Task 2.1 Research into Existing Products : Conventions of an Opening Sequence

Conventions of an Opening Scene

When imagining, directing or even editing an opening scene; you must remember certain things in order to make your opening sequence successful. The aim of the opening scene is to intrigue the audience enough to keep on watching and to do that criteria must be followed. 

• For example, in an opening scene, titles are essential in order to convey that it is the opening to something. The name of the film, the people starring in it, the people involved in making it and the film production's logo should be shown near the very beginning of a film. 
• Another crucial element needed to make a good opening sequence is a good plot, a hook. This will draw the audience and make them want to keep watching the rest of the film which will benefit the film immensely.
• Sound, both diegetic and non-diegetic, helps build a really good opening scene. Diegetic sound will contribute to the narrative and help the audience understand the film more and non-diegetic sound such as music that has been added in once the film has been shot will help build the atmosphere.
• A range of shots is common throughout the entire length of the film but is also very important during the beginning; everything from an establishing shot to inform the audience where the scene is taking place to an ECU (Extreme Close Up) to show the characters emotions.
• Correct framing will help to inform audiences of the narrative as characters and objects should be in the frame at all times if needed for the plot to make sense.
• If the audience does not understand what's going on, their interest will be lost and they will stop watching which is why a clear narrative is needed for a successful opening scene.
• Intertextuality also helps for a good opening scene. Referring to things that the viewer may recognise will keep their interest in the film.
• Pace is most likely faster than it theoretically needs to be and this is so the audience remains interested in the scene. Style of editing will most likely stay the same for the rest of the film.

Task 1 Preliminary Task

The purpose of our preliminary task was to construct a scene containing different techniques and actions that had to be incorporated smoothly into the scene; such as the passing of an object between two characters which we shown via a match on action shot (a technique where an action being performed is shown through two different shots: one from one side and then shown continuously through another shot on the other side; in our preliminary task we showed a I.D card being passed from Amy to Ryan through a match on action shot.

Another technique that we had to incorporate was the '180 degree rule', a common directive known throughout the filming world. This means that when our characters were in discussion, we kept the camera on one side of them so it wouldn't appear as they had moved around in the scene (the camera remained on the right side of Ryan and the left side of Amy).This helped keep the continuity of our preliminary task and makes sure it made sense to the audience. We incorporated this rule into our preliminary task by keeping the camera on one side of the actors.

An eye line match was easily included as it is simply when a character is clearly shown that their looking at something. We showed this in our preliminary task when we used n over-the-shoulder shot to show Amy and then cut to a shot of Ryan's face which clearly shows that Amy was looking at Ryan and vice versa. Just like with the eye line match, we showed a shot-reverse-shot through over-the-shoulder shots when Ryan and Amy were talking. This is usually how shot-reverse-shots are presented in scenes so we decided to follow tradition and show it like this.

In terms of storyboarding, we didn't push ourselves enough. Our storyboard is quite vague and empty, however on the day of filming we did put a lot of thought into how we wanted the sequence to look due to the lack of storyboarding, which would presumably made the scene a lot clearer. We added, I think, a wide range of shot and techniques to help improve the quality of the scene including: tracking shots, close ups, time-lapse and a match on action shot. This proved that we were able to execute different filming techniques and meet the criteria for directing and producing a scene. We chose the outside of the sixth form to film the majority our preliminary task which meant that we didn't have any interruptions and were able to easily complete the task.

The majority of our preliminary task was edited by another member of our group as he had a greater amount of knowledge and experience with how to use Adobe Premium Pro as he had already used this a lot throughout high school. Although he edited quite a lot of it, and we watched (to learn from him), I was the other member of the group that edited the task as he taught me a few things on how to use the programme so I can hopefully apply what he taught me in the future, such as how to cut clips and edited them into the film.

If I had the chance to do this task again I'd definitely want to get more involved in the editing part of it and perhaps more the creative side such as the script or storyboarding.