Sound

Frankie and I will be using tracks and sound bites from the film ‘Shifty’, as we have copyright permission to use this soundtrack.

Shifty is a social-realist drama/thriller, meaning that the style of the music fits perfectly with our opening.

Track one: 'Shifty'.
This song will play at the beginning of the opening as we see the protagonist outside in the street and will continue to play as she walks home. We like this track as it slowly sets up the scene.

Track two: soundbite.

This soundbite will play in the golden hour flashback. We like this track as it is calm and can be interpreted as nostalgic but not sentimental.

Track three: 'Tough Call'.

This song will play near the end of the opening, when the protagonist gets out her phone when she feels compelled to call the man from the flashback. We like this track as it is subtle; the audience will not be distracted from what is going on within the scene in order to concentrate on the music. However, this track builds tension and sounds very ominous and disconcerting, which is the mood we want to achieve. 

Locations

M.H.

1. We are planning to film the beginning of the opening on Camberwell Road by a junction, as this crossing will have the most street lamps and traffic which will give us the effect of a busy, all-purpose road. There is also a housing estate which we can include in the shot, building on the social realist concept.

• Potential opening spot - busy junction therefore lots of traffic, giving almost the feeling of a motorway

• A clip of film showing another potential spot - this one seems more appropriate as there is a bus stop which the protagonist will be able to sit. The shot will also be set up more nicely and symmetrically as the cars/traffic are driving past square on to the camera.

2. The second location is the road leading down to Jonah’s house. It is a small, intimate street which the protagonist would be able to walk down the centre of.

3. The third location is the cafe, which is seen in the first flashback.

• The first shot of the cafe will be the sign at night (as pictured.) This will then be matched with a daylight shot of the same image to begin the flashback.

4. The fourth location is Jonah’s house; the hallway and the kitchen will be seen.

• The close up shot of the lock (and key) after the cafe flashback

•  The grand mirror in the hallway which will be used for some shots to create confusion and a sense of enigma

•  Potential long shot of the whole hallway including the door

•  Potential shot with the banister - could provide interesting/unusual framing

• Another potential long shot - interesting curved architecture 

• Shot of the kitchen which is the POV of the protagonist as she walks in

• Quirky detailing if there is a pan / tracking / wide shot of the kitchen

•  The view  of the kitchen if a shot-reverse-shot is used

•  A shot of the knife rack in focal point of shot which triggers second flashback.

Style and Tone

Our film is going to be a social-realist style. Therefore, our atmosphere that we are attempting to create is one of harsh, gritty reality; there will be no glamorisation or dramatising of the issues that are being addressed in the film - i.e. dealing with the consequences of violence and loss.

We will do this by using a combination of diegetic and non-diegetic sound; some points will have a subtle soundtrack but there will be parts with the absence of a soundtrack with purely heightened diegetic sound in order for the reality to be brought to the forefront and focused on. This will build the intimacy and personal relationship between the audience and the characters.

We have been influenced by Fish Tank, a social realist film which follows the life of a teen girl. It bares to the audience the true relationships she has with her family, herself and the new people she meets in her life; nothing is glamourised, and this heightens the harsh verisimilitude. Frankie and I hope to achieve this tone with a combination of mis-en-scene to define the characters and their backgrounds, and a mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic sound to create both tension and a more intimate, empathetic relationship with the characters.

For example, we have taken inspiration from the way Mia has been filmed walking through streets; even though there is no dialogue, we are able to see her emotions through her body language and stride. This is important as social realism relies on techniques such as emotion and camerawork rather than CGI and expensive sets/locations. 

The scenes shot in the street will be very dark as we will rely on the light from cars, shops and street lamps, giving the scene a dark orange tinge.

       Shutter island has influenced our opening as we are going to include a flashback. The lighting is similar, as the present is dark and bleak, whereas the flashback will be set in the light with the sun throwing golden light over the ethereal scene. 

We also used the golden-hour scene from The Virgin Suicides as inspiration for our flashback.

Our original interest in strong colour semiotics will be included in the second flashback, inspired from We Need To Talk About Kevin. The colour red will also be hinted at in the house, as the walls of the kitchen will, too, be red. This will give the flashback a stylised tone, connoting blood, danger and death. 

Film Pitch and Narrative

Change of ideas after collaboration:

I have changed my ideas for my narrative since collaborating ideas with Frankie - the film is still going to be an urban crime thriller revolving around a murder investigation, but we decided it would be set in the present day as we felt this would be much more appropriate for the social realist aspect. Furthermore, we decided to not show a dead body in the opening and instead only hint at the murder which will leave the audience guessing but will also make film more creepy as less tends to be more. However, Frankie and I both had similar ideas to do with amnesia and memory loss, so the concept of the protagonist not being able to remember how she is involved in the murder is still the central plot line. We also chose to portray the male as a close friend / possible lover as this way the audience are able to form and invest a stronger relationship with him.

However, we both had strong ideas with colour and lighting - we wanted a scene in the golden hour (which we will use in the cafe flashback), and a scene with block colour (deep red will be used as a semiotic of danger and violence in the murder flashback).

Change of ideas after audience research:

1. As very few people liked the idea of having a romance within a thriller we decided to make it uncertain as to whether she is in a relationship with the man in the flashback or not.
2. In the survey, people seemed very interested in suspense, so we decided to end the opening with the sound of an answer machine and a sound bridge as a cliffhanger.
3. In our second flashback we want to make it very ambiguous and not have to rely on gore to make it dramatic, which was an aspect highlighted in our Vox Pops.

Final narrative: 

The opening wide shot will be from the side of a busy road at night - cars and traffic will be driving past, and the protagonist is seen on the other side of the road. The light will come from car head/tail lights, from buildings and lampposts. There will be a sound bridge in our ident into the opening shot of the heightened sound of the cars driving. There will be no non-diegetic sound in order to establish the social-realist genre.

We then follow her down the road to a house (it is unclear whether it is hers or her parents.) Her walking will be filmed from different angles and edited to be fast paced. There will be soundtrack in the scene here.

There is a cafe outside her house which triggers the first flashback of the golden hour with a man (it is ambiguous as to whether he is a close friend or a lover). There will be no diegetic sound here, only soundtrack. 

We are then brought back to the present with the protagonist entering the house - she walks in to the kitchen and brings out her phone to ring the man from the flashback (we will show this by the protagonist looking through her contact names and pausing at the man's). The diegetic sound will be heightened (e.g. keys jangling, the door opening/shutting, footsteps). As she brings out her phone, a new soundtrack begins, bringing an ominous sense of foreboding.

As the phone is ringing, her eyes notice one of the knives glinting on the rack, triggering the second flashback - the red, violent snapshot of potentially a murder but is kept too short and ambiguous to tell for sure.

The scene ends with the phone going to voicemail and a sound bridge of the answer machine beep onto the title frame of our film.

Certification

After researching the classification for both 12 and 15 rating films, I have decided that my film opening will be a 15. This is because there is depiction of an easily accessible weapon (a knife/blade) in the opening, and this will be shown in further length and detail throughout the film. Even though there will be no bad language in the opening, as the film unfolds and the tension begins to heighten it is very likely that strong language will be used to intensify emotions. Threat and violence are central themes of my film as it revolves around a crime - even in the opening, a suggestion of bloody violence is briefly seen.

Audience Research - voxpops

F.L. 

Frankie and I used structured interviews to obtain more qualitative, detailed responses from our target market. These voxpops have given us a more comprehensive insight in to what our audience is enticed by and interested in.

Audience Research - surveymonkey

M.H.

Film Questionaire 

Frankie and I sent out an online survey to our target market (15 - 25 year olds) in order to find out what aspects of film interests young, contemporary audiences.

Qu.3. What are your three favourite films, and why?

Qu.4. What is your least favourite film, and why?

Qu.6. What makes a good thriller film?

 

Preliminary Task

My Preliminary Task includes:

• a match on action shot
• the 180 degree rule
• a shot/reverse shot

Film Opening Idea

Pitch: Think Reservoir Dogs meets Fargo, with the social realist aspect of Fish Tank. An urban, 70s style crime thriller with an edge of satire.

Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino)

Fargo (Ethan and Joel Coen)

Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold)

Audience: Certificate 15. The film will be aimed at 15 - 25 year olds.

Plot: A small scale murder investigation.

A young girl (17/18 years old) will come across a dead body and go to the authorities. (It is someone she knew, but not particularly close to.) It then becomes apparent that she has been involved in the murder and becomes a suspect, but she has no idea or recollection of why she is. The plot becomes the story of her and her own personal investigation of piecing together the murder, with the sub-plot of the two investigators officially solving the case.   

Style / tone: A combination of contemporary quirk and social realism.

The visuals will be stylised and full of semiotics (e.g. deep red = murder and blood, green = suspicion and threat, blue = sadness and peacefulness). These colours will be obvious, and the shots will be close framed in order to add significance to everything the eye sees. I would like to use both the 'golden hour' light when the sun is low in the sky, and the night sky with light from street lights would be atmospheric and appropriate.

An example of close framed shots with colour semiotics. (We Need To Talk About Kevin, Lynne Ramsay)

Characters:

1. The young woman / girl. 17/18 years old. Quite hardy/tough looking.
2. Investigator one: Young - 18 or 19 years old. Perhaps an apprentice to the elder.
3. Investigator two: Older - 40s. Experienced.

Costume: Ideally I want the film to look as if it is set in the 70s; outfits including leather jackets, high waisted trousers, denim, flares, stripes, shirts, sneakers, doc martens etc would be suitable.

The Runaways (Floria Sigismondi)

Graphics: The credits will appear at the bottom of the screen but will not take the viewer's attention away from the visuals. The film title will appear in large bold writing, overlaid on to the film footage, flashing on screen in time with the soundtrack in an intense, fast paced part of the sequence.

Kill Your Darlings (John Krokidas)

Sound: At the start there will be either no soundtrack or a soundtrack which is background noise compared to the enhanced diegetic sound (e.g. cars driving, trains rolling, footsteps, breathing etc.) This enhanced sound will help the audience pay attention to detail. However, when the sequence becomes fast paced (perhaps during a chase), the soundtrack will replace all diegetic sound - this music will sound similar to 70's style rock. (This will help the element of satire but also bring more excitement into the scene).

Deconstructing a Film Opening

DECONSTRUCTING HANNA (shot by shot)

Shot:

1. Misty, grey, snowy, empty landscape. Panning.
2. Fade into second shot of snowy landscape, icy water with trees on horizon. Vignette edged, blurred.
3. Cut to medium wide shot of running water, snow. Swan is seen. Diegetic sounds of water running, no music/soundtrack.
4. Birds-eye view of an icy lake.
5. Shot of a baby arctic fox.
6. Cut to woody area. Panning across. Figure is seen in heavy furs holding a bow and arrow, poised. Camera pans across in front of tree - the figure has then vanished.
7. Panning across another place within woody area. Moose is seen walking.
8. Panning across opposite side again, figure is stood behind two thin trees.
9. Pans across on moose.
10. Close up panning on Hanna’s hiding place and her striking blue eye between the trunks.
11. Quick cut to her pull back her bow and arrow
12. Close up of the arrow firing. Can hear the arrow fly through the air.
13. Fleeting glimpse of moose’s eyes.
14. Close up of arrow impaling the moose’s body.
15. Quick, dramatic cut to moose’s startled eyes. It howls in pain.
16. Quick cut to moose running. Can hear its feet in the snow.
17. Cut to Hanna chasing after. Can hear her heavy breathing and feet in the snow.
18. Cut back to moose.
19. Shaky POV shot (of moose) - blurred trees. Vignette around edge.
20. Cut back to Hanna.
21. Wide shot of moose running into flat, snowy expanse of landscape.
22. Cut back to Hanna continuing to pursue it.
23. Medium close up shows the moose now walking.
24. Wide shot of moose struggling to continue. Noises of pain are heard.
25. Cut back to Hanna, still running.
26. Close up of moose’s head collapsing - is apparent its body has already fallen to the ground. Exhale of breathe is heard.
27. Extreme close up of rolled, bloodshot eye. Hanna can be seen in the reflection of the eyeball. Moose’s struggling breaths are heard.
28. Cut to close up of Hanna removing the arrow from the body. Another noise of pain.
29. Camera from below shows Hanna standing up above the moose, blocking out the sun. She looks down on us.
30. Medium close up. She pulls down the fabric covering her mouth. ‘I just missed your heart’, she says. Noises of pain can still be heard. She reveals a gun from below the shot. Points it straight at the camera - gun comes into focus. She shoots it - the shot is heard.
31. Cuts to ‘HANNA’ - white writing on bright red background.

What can we establish from a two-minute opening? 

• We are able to be introduced to the main characters - we are given an idea of their current situation and their motives. 
• The audience is able to start guessing and anticipating what is going to happen throughout the film from the information we are given; their may be foreshadowing, symbolism, flashbacks or a set up to give the audience ideas.
• A backstory may even be introduced - this gives further context and richness to the opening; drawing the audience in.
• A question/questions are posed to the audience to keep them guessing and building tension.
• We are clearly shown the style and tone of the film through the use of sound (absence/presence of soundtrack and the tone of this music), the chosen colour palette, the location and the speed of editing (fast paced/slow paced). 

Vertigo - Film Opening Analysis

• Sound bridge - suspenseful, dramatic deep string music is heard before we see the image. This already sets up the theme of a chase.
• A bar then comes into shot and a pair of hands grip it - suggesting a struggle, a getaway. Already building tension.
• Zooms out to man climbing rungs of ladder onto a roof, running - confirms chase scene. The roof connotes danger due to the heights involved.
• A policeman follows, telling the audience there has been a run-in with the law.
• A detective, our protagonist, follows. The clothes these men are wearing instantly informs the audience of who they are; we know what the relationships are between them without having to be told.
• Long shot of the rooftops and the night sky, showing the three figures running after another. The night setting adds to the presence of danger and threat; shadows, darkness etc.
• Gun shots are heard, building more tension and evoking fear.
• Wide shot of a slanted roof on the LHS with the criminal and the policeman jumping onto it, into the frame from the RHS - they struggle a little to climb up it. This grips the audience to the edge of their seats, evoking excitement and anxiety as the threat of death is tangible.
• The protagonist, Ferguson, struggles even more so. The camera cuts to a close shot of him falling down the roof and gripping onto the drainpipe. This heightens the emotions already felt by the audience, evoking stronger feelings of terror.
• Ferguson looks down and sees the street below him - POV shot - the famous ‘vertigo effect’ shot is used, by using a dolly zoom. Heightens tension and threat.
• Close up of his facial expression shows horror, fear and perhaps even defeat.
• The policeman comes back for him, tries to help him up - we begin to have hope that it will turn out ok. We are wrong; the policeman falls to his death - this evokes surprise and shock, and confirms that it is possible for the same to happen to Ferguson.
• Eyeline match from Ferguson to the ground shows him splayed on the pavement, again re-emphasising the height from which he may fall, and how he will end up if he does.
• Another close up of his face; terror, alarm, fright.
• Hitchcock uses the slow build of suspense and tension to evoke fear instead of fast paced action, as he did not have a lot of technology available to him. We can already see this in this opening, as half of the scene revolves around Ferguson gripping the drainpipe and the drop to the ground.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

We Need To Talk About Kevin - Film Opening Analysis

• Opening shot is a fade into a dark room with chiffon white curtains blowing in a breeze from outside. This is foreshadowing as it appears later, with significance, in the film. The white of the curtains suggests innocence but this is ironic as we know that the film is revolved around Kevin who is the opposite of this.
• Slow zoom in. Non-diegetic sound of some sort of timer ticking, sounding as if it’s about to go off- symbolises time running out/tension being built until breaking point.
• Non-diegetic sound of people shouting out, but sounds far away. This suggests that it is a memory from the distant past. The ticking speeds up and becomes faster and faster, building to a climax.
• The light from outside the curtains blooms and the scene dissolves into an overhead shot of a packed crowd. The shouting and cheering of people becomes louder.
• The camera zooms into the crowd from above. As it gets closer, we can see that people are covered in tomatoes - the first semiotic, using the colour red, is displayed.
• The red connotes blood which foreshadows Kevin’s shooting.
• The liquified tomatoes are thrown everywhere - blood bath.
• Khatchadourian, our protagonist, is lifted above the crowds, above the fray - she appears happy and euphoric. The audience feels sympathy and nostalgia for her as we know these emotions are a thing of the past.
• The slow motion emphasises the serenity that she feels. She is lifted to form a cross, much like Jesus looked when he was crucified - perhaps representing sacrifice, martyrdom.
• She is then slowly dropped to the ground, into the sea of red tomatoes, people covering her in the substance. Close up on the intense red which looks disconcertingly similar to blood. This makes the audience feel uneasy and builds suspense, and the semiotics are building themes and foreshadowing of gore and death.
• Cuts back to the present - camera out of focus. Suggesting the tired, hazy vision from which Khatchadourian views her desolate world. Again, red is the most prominent colour.
• Camera comes into focus and pans, close up, across objects; red apple, red candle, ketchup. Warm light falls through the red stained windows, casting everything in a red glow.
• Pans up to show Khatchadourian asleep on the sofa - sad, skeletal. Wakes with regret - we instantly realise that she is depressed. The audience asks questions; why is she alone? Why does she feel this way?
• An eyeline match to a blurred shot of the window (again, the out-of-focus conveys her clouded vision of the world which now seems so distant to her.)
• Stands with difficulty - close up of her pained face - this builds intimacy and forms a sympathetic relationship with the protagonist.
• Knocks foot against table leg, pills fall to the floor - more connotations to depression. This draws the audience in further - how did she get into such a bad state?
• Attempts to open door, door handle breaks - symbolises her life which seems to be falling apart, her lack of care and upkeep of both her mental state and appearances.
• Bright, sunny light of street contrasts with the inside of the house which seems almost womb-like; provoking themes of maternity and comfort.
• Khatchadourian looks at her tiny white house which has been covered in bright red paint - again symbolising and foreshadowing blood. There is a clear visual link to the tomatoes which the audience instantly refers back to.
• She slowly returns inside, as if in defeat.