Showcase

Today each group presented their current copy (working or finished) of their opening sequences to the rest of the class in order to gain relevant feedback to better our O.S'. Agreed compliments from our audience consisted of our variety of camera angles, believeable acting and steady shooting, although I  more so looking for criticism as I thought this would be immensely useful. Below are some of the points and suggestions critques highlighted along with what I plan to do to improve if not rid of these;

• Credit font did not match the main Title and was too girly therefore looked odd - change font of credits, to suit genre of film and create more tension and texture
• Following footsteps scene was too short - lengthen amount of time feet are shown for and how many times it flashes from one character back to the other, cleaner cuts
• Black out was random - show a close up shot of the light switch and a black gloved hand switching it off to make more sense
• Whimpers Shauna makes are weird and not needed - mute sound for this clip or cut it out
• Ending shot of screaming face kind of ruins it, makes it cheesy type horrow instead of scary type horror - delete this and have scream in blackout as ending instead, also creeping more towards a trailer with this clip
• Few bad cuts/ jumps spotted - not obvious on mac but are when blown up on big screen so must correct this
• Follows Shauna in house for too long - not sure I agree with this, I think it enables the audience to build a relationship up with her and feel for her when they sense something is going to happen to her
• Couldnt' understand what 'boyfriend' was saying in second phone call - perhaps re-shoot

Testing Fonts

My initial thoughts when trying to decide which Font to use for our opening credits were size and colour but actually there is much more theory behind the final product. Possibles are previewed below stating my opinion beside them.

Opening Sequence Analysis - 'Panic Room'

'It was supposed to be the safest room in the house.'

Panic Room (2002)
Genres: Thriller, Drama
Certificate: 15
Directors: David Fincher
Writers: David Koepp
Cast: Jodie Foster, Kristen Stewart, Forest Whitaker
Production company: Columbia pictures corporation

A woman and her teenage daughter become imprisoned in the panic room of their own house by 3 criminals. SOURCE - IMDb

I chose to analyse the opening of Panic Room because it is similar in how it seeks to scare its audience (as I learnt watching the whole film), and its genre is similar to that of the film I would want to produce. Before the film begins the production company is shown, in this case Columbia. As the screen then fades to black sounds generally found in a busy street are heard along with an eerie piece of music. We then see an establishing shot of a city in the U.S.A which is evident by the shape of the buildings where Columbia is again shown. It then flicks to the next shot which is of a building closer to the distance in the previous shot as an actor’s name is present. This is continued in a cohesive manner, occasionally moving from one shot to the next in a more exciting transition. The buildings shadows are included, likely to be to make the city appear darker to set the scene. The camera movement I found interesting because the camera is always slightly edging forward it is never completely stationary. The range of different angles used are also interesting.  Behind the credits showing on buildings there is traffic and pedestrians present in the background just to clarify that the film is not set in a ghost town. The music that had remained throughout all of the previous clips mentioned then changes suddenly when the title of the film is shown to highlight the name and from this point forward the music is of a different nature, louder, more dominant and fast paced with a slight ticking sound joining it. The amount of time between each new shot speeds up also. After a short time the music then returns to the soundtrack from the beginning of the sequence only with added sounds. The credits them self appear 3D and don’t stand out against the buildings because they are grey. Just over 2 minutes in, the background changes to a park in daylight with a reasonable amount of people spread out, this is when the dialogue begins but it is off-screen. The main character is then established, walking towards the camera in a street, the music is still faintly present.

Copy of - The script

This is the script I prepared a few days prior to filming, for both the actors (to learn dialogue in advance) and the Camera crew/ Director (for other purposes such as knowing where to be, where to shoot from and where to expect the actors to appear from) to use when rehearsing and filming our Opening Sequence.

Where it all begun - Story Boards

Above is a copy of the story board I created over the christmas holidays. I didn't include the type of shot because I think its obvious what time of shot it is from my sketches :) nor did I specify the time of each shot because this was really just a rough copy and I wasn't sure how long each would be. Plus I knew there would be lot's of changed made to it.

Researching into - Genre + Audience

Below is a tally chart I created to explore into different age groups, finding out what their favourite genre for film is. I asked 40 people from each age group and these are the results I got:

As you can see from the chart, Horror was popular with all age groups but teens and under 25's in particular. Therefore I decided the Opening Sequence story board I was to design would be of this genre, targeting 16-25 year old's as my audience, I thought this wouldn't be to difficult seeing as I am in that category so I would just ask friends of a similar age what they thought as well as creating something I myself would enjoy.

Preliminary Sequence

TASK:

To film and edit a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down opposite another character. They converse. Should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. Last a maximum of 2 minutes.

The above clip is of my groups Preliminary Sequence demonstrating some examples of successful camera work and exploration of angles, in the preparation of filming our Opening Sequence.

I would have liked to have more time to plan this exercise and include credits. Shooting and editing took 2 hours in total.