Film opening sequence deconstruction

Film opening sequence: Saw 7

Saw 7 conforms to the slasher generic convention. It contains gory and graphic visuals and scenes full of violence and gore. Also the bad people are the first to die and the good people are the ones who survive. This sequence can give me and my group a lot of things to think about for when we make our slasher if that's what we choose as a genre.

Saw 7 starts off with a big group of people surrounding a glass box with three people in it. In this box there are three people. They are instructed to kill one person in the box by the time the stop watch goes down to 0. At the end off the timer the saw cuts through to girl and kills her. This conforms to the slasher genre as the whore always dies first.

Mis-en-scene: During the opening sequence a childish clown toy is used by the villain to voice his instructions. This little toy is quite childish and creepy. This is used to show the killers broken mind as he thinks everything is a game. This can be connected to the slasher genre as the killer has no reason for his killing apart from that he thinks it is fun.

Sound: The non diegetic sound track used in the opening sequence creates suspense. It is polyphonic and is orchestral based. It is quite fast paced which builds up the tension in the scene as people are abut to be killed. This creates a good suspense for the audience and is something that we need to incorporate if we are going to do a slasher.

Editing: The editing used in this is quite simple. It uses fast paced cuts. This is because the sequence is exciting and jumpy. These fast cuts build and keep the suspense until the moment were somebody dies. This is something that we need to incorporate if we where to do a slasher.

Camera: There are a lot of close ups on peoples faces and on important items. They are seen all through the opening. This is because people need to see the expressions on there faces and what they are feeling at that time. Also the item close ups show what they are looking at and tell the viewer that they are an important part off the storyline.

Makeup Practical

Make up is a big part of the movie industry. It is used in every film and on every person that features in the film weather they are a boy or a girl. In slasher films make up is a very important aspect when making a realistic film. In a slasher there will be blood and gore and so makeup will be heavily involved. Makeup is quite hard to pull off effectively this is because it has to look realistic because if its not it will look tacky and fake.

I experimented with makeup over the Halloween break. I make a few cuts and wounds out of liquid latex. This is a moulded liquid that can be dried to represent skin. you do this by painting out a cut with the latex and drying it in layers so that you get depth. After this you have to paint it to show the skin tone you are so it looks realistic and like its your own flesh. You can do this with ether paint or foundation. Then you have to add the blood. I used a pot of fake blood from Sainsbury's and add some things to make it thicker and more vicious. Here are the finished wounds and a time lapse of the stages before the finished  pieces.

Inspiration of Seven

• This film can be simplified down with the titles but still retain the same effect meaning our group could do it in our opening sequence. It also tells us the order in which the people should be presented that way we don't put prop specialist first or music by someone last. Also the props used meant that anyone could technically do it because the props could be found or made easily. This is great as special effects is difficult to do and it inspires me to think more basic. The film also made me realise that a horror film openings could not have a dramatic scene in the first 2 minuets so this gave me ideas on what sound would make suspense. 

• Sound would be the hardest thing to find as it is difficult to get all the blood sound effects or realistic screaming. But also it is difficult to get sound without copyrighting something else so the film tells me we have to be resourceful and think outside the box. The sound is contrapuntal to the images. Sound that maybe I could copy and use is between 0.17 and 0.19 to sound is from a record player which my dad has and the sound is easy to achieve via scratching and could be used for flash backs or mix in sound to scramble it up.

• Props, this film is good inspiration for props as it tells us we have to think like a killer so we are not allowed to make silly mistakes in filming and reveal our characteristics. The plasters on his finger tips conforms to not anting to be known or traced via finger prints this obsession with finger tips is also shown as he gets a razor and takes away his skin which appears to be dead.

A book is easy to find and with editing can be made to look old and worn. or I could old tea bags which degrade the paper making it look older than it actually is. This is inspiration because simple things can be used to make a dramatic effect.

Bandages over fingers with dark edges displaying a used need again this is inspiration because all these small props add up. It also gives me an idea of what a killer might have and use different props to foresee that.

Pictures that are black and white with face drawn out displays killing list, something in which people would have in that area or in their own room.

• Camera angles most are extreme close up of close up this makes the audience see his obsessions or maybe motives . We can see him cutting the word god out displaying a religion medium which physiological horrors are renowned for. Also him crossed eyes out of names giving people the impression of a kill list and also that he nows the victims well. This is great inspiration as close ups and extreme close ups can be easily performed and can be edited down to make a dramatic effect as well as easy to do as no frame needs to be filled with other things.

Extreme close up so you can see everything he is doing in specific detail also means you can't see his face. This is a good tip if I am trying to reveal the character without giving the game away so early loosing the suspense.

Dropping hints to tell the audience what this it is about via religion. The fact he picked that word out means something and tells the audience a little hint on what the topic could be about. Just not everything which would therefore ruin the film. 

• The editing is quite slow paced with lots of different cuts to section this makes scenes you are seeing more dramatic and sinister to what they could be if the editing was fast paced which would loose the effect of suspense.   

Profesional Preduction company

A production company is an organization which produces, films, plays, television or radio programmes. Production company's are an important part of a film and one or more production companies will feature in the film. At the start of all films the company will show there ident which is a quick piece of media that shows there name so people will know who the film is by.

20th century fox is a big name in the production company field.  It was founded May 31, 1935 by Joseph M. Schenck and Darryl F. Zanuck. 20th century fox is now a multibillion pound corporation and have received many golden globe films and other awards for there films and actors feature in the films. Here are some off there most profitable films. 20th century fox has over 400 employees and it keeps on expanding as it is a huge multination company. It has make billions and billions of dollars over the years. here are 20th century foxes most profitable films. In 2007, News Corp had almost 30 billion dollars in revenue, and about 3.5 billion in net income (after expenses are taken out).

1	Avatar	2009	$760,507,625
2	Titanic	1997	$658,672,302
3	Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace	1999	$474,544,677

Here is the 20th Century Fox ident throughout the whole time it has been around., As you can see there is a small variation between the old and new idents but you can see the huge amount of difference it makes from the first one to last one. You can also see how editing software's have developed in all these years and how much better they are now then before.

School Made Production Company Deconstruction

In our final Piece we will have to make a production company ident, to make it look professional and like an actually movie opening sequence. This means that there are examples of student made production companies in there past a level pieces. I looked at a piece called "A-Level Media Studies: The Marksman (A GRADE)".

                                                                         

This is what there ident looks like. It is called Silver lining production. It is only 4 seconds long. It fades in and then flashes as it moves away in the foreground. It is really quite effective as it is just a simple ident and looks professional. It has good font and looks visually pleasing. It is easy to read and stands out in the middle of the screen. The background is also effective as it gives off an eerie blue light which could resemble police sirens as a it is an urban drama.

After the ident fades out the words "in association with E4" come up on the screen. This is also I nice extra that they put in to show off there professional ability when it comes to editing. I thought this was an added bonus and showed off the full extent off there skills. Overall I think that these people did a very good job off making a production company ident and I think it was successfully done

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.