Assessing a Past Coursework Opening

The Second Personality



We don't see any of the criteria being excellent but we would say the variety of shots was fairly good and we would put in the proficient section. We think that the editing for meaning to viewer might fall into the minimal category, as the order of shots are poor.

The weakest feature of the opening is the unclear transitions making the plot hard to follow and understand. The girl in the opening only makes a very brief appearance making it unclear whether she is a main part of the film.

The strongest feature in this opening is the variety of shot types. At 0:07 the director has very cleverly used a shot of a radio to appear as the music starts playing, as if the music is coming from the radio. This creates the effect that the music is non-diegetic but appears to be diegetic  We thought this was a good way to introduce the music.

Shots:

1 - From 0:15 to 0:20, there is use of narrative enigma  as we do not see the characters face until 0:21. This is used to create a sense of mystery and suspicion. 

2 - At 0:21, there is a low angle, medium shot. The camera reveals the character here, when he looks into the mirror. This shot is a long take, lasting 7 seconds, without any form of movement. 

3 - At 0:28, the shot changes to a black and white scene. This suggests the scene is a thought or memory coming from the character looking into the mirror, but we are not entirely sure. The music also changes here, from the rock to romantic. 

4- From 0:28 to 0:50 the shots are medium, with no variety of angles. 

5 - At 0:51, there is a close up of the boy cutting a sandwich and placing it into a box. 

6 - At 1:01, we see the boy putting books into a bag, telling us he is going to school and the sandwich is for his lunch. 

7 - At 1:07, the camera goes back to the sandwich as he picks up the box, but the camera stays focused on the area even when he has taken the sandwich. He then goes back for the knife. All these shots are close ups, to show the importance. 

8 - We then see the boy putting the knife in his bag with a close up. It would have been good to use a dutch angle here, to signify something is going to happen but there is no angle. 

Assesment Criteria

Here us the assesment criteria link below. This shows the whole criteria on one page.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/25482314/G321-Simplified-Marking-Criteria-as-1-Sheet

The Brief

Preliminary exercise: 

This was the continuity task which we did involving filming and editing a character walking down a corridor then opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. 

This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule. We carried out all three of these in our video we filmed and edited.



Main task: 

The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source.

The coursework is worth 50% of the AS (same at A2) and the marking (detailed later) is divided into 3 sections:

Mark scheme:


RESEARCH AND PLANNING: 20%

PRODUCTION: 60%

EVALUATION: 20%

Your work is marked partially on my observations of your approach and level of organisation, but fundamentally its a DVD and your blog that are marked.

Our Swede

Following up from our pitch for a swede, we were put into two groups and then had to make one. Our group decided to choose the film Taken, because we know the film well and thought we could put a twist into it. Me , Jake, Curtis, Hannah, James, Dec and Dom were in this group and made It in school. Here below is the swede me made.

Here is the pitch for a Swede




We used a various amount of shots in the Swede to give it a film look. However even though it is meant to look like a low budget film, we still tried to make it look okay. We used an over the head shot, Also a 2 shot and a shot reverse shot.

Shot Types

The first shot consisted of an over the shoulder shot, we used this to show the view form the girls perspective, we can tell the character is a girl because of the long hair, we also used this shot type so the identity of the character, was hidden form the audience to create a more suspense opening scene.Other shots that were included were a medium long-shot in the airport scene, to show the audience the setting of the scene and also close enough to see the characters emotions in this scene as they are leaving one another.

A high angled close up shot was used here to show the vulnerability of her farther because the girl is in a very dangerous place, it was also used to show that her dad was calling if this had of been a long shot this detail wouldn't have been put across to the viewers.

We used an over the shoulder shot and also a long shot, an over the shoulder shot was used to show the view of Amanda and a long shot used to get the full body in the frame of the picture and to give the audience a view of what was happening in the scene.

Overall i think that we could have produced a better Swede, even though it was meant to look low budget and a rip-off of the original. It still didn't look as good as it couldn't have been. You can't really pick out key scenes from the film and relate them to our video.

28 Days Later Film Opening

(Danny Boyle, 2002)


DVD cover

Box Office

Budget: $8,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: £1,500,079 (UK) (3 November 2002) (318 Screens)

Gross: $82,719,885 (Worldwide)   See More Box Office Info Here

Undergoing experimentation, infected by a virus -a virus that causes rage. The naive activists ignore the pleas of a scientist to keep the cages locked, with disastrous results. Twenty-eight days later, our protagonist, Jim, wakes up from a coma, alone, in an abandoned hospital. He begins to seek out anyone else to find London is deserted, apparently without a living soul. After finding a church, which had become inhabited by zombie like humans intent on his demise, he runs for his life. Selena and Mark rescue him from the horde and bring him up to date on the mass carnage and horror as all of London tore itself apart. This is a tale of survival and ultimately, heroics, with nice subtext about mankind's savage nature. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.    

The company idents featured in the opening scene are:

The opening of the film starts with a montage of old footage put together. This is to show a flashback of what has happened to give the audience and viewers some information before the film has started.

The first clip shown starts from a visual effect by fading in through the effect of a fuzzy tv. This is accompanied by a the sound effect of a fuzzy tv as well. The clip is of a people running around going crazy. The shot is a mid angle and jolty to give the effect of been seen through someone else's eyes.



The next clip is of people running around still. The sound effects are of the someone speaking through a radio and also the fuzzy tv sound effect. This gives the impression of something bad is happening like a pandemic etc. The camera is still jolty to replicate being seen through someones eyes.

The clip then is of a high angled close up of a women crying then pans down on people running and fighting. This is to show how something else has power over them all. The camera is very quick while moving to create the effect of rushing and awareness. There is sound of people screaming.


The next clip is a very quick shot and a high/dutch angle to show there is something not right and something bad is or about to happen. It is a high angled shot to show how the horses and police are weak and don't have power. There are sounds of screaming horses and gas canisters going off in the background.

Then the clip is of the police riot teams forcing the people back. This is a mid angle shot, this is to show that have some dominance and power however not all of it. All the clips are old fashioned and look like video tape footage. This adds to the effect of something scary and creepy is going to happen.

Requiem For A Dream Film Opening

DVD Cover

(Darren Aronofsky,2000)

Box Office

Budget:

$4,500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$64,770 (USA) (8 October 2000) (2 Screens)

Gross:

 $7,364,000 (Worldwide) (2000)

See rest of box office information here http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0180093/business

Requiem for a Dream exposes four paralleled individuals and their menacing addiction to heroin, cocaine, and diet pills (speed). Taking place in Brooklyn amidst the waning Coney Island, the drugs are very easily obtained and keep each main character in its cycle of dependence. The protagonist Harry Goldfarb is your typical heroin junky with an ambitious plan of "Getting off hard knocks," with help from his cocaine crazed girlfriend Marion and his long time friend Tyrone. Meanwhile his widowed mother is obsessed with the glamour of television and eventually finds her way to a dietitian who pushes her into the cycle of drug induced enslavement.

Drugs. They consume mind, body and soul. Once you're hooked, you're hooked. Four lives. Four addicts. Four failures. Despite their aspirations of greatness, they succumb to their addictions. Watching the addicts spiral out of control, we bear witness to the dirtiest, ugliest portions of the underworld addicts reside in. It is shocking and eye-opening but demands to be seen by both addicts and non-addicts alike.

Here is the trailer for it.

The opening scene is 

The company idents featured in the opening scene are:

• Artisan Entertainment
• Thouand Words

Then the titles say:

Artisan Entertainment

and Thousand Words present 

  

See all of the company credits here http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0180093/companycredits