Evaluation: Our credits style selection

Our initial plan for the titles in our sequence was to have them appear as part of the scene, much like one of our inspirations, Panic Room. But due to our budget and facilities, we downscaled our plans. We decided to embed our titles into the scene, in a similar fashion to the television series Heroes. We felt this would be an interesting and unique way of introducing titles, and that they would compliment rather than distract from the scenes.

Early on, while experimenting and editing with the iMovie software, it was clear that this would have been extremely hard to achieve, and the overall quality of the titles would have been poor. So, in keeping with our initial objective of interesting titles, we chose to have them as dynamic as possible. This is especially evident in the top-billing credits, with dynamic sweeping texts timed to match the slow-motion footage. We believe that while these titles weren't as ambitious as we had previously hoped, they were effective with the limited title options that iMovie provided.

Finally, we chose the font ‘American Typewriter’ for two reasons. Firstly, its style and appearance connotes the overall theme of the movie circling around ‘the list’. Its font is clearly recognisable as a classic typewriter typeface, further reinforcing this image to the audience. Secondly, the font also was clear, easy to read and effective in the different sizes and levels of ‘Bold’ that we needed, while still having a unique style.

Evaluation: The Title

The Title of our film, "The List", is deliberately vague and imprecise to create the sense of an enigma. "The List" allows many plot-lines to be followed without confirming any specific facts, suiting the conventions of a thriller.

The title of our film is displayed at the end of our segment, with the preceding scenes beginning to describe and explain its choice and plot-line. We chose to end the opening with the title to conform with common thriller conventions, while providing some knowledge and explanation for the audience, intriguing them and providing impact to the title.

Evaluation: How social groups are represented

Our opening sequence presents three character roles, each having different links to social groups.

Firstly, our Villain is presented in all-black, instantly creating a sinister disposition toward him while also connoting his evil nature. This draws on peoples attitudes and feelings about the darker side of society, with his mysterious nature further drawing on this fear of society's underbelly. But also, the use of the mask symbolises that he is also a member of a community, where is is recognised and known. His need for a mask shows that he wants to protect is identity, as his regular alter-ego lives a normal life. This instantly plays with peoples perceptions of the character; and teases that he may be laying in wait in the community, his evil side unnoticed by everyone, instilling a sense of unease as he may not be the generic, outcast and lonely villain as seen in many other films.

Another example of a social group are the detective characters. By having one appear more 'rough and ready', this could connote a more friendly and relateable persona, and yet also suggest an unreliable or untrustworthy character. Contrasting this with a tightly-dressed, 'by the book' detective, it allows audiences to see possible friction between the two protagonists, adding another social aspect of how this will come to fruition and be resolved. Also, by having two styles of detective personality, we have encompassed many of the stereotypical character types found in other thriller pieces, allowing audiences to be instantly familiar with the social group at hand.

Finally, our victim is portrayed alone as an inconspicuous, 'normal' woman, whose innocence is reinforced by the initial shot of her washing pots, an everyday occurrence for many people. This instantly represents, in varying degrees, many of our prospective audience's social class and group. By doing this, the killing is much closer to their lives, as it shows that it can happen to anyone, increasing the interest, tension and apprehension within the audience. But this character also juxtaposes the others portrayed in the scene, clearly showing the divides and possible prospectives between the various groups represented.

Evaluation: The BBFC and our Rating Choice

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC)
Universal - All ages admitted, there is nothing unsuitable for children. Films under this category should not upset children over 4, for example Incredibles.
Parental Guidance - All ages admitted, but certain scenes may be unsuitable forchildren under 8, for example Toystory.

12A - Cinema only. Introduced in 2002. Films under this category are considered to be unsuitable for very young people. Those aged under 12 years are only admitted if accompanied by an adult, aged at least 18 years, at all times during the motion picture. However, it is generally not recommended that children under 12 years should watch the film. Films under this category .

.0.can contain mature themes, discrimination, soft drugs, commonly used milder swear words, and moderate violence/sex references.
12 - Home media only since 2002. 12A-rated films are usually given a 12 certificate for the VHS/DVD version unless extra material has been added that requires a higher rating. Nobody younger than 12 can rent or buy a 12-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game. Films in this category may include infrequent drugs, infrequent use of strong language, brief nudity, discreet sexual activity, and moderate violence.

15 - Nobody younger than 15 can rent or buy a 15-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game, or watch a film in the cinema with this rating. This rating is similar to the. Films under this category can contain adult themes, hard drugs, strong words, moderate-strong violence/sex references, and mild non-detailed sex activity.

18 - Nobody younger than 18 can rent or buy an 18-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game, or watch a film in the cinema with this rating. Films under this category do not have limitation on the bad language that is used. Hard drugs are generally allowed, and strong violence/sex references along with strong sexual activity is also allowed. Scenes of strong real sex may be permitted if justified by the context.

Restricted 18 - Only adults are admitted, and can only be shown at licensed cinemas or sold at a Sex Shop. Films under this category have material the BBFC does not allow for its "18" rating, thus the violence and sex activity will be stronger in R18-rated VHSs, DVDs and films than those rated "18," however, there is still a range of material that is often cut from the R18 rating. This rating is similar to the American X rating. More cuts are demanded in this category than any other category.

We decided to aim our film to the age certificate 15, as this is where our mass audience is, we contemplated using certificate 12 to increase out potential audience but we felt that this would affect the content of our film. And reduce our ability to make an affective psychological thriller. We chose not to too aim the film at a certificate 18 as this would greatly reduce our potential audience, and would normally appeal to the age range 18. Looking into different films, we managed to gather information such as: How much swearing could be used, the amount of violence shown and disturbing images that could be recorded. By doing so, we are were able to maneuver scenes, adding violence and pushing the limits to attract the audience into watching our film. Teenager's love watching films that will scare them, make them jump and have an attractive and thrilling storyline. Aiming our film towards 18 would significantly lower our box office ratings and income as less people would watch it. We were amazed to find some of the material in age certificate 15’s had to offer to it’s audience and the ratings they receive.

Evaluation: What we have learned from the Preliminary Tasks for our overall piece.

Evaluation: New Technologies

Evaluation: Our chosen audience

The demographic which we targeted with our production, 'The List', was: The early-mid 20's, of any gender, although action-orientated films tend to be geared toward the male gender. Our prospective audience will want a film to entertain and excite them, but we have also included a psychological aspect to give the film's plot meaning and weight, appealing to those who want to enjoy the challenge of the enigma created by the film.
Our audience will clearly have disposable income as they have come to the cinema to see our film, so there may be a chance for us to expand on our film through merchandising. While this is another way to make money from the production, it was also be another effective marketing tool in raising awareness and creating a fan-base for our film.
Other films that our audience may have enjoyed are Panic Room, The Fugitive and Inception. These films have similar plot themes and genres to our production, are well respected and have large fan-bases, so any links to these films would be hugely beneficial for us. Also, the rise of big budget TV action dramas have increased interest in our chosen genre. 24 is a key example of this, once again following similar themes and ideas to our production. 24 has a large following, so fans of the series may take an interest in our film.
Overall, we have tried to create our film for a wide-variety of audiences to maximise our potential viewership, without focussing too much on one certain demographic, which may alienate and affect certain viewer's choice to watch our film.

Evaluation: Conventions and how we attracted audiences

In our opening, we have two clear sections and styles of filming, the first being the chase scene, and the second being the more storyline-focused detective scene.
Starting with the CCTV-style shot, we have used this angle and filter to create a sense of surveillance in the scene. Different style shots add variety for the audience, and keep them interested in the sequence itself.
The chase scene consists of fast-paced editing, a well developed technique in the industry, which adds pace and excitement to the scene, effective in symbolising the tense chase between the characters. We chose to limit the amount of zooms we used in the sequence to connote the sense of a "Fly-on-the-wall" point of view, to further symbolise that these events are happening within normal, everyday settings.
The second section of our piece is the slower paced 'Detective scene'. In this, we have chosen to use more longer, sweeping shots to place more emphasis on the setting of the crime scene. Shot-reverse shot also allowed us to construct effective dialogue, which are the key places where we advanced the storyline. Finally, by editing the filter and transitions used over certain scenes create the effect of a flashback. This allows us to create a non-linear timeline, an effective way of drawing our audiences into the story of 'The List'.

We have limited the use of special effects in our opening to help ground the piece in reality, allowing the audience to relate to it more easily. We felt that to achieve the 'gritty' feel we were striving for, SFX would detract from this. Any effects we included we tried to achieve with the camera itself, with its positioning and the angle of the shot.
There are exceptions, such as the slow-motion running used as the Top Billing names are introduced. We found this effect in the iMovie application, and thought it would be a great addition to our piece to add weight to the star names. Another effect is the 'flash' transitions used to symbolise the flashback scenes. We experimented with many ways of achieving the flashback effect , but we found that fade to white was most effective, and it also seemed to follow the conventions of other psychological films using a flashback storyline.
Finally, we used a variety of filters to create a sense of time, such as the 'bleach' effect over the flashback scenes. We found through audience feedback that filters were effective at creating the desired effect, while not being over-intrusive for the audience, something which we were keen to address.

One aspect where we felt we could have improved our opening was the introduction and presentation of our characters. With the limited amount of dialogue we have in our opening, the characterisation was difficult to portray, so we attempted to achieve this by focussing on the costumes of the characters. While both detectives are wearing suits, we have styled one to be very smart and 'proper', while the other is more relaxed and laid back. We feel that this could have gone into more depth, but with our limited budget we were unsure at how to do this effectively. Also, the lingering, contemplative shot of the more 'professional' Detective Mason analysing the body highlights his method of working, as opposed to the other's more 'rough and ready' approach.
But we were pleased with the way our villain was portrayed in the piece, especially with the sharp contrast of the pure white mask and the all-black clothes. The white of the mask almost 'pierced' each scene the villain was shown in, which we felt was hugely effective at highlighting the menace of his character. Finally, the way the villain removes his disguise throughout the chase hints that there will be a clue to his identity, connoting to the audience that he has flaws in his persona, which may be exploited.

The use of costumes in our film was one of the weaker points of our opening, but there were still positive points. The suits allowed the detectives to be recognisable and it gave them a higher status instantly, while the mask for the villian was especially effective in identifying him as the film's antagonist.
The genre we chose for our film is 'Action/Psychological thriller'. We initially chose this because they were the most popular choices in our initial questionnaire. This also allowed us to experiment with different styles of filming and editing, and allowed us more opportunities to have greater variety in our film opening. The initial fast-paced chase scene with low/high angles and action shots combined with the high-tempo music appeals to conventions in the action genre; While the slower paced nature of the flashbacks and twisted-frame shots in the detective scene in combination with the slow, 'scary' piano music provide a huge shift in tone of the piece, gearing it toward the psychological aspect of our genre.

The title font we have used in our piece is 'American typewriter'. We felt this connoted a strong link with the title, while being interesting and easy to read for the audience. We have made the names of our participants bold, to put emphasis on the 'star names', a common convention of title sequences as clearly seen in one of our inspirations, 'Panic Room'.

Evaluation: Our Publishing Companies

Our production company, "Monolith Productions", provides us with a personal identity to attract potential publishers. We chose 'Monolith' as it has an 'epic' and meaningful feel, which instantly portrays the group in a positive light. Its meaning of a large stone/artefact that is worshiped connotes how we want audiences to feel about or films too, but in a more effective, quick and interesting way.
We initially began with the film studio 'Lionsgate' as we felt that this company has a good reputation in the thriller genre, and has the resources as a whole for effective films. But then, through further research, we felt a more realistic choice of institution would be Film4 Productions. This is a UK production company, specialising in home-grown talent and providing a platform to reach much larger audiences.
An example case study of a Film4 production is '127 Hours', a British/American film directed by Danny Bolye, one of our inspirations. It was filmed with a comparatively low budget, appealing to our circumstances, and the very limited camera setup also appeals to the opportunities we had in our filming. Considering Film4 supported and published this production, we feel that they would be an ideal partner for our film.
We would also appeal to UK funding sources, such as the UK Film Council. This is a lottery-funded board which supports a variety of film-based projects, from big budget to small independent films. This would be an ideal place to receive backing from, and may also increase the exposure to our project, generating interest. An example of a film they have supported is 'Kidulthood', which became a huge success because of the increased budget and knowledge available, despite its 'newcomer' cast and crew.

Evaluation: Editing Process

In the beginning, we had trouble with our editing. We made sure we had enough clips to fill a five minute opening and decided on shots that we liked. After deleting unnecessary clips, we were still way over our allocated time and discovered that our opening didn't flow and make as much sense as we had originally hoped. We gathered up feedback and decided to re-film certain scenes such as the dialogue, hoping to make it flow smoother and more diligently. However this began to produce problems with editing. We would have to make the consistency of costumes, props and placement of acting.

After re-filming the scenes and speeding up actions such as walking or shot reverse shot scenes, our film was beginning to flow much nicer and more professional. However, there was still some scenes missing and actions to make our opening make sense. We then cut down further to a reasonable size and mind mapped more ideas based on our feedback once again. We decided to completely desert ideas and focus on making the storyline more interesting and gripping to the viewers. Finally we had re-filmed and made progress on producing more clips. Our feedback was excellent and our storyline made sense to all viewers.

Camera angles got easier throughout the project as we used more than one to take the same shot. This guaranteed that we got the perfect shot or the same shot from different angles to see which looked better or what effect it would give to the audience. By using different camera shots, we were able to give ourselves the opportunity to experiment with different locations of the camera to fill criteria and to generally make our film look the best it could.

Adding credits was not a problem using the imovie on the imac, we had already decided on the placement of the titles and based the font on the movie title, this would connote and mirror the effect of the whole concept of the title. Quite surprising to us, the credits seemed to be a missing puzzle piece that simply slotted in and complimented our work to it’s full extent. There was no struggle in editing the credits into the film, although our original idea of credits was abandoned due to lack of funds and equipment.

Sound was another key instrument to making our film opening a success. We had difficulties at first with the arrangement of clips and what worked well and didn't. In our rough cut we decided that a a scene could be shortened by a maximum of an estimate of 30 seconds, however the dialogue was very important. We decided to split the clip from the sound and use the sound elsewhere and this indeed worked extremely well and better than what we had hoped for. This clip can be seen in the mask dialogue. In the first scene where the antagonist is seen opening the door and look at the CCTV camera, there was a lot of background digetic noise of cars, the door and birds. This was very unrealistic and killed the tense atmosphere we had wished to create. We muted the clip, which instantly made a precise impact on the audience and what we hoped for.

Music was indeed significant to encourage our project to be the best it could possibly be. It was incredibly difficult to connote what our ideas suggested using garage band. We tried to edit in a fast paced, up beat, yet slightly chilling mood in the chase, to our music which then merges into a rather sincere and dramatic piece in the detective scenes. This took the team quite a few hours, trying to take on board constructive criticism people had to offer, and finally our hard work paid off. We received a lot of compliments towards the music in our film opening and positive attitudes about it.

Finished Version

Editing the rough cut gradually got easier the more we took audience feedback on board. We started to mind map more ideas that would improve the piece and started to film pieces several times to make sure that we got the perfect shot. By using the same recordings from differently placed cameras, we were able to select the best clip and edit them into our film. We changed clips completely or how we approached a scene. This is because we wanted to have the same impact on the audience as if we were the audience and watched it for the first time. We had the ideas, yet performing them was something of a challenge to the team. Some of ideas would generally be a different approach to the other so we would research and agree on which idea could possibly go into our film. We started to adjust clips, modifying them to suit the previous or future scenes. This began to get difficult as we had to speed up clips and cut precisely and accurately to merge scenes well with one another.

Watching and analysing the clip repeatedly, we thought as a collective team that the story could be made more interesting and understandable by having the detectives arrive at the house. This made the film flow much easier as you saw them arrive back at the crime scene. We received great comments from our peers quoting “It made it much clearer, more realistic and professional instead of a group of students with a camera.”

We re-filmed many clips to sort out any continuity errors and any clips that we needed to make quicker. We had trouble with time throughout the task as we had much more footage that could have been used effectively in a longer piece. We made the dialogue between the detectives faster to make the whole scene more realistic as if it were a conversation. The team pulled together the idea of the shot reverse shot technique making the audience see reactions and deciding for them how to react to that in our final piece, which I believe was executed perfectly to add pace to the conversation.

The List - Final Cut

Soundtrack

We used Garage-band to create our soundtrack. The software was very useful and very simple to use but had a limitation of sounds. At the beginning of the film there was no Soundtrack which helped, along with the establishing shot the mood of the film. As the villain walks past the CCTV camera it flickers and the use of a diegetic static sound helps create a faulty camera look and really made the shot look professional.

As the Detectives spot the Villain the soundtrack begins as they chase the villain and creates an intense chase.

During the detective scenes the soundtrack stops and the use of non-diegetic sounds of a confiscation creates both realism and also relieves the tension thats been built up, then as the scene ends the tension build up again as the villain spots another victim, as he walks up the stairs the use of non-digetic sounds of footsteps creates realism.

Audience feedback on Rough Cut

The Rough Cut

Filming Schedule, and how it changed.

We aimed to begin our first lot of filming in the week beginning 7th February. We achieved this target on Wednesday 9th, a time when the whole group as well as our actress was available. The scenes we filmed at this point were the killing scene, the detective scene and the flashbacks. While appearing later in the opening sequence, these particular scenes had been fully planned by this point, whereas the earlier chase had not. Non linear filming is commonplace in the industry, so we felt this technique helped us emulate industry standard more effectively.

We began uploading and doing some initial editing on these scenes in the week after, so we planned our next shoot for the week beginning the 21st. But due to half-term commitments, we moved this date back a week. So our next shoot took place on Tuesday 1st March, at which point we completed the chase scene. We felt this shooting day was more productive, as we had learnt from earlier difficulties by having a clear outline of each shot we needed, and their locations were well-known.

Due to a few unforeseen changes in the screenplay and order of shots, our rough cut was completed later than planned on Thursday 24th. Once the rough cut had been completed, we analysed the footage ourselves as well as receiving audience feedback, an example of this is the video interview later in the blog. After consolidating the changes into new shots and shots to be re-filmed, we gave ourselves one day to complete these shots, to allow time to edit our final cut. This date was set as Thursday 31st March.

Overall, this shoot went extremely well, partly due to the fact that for shots we were re-filming, we already had a basic reference point in the rough cut. Therefore our objectives were much clearer, and therefore easier to achieve. Editing the last shoots footage into the opening was much simpler due to already knowing their placement and purpose. Our final cut was completed on Friday 15th April.

Credits

Film Four

Monolith production Presents

In Associations with Film Four

Cast

Simon Helliwell

Luke Mulligan

Declan Prendergast

Charlotte Crogan

Sam Norton

Samuel Davis

Casting by

Callum Thomas

Costume Desighner

Emily Story

Executive Producer

Luke Mulligan

Simon Helliwell

Directed By

Declan Prendegast

Title

The List

Shot List

We wanted to use a variety of camera angles and shots, which would keep the audience interested.

Over the Shoulder shot- this will be used as the victim is doing the washing up, this will create and tense and eerie atmosphere as it gave the audience the impression that the killer is behind her.

High angle shot- This particular will be used as the victim is looking down on the villain from the stairs, with the use of a hand held camera which will add realism to the shot. High angle shot normally convey vulnerability, which the villain was, as the audience doesn't know who is watching him e.g. someone who is going to get help, but the tables turn and the villain sees the victim and the high angle gradually becomes less dominant which show that the victim is more vulnerable.

Medium Shot- this will make up the majority of our shots as this will show both the scenery and characters. For example the detective scene.

Two Shot- This shot will be used when the two detectives are analysing the situation, when a flash forward to present time of the kitchen, this enables the interaction of both key detectives and allow the conversation to unravel, this also establishes the situation for the audience.

360 Degrees- we wanted to use this particular shot as its a very unique shot, and because its filmed in first person this will create realism. We also wanted to show that the villain has escaped, and this will be a very effective way of doing this shot.

First person shot- The first person shot is used when the victim is doing the washing up, this creates a sense of realism and also offers a different aspect to the audience, as it seems a harmless activity.

Tracking shot- When using this shot we wanted to follow the killers movement to show action, but we also wanted to make the camera seem to go through a beam of wood, to the victim, but this might be very hard to achieve effectively and could effect the overall quality of the final cut.

Close up shot- We wanted a close up shot of the villains brief case, this will give the audience a insight of the villains brief case, which will interest the audience and keep them intrigued.

Panning shot- we wanted to use this particular shot to show action when the detective are chasing the villain, the panning shot allow to follow the action and also increase the amount of scene shown, and also allows movement in the shot.

Hand held- we wanted too add a hand held shot within the chase scene, this will help to create realism and tension. This will also offer a different view of the chase and vary the shots which will keep the audience interested.

Discarded Locations

These were the locations we decided to discard, where the villain escapes from the chase of the detectives. Their were many reasons why these two locations weren't used and this was due to how open both these shots were and we wanted to create a industrial effect to the chase scene which both these shot didn't convey. The first shot was two wide and open but it had factors that i would liked of use such as the barb wire and cctv camera, which show both realism and makes the shot look gritty which is what we wanted to achieve. The second shot didn't represent a indutrial setting which also shown by the houses and so this shot wouldn't be used due to the fact it didn't look gritty and this is what we wanted to achieve.

Settings

The settings in our movie beginning we have tried to tailor to suit the action-thriller genre that we have aimed for. The victims house is our first setting, for which will use a combination of our own houses to reduce our budget, while being able to use the best settings provided by the 3 houses. The second setting will be city streets, for which we have scouted around our local area to find the most effective scenes for a frantic chase. Street scenes are popular in films showing a chase as they create a sense of realism and allow the audience to easily recognise the setting within fast-paced editing. Also, the suburban setting connotes that the killings are taking place within everyday scenarios, making the storyline more real for audiences.

Story Board

Second Detective Costume

We chose this suit for our second detective, which we modified by adding a tie, which would give this detective a less formal look compared to the other detective, due to cost we had to use a different suit but yet again it has the same effect.

Detective Costume

This is the preliminary costume of the first detective. This shows that this detective is more formal and serious about his job, due to the budget we were restricted to other suits, which look similar but has the same effect.

Villains Costume

This is an example of a preliminary costume of the Villain. We considered many factors when deciding on the villains apperance. Firstly the cost of the particular costume exceeded our budget and so we needed to change the look of the costume. Firstly for the mask we decide we would use a plain white mask to hide the villains identity. The theme of the black overalls was kept but we are going to update for a more realistic feel, for instance a black coat which also fitted our budget.

Locations Shots

We wanted to use a variety of different scenes throughout the film, to keep the audience interested and engaged and so it was a very careful process when deciding the locations.

This particular shot is going to be a first person shot of a chase scene which will effectively create realism. This also helps to vary the types of camera shots and keep the audience interested.

We wanted to create a gritty and dark feel to the film and so we tried to get a location of an industrial setting, which we had t

hree scenes to choose from, but we decided to go with the third location as its more enclosed which this also leads onto the busy road which is when the detectives loose the villain, this next shot is of a busy road which create tension as he escapes to the general public and gives the audience the impression their will be another murder.

This particular shot of of the interior of the house in which the killing has taking place, this was to represent the average household and to play on the the audiences minds. The second location, is of the exterior of the house this again connotes the average household, and build suspense for the audience as its residential and suburban which the majority of the target audience is from.

Our Film Title

When we began discussing the title of our piece, we all came to the conclusion that the most effective titles were short and snappy, with a clear meaning behind them while not containing any ‘spoilers’ for the film goers. After many discussions, the group decided on ‘Motive’. We felt this title had a clear meaning and link with the villains story, while not being overly informative. This would intrigue audiences in the plot, and the film overall.
But was we begun drafting storyboards and preliminary filming, the plot element of ‘the list’ began to take a prominent role. Discussions then arose about changing the title to The List. We felt that this would provide a clearer link to the film itself, while also increasing the interest in such a vague title. Finally, we felt The List provided better branding for our film as a whole, as viral marketing campaigns could take advantage of the vague yet intriguing nature of the titular list. Our choice became final around the time we finished the rough cut of our opening.

Film Pitch

Our pitch for the opening of our film is to create an action-style chase scene involving the main Villian and our Detective characters, who will be the main protagonists and the vehicles for the rest of the story. We want to create a fast-paced opening to instantly create excitement for the audiences, drawing them into the world of the film as quickly as possible. We want the first shots in the film to have a rough, visceral feel, creating a realistic and gritty outlook for the rest of the film. We will aim to achieve this by using as little SFX as possible in the editing suite, with us trying to include any effects we need on day of the shoot, with appropriate camera angles and movement.
The second part of our opening will have a distinctively different feel, becoming slower and much more story-focused. This will allow us to effectively further our plot, while also leading the audience into a false sense of security after the frenetic pace of the initial chase. In this section we also want to introduce the idea of a non-linear timeline, with us using flashbacks as a narrative device. This will create an uncertain timeline for the viewer, and will become part of an overall enigma throughout the film.
Our narrative will be based around the Villain's string of attacks, and discovering the reasoning's behind his selection of victims. We want to have a ‘list’ of victims found early on in the film to help guide the narrative. But by also having this rigid plot line outlined early , it allows us to capitalise on twists and surprises later in the film; as the audience will expect the killer/detectives to follow this plan, while the story could deviate dramatically.
Overall, we want to create an opening which achieves in two key areas: Firstly, we want to show that the film will have creative and exciting action set-pieces, appealing to an audience looking for a genuine action thriller. But we also want to start an intriguing narrative strand early on in the film. This will appeal to audiences who would like a strong storyline to follow and an enigma to solve for themselves, drawing them further into the film. If we can achieve both of these points, our opening should be effective at hooking audiences in.

The Thriller Genre and its conventions

We have chosen to film our opening sequence in the style of an action-thriller. Thrillers use suspense and tension to keep audiences on the edge of their seats, and often use an enigma in their central plot to draw viewers into its world, with the storyline gradually building up to a climax at the end of the film.
The Thriller Genre can take many forms, often appealing to more than one sub-genre at a time, while still having the overall set-up of a thriller. Prominent sub-genres are Crime (Se7en, Taken, Ocean’s 11); Psychological (Suspicion, Phone Booth, Psycho); Disaster (2012, Twister, Poseidon) plus many others. The thriller genre has become so prominent that it has also spawned some of the most popular shows in recent television history, such as 24, Prison Break and CSI.
One of the most renowned directors of this genre is Alfred Hitchcock, who’s style and techniques changed the way thrillers were conceived and filmed forever, and his legacy has a resounding effect on the cinematic world today. From 1940-60, Hitchcock won the Oscar for Best Director five times for his work in the thriller genre, including for films such as Psycho and Rear Window, both regarded worldwide as top thriller movies.
In recent years some thrillers have been heavily influenced by the horror genre, and we have studied horror’s quite closely in our theory lessons, so we are considering adding an element of this genre to our overall piece.

Inspiration- Danny Boyle

One of our key inspirations is the director Danny Boyle. He is a world renowned British director, who has been nominated for the Best Director Academy Award twice and won once. While his number of films is comparatively small to other directors, almost every film he has directed has been met with success. He is known to tackle unconventional topics and screenplays, and in some of his works he has had adapt to difficult filming schedules and settings, while still achieving award-winning results. He also directs many of his films for UK production companies, supporting the UK film industry and homegrown talent, a position we are basing our project in. The two films of his that inspired us the most are Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours.
Firstly, Slumdog Millionaire was made with a comparatively small budget of $15 million, and yet it achieved the same effects, shots and success of many big budget films. We learnt after seeing a documentary of the filming of Slumdog Millionaire, that Boyle used simple methods and techniques to great effect, such as using skateboards to achieve the same effect as track shots. This inspires us as a team with an extremely small budget, to experiment with many more effects in our shooting process, and gave us the confidence to attempt some original shots.
Secondly, 127 Hours inspired us because of the challenges presented by the setting of a deep, enclosed canyon. The style in which the atmosphere is constructed in scenes where a singular camera is used provided huge inspiration for us. The way Boyle uses minimal movement, props and dialogue to create tension and drama allowed us to visualise what we could achieve with our limited cameras and budget, and helped us choose our shot types much more effectively.

Influence of Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan was the director of the ever loved films: Batman: The Dark Knight, Inception, Memento and more. Three films that make your eyes light up immediately. He has inspired millions with his mass of experience and the amazing job he did, directing them films at such a young age. However the film that inspired our team the most is Batman: The Dark Knight. We loved how he could portray each individual character with a single camera angle or just costumes that they wore.

First of all, we adopted his technique of camera angles and how he used them to help the audience see things in different lights, for example: ‘The Joker’ looks menacing normally, yet when Nolan gives him a hand held camera, ‘The Joker’ becomes more vicious and terrifying. This effect is what we wanted to take but for all characters. Comparing this to our film, the detective ‘Mason’ picks up the letter with a hand held camera. This is literally seconds, however, a lot is shown in such a short space. He panics and picks up the letter and you see the title of the film, this is very significant to the storyline as the plot revolves around ‘The List’ and the Mason’s determination and bravery is shown through his reaction. However, you see the other detective’s personality as well. He continuously chases, making him extremely brave, on the other hand, ruthless and careless. We took Nolan’s style and used it to show the protagonists personalities, giving the audience more information in literally 3 seconds of footage.

As well as this, Nolan has used fast paced action scenes with even quicker editing to symbolize multiple activities that are happening and to make the audience feel nervous and excited. We copied a similar style with our chase scene; we attempted to not use any transitions to create realism, like Nolan, and to make the chase much quicker than initially shot.

The Thriller Genre

Our initial plan for the titles in our sequence was to have them appear as part of the scene, much like one of our inspirations, Panic Room. But due to our budget and facilities, we downscaled our plans. We decided to embed our titles into the scene, in a similar fashion to the television series Heroes. We felt this would be an interesting and unique way of introducing titles, and that they would compliment rather than distract from the scenes.

Early on, while experimenting and editing with the iMovie software, it was clear that this would have been extremely hard to achieve, and the overall quality of the titles would have been poor. So, in keeping with our initial objective of interesting titles, we chose to have them as dynamic as possible. This is especially evident in the top-billing credits, with dynamic sweeping texts timed to match the slow-motion footage. We believe that while these titles weren't as ambitious as we had previously hoped, they were effective with the limited title options that iMovie provided.

Finally, we chose the font ‘American Typewriter’ for two reasons. Firstly, its style and appearance connotes the overall theme of the movie circling around ‘the list’. Its font is clearly recognisable as a classic typewriter typeface, further reinforcing this image to the audience. Secondly, the font also was clear, easy to read and effective in the different sizes and levels of ‘Bold’ that we needed, while still having a unique style.

Opening analysis - Tormented

The opening sequence in the film Tormented is effective in many ways. While being of a different genre to our planned piece, it still effectively fulfils many of the same criteria that we will need to follow. Also, by comparing an opening of another genre, it will help us isolate the differing trends and understand what needs to be included in our opening to justify the genre choice.

Firstly, the initial shot of a police car establishes the mood and story of the scene instantly. It connotes that the area is a crime scene where a serious crime has been committed, instantly suggesting to audiences a murder due to the genre of the film. When followed by the long shot of a large, questioning crowd, it denotes the increased profile of the incident and suspects.

The establishing shot of the school instantly denotes the main setting, making the subject matter of the film clear to the audience. But this shot combined with the tilted frame and jerky editing creates a sense of unease; especially when combined with the haunting non-digetic music. This sets the scene effectively, while leaving the audience scared, confused and wanting to find out more.

In the next scene, the use of close-ups on the main protagonist's face allow for emotion to be portrayed effectively to the audience. Her expressions of anger, pain and confusion correlate with the scene set, and give clues to the events that have happened within the school.

The use of a flashback, '5 days earlier', allows for an interesting narrative structure. This could be to further confuse and intrigue audiences, as well as providing a cyclical nature to the film.

Finally, the transition to the main titles uses the lasting effect of a crane shot to finish the opening. The crane shot allows for the entire setting of the entire town to be taken in, grounding the story in a clear location; while also removing itself enough to provide a clear wipe to the titles.

The stylised look of the title sequence further establishes the look, feel, setting and overall tone of the film. It resembles the underside of a school desk, with humorous images and graphic pictures being drawn onto the table. The theme of the titles draws on both the horror and comedy genre that the film is geared toward. They further entice the audience to stay with the film, leading them with images and clues about the later details of the plot.

Overall, the opening sequence to Tormented is very effective at introducing the films theme, plot and setting, while enticing the audiences with its unique style of titles, plot structure and shot selection.

Director James Wan Inspiration

James wan is a young director and always wanted to make films from the age of eleven, this drive at such a young age really got me interested in media and filming in particular. James wan first big film was Saw the first of the seven, which is grew it to a franchise. James wan has directed many other films such as Dead silence and death sentence. Even thou his type of films normally verge towards the horror genre their are many factors that i can take away and include in our film. The use of fast paced editing and the way in which James Wan used small and confined spaces really played on me as a viewer and which we've integrated into our film, such as the scene when a Victim is watching the killer from the stairs, which also gives the audience a sense of realism. Another important factor, is the budget of the first Saw film which was 1.2 million which is a very small budget considering the mass of the film industry worldwide, which is a very important factor in our film.

Film Opening Analysis Batman: The Dark Knight

The opening to the famous Batman film is absolutely genius. It instantly grabs the attention of the viewers. They first show the Warner Bros. logo with a very eerie silence and blue symbolizing a very cold effect. The Legendary Pictures sign, again given the same effect, follows this. A DC comic is then shown with all Batman comic storyboards in play. Giving the audience the insight of what will appear in the film. Again, repeating the blue filter that is meant to send shivers down the audiences’ backs. The silence continues. A huge black/blue cloud then shrouds the screen, confusing the audience until the huge black Batman logo shoots forward, remaining very hidden as it merges with the clouds. A crane shot then moves forward to show the audience a long shot of buildings, zooming into a particular window, until it smashes. The symbolism of the one broken window almost foreshadows the impeding chaos and disorder that the Joker's presence will bring to Gotham. There is no sound up to this point until the diegetic sound of the window smashing ‘sets free’ all sounds and the music gradually gets louder. The first villains are introduced and the audience recognizes this through stereotyping. They are in frightening clown masks and carrying weapons. Many camera angles are then put into action. First the zoom in on the main villains mask, this is to get the audience to recognise this particular mask, as the audience will be greeting new members of the villain’s team throughout the robbery. It switches to the first people zip-lining out of the window and the camera follows accordingly then instantly looks down to give the audience the fear of heights and the determination of the crooks. A long shot then reveals them in action across the buildings. A hand held camera is then placed inside the villain’s car, giving the effect that the audience is actually participating. The camera is then handheld, following the villains as they head into the bank. Many clean cuts are then used to distinguish each villain’s role in the ‘job’ of stealing the bank. This gives the audience the best view after following them as if they were to pick which role they would take up. An ordinary ‘hero’ is shown to give the audience someone else to follow, helping pick up the intensity in the film. When he is shooting at The Joker, the camera is on a track as he walks closer it moves back. Symbolizing he is growing in confidence, trying to stop the ‘bad guys’. When he finally gets shot, The Joker turns his head as if it were a tilted frame, showing his twisted nature. When they open the bank, the lighting changes to a ‘sickly green’ expressing that they have won at a disappointing cost. Also the green shows the betrayal side of the plan, creating chaos and greed, for money. Close ups are then used on the faces, this is very important to the scene; you see no facial expression other than the scary clown masks. Keeping them secret adds to the eerie nature and worries people. It also lets people imagine what corrupt people are behind the masks. It is also a way to keep characters non-important. Normally if the audience sees the face of a character in the beginning of the film, they will be mislead to believe that these could be the protagonist or somebody to follow. With the identity concealed, the audience knows not to get attached. This theory is used on the joker, the audience is introduced with him only holding the mask, someone to follow, his voice is only heard at the end of the robbery keeping him very mysterious.

The opening is very effective, action is filtered through and the audience has people to engage with almost instantly, keeping them active and intriguing them to get involved with the plot. We have tried to do this with our opening; the villain comes out and seems to disappear. We have tried to confuse the audience, so that they wonder what he has done. A chase scene immediately follows, exciting the audience and the audience due to the engagement loves the ‘heroes’. The audience wants to know what has happened and wish the villain to be captured.