Final Video

This is our final product: The opening sequence to a thriller film called 'The Deception'
by Ellen Fraser, Amy Garnett, Rhianna Price and Grace Child.

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Week 8 - finalising, credits & music

We'd finished our editing by this week, and now had to fully concentrate our time or tweaking miner details, the credits and also the music. Because we lacked dialogue we needed our non-dietgetic sound to really pull together our piece and enhance the action. we'd previously experimented with different tracks, and shortlisted the ones we felt could compliment our action well. Using garage band we eventually selected a few that we liked, and then worked on adding them to different stages of the film, overlapping tracks, altering the volume and so on. We then began to work on finalising the credits, we used a series of photographs of scrabble pieces and imported these into a final cut express project, then exported them into a quicktime file so we could import them at the beginning and end of our opening sequence. We wanted to edit the shots as well to make them seem more menacing, so we played around with altering the lighting and contrast of the images. Additionally we had to speed up the shots and reverse the footage as we had previously taken the easier option of beginning with the name and then moving the clips outward, and this wasn't the final affect we were after. 

Our audience feedback,

 

The constructive criticism we received from our audience, enabled us to pull together focus upon the areas they thought we could improve to make our opening more effective. Therefore in our  last editing sessions we concentrated more time on areas, like sound, because we knew people had found parts mismatched and ineffective, and we wanted every area of our opening to be equal in standard and create the same continuous, eerie, thriller effect. It was really helpful to receive pointers from non-bias viewers because we'd seen our film so many times and had just become accustomed to it which made us unable to really highlight the certain areas that were good or in contrast were weak, and i think it really boosted our concentration to get positive feedback  as well as it made us so much more motivated and determined to meet all deadlines and create a high quality piece of media work. 

Week 7 - editing & music

Once we'd cut all the clips down to just the sections we wanted to use, we then ordered them into a chronological sequence, that then pulled together a 'rough' film opening, that made sense in terms of narrative and structure. In order to make our film more realistic (in parts), more dramatic, and appear seamlessly, we had to then alter certain elements. We began  to speed up and slow down the timing of certain clips, in particular the flashbacks were we wanted to create a tense and exaggerated effect. The shots we had of young girls acting frightened we had to fit together into a 'flashback' montage, but found the time frames to be far to long, so we cut the clips, partly because of timing and partly because it seemed a lot more climatic when they were at a greater pace. We also began to work on our music, we took turns on who was controlling the editing as if we ever all attempted to do it at once it was too crowded and hard to accurately do. Once we'd all decided upon the major decisions, the other group members would explore garage band for music that could either run parallel to our shots, to create a dark and eerie feel, or could juxtapose our action, highlighting its extremity and the corruption of these children's youth. 

Week 6 - Editing footage and discussing music

Group meeting 6

During this meeting we continued to edit. We started to alter the speed of the shoots, slowing or speeding up movement, we continued to cut shots, to create seamless footage,  and we also started to fragment some of our shots to create a disorientating montage of flash backed clips. After the bulk of our editing seemed to an acceptable standard we then started to discuss what music we would include in our opening sequence. As we had chosen to not include a vast array of dialogue we really needed to have powerfully pragmatic music to enhance the performance of our actors and our style of filming. 

Production Companies

We researched into production companies that have shot well respected thriller films - as this is the genre ours was based around. Something that became apparent after our research was that all these successful films were made by multi-networking companies that join to make huge productions, on extensive budgets - evidently not something achievable by us, but however we did then think about these concepts in relation to our credits. We knew we what we would now need to incorporate in our credits, which was also aided by our analysis of opening credits and the name included in these. From this we came up with the name "REEM"works, which is a play on the world renowned company, "DREAM WORKS", bringing a modern colloquial term into our piece to give us our own creative, but widely recognisable name to include. 


DONNIE DARKO - 

Production Companies

• Pandora Cinema
• Flower Films (II) 
• Adam Fields Productions
• Gaylord Films

HANNIBAL - 

Production Companies

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) 
• Universal Pictures 
• Dino De Laurentiis Company 
• Scott Free Productions 

MEMENTO

Production Companies

• Newmarket Capital Group
• Team Todd
• I Remember Productions
• Summit Entertainment

THE BANK JOB

Production Companies

• Mosaic Media Group
• Relativity Media 
• Skyline (Baker St)
• Atlas Entertainment
• Omnilab Media

CASSANDRA'S DREAM

Production Companies

• Iberville Productions
• Virtual Studios
• Wild Bunch

MATCH POINT

Production Companies

• BBC Films 
• Thema Production 
• Jada Productions 
• Kudu Films 

HARD CANDY

Production Companies

• Vulcan Productions
• Launchpad Productions

INCEPTION

Production Companies

• Warner Bros. Pictures 
• Legendary Pictures 
• Syncopy

 PULP FICTION

Production Companies

• A Band Apart
• Jersey Films
• Miramax Films

Week 5- filming & editing

Group meeting - 5

During week five we visited 3 different locations in order to film our opening sequence, all of us participated in the filming and directing in order to balance out the work and the creative ability. After the filming was 'roughly' complete we had the chance in our fifth group meeting to uploaded the filming we had done during the week. We then began to think about editing the shoots, fitting them together in chronological order and cutting out the parts we didn't need to use. 

  
 

Shooting our project

Above are some  photographs of us filming some of our foundation task (at one of our shoot loactions) . We tried capturing each piece from as many different angles as possible, as we intended to  allow ourselves extensive versatility when it came to editing the clips together, to create a continous effect. We also wanted to develop a wide range of shots for our montage sequences aswell, to make them alot more dramatic and have a much larger impact on our audience. With heinsight we realised that our ‘Feed The Fish’ preliminary task, perhaps lacked a varied and creative range of different angled shots, for example : high, low,canted,point of veiw,reverse  and so on. So we wanted to learn from our previous mistake, and try to take a more challenging approach to our filming.

Week 4 - costume and props

Group meeting - 4

Today we continued planning our opening sequence, but this time focused on costume and props. We didn't want to just use any old t-shirt and jeans for the characters, but have costumes that would all symbolic and have strong stereotypical connotations. We chose to protagonist in a dressing gown, partly because her sketch was based around  a bath time scene, but also because we believed this attire made her seem more vulnerable, innocent and easily harm-able. For our 'pedophile' or antagonist, we opted for a luminous jacket, scruffy jeans, white top, and muddy boots, to create a dirty, rough looking character, but also by use of the jacket to show he was meant to be somebody this girl could 'trust', a professional, but clearly contradicted this expectation; the 'disguise' of this workman's jacket also to us screamed out bright colours, flashing danger in the girls face, additionally the associations people generally have with builders or work men would make the character immediately give off a the sort of impression we aimed for, rather than if we had placed them in a suit. We also decided that the other children where to wear school uniform, once more to highlight their age and innocence, and set them apart from our main character, in order to show and establish her importance within the opening sequence. 

Bridget Jones Diary - opening credits, analysis of the films key contributors

 
Bridget Jones Diary opening credits

*Actors :

Renée Zellweger

Colin Firth

Hugh Grant

Jim Boradbent

Gemma Jones 

  

*Casting by: Michelle Cuish

*Lise Producer: Peter McAleese

*Music superviser: Nick Angel

*Co-Prodcuers: 

Debra Hayward 

Liza Chasin

*Original score by: patrick Doyle

*Costume Designer: Gemma Jackson

*Editor: Martin Wals

*Director of photography: Stuart Dryburgh

*Executive producer: Helen Fielding

*Based on the novel by: Helen Fielding

*Screenplay by: 

Helen Fielding

Andrew Daves

Richard Curtis

*Produced by: 

Tim Bevan

Eric Fellner

Jonathan Cavendish

*Directed by: Sharon Maguire 

*These opening credits display the typical conventions of an opening -
showing who is involved in the making, producing, and editing of the film, and 
the key actors/actress's involved, and those with the most well known status in the
film industry. By analysing and studying this sequence, it means we know exactly what
we need to include in our credit seqeunce, and the relevent names that should appear
at the start of a film. However we additionally intend to display the production companies,
( in the case of Bridget Jones Diary Miramax Films,Universal Pictures, Studio Canal, 
Working Title Films, and Little Bird) and have considered the idea of putting a twist on the well known
company 'DREAM WORKS' and making ours called 'REEM WORKS'. 

*The credits here are displayed like she's writting her diary, (incorportating a key theme of the film) and we 
intent to use scrabble peices and stop motion to dsiplay our credits, to make it more intereting and creative and 
highlight some of our key themes.  

Inception opening sequence analysis

The opening sequence begins with a quite, beach setting. Children are playing happily in the background of a shot capturing a man lying face down in the waves. The sad non diegetic music that runs parallel, suggests something unnatural or bad may occur. This track juxtaposes the appealingly bright and uplifting colours and highlights the significance on the character lying among the waves, introducing a sense of enigma, why is he there? fully clothed and evidently distressed. A low angle shot is then used to answer this question, stressing the status of a new character, who is holding a gun to the mans back. An establishing, extreme long shot is then used to further set up the scene and location and make this new man, wearing dark, green military attire, connoting assertion and power, seem out of place, mysterious and ominous. This shot then cuts seamlessly to a new location which is previously established from the outside. The lighting is now low key and creates an eerie feel, aided by the shot that leaves a new character unidentified from behind, cast in shadow. This helps to create a tense and suspenseful atmosphere, and further enhances the previous enigma. The camera then focus's on a man at the head of the table who's playing with a thumb tack , an extreme close up shot, further indicates that this object is extremely relevant and important within the sequence. The food and wine in background also develop the personality of this  unidentified character, sat in a dark, ominous environment and yet seemingly feeling right at home and comfortable. Another man is then dragged into the shot, lit by deep, blood red flood lights, that connote danger, hell and horrific circumstances.

Week 3 - storyboarding our ideas

Media A Storyboard Again

Group meeting - 3

We fitted the content of our  roughly marked out plot line, into a storyboard format, using post-it notes so we could easily play around with the order of the sequence, and enabling us to see the different stages, and how they could be manipulated. This really  helped us to clearly visualise how we were planning to film each shot, and what location it would need to be filmed in. This meant when it came to actually filming, we immediately knew what angles we needed to capture for each part, and what action was needed for each part of the story. We got quite a lot done, but felt it was a task that should be done in depth and we continued this planning in the next group meeting.

Codes and conventions of opening sequences.

Discovering the rules of opening sequences:

We watched and studied a wide variety of different opening sequences, in order to learn and explore the key conventions needed. From our thorough research we were able to discover what we needed to incorporate in order to produce a successful and systematic beginning to our film. 

We found these to be the typical codes and conventions:

(All of which were present throughout the array of opening sequences)

The introduction of...

The Narrative function was always introduced through many elements of the mis en scene 

(The basic plot line was presented to us, through use of cinematography - sound/dialogue, mis en scene, music, costume, relationships and so on). 

For example: 

One of the opening we researched, 'Legally Blonde', introduced the storyline by using, bright, warm, high key lighting to create the typical 'romantic comedy' feel, making it upbeat and positive. The non-diegetic music playing 'perfect day' created a sense of perfection in the key character, and her life, indicating that something would perhaps occur to interrupt this 'perfect' typical, queen bee's reign of popularity and that a hook would probably soon appear. The flourishing colour of pink also gave away many hints at the type of character the protagonist would be, and indicated many connotations of a ditzy, girly, 'blonde' ethos. From all this we gaged from the first three minutes that 'Legally Blonde' would have a typical chick flick narrative, because of all these key conventions we associate with this genre (found within openings).

Establish the: Location,Genre,Characters,main characters,themes etc 

All the sequences, helped to set up a parallel atmosphere to their films genre by establishing the location. This establishment helped to present their main characters in either  very natural,parallel  settings or extremely incongruous ones. This enabled the audience to easily decipher the surrounding context, and the kinds of characters or themes that may be associated with that location. The expectations for what may happen in the rest of the film are also set up in the opening,

For example:

In 'Saturday night Fever' the establishment of a busy city location, helped us to piece together the type of life the protagonist may lead, the train rushing by made us think about how he may be quite spontaneous, or may wish to leave or venture further than the city. The pizza parlour presented perhaps a lower/working class character, and the 'hire' shop again presented the idea he may be strapped for cash, or trying to pretend to look like or be somebody who is only dream able. The protagonists character is built up by... his egotistic attitude and 'swagger' as he struts down the street, comparing himself to others, i.e.: when he spots similar pair of shoes in the shop window, and gives across an impression that his are better or that he's in style or on top of all the trends, additionally he acts as if he can bag all of the ladies, but fails, which again gives us a clear impression of his overly confident persona. 

The upbeat non-diegetic soundtrack and garish costume design give us an indication of that the film is a 'music' 'drama' type of film. The variety of camera shots and angels also helped to introduce characters, for example the low angle shots, indicated the high status to which he believes he holds or attempts to put across to other characters. The Point Of View shots and camera movement when he was interacting with women also helped hint at his values and personal interests. The shots of his feet additionally gave indications of the 'disco'/'dance' type genre/narrative line. 

We found that opening sequences rarely incorporated:

- Little dialogue (often speech was limited or brief, and the settings gave away more information that the snippets of conversation, as the opening sequence is designed to hint at the plot, not to reveal it in the first three minutes). 

Most of the sequences we looked at either incorporated the use of...

-Monatge or continuity editing, to either created a wrap of time and action into the first 3 minutes or to show parallel action at once in order to build enigma or suspense, especially within the horror/thriller/ganger/action adventure genres

had credits giving names of those involved in the production or acting of the film - either interspersed between the action, presented before the action, or after the action. 

-Set the time and context of the film, by use of typically connectable mis en scene (costume,hair,makeup etc) or the use of typical settings or clues at current linkable events. 

Desperate housewives opening credits anaylisis

The animated sequence begins with an image of the biblical figures, 'adam' and 'eve', the tree bearing the 'forbidden fruit', is the tree of temptation, representative of the,lust in the 'desperate' lives of these women. The sly persuaisive snake in the background is the symbol of this constant tempt to give in to the enticement. The deep red background connotes love,passion and danger, which are all revolving themes explored within the series. The italic graphology looks as if it is elaborate handwritting rather than a typical computerised font. This creates the effect that it's the women confessing the story of their lives, almost like a diary entry, which is paralell with the concept of the narrator being a past character. The non-diegetic music, creates an upbeat,happy,magestic rythem, which adds a light, humerous feel to the credit sequence. The catenation of famous images that appear with the credits, are all extreemly illustrative, it starts with the 'pop up' image of The great royal wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses the Great. Her name means 'beautiful companion' and is known for her lavesh toomb and lifestyle shows her as acquisitive lifestyle. This leads on to a famous painting of a man throwing a banana and at pregnent women who has to clean it up  with a broom (Material wealth by jan van eyck), which uses bright powerfull colours to present opulence and self glorification. The next image is of a couple stood outside a typical suburban Amercican home 'American gothic' and is a satire of the narrow mindedness of small town life, mocking the idea that nothing would happen do these average women living 'dull lives'. An American 'pun-up' pops up inront of the couple, and attempts to claw at the man, suggestive of the auldery, lies and allurement, and the way the women is then locked away in the sardiene tin shows the dull domestisity of dated life, this is shown through the dull, grey colours that are apparent in most of the starting images which are then replaced by blinding, harsh, exuberant colours that appear in the 'Am I proud' propaganda poster, and the "romantic couple" representing the balance and struggles of the modern day women, and the pop art arguing couple, where the women punches the man, shows the power of this liberated women. The four key characters appear at the end, with high key lighting showing them in a postive and happy depicition, the apples they hold in their hands are represetning the seduction that they have clearly given in to, which is in line with their sly, lusterious expressions and provcative attire.

Filming Schedule

We devised a filming schedule, so that ourselves and our cast were a hundred percent certain, of the locations they were needed in, and on what days they were needed. We needed to be overly organised because of pre-booking filming equipment, and the access to certain locations for our shoots and in relation to timing as well, for we had to make sure the slots fitted in with the cast's school / work times, and fitted in with our own availability and the availability of the locations. 

Week 2 - planning our cast and locations

Group meeting - 2

In week two we looked back over our notes and ideas and started to realistically decide what was achievable, and what we would need to plan in order to create a high quality thriller film. We started to think about casting, discussing firstly what we wanted our characters to be like or look like and then secondly we considered what contacts we actually had. Our chosen plot like was based antically around the story of a  pedophile and a teenage girl. The idea was to create a piece that hinted at quite brutal issues, but did so it an appropriate and subtle way, because of this we decided to cast girls from between the ages of 12-16 rather than opting for younger actresses, we also chose to use people that we knew, because we felt they'd be able to play the tricky roles in a more natural and relaxed way. We didn't want 'stiff acting,' or for the actor to feel uncomfortable and therefore that awkwardness consequently shine through in our film. We also started to think about available, interesting locations that would run parallel with our storyline.

Week 1 - Planning and storyboarding for our Foundation Task

storyboarding

 planning ideas

Group meeting - 1

Here I have enclosed some photographs of our first group meeting in which we planned our foundation project. We started by brainstorming,  writing down the different film genres and then cutting them down to the ones we felt we could possibly develop an interesting story around. After narrowing down our options, we finally selected thriller as our genre, and begin to throw around lots of different sketchy stories we could maybe adapt to make our opening sequence.  later after developed those suggestions,  we fitted together the different ideas into a more a structural plot line, giving us a good indication of what we would need to include later  on, on a story board.  

Initial response to brief

Our brief was to create an opening sequence for our own film. We needed to be able to incorporate all of the techniques that we have learnt so far on the course, and experiment with a wide range of shots, creative titles, and seamless and/or inventive editing in order to develop a piece of work with high quality. Our task was to select a film genre, may be it : horror, science fiction, action/adventure,gangster/crime,romantic comedy, thriller and so on. We decided on thriller, simply because we wanted to pick a genre in which we could capture a wide range of interest shots, and create a sense of enigma and tension throughout, and believed these aspects that are key conventions of thriller films, would be ones that would make our film much more original and interesting, in order to hold our audiences full attention, and leave them feeling unnerved and eager to know more. We did consider horror but believed that on a 'low budget' production, we would not be able to convey the true depth that a horror film has to depict, and believed that if we tried to recreate a horrific opening, that we may not be able to scare our audience enough for it to be a successful sequence. We also considered doing a romantic comedy, but we believed that unless we found actors of an extremely high ability, that we would struggle to capture a realistic relationship, and we wanted to be able to make a film that displayed work to the best of our ability. I was really excited when I heard what our brief was and in our first brainstorm our sheet was spilling with ideas,suggestions, and illustrations, of what sort of things our film could include, our overly keen approach, allowed us to have a mountain of ideas to which we selected the best and condensed them together to create the basic story line of something we thought could have great potential. 

Response to group choice

After selecting our genre of Thriller and all brainstorming ideas of what kind of themes we could incorporate and which of our suggestions would be best to be put forward and used for our final storyline. We selected one idea, and then fed of this, all contributing to our basic concept,and building it up to be something that was a lot more inventive and creative. Someone would come up with something new to trump the old suggestion and suddenly ideas were fitting together perfectly, and everything started to become much more real and considerably more original. We wanted to make our film quite creepy, and bewildering, drawing on sensitive themes and disturbing issues, that would make our audience feel uncomfortable but at the same time enjoy our work. We decided to base our piece around a man who has a past blotted with conspiracy, we wanted to create an effect that would make our audience feel connected to our main victim and decided we wanted to incorporate the use of flash backing to another key characters suspiciously dark and frightening past.Once everything was fixed, we then started to plan or visual aids like costume and makeup, our locations, or actors, and ideas of what shots we were going to incorporate, these messy scribbles soon turned into a storyboard in which our thriller was starting to come together.