Research: Shot List

Planning - Story board

Genre Research Summary

Having done lots of research into my genre of horror/thriller movies, the most obvious titles used in a eery film opening is big bold letters, this is to make the titles stand out and look important, I think this is a good way to get your creators and the names of the film  company across and give them credit for what they have produced. This is useful to me as i think it is an effective way to make your opening seem powerful which i will try to do in my film opening. Also the pace that the titles enter is very important as it gives the audience an idea of the pace of the forthcoming film and creates excitement which is always good to get your audience in the mood. The colour of the titles is also important as it gives a clear notation of the theme of the film and makes the titles stand out even more.
Often in film opening there will be text that says 'This film was inspired by true events' which I feel is enticing for the audience and automatically makes it more interesting as they know it is a true story.
The type of music used in this type of genre is quite slow but effective to create an eery feeling and represent the films genre, but also in this genre of film, very fast and upbeat music is used in particular pasts of the film to make it exciting and build up tension. Most often in Horror/thriller movies non-diagetic music and sounds are used to create a scary effect and make the film seem more interesting. Diagetic sounds are also used; things such as screaming and howling are also used in many films of this genre to build up even oree tension and make the audience feel involved and close with the film.
The type of character we expect to see in a film opening of this genre is a victim or the 'bad guy'. The attacker is usually in normal clothes but turns evil further through the film, and they do not seem to fit into the setting they are in. We intend to use the victim for our filming.
The mise-en-scene is important for films of the horror genre because it helps set the atmosphere. The lighting is dark and minimal, and the setting for the scariest bits are usually at night or in the dark to create tension for the audience.
The narrative code employed is the action code; tense music and fast editing is used to create this, but sometimes slow editing can be used too. Barthes' Enigma Code is used a lot to create a sense of mystery for the audience.
Popular shots for the horror/thriller genre are close ups. By getting close up to normal everyday objects, they can be made to seem sinister and this is very effective. Close ups are also used to make the audience feel more involved with the characters and build relationships with them to make their time watching the film more interesting. Jump cuts can also be used to create a sense of confusement of the characters and excitment for the audience. 

Audience Research Focus Group.

I have set up a research focus group on facebook to gain knowledge of the type of things our target audience look for and are interested about in  a film. I have invited many people in the range of 15-25 which is our target market therefore their feedbacks will be very useful to me. 

I asked my focus group. 
1. What are your favourite genres of film? 

2. What would you expect to happen in films of that genre?

The responses of theses questions have been very useful and I have found out that the most common type of genre that most people prefer are comedy and horror. They watch these types of films for a very specific reason. Whilst watching a comedy, I have concluded that everyone expects there to be funny scenes and situations and just general funny things that can make them laugh. However in a horror movie, peoples expectations completley change, my focus group expect to see general evil within the world by seeing scenes of different crimes such as murder and rape. also they look for blood and gore and an overall eery feeling and a snse of mystery. They also expect a film of this genre to frighten them, they predict that they will have nightmares and wont be able to sleep with the lights off.

Audience Research Focus Group.

Jemma Wheeler: 
Jemma lives in Bromsgrove and attends South Bromsgrove sixth form and she is sixteen years old. She likes going out with her friends and generally having fun. She likes listening to R&B and Pop music, her favourite act is the wanted, a boy band who have recently become famous.  She likes to eat KFC chicken with gravy and her favourite drink is wkd. She tends to watch very stereotypical programmes that a teenager would watch. Things such as `The X Factor` and `I'm a celebrity get me out of here`

Jack Whitehouse: 

Jack lives in Frankly, Birmingham and he goes to Bromsgrove new college and he is seventeen years old. He is a very outgoing person and very typically likes to party and drink alcohol. He likes to listen to drum and bass and R&B music. His favourite drink is beer and his favourite food is a Chinese takeaway. He also very typically watches shows such as `The X Factor` but he also watches other programmes such as `The Inbetweeners` and `Misfits` which he finds hilarious. Jack is very addicted to playing video games on his x box and his favourite game to play is Call of duty black ops; a war game. He also likes going shopping to spend his money that he gets from working in a pub called the Victoria in Birmingham. 

Gary Jones: 

Gary is twenty-three years old and has a full time job at a club, working behind a bar. He likes to have fun and go out regularly with his friends. He also likes to shop a lot and spend lots of money on things such as new clothes and weird glasses. He is interested in quirky things such as sci-fi films and lady gaga. 

Gary is more comfortable working alone than with other people and finds himself not usually as sociable as others. However, around the people that he knows well and is comfortable around he is very confident and an outgoing person. 

He likes to drink coca cola, however, on a night out he likes drinking cocktails. His favourite food is sushi as he adores fish. Gary likes watching programmes like `CSI` and `Star trek`. As he finds them interesting and he likes solving puzzles. 

Target Audience

We are aiming our film at people of the ages of 15-25, and mainly aiming it at males throught this age group but also particular females too. This gives us a wider target audience and more viewers. We are also aiming it at a social grade of B, C1 and C2, and our psychographic segmentation target it mainly at rebels, but also mainstreamers and hedonists.

This mood board represents the type of people we are aiming our film at. The things the like, enjoy, do, watch, wear and generally act like.

Film Openings: Genre Specific Analysis

Shank

Shank is a youth-based action film, set in a decaying future London.

The opening sequence is very effective and creates a great expectation of the type of genre and storyline the film is about.

The opening starts with some videos of crime taking place. this immediately sets the tone of violence and rebelliousness.

The diegetic music used in this opening is very eerie and sets the genre of thriller and action.
Near the beginning we also see what is known to be a main key convention which is the name of the production companies who are very important as they are the ones who have funded the film.

Then the main actors are identified and we see that `Adam Deacon` who is a star from the film `Kidulthood` is mentioned first, this gives the audience a good feeling that the film is going to be a similar genre to `Kidulthood` as it has the same actors but also because we see him holding a baseball bat which connotes that there will be violence and threats in the forthcoming film which is a very stereotypical view of this type of genre.

Also identified is `Kaya Scodelario` who is one of the main actresses from the recent series of Skins. This too gives a good sense that the film is going to be generally similar to skins which is also a typical type of programme for this genre. This is a good way to attract more viewers as these films and TV series are very popular to its target market which will attract the same kind of people to this movie.

      

 

The mise-en-scene of this film opening is very typical for this type of genre as we see a typical rundown town and buildings which are not very picturesque. We also see a picture of a smashed car, a CCTV camera and lots of barb wire and a lot of old flats. this connotes that the genre of the film is very `gangster like` as the CCTV cameras and barb wire connotes that the characters must be outrageous and have to be contained and watched by cameras. also, the smashed car gives a sense of rampage and fury. 

      

The titles of this opening scene is are very effective, they are in bold print and in capitals which make them stand out and appear powerful. There is not much colour in the title sequence, they are just black and white, this connotes simplicity which we relate to the genre of the film, it also makes it seem interesting as there seems to be no background as it is giving us no clue to the role of the characters or the setting of the following film, this makes the audience wonder about the characters and want to carry on watching the film. 

       

After the title sequence, the film opening cuts straight into a street chase; we see a young boy at the age of about sixteen running away from a boy on a motorbike who is right behind him chasing him. This is an example of Barthes` enigma code, as the audience is sent immediately into a chase that they know nothing about, they don't know who the victim is or what he has done or why he is being chased, this portrays a mystery to draw an audience in, pose questions and, as such, become intrigued in the piece and continue watching the film. 

Genre Mood Board

This is my genre mood board, it is a sort of 'mindmap' of ideas that can show and represent the genre of our film. These are some of the typical things that represent the genre of thriller and a sense of loneliness as a young girl ha runaway from home. 

First ideas

My Partner for this task is Jemma Turnbull. We have decided to go for a more mysterious film which is still a thriller/ horror movie but can relate to our audience.
We will rate our film as a 15 as our target audience is late teens and youths from 15-21 as they may be able to relate to this film, but if not, they will find it interesting and entertaining.
 Our first idea for our opening of a film:
A young girl out on her own having ran away from home. she gets into some trouble and has to catch a train out of town. This train is very old and knackered therefore the lights are switching on and off and shakes. All of a sudden the train goes pitch black and everything stops.
She then awakes in a different world where she seems to be `invisible` as nobody notices her and bash into her and walk straight past this little girl in need. We will then do some camera effects to make it look as if she is spinning and all she can see is this weird world. The titles will then end and the film can then start. This will draw people in to watch our film as the opening is very mysterious and doesn't conclude. this will encourage viewers to watch the rest of the film as they want to know the whole story as they have been dragged in.

From Script to Screen: How does the credit sequence from Dexter work?

In the 1940s and 50s a film style called film noir was very popular in America. These films portrayed the dark side of American life, full of urban crime and violence. Film noir had a distinct style, with shadow-filled low-key lighting. Night ruled in film noir, the shadow more important than the light.

The film opening of Dexter is a great example of this film style. The opening is very creative an cleaver which also portrays a dark side to the phsycologically challenged.  

Eric Anderson, the creative director of `Dexter` says that instead focusing mainly on what he calls 'self indulgent details', he thinks the most important things are the piece’s story, how it fundamentally relates to the show, and then how will this prepare a viewer’s mind for the show. This has to build excitement within the piece, therefore creating its overall impact on the audience as these will be the opening scenes for the series.

Dexter as a character is a forensic bloodstain pattern analyst but is also a serial killer. Whilst he goes through his transformation, he has been described as 'exactly the same Dexter except something is wrong.' This is demonstrated throughout the piece with crime scene type photographs which give a sinister feel to the piece.

The use of noir lighting and shallow depth of field adds a tense atmosphere throughout the piece, by using low key lighting and use of shadows it creates a more eery feeling to the opening.

Eric Anderson also realised that the word 'Dexter' is more or less the same upside down, so wanted to incorporate this feeling of everyday things being seen as menacing into the opening sequence. He also wanted to use this idea for Dexter as a character - normal on the outside, but if you look harder you see a completely different side to him as he seems to be mentally challenged. I think that the creative director thought very hard about what type of character he would create. Creating Dexter as a more original character brings a different feel to the film and he wants the viewers to look deeper into the story and try to figure out Dexter's other personality for ourselves, this gives a different perspective to the film and really makes the audience think. An example used by Eric Anderson to demonstrate Dexter's character was this one below of a window. First glance makes it seem like a normal window, but once you find out that Martin Luther King was shot from it then it becomes interesting and eery.

The first thing we see though is a close up shot of a fly on Dexter's arm. He squats it and we see a smile on his face as if he has enjoyed killing it, and he seems to gain a thrill from killing, this is very typical for this type o genre as it gives the audience a clue that Dexter isn't mentally stable which adds mystery to the film.

The mise-en-scene of this clip is important because this is the thing that gives this feel of 'eeriness'. The mise-en-scene and the shallow depth of field shots work together to create tension. The shallow depth of field shots are close up to the objects, such as the egg being cracked and the bacon being sliced to make them look as though they are representing a murder scene which makes the opening very tense and puts the viewer on edge as these normal everyday life objects are being portrayed as something much more interesting.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The titles of Dexter are also very interesting as they are quirky and unique. The editors have used block capitals which makes the titles stand out and seem powerful, but they are also in bright red which obviously represents blood, and immediately the audience can see this which is very stereotypical of this genre.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The non-diegetic music is very important in this film opening because it help to set the feel for the piece. It starts off quiet and with just a simple beat, this tune is obviously Japanese, which sets quite a calm atmosphere. However, suddenly the diegetic sound of Dexter squatting the fly is played whichshoks the audience and brings forth a feeling of suspense. As soon as it rolls into the title, the music starts getting more of a beat. The music sounds kind of spooky an eery. The music carries on with more or less the same beat, and the diegetic sound of the food frying and Dexter eating is played over the top. As the credits are coming to an end, the music dies down and a 'ping' noise is played as Dexter walks out of his apartment smiling. This 'ping' is a noise that indicates how 'cool' and normal Dexter comes across, despite everything else. The music overall is very effective because it helps give that sense of things not also being as they seem on the outside.

 

Research: Analysis of the opening of Juno

1. The opening sequence of Juno is very effective; it helps give the audience a good overall prediction of the film. The diegetic music is a very quirky downbeat love song which helps show that in the film love will develop and will be very strong. It is very cherry and happy which shows that she is happy with her lifestyle being contained as a child.

     2. The mise-en-scene is also very effective and plays a very important part in representing the forthcoming movie. The animated opening scene is very creative and smart which may connote to Juno’s character. We see shots of Juno walking past some suburban houses in her local area which connotes that the film will be very low key.

     The colour scheme of the mise-on-scene is very colourful showing colour of a baby blue, yellow and green. These colours are very childlike which connotes that Juno is still a child and is stuck in her own bubble of frozen time. The leaves falling from the trees show time passing and establish the time of year which will become important as she is pregnant. We also see Juno walk past an acoustic guitar which shows her retro interest in music

    
      3. Juno’s costume is very unisex which connotes her character to be very tomboyish, as she is wearing a blue jeans which are very stereotypical, a red sweat top and converse shoes; this also shows her in an indie view as she is very individual and doesn't seem to care what people think.

      4. The sunny delight carton she is drinking connotes her individual style of a bland diet, it also shows her childish nature as it is a drink mainly aimed at children, as we already know she has a childish nature this makes it even more obvious that she is in her own world

 5. Throughout the opening titles, the shots are sketched showing a child like feel to the movie. Juno walks in front and behind the credits, giving a continuity touch to the opening. She is in a bright red jacket and this makes her stand out against the dull buildings around her, connoting that she is the main character and that she is oblivious to the world around her.

     

Research: Key Conventions

Key conventions of an opening scene of a movie:

• Titles 
• Actors/Actresses names 
• Diagetic music 
• Barthes' Enigma Code 
• Narration 
• Exposition 
• Being able to establish the genre 
• Main characters 
• Main story line or setting of the movie.

 Having done some research into opening titles, I found a lot of key conventions.
One key convention is that the production companies are shown at the beginning of the titles. They are the ones who have funded and produced the film, so they have a duty to be mentioned. The names of the main, or most famous, actors are shown too. This is sometimes to draw the viewer more into the film if there is a famous actor identified. In the opening title, main characters are usually shown to show us, the audience, that they are important and take the most crucial role. The main setting is nearly always shown too, which sets the scene and gives the audience a feel for the movie. An example of this would be a council estate being shown with teenagers roaming around, which would give us the image of a film such as 'Adulthood'. The characters being shown in a certain setting gives them a persona, and this setting could be natural or unnatural for effect.

The most important thing - the name of the movie - is shown either at the beginning or at the end of the titles. 

The music most of the time always starts at the beginning of the titles and this non-diegetic music ends at the end of the opening titles, either for being dramatic or for a change of scene. The type of music can give the viewers a sense of the type of genre of the film.

As well as the production companies and the actors, the costume and music people are shown too. This is because they are of obviously importance to the movie. The last person to be mentioned is the director as he is the main person in charge of the film and has put the movie together and is basically in charge.

Popular shot types in the opening titles are close ups - especially in horrors - are point of view shots. Flashbacks and ellipsis are used too, for example "three months earlier". Writing a time or place can also be common. Narration/voice over is also popular. This is usually the main characters telling his or her story so far or introducing themselves.

The main thing that an opening title does is open up questions or puzzles which the audience find will be answered throughout the film, Barthes' Enigma Code states this.

There is usually drama or action too, showing what is to come. All these key conventions help the audience recognise the theme running throughout and therefore be able to tell the genre. These conventions are all very important in keeping the attention of the audience as to ensure they will want to carry on watching the film and are interested about what is about to come later on in the film.

Main Task

My main task is to film an opening sequence and titles for a new movie. This should create a genre for the following film and an image of what the forthcoming film will generally be about.
Deadlines:
Research Deadline- 26/11/10
Photo-storyboard Deadline - 3/12/11
Filming Deadline - 14/01/11
Production Deadline - 28/01/11
Evaluation - 11/02/10

Evaluation

Continuity editing is used mainly for Hollywood films to make the films flow and look continuous so it is more enjoyable for the viewer to watch.
I have learnt that the key rule of continuity editing are to make the edits look as invisible as possible.

Using a digital SLR camera was surprisingly easy, they are very simple and just like any other camera really, just a little bit bigger. Also uploading the pictures onto the computer was easy too, we put the tape into the actual computer device and they upload.

I have also learnt that i am not as well organised than i sometimes think i am. i believed that we was organised and ahead of time however, when it came down to filming we had no real structure as to how we was going to shoot our video, we hadn't thought out each shot properly so at the time just improvised, hence it all going wrong and having to re shoot it. i think that we should have took more time to organise how me were going to operate and think up a proper story board so that we knew what we were doing whilst filming. also we didn't organise the actors very well. at the time we just found some random people who ere free at that time, which made it awkward whilst filming and t felt like w were wasting there time so we were quite rushed. We needed to organise set actors and run through the script and actions before hand with the actors so that we were not wasting any valuable time when it came to filming.
However, i think using the video camera went pretty well, it was very simple and easy, just press record and film however we did not use a tripod because at the time we felt i was unnecessary, however later on whilst watching the video back, we realised that it was need in some parts just to make the filming look more professional.

We managed to get our video onto a computer programme called Adobe On location CS5 where we were able to upload and save our different shots of the video to make editing easier and more sophisticated.

After this, we were able to edit our video on another computer programme called Adobe Premier Pro CS5 where we were able to put our video together, this certain programme allowed us to put each shot together and it makes it look continuous and as if they are all out together. this was very hard though as you have to make sure you've moved more than 30 degrees on the same shot so that it looks natural and realistic, which is what we didn't do so our video is very jumpy and does not look continuous.

However, i have learnt allot from this process and one of that main things i have learnt is that technology isn't very reliable. The system broke down a couple of times and sometimes did not do as was expected which was very annoying and wasted our time, time which we didn't have to loose. also we found that it was very difficult to edit as it took a very long time and was very aggravating as the programme is very complicated and you need to understand how to operate on it.
In the end our video was not good at all. it is very jumpy and hard to watch as it is not continuous and doesn't flow much but we have learnt allot and would now be ale to do it again confidently but with a bit more organisation and time spent on the idea.

Our video was then uploaded onto YouTube for the whole world to see, this is a quick and easy way to access our video from school or home or any computer.
Getting our video onto my blog was very simple, I just copied the embed code from our video on YouTube and then pasted this code into my post-production.
I have found that using blogger.com is a very helpful way to keep organised and on track, it lets us see what e have done and what needs to be done in order to complete this module.
However updating my blog has been quite difficult as there is a lot of work to do and we wasn't given a great deal of time, never the less it has been a great experience and a huge learning curve for me, and i now know that it is essential to update my blog regularly otherwise i will fall behind.
To conclude, i found this Continuity task very interesting and i have learnt allot about filming and editing and also organisation. it has been a great way to start off this course and i know understand the means and ways in which continuity editing works.

Post-Production

The editing process of our continuity task went pretty well. Obviously the first time round it was very hard as we didn't really know what to do but the second time round it went slightly better as we knew how to do everything and what programs to use etc.
We first uploaded our video onto our computer and captured our scenes on Adobe On location CS5, and then fixed it all together which was our editing on Adobe Premier Pro CS5. This was very aggravating and boring but we got there in the end. Also the systems kept breaking so it took us quite a while to get everything sorted. However this gave us great experience and we are now confident in editing and film making.
This is our our continuity film :

Production

Filming went really well for Jemma and I. We was on schedule and ahead of our class. However our actors were not prepared enough which was our own faults, therefore the film seemed slightly unnatural.
As our film is based in the front entrance of our college it was very hard to get it right, as people kept walking in front of the camera and ruined many takes also it is very noisy where we filmed which means that it is quite hard to hear the actors speaking as there is a lot of background noise.
We tried to get our filming done as quick as possible which meant that we wasn't concentrating on getting the shots right and we didn't do it very professionally, as we could tell when we uploaded it onto the computer and saw that we hadn't got many of our shots which were key to a continuity film, this meant that we had to redo our film.
For the second filming we changed the arrangements slightly (hence not having our storyboard up yet) but we still chose to use the front entrance as we thought it was the best place to film, this filming went very well as we used different actors which were a little bit more prepared this time. this time, we took our time and made sure we had every important shot included and we took more care which our shots making sure they were correct. The second time round was successful.

Pre-Poduction Tasks

Before we could start filming there was two main things we had to complete.
We had to fill out a risk assessment sheet to prove that we knew all the risks involved in the filming of our continuity task and to find out solutions for these risks as it is a legal document.
We also had to create a storyboard which shows our audience each shot throughout our film. We need this storyboard as a guide when filming and so that you can see our different continuity shots such as match on action shot and eye line match. However we need to redo our storyboard so it is not uploaded yet.

Continuity Editing

Continuity Editing is mainly used for Hollywood films and TV programmes. It is used to make the film edits as invisible as possible, so the audience forget they are watching a TV show and instead get more involved with the story to make the experience more enjoyable. The viewer should not notice the cuts, and the shots should flow together naturally so the sequence of shots should appear to be continuous. 

The key editing techniques used in order to achieve this are: 

Match on action cut- This technique occurs when two pieces of footage of the same event but filmed or framed in different ways are edited together to make them appear continuous. 

180 degree rule-  When two characters are facing each other they must never appear in the same half of the frame. Each time the camera cuts they must remain in their half of the frame otherwise the spatial continuity of the scene will be broken and the audience will be aware of the constructed nature of the text.                                       

Eye-line match- Another technique is to be aware of the eye-line match. Where footage is matched to the eye line of the characters so their conversation looks realistic.

Preliminary Task

I will be filming and editing a character opening a door, walking across a room, sitting down on a chair and exchanging a few lines with another character sat opposite.

This task will demonstrate a series of camera shots, including;

--Match on action cut

--Shot/Reverse shot

--180 Degree rule.

This film will also include a couple of editing shots, such as;

--Cut away

--Cut in

All of these camera and editing shots will flow properly and will be resonably relevant to the conversation taking place in the scene.

Welcome!

Welcome to my AS media studies blog where i will be updating throughout my preliminary and main task.

:)