similar films

I have been doing some research into what film openings are similar to the kind of theme (travel) that we are working towards.

We were recommended a film called get carter (1971), which has one of the best examples of an opening scene using this theme.

The scene is entirely set in a train, and all  the shots are from the inside of the train, traveling to its destination, with the camera mostly focused on the main character, Jack carter (Michael Caine). this may not seem like a very effective opening titles, however get Carters opening is legendary, and the clever placement of shots is perfect.
It is however a surprisingly simple method, and if done correctly, like in get carter, can work perfectly.
A Films opening can make or break it for a lot of the audience, so it is important to have a simple yet strong opening.

Its similar to the green street opening we have looked at already, as it has to establish the main character early on, and is along a similar vain as Get Carter, however green street focuses more on different locations, unlike Get Carter which is all shot on a train. Green streets opening is the more similar to what we have planned, as although Get carters intro is good, we want to have more locations then just a train cart, which green street demonstrates very well.

There other Crime Based films that are of a great interest to me, and we want to take aspects from them aswell. One of these main films, which is also one of my favourite films is Good fellas. This is a legendary american crime film, that follows part of large crime mob. The story has elements of what we want to achieve in our story, like an in depth storyline and others. The characters also have very strong, unique personalities.

Green street sign shot.

This is a shot that we take a lot of inspiration from, as it is a great example of using the scenery around you to your advantage. 

The kind of genre we are doing is a sort of travel themed opening, in which a main character is travelling from one place to another, using transport, walking etc.

This is a very effective opening sequence to use, as it is surprisingly easy to pull off, as the concept under all the shots and editing, its a fairly easy to pull off, as it is mostly a series of different shots, edited together in an order that makes sense.

However, the most important aspect of this kind of title sequence is the shots and the locations. For example, in the opening title of green street, in all the shots, you can make out the main character, even when their is a large group or a crowd of people, the camera is primarily focused on the main character, so you can see him.

Things around the area have also been used to further improve the scene, for example, when the main character of green street is waiting for his bag, although he isnt completely in shot, a sign has an arrow pointing to his position, so there is alot you can do with this type of opening, as its simple, easy to do and yet still works really well.

We plan to film first in bristol (in order) airport first, than temple meads station, then yatton station, gets into a taxi (or vehicle), dropped off in Portishead, than walking to a house (my house), in which he enters, and the film will end there. We realise that Bristol airport may be difficult to film at, so we will ask permission before we film.

We still have some planning to do, and need to establish the main character and his motives for traveling, but these wont take long to decide on, and once we get these details done we can begin to storyboard and shoot the film. We are also yet to finalise the genre of the film, as travel isnt a genre, so we need to develop the genre first, then we can move on to character development. 

The main genre we are considering for the film is crime drama, much like green street, and it also give us more of a plot to go off of, as the character could be escaping a life of crime or trying to leave a gang. its a perfect genre for this kind of opening, and will go perfectly with what we are trying to achieve. 

A change of plan.

Ok we have had a think about the kind of film we want to do. We originally had the idea of a wasteland/apocalyptic horror, however we have had a re think, and we have decided to go with a travel themed opening, and the overall genre is a Crime Drama.

We took inspiration from the movie Green Street, as the title sequence is simply the main character traveling using different types of transport, to get to his new home (Harvard to London).

This, although effective, is incredibly easy to achieve, and takes in a lot of the main areas needed to achieve the high marks.

We also looked at a film named 'Ex drummer', which has a really unique intro sequence. Firstly, the entire sequence is played in reverse, which really breaks the conventions of what most intros do, and gives the film a quirky feel to it. Secondly, all the titles are displayed on objects and people throughout the extract, as to just being edited in. This again is a really original idea, and i personally haven't opposed ent seen this done in many films before. Below are some shots from the film and the cover.

Started the coursework!

We have started the planning process of our coursework!
I already have ideas in my head about our opening, im just hoping me and steve (Boundy) can get them on to paper and turn them into a reality.

Our first short.

This is our short film we created at the start of the year, its kind of rough, sort of reminds me of an Avantgarde film.
We used the black and white filter to our advantage, to create a tense feel to the film. We also went with no dialog, just the music, which helps to build the kind of atmosphere we were going for.