Conventions of film openings

What are the conventions of film openings?

The purpose of a film opening is to get the viewers attention and to interest them into watching the rest of the film. The film opening also gives a hint of what type of genre it will be, for example if it is going to be a thriller, romance or action film. Film openings tend to be 2 or 3 minutes long, however it can go up to as long as 5 minutes. It introduces the main characters, the plot and the credits such as the director, the producer etc.

Prelim storyboard

Prelim storyboard

Prelim exercise

Prelim exercise

In todays lesson we will be filming a scene which is inspired by the film "the stepfather". This scene will include two male characters (Fareena and Naziara) in a room playing poker, where the first male character (Fareena) will be trying to convince the second male character (Naziara) that his wife is in fact a murderer. This replicates the film "the stepfather" because the wife is in fact the stepmother of his children and also a murderer.


Here are a few pictures of the props that we will be using throughout the fiming.

Money

Cups

Cigarettes and drugs

Cards

Sunglasses

Dice

Target Audience 
Our prelim is mainly aimed at teenagers and also adults as it is to do with families as it involves parents, step parents and children.

Editing a Title Sequence

Editing a Title Sequence

Today we put clips together from a movie called Arlington Road and added titles in the correct order. The correct order for my title sequence was:

- the production icon

- distribution icon

- Film title

- Actors

- Casting

- Costume

- Music Supervisor

- Music By

- Editor

- Production designer

- Director of Photography

I added a fade effect for my titles to fade in and out easily and so that they flow more.

This was when I put in the titles for my sequence in a professional order, and kept the font and colour of it appropriate for the viewers and easy to read.

The title for my sequence was 'Blood Sheds'.

Adding sound to title sequence

 

Sound Track Pro 

 

 

After putting together the opening from Arlington road and adding suitable titles and effects, in today's lesson we had a taste of adding sound to the clip to build up the opening.

We used Sound Track Pro for this and I added sound effects that went well with the scene. For example I added a heartbeat when the boy is walking, which builds up the tension and gives the viewers a feel of what is going on as he is walking and bleeding.

Sound and Titles

Editing a Title sequence

Editing a Title Sequence

In todays lesson I rearranged the clips from Arlington Road into the correct order, from the start, right up to the end. I also added titles, which included the main title, the characters, the costume, who the music was by, the editor, the production designer, director of photography, producer, the executive producer, who it written by and the director. 

This screen grab shows that the characters are about to be introduced.