Legislation of workshop

Planning and Development: Legislation of workshop

These images below are all screenshots of our emails to teachers making sure we have our location booked so that there is no confusion, and everyone knows who is where and when.

Sourcing costume

Planning and Development: Sourcing the race suit costume

For media...

JG

Jacob Gregory

|

To:

Harry Squire;

Thu 10/12/2015 14:42

I wouldn't call it a race jacket, its more like a protective jacket and trousers but if you want to borrow them yeah that's fine 😊 how much are you paying me??

Sent from Windows Mail

Titling our film

Planning and Development: Titling our film

After coming up with a countless number of titles for our film, we have come up with the name 'Don't look back'. Amelia came up with the idea, we think it has slight implications to what the narrative of the film is without giving to much away.

Classification

Planning and Development: Classification

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) was set up in 1912 as a non-governmental body for classifying cinema films. All classification decisions are based on the BBFC's guidelines which are regularly updated based on current views on film.

We have decided that we want to make our film a 12A because we want the widest target audience as possible. Also teenagers of all ages will be at the age of aspiring to be motor-sport drivers so will be interested in watching the film. There is no reason to make our film rated 15 as it would not add anything to the film and would only make our target audience smaller.

Test shots

Planning and Development: Test shots

Shot 2
 This shot will be part of our short montage; it could also be called an establishing shot. This will be quite a long take to signify that nothing much is happening. There is the conventional iconography here of the race track and the red and white stripes which denotes that this is a serious racing circuit.

Shot 3

Unfortunately, we cannot get a test shot of the angle we will use in our film; we are planning to get a shot tracking up from the track to a LA shot of the lights. This again will be a long take as it is also signifying that there are no events on and we are trying to create a sad and emotional atmosphere. Again, we have conventional iconography here of the lights which denote the professionalism of the location.

Shot 7/8/9
This is the location where we will shoot the shots of the driver getting ready for the race. They will be short, close ups which create a frantic, fast paced atmosphere. I think this a good location as it is a simple workshop which connotes a professional place. All of these shots being CUs, there will not be much visual iconography

Shot 1/6
Not the most attractive picture! But with a bruised face, bandage and a better camera, this will look like it is set in a hospital. We have gone for hard lighting in these shots because hospitals have very hard lighting. Also this creates a serious tone to the film from the first shot which is the preferred reading of our opening.











Shot 4
Simply an establishing shot. This is one of the shots that is filmed outside so usually we would have to think of background noise from wind, but we have decided to have a soundtrack so this wont be an issue.

Shot 5
This will be a long, over the shoulder shot showing the argument between the protagonist and the girlfriend. The dark lighting represents the stress that the girlfriend is in. The reason this is being shot in a kitchen is that this is where most work is done in the house, again, representing the stress the girlfriend is going through.

During filming we found some locations that we had not realized would be available to us, one being the stands. This shot means we can get the iconography of the race suit and the track in. It fits well with our story line so we decided to add it in.

For the shot of the tire we took this as a test shot, however looking at it afterwards we thought it needed to be more of a CU so in the filming we decided to film slightly closer to the tire. The tire is an example of conventional iconography surrounding this genre of film.

Make up

Planning and Development: Make-up(Amelia wrote this post)

Another element of the opening I given to look at was the make-up of the characters. Below is what I came up with:

Girlfriend:

When deciding on the idea for the opening of the film we decided on the idea of the girlfriend having an argument with the racer. We wanted the idea of her being stressed to be showcased to the audience, from this we want them to read that she is stressed because of the dangers in his career. I will be acting the girlfriend in the film opening and her make will be messy, so her makeup will be smudged to show she's upset and her hair will be messy, we don't want her character to seem that she is too interested in her appearance at this stressful time for her.

Racer getting ready:

The character has a professional career so his hair will be neat and he will look very clean and well presented. The audience will hopefully read his character as a professional racer that is passionate about his career.

Racer in hospital:

In the opening we are aiming to hint that a crash has occurred and it could be career ending and so we have decided to film a scene in a hospital where the character will have bandages and bruises on his face. The bruises will be created with face paint, I have done a practice on my hand with the face paint to see how realistic it looks and as a group we have decided that we do want to use the face paint to create these special FX. We have also decided that the bruises will be on the actors cheekbones to signify pain and trauma.

 Below is a picture of the practice:

Storyboard

Planning and Development: Storyboard

Access to locations

Research and Planning: Access to locations

(This was written by Amelia)

When we were delegating jobs I was given the role of assessing the accessibility we have to the areas we are planning to shoot at. Below is what I concluded.


On the Track:

We are lucky to be attending a school in such a fortunate place which allows us to use the Silverstone race track for filming, however due to the popularity of the track we have only been given access to the track for one school day (9am-5pm), which means that we will need to get a lot filmed in that day for us to have choice when we are editing. This also means that we won't have access before hand to do the test shots so we will to do those on the day and constantly be checking our shots because we won't be able to re shoot if anything goes wrong.


School premises:

As we will be filming in the school for some of the scenes we will need to do some test shots and we might also need to re film some shots after if they go wrong or we need to focus more on different elements. These decisions will be made after we have filmed the shots. We will have access to film in the school from 9am until 5pm on weekdays, this allows us to take test shots before the filming days so that we can look at the options of the angles before the actual filming.

Harry's house and street:

We will be filming quite a lot in this location as we will be filming inside and outside the house, we will have access to this location after 5pm every weekday and then weekends, this is good as it allows to film at this location whenever we need to as there are any restrictions.

Risk assessment and legality

Planning and Development: Risk assessment and legality

(Dan wrote this post)

Risk	Level of risk	How to avoid it
Someone could receive an illness from the cold	Medium	Wear appropriate clothing when filming on the track
Getting hit by the car we are filming in whilst it is going round the track	Low	Be conscious of the car going round the track at all times
Our main actor could have an allergic reaction to the make-up we put on his face	Low	Make sure we plan ahead and try this out before the day of filming
Our driver could crash the car whilst filming	Low	Don’t drive too quickly
Falling over whilst carrying equipment	Medium	Be sensible

Legality

For our filming we are probably going to take most of our shots on the Silverstone track, the head of the school has arranged with the leaders of Silverstone about letting us use the track for filming so we don’t need direct permission from Silverstone themselves.

For one of our shots we will use a residential area, this will involve capturing shots of people’s housing. To ensure that they don’t think anything suspicious is going on we will inform the neighbours beforehand. 

Props, Costume, Casting and Lighting

Planning and Development: Props, Costume, Casting and Lighting

Casting

We have decided that we will cast members of our group. There are a number of reasons why we did this.

1.      People who are not in our group will be less motivated and committed to filming on weekends

2.      Also people not in our group may not be able to get out of lessons

3.      Amelia took drama at GCSE so she should be good at acting
s-   For the voice over, we will probably use Dan. We will try and find some online software or an app which changes your voice so he sounds more like an F1 commentator. This will make our film feel much more professional.

So we thought it would be a much more reliable way of doing it if we just acted it ourselves.
Out of the two male members of our team, we have chosen the taller of the two, which will represent that character as being powerful and important. 

Props

1.      Bandage- easily sourced, Amelia has this at home.

2.      Car- The car is being sourced for us by the school, unfortunately this means that we don’t know exactly what car we will be using.

Costumes

1.      Smart-casual clothing- This is for the protagonist when his girlfriend is telling him not to race, representing him as respectable. We looked into what real race drivers wear when not in a race suit and most would wear a shirt and jeans so that is what we will go for

2








  -        Scruffy casual- For the girlfriend, this will represent her as being stressed. The preferred reading here is that the audience will feel sorry for her. Amelia has track-suits and baggy clothes that she can wear.

3.      Full race suit- Protagonist on race day. Preferred reading here is that this is a serious race. We need to be careful with the CU shots of the helmet as to not get a reflection of the camera. A friend from outside the group has a race suit, so sourcing this is not an issue.

We don’t need a costume for the hospital scene because we only have an XCU of protagonists face.

Lighting

1.      We need hard, bright lighting on the protagonists face in the two hospital scenes because hospitals are generally well lit environments so it will look more realistic.

2.      When we are filming the deserted track, hopefully it will be a dull grey day, because we want this to be a sad opening, but if it is a sunny, bright day then we may have to put a dark filter on in post-production editing.

We are not filming any scenes at night, so lighting shouldn’t be too much of an issue for us.

Delegation of roles

Planning and Development: Delegation of Roles

For the next part of our project we have divided up the roles between our group. This is what each of us has been given to do...
Dan
- Health and safety
- Legality
Amelia
- Make-Up 
- Access to locations
Harry
- Mise en scene
- Casting
- Lighting
We all worked together on the test shots. 

Meeting with target audience

Planning and Development: Meeting with target audience 

After having a few ideas for our two minute introduction, our group has discussed some ideas with people who are interested in motor-sport films. Here are the main points we discussed...

- There was definitely an interest in having some dramatic event such as a crash
- This then led us on to discussing if they would enjoy an emotional motor-sport film. The response to this idea was mostly positive. 
- We discussed the pace of cuts and everyone said a mixture of slow and long takes would be most appealing
- Some kind of soundtrack was essential to keep it interesting- no conclusion was made as to whether it should be slow and sad or upbeat and happy so we will need to discuss that as a group
- The female audience definitely liked the idea of a love interest and the male audience didn't seem to mind it
- Everyone said they preferred believable films so that is definitely something we need to think about 
- Our group likes the idea of flash backs/flash forwards so we discussed this and the target audience thought it was a really good idea too

Things we should try to include following this meeting...
- A soundtrack (necessary) 
- Some kind of crash (if possible)
- A love interest (if possible)
- Flash backs/flash forwards (necessary)
- A believable narrative (necessary)

Third idea

Planning and Development: Third idea

Amelia has taken our second idea and has simplified it, I think she was worried that the last idea was too complicated.

The narrative for her idea is... 

...First we see the protagonist getting ready for a race- putting on a race suit, walking to his car, and getting in it- whilst there is the non-diagetic voice over of his girlfriend talking about an argument they had; something like “I told him I had a bad feeling”, and that she feels that everything is her fault- On screen is past tense. We then see his eyes lose focus as the race starts, the screen goes black and the name of the film fades in.

This idea may be more simple to do than the last because it doesn't involve a flashback. However, I think that there will be some problems with this idea; there is not much to fill a 2 minute clip, so the idea would need developing. Also, by simplifying the narrative, I think that the target audience would find it less exciting. 

These two ideas are good, so we are going to pitch them to a group of our target audience so we know which is best. 

Second idea

Planning and development: Second idea

Since the last idea our group had, I have been thinking of how it could be improved because I liked some of the ideas Dan came up with. The basic narrative for my idea that I have discussed with the group is it starts off with the protagonist in a hospital bed- we could do a close up of him if we cannot get a suitable location- with non-diagetic sound of voice overs of news reporters talking about a terrible crash with a sad, slow soundtrack playing in the background. 

We could then cut to the scene which Dan explained about the girlfriend saying how worried she is about him racing and them having an argument about it. Then it could fade out to an extreme close up of his eyes looking very concentrated at the start of the race but his eyes lose that concentration and there are flash-back voices in his head of the argument between him and his girlfriend. 

The race starts and we see him speed off around the corner. The screen goes blank and the title fades in.

Some problems we might encounter with this idea include the capturing of the dialogue between the two characters arguing- the cameras we may have to use do not have the best sound quality- along with this, the flash-back voices might be hard to make clear in the editing. Also some of the shots would need good acting for the audience to understand the narrative easily.

I have discussed this idea with the group and the feed-back was good, we agreed that the development from the first idea was good as it takes the problems from the first and solves them, however there are a couple of problems which are smaller that have been born with this new idea.

First idea

Planning + Developing: First idea!We briefly talked about our ideas for our two minute opening. Our first idea came from Dan; he suggested the start should be a voice over from the protagonist's girlfriend speaking of her boyfriend's passion for racing. Before a race they have an argument about how worried she is, which leads him to be distracted during the race. The opening ends with the protagonist crashing and being in a coma for 12 months. 

Unfortunately we came up with quite a few problems logistically with this idea:
- This is a lot to fit in a 2 minute opening, it could almost be a whole film on it's own!
- There is no way we are going to be able to finance the filming of a crash!
Both of these problems are pretty big so the idea is probably not going to be taken much further. However, personally I like the idea of the coma and the worried girlfriend- maybe we could fit this into another idea- I'll discuss this with the group next time we meet.

First thoughts on our project

Planning + Development: First thoughts on the project...

Before we come up with any ideas for the 2 minute opening of our film, our group thought it would be a good idea to think first, about what locations we could use and what atmosphere we would like to create. 

Location: 

There was not much thinking involved with this, as the conventional location for a motor-sport film is on a race track and we have a race track we are able to film on, but for other scenes we thought that run-down areas were quite common in the motor-sport sub-genre. 

Atmosphere

As a group we decided that in the opening 2 minutes of our film we wanted to create a sad and tense atmosphere which could include a crash. We could also do this through editing in non-diagetic sounds such as a sad sound track or diagetic sounds being emphasized such as the breathing of the protagonist to create tension.

Character

We did not have too many thoughts on the characters apart from the obvious; the protagonist being male and having lots of close-ups of him.

My group

Planning and development: My Group

Amelia Brandon: Amelia studied Drama at GCSE, this could be useful for the filming of our 2 minute scene as she would be good at acting out the scenes. 

Dan Strain: Dan on the other hand studied Media which is very useful as he is already quite comfortable with the subject and is good at recognising which shots to use at the right times. 

Me: I got an A in my Media GCSE which should mean I have good ideas for our film and can keep up with the deadlines set.

Sub-genres

Research: Sub-genres

A sub-genre is a subdivision of genre, for example, motor-sport films are a sub-genre of action adventure films because they share the same conventional iconography and themes, however have a definite style of their own.  Steve Neale explained this as 'the same but different';...
...the conventional iconography you would find in action adventure would be weapons, vehicles, explosions and dark colors. 
In motor-sport films such as 'rush' and 'need for speed', much of the iconography would be the same. However, the themes and locations may be different, for example, the theme of a motor-sport film would be about a race of some sort and usually there is a head to head race between two groups of people whereas in a conventional action adventure film the theme would usually be about one guy taking on the evil antagonist. Also, the main location for a motor-sport film would be at a race-track, and conventionally action adventure films are set in big cities where lots is going on. ...'the same but different'...

Rush

Released in 2013, Rush is a biographical sports drama film, based on the rivalry between F1 drivers James Hunt and Nicki Lauder, set in 1976. 

It took $90 million at the box office.

Narrative: The opening starts with the non-diagetic voice over which sounds like a race commentary- this is a very typical convention of motor-sport films- while the idents fade in and out over a bleak looking, cloudy sky. It cuts to an extreme close up of a male's eye- which is a shot which is common in motor-sport films as it connotes focus and concentration- looking up at the clouds and the quickly back to the clouds where the tile 'Rush' fades onto the screen. We then come to a close up of Nicki Lauder's F1 car and track up to his face when a voice over starts explaining how dangerous F1 is. 

While the voice over is on there is a montage of shots setting the scene; we see the crowds, the cars, the dark skies, and we see Nicki Lauder look over at James Hunt, who is shown to be surrounded by women and represented as a flirt and a bit of a show-off. Lauder explains that he has a rivalry with Hunt in his voice over, which, again is a conventional feature of the motor-sport sub-genre. There is some Dialogue about what tires he will race on and then it cuts a montage of flames and engines and diagetic sounds of engines starting- possibly the most conventional sound in motor-sport films- and the non-diagetic dramatic soundtrack before cutting to a high angled long shot looking down on the starting grid. 

You can see the conventional iconography of action adventure films with the bleak skies flames coming from the cars. Also quite often there is a voice-over at the beginning of action adventure films to give us an over-view of what is happening in the film. There is also the theme of the head to head rivalry between Lauder and Hunt as well as the location of the race track which clearly categorizes Rush into the sub-genre of motor-sport. 

Rush Opening 

Need for Speed

Released in 2014. Took $203 million at the box office. Starring Aaron Paul, this American action thriller sees street racer Tobey Marshall race cross-country to avenge his friends death at the hands of a rival racer.

Narrative: The film begins with a montage of establishing shots, including a rural, run-down garage and an old, dark office. There is the non-diagetic soundtrack which is quite slow and depressing, there is also, when we see the office the non-diagetic voice over who starts talking about 'this kid, Tobey Marshall'. While the voice over is going, we see the iconography of pictures on the wall of a little boy often playing with cars. There is also the iconography of model race cars and trophies. We then cut to the run-down garage where we see a group of young guys working on some a car, with some dialogue where they are engaging in 'banter'. They then get excited about something on a tablet, we then cut to the scene on the tablet, where an important looking man is on the phone. The person who he talks to describes someone as a 'red-neck' which in America is used to describe someone in a negative way.

Again, the conventional iconography of the vehicles, the male characters, the dark settings were all there but with the differences in locations; they were all rural locations and everything seemed very quiet and calm, especially with the slow, non-diagetic sound track. 

There was also the voice-over which is a conventional aspect of most action-adventure films, but again the iconography of the cars and the racing theme places Need for Speed in the motor-sport sub-genre.

Need for Speed Opening

Cars

Cars is a 2006 American animated motor-sport comedy film produced by Pixar. It took $462 million at the box office. Set in a world of only anthropomorphic vehicles it sees protagonist Lightening McQueen race two rivals in the Piston Cup, but not before being lost in a small run-down town with a lot of work to do. 

Narrative: The opening starts of pitch black with no sound or dialogue, then a voice over of Lightening McQueen begins of him talking to himself, there is no sound track at this point. It then cuts to a blurry mid-shot of cars racing past the camera, with the diagetic sounds of the engines before quickly cutting back to the blank screen with only the dialogue from the voice over, Then it cuts to a close up tracking the movement of Lightning's back wheel in a race. After a couple move of these cuts, the high energy, base guitar soundtrack cuts in and a lorry trailer opens outwards, we see Lightning's shiny body work and he slowly rolls out towards the flashing camera lights and the thousands of fans in the stands. We then see the montage of establishing shots of the race track and the posters that represent Lightning McQueen as an important character.The idents of Pixar and Walt Disney then cut in and out with the background of many different cars racing around the speedway. Before tracking Lightning passing other cars around the track.

Location: The location is a typical american speedway, which is a conventional setting for the sub-genre, the stands are full of thousands of people (or in this case cars) all taking pictures which represents the event as being important. 

Iconography: All the posters and billboards had Lightning McQueen on them which pinpoints him as the protagonist in the film. The bodywork in this film is the equivalent to the costumes of others, and Lightning's bodywork was shiny and new, we had a lot of close-ups which drew our attention to this which represents him as successful and wealthy.

Lightning's character is represented as being very confident as when he is racing he is casually rolling past the other racers, he is also, throughout the whole first 2 minutes, smiling whereas every other racer looks very concentrated and angry. This self-confidence is a conventional trait most protagonists have in the action-adventure genre but having fans and admirers is something you only really see in the motor-sport sub genre.

Cars Opening 

Looking at these openings has been useful, as when I come to film my own 2 minute opening to a motor-sport film I will understand what conventional iconography and sounds to use to make it seem professional and be understood as the specific sub-genre.

Analysis of action adventure poster

Research: Analysis of Action Adventure Poster.

SlideShare Analysis of Taken Poster

Genre presentation

Research: Genre Presentation on slide share

Genre Presentation

Genre, media hw from harrysquire

I Robot opening analysis

Research: I Robot opening analysis

Information

I Robot is an American action, sci-fi film, starring Will Smith. Released in 2004, I Robot is about what could potentially happen in the future with advancements in AI machines. It took $347.2 million at the box office. It starts with the ident of 20th century fox and MediaStream, common conventions of openings. Then the title I Robot fades in with non-diagetic dramatic music. Which dissolves into what appears to be tiny organisms that floats away. Then, in fades a law about robots titled 'law 1'. It then cuts to a short mid-shot of a car under-water and someone banging on the window. Then cuts back to 'law 2' and again cuts to two people now trying to escape from the car, then law 3, back to car and we see a robot saving the man in the car (Will Smith) before the non-diagetic sound cuts out with the picture and we cut to a close up shot of Will Smith waking up to the diagetic sound of his alarm clock- a clock is a conventional piece of iconography in action films as it connotes that the protagonist is racing against time.

Character Analysis

The opening introduces us only very briefly to three characters. The first is of a woman in the car struggling to free herself, we assume she is important as she is the first character we see. However we never see a close-up of her, which we do when we meet the second character who is Will Smith. He is seen in the car to start with and is saved by the third character (the robot), which suggests he is the main character, also this is assumed as he is the one the character cuts to after the car underwater scene. These tense action scenes in the openings which are usually flashbacks are conventional aspects on quite a few action sci-fi films as it creates fear among the audience and a sense of sympathy towards the protagonist to whom the camera usually cuts to at the end of the opening

So we don't learn much about the characters which makes them mysterious- this is a convention of openings to most films as it makes the audience want to know more.

Thinking about the different characters, settings and iconography used in different genres has been interested and will make me consider in more detail who, where and what will feature in the 2 minute opening I will soon be planning.

8 Mile opening analysis

Research: 8 Mile Opening Sequence Analysis

8 Mile is an American rap film released in 2002, starring Eminem who plays the character Jimmy "B-Rabbit". It is about a young white-rapper living in a trailer park in Detroit trying to launch a rap career.
It took almost $243 million at the box office.
The opening starts with the ident of Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment and then the title, with the non-diagetic sound of a rap song. From the black screen, the camera zooms out to an over-the-shoulder shot of Eminem looking into a mirror and jogging. The name of the actor (Eminem) comes up on screen. He then starts rapping to himself in
the mirror; there are a lot of close-ups of him. The first diagetic sound is a bang on the door to which Jimmy tells them to 'hold on a minute'.
He then throws up in the toilets and walk out of the bathrooms.

Character Analysis

Jimmy is dressed in a hoodie and baggie clothes, stereo-typically this is what a 'chav' would wear and is conventional iconography of this sub-genre of film. The first place we see him is in some grotty old toilets with the mise en scene of the cracked mirror, which are conventional features of this type of film., which suggests he is poor and a bit of a 'low-life'. We can guess that he has a big passion for rap music because of the way he is rapping to himself in the mirror and the non-diagetic music. They have put a greyish green filter on the camera to make it look dirtier and less appealing.

Setting analysis

The only setting we see in the opening is the grotty old toilets of what appears to be some kind of club as it has lots of graffiti on the walls. It is most likely in a city somewhere. The mise-en-scene includes a smashed mirror suggesting that the town or city we are in is a rough area- this assumption is made as we can tell so far what genre of film it is by the iconography and non-diagetic soundtrack and a conventional setting for this genre would be a rough area.

Shaun of the dead opening analysis

Research: Shaun of the dead opening sequence analysis.

Shaun of the Dead is a 2004 British comedy film starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. It is a 'zombie apocalypse' film where the main set of characters get trapped and surrounded by zombies in a pub.

It received $30 million at the box office.

The narrative of the opening is a montage of people acting 'zombie-like' with a fairly up-beat non-diagetic soundtrack. It then fades into a high-angled shot looking down towards a pair of feet stumbling forward in a 'zombie-like' manor, with the diagetic grunt of what is thought at first to be a zombie however the camera tracks up a man's body to a medium close- up and we see that it is just an average man yawning (This is mainly for comical effect). Then the camera cuts ta a wide shot of the same man walking into a messy living-room where there is an over-weight man playing video games. He looks like the stereo-typical 'low-life slob'. The first man then joins in without any dialog.

Character Analysis

The first main character we meet in this the opening sequence is Shaun. We know straight away he is the main character as he is the first character we get a close-up of. He is represented in a negative way; at first the audience think he is a zombie as he is walking like one and makes a grunting sound. However we know he isn't as we then see his face and he has clearly just woken up and is yawning. It is still a negative representation as this is the first thing we see in the film so we have nothing else to go on. Secondly, he walks expressionless into the next room and ignores the obvious mess and- still expressionless- joins in with a video game. This is negative because it connotes what we stereo-typically think of as a 'slob'. Most people would get up and straight away get ready for work but we assume he has nothing better to do than play video games.
The only other main character we meet is Shaun's friend, Ed; he is represented in a similar way to Shaun. He too is expressionless and just sitting their playing video games. Ed is represented as even more of a slob though because we don't even see him leave the sofa or move for that matter.

Settings Analysis

In this opening sequence there are only really two settings; there is the montage of different areas in a slightly run down area of a town, and there is the down-stairs in what appears to be a shared house.

In the montage, there are a range of wide shots which track zombie-like characters. These are here to show us that this is a fairly run-down area which is a convention of zombie-apocalypse films however not usually comedy films, there is not much going on, the colors are dull, connoting a dull area. 

Inside the house, the dull color theme continues, there are the denotations of litter and beer bottles surrounding Ed, representing the 'low-life' attitude he has through-out the film.

Titles

The titles come up at the bottom of the screen while the montage of wide shots are shown; they the idents for companies are involved such as Universal Pictures, WT Productions and Big Talk Productions. It then comes up with the title 'Shaun of the Dead'. This is conventional for all genres of film.

Finding Nemo opening

Finding Nemo Opening

Director: Andrew Stanton

Year Of Film: 2003

Opening Overview

Marlin and Coral are looking at their hundreds of eggs and light-heatedly arguing over what to call them- Marlin wants to call them Marlin and Coral Jr. but Coral likes 'Nemo'. So they decide to call one of them Nemo.  

They are messing around when they come face to face with a shark/big scary fish! Coral tries to protect the eggs so Marlin hopelessly attempts to fight off the 'big scary fish shark' and gets knocked out by it's tail. 

Marlin wakes to find Coral gone along with all but one egg. He names it Nemo.

Effective?

This is an effective opening as it makes you feel sorry for Marlin, and Nemo is already an important character in the film even though we have not yet met him. We the audience, like Marlin, want Nemo to be protected. 

This sets up the rest of the story well because when Nemo gets taken we can understand Marlin's fear of losing him. Marlin's personality comes across as caring because he wants to protect Coral. He also is a worrier because he is worried that none of his kids will like him, which  only makes us feel more sorry for him when Nemo is taken.

The non-diagetic sounds at the start of the opening are calming which relaxes the viewer, however when the 'big scary fish shark' enters, it is more panicky and builds tension. 

I thought this was a good opening because you feel sorry for the two main characters straight away and have a good understanding of why Marlin is so overprotective and very scared when Nemo is taken. So this sets the rest of the film up brilliantly. 

Evaluation of preliminary film

Preliminary: Evaluation of preliminary film

For a first time filming I think my preliminary film went well; I stuck to the 180 degree rule and used a range of camera angles, I used shot-reverse shot when the characters walked through the door and the soundtrack sounded good as a non-diagetic sound.

Unfortunately the cameras don’t pick up sound too well so I decided not to have any dialogue in there but the soundtrack worked well and I think as it got louder it built up tension.

I think what worked well was the range of camera angles used, the soundtrack and the editing with the fade in and fade out on both the video and audio- I think it made the video run more smoothly and linked the shots well.

What could have gone better is the actual filming of the shots, as the camera wobbled slightly in some shots, and without any diagetic sounds the narrative was quite vague and may not of made sense to anyone.

Preliminary film

Preliminary: