1. GARRY NA 1183
CLAREMONT FAN
COURT SCHOOL
64680
OCR MEDIA
STUDIES J526
B324 PRODUCTION
PORTFOLIO IN
MEDIA STUDIES
2. VIDEO BRIEF 5: A MUSIC PROMO WITH
STORYBOARD
VIDEO BRIEF 7: OPENING SEQUENCE FROM A
NEW THRILLER WITH STORYBOARD
I worked in a group of three with Charlie
Spooner and Gabriel Lindsay
I took specific responsibility for taking
care of the filming equipment in scenes
and featuring in one of the shots as the
MI6 official
We made a thriller film opening entitled
‘Immortal Beloved’
The genre of our film is a hybrid of
Thriller/mystery/spy
3. RESEARCH INTO SIMILAR FILMS
Insidious (James Wan 2010): I watched insidious to gain an
insight on how thriller films deliver horror to the audience. I
noticed that sound was the most important factor, because
sudden loud noises worked best in acting as the climax of the
built up suspense. A low tune followed by a woman screaming
was an example of this. Although the reason for watching films
like insidious would be for the thrill, the interesting storyline of
the child’s father’s ability to disembark his soul from his body was
effective in drawing the attention of the audience. The storyline
as the move progressed however wasn’t very obvious which was
similar to out film opening because we only hint about what is
going to happen and not the whole story.
I also watched The butterfly effect (Eric Bress 2004) to observe
how thrillers approach their audience. I thought this would be a
suitable film to watch because it involves a mysterious storyline
similar to our Immortal Beloved. I studied the quick yet
unexpected change of events as the suspense in the film dies out
and realised this could be a good technique to appeal to the
audience.
4. RESEARCH INTO SIMILAR FILM
OPENINGS
I looked at the films, Girl with the dragon tattoo (David Fincher 2011), Delicatessen
(Marc Caro 1991), and Love actually (Richard Curtis 2003).
This was done on the website: www.artofthetitle.com
We looked at the opening sequence to Girl with the dragon tattoo because it contained
fast transitions just like the one we wanted to use in our opening sequence during the
character’s flashback. We thought the fast editing and the graphic images built up
suspense, as well as the natural emerging of different objects.
The opening sequence to Delicatessen was important in giving us a insight on how
panning camera shots are used in opening sequences. Although we didn’t use
Delicatessen’s method of introducing the directors and such on the objects, we did use
panning shots of different props as done in Delicatessen.
From Love Actually, we observed how voiceovers were used over soundtracks to make it
natural and fit along with the scenes being projected. We liked how the parts of the title
‘Love Actually’ were highlighted and decided to adapt this to our title as well.
5. OUR TARGET AUDIENCE
Target audience profile: both genders aged 18-25 years.
Reasons: it involves violence, romance, spies and
adventure.
They are likely to enjoy films like: Halloween (dir.
2007)Zombieland (dir. Fleischer,2009), Shutter Island (dir.
Scorcese, 2010) Inception (2010, Nolan), London Boulevard
(dir. Monahan, 2011), Anuvahood (dir. Deacon, 2011),
Sanctum (dir. Cameron, 2011)
They go to the cinema once or twice a month as well as see
films on DVD and downloads on their computers
Audience figures show how popular the thriller /horror
/action genre is. Box office returns for films similar to mine
show the following figures (source Box Office Mojo):
Shutter Island ($294,803,014);
6. THE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS USED IN OUR
FILM
Opening
Titles
Mise-en-scene (locations): All of the filming was done in
school grounds because the buildings created a very period
feeling. The locations in the school includes the Drama
room which involves the scene of the main character being
interrogated by a MI6 official, the principle’s room which
was used for an establishment shot and the panning shot,
the media room which was designed to be a dressing room
for one of the characters, the mansion front steps for the
wedding scene, and behind the music school for the
fighting scene as well as the very last shot.
Costumes: The woman in the film wears a wedding dress to
hint the romance that will feature in the film. A wedding
scene is filmed as well as her putting on a pearl with the
dress on.
SFX: Special effects were used to accelerate and decelerate
certain shots
7. FORMS AND CONVENTIONS
(CONTINUED)
Sound: We used a spotsound of the briefcase
opening and have a voiceover on the opening
sequence explaining the background story of our
opening.
Music: A suitable music track has been used
which presents a feeling of mystery and injects
nervousness.
Atmosphere
SUSPENSE: Suspense builds up towards the end
when the props in the briefcase are revealed and
the soundtrack is supported by instrumental
sound of violins and cellos.
ENIGMA
8. AUDIENCE FEEDBACK
We used various SNS such as facebook and twitter to
deliver our project to a wide audience and gained
feedback through comments and messages. Most if
not all of the feedback was relatively positive and
many added what part they liked or disliked
throughout the opening sequence.
9. HOW SUCCESSFUL OUR
PROJECT IS AS A FILM
OPENING
I think our project is very good as a film opening
because it contains numerous properties that a
standard opening sequence would. For example,
it has an ident of our production company which
was separately designed, a voiceover which hints
what the general storyline of the film will be
about, numerous methods of editing, and a
suitable soundtrack which builds up enigma as it
continues.
15. We looked at various fonts on www.dafont.com and
decided the most suitable on to use in our opening
sequence
16. We also used
websites such as
www.scoopit.com
so that it would
be easier to
gather various
websites that
were suggested
according to our
interest of
thriller codes
and conventions.
