American Gangster Opening.

American Gangster 

Director: Ridley Scott

Genre: Crime Drama

Year: 2007

Distributor: Universal 

Budget: $100 million

total gross: $266 million

Soundtrack once again creates suspense as it plays over the idents, this builds tension and creates immediate narrative enigma. The soundtrack is very off beat and almost out of tune. Also we are introduced to our protagonist who is in shadow and being looked up to by the camera immediately establishing them as being in power yet very mysterious and dangerous. Expensive formal clothes are used to also show power within the gangsters and how they are above the man in the chair. The characters are back lit by headlights which defines their figure and creates almost a silhouette to them showing them within the shadows which fails to show us their true persona and identity which corresponds to the crime world genre. Graphic violence is used immediately to show us power and reveal the personalities to the characters who we immediately know are bad people and involved in crime as executions such as this are an often occurrence in crime films. Also an observance I have made watching crime film openings is the lack of emotion our protagonists show throughout the opening scenes showing them as having no remorse. Titles are often minimalistic and come at the end of the sequence after the violence has occurred and all is calm. They are san sarrif and very clear to read. Often black screen with white text such as this one. Location again is shown however no context  as to where it is in perspective to the world is shown.

The Transporter Refueled Opening

The Transporter Refuelled

Director: Camille Delemarre

Budget: N/A

Worldwide gross: $62,629,000

Distributor: Europacorp
Genre: Action/Crime
Year of release: 2015

Very dark imagery is used to create a mysterious environment creating a lot of narrative enigma and introducing a shady and dark side to life surrounding the car, links to crime. Music is very dramatic and eerie which further creates tension. The music is almost aggressive foreshadowing the violence to come. Camera movement is smooth (links with polished lifestyles of the criminals) leading up to action using mainly wide and long shots to create a sense of surrounding however we do not know where the setting is in context to the world which shows the hidden life of crime. Colours are desaturated to create a very gritty feel to the sequence. The protagonist is introduced through shadow and is never evenly lit showing him to belong in the shadows and presents him as a mysterious and shady character who is not necessarily "good". Looking up shots are used to present the protagonist also showing him as a very strong and overpowering character. Action sequence is very clean and clinical as the protagonist is able to overcome the gang. Although there are some handheld camera elements to this sequence it is mainly a lot smoother than in other genre fight sequences. The protagonist is always calm and collective showing him as a very courageous and strong character. Soundtrack is mainly absent after titles then introduces once again towards the end of the sequence when the problem the protagonist faces is overcome. The protagonist is wearing formal attire (a suit) then wears sunglasses in the final shot. Through my research of crime i have found manly the protagonists wear very smart attire and in many cases they wear suits. Opening sequence contains clinical violence and contains a very expensive car in a remote and almost secret location, which presents crime as rich and powerful and hidden from the rest of society. Isolated.

Crime Genre Exploration

Crime Genre 

Francis Ford Coppola was born in 1939 in Detroit, Michigan, but grew up in a New York suburb in a creative, supportive Italian-American family. His father, Carmine Coppola, was a composer and musician. His mother, Italia Coppola (née Pennino), had been an actress. Francis Ford Coppola graduated with a degree in drama from Hofstra University, and did graduate work at UCLA in filmmaking. He was training as assistant with filmmaker Roger Corman, working in such capacities as sound-man, dialogue director, associate producer and, eventually, director of Dementia 13 (1963), Coppola's first feature film.

He is responsible for directing famous crime films such as The Godfather pt ii and part iii. These films are often shot in low light to suit the mood of the genre. Acompanied by fast cars and expensive suits, the crime genre explores dirty business using the finest of tools.

Sam Mendes is another famous director in the crime/ action genre I wish to explore for my opening. Directing films such as The Road to Peridition a very famous crime film exploring once again mafia/ gang like life. A recurring presentation I have found from these films they contain very graphic and erratic violence. And although very violent at times, the mentality and story being presented will often be the most captivating and tense moments. The opening of many gang films consist of the protagonist or person in power being presented first in a peaceful setting which will often turn to a dark place, this initially creates a lot of narrative enigma.  

Camera shots are often smooth and hand-held camera in traditional crime films is rare as the violence is meant to seem organised and professional, like business. This is achieved through the use of long shot angles and very organised and smooth camera movement, action scenes being very abrupt  and brief.  

Steven Knight has been a third director I looked into. Creator of Peaky Blinders and Redemption (2013) Steven is a British screenwrite. In many of his films he also explores night time filming and many of his scenes use smoke and haze to create a very mysterious and unclear shot almost an attempt to mask the character.   

Soundtracks in crime films are often guitar based or on the other hand are often peaceful which links to the smooth shots and organised and "clean" violence

Pitch for Fidelity

This is my pitch for Fidelity, the film opening I will be creating for my media course.

Opening idea 3- Clockwork

Film Opening Idea 3

Title: Clockwork

Genre: Horror

Synopsis: B-roll shots in the woods (menston) silent foliage creates suspense, have distant police sirens to create an sinister tone to the opening. Have a man walking his dog alone in the misty woods, early morning sun rising, Dog walks over a patch of soil. Look down shot on day walking over soil. Suddenly a glowing object appears within the soil, like an amulet. Shot of man walking out the woods and closing the gate with his dog. Cut back to glowing object close up, wind blowing violently. Montage of teenage mountain bikers riding round the woods.  Suddenly 2 mountain bikers come riding down the track one of them directly rides over the amulet which causes his front wheel bolt to fall off, he hits a near by jump and his bike falls to pieces leading to his death and one of his spokes to fly off and go through his friends leg leaving them both to bleed out. Cut to present day title. Same dog walker walking through close up of dog sniffing amulet but being dragged off by the owner. Push in on the amulet in the soil. Then suddenly a childs hand reaches and grabs it, as soon as he grabs it cut to black screen sound only of his mum telling him to "keep walking your holding us all up". Cut to title screen.

Locations: Esholt Woods/ highroyds woods.

Strengths. Little props needed, film is set mainly in present day and can be shot during the day. The concept is simple yet will create a lot of narrative enigma.

Weaknesses: Story line must be executed well in order for the story to be prominent. Must indicate passing of time maybe with colour. Use of titles will need to use impactful text maybe from 3rd party source.

Harry Potter Goblet of Fire Suede

For this film we focused on recreating the trailer of the film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

We soon realised this would be very hard to do in the time frame given, due to the amount of shots that would be required and the heavy editing needed. We had originally planned to shoot some shots outside of school however it became apparent some group members were not as enthusiastic about the project as the rest so we ended up doing the full suede in school time.

For this project we wanted to make it look as accurate as possible whilst enhancing the comical suede atmosphere suede's often have. In planning we decided the key scenes of the trailer we would be able to recreate in addition we then time tabled days and locaitons we would shoot these scenes on. In the group I acted as the main camera man and as  I felt it was unfair on the other group members I would often let them set up the shot directed by myself instead. Composition was something I wanted to keep very accurate throughout so we tried to find identical and unique low budget ways for achieving this (ball room scene where we got to almost a rooftop to look down on the dancers in the courtyard of the school). I feel as a group we were very productive when filming and adding production value with props and costume. In the suede we aimed to include as little vfx as possible so decided to conduct what we could practically rather than adding it in post. We were able to the fire scene using science in school which I think was the strongest scene in the suede. We used a green screen in order to have the protagonist flying past the castle as seen in the trailer. We were later able to Ken Burns this background in order to make it look like the character was moving. We worked very hard on achieving the correct angles and compositions ensuring each character was presented as in the trailer.
Many of the props were made on set which added to the suede factor and lead to comical values being presented throughout. For the mad eye moody scene where the shot is a POV shot we even used a cup in order to distort the image and make it seem as if we are looking through the eye of "Mad Eye Moody". Mostly the shots were not shot at extreme angles and the majority of shots were at eye level however when appropriate we took into account the low and high angles based on the trailer.

Editing was a very weak part in the group I feel as poor decisions were made to split the group into 3 in order to each edit a different video. This lead to inconsistency and some sub groups adding parts the other 2 were not aware of. This lead to some very weak edits including my own.

We used Final Cut Pro to edit the suede. I was the primary editor for my sub group and wanted to follow the order of shots from the trailer. I did this by watching the trailer repeatedly at the side of the screen then adding scene by scene. We had made a paper I dent as we found very often suede's use paper in order to show text (idents and titles). I wanted to keep the edit very short as from the trailer I had noted the speed at which the scenes were cut and realised it was a fast paced trailer with a lot of different elements of the full movie incorporated. We did not have time to colour grade any shots however I think this worked well for us as most shots were shot in the mood they should carry, using white balance and exposure to give an almost mood to the shots. I had used digital titles for the outro and subtitles throughout the trailer as I felt these carried more impact and were available on FPX for no additional charge. The soundtrack was recorded by myself and George. We used the iPhone camera microphone which gave us a very good sound quality from the microphone. The song was not accurate to the trailer however we felt using a more iconic Harry Potter song would give more impact to the audience and create more links to the film its self. On first render I had noticed there was moments where the cuts were not aligned so therefore there were a few frames of black between each shot in some cases, this was a weakness to the film as it mean the video did not play back as smoothly as needed, I blame this partially on technology however as the playback speed in FPX was incredibly jittery so it was often hard to spot these moments in editing.


In conclusion I felt the suede underperformed. We chose a very ambitious and hard film as a group which would have required a lot more work and dedication as a group that I feel was not put in by many. On the other hand I feel the film gave the comical suede feel to it and the shots were executed with accuracy and as a group we were able to complete the project utilising the different skill sets each person had to offer and I feel time was managed well.

Opening Idea 2- Fidelity

Film Opening Idea 3

Title: Fidelity

Genre: Crime

Synopsis: Man driving over hills in fast car (drone shot) towards abandoned factory area, night time. Arrives at hidden factory car park where he is met by a big SUV with a few guys stop out it and a man knelt up ready to be executed. Man is taken out of boot and scene is lit by headlights of cars only to create  gloomy atmosphere. Guy is dragged on to chair either inside or in car park and man steps up to put a gun to his head. Just as the man is about to shoot the hostage he turns and shoots everyone around who is guarding including the boss. The hostage then thanks the man and they both get into the fast car. Cut to title shot over drone shot zooming out of location.

Locations: Murphys Factory, Menston. and Ilkley moores.

Strengths: strong storyline creates a lot of narrative enigma, access to props are already in possession and can source willing actors.

Weakness: Unsurity of location and drone.

Exterior of building, car park

Interior, hostage scene possible

Interim report feedback

Interim Report- feedback

Miles, 

You have made a very strong start to the course and I am very impressed with your attitude, ability and desire to do well. Very well done. Your existing knowledge of filmmaking is evident and lifts your work to a very high level even at this early stage of the course. You are currently working at a mid Excellent level (A); in order to ensure your work falls comfortably within your targeted A grade, you should do the following going forward:

Now that we are approaching production, I would recommend that you start blogging more regularly on everything that you are doing on the course. This could start with your swede; write a blog (or do a vlog) on your contribution to the production and what your challenges/difficulties were in achieving your swede.

Keep it up! You are on target and I’m looking forward to seeing you work on your film opening.

Mr VZ

Film opening idea 1- Reaction

Film Opening idea 1

Title: Reaction

Genre: Action

Plot: Team in aircraft hanger/ barn. Packing and loading up equipment for an assassination of an enemy gang leader. The opening consists of shots transitioning from the team packing up, ski masks on no showing of face, Dashing from hanger to helicopter with spinning rotors ready to take off. Use of shaky camera in this bit to stimulate action. Whilst packing u and preparation scene multiple cut shots to leader of gang who has ordered the assassination. Do not reveal his face, he is in a meeting with a member of the other gang who is unaware of the immanent attack. These shots should be over the shoulder shots not revealing the face of the leader of the attacking gang. He is high up in a building in a very clean office. As the team take off in the helicopter and are transported to a rooftop where they will take the sniper shot of the opposing gang boss. We get a shot under the table of the boss who is ordering the hit holding a gun under the table. The cuts become quicker between the 2 killings about to take place. then we get a longer close up shot of the hit calling boss eyes, extreme close up then a gun sound. Cut to wide shot of dead gang member, pull focus to hit calling boss who walks over to his computer to reveal footage from a head cam of one of the hit men dragging the boss body away (gopro shot). Plot twist, the body dragging away is suddenly revealed to be a manikin then we zoom to POV shot of one of the hit men who looks at the real mafia boss, targeted boss then exclaims "you're next" then lunges a pistol towards the hit man who is peppered by bullets from POV and falls to the floor. Cut to title sequence.

Locations: abandoned aircraft hanger, barn. VFX insert helicopter in after effects using motion tracking or Laurence Tomlinson's (family friends) helicopter. Highrise office block, family friends small office in Otley or get permission access to a rooftop or highrise building.

Strengths: mostly props are in my possession. Strong poignant story opening, lots of narrative enigma creates audience want for more. Access to actors possibly exterior. Lots of access to locations.

Difficulties: struggles as most shooting may have to be done in the evening, Very technical to pull off (very ambitious idea ), lots of camera equipment will be needed, I will have most.