Question 1, Evaluation

The title of the film is shown during he opening credits and is revealed slowly over the panning shot of the beach to add suspense and mystery to the scene. The setting that was chose were an almost isolated beach about a thirty minute walk from my house and I followed a typical british film by filming on a location rather than using a set, to save money and because I think it shows a more genuine atmosphere and location for the audience to admire and absorb into so the film is more immersive. Filming on location had an advantage because the atmosphere came across perfectly as the long expanding coast brought across the isolationist feeling that I wanted to be brought across during the filming. The font style I chose for my titles, was a nice straight forward and easily readable font style, with some elegance and grace as it is a very formal font for the viewer to read so they know that the film is going to be tackling a serious subject. The opening sets up the rest of the film to be a suspencing and edge of your seat style joyride trying to guess what will happen next, as the character is searching for any sign of life or an explanation to why or how he woke up on the beach. The shots used mostly are long takes and long shot to add a good sense of time passing and isolation. Characters aren't introduced by names, but rather by their faces which adds a mysterous effect to their persona's as the audience will only know their name when they're mentioned by other characters during the narrative. Special effects that were used were fading which adds to the suspence the audience will feel, as they are slowly revealed to what is coming next, rather than it jumping to other scenes.

Final Revised Opening

Click on the link for the video

Progress Report

My opening is getting uploaded now and I will be doing a reflective analysis on it once it's uploaded and I will be removing my 'Evaluation questions' and re-doing them so it relates to my newest video rather then my previous opening. It should all be done by Thursday and my blog will then be ready and completed.

Video Update

My video has now been fully editited and revised and is ready to be uploaded to my YouTube channel tomorrow and I have removed the dialouge scene so it focuses on the opening scene and isolation, so it adds the serious tone that I want to be brought across by my opening. I've changed the font style I previously used so it doesn't distract from the main focus of the opening and so it adds a eerie tone with the pure white it gets translated perfectly. Overall i'm quite happy with my film opening and how it's presented, obviously it's a bit amateurish, but I think that adds to the effect and I will be doing my refelective analysis to comment in more detail about the opening.

Costume

Costume choices are very important because the cast need to be dressed the part so they work well and incorporate the Mise En Scene, so the audience won't be confused. A characters wardrobe can represent their personality and mannerisms, so it's key to get them right, it can also represent a stereotype so the costumes have to be specially decided upon. For instance if the film is set in a historical time the costume has to be right so it looks realistic and serious, if the film is set quite far back in the past then the costume department may have to make the costumes for the film or if the character is a 'alien' in a sci-fi film the costume will have to be made if an actor is playing the 'alien' that is.   

Cast choice

The cast are the most important 'prop' in a film as they need to look the part and act the part, for example you couldn't imagine anyone else other than Russel Crowe playing General Maximus Decimus Meridius in Gladiator (2000) because he looks the part as he is the right build to look like a Roman soldier and he doesn't look 'modern' so he is the perfect choice to play the General. So in my film I play my main character a young adult, just like any other teenager from the local area, so it has more realism to it than having a twenty-something playing the character of John. So for the overall point of the narrative to be delivered directly and efficiently it's best to have cast myself or some around my age bracket and appearance.  

The effect of a good soundtrack

Everybody that watches a film will notice music in the background for most films so it sets the mood, for instance in a martial arts film there's usually what you'd call 'up-beat' motivational music so it gets the blood pumping and the mind focused, in a horror there's usually a use of eerie music that slowly builds up in tempo, action films have usually fast paced 'heavy' music, so the music choice by the production team has to be critical to the movie and reflect it's narrative so it's delivered in the right way so the viewer gets the right message. My opening has the soft acoustic that's quite eerie so it shows that the opening is a very serious film and is not for instance a comedy.