Final Sequence

Evaluation

Sarah G (7120) -- Sophie P (7246) -- Vicky B (7198)
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secrets and lies

Mise en scene:

•High key lighting

•Red waistcoat draws main focus to baby who picks nose

•Woman in background wearing old fashioned clothes and fussing over baby

•Upper class people shown with there clothing

•Baby pictured on the left side of the screen

•Chaise longe pictured center of medium shot

   

Mise en scene:

 •High key lighting with two spot lights

 •Photoshoot, basic background so the main focus is on the characters

 •Three little cute ballarinas centered with two women each side of screen
 •Old fashioned clothing, all three children are in the same clothing

 •Fussing over children preparing them for photos

  Mise en scene:

 • Photo shoot white background instead of dark to create a heavenly atmosphere

 •High key white lighting

 •Mother and baby picture center of medium shot

 •Mother is dressed in white and baby is nude to show purity and innocence

 •Mother comforts baby for photo

 Mise en scene:

 •Cat in center of medium shot with woman on right of the screen.

 • The setting is a photo shoot with  a table centered with a tweed chair on top of it.

 • The woman is portrayed as a typical cat lover constantly stroking and comforting her cat, also she checks to see if the cat looks good rather than worrying about herself.   

 • The woman is extremely happy always smiling.

 • High-key lighting. 

Mise en scene:

•Medium shot with man centered

•High key lighting with one strobe light for the flash of the camera

•Wearing a red fez and drawn on moustache to look like Tommy Cooper

•Holding a plastic bag

•Dressed smartly

•Waves his hand vigarously to show anger

                               Mise en scene:

•Mise en scene :

•Raunchy women to the right of a medium shot

•Two of the women are wearing black and 1 woman is wearing blue to draw attention to that specific woman who is probably the main focus.

•High key lighting

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Mise-en-scene:

•Setting – photo shoot for the dog. Main colour is red, keeping the focus on the dog.

•Costume and make up – not modern, old fashioned.

•Movement – fast pace.

•Lighting – high key.

•Frame – centered on dog, making it the main focus. Medium shot.

Stereotype – typical dog lover, shown by her being obsessive over her dogs appearance and her wearing a jumper with dogs on the front of it. 

                             

•Mise en scene:

•High key lighting.

•Family centered of medium shot.

•Characters focus on the photographer and the audience focus on the family.

Mise en scene:

•High key lighting.

•Man on chair in center of medium shot.

•Smartly dressed, dull colours used.

•Conversation happening over the photographers shoulder about marriage.

Mise en scene:

•High key lighting

•Smartly dressed characters to portray them to look upper class.

•Dull colours used maybe reflecting their personalities.

•Only speech from the photographer.

•Mixed emotions showed by their facial expressions. Some happy some look bored which is particularly shown by the man who looks at his watch.

•Characters centered within the frame.

•Medium shot.

Mise en scene:

•High key lighting from the side.

•Is wearing classic boxing outfit with the red boxing gloves, red representing danger and blood.

•His movements are energetic and shows high adrenalin.

•Medium/long shot with man centered in the frame.

Mise en scene:

•high key lighting

•Woman is spread across a table posing for the camera in a provocative way.

•Medium shot, centered.

•Plant showing in the background for decoration.

•Her clothing is lingerie creating her to look sexy.

Mise en scene:

•High key lighting

•Prop used is a chair in which she leans on.

•She is wearing a traditional nurses outfit including the hat to show she is an important person.

•She has very blank facial expressions coming across as boring.

•Medium shot with woman slightly of center.

Goodfella's Opening Sequence

The opening of 'Goodfella's' starts off with some credits and each credit enters as a wipe to the sound of a car passing. Then a piece of text enters saying, 'This film is based on a true story,' this definitely engages the audience as because it is based on a true story it makes people relate to the film more. The car sounds then become the noise of a car driving along a road. There is a good use of camera movement here as it shows different angles of the car. The lighting here is very dark and the audience is still not introduced to any characters, creating uncertainty. There is then a black out and a piece of text appears as a fade in, saying, "New York, 1970" this informs the audience of the place and time setting. The next footage seen is a static shot of three men in a car which are all dressed smartly, creating them to look wealthy.

Filming Three

On the 14th we wanted to do our final filming session. To do this we had to be very organised and prepared. The last piece of footage we needed included the car scene which meant we needed our male friend to definitely turn up this time. We made sure at the start of the day that he could come and he said he would definitely be able to make it. The group all turned up at the location being Epping Forest to film. We we had all the equipment, props and costume to make our last filming session was a success.

Filming Two

On the 11th of February we decided to film again to film at the location of my house. This would be for the  second half of our opening. All of the group was very well organised and focused on what we was supposed to be doing. We set up the scene making sure everything was ready to be filmed. everything we very well however we did have a few issues with the lighting and the layout of my house. We could not seem to get the lighting right for the scene especially as we wanted a more obvious bright light on one character. we did finally manage to do this by using a torch but it was difficult. The other issue being the layout of my house was because we all had a certain image in our head to how we wanted the scene to look and we could not rearrange the furniture to suit the angles we wanted to shoot. We did as a group solve the issue and overall it turned out to be a great filming session.

Filming one

On the 7th of February we started to film our opening scene for our film. A scene within our opening includes a car so we asked a male friend who can drive to help us with this scene. The group arrived at the location being up by Epping forest college and waited for our friend to turn up with his car however he wasn't able to make it. This was disapointing although he did manage to film some sections a few times showing different angles of the shot.

Our first filming was quite succesfull as we was very organised and was equipped with everything we needed to film however it was unfortunate that we could not film the car section. 

Gone Baby Gone opening sequence

The opening of 'Gone Baby Gone' starts with the sound of the wind and of the distant noises. There is then a static shot for three seconds of an American flag poster which makes the audience realise the film is based in America. Soft music starts to play, blending in with the diegetic sounds which straight away creates a calm yet sad atmosphere which hints to the audience that something bad has happened. There is then many straight cuts showing different people which then becomes clear towards the end that they are all part of a neighborhood. There is a voice over of a man talking about life in a very warm and loving way which makes the audience want to get to know his character. The voice over then stops for 23 seconds where there is a climax in the music. The camera then focuses on a man and the audience and the voice over starts again which makes the audience think that the man is who is speaking. The voice over then says, "when your jobs is to find people who are missing." This makes the audience think this character may be part of the police and that someone has possibly gone missing in the neighborhood, which relates to the title of the film. The footage being shown along with the voice over is of a neighborhood showing the type of people that live there which come across as working classed people due to their clothing. The audience also gets to see the setting of the film. There is then a straight cut showing a policeman then another straight cut of a photograph of a young girl, which makes everything link together that a little girls has gone missing. The use of lighting is natural creating that normal day to day life atmosphere. Altogether this opening is very effective as it engages the audience and enigma is created, making the audience want to know the answers, making them continue to watch the film.

Harry Brown Opening Sequence

At the start of the Harry Brown opening there is a black out which includes some credits over the top which is a good way of of making the audience focus on just the sounds and credits. There is a voice over being a males voice using offensive language. An image then appears and the camera movement is hand held, creating the effect that it is a video being filmed on a mobile phone. The sounds here are loud and there is a lot of shouting which creates it to be quite intimidating for the audience. The dark setting adds to this frightening atmosphere. There are many hooded male characters which creates enigma because of there being no certainty of any main characters being introduced. There is then another black out when the chanting of the hooded characters stops. The footage then goes back into a hand held camera movement again creating it to look like a mobile phone video. It is very busy and the pace is fast as the characters are on a moped. The sound along with this footage is very loud adding to the busy camera movement. With so much happening it really engages the audience into the film. With the use of the hand held camera movement it lets the viewer get an insight to where the film is set, being a London council estate. Overall the use of camera movement and sounds in this opening is what engages the audience and make them want to carry on watching the film.

'Children of Men'

“How effectively does the opening sequence from ‘Children of Men’ (2006) use the forms and conventions of film openings? What is your personal response as a member of the audience?”

‘Children of Men’ is a sci-fi/thriller film which is directed by Alfonso Cuaron, it was released in 2006. It stars Julianne Moore, Clive Owen and Chiwetel Ejofor.  The opening sequence to ‘Children of Men’ uses forms and conventions in ways to get the audience intrigued and wanting to watch the rest of the film.

First of all as soon as the film starts the audience is automatically hit with a lot of information about what is occurring at that moment in time of the film. It is clear when watching the opening sequence that Alfonso Cuaron wants the audience to have a clear understanding of the time setting and the place setting. This is because of the constant reminders the audience is given, for example the date of when the film is set in which is 2027 is repeated twice, once on the TV screen which is magnified to make it even more clear but it is then also shown when the character leaves the cafe it appears at the bottom of the screen. Also the place setting is made clear to be London by the red buses the tall buildings and the police uniform which two officers are wearing. London however is shown differently in this opening sequence, it come across as dull, depressing and in the future. This is clear because of the colouring being very dark and gloomy therefore creating a depressive atmosphere. Also to add to it being depressing the character Theo Faron is seen pouring some sort of alcoholic drink into his coffee which makes the audience question why he is doing that. A way in which the audience knows that this film is set in the future is by certain features within the surroundings, such as moving adverts on the buses and motorised rickshaws. The purpose of doing this is to inform the audience and prepare them for the rest of the film. Another way in which Alfonso Cuaron has done this is by having the news on the TV, not only is it informing the characters within the film about what has happened but it is also informing us as an audience.

A narrative function which Alfonso Cuaron uses is introducing a main character. This happens to be Clive Owen and he first appears walking into a cafe acting uninterested at what is existing at that moment. As all the other characters within this scene are acting shocked and worried and Clive Owen who plays Theo Faron is completely calm it makes the audience see this as very unusual and creates enigma, making the audience question why this is. The audience can tell that Clive Owen is going to be a main character because of the camera movement. For example when he leaves the cafe s does the camera. The camera follows only him focusing all of the audience’s attention onto him.

The pace of the opening sequence is rather slow and there are not many edits. This is to reflect the mood of the film and also that the fact the world has come to some sort of stand still at this point in the film it would not be as effective is there was to be a fast jumpy pace.                                                Music is used in the opening sequence to establish the mood of this scene. The music is played from the TV when the dates of the birth and death of the youngest human being, Diego Ricardo is shown. This creates a miserable, upsetting atmosphere for both the characters and the audience.                       The costumes of every character within the opening sequence of ‘Children of Men’ are dark, plain and dingy. No one stands out from the crowd; every character blends in making the audience focus more on what is being said than shown. The costumes reflect everything else that has been established so far in the film such as the depressing mood.

Alfonso Cuaron uses technical codes in order to gain all of the audience’s attention. A way in which he has does this is by at the very beginning of the film there is a blank screen however you can hear a voice over of a news broadcast. The point of doing this is that by having a blank screen the audience has nothing else to focus on but the things they are hearing so therefore gets them intrigued into the film. A sound bridge is used at this point when you can hear the news broadcast with a blacked out screen it then continues when eventually seeing the news broadcast on the TV. This adds to the effect of keeping the audience interested.

The camera movement within the opening sequence is kept very basic and so is the editing to match this. Only straight cuts are used, simply switching between the TV and the character Theo Faron. The reason for this would probably be to not distract the audience from what is being said. Like mentioned before the camera follows the character Theo Faron which seems to become handheld once left the cafe which creates it to be realistic for the audience as if they are walking down the street after him. This involves the audience in the film. The camera follows Theo Faron down the street and then pans around him focusing the audience on him pouring alcohol into his coffee and then the camera becomes static for a few seconds to then reveal the explosion from the cafe. This becomes a big shock for the audience as it was so unexpected and again creates enigma, making the audience question why and how that happened.

I personally got intrigued right from the start of this opening. The entire enigma created made me wants to see the rest of this film. I found the whole setting and time period very interesting and wanted to find out more of what has become of our country. The fact that the opening was so depressing and dark it made me want to see the rest of the film to find out if there’s happy moments or a happy ending. To conclude on all of this it is clear to see that this is a very effective opening which I personally think is mainly down to the enigma as it captivates the audience’s attention straight away.