Evaluation

Final Piece

Editing

We decided to put our credits over the home video at the end and just have them appear on screen in random places. We tried to get them appearing all over the screen but i only managed to get them to appear at the bottem like a subtitle but all together i think it looked very good. At the end of the opening sequence we had the title 'Charlie's Story' appear over a black screen which finished it off nicely.

Editing

At the end we wanted to put an effect on to make it look as if it was a home video. We originally wanted to put a recording screen over the top of the footage to make it look as if it was recording but on iMovie there was a very good aged film effect which we both liked and so decided to put that over it instead and personally i think it looks more effective.

Sound and Music

We decided to have a sad sound track playing over alot of our opening sequence to set the mood and so that it wasnt silent the whole time. Ashley was incharge of sorting out the sound track and she did very well as it fits our story perfectly.
We also put a voice over part of it to move the narrative alot and to creat enigma. I recorded this voice clip on Garage Band. It was quite easy to but we had to redo it a couple of times if one of us want happy with it. When it was finished it sounded very good as it had lots of emotion and the pauses between each sentence was spot on.

Editing

After everything was in the right order we wanted to add transactions between cuts eg. fades and wipes. This again was easier then i imagined as all we had to do was drag which ever transaction we wanted into where we wanted it in the time line. These made a big difference to our flash back as it made it more obvious and more interesting for the audience.

Show Case

This was our first working model of our opening sequence. We still had a lot of work to do before our film was finished but this gave everyone a rough idea of how our film was going to look. We showed this to the class to get some audience feed back to our work. The feed back we got back was very helpfull and gave a few ideas to make sure our film was the best we could make it. From doing this it made us realise how much work we needed to do to make sure the narritve was clear and to make it look like an actual opening sequence. Because i know what the film is about i understand it but as we found out from our audiences replies, it was not made clear enough. Also we need to add a voice over which helps explain the narrative, a sound track to set the mood of the film and a flash back which she has every morning of the night when Charlie dies.

Problems During Filming

We had started our filming with Harriot and James as the main characters. But when we next planned to film our media work James was very ill and was unable to come and film so we had to completely change our film from being a story of a wife who'd lost their husband, we made it a sister who had lost their big sister. This did not make many changed to our film apart from the dialogue had to me different and also the voice over. Once we had filmed our new footage we realised the lighting was better then our old fottage anyway so overall it was probably a good thing that this happed now rather then when we were nearly finished.

Editing

Apart from the preliminary exercise i had never used iMovie or any other editing station before so at first i was very slow. We did get shown how to edit our footage but we got shown how to on Final Cut but because of lack of equipment at school, we were unable to use this. After i was shown how to cut parts of the footage out and move them around it was very easy so i was able to get a rough idea of the order i wanted the clips in.

Problems During Filming

We filmed most of footage but when we uploaded it onto the computer so we could edit it, the lighting was very dark and we could not use this. We also had a bit of trouble at the beginning of the with our group as we split off into a different group which has made us rushed for time. We are planning to film all of our footage this weekend so we will be ready to edit next week and will have out opening sequence done for the dealine.

Context

Our film is about a girl whos sister was murderd and taken from her but she still wakes up everyday imagining her there. She remebers the night it happened every day and she is looking to find the reason in which she was killed. She is determinded to find the killer of her sister and find out the reasons for doing it.

Response to Idea

I really like our idea of an opening sequence of a film. I think that its believable as an opening sequence and i can imaging the film being real. I have liked the idea right the way through and with both of our ideas we have produced a very good opening sequence. I think it was a good target audience to pick as it is aimed at people our age so we knew what we would like to see in a film. Also, both of us are interested in these sort of films anyway so it made it more enjoyable to create and make it.

Inspiration

Our main inspiration for our opening sequence was 'P.S. I Love You' as in that film the woman looses her husband but still imagines him with her and we got that idea from that film.We chose this film for our inspiration as it is a very good film and the target audience is the same as ours and also a similar genre. The story line of our film is completely different and it is less of a romantic and more of a drama but still a tear jerker film.

Initial Idea for Group

My first idea for out opening sequence was to do a chick-flick with 4 completely different girls who all get put together for an assignment at school. i really liked this idea but when it came to it, it wouldn't have worked as there were only two of us in our group and we would have had to rely on so many people to get it done and we didn't want to risk it.

Then we came up with the idea of doing a sad film. We had the idea of doing a boyfriend and girlfriend or husband and wife laying together in bed but the audience would not no the boyfriend/husband was dead and it was just the girl imagining him there in her hear every morning. But due to certain circumstances we had to change this idea to having a girl who lost her sister.

How Planned Opening Fits With Research

We looked at alot of opening sequences to try and get a bit more information about the codes and conventions. We noticed that almost all of the opening sequences start with and establishing shot that either pans or zooms. We also started our opening sequence of a pan of the charater Lucy's room as this is where the film starts. Also, they normally start with a sound strack or song over the top to give the audience an idea of the mood of the film. Again, we chose to put a classical sad soundtrack over our opening sequence to make the audience wonder why the character is sad which makes them want to watch on. The flash back in our story makes the narrative more exciting as it is not the classical way to start a film but this makes our opeining sequence more interesting. The main way our opening sequence fits with others is having a voice over, this gives the audience all the information they need to know and gets them more intersted into the film.

Opening Sequence

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGBDfp-0AQE

Wedding Crashers

The film starts as with a voice over of a couple arguing. This sets the scene as when you see Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn you can see that they are trying to sort out a divorce. Both the main characters look bored as if they heard this every day which makes it look like they don't enjoy there job. The couple keep arguing as the camera cuts to a mid shot of the woman (wife) as she says "I hate you!" this is to show the anger in her face and then again the camera cuts onto the man (husband) who also looks angry but more laid back. The camera angles are mainly mid shots and the pace is quite slow as there aren't many cuts. Having the shouting makes the pace seem faster. Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn are obviously the main characters and as they are trying to sort out the divorce they start talking about the wedding. This part is where it classifies the genre as a comedy. The couple then resolve the problem and a non diagetic sound track comes up as the titles come up. the sound track it fast and has a happy tone. It also sounds as though it would be the sort of this you might hear at a Weeding. As the title comes up, the picture fades in which is an establishing long shot.

Planning Disscusion

Genre - Comedy
          - Horror
          - Chick Flick
          - Romance
          - Drama
          - Sci Fi

Audience - Teen
               - Children
               - OAP's
               - Male
               - Female

Children of Men Essay

How effectively does the opening sequence from 'Children of Men' use the forms and conventions of film openings? What is your personal response as a member of the audience?

To start, the opening sequence starts with a voice over which you can tell is from a news report. The blank screen makes you pay more attention to what is being said as what it is telling you, is very important to the film.  Then as you would expect from a film you get the credits come up while the news report is still going on. Normally you would expect the credits to come up before the voice over starts, by doing this the audience would already be hooked into the film. The main character is introduced almost straight away which again is quite normal. You can tell he is going to be a main character as he stands out by not really listening to the news and also because he is the only person you would recognise because he is a well know actor.

Another thing that fits the conventions of film openings is that it establishes the location and when it was set. It does this in many ways. It sets the location by the news reporters having English accents and also a caption tell the audience it is set in London. It is also obvious that it is set slightly after the present day even before the caption as there are moving images on the buses and on bill boards and the pedal bikes have motors. So when the caption tells the audience it is set in 2027 it just clarifies it.

The last main conventions showed in this opening is sequence, is that is creates enigma. It does this by firstly in the news report as the audience wonders how a boy of 18 is the youngest man in the world and also when the explosion goes of, your mind if full of a list of questions which makes you want to watch on. Then after this explosion, the title of the film comes up and then the audience knows the film is really about to start.

When I watched the opening sequence of this film in my head I didn't stop asking questions. This is a good way to catch an audience because even no I really want to watch the rest of the film because I want my questions answered. I liked the fact that the sad music plays while the news is on and you can’t really tell if it is diagetic or non diagetic sound. When the camera pans around London it made me think what about how London looks now and wonder how London will turn out to be in 10-20 years and will it turn out anything like the film portrayed it. Overall think this is a very good opening sequence as I am sure anyone who watches it will want to watch the rest of the film as I did.

Opening Sequence

The first 3 minutes are the opening sequence.

The opening sequence starts as most films do with the production company 'Columbia Pictures'. The titles appear over an establishing shot of a beach in the sun set. They are light blue which makes them look like water also with the effect they look a bit like waves. As the camera pans across the beach, a pineapple appears as the screen fades into a kitchen and the pineapple is in the table and the title comes up. This effect is very clever as the pineapple doesn't change but the screen around it does. Then the camera is on a mid-shot of 2 women talking about a man. There is then a sequence of quick cuts and and lots of woman talking about this one man. The camera is always moving which makes pace seem fast. The music is very upbeat and has a happy tone but it is non diagetic as you wouldnt be able to hear it if you were in the scene. When all the women and one man mention the same name it shows that he is going to be the main character.

Fringe vs. Pillow Talk Essay

How are the sequences from ‘Pillow Talk’ and ‘Fringe’ different? Discuss the differences in pace and style of editing as well as the effect the editing has on meaning / the audience’ reception of the extracts.

Pillow Talk and Fringe are both edited in completely different ways to make the pace and style different. This is because Pillow Talk is an old film and Fringe is a newer series.  It is easily shows during the extracts that Pillow talk was made a lot before Fringe as the style of editing is more complex in Fringe.

Pillow Talk was released in 1959 and was directed by Michael Gordon. The two starring roles are played by Doris Day and Rock Hudson. The simple story line is, a man and a woman share a phone line and dislike each other but then he decides to take her out as another person and they fall in love. It is a typical romance film.

Fringe is an American science fiction series written by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. The first series started in 2008 and will be starting again in America January 2011. The series is about a team of people who are investigating the wonderings of a parallel universe.

The pace in Pillow Talk was very slow as the cuts were slow and the camera was often static. It does not use any special effect but it does use a face and a split screen that wipes across but apart from that it is just simple cuts. This makes the pace very relaxed and calm. The reason for this is the film was made a very long time ago so they may just not have had the technology that we have these days or it could be to put across to the audience that the film its self is very relaxed and a feel good film as its genre is a romance. The way the film is edited does appeal to its target audience. As the target audience was aimed for mainly women in their 20’s or 30’s so they would just want to watch the film with no complicated camera movements. Although, Pillow Talk does have a lot of different camera angles for example it uses, close ups, mid shots, long shots and conversational shots and without these the film would probably be quite boring to watch. Also in Pillow Talk, the only sound you hear is diagetic sound the whole way through the extract.

On the other hand, Fringe has a very fast pace which appeals to the target audience. This is done to make the viewers on the edge of theirs seats while watching. The cuts in Fringe happen a lot quicker than in Pillow Talk which makes the pace seem faster. Also the camera is hardly ever static. It will always be either panning across a room or zooming on to someone or tilting. This, in my opinion makes the extract more enjoyable to watch as it doesn’t get tedious. There is a special effect that shows how modern this film is where the plane is flying and it goes into the parallel universe and camera shakes as the plane disappears. Both the plane disappearing and the camera shaking show how new this program is. Fringe also uses a shot that looks in the reflection of the desk to see the man. You would never appear in a film like Pillow Talk because it is too modern for that type of film. This also uses a variety of camera angles like close ups, mid shots, long shots and conversational shots. But in Fringe there is a bit of non diagetic sound to give the scene more atmospheres.

In basically all ways these extracts are different. The way the camera moves, the editing style and the pace are just the main ones. The main reason the pace is different is because of the length of cuts there many there are. This is why Fringe seems to happen a lot faster. There isn’t a lot of editing in Pillow Talk where as there is in Fringe and lastly the camera movement in Pillow Talk is almost non existing but in Fringe the camera is hardly ever still.

These two extracts are very different in the way it is set out, edited and the audience but they also have some similarities. They both use a lot of different camera angles and both end in a conversational shot which also uses over the shoulder shots this is the most common shot used when two people are having a conversation as the audience can keep up with who’s talking.

To Finish, these two extracts show how different an audience can receive a clip just by the pace being faster and having more editing. Also, the contexts in these films are both very different too which does have an influence on the style of editing. But you can see how some similarities have been used the same for 50 years or more which shows that good camera shots will probably always be used in the world of filming.