On the 13th
November my media studies class went on a school trip to the British Film
Institution (BFI) for a workshop on making film openings. It was a massive help
for our AS media coursework as creating an opening sequence and titles will be
our task. The day consisted of talks from Pete Fraser and Q&A sessions with
Simon Frame and Joe Cornish.
Pete Fraser started the day talking about the investigation and research part of our coursework. He told us about 5 key features we should consider when planning:
- Genre
- Narrative (enigma)
- Character
- Atmosphere
- Setting
He then gave us some tips/steps to use when we start looking into making the film opening.
1. Start general, don't limit yourself to one genre or style of film
2. Then home in on one specific genre and look at other relevant film openings too.
3. Make sure the research you do is focused on your chosen genre and relevant
We watched a few opening sequences to films ('Catch me if you can', 'Dawn of the Dead', and 'Napoleon Dynamite'). Pete Fraser asked us to watch the openings and makes quick notes on the 5 key features. We then discussed it with the people around us and a few students shared their ideas with the rest of us.
Here are my notes on 'Dawn of the Dead':
Genre: Zombie Horror
Narrative:
Character: only an introductory, no central character introduced yet. More about what it is and who it affects. Shows people who are clearly from a different cultural backgrounds to show what's happening is on a global scale.
Atmosphere: quick cut editing so that we can't see exactly what is going on, it doesn't tell the whole story in the opening. Shows news report in the opening, nothing good ever gets on the news, shows something bad has happened. The song used in the opening was 'Rapture' by Johnny Cash, the song juxt opposes the opening as it sounds like a happy song but the clearly isn't going to be a joyful one. The lyrics are about the religious end of the world, this foreshadows the film.
Setting: There was different global settings in the opening, this shows it is a film about the whole world however, it showed the white house many times suggesting it is mainly focussed in America.
Although the Q&A sessions were VERY interesting they weren't completely relevant to us because they were more about the filming as a whole and they were on a much larger scale (bigger budget, more actors, more equipment etc.)
The last session was again run by Pete Fraser. This session was purely about our opening sequences and was very valuable to us. We watched previous work submitted by candidates and Pete gave us a quick analysis on them and told us what level they were and why. He also gave us some helpful tips about our titles:
- The directors name should always go last
- We shouldn't use the word 'starring'
- Don't include our candidate number next to our names
- Try not to show all our title at the same time, spread them throughout the opening
He also told us about the 6 most common openings and 6 common problem often sound with openings.
1. Saw (a victim tied up in a shed)
2. Scream (a hooded stalker)
3. Se7en
4. Lock, Stock (gangsters)
5. Waking up
6. Flashbacks or Flash forwards
- Making the opening too much like a trailer or short film
- Not including enough titles
- poor sound or lighting
- poorly directed actors
- Making the storyline too complicated or confusing
- Doing one of the most common openings badly
Finally, Pete gave us details about our opening sequences and the marking, He told us about 9 main steps we need to think about when filming our opening sequences.
Task: To film the opening, with titles, of a new, fiction film.
The sequence should be up to two minutes long. 20 marks will be awarded for research and planning, 60 marks for the construction and 20 marks for the evaluation.
Step 1: Take Stock Build up your skills
Pete Fraser started the day talking about the investigation and research part of our coursework. He told us about 5 key features we should consider when planning:
- Genre
- Narrative (enigma)
- Character
- Atmosphere
- Setting
He then gave us some tips/steps to use when we start looking into making the film opening.
1. Start general, don't limit yourself to one genre or style of film
2. Then home in on one specific genre and look at other relevant film openings too.
3. Make sure the research you do is focused on your chosen genre and relevant
We watched a few opening sequences to films ('Catch me if you can', 'Dawn of the Dead', and 'Napoleon Dynamite'). Pete Fraser asked us to watch the openings and makes quick notes on the 5 key features. We then discussed it with the people around us and a few students shared their ideas with the rest of us.
Here are my notes on 'Dawn of the Dead':
Genre: Zombie Horror
Narrative:
Character: only an introductory, no central character introduced yet. More about what it is and who it affects. Shows people who are clearly from a different cultural backgrounds to show what's happening is on a global scale.
Atmosphere: quick cut editing so that we can't see exactly what is going on, it doesn't tell the whole story in the opening. Shows news report in the opening, nothing good ever gets on the news, shows something bad has happened. The song used in the opening was 'Rapture' by Johnny Cash, the song juxt opposes the opening as it sounds like a happy song but the clearly isn't going to be a joyful one. The lyrics are about the religious end of the world, this foreshadows the film.
Setting: There was different global settings in the opening, this shows it is a film about the whole world however, it showed the white house many times suggesting it is mainly focussed in America.
Although the Q&A sessions were VERY interesting they weren't completely relevant to us because they were more about the filming as a whole and they were on a much larger scale (bigger budget, more actors, more equipment etc.)
The last session was again run by Pete Fraser. This session was purely about our opening sequences and was very valuable to us. We watched previous work submitted by candidates and Pete gave us a quick analysis on them and told us what level they were and why. He also gave us some helpful tips about our titles:
- The directors name should always go last
- We shouldn't use the word 'starring'
- Don't include our candidate number next to our names
- Try not to show all our title at the same time, spread them throughout the opening
He also told us about the 6 most common openings and 6 common problem often sound with openings.
1. Saw (a victim tied up in a shed)
2. Scream (a hooded stalker)
3. Se7en
4. Lock, Stock (gangsters)
5. Waking up
6. Flashbacks or Flash forwards
- Making the opening too much like a trailer or short film
- Not including enough titles
- poor sound or lighting
- poorly directed actors
- Making the storyline too complicated or confusing
- Doing one of the most common openings badly
Finally, Pete gave us details about our opening sequences and the marking, He told us about 9 main steps we need to think about when filming our opening sequences.
Task: To film the opening, with titles, of a new, fiction film.
The sequence should be up to two minutes long. 20 marks will be awarded for research and planning, 60 marks for the construction and 20 marks for the evaluation.
Step 1: Take Stock Build up your skills
- Build up your research
- Build up your planning
- Allow time to shoot and edit
- Keep evidence throughout the
task
Step 2: Set up a blog
- Post anything you do on your
blog
Step 3: Build up skills
- Learn from your preliminary
task
- Use a range of camera angles
and skills
Step 4: Investigate
- What do film openings look
like
- Look at a range of genres
- Look at other students work
Step 5: Brainstorm Ideas
- Pitches
- Mood board treatments
- Feedback
- Be realistic
Step 6: Planning
- The more planning, the less
problems
- Experiment
- Examples of props, costumes,
shots etc.
- Storyboard (use post it
notes)
- Logistics
Step 7: The shoot
- People, places, props,
costume
- Rehearsing, directing
- Equipment and jobs on the
day
- Keeping a record of the process
Step 8: Editing
- Everyone have a go
- Screen grabs
- Audio and titles
- Foley (the art of putting
sound in sync with movement)
- Rough cut deadline and peer feedback
·
The big picture before the final details
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