Storyboard 1st attempt

        

 These images are our first attempts at the story board. We decided to  refine it as it was too short and we have had some interesting ideas for scenes since. we did manage to fit in back and side lighting to give mystery, extreme close ups to show distortion of the law and other camera techniques. 

 We still needed other techniques like canted angles.

Finding Location

Our first practical problem with our opening sequences project was to find a location where we could film our opening scenes.

To resolve this problem we decided to use the cameras on our phones to take pictures of areas our homes and outside them that could be possible locations.

Then we looked at the pictures we took and had a unanimous decision on which location we were going to use.

another inspration

We found another film with an opening sequence we liked and wanted to incorporate into our opening sequence for Dark Truth ( Deja Vu ).

 We liked it because of the jump cuts used throughout and the use of slow-mo because it holds connotations of abnormality which we want in our opening as it shows the abnormality of the corruption of the officer.

 There was also some blurs and sudden burst of bright light. we thought we could incorporate this too but do bursts of darkens instead of light.

Preliminary task

 This is the preliminary task we made. The main thing we had to achieve from it was continuity, meaning every scene had to continue at the exact same time from the last scene. This was especially hard with the scene where daniel enters the room. The first time we made it we found that at the end of the first entrance scene the door was still opening but it jumped to closing. We had to go over this to make it continue. Apart from this we have more or less achieved continuity.

 A big part of continuity was camera angles. There were 2 rules to follow on this: the 180 degree rule meaning we had to film all our angles from one side of the characters line of sight, if we broke this rule it would break the realism as both characters would be talking to each other  but looking the same way; the other was the 35 degree rule were every shot must be 35 degrees different from the last, otherwise it would look jumpy. We have managed to follow these rules 

Preliminary Task

Before starting on our opening sequence for our coursework, we tested our camera skills by completing a preliminary task. For this task we had to create a small sequence of a person walking into a room talking to someone else and then leaving.

• Personally i enjoyed the start of our film when character 1 walks through the camera, although when he walks out of the camera the focus is blurred abit which slightly ruins the effect.
  
• I also enjoyed the part when you can see character 1 walk into the room from the back of character 2s head.
• I believe that the rest of the footage is very good and flowing except for when character 1 starts to stand up otherwise i believe the preliminary task went well.

Preliminary Task

The short film that we did is concentrating on our use of continuity editing it was a very simple scene of  someone walking into a room sitting down then exchanging a few lines and the first person leaves the room. I am happy with the outcome of this task my group showed a good understanding of continuity editing. There are two parts that i would comment on that could have been improved.

• At the start of the film when the character walks into the camera and out the other side, or as it seems, the shot from his back has a different speed of walking than the first shot. This is something that I would change if I could film again.
  
• Towards the end of the film when he stands up from his chair there is a slight jump when he stands up from the long shot to the medium shot. 

We also follow the 180 degree rule throughout the film. 

What the audience wants

 Our opening has the genre of action/crime drama so the audience should be hoping for plenty of tension, conflict, enigmas and peril. We have found ways to meet these expectations:

• Tension is created from the location, They are in a small, smokey room that has connotations of secrecy, and with secrecy comes the fear of being caught.
• The audience will know there is conflict in the film due to the conflicting themes of the mise en scene. The money will have connotations of corruption and greed but the police badge has connotations of purity, service and selflessness
• Enigma's such as "who are these people?" and "what are they doing?" are created
• the gun shows peril as it has connotations of violence and suffering. It implies that someone will be badly injured later on.

Box office Figures For Crime Genre

I resercht the Box office figures for Crime Genre films. i fond that the results fore the best profit on an action philm is a world profit of "199,847,354". below is a link showing the figers. 

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=departed.htm

althow to make my reserch feir i also looket at the crime ganre philm whith the lowest profit. and the profit was a teribul disaster of "-23,110,648" below is a link showing the figers.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=yardsthe.htm

all in all this showes that if we were to spend eny mony on awere production we wud have to be cerfull as it dose not nesaseraly meen id get a big profit back.

Target Audience

The genre of our film is a hybrid it is a action/crime drama. The audience that we will be directly appealing to is 16-25 year old male viewers, as this is the most consistent groups of people that visit the cinema on a regular basis and an action drama will mostly appeal to the male gender.  

Memento Inspiration

The style of film that I have been inspired by is Film Noir i like the simple lighting used in the scenes. Here is an example of the style of fast paced editing and black and white effect in a trailer from the film Memento directed by Christopher Nolan (2000). I believe that this technique will be possible to achieve with the low budget that our group have.

Film Noir

This short film uses many things we want for our opening:

• The lighting is low key and in black and white. This creates connotations of depression, descent and mystery which is what we want, to show the descent of the officer and the mystery of who they are
• The first few seconds are very useful. It shows credits with smoke in the background. We can use this firstly for its connotations of contamination which will show the contamination of the police force. Secondly to establish the scene as a cramped, smoky room. This will give the connotation of secrecy.
• Low camera angles are used on certain characters to show their power. We can use this to show the mafia is in power over the police force

Sin City

One of our main inspirations for the style of lighting and some mise en scene came from the opening sequence of the film called 'Sin City' the film was directed by Frank Miller in 2005, the style of lighting is low key we like this as it brings up more enigmas. as well as this the mise en scene was mostly all in black and white except the important things in the scene.

we like this as it emphasizes what the director wanted the audience to be concentrating on, and it also creates up enigmas about that thing.

Our opening

Our opening is Entitled Dark Truth. It will be an action/crime drama in which the key theme will be corruption. Conventions that we will try to create include Secrecy,darkness, shadiness and greed. The characters cannot be seen, all the viewer can see is their hands

The scene shows a dark room were no faces can be seen, a police badge is on the table, mysterious hands are counting money.

We have tried to include everything that an opening sequence contains:

• enigmas are created from the money and the lack of faces. questions like "who are these people?" and "what is the money for?"
• Establishing time and place is kept to a minimal to keep it mysterious. Mise en scene shows this
• The police badge shows it is a crime drama
• expectations are created that they will catch these men and figure out the enigmas
• The mafia and the corrupt officer is established here
• the equilibrium here is that this officer is taking bribes, this will be disrupted later as they will uncover what is going on

Opening Sequences

Opening sequences are designed to get an audience attracted and interested in the film. This is going to be done by using several techniques for example: 

• To create enigmas to keep the audience 'hooked' so they continue to watch the rest of the film. 
• Also by establishing a time and place this would be done via the use of narrative devices such as captions, mise en scene, voice overs and dialogue.
  
• It will reassure the audience of the genre types in the film by demonstrating the conventions of the chosen genre e.g location, characters cinamatic style.
• We will set up audience expectations in plot, style/media language.
• Opening sequences also usually introduce and establish characters usually the main character/protagonist. 
• Setting up an initial equilibrium that will be disrupted later in the film.