Q2)  How does your opening sequence represent particular social groups?

In our opening sequence we only used one key character, which is the main character throughout the film and has the most significance usually to the movie. The character represents a typical young male, that has been probably been brought up on the streets and has or had a recent girlfriend also you can tell that he has got himself in to a dangerous satiation. We decided to show this with our camera shots by showing shots of  the character ( Nicholas) with a girl (Sarah) you assume that they maybe a couple and by panning  Nicholas’s body tied up you can tell he is in trouble. Nicholas would appeal other young people or teenagers due to the way he is dressed and because he is also a young person. Nicholas is like a character in the movie ‘Kid adulthood’ Sam Peel who is played by Noel Clarke, represents a young person who is involved with the wrong people on the street sand in the end get into trouble.

Another character that was established in our opening sequence was the father (Johnathan) and he represents a typical overprotective psycho father who cares for his daughter this is similar to the movies “Father of the bride” this is where a father is scared that his little girl is growing up and he’s going to loose her, and also the movie “Because I Sad So” this is about a mother that controls her daughters life and doesn’t let her make her own decisions. The shots of the picture of the father and the daughter you can see he has his arm around her, we decided to choose a photo like that to show his is protective of his daughter. We used the setting as a dark room with walls filled up with newspaper cuttings show that his is a psycho.  We also used editing to show that the father was psycho by using short, quick shots making the opening sequence more like a thriller. This character is similar to Bryan who is played by Liam Neeson in the movie ‘Taken’ (2008) where a man is who wants revenge on whoever kidnapped his daughter.

The final character in the opening sequence was the daughter (Sarah) she represents a average teenage girl, who works hard in her studies, who loves to have fun when out with her mates, she also is a little daddy’s girl and she listens to everything that her dad says and she also falls in love with a of boy of the “streets”. Her father isn’t very happy about this but he allows it any way. The he shot with the close up of Sarah and Nicholas  represent s how happy they are together , also the lighting we used to set up the scene we used a hint of red this was to represent love.

As we only had 3 members in our group and two of us were girls, we had to make the boy in our group the main character. This was advantage as he knew what we wanted him to portray, this is because he had the same creative as us as he knew how we wanted to show the character .We did not have to waste time explaining to him the plot of out opening and what we wanted him to do. Another advantage was that we knew that he and I had dedication to the opening sequence and we knew that we’d be both would be reliable as we were already there on the shooting day. As the cast consisted of two people and it was easy to direct as we both knew what we had to represent as the characters. 

Q1)  In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge the forms and conventions of real media products?

The opening sequence that we made follows many of the forms and conventions set by the real movies that are out there. There are many factors we needed to consider when making the opening sequence like the form of the opening and the Mise en Scene, which are elements like the lighting and setting.  As our opening sequence is a thriller, we decided to give clues right from the start we did this as an opening sequence needs to hook the viewer from the very first moment. We did this as it follows the codes and conventions of thriller genre movies, and we wanted the media product to develop and challenge the codes and conventions just like real media products. The lighting is important in a thriller as it help sets the scene and adds to the tension, our opening sequence had dim lights to make the room seem more mysterious, thrillers follow this convention to get more affect in the setting for example ‘Kill Bill Vol.1’. ‘Kill Bill Vol.1’ during the fighting scene in the oriental garden had a great mysterious element about it as the only lights that were in the garden did not add a lot light to the garden and it makes everything dim.

Our opening sequence challenged this convention by making it not only just a thriller but also an action, which it relates to the kidnapping element, and romantic, which happens to end wrong, opening as well so we used a hint of red in the lighting to make the colour associated with love , death, action and also anger most thrillers and psychological .We choose the death theme from ‘Memento’ , the psychological thriller and love theme from the move ‘Step Father’   .They have to make the viewer think and concentrate to keep them wondering what is going to happen next, this is why we created the opening sequence to  make the viewer to piece things together. The setting is really important to a thriller so made are setting seem mysterious but remembering to always to give clues. We gained research about conventions on thrillers by watching opening sequences like ‘Kill Bill Vol.2’ and ‘Memento’.

 

 

We used one character in our opening sequence but we came up with interesting ways to establish the other characters in the movie, real thriller media products do this as it add suspense as you want to know who the character is for example in our opening sequence you want to know who is tied up and why. And it also gives clues to what the story is about for example the movie ‘Memento’. However a lot of thriller movies show more than one character in a opening sequences so we decided to challenge that an example of this is in ‘Shutter Island ‘in this movie to characters are shown in the opening sequence.  We used both diegetic  and non- diegetic sounds to let the audience to piece together the opening seunce. We made the soundtrack parallel to visuals these conventions are important to a thriller opening as it adds the tension just like in the movie ‘Memento’ where the sounds are diegetic and non- diegetic. We decided not to challenge this convention as we thought it would help make our opening sequence seem more mysterious.

 The opening sequence is a montage sequence/non liner sequence this is when the narrative is not in chronological order, the majority of real thriller media products do this as it is unpredictable and to keep the viewer interested. Movies that follow this convention are ‘Shutter Island’, ‘Inception’ and ‘I Robot’, these three movies all start the end of the movie then they cut back to the start.

Original Film Idea Mood-Board

My original film openings were had drama genre’s they were based around teenagers, self harming, school, death, drugs, alcohol and other sad themes. This is because I wanted to have an idea based around real life stories that happen everyday and a story that young people to relate to. 

Location Reece

Studio

Pros:

-         Able to use it all day as it is booked and not in use

-         Can be designed to exactly how we want the set to look

-         Indoors therefore no weather problems

-         Equipment (camera, tripod etc.) is stored within the studio storeroom therefore it doesn’t take long to set up and put away as its on location and doesn’t need to be moved anywhere

-         No interruptions by other students as there is no one in the studio except our group

-         We can change lighting to how we want it

-         Props & set design can all be left on location as room can be locked so no one else can enter

Cons:

-         Creating the set ourselves may effect the realism outcome

-         The studio isn’t sound proof therefore if there are people making noise outside the camera will pick up the sound which means we wil be unable to film during break and lunch times and during lesson changes

Quad – Outside

Pros:

-         It is outside which adds effect to the scene as it may appear more mysterious

-         The setting is already there for us to use therefore doesn’t need to be made by us

Cons:

-         Weather may change which will affect filming on day

-         It is a shortcut to get to certain places therefore will constantly have people walking through it

-         It is in the middle of classrooms therefore may attract unwanted attention by others which can affect filming as it may get in the way or distract us

-         Even if weather if fine, it may be windy. This means the camera may pick up the sound of the wind.

-         Is usually busy during break times, lunch times, and in between lesson changes which means time needs to be taken out of filming

-         Props and equipment are not on location therefore carrying them to and from location causes a risk in case of any damages

-         If the weather begins to change the equipment may get damaged

-         Lighting cannot be changed

-         It gets dark early which means all filming that takes place outside needs to happen before it gets dark which puts pressure on us as we have shorter time to complete it all.

Classroom

Pros:

-         Set is already there for us to use therefore does not need to be produced

-         Indoors therefore no problems with weather

-         Props ONLY can be left on location

-         Has curtains which means no one will be able to see what is taking place which means no distractions.

Cons:

-         Quite obvious that it is a classroom which breaks realism if we ere to portray it as something else

-         May be in use at certain times throughout the day which means we will be unable to film for the entire day

-         It is in an area where people pass by a lot during break times, lunch times and during lesson changes. Therefore filming cannot take place through entire day.

-         Equipment cannot be left on location as others may need to be in the classroom. This means a risk when carrying equipment to and from location and also takes more time.

-         Lighting cannot be changed

Corridors

Pros:

-         Setting is already set for us and therefore does not need to be produced by us from scratch

-         It is indoors which means no weather problems

Cons:

-         It is in an area where people pass by a lot during break times, lunch times and during lesson changes. Therefore filming cannot take place through entire day.

-         Equipment or props cannot be left on location therefore need to be carried to and from location which poses a risk of damaging equipment and also takes longer time

-         Lighting cannot be changed

-         May be in use at certain times throughout the day which means we will be unable to film for the entire day.

Script - First Draft

Sarah :Nicholas I need to tell you something (pause) I’m pregnant.

Jonathan walks over to Nicholas who is tied up and unconscious and stands towering over Nicholas’s body.

Nicholas abruptly opens his eyes directly into the camera

Nicholas : I already told its over and I ain’t having no baby

Jonathan : How could he do this to my little girl (Shout angrily)

Jonathan walks through door , into the room. He then walks across the room and aggressively steps on a photo of Nicholas.

In this script we did not include what  location  we would be shooting in and what time we would be shooting. We also did not include the props we had in the shot, we learnt by not having this we was not clear on what we needed for the screen, this then made us waste time as we was not organised. We included the stage derections as we do not have a lot of dialouge in out opening sequence

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Storyboard -First Draft

 

We decieded to use panning so that we could establish the sceen.

 

We decieded to use a medium long shot to have a creative way of estbalishing the character.

We used close ups to show differnt objects and we wanted to have the quick cuts to build and add tension.

we used extrreme close up of the eyes to give suspence and to keep the audince interested.

AS Opening Sequence




Prelim Task