Reasearch on opening credits – Panic Room

I have looked at the opening scenes of some films of the same genre as the task we are planning to do.

Panic room: Panic Room establishes a sense of claustrophobia and questions vision right from the opening credits.set on the Upper West Side of New York City, the credit sequence is a montage of images of tall buildings, mostly anonymous, framed to fill the screen of windows. Gigantic white letter hanging by the buildings as by magic, grabs the audience’s attention right away. Along with shots of the Manhattan skyline, natives and tempo of traffic, this creates an exiting effect. There is a disturbing air to the entire sequence,even though nothing menacing really happens (other than  an almost subliminal glimpse of the film’s tagline “face your fears”, that appears on a screen). The music is also part of making the tensed feeling. This could be a clue about the genre of the film. The disturbing feeling fits perfect for the opening credits of a thriller.

Newest Task

Romance-love – always a happy ending, usually a short book and easy to read, obstacles get in the way of the guy and girl getting together.

My task in the new film

 

The plot of this two minute production is going to revolve around the genre of a thriller film. The main outline of this film is going to be based on two friends walking home from an afternoon out. The lighting will change from light to dark and you will be able to see the gradual process in which the changes are made as the sun goes down.The idea of this film is that no-one is quite sure where the plot is going to go, and therefore it will end abruptly leaving suspense and many questions to be answered. This is what we want to achieve as we do not want to conclude the film in the two minutes that it is watched, we want our audience to want to continue watching to find out what is going to happen in the end.

In this task I am going to be in charge of the location in which the film is set, therefore I will look into various places that are close and would look realistic to film at. The factors that will need to be taken into consideration when thinking of realism are: is there actual apparatus that work properly and to our satisfaction and use, will the location need more props in order to make it look like a park, is the area big enough to use to film the entire two minutes or will we run out of land to film in? Finally the points of the park that will be used to create the atmosphere that we want, will there be areas that we can use to film added suspense? I will also consider how practical the location is, by this I mean how safe the park is to film at, are the weather conditions going to affect the safety of the actors? Also how suitable the apparatus are and are they working like they should and safe to use if needed. Finally it is vital that it must create the kind of emotion and empathy that we are trying to make the audience feel, which is anxiety, tension and get them on the edge of their seats. We also want them to consider how they will feel if they were in that position themselves.

The different sectors of the park that we are considering using are a mixture of casual areas that you would easily walk through alone as well as areas that you wouldn’t dare visit on your own. We want to use the area of the park that includes the swings, as well as show how empty the park is by showing the children’s play area. We also want to include a clip where the actors walk through into a creepy and mysterious farmers field. We will then lead off down a long and dark pathway in which the only source of light is when the cars travel along the roadside. These are the perfect parts of the park that we felt would create the most tension because the expectancy of anything bad happening is so low. We also thought by using a park it would give the feeling of safety, this is because at a park you assume that nothing bad will happen due to the fact that young children play freely there, we want to people to reconsider the assumptions that they may have made before.

My first thoughts about using this local park is that it would help make the film look really effective. This park has areas in which we could use to make the scene creepy and mysterious, for instance a set of swings. The use of these swings is creepy because no-one is going to be near the swings, and therefore we are going to use the wind to our advantage to make the swings move. This will leave the audience to question whether it is the wind or in fact could there be someone in the area that we do not know about. Also the use of the long pathway which is only lit up by the light of the cars will also work well in terms of creating tension. This is because we will only be able to see objects that are being caught in the reflection of the cars and therefore the imagery will not be clear enough in that split second to work out precisely what is happening at that moment in time.

Another option that we considered for the location is following the two actors home from a night out in the city. We thought that the use of footsteps from people walking in the same direction could create anxiety if the pace changed, and for the footsteps to get louder and if there are a lot of people close behind the audience would be unable to work out who is following the two friends. This idea is a lot more difficult and complicated. This is because the park is deserted which is unlike a park, so the absence of people makes it more frightening. Whereas by filming publicly this will make it difficult to film with people getting in the way who you don’t want to include in the film and also it could make a lot of continuity errors. For example if we were to film one person who we wanted to be the suspect they could suddenly disappear from our sight, as well as the risk of people shouting and making unnecessary sounds which may ruin the footage.

The plot of this two-minute production is going to revolve around the genre of a thriller film. The main outline of this film is going to be based on two friends walking home from an afternoon out. The lighting will change from light to dark and you will be able to see the gradual process in which the changes are made as the sun goes down.The idea of this film is that no-one is quite sure where the plot is going to go, and therefore it will end abruptly leaving suspense and many questions to be answered. This is what we want to achieve as we do not want to conclude the film in the two minutes that it is watched, we want our audience to want to continue watching to find out what is going to happen in the end.

In this task I am going to be in charge of the location in which the film is set, therefore I will look into various places that are close and would look realistic to film at. The factors that will need to be taken into consideration when thinking of realism are: is there actual apparatus that work properly and to our satisfaction and use, will the location need more props in order to make it look like a park, is the area big enough to use to film the entire two minutes or will we run out of land to film in? Finally the points of the park that will be used to create the atmosphere that we want, will there be areas that we can use to film added suspense? I will also consider how practical the location is, by this I mean how safe the park is to film at, are the weather conditions going to affect the safety of the actors? Also how suitable the apparatus are and are they working like they should and safe to use if needed. Finally it is vital that it must create the kind of emotion and empathy that we are trying to make the audience feel, which is anxiety, tension and get them on the edge of their seats. We also want them to consider how they will feel if they were in that position themselves.

The different sectors of the park that we are considering using are a mixture of casual areas that you would easily walk through alone as well as areas that you wouldn’t dare visit on your own. We want to use the area of the park that includes the swings, as well as show how empty the park is by showing the children’s play area. We also want to include a clip where the actors walk through into a creepy and mysterious farmers field. We will then lead off down a long and dark pathway in which the only source of light is when the cars travel along the roadside. These are the perfect parts of the park that we felt would create the most tension because the expectancy of anything bad happening is so low. We also thought by using a park it would give the feeling of safety, this is because at a park you assume that nothing bad will happen due to the fact that young children play freely there, we want to people to reconsider the assumptions that they may have made before.

My first thoughts about using this local park is that it would help make the film look really effective. This park has areas in which we could use to make the scene creepy and mysterious, for instance a set of swings. The use of these swings is creepy because no-one is going to be near the swings, and therefore we are going to use the wind to our advantage to make the swings move. This will leave the audience to question whether it is the wind or in fact could there be someone in the area that we do not know about. Also the use of the long pathway which is only lit up by the light of the cars will also work well in terms of creating tension. This is because we will only be able to see objects that are being caught in the reflection of the cars and therefore the imagery will not be clear enough in that split second to work out precisely what is happening at that moment in time.

Another option that we considered for the location is following the two actors home from a night out in the city. We thought that the use of footsteps from people walking in the same direction could create anxiety if the pace changed, and for the footsteps to get louder and if there are a lot of people close behind the audience would be unable to work out who is following the two friends. This idea is a lot more difficult and complicated. This is because the park is deserted which is unlike a park, so the absence of people makes it more frightening. Whereas by filming publicly this will make it difficult to film with people getting in the way who you don’t want to include in the film and also it could make a lot of continuity errors. For example if we were to film one person who we wanted to be the suspect they could suddenly disappear from our sight, as well as the risk of people shouting and making unnecessary sounds which may ruin the footage.

A possible plot for the opening two minutes

In this coursework task we are so far struggling to decide a final plot, however we know the genre and have a collection of ideas that we need to put together. This idea involves a local park at night. The camera starts with a close up of a round about side angle spinning around really fast by itself, slowly the camera moves out showing the entire round about, the shot then changes to a panning shot of the swings then capturing the noise of the chains creaking and the wind blowing. The camera closes in again as the swing moves quicker and higher in the air, showing that there could not possibly be anyone there. The swing comes to a sudden stop, as mysterious foot prints appear in the sand. The camera then follows the trail of footprints until they stop and disappear into the grass. There then is a camera shot showing the entire surroundings and what is in the park. The camera from that point then explores some interesting but nerve-wracking trees through a big gap. This is the only idea that we have at the moment, but we still need to fully develop our ideas further and think of a concrete plot that we are going to create. The main beginning shots that I have discussed above will be the types of shots represented in the opening credits, this part of the film is full of suspense and drama, therefore it will help to draw in a bigger and more interested audience. The main storyline of the film is about two best friends who are on their way home from a good evening out when dramatic consequences happen which resorts to all kinds of terror and misery by the end of it. It keeps you on your toes and keeps you wondering.

ideas for our main media task

Marcus on piano opening.

– Marcus closes piano, then gets into bed…looks at a picture of Teri Squire on his phone then puts his phone down, then switches off the light (everything goes black)

– The dream begins…

 – Introducing the dream with ‘wheel, 4 spokes’ (windows movie maker transition)

 – Marcus is dreaming about life withTeri Squire …

 The dream has a mixture of flashing still and moving images.

– Alex’s rose in the pool

– Marcus at a bus stop he see’s  Teri Squire  walking past. Teri Squire doesn’t notice him.

 – Flash up of Teri Squire’s face

  – Teri Squire laughing

–  Teri Squire and Marcus dancing together… him in suit,her in a long dress.

 – Ending with Teri Squire  and Marcus sitting at the bus stop bundled up, and then  Teri Squire kisses him on the cheek and walk away…

– He wakes up.

– Flash to Teri Squire  and Marcus being at school, Teri finally say ‘hi Marcus’ and then walk away…

– End on Marcus’s face smiling.

THE END.

Credits: Marcus Wiseman as Luke Armstrong. Teri Squire as Leading Girl. Filmed and Produced by Holly Smith and Teri Squire.

A rough outline plan for the opening 2 minutes of a film.

– Marcus on piano opening.

– Marcus closes piano, then gets into bed…looks at a picture of me on his phone then puts his phone down, then switches off the light (everything goes black)

– The dream begins…

– Introducing the dream with ‘wheel, 4 spokes’ (windows movie maker transition)

– Marcus is dreaming about life with me…

The dream has a mixture of flashing still and moving images.

 – Alex’s picture of a rose in a pool

– Marcus at a bus stop he see’s me walking past. I don’t notice him.

– Flash up of my face

– Me laughing

– Me and Marcus dancing together… him in suit, me in a long dress.

– Ending with me and Marcus sitting at the bus stop bundled up, and then I kiss him on the cheek and walk away…

– Fade out transition

– Fade in transition to show Marcus waking up

– Flash to me and Marcus being at school, I finally say ‘hi Marcus’ and then walk away…

– End on Marcus’s face smiling.

THE END.

Credits:  Marcus Wiseman as Luke Armstrong. Teri Squire as Leading Girl. Filmed and Produced by Holly Smith and Teri Squire.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

For our preliminary task, we had to create a short film with just a few lines of dialogue. Someone would have to enter the room and with another character and say the dialogue. Our genre for this short film was a ’spoof’ about a woman (me) being followed by a stranger. a young man/ teenager(Robbie Khun). The woman misreads this as him stalking her but infact he is just trying to give her phone she dropped.

We had to plan out the mise-en-scene (location, props, costume) for the costume we decided to have the stranger wear a hoodie because that way you don’t see all his face at the start to make the audience nervous but also the other character, also we decided to have a hoodie because the character is a young adult/ teenager and so we based it on a sterotypical teenager, they often wear hoodies. For the woman we decided to have her wear orginally a dress but decided that would make the character seem younger in age also we had a problem with continuity so just decided to create a whole new outfit to jeans, top and high heeled shoes. The location was a problem with planning also, it was difficult trying to find a quiet place to shoot the footage, originally we were going to film in the sixth form block at sewell park college but then changed to the hallway in in sewell park college and entered a cookery room. We only used a few props in the footage, which was a mobile phone and table and chairs.

The equipment we used for recording the footage was simply a camera and tripod so it was easy to manage. We did include many shots, we did include shot reverse shot and 180 degree shot, we also used a low, medium and high shot. When film editing we had to cut a lot of the footage and we re-arranged some of the cuts and we cut out all the footage that was not useful to us. Then I edited the colour to black and white colour because we wanted it to seem fictional and then turn into reality by changing the colour back to original colour at the end, I also used a video transition to change it from one colour to the other. I used this transition because we wanted to make it obvious we had edited it.  I decided to change the volume of the footage because of sound in the background, that was a problem and we could learn from this problem, we should of found a more quiet location, we made the volume loud when the two actors ran and during the dialogue because it is important to have the digetic sound. We added music (non-digetic sound) to build the tension to the film but also to fill in the clips without sound.

Our aim was to get a reaction out of the audience, at the start of the film our aim was to get the audience anticipated about what the film is about and what is going to happen and when the stranger is following the woman we wanted the audience to get nervous. Finally we wanted the audience to have to be relieved but find the end of the film funny because there is a comedy ending. I am mainly confident we have achieved at least a few of these reactions from the audience.

Health and safety is important when filming, so it does not endanger film crew or the actors. When filming the running down the hallway scene, we made sure there was nothing on the floor that could endanger the actors (me and Robbie Khun) and the group so when running no one would fall over while running.

Managing human resources was mainly fine, when filming everyone was part of the production, each person got to film, act or make decisions about filming for example when we would use certain shots. When editing, each person got to do editing because we wanted everyone to have experience with editing, not just filming.

Overall the the preliminary task had a few problems but we managed to overcome these problems and finish the task.

Evaluation Of The Preliminary Task!

In our preliminary task, we had to make a short film of someone entering a room say a few lines of dialogue to the other character, who is already in the room, then leave again. We had to think about props, location and genre of the scene. Our Genre was a comedy spoof on a police drama. We showed this when the first 10 to 20 seconds are serious, when the investigator (Jenni Dack) is entering the room and the f irst part of the dialogue. The comedy comes in when the accused (Whitney Mckernan) misunderstanding the question. For example, the investigator says “we all know the truth we all know that you’re the murderer” and the accused replied “what! what was that about a hamburger?”

Firstly, we had to look at the location, costumes and props. For the location, we looked at a room from Sprowston high school, but it was unavaliable, as we could only film at certain time, which we couldn’t do.  So we had to find another location, we had troubles finding a location but we found a place which was appropiate for our filming. We filmed at a room at Sewell park college.

We also had  problems with costumes as we had a problem. So the we had to change the character costumes. At one point we had the accused as a old woman, who has trouble hearing, but we didnt have the costume for it, so then we changed it to a foriegner, who has trouble undestanding english. The investigator was dressed smartly, wearing dark and dull clothing, as we were using a represntation of an investigator. The accused would contrast the investigator, the accused wore colourful clothing. 

Originally we were going to have many props for our filming. For example, we were going to have the investigator smoking and used a unlight cigerette and smoking machine, but since there were problems getting the snoke machine we decided to change it. We were also going to use a walking stick as part of the old woman; we could not get one in time for the filming.

When editing, we realised that we didn’t do the 180 degree rule. We also have got an error on the final piece, we noticed this when we finnished editing. Time was a problem for us, as the person that is in the film was ill, but we managed to get the filming done at the end. From doing this task we (as a group) realise to make sure that we get everything done and to be more organised with props.

preliminary Task second draft

Preliminary Task evaluation 

            When I joined As media, I joined it later than the other people in my class so this meant that the filming groups had already been sorted. Luckily Teri Squire also joined As media studies late, so together we formed a group along with charlotte Watson. Unfortunately for most of the process in deciding things like group dynamics charlotte was absent, that left our group one person short. After a lot of thought Teri and I decided to ask a year 13 student (Marcus Wiseman) for his help in acting in our preliminary task. This decision resulted in Teri Squire Acting along with Marcus Wiseman and the filming was split into two categories so it could be shared equally between myself and Teri squire. I filmed all the parts that had either just Teri acting in or both Teri and Marcus acting together and Teri filmed all the parts where Marcus acted in them on his own.

            Our equipment was pretty simple and we only used basic props. Our equipment consisted of a camera and a tripod. Our Props consisted of a classroom table, two class room chairs, a piece of lined paper and a pen. We discovered that by keeping our props down to a minimal was a very good idea as later in the process when we had to go back to film two of the shots needed that previously we had missed we could easily re- create our scene. Missing the two shots which was 180 degree shot and shot reverse shot actually worked out wonderfully as charlotte returned and that meant she could film the parts we had missed and could edit it to fit into the filming Teri and I had already filmed and edited. This resulted in all three members of my group had filmed edited and we all had a say in how we wanted the outcome of filming to look.

            Organising our human resources was actually very easy, the decision about our places in the preliminary task once made was stuck to and we got to work filming our task as soon as we had the decisions made.

When in our group we never came across a problem with our actors and the location we chose to film in, the costumes was a very big problem as soon after we had edited our filming we realised that Marcus Wiseman wasn’t wearing the right clothing for his character and later on when we had to go back and film our missing angles neither Marcus or Teri had the same clothing on! This made the continuity within our preliminary task very wrong. This would defiantly be a point to learn from as to make your film have a good verisimilitude you have to have perfect continuity.

Two minute opening of a film

For our new task, it would be fun to do something a little different. Maybe a horror fil or a thriller. We could film it in the dark, to create tension and atmosphere. The camera could focus on a couple walking down an empty street at night, laughing. Then it could change to a man following them, but only show his feet moving. When this person is in focus, the sound of the people laughing could be far away but get closer as we hear the sound of his footsteps and heavy breathing. The camera could change between this person and the couple. There could be music in the background to help build tension. Then the camera could go all dark and we could hear someone screaming.