In what ways does your film opening use, develope or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
- The first frame represents the title of our opening scene which is shown at the end of the opening scene to seperate the 2 opening minutes from the actual film which would be following.
- The second frame shows the setting we chose to film at. Even though the story is set inside the building, we chose to give an overview of the building so the viewer has a better imagination of where the story is taking part.
- The third frame shows the chosen costume and most of the used probs. We kept the costume very simple, partly because it fitted best with the characters and their role but also because it set the scene and did not destract too much from the happenings of the opening scene.
- In the fourth frame we tried to represent the camerawork and editing we used, our video however has quite a range of camera shots and angles so we thought the shot of the young boy Jack is a good represantation for our filming style. We mostly show close ups of the characters talking or filmed subjects from a closer view point instead of filming from a wider point of view to make the viewer feel like they were involved in the storyline. The editing focuses on shot-reverse-shot to make the scenes more interesting and again make the viewer feel like they are part of the plot, so that all shots are kept under a max. of 3 seconds.
- The fifth frame is an example for the font we used. We were looking for a typewriter font to fit the plot which is about a journlist researching for one of her articles. Instead of looking for computer writing or a neat typewriter font, we wanted a washed out and older looking style to fit the setting of the old house and the mysterious atmosphere.
- The genre and how the opening scene suggests it, is represented in the sixth frame. We tried to create a mystery drama so the chosen scene as the sixth frame seemed quite fitting.
- The seventh frame represents the story which is the mystery of an old house and makes the viewer question what is going on, so the scene of the houseowner holding back the journalist from entering a locked room felt like it best describes the mystery behind the old house.
- The 8th frame shows how characters are introduced which is by letting the viewer observe their behaviour and letting them follow a conversation between the characters, slowely showing characteristics and personality.
- Special effects occur in the last seconds of the opening scene and some of them are shown in the 9th frame. By overlapping the same futage and putting a green and grain filter on top we created a vintage looking scene which should look intriguing and mysterious.
(PA)
We got ten Year 12’s to come into our lesson and watch the finished cut of our video. We had written a set of 4 questions for them to answer based on their opinions of our video.
The questions we used were:
Do you understand the storyline?
8 people understood the storyline and 2 people said that they didn’t understand the storyline.
Would you want to continue watching if it were a whole film?
All ten respondents answered yes to this question.
What did you like about the film opening?
6 of our respondents said that they enjoyed our film opening because it was intriguing and made you want to find out more about what’s going to happen. A few also said that they enjoyed the mysterious feel that it has to it. 2 of our respondents also mentioned that they liked our use of different camera angles and the editing, especially at the end.
What did you dislike about the film opening?
The main thing that was said we could improve on was that our audio was quite quiet and they sometimes struggled to hear what the characters were saying. Five of our respondents said this was an issue for them and the other five said that they didn’t dislike anything.
