- The student created a two-minute title sequence for a crime thriller film, drawing inspiration from films like "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and "Reservoir Dogs". - The sequence uses a dark, mysterious aesthetic and keeps the main character anonymous to pique audience curiosity. - Through the process, the student learned about camera and editing software, finding a phone camera and Final Cut Pro more useful than originally planned tools. They now feel more confident creating other projects.

1. By Charlie Greenslade

2. In what way does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
• For my media film, I choose the genre to be a thriller. I chose the particular genre as I believe that thrillers
can easily be made gripping, mysterious and tense. I therefore believe that the thriller genre would be
popular amongst audiences that watch my film.
• My media product is a two minute long title sequence of a new crime-thriller fiction film. I had intended
from the very beginning for my title sequence to seem dark and mysterious to the audience. The actual
sequence was inspired by various other media products that had a similar mood and feel as to what I
intended to achieve with my product.
• The mise-en-scene used was very dark and spooky, this I believe, has the same mood and feel to it as “The
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”. Whilst the opening sequence for this film is actually quite different to
mine, the dark, disturbing and mysterious feel and mood to it is similar to what I had tried to recapture for
my own product. I believe that my product managed to have these elements to it, without actually looking
similar as a film.
• From gaining inspiration from existing title sequences consisting of films such as “Reservoir Dogs”, “Lord
of War” and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”, I have gained a significant insight as to what can separate
a dark title sequence to one with a brighter feel to it.

3. How does your character represent particular social
groups?
• In my film, the character we see briefly typing on a keyboard is kept completely anonymous to the
audience. I have purposely chosen a different approach to my title sequence because I felt that a having
the audience unaware of who the character is should leave viewers feeling curious and left wondering
who this person is; are they a protagonist or an antagonist? Whilst the character remains anonymous for
the title sequence, I have created some background information for the character in order to get a sense
of what may happen throughout the rest of the film.
• The character we see in the title sequence is a 25 year old American male from a working class
background, whom has little money and qualifications. The typical American goal in society is success and
wealth. He is therefore isolated from this system, and has to find other routes to success throughout the
means of fraud and hacking. From this, the character turns his sights on three wealthy investment
bankers, all whom appear to be easy targets for his schemes. In this way, I believe that the character in my
title sequence is highly representative of a number of working class individuals in society, whom do not
follow the typical route to success and innovate in a number of ways illegally in order to gain the success
and wealth desired by society.

4. What kind of media institution might distribute your
media product and why?
• I believe that if my media product were to be distributed, it would be by a major global distribution
company such as Warner Bros. Over the many years they have operated and collaborated with film
companies, Warner Bros have distributed many highly successful films and have become one of the
industries most recognised distribution companies worldwide.
• In reference to my film, I believe that Warner Bros would be a good fit, as they have distributed many
successful thriller films, especially in recent years, such as “Argo”, “Inception” and “The Dark Knight
trilogy”.
• With my film being of a crime thriller genre, it would not necessarily be thought to have a high
budget, and certainly not a blockbuster production. With this being said, I would intend the story to be set
in New York, and so it would take a major distribution company such as Warner Bros to be able to fund the
filming of such a vast and populated place.
(A typical film set in New York)

5. Who would be the audience for your media product?
• For my media product, I have decided to aim my title sequence towards audiences aged 15-60. The initial
age certificate for the film would be 15.
• The main reason behind this, is that straight from the opening sequence, the film has a slightly dark and
disturbing tone set. Furthermore, I believe that the storyline would be reasonably complex, and so I do not
believe it is a film that anyone under the age of 15 could follow very easily.
• With this being said, I also believe that by giving a relatively high budgeted film an age certificate of 18, it
would be incredibly risky for the distribution company as a whole, as it is obvious that an 18 rated film
would be far less universal than for example a 15 rated film. It would therefore be less likely to break even
and make any significant profit if a high budgeted film were gave such an age certificate.

6. How did you attract/address your audience?
• The audience for my media product as stated previously was viewers aged 15-60. This kind of audience are
far more likely to appreciate a serious feel and look to the film and so with my title sequence being quite
dark and mysterious, I believe it addresses the genre of the film quite easily.
• One shot in particular that I believe is quite disturbing and unsettling, is the shot in which the unknown
character is pointing a pair of scissors towards his eye. In my opinion, this shot is one that I believe only a
more mature audience will appreciate, mainly due to the mysteriousness and vagueness of the character
given.
• With the film being targeted towards a more mature audience, I believe that one aspect of the product
that would mostly appeal to them, is the slow build up. Having a slow build up, should have audiences
intrigued and should therefore be able to capture their attention to detail a whole lot better than if it were
a fast paced title sequence.

7. What have you learnt about technologies from the
process of constructing this product?
• During the filming and editing of my product, I have gained a massive insight and learned so much with
cameras, tripods and editing software that previously, I did not know a whole lot about.
• Firstly, when it came to filming my product, I had originally decided to use a camcorder, which was advised
by my college and therefore to me, seemed like the best technology to film with. After filming and
experimenting with the camcorder and tri-pod, I decided to try filming on my phone (Samung Galaxy S3). I
found that filming on my phone was a whole lot easier and more flexible when wanting to experiment
with various close-ups that were needed for my title sequence. As well as this, the camera was in my
opinion just as good, if not even better than the camcorder I had originally intended to use. Throughout
the use of filming on my phone, I learnt that you can in fact use other means of technology to give you an
outcome that looks even better than originally thought or intended. (In my case, the phone camera being
much better than I had originally thought)
• Secondly, I learnt so much in terms if editing with video software. Originally, I had the intent of using iMac
software iMovie, but after experimenting with certain title fonts and video effects, I decided that I’d need
something slightly more advanced than iMovie. Luckily, I came across a free thirty day trial for Apple
software Final Cut Pro which I knew immediately was a more advanced and slightly more complex
software. After having a couple of days worth of experimenting with Final Cut Pro, I had decided that this
would be the perfect program to edit my product on. In terms of what I learnt, I can now edit and make
footage look somewhat similar as to what you would see in a typical Hollywood film. All this can be done
from the use of lighting effects and advanced titles in order to make the product look as realistic and as
professional as possible. This is actually something that I hope to turn into a hobby as I really enjoyed
experimenting with editing software and making this film has given me the confidence to edit something
entirely different in the near future.

8. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel that
you have learnt in progression from it, to the full product?
• From looking back at the preliminary task, I believe that I have learnt a number of things when making a
film.
• Firstly, the preliminary task had a very basic and brief guideline given. I remember wondering why the task
set was so basic and brief, but now I realise that it were to enable students freedom to experiment
creatively with different camera shots, angles and then to experiment with the story. This then
encouraged me to give myself for the main task, a very basic outline for the story and then to expand and
develop this by testing and experimenting with different camera angles, shots and locations in order for
the film to look somewhat as effective as you’d see in a typical Hollywood style crime-thriller film. The first
aspect I had decided on, was that the whole sequence were to be filmed in my house. I wanted the film to
be shot of entirely close-ups and extreme close-ups and so I knew it would be difficult. I had no real idea
as to what I would be filming specifically, but I knew that as I had given myself a very vague outline, I
would have to experiment creatively there and then. I therefore feel that I have learnt that sometimes,
you cannot fully plan ahead for every single shot and so a film like mine, would have the main mood and
feel outlined, and the rest would be for myself to experiment creatively in order to end up with the best
possible product.
• Furthermore, I feel that I have learnt that certain random close up’s may look irrelevant when filming,
but editing on the right software (Final Cut Pro in my case) can actually make these shots look incredibly
fitting and meaningful and can therefore add a whole new feel to your film. This is something I don’t
believe I fully paid attention to when filming the preliminary task, as I thought that If something didn’t
look good on camera, then it would would be worthless when coming to editing. I now realise that this is
wrong, and that any shot can be made relevant with the right editing involved.