Ideas

We were looking through some films trying to get an idea of whether or not dialogue was an important factor in a film opening. I think that because the genre is horror it could be good for the audience to see some shots without a voiceover or dialogue to help understand the scene. 

Opening with no dialogue (LINK)

The Village Deconstruction

The scene opens with eerie music and a dark background. You can see the sky and the clouds but there is no sun or blue sky. This could be portrayed as pathetic fallacy and would tell us of the genre of the film that you are about to watch. There is a tree behind the credits and the camera is slowly moving and changing angles so that you can see it more clearly. There are no leaves on the tree so this would leave it looking more sinister and evil but at the same time, vulnerable. As the tempo of the music increases, so does the speed of the camera and the edits. It becomes quite suspenseful when it is constantly moving and changing the shot. The music builds to a climax and then the wild movements of the camera stop as well. The music has calmed down and so has the scene. The new picture is a long shot of the forest from quite a low angle so you can see the vastness of the forest. It also shows you how isolated it is and how alone you would be if you were actually in the forest. The font used for the credits is quite old fashioned and because the forest is quite empty, it shows you how far away from urban life it is. The movement of the camera is quite disorientating because t moves around so rapidly and changes direction a lot. If it weren’t for the sky, you would struggle to decide what is up and what is down. I think this was intentional in the film because it wants to keep your attention and if you are confused, you are more likely to think throughout the film. I think this opening scene works because straightaway you can tell what type of film it is and it makes you slightly wary because of the unpredictableness of the camera movements. And that doesn’t include any acting yet.

Shrooms Deconstruction

The opening scene of Shrooms starts with a black background, accompanied by dramatic music. Then frantic breathing is put over the top so it becomes suspenseful. The clip opens to a mid-shot of an empty forest that is surrounded by fog. Then a woman runs past and the camera does a pan shot so that it is able to follow her across the screen. From the way that she is running and panicking, you can tell that she is running from something. The clip then changes to a long shot of a creepy looking building that looks really old. It looks like the shot is from a while ago because the clarity of the shot is reduced and seems quite unfocused. The next shot is of the same clarity and you can clearly see that it is black and white. The shot is of a toppled-over bucket with blood oozing out of it. The following clips are of the same idea and are quite disturbing. In each one there are a lot of shadows involved and when there is a person, you can never see their face because they’re hidden. It makes the audience wonder if this is what the woman was running from and if so, what they are. Each scene gets more and more graphic, and it shows a lot of blood and ‘victims’. As the music continues, you can still hear other noises as well; the heavy breathing, a child crying and eerie night-time noise.  When the camera goes back to the forest, you can tell that it is isolated because there is nothing around. You can also see some mushrooms on the floor of the forest as the woman runs by, which is followed by the title ‘Shrooms’ popping up. I think this opening scene is good because it leaves a lot to your imagination, which allows you to think about who these people are and why they’re in such a sinister looking place. The fact that the camera doesn’t allow us to see the faces of the people, I think emphasises that they are either inhuman in the way they act or think. I think the titles help the scene because they have an ominous look about them and a sort of haze to the outer edges of them.  This opening scene tells the audience that it is a horror by the colour scheme and choice of music and shadows.

Main Task

Brief: The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

Chosen genre: Horror

We have chosen to use the horror genre but we originally decided to do a rom-com, but at the moment the weather is more suitable for a horror and because it is a short amount of time, to convey a comedic theme would be difficult. Our filming time is between December to February and the weather would be similar, if not worse, to what it is now. It might also help us to do a horror because we did in the Preliminary Task and it seemed to work well...

Evaluation

The plot of our film, The Following, was that a girl was being stalked by someone but her friend doesn’t believe her when she tells her. The genre we chose was horror and we made this obvious by our choice of music and camera angles.

The film starts with the title popping up in an eerie font and was red to resemble blood. We chose to play the ‘Psycho’ theme tune in the background because we thought it would set the mood as a horror. The first scene pops up and is of a long shot of the school sign. In the background there is the sound of a bell, which confirms that the clip is of a school. The clip the cuts to another clip of a corridor, and the shot is half way down the wall, as if someone is crouching. As the camera pans to the right, a pair of legs come into view walking past and the camera looks like it is following their movement until they walk out of the shot. While this is happening, the ‘Jaws’ theme is playing in the background. We chose this music because we thought it would add suspense to the shot and make it seem like a ‘predator stalking its prey’. The clip then changes to a tracking shot and comes up behind the person as they are walking down the corridor. We shot this clip by hand so that it gave the scene a more edgy feel and appear like it is another person that is following behind instead of just a steady cam. We get to the end of the corridor and to a set of glass double doors. The shot changes so that you are then on the other side of them and can see the character walking through them into the canteen. They walk up to the camera so you get a mid-shot of their body and can watch them looking for something or someone. As they see what they’re looking for they walk out of the shot. When the camera comes back into focus, you are looking at a table where another character is sat doing work. A long shot is used so you can see the original character sit down next to the other. The camera is moved behind the panels of the wall, so it seems like you are hiding behind them and spying on the people. The two girls start to have a conversation, and at this point, the camera is a mid-shot so that you can see the expressions clear enough. As each one talks the camera zooms in on just the speaker’s face so that you can focus on what they’re saying. Once the dialogue ends, the camera is back to a mid-shot of the two and the camera starts to shake up and down slightly. This is accompanied by an evil laugh in the background. This is to show that the stalker has been the camera the whole time, and is emphasized by the fact that all the shots have been personified so it’s like you have watched the whole scene through the stalkers eyes. As the credits come up the laugh is still playing and the words are in the same font and colour as the beginning title. This makes them continuous and reminds the audience of the eeriness.

What I liked in our film was that, in my opinion, our shots were cut well and the edits were smooth and continuous. This made the clips seem less jumpy when they changed and made the transfer from different locations easier. I think the music was well matched with what was going on in the scenes, for example; the ‘Psycho’ theme flowed nicely into the school bell so it didn’t make the audience confused at the different sounds. And the jaws theme got across the whole ‘predator vs. prey’ theme we were trying to display.

What I didn’t like in our film was that we had some continuity errors and had to make some changes so that they wouldn’t be noticeable. First of all, in the clip of the girl walking through the corridor (mid-shot), she was wearing a jacket. But then when she was walking up the corridor and we were following, she no longer was. This meant that we had to choose another clip of her walking past but without a jacket on. We had luckily shot some and chose the best one. Another error was that when she walks towards the doors, there is a girl stood to the right by reception. But when the camera reverses and you can see through the doors, she is no longer there. We could adjust this error and had to just hope that no one noticed it. I think these were the only continuity errors.

If we had to do it again, I would probably prefer to either shoot it in another location, or have better sound equipment. This is because the diegetic sound wasn’t good and you could barely hear the conversation that took place. The non-diegetic sound was really good and well matched but because of the clarity, it emphasized how bad the diegetic sound was. With the mise en scene, we tried to make it appear like the girl was just at school like any other day but we didn’t include a lot of people in the shots, but in the canteen you can hear them. I think next time we should either show them or cut the sound. Overall I like our film and think we made a good attempt at it.

Preliminary Task Video