Meet The Stars

Trapped - Film Evaluation

Part 1






Part 2






Part 3

Trapped - Film Opening Sequence

A Film 4 Production

Who is our Distributor?

Now obviously our opening sequence have no distributors, but as a group we decided to use a British film distributional company, because of the relation our opening sequence has for being set in London. Now there were many companies to chose from to use at the start of our opening sequence. the one that stood out the most was Film 4's logo. As a group we thought that the theme of the Film 4 logo synced in well with the genre of our opening sequence, being a thriller.

Below is a link from youtube that will show the exact film distribution sequence that will be used:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1OAcAl-DMo

We will only be using the first 10 seconds of the clip, because it holds the most affect needed to project a psychological based thriller.

These are few screenshots of what the clip holds and we hope that with this and the use of our chosen soundtrack and produced film, that we are able to have entertained our audience and created questions to their mind in the space of 2 minutes.

We're Moving....

After going back to our desired location to film our opening sequence. We realised that the use of the lighting outside was getting too dark too quickly, which lead to a similar problem of us creating hard to see footage. Below is what was produced on the day and edited.

This footage was edited on Imovie:

The problems were that it was hard to see the action and conversations taking place. Also, because of the lack of dialogue, our opening sequence confused our audience when watching our opening sequence. So we had to relocate into another area, that was both suitable for our genre and easy to see on the eyes. Although this lead to a

New Location:

Props have no major changes:

Starring...

Who's in the film?

Now with their only being two specific actor in our opening sequence, as an opening sequence we still need to project who is in the actual opening sequence and provide further information to the audience for who has participated in the production process and specific creators for the possible use of  soundtracks etc.

Recently as a group we have checked different themes of different opening sequences from other films from the website our teacher gave us: www.artofthetitle.com

The website have a library of different opening title sequences from different genre of films. The idea was to look at a range of different title sequences from the different films and round up and narrow down which title sequence related to our opening sequence the most.

Our favourite and first choice is the title sequence in the film 'SE7EN' (Seven) Directed in 1995, by David Fincher. The timing of the appearance of the titles flow well with the action taking place in the back ground, especially its choice of font. Which is a main favourite and choice of soundtrack.

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/se7en/

Another Favourite is the title sequence featured in the film, Alien, Directed by Ridley. This immediately brings the thought of suspense to mind, because of its use of a dark/black background, being space with chilled soundtrack in the background is another idea that could relate to our opening sequnce.

 http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/alien/

The purpose of the title sequence is to use a suitable type of font and style that will tell the audience who participated in the creation of the opening sequence, while still creating suspense.

Take 1,2,3,4....

We have a problem...

When going to film on Saturday17th 2015, we were able to get a successful amount of footage for our opening sequence. The location suited perfectly, along with the improvised uses of props around the area. The atmosphere and lighting was just right to our plans in the past. overall after doing some editing for our sequence we were on the same footing of agreement to a certain extent.

When recording the footage and looking back onto it on the camera. we thought the footage was amazing. once we got back to editing our teachers and members of the group realised that the footage was too dark and hard on the eyes. our group were devastated with the outcome and came to a decision to film once more, but with further precision.

What were the problems?

Lighting - We aren't able to control the weather, because of this this lead to the sound of wind and the low key lighting, leading into a upsetting piece of footage for our opening sequence.

Cinematography- Being the camera man i realised that with pans and long shots. I was a bit shaky causing the footage to look unnatural. Also my choices of shots weren't diverse, but similar most of the time.

Sound - We were unable to hear what was being said by the characters and the existence of ambient sound was impossible to relate with our script and storyboard. Also the constant occurrence of cars driving by clashed, with spoken dialogue of the characters and wasn't in sync with the scene.

The images and clips of our opening sequence shown are examples of he problems we had reached during the editing process.

What's My Line Again?

Below is the crafted script that the group and I worked on, We decided to improvise at first then take in the key statements made by members of the group. however when filming we realised that letting members of the group improvise once more or say what they wanted to say while following the structure of the script seemed to have made a better opening sequence than we had hope for.

Opening Sequence – ‘You Decide’ Script

Anthony

[Opens Eyes, then slowly gets up] Huh? Hey? Where am I? Is He Dead? [Walks towards mysterious body]

Anthony

Wake Up! Hey! [Nudges Stephen]

Stephen

[Begins to wake up] Huh [Grunts] aagh, what? Where am I?

Anthony  

Here get up. [Begins to bring ‘Character 2‘ Stephen to his feet]

Stephen

Where are we? How the F*ck did we get here [Moves around location, frustrated and scared]

Anthony

[Also frustrated] I don’t know I, I, I just remember, aaargh I don’t know. Who are you anyway?

Stephen

Who cares about whom I am, we still don’t know how we got here. [Agitated]

Anthony

All right lets figure this out. We’re outside we just need to find the near…

[Both Anthony and Stephen notice and box with a letter beside it]

Stephen

Huh? What is that?

Anthony

I don’t know. It looks like a box with a message.

[Both characters move toward the box cautious and scared. Anthony picks up letter, while Stephen picks up box]

Anthony

[While getting up Anthony begins to read the letter] Whoever opens the box shall live the other shall die choose wisely. Anthony and Stephen… [Looks at Stephen]

Stephen

One minute? What? [Looks at box]

Anthony

[Confused. He begins to order Stephen to not open the box] Lets think this through it’s a joke. Come on. Wait, wh,what you doing?

Stephen

I’m opening the box! [Begins to hold the box more aggressively]

Anthony

Don’t stop

Stephen

[Begins to opens box]

Anthony

[Begins to attack Stephen and stopping him from opening the box]

[Both characters begin to get aggressive with each other trying to gain control of the box. Stephen knocks Anthony to the floor and begins to open the box. Anthony notices a thick wooden branch and gets up to attack Stephen]

Anthony

Do not open that BOX….

[Title ‘You Decide’]

We Have To Move

Re-Location:

Unfortunately the location decided on weeks ago, being the abandoned building to film our opening sequence. Had to be changed, because of the occurrence of the actual building being private property to a private industry. When going there to do some filming, we were stopped, by several security guards and alarmed by several van headlights. We were told to live and have no permission to record anything within the perimeter.

This became extremely upsetting, because of the group planning we had done and decided on when going to film inside the building. On the same day we decided to look around the area of Bromley - by - Bow, to relocate. Unfortunately we were unable to find anything suitable. Until checking behind some wooden gates.

 The filming was now gonna be recorded outside, which then lead to further changes about script and wether or not the film should or will contain audio. Furthermore we realised that when editing we would have to change the way in which we film, because of the sightings of street lights and homes, being lit, would change the atmosphere of the opening sequence and seem like this characters are not isolated at all.

 With more and more changes having to be made, an agreement had been made, that we should use this area, because the street lights still came to our advantage, for lighting and further advantages. While filming in the location we were able to use the environment for further use, with improvised props used while taking several takes of the same scene.

Hopefully we hope that the audience will be entertained with what they see and have questions about the opening sequence that we wan them to have.

Wish us Luck :)

Who's This For?

Who is our target audience?


While creating a storyboard and rounding up the results from our surveys, we realised that our main audience would be between the ages of 15-early twenties mainly, because the actors for our opening sequence are teenagers and youtube is more reached out to the teenage or young population the age range for our opening sequence seemed to make sense.

However as a group we didn't just focus on deciding an age, but also type of film lovers. With our film creating psychological suspense. we hope our production could create a positive fandom for our opening sequence and blow our viewers minds.

Soundtrack for the scene...

What soundtrack is suitable for the scene?

The chosen soundtrack which will be added during the editing process of the opening sequence for our thriller, is the current theme tune for the game from the Final Fantasy saga of games 'Final Fantasy Versus 13.

Final Fantasy Versus XIII - Somnus Nemoris (Trailer Theme Song)

The link below shall lead you to the chosen soundtrack on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJKzqUX2C6Y

I DO NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO THIS MUSIC. 

***NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED*** "This video uses copyrighted material in a manner that does not require approval of the copyright holder. It is a fair use under copyright law. 

"quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment; quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author's observations; use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied; summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report; reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy; reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson; reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports; incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported."

Category

What about ambient sound?

At first we were planning to use only a soundtrack to play over our opening sequence, but we weren't sure wether the action taking place within the scene would make any sense to our audience or even project the genre we want for the scene. So we decided to use dialogue from a planned script and the ambient sounds around us.

Below is a short scene that contains some dialogue and non-diegetic sounds of the environment we recorded in.

Hopefully with the use of both the creation of ambient sound and the additional soundtrack, the creation of a affective thriller, based opening sequence can be made, in the space of two minutes.

Excuse me....

What are your thoughts on Thrillers:

Recently our group took part in an investigation, to find out the possibility for our films success. We asked a few people of different ages, gender and background and asked them to answer a few question in our survey.

Screen shots of our survey results below:

Overall judging by the results, we found out that our opening sequence is to be more appealing to a female audience. That the genre preference for both genders is thriller and that our idea for our opening sequence has an appealing taste to both genders of the audience. With this information we were able to condense the ideas for our film with the most favourable ideas to create am affective opening sequence.

Have you ever watched?

Where has the inspiration come from?



There are many different thriller films that have been produced in the film industry, but after coming to a group discussion, about which films relate to our upcoming opening sequence, concluded to a very dense amount of films.



The top five films consisted of:

•  Saw

The link shall lead you to the opening sequence of 'Saw'. The idea we got from this, was the use of two characters up in an area, they don't know how they got to. The way we changed it was that the two people in our opening sequence know each other. The main idea from saw was the use of two characters having to make a sacrifice, to be set free. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAWK9V9Hk_A 

• Seven

The idea from seven, was mainly the scene from the end of the film. When Morgan Freeman's, character and Brad Pitts character, both have different views on the outcome that will take place within the scene. The only difference is that unlike Morgan Freeman's character in 'Seven' neither characters in our opening sequence know whats actually inside the box.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1giVzxyoclE

• The box

Now from the film 'The Box' which focuses mainly on the psychological affects throughout the film. The scene which sprung out to us the most, was when Cameron Diaz's characters along with James Marsdon, as the husband. Are given a choice to complete the offer they have been given, by a mysterious character. Which is to push the button to become millionaires or to ignore the offer. the catch, is that someone in the world shall die. Our groups idea was for the characters to encounter a box and a note giving our characters an offer. Which is that only one can open the box, while the other shall die. We hope to create that same psychological argument between our two characters leading into an unexpected outcome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFdJLku5yQE

• Pulp Fiction

Similarly to 'The Box' the use of the main prop in pulp fiction is a briefcase. That only certain characters know whats inside. The scene that caught our eyes, was the religious scene featuring Samuel L Jackson and John Travolta. John Travolta in the scene is the only one who opens the brief case and knows whats inside. Leaving both the characters within the scene and audience clueless. Now, because our scene has a character opening the box, we hope to bring questions to mind to our audience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE9Qm8mShik

• Inception

With inception the obvious of the dream world had to be used, for our opening sequence. obviously we didn't have such a high budget for our production. Just the idea of our characters unable to escape the place that they are in, seemed interesting to use. Son instead of the characters having to fall to escape the world they are in they 'HAVE' to open the box

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RvGb5quff8

The chosen films relate to our upcoming opening sequence for two precise reason. one being the fact that three out of the five of these films, consist of the prop being a box. (Pulp fiction, The Box and Seven). he uses of the box in these films are used differently and seemed pretty useful to use in our opening sequence.

The second reason is that all five of these films consists of characters having to make the right choice and suffer the consequences during the course of the film. In the opening sequence the prop being the box causes psychological problems towards the characters. Which were similar techniques used in the films above.

What's it going to be about?

The Storyboard:

Hopefully the story board is clear enough to portray what will be happening within the scene. However incase of misunderstanding. the general idea is that two characters who are isolated from society are given a choice to open a mysterious box. however who ever opens it shall live and the other shall die.

Page 1

 Page 2

 Page 3

Although the storyboard is complete, a unconfirmed decision, between the group is still being made with the title of the film.

Shot list:

Finally below is a written shot list, for a more detailed description to the creation of our opening sequence.

page 1

Page 2

C.P.S.S

Mise en scene for two minute opening sequence:

Costumes:

The two characters will be in ordinary clothes, which will be slightly tattered, to create mystery to the audience.  Hopefully this will allow the audience to try and guess what type of characters they are and why they have been chosen. The question springing to mind will be, where did these guys come from? Why are they dressed accordingly?

 Props:

The main props used is a box (originally has a glossed finished, meant to contain a Polaroid camera) However for the scene the outside of the box shall create frustration for the character and the audience, because of the unknown knowledge of what the box contains. No other props are guaranteed to be used, however if there are any improvised scenarios when filming, involving other items not listed, then a checklist with all the props used shall be made.

hall create frustration for the character and the audience, because of the unknown knowledge of what the box contains. No other props are guaranteed to be used, however if there are any improvised scenarios when filming, involving other items not listed, then a checklist with all the props used shall be made.

Setting:

Hopefully the filming within the location will be in low-key lighting to hold suspense. However for health and safety for the group will shall film at a reasonable time, which suits our desired atmosphere. If further trouble does happen, then hopefully during the editing process we can create the right atmosphere, for a strong opening sequence.

Style:

A discussion and agreement is still being made to, whether the opening sequence should be in black and white or stick to its original colour.

What is Thriller

Here is an idea of what i think thriller is based on displayed on a mood bard. also showing what type of films entertain me as great thriller films. Other member in the group have selected different images from different, films that are amazing thriller films. After comparing our mood boards, we concluded that we all had different tastes in thriller, which could provide a different, feel to our audience, for our opening sequence.