Opening sequence analysis in 3(?) posts (Conclusion)

There are different typses of opening sequnces. It depends on the genre of the movie, on what the creators want to focus the audience attention on. Usually, they don't put very important information in the begging of a movie, because audience needs to get used to the action, immerse themselves in it, understand the kind of movie there are watching. It should be attractive to make people watch the movie attentively and carefully, at least make people watch it. It doesn't matter so much, probably, when people are in the cinema and have already payed for their tickets, but it's crucial for TV series or movie on TV.

Some of the opening sequences aren't made by directors of the movie itself, but by somebody else. Still, they usually match with the mood of the movie. "Se7en" is a good example.

Also the music plays an esseential part in opening sequence, it shows the atmosphere, sometimes gives us some clue about the following action.

Camera work is probably the main part of it as it focuses our attention on the things we need to pay attention to.

Editing is impotant as well as it indicates the rythm of the movie and gives the mood as well.

Finally, mise-en-scene is very important as well. But, probably, actors themselves are not that crucial, their names in credits - that's what matters in opening sequence.

And, by the way, if somebody make a good opening sequence you will then watch it on YouTube and put 'Likes' to it. That's what matters most of all!!!

Opening sequence analysis in 3 posts (The Shining)

Relatively, there are not so many people in the World who didn't hear a name of Stanley Kubrick as well as Jeff Nicholson's and Stephen King's. The opening sequence of "The Shining" concentrates on the credits that consist of 'very' huge, I would say enormous, names as the ones mentioned above. Credits are made in a rather unusual blue color, which breaks people's stereotypes from the very beginning and, of course, attracts attention. There is no so much action... there is no action at all, actually!! What would you say if you seen this...

 And then that...

And so on...

for 3 minutes!!!

No doubts, the views are breathtaking, but I bet you'll have been bored by the end of this time!!

Still the atmosphere seems quite tense and the music helps this. We see the journey of some anonimous car to some place almost in the middle of nowhere. Finally, it reaches its final destination (sounds very scary!) at the end of the opening titles. Anonimity also gets us into this atmosphere of suspicion.

In fact, the opening scene doesn't tell us anything about the movie and the plot, it keeps us guessing... or just giving a chance to feel comfortable in the armchair in front of the screen, prepare all necessary things such as popcorn or some drinks, some of them probably contain alcohol... Who knows. 

Anyway, it's more likely that you'll enjoy what is coming after that...

Opening sequence analysis in 3 posts (Sexy Beast)

At first, we see the sun in the middle of a shot without a single cloud in the sky which tells us from the very beginning what kind of a man is the main hero, who's V.O. appears several moments later and what he thinks of himself. He is a bastard who doens't take anybodu into consideration except for himself. During his monologue that distinctly shows the way he thinks it just becomes more clear. He is lying on a sunbed enjoying the sun, then he makes a great effort lift his body and sit. Then a small conversation with a boy... He looks more and more "bastardous" in our eyes and, moreover, his accent becomes clearer. Sometimes the action cuts to a woman driving a car, (probably, this is his wife) but these moments are very rare, everything is concentrated on him. 

This opening sequence is all about introducing a character. There are lots of small details hinting at the pecularities of his character, perhaps, at how he make his money (it seems like he is a gangster). Maybe, he has some enemies (this stone at the end of the scene doen't seem occasional). Those empty bottles of alcohol drinks in the picture above explicitly tells about his crushes. Also his house stands somewhere not far from the top of the mountain, which can mean his arrogance, on the one hand, but on the other - his will to be farer from civilization. And, of course, this philandering music... Oh, this music!!!

There were several 'big' names in opening credits which attract audience's attenrion as well. The aim of such an opening sequence is to intrigue the audience by a character and this "invisible" threat to him which is presented in a form of a huge stone, which almost killed him. But, there is a possibility that this death would be too simple for such a fellow. And who will kill the main character in the beginning of a movie??!

Opening sequence analysis in 3 posts (Dead Man's Shoes)

"Dead Man's Shoes" opening sequence captures audience attention and immerses into the action from the very beginning. The director combines two periods of time which mood is completely opposed to each other. We can see some moments of childhood of main heroes, supposing how much their family means to them, how much space it occupies in their minds. It depicts different aspects of their life in the past. Through the special effects  the director creates an impression that these little videos were filmed by a member of the family on an amateur camera. This footage arouses deep emotion in everyone which helps from the first moments start to emphasis to the main heroes. That probably prepares us for the further action (as we can say by the name of the movie, there will be some crime) and somehow explains the motives of the main hero. The other part of the opening sequence, in contrast, shows us the isolation and solitude of the two main characters. It shows how they are going somewhere, but actor's body language demonstrates that they have a certain direction. The music on the background also develops the depth of emotions.

We can build various assumptions in our mind trying to guess what is going to happen next, what is going on right now. This is a great adventage of this sequence. It doesn't give a chance to simply pass by, but it ctches the audience, simultaneously, not giving any exact information about the plot of the movie, but giving only a type of relationships of the main heroes between them.

And the colors are also very significant. During the family scenes it is usually sunny and in general colors are bright. On the other hand, during their long journey the weather is cloudy which helps to indicate a mood as well as the general situation where the main heroes find themselves.

Post-production (I kinda' try to describe it)

Our first collective creation with Carla, Brandon and Katie (working on the script we were given last week) is nearing the end, but didn't reach its final stage yet. This week we started to edit it and approximately a half of our movie is ready to be displayed, but of course, it won't be until the sequence is edited completely.
This Thursday there was much more flair in our work than a week ago, I assume. The reason for this is probably that this final part of movie production usually appeals to everybody most of all. The program where we worked is called "Final Cut Pro".













It's usually used on TV, because it's possible to cut everything very quickly. So the first thing of the editing process is to crate a "Rush Bin" where all your raw footage is retained. Next, you need to create a "Log Bin" where you put all the material that you want to see in your movie subsequently. If it is an actual film and there are many scenes there, you need to create the individual "Log Bin" for every scene in order to regularize the material. But, of course, for our sequence we needed only one "Log Bin".
So we alternately took videos and cut them to proper size, so that the action looked smooth and eloquent. We succeed,  I suppose. Hopefully, we will manage to edit our "peace of art" completely next week. I look so forward to watching it!!

Prelim shooting

                             































































Here is our first inelaborate screenplay that we were to bring to life. That didn't seem as something hard, probably it didn't turn out to be something hard, but still we got some problems. Basically, it was 180 degree rule. We were supposed to use all these shots that you see in these pictures, but we were also free to make some additional shots and with these additional shots some problems occured. But, apparantely, it doesn't matter so much, as we coped with everything and had much fun. I'm looking forward to editing our piecec of "art" as it promises to be hilarious.
Our main purpose was to give this piece of text some live. Our story was quite stupid, but perhaps, it'll turn out to be pretty amusing, who knows, even though I doubt, but we'll see. Hopefully, next week it will be possible to upload our video to YouTube. I'm so excited about it!!
As it was mentioned before, 90% of the entire process of shooting is communication. As it was our first time, we probably were too shy to tell each other what we think is needed to be done, but everything comes with experience. So I wish our next shooting day came as fast as possible!
Maybe, I should tell about shooting process in greater detail. So there were 4 of us in a crew. Two of us were actors, one director and one director of photography. I was an actor. I don't think it was an impressive performance, but anyway that was much fun. We needed to play this scene 8 or 10 times, and each of them should have been played in the same style, with the same movements, which was a kind of hard, but of course not something we couldn't cope with. And when the director said "Cut!" for the last time I felt a surge of happiness! Wish everybody filmed something, then there will be many more happy people in this World!

 

Fight Club BurnS(cene) analysis

Prelim rules

                                                                   Video

Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Main task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source. Both preliminary and main tasks may be done individually or as a group. Maximum four members to a group.

Shot sizes and angles...

                              Creating a Moving Image

There are several kinds (sizes and angles) of shots that creators use in their daily job. There are not so many of them, regardless of how surprisingly and ridiculously it sounds. Of course, some directors manage to invent very exquisite and sophisticated shots...

or camera position...

Sorry, couldn't find a picture... But as example it's possible to use a shot from "Trance" when we see the face of the main hero as we were inside of his pocket. If you find it you can feel free filling up the space. What I'm talking about is that the amount of different kinds of shots is rather small and virtually everybody can start to film his own movies as he learn all of these shots and couple of other rules.

So let's start from the shot that shows every pimple, wrinkle or whatever there is on your face - eyes, nose - in a great detail. This shot is called a Big/Extreme Close-Up.

Head or a part of the head. It is supposed to illustrate all shades of emotions on your face in detail and it is usually used to get across the emotional state of the character.

Next shot is a Close-Up which is also rather dangerous and you definitely need a good amount of make-up. Mind it! Heath Ledger is always a dreamboat though.

Head and shoulders. It reveals character personality. It is supposed to be intimate and powerful. Very useful for dramatic or revealing moments of truth/crisis. It works perfect if you want to increase audience identification with a character. 

Close-Up is followed by Medium Close-Up. And "Here we go!"

Head and shoulders to top pocket. A bit frighteningly, isn't it? This means that the creators do their job very good. In this shot we don't see only the facial expression, but also some kind of body language. THis is the purpose of the shot which helps to express the emotion more eloquently.

Mid Shot is next. 

To waist. Gives more information obody language, clothes of characters and also some details on what is around the character.

Medium-long Shot.

Including the knees. This shot provides more physical information than the mid shot, but less details of facial expression. It better shows the disposition of the character in the space.

Long Shot.

Full figure. Contextualises character in their location. Can often be used to distance the audience from events or suggest loneliness or isolation.

Establishing (Wide/Master) shot. 

Establishes location often used at the beginning of a scene and again at the end. Helps make clear the physical geaography of the space and sets up atmosphere.

Over the Shoulder.

Helps to create a dynamic between the character and... what they're seeing. Can also be used to suggest someone is being followed or watched by an unseen prescence. 

Two shot, three shots, four shot, etc shot...

By framing two or more characters in the same shot. a sense of how they relate to each other is created. The opposite of this is to keep characters in separate frames to suggest the lack of common ground or interaction.

Point of View (POV).

Provides perspective from a particular character's point of view. The director manipulates whose eyes the audience experience the story from. 

Angles

High angle.

Camera points down from above eyeline, looking down on someone. Can indicate low status or vulerability.

Low angle.

Camera points up from below eyeline. Can indicate high status - someone powerful or intimidating.

That's it. You only need to find out something about light, 180 degree rule, special effects, writing a script, acting, producing, light, and you can film your movie)

 

 

First footage in 17 seconds... our first cut together sequence!

A man walks into the room, looks around suspiciously with the complete awareness of his toughness on his face. Then looks down, takes a bag and walks out. This is a plot of our first footage we filmed this Thursday. It was a funny experience. But at first teachers just showed us how sequence usually filmed.

Everything usually starts with an Establishing shot (or Wide shot) in order to show the audience all the mis-en-scene, to give an information about location and somehow immerse us into atmosphere. After this we can continue with any shot we consider important to make which depends on the informarion we want to provide audience with. Commonly, we use Mid shot or Medium close-up to pick up the action in more detail. Then we can enrich our sequence with an abundance of Insert shots (it shows only the action. e.g. somebody's hand takes keys from the table) or Close-ups, but again it depends on what we want to show. In our case we used the simpliest scheme: Establishing shot, 2 Medium close-ups and 2 Insert shots. There is also a 180 degree rule which is quite important to use in order not to confuse the audience about actor's location in the space.

Finally, we were divided in 3 groups, given cameras and told to film something by ourselves. It was amazing to film something. This entire process is about comminicating and only 10% of it is filming. I adore it so much!

"Stand by" - "Standing by" - "Roll camera" - "Camera rolling" - "And Action!"

 

 

"Cut!"

Sony NX5 Camera in 1 hour.

Not so long ago we had a chance to get to know Sony NX5 camera. That is actualy a great thing that you can touch a real camera, get acquated with it, say "HI!". It probably won't answer, firstly, because it is a camera and, secondly, because you're not able to treat her in the way it requires yet. But still you feel this satisfaction when you touch it with your fingers, it's like you touch something really as enormous and profound as cinema.

We came into the room with two people ready to share their experience, three boxes with tripods in them and three boxes with cameras and one artificial bird which we were going to film. First 30 minutes we spent to set up all tripods and cameras, one of these guys showed us all the procedure in detail. I was very impatient, but, finally, we switched on the cameras and started to change the picture on our little screens. Firstly, we zoomed the bird and focused on it - picture became sharp. Then we changed the light and made the image brighter. Now it looked much prettier.

Then we opened the door which was behind the bird, so that the bird became very dark and the background extremely overexposed. Now on the background through the door you could see some green trees and some white object in front of them. But the colours on the screen didn't seem natural, so our next step was to make them seem so. We zoomed on this white object so that the white colour occupied all the image, then we focused and press on one of  so-called "magical" button in the bottom of the controll panel and the colours in the picture became natural.

It took us approximetly an hour and ten minutes to learn all this, so I can say that it's a pretty long process and it takes much more than one hour until camera responds to you in an appropriate, respectful way, talks with you like with its real owner. But it's worth learning!

Me

                                              iNTRo

Hey, I'm Archie. Well, my real name is Artemiy, but it's a kind of boring and everybody forgets it pretty quickly. Actually you can call me both. I come from Russia, from its precious capital - Moscow. During my life I tried to do as much good stuff as I could handle. Finally, the only thing or it's better to say things, I'm proud of are my short movies I've got two. You see, not too much. All my work actually fitted in 15:24 minutes... But probably it was worth doing.

Media in Hurtwood is definitely my favourite subject. I just freeze when I see movie posters, cameras and other equipment somehow connected with the process of filmmaking. It might be called an obsession, but I would say it's pure love even though it sounds really sentimentally or you can find another word (but don't be too mocking).

I adore listening to music. If you heard of such bands as A-ha, Alt-j, The XX, Kings of Convenience, we would have much in common.

Finally, I enjoy all the work of  Leo DiCaprio and Christopher Nolan and, as far as I'm concerned, everybody should!!!