Final Opening Sequence

Vengeance

This is our final opening sequence for our film 'Vengeance'. As a group we feel that we have done very well to get this final result although it has been a very lengthy process. A lot of time was spent planning, doing research, preparing for filming, editing and also putting the final touches to the sequence.

Our final opening sequence varied slightly to the storyboard we put together. As we edited the footage we found several ways in which we could improve our original idea. Shots were added, altered and also removed. 

Through this process we also came across several minor problems which we were able to overcome. These were mainly during the filming process such as getting correct lighting which would be effective enough in our sequence. However this was easily solved by using lamps and torches to provide shadowy lighting. Apart from the few minor setbacks, as a group we were able to work through these and gain great results. 

Film Editing

Film editing is an art of storytelling practiced by connecting two or more shots together to form a sequence, and the subsequent connecting of sequences to form an entire movie. Its the work of selecting and joining together shots to create a finished film. Film editing is the only art that is unique to cinema and which separates film making from all other art forms. Editing is the art, technique, and practice of assembling these shots into a consistent whole.A film editor works with the layers of

•  Images
•  Story
•  Music
•  Rhythm
•  Pace
•  Shapes
•  Actors Performances
•  Re-directing 
•  Re-writing the film during the editing process

Film editing can be used in various ways:

1.  It can create sensually provocative montages
2.  It can bring out the emotional truth in an actor's performance
3.  It can create a point of view on otherwise obtuse events
4.  It can guide the telling and pace of a story
5.  It can create the illusion of danger where there is none
6.  Surprise when we least expect it
7.  A vital subconscious emotional connection to the viewer.

A film editor is a person who practices film editing by assembling footage into a coherent film. Film editors often are responsible for pulling together all of the elements of story, dialogue, music, sound effects, visual effects, rhythm and pace of a film. 

There are various types of editing used in film making to make the film look more effective and realistic, cuts and transitions and other different types of editing techniques are used in films to make it look original.  The different types of film editing techniques are:

Cut 

A visual transition created in editing in which one shot is instantly replaced on screen by another.

Cross cutting
Cutting back and forth quickly between two or more lines of action, indicating they are happening simultaneously.

Dissolve 
A gradual scene transition. The editor overlaps the end of one shot with the beginning of the next one.

Establishing shot 
A shot, normally taken from a great distance or from a "bird's eye view," that establishes where the action is about to occur.

Fade 
A visual transition between shots or scenes that appears on screen as a brief interval with no picture. The editor fades one shot to black and then fades in the next. Often used to indicate a change in time and place.

Wipe 
Visible on screen as a bar travelling across the frame pushing one shot off and pulling the next shot into place.

Final cut 

The finished edit of a film, approved by the director and the producer. This is what the audience sees.

Famous Directors

A film director or filmmaker, is a person who directs the making of a film. A film director visualizes the script, controlling a film's artistic and dramatic aspects, while guiding the technical crew and actors in the fulfillment of his or her vision. A film director is responsible for overseeing creative aspects of a film. They often develop the vision for a film and carry out , deciding how the film should look. They also direct which tone it should have and what the audience should gain from the cinematic experience . Directing a film is a kind of storytelling. Film directors are responsible for approving camera angles, lens effects, lighting, and set design, and will often take part in hiring key crew members. They coordinate the actors' moves and also may be involved in the writing, financing and editing of a film.

The greatest FILM DIRECTORS of all time are:

• Mel Brooks
• Steven Spielberg
• George Lucas
• Peter Jackson

Mel Brooks- was born on june 28, 1926 in brooklyn New York. His name was Mclvin Kaminsky. He is a actor, writer, comedian, and a producer. He received many awards for his films. In 1963 he received an Oscar for best animated short; The Critic. In 1966 an Emmy for outstanding writing achievement in variety, The Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris special. In 1968 he won an Oscar for best screenplay in The Producers. In 1997, 1998, and 1999 he gained an Emmy for outstanding guest actor for Mad About You. In 1999 he received a Grammy for best spoken comedy album for The 2000 Year Old Man In The Year 2000. His latest award in 2001 was a Tony for the best musical for The Producers. Mel Brooks has truly had a great career.

Steven Spielberg- Steven Spielberg was born on December 18th 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio. His mother was Leah Adler, and his father was Arnold Spielberg. Steven is also a screenwriter and producer. In 2008, the magazine Premiere listed him as the most powerful and influential figure in the Motion picture industry. In a career of over four decades, Spielberg's film have touched on many themes and genres. Spielberg's early sci-fi and adventure films, sometimes centering on children, were seen as an archetype of modern Hollywood blockbuster filmamking. In later years his movies began addressing such as the Holocaust, slavery, war and terrorism . Speilberg won the academy Award for Best Director for 1993's Schindler's List and 1998's Saving Private Ryan. Three of Spielberg's films, Jaws(1975), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Jurrasic Park (1993), broke the box office records, each becoming the highest- grossing film made at the time. To date, unadjusted gross of all Spielberg directed film exceeds $8.5 billion worldwide.

George lucas- George Walton lucas was born on May 14th 1944. He is an Academy Award-nominated American film director, producer, screenwriter and chairman of Lucas film Ltd. He is best known for being the creator of the epic Sci-Fi franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist adventurer character Indiana Jones. Lucas is one of the American film industry's most financially successful independent directors/producers, with an estimated net worth of $3.9. billion.

Peter Jackson- Peter Robert Jackson was on born 31 October 1961 and is a three time Academy Award winning New Zealand filmmaker, producer and screenwriter, best known for The Lord of the Rings trilogyadapted from the novel by J. R. Tolkien. He is also known for his 2005 remake of King Kong. He won international early in his career with his "slapstick" horror comedies, before coming to mainstream prominence with Heavenly Creatures, for which he shared an Academy Award best screenplay nomination with his partner Fran Walsh.

Representations

Representation refers to the construction in any medium (especially the mass media) of aspects of ‘reality’ such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts.Representation always involves 'the construction of reality'.
In our sequence we are going to make sure our clip is realistic as possible.
We are going to use stereotypical characters, one of which is a villain, and the other a victim. We are using these stereotypes because it is effective and it brings out the horror in our film as each horror film does include a villain. In this case the villain is a man, and the victim a teeange girl.
Gender also plays a big role Male are stereotypically known as being:

• Strong
• Rough
• Workaholic
• Rugged hunters
• Tough
• Aggressive
• In control
• Powerful

And a stereotypical woman would be conveyd as:

• Delicate
• Beautiful
• Housewife
• Blonde
• Loving
• Caring
• Innocent
• Multi-tasking

The villain in our film will be represented as dominant, and stereotypicaly all of what a villain should be. He would be dressed In black so this would convey darkness and evil within the character. However the girl in our sequence will be represented as a timid naive girl who needs protecting, she will be wearing dark and ripped clothes, this will represent the girl is danger. 

Representations in general is an important aspect in our sequence as well as in any other movie, it makes up the whole of a movie and gives the audience an image of what a certain character could turn put to be like.  

Character clothing/costumes

Clothing can tell all about you, it is a way to express your style and your sense of fashion. Alot of people judge one another by the way they dress. This is simailar to the way an audience judges a certain character(s) in a movie deciding upon what they are dressed like. A certain character can reveal what their personality is like simply by the way they dress for example, they can reveal their identity and this also allows them to express themselves and mood with out saying anything such as, their intrests, their style of fashion and also the character they are playing, whether they are a villain or a victim or simply a psycho.The way a character looks on the exterior largely impacts the audiences view on the characters interior. Costumes are very important because you subconsciously choose the look that reflects and completes a certain charatcers personality. Because our sequence is a horror psychological thriller the costumes that our characters will be wearing are goin to be dark colours..
Certain colours represent certain tones and personalities, dark grey colours would typicaly represent:

• Shadowy
• Gloomy
• Mysterious
• Evil
• Murder

One of the characters in our sequence will have all these kind of representaions because of the clothing that it will be wearing.This shows that it will be a villain and not a victim. Our objective is to make the audience feel frightened and mysterious and wonder what may happen next.

Different colours represent different things and they give out different kinds of meanings. Colours such as: pink, yellow, blue, green, white etc. These type of colours represent:

• Femininity
• Love
• Appreciation
• Happiness
• Health
• Gratitude
• Purtiy
• Innocence
• Gratitude
• Friendship (etc)
  

Costumes and clothing are very important, they make up the whole movie and show a whole new complete identity of a character.

Genre

Genres are vague categories with no fixed boundaries, they are formed by sets of conventions, and many work across into multiple genres by a way of recombining these conventions. Our genre for our film is horror/psychological thriller which is going to contain a mix of fear and excitement. It has trails from the suspense genre and often from the action, adventure and mystery genres. But the level of terror makes it borderline horror fiction as well.
In a typical thriller/horror you will find:

• Characters such as - Murders, victims, psychos, sociopaths (etc)- these are the kind of sterotypical roles that are played in thriller movies.

A thriller genre can include the following sub-genres, which may include elements of other genres:

1. Action thriller
2. Crime thriller
3. Disaster thriller
4. Drama thriller
5. Horror thriller
6. Psychological thriller
7. Spy thriller
8. Supernatural thriller
9. Techno thriller
10. Science fistion thrilller

Most thrillers are formed in some combination of the above, with horror, conspiracy, and psychological tricks used most commonly to heighten tension.

How will we do something to keep it fresh?

We will together work productively to try and make our sequence unique. In order for us to make it unique and different to other films, we will add in our original touch by not revealing who the culprit is and we will keep it a sudden cliffhanger, we will make sure the audience are glued to their seats.

Characters- in a typical Psychological Thriller and Horror movie

Thriller and Suspense films are types of films known to promote intense excitement, suspense a high level of anticipation, anxiety and nerve-wracking tension. Thriller and suspense films virtually have similar characteristics and features this also includes the outcome of how characters are portrayed in each psychological thriller movie.
The tension usually arises when the main character(s) is placed in a menacing situation or mystery, or an escape or dangerous mission from which escape seems impossible. Life itself is threatened usually because the character is unknowingly involved in a dangerous or potentially deadly situation. Plots of thrillers involve characters which come into conflict with each other or strange outside forces. These forces are usually dark ad shadowy.

Characters in thrillers include:

• Convicts
• Criminals
• Stalkers
• Assassins
• Down-on-their-luck losers
• Innocent victims (often on the run)
• Prison inmates
• Menaced women
• Characters with dark pasts
• Psychotic individuals
• Terrorists
• Cops and escaped cons
• Fugitives
• Private eyes
• Drifters
• People involved in twisted relationships
• World-weary men and women
• Psycho-fiends

The themes of thrillers frequently include:

• Terrorism
• Political conspiracy
• Pursuit
• Romantic triangles leading to murder....
  

Suspense-thrillers come in all shapes and forms: There are murder mysteries, Private eye tales, Chase thrillers, Women-in-danger films, Courtroom and legal thrillers, Erotic thrillers, Surreal cult-film soap operas, Atmospheric, Plot-twisting psychodramas. Thrillers keep the emphasis away from the gangster, crime, or the detective in the crime-related plot, focusing more on the suspense and danger that is created.