Our Final Sequence

 

CCR Task 4 - How did you integrate technologies software, hardware and online in this project?

To answer this question, I’ve made a website using WIX. Here is the link to the website:

https://joyjiao.wixsite.com/my-site-2

CCR Task 3 - How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

I answered the question in a Prezi presentation. I divided the answers into three parts: Research, Planning and Production.

Here is the link to the Prezi presentation:

https://prezi.com/view/pBQsaxczI69OcNbSAIMB/

CCR Task 2 - How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

For our opening title sequence, the primary target audience would be males between 15-17. Here is a link to a more specific blog post on the target audience:

https://joya1media.blogspot.com/2022/03/target-audience.html

I compared with similar films’ demographic. This shows the demographic for the Terminator:

Also, we consider about the BBFC film certificates for our opening sequence too. As there includes the blood and violent elements relating to the action horror genre. So we decide the age certificate should be over 15 which is also suitable for our target audience. Here is the link of the blog post:

https://joya1media.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-bbfc-film-certificates.html

The moments in the opening title sequences

The first scene in the opening title sequence shows the location and the charcter directly. The broken cars and woods location gives a post-apocalyptic vibe which can engage audience especially for the males. The broken car window glass with the blood on the girls’s face conveys the dangerous environment.

The location and the costume of the girl is the conventions for an action film. The girl is wearing the grey tight top and the cargo trousers, the clothes has blood and scratches which hints she is surviving in the woods. And she has one large bag which covered in mud and also has a fanny pack. So she has a large capacity to store supplies. From the details shown in this scene, it gives many informations to the audience. The unrealistic location can applies to the theory from Jay Blumer and Elihu Katz – the Uses and Gratifications. Many people will fantasy a post-apocalyptic place, so the setting of this film can allow audience to escape from reality and entertained.

For action horror genre films, the key conventions are the blood and wounds. In this scene, the girl rips her sleeve off and wraps the wound. The close up shot of the wound shows a bloody and violence atmosphere which can engage the teenage boys. The facial expression of the girl presents the pain feeling.

The movement that ripping off the sleeve often appeared in the action films, it is a typical narrative. For example, in Ready or Not the heroine also rip her sleeve off to wrap her wound. This scene is edited in short pace which shows the nervous and unsettling atmosphere.

Then, the main action scene in the opening sequence is the escaping scene. From the narrative, the girl hears a motorcycle starts revving and getting close to her so she had to run in the opposite direction quickly. The handheld camera shows the intense atmosphere which can make the audience feel nervous with the character and be more attentive.

Through splicing different shots, it establishes the locations more. In addition, the element of the motorcycle can attract males. Although the motorcycle didn’t appear, but the soundtrack of the revving motorcycle can shows the danger is coming. 

The long shot while the girl is hiding in the car can engage the audience. Continue to approach slowly can build the tension and attract audience’s attention. In this scene, the second charcter appears in the black costume and the big battle axe. The tattered cloth on the girl contrast with the hard jersey which shows the man is more powerful. The man brings the horror atmosphere as he is trying to catch the girl. 

The powerful killer and the weaker girl hiding is a typical conventions for the horror films that the victim is always female. The pleonastic sound of the footsteps and the axe dragging sound will gives a stimulating emotion that can engage the audience. Moreover, the battle axe weapon will definitely attracts teenage boys, also it brings the post-apocalyptic vibe again.

The last shot of the sequence is a killing scene. The facial expression of the girl and the low angle shot of the killer all brings a horror atmosphere. We make one small jump scare when the killer suddenly appear, it can engage the audience into the story and feeling scared. A jump scare is really typical in horror films. Instead of showing the dead body of the girl, we cut to black straight away. So the audience don’t know does the girl actually died in the end of the opening scene. This applies to Enigma Codes which will make the audience keep watching the film. And the non-diegetic soundtrack in the end has the echo effects which hints the killing does not end.

I think the opening title sequence is quiet successful on engaging the audience, we build the horror tension from the start and use the jump scare at the end to release the scared feeling. The location, blood, weapon and violence elements are adhering to the typical conventions for the action horror film. At the same time, they can attract our target audience (age 15 to 17 males) easily. However, I think if we can make the editing speed in the beginning faster and add some non-diegetic soundtrack in it, the nervous and scary atmosphere can be presented better which can be more attractive to the audience.

The Film Poster

In the poster, it shows the two characters that appear in the opening sequence, the killer and the girl. I want to highlight the contrast between the two when I design it. From the position that the killer is standing on top and the girl is hiding at the bottom, it hints that the killer is really powerful and the girl is in danger. It presents the scared facial expression of the girl too. People can realise that the killer is chasing the girl and from the poster they might wonder if the girl is finally found. The poster shows the battle axe which can attract our target audience. Also the filter of it gives a horror emotion. Furthermore, in the title I use red colour for two letters which gives the violent and bloody impression. The title can show the genre of the film. Also, from the sentence ‘How long can you survive?’, the people see it might realise the film is about surviving.

HAMMER FILM PRODUCTIONS

It is a British film production company. It is founded in 1934. Simon Oakes and Marc Schipper are the owners. It is famous for its horror thriller films. During 1940 to 1960, it dominated the horror film market and always have worldwide distribution. It worked with American companies to distribute the films, such as Warner Bros, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox. However, due to the loss of funds, it stopped to produce films in 1980. Until 2007, it was bought by Dutch tycoon John de Mol, it started to make films again.

Previous films:

Recent films:

Considering that it's slowly returning to producing and distributing films, and our film is also a horror genre that in a post-apocalyptic setting. I think it is really suitable for distributing it. Hammer Films is really famous for horror films so it can help sells the film. 

For marketing, it will mainly do new media marketing, new media can market internationally and can save our budget. We will create a official instergram or Twitter page and a ‘Revving’ hashtag for people to share it online. Before the release date, we will make two trailers. One is the official trailer which is about 2 or 3 minutes, another will be a shorter one which is about 25 seconds. The shorter trailer can let wider range of people see it, so it can helps to attract more audience. I would like to release it in October around Halloween as it is a horror film, the date just before Halloween can help to sell it. But I won’t chose to release on the Halloween because there will be too many films released which will be more competitive.

Based on the recently released films in Hammer film, I think it will have a limited cinema release in United Kingdom and United States first. Then we can give copyright to Shudder and release it on shudder streaming. Shudder mainly distribute horror genre films so I think The Revving is really suitable for it. Apart from Shudder, it can also put on Netflix or Amazon prime. Also for making more profits, Hammer Film can make the DVD and Blu-ray version of it. If the film goes well, it can also make some limited steel book with special art posters in it. We will design some special posters for limited sales.

CCR Task 1 - How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

 I addressed the question by making a video:

The Outline of the video

Post Production: Editing Part 2

The biggest problem we faced after we finished edited the whole sequence footages is the total time is nearly 4 minutes which is too long. So we need to cut off some parts to make it shorter, we decided to cut off the car parts part as it is the less important part in our storyline. In addition to cut it all out, we have to make the front and back connect. Due to the limited shots we got here, I decided to change some orders of the plot. So I edited the girl finds out her bag is broken first, and then she feels the pain from the wound, so she rips off her sleeve to wrap the wound. Moreover, we cut some gap time between the footages. Finally, it is only 2 and half minutes. 

Then we need to add the sound and the titles in. For the title of the film, we listed a list of the names and finally choose – ‘The Revving’. We named it ‘The chop shop’ first, but then we realised there are films called this name so we changed it. And our production name is J.M.G which is the capital letters of our names. I am the editor, Max is the director of photographer and Gi is the director. For the other titles, we made up some names. We edited them through the opening sequence. Next is the soundtrack, we used the original soundtrack and also add more ambient sounds and sound effects. In our original soundtrack, the wind is really loud as we filmed outside in most of the time. So we reduce the volume of it and add a more regular wind sound. We add many sound effects such as the door close and open sound, the footsteps of the biker and the dragging sound of the axe. These can create a thriller atmosphere as these sound have been exaggerated in a quite environment. The most important part of the soundtrack is the motorcycle chasing sound. We searched many different soundtracks and find one suitable. Because it is really short, and we need it for nearly 50 seconds, so we copied some of the parts and paste it to make it longer. We edited it to match with our scenes. To reflect that the motorcycle is getting closer and farther, we adjusted the volume from low to high. Furthermore, we add reverb effect on the soundtrack which can makes it more real. The tension has been created through the motorcycle revving sound with the shaky camera shots and the footsteps with the girl’s facial expressions. 

Overall, I am really pleased with the final edited opening title sequence, it is nearly the same with what I expected. The new plot line works well, and the locations are really good. It can present the action horror atmosphere by the fast shaky action sequences, the axe with sound effects, the close up on the bloody wound, the motorcycle revving soundtrack and also the jumpscare at the end. These can all attract our target audience which is 16 to 17 teenage boys. For improvements, I think that next time we can be more careful on the continuity while filming so it will be much easier and more fluent for editing.

Post Production: Editing Part 1

We looked through all the footages we got at the start of editing. We were really exciting for reviewing them all as we took a large variety of shots on shooting day.

So first, we picked the best shots and drag them to the timeline and rename them such as ‘running through junkyard WIDE’. While we were picking the shots, we found that there are some continuity mistakes we didn’t realised on the day. In the first part, the sequence of shots should be that she feels pain, lifts her leg, and pulls up her trousers to reveal the wound. But in reality, while we shot she lifts her leg, the trousers is already up and the wound is already there. For this mistake and also the continuity of the bag which we found out before, we cut the footages and used the black edge lines to cover up the footages a little bit. Luckily, the bag and the wound both appear at the bottom so we fixed the problem. Based on the new plot which we changed on the shooting day base on the locations, we split the whole opening sequence into 3 parts for editing: the girl collecting the car parts and treat the wound in the junkyard, the girl running through the junkyard and the girl hiding in the old garage. We shot many different mid shots and close up shots, so we used them and cut during the character’s actions. 

The most important shots are the two long shots. We decided to use two complete shots at first. However, when choosing which footages to use, we found that each footage has its advantages and disadvantages. And we all liked a close up shot of a facial expression that was temporarily shot at the end. So we decided to try using different footages in the second part and cut them together. We tried several methods but at last we all agreed that keep it as one fluent long shot has the best effect. Furthermore, for the last scene we decided to make a jumpscare when the biker appears with the axe. And the scene turns to black instantly after the axe just pass through the camera which can shows it will kill the girl immediately.