Evaluation 5

Through our feedback, majority of our class thought our opening sequence looked as though it were a part of a real horror film. This is because they thought we used the right horror conventions such as our location being gritty and with the use of close up shots to make the space look smaller intensifies the suspense. There was a mixed reception on the choice of titles; this is because some people thought it went on for too long and it started to look a bit like a trailer, however, they appreciated the transitions and the special effects. Again, majority were enthused by the choice of music as it gave back to the horror aspects and it made the scene more chilling. The various shots used were very effective as it showed how vulnerable the character was and it thrilled the audience, although some thought it was disappointing as some were shot unsteady but still built the suspense. The editing was done to a good quality as every clip including the music flowed through altogether. 

In our opening credits where we show our cast and crew, in-between we added shots of an eye flickering, this is similar to the movie "Seven" which displays what the character is doing discretely, also it links with the film "The Eye" and "The Unborn" as they both involve a disturbing eye. 

With the music, the first piece is there to create anticipation much like in the movie "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" just before he is about to commit his crime. In the second piece of music, it is similar to the movie "Saw" when Jigsaw is riding his tricycle and with the movie "Paranormal Activity" when the ghost is haunting the baby and is playing the baby's lullaby. 

We have identified, that our unique selling point of our imaginary film is that it is not just a horror film, but it also can be relatable to the audience and how it is always left in a cliffhanger. 

Activity 6 Evaluation

Evaluation activity 6 on Prezi

Evaluation 6

Evaluation 6

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Evaluation 4

After thinking of different types of research we could use, as a group, we decided to ask various questions and film the reactions of each participants. We asked open ended questions such as ' Would you take friends, or family to see ' Crimsons Eye'? ' , ' Would this opening scene invite you to watch the rest of the movie ? '.
Using open ended questions allowed us, as well as our viewers to elaborate on their evaluation and perspective of the opening sequence, resulting with a realistic result.
After evaluating all the questions, the majority of our participants had said that the female protagonist would interest girls, more than boys to go and watch the film. As a result of this, we believe having either a male or female protagonist would invite specific genders to watch the film. Also having the protagonist being a teenager, allowed our targeted audience, that being an audience between the ages of 16-22, to relate to the film. This means we had achieved our aim of attracting a specific type of audience.
We successfully had many of our viewers want to go and watch the rest of the cliff hanger that our opening scene had.
Over all, by using our own primary research through open ended questions, we gained rich information and a positive forecast of our opening scene also achieving many of our aims, such as attracting the right audience.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?  

Firstly Crimsons Eye is based particularly around the theme of a grotty and infected eye. We have adapted the opening scene to for it to represent into different social groups. One of our influences was film ‘The Unborn’ as it shares similar and relevant aspects to what our opening sequence consisted off. For example in The Unborn – ‘Casey and her friend Romy are in the locker room talking when Romy notices that one of Casey's eyes is weird.’

This had relevance to our opening sequence as our protagonist rushes through the door wearing bold sunglasses; covering her face which gives off suspicion to viewers. We later find out that it is her eye which is in actual fact infected. These images both share a close up image of the eye.

The first appearance that we get of the protagonist is very similar as both are wearing very simple, casual clothing. This deters the audience from what they are wearing to what is actually happening. Casey from ‘The Unborn’ is wearing jeans converses and a plain white t-shirt and Crimson from ‘Crimson’s Eye’ is dressed is a beige long sleeve top with a skirt and tights. This reveals that both characters portray their role very similar and

Evaluation 7

Looking back at our preliminary task, our group learnt that making and editing a film is a lot more challenging than it seems. As it involves a lot of time, effort and understanding to make a good end result.
In order to create a good opening sequence, we had to go through a lot of brainstorming, researching and we had to learn how to use various tools, sites programs to enhance and broaden our skills for the clip. We had make sure the edits of the clips were accurate, left impact and flowed well, which was relatively successfully achieved. However in the preliminary task, we noticed that it the shots were good and there were a variety of them, although, the character was in front of the sun so it was harder to see her facial expression and that the run through was jumpy.
Our sound in the opening sequence was hard to get right as the background noise would constantly interfere, so we learnt that you could adjust the volume once you put it one the computer. We hadn't used music in the preliminary task, however, it was a helpful to have had the previous experience, as we could use it to our advantage to explore and understand how to use the sound effects and how to bring the music together.
On both pieces we used transitions, though, in the preliminary task you could tell the transitions were placed cheaply and in the final piece it was successful and appealing. This is also with the titles and the logo ident as they were done on Photoshop and Live type to make it look edgy and give it our own taste, which wasn't done in the preliminary task.
Comparing both pieces, we could tell clearly that the final piece was significantly better than the preliminary task, this is because our knowledge before hand with the use of cameras, tripods, research and programs made it look more professional and realistic. By the various shots used and with the use of the tripod made each shot steady, intense and easier.
Overall, looking back it is evident that our final piece shows a lot more professionalism, and actually looks apart of a movie sequence then our preliminary task.

Evaluation 3

A production company enables a film to be financed via a more established company, with a partner, or through a private investor. They are in control of budgeting, scheduling, scripting, the  equipment,  the casting, the organization of the crew, the production itself, post-production, distribution, and marketing. Production companies are in association with a media conglomerate, film studio, entertainment company, or Motion Picture Company.  As a result of this films can be mainstream independent  or completely independent. Production companies can work together in co-productions.

Our thoughts on who our film distributor should be was Warp X. This is because their main demographic is aimed at the teenage and young adult range similar to our film. They certificate for their films vary between a 15 or 18 which is what our film is to be aimed at too. They are often apart of the alternative, niche market of the film industry as they attempt to appeal to a selective fragment of younger teenagers rather than having  a mass appeal. Their main film genre are often an attempt to bring something unique to the conventions. 

Even though they lack in finances of the big distribution companies, it does have a reputation of being able to distribute a wide variety of specialist films. Warp X are known for their cutting edge digital technology and low budget production methods to create high value movies that can reach the cinema with an optimum release. Similar to our film we used gritty and raw imagery and stage presence. Our group liked Warp X because they explore social issues, disability, cultural and ethnic diversity and social exclusion. 

In our titles we mentioned the following in this order: Director, Producers, Music, Costume Design, Screen Play and then the entire Cast. We put it in this order to show the audience the importance each person played in our movie, we definitely wanted the cast to be last so that their performance is individually appreciated; this was inspired from the film we looked at "Seven".

Films that are institutionally similar to Crimson's Eye would be: Hush or Donkey Punch, mainstream ones may be: Last House on the Left, The Devil Inside and The Unborn.

Evaluation activity 1

Crimsons eye on Prezi

Music

We used various different types of music in our opening sequence which really gave it the effect we needed. Music is very important and can change the audience emotion from happy to scared within a second this is where as a group we had to decide on the most effective music which could really make our audience get involved in our piece. We decided to try out a variety of different types of instrumentals as this gave our group more options, luckily all of our music was just as we pictured it which made it very easy to choose.
We did add some last minute sounds to our piece, this included a heart beat sound we decided that we needed something that would get our audience feeling tense and more involved in our piece. This worked very well and changed the sounds up slightly. We started the heart beat on a low volume which slowly fading to a higher volume which also got faster this was powerful and moving.

During filming

When filming there was a lot of ups and downs, we learnt a lot of things on the way and realised how hard it really was. On our first day filming their was a lot of shots that we realised were very hard to produce for example the birds eye view shot, this was very tricky shot which took a lot of time and effort to produce, our problem was that the wall that we needed to rest our camera on was very high and hard for us all the reach which caused of lot of problems when trying the keep the camera steady. We decided to film while trying the catch the shot and then editing the edgy bits out, in the end this shot was a success and turned out to be very effective.
When deciding on what shots we were going to produce, when actually filming we found that their was so many other shots that we could produce also. This was a huge advantage as were able to play around and make our shots very effective.
Our actor was very good at showing her emotion and really putting forward what we wanted which made it quick and easy during filming. During filming i thought that we all worked really well as a team and took in consideration everyone ideas.

Location

When deciding on our location we thought of various ideas which we thought would be effective, overall as a group we wanted to film inside a bathroom/toilet. We done alot of research to see what location would fit in the best with our genre. A few ideas that we came up with were the public toilets in Bromley shopping centre as these toilets didn't have mirrors infront of the sinks, this would make it easier for us to film facing the character giving off the effect that she was looking into the mirror. Although this was a huge advantage this would of never worked as these toliets are way to busy at times which would of ment that we wouldnt of been able to get the shots that we needed fast.
Another one of our ideas was in one of our bathrooms at home, we all took pictures of our bathrooms and came to the conclusion that they were just too small and we wouldnt be able to get as many shots that we needed, they were also very modern which wouldnt fit in with our genre and give off the effect that we wanted.
Finally we decided that our location would be the school toilets, they were very easy to access and were great when fitting in with our genre. All of the walls have be painted dark grey which displays being old. We deciding by dimming the lights that we could really make our piece look effective and scary. One huge advantage of using our school toliets was that we were all able to use our free time to film, we worked as a group to decide upon another when we had free time and used that time to film piece by piece, this really worked as we all done our bit to make our opening sequence a success.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUWi9ytJhDc&feature=related

This is the sound track we have decided to use throughout the beginning of our opening sequence. We believe this is the best suitable sound track as it heightens the tension and seta the right atmosphere for our audience which was our intentions. This should be successfully achieved with this specific sound track.

Developing the Eye

As our film is based on Crimson's eye, we thought it was best to create the eye as imaginatively as possible. We intended her eye to be inflamed, red, crusty, bruised, scarred and with pus so we first tried it using putty on the face. However, we found it difficult to use and place on the actress' face, having put all the make up on, we realised that it did not look realistic so we didn't use the putty. But, we did decide on just using face paint and make up to create a sore and uncomfortable effect.

Schedule Sheet

Below is a draft of what our schedule of filming our opening sequence would be like. We have designed this according to how free our group is and the availability of our actors.

Logo Ident

Our logo ident is to stick to the horror theme; we decided to change our production company name to Smoke Productions as we felt this was a better fit for our film and ideas. We also used a smoke colour wheel to stick with the theme of smoke. We used Photoshop o merge the two images.

Final Location Shot

As our group could not decide on a location shot, we came to the agreement that we would film our opening sequence within school premises as it would be easier to for our group and actresses. We kept to the theme of having the sequence in a toilet, but opted it to be in a public bathroom so we used the PLS toilet, which made it look dinghy, grim and hard-hitting.

Some of the angles we chose to do were close-ups, high angle shots and a 180 degree pan to capture the intensity and grittiness of the atmosphere. Using different shots, we will try to keep to the horror theme of the shots being tight-knit, not giving away any clues as to what might happen next.

Music

As our opening sequence is based on horror, we decided to incorporate eerie, creepy and mysterious piano music. We arranged for a fellow Media student and an accomplished pianist, Sera Exton, to aid us in creating a unique piece of music by playing the piano for our credit run.

Casting Shots

For our opening sequence, the main actress who portrays the protagonist, Crimson, will be Emily Porritt. She has been studying Drama since GCSE studies and due to her interest and ability, continued on to A-Level studies. She has been involved in many of the school's Drama Festivals and plays as well as practising drama externally. Our group believe that Emily can portray with such ease and confidence.

Another actress involved in the opening sequence is Meliz Yesilada; she will be portraying a sibling of the protagonist, who is an orphan. Meliz also has ben studying drama since GCSEs and has continued it through to A-Levels. Our group feels that Meliz will portray the orphan successfully as she is a versatile performer.

Production Company Examples

Before we start to create our Production Company introduction, we thought it was best to do some secondary research before creating our own in order to give ourselves more of a guidance when producing the introduction. 

Here is a video showing multiple Production Company introductions, we particularly liked 'Intrepid Pictures' (1:18-1:25). We found that this was best suited to our genre as it used dark colours, such as black and red; red representing blood, violence, death etc. The music was eery and very sudden which gave off an uncomfortable impact that we would like to accomplish with our Production Company.
We found that the shorter the better, as it still gives a base introduction as to what the upcoming is.
We've come to the conclusion that we may need to slightly change our Production Company; making it short but affective as from our research this is the best example to help us when making ours.

Ideas for our location

We have had a group discussion about where we think we should film the opening scene; we have chosen to locate it in a public toilet in order to achieve our intentions of making it a horror genre. We want the setting to include the background being dull and unhygenic emphasising the infection of our protagonist. We looked at a variety of different locations where we could set the scene and atmosphere correctly and agreed upon this as a group, deciding that we will film in our school toilets. We chose this because it is easily accessible and fits our genre perfectly. These are our camera shots that will be included in our filming. However, we have also placed pictures of other locations that we looked at, but didn't fit our category.






One of our first ideas was to film in a house using one of our own bathrooms. An advantage of this was that we were in the comfort of our own home which meant that we could film constantly without any distractions, this would improve our product levels and how efficiently we worked.
On the other hand, this would not have been compatible because it was small and we wouldn't have of been able to get a range of shots that we required, such as a close up shot and over-the-shoulder shot. As we experimented doing this, it resulted in the background including the bath and shower, which looked too comforting and not fit for our genre.





A second location we considered was another one of our own. Again, it consists of the same advantages as above but in addition it has an antique affect to it, representing a haunted atmospheric location.
Despite achieving this atmosphere, we found that it was too cramped and would have of limited our shots.





We travelled to another location where we considered our filming to take place, however it had too much  of a modern day affect to it which wouldn't have of set the right atmosphere for our audience.
Although, one advantage of this location was that it didn't have a mirror in front of the sink which allowed us to use close up shots, directly opposite our protagonist, which would have shown full emotion and expression in our characters face.






This was another one of our locations that we considered, although it had the same advantage as Westfield's in London where there was no mirror blocking our shots, a disadvantage was that this was one of the main bathrooms available in Bromley, The Glades as this is a busy shopping centre; we came to the conclusion that this wouldn't be appropriate to film in as we wouldn't of been able to film consistently which would of affected our productiveness.

Our Questionnaire

1) Would you watch a female lead in a horror?    Yes/No
2) Age Range.   16-2-  21-25  26-30  31+
3)What do you fear the most? (If other, please state)     Spiders  Clowns  The dark  Deat  Illness
4) What the most precious part of your face?   Eyes  Nose  Mouth  Ears  Cheeks  Chin  Forehead  Teeth     ( circle two )

Time line - The Grudge

The Grudge on Prezi

Group Discussion

Today we consulted with our media teacher about our opening sequence. As we were discussing our idea, we were told that our first opening shot was effective and that it would be a good idea to concentrate on that being our main focus, and our opening credits would come after.
We realised that it would be too long showing the daily routine shot after the credits, so we decided that we would include this aspect into a jump cut edit with our credits. This is similarly done in the film "se7en".

Screenplay of "Crimson's Eye"

INT. Bathroom

Crimson enters slowly, face down. She walks forward with a dark figure behind her.
Once she is right at the front of the lens she panics.

Crimson: (angrily)
"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!"

Credits Roll

EXT. Outside View Of House, Warm Sunny Day

Hear alarm clock outside of the house.

INT. Bedroom

Crimson and Derek are sleeping while the alarm clock is going off. He nudges her.

Derek: (groaning)
"OHH, hun, can you turn it off?"

Crimson turns the alarm clock off an walks towards the bathroom.

INT. Bathroom

Crimson is doing her face and Derek walks in and hugs her from behind.

Derek: (merrily)
"Morning babe."

They kiss.

EXT. View Of House

Looking through the open window, Crimson is coming the down the stairs.

Crimson: (in a hurry)
"I'm going to be late, see you later sweetie. Love you."

Storyboard of "Crimson's Eye"

Below is a rough outline of what we would hope our opening sequence will look like. We hope to expand our ideas and create a more exciting opening sequence.

Storyboard of "Crimson's Eye"

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Production company logo and name

Our group thought of different ideas for our production company name and logo. We wanted it to be authentic for the genre yet subtle and realistic.

Firstly we thought about our production name. We wanted a word that associated with our film. We thought of words such as: Riot Production, Revolt Production, Smoke Productions and Twisted Productions as it is fitting for our film and our audience. We then eliminated the names we thought seemed less relevant so we decided to call our company ‘Riot Productions ‘. Riot Productions represents and emphasizes our film genre we want to target, also it attracts the target audience we are looking for too.

After choosing our company name, we then had to discuss how we would want to display our themes. One of our ideas were tap pouring blood, with the blood coming from the tap, it would spell out the company productions name. We also decided that the company name would appear in a special effect with fire behind the name and there being fire crackling noises. We also came up with a smoke bomb or grenade being thrusted onto the screen and the smoke appears behind the bomb. And finally we came up with a swirly smoke effect in colour which fades out, letting the company name appear in smoke and then dispersing whilst the name appears, crackling fire is heard; we decided to go with this theme as its subtle and creative, it also leads to a mystery which is resembles in our film.

This would be in the background underneath the title

This would be on the foreground ontop of the background with the title name ' Riot Productions' instead of smoke

Analysing Texas Chainsaw Massacre Opening Scene

As a group we looked at different opening scenes from a various range of horror genre films which our opening scene could relate to. We came across the film "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" from the year 2003.


In the opening sequence begins in black and white showing that the real life historical event was set in 1973 making the audience feel and understand what is going on. The naration in the background tells the audience whats happens and sets the scene and the plot. It is different to any other horror film as it is based on a true life event and retells the tale in modern life.


The opening scene uses jump cuts from various different pictures and handheld video recordings that have all been put together to create a sense of suspense and mystery. This is shown with slow paced instrumental strings and by using non-diagetic camera shots are shown through jump cut shots showing the change of each image and aspect of the film.
The minimal lighting in the film and the dark, dingy settings leaves the audience feeling tense and suspicious. The audience also questions the character itself as we never see a figure of him, yet we know his past and the cruel actions he has performed. 


The scene fades out and then in with modern day life, this brings the audience back to real life and keeping the audience guessing of what might happen and why this early preview is necessary.

Target Audience

Our group decided that our opening sequence is aimed for females under 25 years old and it will be shown through a Co-production Company. 

Our belief for this choice of choosing females under the age of 25 was due to these following aspects:

In our opening sequence our lead character is a mature female within the age range, which makes it more desirable for our viewers.

We have made a unique style of scenarios for the genre, horror/thriller making our audience  feel more involved and keeping them in suspense. 

Our female lead represents women in a strong-willed, brave and courageous manner, which we want to re-invent in a horror film. 

Although it is a female based film, men may enjoy the horror aspect of the film as they are under constant threat, suspense and twists. 

Our main demographic is aimed towards 16+ this is because the location, music and aspects of the storyline, scenes and the action that will take place will make it thrilling, exciting and relatable. 

If you like this genre theme, you will enjoy our film because it fits with the horror conventions. 

Our film is shown by a Co-production Company because of these following aspects:

Our script is not written by a famous award winning director, screen play artist or producer which makes it more creative and realistic.

Our cast is neither award winning or famous too which makes it relatable and modern. 

Our budget is fairly high so we can afford to use high quality music and equipment to successfully achieve this. Our camera shots and edits will be hard-hitting and attention grabbing with the use of having high standard equipment.

Examples of film age groups:

   

Analysis of Opening Sequence

The opening sequence begins in complete pitch black darkness with the audience hearing only diegetic sounds of barefoot footsteps, a slammed door and the flick of the lights switch. With the camera shot being blurred, the audience sees a young lady approaching towards a mirror, this will be shot from behind the mirror. As she comes closer, the audience notices her head tilted downwards with a mysterious figure behind her. A sudden, dramatic flick of half her head upwards, the audience is shocked by her infected and flaky eye. With the only line being said angrily "What do you WANT FROM ME?!" The scene cuts to black and an eerie, slow piano tune lullaby with echoes of mumble voices is played through non diegetic way in the credits; within these are the production company presenting the film, "Crimson's Eye" with the cast,  director and producer. This will be on a black backdrop with a white coloured chiller font in a fade in special effect, indicating the importance and balance of the dark and evil and the innocent and pure. It fades out into a normal routine day of our female lead, Crimson,  before the events that occur after. 

Developing the Idea

After a dramatic, unexpected opening scene, the film begins 5 days before our female lead, Crimson’s, 21^st birthday. Day by day, the audience starts to see her daily lifestyle and persona disintegrate. This is done through a series of long shot edits. We also notice her physical and mental state diminish, through a series of close up shots, shocking and disturbing the audience, explaining her appearance at the beginning of the film. A day before her birthday, she visits the doctor due to her condition. She is told some unfortunate news by the doctor, hearing this she begins to question her past and decides to confront her ‘parents’. Through a series of flash backs of her past, it is gradually revealed she is an orphan. While finding this out, she is being tortured physically and hearing voices of certain facts she has to follow by undetermined people who can’t be seen. Determined to find out she sets herself the task to break tradition of dying on her 21^st birthday and being the last orphan and to break the curse. However, will she be able to do this in time?

Mantra- 25 Word Pitch

As we had come up with our Opening Sequence, we had to think of a possible outline of our film.

"A woman's curse comes to life, as her past is revealed when she discovers she is an orphan. Her future depends on these next few hours."

"A psycho horror aimed towards females under 25 years old.

This will be shown through a co-production company."

We have included some examples of inspiration that helped us gather these ideas with the genre we have gone for: 

Our Opening Sequence

"Crimson's Eye"

Our opening sequence begins in darkness with the audience hearing only barefoot footsteps, a slammed door and the flick of the lights switch. With the camera shot being blurred, the audience sees a young lady approaching towards a mirror. As she comes closer, the audience notices her head tilted downwards with a mysterious figure behind her. A sudden, dramatic flick of her head upwards, the audience is shocked by her infected and flaky eye. An eerie, slow piano tune is played through the credits; within these are the production company presenting the film, "Crimson's Eye" with the cast,  director and producer. It fades into a normal routine day for our female lead, Crimson,  before the events that occur after. 

Group Discussion

During class, we were asked to brainstorm potential ideas about what we could produce as an opening sequence for our film project. We had to take in to consideration that the sequence could only be around 2:30 minutes with a specific film genre in mind that we could generate ideas from. Our group decided to each gather thoughts, inforamtion and inspirations from a specific type of genre it will be, characters we want to use and types of films that has been similarly made. The genres we chose to mind map were: Drama/Romance, Comedy, Crime and Horror/Thriller. Together we produced themes that are associated with that genre. After that, with each genre we tried to come up with a likely storyline, still thinking about the timing, good actors, location, our audience and if the plot could continue after we had cut our own scene. After much deliberation, we decided to go for the theme of Horror/Thriller, as the concepts we brought out were more intriging and fun. Once we had told our teacher of our opening sequence plot, we were told it would far too long and it would actually be about 5 minutes. So, we decided to to change the whole story plot, which we thought in the end made it more dramatic and it stuck to the theme much better. Below is our brainstorm diagram for our initial ideas and our initial ideas of possible scenarios:

Mood Board

Eva's Mood Board

My mood board is a vision of what I could convey in my design for a film project. My ideas reflect a sense of femininity, love and empowerment of women. I am hugely inspired by the 1920s era and vintage culture. I have included my icon Marilyn Monroe who represented each of these qualities spectacularly. I wish to bring forward a sense of power, womanhood and romance in my opening sequence.

 

Meliz's mood board

Mood board

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Other Influences

"In Her Shoes"


In the film, "In Her Shoes", the clips starts off with the opening credits by the production company Scott Free and straight after, the production company Fox Pictures starts to let the plot run. The non-diagetic music "Stupid Girl" doesn't give away the plot of the film or what the characters may be like. It also doesn't give away the film is a drama. As there is no dialogue at the beginning of the clip, the audience is left wondering what the film may be about; we also, don't prejudge the characters. However, towards the end of the clip, we notice the music compliments and influences one the confident character's behaviour so the audience understands and realises her personality. With the other ordinary character, the audience is aware she is the opposite to the music and the music doesn't illustrate who she is. The credits are in different colours; yellow and red on a black back drop, these are the names of the main actors so the audience can appreciate their efforts. The actors' names are written with a special effect; the surnames of the actors appear back to front and are then arranged to normal. The jump cut edits between the opening credits and the scenes are a clever and engaging idea because within the scenes, they are showing two different scenes consecutively and at the same time, they are introducing our main characters. It comes to the audience's attention that both characters are polar opposites, one being serious and unlucky whereas the other is promiscuous and casual. This gives a clue as to what the characters will be like. Here are video clips of the special effects during the credits and the jump cuts of the two consecutive scenes with the credits:

"Rounders"

The opening sequence in "Rounders" is very different compared to the other films we studied in class. The beginning of the film starts off in silence; intriguing the audience to the plot until it thickens with the main male character taking money from random locations in the house; the mise en scene is very ordinary and relatable yet mystery and suspense is found in his secrecy. This is generated by jump cut editing; these include a book, frame, box and videotape, which we find very bizarre and secretive. This is done by eye line match which is clever as it makes the audience understand his secrecy. This heightens a possible criminal aspect of the film and genre. This is when slow paced instrumental strings which are reminiscent of 1920s crime music; this is done in a non-diagetic way which in turn creates suspense and an eerie atmosphere so the audience become suspicious of the character. The minimal lighting in the film and the dark, dingy settings gives the audience a sense of mystery which surrounds the plot and adds to the film's genre of crime. The audience also questions this crooked character as we never see is face. When the character leaves the room in all darkness, the character is also the narrator and his first line is "Listen, here's the thing, if you can't spot the sucker in the first half hour of the table, then you are the sucker". This is said approximately a minute into the film, it also introduces us to the character; we sense his shadiness and a running theme in the film is game and gambling.  The audience questions his motive due to a previous lengthy silence. The fact this is told in narration and not actually from his mouth, we question his character and we are intrigued by him; we are not revealed any clue as to his identity. The scene fades out and then the credits fade in.The credits only show the movie title so the audience is finally introduced to the film. The all black backdrop with the small title in a white font  brings the audience's focus to the film. Black results in mystery giving an essence to the film's genre. The simplicity of the credits is clever as it doesn't detract the audience's attention from the film. What I find very alluring and fascinating is the fact that we don't see the main character's face until the very end of the clip which adds intensity and mystery. As we don't see his face, we distance ourselves from him guessing his identity. It is not until the very end where we are faced with a close-up shot of the main character when he takes off his cap; the suspense built up int he opening minutes is finally at its climax when he takes off the cap. 

What is an Opening Sequence?

"Office Space"

In the opening sequence of "Office Space", the audience's attention is focused one of America's leading production company, 20th Century Fox. We are then lead to focus on a black background with a blue teenage cartoonish font which gives the idea that the film is aimed towards that age group and that it will have a comedic effect. Throughout the sequence, we see the names of all the major leading actors and production team in the same font, making the audience realise and appreciate their work. The playful music in the background reflects the atmosphere of the opening sequence reinforcing the comedic effect of the film and allows the audience to get an insight of what to expect. At the beginning of the scene we are shown a long traffic queue and three characters who are trying to get to work, due to their smart clothes. During the scene we see one of the lead actors swerve in and out of the traffic lanes to move forward, without any success- we assume he is the unlucky one- we then see another actor who is portrayed to be a idiotic, geeky guy but ironically rapping to a song on the radio- this is brought in by non diegetic sound which is breaking the stereotypes, however, once a black guy walks past he turns the volume down, showing the comedic elements, and lastly the actor who portrays an impatient and easily frustrated guy. The mise en scene give the audience an introduction of the characters and what they will be like, making it more comical.

"Trainspotting"

The opening sequence in "Trainspotting" is very different style to "Office Space".  The audience is not shown any credits, but the names of the characters instead- which makes us question what the film may be about with the use of this information and what type of people they are. It also makes us not prejudge the film. It is very creative how they make the music and the action very fast paced so it seems as though they can't fit in the credits. We are narrated through the whole scene by a main character, giving us an insight in his life and of his friends too. When he is speaking about each friend a freeze frame appears to show us who they are, their name and a bit of background information; this is to make us understand and to be comfortable with them as if we had known all along. The fast, upbeat music compliments the action that is happening and the lifestyle and location it is set in, making the audience engage immediately. However, the music does contrast the main themes of the film.

"Sweeney Todd"

The haunting music gives the intensity and eeriness of what the film may be about with the use of non diegetic sounds. The style of the font adds to the creepiness and mystery of this thriller. The credits at the beginning shows who will play who in a white font,this stands out from the dark back drop and makes the audience appreciate and give credit to the cast, although no characters are present unlike the other two films. the use of the colours; grey, black, white and red gives an essence of the film and amplifies the horror and spookiness. The use of red to there to symbolise the importance of blood in the film and then it writes the words "Sweeney Todd" to make us aware he is the main character. Also, the blood reference is travelled around the whole film taking us to each major location such as, the barber's and the pie shop, telling us where the story stars and ends. In comparison to the other two films this is the first one to use CGI or animation effects at the beginning of the film, however it is not used in the rest of the film.