Our Group's Idea For An Opening Sequence

This is the rough idea for our group's opening sequence so far.

There will be a man answering a phone. The man's identity remains unknown. He talks to another unknown man on the phone throughout the opening two minutes about hunting someone down. Again the hunted man is unknown and only referred to as "him". This interlinks with a sequence involving a man walking along the road and taking various paths in a quick and panicked fashion. It can be assumed that this man is the one being hunted. There are numerous shots of him taking paths which are then shown to be blocked by henchmen, and he is forced off into many different directions. There will also be around three or four rapid flashback shots during the sequence, which will be blurred and tinted so it will be clear that the scenes are flashbacks. The titles will come up simply in black and white every now and then during the sequence.

The sequence will have a quick feel to it with the numerous shots used in quick succession. Tracking shots will be used to show the man on the run and extreme close ups will be used of the first man's phone ringing and him answering it. As was aforementioned the flashbacks will be clearly defined with some blur and tint, if possible although it should be recognised that this may prove difficult to acheive and so may have to be cut in the final plan. The costumes will be casual/smart and dark, mostly greys and blacks. The music will have a dramatic feel to it and will probably be an instrumental by acclaimed artist Ashgo 9Teen as we have gained legal rights to use his material. The most likely pieces for use are the tracks 'Rayners Lane' or 'Rusteeq' as using his more complicated pieces would take away from the visual and the theme of the sequence.

Our initial idea for a title is 'Untitled' because the man is unknown and unnamed. The tagline is "Unknown quantities cannot be titled". The movie would fit into the thriller genre, and the sub-genre would be a hybrid; a man-on-the-run thriller with elements of a psychological thriller. The movie's style is rather rapid and creepy. The psychological element could show similar content to such movies as 'Donnie Darko' whereas the man-on-the-run element could be like the movie 'The Fugitive'.

Thriller Sub-Genres

The Thriller category of movies is very wide and unspecific. The following are sub-genres of the Thriller genre.

Psychological Thriller - e.g Donnie Darko. Movies with complicated and often creepy storylines.

Man On The Run - e.g The Fugitive. Movies which follow one person or a group of people's journey as they are hunted down.

Action Thriller - e.g Con Air. Movies which are packed with explosions, gunfire and fighting, but suffer from unrealistic moments and minimal storyline.

Slasher Thriller - e.g Scream. Movies which usually follow a violent series of killings.

Spoof Thriller - e.g Shawn of The Dead. Movies which use stereotypical elements of famous thrillers and pack them in a funny way into one movie.

Horror Thriller - e.g Saw. Movies which are designed simply to scare the viewer.

The Birds Scary Scene Evaluation

1st shot - Establishing shot
2nd shot - Mid Shot
3rd shot - Medium Long Shot (tracking)
4th shot - Low angle Mid Shot with slow rotation
5th, 6th shot - Mid Shot
7th shot - Medium Close-Up
8th shot - long shot
9th shot - Medium Close-Up
10th shot - Medium Close-Up
11th shot - Medium Close-Up
12th shot - High Angle, Wide Shot
13th shot - Medium Shot
14th shot - Close-Up
15th shot - Long shot continuity Medium Long Shot
16th shot - Long shot
17th shot - low Angle, Close-up

1. What principles of continuity are used here? How successfully? Refer to specific shots / screen grabs.

The continuity is mainly completely smooth but some parts of the woman's journey are missed out and in the shot of the woman going through the front door, a couple of her footsteps and the opening of the first door are skipped.

2. What is the effect of the editing on the viewer? What are we meant to feel at different stages? (ie before she enters the house, in the kitchen, in the corridor, in the bedroom, running away)?

There is a lot of build up as the woman opens the door. Then a point of view shot is used as she looks around the room and finally comes to the man. Then a close/mid shot is used to show the woman's expression and reaction.

3. What is the 'best bit' for you in this sequence in terms of learning new techniques and why?

The best bit was as the woman discovered the body and ran away, a view is used which allows us to see the woman running towards the camera but also shows the corridor behind her as if there is a possibility of something or someone coming behind her as she tries to escape.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

The above video, is one of the final cuts of the preliminary task movie. The difference in the 3 final cuts is the soundtracks used. I think we all did good jobs with the sound as they fit well with the genre and tempo of the movie. Different camera angles are used to build tension such as POV and high angle shots. The minimal dialogue aids the movie as most films in this stalker sub-genre of thriller, do not contain much speech and conversation. The continuity was quite good apart from one scene where a person appears where he wasn't before, however it doesn't look bad as it looks like it may have been an intentional sudden appearance as the music is also shocking at this point. The other poor bit of continuity is in the final scene which I was absent from the filming of, as in this scene there are many people standing around who were not there before, however this could be covered up with the idea that the criminal is standing around pretending that he doesn't know what happened to the victim, and then the man who gave the victim his wallet before the incident, sees the criminal, and figures out or knows from previous incidents, that he did the crime.

Comparing 'The Accident' and 'The Door'

'The Accident' was the first movie. The main task was to create a good storyline while using a variety of camera angles. The first objective was completed as was the second one however looking back, the main problem is the continuity in the filming and editing. The main objective on the second movie; 'The Door' was then to illustrate good continuity.

'The Door' was a success as the movie showed near perfect continuity, including during the most difficult to film scene, of a character going through a door.