Further Research

As we have outlined what we wish to be in our main production, we gathered the more research we do into the subject of abductions the more information we can get out of it. Therefore, we found an interview on www.youtube.com  between a reporter and a victim of an abduction. Here is the video which we gathered a lot of information from.

Jaycee Lee Dugard was a girl who was kidnapped on her way to school and years later tells the story of how it happened, what she was feeling and what she was thinking. Because of this interview it gave my group and I a really good idea on how to show a kidnapping and as we filmed a girl (Grace Robinson) in a cellar we tried to put in some of those feelings in which Jaycee Lee Dugard felt whilst she was stuck in the nightmare that was her reality. Also Jaycee Dugard was locked in a dark shed, as no one in my group had a big enough shed to film in, we felt the next best thing was a cellar, this similarly sets a dark, damp and thrilling scene for the 'victim'.

Our Inspiration.

Films Which Inspired My Group...

My group and I drew vital information from the research we conducted as to how to replicate a conventional thriller opening. We studied everything from the fonts of the opening credits to a thriller, to the colour of the fonts, soundtrack playing in the background/foreground, and the variety of shots displayed within the first few minutes of the films. It would be inaccurate to say we were inspired by only one of the films we analysed as we emerged ideas from each of the films we studied. As an example, from the film "Memento" (the video below), we liked the transitions of the opening credits also the soundtrack playing in the background as it is quite somber, furthermore, by looking at the film posters of "Taken" and "The Butterfly Effect", my group and I thought the red and white fonts was quite striking and effective also the conventional colours of a thriller genre are reds, whites and blacks. 

Target Audience Research

When starting the planning phase of our two minute film opening, first of all my group had to research target audiences. This is the research which my group and I found when looking for possible target audiences...

 

 Film Certificates

 

Nobody younger than 12 can rent or buy a 12-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game. Films in this category may include infrequent drugs, infrequent use of strong language, brief nudity, discreet sexual activity, and moderate violence.

Films under this category can contain adult themes, hard drugs, strong language, moderate-strong violence/sex references, and mild non-detailed sex activity.

Only adults are admitted. Nobody younger than 18 can rent or buy an 18-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game, or watch a film in the cinema with this rating. Films under this category do not have limitation on the bad language that is used. Hard drugs are generally allowed, and a strong violence/sex reference along with strong sexual activity is also allowed. Scenes of strong real sex may be permitted if justified by the context.

By looking at the film certificates I feel the appropriate film certificate for our audience will be 15 as it will contain the conventions of a thriller opening, for example strong language and moderate-strong violence.

Conventions of a Thriller

The crimes that must be prevented are serial or mass murder, terrorism, assassination, or the overthrow of governments. Jeopardy and violent confrontations are standard plot elements in the genre.

Two film Adaptions

Kiss the Girl

In order to make Kiss the Girls a feasible idea we could change the fact that the main character is hiding in the loft spying on the girls in the house and replace that for a pad-locked cellar. During the night the person in hiding could pick the lock and creep upstairs to spy on the girls in their bedroom.

The shots needed to make the opening scene does not really need to be changed, as it is quite simple. The only thing I think that we may have to change is the injection. We could make it so that the girls sleep with a glass of water next to them and when the man creeps into their room he puts a dissolvable tablet in the water to drug them.

The Butterfly Effect

Another film we would have to adapt in order to make it look more believable would be to set the scene in an office at school that has slated blinds and is a dark room. The rest of the scene is fairly manageable we could write the letter which is written by Ashton Kutcher in the film and do a close up shot on the words “save her” with the people still banging on the door. Also the street that is filmed “thirteen years later” could be a street in Rainham, Gillingham for example. The ‘Mum’ can be fixing a bike or washing the car instead of fixing the car. 

My Group's Preliminary Video

This is my group's preliminary video in which we had to capture three different effects with filming. The three shots we managed to portray was a continuity shot, 180 degree rule and a shot-reverse-shot.

Initially my group filmed a entirely different video, we wanted our clip to be about a parents evening, and placed the scene near classrooms, however, one thing we failed to do was assess our surroundings, and halfway through the scene someone walked right into it. We took that as a lesson when we filmed the final preliminary task.

During the process of filming the 'Woods Scene' my group and I stumbled among a few problems, most of the problems we found a solution to, but this helped us to realise what sort of things we would have to look out for when we have to start filming our Film Opening later.  

Issues such as timing, continuity in what we were wearing, where we placed our feet in certain shots, and spacial awareness arose. It took us a few attempts to shoot the shot-reverse-shot as the space in which we were filming in was fairly cramped and Grace Robinson and Amber Shelley who were filming, was discovered later to be in the scene.  Of all of the obstacles that got in our way, I believe it was the shot reverse shot which my group and I found harder to overcome. In hindsight I realize this became something of a problem as we did not fully understand what is required for that type of shot to begin with, we did not realize the back of the shoulder had to be included which resulted in my group having to film it all over again lessons later.
On the other hand, things I thought my group and I had got right, was the setting which was appropriate with the thriller theme we initially had when planning. It would have been better if we had added tension by adding dramatic music, however, this is something which will be considered and put into practice when editing our 2 minute film opening. Also, even though it took longer than we had planned, I think we managed to successfully manage the three shots. Furthermore, editing our video at first was a bit confusing, though after a short while it seemed quite straight forward. 

Production Logo Ideas

My group and I wanted to come up with our own company production logo and these are some of the logo ideas we came up with...

Those logos are roughly how we want our logo to look like initially, they are very similar, however, they have small alterations, this is due to the fact when we came up with the first logo we wanted to add a background light and then we wanted to change the omniscience of the font as to add a bit more interest to the logo. 

The programme which we used in order to materialize our ideas was called "GIMP", we used this programme as we made this logo out side of school and were told is was the next best thing. We found difficulty in making the company production icon as it was our first time using the programme, however with a load of practice and testing out each of the functions we managed to create what we wanted. We were at a slight disadvantage not having used GIMP before, however, I think we managed to overcome our difficulties and next time we use the programme we will know exactly what to do and be much more prepared. 

Down With Love Analysis

The opening credits use bright backgrounds with pink font to display the actors and actresses names. The opening also shows gender symbols which tells us that the film is partly about the battle of the sexes. The beginning also uses shots like zoom and reverse zoom not making the opening so boring. The soundtrack playing is a duet about love, so we can draw from that the film is going to have romance in. The song finishes abruptly when the cast's names do, then we see a long distance shot of New York which zooms in whilst the narrator is speaking, giving us information about the time, date and population in America and there is a faint background music which sounds a bit feminine adding to the whole battle of the sexes theme. Following the zoom in shot of NY it cuts to a tilt movement, scanning a specific building vertically until we're looking at the entrance and there is a medium distance shot of Renee Zellweger stepping out of the building, however we cannot see her well as people are walking in front of her. Then as she walks forward she steps into a head shot. To make the point that the population in America, especially NY, is exceedingly high we see more shots of people standing about shouting "wait!" at taxis and masses of people in a rush to get somewhere. Then as she spots a taxi pull up the camera points toward it and we see Renee Zellweger walk past the camera to get in it. The comedy starts to creep into the film when there is a side shot of the actress looking at the car in amazement when numerous protesters got out with their "Down with the Bomb!" placards. To add further comedy she gets in the car and the taxi jump starts making a loud bang and the camera cuts to the protesters screaming and ducking.
This is one my favourite films of all time and just by analyzing the first few minutes I realize that the filming process is much harder than it looks. Also from the opening of this film it has given me a few more ideas on how I can make scenes more interesting by using the shots like head shot, side shot and zoom in shot when I film the final two minute opening...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVDNvRICPVY&feature=BFa&list=ULRVDNvRICPVY&lf=mfu_in_order

My Group's Film Opening Ideas

When we had to come up with ideas for the opening of our film, we knew we wanted our genre of film to be a thriller. Immediately we started to look at thrillers such as, 'Taken', 'Memento', ' The Butterfly Effect' and '21' (genre: crime) amongst others. From the film "Taken" is where we got our inspiration for the plot of our film in the end. Initially, my group and I came up with the idea a prostitute is walking along a street and we see gangs and suspicious people that adds to the whole mystery/crime genre and she gets taken. There would then be a shot of a police briefing of the prostitute's profile, and the next shot would be a flashback of the prostitute being taken, though with a few more extra shots than before. Titles would go up with thriller/suspense music playing in the background.

In order to show that the girl walking along the street is a prostitute she would be dressed in black leather knee high boots, short skirt, ripped tights, cheap fur looking coat. A film which mirrors how we would dress the prostitute would be "Pretty Woman". In addition to this, the lady would also by holding her arm out to passing cars and trying to look into them as they stop by the road.

We then after thinking of one idea we could go along with, thought of another so we at least have a couple of options to choose from. The second idea which we favoured more was the following...

Starts with a family in a park, the dad is filming his child and the rest of the family, and then when he has turned the camera to the Mum their daughter goes missing. The screen goes black and appear the words "10 years later…" Screen dissolves to black and then we should see the girl is being kept in a cellar, bruised. New information has come to light and the family’s missing daughter file has been opened up again.   This idea closely resembles the idea of "Taken" - a daughter who goes missing and the parents do not give up hope that they will be reunited with their child once more. 

Fiction Films, Genres and their Conventions.

Many films showing in the cinema today fall into the 'fiction film' category, for instance, the Twilight Sagas, Abduction and Johnny English: Reborn. The genres for fiction films range from Romantic Comedies, Dectective to plain comedies.
   For any type of film, depending on it's genre they all follow a certain convention. How To Loose A Guy In Ten Days is an example of a Rom-Com, it starts with two people decieving or hating eachother in some way, and then they get to know and understand each other and fall in love, but then there is a problem where all their secrets may come out but there is always a happy ending. If you take Failure To Launch or The Wedding Planner (all funnily enough with Matthew McConaughey in) it will take the same storyline. Here is another example of a rom-com...

   Horror films do not just follow the typical outline of the story - A hero who has to embark on a mission to find out who the villian is, why and capture them, and in the end they do so. They also follow the conventions of lighting being dim and low key, the soundtrack leading up to suspense and disturbing noises to alarm us and camera angles always being unnatural, close up, high and low angled shots. Handheld shots are very effective in the horror genre as it can confuse the audience with what they are seeing. Furthermore, visually, the colours black red  and other dark colours are used frequently.
Every single genre will ten times out of ten follow a certain pattern and does not just happen in films but novels and television programmes also.

To conclude, from the research I carried out to identify what the conventions were of certain genres, my group and I realized when we will have to think of ideas we will have to do so carefully to make sure we stay within those boundaries which make a thriller conventional. When Grace Robinson, Amber Shelley, Shannon Sutton and myself had to create a preliminary video, we knew we wanted to do a thriller, however, once we decided upon that, it became difficult to put into action. As we have now done the research required - acting as a guideline for us - hopefully we will not have the same problem we previously stumbled on.