SAMPLE SCENE Killing scene (SOUND EDITING NOT DONE)

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Here is a rough-cut without sound effects of how the killing scene is going to play out. It is a base design and needs improvement. This needs to be refined and added to the newest rough cut which will be uploaded by tomorrow.

What went well:

• Planning made filming easy
• Clear directing
• Quite effectively edited together 

What went wrong:

• Makeup got a bit all over the place
• Missing a few shots and cross cuts to break up sequence
• Need more sound effects and better editing 

RESEARCH Cherry Falls

Verdict

The film opening of Cherry falls is a couple who are being intimate and showing obvious sexual attraction between the two. The cuts are mostly close up and are short. The editing is fast paced with sinister non - diegetic music in the background which makes the audience hold their breathe. The couple have a small argument and the shot goes from inside the car to the outside from a stalkers POV.This is a common convention in slasher films. There is non- diegetic sound in the background such as crickets chirping and wind blowing to create the verisimilitude. There is another car that pulls up and the male gets out of the car to play the role of the strong hero, while the girl stays and watis for him to return. The actress holds her fright and sadness throughout the film opening and never 'recovers'.

To sum it up

• Fast paced editing.
• Large variety of different shots.
• Use of close ups (with hand placement, to show more emotion).
• The characters are frightened throughout. 
• Use of diegetic and non - diegetic sound to create verisimilitude.

How will we apply this to our film opening?

1. We will use a variety of shots and shorten our takes from our previous rough cut.
2. There wil be close ups of hand placements to signify more emotion.
3. To create verisimilitude the actor/actress will need to seem frightened even after the scare.
4. Have fast paced editing to keep the audience engaged. 

JC PLANNING Screenplay Film Opening

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Screenplay christmas sleigher from James Clinnick

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Screenplay made for the film opening.

SAMPLE SCENE Santa

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The saw like sample scene of Santa who is talking to Michael and Tiffany through the TV

What went well:

• Was planned and didn't take long
• Actor acted well
• Clear directing
• Got a large variety of shots to piece together (movement of santa)

What went wrong:

• A few camera shakes here and there
• Had to stop shooting early becuase something on set got destroyed
• Timing is a bit off at times, will be corrected in editing

SAMPLE SCENE 2

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Sample scene 2 for our final film opening

What went well:

• We had an effective and efficient filming session
• People co operated 
• Clear directing

What went wrong:

• Messy finishing as people began to become demotivated
• Cuts left out because we didnt look at planning sheets 
• Verisimilitude broken on multiple occasions
• Acting wasn't the best

What has been changed since last:

• Everything the idea has changed 
• Multiple characters now 

SLASHER CONVENTIONS: 3 Opening Shots

Halloween
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0220-0242 (22 seconds)
An extreme long shot that tracks into the house to the front door where the next scene starts


Friday 13th
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0000-0026 (26 seconds)
An extreme long shot aimed at the moon, the camera pans to the left to perfect darkness and then down too an extreme long shot of the campsite

Pyscho
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0013 - 0105 (52 seconds)
Multiple extreme long shots over the city which pan and then crossfade between each other, each crossfade the camera gets closer and closer towards the window. It has a total of 5 shots until it reaches the window and zooms in then pans around the room setting the scene to what is about to follow.

All of these opening sequences share similar features, for example they all open with extreme long shots that establishes and sets the scene, they show the location, most opening shots in slasher films span about 20-25 seconds with the obvious exception of psycho which is 52 seconds.

Possible Influences

• Inspired by Psycho zooming into window
• Panning from both left and right to show the remote area 
• Have soundtrack in background

SLASHER CONVENTIONS: 2 Duration

Slasher Film Opening Durations 

The duration of film openings can vary largely being from 2 minutes long all the way to 15 minutes. An example of a very long film opening is "Scream" made by Wes Craven in 1996 which is 13 minutes long. A Nightmare on Elm Street which is also created by Wes Craven in 1984 is 4 minutes long which is significantly shorter than Scream even though it is directed by the same director.

Possible Influences

• Our film opening will be within 2-3 minutes.
• Short and punchy film opening

SAMPLE SCENE 1

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Here is our first sample scene for the slasher film opening.

What went well:

• We got something filmed

What went wrong:

• Had no planning sheets so very hard to piece together shots
• Not enough shot veriety 
• Didn't have all characters present
• Most of the idea was "on the spot" not planned 

JC VODCAST 2: Conventions used in different film openings

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In this vodcast we talk about 10 conventions used in 3 different film openings; Baby Driver, IT and mad max

PRACTISE SHOOT Video

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This is a short opening we did on a trip to a green screen studio, we did this to help us develop our skills with directing, producing, writing, filming and acting

PLANNING Story Board

Here the storyboard the first minute of our zombie hybrid
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ANALYSIS Film Opening '71

'71

Yann Demange (2014)

BBFC 15, MPAA Rated: R

Running time of the opening sequence: 3:17

Budget: £8M

UK/US/World Box Office: £1.2M, $900K, £2.1M

Theatrical distribution in 12 countries 

 

Production co's:  Warp
Production financing:   Film4; Screen Yorkshire; Crab Apple Films
UK, US theatrical distributors: StudioCanal

LINKS: IMDB; RottenTomatoes (Users 81%, Critics 96%); BoxOfficeMojo; The-Numbers; Wiki; Official site/page; Facebook.

TRAILER
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-BaKfl1Ms4

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TITLES

Number of people/company names in titles: 3

Start/end time of main titles: 0:00- 0:40

Running time of main titles: 40 seconds

The three titles are:

Studiocanal

The main distributor of the film is studiocanal. This is also the first opening of the film therefor the most important company involved with the distribution of the film 

Film4

This is one of the commissioners for the movie and is one of the main ones in the UK. They "present" the film alongside BFI

BFI

This is the company that helped finance productions of the movie

All of the titles have no music or sound playing in the background which can get the audience to hold their breathe waiting in anticipation of what is about to happen.

TITLES ANALYSIS: ROLES

Only two specific roles were given, with 6 companies being mentioned. The 6 companies are Film4, BFI, Screen Yorkshire, Creative Scotland, Crab Apple Films and Warp Films. Crab Apple and Warp films are the main companies who have produced the film alongside the other 4 companies  

TITLES ANALYSIS 3: GENRE/NARRATIVE CONNOTATIONS

The font for the titles are a mix of large and small text like in a billing block to only highlight the important information which is the companies being shown. The font is serif and is only capital letters. The logo of warp is also shown in the title. The font denotes that the genre is not a comedy but more of a thriller. It suggests a serious tone to the movie. The titles are all on a black background, with the non diegetic sound of two men boxing in the background and other men cheering them on to really get the sense for what type of film '71 is. After the titles are done the sound of boxing continues and creates an audio bridge for about 10 seconds then it cuts to the first shot which is set in a military base with the main protagonist boxing another man and having the other soldiers cheer on.

FIRST SHOT + THE PROTAGONIST

The very first shot is a close up of two characters boxing each other panning to the right. It is obvious they are boxing because of the gloves, the shirts being drenched in sweet and the blood on their faces and mouth guards.The miss-en-scene helps anchor what exactly is going on. The opening sets the mood straight away. It is an unusual opening for there is no establishing shot. We can tell who the main protagonist is. For during the boxing sequence the camera was always focused using a shallow field of focus on him and after the sequence was done, the camera tracks the man to using close up and medium shots to show his emotion and start to make us sympathise with him. There is no voiceover for it is not needed to establish the main protagonist.  

ADDITIONAL POINTS

The establishing shot can be argued to be after the boxing sequence where there is an extreme long shot of the soldiers running down a hill as practice for the army. However this is more known as a master shot.

The army/ military camp continues to be shown as the soldiers are all practicing and training to be a soldier. The last shot of the opening is of the soldiers practicing shooting and the cut to the main film is with a gunshot and then as soon as the gunshot is heard the screen goes black, then the scene changes and the plot begins to develop.