Initial Ideas Reviewed

When discussing our idea we decided that it required too much work and skills beyond our own. We then decided to simplify our idea so as to gain a good grade by being thorough rather than cramming in as much information as possible.

Our opening sequence is still similar to the original, with a few changes which will allow us  to still push our selves but not the extreme that the work will suffer.

We will open with the production company name 'GLAM Productions' and will then cut to a shot of Mel rolling up a spliff, this will then freeze-frame and her character name will appear at the bottom of the screen whilst the voiceover says 'Its my only escape.' This will then cut to Rian working out in his bedroom, this will also freeze frame with his characters name appearing at the bottom of the screen, the voiceover will say 'Why am I so fat, I hate myself' We will then cut to Sarah dancing in a dance studio, as she spins we will see bruises on her face, we will once again freeze-frame while her characters name will appear at the bottom of the screen whilst her voiceover says 'What did i do to deserve this?'. This will cut to Tyrone sitting in the corner of a library on his own, finally we will freeze-frame with his characters name at the bottom of the screen, whilst his voiceover will say 'I'm gay, it's not my fault, stop treating me like I have a disease'. After this we will have a 4 way split screen of the characters carrying on from their freeze frames, whilst they do this they will all voice over 'I would give anything to have a normal life,' after this they will each leave the room they are in and all 4 doors will slam together. At this point the screen will go black and the film title will appear.

Initial Ideas

As a group we decided that we wanted to use the genre of drama to base our opening sequence on. We decided that we would make it a bit like the teenage drama Skins, in that we would use teenagers that were all having different problems either at home or with peers. We decided that we would have 4 main characters, a girl who uses drugs as a form of escape, a girl who is a dancer but is constantly beaten by her boyfriend, a boy who wants to get fit and is depressed about his body, and a boy who is a bit of a swat and so has no friends. We understood that these were very sensitive areas to film in so we would have to be very careful.


We decided that we wanted to use parts of the opening sequence to 'Train spotting' within our work, as we wanted the characters to each voice over their actions. We also decided that we wanted to use a split screen, we thought this would be an effective way to like the 4 characters together.


We then started to establish our storyline behind the children, we decided that:
The drug user was only using drugs to cope with the fact that she was the only carer for her disabled mother and that the drugs were her only form of release.
The boy in the gym was there because he was depressed about the way he looked and his body and wanted to work out so as to fit in.
The dancer is constantly abused by her boyfriend and has bruises over her body and has resorted to self harm.
The swat is sitting in the library, alone, rushing through revision.


We then discussed what these teens would be doing in the opening sequence and how to change between the scenes with smooth transitions, we decided that:
We decided that the drug user would be sitting alone in her room smoking a spliff and the voice over would explain why she has turned to smoking it, as she stands up from a chair we will film her from behind.
This will then change to a shot of the boy in the gym standing up from  piece of machinery, filmed from in front, he will then voiceover his feelings and why he is in the gym, whilst hitting a punchbag.
We will then film the dancer dancing in front of some mirrors, along with her voiceover we will have the sounds of the punchbag being hit in the previous scene to relate to her being beaten up, she will then sit on the floor and the camera will pan around her.
As the camera gets to her back it will carry on panning but will pan into the boy sitting in the library alone with his voice over.
We will then cut to a 4 way split screen of the 4 characters leaving the room and all 4 doors slamming in sync with one another.
At this point the title of the film will appear on the screen.

Film Opening Sequences

In the opening sequence to a film we expect to see the title of the film along with it's opening credits of the main characters and the directors and producer and possibly script writers. The opening sequence will show the title of the film along with the production company. As well as establishing a style the opening sequence will introduce us to the main characters and the main location of the filming. Below i have made a list of 3 opening sequences and my opinion of them

Office Space

In the opening sequence to 'Office Space' we are introduced to a comedy genre within the first 20 seconds as the first bit of text we see is the production company's name '20th Century Fox' is presented to us in a blue bubbly and almost child like font. 25 seconds in we are faced with an upbeat soundtrack, with this we are introduced to various master shots of a traffic jam. within this traffic jam we are introduced to the main characters in their cars and we are shown how they are dealing with the traffic jam. The genre of comedy is reinforced 58 seconds in as we are shown that an old man with a Zimmer frame is moving faster than all the traffic. From this opening sequence the film seems easy going.

In my  opinion office space looks fun and funny, the soundtrack is bubbly witch puts you in a good mood and causes you to anticipate comedy. The film doesn't look to demanding and eases you into the story line.

Train Spotting

'Train spotting' has a completely different opening sequence. We are faced with a basic block font of the production company's name and are then immediately thrown into the middle of the action of a police chase, the sound track has a fast pace to it and a strong energetic beat immediately drawing our attention to the action happening on screen. We are introduced to our main character through his voice over of his life and a nick name which is flashed across the screen in a freeze frame 51 seconds in. We are introduce to other main characters in the same way, through freeze frames with their nick names flashed across in the same font as the productions company was presented in. 

In my opinion this film looks interesting, the soundtrack entices the viewer and you are lured in through the voice over to watch more. As a viewer I was immediately drawn into the action of the film, it looks like the film could be funny but also deal with serious problems.

Sweeny Todd

'Sweeny Todd' has a completely different opening sequence to the previous two films, it is more of a title sequence which is made up of graphics. 2 seconds in we are immediately introduced to a thin spindly and almost haunting text displaying the production company's name. This prepares us for the film to be of the horror genre. We are then introduced to an eerie soundtrack with a graphic master shot of rain and clouds which reinforces the horror genre by giving it a spooky effect. Through the title sequence we are introduced to the storyline and some of the location rather than the characters, this is done by showing a trickle of blood going through the machinery which turned Sweeny Todd's victims into pork pies. This blood theme on the dark background paired with the eerie soundtrack confirms our thoughts that this film will be a horror.

In my opinion this title sequence works really well and it entices the viewer to watch more as it does not give a lot away within its title sequence encouraging you to watch more and find out just how the title sequence related to the film.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

For my preliminary task I worked in a group with Alex, Lara, and Mel. I feel that we worked well as a group as we all chipped in both the filming and editing of the task and listened to one an-others input and I am definitely pleased with the outcome.

We incorporated the shots appropriate to the task, match on action and shot/reverse shot, and we also stuck to the 180 degree rule. All of our shots were done on the tripod to ensure they were as steady as possible. We used both high and low angles within the task to show dominance of one character over another and we also added in a variety of different shots like over the shoulder shots, master shots, and close ups. Our location, a classroom, was relevant to our story line of a pupil having a meeting with her teacher. Our shots were of varying distances, for example we had a close up of Mel kissing her teeth at the teacher and we had a long shot at the beginning to go with our master shot. Finally we framed the piece well as we kept constant control of the rule of thirds and made sure everything was centred, if necessary.

However there was room for improvement, during the editing we came across a large error in that the door slams twice in our finished piece, this was relatively unavoidable as we did not realise it slammed twice until the editing phase when we had to gel together the shots, in future we will have to be careful of any sounds going on around us and ensure we have plenty of takes to choose from. Another criticism is when Lara is sitting down at her desk she is sitting in front of a window which causes her face to be cast in darkness making it hard for us to see her facial expression, in future we will need to make ourselves aware of unnatural lighting or lighting that can affect out filming.

Media Studies Brief

The set brief for our video project is to create the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes. This blog will document the pre-production, production and evaluation stages of this project.