In what ways does our media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The title of our film
The title of our film is displayed in the final frame of our opening piece, this allows a build up to be made in order to reveal the identity of who one would assume to be the unidentified mysterious character.  We used a large sized font to create the title, which allows the audience to see behind the titles which gives a sense that something is to be unveiled.

Setting/location

The setting we decided to choose to shoot our opening sequence was in a simple bedroom area, this was set at my house. We used a traditional style white dressing table in order to give an angelic feel to the environment, this contrasted with the dimmed candle lit light. Furthermore an example of a movie set in a homely area is the introduction of "American Psycho", the lighting in this film contrasts to the actions that are to take place in the film similarly to ours. The difference is that our movie begun with a chilling atmosphere due to the light we used within a safe and comfortable setting.

Props
Props we decided to use in our film are seen to be conventional female beauty products which are used on a daily basis whilst getting ready. These props would not be found in a typical horror movie. One item we used to create a typical horror atmosphere was a standard large kitchen knife. This knife is similar to those used in horror movies such as the shower scene in 'Psycho'.

Camerawork and editing

The shot in our opening sequence which is influenced strongly by the film 'Se7en' is the one where Hope is filing her nails which is taken up close, similarly to that of the hand in Se7en where a hand is shown to be sewing.

This shot creates the mysterious atmosphere we were aiming to create. It also keeps the identity of Hope hidden from the audience watching.

Title, font and style

The style of credits we used in our film were influenced by the style of those used in the movie 'Se7en'.

Using the same style of writing for each of our credits creates mystery due to the writing being see-through, using this creates suspense as to what is happening behind the text.

The style of font we used is simple yet effective and has not been used in any other movies we researched, which suggests out credits were an original idea. A comparison could be made between our credits and those which are presented in the movie "Se7en".

Story and how the opening sets it up 

The opening sequence we have put together sets up the rest of the film by introducing a character who's identity is hidden from the audience. This enables the set up of the following scenes to slowly reveal the identity of the character Hope. This is similar to the use of hidden character in the film 'Texas chainsaw massacre' which creates suspense and suggests something is to take place.

Genre and how the opening the suggests it
It is made clear from the opening sequence that the genre of our movie is horror. This is shown through the eerie music which creates an unsettling feeling, whilst the abstract camera shots create an unsafe environment. The opening sequence we created gives off the same vibes felt through watching 'Se7en', it creates suspense and unsettles the watcher in to wondering what will take place as little is given away whilst watching the opening and only a build up of tension is made.

How characters are introduced
There is only one character introduced in our opening sequence. The character of Hope which we introduce from the very beginning of the film has her identity hidden from the audience, all the audience can see from the start is the character from behind revealing long feminine blonde hair. We then reveal parts of Hope through various camera shots such as the lips and hands. Revealing the hands of the character before letting the audience see the face allows them to focus on the actions of the character, this is similar to in 'Se7en when we can see the actions of the actor but not the identity.

Filming of pictures.

In lesson time, Stephanie and I put together a range of photos and magazine articles relating to the character of HOPE, whilst Antar and Tom worked on the editing. We gathered up group images of 'Hope' and cut out articles such as 'how to be happy in a social situation' which we found to be of relevance to the film we were creating. After doing this we placed the images on a blank wall and created a collage, this was then filmed close up with a monopod to create a personal effect and draw attention to HOPE'S personality meanwhile hiding her identity.

Filming Shoot two.

The second shooting of Hope took place during half term, it was much more of a success than the previous shooting. It allowed us to work on the faults from the previous time and improve our work. We found that using candles to create light around the dressing table prevented the shot from being too dark, adding to the light for some scenes we used a lamp to create extra light and to create shadows creating an eerie feel. This worked especially well when HOPE reaches in to the drawer for the nail file, as when her finger is running along the knife, the light follows her finger and reflects off of it.

Furthermore, we improved our camerawork by working on the steadiness of the shots by using the monopod when possible. Due to some of the shots being at awkward angles we had to use handheld camerawork, this proved difficult to get perfect non-shaky shots but we repeated the shots until they were correct.

The shots included did not follow the storyboard exactly, as some had to change due to it facing to be too difficult. But as a whole the shots we planned to include in the film were included, but varied in order. Shots we still needed to film were the pictures on the wall, which we were able to do in lesson time and the S.T.A.N. logo.

The Filming.

On the first filming session we experimented with lighting in order to see what worked. After looking over the material we filmed, we found that the darkness prevented the viewer to see exactly what was taking place. This meant that in our next filming session we would look at ways to improve this situation. The ideas we came up with using were: candles, torches and lamps.

We also found that some shots were slightly shaky, so would try to improve this by using the tripod more often, rather than using hand held camera work. To add to this some shots were difficult to film, for example the shot looking over 'HOPE'S' shoulder was an awkward position, especially due to not being able to include her face in the shot.

There was also an issue with the amount of shots we were planning to include, as many of which didn't go as planned. For example the shot of including a title within spilt nail polish was near impossible as the nail varnish dried to quickly, so we decided to cut this from our film. We replaced this with a close up of the red nail varnish bottle and 'HOPE' playing with it, which looked similar to playing with blood.

S.T.A.N. logo- development of idea

Whilst experimenting with creating the S.TA.N. logo to include at the beginning of our film, we tried out using spray paint but decided that using Black acrylic paint on white A3 card would give a more professional look. We also had to think about how we would film the logo, we decided we would film the logo using a monopod to enable the shot to be completely steady. Stephanie held the logo as we filmed from different angles and using different ideas. For example we experimented with keeping Stephanie's hands in the shot, but we decided it would look better just filming the logo with a simple zoom out.

Coming up with the S.T.A.N. logo

We as a group came up with the idea of inserting a production logo at the beginning of our project. The idea begun as a simple sketch, we then developed this by deciding to use real life hands holding the 'S.T.A.N. productions' sign. This would give the feel that there is an image inside another image, and would be effective as an abstract extra to the project, in order to give a personal feel. 

Casting shot for the character of 'Hope'

This is an image of our main character 'Hope'. The person we decided to use to play this part is Stephanie Parker as she fitted the profile description we were aiming to fulfil. We wanted the character of 'Hope' to look like an average teenage girl. 

Here we can see from this image that Stephanie has simple characteristics and light blonde hair which gives the sense of innocence which is the opposite of Hope's behaviour. This contrast will work well in the film as it will surprise the audience.