/// POST-PRODUCTION1 Outside sample scene + audience feedback

OUTSIDE ROUGH CUT



FEEDBACK

/// FILM OPENING EG9 World War Z

(CREDITS TO TRIHARD PRODUCTIONS FOR THIS BLOG POST)

SYNOPSIS

World War Z is a post-apocalyptic film, which was directed in 2013, by Marc Foster, known for his previous work on Quantum of Solace and The Kiterunner, both films which fall far from the genre of World War Z. He is a BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Independent Spirit Award nominee.

PLOT

The film follows the life of the immediate family of Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), through the end of the world, where a Zombie outbreak occurs. Gerry is a former employee of the UN, who knows people in the military, and goes to them, seeking solace, whilst trying to find the cure for the outbreak, or at least trying to find a way for humans not to be affected by the undead. We see Brad Pitt's character go through many countries, in search of someone who knows something about something. He eventually finds the cure in Cardiff, Wales. Which he finds out is a cure, by injecting himself with it, it's some kind of pathogen which he didn't really know was a pathogen. He could have died or something, but he risked his life to find the cure and from then on he was hailed as an American hero!

IDENTS

World War Z follows an unusual pattern in regards to idents, not following the typical rule of using between 3-4 idents. 

World War Z uses 5 idents, which are as follows (in order): 

Paramount Pictures

Plan B

Skydance Productions

Hemisphere

GK films

SHOT TYPES

In the opening of World War Z, we are presented with a long title sequence, which shows clips of the news presenting multiple natural disasters, as well as strange occurrences. We are also presented by short clips of large groups of people walking.

The first shot, is an establishing shot, focussing on the house of the main protagonist. We then experience narrative enigma, as a door into a bedroom is opened. Two children then run into the bedroom of the main protagonist and his wife, sleeping. The mise-en-scene, contains very dim, and boring colours, with various shades of brown, grey and blue, colours associated with conservative.

CHARACTERS

Brad Pitt's character and his wife, are both wearing blue items of clothing, Brad Pitt, wearing a dark blue v-neck pullover, and holding a light blue mug.
The actress playing his wife is wearing a light blue, wool, sweater. She is holding a turquoise/green mug.

ZOMBIES

The Zombie's in World War Z, are not similar to the usual portrayal of the undead, which are typically slow moving and take a while to turn from human to zombie. The zombie's in World War Z are fast moving, and take seconds to turn from human to zombie. They act similarly to Danny Boyle's 28 days later zombies.

/// FILM OPENING EG8 28 Days Later

28 Days Later (Danny Boyle - 2002)

Danny Boyle

Danny Boyle is a renowned film director in the specific zombie genre. He is also well known for directing movies such as Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire and 127 hours.

Plot

A group of misguided animal rights activists free a caged chimp infected with the "Rage" virus from a medical research lab. When London bike courier Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up from a coma a month after, he finds his city all but deserted. On the run from the zombie-like victims of the Rage, Jim stumbles upon a group of survivors, including Selena (Naomie Harris) and cab driver Frank (Brendan Gleeson), and joins them on a perilous journey to what he hopes will be safety.



 Budget + Box office  
                                                          

The budget of this movie was £5m

The box office was $82.7m

Stars

Cillian Murphy
Naomie Harris

Genre

Drama, Horror, Sci-fi

Ideas

Decaying title 'presents' fades away
- Blood splatter on main title

- We won't take the style of fast zombies as we would prefer to use the stereotypical style (more practical for filming)

- Security camera style

Idents

UK Film council

DNA films

Fox Searchlight Pictures

/// IDEAS8 Film Opening Inspirations

(THIS POST WAS ORIGINALLY CREATED BY SCOPE PRODUCTIONS)

SHAUN OF THE DEAD
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...

Things we liked (ignoring the bar scene):

• Everyone looking like zombies however they're just doing their boring jobs
• When a car would go past and it would cut into next shot
• The continuous panning from left to right 
• The use of titles such as the Shaun of the Dead on the floor
• The narrative enigma of Shaun panning from feet to head and looks like a zombie
• The quick shots of parts of his morning routine

ZOMBIELAND

...

...

Things we liked:

• The video recorder effect
• Point of view shot with the first zombie
• The visuals of Earth (don't know if we could do that)
• The use of titles for the rules
• The funny list of rules
• The slo mo title sequence (however we thought it was too long)
• The moving titles in the title sequence

WARM BODIES

...

...

Things we liked:

• The narrative enigma of the main character then revealing he is a zombie
• The set design
• The internal monologue
• Flashbacks
• Scenes going on behind character 
• The transition back to how it was before and then back to now

...

/// IDEAS7 new Film Opening Pitch

(THIS WAS A BLOG POST MADE BY SCOPE PRODUCTIONS)

SETH OF THE BRAIN DEAD
Working Title at the moment.  Intertextuality with Sean of the Dead

Scene 1 

• Playing movie in protagonists messy living room
• Not showing protagonist immediately (narrative enigma)
• Playing Scream / Halloween / Dawn of the Dead / Shaun of the Dead
• Opening Baked Beans can with pocket knife and eating them cold

Scene2

• Protagonist in shower
• Pans from feet to head (cuts in between)
• Oblivious to zombies in bathroom
• Dropping shampoo bottle knocking out zombie
• Slipping and kicking zombie killing it
• Possible shower singing scene for comedic effect

Scene 3

• Getting ready scene 
• Quick shots like in Shaun of the Dead
• Brushing teeth
• Going to toilet
• Putting on glasses
• Getting dressed 
• Putting on glasses
• Putting on badge for blockbuster store

Scene 4

• Walking out of house with headphones on looking out phone
• Not looking around
• Sees girl ahead (love interest) trying to tell him theres a zombie behind him
• False scare - hand on shoulder 
• Turns out to be the best friend character who pushes him out the way
• Shouts 'get in car'
• Pulls dead body out revealing title on floor

LOCATION

PROTAGONIST

• Male
• 18 years old
• Attractive - female gaze
• Named Seth

FILMS/TV

• Star Wars
• Star Trek
• Indiana Jones
• Sherlock
• Breaking Bad
• Shaun of the Dead

GADGETS

• Watch (casio digital)
• Phone
• Glasses
• Spare glasses
• Pocket knife
• Can opener
• Pens

ITEMS OF CLOTHING

• Graphic tee
• Straight cut blue jeans - thrifted - slightly worn/faded
• Glasses - taking them off and wiping them as nervous tic - helps with not seeing
• Possible button up over tee
• White high tops 
• Possible long black trench coat

PLACES HE'S BEEN TO

• Library
• Diner
• Game Store
• Home

FOODS/DRINKS THEY LIKE

• Slushies
• Milkshakes
• Monsters 
• Hot dogs
• Pizza

RANDOM FURTHER DETAILS

• Only child
• Love interest
• Works at blockbusters
• Really good at darts

EXTRA NOTES

• Impact on comedy to bring BBFC rating down to a 15 from an 18 
• Wears a World's End tee - direct intertextuality
• Plays video games
• Has junk food and empty cartons etc.
• To connote working at Blockbusters - name tag / card
• Blockbuster movies
• CD - possibly use as coaster or plate
• Empty cans
• Cigarettes
• Opening baked beans with pocket knife
• Box TV with playstation 2
• Set in this day and age but has all old gadgets
• DVD player - Dawn of the Dead / George A. Romero DVDs
• Link DVD - in Halloween playing movie at start - Scream played Halloween movie
• Triple hybrid rom-com-zom

SECONDARY CHARACTER

• Female
• Around 18 years old
• Attractive - male gaze
• Named Chloe
• Binary opposition to Seth
• Badass, very dominant and confident
• Doesn't let her guard down in opening
• Wears athletic, tight clothing (like Lara Croft)
• White vest top, slightly cropped, rip by neck
• Black skinny high waisted jeans
• Black leather jacket

/// FILM OPENING EG7 Bridget Jones's Diary

• Medium Long-shot
• Central Framing
• rule of thirds - central protagonist
• Black taxis - providing exposition in where it is set (London/South England)
• Doesn't have hat or umbrella - provides exposition on her
• Blonde and female - possible dumb blonde stereotype 
• Tracking her - anchors her as protagonist and voice over
• Ellipses to little southern English village - stereotypically nice (now normative)
• Red telephone box to anchor where it's set
• 
  

/// FILM OPENING EG6 Hot Fuzz

• WT2 - pseudo indie - not indie but low budget
• Conventional first shot being outdoors but not in World's End
• Extreme Long-shot
• Straight cut - no fade in
• Rule of thirds - not concrete however light part is centered
• Giving some exposition
• Verisimilitude - props in mise-en-scene (folders)
• Sound of sirens giving exposition
• Doors opening alongside explosion sound effect (cuts sharply when doors open) - signifier of comedy
• Diegetic sound of doors opening - often exaggerated to create a larger effect
• Rushing character - connotes serious and taking job seriously - possibly central protagonist
• Junior company is represented by 'In association with'
• First cut using disguised cut (effective and something to think about for personal film opening)
• 31 seconds opening long take
• Exposition with close-up to focus on stern, serious expression
• comedic when badge comes out and shows exact same expression
• exaggerated walk links to comedy genre as well
• the long sustained note forces tension
• Camera is also tracking in
• 
  

/// FILM OPENING EG5 About a Boy

• Fade up 
• Audio bridge to first scene 
• Diegetic sound from tv 
• Bird's eye view 
• Tracking shot 
• Protagonist - proppian archetypes 
• Rule of thirds 
• Narrative enigma - not showing protagonist's face 
• Intertextuality with tv show 
• Camera movement and zooming connoting tension 
• Anchored with tense music from tv show 
• Show foreshadowing events - most likely to be Jon Bon Jovi character connotes comedic genre 
• Voice over - inner monologue 
• Non-diegetic sound - guitar strings 
• Red Bull signifies youth, not sophisticated 
• Tea cup with saucer - sophistication 
• Cigarettes - negative connotations - complex preferred reading 
• Campbell's hero's journey/monomyth - all narratives center on journey and progression of protagonist 
• Big book - intelligence, sophistication 
• Lower case bubble font block white - connoting comedic genre 
• Navy blue slacks, gry blue crew neck jumper, blue shirt, grey blue monochromatic mise-en-scene - conservative guy 
• Large collection of books and LPs, electric guitar, speakers - rebellious

/// FILM OPENING EG4 Scream Main Titles

SOUNDS: 

All unsettling

• Female scream
• increasing fast heartbeat
• Crash sound effect
• phone ring
• Wolf howl
• Knife slashing sound
• Gunshot 
• Crash
• Strings (violin)
• Audio bridge

IDENTS:

• 'Dimension' ident has blue tint - intertextualises the Halloween opening

/// IDEAS6 Updated Film Opening Pitch

...

'Sleep well' pitch (1) from LouisHodges3

Changes made further into the production:

• Introduce a postmodernism element
• Changing the news article to a news broadcast 

/// FILM OPENING EG3 Grimsby

Grimsby Film Opening Analysis

Several idents because:

- One might be distributor 
- It is an unpredictable risky business therefore co-production spreads the risk


Low budget films often have BFI, TV channels idents.

Working title occasionally don't show their ident as they don't have control. This is because they are a subsidiary of one of the conglomerates in the Big 5. Working Title are considered the junior company.

Had to change the name of the movie as it did poorly in distribution, due to the lack of international understanding (continuous references for a UK audience) 

• Immediate Audio bridging
• Columbia (owned by Sony) are the conglomerate of this working title movie because of first look
• Working Title ident is missing
• First shot: No narrative enigma on character + doesn't begin with establishing shot. Narrative enigma on location Starts with big close-up on two characters kissing + shallow field of focus.
• slight high angle
• R&B music (not seen as sophisticated)
• Heteronormative
  
• Thick wide sideburns connote a working-class character + hints at the comedy element.
• Male's head is larger than the females + male is on top. Connotation of who is the central character.
• Potential red filter could hint at porn or the past
• Further exposition through the mise-en-scene (England tattoo on protagonists back). Specific to England's football team, clear reading on the character + tattoo done poorly (clearly working-class). The fact that it is football is important as if it was a posher sport, the exposition on the character would be incorrect.
• Beer can gives further anchorage of working-class
  
• Anchorage on the genre (comedy) 
• Typical Working Title production as it has a poor stereotype of working-class (but works as a comedy)
• The narrative enigma ended with a shock to the audience, as the intimacy was taking place in a store
• Sale (89.99 pounds) - cheap bed (working-class)
• Single mothers taking children out - stereotype that a working-class mother must be single + smoking a cigarette further hints at it + tracksuit (chav)
  
• Potential intertextual reference from This is England 
• 'Columbia Presents presents' - usually denoting distributor 
• fast-paced editing (short takes)
• Proppian archetype hero/protagonist achieved through more close ups

/// IDEAS5 Scary Character in Film Opening

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Scary character in film opening - L+J from LouisHodges3

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/// FILM OPENING EG2 Halloween

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Halloween film opening analysis L+J from LouisHodges3

/// IDEAS4 Explaining Failure: attempt 1 Film Opening PITCH

After discussing original film opening idea with peers and teacher, I have decided to scrap the idea.

REASONS

Lack of enthusiasm 

• Wasn't particular excited by the idea
• Felt like a rushed idea

Wrong inspiration

• Was inspired by an opening of a TV show
• Style of TV opening was slightly different to a standard movie opening

No 'wow' factor

• The concept was simple and had little to show off skills
• Wasn't much potential for SFX and unique directing styles
• Too plain
• No twist/excitement took place in the idea

Little understanding of the genre

• I intended to dos a psychological thriller, yet plot reflected different genre
• Hadn't previously done enough research on the genre 

Underestimating Workload

• Originally, my plan was to work alone as I felt it would be the easiest way to achieve marks that reflect my own standard
• Further on from this, I will work with my classmate, James, as we have worked together well in the past + both had similar ideas to start off with

/// IDEAS3 Film opening first PITCH

SLEEP WELL

GENRE

psychological thriller
may or may not incorporate the very dark humour that they use in 'End of the F****ing World' - I am
yet to decide

CHARACTERS

James as the main character named Cole

very counterypical
Poorly styled hair, scruffy, needs haircut
idea of wearing t-shirt with a counter typical idea on it and something that completely contradicts his character (i.e a Taylor swift merch to make clear that someone had bought this from him) + converse, baggy jeans with belt
a close up of the t-shirt might trick the audience into thinking this character is different to how he is
Blood splashes on him
Emma as the female character, without a name, clearly sexualised, showing a shoulder and/or wearing short shorts, wearing white (inspiration taken from Christian Stricker's past as work) (hinting Cole must have manipulated her?)

SETTING

There is convenient path near my house that I would quite like to film it at + it has a park by it so if I decide to have anything creepy go on there, that is convenient. I would start the setting in Coles house (aka my house), and then film him walking somewhere. The original idea is the film this at night (8pm) so that it builds on the creepy feel). As Cole keeps seeing the character, I have a shot in mind where he is walking along the path and then in the background, you get a glimpse of the girl sitting on the crossbar of the football goal, and then seconds later she has disappeared 

PLOT

Cole, a psychopath (with potential schizophrenia) kills Emma's character, with enjoyment, and expresses all his emotions through a voiceover ('End of the F****ing World' style - sounding emotionless). Cole is on a walk through a dark forest and keeps getting flashbacks to him killing Emma, and then also keeps seeing her walking with him + hearing her voice. Ends with a significant line in the voiceover and then potentially showing Cole arrive at a little play park and then swinging on a children's swing or something similar (to create a creepy stigma around the character.


I will use narrative enigma around this character, as I will show the killing around half way through the 2 minutes, and then as soon as that has been shown, I will cut to an ECU of Coles face (maybe with a slight smirk on his face)

MUSIC STYLE 

I want it to be a jolly sound that sounds creepy. Very hard to explain but the opening of 'End of the F****ing World' describes what I want perfectly. Listen here
The whistling connotes a jolly feel, but then I would like very dark lyrics

/// FILM OPENING EG1 Pretty in Pink

EVALUATION

•  Pretty in Pink only has one company ident (Paramount) - it is a good idea to have 3 as it shows the understanding of the industry
• We must look very carefully at titles. If the titles are poor, an A grade is very unlikely.

TITLES IN ORDER 

(if bold, it is a larger font size)

• PARAMOUNT PICTURES PRESENTS - sans serif, black and white connoting drama, almost a social realist serious style, polysemic title
• A JOHN HUGHES PRODUCTION - Auteur, uses production but would usually see film, would usually see the directors name twice
• ESTABLISHING SHOTS - clearly presents working class (rusty car, broken up road, irregular plants, 'wrong side of the tracks'

SHOTS

• Exposition shot - narrative enigma.  Some degree of context - a working class area (grass growing over pavement, rusty car, broken roads)
• Panning shot showing both sides of the track - Born/from the wrong side of the tracks - One side is a nice area than the other.

/// IDEAS2 Planning film opening

PLANNING

Taking heavy inspiration from 'The End of The F***ing world' (Netflix tv series)

This series is about two teenagers with mental issues,  but then find a relationship between them, both with different intentions from the start.
In the opening scene, it is going over the protagonists (James) life. It is designed as flashbacks, and when the flashbacks aren't happening, James is sitting down, then walking down a street, and then finished with James sitting in a canteen. At the moment, I am interested in doing a similar style, although exploring a psychological thriller style. Instead of showing flashbacks, I would cut to clips of what is happening in this boys head. Another similar idea would be to have two characters walking down a street, on opposite sides, and the flashbacks would something that they just did (i.e just killed people and they are cutting back to what happened)