Final Opening Sequence

Question 7 - Looking back my preliminary task, what do I feel I have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

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Question 6 - What have I learnt about technologies from the process of constructing our product?

Throughout the production of the sequence, I have used a variety of technologies. These include:


Hardware
Apple Macintosh
DSLR Camera
Tripod
4gb SD Card
X-Grip Cam-Caddy (Camera steadier)

Software
Adobe Premiere Pro CS6
Adobe After Effects CS6
Sony Vegas: Movie Studio 7
Cubase: Studio 7
Blogger
Picasion
YouTube
TubeChop
Prezi
SoundCloud

Prior to this academic year, I did not have any experience with using the DSLR Camera Camera steadier, Premiere Pro, Blogger, Picasion, TubeCope, SoundCloud or Prezi.

I have developed my skills in all the technologies used. I now feel confident using Adobe Premiere independently to edit footage at an adept level. My abilities to frame and edit shots in a creative way or to create meaning has also vastly improved. This is due to production practice in a vast locations and a lot of time editing. As well as this, I have also gained an understand of the websites Blogger, Picasion, TubeChop and Prezi.

The access to Adobe After Effects CS6 has allowed us to excell in the creativity of our work. We used this software to create an original production company logo, which we dubbed 'Polygon Productions'. This was done by keyframing the animation so that the shapes would move simultaneously - a concept which would be near impossible without the specific software.

Within Adobe Premiere Pro, we utilised a number of functions to help improve the quality and creativity of our piece. For example, key-framed the appearance of specific letters in the titles. Shown below is the 'E' from the cast name 'Charlie Kealy' which does not appear until a few seconds have past.

We also added the title of our production company to appear underneath the logo at an appropriate time and using an animation.

The software Cubase Studio 7 allowed us to take our original, simpler score and add an originally composed piano track to make it more complex.











The technologies avaliable to us were also successfully used to create meaning. The ability to manually focus the DLSR Camera allowed us to film a focus pull between the alcohol and drugs. This created meaning by implying to the audience that the character is experience a rough time of his life and feel dependent on these means to attempt to numb the pain.

 

Similarly, The 3-way Colour Correction tool on CS6 Premiere Pro allowed us to implement a blue tint over the footage of the dream sequence. This created the meaning that this was a dream. As well as this, it portrayed the idea of depression and coldness due to the connotations of the colour blue.

 
The DSLR Camera required special attention when using it in order to protect it as it is a fragile piece of equipment. When using the camera, we used care and therefore avoided any problems.

If we did not have the technological resources avaliable to use, the production of our sequence would prove to be very difficult. Editing footage using premiere is simply and mistakes can be undone easily. Manually having to edit Polaroid footage would contrastingly be very difficult.

Question 5 - How did we attract/address the audience?

A look back at our audience research.


A commentary of how our sequence follows Thriller conventions and attracts our audience.


Audience feedback of our sequence.

What was the plot of the opening sequence?

The majority of our participants got a received a good understanding of the plot through the use of clues given by micro-elements such as mise-en-scene and cinematography. For example, the various pictures gave them an understanding of the character's personal life and employment.

Was the plot of the opening sequence easy to understand or did you have to think about it?

The range of responses given to this question demonstrated that our audience had to think about the events they had watched. Rather than using a genre archetype plot (e.g. romantic comedy where the guy gets the girl) we devised our own creative and original plot. As the audience had not seen a similar to plot to that of our sequence before, they required further concentration. Therefore, we succeeded in our goal.

What was the sexuality of the Protagonist?

Though the majority of our participants decided that he was homosexual, there was an exception were it was assumed he was heterosexual. This shows that we did unnecessarily outline the characters sexuality to make it obvious for the audience. I feel that this is a success as if we had given any stronger evidence towards the character's sexuality, we would have been reinforcing the convention of plots that involve gay characters having the character's sexuality as a major part of the story.

How did you feel about the sexuality of the Protagonist?

Many of the participants agreed that featuring a homosexual protagonist was beneficial to the audience as it portrays the equality between the straight and LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transexual) community. The fact that most of the participants enjoyed seeing a gay character shows that we selected our target audience well. An older target audience may have rejected the concept, arguing more traditional view. This idea was brought up by one of our participants who suggested that 'some people in society may disagree with it'.

Would you be interested in watching the entire film?

The fact that the majority of our participants decided they would like to watch the entirety of the film shows that we targeted our sequence successfully to the audience.

Question 4 - Who would be the audience our your media product?

Question 2 - How does our media product represent particular social groups?

A social group being represented in our sequence is sexuality. This is shown by the use of a homosexual protagonist and other characters. The fact that the protagonist of our sequence is homosexual challenges common conventions of films. This is because only a very small minority of films feature homosexuals as the central character. Few examples of films that do have LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual) protagonists include: MILK, Brokeback Mountain and Philadelphia.

However, a large part – if not the main part in all of these films is the character’s sexuality. Alternatively, the character’s sexuality does not have much (if anything) to do with the plot of our sequence. This shows another positive representation of the LGBT community that our sequence creates.

When homosexual characters are portrayed in films, they are shown as being promiscuous. The character Wallace Wells in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Wright, 2010, US) demonstrates this stereotype as he flirts and sleeps with many characters throughout the film.

The film Blitz, similarly, contains a character that is both a homosexual man and a policeman. This character however is not the protagonist and also, his sexuality is a part of the storyline. This is because the film shows the character being ridiculed for his sexuality by the other policemen.

Another example is the character is the character Zed in Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, 1994, US). This character is shown as sexually perverted as he attempts to rape 2 other male characters with the help of his similarly perverted friend. This is a negative reinforcement of the stereotype that homosexuals are promiscuous.

In contrast to this, our protagonist was in a committed partnership with his husband prior to the events of the film. This challenges the stereotype that homosexuals are promiscuous as the relationship that Markus had with Finch implies that they would not sleep around.

Another common stereotype about homosexual men is that they are feminine and well/eccentrically dressed. This representation is commonly shown through media such as film and tv shows as shown in the examples below.

The protagonist of our sequence, however, is dressed poorly - wearing only basic clothes to emphasise his lack of care for his appearance. This idea is reinforced through the character's overgrown hair. This challenges popular stereotypes about homosexual men.

The protagonist of our sequence was a policeman up until the point that he lost his civil-partner. This creates representations about the police. Our sequence portrays the time Markus spent in the police as being the most positive part of his life. The clues of his past life (such as the newspaper and wedding photo) are demonstrated as being the positive part of his life.  This contrasts with how Markus is represented as very negative in present day. Therefore the representations made about the police here are positive as the sequence suggests that being a member of the police force lead to Markus having a happier quality of life.

Question 3 - What kind of institution might distribute our media product and why?