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

We would expect the title sequence to contain suspense and thrill. We would also expect the title sequence to show the genre of the film and set the tone of what the rest of the film is going to be like. Here the stills from my title sequence have been compared with the title sequence of the film Sherlock Holmes. In the title sequence, the convention is that title, credits and the institutional ident is at the start of the film. I believe that our group and the title sequence of Sherlock Holmes has stuck with this convention due to the fact that it is the norm at the start of films, with the exception of Michael Mann whose credits are always at the end of the film. At the beginning of the film you may see either lots of close up's or wide shots, depending on the message or what you are trying to achieve in the title sequence. The wide shot technique would be used to show the location more than anything else. In our title sequence, we didn't go with any wide shots however, our title sequence mainly consisted of close up shots of things such as the onions being chopped. This is different in the Sherlock Holmes as the title sequence consists of drawings at a mid shot range and medium close up range. Following this, another convention is that the audience can be drawn in by the sound in the film more than the initial visual that the audience would see. I would say that our title sequence is a bit of both as the visual makes it intreging and then the sound which comes in a little later adds to the effect of setting the suspensful tone of the rest of the film. In my opinion, Sherlock Holmes sticks with the convention of drawing the audience in with the sound as the visuals are not very eye catching as what other films may be (for example, Se7en). Mainly I think that our title sequence has the slow seduction structure rather than the quick thrill structure for many reasons. The main reason being that in our title sequence, everything is being built up instead having nothing but action. We done this because we didnt want to have so much action that the rest of the film may end up not meeting the audiences expectations. One example of this is the James Bond film called Quantum of Solace as it started with an action packed beginning with the car chase, however, I felt that when watching the rest of the film, it didnt meet the high expectations that had been built up from the beginning of the film. Sherlock Holmes fits in with the convention just like our title sequence as the whole title sequence is quite slow, allowing the film to make our expectations grow higher than what it first was. Finally, our title sequence introduces the characters and the location which is yet again fitting in with the film convention. The convention is that the title sequence would show either the location or the main character(s) that will be in the movie. Sherlock Holmes shows us the main characters within the film rather than the locations which shows that they are yet again sticking with convention. Overall, I'd say that Sherlock Holmes sticks with the codes and conventions of films more than what our title sequence actually does.

Our title sequence:

The title sequence of Sherlock Holmes:

Evaluation Question Five: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Alexandra (above) , 19, has just started an undergraduate degree in Media at university and has a part time job in an adversiting agency. She shares a flat with two friends, Ashley and Julia. They all enjoy drinking cocktails and shopping. Also,they go to the bar three to four times a week.

She watches dvds of FlashForward and Medical Investigations and loves thriller films and listens to 30 seconds to Mars. She has been dating Jude for a year. Her passion is to go back packing with Julia,Ashley and the rest of her friends.

Changes in light of feedback from roughcut

The clips needed to made shorter to fit the criteria of the film being no longer than two minutes. The sound levels had to changed so that it was not distorted.
We had to change the order of titles because we made a mistake by placing the names in the wrong heirachy of status within the cinematography industry. For example, the Producer has to be credited first because that is the person who hires the Director.
The fade effects were put in place to portray the eerie dark atmosphere of a psychological thriller film, which creates dramtic tension. Furthermore, this lead to more scene needed to be made darker to enhance the nature of the film.
Also, there was a dispute about the film's title, as some agreed that the 'The List' was not a clear meaning to our filming being about human cannibalism. Nevertheless, we decided to keep it because of the ambiguity surrounding how the film shows the routine and order of the character lifestyle being planned in as a list.
There was a disargeement amongst the staff, where some felt that the film was not ended in a way they approved with, on the other hand we argeed to keep our original idea because it was more dramatic than their idea.

Skills Audit: Soundtrack pro (making of composition)

The pictures above are showing the process of the sound for the final edit of the title sequence being created. We decided to stick with the main sounds which we demonstrated in the pitch. These were Appear Crystal 1,2,3; Drone Etheral; Footsteps heels cathedral walk and heavy water. However, we did add another sound which goes well. When the glass scene arrives, we have a sound which sounds like someone is rubbing the top of the glass. This makes the scene even more effective and it also succeeds in making the title sequence even more eerie. Melissa was in charge of putting the sound together and myself along with the rest of the group were giving advice and constructive criticism about what worked well and what didn't work so well. Overall, the group as a whole believe that it went smoothly and are very happy with the end result.

Skills Audit: Livetype (creation of titles)

The choice to use a serif font to show the formality of the human cannibalism. Also, the over- etching of the letters highlights the scribbles you tend to see on a list, as people can re-write something or re-think about there actions.
The medium shot of the frying pan on the stove creates the dominant nature of the fire being placed under the Producer's name as she is in charge of all the decision regarding the film and she decides who she hires in terms of Artist Director, Director and Sound Manager.



The specific skills of the film being used to see the film clearly without it being unclear to watch. Also, we learnt the layer effect as the font goes over the frying pan, whilst it is on the hot heat.




The juxtapositon of the black background against the white writing 'THE LIST' conveys boldness amongst the characters and the film's purpose, as human cannibalism is not common. This shows the character is an individualist, who believes in what she does and carries the courage to continue eating humans.

Skills Audit: Editing

This took the longest time as it took approximately 5 to 6 hours which included our own time and lesson time. We wanted it to be as perfect as we could get it. At the end of each clip we put a fade so they all fade in and out, making the title sequence smoother and more efficiently. Following this, we also made the clips darker than what the raw files were in order to keep with our theme of suspicion. Also for the glass scene, we made it go in slow motion to give the desired effect which was to make the audience wonder why blood is flowing through the water making it red. It was hard to get all the slips together in the right order and get them to flow together, making the title sequence easier for the audience to watch. The techniques and tools that we learned through the skills audit which we had done with the class previously really helped in allowing us to make the title sequence in the best way we could. although it was a challenge, we are more than happy with the result and it was the best feeling ever seeing the good result produced after so many hours have been channeled into the editing process of the title sequence.

make up tutorials

When doing the make up for the title sequence, we watched a few tutorials on youtube in order to get a feel for the type of make up we have to use in order to achieve our looks. These are some of the tutorials that we looked at and we used them to inspire our look to an extent, however, we were able to put out own twist on it as we al had a main idea for what we wanted to achieve and Yasmin and Melissa are very good with using make up.

This is when we were thinking of creating wounds for the dead body, however, we decided against it due to the fact that we didn't feel that it was necessary nor did we have enough time to get the wounds to look real and perfect. We looked at the tutorial below in order to see how we would do the psychopaths make up (played by Yasmin Phillips).