Opening Credits- Billy Elliot

Billy Elliot

The opening sequence to Billy Elliot shows a boy doing his morning routine of dancing, then going and making breakfast for him and his grandma. It seems like he has no mu or dad and needs to look after himself and also his old grandma how has wondered off.

The credits appear by fading in and out with ‘Billy’ jumping and dancing over the top of them. Random boy parts float over the screen as the words enter and exit. Once again like in ‘submarine’ there are only companies etc. that have funded or been associated with the film. No actors, directors or producers.

The genre is very clear throughout this opening sequence. Starting with a boy dancing which was uncommon of the time, then a poor messy kitchen that the boy needs to do all of the cooking in, then the fact that he’s looking after himself and his grandma.

The music throughout the 1^st section summarises what’s going on in the film

When he’s jumping and dancing- ‘I was dancing when I was twelve’

When his grandma’s not there in bed- ‘What’s it like to be alone’

Opening Credits- Submarine

Submarine

The titles come in intertwined between pieces of film in white on top of a bright blue background

·         Who funded the film (then again funding and ‘the film agency wales’

·         In association with…

·         There are no actors or the director or anyone directly working on the film listed in the opening credits.

The film shows a small messy boys bedroom. It then goes to show shots of the welsh country side, the shots are very artistic that show it’s made by warp films because they care for taking time to make more artistic films. Possibly showing that it’s going to be a slow paced film, these shots also set the scene for the story showing that it’s a showing that it’s a remote relatively normal area near the sea; it shows important locations in the story.

PROLOGUE ends the credits/ opening sequence.

There is a brief monologue that sets the mood for the film showing it could be a social realism film about self-discovery.

‘Most people think of themselves as individuals, like there’s no one on the planet like them. This thought motivates them to get out of bed, eat food and walk around like nothing’s wrong. My name is Oliver Tate’

In the next section it’s a scene of a classroom and the teacher is talking. He clearly sets the mood that it is a social realism film.

‘What kind of a young person am i? That’s the challenge, talk about challenge. Well that’s the challenge I’m giving you this term, a gauntlet so to speak. But this gauntlet is also an opportunity, an opportunity for self-discovery’

Horror or social realism? Decision

Overall I’ve chosen Social Realism, the genre appeals to me more than horror I feel like I have more background knowledge in it. Since our last lesson I’ve thought and came up with the look and how I would like my film to look like.

I really like the grainy look of super 8 film but they don’t make the film anymore so I’ve stuck to using my dad’s old film camera I now have the software to turn the film into a dvd. Here’s a bit of filming I’ve done with an idea for the opening credits.

Horror or social realism? -Social Realism

The conventions of Social Realism

Story line

Someone who doesn’t fit in,  Ordinary life, Self-discovery.

Characters

Loner, usually young, average looking normal people

Mise-en-scene

Relatively poor background, urban areas apartment buildings

Sound

Music that the characters would listen to, lots of dialogue

Editing

Slower than horror not much going on so fits the pace on the film

Close ups for emotion

Long shots for showing location

Pros

The location is much easier to find.

I enjoy watching social realism films more than horror

It’s easy to come up with an original story.

Low budget

Cons

The genre could be hard to determine if the locations aren’t used effectively

Horror or social realism? -Horror

The conventions of horror films

Plot

-Normal life, but then something supernatural or abnormal happens.

Characters

Victim- Stupid, venerable

Antagonist- Could really be anything could be a normal person or could be supernatural, maybe more than one thing e.g. the zombie apocalypse.

Mise-en-scene

-Night time, dark, old houses in remote areas

Sound

-Dramatic, tense, screams and whispers

Editing

-the speed of the camera goes with the plot.

Pros of making a horror film

The genre is easy to create since the conventions are only really in horror

Cons of making a horror film

There have been so many horror films it would be hard to think of an original idea.

Location would be difficult because I live in the middle of an estate which has lots of houses around so it could be hard to film.

The cameras aren’t the best at filming in the dark

Not a great deal happens in the first 2 minutes of a horror film so it could be hard to show anything without it being a trailer.

I don’t really like horror films and I don’t watch a lot of them so I wouldn’t really know what to look for in camera angles etc.

Usually quite a high budget

It’s hard to do without it looking cheesy

The Induction Task - Conclusion

Overall i think that the induction task was a success, the original location was 'Eds place' but unfortunatly another group beat me to it so i had to relocate to the library which was slightly noisier but i think it worked alot better there, it looked a lot like the story board and animatic.

I made a few changes to the original story board, but overall the story stayed the same. Shots seemed to work closer up in reality. The script was originally written for Matt, but being my brother didn't seem to take the film too seriously so there are some moments that you can notice, such as the last 'Sorry'.

Im happy with the music i've written for the film, i think it fits with the mood.

The Induction Task- Match-on-action

Match on action happens through the whole film expecially in the final 9 seconds.

The Induction Task- Shot reverse shot

There is a lot of shot reverse shot when the two characters are speaking.

The Induction Task- Eyeline match

 This is an example of eyeline match from the film where Matt is looking across at Sophie, then in switches over to Matts prospective.

The Induction Task - The 180° Rule

The 180° Rule

The 180° Rule was used here so the characters were only shown this way around as to not confuse the audience.

The Induction Task

Here is my Finished Induction task, I think it turned out quite well since this is my 1^st bit of proper filming and editing. I’m very happy on how much it related to my animatic.

My Animatic.

My Finished Induction Task.

I followed the brief to use the suggested camera angles: the 180° rule, match-on-action, shot reverse shot and eyeline match.



Previous Filming Experience

I havent actually ever done any filming before so my 1^st filming and editing has been on the induction task and I thought it went quite well! I found some quite good shots in the photo task which captured the correct emotions and had some creative angles.

Eyeline Match

Eyeline Match is when you have a shot of someone looking at something (out of shot), then the shot of the object.

Shot reverse shot

when one character is shown looking at another charactor, then the 1nd character looks back at the 1st character. since they are shown facing in opposite directions the viewer assumes they are looking at each other.

Match-on-Action

Match-on-Action is when you cut from one shot to another following through with one movement e.g
the movements been shot twice but it seems like its one continuous movement. its very useful editing technique which distracts the audience from noticing there is a cut.

180° rule.

The 180° rule is when you draw an invisible line on one side of the actors. from that line you are only aloud to shoot from the 180° point of that line. this is so that the characters have the same left/right relationship to eachother and the audience isnt confused about whats going on.

Camera Angles

For the induction task, the brief says that we need to follow certain rules about camera angles and use 4 different shot types somewhere in the film. The 180° rule, Match-on-action, Shot reverse shot and eyeline match.