EVALUATION of title sequence

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

When planning our title sequence we had to consider the codes and conventions. We did some research into what they would be. We then looked at codes and conventions typical to the genre of our choice. This was in order to help us when it came to making our own title sequence, which we found useful to know, as we then had to apply these codes and conventions to the genre of our title sequence and make sure that they were included within.
we found that the codes and conventions of a title sequence which were the following:

- Details of cast and crew (we included this through the sequence)


- The films title (we included this.> ("reflection")


- An intro to the character or character type (we included this >the little girl Rosie a troubled child)


- Indication of place (we included this > the girls house)


- Indication of historical period (we included this > modern 20th century)


- Information regarding mood and tone (we included this scary eery strange atmosphere quite physiological)


- Introduction to signature theme tune (we included this > our music we made in garage band which was the theme tune)


- Information about genre (we included this > lighting music etc suggests a thriller / physiological thriller)


- Questions that the viewer find intriguing (included > what the book is for and who the names in the book are? why are they there?)


- Patterns of editing that will be echoed in the remainder of the film ( could say the fast pace of it)


- Mise-en-scene that will be echoed or elaborated upon later in the film (included > the book that the little girl is holding is going to be elaborated on and definitely echoed later on)  

We started by focusing on the film title, which was a simple convention that was essential for the film. We wanted it to relate to the film in a subtle way, which could almost, be an enigma for the audience therefore we chose the name ‘reflection’, I think this worked well as it was in fact a reference to the duality of the little girl.

Some elements we wanted to include were the feeling of distortion to make the audience feel uncomfortable which would reflect our film as being a phychological thriller and have that atmosphere of something not quite right, we done this to set up the mood and tone of our film and I think we set this up well.

Our use of music in our title sequence, I felt was good for our specific genre as it told the audience what the genre, mood and tone was which is a key convention for a title sequence. it also built up the tension within the sequence as it slowly built to a climax.

Using stairs and a mirror are conventions of thriller movies we used these successfully in the sequence and I think that it went well as it created a creepy atmosphere. The mirror gave that duality aspect to the film, which was a subtle hint. The anticipation as you watch her slowly move up the stairs made it feel as if we was watching her and began to feel a little uncomfortable.

The shots in our sequence typically to a phschological thriller play with your mind, I think we did this successfully. Also the repeated use of the flash shot of the figure on the top of the stairs was a code/convention of a title sequence as it echoed throughout the film.

Our aim was to keep the audience wanting more at the end of the sequence, to keep then intrigued and the enigma set up. Which I think we did well as the feed back we got was that people would like to see more.

We kept the enigma going throughout the film as we specificly shot each shot with the camera, never focusing on the whole of her body. this was so that people would want to know who she is and what she’s doing this worked well for the anticipation of the sequence.

We then added one of the main code and convetions of a title sequence which was of course the titles. it took a while to place them correctly and add them all in however I believe we have done this effectively to fit in with our sequence.

It was overall a good experience creating the sequence as a whole and I enjoyed it a lot as I think our hard work paid off in the end.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

It is hard to pin point a certain social group that our sequence would represent as throughout the sequence the only character is the little girl who does not really apply to a social group however, though the Mise-en-scene we are able to establish that the home  and clothes (uniform) of the little girl are of a middle class family. And therefore our film is targeted at people over the age of 15 who can have more understanding whilst watching. With that in mind we would rate our film as a 15.

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

 We looked into different film companies and researched the films that they distributed in order to find one perfect for our genre of film. We came to a decision that we would use Lionsgate as our chosen film distributer. The reasons for choosing them are; we found that they have distributed films such as the American physco and saw which are similar to our genre being thriller of horror. This meant that they would approve of our film to distribute and we then added the Lionsgate logo at the beginning of out title sequence.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our film targeted at people 15+. We chose this age as we thought it would be a good age to not restrict our film as much. We could include more in a 15+ film that we would perhaps be able to in a 12 also  it is targeted at 15+ as the younger generation can fully appreciate the thriller of the film and would love the excitement within however it could also appeal to adults who would understand it more perhaps than a child would. The film appeals to both male and female.

How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract/address  our audience we had to keep them fixed on the sequence so that they would be left wanting to see the film after consuming our title sequence. We wanted to leave them prehaps asking questions and certainly fixated on what is going on.

For me, it was our use of shots that kept that intriguing element.

We used a differentiation within the sequence and it wasnt the same all the way through. We had a few quick shots of the girl on the stairs, which was only seconds long, this meant that the audience were kept amused as they were left to think "what was that?" Also the shot of the girl on the stairs that appeared the same shot but at different angles, was effective to keep the audience intrigued. The quick black and white shot of the girl sitting behind the banister was a refreshing shot for the sequence as well. I believe they work very well in the sequence and each played a main part in keeping the audience drawn in.

Also the music within our sequence was effective as it helped the anticipation. it slowly built up to a climax and we were anticipating what was going to happen, this automatically kept there attention as naturally they want to know.

We had fun editing these elements all together in an effective way so I am pleased to think it was successful.

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

I have learnt about technologies throughout the duration of making this product as we have used different types to what I am used to. before this product I have never edited a piece of work in final cut pro, therefore we had to learn and pick up how it worked and try to adapt to the different tools we could use. Naturally it took a while to grasp how to use it confidently however I feel like I have got use to it and can see that it was useful to learn how to use it properly and am aware that it looks effective for our title sequence. I also learnt about technologies not being so reliable as we experienced quite a few lessons were the macs were extremely slow if there a lot of people on the user which of course gave us less time to get it all finished, also sometimes they would shutdown without warning because of to many people on them.in a way this did help us learn that we need to save our work frequently and not just at the end of the lesson so even with things going wrong with our work we took something away from it that we had learnt.

We also learnt that to get the full effect of what we was trying to achieve in our title sequence, we needed to use a tripod at specific points. It sounds like an obvious statement but because our title sequence was meant to be quite disorientated we didn’t think we would need to use one at certain parts, however we got the same effect we were trying to achieve using a tri pod and it infact turned out better then it did without it.

I also learnt about how garage band work as I have never used it before but we successful managed to create a theme tune for our sequence using it. Now and then it proved to be unreliable as it wouldn’t open on certain macs but overall experience of  using it was good as we learnt how to use it properly.
The main positives of the technologies are that we was able to use so much and as a group/media class we feel privileged that we had these types of technologies at our service and was able to use them so frequently. it benefited our sequence a great deal.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progress from it to the full product?

Looking back at the preliminary task I feel we have learnt an awful lot. On the first task we was asked to do we had an idea but the product didn’t come out as well as we expected I feel that we did okay in the task as it was one of the first pieces of filming that we did however now we can look back and give our own work constructive criticism straight away.

 We have learnt that we need to research into genre codes conventions etc. of the product we want to achieve this is important as we feel that this helped us a great deal whilst filming our title sequence. We have developed our knowledge on the type of shots to use, the knowledge to know what is effective and what is less effective. In our title sequence we have used shot specifically to set up the eerie atmosphere that we wanted.

The development to be able to work in a team successfully. I think our choice of team members was a big part in how our sequence turned out. I believe we worked extremely well as a group we all participated equal amounts we all had ideas to put into it and all dedicated our free time to finish the product which I am quite happy with as I believe our hard work has paid off.

The main part of our learning progress was defiantly the editing process where we learned the most  whilst filming firstly we had to learn how to use it properly and then we had to use it effectively to benefit our sequence. As we didn’t use final cut pro in our preliminary task at the begginig of the year we were not familiar with it at all therefore I feel that we have done a good job as a team using it and editing was a fun part as well.

Overall I enjoyed making this title sequence as a whole every stage we learnt new things or developed on skills we was already familiar with I think that it has turned out well and although it took time it was worth it in the end.