Bibliography for research and planning

Bibliography for research and planning

Name of Source	Hyperlink	What information was used	What post we used it on
(WEBSITE) Vimeo – The film before the Film	http://vimeo.com/60964497	The history of opening credits and how they have changed over time	The History of Opening Credits
(WEBSITE) Wikipedia	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opening_credits	Information on the history of opening credits	The History of Opening Credits
(WEBSITE) BBFC	http://www.bbfc.co.uk/	Requirements for each of the BBFC age ratings	BBFC Rating Analysis
(PDF) Market Overview by National Lottery	Already had it	Markey overview- who buys what and where do they buy it from	Market Overview SECONDARY RESEARCH
(Book) AS Media Studies Revision Guide	-	Theories of narrative	Theories of Narrative
(WEBSITE) Wikipedia	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_score	Film scores within film	History/ Elements of Film Scores

Lighting, Editing and Sound - Research

LIGHTING:

• HIGH KEY - The lighting is bright and relatively low in contrast. We will not be using this for our video as it meant to be dark and eerie which cannot be caused by high key lighting.
• LOW KEY - The lighting has much more pronounced shadows and dramatic contrasts. We WILL be using this for our opening as our aim is to create a scary looking setting for the opening. I will achieve this mostly using MoviePlus, editing the curves and adding shadow filters.
• COLOUR FX - Can include: Cold or blueish lighting (connoting cold or spookiness), Warm or yellowish (connoting comfort, eg- a beach or sunset scene), Black and White or Sepia. We may use the blueish lighting using MoviePlus to make the scenes look much spookier.

 EDITING:

• CONTINUITY EDITING - Film sequences normally follow this type of edit so that time seems to flow in a natural and believable way. Cuts will only be used as this gives a real life effect to the movie. Continuity editing can also include "cross-cutting" which is where a sequence cuts between two different pieces of action happening at the same time. But it still has to maintain the seamless flow of action. As this is commonly used in film our opening will be done in continuity editing, however, we may use a fade to make it slightly more artistic and abstract as some opening sequences are.
• MONTAGE EDITING - Opposite, the cuts are normally noticeable and does not represent the seamless flow of time. It can use juxtaposition of images to create contrast and give an artistic feel.

• CUT - One image is instantly replaced by another without a viable transition. We will maritally be using these are they are require for continuity editing. 
• CROSS - DISSOLVE - One image dissolves into another. 
• FADE UP - An image fades in from black. We will be using one of these at the beginning from black into the production companies logo's.
• FADE OUT - Fading out to black, this will be used after the production logos between each one to make it flow.
• WIPE - One image replaces another, where the border between the image moving across or around the screen. 

SOUND:

• DIEGETIC SOUND - Sound that seems to be part of what is going on on the screen. For example, thunder, cars, footsteps. We will be using this for bird noises and other sounds which part of the action.
• NON - DIEGETIC SOUND - Sound that is not part of what is going on on screen. For example a soundtrack, we will be using a soundtrack for our opening sequence. 
• SOUND BRIDGE - Linking two scenes together by sound. For example we around going to use bird noises to link a production logo to a shot of woods.
• SOUND EFFECTS - Sound which is added on top which is not dialogue and music. Sound is added during the post production stage using Foley. We will be doing this with all of our diegetic sound, for example bird sounds.

Jaws Film Scored Analysis

Here is one of the most famous piece of score music, it is a theme for the character of the shark in the film 'Jaws' written by John Williams. It is most well known for its simplicity and therefore how memorable it is. It was created to show the presence of the character of the shark. Motifs such as these are use very often in movies to show the presence of a character, the 'Jaws' soundtrack gives a sense of foreboding as the presence of the shark normally means an attack on people and so the audience quickly learns to get edgy whenever they hear this piece of music. The main "shark" theme, a simple alternating pattern of two notes became a classic piece of suspense music, synonymous with approaching danger 

Many other directors have tried to copy this idea within their own movies, to create such a powerful and effective piece of music to place alongside their characters as this soundtrack won many awards for its simplicity but effectiveness. It is because of this the movie is now known as one of the most effective movies of all time.

Technically wise the piece comprises of 2 shorts notes in minor going backwards and forwards in continuous rhythm on some kind of base or cello instruments. This creates a dark and mysterious sounding piece. It starts off quite slow and less repetitive and builds in both speed and repetitiveness, which makes it gain tension as the it reflects the shark approaching.

I will be creating our score for our opening sequence myself and therefore will be attempting to create a simple yet effective motif to represent my character.
Our character is very innocent and harmless and my soundtrack will have elements which will mimic this, using high notes on instruments such as piano create a very sweet sound to reflect her innocents. Contrasting with this I will produce heavier, lower notes, like the ones played in the 'Jaws' score to show the sense of threat this the character is facing.

The History/ Elements of Film Scores

The History of Music in Film

Before the 30's, all movies were completely silent. Music was then inserted into a film to make it more interesting sense wise it also adds depth to the image which appeared on the screen. Music was already a common element within theaters which were the previous form of entertainment before film. 
The majority of silent films were accompanied by anything from full orchestras to pianists. Many books were published about different types of music to play over a film to add to the mood.

During the 1930's music was established as a vital element within motion pictures as it showed more positive audience feedback. At the beginning, Western Classical Music from the 19th century was used played over films but after this people began to write more modern scores. One of the first original films scores written was for 'King Kong' in 1933. Later in the decade composers began to experiment and develop their own style, including creating hooks for characters and to support plot and story lines.

In the 40's, composers refined their expertise even more. There were many breaks in the barriers and traditions of film music. In the 50's, film music had completely changed with the introduction of jazz music, therefore music was less expensive to make as not too many musicians were not need as an orchestra was no longer needed. This carried on throughout the 1960's. The 70's passed with very little new innovation, things were perfected from the previous decades. Even current score writers, such as John Williams use these techniques.

In the 80's and 90's, the use of synthesized sounds in films became more popular. For the first time, it had become possible to scored a whole film with only one performer, using a synthesizer to produce the sounds of many instruments.

Today, with the development with new technology film composers have the ability to create the perfect score helping move along the movies plot and give characters different pieces of music (for example the sharks hook in jaws), this helps to enhance the film and turn it into an experience.

Elements of a Film Score

TEMP TRACKS
A temp track is an existing piece of music score which is used during film production during editing as it serves guidance for the mood or atmosphere. Composers for film scores are asked to imitate a specific composer or style present in the temp track. Some directors have become so attached to temp score that they decided to use it and reject the original score written by the film composers.

STRUCTURE
Films often have different themes or motifs for important characters, events, story lines or peaks. These can be played in different styles depending on the situation they represent, scattered among incidental music. For example John Williams' score for the Star Wars saga, characters such as Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia Organa have different motifs for different characters.

SCORE MUSIC
Most films have around 40 to 120 minutes of music. However, some films have very little or even no music whereas others have music running throughout. This types of music is called "diegetic" music as it is not part of the movie itself it is merely added on top.

Theories of Narrative

I have researched two theories of narrative which are theories concerning the structure of narratives. I wish to use these to create an interesting narrative for the film which I can reflect within my opening sequence as the aim of an opening sequence is to set up the narrative.

TZVETAN TODOROV'S THEORY - he noticed a repeating pattern in narrative and thus made the following theory:

Equilibrium - An existing state of harmony.
Disequilibrium - The equilibrium is disrupted by an even or "evil" character which leads to a chain of events.
New Equilibrium - The evil is overcome and the harmony exists once more.

This theory is basically saying that narrative is just a repeating pattern of harmony, disruption and harmony. This theory is true for most films and therefore we would most probably accept the fact that our film will follow this theory. The narrative set up in the opening sequence music appear to set up the first stage 'equilibrium' of the movie, this means it will have to start peaceful but still have a sense of foreboding for what is going to disturb this.

VLADIMIR PROPP'S THEORY - After studying Russian fairy tales, well know for their narratives dependent on characters to move the narrative along, he came up with the following theory:

THE SEVEN SPHERES OF ACTION - WHAT THE CHARACTER DOES IN THE NARRATIVE

THE VILLAIN - creates the narrative complication
THE DONOR - gives the hero something which helps in the resolution of the narrative
THE HELPER - gives the hero help to resolve the narrative
THE PRINCESS - has to be saved by the hero
THE DISPATCHER - sends the hero on his task
THE HERO - saves the day and resolves the narrative, sometimes he has been on a quest of similar
THE FALSE HERO - appears to be good but has been bad all along

This theory is stating that characters are crucial to move the plot along, as in our opening sequence we are only introduced to one of characters and it is unsure what genre she falls into from the small clips we get of her. From her innocent actions and vulnerability we are lead to believe she is the princess of the opening sequence, this helps to introduce the idea that she is going to have to be saved from a villainous character, setting up the story line for this to happen within.

Shots, Angles and Movements - Shots Research Discussion

In this video we are looking at different types of camera shots, angles and movements which are common within video and looking at if we would use them in our own opening sequence.

Film Name - Target Audience Survey

While brainstorming ideas for our opening sequence the topic of the name of our movie came up. We created, with the help of some people within our class some names which we could use. We picked the best five and wrote them onto large pieces of paper. We then asked some people in a year 10 class (aged 14-15) to write their name on a sticky label and put it on whichever name they most liked.

We selected to ask this class of people because they fall directly into our target audience, teenagers, we kept the task open to both males and females despite our exact audience being female to make sure it was effective for all people of this age.

As you can see the name "Hooded" was the most popular, receiving 6/14 votes. We therefore will be using this name as the title of our film.

The BBFC Certificate of our Film

The BBFC certificate is a big part of creating a film, keeping it within a specific classification is key especially if this effects the audience and more specifically the target audience. An example would be a film aimed at teenagers getting given an 18 rating. 

As the target audience for our film is also teenagers it would be ideal if our film maintained a 12/12A rating as this would allow the full extent of our audience to view our movie in cinema as well as purchase it for home viewing. 

According to the BBFC website our movie cannot contain an over expression of "injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if they can be justified". Our opening sequence does contain images of blood however these have not been linked to injury or pain inflicted on an individual. They merely exist to show the suggestion that this is not your typical fairytale film contrasting with the innocent images of cakes an nature.

The audience can also not see any form of violence in the actual sequence, it is only suggested and therefore I believe it can be argued that it still remains within the 12/12A category. If the scene was deemed too violent we would go back and re film to make sure it stayed within the category as this allows our target audience to still be able to see the film with no difficulty. 

The sequence does not tackle with other elements of classification and therefore should be able to get into the 12/12A category without too much difficult.

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY - Analysis

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (2005)

·               It is the second adaptation of the 1964 book by Roald Dahl by Tim Burton.

·               STARRING – Johnny Depp, Freddie Highmore, David Kelly, Helena Bonham Carter, Noah Taylor, Missi Pyle, James Fox, Deep Roy, Christopher Lee

·               PRODUCED BY – Brad Grey, Richard D. Zanuck, Michael Siegel

·               STUDIO – Village Roadshow Pictures, The Zanuck Company, Plan B Entertainment, Theobald Film Productions, Tim Burton Productions, Pinewood Studios

·               DISTRIBUTED BY – Warner Bros. Pictures and Roadshow Entertainment

·               RELEASE – July 15th 2005 (US), July 29th 2005 (UK)

·               BUDGET - $150million

·               BOX OFFICE - $474,968,763

The opening is around 4 minutes and 3 seconds long. This is much longer than the time we are supposed to create out opening sequence. This means I shall have to condense any ideas I have gained.

 The opening credits consist of an animated but also non animated sequence of the production of the Wonka Chocolate Bars. The sequence’s colour scheme is the first thing that struck me as the mise en scene props were for the majority black and white with the exception of the chocolate, the golden tickets, Willy Wonka’s gloves and the vans to drive the chocolate away. I believe this was done to make these elements stand out as clues as to where the storyline is going. All of these items (with the exclusion of the vans) are very key elements to the storyline of the film. Burton has chosen to involve these early on to make them stand out. I will be doing this when creating my own opening, including obvious hints to where the storyline is going.

The gold tickets connote through colour something that is rare and special, Burton has drawn special attention to them by placing them in such a low key lighted frame. Willy Wonka also taps the last golden ticket which connotes that there is something special about this ticket, making the audience wonder who will find it.

The on screen credits were also in gold which helped them to stand out, this metallic looking material looks like a gateway, this could connote the locked up and hidden away Wonka Factory which exists in the film. An alternative reading may be that is signifies the “gateway” into the film.

The non-diegetic soundtrack starts with just one instrument which then layers up to form a very high and” twangy” piece. It sounds sinister and tense. This is very common within Burton’s style as it helps to draw the audience in as it seems there is more to the movie that originally meets the eye. The diegetic sound has the purpose of making the audience believe they are in an actual chocolate factory; adding to the realism of the sequence.

The order of people within the opening sequence is very key, first the director who is a well-known director, then the name of a huge Hollywood star ‘Johnny Depp’ his name grabs the audience’s attention as he is seen as an amazing actor.

The sequence uses lots of shots which give a sense of journey, for example near the beginning we go down a pipe into a pool of swirling chocolate which makes the audience feel more involved. We may experiment with this idea as it makes the audience feel part of the sequence as if they are being let in on a secret, behind the scenes of the Wonka Factory.

The use of lighting is low key and therefore appears more gothic looking and adds to the eerie feel of the opening sequence; we shall be using low key lighting to achieve a similar purpose to make our sequence look more eerie. This sense of eerie makes it all seem very dreamlike, there is one scene with balloons floating down which makes it look very calming which contrasts with the tense music and gothic look of the sequence. The usage of snow outside of the factory makes it look fantasy and dream-like adding to the idea that this world is somewhere from a fantasy. This is something we will be using within our own opening sequence. 

ALICE IN WONDERLAND - Analysis

ALICE IN WONDERLAND (2010)

• The story is inspired by Lewis Carroll’s 1865 novel and is the second Disney adaptation, the first being a cartoon
• STARRING – Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover, Stephen Fry, Alan Rickman, Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall
• PRODUCED BY –  Richard D. Zanuck, Joe Roth, Suzanna Todd, Jenifer Todd
• STUDIO – Walt Disney Pictures, Roth Films, The Zanuck Company, Team Todd
• DISTRIBUTED BY – Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
•  RELEASE –  February 25^th 2010 (UK), March 5^th 2010 (US)
•  BUDGET - $150-$200million
• BOX OFFICE - $1,025,467,110

The opening sequence of this film does not contain any credits, only the name of the production companies and the movie title. It then goes straight into action with a flash back of Alice as a child. The first shot is an establishing shot, panning aerially over the dark houses where it finally settles on the bright window of an old looking house. This is evidently where we are supposed to look and inside will be our setting for the opening sequence. The first characters we are introduced to are Alice’s father and some of his business partners; we can tell when this film is set through their 19^th Century clothing and diegetic speech being of the period.

The props and setting also help to show when the time period as the props are old vintage looking, these props also reveal the class of the characters as the props appeared to be expensive and “posh” showing they are wealthy and therefore upper class. The added fact that the father is with business partners shows he is successful as well.

                The genre of the movie is well established in the opening through the mise-en-scene showing that it is a fantasy as the bright colours and exaggerated costumes are conventions of this genre. The genre of this film has changed with its target audience as the original ‘Alice in Wonderland’ was aimed at children but this later Tim Burton version contains elements of dark and horror in it making it suitable for those who grew up with the Disney classic cartoon of the original.

                The music is mysterious sounding and almost eerie which expresses the fact that this is not your usual fairy tale story. The non-diegetic soundtrack also plays with the idea of fantasy and normally fantasy films are combined with grand soundtracks. The non-diegetic music is replaced by the diegetic speech of the characters making it seem unfinished adding to a sense of foreboding.

                The director also uses framing to highlight Alice as the main character as she appears in the doorframe making her stand out as a character, emphasising the fact that she is the main character within the movie. We will be using this within our own sequence, highlighting the main character early on to make sure the audience knows who they are.

                They have also chosen to use editing and camera angles to show that Alice is a vulnerable character, by using a high angled shot on her when she is talking to her father through shot reverse shot. By using a shot reverse shot shows that she is less powerful than her father as a character, this adds to the idea that she is vulnerable, later to be challenged by her powerful character later on.

Tim Burton - Dark Fantasy

Dark Fantasy – Tim Burton

One of the most famous, if not the most famous, dark fantasy directors is Tim Burton. He is an American film director, producer, artist, writer, poet and stop motion artist. He is most well-known for his dark, gothic, macabre horror and fantasy films. His work is both capturing and creative. Much like out idea he has recently taken two classic films and novels and transformed them into a much more gothic style of fantasy. One being “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and the other being “Alice in Wonderland”. I have looked at both of his movie openings for these films and noted how his will help me when creating my own movie opening in this genre.

Planning and Brainstorming

Planning and brainstorming

I am going to work with Chelsea. I have chosen to work with her as during GCSE we worked together effectively and both exceeded our target grades due to us supporting one another. This pairing may cause problems as she does both art and photography and I do photography which are both heavily coursework based subjects, this may mean we both have points where doing media work is difficult to fit into both of our schedules. We should be able to overcome these if we make sure we always put time aside for media. Other than this I feel like Chelsea and I will work efficiently together, she is a superb camera man and I am good at the editing side of post-production. We also live near to one another so meeting up to film or edit won’t be too difficult.

We are trying to stay away from the main genres chosen for AS media tasks. This means we would prefer not to do horror or rom-com films as these are what most people do for their project and we want our work to stand out. So far we have considered fantasy, action adventure and apocalyptic films. These will be difficult to create given our lack of budget or equipment but we like to challenge ourselves constantly and find ways to overcome these problems.

Conventions wise we can be limited, especially as the genre’s we are considering sometimes lie heavily on some kind of computer generated image. However, we will try to overcome these by picking a genre which doesn’t reply on this convention as heavily. Other conventions will not be an issue, if we have any issues we will step back and look at the genre and see how these can be avoided.

We are each going to create a logo and name for two production companies. INSTERT WORK ON THAT HERE

After some thought we decided to do a gothic fantasy adaptation of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. Therefore the name would have to give away this, here’s what I came up with:

INSTERT BRAIN STORM and SURVEY HERE

As it is a gothic version of a fantasy and therefore will contain some images of horror we have decided to settle for a 12 BBFC rating, this means we have to follow these rules when creating the opening sequence, taken from the BBFC website:

•         Moderate physical and psychological threat is permitted at 12 or 12A as long as disturbing sequences are not too frequent or sustained.
•         Moderate violence is allowed but it should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if they can be justified by their context (for example brief sight of bloody injury in a medical drama).
•        Action sequences and weapons may be present at 12 or 12A, and there may be long fight scenes or similar. Weapons which might be easily accessible to 12 year olds should not be glamorised in 12A and 12 works.

·         The overall tone of a film or DVD, and the way it makes the audience feel may affect the classification. For example, a work which has a very dark or unsettling tone which could disturb the audience would be less likely to be passed 12A even if the individual issues in the film were considered acceptable under the BBFC guidelines. Similarly, if a work is particularly positive or reassuring this may stop it being pushed up a category from 12A to 15.

Our trailer will only show the main character, Little Red Riding Hood, this will make sure we do not need a lot of people to film our sequence which means there will be more points where we are available to film. It also means that the audience of the opening sequence does not reveal too much about the actual film so the enigma is still there. Also as it is based on a real storyline we do not need to introduce all of the characters as everyone already knows who is in the film. We have got permission from our actress to film and are currently just waiting on a filming date.

Market Overview SECONDARY RESEARCH

  This chart shows the ways in which audiences of different ages interact or watch the exhibition of films. It is split into age groups between 16 and over 55.  It shows the difference in the way different age groups interact with media, there is a definite change in some of the different forms of consumption as the chart progresses with age.

  Teenagers are represented with about 25% of them consuming with films using online software such as downloading, streaming or piracy. This slowly decreases along with age until it only represents a few % of the 55+ age group. This shows that teenagers have more accessibility to download film, there may be many contributing factors to this. Teenagers have a lack of money and therefore would be less likely to spend this money on purchasing films, they also have less time (due to fulltime education) to go out and watch or record films. Teenagers also have a wider access and knowledge of the internet and so can easily access streamed movies.

  This said however a large chunk of the teenagers (around 20%) in fact go to the cinema, this may be for socialisation purposes, to hang out with friends as it is a fairly cheep (around £8 a ticket) form of entertainment. The amount of people who go to the cinema does not change drastically over the progression of age. This may be because it is still accepted as an easy form of entertainment for all different ages of people.

  Something else which stays fairly even throughout the different ages of people is the number of people who receive DVD’s. This may be down to it being an easy gift to give to people for their birthdays or Christmas presents for all age groups. Renting and buying DVD also stays fairly similar which shows that these are fairly regular ways of viewing film throughout different age groups.

  Around 50% of 55+ year olds  view films through recorded TV, subscription TV or live TV. This may be to do with the fact that people retire soon after this age and so the majority of their day they have not a lot to do and so end up watching the films that are on day time TV. It is also assumed that they are not as familiar with the internet which is why a very low percentage of these people watch films via online sources.

This is important as our target audience interact with media through the internet, this means that our product will have to be accessible on these mediums, as it is very easy to just switch to another film while online compared to watching a movie in a cinema the opening sequence is specifically important in the success of the film and this is the point where an audience will either turn off the film or continue to watch.

  This chart shows why people tend to watch films. 76% of people said they watch films for pleasure and similarly 76% said they watched it for relaxation. This shows that films serve as a purpose to entertain but also make an audience relaxed. This means that overly complicated plots are not widely popular as they cannot make the audience relax whereas a simple movie will allow them to do so. This is something directors will have to take into account when creating their movie as the more effective a film is at doing these things increases its overall effectiveness.

  Focusing these groups down on gender and age showed that more females watch films for relaxation and men for pleasure. This may show that women have more stressful life styles as stereotypically they have to care for children as well as possibly work whereas men watch movies for pleasure to entertain them when they might otherwise be bored.

  Throughout age groups the most popular overall was watching films for pleasure however the age group 55+ watched films for relaxation slightly more than for pleasure. This may also be down to lifestyle as older people get tired out more easily and therefore need time to unwind, whereas other age groups of people who are mostly all in education or work watch movies as a source of entertainment and pleasure.

  The next most popular reason why people watched films was escapism, escaping from everyday life with around 62% of people agreeing with this. This is also a very good factor of movies to allow the audience to escape from their reality and enter a world where they no longer need to worry about their own problems. This is another technique used by many directors to create an effective film.  It is also proven effective as over half of the people questioned in this survey said they agreed with this.

  The lowest % of people was people watching films because they were passionate for them with only 40% of people agreeing with this. In comparison only 18% of people over 55 agreed with this statement, this may be because they have less connection with modern films, for example, some people may be passionate for comic book films as they have grown up reading the comics, people over a certain age loose interest in these things.

  53% of people between 16 and 24 watch movies because they are passionate for them, this may be down to again the idea that they have grown up with such stories and therefore want to watch the movies. This is something we will have to take into consideration with our young audience. 

This means that for our opening sequence we will have to be creating a product that mostly evokes pleasure in the audience. Something they find interesting and entertaining as it will also be used for them to relax and unwind from school or stress from school. We will also be throwing in elements of escapism to really help the audience to escape from school and from the stresses of everyday life. This is especially important for our audience who will be going through exams and therefore need this element of escapism and relaxation. 

This chart shows the % of people who enjoy watching certain genres of films. As you can see the most popular film genre given by the  people who were interviewed was comedy with 64% of people saying they enjoyed this genre. Although this I the highest, 64% is still not that high and so shows the massive variation people have in their favourite genre of films and what they enjoy watching. This is why film producers narrow down their audience to make it something which appeals for the people who mostly enjoy this genre. Although a teenage male may like a comedy, an older lady may not which is why the survey was then concentrated into different social groups.

  This chart shows the concentrated genres of people who consider different film genres their favourites. The survey was broken down into males younger than 35, males older than 25, females younger than 25, females older than 25. Whether they were parents or not as their social class. Comedy still appears to be the favourite genre of all different groups of people which means if you were to pick comedy as your genre of film you would have a difficult time picking a specific audience group to focus on.

  For our genre of fantasy it was preferred by women who were not parents of a middle class background, this mean this is the group we will have to focus down on during our own research. Although this survey states that it is women over 35 who prefer this genre other surveys we have look at told us that it was younger women who preferred this genre and therefore we are going to have to look into this a lot more through focus groups and researching individual people.

  As our movie will be dark fantasy and therefore contain elements associated with horror films we are going to be looking at horror film audience as well. According to this survey they are most popular with younger women, this is equally spread out depending on if they have children or not and they are again mostly middle class. This means we will be definitely focusing down on this audience as a focus point. 

HOW WE WILL USE THIS RESEARCH
This research supports our planning as we now understand fully what our audience would want to see within an opening sequence. It gives us a real incite into what we are dealing with when it comes to audience, how to attract them and interest them enough to make them want to continue watching the movie. 

The conventions of Gothic/ Dark Fantasy movies

The conventions of Gothic/ Dark Fantasy movies

Gothic/ dark fantasy is basically the same as conventions of a fantasy movie but combined with elements of horror and thriller movies. The conventions therefore are just a mixture of both genres combined together. Fantasy movies tend to have simplistic storylines, this is done as introducing mythical beasts and supernatural elements can make a movie very complicated when added to a complex storyline. Horror movies also have simplistic storylines, this is done to make the audience think they know what is going to happen and therefore allows the writer to add in more jump scares and other thinks which make the audience afraid. Horror movies also normally take place in the real world where nothing is really too complicated. Therefore, the genre of dark fantasy normally contains a simple storyline like a fairy tale or other type of simplistic script. Our own movie will be following the fairy tale story of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ this is a commonly known story and therefore a simplistic storyline, this will allow us to spend more time on complicated characters so they audience doesn’t get confused.

Another convention of gothic/ dark fantasy is it is normally set in a make believe world, fantasy is the same however horror is normally set in normal places like a city or wood. This means when choosing a setting for dark fantasy it should be make believe and “magical” but have some kind of realism involved. Woods are common settings for dark fantasy as they are simplistic but can be made to appear magical. Woods also supply a timeless feel as woods have existed throughout history and therefore set no specific time period on the movie, this again is done because in this mythical world the time period normally is not as important. A good example of a gothic fantasy setting is Wonderland from Tim Burton’s remake of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ this is an imaginary world which is a timeless looking forest area, the setting adds to the characters as it reflects how odd they are. For our own opening sequence we will be basing it in a wood, we may add things to the setting to make it look more magical and mystical such as snow or various other magical looking things.

Mythical beasts are also another convention of gothic/ dark fantasy. Normally the main character is a human, they may have some kind of magical power but they are normally an ordinary person in a magical world, again referring back to ‘Alice in Wonderland’, Alice herself is a normal girl who finds herself in a very odd world. The other characters are normally some kind of mythical beasts, for example talking animals, or monsters, some of which are taken from Greek mythology. Common examples of mythical beasts used are dragons, centaurs or elves. As we are basing our film on the story of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ we shall be making Little Red Riding Hood herself a normal person, the wolf (although you will not see him in the title sequence) will be our mythical beast, a talking animal, larger looking that normal wolves, like a large mutant wolf.

A very common convention of a fantasy movie is the idea of ‘Good VS Evil’ there is always a defined good guy and bad guy. In gothic fantasy films this idea still exists but sometimes it isn’t as much of a present theme, we have our hero but as it is dark sometimes there are no defined good and bad side to add to the air of mystery within the movie. In our opening sequence we are shown our main character; however it does not give away if she is a good or bad character. This makes the audience want to carry on watching so that they can find out if she is good or evil.

Analysis of Survey on Audience

We created a survey, using Survey Monkey, to find out different factors of audience and what they would want out of a movie. Here is a hyperlink leading to our results and exploration of the results:

Analysis of survey monkey results from rebecky69

What Makes an Effective Title Sequence - Video Discussion

In this video we discuss what makes an effective title sequence, using our internet research and examples we have watched. Using this we were able to narrow down what we would like to do with our own opening sequence.

Ideas for Opening Sequence

Before making an crucial decisions we outlined all the most effective types of opening sequence we could create. We watched over 50 film openings and picked which were the favorites and which ones we found most effective in drawing us, as an audience, in. This is also helpful because we are our own target audience and thus we know which type of movie will draw said audience in.

We surrounded each idea with some examples, building up lots of ideas. We finally ruled out 'animated' as we would not have the available technology to do this. We also cut out a 'chase scene' as many of these were done in cars or other modes of transport and therefore we would not be able to complete these. We also explored the idea of a 'Journey' opening which shows the journey of an object or character who is crucial to the plot. We may use this as our opening.

BFI Film Industry Day

BFI FILM INDUSTRY DAY

On the 21^st of November our AS media class went to a study day held at the BFI Film Industry. I found this day both informative and enjoyable. We learnt a lot about how to make an effective film opening, looking at examples and analysing them. We looked at the amount of time and effort which goes into a few short minuets of a film, how crucial these opening moments are to help express the genre, character, setting, atmosphere and narrative of the film. We looked at which job titles appear in the opening credits and which did not. Those which did not appear in the opening credits would appear on the tail credits. Some of the job titles that are shown in the head titles are designer, make-up, costume, editor and music.

We also looked at a few different student made pieces of coursework and decided as a collective group what grades they got for them, this helped me to understand what I should include in my film opening to get my goal grade. We were reminded to always try to include some of the five titles: genre, character, setting, atmosphere and narrative.

We also had two question and answer sessions. One of these was held with a vsx Supervisor called Simon Frame and the other was with a producer called Jake Hume. Simon Frame taught us about all the names which are expected to appear within the opening credits and how long making an effective set of opening credits can cost. He showed us a set of opening credits which he help create and told us the process of creating them. From the session with Jake Hume we learnt the stages required to make a low budget film. I found out that you have to have permission for settings within a film and that this can be really difficult to do. He also told us about the main things needed to make an effective movie ‘PPPC’ standing for; people, places, props and costumes. We were also told to take pictures of any possible locations to put onto our blogs and discuss why we did or didn’t use this location.

In the last session ‘make your own film opening’ we were told you have to keep evidence of absolutely everything you do while creating your film opening and put is all onto you blog. We were also told about a skill called ‘Foley’ which is basically re-creating every sound within the film again; this allows a better quality sound or audio.

The day was very enjoyable and went by extremely fast, I learnt a lot during this day about all the different elements which we should include when creating a title sequence. I think this day has helped me further my understanding of how to make a title sequence and therefore I can higher my grade by using the skills and techniques we were taught.

The History of Opening Credits

The history of opening credits from rebecky69

Extensive research on jobs which appear in credits

Common opening credits order:

This is the original basis for a films credit, these aren’t true for every movie, sometimes the change the order slightly but this is the principle lay out.

·         Name of studio – The name of the production studio or distribution company is normally the first thing we see on a movie. Sometimes it just contains the name of the company, other times it shows a logo (for example the Disney castle)

·         Name of the production company – normally a group of companies invest into the making of a film so their names would follow after a title such as “In association with…” or “A … production”

·         Producer or directors name – “A film by…” or “A … film”

·         Starring, main actors – Shows the names of the principal actors, mostly the main stars, for example is a well know Hollywood actor, for example Johnny Depp, is in a movie his name would appear here.

·         Featuring- other actors, normally not as well know. Normally two or three names appear on the same credit.

·         Films title – this can appear in many different points in a movie but mostly in this place, sometimes it appears before the actors names or right at the end just after the directors name has appeared.

·         Casting by – the casting director(s).

·         Music by – the composer of the films music of who created the original score.

·         Production designer – these vary dependant on the genre of film but can include:

o   SET DESIGN

o   COSTUMES or COSTUMES BY or GOWNS (older movies)

o   HAIRDRESSER

o   MAKE-UP ARTIST

o   SOUND RECORDING (older movies)

o   VISUAL EFFECTS DIRECTOR or VISUAL EFFECTS BY

·         Editor – who edited the movie

·         Director of photography

·         Producer/ produced by/ executive producer – sometimes contains the co- producers. “Also produced by”  

·         Based on the book/ character by – if it is based on a novel of some kind their name will appear here, similarly if the film is based on a character, for example from a comic book, the characters creator’s name will be here.

·         Writers/ written by – who wrote the screenplay

·         Director! – normally only one director, their credit is show last.