Target Audience/Certificate

For our thriller opening sequence our target audience will be 15-25 year olds. We decided the target audience after taking into account the genre of our film, plot/summary and the events. Therefore our film being a thriller about an epidemic it is suitable for this age range. A younger age range would mean that it may be confusing as there is no particular chronological order of events in the sequence. Our sequence does not contains nudity, discriminatory language and actions, frequent strong language, sexual violence or strong horror scenes so it is not necessary to rate it 18 years of age or above.

Our film sequence is most likely to be classified as a 15 by the BBFC meaning that it is suitable for the viewing of 15 year olds and over.




The following information is taken of the BBFC site (http://www.sbbfc.co.uk/categories_15) :

What sort of issues might I find in a ‘15’ film, DVD or video game?

‘15’ works are stronger than '12' or ‘12A’ rated works and could include any of the following:

• strong violence
• frequent strong language (eg 'f***').
• portrayals of sexual activity
• strong verbal references to sex
• sexual nudity
• brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
• discriminatory language or behaviour
• drug taking

Occasionally there may be uses of the strongest terms (eg 'c***'), although continued aggressive use will not normally be passed at ‘15’. For more detailed information on the ‘15’ category click here to read the BBFC guidelines

The most recent film to be classified as a 15 by the BBFC is 'Date Night'. It contains moderate sex references and one use of strong language.

Evaluation questions

These are the questions that have to be included in our powerpoint evaluations :

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Opening Titles

Just before we started filming, I decided to try and make a title opening.

I started by creating the text and image on Adobe Photoshop CS3.
Next I imported them into Final Cut Express and edited them with a few fades and ended up with the finished screenshot below.














I then added a soundtrack underneath the opening which is shown in the screengrab below.










Which finally resulted in the end product, shown in the video below.

The Road Opening Titles

The Road is a 2009 action thriller directed by John Hillcoat. It is an post-apocalyptic film set in North America. After a unnamed cataclysm which destroys all civilization and nearly all life on Earth, a father and son attempt to move south to warmer climates or possible sines of life elsewhere.

Sound

In the first few seconds of the opening titles, the sounds are reflective or the idyllic background. Calming peaceful noises like birds singing and soft piano. The sounds of animals such as the birds singing, a dog barking and the horse breathing heavily reflect how the setting is filled with life and emphasises significant signs of civilisation. The music changes dramatically in the scene when the man wakes up in the middle of the night. It switches from soft calming sounds to loud rumbeling ones. Both diagetic and non-diagetic sounds are used. For example sounds like screaming and shouting from outside and deep rumbles (all very opposite to the ones, earlier in the titles). Sound is used well to build up the tension when the camera shots flash from the worried close up face of the women to the sleeping dirty one of the man. Once again, non-diagetic sounds such as deep rumbeling and the wind wherring violently are used to give the audience the feeling of emptyness.

Camerawork

In the beginning of the sequence there are a number of flash camera shots, mostly of the garden and beautiful trees and plants. There is a close up of vivid colorful flowers and a bright yellow tree in the garden of a home. These images introduce the comforting and radiant depiction with the sun shinning crisp and clear. The audience are straight away made to feel relaxed and in a pleasant ambiance. Next there are flash close ups of a blonde pregnant women smiling and a man patting a horse. He is very affectionate and gentle towards the animal, showing he is passionate about the environment and other living creatures. All the way through the first opening scene the camera shots have great significance on the rest of the film, lots of closeups on a turned on light and a door slowly closing. These are metaphorically important, with the light showing there is electricity and the door , secuirty. After the scene in the middle of the night, the camera uses a crayne shot of the man and boy sleeping rough with dirty clothes and bedding. Just before the titles THE ROAD appear on screen, there is an over shoulder shot of the man standing overlooking the decelate hills.

Mise en scene

The background for a majority of the opening titles is particularly amicable and tranquil. The variety of clear stunning pictures of different plants help with the portrayal of this image. Fantastic flowers with vivid visual colours on a stunning backdrop. Because the women has a glowing appearance it reflects her healthiness and being pregnant magnifies the perfectness of these scenes. Her being pregnant helps build the characters up with great effect. In the scene where the man wakes in the night, alot of the background is particularly different. Outside the windows there is fire and red light, this portrays danger. This is duplicated in the very last shot when the man looks at the surrounding landscape, which is particularly symbolic in connection with the first minute of titles but it is at the other end of extreme. Now there is no life, the trees are bare, the clouds are dark and everything is bleek. The contrast between these shots set more of the storyline and engage the audience, making them want to watch more of the movie.

Storyboard

This is a picture of a close up shot of the main character in our sequence. It is then last shot of the sequence because it will make the audience want to carry on watching the film, as it builds suspense and generates questions.

This is the first sheet of our story board. It includes various medium shots of Cambridge, busy areas and shots of newspapers illustrating swine flu, this gives away clues to the narrative.



The last sheet of our story board is mostly empty areas of Cambridge which is contrasting to the first part of our sequence. We will try and show drastic changes between the first and last part of the sequence as this will give away clues to the narrative.

We will try and use our story board as a guideline for our filming so that we make sure that everything is in order and we stick to our idea.

Developing final idea

The images below where some that I found on the internet. As our film was based on Swine flu, i have saved some images of headlines based around swine flu. I think it would be a good idea to include these inn our film to try to explain the narrative.

Soundtrack Experiment

As we got closer to shooting the film I decided I should start to contemplate making a suitable soundtrack for our sequence. This was just an experiment to create a disorientating feel and to see how easy it would be.

After some feedback, I have realised that this track may be too complicated and the Thriller should have a more simplistic soundtrack to fit it, otherwise the two will differ too much.

Overall this experience has helped me with GarageBand and helped me realise that a soundtrack does not have to be complicated to be effective.



Screengrab of Soundtrack

Taken Opening Titles

Taken is a 2008 action thriller with Liam Neeson as one of the main roles. Neesons daughter Kim played by Maggie Grace goes travelling around Europe with a friend and gets captured by slave traders while in Paris, France. The main plot of the film is of Brian, (Liam Neeson) a former CIA operative pursuing his daughters captors and her freedom. Both of the young girls are captured by the Albanian Mafia who are significantly involved with the illegal sex trade in Paris.

Mise en scene

The beginning of the opening titles starts with Twentieth Century Fox fading onto the screen,slowly moving centrally and then fading out to a black screen. The setting for a considerable period of the opening titles is the kitchen of this American family. It has a regular family and homely feeling, where it is evident for the audience to acknowledge the love and warmth within the room. Also the footage of the girl opening her present is particularly colourful but when the man wakes up in his room, it is gloomy. The difference between these two settings is particularly vivid, due to the quick flash camera shot. Moving from a pleasant and happy perfect picture to a dark dingy depressing image.

Sound

When the young girl is opening her present, there is a high pitched eery music which is integrated into the sequence. A slow piano comes in to create the sense of emotion. The music is connected with the footage, it's an old family movie, and the music reflects this because it creates a sense of remembrance and emotion. As the girl opens her present, the mother is asking the girl if she likes her gift, she replies with elation. The girls all the way through is laughing with excitement.

Camerawork

In the opening titles the camera style is a hand held shooting, to create the image of a home movie. This style of filming emphasises the amateur effect with the home movie style, this provides the realistic footage. As the girl opens the present with frantic excitement, the camera zooms in to show the joyfulness on her face. The camera shots from then on are in a fast flash sequence, the girl has a birthday cake brought to the table and then she is seen blowing the candle out. Following this, just as she blows the candle, the image dramatically and effectively flashes to a man asleep on a sofa in a dark room. These rapid shot changes result are successful in building tension and drama. Contrasting images of the bright family kitchen to a bleak lonely room is clever and creative. Before the TAKEN titles appear on screen, the man turns on the light and walks out of the room. To conclude this scene, there are two extreme close ups,one, a framed picture of a girl and the other a karaoke machine in a catalogue. The picture of the girl has already got the audience engaged, because they can connect the young girl and the one in the picture frame. Also all of these camera shots , of the young girl and the picture frame set the scene and characters of the film well.

Planning for filming

Costume
There are currently no characters starring in our opening sequence, but if we do have characters the costume will be kept to casual clothing. With conventional long black coat or big black boots.

Props
The props that we may need are clothing ( black long coat or boots) if we decide to have a character in our sequence. We are going


Lighting- effect & equipment
I think we should try ans achieve low key lighting when wee show Cambridge as empty. And high key lighting when there is people to show life and action.

Sound
Sound effects will be used in our sequence to create suspense.
Sound effects such as wind to emphasize lifeless atmosphere in the beginning of the film.

Make up/ hair
The character that may star in the film will have to look scruffy and carefree.

List of equipment
Camera , Tripod , Microphone,

Times and Dates you want to film, including a back up plan

Monday 8th February - 3:25 after college
Tuesday 9th February - 9:00 before college

Wednesday 10th February - 2:00 after college
Thursday 11th February - 4:10 after college

Locations
For the first part of our film we need to film deserted areas of Cambridge. So we are going to try and find quite areas around Cambridge during the day.
Some ideas for locations include:
-Addenbrookes underground path
-Street near the train station
-Train station bike areas
-Quiet streets after the train station near mill road








For the last part of our film we need to film busy areas of Cambridge to emphasis busy atmosphere and link it to the first part of the film.
Some ideas of the locations included the following:
-Town centre
-Grand arcade
-Parkers peace
- Station



These are a few places in that we are thinking of using to film the busy shots of Cambridge









Production Roles

Camera - Londie Ncube

Sound Editor - Lewis Shepherd

Director - Ben Shimmens

Editor - Ben Shimmens

Location Manager - Alex Irvine

Test photos/ footage

We used footage like this, as we wanted long panning shots, and also shots that gave the feeling that the place was deserted.