Final Opening Sequence

This is our final opening sequence. We used the knowledge that we gained from audience research and film analysis in order to develop our idea.

Just Business-Opening sequence

Jeffrey Bruce-Mills-Actor
Nathaniel Gardner-Actor
Brian Harding-Producer
James Mclynn- Director

Props used- Flashlight which was used for when Jeffrey is in the house looking around, a Crowbar which was used for opening the door and getting into the house it was also used to knock out Jeffrey.

Location- In an estate, outside a house on Cromwell road, Hayes inside the house
The inside of the house is going to be the base of our sequence, it is where the main parts of our sequence happen and also conclude.
We will use some areas of the estate for walking through and showing the surroundings of our opening sequence, we will also film it at night.

The type of genre could be shown through the costume used which is black hoods and Jackets, to present the idea of trouble and no good in an apparently quite neighbourhood. Private and hushed up is the idea that will be presented to our audience.

Film Analysis

Film Research- Thriller films

Gothika

Genre: horror/Supernatural thriller

Year: 2003

Budget-approximately $40million

Gothika is about a psychiatrist who counsels the mentally ill. She Kills her husband and ends up on the other side of the bars within the same mental hospital; she has no memory of what happened, and so tries to find out why this has happened. Whiles she is there she experiences visions of ghosts. It Stars Halle Berry, Robert Downey Jr, and Penelope Cruz. It’s rated a fifteen so this assumes that images within the film are not for young children. The film was directed by Mathieu Kassovitz.
In the opening sequence begins with creepy music showing subtitles and actors starring the film we are then introduced to words at the bottom of the screen from a woman mumbling. These two women are having a conversation about one of the women’s stepfather who she relates to the devil who she is trying to stop from “fucking me” she says. She acts franticly, struggling to control herself appropriately when talking to the other women (Halle Berry) who is questioning her about her past. From this point I assume that the two of them are in a mental institution. She dismisses the discussion only for Chloe to start grabbing her trying to make her understand what she means by knowing what “it is to burn from the inside”. The woman leaves Chloe who is taken away other guys possibly to her room.
From this opening sequence I can see that it is a thriller because of the creepy music that we are introduced to and also the way in which the characters are acting, Chloe is seen to be quite strange in the way she is acting which makes the audience want to know more about this character we know very little of her which shows enigma, a typical convention of a thriller. In terms with the development of our opening sequence I think this film was useful for using elements of horror as well in our work, this instils fear into the viewer, whiles still maintaining a thriller look.

Memento

Release date: December 15, 2000

Memento is a character based film. We can tell this because in the opening minutes of the film we do not learn anything about other characters and are not given many clues of the narrative of the story.

The camera shots in the opening sequence allow us to identify the main character by mainly focusing on him in the opening scenes.
There are many close-ups, low angle and high angle shots. There are also tracking shots following the character, showing the viewer that he is an important part of the film.
The beginning of the film is shown in reverse. It shows Leonard killing Teddy, although it is not explained why in the first few minutes. The film is shot in a non-linear order, meaning the events shown in the film are not chronological. This is a main part of the story as it reveals bits of information gradually to the viewer, causing an enigma in the opening scenes. Instead of a traditional format of equilibrium, disequilibrium and the return of the equilibrium, the film starts off with the disequilibrium with the shooting of Teddy.
In the opening sequence, voice-overs are frequently used as is conversation between characters. The voice-overs are an example of non-diagetic sound as they are not heard by the other characters. While the dialogue is an example of diagetic sound as other characters can hear it.
The voice-overs and dialogue show that the film is character based and it is all from Leonard’s perspective.
The opening sequence of Memento is effective as it slowly reveals information of the main character and his struggle for answers. It keeps the viewer intrigued by showing the disequilibrium first, and making them ask questions about the character. It was useful for our opening sequence as it showed us the value of enigma. A slow reveal of events encourages the viewer to think about the film and urgers them to continue watching.

Films: Kill Bill/No Country for Old Men
Year: 2003/2008
Director: Quentin Tarantino/The Coen Brothers

The first film’s opening sequence I’m going to analyse is that of Kill Bill. Whilst not being a conventional thriller, the film’s introduction is striking and as-is director Quentin Tarantino’s occasional forte, the film is very hard to define to genre, combining Samurai, Western, Thriller and Adventure. The film was released in 2003, with its concluding part released in February of the following year.
The opening sequence depicts the bloodied face of a nameless female character in a wedding dress. She’s on her back weeping with the voice heard being that of a man standing over her. The man wipes his weapon on a cloth with the name Bill sewn in. The sequence is short, and after a brief exchange, the presumably pregnant woman’s last words of “It’s your bab-” are cut off by a gunshot to the head.
The reason I’ve chosen this opening sequence is not because of the films’ particular genre standing but because of the links it has to that of a conventional thriller. As the man’s face is never revealed, the audience are left questioning who he is (only having a name) and why he’s shot the woman pregnant with his child; the key element in a thriller’s opening sequence. It also comes to an abrupt end, the gunshot being the last thing seen or heard and cue for the opening music.
It introduces the two main characters of the film and sets the tone for a film about a woman seeking revenge for being wronged on that occasion. Bill’s introduction as nothing more than a gravelly voice, a gun, and a name on a napkin sets him up as an extremely dominant character, as does the fact that his view is the camera looking downwards (in correspondence The Bride looking straight up into the camera makes her appear submissive). As there is little real interaction apart from a threat and a plea, the goings on show less about the character themselves and more about their relationship; obviously, there is some incredibly bad blood, but the fact that this woman is carrying his child makes the relationship extremely complicated; again provoking a “Why?” or “How?”
This opening sequence helped with ours from my perspective certainly as the strength a camera angle has in presenting a character it helped us with ideas in where to place shots, such as only utilising a camera being above/below a character in the final action of our opening sequence, always previously having the characters of equal standing.
No Country for Old Men is the second film I’m going to analyse and this subverts the expectations and conventions of the thriller genre whilst maintaining incredible suspense. The 2008 film was directed by the Coen Brothers and achieved great critical acclaim and award.
The initial subversion of the thriller begins as early as possible, with the opening sequence being a slowly paced desert-depicted voiceover courtesy of Tommy-Lee Jones. The film does however subtly fall into convention, with there being a great mystery on the lone character Llewellyn. Standing alone hunting wild desert animals, there is no character to interact with and thus no insight into the man or his motives, add this to his stumbling upon dozens of murdered men and a truck full of heroin, and the typical questioning that a thriller triggers are present. Because of the lack of individuals the characters aren’t emphasised until the film gradually progresses, which in itself also adds to the mystery.
I believe this film helped the development of our own opening sequence more than the former, as it exemplified that you do not need a high-paced opening in order to achieve an incredible tense and furious thriller.

Jamie McLynn

What Lies Beneath

Release date: United States July 21, 2000 United Kingdom October 20, 2000

What lies beneath is a narrative based film. We realise this because the audience learns nothing about the characters from the first couple of minutes from the scene, but from the mysterious momentary power out-age and electric shock from the mains switch, the viewer realises that danger is brooding.

The main character introduced in the opening sequence of the film is a woman in the bath. The opening scene focuses mainly on the water as the credits are shown to be under water and the woman is shown in the bath. While this means nothing to the audience in the inital stages of the film, the focus on it suggest that it will play a greater role later in the film.

During the credits, the camera is shown to be floating through grim and murky water. When the credits have stopped, the camera zooms in on the main characters face, showing her to be of importance to the film. Medium shots are mostly used, focusing mainly on the female character, and establishing that she is in a bathroom but still not showing too much of her surroundings, creating a sesne of mystery around the character.

The mise-en-scene shows a murky lake during the credits. This slowly sets the scene and puts the reader on edge at the start of the film. The dark and grim lighting of the lake contrast with the brighter lights and the white background of the characters bathroom. The steam in the bathroom could suggest a coming danger with the hairdryer symbolising the characters fight against it. While the charcter being naked could symbolise vulnerability and her exposure to danger throughout the rest of the film.

The opening sequence of What Lies Beneath is effective as it sticks to the conventions of a thriller film and creates enigma, while making the viewer want to continue watching. It was useful in the thought process of our opening sequence as it showed us that a narrative based opening sequence can reveal nothing about the plot of the story or the characters but still manage to engage the reader, showing us that we could leave a lot of the film up to the viewers interpretation.

Don’t look now

Genre: Horror/mystery/thriller

Year of film: 1973

The Baxter’s are a family living in the countryside. Everything seems to be fine with their lives until one afternoon, their young daughter Christine falls in a lake and drowns.
The opening sequence shows a lake with the names of the people starring in the film. The audience can assume that this lake may have some significance to what is going to happen in the film.
A girl in a red raincoat is playing with her friend around a pond, they are playing with a ball until it falls into the lake the shot then cuts to a man looking at picture of a church window with a magnifying glass. We see blood start from one side of the picture and spread to the other. At this time the shot is switching from one setting to another to suggest a sort of relation between the two settings we see. This man looks in confusion at the picture and at the same time the friend that Christine is playing with is coming from the lake. The man who is inside emerges from his house and is running across the field towards the lake where this girl has just fallen into. This appears to be her daughter as he looks extremely concerned at what has happened. He jumps into the lake only to find he is too late in saving his apparent daughter, she has drowned and he is completely destroyed.
From this scene we notice a number of things that help in enhancing what is going on. There are a number of camera shots including, close-ups and long shots to show the characters in the beginning and also their surroundings. This all relates back to the lake that we are introduced at the very beginning of the film. The setting of this film is where first view is of the drowning child has taken place.
Watching this opening sequence will help us to think about using our setting and expanding on it for our opening sequence. We could think about using a number of surroundings. That relate to the setting to possibly enhance the genre of our work as well.

Apocalypto and James Bond 'Quantum of Solace film research

Apocalypto








The film Apocalypto is set in Mesoamerican jungle in Catemaco. We know this information because the background and settings that surround the actors. The Mayan kingdom faces its end, the ruler’s demand the key to prosperity to build more temples and offer human sacrifices. Jaguar Paw is a young man captured for sacrifice he tries to escape to avoid his fate of certain. The opening sequence of this film is character based.
From the moment the film starts you feel you are in the ancient civilization, seeing body tattoos, lots of piercing and jewellery that is handmade and created to represent a tribal. The feel is a intense and action packed film however it is also strange to watch. The heroic person in the film is Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood) is a sly and crafty hunter whose father tells him not to speak about what he saw in forest. He is warned to keep all fear from his heart and not to bring it into the village however his wife, Seven (Dalia Hernandez) is pregnant and their son Turtles Run (Carlos Emilio Baez), live in a village surrounded jungle life. After a night of fun and games, the peacefulness of this small community of hunters crumbles when outsiders begin torching and burning everything in sight killing most and taking away left. Jaguar Paw has an opportunity to escape and get back to his family in peril, but he has to make his way home through a killing field and dangerous jungle, with savage killers waiting to kill him. "Apocalypto" transports the viewers to a strange and unfamiliar world, to a civilization on the edge of extinction.

Final Idea - Just Business Plot Synopsis

'Just Business' was the final idea which stemmed from the initial idea 'Vengeance', although the idea had under-gone some changes since the planning stage.

The story of Vengeance originally was that of two friends who robbed a shop, with the shopkeeper being killed in the panic. The intended twist was that they killer of the pair would snitch on the other after being interrogated by police in return for his freedom, causing him to serve a lengthy jail sentence. This would conclude the opening sequence with the plan for the remainder of the film being about this character trying to track down his former friend, blaming him for losing a decade of his life.

However, to because parts of this idea were impractical for us to create effectively in the time we were allocated, we made some modifications to the idea.

For 'Just Business', the two friends instead robbed a house, with one of the robbers (Nathaniel) turning on his accomplice (Jeffery), with his only explanation for his betrayal being 'It's nothing personal Jeffery, it's just business'. Similarly to Vengeance, Jeffery would be arrested, as hinted by the end of the opening sequence with Nathaniel's phone call reporting a robbery. The remainder of the film would follow Jeffery in his quest for answers as he is released from prison, tracks down Nathaniel, finds out why he betrayed him and enacts his revenge.

Analysis of post-production questionairre.

After completing our opening sequence, we screened it to our target audience and sent them a questionaire. The intention of this was to see if we were effective in attracting our audience to our sequence.

The questionaire had 6 questions: 1) What did you like about our opening sequnce? 2) How do you think our opening sequence could be improved? 3) Did it have conventions of a thriller? 4) What were the representations? 5) What questions are posed from what you have seen? 6) Would the opening sequenc emake you want to carry on watching?

For the first question, people generally said that they liked the blurry effect in the point of view shot with Jeffery looking up at Nathaniel. The development of narrative was said to be good with the end being seen as interesting.

Responses to the second question said that the dialogue was too queit and difficult to hear.The cuts were said to be jumpy and some people criticised the lighting - although some felt that this added to the sinister atmosphere of the sequence.

This was mentioned in question three, when responses to the questionairre stated that our sequence did have conventions of a thriller as it created enigma and suspense. However it was suggsted that more suspense could have been created to keep the viewer on edge.

In regards to question four, most people picked up on the representation of black people as robbers and identified it as a stereotype.

For question five, people generally asked the question we wanted them to ask - 'Why did Nathaniel beat up Jeffery?' and 'What was the business Nathaniel was talking about?' this showed us that we were effective in creating enigma and had a clear cliffhanger, leading the viewer in the direction we wanted them.

Question six asked if the opening sequence would make the viewer want to continue watching, to which most people replied 'yes'. This gave us the feeling that our opening sequence was effective in reaching our audience.

Just Business (Opening Sequence Script)

Before filming our opening sequence we needed to invision what we wanted our opening sequence to look like and exactly how we would develop the story. To do this, we created a script for our opening sequence.

Just Business

Jeffery and Nathaniel are shown walking along a dark street at night. They stop outside a vacant house.

Nathaniel: Yeah, this is the house here bruv

Jeffery: How wee getting in man?

Nathaniel: Round the back...Check round the back. There's a fence, jump over it and let me in through the other side yeah?

Jeffery: Yeah

Nathaniel: Alright later yeah, cool.

Jeffery walks around the back of the house, peers over the fence, leans against the door and back kicks it. He walks cautiously through the back garden.

Jeffery takes a crowbar to the back door of the vacant house and breaks the latch.

Jeffery slides open the door to the living room. Individual shot of him placing the crowbar on a coffee table. Jeffery takes out a torch and surveys the room, walking out of the shot.

A hand takes the crowbar from the coffee table.

The torch light reflects against the wall, next to the front door. Jeffery switches on the light and leans to open the front door to let in Nathaniel but is hit in the back of the head with his crowbar.

Through apoint of view shot, Jeffery see's the blurry figure of his attacker.

Attacker: I'd like to report a robbery. A boy, just broke into my neighbours house. The address? 34 Cromwell road. I'd rather not leave a name.

The anonymous attacker, takes off his hood and crouches next to Jeffery, he becomes clear to the viewer and the attacker is revealed to be Nathaniel.

Nathaniel: Jeffery...it's nothing personal brother, just business yeah? Just bussiness.

Nathaniel stamps on Jeffery and the screen fades to black

Evaluation

Media Evaluation
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our media product follows certain rules of convention and conformity but at the same time maintains a separate distinction from what rival thrillers would offer. Many thrillers in modern cinema and in our own Media group relied heavily on blurring the lines between the conventions of their thriller and that of horror. Whereas ours was more centred around inner-city petty crime. Ours followed the central convention of thriller films with the final scene of our opening sequence, with the betrayal our characters offering a “Why” to be answered later in the film. The finished feature would’ve gone with a typical convention of thrillers with the pacing, the momentum would’ve increased as the mystery unravelled, with the wronged character trying to discover the reason for the other ones betrayal.

James Mclynn

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Social groups are a number of entities that have the same views as each other on social and ethical situations. Our opening sequence appeals to many different social groups but does not relate to all of them because it is a physiological thriller. But even though it does not apply to the target audience it still appeals to them. The social group that it represents is youths in London. The way that it represents them is stereotypical and also non stereo typical. It represents them as violent this is, because the main character of the film goes around setting people up. This backs up the representation that youths in London are violent and have no problem messing up people and their heads. It also subverts the stereo type as most youths are seen as bad not mentally ill. Our product would appeal to different media groups because of the stereo types and the representations of youths in the 21st century. Youths can find common ground in the characters and relate to their situations which will in turn help them to come to terms with the character and understand them better because the characters are of different racial groups which means that they are more relatable.

Nathaniel Gardner

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Some examples of possible distributors for Just Business, our feature, are films that would be fairly local and focus on independent British films. Revolver Entertainment, distributors of West London based film Kidulthood would perhaps take an interest based on this release. Kidulthood was set around several teenagers in the Ladbroke Grove area and focused on stereotypical teen topics, the film centred around some criminality-based characters and this is what gives the impression that the company wouldn’t be intimidated by such a film topic. Another distributor, although bigger in scope and reputation than Revolver which could take interest in such a project would be Film4. The Channel 4 funded company has a strong reputation for bringing out the best in British independent film, with its recent success of funding and helping promote and distribute Slumdog Millionaire being testament to this.

James Mclynn


4. Who would be the audience for your media product and why?

The target audience for our media product would be both males and females aged between 16-18.
We responded to the initial brief with our audience in mind by researching our target audience, having them fill out questionnaires and asking what they would like to see from an opening sequence for a thriller film.
Our research helped us in the creative process as it helped us to focus our ideas. While we may not have been completely decided in our film ideas, we knew how we would produce the choices we had to appeal best to our audience.
During filming and editing we were very ware that some scenes could be interpreted in ways they were not originally intended to be. To tackle this, we took care in editing are clips and the arrangement and order of the clips to ensure that the development of the story was clear to the audience at all times, while still creating enough enigma to make the audience want to watch more. Knowing our audience was 16-18 year olds we did not make anything excessively simplified as we may have done for a child’s film, although at the same time we did not create a complex, deep and metaphoric opening sequence that would need interpretation and analysis. Instead we created a sequence which provides thought and creates enigma but shows developments in the story clearly to the viewer. We chose this approach as we thought it would be the most effective for our audience. We spent a lot of time focusing on audience with even the actors being the same age group of our target audience. Slang and colloquial expressions have also been added to our sequence so that our target audience can further relate to our opening sequence.
The consideration of our target audience was a driving force in the creative process of our sequence as the audience is vital to any media text as it allows the text to reach people and allows the message of the media text to be spread. We realised early on that if we did not cater to our target audience, there would be no point in creating the opening sequence as we would have no one to watch it. We created a sequence with a target audience in mind so that a select group of people would be genuinely interested in our media text and to ensure that our media opening sequence would reach an audience, even if it was a small and specialised one.

Brian Harding

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

After completing our opening sequence, we had a screening of the sequence to our target audience. We let them watch the clip and then gave them a questionnaire to fill out so we could find out what the thought of the sequence. We asked them 6 questions: What did they like about our opening sequence, how they thought the sequence could be improved, did the sequence have conventions of a thriller, were representations (of race, gender etc.) established, what questions were posed after viewing the clip and did the opening sequence make them want to keep watching.
For the most part, the responses to the sequence were positive with people saying that they liked the sequence. They said the sequence could be improved if the lighting was adjusted because generally people said that the clip was too dark. People also thought that we should get rid of any ambient sounds we had and we should change the volume of the speech as it was difficult to hear the dialogue between the characters. Everyone who answered the questionnaire said that the sequence had conventions of a thriller as it created enigma and tension. Some people mentioned the stereotypical representations of black people being the burglars but this was seen by some to make the film less of a thriller and more of a 'gangsta film'.
Generally, people asked the questions we wanted to to, such as 'Why was Jefferey beaten up?' 'What is the 'business' Nathaniel is talking about?' and 'What will happen next?'. Almost everyone said that the opening sequence would make them want to carry on watching, making us feel the opening sequence was effective. Our target audiences interpretation of our opening sequence matched what we had originally intended. The positive feedback and constructive criticism allowed us to see what we had done well and how to improve. From the questionnaires it seems as though we have effectively addressed our target audience, showing how important the research process is as without it we would not have been able to appeal to our audience.

Brian Harding

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Whilst making our opening sequence I learned how to use a video camera properly and how to achieve good steady shots using a tri pod. I also learned how to use I movie very well. I had previously used it last year to create my music video but this year I used it in to make of my opening sequence. I think that making our opening sequence has allowed me to learn how to create different effects to enhance the opening sequence, for example adding music to a clip and to change to volume level of the music so that the dialogue in the scene can be heard. I also learnt how to add special effects such as transitions that allow the sequence to flow and add effect to it. I movie allowed us to edit out sequence to its best quality as possible. We added many transitions and cuts to add suspense and an eerie feel to the sequence; the music also had a big effect on the feel of our opening sequence. We were able to make basic shots look very professional and effective.

Nathaniel Gardner

7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full Product?

Our preliminary task was to create a short scene with a two sentence conversation. There were only two people in our short clip. Brian would offer to have a staring contest, I would accept. From our preliminary task we learnt the basic rules about filming. At this stage we were introduced to three basic shooting and editing uses. These were 180 degree rule, Shot reverse shot and Match on action. The 180 degree rule for example requires the line of action not to be crossed, if people are having a conversation where ever the camera is they should be seen to be looking at each other on the same side of the shot. Other effects could be added to our short scene to give the viewer more to look at. The use of a Shot reverse shot implemented through editing could be used here, these are alternating shots, typically of two characters in a dialogue sequence and or even in a silence to show contrast in facial expressions in our preliminary task for example. Another editing technique we used for our preliminary task was match on action. It is a cut that connects two different view of the same action, at the same moment, in the same movement. By carefully matching the movement across the two shots we were able to make it seem that the motion continued uninterrupted. For a real match on action the action would have to begin in the first shot and end in the second. All three of these were thought about for preparation for our opening sequences. There were of course many other techniques we could employ but these basics were very important because they provided a foundation for the creation and development of our sequence.
From our preliminary task we learnt how each of these basic techniques could be used to effect and we were able to see where they could be fitted in for our opening sequence. At the editing stage we learnt how we could use a number of extra special effects to improve what we had already filmed. This was done by using Imovie HD on the Imac computers. There were a variety of noises like sirens and animal noises; there were also a number of ways to move to the next shot (transitions), for example a fade in or a fade out. Of course with our opening sequence so much could be implemented and this preliminary task wasn’t going to be that long. With our opening sequence being a thriller a variety of noises and transitions could be used seeing as the conventions of a thriller are usually fast paced sounds and a number of different transitions to think about. There is however suspense which engages the viewer, and there were a range of suspense related applications available to us on Imovie. For example a heartbeat which creates tension is very effective. When we feel afraid our heartbeat increases and we become anxious. We included this in our opening sequence because we thought it would create anxiety from the people watching it.
Creating our opening sequence required us to put more planning and more creativity into what would be in our clip we thought about the setting, the time of day, what the characters in it would be wearing, all of these factors were taken into consideration when recording began. It was set in the night and Nathaniel and I were wearing Black clothing. We initially began shooting in a park where Nathaniel would receive a phone call from Jeffrey about meeting up to rob the house but this was cut out and we forwarded it to night time to create more enigma and mystery for the viewer.
We were required to produce a storyboard picturing what would happen, showing the characters and the type of camera shot. Our original idea differed from the final creation. Originally we would rob a shop and Nathaniel would shoot the owner leaving for Jeffrey to be charged with the assault and sent to prison for nine years.
Our opening sequence was a period where we used our resourcefulness, coming together and sharing ideas which was beneficial to our knowledge of Media Studies.

Jeffrey Bruce-Mills

Thriller Project

Welcome to our AS Level Media Foundation Portfolio. In this project we are expected to build upon our previous preliminary task by scripting, filming, and editing the opening sequence to our own original thriller feature.