Technology Standard

I used the family video camera and borrowed a tripod from school so that my footage was steady. When I was composing my shot of the aeroplane landing i set my tripod up in the distance so my shot was a long distance shot. When setting up the tripod i made sure I had everything i wanted in the shot. With the song I put on top of my film I found it hard to make it go with the song but in the end I got it perfect, except if i didn't have my music in sync my film would be shorter which would have been better but I am still very happy with the result. I also put a voice over on top on the beginning of my opening and that is my favourite part of the opening because I am proud of how i turned out. Importing the video files was difficult because I had to take them from the video camera to the DVD recorder to a disk to the computer and finally to the usb but eventually i got the hang of it. I found Adobe Movie Maker an easy program to use and it had everything I needed to make my film.

Review

I am happy with how my film turned out although I didn't like the final scene because of how I couldn't keep the camera completely still when filming it because it was filmed in the car. I shot the footage of the airplanes landing multiple times to make sure I got the perfect footage and I am pleased with the result. During editing I enjoyed it because I could look at my finished product and it flowed nicely. My favourite part of the film opening is the beginning because I think the voice over and the video clip go really well together and I timed it well. I think the arrival gate scene is a bit too long but if I had shortened it i would have found it hard to merge with the music. Things that I could have done better would have been to suss out a way to film the car scene without the camera picking up the impact that the car took from the road. I regret not getting a doctors certificate in the time I had off with food poisoning because I missed out on more filming time and I would have been more organized. If I hadn't rushed my filming I would have had more time to polish it up but I think I did a good job considering the situation.Another thing I could have done better would have been to film my opening earlier in the time we were given so I had time to fix mistakes in the film if I was unhappy with the result, fortunately, overall I am pleased with my opening. :)

Art Department

I didnt require any props. The equipment I required, however, was a tripod and I borrowed it from the school photography department.

Crew/ Talent

I wont have main characters but I will have people of the public coming through the arrival gates. However, in the first scene I am the only person shown in the childhood video.

Camera- Me

Assistant- Max

2^nd Assistant- Mum

Transport and props- Mum

Editing- Me
Child in the short clip at the beginning of the opening- Me

Scene Breakdown

Existing footage: Ten seconds of childhood videos
The airport: The plane arriving
The airport: The arrival gates
The car: Driving up the driveway to a new house

Treatment

The song Changes by David Bowie goes throughout the whole opening but the volume will vary depending on what the image on the screen is and the audio that goes with it. The beginning of the film is a clip of existing footage (my childhood video) accompanied with a voice over for ten seconds.The clip after that is of an airplane landing in Christchurch airport, this will be a long distance shot. The next clip is of the arrival gates, this is filmed over a long length of time so that I can speed it up when I edit it and no particular character is focused on. It will fade into the next shot which is of the car driving into a driveway with a real estate sign out the front to suggest they have just moved in. 

Research Done

Found the appropriate music for the scene by searching the word 'change' 

Spent a lot of time in the airport getting my shots right.

Attempted lots of shots before getting them right
I borrowed a tripod from school so that my footage was steady.

I went on the internet to see when the planes were coming in so I could film the international arrival gates and get lots of footage.

Concept

New Beginnings is going to be a film about a family who move to New Zealand and start a new life. I want to get the idea across of the arrival and the airport will be a big part of this. The film would go on to be about them starting a new life with schools, work etc. The song to accompany the opening is Changes by David Bowie because the lyrics are related. The emotions I wish to evoke in my film and its opening are heart warming and the happiness of starting a new life somewhere. The idea i wish to explore is having a fresh start and the changes that come with that. I would like to impact the audience by leaving them in suspense by not having a main character shown in the opening, this will keep the audience interested. The people coming through the arrival gates are the only characters shown in the opening and none of them are a main focus because it will be in fast motion. I will use as tripod so that my filming is still. 

Thinking About Genre

Masked Killer

 Halloween

Scream

The idea of a masked killer is used in both the films Halloween (Michael Myers) and Scream (Ghostface). I think having the killer dress up in a frightening outfit makes the movie more scary for the viewer because it gives it that much more mystery. In Halloween, Micheal Myers was one of Doctor Loomis' patients so Dr Loomis believes Michael is psycho. I think this links with the killer in Scream because the killer is Billy Loomis and Sidneys boyfriend Stu dressed up in the frightening outfit. Billy and Stu are psycho and go crazy in this film sending them to do things like stab each other to cover up for all their murders. The killers are also linked because Billy Loomis and Doctor Loomis have the same last name, they aren't related but it makes the two films look that much more connected. In the film scream there is a big party where the teenagers watch the movie Halloween and Jamie Lee Curtis' scream is focused on in an intense part of the movie. The masked killer in Scream is masked because there is a elaborate plot and the killers are trying to frame Sidney's dad. In Halloween the killer dresses up because it is halloween. The killer in scream wears a ghost mask adapted from the scream painting and a black cloak. The murders are brutal and disgusting, in the beginning of scream we see two people gutted.

This convention is used in the films to add mystery to the plot and makes the viewer think the killer is someone when it someone else for example, in halloween we see Michael Myers boots are the same as the police man's which draws a parallel between them. When we  see an example like that,as the audience, it throws us off our original guess of who the killer is. Commercially both films were a huge success,  Halloween was produced on a budget of $320,000 and earned $47.3 million at the box office in the United States, and $60 million worldwide. Scream , earned $173 million worldwide. The audiences response to this film was that they bought tickets to watch the film and they enjoyed it. The films subverted/changed the audiences because it played with their mind. The choices for the actors and actress' were made because people wanted to be in a film and didnt mind about the money so much, this was an advantage to the film producers because the actors didnt need to be paid as much as they would have originally so they saved more money making the film. 

The film impacted the audience,at first in the media when people saw the advert, the picture of a masked person would make them start thinking and want to watch the film to see who the person behind the mask is. The convention also effected the audience in the way that during watching the film they could use their own mind to have guesses of who the murderer could be and other parts of the film threw them off. Comercially, I think this convention changed people opinions because the idea of the murderer being hidden behind a disguise  attracts the public to the film. 

Before writing the film Scream, Wilkinson had a childhood of loving horror movies such as Halloween which made him passionate about writing this film. In Halloween the masked killer symbolizes teenagers rebelling will cause them to end up dead. The female lead behaves herself and doesn't rebel which leaves her alive but having to see all her friends deaths. This added to the commercial success because, although this film wasn't advertised very often, it attracted the public because it shows teenagers punished for doing wrong. The killer in scream is a stereotype who messes with the victim before killing them. This idea leaves the audience thinking they know where the film is going but then they are thrown off track, eg. when they guess who the killer is they are wrong because it is so unexpected. 

c)music

Definition:A film score is essentially the background music of a film (which is generally categorically separated from songs used within a film). The term soundtrack is often confused with film score, but a soundtrack also includes anything else audible in the film such as sound effects and dialogue.
The song used in the intro is Lionrock Fire Up the Shoesaw.
That was ingenious how the Columbia animation's audio merged with the movie's audio in the introduction. I find that indescribably cool. The music is fast in the beginning to show that the nightclub scene is frantic. The music shows that the characters are young and having fun dancing.
The music sets the scene.The music is beats to go with the lighting. The intro is set in a club, the characters are in a club later in the movie. In the intro you don't learn anything about the characters because none of them are shown at the beginning in the club. There are a bunch of randoms in the club, all who are wanting to buy drugs.
I believe the upbeat music symbolizes the characters having frantic lives (after the drug deal) and with the lights and sound it creates a mood that makes you feel you are in the opening scene, moving hectically.
The upbeat music is similar to other films if they are set in a club or the mood is carefree because the music is one of the main features to set the scene. This scene is tapping into the idea of young people at clubs dancing and having a good time, which may be considered a social concern if the people dancing in the club are wanting to buy drugs etc. This scene is only related to other films Doug Liman has directed because of the years/era it was made in.eg,  Swingers(1996), 'Go' is from 1999. The directors idea portrayed in the opening is young people having fun and living a carefree life and this is shown with them dancing in a nightclub.

c)lighting

Definition: The making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for the cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography.
In the intro the lighting is dark but there are fast strobe lights. The strobe lights are all different colours. The lights are flashing fast to go with the picture on the screen that changes abruptly. The strobe lights are used to show the intro is set in a night club. The night club scene relates to later on in the movie when the characters go to a club to sell drugs.
There is a contrast between the lighting in the club and the strobe lights. The strobe lights are all of bright colours, where as,  the club is dark because it is set at night. We know this because when the shot is not of people dancing in the strobe lights it is of people walking around the dark club and you can just see the light coming off their faces, bodies etc. With all the different lights i feel the focus was to resemble the film and how it is watched from a certain characters point of view and then it switches to a different characters point of view.

 

In the film opening I feel  the different beams of light in the strobe lights represent the different points of view the story is told from. The lighting in the opening scene is different form the rest of the film because the opening is set in a nightclub and the rest of the movie isn't. The use of strobe lights in the opening is used again in the middle of the  film for another scene set in a club. The strobe lights are used inside the club, where as, for the small clip of outside the club, the is minimal lighting used to show it is night time. The lighting establishes the mood in the club because the strobe lights flashing at the same pace the music and camera shots move at. The dancing is to the same pace as the music and i feel all the features i have described are linked together really well.

c)colour

With the scene being set in a club the colours are appropriate. The strobe lights are all different colours which is pleasing to the eye and when the lights aren't on the colour is dark to show it is a dark room and it is at night. The colours in the  intro don't resemble anything to do with the characters but the fact that it is a night club does because the characters are into the party scene. The colours used are red, yellow, blue, green and pink. Blue is the dominant colour because it is shown more often. The colours aren't well defined in the intro, you cant see much colour on the people in the club, just the colour of their t shirts etc to make the strobe lights more eye catching.
This movie is set in the nineties, the colours of that era were bright but not fluorescent. The lights in the club set the date because they are all the basic bright colours. Some of the clothes in the 90s were dull colours and you see this when the camera shot goes to a person walking around the club in their dull clothes.



The colours in the opening scene are similar to those used in the rest of the film because of the era it is set in, those colours are bright reds, greens, blues and yellows.Films also made in the 90's would have similar colours to those in the film because the bright (but not fluorescent colours) were a trend. The colours don't change in the opening scene don't change until the opening scene is over because the opening scene is set in a night club and once the opening is over, the beginning of the movie is set in a restaurant. The colours are appropriate for the film as a whole because it is suitable for the audience the film was hoping to attract ( the teenagers of the 1990's) because the colours of the clothes worn in the opening are the same as the clothes worn by the teenagers of the 1990's. The colours in this scene compare with other films set in a night club because the bright colours are appropriate fr strobe lights, you wouldn't want dull, dark colours in a club.

c)transitions / length of takes

Defintion: Movement or change from one to another. A passage from one scene to another by sound effects, music etc. A period of time during which something changes from one state or stage to another. A changeover, or conversion.
The length of the takes in the introduction are short and  fast to go with strobe lights. The sudden change of the picture on the screen went with the music and the beats in the song. I think the transition between takes connected the lights and music really well. The camera shots would be of some people dancing in the club then it would change abruptly to some different people dancing in the club. I think the quick change of what you see on the screen, as the viewer, makes you look harder so you can see what are looking at.
The transition with what we see on the screen doesnt directly resemble the characters but the quick movement, fast change of shot and frantic intro relates to the characters when their lives are no longer carefree after the drug deal towards the end of the movie. The camera shots ill jolt from one to another which I think looks quite cool.
I think the director has used this film technique to make the introduction seem frantic and hyper which is a lot like later in the movie when the characters are anxious, worried and troubled. The characters live carefree lives until they decide on a drug deal when things become eventful and crazy. Their lives are turned upside down. The transition and length of shots is used in this film to resemble the characters hectic lives after the drug deal.
The fast camera shots in the opening scene are unique to Doug Liman's movie, compared to others he has directed because the transition is to represent and make the night club scene and the camera shots in the opening move with the music that you hear. The transitions in the opening are not alike to those throughout the film because the opening isn't focusing on a character it is focusing on the scene as a whole. At the time this film was produced the film would have been aimed at an R16 to AO audience and the quick camera shots, to set the night club scene, are appropriate for that audience.

b)genre / atmosphere

The tone in the opening scene is carefree because it is set before the drug deal.They are dancing in a nightclub with no worries or concerns.  In the beginning the people are dancing cheerfully and the mood is upbeat which resembles what the characters feel until the drug deal when they then have concerns. The mood in the opening scene is created through people dancing in a club with coloured lights and upbeat music. As the viewer of the movie you feel like you are in the club because the camera is at the eye level of where you would be standing in the club. The lights, music and scene are fast cut so it makes it seem faster.

a)reason for selection

I am going to do the film opening for the film 'Go', a movie written by John August and directed by Doug Liman. This film follows three people after a drug deal, their stories intertwine. I want to write about this opening because I like that the scene in the intro is a night club and i like the music and lights. The opening fits into the film because the scene is in a night club with young people dancing and having a good time which is what the characters are passionate about. Watch the opening here and this is the link to the website about the movie here .I watched this movie on Youtube so I got a more vivid idea of what the movie was about. The lights, music and scene in the opening appealed to me because i like the night club scene.