Research - Extension task

1.) What does Thomas Sutcliffe mean when he says "Films need to seduce their audience into long term commitment. While there are many types of seduction, the temptation to go for instant arousal is almost irresistible"?

Thomas Sutcliffe is suggesting that the film director should seduce the audience into a long term commitment by creating a unique beginning to a film opening which will grab the attention of most viewers and will then want to watch the rest of the film. He is also saying the typical film openings to the some films are not standing out and the audience are demanding something more creative and unique which creates suspense to the openings.

2.) According to Director Jean Jacques Beineix, what are the risks to "instant arousal"?

The risks to 'instant arousal' is that once they have produced a three minute film opening which is 'strong' and straight-forward directors take a big risk of asking themselves questions in what to do, after they have produced a strong opening. The directors take bigger risks in order to satisfy the audience.

3.) Explain why a good beginning must make the audience feel that it doesn't know nearly enough yet, and at the same time make sure it doesn't know too little?

The reason why a good beginning should have these aspects in their film opening is so the audience are left reeling and also allows them to question what the opening was about. A good beginning creates suspense and grabs the attention of the audience, if the audience are not satisfied by the opening they will not bother watching the rest of the film this is mainly because they have  lost interest.

4.) What does critic Stanley Kauffmann describe as the classic opening? why does this work?

Stanley Kauffmann describes a classic opening as an establishing shot of  New York city which then is a close up of a building, the camera then goes up the building to a window. It is then seen inside the window travelling past the receptionist and then you have the private office. The whole of the opening tells the audience about the occupation of the hero and where the main setting is. This opening works because it has everything in place and organised which makes it easier for the audience to figure out what is happening and how the setting links to the film. It is also introducing main characters.

5.) Why is Kyle Cooper's title sequence to the film seven so effective?

The reason why Kyle Coopers title sequence is so effective is because is tells the first part of the story. The images posted a long with the credits foreshadows what is to come. It creates tension and grabs the attention of the audience this is because the images are strange and this creates curiosity.

6.) What did Orson Welles want to achieve with his opening to the film 'A touch of Evil'? What did universal studios do to it? why?

Orson welles wanted to achieve a good film opening by 'plunging' the audience straight into the story without any title music or credits. Universal studios didn't want to start the title sequence this way because it was confusing and no one would understand it so they created a final cut of the opening and then won the battle.

7.)  What is meant by "A favourite trick of Film Noir"? what is the trick?

The Favourite trick of Film Noir is portraying the ending of a film instead of the beginning in the film opening. The film is portraying a destination instead of a departure point which is foreshadowing what is to come.

8.) How does the opening to the film "The Shining" create suspense?

The opening to the film creates suspense using sound, camera and Mise en scene.

• Non-diegetic sound of a Trumpet - This creates suspense because it grabs the attention of the audience and allows them to question the climax of the film. The eerie sound track creates tension which automatically creates suspense because it is setting the mood and tone of the film. Overall this soundtrack is used to foreshadow what is to come, and also to keep the audience in suspense.

• Camera - (Tracking and wide shot) - This creates suspense because it is focusing on the small object and allowing the audience to capture what is happening. The tracking also foreshadows something/someone waiting to hurt these people. The high angle shot and wide shot creates suspense because it tells us that they are heading in the wrong direction and are being watched. 

A little info on how filming went for Reservoir Dogs

We managed to finish filming our remake and all that's left to do is the editing. We were a group member down so that did set us back a bit, however we were able to find someone else to film for us, which is what Quddus would have done if he was there. We also had the props and costumes we needed. So far, not bad. Bring on the editing!

A picture of the editing process!

Info on how the filming went for the remake (Reservior Dogs)

We finished filming the remake as you probably noticed already, since we put up a few pictures of us in our locations setting up our equipment and filming the shots in one of our previous post. So how did it all go?...

Well, my group and I planned the remake (things like the storyboard and the location) really well. We were fairly confident in getting this remake to pretty much a perfect standard. But unfortunately, one of our team members (Quddus) let us down as he didn't make it in on the day, meaning we were unprepared as we didn't think of having a back up plan on who will film instead of him if he doesn't turn up. Luckily enough, Amina managed to get her cousin to film us, whew! Anyway, on the day we had all the props and costume we needed to film the remake. I played the role of one of the characters in the film, and so did Larah and Amina. Now all that is left is the editing, hopefully that all goes well.

Extension Task: 'Watching' Documentary about film openings

 As an extension task I have written my response on a documentary called the 'Watching', which explores the opening title sequences to films.   

When Thomas Sutcliffe says “Films need to seduce their audience into long term commitment. While there are many types of seduction, the temptation to go for instant arousal is almost irresistible” he means that the instant the film starts it has to grab the audience ‘seduce them’ because it will be ‘the start of the ride’ and they need to want to say for the ride in this case the duration of the film. So the first impression means everything. He is basically saying that with any film to work, within the first 5 minutes the audience needs to be grabbed in ‘seduced’ or they won’t like it like because the film will no longer appeal to them. But if the opening of the film is good no one can deny it because it would be visible for people to see and make people want to stay for the rest of the ride/film and see how it plays out ‘it would be almost irresistible’.

Thomas Sutcliffe is suggesting that the film director should seduce the audience into a long term commitment by creating a unique beginning to a film opening that will then grab the attention of most viewers and will encourage them to want to watch the rest of the film. He is also saying the typical film openings to the films now are not standing out and the audience are demanding something more creative and unique which creates suspense/tension to the openings.

According to Director Jean Jacques Beineix the risks of ‘instant arousal’ is that the audience come into watching the film expecting something to happen and if it doesn’t happen within the next 20 minutes they’re gone. He says people have to accept to wait and let the story/film grow and then something will happen. So he lets the film/story build up because he says that after a strong start people ask questions “what will happen next?”, and then the director and crew have to answer the questions, but they take a risk never to answer the question.

“A good film beginning must make the audience feel that it doesn’t know nearly enough yet, and at the same time make sure that it doesn’t know too little” This is because it is like the rules of engagement to make sure the audience is giving their full attention. So this wakes the audience and instructs them on how they should be watching the film and how’ll they be while watching the film. Making sure they get their moneys worth. This is done by making the being crucial, so the film is established and they have an early adjustment to the genre of the film and establishing many things at once.

Critic Stanley Kauffmann describes the classic opening as it starting of with an establishing shot (seen from the east), a close up of a building, the camera going up a building to a window, then the camera goes into the window, then goes past the receptionist just to a private office and there would be a person. The classic opening worked because it showed were the thing is taking place, what the occupation the person is in and most importantly the organization of the world.

Kyle Cooper’s title sequence to the film Seven is so effective because the sequence tuned the viewers because it set the genre of the film and settled the viewers into their seats because it was part of the transition and it gets them right on the head, waking them up so they could get ready for what was going to happen next. So the sequence became a scene of the film and introduced the obsessive story of the main character.

Orson Welles wanted to achieve having the audience plunged into the story of the film with out giving them time to prepare them selves so he deiced the opening of the film would been seen with out credits and with out title music in the opening to the film ‘A Touch of Evil?’ because an opening of a film should lead the audience into the film/story, letting the know slowly. Telling the audience the nature and the kind of story the film is by introducing some important characters or characters that will become important. But the studio wanted it there so they put a score, source and credits underneath the opening. So the effect that Welles wanted to achieve was lost.

“A favorite trick of Film Noir” is a thing directors like to do in a film were the beginning of the film starts with the ending of the story. This is a trick because it should be the other way round. So the beginning of the film feels like a destination point, unlike a departure point looking ahead of what to come and anything that the audience doesn’t see the first time they will see once they see it again (foreshadowing what is to come).

The opening of the film The Shining creates suspense because the way camera techniques and the music are used during the opening. First you can see an easy up lift of a helicopter shot and the second viewing you can see the camera pursuing the car like a predator high up and from behind but at the same time see the surrounding/setting. Letting the audience just guess them selves that the people are travelling in the wrong direction. 

A few photos from our filming process (Reservoir Dogs)

So here is Larah setting up the JVC camcorder, getting ready to film the remake at our first location (the staff's kitchen in our college)!

Here is Larah again, but this time setting the equipment with Amina's cousin (since Quddus wasn't in we had to get someone else to film our remake)!

 And finally here is Shireen and Amina with the storyboard and equipment, checking the lighting at our second location (outside the college, near the Owens park). 

More film opening research...

Film opening: Titanic (2000)

This is the opening sequence to Titanic. Even though this is not a thriller it was good for research as it includes aspectsof thriller elements throughout the film.

Conventions 

The film opening shows the Title of the film and a Title sequence. The Title of the film is actually shown near the end of the Title sequence. Unlike the majority of title sequences, this one does not introduce the characters/actors involved. For those who have never seen/heard of Titanic before it leaves them wondering who is going to star in it. The opening follows the typical convention of showing the distributors, Paramount Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox as well as the production company, Lightstorm Entertainment. This is done so the companies get advertised. Before the title appears the sequence is shown with clips from what we believe to be the original Titanic ship. These clips are old and coloured differently to the rest of the sequence. This is done to draw people in and interest them. The film opening closes with a submarine deep in the ocean. It is a tense and eerie closing which leaves us wondering what will happen next in the film. The first part of the sequence has humming soundtrack, to possibly try and get the viewers to feel more sympathy for those who tragically perished, whilst the second part has the non-diegetic sound of the submarine going deeper into the ocean. This is also to create suspense and make the viewer want to watch more by keeping them wondering what will happen. Wide shots, extra wide shots, long shots, two shots, and over the shoulder shots are used in the first part of the sequence, whilst a close up of the submarine in the second part of the sequence is used as well. This is done to make the sequence effective. In this sequence the setting is both on the ship and in the ocean. This is done to keep the audience guessing about where this film will actually be set.

Overall the film opening is effective as captures peoples eyes and draws them in and the $2,185,372,302 it made at the box office proves it! 

Just another film opening!

Does the film opening of Panic Room follow the conventions?

First of all, here's the film opening of Panic Room (2002)

The conventions used in this film opening are as follows:

Title of the film - the opening of the film shows the title 'PANIC ROOM' in big, bold, 3D effect to draw the audience to the film and to establish what they are watching.

Title Sequence - the film opening presented their title, key production and cast members so that the audience will have an idea about what the film will be like. Sometimes knowing specific information like who's starring in the film can encourage a person on whether they would like to watch it. For instance, in this case a fan of Kristin Stewart would be interested in seeing this film as she is starring in it.

Production Company Logo - in the beginning of the film opening, they presented the company 'COLUMBIA', which is behind the film production and distribution. This was especially done in before the film even began as they wanted to advertise themselves and be known. 

Setting/location - it was obvious from watching the opening that the film is set in the city. To be more precise, it is set in New York City.

Characters - two characters where introduced towards the end of the film opening, so that the audience could engage or have a feel of the characters and an idea of what the film will be like.

Film Genre - the dark coloured and long clothing, that is part of mise en scene, suggests a crime genre. The technical/3D words and big office buildings also implies a crime feel to the film. More so, the fast pace music and the ticking of the clock sound suggests that the film has an element of action and possibly crime.

Suspense - the eerie and tense non-diegetic sound (especially the ticking of a clock noise) adds suspense in the film opening, leaving the audience to wonder about what will happen in the actual film.

Music, Diegetic and non-diegetic sound combination - the music used in the film opening is slow at first, but the pace builds up gradually, creating tension for the audience watching. There is use of diegetic sounds such as the voices of the actors, and non-diegetic sounds such as the ticking of the clock. More so, they added non-diegetic background music played to prepare the audience for what is coming next.

Overall, the film opening of Panic Room clearly uses the conventions well. Their opening says a lot about what the audience will watch for the rest of the film and sets the tone for the audience, allowing them to get hooked into the film instantly.

Research on a film openings - Six feet under

The film opening of Six feet under identifies many conventions which allows the audience to get an inside view of whats to come. 

The conventions of the film opening Six feet under are as follows:

• Title sequence - Introduces the main characters who are starring in the film. The close up shots of the images and also the name of the film itself Six feet under tells us a bit about the film and what is to come.
• The opening scene sets the mood and also the eerie non-diegetic sound track being played sets the tone of the film opening.
• During the film opening the settings of the film is introduced. Which is of a deserted area. Various images of a corpse, flowers dying and a image of two people letting go of each others hands are shown to suggest they link to the deserted area it could foreshadow something bad happening later on in the film.
• The camera shots and effects of the images being displayed creates a sad, weird feeling for the audience. This grabs their attention and makes them want to carry on watching the film.
• The non-diegetic sound creates a tense, eerie situation which leaves the audience asking questions about the film.

The 180 degree rule

There are certain rules we must follow when filming. One is the 180 degree rule.

This rule means you can only film on a semi-circle basis, otherwise, the camera work will be incredibly confusing for the viewer. Take a game of football for example.

Football is always filmed on one side of the pitch- the side that's nearer to us. If we suddenly switched sides on the camera, it would look as though the teams suddenly switched side sides and a new game was being played.

We need to stick to this rule as we dont want our thriller to look as though two totally different things are happening at the same time.

This is an example of the 180 degree rule.

Rule of Thirds!

The Rule of Thirds is a concept in video and film production in which the frame is divided into into nine imaginary sections. This creates reference points which act as guides for framing the image. The Rule of Thirds is a powerful compositional technique for making photos more interesting, dynamic and look framed well. 

In most "people shots", the main line of interest is the line going through the eyes. In this shot, the eyes are placed approximately 1/3 of the way down the frame. Depending on the type of shot, it's not always possible to place the eyes like this.

The rule of thirds states than an image is most pleasing when its subjects or regions are composed along imaginary lines which divide the image into thirds, both vertically and horizontally. It often creates a sense of balance without making the image appear too static, and a sense of complexity without making the image look too busy.

If you didn't understand all that text above that explained the Rule of Thirds, maybe a song will make things clearer ? :)

180 Degree Rule!

Continuity is a big part of film making. If you're shooting a short film or interview, it's important to set the scene and establish your characters in space and time in order for the viewer to follow the action. One of the most basic continuity rules is the 180 Degree Rule. 

The 180 Degree Rule states that two characters in a scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If you don't follow the 180 Degree Rule, or break it intentionally, it disrupts the scene disorients the audience. When you break the 180 line, a person who was originally facing left in a scene is all of the sudden facing right. Wait! When did they switch places?

The 180 Degree Rule enables the audience to visually connect with unseen movement happening around and behind the immediate subject and is important in the narration of battle scenes (e.g. in Star Wars).

A good example is when watching the football match, they always follow the 180 Degree Rule because if they cross the 180 line, the viewers will get confused on which team scored.

BUT...

Like they say, all rules are made to be broken.

In professional productions, the applied 180-degree rule is an essential element for a style of film editing called continuity editing. However, the rule is not always obeyed. Sometimes a filmmaker will purposely break the line of action in order to create disorientation. Stanley Kubrick was known to do this, an example being the bathroom scene in The Shining.

In The Shining, Stanley Kubrick shoots wide shots from both directions, a 180 degree flip, crossing the line.

 In the first shot, Jack Torrance is standing on the left, with his back towards the camera.

In the next shot, Jack Torrance is all of a sudden standing on the right, but this time he is facing the camera.

Still not getting it? Watch this short clip!

Rule of Thirds

The Rule of Thirds is when the frame for the film is divided into 9 unseen sections. This acts as a guide when filming. This powerful technique makes identifies the most important parts of the image, makes photos look more dynamic and better framed as well.

Here is an example of this rule. The main line of interest is going through her eyes, which is what the majority of 'people shots' have.

Storyboard of Reservoir Dogs (Shot by Shot remake)

Sketched Storyboard:

This is the sketched storyboard that our group created (drawn by Shireen) from observing the film opening of Reservoir Dogs. We will use this as a template when we film our remake.

Technical Storyboard: 

We also created a technical storyboard to show the actual shots and just incase the writing of the sketched one is unlear.
 

Plan for our film remake (Reservoir Dogs)

Group 30 were assigned to create a remake of Reservoir Dogs film opening. Our remake of the opening will be around 2 minutes long (like most of the other film openings out there). 

Who will be doing what?

After watching the film opening, our group have decided that the characters played in our remake will be all females as majority of us in the group are girls. Also because the cast in the original film opening only included people of the same gender (male), so we will be using the opposite gender instead.

Our group doesn't have enough people to play the roles of the 8 main characters shown as we only have 4 members, so we will only work with what we've got! This means that Shireen, Larah and Amina will be playing the roles of the original male characters in the opening.

...and what will Quddus be doing? well he will obviously be behind the camera filming the remake!
After filming the shots we need for the remake, all of us in the group will edit the opening.

Where will it be set?

We have decided to film our remake of the opening just outside the college, near Owen's field as it will make it easier for us to do so considering how close it is. Also because the area has a pathway which we can use to do the slow motion walking, like in the original film opening.

GIF showing some of the props used in the original opening.

What props will be used?

From making a good observation of the original film opening, our group have decided to use a few props which we thought are important in the making of it, as they will set the mood for the audience and allow us to get in role of the characters. The props are: dark jackets, black shades and a fake cigarette.

GIF showing the camera traking with slow motion editing in
the Reservoir Dogs Opening.

What techniques will be used in camera and editing?

We will follow the original film opening and use the template of the storyboard that we created in order to help us use the different techniques that we gathered from watching the original opening: tracking, close up shots, mid shots, wide shots and slow motion editing. We will be filming with a small hand held camera whilst we are re-creating and shooting the Reservoir Dogs opening sequence to show our process.

About the film Reservoir Dogs (Shot by Shot remake)

Today our group were assigned to create a remake of Reservoir Dogs film opening!

Here's the original film opening of Reservoir Dogs which is a 1992 American crime thriller film.
 

Background Information of the film:

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Produced by Lawrence Bender

Edited by Sally Menke

Distributed by Miramax Films

Starring

Summary of the film:

Six criminals, who are strangers to each other, are hired by a crime boss Joe Cabot to carry out a diamond robbery. Right at the outset, they are given false names with an intention that they won't get too close and concentrate on the job instead. They are completely sure that the robbery is going to be a success. But when the police show up right at the time and the site of the robbery, panic spreads amongst the group members and one of them is killed in the subsequent shootout along with a few policemen and civilians. When the remaining people assemble at the premeditated rendezvous point (a warehouse), they begin to suspect that one of them is an undercover cop.

Intro to our Remake Task (Reservoir Dogs)

Our group have been assigned on creating a remake of the film opening for Reservoir Dogs (1992).
A film by QUENTIN TARANTINO!! 

Brief summary of the Opening!

This film is a crime thriller and it depicts the events before the botched diamond heist, but not the heist itself. In the opening, we see 8 men (which most are wearning smart suits, ties and dark shades) eating in breakfast diner/cafe, before the heist using aliases. Then we see them walking in slow motion on the street to a funky backing track. The shots for this are mainly close-ups, but there are many more which we will try and re-create for our remake.

Quick post on our first project

We have been given the task of re-making the opening to the film Reservoir Dogs.

Brief summary

This film is a crime thriller and it depicts the events before the botched diamond heist, but not the heist itself. In the opening, we see 8 men eating in breakfast diner, before the heist using aliases. We then see them walking in slow motion. The shots for this are close ups, which we will try and re-create for our remake.

An example of the close ups they use.

Camera shots! Say cheese :D

 Introduction to cameras

"It's easy to take any shot, but not a good shot"

Today we practiced taking different shots using the still camera which was introduced to us earlier on. This was a chance for us to practice and get use to the equipment before we begin to film our very own thriller opening. In order to take good clear shots, we have to make sure that we hold the camera steady, and be aware of the frame and lighting. Here are the shots we took: 

(1) This is a wide shot of an area in our college. It is focused and shot at a good angle which allows you to see the objects clearly in that area.

(2) This is another wide shot of the same area as we took previously. Although the picture is focused and clear, it is taken at a bad angle which makes the shot difficult to look at; however, it does make the shot look more interesting.

(3) This is a bad example of an over the shoulder shot. Firstly, you cannot see Amina (the girl in the black jacket) properly as she needs to move more to the right side in order for us to see her face; otherwise we will not know who the person is approaching or having a conversation with. Secondly, the framing is off as there is too much wasted space to the right side of the shot; this loses the focus of the person being captured.

(4) These are shot taken of Quddus by the window. We purposely did this to see the lighting issues that will arise (unfortunately, the light coming from the window wasn't bright enough to fully show what we mean). Taking a shot by the window isn't a good idea when there is so much light coming through as it makes the shot too bright (like shown on the right hand corner of each shot) and makes the person look darker as they are in the opposite direction of the light.

(5) This is a shot of shoes taken in an interesting way; although, the shot has bad quality as it is blurry and not focused. This completely ruins the shot and takes the focus away from the main thing: the shoes!

(6) These are shots of shoes taken in different ways to make them look interesting. All of the shots below are focused well and some of them are good close-ups which really draws people in to what is being shown.

(7) This is a shot of Shireen that breaks the rule of thirds as her head isn't in the 1/3 (top) section of the shot. Also, the shot doesn't give her enough looking space, instead there is too much extra space on the opposite side which gives the whole shot a bad framing.

(8) This is a tight close-up shot of Shireen's sister. It is focused and follows the rule of thirds as the eyes are in line with the top section of the framing (1/3). A close-up shot is very good in showing the emotion of a character in a film, it can also show the age of the person; for example if the person has wrinkles it would be visible and obvious that the person is old. In this case, she is young.