This is my groups script and shot list. It is important that we created a script for our final task so that we are able to stay focused and on track whilst filiming. Having a good script will help us to acheive the shots that we want and need in order to make a good opening sequence.
Here are the story boards for our opening sequence. We tried to include a variety of camera shots, movements and angles. We tried to create a clear narative with out telling the whole story and giving too much away.
Since the pitch of our opening sequence we have found that our direction has slightly changed. Our decided genre of drama - mystery now has some supernatural touches in it after we decided to alter the ending. Our original idea was to have the girl walk away in a hurry but we decided that this felt to forced and broke the gentle pace of our ideas in an awkward way. We have now decided to have a the girl be touch on the shoulder, by who is left to questioning. I felt this made a better possible ending for the sequence as it leaves the audience wanting to find out more about the mystery hand.
I think having the change will benefit us and being able to adapt and work with numerous ideas is a good skill for us to practice with in media.
This is my groups power point of our pitch for are final piece. We decided to include a slide explaining the synopsis and the overall idea of what our opeing scene is going to be about. We used photos in our mood board in order to represent the feel and emotion of what we wanted to create, we also chose two main locations for our opening sequence as well as potentional soundtracks and characters. We decided to have only one character because this helps to get across the feel of isolation and lonliness. Although
we're happy with this pitch we are all open to any changes in ideas that we may have.
With in media it is important for me to know who my target audience is and who I am aiming my product at. This can help when it comes to marketing but I will also benefit me when thinking about potential characters or any references I may want to include in my piece.
When thinking about what age classification my production will be it is likely that it will be a 15 age rating as this allows for frequent strong language, dangerous behaviors and moderate violence. However, the opening sequence alone does not meet the 15 criteria as it doesn't involve violence or bad language use.
Our production as a whole would have the age restriction of fifteen but this is not able identify specific details of who we think our audience would be.
Whilst planning and sharing ideas about what we think our opening sequence should include my group and I decided on one main protagonist as the lead who would be female. Female audiences watching our piece could identify them selves with our main character but we do not watch to alienate the potential male audience for our product. I do not think deciding to have a female lead would make male viewers turn away from my product as the story is not dominated by a single sex which is able to make it appeal to both.
Continue with our chosen character her age in the piece will be around 19, having her be fairly young could make our product appeal to people who are late teenagers and young adults as they would be able to relate to the main character.
The characteristics of our main character should not completely define and speak for all of our potential audience as they may be people who are older than a young adult who are interested in the story line of our production.
I feel that it's most important for our audience to be of people who enjoy the watching the genre of a drama-mystery film and consist of people who appreciate and detailed and twisting story line. Having those people as our target audience will benefit our production as they will be able to realize the meanings of our story and sustain an interest.
Now that my group and I have successfully agreed on what genre of opening sequence we wanted to produce we are now able to watch existing products in order to identify and establish the conventions of a drama mystery opening sequence.
To begin I look into several films that fitted our genre including Premonition, The Forgotten, Black Swan, Se7en, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Donnie Darko. Using these films as a source was a good place to start as they provided me with a good indication of what we could include when planning our final production.
Above is the opening of the film 'Se7en' which is an example of a successful mystery film. From watching this i was aware of how titles we incorporated in to the scene. I liked the way the font of the text was able to help emphasize the tone of the film along with how they jumped around on the screen, when thinking about my own production I would also like to have a text that represents the plot of our story. The coloring in this opening is very shadowy and has dim lighting which again helps to set the tone. The visuals show are mostly extreme close ups and the objects shown are able to for shadow the rest of the story which a convention of most other opening sequences. The extreme close ups only allows the audience to see small areas of the objects which can leave them feel intriguing of what the full picture will be.
From this I have learnt that the lighting also plays a big part in the opening sequence which I was not as aware of before. The use of titles are also important as they help to create the desired atmosphere for the viewer and having a font that does not fit the genre or story could break the desired tone.
One of the other openings that I found interesting was the opening sequence to the film 'Black Swan'. The sequence is very simplistic but still has a powerful impact, what intrigued me most about the opening was the pace of the scene and how the music effects this.
The begging starts very gently as she draws the line and the music starts very calm and rhythmic. As the sequence progresses the drawing becomes quick and more erratic as this is complemented from the music picking up in tempo and strength, this could also be applied to the film as it starts with an ordinary girl but through at the film her life intensifies and eventually becomes hard to control.
When watching this I liked the idea of starting my opening sequence very softly with an ordinary situation and have it progress in to something bigger and more intriguing and I feel choosing a appropriate sound track is crucial to being able to achieve this.
Overall from carrying out this research I was able to identify several conventions that are most suited to a drama-mystery, one of these would be using props and scenario which are able to drop subtle hints to audience and foreshadow the story with out giving to much away. The correct use of titles is also important as using the correct font can help fit the genre. The soundtrack used in drama-mysteries are rarely upbeat so I feel the one I choose to use should be more serious and emotional.
Now that I have happily identified genre and convention I will be able to apply it to my own opening sequence, next I will establish who my target audience might be.
Now that I have received the brief for my final task I think that it is important that I am able analyse it in order know what I need to do. Part of this analyses is to be able to identify the conventions of an opening sequence.
From watching opening sequences in class I have found that they often include the titles of the actors involved, the director, the media institution and producer as well as the name of the film. These titles are usually subtle and can be incorporated in to the action of the scene, however sometimes the titles can be shown in a very obvious way. Depending on the film some opening sequences are more cinematic than others.
Other things I noticed from watching various opening sequences is that they often contain small hints and metaphors of what the film is going to contain. I like the idea of putting hints in to my opening sequences but it is important that I do not give too much away as the opening to a film is ideally meant to draw you in and leave you wanting more. Some opening sequences also include the films soundtrack or some form of music.
Here are two film openings I have previously looked at.
These openings are very different but both of the start with the institutions name, the title of the film appears at the start of 'the devil wears prada' and at the the end of 'children of men' which leaves you with a different feeling when entering the film.
Now that I have identified the basic conventions of an opening sequence my group and I will need to decide what genre we want our opening sequence to be and then identify the conventions of that particular genre.
Today I was given the brief to be followed for my final media piece.
For our final brief we have been asked to create a opening sequence to a genre of any film. The film has to be fiction and last approximately two minutes. It must contain titles and a soundtrack that is not copy righted.
From the brief there are key areas that must be followed in order to meet its criteria; these are the film must be fiction, titles and soundtrack. Also the specified time limit.
Away from these set factors that must be met the final brief provides a lot of creative freedom. My group and I will now be able to choose which genre will feel we can execute best and work together to produce a clean cut and fluid opening sequence.
From this brief I need to created a pitch where I can show my chosen ideas and the establish target audience, purpose, content and figure out how to over come limitations.
For our preliminary task we were asked to create a short scene. The scene had to include someone walking through a door with a match on action shot as well as a shot reverse shot with dialogue. Before we could she our scene it was important that we have storyboards so we coukdkeep track of what shots we needed to film. Here is a picture of our storyboards. After the storyboard had been completed we were then able to start filming.
Below is the brief for my preliminary task. Continuity task involving filming and editing a
character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite
another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of
dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and
the 180-degree rule.
From this I know that continuity plays the largest role, I must make sure that
the match-on-action shot is clean and fluid and that the 180 - degree rule is
met. I must complete these criteria within the task otherwise
the brief will not be met. Having this brief is good practice as I will have to
follow a brief when it comes to producing my final product.
The next task we were set was to recreate a short scene of our choice. This task will help me practice my camera work and will give me a good opportunity of following through on planning. my group chose recreate the begging of 'scream' from High School Musical 3 Senior Year. We chose this scene because it has a variety of shots and camera movement but it was still slow paced and simple enough for us to try ourselves. Before we could start we had to plan by making a short story board of what we wanted to film. Due to limited locations and costume we had to choose key and stand out moments in order to recreate the scene effectively.
Here is a photo of our story board.
Next we would be able to begging filming our scene.
My group and I were set a short task in order for us to practice using the camera equipment. We were asked to plan and create a short piece of film including a variety of shots using different angles and techniques. Before we could film our shots we needed to plan what kind of shots we were going to try out, in order to plan we needed to make story boards so we had something to follow whilst filming. Here is the picture of our story board for our first shoot.We included a two panning shots, a over the shoulder medium shot as well as a tilt up shot.
Our next task was to film what we had planned to do then edit them into one short clip.
