Opening
Update:
My Evaluation
In the opening, I wanted to represent Stan as an antagonist at the beginning, giving the audience a false reading of him. I wanted to show the audience that he could be an anti hero, his personality violent and he could betray anyone. Jack is the main antagonist but you cannot see that in the opening and that was something I wanted to represent as well. He appeared in both scenes and performing anti social actions towards the other characters. Ellis did not appear in shot but was used as a POV in the opening, giving a dramatic first hand murder that the audience gets to view in the first person. The ideal production company for the film would be a production company similar to those who have produced films such as The Godfather, Dirty Harry, Get Carter and Snatch. These films are all types of british crime or gangster genres.
In the first scene I used a red filter effect over the clip to represent blood, the red filter gives connotations of anger, blood and death. The filter is also used by inspiration of the text "Goodfellas" and is also where I got the idea to use a murder scene first. I adapted the filter and scene to make it similar, but also different in ways that give the opening a plot twist where Stan kills Jack.
The ideal target audience would probably be people whose preferred readings are similar to the genres we have picked i.e. Crime, Thriller, Drama. Due to the content of our product and the use of violence and death, the certificate would be no less than an 18. This would probably appeal to Young Adults up to middle aged people.
But to attract the audience and address them, we have used effects and plots from successful films and implemented them into our opening. For example, the death scene at the beginning then going back into the past and the red filter effect (Goodfellas). To attract a bigger audience I could have added captions such as "Directed by ...." and then said someone like James Cameron. This would attract media attention due to his box office hit films such as Avatar and Titanic.
From planning the film opening to recording to editing the film I have learned various techniques and rules to films and recording. Such as the 180 degree rule and how to mute the audio in video clips and splitting them to use the both at separate points in editing.
Shot Types & Transitions
I have various shot types I would like to use in the opening of the film. I want to experiment on Point of View shots. The camera takes a characters point of view and shows what is going on.
Character Profiles
Stan Watson
[Played by Sean Watson]
The main protagonist who is dressed as a ganster in the first scene. He dresses with infomal attire in the second scene. He is a very quiet man who has another side to him. Jack has betrayed him by killing Stan's father, whose grave he visits. You could possibly say he's an antihero since he's going against the law but he is the character we see most clearly in this.
Jack Thomas
[John Craggs]
One of the main characters who is portrayed as support for the protagonist. But he betrays the protagonist by killing his father. His role is then switched to the antagonist. He provides Stan with a list of people who may have killed his father.
Ellis Douglas
[Played by Ellis Douglas]
On the list of people who might have killed Stan's father. And is subseqently shot and killed.
British Crime Drama
I have been looking at the British crime drama and doing some research on various films. I have looked on websites such as TopTenz to have a look at the most rated british crime films of all time.
http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-british-crime-films.php
I have watched a few British crime films such as Snatch, Layer Cake and Get Carter. Then I looked on IMDb at the ratings, the actors and I saw that in most of the films, there were no A list actors in them, none that were internationally recognisable. Since Layer Cake was produced before 007 Casino Royale then I could class Daniel Craig as "not internationally known".
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375912/
Snatch was a film that was popular in the UK and the meaning behind it's success is because of it's director. The director is Guy Ritchie and before Snatch, he produced Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. This acted as a sequel but not in a direct way, much like an evolved version of British crime genre in the 21st century.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0208092/
Although my film is a British crime film, I wanted to search into other crime related films, looking at shots, effects and the like, when I watched the opening of Goodfellas, I decided that I want to use the red filter in my opening. The red creates a sense that there is anger, frustration, murder and blood. It contains many negative connotations and I want to use that in my film as a way of showing that. The death in the opening is used around the middle of the film. Goodfellas goes back into the past after the murder scene. Which is what I want to also use in my opening. The murder scene catches the attention of the viewer and then makes them want to know more about why they are doing this. It is an effective attention grabber. Goodfellas has inspired me to create this film opening with a British-industry type twist.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099685/
Overview - Choice of coursework
I have decided to create a film opening for my AS Coursework. I will be looking at british crime, thriller and horror genres and researching further into these. From these three genres I will choose one to implement to my film opening. If it is a horror, I would like to create a dark low lighting atmosphere with a death at the beginning and show the creature. If it is a thriller I would like a murderer to call the victim inside a house and tell the victim he is coming for them. If it was to be a british crime, I want the scene to be a typical murder scene and then the portrayal of the murderer commiting everyday activities.
UPDATE: I have chosen to do a british crime drama. The plot will involve Sean and John killing the victim. The camera's POV will be the victim and you will see Sean and John clearly during this murder scene. John and Sean will then walk off and Sean kills John. In the next scene we will jump back to the past and see Sean walking past a grave and then finally bumping into John, this scene will show the start of the film and how the murder scene happened. The scene fades and shows the title of the film.
That is what the opening scene will be like. I may have to change some parts of the scenes due to weather or actors not being available.
Inspirational Texts
The film opens unconventionally, with a narrative from one of the characters in the film with a black background. The black background connotes death, mystery and possible evil. The narrator begins by saying, in an italian accent, "I believe in America", suggesting the location of the film, and we fade in to see the man who is speaking. The camera begins with a close up as he talks to the camera and the camera zooms out very slowly whilst he tells us about his daughter's rape. The mise en scene is all dark, with only the man's collar being the only colour of white, possibly suggesting some kind of purity in the man. As we zoom out, however, we discover with an over the shoulder shot, that the man is talking to someone else and not us. The camera stops zooming, and the man who was speaking begins to cry. This shows the flaws of the protagonist: emotional outrage for his daughter and his drinking habit. The camera then tracks and focuses on a close up of two men whispering to each other, but we cannot hear what they say. The film style is similar to what we want to create, especially with the main character Sean. As he will be a gangster in the film. The opening has infulenced the killing scene at the beginning the most on how the characters are killed. The main character shows no remorse for his actions, much like the characters in the Godfather.
