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A2 Production Pitch Music Video

AS Overview

Below is the video for my AS final production, this opening sequence helped me to expand my knowledge and improve my media skills which will help me in A2.

AS Opening Sequence: 'And So It Happened...'

Synopsis

In our opening sequence, we focused on a horror genre which we created with a female news reporter as the main character investigating an abandoned barn/warehouse. It is a look back on what she experienced in the barn and what happened with a supernatural presence. The reporter finds a suspicious scrap book that has pictures and reports of missing children, whilst unknown behaviours are happening around her trying to scare her, giving her a paranoid sense that she is being watched.

Areas of Success

In our opening sequence I think that there was a range of successful areas in our film, firstly from the start we started to plan each of the different steps that we are going to take for our sequence, this was important to allow us to know what we are going to include and where we are going to use specific camera shots, angles and sequences but also through editing stages included sound and where each shot fits in with eachother. Next, we learned how to use the editing software called Serif Movie Plus X6. This software was essential to making our opening sequence which over the course of the year our knowledge increase and we became more familiar with the different tools and editing techniques that we can use. This also included the editing stage allowing us to create our opening sequence as professionally as possible, as we uploaded our video footage we could make sure they they all fit accuratly together so it flows together. Linked with this we showed our own initative by filming our own sounds and using the props that we already have. For example, at the beginning of our opening sequence we used birds outside which we filmed by ourself creating foley sounds to help the sequence feel more realistic and have a sense of isolation for the character, this is important as it increased our knowledge of how sounds can work and where they can be used, even from simple sounds as they all are effective. Finally, a successful point that could be made is that we have represented our horror genre in an accurate way by making sure that ever factor fits with the genre such as soundtrack, props, location, certain camera shots and angles, this could have made our opening sequence meet the needs of our specific audience. This was possible by researching a range of different opening sequences with the genre theme to know what we need to do to create the horror genre effect that will look realistic but also to research what audience is suited for the product and to know what to include and not to include.

Areas of Improvement

Throughout of our opening sequence we found that we could have done things differently for example, one area would be the qualiry of the equipment used because we started to use a camera for some shots and a camera on a phone for some others, if we had a camera all the way through it would have made the quality better but also easier for us to upload the videos onto the software easily. I think that if we had used a tripod to keep the camera steady it may have helped with certain camera shots and look more professional, although it wasnt a big issue as doing a horror genre has eery and out of place shots to create a certain atmosphere, Another area for improvement is time management, although we planned this well, some of our shots got confused and may have taken longer than usual and because someone in our group wasn't prepared this affected our filming. If we did this differently I think that we should be more prepared with certain props such as a camera and have more batterys and know when it will be used, this will help to increase the accuracy of shots but also seem more professional. We feel that we should have also been more prepared with the props that we used by having a list of all the different props that we need and what shot they will be used for by visually preparing where they will be placed and how they will be interpreted into the scene. This will be important to save time and allow us to have a great idea of what we need to do without question. Finally, the last area of improvement when looking back on our opening sequence would be to make the character engage more to the scene. Throughout the scene she doesn't seem to react much, therefore making the audience find it less interesting but also towards the end of the opening sequence everything happens at once rather than through the whole thing so it we could do it again we would spread it out more or focus mainly on the last bit where she finds the book rather than disengaging the audience whilst the reporter is looking around a room because it doesn't catch the audiences attention straight away.

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