Evaluation Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Below is a Prezi presentation I have created which answers the seventh and final evaluation question, explaining what techniques of film making I have learned from my journey from the preliminary task to the final opening title sequence. Both of these films are embedded on the Prezi on the final page.

Evaluation Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Below is a PowToon video that I have created which answers the sixth evaluation question, explaining how my work with technology has improved from creating my preliminary task, the re-creation of a thriller opening title sequence and my final opening title sequence.

Evaluation Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

Below is a SlideShare presentation that I have created which answers the fifth evaluation question and explains who my target audience is and how we addressed them to the film.

Evaluation Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Embedded below is an Emaze presentation I have created which answers the fourth evaluation question and explains how I chose my target audience and what their general demographic and psychographic is.

Evaluation Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Below is an Issuu booklet that I have created which answers the third evaluation question, I explain which film distribution company I think would be most suitable for distributing my product, as well as explaining why based on which type of films the company often distributes.

Evaluation Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Below is a Pinterest board I have created which answers the second evaluation question of how my media product represents particular social groups, demonstrating how it does with screenshots and annotations from my opening title sequence. 

Follow Heather's board Evaluation Question 2 on Pinterest.

Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Below is a Scribd document that I have created which answers the first evaluation. Within this I explain how my opening title sequence conforms to typical conventions within real films and also how some aspects challenge these.

Evaluation Question 1

My Final Opening Title Sequence

Embedded below is a YouTube video of my final opening title sequence to a thriller film. 

How Has Research and Planning Influenced My OTS?

Below is a Scribd document I have created as a plenary for the research and planning aspect of this coursework. I explain the journey I have taken throughout all of this blog work since September 2014, and how it has all built up to the production of my opening title sequence.

Research and Planning Plenary

Audiences and Institutions - My Audience

Below is a Scribd document I have created that explains the demographics and psychographics of my audience for my film, which is important to bear in mind when creating my OTS because it is important to film based on the type of people who are going to be watching, so it has to appeal to them. I also explain which distribution company would distribute my film.

Audiences and Institutions - My Audience

Independent vs Hollywood

Independent Films: film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly outside of the major film studio. 

Hollywood Films: the entertainment industries involved in producing and distributing blockbuster movies.

Some films are made independently rather than by a major film distributor studio. The Hollywood film industry is so dominant of the whole film industry because many people who want to see a new release will almost 100% of the time go to see a film in a multiplex cinema. 

Successful British films like 'Slumdog Millionaire' (2008) and the Harry Potter (2001-2011) series can only be thankful for their success due to distribution by Twentieth Century Fox. This means that the profits of these films does not all go back into the British film industry. 

Commercially successful British films, e.g. 'The Inbetweeners Movie' (2011) have higher production costs than independent films such as 'Happy Go Lucky' (2008) because the aim of the directors for these films is to gain critical success through the art of film making rather than commercial success.

Costs involved in making a Hollywood movie include:

• Budget
• Story Rights
• Screenplay
• Director
• Producers
• Cast
• Production
• Visual Effects
• Music
• Marketing

Ways of how Hollywood movies try to break-even include:

• Box Office
• DVD/Blu-Ray Sales
• Merchandising
• TV Releases

Information from: Blockbuster Economics - BBC Article. This article was useful as it has given me an insight on how expensive the Hollywood film industry is with how many costs that go into producing and distributing a film. 

Film Distribution

Below is a SlideShare presentation I have created which explains how film distribution companies work and some examples of some big ones.

Film Marketing

Below is an ExamTime flashcard set that I have created based on my own research of how films are marketed. (Please note: the flashcards are double-sided)

Film Marketing Research I gathered my research using this website, I found it useful because it was in a lot of depth which allowed me to summarise key points into my flashcard presentation.

Flash Card Deck created by Heather Larkin with ExamTime

Convergence

Technological Convergence: the process of new technology moving to single platforms which can perform multiple media outputs that can be used to reach audiences. For example, a PlayStation 4's main function is to enable people to play games on, however, you can watch films, listen to music, browse the internet and download films and music.

Audiences can consume more than one type of media from one platform through technological convergence.

Digital projection is a form of technological convergence because films that have been produced by digital means have moved away from the 'physical' film medium that can be supplied to theatres in digital format. This lowers costs for film distributors because less work will need to be carried out to get the film on to Blu-Ray, DVD, internet trailers etc. because the film has already been converted into a digital format.

Cross Media Convergence is where a company produces more than one type of media.

Synergy

Synergy: the interaction or co-operation of more than one organisation to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects.

 

Simply, synergy means working together to achieve an objective that would not be able to be achieved independently.

 

Cross Media Convergence helps to create synergy, for example Disney, has a TV channel as well as a physical store which it sells merchandise from films as well as DVD's and CD's from their films.

 

 

Synergy helps products to sell each other, for example a film selling a computer game or soundtrack.

     

  

 

 

Above is an example of cross-media convergence from Disney's Frozen (2013). The phenomenon of the film means many copies of DVD's, the CD soundtrack and children's toys have been sold.

 

 

Film Institutions

Below is a SlideShare presentation that defines the different types of film institutions.

Independent Resarch

To further the research and planning aspect of my coursework, before creating my opening title sequence to a film I decided to carry out some independent research.

I looked at both opening title sequences from thriller films and previous students' work in order to get inspiration from and to avoid as much as possible at making mistakes in my work that others have made in the past.

I decided to firstly get a clearer idea of what to include in my opening title sequence and a big factor in it is credits.

Opening Credits - BBC : This link was very useful to my research as it gave me a clearer idea of the credits to include in my opening title sequence, as well as what order they should appear in.

The positioning of credits in an opening title sequence is also important, the typography and colour must be readable wherever they are positioned. An idea is to position credits within the scene, for example, against a wall or dark object.

Typography
is important in opening title sequences, as different types foreshadow the type of genre and mood to the film. E.g. Romance


From our BFI trip, a talk was held by Pete Fraser, who runs a media studies blog. He has created a PowerPoint on 'making film openings', which included common mistakes made by students, how to avoid this and how to get the best possible grade by stressing the importance of organisation.

Pete's Making Film Openings PowerPoint

I found this post useful as it informed me of how to go about striving for the best possible grade.

Pre-Production: Storyboard

Below is a photo of our storyboard that we have drafted to work from when it comes to filming and constructing our opening title sequence. This is vitally important in the production stage, as it keeps our time management to a good level because we are clear on the exact shots that we need to film, and if shots do not work out we can leave enough time for ourselves to re-film them due to this advanced planning. 

Pre-Production: Distribution Co. Ident

Below is the image I have created using Photoshop that will be the indent of my distribution company, HCH Films, for my opening title sequence. We decided on the name 'HCH Films' as it is an initial for our names put together, Heather Casey Henry, the logo is simplistic as it is simply just the letters together, which symbolises the simplicity of our films as we are a low budget, British independent distributor.

Pre-Production: List of Credits

Here I have created a list of all of the credits that will appear in my opening title sequence and in the correct order that they will appear on screen.




Name of the Studio HCH Films

Name of the Production Company “A KLS Production”

Name of the Producer “A film by Heather Larkin”

Name of the Starring Actors/Actresses “Starring Jack Norris, ”

Name of the Film “Amnesia”

Name of any Featured Actors/Actresses

Name of who did the Casting of the Film “Casting Casey Phillips”

Name of who did the Music of the Film: “Original Score by ”

Name of who did the Production Design “Production Design Henry Hardman”

Name of the Editor “Edited by Casey Phillips”

Name of the Director of Photography “Director of Photography Heather Larkin”

Name of the Producer/Executive Producer “Executive Producer Henry Hardman”

Name of the person who wrote the Story “Story by Casey Phillips”

Name of the Writers “Screenplay Henry Hardman”

Name of the Director “Directed by Heather Larkin”