Synopsis

Our story is about a mum who thinks she has killed her daughter, she is living in guilt because of it. Due to this she has become depressed and has let herself go. She keeps getting flashbacks of the day her daughter died. Her daughter died in the park so flashbacks include scenes with the child playing in the park. Throughout the opening we hear the child singing and laughing but then it turns into the mum screaming and the child crying. Everytime she touches things, like a photo frame of her daughter she gets stronger flashbacks. At the end of the opening sequence the tv turns on and the mum sees her daughter on the tv coming towards her.

Idea for title

An idea for our opening sequence title is: "Your Fault"
We came up with this title name because it's actually not the moms fault that her daughter died. Even though we do not find out, the mom thinks she has killed her own daughter when she hasn't.

Representation

Representation

Representation is the process by which the media presents the 'real world' to an audience. Representation is concerned with the way that people, ideas and events are presented to us. This could be representation in magazines, news, soap operas, films and so on. An example is, when we watch a football match, they replay the actions on the TV when we are watching it and they do close ups of the footballer using loads of different camera angles and reduces and uses hyperbolic sound, but in real life you won't be able to see that. Things can be described as a re-presentation of things. So the media, re-present the world to the audience.
When representing a person, media texts often focus on:

• Age
• Gender
• Race/Ethnicity
• Financial Status
• Jobs
• Culture/Nationality

The problem with representing any kind of reality in a media text is that its never going to be 100%accurate. Representation always involves the construction of a version of reality, not reality itself, so media producers have to make choices; what to put in, what to leave out.
Sometimes representations can turn into stereotypes. A stereotype is a simplified representation of character, appearance and beliefs. The media may use a stereotype because they are easily recognised by the audience and can convey ideas to the audience. In films, they present male and females in a certain way. Men are often seen as: Competitive, Physically strong, Ambitious, Ruthless, Competent and independent and woman are often seen as: Sensitive, weak, Emotional. Co-operative, Passive and submissive.

Male

In Horror/thriller films, men are normally known as the saver of the day, as they are the ones who are seen as brave and goes and saves everyone from evil. Or in a lot of cases a woman. They are just seen to have more power and energy than woman and therefore seen as more ruthless and very independent as in films, male characters only depend on themselves. An example of this is the James Bond films, Casino Royal.


You can even see by this picture that they are stereotyping because we see the man at the front and the woman at the back. This represents that the man has more power than the woman and are in led of her. The movie is a about the protagonist James Bond having to go on all these spy missions and try and catch all the terrorists with his girlfriend. Although he has a partner with him he was taught not to trust anyone. He is independent and does this all himself. This shows us that James Bond is very strong and powerful and that he is dominate.

Female

In horror/thriller films, woman are often seen as vulnerable and doesn't know what she is doing and seen weaker than the other sex. In most horror films, you see that woman screaming and running away from the evil. This makes them seem needy and need a man to come save them. This also suggests that they are not powerful. In some cases, more of them now, films show that the woman is actually the independent one and they live till the end. An example for this is the film Salt.


In this movie, the character Angelina Jolie is the last one standing. As she is the protagonist, in the film she is dependent on herself and trusts no one. Although men are still seen as more independent and powerful, in this particular film, Angelina Jolie is the powerful one and who destroys everyone.

This is how the media describes men and woman. They represent them as them.

Genre-Horror/Thriller

Genre

What is Genre?
Genre is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or entertainment, e.g. music, whether it's written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria.
When considering genre of a film, we consider its characteristics or key features.
There are 4 main concepts of genre. They are: Characters, Narratives, Themes and Iconography

The Genre that our group has chosen is Horror/Thriller.

Horror

Horror is a film genre that seek to draw out a negative emotional reaction from the viewers by creating a sense of fear. Horror films often show scenes that make audiences jump; the macabre and the supernatural are frequent themes. Horror films often deal with the viewers nightmares, hidden fears and the terror of the unknown. Plots within the horror genre often involve the act of an evil force, event, commonly of supernatural origin, into the everyday world. Commonly occurring elements include, ghosts, aliens, vampires, werewolves, demons, gore, torture, zombies, cannibals, monsters, vicious animals, curses, satanism and serial killers.
Here are some horror films:

Night of the living dead (1968)



28 days left (2003)


Saw (2004)



Thriller

Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film and television progamming. Some subgenres are pyschological thrillers, crime thrillers and mystery thrillers. The 3 main elements in thriller are suspense, tension and excitment. Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer's moods, giving them a high level of anticipated, uncertain, surprise, anxity and/or terror. Thriller films tend to be rushing, gritty, rousing, and face paced. A thriller is a villian-driven plot, where he or she have to present obstacles that the main character must overcome.
Here are some films with the genre of thriller:

The dark knight rises (2012)



Inception (2010)



Pulp fiction (1994)

Narrative-opening sequence of jaws.

Narrative

Narrative is the way that stories are told.
There are classic narrative patterns that Tzvetan Todorov discovered.
They are:

Equilibrium- all is in order "normal, and happy

Disruption- A disruption to the equilibrium by the means of an event/action

Recognition- There is recognition that a disruption has taken place

Repair- An attempt to repair the damage caused by disruption

New equilibrium- The problem is solved and we return to the a new type of equilibrium

Here is an example from the movie 'Jaws'
Jaws-Trailer

Equilibrium- Loads of people drinking, having fun

Disruption- The girl goes swimming, the shark comes and gets her

Recognition- The girl has disappeeared, its all silent

Repair- Does not go swimming in the sea

New Equilibrium- It starts again, the shark comes back

This relates to my opening sequence, as my genre for my opening sequence is Horror.

Narrative

Narrative

Narrative is consisting of or characterized by the telling of a story.
One of the narrative theories is Tzvetan Todorov. He discovered that folk tales and fairy stories all follow a similar structual pattern. This is known as the classic Narrative pattern.
The classic narrative pattern works like this:

Equilibrium= all is in order "normal, and happy

Disruption= A disruption to ther equilibrium by the means of an event/action

Recognition= there is recongnition that a disruption has taken place

Repair= An attempt to repair the damage caused by disruption

New equilibrium= The problem is solved and we return to a new type of equilibrium

Here is a example of this.
 'Artic monkeys-Leave before the lights are out' music video:

Equilibrium- A man walking on the street

Disruption- Shoe falls from the building, woman is about to suicide

Recognition- Picks up the shoe and goes up the top of the building

Repair- The man takes her to a cafe

New Equilibrium-She goes back to the top of the building and repeats.



Another Narrative theorists is Vladimir Propp. He is a Russian critic who examined 100s of examples of folk tales to see if they shared any structures. While looking at 100s of folk tales he identified 8 charcter roles.

The 8 character roles are:

1. The villain(s)

2. The hero

3. The donor-who provides an object with some magic property

4. The helper-who aids the hero

5. The princess (the sought for person) - reward for the hero and object of the villain's schemes

6. Her father- who rewards the hero

7. The dispatcher- who sends the hero on his way

8. The false hero





Other opening sequence analysis

 

Other opening sequence analysis

 

 

Jaws-Opening sequence analysis

 

Jaws-Opening sequence analysis

 

 

Max payne-extract

Shot number	Technical sound description	Effects on meaning/sound
1.	This is the beginning of the extract. It is letting us know that it is starting.
2.	This is a sound bridge and off-screen. We can hear it but we can’t see it.	This makes the words more powerful because of the fact that we can’t see it and it makes us more focused on it.
3.	This scene is on screen and diegetic. It suddenly comes on screen.	This makes you jump because you are not expecting it.
4.	We can hear the water sound and the sound of him breathing.	This tells us that we know he is drowning and in the water.
5.		We know that he is drowning.
6.	He’s under the water and it sounds like he is going to die. The music changes, it suddenly goes silent.  It’s ominous. Warning that something bad is to come.	It sounds like the ending of his life. It makes us feel that something is going to happen. Like we expect something to happen after.
7.	This is a voice over and on screen.  It’s dark. He’s very deep and mysterious.	The water sound matches with his voice. He is very serious.
8.	This is a sound bridge.  This is very dark as well.	We can hear the baby crying but he is still drowning
9.
10.	This is parallel sound.	This makes us feel that he has actually sunk down now. We can hear the bubbles.
11.	This is also a sound bridge.	This makes us feel that some things going to happen.
12.	This is off-screen. We hear the baby charms before we can see it. This makes us to think about what is going to happen next.	We can still here the water sound which tells us he’s still drowning. We can hear the clock ticking. This adds the tension like its telling us his time is nearly over. This might show his past.
13.	This is off screen. We can hear the clock really loud now but we can’t see the clock.	This makes us feel that his time is now up.
14.	We can see the baby’s charm that we have been hearing and the bubbles.	This makes us feel that he was too late.
15.	This is off screen and a voice over.	We can hear the sirens and then it goes silent. Then we can hear the sound of the city.
16.	This is off screen and then on screen. And we hear the cars.	It can show that he is dead now or that it is before.

Institution-Film industry

Distribution companies

Distribution is the way in which something is shared out among a group or spread over an area.




A film distributor is a company or individual for the marketing of a film. One of the biggest distribution companies are momentum.
The role of the distributor is first ask, who will want to see the film and why would they watch it. It is very important for them to get as many people as possible to come watch the film. They also need to find there target market. The most popular target audience are 12-15 aged. To do this, they have to make campaigners to reach out to those target audiences. They also have to find the unique selling point of the film.
Independent distributes find the Cannes( the film ).

Here are some examples of the films made by this distributor.

The King's speech (2010) This film won 7 BAFTA Awards, including Best film and Best actor.


Dear John (2010)


Amelie (2001)

Max payne-opening sequence pictures

Mondays lesson

In todays lesson, we all got our ideas together for what we should do for our opening sequence. We also made a name for our opening sequence and the name of the production of the film.

Film production

There are four main steps in producing a film:

1. Pre production-getting everything ready to go- getting fiance and budget.

2. Production- the actual filming

3. Post production- the editing

4. Distribution- This is the marketing, promoting the film, getting it in to the cinemas.

I think that pre production is the most important because, without having a place where you are able to film, and having the money, you won't even be able to film the movie.

What the role of the producer does.
Role of producer= they are the middle of everything. They get the script written and they get the director.
Every movie needs a good script. You need a script that explores ideas. A script which inspires the directer to take it one step further.
The package= This is where you work out who is going to be in the cast.
Costing producer= Truthfulness to the dialoge.

The producer is the most important out of the whole. The producer is the middle of everything, they need to get a script written, they hire the director and finds the cast for the film. They are also the ones who get the vision of the film and the idea.

Shooting Schedule

Shooting Schedule for Spooks Sequence 3

The Rock

 The rock exercise

Editing

 

 

Eastenders editing

 

 

 

They first focus the camera on the two characters lying on the bed, and then they cut when he stands up, to show that he is getting up.

We then hear a baby crying and it cuts, when he stands up to the woman, and it shows that she us aware that the baby is crying and she gets up. We also see the camera following her and then it moves up and stops on her face to show us her facial expression, her emotion. Till here, there were no dialogue used. I think this is because, they wanted us to get the feel of the emotions they are feeling.

Then it cuts to a bunch of flowers and we can hear a person speaking here on the phone to someone before we can actually see her. I think this is to show that she is fiddling with someone while shes talking on the phone and not just talking on the phone. It cuts here to show that there is someone else in the picture as well.

Then it cuts to a man  and the camera moves down to show that he is holding a phone which tells that she was talking to the this character.

After it cuts to his face to also show is facial expression and emotion. Again i think there is no dialogue here, to show how the man is feeling.

Then it cuts to a shot of a stairs and another different man who finds something and that someone is here, but by his facial expressions it shows that its not going to be good.

It then cuts to a mans feet on the door to show that he went outside and he picks up the milk and the camera moves up to show is whole body and it is a different person again. Then it cuts to show that he did come out of his house.

Then it cuts to a man spreading butter on a piece of bread, telling us that it is morning and he is getting ready to eat breakfast. Throughout the whole sequence it shows us that it is morning, by showing us them getting out bed, having a cup of tea, making breakfast and also the cloths they are wearing are pyjamas which also gives out the clue that it is morning.

I think not having dialogue is more effective in a way to show how someone is feeling because when you are talking, you don't really focus on the facial expression much but instead, what that person is saying.

 

The 1st- 13seconds

The 2nd- 12seconds

The 3rd- 17seconds

The 4th cut- 35seconds

The 5th cut- 15seconds

The 6th cut- 19 seconds

The 7th cut- 5 seconds

The 8th cut- 2 seconds

 

I think they held the shots longer for when there was dialogue on the scene because it was a phone call, and we had to hear what they were saying till the end. The shots are less shorter when there is no dialogue and is just showing that persons emotion.  At the end it cut very quickly as it didn't really have a much of a meaning.

 

 

 

 

 

 



Spooks sequence 1

 
Spooks sequence 1-Analysis for conversation

I made the notes on the following:

1. Why is this shot used?
2. Why is it held for this length of time?
3. Why does it cut ot the next shot (including how it cuts)
4. Is the editing pace fast or slow and why?
5. How does the film-maker use editing to build/create/manipulate
a. tension
b. interest
c. meaning
d. enigma

Evaluation of the preliminary task

Our preliminary task was 'feed the fish'. When we presented it to the class, we were given critiques about our sequence on how well we did, what went well and what we needed to change. This was filmed in a dark room with the dark red lighting to make it seem more evil and that something was the matter. The person with the mask is the main character. This character comes out to be evil. One of our strength were the match on action shot when we see the girl running up the stairs. Another example of this is when we see the girl opening the door. Another strength in our task was the parallel editing, when we saw the girl running up the stairs and the clock. The pupils in our class said that this was good as they liked the idea of the time passing by. The mise en scene that we used also worked well. We used a range of camera shots which also worked very well. The pupils said that they liked this because it was more interesting to watch. An example of this is when we see the full body of the girl running up the stairs and then when we had the close up of her feet when she was running pass the camera.

However the weakness of our sequence was that it had too much dead space between the shots, which meant we needed to speed up the shots or we would have to cut in between the shots which would make the match on action better. We were also told that we should have not used the dissolves as we did as it was not necessary as it was for the passing time. It would have been good to have used different types of effects to make it more interesting to look at. Although we did use good camera shots, they said we could have used more low and high angles to get the feel of power.
Some of our shots were deleted so we weren't able to fully complete our sequence.

If i was to do this again i would definitly get more envolved as i wasn't able to actually film the preliminary task with the other memebers in my group as i was ill when we did, and was only able to help with the editing. Next time i would really like to  have the experience to film the sequence and taking the pupils opinion in account, to use more camera shots as well as low and high angles and to try and not have too much dead space between the shots.

Fridays meeting

In todays lesson we looked at more opening sequences and we looked at the credits and titles of the opening sequences.

Feed the fish

This is the feed the fish video that we edited. The editing here was really good and quite simple for us and i think thats why it worked very well for us.

The phantom of opera

The phantom of opera

In the beginning of the movie we see olden day buildings, old cars, very dirty with leaves all over the floor, the air doesn't seem very clean and the colour starts off being very dull. the clothes everyone is wearing is very boring and just one colour, although what they are wearing signifies a bit of wealth in this scene. It seems very dark and it makes me feel like they are trapped in this one world with no hope and everyone looks sad. In the background we can hear cars, dogs, birds, children and some sort of ship horn which might be suggesting that it's time to leave.

In the beginning, the music is very serious and sounds sort of mysterious. When we enter the hall, it seems still very dull, dark, messy, and dirty with spider webs everywhere. Still the people seemed to be wearing very dark coloured clothing, but this made it seem that they were quite posh but at the same time they looked very serious. We see birds flying inside the hall which might suggest that because it's so dirty, birds can even live inside. The music suddenly changes into a sadder, serious music and it changes the whole atmosphere of the hall and the light is still very dark. At this moment, everything seems like the end of the world.

However, when the chandler is lit, the whole atmosphere changes again. As the chandler goes up, the stage starts to become lighter, and all the dirt and spider webs starts to disappear. We start to see very bright colours and everything looks more new. When the wind is blown it wipes everything clean as the chandler goes up higher and higher. The music changes to more meaning full, powerful music. When the chandler is at the top of the hall, a new world opens. It has an effect that when the chandler was put into its right place, so was everything else and that the chandler started the beginning of something new. Everything outside is now clean and bright and it looks more modern (although it is a flashback). It suddenly changes from dark to light. People are dressed more in rich clothing which suggests that people are happier now than they were. There are more people now everywhere than before.

We can see people drinking, with instruments, playing, people running around to do something. It seems more realistic and it seems like their having more fun. We can see machines running which sugessts that they have the money to get these, people are able to afford more now. We can also see horse carriages which suggest again that they have more money. We can also see horse carriages which suggests again that they have had more lesure and that time. This shows how things have changed from just the beginning of the film. It seems to me that they have more freedom to do what they pleased. We can hear people laughing and talking, which changes the whole mood of the place. It makes it become more alive.

It think that the chandler represents the whole part of the film. I think it is very significant in this film. So when the chandler is put down, the world seems very dark and people don't seem to be happy and it seems like to be the most sad time in their lives. But when the chandler is lit and out up in its right place, the whole world changes and the people are alive and happier and it seemed to be the beginning of their happiness and a wonderful life.

Thursday period 2 lesson

In this lesson we got a schedule of what we need to do for the next couple of months. We also looked at the outline of the unit and what we need to do to get the right marks. We were also given a film production guide to help us make our opening sequence videos.

Thursdays Period 1 Lesson

In todays lesson we watched saturday night fever and looked at how the media presents men and woman. We also looked at some hooks to get our story started.

Wednesdays lesson

In todays lesson we looked at opening sequences which the pass students have done in the past and what we need to write in our blogs.

Mondays lesson

In todays lesson we worked in our groups to work on a storyboard and make a shooting schedule.

Class Act-Our first story made

Class Act

This is our first story idea that we made. It is called Class Act.
There are 2 characters named Elizabeth and Britney Anne.
The storyline:

The two characters Elizabeth and Britney Anne are both from different backgrounds. Elizabeth is a Posh girl and Britney Anne is the chav.

They both leave their different schools at the end of the day. Elizabeth gets a phone call from her dad who she is expecting to pick her up. He says 'sorry, but the Shaffer is at a premiere and i am at work so you need to get the bus home today'. Both girls are at the bus stop. You see a shot of them and their friends. We can see that their visually very different and we can see a clear difference in their classes. Britney Anne is smoking. They get on the bus and it's packed. Both girls meet on the bus and fight for the last seat that's left. Britney Anne is wearing bagging cloths and a hat and thick makeup while Elizabeth is holding a napkin and whipping the seat with it. They both argue about why they should get it, for stereotypical reasons. They go home and go to bed, we see a spilt screen of how different there life's are as they do the same activities, e.g. eat dinner, brushing teeth, and doing homework. When they wake up the next morning, they have swapped body's, when they realise they both freak out, but can't do anything about it and have to continue with the daily lives and go to school etc.
Throughout the story they have a series of events that works towards their eventual realisation that they are not dissimilar at heart. Elizabeth realises that Britney Anne, although she dresses and acts in a not suitable way, she is a very smart girl. Britney Anne realises that just because your rich and snobby, you won't be always good at something (as Elizabeth wasn't a very bright student at school).  Once this has been realised, both characters change back to normal and try to bridge the gap between the two classes.

This was the feed back we got back from the class:
They said that it is a high concept, really strong concept for the storyline. They said that we could have included where we were going to ask the money to produce. The one they suggested for us was the UK film council-The big body now or the BFI.

HARRY POTTER- Evaluation

1. What style or feel of music did you use for the credit sequence and why?
I used very dark and mysterious music because i thought that it would go very well with the credit and i wanted the begginning of the credit to be very moving for the audience to want to carry on listening. I also made it start of being low to create that sence of dark.

2. How effective do you think your sequence is for the credit sequence & titles ONLY?
0      1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8      9      10

3. What style or feel of music did you use for the sequence when the Dementors appeared and why? How do you feel the music and feel changed? To what extent do you feel you managed to convey the change in mood?
We used high pitch which faded when the dementors came out. The feel changed into somethings going to happen to a surprise feeling, like we didn't know that the dementors where going to pop up.

4. How pleased are you with the final sequence overall?
I think we did a quite good job but we didn't have enough sound to finish the credit sequence.

How effective do you think your soundtrack is for the WHOLE sequence?
0     1    2     3     4     5     6     7     8      9     10

5. If you were doing this exercise again or if you were asked to giv e advice to others before they had to complete this task what would you tell them?
I think that we just weren't able to find the sound that we thought it would go with each scence and so we just skipped to where we could find the sound track too. We didn't have much problems using the software but i think if there were more track choices it might have been better. Ive learnt that starting off low and getting higher is a every good effect for audiences to want to keep listening and it really builds the tension.

Harry Potter Exercise

This is the video of the harry potter exercise.