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.