Opening sequences have to grab the audience’s attention as they have to make the audience want to watch more of the film. A horror film has to have; low key lighting, tensional music, death, blood, screams, stabbings, isolation and mystery. An opening sequence should tell the audience that the film is a horror film without actually having to tell them.
Opening sequences usually set up enigmas to make the audience interested. It should introduce and establish main characters. The audience will already have expectations of what they want the film to be about so the producers have to fulfil these expectations so that the audience will not be disappointed. They should set up an equilibrium, however horror/thriller films usually start with a disruption as they have flashbacks in them. The opening credits should have text that fits in with the genre so that the audience have an idea of the type of genre they are going to watch.
An opening sequence should establish a place and time so that the audience know where they are. However in a horror film this is not needed as it is a good idea that the audience have no sense to where they are or when it is, this adds to the mystery in a horror/thriller film. All these conventions are needed so that the audience have an idea that it is a horror/thriller film, also because it is what the audience expect of the film.
These conventions gave the producer a guideline to work with as they know that the target audience like these things. We watched opening sequences from; 'Halloween', 'Saw 1', 'See No Evil' and 'Psycho (1998)', to find out what is involved in most opening sequences and also to get ideas of how we could make our opening sequence. We will use these conventions as we will find out that people do expect these things to be in horror/thriller films by doing a questionnaire. If our questionnaire results are what we expect then we will have a clear idea of what we can put in our main opening sequences.
Emma Jopson
Wednesday 25 November 2009
Tuesday 24 November 2009
Feedback 24.11.09
Well done guys on the preliminary task and the reflection - it is very thorough! You now need to get working on your research. You need to outline the conventions of the horror genre and upload and analyse a film opening each. Don't forget to discuss the conventions of opening sequences in general also. What is the purpose of them? Consider how you might use some of these conventions in your own film. Make sure you each analyse one clip each at least, You also need to do some primary audience research - questionnaire. 5-10 questions, mainly closed questions to yield quantitative data and present this as graphs etc with a summary of your findings. See checklists for further guidance.
Mrs A
Mrs A
Sunday 22 November 2009
The Preliminary Task
For our preliminary task we were asked to film and edit a character, opening a door, crossing a room opposite another character and exchanging a couple of lines of dialogue, we had to demonstrate a match on action, a shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.
We first planned our task using a storyboard, our basic plan was a person walking down a corridor, going to open a door, coming through the door, walking across the room, talking to someone and then walking back out. By using a storyboard we were able to quickly record our preliminary task in a short period of time, this was helpful because we now know for our AS media main task, that plotting and planning is beneficial to the overall film produced.
At the start we were taught how to correctly operate the camera and how to set up the tripods. We were told about the different camera shots and that effects that they give.
Our first mistake was at the beginning as there was background sound that was not supposed to be there however when we added the audio music the unwanted sound goes more unnoticed than it would if there was no audio music, this has taught us that when filming the main task we will have to make sure that there is no unwanted sounds. To make sure that our preliminary task was going to be good we took two or three shots of each scene so that we could pick out the best bits when editing. We used a different range of camera shots including extreme close ups, to make the clip more interesting and dramatic.
We made the decision to have a thumb war between the two characters, to add humour to the clip. However we decided to a western type build up by doing extreme close ups of the two characters eyebrows to give the scene tension but also so more humour. We were taught how to use the iMac’s on an editing tutorial before we were allowed to edit our actual preliminary task this gave us knowledge of how to use the iMac’s, how to edit our work and how we could make it better by using things like titles, audios and transitions etc. Because we took two or three shots of the scenes, it was easier to edit into a clip, we will do this for our main task so that we are able to edit our clip quicker.
We realised that we should have shown a close up of the door handle to draw more attention to the match on action in the clip. We did not break the 180 degree rule and we managed to use the shot reverse shot successfully. Unfortunately the room was not lit properly so at some points during the clip it has low key lighting which made it hard to see the characters face clearly. Therefore we will make sure that we light the scenes properly when doing out main task we feel that we should have had more dialogue and spoken more clearly and loudly as it was sometimes hard to hear what the character was saying. We also feel that we could have included a shot of Alix lead on the floor at the end of the clip to show the audience the effect of what happened to him. When making our main task we will need to take all of these things into consideration to make our clip as good as it can be.
Emma Jopson and Alix Sampford
We first planned our task using a storyboard, our basic plan was a person walking down a corridor, going to open a door, coming through the door, walking across the room, talking to someone and then walking back out. By using a storyboard we were able to quickly record our preliminary task in a short period of time, this was helpful because we now know for our AS media main task, that plotting and planning is beneficial to the overall film produced.
At the start we were taught how to correctly operate the camera and how to set up the tripods. We were told about the different camera shots and that effects that they give.
Our first mistake was at the beginning as there was background sound that was not supposed to be there however when we added the audio music the unwanted sound goes more unnoticed than it would if there was no audio music, this has taught us that when filming the main task we will have to make sure that there is no unwanted sounds. To make sure that our preliminary task was going to be good we took two or three shots of each scene so that we could pick out the best bits when editing. We used a different range of camera shots including extreme close ups, to make the clip more interesting and dramatic.
We made the decision to have a thumb war between the two characters, to add humour to the clip. However we decided to a western type build up by doing extreme close ups of the two characters eyebrows to give the scene tension but also so more humour. We were taught how to use the iMac’s on an editing tutorial before we were allowed to edit our actual preliminary task this gave us knowledge of how to use the iMac’s, how to edit our work and how we could make it better by using things like titles, audios and transitions etc. Because we took two or three shots of the scenes, it was easier to edit into a clip, we will do this for our main task so that we are able to edit our clip quicker.
We realised that we should have shown a close up of the door handle to draw more attention to the match on action in the clip. We did not break the 180 degree rule and we managed to use the shot reverse shot successfully. Unfortunately the room was not lit properly so at some points during the clip it has low key lighting which made it hard to see the characters face clearly. Therefore we will make sure that we light the scenes properly when doing out main task we feel that we should have had more dialogue and spoken more clearly and loudly as it was sometimes hard to hear what the character was saying. We also feel that we could have included a shot of Alix lead on the floor at the end of the clip to show the audience the effect of what happened to him. When making our main task we will need to take all of these things into consideration to make our clip as good as it can be.
Emma Jopson and Alix Sampford
Thursday 19 November 2009
Initial Ideas
As a group we have decided to create a horror /thriller film for our AS media project. Our target audience for the film is young adult, teenagers. because this is the type of film that would appeal to them, and to back this up we will carry out investigations. Our preliminary task will give us a further understanding of things we will need to take in consideration. As a group we have chosen horror because this is one of our favorite genres.
Alix Sampford, Emma Jopson, Aamir Shah
Alix Sampford, Emma Jopson, Aamir Shah
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