Why are opening sequences so important to the film industry?

"Making a main-title was like making a poster, you're condensing the event into this one concept, this one metaphor a back-story that needs to be told or a character that needs to be introduced".
- SAUL BASS

Within the film industry, the opening title sequence of a film is considered to be the most important aspect in a film. Apart from the marketing elements, the title sequences are the very first images the audience sees. The quick clips lasts about two to three minutes long, which sets up the expectations of the audience. Most films last about 120 minutes, so the first two or three minutes are crucial to make or break a film.

Title sequences tell the audience who created the film and then based on their past work, the audience get an idea on what to expect from this film they are about to watch. If someone thinks the title sequence is poor; their first impression would be that the film will not be good. So I believe that the opening title sequence of a film the most important and attention grabbing section.

First Day of Filming Complete :D

Today we filmed our opening sequence. We tried to go by our script, but some shots were either to difficult to film due to the position of the camera, the 180 degree rule would not have been followed or we added extra shots to try to vary the viewing experience. We worked from 1.30 through till 5.00, resulting in three and half hours put into filming. We tried to film each shot at least twice, to make sure that when we come to edit our film, we have a variety of shots to work with.
We are all very excited on how our film will turn out when we edit it and if we need to film extra shots to keep up with continuity, we will meet again for an extra filming date.

Filming Starts Soon!

As we have now finished our planning (e.g. storyboard, script) and we have paid our deposits on our cameras, we have decided to start filming this weekend.
On Friday 27th November our team shall make our way to my house at 1.30pm to commence filming, we chose this time as we all have free lessons last on friday and we cannot do it on Saturday 28th November as we have dedicated jobs to uphold, and our shifts clash leaving us with no filming time.
We plan to be finished filming by 5.00pm, due to the sunsetting at this time, it will be too dark to film after this time and our continuety will be ruined. If we run out of time and still have shots to film, we will rescedule another filiming day on Sunday 29th November.

Target Audience

I have been doing some research into a common thriller films target audience.
I have come to realise that the most successful and atmopsheric thriller films are rated 15 as there is availability to expand upon your ideas within your film. However, a fifteen will cut off our availability to a younger audience, so I believe that the opening sequence we have been creating should be certified as a 12A, as we can reach a wider audience, but there is a warning that children under twelve will need to be accompanied by a parent to watch the opening. Leaving us with a wider audience, without having any negative feedback from families.

Narrative Theory

Narrative theory studies the devices and conventions controlling the arrangement of a story into a sequence.
Altogether I researched three narrative theories:

TZVETAN TODOROV
Todorov suggested that stories begin with a steadiness where any potentially opposing forces are in balance. This is disrupted by some event, setting in chain a series of events. Problems are solved so that order can be restored to the world of the fiction.

VLADIMIR PROPP
Propp looked at hundreds of folk tales and identified 8 character roles and 31 narrative functions. 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.
The character roles and the functions identified by Propp can be applied to all kinds of narrative, for example in TV news programmes we are often presented with 'heroes' and ‘villains'.


CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS
Levi-Strauss looked at narrative structure in terms of binary oppositions. Binary oppositions are sets of opposite values which reveal the structure of media texts.
An example would be GOOD and EVIL
- we understand the concept of GOOD as being the opposite of EVIL.
Levi -Strauss was not so interested in looking at the order in which events were arranged in the plot. He looked instead for deeper arrangements of themes. For example, if we look at Science Fiction films we can identify a series of binary oppositions which are created by the narrative:
Earth vs. Space,
Good vs. Evil
Humans vs. Aliens
Past vs. Present
Normal vs. Strange
Known vs. Unknown

Ms. Red Storyboard

After vast preparation and advice from my group, I have finally finished the group storyboard! I have taken photos of my storyboard due to the advice of my teacher, and I did not have access to a scanner. The pictures are not amazingly clear, but it gives you a good idea on what is going on. This is the third attempt of a storyboard due to complications with ideas, so this is our final storyboard that we will use for filming.

We may not use every single frame as we have been told our sequence is not to be more than two minutes long, but we shall definatly use it to great effect.

Conventions of a Thriller Film.

Before we started filming our opening sequence, I wanted to research the typical conventions of a thriller and see if they would help my group into making our film more successful.

After some in depth research, I have come to realize that the main conventions of a thriller are found in the sound, lighting and editing. The editing consists of varied camera angles and quick cuts, creating a mysterious atmosphere. The music is usually in a minor tone, creating an eerie feeling for the audience. The lighting is usually used to cast deep shadows and convey darkness.

I am considering how we can use these conventions in our sequence and I think that the quick cuts will help with the uneasy and mysterious atmosphere we which to create.

Ms. Red Script

Scene One - Outside the House
1. Establishing shot - Facing the House.
2. Medium Shot - Looking in through the window at the girl and boy cuddling on the sofa watching television.

Scene Two - Inside the Lounge
1. Medium Shot - Inside the House, Boy and Girl cuddling on the sofa.
Boy: See you after.
Girl: Tra
*Boy and Girl Kiss*
Boy walks towards door, camera pans.
2. Medium Shot - Boy walking out of lounge door and towards front door, he closes the lounge door.
3. Medium Shot - Boy leaving through front door and closing it behind him, boy walks out of frame.
4. Long Shot - Panning the Boy walking down the drive and out of sight.

Scene Three - Doorway (Outside)
1. Medium Close-Up - Miss Red's legs and shoes shown, walking towards front door. (PAN)
2. Extreme Close-Up - Lady in Red opening the door slowly (WITH KEY), door creeks.

Scene Four - The Stairs & Hallway (Inside)
3. Medium Close-Up - Lady in Red's legs walking through the door and closing it behind her.
4. Medium Shot - Girl in Lounge watching television
5. Medium Shot - Lady in Red walking up the stairs. (PAN)
6. Closeup - Girl in Lounge
7. Closeup - Through the banister, Lady in Red walking up the stairs, walks out of frame.
8. Closeup - Girl in Lounge
9. Medium Closeup - Miss Red walking from the stairs down the hallway. (PAN)
10. Closeup - Girl in Lounge on phone.
11. OTS - Miss Red walking to bedroom door.
12. Medium Shot - Silhouette of Miss Red opening door.

Scene Five - Couples Bedroom
1. Extreme Closeup - Miss Red turning the bedroom light on.
2. Close Up - Girl in Lounge
3. Medium Shot - Miss Red walking to warbdrobe and opens doors.
4. OTS - Miss Red looking through the clothes, picks out a red top.
5. Close Up - Top thrown on the floor.
6. Medium Shot - Girl in Lounge
7. Medium Shot - Miss Red closes warbdrobe doors and makes her way over the the dressing table (PAN).
8. Closeup - Miss Red picking up Lipstick.
9. Extreme Close Up - Miss Red putting the lipstick on in reflection
10. Close Up - Girl in Lounge
11. Medium Shot - Miss Red walking over to bed (PAN).
12. Medium Close Up - Miss Red picking up picture of boy and girl.
13. Extreme Close Up - Miss Red putting her thumb over girl
14. Close Up - Miss Red slamming the picture face down.
FADE
Screen goes black, followed by a gun firing.
We will then have white Gothic font reading "Some People are Often Misread" but 'Misread' will be in Red. 'Misread' will then dissolve to read "Ms. Red"

- This is an outline of our script for our film "Ms. Red" - we have all came to a decision on our ideas, and each idea was an input by each member of the group equally. We may make minor changes whilst filming as ideas might spring to us during this time, but this is a basic idea on our opening sequence.

Character Ideas.

There will be two characters in our opening sequence. Our main character "The Lady in Red" is our glamorous, yet dangerous serial killer. We want to portray her in the following ways:

Glamorous, Mysterious, Elegant, Sexy, Pretty, Rich and Posh.

As we have almost no dialogue in our opening sequence - the only way we can portray this characters persona is by her appearance.
This is why her costume will consist of a silky black dress, a red coat and red heels, making her seem well-dressed and wealthy. We also wish to give our character either a large black hat, or a veiled hat so we can cover her facial features, to add a mysterious element to her identity. We will also give her long, curled hair and blood red lipstick.

Our Second Character will be the murder victim himself. He is a young male and we wish to portray him as being:
Vulnerable, Misled, Naive Innocent.
His costume will consist of a shirt or jumper with jeans and shoes.

Opening Sequence Planning.

We have decided to go with our first idea out of our three final ideas shown in my previous post. We agreed as a group that we found this idea the most exciting, as we had many ideas and aspects for this opening sequence.

Opening Sequence Title: Ms. Red.

Plot Outline/Summary: Our Main Character 'the lady in red' is a serial killer who intises her vitims with her beauty and charm before brutally murdering them. She never gets caught, and enjoys that fact and continues to kill.

Opening sequence outline/summary: The Lady in Red enters a surburban house and has flash backs of the murder she has just commited. It ends with a phone call to 999 and her laughing on the phone. Showing her pure pleasure of her murders.

Characters: The Lady in Red, The Murder Victim and The Phone Operator

Mise en scene: Monochrome lighting, Suburbs, Interior of house, Close-up of specific items.

Settings: A surburban street, and the interior and exterior of the house in which the murder took place.

Locations: Rebecca Baker's Household.

Costumes: The Lady in Red: Long Red Coat, Slinky Black Dress and Red Accesories (hats, heels etc.) The Murder Victim: Shirt/Jumper and Jeans

Props: Knife, phone, fake blood.

Lighting: Sinister but not too dark to ruin effect and loose important actions. When editing our film we can retouch some sequences lighting to help with the atmosphere that we which to create.

Title Sequence Analysis - Secret Window Opening.

The beginning of the film 'Secret Window' starts with the digetic sound of the windscreen wipers, this sound starts when the opening credits are still playing, before the opening sequence begins. This results in the digetic sound being left to the audiences imagination, and the audience assume this sound is a heartbeat. This sound continues into the first shot of the opening sequence; which is a close-up through the main characters car windscreen.

The Style of the opening credits is Gothic and Old, and the main title 'Secret Window' is in contrast to the other white credits as it is bold and red. This contrast to red in my opinion is a connotation to blood, death and maybe even murder. Techniques like this, give us clues to what might happen in the film, without giving too much information away.
A non-digetic voice over is used in this sequence to convey the thoughts of the main character as he sits in his car. The first words spoken in this voice over are “turn around”; suggesting that something suspicious and eerie is happening, or about to happen, involving the main character by something he has seen or done.
The colour during the opening sequence is monochrome throughout, which creates a cold and dark atmosphere, this atmosphere is enhanced by the characters dark, dull coloured and layered clothing and the white snow in the scene. This creates a contrast when the bold, blood-red motel sign enters the frame as the main character reverses the car.
When it becomes obvious that the character is trying to convince himself not to “go back there”, the audience is faced with questions; and where this place is that he is eager to leave but at the same time tempted to return to. The Character reverses back into the motel, drives back out and despite trying to convince himself, the man drives his car back to the motel and leaves the car to enter a motel room; he leaves the frame of the camera shot briefly, then reappears in front of the car. The camera appears to film this from inside the car, creating the impression that the man may be being watched. The Character seems indecisive, hense driving back and forth - this makes us believe the main character is shifty and very parinoid.
There is an OTS shot as the man finds a couple in bed within the room he enters. It is obvious here to the audience that the woman is ‘cheating on’ the main character; we are led to believe this by the way the main character reacts to them. He appears to be in great distress from the way he paces back and forth the room and buries his head in his hands.
Whilst this is happening, the wind from the poor weather is intensified, I believe the wind is a representation of the shock and agony going on in the main characters mind; it is not clwhe wind is used to represent the chaos and shock in the main character’s mind; it is not clear whether this sound is diegetic or non-diegetic, but we know that the sound is intensified.
When this scene ends, there is a dissolve edit to a lake which is a vibrant blue colour; this is in contrast to the monochromatic colours seen previously in the opening scene.
There is a continuous panning shot from the lake which enters a wooden cabin through a small window on the top floor. I believe this is significant as it in referance to the title of the film. This panning shot continues through the house, making good use of mise-en-scene by showing the items on the desk including papers and a laptop. Also clutter on the surfaces also add to the effect of the mise-en-scene which creates a realistic atmosphere. The same continuous panning shot then pans down to the ground floor of the house and through a mirror. The main character is visible lying on a sofa in the reflection in the mirror. I believe this camera technique of going through the mirror may have some underlying clue to what the film might be about.
The music which is audible from the cross-dissolve from the motel to the lake, the music is repetitive and atonal, this creates a very eerie atmosphere. The tune is played on a cello creating a deeper, darker and a harsher sound. Stringed instruments are regularly used in thriller films to create a haunted feeling.

On Friday Morning, we got into our groups of four and started to discuss some narrative ideas. My group members are Abbie Jones, Danielle Evans and Jamie Hyett. After some major discussion, we have decided to make a short title sequence, of a woman dressed entirely in red, the camera will only show her lips which will be coloured a deep red to keep to the colour scheme and to add mystery. The sequence will start with the woman in red smoking a cigerette with flash backs of a vicious murder and a washing of a bloody knife, this idea of course we have gained from watching the shower scene of pyscho. We decided all of these flashbacks will be in black and white tone, to again add a somewhat feeling of mystery to our opening, with music playing over the top of these clips, maybe using chromatic notes and all in a minor chord. Once the woman has put out her cigerette, she will then make her way down the hall, step over the body and dial on an old style telephone "999", the operator will repeat "hello? can you hear me" until the woman in red whispers "i just killed my boyfriend" and then hangs up the phone, leaving the screen black, with the sound of the dial tone and the woman giggling softly.

We believe this would be a very spooky and intresting title sequence to film and we are very excited to start filming our project.
from beckyy(: x

Media Workshop

As our Media Workshop was cancelled last week (due to fire alarm interuptions) we had our re-arranged Media Workshop on Friday 2nd October.
We worked on our continuity exercise, where we had to have two characters, one walking through a door and then communicating with other person while trying to include as many different camera shots as possible without making it looking unrealistic.
I was in a team with Jamie Hyett and Richard Parrish, I feel we worked well as a group as we worked to our strengths and helped others with their weaknesses, and took onboard all advice and information given by Mrs Slater, and the helpers who ran the workshop.
Our group, unfortunatly, had accidentally taped over our establishing shop by pressing record accidentally in class. Jamie, Richard and I were very dissapointed as we felt we had a really good range of shots and had edited most of our clips already. We did this editing using the software 'imovie' on the Apple Macs which helped us cut out parts of our film that we didn't need and shorten clips that were too long to keep our audience intrested.
Due to our accident loosing our establishing shot, our team will be spending some free time, re-filming our work to make sure we have efficient clips and a wide range of camera shots to assure we get reviews and feedback for our work.
from becky(: xx

Storyboards Information

Once an idea for script is written for a film or animation, the next step is to make a storyboard. A storyboard visually tells the story of an animation or film panel by panel, like in a comic book.

A Storyboard convays:-
- What characters are in the frame, how are they moving?
- What are they saying/doing?
- How much time has passed from each frame.
- Where the "camera" is in the scene. Close or faraway? Is the camera moving?

Creating a storyboard helps a filmmaker plan their project out shot by shot. You can make changes to your storyboard before you start animating or filming, instead of changing your mind later. You will also be able to talk about your animation or film with others and gain feedback on your ideas.

Here is some storyboard language I learnt while studying Storyboards:-

Close-up Shot: A close range of distance between the camera and the subject.

Dissolve: A transition between two shots, where one shot fades away and simultaneously another shot fades in.

Fade: A transition from a shot to black where the image gradually becomes darker is a Fade Out; or from black where the image gradually becomes brighter is a Fade In.

High Camera Angle: A camera angle which looks down on its subject making it look small, weak or unimportant.

Jump Cut: A rapid, jerky transition from one frame to the next, either disrupting the flow of time or movement within a scene or making an abrupt transition from one scene to another.

Level Camera Angle: A camera angle which is even with the subject; it may be used as a neutral shot.

Long Shot: A long range of distance between the camera and the subject, often providing a broader range of the setting.

Low Camera Angle: A camera angle which looks up at its subject; it makes the subject seem important and powerful.

PAN: A steady, sweeping movement from on point in a scene to another

POV: A shot which is understood to be seen from the POV of a character within the scene

Reaction Shot: A shot of someone looking off screen

Tilt: Using a camera on a tripod, the camera moves up or down to follow the action.

Zoom: Use of the camera lens to move closely towards the subject.

Film Stills

Saul Bass

This week, we were told to research the work of Saul Bass.
We were informed that some of his work is found at the start of some of Albert Hitchcock's films, such as Psycho and Vertigo. We then watched the openings to both films in our media lessons, and made notes about what we found interesting about his work. I found both openings very interesting and very creative.

Analysis of Vertigo

Vertigo starts off with a close-up on a woman's face, first at her lips and then the camera travels to her eyes. Her eyes twitch from side to side and seem to be watering, which i believe creates an image of fear from the woman, which gets us thinking immediately why she feels this way. The Camera seems to loose itself in the woman's eyes, the use of close-ups as well, shows off the woman's beauty immediately. These close-ups remain under a dark light, creating a negative and sinister feeling. The woman's eyes suddenly strech wider, as the screen turns red, this paints a very negative image as red is the colour of blood and death. The title comes out from the woman's eyes, I believe Saul Bass wanted to exaggerate the inner emotion behind a person's eyes that cannot be expressed into words, as the graphics that follow, also come out of the eye and are kaleidoscopic shapes in many colours, that represent the eye's shape. The credits also appear slowly beside these kaleidoscopic shapes, i believe to create atmosphere and anticipation. Also the music used in the title sequence is intresting, he has used slow, dramatic music which contains a lot of crecendos and repetative trills, this again helps to portray the sinister mood put across from the graphics and imagery.

Analysis of Psycho
The opening to Psycho contains no imagery or use of camera as Saul Bass has just decided to use horizontal and vertical lines to accompany the title sequence. These horizontal and vertical lines appear in time with the music which is much more disharmonious compared to Vertigos soundtrack, the music also contains an ostinati of staccato notes, to create a tense atmosphere. The font throughtout the title sequence does not change, and there is no colour also. The vertical and horizontal lines used, join together to create the title "Psycho" and to show the other credits, I believe this is a very good technique because an idea so simple, has made a very clear and negative atmopshere.

I felt like I have learnt alot from these title sequences and it has given me a few ideas to discuss with my group about how we will start our own short film opening. Saul Bass' work again, has made me learn that is not all about the immediate effect of the imagery, and that the most simple ideas can be the most effective.
from becky xoxox

My First Week of Media Studies :D!

I've found this first week of Media Studies amazingly interesting!

I've never studied Media Studies before, and the five hours of Media Studies I have had have been been informative! We spent our lessons watching other short films made by other students studying Media Studies, we made note of some of the camera techniques and effects that we saw and here are the three camera techniques I learnt in my lessons:

Match on Action:-

To use this technique in editing, cut from one shot to another view that matches the action and pace of the first shot. This creates an impression of continuity, despite the fact that you may have filmed the shots weeks apart.

Shot-reverse shot:-

This effect is so common it is impossible to imagine film or TV without it. Nevertheless, it takes some practice to master. When two characters are in conversation, film one character looking off screen to where the other character is imagined to be, and vise versa. Ensure that one character faces left and the other faces right, so you can edit between a character talking and a character listening.

180 degree:-

When filming the brief sequence of action in the room, you need to storyboard the scene so that an imaginary line is drawn across the room. cutting it in half.

When using a variety of shots for point of view and switching between the characters it is essential that all shots are filmed from the same side of the line. If you cross the line when filming, the characters will appear to exchange places and continuity will be lost. The character who faces right will appear to face left, and it will seem as if both characters are facing in the same direction when they are supposed to be talking to each other!

By learning these three techniques I can now better my own coursework while filming.

from becky xoxo

Welcome to my first ever blog!

Hello Everyone!!
welcome to my blog :)!

I've never even thought about creating a blog before in my life, but this looks like it's going to be a very exciting process! I feel as if i'm going to learn alot throughout this experience and it's going to be easier to keep track of what I did and what I learnt within my media studies classes.
Today was the birth of my blog, after I learnt how to work the apple mac computer of course, but now I feel confident and keen to crack on!
So, In conclusion, I hope you enjoy my Blogs and I don't bore you too much!
from Becky! xoxo