Film Opening- Submarine

The clip starts with the Film 4 logo and then cuts to the credits in a spread out typeface in white with a vibrant blue background. It then cuts to a panning shot of what appears to be a rather cluttered bedroom. We can assume this to a teenager’s bedroom. As it cuts back to the credits in the same typeface, we hear the sound of wind from outside and then the sound of sea gulls. This helps create the sense of the setting being on the coast. The scene again cuts back to the bedroom and the panning reveals a teenage boy sat in the corner of the room staring out the window. As the boy emerges the diegetic sound of the boy’s voice over starts. This creates the sense that he is talking to the audience.  The clock ticking then syncs with the shots moving in closer to his face.

The scene then switches to an establishing shot of houses on a hill and one house slightly away from the others. This could suggests that the boy is different from everyone else. Music is introduced with a piano in a minor key creates the enigma of the film. Then it transitions into a montage of shots of the area to present location. There is a wide shot of the sunset and the coast. The montage is created in post-production editing to show the audience where the film is shot. We also continue to hear a faint sound of the clock ticking with the music. This reinforces the enigma of the film. The title appears in a spread out typeface, ‘Submarine’. There is then a shot of who we perceive to be the same boy as in the bedroom with his silhouette looking out to sea. Then a close-up shot of his silhouette of his head ends the opening.

Film opening - The Lovely Bones

The film opening begins with the Paramount Viacom company logo. This is then followed by the Film 4 logo as the music begins. The music seems to be a piano playing a mellow tune, which creates a sense of calm. The music continues as a black screen appears while credits show in something font. This could show their importance, as the credits are the only thing the audience can see.  The black screen disappears and reveals an extreme close up shot of a penguin in a snow globe, which slowly zooms out. The scene then cuts to a mid-shot of a young girl playing with a toy. The music then fades slightly as a voice over starts.  It then cuts back to a close up shot of the snow globe. Every time there is a shot of the girl, there is always a shot back to the snow globe. This could show the significance of the penguin in the globe, which may be revealed later on in the film. There is then a mid-shot of the girl walking over to look at the globe. It then cuts to a medium shot of, whom we believe to be the girl’s father sat on the sofa reading a newspaper. The father comes to join the girl and there is a close up shot of them both starring at the snow globe, to which the father says ‘don’t worry kid, he’s trapped in a perfect world’. This is the first part of dialogue in the film and it creates a sense of enigma. It then cuts to a slow extreme close up of the snow globe as the title ‘Lovely Bones’ appears on the screen.

Film opening- The Perks of being a Wallflower

The first 15 seconds of the film begin with the summit entertainment company logo. It switches to a black screen and the sound of a typewriter begins. This sound continues as ‘Mr Mudd productions’ appears on the screen. The names ‘Logan Lerman’ and ‘Emma Watson’ follow. The sound of the typewriter creates the idea that the narrator is writing a story and the use of the black screen creates enigma. The title then appears on the screen and the music then starts, it seems to be a guitar playing in a quite up beat tune. The scene then emerges to show lights in a tunnel. Names continue to appear on the screen in the same typewriter font. This could indicate that their names are not quite as important therefore they do not need the black screen behind them.

The credits continue as the tunnel lights flash past. The camera angle appears to be from someone’s point of view because the camera is constantly moving. This could imply that the view is from someone sitting in the back of a truck. There is then a medium close up shot of the tunnel lights. There is then a straight cut to looking back at the tunnel as they drive away, pulling out from the tunnel. A panning shot is then used to show a road sign to signify that the film is set in America.  This then fades to black along with the music and cuts to the reflection in the window of a boy writing a letter, there is a narrator of 'Dear friend, I am writing to you because she said you'd listen and understand...’.

Film Opening Deconstruction- Skyfall

This clip is the opening train fight scene to Skyfall, the director of this film is Sam Mendes. The genre of the opening scene would be best described as action thriller. Sam Mendes uses many different media techniques to portray the main representation of gender.

The scene begins with a man checking his blood stained shirt. This could be seen as foreshadowing as towards the end of the scene he is the character who is to be shot. We then move on to the two men fighting, in suits. The fact that the men are wearing suits symbolises their masculinity. The suit also represents a man with a high social class and status. This reinforces the idea of the scene representing gender and gender stereotypes.

As the scene moves on the music rises and builds to create a sense of tension, and suspense. This is done by the repetition of the music. The use of panning from the car back to the train increases the pace of the scene. The pace is also sped up when the camera tracks the train to create the sense that the audience is moving along with the characters. Throughout the scene there is a potential possibility of death, but neither of the men shows any signs of fear. This shows male masculinity and emphasises the representation of gender and men being more powerful than women.

We are then introduced to a new character. We are thought to believe that she is very powerful as, she is introduced by a panning shot looking up on her to make her appear bigger. This could be seen as juxtaposition because it is usually a man who has the most power. Whereas in this case, the woman has the power over the situation. She is also perceived as the main focal point of the clip because she is mostly in the centre of the frame. This emphasises the idea that the main representation of the clip is gender and how it can be switched. Also the fact that she is behind the scene could suggest that the women stay out of the physical work. This reinforces the idea of gender stereotypes.

Representation of gender is also presented when the woman gets out the car and sets up the gun. This could be interpreted as gender difference because it shows she has no physical strength. Whereas the two men are not using weapons, only physical fighting. Throughout the fight the director uses high shots over one of the men to suggest that Bond is winning the fight and is the focal point. Furthermore this shows that Bond has more power over the other man.

Towards the end of the scene the pace is quickened by the changing between scenes and repetition of the music. This also creates suspense of what is going to happen next. The music and pace then suddenly stops, when the woman takes the shot. The scene is set as quite bright; this is until the man is shot. The scene then becomes more dimmed to emphasis what has just happened. The director also echoes the sound of the gun shot to slow down the scene and emphasise that the woman shot the wrong man. The long shot helps to establish Bonds loss of power, by making him seem small compared to the scenery.

To conclude the opening scene to “Skyfall” uses many different media techniques to help show that the main representation is gender.

‘Uses and Gratifications’

In our media class we have been looking at the ‘Uses and Gratifications’ model.

The ‘Uses and Gratifications’ model was first introduced by Elihu Katz; he asserted that audiences use media texts for gratification. Katz contended that there are four types ‘Uses and Gratifications’ audiences get from media texts:               

·    Personal identity: We can get a sense of ourselves and our peer group from media representations.  This is probably particularly important for adolescents.

·         Information: The media are full of information which we are at liberty to use

·         Entertainment: We often consume media texts for entertainment.

·         Social interaction: The news, films or last night’s television programmes are common topics of discussion; we use the media to feed this social interaction.  The media may also ‘keep us company’: radio, in particular addresses its audience on a personal basis.  We may feel we know characters in, say, soap operas, better than we do our own friends and thus engage in parasocial (interpersonal relationships in which one party knows a great deal about the other, but the other does not) interaction when ‘interacting’ with them.

Focus group

We used a focus group to gain useful information about what our target audience members seek in a film. Our focus group was made up of 4 people aged 16-17.

What film did you last watch? Pineapple Express, Enchanted, The Notebook, Legend

What’s your favourite genre? Thriller, Drama, Thriller, Horror

What’s your least favourite genre? Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romantic, Comedy

When did you last watch a thriller, mystery film? 1 week ago, 2 weeks ago, 2 days ago, a week ago

From our focus group we concluded that thriller is the most watched genre by young people aged 16-17. This is why we decided to aim our film opening to people age 15-20.

Audience Research

BFI Statistical Yearbook – Genre Information

To ensure that we choose the right genre to aim at our target audience we used quantitative data from the BFI website. The BFI Statistical Yearbook presents in one place all the available statistics on UK film and the UK film industry.

From the table it shows that thriller is one of the top genes:

• The genre of the film is going to be a mystery drama, this accounted for the highest releases (20%) in 2014
• Thriller is the 4^th highest for the number of releases in 2014

Significance

Thrillers are quite popular with the British public; there is clearly a lot of demand for this particular genre. However, comedy is the most popular genre. It is the highest earning genre of 2014, taking 18% of the box office from 19% of releases.

The fact that the most successful thriller of 2014 was given a ‘15’ certificate, and that five of the top ten ‘15’ classified films were thrillers. This supports our decision target our film at people aged 15-20 years old.

Audience Classification

As a group we have been looking at ways that audiences are classified.

Audiences are defined into different categories to help target media at the right group.

The Registrar General’s Social Scale

The Registrar General’s Social Scale is the way the British Government defines the populace through their occupation:

Group	Occupations
A	Professional Workers (lawyers, doctors etc.), Scientists, Managers of large-scale organisations.
B	Shopkeepers, Farmers, Teachers, White-collar workers.
C1	Skilled Manual (i.e. hand) workers – e.g. high grade, e.g. master builders, carpenters, shop assistants, nurses.
C2	Skilled Manual – low grade, e.g. electricians, plumbers.
D	Semi-skilled Manual, e.g. bus drivers, lorry drivers, fitters.
E	Unskilled Manual, e.g. general labourers, barmen, porters.

A benefit of the Registrar General’s Social Scale is that it can help companies to target audiences. However, the scale has been criticised for being both crude and rigid.

Values, Attitudes and Lifestyles (VALS)

Possibly a better way of defining audiences is by categorising them by the values and attitudes they hold and the lifestyle they have; these are psychographic (psychographics is the study of personality, values, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles) variables.  For example, one of the better known systems is the Values, Attitudes and Lifestyles (VALS):

·         Actualisers: Successful, wealthy, dynamic people for whom image is important as an expression of their individuality.

·         Fulfilleds: Mature people who are well-educated professionals. This group values order, knowledge and responsibilities.

·         Achievers: Successful and career-orientated people.  They are politically conservative and value the status quo.  Image is important to them and they tend to buy established, well-known products.

·         Experiencers: Young, impulsive and rebellious.  They like new products and styles but soon tire of them and search for new novelties.  They spend as much as they can afford on clothing, fast food, music and films.

·         Believers: Conservative people who believe in traditional institutions, such as the Church, and in the importance of the family and community.  Their lifestyle tends to be very routine.  Their income is small but sufficient.

·         Strivers: Tend to be unsure of themselves and have a low income.  They are striving for approval from others, which they feel they could gain by ownership of possessions, most of which they cannot afford.

·         Makers: Makers are do-it-yourself enthusiasts and tend to live a conventional, family life.

·         Strugglers: Strugglers are on the lowest income and tend to be loyal to their favourite brands.

Significance

We discussed as a group and decided that the Registrar General’s scale is very broad and difficult to our target audience, as most 15-24 years are in education rather than a full time job. However VALs is a much more specific as it categories audiences by personalities and lifestyles which is easier to apply to our target audience.

After looking at the BFI statistical yearbook we found that gone girl was the most similar film to ours. This was the second most popular in the AB category, so we are to also aim our own opening at this category.

We also looked at VALs categorising system and decided our audience best fitted experiencers.   These are Young, impulsive and rebellious.  They like new products and styles but soon tire of them and search for new novelties.  They spend as much as they can afford on clothing, fast food, music and films.

Audience Profile

Age: 15-20

Gender: Mixed, but primarily female

VALs: Experiencers

Description

A typical member of our target audience would be a young female in their teens or early twenties. They would be someone who feels disconnected from society and confused of who they are. Our target audience would be someone with low self-esteem due to their feeling of isolation from people.  A typical member of our target audience would appear quiet yet happy and free.  A typical member of our audience would be similar to the main character in our opening. This means that a typical member of our audience can easily relate to the confused that the girl is feeling in the opening of the film.

Audience Profile

Our film opening is aimed at people aged 15-24 because in 2014 this age group made up the largest proportion of the cinema audience. The film is also predominantly aimed at people from a white ethnic minority as last year it was found that 92.2% of population were age 13+. The genre of the film is going to be a mystery drama, this accounted for the highest releases (20%) in 2014. Comedy was the highest earning genre of 2014, taking 18% of the box office from 19% of releases. However it is much harder to make a film opening for a comedy film. 

Quantitative and Qualitative Research

During audience research we have looked at how quantitive and qualitive data target different audiences.

Quantitative research

Quantitative research is ‘Explaining phenomena by collecting numerical data that are analysed using mathematically based methods (in particular statistics)’. The most common form of quantitative research is interviews. Quantitative research is useful for finding out specific information such as ‘Which is the most popular?’ The main benefit of quantitative research is that, if conducted properly, it can provide very accurate statistical information. However, one of the biggest shortcomings of quantitative research is that, whilst it can make it clear what is popular, it provides little insight into why something is popular.

Qualitative research

Qualitative research is ‘Research that is used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. It provides insights into the problem or helps to develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research’. The most common form of qualitative research is surveys. Qualitative research helps to address the why question: it is a means of speculating as to why something is popular. However, unlike quantitative research, qualitative research cannot be measured or quantified accurately.

News Article

We choose this news article about a teenager who suffered from amnesia to base our film opening on. 

Teenager who suffered amnesia and forgot her entire life regains her memory - after hug from little brother

Chloe Inman suffered total memory loss nearly two years ago after suffering serious side effects from a lumbar puncture to remove fluid from her spine. A teenager who suffered amnesia and forgot her entire life regained her memory - after a hug from her little brother. Chloe Inman, 16, suffered total memory loss nearly two years ago after suffering serious side effects from a lumbar puncture to remove fluid from her spine. Doctors had tried everything but devastated Chloe was still not able to recognize her family, friends or understand who she was. But one day at home her brother Caleb, then six, walked into her room and gave her a cuddle - and miraculously her memories came flooding back.

 Chloe said: "I had forgotten my entire life, which was absolutely devastating. I literally lost everything. "Mum and dad would get very upset as I didn't recognise them and it was hard for them to deal with it. "We had tried everything. I would look at family photographs and I knew it was me in them but I just couldn't remember anything about why I was there. "It totally ruined me. I could not go back to school and I lost my family and friends and did not know who I was. It was dreadful. "It sounds weird and is hard to explain but the first thing I remember was my little brother Caleb.

"After that hug all my family memories came back - every last one of them. "Chloe had always suffered bad headaches but it was not until just before her 15th birthday that medical staff diagnosed her with Idiopathic intracranial hypertension. She suffered the severe memory loss after doctors performed a lumbar puncture and found she had twice as much fluid in her spine than usual. Chloe, who lives in Plymouth, Devon with parents Julie, 41, Daryl, 42, sister Ellie, nine and Caleb, now seven, said she was awake throughout the procedure.

She said: "It was like a switch was flicked and all my memories just disappeared.

"I did not recognise my mum or my family. It was a weird feeling in my stomach as I felt like I knew them from somewhere but I couldn't think where.

"I immediately thought my mum must have been important as she did not leave my side through the whole ordeal."

Chloe was sent home from hospital to try to jog her memories before the hug from her brother brought all her family memories back. Now she studies performing arts at City College in Plymouth, Devon, and also volunteers at St John Ambulance. Her dream is to work as an army medic. She said: "It's quite scary looking back on it now. It did ruin my year and really my whole entire secondary school life.

"My pain was ignored for so many years. My consultant tested me for quite a lot of things and ran out of what to give me to help."

Chloe is now on a drug called acetazolamide to help reduce the fluid in her back. Fortunately she hasn't suffered from any headaches now for a year. She explained: "My condition hasn't been properly diagnosed or treated yet because they don't really know what causes it.

"But they know that if it comes back to perform a lumbar puncture as a quick solution so this could all happen again. I am worried that I could lose all memory again."

Ideas

In our group we had three main ideas, these included: agrophobia, OCD and amnesia. Each of these ideas were quite similar. We dissucssed each idea and brainstorms some ways we would create each idea. In the end we decided to choose the amnesia idea as we were most passinate about it and we thought it would be the easiest to create.

Main task

For our task breif we were told to based our opening on a news article of our choice.

Main task:

The titles and opening to a film, to last a maximum of two minutes. All video and audio must be students own work. Audio may be obtained from a copyright free source.

Draft 1