On my mood board there are images of red and black which can be described as death or blood, The use of having pictures of women is to present their sex appeal and how it can be used to their advantage and in a murderous way otherwise known as 'Femme Fatal', as if they are a predator and the men are their pray. The sex appeal can allure men and this goes against the stereotype of a dangerous and rough looking, butch man always being a murderer which would otherwise scare you away from them. This also presents womens power as men are usually looked upon as the dominant ones and in this case we go against stereotypes, in my idea the men should be the 'damsel's in distress'. The red riding hood image is a fictional character me and the group would like to change perhaps making her into a woman of today but alluring men by her sex appeal and killing them. The red eye and scary looking, disguised face image could suggest evil and being possessed.

As a group we have discussed an idea, that perhaps Red Riding Hood should be a woman that is called, for example, 'Melissa Red' but gets given the name by the media as she becomes a murderer due to a Ryan Wolf otherwise known as 'Wolf' killed her Nan and he has escaped from prison. 'Red' is now on the hunt for Wolf killing men that get in her way by alluring them by her attractiveness and kissing their dead corpses on the forehead leaving a red lipstick mark which she will leave on every one of her dead victims forehead. This will be her signature mark which then links back to women's sex appeal.

Spider Diagrams

After discussing with the rest of the group we thought that the best way to begin planning our opening sequence would be to research the genre that we had chosen. We decided to do so by creating a spider diagram incorporating anything that we thought was relevant to the 'Thriller' genre.

Overall, we each created two different spider diagrams each and discussed our individual ideas. Above is two images of my own spider diagrams. I believe this will help use when planning our own opening sequence.

We were thinking of using red cat eye type contact lenses for our red riding hood character to wear. We think the contact lenses would be effective as they would shock the audience as they would expect Little Red Riding Hood to look very cute and innocent, they would also highlight on the fact that the film has got an evil twist to it. 


I have found a few websites that sell these sort of lenses although Hannah did mention that they may sell them in Argos.


http://www.spiritualquest.co.uk/Cosmetic-Contact-Lenses/Crazy-Range/Red-Cat-Eye-Contact-Lens/prod_530.html


http://www.youknowit.com/online-shop/funky-eyes-red-cat-eye-contact-lenses.cfm?sCurrencyCode=GBP&utm_medium=google_shopping&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=google_shopping_uk


http://www.unlimitedfancydress.co.uk/product/80441_Red-Cat-Eyes---Fashion-Contact-Lenses

The themes we have considered for our opening sequence for our media project are fantasy/fairytale and thriller.We have looked at certain fairytales such as Little Red Riding hood and Hansel and Gretel and have thought about adapting them to give them a more modern twist. My mood board includes various different pictures of scenes from popular fairytales such as Snow White and Jack and the Beanstalk. I have also included a picture of a dark, creepy forest to fit in with our thriller theme and we have also thought about filming our opening sequence in a forest.

Creative film making for the creatively challenged - Mark Ramye

I read an article from the Media Magazine which was about being creative during production work and avoiding the easy options to create a really interesting and enticing short film/opening sequence. I found this very useful as it gave a few very useful tips that we could follow as a group in order to make our sequence very interesting. Below are some of the main points that I picked up from the text.

1. Know the genre: The first tip explored in the article is 'knowing the genre.' in order to create a short film that is creative and interesting we must know the generic conventions of our chosen gene. An obvious example is for horror films. When making a horror film the use of lighting is a key feature throughout the genre. Apart from this there are also technical rules that ned to be followed.

2.Break the rules: Although the first tip was to know the rules of the genre the second idea is to break them. Breaking/challenging typical conventions will shock and thrill the audiences.

3.Plan the film: Planning the film is extremely important, without a plan the short film will become uncreative and boring. The planning can be broken down into three equally important areas.

a) Script: A well drafted short film script should be punchy and in a readable format.

b) Storyboard: Once a script is complete then you can begin to visualise the film.The storyboard an also introduce the idea of location and costume. Without a storyboard the film only exists vaguely without any real structure.

c) Mise-en-scene: There are many different decisions that could essentially effect the impact of the film, without any attention being paid to colour schemes, clothing and hairstyles.

Creative Film-Making for the Creatively Challenged

Overall I am very pleased that I read the text as it has been very helpful as I was able to realise that any opening sequence containing hoodies, bloopers and indoor corridor scenes was a bad idea as it was very predictable and uncreative.

Mood board

As a group we began discussing the kind of genres that we would like our film's opening sequence to fall under. Our initial idea was to create a sequence with a thriller/horror genre with some kind of modern twist. Our next idea was to link the fairy tale/fantasy genre with a modernised horror theme.

I created a mood board with a variety of different images, bits of text, and objects that may relate to the initial ideas of the groups project.

What is an opening sequence?

Opening sequences are used in order to set the scene of the film and create a good first impression on the viewer. A well-crafted title sequence introduces the audience to the theme of the film as well as introducing the cast and crew involved. Initially as a group we began to look at a variety of different opening sequences in order to develop an idea of what we may like and vise versa.

One of the three opening sequences was Sweeny Todd. Out of each of the clips this was the one which relates to our chosen theme the most.

The genre of the film is very clear as soon as the opening sequence begins; the clip depicts a gloomy, gory atmosphere at shows that it is a horror film. Credits are shown throughout the opening sequence, therefore giving an insight into the production information. The opening sequence seems to be animated or made with CGI images, however, the rest of the film isn’t. I didn’t like this idea as I found it very misleading. Another thing I didn’t like about the opening sequence was that I found it very long winded and it seemed to drag on for a long while, there was no introduction to characters which meant that as an audience we were unaware of what might happen throughout the film.

Ripper

Me and Liberty thought of an idea of a prostitute being kidnapped to an abandoned estate, the prostitute has been crying (messed up makeup), been in some sort of difficulties (ripped clothing and broken heel on shoe) and is very disorientated (blurred vision?) we could have the prostitute wondering round the estate dazed and confused. We could perhaps have someone lurking in the shadows or just stick to her walking around dazed and confused. The story we want to tell is a modern day jack the ripper without really showing him and keeping him a mystery (wearing all black only seeing him in unfocused, distant shots) leaving the audience to interpret what he may look like making it more frightening for the audience. I have an idea where it could be shot but after discussing some didn't agree on it and it was argued it could look like a cheesy soap opera, instead of a frightening film.

Frantic Run

Character goes into an office to find a ransom note or riddle we do not see the note but the character reads it and drops it into the floor. The character then goes for a mad dash round London, Running through big groups of people filming the different sites the character runs across then finds a man in a black suit with black sunglasses.... We could then cut to the title of the film leaving the audience on a cliff hanger.

Ipod discoveries

An idea I had was to have an ipod that a character comes across on the street, on the floor. They put the headphones in and select a song, for example 'London Calling - The Clash' the character is then transported to Buckingham Palace or Trafalgar Square. Confused, they select a different song and so on, then eventually they select 'YMCA - The Village People' and end up in pitch black with disco lights (in a gay bar) and the character frantically tries to change the song over before 'the village people' turn up ! We liked the idea but decided it could be quite hard to do finding different locations and so on also we felt the challenge of doing a comedy and decided perhaps not to attempt one yet at this early stage.

Office Space

From the first couple of seconds of the film, the credits are what appears first and from the bubble writing, fun font we are able to determine that the film is a light hearted family film. The upbeat ‘Latin’ music we hear contrasts with the frustrating grid lock the characters all seem to have got stuck in. The first character we see first is trying to switch lanes to get to (what we assume is) work during rush hour, but every time he switches lanes the traffic from the other lane he moved from eases up so we then witness the annoyingly amusing switch over’s from lane to lane, thus still not getting anywhere. He then notices an old man walking with his Zima frame on the side walk who’s getting further than him down the which adds to the comic effect of the scene. We are then introduced to the other characters In other cars in the same grid lock , all up to different antics which was fairly humorous giving us all a sense of their different personalities. From the short clip we get the sense that it is a comedy set piece about a group of characters who work together.

Trainspotting

Introduction of 2 men running with another 2 men behind them in grey suits (policemen?) seem to be hot on their case, the fast paced rock ‘n’ roll music adds to the energy of the pursuit. The narration could imply a personal story and suggests the telling of someone’s past experiences. From the swearing in the narration and the drug use and violence in the next scenes implies that this is an adults film and from the illegal use of drugs, a crime genre. There is one title which appears just before we see the chase, this could suggest a sense of ‘no time to explain’ so it can keep up with the fast pace. The use of the titles of character’s names appearing on the shot of the character suggests it being straight to the point and the urgency of wanting to tell the story and not detracting from it.

Sweeney Todd

The unsettling music opens the scene with a CGI dark, gloomy landscape of Victorian London, the spits of rain we see matches the eary mood of the opening. We do not see any characters instead credits are used to introduce each one and as the credits appear there is ‘the journey of the trickle of blood’ which shows where the story begins and where it ends. The change of the music suddenly appearing to become more tense and a faster pace creates suspense. Also the use of blood instantly informs the audience that it is possibly a story of murder and the blood, music, jumpy movements and eary feel together imply that the film is a horror. This presents to us that it is a film which may appeal to an older audience. Having said that, The CGI makes the film appear as if it’s is animated which usually appeals to a younger audience but soon found out it’s is not all CGI effects although CGI is heavily used throughout I believe to create what is almost like a ‘story’ or ‘dream’ like manner.

Another idea we had for the fairytale theme would be 'Red Riding Hood'. We could show a shot of following a womans feet walking in a red pair of heels/shoes then a shot to a credit then a shot of the mysterious woman in red in the distance walking into the woodlands waving her finger to follow then a shot back to another credit. Then lastly a p.o.v shot of the woman looking down at her feet with a corpse next to them in a pool of blood then an extreme close up of her eye with a red contact lense then a shot back to the credits of the opening title of the film 'Red Riding Hood'. We have thought of an actress to act the part and thought of editing techniques to use.

A Cinderella Story - Inspiration

This video is a good example of a classic fairytale adapted to a modern style. I like the voiceover at the beginning which begins to tell the story of cinderella making the audience think that the film is going to be telling the classic story but then changes to show the audience that it is a modern version.

Hansel and Gretel - inspiration

We like the idea of finding a fairy tail and adapting it to make it more modern. This trailer gave us an idea of the kind of setting we would use and the type of music we would use in the background.

Red Riding Hood Trailer - inspiration

This is one of our main sources of inspiration, the film 'Red Riding Hood', which was recently made. Although it is a modern film, they use the same classic story, however we talked about how we want to make the original victim of whatever classic we pick, into the murderer of our film, therefore creating something completely different and original from the normal fairytale. 

Idea 2

Red Riding Hood
Another idea we had for the fairytale theme would be 'Red Riding Hood'. We could show a shot  of following a womans feet walking in a red pair of heels/shoes then a shot to a credit then a shot of the mysterious woman in red in the distance walking into the woodlands waving her finger to follow then a shot back to another credit. Then lastly a p.o.v shot of the woman looking down at her feet with a corpse next to them in a pool of blood then an extreme close up of her eye with a red contact lense then a shot back to the credits of the opening title of the film 'Red Riding Hood'. We have thought of an actress to act the part and thought of editing techniques to use. 

Idea 1

We have been looking at different fairytale's, and how we could adapt them into modern thrillers. One piece of inspiration is from the modern adaptation of Red Riding Hood, however we have been talking about Hansel and Gretel, as it hasn't been done before. In order to give this a modern twist, there would be an abandoned car instead of the gingerbread house in the forest. There would be an obvious presence behind them all through the sequence, using point of view shot. We have been discussing it, and how we could do this and what would happen.