Finished Opening Sequence

My Finished Evaluation

More PowerPoint presentations from Jessica Staplehurst

These are an example of notes we had in our meeting. This is where we started to form the final ideas for our opening.

This is our shooting schedule. We planned to film all our footage in two days, and we successfully completed this. Having this guideline helped us to be a lot more organised so our filming went a lot smoother. 

This is a storyboard for our Opening Sequence. I took a variety of shots from all over the storyboard and went into detail with them. It consists of the shot no., duration, information on the camera, sound, titles, visual style and notes on the different shots.

This is our detailed treatment form. It includes all the different elements of sound and visual effects we will be adding into our Opening Sequence. 

This is the planning for our Opening Sequence. Answering these questions helped me understand exactly what I had to incorporate into the planning of the opening, and things we would have to consider when creating it.

Film Production Guide Sheets

This is a brainstorm of all our ideas as a group for our opening sequence. We have also included some titles and ideas about a possible storyline. The genre's we have focused on is Thriller and this is why most of our titles are short and scary.

Research on Film Genres

Horror

"Horror films are unsettling movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, disgust and horror from viewers. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres. Horrors also frequently overlap with the thriller genre."

I got this information from Wikipedia.

The first sentence, is an extreme version of how we would like our opening to effect people. So we will be taking some ideas from the genre of horror.

Drama Film

"A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, crime and corruption put the characters in conflict with themselves, others, society and even natural phenomena."

This final information is also from Wikipedia.

After reading up on information about Drama Film, I have realised that some of these elements would be vital in our opening to make it emotional for the audience.

We would like to include a mixture of all of these genres in our opening to create the effect that we would like to achieve. 

Thriller

"Thriller is a genre of literature, film, video gaming and television that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as the main elements.[1] The primary subgenre is psychological thrillers."

I also found this information on Wikipedia.

Suspense, Tension and Excitement are all emotions we would like our audience to feel while watching our opening sequence.

Feedback Questions That We Have Asked Our Audience

The final question that we have asked our audience which I think is the most important 'Did you notice any serious issues such as continuity errors, strange edits- Did anything not make sense to you?'
"Story line was a bit confusing but knew roughly what was going on, sharpen the shots so they are closer together"
"Some shots were to dark, also footsteps looked a bit fake"
"Sound needs a bit of work, didn't understand the train scene"
"Over edited"
"Camera shots slighty jumpy"

Feedback Questions That We Have Asked Our Audience

Our Second question that we asked our audience 'Who do you think the target audience is?'

"Horror, 16+"

"Horror teens and mid-age"

"18, Indie Horror"

Most of the answers we got were all the same and me and my group was happy because this is the audience and genre we was aiming for. 

Feedback Questions That We Have Asked Our Audience

The first question we thought we should ask the audience is 'What was especially good about the film?'

Here are the answer we got from our audience

"Really good editing (Red Lipstick with black and white shot) Good camera work and use of sound"

"I liked the end when the camera gives different shots of the eye for example, and also when we see and here the train"

"Camera work was very good, good use of colour, lighting was very good"

"Good variety of speed (slow motion)"

"Never see the face until the end shows suspense, good shots of knife and shots of make up and nail varnish at the start"

"Good acting"

A Summary of Problems our Group has Faced

As a group we have come across many problems and mistakes that may of caused our group to be behind. But we have sorted these out in various ways. For example one problem that we have faced was the lesson when everyone learnt how to use the editing software final cut Me and Chloe was not here on this lesson so Efosa had to go through it with us again so this caused our group to be behind for a couple of lessons but we soon managed to catch up. We did this by doing a lot of work quickly so we wasn't behind anymore.

Another problem we come across was that we didn't live near to each other so it was hard to meet up to sort things out. Because Me and Chloe are close friends we live near each other so it was just getting together with Efosa and Jade to do filming etc. As we was working more together at school we became closer so it was easier to get together for filming round each other houses. But the filming and meetings were mostly done round my house as it was the easiest to get to.

Lastly another problem was the dialogue in our film which I have already stated but this put us behind a lot because it meant that we had to cut the dialogue out from Efosa and Jade and do voice over using Chloe's voice instead of Jade's but we managed to sort this out and now the dialogue fits perfectly with our film.

Dialogue In Film

We have decided to do a voice over in our film where we see Efosa and Jade on the phone to each other. This is because Jade's voice doesn't fit well with the genre and our teach told us that her accent sounds Essex. So we decided to use Chloe's voice instead and also we have made the timing right because before the dialogue was too quick. We did the voice over on garage band and also used a microphone.

there was a problem because we could hear interference from mobile phones so we had to make sure that we cut this out. 

After we have added this voice over into our film there is not much else that we need to do. So we are hoping to finish our film by Thursday at 10:50.

A rough copy of our film for showcase

Here is a rough version of what our Opening looks like so far. We are at the stage were we are tweeking little areas that arent tidy for example were there are gaps that haven't yet been put together properly, and really focusing on getting all the sounds completed and exported. From our film showcase people noticed that the dialogue didn't make sense with our film and didn't fit with the genre, so we decided to do a voice over. But we will soon out the finished film onto our blogs.

Film Showcase

We had our film showcase today were we watched everyone's opening sequence and then wrote our responses to them. For example we stated what we liked most about them and also what we could improve on. We had a number of people that gave us feedback and wrote they wrote and rated the Sound, Characters and Camera etc. on a evaluation sheet.
Most people hadn't quite finished there films for example the sound wasn't in time or the cuts hadn't been put together properly but we took this into consideration and just wrote what we think personal would improve their film.

When we showed our opening to the class we had to stand up and introduce the characters that are in the movie and also say where it was filmed and also we explain that the credits aren't in order yet and there is no sound as we haven't finished that yet.

Final Editing Stages

Our deadline is Thursday so this means that we dont have much time at all to complete all of the work set. So because of this Me Chloe and Efosa stayed for a hour after school so we could sort out the music for our opening, as we have not got any sound on the video yet except for digetic sound which was there when we filmed it. Also where there was interruptions with phones and other electronic equipment there is a lot of buzzing and hissing that we had to make sure was gone before we could send it of. This is what we sorted out today and tomorrow in our lesson we plan to finish the music ready to start the evaluation.

Our Production Company

This is our production company that I have made. When it plays the word 'LIGHTBULB' flickers like a actual light bulb. It is effective because it's dark and connects with our actual film opening.

We also came up with other ideas for a production company such as
Wonky Donkey Productions

Lighthouse Productions

Newhouse Productions

Light bulb Productions

Transform Productions

But we thought that Light bulb would be the best option as I had a really good idea of how it would look.

Final Editing

Because we are coming close to finishing our final opening sequence, I sat with Efosa today and went through our film and changed the bits I didn't think worked that well and also made the overall film shorter because I think some clips dragged on too much and also need to make some scenes brighter as it's quite hard to see. So this lesson we made a rough final version just so we can show the rest of our class and get some feedback.

 

Recent Progress Of Editing Opening

Over 2 lessons I have worked on the production logo for the beginning of our opening. I made it on Flash and we have decided to be called Light Bulb Productions, so I have used a picture of a light bulb and put it on a black background, because it stand out and because black have connotations of dark and scary. I have finished creating this and have added it to the start of the our opening on Final Cut.

Things learnt from Preliminary Sequence

We created a Preliminary Sequence to get used to all the different shots and them edit them together so we are not oblivisious to them all when we come to our our Opening to a film. I feel it has helped us a lot because we had the chance to practice some so we knew what we were doing. We have used various different shots and camera movements to make it look effective, and this is what we have out with. The shots we have used is: Zoom panning shot, Worms eye view, OTS shot and many more.

For Example we did a match on action shot in our Preliminary video and we also used it in our real opening sequence. If we didn't test it out before we probably wouldn't of done it very well in the real thing this is why it was helpful to test it out before.

Technical Codes Of Sounds

These are all the different technical codes that you can use in film when you are creating the sound for it.  I have researched these because I thought they would come in useful for when we start to put sound onto our opening to our film.

Preliminary Sequence

Own Initial idea submitted to group for consideration

We was told to go of on our own to think of a idea that we could do for a opening and create a storyboard so that we had some ideas before we created our final storyboard. This helped a lot because it would of been to hard to create a storyboard from scratch and would of taken a longer time. My first idea was to do a romantic film with horror in it as well, but we thought that it would be more effective and easier to make a horror movie. So we used a part of my idea for our final opening sequence.

Current Progress

In today's double lesson Efosa is carrying on editing our Opening Sequence while I have been working on the sound for some of the shots in the film.
Our editing of the film is coming to the end but we need to add sound and titles still. So that's why I have been trying to create the sound so we can put it all together.
Meanwhile Chloe has been focusing on planning the meetings and creating meeting logs to we are update to date which all our work.

Starting To make sound effects for movie

Sounds
I have started to create the music for our opening film. I thought it would be a good idea to use a Jewellery box noise and make it creepy and sound more scary because she is sitting at a dressing table.
It has taken me a lesson to create the sound and it lasts for 7 seconds which is quite short but we are going to make it echo out so we can use another sound after.

Scream Opening Sequence

The title at the start of the movie is very different to most opening titles of scary films. The colour of the writing starts of white and changes to red which is connotations of death or love? They use non-digetic sound of people screaming and loud bangs to get the audience scared already even though nothings happening. so then when the film starts we already know that the genre is horror or thriller because it is made clear to us. When the film starts   there is digetic sound of the phone ringing but this starts when the titles are coming up and carries on into the film to make the sound more effective. 
So the main character is introduced by answering the phone, so we see her hand before we see her face. We don't know if the main character is a girl or boy at this stage because it's not that easy to tell from a hand. So this would put questions into the audience head even though it only lasts for a couple of seconds. 
At the beginning of this opening sequence the dialogue is very normal, but when the phone starts ringing constantly, we can tell that she is getting more scared as her speaks starts to become slow and slurred as she gets more scared. the sound its mostly non-digetic in this opening sequence the same as a lot of scary movies because it builds up the tension and makes the acting and everything a lot more scary. For example when he says that he can see her and she gets more worried so the music becomes or loud to suit her mood and also it becomes more upbeat as she starts to run around panicking.  Lighting starts of bright with all the house lights on but then all of a sudden her house gets darker and the lighting is dim to make the atmosphere more scary.
This movie was made in 1996 we can tell this because of her costume and the props that are in the house. Also because of her hair and make up can tell this is not a new movie and has been out a while. 

Editing of our opening Sequence - How it is going

This week I got all the shots onto final cut in the right order so that it is ready to edit and put in different transformations. As I am not familiar with the software Final Cut and Efosa is, we have decided to make him the main editor but now and again I give in my input and say what we can make better to look more effective. But up till now it is going very well.

The Ring Opening Sequence

Firstly we see the production company of the film The Ring which is dream works, but instead of being played normally we see a scratch and this makes it look like the film is being interrupted but really it has been used to make the film look more scary. This also establishes the genre of the movie which is horror and thriller. Then we see the two characters introduced by a slow zoom into their faces while they are watching a film to make it look effective and also because it is used at the start on the production company.

The dialogue in this film is slow and deep to grab the audiences attention, it brings us in to the  film because it feels like she is talking to us. Also to make the film more scary they use dark lighting and all we can see is shadows on their faces, which makes their teeth and eyes stand out the most so this is what the audience will be focusing on the most. The phone rings which is diegetic sound and because before they were laughing and joking it brings tension and makes the audience on the edge of their seat because they don't know who's going to be at the other end of the phone. There is also slow non-diegetic sound over the top of the phone ringing this also makes the atmosphere more thrilling. The end non-diegetic sound is very effective because it is very loud and makes you jump out of your seat, and also works well because the girl is screaming as well.

The camera shots are mostly zooms which is more effective, and also we see a crash zoom into a clock which might be a symbol of the film. Tracking shots that follow the character work very well because we can only see the person we are following not what's around them. So this is very good for a scary film because we cant see the evil villain. 

Plans for next lesson

We plan to carry on cut our film and editing the different shots together. Researching opening sequence before helped us and me a lot and gave us idea's in what we should include into ours. Because of this I think we are going to create a very powerful and frightening opening.

Starting editing

Today we started to edit what we have shooted on Sunday and Monday. I was cutting up the film on Final Cut and making sure I did every shot. As a group we watched through the footage we have taken and realised that we must of recorded over a shot that we took.
The shot that we recorded over was of Efosa walking close to the camera and also a worms eye view of his feet. So we decided that Efosa would record this himself as we have no other time to meet up and to change anything.

Also after the editing on Sunday and Monday night I feel that I played my part very well in recording the shots at the station for the beginning of our opening sequence and also acting as a kidnapped girl in our opening.

Our storyboard for our group Opening

James Bond Opening Analysis

James Bond Opening Sequence

The main colour used in this opening sequence is red. Which holds connotations of death and blood, or on the other hand is could show love and passion. But in this case we know that it is blood because the man in the background is holding a gun. The barrel of a gun is a graphic match of the letter O, in DR NO.

Narrative functions

The character is introduced at the start of the opening sequence by a panning shot of him walking into the camera. It is a long shot. Also the music is very upbeat for when he walks into the opening shot. The only way the narrative structure is shown through is the genre, and also we can tell that this is a very old film because of the music and how they introduce the first character.
The characters are introduced first by their names and not seeing their faces. This is done also by using colourful dots and in the credits. Also this will make the credits look less boring, as you have got something else on the screen, not just the writing. This will also captivate the audience’s attention because the music in the background is very upbeat and catchy, and will the colourful dots making patterns makes it interesting.
We establish that the key themes are lively and bright with a black background.
Because there have been many James Bond Movies they know that the character who plays James Bond is going to be well known star. This will make the audience want to watch the film more because they know who he is. In this particular James Bond movie the main character is Sean Connery and he is very well known.
At the start of the opening sequence the audience will establish that the genre is action because he holds a gun at the start of it and also we see blood running down the screen, so it may also be a thriller involving death.

Narrative conventions

The mood from the sound track gives a thrilling feeling to the audience. As I have mentioned the titles and credits signify action because of the fast pace of the dots moving. When we see the gun shot it puts questions into our head about what is going to happen next, who is going to get shot?

Lighting is very black and white with a bit of colour red, which are connotations of death.

Costume his costume is very smart which shows that he is a normal man the works, but we don't know that he is very different from what we expect.

The editing and camera movements are fast because the film is an action movie, so this relates to it.

Finally there is no dialogue at the start so we haven't a clue what is going on or what is going to happen.

My personal response to the plans we have made

As I am a character in the opening I don't have a role of shooting as I am mostly in it. But because we are shooting at my house I have organised the times in which everyone will come round, and also i will set up the setting to make it suitable for the filming.
We have put a lot of information on our storyboard so we know exactly what we are doing. We may need to make some changes to this because some things might not look good on camera in this case would would have to change our original plans. Another thing is that our storyboard may be a bit short so we are going to have to drag it out but this won't be a problem because there may be things that we have missed.
I have a feeling that the filming will go really well this is because we have planned exactly what our plan of action is for over the weekend. It may not go as well as we have planned but I am feeling quite confident about it.

Planning Our Opening Sequences

We have planned to start filming our opening sequence this weekend, and we aim to get the whole of the filming done so we can start the editing next week. We have decided what costumes we are going to wear, and we are going to be shooting our opening sequence at my house. He have chosen to use the bedroom where is has a mirror. The garage to make the atmosphere look scary and the living room back doors for walking in and out. Also we are going to need to go to the train station which is 10 minutes away from my house so this wouldn't put us out too much.

We have discussions about our plans for the weekend which will be Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th of January. Also what times we will meet up and traveling etc. 

Comparing Pillow Talk and Fringe Essay

Media Essay - Comparing Pillow Talk and Fringe

In this essay I’m going to compared Fringe and Pillow Talk. Fringe is an American science fiction television series created by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. The series follows a Federal Bureau of Investigation "Fringe Division" team based in Boston, Massachusetts under the supervision of Homeland Security. The team uses unorthodox "fringe" science and FBI investigative techniques to investigate a series of unexplained, often ghastly occurrences, which are related to mysteries surrounding a parallel universe. On the other hand Pillow talk is a 1959 romantic comedy film directed by Michael Gordon. It features Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Tony Randall, Thelma Ritter and Nick Adams. The film was written by Russell Rouse, Maurice Richlin, Stanley Shapiro and Clarence Greene.

The pace in Fringe is faster than in Pillow Talk. For example in Fringe there are faster cuts in between the different scenes. Also there are many straight cuts from one person to another also this is called over the shoulder shots. But in Pillow Talk they show then two characters in the same shot which is called a two shot. Also I have counted how many cuts there are in 20 seconds of Fringe and there are 7 but then in Pillow Talk there are 0. So there is just one long scene that last for 20 seconds without any cuts.

The style of the editing in Pillow Talk is very different to Fringe. In Fringe there is a split screen and different cuts for example dissolve and a wipe. But in Fringe there are none of these and most of the cuts is straight cuts. This may be because Pillow Talk is quite an old film whereas Fringe is quite a new episode which means they have better technology and are able to make the sharp camera shots. Also in Fringe there are more close ups of people faces so you can see only the person talking in the shot.  But in Pillow Talk most of the shots are mid shots of the people so you can see their conversation without the camera changing.

 There are quite a few similarities throughout Fringe and Pillow Talk for example. There both use mid-shots to show the characters but in Pillow talk this it’s the main shot that they use where as in Fringe the shot that is used the most is a close up. This could be because they don’t want any background in it and only need to see their face, but this is different in Pillow talk because the background in it is quite important. This is because the Mise-on-sceen in Pillow Talk makes us know that is an old film.  For example their clothing and make-up are quite old fashion. But in Fringe this is very different because we only see their faces as they are close ups but we can still tall that this is a more up to date series. But this could also mean that are similar because most of the shots are the same in both clips.

Looking at Fringe and Pillow Talk as a whole they are very different from each other and the audience responses would also be very different. This is because I think Fringe in more Sci-fi and Pillow Talk I find as quite a romantic film so this would have a different effect of the watchers and audience. In Fringe the audience would find it hard to keep focused on the screen because there are so many cuts and changes in the camera angles it’s hard to keep focused, and that’s like most film and series these days. Where the audience would follow what’s going on more in Pillow Talk because there are not as many cuts and the scenes follow into other. For example when the lady is standing at the sink and the camera does a pan and follows her to the phone so you can see where she is walking. If this was to happen in Fringe then they would use a cut to film the scene answering the phone.

In Pillow Talk when there are two characters in the scene the camera would get them both into the shot which is called a two shot whereas in Fringe if there are two character speaking to each other then they would use a cut from one person talking then to the next. So from this again you can tell that the technology was not as good then as it is now. Finally altogether Fringe has a lot more cuts uses more close up’s than mid shots to show an up to date series and Pillow Talk has less cuts and more mid-shots to get the background information in to show to the audience that this is an old film.

Children Of Men Essay

How effectively does the opening sequence from 'Children of Men' (2006) use the forms and conventions of film openings? What is your personal response as a member of the audience?"

In the film Children of Men the director uses key forms and conventions to captivate the audience and grab their attention. This is done by using key methods and techniques that keep the audience attached to the screen. Children of Men is a 2006 American dystopian science fiction film co-written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón. It is set in the United Kingdom of 2027.

We know that the plot of the film is in 2027 and no children have been born anywhere in the world for 18 years. The youngest child in the world is Baby Diageo, and because he is the youngest person alive he has become famous for this. We are informed this by the news report on the television at the start of the opening sequence, but because it is an opening sequence they don’t give too much away. It also informs us that Baby Diageo has been stabbed by one of his fans for not signing an autograph. We see moving billboards and adverts on the side of buses to show the difference in time and how the country has changed.

An opening sequence aims to give a short snippet into what the film is going to be about. From just watching a couple of seconds of the opening sequence we see that London looks very gloomy and grey. Although it is a future film the place looks very similar to what it looks like now. You would think that there would be very advanced technology because of the film being set in the future, but apart from moving billboards we don’t see any of this in the opening sequence of this movie. There are typical conventions that are used in an Opening Sequence for example narrative functions, audience expectations, generic tropes and the characters. I will look into these to see how well they are used.  

Firstly I will begin to look at the narrative functions that are used to captivate the audience’s attention. Were the scene is set and the colour normally catches the audience’s attention first, and in this case the film is set in London which we know very well. We see double decker red buses driving up and down the streets. This is how we recognise that it is set in London. Also the colours are very grey and gloomy because of all the smoke from the buses, that it almost looks like the opening is in black and white but really it is all in colour. This could show connotations of how London is becoming untidy and dirty as all this drama is happening. The colour of the buses are also very dull and not bright, even though they are red and red is a bright colour. This makes it clear to the audience that the film is set in 2027 because you would expect things to get more congested in a place like London.

The characters in the coffee shop all very different to each other. They were props to help us understand who they are and their different interests. For example at the beginning we see a fairly old lady hold her dog in her arms. This helps us understand that there are still animals living even though a child hasn't been born in 18 years. Another character is a policeman but he is not recongnised as he is standing at the back of the shop, but we can establish his hat, and it also helps us establish that the film is set in London. When the camera then goes outside when we follow the man, we see bikes that we get in London now days with engines on the back; his is also giving of smokey which contrast with the dull colours of the roads. Finally we then see the main character. We can tell that he is the main character because throughout the opening the camera is following him through the coffee shop and the outside again. He just looks like a normal London Office worker because he is in a suit and just coming into the shop to get a coffee when he spots the news on the television. We then see him putting some of extra liquid into his coffee, which we think is alcohol. This then makes s ask questions about why he is doing that? Are there reasons for him drinking? It also helps us to establish what the main character is like, and also what we expect in the rest of the film. All of this gives us a good impression of how the film is going to be like, because if the opening is not very good the audience will expect the film to be the same.

Generic conventions establish the audience's expectation about the film. It also helps the audience discover the genre of the film. We know that the film will be action because of the explosion at the end of the opening sequence when we see the lady that we have previously seen drinking her coffee in the shop walking out with her arm in her hand, and it is also very clear that the move is going to be futuristic because of the difference in time. At the very start of the opening were we here important news but only see the credits on screen. This makes the audience pay more attention to what is being said rather than what is on screen. There is non-diegetic when the explosion is going off and this is another way of how the audience will establish this film as an action film. 

Throughout the opening sequence props and costumes and other mise-on-scene play an important part of establishing the different characters and the expectations of them. As we can tell because of the main character poor alcohol into his drink we immediately think that he is an alcoholic.

Textual analysis for example framing and camera movement play a big part in understanding the film. In this opening the camera is mostly hand-held. This is very effective because it looks like someone is following him from behind. Also is can signify that the world has become unsteady that's why the camera is unsteady. Another angle we see is a high angle shot in the coffee shop, which gets everyone in the frame and makes the characters look small like they're not important.

I think the opening sequence of 'Children of Men' works well as it catches the attention of the audience and has drawn them in, making them want to watch the rest of the film to find out what has happened; that is the whole purpose of a film opening. It sets the scene very well and introduces the audience to the main character and the setting - London 2027. This allows the viewer to get familiar with the surroundings before giving them too much information about the plot because they may then confuse them causing them to turn the film off and give negative reviews.