Filming Our Sequence

 

Our filming had to be very scheduled, as we had to visit a lot of different locations and coordinate a lot of different people. We weren't all available for filming at the same time, but we all turned up for some shooting and had a go. On the whole, it went very well as we got all the filming done within two days at several locations.

Production Companies - planning distribution and promotion.

To look in to the kind of production company that would promote our film, I looked at some famous thrillers and who produced them.

1. Inception. 

• Warner Bros. Pictures (presentation)
• Legendary Pictures (in association with)
• Syncopy

2. The Dark Knight

• Warner Bros. Pictures (presentation)
• Legendary Pictures (in association with)
• Syncopy
• DC Comics

3. Pulp Fiction 

• A Band Apart
• Jersey Films
• Miramax Films

4. Goodfellas

• Warner Bros. Pictures

5. Psycho

• Shamley Productions
  

A problem with this research is that GEARproductions (our company) is an independent company, and it is unlikely that we would team up with any of these companies as they are large corporations. However, it is a clear convention here that there is often multiple companies helping the production of a film: a production company, a distributor etc. This could be reflected when we create our own titles and we could credit more than one company.

Personal Response: Our Idea

I absolutely love the idea we came up with as a group. It's entirely realistic and achievable, and we could branch out in whatever way we want, experimenting with shots and movements. I'm glad we chose thriller as a genre as it is something we can all enjoy making. It's also extremely convenient as the locations and the cast that our idea requires isn't overly awkward or demanding, meaning that we can get the filming done the way we want without having to worry about extensive travel or relying on too many people that may back out at any point. 

Our Film Idea (Summary)

After an extensive amount of planning, we finally came up with a idea for our sequence and film.

A man of questionable motives and background rings on the doorball of a young girl's house, who is home alone and running a bath. She lets him in, believing he's a gas meter man, but as she returns upstairs to stop her bath the audience is made aware that he is not as he seems, and that he is deceiving her. He starts to travel upstairs, and as he does, his history is displayed on the screen, hinting at what is about to happen to the girl. He reaches the bathroom door, and the sequence stops.

Group Meetings #3 and #4

In this meeting, we started to think more specifically about what wee were going to film and started to storyboard. We carried this on into our next meeting as well, as this was a longer process and we didn't get very far first time around.


Group Meeting #3:

Group Meeting #4

Group Meeting #2

In our second meeting, we started thinking about locations and casts as we already had a rough idea of what we were doing, and we wanted to think about what we could realistically do before developing our plan any more. We realised for the paedophile idea, we could easily use a parent and siblings could play the part of young girls very well. We also started thinking about locations, but as it was set in a standard house this would be fairly easy as any of ours would do.

Group Meeting #1

In our first group meeting, we started to brainstorm all our ideas regarding the opening sequence on some sugar paper. We decided on doing a thriller, as this was something that interested all of us  and we thought it would be both fun and allow us to be as creative as we wanted. We also started to get a rough idea of the narrative of this piece; a paedophile knocking on the door of a young girl's house, and getting himself invited in. We thought if the audience was aware he was a paedophile, but the girl was not, it would create suspense and an audience pleasure of having extra knowledge. We also started to think about how to do this, the most popular idea being a recurring scene of the paedophile walking up the stairs towards the girls room, and every time he took another step it would flashback to a different girl, at a different point. 

Codes and Conventions of Opening Sequences

From my research on opening sequences, it is clear to see that the codes and conventions opening sequences are to:

- Introduce the narrative. 
Saturday Night Fever: the non-diegetic sound introduces the idea of disco, and the characters footsteps are in time with the music, suggesting he is in tune with this theme.
Inception: introduces the genre of thriller, as the audience is shown as little as possible to provoke thoughtfulness.
Mission Impossible: the mise-en-scene, like the inclusion of a burning fuse, shows what kind of events are to take place in the movie.
Die Hard: the hint that the main character is a cop connotes skill and violence that will come in handy later on in the movie.
Children of Men: the news report successfully introduces the narrative of everyone being older and also sets the time period. 

- Introduce the main character.
Saturday Night Fever: the entire opening scene revolves around the journey of the one main character.
Inception: the first face we see on the screen is that of the main character, and he's also the source of mystery in this opening scene.  
Mission Impossible: the faces of recurring characters show up on the screen multiple times, allowing us to recognise them late on. 
Die Hard: a conversation takes place between the main character and another man, and the camera then follows the main character, showing his importance. Children of Men: the main character walks against others and the camera follows him, which makes him stand out. 
- Use a montage (often).
This is displayed in Saturday Night Fever, Inception and Mission Impossible.
- Use little dialogue (often).
This is displayed in Saturday Night Fever, Inception, Mission Impossible and Children of Men. 

Spider-Man Titles Analysis

Columbia Pictures (presents)
Marvel Comics (production)
Laura Ziskin (production)
Spider-Man (film title)
Actors:
Tobey Maguire
William Dafoe
Kirsten Dunst
James Franco
Cliff Robertson
Rosemary Harris
J.K. Simmons
Gerry Becker
Bill Nunn
Jack Betts
Stanley Anderson
Ron Perkins
Casting By: Francine Maisler and Lynn Kressel
Co-Producer: Grant Curtis
Music By: Danny Elfman
Costumes Designed By: James Acheson
Visual Effects Designed By: John Dykstra
Edited By: Bob Murawski and Arthur Coburn
Production Designer: Neil Spisak
Director of Photography: Don Burgess
Executive Producers: Avi Arad and Stan Lee
Produced By: Laura Ziskin and Ian Bryce
Based on the Marvel Comic Book By: Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
Screenplay By: David Koepp 
Directed By: Sam Raimi


From this, we can identify some of the key contributors to the production of a film, and our titles should reflect this. In red, I have highlighted the credits appearing in the start of Spider-Man that would not be relevant to our own movie, and in green I have highlighted the ones that we will consider using. I have put 'Actors' in orange because although we may use this, this was one of the longest parts of the sequence and I personally found it tedious. I don't think it's a particularly good idea to have a credit sequence that lasts too long at the beginning of the movie, so to limit the amount of names appearing I think our group should just use the green highlighted titles above. Any other people deserving to be credited in the movie would be done so rightly at the end, which we are unfortunately not making. 

Misfits - Credits Analysis

Camerawork: the camerawork in this sequence is very interesting. We rarely see the actual characters as a lot of the sequence is animated, but when we do the shot used is a medium shot. This type of shot allows us to get a sense of the character through both body language and facial expressions: for example, Curtis at 0:32 is running across the screen, which not only hints to his past background as an athlete, but also suggests he might be running from something. To further this, he also turns his head as if he's looking for a pursuer.

Colour: the entire sequence is in the colours grey, ,black and white. This creates a particularly dark atmosphere, and may hint that the show itself is also quite dark and negative. This contrasts to the bright orange of their uniforms, which highlights the fact that they are doing community service and also makes them stand out from the world - i.e: they are 'misfits'.

Soundtrack: the song is called Echoes, by an indie rock band called the Raptures. This supports the genre as  this genre of music sounds fierce, whilst remaining upbeat. This shows the fierce nature of the characters combined with the comedy element of the show.

Children of Men Opening Analysis (up to 1:39)

Narrative Function: the opening of a news broadcast is a very clever technique of setting the scene - from this it introduces that there are no young people in this movie, as Diego dies the world's youngest person at 18, and this leads the audience to question why. It also immediately sets the time of the movie, as he dies in 2027. The audience are also left to question why the cafe exploded, who the woman coming out of the blast was, and how she survived. 

Conventions Displayed: this sequence establishes everything for the rest of the movie, including characters, date, and narrative. It also uses very little dialogue, excluding the news broadcast. 

Characters Introduced: this sequence introduces 'Baby Diego', who dies at the age of 18. He is not introduced as a major character in the movie, but is a device used to show that there are no young people and that to be 18 is extremely rare. The main character is also introduced: we can tell he is the main character as the camera follows him out of the cafe, only diverting its attention for a moment to set the scene. We can also tell he is the main character as in the very first shot he is the only one moving, which draws the audience's attention to him. 


Cinematography: the sound in this is all diegetic, as even though there is music it's on the news broadcast. The music is slow and sad to commemorate Baby Diego's death, and the newsreaders' voices are low and grim. This immediately sets a negative tone to this movie, which shows things have changed for the worse. When the main character walks outside, the camera follows him, but he walks of and the camera then shows us the street, establishing the time period and the difference to the world we live in. They have done this by including elements that would not be in our time: for example, the inclusion of moving adverts suggests common technology beyond our time. The lighting and colours used are both very dark and grim, and this combined with the concept of the 'Siege' of Seattle mentioned at the start again paint a negative picture, which immediately brings a problem across that will need to be resolved over the course of the movie. The inclusion of pyrotechnics also adds to this, as a cafe full of people definitely connotes negativity and violence.

Die Hard Opening Analysis (up until 02:00)

Narrative Function – this opening sequence subverts my expectations. From my analyses of of other sequences, it appears that almost all others use a montage and contain little dialogue, whereas this is a scene involving an entire conversation and, with the exception of the inclusion of credits, could have been placed anywhere in the movie and not be out of place. However, there are small elements to the sequence that conform to the conventions of opening scenes: the main character is introduced, and through the dialogue we also learn he is a police officer which helps rounds him as a character. 

Conventions Displayed -  this opening sequence subverts what I know to be codes and conventions from opening sequences entirely. It does not use a montage as the others do; instead, it jumps straight into a scene and we meet the main character that way. This however, could be considered a convention as we still meet the main character. Another convention is the establishment of a locatiton. 

Characters Introduced –   like Saturday Night Fever, this movie introduces the main character and also a couple of non important characters to allow us to see how the main character interacts and helps build a more rounded character. 

Cinematography –  Similarly to Saturday Night Fever, this sequence also uses a mode of transport (this case a plane, in SNF a train) to suggest that the character will also embark on some sort of personal journey. This concept of planes and airports also means that this movie establishes a location for the rest of the movie. The lighting used in the scene is standard: it is artificial lighting, but it aims to create a sense of verisimilitude and so it presents a light atmosphere as opposed to creating intentional shadow. The colours are used in a similar way; the scene is not dressed to impress, but rather is just trying to replicate an actual plane flight. The main character's outfit is a casual one meant for comfort rather than a suit, like the man next to him. This suggests that the main character is not here on business, but to relax, and hints that perhaps this relaxation will be disturbed.

Mission Impossible Opening Analysis

Narrative Function: this opening sequence doesn't really set the story line so much as the genre. The burning of the fuse, as well as small scenes such as the lasers and bloody hands show us that this movie is a a thriller. 

Conventions Displayed: yet again in this sequence a montage is used, which seems to be a popular trend across opening sequences as it does not give too much information away, which is vital to grabbing the audience's attention.

Characters Introduced: in this movie, although they aren't presented as rounded characters, we still see glimpses of a man and a woman who then feature throughout the movie more explicitly. 

Cinematography: the music in this is now iconic, but at the time of production it was made to create a sense of excitement and suspense, which it does successfully. The lighting and colours used changes as there are a variety of scenes, but it tends to be fairly dark which suggests illicit activities. This is further supported by the content of the scenes, including the stabbing of someone, particular governmental-looking documents and the burning of a fuse. 


What I particularly liked about this extract is the way the shots were timed to the music, and particularly the amount of jump cuts used. I thought this was a really clever way of breaking up a shot or a scene to create suspense. 

Inception Opening Sequence Analysis (up until 1:12)

I wanted to analyse the opening sequence of Inception because, like our project, it is a thriller, and by analysing the opening scene I can pick up on conventions specific to the thriller genre to use or mimic in our work.

Narrative Function: this opening sequence does not do much for narrative function, other than make the audience question what's going on. The scene opens with a man on a beach, who has obviously just been washed up on shore. This starts the audience question what's happening straight away, but does not give away any answers, therefore hooking their attention. To follow this, there is also a shot of two small children playing, but we do not see their faces and at this point we are not aware of their significance.

Conventions Displayed: yet again in this sequence a montage is used, which seems to be a popular trend across opening sequences as it does not give too much information away, which is vital to grabbing the audience's attention.

Characters Introduced: in the first minute of this movie, we are again introduced to the main character, who is quite obviously made the main character. We know this as he takes up the majority of airtime during this minute, and the other characters are not developed in the way that he is: we do not see the children's faces, and the guards do not speak English and are dressed in uniforms, which does not make them stand out.

Cinematography: the lighting in this scene is natural, which is unsurprising as it is set outdoors, on location.  The colours are what you would expect in this scene, being light and airy, which contrasts directly with the black titles at the very beginning and the non-diegetic music that hints at impending doom. This contrast is designed to confuse the audience even further, as they were led to believe something awful was about to happen and it doesn't. This is a very clever technique used to attract their attention. Similarly, the same idea is reflected in the mise-en-scene. The innocence of the children making sandcastles is in direct contrast with the gun carrying guards and the passed out man on the beach. This suggests that later on in the film, violence and innocence may mix. 

Saturday Night Fever Opening Analysis

Narrative Function – this opening sequence’s purpose is primarily to set the date and the area of the entire film. It also establishes the main character of the movie and through mise-en-scene and snippets of dialogue allows us to see what kind of person he is. The sequence also uses a montage, which compresses a lot of time and allows the director to show us exactly what he wants us to see.

Conventions Displayed -  the use of a montage is popular in quite a few opening sequences because it allows the audience to focus on credits and titles and not get side tracked by an overwhelming amount of dialogue. This sequence is also used to establish everything for the rest of the movie, which is the purpose of most opening sequences and is something that we should definitely think about when creating the final task.

Characters Introduced – this sequence revolved mainly around the main character, Tony, but we also meet some other characters that, although not likely to appear in the film again, are also quite important. The woman in the pizza parlour and the man at the clothing store both provide viable opportunities for dialogue and allow us to learn more about the main character by allowing us to observe him interacting with other people. This would also be a good idea to include in our own opening sequence, as it would help to introduce the character fully.

Cinematography – the lighting in this sequence is pretty standard: for a film about disco, the mood of the film and the opening sequence is generally going to be quite happy, and this is achieved simply by use of bright, natural lighting in this scene that causes a bright atmosphere, yet still had shadow to suggest to the viewer that there might be some darkness to come. Similarly, all the colours used are quite bold, including the red of Tony’s shirt, and the costumes of the extras which link in with the disco theme and also match the titles and credits of the sequence.
The mise-en-scene is also vital in the creation of the opening sequence; for example, the use of the train now only helps set the scene and bring in a nice transition for the start of the song, but it can reveal small bits of foreshadowing for the rest of the movie that make the more analytical part of the audience wonder whether perhaps Tony is going on a journey, be it physical, emotional or spiritual, and therefore hooks them onto the film. 

Initial storyboards

Before we got together with our groups and decided on our ideas and storyboard, we were told to individually plan our opening sequence. The above is my own initial planning. I did a running sequence where a main character was running towards something, but the audience doesn't know what. To contrast this highly paced scene, I thought that we could do the credits in stop motion, of magnets on a fridge. This would completely juxtapose the running scenes, and hopefully that would highlight the pace of the running scenes. During the last credit, I thought that we could zoom out and pan around to the front door, which would have a distinguishing feature (e.g: the round window storyboarded above) to let the audience know it's the same door as the person eventually arrives at. After a lot of hassle, the main character would let herself in and gasp and look around at the inside. This lack of motivated cut is often used in opening sequences, to grab the audience's attention, and I thought it would work well. 

Response to brief

For our coursework, we were asked to film the opening sequence to a film of any genre and with any narrative. I was quite excited about this brief as it is very vague and allows us to branch out and be as creative as possible. In our group, we shortly decided to do a thriller sequence, which excited me even more as this would be more fun to create and I also personally love to watch movies of this genre. I think this work is going to be really fun and hopefully the enthusiasm felt by all of us will help it to be successful.

Preliminary project - "feed the fish"

The video above is the preliminary project we were required to do before attempting our coursework so we could get used to using the equipment and generate some ideas for our final piece. As this was one of the first practical tasks we had tried, we ran into a lot of problems during both filming, and editing, but we also learnt a lot from the experience.

Filming
When we were filming our sequence, there were many things we learnt how to do on the spot. Using the camera was new for us, but we had a rough idea how to use it and we did fairly well. We had a little trouble with the location, finding Ellen's homey house not suitable for the mood of the film, so we ended up filming both sides of the conversation on the same side of the table with a blank white wall behind it. Although we moved the light to correspond with the idea of it being two different sides, it was still fairly obvious. Next time, we should plan the location beforehand so that we know where to film successfully and we don't run out of time.
Apart from that, everything seemed to go fairly well. We were proud of some of the shots we did, such as Grace (who played the main character) coming through the door, which was a good example of continuity editing. However, although we liked all the shots we did, all of us felt once we were editing that we could have experimented with a wider range of camera techniques, and we will try to do this better next time.

Editing

None of us were familiar with iMovie when we first started, despite the fact it's a simpler version of Final Cut Express, which we will be using for our main project. We picked it up quickly though, managing to not only cut together two long video shots into shot reverse shot format, and have a go at continuity editing, but add transitions and effects to the video which we were definitely proud of. We did have a slight problem however, that during uploading we managed to lose a part of our footage, that then couldn't go into our finished preliminary task. We also forgot to add in credits and titles, which we realise is very important in our final task and we will definitely remember to do next time.

Introduction

My name is Rhianna Price and I'm in Year 12 at Coombe Girls' Sixth Form. I'm greatly enjoying media this year, as I love film and production. In the past, I have voluntarily created other small films at clubs and on courses, and the entire process of making ideas come to life really interests me.

On this blog, I plan to show my thought processes and document the process of getting the my ideas and the ideas of my group from paper to screen and I'm really looking forward to it.