Film Opening Ideas

Film Opening Ideas

Idea 1

Genre: Thriller/Crime

Content: Begins with a police briefing of a missing girls case. As it develops it flashbacks to the night that the girl goes missing through a CCTV camera, her standing on a busy road, all dolled up, looking for business. She is a prostitute. Also a close up on all the police officers faces and then stop on one looking oddly suspicious.

Idea 2

Genre: Thriller

Content: A family in a park with the dad filming his young daughter or son running around, it will zoom into a birthmark or something that would identify them forever. Then it would switch to a different view of the child, maybe from behind a tree or something not visible to make it suspicious and then switches to filming his wife smiling and laughing, switches back to their child, which is no longer there.  They begin running, shouting, with the camera still on even though they’re unaware. The panic fades to the background and then a new scene with a teenage girl tied up in a cellar. It zooms into the same feature that was at the beginning. 




How did we decide on which idea to choose?
We sat down as a group and we discussed about how we would go about the filming, and after considering all factors we decided to go for idea two as although some of the filming is outside, if the weather was so bad we could film in a shopping centre or another indoor facility and then the other part of the opening is filmed in the cellar. However, if we was to choose the other idea we'd always be relying on how the weather is as the girl on a street at night is a crucial part of the idea. 

Production Timetable

Kiss The Girls and The Butterfly Effect

Kiss the Girls

This would be an easy opening to recreate as it is set in a family home. Instead of the man being in a loft we would be able to use a cellar in which had a padlock on at all times. However the man would pick the lock at night and sneak out just like the man in kiss the girls. The only other thing that would need to be changed was him injecting them, instead of this the man could put a dissolving pill into their glass of water which will drug them.

The Butterfly Effect

Another film we would have to adapt in order to make it look more believable would be to set the scene in an office at school that has slated blinds and is a dark room. The rest of the scene is fairly manageable we could write the letter which is written by Ashton Kutcher in the film and do a close up shot on the words “save her” with the people still banging on the door. Also the street that is filmed “thirteen years later” could be a street in Rainham, Gillingham for example. The ‘Mum’ can be fixing a bike or washing the car instead of fixing the car. 

Preliminary Task Evaluation

For our preliminary task we had to create a short film clip, only about 15 seconds long which included an example of continuity, the 180 degree rule and shot reverse shot. 

My group (Amber Shelley, Grace Robinson, Katie Parkinson and I), first decided to do a parents evening situation. However, after filming it we realised that it was far too long for our preliminary task so we rethought and decided on our final task idea. 

Once we had completed filming we had to edit all our clips together so that it worked as well as we had planned. To edit this we used Final Cut Pro X. As a group we struggled with this as the software was completely new to us but after playing around with it and asking for help from others we began to become more comfortable with it, so now we are prepared for using this for our two minute film opening. My role in the preliminary task was acting in the film. We decided as a group that in the two minute opening for our coursework that each member of the group would use the camera at some point if possible so that we all gain the knowledge of how to work it. 

Once we had finished editing our clip, we watched through it and we realised that we had included an example of continuity and the 180 degree rule but when we had cut out bits to shorten it we had deleted the clips that we was going to use for the shot reverse shot and as it had to be included we went out and filmed the necessary bits. However, this meant that we were in completely different clothes than in all the original clips so when it comes to our final film opening we’re going to make sure that we have filmed everything we need and extra just incase we need to change things. 

The final problem that we faced was uploading our clips onto Blogger. For some reason once they had uploaded, they was not visible to watch. However after some help from the IT technicians we were able to upload them and watch them. 

I think our preliminary task was successful as it trained us with the necessary skills that we’ll need to use for our main two minute film opening. For example, using the camera’s, using the Final Cut Pro X software to edit and understanding why the three techniques we included are essential. 

Preliminary Task

This is my groups preliminary task. In this we had to include and example of three things; shot reverse shot, the 180 degree rule and continuity to practise for our real 2 minute film opening.

Fiction Conventions.

Action Adventure - An action adventure films will usually include a chase of some sort. Guns/weapons are always a part of this genre too. Also there's always that antagonist vs protagonist storyline. Usually set in exotic locations. 

Horror - Horror films usually have supernatural occurrences to make the viewer scared or unsettled. Possibly including the idea of demons, ghostly activity etc. Horror genre can usually overlap with Thriller.

Thriller - A thriller has to thrill the audience. In order to do this the usual plots include an antagonist and a protagonist. It may revolve around crime e.g murders, kidnappings, torture. Usually there will be a chase of some sort. Cliffhangers may be used in order to hook the audiences anticipation. Psychological plots are often used as this shocks the audience, building tension, making it more enjoyable.

Crime - Conventions in crime films are almost always going to have some sort of police/FBI in it. Sometimes it may contain some of the same conventions as sci-fi e.g scientific labs etc. There will be weapons such as guns, knifes. 

Romance - Most plots are generally similar when it comes to Romantic films. The main conventions will be a man, a woman, a problem and a happy ending. 

Comedy - Comedy films are usually part of a hybrid genre e.g Romantic Comedy. 

Why Media Studies?

I took Media Studies at GCSE and it was my favourite option. This resulted in me gaining an A in my exam. I thought that as I enjoyed it as much as I did in GCSE, surely it could only get better, so I chose it. It would’ve been a waste of an A if i just stopped there.