We decided unanimously at our first group meeting that the genre of our opening sequence should be 'horror/thriller', and decided on the following final idea:
a rape scene, committed at the girl's house.
the girl is aged around 18, and lives in her own flat.
she has had a difficult, troubled childhood, and turned to drink, drugs, partying, and sex as a form of escape.
because of what she has been through, she has been in and out of therapy from a young age.
one night, after a particularly heavy night's drinking, she is followed home, and brutally shoved through the door to her flat and raped there.
the emphasis would be on the fact that the rape is very physical, violent, aggressive, and angry as oppose to sexual or passionate in anyway.
the story will however, be told through a series of flashbacks, as the girl tells the story to her therapist.
there will be some kind of hinting or insinuation that her therapist is in fact her rapist (we thought this would be a clever play on the word 'therapist' breaking down into 'the rapist'). The therapist will maybe suggest to her that it is down to her provocative style of dress and loud, drunken behaviour.
Despite the opening sequence being open to any kind of genre we liked, I decided to focus my initial idea on the genre of 'thriller/horror', because it meant I could gain inspiration from looking through past projects on YouTube. I started playing around with the idea of drinks being spiked at a party/date-rape drugs and formed the following suggestion to put forward to my group:
Clip showing a teenaged girl, aged between 6 and 18 at a house party. Camera follows her movement around as she socializes, drinking shots, etc., and the picture steadily becomes blurrier as she gets drunker. The 'blurry vision' effect of the camera then starts being cut-up with clearer shots of a guy sitting next to her, spiking her drink as she gets up to sort her skirt out. Suddenly the pace speeds up and there is fast-paced, choppy CU cuts of him forcing her into a bedroom, forcefully pushing her up against the wall, etc. insinuating the build up to a rape.
(the subtitles and weird music stop after the first few minutes)
1. The main agents are 'Anna' or Lindsay Lohan, the protagonist, and her mother or Jamie Lee Curtis, the antagonist.
2. The Equilibrium is a state in which the mother and daughter are both frequently fighting. Lots of MCUs and CUs can be identified, as these give a good sense of expression and get us right up close with the chracter emotions being conveyed. For example on the way to school in the car, the camera frequently does CUs on each characters face to show their reactions to what the other is saying, and then cutting back to a main MLS of the whole conversation. Two contrasting types of mise-en-scene are used to show the mother and daughters very contrasting lifestyles. In Anna's room we see all the chaos of an ordinary teenagers room: a parental advisory sign, lots of mess everywhere, and on the other hand, in the mother's room, everything is very serene and neat and orderly. The mother dresses smartly for work, where Anna dresses scruffily and with messed up hair and rebellious clothing for school. In fact even the way in which they start the day shows a contrast, with Anna moaning and refusing to get out of bed, and the mother bright and chirpy.
3+4. Although the Disruption or Disequilibrium is neither introduced or hinted at, we can gather almost straight away that the mother and daughter's clashing relationship is going to play a massive role in the film. We are aware from the beginning that this is what the focus is going to be. Also we get the impression that some of the significant characters that they both mention for example Anna's enemy Stacey, and her crush Jake, and the mother's client Eric are going to come up again in the future, perhaps involved in the Disequilibrium. I also think it is clear that the wedding ceremony rehearsal is going to be a key event.
5. The equlibrium will obviously be restored when Anna and her mother have learnt to co-exist or to try and see things from each other's point of view, as it is clear right away that they do not see eye-to-eye on certain key issues, much like any mother and daughter. The new equlibrium may be an environment in which they try to understand each other better and argue less.
Legally Blonde Opening Sequence
ECU of a girl brushing her hair - this gives the impression that we are about to meet the main character. Her hair is peroxide blonde and her nails are neatly painted which already gives off the impression that she is going to be a very girly character. The song 'Perfect Day' is playing in the background of the opening sequence so we are already led to believe that the main character leads a perfect, untroubled life.
LS and VLS of students on campus - 'establishing shot', sets the scene, so we get an idea of the sort of All-American atmosphere that the film will be set in, showing the 'jocks' and other character stereotypes.
CU of a letter adressed to 'Elle' - we get the feeling that this might be the name of the main character which is confirmed as the camera follows the 'journey' of the letter to Elle's room. All of the other characters we see at the sorrority sign it and kiss it which gives us the impression that Elle is very well liked and popular.
The letter's 'journey' is broken up by further ECUs and CUs of Ella getting ready, putting on high heels and jewellery, painting her nails etc. but all without us being shown her face. This means that her identity is delayed for quite a long time making her seem even more important. Everything in her room and her life, it seems, is very pink, girly and perfect. A tracking shot of her dresser shows a mirror which says 'Elle Woods - president' on the back, and all of her magazines and nail varnish and cosmetics, everything very in-keeping with the girly-girl image we have formed in our mind. Se7en
CUs and MSs of Morgan Freeman introduce him to us. We can see at once that he is a very immaculate, neat character. He is very efficient at getting ready, straightenig his tie, folding up his sleeves, collecting his posessions one-by-one, picking hair off his jacket, all in a very precise, practised way. A Tracking MLS takes us outside with Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt, making it immediately clear that they will be the two main characters. The camera follows them as they walk, like the third person in their conversation. The atmosphere is quite dark, gloomy, and sinister, with the rain, sirens and passing cars etc., already setting a tone for the rest of the film, and Morgan Freeman reveals to us when he says 'over the next 7 days' that this will be the time period of the film. Narrative Expectations
Legally Blonde - we know the film is going to be very girly from the first couple of seconds when we see the character brushing her hair and her manicured nails. We know it's going to be set on a college campus or sorrority because of the teenagers and because of the 'Delta Nu sorrority' sign. We know its going to be upbeat because of the music. There is however an underlying hint that everything is going to go wrong, because it seems that everything is almost too perfect and that something is destined to mess up.
Se7en - there is no music at first, the film just starts straight away, which is almost inkeeping with the efficieny of the next shot, which is Morgan Freeman getting on with his daily morning routine. We can tell he is going to be a very precise, efficient, almost OCD like character because of the way he goes about it. Brad Pitt is more excitable and slap-dash and seems younger. We know its going to involve crime because of the crime scene, and also the eery music that starts playing as lots of gory looking images start to flash across the screen. Comparisons
Both films open by introducing the main character(s), predominantly with a mixture of CUs and MSs, in the case of Legally Blonde, Reece Witherspoon, and in the case of Se7en, Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt. They both also set a 'tone' or atmosphere for the rest of the film, for example in Legally Blonde, the backing music is upbeat and joyful - 'Perfect Day' - and everything seems very cheerful and bright and over the top. In Se7en on the other hand, there is no music in the first few opening shots, and the colouring of the shots is very dull, mute and almost gloomy.
1. Who did you work with and how did you manage the task between you?
I worked with George Henry, Michael Greene and Claire Buswell. We all worked hard to make sure that all of our suggestions and ideas were considered when we were coming up with the idea for our short clip. We talked about the brief and what we had to include before going ahead to decide on roles, locations, scripts and other technicalities. In the process of making a film, there are usually several roles; director, the sound technician, camera operator, actor, lighting technician, and director's assistant, so with the small amount in a group we did our best to fill all of these roles. It was decided that Claire and I as the two girls would be gossiping over George's new Facebook photos. Michael would film most of it, but so as the roles were distributed a little more evenly George would film the parts of it that he was not in. George and Michael also shared the role of sound techinichian, and between us we shared the duty of holding up the clapperboard and stating the shot and take number. There was not much we could really do to alter lighting as we were filming in a room with large windows anyway.
When it came to editing, George and I shared most of the editing job, trying to make the clip smooth, and continuous and appear to the audience as a seamless flow, and that all of the narrative followed on. I really enjoyed working with my group - although obviously we came across issues, such as a disaster involving filming, I think we shared responsibility effectively and dealt with it reasonably well. Everyone in the group also proved to be reliable and good at time-keeping.
2. How did you plan your sequence? What processes did you use? What theories did you try to take into account?
We started with an initial planning meeting to work out what we wanted to film, and start to write out shot lists, brainstorms, scripts, shooting schegules and storyboards. This was useful because it allowed us to share all of our ideas and make sure we all agreed upon everything. The brief stated that we had to include: a character walking in and sitting opposite another character, and a brief dialogue, and observe important continuity rules including the 180-degree rule, the 30-degree rule, shot-reverse-shot and match-on-action, so when planning we made sure to take all of this into account.
When we decided on a location, we all went over to check it out, making sure we knew where we were going to place our camera and how we wanted to position everything. We had to take into account that we would have no control over the lighting in the room due to the two large windows, and we had a check to see how sound-proof the room would be. We then settled on a date and time for a second meeting in which we finalised the small details of our shot schedule and storyboard.
3. What technology did you use to complete the task, and how did you use it?
Our school techinchian and media teacher gave us a session before filming in which they included a run through of how to use and handle the camera and sound equipment we were given. This meant that when it came down to shooting we all new exactly what to do with minimal questions asked. They talked us through how to use the Cannon HDV Camera, using a mini DV tape format, with the choice of either a detachable camera mic or a large boom mic. For the task at hand, we decided to use the small detachable mic as we were filming indoors and at close-range, and the major advantage of the boom mic would be the ability to get in closer to the sound. We also decided to use a tripod so that we didn't get the 'home-video', shaky effect of a hand-held shot and to allow us the ability to pan and rotate smoothly. Headphones that connected to the HDV Camera meant we could listen for any background noise before we started shooting, and allowed for a cleare play-back. We also used a whiteboard in place of a clapper board to keep track of our shot and take numbers.
On the editing side of things, we used a PC-based digital editing suite, and the editing programme Adobe Premier Pro, to cut up and put together our final piece. The main tools we needed were the razor tool, to cut up each clip into the sections we did and didn't need and to cut away mistakes and shots of the clapper board, the drag icon to transport clips between the timeline and the over-view windoe etc, and the drag icon so that we could move the clips up and down on the timeline and fit them together. As we stuck with a 'cut' transition between each shot, we were not reliant on any other effects to join the shots together. We did however use the title tool to add text to the beginning and end of our clip, and the source and output moniters, which stored and allowed us to watch footage, picking and choosing sections we wanted to keep and scrap.
4. What factors did you have to take into account when planning, shooting and editing?
There were several factors that needed to be taken into consideration when carrying out all of the above three taks. During planning, we needed to make sure that all of the roles amongst the group were distributed evenly. We had to decide on reasonably confident actors - obviously taking into account that none of us are ever going to win Oscars! - and make sure that everyone was comfortable with the position they were being asked to play. We had to make sure that the storyboard matched up the shot schedule and script, and that the location fitted in with all of this.
With shooting, there were yet more things to consider - most significantly sound and lighting. We were lucky on the day of the shoot, as due to the two windows in the room we were shooting in, the weather could have really caused our lighting to fail, but the day was not too bright or too dull. Also sound was important - there were lots of other groups filming at the same time of us so it was important that we made sure they didn't interrupt our shoot too much. Luckily, we chose a location which was mostly sound-proofed. Also it was important to make sure the actors, myself and Claire, were speaking loudly enough at all times. Obviously, with continuity as the main focus, we had to make sure that we didn't break any of the 180 and 30 degree rules, to ensure that everything flowed seamlessly. Our shot logs and schedules made sure this all went according to plan.
We decided to stick to the transition of simple cuts between each shot to not take away from the main focus on continuity. Also, time management was important with editing as it was easy to get carried away with playing about with the order of shots etc., and we had to bear in mind that we only had a certain amount of time to get finished.
5. How successful was your sequence? Please identify what worked well, and with hindsight, what you would improve/ do differently.
I think that although the proccess of filming the sequence was definitly something I learnt a lot from, there was definite room for improvement, despite some areas that I was quite pleased with. We observed all of the continuity rules and included both match-on-action and shot reverse shot. We also tried our hardest to make sure that it flowed as seamlessly as possible. I think we did complicate things for ourselves by including three characters instead of just the reccomended two, so in hindsight I would probably consider using just the two characters. The first shot of Claire walking in, despite a small amount of unintended background noise, and opening the door with the match-on-action from the other side of the door I feel was particularly effective as it was very smooth and without any mistakes. I think some of the shots of myself and Claire having the conversation about George were well-framed and I was pleased with them overall. However 0.11, the framing is really poor at the establishing shot of the two girls. There is far too much space above the girls heads. Given the chance to redo this sequence, i would definitly chose a different location, as it was this that limited our ability to frame the shots nicely. Also the conversation is too fast-paced and there aren't enough pauses. It just cuts to each girl without any chance for the audience to absorb what has happened.
6. What have you learnt from completing this task? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing the rest of your foundation coursework, do you think?
I definitly think that this task will be beneficial to me when completing the rest of my foundation coursework as I have learnt a lot of valuable lessons. It was good to learn some of the continuinty rules first hand, for example at one point in one of our takes we broke the 30 degree rule and I know that I will now never break the rule again. Furthermore, after we had a disaster in which our camerman Michael pressed 'record' instead of 'stop' and we ended up filming a lot of stuff we didn't need and not filming any of our sequence, I learnt that it is best to deal with situation like this without panicking. Our group's first reaction was one of shock and we were all talking over each other and not giving each other any attention which did not get us anywhere - we realised when we slowed down and took things one step at a time, agreeing to stay behind for extra time to re-film that things went more smoothly. Ive learnt a valuable lesson from this, and know that none of our group will make the same mistakes again.
I also learnt what all of the roles in a filming enivornment are, such as the director and director's assistant, camerman, lighting and sound techinichans etc., and the things they all say to signify that they are starting such as 'Camera rolling!'. Also, I learnt that storyboarding and shot schedules and lists are all very valuable - at first I was sceptical about how important all of this planning would be but it turned out to be very useful to have a solid plan of what to film when.
1. I think the point to the activity was to demonstrate to us that creating continuity is not as easy as it seems and to teach us that it is very difficult to film a continuous sequence without the ability to cut up and edit the shots. It may also have been so that we could learn from experience what some of the fundamental continuity concepts are, so that we will remember them in the future more easily and be less inclined to break them again.
2. Not much really worked well about our sequence. I think some of the shots were quite good like the establishing shot of George walking away, and the low-angle shot of him walking past, but all of the shots went on for too long and did not follow on well at all.
3. Given the chance to do it again, I would shorten the length of the first establishing walking shot. I would make sure that we did not break the 180 and 30 degree rules again, both of which we broke in this sequence. I would probably not include the low-angle shot of George walking as it looks very menacing and is unnecessary as their is nothing particularly scary about the shot. I would also try and make sure all the shots followed on more from each other.
4. I learnt from this activity what all of the main continuity concepts are and will probably never break them again - I also learnt that there is a lot more to creating a continuous sequence than it first seems.
Hi, I'm Despina. I'm currently at the Latymer School studying media, geography, german and english. I really enjoy watching films and media. Feel free to look round x
