The Final Film Opening: In Business

This is a copy of our final film opening that we have been working towards creating for the last couple of months. All of the footage, music and sound within the film were originally created by me and the others in my group. We also did all the editing and titles credits shown within the film. 

The editing was done on Final Cut Express and the Music used in our Film Opening was created using Garage Band. 

Evaluation Extended

In what ways does your media product, use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 
The genre of our film is a Thriller and looking at the conventions of Thriller films, I think that we managed to capture a range of different shots that we placed together in a way that creates a mysterious main character which helps to capture audiences attention. The music that we created for the film opening helps to create tension because of the build up within the music moving from normal to drastic. The music used in the opening on its own tells the audience that something bad is going to happen. We used a number of different quick cutting shots to create this tension. Along within this we used shots that did not show the main characters face, this was so that he would seam more mysterious. Personally i think that we have created a film opening that meets the Thriller Film conventions, and when watching it is becomes clear what the genre is and it would not be confused with a comedy film. We were unable to use the extreme thriller conventions such as explosions and car crashes. Because of this we did out best to fit in all of the other conventions that we could into our film opening.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Within our film opening we have only included one character that can be seen visually. The mysterious phone caller and the main characters kidnapped wife are also mention but not seen during the Film Opening. Because the main characters wife has been kidnapped we automatically assume that he is going to be the 'Hero' type and do what ever he can to rescue her. The phone caller is also identified as the Villain as soon as we notice that he has kidnapped the main character's wife an has a strong hold over the main character. The phone caller comes across as the most powerful character within the film. The Wife on the other hand is seen as the Damsel in Distress who needs rescuing. She did not have the strength to save herself from the Phone caller so she becomes reliant on her husband (the main character).

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

The film institution that we choose to use for our film was 20th Century Fox. This was because during our research we noticed that this institution had created a number of Thriller films and we thought that our film could be represented by the same company because they had previously represented Thriller genre films. As well a 20th Century fox we also used Jerry Bruckheimer Film Productions. This was because our research showed us that most films tend to have two Film producing Companies. The two companies had worked together before so it seamed right to pair them together for our film. Both of our production company choices are well known and we wanted them to be recognised straight away. 

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The Audience for our Thriller Film would most likely fall within the age range of 15-40. Our Questionnaire during our research and planning helps us to identify this. Most Thriller films are rated above a 12A age certificate. Because of this our film would fall into this age certificate range, we could not identify this unless we knew the extent of exactly what was going to happen in the rest of the film.

How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract an audience to our film we would need to advertise it using things such as posters and TV Trailers. By using this we would help to make people interested in out film and want to go and see it. The tension created in the film would then hook them to the film because of the need to find out what happens next. 

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

During th process of creating our Film Opening I have learn't a number of different new techniques that i did not know how to use before. When we began planning our film opening i did not have any experience with any of the editing softwares or the Apple Mac computers themselves. When we began filming a lot of ideas we imputed between me and my group. We all had our own input of ideas in the different concepts of our film opening. When it came to editing no one in my group had used Final Cut Express Before. Because of this at first it was alot of trial and error to learn how to use the software. We had to research how to do certain things on the internet but once we knew what we were doing the editing process came quite easily and our film opening came together nicely. However There is still many other options on Final Cut Express that me and my group are yet to explore.

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

When we created our Preliminary Task we simply recorded a conversation using Match on Action, Shot Reverse Shot and The 180 Degree Rule. We then used Final Cut Express to edit together the few small clips that we had for out conversation. There was not a lot of editing to do because the clip we were creating was only short. But because we did this task it helped us to get to know how to use some of the features of the programme as well as the computer and camera's before we had to deal with the creation for our Final Film Opening Piece.

Evaluation

Evaluation Of Our Film Opening On Thriller Film Conventions:

The film opening that we have created is a Thriller film. The main conventions in a thriller film is to create and build up suspicion and tension within the audience. There is often a Antagonist and a Protagonist within Thriller films. In our opening we have identified that our main character John is the Protagonist and that the strange voice man on the phone is the antagonist. It is better to identify which character plays what role in the beginning of the film so that the plot does not get confusing and so that the audience clearly understands who the characters are. Thriller films also tend to have chase scenes and a lot of action and fighting scenes. Although we have not included a fight or chase scene in out film opening, if our film was developed more there would be at some point throughout the film so that the film fits into the thriller genre expectations.

Our film opening builds tension and suspicion for the audience in the way that we hoped during our planning process's. The feedback we received confirmed this by people responding and saying that they could tell that something bad was about to happen within the film. We were happy to hear this comment as it proved that we had achieved the right mood and feeling to the film opening that we wanted to achieve. The main character in our film opening does not talk so the audience cannot really know about this character or his life surroundings. We did not want to reveal a lot about the character so that he had a slight mysterious feel to him. by the audience not knowing a lot about this character if the film were made fully there are many options for that characters story. When the film opening reaches the phone call moment some tension is broken but its is also built up again because of the mysterious voice on the phone call and the mystery of who is calling. The voice within the phone call was also distorted so that it would not be clear who the phone caller was if he was seen or heard later on in the film he would not be recognised and the mystery of who the Antagonist is would remain throughout the film. Another convention to Thriller films is quick cutting scenes. Quick cutting scenes help to build tension within films, because of this we made a lot of our shot transactions quick cutting so that our film opening would build tension within the audience.  To completely fit the film into the Thriller film genre there would need to be a big collision or explosion scene but we were not able to create a scene like this so if the film was carried on it would be included later on within the film. We tried to fit as many Thriller film conventions into our film opening as we could so that it would have the potential of being a really good thriller film, But many of the the thriller film conventions cross over with an action films conventions so tour film could be placed in both the thriller and action film genre category. 
   

What changes would we make if we made another film opening?

If we were to create another film opening we would like to have a bit more knowledge on how to use the final cut express software. When it came to editing there was a lot of trial and error moments where we experimented on how to do different techniques on the programme as well as researching how to do certain things on the internet. If we knew how to use the programme before we started editing we would have been able to get straight into the editing. Another thing that i think we would have benefited from would be to plan exactly what we should do when we plan to film shots needed for the film. When creating our current film opening and it came to filming the shots that we wanted, we were not prepared. We knew what shots we wanted to capture but we did not know how to capture them in the best way. by the end of the night we had all of the shots that we wanted plus others that we thought would help improve our film opening.

Both of the issues stated above were only minor things that did not set us back on time too much as once we had figured out exactly what we were doing and how to do it, the process of editing our film together happened and fell into place in the way we wanted, quite quickly. All of the changed that we decided to make from our original film opening idea's were all so that we could make a film opening to the best of our ability and that showed the technical skills that everyone out group had.  

What problems occurred during the process of making our film opening?

during the process of planning, filming and editing our film opening there were not any drastic problems that we came across. We gave our selves plenty of time to complete everything to a high standard. The only trouble that we came across was when we came to upload out filmed video footage onto the editing programme. Our video footage was in the wrong format to be used in Final Cut Express. Rather than guessing how to change the format we asked advise from the technicians who then helped us to change the format so that we were able to edit our video footage in Final Cut Express with ease. This problem took up some of our editing time but we did not let it put us of, we just simply continued creating the film to the best of our ability and we managed to complete the editing with plenty of time to spare before the deadline. 

Changes That Were Made To The Original Film Opening Plan...

During the time between when we came up with our original film opening ideas and the time when the film opening was complete, a number of changes to our plans/ideas were changed. We changed things because we thought that by doing so we would make our thriller film opening better. In this post i intend to explain the changes that we made and the reason to why we changed them.

1. The Setting

The setting of our film opening changed a few time during the planning process's. Originally we planned to have our main character walk into a cafe, order a dink and then receive the phone call explaining that his wife had been kidnapped. We decided to change this location to a petrol station shortly after. This was because we thought that it would have been a more remote place where there would not be as many people around, especially considering that our film opening is set at night. Although we had decided to move the setting of our film to a petrol station we were still stuck on choosing a petrol station to film at. We wanted to find one that would not be to busy and had a mysterious and dark feeling to it so that we could use this to help with the mood of our film opening. we eventually had two different petrol stations in mind that we thought would be appropriate for the setting in our film opening. They both had dark surrounding and would have suited our film opening theme perfectly.  When it came to filming we used the petrol station that was close enough to each  of us because the other in the middle of the country and would have been difficult to get to late at night which was when we needed the film opening to be set in.

2. The Title
Another thing that we changed about our film opening from our original plan was how we planned to have the title shown in the film opening. Our original plan was to edit the number plate of a black car that would drive past. The plan was to have "BU51N355"  written on the number plate with the '1N' of the word high lighted so that you could read 'In Business' which is the title of our film. When we came to creating this on final cut we soon realised that putting this in our film opening would look very odd so we deciding to change our idea. We wanted our film title to be shown at the end of our film opening so that it was clear when the opening had ended. because of this we decided to place our title right at the end of our opening when our male character drops the phone and we see his hang hanging for a while.

3. Props
The props that we originally planned to use were things that fit in with the Cafe setting that we were originally going to use. After changing the setting of our film we realised that we would also have to change some of the props. Obviously we had to keep the phone in our film opening so that the main character can receive the phone call but some of the other props were changed. We were originally planned to use a drink, a wallet, and money for the man to play for the drink with for props in our film opening. Once the setting had changed we had to get rid of the drink from our props but kept the wallet because the man was now going to be stopping at a cask machine. We added a credit card to the props list due to the cash machine part of our film opening.  In our original plans we were going to have a photograph of the main male character and his wife shown when he opens his wallet. We had to remove this idea from our plans because we were unable to find a wallet that had a photo gap in it and if we had just stuck a photo in a wallet it would have looked out of place in our film opening.

4. Costume
We also decided to change the costume design for our main male character. Originally we planned for the male character to be wearing casual clothing such as t-shirt and jeans but after a while we thought that it would be very random in our story line if the man decided to walk to a petrol station in the middle of the night. Because of this we changed the backstory of the character. The new back story included the man on his way home from work as a business man. Because of this the main male character would now be wearing a suit, shirt and tie ao that it looked as if her had just come straight from work and was stopping of at the cash machine to get some money out on his way home. 

The things stated above were the only major changes that we made during the process of creating our film opening. I feel that these changes were for the best and helped make our film a lot better in the long run.

Feedback

Once we had nearly finished our film opening we decided to get some feed back on what people thought of our film opening. To do this we placed our film opening video on Facebook and asked people to comment there thoughts. We did not get many comments on our film opening via Facebook but the comments we did receive were very positive and helped to ensure us that people would like the look of our film. Blow shows a screen shot of the comments that we received:

(The film that was uploaded was not complete. We had all of the camera shots together but we still had to add in the institution and the voice of the phone call, this is why some of the comments mention it not being entirely complete)