Storyboard: a sequence of drawings, typically with some directions and dialogue, representing the shots planned for a film or television production.
This was done roughly for me to understand how I am going to capture the shots and what I want in my film.
All now left is the shooting of the film opening.
Like everything in this blog, we first have to know what a moodboard is.
Moodboard: an arrangement of images, materials, pieces of text, etc. intended to evoke or project a particular style or concept.
These pictures and texts represent the general idea of my film opening sequence and what I want the vibe and the aesthetic to be. I took these references from Pinterest and made a collage via the app Canva. This is what my film opening would look like if it were to be converted into a mood board.
This was for me to decide what I wanted my film opening to look like in a picture. This was an essential step because in order to make a movie or even a film opening, it was important to know how it would look in general and what vibes would it give.
Script writing is an integral part of a Film. First, I had to learn how to write an actual script. I refered to many YouTube videos and the one which helped me the most was
How to Write a Screenplay – scriptwriting for beginners by Word Dancer – How to write a screenplay
I used the website Celtx to write my final script.
I kind of had some difficulty to write the script since it did not had any dialogue, but this was the final script which I wrote.
The last and the final step to finish my pre-production now is storyboard.
Characters:
What is a character? In fiction, a character (sometimes known as a fictional character) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, television series, film, or video game). They also can be divided into protagonist and antagonist.
A protagonist is the main character of a story. The protagonist is at the center of the story, makes the key decisions, and experiences the consequences of those decisions. The protagonist is the primary agent propelling the story forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles.
An antagonist is a character in a story who is presented as the chief foe of the protagonists.
Character 1: Somal
My first character would be Somal, who is the only one who’s face would be shown. She is the perfect actor for the role as the character I wanted would be jolly and bubbly, and would not be looking in any distress. The hair and make-up also presents that she is in a normal get up and is relaxed.
Character 2:
I have not introduced any other character in my film opening, but the audience can see another person making food for Somal, and I want it to be mystery for the audience as to who they really are.
Props:
A prop, formally known as (theatrical) property, is an object used on stage or screen by actors during a performance or screen production. In practical terms, a prop is considered to be anything movable or portable on a stage or a set, distinct from the actors, scenery, costumes, and electrical equipment.
The main props for my film are the food: bread, jam, spread. Also, fake blood and knife were the main props I used for the film opening sequence.
The next posts are some of the last steps needed for the film opening.
To choose what genre and theme my film opening should be, I learned the main difference between a genre and a theme
Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language defines genre as “a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content.” Genre consists of four elements or parts: character, story, plot and setting.
The Basic Film Genres
A theme is the film’s central, unifying concept. A theme evokes a universal human experience and can be stated in one word or short phrase (for example, “love,” “death,” or “coming of age”). Webster’s Encyclopedic Unbridged Dictionary of the English Language defines theme as “a subject of discourse, discussion, meditation, or composition; topic” In other words, a theme is the idea, premise, or purpose of a movie. It is the whole reason why movies are made. The theme is the heart of the movie.
How To Find A Theme by D4Darious
After researching about the theme and the genre, the next step is decide What theme and genre my film opening is going to have:
Murder-Mystery: Mystery films mainly focus on solving a crime or a puzzle. The mystery generally revolves around a murder which must then be solved by policemen, private detectives, or amateur sleuths. … The central character usually explores the unsolved crime, unmasks the perpetrator, and puts an end to the effects of the villainy.
My main mode and theme would be murder mystery.
Drama: In film and television, drama is a category of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone.
Since I would not be doing the whole film, this genre would not be touched upon as the ones mentioned earlier.
The next posts will be about Pre-Production of my Film Opening.
The main reason for choosing these as my inspiration is because they generally are what I want in my film opening sequence to be like. I liked the aesthetic of some’s, the camera work of some’s, or the story of someone’s.
The first and the foremost is Knives Out, which resembles the most to my film opening sequence and what I want my film opening to be like. The editing and the suspense is what made me inspired and the way the story is told and how it unfolds is what intrigued me the most. The camera work also plays an important part in story telling, so I want to incorporate similar camera work. The story also hooks the audience till the end because it does not tells us who the killer is, but gives us clues which makes the audience a part of the film by making them guess the story. The suspense part is also why it is one of my inspiration.
“Knives Out has a power-packed flock of performers and the beautifully-cast protagonist, ensuring that this whodunit elevates from being a murder mystery to a thrill.” – Sonia Lulla
Mid-Day
Us is one of the movies which genuinely left me thinking about it days after watching because of how they changed the whole plot in the last minutes of the movie, which makes the whole movie just turn around, and because of that, the audience now has to re-think and re-watch the whole movie again in order to get what really happened. It is not only a horror movie like what it seems, no, this is mind-twisting, something which makes you think which is exactly why it is one of my inspiration. Also, the colour pallette and the scheme used in the movie is what I first considered what my film opening would be like, and the idea stuck into my mind till now.
“Jordan Peele knows how to draw a good story, no question. But when he colors it in, it’s always dripping red.” – Plugged In Staff
Plugged In
This movie starts almost normally, with a happy and stable family and as we move towards the end, the movie becomes horrifying and disturbing without any sudden jump. The plot thickens as the story goes on, and the incidents which lead to the climax gives the audience subtle hints and foreshadows the end, it makes you angry at yourself for not grasping the problem before. The genre thriller, suspense and horror, being my favourite, made me watch the movie, but what inspired me to make something similar was because how the movie was on my mind days after watching it. It affected the audience’s mindset, and I also wanted to make something similar, something which made the audience remember my work.
Other than the horrifying and sad ending, the aesthetic and dark tones used for the movie enhanced the mood and also inspired me to go with a dark theme, which is why this movie made it to my top 3 inspiration. The aesthetic and editing were the main reason why I chose this.
Before describing anything about the film’s story, or title, I would like to go in depth about it’s plot and what exactly it is.
In the most simplest words,The plot is the sequence of events where each affects the next one through the principle of cause-and-effect. The following video goes in depth about what a plot is.
What is Plot? | Story Elements Reading Lesson by Help Teaching
‘A murder has occurred and no one knows who did it’
Now back to our story,
Story is the chronological events that occur within the narrative. Plot is how these events are presented on screen. Of course, in literature, plot is the series of related events that occur within a story.
My story is going to resolve around a series of people but we will be introduced to only one, the one who has been murdered. The story would be about how while being under the same roof, someone came and killed and no one knew about it.
And for the Final Part, we now have to decide a title for our film opening.
Perfidy describes exactly what I feel when I think about my film opening,
PERFIDY:
perfidy/ˈpəːfɪdi/ – noun: the state of being deceitful and untrustworthy.
For whom do we make our media for? Sure, we can say the product is for us to enjoy and some people make their product for their own enjoyment. This is not the most cases, for the main reason many people make a product is for an audience to consume it.
Now, What is an Audience? the group of spectators at a public event; listeners or viewers collectively. They can be of any age group, gender, race or nationality.
I also thought that this video helped a little in understanding about audience
Defining the Audience | media studies | Quick Intro by Grant Abbitt
There are many types of audiences, and for this I studied theories about audiences. The first theory is
Researchers investigating the effect of media on audiences have considered the audience in two distinct ways. A passive audience is an audience that merely observes and event rather than actively responding it.
The earliest idea was that a mass audience is passive and inactive. The members of the audience are seen as couch potatoes just sitting there consuming media texts – particularly commercial television programmes.
It was thought that this did not require the active use of the brain. The audience accepts and believes all messages in any media text that they receive. This is the passive audience model.
This is defined by
The Hypodermic Needle Theory is a linear communication theory which suggests that media messages are injected directly into the brains of a passive audience. It suggests that we’re all the same and we all respond to media messages in the same way.
the hypodermic needle theory by Grant Abbitt
In 1957, an American theorist, Vane Packard, who was working in advertising, wrote an influential book called The Hidden Persuaders. This book suggested that advertisers were able to manipulate audiences and persuade them to buy things they may not want to buy. This suggested advertisers had power over audiences. In fact, this has since proved to be an unreliable model, as modern audiences are too sophisticated.
This theory stems from a fear of the mass-media, and gives the media much more power than it can ever have in a democracy. Also, it ignores the obvious fact that not everyone in an audience behaves in the same way.
Cultivation Theory:
According to the theory, people who watch television frequently are more likely to be influenced by the messages from the world of television. The influence goes to such an extent that their world view and perceptions start reflecting what they repeatedly see and hear on television. It states again and in favour of passive audience that the audience consue what they see.
Cultivation Theory: Media Theories by Mr. Sinn
Two Step Flow Theory
The two-step model says that most people are not directly influenced by mass media, and instead form their opinions based on opinion leaders who interpret media messages and put them into context. Opinion leaders are those initially exposed to a specific media content, and who interpret it based on their own opinion.
This newer model sees the audience not as couch potatoes, but as individuals who are active and interact with the communication process and use media texts for their own purposes. They are prosumers (producers and consumers). Active audience theory argues that media audiences do not just receive information passively but are actively involved, often unconsciously, in making sense of the message within their personal and social contexts.
We behave differently because we are different people from different backgrounds with many different attitudes, values, experiences and ideas.
Active audience consists of different theories too, one of them being
Uses and Gratifications Model
This model stems from the idea that audiences are a complex mixture of individuals who select media texts that best suits their needs. The users and gratifications model suggests that media audiences are active and make active decisions about what they consume in relation to their social and cultural setting and their needs.
This was summed up by theorists . This means that audiences choose to watch programmes that make them feel good (gratifications), e.g. dramas and sitcoms, or that give them information that they can use (uses), e.g. news or information about new products or the world about them.
‘Media usage can be explained in that it provides gratifications (meaning it satisfies needs) related to the satisfaction of social and psychological needs’. Blumler and Katz in 1974
This video sums up this theory well
Why do we watch TV? | Uses and Gratification theory explained by The Media Insider
Blumler and Katz (1975) identified four main uses:
Reception Analysis
Reception analysis is an active audience theory that looks at how audiences interact with a media text taking into account their ‘situated culture’.The theory suggests that social and daily experiences can affect the way an audience reads a media text and reacts to it.
Hall suggests that an audience has a significant role in the process of reading a text, and this can be discussed in three different ways:
To sum it all up, A passive audience accepts the message in the way the media outlet intended it while an active audience questions what they see and independently form their own opinions.
All of this research would difinitely help me consider what type of film opening I am going to create and what audience I am going to target. Which brings me to my last point.
What is Target Audience? A target audience is the intended audience or readership of a publication, advertisement, or other message.
I will go in more detail in my next post for target audience and what my target audience will be.
The final product for the Preliminary Task
For my preliminary task, The genre I am going to choose is going to be similar with my final product. Thriller, Mystery and Crime. These three are going to be playing a major part in both of film openings.
1-Thriller is a genre of fiction, having numerous, often overlapping sub-genres. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving viewers heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety. Successful examples of thrillers are the films of Alfred Hitchcock.
Thrillers generally keep the audience on the “edge of their seats” as the plot builds towards a climax. The cover-up of important information is a common element.Literary devices such as red herrings, plot twists, and cliffhangers are used extensively. A thriller is usually a villain-driven plot, whereby they present obstacles that the protagonist must overcome.
2- Mystery is a genre of fiction usually involving a mysterious death or a crime to be solved. Often with a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually provided with a credible motive and a reasonable opportunity for committing the crime. The central character will often be a detective who eventually solves the mystery by logical deduction from facts presented to the reader. Sometimes mystery books are nonfictional. “Mystery fiction” can be detective stories in which the emphasis is on the puzzle or suspense element and its logical solution such as a whodunit ( (a colloquial elision of “Who [has] done it?” or “Who did it?”).
3- Crime, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel: These terms all describe narratives that center on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a serious crime, generally a murder. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as historical fiction or science fiction, but the boundaries are indistinct. Crime fiction has multiple sub-genres including detective fiction (such as the whodunit), courtroom drama, and legal thrillers. Most crime drama focuses on crime investigation and does not feature the court room. Suspense and mystery are key elements that are nearly ubiquitous to the genre
These three are going to be the genres for both of my film openings.
The story starts from a family, already on a trip. The children of the family decides to explore and roam the place, being rebellious. They enter a zone which seems to be prohibited. The children while exploring, comes across a strange dump where the smell becomes strong and trying to find the source, they find a decaying body.
The story orbits around these children and how they try to solve the mystery while simultaneously getting themselves into an even bigger trouble.
The opening sequence would end on the dead body, and the opening sequence would introduce our main characters and our conflict.
The next step on the preliminary task was to make a storyboard. A storyboard is a graphic representation of how your video will unfold, shot by shot. It’s made up of a number of squares with illustrations or pictures representing each shot, with notes about what’s going on in the scene and what’s being said in the script during that shot.
This was the storyboard and now we can move forward to other tasks and then eventually, the production and post-production stages.
We shot the entire sequence in a secluded area near Murree, with the cast which consisted of 4 people total.
The shooting process took a while but since we did not needed any kind of prop, the over all process wrapped up quickly. It took us almost an hour to complete.
The editing process also did not took much time, since most of it was basic editing. The clips are edited similarly, with the exposure, the light and the saturation being on low, and the shadows and contrast on high. The white balance is also on the cooler side. All of the editing is done on Premiere Pro.
And all of this concludes the production process. The only remaining task is the final product.
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