Our opening title sequence - Sharp White

Here is our opening title sequence, Sharp White.
I don't think it is as good as it could have been. I thoroughly enjoyed the first year of the Media Studies course and can't wait until next year!

Evaluation 'bloopers'

We had great fun filming for our opening sequence and evaluation. When editing for the evaluation questions i cut out some of the bits we done wrong and some of the bits where we was having a laugh. 

EVALUATION Question7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

To answer this question we thought it would be best to do it in a video. This is a video of me, Keira and Luke, 3 out of 4 group members. It is not scripted, this was all thinking about the question as i read them of the sheet. 

EVALUATION Question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

EVALUATION Question 4 AND 5 - Who would be the audience for your media product? AND How did you attract/address your audience?

This is our answer for this question, we thought it would be best answered in a video. We all done research into thriller audiences so this is just a short video saying who our audience would be and why. In this video there is me, Keira and Luke - Jasmine was not in school again.

We recently had a media showcase to show staff and other media students what we have achieved with our films. After watching all the films, me, Keira and Luke then interviewed some teachers and the head teacher to see what they thought of our film Sharp White.

Before interviewing the teachers, Keira wrote down questions for us to ask them so we knew what we were doing. The questions were as follows;

EVALUATION Question 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media products and why?

EVALUATION Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

EVALUATION Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Effect	Scene	Evidence
Use of Narrative		By seeing someone dead on the floor with blood smudged beside them, immediately connotes to the genre thriller/horror. By having this at the start of the film, is going against the conventions, as normally the person/people will die later on. Within the first few seconds of the sequence you can tell that there has been a murder, the audience will then automatically assume that they will find out what happened further on into the film, which in Sharp White is correct. Luke comes in and rushes down to my side, with his head in his hands phoning 999.
Mise-en-Scene		We used fast jump cuts of the splattered blood and open wound to create tension. This connotes to murder as there is a camera noise played and evidence cards are also showed, this tells the audience that this is now a crime scene. By not introducing the protagonist challenges the conventions of thriller films, usually the protagonist is shown and then maybe later on killed. Also by having the protagonist murdered in her own home is again challenging the conventions, as she is meant to feel safe within the comfort of her home, but we seen her as vulnerable as she is home alone.
Editing Techniques	SHORT CLIP OF THE PHONE CALL	We used several different types of editing techniques within our sequence, the one that stands out the most is the 999 phone call. We had a two way phone call to the police of Luke reporting the murder, to do this we recorded it with my phone then i made it compatible with iMovie then merged it into the film. The audience can hear in Luke's voice the fear and shock, without seeing his emotion we made sure you could hear it. The other editing that is in this sequence is added in thunder and lightning, jump cuts and slow motion when the living room door opens.
Use of Camera	SOME OF THE DIFFERENT SHOTS USED.	We used a range of different shots in our sequence, such as; close up, long shot, mid shot, over the shoulder shot and a wide shot.  We used a long shot of me going to my car to show the audience that in the background are the three strangers,watching me. This adds tension, as they know that I'm being watched but I don't.
Special Effects		The only special effects used in sharp white is the film title, actors names and a slight change of colour to the jump cuts of blood/open wound.  We went against the conventions of a thriller title by having a plain font, most fonts are red to symbolize blood. Ours is grey and white, the white part is the word 'white' to emphasize the word. When adding in the jump cuts, we thought we would play around a bit with the colour and found an effect which made the blood look more eerie.

Ideas From 'The Strangers'

We liked the idea that in the strangers they are watching their victims, without them knowing, so we used that in idea in our film.

This is from The Strangers, one of them is inside the house watching the woman in the kitchen. At this point in the film, she has a feeling that she is being watched but hasn't seen anyone yet.








This is from Sharp White, all three strangers are watching the victim (me) get stuff from my car. I am unaware that they are down the road watching me as I carry on fetching my school work.

We also used the idea of them watching me as I walked into my room, as I place my books down I think that I see them. When I turn around there's nothing there. This then builds the tension on where the person has gone. 

Research into Existing Titles

Before coming to a decision of what our title should look like, i did some research into existing titles from some thriller films.

Most thriller film titles are red, this symbolizes blood and danger. Some are white, this stands out on DVD covers and advertisements against the dark dingy backgrounds.

I then used the website 'dafont' and searched in the 'horror' genre. And picked my favourite designs, this is what i ended up with. 

I like all of these designs, they all look like something you would see on a existing DVD cover. Some look like they are written in blood, this makes it clear to the audience that the film would be gory. 

Gender representation in films

Male Stereotypes; 

• Tough
• Heroic
• Strong
• Not sensitive
• Aggressive

Female Stereotypes;

• Fragile
• Victim
• 'Damsel in Distress'
• Weak
• Sensitive

In Thriller films the male is usually the hero, whereas the female would be the victim or the person in need of help. There could be a male 'hero' then the female could be his 'sidekick'. 

In 'The Stranger' there is a male and female victim, the male is more in control of the situation as he tells the woman what to do and how to react. He takes control over the gun, as he sends her to look for ammo. The strangers target the woman as they see her as vulnerable. The strangers are two females and one male. 

In 'Sharp White' the victim is a female, as we see her as vulnerable, weak and helpless. Our three strangers are all female, then the person who finds the dead body is male. This makes a change from the killers being male, which is normally the case.

Sharp White Film Cover

This is the official DVD cover for Sharp White, which was created by my group member Keira. It includes pictures from the movie, a blurb, a barcode, names of actors and the film certificate. This is what every DVD cover has, by including these she follows the typical conventions of a DVD cover.

Audience Response

I sent the link to the youtube video to some friends, after watching it i then sent them the link to an online survey. Some completed it, others didn't. I did this to find out what people thought of our film. The questions were straight forward and easy to answer. These were my results.

Altogether i would say that 'Sharp White' got a positive review from the people who filled in my survey, they all seemed to rate it quite high. Everyone agreed that the music went with the film and everyone understood the storyline of 'Sharp White' even though they only seen the first 2 minutes.

Production companies

I decided to take a look at the production company behind 'The Strangers' turns out there was two; Vertigo Entertainment and Mandate Pictures. 
Both companies are well known and successful. 

So our film will be produced be either of these companies, or maybe both. 



'Vertigo Entertainment' have produced films such as;

• The Woman in Black
• Abduction
• The Uninvited
• Possession

This is just a few of their films i have picked from their list which is on,Vertigo Entertainment List of Films.

'Mandate Pictures' were founded in 2001 and produced their first film in 2001, under their old name of 'Senator International'. In 2006 they produced their first film under the name 'Mandate Pictures'. They have produced films such as; 

• Juno
• The Strangers
• Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

This is a few of their films which i got from, List Of Mandate Pictures Films.

The Strangers was released by 'Rogue Pictures'. Who have also released a number of successful films, such as;

• Hot Fuzz
• Doomsday
• The Unborn
• Shaun of the Dead

This is were i got these films from, Rogue Pictures List of Films.

Marketing and Distribution

'Sharp White' is based around the same story line as the existing film, 'the strangers', to advertise they used TV adverts. The advert was played on all TV channels after 9 pm, this is so it would be shown to an older audience which is what they want. We will also use TV adverts to advertise our film, as it helped 'the strangers' alot so hopefully it will be a great help to us to. 
They used other methods of advertisement such as; posters, billboards and adverts on public transport e.g buses. We will also use these ways to advertise our film as they have proven effective, not just for 'the strangers' but over well known films.

I made this little advert which could be used in a newspaper or magazine. I think the fact it has little info, will make people want to find out more, maybe they would google 'Sharp White' or contact their local cinema. 

We will advertise our film on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, by creating ad's on the side of their page and links to the official trailer. Hopefully once people have seen the advertisements they will want to find out more and either purchase a copy or go to the cinema to view it.
There are normally other films advertised on these websites, which are well known, so hopefully ours will become successful with the help from 'Facebookers' etc. 

By creating a Facebook and Twitter account especially for our film, we could then post information telling people about upcoming screenings and possible merchandise. I feel this is a good way to advertise to a young adult audience as many people use Facebook and Twitter each day. We could also upload spoilers and short behind the scenes footage onto a YouTube account, this could then make people want to see more of the film.

We put links on our facebook so all our friends and family could see some of the clips, which would then hopefully get them interested into watching the whole film. Also they would be able to share the link, then more and more people would hear of our film 'Sharp White'.

We done tweets on our Twitter account to help get the word of 'Sharp White' around. With a link to the youtube video, if people liked what they seen they could then re-tweet it and help us by getting more people to see it. 

We also have a Tumblr account made, this is very rare with films as you don't usually see tumblr accounts like this. Many teenagers us tumblr every day, so by doing this we have again raised possible viewers. 

Research into 'Working title' Productions

'Working title films' is a British film production company, based in London. Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe founded the company in 1983. It produces feature films and several television productions.
They have produced films such as, 'Four Weddings and a Funeral', 'Love Actually', 'Thunderbirds' and 'Les Miserables' just some of the many successful films they have been part of.
They have produced many films with different genres, from thrillers to romantic to comedies. This then largens their target audience as some point they will make a film that will please each person.

Film Certificate

The film 'The Strangers' has a rating of '15'. Because our film is along the lines of the strangers, we thought that we would rate 'Sharp White' as a '15' too, we decided this because there is hard language, intense violence and other elements. Children under the age of 15 are not allowed to attend this screening unaccompanied by a parent/adult. They will also not be aloud to purchase the DVD without being asked for some sort of ID.

We thought this would make sense as we have targeted teenagers as our audience. I think that teenagers of 15+ would be interested in seeing our film, because of the violence and bad language. The Strangers was successful with the age group of 15+, this is another reason we think teenagers of them ages will enjoy our film.

Why are opening title sequences important to the film industry?

Opening title sequences are important because it is the first thing that the audience will see, in the first few minutes it will set their expectations for the rest of the film. A good opening sequence will make the viewer want to watch more, but a bad opening sequence might make them not want to watch more. you could say that the opening sequence can either make or break a film.

Saul Bass once said; ‘making a main-title was like making a poster, you’re condescending the event into this one concept, this one metaphor, a back-story that needs to be told or a character that needs to be introduced.’ 

Sharp White shot list

Shot List

The range of shots we have used are as follow;

Long shot: - Walking in and out of the house.

Medium shot: - Strangers outside

Close up: - Door opening

Extreme close up: - Blood on the floor, Cut on my head

Over the shoulder shot: - Looking through the window

Sharp White script

Sharp White Script

The only talking in Sharp White was the phone call, this is how it went...

Jasmine- 999 whats your emergency?

Luke- *Breathing heavily*

Jasmine- 999 whats your emergency?

Luke- She's dead! She's dead!

Jasmine- Sir, where are you?

Luke- Help me, please help me, I think their still here!

*phone gets cut*


To record the conversation, we used my phone. I have an app called Blackberry voice recorder. Once we were happy with the phone call, I then formatted the file so it was compatible with Imovie, then added it into our movie.

Editing Sharp White

I did the editing for our opening sequence in our group. Choosing where which clip goes, the choice of titles and other editing procedures. I think i understand how to use the software 'IMovie' the most, so my group let me get on with it. I did offer to give them a go at it but the answer was always no. I did also ask for help but not much feedback was given. Keira had the idea to use a blur effect when the strangers were coming closer to the camera. This effect made the sequence quicker and looks better than without it. 

Jasmine and Keira helped when it came to choosing the music, we used the pre-loaded music on 'IMovie' and used our mobile phone to create the phone call, which then had to be converted online so it was compatible for IMovie.

Choosing the sound;