My Film - Thriller/Sci-fi/Horror Hybrid Genre

Scream 1996

 The opening of Scream 1996 shows the company ident, followed by a black title screen, with the word "scream" written on it in white faded looking block letters. There is a building droning sound in the background ground and the screams of a woman can be heard, as the letters flash red.

This is the end of the title sequence, and the movie begins immediately after with the opening murder sequence.

I liked the minimal use of titles as it helped to immerse the audience immediately within the film world; I want to use a similar style in my own film opening.


Body Snatchers 1993

This film opens with the production company names in a red font, over a moving galaxy background with eerie sci-fi music. The film's title appears last, and is bigger than the other names. The "Body Snatchers" title then fades out slowly, while the names of the cast and crew appear in white over the screen. The scene then transitions to a panning shot over ominous looking countryside while the titles continue. As we see a car driving down the road, a voice over from the protagonist begins. 

From this opening I liked the font used for the main title, and plan on using a similar font in my own film.

Codes and conventions of the thriller genre from JasonsA2Media

Science fiction conventions from Nikky Bain

Horror genre conventions from marine18

Film Openings Analysis - Peer work

Tom Atkinson - Ali G, Opening Analysis (P.1) (P.2) (P.3)
Tom Cross - Bridget Jones's Diary, Opening Analysis
Milo Davis - Atonement, Opening Analysis
Alex Hey - Burn After Reading, Opening Analysis
Will Laing - About a Boy, Opening Analysis
Louis Rose-Fall - The Boat That Rocked, Opening Analysis
Rian Scaife - Wish You Were Here, Opening Analysis
Charles Verfuerth - Le Donk & Scor-Zay-Zee, Opening Analysis
Robbie Watson - Napoleon Dynamite, Opening Analysis
Niamh Wormald - Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Opening Analysis

My Film - Initial Ideas

1.) Main character in bed, ^^^, tries to sleep again - nightmare(?)(jump cut images of a nightmare) - wakes up sweating - rolls over to sleep again, eyes open to the sound of shattering glass. 

2.) Lots of jump cuts - character keeps waking up in different places. Could use a specific item or effect in the peripheral of each scene. Voice over/non-diegetic sound.

3.) Normal bathroom routine - bends to spit out toothpaste, reflection doesn't move, (blinks - eyes change colour) just looks down at real person. Real person looks back up, reflection is smiling - holding scissors. Real person looks in confusion, then terror - reflection slits throat - real person's blood splatters window, drops to floor. Reflection smiles - bloodied teeth, blood dripping from neck - turns to look directly into the camera, tilts head, smiles wider. 

Influences

• Scream (1996)
• Scream (Netflix Series, 2015-) Opens with shot of a lake and dock at night, non-diegetic music playing "Daisy Daisy.." - cut to make out scene and then montage (with non-diegetic music) of social media sharing before a close-up of a character's face, then cut to an antagonist and murder scene commences

"Four Lions" Titles Analysis

Four Lions

(Chris Morris, 2010)

Produced by Warp Films, (+ Film4; Wild Bunch, Optimum Releasing)

Budget: £2.5 million

Overall, the opening sequence is about 3mins20secs long, with two company idents and four titles. It seems that the lack of titles for this opening is done deliberately so that the audience will focus on the story and characters right away. The film seems to be trying for verisimilitude, as it doesn't start with a montage and non-diegetic sound, but with a long-shot of one of the main characters. There isn't much of a narrative enigma, but this works as it fits with the characters (who seem rather unintelligent) and are rather unsubtle.

The film opens with the company ident for Wild Bunch (10 seconds in length.) As "Wild Bunch" is a German Film Distribution Company, we understand this company ident to mean that they were the distributors for "Four Lions"

"Film4" is a production company, so this company ident (10 seconds in length) reveals to us that they produced "Four Lions".

Both company idents keep their original sound.

This is the first shot of the film. There are no titles - it simply cuts in with a static medium-long shot (that shifts ever so slightly) of one of the characters in the middle third. All the sound is diegetic. It can be denoted that the character looks middle-eastern, is wearing dark, khaki clothing, and a head band with what appears to be islamic writing on it: this exposition shows us that the character is islamic, and given that the audience is likely to have seen videos of terrorist propaganda on the news (intertextuality) we understand that this character is meant to be a terrorist. A narrative enigma is created briefly as an audience wonders what he is going to say and what's going to happen next. The lack of titles seems to have been done to create a strong sense of verisimilitude (as if this were really a terrorist demands video, as that wouldn't have titles.) 

In the next shot (cuts to a long shot - which is important as it increases the shot variety) the rest of the main characters are revealed, and it becomes clear to the audience that they are not actually a serious terrorist group, but just four Pakistani's from Sheffield, West Yorkshire (exposed through their accents.)  However, there is a slight narrative enigma as we (the audience) are left wondering what they're trying to achieve by being terrorists. We can denote that the room they are in is shabby and sparsely furnished, which has connotations of our main characters being lower-middle class. 

However, there is a jump-cut to a medium shot of Omar's (the protagonist's) family, but now the room in which they are in is a lot cleaner and nicer, a direct contrast to the place in which we first met Omar. This creates a binary opposition; the terrorist, and the family man. It must be denoted that his wife is a nurse, and that he has a young son; these two facts both make the audience more connected to Omar, despite his attempts to be a terrorist. All sound up until this point has been diegetic, but non-diegetic music begins to fade in (providing an audio bridge.)

This is the 1st title to appear in the film, however it doesn't appear until 3:01. The word "presents" shows us that Film4 produced this film. Non-diegetic music (which sounds middle eastern and quite serious) has begun to play by this point. This footage provides the transition (with the aid of an audio bridge) from the introduction to the main film, and also gives anchorage to help with the context (e.g. that it takes place within a city.)

This is the (2nd and) main title (the name) of the movie. It's written in sans-serif and is easy to read; fonts like this are commonly used in comedies and dramas ("Four Lions" being a combination of the two.) It's small, and in the lower middle third of the screen, however as the camera zooms in on the Mosque with fairy lights (center, middle third) we understand that this movie is to focus on Islam; the mosque is being used as anchorage. As we've seen the four Jihadi terrorists by this point, we understand the title "Four Lions" is a direct reference to them. 

Just as with the 1st and 2nd titles, the writing here is small, sans-serif style and pale coloured, meaning it is not eye-catching. Again it's also in the bottom two thirds, almost as if it was not meant to be seen (or at least focused on.) This title mentions the production company (Warp Films) and the director (Chris Morris - who is only mentioned once within the titles; this is unusual, as normally the director is mentioned twice.) The mise-en-scene here depicts an empty shopping center, which is revealed to be the place of employment of Omar. The use of the empty shopping center is to anchor the fact that Omar lives in the western world, which makes his involvement in a Jihadi terrorist group all the more confusing for the audience.

This is the final title for the opening, and it simply names two companies involved in the majority of distribution of this film; Wild Bunch and Optimum Releasing. Again, the writing is small and difficult to read, especially as it's placed in the bottom third. (The non-diegetic music ends here.)

*Each title lasts approximately 5 seconds (and they fade in/out,) with the overall title sequence stretching from 3:01 to 3:20. 

(Main) Props List

• Camera
• Toy Rifle
• Laptop

Location

• Shabby living room
• Modern kitchen
• City at night
• Empty shopping center

TASK 1: The role of researching film opening conventions in our coursework

"Using either a printed copy or an online version, look through the assessment criteria for all three marked sections of your coursework and note in this post any and all elements of this that are linked to researching the conventions of film openings (and film/genre conventions more broadly). Include any of the relevant 7 Evaluation Questions in your list."

Research and Planning

• There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience
• There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning

Evaluation

• Excellent understanding of issues around audience, institution, technology, representation, forms, and conventions in relation to production
• Excellent ability to refer to the choices made and outcomes

Production

• Using titles appropriately
• Editing so that the meaning is apparent to the viewer

Mark Scheme

"Pretty in Pink" Film Opening Conventions

DB Blog Post

My Prelim - Final Cut

My Prelim - Breaking the 180 Degree Rule

In this edit of my prelim task, I have used shot types in an editing sequence that breaks the 180 degree rule.

My Prelim - Rough Cut

This is the rough cut of my prelim task.

My Prelim Task (Parts 1, 2, & 3) - What I Did

PART 1 

• In our Prelim Task, we were told to film a series of shots where a person opens a door, enters a room, and has a conversation with another person. We then had to use Final Cut Pro to edit these shots into a short film.

First, we had to set ourselves up with a new library within Final Cut Pro so that we could ensure our work would not get lost or deleted.

Next, we had to take the SD card (from the camera we used to film with) and place it into the computer where we could upload our footage to Final Cut Pro.

(This is where all our footage appeared in Final Cut Pro.)






*It's very important to eject the SD card before you physically remove it from the machine.




The footage we uploaded could be seen and played in its original form in the window to the top right of the screen in Final Cut Pro.

To begin editing our footage into a clip of film the would run smoothly, we had to drag down the footage clips we wanted into the bar at the bottom of the screen where we could place them in the correct order (and where we could begin to edit them.)

The image above (^^^) shows where the footage was placed.

The image to the left shows the "zoom" controls that allowed us to control how big/small the footage in the above image could be viewed as. The bigger the footage, the easier it was to have a very clear view of how we were editing it (helping us to avoid mistakes.)


The first (and most important) part of our editing was our use of the "blade" tool, which allowed us to cut out the unnecessary bits of footage the were detracting from our film.

Next, I began to play around with the volume setting because when we filmed our footage there was a lot of unnecessary background noise, and I wished to eliminate this from the film.

I also went on to edit the speed of the final clip; I had to prolong the clip as it was meant to show emotion, but this emotion had been lost because it was too short (I'd had to cut out some unpleasant sounds.) To solve this problem, I edited the speed at which the clip would be played, basically putting it into slow-motion.

As this is only the prelim task, at this point I had to save and export my project. Once I had checked that there was no "slug" and I'd highlighted the footage, I had to export it.

I had to select "share" (as master file) as the file was video footage.

(There were various settings that needed adjusting.)



PART 2

• "Breaking the 180 Degree Rule"

In the second version of my Prelim task I used a shot where I broke the 180 Degree Rule.

The "180 Degree Rule" - an imaginary line called the "axis" connects the characters, and by keeping the camera on one side of this axis for every shot in the scene, the first character is always frame right of the second.
Breaking the 180 Degree Rule causes it to appear to the audience that the characters have switched places (as evidenced below.)

PART 3

• "Sounds & Titles"

In the third version of my Prelim Task I had to add Titles and Sound Clips.

To add a Title I had to select the "T" icon from the inserts bar. Once I had selected the type of title that would work best for this project I went on to change the text, the colours, the font, the size, and the positioning on the screen.












It was important to me find font styles and colours that fit with the style of the film and with the type of music I selected.   (An example title is shown below.)

(My Title: "SILVERSALT STUDIOS PRESENTS")

I also had to add sound to my film. To do this I had to click on the musical note icon in the inserts bar, and then select the "iLife Sound Effects" file; from here, i had access to all the sound effects and music I could want. To fit with the style of my film I selected a piece of music called "Tigris" from the "Jingles" folder and placed it in the work bar beneath my footage. I used it to cover the unpleasant background noise, but I had to make sure that the dialogue could still be heard.
At the end of my film I have adjusted the volume settings so as to have the music fade out, as an abrupt stop would have seemed unprofessional.

I also added end credits; I used a pre-made option from the "T" tab in the inserts bar. 

My Prelim - Storyboard

This is the storyboard I created in the brief planning period I had for this task.
The storyboard proved very helpful for filming as I was able to clearly visualize what was needed, making the process much more efficient.

Blog Improvements

"Bunny and The Bull"

• Gave the post a title.
• Added an image (of promotion for the film) to the post. 
• Uploaded screenshots of my analyses of 3 screenshots from the the film ("Bunny and The Bull".)

Analysis of "This is England"

• Rounded off the monetary figures to millions.
• Added links to other websites to allow readers to gain more information.
• Added a link to the source.
• Added images.

Semiotics in Action 

• Changed the text size to normal.
• Highlighted key terminology.
• Corrected Spelling.

The History of Working Title

• Added a source.
• Added an image.
• Added links.

Analysis of "Nanny McPhee"

• Added an image to anchor the setting.
• Commented on the significance of a PG rating.
• Added more information.
• Briefly analysed the income.

The Prelim Task

• Attempted to add an example of a previous prelim (however, I was unsuccessful in finding one.)

The Prelim Task - Marking Criteria

THE BRIEF, EVALUATION + HOW ITS ALL MARKED

THE BRIEF

Your mission is to carry out the following brief:

Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.
Main task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.
All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source.

The coursework is worth 50% of the AS (same at A2) and the marking (detailed later) is divided into 3 sections:

RESEARCH AND PLANNING: 20%

PRODUCTION: 60%

EVALUATION: 20%

Your work is marked partially on my observations of your approach and level of organisation, but fundamentally its a DVD and your blog that are marked.

EVALUATION

Even before you start shooting (let alone planning) your production, you need to keep this final stage in mind. If you start (b)logging notes on this now it will save you a lot of stress as the final deadline (in May!) approaches. You are tasked with answering these questions (see below for details on how this is marked):

• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 

• How does your media product represent particular socialgroups?

• What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? 

• Who would be the audience for your media product? 

• How did you attract/address your audience? 

• What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? 

• Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

HOW ITS ALL MARKED [ie THE ASSESSMENT CRITERIA]

When I'm marking all this, I've got to write a paragraph for the exam board justifying the marks I've given you. The grid embedded below summarises the criteria I have to follow, and so you're advised to occasionally re-read this and ask yourself where you think you'll fall within the marking scheme!
For each section there are key components of the work which I have to assess as being one of the following:

MINIMAL
BASIC
PROFICIENT

EXCELLENT

If you think you're currently at the 'minimal' or 'basic' level for any of these, ask yourself (and me!) what you can do to jump up to at least proficient.
G321 - Simplified Marking Criteria as 1 Sheet

Analysis of "Working Title" Films

Basic Info

• Distributor: Universal
• Genre: Family
• MPAA Rating: PG (the significance of a PG rating is that it allows a wider audience access to watch the film. E.G. a rate R limits the audience, but PG allows everyone to watch.)

The appeal of "Nanny McPhee" is that it is a comedic, heart-warming family film centering around an upper-middle class family with posh English accents in the scenic countryside of England - this is the ideal image of England which so enchants audiences (especially American audiences.) This film also has very well known British actors such as Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, and Angela Lansbury.

Income

• American (Domestic) Gross: $47,144,110
• UK Gross: $29,183,838
• Foreign Gross: $75,345,712
• World Wide Gross: $122,489,822

It is very important to note how the US Gross was considerably higher than the UK Gross. With a production budget of $25m, "Nanny McPhee" did remarkably well. 

Directed by: Kirk Jones

Distributor: Universal

[Source]



PART 2

Johnny English Brief Analysis

Genre : Comedy
Filming locations:
London - Canary Warfe
              -  Westminster Abby
Kent


Gross:
USA - $28 M
UK - £19.2 M

Directed By: Peter Howitt

Cast:

• Rowan Atkinson as MI7 agent, Johnny English
• Ben Miller as MI7 agent, Angus Bough
• John Malkovich as Pascal Edward Sauvage
• Natalie Imbruglia as Interpol Agent Lorna Campbell
• Oliver Ford Davies as the Archbishop of Canterbury
• Tim Pigott-Smith as Pegasus
• Kevin McNally as the Prime Minister
• Douglas McFerran as Klaus Vendetta
• Steve Nicolson as Dieter Klein
• Greg Wise as Agent One

Johnny english is set in the South of England and portrays the stereotypical view of England of  Posh and rich

It portrays a candied view of England that appeals to both British and American audiences.

Pride And Prejudice

Pride And Prejudice is a working title film set in the upper class Britain. The characters are all posh white and live in a large family home. The main character, Elizabeth Bennet is one of 9 sisters all looking for marriage of a 'well off husband'. It was released in 2005:

• The main character is Elizabeth Bennet, white upper class looking for love.
• Keira Knightly is playing Elizabeth.
• The plot clearly states that Elizabeth is looking for the love in the relationship instead of the economics in which the rest of her family (and the white upper class nation of the 1800's) were looking into. 
• The film is based on a Jane Austin novel. The novel is the second best selling novel in British history. This gives the movie a pre-audience. 
• The film had a gross of $38 million.
• Pride And Prejudice is a satire and a novel of manners. The fact that the movie is based in white upper class is very appealing to foreign countries, such as america.
• Pride and Prejudice may be of these genres however it is also a love story therefore aimed at Jane Austin fans, which are mainly of a female audience. This is why there is Matthew Macfayden. There is large build up evening the trailer.
• It is a PG rated film. Production companies involved were Universal and CanalStudios. 

The History of "Working Title"

• "Working Title" is a British Film Company that is based in London. It was founded in 1983 by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe, and is now owned by Universal Studios (Parent Company.) The co-chairs of the company now are Bevan, and Eric Fellner.
• "Working Title" produces feature films and some television productions.
• In 1992 "PolyGram" (an Anglo-Dutch film studio) became "Working Title"'s corporate backer, until 1999 when "PolyGram" was sold to "Seagram" and merged with "MCA Music Entertainment" to form "Universal Music Group".
• "Polygram Films" was sold and folded into "Universal Studios" in 1999.

• "WT2" (or "Working Title 2") is a subsidiary company of "Working Title" which Bevan and Fellner launched in 1999. 
• "WT2" is an indépendant film production run by Natasha Wharton, and has produced films such as "Billy Elliot" and "Shaun of the Dead"

• "Working Title" work in Television production in the early 1990's.
• In 2010 "Working Title" launched its TV division as a joint venture with "NBCUniversal" (its parent company) producing content for both British and American TV.  

[Source]

Semiotics in Action: This is England (Opening Scenes)

In This Shot:

• There is central framing, which puts the words "THIS IS ENGLAND" within the middle third.  This is to give the audience a focus point and a very clear message...

• The writing is white with black smudges on it so as to seem grubby and neglected, signifying poverty and hardship.

• The words are also positioned directly in front of shoddy looking council houses; this connotes that the film is about working class people, but also has a greater reading that (coupled with the statement-like capital lettering of "THIS IS ENGLAND") has been anchored to show us that this scene is about what England is really like... 

• Poor, unkempt, and desperate.

In This Shot:

• Just as in the first shot, again there is the use of central framing. The face of a young woman is in the middle third, making her the focus point; however it's to be denoted that she is being lead by two large male police officers. Given the binary opposition of these front three figures, (and the angry looking civilians following behind,) it's clear that this scene is some sort of protest/riot.

• A narrative enigma is created though, as the audience (particularly younger members) are unlikely to know any information about the protest/riot. This mystery is furthered through questions over why the young woman is being  arrested, why there is a barbed wire fence in the background, and what it's protecting. 

Analysis of "This is England"

In today's lesson we spent time looking at the facts and figures of the production behind Shane Meadows' film "This is England" (a Warp film.)

With the financial help of EM Media and Screen Yorkshire (both of which are regional wings of the UK Film council (which has now become BFI,)) and the support of Optimum Releasing (now Studio Canal, and owned by NBC Universal,) "This is England" had considerable success; grossing $82m worldwide (a figure that is rather impressive, given that the budget was only £1.5m.)

The director of "This is England", Shane Meadows (as pictured below) has also directed films such as "A Room for Romeo Bass", "Dead Man's Shoes", and "Le Donk and Scor-zay-zee" (among others.) Due to Meadows' distinctive, social-realist style, he is very much the Auteur. 'Social realism' is a naturalistic form of realism that focuses specifically on social issues and the hardships of everyday life, and Meadows' certainly has the knack for this type of film (as evidenced through "This is England".) Another key feature in a social-realist style film is the protagonist, who's usually of the lower class or a minority; in the case of "This is England", the protagonist is 12 year old boy called Shaun Field, who lives in a poor area with his mum, and who's dad died fighting in the Falkland Wars.

Despite being from an Indie company such as Warp, "This is England" managed to gain significant success; 5 weeks of running time in the UK, shown on up to 151 UK screens, and earning £1.3m in the UK box office. Add that to the rest of the success and earnings from around the world, and you'll see why "This is England" has spawned three mini series continuing the story, and a sturdy fan base.

[Source]

Camera Shot Types: "Bunny and The Bull"

An assignment was set in which we had to select a movie, take three screen-shots from the opening scenes, and then identify the camera shot types used and why this was done. For my film, I selected "Bunny and The Bull" (of Warp Films.)

This is a mid-shot, where the camera give the view of the abject/subject as directly face-on in the centre of the frame. This is the opening shot of the film, and it appears to be the door of a house. Having watched the film, I believe the purpose of this shot is to show the audience that the story is to take place within the house behind this closed door, (a fact which the audience will realise is significant as the film's story unfolds.) 

This is a close-up  (bordering on extreme,) where the camera focuses on a particular object in close range, so as to give the audience a more detailed look at the scene. This is shot is from the opening sequence (which features multiple close-ups of household items, which are specifically designed to show the names of the film's management, crew, and actors, thus acting as the opening credits/titles.) This shot is important because it focuses on the hand of the main character (as revealed shortly,) and this is our first introduction to him (his name is Stephen.) The hand is on what appears to be blankets, at an angle that implies that while the character is lying down - possible even asleep - he is not relaxed, as the wrist is not limp and the tendons in the hand are strained. I believe this shot was a close-up  so as the show the audience these details, helping to build their impressions of Stephen as being a troubled man. 

This is a dutch/canted angle (when a shot it tilted, usually done to show the audience that something is wrong/off with the scene.) This shot is actually spinning, as it is meant to show the character (Stephen) watching his clothes spin in the washing machine. I believe this shot was included to further the audience's understanding of this character's inner troubles. What's particularly interesting about this is that it is Stephen who is spinning around (from the audience's point of view) as opposed to him staying still and us 'spinning around him'. This adds to our growing impressions of Stephen as being slightly mad.