Halloween Opening Sequence

I think that this is a great example of a good horror film opening. I like the use of POV as I feel it leaves the audience wanting more and they want to know who the character is and what he is doing. I think it would be good if I could somehow incorporate this into our own opening film sequence as we don't want the kidnappers face to be shown to the audience to leave it as a mystery to who they are. I also like how they show the pumpkin which your eyes are automatically drawn to and is a hint for the remainder of the film.

Film Title

We are currently trying to decide on a new name for our film as we didn't feel 'The Parker Riddle' had that much of an impact.

These are some other suggestions that we came up with:

The Parker Riddle

Question Existing

Save Me

Broken

Infatuated

Echo

Obsession

Isolation

Secluded

Eventually we decided on the title, 'Isolation', as we felt that it had much more of an impact and it emphasised the situation that our character was in.

Grey Hand Gang

http://greyhandgang.com/index

I found this website useful in giving me inspiration for types of shots, settings and camera angles etc. that I would be able to use in my film opening.

Audience Feedback On Pitches

Name Of Group And Task Idea
Luke and Abbi - Film Opening

Genre
Horror/Thriller

Target Audience
15+

Other Texts It Reminds You Of
Scream, Saw, The Ring, Kiss The Girls

Potential Problems
•Too much work
•Pictures
•Could be quite scary for 15 year olds
•Quite technical
•Not much happening may get boring
•The locations may not be appropriate - garage works best
•Offensive
•Who's perspective are we seeing it through?
•Lighting - Is it night?
•Mise en scene - Convincing location
•Could be a short movie

Positive Comments
•Really know what we're doing
•Good storyline
•Good ideas
•Very good pitch - nice consideration of costume and location
•I like thrillers
•Makes me want to watch the rest
•As it's similar to Saw, it could be quite hooking
•Good planning
•Really inventive and well thought out ideas, good setting and sinister ideas
•Good idea to be like Saw because it could bring Saw fans to watch it

Advice/Suggestions
•Keep it simple
•Garage would be best for setting - dark, cold and gloomy
•Don't complicate things too much
•Look at other thriller movies for more ideas
•Look into music which helps enhance the genre
•Research effective camera shots
•Build tension
•Don't reveal the kidnapper
•Flashbacks to abduction

Musical Inspiration

We think that a sound like this could be effectively used in our film opening to help build up the tension.

25 Word Pitch

Sam Parker, 17, Taken by her next door neighbour. The opening scene is her waking up in the place she has been taken to. Thriller genre.

About Our Film

Synopsis;

Sam Parker, 17, was abducted on the 19th August 2010. She was violated by her next door neighbour. As her parents struggle to find any clues to where she is, next door down in the basement un imaginable things are happening, and when they finally figure out the riddle, they're in a race against time to save their daughter.

The title of the film; The Parker Riddle

Catch line; Sometimes, what your looking for, is right next door.

Our Idea

After watching the opening to Saw 2, which I had posted on to mine and Luke's blog, Luke had the idea of creating a similar opening. This is because we think it would be possible to create the same sort of effects which are shown in Saw 2. So we have chosen to use some similar techniques used in the Saw 2 opening in our film as we feel it is a good inspiration for our genre of film.

This then gave us the idea of having somebody kidnapped and the opening of the film would be them waking up. The reason we think this would be good is because it is un explained and unknown and the audience would feel scared for the person waking up and also confused because they will have no idea what is going on.

After thinking about this we decided that this is the idea that we are going to use for our film opening.

Possible Ideas

http://www.eng.umu.se/monster/john/sound_music.htm

I think that this website could be very useful in helping us to decide what type of musical elements we may want to include in our film opening. We can see a selection of different varieties in music that are used in many popular thriller films e.g simple three note melodies as used in Jaws and the Halloween series. Therefore helping us to decide what style of music we want to include to help our opening fit the genre of thriller.

Scream - Film Analysis

Scream is a classic example of a great horror/thriller film. It is also a good example of a 'whodunnit' film. It allows the audience to join in with the characters at figuring out who the killer is.

The mise en scene is the opposite to the saw 2 opening because this doesn't look like the setting of a horror film, this looks like the setting of just a normal film but that could be what makes it so scary. This could happen to anyone. Later on in this seqeunce the character being played by Drew Barrymoore is murdered by the man on the telephone who is dressed in a long black cloak and a mask. It leaves the audience wondering who this person could be. It is not revealed til the end of the film.

This film was a succesful one and we can see why. What we want to take from it is the idea of not knowing who the 'bad guy' is and allowing the audience to also try and figure it out, along with the other characters.

Saw 2 - Film Analysis

I think that this is a good example of a film opening, as it leaves the audience with a question of how this man has got where he is and what is going to happen to him. It also appeals greatly to a lover of horror films as we can see from the start that something bad will happen, the music helping to build up the suspense.

The mise en scene in this clip is very important because you have to be careful with every litte bit of detial. Everything has to fit in together and fit perfectly in to the scene and i think this is does well.

This film opening really draws the audience in because everything is unknown and that can really scare someone because they know nothing.

From this we would like to take the idea of knowing nothing, and also the idea of it starting with somebody waking up to create that effect of knowing nothing.

Moodboards

Mise En Scene Power Point

View more presentations from HannahSkidmore.

Deadlines

G321 Course Outline Dec 2009 to March 2010

AS Coursework Checklist

1. Juno opening titles swede
2. Analysis of film opening from Youtube
3. Analysis of student opening
4. Prelim task and evaluation
5. Four 25 word pitches
6. Make a company logo and Ident
7. Nine frames moodboard sheet
8. Titles timeline from art of the Title
9. Storyboard and animatic
10. Recce shots and photos on the shoot
11. Screengrabs throughout editing
12. Rough cut for feedback

Past Work

We looked at this video because it was given an A Grade.

The things we liked about it was the effects on the eye at the beginning. We also liked the titles of the people's name because it fitted along with the theme of horror and also had the same effects as what they eye had.

We have decided that we are gonig to create a horror/thriller start of an opening. We would like to use effects the same as these or close to them because they draw the audience in. It sets a very weary atmosphere.

Themes

We have already established that we are going to create a film opening for our coursework. We haven't actually been given the specification yet but we have been thinking about some ideas.

• A Horror theme - Night time, mysterious characters, dark colours (eg, red, black, grey etc)
• A Romantic theme - Candle lit dinners, Romantic Setting (Countryside), nice and relaxing colours
• A Thriller theme - Cliffhanger, very mysterious, maybe makes the audience jump.
• A Mystery theme - Nothing to be exposed, scary to some extent.

Musical Inspiration

This music inspired me alot. For our film opening we want a suspence opening and we thought that some music like this would create the type of atmosphere that we want. The only thing with this music, is that we don't want it to be cheesy and with this it could be percieved that way. We also wouldn't be able to use this exact song because it would be copyrighted. We could though, get some music which resembles this.

Film Analysis

I think that this is a great example of a horror/thriller theme opening. It straight away makes the ordinary house look creepy and you can already start to get a sense of something bad happening. When the girls are talking it seems like a normal night but as soon as one of them tells the story of the video, we are automatically drawn into the film's main plot. We can already assume that the video will have a reoccurence later on and the fact that she says people have died, we are left wanting to know what will happen.
Also, the fact that it is two ordinary girls we realise that it is happening in everyday life which makes it a more realistic situation.