Progress So Far

So far we have filmed 20 seconds of our film and feel we have made good progress. We have filmed us leaving the house with a camera and a bag of things robbed from the house. We have scheduled to do more filming next week so hope to have filmed the first minute by this time leaving us one spare week for more filming and our three weeks for editing. We have also added copy right free music to our first twenty seconds, and we have also edited our film so that it flows really good. I am happy with what we have done so far and if we carry on with the progress we have made so far but still have a lot of work to do.

By Max Blanche

Location Shots

            

These are the photos of our location of our film. We have taken the pictures in the light so it can be seen clearly. We took a variety of different shots because we are still unsure on what kind of shots we are willing to do.

By Max Blanche , Michael Keenan and Louis Percival and Joel Duxbury

opening sequence to 28 weeks later

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHf6Th-E3kE

I have chosen the film 28 weeks later due to the fact that i think it posses all of the qualities to make a fantastic opening sequence for a action/horror genre. It makes you want to grab hold of and hide behind a pillow with fright, but also at the same time leaves you hanging on the edge of your seat, killing you to find out what is going to happen next! so if the film does this to you in the first 3 minutes in this case. I'm sure it will make you want to carry on and watch the rest of the film. The film is of no real relevance and comparison to the film we as a group are intending to make other than there are unknown creatures pursuing them, and that is what are intending to base our film opening about. the best thing about this opening sequence is how it leaves you hanging on a complete cliff hanger. with is also a must in our film opening.

The lighting used in this opening sequence is generally quite dark, gloomy, and low key which therefore backs up its horror genre. This also shows that the mood of the film is depressing and sad for the time being. for example right at the beginning of the sequence, and in fact all of the way through the sequence, there is no signs of electricity, but signs of electrical equipment, which means that it is following on from the previous film almost immediate, because that happened in the first film. there is also signs of side lighting of one the young men's face, which could show signs that's he is hiding something, or that he is evil, or is going to play a big part in the film.
also towards the end of the sequence when it shows outside. and it shows how bright the light is, this could mean more than one thing, it could mean that due to it being such a pure white light, that outside is where the secret lies, and where the solution to the problem lies. or it could be deceiving the people and leading them outside for the wrong reason, and due to it being a horror movie, it could be either of these two.  also the sound throughout the whole clip is none existent. there is a constant scary silence, you can just hear the clinging of all the cuttulery and dishes. this also fulfils the needs of the horror genre.

There is a specific shot from the passage that i particularly like. it is when there is like a downwards shot from the top of the stairs looking down on the people, its like they are being watched and this makes the film look even more horrorified.

so overall i feel that this is a good opening sequence to a horror movie. because it has all the key elements, and it has been useful to us in the making of our film opening.

Louis Percival

Script for film

This is the script of our film:
Mike: Come on lets go!
All: Quick quick!
Mike: Get over come on!
Louis: Go come on quick!
All: Come On!
Louis: Oh yeah!

Louis: Lets throw this bag in here.
Mike: Oh
Louis: Wow, Oh man
Mike: This doesnt look too nice does it?
Louis: Not at all
Mike: Jesus! Did Anyone see that then?
Joel: What?
Mike: Look top window!

Mike to Joel: Have a go with this Camera.


Louis: Is it open?
Door Creaks then Slams shut
Mike: We have some light, Lets see whats down here.
Louis: I'm not going down there!
Mike: Go on dont be a girl!

Joel Gets taken
Both Mike and Louis: Where's Joel?
Mike: Come on lets go!

Louis: Were going to have to go back!
Mike: Come on then lets go!

By Max Blanche and Michael Keenan

Overall story line

The film will start off in an exciting action packed manor. The actors (thugs) will come bursting out of a fire exist door to the beat of some fast music. then they will run as a group to a wall to evade the premises where they stole the goods from. Then, they will carry on the chase down a back street, only to find out they have luckily got away. then the film will move on a little. this is shown by a transition used. then the thugs are walking down a busy main road, and walk past a big old house/hotel what is up for sale, being the curious young lads they are. they taunt each other and decide to go and have a look in the house. by this time they are already using the camcorder they stole to film the experience. as they walk up to the location one of the lads see something mysterious in the top window of the building. they then look back and the thing has gone. they then decide to go on, and they make their way to the front door. luckily enough they find the door to be open, so they decide to creep in. they then make there way down the hallway looking in various rooms turning on numerous lights. then one of the lads gets dramatically unexpectedly captured. as a result of this, the other two realise that there friend has been captured they sprint out of the premises as fast as they can and then realise that they need to go back in and find him. then the open scene ends.

obviously there are other bits to the film. but that is the main part to the film.

Louis Percival

Costumes

It is essential that when we are filming our film we use the correct clothing for our actors. which have to follow a thuggish nature. because that matches the theme of the film. and you cant have a thuggish film, dressed up as opera singers, because that just wouldn't work. so the so cold thugs, will have to dress like thugs. the actors will provide the clothes we need, so the costumes have come to no expense for us. We are also making the actors dress like there certain stereotypes, so it makes the audience understand the film more easily from the beginning. also the colouring of the actors clothing is rather important as it could resemble the characters actions in the film. for example. one of our actors is wearing a different type of clothing in the film (jeans) so could this indicate that something is going to happen to this character or will he have two sides to him. So to try and en-thesise this as much as possible, this characters clothing will be a lot darker than the clothing of the others.

Louis Percival

Extra's and Props

In the making of our film, we have not really needed many props. This is due to the fact that we want the film to look as realistic and ecologically valid as possible to the lifestyle of normal people. So the only real props we have used were an extra camcorder, when doing the third person shots, as our actual camcorder we do the filming with was in use. and also a bag. for the beginning of the film to carry our stolen goods (camcorder) in. other than that, there was no other real use of props as everything else was just the natural scenery.

The location that we did all the filming in was no problem because it is the home of one of the members of our group. so the location and everything that comes with it good for us.

we didn't need the use of any extra's either in our film, due to the fact that our film doesn't consist of extra's in it. so we didn't have to worry about finding another actor in our film.

Louis Percival

What We Are Doing As A Group

Each member of our group will be playing a big part in our filming and editing of our film. For our actors we have said That myself (Michael Keenan) , Louis Percival and Joel will be acting. Our camera man will be Max Blanche and he will be doing all the camera shots from a distance and when we are doing point of view shots we will have the actors filming this. We also have an extra in our film (Jack Cunnigham) he will be playing the part of the figure seen in the window he will not have any camera shots from his point of view so he will not having anything to do with the camera or the editing side of our film. The editing in our film will be done by all of us so it will be a group effort and group decision on what we decide to do.

By Michael Keenan

Filming Scheduels

We Our going to film our film our film on Monday the 15th of February 2010. We plan to start filming earlier on in the day because we can always edit our film to make it look darker but it is hard to make it look lighter. We are going to try and film all of our steady/still shots first then our other shots with the camcorder free hand later on because the quality of them shots is not as important. We are going planning on filming all of our shots more than once so we have atleast double the shots we need incase we find something that we don't like so we can just get rid of it. We have also scheduled to do more filming on the tuesday after half term because we will have had chance to look through what we have filmed and retake shots we are not happy with. If we keep to this schedule i feel we can keep on top of our film.

By Max Blanche

Equipment/Props

Because we want our film to look realistic we will not not need many props. But we will need one extra person to appear in our film. We have found our location so that side of filming is already covered. To ensure our shots are filmed steady we will need a tripod and of course we will need a camcorder. When it comes to editing the film we will need such items as a mac we will need a mac because it has the program Imovie on.

By Max Blanche and Michael Keenan

Costumes

For our film we have to choose the correct clothing  to make sure our film looks realistic. For example the 'lads' will have to dress like 'lads' and be in like joggers and a hoody as this agrees to ideology, which is what we are trying to do so people will see them as maybe 'young thugs'. They will have to wear distinctively different clothing so the audience will be able to see which character is which. Also the thing that will be stood in the window just needs to be in black and covered so none of their face can be seen on the camera. due to us filming in the dark we will have to have the actors in lightish clothes so they can be easily seen by the viewers. We have decided to have two out of the three lads will be in light clothing and one o them will be in dark clothing as the one in dark clothing will be the one who the spooky things happen to so the dark colours resemble this.

By Michael Keenan and Max Blanche

Storyboards

By Max Blanche

Synopsis of the film sequence

For our film we have decided that it’s going to be a film with the genre of a supernatural thriller. We have chosen this type of film as it is the choice that the group finally made the decision to choose this genre. Also this genre is a good choice for us as we have found the ideal location for this. The main characters are myself (Michael Keenan), Louis Percival and Joel Duxbury. All three of us are going to take part in the filming and editing of the film as well as Max Blanche who will do the main part of the filming as the actors are in the shot. Our film is going to be about three 'lads' who are seen running out of a house with a bag and find a camcorder in the bag and start recording themselves as they walk towards an abandoned house and they think it would be fun to go into the house. As they are walking towards the house a number of things happen which scare the 'lads' for example one of the 'lads' looks up to one of the windows in the house and it sees a person in the window and tells the others of what he has seen but they don’t believe him. Then as the 'lads' walk towards the front door they see someone or something run across the hall way, this frightens the boys. Upon entering the house two of the boys realize that one of them are missing and white noise comes on the camera and they run out of the house. a shot of the boys on the car park leaves them thinking about going back in for their friend and are wondering what has happened to him they both decide that the best thing for them to do is to go back in and the last shot is of white noise and its slowly disappears of the screen and shows the two boys stepping foot into the house again and then that finishes our opening sequence.

By Michael Keenan

Questionnaire

To establish our target audience we have produced a questionaire. We have decided to ask random people to answer our questionaire to help us with our film. We asked some simple questions like Gender so we could establish the differnce in film choice between the sex's. But we also asked some questions that will help us choose our genre by asking questions like what is your favourite genre.

Here is a copy of our questionaire:

Questionnaire

How old are you?

 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 What gender are you?

 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

  What is your favorite genre of film?

 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 What do you look for in a opening sequence?

 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 Do you prefer American Films or British Films?

 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 How many times a year do you go to the cinema? 

 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 Do you like being scared? 

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 Do you like films that don’t follow the classical narrative system? And why if so?

 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 Which is your favorite film and why?

 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

By Max and Louis

Opening sequence-Halloween 2

An opening sequence is a crucial part of any film. It must set the tone of the film, whilst setting a scene and still managing to keep the viewer watching. Halloween 2 is a 1981 horror film and the second installment in the Halloween series. Halloween 2, directed by Rick Rosenthal and written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill is gripping directly from the opening series, sending viewers into a sense of panic due to the eery theme tune associated with the halloween series. Halloween 2 starts directly where Halloween left off. This breaking the classical narrative due to the fact, place and time needs not to be explained to viewers. The opening sequence begins with many enigmas, hooking the audience in and not letting go, this is done by using the dark, low key lighting leaving us in suspense of who the attacker who can be seen lurking in the shadows is. This used effectively to show the sense of danger in the house. The lighting used in this opening sequence is the most powerful way for the audience to grasp what genre the film is (if the viewer has not already grasped this by watching Halloween). Halloween 2 is known for its opening sequence in the horror genre, mainly because it explodes into action right from the go. This is admired for it technique of building so much suspense in such a little time.

By Joel Duxbury

Opening Sequences

The opening sequence that i have decided to do is the opening sequence of the film 'The Ring'. I have chosen this film as it is a very similar film to which we are wanting to produce an opening sequence for. The Ring is a good example of this type of genre (horror/action) it seduces the viewers into the film and also makes them jump which makes the viewers, off the opening sequence, wish to carry on and watch the film so they can find out what happens at the end of the film. Also what i like about the opening sequence of this film is that it leaves it on a cliff hanger which gets the viewers on edge wondering about what’s going to happen.


The lighting which is used a lot in this opening sequence is mainly low key lighting which sets the mood of the film and also the sounds that are used in the opening sequence is perfect for the type of film it is as we always associate films of this genre to have a sound as it does as it is a very slow tempo and low volume but gets louder when something is about to happen which, along with the lighting, sets the mood of the film and builds up the tension of the film ready to frighten the audience. The setting that is used is in a modern house with it all white but with the low key lighting that is used it makes the rooms seem very dull and has the house all one colour.


The main character in the opening sequence is a girl and this is because girls are deemed as vulnerable to others and are supposedly more scared according to ideology, also in this opening sequence when they aren’t playing anything in the background there is the heavy breathing of the girl and the noise of the television this causes suspense for the viewers as it a thrilling sound which makes the viewers tense up as they are waiting for something to happen. Another sound which happens at the end of the opening sequence where it zooms in on the girls face and her face changes and then suddenly just zooms into the television screen where the screen is all fuzzy and has that sound which sends a shiver down the viewers spine this causes a thrill and a great cliff hanger ending leaving a lot of questions to be answered to the viewers.


The thing i like most about this opening sequence is how it leads you into suspense and also wondering what is going to happen during the film and why the television was fuzzy downstairs and also upstairs and why her face changed, also the viewers want to watch it to see where a bout’s the girl is that she is shouting. All these are unanswered questions which the viewers want to know which is why its such a good opening sequence as it is near enough making them watch the rest of the film as they want to know what is going to happen and how it ends.

By Michael Keenan

Opening Sequences

For my Opening Sequence i have decided to pick the Film Dawn of the dead. I have decided to do this film as it is of similar genre to us. Both films are horror films. I like how Dawn of the dead is made because it is very 'jumpy' and scares the audience. I also like how the film makes it look like what is happening is real as it shows news clips reporting on what is happening. I also like the camera angle that is used when following the car because it shows you what the driver of the car can see so it uses a point of view shot.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr57GJgGxjQ

In this clip it shows a Nurse coming home from work, when she gets home everything is normal. But in the morning her daughter comes in covered in blood, this would confuse the audience because no one knows why she is covered in blood this would also keep the audience wanting to find out more. But you soon come to the conclusion she must have been bitten by a zombie. She then bites her dad who also turns into a zombie, blood and special effects make this scene very gory to scare the audience. Because so many people are ringing the police the lines are jammed this adds to the suspense for the audience. Then she gets out the house and there is a state of panic because people are running around and being chased by zombie's this would add tension and creates suspense because you don’t know who survives and who dies. The Main Character then gets into her car because her husband tries to kill her would add to the fear in the audience. She is then driving through a Town when a car crashes and explodes this is good use of special effects. She then tries to get her car stolen of her but she drives of but crashes whilst doing this. It shows her crash and then that it is for the opening. I personally feel it is a really good opening sequence because it contains lots of action and makes you want to carry on watching even though it is scary.

The lighting in this scene is very natural but in some scenes like when the daughter is in the hallway it uses low key lighting. There is some music when the Main character leaves the hospital to add tension because the audience thinks there maybe a zombie in the back of a ambulance but it is not and the music is just there to scare you. When the main Character turns her radio on the song have a nice day comes on which is using black humor because she gets attacked by zombies. There is also a element of irony when she says "see you tomorrow" to the girl because she doesn't. There is also music when the girl comes in the room and the door opens this adds tension and fear in the audience. When she steps through the door there is a loud noise to scare the audience and the loud music carries on until she is thrown out the room. When her husband comes to attack her the music is really fast to add to the tension. To create drama at one point the music goes silent and then the man comes through the door. This is really good at scaring you. I personally feel that the opening sequence is very typical of a horror film because it keeps you wanting more and is very scary. Overall i think that it is a really good opening scene and makes you want to carry on watching which is the main thing that a Opening sequence can do.
By Max Blanche