Preparation For The Opening Of Our Feature Film

Props List
+Bags
+A Knife
+Fake Blood
Costumes
Girl 1 (Woods Scene & House Scene) - Jeans, Trainers, Tank top, Hoodie
Girl 2 (House Scene) - Jeans, Top, Boots, Fur Coat
Boy 1 (Woods Scene) - All Black - Trousers, Shoes, Jacket
Make Up
Girl 1 (In Woods) - Running Mascara, smudged eyeliner.
Girl 1 (House Scene) - [Natural Look] Blusher, Mascara
Girl 2(House Scene) - Mascara, eye liner, light eyeshadow, lipstick
Boy 1 (Woods Scene) - Face Not Seen
Locations
+Hampstead Heath Woods
+House Hall Way
Music / Sound Effects
+Panting
+Footsteps
+Room Tone
+Title appearance noise
+Scary/ Gloomy music (Produced by us)
Casting
Girl 1 - Claudia Rollinson
Girl 2 - Aimee Wright
Boy 1 - James Yarwood

Ideas For The Opening Of Our Feature Film

Our Group: Gabriella Kingsley (Me), Claudia Rollinson & Douglas kay
we began by desiding what genre of film we wanted to create and we desided on a slasher horror. We researched many different opening sequances to this genre of film and we came across one inparticular opening sequance from the film Shrooms that we wanted to focus on and re make into our own.
(Click here For Opening Of Shrroms)

We first Focused on the titles that were used not only in this film but in many others too which all seemed to use white writing on black backgrounds. In most sequences the music began as the titles did to give the spooky feeling as the credits start. Shrooms then opens with a woman running in the woods, the camera in this is very shaky and is a very open framed shot. It then cuts from her running to a house and it continuously cuts from the woman running to different objects in the house and anonymous people which we don't see clearly. The titles then re appear and then it cuts to a normal scene with two women sitting on a plane. The audience immediately has been given the impression that what we had just scene must be in the future.

As a group we liked this idea so created our own story line similar to this opening but instead we replaced the house with a man walking through the woods holding a knife with blood over it and replaced the plane with a scene with a group of teenagers packing a car t go on a camping trip. After we had decided our rough idea we began to script it and begun the preparation for filming.

Production Of Film Cycle

5 Stages Of Media Production
All texts follow one particular production cycle.
(1) Research and development stage
- Looking at opening title sequences and ideas
(2) Pre-Production - Preparing for production
- Storyboarding / Shot List
- Locations (Findings) [Photographing locations]
- Casting
- Budgeting
- Scheduling + Props List +Costumes +Equipment +Actors / Extras +Make Up + Music +Sound Effects
(3) Production Filming
(4) Post-Production (Editing picture and sound)
(5) Distribution and exhibition

Homework: Half Term Friday 23rd October - Monday 2nd November 09 / Opening Scene Comparisons

MEAN GIRLS:
YOU TUBE LINK (Only Watch First 2 Mins)
In this opening scene we immediately know its created by paramount pictures. The film begins with two sets of titles and then leads into a young teenage girl who starts to tell us about herself and her life. The audience is immediately told her name and that she comes from Africa and has now moved to America to attend her first school. The music which they use at the opening of this film is very suited to the scenes they have used to begin the film. When we are shown the pictures from Kady in Africa, jungle like music is used to match the setting of the photos used. When she then enters high school the music changes to a more upbeat typical American song which helps exaggerate the setting of the scene. In the first 2 minuets of this opening to Mean Girls the camera shots used are mainly medium shots, medium close ups, long shots and extreme long shots. Fir example the very beginning begins with a medium shot but the angle used is very low and then it gradually moves into a steady eye level frame.The audience are introduced to this film in an intriguing way by the difference between this movie and other typical teenage dramas by its unique story line.
STORY BOARD:(50 SECONDS)











ROAD TRIP
YOU TUBE LINK (Only Watch First 2 Mins)
Road Trip is a Dream Works production working with Monteicto Picture company. The opening scene begins with university graduating music and an extreme long shot of University campus on a high angle, this is an establishing shot. The titles then appear in white bold writing as the camera is doing a tracking shot towards the university. The scene shot then fades in to a high angle shot dollying backwards inside the university showing a group of people and 1 man at the front who is clearly showing them around.The "Road Trip" logo then appears in the left side of the screen which shows a clear bold title to introduce the film. A close up is then used to show the tour guides trainers which tell us he is clearly not smartly dressed and very casual. Over the shoulder shots are then used in the conversation of the tour guide towards the group as titles continue to display in corners of the screen. A medium shot is used of the guide to show his costume and a rough view of the setting of where the scene is taking place. A long shot is then used of the university building that is being talked about by the guide which shows us a full view of what the characters are looking at. A dolly shot is then used to track backwards as the tour group is walking. We know by just the first 2 minuets of this film it will be set amongst a young group of people in university with many different stereotypes being used on teenagers.
STORY BOARD:(23 SECONDS)










SAW V
YOUTUBE LINK (Only Watch First 2 Mins)
The opening scene of this film begins with several title slides. The text of the credit is scrappy writing which is followed across by a light effect framed on a dark, gloomy background. Scary mysterious music starts to play to set the mood of the scene. It then fades in to a high angle shot of a man laying down strapped to a table. A flash of lightning then strikes which sets the mood of the setting. The camera then begins to track in towards the man on the table. More credits appear and then return to the scene which opens again with a close up shot of the mans face.The camera then arcs around the man and jumps to a point of view shot of him looking down at his body. The camera then tracks outwards in a twirling effect and a spectator shot is used. Medium shots are then used until the television switches on and a medium closeup is used alone with a handheld shot. Continuous long shots and medium shots are used to show the characters reaction to the situation. In this case he is panicking and scared. The viewed is immediately hooked into the film because their curious and wants to know, Why is the man is there? Where is he? Who is responsible for the video clip and the situation he is in? This makes the audience want to watch more so these questions can be answered.
STORY BOARD:(1 MIN 15 SECONDS)

MY 5 Favourite Films

SAW
IMDB LINK
YOU TUBE LINK
Genre: Horror/ Mystery/ Thriller



ROAD TRIP
IMDB LINK
YOU TUBE LINK
Genre: Adventure/ Comedy



CRUEL INTENTIONS
IMDB LINK
YOU TUBE LINK
Genre: Drama/ Romance/ Thriller



MEAN GIRLS:
IMDB LINK
YOU TUBE LINK
Genre: Comedy/ Drama



JUMPER
IMDB LINK
YOU TUBE LINK
Genre: Action/ Adventure/ CSI/ Thriller

My Media Titles

How i created my Media Titles:
I created my Media Titles using a program called Final Cut Pro (The same program i used to create our preliminary task). I did this by adding scrolling text to a black background and altering it with the many different options that Final Cut Pro provide you with. The alterations i used on my scrolling text was rotation, distortion, shadows and fade. I also changed the text colour and kept a theme throughout my media titles. After my media scrolling text was complete i exported it onto my desktop as a quicktime file. I then opened a program called Garage Band and dragged my quicktime file in to it. Once my text was in Garage band i could start creating music for my Media Titles. I used club sample drums and mixed them together to create the perfect background music for my titles. Once all of this was complete i made sure that the text sequence was the same length as the music that i created. I then saved my project and exported it from Garage Band on to my desktop as a quicktime file. I then uploaded my final Media Titles straight on to my Media Blog.

Final Preliminary Task

This is our final preliminary task. Actress 1: Kate Shurgaia, Actress 2: Ellie Harris, Actress 3: Claudia Rollinson & On Camera: Gabriella Kingsley (Me). We all edited our work together as a group and gave out jobs to each person. These jobs where things such as script writing, shot plans, story boards and film titles. We all worked on each thing separately and then discussed what we had done as a group to make our final decisions. We came across some difficulties during filming to do with the 180 degree rule and during editing with match on action but as a group me managed to work through the problems we had to then produce what is shown above. We hope you enjoy.

My Animatic

I created my animatic by using a program called Adobe Image Ready CS. I did this by scanning in a simple story board our group created for our preliminary task. You then open the image in Adobe image ready CS and create a new file. You then drag each frame into its own layer, (I ended up with 8). You then pick the moving time of your animatic, in this case i chose 2 seconds per frame. I then saved it and uploaded it into "www.photobucket.com" as a gif file which i then posted straight onto my blog.

Shot Plan For Preliminary Task

This diagram shows an arial view of our Preliminary Task. I worked on the preliminary task with 3 other students in my class. Kate Shurgaia (Character 1), Ellie Harris (Character 2) and Claudia Rollinson (Character 3). The pink dashed lines show the path of which character two walks (Ellie). The orange dots show the path of which character three walks (Claudia). All the symbols used in this shot plan have the same meaning of the symbols i have described in my rough shot plan below.

Preliminary Task Script

1.INT.CLASSROOM: Kate is sitting alone working and listening to her ipod. Ellie rushes into the classroom, pulls out Kate's headphone and sits opposite her.
Ellie: You'll never guess what i've just heard.
Kate: What?
Ellie: You can't tell anyone.
Kate: Go on..
Ellie: I heard Claudia's pregnant.
Kate and Ellie giggle. Claudia opens the door to the classroom. Kate and Ellie turn around suprised.

Rough Work Of Shot Plan & Story Board

This is a rough work done in class of a simple shot plan and a quick story board. In the shot plan (Left side), drawings of a rectangle and triangle put together is a symbol for a camera. The oval shaped drawings symbolise the people that would take part in the sketch that you are creating. The story board (Right side) explains the angles from which you see through the actual camera. All the steps of my story bored i have labeled with the different shot sizes and effects. All this helped us work up to creating our own shot plans and story boards for out own preliminary task and opening of feature films.

Camera Shots, Angles and Movement

Shot Sizes Key:
XLS- Extra Large Shot
LS- Large Shot
MLS- Medium Large Shot
MS- Medium Shot
MCU- Medium Close Up
CU- Close up
BCU- Basic Close up
XCU- Extra Close Up
Click Here For Larger Diagram

Match On Action

We learnt about match on action through textbooks and our teacher. We tried to search for examples on Youtube but it was not successful so our teacher found a film and played and paused at parts of Match on Action. Match on action is when two frames of a film come together to make the action look continuos. For example if you walk through a door and the camera is filming from outside and the person opens the door if you're then going to cut to another shot of them walking through you have to make sure the amount that the door is open is the same otherwise the action wont match which means the film wont flow and will look wrong. We used Match on action in our preliminary task numerous times. For example when Actress 1 (Ellie), Walks through the fine arts door we filmed her from the outside of the door and then the inside and assured that the wideness of the gap between the door and the frame was the same when the shots where cut. (Scroll above to watch this on our Preliminary task)

Homework: Wednesday 30th September 09 / 180degree rule

We learnt about the 180 degree rule in class through research in our textbooks, our teacher and looking up examples on Youtube. The 180 degree rule is a basics camera rule used when shooting a film. If you break the 180 degree rule then the scene will not make sense, unless your purposely breaking it for effect and the audience is clear to this.
Describing the 180 degree rule:
Imagine an invisible line across your scene. This is your 180 degree line. You must pick one side of this imaginary line to place your camera. Once you've chosen which side you would like to place your camera, your camera can move freely around that section and along the 180 degree line itself but cannot cross to the other side otherwise your creating frames of film which does not make sense. The video above talks you through the 180 degree what to do and not to do.

Homework: Wednesday 30th September 09 / Shot Reverse Shot

We learnt about shot reverse shot in class through our teacher and examples on Youtube. Shot reverse shot is used when two people are having a conversation. It is a camera view used over the shoulder of each character. When using this technique you must also keep to the 180 degree rule. An example of shot reverse shot is shown above.