At first we made a basic design of the logo we did it first on microsoft publisher bet then we got told that it would look more preoffessional if we did it on adobe photoshop. We decided on calling the distributor Arrow up. This is our basic design for the logo:
Based on this design the teacher has put together an animated version of the clip which looks much better than the one made in flash. This is the animated version of it :
We have now shot all of our footage that we need for our opening sequence as we shot the rest of the footage last week. We are now starting to produce a rough cut of the final sequence. We are trying to make some of the footage darker so that it appears more mysterious and creates more tension as in our research we learnt that this is an effective component of an opening sequence and we are intending to keep the target audience in suspense and we think that the darkness will produce this effect. Although the footage we shot was in the day time and looks quite bright we have been told that we can edit the footage to make it look as if it was shot at night. The second time the footage was shot the props we used were better and looked more realistic than the ones we used in the first shoot. We are going to go and take photos of the location and upload them to give an idea of the location where we shot.
We have been thinking of Titles that would be suitable for our movie we have been thinking about this for a while and have come up with a few ideas for the title which are : Suspision or Linked. We have yet to decide which of these two ideas to use or if we should think of another idea. I came up with the idea of calling it suspicion as the films plot is finding out the girls motive for killing herself. The incident of the girl commiting suicide is very unexpected and mysterious. I thought this was a good title as it links in with the plot of the film. Manny also came with a good idea of calling the film linked. We have decided we will go with the Title that best suits the genre of the film after we have finished filming and viewing of our final footage that will be used for the opening sequence.
Last week we started to shoot our footage. We shot some of it but not all of it as the rest of the opening sequence involves the character the inspector which we have arranged to shoot with a different day. We went to a friends house at an arranged time and shot the scenes where the girl enters the house when she is upset. We also shot the scene where the girl trys to commit suicide. We have filmed these scenes as if it is all seen from the girls point of view. We didnt encounter many problems although we had to find an appropriate prop to use as pills so it looks like she was overdosing. We filmed these scenes fairly quickly as we knew exactly what we were going to do before we went to the location.
Yesterday we were planning to go out and shoot today in our free time but unfortunately we are not allowed access to our setting location today so we have decided to continue shooting our footage tomorrow after school if it is possible to access our setting location. This does not cause much of a problem as we still have a lot of time before the deadline where all of our footage has to be shot. We have also considered changing some of the shots we had planned which slightly alters the plot. After the girl has been shot committing suicide we have decided to fade to black after this and then have a shot showing a phone and someone dialling 999 and after this the camera fades to black and the sound of ambulance and police sirens can be heard. We are considering this idea as we think it will be more tense and it will create more suspense as we are aiming for the audience to feel shocked and we want them to want to watch the rest of the film based on the opening sequence. When we started to edit the footage we shot last week we wanted it to look like it was dark and it was shot at night even though we shot it in the middle of the day. We thought we could edit it to make it look like it was dark but when we tried it didnt look right. As we are going after school to shoot next time it will be easier to shoot when it gets dark and it will look better than when the shot was edited to make it appear dark as that did not look very realistic. It is good that we realised early in the shooting process as we have enough time to correct it as we want our movie to look realistic to the audience. We are also unsure about the props we used when we shot the footage last week as we tried to use tablets but we realised when we played the shot back that you could see the brand name on the front of the packet and we dont think this looks very good so we are going to re shoot this part as well with different props. We are pleased with the part that we shot of the girl fainting after shes taken loads of the tablets. We are going to make this shot blurry as we are shooting it from her point of view. This conveys to the audience that she is out of it and is becoming unconcious. Then after this shot it fades to represent that she has gone.
Unfortunatly Nat has decided to leave 6th form and therefore will not be doing media studies anymore. This means that we only have 2 people in our group now, Manny and me. Athough we are dissapointed about Nat leaving we are going to be alright with shooting and editing our opening sequence.
This is our storyboard for the final opening sequence. The opening sequence starts off with a shot of the girl walking up to her house but you can hear the sound of her crying as she is upset and angry. We decided that we were going to shoot this as if its from her point of view We see this through her eyes up to when she open to her door and she opens her door on goes into her house. We then cut to when shes in her kitchen and shes frantically searching for the tablets which are in the draw. This is still being shot from her point of view. We then have a shot of her taking a lot of the medicine quickly. The next shot is of her going upstairs to her bedroom. The next shot in the scene is of her when she is in her bedroom and she is starting to feel funny and then faints, this is being shot from her point of view as it will more effective to the audience as they can relate and empathise with how the girl is feeling. This followed by a fade to black as she has fainted the fade to black represents that she has gone and that she is unconsious. The fade to black also shows a passing of time as in the next shot is of her mum and a detective inspector going into her room full of shock, curiosity and full of grief. The last shot on the storyboard is a mid shot the inspector and the girls mum talking in the hallway about what could have caused this and what could have happened in order to cause the girl to commit suicide.
We have now completed our storyboard and most of the planning for our opening sequence. We have booked a camera to start shooting. We are going to start shooting today outside of school. For the first part of our opening sequence we are shooting at a friends house as we need to use somebodys bedroom as the setting. In lesson time we are continuing and improving our planning. We are now designing our distribution logo. We have decided to call it arrow up. We started to design the distribution logo on microsoft publisher but we then got told that we should do it on adobe photoshop instead as it will look more professional.
We have also decided on the sequence of the titles.We have decided to show the film distributor logo first and then we have decided to show the title of the film followed by the names of the directors and producers.
In the opening sequence of the film se7en there is a lot of dark lighting used, this is used to in a lot of mystery and thriller films to build tension and draw in the attention of the audience. The dim lighting along with the dark colours creates a mysterious approach to the film. The dark colours which run throughout the clip makes it clear to the audience what type of genre they are watching. The dark colours suggest that this film is full of mystery and therefore a lot of action may be involved in this film. This is the kind of effect we want to impact upon our target audience as the dark colours are used in a lot of mystery films and prove to be very effective at capturing the audiences full attention.
The opening credits are made to flask and are flickering, this effect makes the credits more interesting along with the handwritten, faded font type.
The digetic sounds used in the opening sequence of se7en are sharp metal sounds which sound like human screams this stimulates the audiences senses and also implies the genre of the film. In our opening sequence we are going to use sounds like heart beats and ambulance sirens to suggest to the audience the sense of panic as that sharp metal sounds do.
The props used in the opening sequence are all quite unsettling to the audience we see knifes, razor blades, a book we see all of these objects individually in a extreme close up shot which suggests that the represent murder and secrecy and that these are the themes that run throughout the film. In our opening sequence we are using the idea of secrecy aswell because it is an element which is used in many mystery films.
We are progressing well in our planning we have created a storyboard which has included a lot of the elements of crime/detective movies we have researched. we have tried to make it as dramatic and dark as possible. Manny has filled in a call sheet and a description of locations and props. I am currently writing a script to go with the storyboard this will be used when we are shooting. I am also doing some final research into the genre of our movie to make sure that we have included a lot of the elements that will make our openig sequence appealing. I also need to do research into the film distributors to see where our genre would fit in.
As a group we have decided to do an opening sequence to a Crime detective movie. We have decided to do this genre as in our research we have discovered that the genre is fairly popular. Additionally we watched a few films of that genre as part of our research and were inspired to do this type of film as many of the opening sequences were highly dramatic and we think this would be highly appealing to the target audience. We have also decided to incorporate some comedy within the film opening sequence. Although this is a specific genre and we think that it will be difficult to achieve. But we also think it will be a greatly valued element to the opening sequence. A film within in this genre would be the pink panther we have researched this film as part of our research, we are going to use some of the techniques used in the pink panther in order to create the same effect on the audience. We will have to be very careful how we portray this comedy element as we don't want the comedy to overpower the suspense and drama as this would affect the verismilitude. We want to shock the audience in the opening sequence as this will set the mood for the rest of the film. It is also important that the opening sequence is interesting. We feel that an opening sequence of a detective/crime film will instantly grab the audiences attention.
