analysis of another opening sequence

Title sequence analysis: The Lion King (1994)

In the opening sequence of ‘The Lion King’ there are only 3 titles presented. One of the titles is the classic Disney logo but the colour is different, there is a black background and the logo is orange/red. This connotes the Sun and sets the scene for the whole film (the savannah). We could use this in our title sequence by using a specific colour with our film logo to connote an idea to the audience.

The second title presents the film name and says ‘Walt Disney pictures presents’ the typography and font used is a dark red and very majestic. This links to the opening sequence as the clip is about a king being born. We could use specific typography to link the title to our film.

The third and final title is the actual film name and logo which simply reads out ‘The Lion King’ this title is played at the end of the opening sequence and is shown as a drum is struck. This is also in a majestic typography and font. This is because a royal scene has just been shown.

My contributions to the film sequence

Contributions to the production process:

• Mind mapped ideas for film, eg. What type of film, target audience, what the characters will be/look like and soundtrack.
• Suggested certain camera shots, and overall helped with the storyboarding process by giving camera shots that would have a positive effect on our target audience.
• Acted in the film sequence as one of the two characters, also dressed up as a character (brought in props)
• Designed a logo/title for the film using Photoshop elements.
• Used certain editing techniques in final cut. (eg. Slow motion)
• I researched the film 'high school musical' and used some good factors of the film and incorperated it into our sequence.

Contributions to the production process

• In the production process I have created the storyboard. I decided on what cinematography to use when filming into this storyboard and ways to go about filming our idea. 
• I also took on the role of director/camera man with Vanessa. 
• I did the storyboard to 'back to the future' opening as part of our research to help us be able to show and give as much information needed to help with our filming.
• With Vanessa we have started editing our footage and have played around with different editing techniques which we hope to continue after half term
• At home I have researched into other children's films than the ones seen in class such as: 'Princess Diaries' and 'Hairspray' to inspire our ideas and get a clearer picture of what is expected of a children's film opening.
• Also with research into the BBFC to know how to target our film correctly.
• Reading over notes and researching different camera work to use for our film to vary our filming so it's more interesting and to be the best possible action for each clip.

Progress Report

At the beginning we found the planning quite hard for our children's film. I think the main reason for this was being able to think of an idea. We brainstormed our ideas as a group but many seemed unable to fit the criteria of a children's film and some seemed impossible to produce. But once we had our idea, things got a lot easier and clearer of what we were going to do. Our storyboarding was very helpful to give us a clear idea of how we were going to go about producing it, with the different cinematography techniques. Our research of children's films also helped with our planning and production and different parts from different films inspired our final idea. The production of our opening was quite easy as we followed our storyboard and had a clear image in our heads of what we wanted to produce.
However it was hard to think of enough clips to film as the point of our opening is quick hints of the character, so it was hard to film enough to fit the 2minute criteria. We will try to overcome this by repeating some of the clips without it looking repetitive and maybe making the clips and using a variety of speed to the clips instead of them all being fast. We also have a feeling, when editing that the sequence may look quite jumpy. Although this is the initial effect we want, it may be too jumpy for a children's audience. We will try to overcome this by again varying the speed of some clips and also using the credits to split up a few of the clips also.

After half term we hope to continue with our editing, create our credits and our soundtrack. Our main priority is to do these tasks well and to fit them together and for it to run smoothly. Our plan is to split up these tasks so two of us will have our main priority of editing the film and the others main priority will be to design the credits. This way it will save time and be easier to get on with as with 4 of us working on the same task is stressful and some people end up not contributing as much. So hopefully this way we can bring all our tasks together and create our final production to create a successful children's film opening.

My Contribution to the Production Process

My contribution to the project so far:

• Helped brainstorm ideas for inital first ideas
• Considered key elements for mise-en-scene, and typed all the ideas on to the blog under 'ideas for opening sequence'
• At home I looked at different openings to films, and posted on the blog that '17again' was similar to the layout we would prefer, as they do not introduce his face straight away.
• Addressed the lighting concern, and researched soft lighting and uploaded it to the blog
• Inside the lesson I have filmed the opening sequence with Charlotte Day. We alternated who did what shot, and described what was on the storyboard for the following shot and distance
• Began to edit the footage we took. Deciding on which bits to include in the opening.
• In the lesson me and Charlotte worked on editing and played around with the clips to see where they fitted best, and which had the best impact as first impressions.  

Marking Criteria for Production

Ø Holding  a shot steady where appropriate- We achieved this in our opening by filming and framing a basketball going through the hoop several times from different angles, also from the basketball missing to emphasise that there is 2 different characters. We used a tripod to keep the shot steady.

Ø Framing a shot including elements where appropriate

Ø Using a variety of shot distances where appropriate- We achieved this by alternating the distances of how far we filmed the basketballers playing,  mainly to get an idea of the layout and the height difference of the players.  

Ø Shooting material appropriate to task set-I feel we met this point as the filming we have is suitable and entertaining for a PG/U

Ø Selecting mise-en-scene(costumes, colour, figure, lighting, setting)-this was met when planning and researching

Ø Editing so meaning is apparent to the viewer- Editing is not completed yet, it will be made apparent to the viewer by clear cuts, smooth transitions and background music!

Ø Using varied shot transitions- We still have to meet this point. We plan to use smooth but pace transitions to make the opening flow, and to introduce the film correctly. As we don’t introduce the characters faces at the beginning, we need to make it clear that they have different personalities and not confuse the audience.

Ø Using titles where appropriate- We are in the middle of creating titles to go with our opening sequence which will tie in satisfactorily with the theme. Lot of time will be spent on the titles to make them effective and to correctly flow in with the opening sequence.

A children’s film that gave us inspiration:

‘Like Mike’ the film gave us inspiration on our film because it is also a film about a really good basketball player this film gave us inspiration because it showed us different camera angles and techniques we can use to make the basketball players look more affective, it gave us different angles we can use the camera at to show the shooting and passing of the basketball. Also the friendly and funny style and themes with a twist gave us ideas on what the genre, theme and main plot would be in our short film.

BBFC lesson:

In this lesson we first researched about the differences between ‘U’ rated films and ‘PG’ rates films and wrote them down on A3 paper, we wrote what was allowed in these films and what wasn’t allowed, we then watched a variety of children’s films and decided if they were ‘PG’ or ‘U’ and also wrote this down on paper. This is helpful for our coursework and we needed to know this for our coursework because we are doing short opening sequences to children’s films and need to know what’s acceptable to have in our children’s film and also what certificate of children to market our film to.

Back to the future storyboard task:

In this lesson we watched the opening sequence to the ‘back to the future’ film several times, we took notes on sound, camera angles, what was in the camera shots and how the camera moved through the opening scene, we then got into groups and drew and wrote about the opening sequence in a rough but detailed storyboard of it. This has taught me different techniques of camera angles and the different affects you can achieve from the camera angles, also this has helped me with my coursework because we had to do storyboards for our children’s film and this has gave us practice on it and it has given us ideas to expand on for our film.

Hairspray opening

The opening to the film 'Hairspray influenced the idea for our children's film. Although the content for it and our opening are completely different, techniques such as close ups of different parts of the character are very similar.

 We see quick shots and hints of what the main character is like from her getting out of bed to her doing her hair. The character is also doing these actions in time to music which influenced our sound choice to hopefully fit with it too. 

We also don't see the full main character till about 10 seconds in after these hints, we shall hopefully follow this too so we can just connote what the main characters are like without just straight out showing them. 

We want to show a clear contrast in both of our characters and jumping cuts which are used in the opening

of 'Hairspray' will show this and has influenced our decision to do this. 

The first 25 seconds of this is exactly the type of hinting of the characters we want to achieve.

High school musical.

Inspiration for our childrens film sequence came from the movie 'High school musical'. The main sequences we were inspired by were the basketball ones. we really liked the idea of the song in which the balls and the shoes squeaking became part of the track (see earlier post). we are going to attempt this ourselves and hopefully it will come out well. Another thing i liked about the film in relation to our sequence is the fun family factor to it. people of all ages can watch this film and generally enjoy it (although it is aimed at children).

Back to the future storyboarding sequence

In class last week we watched the opening sequence from the film 'Back to the futre'. This sequence showed a room in which there was lots of clocks, then a news show was playing on a television and it was talking about stolen plutonium, then the main character walks in and starts turning on lots of switches, he then plays the guitar and breaks the speaker. We then made our own story boards for this sequence, some people chose to use an A3 sheet of paper, then draw the whole setting and adding crucial parts. We stuck to to the classic layout of storyboarding and used simple squares with space for writing.

BBFC

We researched the British Board of Film Classification to give us an indication of what our children's film opening  should allow or not. The BBFC decides on what ratings a film should receive from its content. We were looking at 'PG' and 'U's.
As a group we researched how a film could be classified as a 'PG' according to the BBFC. We saw that they must follow: moderate violence, natural nudity,no references to illegal drugs etc.
From researching this and discussing what 'U's must follow also we tried to modify the correct classifications.We looked at individual film openings and guessed what rating the film received. We looked at films such as 'UP' which we guessed was a 'U' and 'A series of unfortunate events' as 'PG'.
We need to know these correct classifications as it is essential for children's films in particular to get this correct as you have to target the audience and make sure you follow the rules and children aren't watching things they ethically aren't allowed to watch.

BBFC Fim Analysis

In a recent lesson we studied the BBFC and how they classify films as a "U" or a "PG". The BBFC stands for the British Board of Film Classification and they decide what rating a film gets.

we watched lots of sequences from films such as 'Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone' and 'Up' and tried to guess the rating by following the guidelines that we had read up on. Harry Potter was given a PG rating because of frightening sequences and Up was a U however there was violence in the sequence, but it was off screen so that is classified as being ok.

We now know what is appropriate for our childrens film sequences.

Storyboarding 'Back to the future'

As part of our preparation for our coursework we looked at many children's film opening. We specifically looked at 'Back to the future' in more detail and noted down key points such as: camera angles, camera movement, sound and key hints to connote to the audience of genre, audience and what the film could be about. After these notes we made a detailed storyboard of the shots shown in the opening with the specific techniques shown.
From this task I learnt how to produce the correct storyboard with the right type of information. I also learnt how important it is to create a storyboard as you have to follow the right techniques and know what your doing in order for the film to work and make sense. I also learnt how to use a theme appropriately, from watching this sequence as it was very clear with all the main camera movement of tracking used to show many clocks and the sound of ticking, that the film was about time travel.
Doing the task helped me to realise how much specific techniques you have to show and be aware of. I also realised that 11 detailed pictures of storyboarding only filled up about 30 seconds of filming so it helped to realise how much is needed to go into this filming. I also learnt how to be more aware of techniques and how they are shown throughout and how to use them in storyboarding. 

Lighting

We are going to use added lighting to create a soft light for our childrens film. We will try to elliminate shadows;

These are the main angles of lighting in asscoiation with the subject.

Examples of soft lighting: We will use soft lighting as we dont want the characters to be percieved as evil. This will Connote the genre of family comedy and children's film.

Examples of harsh lighting: We do not want to use this style as the genre is not horror, and would create the wrong impression 

Location

This is the location of our childrens film:

Inspiration For Children's Film - 17 Again

17 Again is a 2009 American comedy-drama film. - Classification 12

This film gave inspiration for our short opening sequence as we are doing a basketball theme, and the beginning of 17 again is showing the main characters passion for the sport by introducing that before the actual character. We liked this idea as we could add the titles in with the shots of a basketball going in to the hoop, maybe on the back board or on the wall.

We are going to introduce our two main characters by showing what they enjoy (basketball, what the film is based on) and how they are presented, eg what the wear

BBFC Lesson

BBFC- British Board Of Film Classification

In this lesson we went on the BBFC website and researched the differences between U and PG. We drew mind maps highlighting the key elements that made the two classifications different. Our Mindmap has already been uploaded to the blog.

Once we had distinguished the differences, we practiced assigning them to films by watching the opening sequences of several children's films and guessing what classification it should be by the content we had learnt. Once we had viewed them all, we discussed after what we decided on for each film and whether we was right. A high percntage got all of them right, apart from one film (Watership Down) which was not the classification we expected due to the gory and horror factor for young kids.

Learning about the different classifications was important to focus on for our children's films to make sure the content we included was made for the correct classification, and not to go above that.

'Back to the Future' task write up

In the storyboarding session we studied the opening sequence to 'Back To The Future'. After this we drew our own storyboards of the title sequence to practice for our coursework.

We analysed:

• Character movement
• Camera movement
• Shot type
• Duration
• Sound
• Transitions

We analysed all of these things in lots of depth, as we needed to put as much detail into our storyboard's for our coursework as possible. The details I learnt from 'Back to the Future' was that the sound was particularly effective in the opening as it was corresponding with the images. When creating a storyboard you need to make it clear that what you draw in a shot, is also what is happening with the sound, by adding sound information to go with it underneath.
 In the opening, tracking is used a lot to set the scene by showing the main characters possesions, and connoting the theme;  to show this on a storyboard you can draw clear arrows to show the movement of the camera.
When making our own storyboards we also had to draw where the transitions and cuts were. We had to make this clear as transitions are important and the first cut is significant, and may end the title sequence.

This session has really helped as I now have a better understanding of what is vital to include on a storyboard, and how much depth is used to display the sequence to pre-visualise the moving image.

Character sketch

Two characters Kurt (left) and Jordan (right)

Sam's homework

Storyboards for childrens film

Ideas for opening sequence

Narrative:

Based on two basketball enthusiasts. One player is extremely good; the captain of the team, gets all the girls, very popular. The other player; intelligent, kind, struggles with girls, but puts all his efforts into make the basketball team!

Somehow, the two teenagers have never seen eye to eye, but when an unfortunate event happens where Kurt ends up breaking his leg, he must make Jordan the next sensational player to lead the team to win in the CBB division 2 championships!

Opening: Alternative shots of the two boys shooting, introducing them without showing their faces. (show shots of their shoes, proper basketball trainers compared with dirty plimsoles. Official basketball uniform compared with short shorts, with a white vest top) Comparing their talents without showing faces.

Characters:
Two main characters:

• Jordan (bad basketball player)
• Kurt (good  basketball player)

Genre: 
Family comedy; PG-to appeal to families


Themes: 
Ambition, and dreams- to attract childrens attention

Mise-en-scene

• Props: Basketball- film is based around the sport
• Costumes: Trainers, proper basketball outfit for Kurt, for jordan; white vest top and short tight shorts. Geek glasses- contrasting clothes to show their charachter personalities 
• Lighting: Will be in a gym, so lighting will be constant throughout opening sequence and cuts- we would like to create a soft light as it is a family film, and is mainly happy, so we will add an extra ligt to give this effect- we dont want shadows. 

Camerawork

• Mainly static short shots (tripod)-introducing characters and adding titles, incorporated in with scenes.
• Tracking, when players are moving; running down the court.
• close ups- not on faces, but showing body language and making the audience feel connected with players. 
• Low angle and high angle on characters: showing who is more powerful.

Editing

• Adding titles in on final cut
• Adding non-diegetic sound
• Parallel editing, shot reverse shot
• Pace
• Special effects: this will be the titles fitting in with the mise-en-scene
• Soundtrack: we will create our own sound track to play in the opening sequence. This will hopefully fit in with the acting (squeaky shoes, bouncing balls, and hitting the rim of the net)

Opening sequence to 'Princess Diaries'

Princess Diaries (U)

Opening Sequence:                                     

The first image shown is of a blue sky with writing presented by ‘Walt Disney’, this immediately connoted to me that this was a happy film with a fantasy story behind it. The font used for the credits in the opening is italics, almost in stereotypical diary handwriting, suggesting we will be following someone’s diary.

The music at the very beginning is orchestral, with strings playing mellow and peacefully contrasting to the mise-en-scene of a busy city with sounds of cars and sirens suggesting things may not be as peaceful as they seem. The shots are of a high angle to get the full scene of where the film is set with fades from each cut. The music fades quickly into a more upbeat tempo and modern feel as the camera zooms in through the window of a teenage girl. This is a contrast suggesting how we have hit the reality of the film.

The first character we see is a teenage girl with uniform on, suggesting her age. There is a mid-long shot of her looking out the window connoting she’s a daydreamer or is wishing for something with the mise-en-scene of her bedroom which is like any other school girls room. The character seems like an ordinary girl, in an ordinary house and living a pretty ordinary life. The camera tracks the character as she is walking to her front door ready to leave for school. We see a high angled shot from the characters point of view looking down at her Mum tracking her as she moves closer. The Mum is generally chatting to her and talking to her about school. We just get the feel of a stereotypical morning for a schoolgirl, as though nothing special will happen. There is a long shot a tracking movement of her riding her scooter to school and hitting a bin connoting she's a clumsy character. All these clues of how ordinary everything seem, makes the audience foreshadow later that something special could happen to this character.

The mood at the beginning is happy with a fantasy feel leading into a reality of a typical schoolgirl’s life. The theme shows friendship, when she meets her friend walking to school and a school life. 

From the opening the genre of the film seemed like a rom-com family film.   

•  First 2-3 minutes

Homework

Media

I am analysing the opening sequence from “The Lion King”. In this sequence the audience are shown lots of animals gathering at one point to witness the birth of a baby lion. From the music used I can safely assume that the film is very upbeat and child friendly.


There is almost a religious theme to this sequence as there is a connotation between this and the birth of Jesus. Lots of long/extreme long shots have been used, also lots of birds eye view shots. The camerawork really sets the scene and establishes the environment for the whole film.


The editing is generally quite slow but at points it gets very fast, for example when the monkey lifts up the baby lion the music is playing very fast so the editing is very fast, this has a positive effect on the audience and gives a sense of continuity.


The mise-en scene is effective and sets the genre of the film. It is based in a savannah where animals rule. Not a single human is shown. This creates the sense of the Adventure genre especially because the audience is shown the baby being born and everyone bowing down to it. It makes you wonder what he will get up to in his life and why are they bowing him?

Mindmaps

'Maid in Manhattan'- PG- Opening Sequence.

‘Maid in Manhattan’is a romantic comedy film directed by Wayne Wang about a hotel maid and a high profile politician who fall in love starring Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes.

Opening Sequence:

Upbeat music begins to play as the camera is tracking over the statue of liberty and New York, setting the scene and identifying where the film is set. Camera cuts after 18 seconds, and pans over some buildings in New York slowly. Another cut is then made focusing in on different areas, each one getting lower and more detail.  The cuts gradually move onto rougher areas, a train passes by but camera doesn’t track. Simply watches it for 4 seconds. Suggesting no change in characters life? The next clip is shown of a graffiti wall, still no camera movement just simple cuts.  A man is shown taking out rubbish, normal chore. Still has up-beat music. A low medium shot is shown of several pairs of trainers hanging from a washing line, then an extreme close up of same thing. Hint: not being able to afford much?

 Then as music is beginning to reach end of song, the camera is panning slowly up a dingy building (flats/small apartments) and then we are introduced to two main characters. Hint: can’t afford anything better? Could this change?

‘Grab your coat Ty, you’re going to be late for school!’ we are brought into the small apartment, nothing special and are messy.  Son replies, ‘it’s not my fault Mum’. The mood is portrayed as rushed, and wound up/sad.

Sad because of poor lifestyle? Possibly wound up through mistakes made? Hints to what is relevant later in film. Son is very interested in asking about famous people and their relationships as he reads the paper a lot... hinting that they could have their lives turned around, also going to involve someone from a better class.

 Track the two characters leaving their home and travelling to school/work. Their transport is combined of walking and bus.  An everyday thing for them. Can’t afford a car? Within the bus journey they talk about the dad who now has little contact with them. Extreme close-ups of facial expressions to show how disappointing the subject is for the boy. This is a hint as to what could later happen in the film and that maybe a new father figure will appear.

Characters: Mother, son, and hints at a new man from opening sequence.

Mood: The mood is ‘fed up’ but trying to hide it from her son, she dreams of a different lifestyle. The mood is established by her lack of enthusiasm towards anything.

Sound: Diegetic sound as been used, for example a train running over tracks as we watch the 4 second shot, but also non- diegetic sound has been added over the top such as the beginning track.

Camera work: There is a lot of shot types and angles used, such as; extreme close –up, medium low angled shot, long shot, wide shot, panning, tracking. These all have been used to create the effect that she and the son lead a busy lifestyle, e.g. catching transport, but also a fairly dull, lifeless life. This has been established by the long shot lengths, and no zooming in. Only tracking and panning.

Storyboards for 'back to the future'

Preliminary Task finished video and Evaluation

For our preliminary task we were asked to create a short video. We had to include 3 main shots: Match on action which is when an action is continuous throughout 2 or more shots. Also shot reverse shot which is usually a conversation between 2 characters. Finally including the 180 degree rule which if not used can seem disorientating to the audience if not followed.

The problems we faced were trying to make the filming flow as we used a variety of shot techniques which could seem quite jumpy. Also when filming as though climbing up a wall it was hard to make it seem realistic.

We used shots such as: long shots, over the shoulder shots, medium close ups. Then camera movements of tilting upwards, zooming and panning. We used a mixture of tripod and hand held to give us more of an opportunity for camera freedom. We used our shot reverse shot when 2 characters were in conversation. We attempted match on action shot when climbing up the wall and peering over it. And we stuck to the 180 degree rule.

This task will help us with our coursework as we have experimented with these techniques and have an idea of how they will all work. We also had the opportunity of us getting used to using editing and final cut with audio and sequencing.