How does your film sequence represent social groups?

In our film sequence, it represents teenagers as being independent college students because one of the characters is working part time in a cafe. Both of the teenage characters are also represented as being mature and respectful in the way that they talk. For example, when they have the conversation in the cafe, the main character addresses his costumer as " sir" and the costumer replies politely as well. Also, the plot for our opening sequence can be regarded as controversial for some people, so it represents the target audience ( teenagers) as being people who want to try new things and broaden their horizons. Also, the plot is kind of ambigious because it doesn't really comfirm if the stalker is in love with the main character or if he simply wants to kill him. This might appeal teenagers because it allows them to interpret the story themselves.
When it comes to the costume, our protagonist is wearing normal, casual clothes and a bag whereas the antagonist is wearing black from head to toe, a hat and doesn't have anything with him. In films, the antagonist typically wears black clothing whereas the protagonist wears normal clothes. Our opening sequence represents the teenagers as people who are fearful of their sexuality and expressing feelings towards each other and girls.               Watching this, viewers might feel like this could relate to them and they might start to question things or they might become paranoid if a stranger approaches them . Our film goes against stereotypes because instead of a white female and a white male, the two leads are black teenage boys and you don't really see that very often in films. The message we're giving by the casting choice is that anyone can

How did your film attract/adress your audience?

The target audience for our opening sequence is teenage boys from 14 to 19. This is because both the characters are teenage boys of that age group and therefore they target audience can relate to them. Women and older men are less likely to be interested in a film with teenage boys because they generally can't relate to them. Although, you could argue that despite the gender and age of the main characters, anyone might be interest in this because the plot isn't something too specific where only a certain group can relate to it ( gang violence). Also, the reason for the target audience being males instead of females is because boys generally wouldn't be interested in this if the main characters were both female. Our target audience can be from anywhere that's a big city, people anyone that lives in a major city can relate to the plot. You're most likely to be approached by weird people in cities rather than small villages or towns where most people know each other. The target audience would also have to be a fan or horror films or thrillers.

I think one of the things that has attracted our audience was the fact that the leads were two young, black teenagers who are British. most thriller films have a white American male, who are in their 30s, as the lead so our target audience can't really relate to them whereas they can identify with this cast. The plot of our film attracts our audience because most teenage boys aren't really interested in romantic comedies or family films where everyone is chappy, i think the majority of them probably enjoy suspense and creepy stalker plots. It also attracts our audience because it's realistic. It's set in a normal town, where the main character is doing his Saturday job at the local cafe so it's not really fancy ( e.g business man/secret agent with a sports car etc). Also, the setting of the film appeals to our audience because they're more likely to watch something that is set in their oen hometown rather than some random place in a different country. Also, during the conversation in the cafe, David is quite brave and fights back and tells him to leave the cafe. I think most teenagers would do that instead of ignoring them.

In what ways does your opening sequence use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real film opening sequences of the genre?

A young man (David) works part-time at a local cafe. He gets into an argument with a costumer but that argument will lead to a vicious chase that will cause devastating consequence for both of them. The genre of our film is horror although it's not your typical horror film. Our film really focuses on panic, fear, paranoia and mystery. The panic and fear being when the man attacks David, and the mystery being that the audience and David don't know who the man is and what he wants. The opening sequence keeps the audience at the edge of their seat without giving too much away too soon. So by the time it ends, there's still room left for a full length film. It starts with equilibrium and then a disruption, so that's where the opening sequence ends. The recognition, repair and new equilibrium is for the full film.

Our opening sequence uses thriller conventions because it has a protagonist who comes across as a normal teenage boy and an antagonist who comes across as a weird stalker. It also uses thriller conventions because it had a definition of obsession at the beginning of the film. It was Daniel's idea and we agreed that it would be a nice touch. The film ' The Town' which is also a thriller gives the viewers some general information and quotes at the start and initially, that was what we had in mind. Additionally, the shaky camera movements when there is a close-up of David were intentional because we wanted David's uneasiness to come across, he feels quite nervous and uncomfortable and we wanted to audience to feel to same. A lot of thriller films actually use this shaky cam to project the character's feelings or the general mood of a particular scene.

It challenges the forms and conventions of thriller films because although there is a protagonist and an antagonist in the beginning, those two are actually both protagonists as we later find out the " stalker" is harmless (e.g One Hour Photo, we think ). It also develops and challenges conventions of the thriller genre because it's not as dark and gritty as most thriller are, it actually looks more like a drama, until the very end. It challenges thriller conventions because they're both male instead of a vulnerable female protagonist and a male antagonist. However, it also challenges thriller conventions because the antagonist later becomes a protagonist instead of being the evil antagonist throughout the whole film ( e.g one hour photo). Another way our opening sequence develops forms and conventions of thriller films is although it's set in a big city ( London), we used a relatively small and quiet neighbourhood instead of the busy part of town where the majority of thriller films are set.

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

The preliminary task was useful because it was like a practise exercise before we got to work on the actual project and i have learnt quite a lot from it. One thing that I have learnt during the making of the preliminary task is that when you are filming a conversation scene, you have to put the camera in a certain angle (360) so that you can see both characters without seeing the camera. When I was shooting our opening sequence, i kept in mind that you are supposed to see both their reactions. Another thing that I have learnt during the preliminary task was to use smooth camera movements when appropriate. During most of our opening sequence, we tried to keep the camera movements smooth and avoid any shakiness. However, there were a few times when it was quite shaky but that was actually intentional to make the viewers feel uncomfortable with the character.

When editing the preliminary task, i have learnt a few things that would be useful later on. One of them is that
that continuity is very important, when your putting shots together you have to make sure it flows and makes sense. Another thing that I learnt is that when I'm editing, cutting to different shots and angles will make a particular shot look more appealing than if I just used one shot from one angle. So when we were editing our opening sequence we used shots from different angles for each sequence. We also kept in mind the continuity so that the shots go  smoothly together. We didn't use any titles or text for our preliminary task, but we did for our opening sequence. We also didn't use any music in our preliminary task but we did in our opening sequence. Overall, the preliminary task did get me ready for the opening sequence because I learnt useful skills and information that I wouldn't have otherwise when it comes to filming and editing.

What are the conclusions of the audience feedback?

Most people were impressed with the intro at the beginning. they also liked the non-digetic music in the background. A lot of them also thought that the dialog was clear and the music matched the visual. They also thought that the tracking shots were good and the plot was interesting. Most of them thought that the ending was funny. Some people said it was too dark in the cafe scenes and would be better if we used some professional lighting or covered the windows. Another negative feedback we've received is that there was no production logo and the camera should have be more steady. According to the feedback, it would have been better if we hadn't used fake names and there were a few times when the actors looked into the camera.

If we had the chance to do it again, I would talk to the actors before shooting to make sure they don't look into the camera. I noticed that the actors occasionally look into the camera. I would also plan ahead and borrow some lighting equipment so that the lighting is better inside the cafe. At the time we didn't really have a choice so we worked with what we got ,but it would have been better if we did have better lighting. I would also make sure the camera was more steady. We used the steady cam, but i don't think we used it properly. But the shot where David is walking home and there's a close up of his face is supposed to be shaky. If we had to do it again i would also get a different cafe. I thought the location was good, but the cafe itself was a bit small and hard to work with but it was perfect because it wasn't always busy.

What kind of media institution might distribute your film and why?

Distribution Company

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing and evaluating the product?

When we had to edit our product, we first had to capture it onto a Mac. We did this by keeping the tape in the camera and setting the camera to VCR mode. We then had to connect the camera and mac by using the firewire cable. After that we opened up Final cut pro, selected file and capture. When we got all of our footage we started the editing process, which was quite lenthy. We started off by editing the first few seconds of our opening sequence, which included an establishing shot, and the main character walking into the cafe and setling down. To get a particular sequence we wanted, we had to double click on the file and set in and out points and then drag it in the timeline or else the whole entire sequence will be dragged and it will be a nightmare to edit. When we were satisfied with the edited product, we then had to add in extra thigns like music and text. Throughout the editing process, we modified a lot of things. For example, we re-shot a few scenes to improve them and then we had to edit it again for continuity.