Improved Video

This is the video with the redone voiceover

Reviewing- Voiceovers

Aftr receiving feedback on our construction, we have decided to redo the voiceover in the opening sequence. We thought a more serious, masculine voice was needed, as Gavin's voice doesn't acheive the right effect that would be present in a thriller film. Also, the equipment we used to record the voiceover; an inbuilt microphone on the Mac, recording straight into the editing programme; didn't produce a particulary good quality recording, as well as the room we recorded the voiceover in, creating a echo.

Because of these reasons regarding the technology used, we have decided to use the Blue Light recording studio at school, as it is specially designed for getting the best out of vocals and creating high quality recordings and is the most professional recording equipment we have easy access to.

For the changing of the voice, we have decided to do this without changing the actor; otherwise that would mean we would have to do the entire video again, which in unecassary as the visual has no problems.

I looked into voiceovers that have been used in professional film openings, here are some I found, all are Thrillers or similar genres:
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007, dir. Andrew Dominik)

Armageddon (1998, dir. Micheal Bay)




The type of voice used in these are; slow, serious, deep, masculine- also in these American films, the accent is emphasised in the voice. As our construction is not american, nor set in America adding an american accent would make it sound cheesy and unrealistic.

One British film that is known for it's  voiceover opening is Love Actually- although not a thriller, gives an idea of a British voiceover- where again by choosing Hugh Grant as the voice, they have emphasised the accent.

Love Actualy (2003, dir. Richard Curtis)



So we  thought a deep, masculine voice is used for the opening of thrillers, but the nationality of the voice must be the same as a the nationality of the film. Seeing as we only really have access to and know English people, this wouldn't be an issue any way.

The people we decided that people we know with the correct sort of voice are:
Greg Matthews
Scott Mines
Jake Taylor
Luke May
Max Rodgers

Luke has a very comedic voice, and I couldn't imagine him being serious without it sounding mocking. Scott's is prone to 'putting on' a voice, so we thought it may not sound natural. All the remaining voices created the right effect, so we used other factors to narrow down the list. Nadine only know Max through a friend of ours, so decided to focus mainly on the last two; Greg and Jake both know how to use professional recording equipment, making them the better candidates anyway, as Nadine and I don't know too much about it. But Greg lives further away, therefore making it considerably easier to choose Jake.

We plan to re-record the voiceover 10am on Friday 20th April in the Blue Light recording studio at school with Jake as the voice and replace the voice over in the video the same day, or Monday morning.

Distributing company

Although in our video, we showed a fictional production company- Panoramic Productions (click here for the blog post regarding that). But I also decided to research a suitable distributing company. Distributing companies promote the film or media product and allow it to be reached by the largest target audience achievable. I chose films similar to ours or are of the same genre and decided on a suitable company due to the other similar products they distribute.

Warner Bros Entertainment

• Inception (2010, dir. Christopher Nolan) 
• Red Riding Hood (2011, dir. Catherine Hardwicke)
• I am Legend (2007, dir. Francis Lawrence)
• Sherlock Holmes (2009, dir. Guy Richie) 

Although Warner Bros have similar films they have distributed to ours, Warner Bros are a producing company, distributing company and marketing company in one. As in our video we had already got a producing company- I thought this wouldn't be suitable.

New Line Cinema

• Se7en (1995, dir. David Fincher)
• The Lord of the Rings (2003, dir. Peter Jackson)
• Inner Sanctum (2001, dir. Fred Olen Ray)
• A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010, dir. Samuel Bayer)

New Line Cinema seem to distribute mainly Action/Thriller or Horror films (for a full list click here) A lot of their films are famous and well know- such as the Lord of the Rings Trilogy (dir. Peter Jackson). I think this would be a suitable distributing company because from their filmography, you can tell they are good at distributing this sort of film, and get on board with films that are well made. New Line also produce films, but this can be separate to the distributing part and they have distributed approximately 175 more films than they have produced (source: http://www.imdb.com/company/co0046718/#distributor)

New Line Cinema became a Time Warner (the overall company of Warner Bros) company in 2008. Previous to this, it was a separate company, and still within Time Warner continues to manage its Production, Distribution and marketing sections independantly. It also still does these roles independantly of Warner Bros, but along the bottom of New Line Cinema the 'A Time Warner Company' has been added.
Bibliography:
http://www.imdb.com/company/co0046718/
http://www.warnerbros.com/studio/about/company-overview.html
http://www.imdb.com/company/co0023293/
http://www.newline.com/aboutus.html

Evaluation- Improvements

I think the best part of our video, is the second part- the title sequence. I think this because the editing fits the music, and the faster pace allows that part of the video to flow better, this is because of the stillness in the cold open, so you can't edit as fluently because there is nothing moving besides the camera. Most of the audience feedback agreed with me here, and some comments regarding what worked well, were:

The opening shot of the title sequence
A XCU of Gavin doing his shirt

"The music in the second bit!"

"The various shots as he gets dressed and leaves are really good as they keep the viewer interested"

"The cut scenes within the house work well!"

"The credits look genuine and professional"

Like the first comment, I also think the music matched the title sequence better than the music does in the cold open. This is because we had limited music to match to the mise-en-scene, and although this track fitted well, maybe not as well as another could. The way to improve this would be to have music composed specifically for the scene, although for this project we don't have the resources to do that. We could also have looked through a wider range of copyright free music, but we were happy with the effect this track gave, although it could be slightly improved.

There were also other comments about the which aspects of the production work well, such as:

One of the shots used in revealing
the body

"When filming the body on the floor I think the different angles that were used emphasised the horror of the situation"

"I like the composition of the camera, and the way it was filmed. The music also gave it a dramatic effect"

"The building of tension the shoes being scattered, angle of camera"

"It all works well because it captures your interest. The filming is smooth. I can't see anything that doesn't work well."

Mainly here, the comments mention the camera angles. Nadine and I tried to have a variety of camera angles as this is what professional filmmakers do. As I've mentioned before, we especially tried to vary the shots in the cold open to make up for the stillness in the scene. The last comment also says about the video capturing the audiences interest, which is partly due to the variation of camera angles and fluid editing, as well as the storyline which i think is quite good throughout the production.

I also asked the audience feedback what they thought wasn't as good in the video. I thought that the voice over in the cold open perhaps didn't fit the mood of the scene, or the connotation of the genre and this was also picked up in the audience feedback.

"The only part I feel didn't work as well, is the voice in the background, I didn't feel like it was very clear and his positive tone throws off the audience because the video already gave the impression that this film is going to be a horror/thriller."
" I am not sure whether I liked the tone of voice, as it didn't quite suit the dramatic effect, I felt it was promoting.The tone of voice should have been more interrupted and lower"

"The voice of the person speaking over the video, does not sound scary enough"

"The audio over the very beginnings of the scene - could be altered to add more dramatic affect"

Here's a (bad quality) copy of the voiceover. For a better audio, please re-watch the video

As Gavin isn't an actual actor, the voice over he did was all he could do. Although as Gavin doesn't actually speak in the rest of the film, we could of actually used someone else with a more suitable voice for the voice over, someone with a deeper voice, or an actor who could put on a persona, and this was considered during production, but we couldn't find anyone willing and suitable. We also thought that perhaps the voice over and Gavin's appearance would look mismatched if the voice was too different. The voicover was the only point that the audience described as weaker than the rest.







In this production, we used a newer version of iMovie than we had before, besides going on a short introduction class at the Apple store, we had never used it before. So whilst making this video, we were learning about the newer features of this version, compared to the other version that we were used to. This version has features like Precision editor, where you can move the film almost shot by shot to ensure the cut happens at the right moment so the film looks fluid, as well as some other features that we didn't use like cut to beat and still image insertion. The buttons highlighted by the red circle in the iMovie screen overview are the tools to insert music, still images, text, transitions and maps and backagrounds.

Prescision Editor

Windows of four of the five inserting options







 

 

 



The two consequtive 180° shots

Also in this project we learnt about the 180° rule, where the camera must stay on one side of an invisible line. You can break the 180° rule to create disorientation though, and this is done in many films including Lord of the Rings (2002, dir. Peter Jackson) to show the two sides of Golum, the good side always looks left and the bed side always looks right. We almost broke the 180° rule in our cold open, but this was because we had a limited amount of angles to film from and had to change angle from looking straight on at the lone shoe and looking back onto it. Although this cut does cause a little disorientation within the scene, not much as we have stayed within the 180°. We also made it clear, by including the show in both shots, so it was obvious the camra had changed direction.

From my preliminary task, we have learnt about linear story lines. We hadn't used this before therefore also didn't know about continuity editing. So as our preliminary was our first video with continuity editing, we have improved since making it, making the film more fluid.

Also since our preliminary we have learnt to film much more than we need to and to make a detailed storyboard to plan how the film will look, as it is hard to see how each shot will look after another whilst on set. In our preliminary we found that we should of filmed from some more angles as these would of helped in the final look of the video. In our main production, we did this and found there was no times during editing that we felt we hadn't filmed enough. Above is our preliminary video. As well as this, from our preliminary, in the last few seconds, we zoomed, after making this, we realised it looked too amateur, and have since realised it looks more professional to have a close up than to zoom. Although the zoom here was to imitate someone recalling back. whilst the CU used in our main production was so create emphasis on a certain part.

Evaluation- story/codes and conventions

The bruising seen in the cold open

I think my production shows a coherent story. Although there's not an obvious storyline to the video, but the cold open suggests a story to progress as we have an insight into some of the plot to follow, especially as the character is bruised and seemingly unconscious. The narration also suggests a storyline to progress as he leads you to the beginning of the overall story. The drastic change of location from the safe setting of a home to a derelict street, shows the progression of storyline and the possible violence within the film. All participants that gave me feedback, noted that the opening sequence made sense and they could see a storyline developing from it.

Title sequence setting

Cold open setting

Making the video make sense, although puzzling the audience a little, is a convention of an opening sequence, particularly a thriller film. Other genres, such as romance or comedy, have a more straightforward opening, rather than action or thrillers, who often show some of the twists in the plot- which is what we have done.  The flashback aspect of the opening sequence is also a convention of opening sequences, and is used, again mainly in thrillers, action or tragedy because it effectively shows the "for and after" of a plot line or section of plot. Flashbacks are mostly associated with narrations, but narrations are also placed with simpler openings such as a panning of landscape. In my audience feedback, one person said that the video seems to be untypical of a opening sequence, but the flashback/narration combination was a good way to begin.

"It's kind of complicated to explain,
it all started on the day of my job
interview"- the narration in this shot

The Enigma code is a convention of opening sequences that is used very often. The enigma code is when you give some information into the film's plot line, but not all of it. This is done in our opening sequence by the flashback, because it gives an insight into this progression later on into the film, but doesn't give any of the details that lead up to this event. This would compel the audience to continue to watch to find out how this situation arises. The cold open, which we have also used, is another code of opening sequences, and is linked to the enigma code.


These two shots are the only credits
before the cold open

A cold open is when a scene is played without any credits, with the exception of production company or director, to get the audience interested into the film, and then is often followed by a title sequence. In our production, the flashback is the cold open, so this scene partakes in the enigma code, whilst being a flashback and cold open. Although this combination may be challenging the codes and conventions of opening sequences, it has been used in Pulp Fiction (1994, dir. Quentin Tarrantino).

Gavin, our actor- aged 18

From the opening sequence, we have established the main character, as he is the only character present in the opening sequence. He also fits the character type of a main character, being male, young, and physically able. This also represents the stereotypical image of main characters, promoting the stereotypical image of characters. The social groups that would be attracted to our film, would be the same as the main character. For example, early 20s and high paid job. All those that participated in my audience feedback, mainly aged 14-21years all said they were intrigued by the film and would continue to watch if it was a real film, because of the cliffhanger at the end and the mystery involved.

Equal amounts of both sexes in this age group completed the survey, and both were attracted to watching the film. I would of hoped for a wider range range of ages to complete the feedback, but as mainly the people I know are aged 14-20, this was quite hard to achieve. An audience aged 18-21 would be able to empathise with the character, I think these would be our target audience, this age group is normally the target audience for thrillers as they are often the age on the majority of characters. The costume in the cold open also reflects this age, as Gavin is wearing the fashion for that age; a cardigan, t-shirt and jeans. The costume in the title sequence is possibly aimed at a higher age group, as not as many 18-21 would have a job in which they have to wear a full suit. Perhaps we could of changed the costume to make it more relevant to the age group.



The CU of the Kettle switch and toaster

Our audience is also attracted by the conventions of the opening sequence, which are there to entice the audience, such as the enigma code, but also the fast paced editing in the title sequence, like the kettle and toaster sequence, which has very short shot lengths of about one second, compared to the average of four seconds in the rest of the production. Also in this part we used close-ups to make it obvious what was happening, as the switch on the kettle is quite small, we thought if we did a CU on it, then it would make it more obvious to what the character is doing. You don't see the character in this part, which also speeds up the pace, rather than dragging it out and having to use jump cuts to stop the video going over 2 minutes.

The intense opening to the cold open, also attracts the audience. This slow revelation of the body starts the sequence with a lot of tension, and once the camera has reached the body, it shocks the audience to begin with, and intrigues the audience see how it happens.

The unconscious body revealed in the cold open

50% of the audience feedback, said that they thought the video was of the thriller genre. The reasons for this choice, was varied, but the most popular answers were: the music that was chosen, the general mystery of the video, the choice of title and inclusion of a dead body. Which are all codes and conventions of a thriller film. Other codes and conventions of thrillers would be a weapon which we we didn't include, but then this codes and convention isn't always found in the opening sequence of the film, although can be if the film opens with a action sequence such as a fight or car chase. The other answers were are below:

All the audience feedback said the music we used was appropriate to the iconography, and one response said although the music in the title sequence, doesn't fit the typical stereotype of music for thriller it does fit into the context of the character making his breakfast. The music reflects the characters mood and the types of music he would listen to. It also shows the light heartedness of the the scene at the beginning of the film, which is a contrast to most openings to thriller films.

Look Inside- the music track we used alongside the title sequence

I had varying opinions about the pace of the video, some comments were: that if the cold open had been longer, then they might of been more drawn into the film; although, all feedback said the pace of the production wasn't bad, and the slower pace cold open, allowed them to get drawn into the film. One comment said that "It's a good pace, as the camera angles are interesting, therefore it isn't boring, instead it keeps you enticed". I thought this during filming, within the scene there isn't much, if any, movement, so to prevent the scene from becoming boring we would have to vary the camera angles. Also, to prevent the scene looking too 'still' we also used a lot of tracking and panning shots within this scene. The camera angles we used in the cold open were: 








Video

This is our final opening sequence:

Pitch

I have decided to make a pitch of the basic storyline surrounding my film opening. As this could allow the opening sequence to become more realistic, as you would often watch a film whilst knowing the basic plot to follow.

I conjured the plot from Film Noir codes and conventions and is loosely based on the film Se7en (1995, dir. David Fincher) concerning the chasing of a murderer. The introduction of a female love interest is a convention of Film Noir and the twist of the murderers identity being the love interest I got from Laura (1944, dir. Otto Preminger). Both these films that I have based the narrative on, I looked at as part of my original research.


Inspector

Genre: Crime, Thriller, Film Noir
Production Company: Panoramic Productions
Age Certificate: 15- contains scenes of violence, blood and mild language

Story Line:
The main character, a rising police officer, David Morgans (Gavin Bedford) goes for an interview to finalise a possible promotion as an Inspector. After easily getting the job, he and his new team of detectives (Sebastian King, Phoebe Kudrow) are given the task to investigate a murder, of a George Wells (Freddie Hitchcock), one of the most upcoming, innovative and successful men in the world. As the public is fearing for their safety from the gruesome murder of such a high potential figure. David and his squad have to work through obstacles and clues to determine the murderers identity. David must also protect his love, Felicity, from the ominous threat looming over her as her former position of secretary to Mr Wells. As David and his squad become closer to uncovering the identity of the murderer, murders start to happen closer to the squad team. It finally reveals that Felicity is the original murderer and will continue to kill.