Evaluation

Evaluation

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Opening sequences establish characterisation (an introduction to who the protagonist and antagonist may be), setting, genre, narrative, visual style and ideology.

Before even beginning the preliminary task, we were instructed to research opening sequences to popular films. We collectively researched the opening sequence to ‘Dirty Harry’ (Don Siegel 1997), ‘The Usual Suspects’ (Bryan Singer 1995) and ‘Mr & Mrs Smith’ (Doug Linman 2005) and I individually researched the opening sequence to ‘Over Her Dead Body’ (Jeff Lowell 2008). All three films despite being different genres, are conventional and traditional to their own genre. ‘Dirty Harry’ and ‘The Usual Suspects’, are both mystery/action movies. They both use quality editing techniques and camera angles which work effectively to establish characterisation (protagonist/antagonist), setting, genre and narrative, as well as visual style and even ideology. ‘Over Her Dead Body’ fits the romantic comedy genre well due to characterisation and setting. ‘Mr & Mrs Smith’ is slightly more unconventional as its opening sequence is very minimal and unclear. Despite this, it is a successful opening sequence as it draws the audience in.

In comparison to all of these media products, our opening sequence establishes characterisation fairly well. Jack is victimised by high angle shots at the start of the sequence, just like the woman in the pool in Dirty Harry. Also similarly to Dirty Harry, when Jack (the protagonist) is first seen on-screen, the music is slow, relaxed and relatively happy. In Dirty Harry there is an upbeat song playing as he is first seen in contrast to the eerie, distorted sounds when the antagonist is seen looking down the barrel of a gun. This emphasises that Jack will cause no harm, he is vulnerable; he is ‘the good guy’. Also by hanging the black work shirt in Jack’s sophisticated bedroom it makes him appear more adult like as he holds more responsibility.

Our opening sequence does not have an establishing shot unlike Over Her Dead Body and Dirty Harry. We consciously chose not to include one as we wanted to keep all footage inside the house, leaving the outside world a mystery, just as the missing daughter is a mystery. However we see that Jack wakes up to an alarm clock in a modern, simple bedroom and walks around his house so the setting is made clear; it’s a normal home where events such as missing daughters are highly unlikely. All of the footage in the opening sequence of Mr & Mrs Smith is internal, in only one room in fact yet the setting is made quite clear; this was our inspiration.

In Dirty Harry, there are distorted noises and dramatic music which build tension. This influenced us to include ‘scary’ music in our title sequence; the generic gloomy keyboard melody helps build tension also but in a much more thrilling sense, especially as the volume gets louder as the music becomes more intense. The use of this song alongside the unnatural visual effects such as the flashes and the echoes makes it easily determinable to the viewer that “12 Hours” is a thriller. Our actual opening sequence doesn’t display signs of it being a thriller but this was a conscious decision to trick the audience into thinking that the film they’re about to watch would be mild and tame, before being taken for a thill ride throughout the rest of the film.

The narrative in our opening sequence is made quite clear, unlike our first attempt. I feel that re-filming the whole sequence has benefited us and the viewer greatly! It is obvious that each individual clip follows on in chronological order which makes it easier for the audience to interpret; however they wont appreciate this as chronology is a given in everyday life. The note on the fridge “I HAVE YOUR DAUGHTER” is where the narrative is first picked up. The viewer knows that the problem has arisen and they follow Jack as he is made aware of the truth behind the message. Jack phones the police and waits… The viewer wants to know what happens next. This is a key sign of successfully establishing narrative. No film is successful without establishing a clear narrative at the start of the film as it is just not gripping enough to encourage the viewer to continue watching.

The visual style established in Over Her Dead Body is interesting. It’s all bright colours; the green grass and the blue sky. This fits in well with the feminine streak to the film. However in The Usual Suspect all the colours are dark and it’s quite difficult to make some things out. In our opening sequence we decided to play with shadows, especially when Jack walks out of his room and he becomes a silhouette. The use of the dark against the light emphasises that not all in the world is good, there’s still darkness and uncertainty. It kind of foreshadows future devastation just through the use of visual style alone. We also used a black and white title sequence and this theme would make a constant reappearance throughout the duration of the film.

In terms of ideology; common sense, one’s hopes and expectations play a part in establishing who’s side the audience place themselves on. The audience are aware in our opening sequence that there is an antagonist who has taken Jack’s daughter however unlike in Dirty Harry, our antagonist is not seen in the opening sequence. Viewers of our sequence would be on Jack’s side due to the fact that the antagonist remains anonymous and that they are able to empathise with Jack through his point of view shots and the saddening slow motion towards the end of the opening sequence.

As mentioned, our title sequence was made distinct by using monotones, layering the footage to create echoes and flashing ‘cartoon’ versions of the footage over the original footage. This already looks disturbing however the creepy music contributes to this also, just as both the imagery and audio create this effect in Kyle Cooper’s opening sequence to ‘Se7en’. The black and white theme from the title sequence is carried through to the opening sequence.

To an extent we did not challenge or develop the conventions of thriller opening sequences, the music and colours we used are fairly traditional, and establishing the genre is conventional, which is something we have done. However unconventionally we have kept all footage internal to the building. Mr & Mrs Smith is extremely unconventional by literally only using one camera angle; ours is not as extreme as this, but it is still slightly pushing boundaries.

As we have stuck by the rules of real media conventions, our opening sequence is successful at establishing characterisation, setting, genre, narrative, visual style and ideology.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

As our opening sequence is internal to one building and one character, we haven’t emphasised representation of particular social groups however we have included giveaway clues. Obviously Jack is speaking English in an British accent which shows he is British. This can then be pinpointed to a fairly southern English accent as he speaks in a relatively posh tone. This identifies his regional identity and gives us an idea of his social class; it makes him seem like a ‘normal’ man.

• Jack is a dominant male
• high angle shots, and effective narrative look down on him which weakens his status
• we have chosen to represent the male social group in this way to prove that even the strongest people can experience trauma

As Jack in real life is only 17, it was difficult to make him seem older. In order to help this though we hung the black shirt in his room which makes him appear responsible, and with age comes responsibility. We also chose that Jack would wear pyjama’s which would hopefully make him seem older, which we feel has worked better than our first opening sequence when he was wearing just boxers. Another key point is that Jack has a daughter. Again this gives him responsibility AND age. So we have tried to include the social group of middle aged men. We included this because this is the image which we wanted Jack’s character to portray; the ‘everyman’ character is much easier to empathise with as everybody can relate to this person.

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

• Films can be released by:
• TV broadcast
• theatrical release which is when a film is released in cinemas
• home entertainment, which is blue-ray or DVD
• The company responsible for the release of the film is the film distributer.

A few major film distributors are Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox and Film4. We have chosen Film4 as our film distributors, because they are the distributors of many major films, for example ‘127 hours’ and ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. Another reason in which we chose Film4 is that they distribute a lot of low budget films, which ours definitely is, so it fits the criteria.

One factor that made Film4 very appealing to us was their excellent reputation, for distributing high quality, award winning films. This means that, even without watching the film, people would assume that it will be well made and has a good storyline, so we would immediately have and audience broader than our initial target audience. Their dedicated fan base would benefit us hugely.

Film4 usually use ’Standard Release’. This is where the film is first released only in cinemas, and roughly 16 weeks later, it is released on DVD. Several months later, it is then broadcast on television, through Film4’s own channel. This method would be very beneficial, because it gives people numerous chances to see the film, and every time it is released, whether it is to cinema, DVD, or television, it is advertised. This means it will be almost impossible for people to not hear about the film. The broadcast on television allows people with less money to be able to see the film too, because they don’t have to pay for a cinema ticket, or to purchase the DVD.

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

This is a photo of my cousin Ashley (23) and his girlfriend Louise (22). They like to go to the cinema at least twice a month or maybe more if there are good films out at the time. They like to have a good time and both recently went sky diving together; they are thrill seekers. They are an indication of our target audience; young thrill seekers who like to have a good time!

• aimed ever so slightly more at males as they stereotypically enjoy adrenaline more than girls
• not excluding females from our audience completely, as females are more sensitive and will be able to sympathise Jack’s trauma more easily and openly.

The age range for our target audience is from late teens to early thirties, roughly 18 – 32 year olds. Any younger or older than these ages and the viewer may be more sensitive to and upset by the violence in the film. Also, we have rated our film an 18. This is because we want to reach the full potential for a thriller and to do so means including gore, violence and things which don’t even bare thinking about. Also by having an 18 rating rather than a 15 it screams out to thrill seekers that it is extremely scary, much scarier than something a 15/16/17 year old could handle. They know they’ll get more of a buzz from it which means the product will sell well.

We used the narrative of a missing daughter because most people have children during the age range of our target audience which means they can become more involved in the film rather than simply just watching it as they know how heartbreaking it would be to lose a child.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

To address our audience, we originally showed the film to media students, and asked them for feedback. In doing this, we were able to dramatically change the sequence, to the point where we actually re-filmed the whole thing and edited the storyline. I am very happy about the decision to do this, because asking people from our target audience for feedback and advice on our film meant that we made it more appropriate and desirable to them. We asked people to write down their opinions on the sequence. This enabled us to really direct the film to our target audience.

After editing our first version of the video we asked people what genre they thought the film was. 60% of people thought our film was a thriller, which is the genre we decided to create. 40% of people thought the film was an action film. Although more than half of the people asked thought the film was a thriller, we still wanted to make it even more obvious that our film was a thriller. So after re-filming and re-editing our video, we decided to ask for further audience feedback to assess whether re-filming was worthwhile.

After filming our second version of the video, we asked the same question; what genre people thought our video was. This time, 90% of people thought that it was a thriller, which is a much stronger result than previously and we were much happier with this result, which means that re-filming our video was definitely a good choice.

When we refilmed and edited, we posted the film on YouTube and Facebook. Posting it on YouTube, in particular, meant that a very diverse range of people might see the film, and so we would know which types of people are more interested in it, allowing us to know who our main audience are.

Another way in which we addressed our audience was through researching genre. In doing this, we were able to find out more about action thrillers, and include some of the typical conventions of them. This assured us that it would appeal to our target audience, because it will be in the same style as the types of films that they enjoy. The things we included in our film to mirror features found in other thriller films were silhouetted characters, creepy, distorted flashing images and black and white frames.

As our film was aimed at a younger audience rather than an older audience we wanted our characters to represent this age group, so that the target audience could connect more with the characters. In order to do this we used Jack as our main character, a young male of a similar age to our target audience. We dressed him in suitable clothing; tracksuit bottoms and a plain grey t shirt as we believe this is the kind of thing people of a similar age would wear to sleep in.

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

Whilst researching opening sequence many options opened up. Initially I had been dependant on the internet for all research I ever conduct. However it became aware to me that the best research was by breaking down and analysing real media products, such as the opening sequence to Dirty Harry which we tore apart!

During planning our opening sequence I learned how use a scanner. I drew our story board and then scanned it into the computer, and then used photoshop to ‘cut’ the paper into the individual squares.

Whilst filming, the technologies available to us was the camera which was lent to us by school and Megan’s camera on her phone to film the title sequence. We all got the chance to play around with the camera and we discovered that it had a ‘night mode’ which we used in our first attempt of the opening sequence but as the quality was so poor it was not of an advantage to us anyway.

We used Final Cut Pro and Sony Vegas throughout the editing stages and we were able to pick up the skills required to use the software successfully pretty quickly.

By using new technologies such as these mentioned I feel slightly more creatively confident and feel as though, as tiny as it may be, I have gained some experience which I hope to take forwards with me in whatever I plan to do in life.

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

In the progression from filming my preliminary task, to producing my opening sequence, I feel that I have learnt a lot about filming and editing.

In the preliminary talk, we used a cheap flip camera, and this made our short clip look very poor quality. I am happy that we did the task, because it meant that we could make a conscious decision to use a more expensive, better quality camera when filming our real piece.

Another weakness of our preliminary task was that we didn’t use a tripod. When we watched it back, this was very obvious, as it was shaky. From doing this, we realised that we would definitely need to use a tripod for or sequence, to keep a steady shot, making it look much more professional. However, we also chose to use handheld camera at one point in the film, because we wanted it to be a point of view shot. We made this decision as we thought that the jerkiness of the shot would emphasise the panic.

In the preliminary task, we had problems with lighting, as we filmed part of it into the light. We found that this was ineffective, because it meant the character that was meant to be the focus of the shot, was hard to make out, and was almost a silhouette. When we filmed our real sequence, we remembered the difficulties we had when doing the preliminary, so we were able to avoid it. However, we did actually film into the light a couple of time, but we made a conscious decision to do this, as we wanted the character to be more of a silhouette at that point, but doing the preliminary task showed us that this was possible.

I also progressed a lot in terms of my knowledge on editing. For the preliminary task, our editing skills were to a minimum, and we only did very basic transitions. We cropped down the clips to the appropriate length, and fitted them together, but we were not very good at making them run smoothly, and e struggled to use interesting effects. Before editing our opening sequence however, i experimented with Sony Vegas: better quality editing software than we has used previously, and got to know it well so that I could use interesting effects such as fading, colour grading and altering sound. I think this was possibly where I improved my skills the most out of all the areas involved in film production.

Our preliminary only lasted 35 seconds, so we didn’t really have to think about scene changes, or a change in atmosphere, as it was such a small space of time. However, in or opening sequence, which lasts a few minutes, more happens and we needed to capture the atmosphere change from when he is docile and calm when he wakes up, to when he sees the note and becomes panicked and frustrated. We thought about ways in which we could reinforce this change, and decided that the use of camera, editing and sound would all be very important. We used editing to show the change, by making the cuts longer at the start so it seems slow pace. We used non-diegetic sound, by editing in music to sound as though the radio is playing, and we chose some very calm music to help set the atmosphere. At the start, we used the camera on a tripod in most of the shots, so that it was a steady frame, but when he is panicked, we included a hand held shot, so that we are seeing it through his eyes, and we feel the panic more.

In our preliminary task, our use of light was poor as we learnt that filming into the light created a glare and made the screen too light to look at meaning the image was not clear.

This meant that in our final video we were aware of the issue with the lighting and we could eliminate this problem, creating a clear image which could be seen properly, enhancing the experience for the viewer.

Audio Commentary

Audience Feedback

After recreating our video we distributed the same questionnaire that we used before to 10 people selected at random from our school. This way we can assess how successful our new video is in comparison to our old video.

The results from the questionnaire were as follows:

Q1) We asked which genre people thought the film would be based on our opening sequence.Nine out of ten people thought it was a thriller which is great as that was the genre we were establishing. Despite this, one person thought that the film would be an action film. This is a huge improvement from our last video as only 60% of the people we asked thought the film was a thriller, compared to 90% who think our new video is a thriller.

Q2) We asked whether, based upon our opening sequence, people would want to watch the rest of the film. 80% of people said they would which is much better than the 40% who said they would watch it based on our previous video. 20% of people said they would not want to watch it which is great as with our last video, 60% of people said they would not want to watch the rest of the film. The results have improved greatly since we recreated our video so luckily this was the right decision for us to make. We are pleased that more people want to watch our film now as this means that we have established our opening features correctly and have hooked people in to want to find out what happens next.

Q3) We asked how well our final video made Jack appear to be a victim on a scale of 1 to 10. 60% of people asked agreed that it was totally clear that Jack was made out to be a victim. 20% of people agreed that we had made him out to be a victim scoring us 9/10, still a great score but room for improvement, which could have been done if we had a longer deadline so had longer to share ideas and film more sequences. 10% of people scored up 8/10 and 10% scored up 7/10. Luckily this was the lowest score we received which still indicates that we made Jack appear victimised well but we could have made this message more clear. However since our last video, these results have improved greatly so we are happy with these scores!

Q4) We asked people what they thought the strengths of our video were. Some answers included:

• “interesting camera angles and techniques”
• “clear story line”
• “appropriate use of music, clear message”
• “a wide range of editing techniques have been used which makes it interesting to watch”
• “it just looks authentic; Jack’s persona, the little girl’s bedroom, it just looks real and as though it could actually happen”
• “the narrative is established and we know what the rest of the film is about”

Q5) We asked people what they thought the weaknesses of our video were. Some answers included:

• “I’m not too keen on the part where Jack is in the girl’s bedroom. I think he would be more angry than this”
• “it’s too dark at the beginning”
• “daughter was misspelled”
• “panic music should come in when he reads the note to emphasise danger”

talking heads

Final Video

12 Hours: AS Media Opening Sequence Coursework (Finalised)

Title Sequence

Title sequence

After editing we got to work on creating our title sequence. Due to our research we came to the agreement that we wanted the title sequence to show ‘edgy’ and thrilling footage, external to our opening sequence but still tied in with the film. This way we could foreshadow future danger and still keep it visually stimulating. We decided that we wanted footage of Jack’s daughter tied up with rope, like we used in our previous opening sequence, but so that the person’s identity is hidden.

The title sequence really only needs to be one or two pieces of footage to create our desired effect as we are going to use post-production effects such as contrast increases, blurs, echoes etc. in order to recreate the footage on multiple frames.

We filmed our friend Olivia, who acts as Jack’s daughter, but her face is hidden and therefore her identity is too. We want the clip to be shaky, like a handheld shot as if the antagonist is filming it for himself. Olivia’s hair drapes down in front of her face so we can’t see her identity and the camera circles her.

During editing, we increased the speed of the footage and layered the frames so it creates echoes and flashes, a strange and unnatural effect. The footage looks disturbing which is the effect we wanted to create, especially for a thriller.

We decided to use ‘Space Dementia’ by Muse as the music for this piece, as it’s exactly the kind of ‘traditional thriller music’ which we want, a song on the piano played in a minor key which sounds creepy and distorted. The echoey sounds work well with the echoed imagery and the song creates a dramatic atmosphere. The sadness in the song helps the audience to sympathise the little girl. When the camera zooms in on the rope and the girls hands, the volume of the music will increase as does the drama within the sounds.

Editing and Post Production

When it came to editing the second time round, I really struggled. Firstly the camera we used had filmed the clips into .AVI files which we couldn’t even access to begin with. After spending hours searching the web for a free, functional file converter we thought we had resolved the problem. So I converted the .AVI files to what I thought were .MP4 files, however the converter changed them to .M4V’s which again we were unable to use. Finally we managed to get the files to .MPEG’s and we could access each individual clip. I opened Final Cut Pro on my Mac and there were multiple error messages saying that some program files cannot be found, so I chose to ignore these files and attempted to begin editing. But the files wouldn’t open in Final Cut whatsoever. Sony Vegas is not compatible with Macs, and still being ill I couldn’t go into school to edit so I dropped a memory stick off with Megan and Jack to see if they could get anything working at their end.

It seems as though Megan and Jack still had problems with Sony Vegas at school, but they had .AVI, .M4V, .MP4 and .MPEG versions of each clip so we had our fingers crossed that SOMETHING would work. Eventually Sony Vegas crashed so often at school that it wouldn’t even open and that we had lost our work so far, so Megan downloaded the software on her home computer and managed to get it all working.

Editing the clips together was really straightforward once we got the software working, we could simply drag and drop the clip into the timeline, and then shorten it accordingly so the match on action worked really well. The music simply was dragged and dropped also into the timeline so it starts and the volume decreases at the appropriate points.

Once all editing was complete, the video was really jumpy and when uploaded to the internet there was no audio alongside the video. This was easily resolvable by quickly rendering the whole sequence.

We decided on the song ‘Talking Bird’ by Death Cab for Cutie in the end because it just sounded like it fitted the imagery really well – also the song is slow and calm and this makes the audience unsuspecting of any drama. The song fades out as Jack gets further away as if the song is playing on the radio. We are pleased with this, and it begins to play again at a heartbreaking moment later on in the sequence, as it fits both the peaceful atmosphere and the restless atmosphere really well, and we felt that that specific moment needed some background noise, silence didn’t work well. Luckily this song was diverse so we could use the one song for necessary moments rather than having to use two songs as we did previously.

There are a lot of dissolve transitions to aid the jump cuts in our editing, it created a softer visual style so the clips flow continuously and smoothly.

Another technique we’ve used which we think is successful is the use of slow motion as the music starts up again. Slow motion is traditionally used to emphasise the overwhelm of a specific moment, and in our case it is used to emphasise the sadness and heartache Jack feels. It makes the audience understand the confusion Jack must be facing in this moment, as though he feels disorientated. We feel it does this well.

We are so pleased to have finally completed the main bulk of our opening sequence after days of stress. The editing stage did not go as smoothly or as quickly as we had hoped so it is such a relief to have finally finished it! We just need to add a short title sequence at the beginning of the opening sequence containing our names and ‘Film 4’ and to do this we are going to film footage of a girl who is tied up, acting as Jack’s daughter with our names flashing over the top of it.

Filming the New Video

Re-Filming

Our second attempt at filming was much more successful than our first; we only encountered one problem. The battery died towards the end of the filming, but after a quick 10 minute charge we could finish the job – it’s a good job we decided to cut the chase out otherwise we would have been stranded without any battery in the camera. We encountered no problems like before as we made sure the camera was compatible with the tripod before leaving school with them, we were filming during the day which meant the light was sufficient and also we had our one location (my house) confirmed unlike our previous location, the old house, which we decided was unsafe to use upon reaching it.

To save time, we made sure everything was in place before we began filming (e.g. the objects around Sophie’s room, the note on the fridge, the hanging shirt). Like last time, we filmed the shots chronologically to ensure that there was no vital footage missing which would damage our awareness of the match on action rule and to make the files easier to manage when it came to the editing process.

The first shot we filmed started with an alarm clock which starts beeping as it turns to 7.00am. This image then panned to the left and we see Jack sit up in bed. The lengthy shot alongside the slow music emphasises the slow morning and the lazy atmosphere, and allows the viewer time to observe and take this all in. This shot also sets up the contrast for when Jack becomes alert and panicked as he realises his daughter is missing, as everything is so relaxed at this point.

In our next shot we wanted Jack to appear vulnerable. This is made possible with a high angle shot. We had difficulty enabling this shot as firstly the tripod did not stand as high as we would have liked the camera, yet lifting it higher meant the camera was not still, it looked ‘handheld’ which is not the effect we would have liked. By carefully placing the tripod on a cabinet in the corner of the room, our problem was solved, but we had to take care setting it up to ensure that it would not fall over.

We also are persistent on including visually stimulating shots. To show this we placed the camera on the floor to show a close up of Jack’s first footsteps as he climbs out of bed in the morning. This is much more effective than a mid-short of him getting out of bed as it keeps the viewer drawn in to the shots and it aesthetically pleasing.

Whilst sticking to the 180 degree rule, we then filmed a mid-shot of Jack walking to the window and then leaving the room, followed by a long shot of him walking down the dark hallway. The contrast from light to dark is visually pleasant as Jack appears to be a silhouette. A small problem we encountered at this point was when Jack walked out during the first take of this shot he had his hands in his pockets. Before he left the room he had his hands by his sides, so we had to film another take of this shot with his hands by his side to ensure that maintaining professional match on action standards between consecutive shots is easy during the editing stage.

As Jack walks through the house after he gets down the stairs, we want to create the effect that perhaps somebody is in the house watching him without giving too much away, as the antagonist is not yet the main focus. In an attempt of this we filmed a handheld, point of view shot from the antagonist perhaps hiding behind a door panning and watching Jack as he walks past. We’re unsure at the moment of how effective this will be so we will decide whether to include it at the editing stage, but at least we have the material to work with should we decide it is effective.

Next comes my favourite shot of the sequence. Jack goes to the fridge and as the door opens the camera switches to an internal shot from the fridge; a mid shot looking out at Jack rummaging around looking for breakfast. We agreed to use this shot even before we knew what our storyline would be because it is just so visually creative, it’s original.

Then we see the note “I HAVE YOUR DAUGHTER” from an over the shoulder shot of Jack, so we can see just as he sees. From this shot Jack then runs upstairs to check Sophie’s bedroom.

As he gets to the top of the stairs we filmed a handheld point of view shot of Jack running into Sophie’s room. The creates an attachment between the viewer and Jack’s character, as the viewer is able to empathise with him as they understand his panic and heartbreak. This is also emphasised through the over the shoulder shot of Jack making an emergency call on his phone.

We then filmed a mid-shot of Jack pacing between Sophie’s room and the bathroom as he calls the police. Pacing highlights restlessness and worry, which is just how anybody in Jack’s position would be feeling.

The whole filming process has gone so much more smoothly the second time round so hopefully the outcome will be greater, we just have to edit all of the shots together now.

Alterations

Mise-en-scene

Fortunately I live in a home full of girls, which means that making it clear to the viewer that Jack’s daughter ‘Sophie’ is of a young age is going to be easy. I have pink duvet which was mine when I was little with “I love my cat” written on it which looks very childish. We’re also going to place girly things around the room such as fluffy teddies, cushions and my sister’s cupcake money box. This makes it clear that Sophie is stereotypically young and female, her exact age does not need to be pinpointed.

We’re also going to place a smart black shirt, associated with the workplace, hanging up in my mum’s room (where Jack will wake up) so it is clear that he is a working father about to get ready to go off to work. This will play alongside my mum’s modern, simplistic bedroom design (a floral duvet and plain cream walls), making Jack seem like more of an adult than he did in our previous video. In addition to this we are going to place a can of beer in the fridge so that when Jack opens it he comes across as an adult here too.

Costume

Jack, in our first opening sequence, woke up wearing Calvin Klein boxers. This is perfectly believable nightwear for a male, however to make Jack appear more fatherlike and to make it even more believable we agreed that he should be wearing pyjama’s of some kind.

Jack is going to be wearing tracksuit bottoms which emphasise comfort and rest, and they’re simple which is just what we need to portray in his character.

He will also wear a plain grey t shirt, again to make him appear older and more father like, by keeping it simple.

Our choice of clothing is simply just to try to make everything that little bit more believable.

Alterations

Location

Originally we had filmed at Jack’s house in Bourne, however as his room was not ‘adult’ enough, and he has no younger sibling’s rooms to use, we changed the location to my house in Eye.

Luckily, this actually makes it easier for us than our first video. My house is closest to our school so it is easier for Jack and Megan to get here. We have decided to miss out the chase so we are only filming inside the house which means that our only risk assessments include

• make sure the floor is tidy to ensure we don’t trip over
• make sure the door is locked at all times as we are in the house by ourselves, to ensure safety
• keep water/drinks away from the equipment

As we have decided not to include the chase this means that we do not need Matty to be the hooded figure. This saves him a lot of time too. We chose to film at my house because my little sister’s room has girly posters and we can use my old pink duvet to make it look like an even younger girl’s bedroom. This means that we are changing Jack’s ‘son’ to a ‘daughter’ – many people commented on the fact that Jack did not check on his child after seeing the note, so the only way we could get around this was to change to a daughter and film at my house, as I am the only one with a younger sibling. Also as my mum’s room is very modern and sophisticated, Jack will appear more adult like, this was one of the pieces of constructive criticism we received so hopefully we can resolve this by Jack waking up in a more grown-up bedroom.

Alterations

Music

Learning from our mistakes, we have decided not to use popular songs with generic lyrics. Instead we’re going to use songs which are more unheard of. Also, after hearing ‘In The Morning’ by The Coral over and over we realised how cheesy it sounds, so instead we’re going to use a much ‘softer’, early morning song, which will still hold the sense that nothing is wrong until the action occurs. A new suggestion which was made is ‘Talking Bird’ by Death Cab for Cutie. This song is calm and peaceful so the audience will still be unsuspecting of any drama which is the effect the want to create.

This music will be non-diagetic with the intention that the viewer interprets it as diagetic. The music playing will appear to be a track playing on the radio just after Jack’s alarm goes off. This means that as Jack leaves the room the music will be quieter and will continue to fade out until he is out of hearing range, just as it would in real life. We hope this will make the opening sequence appear more realistic and less like a music video.

Sound

A diagetic sound we’ll use is Jack as he is on the phone to the police. Inputting this diagetically makes it appear more professional in comparison to inputting it non-diagetically; there’s less chance of error as the video and audio will be synchronised. Also it just unnecessary. We discussed whether or not to input non-diagetically the voice of the police at the other end of the line. We think this may be effective however we plan to keep the action internal to the setting, so we have decided not to go ahead with this.

We’ll retain other diagetic sounds such as the alarm clock and subtle movements made by Jack.