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I created this storyboard so that when filming we knew what shots to take.
Friday, 14 February 2014
Looper opening scene
Looper opening scene clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8pApMdCTyE
This opening scene clip that I found was only 52 seconds long, however I have seen this whole film and thoroughly enjoyed it as it's complex and captivating. When it jumps from one shot to another you find yourself intrigued.
The first thing you see is the title sequence, the title sequence is in plain black and white, this simplicity differs from the complexity of the film as the film alone is hard to follow. "Endgame Entertainment Presents" is the first title that is written, and afterwards is the title "In association with DMG Entertainment" this is also in black and white, again very simplistic. I personally believe that this title sequence is short as this film is about time, and therefore the shot title sequence is used to show that time is also short, therefore, so is the titles.
As soon as you get the first shot, it is a close-up of a pocket watch. The person that is holding the pocket watch opens it to look at the time. This shot is thoroughly important as it immediately shows you the most important aspect of a film which is time, similar to ours which shows the phone which is one of the most important aspects of our film as it foreshadows something happening later on in the film. As soon as you see the pocket watch and as soon as the shot begins, you hear a ticking noise, this is diegetic sound that is used to add emphasis on certain noises to either add tension or to make the audience aware of something. In this case, it is to make the audience aware of the pocket watch. The pocket watch is the enigma code as you aren't quite sure what it is to do with the film, however you know it is important as it's the first shot you see.
The next shot after this is a medium shot of the characters face, here you see what the character looks like and also behind him, you can see part of the scenery which gives the audience an idea of where he is. He is also speaking words of a different language when you first see him, showing that he might be learning a new language for a reason that the audience are unsure of.
You then see a panning shot that moves so it's behind the character, this particular shot lets you stay in the moment of listening to the character while also being shown the location he is in. He then begins to get up and you see him pick up a gun, this is strange as you wouldn't expect someone to have a gun in an area like this as it's seems a peaceful place. The character stands up and aims his gun at the mat before him, this makes you realise that when he was looking at his pocket watch earlier that he must have been waiting for someone to turn up.
Suddenly, a man turns up with a bag over his head with his hands tied together. This mans face cannot be seen, which poses the question of "who is he?" however, we assume the man he has just killed was bad as the main character is likely to be a protagonist. As soon as the man with the bag over his head arrives, he screams as if he already knows what's going to happen. Next a gun is fired this is diegetic sound as they make the gunshot louder in order to scare he audience and add emphasis on the gun.
The main character then strolls up to the man and puts the gun down, the casual way in which this is done makes him seem as if he does this type of shooting all the time, as if it was part of his everyday routine.
Then the title of the film is shown which is "Looper". The title sequence was done by looping the two 'O's' together, this is clever as the film is called Looper and the O's are looped connecting them together. This is different from the first two titles which at the beginning are short representing time being short, however this one uses a loop on the O's which is similar to the infinity symbol which signifies something going on forever. The title sequence is again in black and white which is plain. Because the title is plain however it allows you to focus on the bold words which stand out to you, these being the only things that capture your attention.
This opening scene clip that I found was only 52 seconds long, however I have seen this whole film and thoroughly enjoyed it as it's complex and captivating. When it jumps from one shot to another you find yourself intrigued.
The first thing you see is the title sequence, the title sequence is in plain black and white, this simplicity differs from the complexity of the film as the film alone is hard to follow. "Endgame Entertainment Presents" is the first title that is written, and afterwards is the title "In association with DMG Entertainment" this is also in black and white, again very simplistic. I personally believe that this title sequence is short as this film is about time, and therefore the shot title sequence is used to show that time is also short, therefore, so is the titles.
As soon as you get the first shot, it is a close-up of a pocket watch. The person that is holding the pocket watch opens it to look at the time. This shot is thoroughly important as it immediately shows you the most important aspect of a film which is time, similar to ours which shows the phone which is one of the most important aspects of our film as it foreshadows something happening later on in the film. As soon as you see the pocket watch and as soon as the shot begins, you hear a ticking noise, this is diegetic sound that is used to add emphasis on certain noises to either add tension or to make the audience aware of something. In this case, it is to make the audience aware of the pocket watch. The pocket watch is the enigma code as you aren't quite sure what it is to do with the film, however you know it is important as it's the first shot you see.
The next shot after this is a medium shot of the characters face, here you see what the character looks like and also behind him, you can see part of the scenery which gives the audience an idea of where he is. He is also speaking words of a different language when you first see him, showing that he might be learning a new language for a reason that the audience are unsure of.
You then see a panning shot that moves so it's behind the character, this particular shot lets you stay in the moment of listening to the character while also being shown the location he is in. He then begins to get up and you see him pick up a gun, this is strange as you wouldn't expect someone to have a gun in an area like this as it's seems a peaceful place. The character stands up and aims his gun at the mat before him, this makes you realise that when he was looking at his pocket watch earlier that he must have been waiting for someone to turn up.
Suddenly, a man turns up with a bag over his head with his hands tied together. This mans face cannot be seen, which poses the question of "who is he?" however, we assume the man he has just killed was bad as the main character is likely to be a protagonist. As soon as the man with the bag over his head arrives, he screams as if he already knows what's going to happen. Next a gun is fired this is diegetic sound as they make the gunshot louder in order to scare he audience and add emphasis on the gun.
The main character then strolls up to the man and puts the gun down, the casual way in which this is done makes him seem as if he does this type of shooting all the time, as if it was part of his everyday routine.
Then the title of the film is shown which is "Looper". The title sequence was done by looping the two 'O's' together, this is clever as the film is called Looper and the O's are looped connecting them together. This is different from the first two titles which at the beginning are short representing time being short, however this one uses a loop on the O's which is similar to the infinity symbol which signifies something going on forever. The title sequence is again in black and white which is plain. Because the title is plain however it allows you to focus on the bold words which stand out to you, these being the only things that capture your attention.
Audience feedback to viewing our film
Video version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeY5kTKmwsU
The first time I chose to show our film was when I were still developing and editing our film, our film at this point was one minute long. I decided to show a group of students within our class the footage we had at this time in editing as we will still be able to make the changes and developments that they suggest. I thought this was a good idea as if I showed the film to the class once it was finished, they might give me criticism, and if they gave us criticism we might not be able to change it as it's too close to our deadline to develop the film.
Feedback:
1) Difference between shots
One student pointed out that it was hard to tell the difference between the flashback shots and the present day shots even with the voice overs in. Another mentioned that the flashbacks are too similar to the shots in the present as they are both running or pacing shots. To make them different I have decided to change some of the flashback shots to still, close-up shots. This way you can tell the difference between the present day and flashback shots as one will be still and the other will be action and pacing.
2) Starting shot
A student thought that our starting shot was confusing as that's the first thing you see. This was confusing to the audience as there was no scene setting at the beginning, therefore you don't know where she is, who she is, and what she looks like. This is an issue as if the audience are spending their time wondering these things they wont be focusing on the text she is sending as they are too busy wondering who she is. To change this we have decided to add a scene establishing shot of her walking to the graffiti wall and then taking our her phone, this then answers the question of where she is and what she looks like.
3) Voice over
I also haven't yet put on the voiceovers so it was hard for the audience to understand what was going on. Therefore, I decided to show them the script so that they could see what would be said in the voiceovers, therefore it would make more sense to them what's going on. To sort out this problem, we will properly write up the script and start recording the voiceovers earlier than we first decided.
The first time I chose to show our film was when I were still developing and editing our film, our film at this point was one minute long. I decided to show a group of students within our class the footage we had at this time in editing as we will still be able to make the changes and developments that they suggest. I thought this was a good idea as if I showed the film to the class once it was finished, they might give me criticism, and if they gave us criticism we might not be able to change it as it's too close to our deadline to develop the film.
Feedback:
1) Difference between shots
One student pointed out that it was hard to tell the difference between the flashback shots and the present day shots even with the voice overs in. Another mentioned that the flashbacks are too similar to the shots in the present as they are both running or pacing shots. To make them different I have decided to change some of the flashback shots to still, close-up shots. This way you can tell the difference between the present day and flashback shots as one will be still and the other will be action and pacing.
2) Starting shot
A student thought that our starting shot was confusing as that's the first thing you see. This was confusing to the audience as there was no scene setting at the beginning, therefore you don't know where she is, who she is, and what she looks like. This is an issue as if the audience are spending their time wondering these things they wont be focusing on the text she is sending as they are too busy wondering who she is. To change this we have decided to add a scene establishing shot of her walking to the graffiti wall and then taking our her phone, this then answers the question of where she is and what she looks like.
3) Voice over
I also haven't yet put on the voiceovers so it was hard for the audience to understand what was going on. Therefore, I decided to show them the script so that they could see what would be said in the voiceovers, therefore it would make more sense to them what's going on. To sort out this problem, we will properly write up the script and start recording the voiceovers earlier than we first decided.
Wednesday, 12 February 2014
Location
Video version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NjkN5xTqhA
Locations
Locations
We will be filming the
opening scene in an alleyway, we are going to be filming it there because of
the atmosphere we want to create. We will be filming this opening scene in the
daylight, however we will be blocking out unnecessary light in editing in order
to make the opening scene more dull to create an atmosphere of sadness.
There is an alleyway which is
local to us which means we can easily go there to film the short scene. We didn’t
want to film somewhere it would be busy, therefore we chose this alleyway as
its not likely to be as occupied as most of the places we know. However, with
the graffiti and the park setting, with the houses you can see that this is
also a modern setting.
Most psychological thrillers
tend to be set in places that you can relate to, they do this in order to add
realism. Stereotypically, an alleyway is a scary place where people lurk who
are normally have a bad reputation. Therefore the character in our opening
scene is seen down an alleyway so the audience will perceive her as being a bad
person, even though later on, you find out that she’s a victim. This is
challenging conventions of a usual thriller genre as normally the person
dressed in black and in an alley would be the antagonist, not the protagonist.
We chose this particular
alleyway as it has trees and a wall with graffiti on it which means we can
shoot from different angles and it looks like the main character is somewhere
else. As our opening scene uses flashbacks, this means that we need different
locations as she is running away, therefore having a location that includes
many different parts to it means we don’t have to go around to different
locations in order to film, we have them all in the same place instead, making
this a dynamic location.
For example, this was used as
our alleyway:
And just round our corner we
had this area of park which we used to film a flashback of her running from the
mental institution:
These two different photos show the versatility of our location and how dynamic it is as it can be seen as one place, and also somewhere completely different.
We
think this location is good as the alleyway is dull in colour with lack of
leaves due to the time we filmed (winter) which gives it a darker effect,
adding to the mise-en-scene.
The
lighting is quite dull, even though this was filmed during the day, the
lighting being dull makes the audience feel as if this isn’t going to be a
happy, setting up the scene.
As
our opening scene is filmed during the day, it challenges conventions of
psychological thrillers as they would normally be filmed when its getting dark
to add the spooky feel to the mise-en-scene.
Monday, 10 February 2014
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