Q1: Conventions of real media products

Below is a link to my website on conventions of our movie.
http://jiidguy.wixsite.com/conventions

Props

Props/Costumes

• iPhone 6-Character uses it to look at time
• Stabalizer- Used during filming
• Carrier bag- Object character is holding
• Knife rack/Knives- Weapon character may use
• Sweet wrapper- Evidence left behind by Stalker
• Gloves- Adds to the anonymity of the Stalker

The main character(protagonist) will wear a normal hoodie and jeans. This is average everyday wear and will show the audience that the character is normal. The other character(antagonist) will wear darker clothes. This will give off the impression of evil or darkness which is what the villain will represent. These dark clothes will add to the dark and grit of the sequence allowing the audience to differentiate who the bad guy of this sequence is. Throughout the sequence the antagonist will not show his face which will also add to this effect.

Learning Comment

I learned that props are very important to the mise en scene you are trying to portray in the film. Props have as much effect on the mood as anything else and can also help indicate what's going to happen next. This would make the audience more intrigued and put more thought into the movie, forcing them to pay attention.

Typography Task 18

While looking for typography these were our best choices when choosing from the horror category. We decided that none of these would fit our movie properly as it is a psychological thriller and would require more grit/edge in order for it to really stand out. These fonts would be more suitable for true horror movie which our movie will not be.

 After searching the fonts we came to a conclusion that one of these two would be used as our title font. These fonts show more "roughness" than the others and we think the title name looks good in them. Another thing which made us choose this font is how much it would stand out. The title is supposed to catch the audiences eye and these two capture how the title should look to a major extent.

These fonts were other fonts we liked and we have decided to use them as our fonts for the rest of the typography that appears on screen. One will be used for the directors names and actors and the other will be used for the "less important" typography we will include in our opening sequence. We decided the more bold of the two should be used for the directors and actors names because in most movies this is what the producer does in order to help them stand out and keep the audience interested. These fonts will be good as they are in bold letters and will help the audience be able to read them better as it will stand out from the background of the movie. If the font didn't stand out the audience might miss the opening credits and not know what type of movie it was going to be.

Learning Comments

From this task I have learned that the style of font is very important as it should reflect the genre of the movie helping the audience partially know what type of film it will be. We found that more serious story lines have more "normal" typography but as our movie has a hint of horror we chose a slightly different font for the title typography.

Task 19 Sound Planning

This soundtrack will be perfect for scenes of the sequence which involve someone being followed. It has a very ambient feel to it which will compliment the scene; it would also let the audience know that something isn't quite right. This soundtrack is copyright free therefore it shouldn't cause any problems using it in our sequence. This music was provided by Bensound.

When browsing the sound website we came across this soundtrack, which we think suits the scene well after the protagonist picks up the fallen note on the floor, then suddenly realises what happens next. This is when his 'instinct' kicks in as he gets prepared for what he must do. The loud drums and short periods of silence in-between them provide a satisfying sound which compliments the ongoings on screen.

Other sounds - We are thinking of including general background sounds which may add to the ambience that we are eager to portray in our sequence. An example of this is crickets chirping at the beginning where there is equilibrium - this, along with the darkness, gives the audience the impression that it is set quite late at night. 

**UPDATE**
We decided to change the soundtrack instinct for another one called Stalker.

Learning Comments

Sound in our sequence is very important as it adds so much to the atmosphere and the overall feel of the movie, for example it immerses the audience into feeling as if they are actually there in the film itself. Sounds are key to letting the audience know that something is about to happen, for example in our sequence the protagonist is being followed, and as the person approaches him faster the music picks up both pace and volume. Lastly it was important for us to use copyright-free music in our film, as if we did we'd be potentially be putting ourselves into trouble (e.g. a copyright strike).

Task 16 Character Profiles

Learning Comments

When building my character profiles I realised how vitally important it is to provide lots of information about the character(s) in the narrative. It is much easier to create a narrative if you know the characters you are using inside and out, as it provides an opportunity for many more unique and original events. By adding lots of detail it makes the character much more interesting and provides a new level of personalisation, rather than a generic teenager for example. A character with a specified and unique background is much more appealing to the audience as they will want something new from each and every movie, rather than an unoriginal & generic person.The more the audience knows about the character, the more engaged in the film they will most likely be.

Task 15 Final Storyboard and Shot List

This is the storyboard that we created for our movie opening sequence. On the piece of paper there are 18 boxes each side that equate to 36 overall. However after filling in several boxes, we realised that we didn't include spaces for the producers, distributors and film certification codes at the beginning. 

When creating the storyboard we tried as hard as we could to make each and every shot unique, however we found out that this wasn't essential because after watching several film openings amidst the process of creating it was apparent that film makers often re-use the same camera angle/shot, so we replicated this instead.

After adding the finishing touches on the storyboard we then produced a shot list for each individual frame. This time we remembered to include the producers and distributors as shots on the list. Within the shot list we added multiple categories such as:

• Shot number
• Shot type/Camera angle
• Location of shot
• Minor description of shot

We also added an extra spare column at the end of these in case we thought of something to add whilst we were writing, which would save us having to create another template. Initially we were going to add a 'shot duration' column, however we didn't add it in the end because we though that we would probably adapt or change this during filming if we werent too pleased.

Learning Comment

From doing this task I have learned that draft storyboards shouldn't be too neat as they are not final (however in this case it was our final in the end). This was a mistake I made as I spent too much time doing some of the drawings on the sheet rather than thinking of any ideas for the upcoming shots. As a result of this our time to think about possible shots was shortened, which could harm the authenticity and quality of our film. On shot lists too  there must be room for improvement, so everything initially must be written in pencil before pen.

Task 12 Thinking of a Concept

This is our final mind-map that we produced for our opening film sequence. Although we had several different ideas prior to this, we decided to not write them down unless we came up with a solid idea we both agreed on. Within our mindmap we included several categories that would construct our sequence, these included:

• Narrative
• Location(s)
• Props
• Characters
• Shot Ideas/Possibilities

Another small category we included was the title. We both wanted the title to reflect heavily on the film's narrative, so we came up with several ideas each in our pair. One title I really liked was called 'Yesterday's Tomorrow' because the film revolves around a teenage boy's premonitions, whilst sounding quite vague at the same time. Together however we ultimately decided on 'Stalker' because it sounds simple, yet is very effective as it is easily linked with the narrative.

Learning Comments

When creating our mind-map we realised how important verbal communication is with your partner(s) as you must share ideas with each other, before finally deciding together what you will choose. If one member has a great idea in their head but decide not to share it then the idea is wasted, which could potentially lead to a better film sequence. I also learned that initial ideas should be written down somewhere on a different, possibly scrap, piece of paper so that they can be revisited if they are wanted/needed.