Diary Post

Today I have started planning the story board for our opening sequence with Luke, however Laura wasn't in so we were limited to the detail of our story board. I decided I wanted to create my story board alone which would allow me to use and develop my artistic skill and professional pencils. I have also started writing the marketability for our opening sequence, I have stated who my target audience is but still need to come up with people the movie could be aimed at.

My target for next lesson will be to complete my marketability post and begin completing all the other required posts on my blog to change the table to all green.

Ident

I chose the name of my ident because one of my favourite animals are owls and I thought it would be quite good to animate an owl flying away. To make the ident I found a Youtube clip of an owl flying and took various stills from the video. On Photoshop, I erased the background from the clip then edited the colour which made it black and white. I also posterised the picture to make it look more comical. To animate it, I used stop motion animation and put all the clips together with short time frames using Windows Live Movie Maker on my laptop. 

I added sound by downloading a clip from a Youtube video of owls hooting and imported it into the video.

The Evelevator Pitch

25 Word Treatment

Walking alone will never be the same again for one girl. Time's running out for the only person who can save her, will he make it?

Opening Synopsis

Our opening sequence will be set in a dark and eery room. One of the main characters in the film will immediately be introduced as she walks down an alley, closely followed by a shadowy antagonist. The villain in the movie will then capture the main character and the screen will cut to black after hearing her struggling. Shortly after, the viewer would see the eery room from the Point of View of the main character. We will see shots of the antagonist before she begins the attack. The antagonist will then use her phone to talk to a retired police officer who has the sole responsibility of keeping this girl safe. He's given a time limit to find her location before something fatal happens. Throughout the sequence we will see credits falling from leaves and appearing in parallel to the action, for example whilst the actor is moving forward we see the credits appear behind them. The opening sequence will end with a long shot of the location and screams of terror will be heard.

Conventions of a Thriller

Initial Ideas Summary

For the task I am working in a group with Laura Poyntz and Luke Davis.

Before we decided on exactly what we wanted to do we all put forward our ideas. Our first thought was that we would have a title sequence similar to the opening for Napoleon Dynamite where the credits would be shown on various objects. The genre to our film would've been a comedy as the theme of the title sequence fits into that genre quite nicely. Our idea was that a 'nerdy' school girl would be packing her bag to get ready to go to school and we would see rather comical items being put into the bag. The camera wouldn't allow the viewer to see her face until the very end when she's about to leave, when it reveals how her looks fit into the 'nerdy' stereotype.
Although this is a rather good idea, we thought that it would be a very simple and easy film opening which wouldn't stand out from other title sequences very well so we discussed different ideas.

Our next idea was that we would shoot the opening to a horror film at Sand Bay (A local beach) and in the woods. We thought that it would be a good setting for a horror as it is quite dark and mysterious however we may have a bit of difficulty accessing this location. Also, after researching with the examiners report we found that a horror clip in the woods is one of the most common types of entries so we decided that we'd like to be a bit different and came up with out next idea to get around that.

For our third idea we kept with the horror genre but decided that we could film it at an old barn in St. Georges. The old barn would give an eery feel to the clip and would be a great location for the opening. I think this it definitely comes away from the woods type of scene as there is only so much you can do in the woods. Our storyline for this would be that a girl or two girls would be running away from an unknown subject. As they run you would see leaves fall in slow motion behind them which would display credits. If we chose to use two girls they would bump into each other, both terrified and run into the old barn thinking it would keep them safe. As they hide and wait slowly thinking they're safe they begin to sense unnatural occurrences  inside the barn which would raise the tension of the intro and hook the viewer. The title scene would then begin to pick up the pace before it cuts to black as the rest of the film would begin, giving it a sharp rise and fall in tension. This intro could be a way of foreshadowing the film or it could be a flashback of the characters experiences before the film begins, to get a bit of a backstory.

Title sequence timeline

Ident

My idea for a Film Ident is 'Owl Entertainment'. Whilst I haven't finalised it, I have created most of the templates for a stop motion animation ident where you see an owl flying away. Here are some of the examples.

For this task I decided to choose the title sequences for Pitch Perfect and Spring Breakers as I have already seen these films so I would be able to compare how the title scene relates to the rest of the film.

I found the title sequence of Spring Breakers on a website called 'Art of the title'. The title sequence is quite fast paced which can foreshadow action and drama and can be used to engage the audience from the offset and make them more interested. It is quite a creative title sequence as it's quite bold and eye catching.
 However, nothing really stands out from this opening sequence as it is just text and music. The title scene doesn't do much to introduce the genre because of it's lack of image but the quick and quirky display of the text can give us, the viewer, an idea of what the rest of the film will be like. Also, the typography of the text could show some aspects of the film as it looks like lit up signs for bars and clubs. This is an example of one of the credits in this title sequence.

The music is quite good as some of the lyrics can display the thoughts of some of the characters during the film. For example 'the lights won't stop me'.

Before the title sequence there's a short opening scene in which you see some of the main characters singing on stage. In this scene, one of the main characters ends up being sick on stage which grabs the viewers attention and makes them want to know what's going to happen next.

From the very start of the pitch perfect opening sequence we can see that the film is related to music as you see the pitch bars on her laptop moving to the beat of the music which is playing. I think this is quite good as it shows what the film will be about. I think it's quite eye catching as the bright colours stand out from the black back ground and the bars move around to show different credits.

What are the functions of a film opening sequence?

The main function of a film opening sequence is to set the genre for the film. We are able to tell what kind of film we are about to watch in the first few minutes of viewing it. For example, we know that Juno is a comedy kind of film because the opening sequence is fun, bright and colourful. We can also tell that Batman: The Dark Knight Rises is a crime/action/thriller film because we see violence, action and deaths from the offset which fits into these genres perfectly. In these two pictures we are able to see the difference between a thriller/horror and a comedy/indie film opening. We can tell the genre by the colour, brightness and music in the opening sequences. 

Another function of a film opening sequence is to introduce the protagonist/antagonist. There is usually emphasis on the main characters in the opening so we can distinguish who's who quite easily. An example of this is the opening scene of The Hunger Games which shows us who the protagonist in the film is and we hear her some of her back story. It also sets the genre and story.

Yet another function of an opening scene could be to set the story/narrative or give it a back story. This is essential as an opening sequence which doesn't engage the audience or link to the rest of the film will have a negative effect. An example of an opening sequence which sets the story is Up which introduces us to the main character and tells us what had happened to him before the story takes place.

These films also show the other functions of opening scenes. They set the time/place for the film and give us an idea of the setting. Some of them use their opening sequence to foreshadow what will happen in the movie whereas some have simpler functions such as to show genre.

It all started off fine.

If you haven't managed to guess what this sequence of pictures is trying to show, I will now tell you. As you can see in the first picture, Laura is holding up a bottle of wine and we are dancing, which is supposed to show that we're at a party. The second picture shows Laura drinking the (empty) bottle of wine.The third picture onwards shows Laura getting too drunk and passing out. In the fourth and fifth picture I am phoning an ambulance and putting her in the recovery position. It started off fun and cheerful and ended badly which I think suits the title of the assignment.

Continuity Exercise-Director's Commentary

Continuity Exercise - Thriller style Shot list and storyboard

Shot 1- Long shot of Laura running down the corridor.

Shot 2- Over the shoulder shot of Laura looking out of the window

Shot 3- Long shot of Laura running back through the corridor.

Shot 4- Medium shot of Laura walking through the common room.

Shot 5- Medium shot of Laura and Dan's dialogue

Shot 6- Over the shoulder shot and 180 degree rule used for the dialogue.
Shot 7- Medium shot of Laura pushing the tables
Shot 8- Over the shoulder shot of Luke stood in the corridor.

Storyboard

Continuity Task Edit

Camera angles:

Neutral shot

A neutral shot is a shot in which displays little to no psychological effect on the viewer.This is when the camera is looking straight on the subject or is at eye level.

Point of view shot

A point of view shot is a shot in which shows the what a character is showing at the time.

High angle shot

In film, a high angle shot is usually when the camera angle is located above the eyeline. With this type of angle, the camera looks down on the subject and the point of focus seems to be over powered by the setting. It is often used to show power over the subject by making the viewer see over them.

Low angle shot

A low angle shot is a shot from a camera angle positioned low on the vertical axis. It is anywhere below the eyeline, looking up towards the subject. It is often used to show that the subject has more bigger and more powerful than the viewer. It makes them seem more intimidating.

Birds eye view

This is when the scene is shown from directly above. It is seen as a completely different and unnatural point of view which can be used to show dramatic effect or for showing a different spatial perspective. It can be used to show the positions and motions of different characters and objects.

Long shot

This is when the shot generally shows the image as approximately 'life size'. It includes the full shot showing the entire human body, with the head near the top of the frame and feet near the bottom. The focus is on the characters but the background detail is still visible.

Extreme long shot

This can be taken from as much as a quarter of a mile away, and is usually used as a scene-setting, establishing shot. There will be little detail visible in the shot as it's meant to give a general impression rather than specific information.

Close up

This has the focus on the face or a specific detail of mise en scène. Everything else in the background is just a blue as the entire focus would be on a particular subject, rather than the surroundings, the close-up takes us into the mind of a character

Gender representation analysis

Continuity Video

I think some aspects of our video worked well considering it was our first try at a movie making continuity exercise. The most effective part of the video is the match on action which is best seen when she goes through the door as seen in the below screenshots. 

I believe to make this video better we should film is continuously and whenever the camera angle moves the actor will need to overlap the action he/she just done so that when it comes to editing, the video will run smoothly and become more fluent. You can see that the match on action isn't as smooth in other parts of the video as it jumps from one place to another and is a bit rigid. You can see this at the beginning when the motion of the walking doesn't quite match which makes it less smooth.

Another example of this is when she is walking down the stairs and it about to sit down. We didn't film her actually moving to sit down on the chair so it makes the video more jumpy as it goes from her stood up to sat down in a different space. These screenshots show this transition.

These screenshots of the video show that if we overlap the acting and the actors done the exact same actions as before whilst filming so we would be able to get more of a smooth flow because none of the motion would be missed out.

Summer Assignment Prezi