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. 

Preliminary Task - Review

The preliminary task was to film and edit a continuity scene consisting of 10 shots. The scene needed to contain a character who opens a door, enters and crosses the room and then holds a short conversation with another character.

The shots and techniques we used were:

• point of view
• shot reverse shot
• match on action
• reaction shot
• two shot
• 180 degree rule
• tracking shot
• medium close up
• pan
• zoom (out)

The scene theme was horror. At the beginning the first Character (C1) can be seen running down a dark corridor, quickly opening a door and going inside, the shot cuts to seeing C1 enter the room from inside; this technique is match on action. To add to the suspense the room is dark; lights out and blinds closed. The 3rd shot is a point of view shot from under a table, panning to watch the feet of C1 walk across the room, it then cuts to a medium close up of Character 2 (C2). The camera zooms out from the close up on C2 so that the audience can see C1 behind her, the shot becoming a two shot. The two chracters then have a short conversation, using shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule to create continuity and make the scene flow. After the last line of dialogue a thump is heard and the shot then rapidly pans to a point of view shot looking at another pair of feet entering the room from the door, before cutting to a reaction shot of C1 and C2 screaming.

Preliminary Task video

Preliminary task: shoot write-up

On Monday we filmed our preliminary task, it was a short scene with 10 shots. The theme of our scene was horror, its about two students hiding from something under a table in a class room. We tried to create tension and a scared feeling by not letting the audience have a clear view until the two characters begin a short conversation, and even then we still don't allow the audience a full view of the 'thing' chasing the students. We also made the room dark when filming to add to the horror feel of the scene; if the shots aren't dark enough when we edit them, then we will make the darker.

The shots we used are:

• point of view shot
• tracking shot
• medium close up shot
• two shot
• long shot

Other techniques we used were:

• match on action
• shot reverse shot
• 180 degree rule

We will be using the software adobe premier pro to edit our scene together, we will add horror music to add to the short scenes tension, and also remove any unneeded sound, as well as cut any parts we don't need, so that the scene flows continuously.

Preliminary Animatic

This is my groups preliminary animatic, we drew out what shots  and angles we wanted to use, and what would be in them. We then took pictures and put them together in a video using adobe premier pro. We also wrote down next to them what the shot was, for example shot/reverse shot and what the shot would contain, such as footsteps or low-key lighting.