Preliminary Task

This is a short video that I have filmed and edited for my preliminary task.

The film didn't work very well because the shots didn't match up, so it didn't look as if the two characters were looking at each other. I am going to film a second preliminary which is better.

Music Choices

I'm not quite sure yet whether I am going to have music running throughout my opening or just at the end. If it is running throughout, it will have to be quite quiet and unobtrusive but If it is at the end, it can be more upbeat and obvious. I have picked four different songs which I am considering using

Filming Location

I have decided to film in my brothers bedroom because I wanted the characters room to be very messy and unorganised to reflect his personality, and I thought that it would be much better to use a natural mess rather than try and create one because it looks more authentic. I will make adjustments but I will keep the room almost exactly as it is in the pictures.

Ideas for Mise en scene and general mood

The mood of the opening will be very dark and all of the characters actions will be performed very slowly and half heartedly. The Mise En Scene needs to be quite dull and not very brightly lit, the colours will be very boring and neutral . I am considering doing my opening in black and white but I would like to highlight important objects by having them in colour, like in Sin City but I don't think I would be able to achieve this with the equipment available to me. Throughout the opening, the characters facial expression will stay almost the same, apart from when he realises that he has lost the piece of paper with the address written on it, this will show the audience that the piece of paper and the address written on it are significant to the film.

I am going to integrate my credits into the opening sequence rather than having them written in text because I think that it will be a more interesting way to do it, I took some of my inspiration for my credits from Napoleon Dynamite which we watched with Mr Cole in class.

Breakdown of shots

1. The scene will start with a front on medium shot of a boy suddenly waking up and sitting up in bed, he looks suprised and shocked, as if he has had a nightmare.

2. The music starts. Close up shot of his feet coming down onto the floor, inamongst lots of empty bottles.

3.Camera slowly moves up and stops at his face, giving the audience a close up of his profile.

4. Medium shot of him slowly getting up and reaching for a t-shirt

5. Medium shot from the front of him putting the T-shirt on, credits are written on the T-shirt.

6. Low angled shot from inside a wardrobe, character reaches in and takes out his trousers.

7. Medium shot from behind the character of him shutting wardrobe, credits are displayed on the doors of the wardrobe.

8. Close up of him tying his shoes

9. Close up of jacket on table, hand reaches in and grabs it.

10. Medium shot of him putting the jacket on and reaching into the pocket, he frantically checks all of the pockets as if looking for something, then begins to look around.

11. close up of him pulling books and papers out of his back until he finds a small scrap of paper at the bottom.

12. Close up of the piece of paper which has an address written on it, he turns it over and it has the title of the film, guilt, written on it, the piece of paper then slowly starts to burn and the music fades, there is a long transition and it slowly merges into a long shot of him walking down the road away from the camera. Fade to black.

Audience research

We interviewed a number of different people and asked them about film openings.


Questions:
1. What do you think makes a good opening?
2. What is your favourite opening?
3. Are characters important in the opening?

From my audience research, I have found that people enjoy something exciting and dramatic to happen in an opening, without giving away too much information, so I have decided that in the nightmare scene of my opening, I will use lots of close ups and there will be no shots of the characters face, so the audience are left wondering whether it's the same character that they see later on in the opening. I also found out that it's important to introduce key characters, so I will try to put across a strong sense of the characters personality throughout the opening sequence.

More Ideas

I have come up with some more ideas for my opening, as I said in my earlier post, the opening will be a nightmare that the character is having. It will start with him trying to wash blood off his hands but however hard he tries he can't get rid of it. He then looks in the mirror and in the reflection he sees the woman he killed with bruises and injurys all over her, he runs out of the bathroom and suddenly he ends up on the roof of a building and he is cornered, he hears the woman footsteps coming up the stairs towards him so he jumps from the roof and that is where he will wake up and the scene ends.

In the bathroom, I will use a white sink to symbolise innocence, which is then stained with the blood. The blood not coming off his hands represents him no being able to get rid of the guilt of killing the woman.

Fight Club

Right at the beginning of the title sequence, the music starts but is then interupted by a different very contrasting song, this could possibly represent the contrast between the two characters in the film, so right from the beginning they are setting the mood for the rest of the film. Most of the title sequence is the credits and there is images of the inside of a persons brain, this is very significant because the film is about a man with severe psycological issues. The shot eventually moves onto the barrell of a gun but this isn't clear at first because it is extremely close up, then the focus changes and you can see a man who looks quite badly beaten and very scared, the voiceover then comes in and says 'people are always asking me if i know tyler durden' this higlights him as an important character and the close up of the man and his expression accosiates the character with fear. The shot then moves to a profile shot, where you can see the man with the gun in his mouth but you can only see the hand of the man holding the gun, so there is an immediate sense of mystery created and the audience want to watch more to find out who he is. When the scene moves from inside the brain, the music stops and it is very quiet, this highlights the fact that they are alone.

The mise en scene is very dark and dismal, the character is tied to a chair and seems to be wearing only a dresssing gown, giving the impression he has been taken from his house at night.

I think that this is an effective film opening because there isn't much information given away even though it opens on a very dramatic scene so it leaves the audience hooked.