Opening Sequences

Opening Sequences

To try and understand an opening sequence I have looked at a range of different ones with different genres and styles to allow us to understand how different themes are done.

1. Dinner for Schmucks

2. Coraline 

3. Catch me if you can

Main Task

The Brief

"Film the opening sequence of a new fiction film, including titles, and a soundtrack that lasts approximately 2 minutes long."

There is 5 different things that I have to think about when doing the main task which are highlighted above as opening sequence, new fiction film, titles, soundtrack and 2 minutes long. To understand the brief completely I will find out what each of the main parts of the brief mean. This is explained below.

Opening sequence

• Introduces a style and theme of a film
• Includes a soundtrack
• Includes titles that are usually incorporated in the theme which include the actors names
• Establishes the scene of the film
• Has a colour scheme

New fiction film

• Has to be a new fiction film, with this theme to make it believable. A Fictional film is a film that tells a fictional or fictionalized story, event or narrative. In this style of film, believable narratives and characters help convince the audience that the unfoldingfiction is real.

Titles

• Name of the film
• Character and actor/actress names
• Order of importance, directors name usually last
• Font and size need to be thought about due to the different characters

Soundtrack

• Dialogue
• Background music
• Special Effects
• Forms of digetic and non-digetic sounds
• Foley sounds

2 minutes

• Needs to be at most 2 minutes long which is an appropriate length for a opening sequence,

Next, I will look at a range of opening sequence to get a greater understand of what it looks like and how I could attempt to do one by seeing how many scenes have been done, titles and how they fit into the scene but also how different sequences show the theme and style.

Preliminary Task- Final Piece

From the brief of putting in match on action, shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule I think we did achieve this as the match on action happened when opening the door, 180 degree rule when the characters were talking to show they were opposite eachother and the shot reverse shot to show the shot from each others point of view and to show who they were talking to. As we have done this it meets the brief of a character opening a door, walking across a room and exchanging dialogue with another character.

This was our first attempt of doing the brief because this was done on a phone rather than a camera it was harder to edit as the footage doesn't fill up the whole screen. Here is the video:

This was my second preliminary task piece that we took a range of different shots from the storyboard that we created on the last post to edit together. This was done on a camera which I think still meets the brief of the task well. Here is the video:

We tried to edit this piece aswell as we can to make it flow well but some of the editing didn't work aswell for example at 0.13 but I think it is because of the way that we filmed it and the position of the camera.

Preliminary Task

The brief for our preliminary task was:

"continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room, sitting down in a chair opposite another character, which who she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule."

This was the storyboard that we had planned for our preliminary task to look like:

This task was done to help us to use different shots which include the ones above, to help our understanding of how to edit our own clip. There is a range of important factors that I need to include in the task which are match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule which I will research to know exactly what I need to include.

Match on action: this editing technique helps to show a continuity in a scene to show a sense of the same action making the scene look more natural and flow together. For example, the image below shows a range of shots linking to the same object which show the audience that the person wants to go into the door which is shown by a view of the room, followed by a close up of the handly, then opening it from the outside suggesting it is from the same scene.

Shot/Reverse Shot: a shot that views  the action from the opposite side of the previous shot, as during a conversation between two actors, giving the effect of looking from one actor to the other. The image below shows it from two characters perspectives by showing the audience what they are looking at.

180 degree rule: this show refers to characters in a scene to have a left/right relationship with each other whilst the camera is only filming in a 180 degree rule. This helps to show the location and and position of the characters as it mainly shows people in front of each other rather than side by side. Here is a diagram  below:

Next we need to start to film our preliminary task by using each of these techniques that I have explained above, this research will help to know what I have to do and how to use them correct to achieve the brief of the task.

Editing: Ronin - First Car Chase

When we learnt about editing, we then watched a video clip which we saw how the editing was used in the scene and what it was used for. The clip we looked at was Ronin: First Car Chase Scene.

As we have started looking at editing, we watched an example and analysed how editing was used in a video clip and therefore what the effects were:

• A slow pace highlights the importance of the case and also what is inside, it also creates a sense of secrecy and subtly as no one knows exactly what is happening, as the camera constantly switches backto the man it shows that there is a plan and the enemies will be defeated, which also helps to calm down the intensity and will give the audience a sense of relief.

• A slow cutting rate was used during the car chase which helped to build up tension and also anticipation about what might happen and how the chase will turn out.
• A reaction shot helps to show the audience the characters different perspectives but also to show different view points and feelings within the scene, e.g. shows excitement during the car chases, it is fast pace highlighting the adrenaline being created

• A matched cut was also used, it showed the relationship between specific characters, highlighting to the audience which characters were enemies with each other, but also which characters were in alliance with each other.

• Buffer's were used links characters together and with the use of a jump cut it further develops the audiences understanding as to which characters are communicating with each other.

• A motivated cut shows the man tracking the enemy cars and also shows that the characters are being closely watched, the motivated cut helps the audience to see what the characters have seen and adds to the drama of the scene. Another motivated cut is used when the character realises that the brief cases have been switched, helping to imply to the audience that it is too late and that the characters have been caught.

• A close up is also used on the food before the cars crash into the tables, it shows threat and danger as you know that something is about to happen and the fact that there is people walking past and around the food, worsens the danger and builds up tension as to whether or not innocent people will get hurt.

• Pauses are used in the scene which help to calm down the intensity of the scene and gives the audience time to relax and recover before the action starts again.

here is the video that we analysed: