Opening Scene

This is our first attempt and first edit.





After conversing with an audience member on how we can improve our opening sequence, we found that it was going to be very difficult to achieve a high grade with the footage we have at the moment. Problems we identified included the factors below:

To work on these improvements, we will need to shoot again in order to make our opening sequence considerably better.

Most importantly, we need to make sure that we are going to provide more content for the audience within this sequence. This is because after watching the opening sequence, we do not have enough for the audience to stay engaged with.

Furthermore, we feel as if the content used is lacking in action a little bit thus failing to engage the audience. As a result, we will need to use match on action to show close up shots of Ralph painting. As a result, we practiced these shots prior to the film which will allow us to get a better idea of the shots we need to use in our sequence to make it more engaging.




After filming this scene, we found that using a tripod for the majority of our shots is the most effective way of achieving a steady and professional opening sequence. This is because filming without a tripod, free-hand, we find it difficult to shoot a steady shot especially outside. 

Filming/Editing Diary First Shooting

This diary shows some of the issues and positives we had when filming our opening scene and also editing our opening scene. Here are some of the main issues we had :

Weather - We had an issue with the wind being strong causing the painting we had to fall over and move when were filming. Also the ground was wet and we had to make sure that the paintings were not getting wet so we had to use a towel to stop the paintings from getting wet. Some positives with the weather was that it didn't rain and wasn't too cloudy so we had decent light.

Lighting - Being outside means that we were dependent on the sun being out and giving us the right amount of light, an issue we had was that where we were facing was towards the sun and caused a huge glare on the camera lens, to fix this we did some of the other shots so that the sun would go down some more. Lighting was perfect for some/most of the other filming in our shots.

Camera - We used a GoPro Hero 1 for some shots which has a wide angle lens, on the day we were unable to preview our shots so we had to hope that the shot looked good. Because of the wind we had to have people holding the painting in place and we were un aware that the people holding the painting in place were viewable with the wide angle lens, so we had to scrap the shot.

Sound

We had decided on the music that we are going to use and we went with a slow calm song that conveys the feelings and relates to the scenes in our opening scene. However this was the music that we used in the first edit. We later changed the music. 

This is the final music that was used in our opening scene The Blur. We feel it relates to our character and the scenes in our opening scene

Some initial ideas that we had for the music that we were going to use:

Text from sheet:

We have chosen to use this slow classical music because of how we want our main character to look. Most people who are the same age as our main character listen don't normally listen to classical music, so this makes our character seem weird and odd, this is what we are trying to achieve. 

We are using slow classical music because of how we want our main character to seem and also set the mood. Using slow music creates a slow clam mood and slows the audience the character is calm and peaceful.

Props, Location and Fashion : Risk Assessment

Given that we will be using an outdoor location, the planning is slightly hindered by the issues we face with weather such as rain and bad light. As a result, we will not be able to film on Sunday 29th November because of rain and bad light. 

In order to film fairly soon, we will have to look at the weather every day and plan different days to film depending on light. This will result in us being able to film on a day that the lighting is adequate and there is no rain that will stop the acting. 

Typography

This font fit the character in our opening sequence because the style of the writing is in a artistic way which can give an insight into the characters background just from the style the title of the opening sequence is written. There may be problems when editing in this text onto the screen as its thin text it may be un clear and difficult to read.

Using brail after the title is really effective in showing the potential problems the character has before the character is even in the shot. This will be moderately simple to edit this on top of the original scene due to the chunky dots would be clear.

This font is all in upper case which can have different effects on what the title is showing to the audience about the film. Using upper case text makes the title stand out being bold and should be the main feature of the film.

This font is more of a basic font but has the effect of smudged ink coming out of the side of each letter. This could be really effective for our opening sequence because with the character being a artist the effective ink or paint dripping away from the letters gives an artist style to the title of the film.

This typography is bold and in capital letters, this indicated that the title wants to be bold and stand out compared to anything else in the same shot in the opening sequence.

This font is in a more cartoon kind of style which can be good for our opening sequence because the character is a teenager and a cartoon style of text could be really effective in comparison to the social group of the character.

A handwritten style of text is very effective because it looks like the character has written the title and can give a insight into the characters profile. This would be another difficult text to edit on top of the original scene due to the text being thin and difficult to read. 

This font is a basic style of font which could be a possibility for our opening sequence. The font could be used for a small title which isn't the main feature of the shot.

This font with the title in words and the title in brail would be very effective for our opening sequence because the use of brail can be relatable to the characters characteristic.

A handwritten style for the title can be very effective because the style of the title is in a artistic way which reflected on the characters personality. This handwritten text may be seen as unclear when edited on top of the scene and make the films title difficult to read. 

Final Script : The Blur

In this task we constructed our final script which will be handed to both actors in our play as well as the cameramen and us as directors. Similarly to the storyboard, this task allows us to have much better impression of how things will realistically take place in our opening sequence. Furthermore, it gives the actors a better idea of the opening sequence as they will be familiar with scripts from their respective acting careers. 

Storyboarding and Shot Lists

Here we have the shot list of our opening scene:

Key for notes : 

CA - Camera Angle

ET - Editing Technique

S - Sound

Focus group

After we had finished with our storyboard planning we decided to get a focus group and get some feedback on our storyboard and take on board any suggestions or improvements for our main storyboard. We asked 5 questions and here is an overall of the answers we got back:

1. What do you like about our opening sequence (storyboard)?
They liked the position of the title and the title in brail because it links to the narrative and characteristics of the main charcater.

2. Do you like the Concept/Story of our opening sequence?
Yes, its interesting and different. They also said that they liked the film not being stereotypical and how its unique storyline for a coming of age genre film.

3. Do you like the characteristics of the main character in our opening sequence?  
They said the main character is 'adorable' and they liked that we had made them unique and be different from the other characters we have in the film.

4. What changes could we make to improve our idea?
They said the variation of camera angles and height of the angels could be more diverse in the opening sequence this would make the shots have more of an effect.

5. What changes could we make with the use of our sound?
They said that the chosen sound would fit perfectly with our shots and have a good effect on the viewer when watching the opening sequence.

Practice Filming  

Before we went onto filming our we wanted to make sure we knew how to get the shots that we want, so here we practiced some of the shots form our story board, this has helped us to know what we need to do to get the shots we want.

We tried three of the main shots in our opening scene, we tried the tree shot at the start of our opening sequence, as this is an important part of our opening sequence. We also tried moving shots as our opening sequence contains lots of moving shots we wanted to make sure we knew the best way of getting this shot perfect.