Our final Opening Sequence

This is our final opening sequence that we have edited, we made some small changes that we felt were necessary such as stretching the time limit of the Specialist Logo and adding another production company to decrease the gap between the logo and footage.

We also felt that the end font presenting 'The Shadow' was very effective red, but lack in its font as it was too common and not eerie. We searched fonts and found one we liked which originally is supposed to represent chalk writing but it can also many perceive to the viewers as smeared blood. 

What have you learnt from technologies in constructing this product?

What have you learnt from technologies from constructing this product? on Prezi

What type of media institution might distribute your thriller opening sequence?

What type of media institution might distribute your opening sequence? on Prezi

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

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

How did you attract/address your audience?

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How does your media product represent particular social groups?

How does your media product represent particular social groups? on Prezi

Locations

Locations 

Thornton Heath Cemetery

We used Thornton Heath cemetery as a location for the ninja to grieve his brother. This crates realism for the viewers and also makes them feel sympathy for the character as he is remembering the memories of his brother.

This scene consists of the ninja dropping a red rose onto the grave and therefore we needed to find a grave that created contrast to the rose, in this case it was black.



THE LIGHTING ROOM

We used to the lighting room in our college to film the ninja training getting ready for his battle. This room had lighting which we could artificially manipulate in ways to focus the light on the character, in our footage; we focused the light on the ninja from the top so that the outline of him could be shown which perceives to the viewers of the character being a ninja.  

MY HOUSE

We had filmed some scenes that took place around my street and in my house. These were going to be the scenes of the ninja approaching the villain’s headquarters but we felt that this was too much information and action to be inputted into an opening sequence so we left these scenes out.  

SOUND PERSPECTIVE

SOUND PERSPECTIVE

            The term sound perspective can be used to transform sound into either distant or close. Distant sound will perceive to the viewer as sound coming from a distance with the technique of reverberation. An example of this may be a tap dripping from a distance, which will have an echo effect, the microphone will be placed at a distance to record the sound at the viewer’s perspective.

Sound perspective can also transform sound to make it sound very close to the reader; this would mean that the microphone would have to be placed quite close to the object or person making the sound.

Sound perspective creates realism for the viewers from the effects, which makes them feel like they are actually there.

Sound Motif- Sound motif is the term used for the viewer to associate a piece of music or specific sound to a person, place or object. An example of this is the association of the Jaws theme with a big dangerous shark.

Digetic Sound- Digetic sound is the term used to describe sound emitted from a scene in which all the characters can hear such as dialogue or knocking on a door. The example of the EastEnders scene showing Max scuffing his shoes on the floor is Digetic sound as all the characters can hear it and there is no need for editing.

Non-Digetic Sound- Non-digetic sound is sound or music that has been edited in scenes in which the characters cannot hear such as music soundtracks. The example of the Doctor Who scene uses non-digetic sound such as the music being played or the explosive effects as they have been edited.

Synchronised Sound- Synchronised sound is the term to describe sound or a piece of music matching a characters or objects movements or gestures such as music videos as artists normally dance or move in sync with the music.

            The example of ‘500 days of summer’ uses synchronised sound as the when the brass instruments are introduced into the piece of music in sync with orchestral musicians enter the scene

Contrapuntal Sound- Contrapuntal sound is the term used to describe sounds or music that is inappropriate and odd to the actual scene it is edited with. This confuses the viewer and changes their mood, an example of this is ‘Dr Strangelove’s final scene in which multiple shots of explosions and mushroom clouds are being shown which represents sorrow and mass destruction.                                                                 

However, the music that is being played is retro, cheerful and can be perceived as victorious. This does not match the visual scenes and makes the viewer feel that the explosions are somewhat of a celebration or victory just because of the contrapuntal music.

Voice-Over- Voice-Over is the term used to describe narration that is heard over a scene that is being played. This can be the character’s thoughts or just a narrator explaining a situation or story to the viewer. Either way, it can be emotional or understanding to the viewers. An example of this is JD’s narration from Scrubs in which the viewer seems to be hearing his thoughts and to bring out this effect more prominent, reverberation is used.

An example of this is Chuck’s narration in Supernatural; he is speaking emotionally of the main characters to the viewers by typing his narration onto a computer even though he is not talking. It is perceived to be his thoughts.

Dialogue- Dialogue is the term used to simply describe conversation between two or more characters.

Soundtrack- Soundtracks are music that is being played over a scene such as a commercial song or even a theme. The main objective of a theme is to associate it with the film, which is known as sound motif.

Ambient Sound- Ambient sounds are sounds that are perceived in the background such as a dripping tap. This creates realism for the viewer and the effect of reverberation increases this. An example of this is background noise such as a ticking clock or drumming fingers on a table.

PROP LIST

PROP LIST

SHOT LIST

Shot List Format

RISK ASSESSMENT

Risk Assessment Template and Example

SYNOPSIS

SYNOPSIS

Our thriller opening sequence will be revolving around the storyline of a ninja, Zhi Kuan, who had lost his brother as an evil boss, General Xiao, had killed him. This will be explained the viewer by a scrolling literature rising from the top, this will also be white writing on black background to make it stand out to the viewers. Our logo, ‘Specialist Pictures’ will also be presented to the viewers.

Throughout our movie, we are going to continuously use the sound motif technique therefore the different production companies will appear in sync with the heavy drums within the soundtrack. This will happen four times and will suddenly jump cut to footage.

The footage that will be initiated first to the viewers will show the camera panning up the ninja’s legs, which creates suspicion and curiosity to the viewers, as they want to find out whom the ninja actually is. The next scene shows Daniel’s back in his ninja outfit with lighting focused on him from the top and then the camera will view Daniel putting on his mask. This shows the viewers that he is prepared for his mission and his training.

The next scenes show Daniel training and his first exercise is him using nun chucks, push ups and shadow boxing. This variety of different training exercises at different angles shows that the ninja is a professional.

After the scenes of Daniel training in his ninja costume, he is found in a different location, which is the graveyard and wearing his suit, which represents his alter ego. This symbolizes his love and grief of his brother in which he goes to visit him. The camera shows Daniel walking up to the grave with a single red rose; multiple angles are used to intrigue the viewer.

The camera then shows Daniel from his neck to feet throwing the rose in respect on the grave, this scene will also is shows the rose in the colour in contrast to the whole opening sequence being in black and white.

The scene is then faded to a black screen showing the actors and also the final title, ‘The shadow’. These will be animated to express the significance it has on the video. 

Treatment

Our task was to make a thriller opening sequencing consisting of a maximum of 2 minutes. The main plot of our film will be an action thriller and therefore will be concentrating on one main character rather than a group. We decided a few plotlines from criminals to underground rappers but had finally decided on a ninja based opening sequence.

Our opening sequence will introduce a ninja who is on a mission to defeat the boss of a ninja organisation or someone of high authority as the villain had killed his brother. This information will be presented to the viewers by literature at the beginning of the opening to inform the viewers what has happened and to make them aware of what is about to happen. The sequence is going to revolve around the main ninja training in order to defeat the boss as well as a graveyard scene consisting of the ‘brother’s’ grave.  This will represent sorrow and resentfulness, which connects to contrast.

Our group decided on this storyline from watching a retro Chinese film, which contained ninjas and karate classes training. We decided to use this element in our storyline, as it was different and unique from other action thriller movies. We also printed of multiple questionnaires about general knowledge of films and specifically thriller films; this gave use more knowledge about what viewers wanted and what made them intrigued to watch more.

The main locations that we need are a graveyard and a dark setting, preferably a dark room with multiple dim lighting such as the lighting room within our school. We also may need a street to show the ninja walking in the sunshine to create contrast from the dark setting, which is going to be the main concept of the film.

We may need to also create an effect on our footage such as tinting or low saturation to make the footage unique and interesting. The graveyard that we are using will create a sorrowful mood for the viewers as it is representing the loss of the ninja’s brother and shows the love between the characters.

Our film will conform for being classed as an action thriller opening sequence as it has intense, adrenaline music in sync with the ninja’s training. This is creating a sound motif as well as making the viewers more intrigued to see what happens in the next scene. It also has a black and white effect to represent a retro time period and also makes the footage gloomier.

To conclude, our footage will hopefully start off with a literature rising up from the bottom like Star Wars or Blade Runner and consisting of powerful language informing the viewers the main storyline. This will shortly cut to the production companies, which lead to the ninja training in sync with the music. A graveyard scene will also be shown to represent sorrow and loss and will finally lead to the ninja walking in the sunshine to end. This creates sunshine from the dark settings and shows happiness. 

Questionnaires

This is a general questionnaire I made and sent out to a variety of different people ranging from different ages, race, colour and etc. This made me gain knowledge on what people enjoy within a film and what makes them want to watch it. These answers influenced me to create a storyline that is almost beneficial to all the results I had received. An example of this is that an overwhelming amount of people commented that Action was their favourite genre, since my task is to create a thriller opening sequence, I combined these two stimulus together to an idea of creating an Action Thriller.

I also created another questionnaire that is similar to the one above but focuses on the genre of thriller which explores the different ideas and opinions people had. This questionnaire was much more beneficial to me and my group as we had to create a thriller opening sequence and one of the questions were: 'What do you think are the most important elements in a thriller film?' The highest result we had received was 'storyline' and 'music' and this is exactly what we focused on. 

The disadvantage about conducting questionnaires is that many people can lie or say an answer to a question judging by the others that previous people have selected so we also conducted a one-to-one interview with several people. This got us to gain knowledge about the personality of the person along with what he or she preferred in a thriller film. The answers also can not be limited as they have the advantage on using elaboration on their points.

The Dark Knight Analysis

In 'The Dark Knight' trailer, jump cuts and non-digetic sounds are used frequently. An example of this is when the scenes mainly focus on the characters Batman and The Joker, the scenes alternate from one to another with jump cuts and adrenaline pumping music is being played in the background. This makes the audience feel tension and excitement from the music which gets them intrigued to watch the film and the jump cuts adds a similar effect by injecting adrenaline into the audience. The music also makes thee movie ironic and thrilling.

Many themes have been expressed in the trailer which varies from thriller to romance. Themes such as romance have been presented between the characters Bruce and Rachael which shows love between them and tells the viewer how much they care for each other. Drama has similarly been added to romance as Rachael also loves Harvey which conveys a love triangle, the audience can easily gather this from simple short scenes within the trailer. Another theme that has been presented is thriller as there are multiple explosions of buildings and vehicles which also presents the film as an action movie, along with the fact that The Joker and Batman are seen using weapons toward each other. These themes make the movie a variety of styles and genres which makes the audience more interested in the film and is not focused on one theme such as romance, the audience feels more intrigued in watching the movie and can observe the realism being conveyed as the trailer uses many non-digetic sounds such as explosions which need to be as realistic as possible which supports the action/thriller theme.

There are many characters within the trailer of 'The Dark Knight' such as Batman and The Joker with different costumes. Examples such as Batman is wearing an armour suit equipped with gadgets and weapons and the main concept of the suit resembles a bat. The Joker on the other hand is seen wearing a suit of different colours and wearing make up on his face to resemble a clown. These different costumes os characters tell the audience about them and their personalities. The Batman is wearing a dark armour and looks intimidating which makes him a dark character, he also has different gadgets and weapons around his waist which conveys the image of him having good fighting skills and knowledge, the audience can perceive this from just the trailer alone
.

Director Case Study

Quentin Tarantino

Tarantino is an American film director and was born in 1963. He has directed many popular thriller films such as Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Death Proof and Reservoir Dogs. Tarantino is known for his famous collaborations of styles combing into one, such as Sonny Chiba-style Kung Fu and spaghetti western to create Kill Bill. He has been nominated for 7 oscars and won one for 'Best Original Screenplay'.

David Fincher

Another famous thriller director is David who is an American director also. His most famous work includes 'Panic Room' and 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo'. He is also for his directing and filming of many music videos Fincher and has achieved a 'Academy Award' for his famous film 'The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button'.

Panic Room

In the beginning of the opening sequence, it shows the Columbia production with an eerie wind sound effect to express the point that the film is a thriller. It also builds up to the actual opening titles showing the film producers and cast. The titles are faded in from a black screen to show New York City from a high angle. The camera moves forward to make the audience feel like they are looking down at the city and can see everything. While this is happening, slow deep strings are being played in the background to  build tension and curiosity for the audience, 'Columbia Pictures' is also shown in the sky in a silver stone font. This can represent security which is the role of a panic room and also it blends with the city. The transitions between each scene is basically a quick cut, each title has its own angle which are written near buildings. When the 'Panic Room' title appears, a deep string is played to express that it is the main title and highlight of the credits. Sounds of the city are also edited into the music to show natural surround which includes car horns and car passes.

Se7en

In this opening sequence, the music being played in background is very eerie as it consists of high choirs and a dark drum beat. This scary music makes the opening sequence very chilling and expresses that the film is a thriller. Many sound effects such as door creaks and tape recordings are used to make the music disturbing for the viewer.

 There are no digetic sounds as all of the music has been edited into the film and no dialogue is present from any characters, there is however vocals added in to the music.

The transitions in the opening sequence are very fast which makes the scene fast paced, this also creates tension and suspense for the audience. 

Fight Club

In this opening sequence, the camera is zooming out from a person and starts right at their genes. The opening is set in a dark and gritty atmosphere with adrenaline pumping music being played in the background. The music is also in sync with the titles as they suddenly appear and then soon fade away in a smoke effect, they are written in a luminous blue which is stands out and shows contrast against the dark background. Towards the end of the opening sequence, the camera completely zooms out from 'within the person' and shows a helpless man sweating in a chair with a gun pointed towards his mouth.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

This opening sequence is both disturbing and yet interesting. It shows many clips of objects in the form of black ink, this represents the 'tattoo'. The clips mainly focus on a woman covered in ink or made of ink, she is seen emerging from a sea of ink and also shows many electric plugs resembling snakes covered in ink. Every scene is set in a dark setting and the only contrast from this is fire, matches falling down to the ground and a type of glorious bird that seems to be on fire as it flies upwards. The music that is being played in the background is very insane which matches the scenes. This makes the viewer confused and yet intrigued.

The Power of Editing

The Power of editing

Reverse shot: The camera films the person while also filming the back of another; this makes the scenes more dramatic.

Panning: The camera moves across the scene.

Close up: The camera exposes a person face.

Medium Shot: The camera exposes a person from their waist.

Extreme Close up: The camera exposes an aspect of a persons face for e.g., the eyes.

Zoom in: the camera moves in on the subject.

Match On Action: The camera cuts to a different angle while filming a fluid motion.

ROCKY IV Scene

Followed the character by panning.

Zooms in different scenes,

Scenes are cut very quickly to show adrenaline.

Extreme close ups on muscles show strength.

Compares shots to different people.

Low angle shots and high angle shots.

Mid-shots.

Shots motivate the viewer.

Montages are a series of clips of a certain subject or lifestyle.

Jump Cuts/cutaways

Point A and Point B could take a while to progress such as walking down stairs.

Jump Cuts- several cuts jumping in a movement.

Match On Action shot shows a fluid movement of two different cuts from point A to near point B; this saves time.

Cutaways show the movement from point A, to a different angle showing a different scene, and then back to point B.

These techniques are use to distract the viewer and decrease time.

Goodfellas

Long Take -Tracking the characters through the journey, make the viewer feel like they are with them.

People move around the camera,

Camera pans to show more scenery and characters.

Dolly Trolley- Camera on a wire.

Fast and slow cutting- scenes being cut to several angles in fast motion or slow motion.

Learning Pit stop

I have learnt what montages are and how jump cuts/cutaways can speed up a person’s action. I have also learnt about long takes and how they make the viewer feel like they are there.

I am more confident in understand the definitions of several camera shots.

Thriller Conventions

A thriller is a genre that specialises mainly in tension and suspense, the main aim of the films is to make the audience intrigued and 'thrilled'. This can mean it can scare them which ties into the genre of a horror thriller or it can increase adrenaline in the viewers, in which case it would be called a action thriller. Plot twists and cliffhangers are the main elements used in thrillers which create shock and anxiety for the viewers.


Many famous thriller directors include David Fincher, Steven Spielberg and Alfread Hitchcock. Each with their own speciality and ideas but the same elements and concepts are uses: to stimulate the viewer's mood by heart pounding and adrenaline pumping moments. Thrillers go into even more sub-generes such as mystery thrillers and even psychological thrillers which heavily focuses on characters and overlap into the horror side.


Thriller films can be traced back to early 1920's where Alfred Hitchcock made his first movie, 'The Lodger' which was a silent production of the London Fog. From his first release to his most popular which includes 'Psycho', he is considered to be the godfather of thriller films. From the early 20's to 60's was more focused on the puzzling side of the film, normally in cases of "Who dunnit'. But in the 1970's and 80's, early stages of violence began to be present in films, the earliest thriller film involving violence was 'Frenzy' in 1972 by Hitchcock.


Sub-genres in thrillers incude:

• Conspiracy thrillers: The main character (often perceived as the hero) who confronts their enemies that they recognise. 
• Crime Thriller: This type of genre uses psychological elements and focuses on the criminal rather than the authority figures. This makes the viewer see the criminals side and how he escapes certain situations.
• Erotic Thriller: Erotic thriller is mainly around sex and sexual relationships between characters, this could even be between the hero and villain. 
• Psychological Thriller: This type of genre focuses on the conflict between the characters emotionally rather than physically. 
• Spy Thriller: This genre focuses on the character being a government agent who is attempting to find a criminal  or a rival government of agents.