FINAL EVALUATION

EVALUATION OF OPENING

SEQUENCE

KARISHMA PATEL

‘SOPHIE ’

Using, developing and challenging forms and

conventions of a thriller opening.

CAMERA WORKA technique often used in thriller opening sequences is framing the shot so that the face of the protagonist is cut out. We used this to build up the tension for the audience and present the character as more mysterious while she was colouring.

We combined these shots with extreme close ups of the character’s eyes (which we then sped up in post production). These close ups provided a contrast to the regular mid shots that were used, as well as presenting the sinister side to the character.

The establishing shot we used was of the ballerina spinning in the music box. Usually, the establishing shot of a thriller opening sequence is a extreme long shot, panning around the surroundings, but our shot introduces the audience to the theme of innocence of the film, as well as giving them some context of where the sound is coming from.



MISE-EN-SCENE

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For the bedroom scene, we chose to use a pink, cream and white colour scheme. We added fairy lights to the bed to create more of an atmosphere and provide opportunities to create shadows. We also lit mini candles all over the room to aid lighting. The props we used were childlike, mostly toys and dolls. We wanted to present a stereotypical 10 year old girl’s bedroom – although being a familiar location for our audience, it has the opportunity to be fairly sinister.

We chose a section of the forest where although it was dark, there was natural light that could be picked up on camera to provide shadows. This lighting combined with the ‘night mode’ on the camera produced a dull, washed out effect. We used the same Barbie doll that we used in the bedroom scene but we melted it and cut its hair to present a disturbing image of a regular child’s toy. We also used a piece of rope to tie the doll up with, along with ripped out pages from the colouring book we used earlier on. We changed Sophie’s make-up so she had darker eyes, and messed up her hair more.



TITLES

The font of the titles that are used in thriller openings are conventionally representative of the themes or ideas that feature in the film, (for example, the font used in the Saw films appears to have blood dripping off it). We challenged this convention in the sense that we chose a more classic font to fit our theme rather than fitting the thriller element. The font reinforces the childlike quality of our sequence, adding a sinister touch to the final product. We also challenged the conventional order of titles used, for practical reasons. Many of our clips were short cutaway shots, and so we didn’t want the sequence to be overcrowded with too many names for the audience to read, so we chose the most important titles and used them.

Representation of social groups.

We used two locations to differentiate between the separate lives of the main character. The audience are introduced to what seems to be an innocent 10 year old child playing with dolls in her bedroom. Mise-en-scene was something that we focused on in detail to present the audience with a typical child’s room (pink and cream furniture, fairy lights, dolls etc.) When the main character is seen walking through a quiet forest, we wanted to present her sinister side in the most subtle way possible. We decided to keep her wearing her pyjamas to remind the audience of the supposed innocence, but we changed the props from a normal Barbie doll to one that was melted and distorted. The intention was to create a stereotypical 10 year old child, but to hint on the idea of her having the capabilities of being something much more sinister.

Media institutions that might distribute ‘Sophie’

HOW SIMILAR FILMS ARE DISTRIBUTED:

Cinema1) High budget films 2) Money made from

ticket sales at the box office

3) Publicity e.g. posters at bus stops, outside cinema, film trailers in the cinema

4) Film shown for a limited period of time depending on its success

DVD 1) Audience have

to wait some time before release date

2) Can be watched over and over

3) Continually popular, even after the film has been released for years

Television 1) Available to a wide

audience2) Publicity e.g. adverts 3) Replayed on channels

such as Sky Movies 4) Can be purchased at Sky

Box Office, or sometimes free on demand

Internet 1) Cheap and easy to

access2) Can be downloaded

or streamed online 3) Watched worldwide

Many amateur film directors could use websites such as YouTube and Vimeo to upload there work. Creating an internet buzz nowadays can lead to much bigger things and is a free platform that could be used for this.


Warner Bros. Pictures could be a possibility for distributing our film, mainly because they have distributed many successful thriller films in the past, including House of Wax (2005), and the inspiration for our sequence, Orphan (2009).

The gross revenue at the box office for Orphan (2009) was $78,337,373. This means that Warner Bros. Pictures have been hugely successful in distributing psychological thriller films in the past, which is why they would be the perfect media institution to distribute ‘Sophie.’

The publicity used for Orphan (“There’s something wrong with Esther”) was a successful way of drawing people in to see the film, and would be particularly relevant in regards to the publicity of ‘Sophie.’


Film London Microwave are a company who specialise in distributing ‘micro-budget’ films. This company would be the most realistic way of distributing our product, apart from the websites YouTube and Vimeo that I mentioned earlier. The company not only help with funding and resources needed, but have experts who have knowledge in marketing and legal aspects of film distribution.

Target audience for a thriller opening.

Film Certification

GenderGenerally, both genders

enjoy thriller films. However, with our main

character being a 10 year old girl, I think it would

attract more of a female audience. Despite this, the fact that there are

elements of violence and action means that a male audience may also enjoy

it.

AgeOur target age group is 15 and above, mainly because the film may

be slightly uncomfortable for younger viewers to

watch, especially with the violent and

haunting elements it includes.

Looking at films that have similar themes to ‘Sophie’ such as Orphan and Paranormal Activity,

we decided to certify the film as a 15. The film contains mature themes and has a psychological aspect that younger viewers would not understand fully.

Attracting/addressing the audience.

• The vagueness of the title, ‘Sophie’ would draw the audience in, and make them want to find out who Sophie is and her story.

• The opening sequence quickly introduces the horror theme, rather than developing the idea of innocence. This gives the genre away to the audience, which is appropriate and would address the audience more than fooling them into thinking it was an innocent story about a child.

• The camera shots we used were an attempt to include the audience – for example the opening shot of the music box means that the audience can quickly determine where the background music comes from, and instantly introduces them to the childlike quality of the film.

• We didn’t overcomplicate the location and mise-en-scene, so that the audience could familiarise themselves with the two surroundings and understand what they represent character.

• When promoting our film, we would use a technique like the use of the quote “There’s something wrong with Esther” in advertising Orphan. This would attract audiences, and address them so that they would be aware of the genre of the film.

Understanding of technology from the process of

constructing my product.

Camera Equipment Logo The camera and tripod we were provided with were very easy to use, and we ended up being able to film a variety of different angles with a good quality of image. We were also successful in producing steady shots throughout the sequence.On the day of filming, we discovered ‘night mode’ on our camera, which washed out all the colours in the room, and produced a more authentic quality of film which matched our genre. We would have liked to have used a camera that had a focus adjustment, but we managed to use the lighting on the day to create the same effect.

We planned out the logo’s on our storyboard and went on to use a combination of Photoshop and Paint to create them. We then added imported them as images to Adobe Premiere Elements and added them to our sequence.



Editing ProcessWe used Adobe Premiere Elements 5.0 to edit our footage. The fact that we had used this software before was useful as we didn’t need to spend any extra time learning how to use it, but we did discover a lot of new aspects of the programme that we weren’t aware of previously.

This was the first time we used text in our editing, but it was easy to insert text and layer it on top of our film. The problem we did face was timing the credits so that they faded in and out in time with the clips. We also wanted to make the sure each credit stayed on the screen long enough for the audience to read it, but not too long as to bore them.

We also discovered new effects and transitions we could use to give our sequence a more professional look. We experimented with many effects such as ghosting, blur, wash fade and sharpen.



Editing Process

After we found the music box tune that we could use as the sound of our opening sequence, we had to time it with each section. The most problematic section was the very end, when the main character walks slowly towards the camera, and then speeds

up until her face is the main focus. We had to find a point in the music where it built up, to add to the drama of this moment, this involved cutting both the music and the film until we found a place that matched.

Progression from preliminary task to full

product.

Pre-ProductionDuring the final task, I learnt the importance of detailed planning and storyboarding. When it came to filming, our storyboard made it much easier for us to get started, and the fact that we included the exact positions of where the credits would be meant that we could film appropriately. I also produced a successful camera plan for the final product, which meant that I could think about a risk assessment for our actor (for example, finding a suitable area for the camera to go in the forest scene). The fact that I did mini mind-maps for each aspect of the planning e.g. location, mise-en-scene and camera work meant that I could develop my original ideas into something more substantial.The research that I did into the conventions of opening sequences also gave me a clearer idea of direction when it came to filming.The use of a production schedule allowed us to organise our time more efficiently, with clear targets for what we wanted to achieve by the end of each lesson. Although we didn’t necessarily stick to the schedule exactly, it definitely gave us more of a direction for our production.


product.

ProductionI think that my camera skills have noticeably developed since the preliminary task. The fact that I have learnt more techniques gave me the confidence to experiment with ideas and develop them as I went along. A large part of the development of my skills has come from the research I did into opening sequences – watching various openings inspired me to try some of the ideas as well as to take risks and produce something original. During the preliminary task, I mainly concentrated on techniques such as match on action and shot reverse shot, whereas I thought a lot more about framing in my final task. Framing can be the difference between a shot looking amateur and giving it a professional edge, and the opening sequence definitely gave me the confidence to try some different framing ideas. I feel that I now have the ability to create more of an atmosphere to a film than I did before, by using mise-en-scene and sound. With the help of effective lighting and props, we were able to create tension, and the sound gives the audience a clearer idea of what they are watching. The preliminary task seems very basic when it comes to these elements than the final product.


product.

Post-ProductionAlthough we used the same editing software for the preliminary task and the final task, (Adobe Premiere Elements) I was able to experiment with more advanced editing techniques in the final task, by exploring the effects and transitions that are available. The transitions we used were appropriate to the thriller/horror theme of our film – the use of blurring and ghosting particularly. The ‘time stretch’ element was also a very useful aspect to our editing, as it allowed us to speed up and slow down footage to produce haunting images. The success of the post-production, was in my opinion, down to the detailed pre-production stage. The fact that we planned out transitions and fading techniques in our storyboard meant that we could feel comfortable with using these effects. We were conscious throughout the editing stage as to not overcomplicate the transitions, (e.g. excessive speeding up/slowing down of footage could end up looking like a spoof video) but it was good that we were able to take certain risks, and in my opinion they definitely paid off in the final product. The preliminary task however, had no extra effects added –we faded in the start and fading out the end, but that was it.

Entertainment & Humor

FINAL EVALUATION