Research and Planning - Twins Film and Opening Analysis

Twins is a comedy designed to pair the unlikely combination of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny De Vito. Julius Benedict (Schwarzenegger) has lived his entire life on a South Pacific island, an orphan raised by a scientist who knew that Julius was the product of a genetics experiment many years ago. Julius is a genius, fluent in languages, tall and athletic, knowledgeable about anything that he can read in a book. When he discovers that he actually has a twin brother, and thus a real family, he insists on leaving the island and going to Los Angeles to find his brother. His brother, Vincent (De Vito), is almost exactly the opposite, because in the experiment all of the good genes went to Julius, while the bad went to Vincent. Vincent is a small time con man, always on the run from loan sharks, who steals luxury cars from the airport parking garage and selling them to a chop shop.

However 'Twins' is similar to our film opening we are producing, at the same time they are very different, similarities being the story is based around two twins who eventually meet up, whereas our opening is more based around the darker streets which swallow deprived children in guiding them in the wrong direction to crime and vandalism, both brothers end up crossing each others paths of very different lives without realising. One brother is from a wealthy family the other split up when young, now on the streets playing the deprived brother, in our film we are trying to send moral messages on the differences between the complete different lifestyles and everyday life obstacles they both have to overcome.

The opening two minutes of both films are also fairly similar showing both lifestyles and the contrast in them. We are using this style of opening to introduce the brothers and to attract the audience and keep them in-grosed in watching the rest of the film.

Research and Planning - Twins

Twins is good inspiration for our film, as similar too ours it is based on two brothers being brought up to not know about either ones existance. However where are film seperates is that the brothers in our film never find out about one another, not having the opportunity to meet this is a more of a deep, emotional storyline. Also our film has more dark storyline whereas twins is based around more of a comic theme.

Research and Planning - Opening of Parent Trap

Opening with story from the past

Research and Planning - Parent Trap

Parent Trap is a more light hearted story than our own, however still shows the seperated ubringing of two twins similar too our storyline. The two twins Annie and Hallie´s parents divorced when they were infants, each parent taking custody of one twin. Neither twin knows about the other's existence until a chance meeting at summer camp. However unlike this in our film niether twin ever gets a chance to meet one another, more of a tragic ending.

Research and Planning - Analysis of Opening 2 minutes - Terminator 2

Begins with an establishing shot of busy motorway, traffic moving slowly. Cuts to close up of people walking amongst vehicles at crossings, creating reality of a highly populated area. Slow paced non-digetic music helping to slowly builds tension as if something bad are to happen in the near future. Cuts to a shot of a playground, which is normally seen to be more of a happy image, however the music is still playing in the background keeping continuity, however also creating an unsure atmosphere. A girl is shown playing on swings, through a medium shot, a spooky uneasy feeling is made by the camera going backwards and forwards following her movement in slow motion. Her laughter can also be herd over the music in a failry drained tone, linking in with slow motion. The shot finishing with the music drawn out but sound getting louder into a crescendo and an unsettling image swinging into an upside down position, screen saturating to a blank white image. All this editing is building up to a tragidy, showing a controversy between present, and what is about to happen. The contrerversial atmoshphere between the two moments is shown very clearly by the pure white image cutting to a very dark close up of a skeleton in a burnt car. The shot panning out into an establishing shot of what appeared to be a herd of burnt cars left in ruins. Very similar shot to one of motorway, however this time its a very still shot of the meer remains of the shell of the cars. In then says 'Los Angeles 2029' therefore we then know its in the future. Its as if a nucluer bopmbs been dropped. It then cuts to a another very still shot of playground, a slight repetition of previous shots to give the viewer a clear understanding of what has happened. This time the playground is too left too ashes. Then after a series of very still silent shots a metal foot is shown stamping on a skull, unsetteling sign of life. Nuration also comes in at this point.

Ending with voice over and music, fades into fire... Powerfull image.

Research and Planning - Time Managment

Leading up to the crismas holidays, and during the holidays, i need to prioritise between continubing with my media coursework and revising for other subjects therefor im going to be modist with what i plan to achieve over the two weeks we have off the week we return. I plan to complete the following..

-Rating analysis
-Costume Ideas
-Location
-Story board
-Twins Opening
-Opening of Parent Trap
-Twins video
-Parent Trap video
-More nalysis of Opening 2 minutes - Terminator 2

Research and Planning - Practice Opening Credits

Using Adobe, i have practiced on the sofware to create a short opening sequence of titles, adding sound also with added effects. I then converted and uploaded the video here onto my blog...

Research and Planning - Self Assessing

I have shown profiecient research into, into other products similar to our film, for both insitution, and films. I have breifly disscussed organisation of actors, locations, costumes, and props. However i haven't yet talked about, shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding. I have taken care of presentation of the research and planning. Time management is good.

Research and Planning - Institution research

Film, UK film council, is an ideal production company for our film as they're a basic low budget based insitution. They fund development, film production, short films, film export and distribution, cinemas, film education, culture and archives, festivals and audience support schemes. The UK Film Council is the Government-backed lead agency for film in the UK ensuring that the economic, cultural and educational aspects of film are effectively represented at home and abroad. First Feature Film Development Programme aims to identify and support emerging filmmakers: screenwriters, writer/directors and writer, director, producer teams who have not made a feature film or who have not yet had a feature film released theatrically or broadcast on UK television. Generally, awards of up to £25,000 will be offered to screenwriters/writer-directors to write and develop a feature film.

The UK Film Council (UKFC) was set up in 2000 by the Labour Government as a non-departmental public body to develop and promote the film industry in the UK. It is constituted as a private company limited by guarantee governed by a board of 15 directors and is funded through sources including the National Lottery.

It has 3 types of funding schemes. Development Funding, which has £12 million to invest over 3 years , with a £25000 maximum award. The New Cinema Fund supports emerging talent and established filmmakers working outside the mainstream, focusing on the most innovative writing and the most gifted directors. The fund has £15 million of Lottery money to invest over three years and funds eight to ten feature films each year.The Premiere Fund invests £8 million of Lottery funding per year into mainstream, commercially-driven films encouraging the involvement of British creative talent in a range of films that can attract audiences the world over.

Research and Planning - Film Treatment/ Over all story line

We plan to produce a bildungsroman/drama genre film, following the rite of passage of two very different lifestyles of the characters William and Jack. The film will be starting in their early adolescence viewing their individual storys through life. There are only going to be two main characters as this will enable the audience to become engrossed in their life, consequently empathising for them.

William is a privileged private school boy, brought up by a loving, wealthy family. However, Jack is an only child living in a bed sit with his drug abusing mother. For years Jack hasn't received any education as he is more focused on stealing and caring for his mum. The twist to the film is that both these boys are now in their mid-teens however are actually brothers both adopted by different families. William was 2 years of age at the time, Jack no more then a few weeks. Neither boy having a clue either one exist, not even knowing they are adopted. Their real parents had tragically died in a car accident leaving them with no other relatives. As the story goes on, Jack enters into different crimes in attempt to earn money in order for him and his mother to survive, eventually ending up in prison and his mother sadly passed away. However William was an intelligent popular boy living life to the full, partying as any other boy his age would. Tragically things took a turn for the worse for William as he begun to take drugs and was on a slippery down hill slope, so bad his family couldn't help him. However at the same time in prison jack got a degree in being a doctor. The film has a controversial ending as William the once upon a time 'intelligent popular school boy' dies in a hospital bed from a heroin overdose, as his long lost brother who was once nothing but a thieving youth, is sitting next door in the hospital canteen as a doctor.

Research and Planning - Inspiration

Although we aren't going to produce a black and white film, Sommers film revolves around two boys of a differnet kind of background, however have some vague connection it is also a low budget film similar to our own.

Research and Planning - Research and planning to do list

-film treatment
-story board openiing sequence
-photos of locations
-photos of costumes
-photos of actors
-mind map of scenes
-to do list
-questionair (facebook)
-google (G321 OCR blog)
-upload actual songs
-three play music
-photos of props
-video of storyboard (use of pictures)

Research and Planning - Seven - Opening Sequnce (credits)

Order of shots:

- Extreme close up of book turning

- Directed by

- Non-digetic screams

- Actors, editors, producers names

- Heartbeat rhythm to background music

- Repetition of shot of book, shadows and small blade throughout

Research and Planning - Scream - Opening sequence

The style of performance in the opening five minutes creates tension perfectly for this horror genre film. Drew Barrymore plays the first innocent, naive victim to psychotic anonymous killer. "What do you want" she screams. "To see what your insides look like" declared the maniac on the phone.

Casting back to the very beginning of the film, it starts with a plain black background, the font colour used for opening credits is red, resembling blood/ death. Meanwhile there is also non-digetic sound of screaming going on, helping to establish an uneasy setting for the viewer.

Order of shots in opening five minutes
- There are no beggining credtis other then the title of the film, kept fairly simple
-Close up of telephone
-Shows her on phone - Medium shot, hearing his creepy voice, she still sounds very relaxed
Popcorn shaking use of knifes in shot
-Establishing shot of her house from outside (panning up onto the house making it seem quite big and fairly calm. (Making man appear more creepy and unknown)
- Returns to shot of popcorn
-Aesynchranist sound of phone ringing whilst she makes pizza, he rings again very curious, she continues with conversation
- Again returns to popcorn (repetition)
- Women plays with knifes (point of view shot to create realism) also so you cant see everything going on (fear of the unknown)

Research and Planning - Time managment

For the next few weeks i will be able to mostly work independently therefore would like to make some good progress, i would like to achieve the following in the next three weeks.

-film treatment
-analys the openings of two films
-institustion research
-inspiration
-self assesment
-practice opening using adobe with practice opening creadits/ upload to yuotube.com/ upload to blog
-upload photos of location, analysis of them

Research and Planning - What i have learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During the construction of this video I realised the importance of filming more shots then necessary as having a wider variety of footage to choose from will allow you to create the best continuity between possible. In attempt to achieve this, I played around with various editng tools and adding sound to the video on 'adobe' to help our video run smoothly when completed. This task has also helped David, Max and I gain an understanding of mise en scene. We tryed to incorperate all these factors into our production to give a sense of realism. Through experience i have also realised that the planning your work (story board) needs to be thoroughly thought out, as it helps if you have a strong structure to guide you when you work. Then you are able to make changes as you see fit later on. When filming conversation there a is rule of filming, 'the 180 degree rule' this means to stick to one side of the two people to ensure they don't look out of place.

We began the shot of him entering the room with an establishing shot as so far the longest shot used has been a mid shot, leaving a very mysterious setting. This is of a room with two people in, i learned it was important to set the scene as soon and as quickly as possible as you want to let the audience know excatly what is going on asquickly as possible, keeping the interested at the same time.

Then using the camera I learnt that if you use a bigger variety of shots and angles, we started off with a basic mid shot which panned round as the character went to the bottom of the stairs. The shot then cut to a birds eye view of the character, this also panned round as the character continued to walk up the stairs. The shot then cut to a mid shot with a high angle, this was to show that the character was still on a staircase. Then as the character passes the camera it then cuts to a low angle mid-shot. The camera is then used as a hand held movement following the character to the top of the stairs, to the doorway. Then cutting to the other side of the door as the character walks through, panning round to the right as the character walks past. We then used a mid shot from behind the character which films them walking down a hallway to a door eventually finishing as a long shot. We then used an extreme close up the characters hand on the door handle which showed that they were opening the door. We then used match on action as we film the door opening from the other side, the shot used on the other side of the door is a long shot, the camera then pans round as the character walks over to another character, here the conversation starts and the shots used are mainly over the shoulder and close ups.

The technologies used in the process when constructing this ‘Preliminary Task’ have been very useful and I have tried to use them to the best of my potential. Reflecting back to my storyboard when possible, I used this to keep me on track and guide me through the editing and filming process. Although next time when constructing another project I would definitely go in to much more detail when constructing my storyboard this would help us to recognise potential mistakes or errors before hand. I think also next time I should go into more detail when presenting characters within the film, this would then help the audience identify the persona of particular characters and construct a better understanding of the film. By incorporating a better understanding of ‘mise en scene’ next time I think I would much prefer to include props and a more detailed set and conversation.

Research and Planning - Film opening analysis - Notting Hill

Again an easy identifiable Romantic/Comedy, implying a genuine love story -a man falls for a woman or visa verser. In this case the male (Hugh Grant) has fallen for a beautiful movie star played as Julia Roberts. Immediately portraying Julia Roberts as 'the worlds most beautiful woman' focusing on the contrast of her celebrity lifestyle compared to Hugh Grant as an 'average joe' living in Notting Hill with a lovesick admiration for the celebrity on the other side of the world.
The purpose of the opening scenes are to hook the required audience in, this is done by incorporating enigmas to keep you eager to watch the rest and see how things end up. This is a powerful technique very popular in film openings. This specific opening scene uses the contrast on lifestyles between the two main characters to build a realistic grounding to improve the USP (Unique Selling Point) of which, how the situation will end up, how and when Hugh Grant will let Julia Roberts observe his crush on her. This keeps the audience eager therfore hooked on the film, successfully intreaging the audience.
This purpose is achieved through the media language very successfully, constructing a powerful mixture of non diegetic sounds - as the film starts straight away a soft romantic song is being played over the scene to set the genre and identify its appeal as a Romantic/Comedy. Then after the brief montage of Julia Roberts constucting the effective imagary of her persona as an amazing very celebritised woman playing a Movie Star, then smoothly cuts on to the scene in Notting Hill in which Hugh Grant playing the lovesick average joe, again with a non-diegetic voice over acting as his mind. Introducing us to his lifestyle as he walks down portabello road, incorporating the comedy aspect of the film, the levels of lighting in this scene are vibrant and happy portraying that things might start looking up for him. The smooth and slow editing process of the opening scenes help us, the audience relax whilst presenting Julia Roberts as a powerful woman in slow motion, introducing an obviously important character.

Research and Planning - Film opening analysis - Definately Maybe

Definately Maybe is a similar genre to the film 'Notting Hill' a Romantic/Comedy. This is easily identified within the opening scene, starting with the main character being handed a divorce letter implying a disastrous relationship, immediately introducing an easy listening, fun loving song awakening the audience, representing that the divorce isn't a bad thing, things seem to be looking up. Opening the first scene with a divorce letter helps us to consider the genre of film, as a lively romantic.

The purpose of the opening scene is to help introduce the main characters and an important concise explanation of the current situation. Following the non-diegetic, happy music over the top, he uses a similar non-diegetic voice over the music introducing us to his lifestyle, on his way to pick up his obviously very important daughter from school, this part is made clear that it is very important by being incorporated in to the opening scene.

The purpose of the opening sequence was achieved through the media language by implying an expert film director, immediately recognising the rule of three which was used to frame the scene well, following a montage of a positive lifestyle again implying things are going to start looking up, this is used to hook the audience into the film to keep them eager to view the future of his relationships. Contradicting the cover of the film 'Three relationships, Three disasters' were as the opening music implies a positive approach to the film. Also including key imagery to set the scene of the film; yellow taxis, empire state building and a busy lifestyle, all this helps the audience to relate as the setting of New York.

Research and Planning - Film Opening Analysis - Children of Men

The genre of this film was easily identified within the first couple of minutes, consisting of a brief explosion and some sort of world pandemic, implying that this is an Action/Thriller style movie, further on in the clip i detected a futuristic use of Mise en Scene, placing 3D imaging display on the modern styled computer screens based in the office. Later on picking up on a very modern LCD television hanging from the bus, and running news advertisements covering the faces of block towers using 'Computer Generated Imagery' to reconstruct a modern city style, this then gave me the hint of an incorporated hybrid genre including 'Science Fiction' with a hint of 'Action/Thriller' scenes.

Opening sequences to films play a huge part in distinguishing the film by setting the scene, in this case currently in the future, year 2027. This opening helps us to identify the current situation of which London and the world is in; some sort of pandemic facing fears of the worlds collapsing state, involving something based on a slightly realistic scale such as a world pandemic, keeping the audience involved and eager to view more. This is a very effective and very popular over the use of modern films, involving the audience, based on realistic facts and enigmas in specific cases especially utopias and distopias in this circumstance. People are obviously infertile as the concise explanation of the news flow emphasises that the worlds youngest boy has just died at the age of 18. Involving main characters and applying useful background information is always very important to help set the scene for the viewer. Applying all these techniques into an opening sequence will help improve and construct a powerful opening.

The purpose of this film is achieved and constructed through media language by using effective and realistic camera shots and angles, for instance as the main character (Clive Owen) exits the static flow of citizens out of the cafe a hand held camera is applied to emphasise realism and improve the effective construction of the scene. As camera angles are very powerful, in this case emphasising a stone cold personality on our main character portrayed as being an anti-hero or hero to-be, further on in the film. Mise en Scene cleverly helps to illustrate his persona and the fact of him standing out as a main character by incorporating camera angles gaining the emphasis on power. Again involving Mise en Scene lights and costumes play a big part in illustrating the distopia era, constructing low lighting to imply a dark and depressing scene with the cast wearing very plain and dull clothing. Long shots also help set the scene with establishing the area and setting, in which the film is constructed. Mise en scene, involving sound effects the view on negativity of the scene, selecting a deafening ringing sound immediately after the explosion illustrating that it has a long term burst ear drum, traumatising effect.

Research and Planning - Film Opening Analysis - The Good Fellas

The 'gangster' genre of this film was immediately made very obvious, by the slow pace editing between shots and low level lighting introducing fear to what we cannot see. The dress code of the three main characters we see within the opening two minutes are of a typical gangster state in suits with a typical mumbling tone of speech. Within the first two minutes Martin Scorsese introduces a horrific violent scene including a stabbing, shooting and murder all in one, making the genre of film very clear to the audience.
The purpose of this opening scene is really to set the scene and date of the piece, simply but effectively done by a blank screen containing 'New York 1970' .
In this case the opening scene is a clip from further on in the film, a sort of flash back for Henry. Henry being a very important character, portrayed as being slightly more in the background to effect the audience and identify his characteristics to sympathise with him. This is carried out by a close up shot of his face containing an act of responsibility being the driver of the car.
The purpose of this opening inpaticular has been represented very effectively by using the opening credits as cars, this supports the tension of the scenes approaching.
Again low lighting is popular within gangsta films to incorporate an aspect of fearing what we cannot see. Introducing the colour of red bathing the characters within the scene implies a fact of danger and threat relating with a bloody future, incorporating the fear of death. These enigmas used, help construct a sense of an interest within the film to keep the audience hooked on.

Research and Planning - Experimenting

Youtube is the most popular world wide site for sharing videos. It offers such an extensive range of material that i hope to gain a greater understanding of camera angles and their effectivness. As well as providing a useful source of infomation, hopefully i will find some inspirational ideas too.

Research and Planning - Youtube - Mission Impossible II Opening

Research and Planning - Practice task

As a group this task has tought us basic skills in how to use a camera, but more importantly made us familar with editing software 'adobe' and using uploading posts onto blogspot. All playing a big hand in the project i'm about to get into!