1. Black screen 2. Map being unwrapped On a table Birds eye view 3. Bottle slamming on the table to hold the map down On a table Close up 4. Compass spinning On top of the map Close up zooming out from the middle 5. Panning across the map Map Panning birds eye view 6. Spain found on the map Map Zooming on a part of Spain 7. Moving around the map Map Panning birds eye view 8. School bell Bell on wall Close up 9. Peoples legs walking in different directions Corridor Low angle shot 10.Finger running along books Libary Point of view panning 11.Finds the right book Libary Point of view 12.Flicking through pages libary on table Close of up point of view
The Great Escape is a film from 1963 made by MGM Studios and produced and directed by John Sturges. Based on a novel by Paul Brickhill, it tells the real-life story of an attempt by allied prisoner of war to execute a mass escape from a German pow camp during World War 2. Brickhill had been a prisoner of the camp with his friend George Harsh and would later base the book on their memories of the experience.
The film is set in Germany on a very open stretch of land showing that there is nothing around, it is also very green and this makes it peaceful and like nothing is happening around. The cars and motorbikes come through and ruin the peace. The guards are wearing dark grey army uniforms this shows that they authority, also they are all armed with guns and other weapons. The set then moves to the prison which is all fenced in with large poles and metal wiring. the lighting in the opening is all natural as it is all outside.
There is a constant soundtrack at the start which is instrumental and very joyful. The music stays on until they arrive at the prison where the music stops. The camera shots used are mostly long shots so you can see the surrounding area. Also they pan along to follow the cars another shot used is the high angle shot that makes it look like the camera is hidden in the grass. so it is hiding from the German soldiers.
The pace of the opening is quite slow in between each shot and this makes it as if the guards are cruising alone. in this opening i think that it shows that the men how power which they do. the titles are bright red in very clear writing, this clashes with the background making the titles easy to read.
Here is the narrative that we are going to put at the start of our opening.
Back in the day where pirates roamed and the skull and cross bones ruled the sea. Lived a man who would change the course of Pirate history forever. John Morris was a captain, but not a pirate captain or particularly fierce. He was just a sailor who preferred the life of a buccaneer and enjoyed the company of hard drinking ruffians. He had seen plenty of action with his life at sea including the famous siege of Marabou under captain Henry Morgan. At this siege he had obtained a wound and had to take refuge, in a near by monastery ruin. By sheer chance on this bleak looking outcome of a day, he stumbled across a large piece of parchment which he was initially going to use to hold his wound together. The Captain found it was a map with an X on it and pirate or know pirate you know what that means. After returning from the siege back to the Port of Vagna, injury healed, Morris found a small ship straight away and headed for the X, returning 6 months later in the largest ship seen in the port, with a full crew on hand, and clothes never seen on the island before. It was clear to everyone that what he had found. After living the life and luxury on his death bed he revealed to his oldest son why he had no money for him to inherit. According to the story the treasure he found all these years ago a condition, that as when Morris died the treasure would be returned and the rest be put back into the sea in a rum bottle to keep it safe. The son being short of money sold the story to anyone he could just to make ends meat. This surged a storm of pirates to find the map knowing it must be in the Vagna area. Know ever found the map and the Legend of Captain John Morris's treasure still lives on..............
We have chosen to now do a children's adventure film. The idea is to do a pirate based opening introducing the the story and what will happen. We want to have our story to be told and to be explained on a map. Also in our opening we will have some pirate like the objects shown in the images below.
Here is some inspiration for our main map, and our storyboard.
British social realist drama- - social realism in films is representative of real life, with all its difficulties. the stories and people portrayed are everyday characters, usually from working class backgrounds. Examples are Green Street and This Is England.
A supernatural thriller with a strong female lead - Is a filmnot existing in nature or subject to explanation according to natural laws and a suspenseful adventure story or play or movie with female as the leading actor.
An adventure story for younger audiences - Is a wild and exciting undertaking usually quite unrealistic but suitable for a young audience sometimes with young characters and cast.
A teenage romantic comedy - a film with a young cast including a lot of romance. a lot of problems are encountered and are very comical. there is usually a good ending.
A crime caper with an ensemble cast - a large crime is made in these films stealing big money or expensive possessions, also it is done in big groups.
Your blog needs some work in terms of content, there are a few significant posts missing. You need to have a discussion of all 5 scenarios - include a quick definition and an example of each. You also need to have a discussion of your chosen scenario and lots of examples. Also everyone in your group needs to write a full analysis of an opening sequence, Joe's is excellent so use it as a good example of the level of detail you need to go into for your own analysis. Everyone MUST do one. Also include evidence of the research you are currently doing into pirates, include links, images and a discussion of what you have found and how it is useful. Good work, keep going.
Start off with a black scene with voice over starting, then a few titles come onto the blank black scene. Then a old map is rolled out onto the scene and held down by 4 objects. The voice over is still continuing telling a story and setting a scene using the map. Titles will be hand written across while the map isn't being to tell the story. Lines and information will appear on the map showing where the treasure is located. The last few words that are heard are "and there is only one person now that can find this treasure." Then the camera will change into a point of view shot of someone walking and finding a map!
Film Analysis - Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
The film opening i am analysing is Lord Of The Rings: The fellowship of the ring. This is a Fantasy/Adventure film and was released in 2001. This film is the first of the trilogy. Originally a novel written by J R R Tolkien but more recently has been turned into a film directed by Peter Jackson. It's won 4 Oscars and many other awards.
This opening scene is 7 minuets long and has been used to introduce characters, setting, time and the background behind the story. It starts by playing non-diagetic music. This is a classical piece with string instruments and a choir singing and sounds very eery. This is straight away introducing the audience to a signature theme tune that is played through out the film. Then a narrative voice is herd. Its starts by a women speaking in another language (elvish) that helps build this fantasy genre up. The woman's voice is slow and soft which also adds to the eeriness of the music. She begins to tell the story and introduce characters. I feel this is a good way to introduce characters briefly and would like to use a similar technique in our opening scene. Other sound consists of diagetic sound which is played under the music. For example the roaring fire helps add excitement. The screaming of villagers to show terror. The sounds of swords clashing together in the battle and the close-up shots of the helmet and ring thudding against the ground.
Mise en scene is a combination of costume, props, location and lighting. This helps build up a certain mood or theme in a film and is very significant.
As the characters are being introduce by narrative, clips of them are shown so the audience knows how each type of fantasy character looks. There's tracking shots of the elves hand and their rings, birds eye view zoom-out shot of the dwarfs. The good use of costume helps separate the different characters. The elves are shown with long hair and pointed ears. The woman is wearing a bright white flowing dress, which shows a peaceful character. Whereas the dark lord Sauron is a large character, wearing thick steel armour and a pointed mask over a black cloak build a darker character and is shown to have power as a low angle shot is used when he is looking at the enemy. The costumes is a way of emphasising one of the representations of good and evil.
A lot of props are used in this opening scene but the main one being the ring. Which its importance is shown throughout the film often by extreme close-ups. Its journey is shown through each owner and its location. The film is based around this one prop. Another important prop in this opening scene is the map. Pans of this map are shown before clips making the location obvious to the audience. This is also a feature that i feel would be effective to use in our opening scene. A pan of the battle field shows props that consist of weapons. For example the men and elves are using golden handle swords which shows their strong and professional army whereas the dark army are using axes, clubs, swords and many other props used as weapons.
There are many locations in this opening. It begins in castles that are dark as they are candle lit showing the time periods. The the location changes to the mount doom by using and establishing shot which is dark and lit by the red glow of the flames which builds a dark evil mood. The battle and the village being destroyed is all outside and the weather is gloomy which correlates with the mood. The other location is in the cave where the character Gollum lives. This is also dark and gloomy only lit by moonlight beaming onto the character.
There are two different paces of editing in the opening scene. Faster pace is used during the battle to add more excitement. Faster changes in shots are used to do this. The rest is a slower pace of editing. Fades are often used as a transition between shots which helps slow the pace down. Another use of transition is fire. The fire swipes across the screen and the shot changes. One effective piece of editing that i liked was where the map was shown behind and the actual location was shown above, as if they were over lapping. A lot of special effects are used which also helps to show the genre of film. The glowing of the ring. The flashing of the dark lords weapon and the explosion of Sauron.
There are many techniques used in this film that i feel should be carried out in our own film opening.
Toy Story is a 1995 American computer-animated family film, directed by John Lasseter and starring Tom Hanks and Tim Allen. The film was produced by Pixar Animation Studios and was distributed by Buena Vista Distribution. It was written by Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, and Alec Sokolow, and featured music by Randy Newman. The film was rated G by the MPAA, and PG by the BBFC. It is the first feature film in history produced using only computer animation.
For Mise en scene the location is in Andy's house. The character of Andy has made a set within the scene which is a salon in a western town. You originally see the toys as normal plane old toys but later the scene you come to realise they turn into actual characters.
The sound within this opening sequence is effective with digetic and non-digetic. The digetic sound was the toys making random noise in the background, woody's string being pulled and when Andy is holding woody he makes his own sound effects. The non-digetic sound is the song being played in the background. This song adds to the scene as it quickly revels the strong relationship between the two characters.
We have come to a group decision to change our initial genre idea of a crime caper to Children's adventure.
We have decided to do this as we feel that in our situation a crime caper will he harder to produce a professional looking film opening. Finding people to be filmed for this opening would be difficult as we feel teenage characters will not suit the right look for the genres characters.
We have chosen to do a children's adventure because we like this genre and we feel we can produce a better film opening.
We chose to analyse The Goonies, as it is appealing to the same audience as we are trying to.
The mise-en-scene in the opening scene, most significant, props are the hand guns, which are used to ignite the fire and to shoot at the police men, also the petrol can, and the noose to fake hang himself . The two settings are the prison cells, where the lighting is dim showing nasty envioment, also the location is the streets where the car chase happens. additional lighting is natural as the rest is all set outside in the middle of the day. Costumes are police officer uniform, general everyday clothes and some sportswear where the american football is being played.
Right at the start, the sound is mostly natural, with the cell doors being opened and closed and the clanging of metal, as the villian attacks the police guard tense fast pace non-diegetic music comes on, it changes to happier music as they are beggining to escape. Other diegtic sounds are the police sirens, car tyres screaching, also the radio and tv.
The camerawork used are close ups in the prison cell showing facial expressions, of the cell mates. Then the villians eyes open a close up used again. Other shots include tracking and panning following the car chase. Mid shot when the police and villan come out of the prison building. low angle shots are used to be the people on the sides of the street.
The editing is very fast in the car chase with short cuts changing camera angle. also there is a lot of parrell editing where you see one thing that is happening then another, also there is a lot of shot reverse shot. the tittles are bold white writing which come on a regular intervals in different areas of the screen.
A them needs to be developed. For example, pirates is one of the strongest ideas we have come up with so far.
The use of props will help us acheive this theme. Pans or close-ups of a compass, maps, treasure. This will also show that there is a search for something taking characters on a journey.
After viewing other childrens adventure films we have found a narrative voice over to tell the begining of the story is very effective and we are hoping to do the same in out final project.
1. filmed handwritten titles in own hand writing, on lined paper
2. still shot of character in black and white or just one colour name fading in and maybe small amount of information about characters position e.g. Brother of Fred
3.classic titles coming up at random interval when the film is being introduced when film is the background
Details of cast and crew. The film's title. An introduction to character or character type. Indication of place. Indication of historical period. Information regarding mood and tone. Introduction to signature theme tune. Information about genre. Questions that the viewer finds intriguing. Patterns and types of editing that will be echoed in the remainder of the film. Mise en scene and cinematography that will be echoed or elaborated upon later in the film.
