Directors And Their Style of Filming

Martin Scorcese

• He is the director of very successful films such as: 'The Wolf of Wall Street', 'Shutter Island', 'The Goodfellas' and The Departed.
• He is acknowledged to be one of the best film makers of his generation.
• Leonardo DiCaprio features in a number of his films: 'The Wolf of Wall Street', 'Shutter Island', 'The Departed', 'Gangs of New York' and 'The Aviator'.
• Scorsese's trademarks: 
• Frequent use of slow-motion. (Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Godfella, The Wolf of Wall Street)
• He often has a short cameo in his films. (Mean Streets, Who's That Knocking at My Door, After Hours)
• More recently his films feature corrupt authority figures. (The Aviator, Gangs of New York, The Departed)
• Guilt is a frequent theme in his films. (Shutter Island, Godfellas, Brining Out The Dead, Mean Streets)
• He often uses long tracking shots. ( Taxi Driver, Casino, The Gangs of New York)

Quentin Tarantino

• Quentin was born in Knoxville, Tennesse.
• He is well known for films such as: 'Django', 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Kill Bill'.
• Quentin has some trademark elements that he includes in a number of his films, like:

• The Trunk/Hood POV shot - this shot shows people outside the trunk being watched from the inside. ( 'Reservoir Dogs', 'Pulp Fiction', 'From Dusk Til Dawn') 

• The God POV shot - he uses this shot to convey that something/someone bigger than the character is watching over them. ( 'Jackie Brown', 'Kill Bill' Volume 1 and Volume 2) 

• The use of black and white filters -Tarantino had a love for the way that films looked in the early days cinema. ('Kill Bill' Volume 1 and Volume 2, 'Natural Born Killers' and 'Death Proof') 

• The shots of characters looking in the mirror and speaking to themselves. It reflects the intimacy of being alone. ( 'Reservoir Dogs', 'Pulp Fiction', 'Jackie Brown', 'Kill Bill' Volume 2 and 'Death Proof') 

•  The Mexican stand-off. It originated from Tarantino's favourite film: 'The Good The Bad And The Ugly'. ('True Romance', 'Inglorious Basterds', 'Pulp Fiction', 'Reservoir Dogs')

Concealed Pitch

What is Going to Happen On The Screen?

'Concealed'will start with a loose frame shot of Anastasia with her right arm chained to a pipe. The audience will see extreme close-ups of her body and facial expressions, as they are weak and deteriorating from the antagonists attacks.

There will be background sound of voice-mails from the protagonist: Dylan. It will show his growing concern of Anastasia's whereabouts. The voice-mails will start off relatively calm, as Dylan asks Anastasia if she wants picking up from getting their food. They will then gradually get show he is concerned for her safety, as he waits longer and longer for a reply. As this non-diegetic sound is playing for the audience to hear, there will be close-ups of Anastasia's bruised and cut up legs and arms. Her white clothing will be dirty to signify the dangerous and bad situation she is in, but also show the audience that she is a good character rather than a bad character, as white connotes purity and . It will then show extreme close-ups of her dry lips and her sunken in cheek-bones. Her facial expression will be emotionally drained, however the audience will still be able to gain a sense of fear from her watery eyes. She will also be shivering.

The sound of footsteps will begin to take over the voice-mails as there is a whip pan of Anastasia's growing fear and the door. It will create tension for the characters as they will see that whatever is getting closer to the door is terrifying her and they want to know what it is. Then finally when the antagonist comes through the door, an over the shoulder shot will still conceal his identity from the audience.

The antagonist will then reach out for Anastasia's face and caresses it. The audience will then see a close-up of Anastasia beginning to panic and try to resist the antagonist's touch. Then when she starts to scream there will be a cut to the equilibrium. This is before the kidnapping and will show Dylan and Anastasia happily together.                           

Music

This is the small selection of music that we feel will fit nicely with the opening scene. 

• The Woodsman
• Suspense Creepy Ominous Ambiance

Sound Effects

• Ominous breathe 
• Alarm Clock
• Voice mail answer machine

Communicating Our Genre By Ollie Clark

What genre signifiers will we include?


In our opening sequence we will include genre signifiers such as blood and wounds on Anastasia's face. You would only conventionally see a high volume of blood and deep cut wounds in genres such as action, psychological thrillers and thrillers, therefore blood being demonstrated through extreme close ups and normal close up shots already breaks it down for the audience. The audience could also suggest hat if somebody has blood all round her face and is unable to get out of the situation then somebody has put her there, which the audience could then infer that they might have been some sort of psycho. According to Rick Altman's genre theory, all films contain semantic and syntactic elements. This opening shot strongly supports this theory because as well as being visual to all the blood and deep cut wounds, the use of close up shots connote that she is in grief as well. People might also enjoy the repetition of blood in psychological thrillers, therefore want to watch more. This links to Steve Neales genre theory that audience might enjoy repetition of conventions in genres and would want to see more.

We will also communicate our genre to the audience by using taboo language when the character is in distress. This is extremely common in horrors and psychological thrillers because the idea is so the dialect expresses the main characters level of distress, frustration and anxiousness. This is seen most famously in classics such as Saw where he shouts 'someone help me' in an extremely high pitched voice. As Saw is a horror film, this supports Roberts Stams theory as some people may argue it is a hybrid of genres rather than just a psychological thriller. However it could also challenge his theory because, dialect of distress is also seen in other genres such as action and thrillers and not just horrors.

The use of camera shots and angles will connote that the films genre is a psychological thriller by showing close ups of the girls facial expression to signify she had been psychologically effected. Her beautiful face and long shots of her tied up to a pole in a basement suggests that a psycho is obsessed over her, therefore took matters into their own hands and locked her up all for themselves. The audience may be able to infer that this psycho may be somebody who is obsessive and unable to control themselves. This challenges Robert Stams theory because no film contains a obsessive psycho other than films of the genre 'psychological thriller'. These inferences give the audience a clear understanding of the genre as they have been demonstrated in the opening sequence. Camera shots and angles are also key in contributing the genre because they help the audience understand the daunting atmosphere Anastasia is in. For example the over the shoulder establishing shots connote that the atmosphere is conventional to a thriller, a psychological thriller or a horror film.

All the elements of a psychological thriller such as high amounts of blood, a psycho villain, a princess and prize and a protagonist all thrown into one film contribute to the film being able to push the boundaries of the genre, which supports Steve Neale's genre theory as his idea is that genre is always evolving through a cycle of events. Therefore our film, concealed, pushes the psychological thriller boundaries because all the key concepts take the genre to the next level.

Finally, the use of non-diagetic sounds and music will communicate the genre of our film. The use of high pitched music to work together with dark lighting of the mise-en-scene and pan camera shots create a daunting atmosphere to the audience, and could also help them come to the conclusion that Anastasia is psychologically effected by this as the music could have links and annotations on to how she is feeling.

Contingency Plan By Sophie Stead

When filming an opening sequence in a group many things could go wrong, so as a group we have come up with ideas to prevent any of these event occurring. An issue is that could happen is if someone of the cast dropping out or being unreliable, to ensure this doesn't happen we have chose people from our own group and people who we trust and we know wouldn't do this, but if it does we also have back up actors if this does happen to the group. If the crew keeps being late we will would tell them an earlier time so we get there at the same time but also we are making sure the place we film is somewhere everyone involved knows about but if they don't we can show them beforehand so that no one gets lost.

Our film is in a attic so we won’t have the issue of too many people in the background, but looking into the location not letting you film there, we have ensured that we have a backup place encase the first location we want to film at falls through. The Camera will be used a lot and could run out of battery but we will make sure it has charge the day before we film every time and not mess about with the camera otherwise will run out of battery quicker.

There are often many Continuity problems within any film, for example if your filming one day and an actor is wearing a green top but the next day and your filming the same scene but they are wearing a red shirt thing will look very silly. To ensure this doesn't happen we will have specific filming clothes for the opening sequence that we wear every time. Continuity errors can ruin the illusion of realism and affect suspension of disbelief.

Examples of continuity errors in films:

Wizard of Oz:  There is a scene where Dorothy and the Scarecrow are fighting the trees, the Scarecrow taunts the trees and gets hit with some apples. The very next shot, Dorothy is wearing black shoes instead of her Ruby slippers. Although a small continuity error it was still quite obvious, the error is easily explained and prevented. When making the film the actor would have worn comfortable shoes if her feet weren’t shown on camera. The Frame was larger than expected and someone must have forgotten to look at her shoes.  This is why you should always check the actors costumes to make sure they are correct and in the same position.

What film producers do to prevent errors?

·         Film all the shots for a particular scene together and all shots of consecutive scenes together

·         Actors remain in costume and in character

·         Stay in the same location, this will ensure the same weather.

·         Costume designers, production designers, prop masters, and make-up artists take instant photographs of actors and sets at the beginning and end of each day's shooting.

However on rare occasion continuity errors can be done deliberately, this is often for a comical affect.

Representation in Our Opening Sequence By Sam K

This post will explore the way in which teenagers are represented in our opening sequence. It is essential that we keep our film as an up to date believable representation of the teenagers because they are our main target audience as well.

As teenagers ourselves we will aim to use all our knowledge of what the people we associate are like to represent people of our age group. The dominant ideology of teenagers is that they go out a lot, dress poorly wearing hoodies and tracksuits, are lazy and that they don't have a lot of emotion towards anything. As we know that this is not always the case we will aim to represent teenagers in a more favourable way as we feel this may not always be tHe case and these ideologies are slightly wide of the mark. However Anastasia and Damien will be binary opposite characters with the interest of representing different personalities within the same age group with an innocent girl who seems to have a perfect life and a quiet but devious boy who has a hidden agenda to cause trouble as the antagonist.
 
According to Steve Neale's theory audiences enjoy texts because of repetition and difference. We will aim to use the repetition element of this theory by representing teenagers in the same way that other films of this genre have because it seems like a bad idea to go completely against the way all the other films have gone considering their success.
 
Camera shots such as establishing shots might be useful in representing teenagers because there is an idea that because of teenagers lack of life experience they tend to create strong bonds with certain locations that mean something to them so a shot like this would be useful to emphasise the relationships they have with the place as well as showing what the place is like.

We will look to use music that highlights the latest fashion and also music that is fast pace and intense to show that certain things can really get teenagers blood boiling and so it would emphasise the intensity of how they are dealing with the situation they are in. If we elect to use dialogue then we should try to make sure that the characters speak with current slang and with a slightly relaxed, common dials because that tends to be how every teenager speaks when surrounded by their peers.
 
It is important that we use cutting as an editing technique because it shows the divergence of attention and short attention spans that teenagers tend to have and how quickly their focus switches from one thing to another. However the use of a two shot might also be effective in portraying how dependent teenagers are on each other especially when in a tricky situation, they rely on each other quite a lot.

The colours that are generally associated with teenagers tend to be darker and plain colours that aren't to vibrant because a lot of teenagers are associated with social groups that tend to follow the same trends as each other so in order to stay safe they tend to prefer plainer colours so therefore the costume and general colours in the opening sequence should be colours like white and black because it emphasises the dominant ideology that teenagers are generally quite simplistic people. To back up the point about simplicity it could also be useful to use simple and bold texts in credit sequences in order to keep going with the simple theme. Also low level lighting could be effective because of the genre of the film making the teenagers seem more intimidating because a baby faced teenager in bright lighting might be quite tame and won't run in unison with the genre of the film.

Possible Shots

Throughout the opening sequence it is important to use a variety of shots to make it more interesting to the audience and to show the different techniques that we hold.

Canted angle shot - It creates a sense of disorientation for the audience, which will reflect Anastasia's deteriorating state.

Close-ups/ extreme close-ups - It will make the audience feel uncomfortable as they watch her suffering.

Over the shoulder shot - We could use this shot to create a sense of mystery, as the antagonist will be in the shot however they can only see his shoulder therefore they cannot identify him. It will also make the audience feel as though they are actually in the scene rather than just watching it.

Loose frame - The shot will emphasise how isolated Anastasia is, as Damien keeps her locked away from the rest of the world. It will make the audience feel more sympathy for her because they can see how lonely she is.

Tight Frame - This could be used to show how Anastasia is trapped.

Tilt - It will show the audience her injured body; creating sympathy for her because the audience can see that Anastasia is in danger and is hurt before even knowing what has happened to her.

Whip pan - We could use this shot as a transition from a shot of Anastasia and then a shot of the door to the basement to build up tension as the audience will have to wait to find out what is behind the door.

Audience Questionnaire

We plan to give ask around 6-10 people from our main target audience these questions:

What gender are you?

…       Male

…       Female

What age group do you fall into?

…       Aged 17-19

…       Aged 20-25

…       Aged 26-30

…       30+

What did you think about our idea for the opening sequence of ‘Concealed’?

What music piece do you feel would sound best with our opening sequence?

…       The Woodsman

…       One Kind Of Location

…       Lonely Spirit

…       You Don’t Get It

…       Dangerously Miserable

…       No Longer Safe

Do you feel our choice of an attic as the location is a good choice?

…       Yes

…       No

If the answer to the question above is ‘No’ than what location do you feel would be better?

What do you like about our idea?

What would you improve about our opening sequence?

Thank you for taking part in our questionnaire J

How Are We Going To Engage Our Audience?

Our story line is non-linear, as it starts with the disruption. When looking at Todorov's narrative structure usually films follow the structure of:

• Equilibrium 
• Disruption 
• Resolution 
• New Equilibrium 

Therefore our story will immediately grab the audiences attention because it is not what they are used to. They are immediately thrown into the deep end and this will engage them because they will try to figure out what is going on and why it is not following the usual structure of a film.

The hidden identity of the antagonist will also highly engage the audience. It is very clear from the costume and the angles that the antagonist is shown in that he is a bad character rather than a good character. However they do not see his face or have any hints as to who he is. It will encourage them to keep watching because they would've seen Anastasia and what is happening to her, however they will not know who is doing it or why they're doing it. So they will keep watching so that they can get the answers to their questions, it will also give them a sense of pleasure because as the film progresses they would get more action codes to give them an idea of the antagonist's identity, so they will start making their own predictions. If they predict the right identity then they we'll start to feel clever and will provide them with that sense of achievement, which according to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs will give them a boost in 'Self-Esteem'.

The main character: Anastasia was purposely constructed to fit in with our target audience, we really wanted to create a likable and relatible character that the audience can connect with and build a relationship with. We used close-ups and extreme close-ups to really emphasise how she is feeling to position the audience to connect with her emotions and feel a large amount of sympathy for her. As the audience are  given the chance to connect with Anastasia within the first minute of the film they will instantly start to build a relationship with her character, causing them to want to watch more because they can see in the beginning that she is in trouble and they will want to know that she ends up happy in order to gain a sense of catharsis.

Evaluation of Questionnaire

 We asked 10 people to fill out our questionnaires. Here is our results:

1) What gender are you?

We wanted to make sure we asked the same amount of boys and girls, in order to gain a representative lot of feedback.

2)What age group do you fall into?

We mainly aged these age groups because they were the large proportion of our target audience. It was also hard to find people it the older age groups that were actually prepared to complete the questionnaire because they were very busy. They would either agree to do it at another time and never get round to it, or they would refuse straight away.

3)What did you think about our idea for the opening sequence of 'Concealed'?(General Feedback)

• They thought it sounded interesting and engaging.
• After seeing the storyboard they thought that we included a good variety of shots and editing techniques.
• They thought the story fits in well  with the genre of Psychological Thriller.

4) What music piece do you feel fits well with our opening sequence?

The majority of the participants felt that the woodman fits in the best. They felt that it had an eerie feel to it and it created more of an atmosphere than the other ones.

5) Do you feel the choice of an attic as the location is a good choice?

Only one of the participants thought that we shouldn't use the attic as the location. They felt that using a basement would fit better because they felt they are more dark and grungy.

6)What do you like about our idea? (General feedback)

• They liked the idea of the antagonist being obsessed over Anastasia, even though they have no relationship with one another.
• They thought that the idea of the flash forward is a really interesting way to begin the film. They thought it would grab onto their attention instantly.
• The younger age group liked the fact it is based on teenagers, they think they will find it easier to connect with the characters.

We have taken our feedback on board. We feel that our target audience is pleased with our idea and would watch it. Despite the participants saying that they liked the music piece called 'The Woodman', we have decided to go with a different soundtrack called: 'Creepy Ominous Ambience'

Concealed

As a group we decided to discuss our idea as a group, however we completed the task ourselves.

Title: Concealed

Genre: Psychological Thriller

• The antagonist has serious psychological problems, which lead him to be incredibly violent and dangerous towards other characters. 
• His actions also lead to the protagonist's and the 'princess's' deteriorating emotional state. 

Age Rating: 15

• Our film is an 15 because some scenes of a sexual nature and strong violence, which comes with a small amount of blood will be featured in the film. 
• There will also be strong language.

Characters:

• Name: Anastasia Castrilli
• Age: 17 years old  
• Personality: friendly, caring, modest and sensitive 
• She is very popular in school and out. Girls see her as a role model and boys will do anything to be with her, they are incredibly jealous of her boyfriend.   
• Role in the story: Anastasia is the main character, however she is not the protagonist. She is more of the princess/prize. When looking at Propp's character theory she would classify as this role because she is what the protagonist is fighting for, but he cannot be with her because the antagonist has her trapped. She also desired by the antagonist.  

• Name: Dylan Kratos ('Kratos' in Greek mythology is the God of strength and power.)
• Age: 18 years old
• Personality: active, confident, passionate, loyal, brave and determined.
• Dylan is also very popular in school. He is known by everyone as a arrogant jock. However he is not what he seems like as when he is with his friends he is very caring and  down to earth. When he is with Anastasia this side to him comes out even more and he is very protective and passionate towards her. It is no secret how deeply in love he is.
• Role in the story: He is the protagonist. It is him that finds Anastasia.

• Name: Damien Santana
• Age: 19 years old
• Personality: quiet, observant, mysterious and creepy
• Damien is a very excluded student and people tend to be intimidated by him, which makes them steer well clear of him. He has been held back a year, so should of left school by now if he wasn't held back. He has a very strange obsession with Anastasia, he just wishes she would so much as acknowledge him. Damien seems to be very possessive of her even though he has never even spoke to her, so whenever he sees Anastasia and Dylan together he gets overly jealous and seems to get angry. He suffers with Schizophrenia. This is a result of his troubled childhood. His parents left him when he was just 2 years old. He has been in care his whole life moving around from family to family. Now past the age of 18 he has left to his devices and lives by himself.
• Role in the story: He is the antagonist as he is the character that keeps Anastasia locked up, so that no one else can have her. He is also the character that is not mentally stable and can get very aggressive and possessive.  

Plot

• Beginning(disruption): Our film challenges Todorov's narrative theory because it has a non-linear narrative structure. The beginning starts with the disruption rather than the equilibrium. The opening will feature Anastasia locked up and the audience can see her deteriorating state.
• Equilibrium: Anastasia and Dylan are are happy together at Dylan's house. Damien lives opposite Dylan. Dylan notices that whenever Anastasia is round, Damien is always standing at his window and stares at Dylan's house. Whenever he mentions it to Anastasia she tells him he's being ridiculous. Nothing has ever happened to her so in her mind her world is perfect and nothing can go wrong. Dylan has football training. Anastasia orders food for them both in time for when he gets back.
• Disruption: On her way to collect the food, Damien uses a rock to knock her out from behind. He then takes her back to his house and locks her in his attic. Damien takes her phone and when Dylan texts her to ask where she is he replies "home.".
• Resolution: Dylan has been slightly suspicious of Damien over the couple weeks that Anastasia has been missing, however he felt as if he was just overthinking because he was so desperate to find her.
• They're both in the library at school and when Damien leaves he doesn't realise that Anastasia's phone has fallen out of his pocket.
• Dylan sees it and takes the chance to look through it thinking that it is Damien's phone. It not until he looks at the pictures on the phone and sees one that Anastasia and Dylan recently took together, that he realises it is her phone.
• Dylan carefully observes everything that Damien does and then goes home back to his house and watches out his window until Damien goes out.
• At that moment he breaks into his house. He searches everywhere for Anastasia,when he calls for her, she hears his voice and starts screaming for him. He follows her voice and breaks into the attic. 
• Both of the characters burst into tears of happiness as they tightly embrace each other. 
• He sees the bruises and cuts on her, he becomes overwhelmed with anger. 
• They hear the front door slam. Damien has returned. 
• They can hear him go upstairs, so attempt to leave. However this small window of chance ends very quickly as he almost instantly starts to come back downstairs. So they hide. When Damien goes up to the attic and sees she's gone he becomes distraught and starts smashing up the house. He finds Anastasia first and grabs her by her hair. As she struggles, an enraged Dylan emerges from his hiding place and quietly makes his way to the kitchen. 
• He grabs a knife and threatens Damien. A fight brakes out causing Dylan to drop the knife. 
• Anastasia begins to panic as she sees Dylan struggling. She impulsively grabs the knife and stabs Damien in the back. He slowly bleeds to death. Dylan and Anastasia finally escape.
• This challenges Propp's character theory because the princess kills the antagonist, rather than the conventional ending of the protagonist killing the antagonist. Dylan is still the hero because he saved Anastasia.
• In the beginning of the film Anastasia conforms with the stereotypical woman. She is feminine and vulnerable and takes the role of the damsel in distress. However in the end she has a role reversal and challenges the stereotype because she becomes strong enough to stand up to Damien and save the protagonist.
• There is no new equilibrium because the film does not end well for any of the characters. Anastasia has committed a serious crime and things would not return to normal life if the film was reality. 

Location

• Our opening sequence will take place in a dark old attic. It will be packed of junk however, the junk will not be closely placed around Anastasia . It will emphasise how isolated she is from the rest of the world. We want it to be dark and dirty so that the audience will instantly see that she is in danger because darkness is usually associated with evil/bad things or characters. The basement will be in Damien's house.

Initial Ideas

The Main Target Audience

The main target audience for 'Concealed' will be aged 17-28. This is because the all the main characters are of young ages, the audience may therefore empathise with the characters because they are young like them and may have similar interests or personalities to the characters.

The fact that the main character is a female will create more of an attraction to young girls. Not only that, but stereotypically girls are more emotional and the film, being a psychological thriller conflicts the mind. Also there are some elements of romance again appealing to a girl target audience. Males will be the secondary audience because they will be attracted to the small element of action, as the dominant ideology of males is that they are more physical than woman and also more aggressive.

The social demographic of our primary audience will be students who fall into the 'E' group. This group will be the main target audience down to the fact that the main characters are students and they are at a similar age to the audience.

The audience will be extremely sociable, popular and like going out with their friends, just like Anastasia and Dylan because again the audience will like the main characters instantly as they can see that the characters are like them and relate to them. Not only that but it also instant creates dislike for the antagonist. The antagonist has the complete opposite personality and is very socially awkward and distant from others. Therefore the audience will find him weird before he even kidnaps Anastasia.

According to Young and Rubicam's audience type theory, the primary audience will be 'The Mainstreamers' as they will be teenagers that like being part of a group and like to fit in. It could also attract the group The 'Aspirers'. This is because our audience like the main characters want high status and have high status. They consider themselves to be liked or known by a lot of people and care about what people think. Although the characters are not like this, their group of friends are and the stereotypical popular group in school are very materialistic and care about what everyone think.

When looking at Blumler and Katz uses and gratifications theory, 'Concealed' will provide entertainment to the audience. The audience will be entertained by all the events that take place in the film and also by the tense wait of finding out if Anastasia will escape. During the equilibrium the audience may be provided with 'escape' because of the romance between Anastasia and Dylan. They may not have any romance in their life so the relationship between the two characters will provide this sense escape for the audience because they will feel romantic.

To conclude our primary target audience will be:

• aged 17-28 years old 
• unisex, however will be more likely to attract females
• students 
• popular 
• sociable 
• 'The Mainstreamers'

Credit Sequences

• Blumhouse Productions are producers of horror films. They have worked on films such as: Sinster, Insidious, Paranormal Activity etc. The credit sequence establishes the genre of horror straight away by including conventions of the genre:
• setting, which is an old house 
• young scary girl in a white dress
• floating objects, which suggests supernatural presence
• low-key lighting 
• screeching sounds
• bold printed typeface 

• An American institution, again mainly producers of  horror. They have worked films such as the SAW movies. The credits establish the genre by:  
• barbed wire, signifies danger
• dark colours - black background
• sharp object in the middle of the logo, sharp objects connote danger and pain

• 20th Century Fox have made films such as 'Ice Age', 'Avatar' and 'The Wolverine'. The opening credits connote that this institution provide quality by:
• grand music
• gold coloured typeface, gold connotes royalty and power
• large font
• their name is on a pedestal, implying that they are at the top of the industry

• Universal studios have made films such as 'Jurassic Park', 'The Purge' and 'Jaws'. They create films that are all different genres. This particular institution's films are quite diverse. The credit sequence demonstrates that they are versatile as:
• their name is 'Universal Studios' implying that they cater for everyone. 
• The font is gold, which suggests that they are worth a lot. 
• The picture of the world again shows that they are very diverse and cater for everyone as they do not make films of a specific genre. They create a range of films.

Practice Filming and Editing

Today we had our first go at filming and using final cut express. For the first half of the lesson we did our filming. We decided to make the video about our school: Overton Grange. The video was a short tour around some of the location.

The video includes various different shots such as:

• Pan shot - to show the audience the location that we were in. 
• Long shot - to emphasise how big the location is.
• Low-angle shot - to make the subjects look powerful and big.
• Hand-held shot - to give the audience a sense of realism. It makes it feel like they were actually there, taking a real tour of the school.
• Close-up shot - it shows the subjects emotions. In the context of the video it is to show the audience how happy the subject is to be a student at Overton Grange, therefore making them want to send their child here or make a child want to come here.
• Zoom shot - it was used to put the focus on a certain object. 
• Tilt shot - to show the location to the audience.
• Tracking shot - used to focus the audience on the object of the subject in the shot.

We wanted to use a range of shots in order to get to grips with working with the camera. It also gave us a chance to see the shots that we liked and gave us ideas of the ones that we could use in our film opening. I personally liked the hand-held shots and the Low-angle shots. 

Once we had finished filming, we returned to class and began using Final Cut Express to put our pieces together. We put all the different videos that we shot together to make one video. We also made some corrections to the video. For example, in the low-angle shot of Ollie and Sam the sound was not appropriate for the video so we removed it. At the end of the video text is featured showing the names of the group and of the people that featured in our short film.

Although we only used some basic editing and filming techniques, doing this activity has allowed us to gain experience in using the camera and using the editing software. Therefore when it comes to filming and editing our final piece, we will have some experience and will be able to use skills we have already gained and also improve them. Giving us a better result when we complete our film opening.

Evaluation of Inner Evil (AS Media Opening Sequence)

Good

• Varied choice of shots
• close-ups
• medium shots
• birds-eye view
• shallow focus
• long shot
• loose shot
• over the shoulder shot
• hand held shot
• Good use of editing techniques
• jump cuts
• non-continuity editing
• visual effects
• Mis-en-Scene
• the protagonist is wearing light colours and the antagonist is wearing dark colours to signify good and bad.
• unsaturated colours in the flashbacks.

Bad

• It is unclear what is happening in the opening.
• There are some points when the sound sounds slightly fuzzy.

'The Black Swan' (2010) Opening Sequence

• The connotations of the colour black are very powerful and it is often associated with evil/bad. The connotations of white are the complete apposite as it is often associated with purity and good. Although the title of the film is simple the juxtaposition is very symbolic. It represents the two sides to the protagonist: good and evil. The actual title itself is in white to highlight that the protagonist herself is not evil, she is in fact good and pure. The background is black to represent that she is being taken over by something evil, she is becoming more and more like Odile (The Black Swan) and slowly looses herself. 



• There is a pan shot following the subject's feet. This choice of shot puts emphasis on her graceful movements. It introduces the theme of ballet to the audience and shows clearly that the protagonist is a ballet dancer, in fact a very good one. Throughout this whole scene long takes are used to demonstrate the fluent movements of ballet. It also in the beginning makes the audience feel peaceful and calm. However when the man comes in and changes Nina into a swan, the long takes make the audience feel uncomfortable because they are forced to watch her in fear and distress.

• In this shot high key lighting is used and the protagonist is shielding herself from it. It foreshadows her transition from perfect to reckless in the film but in a contrasting way as she is actually very reluctant to the transition and it drives her insane. Whereas in this shot she doesn't want the light on her which shows that she is reluctant to stay good. However her facial expression supports the idea that she wants to stay as a utopian and this change is extremely troubling for her. It makes the audience feel bad for her because they can see that she is distressed however they are passive and cannot do anything about it, they do not even know who she is and why this is happening to her.

In an over the shoulder shot, the audience can see that a man dressed in all black appears to be making his way towards Nina. It is clear straight away that the man is dystopian through his black costume which represents evil and power. This particular choice of shot makes the audience almost feel as if they are a part of the scene, perhaps a member of an audience watching the ballet dancer's performance of Swan Lake. Once the man reaches Nina, the camera changes to a medium shot of both the characters dancing with each other. This shot supports Laura Mulvey's feminist theory that, one role women are represented as is the 'virgin'. Nina is being held by the man and following his movements, showing that she is subservient to him. Supporting the dominant ideology of gender roles: men are more powerful and women live in their shadow.

• This is the first time the audience sees the protagonist. Being dressed head to toe in white makes the suggestion that she is utopian because of the connotations of white being a pure, good and graceful colour. Having nobody else in the long shot suggests that she is isolated and lonely, which you later find out in the film as she is controlled by her ballet obsessed mother. It also represents her as vulnerable because she is surrounded by darkness (evil) and she is the only bit of light (good), suggesting that the evil will take over the good, foreshadowing her transition from being pure and innocent to reckless. This first shot is very similar to the title as the colours are identical, again the white being the protagonist who later becomes the black swan and she is surrounded by the darkness that is her mind. 



'Se7en' (1995) Opening Sequence

• The chiaroscuro lighting makes it quite hard for the audience to understand what is happening and who the character in the scene is. This is to make the audience really focus because people do not like unfamiliarity, therefore they will try extremely hard to figure out what they are seeing on the screen so they will have more understanding of what happens later on in the film.

• At first it is unclear whether the clippings and pictures etc. is gathered evidence for a police report or not. However it is made very clear after an extreme close up of someone cutting their finger prints off that it is not an investigator, it is in fact a criminal. The audience will know by this shot that the character in the first scene will be the antagonist in the film. The antagonist is cutting off  their fingerprints so that they cannot be matched to fingerprints at the scene of the crime. The use of the extreme close-up forces the audience to feel claustrophobic and uncomfortable as it will feel like they are very close to a criminal and as though they are in danger. The razor connotes the danger of this mysterious character because it is a sharp object that could be used to inflict pain, again emphasising the aura of danger that surrounds the antagonist.  

• Having no dialogue gives the antagonist even more mystery. The antagonist's identity is concealed in the opening scene. The audience only see the fingers of this character, nothing else. It creates a strong sense of mystery as they know nothing about the character and have no hints to link to later on in the film. For example if there was dialogue they would have a voice to identify the antagonist with.      

• The visual effects such as the written accounts, books and pictures give the impression that the antagonist is cunning and knows exactly what they are doing. All the information they possess highlights that they have planned out what they have done. The fact they cut of their finger prints supports this idea that they are clever as they know how to cover their tracks and avoid getting caught for whatever they have done. The fact they are writing about it and have so much gathered information suggests that what they have done has a motive behind it and was not just an impulse thing or an accident, which amplifies the sense of danger the audience gets from the antagonist because it gives the impression that they have committed a lot of crimes.

• In the title sequence it is made apparent to the audience that two of the characters in the film are played by Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. The Two Step Flow theory can be applied to this, as fans of  these big actors would see them as their 'opinion leaders' they will want to watch the film simply because Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman are characters in it. The audience will automatically have high expectations because of these well respected and popular actors.

•  The diegetic sound in the clip is hyperbolic. The sounds of the scratching of the pen whilst the character is writing and what sounds like an out of tune radio is almost jaw-clenching. These diegetic sounds are extremely uncomfortable to listen to for the audience, which signifies events that later occur in the film as the way in which the antagonist murders his victims is incredibly twisted and the audience can empathise with how distressed the victims must of felt. The audience will also feel very distorted due to the fact that there is diegetic sound and non-diegetic sound playing at the same time. There are a lot of different sounds overlapping and some sounds are louder than others. All these different elements are very distorting and will confuse the audience as they will have no clue what they are listening to and it will be a lot to process at once.

• The opening scene contains a lot of enigma codes such as:
• Who is the antagonist?
• What are they writing about?
• What have they done?
• What is their motive?

The audience will want the answers to all these questions. The only way to find out the answers will be to watch the rest of the film. The audience will instantly be engaged and focused in order to find the answers they so desperately desire.

'Saw' (2004) Opening Sequence

• In a wide shot of the brunette male character the audience get to see clearly the location of the scene. It appears that the characters are in a bathroom, however the audience can see it is not an ordinary bathroom as the whole place is rusty, the tiles are dirty and it is quite empty. The bathroom being dirty will instantly tell the audience that the character is in danger. 

• There is some dialogue between two characters during the beginning of the scene and the camera stays on a medium shot of the brunette, male character until the high-key lighting is present. Mystery is already present as the lighting is very low. The composer chose to not show the other character to amplify the mystery and to worry the audience. They have no idea who the mysterious character is, therefore they are not sure whether he is dangerous, or safe and also a victim of the unknown antagonist. When the lighting finally brightens and and the audience see a medium shot of the blonde, male character, they gain a sense of catharsis. It is clear that he is distressed and therefore is in the same position as the character introduced from the start.

• Jump cuts are used when the brunette male is screaming and trying to pull the chain he is attached to off. Obviously from the screaming the audience can now see that the character is beginning to become distressed and the jump cuts emphasis this because it signifies that he is panicking and is not thinking straight.

• The low-key lighting makes its it hard for the audience to see the location and the characters properly, which creates a sense of mystery. It engages to audience more as they have to try to figure out who it is and where they are, for themselves. Therefore stopping the audience from being passive and loosing attention.

•  A birds-eye view shot of a dead body in a pool of blood is shown. The audience can see that the dead being has a gun in their hand, making it clear that he inflicted death on himself. This enigma code makes the audience wonder; what did he went through that was so bad he wanted to end his life? The use of a gun as the prop and the blood surrounding the body, signifies danger and pain, therefore showing the audience that the characters are in danger. Sparking a panic because they will assume the two characters are about to go through what caused this dead person to kill themselves. 

• The title sequence for 'twisted pictures' shows barbed wires wrapped around the words and slicing them. The use of a sharp object and the letters being sliced establishes the genre before the film is even started. The audience can see that the film is going to contain a lot of weapons and these weapons being used on the characters, so the audience will know straight away that 'Saw' is part of the sub-genre:slasher.   







•   When the lights turn on the POV shot shows the audience that the character is disorientated as the image or the lights is dissolved. When someone is in the dark for a long time and see light it feels uncomfortable to look at and it is hard to properly see. This editing technique captures that the character cannot see properly.   

Top 20 Psychological Thrillers (Not in Order)

Seven - David Fincher

The Silence of The Lambs - Jonathan Demme  

Jacob's Ladder - Adrian Lyne



The Black Swan - Darren Aronosky

The Machinist - Brad Anderson

Copycat - Jon Amiel

Cube  - Vincenzo Natali

Duel - Steven Spielberg

Insomnia - Christopher Nolan

Memento - Christopher Nolan

Next Door - Pal Sletaune

Paranormal Activity - Oren Peli

Pi - Darren Aronosky

Saw - James Wan

The Shining - Stanley Kubrick  

Sound of My Voice - Zal Batmanglij 

Taxi Driver - Martin Scorcese

The Cell - Tarsem Singh



The Game - David Fincher



The Ring - Gore Verbinski