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

Preliminary and Final Product

Progression from preliminary

~ Unlike the preliminary task, the real film opening needed more accurate editing at precise times so the scenes would flow, but the preliminary seemed more stilted e.g. at the moment 0:20 - 0:22.

~ I have learnt that music plays a very big role in the intended effect of a film because it creates the emotion, but the silent preliminary was very void of this.  If music was added from the beginning then the audience would be hinted at what the genre was.

~ Effects also play a big role because the preliminary had no effects so was rather boring.  There was nothing to engage the audience.

~ I also learned that planning something before hand will produce something which is noticeably better and it makes it easier.  The preliminary was impromptu as we shot each scene with almost no planning, but weeks of planning went into the film opening which shows through the various shots which blend evenly together and tell the story well, as well as the non-diagetic sounds.

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

Apple Final Cut and Adobe After Effects

I learnt that once the basics of final cut are learnt, it can create very effective scenes, however problems were posed e.g. …

- When using the echo effect in the scenes where the pictures were getting ripped down, I found that if the clips were played at ordinary pace the effect looked terrible because everything was multiplied too much and moved too slowly i.e. Beth looked like she had ten hands! This would make the viewer a bit dizzy and the scenes would not be effective at all.  The fact that each picture was snatched about ten times would have also gotten tedious.  But, when I sped up the scenes to almost triple the speed (from 100 to 280) the multiplying effect of it blended together so there was not as many hands and it created the effect that I was looking for - of insanity.  It also created more of a realistic point of view shot, for example if you wave your hand you will see several hands rapidly moving which merge together to create a fluid movement.  This is what happened when I sped up the shots.

- When editing the font there were long lists of transitions that I was taking too long to get through, and customising some of them was hard at times.  It was difficult finding out if I was able to make a path for the letters so they would be in a shape, but I could not find out information on the internet on how to do it on After Effects.  I wanted each letter of the title to get slightly taller to resemble the shape of an open door, so using a shape similar to a parallelogram would have made this easier.  This can be done on Microsoft Publisher, but apparently I would not have been able to copy this into the software.  In the end, I changed my idea to just using a transition for the title that would look cool.

- We also had problems with rendering as we did not know how to render it for a while, so we had to export the whole project each time and re-open it.  This wasted a lot of time.

How did you attract/address your audience?

How we attracted our audience

- From the beginning where our logo is shown there is an upbeat urban soundtrack which would be appealing to our target audience and keeps their attention.  The red and black backing draws their interest as well as the black silhouettes symbolising a certain mystery.  

- When the opening starts crying is heard, but the source is not seen, so viewers would be locked in to find out who is crying and why.  The tracking shot helps to build and maintain the suspense.  In our target market research the majority preferred a film to open with suspense, so we have followed this.

- In the scene where there is an outward zoom revealing a wall filled with pictures makes the viewer question about whether Beth is the protagonist or not as it makes her seem unusual.  The sped up scenes of her ripping down the images verify these assumptions and increases the audience’s curiosity and intrigue.  The echo effect and blurred imagery engages the viewer as they see the scene from the point of view of her mentality.

- Beth crushing what seems to be pills and adding them to an unknown substance keeps the audience’s attraction as their curiosity heightens and it builds a psychological response of anxiousness in them.  This was helped by the one-way phone conversation heard earlier where Licia sounded worried, so this is passed on to the audience who wonders what Beth will do.

Credits

We decided on using simple credits - capital letters, white sans font, transition of fading in and out - so as for them to not distract viewing from the main scenes.  From our questionnaire only the minority chose this simplicity as their preferred look of credits, but we think it goes well with our opening. Plus, the majority of films’ credits are like this and we wanted to create a rather bona fide opening.

Title

The title comes up when Beth slams the door to link in with the title ‘Behind Closed Doors’. Even though the letters are also simple - capitals and white sans font - the title also attracts the audience because of the eye-catching transition where each letter quickly swivels into place whilst fading from the colour yellow to white.  This ends the opening with an effective impact and keeps the name 'Behind Closed Doors' in the viewers' minds.

Who would be the audience for your product?

I think that children from 12 and above to adults would watch our film as I would certify it with a rating of '12' (for renting and buying, and '12A' for watching in the cinema) because it has scenes which some may deem unappropriate for those who are younger, i.e. making a dangerous substance, and later on in the film with a possible death.

Our genre of a thriller/drama should satisfy our target market because teens like the excitement that comes with watching a thriller, but they also like to be absorbed into the scenarios of dramas.  Both genders would like it because boys tend to prefer thrillers, whereas girls may tend towards the dramas.

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

New Line Cinema is an institution which could distribute our opening as they have distributed other thrillers in our market research, i.e. Seven, The Number 23.  They could distribute our opening because there are elements of Seven in our opening for example the close ups of Beth's hands.  Since Seven was successful, New Line Cinema would be tempted to distribut Behind Closed Doors as well as it may turn out to be successful too.

Screen Gems Pictures distributed Prom Night and Obsessed.  Obsessed is similar to Behind Closed Doors in regards to the drama element of both being films based on relationships and the theme of obsession, so Screen Gems could produce ours as well.  Recently, Screen Gems have released 'The Roommate' which is a thriller/drama about a college student who finds out that her roommate has an obsession with her that turns violent. This is similar to our opening in many ways, so seeing that this was recent there would be a high chance that they would release ours too.

http://s1185.photobucket.com/albums/z341/liciatkj/?albumview=slideshow

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

Conventions of a thriller being conformed to

- Tense non-diagetic music to build suspense, but ours was different to the music/sound in the film openings we researched before as ours had an R&B beat to it.

- Rapidly sped up scenes to create illusion of distortion and unnaturalness. This is also done in 'The Ring' whilst Samara was climbing out of the well which makes her look really freaky e.g. at 0:52 - 1:05.

- Pleonastic sounds such as heartbeat generates psychological sense of fear and anxiousness.
- The storyline of vengeance which holds connotations of murder like many thrillers.

- Thrillers are supposed to keep the audience guessing.  Our opening is similar to Seven in how there are extreme close ups of Beth making something unknown, so there is something being hidden from the audience that increases their curiosity.

- The genre of a thriller is challenged by our feminine opening making it seem almost soft, similar to the opening of Obsessed with the romantic soundtrack. This is unlike the strong, effective impacts of some thriller openings like Seven.

Conventions of a drama being conformed to

- Broken relationship, dramatic confrontation.  Like Obsessed where there is a relationship extabliahed in the opening.

- Crying/emotional

How does your product represent particular social groups?

Our representation would be aimed at our target audience of teenagers, as we can relate to that age group so would be able to create a close replication of reality. Stereotypical teen representation is shown through:

• The break-up, which happens a lot between teens as they are seen as confrontational (this is shown through Beth and George’s argument).

• Beth’s crying conforms to the typical view of teenage girls being emotional, whereas the running make-up conforms to their vanity of wanting to look good.

• The mise-en-scene of the bedroom, where things seem out of place, is representational of how teens are unorganised.  The picture of the pink flower on the wall also conforms to females as the flower symbolises delicacy, and the theme of pink in the bedroom signifies femininity.  Femininity is also portrayed through the furry cushions and patterned duvet cover.

• The small amount of language used can be categorised as being middle-class, as correct English is said e.g. when Beth says ‘thank you’, so common vulgarity in the lower-class or classiness of the upper-class is not shown.  However, mise-en-scene of the setting and their clothing suggest a working-class background.
  
• Beth receiving the necklace represents how girls stereotypically love jewellery.

• Shots of a Blackberry and the background sound of a one-way phone call represents the sociability of teens, and Blackberries are the latest trend amongst the age group.

• Our background music has an urban beat and is R&B, representing what teenagers like, so our target audience would enjoy it.