Conventions Of Films

There are many codes and conventions of standard Thriller/Horror/Gore films.
Primarily, there is an initial victim. This victim is usually killed within the first scene, usually in a horrible way. At the end of the film, there are usually two survivors, a man and a woman. In many horror films has this been done. Wrong Turn is a prime example of one of these films. There are usually parts of the film in which the viewer is reduced to shouting things at the character about to be killed, usually because they are doing things that the viewer deems as stupid, such as backing into a dark room that the killer will obviously jump them from.

There is low key lighting used in these types of films, to convey darkness and fear.
>>>>>>>>>>>>SAW 5 scene where someone is trapped in a dark basement of an abandoned factory.

Lots of side lighting is also used to show that the killer has multiple personalities

.

Music usually is typically string music, low string instruments create a feeling of tension in the reader, and there are high pitched instruments that climax in a death (Psycho).

Top Grossing Films Of All Time

These are the top 20 films that have made the most money at the box office.

Top Grossing Films Of All Time

1. Avatar (2009)

2. Titanic (1997)

3. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

4. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)

5. Toy Story 3 (2010)

6. Alice in Wonderland (2010)

7. The Dark Knight (2008)

8. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)

9. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)

10. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

11. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

12. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

13. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)

14. Shrek 2 (2004)

15. Jurassic Park (1993)

16. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

17. Spider-Man 3 (2007)

18. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009)

19. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)

20. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

We have noticed that nearly all these films are fantasy, and they are all fiction. This enables the viewer to have a feeling of escapism.

All of these films made a lot of money, and so we can use some of the techniques out of all of them to make our sequence better. 

Planning For Our Film Sequence

We have devised a back story for our film sequence. Although this will not be shown in the actual sequence, we need to have it so that the opening sequence isn't totally irrelevant to the rest of the film.

Our film sequence will open on a hilltop. There will be multiple shots of the surrounding area, while some titles appear on the screen. Eventually a shot of a man waking up will be used. He will attempt to escape the ankle chain he is wearing, with no success. There will be shots of him screaming, and shouting for help. (Our chosen location is helpful as it is isolated and we can be more vocal).

The music for the sequence will have to be non copyrighted music and will be suspense building music, chosen during editing to match the scene better.

Eventually the character will break down and realize that he cannot free himself from the ankle chain. There will be more shots, possibly canted to show that he is losing his mind. After several more shots of the area, and of the now down trodden character, resigned to his fate, a surprise revelation of a hooded, silhouetted figure on the horizon.

The sequence will end with ideally a large non diegetic bang and the title white text on a black background, with chains behind it. Or the film name could be made up of chains.

We will use a college video camera, and a tripod to provide accurate shots of the area. We plan to begin with several introductory nature shots.

The rest of the storyline for the film is as follows:

Alan Walker, a middle aged doctor in the fictitious city of West Brambly is turned into a revenge obsessed psychopath when his young daughter is killed in a hit and run "accident".  Alan takes revenge on each of the four people who were in the car, by putting them in cleverly constructed and well thought out traps. Our film sequence begins with Arnold's trap, by the end of the film, Alan has successfully killed all four of the men, and is coming to terms with his loss.

We will have some opening professional titles, such as Paramount and Twisted Pictures. This will make our sequence seem more professional.

Prelim Evaluation

Our Preliminary task is finished now. There were a few errors, mainly with the continuity, and this is something to consider for when we do our actual opening sequence task.

It is difficult to keep continuity sometimes; we made a full shot of the scene, and then realized that Tom had his coat off in some of the scenes and on in some of the others.

The only hitch in the final product was that the dialogue is cut short being we had to edit the same sentence in different ways. In our actual title sequence we shall have to record extra dialogue.

The zoom onto Jamie's face took Qasim 3 times to do, but in the end the shot worked and was smooth.

SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, WE PRESENT OUR PRELIMINARY TASK!!!!
(DUN DUN DUNNNNN)

Throwing Around Ideas For The Sequence

We have a vague idea of what we want to do for the opening sequence.

The place that Jamie thinks is an ideal place to make a sequence is a giant crater in a large hill near where Jamie lives. The crater is full of rocks, and there are several iron lumps of metal there, and this will provide the setting for our sequence. This is good because it means we only have to film in one place. The sequence will be a man chained to one of the pieces or metal in the middle.

The sequence will be heavily inspired by Saw, and we will have to make up for the setting being one place by using varied camera shots of different parts of the surrounding environment.

The place is isolated, which means we can shout and scream at will without disturbing anybody.

What Do Opening Sequences Do?

Opening sequences set the tone for the entire film, hooking the viewer into the film. The opening sequence does not have to have a specific storyline, as long as it is explained somewhere later in the film, for example Saw 2 has a man awakening in a trap, and if you have not seen Saw, then you still can tell by the shots used that the man is in trouble. The man is called Michael, and the typical thriller/horror camera shots are used here, such as the POV shots, with Michaels heavy breathing in the background. The viewer becomes hooked into the film, as they wonder if it will stay as gruesome all the way through, and enigmas are set in place, such as "who is the killer?". As for titles, there are none in this particular clip, which is rare for an opening sequence.


Michael is told to take out his eye with a scalpel to get a key from behind it, but  he fails to do so and is brutally killed by the trap. There is a standard feeling of claustrophobia in this scene, which many thrillers use.


I like the sounds that are used in this extract, because they make me feel uneasy and slightly scared.
The main character also has to be established in the first sequence, although they do not always live to see the rest of the film.




With our opening sequence, we hope to achieve the same feelings that Saw produces, the need to watch on, and to find out what happens in the film.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIhQ5IrxSPc <<<<<< Link To Saw 2

Starting Point - Video

We need to research opening sequences and organize our preliminary task. We watched the opening scenes to Casino Royale, Se7en, Mission Impossible, and Saw 2. We chose to watch these as we are planning to do a thriller for our sequence. For the preliminary task our short video must include a cut on action, shot reverse shot, and must follow the 180 degree rule. We plan to open a door, have the protagonist sit down and have a short conversation.

Introduction

For this project we need to make a film sequence of about two minutes. The sequence needs to be a films opening, and to get ideas about the sequence we shall be looking at other film openings, to analyze why they are so popular and why they sell so well. At the end of the project we shall hopefully have a well filmed, well edited sequence that gets us the best mark possible.