Focusing on my Target Audience

If my opening were to be carried out and developed into an entire movie i think the target audience for my piece would be teenagers and older, due to the theme of my opening as i want it to be a 'mysterious thriller'. i want my piece to be quite diverse, and will have an independent movie kind of feel to it, due to the location in the opening, and other features; for example i plan to film my opening in two separate location, one being in the countryside, this part being particularly eerie and mysterious, using unusual camera angles and shots. The other location being in a household location, of a girl going her day to day activity, and i wanted the two scenes to link in a way in which makes it very questioning for the audience, and this will involve the character featuring in both scenes, and her activity which will be juxtaposing in both scenes which will create questioning from the audiences perspective.

A younger audience may find my opening quite confusing and possible a little frightening with the visiual and audio sounds working together as i want to make it quite eerie, so i think my most appropriate target audience would be from 15 years and over.

Using Livetype

Livetype is a programme i used in order to create my titles that appear throughout my opening, this was a very complex programme that i somtimes struggled with, in order to sucssfully create my titles, i have to set many different thing individually including the font, timing, transitions of the text, the spacing of where they were to be seen on the opening and also the ammount of time they were to be on the opening for; all these aspects were something that had to be set and applied in livetype.

This is an exmple of my text which reveals the production company name, and the blue line is the positioning of where the text is going to appear on the screen of the movie opening, wether it be over the top of footage i have recorded or a plain background, the finalising and editing wether it will be on footage or not will be done in final cut. Underneath is the timeline in which you can edit the transitions of the text.

This is the selection and toolbox where you insert the text you want and then edit the text in many different way, looking at font, colour and shadowing. This is also where you add the transitions and how and how and where the text appears and dissapears on the screen.

As you can see here, my possesions title i thought would look best in white with black shadowing, and underneath you can see the yellow and purple timeline, which you can edit, allowing how long it take for the text to fade in and out, how long it stays up for and the different transitions used for the text.

Using Soundtrack Pro

A programme in which i used to create the soundtrack for my opening, and this involved choising the different sounds, sometimes extending them, and creating the different sounds through many layers of sounds. I had to look for sounds that i thought would work well in my piece and create tension and atmopshere.

This is a shot of my soundtrack from soundtrack pro, and as you can see all the seperate green sections are all the layers of sounds i have used and included to create my soundtrack. Some fade in and out at different times for effect, and i have used different sounds that i think complement each other and work well together for my piece, as i want to create alot of the tenstion and atmophere from the sounds used, as i think alongside the eerie images at the start of my piece this will work really well.

Using Final Cut Express

Final cut was the programme i used in order to edit my clips together and make the piece work as a whole, i added fades between shots here and cut the clips down, and converted them to the appropriate file type. Things such as the titles and the soundtrack were thing i had to import into final cut and edit into the piece, colaborating the different programmes together in order to creating a piece was also somehtign new to me.

 As you can see here final cut express consists of two split screens, one in which you drag the clips form the left into, and you can edit and cut clips whihc are shown in the first screen. The next screen is where the final outcome plays over and you can see how things work together, which is helpful and this prevents you going back and forth from clips and losing work and edits.

Here is a shot of the timeline used in final cut, where all editing clips are dragged in series and then can be played or transitions can be added in order to create the final piece.

This is a close up of the timeline, showing where i have put two seperate clips together and added a cross dissolve meening the clips will descretly fade which i think works really well. Above is a seperate piece which is one of the titles, made in livetype and imported as a sperate file, then edited into the timeline also.



 This is a shot of the opening sequence of my opening as you can see there are mnay short clips, with titles running over the top, the soundtrack throughout, and then it leads onto the 'Possessions' title where you can see the gap in the series, then this changes to the main part of my opening where the female character is going about her day to day activies.



Potential Production company names

For my movie opening i will have to come up with some production company names in which i will use in my opening, the name will have to be quite memorable and catchy for the audience, and may have some relevance to the movie, or the genre in which i base my movie on.

Existing Hollywood Production Company names
- Paramount Pictures
- 20th Century Fox
- Universal studios

Exhisting Independent Production Company names
- Big Arty Productions
- Caravan Films
- Many Rivers Films

As my film would fall under the Idependent film category if it were to be a full length film i think i need a name that isnt to explict and over exagerated, so i have come up with a few suggestions..

Marble Lights Productions
Northen Lights Procuctions
Clearly Misty Productions
Newton Heath Productions
Newton Production

I think alot of these titles work well as they are not to elaborate, but i chose some title that i think worked well together listed below.

My chosen running titles in order are..
- Marble lights presents
- A Newton Heath production
- In association with the bristsh film council

Preparation for Filming.

Casting Sheet

Filming- Chloe Newton

Staring - Megan Smith

1pm 

Props & Objects Needed

Camera

Tripod

Possessions used

ie, newspaper, bracelet.

Props available in the household

Costume.

ie, black, dark clothing for character.

Health & Safety Issues

Whilst filming i and people in the opening must be aware of health and safety issues constantly. For instance in my piece i plan to film my character going about her normal day to day activity and making tea, so simple things like safety using the kettle must be made aware of; making the tea, transferring boiling water, and general activity moving around with camera equipment etc. 

Also whilst out in the countryside location, we must made sure the location in which we chose to film is allowed and accessible, and around the village in which i film we must be aware of generally health and safety issues, including traffic and various other issues that may occur. 

Casting

For my Movie opening, one feature which is key to a successful opening is the main objective and focus of the story which us to be lead on by a particular character. So in my case there is only going to be one key character who is featured in our opening, so the acting needs to be very particular and the way in which she looks must be very also striking and rememberable to suit our theme of the opening being a drama thriller. This character is also portrayed as very innocent as this will create sympathy and questioning from the audeinces perspective, so her character must be very believable from the audiences perspective!

I thought from my idea that a girl would be more suitbale, as it easier to generate sympathy and have more of an emotional conection with a female charatcer as they are genrally more emotional and easily portrayed an innocent. From my initial planning i thought of the opening being based around something mysterious that has happen to a girl, maybe quirkey shots of parculiar things surroudning, and in connection with the girl, and then shots of her going about her day to day activity. I thought it would be easier using a girl to portray this innocence and questioning as they are easier to portray with a female charatcer through different aspects such as body language, style, voice and even costume and props; whereas it is harder to portray a male character as all these aspects and still be believable so we thought a female lead would work well and be most appropriate.

After talking to a male and talking to him about ideas and ways in which we thought he could effectively portray the idea him being isolated and innocent, we thought it would be most effective to stick to the lead being a girl and casting females only.

I liked the look of this female as she could effectively portray innocent, but thought maybe her tone of voice may not work for my particular idea, if i were to use speech in the opening, although the character wont actually say much, just a few key lines and quoters we thought it was still and important aspect to consider.

After talking to this Female we thought as our main feature character she wouldn't work as well as some of the others casted, as we generally thought her look wasn't what we were looking for, and we generally thought she looked too happy to create sympathy from the audience!

After casting to this character i thought she looked to edgy and rocky to be portrayed as a innocent key character, i thought her voice worked well, of i was going to use voice in my opening, which is yet decided, but her hair and overall looked wouldn't have worked as well as other although for our final 'look' we will be looking and choosing costume.

I really liked this female and thought she would work really well as my chosen key character as she has a really innocent look about her, with her pale skin tone and light blonde hair, another key factor which is important was the fact she is very petite, and this will work well in the audiences behalf in the idea of creating sympathy. She also had a really quite and subtle tone to her voice, which is appropriate for the small piece of dialogue she may have.

Storyboard

 

This is my storyboard plan of my idea and what i am planning to film as my movie opening, timings may chnaged around and be a little different, but im pleased with my idea generated and think with my chosen location it will work really well and go to plan.