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

In order to make our title sequence we had
to consider the codes and conventions of a
legitimate title sequence in order to apply it to our
production. The main conventions we focused on
were introducing the cast, crew and characters,
setting up enigma's for the audience, introducing
the genre, and indication of time. All these factors
are essential for a title sequence as this is where
everything is being introduced to the audience
and the first impression of a film is made. As we
are targeting a young audience enigma's
were essential to keep
them engaged especially considering our
protagonist is a spy, thus being mysterious and
secretive. One key enigma that was set up for our
audience was 'what is Teddy's mission?' and this
was done through the mise-en-scene as it clear he

As the genre of our film was action and comedy we had to focus on both area's
which have rather opposite conventions and input them into our sequence. We
focused mainly on the comedy aspect as this is the most gender neutral genres
of the two. This was firstly done with the cast choice as we picked well known
comedic actors such as Rowan Atkinson and Eddy Murphy, who are both known
for children's comedy such as Mr. Bean and Shrek, to play the lead roles in our
film. We also used a long, yet rounded, font to display our titles as this chosen
font looked very similar to the typography used for the pink panther titles which
shared the same genre as our film. We also had our protagonist performing
comedic actions such as using a gun incorrectly and spitting out his drink which
emphasized the humor. As for the action aspect we included guns and an attack
scene as these seemed to be present in title sequences of the same genre we
looked at for example Johnny English. The fight scene ,where Teddy is being
strangled by the villain helped to add excitement into our sequence as it showed
Teddy to live dangerous which is the general representation of a spy. We also
made sure that the soundtrack of the film would be stereotypical of the
sequences genre thus upbeat and jazz. To do this we selected a track from
audionetwork.lgfl.org.uk which had all these aspects and worked in sync with our
footage.

We managed to portray the time period of our
sequence through the use of lighting, camera and
costume. The well lit locations, alongside
the flip camera, gave the sequence a
slightly artificial and digital look which is found in
modern films set in the present as they are filmed
on digital camera's for example James Bond. This
worked in sync with the clothing found in the
present day, such as business suits, to reveal the
film was set in the present. We also ensured not to
add any filters which could obscure the time period
of the sequence for example black and white.

How did you attract/address your
audience?
We made sure our target audiences opinion was incorporated into our
sequence from the planning stage we did this by handing out survey sheets to
our audience to find out what they would prefer to see in our title sequence.
The questionnaires allowed us to pick typography and colour comfortably as we
knew our target audience had approved. With their opinion taken into account it
would make sense that they would be attracted to our sequence as their
thoughts have become a part of it. We also made sure to make our protagonist
male as generally our film would be more appealing to males aged 6-12 and
therefore we needed our protagonist to appear victorious so our audience could
admire him as a character thus creating a bond between the audience and the
character. As we had analyzed other title sequences with a similar genre and
with the same target audience we knew what to include in order to attract the
audience. Johnny English for example made sure to include shots of the
protagonist to make him look humorous and shots making the protagonist
appear successful. We ensured to take this information and incorporate it into
our sequence as it is what the audience would expect and enjoy from a
sequence. This was done through the mise-en-scene as we made Teddy
appear significant and successful due to him sipping on a martini, which is
stereotypical for a spy due to the James Bond series. To add to the humor we
then had our actor spit out the drink to contrast the seriousness with the
comedy. The lighting also subliminally portrayed Teddy as successful due to the
lighting becoming brighter as Teddy changes into his suit.

What have you learned about
Technologies?
During the creation of our title sequence I have had to adapt to new
and unfamiliar technologies which challenged me through the production of our sequence. Being
the director it was my job to overlook the group and provide help thus I had to be able to use all different
forms of technologies. The main challenge we uncounted were with the programme after effects as no one
had ever used it before. We made sure we did some research on how to work the programme but even with
this knowledge we still found it a challenge to work with as we could never remember how to make the
green screen images look as realistic as possible. Due to the unsophisticated green screens we produced
we decided to abandon them from our sequence as they looked to unprofessional for our sequence
Once all the shooting was done we needed to edit our sequence using final cut pro. I was
rather familiar with this software as I had used it many times before but we were introduced to some new
features which challenged our knowledge of the program. The first new feature we had to understand was
adding titles which was really simple as all we had to do was go into the text option, add text and input what
we wanted it to read. However, we encountered problems with the titles as the chosen
typography wasn't appearing in our sequence and no matter how many times we changed it back once
converted the typography would still be missing. In order to overcome this we seeked help
and informed ourselves more about titles which then encouraged us to remove all the titles and try again
and this time they all worked properly.
These programmed impacted our sequence dramatically as they allowed the editing process to be done as
quickly as possible, due to us being able to remove and add whatever we pleased, which aided us as we
had to re-shoot a lot of our footage. This knowledge of all the digital technology was very helpful as it
allowed us to make our sequence as acceptable as we could in the time given and it will help us in the
future if we decide to develop our sequence further.

Looking back at your primarily task , what do you feel
you have learned in the progression from it to a full
product?
Throughout the course I have learned how challenging it is to produce a title sequence and that it to difficult to combine a
whole groups idea's to become a single design. From the planning stage the whole group had a range of idea's which
made it difficult to actually finalize a solid idea as there was to much to input into our sequence which made it seem
unrealistic and past our level of knowledge. This is were team work came into our production as without it we wouldn't of
had a sequence to submit. We realized we all needed to work together to create something more simplistic which would
provide the same outcome and in the long run would be more appropriate for our target audience which we managed to
do.
Making our target audience the main priority was also essential for producing our title sequence as everything we
included we had to ask ourselves if it was appropriate and appealing for our target audience. We also made sure this was
the first area we researched into otherwise our ideas would of gone astray as we wouldn't have anything to build up our
ideas around. With this mind set we managed to insert shots which would attract and provoke a positive reaction for our
target audience. We also had to consider what was already on the market that our target audience enjoyed which is why
we ensured we had done plenty of analysis on existing title sequences.
I have also learned to importance of knowing the codes and conventions of our chosen genre, action and comedy, and I
am relieved that we informed ourselves on this at the start of our production otherwise our title sequence would of
been completely dysfunctional and lack one of the main aspects of any title sequence, to introduce the genre.
As our main purpose of our sequence was to entertain our audience our continuity sequence aided us dramatically as we
all produced comedy pieces. This knowledge allowed us to show comedy through the mise-en-scene to provoke laughter
from the audience as our protagonist was acting comedic. Without this previous knowledge we would of struggled to
portray comedy in our sequence as we didn't have the right mind set on how this could be done in way which would
appeal to a younger audience.
As a whole, the process of creating a title sequence has allowed me to gain both skills and knowledge in production. I
have learned how to use final cut pro properly to turn our ideas into a visual representation and I have also learned how to
successfully research into a target audience and genre to prepare for our own creation. It has also become apparent that
during this process we have learned how to Incorporate our knowledge into our ideas and also how everyone's roles are
significant to constructing a title sequence as the best way to get things done properly is to work together. Since our final
production consisted of new footage we had recently shot we have learned that in order to improve our sequence we need
everything to look realistic and simple rather than over thinking the footage and trying to incorporate aspects of the
narrative which would just confuse children of a young age; Because of this new footage it has enabled our title sequence
to be more genre specific as it has more codes and conventions of action and comedy than our previous sequence.