RESEARCH: FILM POSTER

When deciding on what our film poster should look like, I decided to do some research into film posters in the psychological thriller genre. I looked on various websites such as on Pinterest and on Google Images, to see what the main aspects were of psychological thriller film posters and what the poster did to draw the audience in. When looking at the posters, there was a common factor in most of them, which was that they all feature close ups of faces, including the sociopath and the victim.

On my Pinterest account, I created a board solely for the research of psychological thriller posters. HERE is a link to that board. The reason I chose to make a board for this was so that the development and construction of the poster would be much easier and I will know what to do. Another reason, why I decided to do detailed research into film posters of this genre was so that I could adapt some aspects so that my film poster could look believable.

There were many posters we looked at ranging from Psycho to Black Swan, however one specifically stood out for me, which was the poster for Single White Female. The Single White Female is the poster we will base ours off of, since it is a psychological thriller and is has a similar target audience, implying that both of the films revolve around young sociopaths. I thought that the poster was intriguing and really makes someone want to watch the film from the sinister look of the sociopath to the victim to the tagline which reads 'Allie's new roommate is about to borrow a few things without asking. Her clothes. Her boyfriend. Her life. Living with a roommate can be murder', I feel that this tagline really captures the story of the film and makes it stand out from others.

The aspects from the Single White Female poster that will be put onto my poster will be:
- Close ups of faces
- The Title of the film (Focus)
- A Tagline
- Billing Block
- Cast Members Names
- Institutional Information

An aspect which I will put on my poster which is not on the Single White Female poster is social media information, since every film in the past 3 years have a Twitter, Instagram and Facebook account for the purpose of attracting and addressing their audience. When Single White Female was released in 1992, there was no internet, let alone social media.

RESEARCH: TITLE SHOT

For the title shot, as a group we decided to do some research into what title shots of previous psychological thrillers looked like and which ones we thought we could adapt into our title shot. We tried using my Pinterest account, but unfortunately we couldn't directly find any, so therefore on Google Images we simply typed in names of psychological thrillers we had watched and added the words title shot to view them.

Most of the psychological thriller title shots looked quite similar, by simply having the name of the film in the middle and either a black background or a plain background, like in Gone Girl, the view of the sea, which is interesting, but not the sort of intrigue, which our group is trying to accomplish with our title shot.  To the right, I made a collage of previous psychological thriller title shots. My honest opinion is that they all look too similar and that they should incorporate the basis of their film into the title shot.

Out of all of the psychological thriller title shots we looked at, one stood out, which was the title shot for The Talented Mr. Ripley. The film's story was incorporated into the title shot since there are a range of adjectives flashed through before it sets on the adjective of 'talented'. This is so that the audience knows that he is a sociopath and that describing his sociopathic skills as talented is ironic.

Therefore, for our title shot we will incorporate the story into it, like it has been done in The Talented Mr. Ripley. We think that this will be a clever aspect to put in our film and will make the film captivating from the start.

PLANNING: 'PHOTOSHOOT' SCENE

Since the sociopath is a photographer, our group decided to construct and film a scene revolving around a photoshoot, where SAM gets frustrated with the models. We intend to show in this way how he has exacting standards and needs everything to be in focus. His frustration borders on bullying. If the film were developed as a full-length feature film, it is likely that his boorish behaviors towards women, his photographic models and his girlfriend in particular, would result in violence.

Jean Shrimpton by David Bailey

To research how to film the photoshoot scene, we decided to do some research on how photographers shoot their models and position them. Photographers are well known to be controlling and demanding of the models. The video, 'David Bailey 7 Images That Changed Fashion Photography' clearly demonstrates this. Our character SAM is a photographer with sociopathic tendencies. His job offers the perfect opportunity to control and command women, his models.

We ended up deciding that the pose used in the video by this model would be an excellent pose to use, since it looks elegant.  We will use two models in our photoshoot. One of them will be shouted at for not following SAM's instructions and the second model will comfort the other one.

In addition, we decided that one of the photographer's stylistic preferences would be to use black and white, therefore the photos produced for the scene would be black and white. It evokes a particular quality associated with quality and tradition. It is a serious rather than playful look, typical of the character SAM that we have created. The black and white theme gives a neo-noir feel to the whole film, which I feel will attract arthouse audiences. The dresses worn by the models will black and white.

PLANNING: INTERVIEW

To advance the development of the characters in the film, our group decided that we could stage an interview for our main character SAM, who is a sociopathic photographer. We were deciding to stage the video as a psychiatric interview with a mental status examination of his health.

We have researched into psychiatric interviews in film and television, to further develop how it will be structured, how it will look, and how the overall essence of it will be. An example, that stood out was the American television series, Lie to Me, which revolves around a psychiatric doctor who accpets assignments from law enforcement and assists in investigations, reaching the truth and complexity through applied psychology, interpreting micro-expressions, through the facial expressions and body language.

We got inspiration to do an psychiatric interview from FilmEscape. I read through this article by Charlie Sierra on how to get to know your character. I looked on real psychiatrists in England and how they actually talk their own patients, such as assessing their state of mind, using a range of psychological illnesses and on their own personal habits.

We will be asking him about various questions relating to character statistics (age, gender) and will also ask the character about his feelings, emotions, background and his mental state.

Basic Information about SAM:

Age: 20-22

Gender: Male

Height: 6"2

Weight: 180 Pounds

Appearance: Tidy, Smart

Ethnicity: Caucasian

Nationality: British

Social Class: Upper Middle Class



Psychiatric Questions: 

Do you think that this picture is demeaning towards women?

Do you think that it is acceptable to control and boss women around? Why?

Who has inspired you to become a photographer?


Do you think that your success has been based on your attitude towards women?

Does this work of David Bailey inspire you?

How do you think this has effected your attitude towards your loved ones?

PLANNING: CALL SHEET #5

4) MODEL SHOOT #2

Shoot Date: 4th December 2015

Location: Photography Studio, Claremont Fan Court School



Crew:
Bea Chavdarova: 7896 ******
Chloe McDowell: 7472 ******
Alex Davies: 7710 ******
James Eager: 7531 ******

Extras: 
Izzi Brett

Equipment:
Canon 750D Camera
Tripod

Props:
2 Lights
Prop Camera for James

Wardrobe:
Sociopath's Attire:
White Shirt
Grey Pullover
Black Jeans
Black Shoes

Izzi's Attire:
Black Chanel Cocktail Dress
Black Tights

RESEARCH: OCR EXAMINERS REPORT

The OCR Examiners report of 2015 consists of the general issues about the media portfolio and the technical issues of what should be on the portfolio, such as when it should be uploaded by (which is 15th of May) and what types of post should be on the blog, such as ones relating to film openings.

The reason I looked at the examiners report was because I wanted to get a clearer understanding of the media portfolio and what the posts should be about. In addition, it talks about how organized my posts on research and planning should be.

PLANNING: CALL SHEET #4

4) MODEL SHOOT #1

Shoot Date: 27th November 2015

Location: Photography Studio, Claremont Fan Court School



Crew:
Bea Chavdarova: 7896 ******
Chloe McDowell: 7472 ******
Alex Davies: 7710 ******
James Eager: 7531 ******

Extras:
Amy Spalding
Florence Selwood

Equipment:
Canon 750D Camera
Tripod

Props:
2 Lights
Prop Camera for James

Wardrobe:
Sociopath's Attire:
White Shirt
Grey Pullover
Black Jeans
Black Shoes

Amy's Attire:
Black Chanel Cocktail Dress
Black Heels

Flo's Attire:
White BodyCon Dress
Black Heels

PLANNING: CALL SHEET #3

3) SHOPPING IN WIMBLEDON

Shoot Date: 22nd November 2015

Location: Worple Road, Wimbledon




Crew:
Bea Chavdarova: 7896 ******
Chloe McDowell: 7472 ******
Alex Davies: 7710 ******

Equiptment: 
Canon 750D Camera
Tripod

Props: 
None

Wardrobe:
Jasmine's Attire: 
White Shirt
Red Jacket
Black Coat
White Sneakers
Black Leggings

Ana's Attire:
Cream Top
Brown Coat
Black Leggings
Black Doc Martins

PLANNING: CALL SHEET #2

2) SOCIOPATH'S LAIR

Shoot Date: 18th of November 2015

Location: Inside the Workshop, Claremont Fan Court School

Crew:
Bea Chavdarova: 7896 ******
Chloe McDowell: 7472 ******
Alex Davies: 7710 ******
James Eager: 7531 ******

Equiptment:
Canon 750D Camera
Tripod
Dollie

Props:
Various Photos of Bea in Kingston
Workshop tools

Wardrobe:
Sociopath's Attire:
Blue t-shirt
Black jeans
Trainers

PLANNING: CALL SHEET #1

1) THE SOCIOPATH'S WALK

Shoot Date: 11th of November and 12th of November 2015

Location: Outside the Workshop, Claremont Fan Court School

Crew:

Bea Chavdarova: 7896 ******

Chloe McDowell: 7472 ******

Alex Davies: 7710 ******

James Eager: 7531 ******

Equiptment:

Canon 750D Camera

Tripod

Dollie (12th)

Props:

None

Wardrobe:

Sociopath's Attire: 

Blue t-shirt

Black jeans

Trainers

PLANNING: STORYBOARD

Bea creatively devised the story board for our film. Bea used her art skills and decided to do this on post it notes as it would be easier to re- arrange or get rid of any mistakes or ideas that got changed. Every detail about the scene location and action is written bellow the post it note to help us be more organised. Below you can see the story board.

1st Set of Story Board Frames

2nd Set of Story Board Frames

3rd Set of Story Board Frames

4th Set of Story Board Frames

5th Set of Story Board Frames

6th Set of Story Board Frames

7th Set of Story Board Frames

PLANNING: SHOT LIST

SOUND / VOICE OVER	VISION	ACTORS	PROPS	NOTES
Leaves rustling	An establishing shot of Sam's lair
Footsteps	A pan shot of Sam walking to his lair	Sam Eager		The camera centre and follows Sam walking to his lair with the camera only capturing the lower body
	Over the shoulder zoom shot of Sam looking at the pictures of Jasmine	Sam Eager	Photos of Jasmine	Only see the back of Sam looking at the black and white photos of Jasmine and Ana
Street background noises	Tracking shot of Jasmine and Ana walking in Kingston	Jasmine and Ana		Jasmine and Ana are walking along a pavement while chatting and follows them as if Sam is watching them
Dialogue and camera shots	A wide shot of Sam taking pictures of his models	2 Models and Sam Eager	Camera, lights	Sams commanding the models of the actions they should be doing in an aggresive way
Dialogue and camera shots	A close up shot of Sam taking pictures of the models	Sam Eager	Camera, lights	Sam getting making angry facial expression showing his fustration to the models while holding the camera
Running water	A close up of Sam washing blood of his hands	Sam Eager	Fake blood	The camera focusing on Sams hands to capture the blood coming off his hands and the sink filling with blood
	Close up of photos of Jasmine		Photos of Jasmine	Black and white photos of Jasmine are on a table
Dialogue	A tracking shot of Jasmine on the phone to her friend	Jasmine	Phone	Jasmine on the phone panicing and talking nerviously about her relationship with Sam while pacing around Sam's office
Dialogue	Pull focus shot of Jasmine on the phone wanting to break up	Jasmine	Phone	Jasmine on the phone panicing and talking nerviously with a close up of her face which shows how scared she is
Shuffling though pages	Point of view shot of Jasmine finding the photos of herself in a folder	Jasmine	Folder of photos of Jasmine	Jasmine opens the folder and sees photos of her with her friends looking at them in shock and being even more afraid of Sam
Slam	Point of view shot of Jasmine when Sam slams the folder close	Jasmine and Sam Eager	Folder of photos of Jasmine	Sam slams down the folder in agression with a gasp of horror coming from Jasmine
Dialogue	An extreem close up of Sam's aggresive language towards Jasmine	Sam Eager		Sam says something intense which builds the climax and anticipation for what comes next
Camera shot sound	Title shot			The screen immediatley flases to the title screen which 'FOCUS'

PLANNING: TREATMENT & TOPLINE

FOCUS

Treatment: A hot sociopath who is a young photographer named SAM has exacting standards and is critical when it comes to his photography, which makes him cruel to his models. He is engaged to a girl named JASMINE, who is beginning to become creeped out by his sociopathic tendencies. As a result of this, he stalks her by taking photos of her when she's out with her friends and investigates her life in order to control it and for her to be only his.

Top Line: A hot sociopath who is a young photographer named SAM is in love with a girl and decides to investigate her life in order to control it and for her to be only his. He takes photographs of her and people she hangs around with.

Twist: As JASMINE cleans up SAM's office she opens a folder full of photos of her (black and white) as he walks in and slams the folder shut.

Locations: School workshop, mansion steps, photography studio, Wimbledon streets

Props: Camera, photos in black and white, fake body parts, fake blood, wax, make-up, tape, weapons (workshop), lighting, red sharpie

Clothing: SAM: black clothing, JASMINE: vibrant/normal clothes

Sounds: Chloe, owl hooting, scratches, steps, doors, dripping water, photo shots

RESEARCH: STUART HALL & RECEPTION THEORY

This is my SlideShare Presentation on Stuart Hall and Reception theory. I researched this information for how audiences receive media texts.

STUART HALL & RECEPTION THEORY
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RESEARCH: AUDIENCES AS ACTIVE

More recent approaches to audience theory suggest that audiences are active rather than passive in their media consumption, that is, they make active choices about what they consume. For example, they watch films to escape into a different world, to share experiences with their friends and families, to reinforce their beliefs and values and to learn about their world. 

Here is my SlideShare presentation on how audiences are active in the consumption of media sources. This research will give me a more informed idea of how to reach our target audience.

Audiences as active from Alexdavies44

RESEARCH: THEODORE ADORNO

Theodore Adorno
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RESEARCH: HOW AUDIENCES BEHAVE

Here is the link to my emaze on how audiences behave and models and films which are a result to that.

https://www.emaze.com/@AIITLCCL/how-do-audiences-behave

RESEARCH: EXIT POLLS

Here is my slide-share presentation on Exit Polls and how they will be useful when looking at my film opening.

Exit polls from Alexdavies44

RESEARCH: THE ROLE OF THE BBFC

Here is my slide-share presentation on the purpose and the BBFC and its use of ratings on films. I decided to research into the BBFC, since it will be important on what I should limit in the film, because I want the film to be rated a 15, therefore not using any coarse language or nudity.

The role of the bbfc from Alexdavies44

PLANNING: AUDIENCE PROFILE

I made an audience profile, so I could visualize what my audience would like and what would interest them, such as their age, gender, leisure activities, films and tv shows. The title of our upcoming film is The Follow*

Age group: 15-29+, teens and young adults

Gender: Both males and females equally

TV Shows: They are likely to watch TV shows in the thriller and slasher genre, such as Scream (2015), and others which are suspenseful, like Scandal, Pretty Little Liars and Bates Motel

Films: They are likely to see at the cinema: Gone Girl, The Roommate, Paranormal Activity, In Fear and Limitless

They are likely to watch at home: Psycho, Scream, Scream 2, Scream 3, Scream 4, Black Swan, Silence of the Lambs, Single White Female, A Clockwork Orange, Cape Fear, Strangers on a Train

Leisure Time: In their leisure time, they will visit YouTube, stream films via iTunes, drink Starbucks coffee and other similar beverages; eat at upper-middle class restaurants, like Nandos, GBK and Café Rouge.

Clothes: Hollister, Abercrombie and Fitch, NEXT

Media: A recent model of the iPhone (5S/6/6S) for internet on the go and outside of their homes; An expensive laptop to watch films and TV shows, as well to go on websites like Amazon to buy products online for their own enjoyment.

Social Media: As well, they would go on social media, like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and use those to post pictures, comments and posts about their everyday lives and to keep up with their friends.

* tentative title

RESEARCH: AUDIENCE: A KEY CONCEPT

Audience: A Key Concept | Create your own infographics

RESEARCH: OCR SPECIFICATION

The OCR specification consists of 7 questions, which we will answer in our evaluation. We are advised to look at them during our planning, so that we know which target market audience we are aiming for (comedy, horror, mainstream, niche), how we should be learning new camera angles and editing techniques when filming the opening (establishing shot, low angle shot) and the use of forms and conventions.

The reason we should be looking at the specification during our planning, construction and production is to make sure that all the questions will be able to answer. To do this we need to follow a plan, where we will set out how the film look like aesthetically, which target group will we aim at, taking into consideration age, gender, sexuality and class. As well, a variety of camera shots and professional editing skills will be needed to achieve a good film opening.

RESEARCH: TWITTER ACCOUNT

For further research into my film opening, I made a Twitter account, so I could keep up with any news on a wide variety of different aspects of media. Twitter is seen as revolutionary social media in that it uses web 2.0 with its interactivity to allow audiences to communicate and respond in an active way. This aspect is exploited by filmmakers who benefit from audience's ability to retweet, to favourite and to hashtag tweets that they are enthusiastic, resulting in viral marketing. For the latter reason, my film group has created a Twitter account to promote our film.
Alan Rusbridger wrote an article on why Twitter matters for media organisations, such as it being an amazing form of distribution, a great reporting tool, it creates communities, changes notions of authority, much more diverse, due to more voices commenting on the issue and is an agent of change. We hope that we will build a community or audience for our film, FOCUS.

I personally have also used it in a more conventional way as a research tool. On my twitter account, I have followed various accounts, which I feel will help me in the planning and development of my film opening. I followed accounts like OCR Media and Film, which will keep me up to date with any OCR-related film buzz and by following this account, might catch some ideas on how I can make my film opening better. I followed a variety of production companies (Paramount, Universal, Warner Bros.) to keep me updated with recent films, so I can see what is genres and themes are popular. Other accounts I followed was my teacher's personal account, which is where I can retrieve any information about media-related articles which interest her, which may help me on my planning.

The reason I followed films accounts, like The Martian, is to see what a twitter film account posts on its feed, since for my film opening I will be making a twitter account for it and want to be prepared on tweets I should post and how often I should post. As well, I followed some twitter accounts relating to film and television, which interest me.

RESEARCH: PETE'S MEDIA BLOG

Pete's media blog is a good and trustworthy source where I can retrieve media-related articles and videos, which could help me on improving my own media work. Pete's Media Magazine Blog has already helped me in my Art of the Title work, since he has a post where he describes and analyses opening title sequences. 

One of his posts is related to my upcoming Media AS Production on film openings and is about all the steps from Research to Post-production. Many of the comments in the blog post are helpful to when I will be making my own film opening, like "if it is a film opening, it MUST follow the conventions of film openings!". Overall, Pete's Media Magazine Blog has been and will continue to be helpful on making my film opening for my Media AS Level.

On my media twitter account, I am following Pete's account and looking at his tweets which are useful and will enrich my media experience since many of his tweets are informative and  are media-related which make it relevant. 

RESEARCH: STUDENT PRODUCTIONS

I looked at earlier student productions from our centre, and looked at four productions specifically for their use of mise-en-scene, lighting, editing and sound.

The production of Lights Out has a good use of mise-en-scene, since it captures the essence of the 1950s era, by having authentic costumes which fit the period and shooting their scenes in rooms and areas, which look convincing to the 1950s period. The music used in the opening scene 1950s jazz, which makes the world inside the production seem believable. I now realize the importance of sourcing convincing props and costumes particularly where period drama is concerned.

The production of Immortal Beloved has a variety of shots with good lighting. Such as in the beginning of the production, there are shots where the light shines on half of her face, which makes  it look artistic and romantic. In the mid shot where a bride is wearing a wedding veil, the light passes through from low down and back lights the veil, this makes for a beautiful spectacle and encourages the construction of the girl as innocent, which adds to the shock when the voice over states: 'It turns out that being a violinist in the Berlin Phil was not the only job that my grandmother had" and we see her acting as a spy in the Cold War.

The production of Titan's Hammer uses wonderful editing techniques to conceive a realistic yet comic production and make it feel like a mockumentary. The mockumentary style used in Titan's Hammer is both conventional where the editing is slow paced, allowing for considered questions and answers, then extremely fast paced, when the reportage is designed to re-create the drunken haze of the heavy metal duo's early days.

The production of The Raven was characterized by the use of voice over in the soundtrack and was composed of Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven. The sound effects in the background like the thunder and lighting, create an atmosphere of gothic horror, which is in keeping with the horror genre. 

RESEARCH: ART OF THE TITLE: UP IN THE AIR

The Up in the Air opening uses classical 70’s pop music to introduce it’s collage of high angle pictures which were most likely taken by a plane.

The genre seems fun due to the lively music. As well, the actors names are shown on the screen in all caps and in white, so it makes it easier to read the names. In addition, the first part of the credit (e.g. Casting by Mindy Marin), the words ‘casting by’ are in a light yellow are look hand written, whereas the actual name of the person, is in all caps and white. 

The mise-en-scene of the opening is colourful, due to the variety of pictures. However, the pictures feel quite old and like they are from the 1970s, which is where the music is originally from. The main title, ‘Up in the Air’ is situated in the clouds which is what the title is referring to.

The production companies are ‘Paramount Pictures’, ‘Cold Spring Pictures’, ‘DW Studios’, ‘A Monetico Picture Company’, ‘Rickshaw Productions’ and ‘Right of Way Films’. The director is the last mentioned of the production companies and is presented as ‘A Jason Reitman film’.

RESEARCH: ART OF THE TITLE: SKYFALL

The Skyfall opening credits are shown as soon as James drowned and the mythical mind of Bond comes to life. After he sinks to the bottom of a riverbed,. We see a hand grabbing James’ whom we assume is another person, however it is revealed to be a giant hand, which we then immediately think that this is not real.

The opening credits are in all caps and in white against a blue backdrop, which makes it easy to read. The titles fade in and fade out. The production company for Skyfall is ‘Alberto R. Broccoli’s Eon Productions Ltd.’, which is named after one of the producers. The cast credit of Daniel Craig appears and then the main title logo does, which shows that he is the main actor. After the main title other actors are mentioned.

James begins to fight a man on the train; we can sense that already the scene leading up to the credits was action-packed. The lady controlling the gun is asked to shoot him, since she is about to lose them on the train. However, she accidently shoots Bond, which leaves everyone speechless, since people assume he would be dead. This all happens during the film’s quick and intense opening.

The colour scheme of the opening is shades of blue and grey, which is a result of Bond drowning in the river. 

RESEARCH: ART OF THE TITLE: SHERLOCK HOLMES

Here is my Art of the Title presentation on the analysis of the opening of Sherlock Holmes

sherlock holmes from Alexdavies44

RESEARCH: THE ART OF THE TITLE: BACK TO THE FUTURE

Here is my Art of the Title presentation on the analysis of the opening of Back to the Future

back to the future from Alexdavies44

RESEARCH: ART OF THE TITLE: SCREAM

Here is my Art of the Title presentation on the analysis of the opening of Scream

scream from Alexdavies44

RESEARCH: ART OF THE TITLE: GONE GIRL

Here is my Art of the Title presentation on the analysis of the opening of Gone Girl

gone girl from Alexdavies44

RESEARCH: FILM OPENING INITIAL IDEAS

My group consists of: Bea, Chloe, James and I (Alex)

Genre: Horror, Psychological Thriller and Sociopath Film

Main story line to be based on a teenage boy, who is a sociopath and is obsessed with a girl and will do anything to be with her 

Locations: 
• Outside the Workshop on Claremont Grounds
• Inside the Workshop on Claremont Grounds
• Kingston Mall 

Using our tight schedule of when we have media classes to film this production, we thought about editing and adjusting the brightness and exposure of the video clips, so that it could look like the same time of the day, since all our media lessons are at different times of the day. 


Since Bea is a talented makeup artist, we were thinking of using some of her abilities to make bloody and grotesque Halloween body effects, like cuts and bruises, from such makeup, like face paint, lipstick, eye shadow, etc.

James is good at editing films in iMovie; this means that we can use his abilities, to create a film with excellent editing. He will be able to add special effects and know how to create a certain creepy tone for our film. Since, he is good at editing he can also create our ident.

Chloe did GCSE Music; therefore she can create a unique sound for our film production, by recording in the studio we have in the music department. 

My role will be to help out with any extra editing needed for the film production, as well as documenting our film’s log of filming for our blogs. I’ll do this by taking pictures on my iPhone and upload them to my blog, while reviewing what we did, what equipment was used, where we filmed and what we can do to improve. 

Possible Cast: 
• Sociopath Teen Boy
• Innocent Victim Girl
• Friend of Victim Girl
• Boyfriend of Victim Girl

Our group drew inspiration on a variety of previous films, revolving around sociopaths whereby they have strange obsessions and stalk the victim, such as Psycho (1960) and Single White Female (1992). We decided to center the film around teenagers to give a clever spin on other sociopath films. In addition, we did this since it would work best for cast choices and was the most cost efficient.

RESEARCH: CODES & CONVENTIONS

The producer’s name will usually be the first name to appear in the film's opening credits. This is due to the producer, being the person who takes overall responsibility for the planning and the production of all aspects of the film; it is in fact, the producer’s film to offer to us.

It is usual for the next screen to show the name of the director who is responsible for the artistic and creative elements of the film. In the case of Superman, the next names to appear are those of two of the actors.

This is because they receive top billing; they are being used to attract an audience.

Generally, only people who have the ability to attract an audience, such as the well known “A List” actors will find their names featuring so prominently on either the credits or the film posters. Such as, Jennifer Lawrence in 'The Hunger Games'.

For example, we next see the director’s name followed by the title. We then move on to the other actors in the film, starting in this case with Christopher Reeve, the actor who plays the title role. The film then lists a further 11 supporting actors alphabetically before switching to the actors with smaller parts who are paired and move off the screen much more quickly. In all, 17 actors’ names appear in the opening sequence.

After this, only important members of the crew receive their billing, so like Director of Photography, and not the Food Provider, since they did not have a significant impact on the making of the film, but rather supporting it. 

The final name to appear before the film commences is always the director’s, to remind the audience that it's their piece of work.

RESEARCH: FILMING OUR PRELIMINARY

On Tuesday's lesson, our group filmed our preliminary film, which was a requirement in the curriculum. Our teacher told us that we had to abide by certain rules and regulations when filming, such as a shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule. We began the preliminary film with Shezhad walking up stairs, we ultimately used two shots, one filmed at the top of the stairs and the other at the mid-way on the staircase. 

There was no proper lighting in the space, which was one of the problems during filming, this made the scene look dark and therefore did not look as well as hoped. We learnt that the next filming we should use proper lighting. Another problem, we had during filming, was that in some shots, we did not follow 180-degree rule, however Mrs. Mann made sure that none of the shots that did not follow the rule were included in the final editing.

RESEARCH: DISTRIBUTORS AND THE FDA

Here is my prezi on how distributors persuade people to come and see the film and who the FDA are.

RESEARCH: BRIEF

I have chosen the brief of video where the main task is to make the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

RESEARCH: READ OCR WEEBLY

I found it useful to access all the OCR Media Weeblys, since they all provide interesting and resourceful information on my AS Media Production, which is a film opening. I studied how Steve Thorne presented his storyboard and took his advice on using post-it-notes on a storyboard, which I found was very useful, since by using these you can change the order of each of the shots. I have decided to take influence on his work, so I can change the sequence of the shots and make them to my preferred outcome.

RESEARCH: TRELLO

Today I started using Trello which is an organizational tool that will help me keep track of what I need to do and what I have done. This is my example.