The Main Task

Today we received the brief for the main task which we will be concentrating on throughout the next couple of months. We need to produce an opening sequence to a film which can be any genre we like, it needs to be at least two minutes long but not go over two and a half minutes. 

What the opening Sequence needs to include.

Titles and Credits

This means that you need to have the main people involved's names appear on the screen showing the audience who's in it and who helped make it. It doesn't need to be everybody, just the main people involved, such as actors, directors etc. It also sets the feel of the rest of the film

Soundtracks

This is a Foley stage, it has the big screen to see whats
happening in the film, and then a load of different sort
of objects to create the sound that is needed for the
best effect.

This consists of a variety of things. These are sound effects, foley sound, music and dialouge. Sound effects need to be used as it will make the whole scene a lot more dramatic. Also, they sometimes need to be added as the sound may not be able to be created on set, an example of this would be a gun shot or an explosion. A foley stage is when human sound is recreated after the scene is filmed so the natural sounds sound better and are more effective. The music in the background is important because it must create the desired effect that you want to create. An example of this would be in the film 'Jaws' where the moundtrack creates the feeling of tension and uncertainty. Finally, dialouge is needed so that the scene can flow. Sometimes what the actor/actress has said can make the drama of the scene a lot better. 

Genre conventions

Example of genre conventions in a western film (Desert,
cowboy hats, wooden buildings etc.)

This is important as it means whatever genre I decide to do, everything within the scene needs to fit and make sense. This means things like the plot, costume and setting must look natural within the opening sequence. An example of good genre conventions would be if you were making a western film, you make sure that everything would fit into a western enviroment. The setting would be in a desert for example, and thge costumes will be cowboy hats and so on. You would have to make sure that there are no cars or technology as this would go against thew genre conventions.

Audience

The type of audience needs to be thought about as your whole opening sequence sholud intreuge a certain audience. Like a animated comedy would appeal to kids and a thriller would appeal to adults, tending to be young adults. So when I make my opening sequence I need to make sure the opening makes clear what sort of genre its going to be so the audience know whether it will appeal to them or not.

So, these are all the things we need to think about when deciding what we're going to do for our opening sequence. The next step is to decide the genre of our opening and what sort of things we need for our scene to work.