Production Companies

We created our own production company "Dark Wood", the name was inspired by our times spent filming in Post wood. We also chose Warner Brothers to finance our film because they produced the 2007 film I Am Legend, which has a similar genre to ours, as well as the 2014 film The Edge of Tomorrow which features a similar apocalyptic world of which we are trying to create, and also an army base like what we went to have in our film.

Production Diary: 15/12/2014

Today we added a static image over shots at the end out our opening sequence.

We also created our Production company, "Dark Wood"

Locations

We will be using one of the school  labs to create the scientific lab scene

We will also be using Post wood for our wood scene 

Production Diary: 5/12/2014

Today we began our audio editing.

We started by putting lab sounds, such as boiling, bubbling noises, over our lab scene.

We also added music over the wood scene

Production Diary: 3/12/2014

Today we put all of our shots together in order, making sure to cut out any sections we don't need, we are going to the clean up the shots and make sure everything flows properly on another day.

After we got all the shots where we wanted them we rendered them before saving our project.

Open Sequence Presentation

Feedback
Sci-fi/ Thriller: nice combination of genres, and conventions used to represent them.

story-line: what will the opening sequence show?
The opening sequence will show a person being experimented on, waking up and then biting the scientist, before walking out of the lab and then running around in a wood and biting other people. 

Extra zombies - who are they, how many will you have, and how will you represent them as zombies?
Molly and two of our friends Tom and Dom, There are 3 zombie extras. We will represent them as zombies by painting their faces to look zombie-ish and also paint bite marks on them.

Are you showing people being bitten?
We are showing one person being pounced on and being bitten. 

Cast & Script

Cast

• Molly Weiss - scientist, zombie extra, director, editor
• Ashleigh Woodberry - experiment zombie, director, editor
• Dominic Almond - zombie extra
• Thomas Holmes - zombie extra
• Fitz - Dog

Script

Scientist: That's . . . not normal 

This is our only line because the rest of the story-line is shown through actions.

Roles and Costumes

Ashleigh: Zombie experiment - scene 1: white tank top, shorts, zombie make-up e.g. pale, red rimmed eyes. Scene 2: same but with patches of dirt, hair messy

Molly: scientist - Scene 1: Black top and trousers, white lab coat, glasses, hair in a bun. (also plays zombie extra)

Dom, Tom: zombie extras - Scene 2 only: old/casual clothes, patches of dirt, zombie make-up, hair messy

Production Schedule

 

Shot list

1. Productions
2. Bubbling chemicals - pan
3. Zombie on table - pan
4. Scientist walking in - long shot
5. Scientist checking zombie
6. Zombie waking up - close up
7. Scientist attempts to restrain zombie, gets bitten
8. Scientist stumbles back (from behind)
9. Scientist falls over (from front)
10. Zombie stumbles towards door 
11. Zombie steps out of lab (front, over camera)
12. Zombie steps into woods (back, over camera)
13. Zombie falls over (back)
14. Zombie falls over (front)
15.  Zombie running - Extreme long shot 
16.  Zombie running - Extreme long shot
17. Snapping twig sound, head whips round
18. Zombie attacks person form behind
19. Dog running away
20. Zombie standing in middle of group of dead people 
21. Dead people stand up
22. Back to 20
23. Dead people closer to camera
24. Title: The Experiment

Opening Sequence Animatic

Target Audience

Our primary audience will be young adults aged 15-25 of  all genders, this is because this is the main audience most likely to go and see a zombie movie. The secondary audience will be parents who and adults aged 26+ who are also interested in zombie, sci-fi thriller films. Our primary audience will be a class of casual or low grade workers as well as skilled working class, which mean they will have more time making them the primary audience compared to adults over 26 who are skilled working class and have less time to go to the cinema.
 

World War Z opening sequence analysis

World War Z is an action, adventure, horror movie. It was directed by Marc Foster and starred Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos and Danielle Kertesz. The story is about Gerry Lane; a United Nations employee who is in a race against time to stop the zombie pandemic before it destroys everything.

The title sequence music starts off with tubular bells and a piano, as the sequence nears its end a kick drum beat is introduce, which creates a pulsating feel of a heart beat. There also seems to be the underlying sound of a heart beat through out the piece, which suggests to the audience that the movie is going to have something to do with life and death, as well as sickness. There is some diegetic sound, but normally of everyday life such as traffic or people walking. Over the top of everything clips of news and show broadcasts are heard, in some of them it mentions people being sick and other such things, but the majority is normal everyday things, this tells the audience that people don't realise some things are happening until it is too late as well as that life still goes on. 

All the shots are different as they are different clips cut together. The majority of the shots are at an equal angle, and long distance, however there are some that are low and high angle as well as establishing and close ups. It has been edited so that there are diagonal cuts and stripes which split the pictures in half or make certain parts unfocused, these shapes our made up of the letters from the title. The sequence cuts start off slow but get faster, telling the audience the movie is going to be fast paced as well as the the sequence is coming to an end.

The sequence starts off with the image of a beach which is uninterrupted, before cutting to an establishing shot of a mountain side with houses on it, from there more and more imagery of human activity is shown, such as cities, roads, transport, etc. As the sequence draws to the end more imagery of the natural world, such as animals hunting, are shown. All this things suggests to the audience that the whole world is going to be affected as well as that, the movie is going to contain violence and that it is about survival. The sequence ends with the title running onto the screen with the firmer imagery still occurring inside the letters.

Initial Ideas

Genre: Horror/Thriller/Zombie apolcalypse

Setting:

• Lab
• Woods (presdales)

Sound:

• lab - bubbling sounds
• woods - diegetic sound
• music throughout + news report voice over

Lighting:

• Lab - high key
• woods - low key

Editing:

• flicker/glitch between clips

Characters:

• Scientist
• Experiment
• Civilians - zombies

Plot: Scientist is experimenting on people, it goes wrong and one turns into a zombie, who then bites the scientist and escapes into the woods, and bites other people creating more zombies.

7 Movie opening sequences

Godzilla (2014)
The title sequence is at the very beginning of the movie and gives the audience a first look at Godzilla, though only a small section. It also shows shots of research, news paper articles,old camera footage, and different species of dinosaurs. It also shows a nuclear explosion, which when it "hits" the camera, causes the screen to go white, having ash and the title fade in, before fading into the next scene. This captures the readers attention, as well as giving them some background information need later on in the movie.

 

Kill Bill (vol.1)

  

The opening scene gives the audience some of the background information, for example the reason why the 'Bride' wanted ti 'Kill Bill'. It starts of with just Her making breathy, gaspy breathes, and the screen black for the first few seconds before cutting to a woman with a bloody and beaten face, the camera angle is high, looking down on her and doesn't change for the whole scene, it is also black and white, throughout. The only other shot is of supposedly 'Bill's' footsteps, we soon learnt this is Bill by his name being embroidered on a handkerchief he uses to wipe blood of the woman's face. The scene ends abruptly with the sound of a gun.


Dredd

The sequence starts with the titles of the production companies in a bold red font on a black background, it then cuts to an establishing shot of 'Mega city 1' showing the audience the size of the city and the desert that surrounds it. It then shows shots of the city and its citizens, it also starts to cross cut between shots of the city and of 'Dredd'. There are select pieces of digetic sound, such as the wind blowing, a jet flying and clothes moving. A voice over from 'Dredd' tells the audience needed back ground information, and music with drums and and electronic sound plays. When the music reaches a peak the word Dredd smashes onto the screen, before cutting into the next scene.

Daredevil

The sequence opens with the classic flicking of comic pages in to the 'Marvel' logo, before going to a black background and then fading in and out the producer titles, the background fading into a birds eye view of the city, which the audience soon learns is New York. the camera continues to swoop around the city, pausing and focusing on buildings which fade back in to black, except for certain lights which then form braille, hinting to the audience the protagonists blindness. The braille then fade into the credits. The last set of braille are center screen whereas the ones before weren't, it then flashes in to the word 'Daredevil' which is red and has a red glow, then from either side of the screen to red flashes fly together to form the Daredevil logo. There is no digetic sound, only a swooping sound, and the music which is a mix of tribal sounding drum beats and high pitched string instruments that create tension. 

Alice in Wonderland (2010)
The sequence starts with the classic Disney title, before fading to black, and then to a moon on a cloudy night. The camera zooms out/moves backwards, and the producer titles seem to appear from behind the camera in a jumbled font and a gold colour. The camera continues to zoom out, past Big Ben telling the audience its in London, before flying through mist/fog and the movie title appearing like the first, the camera continuing to move backwards as fog engulfs the title and the camera titles down into black. The music throughout the scene is violins and choir like singing, this creates and eerie and mysterious effect. 

Opening sequence analysis: Se7en

Se7en is a psychological, crime, thriller directed by David Fincher in 1995. It stars Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow. The movie follows two detectives and their investigation of a serial killer, who uses the seven deadly sins as the basis for each of his murders.                                        

The title sequence music is a remix of Trent Reznor's "Closer" by Angus Wall and Coil/Danny Hide, through out it has a pulsing beat, as well as static, creating an eerie tense atmosphere which builds through out the sequence. This tension is increased as more sound effects are added, for example the clicking of a type writer, and the screech of strings most likely on a violin, as well as the added thumping of drums as the music reaches a peak, drawing towards the end of the sequence. At the end of the sequence as the film title pops up the lyrics "you got me closer to God" are sung, before a loud drum signifies the end of the music and title sequence. There is no dietetic sound throughout the sequence.

All shots are extreme close ups, normally shallow focus not allowing the audience a clear view of whats really happening. The angles are continuously changing, and some shots are overlapped so that two objects can be seen at the same time, this creates a sense of confusion and may even represent the state of mind of the character who is featured in the sequence. The shots are also still though appear to be shaking, however it is the objects on screen that are moving. In the editing the have also made the shots short, quickly cutting of fading into the next shot, however they are longer on the shots with black backgrounds and the names of the cast and crew. The text in the sequence also shakes, and changes into different fonts this gives the audience an uneasy feeling.

The sequence is filmed in a place with low key lighting, and the areas of the building we see suggest that it is abandoned. Through out the scene we see many different objects, the main being a note book filled with pages of writing, as well as lots of pictures. Some of the things that stand out the most are a razor blade, which is used to remove the skin of the unknown characters fingers, and a needle which is used to bind pages together. The order of these objects appear chronologically, as if showing the making of the book. This helps to give the audience an idea of what is going to happen, as well as an insight in to what the character is like. 

The purpose of this sequence is to get the audience to question the imagery they are being shown and what is going to happen in the movie, as well as prepare them for what they are going to see. It is also used to tell the audience what genre the film is, the cutting out of words, and the imagery of sharp objects suggest crime and murder, the thumping music, and the tension it creates insinuates thriller, and the pictures of psychiatric procedures as well as the removal of skin from fingers suggest psychological.