| Saw 1 Essay - For Old Main Task Idea |

SAW 1 TRAILER – ESSAY

The opening sequence of this movie trailer it shows us that there is an evil madman behind the happenings of all mysterious deaths that have been happening lately and how people have suddenly gone missing. The opening sequence allows us to take in that the main villain in this film likes to ‘’play games’’ with his victims, which gives us a clue about the sickening storyline behind the film and the characters in it. The opening sequence captures parts of action that take part in the movie to interest the audience in the gory torture that takes place.



Characters in the opening scene are made out to be very scared, confused and tense as they are all involved in action or suspense moments throughout the brief trailer. The capturing of facial expressions and dialogue helps to understand what position the character is in at that certain point in time when the film plays. The characters are made out differently as planned, many victims of the madman’s games are made out to be scared, confused, lost and emotionally drained, police force are shown as a hard working force that will not drop the cases of what is happening thus building up intense moments for what is going to happen next and the villainous voice in the background of the trailer helps to define the unseen character to the audience.


The location and setting of where the opening sequence is shot connotes a dull, isolated room which is where most of the action takes place as short clips of gory happenings are shown to the audience, one after the other they continuously switch from shots but show a shortened length of it so not all of the action is revealed. The camera shots assist the realism and effect of horror because of how they are positioned and how the camera is moving. Long shots have been used in this opening sequence to show the dull, tight and cramped room there is in the corridor, as this will connote the darkness and fear of what will be happening in the film. The trailer contains many close ups which help to signify the mood and expressions of the characters faces to help understand what they could be suffering in the scene.


A majority of the realism and emphasis comes from the editing as the editors have used many effects to enhance the effect of messages and feelings given out. The director uses a blurred effect to signify the movement of injured people who are being tortured in the movie and also uses lots of slow motion in the trailer to build up tension towards the audience and will surely boost the excitement and thrill they get when watching. Temporal ellipses is also fairly used to go forward and back in time to reveal happenings in the movie to help audience to understand what is happening and why it is happening. A vast range of effects are used here which have been used very well as they have boosted the thrill and horror side of the theme.


Sounds such as heart beats and very slow sound effects that add to emphasis on the theme of the film as it involves cameras and static sound, gates closing shut as if to connote someone being trapped, which does happen frequently in the film trailer. Narrative in the background by an edited voice to give audience an even better understanding of the characters behaviour, this means that the audience will be more keen in wanting to watch the movie because of the build up and bits of messages given out. Sound effects enhance the realism and theme of the shot, this is mainly due to the fact the sounds are both diegetic and non – diegetic from on screen and off screen sources which un-eases the audience whilst watching.


The credits in both the opening and the end have been written in grey writing with a dark background to match exactly the mood and theme of the film genre, because when making a horror movie dull colours are appropriate to keep the same mood going, especially for a horror trailer. Overall the credits have been spread out well, both in the beginning and end, this is an advantage and upside because this means the audience will not get bored of a long trailer at the end.

| Production Logo - Idea 1 |

I have created a logo on Macromedia Fireworks for my production name which i will be placing at the beginning of my main task for recognition.

This is a simple logo i have made for the time being, i will later on try to create an animated logo on a MacBook using LiveType.

Here is the current production logo

| Main Task Update |

Just recently I have decided to take on the main task on my own and have already gathered ideas to prepare myself for the challenge ahead, i have chosen to do an action/drama genre which will be based on true stories that happen in the streets, it contains mild violence which will be viewable on the trailer once finalized.

The idea was inspired by myself and a few friends from outside school who told me I could put together a really good trailer and agreed they will assist me in the filming process as my actors.

The main plot of my new genre is about a boy who lives in his small neighbourhood enjoying a normal day out when he walks past a group of youths who he is hated by for no reason at all, this will slowly be shown during the trailer and will give a brief summary of what will occur later on, the boy is then attacked and mugged by these youths constantly and wants to do something about it but cant, until one day he has enough.....
He takes action and trains up to take on these mischevious youths after he prepairs himself through vigorous training, in the trailer i am planning to have messages to be written on screen as warning messages given to the viewers about being aware of the streets.

| Valuable Lesson - Hermeneutic & Proairetic Codes |

Lesson Objectives/

To learn hermenutic codes and proairetic codes:

To understand how the codes work:

To be able to identify the codes in an opening sequence:

Hermeneutic Codes -

Parts of a story that are not fully explained. They exist as enigmas or questions that the audience wish to resolve. An example would be a criminal act that is shown and the remainder of the narrative is devoted to answering the questions raised by the initial event.

Techniques -

Snare - Deliberately avoiding the truth of the event and sending the audience down the wrong path ( Trying to deceive the audience.)

Proairetic Codes -

A character we know who will have a reaction to something and the outcome of the event that has occured.

Narrative codes

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| Main Task Story Board |

Our storyboard outlines what shots will be used in which scenes and how long each shot will last along with what sound effects or dialogue we will be using in each scene.

A drawing of the scene outlines how it should look and what action, what will be taking place and any use of SFX or dialogue involved in that shot/scene.

The storyboard took us 1 lesson to complete, we were told to add more pictures of shots which lasted shorter periods of time.

| Trailers Of Similar Genre - Ideas For Main Task |

Here are a few trailers to films that have been released that have a similar genre and theme to the trailer we are making for our main task, the trailers are great for developing on our idea and will assist us to make it better.

- Saw 1 Trailer - < Link to video

- Halloween H20 Trailer - < Link to video

- Paranormal Activity Trailer - < Link to video

- Paranormal Activity Trailer - Pre-screening Reactions And Review - < Link to video

- The Orphan Trailer - < Link to video

| Preliminary Sequence evaluation - Coursework set by Mr.Titheridge |

Preliminary Task Evaluation
There were different sections of the preliminary sequence we had to plan individually to get it up to the standards of the finalised piece. Our first stage of planning was deciding our genre and film title a long with where we were going to shoot the sequence, and for our movie we decided to do a drama called ‘The Gift’ we then chose a quiet spot in the school which we thought was perfect for our short sequence due to the quiet and dull atmosphere, it also appeared to be a secretive place near to the end when the exchange of an item happens. The next stage was the drawing up of our storyboard and how we were going to imagine how everything is set up and what camera shot we will use, also where and when we will need to use the required camera shots. The equipment we used to record and finalise our preliminary sequence were a HD digital video recorder, and an Apple Mac Book to help us edit and finalise our piece, both software we used were of great assistance.

I believe that what went well for us was the filming as we were able to capture everything we needed within an hour and managed to film before everyone else. Our editing was quite successful although we did struggle a few times using final cut express, but once we had got a hang of the software things were looking good for us and our finalisation of the preliminary sequence. There were many difficulties we faced beginning with our planning, although we managed to do this very quickly we it was tough as we had many individual ideas and making an overall agreement as to which ideas we should add was a very tough job. Once editing, it took us time to adapt to the new software as we were all new to it but managed to overcome the difficulty and progressed very quickly, creating titles was a tough job as we had to use another software which we needed a better understand and was very time consuming.

My overall impression of our finalised piece is very positive as I am impressed that we have understood the new software very quickly and managed to undertake such a new task very quickly, i was particularly impress with how we edited our sequence by using simple effects, we enhanced the overall quality and presentation of our work. There are 2 problems I had with the finalised piece which were the quality of acting and our understanding of camera shots and angles, improving these 2 problems will help to make future work even better than the last piece.

My main lesson I have been taught is how to put together a movie using different software and adding many effects to boost overall quality. Over the few weeks of producing the piece I have also learnt on what bits I must improve on other attributes to improving movie quality through my acting skills, this allowed me to understand what I do and don’t need to improve on and it is a great help and eye opener for what I need in order to pass through my main task with ease. Doing the preliminary sequence will be an advantage to help my main task reach its best.

| Using The Mac Book & Software (Final Cut Express, Garage Band, Livetype) |

During our preperation and completion of our preliminary sequence (The Gift), we seemed to have had a little bit of trouble using the software as we were new to using it. There were times wen using final cut express we would lose our work, or things would get misplaced when adding in new bits to our work, this came as a really big problem to us as it was slowing down our progress to begin further planning of our main trailer. We added effects such as the ''Fade in'' and ''Fade out'' to give the sequence a more smoother entrance to the opening scene and the exit of the finish, this made it seem more tidy rather than just finishing on a black screen.

Once starting on the creation of our credits and title page we instantly had problems using the software Livetype as we had trouble changing background colours, choosing the correct font, colour, effects etc...

This had taken up alot of our time and was a real problem, but with thorough investigating and determination to create and finish our preliminary sequence we finally figured out how to do all these things.

In the end we managed to overcome the problems and finish our piece.

The use of garageband was very short as we needed an entrance beat to assist the trailer to avoid hearing minor noises in the background, although it is a minor adjustment it had made a big difference to the look of our trailer.

| Preliminary Sequence - Preperation & Completion |

I am working with my fellowclassmates Aqib Hussain andBlawal Butt on a project that we were tasked with for our AS Media Studies final assessment, which was to create a two-minute preliminary sequence alongside a two-minute trailer on a genre of our choosing. After we considered numerous possibilities, we finally decided to base our main trailer on the horror/thriller genre. We conducted a brainstorming session where we all had an input on what to include and how we could work on the idea that we chose. Recently, we have finished planning, filming and editing our preliminary task which involved us directing a scene in which we had to add certain shots which were prerequisite for our preliminary task. Once filming had concluded, we edited the film on a MacBook [provided by Mr. Titheridge] using Final Cut Express, which consisted of numerous features that enabled us to enhance the audio and visual quality of our work. We utilised Garage Band for the audio, and altered the titles and credits using Livetype.

| About Myself |

Name -- Osaama Zaheer

D.o.B -- 09-07-93

Age -- 16

Interests & hobbies -- I take a keen interest in maintaining my physique and so I devote a great deal of time towards working out at the gym and attending mixed-martial arts classes in my local area. I am a prodigious footballer and frequently play social football with my peers.

My friends describe me as being very laid-back and calm, although I show great enthusiasm and vigour when partaking in activities I find appealing. I always try to encourage people, regardless of whether I am on a football pitch, in the gym or in a class where other pupils require my help =]..