Font for our opening titles

We decided to focus our font on our main character in order to fit the overall plot of our film opening. Therefore, we looked for a font that resembled child-like writing. This would represent her current state of mind, as it is a bit 'all over the place' and not well structured- like the font.
We found this style of text on http://www.dafont.com and we all agreed that it was exactly what we were looking for.

Production company

As a group we decided that we wanted to include a production company to our film opening. One of the most memorable production openings we could think of was Metro Goldwyn Mayer's.

We tried to think how we could remake it and i thought of the perfect actress for this role: my dog. 

We then decided that the ring could be created out of cardboard so we cut one ring and one half-ring out of cardboard, painted them yellow, then painted our production company 'Hatchi productions' on to the half ring. 

We also decided that after my dog barks/howls,  we'd say "Hatchi productions presents". 

Change to our title

After watching back our 'trapped' reverse shot for our title, we decided that it wasn't exactly how we had imagined it would be. It didn't really seem to fit our plot either, as it didn't match with any of our other shots and it seemed that we had just chucked it into our film opening without thinking about it. Therefore, we have decided to just have our title appear in text on our footage through editing. This also meant we could decide exactly how we want it and have it fit with our opening titles.

Final day of filming

Today we shot the additional scene that we decided on. This involved the blood on Mehreen's hands. For this we used fake blood we purchased from the costume shop. It was quite hard to match the idea we had in our heads as the blood didn't seem real enough. Therefore we kept adding the blood until we were happy with how it looked and then we began filming.
The shots were somewhat challenging as we were showing a new part of the room  and we wanted to replicate exactly what we had visioned.We thought the best way to do this was with a pan, but it didn't seem quite right. So we tried filming the shot in a different way, this time involving handheld camera work, in order to portray her state of mind a bit better.
We all agreed that this worked much better so we continued to film these scenes using the same handheld camera work in order to ensure continuity.

Addition to plot

As a group we decided to look over our footage and discuss how we thought our filming was going thus far. All three of us agreed that there seemed to be something missing, something that would help our film stand out and make the audience want to continue watching in order to find out the overall plot. We all came up with ideas of what could be included that fits with our plot ideas that we already have. One of our ideas was to incorporate the ideas of the main characters mental health and further push our genre of psychological thriller. We decided that we could do this by involving blood on her hands, which is also a reference to Macbeth. The blood on her hands also links in well with our plot which may not be completely clear for the opening, but if our film was to continue- it would become clear.
Therefore, we decided that we were going to film Mehreens reactions of the flashbacks occurring twice; once with blood on her hands and once without. This would mean we can glitch backwards and forwards between the two shots while the same routine is going on (Mehreen washing her hands- to get the blood off)

Third day of filming

On our third day of filming we followed on from our second day by filming the continuing shots from where we had left off in the plot. This included overhead shots and linking low shots that would later be cross cutted to provide a continuous flow within our opening.
We also put together and filmed our title "Trapped". 

Naming our film opening

We decided on the name "Trapped" for our film opening as it links to her current physical situation as she is currently in a mental asylum and it also links to her mental health as she is now feeling trapped following the incident and how she is being treated and portrayed.
We have decided that we are going to do a reverse shot for the title by incorporating tablets. We are going to lay the tablets out to spell "Trapped" then throw more on top, then reverse it in order to make it seem as though the tablets were thrown down and spelled out "Trapped" themselves.
We are using tablets as our main character would be on medication hence the hospital setting, due to her mental health.

Second day filming

On our second day of filming we mainly focused our filming around the chair as we have many shots involving this area. We began by filming the undershot from inside a bag with the photo frame looking up at Mehreen. We decided that we would place the camera inside the bag in order to clearly sow Mehreen's facial expressions whilst incorporating a different angle. It was harder to capture then we originally imagined as we first tried just having the camera in the bag however as this was unsuccessful we decided that Jana could hold the camera in a certain position (shown below) to get the shot exactly how we wanted it.

Our next shot involved an over the head shot from behind Mehreen, this also took a few attempts to perfect as it involved a zoom which we wanted to be smooth and not appear too rushed or too slow. It was important for us to perfect this shot as this is what leads on to the flashback so we wanted it to seem as continuous as possible.

First day of filming

On our first day of filming (the 14th November) we was able to go straight into filming as we had done all our planning in advance and our actress Mehreen knew exactly what she was doing which allowed everything to run smoothly. The storyboard helped a lot as a base for this as it helped us to provide a general plan for what we wanted to get filmed on day one.  We had to think about mise-en-scene and take any irrelevant objects out of the room in order to provide the scene we wanted (Spoke about in my last post). We were therefore able to go straight in with filming our second shot which was a freehand POV shot from the door as it opens and then matched with a shot from a different angle.
We did encounter some problems when filming the freehand shot as Jana, who was shooting this part,  found it difficult to hold the props that were needed and also hold the camera at the same time. However, after a few practice shots Jana was able to create this shot perfectly which enabled us to continue onto the next shots.
The next angle we needed was a 'CCTV' angle which was going to be included in numerous shots which is why we decided to do this on our first day of filming as we could film all our shots that needed this angle. One of the shots was match on action and so therefore we had to make sure everything was the same and Mehreen was laying in the same position which was also another reason why we decided to film this shot on the same day.

Actors

In our film opening Mehreen is our main character, Nimra acts in one shot and Jana acts briefly in one shot however you can only see her arm. Mehreen is a comfortable and experienced actor as she took a GCSE in drama. Therefore we approached her and asked if she would act in our film opening and she was more then happy to be involved.
As our opening is based in one location, we didn't need to incorporate many characters as the plot is focused around one, with Nimra added as an extra character in a flashback. 

Mehreen

Nima

Location

We have decided that our location is going to be in the medical room in our school. This because it fits the theme that our opening is going to have. This is because it is based in a hospital/mental institution, and the medical room is the closest we can get to this. There are some props that we need which are in the room such as the curtains, the sink, the bed etc. The bed is important in our opening as she will obviously be staying in the mental hospital and therefore needs a bed, which is why this room is perfect for us. The only limitation is that because it's in school we only have a certain amount of time in the evenings before the school is locked. This means were going to have to use our time wisely which is why it is vital for us to have all our planning done before we go to film.

These are some images of the location before we removed the items we didn't need. To make it how we wanted, we removed the green seats, the clothes rail, the wheelchair, the boxes and the table.

Planning for filming

We decided on our location being the medical room in our school. We decided that this was going to be a good location for us as we can take out any furniture that didn't fit with what we wanted e.g. we took out the clothes rail and extra seats. However, the colour and size of the room and some objects such as curtains fitted our theme. Our general goal was to have it looking like a mental ward room. This may not be clear in our opening but it would become clear through the plot and subtle hints.


We met up to decide on what props we needed to bring. We came up with our prop list and decided on how and where we were going to get each item. Our props included a hospital gown, tablets, a photo frame, a photo of Mehreen and Nimra, a zip-lock bag, a teddy bear and a bracelet.

Mehreen was going to be our actress and following that decision we informed her on the details of the plot and she thought about how she would get into character and then we knew we were able to begin filming.

Since we filmed this we have made some changes and added more detail to our plan. In this filmed plan we just briefly touched on the idea of a photo and a bracelet. However, since this we have decided that we are going to have only one photo to add more emphasis and focus on that one and in that photo Mehreen is going to be wearing the bracelet. This is going to add more significance to the bracelet as she is then going to hold that bracelet too as that will also be in the box.
In the photo we are going to have Mehreen and Nimra laughing together, to signify this as a good memory.  Following on from this, we will have a 'flashback' video of this time where Mehreen and Nimra are laughing and joking together with another friend who is not identified behind the camera, to show its a 'home video'.

We are now ready to begin filming.

BFI [British Film Institute] study trip

On the 11th November we attended a study day at the BFI on the Southbank. For the first half, a media teacher called Tom Woodcock gave us tips and more information on our film opening coursework. He covered many areas including lighting, editing, incorporating titles etc.
He taught us about Macro conventions which include genre, narrative, character, themes and atmosphere. He also taught us about Micro conventions which include colour, lighting, props, font, framing and setting.

We watched some film openings including Napoleon Dynamite, Casino Royale and The wedding singer. We had to think about the macro and micro elements. This gave us some inspiration and an insight into what we had to include and think about when creating our film openings.

After Tom Woodcock finished his presentation on conventions of film openings, he introduced us to Dexter Fletcher who is an actor who has appeared in both film and television and is now a successful director. First, he spoke about his experiences and struggles he had to overcome in filming and Tom Woodcock interviewed him then he showed us openings of some of his films; this included 'Eddie the Eagle' and 'Wild bill' He then did a live question and answer session where we could ask him for some tips and advice for our coursework.

Storyboard

 

This is our final storyboard.

Art of the titles

Using artofthetitle.com i found the following movie openings. This is good research for what we are going to produce as a group as it provides us with some inspiration. There are many openings on this site so i have included the ones that stood out to me and a brief explanation of why that was.

Cargo - innocence lost
As a group we have decided to focus on this opening. This is because it falls within the same genre that our film opening is going to fall under. We found the shaky use of the camera very clever as it portrays how the woman is feeling. Something that we took from this clip specifically is the idea of huffing and puffing which can be seen in the Cargo clip at 2:20. We are gong to take this idea and use it in our own way.


The widowmaker:
I like how the opening involves a lot of close ups of objects that add a mystery atmosphere. This includes needles, a close up of a face, pills etc. We are thinking of including close ups of tablets in our opening so this is quite related. However, in general i like how they incorporated a lot of close ups to give hints for the film.

Silent hill:
The use of handwriting shows us that the film could be quite mysterious and different as normally the titles are very well structured. This is something i liked as it isn't typical for a film like this, it breaks out of what is expected. The lack of colour also gives us an edgy and dark atmosphere for the film as everything blends together as it is all black and white.This lets us suspect that the film is going to be a horror and have quite a gloomy atmosphere.

11.22.63
This film opening uses a strong presence of audio to build up the atmosphere. A few hints are given through the images as it explores the location and a man who will probably be the main character. There are sharp cuts to the next item that is being shown each time but the audio helps everything link together which shows the strength of incorporating relevant audio to aid the titles.

Les bleus de ramville
This title sequence stands out from the rest for me as the titles are fitting with the images moving behind them. The colour and position of the titles suit with the background each time in order to incorporate the titles with the sequence starting to build up. This is to make sure there isn't a harsh division between the titles and the film starting. This may seem simple and easy to achieve however it has a great impact on the title sequence.

Storyboard animation

This is our groups storyboard animation. We created this to get a better idea of how we aim our final project's structure to be. We included sound similar to what we plan on using in our film opening. This helps us to picture roughly how our opening will look. We tried to match the length too but we obviously fell short as the clip ended up being 34 seconds and our goal is 2 minutes.

Film opening pitch

This is our idea for our film opening. We have made some minor changes since we pitched our idea. Some of the things we changed are were going to have only the girl as the main character in the room we aren't going to include any extra actors. We thought this would make the opening more focused on the girl as she is the main character and the action will mainly take place around her. Also, we have added ideas of including a box which will have personal objects including a photo frame of her with another girl. The audience are not told who the girl is but we see her crying on the picture which indicates it isn't a happy sighting for her.
Another change we made is that the girl will not be leaving the room, the opening will be set in one room. The room will be quite plain and simplistic without many objects.
The room is meant to mimic a mental asylum or a hospital type room but this may not be completely clear it is something we are going to hint at to the audience.

Our preliminary task

[Our prelim storyboard]

This is our prelim task which we created a group (Nimra, Jana and me). We storyboarded it prior to filming the video. As a group we planned what we would include and we made sure to incorporate the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot reverse shot. I filmed it whilst Jana and Nimra acted and then we edited it together as a group.

We know that the clip isn't amazing but it was our first attempt at filming and editing as a group. We are hoping that this can show how we started and our future projects will show a clear improvement and we will be able to see how far we have come.

As a first project I think we did well as a group as we were able to decide upon our plot and what shots we would include  together as a group and then film it with no specific problems.

Preliminary Task

The Preliminary task set by OCR:

"Preliminary exercise: continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule."

Camera shots and angles

Camera shots:

• Establishing

An establishing shot is usually the first shot of the scene as it is able to show the audience the location through a wide shot.

• Long shot

 A long shot is quite similar to an establishing shot. It is able to show an entire person/object whilst also giving a glimpse of the surrounding.

• Full shot

A full shot is a type of long shot. It is able to show the whole person's body in full, with the head near to the top of the frame and the feet near the bottom.

• Midshot

 A midshot can also be referred to as am medium shot. It is a relatively close shot and generally includes the body from the knees or waist up.

• Close up

A close up is a detail view of a person or an object focusing on a small proportion of a person or object and therefore provides no context as minimal background or setting will be seen.

• Extreme close up

 This is an extremely intimate shot and reveals a lot of detail but on a small portion of a person/object.

Camera angles:

• Eye level

An eye level shot is simply a shot in which the camera is positioned directly at the same level as the person in shot's eyes. It is how we see in real life so it is therefore the most common angle as it reflects a natural viewpoint. 

• Low angle

A low angled shot is when the camera is below eye level and is looking up to the person/scene. This is commonly used to portray the viewpoint of a hidden character. 

                                               

• High angle

A high agled shot is when the camera is positioned above eye level and is therefore looking down to the person/scene. This is commonly used to show another point of view or a hidden camera.
                                  

• Overhead shot

 An overhead shot provides a birds eye point of view and look directly down on the characters/scene.
                                     

• Under shot

An under shot provides a view from directly below the character/object. This could be used to view a scene unfolding in the sky from the ground eg an airplane as pictured below.