A lot of exposition is shown through the first shot, yet there is still narrative enigma. The mise-en-scene provides the exposition of the characters, typically the protagonist. The protagonist usually isn't shown completely to leave that narrative enigma and suspense. When a movie shows the character immediately, it takes away from the suspense. A common example of the first shots are Hand of God. This means that it goes from a ELS to a LS all the way to a CU. This usually occurs as a town, to a road, to a house, to in a specific window. It shows that the character is just like anyone else and that the specific story line could have happened to anyone. I looked at Bridget Jones's Diary (Maguire, 2001), About a Boy (Chris and Paul Weitz, 2002) and Hot Fuzz (Wright, 2007).
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CENTRAL PROTAGONIST AND NARRATIVE MISE-EN-SCENE TRANSITIONING TO MAIN FILM
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Idents are essentially the logo of a production company which is played at the beginning of a movie. They are the most simple aspect of a film opening. An ident usually lasts between 4-7 seconds and there are usually 2-4 idents before the movie starts. The more production companies involved in making the movie, the more the risks are spread. Indie movies occasionally have no idents at the beginning. The bigger conglomerates such as the Big 5 (Warner Bros., Paramount, NBC Universal, Sony and Walt Disney) get a lot more screen time for their idents rather than smaller juniorcompanies. The Big 5 are also more likely to have their own jingle rather than an audio bridge.
WHAT IS THE POINT OF AN IDENT?
They are placed at the beginning of a movie to show which production companies were involved in the making of the movie. Idents are also used to advertise the production company. Idents are often made aesthetically pleasing and enticing to make them memorable. The fact that Big 5 idents are repeatedly marketed also helps to make them memorable. The production company wants to make a good impression so that people are tempted to watch more of their creations. Idents can also be altered to connote the genre of the movie. This is mostly identifiable with the Slasher genre.
VODCAST
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POSSIBLE INFLUENCES
Having possibly 1 or 2 idents with their own jingle
Having 1 ident with audio bridge to movie
Considering our film opening can't be that long, probably a maximum of 10 seconds per ident
Possibly having something altered about the ident to connote the zom-rom-com hybrid genre
In this vodcast, I speak about the titles in different movies. I've looked at some Working Title movies as well as Warp movies. It is clear that a title is very important as it anchors the genre and the preferred reading. This is shown through the font, colour, size and case. It is interesting as a few movies don't have any titles at all. The order is also important to look at as this will help us create our film opening. I look at Tyrannosaur (Considine, 2011), This is England (Meadows, 2007) and Four Lions (Morris, 2010) from Warp and Bridget Jones's Diary (Maguire, 2001) from WorkingTitle.
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Rushers and sample scenes - audience feedback and reflections
Edit and upload BTS video shoot 2
Post creative formats list, with filming date and names for each Eval Q
Finish convention vodcast on sound, genre signification
Social media posting - "Isn't it terrifying when you've lost your keys" - look at insta - cornetto trilogy? - ideally other zombie films - maybe BJB - Aero etc. - better with Working Title - anything that links with Zombie
Conventions - drill into Shaun of the Dead - cover all GCs list
Here is a list of the equipment we will use to record our film opening:
Small Tripod - convenient for worms eye view shots
iPhone 11 - the highest quality out of all iPhone cameras. Has a very wide angle lens (improving the issue of recording in small rooms). Similar quality to proper camera
LED camera light - this means we can film in rooms that have slightly less light.
Large Tripod - gives the shots stability and gives us the opportunity to adjust heights if need be
iPhone tripod adaptor - meaning we can attach the iPhone to the tripod
Gimbal- if we chose to use any tracking shots, it gives a very stabilised and professional look to the footage
This is our behind the scenes video of our first shoot. Overall I think it went very well and we were all very determined to achieve as much as possible through this shoot. We each took on roles to make this as easy for us as possible whilst still chipping in our ideas and everyone taking them on board. I think we've all learnt a lot through this process which will be helpful for our next shoot. For example, we figured out that it's a lot easier to continue to film the exact same shot multiple times instead of stopping recording just to start again. Another thing we learnt was how to efficiently use our time. We could only film our first scene after 12:00 due to having to order the pizza, so instead of waiting, we filmed all the other shots before that one. One thing we had a bit of trouble with, is not having all the props needed that day as Bright Films was unable to make it. For our next shoot we will make sure that all of the props needed will be at the location before we shoot so that we are sure that we haven't missed anything.
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We tried to test out the zombie makeup again but with face paints this time. We hadn't tested out these face paints previously so this was a trial. We decided to not have the green highlighter underneath this time as it made the look too lively last time and I think the more matte it is, the less life-like it looks. We were taking more inspiration from videos I had previously researched, but we weren't actually following anything. I think that's where we went wrong. If we had followed the videos a bit more closely, I think it could have turned out very well. Yet again, I think we had a bit too much colour with the blue so next time we will make it more grey. We also didn't have a sponge to use so the face paint wasn't going on Louis' skin as well as it should have and it was very streaky. We will purchase a sponge for the next time we try this. I think the red eyeshadow Louis used as bruising at the end looked much better, however there was a bit too much, especially in the camera. We need to make sure that what we create looks good in the camera.
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In the beginning, we took inspiration from the character Wichita in the movie Zombieland, played by Emma Stone. We were going to have Mia Jones dressed in a plain white, slightly baggy, V-neck top with a black leather jacket, blue ripped jeans and black flat boots.
Wichita in the middle
Now we have changed up her outfit a bit for a bit more male gaze, a theory by Laura Mulvey (you can see my other post about this here). We took some inspiration from the musician PJ Harvey. She often wear a dress or skirt with some boots.
Mia Jones will be wearing a short black dress which has the same sort of shape as the first picture, besides the neck line. We will also have her wearing some black boots and a khaki thin jacket.
OUTFIT
These are sort of what the boots look like. They have this snake skin shiny print and the buckles but have a bit of a higher heel like the next photo.
The dress looks exactly the same as this with the slight slit on the left thigh. The length was inspired by the PJ Harvey dresses. It's going to be quite cold so I will wear skin coloured tights underneath.
This is what the khaki jacket looks like. It has a smaller collar than the one in this picture and it's slightly more cropped.
We've come up with a little schedule for what blog posts we need to make sure we have created by Monday. This will help us get more on track and to be more organised.
EMMA
Makeup video and blog post
Text above post - link to other post - possible influences
Mia Jones outfit
Gather any missing bits of costume
LOUIS
Zombie outfit
Specify any missing bits of costume
Idents - Louis combining them together
Tristan films Saturday, Louis and Emma's have been filmed, James TBC
Equipment used
Details, pictures - be comprehensive
JAMES
Animatic
Animated story board - using clips from practice shoots etc. talking about the shot types, mise-en-scene, transitions, FX - outlining what the final cut will look like
Casting
Who and why they are casting
TRISTAN
Eddie Pegg outfit
Specify any missing bits of costume
Donnie Romero outfit
Specify any missing bits of costume - think about stains as well
I'm doing some more research for the zombie makeup as I believe ours could look better. We are using liquid latex, so I've watched some videos on zombie makeup which has liquid latex scars/cuts.
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I think her makeup was a bit too excessive for what we're looking for so we will take inspiration from the liquid latex technique but not the eye makeup. I think that we will have the makeup look more like how we had it before.
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The makeup is a lot more what we're looking for on this video. I thought that the tissue was a bit more obvious which I didn't like, however, I like how she covered it with the fake blood. I also like the effect the sponge gave with the blood.
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I think this way of doing the cut is really cool and very different. It might be a bit too complicated for our first try but I think it is worth a go. I really like the red on the waterline with black/grey just underneath. I also really like how she did her lips.
I've bought some more makeup to help with the zombie makeup because I think it needs some improvement.
Blue Face Paint
I think we could possibly use the blue face paint as a bit of discolouration for the zombie's face. I think it will make it look a bit more gruesome without making the age rating go up.
Grey Face Paint
The grey face paint is vital to show the lack of life in the zombie.
White Face Paint
I think the white face paint will be useful but we need to make sure it's not too white so it looks ghostly.
Green Face Paint
The green face paint, like the blue, can be used to make the zombie's face look a bit discoloured.
Fake Blood
Obviously fake blood is a massive part of this. It is important we use something that isn't going to irritate skin and this one is specifically for the face.
Red Lipstick
We could use this red lipstick for blood. It might cause a bit of a problem as it is matte. This could make it look very unrealistic and not the look we are going for.
Eyeshadow Palette
This eyeshadow palette may be a bit too bright for the look we're going for. However, we may be able to use the blue and green shades to set the blue and green face paint.
Small Tripod - convenient for worms eye view shots
