Film Production Company

Hammer films made films like: 

Women in Black 

Let Me In

Wake wood

As well as most famously Frankenstein and Dracula, which a lot of people know. Hammer films or Hammer Pictures is a British film company based in London. Founded in1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic 'Hammer Horror' films made from the mid 1950's until the 1970's. Hammer also produced a series of science fiction, thrillers, films noir and comedies - and, in later years, television series. During its most successful years, Hammer dominated the horror film market, enjoying worldwide distribution and considerable financial success.

Company Name

It has degraded colours that are not dominant maybe suggesting the company dates back a long time. The writing is like comic witting maybe conforming to news companies reporting on old ghost stories. This is certainly true with the title as comic book drawings of the characters that are famous for appearing in Hammer films. 

This is an inspiration as the editing is very simple we could be a old comic book full of horror pictures and start flicking through them. We could increase the sound and use the title tool to make sure we only see certain areas making the opening credits very atmospheric.

Se7en

Opening Title Sequence

Our task was to take screenshots every single time words of Producers or even prop makers came up and put them along a timeline. This would help us understand what was the order of importance during a film opening credits so when we try to make the real thing we don't have camera man as the first thing that comes up.






















I noticed that the production and director is right at the end something I only thought would occur at the start to set the movie off. Instead the actors set off the film starting the the most famous one's instead of someone you haven't heard before. Then comes music by and casting things that started the film together as well as edited which, finished the film these are the people that made the film what it is now so that is the reason why they are in the starting credits along side other mentionable people.

What I also noticed is that assistant or executive producers and directors appear before the actual one's which is something that I thought would be the other way around considering there importance.

Se7en Timeline

Timeline of Se7en

This is a Timeline of the opening sequence credits for the film seven. It contains important roles such as cinematographer and director and other interesting and significant people such as costume designers and actors involved. This may be a thing to look into more when we start experimenting with our opening sequences as it doesn't need acting and can look professional.

Location Scouting

 Inspiration

Cabin In the woods is good inspiration because I contains a lot of stereotypes which usual takes place in a horror especially a Slasher. The part I wont to focus on is the start as that is what my setting is like but instead of flat ground it is rocky with a lot of fallen trees.

Props a large cabin in the middle of nowhere. before they arrive at petrol station there is a lot of rubbish out side and everything is very rusty and old. This tells me we could use the props at the location to get an abandoned feeling.

Camera angles is mainly low perspectives as this gives a feeling of isolation and also trapped feeling as if all the trees are blocking you in with the cliffs scaled up high.

The start of the trailer displays what setting I would like in a horror movie as the outside can produce more adaptable conditions if the weather and everything is okay.

Quarry for Horror

4608*3456(pixels)  ISO 3200 and Shutter Speed1/4000

1. The long bushes will make an atmospheric scene as you hear diegetic sound of the wind rustling against the bushes. Quick camera shots will make the bushes seem like they are closing in. 

2. This location is very good as all horror films occur in a abandoned area in the middle of nowhere and this is apparent in films like cabin in the woods. And the second image would display the isolation and camping leaves the vulnerable to a slasher.

4608*3456(pixels) ISO 800 and Shutter Speed of 1/100

3. The order of death is usually in chronological order and when they occur it happens deeper and deeper into the unknown as the characters move away from exits.

4. The gore and graphic scenes could technical be displayed on rocks and leaves meaning wounds can be presented easily.

   Would be a nice place to track people running down the track or maybe a point of view.

Rubbish of cigarette packets and a burnt mattress could be used as props to display a junk yard or abandoned area.

Over grown area could be used for a fall or a escape up the rock face or a fall down to the bottom.

A sign of no escape from some areas leaving a person boxed in to defend themselves.

Evaluation 

If I was to do a location again I would find some place with a little more wind protection meaning people could hear the actors over the wind or so that the shot is more stable. Also I would find more stable ground or flatter ground that way we don't spend our time changing the tripods height. 
What went well was I found different locations that are abandoned and burnt meaning props can be used to represent hooliganism and reckless behaviour. Also The cover of the trees means the light does not over expose the camera resulting in poor images.

Snatch Urban Drama

Opening scene Deconstruction

Snatch conforms to all conventions of an Urban Drama and displays them within the opening scene. With a robbery taking place in a Jewish Jewellers as they steal a diamond the size of a fist.

Opening sequence:

In the robbery non diegetic parallel Jewish music is played in the background to connote what sort of industry they are in helping the audience understand the religious representation. The pan of the different security cameras displays a camera view of them walking through another camera.

Robbery scene:
Here we see them pull guns from body armour and jump up onto tables smashing tables and throwing paper around the room. During the diegetic shouting and stamping on the tables. Editing is being used twisting the close up shots this makes the robbery look like a cartoon as it could be compared as to be similar to something you might see in Loony Toons. This also might make the villains look goofy and clumsy which is a trait that follows the characters throughout the film.

 End of a circular motion of the camera

Then the film gets serious as the main protagonist starts asking for a stone 'diamond' and starts hitting a person round the face demanding this precious stone. The shot used it a mid shot that way you could see the mans reaction from the hit. This is then proceeded by someone them undressing out of outfits and someone looking at the diamond.

Then they cut to credits showing all the characters and there main features about them. This is done with none diegetic parallel Jazz music in the background this maybe relating to a urban illegal culture of being hipster. The first one is a close up of a man looking at a diamond this is probably stolen and also tell the audience about the sort of trade that may go on.

Sol throwing money

The culture of a urban drama carries on. A mid shot of a man throwing money displays maybe a loaning or borrowing business. This is proceeded with cartoon like letters that are big and bold suggesting a cartoon like character or maybe personifying what they will be like in the film.

Money culture

This mid shot maybe displays what inner city London is like and how when you porn an item how you could be getting more for it. Therefore displaying the illegal activities of what the film wants to permit. As well as conventions that this is a urban drama which challenges social views of how great some parts of the world are.

Gambling

This close up displays gambling a common convention of an Urban Drama and conforms men gambling and high angle shots of not money but gold chains and watches displays people with disposable income that are very confident about winning and is something you would not expect from a normal legal poker game. the four fingers also could display what happens if you don't pay up in gambling so a sense of violence.

Bare knuckle boxing

Guns

This mid shot of someone punching a boxing bag. The background displays a dirty and caravan and fences which means they are living in the underground which can displays an illegal activity as they are hiding from people. The right image shows a shotgun which is what gangsters usual have, this film would not be a full urban drama without guns or scenes of violence. Again the sound is non diegetic with a jazz sound in the background. On all the characters after displaying there different components a freeze frame allows text to be seen without the image behind it being blurred.

Deconstruction of opening credits - Final Destination 5

Deconstruction of film opening credits - Final Destination 5

Before we look into ideas about our own movie sequence we have to look at real material that has been made professional to get ideas for about our own. We are thinking about going into slasher films and have ideas built around gore and violence, for this reason I am going to deconstruct the opening sequence of Final Destination 5.

The opening sequence to final destination isn't actually the film. It doesn't include any speaking or even any characters. It starts off with the credits and the warner brothers ident. The ident is important because it lets the viewer know what studio produced the film and any other collaborations. The credits also show the viewer who made the film and who is featured in it. This is a good idea because it means people will defiantly have to view it rather then leaving the film or turning it off at the end. When we do our opening sequence we will have to make one off these. I have some experience in doing this as we did this for our GCSE piece.

Warner brothers ident in opening 5 seconds 

Final destination falls under the genre of a slasher film. This is because it has a lot of gore and violence and has a psychotic killer that kills people with no mercy. It follows most of the generic conventions and conforms to a slasher well. Here are some conventions it conforms to:

• Chronological order
• Insane killer
• Gory and graphic

                                           This is the 3 minute 36 second opening sequence

Camera: There is no specific thing the camera is focused on in this opening sequence. It is not visible for which angle the camera is looking or for how far. They all have a black background and focus on smashing glass with something protruding form the glass such as a skull or a hook or explosions.

Editing: In the opening sequence there are a few editing techniques used. There is a fade to black in the first 23 seconds in-between different idents. There are also dissolves between shots which adds a interesting twist to the sequence. It also cuts between writing and camera shots.

Mis-en-scene: All the things that are filmed in this sequence are to do with destruction and tie into other thing such as death and pain. There are explosions, breaking glass, skull, hooks and many other things that can inflict trauma and bodily harm. This is used to set the tone of the film.

Sound: This opening sequence has a specialised non diegetic sound track. The music is tailored to fit the footage perfectly. This is shown when the glass breaks and the music then makes a thudding sound. They are all in time to each other and this works very effectively

Preliminary Final Piece

                                         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T28o_jhoTW8

Preliminary Evaluation

Preliminary Evaluation

We had three lessons two Plan, Film and edit our preliminary task. This involved us acting, drawing out plans, working as a team and producing a quality product in the time that we had. Below is the deconstructions of each part of the task and what we did as a team. 

 

Planning

Planning was the first stage to assemble our preliminary sequence. We had to decide as a group what we want to do. As we are all mates we made compromises and got the story board and roles in the group done fast. This meant we could get all our props and things we needed by the next lesson so we could film straight away. This will help us in the real thing because I have learnt that plans always change and you just have to adapt to get on with the filming and work.

Planning was the first stage to assemble our preliminary sequence. We had to decide as a group what we want to do. As we are all mates we made compromises and got the story board and roles in the group done fast. This meant we could get all our props and things we needed by the next lesson so we could film straight away. This will help us in the real thing because I have learnt that plans always change and you just have to adapt to get on with the filming and work.

 

 

 

Filming

Filming is where you record footage you need to make a moving sequence to then go on an edit. We had certain Gide lines and these were to show a conversation, someone exiting through a door, and someone crossing a corridor. 

These  screen shots where off a character opening a door and then moving down the corridor to another location. The top is continues editing and we made sure it had no jumps in it and ran smoothly with parallel action. We did this effectively as there were no obvious jumps and we had a rich amount of footage to use. 

 

 

 

 

 

And then these two camera shots are off two characters talking to one another. This technique is called shot reverse shot where two characters are involved in a conversation. There is also the 180 degree rule used in this conversation because the camera on goes along a 180 line and looks at one side of the characters.

 

We also used a pilferer of camera shots to make our sequence exciting as possible including, High angle shots to make people look weak, low angle shots to make people look strong and powerful, pan shots to follow people as the walk, point of view so the audience knows what they are looking at and even tilts to shot size. 

 Editing

 

Editing is the last stage of developing our preliminary task.  The first stage off this is was to put all our footage into final cut. This involved us sorting through multiple takes to find the footage that we wanted and then inserting it into the timeline. These are some off the shots we had to sort through and decide what we wanted.

 

The next stage was to go through the footage we had collected and drop it into the timeline. This is will display the moving image and make it look like a film. We had to cut clips so they flowed correctly and looked professional. This was the stage where we had to slow the continuity of walking through a door. In all of our shots it cuts this is because it is a fast pace sequence so it builds action and excitement in the shot, but in the last cut it cuts to black to symbolize that he has been knocked out. 

 

 

 

The third thing we did was put specialised filters on one off our shits. We put a security camera shot on a frame where Hugo walks out the building and down the stair case. It is well placed as we used a high angle shot so it actually looks like a security camera placement. The way we did this was just to put a filter over the actual shot. This is what the shot looked like overall and you select the effect on the right side of the picture in the box in the bottom corner  

 

After this we then went on to insert a title into the task. This involved us putting a layer over the first shot. The layer was a text layer so you could see the film threw the text but also read the title, “Drug Deal – Double D”. This was quite effective and gave a little twist to normal titles. Title with black background fly’s onto the screen, Frame behind is the actual sequence and opening camera shot

 

After this we then went on to insert a title into the task. This involved us putting a layer over the first shot. The layer was a text layer so you could see the film threw the text but also read the title, “Drug Deal – Double D”. This was quite effective and gave a little twist to normal titles. Title with black background fly’s onto the screen, Frame behind is the actual sequence and opening camera shot.

The final thing we did was to sort out the sound in the whole sequence. First we had to take pout all background sound. We did this by detaching the audio and then deleting it. The only shots we didn’t do this on is when we need to hear a conversation so the dialogue shots. We also put in a sound track that progressively raises in volume to the chase sequence starts and stays at a constant.  Sound clips before put in volume a bit high as its yellow. Special effect sound and non-diegetic sound track put in.

 In conclusion I think that we did very well and I am proud of what we have made. We only had three hours to finish this full piece and I think we did it to the best of our abilities. We did everything the exam board asked us to do. It also looks very professional and I think we should be proud of what we have achieved. If I where to do this again I think I would plan it better. I think we could have planned more in the time we had, this could be like arranging an outfit for the drug dealer to make it look more realistic.