Filming and Location

In our location, Admirals Park, this tree stood out to use because it was the largest in the area where we started looking and it had the most leaves on it, making it look more effective as it was blown by a mild wind.





This is the children's playground in Admirals Park which we thought looked good from the bridge, for this reason we took a shout of it similar to where we have taken a picture of it. The river at the bottom of the image had a strong current to it which we took a low shot of as we thought it would be quite interesting to have a title following the current.





This is a shot of some trees without any leaves on it so you can see the sun beaming through them creating a nice camera effect. We also decided to take a still shot of this.




This is sort of an overflowing pond, which has started covering the grass which created a very nice effect in the sun making a mirror image of the surroundings. We took a worms eye shot of the pond, focusing on the grass, but being able to see the birds splashing about in the background.





This is a picture of me and Max trying to get a good shot of the camera panning along a spinning round about. This shot might be a bit random but it does add some nice imagery to the opening sequence.

Music Research

This is a selection of the types music choices from similar opening sequences that we can consider using in our opening:

Forest Gump:

Forest Gump uses quite slow, peaceful,composed piece of music which is similar to to a lullaby. I think that Forest Gump used this type of music because of the floating feather going throughout most of the scene, because the feather looks quite peaceful and it floats down very slowly. I think this kind of music could work in our opening sequence because the beginning of our sequence will be panning around a park which could suit the track in Forest Gump. Although the only problem I have with it is if we use this track, it will give the impression that our film is a twee, feel-good movie when its actually a dark comedy.

Shallow Grave: 

Shallow Grave uses very upbeat club music that is also composed by the film. I think Shallow Grave used this music because the camera work is very fast and hectic so they needed a track that would suit it, it would have looked weird if they used a slow track with fast filming. I'm not sure a track like this would work in our opening sequence as we haven't planned our filming to be very fast at all so it might not work with really upbeat music. Although if we do decide to use it with some fast images, it could excite the audience and get their adrenaline going which would be a success. 

 

The Double: 

The Double uses no music at all. I think this is quite effective because you can hear the train noise and other surrounding sound which makes the audience feel like they're in the atmosphere of the movie. This way they can connect to the film and get hooked into the scene even when nothing much is really happening. I think no music could work it our opening sequence because we can get the surround sound of the park which is mainly rustling tree's into the scene; also our opening sequence is very similar to The Double because the main character also starts sitting down. Although I think no music would only suit to a certain type of audience. Thrill seekers may find no track quite boring, although we weren't planning on thrill seekers being our target audience.

Shooting Schedule

This is our group shooting schedule. It may have to be extended due to weather problems and availability as it is going to be quite tough to get a day of school.

Risk Assessment

 This list contains all of the possible things that can go wrong during our shooting of Parallel. Although the possible threats are not too serious, it is important to take them down because of the possibility of any of these things happening.

 

Synopsis

What we will need:

• A bench in Admirals Park
• Bus stop. (Preferably not in use by other people) 
• Trees in the park
• Pavement beneath the bench
• Suit 
• Smart shoes and bag/briefcase
• Medicine bottle and new label 
• Tic Tacs  
• Coke and Diet Coke 

Characters:

Max will play both schizophrenic men on the bench as it will appear like 2 of the same person are talking to eachother. Olivia will play an unfortunate woman who happens to engage eye contact with Zabel/ Zac (Max) on the bench in Admirals Park.

Costume:

We decided to put Max into a suit because we want to make our main character look like an adult and not a teenage boy. We think this will add more humor to the opening sequence. We have already taken into consideration the 2 characters costumes. Zac will look quite smart with a clean suit, worn properly and nicely done hair. Zabels suit will be quite messy, along with his hair to try and make the costumes portray their personalities.

 

Location: 

The location of our opening sequence will be at Admirals Park. We will use the bus stop opposite the park on Rainsford Road, We will try and get as much filming done on one day because of the weather, but if there needs to be more time then we will have to do our best with what we have. 

Audience: 

Our audience is mainly people between the ages of 18 and 60 as our film is quite sophisticated. We thought that people younger than 18 years old may not get the gist of our film because it could be quite confusing. Although we don't think it is a good idea to label our film a 18 because that will restrict the number of sales we can make. For this reason or age rating for our film is a 15.

Mis en Scene Ideas

MISE EN SCENE:

- Settings, costume/props, hair and make-up
- Facial expressions and body language
- Colour and lighting
- Character positioning

Setting, costume/props, hair and make-up

Due to the fact our film is outdoors it makes finding a location much easier. We were thinking of many different parks because they are likely to have a bench which is what we were planning on doing part of our filming on. We settled on Admirals park because it is a very large and scenic area which is also quite near to a bus stop which makes it convenient for us to film because we need a bus stop in part of our filming.
Because we only have one character, we only need one costume which is quite simple to get. We decided that our main character (Zac) will be wearing a smart suit to try and make him look like an average working man and it says his personalty is to be quite ordinary. On the other hand, our second personality (Zabel) will be wearing the same suit but it will worn wrong and made to look very messy to show that his personality is quite odd.

 Facial expressions and body language

Facial expressions and body language will be key to getting the personality of our characters across to the audience. Zac (our main character is supposed to come across as frustrated and embarrassed through our opening sequence, so the kind of expressions we wil use will be quite angry, whilst showing that Zac has low self esteem. Also Zacs body language will be quite muted, with not much movement, making it seem like he's not able to open himself up. Zabel (Zacs second personality) is supposed to come across as the complete opposite of Zac, so this means he will be much more confident, much more explosive and a bit crazy. To make this happen, we will try and make Zabels facial expressions appear like he is quite crazy and odd. Zabels body language will be more expressionate and out-going because it makes Zabel seem more confident in himself.

 Colour and lighting

Lighting is not easy because it all depends on the weather we have on the day of filming which obviously will change from one day to the next which means it is key to do as much filming as possible on one day, so the lighting stays the same. This also helps the lighting look more realistic because one day could be really damp and the next could be bright sunlight.

Character Positioning

Zac is the main charcater of the sequence so he will more often the not be the centre of the screen with Zabel and any other extras based around him. This is to make sure Zac is the centre of attention and draws the audience into his character.

Script

This is our script for our opening sequence. With our script we looked at how other scripts were layed out and presented and tried to emulate it as closely as possible. When we start filming we are more then likely to adjust the script because we will be working out what looks/sounds good throughout our filming.  

Audience Research

This slideshow explains the audience that we are aiming to advertise our film to.

 

Shot List

In our opening film sequence we think it is important to use a lot of interesting camera shot to make our film more interesting for the audience and technically, make it a better piece of filming to get our opening sequence more marks. These are some of the shot that we are thinking of including in our opening sequence.

1. High panning shot of tree's in Admirals Park 
2. Wormseye shot of river 
3. Extreme long shot of the park 
4. Close up of a roundabout spinning on its own
5. Close up, wormseye shot of the man's leg
6. Pan upwards to reveal the man sitting on the bench 
7. Mid-shot that tilts upwards to reveal both personalities sitting on the bench 
8. Close up of mans mouth 
9. Long-shot of both men sitting on the bench 
10. 180 degree shot during conversation 
11. A variety of tracking shots including close ups and long shots whilst the man is walking to the bus stop. 
12. Long shot from across the street.
 These pictures show our group thinking of ideas that can go into our shot list.
 

Moodboard of Similar Films

This mood board helped our group alter the themes and genre of our film which I think is vital in order to make our opening sequence as good as possible.

 

Title Fonts

For our titles fonts we looked at a bunch of films that we thought were similar to ours, this helped us get a good idea of what kind of fonts, colours and sizes we can use in our opening sequence.
...



Jacobs Ladder



The title of 'Jacobs Ladder' is large and bold, along with the producers name and the actors names which are all in capitals and are also quite bold. The main title glows slightly blue, with a shadowed, ghostly text effect behind it. This gives the title an eerie, mysterious theme to it. The title is also positioned at the top of the film cover, which makes it the main focus of attention on the cover for the audience, giving the audience an indication that this title is very important to the rest of the film. I think this film could be a title we can consider for our titles because our film is quite eerie and mysterious as it is based on a mental disease, so the whole ghostly effect on the titles could work very well.







Black Swan


The title of 'Black Swan' is placed at the bottom of the film over. The font is black, quite bold and also capitalised. The actors names are all placed above the film title with their first names in lower case and their last names in bold, maybe because they feel  the actors last names are more recognisable to the audience. The bold, black writing place on the white paper creates and large contrast between the letters and the background, making the titles stand out even more. Also the titles look a lot like ink from a quill on paper which could give the impression that the film is based on an old fashioned story, which it is. I like the effect with the ink of paper theme, creating a contrast from the titles and the background, but as our film is quite modern and the titles will be appearing on the footage, not on a screen by themselves, I don't think these titles would work in our film.







Memento


Memento uses a number of polaroid images, with the same picture in each one. The title is quite messy, as if a child had written it which makes the title sequence looks rather disturbing, because it gives the audience a pointer that the film isn't a feel good movie, but a confusing one. The second Polarised image contains a quote "some memories are best forgotten". This quote will draw the audience into the film because it makes them wonder what this memory could be so therefore they watch the rest of the movie in order to find out. The titles aren't very bold at all, but they contrast with the dark background. Also at the end of the sequence, it shows the reverse of a murder scene which lives the audience confused and wondering what is going on. I think the mysterious feel to the titles and the images around it create a interesting vibe to the title sequence, but I'm not sure these titles would work in our film because they are a but too sinister when our movies supposed to be a black comedy.







The Butterfly Effect


Once again the contrast of the colours white and black pop up in our similar movies as The Butterfly Effect also has a black and white colour scheme. The letters aren't very bold but they are all capitalised. There are butterflies fluttering around the titles and then disappearing in a blur which again creates a mysterious vibe in the title sequence. Apart from the butterflies and the contrasting black and white colours there isn't much more to say about this title sequence, compared to all of the others this one isn't very interesting so I don't think it is the best idea to use in our title sequence.



Mr Brooks



Again, 'Mr Brooks' also uses a black and white contrast in colours between the back ground and the titles. The letters are once again capitalised to make them stand out more. The main title is place din the same sort of position as the 'Black Swan' title. The image of the man showing his two personalities by taking park of his face away so you can see what is really underneath. This is a good way to show that this man is not all what he seems from the outside, which would work in our movie as well because our film is based on a split personality. The actors names are positioned above the main titles with their first names in lower case and their last names in bold which is also used in Black Swan.



Primal Fear



The letters on the titles are quite spread out which means the audience will have to put the title together in their heads which could either grab the audiences attention or they would take no notice of it. For this reason I'm not sure this would be a good idea in our film opening as we could lose the audience because they might not be bothered to read the title. and once again the titles have white writing against a dark background, creating a noticeable contrast.


Conclusion


Overall I think we cant ignore the contrasts between the colours black and white that these films used because it was a common recurrence through all of the films. This suggested that these colours grab the audiences attention, making the titles stand out. In my opinion the title sequence that would work best in our film is the Jacobs Ladder sequence because of the eerie feel it has to it. 

Feedback from FIlm Pitch

A large majority of the comments we received were positive, for example:











A large number of people liked our editing ideas which we thought would be the case because it is a really advanced piece of editing which would look really good once it is pulled off. lots of people also said that we were united in our ideas about the film which is positive because if everyone is on board, we should get one much better as a group. Some however said that the genre was a bit confusing which doesn't surprise us as it is quite a confusing concept but we will work hard in order to make sure we make the film look as clear as possible. From presenting our idea to the class we learnt a lot that people didn't comment on, for example, that we needed to take into consideration the target audience more and be more specific, not just saying 'adults' so this is something we discussed and sorted out, giving a more obvious age range as a base to our target audience. We also came to the conclusion that we needed to cut out some of the scenes we wanted to film as it could make us rush and therefore not produce a high-quality opening sequence. We decided to focus on just two locations instead of three, reducing the dialogue and focusing more on the effects and titles.

Film Pitch Re-do

 

Film Pitch

 

Parrelel filming Timline

Timeline

This is the timeline for our film Parallel. It includes where the titles are going to come in and the types of shots we are going to use on each stage.