Production Introduction

For our productions intro we decided we wanted something simple but keeping to our theme but not to extravagant. Therefore we wanted to keep it black and white with not a lot of animation like this with just a light going over some text saying the production name with black background. The light connotes a hidden and unseen fell to the introduction and relates to the thriller/horror genre.

I thought this relates to the genre of our opening as I have looked at some previous production introductions and they tend to be simple, with little animation and stick to a theme. 

Our Character

We decided to pick Emma Thomas for our main character as she was a good example of a stereotypical protagonist in a horror-thriller film. This was because she had brown long hair and a slim figure as well as being a white British teenager of 17 years old. We wanted our protagonist to look like this because we wanted it to be relatable and similar to our target audience who are of a similar and same age to our actor. This is direct address between the audience and the media, as it is creating similarities between the protagonist and the audience as if they are in this same position when they are watching this film and to make it realistic as if it could happen to them and they are in danger and give them a sense of tension and fright as it is a horror-thriller. Furthermore, by making our protagonist a female, our group thought this was traditional and common, as they are innocent and vulnerable, unlike males, as they are stereotypically shown to be strong, dominant, powerful and be able to protect themselves and others around them. Therefore we wanted to create a stereotypical role of a female protagonist that doesn't really know what is happening and just thinks everything is normal and calm, as this will make sympathy for her as she is innocent and vulnerable due to appearance, gender and class.

Progression individually and as a group

Individually, I have progressed a lot in learning new skills and techniques which I can use to achieve the best possible effects in filming and editing. I have gained more confidence in using the equipment and trying out new angles and techniques which could improve our groups work. Our continuity task helped me understand the equipment and the techniques used to create a certain shot. In the continuity task, I felt that filming was a massive development for me as i became more confident and took more control. The continuity helped the group to find individual strong points such as, who was good at research, filming and organising the group. The continuity task had a lot of problems with the original story line and the camera work which need a lot of re-shoots and developments. This then became clear to me and a member of our group that we needed to completely change the story line and the camera work needed to be developed vastly. Therefore, the two of us went away and started to film again from scratch with a new story and more camera techniques with lead to more progress and helped our group to achieve a well produced final media product. Meanwhile, the other group members gained more research and helped our group as a team move forward. During this process and the process of our horror opening, I have learnt aspects about the editing stage of production and how to use Adobe Premier Pro to cut and edit our groups footage with the help of my group member, Jordan. 
As a group I think we started slow with filming our footage for our continuity task and our title opening sequence and had a lot of problems with re-shoots due to time, setting and availability within our group. Our group had to become organised and filming became a priority within our group. Our group has progressed massively with filming and organisation. Our group has developed and we have all learnt about filming and some aspects of editing. As a group we have become more focused and serious about getting footage filmed and developing our title opening. 
Overall, as an individual and as a group, I and we have made vast developments and have learnt lots in the process of making our horror-thriller opening sequence.

Opening music

For our background music we wanted to have something which played throughout the opening that wasn't too obvious and just created a ominous and dark tone for the opening. Furthermore, we wanted a ongoing piece of background music that reflecting on our genre as a horror-thriller. After searching through many non-copyright free music sites we eventually found this piece of music that lasts just over 3 minutes. I thought this was perfect for our opening as it was exactly what we were looking for in terms of audio and genre. It had an ambiguos tone to it as well as giving the opening character rather than the silence we currently had. This music was perfect to have in the background quietly due to the monotone level and the synths to portray our horror-thriller genre. 

Final introduction

 

 The video above is our initial intro. We thought this was good but could be improved as we thought the wiggle/shake effect was very fake and ruined the tone of the film. However we wanted some kind of static or jumpy effect to make the text stand out more rather than just coming down and staying on screen.



Therefore we got rid of the wiggle in our second intro and instead used a blur as the text came down. Furthermore we then carried this blur on as if the text was jumping and then the text zoomed out in to the background and faded away as if it were going in to the distance. However as this was going to be at the start and the establishing shot would be after we then thought it would be better for the text to zoom back out through the 'O' again and then showing the scene. Furthermore we thought the moving blue looked unnatural.



Finally, we came to the following into and we were all happy with it as it was exactly what we wanted the text zoomed down with a blur effect and then the text stays on screen for a while to establish the title and create tension. This then zooms back out with a blur again and fades into the next scene. This was exactly what we wanted and when placed on our timeline we knew it was the perfect intro for our opening due to the tension, tone and look it gives to our opening.

Typography For Our Title

Ringbearer

I Still Know

Traveling Typewriter

Major Label

Portmanteau Regular

Cold Coffee

An Unfortunate Event

Bebas Neue

Optimus Princeps

Livia Medium

After looking at other typography in thrillers and horrors we came to the conclusion that we wanted a font with either fine, capitalised, structured serif font or bold and capitalised sans serif font. For example we either wanted a bold sans serif title with white text against plain black background with lots of negative space. Or we wanted to have a more elegant fine serif title that almost resembled the looks of a house name or door number on a house - as the title of the film is 'The House'. Therefore we want to show the references and links between he typography and what we are trying to portray. However some of the problems with some of the fonts above is some of them can tend to be too horrific and lose the thriller side of it. As the task we were originally given was a thriller genre opening to a film and not a horror genre. Therefore we are trying to get a nice mysterious title that has connotations to the two but isn't too much like a horror or a thriller.

Conclusion: Our group have looked at all the fonts above and we have made a decision on what the style of font we want the text to look like and we are agreed on the font: Optimus Princeps. This is because of the serif font and the horror effect it gives off. It also represents the lettering of a house name or a door number which relates to the title of our film.

Post-Production Realisation

When our group started to take all the shots we have and go through all of them sorting which ones are good and bad to use. After this we put the ones we deem best and place them onto our Premiere Pro timeline. However when we started to cut the shots and place them in order as well as after being edited to fit with each other in time consecutively one after the other we begun to realise that some shots were jumpy and we needed some more shots in between the current ones we have to create more tension instead of there being constant action. For example one of the first shots is a shot of the protagonist sleeping next to the fire on the sofa and then a shot of the baby's room, which then cuts to another shot of her sleeping and then the monitor starts to make noise and it then zooms in on this, but the babysitter is asleep and cannot hear this. We then wanted her to wake up shortly after by the control falling off the sofa by some supernatural or paranormal force. However we put these shots together of the monitor making noise and then the controller falling off the sofa, but we realised that this didn't look right as it cut to quickly between the two pieces of action and we needed some more mysterious shots of something else happening before the controller falls as we all thought it was too soon. However we do not quite know what to put in between these two sections of action. Therefore we now realise that everything isn't as easy as it is planned. Furthermore that when in post-production you can come across shots that don't directly fit into one another. Moreover this happens when the babysitter goes to drink the water but the arm jumps too much as she raises it up to drink. making it look unnatural. Therefore we know we have to shoot more shots and maybe shoot a variety of other things that could be used as fillers to also create mysteriousness within the opening as it is a horror/thriller which tend just to imply themes rather than actual show and consequently fit into our genre as well as making the opening more natural and flow better overall.

My conclusion: From the post production realisations our group have shot some good shots however some shots are not what we planned or didn't achieve the effect we wanted to achieve. Therefore, we need to re-shoot some of the scenes so the camera flows and the scenes look natural and flowing throughout.