We learnt a lot since completing our preliminary task. We learnt how to perfect camera angles and ended up using many of them in our opening sequence. However, we experimented and managed to use these shots in more complex ways. For example, when filming the interior shots - shown in the first still from our film opening - the space we had to get our shot was very limited. But in the end, with the knowledge we learnt from our preliminary task and using team work, we got the great shots we needed for our film opening.
We used a large variation in shots in both our opening sequence and preliminary task. Including, shot reverse shot, match on action, extreme close up and even kept the 180 degree rule.
In our opening sequence we use a lot of jump cuts. We filmed Katlyn standing in spooky locations and then filmed the Devil in the exact same place, same location but in his separate shot. We did this so it looked like the Devil is chasing Katlyn, controlling her thoughts. In each shot, both the Devil and Katlyn get closer and closer to the camera and as we see the final close up shot of Katlyn, she looks possessed and most importantly scared which again adds emphasis that she is being chased by the Devil. To this shot we added a special effect which made the characters appear even more dark and evil.
In both our preliminary task and our opening sequence Agnes acted in both, therefore she had less to do with the actual filming but however she had a lot of say in the conversation of which shots we were to use. Jo had a high contribution to film both our filming tasks. Moe wasn't in our group during our preliminary task, however, he really shone through when we were planning our movie and researching other movies. All together, everyone in our group worked very hard as a team and we managed to create a solid piece.
Over the time period of filming our opening sequence I learnt to understand and work many different and new technologies...
1 - MAC - We used the MAC to upload and edit our movie. We also used it to design our own music and record voices. It was also used for a lot of our research on the Internet.
2 - TRIPOD - We used the tripod in almost every shot in our opening sequence. We used it to maintain perfect height and to steady the camera whilst filming.
3 - MIC - The mic was used to record whispering which was played over the beginning of our sequence. It was perfect for picking up only the voices we needed.
4 - CAMERA - We learnt how to record and play back our shots. Once we were convinced we had shot what we needed we plugged the camera with our tape inside into the MAC and downloaded our recordings.
We used many programmes on the MAC. They included...
iMovie -
This is the software we downloaded our filming to and used to edit and put together our shots. It was hard at first to understand how to use the programme to its fullest, but once we figured out the basics we continued to make a great opening sequence with great special effects.
Garageband -
We used Garageband to record special voice overs for our opening sequence such as whispering and screaming. We also used Garageband to create our own music to upload to our credits.
iTunes -
After completing our own music in Garageband, we had to import it into iTunes to be able to apply it to our movie.
Google -
Google helped us a lot with our research. We searched horror movies just like ours, typical conventions of the Devil, colours associated with horror and much more.
IMDb -
We used the site IMDb to find out information about the inspiration to our main character, Katlyn. It supplied us with pictures and information about the main character from 'The Ring'.
Youtube -
We used Youtube to research opening sequences to movies to find inspiration for the way we wanted our credits set out. We also used it to watch videos for inspiration on our characters and settings.
Blogger -
This current site, Blogger, has been used to record our research and upload updates requiring our opening sequence.
The setting of the first scene in our opening sequence takes place in a teenage girls room. On the back wall are pictures of Katlyn, our main character shown above, with her friends, like any teenage girl would. This targets our audience of 16-25 year olds. Katlyn is a typical teenage girl who is aged 16 years old. This gives a sense of reality as the most likely age group watching the movie is around her age. We got this information from our questionnaires which said that this was the age group who are most interested in watching horror or thriller movies. In this clip from our opening sequence, Katlyn is seen wearing a white robe. Our inspiration for this costume came from the movie 'The Ring' and the main character Samara.
As our opening sequence moves on, and the credits beginning to roll we see Kayln living her normal, teenage life. Above, she is seen walking to school. She shows typical conventions of a teenager. For example the way she is dressed. Even as the credits roll, an upbeat piece of music plays over the clips which is usually listened to by the age group 16 - 25 year olds. We specifically chose an upbeat sound to play here so we relax our audience right before we shock. Our inspiration for this clip came from the opening sequence to 'The House of the Devil'.
Our class mates wrote evaluations after viewing the opening sequence to our film '666'. The main feedback we received was that our opening sequence was confusing. However, many popular horror and thriller movies receive reviews saying that the movie was a little confusing. However, these movies are usually are the ones which really make the audience think and use their imagination. A few of these movies include; 'Night of the Living Dead', 'The Exocist' and 'The Shining'.
Rachel is our target audience. Rachel is a typical teenage girl. She loves to have her friends round on Saturday's for a movie night. Her favorite TV shows are Vampire Diaries, Misfits and The
Inbetweeners. She loves the thrill that comes with watching Vampire Diaries, but also loves the comedy aspect that comes with watching The Inbetweeners. Rachel has an Odeon card and loves going to see the latest movie releases. She loves movies which make her think and really gets her brain going.
Rachel would go see the movie '666' because it will keep her on the edge of her seat and give her the thrill she craves when watching movie and TV programmes. It will also make her think about what shes watching and really keep her interested.
In the opening 2 minutes of our movie there are scenes referring to murder and blood. As the movie would continue on the audience would be revealed to more violence and horror. Therefore our movie would be a certificate 15.
Horror and thriller movies are extremely popular in the world of cinema. Movie goers love the thrill they get from watching these movie genres. We see a lot of horror movies around Halloween, however, they are popular all year round. Horror movies are widely loved, Sky even have a whole channel dedicated to this genre called Sky Movies Sci fi and Horror. Horror movies which have been shown on this channel include, Jennifer's Body, The Silence of the Lambs and Paranormal Activity.
Horror movies are also very popular at small film festivals. In the UK, the biggest film festival dedicated to the genre horror is the Film4 Frightfest. Now in its twelfth year, the five day festival is packed with premiers, previews and much more.
Currently, there are a lot of thriller films showing at my local cinema Some of these include, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, Unstoppable and The American.
Our main character, Katlyn is first presented as a young, sweet, innocent girl. She is first seen wearing a white robe. We chose white because of the purity in the colour and also, its a brilliant contrast to the all black ensemble the Devil is shown in. It also shows Katlyn's venerability. We got our insporation for our main character for the movie 'The Ring' and the main character from the movie, Samara and also 'The Exorcist' and the main character from the movie, Regan.
Both our character Katlyn and 'The Ring's' character Samara get possessed by the Devil. Samara and Katyln both have similar clothing and hair, however our character, Katlyn's is a little less dramatic, but we intend to make in more and more dramatic as the movie goes on.
Other movies that we got our inspiration from are, Paranormal Activity and The Exorcist as they both have the horror conventions of possession and the Devil.
We chose the name '666' because the number 6 is the number of the devil, which is a connotation of the genre horror. Our title is similar to 'The Exocist', 'Pysco' and 'Omen' because the titles are straight to the point and simple. The red on black background was chosen because red is the colour of blood. Ideally we would have wanted to the the title dripping down the screen. However, the software we used would not let us achieve this. Another thing the program would not let us do was to make the font size any bigger.
Frame 2 - Setting / location.
In our film we used a large range of both interior and exterior shots. Our movie starts out inside in the safety of the characters own home.
Frame 3 - Costumes and props.
In the opening of our film our main character is wearing a white nightgown as she sleeps. This is the same costume Katlyn is seen wearing when she is possessed by the devil. Our inspiration of the robe was taken from the horror movie 'The Ring' as this is represents a mental institute. This is a typical convention of a horror movie. Also it contrasts from the full black that the devil wears. In our opening sequence, our main character is shown washing blood off her hands.
Frame 4 - Camerawork and editing.
We used many shots in our film including shot reverse shot, match on action and we even kept the 180 degree rule. We used; high shots, low shots, extreme close up, high angles... We kept to the common convention of horror movies, making many of our shots going at a fast past tempo.
Frame 5 - Title font and style.
Our inspiration for our opening credits came from the horror movie 'The House Of The Devil'. An upbeat tune plays over our titles. They pause as the credits appear on top of the title. This really makes the names stand out. It also is a great way to show who plays which character in our movie.
Frame 6 - Story and how the opening sets it up.
Our film '666' is about a teenage girl, Katlyn. She becomes possessed by the Devil whilst shes asleep. To her, it appears that this is just her mind playing terrifying tricks on her in her sleep, little does she know that the horrific things she is dreaming is actually reality. The very first shot opening to our film shows our main character, Katlyn, stirring in bed, having a nightmare, our text shot shows her possessed, writing the number 666 - the number of the Devil - on her bathroom mirror in blood. But as our opening goes on, we see Katlyn going about her normal life, however, terrified, as she feels someone, or something, following her.
Frame 7 - Genre and how the opening suggests it.
The genre to our film is horror, however it can also be linked to the genre of thriller, making our movie a hybrid. We show this by using many typical conventions of horror movies. Such as, we use many shots, often consisting of 0.15 second shots. We also show this by using red on black for the title of our movie, red representing blood, and black, death. In the opening to our movie, our main character is seen washing blood off of her hands. Blood represents pain and hurting, which is a typical convention of a horror movie.
Frame 8 - How characters are introduced.
The first of our characters to be introduced was our main character, Katlyn. She is first shown twisting and turning in bed, appearing to have a nightmare. This is quickly changed to a different shot of Katyln where she looks completely different. She is seen, in a bathroom, with a washed out look and messy hair, her eyes looking wide-eyed and possessed. Our other character the Devil is introduced next. He shows up in our fast shots mimicking the young girl which gives the allusion that he is chasing her.
Frame 9 - Special effects.
We used many special effects in our opening sequence. To show that Katlyn is dreaming we use a special effect called Bloom. We also add an extra letter boxing effect around the edges for extra emphasis. We also use special effects when the Devil is chasing Katlyn. We do this to confuse our audience on weather or not Katlyn is still dreaming.
We chose the name '666' because the number 6 is the number of the devil, which is a connotation of the genre horror. Our title is similar to 'The Exocist', 'Pysco' and 'Omen' because the titles are straight to the point and simple. The red on black background was chosen because red is the colour of blood. Ideally we would have wanted to the the title dripping down the screen. However, the software we used would not let us achieve this. Another thing the program would not let us do was to make the font size any bigger.
Frame 2 - Setting / location.
In our film we used a large range of both interior and exterior shots. Our movie starts out inside in the safety of the characters own home.
Frame 3 - Costumes and props.
In the opening of our film our main character is wearing a white nightgown as she sleeps. This is the same costume Katlyn is seen wearing when she is possessed by the devil. Our inspiration of the robe was taken from the horror movie 'The Ring' as this is represents a mental institute. This is a typical convention of a horror movie. Also it contrasts from the full black that the devil wears. In our opening sequence, our main character is shown washing blood off her hands.
Frame 4 - Camerawork and editing.
We used many shots in our film including shot reverse shot, match on action and we even kept the 180 degree rule. We used; high shots, low shots, extreme close up, high angles... We kept to the common convention of horror movies, making many of our shots going at a fast past tempo.
Frame 5 - Title font and style.
Our inspiration for our opening credits came from the horror movie 'The House Of The Devil'. An upbeat tune plays over our titles. They pause as the credits appear on top of the title. This really makes the names stand out. It also is a great way to show who plays which character in our movie.
Frame 6 - Story and how the opening sets it up.
Our film '666' is about a teenage girl, Katlyn. She becomes possessed by the Devil whilst shes asleep. To her, it appears that this is just her mind playing terrifying tricks on her in her sleep, little does she know that the horrific things she is dreaming is actually reality. The very first shot opening to our film shows our main character, Katlyn, stirring in bed, having a nightmare, our text shot shows her possessed, writing the number 666 - the number of the Devil - on her bathroom mirror in blood. But as our opening goes on, we see Katlyn going about her normal life, however, terrified, as she feels someone, or something, following her.
Frame 7 - Genre and how the opening suggests it.
The genre to our film is horror, however it can also be linked to the genre of thriller, making our movie a hybrid. We show this by using many typical conventions of horror movies. Such as, we use many shots, often consisting of 0.15 second shots. We also show this by using red on black for the title of our movie, red representing blood, and black, death. In the opening to our movie, our main character is seen washing blood off of her hands. Blood represents pain and hurting, which is a typical convention of a horror movie.
Frame 8 - How characters are introduced.
The first of our characters to be introduced was our main character, Katlyn. She is first shown twisting and turning in bed, appearing to have a nightmare. This is quickly changed to a different shot of Katyln where she looks completely different. She is seen, in a bathroom, with a washed out look and messy hair, her eyes looking wide-eyed and possessed. Our other character the Devil is introduced next. He shows up in our fast shots mimicking the young girl which gives the allusion that he is chasing her.
Frame 9 - Special effects.
We used many special effects in our opening sequence. To show that Katlyn is dreaming we use a special effect called Bloom. We also add an extra letter boxing effect around the edges for extra emphasis. We also use special effects when the Devil is chasing Katlyn. We do this to confuse our audience on weather or not Katlyn is still dreaming.
Monday, 8 November 2010
Moe and I filming the interior shots for the opening sequence of our movie.
Agnes acting for our opening sequence.
Jo filming the opening to your film.
We are all working marvelously as a team, each taking it in turns to input our ideas and help out where necessarily.
Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Starring Jack Nicholson.
Running Time: 119 minutes
Certificate: UK: 18
Country: United States
The Shining is a psychological thriller/horror. The film is based on a novel written by Stephen King. It is about a writer, his wife and their young son who takes on the job of off-season caretaker and an old, isolated hotel. Their son has psychic abilities and is able to see things in the future or past. He is able to see such things as ghosts in the hotel. The husband becomes influenced by the supernatural which is present in the hotel. In his madnes he attempts to murder his wife and child.
The Shining was aimed at adults over the age of 18 as in included secenes of nudity, violence, graphic scenes and lauguage some views may find offencive.
An American Werewolf in London. Directed by John Landis (1981)
Opening title sequence: Gloomy, deserted land. In the distance a truck haling sheep slowly drives towards the camera. The audience is introduced to the two main characters, two, young, American men. They get out of the truck and continue on foot. They keep walking till they come across a pub called 'The Slaughtered Lamb'. Before leaving the pub the two men are warned to stay on the road, but they soon realise they have wandered off into abandoned fields. They start to make their way back but they find themselves in danger.
The dialogue from the characters in the pub build up the suspense and adds to the mystery and horror of the film as we find ourselves fearing for the two characters.
Task: We were given the task to film and edit a short film. Our filming had to include; character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom he/she then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue.
Before we jumped straight into filming we prepared for this task by first drawing out a story board with short explanations of each shot type we were going to use, any dialogue each character may have and weather or not the shot was exterior or interior. For filming our preliminary task we assembled a tripod and camera.
Filming:My group, (Agnes and Jo) and I managed to maintain the 80-degree rule shot. For example, shot number 7 we filmed, the camera slowly panned across the room following character one's actions and not crossing over the 180 degree line to confuse our audience.
We used shot reverse shot near the end of our short film during the exchanges of dialogue between the two characters. They were both looking in the opposite directions to show to the audience they were looking at each other so our audience didn't get confused. For these shots, we used an over the shoulder frame.
In our preliminary task, we used match on action, shot reverse shot, many close ups, 2 shot, over the shoulder, long shots, extreme close ups while maintaining the 180-degree rule.
My role during the filming was not only to film but to also direct the shots and the positioning of other actors. And to also, edit the film.
Editing : I am happy with the final result apart from some minor details. Such as, if we had a little extra time, I think our movie would benefit with a few more transitions and sound effects. Like, fading from shot to shot or adding in a more dramatic ending, Also, we would look at adding in more titles between shots. The space we used during filming i found was limiting and loud. But the background noises we had added a more realistic sense to our film. In out finally scene, we really had a great space for surrounding and dialogue. However, when it came to using spectacular shot types our space was limited as we were on a balcony. But I think that we worked with what we had and in the end we got the shot we wanted.
I think in the end, next time we will need to share out responsibilities more and all take part in every aspect, filming and editing.
Using the camera was simple, however the tripod wasn't very straight and we had trouble with the noise it was making as it was coming up and being heard in the scene. But, we pushed past that and came up with a great end result.
Agnes is a jolly good fellow with a kind heart. She is passionate about Media and Drama. She has proven to be insane at edidting as well as staring in our Media preliminary task. Along with Media 'Riviting Media' also takes Drama, English Lit and French. Her favorite film is Titanic and she is in love with all charactors in Twilight, including, Edward Cullen, Jacob Black, Emmet Cullen and Charlie Swan. Her favorite book is The Host by Stephenie Meyer after I recommended it. :)
Jo is a very good team mate. She works well filming with the cameras. Other than Media, Jo studies History, English Language and Phliosophy and Ethics. When Jo isnt flirting my Joe Copginger, she is flirting with George Stephens (http://georgesmagicalproject.blogspot.com/) ... as shown to the right.
Although Moe didn't take part in our preliminary task he has since proven to be extremally good at drawing story boards. The ideas he puts forward are also incredibally thought out and great. As well as Media, Moe takes: Sociology, Psychology and Biology.
Christopher Nolan is known for making high end thriller films. Two of his well known ones are Memento and Insomnia.
Both films include many similar conventions and this is proven right from the opening title. The opening title to Insomnia reflects its title as the words and names shown on screen are blurred which produces a feeling of tiredness and it seems like the viewer is getting more and more sleepy as the opening title goes on. The first part of filming we see is the sight of blood being socked into cotton sheets. Blood is a huge part of identifying that this film is a thriller. We then see two characters flying over a polar, exotic region.
Likewise, the opening title to Memento also reflects the title of the film. At the beginning of the film everything appears to happening in a backwards motion. The main character is holding a polaroid picture which, in reverse, fades instead of become more and more clearer as it should. As the film moves on we start to see that the rest of the opening titles are filmed in reverse and the viewers should make the assumption that the character is trying to remember what he has done by getting a memento. Also, Memento has blood shown in the opening titles just as Insomnia did.
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