At the very beginning of the scene we are presented with the institutions involved in making the film. This lets the audience see who it was made by. We are then presented with the names of actors/actress' and a number of people who helped make the movie, for example the director, producer. We then here a mysterious kind of music before we even see any kind of image, this leaves the audience not knowing what to expect.


The first image we see is a point of view shot, talking to a mother a father however we don't know who's point of view we are seeing, this hooks us to the scene we want t know more, we want to know who the character is. We are made to believe that is a small child on their first day of school however we are soon presented with a teenage girl then also makes us want to know more. A narration of the main characters voice is then heard which talks us through the opening telling us some background information of the character.


The opening then sets the time and place, we see her go to school and it soon becomes clear that the film is going to be about this girl and her school life. We are then introduced to other important characters in the movie, the girls friends and teacher etc. We get a kind of bouncyy fun but also cringey feeling from the film, it becomes obvious this film is a kind of chick flick.

Bride wars: opening scene :)

The opening title sequence of Bride wars starts off by showing the audience institutions which are involved in the film. Happy music is played whilst these are being shown which gives us our first indication of the genre of the film, (obviously not horror).  The use of this happy music sets the mood of the film to be happy and light hearted.

    Throughout the film’s introduction, names of actors and the cast are shown whilst the camera pans over various wedding related objects. In this particular film two well known actresses are used; Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway.

    The first visual shot is a close up of a treasure box, labelled wedding things which instantly sets the theme of the film as wedding based. A second close up shot of the box being opened has a soft focus which gives the treasure box a soft, elegant, precious feel.

    When the box is opened we see that the content is full of wedding related items strongly reinforcing the theme of the film. This use of mise-en-scene is a strong element to the opening titles of this film as many wedding related objects such as a lace veil, a wedding cake, a ring which is put on a finger, a tiara and a glittery girly bracelet.

    There are several shots of a bride and groom figures which are being played with throughout the opening titles. Only hands are shown in these shots so no characters are introduced to the audience. The first reference to the bride and groom figure is a front view shot and shows the figures side by side as if they are walking down the isle of a church. This reference to the bride and groom figures is when they are stood facing each other as if saying their vows. The third reference is when they kiss. And the fourth is when confetti is sprinkled over them and the fifth and final reference is when they walk away from the camera as they supposedly walk back up the isle as a happy married couple. Despite the fact that these references are at different points of the opening titles it does tell a continuous story of a wedding.

    So far in the opening sequence of this film we have had no introduction to the characters but it has been implied that they are children due to the playing shots of the bride and groom figures. The following shot of children’s crayon drawings of two brides supports our implication that the two characters are two young girls.

    Through the use of mise-en-scene one of the items shown is a photograph of two young girls together; this is a subtle introduction for the audience to the characters. We are shown two children drawings/art pieces which are wedding related. This is the second subtle introduction to the characters as each of the art pieces has a name on; Emma and Liv. A locket with two girls in is a third subtle introduction to the two characters.

    
So far only music has been played throughout the opening titles. There is a slow zoom in on an image of a big stately home at which point a narration starts. This shows an introduction to the location of which the film is based around.

    There is a sequence of images of the two young girls which are zoomed in on slowly. This is the first proper introduction to the characters behind the story line. Although these shots are still images with a soft focus a story is still told as it is consistent with the narrative.

    Now that we are introduced to the characters and the story line we have a shot of the two young girls in an attic with childlike surroundings, playing together. This shows the location of the mise-en-scene shots of the wedding related objects at the beginning of the film.

    From these opening titles of the film, the audience instantly know that this film is going to be a chick flick, girly wedding based film. 

By Eloise Maidment

She's The Man: Opening Scene (:

At the beginning of She's The Man, before it even goes into introducing the makers of the movie, it shows you the industry in which it was made and the institutions involved. I think the fact it is shown at the very beginning is important and because it is played with an audio already, it just gets stuck into it straight away! The audio is played throughout the whole of the opening scene which I really like because it's like there is no speech needed because the audio and actions show the characters as they are already. Cleverly, at the same time as the audio, they show the names of the people involved in the film which I think looks quite good because the writing is shown in a flashy white text that stands out, especially the fact they freeze the frame when the names come up. 


I think the main "hook" of the opening scene would be the music because it just ties everything in together. The mood of the film is shown as quite happy, loud and original for a teenage summer day which I think if the music hadn't been added; this same affect wouldn't have been picked up so easily. It also shows the overall theme of the film as quite teen like; fun for everyone really. 


Another effect of the music would be setting the movie as modern because the music is up to date so it just shows you that the language and overall make up of the movie would be things that teens nowadays would recognise as things they understand themselves and have experienced. 


I love how the main task in the opening scene is football because some of the audience could see this as just a normal day at the beach but as you carry on watching the film, you realise that football is a massive part of the film and how it's all about standing up for yourself and proving you are good enough; which is a good moral for a story and by putting a moral in a teen movie, i think its quite impressive because it shows the modern teen that they can do anything by putting their mind to it as well. 



Kelly Sutton (: 

Wild Child Opening Sequence

The first shot is of a bright blue ocean which looks like a typical american beach in summer. The second shot is of the main characters room which looks quite expensive because of the cream and blue colours. This also implies she is quite spoilt. The mise-en-scene tells the audience that she is a bit of a girly girl because she has fluffy pink pillows on her bed. 


The first word said by the main character is a swear word which shows she is quite rebellious and doesn’t stick to the rules. The main character is stood in front of a large group of friends which tells the audience that she is ‘popular’. The shot where her sister is up on the balcony looking down shows that she is more mature than her older sister, and therefore makes Poppy look immature and childish. The scene where she jumps into the ocean shows the audience that she likes to be centre of attention and likes to make a scene. When her dad appears the music stops which suggests that he is in charge and all his daughters shenanigans stop when he is there. She also argues with her dad which shows she has a bit of an attitude.


The main hook in the opening scene is that Poppy’s step mum is moving in and her and her sister don’t like her, but then Poppy’s dad threatens to send her to a boarding school in England. This is a dilemma because she is so spoilt and it putting her in a strict english school would be a problem, so it makes the audience want to watch the rest of the film.


The first bit of music in the opening sequence is a song that sounds like it’s from a music box which makes the audience think she is similar to a ballerina or a princess, but this is not the case as they later find out. It gives the film a light-hearted tone and suggests Poppy has a perfect life in Malibu. The second bit of music is the song “Shut up and drive” by Rihanna. This song is quite representative of Poppy’s personality and attitude, but also it sounds like a ticking clock which suggests she is up to something. Also the general colour palette is very bright and colourful which lets the audience know the mood and tone of the film.




By Hannah Price : )

Preliminary Exercise - Dialogue/Camera Shots and Stage Directions

In this blog we have included the shots we will use, the exact script and stage directions. We did this so when we got to recording we knew exactly what we had to do because we had it all planned out.

SCENE 1

             *Over the shoulder shot - DOCTOR to RELATIVE* 

DOCTOR: Mrs Taylor? (stands) 

             *Side - two shot* (both sit down) 

             *Over the shoulder - RELATIVE to DOCTOR* 

DOCTOR: I'm sorry, it's bad news. James's results have shown he is unlikely to  

              recover. 

             *Over the shoulder - DOCTOR to RELATIVE*

RELATIVE: I, I don't understand.. he's fine 

             *Over the shoulder - RELATIVE to DOCTOR*

DOCTOR: We've done all we can, his body has become too weak to respond to

              the medication, we're really sorry.           

             *Close up RELATIVE* (reacts) 

SCENE 2

              *Long Shot from front of RELATIVE - Tracking*

               (Slow, same facial expression, lifeless)

              *Mid shot as sits down

              *Mid shot still as hands are over face

              *Close up with eyes shut

                (White light fades over RELATIVE) 

               

SCENE 2 - PART 2

              *Mid long shot*

              (PATIENT lead down) 

              (RELATIVE sat legs to side)

              (Play fight - Laughter)

              (White light fades out) 

              * Close up* (eyes open, wipes tears)

SCENE 3

              *Close up, (hand on outside of handle)* 

              *Long shot* (Door open - Inside)

              *Close up * (Head on door for a sec, takes deep breath)

              *Close up* (Hand letting go of inside handle)

              *Over the shoulder, PATIENT to RELATIVE*

              (She turns and sits down)

              (She looks hopefully and happy, he looks doubtful) 

RELATIVE: How're you feeling?

               *Over the shoulder RELATIVE to PATIENT*

PATIENT: (Looking sad, Shaking head)

              I know i'm not ok, just tell me. What did they say?

END.

Sources Of Inspiration

Our theme for this task was "Hospital Drama". To be able to do this we had to research clips from previous episodes from programmes such as Holby City and Casualty.







From this we learnt that the main things used to make a hospital drama are things such as tension, emotion and tragedy; we would have to place these elements in our piece so it stood out under this category. By doing this we had to take into consideration, how people react when faced with these elements. For example, when the scene is very drama filled the pace would be quite fast to keep the audience alert and aware of the situation.