Isobel Evans

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
Our title sequence is for a horror thriller film; we have definitely stuck to a lot of the common conventions
that I have seen in real media products this is because we believe it’s important for an audience to see
familiarity in the title sequence. As well as this there were also some places in which we didn’t keep to the
common codes and conventions however I personally believe it works really well. On top of this we also
didn’t keep our original idea, we wanted to film in a house and have the girl trapped in a loft, this didn’t
work due to us not being able to find a location, this led us to changing it to the girl being in the woods.
We also originally planned to have 2 girl actors but we actually struggled to find willing actors. The
individual girl makes her seem more vulnerable and isolated, which works.
In the title sequence for the horror/thriller, Orphan, which I had watched during the research stage, the
shots are very short and jumpy which I really liked when analyzing it, my group agreed that these shots
work well to increase tension and allow an audience to experience the emotions of the character. We
decided to recreate these jumpy shots, however, as well as this we combined jumpy shots with a lot
slower ones which I didn’t notice in any other thriller opening title sequences, it was either one or the
other. For example the title sequence for the thriller Panic Room uses clips which are all held for at least 2
or 3 seconds. I believe our choice to combine the two worked really well for the atmosphere we were
trying to create.
The short clips and straight cuts combined with the POV shots allows an audience to experience the
same emotions as the character on screen.
Our title
sequence,
Restrained:
Orphan
opening title
sequence:

The font which we used in called Courier New which we decided to use after going through hundreds
of different fonts but we believed this one worked best for the effect we were trying to create. The
inspiration for this was the font used from the Jaws opening title sequence which is an adventure
thriller. An adventure thriller is very far from what we were trying to make but the font actually worked
really well with our title sequence. The font is serif as we believed this looks more sophisticated and
professional.
Jaws:
Restrained:
A film that is very similar to what we were trying to create is a
horror, thriller called Panic Room. The title sequence for this is
actually not what I expected, it was very slow paced.
This is the font which they use in the title sequence for Panic
Room, its interesting as I would never expect this font to be used
as it doesn’t reflect the actual content of the film. After
considering this we didn’t use it as we believed the 3D affect of
the letters looks too fun and doesn’t work with our title
sequence, even though we would expect the film to be very
similar to Panic Room. Panic room has inspired us for many
other things such as camera angles and using long held shots but
we decided to break conventions as the Jaws font inspired us.
Panic Room:
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
Another convention we followed was the audio. The score is very eerie and it goes well with the shots
and atmosphere of the title sequence. Following this we also have loud sound effects when the dominant,
male character, enters to allow the audience to realize that this isn't a good character, and create a
dramatic effect upon his entry. This is also used when the tools are first introduced, the sounds allow the
viewer to comprehend what is going on. It connotes the danger which these things are putting the girl
into.
A director which inspired us was Eli Roth, he is the director of the film Hostel.
This was the film which initially triggered our ideas and inspired our storyline,
our film, if made, would be about a man who is physiologically damaged and
the fight between good and evil as he hunts young girls down and kills them in
different ways. We followed conventions of binary opposition. Hostel is about 2
men who are travelling but find themselves in a deadly game as they become
hostages, it was a film we all really enjoyed and liked the style of the film and
how Eli Roth built tension.
This image is from a scene in Hostel which we particularly liked and were inspired by:
Hostel: Restrained:

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
Camera & Lighting:
We wanted to make the antagonist dominant and powerful in the situation, one way in which we portrayed this is
through the camera angles. The antagonist is rarely on screen in the title sequence to create a sense of mystery.
However the over the shoulder, high angle shot we used of him enforces his powerful role and allows the girl to seem
vulnerable, he is standing over her. We used a range of high angle shots to reinforce the girls helplessness. We matched
these camera angles with natural lighting to make the sequence seem as realistic as possible, we thought natural
lighting was very important for it to be believable.
Sound:
The score is very eerie and instantly builds tension to make the audience on edge. However we also added a loud bang-
like noise when the antagonist character initially enters to connote danger, this was also used when the hammer and
tools were first introduced, it foreshadows the following events involving the hammer. The diegetic sound of the girl
screaming and breathing heavily just reinforces her vulnerability and helplessness, it allows an audience to sympathize
for her. It also denotes the panic which she is in.
Mise-En-Scene:
We chose to film in the woods as it suggests the idea that nobody is around to help her, its very isolated. The tools are
fallac shaped which reinforces the antagonists power and dominance, tools are also masculine. The girl is wearing
normal, everyday clothes to make the situation more relatable for the viewer, allows them to see themselves in her
situation. From what is shown of the antagonist he is wearing all black, this adds to his sense of mystery and his lack of
identity.
Editing:
We had a combination of quick paced editing (inspired by the Orphan title sequence) and longer clips (inspired by the
Panic Room title sequence). There wasn’t a a title sequence, which I saw, that had both fast paced and slower editing,
we chose to break conventions as it presented her emotions of panic but also reflected the mystery behind the
characters to how they both got into this situation.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
Before starting our media product we did some research on theorists.
Todorov is a theorist who focuses on the story of the film. His theory is that narrative follows this simple
guide:
Equilibrium - sets the initial scene and shows every day life.
Disruption - there is a complication, an event takes place.
Conflict - The climax, when they are trying to solve problems.
Resolution - Problem becomes solved.
New equilibrium - satisfactory ending, a new normal, its not the same as the beginning.
Restrained would follow Todorov’s structure of narrative:
Equilibrium – the victims living their normal lives
Disruption- being kidnapped
Conflict – being tortured
Resolution – fighting back and escaping
New equilibrium – him going to jail and the girls going back to their old lives, however they live in fear.
Restrained would also follow a circular narrative, the end of the title
sequence states ‘A week earlier’ indicates to the audience that the
story starts before the title sequence and will reach that point.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In our opening title sequence we have presented stereotypical roles of gender. We have the dominant, powerful role
played by a male character. You are unable to see his face in the title sequence to add a sense of mystery but as well as this
it allows the character to seem to have the upper hand in the situation whilst the female character is vulnerable and
exposed. We see the female character from different angles and she is very out in open. A combination of close ups and
long held shots allows an audience to clearly see her emotions. There is no mystery behind her character, an audience can
experience her emotions a long side her. The character being mixed race doesn’t follow conventions as you'd expect a
victim to be white whilst the villain is usually of colour.
The over the shoulder shot reinforces his power and dominance
compared to her as she is constantly shot from a high angle, she
has no power.
Her vulnerability is reinforced through the mise-en-scene, her
ripped clothes and red of her hands allow an audience to start
thinking about what might've happened to her and how she
could have got into this situation, it keeps an audience
interested.
High angle
Over the
shoulder shot
Mise-en-scene

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Age:
We decided to have our main character at 17 years old, this is similar to the age of our target audience which allows
them to relate to the character and imagine themselves in this situation. The POV shots also helps to create this effect.
Having the character quite young also allows her to seem more vulnerable and innocent.
A difference between the two characters is their class. We tried to make the female character seem as if they're in a
high class from her once freshly painted nails and normal clothes, that although torn up, seem to have been once nice.
Contradicting this I would suspect the male character to be in the lower class due to his involvement in crime however
his actual class is unclear to the audience so it allows them to question who he is, its left as a mystery. The uncertainty
behind his character leaves an audience wanting more, keeps them gripped and interested.
Class:
The majority of our audience are
aged between 13-16, as we
gathered from our survey. We
believed it important to use a
character of a similar age to play
the girl character.
The survey was answered by mostly
females, Restrained is aimed at
both genders but we decided to use
a girl character from this
information. It is also following
conventions to have a vulnerable
girl character.
We decided to have mix raced actor in order to defy conventions. It is widely known that white females play the lead
vulnerable characters whilst people of colour are usually the villain.
Ethnicity:

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Our title sequence has the possibility to be distributed by so many different institutions, we are looking
mostly for a middle feature budget. Hammer Productions would be perfect for this, they are known for
distributing horror – thriller films like our own. It distributed the film The Woman in Black which is a very
well known thriller film.
However through further research I have found that Paramount, although a high feature budget, has
distributed many films like Restrained. It has distributed many different thriller films from drama to actions
thrillers. Not only this but paramount has distributed all genres of film, it is extremely well known and I
think it’d be perfect for our film. Mission: Impossible III
An action/thriller
World War Z
A thriller/drama
A way of advertising our film would be
through social media, we can make a hype
and keep people intrigued before the film
comes out. This could be done through
Twitter and Instagram, posting small hints
of what the films about.
An actor which, I think, is perfect for the role is Natalia
Dyer. Most known for her role in the show ‘Stranger
Things’ where she plays the victim many times and is just
an all round really good actor. She is 20 so reflects the
target audience also.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The previous institutions are rather large and well-known, they would be perfect for our film but we
would be aiming high if these distributers actually distributed our film. Some other, smaller distributers
would also be appropriate for Restrained, our film. The BBC distribute small films, “BBC Films is
committed to finding and developing new talent, collaborating with some of the foremost writers and
directors in the industry.”
The have produced and distributed other thriller/horror
films similar to ours such as this film called The Awakening.
I think this poster accurately reflects our own film and what
we would want to include in our film. The dark dull colours
connotes fear and the serious tone of the film. You can also
see trees in the background of the poster, I presume that
this film has the same setting as our own.
Another way this poster matches our own media product is
that the girl character looks very vulnerable. She is out in
the open and the main focus of the poster. Her body
language signifies that she is trying to protect herself from
something.
One of the themes of our media product is good vs. evil, this
is evident in this film poster from the pale, neglected girl in
the foreground and then the floating, spirit like head in the
background.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our target audience is young adults and teens above 15, this is our age rating due to some distressing
scenes and violence which would be involved in the film. The BBFC regulate films and give each film their
age ratings, “All our decisions are based on public consultation and our Guidelines, which form a contract
between the public, the film industry and us.” So from the scenes which we plan to have in our film the
age rating will definitely be a 15.
Young teenage
character.
Restrained isn't aimed at only one gender, we believed
that our title sequence could appeal to both genders as
it has different aspects to it which could appeal to male
viewers as well as female. There wasn’t a particular
gender which responded differently to our title
sequence, it was equally enjoyed by both male and
female viewers.

How did you address/attract your target audience?
Also doing a survey, before filming, allowed us to get to know our audience as we believed knowing our
audience and their expectations was the most important thing in order to successfully attract our
audience.
We had to think about our audience constantly when
making decisions throughout the making of the title
sequence. We, ourselves, are the same age as the
majority of our target audience, so we have an
understanding of their expectations from the title
sequence, however we couldn’t be reliant on just our
own preference so we decided to do a survey to see
what people expect from a thriller title sequence. We got
88 responses so it gave us a good range of opinions.
We attracted our target audience by making the girl character in the title sequence a similar age to our
target audience. As well as this the clothes which she is wearing, although torn and ruined, you can see
they were once fashionable. Reinforcing this her painted nails also allows an audience to relate to her as
a character. It allows a viewer to imagine themselves in her position as they see parts of themselves in
her, this was the effect we were trying to create on the audience.
Painted nails
Fashionable
clothes, striped
and cropped.

The favourite sub-genre of thriller was actually psychological, we
wanted to make a horror/thriller but we decided to mix in the
psychological part as well. Our title sequence is still a
horror/thriller but the man in the title sequence is seen to have
mental health problems, this was brought into it after reviewing
this survey.
The score is what our target
audience believes builds the
most tension, we focused a
lot on the music to ensure it
matched the atmosphere and
went well with each shot,
however we thought it was
important to have a
combination of all these
things in order to successfully
build tension.
My group, after a lot of research into abandoned places and
houses, decided to film in the forest, even though it wasn’t
popular I think it still worked well for our title sequence. Our
target audience responded positively to our decision.
How did you address/attract your target audience?

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I believe that I have learnt a lot through the process of putting together and filming both the preliminary
and main task. I didn’t have any idea how much work went into making a film before doing media, we had
to plan out every single shot in a lot of detail on the storyboard as well as creating a shot list and script.
However this was so helpful when it came to filming as we knew exactly what we had to do and could get
straight to it. When filming the title sequence, it was a very efficient day of filming, we didn’t need to
reshoot anything.
As the editor I had to do a lot of research into what software was best to use to edit as well as improving
my editing skills. We, as a group, decided to use final cut pro as this was one of easiest to use but also had
advanced features that we wanted to use in our title sequence. I wasn't a very experienced editor before
completing these tasks, it was a lot of pressure so I ensured that I did my best to find out more about
editing and do some practices, I filmed and edited a short video from my trip to Madrid as a practice and to
enhance my editing abilities.
Another piece of technology which I have learnt about through this process is all the different cameras.
There are so many choices of camera which we could've used, we considered a hand held camera but after
our continuity task we thought it'd be best to use a camera which we can put on a tripod.
We also used, as seen previously, Survey Monkey
in order to gather feedback from our audience
after screenings as well as gathering our
audiences expectations for a horror – thriller title
sequence. Using survey monkey allowed us to feel
more connected to our audience and we could
easily understand their opinions and preferences.
I also used WordPress to create a blog and
document my process of making both our videos.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
In the planning section of our title sequence we had to do a lot of research in order to discover how to
professionally create our planning documents. It was my role to create the shot list and I did a lot of research
to help me understand how to make one to the best of my ability and so it will actually help us when filming.
I watched YouTube videos, one I found particularly helpful is linked below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flUkcIzLzY4
I also made a practice shot-list using word in order to get an idea of what to include. I had already made
a shot list for the continuity task so I had an idea, but you can never get too much practice.
I was really happy about the planning documents from my group, they all created documents to a high
standard and each one was a necessity when filming.
Practice: Real:

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression
from it to the full product?
There has been many improvements made from our initial task, as a group as well as my independent improvements.
Before the preliminary task we were oblivious to many things which we had to focus on which made our first task not
very successful. For our preliminary task we made the decision not to use the tripod as we believed that hand held
shots would work well, as we discovered, they did not. All the shots are very shaky making the overall atmosphere not
as effective as it should've been. This was something to focus on for the main task, we use a tripod for many of the
shots in the title sequence and experimented what shots looked like with and without a tripod in order to get the best
we could.
When we filmed the preliminary task is was filmed on different days, leading to there being quite a few continuity
errors, even though small they could ruin the tension for an audience if they get noticed. For example the protagonist
is wearing a jumper with a symbol on the back in some shots and then in others she has nothing on her jumper,
similarly she is wearing ripped jeans in some parts and not in others. For the main task we filmed it all in one long day
in order to avoid any more errors like these.
All stages of making the main task were a lot more successful than the preliminary, we were able to learn from our
mistakes. When planning we made a lot of improvements, in our preliminary task it was all of our first time creating
planning documents and we were very oblivious to the importance of them. The main task documents were a lot
more detailed and aided us when filming.