Here is one of the production meeting tables. We used Moodle on the school network to access these tables and to use these as a template of what we had to do each week. It was a very useful way of organising our progress and allowed us to go back and look at/consider how our ideas had progressedfrom the very start. We set our own deadlines which allowed us to keep track of what were doing and also meant that, by documenting our aims for each week, we didn't have to keep a mental document of what we had to do.
For our task we chose to film the opening in dark, cold conditions as we felt that this would be best suited towards the mood and the genre of the film. As in many horror films, we felt that the effect that the dark, abstract look of the opening would give a sense of danger and add the idea of mystety to the film that we want. When the audience see dark, it is immediately links in their mind to the ideology that where ever dark is, there is danger. Also, we chose to film in conditions where there was no rain or snow etc. as this would make it easier replicate certain parts of the opening if we ever needed to re-film anything or add parts in the future. Also, as the time when we are going to film the task will be in winter, it will therefore mean that it is more frequently dark and therefore these conditions are appropriate as they will be often available to us to film. Also, since in the plot, the boys are going for a night out, we felt that it would be best for the conditions to be dark as this is more realistic to everyday life, which is what we are aiming for. Additionally, we have chosen to film in the dark as it is most suited to our everyday life's, as it is only light in the morning and afternoon, at which time, me, Xiangyu, and the other actors will be at school.
Now that we had decided to use Xiangyu's house to film our opening, we also had reasoning for choosing the particular parts of the house that we did for the film. Firstly, we felt that we could definitely use the upstairs and downstairs parts of the house in order to get the idea of separation between the various characters. For example, we wanted this to happen when the character Xaingyu goes upstairs to check if the character Eric is in as this immediately makes the audience feel on edge and unsure. Although the character is still in the same house as them, he is separating from the other friends, and therefore not protected which typically in horror films give a strong suggestion of danger.
Finally, we chose the idea for the bathroom to be the place where the incident happened was decided for several reasons. Initially, the idea came from the influence of the The Shining which is a film that I had seen and very much enjoyed. Although during The Shining no actual death occurs in the bathroom scene, I felt that it was very much suited to our film as I knew from watching many horror films that the bathroom has always, over the years, been associated with danger. Whether this be from the traditional all-white background which makes the other colours stand out to something else, the bathroom has always been this way in horror films. After discussing these ideas with Xaingyu, he very much agreed on the reasons for choosing this room and as a result, allowed us to use it for filming.
Xiangyu fortunately allowed us to film using his street and his house for the opening of our film. We chose this location as it suits the intended as we felt it would give the opening the intended feel as it is located on the edge of town. We wanted to give the film a sense of realism as we wanted to particularly ensure with the location that it allowed the young adults our age to appeal to it, and therefore this is why we chose one of our houses. Also, we felt that it would be be more suited towards our aims with the opening not to use my house, but use Xiangyu's house instead. We chose his house instead due to the fact that while it was still on the edge of town, it was more secluded than my house which was situated right in the centre of town. We felt that this would allow us therefore to be able to give the film the sense of uncertainty and tension which we wanted, as we wanted to make it clear to the audience that the characters were not surrounded by civillization, as they would have been had we chosen to film at my house.
Also, although we did not choose it as an actual location for the, we felt that the fact that Xiangyu's house was situated opposite a museum would also add to the sense of mystery and uncertainty in the film. We went to Xaingyu's house in the evening and took pictures of the house and the hill leading up to the museum. Using these pictures, we felt that it definately added another dimmension to the film as although the location is never actually used, it puts ideas in the audience's head about whether or not it could have a part to play in the film.
With the costumes and props, we felt that, in order to mantain the idea of the film's realism, that we would have each of the four boys in the opening wear everyday clothes as this would fit in well with the plot (that the boys are about to go out). We thought that wearing any other clothes than they of which we would normally wear would be unrealistic and not give the audience the right impression of the characters. Therefore, we feel that basic clothes, such as jeans and T-shirt will fit in well, as they are clothes that a stereotypical boy would wear. Additionally, we wanted to make sure that the clothes being worn were not too expensive, or at least, if they were, then the characters would be proud of them as they are a rarity within the social class that the characters are based in.
With the idea of the there being a body in the bathroom, we wanted to make sure not to overuse any props such as fake blood so that the thought was mantained in the audience's mind that the film is everyday life and not just a typical horror film. We thought that having the light on in the bathroom would mantain the audience's interest as we wanted to use the light to play with the assumption that a light being must mean something. If we had chosen to keep all the light's off, then there would be less of a sense of mystery within the film as no room would have stood out. However, having the light on, means that the audience has to know what is in there, as they are only satisified when there is a conclusion of some sort. We chose a bathroom which is upstairs in particular, as we knew that one of the friends going upstairs meant that they had to seperate themselves from the rest of the group. Therefore, we knew this would keep a sense of tension within the scene and keep a suggestive sense of danger to the audience that something was going to happen.
I and Xiangyu thought very hard and seriously about the target audience as we knew that it would have a major impact on the various aspects of our film, such as the synposis, the setting and the moral of the film. We felt that it would be best to have a target audience of teenagers and young adults as we felt that would be able to base a film around this target audience well. We felt that we could make the film relate to the audience as we are of a similar age ourselves, and so know what people of that age group are interested in. The target audience completely influenced all aspects of our film, such as the characters, as we wanted to make sure that they were realistic and that they related to people of the age group we were aiming at - 16-21.
Below is a list of the shots that we plan to use for our film opening, with an event listed next to the shot
that will take place when this is happening.
These shots are collobaration of mine and Xiangyu's influences. Some of the shots, such as the panning shot, match on action and shot reverse shot were taken from our preliminary task whereas other shots, such as the various mid shots and close-up shots were influened by films such as Star Wars IV: A new hope.
- Friends walk to house.Panning, mid shot.
-Friends knocks on door, close up, match on action shots.
-Friends enter house, mid shot.
-Shows the interior of the house, which is dark and creepy, there are no lights except for the upstairs.Panning shot for showing the inside of the house.
-Friend 1 go upstairs slowly while the others go into the living room and watch TV, friend one will walk slowly and the camera with be a close up on his feet tracking on them.
-Friend 1 sees the dead body of Eric, mid shot, he sees the dead body.The camera will be from inside the bathroom and be a close up shot.
-Bathroom door slams shut,Close up shot of the friend’s face to over the shoulder shot from the friend.
-The camera switches to downstairs where the 2 other friends are watching TV, They have a conversation, the camera with be doing a shot reverse shot for their conversation.
-The camera switches back upstairs to the friend, who is frozen in shock. The camera will be doing a close up shot on his face, he will be looking at the door, and the floor will then creak.There will then be a noise down stairs.The title will then appear.
The main idea for the moral of the plot that we want to include is the theme of truth. This theme is present in our film as it plays with the idea that you do not know how much of an impact someone had on your life until they pass away. Similarly, the idea is also present that, on the other hand, you also do not know how much of an impact you had on someone's life for sure. This is why we wanted to make the film mystery as well as a horror. We could have easily chosen to include lots of blood and gore, as this may well have fitted in with our intended teenage audience. However, we wanted to make our film as much thought provoking as entertaining. The overall idea that we chose for the film is that we want people who watch it to wonder how much of an impact they may have on someone's life and to think that it might be more than they originally considered.
After discussing with each other about what type of themes I and Xiangyu wanted to incorporate into our film of a mystery/hybrid genre, we decided that it would be interesting to do a film based in modern civilization. After all, the type of audience that we were planning on targeting was teenagers of a similar age group to us (15-20) and so we thought it would be necessary to do this.
Here is the initial synopsis of the film that we had planned:
It is a dark, cold night in Saffron Walden and unsurprisingly, a group of teenage boys are about to go out for what they hope will be an enjoyable night. The three friends, including Xiangyu Ge, are on their way to the house of their friend, Eric White, of whom they have organized to knock for. The boys are in full voice on their way to the house and are optimistic about the prospects of the night ahead. When knocking at the door several times, there is no answer and the boys presume there has been a change of plan with Eric. However, the front door suspiciously opens but after checking their appears to be no-one inside. One of the friends, Xiangyu, notices that the only light in the house is the bathroom light, and so goes up there to check if there is anyone there. The other boys, being rude, typical teenagers, make themselves welcome in the house meanwhile. Xiangyu, simultaneously, shockingly finds Eric, but he is in a very serious state in the bathroom but is unable to call for help due to the fact that he is in shock. The bathroom door then slams shut and thus concludes the opening.
Xiangyu eventually manages to communicate and goes to the friends downstairs in seek of help. They don't believe him as when they go, this time as a group to check the bathroom as a group, they don't find anything unusual. The friends begin to question Xiangyu, but are still uneasy about what he is telling them, and so leave the house quickly. It is very difficult for the friends to talk to each other as their friendship becomes masked with confusion and distrust. All of the friends agree to never go back to the house and to wait to see if Eric turns up for school as they all, Xiangyu included, are not sure about what happened. However, all of the former friends begin to see similar (what seem to be) hallucinations the day after, when they go back to their own houses, in various rooms and even at school. It soon becomes apparent to the former friends that they are the only ones who keep seeing Eric's dead body. They are continually tormented until it becomes clear that some of them cannot take anymore suffering. The former friends are taken back to the same Friday night where they knock for Eric and this time, he answers the door and joins them.
the research you have included on your blog is very detailed and well though out. I like the idea of your film and i think you have included a lot of inspirational videos that relate to your film idea. You have not yet included images of the location of your film and you haven't even mentioned where the film will be shot.
Overall it is a splendid blog and maybe you could include more detail in some areas such as the synopsis post.
Now that I have looked at some relevant openings to films and picked out parts that interest me,
such as the shots that were used, I now have more of an idea of what I want from my film. However, I am still not entirely certain on what I want the genre of my film to be. After discussing with my partner for my task, Xiangyu, we have decided that we would like our film to be in the genre of detective or crime.
However, this is too vague and so therefore, in order to decide exactly what genre we desire the film to be, we have each conducted research into famous films from this type genre and decided which one we would most like to base our film on. This is important as our film could be part of a hybrid genre and so therefore looking at multiple films from this type of genre is necessary.
First of all, I wasn't very familiar with many crime or detective films, despoite the fact that I was intruiged by the genre. However, one of the series' that I had heard of was the detective series 'Sherlock Holmes'.
After doing some research on this website - www.filmsite.org/mysteryfilms.html, I found out more about the Sherlock Holmes filmes and that what I learnt was that most of the films were from 1940's, which I had not known previously. I also found out that there were many other famous and successful series' around this time such as 'The Thin Man' series, which started in the same year as Sherlock Holmes.
These films interested and Xiangyu. I also knew that if I wanted get an idea of whether or not we wanted to implement any of the elements of these films, I would have to research some clips from the film's of this time period in order to get an introduction into elements of the film that were used during the time these films were made.
Below is a video opening to one of Sherlock Holmes' most fims, Hound of the Baskervilles. From looking at the video opening to this film, and discussing with Xiangyu, we have concluded that there are parts of the film that we would choose to include in our film opening. The parts which interest us are the camera shots and the editing, even though we are not going to use this exact genre for our film. These were used to good effect in order to create tension and to show a clear view of the surroundings. We have chosen to include some of the shots from this in our film opening. However, what we have chosen to not include, are many parts of the mise-en-scene such as the clothes, as we felt that these did fit with the modern genre that we were trying to prouce. Also, we also use a younger cast in order to fit in with the intended audience, which will be from a younger age group.
Overall, although we have taken elements from this opening, I and Xiangyu have decided on a mystery/horror hybrid genre.
Watching the video, as well as having access to the criteria, really gave me an insight into how they achieved a high grade. It was much better to see certain aspects of the criteria being achieved in their literal form, such as shots, as these are aspects that you really need to see first hand in order to get an idea of how to achieve them.
One of the objectives of the Level 4 criteria and so therefore of the video, was to use a wide range of shots. Some of the shots used to achieve this part of the criteria were mid-shots, which was used a number of times in the video and showed the scenery in the background as well as the characters clothes in detail to allow the audience to get a better idea of what was happening in the film. The panning shot was also used when the main character was running away from the church after he had murdered someone.
The creators of the Level 4 film I watched also kept their recording appropriate to the task set as the video was an opening and was of a necessary time frame. Additionally, they also managed to exclude unnecessary which made the film fluent and interesting to watch, as they were no mistakes with factors that I will have to take into account, such as the weather.
There were also many factors of mise en scene that were chosen suitably. The clothes and props of the characters fitted well into the narrative and certainly added to the character's aura e.g. the blood on the shirt gives a clear sense of injustice in the film and makes it obvious as to what genre the film is(it sets the scene).
The language used in the opening played a prominent role in the effect of the scene in terms of the mood and the ideas that were put into the audience's head. For example, the music was always collaborating to give the effect of a certain emotion - when the music was negative and filled with tension when one of the character's was panicking. In terms of the theory, the terminology and the register were used appropriately e.g. the register was never informal when the focus was on something serious.
The text had a fluency about it that came from the impressive editing that had been done before hand. This allowed the text to seamlessly switch from one scene to another and maintain the interest and focus of the audience or viewer. The titles also were key as not only did they look professional, but they added to the mood of the film as they were chosen carefully and appeared when necessary in the opening to keep up the tension that was intended.
The layout of the blog was very well thought-out and constructed. Each section was easy to access and therefore the blog was fluent as you could see how the ideas of the person had progressed.
Text and Font sizes were used correctly in the film and the blog, with the correct size being used depending on the importance of the writing. For example, in the blog, the titles stood to make it clear that this was a new section and what the section was about. In the film, the titles were always readable but never got in the way of the image on screen. When the title came up, it was obvious that this is what it was.
This is how the Level 4 video I watched achieved the criteria that it did.
Above is a table showing the title sequences of the film 'Juno'. The video sequence that I looked at was different from some other people's and so it may be missing one or two titles from the original sequence. This was very uselful for me as for our task me have to make an opening to a film that is 2 mintues long, which is the approximate length of the opening of 'Juno'. I learnt from looking at the opening the times which titles should appear and it showed me the importance that titles can have at the beginning of a film. Also, I learnt from looking at the opening sequence that titles are often spaced out and each title is often shown for a similar amount of time which adds to the fluency of the opening.
Although this film is not the kind of genre that I would like to do for my task, it did give me useful ideas for shots that I could possibly use. In the intro, Darth Vader enters in a way that it is clear that he is an important character and will have a part to play in the film's story/outcome. It is the shots used which allow for this to happen.
Some of the shots that were used were:
Mid-shot - It shows the height of Darth Vader in comparison to the other individuals. Everyone else looks like a minority in comparison to him. He is in the middle of the shot which shows that he is the focal point.
A low angle shot - This is used after the Mid-shot to emphasize the height and dominance of the character.
These shots work together to create a very clear and important first impression of the character to the audience. I think that this is a very vital aspect of a film and it's introduction. It is especially essential in the case of films like my main task and Star Wars IV:A New Hope, as they introduce characters that are unknown to the audience, such as Darth Vader, and so the foundation that the character has can often be built from the first shots that the audience see of them.
Below is the video that I used for my research:
THE MATRIX
I also looked at the opening scene to the movie -'The Matrix'. I looked at this opening scene of this movie in particular as it appealed to me ever since I saw it when I was a kid. This was mainly down to the fact that the genre and plot, and therefore opening, of 'The Matrix' is something that is very different to your average Sci-fi or Action film.
I thought that the movie would be interesting to look at as it encapsulates elements of many different genres, as it most likely a hybrid genre of Sci-fi/Action and so this movie will be helpful to look as it will give me key ideas about an opening to a film, regardless of the genre that I choose for my final task.
I think that what makes this intro intriguing is it's build-up of suspense, particularly through the use of camera shots and music as it adds uncertainty into the viewer's mind about the setting, plot and the characters, as this is the first film of a trilogy. I was unable to find the opening sequence on the internet, so here is the trailer for the film, which shows examples of the types of shots used and gives an idea of the feel of the film.
THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE
With regards to this film opening, I wanted to look at a film that was very different to the previous two that I had researched, so that i could get a comparison of the mixture of each of the genres. With the film opening in this modern thriller, typically of the genre it raises questions. In particular, I thought that the shots used where the car is driving from far away and the camera is zoomed out as not only did it focus me more on the car but it also showed the surroundings of he area and emphasized the sense of isolation.
With these type of shots being used, it made me think a lot about the opening shots I could use in my film opening and taught me how an important effect can given off to the audience just through the first two or three shots as they are the first parts of the film they see. It made me realize that an opening shot can create a feeling or emotion with the audience that can then be effected by the next shot and so and so on. The importance of sequences has been highlighted to me through these films that I have looked at so far.
As I was unable to obtain the opening sequence, here is the trailer for the film, which shows examples of the types of shots used.
Tuesday, 5 October 2010
Prelimary Task
Date - 28/9/10
I filmed the preliminary task which was filming someone entering somewhere through a door and then having a conversation with someone else. I filmed this task task with Seb Baudains, Sam Sawtell and Xiangyu Ge. We filmed the task outside D6, our media room and in/near the entrance of a toilet.
Below is a step-by-step list of the shots that were used, with the mentioning of the effects of the shots and what I learned from the task:
Firstly, Xiangyu was filmed walking up to a door and opening/closing it with a still shot so that he stayed in frame and mantained his position in the centre. I had not previously realized that he camera had to be fully still for this part and I learnt this when filming.
We also filmed a couple of seconds after the door closed so that it was easier to edit this part in the future, which is also something that I did not know about before we started filming the task.
A Match on action shot was used on Xiangyu's hand when he was opening the door in order to add suspense. Also, we used this shot so that the hand opening the door was the focus as any other part of the body would have been irrelevant to show. We also made sure by doing this that his hand was in the centre of the frame so that the door handle was in frame as well.
We also then used a still shot from the other side of the door to show Xiangyu closing the door so that the rest of the area form which Xiangyu was entering was visible.
We then filmed Xiangyu opening a door of cubicle from behind him with a still shot again so that his head did not take up most of the frame and so that it added the idea of posibilty as to what was behind the door.
A shot reverse shot filmed the part where me, Eric, and Jack had our short conversation so that you saw the conversation from both points of view so that me and Xiangyu always took up equal parts of the frame. This is the effect the shot reverse shot had on our task.
Following our conversation, a panning shot was used when Xiangyu was running out of the toilet so that a clear view that he was shown and so it was obvious that he was in distress.
We did an extreme long-shot with the camera placed at the top of the corridor with Xiangyu running from far away so that it suggested that something was going to happen with the space ahead (it gives the sense of antipaction). In this shot, Xiangyu falls on his knees as his is deeply upset.
We did a low angle shot so that Xiangyu did not take up all the frame even when he was on his knees. This shot from low down also allowed us to get a good view of his emotions.
