FINAL CUT

This is the final cut of my film opening, 'HAZEL'. I am very happy with how it turned out and feel like I have achieved everything I wanted to within this opening.

Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I have made a 'Prezi' answering this evaluation question which you will see linked below.

https://prezi.com/l5upwnybjgvb/in-what-ways-does-your-media-product-use-develop-or-challenge-forms-and-conventions-of-real-media-products/

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I have answered this evaluation question by doing a magazine spread by a made up company called 'Social Magazine'. You can see this in the image below.

Evaluation Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?

I have answered this question in the form of a 'Slide Share' which the link below will take you to.

http://www.slideshare.net/aaldrismedia/question-3-what-kind-of-media-institution-may-distribute-your-media-product-and-why

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

I have answered this evaluation question by making a Microsoft power-point and converting it to a video format. Each slide lasts for around 10 seconds so in order to read every slide just pause the video and play it again when you're ready.



Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Firstly, my target audience is mainly 13-19 year old females however I know some males and people outside of this age range may enjoy my film too.  Click here to see my evaluation for question number 4 where i talk about who the my target audience is, in more detail.

To start with, I thought about what my audience may like, I noticed that in many films aimed at females, the protagonist is usually female too. This is true of films such as 'Mean Girls', 'Wild Child' and 'Mamma Mia'. I think this is because this makes it more relatable, if the main character is the same gender as us we may relate to them and their thoughts and issues more so that if the main character was the opposite gender, as they may experience things we can't relate to. Due to this, and other reasons I have spoken about in previous blog posts - such as females being more emotive, I decided to make my protagonist a female. 

As a female, I questioned myself about what would attract an audience of young girls like myself, to watch a film. I then thought that levels of drama and emotion are often factors that appeal to me if done in moderation - not over the top. So I immediately planned for my film opening to be a serious one, portraying some emotion, and as you can see, particularly in the first half during the monologue, the mood is quite dramatic and intense. I directed the actress, Kerry Hardesty, so that her body language and performance during the monologue and the rest of the opening delivered a message or added to the atmosphere of discomfort and anxiety to emphasise the drama and emotion throughout the opening.

Before going on to do some audience research I thought about what else could attract my audience and I realised that outside of the narrative was something very important, the quality of the film itself. If the film was grainy and didn't look very well put together or edited then it would be unattractive, so in order to avoid this issue I spent a lot of time playing around with editing softwares to make sure my editing skills were at a high quality level before editing my opening, and I decided to use a DSLR to film my opening, so that the shots were filmed at high quality too. 

Carrying out audience research was a big part of finding out what my audience liked and disliked, and what they thought was or wasn't effective in attracting viewers in film openings. I addressed my audience by making a survey and sending it out to my friends on social media who fit my target audience. I then did extra research addressing my them further by interviewing my peers at sixth form and asking them different questions to those in the survey. Click here to see my audience research feedback video.

My audience research told me that in a good film opening they expect to see something shocking and memorable. I took this into consideration and thought about what my main storyline was, and what I could incorporate into the opening to give it this element. I decided that my opening would end with Hazel beginning to realise she is the main character in this book as it would be both shocking and memorable, I did this by incorporating an item Hazel owned into the book Hazel was reading, she would learn that the character had the exact same item and got it from the exact same place as her. However, the audience research from the survey also told me they thought the most effective way of opening a film was to only have a little bit of insight into it during the first two minutes, so instead of revealing all in the opening, Hazel reads the sentence in the book that tells her about the character's shared item (a necklace) and then she looks instantly worried as she slowly pulls a necklace out of her pocket. This is subtle, it requires the audience to put two and two together giving them some insight into the story without giving too much. I feel like this is a good way of attracting the audience,  as it also adds to the mystery and tension of the film.

73% of those who answered my survey said they felt mystery was the best way to entice them, so to attract my audience further I took this on board, you can see this from what I have spoken about in the paragraph above however there is also another occasion where I used mystery in my film opening for the purpose of attracting the audience and adding to the dramatic tension of the film. In the first half of the opening, Hazel is voicing her thoughts, the first thing the audience hear is her talking about curiosity, and the first thing they see once the film opening starts for almost a minute is Hazels body language with a mysterious dark, old looking book. Rather than to create tension (unlike the ending of the whole opening) I used the first half of my opening and the monologue to make the audience build questions in their mind such as "why is the girl standing at a lake?" "why does she look afraid of this book?" "what is the book?" etc. I feel like mystery, just like my audience did, helps to entice viewers, and that tension after the mystery helps to keep them watching.

Before my audience research I had liked the idea of voiceovers, flashbacks and music in film openings, and once I had done research into genres and other film openings, I realised I wanted to incorporate them into my film because I thought they would attract my audience too. I asked my target audience during the research and even without hints - simply questions about what they expect to see in good film openings, all three were mentioned which gave me confidence in the idea and so, I decided to incorporate all of them into my own.

Everything above, particularly a voiceover, flashbacks/forwards and music, would be meaningless if they didn't fit with the opening's narrative or atmosphere, it would take away the point of them being there to attract the audience and make the film more interesting. Due to this, when recording the voiceover I made sure the tone of my voice would represent the way Hazel was feeling as she was talking in present tense, about to take us on her journey of everything that happened. At the time of the voiceover we are in the present however it is a flash forward to the end of the film as the film would end in the present (if it was made into a full one rather than just an opening). When Hazel throws the book away, she is relieved, yet numb and dazzled, therefore the tone of my voice in the voiceover reflects that. It is also slow and you can hear me breathing in it (little sighs of relief), the heavy breathing also adds to the heavy and intense atmosphere. The music is slow too, it has quite a big range of simple piano notes in that are sometimes low and then very high - representing Hazels journey. The editing is also slow paced during the majority of monologue to again, reflect Hazels mood and how she is drained from all that has happened. I believe even little details like this all help to piece together a film, attract the audience and then keep them watching.

One of the main things that I think will attract this audience is that its different, usually films with the same target audience as mine are 'chick flicks', films about teenagers in high school climbing the social ladder, having relationships, being rebellious and having fun- for example 'Mean Girls' or 'Wild Child', however my film is more serious, but also more interesting and I think the quality of a film being different is attractive to an audience as it will grasp more attention from the them because it stands out.

Evaluation question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from constructing this product?

I answered this question in the style of a video blog, which you can see below.

Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I answered this evaluation question in the form of a radio interview by using 'Soundcloud'. The link below will take you to this.

https://soundcloud.com/aishaaldrismedia/radio-interview-for-evaluation

My Ident

I made an Ident for my film opening with Adobe After Effects. 

The version you can see below is quite slow, I sped this up for my real opening however this is the one I made and used.

Locations

Location 1 - The benches

 

In this location I will film Hazel looking at her failed test paper worryingly as if she has just come out of her lesson and sat down on them.

 

 

 

Location 2 - The Library

 

This is the school library, where Hazel finds the book.

 

 

Location 3 - The 'Quad'

 

I will film some scenes for the flashbacks here just in case I decide to include them in the montage

 

 

 

Location 4 - The Park

 

 

 

Here I will film some scenes to be used in the flashbacks as Hazel sits on the hill and bench reading the book.

 

 

 



Location 5 - The Lake

 

 

 

 

 

This is the lake which Hazel will throw the book into, almost the first half of the opening will be filmed here.

Cast of my Film Opening

There is only one role in my film opening, this is Hazel.

Kerry Hardesty as Hazel

Name: Kerry Hardesty

Age:18

Occupation: Sixth Form 

Why I chose her: The reason I chose Kerry for this role is because she fits the character type very well, she is fairly quiet fits some of the characteristics of the character Hazel. She is also a music performer and is confident in that sector therefore I also thought she would be a very good actress or at least feel confident in her role and script.

Changing my Idea #2

There is another change I would like to make to my film. I have decided to just have one character for the entire opening being Hazel.

In the opening, the only important character in my storyline is the Hazel, the teacher and librarian aren't relevant enough to the storyline to make them have a part in the opening and as the opening is only going to last around two minutes I want the focus to be on her (Hazel).

Having looked at all the clips I have filmed, I found that I had too much material and had to cut it down in order for all the most important shots to be featured. Therefore I decided a teacher wasn't needed to deliver a bad grade and instead a short aftermath of Hazel getting the bad grade could be shown instead.

Also, everything in a film's opening two minutes is usually significant so if I included a librarian it could have been difficult to show whether or not the librarian knew about the evil book, usually the audience would expect the worst of characters, most of them would assume the librarian was the culprit of it all, so to avoid unnecessary confusion, I thought it would be best to remove this character all together.

Everything else still stands, Hazel will fail a test and go to the library to find some books, she will come across a mysterious book and decide to pick it up along with some others and that it where it will all begin. She will become attached to this book and as she realises the main character is her, even more so.

Mise en Scene-Monologue

Below you will see a video where I talk about some mise en scene elements to the first half of my opening; the monologue.

Monologue-Transitions, Timing and Editing

I edited the film under the monologue on iMovie, using the transitions they offer on it.

The first transition I used is called 'cross dissolve', it moves from the previous frame to the next by making the first clip dissolve into the next, I really like this transition because it is a very smooth one which can show change from one period to another.

I used it at 0:06 in the video immediately after the voiceover says 'thoughts'. I thought this was appropriate because the transition moves from the girl thinking about either throwing the book away or not to going down to throw it. I also really like the effect it gives the girls head as she is walking down as her body is in a slightly different and moving position to the previous frame therefore the dissolve emphasises the girls head is 'all over the place' as a metaphore.

There is also a transition a few seconds after this at 0:09 seconds as the voiceover says 'where you're going to be in a few years'. I used 'cross blur' for this to speed up the time it takes for the girl to walk down the hill to make it more interesting, i also thought this particular transition was appropriate because nobody knows where they'll be in a few years, people may have a rough idea but this idea is blurry, its unknown and due to this I thought the timing of this transition fitted nicely.

After this transition I made my camera slowly go out of focus, representing the way this book has blurred Hazels vision and how it has caused her to be so confused, however as she gets closer to the bottom of the hill (the lake) the focus is regained as she has regained sight of what is the right thing to do.

The third transition is from Hazel holding the book in her hands from a 'mid shot' to a close up side view of her opening the book and then quickly closing it. As the voiceover goes onto say life unfolds in ways you would never expect and the girl quickly shuts the book after being reminded of something bad, I have edited the clips so that the shot goes straight to the girls anxious face. This however is not a transition used from iMovie, I deliberately filmed this scene out of focus coming into focus and I believe this is more effective than what a cross dissolve/blur would have achieved because rather than two scenes merging smoothly - it shows sharp fear as its quick, and the girls worried face going from out of focus quickly into focus adds to the tense and mysterious atmosphere because its almost like a highlight of how the girl is feeling, emphasising the mood.

There is then a 'cross dissolve' transition from a side close up view of the girls face to a low angle shot of her, this is a very quick transition of 0.4 seconds whereas the majority are 1 second, i did this to add to the sharp movements which show emotion in a more raw sort of way rather than making things seem 'softer round the edges'.

The next transition was from the camera movement  moving away from the girls face as the words "or you can hide from them" are used to the girls point of view of the lake - hence why the camera is shaky at this point, again I used cross dissolve because i wanted everything to be sharp for these shots rather than blurry. I will talk about camera movements in a later post; however, briefly, I think 'to hide' shows some kind of vulnerability and the fact the girl is scared which along with the shaky camera, helps to let the audience know how she is feeling at this point. There is then a transition between two shots of the girls point of view of the lake at 0:30 which is her looking at two parts of the lake, because this transition is smooth but also sharply focused this could also symbolise the girl blinking whilst moving to look at another part of the lake - which adds to the realism.

After we see the girls point of view theres a transition where the screen fades to black this symbolises an end, the end of her final decision making process where we then see her throw the book into the lake. I didn't include a transition from the girl throwing the book to the book falling into the water, or from the book falling into the water to the girls final look at it, this is because this is a big step in the story and i wanted to capture the immediate reaction from the girl after she had thrown the book in without anything fading in our out over the top of it or making it blurry - I felt it would be unnecessary.

As the girl looks away from the book for the last time there is then a 'cross dissolve' from her to the scenery behind her, going into a pan shot of the lake moving from dark to light with a final shot without a transition of the book floating away.

You will see, I only often included a transition if it made scenes of the film i wanted to be together, fit better, or if there was meaning behind it. From above you also will have seen that in some places i found it was more effective to have no transition or that i just didn't find it necessary.

Monologue and Performance

Above you can watch the section of my opening covered by a monologue, here I will explain the reason behind each shot and the use of words.

Monologue

"Curiosity is the lust of the mind, it has the power to invade your thoughts making you wonder where you're going to be in a few years or who you may meet that will have the power to influence your life and the way you live it. Life unfolds in ways in which you would never expect, there are dreams and wishes, fears and nightmares... but the real question, how do you separate whats in your head from reality and how do you know when to stop?"

The underlying base of my storyline is about curiosity, without giving too much away in the monologue I wanted the audience to be introduced to this underlying base as curiosity is a common theme, and following the audience research I found people believe it is better to give a little bit of insight into the film rather than none or a lot.

The curiosity within Hazel (the main character) originated with her wanting to know where she was going to be and people she may meet in her life that could change it, for example bosses, managers, friends and lovers, this is why she couldn't put the book down, although the audience wouldn't fully understand this until later in the opening/film.

After reading the book Hazel found her future life unfolding in ways she hadn't expected, the majority of the reason being anything this evil book said that she read, would come true. Her dreams and wishes and hope of them coming true kept her reading the book whilst her fears and nightmares both coming true and still in her mind were causing her to stop.

If this opening was a real film the idea would be that Hazel can't really separate whats in her head due to what the book is telling her, from the real world and what life would be like without it. She can't tell if bad or good things are happening to her because of the book or because they would have anyway.

The reason I paired the girl throwing away this book with this monologue is because its symbolic, Hazel is talking about her past situation, she is throwing away the thing that caused the entire story to happen right at the beginning - they are opposites, yet the audience doesn't know it. I think it is a good twist. As well as this, I like the idea of the film being in reverse order just for the beginning as seeing the ending without knowing the beginning or middle is very enticing and boils up a lot of questions such as "why is she throwing the book away" "why is her tone apprehensive" "what happened".

This brings me onto the tone of the voiceover, it isn't jumpy or happy, instead it is "numb". Hazel has been through a lot over the course of the film and now she is uneasy but accepting, not happy, nor sad - almost dazzled and coming to the realisation she was sucked in by 'curiosity'. I aimed to lower the tone of my voice as I was talking about darker things "fears and nightmares". I have included some noticeable deep breaths in or out in the voiceover too in order to add to the tense atmosphere, this is another reason for there being short pauses between sentences for example "you can go for them...or you can hide from them" there is a breath out for the last bit because hiding seems more of a relief. There is also a very obvious breath in on the last line "..and how do you know when to stop?" this is because the idea of no longer reading the book makes the girl anxious because in a twisted way, it gave her a sense of security that she may know what will happen to her and be prepared for it, however at the word "stop" there is a breath out as it symbolises that she has stopped and that it has lifted a weight of her shoulders and there isn't as much tension - relief.

Performace
The first you can see the actress Kerry Hardesty (as Hazel) is at the first line of the monologue, as she looks into the book whilst standing near a lake and looks away at it and begins to make her journey down. She is thinking as she holds onto the book, looking up into mid air and trying to decide what to do. As she is looking into the book the wind blows in her hair and she pushes it out, this wasn't planned however I included it into the film as I believe it adds realism, the weathers mood can also symbolise hers and rather than the film opening being absolutely perfect with no hair or clothing out of place, I wanted it to be relatable and like I have said 'real'.

The idea was that the actress would slowly walk down this hill. showing her hesitation and the fact she wanted to take her time in the decision as to what she wanted to do with this book. As she reaches the bottom of the hill she looks down at the floor, showing a sense of insecurity, vulnerability and anxiousness but she looks up at the lake still thinking about what to do and then slowly looks back down at the book holding it tightly with both of her hands. This is to show the one way, twisted attachment she has developed with this book, due to the security and knowledge she thinks it has given her, and the fact she doesn't really want to let it go but she knows it is for the best - hence why she is at the lake.

Hazel opens the book for one last time to remind herself why she is throwing it away, opening it on a page that scares her the most and immediately shuts it. She then remembers some of the good things it tells her but knows if she follows her dreams in the way this evil book is telling her, it will only end badly. As the voiceover says "you can go for them" (the dreams) she very slightly smiles in a bittersweet way because even though she believed this book could make them come true for her - she knows its not the right way.

Finally, last but not least, Hazel finally throws the book away, after she has thrown it she looks at it for the last time for a couple of seconds and knows it is all over as she looks away from it with bittersweet emotions about what she just did, but overall relief.

Researching Anxiety

The main character in my film, Hazel, suffers with mild anxiety. She is a quiet, shy and insecure girl who gets sucked in by curiosity to an evil book. The book causes her many problems which turn her mild anxiety into a severe form. Even though my opening isn't being made into a full film, if it was, anxiety and how Hazel deals with it would have been a focus. However, due to the fact Hazel has mild anxiety and the fact the beginning of my opening features a flash-forward to the end of the film, I feel like its important to widen my knowledge of the issue and how it makes its victims feel so that I can portray it in a genuine and unbiased light and direct the actress on things like body language in order to make my film as real and relatable as possible.

My two sources to finding out more about anxiety are...

1. The Internet
2. A close friend of mine

The NHS ( http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/anxiety/pages/introduction.aspx ) website tells me having anxiety causes you to feel anxious about many situations, and that it can be mild or severe. It says people with anxiety are rarely relaxed and that it can cause physical symptoms as well as psychological ones which lead to the 'patient' being restless, having a low concentration span, and being tired due to lack of sleep. This website tells me some other psychological symptoms of anxiety are feeling irritable and feeling on constant edge whereas physical symptoms are feeling sick, headaches, shortness of breath,  and trembling or shaking.

Sometimes the cause of anxiety is unknown, however if its the result of a phobia, the sufferer will usually know why they are feeling anxious.

My close friend suffers with anxiety and I asked her to give an account of what living with this illness is like, you can see this below...

"Living with anxiety isn't easy, I usually feel on edge even though there's nothing around me I have a fear of, I'm not as confident as I would like to be because of it and it makes little things like just talking to people feel like the biggest task. The worst part about anxiety is having panic attacks, they can spring on at any point and I find if I think about it too much I begin to get myself into a bit of a state. I would advise anyone suffering with this to talk to someone because even though that in itself can make you feel sick to your stomach, it will also make you feel so much better and happier in yourself. I'd like to say that anxiety completely fades away and that its just a phase, but unfortunately its not, you just learn to deal with it and cope. You learn your limits and realise there are some situations you simply have to avoid, but you should slowly push yourself to keep braking these limits. There might be days where you just feel anxious, but there are so many things you can do to keep your mind occupied - go for a run, do exercise, have a relaxing bath, go shopping, or just spend time with people you love. There is always light at the end of the tunnel, dealing with this alone is so dark and if you don't seek help can lead to a downward spiral, so if you have anxiety; talk to someone."

 

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From my research into anxiety I have learnt that living and dealing with it can be very hard and lonely, I have also learnt a lot about the symptoms sufferers experience and how this makes them feel. I will incorporate some of these characteristics into Hazels character to give a true representation of what anxiety is like, even though because I'm just making an opening two minutes, it might not seem completely apparent to my audience that Hazel suffers with this. Nevertheless, I think its important to start as you mean to go on, and if 'HAZEL' was being made into a full feature film, anxiety would be a focus.

Changing my Idea

I have filmed all of the shots in my storyboard for the first half of my opening which I wanted to be a monologue. I still want it to be a monologue but have changed my mind on the idea of having many different flashbacks whilst the monologue is taking place.

During the editing process I found that very short and fast clips didn't fit in with the tone of the monologue itself, it was very distracting and unfocused in the way that the audience may have been confused especially due to the fact some of the shots were very different - in some Hazel would be crying and in others shed be happy and intrigued. Although they all followed a pattern of emotion of how the girl would feel after reading the book, they were all focused on different parts and steps of how she felt and I felt - especially after my audience research- that this could be too revealing and less enticing.

I decided that if I made the opening focused 100% on the end of the story around a lake where the girl would throw this book away, it would not only entice the audience as to why she is upset or why she is throwing the book away, but it would also fit better with the voiceover in terms of mood and atmosphere and it would just look more professional in general.

I decided to heavily focus on angles and mise en scene for the clips in the monologue section, which I will explain to you in another post. I did this to emphasise the emotion, there was more room to experiment with this when the all of the shots in the background were focused around one thing with many elements to it rather than where scenes cut from places to different emotions with each clip lasting around 5 seconds long.

I have also decided that the beginning of the film could be seen as present day, where Hazel throws the book away and at the end of the monologue we are taken to the past and shown how hazel gets the book. If I was making this into a full length film the narrative would be taken in a cycle, the beginning shows hazel throwing the book away in the present day, and the rest of the film would be catching up with that, so it ended the same way.

Props

There are three props in my film opening, all with great significance and below you will see why.

The Book

This the dark and evil book containing all knowledge of hazels past and horrific lies about her future that become true as she reads them (as explained in previous blog posts). I have a lot of old books at home so I chose one that was relatively thick and sturdy to use whilst filming and covered it in little almost triangular shapes of black paper. The reason I decided the book would be fully black with no title is because it adds to the mystery of it, it is what attracted Hazel to the book in order to cause this rollercoaster story. The layers of black triangular paper adds to its texture making the book stand out whilst its the darkest colour and giving it a rustic feel which is what I was going for.



The Failed Test Paper

The failed (F) test paper is the reason Hazel goes to the library as she decides she needs to books to help her study properly. This leads her to finding the book in the first place and due to this is a very significant event as, if she had passed she would not have come into contact with it.



Grandmothers Engagement Ring

This is Hazels grandmothers engagement ring she passed down to her for her eighteenth birthday, this is a hugely important prop as it is what makes Hazel finally realise she is the character in the book.

My Script #1

I have come up with a script and monologue for my film opening. Like I have said before the monologue will run over flashbacks in the girls life which the story will be about. The script you will see below is one I am very happy with, during filming the actors  may slip up with their exact lines however as long as it delivers the message I am aiming for and the acting is to a good standard, I shall keep it.

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Monologue         

Curiosity is the lust of the mind. It has the power to invade your thoughts making you wonder where you're going to be in a few years or who you may meet that will have the power to influence your life and the way you live it.

Life unfolds in mysterious ways, ways in which you would never expect, there are dreams and wishes, fears and nightmares, you can go for them, or you can hide from them. My story's a little more complex that that..but the real question, how do you separate what's in your head from reality? and how do you know when to stop?.

Scene 1

TEACHER: *places bad test paper on the desk* How about you come and see me at the end of the lesson?

HAZEL: *sighs and nods*

TEACHER: Hazel, I know you're trying hard but look, here's a list of some books that could help you leading up to the exam, you might find them in the library.

HAZEL: Ok, thanks

TEACHER: Alright, have a nice weekend.

Scene 2

*Hazel walking up into the library then looking through books*

LIBRARIAN: Oh hello there Hazel, can I help you with anything?

HAZEL: Oh I was just looking for some books

LIBRARIAN: Alright, we have a box full of old ones over there, you can have a rummage if you like

*Hazel walks up to and rummages through the box*

HAZEL: Umm, could I take this?

LIBRARIAN: of course! Take as many as you like they'll all be thrown out by tomorrow

HAZEL: thanks *walks out putting book into bag, leaving teachers list in the library*

Scene 3

*little montage of Hazel reading the book*

HAZEL: *reads passage from book* ..and on her 18th birthday she was given her grandmothers old engagement ring...

*Hazel immediately stands and rummages through her belongings to find the engagement ring her grandmother gave her*.

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Above is the full script along with some directions, I may film some extra scenes just in case the film opening is under 2 minutes, if I do it will all be posted on here.

Storyboard

As I have come up with a plot and an idea of what I would like my film to contain I have made a storyboard for it, I had many ideas for this, for example the order in which I would like to show the flashbacks or how many clips of a flashback there would be, however I have come up with a storyboard that I will use when filming that I feel like I would be happy with.

I shall film all of the scenes in this storyboard and if I later decide I do not like them for whatever reason or that they don't fit, I shall cut it.

The first scan of the storyboard that you can see below is all going to be under a voiceover, they are all flashbacks as the girl in the voiceover is in the present.

Like I have mentioned I have planned the flashbacks to be in reverse order, from the girl throwing the book away right up until after the voiceover when she receives it.

The first frame is of the girl looking relieved but feeling bittersweet as she throws the book away when she comes to realise the only way forward is to do so. The second is of the girl actually throwing the book away, the black square is the frame I will be focused on however I have drawn the rest of the location in so you can see its a lake, and I shall incorporate that into the clip, after that I plan to have a close up of the book falling into the water to make use of the angles I have learnt about during the year.

The third frame is of the girl crying because of her own actions that the book has lead her to do, she sends a mysterious text telling somebody that she is sorry, this is the point where she comes to realise she needs to dispose of the book. I also believe this scene would be enticing to the audience because they would be curious to find out what happened to the girl and why she is sorry.

The fourth and fifth frames are simply the girl reading and being engrossed in the book showing facial expressions to express how she feels about what she is reading.

I then had an idea to do a rewind of all these flashbacks inside the girls head and coming to an abrupt halt with the book closing, this would build tension and I feel would entice the audience massively.

Moving onto the second half of the film opening, there is no longer a voiceover or narrator and its as if we have gone back in time and are about to relive the girls story - like the titanic.

The first scene here would be the girl finding out she failed her test as the teacher places it on her desk and tells the girl to see her at the end of the lesson. In the second frame you then see the teacher giving the girl a list of books that may help her revision for her upcoming exam, telling her she may find them in the library. The girl then walks into the library. In the third box you can see the girl in the library looking through books when the librarian offers her help telling her about a box of free books. The girl then looks through these and in the second half of this box you can see her reaching out to grab a black one she seems the most intrigued by.

In the fourth you can see the girl holding the book and walking out of the library with it. I then had an idea for there to be a quick montage of the girl reading the book whilst sitting in school, walking out of school and finally reading it whilst in bed. In the final frame the girl realises she is the main character in the book as they are both linked by the same object and life story and we see her rummaging through her belongings to find it and then finding it with a look of worry on her face. That marks the end of the opening.

DISCLAIMER

• The angles I have drawn in the storyboard above are minimal, during the filming process I plan to take many different videos from different angles of the same thing, and piece them together during the editing process.
• I shall film all of the scenes above, however if they don't fit with the film or I feel like I could slightly tweak it to make the opening better, I will.

Characters for my Opening

I have an image of each character and a representation of how they will be, therefore I have put together a 'Prezi' in order to show you how I want each character to come across, and characters from other films I expect them to be like. The link to this prezi is below.

In this prezi you can see the characters I expect to have in my opening, their profiles and biographies as well as clothing styles.

https://prezi.com/qpzeixwwsloq/characters-for-my-film-opening/

Audience Research feedback

I have summarised all the research gathered in my audience research and spoke about it in the video below.

Audience Research video

In this post I will show you the audience research I have collected. I asked 6/8 people the following questions...

1. What are your favourite genres of film?
2. What do you think makes a good film opening/What would you expect to see?
3. Can you name any film openings that have particularly stood out to you?
4. What is your favourite fantasy film?
5. What do you think are the conventions of a fantasy film?
6. What would you expect to see in a 2 minute fantasy film opening?
7. What do you think of my idea, would it make you want to watch the rest of the film?

I collected this research in video form, however some people were keen to participate however did not want their face shown whilst they were speaking so I have either put up a picture of them as their audio runs or the screen will be blank. You can see the feedback from the research in the video below.

Audience Research - Survey

As an additional part of audience research I have conducted a survey to find out what my target audience think makes a good opening as well as to see how well they may be able to relate to the story.

I had 11 participants taking part in this survey.

You will see the questions in the link below and further down the results and feedback I had, in a later post I will talk about why I asked these particular questions, feedback, how it relates to what I'm doing and if I will change anything because of it.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CDTWQT5

The first question was 'What are your opinions on curiosity?', the options for this were

• Its a good thing (blue)
• Its a bad thing (grey)
• It can be both good and bad (green)

27% believe it is a good thing and 73% believe it could be either good or bad, leaving no one thinking it was solely bad.

The second question was 'What, do you think, is the best way to entice an audience during a film' with the options being

• Using emotion (dark blue)
• Using mystery (bright blue)
• Using tension (green)
• Using none of the above and instead being light-hearted (grey)

As you can see, no one thought being light-hearted would entice them as the audience, instead they believed using mystery was the best way with 73% choosing that option, followed by 18% who thought using tension would entice the audience along with a following 9% choosing emotion. These can be mixed e.g. a mysterious opening would incorporate emotion through performance.

The third question I used was 'What do you think, is/are the best ways to open a film' with the options being

• Using music to portray mood (dark blue)
• Using a voiceover to tell a story using both tone and dialogue (light blue)
• Going straight into the story (green)

55% believed using music is the best way to open a film and set the mood, 36% believed a voiceover telling a story through dialogue and tone is the best way to open a film and finally only 27% believed the film should go straight into the story.

The fourth question was a multi choice question 'what do you think makes the most effective opening?', however only 14 boxes were ticked meaning a maximum 3 people chose more than one answer, the options were as following

• focus on only one scene (dark blue)
• have different scenes but make sure they're all relevant (light blue)
• an introduction moving slowly into the story (light green)
• having a lot of insight into the story (white)
• having a bit of insight into the story (grey)
• not having much insight into the story (dark green)

starting with the focus, a small 9% thought the whole opening should focus on one scene only, 18% believed there should be a lot of different scenes but all relevant, and the majority; 45% believed there should be an introduction moving slowly into the story.

0% believed there should be a lot of insight given into the story, 9% believed there shouldn't be much insight given and 45% believed there should be a little bit of insight into the story.

Finally, the last question was 'If a monologue is used, should it take up the entire opening or only some of it?'.  34% believed that yes it should take up the whole opening with the majority of 64% saying they think a voiceover should only take up some of the opening.

Film Opening Ideas #5

One of the finishing touches of a film is coming up with the name, I have left this until the end because I knew there was a strong possibility that my ideas would change and develop with the focus of the film being on different issues etc.

I have decided to name my film 'HAZEL'. The reason behind this is that other ideas included 'CURIOUS', 'The Book' and 'Overcome', however I didn't feel as if they truly represented what the film was about, giving it the name 'Curious' made it seem like the entire film was about being curious and that it was the main emotion and feeling of the film however that is incorrect.

I think the name 'HAZEL' is good because as simple as it is, being the main characters name, it adds a sense of mystery, it shows this person called Hazel is the entire focus of the film- just as in Harry Potter. The name Hazel itself isn't common, its different, just like the situation of Hazels in the film, I feel like this was the most suitable name for my film and I really like it.

My Target Audience

As you can see from the ideas I have generated, my target audience is aimed at people who enjoy intense fantasy films along with a hint of romance. Due to this my target audience is mainly between the ages of 13 and 20, of which I would assume the majority to be female. This is because the main character is female and there is a sense of being to relate to them as well as the fact it is meant to be an emotional film; something females tend to enjoy more than males. However this doesn't mean males cant also enjoy the film as the intensity and mystery of it could be appealing to them, I would expect them to be of the same age range too (for the majority). The 'typical' person who would watch this is a teenager, whether that is going into them or just coming out of them.

I think my idea would appeal to this audience particularly due to the strong element of fantasy, it not as mature as a documentary or comedy and not as immature as a cartoon children's comedy animation or a classic 'fairy-tale', it is a type of genre that appeals to many young people - whereas a comedy may only appeal to 16+ or a documentary may only appeal to 20+. My film opening also requires a slight bit of thought and imagination which I believe are elements most suited to 13-21 year olds. You can see what people of this age range thought of my film idea in my audience research video.

As this type of film would air in the cinema and this age range is also the most popular age range for going to the cinema it also suits my audience.

Film Opening Ideas #4

In this post I will talk more in depth about problems and issues the book causes Hazel.

I have decided that I will not reveal a problem or an issue that has been caused by the book, in the opening two minutes as I don't want to give the audience too much insight into everything that is going to happen - its good to keep an element of mystery so that the audience stay enticed. However, I have decided on Issues Hazel has before and after the book that could be portrayed in my opening through the flash-forwards, and that would be present if my opening was made into a full length feature film.

My main idea that I am sticking to is that Hazel suffers with anxiety and that it is mild towards the beginning, however gets very serious towards the end. As she reads more and more into the book and realises what she must do to make things right she becomes extremely anxious and this would be one of the focuses of the film. My aim is to portray Hazels character during the flash-forwards as damaged and numb due to all the misery and anxiety the book has brought to her, I plan for the actress to use body language in a way so that the audience notice she is not settled and actually, is quite uncomfortable. When my opening goes back to the beginning, after the flash forward, Hazel has a very mild form of anxiety and it is very controllable however this may not be entirely apparent to the audience because she may just appear normal to them - this is part of her anxiety story, no one is aware of it because of her skill in concealing it. The more she conceals and her fears get stronger, the worst it all becomes, and I have decided that one of the social groups I am therefore representing are those suffering with  this disorder.

Aside from anxiety, I have decided on some problems that the book would have caused for hazel between the beginning and the end (when hazel throws the book away which again, is shown in the opening). Hazels Parents will break up due to constant arguments as they notice they are slowly loosing their daughter as her behaviour because of the book deteriorates, she becomes angry because of it. Hazel also chooses to continue reading the book which deceives her and tells her that her boyfriend was cheating on her, which leads to her constant false accusations, leading to her boyfriend having enough and actually cheating on her - everything she reads in the book turns into a reality. Although romance isn't at the forefront of this story I have decided to include a romantic relationship involving hazel just so that there can be more depth and 'normality' to it, I wouldn't plan for the film to show much of the pair being 'in love' as it is more about the book and showing how the book destroys it - I wanted to include something else in Hazels life that was realistic but that the book could also destroy, to show just how evil it was.

My Film Opening Ideas #3

 As you can see from my previous blog post about film ideas, I had got the basic idea down - that there will be a girl who finds or is given a book and that this book is powerful and will tell her a lot about her life.

I have developed this further and decided that this book is in fact evil, it tells her true things about her past to give her confidence in the fact the book is real and is telling a real and true story of her life, including both good and bad memories from it. Later in the film she will become attached to this book and it will cause her a lot of distress as well as a glimpse of happiness when it tells her she will end up in music school,  however she soon realises everything negative that she reads is coming true and that she no longer wants to know about her future however what she doesn't know is that the only way to reverse the effects of the book is to destroy it...however if she reads until the end the effects will remain permanent.

Below is a mind map with events labelled in order what will happen in the opening, I have decided to have a monologue coming from the girl about curiosity as I believe this is a strong introduction, as well as something people may question. During this monologue I would like there to be flash-forwards into the later parts of the film that are actually flashbacks of the girls memory as she is narrating her tale, I want these to be in reverse order so that the first thing we see is her destroying the book and the last is her picking up the book - which will somehow flow with the rest of the story.

After this monologue (which I only anticipate to be 17 seconds) I want the scene to cut to a school where the girl has got a bad grade and has been advised to get certain books from the library however as she is in the library looking for books and she somehow comes across it - it is undecided how.

The ending of this opening would be the girl taking the book and beginning to read it - perhaps one of the quick shots from the flashback. 

Below is a mind map for concepts of the book and librarian. The librarian could either be an evil 'substitute' teacher who is actually only there for the purpose of delivering the book to the main character, or she could be completely innocent. I have decided to go with completely innocent as there would be no motive for someone to want to hurt this girl that I would like to add in, the evil is 'curiosity' and the idea is that she is 'curiosity's victim - like the personification of a book. How it got into the girls school is one of the less prominent mysteries.

I also have different ideas for the reveal and realisation that the girl is the character in the book. You can see all of these below, you can see they are mostly based around an object however I have decided to choose the one in the bottom left corner; she realises she has the same object as this character and how they got it was the same - I have now decided that the opening would end on the girl getting this object and piecing it together with the book.

Below you can see many ideas for what the object would be and how it would connect the girl to the book, I have decided to go for a ring that she has put on a chain that was passed down to her in some way.

I've also come up with pieces of bad news happening due to the book and how they would be revealed in the opening monologue. I have decided to go for her boyfriend cheating on her and her parents divorcing - as these are the only real issues that can be reversed whereby things can go back to normal should she destroy the book.

For now, I am happy with my idea however I may decide to change them.