Props Genette Tate's bike Newspapers Small wooden box with a latch containing objects from past kidnappings for example glasses, shoes, notebook and a watch. laptop Notes for actors Two 15 year old girls - Not much dialogue just need to greet Genette One middle aged man ( supposed kidnapper) - He has no lines and doesn't need to be seen faced on only from behind. One 13 year old girl who will play Genette - Doesn't have many lines Costumes and make up Because we are setting our opening in present day we will have the characters wear clothing that are worn today compared to the 70's. Genette
We want to represent our characters in different ways in our film opening and these were our ideas. Genette We wanted our actor too appear vulnerable,happy,innocent and natural.We wanted this because we wanted our audience to feel sorry for her and for her to seem a likeable character. She isn't presented as a stereotypical teenager because she is active and working whereas teenagers these days are stereotyped as being lazy and constantly on social media. She is also not portrayed as an object to me or as part of the male gaze. She would be seen as a generic character (an innocent young girl who is victimised) a character that has been in films many times before. In our film Genette is the protagonist and we want the viewer to be drawn to her. Kidnapper Like Genette this character is a generic one because all you have to do is google the word kidnapper and various pictures of men being the kidnapper come up and in some of them you see women being the victim this means our kidnapper is a stereotypical kidnapper but because we wanted our film based on true events we couldn't change the character.
The two teenage girls These girls are only a brief part of the opening so don't really have much of a representation or a stereotype but you could say they are opposing the stereotype of teenagers like Genette is cause they are shown outside been active.
I decided to do my timeline on the film Goodfellas because the genre of this film is a crime and drama film and that is what our genre is, I also chose it cause it is based on true events and so is ours. I watched the opening on Art of the title.
I created a mood board on Pinterest for some ideas for our opening like props, settings and costumes,it just gives us a few ideas on things to include in our opening.
On the 8th December Jasmine and I presented our pitch for our film opening to the class. We got quite a good response from the audience because most of the class put up their hands when asked if they would watch our film. The feedback to our pitch and idea was
"Its good that its based on true events"
"Very engaging"
"makes me want to watch it"
"appealing to a teenage audience"
"good enigmas"
'lots of research to back it up" Here are some photos to show of us presenting our pitch to the class.
From doing the pitch I learnt how important it is to really get facts and information correct so that you can convey to an audience your idea. In our pitch we talked about what are opening will be about, what characters we will need and what our setting and sound will be like. When talking about what our opening would include we talked about how we were going to have two scenes going on at once for example we are going to have Genette leaving her house to go on her paper round and are also going to have her supposed kidnapper looking through a box of old kidnappings he has committed. We also talked about what characters we would need for example we need a 13 year old girl to play Genette Tate two 15 year old girls to last see Genette and a middle aged man who is meant to be the supposed kidnapper. And after that we highlighted what sound we wanted as that is my job in the filming I explained that we were gong to have diegetic and non diegetic sound. For example for diegetic sound I talked about the voices of characters and the sound of cars on the road and for non dietetic I talked about how we could emphasize the sound of the door clicking as Genette leaves the house. For our opening we have four enigmas What happened to her ? Where did she go ? Was it planned ? Why did she go ? We have also decided to use many camera angles and shots for our opening for example low angle shots of the bike on the road as well as tracking shots of it. when Genette leaves the house we have decided to do a match on action shot of her opening the door and when the bike s left on its own at the end www ill do a close up shot of it and the newspapers.
What are codes ? They are system of signs which create meaning and are divided into two meanings. Technical codes are all the ways in which equipment is used to tell the story in a media text for example camera work in a film. Symbolic codes show what is beneath the surface of what we see for example a characters actions show what a character is feeling. What are conventions ? They are a widely recognised way of doing something which is to do with content form and style and like codes there are two types of conventions. What are the conventions of a drama film ? Exhibits real life situations with real life characters and realistic situations settings and stories. Portrays journeys of characters development. Purpose of a dramatic story line is to move the audience emotionally. Structured climaxes and anti climaxes to keep the audience emotionally attached and involved. Dramas can be linked with other genres such as tragedy and comedies. What we are doing We chose to do a drama because they are interesting and easy to film because they have clear conventions like the ones above and we have adapted them in our own way as seen below. We chose to do a real life situation of the disappearance of Genette Tate. It doesn't necessarily portray the journey of a particular character but could portray the journey of her kidnapper because of the crimes he has committed in the past. I think that it moves the audience because it is a true event and so it moves the audience emotionally because they really feel for Genette and her family. I think the climax of our opening is at the end of it when the camera goes to the bike and Genette isn't there. I think this will involve and intrigue the audience because they will want to know what has happened. The other genre that our opening is linked with is crime because the disappearance is a case that involves the police thus making it a crime drama.
Opening scenes of drama films
Because we have decided to do a genre of crime drama for our opening scene I decided to research some film openings wth the genre of drama on the website Art of the title. Forrest Gump
This film opening is very simple and only includes one shot of the feather floating down to meet Forrest Gump's feet. The titles of the film are not layered in anyway or put in creatively and are more just put on top of the shots. I feel like when we do our opening we will try to include the titles more in the shot. There is a non diegetic music paying softly in the background and this means that the audience can't hear anymore sounds. The opening does not give a lot away that happens in the film and only introduces us too one character. Goodfellas
The titles in this opening come on in a swiping motion linking with the sound effects of the opening that reminds me of cars driving past. The opening also includes that it is based on a true story which is what we will need to put in our opening. The scene then cuts to the police car driving on the road and the date of when the even happened. For most part of the opening there is little titles and more dialogue that would be used in the rest of the film. However at the end of the opening the titles go back to how they were at the beginning with this time though there is a song playing. The titles aren't included in particular to the opening except for the fact that they are linked to the sound of cars. Snatch The beginning starts off in silence showing only a black screen and the titles, I think for our opening we should include a black screen because two of the openings I have looked at have them to put the titles on. The opening then goes to an extra of dialogue with no titles included. This is until the next shot of a security camera with people inside a lift and music playing in the background. In that shot the titles start reappearing. This opening reminds me of Goodfellas because of the order in which events and the titles happen.
For our film opening we had to do some research on Genette herself here is some of the websites and information we find out about her. We needed to make sure got the right information to make an accurate representation of what happened on August 19th 1978.
This is our animatic for our opening scene. I learnt when drawing the pictures for the storyboard how crucial it is too plan for our opening so we know what the shots will be. When making the animatic we learnt editing techniques that would help us when editing our opening for example cutting clips to shorten them and scaling the images to fit to size. Our animatic has no sound however which is a flaw but we didn't feel comfortable enough with the software to do this and we were also pretty slow when making our animatic. That was noticed by the audience when they watched it however the audience did like the short sentences that went with the pictures so it was obvious what was going to happen in that scene.
Different types of editing Continuity
This is when the audience does not realise that there are different shots and it just continues smoothly and they link with each other which makes it easier for the viewer to watch the sequence.
Montage
They often use this in television programmes to show what had happened before in the programme as a recap to the audience for example they do this at the beginning of each waterloo road episode.
Transitions
A transition is the term used when the editor cuts from one shot to another. Wipe This is where one image is replaced with another and it eliminates one shot with another. Dissolve
This is where one scene or image gradually moves onto another one and it is a smooth transition.
Simon Hall is the BBC's crime correspondent in the South West of England and is also the author of the Dan Groves and Adam Breen detective novells. On the 24th of November Simon Hall came into school to talk to us about media careers and journalism. It was a very interesting talk and was a real eye opener to what journalism entails and how to get into it. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing about someone being so interested in their career and it really made me think about what I would like to do in the future and that maybe I would like to do something associated with journalism. The talk was an hour long and he really showed us what it takes to be a journalist and and the positives and negatives of it.
Types of sound in films. Diegetic sounds This is sound where it is visible on the screen for example
Voices of characters
Sounds made by objects in the film e.g. radio, television and phone
Music as represented as coming from instruments in the space
Diegetic sound can be either on screen or off screen.
Non- Diegetic sound
This is where is not visible on the screen or has been implied in the action of the film for example
narrator's commentary
sound effects
mood music
It is represented as coming from a source outside of the film.
Sound is actually more important in films than it is given credit for because the audience can listen to many different sounds at once.
Here are some examples of different types of sound
Dialogue
This is the sound of characters talking o each other onscreen.
Ambient (natural sound)
An example of this is he room tone. This is the background of the movie set.
Additional Dialogue Recording (ADR)
This is when dialogue is recorded after the film has finished filming. This could be done if something ruined the dialogue during shooting.
Narration
This is when you can hear the voice of a person speaking but they are not seen in the film.
Sound effects (SFX)
This is any sound created for the movie.
Score
This is original music created for the film
Soundtrack
Music included in the film that wasn't created for he film.
Sound included in films can help a film stand out and be remembered for example the violin scene in psycho when Marion Crane gets stabbed in the shower.
Another classic sound effect is the sound of Darth Vader.
The opening starts with their groups ident of "scully entertainment" it flashes onto the screen and then stays at the bottom of the it as the first shot begins of a boy walking into a room. The music playing in the background is quite eerie and mysterious which is good because their film is called "The missing" so it has a creepy feel to it. As the film is beginning the actors names start appearing in the scene at the corner of the shot. The first shot is of a boy looking at missing person records on various people. To do this shot they are using an over the shoulder shot and the first establishing shot was a mid shot to show a character walking out of a lift and into a rom. They show one of the records to have a sticky note on the back when he sorting through them which says something unfortunately though its quite hard to read as the scene carries on but if you pause it you can make it out to be an address.
Example of the over the shoulder shot.
The scene cuts to another person with a mask covering their head tied onto a chair this is only a short scene as it later cuts back to the first character show. Already you can tell that the genre of the film is an acton film due to the the idea of someone being kidnapped. The opening carries on shifting to each character one of them being in a lift and in a public car park the other tied up in a cupboard. One of the shots of the boy in the cupboard is an extreme close up of his face to show the characters emotions and to show how scared he is.
An example of setting the scene for an action film.
The final part of the opening is set at a third characters house and is the first time the characters speak to one another throughout the whole opening. The scene ends on a cliff hanger as the private investigator arrives. I think its clever how there is not much speaking in this opening because it creates more suspense and mystery when watching it. The lighting in the opening is quite dark and uses quite neutral colours with the car park being greys and both rooms being dimly lit. The only bright colour in the opening is the car that the boy drives which is red and in the scene where he pulls up at the house it stands out very clearly with it being surrounded by grey cars.
Ident
An Ident is what a company uses to identify themselves it usually either a short video or a visual imagery. Some purposes of idents is to Identify a channel Marketing Branding Visual simulation Raise viewing figures The key points for an ident are Setting Tempo Audience interaction Entertainment
This in an example of an ident from Pixar. This ident is widely recognised as being funnier than other idents as it shows an animation of a desk lamp seen jumping past the various letters that spell Pixar and jumping on the I only to later squish it and turn into it. Examples of others idents
AS coursework
Our task is to film a clip which would be used as an opening sequence to a film. We have chosen the genre of drama to base our opening of and want to set it around the disappearance of Genette Tate. The task is out of 100 and has to be up 2 minutes long. 20 marks for research and planning 60 marks for construction 20 marks for evaluation
This is our preliminary task, what we had to do was to film a conversation between two characters. We had to include three different camera angles 180 degree rule, shot reverse shot and match on action. One of the characters had to open and walk through a door using match on action and then had to sit down opposite the other character and begin the dialogue. We then used the other two angles while they were in conversation. We decided to do an argument between a boyfriend and a girlfriend where the girlfriend is accusing her boyfriend of cheating on her. I think that some parts of the filming were successful for example we managed to include all the camera angles required and managed to get it to 1 minute 55 seconds. I feel like we are more prepared now for our main task and have learnt from the mistakes we have made such as getting better lighting and trying to get more of a clearer idea of what the characters will say to each other. I think that if I was to do this task again I would find a better location to set the scene because the lighting wasn't very good and I would take more time to properly set out each individual shot more so that it would be a cleaner cut through the scenes and so we would know exactly what we were doing for each shot. Doing this as well would help make the editing process easier. I feel like overall there are definitely improvements to be made but that will just help us to make our other practical work better.
We were given three film openings to look at, The usual suspects, Mottai Boss and Blade to help with our final piece. The usual suspects
In this opening scene the use of fire and the ticking clock gives an idea of suspense and gives a clue the the films genre may be action. Adding to suspense the music is low and eerie but the builds up to a higher climax when the cigarette drops and the fire starts. There is low dimly lit lighting used as well throughout the scene giving the impression of mystery that the source of the light is the fire. There is little dialogue in the scene which adds to the mystery and suspense, and the death of the man leads to the danger and action of the film too. Adding to this is the faint sound of sirens at the end of the scene and any type of siren is normally associated with a crime. You can't see a lot of objects and setting in the scene and so this sparseness conveys a mysterious look to the scene. Blade
This film opening is vey unique and different. It seems quite confusing when first watching it because a lot happens at once in a short space of time. The scene is pretty grim and gruesome because it turns into a blood bath towards the end literally. The strobe lighting used and the loud pumping music adds to the intense scene and increases the level of suspense. Towards the end of the opening scene is where it starts to get confusing because this where the blood starts to pour from the ceiling and everything gets messed up and frantic. The opening scene portrays the film to be a genre of violence and horror. Mottai Boss
This scene is shown to a little lighter in genre than the other one but is still shown to be maybe a violent film with the army officers shown to in the scene. The scene starts off with a man who is shown to be in a helicopter landing in front of a crowd of people all happy to see him. There is harsh rap music playing in the background which makes us think that this character is very powerful and in charge as the words to the song say "the boss". Mixed in with this sound is the crowd screaming showing the man to be very popular. The man is shown to be quiet a confident man this hints he may be the main character. In this scene one of the men is shown to be accusing the leading man to be another man called Sivaji who is supposedly dead.
