Evaluation

In our opening sequence of media film, we focus our attention mainly on character ‘Poppy Iris’ played by Phillippa Davis. We’ve aimed to base are genre of the film mainly on teen horror. We see this girl walking through corridors then into a toilet cubicle. This is where she experiences fear, distress and other overwrought feelings. After throwing up and pacing around, she gets a phone call, which seems to make her anxious and leads to her taking her anger out on trashing the toilet cubicle. When she is now sobbing on the floor the lights suddenly cut out, and underneath the toilet cubical, there is a pair of feet waiting outside before we see a shot of that person’s hand reaching out for scared Poppy screaming. This opening sequence ends with the camera zooming in on a running tap while Poppy’s screams are still being heard and the title of the film ‘Teenage Tragedy’ appearing. Most openings for films usually start off by introducing the main characters. In some horror movies they start off good then things start to go bad. But in other horror films they start off with terror and keep it going through the whole film or it goes into a flash back that leads up to the event. What we decided was to have the opening sequence to base the whole concept of the film.
The situation that the character perceives in the opening of the film, relates to others in unavoidable circumstances which lead to devastating results. we are aware she is in the toilet as a safe place then later on with another person whom she is trying to avoid, when it ends at cliff hanger of her screaming. The camera work is another example of how certain shots are used in order to present the status of the character The high angle shots in the product display Poppy trashing the toilet cubicle, it shows her as a victim as the camera is pointing down at her, making her seem vulnerable and show that she will be a victim of what is yet to come.
The location of the opening sequence is in the corridors and in the toilet cubicle. We chose to have it in a school because it establishes the indication that this is a teen genre. It also indicates that the mysterious hand who comes after Poppy has more dealings with her then we thought ( goes to school with her).
As this film has a teen genre, I can relate this to the film to ‘successful British teen drama ‘Skins’. Skins is teen drama mainly aimed at youths. Even though the opening sequence of Teenage Tragedy is only two minutes and the only teenager is Poppy, I regard that the genre is also to do with youth. Although the title is a big give away at the end of the opening sequence, before that there are aspects that identify as youth. First of by what the actress is wearing. Her costume shows the youth of Poppy. When there is a close up of her hand slammed against the wall we see the bracelets she is wearing on her hand, which are not a typical choice for an adult to wear, which narrows it down to youths. Also the colour and state of nail varnish indicates status and immaturity of a teen. Again when we see the hand reaching out for Poppy, the person is wearing black, chipped nail varnish. This shows that this person has a lot on their mind by scratching their nails a lot.
By the two characters wearing black nail varnish, opens up a new range of target audience. Emo’s and Goth’s relate to the colour black a lot, and seeing the colour of the nail varnish could make them interact with the film more. The colour represents power, death, sadness, and sometimes can be categorized as deceitful and dishonest. For the viewers to see the black nail varnish they have an indication of bad vibe in the opening sequence.
The background music played against the opening sequence of Teenage Tragedy is called trudge which is played all the way through the sequence. It fits in perfectly with the film, from when the titles come up, to the change in beat when Poppy starts pacing around. The sound of the music playing helps tie in the emotions of what Poppy experiences. For example when Poppy trashes the cubical out of anger it fits in because we placed that shot in to two swap shots in slow motion. The music there is quite slow and calm but ferocious at the same time. This music represents youth because it is an alternative rock genre which is mostly listen to by young people.
In the opening sequence of skins when the main character Tony does his morning workout, he does it along side music. The music he is listening to is within beat to is exercise. This film is mostly aimed at youths/ people aged 15- 24 because like the title says ‘Teenage Tragedy’ it seems to be about teenagers. This film mainly based on a horror youth drama may interests people who like films like ‘Final Destination’ or ‘I know what you did last summer‘. I think the film might appeal to more girls then boys as the opening sequence starts off with a girl and there is know reference to the male gender. Males tend to like action based films more than females. I think for the males to be intrigued with the film, will of have to be more engaged when they see the action part of Poppy trashing the toilets. Teenagers who have a similar place in mind might engage with the film more. Poppy is distress and pacing around comes across that she has something on her mind and through out the film we realise she can’t cope with what is going on. Teenagers who have a similar situation ( struggling with the coming of age moment) would feel the same that they can’t cope with family. Friends exams and might be going through a rough time. Both Poppy and the viewer can connect with this.
Who ever the viewer is they might be attracted to the film because of the music being played (alternative/rock). People who like that genre of music might make them more appealing to the film. The music does sound modern so again around the age group of 15- 24 (give or take a few years). People with a status of being a cliché of an alternative/indie/rock personality. It could also be aimed at middle class white people. As the main character is a white female herself, white females will relate to Poppy more then any other ethnic group. There is a sense that Poppy could be middle class from her formal language. When talking on the phone, even in fear and frustration, she doesn’t put a word out of place and she doesn’t give off an informal impression.
Before we did are questionnaire we based are target audience on being 15-24 years old/teenagers, who prefer horror teen films. We were not certain on what ethnicity we will attract more or social class. We decide that who ever prefers teen horror films like final destination then they would like our film. When we actually did our questionnaire we came to our conclusion that are main target audience were 15-18 year olds and the people who said they were going to see it in cinema were mainly Indie white females. Some of the people who took the questionnaire stated that they will be more likely to see it in the cinema if it was advertised well. For example if we had a higher budget we could put web links and groups up on facebook and have trailers placed on msn hotmail there would be more of a chance of them wanting to go view it in the cinema.
With the film having the name of Lion Gate (one of the major independent filmed entertainment studios), people might recognize the name and compare it to other major films that the company have produced such as the Saw films, which are horror films. We have Lion Gate at the start of our opening sequence before we see any part of the actual film. When the first thing we see is a floor level medium shot of Poppy walking slightly towards the camera. The camera is still until her feet are walking past and it becomes a medium shot of Poppy still walking in the corridor. Here is when ‘Revolver Entertainment’ appears in a normal font, it appears in the bottom right and then the two words leave by having ‘Revolver’ going right and ‘Entertainment’ going left. Revolver Entertainment is a USA film distributor based here in the UK. There first major feature film was recently Shank. This is a British teen action movie, purely focusing on the youth generation.
The filming of our opening sequence took longer than we expected it to be.When we started to edit are film product, there was quite a lot of decisions on what to get rid of, what to change and what to add in. To get the opening sequences of a maximum time on 2minuets, we had to cut out parts that even though took up only 0.5 seconds to make the film look intact. For example, the match on action shot on Poppy walking through the door, we had to take off a second so it could look perfected. This was the second time editing a film and we had to again get used to the editing process Experimenting with what music we would use and considering if we were going to add any extras into the film is what we were perfecting the most. There were about three different choices of music for the sequence, with different lengths. We first maybe wanted to do more of a horror sound, but because of the surroundings it didn’t fit as much. But the music that we chose (trudge) was, as it suited the genre of youth and the suspiciousion /anger of horror.
Adding the two snap shots between the parts where Poppy starts to trash the toilet cubical can either appeal to the viewers in two different ways. In our questionnaire some people said that it was a good edit to the film but others said it made the film unrealistic and cheesy against the music playing.
Looking back at our preliminary task, I think that are camera techniques have improved, because before when we started it out, the shots would come out shaky. And now the control of the angels and zooms of a shot is more acceptable then before.
With our opening sequence we have experimented with different types of shots to make it appeal better. We’ve learnt how to perfect high angle shots and improved on are match on action shots.
I do think that there is a bit of similarity between both as in the preliminary task we put in slow motion and action at the same time and in this task there is again a slow motion shot with action. From doing the preliminary task to the opening sequence, I feel that I’ve been more evolved in making the opening sequence. In the preliminary task, it was basic enough to just shoot the production and with the editing I didn’t know much about the iMovie application so it was uneasy to edit it without help. But second time around with the opening sequence, I was able to part direct the sequence and part edit it. I gave my views across as I was more confident using the technology. It paid off because I think that we did a good job with this project.
If I were to change or improve this product, I would want it to come across as an opening sequence more as sometimes it is too slow and at others it is too much to start off with. The answers we got were very constructive feedback. From that we know how we could improve our opening sequence. The film didn’t apply as well to both genders or all social status or personalities. If we were to film again and try to make the film appeal to more people we would and students into the background of the school corridor or have different personality friends of Poppy and briefly acknowledge her . These people will come across with different personalities by the way that the speak, dress or by there ethnicity.
Although the music works well with the film, it could come across as a music video because the track is playing all the way through. If we had better equipment like a big budgeted film company, the lighting and depth of the film quality would be improved.