Scouting For New Crew

We have lost one member of our film crew due to private circumstances. I have other candidates that can replace him so that we do not fall be hind. I would like to have a woman on our team because all the other opening sequence are full of men and this feels prejudice and discrimination towards women.

It's Not What You Know; It's Who You Know!

I have a very good friend that is very good with film and she has been giving me some brilliant tips for media. I will be incorporating these into this course  because the will be beneficial as well as give me an advantage over the other groups.

Using My Skills

Because I am taking Performing Arts as a A Level, I think it would be good to incorporate these skills into our soundtrack because the soundtrack of the opening scene is extremely important because it also tells a story along with what can be seen by the audience. Furthermore, I am using IPhone's GarageBand in Music as well as Media so it would be brilliant to play around with this skill.

BFI, Southbank, London

This is the BFI.

BFI Trip

The chief explained that we cannot just jump into what we are doing because if we do, our work will be terrible. He gave us the perfect site that has film openings, analysis of filming, editing, shooting, how to research and plan a film, comments on all areas of making films from directors and producers. YouTube is another good site to use but, he warned us to be careful on how deep we go with YouTube because a lot of the film openings stray away from our coursework. If you would like to view this site, I have put down their web addresses: http://www.artofthetitle.com/ then go onto sequences or, you can go onto YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/ or just YouTube and type in ‘opening sequences’

Because we have just started our courses and we have not got a lot of experience, the chief showed us a few opening sequences of a few films and explained the different strategy‘s that we can use when making a film opening and that we should try and look outside of the box and regardless of how silly or difficult an idea may seem at the time, we must still keep it and work on it, we should think of different ideas and add to them.

The first film we watched was Catch Me If You Can which stars the infamous Tom Hanks. I noticed that the sound was fast paced and jazzy, it had a tempo that rose and fell quickly, and I had only discovered all of this within the first 10 seconds of the film. The music was very mysterious, tense, angry, sad, happy, scary, and so hard hitting that it was baffling. We can here the saxophone which is a smooth instrument but, I love how it has been changed into an almost violent creature that plays psychological mind tricks with its rapid change of tempo, notes, and chords.

The animated picture pictures are very fast past with a rich with an array of colourful, confusing, mysterious, tantalizing, and hopeful colours that the atmosphere throughout the audience was tense and in upheaval. This is very effective and took around 5-6 months to make.

The graphical effects on the motion pictures of a range of people partying, in meetings, flying, some seemed to by spying, birds, and sunbathing, glamorous people in suits and dresses drinking, in conversation, working, and so many other things was absolutely astonishing. It was confusing but, not to confusing were I could not make out what was happening, it was interesting because I have not seen many films that have managed to do such a complicated and tiring, both physically and emotionally, edit with so many components and features in the space of 3 minutes and pull it of so well. It looks so easy and effortless and captures the audience. What made it work so well is that the timeframe of an opening scene should only be about 3-5 minuets long and they graphical designer have managed to fade in so many different shots which are ram packed with lots of action and detail.

BFI

At BFI we leant about Reel Films and the key features or components that all films must have to be successful, regardless of the budget or of the film is a blockbuster or an AS Media Studies Course work. The chief of Media gave most of the presentation and I found it interesting and very benefiting because it showed the group and I where we had been going wrong, what we need to improve on, tips on how to improve, and things that we have not thought about and what we don’t know already.

The key features anyone must be understand, be aware of, and be able to demonstrate and be able incorporate into what ever type of film that they are doing are:

Genre- Type of film i.e. Thriller, Drama, Sci-Fi, Horror etc.

Narrative-What is the film about i.e. is it about a teenager who has to look after his four young sibling’s while his parents have abounded them?

Character-Which is being played, what are they like, what is their significance in the film, what part they are playing.

Atmosphere-What is the mood of the film? How does it make the audience feel and what effect does it have on the audience? What effect is it meant to have on the audience?

Setting-Where is the film set? What is the time period? Why is a specific location being used as the foundation for a film?

At BFI Southbank in Waterloo, I went with my group to learn about how to make the most out of researching, planning, shooting, editing, and evaluating our opening sequences. We also had the privilege and, I felt, the honour to have the well-known actor and rising director Dexter Fletcher, who some of you may recognise from the teen hit show Misfits, he play Simons dad, also you may also recognise him from the film Press Gang, and Bugsy Malone in which he plays the character of Baby Chris, come and tell use about his experiences through acting and directing and tips on how we can improve.

MEDIA Feed Back

Media

Here is the Screenplay. This is our completed version, for now.

THE DROP

STREAMLINE PRODUCTIONS

A screenplay by

Elliot Mckenzie, Jake Smith, Jamie Ellis, and Pablo Ortiz

FADE IN:

1.      EXT. BUS STOP-DAY <<COLOUR SEQUENCE>>

A TEENAGER waits at a bus stop, looks up and down the street, shakes head, PHONE BEEPS, checks his phone, puts phone away with a smile, 77 bus to Waterloo ARRIVES, gets on.

FADE OUT:

EXT. SOUTH BANK, CENTAL LODON

#

Teen arrives at destination, meets up with the OTHER two teens, one of whom sends him the MESSAGE,  a CHASE  breaks out above them, MYSTERIOUS MAN mid 30s, grey suit is running with BLACK BREIFCASE form another man with black suit, glasses, wire in ear, looks like SECRET AGENT, 30’s, grey suit man THROWS BAG over BRIDGE, aiming for RIVER, misses, bag lands IN FRONT of boys.

Samuel

 Oi did you drop this? (He shouts but, Smith keeps on running with purser in tow)

SHOT REVERSE SHOT:

Antony

(Serious tone and looks at Vince and Samuel) Looks like some next briefcase .

Vince

(Vince looks at both boys in curiosity)

Come we open it.

SHOT REVERSE SHOT

Antony

We should leave it, let’s go. (He tells both boys firmly)

SHOT REVERSE SHOT

Samuel

Looking’s never hurt anyone. Just don’t touch anything.

WORMS EYE VEIW

They look into the bag with a look of awe, greed, and fear on their faces.

CUT TO TITLE

More ideas for our opening sequence

Another idea that i have thought of is there are 3 boys walking through a cemetery and taking its as a shortcut. One of the boys feels uncomfortable with this but they continue to go on regardless of his warnings. It is set ion a cold night with a full moon. They will be walking and stop when they hear a rustling noise, the crape of metal and conversation on a phone. When they look, the shall see a man with 4 body bags and a shovel putting the body's into a grave. He will then talk ti someone on the phone and at this point the boys decide to leave quickly. As the try to run quietly, one boy either steps on something and it snaps or he drops and hurts him self. The man will hear them and tell the person on the phone about them and he will go after them.

The Bone Collector (Martin Bregman, 1999)

In this film there are a lo of flashes and dark lighting for atmosphere. There are fast-flashy camera movements and a point-of-view shot of a police man while he focuses on the crime scene. This sets the genre of the film for the audience.

The framing is tightly framed so that all emotions can be seen. When filming scenes with the police man, i noticed that shallow focus was used. It is used to focus on the police man or the main character and give him/her a air of power and importance.

The performance was very good because the audience sees the police men investigate the death of a man in tunnel The body is 300 yards in a collapsed tunnel.

There is slow and fast focuses on pics and the words associated with crime and death. Slow motion slows down as the man gets closer to  the body.

Sound is brilliant. Eerie music is used, a heart monitor can be heard beating rapidly, they can hear the police sirens man hypeventating as he wakes up in the hospital. The audience hears the loud, deafening crash of the metal structure as it come crashing down on the police man.

At this point the editing really come alive because as the metal structure come crashing down on D.Washington, we see hi look at the face of the corpse and he see his own face.

The mise-en-scene consist of montage of crime books, layer books, papers on crime, news paper clipping of murders and crimes, and they see dead people.

Blood simple has seven establishing shots of Texas to let the audience know where the film is set.Every shot is thought about thoroughly so that the author know exactly what type of setting it is. There is a very-low extreme long shot of a lonely road, i think its Route 66, and the only object to be seen is the mise-en-scene of a burnt out tire which is place there deliberately to give the audience a feeling of loneliness, isolation, and eeriness

THis is our location, Southbank Bridge, Central London

Our mysterious man may be wearibg leather gloves as well to make his chracter more interesting.

Our chracter Samuel shall be looking at his watch as he waits at the bus stop.

We thought that we should give our mysterious man black Vector sunglasses becasue they would make his face seem more hidden and also, he would not stand out as much.

We have decided that the mysterious man should wear a grey suit because this would not draw attention to him and we do no wan't him to stand out.

Here is a prop that our secret agent may use

Screenplay

THE DROP

Redline the high octain racing movie is a blliant movie to watch becasue it has so many diffrent shots and angles, lighting and effects that it is a media studies students perfect film to right about.

Here is the dialogue for our script:

Dialogue For THE DROP:

Samuel

Excuse me mate! Oi it’s rude to drop things onto at people from bridges. I know you saw me! (He shouts but, Smith keeps on running with purser in tow) And he’s running of with his friend! (Looks at his friends in confusion and shakes head) Ain't he gotta a cheek?

Antony

(Laughing with Vince) Just like the old man uses to say, it ain't the same old crap n just a different day, it’s some it’s the same old system with crazy idiots running it and Muppet's like them have the power to run riot.

Vince

Here we go, now we have to put up with you and you granddads quote again! (Rolls his eyes in mock annoyance, then, look serious) What we gonna do with that coz it’s not every day you see THAT

Antony

True talk fam, (Antony looks at each boy in a thoughtful way) but they weren’t chasing each other you idiot (he gives Samuel with a rude look and Samuel gives him the finger) that geezer in the suit was running like Usain Bolt on speed. (Vince laughs)And we need to move form here and keep it steeping coz that briefcase looks serious enough to bring some copper with it.

Vince

What a minute I wanna know what’s in the case first!  Could be some money documents, we might get rich(Vince snatches the case out of Samuel’s hand. Samuel gets angry and Antony starts shouting in a frightened tone)

Samuel

I swear to god if I don’t get that back in my hands, I'm going to show my  bad side. Give it here now! (As he walks over to Vince, Vince backs away and Antony starts to shout again, this time at Vince)

Vince

Piss of! The only bad side you can have is that dodgy hairstyle!

(Samuel starts moving closer to Vince when Antony steps in-between the two boys)

Antony

Both of you stop. (Boys stop and look at him)You have to spoil a good time as usual! Cant resist it can you. (He says to Vince in a disgusted tone) Just stop and-(Vince opens the case)

Antony, Samuel, and Vince look into the case

All at once

Holy crap!!!

Camera zooms in and we get a close up shot of the boys shocked and scared faces.

Fade out to credits

Moodboard

moodboard

Here is the moodboard for our film The Drop. These are images, colours, locations, and moods that are inspiring our film.

Prop

I thought this might be the kind of briefcase that our character John Smith would carry.

Memento Oening Sequence

I watched this opening sequence and noticed a lot of effective close ups of the characters face that emphasise his emotions. There are a lot of tight close ups of the blood to show the audience what type of film this will be.

Yesterday, we opresented our screenplay, script,research findings and our moodboard. I am going to be working on the dialoge part of our film becasue i feel that i woukd be good at this. We have to draw up a storyboard that will show what happens in our film/

Some new things to come

Its hard finding followers but i will get there. i have some new things that i think people will be interested in so you have that to look forward to. Peace out

I watched Anova Hood yesterday night and found it absolutely hilarious!

We went up to London and we have found a location to film our opening sequence. i wont tell you what we're going to film but all you need to know is that it'll be sooo good.

Yo, Yo, Yo, peeps i got a survey for you to fill out and i would be so grateful if you do. thanks a mill for following me, here is the link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HC3M9MK

Here is the finishing product of my groups work. We have filmed a opening sequence of a footballer joining a new club. I am sorry if the quality is not good and if it's not, my bad.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNb27gzqIZU

For our opening sequence, we shall be use a thriller genre for our film. We are going through some ideas and places to film.

I am currently doing a mood-board that will be used in my groups presentation and in our work. we are currently discussing our ideas for a opening sequence for Media/

As part of our Media Studies Project, we attended a session at Southfeilds Community Collage for a lesson on editing films. The films that we recorded were edited on Apple Mac's with IMovie. I shall upload the finishing product of our work.

Opening Sequence

Some ideas for genres:
thriller (montage?)
horror (maybe in a cemetery)