Film Opening: Evaluation 7

Camerawork
For our preliminary task we had to include three different things: Match on Action, 180-degree rule and Shot Reverse Shot. I have demonstrated these in separate posts on my blog, with my own pictures as demonstrations and they are all within my preliminary task. We used match on action and the 180-degree rule in our film opening. However, we were unable to use shot reverse shot due to the lack of dialogue and conversation in it. If we were to make the entire movie then it would have definitely been included. Using these three key filming techniques allowed me to achieve continuity editing which is fundamental for a realistic and fluent appearing piece.

 I was acting in our preliminary and so I was unable to film. This made me much more excited to film our actual practical task. I wanted to use a variety of shots in my film opening, we also used a variety of shots in our preliminary task also. This is effective as each shot provokes different feelings in the audience, if used well. We used close up shots to bring more focus on the content or the action within the shot. For example, below are two shots from ur film opening and preliminary task. The shot on the right from our preliminary, shows a character tilting their watch towards them to look at the time. The close up shot brings focus to this and so it emphasises the feelings of impatience and waiting.

We used many low angle camera shots in our film opening when filming religious imagery. This put the religious symbols in a place of power and superiority which fit with our storyline. In both the preliminary task and film opening we used shots that travel in and out of focus. I thought this was effective in our film opening as it suggests a sense of realisation as thing are becoming clearer both visually and mentally. However, in our preliminary task, it was purely for a unique shot.

Editing
I have progressed massively in terms of my editing skills. My editing skills were extremely limited while editing our preliminary task. I have learnt how to trim clips to how I want, edit the sound content of a clip, edit the saturation of a clip to make it look slightly greyscale, which made it look more grungy and so much more. An example of this from my film opening is below. Previously, the green of the grass and trees were much more vibrant and so we dulled it down to suit the theme and genre.

In both my preliminary and film opening, a slow motion effect was used. Example of this are below. We used this effect in our film opening to give the shot more of a dreamy effect. This contrasted against the actual content and intention of the film. However, for our preliminary task it is used to emphasis the throwing of the paper as if it is such an outrageous act. The picture from our preliminary task also shows a filter over the top of the image, making the shot appear as if it is from a security camera of sorts. Ella and I wanted to try and find a filter similar which we could incorporate into our opening. However, we were unsuccessful in finding something that fit our storyline.

Film Opening: Evaluation 6

Evaluation 6 from Millie Turner

Film Opening: Evaluation 5

Evaluation 5 from Millie Turner

Film Opening: Evaluation 4

Evaluation 4 from Millie Turner

Film Opening: Evaluation 3

Directors Commentary
Some of the key features of our opening are the religious imagery and flashbacks. The religious imagery is symbolic in itself and is imagery that is understood universally. It was crucial to the piece that we emphasised its religious background but also that we respected it in our alternative interpretation of religion, Jesus Christ and God. The flashbacks are key features of the thriller genre and we wanted to include these, not only for the affect they have on the audience but because it made the storyline much more mysterious and intriguing.

A production company helps create the film by assisting with budgeting, casting, scripting and more.
Our production company is Grave Productions. Grave Productions are a British independent production company that specialises in the creation of thriller/horror movies. The company is known by its logo of a negative gravestone with the production companies names engraved into it. This is effective as it is a simple logo and isn't overdramatised. The simplicity of the logo makes it memorable and easy to visually manipulate depending on the film, much like DreamWork Studio's does with the boy and the moon. Due to the company being one of the few British independent production companies, it works with independent film makers and helps them get their work, that would otherwise be ignored, noticed.

 The production company being based in England helped us acquire a predominately British cast and crew. However, this meant that our crew was relatively small. This is why we do not have an abundance of names credited in the opening sequence. A variety of jobs appear credited in the opening sequence, such as the Editors, Cameramen and Costume Designers. The actors are the first to be credited due to the fact that shots in which they were in, appeared near the beginning. I thought it would be effective if we credited the actors names while they each appeared on the screen. We placed the Directors credit right at the end because, traditionally, this is where it is placed. Arguably because they have the largest role to play, however I disagree. I disagree because in this instance, the creation of the movie was a team effort and could not have been completed without everyone included.

We tried to avoid attaining financial backing from the BBC as we were afraid that they would edge us towards the route of having our film on the BBC alone. This is not what we wanted as we were aiming for a theatrical release. Therefore, we attempted to get financial backing from the British film council. While waiting for confirmation of the money, we did look into equity investors. However, we did eventually get backing from the film council. A lot of low-budget horror/thriller movies are extremely successful. This is due to the fact that the audience don't want a horror/thriller for the actors, but they do to be scared and unnerved. This can be done on the lowest of budgets and still have amazing effects. Within the last decade, many of the best horror/ thrillers have been low-budget films made by people nobody has ever heard of before. For example, the first 'Paranormal Activity'.

My idea for a distributor would be Altitude Film Distribution. I chose this company because it is an independent company and I did not want my film to be distributed by a huge distribution and media monopoly. Also, because major studios don't make they're own films and they look to independent productions to finance and control distribution, if I went to an independent distribution company, I wold have much more say in how my movie is produced and shown to the public. Altitude does not appear to manipulate a films original cause to benefit themselves. As a low budget independent film, I also don't feel as if it being distributed globally would have had much affect as people who are used to big Hollywood blockbusters would have most likely turned it down. A saturation release would be the last thing the movie would need. Altitude distributed 'Amy' the 2015 movie about the cultural icon: Amy Winehouse. This movie was very popular in Indie Cinemas and subsequently did not have a general release but a select/ Art House release. This targeted specific cinemas, cities and indie cinemas. 'The Witch' is a good example of an Art House release.

Film Opening: Evaluation 2

For the character Christa representing certain social groups, I have decided to compare her to the character Lucy from the 2014 movie ‘Lucy’. Both Christa and Lucy are strong and independent women who have supernatural powers. However, in the beginning of ‘Lucy’, she isn’t always like this and appears very vulnerable and weak in some scenes. This is much like Christa who is seen praying inside of the Church, to a God that will not listen. This suggests that Christa is perhaps desperate and in need of help, however, the tone change in the piece symbolises her transition from a young girl into a strong woman. This is shown by the flashback transitions and her running away from the church, abandoning it. Flashbacks are also used of Lucy when she rewinds time back to the age where humans were apes.

Despite Lucy changing costume several times within the movie, as you can see above, both Lucy and Christa are wearing pretty much the same costume. Neither of the character’s costumes are used to sexualise them which is very common once there is a strong female lead within a movie, ‘Lara Croft: Tomb Raider’ is a perfect example of this. Instead, they were very plain clothes (black bottoms, white top) so that the clothing does not distract from their actions.

Lucy and Christa are almost from opposite sides of the religion v science spectrum. Lucy is surrounded by a very scientific environment and gained her powers from a drug. Whereas Christa is very religiously surrounded and subsequently gained her powers by being the second coming of Christ. The two characters are also different in age. Lucy is still a young woman but still older than Christa. Therefore, this suggests that they would attract different age groups however I think that the other defining aspects of Christa and Lucy will attract a variety of ages.

Film Opening: Evalutation 1

I don’t think that this is a typical or very common introduction of characters within a movie opening. Usually characters are introduced gradually by the actions they participate in within the opening sequence. However, we immediately introduce the characters in a rather formal way. Technically there is only one character but two forms of the self from different periods of time. There is a younger version of the character and the present day character. They’re placed in the same position with a transition between the two shots to show one physically transitioning from one version to the other. We chose to introduce the characters like this because it highlighted this transition to the audience and we also wanted our opening to include crucial imagery instead of the audience being focussed on the characters and their actions throughout the entirety of the piece. This is because I felt that the audience could witness this throughout the rest of the movie and the opening was for important and mysterious detail like the symbolic religious imagery. The opening of movies are extremely important as they set a precedent for the rest of the movie. The recent Bond films such as Skyfall and Spectre perfectly exemplify that as they have such intricately placed imagery with no real action from the characters.

Approximately half of movies contain the title of the movie in the opening scene however the other half have the title at the end of the movie. Personally, if I were to make the entire movie, I would have the title at the end of the movie. That way, the title is that last thing people see on the screen, and not only is word of mouth great publicity which is what the movie would want and so the title being close to mind would aid that, but also I just purely love how it makes the movie feel complete by the end of it. We had the title appear on the screen while the action was still occurring, however, we had the screen fade to black to show the ending of the opening sequence and to make the red of the text stand out even more. The contrast of the title on the black background really makes it stand out and makes it much more visually appealing than if it were on a really busy background, or with similar colours in the background that would obscure it. We used the same font for our title as we did for the opening credits. This is repeated in the opening credit sequence for the thriller ‘Enemy of The State’ - https://youtu.be/7Qznsf0i1wQ.  The text font in this opening sequence related to that of code which related to the storyline. The font we used almost appears like it has been written in blood and looks almost medieval. The religious imagery and the ancient appearing font link well with each other as religion has existed from the very first recordings of intelligent human life.

Many films, instead of showing the specific place where opening is held, they show the general area. For example, in the opening credits sequences of ‘Taken 3’, ‘Enemy of The State’ or in the television drama ‘Gossip Girl’. All of these opening sequences show either birds eye view or high angle camera shots of cities. This is due to the fact that the storylines involve different characters from different places, despite it following a central protagonist and antagonist. However, ours does not comply with this as we showed in the beginning where the action is going to take place in the beginning alone. This not only reinforces the prominent religious imagery but also compensates for us not being able to follow a physical antagonist as our controversial antagonist is God. It also doesn’t reveal to much about where the film is heading which complies with what my audience research results displayed and also the conventions of the thriller genre.

This shot reveals the character’s costume. There isn’t particularly any shot where it clearly displays the character’s costume as a lot of the shots are either mid-shots or close up shots. These tend to display the top half of the costume but not the bottom. In many movies, costumes are used to portray character stereotypes to the audience. However, the use of costume for us was to display the contrast between black and white. This may appear to be rather trivial however, when the contrast is further looked into it reveals a deeper message. We didn’t expect the audience to pick up on the contrast and its deeper meaning while watching but we hoped it would leave subliminal messages for them to recognise later in the movie.

 This is an example of the camerawork technique: match on action. We learnt this technique, along with the 180-degree rule and shot reverse shot while filming our preliminary task. These camera techniques are predominately used for conveying a conversation to the audience However, we had no heard dialogue in our opening. Instead we used it to emphasis the closing of the Church door. This is effective as it allows the audience to see both sides of the door and so makes them feel as if they are entitled to the entire story. Almost every film would include these camera techniques at some point. If we were to create the entire movie, then these techniques would have definitely been included.

The opening immediately creates a sense of suspense for the audience as a tracking shot displays empty pew seats and then reveals a character that wasn’t there previously. Immediately making the audience feel suspense fulfils a convention of the thriller genre. The immediate suspense allows it to build up throughout the opening and subsequently builds anticipation for what’s to come. We used flashbacks of the character’s former self to reinforce the thriller conventions. We also used close up shots of the character’s faces, dark lighting and music connoting tension to replicate these conventions in order to create an accurate thriller movie opening. To improve this, I would include series of montage shots as these are popular with the thriller genre and I would also make the flashbacks more important to the piece.

Both of these shots both include special effects as we slowed the shots down to give them an eerie feeling. The slowing of the shot goes against the thriller genre conventions as a convention of thrillers are shots in quick succession. If the shots are slowed, this is not the case, but I loved the dreamy like effect it gave them which is juxtaposed against the tension the audience feels and what the content of the shots suggest. Despite this, the shot on the left does in fact coincide with the thriller genre due to the fact that you cannot see the character’s face. This complies with the convention of mysteriousness of the characters, however this is predominately with the antagonist, it can be used for the protagonist as well as we demonstrated.