Evaluation Questions

1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The main purpose of an opening sequence is to establish things like characterisation, setting, genre, narrative and the visual style of the film. Sometimes it can also establish the ideology of a
film as well.

I believe we have achieved all of these things in our opening sequence. Aidan's character has quickly been established as one of mystery but one of intimidation and violence. This idea came from my research in 'Dirty Harry' because the killer's face has been obscured yet he is still violent and this is what was attempted in our opening sequence.

This is a picture connected with our opening sequence and it is making Aidan's character look more threatening and it also makes the gun look bigger so that looks more dangerous but it doesn't show his face properly which sort of disguises him which is similar to the picture below.

This picture has been taken from 'Dirty Harry' and the gun clearly disguises the killer's face and it also makes the gun looks long and more violent.Between the two pictures you can clearly see similarities and from this I think we have achieved what we intended.

The setting of our opening sequence is quickly established and the audience can see that it is to be set in almost countryside. We decided on using this kind of setting as its not what you normally see in action movies as they usually are set in big cities therefore we are challenging the conventions of real media products through our setting.

This is a picture from our opening sequence and it clearly shows a countryside edge to it with the long winding road and the open fields and trees. This gives the audience the feel that the action in the opening sequence is unexpected in the kind of setting.

This picture is from the Bourne Ultimatum which is in a series of action movies. You can clearly see this is going to be set in a city setting from the New York city landscape in the background of the picture which is what you assume the setting would be in an action movie and why we decided to go against the 'trend'.

I also believe that we establish our visual style from the very first image of the the opening sequence. The first image the audience see is one of a comic book style of the story that is about to unfold. We got the idea of this from a bmx video called Sin City and also the movie itself 'Sin City'. In this movie there is a visual style of comic/ cartoons and after watching this i found it very effective and unusual for an action movie to revert back to comic strips.

This is a picture taken from our opening sequence and it shows the comic book style and the visual style we intended to achieve in the opening sequence. I believe it looks professional and therefore uses the similar media visual style of 'Sin City'.

This is a picture of 'Sin City' and it looks similar to our visual style apart from the colours. This is what we wanted, as we didn't want it to be too similar to 'Sin City' that is why we used different colours to the ones used in the picture.

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our opening sequence there is 2 characters and both play a main role. With both characters we wanted to represent the average young adult and we dressed them on this basis.

This is a picture from our opening sequence and it shows Aidan's Character. We wanted him to represent the young adult male of modern times. We wanted this character to be male because he is supposed to be intimidating yet not scary and we didn't think a women would be suitable for the role. We went with Aidan as one of the characters because has has long ish hair which seems to be the main trend of young adult males at the moment. His clothes are smart yet casual and comfy and we chose to dress him in the clothes because this also represents the one of the fashions of a young adult male at the moment and we want to keep up to date with the audience as it is a modern action film. The reason we have dressed him to be like a young adult is because that is the target audience we want to hit with this film. We also wanted this character to be a white male because this seems to be the usual in most action films and we thought that we would stick with what works in this case but in hindsight it wouldn't have mattered what race we chose to play this character as long as we dressed them in the right way. We wanted this character to be young because the opening sequence is all about the chase and a young person would have the energy to keep running and running compared to someone of an older generation.

This is a picture of Callum's character from our opening sequence. As you can see from the picture he is wearing a hoody, jeans and trainers. We wanted this character to wear these clothes because it gives off the idea that he is a casual person and that he is unsuspecting. This style given to this character is also another fashion worn by young adults at the moment and this is why we've got him wearing these, to keep him up to date with out target audience of young adults. He also has long ish hair just like Aidan's character to show his youthfulness. We wanted this character to be slightly smaller in stature compared to Aidan's Character so that Aidan looked a bit more threatening and overpowering. We also had to have this character as a male because Aidan's character is male and we thought it would look almost comical to have him chasing after a woman.

Both of our actors are young and 'trendy' to represent the audience we want to target with our opening sequence.

3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The opening sequence we have made is obviously a low budget film. It is low budget film because of the equipment we used and the actors and setting used. All of the stuff provided was free therefore it is low budget. Distribution in the film industry means the business of launching and sustaining films in the market place.

This means that we need a media institution that specialises in the distribution of low budget films and not an institution that specialises in Hollywood movies. This is because these institutions will help us to spread our media product around the UK and we would be able to trust an institution like this because they would have had experience at doing it. A media institution that might want to distribute a low budget film like ours is Film 4.

Film 4 is a media institution that develops, co-finances and helps to distribute media products, mainly films. Low budget films that Film 4 have helped to make a success are: Looking for Eric and Slumdog Millionaire. This shows they know what they are doing and they are very successful at doing this and both of these are very important.

Film 4 might take on a media product like ours because it is low budget and there might be a gap in the market for it. Without media institutions like Film 4, low budget films would not get distributed and the film industry would be ruled my films that cost million dollars to make. I feel it is very important that low budget films like ours to get a chance to be aired and shown to people because there are some very good low budget films out there and Film 4 has helped to prove this.

Big media institutions such as Columbia Pictures that have helped to distribute movies such as Spider Man and The Da Vinci Code would be no use to us because institutions like that are interested in making big bucks and to do this they have to take on media products such as the mentioned films.


4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

When we first planned our opening sequence we said that we wanted to target teenagers and young adults because we thought the action genre would appeal to this audience the most. I think the rough age bracket that our media product appeal to is 15 years - 25 years. Also, our target audience is males because of the action genre and we felt that males would be more interested in this genre than females.

One reason it would appeal to this audience is because of the character's used in the opening sequence. This is because the audience will be of similar age to the character's therefore it is easier for them to relate to the characters. Also, the characters in the opening sequence reflect the youth of this generation through their clothes and the hairstyles. This also comes across when the motorbike used to get away has a L plate on as seen in the picture and L plates are usually associated with the younger generation. Also, the getaway would appeal to our audience because it is fast and young people like to watch things that are fast and adrenaline rushed.

Also, I believe that the younger generation likes to watch films involving violence and chases and hear swearing. So we thought it was important to have at least of of these things in the opening sequence and we went for the chase so we could entice our audience immediately with fast action. We chose to do this as it would still appeal to our audience but we didn't want to give too much away too them and thought we'd save the violence for the main part of the film. Because of the violence and the swearing to come in the film we thought it was best to classify it as a 15 rating because the violence wouldn't be too horrific but still awful enough to appeal to our audience.

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

Firstly we attracted our audience by having a poster promoting our media product, this was so our target audience could get a sense/taste of what was to come. Here is that poster....

We hoped that this poster would get our audience interested in our media product and also give them a little taste of the visual style and establish the genre to them.

I believe we attracted and addressed our audience successfully due to the feedback we received about our opening sequence...

Although one of the comments doesn't really say anything about our video in particular it still is a positive comment which as a group makes us feel good and confident about our opening sequence. The other comment is also positive and it says that our storyline is good and that our music fits well with whats going on and helps to make it flow. This is very positive for me as i chose the song for our opening sequence and it also gives credit to all of us for managing to edit it so the song would flow nicely. Also, we put a lot of thought into the storyline so its nice that other people think it is good as well.

These comments have also been taken from facebook and they all say different things which is very good. Shane Miller comments on it saying that he thinks our camera angles and editing skills are both good which is nice to hear as we though a lot about both and how they would determine things such as genre and visual style. Becca Owen comments on it saying the start of our opening sequence is very good which is also pleasing because the cartoon bit at the start took a lot of effort to get perfect and to how we wanted it to come across to our audience and from this feedback it seems we have showed our visual style to the audience successfully. Josh Thorpe comments on it saying we had a good storyline and an intense chase, both of these are very positive and pleasing. The comment on the storyline reflects how much time and thought went into thinking of it and it shows that it has been a success. The intense chase comment shows we have achieved what we intended by making it a fast paced action to appeal to our audience of a younger generation .

I also asked 8 people that watched the opening sequence of "#Client 247##" to give me feedback. The question i asked them was "Would you carry on watching after the opening sequence?" All 8 people said yes which is very positive because it shows we have made a successful opening sequence as people want to watch on. The main comments I received on this question was that people wanted to watch on to find out what happened next as the opening sequence was left on a cliffhanger. Once again emphasising that we have made a successful opening sequence.

6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

Over the Media AS level, i have learnt alot about technologies from cameras to editing software. All i have learned will be very useful for next years coursework and also for later on in life as i now know more than the basics about certain technologies.

In the research stage of this task i used the internet a lot to do research about genre and other opening sequences of films. I found this very helpful to me as i knew what certain things should be in an action genre film. I also used Youtube to watch opening sequenes for example Dawn of the Dead and this was useful because it inspired me to make a fast paced opening sequence.

In the planning stage of this task i learnt a fair bit about how to use a camera. I used a digital camera to take photos of certain parts of our location i though would be good. By using the camera to take photos, it allowed me to see what parts would be good for light and what people would be able to see in certain long shots. Both of these were important and if i hadn't have learnt this then i think i would have made errors on the way light works in the opening sequence.

Through the construction stage, I learnt a lot about technologies as this is where i used the most technology. Firstly I learnt alot about using a video camera for example how to position it to make somebody look less or more threatening. I also learnt how the video camera's function work correctly for example how to view previously recorded clips which was very important for me after filming so i could see what they looked like and if they needed to be re shot. I also learnt a lot about the editing software Sony Vegas. Before i used it, i thought it would be a lot more compliated than it actually is. After i had played with it and found what certain buttons did etc i found it quite easy and i now know how to edit a moive relatively successfully. One of the key themes i learnt was how to get the panning acrosss effect and to do that you need to insert key frames at certain times and drag to the image across. I also learnt how to edit/change music even though we didn't incorporate the edited music in the end. I learnt on a software called WavePad which allowed me to add certain beats into a song and re arrange the song so i could get certain sounds to play at certain times. Overall the editing stage is probably where i learnt the most and i know feel i can use cameras and software very well.

For the evaluation stage i used the internet to gain feedback i.e. youtube and facebook. I learnt how to upload a video on to both of these websites which was very important to be able to get feedback to use in my evaluation. Another key website i learnt to use throughout all the stages was Blogger as without it i wouldnt have been able to write this up.

7) Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in

the progression from it to the full product?

Our preliminary task was around 30 seconds long and our opening sequence was over 2 minutes long. So obviously it was going to be harder to create a clear narrative over 2 minutes long than for 30 seconds.

I think the main weaknesses of our preliminary task was to do with camera techniques. After watching back our preliminary task i can notice a little shake of the camera a couple of times. So we felt it was important to not let this happen in the opening sequence and to do this we gave it a couple seconds after pressing record to shout action so that the shakeyness cannot be seen in the scene and the same at the end of the clip.

Another weakness i picked up from our preliminary task was how to use light effectively. In one scene of the preliminary task you can see a room to be dark but the next shot its quite light and this is to do with where the camera was placed. So, to adress this issuse on the opening sequence we took a digital camera out to our locations and tested the light so when it came to film we knew where we could posititon the camera to take advantage of the natural and non natural light.

We didn't just address the weaknesses of our preliminary task but also the strengths. We found a strength to be our continuity in the editing stage and we took what we learnt from the preliminary task into the opening sequence. Our strength in continuity was helpful because it meant we didn't have to spend a lot of time on in during the editing stage of the opening sequence.

Another thing we took from our preliminary task into our opening sequence is other people's opinions and points of view on camera angles. When we did the preliminary task we asked each other opinions on the angles and if it needed to be change slightly and we repeated this in the opening sequence. We found this an important thing to do because somebody might spot something in the scene that i missed. Also, i found it helpful to have other peoples opinions on camera angles because as a group we could collectively agree on good angles which made our opening sequence better than it would've been if i had worked on my own as i wouldn't have had other people expressing their views and trying to help.

Overall i believe everything has been a sucess, from preliminary task to this evaluation. :D

Audience Feedback

We posted our video on to youtube and posted the youtube link onto facebook so people could comment on our opening sequence and give us feedback about how we did and what we can do to improve it. Unfortunately we didn't recieve many comments on youtube or facebook but we did get a few which were postive feedback.

Here is our facebook comments we recieved..

Although one of the comments doesn't really say anything about our video in particular it still is a positive comment which as a group makes us feel good and confident about our opening sequence. The other comment is also positive and it says that our storyline is good and that our music fits well with whats going on and helps to make it flow. This is very postivive for me as i chose the song for our opening sequence and it also gives credit to all of us for managing to edit it so the song would flow nicely. Also, we put a lot of thought into the storyline so its nice that other people think it is good aswell.

The above comments are from youtube. There are once again both positvie and one of them also states how the music flows with the clips. Sam comments on it saying he really likes it which is very postive as it shows that he does actually like and isn't just saying it.

Overall i am pleased with the comments we recieved but i just wish we had more comments. I am going to continue to try and get more feedback as it would help us massively.

Problems/Errors

From planning to editing we encountered some problems, some we were able to put right but one or two we couldn't.

The first problem we had was planning and agreeing on a genre to do in our opening sequence. Originally we thought about using the horror genre but changed our minds because horror is quite a wide genre and we also thought it would be hard to set the right tone and darkness in our opening sequence so we got over this problem by choosing the action genre.

One problem with filming we had was that the day we filmed it was quite windy and the wind got into the microphone and basically took out the rest of the sound in the clip for example dialogue. This meant we had to go back and re shoot some of our clips until we were happy with them.

One problem encountered in the editing stage was that the clips were filmed in HD and they wouldn't work on the computers we were using to edit which means we had to render them down to AVI and we lost valuable time doing this but the AVI clips looked good so we weren't too bothered about the time loss.

Another problem in editing was the fitting the music soundtrack to what happens in the clip, we managed to do it perfectly and got the change in music spot on to the kick start of the motorbike. But, for some reason or other after burning our clip onto the dvd we noticed that there was some background noises in the clip that we didnt hear in the editing stage and also the sound seemed to have become quieter even though we made it loud in the editing stage. This is a problem we couldn't rectify because we had already burned the clip to a disc.

Also, I think that our opening sequence would have been better if we had more credits instead of just the credits at the end and the beginning. Looking back I think we could have put credits in stating our names and also a film distribution for example Film4. This would have made it look more professional and therefore better.

Overall, I believe that the opening sequence I helped to create was a sucess. The things we did well was work as a team, come up with different ideas and try to merge them into one idea and also i believe our ability to use a camera and edit were very good.

Looking back on it now there are some things that I would change if i had the chance. First of all I would sort sound the sound problems and then I would re arrange some of the clips as I believe that it would make the story look clearer and also more believable to the audience.

I am very proud of what we acvhieved. WELL DONE BLOB PRODUCTIONS!

Character Representation Analysis

In our opening sequence there are two characters:

• Aidan Bryan (AC) - The Chaser


• Callum Ramsey (CC) - The Target
  
  

Aidan's character is somebody who is trying to get an important document from Callum's character. We needed to make AC look threatening and intimidating but we wanted the audience to see as little as possible of his face. This was obviously going to be quite hard but by managing to achieve this we have ensured that AC is a character of mystery and suspicion like in Dirty Harry's opening sequence. We put AC in dark clothes i.e. black shirt and black trousers, this made him look like smart and intelligent but also threatening. We also placed a bag over his shoulder that implies there is something in his bag, maybe a weapon which also gives a sinister edge to the character. We wanted AC to represent the 'typical baddy' in an action film, so we wanted to make him come across as a baddy but one that is determined to get the job done and maybe subverting the stereotype and making the baddy come out on top. This is Aidan's Character...

Callum's Character in the opening sequence is somebody who is being hunted down because he has a document that someone else wants. We felt it was important for the audience to see that CC had been caught off guard in the opening sequence so that is why he was put in casual clothes i.e. jeans and a hoody and trainers. Also, the laid back demeanor of CC shows that he has two sides to him. The first side is that he is laid back which is represented by the clothes he wears and the second side is a side which sees him spring quickly into his action which is represented by the motorbike and his ability to get away quickly. This laid back approach by a character in an action movie is not something you see often in movies so we thought we should try it. Also, we didn't want CC to come across as the good guy in the opening sequence because he has stolen a document and this is so the audience don't get too emotionally attached towards him. This is Callums Character...

Both of these characters in our opening sequence could be seen as both bad guys and good guys and this is what we intended to do as it kind of subverts stereotypes about action movie characters and them having to be one or the other.

Storyboard

This shot is going to to be the first show the audience sees in our opening sequence. It is a camera panning across a cartoon strip showing what happens in the rest of the opening sequence. It then zooms in to on of the boxes to show the effect that its literally going into the story. The comic book might also interest younger ages to watch on.

This is an establishing shot of the house being used in the opening sequence. It shows the front of the house and it will also show Aidan walking towards the door.

This mid shot shows how unaware Callum is of what is about to happen as he is sitting on his sofa watching the tv. This makes the audience think he is a normal guy.

This behind shot shows Aidan knocking on Callums Door. The Shot will be from behind to disguise Aidan's face.

This shot is of Callum rushing through the house to grab his motorcycle helmet and the important document to make his getaway. It has a variety of shots from Extreme Close ups to tracking.

This shot shows the determination and the mystery of Aidan's Character as he peers through the door to look for Callum.

This will be a tracking shot following Callum on his motorcycle up the path. This is the start of Callum's Getaway and the chase.

This is going to be a mid shot of Aidan getting angry as he didn't catch Callum but it also shows he knows a shortcut.

This is another mid shot showing Aidan jump over the gate and it also shows his shortcut.


This is a long shot showing Aidan chasing Callum down a long road. It reveals to the audience that the shortcut has worked.




This is a close up of Callum getting off his bike so that the foot chase can begin. This is a turning point in the story.




This is an extreme close up looking through the motorcycle wheel to show Aidan has found the bike and that he knows Callum is now on foot.




This is a two shot and it shows them both running through tunnels which shows how close they are and that the chase is hotting up and possibly coming to an end.



This over the shoulder shot shows Callum has tripped or fallen and Aidan has him in his sights.



This close up shows the audience that Aidan has retrieved the important document ... but will he kill him?

Risk Assessment Sheet

This risk assessment sheet was done before we filmed our opening sequence so that we knew we could be safe as we knew where the possible risk of accidents and hazards could happen.

It states we are filming in Etton and Peakirk. We wrote down the possible risks in both of these places for example Callum falling off a bike while riding it in peakirk could cause a serious injury to him. Also, we wrote that Aidan could trip over while running around in peakirk which could cause serious injury.

In Etton, we stated that the risks would be the same as they were in etton because Callum went on his bike and ran and Aidan ran again.

We also stated that if an unexpected serious injury was to occur while filming then we would ring the emergency services.

Re Filming

After getting into the editing process and rendering down all of our clips we realised that some hadn't been rendered correctly or that they were missing for some reason. We thought that instead of trying to edit what we had, that we should go back to our first location (Callum's House) and re shoot some of the clips.

Also, while we were re shooting we decided that we would try and shoot new clips that we could add in to our opening sequence so we filmed a couple of new clips.

All of our re shooting and new filming went well and when we rendered them down to AVI's they looked a lot better than our original clips so have decided to go with them instead of our old clips.

Obviously there were a few problems when it came to continuity on our re shoots but we discussed this problem before filming and got the characters in the same clothes and used the same props in the same way as before. Luckily the weather was similar to the day we originally filmed so the sky in the background of some shots looked the same and it would be hard for anyone to realise the change.

When looking at our original clips we thought that we could change the motorbike clip because it didn't really work. When we re shot this scene, Callum kickstarted the motorbike and we got a close up of this and we also got Aidan in this clip so it showed that he was still looking for Callum. Also, when we took the close up of the kickstart into the editing phase we realised that it would be the perfecrt opportunity to start the quick paced music at this point. I decided on using Kasabian - Club Foot as the chosen song because it has all the credentials to make a good action song and the lyrics fit in very well with our opening sequence e.g. "chase down an empty street."

DVD Cover and Comic Strip

As a group we have decided to make a dvd cover for our opening sequence. We thought that we should do this because the cover will give a clear indication about what the film will be about and also the name of the film "#Client 247" both are very important. It also links in with our cartoon/comic strip introduction to our opening sequence which is what we intended to do because it is clear to the audience that there is a comic strip theme. The comic strip at the start of the opening sequence shows that we have put a lot of effort into making this opening sequence, it also allows the audience to see the basic story line at the beginning. After several attempts on the sony vegas software we managed to show the camera almost panning across the strip and zooming in and out where we wanted to and at different speeds. It zooms in to the comic strip and dissolves into our opening shot so the audience get a sense that the story has gone into the comic strip. Here is the comic strip scott stevens made for our opening sequence...


Here is the dvd cover....
This DVD Cover allows the audience to see that this character will be important in not just the opening sequence but the rest of the film and it esatblishes him as the main character. It also has kept in line with what we intended to do in our opening sequence and show his face as little as possible and by darkening the face of this character in this DVD cover the audience aren't entirely sure what he looks like.

Main Task Update

Recently we have filmed our main opening sequence....


The filming went pretty well but it was quite windy when we got most of our shots/clips so we though that might be a problem in the editing stage but we figured we wouldbe able to mute the sound a place a music soundtrack over the top. We worked well as a team and we got all the desired shots/clips we intended on doing. The camera we used was excellent as it was easy to use and very high quality even though the battery life wasn't exceptional and caused us to worry a bit when filming our last couple of clips. We used a variety of shots, from close ups to mid shots to long shots to high angle to over the shoulder shots. We didn't film any dialogue as we thought it would break up the pace of the opening sequence. Here are some pictures from us filming...

When we went to edit the clips we had, we realised we had filmed in HD which is a bit of a problem for the computers or the sony vegas software. We managed to rectify this by rendering the clips down from HDV to AVI, but this took us a long time and put us back a little bit in terms of time for editing.

The editing stage went very well in my opinion. We manged to intergrate our comic strip theme into our opening sequence at the start which looks brilliant, we also managed to almost zoom into the comic to give the effect that the audience are going into the story. We also managed to make the clip run smoothly and also add in a few dissolves and fades which show a time change.

Action Genre Research

As we have decided to do an action film i have researched the sub genres of action....

Action Sub Genres

I got all this information on sub genres from this website http://new-actionmovie.com/action-film-genre/ and decided to use it to help in my research of genres.

"Superhero Movie

The superhero is a larger-than-life hero who stops all manner of villains and rights all manner of wrongs. Film superheroes of old were fearless and motivated only by their duty to mankind. Modern superheroes are more well-rounded and usually have an emotional wound, often a lost love, from which they continue to suffer. Iron Man 2 is and example of this subgenre.

Spy Movie
Where would we be without James Bond to save the world? The spy movie is usually focused more on the exploits of a super-intelligent man, rather than a super-strong man. The spies are usually one-step ahead of the villains, but always find their way into danger. They usually also find their way into the arms of a willing woman.

Apocalypse/Disaster Movie

Any action film featuring Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan character fits the bill here. Now the every man must battle to save the world from certain doom. In a popular twist, the every man must battle to rescue the world from the evil that has already befallen, as in I Am Legend.

Action-Adventure Movie

No one does action-adventure as well as Indiana Jones or The Mummy. These movies may feature some explosions, chases, and fights, but they’re more focused on recovering the lost item. They often feature the hero, or sometimes a ragtag band of heroes, swinging from ropes and running from danger he’s bungled into. There’s also usually a female love interest who holds her own amidst the action. Check out Green Zone and Clash of the Titans for a small sample of the genre.

Assassin Movies
Movies about assassins can also be dramas, but they’re more frequently action movies these days. These hired killers may be motivated by revenge, but more often they’re motivated by a paycheck. The movies may also involve spying, but the spying is a means to an end, not an end in itself.

Revenge Movies

Revenge movies are similar to assassin movies, in that killing the villain is the goal. In this case, the assassin is bent on vengeance and usually isn’t working for a spy agency/criminal underground/secret organization. He’s one man against the world. This winter’s The Losers fits the bill perfectly.

Cop/CrimeCops

and crime go hand-in-hand. Since cops carry guns, they’re also perfect action movie heroes. From Paris with Love wasn’t the first, and won’t be the last, in a long tradition of crime action movies.

Thrillers

Thrillers not only treat us to heart pounding action, they also include several good scares or psychological chills. Shutter Island is the latest in the line of action-thrillers.

Futuristic/Sci-Fi

The Terminator and Star Trek franchises are both perfect examples of the futuristic/sci-fi action film subgenre. Both present ample opportunities for explosions and pathos. They also present opportunities to question our current society and the direction it’s heading, without getting too heady to spoil the fun. Repo Men is an example of the darker side of sci-fi.

Family Action-Adventure

These days it’s not enough to take the kids to the movies. Now they want to be thrilled, too. National Treasure is one example of the family action movie. Unlike adult action fare, family adventure movies feature larger casts of heroes, less blood, less gunfights, less sex, less gore, and more emphasis on finding the treasure."

Opening Sequence Research

As we are filming soon, we though that it would be necessary to have a play with the camera we are using yesterday. This was very valuable because the camera had a digital effect that could potentially help us and save us a massive amount of effort in the editing stage. The effect that we stumbled across is called 'art' and it makes the picture/video look like a cartoon/comic and this would help us as we want to create a comic strip image at the start of our opening sequence. Here are the photos we took......

Some More Opening Sequence Research

The Crazies

The opening sequence of The Crazies was quite poor in my opinion. The opening sequence was basically images of fire and destruction. Although it had good use of camera angles and a good variety of camera angles which is what is needed to make a good opening sequence.


It had no substance and lacked a lot as nothing happened, yes the fire created a foreshadowing image of what is to come but thats all it created and it didnt really introduce to important opening sequence things like location, characters and plot.

I definitly didn't gain any inspiration from this opening sequence and i am not intending to use any of the camera angles or images used in this.

.....but it was a good film!

Synopsis/ Shooting Script

1. The first shot will be almost scanning over a comic/cartoon book and it will look like the camera has gone into this and this shows that we will now be going into the story in the comic/cartoon.

2. The next shot will show the one person knocking at a door furiously and trying to get in, and it will then switch to a mid shot of another person inside that house hearing the knock.

3. The next show will then show the person being chased after running through the house collecting a letter which has "#Client 247" and there will be a close up of this document.

4.The next shot will show the person who is knocking on the door peeking round the corner of house and seeing the other person coming towards him on motorbike. This will be a P.O.V. shot.

5.The next will be a long shot which will see the motorbike turn right out of the drive and the person running after him but turning left, hinting that he knows a shortcut.

6.The next shots show the runner running through tunnels and jumping over gates, these will be a mixture of close ups and mid shots but trying to disguise the runners face as much as possible.

7.The next shot will then see the motorbike speed by (long shot) and then the runner chasing after him ( mid shot).

8.The next shot will be a close up of the motorbike coming to a stop and the person getting off and running on foot.

9. The next shot will be an extreme close up of the chaser's feet.

10. the next shot will be a two person shot and we will be able to see both people in the shot, one in foreground one in background.

11. The next will be a high angle shot looking down at both runners and they jump across a river and run into separate tunnels.

12. The next shot will show both runners running through the tunnels from a ground view.

13. The next shot will be a long shot showing the guy on motorbike laying on the floor.

14.Then there will be two extreme close ups, 1 of the document lying on pavement and the other of the runner unzipping his gun bag.

15. It will cut back to the cartoon/comic effect.

Preliminary Video Photo's

Better late than never.......