1. Opening Film Sequence –
Mentality
Sarah Nightingale
Media Studies AS: Foundation Portfolio

2. Introduction
For my media project I decided to do an
opening sequence for a film. We called it
Mentality.
Whilst making this project I
worked with two other girls from
my class, Anna Hickling and
Cassie Kinsey.
It is a two minute clip for a
psychological thriller which
introduces the main
characters and gives the
audience an insight to what
the film is about, without
My main roles in the film were to sort out giving too much of the story
costume and make-up. However we all away.
contributed into the editing, shooting and
identifying locations.

3. Audience Testing and Social Groups
In our opening sequence, we wanted
something different from every other
psychological thriller and for it also to stand
out from the rest.
The thing we did different to our opening
sequence was to add a twist and lead the
audience in a different direction to what
they thought was going to happen.
By raising enigmas in our project, we kept
the audience interested and this proved
successful in our questionnaire.
As you can see, all 10 people
surveyed, answered yes to the opening
sequence raising enigmas.

4. We aimed our media product at ages 15-25
and so we needed to show this in our
opening sequence…
We did this by making sure our actors
fitted the stereotyped nature of their
character. For example, the character
Sophie, was portrayed to be an outcast
and rejected from other teenagers.
Therefore her clothes couldn’t be
fashionable or popular among them.
By keeping the lighting, setting and
action/activities as ‘normal’ as possible, we
wanted to show how the setting of this film
was just another ordinary day for the life of
the character Sophie.
However we did need to have her facial
expression and dialogue morbid, to show the
audience she is not a happy person.

5. By having our main ethnicity and nationality
of the audience aimed at white-British would
enable them to understand the film and
problems which occur in the film more likely
than any other culture.
As white-British is a large mass audience, our
film would be financed fairly well and so
achieve a lot.
Our questionnaire shows us that our target
audience fits well into our group as all
participants thought the genre was thriller and
thought the opening sequence was visually
appealing.

6. Media Distribution
If our media product was to be made, it would
most likely be financed and distributed by a
British company such as FilmFour.
As FilmFour has produced such small films
before and become very successful, i.e.
Trainspotting, it could be possible that our
project would do the same.
Hollywood may consider distributing our film
and making it Indiewood. Although this would
be very unlikely as our film may not appeal to
a very large audience and so Hollywood
would not take the chance in losing a lot of
money.

7. Attracting and Addressing the Audience
An audience expects to see what kind of
thing the movie is about in an opening
sequence, e.g. murder, love.
We decided to have our disruption set in a
college as most of our audience go to college
and can relate to the social aspects that
occur.
To attract our audience, we made the order of
the opening sequence non-chronological to
keep them intrigued.
We created bio nary opposition by having two
characters attracted to each other who were
very different in appearance and personality.

8. We tried to keep the music in our opening
sequence relevant to what was happening at
the time. For example, to create suspense
and tension we increased the pace of music
and for sad moments, we had it quiet and
soft. This was again very successful with our
audience.
The main ideology we focused on in
our piece was teenage trauma and
suicide. It is effective in our project as
because it shows how other people
may not understand what one person
is going through, which is relevant in
today’s society.

9. The shots we used depended on the mood in
the sequence. To use power we used a low
angle shot and to show emotion we used a
close up.
By keeping the lighting high-key we showed
Sophie’s mood and personality was
emphasised more than other peoples.
We also used a blurred
effect on one of our Our editing included a mixture of transitions
scenes to show how that were aimed to be as simple as
Sophie was having a possible, yet show one scene from the next.
haluncination. Our main transition was fade-in, fade-out.

10. Technology
When in the making of my project I got to use
a range of technology from Apple mac’s to
video recorders.
I learnt that by using the grid on the camera
really helped in the positioning of objects and
also the tri-pod is great for steady shots.
To keep a record of what
The i-movie editing software was great for stage we where up to whilst
allowing our sequence to be smooth running making our project, we
and also gave us the opportunity to add in uploaded our progression
extras such as voiceovers. onto www.blogger.com
We also used a stills We used technology to show our audience
camera to take feedback on graphs. This was great as it was
photographs of our quick and clearly showed our results.
locations and editing.

11. Prelim Task and Progression
From my prelim task to my final product, I felt
I have learnt a lot…
The positioning of objects on the screen is
now more accurate
The editing of the shots run far more
smoother.
I also learnt what kind of thing the audience
want to see and how to deliver it to them
effectively.

12. Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to say we did a
very good job in the making of our opening
sequence.
Its key strength was gaining the audiences
and enabling them to enjoy it.
I think the main weakness was having the
story line a bit too confusing and not showing
clearly what is happening in the sequence.
Also my use of technology and understanding
of filming has improved very much.
Overall I would say our opening sequence
comes fairly clear to the real article.