Tolu Lawal
Blog entry
25/02/09
For my opening sequence, through viewing various opening sequences of movies in the same genre as my own, I was able to adopt the micro-macro strategy. I wanted my film to follow the conventions of a typical thriller but at the same time challenge the conventions. The atmosphere created in my film by the camera work and music will be similar to that of the various trailers and opening sequences of thrillers that I have watched. The style of my titles and music will reflect the tense atmosphere I am creating in my opening sequence. I got the idea for the titles of opening sequence through watching trailers on YouTube and making a note of a reoccurring style of lettering and the sound effects that came with the style of lettering. The trailer that gave me the idea for my opening sequence includes ‘The Ring 2’, ‘Hide and Seek’ and ‘Collateral’. From these titles, I figured that the titles do reflect what the movie is about and add to the atmosphere that is being created. The music also reflects the happenings of the movie. As things become more tense or exciting the non diegetic background music tends to add to the atmosphere created. The Language of film is told through the non diegtic sounds and the diegetic sounds. This is when the dialogue is reflected through the soundtrack. In my opening sequence this is created through the murderer’s thoughts and the sound bridge into the flashback. When she says she still hears them calling her name, we hear the boys calling her name in a tuneful manner as if it what driving he crazy allowing the audience to hear her thoughts. This connection with the audience through makes the atmosphere extremely tense. Through the grammar of the edit, we are able to make connections through the flashbacks and the time changes throughout the opening sequence. Although my editing is non linear as it jumps through time, the audience are still aware of the happenings as the events will be explained by the main character in-between the flash backs. All our flashbacks will be in black and white to ensure that the audience are able to differentiate between the current time and the past. And during the first flash back there will be a caption inserted to show how long ago the events were. I believe we used the right transition effects eg fade to black as it is commonly used in this genre to portay the tense atmosphere being created . it is almost as if the viewer is having to wait to see what is going happen and the transition contributes to this feeling of anticipation.
The key mistakes made throughout the filming of my opening sequence were the constant changing of ideas and the gender of our actors. I could have been a lot more organised when it came to arranging times to film and actually getting the filming done. Our planning was good but I do think our story board could have been much more accurate. The errors I made in the preliminary task were avoided as I was much more familiar with the software I was using and the editing was technically harder but also easier because I had used the software before.
On a macro level, my film does challenge the traditional conventions of a thriller. Most thrillers I have watched start slow, almost portraying normal life but my opening sequence starts with a series of flashbacks and the confession of a murder in order to grasp the audiences’ attention. Instead of seeing the movie title first, the film title will end my opening sequence.
I do not make reference to any other particular film throughout my opening sequence.
My target audience will be young adults. It will appeal to many people as is a thriller but also a teen movie about bullying. The storyline of my opening sequence challenges the traditional conventions of this genre. Thrillers are not usually about teenagers murdering fellow peers. I think this difference in the storyline attracts a much wider range of audiences from different age groups. Those who like thrillers are likely to watch it and those teenagers who prefer to watch something they are able to relate to will also take an interest in the film.