On Friday 2nd October, we was lucky enough to receive a talk from a British Film Institute ambassador, Pete Fraser. He gave a presentation to all of us media study students based around film openings and how we can produce and create an excellent film opening sequence as our main project for the coursework.
The first part of the talk consisted of us watching various opening sequences of different genres on the main screen and thinking of what type of hints symbolise the genre. We also looked about the way actors and production related jobs are portrayed during the opening scene of movies. One of the opening scenes we was given was "Napoleon Dynamite", a teen comedy. We could tell by the bright colours, cheerful font and high school related meals and objects the genre we was given. The order of names during the first scene is also important to consider. For instance, the first name to appear on the screen was "Jon Heder". Pete Fraser explained that certain actors pay money towards what position they display in the opening scene, as well as there importance in the movie. Therefore Jon, in this particular sequence, is the central character. We watched a variety of other movie openings alongside this one which we then analysed as a group as to what genre each sequence is displaying. The other examples included "Catch Me if you Can" and "Dawn of the Dead".
We also watched a variety of other students film opening tasks and textually analysed their quality and how good they were presented. We watched a wide range of terrible, bad, good and excellent openings. We was given very helpful advice on what makes a good opening sequence and how we can create it in a high quality format.
Do not follow the common film opening route and create something unique. The most common opening features that are included are:
- Saw Opening: Victim tied up in a shed.
- Scream Style Sequence: Male hooded killer stalks a female character.
- Se7en Opening Style: Character sticks knife into a polaroid photo.
- Lock, Stock: Gangsters playing cards which breaks out into a fight.
- Waking Up Scene: Cleaning teeth, brushing hair, leaving the house.
- Flashback or Flash-forward: ...Two Weeks Later...
Don't make a common error stated below:
- Making it look more like a trailer than a film opening.
- Don't have an insufficient amount of titles.
- Always consider sound and lighting.
- Remember to use suitable actors and costumes during production.
- Try not to squeeze a confusing story in just the opening.
Follow the five stages of planning an excellent opening sequence:
- Step One: Take Stock - Where is the task? What's the assessment? What's the timeframe? What's the equipment?
- Step Two: Set up a Blog - make sure to keep evidence of every task I complete.
- Step Three: Build up Skills - skills on sound, editing and camerawork.
- Step Four: Investigate - What do film openings actually look like? What does other student work look like? What do you need to know about titles? How are you going to do something that stands out?
- Step Five: Brainstorm Ideas - Possible Scenarios for pitches/treatments. 25 word pitch. Mood Board treatment. Peer and teacher feedback. Realistic Expectations.
