Attracting an audience

As an independent film production company we need to attract our audience cheaply but effectively. We are going to do this by using viral campaigns especially focused on social networking sites such as facebook and twitter to attract a large target audience without spending a lot of money. We will also use cheap posters to promote our film to general members of the public that don't use social networking as much as other people do.

Facebook and twitter are brilliant for social advertising but there are also a couple of disadvantages to them. The main bad point about using social networking is if one person doesn't like the film and they use social networking to express how they feel then, those people that are connected with them through social networking, which can be from neighbours to the other side of the world, can read them and be put off watching the film. This can be very damaging to a market campaign and can "break" a film.

Trailers on the TV are highly expensive and an independent production company might not be able to produce the funds to advertise the film on TV.

As an independent film production company we are more likely to use under the belt advertisement rather than over the belt advertisement. Under the belt advertisement is free advertising like word of mouth of interviews that promote the film, where as over the belt advertisement is advertisement that costs money to promote the film, like game releases or public displays of the film.

An example of this is the batman logo appearing on a building to promote the film before it was released. This builds hype.

Timeline of halloween

This is the timeline opening sequence of Halloween it will help me when developing my own titles. It is of a similar genre to mine, that being supernatural which will help even more.

Opening sequence to True Blood

Although true blood isn't a film, the opening sequence has a strong supernatural feel. A lot of the supernatural films I tried finding the opening sequence for were not on the Internet therefore I had to think of different opening sequences to use.

Also it will be useful to me to see the difference between a supernatural television series and a film opening sequence.

Genre

The genre is supernatural. This can be observed through the use of blood, and the constant references to the devil and vampires.

Character

The characters suggested in the opening sequence are those of a supernatural being, or humans that are against the supernatural each with lots of anger and sexual urges. This is shown through the continual use of blood suggesting vampires, and the graffiti say "God hates fangs" 

Atmosphere

The atmosphere created is one of evil and danger. this is done through the connititions of the red blood throughout the opening sequence

Themes

The themes present in the opening sequence are blood, danger, romance and action. This is shown through the erotic scenes, blood scences and the scenes in which someone is being exocised.

Setting

The opeing sequence is set in a rural town which is shown through the use of small comunities shown in the clip, like the church scene.

Titles

The titles are not intergrated into the opening squence apart from the title of the opening sequence. The font is bold on one word and non bold on the word next to it which connotes unease and the paranormal.

Sound

The song being played is titled "Bad Things" and the repetative line being sang is "I wanna do bad things to you" connoting sexual desire and also evil paranormal activities.
Evaluation

The clever use of blood and the song being played makes this opening sequence a very effective opening sequence. It is scary, sexual and very focused on the evil side of life which is shown through a wide variety of effective techiques like the font use, and the exocism clips.



Analysis of Psycho 1960

Analysing genres similar to our chosen genre will help me come up with ideas and thoughts about how to plan and produce the opening sequence to our film.

Analysis of Psycho 1960

Genre
The genre is obviously thriller. This is done through the music and the tension created by the bars that create the credits slowly revealing themselves.
Narrative
As with most thriller genres very little is given away from the opening sequence leading to the audience guessing about what is next to come. The bars that reveal the credits suggest a prison break out and the bars slowly revealing themselves suggests uncovering a mystery.

Characters
Very little is given about the characters however the masculine bars suggest a male antagonist
Atmosphere
A very tense atmosphere is created by the music and the bars. The atmosphere is feels quite condensed
Themes
A prison theme is suggested through the bars in the opening sequence. The title also suggests a psycho maniac is present within the film.

Setting
Nothing is given away about the setting however the bars portray a prison setting.
Sound
Violins are used to create high tension through quick notes and the increase and decrease in dynamics. The tempo is fast increasing the tension.
Titles
The titles are put in through a clever use of transitions however they are not integrated and are the main focusing point of the opening sequence.
Evaluation
This opening sequence is slightly boring in the aspect nothing really happens. The audience aren't given any characters to focus on and the bars make things feel very slow and drawn.

Researching into the chosen genre

We have chosen the theme supernatural thriller.
Thrillers
Thrillers use suspension, excitement and tension as the main elements in the film. They try to stimulate the viewers mood, giving them a high level of anticipation, surprise and terror. Alfred Hitchcock is a well know thriller director.

Supernatural
The supernatural genre is one that uses un-ordinary objects or creatures in the story line of the film.
The genre is often used as a sub genre.

This iconic song by Michael Jackson includes aspects of both the supernatural and thriller genre.





Remaking Vertigo Opening Sequence

 

Remaking Vertigo opening proved to be challenging but beneficial to my experience as a media student. the production ran smoothly with no real problems.

 

 

Above is the remake. The opening titles are concordant with those of the actual vertigo opening sequence and the filming of the actor is almost exactly in time. The major problem I had was the graphics that play in the background. There was noway I could accurately create graphics like that so I used my xbox graphics that play when music is being played to achieve a similar effect

Filming The Re-Make

Due to the illness of one member of our group and the absence of the other for our planned filming times it was down to me to film the clips we needed for our remake. The first clip was the hardest to film for two reasons. The first being the shadowing effect we needed to create while filming the face of the actor and the second being the timings of each shot needed to be perfect because it couldn't be edited down to the correct timings because there were no jump cuts in the original; I needed to film it all in one take. Below is the set up for our filming.

The touch was hung from the ceiling to create the correct angle for the shadowing and a black material was placed behind the actor to create a similar effect to the original.

Here is a picture of the scene

Making the Re-Make

Re-making an opening sequence will help me develop my skills as a media student and help me understand how to put togther my opening scene. It will also help my editing and filming skills. The re-make will be simple to make but will really help my skills as a director as well. This preperation will be very useful when making my film opening.

I have choosen to make vertigo because of the interesting graphics used and the precise timmings of the camera use which which greatly help my editing skills and my camera skills. Vertigo is also relativly short and easy to prepare for meaning I can create a good re-make instead of creating a bad long opening sequence.

Re-Creating a Film Opening Title

Our production company is called Sunbear productions and we are producing a film. The majority of films start with opening titles in which titles are shown in an order. This is the order in which film titles are shown

The name of the studio distributing the film which may or may not have produced the film.
The name of the production company
The producers name
Who the film is staring (principle actors)
The film title
Featuring (less major actors)
The casting director
The composer of music
Production designer
As a variation some of the below may be noted:

• SET DESIGN
• COSTUMES or COSTUMES BY or GOWNS (older movies)
• HAIRDRESSER
• MAKE-UP ARTIST
• SOUND RECORDING (older movies)
• VISUAL EFFECTS DIRECTOR or VISUAL EFFECTS BY 

(source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opening_credits)

The editor
Director of photography
Executive producer
Based on books/characters/story
Writers
Director

To enforce our knowledge on how opening titles are constructed Sunbears production company will be producing a re-make of opening titles from the film Vertigo

This will help Sunbears production in understanding techniques that work and when we come to creating our own opening titles scene help us understand what we have to do, the order of titles and help us create it efficiently.

The difference between mainstream and independent openng sequences.

Mainstream and independent film opening sequences have some major differences.

Mainstream opening sequences tend to look perfect. They provide a pathway to the audience to escape from their ordinary lives to a fantasy world. Independent films however use the opening sequences to relate to the audience through the events or characters in the opening sequences.


This is the opening sequence to This Is England. The opening sequence uses clips that were not filmed by the production company but clips that have been in the media. The clips are grainy and the song being played over the top has a realistic feel to it.


This is the opening sequence to Spiderman 2. The opening sequence is beautiful and unrealistic. The audience are taken away from their normal world and into a world of fantasy. The company's logo is on the screen for longer as well as the actors names. This is to advertise the company and the actors more.

I will include the differences I have noticed into my opening sequence.

Audience Theorys

Theory's are used in the media industry to suggest how the audience consume media products such as film in a mental way.

The hypodermic needle theory

This theory suggests that the audience is a passive audience, one which consumes media without thinking it through and doesn't seek to have any other evidence for the fact which the media has "injected" into them.

An example of this theory is during Halloween in America radio programming was interrupted by a news bulletin that stated the earth was under attack from aliens.  Approximately 12 million people in the United States heard the broadcast and about one million of those actually believed that a serious alien invasion was underway.

This theory is supported by cases in which people have seen things such as a horror movie and acted out the scene in real life. Suggesting they are a passive audience that because its seen in a media outlet thinks its ok to perform in real life.

Uses and Gratification theory

This theory suggests the audience is an active audience; it is not a passive one. The theory suggests the audience choose what media to listen too or consume; the media does not control the audience the audience controls the media.

For example using social sites like facebook is an active choice of the audience; they can choose if they want to consume it or not. Newspapers also back this idea; the audience chooses which one they want to consume if any at all.

Reception theory

This theory suggests the audience does not passively consume media and makes interpretations due to upbringing, social status, culture and life experiences.

 

The clip below isn't an opening sequence but that start of the film that shows the hypodermic needle theory. It does this through the way in which the piece is constructed: there is no room for interpretation. They manipulate how you feel during the clip.

 



The opening sequence below demonstrates the Uses and gratification theory which suggests that the audience are constantly challenging the media in front of them and interpreting them in different ways. This is demonstrated by having no story line and leaving the audience to guess and interpret what is going on.

How film openings attract audiences

Film openings attract audiences through the use of generic conventions that the audience expect to see in the opening, and obviously through creativity, aesthetics, sound and editing.

Media producers like to categorise audiences to make it easier to advertise and draw them in. Demographics are used to categorise people according to their income.

 A- Top management, bankers, lawyers, doctors and other professionals

 B- Middle management, teachers, creative jobs e.g. graphic designers

 C1- Office supervisors, junior managers, nurses,  Specialist clerical staff

 C2- Skilled workers, tradespencersons (white collar)

 D- Semi-skilled and un-skilled manual workers (blue collar)

 E- Unemployed, students, pensioners, casual workers

The use of categorising people in classes became unfashionable and so media producers started thinking of audiences in different ways

  

Mainstreamers

Make up 40% of the population. They like security, are concerned with stability and mainly buy recognised brands and consume mainstream texts.

Aspirers

Aspirers seek to improve themselves. They tend to define themselves by the high status brand names which they own and consume.  They want status and the esteem of others and they like status symbols, designer labels etc. Live off credit and cash.

Succeeders

People who have already got status and control, they feel secure.  Generally they are in positions of power.  They buy brands which reinforce their feelings of control and power.

Reformers

Define themselves by their self-esteem and self-fulfillment.  They actively consume environmentally friendly products and buy brands that are environmentally supportive.  They have caring and responsible ideals.

These category's define groups by the way they think and media producers would develop their media text to suit their target audience.

Media producers use these groups to identify which they are going to target and therefore create an opening sequence to accommodate for the wants of the audience.

How different genres and generic convections are shown in film openings

Genres have to be established in the opening sequences to allow the audience to understand and relate to the film. Therefore generic conventions are used to establish these different genres. Generic conventions are what the audience expect to see at the start of a particualar genre film. Some example of generic conventions are below

Action films tend to always have a chase scene at the start of their opening sequence to make the audience feel excited. They also will establish a protagonist and an antogonist within the opening sequence to give the audience an idea of how the film is going to pan out.



Romance feels tend to establish the two people who are going to fall in love in the opening sequence. They usually have a well off girl and a boy who is asthetically pleasing but not very high up in the world, fall in love usually with each other and someone disagrees with the relationship.



Science Fiction fantasy films often have someone unexpectaclly perform an amazing feat in the opening sequence or discover a power. The opening sequence might also show a furtureistic space ship or world to introduce the audience to the unrealistic setting.



Here are some examples of generic opening sequences. There are many more generic openings for different genres.

Timeline to the opening titles of Insidious (2010)

Doing timelines with similar themes to my movie will help me appriciate the different lengths of timing certian titles are used for and help strengthen which title goes where.

Timeline for opening sequence in Stargate

Creating timelines for different opening sequences will help enforce the title structure. Watching more and more opening sequences will also help me look at the different techniques used by different genres and therefore help me plan the techniques I would like to use when creating my own opening scene

0.02 – MARIO KASSAR PRESENTS

0.03 – music starts

0.04 – A LE STYUDIO CANAL+ / CANTROPOLIS FILM PRODUCTION

0.08 – IN ASSOCIATION WITH CAROLOCO PICTURES INC

0.12 – close up of engraved rock

0.14 – A ROLAND EMMERICH FILM

0.19 – KURT RUSSELL

0.23 – JAMES SPADER

0.25 – camera starts to pan to the left and tilt down

0.31 – STARGATE title

0.42 – VIVECA LINDFORS new close up of different scenery

0.47 – ALEXIS CRUZ camera is still panning left and starts to tilt upwards

0.52 – MILI AVITAL

0.56 – LEON RIPPLY

1.02 – JOHN DIEHL camera is still panning left and tilting up

1.07 – CARLOS LAUCHU DJIMON

1.12 – ERICK AVARI

           FRENCH STEWART camera begins just to tilt upwards
           GIANIN LOFFLER

1.18 – AND JAYNE DAVIDSON camera starts panning to the left again

1.22 - CASTING BY APRIL WEBSER C.S.A

1.28 – MUSIC BY DAVID ARNOLD

1.33 - DIGITAL AND VISUAL EFFECTS SUPERVISOR JEFFREY A.OKUN

1.37 – SPECIAL CREATURE EFFECTS CREATED BY PATRICK TATOPOULOS

1.43 – COSTUME DESIGNER JOSEPH PORRO

1.48 – EDITED BY MICHAEL J.DUTHIE AND DEREK BRECHIN

1.53 – PRODUCTION DESIGNER HOLGER CROSS

1.58 – DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY KARL WALTER LINDENLAUV, BVK

2.04 – CO PRODUCER UTE EMMERICH

2.10 - EXECUTIVE PRODUCER MARIO KASSAR

2.16 – WRITTEN BY DEAN DEVLIN & ROLAND EMMERICH

2.23 – PRODUCED BY JOEL B. MICHAELS
           OLIVER EBERLE
           DEAN DEVLIN

2.29 – DIRECTED BY ROLAND EMMERICH camera zooms out to reveal statue head

2.42 – camera has zoomed out so audience can completely see the statue head

You can find the opening sequence of Stargate below

Evaluation of student film opening Awake

Genre
From the opening shot the genre appears to be a horror action due to the man with the mask and the chase scene. However the start of the opening sequence turns about to be a dream suggesting a physiological horror. This is backed up by the phone call made which tells the audience that this is not the first type of dream like this the protagonist female has encountered.

Character
Three characters have been introduced. A young female teenager experiencing unusual scary dreams, A man within the dream chasing and a supposed therapist on the phone to the young teenage girl. The man in the dream and the vividly of the dream suggests that the girl is being chased and the dreams are indicators of what is going to come.

 

Atmosphere

The atmosphere created is very tense and jumpy. This is achieved by the non-diagetic music and the fast paced editing at the start which creates a scary feel to the opening sequence.

Themes

The obvious theme is horror, with an underlying psychological horror theme suggested by the dream and the call to the therapist.

Setting

The setting appears to be a park at first, but later when the audience realises that the previous scene was just a dream the setting is a house.

Sound

The sound was very effective and jumpy suggesting danger and tension.

Titles

The titles were really small and were almost impossible to see. This was ineffective. The titles were also in the wrong order and they put the movie title at the end of the opening sequence which made it run more like a trailer than an opening sequence.

 

Evaluation

This piece had some very effective moments. The sound was great and created a really good atmosphere that impacted the audience. The lighting however was rather poor and didn't make the opening sequence aesthetically pleasing. The Titles were in the wrong order which made the opening sequence look more like a trailer.

Analysis of another student film opening

Analysing other students film openings from different schools will help me look at more ways of producing my film opening and will help me understand which bits of the film opening are effective and which bits aren't allowing me to just use the effective techniques in my own film opening.

Genre

The genre for the opening sequence to Granted is crime fiction drama. The audience can see this through the crime facts at the start of the opening sequence

Editing

The editing is medium paced and continuous.

Sound

There is no sound at the start of the opening sequence which makes the opening sequence feel like something is missing. The non-diagetic sound starts when the film video starts. The non-diagetic sound also cuts out when the the title of the film appears. This is an ineffective use of sound.

Camera angles 

The camera captures some effective shots of the train and the characters but also has some shots that make the audience feel slightly uneasy like the screenshot below.

Mise en scene

The mise en scene has obviously been thought about as the scenery fits in with the genre of the opening sequence. The costumes of the gang members are stereotypical.
Titles
The titles are not integrated. The font is nice and fits into the genre of the opening sequence.
Characters
Three characters are established but nothing apart from a couple of shots develops them as characters. They are defined in the opening sequence by their clothes.

Evaluation
This opening sequence feels a lot like a crime documentary instead of a film opening. The sound is undeveloped and doesn't have a great impact on the audience. The titles are effective and in the correct order. The camera angles are good but some make the audience feel uneasy. The mise en scene is excellent and allows the audience to relate to the opening sequence. The characterisation is almost non-existent.