Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Reflecting back on the preliminary task the differences between my opening now are very different. For the preliminary task our aim was to create a short film showing a person opening the door, walking in to a room and sitting down exchanging dialogue as well. The required elements we also had to incorporate was 180 degree rule, match on action and shot reverse shot. Our opening film did not need to include these specific aspects but did need generic conventions, for example our horror film would need to include blood or a harmful weapon as this is associated with the horror genre.
For our planning and research we started out by creating a mood board and mind map of our genre. I also asked people what things they think of when I say the word ‘horror’ this helped me to see what the audience would expect from our film. We also did, target audiences, exploring certification, storyboard, analyse of horror openings, locations, props, costume, filming schedule and shot list.
Our use of shots have Improved since the preliminary task, the panning of the camera across the wall was very precise and unsteady. We wanted this shot to look like the serial killers perspective and mimic his mind which was very deranged and muddled. We also have a range of mid shots, high angle, close ups.
Overall I think that since the preliminary task and from now I have become much more confident with using the camera and all the equipment and having the right knowledge to create the shots I want.
What I have learnt from the technologies in the process of making our film is that they are very significant to our production and at times can be very difficult to work. Originally we were going to film the panning of the wall scene with a dolly and also take a second shot with a hand held camera to see what one would look much more professional and fit in with the atmosphere of the rest of the film. On the day of filming when getting the dolly set up we realised that some of the bolts were missing and when set up would topple over due to this, resulting in the dolly not being stable. We tried to fix this problem by sticking blue tack to one of the legs which was not attacked to the wheeled base but was not successful. So we had to think of a different plan to achieve the shot that we wanted which was hand held motion across the pictures on the wall.
Our audience profile was for both genders from the age of 15 upwards, what we did to attract audiences to our film was use generic conventions which would already be connected with a horror film. During our research of horror films we observed that blood, harmful weapons and darkness were a few of the aspects that were repeatedly used. For years this tradition has evolved and audiences immediately relate those aspects to horror films so our aim was to also do this to attract the audiences and address what film we were going to be creating.
The first obvious sign within our film that it is of the horror genre is the deep dark music which gradually becomes higher pitched, also the beginning text which is “What you are about to see is inspired by true events” is a very dark shade of red which resembles blood and also connotes death. The news report also informs the audience of the murder’s which gives them disturbing information which they now can be more involved in the film.
Before deciding on what our horror film would involve we had to first of all think about if it would be for a mass audience or niche. After contemplating the advantages and disadvantages I came to the conclusion that a typical slasher horror film would benefit much more in a mass audience environment as it reaches out to a range of people from 15 upwards. Our film would be a mainstream film, I have researched a range of the categories including, Art house, TV movie, Hollywood and Indie. After much research I realised that our film was a mainstream and follows the same conventions as hit blockbusters like The Amityville Horror (1979), Scream (1996) and The Strangers (2008). The production companies in mainstream which would distribute our horror film could be ‘Dimension Films’ as they have produced for such films as the Scream quadrilogy and Halloween films which were both very successful and are very much along the lines of our film storyline. Another production company I researched into was ‘Rogue Pictures’, I discovered that they had produced for such horror films like ‘The Strangers’ and ‘Cherry Falls’ which were both horror films based along a similar storyline to ours and was very much successful. After looking at both of these production companies I have come to the conclusion that ‘Dimension Films’ would be a perfect fit for our film as they have supported a lot of horror films and would be perfect as promoting and getting our film recognised. Before we properly decided on choosing horror as our genre we analysed two horror films of our choice, we looked at ‘Scream’ and The ‘Shining’ from these two films I developed some ideas for our own film. In scream I really liked the idea of one person stalking innocent people and the mask giving a hint of suspense. From the shining I also really liked the effect in the hallway scene where the scene jump cuts from the two little girls alive then completely massacred; I took these ideas and manipulated them to suit our film.
The shining Jump cut scene:
I thought this scene was very chilling and created a bold scary statement and really did leave a huge impact into audience’s minds after watching it. The dramatic sound also was an inspiration for our film as instead of screeching we had static TV noises and had a dead victim in the bath.
From the very first stages of planning our opening i had an idea that our film would have some very similiar aspects to other films. Like the whole picture on the wall aspect was a lot like the haunting film 'One hour photo (2002)' about an employee of a photo lab becoming obsessed with a young suburban family.
The aspect of our horror film was definitely a one man stalking innocent victims which is a lot like some of the teen slasher films out there. The one that i think is most like the idea's in our's is 'Scream (1996)', about a masked killer on the loose stalking the innocent people of Woodsboro. This is a lot like our opening as it uses the idea of the man stalking his victims through having his identitiy concealed.
After we had finished all of our filming, I took my storyboard and started to block out how the film would run. I started by editng the start of the news report about Kristen Blakely, I watched all of the clips and found that there was only 2 continous peices of film which were good to be put on the final film. I had a mid shot and a long shot of the TV and the mask next to it. I started by putting a 2 minute black screen which would be where the logo would play and then the news report would continue from there, so I cut the slight pause before the news report started and then played til the end of the 1 minute and 45 seconds of film. After I had done that I then began to decide how I would cut from the long shot to the mid shot half way through the news report as on our storyboard we had the mid shot then the bloody hand switching off the TV then panning along the picture fillled wall. After the editing lesson I had sorted the timing of the black background for the logo and the transitioning from that to thestart of the news report, I had also cut the first minute of that report so I could in the next lesson transition the two shots.
When looking at all of our filming shots we saw a couple of problems which would make our film look less professional and lose the sense of atmosphere. The first problem was with the shot with the bloody hand marking a cross on the pictures, the shot slowly revolves a section of green curtain. This curtain was not meant to be in the shot and makes it look very unprofessional and distracts the audience from the picture.
Another problem was with the scene showing the news report on the TV, we thought the shot would be okay when filming but in an editing lesson we saw that it was very dark and the scene where the serial killer shuts off the TV was very light and was not a successful continious shot.
So to improve on these we decided to re - film these two shots to make it blend in with the rest of the film, an create the right atmosphere that we want to obtain from our horror film.
Immediatly when we starting brainstorming ideas we wanted the storyline to not be obvious in the first few minutes as it would lose the atmosphere of the film and not pursuade the audience to watch on. We then started discussing lots of previous horror films like 'Texas chainsaw massacre (1979)' , 'The Amityville Horror (1979)' , 'The fourth kind (2009)' and 'The strangers (2008)' and realised that why they created such a huge impact on us all and were so scary was due to the fact they that had been shown as being based on true events.
We then decided that our film should have be based on true events to make it much more chilling and make the audience think more into it. We then came up with a series of murders and a news report, i thought this would be very effective as the news is part of daily life and throughtout the years there has been a lot of cases of murders.
On our storyboard we were confused about what our ending would be and as a result thought it would be a really good idea to show who the stalkers next victim will be and where he might be. We came up with filming from behind a tree and onlooking a park and a swinging childs swing to show that he likes aspects of childhood things and a park is one of those. This clip was shot twice from different angles and the best was the one from behind the tree. This will only go on for a about 3 seconds so not much filming really had to go into this scene. We also took pictures of all of the set and things we had to do to get ready for filming on this day.
This day was where most of our filming took place and the equipment we used for this was a camera and stand.
We moved the bed to the far right side, moved a small chest of drawers, cleared the wall of hanging bags and placed flat screen tv on top of drawers. Cut out pictures of the stalkers victims. stuck them on the wall. set up the camera in front of the tv. put mask on near tv, on cabinet. put fake blood on some of the pictures.
It was the early 1930's when horror films became much more popular, mostly due to the American film producers especially Universal pictures. This decade brought to the screens a series of gothic type films, the most succesful features were 'Dracula(1931)' and 'Frankenstein(1931)'.
Some of Frankenstein's scene were very controversial and in one scene where the monster throws a little girl into the lake and accidently drowns her was cut by sensorship boards in Pennsylvania, New York.
The film 'Dracula' was reissued after the Production code was inforced in 1934, The Motion Picture Production Code was the industry censorship guidelines that governed the production of films during 1930 to 1968. At least two of the scenes in Dracula had been known too have been cencored as it would have supposedly given the audience horrible nightmares.
1950's - 1960's
Advances in technologies occured in the 1950's and the gothic tone changed to films that were a little bit more relevent to the late - century audience. Horror films then seemed to fall into two categories of genre which were horror of armageddon and the horror of the demonic films.
In the early 1960's the British company 'Hammer Film Productions' created a series of horror films these were 'The Curse of Frankenstein(1957)', 'Dracula (1958)', and 'The Mummy (1959)' and many sequels. They recieved huge international success from their bloody technicolour films and Terence Fisher the director was acknowledged as pioneer of the modern horror movie.
Ghosts and Monsters still remained popular but then an essense of the supernatural began to make its way into films with aspects of demonic horror, examples of this was 'The Haunting (1963)' and 'Rosemary's Baby (1968)'.
One of the most ifluential films of the late 1960's was 'Night of the living dead (1968)' the film grossed $30 million and was about zombies, it blended psychological insights with gore and moved away from the gothic trend and brought horror into everyday life.
1970's – 1980's
With the success of 'Rosemary's Baby' it lead to a release of more films with occult themes such as 'The Exorcist (1973)' and 'The Omen (1976)'. The ideas of the 1960's began to influence horror films with the release of 'The Hills Have Eyes (1977)' directed by Wes Craven and 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)' directed by Tobe Hooper. Also films were starting to explore fears about technology and society and 'Dawn of the Dead (1978)' did this by also re inventing "body horror".
In 1975Steven Spielberg brought to our screens 'Jaws' and this film kicked off a wave of killer animal series such as 'Orca (1977)' and 'Up to the Debths (1979)'. Near the end of the 1980's the release of 'Halloween (1978)' and 'Friday the 13th (1980)', these created a sub genre of increasingly voilent slasher films.
1990's
The first half of the 90's saw a series of themes from the 80's being re invented, film sequels such as 'Childs play' , 'A nightmare on elm street' , 'Friday the 13th' and 'Halloween'. They are got quite good success at the box office. During this time films such as 'Candyman (1992)' and 'New nightmare 1994' touched upon fictional horror and real-world horror, both mixing the two.
During this time the horror genre wore itself out with the nonstop slasher and gore films and people were losing interest. To re connect with the audience's horror became more self-mockingly and ironic which lead to the successful films 'Scream (1996)' and 'I know what you did last summer (1997)', these re-ignited the dormant slasher film genre.
2000's
The 20th century saw the beginning of the remake's of famous horror films. Examples of this were (The Amityville Horror, 2005), (The Hills Have Eyes, 2006), (Prom Night, 2008) and (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 2003).
Franchise films also became apparent in this century, 'Final destination' and 'Freddy v Jason', and have been very popular with horror fans. A large trend on the extreme, graphic violence horror films returned with 'Wrong Turn (2003)', 'Wolf creek (2005)' and 'The last house on the left (2009)' which was a remake.
For our opening we have decided to have our serial killer wear a mask during his brutual incidents, we have come to the concltion that wearing a mask will create more of a sense of mystery and will have the audience guessing who is behind it and why he is wearing the mask.
For years in the film industry masks have been used in horror films and have been worn by a mennacing attacker of some sort, it makes the audience want to know exactly what they are facing. A mask takes that ability away and in many cases, a horror movie mask makes it impossible to tell if the attacker is someone known, or a complete stranger. The mystery drags the audience deeper into the horror film to see if they are able to find out who, or what is behind the mask
Examples of masks used in horror films:
Halloween (1978)
This mask was used in this movie to make it seem to the audience that the face has no emotion or remorse to what he does.
Friday the 13th (1980)
This character wears a hockey mask to show part of his past as he used to play this when he was a child, this also has no real emotion so shows the character as a cold blooded murderer.
Scream (1996)
The ghost face mask is used as a disguise to
conceal their identity while conducting serial murders. The facial expression is very twisted and in a way reflects the looks of terror on the victims faces.
SAW (2004)
The pig mask was used to conceal the identity of the workers and create suspence as the audience do not know who is abducting the victims until the mask is removed.
List of Characters: Male Stalker Female Victim 1 Female Victim 2 Female Next Victim: Kristen Blakely
Male Stalker
I see the person who would star in the film as the 'male stalker' would be someone like 'Tom Hardy' as he has played very psychotic characters in the past and would be perfect for this role as he would inhabit this certain stalker very well and be realistic.
Female Victim 1
I see the person who could star for a short second in our film as a Kristen Blakely'would be 'Hayden Panettiere' as she has the typical 'american stereotype of a cheerleader' and has a very innocent look about her, her blonde hair also makes her look very pure and prone to being a victim.
Female Victim 2
The type of person i would like to see play the part of 'Kate Young' would be someone like 'Amanda Seyfried' as she has a very innocent angelic face and also she has the perfect color hair we were looking for which is blonde. She has played some very feminine rolls and her has a whole has a very naive look.
Female Next Victim: Kristen Blakely
The type of person i would like to play would be a female victim would be 'Sarah Michelle Gellar' as she has had much experience in the horror films as she appeared in, ''I know what you did last summer 1997' , 'Scream 2 1997' and 'The Grudge 2004', she has had much experience playing victims and has a very emotional capturing face. She would grab the attention of the audience and has a very innocent look about her.
2.08 seconds: Produced by- (PRODUCED BY DEBRA HILL)
2.14 seconds: Directed by - (DIRECTED BY JOHN CARPENTER)
What i have learnt from these series of titles is that so many people go into the production of a film and there are so many areas to be covered. I also learnt that the few main characters are always the first actors shown on the screen and i also saw that an actor was shown before the director which was different. Another thing which i noticed was that the director was shown at the beginning and at the end.Overall i have learnt the basic structure of the titles and will input this into our film to make it look professional.
0.00- 2.50
Narrative: The opening shows a women talking to a stranger on the phone and the events then turn sinister. This shows the audience that the film may follow more victims of the man on the other side of the phone.
Genre: The genre which is shown from the opening minute in the film is suspense/horror as from the first few seconds you see the color red and a woman screaming, it also has a very dark atmosphere and makes you feel very tense as you wonder what is going to happen next.
Atmosphere: The atmosphere from the beginning is a very dramatic and tense up til 10 seconds as the music is very screechy and then the screaming begins which builds up to a loud ringing which indicates that maybe the phone is the main source of a problem in the film as it is highlighted at the beginning. Then after the ringing stops the atmosphere becomes very calm as there is no real loud dramatic music only small sounds from the house and outside but nothing threatening.
Titles: The only title in this sequence is right at the beginning and is 'Scream', this indicates to the audience that this is the title of the film and also the red color of it also signifies death. It also has a very dramatic entrance and really grabs the audience's attention, it also makes you want to watch on.
Sound: It begins with a distant screeching sound and then gradually the volume level increases, the screeching then ends with a loud bang and then the title appears at that point. Then a ringing of a phone begins and so does a scream. All of this creates a suspenseful atmosphere and the volume of each sound really does change the mood of the audiences. The other sounds throughout the opening are popping of the popcorn, talking, crickets outside, swinging of the tree, all of these help create a realistic environment and make the audience believe that is real.
Characters: The only character we see in the opening 2.50 is a young female who from her white outfit seems very innocent, you also see an insight into her life which makes the audience feel more close to her. The other character is only a male voice on the other side of the phone and you do not see him at all. Not seeing the male character creates a sense of fear as you do not know where he is and what he is doing.
Theme: The theme of the opening is phone calls, it goes on for very long and is the main focus. The other themes are mystery as you do not know who the man on the other end of the phone call is.
Setting: The setting's which are shown is the young females large house which we see a lot of as she is constantly moving about, the audience can relate to this as everyone obviously has a house and are in it a lot.
Another setting is the outside of the house and you can see the size of the house that the female is in, also shows that is dark outside.
Second Film Opening: The Shining
Narrative: The opening shows a north American wilderness and follows a yellow car making its way through the mountains on a long windy road. Near the end it then has an establishing shot of a large building hidden in the mountainside which hints to the audience that this is the place where the film will be focusing on.
Genre: The genre which I have gathered from the opening minutes from the film is psychological thriller as you do not see much action and the eerie atmosphere signifies more of a thriller and the quite surroundings and maze like pathways hint to me that the film could be psychological.
Atmosphere: The atmosphere from the opening of the film is quite and eerie, the music gives it a hint of suspense but the lightness of the surroundings creates a more positive feel to the film.
Titles: The titles of the film start at 1.05 and scroll up, I thought the colour was very unique and changed the atmosphere to something less threatening which confused me.
Sound: The sound which is used is music and is a gradual trombone instrument creating an eerie atmosphere.The music starts off slow and gradually gets louder and louder, by getting louder it suggests that danger is approaching.
Characters: There are no characters shown in this sequence, but you know by the titles who the main characters are as they are the first few actors shown.
Theme: Strange is one of the themes at the beginning as it is a completely remote environment and the audience have no idea what is going to happen. Mystery is another theme as you do not really know who the characters are and where the car is going.
Setting: The setting is a mountain filled wilderness full of rivers and lots of green foliage, the sky is light blue with almost no clouds at all. As the scene goes on the green environments suddenly changes to snowy filled surroundings and the sky filled with clouds, i think this represents the more sinister side to the rest of the film.
There is also the large building in the snowy scene and shows how it is in the middle of nowhere which sets the mood of being confined and trapped.
Third Film Opening: The Grudge
00.00 - 05.11
The opening shows a piece of text giving background information into the films history leaving one word in red, like for example "THE CURSE GATHERS IN THAT PLACE OF DEATH" and the "death" part stays and fades to red. The next part is an establishing shot showing a man commiting suicide.
The genre which I have gathered from watching this opening is a horror with a hint of pychological elements as the suicide part really plays with your emotions and stays in the audiences mind creating a permanent bad memory which could haunt the certain person. There is a real dark atmosphere and the use of the black and red title sequence colours really sets the mood of a horrific film. The titles involve a red water type sequence with long black hair creating and removing the block titles.
We watched three student film openings and then analysed the strength's and weaknesses of the sequences.
Student Film 1
Weaknesses:
I thought that this opening sequence gave a bit too much away and ruined the suspense of it all, like for example you saw most of the victims that the women was planning to do something bad to and in a way knew most of the plot.I wouldn't really want to watch on as I kind of already had a clear idea of what was going to happen, this for me is not what I expect from a horror film as I really like the build up and tension during the films. Another weakness to this was that the editing techniques were a lot like the effects used in a trailer so it did not really seem like an opening as such.
Strengths:
I thought the titles were not very obvious and the way they were placed in the right corner of the screen made them blend in and not cause a destraction from the film. I really think that it is very important for a film to have invisible like titles as the audience does not get distracted and can understand what is going on. I also really thought the eerie music set a very suspenseful atmosphere and did make you wonder what was going to happen next. Strength of the opening was the large red title near the opening, the colour connotes death and reveals to the audience that this theme will play out through the film.
Student Film 2
Weaknesses:
This opening went on for a bit too long and after a while dragged on, I thought they were trying to overplay the whole stalker theme but instead gave a bit too much away and ruined the whole creepy effect of the film. Like for example the young blonde female was shown walking alone really did keep your attention on the film as you wanted to make sure she was safe but as the screams started you had an idea of what had happened to her which ruined the plot of the movie.
I also thought that there were only a few angles and made the sequences very basic and boring, it also become very repetitive and lost its sense of mystery.
Strengths:
The music and sound effects gave the film a much needed push in the right direction and made it very suspenseful and shocking. I also liked the way this opening showed the characters very early on and made you aware of who was who so you did not become confused. The editing was very clever and I liked the montage of clips near the end, made a huge dramatic impact on the horror genre.
Student Film 3
Weaknesses:
The titles were very basic and were not very professional, didn't really look like much effort was put in during the editing process. The 'one bad apple productions' title at the beginning did not really blend in and distracted myself from the atmospheric music as I was very confused as it was out of place. It was also very bright and unprofessional. I also picked up on the way the actress smiled when the camera backed up from the mid shot, this made me lose my curiosity in the film as she was meant to be dead which made it unrealistic. There was also a very bad continuity editing mistake involving the windscreen wipers, it also could have easily been cut out which indicates to the audience that not a lot of time was put into creating this opening.
Strength's:
There was a good use of eerie music which set the scene and signifies that something bad might happen.
The transition effects were very slow and not obvious which made the scenes flow well, I also liked the way this opening sequence had no ending unlike the other two films which were a lot like trailers. It also gave the film more suspense and had the audience wanting to know more.
Genre: In the opening few seconds of the film, there is an immediate music playing, it is a hip hop rap music and hints to the audience that the genre could be a hip hop young film. The film then sets an establishing shot of new york city and then immediately pans to a popular night club scene with a lot of mid shots of dancers, this immediately signifies to the audience that the genre of this film could be dance.
In the beginning the first opening titles are very dark and use colours like red, and black to maybe signify to the audience that this film involves danger and dark moments. The screen then fades to black and a deep males voice appears with subtitles in the middle of what he is saying. Just this particular moment signifies to the audience that the film is going to be about murders and will show the story of the two people.
This was the first day of filming and we decided to shoot 'Vertigo' as it was one of the difficult openings as it was just one continuous shot. We started out by having our storyboard and shot list and decided how we would shoot this with our camera. We found a dark spot on our stage and had the camera on the dolly facing the black curtain. I then had to stand as the camera followed my facial movements. This took alot of shots to complete as i would either laugh or get the timing wrong. As i was looking straight at the camera Will and Alex would show me the characteristics i had to show on my face and what timing to make it easier for me.
After some more tries, we finally shot all of the beginning in a continuous shot, it was quite difficult but we got there in the end.
In this lesson we got into our groups and got shown the 3 different sets of openings we could choose from.
The selection of themes we were shown was, Thriller, Comedy and Horror. After my group got together we decided what films we were going to re create, we thought about which ones were going to interesting to film. Vertigo, Superbad and halloween was the openings that we chose. We then had another look at each of the openings and decided on what sort of props and costumes that we ned ready for when we start filming, these were pretty simple we just needed to hoodys, a torch, a chair and a black background. Ready for filming we asigned jobs, Jessica and I decided to set out the storyboards for the three films and Alex and Will shot lists.
Narrative: The opening shows a large group of men walking in slow motion together which could signify a gang of some sort. They look very intimidating and from the formal suits most of them are wearing they look very wealthy, the jewellery and cigarettes/cigars show this as well. The group of men also look like they are heading somewhere so this opening could show the start of the journey they are taking throughout the film.
Genre: Considering the short opening of this film, the category of genre this film falls into could be, Crime, gangster and thriller.
Atmosphere: The sort of atmosphere this scene gives me is a intimidating feel to it as there are a lot of men, they look very strong and could be capable of violence. Also an atmosphere of wealth due to the fact that they own very expensive suits, wearing jewellery and ray ban glasses and smoking wealthy luxuries.
Titles: The two titles shown in this opening sequence are when the camera stays on a single character a formal yellow text with the actors name shows up on the bottom of the screen. The other is right at the end on a long shot and the title 'Reservoir Dogs' scrolls up from the bottom of the screen and pauses at the top for 6 seconds.
Sound: The only sound in this clip is non diegetic music. This music is a very old fashioned, happy song which is incongruous to the film as it does not really fit the theme of the film which is crime/gangster as you would expect something a bit more threatening and dark.
Characters: There are 8 men shown walking in this opening sequence, they are in formal suits except for two of them, the first one looks much more older than the other characters and is wearing all black. This maybe shows that he is a bit more mature and is the leader of the gang. The other guy is wearing black trousers and an open collared blue shirt, this signifies that he is maybe a 'wanna be gangster' and the open collared shows he is laid back and cool. Quentin Tarantino is also featured in this film and seeing as he has played a part in the film 'Pulp Fiction' he promotes the film. Also some of the men are wearing gold chains and smoking cigarettes are usually associated with typical gangsters.
Themes: The opening shows the themes of gang culture as they are in a big group and look like they could cause trouble. Another theme is relationships, they are all having a laugh together and seem very close to one another.
Setting: The setting of this clip is men walking by an old fashioned blue car which shows to the audience that it is set in the past and they are on the streets which could show power and social gatherings.
Step Up Opening:
to 1.36.
Narrative: The opening shows two difference dance practises in one scene, one part is street dance and the other is ballet. This gives the audience indication that the film is about dance and it involves two different dance cultures coming together.
Genre: The type of genre which is shown in this opening sequence is dance, as the scene cuts between a group of dancers performing ballet and others street/hip hop dance. The other genre could be romance as you see a lot of closeness and chemistry between a lot of female and male dancers, this signifies that there cold be hints of romance throughout the film.
Atmosphere: The atmosphere from the ballet scene's of the opening is a calm, wealthy, classical, happy environment as the scene is very light and does not really involve much whereas the street/hip hop dance sections show more of a dark, intimidating, street atmosphere. This due to the fact that the lighting is dark and they are performing on a wet street with lots of scaffolding behind them.
Titles: The actual film title 'step up' is shown within the first few seconds of the film, they are animated and twist around to show the actual title, they are of a simple format and is white. After that comes the main characters titles, the first two could signify to the audience that they are maybe the two main characters in the movie. The titles are in the bottom right corner. Next comes the casting, choreographers, co producers and so on.
Sound: The only sound in the opening is a piece of non diegetic soundtrack music. This music fits in with the genre as street/hip hop but also has the slight theme of classical to it as the song involves a strong voilin. This fits in perfectly as when the hip hop dance sequences are shown the section of the music is more rapping and loud but when the ballet dancing is shown the voilin sound takes over more.
Characters: i can only presume that the two main characters could be the opening two actor titles shown and by the dancing sections the camera does not focus specifically on characters so these people could not really be involved as such in the storyline of the film. The people dancing ballet are wearing leotards, tights and dancing shoes this is very much the stereotype of people who dance ballet so the audience immediately know who they are.
Themes: The themes of this opening are dance, as they are performing a dance sequence, music as they are dancing to the rythm of the music and dancers need music to move. Another theme could be drama as the two dances are very seperate and this gives off the impression of conflict and differences.
Setting: The setting of this film from the opening shows a school type studio which the ballet dancers are performing in, it is very light and happy. The other setting is in the open and the hip hop dancers are performing on the wet streets, it looks like there is no one but them around as it looks very abandoned with dingy scaffolding near them, it is very dark and has a street culture feeling.
Narrative: start shows that James bond uses a lot of violence and the black and white shows that this has happened in the past. The coloured sequence shows the present and shows that James bond has an assignment to do and the film will show him completing that. The sequence is very fast paced and this connotes that the film will also be set at a quick pace.
Titles: The titles were not shown til the end, the main title was shown at 2.27. Then after that was the release date, the company that produced it and small print.
Sound: high pitched music at start with voice over and then loud bangs when violence starts. James bond theme tune after the flashback and it gradually gets more louder and has added instruments to the music as the trailer progresses, very fast paced.
Character: Daniel Craig is focused on the most and is seen as the main character, a women is shown as well quite a bit which could maybe signify that she is Daniel Craig's love interest.
Setting: Hot places, casino, train, beach, hotel, building site, airport.
Casino Royale Opening:
Narrative: The gun pointing to the audience connotes that they will be a lot of violence and the blood shows death. The poker cards shown signify that gambling and casinos will appear in the film.
Genre: Drama, Action, Thriller.
Atmosphere: There is a voilent atmosphere which involves a gun being pointed at the camera. There is large usage of death and blood which creates a very suspensful and exciting atmosphere which evokes fear.
Titles: The titles are shown right from the beginning, it involves the producers, main character, title of film, other actors, cast.
Sound: a song from the soundtrack of the film is played mostly throughout the opening.
Character: the main character is seen right from the beginning on the film, the circle spotlight shows that he is the one the film is focused on. Daniel Craig is the lead role in the movie.
Themes: Death, identity, love, violence,
Setting: the start has been converted into animation so the actual setting of the film is not shown.
Differences between the two:
the most obvious difference is that the trailer is shown as real life and the trailer is animation. They both show the elements of the casino and a lot of violence. Another difference is that in the opening of the film the titles are shown immediately but the trailer titles are only shown at the end. The trailer full of jump cuts and is not in a continuous shot whereas the opening is. The opening of the film has to set up a mysterious atmosphere and you must be able to follow the storyline.
- Fade to blacks are regularly used
- Shows a montage of clips from film
- Shows sections of the film that will capture audiences attention
- Title of film at end of clip with voice over
Film opening sequence
-Details of cast and crew and producers of the film
- The films title
- An intro to character or type
- Indication of place
- Information regards mood and tone
- Indication of historical period
Genre - Action, Detective/Mystery- the man is being chased, very secretive a lot of lurking around.
Narrative - The opening sequence of this film tells the entire basic plot, it follows one man lurking around changing into different job titles like pilot and doctor. There is also a detective chasing him so you know that the film revolves around one man trying to find the other.
- use of iconography (airport signs)
- chasing: cars, aeroplanes, running
- 'Catch me if you can' title
Character - 2 men as the lead roles
Main character is showed as Leonardo Dicaprio as his name comes up straight after the director and there is an arrow pointing to the cartoon character which implies that it is him.
- A male character chasing another
- In disguise
- Introduces 2 main characters
Atmosphere - A lot of suspense, being chased. A very fast paced atmosphere.
Themes - Sneaky, immolation, lover, wealth and brains.
Setting - set in past, sort of a retro feel to it.
- Fast paced
- Hospital
- Big city
- Airport
-Yellow cabs which signify American setting
Sound - Instrumental music, non diegetic shushing over the music to show that the storyline is very secretive.
very fast paced, and a saxophone is used. old school/1960's
Titles - Very early, range of jobs, set in specific order, the main title is introduced at 0.45 seconds.
My best friends wedding opening
Genre - Comedy, Romance
Narrative - Wedding, Bride maids, something is going to go wrong, Friends, Love and relationships, also in preparation for a wedding.
Character - Bride, Groom, Bridesmaids, based around a lot of women as there are in the opening sequence.
Atmosphere - Feminine, Over exaggerated, Silly, Fun, Happy, Musical
Themes - Wedding, Love, Friendship, Romance
Setting - It is set in a studio as there is just a plain backdrop behind them, in a way a micky take as it could just be a silly fantasy.
Sound- 'Wishin and hopin - Ani difranco', soundtrack music. The song shows instruction on how to treat a man.
Titles - Julia Roberts gives the film big box office appeal, the writing of the titles is shown in fancy italic handwritten writing, and this could imply that it could be an invitation. The writing is yellow and is a very feminine font.
