Todorov’s theory of narrative describes 5 stages of events that are prominent in many films.
Stage 1: Equilibrium
‘The ongoing situation before anything actually happens’.
My story-line fits in with this because at the start of my opening sequence subject 1 is walking to her friends house. This shows normality and calm before anything has started to happen.
Stage 2: Disruption
‘This is the event that starts the story going and must be resolved’.
My opening sequence also includes this stage. An example of this is when subject 1 is waiting outside her friends house when she hears a noise in the bushes. She looks round but there is no one there. This adds tension and some form of disturbance.
Stage 3: Recognition of Disruption
‘This is where characters realise there is a problem and attempt to deal with it (often making the situation more complicated)’.
My opening sequence also includes this stage. This is when subject 1 gets taken and subject 2 is is left there not knowing what to do or where her friends had gone.
Stage 4: Attempt to Repair Disruption
‘This is where the damages of the disruption is realised and measures are taken to deal with it’.
This part will occur in the rest of my film. For example when the police get told of the incident and get involved with looking for the missing girl. Although others that are helping are murdered by the antagonist.
Stage 5: Resolution
‘This is where the story is concluded by returning to a new kind of equilibrium (different to where the story began)’.
My film would also include this because in the end the missing girl is found. She then has to rebuild her life which has been detroyed by the incident she has gone through.
(I had to put the link on my blog instead of uploading it onto my blog because it wouldn’t come up!)
Analysis…
Overall I am fairly pleased with how my filming went. I managed to get all the shots in that I wanted and managed to create music off Garage Band which fitted well with the genre of my film and the footage. there are some changes that I would make if I was to film this again however. Firstly I would choose people to act that take drama or are naturally good in front of the camera in order for my film to look more realistic and believable. I think the genre I choose was fairly hard to make my film look really good and effective because it is hard to make people scared with the equipment I had and the experience I’ve had so far I filming. Although I was interested in this genre, I think it was especially difficult in this genre to make my film believable. It was also quite hard filming at night and making sure the main event was still seen clearly because it was quite dark. This would be quite hard to change if i was to do my opening sequence over again because for a horror film one of the main conventions is it being set in the dark.
I particularly liked this shot because it shows both characters faces and the expression of confusion and anticipation on their faces. I think the lighting looks good here because you can clearly see their faces but it’s dark enough to give the shot an eerie feel.
Ialso like this shot because it shows subject 2′s facial expression to makethe audience aware that something strange has happened and it creates tension because you don’t know what is going to happen next.
Taking everything into account, I am quite pleased with my finished opening sequence and think it is quite successful in fitting to the conventions of horror films
Today I watched my video through again to see if I could make any adjustments. After looking through it a couple of times and asking my target audience by explaining what I’d done so far, I realised that the flash backs didn’t really make sense. For the flash back before subject 2 opens the door I have added a transition,Fade In Fade Out Dissolve, to make it seem more like something that has happened in the past. I also added the same banging noise I used to first introduce the antagonist near the end of the film to create tension and to give off the impression that something bad is watching them. Tension is a convention of horror films. I have also changed the place of the title of my film. It looked too much like a trailer with it being at the end so I added it just after I introduce my two characters names in title form. I have not added any sound to this clip because it didn’t sound right and it being silent also goes together with the film being called ‘Deadly Silence.’ The last adjustment I made to my opening sequence was to use the transition Fade In Fade Out Dissolvefor the ending clip of footage when subject 2 is calling subject 1′s name and I added another title in the same font and style as before saying ‘2 Days Later’ to finish it off nicely and to also clarify that it is an opening sequence and not a trailer. I will now export it (:
Today I watched my opening sequence and realised that one of the sounds I had originally used for when the audience first meet the villan didn’t fit sounded rubbish. I went on toGarageBand and found a clip that had a ‘banging’ noise in and decided to crop the bit I didn’t want and use the ‘bang’. I replaced this sound track with the original and found that it suited the footage a lot better. I also decided to use the same ‘bang’ and the end of my sequence when the title of my film ‘Deadly Silence’ appears to add emphasis making it more effective. I then had the problem of having about 12 seconds of footage over the 2 minute maximum so I cropped a few of the clips at the start when subject 1 is walking to her friends house. I chose to cut these types of clips because they seem to go on too long and are boring. When I originally did my animatic I chose shots that I thought weren’t very long but when it’s filmed and I’m watching it back it seems a lot too long. Next time I produce an animatic I will remember this so I won’t have to cut as much footage out which will make it easier to edit. (:
Today I continued my editing. I added both of my soundtracks and fitted them in the right position on top of my footage. This is a screen shot of my footage and soundtrack on Final Cut Express …
As you can see, my font is white on a black background and I have added the transitions for the titles and for the music. After watching my opening sequence so far I have definitely decided to go with my original idea of the ending title coming up with a banging noise. This will just finish off my opening sequence and hopefully make the audience jump sticking to the conventions of horror films. I am in the process of getting the banging noise on Garage Band.
After the half term I will import it onto Final Cut and edit it so it fits in with the start of the title. I also will have to razor the shots a bit more because my opening sequence is still a little over 2 minutes. But overall everything is going well. (:
Yesterday I carried on with editing my footage. I shortened some of the clips even more because my footage all together lasted a bout 2 minutes 18 seconds and that’s without the titles! I went onto LiveType to make my titles.
My original idea was to have a simple white font on a black background. I used the font Papyrus for my titles because it was fairly simple yet looked effective in the way that it looked like titles you would see in a horror movie. I decided to add transitions on it in Final Cut Express so that it faded out. I chose to do this because it looked effective and when I was analysing opening sequences to horror movies I noticed that a lot of the titles used faded out simply like the ones I have done. My original plan was to put my soundtrack on but yesterday I was having a lot of trouble with opening up Final Cut Express and when I finally got it to work I didn’t have much time left. But I am happy with how far I have got with editing. (:
Today I started editing my footage. I uploaded my shots onto Final Cut Expressand arranged them in the right order and got rid of the shots I didn’t need. I then watched it all the way through and cut the clips to shorten them and get rid of bits I didn’t need. By looking at my footage so far I am pleased because I have all the shots I need so I don’t have to film any extra. (: Tomorrow I plan to add the music and titles to my footage and put them in the right place so they go well with my footage.
On Friday the 11th I successfully filmed all of my footage for my opening sequence. Everything went fairly well except for a few problems because it was foggy but it ended up being fairly clear when it got dark. I was worried about how well the footage would show up because it was filmed at night but I think it showed up just enough so you can see everything but it still created an eerie effect. Also the road was busier than I thought it was going to be so we kept having to stop for cars but in the end I managed to get all the footage complete. It took a while to film the main event at the end of the opening sequence because my actors/actresses kept laughing but after a while I got the footage I wanted. Because it was cold outside when subject one was being taken, my breath went across the screen so you just see this kind of mistyness which I was annoyed with at first but now I like it because I think it look effective and like it was supposed to be there. Also at the end when subject 2 was calling ‘Amy’, she didn’t say it in the voice I was imagining (sounding really worried) but then I thought well after only calling someone’s name twice you wouldn’t start getting really worried because they could just be hiding or something. If I was filming the rest of my film though, after the title of the film had come up I would show her screaming for her and looking really worried. Overall I think it went pretty well. (:
We had to storyboard for our animatic of our opening sequence. Eachshot we storyboarded had to include the following things..
Duration of shot
Camera angle
Shot type
Transitions
Sound
Picture
Shot number
Lighting
After we had made our storyboard we took pictures of each shot and uploaded them onto iMovie. We edited the duration of the shots and the size of the frame. We then went onto Garage Bandand made our soundtracks for our animatic if we needed them for our opening sequence. We then saved them and dragged them onto iMovie. After we were happy with our animatic we exported it usingQuickTimeso we could upload them onto YouTube.
This is my finished animatic…
Sound:
I did my best to make suitable music for my eerie soundtrack and a quicker paced soundtrack to create tension using Garage Band. I choose to do an eerie soundtrack at the start and a quicker paced track when the action takes place because thats what my target audience prefered to see when i carried out my questionnaires. On my animatic i originally i thought me eerie soundtrack would be played in shots 16-18 but when i watched me animatic it didn’t fit very well so i decided to remove the music.
Camera angles:
I used a lot of eye-line camera angles to keep my opening sequence fairly simple because i think simple makes it look more effective. I also included some hand-held camera angles to give off the idea that they are being watched by something. Which adds anticipation and tension which are both conventional for a horror film.
Shot types:
I used quite a lot of close-ups to show across the emotion on the subjects face so the audience can see how they are feeling. I did quite a few longshots to create a sense of someone is watching them or following them from a distance. I used over the shoulder shots, shot/reverse shots, so the audience can see the subjects faces as they talk. This also shows emotion.
Transitions:
I mostly used CUT to end each shot because it’s a simple transition/edit and is effective in making clips look short and fast which is a convention in lots of horror films. I used DIP TO BLACK after the 1st, 2nd and last clip. I did this for the 1st and 2nd shots because the shots then run smoothly into each other which is good for the first 2 shots to start of the opening sequence. I used DIP TO BLACK on the last shot to finalize it, to finish it off neatly. I used FADE OUT for shots 23 and 25 so that when the names of the actresses show up on the screen they fade out into an image of the actress so it matches up well.
Duration of shots:
I have chosen lots of different shot times. I have used some longer shot such as 5 seconds as subjects are walking down pathways etc. to increase the tension because you may think that something is going to happen. I have chosen short shot times for when the ‘villain’ is first introduced because the camera is following subjects and then quickly turns and looks at him as if to show that he is a threat to them. The shots leading up to that shot and just after are also fairly quick to increase the pace of the opening sequence to also add tension and every horror films needs tension to be effective and make the audience worried or scared.
Lighting:
I have chosen to film most of my footage outside at night-time to give an eerie effect. Also filming at night is conventional for a lot of horror films leading up to the main event. At night its darker and harder to pick out certain things so the audience is always apprehensive about what it lurking in the shadows so to speak. I have filmed some of my footage inside a house which is light. These shots are at the start so they just set the scene and show the subjects clearly so the audience get to know the subjects so they can sympathise with them at the main event.
