How my end product compares to my preliminary exercise

At the beginning of the year we had to create a preliminary piece where we practiced using the cameras as well as practicing using the school editing software to see if we could make a real looking end product. The preliminary exercise had to include a match on action which I used a back gate for as well as a conversation between 2 people whilst using shot reverse shot on a 180 degree line. My preliminary exercise went well and I think I matched my shots up well. This preliminary exercise was good practice for my end product and helped me get used to thinking about my shots before I took them and showed me the importance of planning before I filmed my piece. It also helped me to start to get used to using editing software as I had never used it before. Since I am a year 14 student my preliminary exercise was deleted to save school memory, not realising that I was coming back for an extra year so my apologies that I cant upload my preliminary exercise.

I think that this was a necessary thing to do before filming my end product as it helped me get used to filming and editing my final product.
My final product was a vast improvement from my preliminary exercise as I used a great deal more shots that were edited together far more effectively to give a higher quality final result.
My final product was far more demanding in the fact that I had to design the editing based around the soundtrack I used where as I had far more freedom in my prelim.
And finally I believe that I make a far more effective and exciting final product than my prelim and I am proud of what I have made, my target audience seems to be pleased with what I have made which is my main focus of designing this piece. I think I have made a very detailed and effective horror film opening that uses many typical horror movie conventions to make this as effective and gripping as possible.

Evaluation of my 2 minute film opening

I believe that my 2 minute opening uses a variety of different horror conventions effectively throughout the entire production. It uses the dark eerie lighting throughout the entire production, the overgrown alleyway really helped to capture this darkness in the chase scene as you can tell from the difference in lighting in the opening 2 shots, this was a slight downfall at times however as the digital camera I was using was very light sensitive, if there was too much light then getting a normal looking scene was quite difficult to achieve. If there was not enough lighting then the scene looks too dark, making the transitions between shots not flow as smoothly as i had first intended, here are some examples to show you the difference in lighting I had due to this problem of sensitivity with my camera.

In some scenes this problem made it very difficult too see what exactly was going on, one of my scenes was meant to be a POV of one of the infected chasing the main character, however due to the problem with lighting you could barely see the small scene. My target audience did not seem to notice however so maybe I am just being too harsh on myself. I believe that this problem made parts of my introduction lose continuity, however my target audience seemed to rate it highly and nothing was mentioned on lighting in my comments. Here are some examples of what I mean:

I think that my film opening effectively uses sound throughout the entire duration, I worked particularly hard on this part of editing to ensure that my product made the most of the soundtrack and that the pace of editing matched and reflected the pace of the music. Here is my film opening again to show you what I mean:



My film opening uses a wide variety of short and long shots to ensure that my end product was as smooth as possible, this was another point that was mentioned by a peer media student in my consumer feedback which supports my point. I tried to use a variety of more imaginative shots such as the infected running into then back out of the camera to reinforce to the audience that there is no camera there making the scene look more lifelike as well as the close up birds eye view and the stationary on the floor shot I used aimed at monster fodder, both of these quick shots were used to speed up the chase scene and were used in conjunction with editing to make my opening as effective as possible. In my POV shot of the infected I used quick cuts to speed up the chase scene and masked them as the infected blinking, I believe this was an effective method of speeding up time as the origional chase scene was far longer than what is in my opening, I wanted to make sure that I did not drag the scene on for to long and more my target audience.

My film opening was obviously shot in an isolated location of an alleyway and a close which is a typical horror convention, isolated locations are used primarily to reinforce the point that there is no help coming for our protagonist which makes the audience worry more for them when something dangerous comes along. Again as I said before during the chase scene I used monster fodder to show the audience what happens when the infected catch who they are chasing, the mysterious man appears to be dead, but later on in the opening it shows that actually he has just become one of them. I brought him back into the opening by using him in a jumpy scene which are typical of horror scenes to give the audience a quick thrill of excitement.

Usually there is a disruption of normallity in horror films, however an infected chase and murder scene does not happen in real life so my target audience get their normality from real life. My opening also starts off backwards if that makes sence in the fact that it starts off with a chase scene then introduces the story, just to give the audience a taste of what's to come in the rest of the film. Horror films typically use this to introduce their main threat through the use of monster fodder, I have used the same technique but without it actually happening in the film due to the use of the dream sequence.













Consumer Feedback

To see what some of my potential consumers had to say I posted it onto my youtube account and onto my facebook profile along with a small questionnaire to see what they had to say, here are my restults:

My results show that from the small majority of potential consumers that watched it the vast majority of them did like it and that the 2 people that said it was alright said that zombie/horror was not their thing, meaning that they are not my target audience, however even though zombie/horror is not their preffered genre of film they both said that they wanted to watch the rest of the film which is great as this means that I have intrugued not only my target audience but those that I have not aimed my film opening at, I have catered to a larger audience than I had origionally thought according to these results. There were many comments on the pace of my opening, that it was fast paced and helped to add to the tension, this is the exact result I wanted from my audience and I am glad that they picked up on this. They also mentioned how the editing matches the pace of the music well and that this also helped to add tension to the opening which again is exactly what I had set out to do. The majority of consumers did worry for the main characters safety which is again what I had set out to achieve as this argubely shows that the audience has built up some sort of relationship with Tom's character in a very short space of time, this makes the audience interact more with the film making them pay attention and be more suseptable to higher suspense and jumpy scenes, making the horror work far more effectively at scaring and thrilling its audience. Many of my target audience comment on the scene where the gun doesn't work, I did this to again heighten the suspence at the end as it seems like he is safe with the gun removing him from the danger but he is not, sending him straight back into the peak of the danger.

Overall I am very pleased with this feedback, on average I scored 7/10-8/10 which is a great end result, I have recieved many positive comments from my target audience which is great as it tells me that my film opening is successful in making my target audience want to watch it.
Obviously this is only a small test posted on my facebook page which arguably only applies to my friends however I recieved a range of comments and each person stated their own opinions so there is some reliability to these results.

Infection

Here is my final 2 minute film opening:

The actors that feature in this film are:

Tom Hazel who plays the main hero (yet to have his name revealed to the audience).
Sam Catto who plays the infected man in blue.
James Page who plays monster fodder (corpse) and infected at front door.
Myself who plays the infected man in grey.
Other corpses in street were played by neighbours of Sam Catto's.

When it came to editing my piece together I started out with around 60 different camera shots i had taken lasting 5 minutes long in total which I had to go through and pick out the best and most effective shots to narrow down to the required 2 minutes. I enjoyed editing my footage and got carried away so much that I forgot to take pictures or record me editing which is frustrating when it comes to uploading what i have done. I am however very pleased with my final product and think that I have made an effective piece.

When filming and editing I kept in mind to have a variety of long shots and short shots to help break the clip up and make it flow better and make the scenes visually more pleasing. The opening starts straight in the action, throwing the audience in the deep end so to speak. The hero is ambushed by 2 shady looking characters that try to tackle him to the ground, making feral like noises. I started up my typical horror music to abide by horror film conventions and immediately cut this to a pan/tracking shot of them running round the corner, during this chase scene I mixed things up shot wise to build up the tension and put emphasys on speed and trying to escape. My favourite shot that I used had to of been when Sam runs into the camera then immediately out of it just after this scene as if there was no camera there at all, considering the pace we were running at pulling this particular shot off took a couple of attempts but was well worth it looking at it now. I tried to keep the faces of the infected men as hidden and blurred as possbile to keep the audience intrigued at the beginning as to what exactly was happening, it keeps the audience on their toes and makes them question what they are seeing making them interact with the text which is what I had intended to make them do. Again i used an arial shot which worked particularly well at blurring everyone that ran past it adding to its mystery followed straight after by a corpse on the ground, this is another enigma code I have added to make the audience think who is he and what happened to him, leading to the obvious assumption that that is what will happen to our hero if they catch him. The fact that there is a corpse out in the open also shows that this is not an every day setting our character is in as people do not just get murdered and left where ever, it helps to reinforce the audiences thoughts that the men that ambushed our main character are not just thugs and that they are more primal than that. I then used a POV shot of one of the infected to show how they percieve things, giving the audience an insight into their minds so to speak where the heavy breathing and quick flash cuts reinforce to the audience that there is something wrong with the men. Tom opens the door to what we presume is his home ovbiously leaving the infected behind him time to catch up, tom turns around and drop kicks the infected to push them back and tries to close the door, there is then a close up as the other infected puts his arm in the way to block it. Tom panics andpushes himself off the door, pushing the infected back for a split second and giving Tom extra time to get ahead where Tom shuts them into the room. The shots i have used here have been simple but effective, cutting the camera to the side to get a clearer view from Toms perspective, getting up close and personal with the zombies so to speak, this gievs the audience the effect that they are there with him and really helps to raise tension. Tom tries to find a way of escaping but all the exits are either locked or he is cut off from, here i used a event pan/crop option on this piece of footage to give this panning zoom on the door as he tries to open it. I used another typical horror convention of trying to make the audience jump with another infected man coming to the door as Tom tries to escape out of it, making him panic and run upstairs. Shots like this are typically used to give the audience a sudden burst of fear, get their hearts racing and again making them respond to what they see making them more active in their viewing. Tom runs upstairs into his room where he seems to be searching for something, this makes the audience question what it is hes trying to find and again makes them interact more with what they are watching. Our questions are soon answered as Tom finds his gun and aims at the door, the music starts to reach its climax as the scene becomes tenser, I intended here for the audience to feel a sigh of relief that he can now turn the tables on his attackers but at the same time make the audience worry and panic because they must be about to attack him at any moment and designed it so that the music helped to add to this panic. This is another one of my favourite shots where the camera goes into a first person view of him holding and aiming the gun at the door, the door slowly opens when we finally clearly see who has been attacking our hero, we are revealed who they are at the same time, here I intended for the audience to feel the same emotions as Tom by putting them into his shoes. We now want to see if he makes it out alive, the camera cuts to a mid shot of Tom trying to shoot the infected but he has no bullets, this immidately takes out any feelings that he was safe as the gun is now useless, Tom again panics with the audience making them emphasise with him. The infected then throw him onto the bed where they proceed to eat him, the audiences fears come to life here were the complete opposite happens than they wanted, a dream fade out effect comes in confusing the audience as to what is happening but then Tom wakes up panting after having a nightmare where once again the audience are relieved that he is okay, there is then a pan of the street outside littered with dead bodies with a voice over of the character, 'This is my life, always running, never knowing when one of those things is going to find me'  this voice over is used to tell the audience that yes it was a dream but it is his reality in the film and effectively is an introduction to the character without obviously saying 'hi i am...' the name of the film then comes up at the bottom of the pan and there is a fade out.

I think that this film opening does a very good job of setting up a relationship between the audience and the main character, it makes them worry about his safety even though they know nothing about him. It uses many typical horror film conventions to make it work, the use of dark/sinister lighting throughout, the use of a sinister and thrilling soundtrack that reaches its creshendo as the story reach its own and that the editing matched this pace of music. There is monster fodder shown in the form of many corpses littered through the streets and a close up on a corpse in the same alleyway the hero gets attacked in. The use of the alleyway and the culdesack is an isolated location making the chance of help arriving very slim, adding to the audiences fears for his safety. The use of the voice over tells the audience that this is the protagonists normallity and that he is used to trying to survive making him an admirable character.

Editing

After I finished filming my work it is clear that to make any film opening have a good quality, smooth flowing, effective finish that it needs to have quality editing done to it. I will be making sure that the editing matches the pace of the music, making sure that there are no continuity errors so that my audience continues to be under the illusion of my final product and just polishing the final product to make it run as sooth as possible.

Sony Vegas Pro 8.0 also comes with many different effects that I had at my disposal, however during a film opening I could not really use some of the flashier edits as it would not make my piece flow as I intended it too.

To edit my work I have used Sony Vegas Pro 8.0, this particular piece of editing software is by far the easiest software to use in my opinion compared to other programmes such as FinalCut Pro on the school MAC's and enabled me to so some far more advanced pieces of editing such as zooming in and out of certain parts of the clip. Just drag a piece of footage down onto the playhead and click the Event pan/Crop button on the clip were you will be promped with this menu, here I have simulated the prompt with another piece of footage I was editing.

Sound

From what I have learned from looking at many different horror film openings it is clear to me that every successful horror film opening uses an effective accompanying soundtrack over the top of their footage to effectively set the mood of the scene and add to its mis-en-scene. However good quality effective sound tracks are protected by copyright infringements meaning that I cannot use them without having to ask for the artists and or record labels permission before I can use it, so instead I decided it would be far easier to search the Internet for some royalty free music to go over the top of my soundtrack to add to its overall effectiveness. I found a great deal of soundtracks perfect for my horror opening on the website http://www.purple-planet.com/ under their many different genres of music. I had the challenge here of finding the right track that would match the right mood that I wanted portrayed to my audience. Here are the 2 tracks that I narrowed down to in the end.

Into Battle:

I liked this track, it sounded tense and really helped to show the tension I was trying to portray to my target audience, however it seemed to be the same most of the way through and I thought that this may bore the audience so I decided not to use it.
Turning the screw:

In the end I decided I would use this track, its perfect for my scene. The pace of the music starts out slow but gradually builds to a climax as my hero gets cornered and really helps to build tension when it is needed.

Props and Equipment

When it comes to filming my production I must make it as believable as possible to keep my audience maintained in a trance like state to speak, using props are a very good way of maintaining this illusion and help make a character or a scene more believable. This is key when it comes to making my film opening as I want it to have a film quality look to it, obviously this cannot be done with the cameras we have available too us so I will make sure that everything else filming and editing wise is pristine. To help me achieve this level of precision I will make the most of the media equipment that I do have at my disposal.

Props:

The main prop I used in my film opening was a replica Makarov pistol that was supplied by one of my friends, it plays a key role in my film opening when it appears that the main character is safe and ready to take on the zombies when in fact when it comes to shooting the pistol the main character realises that it has no ammo, once again making the audience panic for the mans safety.

Other more subtle props were the clothes my infected were wearing, to keep the opening believable I made sure that my infected were wearing casual clothes to emphasise the fact that anyone can become infected and that no one is safe. However to make the scene look more believable I should have made their clothes and the faces of the infected grubbier to show that they are more animal like in their thinking and do not care for cleanliness.

Equipment:

When it came to filming my work the most basic but most important piece of equipment I had at my disposal was a Panasonic SDR-S50 digital camera provided by my school, it was the newest camera that I had at my disposable, however is not high definition as I would have preffered to film with a HD camera to make sure that I ended up with a higher quality finished product.

To make sure I kept my camera shots as steady as possible when they were meant to be steady I used a tripod provided by my school. This was proved to be very useful when it came to filming almost every shot that I took, especially the panning shot of the corpse ridden street, and gave me some very fixed quality looking shots. The adjustable legs made it very easily fit into any location I needed it at as well at most heights and the adjustable handle made panning shots slow far smoother.

Storyboarding

The key to making a quality and professional looking film opening is planning and storyboarding is argubly one of the most important aspects of planning what you are going to film, from what type of shot you are going to take down to what angle you are going to take it at, what sound will be in the scene, what sound you will be adding to raise tension down to how you will break up each shot with effects, no matter what you decide to do it must be planned. Here I have made a rough but detailed storyboard of what I hope to capture and how I hope to put it together.

My Target Audience

My film production would be aimed at teenagers to young adults of the ages of 12-21, I believe that they will be the right age group that would like the fear and adrenaline rush associated with the horror genre. Horror movies are predominantly watched by those seeking some sort of thrill or scare. Horror films are very effective when it comes to charing its target audience and their audience love it. Horror movies are also used as trophies in some social groups, gaining you respect if you have had the courage to watch a reportedly scary horror film, these age groups are those that are most likely to look at watching a horror film as being a trophy so will make them want to watch it just so they can show off to their friends that they have seen it.

Certification of my Film Introduction

I want my film to get an age rating certificate of  a 15 this is because I want my film to be scary and violent in places to add to the fear of my film. I believe that I will not get enough of this fear and gore if my film is aimed at a lower target audience as it would have to make the film more tame. I believe that to accurately portray a post apocalyptic town that there must be more freedom to be able to add some violence and gore, this film is more about survival and the element of fighting is not a must as the hero is smart and will run to stay alive, this means that there will not be as many fight scenes as i want to avoid the film turning into an action horror like resident evil for example.There is no need for a certificate rating of much higher than a 15 and if feel that giving it any higher age rating certificate would only hinder the range of consumers I have. I believe with a lower age rating my film will reach a far wider target audience and therefore lead to a higher profit at the end of production.

The guidelines of securing a classification of a 15 according to the BBFC's website are as follows:

• No one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work. The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.
• Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.
• Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised. Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.
• There may be frequent use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’). The strongest terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.
• Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context. Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable. 
• No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.
• Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.

Chosen synopsis of final idea

For my film opening i have decided to go for the Infected scenario, I believe that I can make an effective well made introduction to this scenario and already have many ideas for it. For my film opening I will start off straight into the action, I will have my hero returning to his home when he is ambushed by a small group of infected, immediately showing the monster or agent of change. There will be a fast paced tension raising chase scene back to the heroes hideout where he tries to barricade himself in, the infected break through however and it seems like there is no escape, our hero bides himself some time by stunning the infected and locking them into a room, he then runs upstairs into his room and frantically searches for his gun, he cocks it and waits for them to find him. They find him and our hero tries to shoot them, finding that he has no ammo, there is nothing more to be done here other than try to fight them off, however our hero gets overpowered and gets thrown onto his bed where the infected start to eat him. The audience then see our hero in his bed dreaming, tossing and turning having a nightmare of everything that just happened giving the audience a sigh of relief. He wakes up panting and is fearful until he himself realises it was only a dream. The camera then shows different post apocalyptic settings reinforcing that yes the scene was only a dream but the situation he is in in the dream is real and that could happen to him at any point.

Initial Ideas - Horror Genre

Idea 1:
A school prom night is crashed by a resentful murdering ex-student intent on killing those that he blames for making his life at school a living hell. The story follows a student and his small group of friends that are innocent to the murderers torment but become caught up in the blame.

Idea 2:
A group of hikers think they are the best at what they do and are always seeking a challenge, so one day when a rival hiker proposes a challenge between their 2 groups they are reluctant to turn it down and decide to hike to a remote location known for its arduous and winding terrain, little do they know the location is inhabited by a brutal and savage werewolf who stalks the land every night in search for prey.

Idea 3:
A post apocalyptic culdesac ravaged by a zombie like infection that turns its hosts savage and murderous, our story would follow the life of a surviror learning to scavenge and stay alive, killing infected, gathering food and water and when overpowered, running from them. Our heroes ultimate goal is to find a safehaven where he does not have to worry about an impending brutal death, where he may finally be able to help turn this world around by finding a cure.

Technical Codes

Media produtions use a wide range of techniques to keep their audiences wanting to watch more, here I have done research into specific codes media productions use to keep their audience hooked into watching the film as well as almost hypnotised into believing that the film is real.

Enigma codes are used throughout many horror films and are especially effective in film openings, enigma codes are used to set up and propose questions about a particular scene that are usually answered later on, they keep their audience thinking and on their toes making them less passive in their viewing, this is key when it comes to raising tension in the audience.

Action codes are also used in many horror films, they are generally used to trigger enigma codes with the audience, a classic example of an action code in a horror film is a potential victim falling over during a chase scene proposing the enigma code of will she get up or is she about to die? Action codes are key to setting up enigma codes most of the time or answering them and are a very effective way of keeping an audience active in their viewing of a horror

Action and Enigma codes are normally used in many different types of movies to help us to pay more attention to the movie and to be caught under the illusion that it is real even though it is not, they are basically used to raise and answer questions during a movie for example, in dawn of the dead emergency news bulletins are put on TV whilst the main characters are in the shower so they do not see the warnings but neither do we so it makes us wonder what was the emergency bulletin about, also the same for when Anna’s in the car on her way home as she changes radio station when an emergency bulletin is being said so both Anna and the audience miss it which makes us want to know what is going on, this hooks the audience and makes them want to watch more.

From my research I can see that action and enigma codes are a key part of making an audience relate to a media production and help build up a relationship with a character that they know nothing about, I will therefore have to think of ways in which I can use this to my advantage when it comes to making my own film opening.

Research into my chosen genre

My chosen genre will be to do a horror, horror films for me are one of the most interesting genres of film to do due to all the fear and suspense they cause to their target audience and it is this thrill that excites me. Horror films generally use the same conventions time and time again to make them appealing and very effective. They generally introduce the monster quite early on in the opening with the use of monster fodder, where an unknown mystery victim will be hunted and killed by the monster, this person will have nothing to do with the main storyline most of the time and it just there to show what the monster is capable of. I will have to keep these conventions in mind when it comes to designing and making my own film opening. Typical conventions of a horror film are:

• Dark and or shadowy lighting.
• Isolated or abandoned locations.
• Monster fodder to show what the monster is capable of.
• Disruption of normality.
• Sub plot of relationship developments.
• Defeat of monster
• Eerie, scary and or high paced chase music.

A narrative structure is the term given to the way in which a film is constructed, for example the main way in which most films are constructed is with a hero or heroine being introduced to the story, this will normally be the main character that the story is based around as well as an agent of change that causes some sort of disequilibrium to the hero/heroine, this is where the problem comes into place which is later followed by the hero/heroines quest to solve the problem which then normally leads to a return to normality. This can be shown clearer in this diagram:

I will use Dawn of the Dead for example our heroine is Anna, a character that we meet at the beginning of the film as well as the survivors that she meets, the agent of change is the zombie plague that is infecting the people around her, the problem is obviously the fact that zombies are running around killing innocent people, Anna’s quest is simply to survive the zombie attack and to try to escape to a deserted island out at sea with one of the other survivors boats. The only problem with using Dawn of the Dead for an example is that there is no return to normality afterwards as in the credits we assume that all of the survivors die but we cannot be sure as the camera is dropped.

This video does a good job of showing how narrative structures work more indepth visually

 

Research into existing texts - Four Lions

‘Four lions’ is a Chris Morris comedy based around a group of 5 British jihadists that try to make their dreams become reality by martyring themselves for ‘the greater good’, led by Omar the leader of the group and main character we follow that seems to be the only ‘normal’ one of the group which could be seen to be potentially worrying as the smartest and most sensible character is the one that wants to murder innocent people. We meet Waj who is Omar’s very dim right hand man who is portrayed as a very childlike and susceptible character that doesn’t really seem to grasp the concept of what martyring yourself actually is, referring to the afterlife as ‘Alton Towers:  Rubber Dingy Rapids’. We then meet Barry, the only white British converted Muslim who plays a key role in making the film not racist as he seems to be the most radical out of the group with his idea to blow up the Mosque, he is seen to not know much (if anything) about their cause as if he has just jumped on the bandwagon for attention and wants to run things. We meet Faisal who despite being a complete and utter imbecile is the one that makes the bombs and meets his end by them in a hilarious way early in the ‘heroes’ quest, which played a key role in showing the other central characters just what they were preparing themselves for and finally Hassan who is a young rapper that joins the group for the glory and not for the cause.

Despite each characters obsession with martyring themselves only Omar the leader of the group actually goes ahead and carries out a suicide bombing after he has a change of heart and tries to stop a confused Waj from blowing himself up, Barry sets off Hassan’s bomb after he tries to turn himself into the police, Faisal falls over onto a flock of sheep while holding bombs, Barry chokes on a sim card and is killed by an innocent pedestrian trying to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre, Waj gets confused and blows himself up in a kebab shop and Omar gives up and goes into a pharmacy where they said they would not blow up because it wouldn’t mean anything to their cause and actually commits a suicide bombing.

We the audience build up a relationship with Omar as he is the main character that we follow outside of just the group, we are taken into his home meeting his wife and child and see that he is a good father as well as a good role model, this is quite worrying as the entire operation is all his idea and we are swayed to the side where we like the suicide bomber that wants to kill hundreds of innocent people. We feel sorry for Waj as we can see that he really doesn’t understand what he is committing himself too, his character is very dim and childlike, he gets confused easily and has very childlike dreams and ambitions it makes the audience upset when he dies to some extent, even though he kills police officers it is shown through Omar’s perspective and the fact that he is upset makes us upset because we have attached ourselves to his character. Barry is seen to be the closest thing to a villain in the film even though when you think about it every one of them is a villain because they are plotting to be suicide bombers and kill innocent people, when Barry dies I think the audience wants him to because he takes the choice away from Hassan as he detonates his bomb ‘betraying his brother’ and because he tries to stop Omar talking Waj out of it by eating his SIM card. Faisal’s death I thought was very comical as the group were all telling him to run and were laughing at him until he tripped and exploded on the sheep. Hassan’s death is quite interesting for me though as he tells on the group and jeopardises their quest, by him doing that it seemed to finish the relationship we built up for him quite quickly as we felt stronger associated with Omar and the rest of the group finishing their quest which when you think about it is the exact opposite of what we the audience should be thinking and wanting to happen, the film is very cleverly made using the exact same narrative structures as any other film just used with a different topic that we shouldn’t support, suicide bombers and builds us up a relationship with the main character who’s quest is to commit a suicide bombing however there are many different setbacks along the road to raise tension and make us want them to achieve their goals which we shouldn’t do because we are theoretically supporting terrorists.

I think that this film does for me create sympathy for most of the main characters except for Barry who was the only one of the group that I personally wanted to die, Barry was made to be a very unlikable character by the way he talked to people, he was very rude and was not very bright at all. He was also portrayed to be quite evil and hateful with made the audience build up a dislike to him throughout the movie. Four lions does a very effective job of representing characters in a specific way by the many different things they do. I will have to think of ways in which to introduce and portray my character when it comes to designing my own film opening.

Research Into Existing Texts - Dawn of the Dead Remake

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrsjnH-by2E&feature=related
The opening of the Dawn of the Dead Re-make helps to establish the story line very quickly using a number of different techniques that also help to build up tension from the beginning. The opening of the dawn of the dead remake starts building tension before we see the film actually start; the universal studios logo has sinister music played over it to tell the audience that there is something not right from the beginning of the film, this is shortly followed by what looks like a mushroom cloud that then focuses into a skull that looks like its on fire, this then does a match on action that turns the flaming skull into a picture of an x-ray, this very short match on action helps to set the mood of the film and helps us to pick up on the fact that there will most likely be violence, mayhem, killing and destruction as skulls are generally associated with death and that fire and flames are associated with destruction.

The camera then pans across to show a doctor speaking about golf so we assume that he is selfish and maybe arrogant as he is talking to his friends rather than keeping concentrated on his patients, he then asks Anna the nurse why he was sent to intensive care if he was bitten on the hand, this is a clue given to the audience telling them that something’s not right, when Anna tells him when the patient came in and tells him that that was when she started working he tells her to find out why he is in intensive care, this tells us that the doctor is very selfish and inconsiderate and that Anna is very hard working. Anna then walks away from the doctor and we follow her, she goes to reception and asks her friend Cora if she can look into the patient in intensive care so she can go home, this small scene shows us that she is completely oblivious to anything strange happening as Anna and Cora start talking about a shift change that happens next week but us as the viewers know that they will not get as far as working next week as most people will either be dead or a zombie. This shows just how vulnerable everyone is.

As Anna leaves the hospital a red herring is used to raise tension with the audience, dramatic music starts to play and a point of view of Anna looking at an ambulance is used, it appears that a man has been killed in the ambulance as his legs are hanging out of the back of it, the camera then cuts to the inside of the ambulance looking out at Anna, the lighting of the inside of the ambulance is very dark and it is hard to see what or who is in there, she then says “hey” and the eerie music stops an alarm goes off the in the car the ambulance driver wakes up and gets back to work, this shot is designed to make the audience jump but does not do a very good job of it. She then gets into her car and starts to drive home, the radio comes on and starts to play something about riots and panic but Anna doesn’t seem to be paying much attention and changes the station, “have a nice day” starts to play which is a very good choice of song as its very ironic because obviously with a zombie outbreak she is not going to have a nice day.

A bird’s eye view of the car driving is then used to show her driving home; I think that this is a very strong and powerful shot as no other car is driving and that the camera zooms in on her car showing the audience that the world is coming down on her. We then see Anna pulling up to her house, she sees her neighbours little girl Vivien skate up to her on roller-skates, Vivien tells her that she can skate backwards now and tells her to watch, this is a very good helpful scene that tells us abit more about what kind of a person Anna is, it shows us that she is very kind and caring as most people wouldn’t really care much but she acts amazed and proud of her and tells her that tomorrow they will do a couple of backwards laps around the block, this shows us that Anna likes to plan ahead as earlier she was talking about the shift change the following week, this can indicate to the viewers that Anna will not take the whole zombie situation very well as it is completely unexpected and throws her off her planned schedule.

She then pulls into her drive and we see a truck next to her car, with some pipes and ladders on it so we assume that there is already someone in the house who is a builder, we later find out that the man is in a relationship with Anna but what they are to each other is not completely clear although we assume that they are happily married as they kiss when Anna returns from work and the camera pans across photos of them both looking happy together when Anna and her partner are in the shower together. Also action and enigma codes are used whilst Anna and her partner are in the shower; an emergency news bulletin comes onto the TV so Anna and her partner miss it because they are in the shower this makes the audience wonder what is going on, it hooks us and makes us want to watch more, it makes us want to find out what the bulletin was actually about and makes us worry about Anna and her partner because they don’t have a clue about what’s going to happen to them.

The camera then cuts to an alarm clock with 06:36 turning to 06:37, eerie music then starts to play and the camera acts as a point of view shot of someone or something getting closer to the door, the camera then flicks to the other side of the door and a match on action shot is used, the camera then cuts to the left of the door focused on the doorknob to stop us from seeing who or what is there, dark lighting is also used to stop us from seeing the little girls face although her outline is visible, we assume that it is Vivien from the previous scene but that now she is a danger to Anna for some reason. The creaking of the door causes Lewis to wake up and see that someone is there, he tries to wake up Anna by telling her that Vivien is here, she then steps forward into the light to reveal to us that she has a mashed up mouth, this helps to shock and horrify the viewers with a zoomed close up of her face as well as a cut to see Lewis’s reaction to see how horrified his reaction is. He jumps up to try and help her and holds her to get a closer look, he then turns to Anna to try and tell her to wake up when Vivien bites a chunk out of his neck, Anna wakes up too see this and throws Vivien down the hall which is when we see her hiss and get back up (definitely not human) she then starts to run towards Anna to which Anna panics and slams the door.

She then runs over to Lewis to try and save him by compressing the wound, this scene is very intense as we are constantly wondering how he is and will he be okay. She tries to call 911 but all the services are busy the camera then cuts back to Lewis losing strength on the compressing of the wound and then he dies, Whilst we see Anna panicking and crying.

The camera then cuts again to show her on the phone with the background blurred; we can see him get up but cannot see his face, this is very confusing for the audience and for Anna as we just saw him die, she then says “Lewis?”  In a scared voice as he scans the room looking rather twitchy he instantly looks at her and attacks her screaming. She runs into the on-suite bathroom and slams the door behind her falling into the bath, she stares at the door looking terrified but nothing happens so she slowly walks closer to the door, puts her ear up against the door and quietly calls Lewis, you then hear Lewis scream and start smashing through the door to which Anna screams and runs for the window, tension is very high at this point and all of the viewers are worried that Anna will get bitten this shows us just what the opening has done because we have developed a bond with Anna so we are relieved when we see her kick him in the face then stumble out of the window un harmed she then runs to her car and calls to the priest her neighbour who is holding a gun she says get back Anna and appears to have gone crazy, we would not expect this from a man of god when an ambulance drives by and runs over and kills him this short scene is used to show just how crazy things have gotten because a priest threatening people with a gun is crazy and so is the irony in an ambulance running someone over and killing them considering ambulances are there to save people, she then hears Louis trying to get outside so jumps into her car  Louis jumps onto the bonnet and punches the screen , Anna drives off but we can see Louis running after the car in the background Anna then turns a corner and we see Louis attack someone else. Anna drives along a clear looking road and turns on the radio which is when she realises the true extent of the zombies, an automated warning is playing over America telling the listeners evacuation points so we can tell that it is not an isolated case that it is worldwide. She then starts to slow down when a person runs up to the driver seat of the car and tries to get Anna out this part happens very rapidly and is used to make the audience jump, Anna thinks it is a zombie so panics and drives, she gets away from the person but swerves off the road and into a tree where the screen goes black obviously indicating that she has been knocked out, we wonder if she will be okay.

I believe that this film opening is very effective in hooking the target audience straight from the beginning using many different news reports and captions relating to infection, rioting and zombies. This film opening makes us want to definitely watch the rest of the film, it introduces the main character very quickly and thoroughly and builds up a relationship with the character, we fear for her safety and want her to escape. This opening also shows me that sound is a very important factor to cinsider when designing my own opening sequence, sound and music helps set the pace of editing and produces alot of tension for thhe viewers. it uses a number of different techniques to make it a very effective opening, i will have to consider these points when making my own.

Introduction:

The task I have chosen to do is to make a film opening, my film opening must last up to 2 minutes long in total length, I will be looking at existing film openings to see how well they work at grabbing the audiences attention and making them want to watch more. I will also see how they introduce characters and plot lines to help me when it comes to making my own film opening. I will be looking at the key techniques that are used to make film openings across all genres of film as well as specific genres to help me pick my own.