoyed victims, the interaction between the main character and the woman.
was the contrast between the two different sides of the protagonist and the revelation that he is actually evil. The editing of the flashbacks also had a lot of good feedback.

76% of people said they found our opening engaging. 71% of people said they found our titles engaging. 94% said that our music was engaging.

88% said they would watch the film in full. 82% said our film was realistic (similar to other existing films)

6. What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing the product? Towards the end of our film, after we had done all
The technology we used: Video Camera Sound Recorder Mac Adobe Premiere Pro I had used most of the technology which we needed prior to filming and creating our film, this was mainly from the continuity task. Creating our continuity task was the first time that I had used the video cameras and Adobe Premiere Pro, which meant that I did have some experience with the equipment. We all found using the cameras very easy, they were simple to use and I found them really useful. Although Oscar did most of the filming we all had turns at filming, I found the tripod really helpful as it allowed us to experiment with many different camera angles, whilst still keeping the camera steady. The camera itself was also really useful, we used all of the features, one specific thing which I found helpful was the zoom feature; this allowed us to zoom in and out really easily. Considering we didnt have a camera anything like one that would be used to film an actual film, I dont think there were any other features which we would have needed or used, therefore the camera was very useful and we didnt actually have any problems with the camera itself. However there were times when we were filming that we didnt get all of the filming done because the camera had run out of battery and needed to charge. This made it very hard to film, at times we were outside when this happened which meant we had to stop filming all together, other times we were indoors and had to put it on charge, which meant we couldnt get a variety of camera distances or angles because it was connected to the charger; this sometimes meant we had to re film all together.

of the filming, there was one part at the end when the child was calling the protagonist, where we decided to re-record the dialogue. This meant using a sound-recorder, which I hadnt used before, I recorded this on my own which wasnt easy as I wasnt confident using the recorder. After I had recorded it, I went to upload it on the Mac and it hadnt actually recorded, this meant that we had to record it again. During the continuity task I learned how to use Adobe Premiere Pro, however by the end of it I still wasnt very confident with using this editing software. When we had finished filming and began editing I still wasnt confident with editing, for the first few times we were editing I tried to watch Oscar editing so that I could learn how to do some of it. Towards the end of making the film we all tried to do some of the editing however I found it very hard and wasnt really able to do it without any help or advice, this was a problem for us as a group because we all relied on Oscar to help us and there were times when he wasnt able to help us. However this was something which we overcame at the very end, adding in the titles and finishing some of the final aspects; I was very glad that we were all able to do this however editing is still something that I need to work on, and definitely the hardest part of the whole process for me. The editing software was very useful and made our film much more successful, the effects which we used add to the mise-enscene, for example the fades into black and white create suspense and create juxtaposition between the family home and the dangerous garage, as well as between the two different sides to the protagonist.

7. Looking back to your continuity task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?
We began by each researching into the thriller genre; we allocated each person specific parts of the research. I researched the target audience for Thrillers and looked at the guidelines for films, we needed to know if our film would be a 15 or an 18 rated film so that we could aim the film at a certain audience. I found this research very helpful, once we started coming up with ideas for our film and we decided what the main themes would be we all agreed that our film would be an 18+ due to the violence. In addition to this research I also looked at the openings of a variety of Thrillers so that we could find out the codes and conventions as well as getting some ideas from some of the films that we looked at. I think that this research was the most important as it helped me understand the codes and conventions of Thrillers, as well as understanding some of the themes, and hybrid or sub-genres. Once we decided that our film would be a Religious Horror Thriller I decided to look at some films of this genre so that I could see the conventions of these. As well as this research the rest of my group also did research which we then read and evaluated for each other. Overall the research stage helped me learn a lot more about Thrillers and what the codes and conventions were, I also learned about the target audience of Thrillers

During the planning for our continuity task we made sure that we were learning and practising for when we made our actual product. Learning about story boarding in our lessons helped us a lot with making our story board for the continuity task. We tried to include a variety of shots and camera angles in the continuity task, as well as different locations, reflecting back on the continuity task I can see that we have made many improvements; weve used more interesting and effective camera angles, whereas in the continuity task I think that we used different angles without any meaning. I think that the fact that we had a lot longer to plan for our final product and that we had time to make alterations helped us a lot as we actually needed different angles, whereas in the continuity task some of the angles we used were only decided on the day of filming. As we hadnt made an anamatic for the continuity task I found it much more difficult to make the anamatic for our final product however we had been taught how to make it. However when it actually came to making the anamatic I found it much easier than I had expected because I knew the storyboard well and we had planned how long the shots would be for so it was much easier than I had expected. The anamatic was really useful for when we were filming and editing as we were able to see how long the shots were needed for, as well as this we were able to see the different camera angles and the movements as well, for example we included pans and zooms in our anamatic when they were needed. I think that our shots have improved, in the continuity task we didn't use a tripod for some of the shots which made it camera move, and therefore the film wasnt very realistic in these parts. Moreover we used quite a few low angle shots which werent actually needed and gave the wrong

In the continuity task we decided to use a zoom (0:44), however I think that it was too fast, this has definitely improved, this can be seen in our final product as we have included a zoom in the beginning (0:13); this is something I believe has been improved since we made the continuity task, the zoom in our final product is much smoother and slower which is more effective as it allows the audience to actually notice and understand what is happening.

Looking back to your continuity task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product? (continued)
I feel that my end product was successful in most aspects. We have used a variety of different camera angles to add meaning, for example point of view shots and close ups, if we were to change anything about the actual filming I would have added more camera movements as the final product lacks a variety of movements and there arent any towards the end of the opening. The editing is one of the main factors that makes our film successful in my opinion, the transitions to black and white when the transition to the garage appears allows the audience to understand that its a dangerous place, as well as understanding that a different room is being shown and its a different time. The editing also slows the pace of the whole opening, creating tension and adding to the suspense created through the narrative. We changed our music very last minute which was something that I was originally worried about, however I believe that our music is successful as its parallel to the action in the film. For example when the protagonist holds a knife to the torture victim, the music gets louder and faster which speeds up the pace of the opening. In addition to this, when the transition to the other location comes in, the non diagetic sound similar to a loud bang can be heard which is parallel to whats happening in the film, this is conventional for a Thriller; creating a shocking and dramatic sound, which prepares the viewer for the flash of the dead bodies which follows after the sound. I think that the dialogue was successful, as our film was a religious thriller it was crucial that the audience understand this therefore we included the speech from the Bishop which referenced religion. Moreover the diagetic sound of the protagonists conversation with the torture victim includes religious references, e.g. Thou shall not sin a bible quote, allowing the audience to understand his intentions and his thoughts. Furthermore I think that the mise-en-scene was very successful, the setting looked realistic as we used fake blood and religious paraphernalia, the costumes and make up added to the realism of the product as we needed to make characters look dead, and the female victim look bruised and bleeding. I think that our setting was effective as it was set in a family home, and the other setting in the dark garage which looked old and run down, conventional for a torture chamber. Overall I think that our final product was successful, if we were able to change anything there wouldnt be many things that I would change, only some very small parts such as adding in more camera movements.