This is our production pitch, showing our opening sequence ideas and how we are going approach filming it. We presented this to the class and got some really good feedback back. We got postive and focus points of feedback; our postitive points are that we have a really clear idea on what we are going to base our opening sequence on and that it seems as if we know what we are talking about and how we go about filming it. However, our focus points are that we need to focus on where we are filming our sequence, who our cast is going to be and what props we are going to use. We also need to focus on getting the message across to our target audience in order for them to understand what would happen in the film.
We then discussed our action points for our next meeting, these were:
In our next meeting on the 13th December, we spoke about our action points, so where we could film our opening sequence, heard the soundtrack and the sound effects we could used and looked at the storyboard in which Bryony created.
We then, spoke about our ideas and decided as a group to produce an opening sequence on our first idea; the action sequence. This idea is where a person is asleep and is dreaming, as the action starts we will have a black screen with titles on it and then go back to the action. The sequence will end with the character waking up by the sound of a gun-shot and their alarm going off. By doing this we don't reveal the whole film throught the opening sequenece, it builds tension for the audience watching, making them want to carry on watching.
After this, we looked at various soundtracks and sound effect I had chosen. We narrowed them down to one soundtrack and two sound effects. Click on the links below to hear them.
Our first meeting as a group (myself, Dionne and Bryony W) was held on the 6th December. We put some ideas together and we came up with 3 opening sequences we could do. These are:
An action sequence: where a person is asleep and is dreaming, this is when the action comes in, as the action starts we will have a black screen with titles on it and then go back to the action. The sequence will end with the character waking up by the sound of a gun-shot and their alarm going off.
Miracle drug: we came up with this idea because we were speaking about the film "Limitless"; we thought we could reinact the opening sequence but thought we would give to much of the film away if we did.
Psychological sequence: We thought we could do an psychological horror/thriller and link the
protagonist to the drama which unfolds within the film. However, we thought that this idea may be too common within our class and that it may have been too common in the past as well.
As a group we had to come up with action points. These allow each of us to go away and focus on one aspect of the opening sequence then bring back our ideas to the group and discuss in our next meeting together.
My action point was to find a location in which we could film our opening sequence
The sound we left to Dionne e.g. soundtrack, non diagetic and diagetic sounds
The storyboard/screen shots Bryony had to focus on e.g. how we would film our opening sequence.
In our lesson today, we watched a DVD how to make our own video for when we film our opening sequence. From this I wrote notes on what we need to include and what we need to take into consideration before and after filming our sequence.
Pre-production
We need to work out the roles of each person. In the making of films a lot of people are involved including:
Executive Producer
Director
Writer
Production manager
Camera Operator
Lighting Director
Sound Technician
Actors
Editor
All of the people above have different roles in the production of any film.
We also need to make a shot list. This is made up of the following things:
Where we should shoot our sequence
The time needed to shoot it
The different camera angles
The date we need to film by
Post Production
We also need to take into consideration of the purpose of our opening sequence, our target audience and our limitations of what we can and can't do. Here are a list of points we need to remember when filming our opening sequence.
In our lesson on Thursday, Mr. Buckmaster gave us a list of things to include in our opening sequence. There are five main areas which we have to take into consideration when filming our opening sequence, these are: Genre, Setting, Atmosphere, Character and Narrative (enigma). We then had to analyse 3 different opening sequences and write our take on them, we were split into groups and were given a different area each, for example Narrative. The first we analysed was Martin Scorsese's "Cape Fear", our group was given Narrative. My first impression was that it was a tragic story and it had an element of threat in it, I thought this was established through the camera shots used throughout the opening sequence because they are all close-up shot, causing the audience to get closer to what's happening and give them a sense of fear. I also that it was established through the dialogue at the end of the sequence, the character sounds so solemn and she has no emotion in her voice, this makes the audience want to know more and know what happened at Cape Fear.
The next clip we analysed was "Hellboy 2" directed by Guillermo del Toro, for this clip we were given Setting to analyse. When we watched it, we firstly analysed the different places it was filmed in, we saw it started off in the bedroom and then quickly changed to what looked like a metal workshop. We came to the conclusion, that the metal workshop represented Hell. I think this is good because it gets the audience thinking before the film has even started. The opening sequence is inter-dimensional, showing the audience that the place where it is set, is more advanced than the world we live in. We also came up with the conclusion that the film is set in the past, we know this due to the Di Vinchi elements placed in the clip, this means the film has a historical element or connection to it. Click the link below to watch the titles.
The final film we analysed was the 1994 classic, directed by Robert Zemeckis "Forrest Gump", for this clip we were given Atmosphere. For this we looked at the weather, it seems as if its cold and there's hardly any wind, this gives the audience a sense that this film is going to be relaxing and a film where everyone leads a normal life. The music makes the opening sequence seem realistic making the audience think that something will happen to the character we are introduced too, in this case the protagonist Forrest Gump.
