Influential Opening Sequences

Possible Location Idea

This is a sketch of a possible location in the opening scene of our film. The place that I sketched is in the Docklands area. This position has potential because good ideas came up in our group discussions and we can link themes and genres to this setting. The genre we have in mind for our film is "British Gangster" and so the area is renowned for business, with the huge buildings with the backdrop of the Thames and so we could link our film to business Gangsters, where the organisation or firm operate a corrupt and violent buiness and therefore are connected to the criminal underworld.

The ideas we have come up with so far is that the person with the briefcase is on the phone to another character and the camera will switch between these two characters  when the person with the briefcase walks passed the ally and is either shot or abducted  by the person in the shadows. The person on the receiving end of the call just hears the phone cut out and is left wondering and worried. Location changes to a warehouse where the abducted man is being interragated by a rival gang.

Creative Brainstorming

Pulp Fiction

The first image we see on screen as the film begins is the definition of the word ‘pulp’ which has been quoted from the American heritage dictionary. The definition reads “a magazine or book containing lurid subject matter and being characteristically printed on rough, unfinished paper”. This practically defines that film as a messy, unfinished comic style movie which may link to the story not being in order throughout. The scene following introduces two very important characters, ‘pumpkin’ and ‘honeybun’. The scenario is set inside a tacky American diner with the couple both eating breakfast, whilst casually discussing their recent robbery attempts and how they could improve on their next crime, this is almost comical, especially when they take fourth their plan to rob the diner that they are in. Both of them stand up waving pistols around, shouting and swearing at the customers informing them of the robbery.


 Already from this short opening of the movie we understand that these are two of the main characters, they live in America, may not have much money as they are in a cheap diner, they are a criminals and that the film is going to be associated with gangsters. After this short prologue the scene breaks off and the title credits roll. This shows the title ‘PULP FICTION’ centred boldly in the screen with the actors names appearing in front of it, also accompanied by the lively soundtrack which is a rendition of the song 'Misirlou' . This really draws the audience in because not only is it a remake of a very old but famous song, but it is also very uplifted and successfully sets the tone for the rest of the film.

Opening Sequence Evaluation; Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Snatch

In the opening sequence of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it starts off with a radio voiceover which describes the events which have taken place. Even before the radio voice over is heard by the audience, a short summary of what is going to happen is read which explains the deaths of 5 young travellers who were murdered whilst travelling through rural Texas. Immediately, along with the title of the film, introduces the genre.

Furthermore, during the opening sequence, you see , quick clips of body parts kept in jars, it looks like a collection of human organs which was kept in a dark and eerie room. Along with the radio voiceover there is a ambient soundtrack which also causes more eeriness. The soundtrack builds throughout the opening sequence, which builds more and more tension.

Finally in this opening sequence, the shot turns all red which has connotations of danger and blood this shows the audience from the very beginning that blood could be spilt during this film.

Snatch

Immediately from this opening sequence you can tell this film is going to be very fast paced becuase of the fast soundtrack and quick transitions from character to character. Moreover, in this particular opening sequence, it introduces all the main characters as the titles flash over the action. In this opening sequence it moves on charater to character, so for example, one of the characters throws money, it cuts to another character in a different location and the money lands on the table.

This opening sequence easily identifies the time period, as you can tell from the mise-en-scene it is modern. Also the font of the titles is unique, the genre can also be indentified, as the opening sequence introduces the whole 'gang'. You can see that the fast paced music and the actions of the characters that this film is going to be action, fast paced thriller.

I believe that both of these opening sequences subvert the conventional opening sequence of a mainstream movie. Texas Chainsaw Massacre subverts this as it gives away the plot and storyline from the very beginning and the radio voiceover tells you details, but the movie shows you, so it almost travels back in time to show you the events. Moreover, it doesnt introduce the characters immediately but it introduces the setting, genre and the time period. Whereas, Snatch introduces the characters, time period, and genre effectively, it only gives you a vague look at the characters and the story. But, both of these opening sequence suceed in making the viewer want to watch on to see what happens.

Speed Evaluation (Opening Sequence)

In this essay; I will analyse the Opening sequence to this film; 'Speed', following the codes and conventions.

• Establish setting
• Introduce Main Characters (can vary from film to film)
• Establish genre
• Story line
• Establish time period
• Soundtrach will relate to genre

Titles And Credits

• Distinct 
• Appropriate
• Logo Size and Font
• Bold and Visual

The title sequence begins with the '20th Century Fox' opening in which I plan to use on our final task as it looks professional and worked well with my GCSE film. It then cuts to an three minute shot of a camera moving down with an elevator. The actual titles go well with the colour and contrast of the sequence of a slight blue effect as the titles are bold and blue, with a white and black type background which helps it to stand out. So it is bold and visual and appropriate to the setting. It is of a good size, especially when the actual film title comes on as it as fairly large and comes into you as if it is sucking you into the letter. I feel this whole aspect was very effective as it had all the typical titles used and stood out with the logo, size and font, making it bold and visual.

It does not follow the typical codes and conventions of a title sequence however. The setting isn't established well as it is just an eleavator  moving down or the time period. All the audience could gain from that is that has to be within the time period in which elevators are used, so it is modern. The non diagetic soundtrack is quite dramatic and sets a pace for the film. It vividly increases when the actual film title is displayed and then ranges. At the end it start to fade out in which the camera starts to pan towards the first and only character we see. Usually the title sequence would display the main characters used aswell; however this only displays one character, so we can only assume that he is important. We don't learn a lot from him as he is quite a plain looking man wearing only a suit and opens a door which has 'caution' on it. However this could show that he is daring. The genre of this film is hard to depict, I could only assume from the soundtrack used that it is perhaps an action film as it is fast paced aswell as the actual title of 'Speed' which perhaps gives it away.

The storyline also isn't established as we only watch an elevator move down and a character open a door. The opening title sequence should entice the audience to want to watch more, however this film does perhaps the opposite as it is long and boring.

I don't think this was a effective opening sequence at all as it doesn't do most of the conventions needed to make it enticing, exciting and successful.

Coventions of an Opening Sequence

-Titles
-Establishes Setting
-Introduces Characters
-Introduce Stroyline
-Introduce Genre

Self evaluation of prelim task

After careful analysis and observation over our own work; and peer assessment from our fellow classmates; some written and some through video blogs, I have devised a final analysis assessing my group's prelimanary task. Overall, I believe it was successful. There are some errors in which i will address however this has only taught us to think through things really carefully and closely analyse every shot that we do. Being the first time as a group working together on filming and editing, I feel that we worked well however had some distractions.

I feel we followed the brief well, we had some good continuity however there was a slight failure in one of the shots which i will address. We completed well the task of creating a piece of dialogue, consisting of two characters in which one walks in and exchanges conversation with the other character. The cinematography aspect of it was done excellently.

We used a wide range of proffessional-looking shots. We used them all in ways that would reflect continuity and so that the whole sequence looked proffessional. We used the shots of; extreme close up, close up, medium, long shot, extreme long shot, two shot, over the shoulder, high and low angle etc. We also followed the 180 rule well in the conversational part in which is vividly evident. Match on action and shot reverse shot was also used and very effective. Continuity editing enabled us to cut footage out in which was not needed as continuity was not well as they did not follow, however we did error in this on a part of the sequence.

We found as a group that the main imperfection of our piece that was apparent to the other groups assessing our work was the continuity. It was the part in which the door closes, then in another shot it closes again. I think a major fault in this was that Luke did not stay in the same position in the sequence of opening the door and everytime the camera was stopped he would move, then when it was going to be filmed again, he would attempt to be in the right position. Also the lighting changed from outside to inside, which made the scene confusing. We thought the idea of slamming the door again as Luke walks up to the desk was really good, however we didn't think through that we had already filmed the door being slammed. Background noise was also a problem, however this can't fully be helped by us as we are working in an environment where there are lots of surroundings which we are unable to control. So there would be clips in which had noise then others that didn't.

We didn't do much with the editing, we purely just pieced each shot together. As it was such a simple task we didn't feel the need to do a great deal of editing such as, green screen (which i had done in my GCSE task which worked brilliantly), changing the colour (which was also favourable in my GCSE task), background noises, diagetic and non diagetic. Also a soundtrack. Little effort was put into this.

We learnt a lot from this task which I certainly will take on board when completing our group task. These main points are to fully think through each shot and why it is effective, to have high quality and complex editing to give a proffessional look, have a interesting plot and to just work better as a team in not getting distracted as we did run out of time and had to rush.

self evaluation of preliminary task

after reviewing the video of our preliminary video as  well as retrieving feedback from fellow students via video and text, i now know how successful our work was and how well i worked individually. Overall, i believe i worked well and as a group we made a fairly successful piece considering it was our first attempt at anything like this as a group, although there are a few things that we possibly could of done better during the preparation and filming.

we firstly noticed that there was a slight lack of continuity. this was because of a door that did not stay in the same position throughout the film, instead it was more closed in some shots than it was in others. i also believe that some of the acting could of been performed slightly better, but this is something that can be easily worked on with our final film  until we are happy.
editing skills could also be made a little bit better because we was fairly limited in what we could do as none of us have great experience in movie editing. i think we may need to work out 1 or maybe 2 people to do the editing for the final film because that way, they will get more practice and therefore become more fluent with the editing process. or will also give the rest of the group more time to be doing other things such as filming

We also used humour in the film which we found worked well because it kept the audience interested. there was a very positive response to our light hearted, and almost comic video. In our main video we are more likely to keep it serious because not only was it slowing us down, but it is also very hard to make a film funny without making it seem too tacky.

Overall i think we did well because it was only a prelim task, but i do think our main film will have to dramatically improve to achieve a high grade .

Conventions: Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End

Conventions are different in this film opening as opposed to other film openings, which in a way is good as it is original and some what unique. Pirates Of The Caribbean At World’s End is different due to the fact that it is the third film in the series, which may change some of the conventions of a film opening.

The makers of the film assume that viewers have already seen the prequels to this film and so do don’t have to establish main characters as such, unless there is a new addition that will considerably affect the plot. The traditional main characters are not seen in this scene however the main villain is, so in a way this convention is upkept, in a small way. The opening sequence establishes a setting of a navy fortress which is controlled by then English and are hanging people who have been named guilty of piracy. You see a young boy step up to the gallows holding a silver piece who at this point could be considered to be the main focus of this scene. Comical humour is seen when the executioner gets him a stool to stand on so he can reach the noose.

Chants break out amongst the condemned pirates which then scare the guards resulting in them backing off. The main villain shows no compassion for the pirates and continues the execution. The child is hung and drops the silver coin he was holding, the camera then focusing on the slow motion spinning coin, as the background fades black with a distinctive mist with the title fading in over the falling coin. the films distinctive font type reflects the theme of pirates as well as the title of the film “Pirates Of The Caribbean“. The main title fades out then another title fades in as soon as the coin hit’s the floor, “At World’s End” which is symbolic as it emphasises the point that the coin is now motionless on the floor.

The genre of the film has already been set as well as other features of continuity such as main characters, setting, plot, however the plot for this particular film has yet to unravel as the previous film was left on a cliff hanger, so viewers who have seen te previous film will have a certain understanding of what the plot will be however they are unsure as to how it will develop.

Conventions: Back To The Future

Title sequence begins with white writing on a black background which is a good contrast to enable the writing to be visible and distinctive. the title sequence introduces the director, the renowned Steven Spielberg, which then leads to the main title which is in a bigger font, different style font which is a logo font, and is again on the black background, these factors make the title visible and distinct.

the title "Back To The Future" is introduced with the sound of ticking clocks which relates to the theme of time, which is the key concept of the film. the scene then opens to live action where the camera focuses on a number of different clocks with the background noise, the ambient, of ticking clocks, continuing, which again relates to the theme of the title, time, which you could assume reflects the plot of the film involving time. The opening credits are still appearing on screen over the live action of the camera sweeping slowly across the room which then aids in establishing setting, which is of a room or home. The credits list the actors who star in the film which helps, in a way, introduce the characters. the room has a lot of clocks in it which continues to add to the ambience, the background noise, where the camera then shows newspaper cuttings on the wall headlined as "Brown Mansion Destroyed" as well as black and white framed pictures who may later indicate are scientists or inventors as we see gadgets are triggered when the alarm clock goes off. The main feature that helps to establish plot is the radio and television. The clocks the radio and the television are examples of digetic sound which means that it is heard within the world of the film and so characters on screen can also hear it and not just the audience.

The radio establishes the setting as being located in an area called "Hill Valley" and the television turns on to the morning news where a news anchor reports that plutonium has been stolen from a nuclear power plant, and as the camera sweeps slowly towards the door you notice the gadgets are set off on a daily routine however we, the audience, may notice that the owner of the house is absent and has been for a while as you notice the toaster produces bread that is beyond burned and the electronic arm opens a can of dog food into an already overflowing bowl. The bowl is labelled "Einstein" after the scientist, and with this in mind and the previous pictures framed on the wall and the gadgets you may assume that the home belongs to a scientist/inventor which adds to the plot.

The main character enters via the door where we have a low shot of the door opening which reveals a person wearing trainers jeans and has a skateboard. the character puts the key back under the mat and enters closing the door behind him. he calls out for "doc" which then indicates that this is not his home however he knows the homeowner. he then rolls his skateboard across the floor where it bumps into a big yellow crate under the bed which was out of sight and labelled "Plutonium handle with care" again establishes the plot as the owner of the home was related to the plutonium theft mentioned on the news.

The character is then better introduced when we see him pressing a number of dials which appears to be an oversized amp which is connected to his guitar, this establishes the character as being "cool" because what we have already learned he skateboards, and can play the guitar. this is re-enforced when we see his whole body where he is dressed contempary to the time (1980's) and wearing the tinted aviator glasses. he plays a chord on the guitar which ends badly for the character as he is propelled across the room and into a shelf where its contents fall on top of him. The phone then rings and he hastily gets up and answers it. the phone call comes from a distressed "doc" who asks to meet the character, "Marty", if he could meet him because he has fallen upon a "breakthrough" (which now justifies that Doc is an inventor/scientist and so the character is established apart from the fact we don’t know what he looks like yet) and he needs Marty's assistance. the conversation develops to establish that the clicks in the house ring at 8:00 and are now 25 minutes behind where then Marty then exclaims that he is late for school and hangs up and gathers his belongings and heads for the door where an upbeat song is then heard which is non-digetic and it is for the purpose of the audience and the character in the film cannot hear it.

Conventions

• Establish setting
• Introduce Main Characters (can vary from film to film)
• Establish genre
• Story line
• Establish time period
• Soundtrach will relate to genre

Titles And Credits

• Distinct 
• Appropriate
• Logo Size and Font
• Bold and Visual

Self Evaluation of Prelim Task

In this essay i will review my groups preliminary task. We have received feedback from classmates through written means and also video blogs on what they thought of our piece. The overall reaction to our film was good. Also we enjoyed the job we did on our film as we included a range of shots and followed the brief.

The only major problem and negative feedback we received was the fact that contnuity was not followed as the detective in our task had to shut the door, the door must have been jammed as you saw him slam the door and it slightly reopened, but in the next scene the door was closed. In my opinion if we had a room with a conventional door then it would have shut with no problem.

Despite the continuity error, i felt this has gotten us fully prepared for when we make our opening sequence  as we did a good job with our cinematography also we found editing easy. For the entirity of our task we kept the camera steady and also followed the 180 degree rule and used match on action effectively and we used shot reverse shot.

Finally to improve our task i believe we could have found a solution to the door situation, possibly used a better setting to avoid something like that happening again.

Peer assessment.

This group did meet the brief well with the conversations but put and the brief they didn't meet was both people sitting down. When Luke walks through the door and we see him continuing the journey in the outside of the door. This worked well. They used shot reverse shot well with the dialogue and shots. The film flows very well, the editing fits in nicely and the  shots were good. The only one continuity error was that the door didn't suit and in the next shot the door was ina  different position. The camera is very smooth, no jumps or major clitches were seen. As we have only watched it on the projects, for what I observed the lighting was good. I was able to hear the dialogue and other noises made very well, it was clear and easy to understand. I saw a wide variety of shot types that were used very well. I counted atleast enough to have a good shot range.

Self-Evaluation Of Prelim Task

While looking back at our completed task we received feedback from other groups, some written, and some were video blogs. Personally reviewing our own work I feel as if we did a very good job, especially considering that it was our first attempt at filming and editing.

On reflection of the assignment I feel as if we followed the brief, as there were aspects of continuity and overall completing the task of creating a piece of dialogue, a conversation, where a person walks into a room, and exchanges dialogue with another person. We also followed the brief to create cinematography, using a range of shots and ensuring the camera was steady, as well as editing the film clips after, putting what we had learned into practice.

Our prelim film clip integrated shot reverse shot, the 180 rule, match on action, and a variety of shots such as extreme close up, long shot, medium shot, low angle shots. Continuity editing enabled us to cut out footage that we did not need and to combine the remaining footage to create a running film that ensured the clips flowed into one.

Continuity however was one of the areas we found problems when re-examining, as you may have seen on reviews, the door in one scene did not close and reopened slightly, and in the next scene, the door was closed. We cannot be fully blamed however, the door was unable to fully close and as a result of the detective, myself, slamming the door, it re-opened. We could have prevented it though; the door itself didn’t fully close so for future reference we would have to ensure that we get a working door or to ensure that the door closes (if necessary), and to overall to be more aware of the surroundings and to ensure that continuity is followed. Another flaw I had spotted in the continuity was background noises, as we were working in close proximity to another group and the fact that members of staff and other students were using the stairwell at the time and so you could say it was hard to avoid.

Never the less the prelim task was a success and we managed to piece together a short film where dialogue was exchanged between two characters that used a variety of shots and had continuity.

peer assessment

Evaluation

When looking at Vicki, Ellis, Ben and Luke’s group we thought it was quite dark and this made it harder to watch. The dialogue was also quite hard to understand at one pint when Luke was speaking. The dialogue also had quite an echo sound. Their video met the brief and there was a successful variety of shots, the camera was held well and it wasn’t shaky which made it easier to watch. There was a use of shot reverse shot which made the dialogue scene better. There was a bit of bad continuity though, at one point the door didn’t close and then when it filmed the door again it was closed, yet in the previous scene it had been left open. The light changed badly and this disturbed the continuity again.  The change between the shots did flow very well though.

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