Group Meeting

During our media lessons this week, we have had the chance to discuss the filming schedule, our plan of the storyboard, and more information on filming in general. We have sorted out the filming dates, which from now on is going to be on Thursdays from half twelve on wards, and Saturday mornings, and these will all be during January when our scheduled filming dates are. We have discussed the story board in more detail, we have changed some things in the narrative to make it more effective and we have made some things more detailed, and some things more simple, such as using two dolls rather than three, and changing some of the shots and edits we are going to do whilst filing and editing. We have arranged what shots we plan to do, how we are going to do it, and how each scene is going to be cut, and some of them involve jump cuts, cross cuts and more. We have also arranged the different filming styles we are going to use, such as applying some filters when editing and things like that. We have discussed special effects in further detail, for example how we are going to dress the dolls, how we are going to get fake blood and things like that. We have planned lots more for the opening in general and are feeling very productive with media work. We discuss the plans and change things slightly each week as we advance more towards the filming side of things.

Mood board of iconography

Following is the mood board made of our genre- the iconography of psychological horror.

Filming Schedule

Me and Hannah have discussed when we will be filming, after having looked at the call sheet and checking with people how often they are happy with filming and if they are all free on the same day. We have found we are all free to film on Thursdays from half twelve on wards because me and Hannah have free periods and everyone else has time off college. This is convenient because we are all free at the same time and it gives us three to four hours of filming before it gets dark outside. We will also try to fit in some filming on Saturdays, because none of us work all day on that day and it makes sense as we can all get to the filming scene. This schedule will last over three or four weeks of January, until we have all the scenes and we are happy with how they have all come out. We have to keep in mind the weather might not be the best, which is why we have reserved so many days for filming. Other things to keep in mind is people slipping over and things like that, but we have included a risk assessment on our blogs, and that contains all the health and safety information we need. We are all satisfied with this filming schedule and are set to film starting when we get back to school after the holidays.

Call Sheet

Following is the call sheet. This involves information of who we are using to do acting, what dates they can do and then when we have made this we can plan when we are going to make the filming schedule.

Hayley: Hayley is free on Thursday afternoons and Saturdays and Sundays. She is going to be our main actress, the victim, and we plan to use her every time we meet up with the actors and we will need her every time we film.

Ellen: Ellen is also free on Thursday afternoons and Saturdays. We are going to be using her to act as one of the dolls, so when we film there may be a couple of occasions when we don’t need her and Freya there and only need Hayley, which is where filming on Sundays will come in handy.

Freya: Freya is free on Tuesdays, Thursdays and weekends. She is also going to be the other doll, the same role as Ellen, so we will need her for the same amount of time.

I and Hannah are both free on Thursday afternoons in our double free periods at school and on Saturday mornings, where neither of us has worked. When we go to film, the place is convenient for everyone to get to so that won’t be an issue for anyone.

Issue flming

One of our actors had a broken arm so therefore wouldn't be free to film until January which means that we have had to postpone our filming over christmas. This means we have had to reschedule with all of our actors and rearranged to film during the last couple of weeks during january, which means hopefully it will be slightly lighter during the evenings as well to film.

special effects

for the special effects, we are going to use fake blood on our main characters. This will involve making the fake blood from a YouTube tutorial and we will practice it before we actually use it for the final thing. The clip embedded in this post involves the process of how we will make the special effect, and how effective it will be. We have met up outside of school to practice making this, and it seems to have looked good so we will use it for the actual film.

Target Audience Research

This clip features someone from our focus group of our target audience. We filmed them talking about what they would expect to see in the opening, what they would enjoy watching, and more questions along that line. We will do this for a few people, so we get a sense of what people like in general in our target audience. This will give us a more of a general idea of what to put on our storyboard and what we are going to put in it, and there could be slight changes after this.

For our film opening, we needed to ask people what their opinions were and these people had to be fans of the genre of opening we were making. We asked them various questions about what they thought of the narrative, what they expected of our opening from the sub-genre of psychological horror, and questions on whether they would go to watch this at the cinema and if they thought anything would be improved upon. We uploaded this video to YouTube having filmed it on our phones. Following is the video uploaded.

Location, health and safety

The place we will film (New-bottle Woods) has some health and safety hazards. These could include:

Hazard:                                                       How to get over it:                                     Rating of hazard:

Falling over some tree branches            Tell all of the actors they need to                            7/10

or tripping over tree roots.                      take care when running in the 

                                                               woods and keep a health and 

                                                               safety kit with us at all times.

Being stung by something such             make sure all actors and filmers                             4/10

as a bee or stinging nettle, could            inform the person in charge that

involve an allergic reaction and             they have any allergies and keep 

be dangerous                                          an epipen on them at all times. 

Members of the public walking             Inform all members of public about                        2/10

past through the filming process            what is going on and if they have any

and having concerns                              concerns to refer to our teacher or school

Animals coming into contact with          Make sure all members of the team                        2/10

people involved, or damaging the          are alert at all times/

filming equipment.

things being stolen from members          Keep all of our property with us all                       4/10

of the public, because it is a public         the time and make sure we keep a 

place and we might not be in control      watchful eye on our equipment 

of everything all the time.                        around other people

Wet floor on the ground from the            Make sure the members of the team                     5/10

night before                                             are aware of the damp conditions 

                                                                and walk carefully

Using sticks as props- could                   keep a fist aid kit with us at all times                     3/10

 potentially harm someone if used           and make sure all of the actors are

incorrectly                                               aware they shouldn't touch the other

                                                                actors with the sticks 

filming in the house: risks could              keep risk to a minimum by being                        3/10

include falling down stairs,                     very careful where actors walk

or tripping over things indoors.

Communication

In order to communicate between the group, we will make a facebook messaging group and talk about everything on there. On this, we will plan for when we meet for filming and to have meetings in general. We will also plan the blog posts we will have the same, how we will get our actors and how we will plan their outfits and the mise en scene such as props and places we are filming, etc. We will plan to meet on a weekly basis, normally at school for an hour when we have the same free period, and we can sit and plan everything for our film opening.

Location: Permission

We plan to film in the woods in Croughton, which needs permission as the land is privately owned. We got into contact with the land owner and had no response, so decided to change the location we were going to film. This place we plan to film now is New-bottle woods. This is a public woods so we won't need permission from any landowner. This means we will be able to film as soon as we want to, and we will make the plans for that in the near future. Following are images of the place we plan to film. the branches of the trees on the floor work well as the mise en scene because we will use it as one of the props.

Classification- Pre-Production Planning

Our film may contain slightly offensive dialect, and it will certainly involve lots of intimidating scenes and maybe a bit of blood stained clothing, so we will need to take this into consideration for when we classify the film. Here is the ratings for 15 films from the british classifications site:

What might I see in a 15 rated film or video?

Any of the following:

•   strong violence
•  frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***').
•   portrayals of sexual activity
•   strong verbal references to sex
•   sexual nudity
•   brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
•   discriminatory language or behaviour
•   drug taking

The light language we will use makes the film we are making rated a 15, then we won't have to worry about anything else because we aren't using nudity or anything related to that. The only things we need to worry about is the language that we are using, and maybe slightly grotesque use of blood but nothing too bad. This website showed us that our film opening will be listed as a 15.

Outfits for actors and casting

Embedded in this post are the outfit our actress ended up wearing when we filmed over a variety of days. the actress wore jeans, a jumper, a jacket and boots. we believe this fitted with the narrative because she is meant to be represented as a normal girl, because that will reinforce the genre more if she seems like a normal, everyday person. the actor we used wore all black clothes apart from his shoes, which were black, blue and white. The outfit he wore were these colors to try and reinforce the genre of being intimidating, because the black clothing is meant to be seen as intimidating, especially when he wears the hood up and zips up his jacket. Also in this post are photos of the actor and actress we ended up using for the film. We believe they fit the narrative well, because they seem to be like normal everyday people, and the male is quite tall, which adds to the creepiness of the opening because height can intimidate people sometimes. We are satisfied with how this turned out because these people have taken drama before in their lives so are very good for the part, and are also free to film around the same times as us.

Costume

For our costume, we had to decide on what we wanted each of our characters to wear and how this represents the gender and other things we want it to represent. For the dolls, we will want them to wear things that represent the gender and the genre. To do this, we will need to make them have certain clothing so this would make them represent the genre correctly. Clothing like this could involve blood stained tops, and dark bottoms in order to make the tops more obvious. This would represent the genre quite well by showing the narrative of the story. The normal expectations of this genre would be lots of blood, and then someone being approached by someone who comes across as intimidating. We hope the costume we choose will represent the narrative. When we have chosen our actors and chosen the clothes we want and made sure they fit them, we will post photos of the outfits on the blogs.

Meeting

The people involved in the making of the opening had a meeting to discuss about the makeup used and props and everything like that, and we talked about how things would contribute to the narrative and how the genre would be represented in the opening. We discussed what angles we would aim on using, such as low angles to make the characters seem intimidating because the angle the person would be at would make them seem intimidating. Other things we discussed included what times we would use to film, what lighting we should use, and we went over everything we have posted on our blogs and discussed if we wanted anything changed for the other persons' sake. We looked at youtube tutorials and found some methods to do the makeup we plan on doing, and we also looked up tutorials on the internet as to how we would do the facial hair and scars on our characters using makeup, and we discussed what king of a budget we would plan on having for the making of the whole opening,

Props

There are many props we would want to use for our film opening. Many of the props are natural things, such as wood in the Forrest because we want the creepy people dressed up as dolls to hold something. This works as mise en scene and works with the narrative because it makes the scary people more intimidating and that fits with the narrative, because normally some of the main characters are very intimidating. The other props we would use would be things such as the outfits that the characters are wearing, contact lenses for the people dressed up as dolls, then we will also need some props for the flashbacks to create a dual narrative. The props would include something for the characters to sit on, such as a sofa or something like that, Other things used could be a dog, for the persons memories of their dog being walked with their loved one. Other props could be random things like the places the people are going to be going, maybe a twig or something for the victim to trip up on. All of these props will contribute to the narrative because they make the film scarier and make the audience more on edge and inclined to watch it.

Make-up

For the makeup in the introduction for our film, we plan to use many different things in order to make the opening effective. Firstly, we will try and watch YouTube tutorials for makeup ideas on how we want the makeup on our people dressed up as dolls are. We have the idea of having very dramatic lipstick and lots of black eyeliner, to fit in with the films narrative and the mise en scene. The makeup will contribute to how intimidating the characters come across, so we need to put a lot of effort into the makeup because it will play a large role in how we are going to portray the narrative. In order to make the narrative come across in the makeup, we will need to use makeup to make the characters seem intimidating. Another few things for the makeup we will do us use things like fake scars, which again we will get from YouTube. If the victim has lots of scars from the past it will make the flashbacks more interesting, and therefore make the audience more engaged. We might also have to learn how to make convincing makeup for facial hair because the male character we will use will have to seem older than he actually is, so we will need to give him lots of facial hair and maybe a few scars. All of the makeup will contribute to the narrative and make the opening seem both more believeable and enjoyable.

Lighting

For when we are filming, the lighting would be something we would need to take into consideration is the lighting when we film outside. As it is winter, it will get very dark around four o clock, so we will need to go out around dusk, so we can film with enough light in order to make the film adequate. If we need to make the film look dark whilst in the editing process, we can put filters on the video and make it look like we filmed it in darkness. However, if we film, we will only get one chance for each take for each day we film because we can't go back and refilm when it is a lot darker than it should be at that point in the film. For when we film outside, we won't have to worry about lighting because we will always be filming indoors in the evening and the lighting won't change a lot so we can get away with retaking if we mess up a scene.

Overall, the only part of lighting to worry about is when outdoors- we will be using flashlights for some parts, but we can always replace the batteries if those mess up. We will also be using some additional lighting, but that won't matter too much because it will all be indoors so we will be able to use chargers when needed. We will use situational lighting for when indoors to create an effect on the audience. We will use low-key lighting when outside- the flashlights and everything all counts toward the mise en scene because it all puts something into the end product of the film opening. The additional lighting when indoors will either be houses in the house that are already there, or we will use some high key lighting from the school for the weekend or overnight. It depends on when we plan to film.

Casting

For casting, there are various things we would need to do. Firstly, we might need the actors to look a certain way in order to fit in with the narrative of the opening. For example, we will need three actresses to have long, dark hair. This may be difficult to find, so we might need to compromise by giving them wigs or something like that. We could ask some of our friends also in sixth form to do the acting for us, but there is a chance they could get distracted and we would take much longer than planned for filming. We would also maybe need to consider asking people if they would consider auditioning for the part they would like to do, because there would be many complications if the person we wanted for the part didn't look the way we wanted them to

We would want each of the characters to represent their gender sufficiently, so when we find the actors we would need to assess if they would be able to pull off the character, and if they look alike the idea we have in our heads. If not, we may have to take into consideration the fact that it may cost money to buy things, such as if the actresses we need don't have long hair we will need to spend extra money on them having a wig so they would be able to fit in with the narrative. Each actor we choose to be in our act will have to have a photo taken, then we will post on each of our blogs and describe how well they fit the role and if they will need anything extra- as in costumes, makeup, etc in order to fit in with the role.

In total we will need six actresses- three women for the doll parts, then a woman will need to play the part of the victim, then we will need a couple of actors to play for the flashbacks and one of them will need to act as the partner for the victim and the other one will need to act as the father, or maybe a sibling if we don't find someone who could pass as old enough for a teenagers' father. We would need to check with all of the cast if they would be free on the days that me and Hannah would be available to film them, then we would need to arrange times and places to film, which could cost money, which we need to take into consideration. There would be various things we would need to take into consideration, and these would all need to be talked about before we go ahead and film everything.

Location Scouting

For location, we were thinking some of the opening would be filmed in a home and the rest would be filmed outside. We have the choice of either filming in Newbottle woods and filming in public where there could be people, and that would have to be part of the risk assessment. However, we could film in the woods near my house, but we would need to get permission from the landowner to film there, and that would take a lot of time. The other issue with finding a place outdoors to film would be the fact that it gets dark in the early afternoon, then also the weather could be temperamental so it could be risky. If it rains, we would not want to risk getting the expensive camera equipment wet so we would need to be careful with what the weather is like if we film part outside.

For the flashbacks, we would need to film those parts inside. We firstly need to find either one of our actors houses or one of us who are willing to let people film in our house, then we would also need to consider the lighting and things inside the house. All of these things we have to consider before we can confirm the fact that we can film where we plan to.

The Treatment

Overview of final idea:
We have thought through a lot of ideas about our initial film opening, and we have had many ideas. We thought through a few themes, such as psychological horror, thriller, slasher, then eventually decided on filming the opening for a psychological horror. We decided on this because we wanted to film both a chase scene and have some creepy characters, but we didn't want gore. This ruled out the idea of slasher horror because to fit the conventions of this genre we would need gore, which we weren't prepared to include in our opening for various reasons.

The narrative structure for our opening we decided would include three creepy people with long hair dressed up as dolls, chasing after a victim at dusk in the woods. The victim would be a stereotypically young girl being chased, and there will be a dual narrative because there would be lots of flashbacks, of the victims life, to almost show their life is flashing in front of their eyes. We would film this in a variety of angles and would try and capture a tense atmosphere.

The characters will consist of three people with long hair dressed up as dolls, someone who could wear stereotypically normal clothes and look like a normal female teenager. We would give her clothes that would portray her gender as being female. We would need a couple of extra actresses and actors to act as the victims' family, so we will shoot that at someones house and just have some 'flashbacks' of someone in their happiest moments with their family. In total we will need six actors.

The settings would be in a woods somewhere- this could be in the woods near my house or the ones in new bottle, then we would have to get permission from people in order to film there. We would also need to bear in mind that some people would need to walk there as it is a place in public, and we would need to bear in mind we may need to let someone walk past and that would involve stopping filming.

The mise en scene in this opening would include the hair and makeup, and then the props used would be things such as trees so people could sit down on them, and things in the environment would be used as mise en scene. Other props used as mise en scene would be things such as a weapon that one of the intimidating characrers should use. This would help to create tension and make the main characters scarier.

The editing would be split equally between me and hannah, along with the filming. We would take it in tuns editing and filming, and we could fit it all in the couple of saturdays we are filming, and we will edit in our frees and media lessons when allowed.

Mood Board of mise en scene

Psychological Horror Moodboard

Pitch for film opening ideas

I am working with on other person in my group, and we have decided to make our two-minute film opening for the end of this year based on the sub-genre of psychological horror. The concept of this film opening is that we will have three people dressed up as creepy dolls, and they will be revealed in certain lighting, with flashlights and torches for the first quarter of the opening, until they are shown in full lighting at the end then the titles will be showed, with loud, creepy non-diagetic music to scare the audience. They will then be seen walking, and following a victim, and these will also be shown in certain light until they are fully shown, and then the chase scene will be well made to scare the audience. They will also then pull up into an isolated area. As they speed up, the cameras will follow them, to then see that they are chasing after a victim. The lighting will mainly be quite dark and with maybe a few flashlights, to scare the audience.

The target audience that this film would attract would be fans of psychological horror, which is generally quite young people, ranging from their mid teens to their mid twenties. The primary target audience will be anyone wanting to watch this and either get audience pleasures because they enjoy watching films of that genre, or they are watching this film with the intention of getting scared. There will be a dual narrative of this, because at some points in the opening you will be shown what the victim does normally in his everyday life, then the other narrative you will be shown is the people chasing the victim into an isolated area, and then the opening finishes and leaves the audience on a cliffhanger. By doing this, you keep the audience interested and keep them wondering what will actually happen to the person who is being chased, because they are shown being chased and being tracked down in certain lighting, but what actually happens to them is not shown so it keeps the viewers on the edge of their seat.

The aim of this film opening, when finished, will be to keep the audience on the edge of their seat and make them suspicious as to what will happen to the victim. The mise en scene used will all contribute to the overall aim of the opening, and the sound, both diagetic, and non-diagetic will be full of suspense and will also contribute to the aims. The non-diagetic sound will be things like a soundtrack, maybe a voiceover of heavy breathing and other things like that. The diagetic sound will be things such as loud footsteps when the feet are being shown, the sound of the victim out of breath when trying to run away, and maybe the voices of the people dressed up. The camera angles will be very varied. There will be some extra long shots, when showing what is happening fully. There will also be some low angle and high angle shots, and some close-ups and over-the-shoulder shots.

The mise en scene used in this opening will be the people dressed up in their certain outfits and their makeup. The lighting and props used will be for a specific purpose, and that purpose is to scare the audience. The iconography is the people, because they are very iconic and stay in the viewer's minds long after the scene is over, which is why this is in the genre of psychological horror. The lighting will be made up of flashlights at the start, and then will turn to full on lighting, which could probably be borrowed from school. If not, we could probably get some cheap from the internet or borrow some lighting off a friend. The title scene, which will be after thirty seconds into the opening, will have very loud non-diagetic music being played and the title will be like one in a typical psychological horror- big and loud, trying to scare the audience. The primary audience would be the same as the target audience- people who are fans of this certain type of sub-genre or like to be scared by a film opening.

The logistics of being able to make this is quite good, we will use serious actors and people who took drama for A-levels, then that means they are less likely to be distracted by each other because they are used to being in an environment like that, because they have been used to film before. The location used would probably be some quite dark woods, it would be around the time of sunset so it would be quite dark, and as it gets darker we will continue filming so we can get the bits of lighting with the flashlights and things like that. Shooting days will probably be at the weekend, because we wouldn't be able to do it in school or out of school because it gets dark so early, and we wouldn't be able to do it in the evenings because for some points of shooting we still need some daylight. This will be okay because me and hannah will be able to do saturdays, to film maybe over a few weeks. The actors used will be our friends that took drama and are good at acting, and the scripting will be written by me and hannah both in our media lessons and outside of school because we can do that after school in the media room.

Between us both, we should be able to manage both filming and editing both in media lessons and outside of school, maybe in our free lessons or after school on some days. We will arrange time management between us so we will do a few hours each a week until we get to the time where the video needs to uploaded onto it. We will attempt to share the workload as equally as we can, for example one week we may do two hours worth of editing each, so four more hours have been added onto the work and we only have to do a couple of hours each. We will take it in turns filming. It has been predicted that it will take around two days to film, so one of us will direct one of the days and the other person will film, then the next day one of us will film and the other one direct. We will probably have to use a weekend free to film, so we will both need to book time off work.

Storyboard for first bit of 'Finding Nemo'.

0-10 seconds:

camera pans across to the coral that it then focuses on, and starts to zoom in on. Sound is diagetic, and is the main characters talking.

10-20 seconds:

pans to an extra long shot, where the main character swims closer to the camera. Also, non-diagetic soundtrack and diagetic sound of the characters talking. One of the main characters is shown in the background.

20-30 seconds:

changes to a long shot, focuses on the main characters in conversation. Diagetic and non-diagetic sound can be heard. Camera starts to follow the main characters which star to swim up.

30-40 seconds:

camera finishes following the characters, then shows what they can see. A lot more diagetic sound can be heard and the extra-long shot shows many characters. 

40-50 seconds:

goes back to the main characters in a long shot, showing their faces. Only non-diagetic soundtrack can be heard. Diagetic sound can then be heard of the characters conversing. 

50-60 seconds:

Camera angle changes to an extra long shot. and you can see the characters moving in the background. Changes to an over-the shoulder shot. Non-diagetic and diagetic sound can be heard and camera angles change quite a lot.

60-70 seconds:

Camera zooms down to show the main character talking. Changes to another over-the-shoulder shot so you can see what the main character is in view of. Then, the camera angles change another couple of times to show multiple things.

70-80 seconds:

Shows the view of what the children can see of their parents looking over them fondly, and diagetic and non-diagetic sound can be heard. Zooms in to a close-up of the eggs that the parents are looking over proudly and you can hear them.

80-90 seconds:

Long shot of the main characters looking over their eggs, diagetic music turns louder and non-diagetic music goes softer. Turns to a close-up of the main characters at a low angle so you can see from below them. 

90-100 seconds:

long shot continues, of main characters. Focuses on them talking, diagetic sound.

100-110 seconds:

long shot continues, changes to an extra-long shot and focuses on the characters in the background. Changes to a close-up eye level shot of the main character. Only diagetic sound.

110-120 seconds:

switches from shot to shot of the characters conversing. Then, changes to a long shot of the main characters together and conversing. Only diagetic sound.

120-130 seconds:

long shot continues, to then go to another long shot of only one of the main characters. Changes to extra-long shot of the background. zooms out of the main character to show one of the others.

130-140 seconds:

extra-long shot, in the background you can see a scary fish. The main chcracters are shown in a close-up with a look of shock on their face. Then, it changes to an over-the-shoulder view of the scary fish. 

140-150 seconds:

Only sound is diagetic and of the main characters. The scene ends and the camera angles change quite a bit.

This opening fits for the genre because it is typically happy for most of it, then something goes wrong near the end. This is normal for a disney film, as the same kind of thing happens in both bambi and the lion king. The target audience for this film would be young children, so typically nothign awful happens apart from maybe one of the main characters dying. The audience would expect to see a lot of happy scenes, because usually with animates disney films everyone is happy and it is very rare to see something bad happen throughout the whole film.

'Insidious' Genre Analysis

'Insidious' is a 2011 psychological horror. The opening of this film is typical of one for that of its genre- everything from the mise en scene to the non-diagetic soundtrack fits with the expectations of that of the genre of this film. The titles and the non-diagetic music that goes with them also fits with the codes and conventions of this sub-genre. The main target audience, like I have mentioned in some of my previous posts, would be people of a similar age to those typically displayed in this type of film- usually young, ranging from mid teens to mid twenties. The narrative of this film fits in with the expectations of the genre. Typically, the narrative would be a young person who is put into some sort of danger, and along the narrative some less important characters to the narrative die, along with a couple of characters who may be important to the narrative. In this film, someone who is very important to the narrative dies near the end, which is what is normally expected when you go to watch a film like this. The audience get their audience pleasures because they are going to watch this film for a certain reason- they want to see what they are expecting to see, so when they do see what they are expecting they get a feeling of satisfaction and that is why you tend to get the same target audience whenever you release a film similar to this in the same genre or sub-genre of this film.

The non-diagetic soundtrack plays a big role in fitting the codes and conventions of this genre. The music is eerily high-pitched violins and piano noises at the start of the film when the credits are being shown. Typically, this type of music would be played to scare the audience because they are aware something bad will happen because the music is full of suspense and tension. The diagetic sound is quite a lot less noisy, and doesn't play a big part in what the audience can hear at the start of this film. Again, this fits in with the codes and conventions of this genre, because most of the music will be a non-diagetic soundtrack or voiceover. At the start of some films like this, there could be a voice over explaining parts of the movie or something like that. Although this film doesn't contain that, a lot similar to it made by similar companies have that in the opening of films of the same genre.

'The Black Swan' Genre analysis

Black Swan


Black Swan is a 2010 American psychological thriller and horror film. The narrative of the film 

centers around a female ballet dancer Nina Sayers that wins the lead role of 'swan lake' who is perfect

for the role of the 'white swan', although she feels her role is being snatched from her when a new 

dancer Lily (Mila Kunis) joins the cast of the show, who seems to be grabbing the attention of the 

dance teacher who Nina is in love with, this causes an issue and Nina starts to believe that Lily is

after her and her role and slowly loses her mind as she gets into the character more and more, 

becoming 'the black swan', leading to her to psychologically going mental. In which case this film 

links to it's genre extremely well. The way the film creates the mental awareness of the main 

character, shows exactly why this film is a psychological horror

Nina would be seen as the protagonist throughout the film as she is shown to be just a sweet and 

innocent ballet dancer at the beginning. The character is desperate to be the best and perfecting 

herself, but throughout the film she becomes in danger of herself because she starts to get injured and 

losing focus, which shows the audience she is in peril. There are scenes such as after her 

performances in part 1 of swan lake, where she goes into her dressing room to find Lily in there who

teases her about how she performed. Then, in anger she throws her against the mirror. This shows

her weakness in the film. However, stereotypical mind games are portrayed when Nina had actually

stabbed herself and not Lily who she had imagined to be there. Which relies on the characters' fears 

and emotional instability to build tension.

'Scream' opening genre analysis

This film opening is typical to the genre of psychological horror. The narrative, which contains someone dressed up in a mask going round killing young people, is very stereo typically a psychological horror. Someone who is a fan of this sub-genre would generally expect something creepy to happen to either a single young person or a group of young people, then for many of the young people to die and a couple to survive. This would be stereotypical for the story line for a film of this sub-genre. This narrative follows the repertoire of elements that fit the sub-genre. The stock characters are of the same age as expected for this genre- mid teens to mid twenties, which is the age of the main victim of this film. The location in these kind of films is normally somewhere quite isolated, and dark, which is like where this film is set. The audience would watch this film sometimes for a sense of familiarity, so to watch this film has a very similar story line to many films similar to it, but a slightly different story line so the audience don't get bored watching the same thing all the time. The main surviving character of this film is a female, which also fits in with the repertoire of elements.  This film doesn't have a lot of gore and blood and guts like many other horrors, this is a sub-genre of horror so the film focuses more on scaring the audience rather than showing them lots of the insides of humans.

The non-diagetic soundtrack is very tense and creates a sound to make the audience scared. By creating a suspense, it makes the film have an atmosphere of eeriness and makes the audience satisfied because they came to  watch that kind of thing. The mise en scene, which contains quite obvious windows which are open and not covered, make the audience focus on them because during the narrative of the opening you follow a young babysitter trying to find someone who is watching her. You can see that the mise en scene was set up specifically like that to make the audience automatically look to places like that to look for the person who is watching the young babysitter. The audience get their pleasures from not knowing where the murderer is, because it creates a feeling of suspense for them. The editing also fits into the repertoire of elements expected for this sub-genre, because when the opening finishes the titles of the film come up in quite bold non-animated typography, which makes the audience scared because it is very tense writing. These all fit the codes ans conventions of the genre, because the film is meant to scare the audience and make them relate it to a real-life situation, so by putting it in an everyday house it seems very realistic and that is how this film opening fits the codes and conventions of the sub-genre of horror.

Genre

Genre:
Genre is a style or category of film. We have genres to keep the audience interested, and to appeal to multiple groups of people. There are many genres of film. Some of these include horror, thriller, science-fiction, western, romance, comedy, animation, etc. There are fixed elements of genre, and with each genre, the target audience expect a certain thing from the film. For example, if you were to watch a romantic film, you would expect the narrative to involve a male and a female falling in love. For a horror, the audience would expect a group of young people to be killed one by one in a mysterious way, with a couple of survivors who manage to either last a bit longer than the others or end up saving the world.

Sub-Genres:
Sub-genres are developed to keep the audience interested, such as if someone was to watch the same romantic type of film over and over again, they would not keep interested and therefore the film industry would use money. However, if the directors mix it up a bit and make the film a romantic comedy so the audience can laugh as well, it will keep the audience interested and also attracts to more people. Sub-genres are for more specific target audiences, for example in horror there could be psychological horrors which usually involve ghosts, or there could be thriller horrors which are a lot more gory.

Target Audience:
In every film, the target audience watch it, and seek familiarity with other films they have watched before. For example, if a middle-aged man enjoyed psychological horrors and then turned up to a film thinking it appealed to him and it was actually a romantic comedy, it would not appeal to him. This is why when the film is being advertised or something like that, it should show what genre the film is quite clearly, otherwise the film will just appeal to those risking paying money going to see a film that they don't know they will enjoy. This is a way in which genre is useful for audience, so by watching adverts they can decide if they want to go and watch that film.

Audience Pleasures:
An audience pleasure is when they seek familiarity with a film within a specific genre and they will go and watch a film to see the same storyline, but with a different film. The audience seek familiarity with the genre they enjoy to watch, so if the film has a similar storyline, without realising it, they enjoy to watch films with very similar story-lines.

Genre and Institutions:
Genres developed in cinemas because filmmakers discovered everyone enjoys different genres of film. By making many different genres, it appealed to more people and therefore got the film institution more money.

Analysing the opening for 'The Lion King'

Analysis:
The Lion King was made in 1994 and rated a PG. The production studio was Walt Disney Pictures and Walt Disney Feature Animation. The distribution studio was Buena Vista pictures. The director of this film was Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff. The box office taking in the opening weekends were $40million. The awards won for this film were two Oscars for best music, and a golden globe for the best motion picture. It was nominated for multiple oscars and golden globe awards.

Target Audience:
The target audience for this film would be children from the age of 3-16. Animated disney films are generally associated with children, so the primary target audience would be children. The film is very innocent and happy through most of it, and it all ends up happy at the end, which matches with a typical Disney film. The genre of animated films is typically associated with children of that age, and disney is normally seen to be to do with children. It would be for both genders because these kind of films are aimed at both genders. The target audience would go to watch this film and expect a happy Disney move because most movies made by disney are very happy, so this will be a case of the familiar and satisfy the viewer's pleasures of going to watch that film.

Title and Credit Analysis:
There is no credits in the start of the lion king, but then when you get to the end of the opening scene there is a black background put over the whole scene and it says 'The Lion King' in very large and bold letters. This typography represents the narrative, because by making it big and bold and out there it shows that the main character, who is going to be the lion king later on in the film, is very important. The letters are large and intimidating, and this foreshadows the fact that the main character is also large and intimidating, and a big deal where he is.

Narrative:
The narrative is set up in lots of ways during the opening of this film. One of the ways is when the baby king is shown to the world for the first time, a very dramatic non-diagetic soundtrack plays and it shows his importance. This displays the narrative because later on in the film he goes on to become a very important part of Africa because he becomes the lion king. Presenting him to the world in such a dramatic way shows the audience the importance of his presence in the rest of the narrative. Also, when the father of the lion goes into the shadows and the baby lion king comes out of the shadows into the sunlight, it shows how the circle of life goes around, and the large lion will step down and the small lion will become king some day.

Music:
The non-diagetic soundtrack of the opening plays a huge part in foreshadowing the narrative. The song 'The circle of life' shows what is inevitably going to happen- the parent dies and the child lives. It shows this by the lyrics of the soundtrack. By all of the animals showing up to see the baby lion presented to the world and all of the dramatic music being played in the background, the non-diagetic soundtrack foreshadows the narrative. The non-diagetic soundtrack through the whole of the opening is a very dramatic sound and brings the audience in.

Atmosphere:
The atmosphere created by this opening is quite unique. It makes the audience feel like this is going to be quite a significant film, because of all the dramatic non-diagetic music and the presentation of the baby lion at the end of the opening. Everything builds up to that one moment of the lion king being presented to the world, so it creates an atmosphere of importance and makes the audience want to watch it more. The atmosphere is a very happy one, so this will attract children because children tend to enjoy watching very happy films in general. The camera starts out as a extra long shot then continues to zoom in until the main characters are in focus. This is another way to show the importance of the main characters in this film.

Characters:
The main characters are all shown in the opening. The main character, Simba, is shown near the end of the opening and many other characters are shown in the opening. Many of the characters in this opening don't hold  significance in the narrative of this film, but still play a big part in making the opening of this film what it is. The main character is represented as a baby in the start of this film and it is with its parents. The other important characters introduced in the opening of the film include a monkey, and a bird. They are all quite important to this film and this is shown in the opening of the film.

Mise En Scene/location:
The location is in Africa, in the middle of a field with o human habitation. This sets a good scene for the film because it shows the film is based on animals and humans do not get involved.  The mise en scene is mainly an animated large rock, which is the home of the main characters. The lighting is always at sunset in the opening and when it gets to the end of the opening it shows the light going down to present the main character, which makes them seem very important and shows their importance compared to the rest of the audience.

Analysing the opening for 'Forrest Gump'

Analysis:
The film 'Forrest Gump' was made in 1994. The director was Robert Zemeckis. The production company was Paramount Pictures and this was also the distribution company. The film as rated a PG-13. The box office takings in the initial weekend was $24million. The lead actor in this film was Tom Hanks, accompanied by Robin Wright and Gary Sinise.

Target Audience:
The target audience for this film would have been males and females from the ages 18-29. There is various things in this film that would appeal to both genders, for example the war aspect of the film would widely appeal to males as the target audience. However, the romantic aspect of this film would be aimed mainly at females. This film would mainly be targeted at young people because it is based around young people. This film's target audience would also be people who enjoy watching action or romantic film, because the film isa slight differentiation of genres. This links to the audiences expectations of a romantic film, which then meets their viewing pleasures because it is a very romantic film, which holds suspense to do with romance.

Credits:
The titles were unanimated, and in plain white on the screen whilst a feather is followed by the camera in the background. The titles start with the production company, then go on to include the director, the lead actor, then the film title. After this, it includes the less important aspects, such as the other starring characters, the casters, co-producers, music producers, visual effects supervisors, costume designers, music, editors, production designers, and more. The typography is quite a plain, gentle white font. This reflects the narrative, because the story is mainly based on a very gentle guy. The titles last for most of the opening of the film, and most of the time there is no more than a few words on the screen. This helps to not overwhelm the audience with lots of writing and actually helps them to focus on the words that appear in front of their eyes.

Music:
The music used is very gentle, quite recognisable piano music. This makes the audience feel quite relaxed and comfortable with the film. During the opening, the camera follows a feather over the city of Alabama, and then lands at the main characters' foot. During this lots of text is shown and soft piano music is played. This opening portrays the narrative by showing the town the film is based in, and the soft piano music and credits calm the audience. The opening also features an introduction of the main character to the film. By making the feather land at his feet, it makes the audience realise he is a big part of the film because he is the first character introduced. The non-diagetic soundtrack also fades out as the feather lands at Gump's foot, and this ends the opening of the film.

Narrative:
The narrative is set up in the opening in a number of ways. Firstly, when you follow the feather, it almost represents the fact that you are following Gump float through his life. Through the whole narrative, you watch Gump float through different parts of his life, so this feather almost foreshadows the narrative. Also, at parts, the feather ends up going under cars and getting shaken around a bit. I think this is foreshadowing the narrative at the parts in the film when things aren't going too well for Gump, or when he is going through tough times, such as when his mother dies or when his wife dies. There are also parts where the feather floats high above the city, which may represent when Gump is going through the best parts of his life, such as when he gets married to his wife or when he becomes a world famous table tennis player. This feather almost shows the audience that they are going to follow an motional films with many ups and downs, and in this way the opening foreshadows the narrative a lot.

Editing:
The feather used in the opening is edited on, so the camera must have filmed going through Alabama then the feather was edited on afterward. This use of editing does a lot for the opening scene, because without the feather it would be quite boring and the audience would be switched off straight away. By editing the feather and the credits onto the opening scene, it keeps the audience interested and they ant to keep watching and find out what happens in the narrative. The opening foreshadows the narrative, but the only part in the opening where any part of the narrative is given away or is very obvious is when the main character is introduced right at the end of the opening. The atmosphere created in this opening is a very relaxed one, the non-diagetic soundtrack and the feather edited onto it makes the atmosphere what it is at the start of this film.The location shows the whole city that the movie is set in, o in a way that also foreshadows the narrative.

Analysing the opening for the film 'Contact'.

Analysis:
The film 'Contact' was released in cinemas in 1997. It is rated a PG. The production studio for this film was Warner Bros, and Warner Bros was also the distribution company. The director of this film was Robert Zemeckis. The box office takings were $100 million in the opening weekend. It was nominated for five Oscars and a golden globe award, and it won many awards from the Academy of science fiction.

Target Audience:
The target audience for this film would be mainly fans of science fiction, and this would mainly be people aged around 15-35, and the main gender primary audience would be males, because they tend to stereo typically be attracted to science fiction more than females. The secondary audience would then be females interested in science fiction and aged around the same kind of age as the primary male target audience. In this film, the narrative is mainly based around a science fiction genre, so the target audience would reflect this a lot.

Title and Credit analysis:
The Film title is shown before anything else. It is unanimated, and is in quite a futuristic font. This reflects the narrative about the film, because it is based around science-fiction and shows that the film will be about the future and space, like the writing. The credits are not shown in the opening of the film. The typography of the title is quite plain, but it is in a slightly different font that is blue, and blue is a colour that is used a lot to represent space, so it may also foreshadow the narrative.

Narrative:
In this film opening, the narrative is set up quite well for the rest of the film. The film opening basically includes a photo of planet earth, then the camera zooms out continually for a couple of minutes until it shows the universe we are in. Whilst showing this, the music played goes back in time the further away from Earth you get. The film, which is widely based around the main characters who have a fascination with space, has a good opening because it reflects the narrative quite well. The audience are shown quite how small and insignificant we are compared to the rest of the universe, and what possibility there is that there is life on other planets. This reflects the narrative because the whole story-line is based around the possibility of life on other planets, so by showing you in the opening how small we really are compared to the rest of the universe it shows the audience the bigger possibility of life on other planets. At the end of the part where it shows you the universe we are in, it then goes on to zoom out into a child's eye. The child then turns out to be one of the main characters later on in the film, so this is a good way to introduce a character in the opening of the film,

Atmosphere:
The non-diagetic soundtrack creates an atmosphere in the opening. It is a range of songs, but whilst the camera continues to zoom out, the music continues to get older. It plays a range of songs from over the last century or so. This creates an atmosphere of wander for the audience, because the soundtrack must be something everyone recognizes, so it reaches out to a large audience. There is also a voice over played, which is non-diagetic. It also plays with the aspect of things over time, so also as the camera zooms out the voice over is sound recordings from the past. All of this foreshadows the narrative and creates an atmosphere of wander and makes the audience think a lot. This can relate to the genre of the science fiction film, because it makes the audience think a lot, rather than a film where the audience can watch the whole film without properly focusing.

Location/sets:
The mise en scene, which starts off as planet earth, relates to the genre. The location of the opening of this film represents the narrative, because it shows that it is in space. The set is really what makes the opening of this film, because the reason why it stood out so much to me was because it is in space, and really makes you realize a lot of things. This setting makes the audience realize that they are very small compared to the rest of the universe, and they also may have feelings of nostalgia towards some of the non-diagetic soundtrack that is being played in the background of the clip. The iconography signifies the importance of us in the big universe because we, as far as we know, are the only living planet discovered by humans so far.

Analysing the opening for 'Legally Blonde'.

Analysing:
The film 'Legally Blonde' was released in cinemas in 2001. It is rated a PG-13 and the production companies for this film were 'Marc Platt Productions' and 'Metro-Goldwyn-Mayor pictures'. The distribution studio was also 'Metro-Goldwyn-Manor pictures'. The director was Robert Luketic. The box office achievements, for the first weekend, was $20million. It was nominated for a Golden Globe award and won a BMI award and also a british comedy award. It was nominated for more awards as well.

Target Audience:
The primary target audience for this film would be teenagers, and female. Just by seeing the opening to this film, everything is very pink and girly. The colour pink is stereotypically associated with females, and I think that if a middle-aged adult male happened to walk in on this movie being shown he would almost defiantly change the channel. The genre of this film is a romantic comedy, which is also a genre stereotypically associated with females, so there is more and more evidence pointing towards the fact that this film is aimed at females. The age bracket would probably be ten to late twenties. The film features girls at university, so it would probably be aimed at girls around the same kind of age, or a maybe someone a bit older because they have been there and done that, or maybe younger people because they see people of that kind of age as role models. The target audience would probably be fans of romantic comedy and typically girly films.

Title and Credit analysis:
The Titles and credits were all in pink writing, that looked like a woman's neat handwriting. It was white with pink borders and almost sparkled whilst it was on the screen. The Credits were un-animated, and they stay on the screen for half a second or so during the opening of the film. The very stereotypically girly writing shows the narrative, and shows the audience what the rest of the film and storyline is going to be about. The credits reflect the genre, which is a girly romantic comedy. In the credits, you are shown the film title, production company, cast (in order of importance), the people who have sorted out the costumes and makeup the director, producer and the music used. Those are the main things that you are shown in the credits.

Preferred Readings:
The opening scene features a close-up shot of the main character's hair being waved about whilst being hair sprayed. This draws attention to the fact that the hair is blonde and the audience are shown the start of a typically blonde film, which shows the narrative. When the teenager is riding her bike in the opening scene, the camera follows her and it frames her. It is a long shot, because you an see both her and everything going on in the background. The non-diagetic soundtrack is a very upbeat, pop-style song and stereotypically goes with the genre of the film. The song is called 'its a perfect day' and goes with the theme of the blonde american popular girls being very happy and having a very active social life. The atmosphere is a happy one and everyone in the opening scenes seem very relaxed and happy. The characters shown in the opening are represented as very typically blonde american teenagers and they are displayed as normally being quite shallow, and only really socialising and going out with their jock boyfriends.

Mise-en-scene:
The scenery in this film is also quite stereotypical, like most other aspects of this film opening. You follow a character entering a university dorm, where many blonde people are getting ready, doing their hair, and signing a card for the main character, who is also blonde. The room in which this part has been filmed is very pink and all of the mise en scene has hints of pink or is stereotypically girly in some way or another. It fits all of our established thoughts in our head of how it would probably be. The lighting is always quite bright, both when the characters are shown inside and outside. Everyones faces are well lit and it lets you see their facial expressions a lot better. This doesn't have an effect on the text, however, because the text is so bright and makes the scenes almost look a little bit darker than they actually are.

Ideology:
The ideology of american teenaged girls is that they are blonde, like to wear pink. spend a lot of time out with their friends and very sporty boys. This film does met this description, because even in the opening you can see where the girls live (which is a mainly pink area) and you can see who they hang out with, which is each other. Stereotypically, teenaged american girls in college or university meet this description and, because we have been brought up watching these films, you believe that is what things are actually like. The characters being represented like this make the audience think, after having watched the opening to this film, that all the characters will be like that. However, later on in the film the audience will be surprised that the main character proves the stereotypes that blondes are dumb wrong by going to a law school to try and win back an ex-boyfriend.

Analysing the opening for 'Up'.

Analysis for the film opening to the Disney Pixar movie 'up'.

The film is called 'up'. it was made in 2009, and it is rated a PG. The production studio was Disney Pixar and the distribution studio was also Disney Pixar. The director was Pete Docter and Bob Peterson, and the box office takings were $68million in the first weekend it was out in cinemas. There is an estimation that it has taken $175million in total so far, but it could be more since the website has not been updated in a year or so. It won two oscars for best achievement in written music for motion pictures and the best animated feature film of the year. It also won a golden globe award, a BAFTA award and an AFI award. It has also won more awards and was nominated for more oscars than it actually won.

Target Audience:
The target audience for this film was children from 5-15, it is a very colourful and happy film and appeals to children and a lot of adults as well. It is targeted at both boys and girl and anyone slightly elder as well. The primary audience would be children of any age, and then the secondary target audience would probably be teenagers or parents. The film is very happy at most of times and is very innocent, so that would be why it would appeal to children. It would probably be aimed at fans of disney or animated films. However, at one point in the opening in the film, there is almost a loss of innocence and so that makes a secondary target audience for slightly older people. However, the primary target viewing audience would probably be children to teenagers, because that is what most of disney pixar films are aimed at, and because it is an animation, people almost always go by the stereotype that most animated films are for the viewing of younger people, which means that some of the secondary target audience, which is adults, probably won't go to see it unless they have someone young with them, for example a younger sibling or child.

Title/credits and atmosphere:
The title and credits are right at the start of the film and is quite plain. In the main opening scene there isn't opening credits or anything like that, but by the way the film starts you can immediately tell it is disney. The trademark lamp jumping on the pixar letters automatically make the viewers aware that it is a pixar film. The narrative is displayed quite clearly in this opening scene, because you are shown a man grow up with the woman he loves, then the scene is shown where she peacefully passes away. This sets the narrative for the story, and makes the audience prepare for the rest of the film. The narrative is very clear in the opening scene, and sets the audience to realise what is going to happen in the rest of the film, as it is based around the old man's life. The atmosphere in the film is like the atmosphere in the opening- most of the time it is happy, but from time to time there are very sad moments. The opening scene almost foreshadows what the atmosphere will be like for the rest of the film, as it show the audience that the film is lighthearted and funny most of the time, but sometimes it can get quite deep and make the audience sad.

Camera angles:
In the opening, the camera angles are a lot of the time shot at eye level, and most of the time they are long shots. Every now and then, it will pan and follow one of the main characters, which almost foreshadows the fact that you are following their lives, and will be doing for the rest of the film and not just the short opening. The scenes when the characters get emotional are long shots, and a lot of the time the camera is panning the characters. The camera goes into an establishing shot, which shows how they will get from one place to another. After that, there is a close-up, low angle shot to focus on the characters sharing dialect, then it pans them again. Also, in the happy part of the video, it zooms in on the main characters together.

Atmosphere:
The atmosphere changes a lot in the opening. To begin with, the non-diagetic soundtrack is very upbeat and happy and sets the atmosphere for a very happy and enlightening film. You watch a young couple fall in love with each other and grow old together during the first few minutes of the opening and everything seems very happy and the atmosphere is like every other disney film- very care-free and everyone seems very happy. However, the non-diagetic soundtrack changes tone a lot when the man and woman starts to grow old, then as the music starts to turn to a slightly more depressing tune, and makes the audience prepare for the narrative to completely change. When the old woman dies in her husbands arms, it kind of takes the innocence away from the narrative for a while, and makes the audience sad. The characters introduced are seemingly innocent and happy people. The characters introduced are a man and a woman, and they are a young couple in love. They are represented to the audience as a very happy couple, because they are always smiling and ver seem to be sad. The director wants you to realise how happy they are together and how innocent they seem as a couple. The location/set is again of a very happy nature, because it is always very sunny and in a field, and they seem very happy. 

Mise En Scene:

The mise en scene includes a jar that they have been putting money in in order to afford to fly to paradise falls, a place they have both wanted to visit since they were children. In a way, this sets the narrative for the audience because they realise it is something the couple is aiming for. This is a way Disney make an object something that the audience focus on and believe it will be something involved on later in the film because it is focused on so much through the opening scene. The mise en scene and background and characters all set up the audience for the narrative.

Evaluation:

Overall, this is a very effective film opening because it keeps the audience very focused on it, and it keeps them engaged and carrying on wanting to watch more. The sad scenes, both when they realise they can't have a baby then when the old woman dies, it changes the tone and the atmosphere of the film opening. A lot is shown in this film opening in the first four minutes, you are shown what happens to the man in his life, so by being set this, you are able to know what he has been through in the past and why this old man is the way he is. This film opening has a very good start for a narrative because you are given a lot of background of the mans life, and the soundtrack and the scenery keeps the audience engaged because there is always something to watch.