Darren & Ellie's Blog: Research and Planning

Analysis of Children of Men

Camera shot/angle/movements

The scene starts off in a coffee shop with a mid-shot of people’s reactions to the news of death of the youngest person. This shot appears just after the audience is told.

This gives the audience the feel of they are the person in following the man. By using a steady cam it allows the audience to feel they are in the scene following the man themselves as it shows a realistic movement of camera.

A steady cam is also used in the scene, this if for when the man leaves the coffee shop. This is used so that the audience feels as though they are following the man themselves and gives a more natural movement of someone moving against a crowd of people.

Sound

Diegetic sounds dominate the scene, you can hear car horns and motor sounds as buses and motorbikes go past.

Quiet crying can be heard in the coffee shop as a response to the bereavement to the death if the young person.

Voices of the news broadcaster are the first thing the audience hears, it tells them certain religious groups are being persecuted and immigrants deported. By doing this the audience now have a slight background information on what the world has become. As it is the first thing they hear, it must be attention grabbing a pull them.

Alfonso Cuaron uses sound very effectively in the opening scene, whilst keeping the sound at a quiet volume and having a smooth balance; he draws the audience in. By doing this, the audience is more shocked when the explosion at the end of the opening sequence is set off.

Editing

The majority of the scene is filmed in one sequence, despite this being tricky to pull off it is done so that the viewers feel as though they are in the scene themselves. This way it gives the opening sequence a much more natural and realistic sense.

Artificial sound is placed in the video explaining the murder of the young 18 year old. This is mainly done again, to give the scene a more natural and accurate base. It is also done so that the viewers have more of a connection to the young person who has died and get them to feel sad along with the characters in the film.

Mise en Scene

CGI plays a big part in the location of the opening scene, it is set in London but in the year 2027. Using CGI a more polluted and run down London is shown. Rubbish bags are left on sides of street in piles and buildings are very dark and grey.

Few cars are seen compared to today’s London, buses ( a connotation of London) and rickshaws are seen being driven round. Some people wearing masks on their faces to protect them from the hazardous gases.

Animation can be seen on sides of buses, this is done to show that technology has advanced and show it is set in the future. Along with this a caption is shown telling the audience that this scene is in London 2027. In the backdrop St.Pauls Cathedral can also be seen to show it is indeed in London.

When outside, two people greet each other with a kiss on each cheek. When this is initiated it triggers off and marks the moment of the explosion.

The set of the opening scene is designed for the explosion, so that when it goes off the debris of the building in which it does is blown across the road.

After the explosion, a woman staggers out of the coffee shop holding what appears to be her own arm. Obviously a prop, this is used to show the seriousness and illustrate what the world has become.

Characters

We are introduced to the main protagonist ‘Theo Faron’ in the opening scene however; he does not play up to a conventional hero here. He shows a lack of emotion to the death of the 18 year old; it is hinted that he may have a drinking problem to the viewers as after taking his coffee he proceeds in pouring what appears to be an alcoholic beverage into it. When the explosion occurs he also begins to back away in fright and shows no intention of helping.

The death of Diego Recardo is reported by the two news broadcasters. We also see several people in the coffee shop stunned by the death of the youngest person alive.

Locations

The scene starts in a coffee shop in London; we then follow a man outside to a street which is identified as Fleet Street.

Narrative/Plot

Viewers are informed of the death of the 18 year old ‘Baby Diego’ and watch the news in a London coffee shop. After a man walks in and shows no attachment to the sad news he walks out into the street and pours Alcohol into his coffee. An explosion is set off and a woman walks out holding her own arm.

This dramatic opening draws the audience in straight away as they intrigued by the unusual and powerful events.

Themes

The opening scene expresses themes of madness and desperation, in which the lengths people are going to e.g. bombings.

A theme of sadness and bereavement is also shown as people are informed of the death and begin to mourn.

Visual Style

The opening scene overall shows London and the world has dramatically changed for the worse. It gives a very dark and dismal feel and portrays most things in a negative view. So far it shows no signs of hope or that problems will be resolved and so therefore it is set in a very discouraging root.

Genre

‘Children of men’ opening gives us background information on what is happening in the world in 2027 and what the world has turned into. They are not told why all the terrible events are happening and how unaffected some people are; this plays along with a conventional thriller film as they are dropped in the middle of a world in crisis.

However, there are certain aspects that are not conventional to thriller genres. There is no suspense building in the opening scene leaving the viewers to expect something, there is also no tension building music which is usually associated with thrillers. The viewers are immediately told that there are problems in the world, people are being murdered and immigrants deported. If they were not told this information and the opening scene continued along its plot; that could possibly be more conventional to thriller films as it would leave the audience slightly confused in the mystery, leading them to ask questions about what is going on.

Se7en Analysis

Camera shot/angle/movement

David Fincher uses a lot of extreme close ups in his opening sequence, this slightly distorts the viewer, the close ups also leave the viewer asking questions as they lack the information that they require, it begins to make the audience ask questions; who this man? ; why is he doing these things?. This adds to the Thriller conventions as the sequence as a very mysterious feel.

Most shots appear to be from a point of view of the character from a high angle. Transitions and over layers are used to that there is two shots merged together. There is little camera movement in the sequence as most shots are still.

Sounds

In the sense of building a suspense it plays up to thriller conventions as it draws the audience in. Temp of music increases towards the end to coincide with the fast moving shots. Non-diegetic sounds is used by the band “Nine Inch Nails”, this is used as it presents the artificial feel that is needed for the of the film. The music is very jaggered and certain sounds cut in and out. However, the opening is also very unique. Due to the sounds that are cut in it goes against conventional thriller music. The sounds consist of an electric spark and scraping.

Editing

Captions are edited in to show who’s starring in the film Certain transitions are put in place so that shots jutter and shake to give the opening a conventional mysterious effect that is linked with thrillers. Over laying shots are used to magnify certain pin points in the shot e.g pen tip.

Mise En Scene

The setting is not clear due to the extreme close ups used, however i am aware that it is inside a building due to the darkness and furnishings. No costumes are visible due to the extreme close ups again. However, in some clips a hand with plasters on can be seen. Props are the most intriguing aspect of “Se7en’s” scene, there are irregular and mysterious objects being used and placed around. For instance, what appears to be a scrapbook of photos (that are again not made clearly visible) and written statements can be seen. Also, at one point the person takes a fragment of their skin off with a razor. The person is also seen cutting pieces of paper up and film and placing them in this book. This makes the audience begin to ask questions, as they are not given any information about what is happening or what these things are being used for.

This opening scene is very dark and there is not much lighting placed on it, this has been done to add again to the mysterious feature of a thriller film and reduce the audiences visibility to what is happening on screen. It also gives the impression that something odd and peculiar is happening.

Characters

Characters are not made entirely clear in this opening, only the hands of a person are made visible; at one point the person has plasters on their fingers. The viewers to get the idea that this person they see may have an obsession or mental stability problem due to their action of cutting the top of their finger off.

Locations

As said earlier, the location is not known due to the shots chosen in the opening; it does appear that the scene is shot inside as the lack of light.

Narrative/Plot

There is not a clear set plot in the opening scene, as the shots do not give away much information. This is obviously intentional by the director to hide as much information as possible from the audience to lead them in more. As the character in this scene acts in weird way, i.e. cutting off the op of his finger, it does give clues and hints of revenge of murder.

Themes

The conventional themes in the opening scene base around a very dark source. They include; mystery; secrecy; murder; obsession and mentality.

Visual Style

David Fincher uses dark lighting and dark scenery to combine so that the scene gives off a overall mysterious and leaves the viewers in a world of suspense.

Genre

The genre of the film ‘Se7en’ is a thriller, this comes across in the opening scene by a various of routes. The director uses dark lighting; extreme close-ups and no visibility of the character to add suspense and a transcendental motive.

Panic Room

Camera shot/ angle movement

The opening begins with a high angle shot, this is also a establishing shot to inform the audience of the location which is New York, a very vibrant busy city. Long shots and high angles are effective in giving the audience a sense of scale and detail.

Sound

Non diegetic sound is used to emphasise the scope of the setting and provide a sense of granduer to the sky scrapers and towering buildings on show.

the tempo quickens as the scene progresses, a non diegetic sound, very similiar to a ticking clock can be heard during this sequence which could suggest the count down to a dramatic confrontation, it also provides the audience with a sense of unease and a wondering expectation of what will happen next. it is quite classical and there is an obvious ticking which could mean that there is a count down during the film. It leaves the audience wondering what will happen because it is quite dramatic.

Editing

Names of actors are written on the buildings, the transitions between each shot is very quick and give the illusion that the audience are looking for something or avoiding someone.

Mise en scene:

Setting

It is set in New York in the middle of the day, it looks very busy and traffic covers the roads.

Costume

There are no main characters or people shown, just from very far away angles and so there are no noticeable costumes

Lighting

Very natural and therefore diegetic, this could be to show that the plot is realistic.

Make up

There are no main characters or people shown, just from very far away angles and so there are no noticeable make up.

Expression

There are no main characters or people shown, just from very far away angles and so there are no noticeable expressions.

Props

No props are shown or used.

Shot type

There are many different shots some are extreme close ups other are wide shots, these give a very good overall view of the surrounding area.

Characters

No characters are shown clearly and so it is expected that after the opening scene they enter.

Locations

The film is set in new york, this could mean that during the thriller the characters have to struggle through the crowds and because there is a ticking in the music it suggest there may be a bomb. Because bombs are most expected in busy cities where most attention is drawn to the protesters point.

Narrative/ plot.

Although there’s no clear indication of what the narrative of the opening is it is obvious that its set in the city due to the large sky scrapers and crowded roads. It is set in new york and the names of the appearing actors are shown on buildings and landmarks, this could show that the actors are well thought of and well paid - and so indicating that the film will be expensive and therefore of a good quality.

Themes

The themes of the opening to panic room are fear: on a billboard its written and so this shows that there could be panic throughout the city, also the title “panic room’ suggests that there is going to be a source of worry.

Visual style

The overall lighting is quite natural and due to the setting being in new york its is polluted and therefore dull. The crowded atmosphere gives no clue as to who will be the main character or even what the fl will be about and therefore the audience is left in a world of suspense.

Genre

Thriller - it contains suspense, tension and excitement along with mystery and crime.

Children of Men

Representation In the ‘Children of Men’ opening, the scene is shot in London, England. This is clear to us because there is certain London related conventions or that are affiliated with London to represent. For instance, in the scene you can see St.Pauls Cathedral in the backdrop, which is a very famous English landmark, another example is London red buses that are driven past, this shows to the audience where they are. However, the representation is not a very positive one; this feeling is given right at the start when the news reader states the youngest person in the world has died. This would seem irregular to the audience as it is not a usual news broadcast topic, this already leaves the audience asking question about why and what has happened.

The streets of London that are shown in the shot, appear to be very dirty, rubbish bags are left on corners in piles an certain people are even wearing face masks to protect themselves from the fumes, this gives a feel that London has deteriorated and something terrible may have happen.

We are not introduced to many main characters in the opening scene, we do in fact follow one man; we see him enter the coffee shop and then the camera then follows him to the outside street. We later find out in the film he is to be a hero. Despite this, in the opening scene he is not shown to do anything heroic or give the slightest glimpse that he holds a hero’s convention. In fact, it is quite the opposite as we seem him give no emotion to the bad news being broadcasted unlike others around him who seem to be grieving. We then see him take out a bottle presumed an alcoholic spirit and pour some into his coffee, taking into account that is seems to be morning in this scene, it is irregular for someone to be drinking at that time. For these reasons the man is represented as maybe an alcoholic or troubled person. When the explosion occurs at the end of the scene, the man backs away in fright, the audience sees no instance from the man to travel towards the explosion to help in the situation as we would expect from a conventional hero.

What we are not told in this scene but find out later on, is that woman have all become sterile and therefore are unable to conceive. In the opening scene are report on the news tells us that the youngest person of 18 has died that day, women can be seen in the coffee shop where the beginning of the scene takes place grieving and upset. Some are being comforted by others whilst trying to stifle their tears. Women may perhaps be slightly more upset than the men, as they may feel slightly responsible or guilty that they are unable to conceive a child, and now the youngest person in the world has died it has made their feeling resurfaced.

‘Children of men’ is set in as stated earlier it has become a dirty and polluted place, technology may have advanced slightly as animated advertisements can be seen on the sides of London buses. This is over shadowed by the news that the youngest person in the world has been killed, this says to the audience not only has London deteriorated, but the whole world has gotten slightly out of control. Not much is mentioned in the opening scene about certain groups, the news reader tells us that immigrants are being deported back to their countries which they originated from, and that mosques are being closed. The reasons for these actions are not given, but the audience are led to believe that maybe this is due to a stereotypical view of the world.

The Matrix Opening Analysis

Camera shots/angle/Movement

The opening shot zooms out of a flashlight and into a close up of a policeman’s face. An over the shoulder shot is used to focus on the door that the policemen are standing outside. High angle is then used to look up from the door handle at the surrounding people. This is again used later in the scene using a low angle to see a character proceeding on the stairs. Outside an aerial shot is used when the cars arrive to be able to get all the action into view. When a character begins to run towards the camera; it tracks backwards keeping them in view. Match on action is used in the opening scene, this is done when a character is seen jumping through a window towards a set of stairs; it then cuts to her rolling down the stairs past the camera; and then the camera at the bottom of the stairs at a low angle as the character comes to a halt on the floor.

Sound

Diegetic sound is used throughout the scene in such instances as; gun shots; car motor/wheel sounds; telephone ring and a window smashing. Non-diegetic sound is also used in the opening scene, this is seen when a fight scene occurs and sounds are added to emphasise the strike. Mood music is also added in tense moments which are produced by orchestra related instruments such as violins. These are used in such instances as the chase

sequence.

Editing

CGI plays a big part in this scene to pull of spectacular special effects, these are used in long building jumps and when the character jumps through the air into a window. Green screen is also used to get the effect of when the camera rotates around the character that has momentarily stopped in mid-air.

Movement has been edited in certain places to give a slow-motion effect, this is done to emphasise dramatic moments in the scene. As mentioned above certain sound is edited in to again emphasise certain points.

Mise en Scene

There are four main settings for the opening scene; outside the hotel; in a room of the hotel; rooftop of the hotel; in a street. Props such as guns; cars and telephone boxes are used. There are only three different costumes in the opening sequence; policeman; suit; latex costume.

Characters

Trinity, wearing latex costume. She is found by police and attempts to fight them off. She is then chased upon the rooftop until she manages to escape and find the phone box. At this point the viewers could see trinity as a antagonist as she is seen a possible criminal. Agent Smith, one of the two men in a suit. Comes to the hotel searching for trinity, other agents chase her onto the rooftop. At the end of the scene he crashes a lorry into the phone box attempting to kill trinity.

Locations

The scene starts in a hotel which appears to be no longer in use. There are hardly any lights on and the walls are damaged. The hotel seems very run down and grotty. Apart from this all other locations appear ordinary and does not appear as though anything strange will happen.

Narrative/Plots

The scene begins with police breaking down a door and surrounding a woman in a room. It then cuts to outside where two men in suits arrive in a car and enter the building with more policemen. Inside the woman who was captured by the police fights them off and attempts to escape. Upon being chased onto the roof she races across the top of the building followed by one of the men in a suit.

She jumps across to another building through a glass window; she makes her way onto the street in search of a telephone box. However, a lorry pulls up attempting to smash the telephone box whilst she rushes towards it climbing inside with the lorry then smashes into the box through the wall behind it.

Themes

Freedom could be considered a theme in this opening as Trinity is chased by police and agents, although her purpose for out running them is unknown. Resilience, another theme linked with trinity as she attempts to fight off those who try and capture her.

Visual Style

Throughout the sequence the scene remains rather dark and dull colours including the characters clothing, this contrasts with the fast moving and tense action going on around it.

Genre

The Matrix opening scene goes along with a thriller convention throughout; it contains a thriller cliché chase sequence with suspense orchestra music playing throughout. The viewers are thrown in to a very action packed opening, which leaves them confused and wondering why it occurred. Mysterious characters in suits chasing a woman in a latex costume are very irregular incidents and can only be expected in such peculiar genre as thriller which is made to confuse the audience and leave them on the edge of their seat wondering what will happen next.

Inclusion - working script

Film titles roll during.

Cuts to article headline, ‘Accident Claims Innocent Lives’. Sounds of car crash inserted, maybe some flames. Dramatic music played over throughout.

Picture of a husband and his wife, their child is in front of them. Someone draws a cross on the parents face. A circle is then drawn around the daughters face.

Dramatic music gets lower to barely audible.

Int. Georgina’s bedroom

High angle looking at diary

She’s writing in her diary.

Int. Georgina’s Bedroom
Mid-shot of her sitting at desk writing

She stands up and put her diary in her bag and walks out the room.

She walks across the landing and down the stairs.

Ext. Outside a house, a girl walk up to the front gate and looks up at the house. She takes out a piece of paper.

Shot of piece of paper over the shoulder of the girl, on it is written a address. She looks up to see the address matches the one she is at.

Shot of Georgina coming out of door, she walks along the path.

Mid-shot behind girl as Georgina turns and walks up the roads away from her.
Ellie
Excuse me

10.
Over Georgina’s shoulder shot looking at Ellie as she turns round to face Ellie.
Ellie
Do you know where St.Auguston’s Academy is? I think i’m lost

11.
Over Ellie’s shoulder shot looking at Georgina
Georgina
Oh ya! Thats where I’m going, come with me if you like.

Georgina turns and begins to walk away.

12.

Mid-shot of Ellie, she takes out her phone and types a message.

13.

Point of view shot form behind Ellie and Georgina as they being to walk off, a mobile phone message tone is heard and the person takes out their phone. The message reads ‘We have her ;)’. Dramatic music gets louder.

14.
Mid shot behind Ellie and Georgina as they walk, Ellie turns round to look at camera and smiles.

Title of Film Appears.

Target Audience Research

Looking through the film guide on http://business.pearlanddean.com, we found that our target audience for the opening of a thriller is males aged between 15-34 as it made up 80% of the total viewing of that film. This was discovered after looking up another thriller that is due to be out next year ‘The Dark Fields’. This had a comparable profile with a film similar to itself, ‘Fight Club.’

This Target Audience profile is for the upcoming film “My Soul To Take”, it is a Thriller with the sub genre of Horror.

Like the movie above it also suggests that our target audience for our Thriller opener is Males aged between 15 and 34.

Another example of a Target Audience profile for a thriller, however, we get the same results as it shows that we should aim our thriller opener towards males aged between 15-24.

To help us make a opening to a thriller that would be suitable for our target audience, we created a questionaire and gave it out to twenty people to fill in, we then took back the results, analysed them, and created pie charts so we could view the data easily. Here is a template of our questionaire,,,

Questionnaire:

Please tick the following appropriately

What gender are you?

Male

Female

Should the opening of a thriller include dialogue?

Yes

Doesn’t matter

What would most appeal to you in a thriller opening?

Director

Story-line

Music

Actors

In a thriller, what sub gender do you find the most enjoyable?

crime

political

physiological

religious

science fiction

Action

Drama

Horror

What helps build suspense in a thriller opening?

Lighting

Pace

Music

During he opening of a thriller what do you find the most important aspect?

Setting

special effects

Acting

Music

How much do you believe should be revealed in the opening of a thriller?

None

A small amount

A large amount

Depending on the results we got from the questionaire would determine a sort of outcome for our opening for instance...

In our questionaire, we asked 'should the opening to a thriller have dialogue'. Here's the results we got.

As you can see, the majority voted that they believe there should be dialogue in the opening of a thriller however, we took this to mean not a full conversation. So in the opening we included dialogue but still kept it to a minimum as we didn't wish to take any effect off the drama and suspense.

Another example of how we took the questionaire into consideration when planning our thriller was the next question, 'what would most appeal to you in a thriller opening'.

From these results you can see that the people we asked believed that music to be the thing to appeal to them most in a thriller. Taking this in board, we incorporated the correct music into our thriller to build pace, suspense and tension.

Thriller Titles

Se7en

In the opening of Se7en, it shows the title of the film, director and actors starring in in. They way in which it does this reflects and ties with the theme of the film, the producers name “Arnold Kolpeson” is appears on screen backwards at first, the font used looks as if it was written in chalk or pencil. It then flashes and appears the right way round.
Also, “Brad Pitt” an actor starring in the films name appears and flashes, it jutters slightly at the same time as an electric “zapping” sound is heard. The title “Se7en” is also written in a way that looks to the viewer as it was hand written, this also jutters and gets smaller and unable to read after initially flashing up on the screen.

Psycho 1960

The opening title of Psycho shows the title of the film, actors and some of the production team. This opening sequence, reflects the film as the music presented shows urgency and builds slight suspense. The text comes in from the sides at a high speed, when on screen it splits slightly and becomes unreadable, this happens when the title of the film ‘Psycho’ comes up.

This reflects the genre thriller as it adds a sense of mystery, it also gives an idea of something is wrong or irregular is happening.

Openings of most films follow a conventional suit, right at the beginning the production company will be shown an presented to the audience first. They are the company who finance the film and allowed it all to be possible, therefore they wish to be shown first as the most important. After the production company the producers name will usually be shown next, followed by the actors or production team who took part in making the film.

This can be seen in such Thriller films as ‘Se7en’ and ‘Panic Room’.

We would also have to determine a BBFC rating in our film, as our target audience is between 15-34 it would be pointless having a film with the rating of 18. Using explicit language will increase the film rating to a 15. This would be okay rating for our film as explicit language may be used depending on thew situation that the characters are put in. Certain scenes may also be scary or inappropriate for younger viewers, this wouldn’t affect our film as the minimum target audience age for our film is 15, and so anyone under the age of 15 would be irrelevant.

Cast, Crew and Setting

Here is the cast and crew in the opening to our thriller.

Ellie will take on the role of the main antagonist in our thriller, she is the one who lures Georgina into the cult initially. She also has dark secrets and several mental problems which led to her starting the suicide cult in the first place.

Georgina plays the main protagonist in our thriller, she

plays the young teenager who has recently lost her

parents, she is then manipulated and persuaded to

join a cult that she does not realise is a suicide cult.

Location

Initially we planned to film our thriller had Christ the King Sidcup college however we then decided that it would be better to film it away from college and so we then changed the script and story to fit the setting.

The location we decided on was Georgina's home in Eltham, this added to the realism of the films and shows the first contact between Ellie and Georgina.

This is another location we filmed opposite of Georgina's house, this setting was used in the shot where the effect is given that someone is watching Georgina and Ellie walk up the road.

We used very little props in our Thriller, an Iphone 4 and a exercise are the limits of our props. The costumes consisted of day to day wear for teenagers just so it didnt look odd and went along with the realism.