The Actor

In our piece, we need an actor who can present certain things which will help clearly show the type of character we have in mind. To do this, the actor needs certain qualities, the first and most important quality being that they have to look like an everyday teenager. This is crucial as the piece is going to be focusing on a young person trying to survive and if we make the character seem they only belong to one specific social group, it will be hard to relate to. Another quality needed is for the character to look fairly sinister. By this, I don't mean in such a way that they look evil, but instead in a way that makes them look like they have been through a lot and has maybe seen some things that you wouldn't want to. This will help emphasise the whole post apocalyptic feel. With these sort of qualities in mind, we then had to find somebody who fitted this role as well as somebody who would actually be up for playing the character. So far we have the option of two people, these are me and a friend called Daniel Cadoret. Both me and Daniel would fit this role as we do not fall under any physically distinctive social group so we can be related to easily and we can both look sinister if we have to! At this point in time, we are probably going to get Daniel to act purely so I can focus on the direction of the product. Underneath are a few key features about me and Daniel which can help determine who is better for the role.

Name: Abel Clarke                                       Name: Daniel Cadoret

Age:16                                                        Age:17

      Height: 5'6'                                                Height: 5'7'  

Hair: Brown                                                Hair: Brown

Availability: Whenever needed                   Availability: Weekends

     

Props

In nearly all media productions, props are used for many different reasons and they can sometimes have some sort of meaning behind them. In our piece, there are not many props which are needed, in fact there is only one. This is the weapon which the main character will have throughout the opening sequence. Although this sounds like a pretty basic prop there was some thinking that had to go into what the weapon will be. Stereotypically, weapons in films tend to either be firearms, knives and so on but this isn't going to be the case in our piece. We want the weapon to be something that realistically will be found in a post apocalyptic environment, as there wouldn't really be guns lying around. Therefore we decided to think along the lines of the sort of thing you would find in a typical house, shed or garage. This gave us a massive list of choices although some were not appropriate such as a cleaver or kitchen knife as we would be filming in public and we didn't want to look suspicious. Here are a selection of potential tools which could work as weapons in our piece along with the positives and negatives of both.

     

Hammer - Is a good example of a household item which could be used as a weapon and in many films does just that. However we want the audience to clearly see the weapon throughout and this can be hard to do with such a small object.

Knife - This is also something which is stereotypically seen as a household weapon and would work however it is also too small and if I was seen carrying a knife then there could be trouble. 

        

Spade - This is something that may not always be seen as a weapon but will work perfectly within our piece. I think this as it is something that could be found in any home and is easily visible to the audience. We will probably use this in our piece unless we can find anything better. 

Location

Location.

This was a tricky heading to cover. We have had a few ideas of what we think would suit the opening. Ideally we wanted an abandoned street but that is very hard to find, and people will probably be hanging around there making it difficult to film. We then thought a forest may be a suitable location but we figured it was too generic and we want it to be different. I then thought that they're is an old sewage works in Yarnton, behind the Turnpike which would be ideal as it has that abandoned atmosphere about it as well as being a quiet location for filming. The only limitation is getting access to it. Below is a selection of pictures I took of the area, I think its ideal. This is because it will give the whole ambience of the film a chilling feel which is exactly what is needed for a thriller film.

Costume

Costume.

This was fairly easy, as I had already got a clear idea of what I wanted the costume to look like. For an ideal costume, I thought that it would be a mix of everyday clothing and sort of survival like accessories, like a bandolier for example. The clothing would also be quite dirty but also fit the characters personality. Such as if its quite a dark character, they will be wearing a trench coat and a bandana. Below is a very brief idea of the type of clothing and costume we're wanting for the best effect.

Genre of my opening sequence

In film, there are all sorts of genre's which can be used and this will play the most important role in determining the audience. Simply, a genre is something with a particular form or style which then has particular conventions to go with that said genre. There is a massive variety of genres which are used, each with their own forms and conventions. The common genres that are used are action, adventure, comedy, crime, fantasy, romance, thriller, horror and sci fi. However there are many other genres which are less common such as political and urban films. For the more common genres, there tends to be may sub genres under them. A good example would be with the comedy genre. There are many well known sub genres under this including romance comedies or 'rom coms.' and the popular horror comedy which tend to flip the conventions of a horror film and make them more light hearted. A good example would be the film 'Shaun Of The Dead' featuring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. 

When it came to deciding on the genre of my groups opening sequence, we were torn between making an either a thriller or an action film. A thriller tends to involve a mix of both excitement and fear, thus making it suspenseful. They do not go as far as horror films however as these are designed to frighten the audience rather than just making them feel tense.  Typical thriller films are usually quite serious as making them light hearted or comical will take some of the suspense away. An action film on the other hand is not like this as they tend to involve a protagonist who will be placed in dangerous situations and there overall goal is to accomplish something important in the long run. Action films tend to be tied with other popular genres, especially adventure films as they follow the same sort of conventions. When it came to our opening sequence, two of us were wanting to make it under the thriller genre and one of us wanted to use the action genre. After debate, we decided we would try to incorporate the two although the main focus would be making it a thriller. This genre works well with just an opening sequence as it leaves a lot of opportunities for ideas to expand. Incorporating the action aspect into the piece may be tough as we only have about two minutes but I think we can do it if we get a structured idea of how our opening sequence will look.  

This shows all sorts of genre's used within film, some of which I have mentioned.
It also shows some examples of films that fall under that category.

Title Sequences.

Today in class we looked at opening sequences and how important they are for setting the feel of the film. In this example, I looked at the opening title sequence to 'Monty Pythons The Meaning of Life.' I think this is very effective at setting the scene and mood of the film. The film is set when Jesus was supposably roaming the earth. Therefore, all the animations is done in a religious art style which sets the scene. However everything that happens in the opening sequence is comical in a very blatent way. This represents the films well as it is made up of a lot of slapstick comedy. The acual credits are presented through the artwork, for example the main actors being in big bold text made of stone at the start. The soundtrack has been written for the opening sequence and also is quite comical.

This is one example of a title sequence there are a variety of examples which help set the mood of the film. They are very important as this is what has to itreuge the viewer into the film and if its bad the viewer will lose intrest quickly and not be in the best mindsetwhile watching the rest of the film. 

'Get Carter' car park scene analysis.

Earlier in the week we watched a short clip from the film 'Get Carter' (1971). The task at hand is to analyse what is being used for effect in this scene and why. Such things that influence this are the way the characters are presented and how the way the setting creates impact among other things.

One thing that I noticed was the positioning and stance of the three characters in the part of the scene shown to the right. The boss is easily recognizable from the two other businessman for a variety of reasons. One of which is that he is standing closer to the camera, from which I can infer that he is the more important character as more focus is put upon him. The way he is dressed also shows importance as it differs in color to the other men's suits, which are nearly identical to one another. The boss is also looking out the window, which can be also described as him looking over all that he owns, showing dominance. On the other hand the two other men are looking hard at work and productive to show that they are wishing to get on the good side of the boss.

Another notable thing used is the use of camera shots in the scene. In this particular camera shot below. You are looking over the soon to be dead businessman's shoulder and into the face of the main character. By doing this you are put in the shoes of the businessman so that you can relate to how he is feeling. The feelings are emphasized as the shot is only focused on the main characters face, which shows anger. This would intimidate the businessman and by using this shot, you feel slightly intimidated too.