First draft

Here is the first edit for our film opening, it is currently too long so we need to cut out around 30-40 seconds. After reviewing this edit we have decided to make the first scene shorter by cutting out a couple clips and we plan to remove most of the clips in the second scene, because it gets quite boring and ending after the car speeds off will make it more dramatic. We also want to mute the sound in the first scene, we think having no dialogue will make it much more mysterious. There are also a few mistakes here, including an audio error in the first scene which we will remove and we would like to experiment with a few more effects and try to improve the continuity throughout the film.

Credits

Common Job Titles in the credits

• Production companies and associates are always shown first
• The director 
• If the film is a blockbuster, the main actors name is shown next
• Director of photography
• Music
• Special effects 
• Co-Director

Our Credits

We plan to have the name of our film (Rogue) shown in red, because it can symbolise anger, blood and hatred. We are planning to have the credits appearing across the whole opening, shown in white which symbolises emptiness and is quite simple, which would be effective contrasted against the strong red. We would like to have the credits flickering slightly, an effect we've seen in thriller films, which is quite creepy. 

Filming Schedual

Film Pitch

http://prezi.com/omn8y62ory7a/media-pitch/

Music

Possible Music

We looked for music which was quite dramatic, with a nice build up to create tension and suspense.

We really like how dramatic this song is, but we think the build up is too long and it wouldn't suit our film, seeing as it builds more excitement than tension.

We really like the beginning of this song because it creates quite a tense atmosphere.

We also looked at songs to play at the end of the opening sequence during our montage of establishing shots. This song needed to contrast against the tense music before, being more upbeat and happy. We think this song relates to the storyline, seeing as Jenson's wife is having an affair with her ex.

Location

The Plot


We chose London as the location for our film, because it fits our plot and film genre perfectly.  Other films with similar themes as ours, such as murder mystery are set in urban areas, such as large cities. London also has many great urban scenes with rural contrasts around the city


Filming


Car scene- 


This scene is going to to be filmed on an empty road, so we plan to film it in a country road. Below is a photo from google maps showing our chosen location and where we plan to place our camera's. We thought it would be easier if we used three different camera's, so it would take less shots seeing as we had limited time. 

Establishing Shots-


Seeing as our film is set in London, we plan to visit some recognisable monuments. Here is a walk we plan to take. 

Murder scene-

This scene is going to be filmed in a shed, we want it to look quite creepy being in a confined area surrounded in dangerous tools. We also want it to show that they are in the countryside, in the middle of no-where, where secrets can be covered easily with no witnesses. 

storyboard

Director and Actors

Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg is one of the wealthiest film makers in the world and has produced and directed many Hollywood blockbusters. He has covered many genres including thrillers, for example Jurassic park, Jaws and Indiana Jones.

Jason Statham

Jason Statham is an English actor who has appeared in many action and thriller films, British and American, for example transporter, crank, the bank job and the mechanic . He plays the character of a tough, clever and independent man well and we think he will portray our main character 'Jenson Aims' well. Jason Statham has also studied kick boxing, kung fu, and kick boxing which allows him to do his own stunts, this will be helpful as our film will require him to perform a few stunts in the action scenes. 

Our Film

Plot

The plot for our film is about a detective living in London who's life gets turned upside down when someone takes everything he has worked so hard for away from him. So he takes matters into his own hands and becomes 'rouge', Fighting his emotions and his anger, he tracks down all of the possible suspects, little does he know that he and these suspects have been framed for the murder and he must look deeper to find the true killer.


Character Profiles

Main Character: Jenson Aims

Jenson Aims is 42 years old, American and is an ex-marine, so he is very well built. He went to school with Rick and then joined the marine core with him, they have been best friends since and he soon followed Rick to London. Jenson met his wife Andrea, through Rick who had previously dated her when he came to London, and Jenson and Andrea now have two daughters aged 1 and 6. Jenson and Rick now work together in London as detectives.

Rick

Rick is 42 years old, he went to school with Jenson, and they joined the marines together and now he is a detective working with and helping Jenson settle into his new job. Rick is divorced and never see's his son, he lives alone and tends to keep to himself.


Jenson's Family

Jenson and Andrea were introduced to each other by Rick when Jenson moved to London and have been happily married for 8 years. They have had 2 daughters aged 6 and 1 and live in the outskirts of London.




Chief superintendent halls

Chris halls is the 'top dog' in the london police force, In his early 50s Chris was born and raised in london as a city boy he fought he was up the ranks in the police force to get to where he is today. chief superintendent halls has known rick and jenson for 10 years and they are very close, even though
he keeps strick to his proffesion he will do anything to get justice.



More information about storyline

Jenson's wife and Rick have a secret affair a while back and one night after they drank a little too much, things got out of hand and Jenson's wife threatened to tell her husband about the affair. Too afraid of loosing his best friend, Rick gets very angry and everything ends badly. Jenson returns home after a long night working to find his wife and family dead and sets out to get revenge. Rick, a very intelligent detective covers his track and frames numerous people.

This film is about Jenson uncovering the truth and seeking out revenge. Throughout the whole film there will be very subtle hints, which will hook the audience to the film, which will also surprise them, giving surprising suspects to keep them engaged. The whole film will include a variety of action scenes with many stunts, from car chases to interrogation scenes, having the murderer as a mystery from the start will build up a great amount of tension like a thriller film would.

Target Audience

Our target audience is aimed at males aged 15-35, We chose this as our target audience as based on data from film review sites and personal research we found out that this would be a suitable age range and target audience.

We decided the appropriate age certificate for this film would be a 15 due to its content, plot and story line. 

British board of classification

Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse.

Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail.

Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury.

Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail.

There may be frequent use of strong language.

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

Film Institutions

Film institutions are media companies involved in the production and distribution of films and television programs. There are many different companies worldwide, here are a few most common: DreamWorks, 20th century Fox, Columbia Pictures, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

For our film, we have decided to use Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures, these a commonly used together in films because they are both owned by Sony Entertainment.  

Target Audience

Thriller and Action Film Openings

The opening scene of Quantum of Solice starts with a wide angle/ establishing shot which is tracking across the water, increasing in speed, which automatically builds excitement and sets the scene. They also show short clips of close ups of the car and also some bullets, whilst cutting back to the tracking shot over the water, these quick images start to introduce the scene and the genre of the film, engaging the target audience. Throughout the beginning few shots there is some dramatic music which builds up as the tracking shot gets closer to the road, this helps to build tension and excitement. This music stops when it reaches the road, which emphasis's the sound effects from the cars and guns, making the car chase more dramatic. This opening scene also introduces the main character by repeatedly showing quick close ups of James Bond.

We were inspired by this opening, and hope to make an opening sequence which will use similar techniques to build excitement and tension. We intend of using some dramatic music throughout our opening, starting quiet and gradually getting louder. Like quantum of solice, We have also decided to start our film with a tracking shot, placing a camera on the front of a car, to achieve a shot driving down a road, which will slowly getting faster as we cut back and forth between scenes. Finally we want the conservation scene in our opening sequence to be dark and shadowed, we will not show the 2nd persons face, leaving it a mystery to build suspense.

Chosen Film Genre

For our film we decided to do an thriller, because the opening scenes for this genre tend to be very exciting and tense. We aim on using the techniques used by this genre to engage the audience in the first 2 minutes of the film, using action and mystery and build suspense and tension.

Some information about thriller films

Action-thriller is a subgenre that strongly stimulates the audiences moods, such as tension, anticipation, suspence, anxiety, excitment, uncertainty and terror, all these combined across the film keep the audience 'on the edge of their seats'. These films usually use cliffhangers and mystery as the plot builds towards a climax to create the biggest possible amount of excitment.

Action-thriller films usually have a creepy atmosphere containing sudden violence and almost always will involve a murder and crime. These films tend to be very dark and fast paced, creating a sense of danger throughout the film to keep the audience 'on edge'. The characters include a hero, criminals, stalkers, assasins, victims, terrorists, government agents, detectives, phychotic people, people involved in a love triangle leading to murder or characters with deep dark pasts. The hero or main character of these films normally gets themselves into a menancing situation or trap that seems impossible to get out of. This character would traditionally be a man, but female heroes are becoming more common.

Action- Thriller Film Opening

Battle Los Angeles             Opening scene - 3.24 minutes

In the opening scene of battle los angeles it starts with a voice over in multiple languages to suggest it’s a world wide broad cast, towards the end of the voice over an English voice comes on “ one thing is for sure, the world is at war” as she says this the non diagetic sound (music) becomes faster and louder to build tension. Then it shows various fast paced shots of war and fighting with different camera angles, lighting and editing this helps to set the scene of the film to come and its genre. The non diagetic sounds like music and peoples voices become louder to give the sense of panic and destruction as people watch news reports about what is happening, there are then a mix of camera shots from cities, army bases, homes and TV reports, the sound of the TV report is played over the sounds in the shots to give the viewer a good idea of what is happening. As the music and sounds build (non diagetic and diagetic) the camera focuses on the main characters in the film with a medium 2 shot held for about 4-5 seconds.

It then cuts to the next scene where they are on the helicopter as they fly over los angeles, there are lots of added in sound effects like gun shots and radio chatter in this scene along with the build up of music, the camera then cuts to a close up shot of all the soldiers onboard as they will become the main characters in this film, then the camera shows a shot of the window in the chopper, because it is through a sma ll window it focuses the viewers attention on the shot outside there is added in CGI and sound effects here, the music then builds up to its climax as the helicopter starts to shake violently, then the camera switches to a super wide angle shot (or establishing shot) of the city in flames and 8 or 9 helicopters over the top. After the title appears on the screen they switch to a shot of how it was a day earlier, they start with the same establishing shot that they ended the opening scene with to show a contrast, the music and sounds in this scene are more relaxed and some radios playing with music and weather reports this shows a contrast too compared with the panic and confusion voices in the opening scene.

Film Genre Mind Map

Comparing Film Trailers and Film Openings

Trailers and Film Openings

Film trailers advertise the film to potential audiences and encourages them to watch it. Film trailers tend to be a 

maximum of 2-3 minutes long, showing short clips of the best parts from the film to engage the audience, though

these clips are not always in chronological order. For example the longer trailer for Transformers 3 starts in 

chronological order to introduce the storyline and then becomes fast paced, showing many clips to create a 

montage of the action in the film. Whilst the film trailer for Super 8 only shows one short scene from the film

and is in chronological order, this technique builds up huge amount of suspence, this trailer ends right before

we find out what is in the train, which creates a huge cliffhanger and makes the audience want to watch the 

film. Trailers usualy contain a few close ups to establish the main characters, these can also be used to inform 

the audience of any actors who may be staring in the film, which can also attract a wider range of audience as

they may be fans of the actor. As well as having close ups, there are usually some establishing shots in a film

trailer to set the scene of the film and introduce some locations. Film trailers usually have dramatic music and

sound affects, but this depends on the film genre, the trailer for Super 8 didnt have any music, but the silence 

emphasised the dramatic sound effects, whilst transformers 3 had very dramatic sound affects and music

throughout the montage of clips. But in comparison to these action films, the trailer for the film 'prom' which is a 

romantic comedy, has two songs throughout the trailer which are both quite upbeat and happy songs which relate

to the target audience of teenagers. So film trailers will use music to reach out to their target audience and interest
them. Throughout some trailers a narrator or voice over is used to give away some of the plot of the film, whilst 
overs may use clips from the film and just use text onscreen to give information. These are also used to give
information about the production team and the date of the films release, onscreen will be logo's from the film
companys.

Film openings are used to set the scene of a film and therefore will contain many establishing shots and may also

include some close ups to introduce the main characters. As well as setting the scene, the opening scene of a

film will show the genre of the film clearly, this is shown by many aspects such as the music and sound effects.

For example a thriller will have dramatic music which will build up to build suspence and a horror film, for

example 'saw' has dramatic sound effects, emphasised by some faint spooky music, whilst a comedy would be 

more likely to have more upbeat, happy music. Other features, such as lighting and camera angles will also show

the genre, horror films tend to be very dark and may show many close ups of objects, for example the begining of

'saw' includes many close ups of objects like knives and clocks which creates a sense and mystery and builds

suspence. But a romance will usually be very light and has many closeups of people, to introduce the characters

and show their emotion clearly. The opening scene of an action film, usually starts with some sort of action, so the
camera is more likely to be moving and panning constantly, there would also be quite a few wide angle and 
establishing shots, to show the action in different perspectives to emphasise it. For example, the opening scene
of 'Fast and Furious 5' features a car chase scene where the camera is constantly moving around the cars, then 
switching from low angles of the cars, which make them look more powerful and impressive, to high angle extreme
long shots which shows the whole action and the surroundings. A film opening is created to engage the audience 
right from the start and make them want to watch the rest of the film.

Film Trailers and Film openings have quite a few simularites, for example they both include close ups of the main

characters to introduce them and usually use establishing shots to set the scene. They both use music to grab

the target audiences attention and are usually quite fast paced the engage the audience. Both a film trailer and

film opening will clearly show the genre of the film, using many aspects such as music, lighting, sound effects,

mis-en-scene and camera angles and movement. Though whilst some film trailers are not in chronological order,

most film openings are, because it is the start of a storyline and if it was in a random order  it could make the film

very confusing. With all of this in mind, Film trailers and Film openings use the same techinques to engage and

inform the audience. 

Preliminary task Evaluation

Written by Jake and Caitlin,

In the planning and preparation for our preliminary task I felt that our group worked well with the task in hand. When we did the story boards we chose the script we wanted and each story boarded one for it and then came together as a group and decided on the best one for camera angles and settings. Once we had decided on the story board we went off to find a good location and any props we would need for the scene and script we had selected. I think we got organised well once we had all of our ideas and equipment ready, the hardest part of organising was to be able to find a perfect set to shoot in, we ended up in one of the conference rooms in the sixth form centre. When filming we practised shot reverse shot, continuity, 180 degrees rule and over shoulder shots. Making an 'action' shot using continuity was easy to shoot but harder to edit – we did 2 shots one outside and one inside so It follows the person from outside the room to the inside (between 13 seconds in to the film and 18 seconds) With our filming the only way to have improved would have been to use a tripod to reduce camera shake in certain shots.

The acting in the film was hard to do as we didn't have anyone in our group to act, we found some people to act out scenes but they didn't get the “emotions” correct for the type of film we were trying to make, we ended up using people from our group as the actors as we new the correct emotion to use in the dialogue sections, our acting was okay but it could have been improved as it was quite wooden and plane.

The editing was hard to start with as we had problems with uploading from the cam corder to the macs but because of the format we recorded it in it wouldn't work on 'final cut express' so we used apples software 'Imovie'. When we got the video clips from the cam corder we loaded them into the library of I movie, selecting the clips that were best. We then played around with the clips, putting them in order, and cropping clips to make sure the continuity was correct. This process was quite easy once we got used to the software, so we then experimented with different effects on our clips, including the sound of rain to help set the scene and create a more dramatic atmosphere. We tried an echoing affect during the phone call by detaching and moving audio, in the future, if we were to use this effect I would spend ore time making sure it was accurate and has good timing. We also played around with the camera affects making the clips darker and more contrasted, then we experimented with using text. During the editing we had a few problems with the audio from the original clips being moved or deleted, so parts of the conversation have missing audio. If we were to spend more time on this task we would of replaced the audio and made sure the speech could be heard.

Overall I think our group worked well on this task, the filming was successful, but in the future we would definitely use a tripod to reduce any shaking. We would also have to have more planning in the future, for location, dates of filming and actors. This task has helped us practice the shot reverse shot, 180 degrees rule and over the shoulder shots and continuity editing. During this task we have also learnt how to use Imovie and it has helped us get an idea of what effects we could use on our video.  

Preliminary Task