Opening Shots Of Sam example essay topic

Brief 1 Film To produce the opening sequence of a new thriller, including the titles aimed at a 15 to 18-certificate audience (approximately 2-3 minutes duration). The groups had to be no more than four members; therefore my group consisted of myself, Rajbir B isla, Sam Hanover and Kiran Kaur Chee ma. We each had different responsibilities mine and Rajbir's responsibility was to direct the film and do the camera work, Sam's was responsible for the storyboard, acting and the sound and lastly Kiran was responsible for acting thinking of different camera angles. Sam and me did the majority of the editing merely because Kiran and Rajbir ere not familiar with "I-movie" software but we all did some editing and camera work. Before we could start our production we had to research the target audience and the genre of the new movie. We conducted a questionnaire within our media studies class using a sample frame of 10 (5 boys and 5 girls) to see what other students aged between 16-17 thought the typical conventions of a thriller movie was and what type of content is contained in a 15 to 18 age certificate also what other examples they gave of thriller movies.

The feedback we received from the questionnaires was both qualitative material as well as quantitative material this allowed us to draw statistics and conclusions (Refer to appendix 2) of what they were expecting to see in a thriller movie. The results showed most people thought that the typical media conventions are: a murder, suspense and climax, investigation of some sort (e.g. murder investigation) and rivalry gangs. (Refer to appendix 2). We decided to produce an opening sequence to a Gangster Thriller movie, in order to make this I had to research the typical conventions of a gangster movie I watched two movies which were "Donnie Bras co and Scar face" to get a better perspective of what types of props, location, lighting, sound, camera shots and angles (Mise en sc " ene) we should use to give the best effect.

We ended using the 18-age certificate, as most gangster movies are because they contain violent scenes, bad language and sex-orientated scenes therefore these movies are not appropriate for the younger audiences. Gangster movies are extremely popular especially amongst the male population, where as girls can sometimes find it hard to stomach the gritty blood scenes. The male population can relate to gangster movies more than the females as they find guns, shooting people and fighting scenes the best aspects of a movie. Once we had our target audience, age certificate and genre researched we could start the planning process.

The first thing we had to plan and organise was our storyline Sam and Kiran both came up with two different possible storylines for our movie so I decided to combine them together (see appendix 3) however by combining them the storyline had become to broad and we lost ourselves and the plot of the storyline. Sam came up with another possible storyline with the gangster thriller genre about two undercover cops (see appendix 4) we decided to follow this storyline through as it had a twist in the end because Kiran is also an undercover cop but the audience don't realise that at first. We had to produce a storyboard so that we would know what angles to shoot and whether it was a close up shot or a far away one. The storyboard acts as a guide for us so we don't get side tracked or film unnecessary scenes when we begin our filming process.

Whilst we were producing the storyboard we had to consider the Mise en sc " ene and the locations we wanted to film the scenes. Once we had an idea of the locations we wanted we had to go out and the find them, we looked at the layout of many bars and pubs before we made our final decision which was to film in Hobnobs. We chose the new drama studio to film in as it has black walls and gives the element of a dark and secret room. Once we had our locations we asked permission to film there.

The next step was to find actors to play the characters Sam and Kiran were the two undercover cops; we chose Ali Hussain to play the Don in our movie because he has the body physic, attitude and the speech of a typical Don, we chose Dave Thay a to play the Don's associate because Dave has the quite look but he knows the score, Sam was chosen to play the undercover cop because he has the charm to fool people and keep cool when in dangerous situations and lastly we chose Kiran to play the female undercover cop because again she too has the charm to fool people and she comes across as a strong independent women. Once our storyboard was completed and we had the equipment, location and actors / actresses we commenced filming. The first time we filmed the opening shots of Sam getting ready we couldn't get the framing and lighting right so we had to re shoot the scene again in another set of toilets and get the Mise en sc " ene exact to produce a high quality shot. Our storyboard illustrates a series of short close up shots of Sam getting ready in the first scene as this establishes the character and what his role is in the movie. The opening shots of Sam are shot from his neck to his waist this is because we wanted to keep his identity hidden in the beginning. The first scene had mostly steady short close ups shots this was because we didn't want to bore the audience with Sam getting ready so we filmed the shots short and added transitions so show that time had passed.

Our second series of shots were mainly medium length shots with gradual zooms to express the actor / actress's facial expression or to define an object (e.g. when we zoomed in on the money). We didn't use any tracking shots this was because they would not have been as effective as simple panning or tilting up / down shots. Rajbir and me decided to combine the techniques, we combined a medium length shot with a gradual tilt up and a slight zoom in to define the subject in the frame this was one continuous shot which also gave an effective result. The third series of shots were again mainly quick short shots and this was because when Sam was having a conversation with the Don (Ali) and his associate (Dave) Rajbir and me filmed over the shoulder shots so the frame showed Sam speaking and the corner of Dave's shoulder. Three shots we filmed using a birds eye view and a ground view when the camera was placed on the ground as they are rare and difficult shots to film and the audience feel they are seeing every angle possible it builds a 3d effect in the mind. In the editing suite as mentioned in the first paragraph Sam and me were responsible for most of the editing and he was responsible for the sound and voice over.

In the opening the scene the shots are very short and we used cross dissolve transitions because then the audience wouldn't get bored watching Sam getting ready, the transitions show that time has passed. We shot an object from different angles so when we edited it together it gave one continuous flow to the shot (e.g. when the Don gets the money out and rolls it on the table). For the opening credits I recorded the last scenes of "Eminem's music video - Loose yourself. It was the skyline of Detroit at night" with my camera then I imported it on to the Apple Mac and we used it as the background for the opening credits. Our credits were written in red because it was the colour that stood out the most against the dark skyline they appeared in the middle of the screen to give the best effect. The name of our movie is called "Too Deep" because the undercover cops (Sam and Kiran) have got in too deep with their investigation.

We decided to have the credits of the movie title at the end because it looks more effective and the film will begin after the title comes up, so our 3-minute movie is the introduction to the film. We all contributed into this production in different ways and the outcome of the movie was very good and we were all pleased with the final product and as a group we worked very well together as we combined each other's ideas. NEED 2 DO LAST BIT Prints again have 2 b done by Friday! !