Due to the footage that we filmed during December having many problems with it, such as faults with lighting, continuity, the sound was muffled and we had broken the 180 degree rule, we decided that it was best to reshoot. However I've decided to keep the original title sequence up on my blog because the second time we shot we completly changed the whole script and sequence.

Analysis of my Coursework
For my coursework, the task is to be able to create an opening scene of a movie which has to last for 2 minutes. I decided to work with my two friends Kate and Nini. We decided that as we all enjoy teen movies that relate to us, we would base our film on a movie like 'Legally Blonde,' or 'Freaky Friday.' Both scenes start with the main character waking up and getting ready for the day. Both movies give us an insight into the type of character which we are seeing and it sets the scene for us and gives us an idea into what the movie may be about.

Kate, Nini and I didn't want our opening scene to be complicated, we wanted the audience to be able to understand what was going on we wante the opening scene to appeal to an audience around the ages of 13 - 18.

The main character, Christy is 15 years old and lives with her older sister, Nini who is 17 and her parents. They live in a suburban house. Christy is petite and has dark blonde hair and has a good sense of style, her room is quite girly but Christy herself has an attitude. She enjoys making an effort but isnt too fussed about what she looks like most of the time. We notice that Christy and her sister Nini do not get along.

The first thing the audience are going to see are the distribution logos. They will see 'A Kelni Edwards Production' appear and it will fade out and you will see an establishing shot of a suburban house, the audience will be able to see where the opening scene is being shot and what sort of lifestyle they characters live. The camera will then zoom in and pan upwards to one of the windows, which is where the majority of the opening scene will take place. This will be obvious to the audience. It will then go to a wide shot of Christy in bed sleeping, and the camera will be placed in the corner of the room therefore we will be able to see the surroundings and her bedroom. She will be facing the opposite direction in bed so the audience will not be able to see her face. The next shot is of the camera zooming closer into her but it is still a wide shot. We see her turn over as she hears a knock on her door but her eyes remain shut. The next shot is a close up shot of her face with her eyes shut and we suddenley see her eyes open quickly as if she's startled and it is still a close up shot. It then goes to a long shot of Christy sitting on her bed, we see her untie her hair which is messy and as she does that she turns on her ipod. The next shot is a close up of her reaching the play button on her ipod and we hear music which is Chipmunk - Diamond Rings. This music sets the scene for us as its upbeat, fun and goes well with the characters personality. The next shot is a medium shot of her looking into her mirror, in the shot we see her dressing table with makeup, perfume and pictures. It's fairly neat but with a bit of mess. We see the back of her head and see the reflection of her face in the mirror. She smoothes out her hair and then it cuts to a close up shot of her applying her makeup. When she is done we see a medium close up of her with her make up done and we see the door in the background. The next shot is a close up of the back of her head and we see her putting her top on over head, it then goes toa medium close up of Christy, we see that she has her top on and she is putting on her jeans, whilst jumping up and down. The next shot is a long shot of her sister Nini walking up the stairs. It then goes to a high angle shot and we see a pair of boots laying on the floor and then a close up of them and the girls hand grabbing them. Then we see a long shot of the Christy opening the door, ready with her boots on. As we see her coming out of the door in the next shot, we see her face to face long shot of the two sisters meeting in the hall, we notice there is conflict between the them. The next shot is an over the shoulder shot, and we can see Nini in a medium close up, 'nice top, where did you get it from? My wardrobe?' This speech creates a tension between them both and the audience notice that they obviously do not get along. The next shot is over the shoulder but instead of seeing Nini's medium close up, we see over her shoulder and the audience can see Christy's face which is reacting to what Nini has just said. The next shot is a wide shot of Christy walking into the kitchen through the door and she looks at the calander. The next shot is a close up of the calander and Christy crosses out the next box which is titled 'School Starts,' and that is when the opening scene ends.

RESEARCHING AUDIENCES

For our opening sequence, we researched into movies such like Freaky Friday, Legally Blonde and Pretty in Pink. We chose these three because they all show their main character's daily routine in the morning as they get up. It also created a certain image for the character and within the first 2 minutes, the audience is able to understand the concept of the movie and you are immediatley aware of the type of character that the movie is portraying. Legally Blonde shows a lot of pink and shows girly characteristics. However this is the opposite sort of character we wanted to create, we wanted to take the main characeter in Freaky Friday and create more of an edgy, dark look.



The character in the image above is the main character in Freaky Friday, the image below is the character Jenny Humphrey from Gossip Girl, we wanted to base our character Daisy on her.



The type of audience who would watch movies such as Legally Blonde and Freaky Friday would be young teenagers and perhaps older teenagers. However we wanted to make 'Chasing Daisy,' age 15 appropriate, we wanted to appeal to wide range of people and wanted teenagers to be able to relate to the character Daisy in our opening sequence.

RESEARCH INTO FREAKY FRIDAY AND LEGALLY BLONDE - OPENING SEQUENCE


We looked at Legally Blonde for the opening sequence, this was because montage sequences were used which is what we aimed to do for our media product. We also liked how the colour pink was used throughout the 2 minute clip we viewed as it emphasised the main character's personality. However we wanted to go the opposite direction as we wanted to create a more edgy vibe for our character.



We also chose to look at Freaky Friday to see what the opening sequene was like, and it seemed to give us an insight into what type of things we should do for our media product.




I chose the movie 'Freaky Friday,' as one of my movie choices to analyze. Fortunately the movie represents the sort of film that i want to make for my coursework. The first thing we see is the distribution logo which is Walt Disney, therefore we know that the movie is aimed at a young audience and its a family film. It then fades into old pictures of mothers and daughters, this gives us an idea on what sort of film it is. Then we see the title of the film 'Freaky Friday.' The next shot we see is of a suburban house, we then see a close up shot of a teenage girl sleeping. The shot then quickly zooms out into a wider shot of the girls messy room. Then a medium close up of her mum trying to wake the girl up. The next shot is of the girl with a pillow over her head showing that she clearly does not want to wake up for school. The next shot is a long shot of the mum doing yoga in her room, this gives us an insight into her character and what her personality is like. It then goes to a wide shot of her mum trying to pull her daughter out of bed, and then a medium close up of the mums face, this shows her facial expressions which at the time are angry. We see a close up of the mum reaching for her many phones, and then the younger brother comes into the daughters room and wakes up her in an aggressive way. It then shows the girls bedroom door with a poster saying 'Parental Advisory, Keep Out.' Then a few seconds later the girl suddenly appears from her room as a medium close up dressed and ready for her school day. The music says a lot about the opening scene, as we see the distribution logo and the credits a friendly, upbeat song is on which represents the idea of the film and how its a family movie, however when the movie starts and you see the young girl in bed, the music then becomes more heavy and intense representing the teenage girl's character, showing that she is a lazy teenager and the rock music really symbolizes the movie.

This is the video we created for our preliminary task, we made sure there were examples of shot reverse shot, 180 degree rule and match on action.





This is an animatic of our storyboard which was used for our preliminary task.

THE NOTEBOOK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYx5Z4ZMzRo
The opening scene immediatly tells us that its created by New Line Cinema. The beginning of the film is very basic and not a lot happens. The music sets the scene for us as it is quite uplifting. The actors names appear at the beginning as well. As we are introduced to the first character, the movie uses a point of view shot as we are seeing what the actor sees as she looks out onto the river. By mise en scene we can tell that she is quite unhappy as she is staring out the window, this shot would be a medium close up.

We then see a close up shot of her which the audience can immediatly sense her emotions. Another character is then introduced by a medium long shot. Within the first 3 minutes of the movie, not a lot happens but it sets the scene for us and gives us an insight in to what the story is about and what sort of camera shots would be used.


TWILIGHT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2T7d8j6I5I

I used the Twilight trailer to analyse the camera shots, angles and mise en scene of the movie. It is created by Summit Entertainment and the music creates a gloomy but mysterious atmostphere. The first shots we see are establishing shots and very long shots and these help the audience to see whats going on in the scene and it creates an image for us. The camera then shows us a long shot of the main character Edward Cullen and then into a medium close up as the audience are given an insight into his facial expressions.

(LONG SHOT)
We then see close ups and big close ups of one of the character's Bella Swan who's reaction is of shock. They also use a lot interesting camera movement throughout the movie such astracking shots and tilts. There is a lot of action in the movie therefore the camera shots and camera movements vary a lot, an extreme long shot will be used and then it would quickly change to a close up.
High angle and low angle views are used as well.




CAMERA SHTOS, ANGLES AND MOVEMENT.




Extreme Long Shot - the view is so far from the subject that she isn't even visible. This is often used as an establishing shot.

Long Shot - shows the entire object or human figure and is usually intended to place it in some relation to its surroundings.

Medium Long Shot - a shot of the person knees up.

Medium Shot - a shot of the person wasit up.

Medium Close Up - a shot of the person's face and shoulders.

Close up - a shot of the person's face, this is normally used to show the reaction of a person.




These are my top 5 favourite films....

1. Twilight
watch trailer
imdb of Twilight
2. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
watch trailer
imdb of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
3. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
watch trailer
imdb of Forgetting Sarah Marshall
4. Final Destination 3
watch trailer
imdb of Final Destination 3
5. Dude Wheres My Car?
watch trailer
imdb of Dude Where's My Car?

BREAKING THE 180 DEGREE RULE



THE 180 DEGREE RULE



The 180° rule is a basic guideline in film making that states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle.

I had to understand the full term of the 180° rule for my preliminary task and show a good example of it, i also went onto youtube to find a video which could show an example as well as my own video.

AN EXAMPLE OF SHOT REVERSE SHOT




This is an example of shot reverse shot which i found on youtube.

Shot reverse shot is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character which is usually an off-screen character, and then the other character is shown looking "back" at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.

For my preliminary task, i had to be able to use an example of shot reverse shot in the correct way. Therefore i chose this example on youtube to show that i knew what shot reverse shot was and to see if it was right.