RESEARCH - Film opening

How can a film opening attract an audience?

In every film opening film makers have to face a risk which is the judgmental audience. They need to make sure that the start of the movie is establishing many things, but also hiding important details so that the movie wouldn’t become easily predictable. The audience should know a lot but at the same time should not understand everything.

 

The most effective opening scenes are not the classical ones where you have many close ups before you meet the character. It’s the mysterious and confusing ones that attract the audience the most. For example; a film that starts straight away with the action, without any opening scenes to get the audience prepared, also the ones who have the sequence of shots which relates to the main character in the story. Openings should create questions which would make the audience stay committed to the movie until they get all the answers.

Also, the soundtrack and the scene places are very important, they have to be interesting and set the tone of the whole movie. In addition, camera angles play a big role in this as it can create the suspense and tension which is needed to attract audience, make them forget the reality and experience the film.

                           

RESEARCH - The Title Sequence

THE PURPOSE OF TITLE SEQUENCE.

The purpose of title sequence and film opening is to capture audience attention and make them feel interested in the film from the first five minutes, also to establish the genre of the movie. This can be done using soundtrack for the background which would set the mood of the film. Also, a use of certain colours would also have to be depending on the genre; if it’s a comedy, it’s more likely to have bright colourful title sequence with an interesting typography. However, if it’s a horror movie, the colours are more likely to be dark and use of special affects should appear on typography to make it look spookier and mysterious. Moreover, at the main beginning of every movie there are Production Company and distribution company indents which also help the audience to guess the genre as some productions work only on specific types of movies. Credits are also used at the begging to inform people about the most famous featuring actors taking part in the movie to attract more watchers. 

INTRODUCTORY - Prelim evaluation

EVALUATION OF PRELIM

While making prelim project I gained couple of new skills, e.g. planning; I made the story board which included different shot types and the whole sequence of the story. We tried to stick to the story board as much as possible, however, some of the shot types like Birdseye were impossible to achieve in the small room which we had, so we changed them. Also, I think that I was less good at filming, probably because I only had a chance to film the first scene, as I was acting in the rest of them. In addition, the editing part didn’t go as well as we expected, every member of the group tried to edit the movie, but we didn’t have enough time and the last couple of scenes seems to be not as seamless as we wanted.

The aspects which worked the best in our film were the sitting down/conversation part and 180 degree rule; we managed not to break the rule, even though it was difficult to fit tripod and camera in that small room. However, parts such as shot reverse and match cuts were not as successful as it should have been. There’s not enough shot reverse shot type of filming during our conversation, which is again due to our bad time management.

I would make many changes if I had to do the project again. Firstly, I would use more ‘cut in’ shots, as well as ‘shot reverse shot’. I would also try to film the conversation from many different angles, because I would have wider range of shot selection which I could then include in my project and make it seamless.

During this prelim project I learnt that storyboards are very important as it helps to direct you. It would have been impossible to film if we improvised every scene there. Also, it is important to include shot types in the storyboard, because when we were filming our prelim, we used to forget what different shot types there are so we always had to refer back to our story board.

BLOGPOST 4 RESEARCH - WATCHING DOCUMENTARY.

'Watching documentary'

 

What does Thomas Sutcliffe mean when he says the following? "films need to seduce their audience into long term commitment. while there are many types of seduction, the temptation to go for instant arousal is almost irresistible"

Thomas means that for any film to have an audience they have to form a bond with the film and meaning your work almost compelling them, so that the audience will come back and watch more of your films. However there are many types of ways to hook your audience the film opening is the best way as if the opening Is strong and the audience likes it then they will love the rest of the film and therefore creating a longer relationship than if you were to build up in the middle. (obligation to announce as much ambition as possible)

 

According to director jean Jacques beineix, what are the risks of 'instant arousal'?

Jean says that the risks of instant arousal is that if you start very strong you will have to ask yourself what you do next to raise the bar and answer the questions that you have created and the risk is that you may never be able to answer the questions that you created if you instantly arouse the audience. He also says the audience should wait and be nurtured into the film before you get the satisfaction.

Explain why ' a good beginning must make the audience feel that it doesn't know nearly enough yet, and at the same time make sure that it doesn't know to little'

This is because the audience is just establishing many things at once so you don't want to give it up all at once. Also the audience is adjusting to the film. If the audience knew everything already from the opening before the film started there would be no point of the whole movie however they want people to know something so they can create questions that are answered in the film which keeps you engaged and hooked, however if you leave the audience knowing too little than there might be more questions that can be answered in the film leaving them confused or fed up.

 

What does critic Stanley Kauffmann describe as the classical opening? Why does this work?

He describes the film beginning with an establishing shot which is normally in New York City. Then there is a close up of a building, the camera then goes up the building and then to a window, we go into the window and then past the receptionist and then into the private office and there sits a character. this works because we know where the film is set, what the hero's occupation is and the organization of the world.

 

Why is Kyle coopers title to the film seven so effective?

Kyle coopers title seven is so effective because the begging credits tell a story so they feel like part of the movie and foreshadowed some of the movie as the credits and the movies are usually separate so it is effective as there together and the main charter is involved with the credits revealing his obsessive nature. primarily became the movies first sequence.

What did Orson Welles want to achieve with his opening to the film a touch of evil? What did universal studios do to it ? Why?

Orson wanted to start the film opening without any credits and a title to the movie to plunge the audience into the movie without having time to prepare for it, however the universal studios altered the movie and added score and credits which meant the effect was lost and merely a preamble to the movie. Which blunted orsons originality. They did this because they needed the assertion of authority and for the producers to be credited.

What is meant by "a favorite trick of film noir"? What is the trick?

A favorite trick of film noir is the beginnings of the film are like the endings of the film and not really beginnings at all they do this as the beginning looks like a destination a destination as much as a departure looking ahead towards what's to come.

how does the opening to the film the shining create suspense?

At first sight the beginning of the shining is merely picturesque and easy uplift of a helicopter ride. But on second viewing you can see from the screen that it is full of omens and the camera is pursing the car like a predator high up and from behind. We can Clearly see that the car is travelling in the wrong direction.

 

  

 

 

 

 



BLOGPOST 3 RESEARCH - THE PURPOSE OF A TITLE SEQUENCE/FILM OPENING

what is the purpose of a title sequences and film opening?

From what I learnt the film opening is made up of many things for example the soundtrack, title credits and idents. A film opening is used to set the mood of the film, this is usually done by showing the main character, having a narrative played or just a clip of the actual setting. The film opening is important as it is the first thing that the viewer see's and could impact whether they watch it or not. It also has a purpose as the viewer can pick up certain things like the genre for instance. If the movie was going to be scary then the colour palette would be more of a reddish/blackish colour and the mise en scene would be dark. There could also be a range of shot lengths and teasers of what's to come in the movie. All movie openings are different for example in the movie Spring Breakers the movie opening was full of credits which were animated to look like lit up signs and had pop music as the soundtrack. However another movie called Daredevil had a different one. It was a kind of explanation of how daredevil came to be as we see various images and then him, which gave more of an understanding to the movie. A title sequence on the other hand is how producers present the movie title which is usually done in a fancy way and usually done after the first sequence of the movie. they use a wide range of shots in the openings ranging from mid-shots to close ups.

EVALUATION - PRELIM

 EVALUATION OF PRELIM

During this prelim I have developed many skills for instance filming skills, since I have never used a camera like the one we, used I learnt the functions of the camera and how to use it to film different things. the camera itself was advanced so you had to position it properly, I also knew how to use and set up a tripod which I used to film the prelim. another skill I learnt is editing, editing things on the macs helped me to put the prelim together and erase most of the mistakes from filming. It also will help me in the future when editing other videos.

I think that our film was successful as the first shot when the character was walking up the stairs from a different angle blended seamlessly when the character reached the top of the stairs. I also think that the 180 degree rule was followed all the way though and that the shot reverse shot was too as we turned the camera to the person that was speaking when the two had a conversation.

I thought I was particularly good at filming as I used the camera well and made sure all the characters could be seen. I also thought that I was good at working in a team as I am usually a very independent person. another thing I was particularly good at was editing as I noticed when something wasn't right and could fix it.

The aspects of the film that worked well was the acting which was particularly amusing and it helped the video seem more realistic. Another thing that worked well was the lighting as it was very bright in out location so you could see everything and it looked more professional than if we picked a spot with low lighting. I thought that we captured the location (the 73 bus) and used the prop particularly well and it was a coincidence that spurs lost and arsenal won the day before which added to the video. However what didn't go so well was some of the heads where not in the top grid which gave them a lot of head room and the camera moved slightly when we was taking a shot which didn't look great.

If I was to complete the project again I would try to be more involved with planning as planning was not my strong point when it came to the prelim as I usually just like getting into things but I do see the importance of planning and time management. I would also use more shot varieties as we used a limited amount as it was our first time filming.

The importance of storyboarding is to organize your time as we only had a limited amount of time storyboards helped allocate our time to different shots and overall helped us organized so we didn't miss anything. The shot list helped enable us to pick a wide variety of shots and by doing this helped us produce the video we have now.

INTRODUCTORY TASK - PRELIM

30. PRELIM Lauryn Sabina Cat Savannah from 283goswell on Vimeo.

THIS IS OUR PRELIM.
WE HAD TO PICK A PROP AND A LOCATION AT RANDOM AND CREATE A SHORT CLIP BASED ON THE PROPS AND LOCATIONS.
TEH PROPS AND LOCATIONS WE GOT WAS AN ARSENAL FLAG AND THE NUMBER 73 BUS AS A LOCATION.
STORYLINE:
ARSNEAL JUST ONE THE MATCH AND AN ANGRY TOTTENHAM FAN STARTS AN ARGUMENT ON THE 73 BUS.
PLANNING:
WE HAD A SCRIPT THAT WE LEARNT TO PERFORM IN THE CLIP.
WE ALSO MADE A STORYBOARD.
PROPS:
THE ONLY PROPS WE USED APART FROM THE ONE THAT WAS CHOOSEN WERE CHAIRS.

INTRODUCTORY POST - PRELIM

27. PRELIM Monika, Talia, Petya, Abi from 283goswell on Vimeo.

INTRODUCTORY POST

Hey, we are group 30! (Monika,Abigayle and Lauryn) Welcome to our blogpost, hopefully you will enjoy it.