Archive for January 2013

Film Opening Details

By Test | Monday, January 28, 2013 | , , , Leave a comment


Our film opening is based around a hit. Ryan Hunt, the main character is looking down a sniper scope at his target (who is loading boxes from a garage into a car), when a third party kills the target before him. Ryan shoots and interrogates the third character before killing him.
·      Our Sequence will be set in two locations, the first being the sniping post, a blank white walled room, in which Ryan will be sitting, pointing his sniper rifle out of the window. The second will be a dingey set of garages which are secluded from the street, the garages aren't well upkept, showing a working class, urban setting. The Target will be loading boxes from one of the garages into a car.
·      The sequence contains a central theme of Revenge
·      There will be percussive non-diegetic music which gradually will get louder, to build a tense atmosphere leading up until the first shot is fired. After which point we will use faster paced music, which will drop off as the dialogue starts
·      During the build-up to the first shots, you will be able to hear Ryan's breath and at the point where the third party enters the scene he will mumble "Who are you?" After shooting the third party Ryan will have a brief scripted dialogue with him during which the third party will reveal he was sent by a gang called "Church Street" 
·      There are 3 characters in the sequence:
1. The Protagonist. He will seem cold, and lacking emotion. He will wear a suit. And in the sequence will always be holding a weapon (The sniper rifle at the start, and then a pistol at the end). This will make his job explicit, with the suit connoting professionalism and the guns showing that he kills people
2. The hit. The hit will be loading boxes into a car. He will be dressed in casual clothing; jogging bottoms and a hoodie, possibly with a snap-back cap. He will have a gun tucked into the back of his trousers, which will only be visible when he reaches up to close the garage, this will signify him as some sort of thug, or drug dealer.
3. The Church Street gang member. He will be dressed similarly to the hit; in low hanging jogging bottoms and a hoodie. He will walk on screen through the sniper scope and confidently shoot the hit. After he has been shot he will express pain, and his speaking parts will reflect this by breathing heavily and spitting his words.
·      Lighting will be natural during outdoor shooting and largely natural during indoor filming (as we will be shooting next to a window).
·      During the tense part of the sequence we will use a lot of slow zooms in order to draw the audience into the narrative. However after the Church street gang member enters the scene camera work will immediately become faster paced, with many handheld shots, and shots from different angles. 
·      Titles will be put into the sequence so as not to intrude into the scene. For example in the black around the edges when looking down the sniper scope,
·      The main influences behind this idea are the ending scene from "Casino Royale" for the faster paced part, and thriller techniques from "Shooter" for the more tense part. 

Initial Idea

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Our idea is comprised of three characters, our protagonist, and two agents.

These agents would be looking for a government project which they did not know of, and had been stolen by the protagonist. They pull up outside the block of garages, and exit their car, after which they notice that their tracking unit has failed. They then proceed to scan the area for computer bugs and get killed by our protagonist creeping up on them.

We presented our idea to our teacher and our class using a Power Point presentation, outlining key information such as the plot, the characters names, the actors, the location and the type of genre we were going for. We also presented the current films that influenced our production and our idea, these films were Shooter and James Bond.

We were "amber-lit" by our teachers, who permitted us to go out on a test shoot and see if the setting and the plot would work. We soon discovered that filming with a car was extremely difficult as the windows had a slight tint and reflected greatly meaning we couldn't see the characters inside. We also had issues with who could legally drive the car in the shot and therefore decided to ditch the car in favour of the agents walking in to the garage compound.

James Bond Analysis

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Research and Planning: James Bond Ending Scene

From our group planning discussion we were clear that we wanted a tense scene where enigma would be created encouraging the audience to continue watching the film and to immerse the audience in the film. This would mean that we would have to include a tense or action packed scene in our opening trailer in order to make this an event that the audience would be interested in seeing and also in order to introduce the genre of the film to the audience straight away. In order to do this, we decided that it would be a good idea to look at the leading action spy thriller film franchise, James Bond. From our group planning session, we had decided on a set of shots an a short narrative that would be our base for improvement. We decided that in this scene we would have a target crawling away from our protagonist and we identified a scene from the James Bond movie "Casino Royale" that fits what we are going to do perfectly. From 0:45 onwards, is what we are planning to use as inspiration for this part of our opening sequence.

We find this part particulararly effective as this scene encompases many conventional features of action such as the low angle shot of the figure (in the scene at 45 seconds) showing that he is powerful as he dominates the frame, however this is quickly juxtaposed when the next shot is shown and he is shown as a much smaller character in comparison to his surroundings. After he is shot the camera immediately goes to a high angle shot showing that in the space of a couple of seconds he has lost his power immediately. At 55 seconds we cut to a shakycam with the shot man struggling to escape, this is an effective shot as it shows his struggle to save his life and that he no longer has any power in the scene. At 1:00 the scene cuts to a shot of stairs and the character has lost so much power, that the stairs seem to act like a barrier stopping the mans progress, this is very effective in showing his transition from powerful character to a weak and vulnerable character in the story line, it's also interesting to see that the camera remains in a fixed position while the character crawls into the frame, this shows that he has lost so much power that the camera isn't interested in him anylonger. Then at around 1:05, a dark clothed and shadowy figure walks up to the character, this creates enigma as to who this character is and interests the audience, we also immediately know that he is more powerful than the character lying on the floor and this is confirmed as the camera pans and swoops up showing us the identity of the mysterious figure. This element is very conventional in terms of the enigma that thrillers often have and create in order to thrill the audience. Another conventional thriller shot that this sequence uses can be found right at the beginning. There is a very slow pan as the car enters through the gates and we get a sneak peak of where it's going, then there is a slow fade to the next shot where we see an establishing shot of the location. This slow pace is quite conventional of thriller films.

Location shots

By Test | Sunday, January 27, 2013 | , , , Leave a comment

For our proposed idea we had two main shooting locations:
1. A room with white walls and a window.
2. A garage.
Here are some shots of the proposed locations:

An exterior shot of the room. This is useful for a shot of the sniper rifle sticking out of the window.
A shot of the window at which our assassin will be positioned.
A picture into the back of the room
 Shots of the area surrounding the garage
A shot of the garage with the door closed


A shot of the Garage with the door open
A shot of the door open from a higher angle.

How Tension is Built in Thriller Films

By Test | Saturday, January 26, 2013 | , , , Leave a comment




As we chose our genre to be thriller, I decided it would be suitable to research into the codes and conventions of thriller films. One thing which is no doubt vital in any thriller film is the building of tension and how the audience is led to the climactic point of the narrative event. In order to analyse this, I have selected a scene from the film ‘Shooter’, a thriller film released in 2007 regarding a skilled sniper assassin, which holds key relevance to our opening sequence idea.
In this scene, the protagonist prepares to stop the attempted assassination of the US president, by identifying the location of the sniper assassin. As he is himself a skilled sniper, he is capable of tracing his movements and though processes, and as the scene progresses and the tension is built, our expectations are not met as the protagonist is betrayed, and shot by his supposed team, and manages to escape by jumping out a window as the president is shot. In the two minutes of this scene, tension is built and released at one moment, changing the mood from mystery and enigma to chaos and confusion. It is this effect which is conventional of any good thriller film, and something we would no doubt like to replicate through our 2 minute opening sequence.


As the scene begins, it is fairly quiet, with the dialogue engulfing most of the narrative events. Interestingly, most of what is said is muffled and inaudible, causing the audience to focus more on the visual aspects of the film, while the camera slowly zooms in creating an uneasy feeling in the audience. As the enigmatic, eerie non-diegetic music begins, the camera shoots from location to location, showing oddly framed scenes which seem to drag on for too long, while zooming in, creating more discomfort from the audience.
Finally, as the music becomes louder and more intense, the framing zooms further leading up to the climactic point of the scene, where the protagonist is betrayed, as the president is shot. The music also changes to a faster paced action type soundtrack as the action happens all at once in the scene.
Although this particular segment is not an opening sequence, it is a successful example which highlights the use of tension in order to create an effective way to tell the narrative. In this 2 minute text example, 1 minute and 40 seconds is used to build the tension and a mere 20 occurs during the action part. This serves as an example, as well as the music type and camerawork, of how to create a successful thriller scene.