Previous Student Film Openings

I was able to look through the hall of fame and analyse previous student film openings in terms of sound, editing, mise en scene, and filming, they each individually had certain aspects that really stood out for me. Personally some were better than others but overall they all had something that stood out.

Victoria



For this particular opening I liked the whole ballerina concept and the music box soundtrack wich gave this really creepy feel to it. The editing itself was quite nice and reminded me of Black Swan! I just felt that the narratives could have been slowed down slightly.

Rex's with No Name 



I really liked the mise en scene of this sequence with it's high tech business feel to it and it really suited the music which showed the audience this was an action-thriller. I particularly liked the text font and how they edited it on the screen adding more of a futuristic mood. I was very impressed by the shots in this filming especially when we saw the same clip from perspectives and the different high and low angles.

Signature 



This I felt was the best over all. The music was brilliant, very gripping and I liked how it flowed with the titles. It reminded me a lot about The Stepfather and I felt it was unpredictable, I wasn't expecting a dead person in the bath. I loved the mise en scene, how it was set in the bathroom and majority of the props and costumes were jet white. I wanted to find out more and I wished it had carried on!

Structure of Film Openings

When looking at film openings there are 3 basic types of structures :

• Narrative
• Discrete
• Titles over blank screen 

And an additional fourth style what we like to call 'stylised editing' 

Examples of Narrative : I Am Legend, The Shining, Panic Room

This type of opening usually has the setting of where the film may be set and just has the titles running throughout. This opening in particular conveys a very calm feel to the audience yet the music gives off a slight twist, showing that something is not quite right and creepy.

Examples of a discrete title sequence : Final Destination 5, Seven, Enemy of the State

Discrete sequences have nothing to do with the actual film itself but is a separate piece of filming that is completely edited. It may give off a hint of what genre the film may be but doesn't show the storyline, who's the main characters and what might happen. This particular type of sequence our group liked because it leaves the audience wanting more and constantly questioning what the sequence has to do with the film.

Examples of Titles over blank screen : Psycho, Donnie Darko, Sleeping with the Enemy

Titles over a blank screen is simply what it says in the title. You have the titles followed by the narrative opening on top of a blank screen. Depending how you edit this sequence can become quite boring for the audience but I believe with a good soundtrack you can opening quite gripping and you may find it can build a lot of tension.  Donnie Darko is an example of this.

Examples of stylised opening : Mezrine, The Taking of Pelham 123

Stylised openings tend to be edited and filmed as if they were music videos. They can be quite fast paced with a lot of cutting and editing. In a sense it can come across quite glamours and suave having a very huge impact on the audience. It may at times give the whole story line away but at least it leaves the audience satisfied, enjoying just the opening resulting in them wanting to watch more. This particular opening inspired out groups ideas on soundtrack and techniques in editing and will take most of this title sequence into account.

Prelim Final Cut

Prelim: "Its a Wrap"

Rebecca and Hannah discussing the process of making our video. This video was recorded at the end of filming of our preliminary video.

Video of Rebecca discussing our video and Berkay running away.

Prelim: Edit.

Screenshot of our Prelim. 

In today's lesson we recorded our prelim and using Final Cut Pro we edited our video.
We finish our editting, thought about Foley sound and two of the members of used Soundtrack Pro to add a background music for our prelim clip.

In the process of putting our prelim clip together. 

Previous Students Work.

I particularly admire this film opening and have chosen it to discuss because the structure of the opening is similar to Se7en (1995) and uses a discrete title sequence. An opening that i'm particularly interested in and might use in my film opening. 

The opening follows a discrete title sequence with a stylised font. The students however, did not follow the title sequence convention, they did not include any production company logos in the beginning or any names of cast or the directors name. The title of the movie was left to last which is not your average film opening title sequence. 

Just watching the clip we can instant tell its a horror thriller because of the mise-en-scene. We had blood, knifes and chopping boards. The character introduce had heavy makeup on to portray a scary girl which we often see in horror movies like The Ring (2002).  Long black hair, slight covering the characters face with pale skin. The film opening also tells me that they have spend more time in the editing room that filming. There are a lot of effects added on to transition the match cuts and extreme close up shots of the objects. The background music is quite scary and sounds like violins being played, which suits the atmosphere of the sequence. 

To conclude, I like the concept of the structure of the film opening and how they took a risk by not following the convention and choosing to follow the discrete title structure.  

Target Audience.

A target audience is a specific group of people within the target market at which the marketing message is aimed at.

All films has a target market at usual aimed at specific film audiences. How do you identify the target audience of a film? Personally, I think Genre and sub-genre plays a huge role in identifying a target audience. For example, we often associate a romantic movie with a specific demographic, usually women aged 17+. 

Not all thriller films will appeal to the same demographic. No Country For Old Men (2007) is a drama/crime/triller and the actions, violence and crime will appeal to men more than it does to women.

Also, the fact the film is rated 15, the target audience of the film is more likely to be young men. 

In contrast, psychological thriller movies like Memento (2000) requires the film audience to think and acknowledge whats going on in the film. The target audience of Memento is more likely to be aimed at a more mature audience than No Country For Old Men. Judging on the content of the film and it's genre I say that the target audience of Memento is Men and Women aged 18+.

 Tower Heist (2011) is a crime comedy. The key signifiers of Tower Heist, judging just by its international release poster is definitely that fact the characters are standing on top of a tower show theres action. The characters (excluding the maid on the far right) are all dressed in black that can signifier their jobs as detectives. The actors can also give alway the genre, Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller are often portrayed in comedies.
The target audience of Tower Heist is I believe young men, age 15+.



There is no right or wrong answer in identifying a target audience because its up to the individual's taste. However, there are obviously boundaries. A 10year old boy will not enjoy watching a romantic-comedy.

Prelim: Prep, plan, storyboard & animatic.

Prelim (short for preliminary): an event that is done before head to prepare for the real thing. 

In todays lesson we was act to plan a preliminary match cut exercise. We was given a brief to work with and pick a sub-genre (thriller being the primary genre). The sub-genres was out of Psychological, supernatural and action. After planning we must do a storyboard and transform it into a animatic ready for us to film.

Brief: Film the following sequence, making sure to use at least 1 match cut, shot reverse shot and show your understand of the 180 degree rule. 

"A character opens a door, walks into a room, sits down opposite another character and they share a few lines" 

As a group we decided to go with a Psychological Thriller.  The plot is there are two characters, one walking into a top secret investigation room where a women is been held for questioning, the topic of questioning is to do with a top secret organisation (illumanti).

Storyboard:

 

            

Animatic: