Picking Our Films

Our media class was set a task to create three different openings to films to show what skilled we had in organisation and picking key angles and shots that were effective in openings. We had to pick one film from each genre (Comedy, Thriller and Horror). Before our group decided we all went home and researched each opening and I decided to analysis each one before I chose.

The comedies to choose from were

Juno

Genre-Black Comedy
Narrative- Film about a teen girl, being alone but staying happy at the same time
Character- Single, relaxed, not a care, drinking out of a big bottle
Atmosphere- Quiet but still fun and happy. Funny
Themes- Cartoon, keeping it young and fun
Setting- Down a street, going for possibly a daily walk. Comfort in surroundings
Sound- Theme tune is used. Song about love but the music is natural feeling, young.
Titles- Look like they've been drawn, makes it feel youthful

50 First dates (to 2minutes)

Genre- Comedy
Narrative- How a certain man makes women feel. Holiday romance
Character- There are many different people shown, but they are all speaking about one character. Main character is funny, loving but shows he uses girls as there are a lot of different types of women
Atmosphere- Lust, sun and fun
Themes- Holiday romance, Ocean feel
Setting- Set in many different places, city, work place, car. Shows the women are from all over
Sound- Matches the ocean and holiday theme. Smooth Hawaiian sound, gets faster when the women are talking
Titles- Aren't many, just at the beginning. a water theme is used to connote holidays

and Superbad 

Genre- Young Comedy
Narrative- This opening doesn't give much about film, possibly dancing, being silly
Character- There are two/three dances in this but it is unclear. They show that the characters in the film can be fun and stupid and not have a care.
Atmosphere- Lively, action
Themes- Bright colours connote fun and youthfulness
Setting- No setting, plain colours are used to highlight the dancers
Sound- Song is used, very smooth, old school and lively
Titles- The main focus is the titles, they compliment the colours in the background and the font is very simple, meaning it is simple to read and take in

Out of the Comedy genre I think that Juno would be the best to film as it contained the most camera angles and had a wide range of different shots. I think that Superbad would have been a fun clip to remake but creating the scene by filming it then editing on 'IMAC' would have been to hard and taken to much time. So instead we decided that it would be easier to create Juno by using our other skills. If we were able to use Final Cut for our first project we most likely would have filmed the whole sequence normally, then edited it on Final Cut but we had to think of an alternative as we couldn't do Superbad and we didn't want to do 50 First Dates.

The thrillers were

Vertigo

Genre- Thriller
Narrative- Looking deep into someones life, messing with whats inside there mind 
Character- Only a face is shown in this sequence, could be the main character but nothing is given away
Atmosphere- Eerie, looking into
Themes- Emotions
Setting- No settings, black screens and facial features are most prominent
Sound- Compliments the atmosphere, makes it creepy. Sound is heightened when a name is on screen. Catches attention
Titles- Mostly centred in the screen, shown for a long pause of time, meaning its the main focus and easy to read


Memento (to 2minutes)

Genre- Psychological Thriller
Narrative- A murderer that maybe messes with peoples minds. The film is shown to be in reverse
Character- The murderer- evil and sinister
Atmosphere- Eerie, quiet odd. lets the audience know something is wrong
Themes- Death, murder, mind games
Setting- Hidden somewhere, big clear sheets possibly a warehouse. Not much information is given
Sound- Very quiet, no music is played after gunshot. The loss of sound is more effective than any music
Titles- Nice font, makes the film seem it has high intelligences


The Shining

Genre- Thriller
Narrative- Traveling to somewhere far away, dutch angles showing the oddity of the film
Character- No one is shown, only a simple car suggesting the person driving it could be simple as well and they seem they are in a rush
Atmosphere- Being followed, eerie, quiet and smooth
Themes- Getting away, smooth. Middle of no where
Setting- Lonesome and country road, near the coast, cannot get away, Big house at the end.
Sound- Quiet to start, gets quicker through the piece, compliments the atmosphere well
Titles- Scroll up the screen, kept simple and smooth

I thought that for the Thriller theme Vertigo would have been the most effective and achievable clip we could recreate. The shining was a second choice but as I thought we could already use a different type of filming, using a toy car and made up setting would have been a lot more effort to make something that didn't work that well and looked similar to our comedy piece. Memento was to complicated for our group and a lot of the equipment needed we didn't have, so to be more prepared and organised we thought best to do Vertigo. This would be easy to organise as its quiet simple.

And the horrors were
Halloween

Genre- Horror
Narrative- None really shown, keeps the mind open for what may come
Character- There are no characters shown which could connote a lonesome film, or a film about the supernatural
Atmosphere- Dark, small light of hope
Themes- Halloween, sleek, orange and black
Setting- dark room, thought of where the pumpkin is
Sound- High pitched, fast paced. Big booms in some places, scares the audience
Titles- Extremely plain, flashes on and dims off connoting the thought of hope, being taken away, Main focus a lot of information


The Strangers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWp14gtZ-u0
Genre- Horror
Narrative- Following someone. Watching people and there houses
Character- No people are shown but there are two characters introduced through the information shown. We know nothing about them
Atmosphere- Quiet, deadly, creepy. Makes you feel like you are unsafe
Themes- Watching houses, taking life away- shown by the fade in and outs of black screens
Setting- American styled living, your own personal home
Sound- Voice over, rough and deep
Titles- Plain, not much about the actual film and the actors etc but titles are used to explain the film. these words are small and not very readable but attention is shown towards them as it is odd to have words shown on a film


Se7en

Genre- Horror
Narrative- Being watched, stalked over, being followed until you are captured and killed
Character- No one is really shown in this sequence
Atmosphere- Deadly, being watched. Creepy, research. Personal
Themes- Personality, jumpy, researching, Revenge
Setting- Somewhere that is secretive, a lot of equipment and information that should be kept quiet
Sound- High tech, different, eerie. Not really a soundtrack used, just made up of different sounds that could be related to the film
Titles- They look like they are handwritten, showing that is a personal connection. Se7en is in typeface connoting this is the biggest secret.

For the Horror theme I would have chosen to create Halloween as I found it the most effective and we could focus more on the titles instead of the filming. Although saying this it doesn't have a lot of camera angles as its such a simple opening. If I were to pick a different opening I would chose The Strangers as it is also extremely effective and although there isn't much skill to be shown through the titles, there are a lot of them and there is more filming to be done. Which means our group can show all of our skills. I think if we were to film Halloween we wouldn't use a pumpkin as it is hard to find them at the begging of the year, so instead we could paint someones face or use a basketball instead.