"The titles and opening sequence of a new fictional film"
I've finished my coursework and my evaluation for this unit and overall I have learnt about new technology which will help me greatly in future, this progression of new knowledge has documented in my coursework and the finished media product shows this knowledge. I am very happy with our media product because I think that although it could be improved in minor details it looks very professional and has changed for the better from our rough cut as well as the first project we completed which was the copy of Amber Run and also our preliminary task.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Mine and Imogen Millard's preliminary task:
Our main task:
From my preliminary task to now, I have progressed as a filmmaker and a student in multiple ways. Originally when doing the preliminary task I didn’t know how to use the basics in Adobe Premier Elements CS4 so I found it very difficult to import sound and to overlay the tracks, since we didn’t attach an external microphone and buffer to the camera I had to edit the audio so that the soundtrack was playing throughout and faded during the dialogue, this caused the video to look unprofessional and the sound quality wasn’t very good so you cannot hear what some of the actors are saying at points. This has changed because now in our main task we only have a soundtrack and sound effects however they are of higher quality, but I did like the original effect which I put in our preliminary task which was a heartbeat this created more tension in the scene and made the audience anticipate the future events. I think that if we redid the project we would try to include faint sound effects which would unconsciously put the audience on edge adding more drama to our piece.
As well as this I found it quite difficult to create and edit in titles, so in our preliminary task we only have a black background with red font in front, this has progressed massively as now I fade the title in and out so it looks vaguely professional considering our ages and the amount of training we’ve had does limit our skills.
I have also learnt from the research I have completed which is about the Oscars and the BBFC, this has helped me decide and choose which conventions to include in our piece because of the viewing audience and what Oscar winning films’ opening sequences look like so that we can take inspirations from them.
We also learnt about the production of films including vertical and horizontal integration and the distribution companies, I think that our film would be horizontally produced because it would be a small independent film and that it would be produced by a British company like: Channel 4/Film4 or Working Title. We also researched about our target audience; this has helped by shaping our views on who would watch our film and what they would want to change. I have also learnt to take educational criticism on board because it improves our work and helps it attract our target audience.
I think that overall I have progressed massively and have learnt many things that will affect how I create and plan films later on in my life.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The genre that we chose for our opening sequence is drama, to gain more knowledge on the genre we studied Fish Tank, Trainspotting and American Beauty; by doing this we learned more about the different codes and conventions of the drama genre. We decided after discussing them that we wanted to challenge certain conventions of real media products, to do this we chose to begin our product with the death of the main character and afterwards we would flashback to his life before and explore how he ended up in that position. This technique is also used in the narration of American Beauty with Kevin Spacey, the protagonist, who tells the audience that he is going to die. We used a similar technique to this with our main character dying but in a video form.
The most typical codes and conventions of the drama genre for mise-en-scene are darker colours for the settings, costumes and props; these are also paired with bleak lighting which is realistic to the setting and the time of day when it is shot as well as a realistic if not dreary setting and location.
During films that are of the drama genre some of the codes and conventions used are characters that the audience can relate to because of a emotional situation they are going through, a focus on a particular character (protagonist), narration, storyline climaxes and anticlimaxes, realistic settings, props, and characters.
The soundtrack, which is an royalty free piece that I edited, for the product creates an ambient atmosphere for the footage because it triggers the audience to become emotionally invested in the character; this technique is used in many films since it causes the viewer to carry on watching. The use of a soundtrack in the opening sequence is extremely common and makes the footage flow smoothly and allows me, the editor, to edit onto the beat. Sound effects used in the piece are also used for the same purpose and help the audience understand what is happening, for instance the lighter clicks are on time with the editing even though the footage hasn't begun yet this is called an ‘L Cut’.
In our media product, we decided that low key lighting, along with darker colours in the costumes and settings would be best for video because we wanted to create tension filled scenes with a lonely atmospheric feel to represent our protagonist’s life. The dark in our footage created many enigmas for the audience, for example in the beginning of our footage the ripples in the water cause the audience to become interested in the film and more likely to carry on watching because they are not sure what it means.
We used realistic characters, settings and costumes in an emotive opening because that follows the conventions and codes of a drama media product; this is also used to cause the audience especially teenagers to feel a connection between the characters and themselves because they feel that the characters are like them since they can relate to similar issues and problems. In our footage we used many establishing shots of water and the river, these tie in with our title: Ripples, using establishing shots is in nearly every film so it is an essential part of conventions and codes. Using this footage also enforces the enigmas that have been placed earlier in our product.
To challenge certain codes and conventions we made the main character a male who has suicidal thoughts, this challenges the stereotype of men being stoic and forever strong which is portrayed in the media with advertisements and other films. Most films do not concentrate on rural locations and settings or exaggerate them to have an idealistic atmosphere to them however our media product shows the location in a realistic light and if continued the film would show the countryside in a neutral or slightly negative light, making the setting extremely realistic. Teenage dramas tend to show young people negatively, them being loud, rude and uncontrollable, to counteract and challenge this we decided to have the protagonist’s costume as dark blue pyjamas, the dark colours conforming to the conventions but pyjamas shows that he is vulnerable. They also provide background to the character and the time of day showing that he has possibly just woken up, is confused and doesn't care for his image any more.
The BBFC stands for the'British Board of Film Classification' which is a non-governmental body that classified cinema films since it was set up in 1912 and videos/ DVDs since the Video Recordings Act was passed in 1984.
In 1912 censorship was created to bring uniformity to the classification of film nationally. Overall powers remain with the local councils, they can overrule any of the BBFC’s decisions, passing films that they reject, banning films they've passed, and even waiving cuts, instituting new ones, or altering categories for films exhibited under their own licensing jurisdiction.
Examiners, who decide the classification, look at issues such as discrimination, drugs, horror, language, imitable behaviour, nudity, sex, sexual violence, theme and violence when making decisions for the classification. They also consider context, the tone and impact of a work and even the release format (for example, as DVDs are watched in the home, there is a higher risk of underage viewing).
I feel that the BBFC would rate our media product as a 15 because of the many references to suicide, strong language and violence.
The Oscars are one of the biggest film awards ceremonies in the world. They're one of the most prestigious awards anyone in the film business can win. They've been going since 1929. They're called the Oscars after the golden statue which is given out to the winners.
I chose to look at the best actress nomination because I was given it during class, and the nominations for the category are:
Cate Blanchett ("Carol")
Brie Larson ("Room")
Jennifer Lawrence ("Joy")
Charlotte Rampling ("45 Years")
Saoirse Ronan ("Brooklyn")
Helen Mirren ("The Woman in Gold")
Maggie Smith ("The Lady in the Van")
I'm choosing to look at Jennifer Lawrence in "Joy" because she is a favourite actress of mine and "Joy" from what I have seen in the trailer looks very good. I feel that she will be a frontrunner for the awards because many people love her acting because she is very talented. Here is the trailer for it:
The production companies for "Joy" are Annapurna Pictures, Fox 2000 Pictures, TSG Entertainment and Davis Entertainment.
Annapurna Pictures have produced films like "American Hustle", "Her" and "Springbreakers"; from looking at their films they are quite a small company with the amount of films they have produced and the popularity of them but most of them have had a brilliant reception, with their lowest being given 67% 'Rotten Tomatoes' however that was their first film ever which was released in 2012. Their most popular film is "American Hustle" which made $250,600,000 from box office. They have co-produced all of their films with different companies, naming a few: The Weinstein Company, Columbia Pictures and Warner Bros. At first look they seem to be an 'Indie' film production company because they mainly only deal with smaller films.
Fox 2000 Pictures/ 20th Century Fox this is an extremely popular production company and have created hundreds of films which have had very high domestic grossing films including "Avatar" which made $760,507,625 and "Independence Day" which made $306,169,268. They make very high quality films, so I expect Joy to be of high quality.
TSG Entertainment have produced many good films including "The Grand Budapest Hotel" and "Birdman" which grossed $103,000,000 worldwide.
Davis Entertainment is the more popular of the two having released many high-grossing films, their highest being "I, Robot" which earned $144,801,023 in domestic gross. Unlike Annapurna Pictures they have released some films that haven't been co-produced some being Dr. Doolittle 2 and Eragon. After looking at their history of production they have released many good quality films that have earned nominations so with their extensive knowledge along with Annapurna Pictures' reception in theatres the film should do well.
The film is distributed by 20th Century Fox and received wide theatrical release on 25th December 2015.
After numerous attempts I have not succeeded in using a similar style and effect to Taken 3's opening sequence, because we didn't film many arch shots or follow shots during film day. Also we want to portray continuity with the video and having distorted effects may confuse the audience.
During this session I changed the colour balance for the clips to graphic match with the previous ones of Tom when it was dark because it had a orange and black colour scheme.
During this session I added the distribution company logo, Film4, onto the media product and experimented with different fonts, colours and sizes.
As you can see below I was experimenting with our title for the media product, I really liked this font however the conventions of it may cause the audience to feel that the product is a spy-thriller which is wrong and may confuse them.
Whilst editing this scene I tried to edit onto the beat to create a more atmospheric video, as well as putting this into the conventions for a opening sequence for a film.
I have started to edit the main task, here is a screenshot of the project so far:
As you can see I've experimented with video transitions mainly 'Dip to black' because it matches the dark colour scheme of the footage, I haven't put any audio to the project yet because I'm focusing on putting the footage in chronological order.
This morning I watched 'Taken 3' and really enjoyed the editing effects within the opening sequence. It showed light flares along with jumpy, quick editing that used arch, pan and zoom shots. The shots also changed to the beat of the music giving it a very synchronised look but this contrasted with the jumpiness of the footage. I feel that if we used a similar effect in our opening sequence then it could show how distorted the world is for our protagonist.
If we were to use a similar effect we would need to go out and film extra footage for me to experiment and work with but I think it wouldn't take long as before, which was just over 2 hours, because it would be very quick shots (about 2-5 seconds long). However I could also use the extra footage from the film day.
To understand and see what the time lapses would look like I filmed a practice one in my spare time to investigate and explore the different techniques.
This is the script for the narration that will be overlaid on the opening sequence, we chose to have narration to create tension also narration is a common convention of opening sequences in films.
After thought we decided to not add narration onto our final product because the enigmas created would lose their effect of gaining the audiences attention and holding it, if the questions that are asked by the viewer are immediately answered.
On the 3/01/16 myself, Imogen and Tom (actor for the protagonist character) went into Ottery St. Mary film. We started filming at 4:00pm so that we could set the sequence in the early morning. We finished filming for the day at 6:15pm. To combat the night fall we worked backwards so we filmed the ending first so that the footage flows with the time of day and the lighting.
Imogen managed to shoot most of the sequence however we still need to film the time-lapse of the sun rising and cars going past. Also the indoor scene where families are being given a leaflet that tells them the date of his funeral. She may possibly take footage of clocks to show the early time in the morning.
Since the location is so nearby we can reshoot some scenes if necessary, for example the lighting is too dark that editing can't fix it because we were filming in complete darkness at one point or someone has walked into shot because we were shooting in public. However Imogen managed to shoot a lot of footage so that I have plenty to experiment with, meaning that I can cut out bad aspects of the footage.
After watching some of the footage back there were some nice light flares coming from the lamp posts I may try to edit in more light flares so it is more atmospheric.
When filming it is very important to make sure that all of the crew are safe so I created a risk assessment to be aware of those risks.
Risks:
Roads - Because we are filming by the road there is the possibility of us getting hit by a car or our equipment getting broken. We can combat this by being aware of our surroundings and staying away from the curb.
The river - We could fall in the river because we are filming so close to it, we all have a mobile phone and we have a two first aid people in the group in case.
Temperature - We need to make sure that Tom has some warm clothing to wear in-between shots.
Breaking equipment - Make sure the camera is correctly attached to the tripod and wear the camera strap as much as possible.
For our main task, as a group we decided that for location we should film in Ottery St. Mary, which is a town nearby that has a bridge, alleys and suitable streets for us to film. This was key because they are a core part of our opening sequence, since the protagonist will be walking through the streets and will end up standing at a bridge.
To scout locations in the town which would be great to spotlight in our opening sequence I took photos that we could look back on when preparing to film.
These are the locations in Ottery St. Mary, I also took them with the thought they could be potential shots:
This is the bridge where we would film the last shots for the sequence. We could have a pan shot from the water to side of the bridge:
This is an alley where he could walk into frame and walk away from the camera. This shot would be very atmospheric if the lighting was slightly darker:
We could have him walking through the church graveyard, this would be an emotional shot to have whilst the overdub narration would be talking about death.
Whilst he is walking we could have him walk past the river, here we could have some low angles with him walking out of shot. With these different angles I could edit them to flow as they cut to the different shots as they follow him walking.
Here's another angle however this would break the 180 degree rule if we used both shots:
Here's an alley which could be used however the bright signs ruin the atmosphere of the shot:
To start the sequence we could have a pan down from this lamp post where the protagonist is walking past.
In our sequence we are having Tom Godfrey (the protagonist) wear blue pajamas so that it shows that he has just gotten out of bed, also signifying that it is the morning again. Having him wear pajamas can symbolize that he has lost hope and doesn't care for his reputation, since wearing pajamas stereo-typically represents a slob or a lazy person e.g. doesn't care for their appearance. Also having him wearing blue denotes his innocence because the colour can signify purity and clarity, this can emphasize that he has reached his clarity of committing suicide.
These are screenshots of Tom's costume from our media product.
As well as Tom's character dressing darkly, I wore a black leather jacket with a black top and a black floral skirt. This is to represent mourning and the skirt can symbolize the flowers given on the day of a funeral, and to denote a new life for myself without him because flowers represent life and new beginnings.
