Soundtrack thoughts

Due to copyright we won't be able to use songs in our opening sequence.  We had originally planned to use a song but then realised we couldn't so we are hoping to create our own soundtrack.  It is likely that we will create some of the soundtrack as we have people in our group that play instruments so this means it will be easier to compose some of our soundtrack.

The type of music we'd like to create is going to be quite upbeat and sound quite cheesy. 

This is an example of the sort of song we are wanting to make.  We originally wanted to use this, but due to copyright we are unable to. Instead of creating a whole new track we may edit to make it a bit easier.



We do not intend to have a lot of music in our opening sequence, mainly just for the the very beginning when the geek enters the class room.

Today's lesson (30th January)

During the lesson today, as a group, we discussed what days we were able to start filming where everyone was free for at least a couple of hours.  At first we had problems with some of us not able to make a certain day, but we over came this and our draft of the days we will be filming is now complete and will be put up on the blog soon.

We also started to take the casting shots. We have taken them against a white background, so it is simple. These will be put on the blog at a later date.

Cast Planning

From the beginning we identified the characters that were going to be our priority due to the significance they had in our opening sequence. We also have a very vivid idea of who we knew that would be appropriate to illustrate these characters. We were aware that we had to select inidviduals who were reliable due to the numerous times we will have to film and edit specific parts of this project, we could not choose someone who was going to bring inconvinience to the cast as it would have an impact on the general project this could reflect on our grade.

As a result all of our cast members are from our school and so makes things easier in terms of filiming in school hours when it is best for everyone but most importantly as it is where the location for our opening sequence is.

Pictures and labels will be updated onto the blog to convey what individual plays what and why as a group we thought they were relevant and so on.

Title Research

From the beginning of this project we have discussed the fact that we would like the title of our film to be unique but also a title that may make our characters laugh, as we plan to do a comedy, or engage our characters to watch the opening sequence. For the title of our film we had many ideas that bounced of each other making new ideas :

• Theodopolus- as the main character of our film is going to be the geek we thought that we could name our film after the main character, but in the end we swayed away from using this title as we want people, when they see the title of our film, to read it with ease or interest not to struggle in trying to pronounce the name of our film. 
• School days- We then thought about giving out opening sequence this title as it is set in school and these are the everyday problems that may occur in school. We also wanted to use this title as in a way it givse a way what the film is going to be about as well as the genre of the film. The title is also ironic as it is as if the main character, the geek, is saying the phrase school days as if its going to be a normal day for the geek but she doesn't know what's in store for her on this special school day. We then again swayed away form this title as it seems to simplistic.

We then finally decided on making the title of our film '4 faces'. We wanted the main character, the geek, to be included in the title of our film in some way but we weren't to sure how.We chose this title because its unique and engages you two watch the film after you have read the title; it has 4 in the title as they are four characters that we are going to focus on in our opening sequences, including the main character the geek, we then chose 'faces' to accompany the 4 because we are going to be concentrating on their different faces (personalities) and how then eventually come together to be friends.

           

Progress and improvements

Progress:

We have looked at various opening sequences to help us in making our opening sequence. Prior to starting this project we have already allocated individual roles to appropriate individuals that will be part of our cast. Additionally, we have also looked at locations at where we could film different scenes in our opening sequence.

Improvements:

Although we have focused on numerous details it is clear that there are things that we need to work on in order to improve. Some of these things are as follows: we know that we need t o include more posts on our blogs illustrating our different thoughts that are relevant to different topics as well as the fact that our blog doesn't need to be so 'tidy' but we can add our thoughts on certain things when it is appropriate e.g. adding our thoughts on the cast

Storyboards

The shots on our storyboards are ordered in numbers...

During shot 1 and shot 2 there is going  to be a voice over and between these shots there are going to be various different angled shots such as: of the geek dropping her books and glasses.

The rest of the shots will commence after the main character (the geek) enters the room.

Here we want to use zoomed in shots of he characters and then have flashbacks of what happened before for example in picture 6a the 'junky' girl is walking out of Mcdonalds with several bags of food.

Towards the ending of our opening sequence their is a master shot (picture 9) showing what individuals are doing. We have then ended with a close up of the main character looking confused.

Ideas for production logo...

These are our  ideas for our production logo:

We chose our production logo to be a record disk as it is a unique way of conveying media in terms of demonstrating comedy.

After choosing the basic layout we worked on it further...

After adding text to our production logo we will be looking forward to making changes for example making the text go round and so on.

Above is the edited copy of our production logo, it can be seen to that we have made the text adjusted according to the shape of the record disc, using Photoshop. However, we are now looking towards actually making the text rotate but we aware that this animation will take time and patience and so will work on it outside of class time.

Timeline for Accepted

This is the timeline for 'Accepted' which was the comedy film; we looked at the opening sequence as it has similar media characteristics to the opening sequence that we want to make.

Detailed influence :D

Detailed study of 'Accepted' opening sequence on Prezi

Pitch/Synopsis

After having discussed numerous ways of introducing characters and other aspects of our film in just 2 minutes as a group we have finalised our idea on what we want our opening sequence to be; We still plan to keep the main ideas of our film the same, where there are 4 characters with different personalities and are put in a group to work together and exploring the struggles that they go through:
The main character is a geek called Theodopolus therefore she will be the voice over in our film and the other three characters that are considered to be important are fellow students in Theodopolus media class who have three completely different personalities for instance the really cool boy, the popular girl and the junky girl.
The scene will start with the geek running on her way to her media lesson and then bursting through the door, everyone who is working then look at the geek whilst she says to the teacher 'sorry I'm I late?'. Straight away after that there is a pause on each character, here the scene goes black and white to show the priority of those certain characters. Afterwards the teacher announces the project as well as group names where funnily the four main characters get put together. Then hopefully from the viewers point of view they will understand that the rest of the film will be the struggles that the geek goes through in the process of making this media project.
Lastly, as a group we have decided on the title for the film, 4 Faces. Now we are working towards producing a production logo and other aspects of media that will allow as to make an appealing opening sequence.

Thoughts on Target audience

Our opening sequence is aimed at males and females under 25 because the characters are a mix of girls and boys who are teenagers. Our film would not appeal to over 25's as our film is set in a younger environment, as it is set in a school. Also our film is a simple, basic comedy therefore would not interact with over 25's as they more be more interested in complex comedies rather than simple comedies.
Our film will be mainstream and we will attempt to appeal to a wide audience with the use of typical humour, for example, the school geek, that mostly everyone can understand and laugh about. As well as the fact that all the characters are teenagers allows other teenagers to relate to this film and view things such as, social groups in school, another way. This will also show that people should not be your friends on the basis of their age etc.. as it also shows that different social groups can get on if you give each other a chance and don't pre-judge them.

Mood board's

We each made a mood board reflecting our ideas for our film.  Dolapo and Ana both created a mood board focusing on comedic elements, such as visual things that many people would laugh at. On the other hand, Jessica and Megan made a mood board about the social aspect of reality and their differences.

Dolapo's mood board

    Ana's mood board

   
     

Jessica's mood board

Megan's mood board

Initial Ideas for opening sequence

We began by saying that our film should be a mainstream comedy aimed at 15-19 year olds based on the idea of a group of completely different people:a geek, a popular girl, a boy who tries to act cool and a main character which is the voiceover.We had an idea about portraying the popoular girl as a typical dumb blonde, high school head cheerleader that constantly gets on everyones nerves as she always spells things out as she says them.
We then thought about adding, to the group, a boy who tries to act cool who will again, like the head cheerleader, constantly annoying everyone but with his stupied comments about how he thinks hes so cool but he really isnt so as a result people just generally feel sorry for him.
Next, we then thought about adding a geek which is completely different from the other charcters. We wanted to include a typical geek, that you might see in highschool, who has big goofy glasses, braces, has her hair in bunches and constantly useing hand santazier whenever and wherever she goes.
Lastly, we then wanted to incude a 'normal average girl'(compared to othe other characters) who is the voiceover of the film as this is what she percieved this experience, working with different people, to be.
We also wanted to portray our credits in an unique way, where we would have paused images on each of the characters with their character names and their real names beside their images with the main charcters voiceover describing each of the characters.Additionally, there would be a teacher that just assigns the groups and out these four different characters together, the teacher would only play a minor part in the opening sequence, the teacher would also be the director behind the scences of the film-making. We originally wanted to call th film 'School Days' but we werent to sure when it was said.Our initial idea was going to start with the group of people looking annoyed and then was going to pause on each charatcter and then titles running (credits) over it saying who that character is.  There was going to be a voice over describing each character, this was going to be done by the main character.  The geek, in our film, was going to be constantly bringing out hand sanitizer, with a weird name.  There is a boy that tries to act cool and tries to trip over the geek and comments from the popular girl and the main character were being made after the geek tripped and looked like a fool. 

We then went on from this idea and expanded it to starting with a year book with a class photo which we would of zoomed into and then started the film from there, when the bell would of gone and the class leaving the room.  Then students would enter the classroom and would of be segreated from eachother and then the teacher would then enter and call their names, we would focus on one group with the 4 different types of people, a geek, a popular girl, boy who tries to act cool and then the main character.  We would of seen them having to work together which would of been awful for them since they were so different but  we intended it to be funny for the people watching.


Below is our initial ideas for our media film shown on a spider diagram...

Influences

Out of all the openings we have watched, the one that we enjoyed the most was the comedy film 'Just Married' because we were put straight into the comedy and that made us interested as to  why the characters were angry with each other. We would refer to this opening sequence because it is a simple comedic opening sequence which is why it engaged us straight away. It did not take long at all to get into the story and did not waste time with the credits. Some of the characteristics we enjoyed are as follows:

• The fact that it is set in an airport where people are relaxed and happy
• Their body language and eye contact with eachother
• The tricks that they play on each other ( tripping one another up)
• There just married but act as if they are enemies

Another comedic opening we watched was 'Jersey Girl'. We enjoyed this one a lot as the comedic view was from children. This was very different as we usually predict the comedic side to consist of adults at the beginning. Some of the characteristics that we enjoyed are as follows:

• The animated company logo at the start made the theme of the movie clear
• The expression on their faces e.g. innocence
• Body language of the kids
• The irony of the children's essays

The film 'Napoleon Dynamite' had a very unique opening with the credits written with food and on various other ways. This impressed us as it did not bore us as the writing was interesting. Unlike the two other opening sequences that we enjoyed this opening did not put us straight into the comedy but from what we saw we could tell that comedy was being portrayed or going to start and continue throughout the film after the opening sequence. Some of the characteristics that we enjoyed are as follows:

• The simple company logo as it was written on a piece of paper which is unique
• How the credits were portrayed (on food)
• The main character was first revealed to us when we saw his ID card

Lastly, the film 'Friends with Benefits' also had an unusual opening sequence as they did not waste time showing credits but instead went straight into the film where we were driven right into the comedy, and the main characters were revealed. The comedic view is shown from two people talking on the phone to there partners but was combined into one conversation making it look like they are talking to each other not there partners which engages us to watch the film further. Some of the characteristics we enjoyed are as follows:

• The fact the company logo was used as a slide on his computer to make it seem part of the film rather than separate like credits
• Both couples had the same situation (going to the cinema) and ended up the same dilemma (breaking up)

                                     

What is an opening sequence?

In an opening sequence we usually expect it to entails an introduction on what the film genre is . Most films introduce the main characters or scenes that may occur throughout the film such as Train spotting. Train spotting went straight into the action as if the film was in such a rush it did not have time to show the credits, although, the credits were shown I an unusual way as the name of the character was given with a paused image rather than doing it the traditional way; the film may have also  wanted to maintain a fast pace rather than to slow it down. We are introduced to the serious issue of drugs which reflects the genre of the film, though, there was some comedy shown in parts of the film which was ironic as the is not what the genre is about at all. Lastly, there is a voice-over which helps the people watching the film to understand and grasp things about the thing more as the fact that there is a voice-over helps to bind everything together.

Th opening of 'Office space' had the same style as train spotting as each character was introduced during the opening sequence.  There was also up beat music playing which helps to create a sense of humour and introduce the genre, also the part when the young guy blast rap music out of his car with his windows winded up and his door locked also helps in creating this.The credits were in simple big blue bubble writing (font) to convey the fact that this is a comedy film. We are driven straight away into a comedic scenario. As the film begins with the main character and a few other character, perhaps minor, stuck in traffic is an undramatic sequence. The is very simple but fairly standard opening sequence.

                                                
The opening sequence of Sweeny Todd is different from the other two films as it is just title sequence.  The titles are animated, also the fact that blood, which symbolises blood and danger, is used at the beginning of the title sequence which is animated which also portrays the horror genre.There are no characters introduced which makes it unique, interesting way and isolates this in a way from most films opening sequences.  The music playing during the title sequence is dramatic which tells us what the genre is and all the colours used are dark to show that the film is a horror. In addition,there are dark visuals establishing the atmosphere and theme.