Evaluation - Sophie Spear

Our project was to produce an opening sequence for a movie. We joined a group and worked together to do this. My group consisted of myself, Joe Holden and Natalie Ainsworth. As a group we tended to share tasks rather than appoint each other particular roles. I myself did a lot of the filming/photography and costume design whilst Natalie did the directing and editing and Joe came up with the initial script and did the acting with his twin Alex Holden. We also had Helen Keegan acting as the female character in the sequence

The genre we chose to produce was action/war. To create this genre effectively we chose suitable clothing that would be seen in other war movies. We found out what these particular outfits consisted of by doing research on the internet. The next step we took was to sketch out a few initial designs for outfits. It was vital to do this to help create a sense of realism.
There are many things that are found in war/action movies such as; weapons, armies etc. If we did this piece of coursework again, I think I would perhaps try to choose a different genre that would be easier to achieve on such a low budget and with lack of filming equipment

I also think our opening sequence has most of the conventions that are typically found in an opening sequence of a movie. These conventions are;

• Introduce main characters
• Raise enigmas
• Set the scene/location

Our audience feedback showed that 95% of people who were shown the movie understood the genre of the movie.

The social groups we have represented in our piece of coursework are men and women. Firstly the vast difference between the two is the costume we chose for both genders. The male characters wore very typical ‘gritty army’ outfits such as black boots, combat pants and black gloves. In contrast to this, the female actress was dressed in more feminine clothes such as a scarf, white vest and a khaki army jacket. I think these choices fit in with the stereotypes of male/females in the media. As we dressed the men darker and not particularly conscious over what they were wearing, whilst the female was dressed in a more visually pleasing and thought about outfit.

However, I think we did offer an alternative representation of women. Women are shown to be the weaker sex in the media. In contrast to this the female in our sequence is the only surviving person from her troop in the war – that has happened prior to the movie. I think this gives the sequence. a unique approach and sets it apart from most within the same genres which have been previously produced. It may also increase the amount of viewers that the movie receives, as women may want to go and see the movie because they are being shown in a positive way in our sequence.

I think Film Four would distribute our opening sequence. Film Four is a free digital television channel in the UK. I think Film Four would distribute our particular product because it doesn’t focus on broadcasting blockbusters. Instead it shows independent, British movies, which is what we aimed to achieve. A recent example of a movie that Film Four have distributed is the 8 Oscar award winning Slumdog Millionaire.

I think our audience would consist of a variety of people. Firstly I think that males would watch the movie more than females, however because there is the added essense of the woman being the main role then women may also go to see the movie. A example of this happening was with the blockbuster G.I. JANE(1997) starring Demi Moore. I think the age range of viewers would be 16-25. As I believe that the movie would be too advanced to capture young children's attention for the duration of the movie but also it may be too much action for the older generation to enjoy.

However it could go out of these catergories mentioned as people may have a special interest in war/action movies and would then go and see the movie. With the catergories I've predicted, it is a good audience with a wide range and would be great for the product financially.

Having looked at our audience feedback I think that the movie would be a hit with the age range I predicted as the ages of the people who completed the feedback were 17 - 18 and 80% of the people commented that they would go and see the movie.

We tried to attract the audience in many ways,firstly chronologically. We wanted to capture the peoples attention quickly so we placed flashbacks in the sequence to give background information. The flashbacks shows that the soldiers had died in a war. We wanted to show clearly which clips were flashbacks to avoid confusion. After much deliberation we decided to put the flashbacks in greyscale.

Also we didnt want to give too much of the storyline away with the opening sequence as we wanted people to be interest and wanting to watch further. Having recieved the audience feedback quite alot of the answers to the questions were positive e.g ' Do you understand what is happening in the sequence?' But some answers suggested that people may have needed a little bit more time to understand what the film was trying to portray.

We also used voice overs throughout the sequence. We did this as we thought it would help the audience understanding what has previously happened but also what is to come.

I think the composition of the shots are much more interesting than those in our preliminary task. I think this was because over the period of time we were preparing for our project and throughout the project we gained a indepth understanding of the equipment and technology we were using. For example we have tried to include more extreme close up shots as they are very interesting visually. As well as this there is an added transition that gives the video greater quality and authenicity. One particular transition we used was dissolve. When the female is walking down the hill, we used this rather than the full footage to show time passing. In our preliminary task we didn't include any transitions such as fade out, we simply had shot to shot.

We also began with a panning shot of the landscape where we had been filming. We chose to use this at the beginning, as setting your location is one of the conventions that we needed to include. I think the location also helped give the video a much more realistic feel rather filming in college as we did in the preliminary task.

Overall I am happy with the final piece of our coursework. I like how we have used flash backs and many transitions in our sequence. Also I think it was a good idea to film in several places and collage these together rather than just filming a continuous scene. However, if I did this piece of coursework again I would plan easier plot as the one we chose was quite ambitious and hard to create. Also I would perhaps chose a different genre as the war/action genre is difficult to achieve on a low budget and a short amount of time.

Although, with the resources we had I think we did very well and produced a close article and did this together as a group.