Beautiful Mind opening

I chose to look at this film because of the similarity with my film- the schizophrenic protagonist.

The purpose of this film opening is to introduce the main character, the setting and atmosphere to the audience. The first line heard in the opening is "Mathematicians won the war", this is very striking to the audience and grabs their attention, but it also straight away tells us that the protagonist is a mathematician and that this element of him is central to the film. All in the first line.

The setting establishes the time period and the social status of the people there as it looks quite sophisticated. Also the music in the opening subtly adds to impression of the setting and atmosphere as it enhances the prestigious feel of the location. However this music does not fit perfectly with the speech of the professor and so as the camera pans round to the protagonist sitting alone at the very back of the room, I feel that the music fits more with him as he seems to be sitting peacefully alone, not concentrating on the speech. This establishes the character very well as it suggests that he perhaps can get lost in his own mind and not pay attention to things going on around him. 

This opening does not obviously give away the entire plot of the film, however is successfully hints and foreshadows possible events, for example the topic of war and secret messages. In addition it establishes the main character's personality and aura very quickly simply through music, position in the overall composition of the shots and body language which is very successful. 

Locations

 

These first two sets of locations are for the homeless character, the outside of shops are to show the places she sleeps and busks for people. Also the big trees in the middle of fields are to show that she is all alone and they could make for some dramatic shots with the correct lighting. These locations are on Barnet High Street and in fields in Hadley so they are very close and accessible.

these locations are for the wealthy character, the large homes are to suggest that this is an area in which she lives to imply that she is wealthy and this greatly contrasts with the homeless characters locations. Also I found this house on the right which is also a very large house but I chose it mainly for the large tree because it links the two girls together as the first has a tree in the middle of nowhere and the other has one outside her house and so visually it could show a link. Again these locations are all in Barnet and Hadley.

Fight Club opening

I chose to look at this film because its concept of multiple personalities is very similar to my idea.

The opening titles are featured against a CGI moving background of the inside the body. The music is very fast paced and the titles flash in to the beat of the music and fade away which looks very effective and more enjoyable to watch, also the font is very bold and clear so it is easy to read. The CGI of the inside of the body then tracks out of the body to an extreme close up of the skin and pans away to reveal the face of a character looking very beaten up and scared with a gun in his mouth and the sound of another man talking but you cannot see him yet. There is then a voice over describing the feelings and thoughts of an unknown person and along with the voice over the camera pans down the outside of the building the two men are in, with special effects, the shots goes down through several levels of a building to show a bomb inside a car, the camera then moves very fast and pans to the right taking the viewer across several roads and buildings to another car park holding explosives. This all matches with the voice-overs description. The voice over is very effective as it creates mystery as to who the voice is and how they know so much despite appearing to be the helpless and innocent one. There is also mystery around the other man, as the viewer never gets to see his face, only hear his voice. Also the voice over establishes that there is a connection between ‘Tyler’ and the voice.

This opening is quite effective as it uses enigma narrative to entice the audience and to make the opening more exciting. Also the opening scene is a scene from further on in the film, and this is successful as it creates tension and anticipation for the film to discover how the storyline got to that point. In addition, the opening addresses the target audience of young adults/adults as it is very visually interesting with a wide range of camera angles and exciting camera movement which would appeal to their audience.

I could use this as inspiration for my opening and use enigma narrative to create mystery around the storyline, as this is also typical of many films in the thriller genre. Also after looking at several film openings, I understand that music plays a very big part in the opening and so I need music to match the pace of the opening and to establish the atmosphere. In order to address my target audience of young adults, i should include interesting shots and camera angles to make my opening very visually interesting.

Pitch

For my film opening, I have come up with an idea for the storyline of the film to give me a better idea of what to include in the opening.

I have decided that the genre will be a psychological thriller.

By following the Todorov theory I have come up with a brief storyline for the entire film:

Equilibrium:

There are two main characters, both of whom are teenage girls:

The first one is a poverty stricken orphan, Grace, who lives on the streets and who goes about her daily life busking and sleeping on the streets.

The second girl, Ava, is wealthy, popular and has a very active social life. She goes about her day going to school and being with her friends.
Throughout the film there is an omniscient narrator who is unknown to the audience but is telling the story of both girls. 

Disequilibrium:

Both girls begin to get into trouble and into danger in their separate lives, but also find that another person is interfering with their lives too. Ava finds that Grace is the one who is meddling with her personal life and tries to find her, however she can only find traces of her and her closest friends and even parents begin to turn against her. The two girls meet one another and start to have a negative effect on the other and conflict between the two girls begins to occur due to their social positions and very opposite personalities. 

The girls find out that they are the disassociated personalities of Grace who suffers from catatonic schizophrenia where she has episodes of immobility and is unresponsive to the world. It is at these points when Ava believes she is taking over Grace's body to lead a completely different life. However, the entire life led by both girls and the people in their lives are severe hallucinations taking place during the psychotic episodes.

Equilibrium:

The audience see's Grace sitting motionless in a psychiatric unit, and suddenly comes out of her period of immobility, ending the hallucination

The name of my film will be:  Insanity

My target audience will be primarily young women, in particular those who are at university or in the final years of school and I will address this audience by using actors of a similar age and also using clothing and props that are recognisable to them and things that they would typically see in their everyday life in order to make the film more appealing to them, but also to make the characters more relatable. 

Black Swan opening

  

I looked at the opening of the Black Swan as I am looking at the thriller/horror genre and specifically the idea of multiple personalities.

The opening scene is of the main character dancing, the room is extremely dark and so nothing can be seen, however a spotlight turns on to reveal the main character dressed as a swan performing a dance. The music is, of course, perfectly in time with the dance and is very light and delicate to match the mise en scene-the costume is very simple and elegant and the dancer contrasts with her dark surroundings. This series of opening shots are used to introduce the main character and her profession and link to the title of the film as the protagonist is dressed as a swan. The tempo and tone of the music changes as another character is introduced, a darker, more melancholic figure who joins the dance and shows a struggle between the two. By including this in the opening, it perhaps forebodes that the dancer could have trouble and battles with a darker version of herself. The music with these pieces of action is much more fast paced with a whole orchestra participating, making the music build tension and suspense for the viewer, this matches with the shots and so makes it more effective as the music builds and gets louder when more energetic and dramatic things are happening in the shots.


This opening addresses its target audience, which is perhaps young women through the particular casting of someone of similar age to the audience, but also, although not everyone may be interested in ballet, the opening makes the action accessible to the audience and so they can pay more attention and engage in the opening.

I liked this opening, as it did not obviously give away the entire plot, nor did it give the audience a lot of information on the characters; however, through subtle hints in the dance, it sets the tone and atmosphere for the film. Therefore, I could emulate this in my opening by perhaps using an enigma narrative to build mystery and tension around both the characters and the storyline. Also I could use very atmospheric music to match the shots that I will use to complement them and make them more effective in setting the tone and story.

From looking at this film opening, I can already see that films in the thriller/horror genre tend to be quite visually dark with lots of contrasting to make it more appealing, but also that music is key in building tension and excitement for the audience.

  

Continuity Exercise

In class I did a continuity exercise to practice using the camera, tripod and obeying filming rules such as the 180° rule. I filmed a short interaction between two people, focusing on their positions, the camera position and the specific shots I need to create a smooth, continuous piece of action. Whilst editing, I had to ensure that the shots were exactly the correct length to make the movement between shots seem unnoticeable and so the viewer can follow the action without noticing the changes in shots.

Reflection on film titles research

Skyfall has 49 titles, this is because it is a bigger budget film and so more people are involved in the film, 21 Jump Street has 21 titles, this is probably just including the main personalities involved in the making of the film. Also the titles were probably quite short as the title sequence was made up of simple clips of action that linked to the action/teenage theme of the film, and so it would be boring if the titles went on too long. Twilight had 36 titles-the most out of all three films I looked at, many of these titles were actors and it also included some visual effects titles.

Twilight had the largest number of actors in the titles - 26, this is because the film has many central characters and is more of an ensemble cast. Skyfall had 10 actors featured in the titles as the film is generally centred around one actor however there are some important supporting actors that are also central to the film and so they are also included in the first set of titles. 21 Jump Street had 13 actors introduced in the titles also to introduce the main characters that are featured throughout the film, also the actor titles are of some very well known actors which will make the target audience more inclined to watch the film as there are famous actors in the film.

The roles that appear in all three are the director, the producers, the co-producers and executive producers, the actors are obviously shown in all three and main people in the visual department are also included in the opening titles. Costume and makeup are also included in all three title sequences, in addition, casting and music.

There are some roles that are not featured in all three, for example, publicity and marketing are featured in Skyfall and not in the other films, also stunt coordination and miniature effects are also featured in Skyfall and not the other two films who’s titles are more simple and straightforward.

Finally, the link between the titles in Skyfall are that the titles made in and out like smoke in front of computer generated graphics that take place underwater, the titles are placed to the left side of all of the shots as this is where they are more visible. 21 Jump Street has the titles in the middle of the frame and they take up most of the shot. They are also in a very big, bold font and the transitions are very blunt and quick. The titles of Twilight fade in and out softly to match the music and change colour depending on the background they are placed on top of.