Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task) what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
If I look back at my preliminary task, I feel I have learnt an unbelievable amount in terms of camera work, editing and even planning since then until now. During my preliminary task, I was quite unorganised and didn't fully appreciate the need to carefully plan out all of the shots needed, the need to do a storyboard in detail and the need to plan out my time carefully and make sure I stuck to a time schedule in order to make sure I got everything I needed. Whilst doing my preliminary task, I forgot a few shots that I needed to make sure I did the best I could do. The reason I forgot this is because I hadn't done my storyboard correctly and thought I had finished all my filming. I also hadn't stuck to my time schedule so I only had a few hours to sort out the missing footage and re-film and re-edit the whole task. If I had properly planned my time and made sure I had done my storyboard correctly, this problem would have happened. By making this mistake, I made sure I planned extremely carefully for all of my shots and made sure I had enough time to film everything and actually stuck to my time schedule.
In terms of camera work, I feel I have learnt a lot in this area because I have learnt that even camera work helps set the mood for a film and can help foreshadow the plot of some films. In my preliminary task, I didn't use a wide range of shots. I mostly just used mid shots, long shots and close ups which are three of the most popular shots to use. They don't provide much help to set the mood of a film subliminally so in my film opening, I used a wide variety of shots to help. I use low angle shots to suggest power and dominance because it gives the feel that the characters in the shots are looking down on you. I used high angle shots to suggest weakness, to give the impression that the character in the shot is being looked down on and disrespected. I used extreme close ups to help set the feeling of confusion it also makes the audience realise that yes, this person is obviously drunk because you wouldn't normally have your face that close up to your face. Also, in terms of camera work, I followed the 180 degree rule throughout the getting reading scenes and throughout the morning after scenes but not technically through the party montage because this helped create the idea of confusion and mayhem which was the feeling I was going for so I broke the 180 degree rule two or three times then to add that confusion.
For my editing, I feel I have come on in leaps and bounds in the amount I've improved/ During my preliminary task, I didn't really have any idea when I started the editing process. It wasn't until I had finished it that I was reasonably ok with using iMovie as my editing software. It took a long time and it involved a lot of googling "How to do..." and "What do I do when..." because things kept going wrong or I wasn't able to work out how to do something. So, even before I started editing my film opening, I made sure I was completely comfortable with using iMovie by making sure I knew how to add music in, edit effectively and make clean cuts etc. By the end of editing my preliminary task, I knew how to edit effectively whilst still making sure all my cuts were clean and made sense. I also took into account the amount of attention to detail it takes to edit. I wanted to make sure no one person was in two consecutive shots because it would have looked very odd and would have caused a lot of confusion. One thing I did struggle with was putting more than one track onto the footage but eventually I worked it out without even having to look it up on Google. Compared to the preliminary task, my match-on-action was a lot slicker and looked a lot better. The match-on-action happens when George Lamb (who plays Christopher) looks down at his hands and sees the blood. We go from a mid shot of him going to look down at his hands before cutting to a POV as he is looking down at his hands. It's very effective and I think it helps add some atmosphere to the scene.
Monday, 28 April 2014
Film Opening Coursework. EVALUATION - TASK SIX
Question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
This is a tripod. Before starting my product I wasn't too sure how to properly set one up or why they were used but now I know that they're used to make sure that camera shots aren't shaky and making sure the framing is all correct to ensure that shots are perfect and clear. You set them up by adjusting the height from the bottom by simply unclipping the hooks and pulling the legs to the correct height you want. Some tripods come with spirit levels so that you can make sure your shots will definitely come out perfect and not wonky. You then attach your camera to the tripod and voila, you can begin filming without having to hold the camera and risk having shaky film.
This is a laptop.. I think most people would be able to realise that. I used my laptop to blog on and do all my editing on which includes iMovie. My iMovie skills have improved massively because now I know how to include music, adjust the diegetic sound in the film and how to include title credits and black outs which I didn't know how to do beforehand. I learnt how to import sounds from GarageBand (for us, the sound of the birds) into our movie which I didn't know how to do before and I also learnt how to change filters on YouTube to find audio which artists are willing to let you use for free with their permission which is where we got our Boombox Cartel track from.
This is my Panasonic Lumix DSLR which we used to do all of our filming on. It's my camera so I knew how it worked already and was able to teach Dan how to use it effectively. Even though it technically a camera specialised for photography, it films in HD which was good because it meant the quality of our footage was better compared to if we had used a video camera from school with less megapixels.
Here are some pictures I found on Google Images of UV light. Unfortunately we borrowed two UV lights off some friends which we have now returned so I cannot take a picture of the exact one we used but the pictures above represent the type of light we used. What I learned about UV light is that when you wear light and bright coloured clothing underneath it, it brings out the colours fantastically so we made all of our actors wear light and bright colours because it made the party montage look more exciting and more like a rave. At first, using two UV lights didn't appear to look like it would make everyone's clothing "light up" but turns out it did.
These are strobe lights. This strobe light I believe belonged to Dan but he can't find it so I've had to fin pictures of strobe lights off of Google Images again. The strobe light we used made the party seem, again more like a rave. It made the party seem less like a house party as well which is good. Strobe lights are very atmospheric and they help create the sense of mayhem and chaos as it makes the scenes very distorted as it's constantly flashing.
Film Opening Coursework. EVALUATION - TASK FIVE
Question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?
The link above will take you to a question and answer video I had with Chris Kilworth, a guy I used to work with in my local pub, about my film opening. I sent it to him whilst he was at uni and made him watch it a few times over to make sure he had a full understanding of what it's about. Then I asked him the following questions:
1) What did you think of the film opening on first impressions?
2) What genre would you class my film opening as and why?
3) What is your favourite genre of film?
4) Did the music help set the mood of the film opening including the nature sounds at the end?
5) What film would you compare this movie opening to?
6) If you saw this movie opening on TV, would you carry on watching it with your friends and why?
7) Did you find the camera work and editing effective?
I feel that according to Chris' answers, we effectively addressed and attracted our audience because we made it relatable. By making the film opening about teenagers underage drinking, it's something most teenagers and young adults can relate to (even though it is technically illegal) so teenagers will watch it and it might bring back memories of parties they have been to or make them want to go out to a party and then, due to the mystery of the ending of my film opening, it makes them want to carry on watching even more because they want to find out why the boy died, how the boy died etc. It triggers the audiences' morbid interest which everyone has, even if they don't like to admit it.
Film Opening Coursework. EVALUATION - TASK FOUR.
Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?
This is Owen Davies and Kasia Miller. They're both 17 and go to sixth form. Kasia is taking Photography, English Language, Food Technology and Sociology at AS level and Owen is taking Graphics, Business and English Literature at AS level. Kasia likes watching horror films with her friends even though they scare her to the point she can't sleep that night and she loves going out, drinking and socialising. Owen doesn't like drinking or drugs but loves to play football with his friends for his local football team. He also loves watching social realism films such as Trainspotting because they're realistic and he can easily put himself in the characters shoes and feel as if he is living their life for the few hours the film is on for. Kasia's favourite TV program is American Horror Story because she likes how it's very confusing and you have to pay a lot of attention to it to fully understand it. Again, she doesn't like the fact that it's really scary but she thinks that's part of the thrill of it. Owen's favourite TV program is Breaking Bad because he likes watching all the fighting and the many twists in the plot. Kasia listens to a lot of indie-rock music like The Maccabees and The Arctic Monkeys but does enjoy listening to remixes of popular songs because she can party and dance to them whilst still knowing the words. Owen listens to dub-step and drum and bass music because he likes the strong bass lines and fast rhythms. Kasia likes to buy her clothes from stores such as American Apparel, Pull and Bear and Topshop because they're always in with the new fashion, even though she doesn't like the price tag at all. Owen likes to buy his clothes as cheap as he can because he likes to save his money, so he'll buy his clothes second hand from eBay or in charity stores, however he always make sure he looks good in what he wears and is always in with the latest fashion trend. Kasia doesn't like going to the cinema because she thinks it's too expensive so she uses websites such as Netflix and LoveFilm to watch films on, she can also find some really good indie films on these websites that wouldn't normally be shown in cinemas or even on TV. Owen doesn't go the cinema often either but he'll go if there is a new film out which he desperately wants to see. The trailers are the deciding factor for him whether he'll go see it and he doesn't pay attention to who directed the film, who produced it etc. Kasia doesn't like it when films are too intense and she likes them to have a little bit of light-hearted fun in them whereas Owen prefers his films to be really intense the whole way through as it leaves a lasting impression on him.
Overall, our media product is mostly aimed at teenagers aged between 16-18 as they would relate to the film opening a lot more than people in an older age bracket as youth culture has changed drastically over the last few years.
Film Opening Coursework. EVALUATION - TASK THREE
Question 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?
This question has been the hardest one for me to tackle in all honesty because it has taken me a lot of research to do. I have done research into what production companies actually do and what their purpose is and what distributors do etc.
I considered doing a running commentary over the top of my video which would point out why I used and did certain things in the place I did in the video (not sure if that sentence makes any sense) but I feel like I will be able to go into more detail by writing everything up in more detail as I can talk more without having to rush.
Firstly, by definition (wikipedia), a production company is "a production company provides the physical basis for works in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, and video." This means they handle things such as budgeting, scripting, casting, organisation of staff, filming, editing, promoting and distributing. Film distributors are the main people responsible for marketing the film. They might choose how the film will be shown to the public e.g. will it go straight onto DVD or into the cinemas? Film distributors also might be owned by production companies which makes it easier and cheaper for production companies to distribute their films as they wont have to pay anyone to do it.
This is my production logo. Myself and Dan called our production company "Tortuga" for one reason and one reason only.. we both like Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad is one of our favourite TV shows and Tortuga is a character in it who is a Drug Enforcement Agency rat who also works for the mexican drug cartel. We thought the name Tortuga would make our production company sound more small and independent compared to if we were to have called our production company a name such as "Worldwide Productions" or something along those lines. If I were to compare our production company with any other existing institution, I think I would say Tortuga would be similar to a production company such as Film 4. Film 4 has made quite a few small, independent films which have turned out to be massive successes, such as This Is England. They have now gone on to help produce films such as the oscar winning 12 Years A Slave. Film 4 also like to make social realism films, such as This Is England and they are very good at it as well. Our film opening is a social realism film and a thriller together so Film 4 would be a perfect production company to use if we were to promote our film opening to them. British film companies have a reputation of being able to make the best social realism films in the world and if Tortuga were a real production company, I hope that they would be able to keep up that reputation as well.
I have noticed a few films that are similar to mine. The first one being Project X. Project X (a film that I have mentioned in a few blog posts) is a semi-realistic comedy about 3 boys who throw a massive house party where thousands of people turn up and the house gets burnt down, things get broken and the police have to shut it down. It attracted millions and millions of teenagers to go and watch it and even inspired a few people to try and throw their own "Project X", many of them turning out to be flops and not work. I feel like the reason Project X took off as well as it did is because it was almost entirely about teenagers smoking, drinking, taking drugs, being wild and causing mayhem. It made people want to be there which is what I've tried to do with my film opening. I tried to make people who watched it want to go and party and get involved. Another film I think that is similar to mine is "I Know What You Did Last Summer". Again, I have mentioned this in another blog post but this is similar in the idea that teenagers are again drinking and having fun but they accidentally kill someone and for the months, they receive notes saying "I know what you did last summer" and turns out that the man they thought they'd killed, wasn't actually dead and then he kills them as revenge. (Sorry, spoilers.) Our film opening plot matches this because the guy who is dead is in the afterlife trying to work out why he was killed and who killed him so that he can kill them too and get his revenge. You can only work this out though by watching the whole film, if it were to be made.
I have clearly established that my film is a social realism film and a thriller through two ways. I have made it gritty and about real life issues such as drinking and drugs which is typical of social realism films throughout the party montage as everyone is drinking and dancing and doing illegal things. I have also established that my film is also a thriller by the end scenes of people waking up with blood on their hands before cutting to shots of somebody who has been brutally murdered at the end. The audience get to realise that something serious has happened and this wasn't just your average, teen party where everyone gets drunk.
I have included three names in my actors billing; George Lamb, Chloe Brock and Harrison Lowe. Obviously in every day life, these people aren't actors and they're just normal people but if my film were to be shown to the public, they would be upcoming actors who had been in a few TV shows as extras or had been in some very independent films which weren't distributed in cinemas etc. I chose to include these three people's names as these three are the three in the morning after scene where everyone is waking up. These characters are the character I did the profiling on in a few blog posts back. These three characters are the main characters in the film. There would be more if it were made feature length, however they would not be as important as these three so I included their names so that people would realise who they are as most people do not read the end credits after films carefully. I considered not putting actors billing at the beginning because then it would have made the whole movie more realistic as it wouldn't have seemed that there were any actors and they were all real people but I felt like it was appropriate to put their names as it fitted with the editing plan and it gave them recognition.
This question has been the hardest one for me to tackle in all honesty because it has taken me a lot of research to do. I have done research into what production companies actually do and what their purpose is and what distributors do etc.
I considered doing a running commentary over the top of my video which would point out why I used and did certain things in the place I did in the video (not sure if that sentence makes any sense) but I feel like I will be able to go into more detail by writing everything up in more detail as I can talk more without having to rush.
Firstly, by definition (wikipedia), a production company is "a production company provides the physical basis for works in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, and video." This means they handle things such as budgeting, scripting, casting, organisation of staff, filming, editing, promoting and distributing. Film distributors are the main people responsible for marketing the film. They might choose how the film will be shown to the public e.g. will it go straight onto DVD or into the cinemas? Film distributors also might be owned by production companies which makes it easier and cheaper for production companies to distribute their films as they wont have to pay anyone to do it.
This is my production logo. Myself and Dan called our production company "Tortuga" for one reason and one reason only.. we both like Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad is one of our favourite TV shows and Tortuga is a character in it who is a Drug Enforcement Agency rat who also works for the mexican drug cartel. We thought the name Tortuga would make our production company sound more small and independent compared to if we were to have called our production company a name such as "Worldwide Productions" or something along those lines. If I were to compare our production company with any other existing institution, I think I would say Tortuga would be similar to a production company such as Film 4. Film 4 has made quite a few small, independent films which have turned out to be massive successes, such as This Is England. They have now gone on to help produce films such as the oscar winning 12 Years A Slave. Film 4 also like to make social realism films, such as This Is England and they are very good at it as well. Our film opening is a social realism film and a thriller together so Film 4 would be a perfect production company to use if we were to promote our film opening to them. British film companies have a reputation of being able to make the best social realism films in the world and if Tortuga were a real production company, I hope that they would be able to keep up that reputation as well.
I have noticed a few films that are similar to mine. The first one being Project X. Project X (a film that I have mentioned in a few blog posts) is a semi-realistic comedy about 3 boys who throw a massive house party where thousands of people turn up and the house gets burnt down, things get broken and the police have to shut it down. It attracted millions and millions of teenagers to go and watch it and even inspired a few people to try and throw their own "Project X", many of them turning out to be flops and not work. I feel like the reason Project X took off as well as it did is because it was almost entirely about teenagers smoking, drinking, taking drugs, being wild and causing mayhem. It made people want to be there which is what I've tried to do with my film opening. I tried to make people who watched it want to go and party and get involved. Another film I think that is similar to mine is "I Know What You Did Last Summer". Again, I have mentioned this in another blog post but this is similar in the idea that teenagers are again drinking and having fun but they accidentally kill someone and for the months, they receive notes saying "I know what you did last summer" and turns out that the man they thought they'd killed, wasn't actually dead and then he kills them as revenge. (Sorry, spoilers.) Our film opening plot matches this because the guy who is dead is in the afterlife trying to work out why he was killed and who killed him so that he can kill them too and get his revenge. You can only work this out though by watching the whole film, if it were to be made.
I have clearly established that my film is a social realism film and a thriller through two ways. I have made it gritty and about real life issues such as drinking and drugs which is typical of social realism films throughout the party montage as everyone is drinking and dancing and doing illegal things. I have also established that my film is also a thriller by the end scenes of people waking up with blood on their hands before cutting to shots of somebody who has been brutally murdered at the end. The audience get to realise that something serious has happened and this wasn't just your average, teen party where everyone gets drunk.
I have included three names in my actors billing; George Lamb, Chloe Brock and Harrison Lowe. Obviously in every day life, these people aren't actors and they're just normal people but if my film were to be shown to the public, they would be upcoming actors who had been in a few TV shows as extras or had been in some very independent films which weren't distributed in cinemas etc. I chose to include these three people's names as these three are the three in the morning after scene where everyone is waking up. These characters are the character I did the profiling on in a few blog posts back. These three characters are the main characters in the film. There would be more if it were made feature length, however they would not be as important as these three so I included their names so that people would realise who they are as most people do not read the end credits after films carefully. I considered not putting actors billing at the beginning because then it would have made the whole movie more realistic as it wouldn't have seemed that there were any actors and they were all real people but I felt like it was appropriate to put their names as it fitted with the editing plan and it gave them recognition.
Film Opening Coursework. EVALUATION - TASK TWO.
Question two: How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The character on the right is called Michelle Richardson and she is played by April Pearson in the hit UK social-realism show Skins. This character on the left is called Lucy Jones and is played by Chloe Brock in my film opening, Revenge. The character at the bottom is called Helen Shivers played by Sarah Michelle Geller in I Know What You Did Last Summer.
Similarities they share:
1) Appearance
Despite having different colour hair, Lucy and Michelle have a lot in common in terms of their appearance. Both of the girls are very attractive which is a very prominent stereotype in the media representation of women. Popular women in Media are almost always attractive and lusted over by men. Lucy and Helen are very similar in appearance as well because they both have blonde hair and wear similar clothes (jeans and a vest top). Vest tops show quite a lot of skin, not exactly promiscuous but they're quite tight and very typical of teenagers.
2) Role in film
They are both the girlfriends of the "popular boys". In Skins, Michelle is dating the popular boy of the school called Tony but she is lusted over by many men, mainly Tony's best friend. If Revenge were to be made into a film opening, a sub-plot would be that the reason Lucy had a part to play in the death of Marcus was because although she was/is dating Christopher (see character profile blog post), her and Marcus had a drunk "one night stand" and she wanted to make sure he never told anyone. This also helps support the genre as my film opening is a social realism/thriller. Lucy and Helen have very similar roles also because they are both girlfriends to the hot, popular guys. Helen is a beauty queen and very popular herself and quite ditzy which, if we were to make the film feature length, would be the same case for Lucy.
3) Life of character
All three characters are in college or the US equivalent (high school). This is very typical of teen horror and thriller movies where characters are usually around the age of 16 or 17. It's also typical of teen social realism films. This helps promote our film to our target audience of teenagers because its rather easily to relate to if the characters are teenagers and the audience are teenagers.
Film Opening Coursework. EVALUATION - TASK ONE.
Question 1: In what way does your product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e of film openings)
The title of the film
The title of my film opening is called Revenge. We called it Revenge because the plot, if it were to be made into a feature length film, would be about a boy who tries to work out who killed him and get revenge on that person/people. The idea of revenge is a typical plot of thriller and horror films. For example, the film 'Dead Mans Shoes' is based around the idea that the killer was tortured and abused both mentally and physically by drug dealers which resulted in him taking revenge by killing them one by one. This is similar to the plot of ours as the boy, Marcus, who is murdered, decides that whilst he is in the Inbetween, he will take revenge on everyone who bullied him.
The setting of the film opening
This is the only screen grab I could get which would roughly show the main setting of the film opening. This is a medium shot of two of our characters dancing in blow up handcuffs. You can see in the background some of the setting and you can see the UV lights around characters. The main setting of it is in the top of a garage which is mainly used for parties. It's rigged with UV lights, strobe lights and speakers to make it the optimum location for a party. This is very similar to many social realism films about drugs, alcohol and teenagers. Also, because it looks like an enclosed space, it makes it look like it was more of an illegal party or a free party which suggests that they are underage. For example, in the hit TV drama Skins, they frequently attend underground raves where strobe lights, UV lights and loud music are common. One key stereotype of teenagers is that they like to go out to parties which supports our genre of a social realism/thriller as I said, most social realism films are based on drugs, alcohol or teenagers.
Costume and props
We decided to let the actors choose their own clothing as we thought it would represent the typical teenage style a lot better than if we told them what to wear. The only thing we said was that they had to wear something that would show up really well under the UV light. As you can see from my screen grab, these three girls all decided to wear white tops of different styles, one of them being cropped and the other two being very low cut. This represents what a typical teenager would wear to a party - not overdressed but definitely look like they were making an effort. We also provided UV body paint for everyone to apply with the most style of applying the paint being two stripes on each cheek. In the film "Project X", the teenagers are all wearing smart casual clothing just like our actors so we haven't challenged any conventions of teenage fashion. You can also see that one of the characters on the right hand side is holding a bottle of cider. This supports the idea that teenagers like to go out drinking and partying. We also bought fluorescent shot glasses to pour water in to mimic people drinking shots which are seen in the first shot of somebody pouring liquid into the shot glasses.
Genre of film opening
The genre of my film opening is a social realism/thriller. For the most part, the film opening suggests that it is only a social realism film as it focuses on teenagers having parties, drinking, smoking and doing the stereotypical teenager things that the media represents. This shot here shows many shot glasses being filled up with vodka. The whole party scene is very much like the film "Project X" which is a semi-realistic comedy about a boy who throws a house party and over a thousand people turn up. Even though our film isn't a comedy, throughout both my film opening and Project X, there are teenagers seen partying and generally being reckless and causing mayhem. According to Project X's IMDB page, many of the smaller antics which happen e.g. dancing, throwing things around, smashing things, were improvised by the extras and weren't directed at all. This is similar to our film opening because during the party scene, myself and Dan gave no instruction to our actors other than that we wanted them to have a party and act even more wild than they normally would.
How characters are introduced
In my film opening, the first few opening shots are of people preparing the party and no faces are included in the shots. It is obvious that people are getting ready for a party because there are shots of people pouring shots out and applying make up.
Characters are properly introduced in the party montage because you can see everyones faces. However, you can't work out who will be the main characters and what their names are which makes people guess. In most social realism films, there is one main character who is introduced straight away, for example in "Trainspotting", the main character is introduced in the first scene of the film with Renton, played by Ewan McGreggor, running away from security guards with a monologue put over the top of the footage of him talking about "not choosing life". Even though the monologue itself does not introduce his name, we do find out that he is a heroin addict and doesn't want to be the same as other people. So, our film opening challenges typical social realism film openings as we don't introduce anybody, neither do you find anything out about anybody other than that they all like to party. You could say that the final scenes of the people waking up introduce the characters as it focuses on three people; two people waking up and one person who is dead but just by watching the film opening you would not be able to tell anything about them or why they are in that situation without watching the rest of the film.
Camera-work and editing.
Throughout my film opening we used a variety of different shots and editing techniques, especially in the party montage. This shot here is an extreme close up of one of our actors faces looking very excited and happy with his tongue out. He is looking directly into the camera and I have put this shot strategically in a place which fits the music exactly. The music at this point is building up to a "drop" which is the climax of a piece where there is a switch in rhythm or bass line. In our film opening, we used medium shots, close ups, extreme close ups, low angle shots, high angle shots, long shots and POV's. There are a few low angle shots of people partying and dancing. The reason I chose to do this is because low angle shots suggest power and authority and because someone eventually does get killed at the party, it very discreetly hints that someone has power over someone but this is not obvious at all. When choosing my soundtrack for the film opening, I spent a long time checking tracks beats per minute (BPM) and making sure the drops happened in the right place and that the tracks had the perfect atmosphere for our party. When I found the right one, the one that is used in our setting up of the party scenes and the party montage, I went through my shots and edited them perfectly in time with the track. I did this by making sure the shots changed exactly on the beat (the piece was in 4/4 time meaning four crotchet beats in a bar). This makes the editing a lot cleaner and slicker. We used a tripod for the waking up scenes but not for the setting up or the party montage because this gives the shots a more gritty, realistic feel. Making the shots shaky also resembles the effects of alcohol and how alcohol affects the body.
Title style and font
I have already put a screen grab up of my title (see point 1 of this post regarding the title of the film) so I have put this screen grab up of our actors billing as I thought it would be a good to mention the colours and what they might represent. For our character billing, we used a black background with red and white san serif font in capital letters. The red represents the blood from the dead character and the anger from the dead character as he tries to get revenge on the people who killed him. The white represents the innocence and the purity which these teenagers should have, but lack because of the amount they party, take drugs and drink. The reason I chose a sans serif font is because it is typically less formal and more childish looking. Whereas, with my title I used a serif font. I did this because it shows that the situation is a lot more serious now. Again, I used red to represent the blood and anger and the white to show innocence and purity. The use of red is typical of thriller films because most thriller films are about blood and anger.
Story and how the opening sets it up
The story behind our film opening is that there is a party full of teenagers and a boy is murdered. No one knows how he is murdered or who killed him. Throughout the film, if it were to be made into a feature length film, it would focus on the guy who got killed whilst he is in the afterlife, trying to figure out piece by piece who killed him and why he was killed. This high angle shot is one of the final shots in the film opening which shows our main character dead in the middle of a field. This helps the audience realise that something has gone wrong and that the plot of the film is probably somehow based around the death of the character.
Special effects
For our special effects, we used UV make up to make the party seem more like a rave. The make up shows up well under the UV lights we used and makes the shots look more colourful and fun instead of dark. We also used used fake blood for our dead character. It looks very real and doesn't look over exaggerated. We mixed corn flour, red food dye and water to create the gloopy texture. By doing this, it doesn't just look like red paint which we found in an art department or something. There is evidence of this under my blogpost "Filming one of the "Morning After" scenes where it shows how we created the blood and another piece of evidence is the picture above of our dead character. Another thing we did was that for the morning after scenes, I put the sounds of birds over the top of the footage. This creates an eery feel to the footage as we have just come from scenes of loud music and partying and now we're in scenes with only the sounds of birds and its very quiet. It helps provide suspense to the scenes as something bad has happened and instead of having dark, mysterious music like we were originally going to have, the contrast between the birds and the bloody scene provides a lot of suspense.
The title of the film
The setting of the film opening
Costume and props
Genre of film opening
How characters are introduced
Characters are properly introduced in the party montage because you can see everyones faces. However, you can't work out who will be the main characters and what their names are which makes people guess. In most social realism films, there is one main character who is introduced straight away, for example in "Trainspotting", the main character is introduced in the first scene of the film with Renton, played by Ewan McGreggor, running away from security guards with a monologue put over the top of the footage of him talking about "not choosing life". Even though the monologue itself does not introduce his name, we do find out that he is a heroin addict and doesn't want to be the same as other people. So, our film opening challenges typical social realism film openings as we don't introduce anybody, neither do you find anything out about anybody other than that they all like to party. You could say that the final scenes of the people waking up introduce the characters as it focuses on three people; two people waking up and one person who is dead but just by watching the film opening you would not be able to tell anything about them or why they are in that situation without watching the rest of the film.
Camera-work and editing.
Title style and font
Story and how the opening sets it up
Special effects
For our special effects, we used UV make up to make the party seem more like a rave. The make up shows up well under the UV lights we used and makes the shots look more colourful and fun instead of dark. We also used used fake blood for our dead character. It looks very real and doesn't look over exaggerated. We mixed corn flour, red food dye and water to create the gloopy texture. By doing this, it doesn't just look like red paint which we found in an art department or something. There is evidence of this under my blogpost "Filming one of the "Morning After" scenes where it shows how we created the blood and another piece of evidence is the picture above of our dead character. Another thing we did was that for the morning after scenes, I put the sounds of birds over the top of the footage. This creates an eery feel to the footage as we have just come from scenes of loud music and partying and now we're in scenes with only the sounds of birds and its very quiet. It helps provide suspense to the scenes as something bad has happened and instead of having dark, mysterious music like we were originally going to have, the contrast between the birds and the bloody scene provides a lot of suspense.
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