Final Opening Sequence- Behind The Screen

Evaluation Of Opening Sequence- Activity 1.

These are key frames that i feel are most relevant in my opening sequence.


The TITLE of my film 'behind the screen' I feel leaves it to the audience to open minded to what is going to happen, already this is a mystery and creates an eery atmosphere before the film even begins. For my title font i left it quite plain as i did not want to have an over the top font as i feel it would make the opening look like a gimmick and not seem thrilling at all to the audience watching, however i decided to have my font colour red as my other titles are in black, giving the audience contrast and making the main title stand out.

The LOCATION in which i filmed my footage was in two separate houses, one using mainly the front room and hall, and the other the bedroom. I feel this worked well as they are the typical places that a young teenager would be sitting on their computers and talking over the internet. The house in which i filmed in the front room also gave the 'father' figure a chance to go on to the computer and to carry on talking to the younger girl, before they decide to meet up. My film is SET late a night, the audience pick this up as at the beginning as i have a voice over from the young girl stating "they should never of gone out that night', as this audio is played the screen is black which creates tension from the start of the film.

All the characters that play a role in my film have basic COSTUMES on that fit with their role within the film, for example the father figure who's persona in the film is a rapist, puts on black gloves this is rather typical and gives a sense to the audience that something bad will happen as he does not want to leave his finger  prints at the scene. The PROPS i used were mainly the computers as my whole film is based around not knowing who you are really talking to on the other side of the screen and the out comes that come from this. 

Throughout my opening i used a variety of different CAMERA WORKS to make sure that my film was made as interesting as possible, as if i used the same camera shots and angles the viewer would get bored of the same focus. Some shoots i used to add emphasis and drama were an extreme close up of the dads eyes looking suspicious before he goes on to the computer, and starts talking to the young girl, also there's another close up of the dads hands when he is putting on the gloves before leaving the house, adding tension as the audience will want to see why he is putting his gloves on for what is going to happen next. A few times I also have wide shots, that enable the audience to see the setting around the character and giving the audience a clearer understanding of what is going on. Also i had there were times where i zoomed in to add the the emphasise on one point in the film for example, i zoomed in after the Mother and Father had left in the beginning as i they hadn't of left then there would be no 'story' to tell.

When EDITING my final footage that i had recorded in Adobe Premiere Pro, which is an application i have used previously and find that i understand relatively well, i found that i had over recorded and was able to cut allot of footage out that was not entirely necessary, and made the opening look very confusing. After i had chosen what clips i was keeping i asked a number of people wether my story line made sense, i got a mixed response but generally people found the scene a bit confusing. I then went away and tried to think of ways to improve on the footage i had recorded and ways to make it clearer to the audience. Thats when i thought of adding in a voice over of the girl as if she is looking back on the day of when she was rapped and leave the opening sequence on a cliff hanger, ' and this is my story', i felt that the voiceover that i put in over the top of my footage helped tell the story. Also some of my footage i edited i added in different effects, for example when i blurred out the father figure to make him seem suspicious and creepy, also i edited the voice over changing the levels of the voice pitch and tone of the voice so that the voice sounded more frightened.

  After i had all my footage in order and all the bits i wanted to keep i had to think about what FONT and STYLE i was going to put my titles into. I kept all my titles plain in black and white with a basic font style as i did not want my footage to look like a gimmick, as i think that plain writing fits better in this generation as over the years gimmicks have gone out of fashion, as many horrors and thrillers now use very plain text which makes a better impact.

Plain text adding impact

My STORY is a young girl telling her past of when she was rapped, leading up to the event, as her mum and dad leave her home alone she talks to a friend over facebook, then still thinking it is her friend when it really his dad, they plan to meet, however the voice over acts as if she is looking back and the rape has already happened, "... things change and so did he." The voice over acts as the story teller and as the voice has effects put over the top it seems as if she is scared and the voice is made to sound you leaving the audience feeling sorry for her.

The OPENING of the sequence starts with a black screen and a voice over saying "they should never of gone out that night" this creates tension and suspicion with in the audience, also i added in a title saying this was a true story this is telling the viewer that these things do happen and the the voice over claim it can happen to anyone. I feel this creates a better atmosphere and allot more tension when watching the opening.

Throughout the sequence the CHARACTERS are not introduced individually, and we do not know any of their names however there are hints to who is who through the voice over and facebook. As we know that the people leaving the house are the young girls mum and dad as they say 'bye' to her and she says on the voice over 'they never should of gone out that night'. Also we have a clue that the girl and boy are talking to eachother as i swap camera angles going back and forth continuously until the boy leaves who says 'bye' to his dad, who is then in an extream close up and goes on to his sons facebook.

Evaluation- Activity 2

I choose Lia to play the MAIN CHARACTER i my opening sequence as she represents the average teenager, who spends time on the internet, who spends time socialising. I feel as there was not much talking involved that this role could have been played by a number of teenage girls even though there was a set character they didn't need many characteristics to play the role.

The main character in my film slightly RELATES to a young girl in another film called 'Taken' the girl in this film goes away with a friend and trusts a man that they meet who later on breaks in to the place they are staying and takes them both away and put them through terrible things. When i was thinking of ideas 'Taken' was a film that i thought of as i felt that the film put a message across for people that were teenagers, and trusted people they didn't know well too much, which relates to the main girl in my film 'behind the screen'.

On the left the girl from the film 'Taken' on the right is Lia the main character in 'Behind the screen'

These two characters are not both in exactly the same situation however they are both representing the average teenage girl, as both characters also do what most teenagers get up to in their spare time. The similarities are that both girls end up in a situation that they may not be able to get out of, and are trusting their instincts without thinking through the out comes, which in the long run gets them both in to a bad situation.

Evaluation- Activity 3

My names lily and this is my DIRECTORS COMMENTARY in the style of a voice over.


Firstly i choose to start my film by saying that what the audience is about to watch is a true story, as the audience believes that once its happened in someones elses life it could easily happen to them making the film really hit home and create a bigger atmosphere, as the film that i have produced is a thriller the most important thing is to create a scary atmosphere and feel so that the film is delivered to the audience in all the right ways. I have also added a voiceover through my film so that the audience gets a clearer understanding of the events that have happened to the young girl in the film, i also end on a cliff hanger so that the audience will have an open mind of what could happen next.


I choose to take the production company name of a 'Scrapbook production company' as it is a company that already exists and i feel that a film like 'behind the screen' would be something that would fit in to how they produce their media, Scrapbook Productions is a film & media production company based in the UK, producing short films, music videos, documentaries and corporate videos. As the film i have produced is in some way slightly like a documentary at the beginning through the voice over as if the young girl is looking back on what has happened.


As a distributer its their job to get the film out into the media for people to go and watch and make sure that people are going to want to watch it, so from allot of research i have chosen 'screen gems' as they have produced films that are very similar to mine where there is a young girl taking to much trust in someone they don't really know, which causes major issues within their lives and they regret what has happened. Screen Gems have produced many different genre of film. Screen Gems produces and distributes films that don't have a big enough budget to be produced by sister studio Columbia Pictures, yet aren't small enough for indie label Sony Pictures Classics. A majority of Screen Gems' releases are thrillers and horror movies. 


To help with the costs of my film i would borrow money, making sure that my film would be able to then over come these costs also i would show my film in film festivals hoping to find companies to help out with cost for example 'film london'.


I have shown the production company, cast and editors names in the titles through my opening sequence and ending with the main title. I choose to put my title last as the voiceover i have also chose to be at the end adds to the climax of the film title as i have left the title and voice over to be open minded by the audience.


My film would some what similar to many films that are already in the industry such as; Taken, Roommate, Sliding Doors and many more these are all films with people that have split personalities and incorporate many bad events.

This is the logo i have chosen to present with my film, and if the film was to be published in the industry then this logo would advertise the final film. I have chosen contrasting colours and a scroll for the main image reflecting 'scrapbook productions'.

Evaluation- Activity 4

I aimed for my TARGET AUDIENCE to be teenage 

girls, around 13- 17, that are still at school and live at home with their parents. 

Their interests would be going out with friends, going shopping, sleepovers, going cinemas, out for dinner and may also have interests in sports but spend allot of their time socialising with friends and family. 
She would listen to all the latest song, on radio stations such as kiss 100 and capital, her favorite style maybe hip hop and r&b. As she is supported by her mum and dad she would shop in shops such as topshop, river island, miss selfredgies, H&M and new look. Then after socialising and school she may come home to relax and watch t.v programs such as Hollyoaks, Keeping up with the Kardashians and Gossip girl. Her favorite channel would be E- entertainment on sky, also E4 and Living.

For the perfect audience, they would be single and be supported by their mum and dad financially, as they do not have a wide knowledge of the world and could get into the same situation as the character in the film. This sort of audience i would want to attract, would hopefully relate to them the most as the young girl represents allot of

the teenage generation.

I have also received FEEDBACK from a 16-17 year old audience, where a few people have viewed my film from going on to my blog and writing constructive criticism of what i have done well also on how i need to improve... I fist of finished my film with out putting in the voice over from the young girl, however when asking a few people what they thought it seemed to be unclear, by adding in the voiceover the opening makes allot more sense and leaves the audience guessing what's going to happen next.

I feel that the comments writing by the people who have viewed my film are fair and i would improve on some things if i was to do it again, for example a few more shots of expression and maybe a clearer understanding of what they are talking about over facebook.

Evaluation- Activity 5

How did i ATTRACT my audience?

Evaluation- Activity 6

This is some of the EQUIPMENT AND SOFTWARE that i have used throughout producing my final opening sequence.

As i have had previous experiences with everything that i have used to produce my final sequence i felt that even though i learnt more my previous experiences helped me allot as i didn't have to start from scratch, all i had to be aware of when filming was to keep my shots steady and be-aware of rules and shots that i wanted to incorporate. However i did use the tripod how some of my shots to make sure that my filming looked as good as it could. When filming i have learnt the basic skills t the camera to know how to start stop zoo in and out and look back over my work, however i do need to remember once i have looked over my work to then forward it to my last clip so that i do not film over my good footage.

Also the software Premiere Pro i have also used previously however i had not used many of the things that the software offered however once i learnt something new i did find it easy, but i didn't spend allot of time fiddling around with thing to make my work look as best as it could for the audience. Here i added in some transitions on titles and through the footage also changed volumes of the voice over and song i added, changing lighting and adding effects to footage to highlight characters, with the voice over i also changed the pitch and tone of the voice, and finally added in a song to create an atmosphere. I did find cutting the footage was hard as when you have it in front of you a tiny cut out of place can look really bad so i had to make sure i was dead on every time.

Other programs I have used:

Blogger: Which is the program we use to show all of our work.

Youtube: This is how we present our film and the embedding code is copied and pasted onto our blog.

Itunes: We imported our music onto this program from a duty free site.

This is showing the editing stages in première pro that took up most of the
time to get perfect, you can see here some of the cuts, titles, voiceover and
the import of music.

Through my sequence i changed the pitch and tone of the voices though various parts, also changing the levels of the voice so that the voice over could be heard over the music.