Main Post 1 Conventions of an Opening Sequence

Having now completed my preliminary task, I am now analysing the openings of different films for my coursework as I will have to produce a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes. All video and audio material must be original, produced by us, with the exception of music and audio effects from a copyright-free source.

To start with it is important that I understand the conventions of an opening sequence as even across the different genres they all have elements in common.
In the film ‘Tandem’, which is the genre of drama, the makers have used a sound bridge of a voice over, over a black screen to open the film, we hear voices before we see anything and this sets up an enigma.  On the black screen they show the production company and title of the film before leading into the establishing shot. The editing they have used is fasted paced with an average shot length of six seconds when the film starts.  The opening of 'Tandem' is simple, a convention of short films as all of the short films we watched had few credits, didn't use special effects and several used no music and some were silent.

I have also watched ‘Casino Royal’ (2006), one of the James Bond films, set firmly in the action drama thriller genre. Its opening sequence is a series of animations of themes from the film, with a faded clip of the characters in the film laid over the top. The only sound that was used was a soundtrack of ‘you know my name’ which is now the song associated with that film, just like all the James Bond films have their iconic soundtrack. This animation sequence lasted for three minutes with images relating to the film setting up a number of  narrative themes, also it shows the title of the films along with the producers and names of the actors. Here are some screen grabs of the beginning sequence of ' Casino Roylal' showing the different animation used and how the creators have used the images to foreshadow what the film is about.

Evaluation

Unfortunately I didn’t do GCSE media and was therefore at a disadvantage when it came to knowing about; shot sizes, the location recce and script writing however doing the preliminary has allowed me to learn and develop these skills.

Whilst we were doing the pre-production we as a team had to learn to communicate and find out everyone’s strengths and weakness’s which was difficult as we all had different ideas and ways of working but turned out all right as we all had different  strengths and so we could help each other out if we needed to . We did find working together a bit of a challenge as we all had different views and each person took what we were doing with different attitudes but we always discussed everyone’s ideas and let them have a say, which was great when it came to getting creative trying to find out a unique and original idea.

 During the task I learnt that there are many risks whilst filming and watching for continuity, by doing a risk assessment at the place of filming I managed to evaluate everything that could go wrong  so when it actually came to filming there was no risk of someone or equipment getting damaged.  

 I think that overall we have met the aims of the assessment with the continuity and group work. Before starting to shoot we practiced shooting something with good continuity to understand how it worked and that we knew what we were expected to do. During the rehearsals it was difficult for everyone to keep focused at times and with filming it became obvious that you have to be very organized.  We got there in the end and for the next task I will work hard to get other people in my group to keep focused.

Editing looked quite complicated but having had a go I felt I picked it up quite quickly.  I will look forward to the next task to sharpen my skills.

Team work is all important, from having the right clothes on for a shot and then wearing the same the next day to making sure we could all meet up to edit and make use of our editing time. Planning was very important as we needed a clear idea of what we were doing at all times.  The planning we did enabled us to film quite quickly.

Looking back over the finished product of our preliminary task I realised that we had not stuck to our script completely as we had problems remembering it in such a short space of time so this could perhaps be a target for me to work on, another target could be to vary camera shots as there were groups of certain shots together which meant we didn’t show a range of shots or the skill needed to shoot them. For our next shoot we also need to work on the pre-production work and make sure it is ready before shooting. I also want to improve my skills at the software programme Adobe Premiere, I feel it has a lot to offer and would like to experiment with colour, editing styles and sound.

Story board and Shot list

We used the story board to plan our shot list and to work out how we were going to film our film.

Post Production Report

Post production we went to the editing suit and logged on.  We downloaded our footage.  Rather than downloading each clip (rush) we captured all of the shots in one.  This meant we had to then watch through the film and take out each clip that we wanted.  We found the software quite difficult to start with at the beginning but soon got the hang of it.  We were able to put together our film quite quickly at this stage.

Having edited our film we had a series of rushes that we named numerically, we then put these on the timeline and started to build up our film.
We used a combination of hard cuts and fades as transitions.  In places we had some continuity problems and we used fades here to try and hide some of the mistakes, we should have re shot some scenes but with absences we decided to use what we had.
We decided against using music as we struggled to find non copyright songs that suited the film.

We put our countdown and bars and end credits on the production and watched it through with our teacher and other members of the class.  We didn't use an opening title as we didn't think we needed a name for what we had done as it wasn't a complete film.  We made several changes to the rushes after this to get the continuity right in view of what our class members and teacher said. In the end we were quite pleased with what we had produced despite the few small errors.  

How the shoot went

The shoot was problematic. At first we didn't finish the shoot in one session and the next lesson we were all wearing different clothes and our 'office' was booked, so we had to find another room and begin again. As we were now behind with shooting we managed to finish in one lesson.
During shooting we had problems with different shots awe couldn't do over the shoulder shots, over the shoulder of the boys to me, as they are a lot taller. We also had some problems with the continuity when we came in wearing different clothes.
We overcame these problems by only shooting over the shoulder shots over my shoulder at the boys and by beginning again in a new setting.
As a team we had some problems due to absences and other team members not being organized. 
Over all I think the footage we shot was okay but needs a lot of work. We tried to think about the continuity of the entire piece as we shoot different parts and abide by the rules as much as we could. I think there is a lot of room for improvement as we have parts where one person is using a megaphone and isn't in other parts. I think we also should have marked where we stopped on each shot before starting to film again from another angle to improve the continuity. We also need to make sure that we edit what we shot carefully to get as much continuity as possible as what we have seems to jump around slightly due to the filming and the fact we started from different points each time.

Mise-en-scene

We wanted an office situation and found one that needed only minor adjustments, position of seating to make space for the tripod. All the other aspects of set were already in place. We used the P.E. office as one of the characters is the head of P.E. For our costumes we decided that we would wear smart work clothes as it is set in a school office. We didn't wear any make-up or costumes that we wouldn't normally wear or anything that would look over the top.

Cast, Crew and Prop List

Cast
Max Halcomb- Mr De Rossi
Peter Lingham- Head of P.E.
Alex Mullins (me)- Interviewer/ head of school

Crew
Leo Wilding- camera operator

Props
megaphone

Risk Assessment

Before we started to film we had to do a risk assessment to see what the dangers were and how we could prevent accidents from happening.

These bags could cause a health and safety hazard as someone could trip over the straps or the bag its self. We will make sure our bags are left somewhere else or are right out of the way where we are filming and away from where they could be a hazard for other people.

Having electronics and liquids together is a hazard problem as it could cause a fire or hot water could burn someone if it is spilt. also having wires every where could cause a problem as someone could get caught in them or the might be pulled and knock things over causing more hazards. We will make sure the kettle has not boiled recently and there is no water on the desk, we will also make sure the wires are neat and out the way from causing any problems.

Recce shots

Learning support room

This wouldn't be a good place to film as it is too small and doesn't have an office look about it which we need for our setting. To be able to use this room we would need to get permission from the learning support staff. In this room we wouldn't need to use any artificial light as the window provides enough natural light.

PS3

This is a better place to film than the learning support room but  it still doesn't look like a an office. To be able to use this room we would need to get permission from the sixth form staff. In this room we wouldn't need to use any artificial light as the window provides enough natural light.

Music office

This is an even better place to film than the last two and would work well is it is actually an office but it is too small to film in. If we did film in this room we would need to get permission from the head of music. For this room also we wouldn't need any artificial light.

 Kings room

If we were to use the kings room it would be great as a set as it looks like an office and it is big enough to be able to film in well. We would have to make sure it was free and get permission from either the head of languages or a member of staff in the office. This room is well lit from the window and so would require no artifical light.

P.E. office

This is a good place to film as one of the characters is the head of p.e. and we need an office like place to film.To be able to use this room we would need to get permission from the P.E. staff or the head of P.E. In this room we wouldn't need to use any artificial light as the windows and doors provide enough natural light. We have decidedto use this room as it ties in with our script and is more availible then the kings rom.

Script

Everyone in the group added their ideas into the script

Rule of thirds

This link takes you to a website that explains the rule of thirds.

http://www.digital-photography-school.com/rule-of-thirds

Camera Shots

Extreme close up

Close up

Medium shot

3/4 shot

Long shot

High shot

Low shot

Over the shoulder two shot

To make this more effective i could have zoomed in more on the persons face so there isn't so much space at the side.

Preliminary Task Introduction

We have been set the continuity task which involves filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, then there will be a couple of lines of dialogue exchanged. This task should show the use of match-on-action, shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.