Three Potential Images for our Opening Sequence

This first picture shows the picture of the scary woods we could use for where the two guys say to the two girls to meet up but however get lost in it and unfortunately die in it. The spooky and intertwining branches show all in night time all the images and shadows it can pull, so they could possibly show ghosts, animals or humans from the weaving of the bushes. This woods can furthermore be used as camouflaging as there are so many branches and the colours are very neutral, showing that people could hide very well in these woods, but while hiding they can be watching people without them knowing. Evidently, the picture shows two paths that split from one big one. This can show which way to go and the directions but it can be spooky because if people step on the paths their footsteps can be seen so the characters would know which way people have gone.

This second image shows the path/road just before the woods. The trees at the side make this picture effective as they have been split up showing to the two girls that this is the way we get to the woods. This image makes us feel quite intimidated as it looks like an innocent woods with houses at the side showing its very suburban and friendly but actually it isn't as it witnesses murders and deaths. The fact that the path in the middle of bare trees shows it to very bleak but very welcoming, but you can imagine at night time in the cold where you can only hear the squeaking of the branches moving and the rustling of the leaves, it makes you feel like your not alone.

My third and final image shows the path next to the forest and next to the houses in the background. This icy cold setting is effective as the colours on the leaves symbolise a theme of death as the colours are bleak and this white ice colour is the same colour of someone when they have passed away. The bushes on the right show it to be very covered up with ice indicating that the bushes could be hiding something as all the spider webs and ice over the leaves are intertwining with each other. The track could show two images, one where it is leading into darkness where no one could see you. However, the houses in the distance of the track could show that there is a light at the end of the tunnel showing that there is safety close by; therefore showing that they can see you but they cant hear your screams.

The Titles in an Opening Sequence

Plot Synopsis

Our opening sequence is based on the genre of 'Horror'.
It is about two girls (Me & Demi) who are going to meet up with two boys on a double date. However, Demi met this boy on Facebook so she has never met the guy before. So they organise to meet up by getting each others numbers and texting each other. His name is John, and he lures the two girls into the woods to meet him. When they reach the forest, they cant find them and get it lost, so they split up but then Megan heres a scream in the background so she runs. But then gets captured by the killer and John Slasher kills them both. The text messages before are very significant, as they show the mood swings he has and how he reacts to Demi in these text messages. They sum up the whole meaning of the opening sequence, is to be careful on the internet and only talk to people you know.

Initial Ideas for our Horror Opening Sequence

These are our initial ideas for our horror opening sequence. They show the audience what type of film we are going to be showing, the whole plot of the whole opening sequence, what we are gonna do to it to make it very eye catching and we described hwo we want the audience to feel when they watch our opening sequence which is to feel tense and want to know what happens next. We all have a visual idea in mind of the whole plot and what we are going to do for this opening sequence and we feel positive with the ideas and creating it.

Audience Research 2 - Analysis through Pie Charts

These pie charts help me and my group understand what different people think about horror films. It gives a broader mind about what people expect to see in for example the title sequence or how they like a horror film to start off and end. We first of all got this data from our questionnaires that we gave out to 15 people, and it was a mix of different people. As you can see in the first pie chart the participants have mixed views and the chart has balanced out quite equally, whereas in the second pie chart (on the right) a lot more people like horror films than people who don't so it shows that a horror film is a popular film to do and most people like it. Going on to the third pie chart you can see that most people while watching horror films prefer the film to start off peaceful and then get into to the horror rather than watching it all frightening the whole way through. Lastly, on our last chart its quite balanced, as nearly half amount of people like either the titles to be in a 'bloody' effect or a 'scratched off' effect.

Audience Research - Vox Pops

 This is my group's(Me, Demi & Charlie) vox pops, which shows what our potential audience thought about horror films, what they expect to see in horror films and cliffhangers. As you can see their are a mixture of views on horror films. We asked different questions to do with horror films which were "Do you like horror films? and if so why?" , "What do you most expect when watching a horror film?" and "Do you a cliffhanger at the end of a film? if so why?" These three questions are all quite different and all relate to horror films and helps the audience not repeat themselves. All the answers we got back from the participants helped us decide the typical horror film and what they expect to see in them which makes them more viewable. Furthermore we got different views from different types of people meaning people who don't really like horror films to people who find them more interesting, but they all each their on own opinion on the type of film, which allowed us to understand what we need to put in our opening sequence. These opinions influenced our opening sequence as it allowed our group to understand what we had to do to effect the audience like this, and it has given us ideas how to make the audience feel uncomfortable and scared when watching it. Their thoughts and opinions count on our work as they are the people watching and judging what they see, and if it's scary they know its a horror film.

Conventions of Horror film

Conventions of a Horror Movie on Prezi

Genre 2 - Opening sequence to The Exorcism of Emily Rose

Genre 1 - The Strangers Opening Sequence

Conventions of an opening sequence

Analysing the opening sequence of The Spiderwick Chronicles

Analysing the Opening Sequence of Bridget Jones' Diary

Bridget Jones Analysing on Prezi

Wallander 'Firewall' December 7th

Wallander 'Firewall' (December 7th) from megelle15

Analysing the opening sequence of 'Brick'

This first image is a wide shot, and its one of the first shots in the movie. It evidently shows what has happened in this opening sequence. The colours are go from very light down to very dark showing how the mood has changed from the sunlight making it a bright happy place to a dark sewage tunnel where death has happened. How this scene has been arranged shows that the guy bending down has got something to do with her death, and the fact that hes just looking and watching her shows his state of shock. You dont see either his face or hers, as the have both been turned away and its at an angle where you cant see their faces. His hands are in his face and mouth showing that he is in such shock he cant speak, so hes consequently moved his hands there to show hes afraid. In this shot, you do identifiy what each character is wearing, which allows the audience to know what she was wearing when she died and what he was wearing when he was there.

This next image shows an image of a girl dead on the sewer floor, but this girl has her face covered by her hair which identifies what features she has to her. It shows she has blonde hair as well as a white cardigan/jumper. This consequently shows the audience the type of character she is, and also lets the audience know. But they do not know fully who she is as her face is covered by her hair, which tells the audience that the director does not want the audience to know who she is in the opening sequence. This could make it more mysterious for the audience because they would want to know who she is and the fact the director isnt letting them know shows that actually the audience do not know the real identity of this character even though we see some of her features. The colours the director has used are very dark, showing the theme and atmosphere within this opening sequence and the colours really match how pale her skin is, meaning the character and setting all fit together.

This image shows a completely different scene to the one above as the colours used are lighter, which shows its a brighter setting and different atmosphere. It makes the audience more calm but however very puzzled as we still don't know who's arm this is, but the cardigan is very familiar to the cardigan in the image. This consequently shows that these two people could be the same however in this image it shows how much maturity this girl has and how old she is by the bright blue bracelets. It also gets the audience answering the question, why is she putting a piece of paper in this locker? This shot is a close up of her hand, showing the bracelets she's wearing and showing part of the item of clothing she is wearing. Also its shows the background of where this happening, which tells the audience one thing that they are in school. In comparison to the first picture the pace of the shot seemed much slower as death had happened, whereas this scene seems to have increased in pace, as there is much more going on in the scene.

This picture is a wide tile shot showing where the scene is being set and showing the full length camera shot of this male character. It shows us that this character is very similar to the character in the first shot as they are wearing the same items of clothing. As he is turning around, it makes the audience feel as if this character is being watched by that person who put the note in the locker, but he cant see this person as its from such a far shot. However, the shot could be showing him turning around as he's looking for the person who put this note in his locker, and that he's looking but he cant find the person as there is no one around in the scene; in fact the school looks very deserted. In this scene before this one, the bell goes on from the before scene to this scene, which is called a sound bridge as the sounds transfer over from one to another.

Analysing the opening sequence of Memento.

The Sixth Sense Analysing Shots.

This beginning shot shows the title, and the type of font that is being used which is serif writing, meaning bold capital writing with that edge to it. This beginning title sequence uses a blue/white colour showing it to be very mysterious and stand out, also it uses colours that could represent the colour of ghost as the film is about ghosts. However if the audience do not know that, they could think it to be very eery as well as the colours but consequently it uses a sting in the music, which makes it rememberable to the audience. Also, it gets the audience feel very uneasy as thats only the title, showing their is more to come..As an effect the director as used sped the pace and music up with this section, so the title comes very quickly and not as slow as the others, also finishing it by panning it out. That could evidently show it to be 'ghost-like' as its dissappearing quickly like a ghost.

This next image is very puzzling at first as you dont know what it is, however even if you dont know what it is, it looks very eery as its full of darkness and you dont know what this bright image is but however it does get the audience engaged as they try to figure out what it is. When i first saw this i didnt know what it was but it did make me feel very nervous. As the scene goes on you seem to see a light bulb reappearing, however its not really covered with for example a chandelier, its very isolated showing that where this is lighting up could be isolated as well. This shot at the beginning is a close up emphasising where this is light bulb is and that this room could be very important to the film, meaning showing what type of room it is to start off the movie.

This is shot straight after the unknown image at the start, showing therefore its a bright light bulb. This image of the light is very dusty and seems very old and desserted which shows the audience what type of room we are in. It also shows that this is the only light in the room, emphasising that this room is very dark, possibly underground. When this light is full to the max, you hear a diagetic sound of door opening but you dont know who it is, as its happening on this shot. This could make the audience uncomfortable as they are not sure whos walking into this room, whether it be a villain or good person, therefore creating tension in this beginning scene. Furthermore, the door is very creaky which is very typical in a horror film, so it therefore brings up the atmosphere in this scene.

This next image shows the person who has walked in. However, the camera is at a view from behind the wine cabinet, which could possibly show that someone is watching her or someone is in hiding but she cant see it however from her facial expressions she can feel someone there as she stops immidiatley. You can see from the cabinet and the wine in on each shelve that its very old and dusty showing the room to be very deserted, also which links to the colours around her as they are very dark colours, in contrast to her dress which is very bright colours. As this room is so desserted it shows the lighting to be a very low light, showing how old this room is. It gives a very cold atmosphere.

This image shows what type of character she is, meaning what shes wearing and how she looks. So for example shes wearing very bright colours on her dress, shes got her hair up, shes got makeup on and shes wearing heels therefore showing that shes going out, no one would really wear all of that to go to a wine cellar. This image would make the audience feel very uncomfortable as shes right at the end of the full length shot but looking into the opposite direction showing that someone or something should be in that shot on the other side, as it startles her. This could let the audience understand straight away the type of movie its going to be as its used very ghost like features within the film right from the beginning. Also the use of her shadow is effective as the light is on her side and on her, whereas opposite her where she is looking, there is nothing there. This emphasises the different types of light and colours the directors has used in contrast to each other.

This last image of the scene changes position from when the camera was at the wine cellar. It shows that this person or thing watching her has moved from where it was before, therefore showing that this thing has been watching her and has been moving around. From this shot you can see the whole of the wine cellar and see it to be very a dark and damp room, also very echoey as you can hear her footsteps as well as her shivering. At the side of the shot you can see her quickly running out of the room, showing that something has scared as she is leaving in such a hurried manor which makes the audience very uncomfortable watching it. From this specific shot it makes her vunerable as this thing or person thats been watching her has seen her and knows officially what she looks like, and the fact that she cant see it shows that from her hurried manor she doesnt know what to do. This whole beginning clip shows that shes really not meant to be here, it shows its not her repsonsibility to go down into an old wine cellar, where the room is very isolated and very echoey making it very nervous, so hes swapped over roles and responsibilities.

Brief

Our Foundation Portfolio

So for our foundation portfolio, we are going to make an opening sequence of a fiction film with any theme to it for example thriller, romance etc. Our opening sequence needs to consist of- Two company logos- one is a distributor logo & the other is a production company logo which can be a made up logo, titles, the sequence has to last of 2 minutes. All video and audio material must be original with exception of music ( or you could create it yourself ) or audio effects which can be from a copyright free source. I will be working with Demi and Charlie to create our 2 minute opening sequence.

Comparing a Trailer & An Opening Sequence

Example of Trailer:
A trailer is a video that encourages people to watch this new film coming out. However, a trailer only shows the most important scenes and the ones that seem more intriguing than others, which help get people to watch it at the cinemas. It also shows the whole plot of the story and what's going to happen throughout, so in this film Wild Child it shows all the characters and all their personalities for example Poppy Moore is shown to be a bit of a spoilt brat who gets everything whereas the head of the Boarding School (Natasha Richardson) is shown to be a kind but strict character and would not tolerate Poppy's attitude to her new school. I've noticed in this film trailer that you get told who the main character is but you don't get told the story therefore the director is getting you to figure out what the main plot of the film is and what you think is going to happen; however it does give you clues.
 Example of Opening Sequence:
 An opening sequence is the beginning of a film, and only the beginning. There is no footage of any of the other parts of the film, in an opening sequence. The music in it helps provide the atmosphere and tension in the first section, for example in The Dark Night the music is a very low pitch which allows the audience to understand the theme and atmosphere and action that's going to happen in the rest of the film. Also it shows only some of the characters, not all of them so in The Dark Night only the villains are shown at the beginning.  However, you notice in this opening sequence it has not introduced us to the main character Batman/Bruce Wayne which is interesting as you can understand that the director wants you to understand who the enemies are and what they look like, but as you can hear them talking right at the beginning you don't know who The Joker is, until the end part. These questions build up interest in the audience as they want to know who the joker is, why are they all wearing masks, and why he is robbing this bank?

Donnie darko.