'Se7en'

We watched the beginning of Se7en (David Fincher, 1995) in class and we were really inspired by it. I've embedded the opening of the film from where the titles start, after the little bit at the beginning where Brad Pitt's and Morgan Freeman's characters are introduced and the setup is established. We really liked the whole style of it - the title sequence was designed by Kyle Cooper, and is really original and is very memorable, from the music to the font.

The soundtrack:

• diegetic sounds - traffic, creaking, clattering of keys on a typewriter?
• steady drum rhythm that sounds like heartbeat
• electronic-sounding
• screechy bits
• features song 'Closer' by Nine Inch Nails - lyrics heard are 'You get me closer to God' -> the film is based around two detectives on the case of a series of murders inspired by the seven deadly sins, and the word 'God' is one of the words we see being cut out of a newspaper in quick flashes
• crime thriller sort of music

Credits/Text:

• jumpy/jittery
• white on black
• scribbled handwritten style font
• image comes after they're shown, and they stay on screen for a bit before fading out
• big names first - David Fincher, Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwenyth Paltrow - audience knows this director and these actors -> acts as guarantee, quality seal

Transitions:

• dissolves over shots
• fades (into opening)
• numerous, fast-paced clean cutting

Camera Work:

• BCUs and ECUs showing detail of killer's work
  

We loved all these effects combined to create such an impressive opening - they really help to build a sense of unease and jumpiness, and to give an impression of the killer. We want to do something similar with the credits and music, so we'll see what we end up with!

- posted by Mia

Inspiration from the Opening Sequence of Legally Blonde (Luketic, 2001)

Hey guys!

As our opening sequence involves a female killer (who is obsessed with the way she looks) getting ready I thought I might try to get inspiration from a film involving a girl getting ready. Legally Blonde is probably one of the most obvious choices and is very much about image and the way Elle looks and dresses. So, I have broken down the sequence and analysed shots and aspects that we might gain some inspiration from for our opening sequence.

The first shot is zooming out of Elle’s hair as she brushes it. It is effective because it starts as an Extreme Close-up and the audience is therefore not sure what exactly they can see. All of Elle’s actions appear slow and deliberate so that the audience can clearly see what she is doing and has time to take it in. We want the actions to be clear but also not really slow because we need pace. We could try using Extreme Close-ups at the very beginning in order to withhold information from the audience and make it slightly more creepy/sinister.

In general, lots of Extreme Close-ups and Close-ups are used as they effectively show Elle getting ready in detail. For instance, when she puts on a necklace and is painting her nails. The audience does not see her face until the end of the opening sequence, which is an aspect I particularly like. The whole sequence is a build up to this point. Perhaps we could have a slight build up before we see her face properly? Obviously, the actual build up is towards the draw being opened when we see the knife so it would have to be a smaller build-up before seeing her face.

Slow pans are used in between in order to tell the audience about Elle’s character and this provides the mise-en-scene. We have already thought about our mise-en-scene and are using pictures of models and beauty products to reflect the character’s frame of mind. We could pan these pictures that are on the mirror and the beauty products on the dressing table in between shots of her getting ready. We decided that we wanted it to be subtle but I’m not sure if the audience would necessarily understand or even take much notice of it unless we make a point of showing the beauty products and pictures. This would make it clearer that the main character is obsessed with her image and kills other attractive women.

- Bhavika xx

Sound

Mia, I think I know what you mean. When there is a song playing in the background that you think is non-diegetic but then it sort of becomes diegetic and is playing on the radio, which someone is listening to or something like that.

I can’t think of any examples of where it is the other way round, so it goes from diegetic to non-diegetic. I remember seeing a scene on Neighbours where somebody is singing and then you continue to hear them sing while they show clips of other characters but I don’t think that’s the same thing. It’s the closest thing I can think of.

We could try it out but I think there is a big chance our audience what necessarily understand unless we make it really obvious. If it doesn’t work and isn’t clear, it might seem a bit amateur. If the others want to I’m up for trying it because you never know, it might look really cool!

- Bhavika xx

Sound

Okay, I just spent a while on youtube trying to find a clip of the beginning of an episode of Hollyoaks, because quite often the song in the background becomes diegetic, playing on the radio or something, but I couldn't... I'll have a look again later and see if I can find it, so expect this post to change! Hopefully..
But yeah, I don't think any of you watch it, but basically they start a lot of episodes with some crazy style things & music playing in the background (non-diegetic), and then all the crazy things stop and it'll be like, someone's house and they'll be eating breakfast, and the song will be on the radio.. I thought it might be helpful for our thing with the whole song playing, possibly becomes non-diegetic, even though it's the other way around. Anyway, I'll have another look and try and find an example - or just try and see an episode this week or something.

'Halloween'

I thought it would be a good idea to post up some notes on other film openings - like John Carpenter's Halloween (1978), the opening of which is all shot as subjective POV shots.

Soundtrack
-ticking background
-high pitched piano
-starts with creepy children chanting Halloween rhyme
-has high pitched, sustained, clashing/dissonant notes; also quite childish
-diegetic sound; crickets, owls etc., clock striking 12?
-sudden noises when something changes e.g. seeing his sister, stabbing her...

Credits/Text
-orange, capital letters for names of actors etc. on black - turn red before fading away; connotations with blood, violence, danger, passion...
-sans serif, bold
-white text for setting
-black background
-glowing pumpkin on the left getting closer and closer; orange links to Halloween & pumpkin
-text to set up location & setting (time)

Transitions/Filters
-fades
-cuts
-slow-paced; builds suspense that way
-not many as it's subjective

Camera Work (position, perspective, framing, composition)
-subjective POV shots: when he puts on the mask we see through the eyeholes (changes the frame)
-handheld camera, looking through windows etc.
-end of opening switches to objective shot
-shot of house at start is slightly Dutch angled
-low-key lighting
-long takes (because it's subjective)

Character(s)
Position/Dress/Gesture/Representation
-child (Michael Myers) dressed up as a clown for Halloween
-boy & girl in normal teenage clothing of '60s

Action/Enigma Codes
-Michael picks up knife, there's scary music, it's dark, he goes upstairs - action code; we know he is going to stab his sister (except we don't know it's Michael yet)
-enigma code: we don't know it's Michael until the end of the opening
-sister says "Michael's around someplace" - who is Michael and where is he? (enigma code)

Dialogue/Narration
-boy and girl; couple, go upstairs together; there's no one else in the house so when he leaves she will be alone
-"Michael's around someplace"

Location
-big house
-Halloween
-dark
-empty after boyfriend leaves
-nice neighbourhood

Iconography
-pumpkin
-rocking chair in house
-low-key lighting

Subversion of Convention
-the killer is a young child

Juxtaposition
-little boy dressed up in a clown costume on Halloween holding a knife & killing his sister

Characters

V I C T I M S

Ok guys, I tried to make a moodboard of victims in horror films to look at dress codes and stuff - bearing in mind I've not seen most of these! Yeah, it might be a bit small, sorry about that. As you can see there's always a lot of gore, and disturbing imagery - and often the characters are portrayed as being more vulnerable at the time, e.g. not wearing many clothes.... They're all familiar settings, but with horrific situations for the characters, which makes it all the more scary because the audience can relate to it, and it makes it seem more likely to happen to them. You'll notice a lot of the victims are female - I thought that would be good seeing as our killer's victims are girls, and they always tend to have a lot of females to kill off in horrors anyways. There are a couple of zombies in there - victim or villain, take your pic, but I'd go with victim... normal people turned into killing dead things. So yeah, hope this is helpful. :)

V I L L A I N S

... and this is a moodboard of villains from horrors (Dark Knight isn't really a horror but the Joker is the most amaaazing villain and it would just be wrong not to put him here). A lot of them have masks - and we know all about masks and disguise etc. etc. from Lord of the Flies and Jack and his painted face... But yeah, for whatever reason they have the masks as characters, for the audience it can be a whole lot scarier, and really really iconic. On the other hand, Norman Bates just uses his face (well, Anthony Perkins who played him in Hitchcock's Psycho), and it's so incredibly creepy, but just brilliant. The costume/dress codes of the villain is really really important, and because ours is really more thrillerish atm, it's a bit different, but we can still do other things to make our killer memorable and scary. Look at the ghost girl thing from The Grudge, and again, Norman Bates. But yeah, hopefully this will be inspirational =]

- love Mia xx

Location recces

They're posted on my blog. I did the park and the forest. Go check 'em out.

Mary

Miaaa's Music

Heyyy guys!
Mia i heard the song i think its great! I could really see that working. I've been looking up some others in case Bhavika and Mary don't agree. I know that we liked The Unchained Melody and i found an early version of that which we may be able to use...?
Anyway, that's just a back up, i think Sinatra is great! :D so yay!
Also, We are meeting outside the cinema tomorrow for our test shoot. So be an early bird and meet at 7.00 am if possible please: there'll be less public getting in our way! I'll bring an extra digital camera for some still shots which we can show off on this blog!
So keep your eyes peeled guys.
love, Bisma xxxx

Music

Hey guys, I was looking up more Frank Sinatra songs and I reckon The Tender Trap could possibly work? Here are the lyrics, I think the first verse is particularly good?

Ya see a pair of laughing eyes,

And suddenly you're sighing sighs.

You're thinkin' nothin's wrong,

You string along, boy, then SNAP!

Those eyes, those sighs -

They're part of the tender trap.

What d'ya think, yay or nay? Obviously there are a lot of other options and this is just a suggestion for our list of possibilities kinda thing... This is along the lines of Frank Sinatra stuff. Alternatively there's also Strangers in the Night which could work quite well. Or Something Stupid... This might also be rather useful : ) We shall see..

- Mia xx

More Pics

Ok, I realise this is a lot of pictures... and you can only put 50 on a slide.. and it might take a while.. so here's a link to my photobucket page with all the photos which should work. But yeah, it took a while to upload them all so I'm posting these! And the TV thing is quite cool - well the fact that there are 4 kinda ruins it but oh well. Yeahh, so these were just me checking out the locations near me and they could help us decide whether or not to go with them, because it's easier to visualise with the photos (I hope!). So enjoy! Sorry there are so many

Mia xx

Location Recce!

Locations Locations Locations!
we thought good places to use for our sequence would be:

• Trent Park
• Epping Forest
• Other parks - the playgrounds, forests, paths, lakes etc.
• Houses (any of ours really)
• A random alleyway
• Alexandra Palace
• Cineworld Enfield car park

Anyways, I thought it would be a plan to go out and take loads of photos to see what they turn out like and for some inspiration, as we've gone with an alleyway and house as main locations - also it was gonna have to be dark and I didn't want to be hanging around any of those other places on my own with a camera! So, I've ended up with 167 photos... which is rather a lot to post them all on here, so I've picked out the best 15:

This is one of the shots I took on my road - it's a bit blurry - I blame the camera, it's pretty old and has fewer megapixels than most mobile phones... and it was kinda dark... and ok, I do have quite shaky hands. BUT anyway. Not particularly scary, the sky's a bit too pretty for that, but I like the lighting and the shadows, particularly the way the trees are all silhouetted against the [very very pretty] sky. Also, just as I was taking the photo, a car was pulling out and driving downt he road, so you get those crazy beams of light which are a bit strange - but quite cool, à mon avis.

This is on my road again, and I was trying out different effects - this one's in black and white (clearly). I like it 'cause there's the postbox in the foreground which makes it a bit more interesting. The light's also reflecting nicely from the street lamps - the effect of which I love - in black and white they look like little baby moons! But yeah, it's dark - bad things happen at night etc...



Again, this one's in black and white, and is the same place as the previous one, but more over to the right. In this one the focus is more on the pavement and you can see less of the road and cars, and you can see the houses, lights on in some windows, which I think has a good effect. It's a long road - long corridors/roads etc. are things I found to be conventional in the genre of horrors and thrillers (click here for more), and so I've got quite a few like this. You get that sense of ambiguity and that you can keep running but you won't escape..

Yep, black and white again. And again, long road, (that postbox again.. haha), darkness, nice street lamps. It's kinda blurry - although I quite like the effect of it in the photo (if you don't look too closely!). The postbox in the foreground is in sharper focus. I like the trees and blurry lights.

This is an alleyway I thought we could use for our opening - it's convenient because it's literally just down the road from my house but is fairly interesting-looking.. I like the lighting and how you can see it's dark - there's the whole section on the left that isn't lit up (there is in fact a gate there 'cause there's some kind of generator or something so it's quite scary to be taking pictures around in the night). There's a street lamp, a corner, lots of trees... I love it! However, the garage might be a problem if we're doing the whole night club thingy...

This one is the same alley without the corner, and I think from the other end. I can't really remember to be honest. I think it gives quite a good sense of perspective (as in getting narrower, not like on the 'bigger picture' or something like that) - that's good for that being pursued thing, and it's just nice for framing (yeah, I know this isn't particularly well framed but hey..)

This is just the same as the above but in BLACK AND WHITE!!

Yes, I am rather a fan of the black and white in photos :D So in this one, I've taken a shot of the alley with a bit of wall in the foreground - we're going to be making use of a subjective point of view (POV) shot in our opening, so I thought this was quite in the spirit of that - it's as though someone's peering from behind the wall, waiting for an unsuspecting victiiim, of darkness in the alleeeey...

You know what I like about this one? It's not all blurry!! :D Yeah, there's barbed wire and sort of scratchy-twiggy-wiry tree/bush things at the top of the walls on either side of the alley, and I thought it might be good to get a picture... I like the colours and lighting, especially on the tree branch on the right.

Other view of this end - just good because it's a different perspective. Also, there's the corner out of the alley too, and the street lamp an bollard make it a bit more interesting.

This is the alley BUT from the ground - not at a particular angle, but just at a different level which is quite interesting, as though it could be something/someone creeping along on the ground.

This one is interesting because what you can see of the alley is framed within the shot by a bit of the lamp post and the darkness of the wall - again you get that stalkerish, someone hiding/watching/waiting in the dark. Also, I took it at a canted angle, which makes it a bit scarier, helping to build tension and giving a sense of 'psychological uneasiness'.

I love this shot!! It's not blurry!! [Probably because I was resting the camera on that bollardy thing.] I really like the lighting in it, and the way the trees sort of lean over the wall, and they look kinda claw-like, as though they're gonna reach down and take a swipe at you... And again, you don't know what's around the corner - and whether you're in the POV of the victim or the villain. I just love the location to be honest - but obviously it might not work so I don't mind either way.

This is just outside my house, and although the shot itself is really blurry etc. I really like it. The shadow of the tree is really foreboding and sort of reaches out to you, and the lights have a nice effect. It's very dark and you just don't know what might be lurking in those shadows!! It's also kind of pretty though.. I like how in these shots you have an ordinary setting that you see everyday, but it can look quite scary.

This is just a shot taken inside my house at the top of the stairs, looking down between the banister posty thingies, so it's high angle, and the little bit of banister posty thing that you can see makes it kind of POV. It's looking down into the hallway to an open door with nothing but darkness inside. The effect is kind of ruined by the kitchen light being on but hey... maybe it emphasises it? :D haha.. Again, everyday setting taken and made look a little bit scarier.

So yeah, that's that. Please bear in mind I wasn't using anything other than a [really old] camera... They'd be better with people in them, to get more of an idea about them as locations for things actually happening... But what the hey.

: )

- Posted by Mia