Preliminary task

This is our preliminary task-

Practice filming

Our group decided we wanted to get used to using the camera and practice using different camera shots and angles. So we came up with a random plot and used different types of shots.

What went well:

• We included close ups, long shots, wide shots, birds eye view shots
• All our shots are straight on and not wonky
• Moving the camera whilst someone was walking and running was good for our first try it moved swiftly

Even better if:

• Some shots are shaky, and not in focus, we need to practice keeping the camera stable
• We need to practice a few more shots that we could use in our opening sequence to make sure we have good camera skills
• Practice editing skills 

Now we have practiced, we can use these skills for our opening sequence.

Practice lighting skills

The lighting of a film is extremely important as it affects the mood of the audience.  A shot can chang the mood completely by adding different colours such as adding a red tone could make the setting make it seem like its summer or spring or could connote danger and anger in the characters. Adding a blue lighting can make it seem like its winter or the attitude is quite cold or cool. Futhermore, changing the lighting/brightness of an image may signify different atmospheres. If the scene is lighter it connotes conventionally angelic, pure and innocent. Whereas making the scene darker can represent evil, guilt and death. Horror films use low key lighting to express the evil and death happening.

Here are some examples of practice lighting we used: 

In this picture I have added no lighting except a single flame of fire. In fact, I have blocked out the light to create darkness in addition to dressing the model in all black. The black background and costume denotes: evil, mystery and death. Also, the single red/orange flame gives denotations of hell, burning and sins. The black and orange together can possibly connote that the figure is satanic, this is because they are the stereotypical colours associated with hell. The way in which the red light hits the bottom of his face shows that he is hidden creating enigma.

 Juxtaposing, in this image I have chosen to use very white bright lighting, mostly being natural. The white costume adds to the angelic atmosphere. The White surroundings  and natural lighting denote: cleanliness and purity. The image connotes that the figure predominantly 'good' because the light is all over and nothing is hidden. The figure may be seen as aspirational and heroic.

Script of preliminary material

Using scriptwriting skills we learnt in class, our group wrote out a script for our preliminary task.

Grievous Bodily Harm - Preliminary Script 

Idea for Preliminary material

For A Level media, we needed to come up with a clip including certain aspects, such as we needed to include an 180 degree angle shot, a reverse shot, someone walking, person sitting down and having a conversation with someone else etc.
My group came up with the idea of a police interview. We will have a criminal on charge of domestic violence, being interviewed by a police officer, and to make it more interesting and different, we want to include flash backs of the domestic violence.
We are going to use a small room and make it empty with just a light and a table, for the action match shot  we will place the camera behind the police officer pushing the door open then cut to a shot of the police officer walking into the room.
To include the shot reverse shot, we would have a conversation of the police officer and criminal.
Make sure we use the 180 degree rule by keeping it one side to make the conversation seem real to the audience.
we will write out a script, do some practice filming, then film our preliminary material.

Scriptwriting

In class, we have been looking at scriptwriting and how to write an effective screenplay. I will need to write a script for my groups opening sequence therefore this work will contribute a lot to achieving a good grade. I need to take 7 steps to make a powerful script as the dialogue can be a very important aspect to a film.

Step 1) Read and analyse screenplays for genre similar to my opening sequence and set a goal to complete my script.
Step 2)Choose a film title, a key theme, and formulate a premise.
Step 3) Develop the characters, create the character arc, where is the location, what is happening in the scene.
Step 4)Outline, write out the action that takes place, redraft outline a few times, get feedback on outline
Step 5) Write the script out, e.g 10 minutes each day
Step 6) Add dialogue into the script to make sure the narrative makes sense
Step 7) Redrafting: Ernest Hemingway 'The first draft of anything is S**t', they are usually overwritten or underdeveloped, get feedback, put it aside for a week then read back over it, look at each element separately, make sure its exactly what you want.

Quentin Tarantino is a good script writer, he wrote the script for pulp fiction, a good script to analyse for research. If I follow these steps to create our script, our opening sequence should hopefully be successful.

Credit Sequences

Twisted Pictures Logo-

Twisted pictures logo comes at the start of many horror films it suits the genre very well by the editing of the title. The use of barbed wire around the edges connotes danger and pain to the audience, it connotes a location where people shouldn't go which foreshadows the location of the horror films location of the film being a place where people shouldn't trespass. The dagger in the middle signifies a weapon either for self defence or possibly torture significant conventions of horror films, the sound of slicing makes the audience feel extremely uncomfortable already and sets the mood for the audience. Although the font of 'twisted pictures' juxtaposes the genre of the film as the font looks quite fun and childish where it should be bold and aggressive possibly in capital letters whereas it looks like the font in a comedy film.

Warner Bros/New line cinema logos-



The logo of Warner Bros has edited to suit the theme of horror and mystery of the film 'The conjuring' The use of the dark clouds connote horror as it is a dark and gloomy background conventions of a horror film that the weather is also wet and cold. The sound getting louder and louder makes the audience uncomfortable and make it eerie.
The new line cinema background is exactly the same as the warner bros background with dark clouds and horrible weather, this is action match editing as the warner bros logo breaking up forming new line cinema logo with the same background.

Se7en Credits-

In the opening credits for the film 'se7en' created by David Fincher, the use of ambient sound such as the pen marker on paper, the filing of papers etc. are made louder which makes the audience uncomfortable as they would not naturally be this loud but they are blaring in the audiences ears. Furthermore, there is asynchronous sound when the take flickers on screen, the sound is not in sync with the short take which makes the audience feel disoriented and would foreshadow the characters and scene seem strange.
The editing of the takes in some takes its out of focus, and is flickering on the scene again it makes the audience feel disoriented and uncomfortable which enhances their title sequence. The font of the names on the screen is fuzzy and difficult to read which engages the audience into the film as it makes them question what is going on and why is the names flickering either big or small or on and off the screen. The audience are trying to focus on what is going on but the editing of the credits won't let them focus.



Rogue Pictures/Working title pictures logo-

Rogue pictures title enhances the title sequence as the flickering makes the audience feel disorientated and confused, furthermore the bright lights confuse the audience and make them engaged as to what it is trying to spell. The darkness around the title sequence links to the horror genre as horrors conventions are darkness and already engages the audience into their title sequence.
Furthermore, the loud noise of what sounds like a bomb alarm in the old times scares the audience immediately as it brings urgency and panic to the audience, making them feel uncomfortable watching.
However as the edited take plays on police sirens come into the take loudly which connotes danger further introducing the horror genre making the audience engage into the opening sequence after. The spinning of the title makes the audience feel disorientated and strange watching enhancing the interest in what will happen in the opening sequence as there is enigma codes of why there is sirens and what it connotes.

Genre Editing and relation to classwork

What have you learned about genre editing conventions?
I have learnt a lot about genre editing in class such as I learnt about the rule of six a theory created by Walter Murch, he believed these six rules should be at the top of an editors list when working.
The six rules were:

1. Emotion
2. Story
3. Rhythm
4. Eye-Trace (directing the audiences attention to details in the scene)
5. Two dimensional plane of screen (relation of objects to each other e.g Cups on a coffee table)
6. Three-dimensional space of action (how the actors/objects relate to each other in the space)

Many people would follow this theory as Walter Murch was the editor of really successful films such as The Godfather III and Apocalypse Now. Using his theory would make aspiring editors work successful.

I also learnt a lot about editing techniques, such as action match, cross cutting, continuity editing, cutaways, Eye-line match, montage editing, slow motion, parallel editing. These are all extremely good editing techniques used to express the genre of films. I learnt that some editing techniques are conventions of a specific genre, such as many horror films use the editing technique of montage editing to cram in a lot of narrative and also to build tension as a lot of short takes are shown in a quick amount of time making the audience feel urgency. All techniques create an emotion for the audience, it makes the audience react to the editing  and actually feel as if they are involved in the film.

How will this analysis of editing techniques influence my creative choices in your classwork?
I can use these different types of editing techniques in my classwork such as when I'm creating a storyboard I can write the different editing skills I will use in the take. I can use it in my own opening sequence such as the conventional montage editing technique as I am creating a horror opening sequence. Good editing will make my opening sequence better and I can get a higher grade if I successfully use editing techniques to engage the audience and make it more exciting and interesting.

Mood board for genre

I created a mood board for genre that would be all the conventions in a horror film such as settings, weapons, masks, themes etc. This will help me with my horror opening sequence analysis as I could include most of these conventions and ideas in my own opening sequence.

Mood Board for Horror

Theories the Horror Genre uses

Horror genre follow similar theories to each other, such as Claude Levi Strauss's theory of Binary opposites, Roland Barthes code theory and Tzvetan Todorovs narrative structure theory. 

The horror genre use Strauss's theory as many of the horror films have binary opposites of Good Vs Evil, a Victim and a killer, this makes it clear to the audience who the bad character is and who the good character is. An audience might enjoy binary opposites as then the film would be easy to follow and entertaining instead of having to constantly focus and concentrate on the film so they understand and can be interested in it such as the film nightmare on elm street expresses strongly the good vs evil binary opposite. However, some horror films also confuse the audience and make a character in the beginning bad but then turn out to be good, this is an example as in the film OUIJI, a character called 'Dorris' is made out to seem an innocent young girl being beaten by her mother who just wants to get away from the spirits however in the end it turns out that Dorris is the evil character who actually wants to set the spirits free this could be confusing for the audience but also might get them even more engaged. 

The horror genre also use Roland Barthes code theory to engage the audience, the codes in the narrative can help the audience interpret to help the plot. The horror genre uses enigma codes throughout to make the audience engaged as they are never completely told why its happening, or why the devils are haunting them etc. It makes the audience want to carry on watching to find out why however some horror films end not completely answering all the codes, they leave it to the audience themselves to interpret. 

Todorov's narrative structure theory is used in most horror films as they all start mainly with an equilibrium of everything being fine and normal, then a disruption such as a devil haunting them, then a battle for resolution like trying to get rid of the devil from their lives, then a new equilibrium, the devils gone and either haunting someone else or they've destroyed the devils spirit. However some horror films do not end with a new equilibrium such as Insidious the dad at the end kills the women that helped him get his son back, this is not normal but does get the audience intrigued and want to see the sequel to insidious.

Conventions of an opening sequence

Nearly all opening sequences have similar conventions that they use such as an institutional logo, title, credits, intro to characters, narrative enigma. These are all used to engage the audience straight away into the film. 

Institutional Logos-
Institutional logos are used in the opening sequence so that the audience could recognise the company. This would be a benefit as the audience might know of other films they have made that they enjoyed and immediately get them excited to see the film. Such as in the Saw franchises, in every opening sequence there is a short clip of the 'Twisted Pictures' logo to signify the genre of the film being horror.



Titles-
The title of the film is used shortly after a bit of narrative, to get the audience involved, and dramatically show off the title, this makes the audience remember the name of the film. Films such as insidious, the music blares when the title comes up which also makes the audience jump making them intrigued in the film.



Credits-
All opening sequences contain some credits, such as the director, producer, editor, executive producer, sound producer, special effects, production designer etc. This again means the audience can recognise a name, and already been intrigued from having seen their work before. How the credits are presented also foreshadows the film genre, what could happen in the film for example the opening credits for se7en flicker and are out of focus sometimes on the screen this represents the killers mind not being all there and the killer is confused, the credits also show the genre of the film.



Intro to characters-
At the start of a film in the narrative it usually gives a short insight to the narrative, a long with giving the audience a short introduction of the characters lives and their personality. A perfect example of this is in the film 'Truth or Dare' made in 2012, the opening starts at a party, and gives the audience an idea of the characters attitudes, Such as the 2 couples are party people, the girl with dark hair is a flirt with everyone, one of the boys is upset and always left out etc.

Narrative Enigma-
All opening sequences uses Roland Barthes' theory of enigma codes. This grabs the audiences attention by making the audience confused and ask questions about what is going on in the opening scene, the only way they can find the answers to the questions is by continuing to watch the film. The opening sequence creates enigma codes to get the audiences attention, and makes them engaged into the film immediately. A good example of this is in saw, when the film opens into two film trapped in a room, with no idea why they are there, what is going on, who did it etc.

Research into the Horror Genre

You can identify horror films immediately as they all use similar conventions such as colours, locations, plot, actors, themes, narrative, characters etc. 

Locations-
Many horror films use isolated areas for horror films. Possibly urban areas, dark and narrow alley ways, many directors use these types of areas as it causes tension and panic for the audience as they realise the characters are all alone and have no where to escape.

Most of the locations will be 'dark' whether its naturally dark or whether it has dark history e.g an abandoned houses, hotels and insane asylums. Using these similar locations for the horror genre can be seen as a good thing as using Steve Neal's Genre theory people will enjoy the film as it repeats the setting and will be familiar to the audience. Many examples of horror films that use dark and isolated areas are 'Hostel' with the killer in a dark and narrow corridor and also 'The cabin in the woods' the film being set in an abandoned cabin so already it is dark and also the cabin being in the woods, woods being isolated and away from people/help makes the film scarier.










Colours-
The conventional colours for horror films are black and red. Black is used as its scary and creates darkness. When the scene is dark it makes it hard to see, already the audience would have a fear of the unknown of what is hiding in the dark keeping them engaged and on the edge of their seat. Red connotes danger and blood, always involved in horror films in some way. These colours are quite dark and not stereotypically happy colours therefore immediately it is linked to horror films. Many horror films use red and black in their movie posters and trailers to signify the genre being a horror. Furthermore, the lighting in horror films is expressive and non-naturalistic, Low key lighting is always used again to make it dark and eerie to create the atmosphere for the audience, to make them feel as if  they are in that room alone struggling to see what is in front of them. Examples of the conventional colours in horror posters.

Props and Costumes-
Many horror films have conventional props and costumes. The killer will most likely have a signature weapon either a particular knife or many different types of weapons he uses. The costume of the killer in many situations has a mask, this will be significant to the killer, E.g the killer in Scream wheres the ghost mask. The killer is always fully covered up, wearing dark colours and their costumes will most likely have blood on it. The other characters who would be the victims of killer will where primary colours, and everyday outfits as they are not in the know they are going to be killed. The victims never usually have props just the killer.  However in many horror films the victims might have a religious icon such as a cross to 'kill' the spirits such as in the last exorcism or The conjuring.

Music-

Conventional music for horror films mainly would either be non-diegetic sound of a soundtrack, the soundtrack would be slowly, and in many horror films the music would generally have an irregular rhythm to make the audience feel uncomfortable, the pitch would be low and deep to sound threatening. There would be a lot of ambient sound, if say the location was in the woods of animals making sounds, wind blowing trees, or the wind slamming doors, the characters would usually jump to this loud sound and make the audience jump with them as it creates tension. In many horror films there is contrapuntal sound such as in Insidious where there is demons taking over minds, murdering, you can hear an up-beat childish like soundtrack playing that juxtaposes what is going on. In another horror film the shining there are beautiful scenes of winding roads and countryside but there is quite scary, ominous music to foreshadow events to come, as you can see the clip showing this contrapuntal sound below.

Characters- 

 Following Vladimir Propp's character theory, horror films do conventionally have a villain (the killer), the hero (the person trying to save everyone), the donor (the person who gives their life away to save the others), possibly a donor however in horror films such as saw, the villain and the donor are the same people as he gives them a way out of dying through speaking to them through a tape recorder, there might possibly a princess that the hero wants to save because he loves her. However in horror films there always tends to be a group of people, a smart one who helps the group to live, but then there is always a stupid character who ends up doing something that puts the group in more danger, there always is one that dies or many that die, and there always seems to be one that gets away from the killer and survives. These are all conventional characters of the horror genre.



The conventional fonts for horror films is bold, capital letters, and very blunt, in some cases it can have blood dripping from it or spikes but mainly capital letters, this shouts to the audience and signifies it is not a fun film it will be scary just by looking at the font. In many films the film posters saying the title of the film is in capital letters, the credits in horror films the writing may be blurred a little, mainly in white, and very simple, in the opening sequence of 'Se7en' the credits are blurred, and the names of people fade and flicker on and off the scene to signify the killers brain, that he can't concentrate and is not all there. The font will express what type of film it will be, if there is blood it will be gory, if its blurry it might be to do with mental issues of the killer. But all fonts are capital letters, simple and bold to get the audiences attention.

Companies-

One conventional film company for horror films would be twisted pictures, this company was founded in 2004 and were responsible for the release of the saw franchise, dead silence, The tortured, Chain letter. This company only deals with the horror genre and as soon as an audience see the film was released by twisted pictures it is immediately recognised as a horror. Another film company founded by Jason Blum is Blumhouse Productions, this film company released some of the most successful horror films such as the Paranormal activity films, Sinister, Dark skies, the purge, Insidious films, Ouija, Jessabelle, and many new horror films coming soon.

Narrative-

The narrative for all horror films goes either one of two ways, the film completely gets closure, a character survives by killing the villain but all of her or his friends are dead. Or, it ends with a cliff hanger, leaving a lot of narrative enigma for the audience to leave them questioning what will happen resulting in sequels and possibly a franchise E.g. Insidious, Saw, The purge, The conjuring, Final Destination are all left un resolved this means they do not follow Todorov's narrative structure theory as it does not end on a new equilibrium. However, a film such as Truth or Dare, does follow the narrative structure theory as it is all resolved with the villain dead and a character has successfully escaped resulting in everything back to a new equilibrium.

 Themes-

Conventional themes tackled by the horror genre could possibly be Good vs. Evil, Depression (we are the night), Religion (Carrie), Childhood issues, Revenge (truth or dare), Supernatural (lesbian vampire killers), Science gone bad ( I am legend), Zombie Apocalypse (zombie land), Nightmares (insidious), Insanity ( Human Centipede). These are all themes conventionally explored by the horror genre.

Audience- 

The horror genre would have a quite mainstream audience as it can be enjoyed by a range of different types of people. People with a different demographic. Using the uses and gratifications theory by Blumler and Katz, people might watch horror films for entertainment as it gets them engaged in what's going on, it gives them an adrenaline rush from being frightened and terrified, however some people might watch it for social interaction as the horror genre is extremely popular and a lot of teenagers enjoy watching the horror films to get them scared and seem cool in front of their friends, some people might watch it just so they can talk about it with their friends and be involved not necessarily because they enjoy the horror genre.

Analysis of the opening sequence for 'trainspotting'

Camera-
Throughout the opening sequence there is a variety of camera shots such as close ups, medium shots, wide shots, to get all the action going on in the sequence. Many of the shots use the technique of head-on towards the audience. In one clip the characters are running towards the camera, in a clip of a football match they are running at the camera with the football, this enhances the sense of involvement and excitement of the audience.
The opening sequence also uses a lot of low angled shots when the characters are playing football, this may be to get all of the body language in and make the characters seem dominant towards the audience, this low angle also to the audience makes the characters seem higher up, this may link to the characters being 'high' on drugs.
Another camera angle used is the wide shot/long shot, when Renton is in a room smoking drugs, this shot shows off Renton being alone in this empty room which signifies the isolation of him, that when he smokes he is all alone in his mind.

Editing-
A lot of editing techniques are used during the opening sequence. There is a lot of faced paced editing to drive the plot on and to signify the genre being action. The technique of action match is used when Renton is hit by a car and then shot is quickly to changed so that the audience looks as if they are the one who hit Renton with the car, this makes it feel more real for the audience. The editor also used eyeline match, with Renton, this effect puts the audience in the position of the characters and helps us feel empathy for them.
The editor used a montage of shorts to show time passing, giving the audience ideas of what Renton's life is like, and what he does to pass time. It gives us a lot of narrative in a short period of time. Although the short takes changing very quickly creates a lot of narrative enigma for the audience questioning what is going on, E.g. why are they running?

Sound-
The accent of Renton doesn't sound too educated, and gives us a clue of how he lives and where he lives, the conditions etc. There is also a voice over of Renton, and the dialogue he is saying gives the audience a clear understanding of his life, his attitudes and values and gives a lot of information about the character helping the audience relate to his life.
There is non-diegetic sound of a soundtrack playing whilst the action is going on, the soundtrack is fast paced which links as to what is happening on screen. The soundtrack is fast which creates a sense of urgency and panic for the audience. The beat of the soundtrack sounds a lot like a heartbeat possibly Renton's.

Visual-
Setting/Costume- The location in the beginning looks like quite a rich city, which juxtaposes what he is wearing, the costume is dark and shabby for the boys showing their run down attitudes and personality.
Props- In the beginning with Renton and a mate running down the street a lot of things are things falling out of their pockets its emphasized quite a lot which signifies what little Renton has that he has to carry everything he has in his pockets loosely.
Body Language- A lot of the body language of the characters is quite lazy and laid back, this represents their behaviour. Their posture is poor signifying they haven't been brought up in a well-off family.
Facial Expressions- A lot of their facial features are scruffy, their hair isn't neat and tidy. A lot of their facial expressions are confused and dull, however sometimes they are laughing and smiling which means they could be high from drugs, or they are loving how they are living they feel happy and free.

Mise-En-Scene- In the last scene Renton is in a fire coloured room, this signifies the danger he is in by smoking drugs. There are also holes in the wall this could connote the holes Renton has made in his life, or the holes in his mind suggesting he isn't all there from drugs. There are also chairs stacked up against the wall this could represent that Renton wasn't alone at one point but emphasises how alone he is now with no one around him that everyone has left him or has died from his reckless lifestyle. Him falling to the ground creates the sense that he is dying and collapsing and panics the audience by creating the enigma off if he is dead how will the film go on, the smoke leaving his mouth can signify his soul leaving his body.

Audience-

The audience for this film would be an active audience as they wouldn't just watch they film they would have their own thoughts and opinions on the characters life they wouldn't just accept it. The film could create empathy for the characters by many of the shots being eye level. The primary audience would be teenagers that live similar to Renton. Although the audience could also be schadenfreude as they could get pleasure in seeing Renton's life as a struggle and how awful it is.

Ideologies-

The ideology for the characters would be a stereotypical teenager, in hoodies and scruffy clothing, doing drugs and drinking alcohol causing a nuisance in society. However,  Renton's life is being portrayed as dystopian and he isn't doing well in life by smoking drugs.

Opening sequence analysis of Girl in the dragon Tattoo

Opening Sequence Analysis

About me

Hi, I'm Hannah Riley and this is my blog to keep all of my work for AS media studies. Media is my favourite subject I take; I enjoy it a lot. I love watching films, music videos, reading magazines. I have many favourite films from quite a variety of genres like Horror, Thriller, Romance, Comedy. I enjoy films such as The notebook, house at the end of the street, Bad neighbours, Lets be cops. I love studying media and I would like to go for a career that includes media work in the future. Thank you for looking at my blog, hope you enjoy my work!