1. Media Evaluation
By: Nicole Fitzgerald

2. We had thought about what we wanted to produce
with our title sequence and we agreed that we all
wanted to go with the Horror genre although it
focuses on the more supernatural and
psychological factors and it is similar to the woman
in black as we done some research within that film
and it is very near the same as the way we wanted
our film to be as it has a very on-going paranormal
element to it, at the beginning we did come up the
name ‘Orphanage’ as our film is based around a
haunted orphanage, although when we gave our
pitch to the class we were told that the name had
already been used so we had to make another one
so we settled on ‘Abandoned’ as we thought it
suited well, our plot was about children being in an
orphanage as they were abandoned by their
parents when they were young. At the beginning
of our title sequence the production company
comes up ‘Hammer’ you are able to hear a running
stream whilst these appear and then the first shot
of our sequence is that of the stream itself.

3. Then begins an eerie music in the background of the stream and it then
cuts to our next shot of when we are showing the audience the baby
pictures on the wall, this is then showing the children featured in this
film. There are four images shown of children during that shot there is a
quick cut to a shot of a dirty, creepy looking hand grabbing onto a tree.
It then carries onto the panning shot of the baby photos.

4. As our title sequence is within the horror genre, I think that our sequence managed to use the
correct codes and conventions within the genre as we had done three attempts and then we finally
got the right sequence together, as our first attempt we decided that we were going to have our
typography in a deep red colour to foreshadow blood although when we pitched it to the class we
had been told that it wasn’t a good choice of writing or colour as the typography itself was appearing
as too blurry for the audience to see. So we went off and done some more research for different
typography's and we then settled on one called ‘An Unfortunate Event’ as we felt like it still fitted in
with the eerie effect of our title sequence. We also change the colour of the font so it was more able
to see within our title sequence as you weren’t really able to see the red font within the backgrounds
of our title sequence, we felt like white was a more natural colour and that it was much easier for the
audience to read whilst viewing our title sequence.
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5. We went to do our filming in some woods as we
felt like that would fit in more with the horror
genre than if we were to film it anywhere else, we
decided that we were going to go out and do the
shooting of our title sequence around midday as
we didn’t want it to be too light or too dark,
although you can see in our shots it is still rather
light whilst we were filming, we did have some
issues within filming parts of our sequence as
there was a few jolts within the shots as it wasn’t
easy shooting in the stream. We then went back
to a friends house with permission from her
parents to do the burning of the dolls house, this
was foreshadowing the ending of our film as we
said during our pitch. We also have shots of the
baby photos being burnt, this is then
foreshadowing the goings on within the film itself.
We didn’t feature anyone in our title sequence as
we felt like it wasn’t needed within our type of
sequence. During the shots of the burning photos
there is a muffled nursery rhyme being sung
within the sequence, this is to create more of the
eerie effect within our sequence, the burning of
the baby photos foreshadows that our film may
include children dying.
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6. We decided that we were going to go with the ‘Hammer Films’
production as they were also used for ‘The woman in black’ and that is
what we were basing our film around so we felt like this was a suitable
media institution to go for as it is very well known with the horror genre
of film. Due to similarities we felt as if hammer films were our best
option to go with.
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We said that our target audience would be ranged from young 12-25
male and female as we didn’t want it to be restricted so that anyone
could go and see it. Our target audience would be more of the people
whom of that like to go and see the horror type films and that like the
eerie concept within the film. The film is for anyone that would like to go
see it, as it isn’t just aimed at specific people. Although as part of our
pre-production, we did a survey to find out what our target audience’s
interests were. Our target audience were lower/middle class teenagers.
The horror genre is more aimed towards the male audience so we
thought that females would be our primary audience and the males
would be our secondary audience.
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7. • We addressed our audience within our title sequence as we gave
them the insight of the goings on within the film itself and we
made them feel as if they were in the sequence themselves as of
when we were filming the part whilst walking in the lake and the
way that it has been shot makes you feel as if you are the one
filming that part. We had also had many screenings of our title
sequence once we had made a few adjustments within the
sequence to see what the audience thought of our sequence and
we asked for criticised feedback so we knew what was good and
what could have been better within the sequence. The most
common positive feedback we got was about the sound that we
used within the sequence, we had been told that we had used
the correct type of eerie music to give the audince the eerie effect
whilst watching our sequence.
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8. • Whilst making this sequence I have learnt a lot more about editing as
I didn’t know much to do with editing a whole sequence together. I
learnt how to put text within a sequence as all of this stuff was new
to me but whilst doing this task it has taught me how to do so.
Although whilst using final cut bro at times it was rather challenging
as it would freeze and sometimes wouldn’t do what we wanted it to
do but we got there in the end. Although I wasn’t the one in charge
of editing I did learn the basics on how to cut down a clip and
amend them to places where they needed to be. I also learnt how
the sound is very key within the sequence as it can affect the
tone/mood of the film itself. We learnt that even if we didn’t find
parts of the sound good it gave our sequence that little bit more of
the eerie atmosphere within the sequence itself. In our title
sequence we had used a lot of non-digetic sound, we added in
some Foley sound from when we had the shot of the stream as then
we were able to adjust the volume and the effects the sound had
within the title sequence. We also used sound from a copyright free
website, we decided on a track that would then make the audience
feel a little uncomfortable whilst they were watching it.
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10. I have gained many skills since then that I had never come across
before. I have now realised that the storyboards are a very important
within the shooting of the title sequence as it determines the exact
shots you need to produce within the time and it is your guideline to
help you get the best shots you can.
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Overall I think that our title sequence came out very successful and I
am pleased with the outcome and the pre-production was very well
done and that us making our dolls house was very good and paid off
after them hours of making it and the burning of the house was very
successful that was the one part we were worried about as we had built
the whole house and if it didn’t burn well or not how we wanted too then
we wouldn’t of had any other way to use them shots in our sequence.
However, we have learnt that we should always use a tripod whilst
filming no matter what kind of position you are in as it can effect really
bad on your clips.
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