This document summarizes the opening sequence of the author's psychological horror film. The opening establishes the setting of a house through furnishings and low, draining music. It builds unease by showing a marble rolling on a table and falling to the floor. Shots include the marble's point of view as it rolls through the house, passing a porcelain doll and children's toys. Hints of danger are shown, like a book depicting a house fire. The sequence represents children through toys to create emotion and vulnerability without explicitly showing characters. It ends with the mother figure at the kitchen sink to further the unknown and set up the film's naïve character.

1. Evaluation

2. Inwhatwaysdoesyouropeningsequenceuse,developor
challengeformsandconventionsofreallifeopening
sequences?
Opening sequences are a way to establish the scene before the film first starts. So
for example in North by North west there are various establishing shots that
shows the film is set in a busy city in America. Using the rule of thirds you can see
that in the bottom half it is just filled with busy people with a place to be. Then
on the far right you can see the American flag. Whilst the whole top two sections
are filled with buildings. This is a way to show the viewers where the film is set.
Also the genre is established as well you can tell by the music that it is fast and
high pitched showing the film will be some what like an action. Whereas in my
film the setting is a house, you can tell this by the furnishings and the music also
sets the scene of a genre as the music is low and draining. Also the idea that my
film contains mostly medium and close shots scare the viewers as they will be
scared of the unknown as they will not be able to see what else should be in shot.
A shot from North By Northwest opening titles. A shot from the opening in my film.

3. Within my opening titles I have no characters. The characters are shown
through objects. For example the marble represents the evil within the film. The
child’s toys represent the victim. I decided to use children’s toys instead of a
child because the toys show emptiness as there is no child there. Also the toys
show the child's vulnerability. Conventions of a film opening do not normally
give much a way in the way of plot and characters.
My opening is simple, I didn’t want to complex it so much that it turned out like
a trailer. In the end of the sequence I have a selection of child’s toys, this is the
characterisation of the sequence. It shows the child’s character but through an
object. They show the child’s innocence. When the marble finally rolls into the
toys it shows the child’s vulnerability. As the marble represents the evil and the
toys represent the child. Therefore this still ties in with typical conventions of a
psychological horror as in my research and planning I had found various films
that include a child or an object that relate to a child in some way.
A shot from the film
I made showing
children's toys

4. My opening sequence starts with the titles, then fades into a scene with a marble
on a dining room table. The curtains start blowing on their own, this already
creates a sense of unease. Then the marble starts to roll on the table then falls off.
Whilst this is going on there is music of children singing, this is a typical cliché of
horror films. Then after seeing the marble fall onto the floor you get to see the
‘Journey’ of the marble. The sounds along with this include the screeching of the
marble on the floor this was created by scratching a glass bottle on my desk. Then
the marble is out of shot and you see the marble from its point of view on the
journey. This is where the journey Is bumpy and even as it isn’t totally smooth. You
then see a birds eye view shot of the marble rolling along a corridor. Then you see
a porcelain doll, the camera zooms in and out around the doll. The doll is a clue
that there are some little children living in the house. The point of view shot then
continues. You then see the marble roll around a corner then you see some
children's toys on the floor. You hear a crackling fire and then the camera zooms in
on a book that has a house fire on a page. This hints that there is danger involved
in the film. From what I have done, I have attempted to put a fear into who’s
watching and create anxious moments.

5. Howdoesyouropeningsequencerepresentparticularsocial
groups?
In my opening sequence I have purposely steered away from introducing any
characters as I want the viewers to be scared of the unknown as they do not
know exactly what is happening. Therefore I have dropped hints within my
sequence to show that there are children involved by showing toys, having
children is also a way to create emotion because as children need protecting and
they are vulnerable to anything. I did add an extra scene onto the end of my
opening sequence to make it look as if the film is starting properly, and in this I
did have my step-mum standing at the kitchen sink washing up. Although I only
got a medium shot of her body from the hands down to the floor, I didn’t want to
show her face yet as it’s the theory of scared of the unknown. However from this
we can tell she is a motherly figure as she is in slippers and from the dialogue. To
create the dialogue I used a voice recorder and I spoke. From the dialogue you
can tell the woman in the film is a mother as she is speaking firmly to a child in
the next room about playing, however only we know as the audience that it isn’t
the child playing with the marble. Therefore this show's the naïve mother
unaware of the danger in her home.

6. Whatkindofmediainstitutionmightdistributeyourmedia
product?
I have been looking at a range of production companies. I have been looking at
twisted picture, they are an independent production company that creates films
mainly for the horror genre. The saw films were all produced by twisted pictures
and the latest film Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 3D was produced by them. As
there only genre is horror they will enjoy fairly most of the films this company
brings out as it is the genre they enjoy – therefore this is important that twisted
pictures don’t bring out different genres of film for example like a romantic
comedy as they can loose there audience and ruin the company's image. The
production company that would distribute my product I would choose vertigo
films as they are the leading British independent film production and distribution
company. I wouldn’t choose someone like warner bro’s because their company is
far to big for a low budget film like mine. Vertigo films have produced films of all
different genres such as Street dance, The inbetweeners movie, The king’s speech
and ‘The children’.

7. Whowouldbetheaudienceforyouropeningsequence?
My target audience will be 15-20 year olds. Making my film classification that of a 15.
Meaning that according to the British Board of Film Classification (www.bbfc.co.uk) my
film cannot contain any of the following:
• References to sex
• Sexual nudity
• Brief scenes of sexual violence
• Drug taking
• No gory images, nothing to extreme/graphic
• No detail into self/harming or suicide
These are precaution measures as 15 year olds will look up to what they see and try to
copy. For example seeing someone taking recreational drugs and enjoying the effects,
can lead a teenager to want to try and do that to. Bringing my certificate down is
always a good thing as it opens up more potential customers at the cinema for
example, as more people can go see the film and buy it on DVD legally. The no gory
images side doesn’t affect my film at all because I do not intent to use gore like a Body
horror or slasher film would. I want to keep the fear and horror side purely
psychological (hence the psychological genre).

8. Also knowing my audience has helped with my market research as I posted a video
on my blog as I was researching asking children from my school (age roughly 15-
17) about what they would expect to see and want to see in a psychological
horror.
This has helped me a huge amount in creating my product as I know what my
target audience will want to see meaning I can make the film to the best of my
ability for them so that they enjoy it.
For example, I don’t want to be adding ideas into my film that a 40 year old would
enjoy when my film is not aimed at the particular age grouping.

9. Howdidyouattract/addressyouraudience?
As I mentioned In the previous slide, I addressed my audience by asking questions
to the age group I have been targeting the film at – 15 up to 20 year olds. I have
gathered from that research that this age group expects to see realistic settings
within a psychological horror, this is something that I have gone along with. I
haven’t changed my original setting which was my house. Also I did give out
questionnaires at the very start of the research and planning that contained the
same questions as the video questionnaire I posted on youtube.com. I think it is
very important to attract your audience as you can make big mistakes in including
something they don’t want to see, or missing something out that they want to
see. Also attracting your audience can get them interested in the film. As an
example, being stopped in the city centre to answer some questions on an idea
for a product someone is thinking of bringing into the market, will make you want
to keep up to date with that product to see if any of your ideas have been heard
of and used.
Another way I attracted my audience was to constantly keep my friends (who are
the age group in which I am targeting) up to date with my film, I asked them to
watch the film numerous times and advice me on what they think of it, it really
helped having this moral support as when they felt something was out or place or
didn’t flow correctly they would tell me and that gave me an opportunity to try
and perfect my product.

10. A key thing I also done was to ask my family members to watch the film without
telling them anything about it and tell me what they thought about it. My older
brothers and sisters who fit in the 15-20 year old age gap and just a few years
above correctly told me the genre and what the film could possibly be about.
Although my younger brother of 8 year of age could not tell me correctly, he
guessed it was a comedy as its stupid that a marble is moving on its own. This
doesn’t worry me what he though as I haven’t targeted my media product at his
age and also tells me that I shouldn’t target at his age group because they do not
understand the myths of todays world about spirits as he is to young, but it does
make me confident in knowing my older brothers and sisters confirmed what my
idea was without me having to tell them!

11. Whathaveyoulearntabouttechnologiesfromtheprocessof
constructingtheproduct?
Looking back a year ago today, I have learnt so much through this project. Firstly, I
have learnt how to use programmes on the computer such as coral video studio this
is the programme that I used to edit my filming. I didn’t want to use the schools
sony vegas as I wanted to work a lot from home on my product and focus on theory
within lesson time. Therefore as my dad had brought the software a while back I
taught myself how to install it on my laptop(that took time) and messed around
with it a bit and finally got to grips with it. Also I used sony vegas during my GCSE
media studies and I found the programme and the school computers froze a lot and
therefore I lost work from where I had forgot to save. However with the programme
I used, It ran smoothly and was good to use once you got to understand how to use
different tools. With this I was able to use the monochrome effect on my filming. I
added this during editing. I was able to film in monochrome if I wanted to but I was
still unsure at the time whether I wanted it in monochrome or not, therefore added
it during editing. I have also learnt about the different options that can be seen on a
DVD, for example extras like the directors commentary. I have also learnt about
different sounds for example non-diagetic sound that is sound that has been added
to filming during editing. I have also learnt about diagetic sound that is the original
sound that was present during filming. Also alongside this I learnt about the
different camera angles, such as birds eye view and point of view shots and what
they can represent if used correctly.

12. I learnt that using different camera angles can have effects as well, a high angle shot
is when the camera is looking at the subject from above, this can make the subject
seem less powerful whereas a low angle shot that sees the subject from below, can
make the subject look as if they have power. Here are some examples of this:
Source: http://www.jupiterimages.com/
Source: http://www.featurepics.com
As you can see the high
angle shot makes the
dog look venerable and
less powerful than the
bird.
Here you can see how
the low angle shot
makes the bird look
powerful.

13. Lookingbackatyourpreliminarytask,whatdoyoufeelyou
havelearntintheprogressionfromittothefullproduct?
When I made my preliminary task video, I didn’t take into account things such as
lighting and how to get filming done quickly. If I knew now what I knew then It
would of taken me less time to film the preliminary, I would plan what my locations
and film shots when I am in that location instead of filming in the sequence of the
scene. In the preliminary task shots were all basic, not many angles was used
whereas my full product contains different angles and the shots are not as shaky
(although some are purposely shaky) also the image quality is much more clear. I
have also learnt that background sound can be very annoying. Whilst filming the
preliminary I found that you could hear a lot of background sound, I soon learn that
the best way to change this is by muting the sound on the film and recording the
sound as non-diegetic. As an example from my full product whilst filming the marble
rolling I was going to use diegetic sound but whilst playing it back it was too muffled
therefore I added my own sound in during editing.