Brooke Parker Screenplay

Genre

Film Moodboard

The Elevator Pitch

25 Word Pitch:
Teenage girl leading a secret life which puts her in extreme danger from her enemies and forces her to fight back in a thrilling chase.

Opening synopsis:
Our opening sequence is going to be based in a dark eerie woods. We are going to be introduced to the main character who seems to be a normal teenage girl going for a run by using different camera angles to establish that she is an important part of the film. It is then cut to someones eyes looking directly at her menacingly, here we will use an extreme close up so this character isn't given away. As the background music speeds up the main characters run turns into a sprint and it is established that she is being chased by the character we previously saw glaring at her. Whilst this chase is happening we will show shots of gadgets that the main character is possessing to revel that she has a secret identity and is not just an average teenager. Throughout the action freeze-frames will be used to show who's staring in the film. The opening sequence will end mid chase to create a cliffhanger and keep the audience engaged.

Initial Ideas

Here is a video of the ideas we had for our film. We agreed on the first idea and expanded on this idea at the end of the video.

Creating my film indent

Firstly I came up with the theme of the sea. This is what lead me to the idea of shore productions. Using this idea I decided to use the image of sea waves. After putting the image into Final Cut Pro I altered the image until it was to my liking.

I then added the text. I was originally planning on having the name Shore Productions over the top of the image but I found a type of text which combined the two. This is where the image was shown through the text, I preferred this to my original idea so I decided to change my first plan. I also decided to make it zoom in and back out again, I done this by key framing at what points I wanted the text to be a certain size.

I then decided to add sound. I inserted the 'Ocean Surf' sound and the 'Seagulls' sound as these are the noises that are commonly linked with the sea. To make the transition from my indent to the beginning of the movie more fluid I decided to make the sound fade out towards the end.

Juno Opening Sequence

Film Indent

Art of the title

Analysis of Juno opening sequence:

This opening sequence is effective because it introduces the main character of the film whilst showing us her personality. She is perceived as being naive but clever and innocent yet mature. She seems youthful and careless by walking calmly not paying attention to anything important drinking straight from a Sunny D bottle. The feeling of youthfulness is also created through the use of animation giving it an immature cartoon perception. The opening sequence reflects the themes and ideas of the film as we get to see a snapshot of the characters life through their eyes as they think.

The typography used in the opening sequence again reflects the youthfulness as it is seen as being immature and 'school-like' in the sense of what you would typically see graffitied in a school textbook. It is mix matched in size but keeps to a simplistic colour scheme reflecting the simplistic life style of the main character.

The music used for this opening sequence is key to the story as it is light hearted which contrasts to the seriousness of the characters situation but shows us how she feels about it as she seems to have everything under control.

Analysis of Coraline opening sequence:

The opening sequence is effective because it creates fear and suspicion about a character a character that we only see the robotic hands of who unknown to us until the end of the film is the 'other mother'. It also introduces the main character of Coraline through the use of a doll which we see being made by the robotic hands. The character Coraline can be seen through this doll which seems sweet and innocent although the doll itself has a haunting feeling about it. The neatness of the 'other mother' shows that she may be a caring individual although we can also see part of her obsessive side as we see her transform one little girl (the original doll) into another.

The typography used at the beginning of the opening sequence links with what we first see as it is based on sewing and textiles. The second type of typography used looks old fashioned and fragile which could represent the state that Coraline is in unknowingly.

Opening sequences

At the start of any film the key credits including directors, actors and production companies are shown to create interest for the audience. The purpose of an opening scene in a film is to show action and begin the viewers interest so they get immediately hooked to the film. The opening scene will also clearly state the genre of the film through the use of things such as colour and sound. The opening sequence finishes as the beginning of the narrative starts. It is also likely that the antagonist or protagonist will be established in this sequence with the use of medium shots to introduce us to the characters as the key credits are on screen. Most opening scenes last for around 2 minutes although major blockbuster movies can be up to 5 minutes.

Genre is the main feature that gets established during the opening scene of a film. For example in this opening sequence of Peter Pan the fantasy genre is show through the use of typography. 

Comparing this genre to a horror we can see the contrast of how the different genres are represented in the opening sequence.

Just by looking at the film titles that are used in the opening sequences we can tell what genres they are due to their conventional features of their genre.

The purpose:

Hook; This is what is used to draw an audience into a film. It raises questions in the audiences head that will later get answered whilst watching the film. This is used in multiple types of media such as film openings, books and newspaper headlines.

Establishing time and place; This is commonly done by using mise-en-scene and road signs at the beginning of a film. It gives the audience a sense of place and timing. This is done subtly by using the mise-en-scene as they don't wanted the audience to be distracted from the action on screen that is setting up the rest of the film.

Credits; This also creates interest for the audience as if they see a film company or actor that they like in the opening film titles then they are likely to watch the rest of the film as it instantly grabs their attention.

Characters; The opening of a film will usually introduce a main character, the antagonist/protagonist, as it then follows them throughout the film and gets you gripped from beginning to end with the same consistent characters.