As adding the establishing shot to the opening sequence was a last minute decision, we decided on going up to the school roof terrace to shoot the scene. Mr.Ayres, Sarah & I all took turns in filming and after a few practise shots, used a tracking shot to shoot the scene we wanted. It was very successful and we were extremely happy with the outcome.
Here are some photos of us filming and some of the scenery we were trying to capture:
As there are only two of us remaining in the group to make our opening sequence, we have been working on the editing process together in order to make decisions faster and get it done faster with the help of Mr.Ayres.
Here are some pictures of Sarah & I editing our opening sequence and adding posts onto the blog.
We decided to use the nursery rhyme _____ as a background sound to our opening sequence as mentioned in a recently posted blog. Here is a photo of Mr.Ayres practising his whistling techniques into the microphone.
Below is a picture of Mr.Ayres and my group trying to perfect the sound recording using a recording software on the Apple Macs. We shortened the recording to fit our video.
The footage my group and I filmed for my opening sequence was useful and we did prepared all of the right props and mise-en-scene needed however the lighting kept on changing as it was early morning and it was gradually getting lighter. We tried to overcome this by opening/ closing doors and using artificial lighting when appropriate so that it wouldn't look obvious to an audience, however I am still unhappy with the lighting of my footage. I will be using adobe premier to try and edit the lighting so that it is up to a better standard and visually fits into my genre more effectively.
http://borgus.com/hitch/openings.htm - This link was a godsend when it came to finding out what the master of thrillers himself used in his opening sequence and gives us an insight into why he includes these things and how I can incorperate these points into my own opening sequence.
Some key points I took out of this page was the use of skylines or headlines. I initially wanted to use the garage and only the garage for my opening but after reading this information, I have found that the use of a daylight or outdoor surrounding accompanied by light hearted music (which in our case is going to be the whistling of oranges and lemons) is an interesting way to open a thriller of any sort as the contrast itself causes suspense.
This is a screenshot image from the opening sequence of the thriller, panic room. It shows an ordinary American city and there is no indication as to what is going to happen or that there is any suspence involved but in the clip below, you will see how music is used to make some suspence and create an atmosphere for the opening of this film.
Another interesting point I came across was the use of written text. I am going to be editing in titles to my opening sequence during the editing process and am going to be using a font simular to the one used in the film 'SE7EN' as is going to be showing mise-en-scene related to the objects around the character including books (leather) and the tools and weapons we are going to be showing.
Racking focus is the practice of shifting the attention of a audience of a film or video by changing the focus of the lens from a subject in the foreground to a subject in the background, or vice versa. I will be practicing this technique first so that I can perfect the shots I am going to be filming. If I master it to a satisfactory level, I will be using it to show the dirt on the floor in the garage and then changing the focus to the silver bolted door and back again.
Here is an example of a rack focus shot and I think this will be extremely interesting and effective to use as part of my opening sequence as it is mainly about the surrounding and objects around the character who's face is not shown in the sequence.
