Today I saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens directed by JJ Abrams and starring Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Oscar Isaac. I found the film very enjoyable and overall a fantastic film, which managed to keep faithful to the tone of the original films but at the same time introduce new and in-depth characters.
The music is such an integral part of Star Wars that I found myself getting shivers as the film opened with the main theme, other people in the cinema whooped. Obviously this reminded me of how carefully we are going to have to chose our music when creating our film opening.
The film uses a lot of different shot types but most notable were probably the epic establishing shots of spaceships and new planets and the tracking shots and fast cuts of action sequences as well as the obvious high and low key lighting used to portray the Light and Dark sides.
In my opinion, Abrams managed to balance the funny, tragic, and bitter-sweet moments of the film perfectly, giving the audience the right amount of time to wipe away the tears before leaping into another space battle. The old characters felt like they had in the first films, and the new characters like Finn, Poe, and Rey, felt like they belonged. Abrams has been criticised in the past for his arguably excessive use of lens flares when directing the Star Trek reboots, but for this film, the cinematography and overall tone really fit with the original films so it just felt like them, but modern, which I thought was really effective. The film ends with quite the clliffhanger, meaning I will definitely be going back to see Episode VIII in 2017.
Netflix's original series "Marvel's Jessica Jones" is a thriller about a former superhero who becomes a private investigator in New York.
I found the opening titles of the "Jessica Jones" very interesting and thought we could use them as inspiration for our film opening titles as they share a genre, even though they are more abstract than the titles we will create.
Throughout the opening titles, you cannot see the character's faces, which means that nothing is revealed about them, they are just mysterious shadows. The music behind the titles is very tense and speeds up as the titles reach their ending. We would hope to use music similar to this in our film opening. In addition, there are several slow cuts throughout the titles, which again adds to tension.
Today I watched David Fincher's "Se7en" (1995) starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. The genre is thriller and so fits with the genre that we want our film opening to fit.
Overall, I felt that the film was very well shot by cinematographer Darius Khondji, using the rule of thirds throughout the film. In addition, the camera was often fixed down, allowing the characters to move around in the frame, rather than moving the camera to follow them, adding to the tension as sometimes the camera stayed fixed on the characters and their reactions rather than what they were looking at. An example of this would be when Morgan Freeman's character sees what is in the box towards the end of the film, but the audience never sees, which only adds to the suspense. Many of the shots had a long duration, which built tension in the scenes also.
An example of the use of the rule of thirds in Se7en
Music was also used very effectively in "Se7en", as the music began to crescendo whenever the two detectives were close to finding a body. The music helped to unsettle the audience, which added to the disturbing tone of the entire film.
Today was our second day of filming and overall I feel it was a success. We encountered a few problems, including high wind speeds and near constant dog-walkers but managed to get all the external shots we needed in about 3-4 hours, which meant that our lighting stayed fairly consistent. Here are a few photos of our day, taken by Kirti. Vlog to follow soon.
Myself explaining to Saanika which shots we planned to get at the location
Saanika and I mapping out where she needed to walk in the frame
Kirti trying to find the best angles at the location
Myself trying to capture audio so that there would be minimal work on diegetic sound in post
I have been enjoying the new BBC2 spy thriller London Spy and we can use it in addition to the case of the death of MI6 agent Gareth Williams (an article about the case can be found here) as inspiration for our film opening, in which a girl stumbles across a suspicious suitcase in a wood. London Spy further shows that the thriller is a popular genre as it pulled in 2.5 million viewers on its first episode.
We may be able to use some of the shots of the main character, Danny, discovering a suspicious chest in the attic as inspiration for shots in our film opening.
A slightly high angle, almost POV, shot of the chest
A mid shot of Danny's reaction
Close up of Danny reaching to open the chest
Most of the shots in this part of London Spy have a long duration, which really effectively builds suspense and tension, so this is something else we would want to make sure we included in our film opening.
As our original group wasn't working out, we decided to split so now Group 4 consists of myself and Kirti. We have also changed our idea, but maintained that the genre will be thriller.
In concise terms, our idea is that a young woman is walking through a wood and she discovers an abandoned suitcase.
This idea is much simpler and so will be easier to shoot, which allows us more time to think about how we will reflect the genre in the way it is shot and edited and through sound design. We have also established which location we will be using and I will post the photos of the storyboards we created today in my next post.
Saul Bass was a designer who pioneered the opening title sequence. He is a good source of inspiration for opening titles but tended to create stand alone title sequences, rather than title sequences within the action, which is what we are looking to create with our film opening. An example of his work is below.
Yesterday we went to the British Film Institute to an AS Media study day during which we were able to analyse the content of film openings such as 'Casino Royale', 'Napoleon Dynamite' and 'Donnie Brasco'. We also took part in a Q&A with the director of horror film 'The Hallow', Corin Hardy. The whole day was very useful in highlighting what we needed to focus on from now on in terms of our film openings. All of the content from the day can be found on this website.
We have established which days we will be filming on and they are as follows:
Saturday 14th November- we will film some establishing shots of Central London
Saturday 21st November- we will film all external Central London shots such as by St. Paul's Cathedral, Parliament, the Millenium Bridge, the London Eye and the Shard as well as the shot on the train into London.
Sunday 22nd November- we will film all internal shots from the start of the film opening as our protagonist gets ready for her job interview, the location for this will be my house.
Monday 23rd November- we will film the final few shots including an external of Enfield Civic Centre to establish that the location of the interview is a professional building. We will also film inside our school on Monday for the final few internal shots.
Last week I saw Pan, directed by Joe Wright and starring Hugh Jackman, Rooney Mara, and Levi Miller. I felt that the film was boring, strayed far too far from the original Peter Pan origin story, and was more focused on extravagant CGI than on developing a strong plot. The characters were quite one-dimensional, the motives of Captain Hook weren't clear and the casting of a white actress to play Tiger Lily made no sense. Overall, the film looked nice, with bright vibrant colours being used at every opportunity, particularly around the natives, but I felt the film had nothing more to it than that and so it is difficult to use it as inspiration for our film opening. Below is the trailer for 'Pan'.
Today I went to go and see the new James Bond film, Spectre, because the release of this film has been highly anticipated and the director, Sam Mendes, has directed other films such as Skyfall and American Beauty, both of which have been highly acclaimed. Going into the film, I expected a classic Bond film with unrealistic action sequences, sexism, and excessive alcohol consumption, which is essentially what the audience got.
The film opened at celebration of The Day of the Dead in Mexico City. The frame was always very full and busy and at times it was difficult to know where to focus, however this very vibrant way of opening the film caught, and held, my attention. I don't think we would have the funds nor the time to arrange an opening that comes near to the scale and vibrancy for our film opening, and Spectre does not fit the genre we are looking into. However, near the beginning of the film there was a long tracking shot of Bond hopping across the roofs in Mexico City. We are looking at doing a long tracking shot in our opening so this is useful.
After the action packed opening 5 minutes, some of the film seemed to drag but it culminated in a very fast paced and dramatic final act. There were particular shots that I enjoyed, of the character's Bond and Doctor Swan having a conversation, during which Mendes changed the film convention of doing over-the-shoulder shots during conversations and instead had shots in which each character was centre of the frame, which I thought was really interesting and reminiscent of Wes Anderson's 'Grand Budapest Hotel'. Since we are thinking of having an interview scene in the opening of our film, this might be something we could look into further.
Overall, I enjoyed the film and found the shot choices really interesting, as well as fantastic acting from the cast, particularly Christoph Waltz as Oberhauser, Ben Whishaw as Q, and Naomi Campbell as Moneypenny.
1. Name?
2. Age range?
3. Favourite film?
4. Favourite film genre?
5. Least favourite film genre?
6. Favourite film opening?
7. Thoughts on age certificates?
8. What 3 things do you look for in a film?
9. What do you like to experience when watching a film?
I used both video interviews, as shown above, and contacting them through Twitter to complete my research.
All those asked on Twitter were within the 18-25 age range and those asked in the video interviews were a wide range of ages.
In terms of genre for a film, majority of the market seems to like thriller or horror films (8 out of 14 asked) which fits well with the genre we originally pitched. In addition, those who didn't mention thriller films liked to experience tension and edge-of-your-seat moments when watching a film, which is something that we hoped to include in our film opening.
Protagonists were seen as important to those asked, including protagonists who were complex and not perfect people. We were thinking that our protagonist would play an important part in the opening, rather than many establishing shots of scenery so this helps to back up our idea.
10 out of the 14 asked said that they are hooked by an opening that did not reveal much of the plot, so that they were left wanting more, also, half of the people asked said that they liked an opening with nice cinematography otherwise they may find the opening boring and therefore not continue to watch the film.
One of the ideas we had in our 25 word pitch was that we would open with a long tracking shot of a character getting ready to and then leaving the house. Below are some examples I found of tracking shots.
The first is from a short film by Bertie Gilbert, 'Rocks That Bleed'. However, this tracking shot doesn't show the face of the character, which isn't what we would want to do in our film opening.
The next example is the film Birdman, which is filmed almost entirely through tracking shots.
The film Atonement also uses a very long tracking shot, following one character, which is exactly what we were thinking of doing for our opening.
In Monday's lesson we learnt how to storyboard, which is an important part of planning for a shoot and so will benefit us when we make our film opening. We practised storyboarding using a scene from Luther and below is my finished storyboard from that scene.
Here is our 25 word pitch for the film opening we are going to make, as well as a really useful discussion with the class afterwards. I think our next move is to clarify which locations we are going to use and start to think about how we will hint at the film's genre (which is a thriller) in the 2 minute opening. Another factor that we will have to consider is who will play the 'interviewer' in the piece.
An example of interesting use of sound would be this clip from an episode of the BBC's Sherlock, 'The Hounds of Baskerville'. In this clip, tense music and sound effects as well as Watson's whispering builds tension in the scene and creates the illusion that the 'Hound' was in the room with the character. The music builds even more and the creature-like sound effects increase towards the end of the scene, leading the audience to believe that something bad was going to happen to Dr Watson.
An example of split screen editing is this clip from 500 Days of Summer (2009).
This editing is effective because it gives an insight into the mind of Tom and so makes it more sad for the audience when they see that his expectations are not met.
Doctor Who
This clip is an example of interesting editing because it includes footage that has been sped up in post, which expands on the effect that the Doctor is very busy and completing all of the tasks really quickly. It also tricks the audience into thinking a lot of time has passed, when really, as revealed at the end of the clip, it has only been an hour.
Whiplash (2014)
This clip uses quick cuts to show the intensity of Andrew's passion for being one of the greats.
Up (2009)
This clip uses the editing technique of montage, in order to summarise a series of events quickly so that the audience is up to speed with what is happening in the lives of the characters.
This is the opening scene of The Usual Suspects, a 1995 film directed by Bryan Singer.
This was my first time watching this opening scene, as I haven't seen The Usual Suspects yet. My initial reaction was confusion because the film appears to begin with the ending.
Usually, I would think that this would not be a good way to open a film because of the inevitable spoilers, but I think that this film handles that well in that the beginning will only make sense at the end of the film, so the audience will have to watch the whole film to understand it.
However, I don't find myself caring for either of the characters, so I'm not invested in where their story is going, which I think is what you need in a film and in characters.
So, overall, I think it is an effective opening to a film, as it hooks the audience in because they want to be able to make sense of the opening. I think that must be why it is held in such high regard by the film industry as a whole.
My favourite film openings (in no particular order) are:
1. Pride (2014, Matthew Warchus)
Pride opens with archive footage from the miner's strikes of the 1980's and the song 'Solidarity Forever' playing behind it, this helps to set the scene of the film. In addition, within the opening 2 minutes, the main character, Mark Ashton, is introduced as a fun character, which gets the audience on his side from the start. The opening also sets the tone of the film well, as the solemnity of the miner's situation is countered by the optimism of Mark.
2. Shaun of the Dead (2004, Edgar Wright)
My next favourite film opening is Shaun of the Dead because it is an entertaining and humorous beginning to the film. The shots mirror those of other popular zombie films, such as Dawn of the Dead, however the people are not yet actually zombies, they're just living boring and repetitive lives.
3. Birdman (2014, Alejandro G. Iñárritu)
I really like the opening to Birdman because the first shot, after the opening credits is a wide shot of Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) and it seems to be on a tripod but then the camera starts to move to follow the action and follows the action seemingly without cuts for the entire film. This is really effective as it sets up the kind of cinematography that will be used for the rest of the film. The opening is also very still and calm and then the drums kick in and begin to build the tension that will only increase over the rest of the film. It is the calm before the storm.
4. The Social Network (2011, David Fincher)
The opening scene of The Social Network is a conversation between the main character and his girlfriend and is very fast-paced. I really like this opening scene because the dialogue flows so well and it is refreshing to have a film open with dialogue rather than big cinematic scenes. The effect of the opening is that the audience is plunged right into the fast pace that the film has, and it feels like you are being swept along by the very intelligent and quick thinking mind of Mark Zuckerburg.
5. Whiplash (2014, Damien Chazelle)
My final favourite opening scene to a film is the first scene of Whiplash. This is because
the first shot is a long wide shot, moving towards Miles Teller playing the drums. This long shot, with the fast drums in the background, builds the tension very nicely, and this tension is maintained throughout the entire film. In addition, J.K Simmons' character is introduced to the audience stepping out from the shadows, which already implies to the audience that he is an intimidating and threatening character.
My favourite film is Little Miss Sunshine (2006), directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris and starring Steve Carell and Toni Collette. It is based around the story of a family trying to get their daughter to the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant finals and so have to take a cross-country road trip together in their old and barely-working VW, culminating in the best dance scene on film ever. I think the film strikes a near perfect balance between comedy and real human drama, and by the end you are genuinely rooting for all the characters. The trailer is below.
My favourite male actor is Eddie Redmayne. This is because he is able to play a wide range of characters really well, from the challenging role of Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, which he played very realisticallyto the equally difficult task of singing live for the role of Marius in Tom Hooper's Les Miserables, whilst managing to maintain the suspension of disbelief.
Eddie Redmayne in Les Miserables
My favourite female actor is Imelda Staunton because she is able to switch seemingly effortlessly between the lovable and funny character of Hefina, who she plays in Pride and the harsh and unfair Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Imelda Staunton with Bill Nighy in Pride
My most memorable childhood film was Bob the Builder: A Christmas To Remember because I was obsessed with Bob the Builder as a child and so would watch this film at all times of the year.
As a child, I read the magazine Aquila because it had a new theme every month and I enjoyed learning about some of the historical things the issues were based around. Also, it had really good jokes on the back page.
Nowadays I don't tend to read magazines or comics but if I do, it's either a Marvel comic as I enjoy how diverse they have become or Radio Times because I'm interested by the interviews and reviews in it.
The most memorable line from a film for me would be "I am sick to fucking death of poor people!" spoken by the character of Alistair Ryle, played by Sam Claflin, in The Riot Club. This is my most memorable line from a film because it was a shocking line that was a catalyst in the scene and wound the other characters up even more, which had dramatic implications. I don't agree with the line at all but I think it was acted incredibly well by Sam Claflin, as shown in the clip below.
My most frequented website is YouTube because there are some very good short films and webseries such as Carmilla on there which I like to take inspiration from. Below is the trailer for a short called Septem directed by Hazel Hayes and uploaded onto YouTube, which has inspired me hugely to make my own short films.
The film location which I would most like to live in is Avengers Tower, from The Avengers because it is full of cool technology and all my favourite Marvel characters. It's also built in the centre of New York, which would be very convenient if I were to need to pop to the shops or Broadway. Finally, it is very spacious and would have stunning 360 views of New York, as well as easy access from the sky, which would be very useful if I needed to spot potential HYDRA trouble from afar.
The best opening to any film I've seen has to be the opening to Pride (2014). It was an upbeat opening that hooked me into the film. It also introduced the audience to the main character, and made him likeable, meaning the audience had sympathy for him from the offset.
The character of Mark Ashton in the opening of Pride
The gadget that I would most like to own would be a drone because it would enable to me to get aerial shots, which I think would improve my videos and films greatly as it adds a whole new potential point of view for the audience.
