Target Audience

The target audience for our opening sequence is aged 12-50 as we don't want a narrow age range to exclude certain people. As the storyline in our film is about a boy juggling two lives, it is highly unlikely that anyone else is going through the same experience, so our film does not relate to a certain group in that view. However, it does have elements of a teenagers life at school and in general so it does relate to the younger generation, but the elements of his work being a detective invites the older generations to enjoy this film too.

If our film were to have a age certificate it would be a 12 as there will be no nudity and sexual content. There may be violence but it won't be gory.

Mise-en-scene

Regarding props, the park scenes didn't need anything specific as it was just us. We used the park in its natural state, we did not place certain objects anywhere for a specific reason.

The mise-en-scene for the detectives room was full of objects such as coffee mugs with rings around them, half empty glasses and other things that personalise the desk towards the detective. These messy desk shows that he has is so invested in the case that he doesn't have time to clear up.

The pin board is full of things relating to the case such as the map containing the park where Yasmin was last seen, the school she goes to and her where she lives. It also has pictures of her friends and her passport.

Location

We wanted to have the montage of the girls messing around with the detective doing his work, so we had to think of where to film the girls. We chose Enfield Town Park park as many teenagers go to the park with their friends so it is relevant to and reflects teenagers in real life.

The detective was doing his work in his bedroom so we filmed in Morgan's room. We initially had the idea to have him in an office setting, but then we explored ideas for the rest of the film and once landing on the idea that he had to juggle two lives.  This means that his detective life is a secret so there is no possible way for him to have an office. Therefore we decided that it should be somewhere in his house that he works, and the way that we filmed it you can only see the desk and the computer. There is no suggestion that it is a bedroom but the mise-en-scene indicates that it is not a professional environment such as an office.

Actors

For the girls we used ourselves as we weren't reliant on other people's time tables. We also called eachother by our names instead of giving eachother fake names. We did this as when filming we were genuinely messing around so we would've forgotten to call eachother by the fake names. Also acting as ourselves makes it more natural.

For the detective it took us a while to think of someone to play him. We wanted a boy to fit the stereotypical view of a detective but also someone who is young so it ties into our storyline. After asking a few people (who unfortunately said no) we decided to use Kelsey Morrissey, Morgan's 14 year old brother as he was avaliable and didn't mind being on camera. Plus he looks a lot older than 14 and we were aiming for a 16/17 year old.

Script

For our opening sequence we didn't have a script. We had bullet points and general ideas of what we were going to say for our voiceover but when we were in the park there were no points on what to speak about as we felt that if it was scripted it wouldn't sound natural.

The voiceovers Morgan and I did were natural but we wanted to mention the fact that we went to the park after school, the fact that Yasmin went home by herself and that she had problems with her father.

The part of the detective working had no speech as there were voiceovers.

17/02/17

We came in again to continue editing, this time focusing on titles.



The problem that we spoke about regarding that one title that wouldn't move we eventually fixed by using a very straightforward solution, pressing enter to bring it a line down. Honestly that frustrated me as we spent so much time trying to fix it when the solution was simple.

16/02/17

During the half term Morgan and I came in to edit our work, mainly focusing on the music. Yasmin couldn't come.

Direction

In the park we didn't know exactly what we were going to do, just that we would be walking around and having fun. As mentioned in the "Script" post we did this to make it more natural.

While filming the scenes of the detective, we just asked him to watch the videos and skip some of it to represent that this isn't the first time he is watching it so he can skip parts.

We also made sure that he stayed somewhat still as we didn't want to show his face. The fact that he is young and a student is something the audience should figure out later in the film so we didn't want to give that part away in the opening sequence.

There were also parts without the detective where the camera just panned around the set to show all his work.

Advertising Idea

As our group started filming our opening sequence again, no one in the class knew what we our new opening sequence was about. Some classmates have asked us and only two people have seen it before we showed it to the class. This made me think about if we were to advertise our film. Keeping the rest of the class in the dark made them curious and if we could advertise our film with minimal information on what its about the public will want to know more. So our posters and tv adverts would most likely be a dark picture, to tie in with our genre, with little text. Instead of seeing an advert where you know exactly what film is being shown, our one will make people wonder "What film is this? What is it about?" It will draw audiences in, making people want to watch the film which increases Box Office takings as many suspenseful audiences will buy tickets to understand what the film is about.

Titles in the sequence

As this is a title sequence, there obviously has to be titles.

Our first title was 'Starring Kelsey Morrissey' and we placed it slightly higher than the bottom left corner. We did this as we didn't want it to obstruct the paper which has the writing '10th December 2015' as this is a significant date as it shows up at the beginning of the title sequence and it is the date Yasmin went missing.


Another title which had a specific place was 'Directed by Morgan Morrissey'. We wanted to place it on the wooden part of the pin board as having it higher didn't look right. We prefer it on the wooden part as it is the right length for that title and the natural wooden lines are vertical which helps the text flow. As iMovie does not allow you to place the titles where you want, we had to place this title in the top right corner and attempt to bring it down. We tried various times using different techniques but every time we finished it would jump straight back up. In the end, I figured out we could just press enter to bring it down; such a simple solution which took over half an hour to find.


The rest of the titles are in each corner and vary between shots.

The font we used for our titles is 'Gurmukhi MN' . We wanted a simplistic font so that it wont draw attention away from the actual sequence. Plus, we already have so many complex elements to our sequence (non-diegetic music, voice overs, handheld clips) so having a simplistic, minimalistic font brings it all together.

Voice-Walkthrough Vlog

We decided to create this vlog to explain and justify why we have edited the opening sequence in a certain way.

Title of the film

We decided to call our Film '10/12/16' as this exactly a year after Yasmin went missing. The protagonist in our film, the private detective, is given the case a year after the actual incident.

In our opening sequence, we have '10/12/15' appear at the beginning, and '10/12/16' at the end. This is to symbolise that within this year the files regarding this case have been looked at several times, yet nothing has happened and the detective who now takes on this case is starting from scratch, just as if the year is starting again.

Also, it may confuse audiences. In our class feedback it was questioned why we had two dates and which one is the title of the film. The confusion they feel is meant to engage the audience and make questions flood their mind. They'll make the correlation between the two dates while watching the rest of the film. Plus when buying tickets to watch the film, the purchaser would know what the film is called.

10/12/16

We have completed our opening sequence and uploaded it to YouTube.

End Credits (Pink)

Recently I watched the film 'Pink' (2016)  and the film was about three girls who are trying to prove a group of men guilty for potential rape. The whole film is based around the court case and each of the characters try and prove their innocence by recalling what happened that night, however, that night is never shown throughout the film. At the end, alongside the credits, that night is finally shown to the audience. The part leading up to the potential rape is an actual clip, but the part of the girl resisting and escaping is done in camera shots, not a film clip. It is kind of like motion picture.

This is a powerful technique as I remember feeling relieved as the whole film is about that event and after 136 minutes of viewing I had finally seen what actually happened that night. The impact this had on me is one I would want our audience to feel while watching and after our film. Inspired by this film, I would want our end of credits to be just like this. Our film is about Yasmin's disappearance which could potentially be kidnapping, and at the end, during our credits, we could show the 10th December 2015, the night she disappeared. It would be the three of us in the park, starting at the exact point our opening sequence starts at, when Morgan says "Bye Yasmin". Then it will follow to Yasmin walking home and what happened.

Exporting 22/02/17

Morgan and I attempted to export our movie multiple times. First we did it in 1080p but the quality did not look good. The outline of objects were smudged and it looked as if there was a filter on it. Morgan suggested it was because our filming was done in dim lighting, so the camera could not film using its best quality. However, our film looked better on iMovie, so we believed we could try and export it again in hope for it to be clearer. Plus, one of the titles wasn't completed and the talking parts were too quiet at some parts.

We fixed these problems then exported it in medium, instead of 1080p, but we couldn't open it in quick time, it only opened in a different programme mocha AE CS6 (Adobe after-effects). So then we exported it in large and I managed to open it in quick time but the timing of the light-switch was off. The sound came two seconds before the action. Also, the placing of the title with Morgans name in it had moved upwards, and we attempted to bring it down but it kept bouncing up. Instead of clicking the button to bring it down, I just pressed the 'enter' button to bring it down a line and it stayed there. Life would have been easier if iMovie just allowed us to move titles around, however we solved this problem. Finally, we have all the titles where we want them.

Now we exported it in 720p and this time the light-switch sound happened at the right time and the credits were in the right place. The ringtone did not sound loud enough though, so we exported it one more time in 720p after turning up the volume of that one point. Now the ringtone is quiet in the first part and loud in the second, so we had to export it again after fixing this by raising the volume in that point.

Editing 17/02/17

During the half-term, Morgan and I came to school to edit our work and Yasmin didn't come. First we broke up all the audio of her and I talking so it would be easier to place it where we wanted. We then successfully layered the sound. At some parts, it sounded too loud so we lowered the sound of some of the speaking parts, but it sounded messy when the handheld clips played, because we had the orchestral music, the diegetic sound and the recording of Morgan and I speaking. To overcome this, we got rid of the sound in all the handheld clips, except the first one of me on the slide. This is because the music is very quiet at that point and there is no voice over. Also, in this clip we are laughing and this shows the contrast between the fun the girls were having to the serious situation they are now in.  Another part where we got rid of sound was the panning of the inboard as we diegetic sound isn't needed there because there is no movement of the detective.

After we finished with the sound, we noticed our sequence was only 1:41minutes. We added another clip of the detective underlining the fact that Yasmin had problems with her dad. We wanted this to stand out because it may confuse the audience and make them question whether her dad had anything to do with her disappearance.

We were only up to 1:44, and still needed 16 seconds. Morgan had the idea of having a blank screen and audio playing in the background, so I added another handheld clip and put a black screen over it and played this for 8seconds. 8 seconds may sound like a lot but it gives the audience time to take in whats happening even though they can not see. The clip we used is when we say bye to Yasmin just before she leaves. The fact that the audience don't see her leaving intrigues them as they want to have the full picture as to what happened. There is one second of silence at the end of this black screen and we did this to mimic her kidnap or disappearance as we don't know what happened, no one was there, like it was done in silence. We also added 8 seconds at the end for the title to come up. 

Font

As a group, we have to decide what font we want to use for our titles. We have downloaded some from 1001fonts.com.

There are many different types of fonts we could use. I have looked at different crime and mystery films and each use a font directly related to their film, so there is no specific font made for this genre. 

This is the font used in 'Seven (1995)' It looks like someones handwriting which is quite intriguing yet spooky. 

'Taken (2008)'. A simple font which attracts audiences as it is in red upon a black background. Red signifies danger which relates to this film

'Gone Girl (2014)' uses a simple font too.

From what I have seen, the majority of mystery and crime films use simple fonts which don't overpower the title sequence, however, there are some that go against this and use fonts which catch the audiences eye, such as 'Seven'.