Day 9!

We have now began shooting our opening sequence. We decided firstly to get some photographs of the location.

Sophie

Day 8!

Storyboards


Here we have the storyboards we have drawn showing each shot that we intend to use.
These are not completely in chronological order, although they are numbered correctly.


Obviously they do not give a completely accurate representation of what the final product will look like, as they are just a basic structure for our shots, giving ideas for each type of shot, and helping to align each shot with certain cues.







Joe

Day 7!

The Plot line

This sequence is actually just the adaptation of an original idea, and just the opening sequence of a full movie plot that would span several hours.

Obviously this is just an opening sequence of a film, so we have to set up the enigmas appropriate to the rest of the plot.

Our sequence therefore only covers the very beginning of the film.

The shots that we see are actually from the point of view of the villain, although this is not completely apparent until the end of the opening sequence.

The four characters in the first shot are from a mid-war crisis, on a mission to assassinate two targets; known as the 'Army Of Two' - the two key figures who are tipping the scales in a huge war that spans over 57 star systems.

A series of flashbacks from the one surviving member of the squad from that night show the night of this mission, and these shots show both the past (flashbacks) and the present.

In the flashbacks, three of the four squad members are killed, and the last surviving member escapes.

We will film these flashback shots using the handheld camera technique, utilizing point of view shots, and perhaps grayscale to emphasize the difference between the past and present.

Joe

Day 7!

Of the locations stated earlier we have decided that we are going to film in Baxenden. We have chosen this location as it has many places we could film at such as fields,factories,woods,river.
On thursday we are going around Baxenden looking at these different locations and choosing which we want to film are shots in. We are going to capture images from these places and load them up to show the surroundings. On Sunday we are then going out to these locations and shooting our opening sequence, or at least beginning to.




Natalie

Day 6 - Soundtrack

Today we have found a good example of a similar score to that which we would like to use for this project.

This score is albeit from a recent star wars development.

However due to the restrictions on copyrighted material, we will have to find another source for a score, but we intend to find a score with a similar feel, or perhaps create a new one using Garageband and perhaps even LogicPro or Sibelius softwares to compose a new score.

Either way, this grand sounding soundtrack will only be introduced nearer the end of the sequence, whereas from the beginning we will emphasize silence, or perhaps a more sinister sounding, tense soundtrack.

Joe

Day 5!

We have thought as a group about who we are going to cast as the characters and decided that we will be using a female character for our main role. We have decided to do this as we think this will be a unique feature to our opening sequence. We think that if a war/sci - fi/Action film included a woman as the main role ,and this is not within the norm of the the genres, this may interest a new/wider,perhaps female audience.
We are currently in the thinking process for our other members of the cast.

We have started to design uniforms/costumes for the opening sequence. As it is set in the future we think that perhaps we should use a hint of the future within our 'war outfits'. So perhaps we could use some fashion on the main woman that is apparent today, such as berets or black leggings rather than khaki trousers. However, we are trying to keep the outfit as authetic as possible so the sequence will have the conventions of the genres chosen.

sophie

Day 5!

We have now moved onto the next stage in our project. We have established the storyline mostly and are now trying to decide what type of look the people we cast should have and also which location/s we should film our opening sequence at.
For the costumes, we have decided that the surving soldiers war outfit should be toned down a little, as the main character is no longer in the war ,so their outfit would be messy and perhaps a little dirty,ripped etc...
For the location we have had many ideas where to film. We have decided that we are going to travel to these various towns as a group and get some test shots so we can look at them
all and then decide which would be most suitable for our sequence. The places we have thought as possible ideas are: Great Harwood, Wilpshire, Blackburn, Baxenden, Accrington, Clitheroe.
We have chosen these partiuclar locations firstly because they are quite local places so it is convenient for the whole group to travel to any of these places when we are shooting. Also if we realise at a later date that we need some extra shots, it will be available to get these extra shots.


Sophie

Day 4

This is our practise test which we have edited.

the editing is a bit jumpy so in the future we will have to make it more invisible. Also a bad part is where the boy walks towards the other boy sat down and then it skips a little bit.

The best part of the video is the part were he walks out of the elevator and it shows to shots of him, one form the front and then one form inside the elevator watching jim walk out.

natalie

Day 3

What is an opening sequence and what do we look for in one?

• An opening sequence is to pull the audience in to the film.
• It is to set up enigmas 
• To keep the audience wanting to know more
• Establish the main characters 
• It establish the genre(s) 

We aim to create all of these in are opening sequences as the are all important to make an opening sequence. 

natalie

Day 3!

From the genres we have chosen people want a number of things. Firstly with a War movie, people usually hope to see a realistic interpretation of a War. So they of course expect soldiers, weapons,blood and death normally. All of which we plan to include in some way in our opening sequence. We plan to show elements of war with flashbacks. This will however not show a full war scene as it would be unrealistic to achieve. 

With a sci-fi movie people obviously expect to see something that is not matching to life as we know it. For example the sci-fi movie Time Machine includes a time machine whilst the movie War of the worlds has aliens for an outer world. We could not achieve this with the budget and recording equipment that we have,however we plan to including things such as futuristic style outfits etc to incorporate the sci-fi feel to the sequence.

Sophie

Day 3!

We have looked on the website   http://www.boxofficemojo.com   at the box office figures of films from the same genres of Action, Sci-fi and War that we have chosen for our coursework.

Here are some examples of what we found for the highest ranking earners in selected genres :

The Action movie Terminator 2: Judgement Day made a total gross of $204,843,345.

Whilst the Sci-fi movie Jurassic Park made a lifetime gross sum of $357,067,947.

Finally the war movie Saving Private Ryan made a huge gross total also of $216,540,909.

This tells us that perhaps a Sci-fi movie would be the best choice for a genre as it appears to be more popular with the audience.

Sophie

day 3

Today we decided what gender and what age we are aiming for.

Because we are filming a war movie we are aiming at more for males and also people who enjoy action pact films.

Also we are aiming at the more mid-teens to 30 year olds audiences that like war films which include blood and guts. We have researched in the BFI film handbook and found that 41.5% of 15 to 34 year olds are the most regular at the theatre. 

We decided that we are going to base are main character around the mid teen age so the are audience can relate to the main character.

natalie

Day 2! - Opening Sequence Examples

This opening sequences uses a wide range of shots in order to establish time, place, enigmas, characters and genre. The extreme long shots from a birds eye perspective, for example; when the camera is centered above the city, will be very difficult to perform therefore we will be unable to carry those types of shots out.

Natalie

We have started to look at video clips on Youtube which are within the same genre of War/Action that we have chosen for our coursework. Hopefully from these will we get some good ideas for our own clip.

This clip of the opening scene from the film We Were Soldiers has given us many ideas for our own opening clip. One of the ideas we had is that we could begin the clip with text on screen and voice over setting the scene whilst giving the audience a little background information.

This next clip is from the movie Platoon and it is two minutes long and so we only see a very little bit from this clip. We think the clip sets the mood of the movie very well as we can see from just these two minutes that the movie is probably not going to be a comedy or a teen movie. In our opening scene we hope to set the mood of the movie in the way that Platoon does.

Sophie

Day2! - Soldier Outfits

We have found several images of past and present soldier outfits to give us inspiration for our coursework. We are aiming for a mix between both of these to create a new futuristic look.

Sophie

day 1!

Our first ideas

• set in the future - 10 years or so
• killings
• lone man walking in a field/woods
• flashbacks
• soldier in outfit with touch of future in it
• voiceovers
• weapons (junk yard props)
• factories
• car

Natalie