Developments

For our Film opening we are taking influences from:

The opening of Arlington Road
The opening of True Blood
The opening of American Horror Story
Little Red Riding Hood (obviously)

We plan to film in location near to my house in Wadesmill, which is mostly secluded fields which is perfect for the scenes of Red's escape. We are also planning to shoot clips of red packing the wicker basket which we just need a black background for so it can really be done anywhere. We found two songs that fitted in with what we were planning to do. One is James Blake - CMYK and the other is Sam the Sham and the pharaohs - Little Red Riding Hood. However The Blake song was copyrighted so the plan for now is to use the other song, as we think the slower music will work better with the fast editing to make it more eerie.

Thing to consider:

Special effects
Sound effects
Fake blood?
Where to get a Red Hood
Fake wolf fur?
Other possible props

Links
James Blake
Sam the Sham
Arlington Road
True Blood
American Horror Story

Animatic

Story Board

Film treatment

Group: Me, Daniel Faint, Tom Hurst

Our idea is to play on The Little Red Riding Hood tale. However Red hasn’t exactly had the easiest child hood, she was abused by her grandmother who she lived with because her parents died when she was young though Red struggled to cope, and learn more about their fate no one ever found out hove they died, and so she ran away every young and lived in the woods. She adapted herself to outdoor life very much like the wolf’s around her. A life growing up in the woods, made Red a very smart and cunning but very disturbed child, in her teenage years she developed schizophrenia, one side of her persona she is Red and the other she is the wolf. However she doesn’t know when or where she’s going to transform. She fears herself, as the wolf has incredible power, with the ability to rip people apart. One day she wakes up in the woods covered in blood and she realized soothing terrible must have happened, so she goes in search of clues and finds she has brutally murdered her abusive Grandmother and in her escape a woodsman leaving a terrorizing scene of massacre, she is now on the run from the police and herself. Our tagline will be Who knows what foul monster dwells within the mind and the film name would simply be Red. Some of the scenes we plan to have in our opening would be Red running through the woods, and packing her wicker basket, plus the moon rising.

Film Opening Sequence Analysis

Lord of war – Life of a bullet


First shot: The main actors name is dead centre of the frame, in white writing making it stand out more compared to the dark and gloomy background, all the shots inside the factory have a blue tinge which could be to show sadness and depression and blue is the colour that represents this most. There is also only one person in this shot; however he is off centre which is implying he and all other people are unimportant in this title sequence. There is a red light in the top centre of the image, this could be representing danger however it is not obvious when you first look at the show which could imply hidden danger and therefore a twist somewhere in the film.

Second Shot: There isn't too much to analyse in this shot, we still don’t know we are the eyes of the bullet, however we can see the shot is very dark with could be telling us it’s a dark story.

Third shot: Now we see a low angle shot looking up at the bullet ahead of us, making it seem larger than it is and more powerful that before. There is also more colour in this shot than the last and a lot more light that glistens off of the bullets drawing your eye to them.

Fourth shot: Again in this shot there is an actor’s name in whit to make it stand out more, however this time the shot is lighter still. There are two people in this shot the one closest you can’t see his head and the other far away and out of focus, again telling us people aren't the main focus of the scene.

Fifth shot: In this shot we finally realise we aren't just following a conveyer belt, but we are actually the bullet, which builds tension as, as well all know bullets don't exactly live happy lives. Most of the frame is obscured by the man’s fingers showing us only his expression, which looks distant and unemotional, hinting at possible later characters in the film. There is also chiaroscuro lighting on his face showing sides of evil and good/dark and light.

Sixth shot: Here we are looking down on the rest of the belt, and the people who are dimly lit to once more reassure us they aren't the main focus. There is still the muted blue lighting to show the sadness of the film and the depression of a bullets life.

Seventh shot: This shot we see a soldier’s face which is yet again blank and emotionless, we see the weather behind him is dreary and gloomy, adding to the atmosphere if the scene, the boat behind him tells us the bullet is about to be travelled, and the size and colour of the boat tells us the amount of authority and significance the characters and journey has.

Eighth shot: In this shot we see the weather and background has changed to be much sunnier and the boats have also changed to look a lot less like the owners have influence or control. We can also tell there has been a journey as the ethnicity and attire of the people in the shot has changed they therefore also look less like they have less authority and power. We can see they are armed unlike the other men in the previous shot showing there is more danger here.

Ninth shot: This shot has far more impact than any of the others, for the first time in the sequence the human is the main focus and instead of being emotionless and cold, we can see pain and fear in their face, giving the shot far more impact than any of the others, the person is also a child which pull yet more heart strings, and adding to the innocents of them. We can also see that the bullet is in the centre of the image and instead of being right on top of it we are further back, to be able to show us the shot but also to show the speed and supremacy of the bullet.

Evaluation of the Preliminary Exercise

Evaluation of the Preliminary Exercise

I think our production went well, I think the editing was the best part as there were issues with sound and camera work, such as the point of view shot when Max opens the door has no sound, I’m not quite sure why as it’s just the way it turned out on the editing software. There was also one issue on the camera work as one of the shots wasn't at eyeline which we should have considered when filming. Now I look back at the filming I realized we should have thought throughout camera angles a bit more as they were quite odd and nontraditional  Also the shot of the clock was rather random, especially due to its length. Overall I would place our video somewhere between intermediate and basic as it think the editing and sound was intermediate but the camerawork was basic.

Preliminary Exercise final cut

Preliminary Exercise

My group: Max Allum, Matt Elsom, Me, Cristi MacFarlane, Tom Hurst
Where and when: Around the media room
Equipment: Canon Legria camcorder, Adobe Premiere editing software
Skills we were practising: Match on action, shot reverse shot.
How it went: Well - ish

Yesterday we started work on our Preliminary exercise, out storyline is Max a stripper, being interviewed by Tom, the posh pimp, a somewhat slightly untraditional school plot line. We chose to film in the Media room as it was left empty and as it’s tucked out of the way it meant it was quite for us to work in. We used a Canon Legria camcorder to film; Matt did most of the shots on the tripod except for the odd few which were POV shots so we decided to hand hold the camera instead. After filming we then split into two groups, me and Max, then Tom and Matt, as Cristi wasn't there at the time she'll join me and Max when she gets back. Max and I took it in turns to edit the clip; the both of us are new to the software so we learn a few new techniques. Billy came over and helped teach us how to cut a clip where we wanted without having to fiddle around by dragging and clicking and cutting. We didn't find it too difficult to do match on action however that was one spot me and Max found we had a continuity error we hadn't even noticed before someone else pointed it out. The only real issue we had was in the filming department when we couldn't take some of the shots seriously and just burst out laughing in the background every time. Other than that I think it all went well, however it still needs to be finished and it could turn out terribly. Touch wood it won’t.