Location Photographs

We are shooting our title sequence in the woods near a member of our groups house, which is in a town nearby. As the woods that we are filming in is a public place we do not need any shooting permission. We may need to invite a parent/ guardian to watch over in case we get injured etcetera.

Working Title

We are gradually thinking up titles for our film. we are doing this by brainstorming possible ideas, in that we are looking at the themes involved in the title sequence.

Themes:

Loss - Missing
Betrayal
Worry
Death - "Exit"
Mystery - "Enigma"
Innocence turns
Oxymoron
female's name? - main character. disadvantage
Oblivion?
Abduction
Kidnapping
Shiver?
"Childhood" - Nostalgia

Music

we created our own music on Garageband for our project.

we decided to go for a simple piano track to make it emotional and creepy. The music contradicts what you will be seeing on the screen as the scene seems happy but then you see a flash shot of the girl, when the flash shots appear we have created a short shriek to add shock to the shot.

This music soundtrack is non diagetic.

Final Idea

Our final idea is to create a title sequence involving a mix of memory shots and short,fast revealing shots. The revealing shots will show the viewer parts of the dead girls body, for example a close up of her eye or arm. They will be very short to give the viewer a quick glimpse of what the film would be about, these shots will be mixed with a variety of 'memory' shots, showing the girl and her movements before her death.
We will include a variety of shots; close ups, mid shots and long shots. Different types of shots will show the audience different things for example the long shots will let the viewer see the setting and where the girl is, mid shots will show the girl and what she is doing and the close up shots will show the emotion of the girl as well as her body parts to create tension.

We have decided to set our sequence in a wood, as it will be spooky and isolated adding to the tension and create a sense of nervousness for the viewer as there are many places for a person to hide then attack her. It is a dangerous sneaky environment for a girl to be wondering on her own.

We have based our sequence on the theme of betrayal, as we will be implying that a male figure, of which will be her boyfriend, killed her. These will shown in the rapid shots.

We intend on setting the scene in the woods during day and night, the 'memory' shots will be set in daylight and the edgy revealing shots will be set i the night/ evening. We intend on creating an eerie atmosphere with a great sense of mystery by having the revealing shots fast and short.

Camera work and Framing: The camera work is obviously hand held in the action shots, to portray the sense of a home video. A tripod is used for the panning shots.

Sound:We are using both diagetic and non diagetic sound in the sequence. The diagetic sound that we are using will be of birds singing over an establishing clip. Whereas the non diagetic sound that we are using is going to be our own music, of which we produced on garage band.

Editing:We are going to be editing our footage in three parts. One section will be of the female character having fun in the woods and the other part will be of the dead body. The third part will be of basic panning/ establishing shots, to set the scene and it makes a good place for us to add the opening credits.

Use of special FX: We are going to divide the happy shots and the flash shots by using a contrast of black and white against natural colour. we are also going to add a view finder effect to the black and white shots to make it look more like a home a movie.

Published Thriller Opening Credits

'Sweeny Todd'



I like these credits for the opening of Sweeny Todd as it is effective, in the way that tension is built gradually into the beginning of the film and an atmosphere is created to help portray the theme of the film.

It appears, to show, the audience what to expect from the film. The structure appears simply as one shot that leads a path through the draining to the town of which the film is set. Although whereas it is actually cut carefully so that the audience finds it easier to watch. They create atmosphere as soon as possible, starting from the "Dreamworks" logo, as they begin the music here.

The use of Mise - en - scene compliments the genre extremely well. The lighting effectively creates an eerie atmosphere, the lighting is dark and dingy but it works well to create the Gothic theme, contrasting against the blood. By using the combination of diagetic and non diagetic sound Tim Burton creates tension especially well, whilst it simultaneously constructs the creepy and ghostly environment.

Special FX are used throughout the opening titles to create the blood that flows through the draining, and falls down as rain. The entirety of the opening credits is animated, although it does appear rather realistic.

Initial Ideas

We have came up with lots of different initial ideas. one was that we would use the flickering quick shot effect which is used in "surface" to create an atmospheric eeriness to it. Also we wanted the sequence to start off nice, welcoming and happy but then gradually it would twist into a more creepy and slightly scary selection of shots, like a montage.

We can up with other plot ideas, the first was that we would all act in the performance as four smartly dressed business woman, who would wair inappropriately high heels and bright red lipstick. The entirety of the sequence would be in black and white but with only the lipstick in colour, we would do this using special FX.

The other idea that we have come up with is to have a teenage girl, approximatly our age, that goes missing and then later dies. We would have a montage of images to show her having fun in life and then would finish with the effect from 'surface' building up to someones eyes suddenly opening, as if reminiscing. This would be a boyfriend, that killed her, or a parent sitting in a room full of people having a press conference relating their "missing" daughter.

Student Example

We have chosen 'Surface' as our student example because we like the way they manipulated the images buy filming them then playing them on the television and filming them again, it created a flickering effect which was quite spooky and worked well with the eerie tone of the sequence.

Understanding of thriller conventions: They created fear through the rapid shots and flickering shots, not letting the viewer see exactly what is happening which builds tension and creates suspense.

Understanding of the opening sequence structure: The structure is clever as the audience only see the action shots briefly in between the "blood" shots, where they have used food dye to create a blood effect when poured into water and then slowed down. These shots alturnate until the end, where a combination of extremely short shots are put together over dramatic music, progessing to the end where we finally have the film title appear.

Mise - en - scene: Mise - en - scene is used well as the lighting on the blood is dark but not too dark that we can hardly see it. The lighting in the short action shots is dim also but when set to black and white the contrast in colours work well and effectively to create atmosphere. There are no defined props in this sequence, neither are there any special costumes as we can only see the characters briefly from the shoulders up and it is in black and white, and therefore costumes are not such a necessity.

Camera work and Framing: The camera work is obviously hand held in the action shots, to portray the sense of suspense. A tripod is used for the blood shots.

SoundThe sound used in these titles are both diagetic and non diagetic. The diagetic sound that they used was in the action shots, of the girl gasping and crying. The non diagetic sound was used in the blood shots, of tension building music.

EditingThis sequence was edited very cleverly as the blood shot leaves the audience question how it was done, you can not tell that they used food dye in a glass against a dark background. The action shots where done using a hand held camera setting and eerie atmosphere, putting the audience in the same frame of mind as the characters, at unease and not knowing what is happening, again asking questions. At the end of the sequence they uploaded the footage onto a television and filmed it, which is what the lines across the screen are, they then uploaded this footage onto the computer and made the shots fast and close together.

Use of special FX

Introduction

Hello, our group has changed since our kids TV title sequence, It now includes, Bryony, Ella B, Ella S and Ana. We will all bring different qualities to the group; Ana is the editor and will be filming our footage. Ella B will also be filming and editing and will assist in creating the music in Garage Band. Ella S will be acting in the sequence and editing the sequence and Bryony will also be acting and editing.

Welcome