This document provides an evaluation of a 1 minute 39 second opening sequence for a thriller/action film created by the author. It discusses how the opening sequence uses conventions from real media products and engages audiences. The author analyzes several screenshots from the opening sequence and compares shots and techniques to films like Knight and Day, Ride Along 2, and Django Unchained. The document also discusses how the author's production skills developed through learning about camera angles, editing, sound design and more. Finally, it outlines how the author integrated technologies like cameras, editing software, YouTube and more throughout the project.

1. AS MEDIA
EVALUATION
By: Fatima AlSayegh

2. Q1- WHAT DOES YOUR PRODUCT USE OR CHALLENGE
CONVENTION AND HOW DOES IT REPRESENT SOCIAL
GROUP OR ISSUES?
In my media piece, I have developed and challenge real media products. My media
product is 1 minute 39 second opening sequence and targets a Thriller/Action
audience. We used some conventions such as certain camera angle used in different
film openings or the use of non-diegetic sound. Using these techniques helped us to
increase our customer satisfaction and gave it a more professional scene as our
customers expect it to be. Especially in thriller/action films which aim to provide a
lot of suspense mystery scene for the audience which is what we aimed to do.
For planning I have developed the idea of Todrovo theory in my story. Sam started in
‘equilibrium’ when everything was balance he had powers but he decide to live a
normal life, going out with his friends etc. This is then disrupted by a problem to cause
‘disruption’ which is noticed in our short opening sequence, Jessica get kidnapped
meanwhile Sam and his friend was waiting for her. ‘Recognition’ Kidnapper calls Sam
from Jessica phone; Sam recognized that his friend is facing the consequences.
‘Resolution’ Sam and his friend were looking for Jessica. ‘New equilibrium’ Sam
saves Jessica. Todrovo’s theory would then go on to say that a series of events take
place before the ‘new equilibrium’ is established which we used in our opening
sequence.

4. In the slide above, there are six screenshots which I have taken from my final
opening sequence and in the next part of my evaluation I am going to explore my
media piece compared to existing real media products.
Screenshot 1:- The first close up and high angle shot it was inspired from the
film ‘Knight and Day’ where there is a scene dedicated to set up the gun fight
which involves focusing on the hand and the gun, this convention of the thriller
aspect with the use of gun and the person who tries to reach the gun. We used
non-diegetic sound such as fast heart beats .
Screenshot 2:- The second shot is two shot it was inspired from ‘Ride Along 2’
the scene where agent James and detective Ben having a conversation, it was
helpful to show both of the characters having a conversation, in my media
product we focused on showing there facial expression and the body language of
each character , this shot is straight away implies that there is something going
on . We used two different sound, diegetic with the dialogue and non- diegetic
for the incidental music.
Screenshot 3:- The third shot is medium close up it was inspired from the film
‘Django Unchained’ when the hero was trying to self defence himself from his
enemy and save his kidnaped wife, we used non-diegetic sound as an Incidental
music.

5. Screenshot 4:- The fourth shot is a close up shot, it is similar to shot 1 where we
used high angle to show the action that is taking place, as the main purpose is to
signify the audience that there’s a fight about to happen. It clearly give the
audience the idea of what’s the reason behind this fight. We used non-diegetic
sound , having an incidental music is important during the fight it let the audience
be eager to know more.
Screenshot 5:- The fifth shot is a low angle shot it was inspired from the film
‘Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol’ the part when the girl was pushed down
and she tried to reach the gun in the floor, we used non-diegetic sound as an
Incidental music.
Screenshot 6:- The sixth shot is medium close up, by purpose we decide to show
the furniture behind both of the characters , It was inspired from the movie ‘ Spy’
the part when they where looking for Susan Cooper a desk-bound CIA employee.
However the film ‘Spy’ shows many more shots. Non- diegetic sound was used.

6. My media product aimed teenage and adults who loves action/thriller films.
Our opening sequence shows the meaning of being a true friends and by not
being selfish while caring about your friend, showing how friends could
come together which a lot of young teenage doesn’t know the meaning of
friendship these days. As can be seen in our opening sequence Sam was
looking for Jessica the whole time and not to give up, he sacrifice his life
just to save his friends to not be killed. After doing all the research I have
found that the people who enjoys thriller/action films are teenage and adults
which was around 30% of adults and the other 70% is teenage. This had
helped me to know more about what genre of film to produce.

7. Q2- HOW DOES YOUR PRODUCT ENGAGE WITH
AUDIENCES AND HOW WOULD IT BE DISTRIBUTED AS A
REAL MEDIA TEXT?
While producing my media product I have looked at different settings
which would appeal to a certain age groups, In my product I have looked
specifically at Action/Thriller themes which made me produce based on
that genre as it would appeal more to young adults audience, we created
our movie script and storyboard based on Action/Thriller . I did a
questionnaire which helped me to find out more in detailed of what my
audience would like to see in thriller opening sequence and what do they
like mostly about thriller films, based on the information I collected I
produced my media product. I used different techniques through the
process of making the film such as editing, transitions, sounds and effects
which made our media product more professional and enjoyable.
Depending on the success of our film, I would like it to be distributed by a
large UK film production company such as 20th Century Fox Film,

8. One of the reason why is because they had produce many action/ thriller movie
such as “Spy” which is a well-known film and it’s very similar to ours in the gun
scene and the agent part as it target action/thriller genre of audience, although
‘Knight and day’ was a big inspiration for our opening sequence in the killing
scenes that took place as it involves guns and knife use. To finance a film such as
ours, by the development of online technology it offers a new ways in which
films can be funded by the uses of crowdfunding to obtain funding from the
audience using websites such as Kickstarter, Kickstarter would give us the chance
to encourage our target audience to pledge money in return for a variety of
rewards. It could be possible to partner up with a conglomerate such as Alibaba
picture it’s a Chines organisation group who pays for some of the production
companies. Since 20th Century Fox is one of the Big Six studios we could
promote and market our film by the use of synergy which helps the studios to
maintain their dominance over the film industry, another alternative could be to
obtain bank loan, if the bank believes we are asking for sensible amount of money
and that we will be able to gain profit and pay them back, they will most likely
loan the sum of money.

9. Q3- HOW DID YOUR PRODUCTION SKILLS DEVELOP
THROUGHOUT THIS PROJECT?
I developed my skills using digital technology in my portfolio, especially during the
production of the opening sequence , I have learned many topics such as editing, camera
angles and shots, props conventions, soundtrack conventions..
The first thing we focused on our opening sequence is camera movement we looked at
different camera movement that we could involve in our media product, camera movement
had helped me to have the knowledge and skills of where to place the camera on a specific
duration and at what scene. Here are couple of examples of camera angles and shots
• Extreme close up :- It’s a shot used to generally magnifying beyond what the human
eye would experience in reality. With no background details.
• Low angle :- Used to show how the character is powerful and help to give the audience
the a sense of confusion.
• Canted Angle :This techniques is used to suggest point of view which show the
audiences that the camera has the eye on a particular character , seeing what they see
• Dolly shot :- When the camera is placed on a moving vehicle and moves alongside the
action.
• Tilts :- Used to show the audience a movement which scans a scene vertically.

10. Props conventions had helped us and the audience to establish each character
role and personality within the opening sequence . We used different props such
as gun, knife, face mask to follow the action scene that will took place. However
we used other props such as cans and cell phones to give the audience the
feeling of verisimilitude.
Soundtrack conventions, Incidental music which is a background music plays a
large role in our media product it influence the audience by the style of music
heard in the background for example we used fast upbeat heart beats
soundtrack conventions to give the audience the audience the feeling of
frightening.
Editing is an important part to consider in an opening sequence, editing had
helped me to make the engage all the part together and make the opening
sequence understandable to our audience, during the stage of editing I have
learnt a lot of stuff one of them is special effects which give the audience the
feeling of mystery I have applied fade in and fade out, flashing, jumping and etc.
These special effect had made my movie more professional , I had also used
special effects on a text font. As can be seen I have used in the end of our
opening sequence the text “ Coming Soon” with some animation which dissolve
in the end. Editing had made our opening sequence more attractive and eye
catching.

11. Q4- HOW DID YOU INTEGRATE TECHNOLOGIES-
SOFTWARE, HARDWARE AND ONLINE- IN THIS PROJECT?
Even before I started studying media course, I had a little knowledge about some
of the programs already but still I was not confident enough, as my knowledge
and skills were only up to a basic standards. Compare to now I had a great
experience and skills I feel a lot more confident with technical things such as
Wordpress, YouTube , Movie Serif etc..
The main thing I learnt whilst the process of our thriller opening sequence is that
we need to film it twice so we had the advantage of choosing between the best
scenes and select the best one for the opening sequence . Since I was the second
director and the movie plot writer for our thriller opening it taught me many
things such as: different shots , editing techniques and how to manage choosing
the scene without changing the story plot.
There are my reasons and skills which I have learned throughout technologies
from the process of constructing this product:-

12. Camera
Although I've used a camera before, the camera that we used for this project
was different to previous one I've used. The camera was easy to use as its
show clear indication of the record button. I learnt a lot about the functions of
the video-camera and variety of camera technique, such as using specific
camera angles to help give a specific effect, one thing I have learnt was when
we zoom in the video loss quality so therefor we had to move the camera
much closer to the subject, for close up to preserve the quality during the
course of project , the camera was very simple to use. I was able to learn some
function within the camera.
However we had some disadvantages of the camera it has produce low quality
videos under the low and high lighting, we had to shoot with our IPhone
camera which made us realize that it shot much pro than our camera “Aspire
Park scene” due to a lack of time. So therefore next time if I’m shooting any
video I will get a pro quality camera. The camera was small so it was portable
to carry it anywhere.

13. WordPress
I used WordPress to present my coursework. I’ve never used WordPress before so I had no
idea how to use the website. I was looking at some well-known bloggers that started with
WordPress . Through the project I have learnt how to use the website with the help of
WordPress signage which guide me and made it easier for me to create a page , however
some of the people find WordPress really complicated compare to other blogs website in
editing settings and designing the page the way you need it which I was having a huge
problem with but later on I tried to watch useful videos which helped me. WordPress is
also easy to users to use it. Wordpress is useful as it give the examiner digital access
to our work . Some of the other thing that I have learnt was changing the font, setting,
checking for spelling mistakes.

14. YouTube
YouTube was used a lot during this project, as I used it to look for examples of
different shots types and camera angles which I find it useful. And upload our final
production and the Interview. By using YouTube I have learnt how to upload videos,
edit title and how to link it to Wordpress . YouTube is easy to uses it is linked to your
Google account therefore you can create a YouTube account. Another advantage is
that YouTube is also a free service and used by millions of people and it target a large
number of global audience which could promote and market our opening sequence.
One of the most useful things I have learnt was uploading videos. For example, when
I was uploading my individual editing opening sequence. I learnt to add description,
tags and to make my video private or public.

15. Serif Movie Plus
Serif movie plus is a video editing tool which has been really beneficial for
creating my individual editing to collect ideas for the final production . This
program has many features and it’s easy to use made me learn the basic things in
film production programs like adding sounds (Non-Diegetic Sound), creating
sounds (Diegetic Sound) ,and adding captions below the video. It did have made
our film opening look very professional.

16. Sony Vegas Pro
Sony Vegas Pro is a video editing tool which has been really beneficial for creating
our final production. This program has many features and it’s difficult to use. There
are many things I have learnt such as, cropping the video, editing , organizing video
structure and add special effects to the video and much more . Its filled with various
tools and features which ensure success video editing which had beneficial us, being
able to control the sound, brightness. Using this software has been very essential to
making our final production successful. The major drawback to this program is that’s
complicated to uses and takes a while to get used to it.

17. Google
Google made everything accessible and easy to us, Google is a search engine which
has become very hand during this project. Google is a very easy service to uses and
it’s free. We used Google to search for resource which helped us to create the blogs
and the videos production. Google has a filter search which allows your search
results to be more accurate, which mean we were able to gain useful information
much faster at a high speed.
PowerPoint
I actually learnt more about the basic technology such as: PowerPoints when creating
the mood boards for target audience research and the schedule , and it also made it
easier for me to save everything I posted in slide in case if anything get lost. This also
helped me in posting it to SlideShare.

18. Wikipedia
While doing my research I was using Wikipedia to gain more information about
camera movements, angles, film industry history, The Big Six American Studio,
different companies which distribute media product. To have a good background
about media production.
Putlocker
Helped to find the film in the internet and analyze it instead of buying the film
which could be a time consuming and cost effective, I also captured some
pictures for my film research