Planned locations

We need to make sure that our location is the right place to film our opening and that it has the right atmosphere. If we don't get this right then our film opening wont have the effect that we want it to have 'Zombie/Thriller/Horror'. We were thinking of using the school because it will be easier to film and there will be no one around when we film so it will give us the look of it being deserted and creepy. We also were thinking of using a field in coates to film our opening because Bret had this idea that we could film the first half of the film opening at the scene of the school and when our main character comes out of some trees then it can switch to the coates field so when our main character comes out of the trees she is in an even bigger deserted area which give a more scary and creepy effect. We would have to film when it looks sort of dark but not pitch black dark because we don't want to be filming in pitch black darkness when we wont be able to see, we were thinking of filming then because it will give the film opening a more scary feel to it and it would be better to show zombies following and stalking our main character. We took still shots of the locations so you can see were we are talking about. 

This first shot is of the gates near the science block in our school. We chose to take a picture of the gates half open because we were thinking that we were going to probably start the whole film opening from this point when our main character is walking his/her dog we will get a match-on-action shot from when him/her is walking from the right or left side of the gate through the gate and then the camera will change to show a different scene. We chose to pick these gates because it looks like your walking into a park where you would walk your dog but also it looks slightly creepy and eerie because all you can see is the grass path going down the middle and trees all around it. You can hardly see the building behind the trees so we thought the audience wont see it so they would think the area was an abandoned park. We are going to have a sign that has been half broken off and that is attached by one corner saying something like 'No Trespassers'. It will be broken and decayed so you cant read it properly so our main character wont know what trouble he/she is in. 

The second shot is of trees and a bush that is past the gate next to the science block at our school. We took this photo to show what the area will be like where we will be filming. We were thinking that our main character could walk through the trees and the bush with her/his dog on her own when it was dark to give the opening the effect of being creepy and scary because he/she is on her own walking her/his dog. 

These two images show more trees that look quite creepy and that will give our film opening more of the thriller effects that we are going to hopefully achieve when filming. They will look more creepy if we filmed it at night when it will be dark.

This picture shows Reece from the back.This shows what type of camera angles and shots that we will be using as we will be filming our main character from the back and from the side to show a match-on-action shot which will also be using the 180 degree rule. 

This image shows a rotten stool. We took a picture of this because it shows that the area is abandoned and that no one has been there for ages. This gives the effect that the area is creepy and has an eerie feel to it and you wouldn't really want to go here on your own with a dog which is ironic because this is exactly what we are going to do. 

These two pictures are of me and Bret which Reece took. The first one is of me and Bret running towards the gate, Reece was standing near the fence and he thought it would be good if he took a picture of this because we will be using shots like this through branches of the trees to show the zombies point of view as they are looking at our main character while he/she is walking her/his dog. The second picture is of me and Bret standing next to the gate where we passed through earlier. Reece is taking the shot through a few branches from the trees around him, we will be using shots like these to show the point of view for the zombies and the close up shot will give more detail and show our main character more and better and clearer than in the first shot where it is from afar and quite blurry. 

The results from the questionnaire.

Results from the Audience Research Questionnaire

The first question we asked was weather our audience was male or female. This is important when we decide what we are going to do for our film opening because each film is aimed at different people also asking this question would decided weather we have more male or female actors as having this will attract a bigger female or male audience. 

The results showed there were more females that were interested than males, so we will be focusing on the female target audience to try and convince them to watch this film we will be using more male actors in our film opening and having an exciting and interesting storyline we will also be focusing at the male audience but not as much as female. 

For the second question we chose to ask our audience how old they are. We did this because we wanted to find out what age our audience would be aimed at so we could make it suitable for that age group. 

From the graph you can see that we have 21 people from ages 15-17 so that is the type of audience we will be aiming at. Now we know what age we are aiming at we can start planning and deciding what we are going to do for our opening.

For the third question we asked our audience what type of genre they would prefer so we can decided what one would be best to choose and base our film opening on. They picked Zombie as the most preferred so we will include zombies and the features that zombie type films have in our film opening. Thriller and Horror were as popular as each other so we shall also include a horror/thriller theme to the opening but not as much as a zombie theme.

For the fourth question we asked 'What are your expectations of a horror?' Most of the answers we got included 'lots of gore' and 'lots of blood'. These two statements was put for mostly all of our responses, if we decide to do a more horror based film opening then we will include blood and gore, this will be fairly difficult to do because we would need to get the materials to be able to do this successfully. Also one of the answers we got was 'likeable and relatable characters so I rear more for their safety.' We would include this because then the audience who will be watching the film opening will want to watch the film more if it has characters that are liked, if we had characters that the audience didn't like then they wont be interested in the film opening and they would be more likely to turn it off. Another answer we got was 'to be very scared and slow action to build up tension.' We would need to include this in our film opening to entice the audience and to keep them interested.

The fifth question was like the fourth but only about a thriller. Most of the responses said 'scary', 'thrilling' and 'keep me on the edge of my seat'. If we were doing a more thriller based film opening then we would include all three of these ideas. This will be quite difficult to pull off as we will have to get all of the shots and camera angles correct with no mistakes or the film opening wont have the 'thriller' effect. We will also have to try and get the equipment and dark, scary locations for the filming of the opening; this will be quite difficult.

For the sixth question we asked was 'What are your expectations of a zombie film?'. 26 out of the 28 people we asked responded with 'funny', 'blood,biting and running away' and 'good graphics and make-up and some comedy as well'. If we decided to make a zombie type film opening we will take these responses into consideration. If we do decide to do a zombie type film then we will have to have to try and make the blood and gore as realistic as we can. This will be quite difficult as we haven't really got the equipment to pull this off successfully but we will have to see what happens.

The seventh question was 'do you think having music in the background helps set the mood of the opening, why?' As you can see from the pie chart 25 out of 28 people answered yes and 3 out of 28 answered no. The peoples written responses who said 'yes' were mostly 'it builds up tension' 'sets the mood' and 'creates an atmosphere' all three of these responses will help us to decide what type of music we will be using in our film opening. If we don't get the right music then we could lose the interest of our target audience. One of the people who said no said 'silence is better, with a voice over' we could use this instead of putting music to set the scene because it would be different, but if we did use this we might lose the audiences interest. 

 We asked for the eighth question 'In an opening scene, do you prefer?' the answers we gave were 'Getting straight to the point', 'Dragging it out' and 'Setting up an enigma (a mystery that is solved at the end of the film'. From the pie chart you can see 20 out of 28 people thought to set up an enigma. You can also see from the graph that 7 people thought to get straight to the point and 4 people thought to drag it out. 

The ninth question we asked was 'If you didn't like the opening of the film but liked the plot, would you still watch the film?' 19 people said yes and 9 people said no. We asked them why and they responded with 'The rest of the film might improve' and 'i would want to know what is going to happen in the rest of the film'. These sort of comments will help us to decide what the plot will be to make sure that if the opening is rubbish then if we made it into a film then the rest of the film will be good. But hopefully our opening will be good so people watch it.

For the last question we asked 'How long would you expect the opening credits to last?'. 13 people said 1-2 minutes and another 13 people said 3-4 minutes. No one picked 5-6 minutes but 2 people picked 7+ minutes. From the results off the graph we will be making our film opening from 1-4 minutes as these were the two most popular choices. 

We will be using all of the evidence that we have gathered from doing this questionnaire to come up with what we are going to film for our film opening based on the genres 'horror, thriller and zombie'. All of this information will help us make a much better film opening than our preliminary task that we did. 

The results we have collected relate to the deconstruction of 'Zombieland' more than the other two because this film genre is 'zombie' and by doing this deconstruction we will be able to use some of the effects that they have used in our film opening but because we haven't got that much equipment as the makers of Zombieland had. 

We found that some of our responses weren't taking our questionnaire seriously and they put silly answers especially for our written answer questions where we asked things like 'what were your expectations of a thriller?' one response was 'to be all like "WHOAAAAAAAA, did you just see that?!"' I dont think this person took the questionnaire seriously because all of the other responses by this person proved that they didn't do the questionnaire seriously.

Creating the questionnaire.

I have worked with Bret and Reece to create an Audience Research Questionnaire. We all helped with coming up with the different questions that we needed to ask to get the right information on what we are going to do for our main task.


We created it on 'surveymonkey' which is a website where you can create a free account and create surveys or questionnaires for people to answer. We came up with 10 questions which we all thought was the right amount. 

Click here to see and answer the questionnaire.

We are planning on asking a wide range of people so we can get as many views as possible. We all put the link to the survey on Facebook so everyone could answer it. 


After we get the results we can then create graphs and chats to show our results in a visual perspective instead of just writing it. 

Deconstructions of existing openings 'The Mummy'

Deconstruction of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

The Mummy Opening credits - Click here to watch

Above you can see the opening title sequence of the film 'The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

In the first scene you see 3 red dragons that looks like they have been painted on the screen. They pop up from the bottom right corner, as soon as they pop up the music starts. When the bright red dragon pops up the name of the director also pops up. After 4 seconds the writing disappears then the dragon moves and flows into the next scene. 

This sort of animation continues with the rest of the film opening but it is used in different ways.

In the next screen shot the animation changing from a red background to the red colour being a round circle with a snake like animated animal moving across the page slowly then rushes across the screen over the writing that says who the photographer is. 

The next camera shot the animation moves from writing to show a mountain with an aeroplane flying over the top of it. The same sort of features are shown here in this screen shot. When the aeroplane flies past the camera it flies over the writing and covers it then there are black paint streaks covering up the scene to show the next one. 

In the fourth and fifth screen shots they basically use the same features but only in different ways like changing the scene from the two sides of the mountains which are coloured in all black then you see white paint strokes which moves the scene into the next one. You also see the shape of an animal which scratches away at the screen which then moves the scene onto the next one. 

The next few screen shots are all the same but with different images and they all have a different way of transitioning into the next scene. At the end of the opening you see a dark animal figure which the camera moves towards to show a completely black screen then the film starts.

If we were doing this type of film opening we would use the way the opening credits have been shown on this one but of course we wont have all the technical equipment to make this look as good as this films. If we did this type of film genre we will also be using animation.

Deconstructions of existing openings 'Hostage'

Deconstruction: Hostage.

Hostage opening credits - Click here to watch

The whole film starts off with red writing saying who the companies are who produced the film, also what type of production it is. It then changes to show animated buildings that are in black and white with a red sky. This makes it seem like there is something wrong because of the red sky and also it could represent blood or anger. 


The first screen shot the camera pans down to two buildings, we see 'Bruce Willis' on two different buildings in contrasting black and white colours. This shows who is starring in the film. The buildings look like they are real but have been animated to make them look like they are real. The camera shows the scene with the name on the buildings for about 3 seconds then the camera changes to show the title.


In the next scene you see the middle of the title of the film spinning whilst the camera is panning outwards. The title is in red which were the buildings are in the background parts of the title goes black the red is the colour of the sky in the previous screen and black is the colour of the buildings. In the background you see a birds eye view of a town which is in black and white, doing this sets where the film is probably going to be set. 


The next scene is of a telephone post with the name 'Ben Foster' going up it. The pole is in black  with white where the light is hitting the pole. The sky is a blood red colour which is associated with terror. The camera pans up the pole to make it look like it is towering above us this shows that it is important. It is shown for about 3 seconds then changes to the next scene. The pole is also animated. 


In the next scene you see a police man with a white helmet who looks like he is trying to get over the fence but he is not sure if it is dangerous or not. On the poles there names like 'Serena Scott Thomas' and 'Robert Knepper'. The scene looks very dark and gives us a scary but edgy feel to it. The scene changes with barbed wire from the next scene coming across the screen,merging them together.


The next scene is of a set of stairs with the words 'Music By Alexandre Desplat', each of the letters are placed on a separate step. This is done so when the camera moves over the stairs then you can see the words then they break up as if they were on a concertina. There is a shadow of a man in the corner at the bottom of the stairs of police men. 


The scene after is of a street where one of the houses is in red and the rest are in white this shows that the attention of the screen shot is aimed at the red house. The whole scene is animated but it looks as if it is real. The camera pans over the houses to show the front of the houses and the road where the writing is placed. 


In the next scene you see a police man with a gun. The gun is pointed just passed the camera shot so it looks quite big when it probably is not. The camera moves through the wire fence round the gun which shows the writing on the gun, before you see this there is writing on a board which the gunman is hiding behind, as the camera pans round you see the first set of writing on the board then the camera moves, the first set of writing goes and you see the second set of writing on the gun. 


You see in the next screen poles with white writing on the with a blurred out background of a police car. This shot is called a focus shot. At the start of the screen shot you can see the background clear and the poles look like they are just black with white colours on them then the camera focuses out and you can then see the poles clearer and the background faded, the scene just changed after this has happened.


The last scene is of a wooden board with writing saying who directed the film. In the background you can see the red house area which you saw earlier  it is all blurred out so the scene focuses on the wooden board. At the end of the opening scene you see an animated telephone which turns into a real one with a man shouting down it. He is inside the red house which is normal coloured at this point then the opening finishes.


If we were doing a film opening like this then we wont be filming that much action and we would only be filming the scenery which we wasn't thinking of doing; what we were thinking of was filming the action and having the opening credits appear in some way over the top of the action.

Deconstructions of existing openings 'Zombieland'

Deconstruction of Zombieland

Zombieland opening credits - click here to watch

This is a group of screen shots from the opening of the film 'Zombieland' directed by Ruben Fleischer, written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. It is a mixture of both animation for the writing and real people for the acting. We chose this film opening because we are planning to do a zombie themed thriller film and 'zombieland' is themed around zombies. 


The first scene is of a man falling off of a building trying to get away from the zombie which is trying to eat him. The animated credits say 'Columbia Pictures Presents' In blood red writing. We see the man falling through the words as if he hit them and they fell out of the way. It is a light scene which creates a normal atmosphere but when you notice the zombie you understand why he is running away and falling over the barrier. 


The second scene is were you see a woman with a strawberry milkshake running trying to get away from a zombie that is chasing her. The writing that says 'A Pariah Production' is placed on the wall behind the woman that is running. You see the milkshake flying everywhere which hits into the writing. Her facial expression shows that she is in terror, she is scared and running for her life. 


In the third screen shot you see a man who has chucked his briefcase full of money in shock, up into the air so he can run faster. There are two zombies chasing him while his car is on fire. You see 'Jesse Eisenberg' in the same red writing and like the first shot it gets hit out of the way and falls out of the way but in this scene the zombie hits them to the side and they fall over like dominoes. As the words fall over another name appears 'Emma Stone' on the opposite side so the man running away from the zombies hits into the words and they fly upwards. 


The next scene you see police men trying to hold back the zombies with riot shields. You can see one of the police mans faces; he looks scared and like he is straining to hold back the zombie. The zombie pushes through the two riot shields this is when you see the animated words 'And Abigail Dreslin'. These words get squashed and pushed down from the riot shields as the zombies are pushing them forwards trying to get to the police men. 


The fifth screen shot shows a man holding a crowbar, being chased by two zombies with the title of the film 'ZOMBIELAND' written across the mans arms. He then smashes into glass and drives the crowbar through the glass which breaks the title in half then the scene fades. The mans expression looks like he is scared. 


The next screen shot shows a group of men with 5 of them zombies and 2 of them trying to run away. You see the father holding the boy dragging him to safety. They are set in a park which you would normally link a park with happy memories and children playing but in this scene you see terror and madness. You see the words 'Production Design Maher Ahmad' where two of the zombies run into the words like the other scenes they fly out but the scene changes onto the next scene while the words are about to move. 


In the next scene you see men running from a stripper who has turned into a zombie and is chasing after the men. You see a fat man running in the middle of the camera shot; his facial expression looks scared and terrified but he also looks like he is struggling to run away from the zombie stripper. Like the other scenes the fat man runs into the words saying 'Casting by John Papsidera' 'Costume designer Magaliguidasci' and 'Music by David Sardy' He runs into all 3 sets of words one after the other. After the last set of words the scene fades into the next one.


The eighth screen shot shows a zombie on fire chasing a firefighter with another firefighter with a hose trying to put a fire out. The zombie on fire runs straight at the firefighter who has the hose; he dosent notice that the zombie is running at him because he is standing with his face away from him. When he moves the pipe the water flys out and hits the writing making it fall upwards like dominoes. Also the firefighter that was running away from the zombie runs into the paragraph of writing which then crumbles up. The scene then merges into the next one. 


In the final scene you see a man that has been turned into a zombie being thrown at the window of a car. The camera is based in the passenger side of the car looking out at the man flying towards us. When the zombie man is flying towards the car window he spits out a lot of 'blood' onto the window were the camera is looking out of. His elbow hits into the end letter of 'Directed By Ruben Fleischer' The 'r' goes flying towards the camera and the other letters follow. When the man hits the glass the music is ending with a bell sound. 


Throughout the opening the soundtrack 'For Whom The Bell Tolls' by Metallica is playing, this song makes the opening sound like its in slow motion but also if you listen to the lyrics of the song they relate to killing and terror 'For a hill men would kill, why? they do not know' This shows that men would kill anyone and they wont know what they are doing or why. This is like what zombies act like their only function is to feed on flesh; this is killing people, zombies don't think about it so they dont know why they do it or what they are doing, this is like the lyrics form the song. 


This film deconstruction will help us decide what type of effects and type of shots that we will be using in our film opening, this depends on what our audience would want us to do as our film opening. If we were going to do a zombie film opening then we will be using some of these effects like having music that ties in with the action that is happening like 'zombieland' has done and having different scenes at different times to show that the zombies are everywhere and not just in one place. We will also try to make our film opening have a clear story line with an introduction like 'Zombieland' has done. 

Deciding a Genre

When we were discussing what genre to choose we discussed different ones like Comedy, Horror, Romance, Action and Thriller. We chose not to do a Comedy because it would have been harder to make people laugh and to try and be funny. We also chose not to do an Action genre because it would have been hard to make as we haven't got the equipment to do it and it would have been too expensive to produce.


Overall we decided to do a mix between a Horror and a Thriller. We decided to choose this because we thought we could get away with making this type of opening and it would be easy for us to create the different elements of creating a Horror/Thriller like tension and creating the right atmosphere; keeping the audience entertained and captivated.


This will be quite challenging but i think we can all pull it off.

Media Main Task

Our brief for our main task is: the titles and openings of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

For the main task we have decided to stay in the same group as we were in our preliminary task which was; Me, Bret Newman and Reece Taylor. We decided to stay in this group because we all enjoyed working together and we all worked well as a team, we lost Yasmin though :(

You can see their blogs by clicking on their names. 

Bret Newman

Reece Taylor

Preliminary task

Today we got into groups im with bret and reece. We had to find videos that showed match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule and analysed it on powerpoint.

Cameras :p

Today in media we tested out using the cameras. It was fun as we walked around the whole school filming random things :) I deleted my films tho by mistake so i had to make another so i have one :D byee :D 

lesson 7 + 8 :)

Been researching camera anlges and shots and shizzle. For homework we need to finish this and watch the videos that miss gave us, been a fun 2 lessons :D xx

First blog

This is a very new course for me as I didn't do it at GCSE; Media Studies. This is my first blog which i am going to post more blogs after this one about all my media coursework and stuff :p 


I like my media group as there is only 5 of us :) Its a small group but it will be fun :) I hope to be successful in this course but we shall see at the end :D 


Bye for now :p