Teacher Assessed Research

Planning Assessment

Casting

Who we chose for casting, and why we chose them:

For our victim, we chose to use a female character.  This is because stereotypically women are presented as being weaker and more vulnerable then men, therefore she has a low status.  Also, our female character is small and has a light hair colour which suggests that she is innocent.  The innocence of this character is effective because it makes the audience sympathize for her, and want her to overcome what she is going through or about to go through.

Our murderer is a male character, with dark hair and tall.  This is because men are stereotypically stronger, and more powerful then women so have a higher status over them and control them.  As this character is more powerful and aggressive the audience feel less sympathy towards this character, and concentrate on what they think the character is doing, who they are, and why they are doing it.

Credit To: Becka Thompson

These are all quite stereotypical representations of males and females however this will be quite affective as audiences are comfortable with these stereotypes, our piece has conformed with many other Thriller films.

Titles

The name of 'A Childs Nightmare' may be a temporary or permanent name, were not sure yet. Yet in the theme of a child we used the handwriting style font and each font looks like the kidnapper is writing in a diary about his victims or killings, and he is hunting down his childhood friends to punish them links with 'A Childs Nightmare'.


On Screen Titles:

The Wire (All Due Respect, 26/09/04, US)

This is how we want our titles to look. We think that having the text over the shots looks better than having it over black. It allows the audience to ask more questions and want to know more, rather then the 'fake world' they are seeing to be interrupted. This example from The Wire is perfect as the font they use is very similar to the font we want to use and the positioning of the titles too.

Over Black Titles:

The Sixth Sense (Shyamalan, 1999, US)

Although this works for The Sixth Sense, I don't think it would work with our opening sequence.

The use of Titles over black would be very effective for the building of tension in an opening however there will not be enough time in our 2 minute opening to have a title over black unless they are extremely quick frames.

Credit To: Matthew Moore

Props, Costume, Location

Here are two models to wear the costume ideas for the characters in the opening sequence. The final idea  of our costume will be presented.

Mysterious Killer Costume

- Dark Clothes
- Lack of Colour --> Cold Character?
- Not much of his body is revealed (Mystery)
- We have not given this character much detail in their costume, he would wear dark clothing as many of these kinds of characters you see in Thriller films do not wear bright clothes but instead dark clothing.

Victim Costume

- Bright Clothes with Colour (Gives some emotion, suggests a bright personality? The character likes to express themselves
- This model is showing the possible clothing that the character 'Jennifer' would wear (will be portrayed by Nicole Benyon) and it gives us the idea that Jennifer is an expressive character and this way she will now appear out of place in this dark, cramped location

The Props

These are images of all the different props that we will be using in our piece.


Chair - Where the victim is tied down
Rope - To hold victim down
          - To be used by killer to connect images.
Pin Board - For our Killer's 'Hit List'
Pins - For killer to place into board.

Location

The dark room which the killer will hold his victim in the opening of our film. It is a cold room that looks cramped so it is definitely going to be an uncomfortable environment for viewers to see.


Credit To: Nathan Wyatt

Character Description

Animatic of our Opening Sequence

Storyboards

The above image shows all the shots in our storyboard as we planned them. In the .gif above I have set each frame to have an equal duration to how we want it to be in our Opening Sequence.

The majority of shots appear to be at least two seconds long so there is not such a long screen time for each of our shots. This means that in filming our Opening sequence we will probably stick to using the faster shots accompanied by some quite fast tempo yet still eerie backing tracks and accompanying sound effects.

As you can tell from the shots we have drawn out many of them are Extra Close Up to Close Up so it is clear we want to do that which many Thriller films we have analysed does, provide an audience with clues and make them ask QUESTIONS!


In our notes next to a shot we have notewd the sounds and the editing that will be used too. A musical score will be running throughout the Opening and in some points diegetic sound is heard. As for editing we will use cuts as well as Pans along different shots and Crabs.

This is a short video showing myself and my group as we discuss and work on storyboarding the opening of our film. It is good that we work together and discuss ideas with each other so we know what we will do and so that everyone gets an input in.

Sound Ideas

For our opening sequence we need to think about possible sounds to use, what emotions we want to create with them and if they fit in with our piece. To find some background music we used the website http://www.freesounds.org/ in order to find some good and Copyright Free tracks that we may incorporate into our opening.

The kind of music I find first was a suitable and eerie backing track and I found this:

This music set a kind of eerie feeling that I was thinking in my mind, it is not however going to work on its own. I believe that some non-diegetic tones can play with it in certain places with some diegetic ones.

A diegetic sound that can go with the sound above is this:

The heavy breathing can go with shots of the killer in our opening as they sound like a male breathing as it is a deep sound. The breaths become faster which also works well because it builds the tension and suspense as the opening goes along. Based on his breaths an audience feels a build up to something happening.

Another good sound to use is that of a swing:

The swing makes a squeaky and creepy sound and it goes with the shots that may be added to our piece of kids playing and images of different characters created for our media piece in a sort of flashback.

Shot Ideas

Peer Assessment for Research

Synopsis for our Film: "A Child's Nightmare"

The Film Synopsis on Prezi

Ideas for Our Film

Short Questionnaire: The Results

Short Questionnaire

This is the questionnaire that my group will use to ask different people about what they think with films and openings. The point of this questionnaire is to get an idea of what it is that our audiences enjoy in an opening sequence, this is all critical information to help us create our opening sequence as - depending on the target audience - our interviewees are the target audience that we wish to please and we wish to fulfil the task of creating an outstanding Thriller opening sequence.

There will be 40 of these questionnaires handed out and this will provide a good range of results as long as we go for different people (e.g. range of ages, range of genders). Once all 40 are returned they are carefully check and the results will be put into graphs, with these graphs and data charts we can get more precise results informing us on what people look for in a Thriller opening sequence and incorporate this into our work.

Location Research

Dark City

Cold Rooms

Dark Woods Like Area

All the locations above are places which can be possible locations to film our opening sequence to our Thriller/Sci Fi sequence. The places above were each chosen for the fact that they each created the uncomfortable and chilling environment that you would see in Thriller/Sci-Fi movies and they all are areas where a character can be quite vulnerable.

The "Dark City" and the "Dark Woods" are areas which would need to be filmed at night time to get this shadowy and uncomfortable environment as shooting our sequence in the day would  not work as well so these areas are very time specific with the effect we need to capture.

Conventions of my Genre

What is my Genre?
     - Thriller/Sci Fi

What are the Conventions of Our Genre?


Music:
     Orchestral
   - Loud and Quiet Sounds
   - High and Low Sounds
   - Eerie and Mysterious
   - Audience become Uncomfortable


Editing:
    Slow Paced
   - Shots can LINGER on the screen
   - Audience get nervous here
   - Tension is built up in the scene
   - Montage or continuity Editing can be used!


Shot Types:
    Extreme Close Ups
   - There is no way you want the audience to know what is happening straight away
   - Gives only clues
   - Creates that sense of Mystery


Mise-En-Scene:
    Dark and Low Key
   -  Low Key Lighting
   - Creepy and Ominous
   - Disfigured Evil Character(s)
   - The clothes are dark too, no sense of light or bright colours

Se7en Opening Sequence

28 Days Later Opening Sequence

Analysis:

The Conventions of an Opening Sequence

The Job Titles

WHAT TITLES CAN WE SEE?:

In an Opening Sequence (such as the Sixth Sense) we see different titles which would tell audiences a few - but not all - people involved in the creation of this motion picture.

In the above clip the Titles that appear are:
The Production/Distribution Company Logos --> These  logos present these companies at the very start and the have a logo so they are more recognisable by an audience. Distribution/Production Companies can all be different depending on the film.

Despite seeing these logos before they return again in text during the film:
" HOLLYWOOD PICTURES and SPY GLASS ENTERTAINMENT PRESENT "


Then some other names included in production appear after but these had no logos shown before:
"A KENNEDY/MARSHALL/BARRY MENDAL PRODUCTION "


Now the first actor is the name of the person who has the main, starring role in sequences:
" BRUCE WILLIS "


From here in opening sequences we find that the person who has the bigger role has there name appear first and only then do we get to a few more names of some other characters:
" TONI GOLLET "

" OLIVIA WILLIAMS "

" HALEY JOEL OSMEP "

" GLENN HITZGERALD and MECHA BURPION "

" TREVER MORGAN  BRUCE NORRIS "

After some actors have been named the crew responsible for the creation appear and similar to actors only the few, more important names appear but instead we first see a not so important role

" CASTING BY AVY KAUFMAN "

" COSTUME DESIGN - JOANNA JOHNSON "

" MUSIC BY JAMES NEWTON HOWARD "

" EDITING BY ANDREW MONDSHEIN "

" PRODUCTION DESIGNER - LUCY HULTON "

" DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY - TAK FUJIMOTO A.S.C "

" EXECUTIVE PRODUCER SAM MERGER "

" PRODUCED BY MARSHALL KENNEDY AND MENDEL "

" WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY M.NIGHT SHYAMALAN "

This is the highest job

Spiderwick Chronicles

Spiderwick Opening Sequence:



Analysis:

Bridget Jones's Diary

Director: Maguire
Year: 2001
Origin: UK/France/Ireland
Genre: RomCom

The introduction to this film shows Bridget speaking to other characters while background music begins to play
"Yummy, Turkey Curry. My favourite."
The camera tracks Bridget as she walks forward, following her as she passes two other characters and the image freezes then dissolves into our next shot which is of a low key, a snowy building and a camera crane reveals the building from top to bottom and then there is a  fade to another shot of a post then another fade to a crane of what must be the place where she lives.

Dissolve

Crane

The shots of all these snowy places not only allows us to discover where she lives but is a reflection on the character herself at this point in time, a woman who is out of luck in love and is alone so the snowy place reflects to cold feeling she has and there is a lack of warmth. This idea is developed because of the monologue that the character has given, a non-diegetic voice over where she expresses her feelings.

The first shot of our main character is in a room of her home and we see her in a Long Shot to express her isolation and how alone she is in this opening as the only character is her. The title that appears is the name of the main character and it is in a hand written style font to relate to the "Diary" of this film and shows how the film is something personal.

Fade in Title, Handwritten Text 

The scene of Bridget in her house is where we find most of the titles and here we also find where the editors have used certain transitions to pass the message that Bridget is bored and alone to the audience and the audience can begin to understand her character.

As her character sits alone in this Long Shot we see that in a shot change a fade is used to show this character's actions are over a period of time but also the slow fade tells an audience that - for Bridget time is dragging on for her like when a person is bored.

Fade replacing Jump Cut

Then there is the eye line match of her looking at the TV screen (we cannot see what is on it) and then the next shot we see the introduction of the show "Frasier". The intro for Frasier is a line forming a cityscape but it is quite mundane to look at and in the next shot she is yawning. The mundane Frasier intro goes along with the idea Bridget is bored completely.

Eyeline Match

The title of the movie "Bridget Jones's Diary" appears in quite bold and outstanding text which differs from the rest of the titles which have used this hand-written and far more personal. 



The Title appears at the end of the opening of this film, the title of the film itself is in a different textsa and made to stand out and it is different from all the other text that has appeared in this opening sequence. The character Bridget even appears to be pointing to the text to address it in the image for audiences to know it is the title.

Wallander Analysis

The Sixth Sense Analysis

Director: M Night Shyamalan
Year: 1999
Origin: United States



In the Opening sequence of "The Sixth Sense" we find the music begins immediately, it delivers this ominous and very dramatic feel to the audience, making them feel uneasy and is certainly relative to the film's genre. For the majority of the opening sequence we just see the titles which appear in this pale blue colour (similar to that of "Brick") and we get this cold feeling making us even more uncomfortable. But to aid this unease the credits linger on the screen, slowly fading away.

The first shot is faded into from a black screen and as the Close Up image of the light bulb because clearer to see the light shining from the bulb becomes stronger, bringing a light to the first scene of the film. Immediately questions of where we are spring to mind among others too!

The last moment on this bulb shot we hear a door opening (this is the moment where the non-diegetic sound stops and diegetic sound remains for the rest of the clip). A shot change to now behind a dusty shelf of some sort, the shelf is out of focus while what ever is visible is clear. From this shot alone we discover that we must be in a cellar/basement of some sort given by the stairs in the shot heading upwards. From it's appearance we establish that this cellar has faced neglect as it looks old, dusty and dingy, an uncomfortable environment for the audience to imagine themselves in.

Coming down the stairs is a woman in a brightly coloured dress, hair up and high heels and so therefore she seems very much out of place in this environment. Question now are who is she? Where is she? Where has she come from? The woman approaches the out of focus shelf and as she does there is a focus pull of it from its blurred state to then become focussed.
The woman searches what appears to be a wine rack of some sort and the camera cranes to follow her as she searches up and down until the wine she wants is found.

The camera begins a track here onto her face and a sense of fright appears to hit this character, it is as if something is with this woman, something sinister but it looks as if whatever it is remains off screen, out of the vision of the audience. However shots such as the one above and the one below suggest that this woman is somewhat trapped and we get this further sense of fright from this female character here.

Brick Opening Sequence Analysis

The words above are ones which look into the elements that a director would use to maintain the mystery and conceal information. By doing this it gives way for an audience to ask questions and fill blanks with their very own assumptions.

Memento Opening Sequence Analysis

A Film TRAILER:



This is a film trailer, a film trailer is used to advertise a movie and to promote it. Film trailers will be different clips from a movie selected in order to bring a viewer and captivate their attention, a trailer will not follow the timeline of the story but is instead a montage of clips. In the trailer of Kick-Ass the clip begins slow with the man standing on top of the building however the clip progresses and begins to quicken in pace, shots of the pedestrians gazing up and the man falls from the building. Even here the pace quickens as he falls further and further until this man hits the car. This part of the trailer was to pull in the audience and from here the clips through the film are played in the style of a montage of events to introduce each character.



However in an opening sequence you find that there is a longer time period before the action settles in and the pace quickens. Instead it is the audience getting to know the main character - aided by a narration - which would be recorded over the clip. In an opening sequence the storyline is linear and makes more sense than that of a trailer where any clip can be put in any desired order as the aim of a trailer is to draw the attention not tell the plot.

The Brief

The words above are few words to reflect on the work that must be done for the Media A Level work. In our Media Studies A Level we have been set a task to create the Opening Sequence of a new fiction film with a range of interesting shot types, keeping a steady camera (unless the free hand affect is needed) and to think deeply about the meaning of the opening sequence and any other aspects.

In your Opening Sequence candidates must create an ORIGINAL piece of work and incorporate into it appropriate titles and a backing track along with other sounds. It must last for 2 minutes. Research will need to be put in to find out what titles will be useful and relevant towards an opening sequence of a film (genre is the candidates choice). Groups will be 3 to 4 people and each person must take a part in creating this piece of work! The Sound candidates use must be COPYRIGHT FREE tracks.

'Push A Little Button' Video Task

Jobsite Recreation Video

10 Shot Story

Preliminary Task

Donnie Darko Recreation - Annotated Video

iSight Tutorial (Filmed with Jing)

Testing 4 Embedding

Testing 3 Wordle

Testing

Test

Hellooooooo