Tom screen grabs
- 1. Screen grabs for evaluation Shot one We chose to show our company ident as our first shot as this generally follows the convention for this genre as the majority of film openings include the production ident at the beginning of their film so the audience doesn’t lose focus of the creators of the film and also so they are able to be approached by other poss . I feel that our ident works well on its own with no audio as it allows the audience to focus solely on the image. The text within the ident works well with the image next to it as both the text and image relate to each other. This type of entrance to a opening sequence is seen in many thriller related films, e.g. “The girl with the dragon tattoo” Shot two With this shot we used the effect “cool tone” To give the impression that the setting for our opening sequence is dark and mysterious. The shot cuts from a image of a tree branch to the one below. The purpose of the shot is to set the mood for a thriller my making the image seem out of focus and dark, much like the techniques seen in many other opening sequences such as the film Seven. This shot is the first one that has a title in it as well, making it an important shot with is sole purpose of setting the mood for the rest of the film.
- 2. Shot three The particular shot is crucial as it the first shot that shows the main character, with a close up of his face. This tries to show the audience the emotions of himself and the emotions the audience should be feeling for him. The convention of the genre for thriller films is that when you are introduced to characters, you usually identify them with emotions such as; worry, tension, panic. Of course this is not always the case but you will defiantly witness this either in the opening sequence or later in the film. Furthermore it shows the setting for the opening sequence by using a long shot of the “castle” were we filmed. This is seen in many opening sequences such as the film “shutter Island” were the setting for the film is revealed very early in the film. The shot also includes the effect cool tone, with no other effect as we wanted to differentiate the outside and inside shots by using different effects. This shot captures the mise en scene that is used throughout the rest of the opening sequence. Shot four Here we used a point of view shot for the main character entering the house. This is an important part of the film process as it varies the type of shots that we were taking. Many thriller films use this to make the scene, almost relatable, in the sense that they understand and feel the emotions the characters are feeling. The shot is taken looking up, trying to make the character seem small and worthless, making his journey into house seem daunting. One particular film that use this type of filming is “The Blaire Witch Project”. The entire film is taken using shots that are filmed by the characters, making you feel what they feel and see what they see. The method is effective as it makes the audience more involved in the film. Shot five In this shot the main character, is seen on his own. The shot includes added shadow effect to make his movements seem dangerous and blurry.
- 3. Shot six in this shot, we emphasized the importance of the second character as he enters the opening sequence. We did this by changing the balance between the desert and cool tone effect making the shot seem more orange in colour. We also slowed the shot by 50% to allow the audience to absorb the characters appearance fully. We also included the name for our film in particular shot and gave it a special effect which was to fade outwards of the shot through the middle. We did this to emphasize the importance of the title, as this is generally follows the convention for this genre and most other films. A good example of when a film emphasizes the main title would be “Indiana Jones”, as they prolong the average time of the main title compared to the other titles before the main title. The character is seen to be immoral and wily as he checks his surrounding before approaching Tom. The character that has just been introduced, Chris, wears clothing that would traditional suit his style of character, which is wearing tailored clothing with muted colors. The audio reaches a climax at the point at which Chris is introduced to promote his arrival into the opening sequence. Shot seven In this shot, we used a negative effect by maximizing the black and white colours. We did this to vary the type of visual impacts we were giving the audience. We filmed the shot from a low angle to give Tom a imposing look as he now is determined to find his missing daughter. His anger gives him a more imposing persona. This breaks the convention of this genre as this type of angle and mise en scene is usually film with the antagonist. The antagonist is usually the one that is made to look physically dominate through different effects and camera angles. One example would be to channel the lighting onto the antagonist making him the sole focus of the shot. You would place the camera low to make him seem bigger, more intimidating to the audience.
- 4. Shot eight In this shot the mise en scene is promenade. The effect on the shot is changed to highlight the importance of this shot. It includes both characters with both of them falling into their given stereotype of being the antagonist and the protagonist. The protagonist, the character standing in the for front of the shot is seen to be looking worried and nervous whilst the character in the background, the antagonist, is seen to look calm and in control. These type of emotions are generally portrayed in most thriller films between the antagonist and protagonist. An example of this would be the film “Shutter Island” were the protagonist and antagonist display similar emotions to the ones during this particular shot. The camera is kept level to Tom whilst staying close to him to allow the audience to fully understand and feel what he is feeling. Furthermore, we placed Chris, (the antagonist) in the background to act as a looming burden on Tom in literal terms to clearly demonstrate the divide between the two characters and the conflicts they are having. The shot supports the narrative of the film as it clearly shows who is bad and who is good by giving facial expressions that allow the audience to understand who to feel sympathetic towards and who to dislike due to their characters personality. Shot nine The Dutch angle used here is a shot that varies the normal type of shots that we used through must of our opening sequence. It gives the sequence a dramatic aspect to it as it gives alterative views that are not usually seen by the average person. The shot shows the two characters running. The change in tempo of the opening sequence is something that can be seen in many thriller opening sequences, maybe when a something is introduced which causes some type of friction etc.. An example of this would “children of men” there is one continuous shot that shows two different settings, one being calm and indoors, while the other is hectic with lots of movement displaying contrasting tempos of scenery which is what we were aiming for in this shot. Furthermore the shot is edited to be short to promote an upbeat scene of events. The camera was placed low to capture the majority of the characters movements to fully show the drama that was taking place between the two characters. The settings changes back to outside to show that Tom, the protagonist has been left with little options and is now resorting to going back from where he came as he is scared of Chris cashing him.