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.

Existing Thriller movies

I thought it would be a good idea to look at some exhisting Thiller drama movies, so i have watched various scenes and trailers from these movies almost for some kind of inspiration and to generate ideas of what i could base my opening on, and certain aspects i could use. I have added the dvd covers here as i thought it would be a good idea to record different aspect surrounding the movie such as the catchy title names, and also the font used' although i am not looking at magazine covers or dvd covers i will still be including text in my opening, through the movie title, the staring names, and also credits, such as who the movie is working in association with.

As i dont want the title font to be fancy and decorative as this would not suit the movie genere i thought looking and recording some examples would be a good idea to compare to different fonts i may look at using in my movie opening.

I particularly like the use of shadowing behind the text in the font used for the movie 'unborn' as it give this really edgey errie feel to it, with the mist surrounding the letter, this could also connoate the seaon in which the movie is based, possible winter, which also give an creepy vide to the movie. This is something i will ahve to consider when choosing my font.

Looking at exisiting movie openings

Chariots of fire

This is the movie opening of chariots of fire, a movie which was released in in 1981, and i chose to look at this movie opening as its really basic, and what i think works really well and creates alot of emotions is the use of music alongside the visual content. As there are a group of men running along the beach the music use also makes the scene used seem emotional, then running over the top of the visuals are the titles, which include the prductions company name, producers, editors and also the stars of the movie. Overall i think this opening works really well as there isnt too much going on, which is helpful as its not too confusing for the audiences yet its still quite catching for the audience as you want to know what they are doing? and the purpose of them running on the beach? etc. 

Se7en

This is the opening running titles of the movie entitled 'Se7en' which was released in 1995 and i chose this  opening to look at and focus on as i really like the eerie visual shots used at the begging which are quite hard to make out at times, as it creates a lot of questioning around the objects videoed, why they have been included and what they are going to be used for. Especially the of what relation they have to the movie, and some objects and the way in which they have been filmed make the opening really quite creepy, creating a lot of tension form the start from the audiences perspective. This is one idea i want to explore within my own movie opening as i want it to have this 'creepy' film and it to hook the audiences attention and creating a lot of questioning from the start.  

Snatch

This is a more modern movie opening from a film called 'Snatch' released in 2001, and i really like the diversity of this particular opening, looking at almost shots used, which in sequence almost look quite comical, and what i particularly like is how the focus in one particular scene is set as a focus, and then zooming into the object leads to the next scene, for example the diamond in the scene leads from one scene to the other. I also like how the music fits really well with the theme portrayed, which seems to be quite and urban, city gangsters film, taking note of the objects used and activity of the characters. I will consider the music i will use in my piece, to make sure it works well with my idea and theme of the opening, which wont be and urban gangster them, but i plan for it to be kind of thriller, a opening which is quite mysterious and creates a lot of questioning from the audiences perspective.

Which the opening i also really like how the opening changes from introducing the character with staring titles running alongside the characters, then then the change from which the movie really starts, and you see a visual shot of a gang in the back of a van, so the comparison from the characters being introduced and the diving straight into the movie, is really quite gripping and i think it works really well. The music also changes, when the movie begins making it obviously to the audience that it is a separate part to the opening. 

Looking at a drama and thriller genre combination

What is a Drama/Thriller?

We have chosen to base our final product around a combination of a drama and thriller genre. The story line revolves around a female character who’s life has been a series of changes and readjustments, she’s had to face moving homes and schools more times than most due to her Dad’s work. Our opening reveals this character and gives a vague explanation of her situation. Her attitudes in the piece show that she is maybe lonely, vulnerable and isolates herself, and just keeps herself to herself. 

Thriller films serve the purpose of ‘thrilling’ their audience by building tension, anticipation and fear they generally keep the audience cliff-hanging as the plot builds towards a climax. This tension usually arises as a result of the main character being placed in a threatening situation or a sense of mystery is created through various eerie happenings, which I think is key to the suspense and is something that needs to be included in our work, so i will look in existing films that follow the theme of thriller, and see how the build up of tension has been created.