Transitions Experimenting - From Logo

I wanted to include a transition effect from the institution logo to the main body of the film intro in order to bring the audience into it instead of it just playing. I therefore looked carefully at the different transitions that I could use on Adobe Premiere Elements and the ones that I thought would suit the fantasy/story book style would be a ‘page turning’ transition. This was one of the transitions that I looked at:

I am going to use a similar transition to this in my opening but it will be from the opposite corner (in order to make it look like an actual book page was turned). This will hopefully link to the fact that it is based on The Brothers Grimm tales.

Logo Background Designs - Photoshop

These were the three names that I have thought about for my institution name:

-        Enigma Studios (Enigma means Mystery)

-        Paradox Productions (Paradox means Puzzle/Contradiction)

-        Obscurity Productions (Obscurity means Vagueness)

I have decided to go with the Enigma Studios name because mystery is the atmosphere that I want to achieve. These are the ideas that I have created on PhotoShop for the background of the instiution name:

The second background is the one I am going to use in my institution logo because I like the arrow effect going down into the centre of the image.

Teacher's Feedback on Draft

When looking back at my first draft for my film opening and comparing it to the mark scheme and the past film openings, I personally think that it is at a Level 2/Low level 3.

My teacher’s feedback for my draft was as follows:

Research and Planning: Level 4
Practical Draft: Low Level 3 (Just)

-        Add all titles – logo etc.

-        Shots work well. Exterior is kept to a minimum – child dialogue is quite good. Shot prior to boy entering house is way too long.

-        Interiors are good. Some aspects of the dark can work – especially when a fright (the masked figure) appears out of it.

-        Sound needs work – sense of doom needs to build – tension needs to increase throughout.

These changes I am already working on and I plan to try to include more transitions in order to make that aspect more creative. I also need to focus on an institution logo and how I can incorporate that into my opening.

Cinematography Research – Shadows

One of the techniques that I particularly want to achieve in my film opening is the use of the characters’ shadows in order to let the audience’s imagination tell them what is happening instead of actually having a visual of the situation. This effect will also be enhanced by the sound effects used and so I will need to think carefully about the music/sound aspect of the scene as well.

As research, I looked at the beginning of the film Van Helsing (2004) and when the vampire kills Dr. Frankenstein, their shadow is shown instead of themselves:

This adds drama to the scene and so I hope to use this technique when the witch kills the male persona ‘Dan’.

Feedback - Script/Call Sheet

Mr Ford and myself have discussed the script and some of the aspects I have thought over in order for the audience to understand as much of the opening as they can. This is my improved script and I am going to use it when filming on Saturday:

This is also a call sheet that I have produced (using the Star Wars Call Sheet as a guide). It just includes all of the necessary requirements that I will need on set and I can use it as a checklist when gathering what I need:

Developed Ideas/Script Development

After looking at the Supernatural Episode, I have written a draft of the script. I have changed my initial idea because I have decided to have the two main personas do a voice-over at the very beginning (so that you don’t see them until the bungalow is shown). This will hopefully create the feeling that they are lost because the audience will be expecting something negative to happen.

Special FX Research

I just thought that it would be a good idea to research into the possible special effects that I could use in my film opening in order for it to suit the conventions of a horror film. However, after looking at the YouTube clip above, I decided that that was not the direction that I wanted my film opening to go. Although, I will be using fake blood in my opening which can be created by gradually heating up some golden syrup and adding a lot of red food-colouring in order to make it a crimson coloured liquid.

This was my first attempt at using the fake blood and pouring it over the title to spell out the words:

As this was only a first attempt and was fairly bad if I’m honest because of the lighting and you can actually see the spoon that I used to pour over the fake blood. I will do another test of this in order to make sure whether the idea will work or not and I will ensure that the lighting is just right in order for the audience to clearly see the film’s title.

Intertextuality Research

I wanted to use intertextuality in my film introduction so that the audience were clear that my film will be based on The Brothers Grimm tales. Before deciding on which stories I would link to, I firstly picked out some of the well-known tales and mind-mapped the keywords associated with each folktale:

After mind-mapping the tales, I now have decided that I want to include intertextuality linking to Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood as well as the overall narrative based on Hansel and Gretel.

Pitch Feedback/Development of Ideas

Originally, my idea was to have two teenagers being the ‘Hansel and Gretel’ personas. However, the feedback that I received has made me think about changing this aspect and aiming the plotline onto two younger siblings. This idea will hopefully make my film opening more successful because the horror genre is more effective when children are involved; because of the psychological aspect of the thought of children being hurt. My film introduction will not have any violence directly to children, but will include several shots ‘hinting’ to the audience that the male persona has been killed. I think that this might be more effective than actually being shown the male’s killing because the audience will have to use their imaginations to gain an image of this event.
   From the feedback, I need to consider the aspect above and also how I will achieve this ‘hinting’ technique to the audience. The comments overall were positive and I will take their opinions into consideration when planning/storyboarding the opening scene.