example 2
- 2. I worked in a group of three with Bethanie Cundy and Jemima Selwood. I took specific responsibility for filming and directing scene one and editing parts of all the scenes. We split everything very equally so we could all do each job at some point in the process; this made us a very good team and we worked very well and efficiently together. I also specifically took responsibility for creating the Unauthorised16 title that appears in the movie. I also provided the camera which was a Cannon compact SLR. We made a thriller film opening entitled Unauthorised16 The genre of our film is thriller. We used a variety of programs: iMovie, Premier Pro, Adobe After effects and Audacity. We started by drawing a story board and writing a treatment.
- 3. When we watched the opening of Knight and Day we really liked how you could only see the back of the mans head leaving mystery for a long period of time so it is harder for the viewer to figure out what will happen from the start. We hope we have achieved the same sense of mystery and suspense in our opening. We looked at the opening of Don't look now and this was helpful also as we liked the types of angles and shots. It made the viewer scared and tense which is what we wish to accomplish in our movie opening too. A lot of red is portrayed through out this movie; for example the graphic blood that pours out of the picture of the child. In the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo there was a great sense of suspense created by the extreme close up at the beginning which lured the viewer. The second view of the girl walking trough the underground created curiosity as the shot was from behind; not giving her character away too early. Violence is established very early on when Lisbet is attacked. I noticed in Zen the world of crime and detection was established very early on with the opening. It also showed Italinisity through red, green and white and famous buildings. Our group also looked at the trailer of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and really liked the music in it as it was very tense and suspense building. We played it with our opening and thought it went very well with the last scene. The song is called Wolf Suite by Danny Elfman.
- 4. I looked at the films Dexter (John Dahl 2006) , the Pacific (2010 TV series HOB) and Buried’ (Dan Rodrigo cortes 2005) On the website www.artofthetitle.com/ we We looked at the opening to Dexter which had mainly all extreme close ups. We really liked this as it did not give much away and restricted what the audience could see adding enigma. The Dexter title is written in red which represents danger and death. The dripping, uncleanness of the title suggests risk and questions safety. I also looked at the opening of Romeo and Juliet (1996) I liked how the opening was almost like a trailer; showing what was to come but with out giving away the story line too much. This is where I got the inspiration to achieve a similar unique style of opening, where the film does not start at the beginning but then works backwards to figure out how/why Grace (our main character) was chosen and what happened to her. We were conscious of not giving too much away however in the first three minutes so used short close-up shots like in Romeo and Juliet that restricts the audience from seeing everything; making them want to continue watching to understand what happened.
- 5. Audience profile: our target audience is likely to be both genders aged 15-30 . They are likely to have seen these films recently: Halloween (dir. 2007), Shutter Island (dir. Scorcese, 2010), Inception (2010, Nolan), London Boulevard (dir. Monahan, 2011), The Ring (dir. Gore Verbinsk,2002) and The Dark Knight (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2008). They are likely to go to the cinema once or twice a month as well as see films on DVD and downloads on their computers. They will spend a lot of their money on their entertainment such as going to the cinema or renting a movie. They are likely to like thrillers and horrors and twists at the end of movies. Audience figures show how popular the thriller genre is. Box office returns for films similar to mine show the following figures (source Box Office Mojo): Shutter Island ($294,803,014); The Ring ($129,128,133) and Hide and Seek ($51,100,486) I had a look at Sky Media and on the Horror Channel section there were some useful facts. Horror Channel reaches 3 million adults in the UK every month Horror Channel is the 2nd biggest free to air movie channel in Sky homes. 60% of the Horror Channel audience is under 55 years old and skewed to a more male audience (58%)
- 6. I have made a viewer profile to show what type of audience my film will appeal to. I have added pictures like festivals, music and restaurants to show that they like to spend their money on entertainment and enjoying them self's. They will also spend a lot of money on their appearance and activities.
- 7. Opening Titles: We made our titles for a professional look to make the movie opening seem more realistic. We added in plain white writing Bethanie, Jemima and my names at different times during the opening. We made me the director, Jemima as the editor and Bethanie as the Producer. Even though we all took part in each on of these we decided to achieve a professional look we would just write one name on each. We also added our three main characters real names at appropriate times. Due to feedback from friends watching the almost complete product we added a small time and date at the start of scene one and at the very end of scene three. This is because we all decided it was not clear enough that the end of scene three happened before the rest of the opening. To avoid any confusion these titles show the viewer that the movie has just showed part of the end at the beginning as a glimpse of what to come. Mise-en-scene: Friends green house and garden for party scene, friends car for inside car scene, school ‘kiln room’ for operation room, Jemima’s house for Grace to type on Facebook Costumes: Operator wearing school science lab coat, Grace wearing party dress, Joe wearing casual clothes, everyone at party wearing casual outfits. SFX: We edited all of our footage making the contrast and colours more appropriate. We also uploaded some of our footage onto Adobe Premiere to work out how to overlay the same clip on top of each other. We changed the opacity and doubled the clip, making one of them play very slightly after the first. This created the exact drowsy effect that we wanted and looked perfect. However we had trouble finding out how to export it so we could put the finished product back into iMovie. We finally found on YouTube a tutorial on how to change what format to save it in and imported it back.
- 8. Sound: In our own ident that we made ourselves we added three different sound effects. One was a heart beat, the other was a child laughing. We thought this added a curtain creepiness to the ident suggesting the type of movies it does; thriller and horror. We also added to load thunder bolt sound when the name of our movie appears in the middle of the opening. We did this to make the audience aware that Unautherized16 is the title of the movie. We muted almost all of our footage as we felt like the music added enough tension. At the beginning we kept the sounds of Graces friends asking if she was okay. We did this because it made it clearer that they were talking to Grace and this shot was actually from Graces view; this is ambient and makes the viewer feel like they are Grace. You can hear the sound of the engine of the car in scene two, as Joe calls his father to tell him he has Grace. This shows the audience that Joe is about to take Grace somewhere in the car. We also have the father say ‘Well done son. She’s perfect’ straight to the camera. We added this point of view shot to show that the father is intimidating and pushy. When decided what he should say, I suggested that he says the word son so the audience see the connection between them. Music: We have two different songs in the opening. The first song is Concrete Jungle to indicate that all these people dancing are at a party. The volume ducks when Graces friends talk to her and when Joe is in the car. Then suddenly the scene and music changes. The second song is Wolf Suite Pt.1. Atmosphere: We have created a frenetic, hectic party scene using strobe lights and a sophisticated room that looks like a pent house. Using the blur effect we have made the first point of view shot on Grace seem confused and delusional. We have a very fast panning shot of the whole room as she spins around showing that everything is unclear and she is under the influence. The party atmosphere is shortly broken as the boy calls his father in the car. The music changes and the atmosphere becomes very eerie and haunted. The shot of her seeing double is blurry and unclear showing she is intoxicated. SUSPENSE There is a lot of suspense built up throughout the opening. We added tense music and dark lightings with tints of cool toned colours to create a supernatural feeling. ENIGMA We created enigma by short, sharp editing and lots of variety of shots. We have changed a lot of the colour of the footage so that the operating room looks mysterious and unhygienic.
- 9. For audience feedback I made a YouTube account and uploaded the final film opening. I then posted the link onto my Facebook and tagged Bethanie and Jemima. People gave very positive comments and some very useful constructive advise. Some other media students in year 10 were confused about how the opening ended; looking back we saw where they were coming from so decided to add a voice over to make it more clear that Grace is now awake after the operation looking back on what happened the day before.
- 10. I think our project has been hugely successful as we really did achieve our film opening to the best of our ability. Watching it complete at the end we agreed that it was exactly how we had first imagined it should be when drawing the story board at the beginning. We tried to make it look as professional as possible by using black outs, flash backs, sound effects and opening credits. We also created our own ident in Adobe Premiere and After Effects, as well as using the Twisted ident most famous for all Saw movies. I have also kept a blog that I have updated throughout the process of creating our opening. http://aliciahatfield.blogspot.com/p/production-log.html
- 11. I feel that we have achieved a very realistic thriller opening. We have managed to change the mood and feel of the film instantly from the fun, party atmosphere created with lighting, music and restricted shots which made the party seem intense and busy. We then changed the feel of the opening by the music which builds up tension while the scary, fast cut shots of the operating room torment the audience. We also edited the contrast and added a cool coloured tint so the room felt cold and chilling. We have answered our brief very well and have managed to create great tension, enigma and suspense.
- 14. Thing on Bethanie's laptop written – print screen