Opening sequences (Crime fiction)

Analysing film genres and their conventions

Film genres and current opening ideas

Film genres and current opening ideas

Whilst doing research onto which genre I would like for my film opening I needed to look at all of them separately to decided which one I would feel most comfortable producing and filming.

The most common used ones are: 

Horror

Comedy

Action

Adventure

To begin with I wanted to go with horror as I thought it would be quick and easy to do so. But later on whilst trying to brainstorm ideas for it. I found that all of them were very predictable and quite boring. So I decided to look at the other possibilities, I thought that action and adventure would be a bit hard to try and do straight away as I would need many props to make it look good and I did not have access to these.

Comedy is often hard to establish as an opening sequence, it wouldn't make much sense and would be hard to come up for a story line to go with a comedy genre.

So, because I thought these four didn't fit what I wanted to pursue to do. I did further research and discovered crime fiction. I thought that this was interesting to do and would make my opening sequence stand out.

I looked at possible narratives such as basing it on things such as sex-prostitution, victims , etc. 

Drugs-the addiction, family, alcohol, legal issues, how far someone would go to make money.

I thought that this was quite interesting, I thought that basing it in a rough area with troubled children would be good to make it look as real as possible or base it on one person and showing the bad things he/she got into in his life all in the opening sequence.

I thought that the location was a vital part to crime fiction as it establishes a connection with the audience and is key to the narrative. 

My favourite film openings

My favourite film openings

Researching Genre

Genre & film- 

(Horror)

Scream 4

The main characters used in scream 4 are Sydney Presscott, Dewey and Jill. It is set in the town called Woodsboro Massacre in America where numerous murders are happening to the people who live in the town as soon as Sydney Presscott returns. The mood of this film is very frightening and scary as it is a horror and the film leaves you on the edge of your seat as to what will happening next, bringing the audience into the film. The narrative hook is that somebody who is dressed in this mask is trying to kill everybody and the three main characters are trying to work out who is doing this and why. The sound is very low threatening sounds, deep and unreassuring and as the killer is trying to attack the music gets faster and faster.  The title is used at the beginning only it is red, blood like the reinforce that someone is going to die and that it is infact a horror movie. 

Genre & film-

(Romcom)

Pretty Woman

The main characters used in Pretty women are Vivian (Julia Roberts) and Edward (Richard Gere). It is in Los Angeles where Edward is on a business trip and falls in love with prostitute Vivian. The mood of this film is very happy, emotional and content, it is such an enjoyable film to watch. The narrative hook that Edward is trying to show Vivian how good life can be without having to sell herself to strangers and they slowly fall in love and realize how perfect they are for one another even though there life's are so different. The sound is very romantic, a lot of piano is played to show the audience the love and passion for one another. Also very happy and upbeat music is also used throughout. The title is pink, to show to the audience once again that this is infact a very girly, romcom mostly targeted at women.

Genre & film-

(Comedy)

The hangover

The main characters used in The Hangover are Phil, Stu, Alan and Doug. It is based in Las Vegas where the four best friends are there to celebrate Doug's bachelor party where infact it turns out to be the biggest nightmare of their life. The mood of this film is extremely funny, it will have you laughing throughout because of the adventures and problems they get themselves into. It is a very happy and filled with moments as softhearted as they are crude. The narrative hook is that they are in Las Vegas for Doug's bachelor party, but because Alan drugged them the night before they went out they cannot remember a thing and they have lost Doug the day before his wedding. As they search for him they find out all types of mischief and trouble they actually got into. The sound throughout is very funny music, to reinforce that this is infact a comedy and we are suppose to find it funny what is happening to them. The title in red and gold flashing, just like the lights in Las Vegas.

Life on Mars

Life on mars exercise

The exercise of "life on mars" included watching the series life on mars and then re-filming the opening of the TV show within a group. When watching life on mars this gave us the time to see all the types of shots and angles we needed for filming and try to rein act as best as possible with the same sound track and shots.


In this exercise i worked with Phoebe and Ciara, we used our equipment given to us and used many scenarios as similar as possible. The majority of our filming we did inside the premises of our school. For our first shot, we used the car park because we needed a car for this particular scene and it seemed the best place to do so. We then used the grounds down at the bottom of our school as we needed trees and bushes for this scene. This we found one of the easiest shots to do compared to the car park scene were the camera had to be at so many different angles because of the numerous shots.


My favorite scene to film was definitely above all had to be the shots of trees as i found this shot the funniest and most enjoyable because this showed the surrealism and dream aspect which we was trying to achieve to make it seem as real to the episode 'Life on mars' as possible.
Above all, i really enjoyed this exercise as it gave me knowledge about how to work the equipment and edit on final cut express. I learned a lot more about editing from doing this exercise which will help me in the future with my production throughout my as and a2 course.

Continuity exercise

We were given a scenario as a group of three were we had to use our own creativity each within the filming. Our brief was that our Continuity Exercise must show a person/character opening a door, who then crosses across a room and sits down on a chair opposite the other character, where they then had a brief conversation with each other.

The key media skills we had to demonstrate were:
Shot reverse shot: this is when a character is seen looking at another character that can be on or off screen (most of the time they are off screen) and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character.
180 degree rule: this is when the character must stay on either the left or right of the screen and cannot go across 180 degrees.
Match on action: this is when a shot which connects two shots cut together by having a character finish an action in the second shot begun in the first shot.

In this exercise i worked with Phoebe and Ciara, as we filmed we used a story board to help us with when we should do these shots and how long each shot should be. We all agreed and worked together with similar ideas of where we should film it and what should be said during the conversation. We all individually had ideas which we put forward in order to develop this scenario and make it interesting.
We came to an conclusion that our piece of work will be set in a school class room and the conversation would be between Phoebe and Ciara having a conversation about a subject or exam worrying them in school. We thought this worked well as we are students already and it fitted well with our gender doing our continuity exercise in school as this made it seem more realistic. Our match on action took place with Phoebe coming into the class room and then sitting down. Then our shot reverse shot took place between Phoebe and Ciara having there conversation.
We had to unfortunately film our continuity exercise twice as we found it difficult to stay within the 180 degree rule. This taught us the importance of editing and then made us understand that the audience would be confused if the position of the actors kept changing and the work would not have such a smooth edit.

Continuity Exercise

Saul Bass

Who was Saul Bass?

Saul Bass was best known of being an American graphic designer and an  Academy Award winning filmmaker, he was especially known for his design of motion picture opening sequences, logos and film posters.

 Saul Bass was born May 8, 1920. He began his career in Hollywood doing print work for film ads in the 1940's, he soon joined up with filmmaker Otto Preminger to design a film poster for his 1954 film Carmen Jones. Otto Preminger was so impressed with Bass's work that he asked him to produce the title sequence as well. This was when Bass first saw the opportunity to create a title sequence which would ultimately enhance the experience of the audience and contribute to the mood and the theme of the movie within the opening moments. Bass was one of the first to realize the creative potential of the opening and closing credits of a movie.

''My initial thoughts about what a title can do was to set mood and the prime underlying core of the films story, to express the story in some metaphorical way. I saw the title as a way of conditioning the audience, so that when the film actually began, viewers would already have an emotional resonance with it''      Saul Bass 

Opening title sequence

What is an opening sequence and why is it so important?

A opening sequence is the method used by films or television programs present their title, key production and cast members, or both, using both visuals and sound.

Opening credits have been used since the 1980's, they are used to  identify the major actors and crew in the film or television program where as the closing credits are just a list of the rest of the cast and production team. 

Opening credits can be considered by many people to be the most important part of the film because they are the first images or sounds the audience sees, it is what brings the audience into the film. If the opening sequence was rather dull with no excitement it will not catch the audience's eye. Although they are quick clips from about 2-3 minutes long it outlines the producers intentions and sets up the expectations for the audience who are watching the film.  

Researching sound in film and TV

Define and give examples of the following terms:

Diagetic sound: Diagetic sound can be any sound, voice or piece of music that comes from within the narrative.

Non- diagetic sound: Non-diagetic sound is music such as sound effects or voice overs that come from outside the space of the narrative

Synchronous sound: Synchronous sound refers to the sound recorded at the time of filming movies, it fits into the extract perfectly.

Asynchronous sound: Sound which is fitted into the action but not precisely synchronized with the action.

Contrapuntal sound: Having two or more independent but harmonically related melodic parts sound together. 

Leitmotif: Leitmotif is a short, constantly recurring musical phrase associated with a particular person, place or idea.

Drama convention study