Evaluation Question 4

"Who would be the audience for your media product?"

Evaluation Question 5

"How did you attract/address your audience?"

Evaluation Question 3

"What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?"

The production company for our film is 'COMA Productions', who would be in charge of the budgeting, scheduling, scripting, casting, organisation of staff, production, post-production, distribution and marketing of 'Rose'. As 'Rose' is a drama-thriller, social-realism style film, Coma Productions is likely to be an independent production company (like Lucasfilm, pre-2012, or Ruby Films) meaning it would probably have a low budget. This budget is likely to be funded through processes like equity (where people invest in production in return for ownership interest in the film), crowd funding (where friends, family and prospective audiences donate towards the film), differed payments (where producer fees, and those of any other staff who agree, are deferred until after release, reducing the payments necessary to start production) and gap/bridge financing (where we (the filmmakers) would have to take out personal loans to fund any gaps in production costs).

As well as an independent production company our film would probably also have an independent distributor. The distributor is the company responsible for the marketing of a film, setting release dates, choosing the method of the film's release, etc. Our film would probably be distributed by a company like A24, who are not only an independent film distributor but have also done film as of a similar genre such as 'Room' and 'Moonlight'. Our distributor would most likely opt to give our film a limited release where it is shown only in a select few cinemas, to gauge the audience's interest, before being released to a wider audience. This distribution method is similar to that of 'Birdman' which was released in a few US cinemas on October 17th 2014 before getting a nationwide release, in 857 cinemas, on November 14th of the same year.

The order of credits for our film opening goes as follows; COMA Productions, Cassidy Richards (director), Meg Dobson (actor), Tony Langan (actor), Owen Vidler (producer), Aimee Langan (editor), Molly Dowling (DOP) and David Chidlow (actor). COMA Productions appears first in our credits because they are our production company and have therefore invested huge amounts of time and money into the film earning them the films first credit. The second credit goes to the film's director, because they are instrumental to the telling of the film's story, and the third to Meg the lead actor. After Meg comes Tony, Tony is credited to show his character's significance in the rest of the film. After Meg and Tony we credited the film's producer, the producer is credited early on in the credits (before the title) as they are very important in planning and coordinating the film's production. After this the film's title is shown, in the middle of our sequence as is typical of film opening, and then the editor, who plays a key role in the formation of the film's story and look during post-production. We then give a credit to the film's Director of Photography, who both acts as camera man and provides the vision for the film, before David Chidlow, an actor, highlighting his character's significance in the rest of the film.

Evaluation Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? 

Evaluation Question 2

"How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?"

 

Evaluation Question 1

"In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?"

Typically film openings seek to establish the film's characters, genre and a brief outline of its plot,  all of which has been conformed to within our opening sequence.  Our protagonist is very clearly established within our opening, with Rose being the focus of almost every  frame, and as a result of her enhanced presence the theme of mental illness is also revealed to the audience, giving them a sense of being inside  her head in a state of confusion, enhanced by match-on-actions.  Our opening also sets out the films genre to the audience, with the font, cold colour palette, fast and the opening frame's low key lighting working together to tell the audience that it is a drama-thriller film.

Titles of drama-thriller films tend to be short, quickly establishing key features, concepts or characters of the film (some examples include 'Room', 'Inception' and 'The Matrix').  We used our protagonist's name as the title of our film,  seeing that 'Rose' clearly showed the audience the film's emphasis on that character and her mental health issues.  The font we used for our opening titles also conformed to genre conventions, with the our use of capitals and clear block lettering clearly reflecting the font of films like 'Whiplash' and 'Taxi Driver'.

Generally film openings take place in and around one location, creating a sense of continuity and allowing the audience a smooth transaction into the film's action.  However, we decided to challenge this convention, moving the audience constantly from one place to another, disorientating the audience and giving them a glimpse of Rose's mindset.  Although we do use many locations within our opening they are all tied together with a common sense of sparseness, isolation and entrapment, achieved through minimal mise-en-scene, cold colouring and the motif of the camera circling Rose, together these common threads between frames give our opening the same feeling of continuity as if it were all filmed in one location.

Our use of costume and props within the opening is also minimal with Rose dressed in regular dark clothing creating a sense of verisimilitude, presenting to the audience the ordinarity of Rose's situation.  Costumes and Props are minimal until the final scene of our opening when Rose's hospital gown and the hospital room mise-en-scene are used to distinguish that to be the present moment.

Our film opening uses editing and camera work as a method of developing genre conventions as opposed to conforming to them.  Within the drama-thriller genre entrapment is a key theme and we have used camerawork inorder to incorporate this theme into our opening we used a motif of the camera circling around Rose in a 360 arcing shot. we also used a series of match-on-actions in order to repetitively change the location and disorientate the audience.

Evaluation Question 7

"Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?"

The dark colouring of our preliminary task was quite similar to our final opening, however, we think that it was better used in the opening as here we aimed to create humour by being dramatic, whereas our opening intends to evoke an unsettling feeling in the viewer. The close-up used here can be directly compared to our opening; we use a head-on shot of Meg's face rather than one from the side as in the prelim. We think that this creates a more striking effect, and is therefore more suited to the dramatic nature of our opening.

We used a match on action to show me walking through the door, which we believe was well carried out. The transition was easier to create because the shot changed from a mid shot to a close up, meaning that the shots did not have to precisely mirror each other. However, in our opening, we had more difficulty as Meg's expression had to be near-identical in both shots. Therefore, a large difference between the filming of our prelim and our final opening is that we created a lot more footage in order to be able to find the best matching shots.

In our prelim task, as we were fairly inexperienced in making videos, our camerawork was not very smooth. As well as this, we didn't think to check the speed at which I was walking in the long shot matched the close up of my feet that followed. For our opening, we decided that the majority of our shots would be circling around Meg, to create a feeling of disorientation and so we had to practice walking around her in a smooth and even circle before filming our final footage.

We also had to use a shot-reverse shot in our preliminary task, which we decided to show as an over-the-shoulder shot in order to clearly obey the 180 degree rule. For our opening, we did not show our actors' shoulders in the shot-reverse-shot, although we did overlap the sound from one shot into the next, so that the audience feels like it is a complete scene. In addition to this, we used more sophisticated editing techniques, such as the blinking effect used when showing Rose's point of view in the second frame. We also blurred this shot in order to again create disorientation. 

Audience Reactions

Storyboard Alterations

Referenced numbers working from left
to right and top to bottom.

During filming and editing, we found that we had to make a few changes from the original storyboard to the final version of our opening.
The first of these changes was from the planned extreme close-up of Rose in her room zooming out to a match-on-action of her in the park, which can be seen in frame 3-6. When filming this, we found that the camera's zoom did not allow for both the extreme close-up and the framing needed to create the match-on-action to the scene before in one take. Instead of this, we decided to switch frames 5 and 6 and zoom out as far as possible from the bedroom shot, then use the bridge shot in between that and the park scene so that we did not need a match-on-action.

The next change was frame 11, which shows a hand, assumed to be Rose's dad's, grabbing Rose's face. Despite filming this shot, we decided not to include it as it made the opening seem too much like a trailer, as it contrasted a lot with the 'weird' scenes throughout the rest of the opening.
Another alteration during filming was frames 12-14, which were planned to be shot in a white kitchen to fit with the washed out colour palette we were aiming for. However, the location we used proved to be too small to shoot with the desired framing, and so we moved the setting to a living room, which, despite having much warmer lighting and colouring, allowed us to film the shot of her falling. We also had to change the shot type, as we could not circle around the two characters, and so instead we used a shot-reverse-shot. We were still, however, able to shoot a match-on-action to the shot of Rose falling into the bath. 

Originally, we planned for the shot of Rose in the bath, shown in frame 15, to contain black water, but after discussion we decided that it would be unnecessary and potentially confusing and that we preferred the idea of her face being somewhat distorted underwater.
Frame 17 shows our plan to transition from the title screen to a close-up of Rose on a stage, circling round her to reveal an audience of empty chairs. However, due to time restraints whilst filming, we were unable to put out all the chairs and so decided to reintroduce the audience to the style of the opening using two long shots beforehand.
The last change is in the closing hospital scene shown in frame 24. Our storyboard shows that we were going to have the doctor repeat Rose's name several times before walking out of the room, however, after creating our first draft we found this to be too conclusive and so gave the doctor another line and changed the shot types from a zoom out to a close-up to mid-shot and back to a close-up.

Final Opening

This is the final draft of our opening for 'Rose':

BBFC Rating

As 'Rose' contains stong language, such as swearing from Rose's dad in the opening that can be expected to continue throughout, and implications of violence, our film would be rated as a 15, following the BBFC's guidlines. Our opening is also styled by social realism, meaning that, in order to accurately portray Rose's life, we would likely show more violent scenes than that of the opening. However, our film would not feature any gore or sex that would make it an 18.

First Draft Feedback

After completing the first draft of our film opening, we received feedback that, despite being positive towards our stylisation and camerawork, criticised our final scene as it made the opening seem to much like a trailer or a short film. In order to remedy this, we re-filmed the final scene, giving the doctor another line that better indicated more to the story than what we had first included. We also changed the shot type and duration; in the first draft we zoomed out from a close up to a mid-shot and ended with a few seconds of silence. We now use a straight cut to transition from a close-up to a mid-shot, in time the doctor's voice, then after he says his line it cuts back to the first close-up, and ends more abruptly, indicating that this is not the end of the story. We also slightly altered the credits as one of the roles credited was one not usually featured at the beginning of a film, and the font was not stylised in the way that we wanted it to be.

Opening Draft 1

This is the first draft of our opening for 'Rose':

Lighting Testing

Tunnel

This tunnel is one of the location we are using within our film opening. We wanted this scene to have an eerie feel to it. It is also an external so we are relying on natural lighting, therefore, time of day is very important to the scene.

The first two photos were taken around 3.20 in the afternoon during February.  However, we decided that this was too bright and did not have the right feel.

We then went back to the tunnel at 5.30 once the sun had set a little and it was darker.  This lighting is much more appropriate for the look we are going for in our opening.  Although this lighting raises the possibility of the footage being grainy, there are lights throughout the tunnel to reduce this risk.

Park

For the Park scenes we wanted the lighting to have a very stark and cold feel giving quite a harrowing introduction to our film opening. The pictures taken were taken 2 o'clock and 4 o'clock respectively, due to the seasonal weather there is not much difference in the lighting so we decided to film this scene at the best time for our filming schedule.

For the park scenes we decided to film at around 4 o'clock in the afternoon.  This was firstly because it fitted in very well with our filming schedule but also because during the February
time of year when we were filming our opening the cloud cover over the park gave a very even and cold lighting meaning we could use natural lighting to film our scenes.

Aimee's House

For the scenes in Aimee's house we wanted to use the lighting to complement the white colouring of these scenes and so thought it best to use white natural lighting as opposed to the yellow tinge of most electric lights.  The photo shown was taken at 5 o'clock in the after noon but we thought it was a bit too dark so we decided to film this scene during the morning/midday when the sun is on this side of the house and it is brighter.

All the scenes at in Aimee's house were filmed during the day between 11 o'clock and 2 o'clock this was so that we could make the most out of the natural lighting there were big windows opposite where we filmed both the bedroom and the bathroom scenes which enabled us to light these scenes.  For the opening shot we also used a lamp to add to the natural lighting, creating low key lighting over Rose's face.

Location Recce

Aimee's Sister's Bedroom:
Our opening begins with a shot of the protagonist sitting on the edge of her bed looking forwards. For this we decided to use Aimee's sister's bedroom, as it is a fairly plain room with white walls and white furniture so it will be easy to make it look sparse. The two windows on the opposite wall will allow us to use natural lighting.

Bedroom Door:

Another shot we will film at Aimee's house is the one in which the protagonist is leaning against her bedroom door, stopping someone from coming in. We decided to use the same room as the opening shot to create continuity as the room will have the same colour scheme. As we want this shot to look a lot darker, we will film later in the day to avoid the natural light from the windows.

Aimee's Kitchen:

There is one shot in our opening in which the camera circles around the protagonist inside a kitchen. We decided to use Aimee's kitchen to limit the number of locations we will need to visit, enabling us to film everything in one day. We can also take a lot of stuff off the surfaces to fit the sparse look of the other scenes we will film here.

Aimee's Bathtub:
We are using the bathtub for the scene in which the protagonist submerges herself into the water and the title appears on the screen. The bathtub we have chosen is also in Aimee's house, therefore limiting the locations in which we need to film. This will give us more time to get the shots we need.

Dunton Green Tunnel:
This is for the scene in which the protagonist has ran away from home and is hiding in a tunnel. We chose this because it fits the dirty, dingy look we are aiming for. The white walls will contrast her dark appearance adding to the creepy nature of the scene.

Dunton Green Tunnel Wall:
This is for the scene in which the protagonists face is grasped by an unknown antagonist. This wall is in the tunnel in which we will film the above scene. Although there is limited space within the tunnel, this shot is a close-up so limited space will not affect filming.

Dunton Green Bus Stop:
This bus stop is for the scene in which the camera circles around the protagonist. This is a good location because it is a stereotypical bus stop, demonstrating her vulnerability as a young person alone in public. It is also very close to the tunnel meaning we can film all of these scenes in one shoot.

School Medical Room:
This for the final scene of our opening in which the protagonist is seen to be in a hospital room. This is a convenient location as it in our school and looks like a hospital room.

School Hall:
This is for the scene where she stands on the stage and the camera circles around her. We will put out chairs in the main floor area as well. This is also in school so will be easy to fit in to our shooing schedule.

Park:
This is for the scene in which the camera circles around the protagonist standing in a park. We chose this location because it is close enough to be easily accessible. For this location you can use only natural lighting, reflecting light where needed.

Bridge in Park:
This is a good location as, like with the tunnel, it looks very dingy and has a good view of the river. In this location there may be limited space for filming but we will complete test footage to assess its suitability for the shot we require.

Actor Profiles

Actor Profiles

Meg Dobson : Rose

Meg is ideal for the role because she is a teenage girl, connoting Rose's vulnerability and innocence.  She also has brown hair and eyes, conforming to the dark nature and colour palette of our opening, and she has a small frame implying weakness and her inability to defend herself.

Tony Langan : Rose's dad

Tony was cast as Rose's dad as he is fairly tall, making him appear threatening in comparison to Meg.  He also has a Glaswegian accent, stereotypically connoting aggression and violence, enhancing our presentation of Rose's dad to be threatening and dangerous to Rose.

David Chidlow : Doctor

We cast David in the role of Rose's doctor as he was ideal for the role with his look conforming to many of the traditional expectations of a doctor, quickly and effectively informing the audience to his role within the film.  David has grey hair making him appear much older than Rose and connoting his authoritative role in her life.

Costume and Make-up

Costume

Rose

For the majority of our opening, our protagonist will wear dark, plain clothing to fit with our colour palette. As she is a middle-class teenager, she will wear fairly nice clothing, however, we do not want her wear very expensive garments as this will contradict her situation too much. In addition to this, we want her to wear plain clothing so that it won't distract from the focal point of the opening; the character herself.

In most of the scenes, she will wear a similar outfit to this, however, we will need to change the top (as we use mostly mid-shots, so you can only see her top) to show the passing of time throughout. 

She will wear jeans and trainers as well as this is typical of a girl her age.

For the final scene, our protagonist is seen in a hospital room, and so in order to make it seem more realistic, we will dress her in a hospital gown, such as this one. To create a sense of verisimilitude, we will also give her red socks as this is what patients wear in modern-day hospitals.

Rose's Dad

Rose's dad's costume will only be seen in one of the scenes, so he will only have one costume. We will dress him in dark clothing as well, so that he won't look out of place with the dark colour palette used throughout the rest of the opening. 

Doctor

The doctor is only seen in the last scene of our opening. She will wear a white lab coat as this will immediately indicate to the audience that she is in the medical profession. The use of white will contrast to our earlier use of dark colouring. 

Make-up

Rose

As Rose is being abused by her father, we decided to put bruises on her to create a sense of verisimilitude.

We used purple, brown, red, yellow and green eyeshadow to create these bruises and test how realistic they look. We started by making a point of impact with the red, then built up the surrounding area with lighter colours. We used green and yellow around the outside to make it look more authentic. After this we embellished our bruises with other colours to add detail and make them look more natural. We also varied the depth of colour and size. As the eyeshadow we used was sparkly, we had to cover the bruises with translucent powder, which also made them more matte. 

For this, we used red eyeshadow in the outer corner of her eye. Then we used brown underneath and on top of her eyelid. We also added red on her bottom lash line. 







For this, we used red eyeshadow on top of her eyelid and brown underneath. We used a darker brown to contour the natural lines on her cheeks.




For this, we added to the make-up from the first eye. We used a dark brown on the inside corner of her eye to make it look sunken. We also added more brown under her eye and more red and brown to her eyelid. We used the same technique as before to contour under her eye. 




This is us applying Meg's make-up:

Casting: Rose

Meg Dobson
 Age: 16
Height: Mid-height
Hair colour: Brown
Eye colour: Brown
Skin colour: White

Meg has long dark hair, dark eyes and pale skin, similarly to what we are looking for. The long hair means that it can be make to look scruffy. 





Shannon O'Doherty
Age: 16
Height: Small
Hair colour: Brown
Eye colour: Green
Skin colour: White

Shannon has very long hair, which is also good for the scruffy look, however it is too light and we are looking for a darker colour palette. 




Aimee Langan
Age: 17
Height: Small
Hair colour: Brown
Eye colour: Blue
Skin colour: White

Aimee has long dark hair and pale skin, creating an effective contrast. However, her eyes are too bright for what we are looking for. 

Lighting Testing

Tunnel

This tunnel is one of the location we are using within our film opening. We wanted this scene to have an eerie feel to it. It is also an external so we are relying on natural lighting, therefore, time of day is very important to the scene.

The first two photos were taken around 3.20 in the afternoon during February.  However, we decided that this was too bright and did not have the right feel.

We then went back to the tunnel at 5.30 once the sun had set a little and it was darker.  This lighting is much more appropriate for the look we are going for in our opening.  Although this lighting raises the possibility of the footage being grainy, there are lights throughout the tunnel to reduce this risk.

Camera Testing

Firstly, we tried circling around me with a handheld camera. For this, we did not use any guide to make sure that we went around in a perfect, smooth circle. We also did not use any editing software to make it look more stable. 

Next, we sat Aimee, holding the camera, on a wheely chair as Molly pulled her around me in a circle. Again, we did not edit the footage after to make it look less shaky. 

Thirdly, we created a harness system to make a steady circle by balancing the weight of the cameraperson with another person. This was slightly smoother however, as we still had to walk, the footage was still shaky. 

Finally, we used 'Warp Stabiliser' in Premiere Pro to enhance the stability of the video. We found that this created the best final product, however this was filmed with a handheld camera and so we will need to practice walking around our actor smoothly and steadily. 

Target Audience

Target Audience

When deciding on our target audience, we tried to create as detailed a profile of them as possible. Therefore, we considered not just what films they would enjoy but also their age, lifestyle and other interests.
As we had already done research into openings similar to the one we want to make, we knew that the films our target audience would most likely enjoy were psychological thrillers and critically acclaimed films such as 'Room', 'Silence of the Lambs', and 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'.
We also thought that they would watch similar, well known T.V. programmes with complex storylines such as 'Westworld', 'Luther' and 'Game of Thrones'.
We thought that it would be important to think about what music they would listen to, as music can often be used as a signifier of a genre. We decided that this would be popular yet meaningful music such as 'Green Day', 'Ed Sheeran' and 'Twenty One Pilots'.
From this we thought that our target audience would be 25-40 year olds of any gender and likely to be working or middle class.

Shooting Script

Shooting Script

INT. BEDROOM
Thump.
Close-up of actor's eyes, looks drained and tired. Holds for 3 seconds.
Zooms out into mid-shot, sitting on bed, black clothing. Zooms out for 4 seconds. No action.
Camera starts to move around.

EXT. PARK
Shot changes on the camera movement. Same girl in park. Mid-shot. Camera still moving  around. Gets a third of the way around her. 3 seconds. Straight cut. No dialogue.

EXT. BRIDGE
Long-shot from bridge. No action. Can hear running footsteps in distance coming towards camera. Holds for 2 seconds. Straight cut. 

EXT. PARK
Girl still sitting on bench. Mid-shot. Camera continues moving around her. Goes another third of the way around her. 3 seconds. No dialogue.

EXT. BRIDGE
Long-shot from bridge. No action. Can hear footsteps still but closer this time. Holds for 2 seconds. Straight cut. No dialogue.

EXT. PARK
Girl still sitting on bench. Mid-shot. Camera continues moving around her. Goes another third of the way around her. 3 seconds. Straight cut. No dialogue.

EXT. BRIDGE
Close-up of legs running past the camera. Running footsteps very loud. 1 second. Straight cut. No dialogue.

EXT. WALL
Extreme close-up of hand grabbing girl's face. Muffled shouting and screaming. 2 seconds. Straight cut. 

INT. KITCHEN
Mid-shot of girl in chair at table. Muffled shouting. Slow zoom. Kettle boiling in background-sound getting more high pitched. Chair falling back. camera follows. 4 seconds. Straight cut.

INT. BATHROOM
Match-on-action of girl falling and changes to girl falling into bath. Bath has black water. Camera falls quickly as girl is submerged into close-up of water. Can hear water sloshing. Title appears and holds for 4 seconds. Straight cut.  No dialogue.

INT. STAGE
Mid-shot from the front of girl standing on stage. Camera moves around her gradually. 6 seconds. Stops after complete 180. Sound of muffled clapping as empty chairs are revealed. Straight cut. No dialogue. 

EXT. TUNNEL
Long-shot of girl in tunnel. Slow zoom into her. Dark. 5 seconds. Sound of train moving above. Straight cut. No dialogue. 

INT. BEDROOM
Match-on-action to girl sitting in front of door. Sound of door banging. Camera zooms in as door bangs each time. 5 seconds. Straight cut. No dialogue.

EXT. BUS STOP
Girl sitting at bus stop. Mid-shot. Camera continues moving around her. As camera moves previous shots appear. Camera starts to move faster then suddenly stops. 6 seconds. Straight cut.

INT. DOCTORS'
Cuts to extreme close-up of girl's face in doctors'. Holds for 3 seconds. Sound of muffled speech of doctor saying girl's name, gradually becomes clearer as camera zooms out for 5 seconds to long-shot.

Initial Opening Ideas

Idea 1:
Aimee came up with the idea of following the story of a teenager who has been abducted. We planned to open the scene with a close up of her in a car boot, possibly illuminated by a security light.  This type of shot indicates the cramped and uncomfortable situation that she is in. The scene would then cut to her throughout the day, edited out of chronological order with black screens, showing our credits, integrated in.  By doing this we intend to create a sense of confusion to reflect how the character would feel. The types of scenes we would use would be familiar to someone of her age in order to create realism, for example her at school, home and with her friends.
The diegetic sound in the opening would be speech, both her's and her friends' and family's. There would also be the sound of the car on the road and other traffic. We were also considering having the sound of her breathing amplified to draw attention to her panicked state.

The positives of this idea are that a thriller is an easy genre to work in as there are many different sub-genres to pursue; such as action, psychological or sci-fi thriller. This means that we have many different options of narratives, allowing us to create a more innovative opening.
The negatives of this are that a school is a difficult setting to use as we would need lots of actors to all be in character at the same time. We would therefore be more likely to get continuity errors (if we filmed it more than once and edited together the parts we wanted) or breaking of the fourth wall. We also thought that this could easily become very cliché as we are using a stereotypical victim in films; a teenage girl, in commonly seen locations.

Idea 2:

The main idea for this film opening is the main character being followed by someone or something. This stalker will be the camera as it will be shot in a point of view style. This stalker scenario will be immediately recognised due to the first being watching the protagonist through a window. The character will just be doing normal activities for example reading or sitting at a table. The main character will then move but the shot will continue in one movement from the outside as they walk from wherever they were situated to the front door and out of it, whilst the camera remains outside watching them. As the protagonist walks across the front of the house the shot will then switch to the camera being situated in a bush but still following the character. Location will then be changed to a train station and the character walking onto the platform. The camera will be placed on the opposite platform to make it look more distant. Some non-diegetic music will begin to play but only quietly. Another key character could be introduced here by having the protagonist quickly bump into them. A train will go by and the character would have disappeared. There will then be the sound of a car door closing. A taxi (or just a normal car) will then drive off as the camera moves back from it. The audience will be able to see the character in the car squinting out of the window towards the camera suggesting that they have noticed something. The car could then turn and start driving towards the camera as if it is trying to run it over. The camera will then do a whip pan backwards as the car is about to hit it. It will then cut to a ‘flashback’ of the scene in the driveway, but from the character’s perspective as they look around after hearing the rustling of the leaves. The camera will then whip pan again but downwards this time and back into the road where the car was about to drive into the camera, but the camera is now behind the car, watching it screech as it comes to a standstill. The credits will be integrated throughout the opening for example, when the train goes by the film title will be revealed.

The problem with this idea is that it has a complicated concept. We will need to carefully plan this to make sure other people like our actors can understand what they are doing. It also has many locations that are in public places. This is bad as we may have problems with continuity errors as there are so many people in different places. Furthermore we would need to change the location of the train station as we can not film there.

Production Company Logo

We decided upon our Production Company name, 'COMA Productions', as it is an acronym of all of our names; Cassidy, Owen, Molly and Aimee. Once we came up with our name, we decided to think of things we associated with comas, for example hospitals. From this we got the idea of a heart monitor as it is simple yet can have great impact. We created a few prototypes for the logo before deciding which of these to use as the final design.

Idea 1:
Our first idea was to have the line of a heart monitor running over the top of the name of our production company. This was quite striking yet professional as the white writing and graphic stood out boldly against the black background. Despite this, it could seem a little boring and uninventive. As well as this, the title was quite small and therefore difficult to read. However, if animated with the sound of a heartbeat, we could create a smooth and simple introduction to our film opening. 
Idea 2:

Our second idea was to make the 'M' of 'COMA' using the visual of a heartbeat monitor. This was our favourite as it was fun and interesting and does not require animation in order to attract the audience's attention. Again the colours contrast well to make our logo stand out by bringing a vibrancy to it whilst maintaining a professional feel. However, there may be issues with the translation of the logo as it is fairly spaced out and so the audience may not be able to make out the 'M' or understand that it is a heartbeat.


Idea 3: 

Our third idea was to incorporate the word COMA into the heartbeat with productions written underneath.  This was our least favourite idea as the finished product came across childish and unprofessional with us having to change the font to suit the look of the heartbeat.  Although the overall look of the logo was not ideal we did make the logo all white to give as much professionalism as possible and the word 'productions' was kept in capitals to give optimum impact.

Idea 4:

Our final idea was to attempt animating our logo to make it more eye-catching and unique. For this we used black writing on a white background however we could reverse these colours as we have found that it would stand out more this way. The heartbeat monitor serves as the 'M' of 'COMA'. The use of this graphic to make up part of the production company name is more effective as the audience will have to focus more on what the name is.