RESEARCH: TOPLINE & BIG QUESTION

I learned from Frank Ash who is creative consultant with the BBC academy about what we call 'digital story telling': how to connect to an audience emotionally by creating a relevant story that they can relate to and how to leave them with a sense of anticipation and suspense.

When I start to plan my own production, I will be devising a top line (one 'elegant sentence' that sums up the film opening treatment) and deciding on the big question (what happened next?) 

Frank ash has given me guidelines to plan my film opening. I turned what i learnt into a comic using ComicLife

RESEARCH: Art of the Title, American Horror Story: Cult

ART OF THE TITLE: American Horror Story: Cult 

I decided to research American Horror Story: Cult season 7 of the famous American drama series. It is a American anthology horror television series. The TV series is based during the year 2017 after the historic U.S. presidential election. The show centres on a cult terrorizing the residents of the USA in the aftermath of these elections. This isn’t a movie however is a television series, however I’m aware I will not be creating a TV series this opening attracted me because of the editing and camera work skills so I wanted to analyse it more. The title sequence of Cult shows a sense of horror, violence and disturbia as it captures lots of close ups of people cleaning blood of their hands and people covered in blood. 

The title sequence is filled with lots of hard cuts that move quite quickly back and forwards. This editing gives us the idea that there are lots of different events that happen through out this show that are filled with gory. These fast shots make it a opening sequence because we are not learning anything that happens through the series but we have a clear representation of what the genre will be. 

They have used a various amount of interesting mise-en-scène to show us what the series may be about, an example of this is when we see one of the characters apply a mask of Donald Trump the current US president, this is relevant as it shows that the show will somewhat be political. There is also a close up shotof another character putting on a mask of Hillary Clinton. 

The title sequence for Cult follows the genre conventions by presenting us with names of the actors, producers, directors between each shot there is a shot with a title of a name of an Actor/Actress within the series. This shows its an opening sequence as it is showing us who will be presented throughout the series and who the big names are. 

The theme of blood is shown throughout the opening sequence as we see extreme close ups of characters covered in blood. The camera angles move rapidly from a point of view shot to a birds eye shot. This rapid editing and movement of camera angles shows that this is an opening sequence as it is trying to excite the viewer on what they are about to watch. The soundtrack throughout the sequence builds tension and fear for the viewer. 

I really like the effect of this opening and think that the hard cuts make it very exciting. I would like to use hard cuts in my own work as I think it creates a storyline very effectively. The rapid changes from close ups to wide shots tell a story and create suspense. 

RESEARCH: SCOOPIT! FILM OPENINGS

I created my own ScoopIt! account so that I could find different film openings that I thought were extremely effective and successful. I have done this as I am looking to create my own film opening so have been looking at other ones to give me inspiration and help me create ideas. By using ScoopIt! it allows me to create a folder with all of these in and put relevant information in them.

I am able to write my own insights on scoopit! on what my thoughts are on each film opening I have found. 

PRELIMINARY EXERCISES

SHOT TYPES

I have researched the different camera angles and shot types by going over Daniel Chandler's website 'The Grammar of Television and Film'. When practicing the different shot types I used my iPhone, here are some examples : 

Close-up (CU) - A picture which shows a fairly small part of the scene, such as a character's face, in great detail so that it fills the screen.

Point-of-view shot (POV) - A shot made from a camera position close to the line of sight of a performer

Medium shots - Medium Shot or Mid-Shot (MS). In such a shot the subject or actor and its setting occupy roughly equal areas in the frame.

Long shot (LS) - Shot which shows all or most of a fairly large subject and usually much of the surroundings

Low Level :

High Level/Birds Eye : 

Canted Angle shot : 

Tilted/Canted angle shots are used in films that want to create suspense, it is used to create the sense of unease in the viewer. 

Close up : 

Close ups show emotions of the person, it also shows details of the object/person. 

Mid – shot : 

A mid shots help to show emotion/reactions. A mid shot is to show facial expression as well as showing their physical stance