Choosing a Genre

Genre 1: Action

Pros:

• Action achieved through pace
• Easy – can do a chase scene
• Access to a lot of potential cast
• Narrative doesn’t necessarily need depth
• Can be easily created through music
• Easy target audience

Cons:

• Chase scene is very generic and overused
• Need access to expensive props if not doing a chase scene
• How will we achieve birds eye establishing shots, conventions of the genre
• Needs a large budget for sfx software (not available to shoot in school)

Ideas for opening:

• Title – Gone

-Woman walks into an office block and enters a lift, gets out on a floor and meets another person

-Look very modern and clean, the people are sophisticated and fit in with the surroundings

• Title – Maximum Glory

-Chase scene, man runs down an ally then gets pulled into a car

-Busy streets, casual clothes,

Genre 2: Thriller

Pros:

• Easy to think of a narrative
• Basic editing skills required
• Easy to film
• Genre easily created through music
• Could be generic on purpose/ a past cliché of previous thrillers
• If we choose to use props they would be relatively cheap

Cons:

• Difficult to distinguish between horror and thriller
• If the lighting isn’t right in the location there’s not too much we can do to change it ( we will have to choose our filming times and if we miss it shooting will be delayed)
• Harder to focus on a target audience

Ideas for opening:

• Title – Thrown Off

-An after death shot of someone in a car park/abandoned building

-Dirty and deserted,

• Title – Last End

-Set at a train station man standing by himself gets a flash back

-Raining, man dressed well, not many people about

Film Opening Analysis Table

Name/Link/Genre	Brief Summary of events	Locations used	Characters introduced	Use of sound	Range of shots	Action and enigma codes	Use of titles
Little Mermaid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6UUpvSRYV4 Fantasy/Drama (Animation)	Group of sailors in a ship on the sea, talking about King Trident not being real, fish gets thrown overboard and swims to the concert,	The boat, under the sea	Prince Eric The crew Grimsby	Diegetic music, sound effects of the sea life, non-diegetic music is played which is constantly repeated throughout the film	Pan shot High angle Side shot Close up Wide shot Low angle Zoom out Zoom In Two shot Tilt Canted angle	Who are the main characters, what does the prince have to do with what’s happening under the sea, what’s the story line going to be,	Disney title screen, credits at the bottom of the screen whilst images of mermaids and fish are being shown
Now you see me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_diRgwPCS8 Thriller	The first character (Daniel Atlas) is introduced and produces a magic act for the audience and makes a card appear on the building behind. The second character (Merritt McKinney) is introduced as a scheming devious person, he has fooled a man into giving him money. The next character (Jack Wilder) robs a man after having the man expose his magic trick then escapes. The final character (Henley Reeves) performs a trick where she makes the audience	The city, looks like they’re in a café, in a boat on the sea, a showroom/stadium,	Introduces all four main magicians in the film individually; Daniel Atlas, Merritt McKinney, Henley Reeves, Jack Wilder.	Non-diegetic sound – Music playing underneath the dialogue to create mystery. Same music used throughout the film	Close up Over the Shoulder shot Slight low angle Extreme close up Reverse shot Zoom out Tilt Arc movement Two shot Side shot Long shot Tracking shot Mid shot Wide shot Master shot Low angle shot	Cuts quickly between characters, unsure whether characters are good or evil. Doesn’t explain backstory so the audience doesn’t know why they’re doing why they’re doing.	Contrast well against background plain colours, plain font.
Willy Wonka https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrhBZwmEK8I	No narrative told just setting the scene using images of chocolate being made with different camera shots and angles.	Chocolate factory?	None	Happy (orchestra) non-diegetic music playing behind the images.	High angle Close up Low angle Extreme close up Tilt	Who are the characters? What’s the storyline?	Big bright writing in a recognisable font. Over images.
Halloween Horror https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELF1DCf1ChA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_tGvktfjjk	Point of view of a person looking into a house to see a girl and a boy, they then continue to walk into the house and walk around until they come across a naked girl who he then murders with a knife. The killer then walks outside to get unmasked and revealed as a small child.	A house.	Michael Myers	The film first starts with ambient sounds setting the scene – its night outside in the garden. There’s dialogue between the male and female in the living room and they’re hinting at the fact they know the person looking in on them. Non-diegetic sound is introduced with the opening credits setting the atmosphere of dark and eerie. The sounds of children singing are heard when the location and date is shown.	Point of view Mid shot Zoom out	Unsure what the relation between the killer and murderer is, doesn’t explain killers motive.	The titles are orange which relates to the use of pumpkins on Halloween, stands out well against the black background, a pumpkin then appears next to the titles, half way through the pumpkin increases in size and then disappears. New titles appear giving the film some backstory, letting the audience know the date and location the film is set.

The Emperor's New Groove Opening Analysis

The film first starts with a blue screen and the iconic Disney logo appears which makes the audience already aware of the type of film they are watching. There is non-diegetic music playing behind the opening titles which carries on through the first frames, it’s quite dramatic which suggests some kind of mystery or journey for the characters to go on. The first title screen isn't very impressive, it’s a black screen with text written in white that helps with the storyline. It doesn't particularly fit with the theme of the film, this gives the impression that the film is cheap and badly edited. The first shot that we can see is a pan shot of the rainforest, which is introducing the setting, the camera then stops as a character is now in the shot. The camera then zooms to a long shot, this allows the audience to view the whole setting and the surrounding of the character so they know it’s a gloomy start to the opening. This creates uncertainty with the genre of the film as it slightly suggests it might be a comedy, however you can’t be sure just with the opening. 

The Pupose of an Opening

The purpose of an opening scene is to establish the mood and introduce characters. It gives you a first impression of the film and gives you a decision whether you want to carry on and watch or turn the film off all together. If an opening makes a big impact on the viewer, you tend to remember it, even if the rest of the film fails to measure up. There are different types of openings such as:

• Cold Open; the audience is presented with a short scene before the credits start to roll - used to encourage the viewer into watching the rest of the film but not showing enough to ruin the plot. For example:

• Animated opening; animated opening for live action instead of using actual actors - creates mystery whilst hinting at the plot. For example:

• Montage; lots of scenes put together, not necessarily showing a story (maybe a pre story that won't be shown) - Keeps the audience interested as the scenes are constantly dissolving and  showing something different. For example:

• Titles sequence; shown at the very beginning - informs the audience of who is starring in the film and big names they might want to notice. For example:

Final Preliminary task

This is our final preliminary task that we created, was set in a classroom and this did not fit with the theme of the project. If we were to make a successful clip then we should have thought about the location more, it didn't look very dark or suspicious which was the atmosphere we was going for. We also had problems filming in this location as once we got there and started filming another member of staff told that we were unable to use the room due to safety regulations, we then had to change the day of filming to book another classroom. Also the camera is very shaky throughout the clip apart from where we used the tripod, if we were to recreate some of the shots we would think about how to hold the camera so that it doesn't shake as much. Another thing we need to work on was the shot reverse shot we tried to use, the characters don't look like they're looking at each other so we needed to change the position of the camera and the way the actors are looking so that it works. One of the strengths of our preliminary task was that we used a variation of shot which shows that we know what shots to use to help create the tense atmosphere. We failed to add music to our final product which would have increased the tension, however we know to add this to our main task to improve the quality of our work.