Synopsis & Actor

After further discussion, Becky and I have agreed upon a final synopsis for our film opening. We have come to a conclusion by adding in ideas from our genre research and ideas we have had throughout the week before our lesson.

We would like to start our film off with a later scene; in the forest, perhaps, with the female running away or trying to find a way out to escape from something chasing her. This would include tracking/ panning shots with short close ups which would build up tension. This would then switch to a split screen of each character getting ready for their date later on. I will post an example of this sort of scene later. This could be broken up with short, sharp flashes of dark forest shots which could possible display some of the titles. If not, the titles would just go on through the split screen scene. It would then move onto a scene of them finally together having a romantic, candlelit dinner at the male characters home. They go to hold hands but as they touch the female character gets a vision into the future. This vision would be quite hazy and unclear. It would be of the forest again, maybe through her vision so the audience would be seeing what she sees. It would snap back to reality with her subtly shaking off what she just saw. She would look quite scared and confused. There would then be a shot of the male character walking the female home. He puts his arm around her and in that moment she would get another vision, this time much clearer. It is of him trying to drown and kill her. She is struggling to get away put the vision stops leaving on that cliffhanger. Back in reality, she tries to stay normal and the opening scene ends on a close up of them together with her looking worried and not knowing what to do. Finally, the title of the film, yet undecided, would appear, closing the opening scene.

Becky had the idea of having a time in the corner of each clip which would show time going by and the time between the reality scenes and the future scenes which would make the audience want to know what goes on in that space of time. I really like this idea and I think we have decided to use it. She also saw a film where some scenes were in black and white and some in colour. We think we may use this idea and have either the reality or the future scenes in monochrome and the other in colour, this is yet to be decided.

We have also found an actor, Will Steele, to play the male role in our film. He is doing Drama GCSE and has been in several productions. I have talked him through a rough idea of what our synopsis is and what would be involved. We have a few ideas on who to ask for our female actress but we will discuss this later on to decide and find out who would be willing and available to play this role in our film.

Genre Research 2

'Eden Lake' - 2008

This thriller film starts off with flashes of shots from later on in the film showing that the film will be a thriller/horror. The red text for the titles against the black background also suggests danger and darkness and the red could symbolise that blood will be shed however it is quite hard to read when watching it smaller. The flashes consist of close up shots merged with long shots but the close ups overpower and are more visible. This technique gives the audience a flavour of what the film will be like later on and makes them want to watch on from the beginning. It is quite similar to the previous film I researched, 'Shrooms', as they show parts of the film later on at the beginning which is something I would like to incorporate into my own film opening.

Genre Research 1

'Shrooms' - 2007

This is the opening 7 minutes to 'Shrooms', a horror/thriller film that is set in an Irish forest. As me and my partner Becky have decided that this is the genre we'd like to focus on and that a forest would be our main location I think looking at this film would be useful. The opening scene starts at the end with the girl running through the forest which makes the audience want to know what she is running from. Having an end or later scene first is an idea that I think could work well and something I may incorporate into my own. I like the blue tones used as it gives a chilling atmosphere from the start of the film. The built up whispers are interesting and add a build up of suspense which is then dropped by a sharp switch to the beginning of the film which has the complete opposite atmosphere. I like this and may choose to have end and beginning scenes next to each other.

Assessment Criteria

I have looked through the assessment criteria for the highest band of marks, a level 4, so that I know how to achieve these marks when it comes to making my own film opening. I applied each point to the Level 4 Video & Blog I looked at previously, so that I could see where marks were given and why. This is what I found:

1. Framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate.

Shots used are very well framed, the character is always framed in the middle unless otherwise for effect. The right parts of the character are always in frame for the correct shot, for example their long shots show the full body whilst their close ups show just the shoulders and face which is correct.

2. Using a variety of shot distances as appropriate.

There are a a wide variety of shots used of various distances. They have used a walking room shot at 11 seconds in which is a very extreme long shot. They have also used a close up at 35 seconds in which shows quite a difference in distance.

3. Shooting material appropriate to the task set.

There is no material in the film which is unrelated to the film or the task they have been set which shows that they have not shot anything inappropriate or not included anything inappropriate to the task.

4. Selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting.

The props they have used relate to what they are shooting and make the locations more realistic and help to set the scene of the film. the colours used are quite high contrast and dark which make the audience better aware that this film will be a thriller. The settings are quite urban areas and this is kept throughout the clip. There are not many other actors in this clip which makes it clear on who the main characters of the film will be.

5. Manipulating photographs as appropriate to the context for presentation, including cropping and resizing.

They have manipulated photographs to create possible DVD covers for their film using a graphics editing program. They have also cropped and resized photos and screen shots so that they would fit appropriately and show only the relevant parts of that image onto their blog to present work they have done.

6. Accurately using language and register.

All spoken parts were well read and it is not hard to understand what they are saying, it is clear and pronounced correctly. I didn't have any trouble understanding parts or having to listen closely to make out what was being said.

7. Appropriately integrating illustration and text.

They have integrated illustration and text appropriately by including opening credits/titles and the title of the film. These are a good size and appear at good times throughout the clip. They are white with a red outline which makes them stand out from the clips and the backgrounds used making them easy to read.

8. Showing understanding of conventions of layout and page design.

This groups blog shows a good awareness of the conventions of layout and page design as blog posts are clearly presented in chronological order on the page. There is a title and header explaining what the blog is for and about and they have included who they are and what their role in the production was on the right hand side. There is also an archive of their posts at the side to get to posts quickly.

9. Showing awareness of the need for variety in fonts and text size.

I can see an awareness of the need for varied fonts and text size as blog posts have a tiles and then text where the title is larger and bolder which lets readers know what they are writing about. For blog posts the font used is quite plain as it is not meant to be fancy. Whereas in the film clip the font used has been chosen appropriately for the opening. In the clip, the title of the film is much larger that the opening credits as it is more important.

10. Using ICT appropriately for the task set.

ICT has been used to edit the film by merging shots and cutting parts which they do not want or need. It has also been used to add in the titles and to edit the colouring of some shots e.g to black and white. They have used ICT to present their work in a blog on the internet and they have also used it to create possible DVD covers using a graphics editing program.

Production Meeting Notes - 5/11/10

Today, my partner Becky Daniels and I had our first production meeting. Today we began to discuss what we were going to do for our film opening and title sequence. In this meeting we started off by talking about what genre we wanted to focus on. This way we would have a direction for our ideas and synopsis. We then discussed good location ideas for our chosen genre. We came up with a few and settled on one main however thought we could incorporate another in some way. Then we thought up a basic synopsis in which we will discuss and add detail to for next week along with a few other task we set ourselves to do for the next couple of lessons.

Get Ahead OCR Media

We were shown the Get Ahead OCR Media website which shows us lots of past blogs both good and bad. By looking through this website I can see how previous students have or have not been successful and what makes a good blog. I could also see from this blog what quality of work I should be producing to get the level I am aiming for.

From this website I took at look at the Level 4 Video which came up as a link on the right hand side. From watching their final movie opening, I could see that their camera work and editing looked very professional and well put together with a range of different shots and editing techniques. It gave me ideas on how to show the different titles in a professional looking way. This movie had a pause in the middle where no titles were shown, just a clip of the film. I found this effective as it gave more focus on the film itself with no distractions. Also, although their main titles looked very simple, this gave a good and professional effect which looked like an actual real life film.

I also looked through their blog and found that this quality of work was maintained consistent throughout. The research and feedback they got was to a good standard and their story board drawings were detailed, I can see that they put in a lot of effort into them as it is not just stickmen. They used media terminology which shows that they know what they're talking about and doing and really understand what they have been asked to do.

Also on this website, I looked at the Level 1 Video Blog to see the difference between a level 1 and 4. From watching the film I could instantly see a big difference in the quality of work produced. The camera was very shaky and there were big contingency errors. The different shots didn't flow together very well, they just appeared one after the other. The music started after the film had started and instead of titles there were credits which are usually shown at the end of a film, not the end of the opening. These are all small errors I must try not to do when I make my own movie opening.

Looking though the whole blog, I see that the quality of the work does not match the standard of the level 4 blog. From seeing the storyboard, I can see that not a lot of effort has been put into it as the drawings are very quick and not very detailed with no or minimal annotation. However, I can see they have a clear understanding of all the different types of shots from the photographs shown and that they have done a bit of research to get ideas etc.

Juno Storyboard

This is a storyboard of the shots used in a clip (11:05-11:42) of the film Juno.
By doing this, it gave me a better understanding of how each shot is framed correctly and what effects a certain type of shot can have on the audience. For example, the high angle shots used make the character seem small and less powerful and less important than other characters and the audience themselves. The point of view shot helps the viewers to get a better understanding of what the character is feeling at that moment.