Reasearch on film opening

Our group decided to go for a discrete film opening so i began researching more discrete openings. The film 'The number 23' is a drama/mystery thriller. I like how the titles come in with the numbers so it seems like there part of it rather than the titles being placed randomly. I also like that the cuts are quite fast. The music is quite mysterious and every time the beat changes a cut is made. The movie 'Se7en' is a drama/crime thriller. I like this opening better than 'The number 23' because it has filming in it which i feel makes it more interesting. Unlike 'the number 23' the titles in 'se7en' get presented on a black screen quickly. The sound used in this opening is also quite mysterious and freaky.

Research into Film Openings

In class whilst researching discrete title sequences, I noticed that 'Number 23' and 'Se7en' were both made and/or released by 'New Line Cinema' film studio. This made me want to research further into the company and whether they have more films they have made/released that use similar title sequences.

Arlington Road

We had footages of Arlington Road opening and we had to put it together, it didn't have to be the correct order but what we thought would make a good opening. Once we finished putting our shots together we realised we had it in the same order as the exact same film. We then had to go out and make our own sounds to fit with the opening. This was good practise for when we make our opening.

Final Prelim Edit

Prelim

Prelim Bloopers

Prelim Editing Process

180 Degrees Film Recording Rule

The 180 degree film recording rule is a basic guideline in which two characters or objects in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary line connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle. This rule is ideally for al filming scenes, especially conversations.

Law Abiding Citizen opening

The opening of this thriller is very good. At the beginning the father (Gerard Butler) is with his daughter and she is making a bracelet. This creates innocence and a nice gentle open to the movie. Then there is a knock at the front door and the father opens it and gets attacked by a baseball bat. This makes the film more interesting because a bit of action is happening and the audience is drawn into the movie. His wife enters and the father see's his wife getting thrown into a cabinet and stabbed. This makes us feel the fathers pain of sadness and anger because he witnesses his wife getting murdered and he is lying their tied up not able to do anything. The audience feels upset because his innocent daughter gets taken away. the opening gave us an introduction to the main character. although he becomes the bad guy by killing people, we feel sorry for him throughout the film. The plot of the movie is 'A frustrated man decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets one of his family's killers free. He targets not only the killer but also the district attorney and others involved in the deal.' I enjoyed this movie because you had to focus while watching it. The movie created a lot of suspense and tension.

the three main film openings used are 'discrete opening', 'narrative opening' and 'stylised opening'.

Discrete Opening

A Narrative Opening 

Stylised Opening

Student Opening Review

I like this opening because it is very well done, i think by looking at this that it is an action/thriller. The opening is well edited and the soundtrack goes well with the clip. One thing i wouldve changed is when the guy in the phone booth is talking and we see his face. They shouldve kept his face secret so the viewer didnt know who it was. Other than that it is a very good opening.

The 180 Degree rule

In filmmaking, the 180° rule is a basic guideline that states that two characters in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle.

Inception -movie research

The movie Inception is one of my favourite films. It's an action adventure and sci-fi film which is written, co-produced and directed by Christopher Nolan. It has a good cast which includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ellen Page. It is a very confusing film and takes a lot of concentration however i like that about it. The film is about a cooperate spy and thief Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) who performs illegal corporate espionage by entering the subconscious minds of their targets with his business partner Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). This allows them to go into a dream with people and go into a dream within a dream. Dreamers can be woken up by a sudden shock. The storyline is different to other films which is why i like it, it's unique.

student research

Stephanie Attoh, Sakib Khan, Tahmid Rahman, Edit Petkova

This video is a previous groups beginning of a thriller. It uses a discrete title sequence which separates it from the movie in a way. The credits are shown separately from the film with a black background to them however they fade in and out very nicely. They include 2 members of the the cast, the girl is clearly the main character who has murdered the boy. The boy isn't alive however may still be very important in film. They also include the names of the editor, music, casting and the name of the film. The music used goes well with the scene and brings tension to the audience. Different types of shots are also used which makes it interesting and the different short shots which makes the audience know something is wrong. They have used intertextuality very well from the movie psycho. They have the white bathroom tiles, white shower curtain and white bath tub. I like how they kept cutting shots showing the duck in the water while the girl was getting ready, it created a sense of innocence. We then get revealed of the boy laying in the bath tub dead which we then realise the girl isn't innocent.

different types of structure of a film opening.

There are 3 main types of film openings:

-Narrative opening: this type of opening is the most common and goes straing into the story of the film. we get an introduction to the main characters, setting genre etc. This get's the viewers attention straight away because when it is used in a thriller something importent has usually happened.

-Discrete opening: With a discrete title sequence there isn't much information revealed. You don't get introduced to main characters and nothing revealed about the storyline.

-Credits over a blank screen: This opening basically has the titles infront of a plain black background. 

-Stylized opening: This opening is a mix between the two narrative and discrete. There may be an introduction to the main characters but it won't reveal a lot of information. These opening may also use quite a lot of special effects. They could also be very sophisticated.

Preliminary Recording (Flip Cam)

Filming from actors perspective. 

And again.

aaron practising chair spin.

'Wheres my money' scene.

Money and drug scene.

mistake in acting.

another one lol.

Preliminary Recording Photos

Preliminary Story Board

Knowledge on different film opening

There are 3 main structures to title sequences; the discrete title sequence, the title sequence wehere the titles appear over a black screen, then the film begins, and the title sequence which appears over the start of the film.

Discrete Titles

Discrete title sequences are separately edited sequences that stand apart from the film opening. They are stylised and heavily edited, and they support nearly all of the opening credits and film title. The example below is the film Arlington Road which is edited. The edits and the titles put together make it a discrete title opening.

Narrative Title Opening

A narrative opening is when the titles in the opening go over the beginning of a scene/film. This opening is one of the most common openings as it doesn't take as long as a Stylised title opening or a Discrete title opening. An example of a Narrative title opening is well shown in the opening of The Panic Room. They also use a few edits in this title opening such as making some of the title have a 3D effect.

Titles On A Blank Screen

Titles on a blank screen are not as common but have the potential of being the easiest type of film title opening to produce. In the example below there are only around 30 seconds of titles. Titles on a blank screen in this case are very plain and simple. 

I have researched film openings and found that some films also have a combination of title openings. One of these combinations was starting with a blank screen title opening not introducing actors, the film would then start and as the characters appeared their names would come up.


Stylised editing title opening


A stylised edited title opening is an opening that has a lot of editing. This is the hardest type of title opening to do. It needs loads more organisation, good ideas and editing. The example below shows a very good stylised edited title opening that has loads of edits and even has subliminal messages that give off ideas what the film will be about. The edits on the titles look like tubes giving off a message it will be about tubes/the underground, when these edits happen there is also a sound of a train horn to signify what it is.

Student Research

Student Research

This AS student Media thriller opening is well structured. The sounds in it cause the eeryness towards the end. Also they use voices of people sounding hesitant to bring the thrill. They structured the opening well by starting of by making the audience think it is a normal opening. Near the end you start getting an idea that its a thriller opening. On the other hand i would've changed a few things firstly the lighting would've been changed to make it look more eery and give it more of a thrill. Also the music wasn't thrilling except the voices at the end so that should've been improved.

Film Openings

In class we looked at a few different film openings and learnt that there are different types: Discrete, Narrative and Stylized.

Discrete Titles:

In a discrete title sequence, it is as if it is separate from the film. There isn't any introduction to main characters like there is in a narrative opening and no information is given away about the storyline. Examples of a discrete title sequence are Enemy of the State and Se7en. A discrete title sequence uses lots of special effects.

Narrative Opening:

A narrative opening takes us straight into the story and special effects are rarely used. We get introduced to the character and location. Examples of these are The Shining & Panic Room.

Stylized Opening:

A stylized opening is a mix between a narrative opening and a discrete opening. These openings use quite a lot of special effects but we also get a brief intro to the main characters. Taking of Pelham 123 is a good example of this.

Final Edit of Arlington Road

Editing Process

Flip Recording Of Making Sounds




Recording Of Making (Running) Sound

We used a JVC 8 video recorder with a microphone to pick up the different sounds. This video shows us recording the sound of running that we edited into the opening of Arlington Road. Our version of the opening of Arlington Road will be posted up when finished.

This is a video of after recording the sounds.

Pictures from sound recording

Recording footsteps

Recording heavy breathing

Recording van engine

Recording van engine

Recording van radio

Recording footsteps

Recording running footsteps

Recording running footsteps

North by north west opening

North by north west has a Discrete title sequence. It has no actors in the title sequence and it has a variety of lines crossing each other. The titles then appear on a building with a 3D affect.

FDA Year Book

1)     How many suspense films were released in 2010? 38 suspense films were created in 2010

2)     In total, how much did these suspense films take, gross, to the nearest million? £42,000,000

3)     Which genre of film had the highest gross in 2010? Action/Adventure

4)     What was the most popular family genre in 2010? Action/Adventure

Intertextuality

The same white tiles in the shower scene in 'what lies beneath' and the same sound of the shower pouring down , as the one in Pyscho.