making film openings

www.petesmediablog.blogspot.com

@petesmediablog

“ I t ’s important to understand the ‘aggregation of marginal gains’. Put simply….how small improvements in a number of different aspects of what we do can have a huge impact to the overall performance.”

Dave Brailsford, UK Cycling coach

lots of small things add up to get you better marks

9 Steps to best results!

Strengths and Weaknesses?

Strengths and Weaknesses?

Step 1: take stock

• what’s the task?

• what’s the assessment?

• what’s the timeframe?

• what’s the equipment?

task and assessment

• Titles and opening of a new fiction film

• up to 2 minutes

• 20 marks Research and Planning

• 60 marks Construction

• 20 marks Evaluation

timeframe and equipment

• build your skills

• build up your research

• build up your planning

• give yourselves time to shoot and edit

• keep evidence throughout the whole process

Step 2: set up a blog

• and keep evidence of everything you do!

Step 3: build up skills

• sound

• camerawork

• editing

foley

preliminary task

re-make

ident

Step 4: investigate

• what do film openings actually look like?

• what does other student work look like?

• what do you need to know about titles?

• how are you going to do something that stands out?

search for student film openings on youtube

and vimeo (G321)

Step 5: brainstorm ideas

• possible scenarios for pitches/treatments

• 25 word pitch

• moodboard treatment

• peer and teacher feedback

• realistic expectations- keep it simple

Step 6: planning

• experimenting with camera and editing

• recce shots of locations

• examples of shots, costumes, props, etc onto blog

• post-it storyboard, animatic, moodboard

• logistics planning- including risk assessment

Step 7: the shoot

• people, places, props, costumes

• rehearsing, directing

• equipment, jobs on the day

• keeping a record of the process

Step 8: edit

• all having a voice/hand in it

• screengrabs of process

• importance of audio and titles

• foley - not just music

• rough cut deadline and peer feedback

big picture before fine detail

Step 9: evaluation

• seven guiding questions

• 20 of the 100 marks

• need to be creative in execution

• digital depth

• act on teacher advice!

six most common student film openings

• Saw: victim tied up in shed

• Scream: hooded stalker follows female victim

• Se7en: killer sticks knife in polaroid photos

• Lock, Stock: gangsters play cards and kill each other

• Waking up: clean teeth, brush hair, leave house

• Flashback or Flash forward: “2 weeks later...”

six most common problems

• looks more like a trailer or a short film

• insufficient titles

• poor sound, poor lighting

• poorly directed actors, not costumed

• confusing for the viewer

• uses one of the six common openings(badly)

you are the ref- what score and why?

Level 1: minimal ability 0-23 Level 2: basic ability 24-35

Level 3: proficient 36-47 Level 4: excellent 48-60

key advice

• plan for everything

• keep all the evidence

• avoid the obvious

• pay attention to detail

• make your blog varied

• learn from other work

www.petesmediablog.blogspot.com

@petesmediablog