what inspired our opening scene?

The plot of our film opening took inspiration from a variety of films the first of which was the strangers, as the majority of the film takes place in the house when strange things begin to happen, this relates to our opening as over half will be filmed from within a house.



The female character in our film will experience distorted reality as a result of an on-going mental illness which she is unaware she has, A strong point of our opening is that it is never established that the main actress suffers from mental illnesses leaving the audience asking questions as to what is going on, and why bad things are happening to the character.
Similarly the plot of the sixth sense is a little boy who can see things that no one else can, he can see dead people, and bruce willis attempts to help him with his troubles.


A factor of the sixth sense that inspired both me and james to base our film on a girl suffering from distorted reality, was the little boy in the sixth sense, he cannot deter beyond doubt a real person and an apparent "ghost" or "dead people" throughout the film bruce willis is portrayed to be a real person helping the boy with his troubles by trying to resolve them, however a clever twist at the end of the film is that bruce willis is in fact dead, only the little boy can see him.

silence of the lambs

  The silence of the lambs appealed massivly to female audiunce's alongside a male audiunce.

The basic plot of the film is as follows: A Young female FBI agent Clarice Starling is assigned to help find a missing woman to save her from a psychopathic serial killer who skins his victims. Clarice attempts to gain a better insight into the twisted mind of the killer by talking to another psychopath Hannibal Lecter, who used to be a respected psychiatrist. FBI agent Jack Crawford believes that Lecter who is also a very powerful and clever mind manipulator have the answers to their questions to help locate the killer.



The film recieved Good reviews and won five major Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actress (Foster), Best Actor (Hopkins), Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay (Ted Tally), making it the third film in history to receive the "Big Five" Academy Awards. It was also nominated for Best Sound and Best Film Editing, but lost to Terminator 2.

The film recieved a 5* review from many critics and a good reception from the public, one public viewer regarded it as "A Story And A Character That You Can't Forget" and wrote:
I'll never forget my first viewing of this movie at the theater and will always look back fondly on it for one reason: helping me quit smoking cigarettes.
I read the book first, was fascinated by it, and couldn't wait for the film to come out. That was the day I picked to quit smoking and I knew this movie would take my mind off that matter. I was expecting an intense movie and I got it. Little did I realize how well-received this film would be and how it propelled Anthony Hopkins to super-stardom.
Although entertaining, this is not always a fun movie to watch, especially with the scenes with Ted Levine who plays the killer, "Buffalo Bill." "Bill" and his kidnapped young woman are sick and profane people, respectively, and their scenes are very unpleasant. This movie is not for the squeamish with those and other scenes involving the infamous Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Hopkins). There also is some extreme crudeness in the jail/dungeon where Lecter and other inmates are held.
Jodie Foster is excellent as the FBI agent "Clarice Starling" and Scott Glenn is low-key and effective as "Jack Crawford." A major part of the film is psychological more than violent as Lecter constantly taunts "Clarice," while she tries her best to manipulate him to help with a case. The by-play between the two is a game in itself.
Hopkins, however, is the actor people remember best from this movie. His portrayal of the refined-yet-cannibalistic serial killer-doctor is one viewers will never forget. I've enjoyed watching him in the sequels, too. The looks on his face, his fascinating vocabulary with intelligent sarcasm and frankness, never ceases to entertain.
"Silence Of The Lambs" has turned into a modern-day "classic." If by some odd chance you have never seen this movie, be warned it is a dark, difficult story to watch at times....but it will get your mind off other things.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102926/reviews

The rolling stone website has a review by Peter Travers on the February 14, 1991 claiming it to be a  "superbly crafted suspense thriller" and it states that "The Silence of the Lambs slams you like a sudden blast of bone-chilling, pulse-pounding terror" To Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/the-silence-of-the-lambs-19910214#ixzz1gJSy1l1p

Opening sequence psychological thriller research

Psychological thrillers

 For mine and James opening sequence activity we have decided to base the film on the genre of psychological thriller.

The main themes we will be trying to identify during our opening sequence include:

Reality – this idea that the character will identify the realism of their life – Characters often determine what is real and what isn’t within the narrative.

Perception – the idea of the characters own opinions, point of views, and generally how they see the world around them. Usually characters may misperceive events which will affect their perception on the world throughout.

Mind –The idea of the characters location of consciousness (including personality, memory, intelligence, emotion etc..)  Usually the idea of narrative conflict is used to further alter the characters perception.

Existence/purpose -the object for which something exists; an aim or a goal humans strive towards to understand their reason for existence. Usually the character will throughout from conflicted narrative, strive towards a purpose for their life.

Identity - The definition of one’s self.  Usually in the psychological thriller genre the character will have doubts or are confused about themselves in some way,  And try to rediscover there persona.

Death – The end of life’s journey.  Usually a character will be in fear or are fascinated in death.

For our opening sequence, we have decided to produce a psychological thriller with a female main character. We have tried to identify with other successful psychological thrillers for example Requiem for a dream; this is a brilliant psychological thriller that greatly outlines the ideas of main themes such as reality, existence, perception and identity through 4 main characters all with very different lives but all constantly conflict with the idea of a purpose.

Initial ideas

The initial idea myself and james thought up was a girl suffering from delusions, and hallucinations however she is unaware that she is mentally ill and claims someone or something is out to get her but she cannot talk to anyone apart from her only trusted friend.

The basic plot of the film is as follows:

2 main characters: the leading main female character, and her friend.  

A few extras will be needed to represent the hallucinations the main actor is experience.

The opening scene consists of the main female actor talking to her female friend at a café.               She then describes to her friend at how she has been feeling strange recently, but does not establish her feelings that someone or something is out to get her. The main actor looks into the distance, and thinks she can see something, the look upon her face looks disturbed however she is abruptly interrupted as her friends asks ‘Is everything alright’ there main character looks at her female friend before hesitantly answering ‘yeahhh’  the main character looks back at what she thought she saw to realise it was gone. The scene then cuts to them walking home, they split up and the main character walks into her own house alone. A time lapse of the clock is used and the main character is sitting on her sofa smoking a cigarette alone, she is interrupted as her attention is drawn upstairs at a loud banging noise, she heads upstairs but as she does the lights flicker on the stair way, the main character does not seem to find anything upstairs and looks out the window, there is a flash followed by a figure pressed up against the window, the main actor is startled and falls backwards a second flash occurs and the figure is gone. Her attention then turns to the door banging and the phone ringing, she walks out of the front of her house looking left and right she notices a mysterious person in the distance who looks at her and moves quickly towards her, she then turns and runs back in the house where further strange things begin to happen, more banging as if someone is trying to get in, she opens the curtains and the figure is there again but vanishes as she looks away. Time laps of the clock again, followed by the character walking back to the café to have another conversation with her friend.

Although this seems block information it is only a basic idea, story boards and a structured camera shot list are to follow in the near future.

Research for film opening task

Thriller research
  For our film opening James and myself have chosen to produce a psychological thriller, however before we can produce anything me must first conduct research, we both looked at thriller films that have had particular interest within a female audiunce a superb example of this was the 1991 crime/horror thriller 'the silence of the lambs'.

Camera shots for film opening

Ace Ventura!

0 - 0:07 Tracking shot
0:14-0:17 medium close up
0:17-0:21 Long shot
0:21-0:23 medium close up
0:23-0:25 long shot
0:25-0:27 medium close up
0:27-0:29 long shot
0:30-0:32 medium long shot
0:32-0:35 low angle shot
0:35-0:38 medium long shot
0:38-0:41 long shot
0:41-0:44 high angle shot
0:44-0:45 medium close up
0:46-0:57 low angle shot
0:57-1:11 Medium long shot
1:11-1:14 mid shot
1:14-1:23 low angle shot
1:23-1:24 mid shot
1:24-1:26 low angle shot
1:27 mid shot
1:28-1:30 low angle shot
1:31-1:36 mid shot
1:36-1:40 low angled shot
1:40-1:47 mid shot
1:47-1:50   two shot
1:50-1:53        over the sholder
1:53-2:04 two shot
2:04-2:08 low angle shot
2:08-2:11 two shot
2:12-2:14 high angle shot
2:14-2:18 two shot
2:18-2:26 low angle shot
2:27-2:30 mid shot
2:30-2:32 two shot
2:33-2:37 over the sholder shot
2:38-2:42 mid shot
2:42-2:47 high angle shot
2:48-2:54 mid shot
2:54-2:58 mid shot
2:58-3:03 medium long shot
3:03-3:05 low angle shot
3:05-3:09 medium close up
3:09-3:11 high angle shot
3:12-3:17 low angle shot
3:17-3:20 close up
3:20-3:21 low angle shot
3:21-3:25 close up
3:25-3:34 long shot
3:35-3:37 high angle shot
3:37-3:40 high angle shot
3:40-3:41 low angle shot
 3:41-3:43 high angle shot
3:43-3:44 medium close up
3:45-3:46 close up
3:46-3:47 close up
3:47-3:55 close up
3:55-3:56 low angle shot
3:56 over the shoulder shot
3:57 medium close up
3:58-3:59 mid shot
4:00 medium close up
4:01 -4:03 mid shot
4:03-4:04 medium close up
4:04-4:05 high angle shot
4:05-4:08 eye perspective
4:08-4:10 medium close up
4:10-4:11 high angle shot
4:12-4:4:15 medium close up
4:15-4:16 mid shot
4:17-4:19 medium close up
4:19-4:20 low angle shot
4:20-4:25 medium close up
4:25-4:27 high angle shot
4:27-4:30 over shoulder shot
4:30-4:32 high angle shot
4:33-4:37 medium close up
4:37 over shoulder shot
4:38 medium close up
4:39-4:41 pan shot
4:41-4:42 over shoulder shot
4:42-4:46 low angle shot                         
4:46-4:50 high angle shot
4:50-5:01 panning shot
5:01-5:06 long shot
5:06-5:12 panning shot
5:12-5:15 mid shot
5:16-5:21 medium long shot
5:21-5:28 medium close up
5:29-5:48 two shot
5:49-6:01 mid shot

RE filming

Unfortunatly due to Jess dropping media, we have to re film the scenes in which she acted with joe put in place to replace her role.
Fortunatly Pete and myself were able to film shots of Ashley in the corridor today (friday 3rd)
A list of shots can be seen below.

EXT Establishing shot of building      5 seconds            English block

INT panning shot of Ash's                   5 seconds           English block
charecter walking                         

INT point of view of charecter           5 seconds            English block
walking         

INT over sholder shot                         4 seconds            English block
looking at lockers

INT in locker shot looking                 4 seconds            English block
out at ash

INT high angle shot/ tracking             4 seconds           English block
of Ash.

INT mid shot of Ash opening             5 seconds           English block
door.

I

planning of preliminary task complete- filming to start monday (3rd october)

Now we have completely finished the planning of the task, tommorow (Monday) we will start filming during the double lesson.

Production roles as follows:

Ash - Acting

Jess - Acting

Harry - Camera

Pete - Directing/Sound

Hopefully we can get most of the filming completed, as it is only a short sequence.

Photos of the filming in progress will be posted on Tuesday.

Close up: The effect of the close up conveys the emotions clearly portrayed on the actors face.

Long Shot:Shows charecter from a distance

Preliminary task

Pre production

The initial idea for our preliminary excercise was a conference between Ash and Joe, Ash is seen to be paying back the money in which he owes joe, Ash displays a look of antisipation as he pays back joe.
The establishing shot was filmed outside the english block, with scenes within the corridors,however the conference room in which Joe and Ash engage conversation is situated in the Music block,due to lack of free classrooms.


Story Boarding
Jess worked on the storyboard ( Although He Bailed from media) The story board is where the shot list has been turned into a drawn version of how each shot will look, underneath each shot is a breif description of what will happen in the shot. Below are some photos of the completed storyboard, this along with the shot list will be used when we film to help us create an accurate production.

Why Have you chosen to study media?
I have chosen to study media as it is a creative subject, I am Also studying business studies as coinsides with media because of you the use of advertisement.

What other subjects have you chosen?
On top of studying Media, i have chosen too study history as it enjoyed it at Gcse, similarly i have chosen to study ethics and philosophy as i am fasinated by theories that arise in the subject, finally i have chosen business studies as i am interested in how a business can survive in the present days competitive market.

What are your faviroute TV programmes?
I enjoy random T.V shows such as familly guy and American Dad, my Name is Earl and many more However my Favourite T.v show is Malcolm in the middle as it reminds me Off being a kid.

Favourite film: My favourite film is pulp fiction, it was directed by Quentin Tarantino and conveys an ironic mix of humour and violence.

Favourite band/Arsist: My all time favourite band are cypress hill as there music is unique, however i enjoy varied genres of music these include; Rap, Metal, drum and bass,nu metal and punk.

What magasines i usually read: In recent years i have been reading fewer magasines, previously i bought both Q and stuff magasine monthly and kerrang weekly.
I enjoyed stuff magasine as it presented new technology available to the market.

What websites do you read?
occasionaly i read the news on the BBC news website and the Gaurdian, usually when on the internet i use youtube, browse facebook and learn guitar tabs from ultimate guitar.com