GARRY NA 1183

CLAREMONT FAN COURT SCHOOL 64680OCR MEDIA STUDIES J526B324 PRODUCTION PORTFOLIO IN MEDIA STUDIES

VIDEO BRIEF 5: A MUSIC PROMO WITH STORYBOARDVIDEO BRIEF 7: OPENING SEQUENCE FROM A NEW THRILLER WITH STORYBOARD

I worked in a group of three with Charlie Spooner and Gabriel Lindsay

I took specific responsibility for taking care of the filming equipment in scenes and featuring in one of the shots as the MI6 official

We made a thriller film opening entitled ‘Immortal Beloved’

The genre of our film is a hybrid of Thriller/mystery/spy

RESEARCH INTO SIMILAR FILMS

Insidious (James Wan 2010): I watched insidious to gain an insight on how thriller films deliver horror to the audience. I noticed that sound was the most important factor, because sudden loud noises worked best in acting as the climax of the built up suspense. A low tune followed by a woman screaming was an example of this. Although the reason for watching films like insidious would be for the thrill, the interesting storyline of the child’s father’s ability to disembark his soul from his body was effective in drawing the attention of the audience. The storyline as the move progressed however wasn’t very obvious which was similar to out film opening because we only hint about what is going to happen and not the whole story.

I also watched The butterfly effect (Eric Bress 2004) to observe how thrillers approach their audience. I thought this would be a suitable film to watch because it involves a mysterious storyline similar to our Immortal Beloved. I studied the quick yet unexpected change of events as the suspense in the film dies out and realised this could be a good technique to appeal to the audience.

RESEARCH INTO SIMILAR FILM OPENINGS

I looked at the films, Girl with the dragon tattoo (David Fincher 2011), Delicatessen (Marc Caro 1991), and Love actually (Richard Curtis 2003).

This was done on the website: www.artofthetitle.com We looked at the opening sequence to Girl with the dragon tattoo because it contained

fast transitions just like the one we wanted to use in our opening sequence during the character’s flashback. We thought the fast editing and the graphic images built up suspense, as well as the natural emerging of different objects.

The opening sequence to Delicatessen was important in giving us a insight on how panning camera shots are used in opening sequences. Although we didn’t use Delicatessen’s method of introducing the directors and such on the objects, we did use panning shots of different props as done in Delicatessen.

From Love Actually, we observed how voiceovers were used over soundtracks to make it natural and fit along with the scenes being projected. We liked how the parts of the title ‘Love Actually’ were highlighted and decided to adapt this to our title as well.

OUR TARGET AUDIENCE Target audience profile: both genders aged 18-25 years.

Reasons: it involves violence, romance, spies and adventure.

They are likely to enjoy films like: Halloween (dir. 2007)Zombieland (dir. Fleischer,2009), Shutter Island (dir. Scorcese, 2010) Inception (2010, Nolan), London Boulevard (dir. Monahan, 2011), Anuvahood (dir. Deacon, 2011), Sanctum (dir. Cameron, 2011)

They go to the cinema once or twice a month as well as see films on DVD and downloads on their computers

Audience figures show how popular the thriller /horror /action genre is. Box office returns for films similar to mine show the following figures (source Box Office Mojo): Shutter Island ($294,803,014);

THE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS USED IN OUR FILM Opening Titles Mise-en-scene (locations): All of the filming was done in

school grounds because the buildings created a very period feeling. The locations in the school includes the Drama room which involves the scene of the main character being interrogated by a MI6 official, the principle’s room which was used for an establishment shot and the panning shot, the media room which was designed to be a dressing room for one of the characters, the mansion front steps for the wedding scene, and behind the music school for the fighting scene as well as the very last shot.

Costumes: The woman in the film wears a wedding dress to hint the romance that will feature in the film. A wedding scene is filmed as well as her putting on a pearl with the dress on.

SFX: Special effects were used to accelerate and decelerate certain shots

FORMS AND CONVENTIONS (CONTINUED)

Sound: We used a spotsound of the briefcase opening and have a voiceover on the opening sequence explaining the background story of our opening.

Music: A suitable music track has been used which presents a feeling of mystery and injects nervousness.

Atmosphere SUSPENSE: Suspense builds up towards the end

when the props in the briefcase are revealed and the soundtrack is supported by instrumental sound of violins and cellos. ENIGMA

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK

We used various SNS such as facebook and twitter to deliver our project to a wide audience and gained feedback through comments and messages. Most if not all of the feedback was relatively positive and many added what part they liked or disliked throughout the opening sequence.

HOW SUCCESSFUL OUR PROJECT IS AS A FILM OPENING I think our project is very good as a film opening

because it contains numerous properties that a standard opening sequence would. For example, it has an ident of our production company which was separately designed, a voiceover which hints what the general storyline of the film will be about, numerous methods of editing, and a suitable soundtrack which builds up enigma as it continues.

HOW SUCCESSFULLY THE WHOLE PROJECT ANSWERED THE BRIEF

APPENDIX

We looked at various fonts on www.dafont.com and decided the most suitable on to use in our opening sequence

We also used websites such as www.scoopit.com so that it would be easier to gather various websites that were suggested according to our interest of thriller codes and conventions.