Final Task: Progress

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.

Final task : Research

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.

Final Task: Planning

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.

Final Task : Movie Genre

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.
 

Final Task Research : Sherlock Holmes opening Sequence

The sherlock Holmes film which came out in 2009 and was directed by Guy Ritchie started on a budget of $90 million and ended up with a gross revenue of  $523,029,864 . This was evidently a highly successful Detective/Crime film. This film ws distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.
This movie begins by showing a series of titles embedded in a cobble floor this immediatly sets the scene for the audience as cobbles represent old villages. In the background some non diegetic music is heard it is quiet. The camera is rapidly turned upwards so that the setting is seen more clearly. There is some diegetic sounds like horses neighing along with increasingly dramatic music. The horses neiging gives a sense of distress. the camera follows a carriage and quickly zooms into inside the carriage where a man is holding a  gun this shows that something is about to happen already.
This is an element that could be incorporated in our opening sequence as this would keep the audience in suspense. We want our opening sequence to be very dramatic and to instantly grab the audiences attention.

Research : The da vinci code opening sequence

The Da Vinci code is a popular detective movie which brought in a total gross of  $217,536,138 and in the first weekend it came out it brought in a total of  $77,073,388. AS the production budget was 125 million dollars some features of the opening sequence may help us to produce ideas for our own opening sequence that are appealing to the target audience.

The da vinci code opens with the titles which are placed on an all black backround. some eerie and mysterious music starts to play in the background this creates a very tense and suspicious amosphere which prepares the audience movie which is full of disturbing  events. After the titles have finished an ambient sound of footsteps is heard before the source of the sound is seen. this gives a sense of urgency. It also keeps the audience watching as they want to see where the sound is coming from and also what is happening and what is going to happen. The footsteps echo this makes it sound more haunting to the audience. While this is happening the non diegetic music in the background is significantly louder which makes the man in the scene seem more nervous and it makes it seem more chaotic. Within the first few minutes there is a man seen holding a gun. This scene is shot in a dark room which adds to the sense of mystery and secrecy. This immediatly sets the tone for the rest of the film.

Final Project

For this project i am working in a group with Nat and Manny. At the end of this project we need to have produced a opening sequence to a film taking into consideration the codes and conventions of the chosen genre. The target audience also has to be thought of when planning the sequence.
We have decided to do an opening sequence to a crime/detective movie. We are now researching the codes and conventions of this dramas and also looking at examples of detective movies to get ideas of how to make it appealing to the target audience. Also we are finding out which film distributor would be suitable to distribute or film. Nat, Manny and me are researching 2 films each. This should give us lots of ideas for how to structure our opening sequences.