New idea- where we got our inspiration from

It was time to think of a new idea for our main task and after spending a long time looking at other peoples AS work on youtube we would see how they came about it. And therefore after a long chat in our group about what we individually wanted to see in it and how we should film it, the shower scene in the  very well know film 'Casino Royale' came up in to convosation. We plan to do a very similar thing to the first 50 seconds in the clip above, with the man walking through the room and seeing the glass which leads him to slight confusion of what is happening. We really like this bit and think that the focus from the man to the glass works really well and plan to do a very similar thing. Another key shot that we thought was really well directed is the clip at 30 seconds in the above shot with the over shoulder of the man, and the women sat in the shower upset. Its such a powerful shot as she's sat in a very vulnerable way, on the floor in a tiny ball still dressed in her clothes.

As well as having this, we then want to have some quick and snappy flashbacks for the audience to see how the women ended up in such a state and we will show her being attached and pushed around so she's in shock so puts herself in the shower. Although we haven't figured out the whole of the plot yet, we  know that the main focus of the film is going to be the women, therefore instead of it being the man the first thing we see we thought it would be really cool to have the women sat in the shower, maybe crying to the camera however it will be a close up so it will anchor around the idea of if shes in the rain or other similar connotations.

We are still slightly unsure about where we want to film as our perfect location would be a hotel room as it would have all these thought provoking things like it's a bit of a mystery to where they are in the world as a hotel could be any city in any country. Because of this, we have been contacting some local hotels to see if they can help us out and if not, then we will just have to do it at someones house which won't be the end of the world at all as along as we focus strongly on the mise-en-scene then it should have just as good effect.

Problem with our main task..

Once we had done all our planning which you will see evidence of below we went to film. However once at our film location, we came across a lot of problems that we didn't consider when planning. For example we took a lot longer to get the actors ready then we thought it would take and we realised some problems with the continuity of shots and how it would work all together. We feel that we wanted to put so much in it that it would be just too much so therefore, after about 6 hours of organising/getting actors ready/filming we ended up with about 10 seconds of footage and once it came to seeing it on the screen, none of us felt as infused about it and all felt it wasn't working.

Overall, I don't feel that it was a complete waste of time as we learnt alot from it and know the mistakes that we made which when it comes to our main task we will be able to simply avoid. We have now come up with a completely new idea which we have simpled down a lot, however we feel it will be perfect and exactly what we need to get the best marks that we can get in media.

Notes on a TV drama

Animatics for our film opening

After deciding on the location for our film (Elise's house) it was time to do the animatics. So we all met up there and talked about the area that we had and how we could use different camera shots and how they'll work. So after experimenting with different angles and camera movements below is what we've come up with. Please take into account that no-ones in costumes as it we were focusing on getting these shots right.

Inspiration for our film

After deciding on the spooky, out of this world theme for our film it was time to get some ideas of what we wanted to do with ours that would look really good with the small budget that we have. In our group we discussed some similar films that we had seen which show the same sort of affect that we want for ours and 'now and then' came up. We really wanted to do a thing where similar to 'now and then' where you can see from about 1:40 of this clip the circle where the girls are trying to get in contact with the dead. We really like the shot above their heads looking down on the circle like someones watching down on them and therefore we wanted to do a similar thing. 

Another thing that also works with this scene is the mise-en-scene in the typical graveyard setting and although this film isn't an 'on the edge of your seat movie' as it's showing the story of their summer at a young age. I think you would have to have pretty thick skin to not be a bit freaked out with them as they run out of the graveyard not knowing what's going to happen with them.

After talking about ways we could do this, we ending up deciding that it would be a bit too much to put into 2minutes of footage that would make the story easy to follow and that we would be cramming too much in. However I don't feel it a waste of time and that it was defiantly worth doing as it really got our minds rolling at the beginning and we came up with many other, but similar ideas from it.

Although I can't find a clip on the internet of it, we also talked about the opening of one of the Harry Potter films where we as the audience are wizzed around the buildings and roads that Harry lives. We find out later that we were seeing in the eyes behind one of the characters however  it works really well as a establishing shot and expectations of the film as you know that your going to have an magical couple of hours ahead.

We really liked this idea and therefore have decided to use it for ours however we won't be able to have the camera fly across the sky so we're going to start it from the front gate and go into the house, up the stairs then in to the room where the action is set. throughout this the mise-en-scene will be your basic family house, maybe a bit messy to set the scene that for the girls, it's not particular day.

How do the opening scenes of three police dramas establish or challenge the stereotypes of the police?

In the TV 'New tricks' the first scene that we can see is a bunch of adults in what from the mise-en-scene we can only assume to be a detective department due to the amount of administrable sat around them with books and a white board in which they all appear to be facing. They're dressed in fairly formal clothing however there is a clear divide between the two younger character's in their leather jackets and skinny jeans too the older generation who appear to be in these old fashioned suits and haircuts. The programme 'Heartbeat' has a fairly similar environment to this with its small group of people however this preticlar episode shows the establishing shot as in what we can assume is a village pub where everyone knows each other. The scenes used throughout the first 5 minutes do show three different locations that really show the slightly quicker paste that this one has. 'Ashes to Ashes' stands out in the way that although set in the 80s, seems a lot more of modern setting with lots of quick editing and transitions. Because this was set to be 20 years ago, the director would have put a lot of attention towards the mise-en-scene to really fit with this. Things like the cars they own, hair cuts they have and eighties style clothing gets in straight into our heads that its not meant to be in current times. Its set for probably the middle aged so alot of them watching will be able to relate to the mise-en-scene as they would have been in there prime in the year its set.

The music used in new tricks is all very jolly and exciting, it straight away puts an audience expectation on what age its aimed at and that sort of hints that the whole show, even if it is a show about the police, it won't be an all action one and that really in a small town it's set in the police don't have a lot of crime to deal with. Similar to new tricks, heartbeat uses a lot of iconic music and interestingly with this one the rest of the sound is diagetic and more dialogue driven therefore the words are seen to be as important as putting sound behind it when the characters are talking. With ashes to ashes, as its set in the 80s the director choose to go with the obvious choice and use 80s music that fits in with the all action that's going on. A variety of music has been used in just the first 10 minutes to go with what's going on in the scene.

With new tricks, the shots are very quick and often show more then one person in the screen. When they are having the disagreement about buying the car it shows three people on one side of the room and three on the other and the movements go from either side to sort of show the rivalry that's going on in the room. With heartbeat the editing is all fairly show with lots of close ups and over the shoulder scenes; especially in the dinner and car scene. The whole clip seemed to focus on the eyes, as from watching on the screen i felt mine were drawn to these and what there doing help us to understand the story well. Ashes to ashes uses very quick editing and tends to use more long shots to enthisise the action that is going on.

Plot for the main task

It took us a while to come up with what we wanted to put in the first 2 minutes of the film however after lots of discussions of how things would work and look on screen we finally got our story board on paper.

At the beginning of the film (the bit that we will film) you see these two girls getting ready for a 'Halloween party' which is obvious from the beginning due to having an invitation in the mise-en-scene. and the costumes there wearing. However, this isn't a normal Halloween party as we plan to show someone else in the room, at this point an unknown person who only the audience are aware of. This is pretty much what you will see from us in later postings, however i will show our story board below get you excited for what you'll see.

Now for the rest of the film, whiles the girls are at this party, all is fairly normal but of course being a horror film, there will be those bits to make the audience jump in their seats a bit. Then, the climax of the film during the middle has 'the devil' coming to get the girls and take them away. This would be shown by using very quick transitions between shots of the girls trying to get away however then they are both taken into 'hell'.

To finish the film, one of the girls is slightly weaker then the other meaning that she won't return to normality, however the other wakes up in her bed on November 1st unsure exactly of what had happened the night before.............

The art of film title design throughout cinema history

After skim-reading this webpage there were some things that really stood out to me that i will make some note on here, as it holds a lot of information i'm also going to leave the link which is http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/10/04/the-art-of-the-film-title-throughout-cinema-history/ to look back at whenever i need to.

When watching a film, that first opening scene will set the expectations for the movie, therefore this is probably one of the most important things that a director/writer should take into consideration when constructing the script. Its the time in the film when we get to see the bond of the graphic designer and the film-maker, which if its good then it will stick in our heads forever.

The colour of the font, the shape of the letters and the moment they hit our screens really can make a huge impact of to what else is going to follow and how much we might enjoy it. Its sort of the moment when we have the real connection with the director and that there giving us the message for the genre before the actors even said the first line.


''Throughout the history of cinema, film titles has evolved with the film industry, as well as with social trends and fashion movements. But the measure of a title design’s quality is the same now as it was in the silent era. Whatever function they perform, titles remain an essential part of film.

Granted, in recent years the business of film titling has been terribly strained by the control of producers over commissions and their persistence in demanding speculative work as the price of admission. Creatively speaking, though, as filmmaking consolidates into the most powerful international cultural phenomenon of the 21st century, ingenuity in titling is a certainty. As designers have always known, the opening moments can make a deeply satisfying contribution to any film.''

Preliminary task analysis

After filming everything we needed for the opening scene, it was then time to edit. We had to choose our favourite clips that worked along well with what we wanted as we had some unneeded ones. At first we found it quite hard to get to terms with the macs, however after a few trial and error moves, we managed to get the hang of cropping clips, adding sound and titles.

The music seemed to be a slight problem as we found the sound that we wanted on one of our ipods, so went to the youtube converter to get it onto our project- however after doing this we realised that there's a mans voice on the track which we didn't really want to be there so we tried to edit it out however we couldn't to this particular track so had to leave it in, although we now don't think that it's too bad and does in fact go with the storyline.

Another thing we found hard was when the camera pauses on the two characters that we see as we had to freeze the frame by print screening that exact second and pasting it several times so that its stays as a still frame whiles the audiences eyes are drawn to the name. However, like the music we managed to work this out and now know for future editing how to save time by doing this quickly.

Overall I think we have had a very good experience with the editing with this project as we are all very more aware of how to solve the problem before getting to it. I think its been a really good insight as to what we're going to have to be aware of for our main one and this practice will make our overall opening to the best that it can be.

Our preliminary task- What are you doing here?