Monday 17 January 2011

Film opening briefs!

These are the briefs for our film opening task, in our groups we must chose to focus on one. Guidance will be given regarding the codes and conventions of each genre, as well as films that are representative of the briefs. It is hoped that the briefs will provide us with challenges and will also introduce us to films that we may not be familiar with.
After being put into groups (Myself, Alex Griffin and Alice Clark), we discussed which of these film briefs we preferred. 

Film Brief 1
A mainstream action film that will appeal to 15-25yr old males Your film should appear to be based on a "fictional" comic book
(Opening to Dark Knight, Kick Ass, Sin City etc)

We were intrigued by this film brief at first, but we agreed that films which are aimed at 15-25 year old males would not usually appeal to us. So we might find this difficult to produce and decided against it.


Film Brief 2 A supernatural thriller that will appeal to female audiences Your film should appear to be an international co-production
(Opening to The Others, Gothika, Shelter etc)

This brief initially appealed to us the most, as my group all enjoy horror films. We were considering using this as our chosen brief!

Film Brief 3 An independent movie featuring a young protagonist Your film should appear to be financed through regional funding
(Opening to Fish Tank, This Is England etc)

This brief was left as a possibility as we found it quite interesting. We thought we would be able to successfully produce it due to the number of actors (being a school student) However we were finding it tricky to come up with ideas...

Film Brief 4
An art house feature to appeal to adult audiences Your film should appear to be based on an actual event in the last 2 years.
(Opening to Elephant, Milk, Che etc)

At first we overlooked this brief, as ideas were not obvious. However after a bit of research we realised we could make a really effective opening sequence as there has been various interesting events within the last 2 years.
After researching into each brief we decided to expand upon Film Brief 4. Our reasons being because we all had good ideas on carrying out the film opening and what event to focus on.

Our first task was to brainstorm events which have taken place within the last 2 years.
These are the main events we came up with:

·         Swine flu
·         Haiti
·         Deaths in fordingbridge
·         Raoul Moat case
·         Josef Fritzl
we decided that the Fritzl event would make a very interesting film opening sequence. We started research more into the case and background research. We were really interested by the case and found out a lot more than we had previosly known.
We started to consider film names and wrote a list. This is what we have come up with so far:
  • Beneath
  • The unknown
  • Secure Seven
  • Below
  • Under the house
  • chained
  • Host
  • Lock and Key
  • 7 (there were 7 children)
  • 7+1 (7 children  + Elizabeth)
  • Father
  • Amstetten (the town name of the house)
  • The Tyrant of Amstetten (His nickname)
Initial thoughts of the opening scene

We also had some insperation on how we could go about making the opening sequence. This

is some initial ideas about what we could do in the opening:

Architech drawings Joseph Fritzl had planned to make an extension to his cellar. However he illegally continued his extension further, without planning permission, and this is where he planned to trap his daughter. We thought we could pan over various architech drawings to show his plans.

A child playing This could be Elizabeth as a younger child (Joseph Fritzl's abuse towards Elizabeth started when she was just eleven.)

Lullaby song tune/spooky This spooky music would promote the horror of the opening sequence, and using a child's lullaby would link to the event we are focusing on.

Time Lapse This could give an ellusion of days passing by (Elizabeth was trapped for 24 years!)

A teddy bear This could be a good connotaion. Using a childs toy could symbolise that children are involved.

opening a safe-like door This would be simular to how Fritzl entered the underground chamber.

These are the ideas we have come up with in the early stages of our pre-production!